Did Chrysippus understand Medea

The Stoics are generally thought to have been rather bad literary critics. They consistently superimposed on Greek poetry their own philosophical preoccupations, often introducing these by means of allegorizing interpretations.1 For instance, they ignored the important differences between the psychology of earlier Greek poetry and their own, theoretically developed, psychology, and used phrases from Homer, in particular, as support for their own psychological theories.2 For this reason, it may seem implausible to look to Stoic writers for any real insights into the psychological portrayal of figures in Greek poetry. However, I think there is one Stoic discussion which is rarely studied but which is worth exploring for its potential insight. This is Chrysippus' discussion of three lines from Euripides' Medea. This is referred to several times by Galen, in a work which has recently been edited and translated by Phillip De Lacy, under the title, On the Doctrines of Hippocrates and Plato.3 In Book Three, Galen deals with Stoic theories of the psyche and, in Book Four, Stoic theories of the emotions (pathe). Galen himself is not a Stoic but takes a Platonic view of these subjects.4 Hence, he consistently criticizes Chrysippus (whom he takes as representative of orthodox Stoic doctrine), while he agrees with Posidonius, who modified Stoic doctrine on Platonising lines; and he cites approvingly Posidonius' criticisms of Chrysippus. The passages in Galen's work which interest me are those in which he reports Chrysippus' attempt to illustrate his psychological theory by several poetic quotations, notably the famous lines which conclude Medea's decision-scene (1078-80):