Medea
A Life
$37.43
- Hardcover
256 pages
- Release Date
8 September 2026
Summary
The story of Medea, a maligned and misunderstood woman of Greek mythology, from one of Britain’s foremost classicists
Mothers who kill their children are universally abhorred but perennially fascinating. In this book, the award-winning scholar Edith Hall explores the possibility that Medea, mythology’s archetypal murderous mother, could be based on a historical figure who migrated to Greece in the late Bronze Age.
Medea has appeared in countless works of art—p…
Book Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780300270723 |
|---|---|
| ISBN-10: | 0300270720 |
| Author: | Edith Hall |
| Publisher: | Yale University Press |
| Imprint: | Yale University Press |
| Format: | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages: | 256 |
| Release Date: | 8 September 2026 |
| Weight: | 320g |
| Dimensions: | 20mm x 140mm x 216mm |
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Critics Review
“An impressive, innovative blend of storytelling and cultural history. Drawing on her encyclopedic knowledge of ancient sources and modern retellings, and her own travels to the sites of Medea’s adventures, Hall gives a compelling account of antiquity’s most provocative heroine and her rich, ongoing legacy.”—Sheila Murnaghan, translator of Medea
“Serial killer or tragic heroine? Or both? Edith Hall’s ‘biography’ of this mythical figure both touches all the relevant intellectual bases and tugs at all the relevant heartstrings. Eccentric it may be to attempt such a project of recuperation, but Professor Hall accomplishes it magnificently with all her customary unequalled insight and panache.”—Paul Cartledge, author of Thebes: The Forgotten City of Ancient Greece
“A rousing journey through Medea’s story that gleams in the telling, Edith Hall’s Medea provides a detailed and invigorating biography of one of Greek myth’s most famous women; the accompanying essays offer insights on why Medea matters, from one of tragedy’s great scholars.”—Emily Hauser, author of Penelope’s Bones
Edith Hall
Edith Hall is a professor in the Department of Classics and Ancient History at Durham University. She is the author of numerous books, including Epic of the Earth: Reading Homer’s “Iliad” in the Fight for a Dying World and Facing Down the Furies: Suicide, the Ancient Greeks, and Me. She lives in Cambridgeshire, UK.
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