sband's brutality by means of murder. However we can read into the plays sheer enormity of the crime committed by Jason, a crime so great that it induces tragedy. We are left in no doubt about the seriousness of Jason's crime then or now.
             The co-protagonist Jason yields different interpretations by audiences. Jason seems a thoroughly contemptible character. Certainly his attitudes would find little acceptance among a modern audience. He is self-satisfied to an extraordinary degree; he seems porcine and self-absorbed. Primarily he is blind to the suffering and pain he has caused in the household he is abandoning. His self-serving arguments justifying his actions seem cynical and contrived. Only an awareness of the social context in which Jason was operating, as well as Euripides' craft as a dramatist, redeems us form this limited judgement. Just as our sympathy for Medea is tempered by our own reservations at her extreme solutions, so our loathing for Jason is diminished as we acknowledge his social position. This is evident when Jason speaks, we are struck by how obsessed he is with his enemies and how a man such as he knows the meaning of humiliation. We can only deduce from this that his position in Corinth is by no means assured. He m
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