Jason and the Argonauts
  • Home
  • About the Book
  • The Myth
    • Overview >
      • Lemprière's Summary
      • Hawthorne's Version
      • Schmitz's Summary
      • Bulfinch's Summary
      • Berens' Summary
      • Colum's Golden Fleece
    • Heroes & Villains >
      • Iolcians >
        • Aeson
        • Alcimede
        • Pelias
      • Argonauts >
        • Argonaut Biographies
        • Jason >
          • Jason as Diomedes
        • Heracles
        • Castor and Pollux
        • Boread Twins
        • Orpheus
      • Colchians >
        • Aeetes
        • Medea
        • Absyrtus
        • Circe
      • Others >
        • Hypsipyle
        • Phineus
        • Cyzicus
        • Amycus
        • Glauce
    • Gods & Monsters >
      • Gods >
        • Zeus
        • Hera
        • Poseidon
        • Athena
        • Aphrodite
        • Helios
        • Ares
        • Hades
        • Hecate
      • Monsters >
        • Cheiron
        • The Harpies
        • The Sirens
        • Stymphalian Birds
        • Fire-Breathing Bulls
        • The Sown-Men
        • The Dragon
        • Talos
    • Places >
      • Maps
      • Iolcus (Iolkos)
      • Lemnos
      • Samothrace
      • Cyzicus
      • Symplegades
      • Colchis
      • Lake Tritonis
    • The Argo >
      • Argo Navis
      • Argo and the Ark
    • The Golden Fleece >
      • Fleece as Pure Fiction
      • Fleece as Purple
      • Fleece as Gold Mining
      • Fleece as the Name Ram
      • Fleece as Royal Power
      • Fleece as Book
      • Fleece as Rain Cloud
      • Fleece as Covenant
      • Fleece as Blonde Hair
      • Fleece as Solar Symbol
      • Fleece as Hittite Sack
      • Fleece as UFO
    • The Myth in Context >
      • Argonautica and Odyssey
      • Argonautica and the Heroes >
        • Jason and Perseus
        • Jason and Heracles
        • Jason and Theseus
      • Argonautica as Catabasis
      • Argonautica and India
      • Argonautica and Africa
      • Argonautica and Bible
  • Texts
    • Pre-Greek Influences >
      • Epic of Gilgamesh >
        • English Translation of Gilgamesh
        • Aelian on Gilgamesh
      • Inanna and Dumuzi >
        • Ishtar's Descent into Hades
        • Lucan's De Dea Syria
      • Isis and Osiris
      • Teshub and the Dragon
      • Eshmun
      • Kresnik, Perun and Jarilo
      • Amirani
      • Linear B Texts and Oral Traditions
    • Greek Sources >
      • Ancient Fragments
      • Pindar's Pythian 4
      • Euripides' Medea
      • Lycophron's Alexandra
      • Apollonius' Argonautica >
        • Book I
        • Book II
        • Book III
        • Book IV
      • Diodorus Siculus' Library
      • Apollodorus' Library
      • Orphic Argonautica >
        • Orphic Argonautica Summary
        • Date of the Orphic Epic
    • Latin Sources >
      • Latin Fragments
      • Seneca's Medea
      • Ovid >
        • Metamorphoses
        • Heroides
        • Tristia
      • Valerius' Argonautica
      • Hyginus' Fabulae
      • Geta's Medea Cento
      • Justin's Epitome
      • Lactantius' Narrationes
      • Dares Phrygius
    • Medieval and Modern Sources >
      • First Vatican Mythographer
      • Second Vatican Mythographer
      • Dante's Inferno
      • Boccaccio's Genealogy
      • Chaucer's Good Women
      • Gower's Confessio Amantis
      • Lydgate's Troy Book
      • Lefèvre's History of Troy
      • Lefèvre's History of Jason
      • Pomey's Pantheum
      • Grillparzer's Medea
      • Morris' Life and Death of Jason
    • Scholarship >
      • Isaac Newton
      • Antoine Banier
      • Charles Dupuis
      • F. A. Paley
      • E. H. Bunbury
      • Andrew Lang
      • F. Max Müller
      • William Ridgeway
      • Arthur Drews
      • J. Rendel Harris
    • Popular Culture >
      • Orders of the Golden Fleece
      • Jason and Alchemy
      • Wieland's History of the Abderites
      • Planché's Golden Fleece
      • The New Argonauts
      • Mythology on the Half-Shell
      • Hawthorne's Golden Fleece
      • Modern Argonauts (Cartoon)
      • A Fleece of Gold
      • Orzesko's Argonauts
      • Jason: A Romance
      • Images from Medea
    • Filmography >
      • Giants of Thessaly (1960)
      • Jason and the Argonauts (1963)
      • The Merry Chronicle (1986)
      • Jason and the Argonauts (2000)
  • Galleries
    • Argonaut Geography
    • Argonauts in Ancient Art
    • Argonauts in Medieval & Modern Art
    • Ancient Greece
    • Ancient Near East
  • Free eBooks
  • About the Author
    • Author Biography
    • Media Inquiries
    • Contact Jason
Herroes

MEDEA
(Medeia)

Picture
Medea with cauldron, Roman copy of c. 420 BCE original.



From the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica:



MEDEA, in Greek legend, a famous sorceress, daughter of Aeetes, king of Colchis. Having been thrown into prison by her father, who was afraid of being injured by her witchcraft, she escaped by means of her art and fled to the temple of Helios the Sun-god, her reputed grandfather. She fell in love with Jason the Argonaut, who reached Colchis at this time, and exacted a terrible revenge for his faithlessness. After the murder of Jason's second wife and her own children, she fled from Corinth in her car drawn by dragons, the gift of Helios, to Athens, where she married king Aegeus, by whom she had a son, Medus. But the discovery of an attempt on the life of Theseus, the son of Aegeus, forced her to leave Athens (Apollodorus i. 9, 28; Pausanias ii. 3, 6-11; Diod. Sic. iv. 45, 46, 54-56). Accompanied by her son, she returned to Colchis, and restored her father to the throne, of which he had been deprived by his own brother Perses. Medus was regarded as the eponymous hero and progenitor of the Medes. Medea was honoured as a goddess at Corinth, and was said to have become the wife of Achilles in the Elysian fields. The chief seat of her cult, however, was Thessaly, which was always regarded as the home of magic. As time went on her character was less favourably described. In the case of Jason and the Argonauts, she plays the part of a kindly, good-natured fairy; Euripides, however, makes her a barbarous priestess of Hecate, while the Alexandrian writers depicted her in still darker colours. Some authorities regard Medea as a lunar divinity, but the ancient conception of her as a Thessalian sorceress is probably correct. The popularity of the story of Jason and Medea in antiquity is shown by the large amount of literature on the subject. The original story was probably contained in an old epic poem, the authorship of which was ascribed to Prodicus of Phocaea. It is given at some length in the fourth Pythian ode of Pindar, and forms the subject of the Argonautica of Apollonius Rhodius. There is a touching epistle (Medea to Jason) in the Heroides of Ovid. Medea is the heroine of extant tragedies of Euripides and Seneca; those of Aeschylus and Ennius (adapted from Euripides) are lost. Neophron of Sicyon and Melanthius wrote plays of the same name. Among modern writers on the same theme may be mentioned T. Corneille, F. Grillparzer and M. Cherubini (opera).

The death of Glauce and the murder of her children by Medea was frequently represented in ancient art. In the famous picture of Tomomachus of Byzantium Medea is deliberating whether or not she shall kill her children; there are copies of this painting in the mural decorations of Herculaneum and Pompeii.


Photo credit: (Above) Marcus Cyron / Wikimedia Commons; (below) Wikimedia Commons.



Picture
Medea debates murdering her children, Roman mural, Casa de Discorii, Pompeii, c. 1st c. CE.

Back
Picture
© 2014 Jason Colavito. All rights reserved.