It has remained part of the tragedic repertoire, becoming a classic of the Western canon and the most frequently performed Greek tragedy in the 20th century.

[4] It experienced renewed interest in the feminist movement of the late 20th century,[5] being interpreted as a nuanced and sympathetic portrayal of Medea's struggle to take charge of her own life in a male-dominated world.

[citation needed] While Medea is considered one of the great plays of the Western canon, Euripides's place in the competition suggests that his first audience might not have responded so favorably.

A scholium to line 264 of the play suggests that Medea's children were traditionally killed by the Corinthians after her escape;[8] so Euripides's apparent invention of the filicide might have offended, as his first treatment of the Hippolytus myth did.

"[10] A common urban legend claimed that Euripides put the blame on Medea because the Corinthians had bribed him with a sum of five talents.

[11] In the 4th century BC, South-Italian vase painting offers a number of Medea representations that are connected to Euripides's play — the most famous is a krater in Munich.

[clarification needed] But the violent and powerful character of Medea, and her double nature — both loving and destructive — became a standard for later periods of antiquity.

With the text's rediscovery in 1st-century Rome (the play was adapted by the tragedians Ennius, Lucius Accius, Ovid, Seneca the Younger and Hosidius Geta, among others), again in 16th-century Europe, and the development of modern literary criticism, Medea has provoked multifarious reactions.

[12] Medea's rebellion shakes the world as she tells of her history, shedding light on the actions that ultimately lead to her denigration and dethronement.

"[14] Feminist readings have interpreted the play as either a sympathetic exploration of the disadvantages of being a woman in a patriarchal society,[5] or as an expression of misogynist attitudes.

[15] In conflict with this sympathetic undertone (or reinforcing a more negative reading) is Medea's barbarian identity, which some argue might antagonize[need quotation to verify] a 5th-century BC Greek audience.

[16] It can be argued that in the play Euripides portrays Medea as an enraged woman who kills her children to get revenge on her husband Jason because of his betrayal of their marriage.

Medea is often cited as an example of the "madwoman in the attic" trope, in which women who defy societal norms are portrayed as mentally unstable.

And yet, if we see events through Medea's eyes, we view a wife intent on vengeance, and a mother concerned about her children's safety and quality of life.

The play begins with Medea in a blind rage towards Jason for arranging to marry Glauce, the daughter of king Creon.

Medea's unexpected power of persuasion or even of fascination lies in her change of attitude: instead of preaching to Creon about the unpopularity of the sophoi she plays the role of a desperate mother, needing one day to prepare for exile.

Medea relays her current situation to him and begs for Aegeus to let her stay in Athens if she gives him drugs to end his infertility.

They shall take to the princess a costly robe and a golden crown, and pray for her protection.In the next scene a messenger recounts Glauce and Creon's deaths.

As Bernard Knox points out, Medea's last scene with concluding appearances parallels that of a number of indisputably divine beings in other plays by Euripides.

Just like these gods, Medea "interrupts and puts a stop to the violent action of the human being on the lower level, … justifies her savage revenge on the grounds that she has been treated with disrespect and mockery, … takes measures and gives orders for the burial of the dead, prophesies the future," and "announces the foundation of a cult.

[26] Pausanias, writing in the late 2nd century AD, records five different versions of what happened to Medea's children after reporting that he has seen a monument for them while traveling in Corinth.