... kind, loving, obedient. As mothers, women are shown as loving. Even when Medea has decided that she must kill her children, she is still depicted as loving them. She laments the loss of 'darling hand. / And darling mouth; your noble, childlike face and body! / Dear sons, my blessing on you both' (1069), and can almost not bring herself to carry out the task. Women are also shown as being capable of being good wives. The Nurse at the opening of the play says that before Jason's betrayal, Medea was 'all obedience' to him. This was seen as the essential quality of a wife - 'in marriage that's the saving thing / When a wife obediently accepts the husband's will' (13). In the role of wife, women are shown as loving their husbands completely, and accepting their husband's will above their own. Women are also portrayed in the role of loving ...

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