Guilt is defined as remorseful awareness of having done something wrong (Dorset and Barber, Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 809). In Euripides's Medea, the fact that Medea is a mother who clearly cares for her children greatly exacerbated her guilt over the fate of her children. However, Medea was driven by her anger at Jason more than anything else; her hate for Jason outweighed her love for her children. Medea killed her children in addition to killing everyone else that Jason cared about. She felt the consequences of her own actions, however, only in regards to her murder of her own children.

The first reason that Medea felt guilt was maternal instinct. The children were very young and had not done anything wrong. Medea was angry at Jason because he left her for the princess, and the children had nothing to do with that. The fact that the children were young...