"Medea" is the ancient Greek tale of jealousy and
revenge involving a woman
betrayed by her husband. This paper explains how, in the book by Euripides, the story
begins just after Medea has been betrayed and then flashes back to the events that brought Medea and Jason to that point. Euripides does this to emphasize the
important part of the novel and show that the journey to this point was not as important as Jason's adulterous actions. The paper also touches on Pasolini's "Medea" (1970), which, in
contrast, begins when Jason is a boy and proceeds chronologically. The paper shows that, despite this contrast, the two versions are wholly similar, since one is based on the other; they show that some forms of revenge are impossible to understand.