Pasolini's Medea is a priestess---

---according to Janet L. Borgerson who also claims that “something is awry with the historical memory around Medea,” and that his film “requires that we question the almost universal assumption that Medea did something wrong.” It was released in 1969, considered a failure--- yet Piers Paolo Pasolini was clearly trying to subvert “universal assumptions.” Through his lens, she is a priestess, a woman moved by sexual desire, but also a mythical figure who enacts sacred rituals, and possesses a will to move beyond the wishes of the gods. A strong woman. A woman with a vision: “Amazon-descendant, granddaughter of the sun, and High Priestess.”

How much fun is that? And what a relief. After all, she is one of the strongest woman our culture knows, but also the most murderous--- like Pasolini, let’s coax Medea out of the shadows and into the bright light of a new story. One where she reclaims her sexiness, her sorcery and her all-around desire not to be pushed around by anybody.

Credits:
“Managing Desire: Heretical Transformation in Pasolini’s Medea” by Janet L. Borgerson. Consumption, Markets and Culture, 2002, Vol. 5 (1), pp.55-62

"Medea" by Anthony Frederick Augustus Sandys, 1868, public domain.