„You smell like chemicals” – Medea, a modern polypharmakos: (Kate Mulvany, Anne-Louise Sarks: Medea: a radical new version from the perspective of the children)

Abstract

The Medea-myth, known from the Greek antiquity, has a significant amount of variants and interpretations, which have mentioned the sorceress-identity of Medea, and her transcendent-magical power attached to Helios and Hecate. The main focus of this study is the presence of magic and witchcraft in Kate Mulvany and Anne-Louise Sarks’ Medea: A Radical New Version from the Perspective of the Children, which uses Euripides’ Medea as a source. This interpretation shows the presence of magic and Medea’s witch-identity (which eventuated the murder of her children) in a modern aspect, based on the children’s perspective, in which – leaving the mythical past behind – magic is replaced by playing (imitation of magic), magic potions and spells through chemistry, mythology through tales, and drama through mimeticdidactic, childlike role-playing, thus creating a new, modern polypharmacus-identity of Medea.