The story of Medea, a maligned and misunderstood woman of Greek mythology, from one of Britain's foremost classicists

Medea : A Life

Mothers who kill their children are universally abhorred but perennially fascinating. In this book, the award-winning scholar Edith Hall explores the possibility that Medea, mythology's archetypal murderous mother, could be based on a historical figure who migrated to Greece in the late Bronze Age.

Medea has appeared in countless works of art-plays, operas, musicals, ballets, movies, poems, paintings, sculptures, and novels-but until now no one has written a biography of her. Through meticulous research and fast-paced narrative, Hall brings new life to Medea's story, from her lonely childhood on the shores of the Black Sea through her dramatic escape with Jason and the Argonauts, the murders and attempted palace coup in Thessaly, her deadly revenge in Corinth, and her final exile in Athens.

In reframing a figure long reduced to villainy, Hall restores Medea's humanity, illuminating a woman pushed to extremes by betrayal and displacement-a brilliant, embattled outsider navigating the violent patriarchies of the ancient Mediterranean.

Edith Hall

Edith Hall is Professor in the department of classics and ancient history at Durham University. She travels across Britain and the world speaking about the ancient world to schools, universities, theatre companies and to the general public and media.

Her specialism is ancient Greek literature, but she enjoys putting the pleasure as well as the rigour into all aspects of ancient Greek and Roman history, society, and thought.

Her current research investigates ecological issues in ancient myth, epic and drama, Aristotle’s presences beyond the Academy, Aristotle’s writing styles, the afterlives of women in the Aeneid and Classics and Social Class in the North-East of England.

Edith has now published more than thirty books, broadcasts frequently on radio and television, works as consultant with professional theatres, lectures all over the world, and publishes widely in academic and mainstream journals and newspapers.

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