Explain with lines from the play why Jason is the tragic hero in Euripides' Medea and how his pride leads to his downfall.

According to Aristotle in
Poetics, a tragic hero in an ancient Greek tragic play suffers from a
tragic flaw (hamartia) that causes their tragic downfall. The tragic hero
also undergoes a reversal of fortune (peripeteia) and makes a critical
discovery about themselves or their situation (anagnorisis).

Jason's tragic flaw, which he shares with many ancient Greek tragic heroes, is his
excessive pride (). This hubris is clearly evident in
his attitude towards women.

JASON. Not thine own self
would say it, couldst thou still
One hour thy jealous flesh.'Tis ever so!
Who
looks for more in women? When the flow
Of love runs plain, why, all the world is
fair:
But, once there fall some ill chance anywhere
To baulk that thirst, down
in swift hate are trod
Men's dearest aims and noblest. Would to God
We mortals
by some other seed could raise
Our fruits, and no blind women block our
ways!
Then had there been no curse to wreck mankind.

Jason's hubris and his misogyny permit him to commit adultery and
to indulge his ambition, which drives him to abandonand their children and to marry Glauce, the
daughter of Creon, the King of Corinth. Jason's actions, motivated by his
hubris, inevitably lead to his tragic fall.

Jason's
reversal of fortune (peripeteia) occurs when Medea fulfills her own curse
against those who have wronged her, and she kills Glauce, Jason's new wife, Glauce's father, the
King of Corinth, and her own children.

Jason's
anagnorisis is the moment that the realizes that due to his own
hubris and his own actions, he now has no family and no future.

MEDEA.Thy broken vows, thy friends beguiled
Have shut for
thee the ears of God.

Jason's fate also provides the
audience with a , an essential part of a Greek , which is the release of
the emotions of pity and fear that the audience feels for Jason's inevitable
downfall.