Medea
Medea | |
---|---|
In
. In the myth of Jason and the Argonauts, she aids Jason in his search for the Golden Fleece. She later marries him, but eventually kills his children and his other bride. Medea is known in most stories as a sorceress and is often depicted as a priestess of the goddess Hecate. She first appears in Hesiod's Theogony around 700 BCE,[2] but is best known from Euripides's tragedy Medea and Apollonius of Rhodes's epic Argonautica.As a daughter of King Aeëtes she is a mythical granddaughter of the sun god Helios and a niece of Circe, an enchantress goddess. Her mother might have been Idyia.[3] She plays the archetypal role of helper-maiden, aiding Jason in his search for the Golden Fleece. In said quest, she uses her magic to save his life and kills her brother to allow Jason to escape. Once he finishes his quest, she abandons her native home of Colchis and flees westwards with Jason, where they eventually settle in Corinth and marry.
Euripides's 5th-century BCE tragedy Medea depicts the ending of her union with Jason, when after ten years of marriage, Jason intends to abandon her to wed King
In revenge against Jason, Medea murders her own sons and Jason's new bride, King Creon's daughter, with a poisoned crown and robes so that Jason will be without heir and legacy for the rest of his life. What happens afterwards varies according to several accounts.
Genealogy and divinity
Medea is a direct descendant of the sun god
As she becomes older, Medea marries Jason and together they have children. The number and names of their children are questioned by scholars. Depending on the account, it is two to fourteen children. In his play, Medea, Euripides mentions two unnamed sons.
Understanding Medea's genealogy helps define her divinity. By some accounts, like the Argonautica, she is depicted as a young, mortal woman who is directly influenced by the Greek gods Hera and Aphrodite.[8] While she possesses magical abilities, she is still a mortal with divine ancestry. Other accounts, like Euripides's play Medea, focus on her mortality. Hesiod's Theogony places her marriage to Jason on the list of marriages between mortals and divine, suggesting that she is predominantly divine.[9] She also has connections with Hecate,[10] the goddess of magic, which could be one of the main sources from which she draws her magical ties. Although distinct from the Titan known as Perses, who is known for fathering Hecate, the goddess of witchcraft, Diodorus Siculus in his Bibliotheca historica made Perses of Colchis the father of Hecate by an unknown mother; Perses' brother Aeëtes then married Hecate and had Medea and Circe by her.[11]
Mythology
Jason and Medea
Medea is first introduced in Greek Mythology after Jason came from
In some versions, Medea was said to have dismembered her brother's body and scattered his parts on an island, knowing her father would stop to retrieve them for proper burial; in other versions, it was Absyrtus himself who pursued them and was killed by Jason.[13] However, in the Argonautica, Medea and Jason stopped on her aunt Circe's island so that she could be cleansed after murdering her brother, relieving her of blame for the deed. This is one of the times we see Medea use her powers. During the fight, Atalanta, someone helping Jason in his quest, was seriously wounded. Medea was able to use her powers to heal the wound.
On the way back to Thessaly, Medea prophesied that Euphemus, the helmsman of Jason's ship, the Argo, would one day rule over all of Libya. Pindar alleges that this came true through Battus, saying that he was a distant descendant of Euphemus (by 17 generations).[14]
After the prophecy, the Argo reached the island of Crete, guarded by the bronze man, Talos (Talus). Talos had one vein which went from his neck to his ankle, bound shut by a single bronze nail. According to Apollodorus, Talos was slain either when Medea drove him mad with drugs, deceived him that she would make him immortal by removing the nail, or was killed by Poeas's arrow.[15] In the Argonautica, Medea hypnotized him from the Argo, driving him mad so that he dislodged the nail, ichor flowed from the wound, and he bled to death.[16] After Talos died, the Argo landed.
At some point while in Thessaly, Medea and the
Jason, celebrating his return with the Golden Fleece, noted that his father Aeson was too aged and infirm to participate in the celebrations. Medea understood the impact this had on Jason and was able to invigorate him by withdrawing the blood from Aeson's body, infused it with certain herbs, and returning it to his veins.[18] The daughters of King Pelias saw this and asked Medea to perform the same service on their father. Medea agreed.
However, the service was never performed. Hera, who was angry at Pelias, conspired to make Jason fall in love with Medea, who, Hera hoped, would kill Pelias. Hera's plan worked, and the pair fell in love with each other. When they returned to Iolcus, Pelias refused to give up his throne to Jason. Jason had been promised the throne in turn for the Golden Fleece. So, Medea conspired to have Pelias's own daughters kill him.[19] She demonstrated her powers to them by showing her cutting up an old ram and putting the pieces in stew. Once the pieces were in, Medea added some magic herbs and stirred the concoction, a young ram suddenly jumping out of the stew. Excited at the sight, the girls cut their father into pieces and threw him into a pot. Unfortunately, the King never came to life. Having killed Pelias, Jason and Medea fled to Corinth.
While in Corinth, the couple were married and lived together for 10 years.
Various Myth endings
Medea returned to Colchis and found that Aeëtes had been deposed by his brother
Recounting the many variations of Medea's story, the 1st century BCE historian Diodorus Siculus wrote, "Speaking generally, it is because of the desire of the tragic poets for the marvelous that so varied and inconsistent an account of Medea has been given out."[32]
Personae of Medea
In Euripides's play Medea, she is a woman scorned, rejected by her husband Jason and revenge seeking. Deborah Boedeker writes about different images and symbolism Euripides used in his play to evoke responses from his original Athenian audience.[34] The Nurse, one of the characters, gives descriptions of Medea in the prologue, highlighting comparisons to great forces of nature and different animals. There are also many nautical references throughout the play either used by other characters when describing Medea or by Medea herself. By including these references, Boedeker argues that these comparisons were used to create connections to the type of woman Medea was. She holds great power (referred to by the comparisons to forces of nature), she relies on her basic animal-like instincts and emotions (connections to different animals like bulls and lions), and it draws the audience back to her original myth of Jason's quest for the Golden Fleece and the sea voyage taken by Jason, Medea, and the Argonauts.
Emma Griffiths also adds to the analysis of Medea's character in Euripides's play by discussing the male/female dichotomy created by Euripides.[10] Medea does not fit into the mold of a "normal woman" according to Athenian philosophy. She is depicted as having great intelligence and skill, traits typically viewed as masculine by Euripides's original audience. On the other hand, she uses her intelligence to manipulate the men around her. This manipulation would have been a negative female trait to the Athenian audience. Griffiths also acknowledges the paradox of the methods Medea uses to kill. She poisons the princess, which would have been seen as a feminine way of murder, yet kills her children in cold blood, which is seen as more masculine. Medea is also shown as a 'normal' Athenian mother by having a dialogue about her children and showing a strong maternal love and connection to them. Yet at the end of the play, she is able to kill her children as part of her revenge. It is through these opposites that Euripides creates a complicated character for his protagonist.
Marianne McDonald argues that "Medea's anger turns to violent action, which can make her into a symbol of freedom, and emblem for the colonized turning the tables on the colonizer. Euripides, more than all other tragedians, has predicted many of the horrors that occur in the modern world, showing both the glory and the monstrosity of the oppressed turned oppressor."[35]
Although not the first depiction of Medea, the Argonautica by Apollonios Rhodios gives a fuller description of events that lead up to Euripides's play, mainly surrounding Jason's quest for the Golden Fleece. In this literary work, Medea is presented not as a powerful woman seeking justice, but as a young woman who is desperately in love with Jason. So much in love that she decides to defy her father and kill her brother in order to help him. James J. Clauss writes about this Medea, attempting to unearth another version of this character for scholarship and discussion.[36] He looks into different passages in the original text to define the meaning and draw connection to the different feelings Medea was going through. He argues the feelings of Medea's initial love for Jason, the shame she feels for loving him and for going against her family, and final agreement to help Jason in his quest.
Multiple scholars have discussed Medea's use as a "helper maiden" to Jason's quest. A helper maid is typically a young woman who helps on a hero's quest, usually out of love. Instead of being the center of the story, like she is in Euripides's Medea, this version of Medea is reduced to a supporting role. Her main purpose is to help the hero with his quest. Jason would never have been successful on his quest without Medea's help, something that is pointed out and referenced many times in ancient texts and contemporary scholarly work.
Other, non-literary traditions guided the vase-painters,[37] and a localized, chthonic presence of Medea was propitiated with unrecorded emotional overtones at Corinth, at the sanctuary devoted to her slain children,[38] or locally venerated elsewhere as a foundress of cities.[39]
Medea as Divine Agent
A mortal with divine ancestry –Medea is the granddaughter of Helios– she seems to kill without consequence, suggesting that she acts as a divine force and is immune from vengeance that typically comes to mortals who commit injustice. After Medea kills her brother Apsyrtos, she, Jason, and the others stop at Circe's island to be absolved of the crime. When they return to Thessaly, Medea convinces Pelias's daughters to kill their father with trickery. After this, they are an accessory to a murder, so they must leave. They go to Korinth, where Jason proceeds to court and marry Glauke, a princess of Korinth, where Jason loses Hera's favor and gains Medea's wrath. King Kreon tells Medea that she has twenty-four hours to leave, and if she doesn't she'll be killed. Jason comes to scold Medea and she in turn accuses him of denying his oath to the gods. Despite her previous crimes, Medea seems to have the approval of the gods. Next Medea resolves her time to kill Glauke with a potion that causes her to catch fire. Her father Kreon dies also when he in grief hugs his daughter and dies from the same poison. Medea proceeds to kill her and Jason's children as well, and before Jason can stop her, she is escorted away on a flying chariot sent by her grandfather, Helios. Later, Medea marries King Aegeus and the two produce a son named Medus. When Theseus returns in an attempt to prove he is Aegeus's son, Medea recognizes that he will be the heir to the throne rather than Medus, and convinces Aegeus to poison Theseus's drink. Aegeus realizes Theseus is his son and throws the drink away. Medea is forced to leave with Medus, where they return to Kolkhis where Medus eventually claims the title of king. Medea sits in an odd position where though she kills many people, she never seems to face any divine consequence from it. Perhaps her actions are in keeping with the favor of the gods. True or not, Medea is framed as a curiously nuanced figure, something rare for women in Greek Mythology.[40]
Modern references
In his book The Happiness Hypothesis, social psychologist Jonathan Haidt quotes Medea talking about her struggle between her love to Jason and obligation to her father, as an example for "The divided Self" and the conflict between Id and Superego:
"I am dragged along by a strange new force. Desire and reason are pulling in different directions. I see the right way and approve it, but follow the wrong.[41]
Cultural depictions
Written sources (in chronological order)
- Hesiod, Theogony 1000-2
- Herodotus, Histories I.2 and VII.62i
- Pindar, Pythian Odes, IV
- Neophron, Medea (fragments from the play)
- Euripides, Medea
- Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica
- Plautus, Pseudolus 869–871
- Diodorus Siculus, Bibliotheca Historica
- Ovid[42]
- Seneca the Younger: Medea (tragedy)
- Hyginus, Fabulae 21–26
- Gaius Valerius FlaccusArgonautica (epic)
- Pseudo-Apollodorus Bibliotheca I, 23–28
See also
References
- ISBN 978-0-517-22256-0.
- ^ Hesiod Theogony 993–1002
- ^ a b Herodotus Histories VII.62i
- ^ Hesiod, Theogony 956–962
- ^ Euripides, Medea
- ^ Smith, William (2005). A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.
- ^ Apollonius, Rhodius. "The Argonautica". Project Gutenberg. Retrieved November 12, 2021.
- ^ "Hesiod, Theogony". The Center for Hellenic Studies. Retrieved November 12, 2021.
- ^ a b Griffiths, Emma (2006). Medea. London: New York: Routledge.
- ^ Diodorus Siculus, Historic Library 4.45.2
- ^ Schmitz, Leonhard (1849). "Absyrtus". Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. 1. Boston. pp. 3–4. Archived from the original on 2005-12-31
- ^ Euripides, Medea 165–166
- Perseus Project P.4
- .
- ^ Rhodius, Argonautica 4.1638
- Patriarch Photius in Myriobiblon 190.36
- ^ Godwin, William (1876). "Lives of the Necromancers". p. 41.
- ^ Euripidies. Medea. pp. 1.1.483–485.
- ^ Godwin 1876, p. 42.
- ^ Smith, William (1870). "Medeia". A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology: Vol 2. p. 1004. Retrieved December 6, 2016.
Her children are, according to some accounts, Mermerus, Pheres or Thessalus, Alcimenes and Tisander, and, according to others, she had seven sons and seven daughters, while others mention only two children, Medus (some call him Polyxemus) and Eriopis, or one son Argos.
- ^ Scholia on Pindar's Olympian Odes 13.74
- ^ Repath & Hermann 2019, p. 29.
- 2.3.10–11.
- JSTOR 20191275.
- ^ As noted in the scholium to Medea 264.
- ^ Euripides, Medea line 788
- ^ B.M.W. Knox. Word and Action: Essays on the Ancient Theatre. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1979, p. 303.
- ^ See McDermott 1985, 10–15.
- 1.9.28 favors Euripides's version of events, but also records the variant that the Corinthians killed Medea's children in retaliation for her crimes.
- ^ Pausanias 2.3.6–11
- ^ a b Diodorus Siculus, 4.55–4.56
- ^ Hesiod Theogony 1000-2
- ^ Boedeker, Deborah (1997). Medea: Essays on Medea in Myth, Literature, Philosophy, and Art. Princeton, NJ.: Princeton University Press. pp. 127–148.
- ^ Clauss, James J. (1997). Medea: Essays on Medea in Myth, Literature, Philosophy, and Art. Princeton, NJ.: Princeton University Press. p. 304.
- ^ Clauss, James J. (1997). Medea: Essays on Medea in Myth, Literature, Philosophy, and Art. Princeton, NJ.: Princeton University Press. pp. 149–177.
- ^ As on the bell krater at the Cleveland Museum of Art (91.1) discussed in detail by Christiane Sourvinou-Inwood, "Medea at a Shifting Distance: Images and Euripidean tragedy", in Clauss and Johnston 1997, pp 253–96.
- ^ Edouard Will, Corinth 1955. "By identifying Medea, Ino and Melikertes, Bellerophon, and Hellotis as pre-Olympian precursors of Hera, Poseidon, and Athena, he could give to Corinth a religious antiquity it did not otherwise possess", wrote Nancy Bookidis, "The Sanctuaries of Corinth", Corinth 20 (2003)
- ^ "Pindar shows her prophesying the foundation of Cyrene; Herodotus makes her the legendary eponymous founder of the Medes; Callimachus and Apollonius describe colonies founded by Colchians originally sent out in pursuit of her" observes Nita Krevans, "Medea as foundation heroine", in Clauss and Johnston 1997 pp 71–82 (p. 71).
- ^ Kapach, A. (November 29, 2022). Medea. Mythopedia.
"Medea". Drama for Students, Encyclopedia.com. Retrieved March 20, 2023.
Medea. Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved March 22, 2023.
Medea in Greek mythology. Greek Legends and Myths. (n.d.). Retrieved April 4, 2023. - )
- ^ Ovid also wrote a full play called Medea, from which only a few lines are preserved.
Bibliography
- Apollodorus, Apollodorus, The Library, with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, F.B.A., F.R.S. in 2 Volumes. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921.
- Clauss, J. J. and S. I. Johnston (eds), Medea: Essays on Medea in Myth, Literature, Philosophy and Art. (Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1997). ISBN 9780691043760.
- Grant, Michael, and John Hazel.Who's Who in Classical Mythology. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1973.
- Griffiths, Emma. Medea. London; New York: Routledge, 2006.
- Knox, B.M.W. Word and Action: Essays on the Ancient Theatre. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1979.
- McDermott, Emily, Euripides' Medea: The Incarnation of Disorder. (University Park, PA, Penn State University Press, 1985). ISBN 9780271006475.
- ISBN 9780856687884
- Wikidata Q108896140.
- Repath, Ian; Hermann, Fritz-Gregor (2019). Some Organic Readings in Narrative, Ancient and Modern: Gathered and Originally Presented as a Book for John. Groningen University Library. ISBN 9789492444943.
- Smith, William, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. London (1873). "Medeia or Medea"
- Wygant, Amy. Medea, Magic, and Modernity in France: Stages and Histories, 1553–1797. (Aldershot, Ashgate, 2007). ISBN 9780754659242