Medea

A broken marriage, love turned to vengeful anger, children caught in the middle - the story of Medea has strong contemporary resonances.

The figure of Medea dominates Seneca's play: her superhuman magical powers are given even greater prominence, but in the end thay are less significant than the thirst for vengeance and the pure ambition to do evil that drives her to the ruthless killing of her sons.

Seneca's writing is by turns allusive and explicit. This edition concentrates on literary and thematic aspects of the play, and seeks to place it in its literary and historical context in the first century AD.