VICTORIAN HELLENISM AND TRAUMA: THE REINTERPRETATION OF MEDEA IN AUGUSTA WEBSTER’S “MEDEA IN ATHENS”

Abstract

The 19th-century reinterpretations of Hellenic myths serve as an effective tool for discussing the female experience of exclusion and inclusion. Medea, one of the most notorious heroines of Greek mythology, recurrently permeated the Victorians’ consciousness, both in poetry and the visual arts. Traditionally, she is perceived as a filicide perpetrator, a femme fatale or a fallen woman. However, 19th-century British women poets represented Medea in a more subversive way. The present article explores how the mid-Victorian poet Augusta Webster (18371894) reimagines Medea as a woman confronting personal trauma. This article offers a detailed analysis of the poem, taking into account the psychological manifestations of traumatized sensibility and Medea’s strategies in describing her predicament. Webster’s Victorian reworking of Medea provides an intriguing literary portrayal of a traumatic response to marital breakdown, alienation, and filicide.