ABSTRACT
The only extant tragedy that is situated in Corinth is Euripides' Medea. The myth of the Argonautica from which Euripides derived his drama tells of many adventures in which Jason and Medea travel all over the Mediterranean and Black Seas, and commit various evil deeds, many of which lend themselves to tragic themes. To the audience, the setting of the tragedy would have been significant, not least because the Athenians were on the verge of war with the Corinthians and their Peloponnesian allies over a pattern of transgressive and broken alliances. Beyond these immediate political tensions, Corinth, as a neighbor and major port city, a hub of travel and trade, occupied a prominent place in the Athenian imaginary. Euripides' Medea participates in the conceptualization of Corinth as a place through which travelers passed and a society that is perhaps too hospitable.
