Portraits of Medea in Portugal During the 20th and 21st Centuries

The theme of Medea in Portuguese literature has mainly given rise to the writing of new plays on the subject. The central episode in the Portuguese rewritings in the last two centuries is the one that takes place in Corinth, i.e., the break between Medea and Jason, on the one hand, and Medea’s killing of their children in retaliation, on the other. Besides the complex play of feelings that provides this episode with very real human emotions, gender was a key issue in determining the interest that this story elicited in a society in search of social renovation, after profound political transformations - during the transition between dictatorship and democracy which happened in 1974 - that generated instability and established a requirement to find alternative rules of social intercourse in the path towards a new Portugal.

Andrés Pociña Pérez, University of Granada, is Full Professor of Latin Philology at that university. He has published monographs, translations and many articles on Latin literature, Greco-Latin drama, reception studies, including Medeas. Versiones de un mito desde Greciam hasta hoy I-III (University of Granada, 2002).

Aurora López, University of Granada, is Full Professor of Latin Philology at that university. She has published monographs, translations and many articles on Latin literature, Roman women, Greco-Latin drama, reception studies, including Medeas. Versiones de un mito desde Greciam hasta hoy I-III (University of Granada, 2002).

Carlos Morais, University of Aveiro, is Professor of Latin Philology at that university. He has published monographs and many articles on Greek Literature and Reception Studies, including ’Máscaras Portuguesas de Antígona’ (University of Aveiro, 2001).

Maria de Fátima Silva, PhD (1984), University of Coimbra, is Full Professor of Classical Studies at that university. She has published monographs, translations and articles on Greek theatre and reception studies, including the coordination of Portrayals of Antigone in Portugal (Brill, 2017).

Patrick J. Finglass, University of Bristol, is Henry Overton Wills Professor of Greek at that university. He has published editions, monographs, and many articles on Greek lyric poetry and drama, including the edition of Sophocles’ plays (Cambridge University Press, 2007, 2011, 2018).