Medea

Nationality/Culture

Greek

Pronunciation

me-DEE-uh

Alternate Names

None

Appears In

Ovid's Metamorphoses, Ovid's Heroides, Euripides' Medea

Lineage

Daughter of King Aeetes

Character Overview

In Greek mythology , Medea was an enchantress and witch who used her magic powers to help Jason and the Argonauts (pronounced AHR-guh-nawts) in their quest for the Golden Fleece . Later, after Jason betrayed her, she used her witchcraft to take revenge. The daughter of Aeetes (pronounced aye-EE-teez), king of Colchis (pronounced KOL-kis), Medea first saw Jason when he arrived at the king's palace to request the Golden Fleece. According to some accounts, Hera (pronounced HAIR-uh), queen of the gods, persuaded Aphrodite (pronounced af-ro-DYE-tee), the goddess of love, to make Medea fall in love with the young hero.

Aeetes had no intention of handing over the Golden Fleece but pretended that he would do so if Jason successfully performed a series of tasks. He was to yoke fire-breathing bulls to a plow, sow a field with dragons ' teeth, and then fight the armed warriors who grew from those teeth. In return for his promise to marry her, Medea gave Jason a magic ointment to protect him from the bulls' fiery breath and told him how to confuse the warriors so they would fight among themselves. Following Medea's instructions, Jason completed the tasks he had been set.

Aeetes promised to hand over the Golden Fleece, but Medea knew that he would not keep his word. She led Jason and the musician Orpheus (pronounced OR-fee-uhs) into the sacred grove where the fleece was kept, guarded by a vicious serpent. Orpheus sang the serpent to sleep, enabling Jason to escape with the fleece. Medea then joined Jason and the Argonauts as they set sail in the Argo, pursued by her brother Apsyrtus (pronounced ap-SUR-tuhs). When Apsyrtus caught up with them, he promised to let Jason keep the Golden Fleece if he would give up Medea. Jason refused and killed Apsyrtus.

Eventually the Argonauts arrived at Iolcus (pronounced ee-AHL-kuhs), which was ruled by Jason's uncle Pelias (pronounced PEEL-ee-uhs). Pelias had gained the throne by killing Jason's father, King Aeson (pronounced EE-son). Medea brought Aeson back to life by boiling his remains in a pot with magical herbs. In this way, she tricked Pelias's daughters into thinking that they could restore their father to youth by cutting him up and boiling him in a pot. Pelias died a gruesome death, and the furious inhabitants of Iolcus drove out Medea and Jason.

The couple married and settled in Corinth, where they raised several children. Their happy days ended when Creon (pronounced KREE-ahn), the king of Corinth, offered Jason his daughter Glauce (pronounced GLAW-see) in marriage. Anxious to please the king, Jason abandoned Medea and prepared to marry Glauce. Medea took her revenge by sending Glauce a poisoned wedding gown that burned her alive. By some accounts, before fleeing to Athens, she also killed the children she had borne to Jason.

Aegeus (pronounced EE-joos), the king of Athens, agreed to protect Medea if she married him and bore him children. They produced a son, Medus (pronounced MEE-duhs), who stood to inherit the throne. However, Aegeus was unaware that he already had a son, Theseus (pronounced THEE-see-uhs), from a previous marriage. When Theseus came to Athens to claim the throne, Medea recognized him, persuaded Aegeus that Theseus planned to kill him, and prepared a cup of poisoned wine for the young man. Just as Theseus was about to drink the wine, Aegeus recognized the sword that Theseus carried, realized that Theseus was his son, and knocked the cup from the young man's hand. By some accounts, Medea then fled to a region in Asia that came to be known as Media in her honor, and whose inhabitants became known as Medes.

Medea in Context

The myth of Medea reveals much about relationships between men and women in ancient Greece. For one, Medea's escape with Jason after he agrees to marry her was a clear violation of the tradition of family-arranged marriages. Women seldom had input into whom they married, and never did so without the knowledge of their parents. Next, while a woman was duty-bound to remain with her husband until death, a man could renounce his wife publicly for any number of reasons. When Jason fails to do even that before taking a new wife, it may have been seen as an even greater insult to Medea.

Key Themes and Symbols

One important theme in the myth of Medea is exile. Medea leaves her home in Colchis after helping Jason, knowing that her father would view her acts as betrayal. Later, both Jason and Medea are exiled from Iolcus after she tricks Pelias's daughters into murdering him. When Jason later marries Glauce, Medea murders Glauce and flees to Athens. Finally, Medea flees from Athens after her failed attempt to kill Theseus.

Murder and magic are also themes that run throughout the tale of Medea. She provides Jason with a magic ointment of protection so he can subdue the fire-breathing bulls. Although she does not directly kill Pelias, she is responsible for his death by tricking the man's daughters into killing him as part of a magic ceremony. She is also responsible for the death of Glauce by way of a magically cursed gown, and for the attempted murder of Theseus by way of poison.

Medea in Art, Literature, and Everyday Life

The myth of Medea is best known through the stage play written by the ancient Greek dramatist Euripides (pronounced yoo-RIP-i-deez). Over the centuries, the story has been adapted countless times in books and on the stage. Several operas, ballets, and musicals based on the story of Medea have also been produced, most notably a ballet suite by composer Samuel Barber. A film adaptation based on the Euripides play was made for television in 1988 by Danish director Lars von Trier. The character of Medea also appears in the 1963 film Jason and the Argonauts.

Read, Write, Think, Discuss

In Greek myth, Medea is a witch and a murderer. However, she also helps Jason obtain the Golden Fleece and tries to help him regain his rightful throne. These seemingly contradictory aspects of Medea's character makes it difficult to categorize her as definitively “good” or “bad.” Do you think Medea was intended to be a sympathetic character to the ancient Greeks, or was she intended as a villain? What do you think Greek writers were trying to say by making their characters so ambiguous? Select a popular figure from a contemporary Western novel and compare the way the author depicts his or her main character to the way the ancient Greeks portrayed their heroes and heroines.

SEE ALSO Argonauts; Golden Fleece; Jason; Theseus