Medea

Medea Greek A sorceress; daughter of King Aeetes of Colchis (Asia Minor); niece of Circe, the witch of the Odyssey. In his quest for the Golden Fleece, Jason fell in love with Medea, who helped him capture the precious fleece. As Jason and Medea fled with the prize, they were pursued by Aeetes, the father of Medea and her brother, Absyrtus. In one version of the story, Medea killed her brother and threw pieces of him behind them on the road, knowing that Aeetes would stop to pick up his dismembered son. Thus she and Jason escaped from the angry king. Medea returned to Iolcus (Thessaly) with Jason. Her first deed was to destroy Pelias, the king who had taken over the throne of Iolcus from Jason's father. Medea suggested to the daughters of Pelias that, if they killed him, cut him up into small pieces, and cooked him in a stew, he would then be rejuvenated. She demonstrated her idea by cutting and cooking a ram and, by the use of magic, making a lamb spring forth from the pot. The daughters did as she suggested but, of course, Pelias did not survive. The people were so horrified at this deed that Jason and Medea had to flee the country. Jason and Medea settled for a while in Corinth. Jason deserted Medea for Glauca, daughter of the Corinthian king Creon. Medea killed Glauca by sending her a wedding dress saturated with poison. Medea also killed the two sons she had borne with Jason, then fled to the court of King Aegeus of Athens. When the hero Theseus arrived at his father's court, Medea tried to murder him with a goblet of poisoned wine. Just in time, Aegeus recognized his son and dashed the cup from his hands. Medea fled from Athens and there is no record of where she went next. Some legends say that her son, Medus, was the ancestor of the Medes, an ancient people of Asia Minor. The poet Euripides wrote a famous tragedy about Medea, first produced in 431 b.c. Medea has been the subject of numerous plays and operas.