The Compassion of Pharaoh's Daughter in the Bible and the Vengeful Justice of Medea in Greek Drama

Abstract

At the beginning of the book of Exodus (Ex 2:1-10) and in Euripides' tragedy Medea, two diametrically opposed figures of a woman of the highest status are presented: Pharaoh's daughter on one side and the goddess and Jason's wife Medea on the other. The former, out of compassion for the helpless child, rescues a foreign, Hebrew child and adopts him, the latter subjugates even the most natural and deep maternal love for her children to the decision to avenge her husband Jason for his infidelity by the most extreme means. By close reading and analyzing literary texts, I compared the conduct of Egyptian midwifes, Pharaoh’s daughter, and Medea in relation to a hierarchy of authorities and ethical considerations. The result of the analysis shows that the character of Pharaoh’s daughter is based on Hebrew theological postulates that God with his prudence guides human history, most often contrary to human plans that are in the service of human ambition and power. Medea, on the other hand, acts in parallel as a goddess and as a human being, and responds to extreme injustice by extreme means by invoking the justice of the gods in actions that generally oppose all notions of divine justice.

Keywords

• faith of the egyptian midwifes
• compassion of pharaoh's daughter
• obedience to god's authority
• medea's vengeance
• manipulation of the justice of the gods
• infanticide
• self-destruction