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Medea
“It was her love
That wrought the deed – evil, yet wrought for love.”
Near the end of the 19th century, Amy Levy reimagined the Greek myth of Medea.
In Greek mythology, Medea is the daughter of King Aeëtes of Colchis, a niece of Circe and the granddaughter of the sun god Helios. Medea figures in the myth of Jason and the Argonauts, appearing in Hesiod's Theogony around 700 BCE, but best known from Euripides's tragedy Medea and Apollonius of Rhodes's epic Argonautica.
Amy Levy (1861-1889) was a queer English essayist, poet, and novelist best remembered for her literary gifts. She was the second Jewish woman who attended Cambridge University and the first Jewish student at Newnham College, Cambridge. Her reimagining of Medea is part of her collection: A Minor Poet And Other Verse.
That wrought the deed – evil, yet wrought for love.”
Near the end of the 19th century, Amy Levy reimagined the Greek myth of Medea.
In Greek mythology, Medea is the daughter of King Aeëtes of Colchis, a niece of Circe and the granddaughter of the sun god Helios. Medea figures in the myth of Jason and the Argonauts, appearing in Hesiod's Theogony around 700 BCE, but best known from Euripides's tragedy Medea and Apollonius of Rhodes's epic Argonautica.
Amy Levy (1861-1889) was a queer English essayist, poet, and novelist best remembered for her literary gifts. She was the second Jewish woman who attended Cambridge University and the first Jewish student at Newnham College, Cambridge. Her reimagining of Medea is part of her collection: A Minor Poet And Other Verse.
- Genres19th Century
23 pages, ebook
Published January 1, 1891
About the author
Amy Levy
89 books41 followersLevy was born in Clapham, London, the second daughter of Lewis Levy and Isobel Levin. Her Jewish family was mildly observant, but as an adult Levy no longer practised Judaism; she continued to identify with the Jews as a people.
She was educated at Brighton High School, Brighton, and studied at Newnham College, Cambridge; she was the first Jewish student at Newnham, when she arrived in 1879, but left after four terms.
Her circle of friends included Clementina Black, Dollie Radford, Eleanor Marx (daughter of Karl Marx), and Olive Schreiner. Levy wrote stories, essays, and poems for periodicals, some popular and others literary. Her writing career began early; her poem "Ida Grey" appearing in the journal the Pelican when she was only fourteen. The stories "Cohen of Trinity" and "Wise in Their Generation," both published in Oscar Wilde's magazine "Women's World," are among her best. Her second novel Reuben Sachs (1888) was concerned with Jewish identity and mores in the England of her time (and was consequently controversial); Her first novel Romance of a Shop (1888) depicts four sisters who experience the pleasures and hardships of running a business in London during the 1880s. Other writings as well, including the daring Ballad of Religion and Marriage, reveal feminist concerns. Xantippe and Other Verses (1881) includes a poem in the voice of Socrates's wife; the volume A Minor Poet and Other Verse (1884) has dramatic monologues too, as well as lyric poems. In 1886, Levy began writing a series of essays on Jewish culture and literature for the Jewish Chronicle, including The Ghetto at Florence, The Jew in Fiction, Jewish Humour and Jewish Children. Her final book of poems, A London Plane-Tree (1889), contains lyrics that are among the first to show the influence of French symbolism.
Traveling in Europe, she met Vernon Lee in Florence in 1886, and it has been said that she fell in love with her. Vernon Lee (Violet Paget), the fiction writer and literary theorist, was six years older, and inspired the poem To Vernon Lee.
Despite many friends and an active literary life, Levy had suffered from episodes of major depression from an early age which, together with her growing deafness, led her to commit suicide on September 10, 1889, at the age of twenty-seven, by inhaling carbon monoxide. Oscar Wilde wrote an obituary for her in Women's World in which he praised her gifts.
-Wikipedia
She was educated at Brighton High School, Brighton, and studied at Newnham College, Cambridge; she was the first Jewish student at Newnham, when she arrived in 1879, but left after four terms.
Her circle of friends included Clementina Black, Dollie Radford, Eleanor Marx (daughter of Karl Marx), and Olive Schreiner. Levy wrote stories, essays, and poems for periodicals, some popular and others literary. Her writing career began early; her poem "Ida Grey" appearing in the journal the Pelican when she was only fourteen. The stories "Cohen of Trinity" and "Wise in Their Generation," both published in Oscar Wilde's magazine "Women's World," are among her best. Her second novel Reuben Sachs (1888) was concerned with Jewish identity and mores in the England of her time (and was consequently controversial); Her first novel Romance of a Shop (1888) depicts four sisters who experience the pleasures and hardships of running a business in London during the 1880s. Other writings as well, including the daring Ballad of Religion and Marriage, reveal feminist concerns. Xantippe and Other Verses (1881) includes a poem in the voice of Socrates's wife; the volume A Minor Poet and Other Verse (1884) has dramatic monologues too, as well as lyric poems. In 1886, Levy began writing a series of essays on Jewish culture and literature for the Jewish Chronicle, including The Ghetto at Florence, The Jew in Fiction, Jewish Humour and Jewish Children. Her final book of poems, A London Plane-Tree (1889), contains lyrics that are among the first to show the influence of French symbolism.
Traveling in Europe, she met Vernon Lee in Florence in 1886, and it has been said that she fell in love with her. Vernon Lee (Violet Paget), the fiction writer and literary theorist, was six years older, and inspired the poem To Vernon Lee.
Despite many friends and an active literary life, Levy had suffered from episodes of major depression from an early age which, together with her growing deafness, led her to commit suicide on September 10, 1889, at the age of twenty-seven, by inhaling carbon monoxide. Oscar Wilde wrote an obituary for her in Women's World in which he praised her gifts.
-Wikipedia
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
March 9, 2023
❝Will ye not give a little of your love
To me that am so hungry?❞
I had to read this Medea retelling for uni and honestly I wasn’t expecting to love it, so no one is more surprised than me that I rated this 5 stars lol
I need to stop having such low expectations for books that I have to read for uni because they’re usually not that bad :’)
❝I have poured the sap
Of all my being, my life's very life,
Before a thankless godhead; and am grown
No woman, but a monster.❞
I really enjoyed Amy Levy’s writing!! This story was a lot of fun to read! Her Medea low-key gave me Cersei Lannister vibes, and I just love that hehe
I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of reading Greek mythology retellings! Though I do want to read some of the “original” stories as well. I recently ordered a collection of Euripides’ plays — which includes one titled Medea as well, so I’m looking forward to reading that sometime this year 😄
Displaying 1 of 1 review