Memories of the Open Sea, Medea tells her story: Consuelo de Castro and Medea of Euripides

Abstract

Memória do Mar aberto: Medeia conta sua história – literary work written by the playwright from Minas Gerais Consuelo de Castro (1946-2016) – deals with the ambiguity of the feeling of love and the devastating passion that Medea, the sorceress of Colchis, has for the argonaut Jason. In Consuelo de Castro’s reinterpretation, the barbaric pomp and the Argive nobility of Euripides tragedy give way to trash, on the beach, and wasteland. In this inhospitable scenario, in the foreground are the port pier, where you can see, abandoned, the hull of the Argo ship and Creon’s throne room. In Euripides, the boat (σκάφος, v.1), and its construction, is the symbolic representation of Medea’s misfortunes; because, in it, if Jason had never set sail (διαπτάσθαι, v.1) towards Colchis, the barbarian princess would never have fallen in love with the Argonaut and gone to the Greek land, after betraying her father and brothers, giving him the golden fleece. The boat, which in Euripides moves the plot of the tragedy, is found, in the work of Consuelo de Castro, anchored – anywhere in the world –, sheltering unhappy lives devastated by Eros. In this article, we analyze love and passion, in Euripide’s Medea, reconstructed as elements responsible for the abandonment of the self and the dramatic dimension of the human in Consuelo de Castro.