Medea | Characteristics, Family, & Plays | Britannica (original) (raw)

Medea, in Greek mythology, an enchantress who helped Jason, leader of the Argonauts, to obtain the Golden Fleece from her father, King Aeëtes of Colchis. She was of divine descent and had the gift of prophecy. She married Jason and used her magic powers and advice to help him. In one version of the story, when they flee and are pursued by Aeëtes, Jason, in conspiracy with Medea, cuts her brother Apsyrtus to pieces and throws him into the sea to delay the pursuit.

The Medea of Euripides takes up the story at a later stage, after Jason and Medea have fled Colchis with the fleece and have been driven out of Iolcos because of the vengeance taken by Medea on King Pelias of Iolcos (who had sent Jason to fetch the fleece). The play is set during the time that the pair live in Corinth, when Jason deserts Medea for the daughter of King Creon of Corinth; in revenge, Medea murders her two sons by Jason as well as Creon and his daughter. She takes refuge with King Aegeus of Athens, after escaping from Corinth in a cart drawn by dragons sent by her grandfather Helios. Medea becomes the wife of Aegeus, but he later drives her away after she unsuccessfully attempts to poison his son Theseus. The Greek historian Herodotus related that from Athens Medea went to the region of Asia subsequently called Media, whose inhabitants thereupon changed their name to Medes.

Medea also is the heroine of Seneca’s Medea, a tragedy based on Euripides’ drama, and a number of modern settings, including plays by the 19th-century Austrian dramatist Franz Grillparzer and the 20th-century French playwright Jean Anouilh and operas by the Italian-French composer Luigi Cherubini (1797) and the French composer Darius Milhaud (1939).

Britannica Quiz From Athena to Zeus: Basics of Greek Mythology

The Editors of Encyclopaedia BritannicaThis article was most recently revised and updated by Alicja Zelazko.