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MEDEA (Gr. Mi/Seta)

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Originally appearing in Volume V18, Page 19 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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MEDEA (Gr. Mi/Seta) , in See also:Greek See also:legend, a famous sorceress, daughter of Aeetes, See also:king of See also:Colchis. Having been thrown into See also:prison by her See also:father, who was afraid of being injured by her See also:witchcraft, she escaped by means of her See also:art and fled to the See also:temple of Helios the See also:Sun-See also:god, her reputed grandfather. She See also:fell in love with See also:Jason the Argonaut, who reached Colchis at this See also:time, and exacted a terrible revenge for his faithlessness (see See also:ARGONAUTS and JASON). After the See also:murder of Jason's second wife and her own See also:children, she fled from See also:Corinth in her See also:car See also:drawn by dragons, the See also:gift of Helios, to See also:Athens, where she married king See also:Aegeus, by whom she had a son, Medus. But the See also:discovery of an See also:attempt on the See also:life of See also:Theseus, the son of Aegeus, forced her to leave Athens (See also:Apollodorus i. 9, 28; See also: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 See also:throne, of which he had been deprived by his own See also:brother Perses. Medus was regarded as the See also:eponymous See also:hero and progenitor of the Medes.

Medea was honoured as a goddess at Corinth, and was said to have become the wife of See also:

Achilles in the Elysian See also:fields. The See also:chief seat of her cult, however, was See also:Thessaly, which was always regarded as the See also:home of magic. As time went on her See also:character was less favourably described. In the See also:case of Jason and the Argonauts, she plays the See also:part of a kindly, See also:good-natured See also:fairy; See also:Euripides, however, makes her a barbarous priestess of See also:Hecate, while the Alexandrian writers depicted her in still darker See also:colours. Some authorities regard Medea as a lunar divinity, but the See also:ancient conception of her as a Thessalian sorceress is probably correct. The popularity of the See also:story of Jason and Medea in antiquity is shown by the large amount of literature on the subject. The See also:original story was probably contained in an old epic poem called Manias aotrlols, the authorship of which was ascribed to Prodicus of See also:Phocaea. It is given at some length in the See also:fourth Pythian See also:ode of See also:Pindar, and forms the subject of the Argonautica of See also:Apollonius Rhodius. There is a touching See also:epistle (Medea to Jason) in the Heroides of See also:Ovid. Medea is the heroine of extant tragedies of Euripides and See also:Seneca; those of See also:Aeschylus and See also:Ennius (adapted from Euripides) are lost. Neophron of See also:Sicyon and See also:Melanthius wrote plays of the same name. Among See also:modern writers on the same theme may be mentioned T.

See also:

Corneille, F. See also:Grillparzer and M. See also:Cherubini (See also:opera). The See also:death of Glauce and the murder of her children by Medea Was frequently represented in ancient art. In the famous picture of Tomomachus of See also:Byzantium Medea is deliberating whether or not she shall kill her children; there are copies of this See also:painting in the mural decorations of See also:Herculaneum and See also:Pompeii. See See also:Leon Mallinger, Medee: etude sur la litterature comparee, an See also:account of Medea in Greek, See also:Roman, See also:middle See also:age and modern literature (1898); and the articles in Daremberg and Saglio's Dictionnaire See also:des antiquites and See also:Roscher's Lexikon der Mythologie.

End of Article: MEDEA (Gr. Mi/Seta)

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