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Medea: Myth and Unconscious Fantasy, edited by Esa Roos, is a collection of essays written by members of the Finnish Psychoanalytic Society, with
additional chapters by contributors from several other European countries. It is part of the “Psychoanalysis and Women” series of the International Psychoanalytical Association's Committee on Women and Psychoanalysis. All the chapters are more or less inspired by the Greek myth of Medea, as dramatized by Euripides in his play of the same name.1 In particular, the filicide committed by Medea at the end of the play constitutes the touchstone for the analysis of various aspects of female psychology and, most important, female aggression. Since the Medea myth is so important to all the essays, I will briefly summarize the story.
As recounted by Euripides, Medea was a sorceress and granddaughter of the sun god Helios. She was made to fall in love with Jason, hero of the Trojan War, and after helping him steal the Golden Fleece, which involved the murder of her brother, she accompanied Jason to the city of Corinth, where they settled and she gave birth to two sons. Several years passed, and King Creon offered his daughter as a wife to Jason (despite his relationship with Medea)—who, as a result of this marriage, would become a member of the royal family and potentially king himself. The play focuses on the immediate aftermath of this betrothal.
Medea, enraged by Jason's betrayal and abandonment of her and their children, plots revenge. The dramatic action moves inexorably toward a series of murders by Medea. Shockingly, she decides to kill her own children in order to punish and deprive Jason. The play ends as Medea, taken up by the chariot of Helios, flees Corinth to take refuge as the wife of King Aegeus of Athens.
Medea: Myth and Unconscious Fantasy begins with a chapter by Marianne Leuzinger-Bohleber in which the author posits the ubiquity of the “female truth” of the “Medea fantasy,” in which the “knowledge of one's own pote