Bringing the Other to Center Stage: Seneca’s Medea and the Anxieties of Imperialism
By Cindy Benton
Abstract: Seneca characterizes the Argo’s voyage as the catalyst for the end of the Golden Age, defined in Medea as a time when everything was in its place and everyone lived in their native lands, content with what they had and not desiring the excesses and luxuries of far away places (329-36). Such natural harmony, as Seneca depicts it, was broken by Jason’s desire for power and foreign gold (604-15). Jason is literally willing to go to the ends of the earth for an opportunity to gain a kingdom. However, rather than placing him on the throne and restoring order to Iolchus, the voyage only brings devastation to Colchis and Greece and anguish to Jason…Here we can see concerns about imperialism reflected in anxieties about encounters with the Other and the consequences of cultural conflict. In his Medea, Seneca emphasizes the Corinthians’ view of Medea as a barbarian, as well as the culture shock Medea herself has experienced since leaving her native land.
Published in Arethusa, Vol. 36, No. 3 (2003), Center and Periphery in the Roman World, pg. 271-284