Is Medea a victim or a villain in Euripides’ play?

Euripides presents the protagonist of his play in a way which inspires both fear and pathos. As a villain she represents the Ancient Greek fear of foreign women, with Medea’s brutal revenge and formidable magical powers. The first scene of the play, for instance establishes a chilling and calculating personality for Medea, who appears upset beyond reason according to the nurse and tutor, and her cries from offstage. Yet she enters the view of the audience collected and calm, suggesting she is now focused on her violent purpose. It shows the audience both the despair that drives her anger, and her ability in cunning and manipulation that they are about to witness.
However the mistreatment of Medea by the people around her shows her as a victim. Jason is presented as misogynistic, even for the time, and especially for other works of Euripides. The fundamental criminality of Jason’s bigamy, and the divine intervention by which Medea’s murder of her family is excused, shows the audience that she is in fact a victim of extreme dishonour and justified in her murders, as brutal as they may be. She is simultaneously both victim and villain, driven by vengeance but justified in the eyes of the gods.