FROM EROS TO THANATOS: THE DYNAMICS OF MEDEA’S IDENTITY FRAMES (BASED ON EURIPIDES’ TRAGEDY MEDEA)

Abstract

The article presents a cognitive-poetological analysis of Euripides’ Medea by applying a frame-based approach to the study of the heroine’s identity. The aim of the study is to trace the dynamics of Medea’s identity frames from the erotic to the thanatic cluster through their conflict, reconfiguration, deactivation, and reactivation. The methodological framework is based on the cognitive-poetological approach and incorporates frame analysis, hermeneutic interpretation, structural-semantic analysis, and conceptual analysis. Particular attention is paid to the interaction between primary identity frames (origin, sacred significance, family, ethnocultural, gender, and personal identity) and acquired identity frames (wife, mother, member of the Corinthian community, exile, and avenger), as well as to their hierarchy, conflicts, and transformations throughout the dramatic action. The study demonstrates that Jason’s betrayal becomes the catalyst for Medea’s identity crisis; however, its origins lie in the heroine’s earlier decision to renounce her homeland, family, and ancestral identity for the sake of love. It is argued that identity frames do not simply disappear but enter into complex interactions, come into conflict, change their hierarchical status, move to the periphery, or become reactivated depending on the development of the plot. The article reconstructs the formation and functioning of the identity frames of wife, mother, foreigner (barbarian), exile, avenger, and child-killer, while also revealing the reactivation of the frames of origin, family memory, and Medea’s sacred and genealogical connection with Helios. It is established that Helios’ chariot in the final scene functions as a symbolic marker of the ultimate reactivation of the heroine’s primary frame of origin following the collapse of most of her acquired identity models. The article argues that the ending of the tragedy should not be understood as a simple replacement of one set of identity frames with another but rather as their complex reconfiguration, in which the thanatic cluster becomes dominant, whereas the maternal frame does not disappear but remains on the periphery of Medea’s identity structure. The proposed approach broadens contemporary interpretations of Euripides’ tragedy and demonstrates the heuristic potential of frame theory for the analysis of literary texts.