Medea fra mito e cronaca: la tragedia popolare di Francesco Mastriani
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.34679/thersites.vol21.318Keywords:
Medea, Francesco Mastriani, Euripides, Classical Reception, Greek TheatreAbstract
Thanks to the complex temper and personality of its main character, the Medea of Euripides has generated an impressive amount of rewritings. This article aims to analyze the Fortleben of Medea-myth focusing on Francesco Mastriani’s La Medea di Porta Medina. The Italian author transfers the euripidean drama to a popular context, re-interpretating Medea as Coletta Esposito, a woman of the people who, betrayed and marginalized, acts with determination and clarity. The comparison between Euripides’ drama and Mastriani’s novel shows continuity and differences in the representation of inner laceration and moral responsibility, highlighting how ancient myth can be reborn in modern and realistic prose and maintaining the tension between emotion and rationality. This new representation of Medea offers new keys to understanding the euripidean character as a figure of otherness and resistance.
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Copyright (c) 2026 Maria Francesca Mortellaro
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