Medea

Medea was the wife of Jason (from Jason and the Argonauts) and the high priestess of Hecate the witch goddess. The story is documented by a playwright known as Euripides, and portrays a tale of betrayal, murder, poison and heart break. In the play, Jason and Medea have moved to Corinth, away from Medea's home with their two children. The scene opens with Medea crying in their house because Jason has decided that he wanted to marry the local princess. Medea devises a plan to poison the princess by making a dress so beautiful that the princess would not refuse it, but the fabric would burn the skin of the princess and she would die, killing the king too as he embraces her. Medea then kills her own two children, some say this is because she wants Jason to feel the ultimate betrayal, others think that this is because she wants to kill them herself so that the kings guard don't kill them first, or that they are banished, and banishment was worse than death in the time of Ancient Greece. At the end of the play, Medea is rescued by a chariot pulled by dragons from her relative, the sun god, who was briefly mentioned in the play, but it seems more like a classic case of Deus ex machine.

Below are some photos of my friend Mrs Emma Brownless portraying Medea, she was an excellent model, considering it was freezing in my local park, I think she portrayed pain and anger very well, also grace and beauty.

I made the fabric prop myself, using an ice dye technique to try and create a 'poisoned' effect. Using black, pink and purple dyes.