Medea

The sorceress-heroine of Greek myth and Euripides' tragedy who kills her own children in revenge for her husband Jason's betrayal; invoked here purely as a byword for a great tragic female role, in Gorshkov's mock-grandiose compliment to the enraged wife ("There's a Medea for you to play!"). Distinct from (a play tied to Suvorin's Society-of-Dramatic-Writers membership) and (a Chekhov story-collection title); this entity is the mythological/theatrical figure herself.