The mighty playwright, Euripides, born in circa 480 BC, hit on something big when he wrote his tragedy based on various myths about Medea. It is not clear in these myths if Medea murdered her young sons, but Euripides turned up the flame and decided that she did the brutal deed.
Given our familiarity with his play in the 21st century, it is now not so much a whodunnit as why. When it was first performed at a competitive festival in ancient Athens, all roles, including that of Medea, would have been played by men, to an audience of men. Where were the women? In real life, if they were not slaves, their main task was to look after the household and birth children – preferably male heirs.
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