troisoiseaux: (0)
troisoiseaux ([personal profile] troisoiseaux) wrote 2022-12-28 04:59 pm (UTC)

Interestingly, Medea is demonized when her story comes up in Ariadne, although it's as a tale imparted by Theseus, who is a Lying Liar Who Lies Constantly.

Speaking of making sure that her POV characters bear no culpability for anything, the whole "Phaedra falsely accuses Hippolytus of sexual assault when he turns down her advances on the grounds he is a. sworn to chastity and b. her step-son" thing is played out as Merely An Unfortunate Accident instead— she didn't mean to accuse Hippolytus in her suicide note, Theseus simply interpreted it as such because he is a Terrible Man who assumes that all men are Also Terrible, and kills Hippolytus anyway! Which is... certainly a choice that was made.

(Also, I somehow never made the connection between Theseus of "and the Minotaur" fame and Shakespeare's Theseus, Duke of Athens in A Midsummer Night's Dream until now?)

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