Medea (Euripides) practice questions and exam guide

Dramatic irony pervades the scene where Jason agrees to send the children with gifts because:

1. Jason himself is simply unable to read
2. The audience and Medea already know the gifts will kill, though Jason does not
3. The chorus has fallen asleep during the scene
4. The gods intervene directly and openly to warn every character on stage of the danger

Answer: B — The audience and Medea already know the gifts will kill, though Jason does not

A/C/D) Wrong. B) Jason walks into the plan, and the audience watches him do it.

Another common misconception is that the play ends with:

1. Medea receiving formal punishment for her crimes
2. A formal trial convened for Medea in Athens
3. A tearful reconciliation between Medea and Jason
4. Medea escaping unharmed in the Sun god's chariot

Answer: D — Medea escaping unharmed in the Sun god's chariot

A/B/C) Wrong. D) The unpunished ascent is exactly what unsettles spectators and critics.

The chorus's wavering is a Euripidean strategy that:

1. Confuses the plot beyond what most viewers can follow
2. Lets the audience watch its sympathy and judgment shift in real time
3. Simply saves the production money on additional actors
4. Substitutes for music that the production could not otherwise afford to stage properly

Answer: B — Lets the audience watch its sympathy and judgment shift in real time

A/C/D) Wrong. B) Their moving response is the audience's moral mirror.

Medea endures as foundational because:

1. It happens to be an unusually long play by ancient standards
2. Its title alone has simply remained famous over the centuries
3. It combines an early feminist voice with a fiercely debated ending
4. It is set in ancient Greece, like countless other Greek tragedies

Answer: C — It combines an early feminist voice with a fiercely debated ending

A/C/D) Reductive. C) Correct — every later wronged-woman + revenge text works in some relation to it.

The Argonauts' quest for the Golden Fleece originally set sail from:

1. Iolcus, a city in Thessaly
2. Athens, the great city of Attica
3. Corinth, on the Isthmus
4. Sparta, in the southern Peloponnese

Answer: A — Iolcus, a city in Thessaly

B/C/D) Wrong. A) The Thessalian launch point belongs to the standard Argonaut tradition.

Aristotle nonetheless called Euripides:

1. 'The most tragic of all the poets,' despite his structural flaws
2. A merely antique figure of little continuing relevance
3. Simply wrong about how tragedy ought to be built
4. An outdated model that later playwrights improved upon

Answer: A — 'The most tragic of all the poets,' despite his structural flaws

B/C/D) Wrong. A) Correct — Aristotle disliked Euripides's structural choices but recognized his power over suffering.

Creon's fatal mistake is:

1. Ignoring Medea's warnings about the danger she posed to his family
2. Arranging Glauce's marriage to Jason without consulting the exiled queen
3. Trusting Jason's assurances that Medea would accept the situation calmly
4. Granting Medea a single extra day to prepare before her exile

Answer: D — Granting Medea a single extra day to prepare before her exile

A/B/C) Wrong. D) Correct — the extra day is enough for revenge. Creon's pity is exploited.

Medea exposes Jason's argument by:

1. Mocking the foreign accent he picked up while abroad
2. Threatening openly to do harm to Glauce herself
3. Quoting a lengthy passage from Homer's own epics
4. Listing her sacrifices and calling his excuse ingratitude

Answer: D — Listing her sacrifices and calling his excuse ingratitude

A/B/C) Wrong. D) She turns the prudence story into an accounting of debt owed.

In the final scene Medea denies Jason:

1. Any share of the money left in the household
2. The chance to address the chorus one last time
3. The right to bury or even touch his children
4. Any claim to the Corinthian throne he sought

Answer: C — The right to bury or even touch his children

A/B/D) Wrong. C) Correct — the deepest possible Greek punishment + the deepest possible Greek insult.

In the play's structure, the long agon between Medea and Jason functions as:

1. A formal legal trial conducted before the chorus
2. A debate scene revealing character through opposed rhetoric
3. A lyrical break in the play's dramatic tension
4. A lighthearted comic interlude between two acts

Answer: B — A debate scene revealing character through opposed rhetoric

A/C/D) Wrong. B) Agon scenes are typical of Euripides and crucial to characterization here.

A postcolonial reading treats Jason's appeal to Greek civilization as:

1. A wholly sincere expression of his genuine cultural values
2. A neutral remark carrying no religious or political weight
3. A self-serving tale discounting the woman who saved him
4. A comic aside meant to lighten the scene's tension

Answer: C — A self-serving tale discounting the woman who saved him

A/B/D) Wrong. C) The civilizational claim becomes evidence rather than excuse.

Medea's children are killed by:

1. Medea herself, who kills them inside the house
2. Jason, in a fit of rage after Glauce's death
3. Creon, seeking revenge for his daughter's poisoning
4. Glauce, before she succumbs to the poisoned robe

Answer: A — Medea herself, who kills them inside the house

B/C/D) Wrong. A) Correct — the cries are heard offstage. Athenian decorum: violence offstage.

Form?

Athenian tragedy. ~1400 lines. Single setting, real-time action, chorus of Corinthian women.

The killings?

Medea kills her children inside the house. Their cries are heard from offstage. The chorus is helpless. Athenian decorum: violence offstage.

Author + date?

Euripides (c. 480-406 BCE). First performed 431 BCE at the City Dionysia in Athens. Placed third (last) in the competition that year.

Who is the Tutor?

The boys' tutor. Brings them news + later helps Medea's plot.

Theme: limits of justice.

The play shows that even when wrong is real, response can exceed cause. Justice + revenge are not the same. Euripides refuses easy moral comfort.

Jason's first confrontation?

He defends his new marriage as politically necessary + claims he was helping Medea + the boys. She unmasks his rhetoric as self-serving betrayal.