The Basel Medea sarcophagus

This sarcophagus is a late 2nd century AD masterpiece from the city of Rome. It was probably commissioned by a married couple who saw the literary story of Medea as a parable for the drama of life, while at the same time wanting to demonstrate how well educated they were. These highly expressive scenes depict the story of Medea, the daughter of a barbarian king. When Jason, the Argonaut hero, abandoned her for another woman – Creusa, princess of Corinth – she took a terrible revenge. By way of preface to the main story, the little frieze on the lid, some of which is now missing, summarises the earlier events in the Medea legend: Jason’s expedition to Colchis on the Black Sea and his theft of the Golden Fleece, made possible by Medea’s complicity. The main frieze is divided into four scenes. In the first, Medea has her two little sons present gifts to Creusa on the eve of her wedding to Jason: a headdress and a bridal gown. Medea has covered the gown with poison. In the next scene, Creusa has already put on the dress, despite a feeling of misgiving, and the poison has immediately taken its deadly effect. Wild with pain, Creusa falls dead before the eyes of her horrified father, Creon, and her retinue. The next scene presages the even more terrible part of Medea’s revenge. We see her standing, unmoved by the drama, just about to draw a dagger and kill the two little sons she bore to Jason! We then see Medea, her revenge complete, mounting a chariot drawn by two winged serpents and leaving the Earth behind, taking the two dead children with her. The Earth is personified by the goddess Gaia, whose head can just be seen at the bottom right and whose cries Medea no longer hears. The theatrical masks, the stage-like background and the chorus-like grouping of the retinue show that these events are to be read as scenes from a play, the outcome of which the actors, like the well-read onlookers, already know. Figuratively, the tragedy of Medea could be understood as a parable for the fate of humankind: after even the greatest upheavals and most terrible events, the drama of human life finds its resolution in death. The story of Medea was highly popular in Roman theatres. The original version was written in the 4th century BC by the Athenian tragedian Euripides. His play can still move modern audiences to this day. (tl)

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