Back in Iolcus
Pelias accepts the fleece, but he does not give up
throne!
• Medea concocts a clever plan:
• Cuts up old ram, boils him in a pot for several hours,
pulls off the lid, and voilà!
• Old ram now young!
Daughters of Pelias are not so clever and take Medea’s advice to make
daddy young again.
Creep into his bedroom and … ?
• Kill their father and cut him up to fit into the cauldron.
• Medea puts Pelias’ body parts in the cauldron, but when she opens
it later there are simply his boiled remains.
• Though Medea had the ability to rejuvenate Pelias, she did not do
so.
• She has cleverly tricked the daughters into killing their own father.
Aftermath of death of Pelias
No surprise, really, but the townspeople of Iolcus didn’t much like how
Jason and Medea got rid of Pelias.
• Drove the pair into exile.
• Where to go?
• Corinth.
• Jason dedicates Argo to Poseidon at a shrine in Corinth.
• Medea bears Jason two sons: all is well—
• For now…
Medea, Euripides
One of Euripides’ most famous plays.
• It begins at this point.
• Jason decides to marry Creon’s (king of Corinth) daughter, Glaucê.
• Medea has just found out, and she complains to her attendants.
• Creon, in his fear of Medea, demands her exile—all Medea asks for is just one more
day—Creon grants her request.
• All hell breaks loose.
• Medea pretends to Jason that she only wants the children to be safe and have a good
home. She then sends her children with ‘gifts’ (a crown and a robe) to give Jason’s
bride, Glaucê.
• These are somehow infused with an acidic like poison that basically catches fire and
both kills Glaucê and her father when he comes to embrace his child who is writhing
in pain.
• Finally, to cause the maximum pain to Jason for his betrayal of her, Medea will
actually kill their two children.
• Surprisingly, Helios, her grandfather, will send his chariot, and the play will end with
Medea flying off and escaping all punishment!
Medea flees to Athens
Medea arrives in Athens (Euripides’ play ends with her departure from
Corinth).
• There she becomes pregnant by Aegeus, king of Athens and father of
Theseus.
• When Theseus arrives home from his 6 labors, Medea, afraid for her
child-to-be’s future, tries to do away with Theseus.
• She suggests Aegeus kill him with poison.
• Aegeus spots the sword on Theseus that he himself had placed under a
stone for Theseus when he’d grown up.
• Aegeus spares his life and Medea flees.
Medea returns to Colchis
Medea now returns to her home, Colchis.
• Her son, Medus, kills his grandfather Aeetes and takes the throne.
• He becomes the father of the Medes, another name used by the
Greeks for the Persians (most powerful enemy of the Greeks in the
Classical period).
• Medea never dies?
• She marries Achilles in the Elysian Fields?
Jason’s Comic Departure from the Stage
Jason, unlike other heroes (Gilgamesh, Perseus, Theseus, Oedipus,
Bellerophon, etc.) never gets the kingdom and the kingship.
• Old, weary, disconsolate, he sits under the prow of the Argo, in the
precinct of Poseidon.
• Argo, as old and rotten as its former captain, now collapses and the
prow falls on Jason’s head and kills him.
• Not a very heroic end
Medea Observations
Marriage is supposed to tame the parthenos.
• Cf. another failed attempt to do this (Antigone).
• This play is the Athenian man’s worst fear realized.
• A woman not only is able to harm her husband and extract vengeance from him, but she
also ends all access to heirs of his property and name, and finally she gets away with it!
Medea in Greek Myth
as Witch
• as Barbarian
• as Helper
• as Avenger
