Medea

Etymology and Origins

The name Medea (Ancient Greek: Μήδεια, Mḗdeia; Georgian: მედეა) is traditionally derived from the Greek verb mēdomai (μήδομαι), meaning to devise, plan, consider, or take counsel.^[1][2] It has been interpreted as denoting the wise counselor, planner, or schemer.^[1] The name connects to the Proto-Indo-European root *med- or *mēd-, which signifies taking appropriate measures, measuring, or ruling, and is cognate with terms relating to medicine in Latin (medicina), Avestan, and Celtic, such as the Irish goddess of healing Airmed.^[3][4] In modern Georgian scholarly interpretations, writers such as Akaki Tsereteli associated the name with ancient Caucasian linguistic roots and the historical medicine of the Colchians, connecting it to terms for healing herbs and local place names.

Scholars of religion and myth have long debated Medea's origins. Several nineteenth- and twentieth-century mythologists posited that she was originally a local sun or moon deity or a chthonic goddess closely tied to Hera, Hecate, or Demeter, who was later lowered to the status of a mortal heroine.^[5][6][7][8] In Corinthian cult practices, Medea's actions and associations with the sanctuary of Hera Akraia suggest early cultic veneration independent of the Thessalian Argonaut saga.^[3][9] Anthropological readings interpret Jason and Medea as liminal figures positioned between an archaic pre-Greek world of shamans, earth deities, and matriarchal customs, and the emerging patriarchal culture of the Greek Bronze Age.^{[10][11][12][13]}

Genealogy and Divine Status

Medea belongs to the divine lineage of the Titan Hyperion through her paternal grandfather, the sun god Helios. According to Hesiod's Theogony (lines 956 to 962), Helios and the Oceanid Perseis fathered King Aeëtes of Colchis and the enchantress Circe, making Circe Medea's paternal aunt.^{[14][15][16][17]} Aeëtes wed the Oceanid Idyia, the youngest daughter of Oceanus and Tethys, who gave birth to Medea.^[15][17] In alternative accounts, her mother is named as the Caucasian nymph Asterodea, Clytia, or the goddess Hecate herself.^{[18][19][20][21][22]} Through this ancestry, ancient writers frequently attributed luminous, golden-gleaming eyes to Medea and Circe, a distinguishing feature of the descendants of Helios.^{[23][24][25][26][27]}

Her sibling relationships vary across sources. In standard versions, her sister is Chalciope (also called Iophossa), who married Phrixus after his arrival in Colchis on the ram with the Golden Fleece.^[17][28] Her brother Absyrtus (or Apsyrtus) is described either as a full brother born of Idyia or as a half-brother born of Asterodea.^[15][18][29] Later traditions recorded by Diodorus Siculus present an altered family tree: Helios fathered Aeëtes and Perses; Perses fathered Hecate, who married Aeëtes and bore Circe, Medea, and Aegialeus.^[19][30]

The divinity of Medea remains fluid across early Greek literature. Hesiod classifies her union with Jason among the marriages of mortal men to divine women, suggesting immortal status.^[16][31][32] In contrast, fifth-century tragedies, including Euripides' Medea, portray her as a mortal woman, though endowed with magical arts and divine favor, symbolized by the dragon-drawn chariot sent by Helios to rescue her from Corinth.^[32][33][34] In the Argonautica of Apollonius of Rhodes, she is a young mortal woman with magical abilities who is influenced by the goddesses Hera and Aphrodite and wavers between fear of the consequences of betraying her family and her wish to save Jason.^[33][35] In Ovid's Metamorphoses, she struggles between loyalty to her father and her love for Jason.^{[35][36][37][38]}

Magical Powers and Pharmacology

Medea is celebrated throughout classical sources as an accomplished worker in pharmakeia (medicinal and magical pharmacology) and a high priestess of Hecate.^{[1][39][40][41]} Apollonius of Rhodes records that Hecate taught her the properties of all roots and herbs grown on earth. Her preparations could quell raging fires, reverse or halt the flow of rivers, and arrest the course of the moon and stars.^[42][43] When engaged in sorcery, she could draw down the moon goddess Selene from the night sky to visit Endymion, obscuring the heavens in darkness.^[43] She was equally capable of summoning chthonic spirits, phantoms, and the Hounds of the Underworld to terrify her adversaries.^[44][45][46]

A notable plant in Medea's pharmacopeia was the Prometheus herb (Prometheion).^[47][48] This plant sprang from the Caucasian earth saturated with the ichor of the Titan Prometheus as an eagle devoured his liver.^[47] Medea harvested the plant at midnight using elaborate rituals: dressed in black, she dug a circular pit, sacrificed a black ram, ignited a pyre, poured honey libations to appease Hecate, and retreated without looking back despite the howling of subterranean hounds.^[49] An unguent compounded from this herb, the Charm of Prometheus, protected the body, shield, and weapons from fire and bronze for an entire day, granting supernatural strength to the user.^{[48][49][50][51][52]}

Her abilities extended to inducing irresistible slumber and performing rejuvenation.^{[53][54][55][56][57]} To tame the dragon guarding the fleece, she chanted incantations to Hypnos, the god of sleep, and sprinkled magical unguents into the monster's eyes with a freshly cut sprig of juniper.^[56] Her rejuvenation rituals, described by Ovid and Apollodorus, combined surgery and herbal decoctions: she emptied veins of aged blood and introduced a simmering extract made from rare stones, herbs, animal parts, and frosts, restoring youthful vigor to old men.^{[53][57][58][59]} Diodorus Siculus noted that she could also disguise her own appearance by applying herbal juices to create artificial wrinkles, imitating an aged priestess of Artemis, and subsequently wash the substances away to restore her youthful appearance.^[60][61]

The Quest for the Golden Fleece

The Argonautic saga brings Medea into Greek mythology when Jason arrives in Colchis from Iolcus to retrieve the Golden Fleece, a quest imposed on him by his uncle, King Pelias.^[50] Pelias had usurped the throne from Jason's father Aeson, having been warned by an oracle against a man wearing a single sandal.^[62] When Jason lost a sandal while crossing a river, Pelias sought to remove him by demanding the fleece of the winged ram that had carried Phrixus and Helle to Colchis.^[62] King Aeëtes had received the fleece from Phrixus and consecrated it in the sacred grove of Ares, where it was guarded by an unsleeping dragon.^[50]

Upon arriving in Colchis, Jason petitioned Aeëtes for the fleece. The king promised to surrender it only if Jason performed tasks that appeared impossible for a mortal: yoking two fire-breathing bulls with bronze hooves, ploughing a field of Ares with them, sowing the teeth of a dragon, and defeating the armed warriors who grew from the furrows.^[50] Knowing Jason would perish, Hera intervened to protect him. Hera persuaded Aphrodite to send Eros, who struck Medea with a love dart, causing her to fall passionately in love with the foreign prince.^[50] Driven by this passion, Medea met Jason secretly, demanding that he swear sacred oaths before the gods to marry her and take her to Greece in exchange for her aid.^[50]

Medea provided Jason with the Charm of Prometheus to protect him from the fiery breath and hooves of the bronze bulls.^[50] She also instructed him on how to defeat the earthborn warriors (spartoi): after sowing the dragon's teeth, he was to cast a large boulder into their midst.^[50] Confused about who threw the stone, the warriors turned on one another, slaughtering themselves until Jason dispatched the remaining fighters.^[50] Despite Jason's success, Aeëtes refused to hand over the fleece and threatened him with death.^[63] Alerted to her father's treachery, Medea led Jason into the grove of Ares at night, drugged the vigilant serpent with narcotic herbs and incantations, seized the Golden Fleece, and boarded the Argo with the Argonauts to flee Colchis.^[50]

Flight from Colchis and the Death of Apsyrtus

As the Argo escaped down the Phasis river, Aeëtes dispatched the Colchian fleet in pursuit, leading to the death of Medea's brother Apsyrtus, which ancient authors recounted in two distinct traditions.^[50][63][64] In the widespread version found in Apollodorus and Ovid, Apsyrtus was taken aboard the Argo as a small child.^[65] When the king's ship drew near, Medea murdered the boy, dismembered his body, and scattered the pieces into the sea, forcing Aeëtes to pause and collect his son's remains for burial, which allowed the Argonauts to evade capture.^{[50][63][64][65]} The site of the dismemberment was associated in Roman antiquity with the coastal city of Tomis on the Black Sea, whose name was linked etymologically to the Greek verb temnein (to cut).^[63][66][67]

Apollonius of Rhodes presented a different version in which Apsyrtus was an adult commander leading a division of the Colchian fleet that intercepted the Argonauts at the mouth of the Danube or in the Adriatic Sea.^{[68][69][70][71]} Outnumbered by the Colchian pursuers, the Argonauts agreed that Medea would be taken to a nearby temple of Artemis and stay there until a local king decided whether she should be handed over to the Colchians or continue the voyage to Greece.^[68] Terrified of being abandoned, Medea confronted Jason, reminding him of his solemn oaths.^[69] Conspiring together, Medea sent false messages to lure Apsyrtus to an isolated island for private negotiations.^[69][70][71] When Apsyrtus arrived unarmed, Jason ambushed and slaughtered him within the precinct of Artemis, while Medea averted her gaze behind a veil.^[69][70][71] Jason then mutilated the corpse, licking the blood three times and spitting it out to avert the Erinyes, before the Argonauts slaughtered Apsyrtus's crew and resumed their flight.^[69][72]

The Voyage Home and Purification

The murder of Apsyrtus provoked the wrath of Zeus, who drove the Argo off course with violent storms.^[73][74] The ship's sacred speaking beam, fashioned from an oak of Dodona, announced that the crew could find no relief until Jason and Medea were ritually purified of blood-guilt by Circe on her island of Aeaea.^{[73][74][75][76]} Upon reaching Aeaea, Circe performed the purification ritual, slaughtering a suckling pig and offering appeasement libations to Zeus and the Erinyes.^[74][75][76] However, when Circe questioned the travelers and learned of the murder of her nephew, she was horrified, refused them further hospitality, and expelled them from her island.^[74][75]

Ancient mythographers traced diverse geographic routes for the Argonauts' return journey.^{[63][67][77][78][79]} While some sources depicted them returning through the Black Sea, others traced complex paths through European river systems, believing the Danube connected with the Adriatic, the Po, the Rhone, and even the Rhine and the Northern Ocean.^{[63][67][77][78][79]} During the sea voyage, the hunter Atalanta, who sailed with the Argonauts, was severely wounded in combat, and Medea used her herbal remedies to restore her to health.^[64][80]

When the Argo reached the island of the Phaeacians, ruled by King Alcinous and Queen Arete, another Colchian fleet intercepted them, demanding Medea's extradition.^[73][75][81] Alcinous agreed to decide the dispute, declaring privately to Arete that if Medea was still a virgin she must return to her father, but if she was already married and Jason's wife, she would remain with her husband.^[73][75][81] Arete secretly informed Jason, and that night the Argonauts prepared a nuptial chamber in the sacred cave of Macris on the island of Corcyra (Corfu).^[73][75][81] They spread the Golden Fleece across their marriage bed, while Orpheus sang wedding hymns and nymphs sent by Hera attended them.^[81] The following morning, Alcinous ruled that Medea belonged to Jason. Fearful of Aeëtes' anger, the Colchian pursuers did not return home, settling instead in the region.^[73][75][81]

Sailing south toward Libya, Medea prophesied that Euphemus, the helmsman of the Argo, would one day have descendants who would rule Libya, a prophecy fulfilled generations later through Battus, the founder of Cyrene.^[82][83] Driven into the Libyan desert, the crew carried the Argo for days until reaching Lake Tritonis, where Triton guided them back to the Mediterranean.^[74] Arriving at Crete, they encountered Talos, a giant bronze automaton made by Hephaestus to guard the island against invaders by hurling boulders.^{[46][84][85][86][87]} Talos had a single vein running from his neck to his ankle, sealed by a bronze nail.^[84][86][87] According to Apollonius, Medea bewitched Talos from the ship with incantations, summoning malignant spirits that drove him mad so that he grazed his ankle on a sharp rock, dislodging the pin; his divine ichor drained out and he collapsed dead.^{[46][84][85][86][87][88]} Other versions state that Medea deceived Talos by promising him immortality if he permitted her to pull out the nail, or that the archer Poeas shot him in the ankle.^[46][84][89]

Events in Iolcus and the Death of Pelias

Upon reaching Iolcus, Jason found his aged father Aeson too frail to participate in the victory celebrations, or, according to other traditions, already dead, having been driven to suicide by Pelias along with Jason's mother and infant brother.^[53] To console Jason, Medea agreed to rejuvenate Aeson. In Ovid's Metamorphoses, she spent nine days gathering magical herbs across Thessaly in a dragon-drawn chariot.^[57][58] Setting up altars to Hecate and Hebe, she conducted nocturnal rites, dug trenches, poured libations of milk and wine, and slit the throat of an aged black ram.^[57] She then slit Aeson's throat to drain his old blood, poured her bubbling brew into his wound and mouth, and immediately transformed the decrepit elder into a vigorous young man with dark hair.^[53][57][58]

Despite Jason delivering the Golden Fleece, Pelias broke his promise and refused to relinquish the royal throne of Iolcus.^[90][91] Medea then orchestrated Pelias's murder through his own daughters, the Peliades.^[90][91][92] Appearing before the princesses, she disguised herself as an aged priestess of Artemis and offered to restore their father's youth.^[60][93][94] To prove her power, she slaughtered an old ram, carved its flesh into pieces, boiled them in a bronze cauldron infused with secret herbs, and caused a lively young lamb to leap out of the vessel.^{[59][90][91][92][94]} Convinced by the demonstration, the naive daughters butchered Pelias in his bed and threw his body parts into boiling water, but Medea omitted the revitalizing herbs, leaving the king dead.^{[59][90][91][92][94]} Acastus, the son of Pelias, buried his father's remains and expelled Jason and Medea from Iolcus for the regicide.^[59][95]

Corinth and the Death of the Children

Exiled from Iolcus, Jason and Medea settled in Corinth, where they resided together for ten years.^{[95][96][97][98]} By some traditions, Medea had a hereditary claim to the Corinthian throne because her grandfather Helios had originally granted the land to her father Aeëtes.^{[99][100][101]} During their residence, she bore Jason children, whose numbers and names vary widely: from two unnamed sons in Euripides, to two named Mermerus and Pheres, three named Thessalus, Alcimenes, and Tisander, or up to fourteen children comprising seven sons and seven daughters.^{[102][103][104][105][106][107][108][109][110][111]} During an early period of their stay, Medea saved Corinth from famine by sacrificing to Demeter and the local nymphs; when Zeus sought her as a lover, she rejected his advances out of respect for Hera, who rewarded her by offering to make her children immortal.^{[112][113][114]}

Their domestic stability collapsed when King Creon of Corinth offered his daughter Glauce (also called Creusa) in marriage to Jason to secure the royal succession.^[95][115] Jason accepted the alliance, repudiated Medea, and argued that marrying the Corinthian princess would legitimize his social standing and provide royal protection for his sons.^[95][116] When Creon decreed Medea's immediate banishment from the city out of fear of her magical knowledge, Medea pleaded for a single day's respite to make arrangements for her children. Creon conceded the delay. During this interval, King Aegeus of Athens passed through Corinth on his return from the Delphic Oracle; Medea secured from him an oath of safe sanctuary in Athens in exchange for promising to cure his childlessness with her herbs.

With her escape route secured, Medea executed her vengeance against Jason and the Corinthian royal house.^{[95][115][117]} Feigning reconciliation with Jason, she sent her two sons to the palace bearing wedding gifts for Glauce: an ornate peplos (robe) and a golden coronet.^{[95][115][117]} These garments had been saturated with fiery, destructive poisons derived from Hecate's magic.^{[95][115][117]} When the princess placed the crown on her head and donned the robe, the fabric ignited, consuming her flesh in unquenchable fire.^{[95][115][117]} When Creon embraced his dying daughter, the poisonous substance adhered to his body, burning him alive alongside her and setting the royal palace ablaze.^{[95][115][117]}

The death of Medea's children is recorded in several conflicting ancient traditions.^{[100][104][105][118][119][120][121][122][123][124]} In the eighth-century BC Korinthiaka attributed to Eumelus of Corinth, Medea did not murder her children, but buried them alive in the temple of Hera in an attempt to bestow immortality upon them, inadvertently causing their deaths; Jason discovered the act, refused to forgive her, and abandoned her.^{[100][104][118][119][124]} In accounts attributed to Creophylus of Samos and Parmeniscus, Medea poisoned Creon, but the angry citizens of Corinth murdered her children as they sought refuge at the altar of Hera Akraia.^{[105][120][121][122][123][125]} Hera then struck Corinth with a plague, which was alleviated only after the city established an annual expiatory ritual: every year, seven boys and seven girls from Corinth's noble families served at Hera's temple and made solemn expiations, a rite that persisted until Corinth's destruction by the Romans in 146 BC.^{[9][105][123][126][127]}

Euripides' 431 BC tragedy established the canonical literary version in which Medea deliberately slaughtered her two sons with a sword inside her house, motivated by the desire to inflict the deepest possible grief upon Jason and extinguish his legacy.^{[34][117][128][129]} While ancient commentators such as Didymus alleged that Euripides was bribed with five talents by Corinthian leaders to shift the guilt of filicide from their city to Medea, modern scholarship views the deliberate child-murder as an artistic invention by Euripides or Neophron.^{[130][131][132]} After the killings, Medea refused to surrender the corpses to Jason and ascended into the air on a dragon-drawn chariot sent by Helios, escaping to Athens.^[34][117]

Later Wanderings and Death

According to Diodorus Siculus, when Medea fled Corinth she went not to Athens but to Thebes to seek Heracles, who had promised her help; she found him there, driven mad by Hera's fury, which had made him kill his children.^{[133][134][135][136][137]} Medea restored the hero to sanity using her herbal decoctions.^{[133][134][135][136][137]} Although Heracles offered her sanctuary in gratitude, the Thebans refused to tolerate her presence, forcing her to resume her journey.^[135]

Arriving in Athens, Medea married King Aegeus and bore him a son named Medus (or Medeius).^{[138][139][140][141]} Years later, Aegeus's secret son Theseus arrived in Athens without revealing his identity.^{[139][141][142][143]} Perceiving Theseus as a threat to her son's inheritance, Medea persuaded Aegeus that the newcomer was a spy and arranged to poison him at a banquet with wolfsbane (aconite).^{[139][141][142][143]} Just as Theseus lifted the cup, Aegeus recognized the carved hilt of the sword and the sandals he had left under a rock for his son, knocking the poisoned cup to the ground.^{[139][141][142]} Exposed, Medea fled Athens on her flying chariot alongside her son Medus.^{[141][142][143]}

According to Italian traditions recorded by Servius, Medea subsequently traveled to central Italy, settling near Lake Fucinus among the Marsi.^{[144][145][146]} She instructed the inhabitants in snake charming, antidotes, and herbal medicine, and was subsequently venerated by the native peoples as the healing goddess Angitia.^{[144][145][146]} Another tale recorded that she passed through Thessaly, where she entered a beauty contest against the Nereid Thetis judged by King Idomeneus of Crete; when Idomeneus declared Thetis the winner, Medea cursed all Cretans to be perpetual liars.^{[147][148][149][150][151]}

Returning eastward, Medea and Medus discovered that her uncle Perses had deposed her father Aeëtes and seized the throne of Colchis.^{[110][141][152][153]} According to Hyginus, Medea came to Colchis disguised as a priestess of Artemis and freed Medus, who had been imprisoned by Perses; Medus then killed Perses and took the throne himself.^{[141][154][155]} Herodotus reported that Medea and her son settled in the Iranian plateau among the Aryan peoples, who subsequently took the name of Medes from her or her son Medus.^{[138][153][156][157][158][159]} Alternatively, Pompeius Trogus recorded that Jason and Medea reconciled, returned together to Colchis, restored Aeëtes, and conquered neighboring Asian territories.^[160]

Early traditions recorded by Ibycus and Simonides of Ceos relate that Medea did not experience mortal death, but was granted immortality by the gods.^{[161][162][163][164][165][166][167]} She was transported to the Elysian Fields or the Islands of the Blessed, where she reigned as queen and married the hero Achilles after his death in the Trojan War.^{[161][162][163][164][165][166][167][168][169]}

Ancient Literary Traditions

In the earliest literary references, Medea appears without criminal taint. Hesiod's Theogony (c. 700 BC) mentions her as the radiant daughter of Aeëtes who married Jason after he completed demanding labors in Colchis, bearing him a son named Medeius who was raised by Chiron in the mountains.^{[16][170][171][172][173]} In Pindar's Fourth Pythian Ode (462 BC), she delivers a prophetic speech foretelling the colonization of Cyrene by descendants of the Argonaut Euphemus, while Jason is praised as a rightful heir restoring his dynasty.^[82][83] Even in this early layer of the tradition, Jason's courage alone is not enough, and Medea takes the familiar role of the helper-maiden whose magic proves decisive for his success.^{[37][38][174][175]}

Euripides transformed her portrayal in 431 BC with his tragedy Medea.^[170][176] Moving the psychological conflict to the forefront, Euripides examined the clash between reason and passionate anger (thymos).^{[177][178][179]} Medea's famous deliberation, acknowledging that she recognizes the evil of her impending actions but is overpowered by passion, became a classic philosophical citation in debates on moral weakness (akrasia) among the Stoics and Platonists.^{[177][178][179][180]} In his Poetics, Aristotle criticized the play's ending, arguing that the dragon chariot operated as a mechanical deus ex machina that did not arise naturally from the plot, and cited the sudden arrival of Aegeus as an arbitrary contrivance.^[181][182] Euripides also dramatized her life in two lost tragedies: Peliades (455 BC), depicting her deception of Pelias's daughters, and Aegeus, dramatizing her plot to poison Theseus in Athens.^[93][142]

In the Hellenistic period, Apollonius of Rhodes devoted books three and four of the Argonautica to Medea's internal emotional crisis.^{[35][37][38][183]} Apollonius emphasizes her vulnerability, innocence, and initial hesitation between loyalty to her father and her sudden love for Jason, which is engineered by Hera and Aphrodite.^{[35][38][183]} The epic exposes the fragility of Jason's heroism, presenting him as indecisive and reliant on Medea's guidance, while Medea becomes increasingly compromised by violence, culminating in the ambush of Apsyrtus.^{[183][184][185][186][187]}

Roman authors developed darker and more rhetorical treatments. Ovid treated Medea repeatedly: in Heroides 12, an epistolary lament addressed to Jason; in Metamorphoses 7, which depicts her vacillation between duty and desire (mens and cupido) and provides detailed descriptions of her rejuvenation spells; and in a celebrated tragedy Medea that is now lost except for two lines.^{[36][58][188][189][190][191][192][193]} Seneca the Younger composed a Stoic tragedy, Medea, portraying her unrestrained fury as a total surrender to emotion over reason.^[194][195] Unlike Euripides, Seneca staged the murder of the children openly in view of Jason and the audience.^[196] In the first century AD, Valerius Flaccus wrote an unfinished Latin epic, Argonautica, in which the dragon was Medea's beloved pet.^[197] In the fifth century AD, the Christian poet Dracontius incorporated the myth into book ten of his Romulea, setting the action in Thebes and portraying Medea as a virgin priestess of Diana cursed by Venus and Juno, using her story to critique pagan polytheism.^{[198][199][200]}

Ancient Iconography

Visual depictions of Medea appeared in Greek, Etruscan, and Roman art from the seventh century BC onward.^[201][202] The earliest surviving images focus on the rejuvenation of the ram and the Pelias episode.^[202][203] An Etruscan bucchero vessel from Cerveteri (c. 630 BC) inscribed with the name Metaia shows her standing beside a cauldron from which a rejuvenated youth emerges.^[202] Late Archaic and Classical Athenian black-figure and red-figure vases frequently show Medea beside the tripod cauldron with the daughters of Pelias.^[203] On the lost sixth-century BC Chest of Cypselus at Olympia, she was depicted enthroned between Jason and Aphrodite, with an inscription noting that Jason took her as his wife by Aphrodite's will.^[203]

Following Euripides' 431 BC production, vase painters in Magna Graecia increasingly depicted her in orientalizing costume with long patterned sleeves and a Phrygian cap, emphasizing her foreign origin.^[201] A red-figure calyx-krater attributed to the Policoro Painter (c. 400 BC, Cleveland Museum of Art) depicts Medea aloft in her sun chariot flanked by dragons, with the bodies of her sons resting on an altar below as Jason gestures in despair.^{[34][128][204]} An Apulian red-figure volute-krater attributed to the Underworld Painter (c. 330–310 BC) shows Medea in Eastern dress seizing one of her sons by the hair at an altar, with Helios drawn by two serpents and the inscription Oistros (frenzy), perhaps describing her state. An Apulian bell-krater by the Dolon Painter (c. 390 BC, Louvre) captures Creusa receiving the poisoned wedding gifts, while a Campanian neck-amphora by the Ixion Painter (c. 330 BC, Louvre) portrays Medea grasping one of her sons by the hair with sword in hand.^[205] Notably, an Apulian volute-krater attributed to the Darius Painter (c. 340–320 BC, Princeton University Art Museum) depicts Medea taking refuge at the sanctuary of Eleusis, reflecting a tradition where her children were not killed by her hand.^[206]

In Roman art, Medea's emotional conflict prior to the filicide became a popular motif.^[207][208] The Hellenistic painter Timomachus of Byzantium created a famous painting showing Medea hesitating with sword drawn before killing her sons, a work purchased by Julius Caesar for the Temple of Venus Genetrix in Rome.^[207] Echoes of Timomachus's composition appear in first-century frescoes from Pompeii (House of the Dioscuri) and Herculaneum, depicting Medea brooding with downcast eyes and clasped hands while her sons play innocently with knucklebones nearby under their pedagogue's care.^[208] Roman relief sarcophagi of the second century AD, such as the Basel Medea Sarcophagus and examples in the Palazzo Altemps, carved fixed sequential scenes of the Euripidean tragedy: the presentation of the poisoned gifts, the death of Creusa, Medea drawing her sword over her children, and her aerial flight in the dragon chariot.^[209]

Medieval and Early Modern Literature

Medieval European authors encountered Medea primarily through Ovid and late antique summaries, frequently blending the Argonautic expedition with the Trojan War.^[210] Benoît de Sainte-Maure included Medea's part in the Argonaut expedition in his Old French Troy romance (c. 1165), presenting her as Jason's wise and faithful helper whose love is fin' amor and leaving out the murder of Apsyrtus. Konrad von Würzburg expanded on this portrayal in his thirteenth-century Trojanerkrieg, depicting Medea as an educated courtly noblewoman whose revenge against Pelias and Jason appears understandable; Konrad condemned Jason's ingratitude and faithlessness, omitting the filicide entirely.^[210] In contrast, Guido de Columnis's widely circulated Historia destructionis Troiae (1287) condemned Medea as an embodiment of female vice and uncontrolled lust.^[211] In the fourteenth century, Pierre Bersuire's Ovidius moralizatus gave Christian readings of Medea: as Jason's helper she could stand for the Virgin Mary or for wisdom, which helps overcome the devil, represented by the dragon, while in negative readings she stood for the sinful soul or for the devil.

In Middle English literature, Geoffrey Chaucer included Medea in The Legend of Good Women (c. 1385), framing Jason as a serial deceiver and presenting Medea sympathetically while passing over her violent deeds.^[212] John Gower took a similar approach in Confessio Amantis, emphasizing Jason's broken oaths and placing Medea in heaven despite her crimes.^[213] Conversely, Giovanni Boccaccio portrayed her in De claris mulieribus (1361–1362) as an archetype of shameless betrayal and destructive passion.^[214] Christine de Pizan defended Medea in Le livre de la cité des dames (1404–1405), praising her profound scientific knowledge and steadfast loyalty to Jason to counter contemporary misogynistic literature.^[215]

Jean Bastier de La Péruse wrote La Médée, a five-act tragedy modeled on the plays of Euripides and Seneca, probably in 1553; it was staged in 1556. In 1635, Pierre Corneille staged his tragedy Médée.^[216] Corneille placed great weight on plausibility and departed from Euripides in places: Creon offers Medea a delay of his own accord, Jason's main motive is to have Creon, as his father-in-law, protect his children from his bitter enemies, the aged King Aegeus of Athens loves Creusa and appears as Jason's rival, and Creusa herself demands the fatal robe, so that her greed for it brings about her own downfall.^[216] Hilaire-Bernard de Longepierre's tragedy Médée, first performed in 1694, had a lasting stage success and matched the expectations of the dawning age of sensibility; in Voltaire's time it was the only version of the subject performed in Paris. In Germany, Friedrich Maximilian Klinger composed two prose dramas: Medea in Korinth (1787), depicting her as a tragic demigoddess alien to human norms, and Medea auf dem Kaukasos (1791), where she attempts to dissuade Caucasian tribes from human sacrifice before taking her own life.^[217]

Modern Literature and Theatre

In the nineteenth century, Franz Grillparzer composed his trilogy of plays Das goldene Vlies (The Golden Fleece, premiered in Vienna in 1821), consisting of Der Gastfreund, Die Argonauten, and Medea.^[218][219] Grillparzer starts the chain of events with a crime: King Aeëtes of Colchis murders his guest Phrixus, who had brought the Golden Fleece to Colchis, and so takes the fleece for himself. In Corinth, Medea attempts to assimilate into Greek society and buries the fleece, but is alienated by Corinthian xenophobia and her children's preference for the gentler Creusa.^[218] Experiencing total abandonment, she kills her children to release them from life's misery, delivering the fleece to Delphi for judgment.^[218] In 1867, William Morris published the epic poem The Life and Death of Jason, celebrating the heroic journey while portraying Medea's eventual tragic isolation.^[220]

Twentieth-century dramatists adapted the myth to explore psychological, racial, and political themes. Hans Henny Jahnn's expressionist Medea (1926) cast Medea as a Black woman, introducing explicit racial tensions alongside sexual alienation, where the filicide represents a desperate liberation from erotic dependence.^[221][222] Jean Anouilh's Médée (written 1946, produced 1953) placed Medea and Jason in the cart on which they fled, which serves as their home in the realm of the Corinthian king, and turned on the question of whether a person can make a new start by forgetting the past; Anouilh's Medea stabs herself to death within the flaming wagon alongside her murdered children.^{[223][224][225]} Robinson Jeffers's Medea, a free-verse adaptation of Euripides, premiered in 1947 with Judith Anderson in the title role; with her elemental passion and will to destroy, his Medea stands for "inhumanism", a stepping outside ordinary human values, and like nature, which creates and destroys, she is morally indifferent.

Feminist literature extensively reclaimed Medea. In her 1996 novel Medea: Stimmen (Medea: Voices), German author Christa Wolf returned to pre-Euripidean traditions to depict Medea as an innocent scapegoat.^{[226][227][228]} In Wolf's narrative, Medea uncovers that Creon murdered his eldest daughter Iphinoe to secure his rule; when plague strikes Corinth, the ruling elite blames the foreign healer Medea, expelling her and stoning her children at Hera's temple, subsequently spreading the rumor that their mother killed them.^[227][229] Ursula Haas's feminist novel Freispruch für Medea (1987) leaves out the killing of the children; after painful years beside Jason, who used her in his pursuit of power and wealth, Medea returns to her homeland. In Heiner Müller's play Verkommenes Ufer. Medeamaterial. Landschaft mit Argonauten (published 1982), Medea is a monstrous murderer, but the real guilt for her crimes lies with Jason, who came to Colchis as an aggressor and committed atrocities there.

Music, Opera, and Screen

Operas with Medea as a main or important figure have been staged since the seventeenth century. Francesco Cavalli's Giasone (1649) became one of the most successful operas of the seventeenth century; it is a cheerful love story that ends in reconciliation. Marc-Antoine Charpentier's tragédie en musique Médée, with a libretto by Thomas Corneille, premiered in 1693. In 1775, Georg Anton Benda and Friedrich Wilhelm Gotter produced the melodrama Medea, most of which is one long monologue by Medea, interrupted several times, and at the end of which Medea stabs her children and Jason commits suicide.^[230] Luigi Cherubini's Médée (1797), to a French libretto by François-Benoît Hoffman, is one of his best-known works; an Italian version, Medea, was revived with great success by Maria Callas, whose performances in the title role from 1953 to 1962 added to its popularity.

Later operas include Giovanni Simone Mayr's Medea in Corinto (1813), Saverio Mercadante's Medea (1851), Darius Milhaud's Médée (1939), Mikis Theodorakis's Medea (1991), Pascal Dusapin's Medeamaterial (1992, after Heiner Müller), Rolf Liebermann's Freispruch für Medea (1995, after the novel by Ursula Haas), and Aribert Reimann's Medea (2010, after Grillparzer). In ballet and modern dance, Jean-Georges Noverre and Jean-Joseph Rodolphe staged the influential ballet Médée et Jason in 1763.^[231] Martha Graham created the modern dance work Cave of the Heart in 1946 to music by Samuel Barber, who later reworked the score into an orchestral suite and then into a new version titled Medea's Meditation and Dance of Vengeance.

In cinema, Pier Paolo Pasolini directed Medea in 1969, starring Maria Callas in her only non-operatic film role.^[232] Pasolini framed the story as an irreconcilable civilizational conflict between an archaic, sacred world of human sacrifice and ritual and the modern, secular, pragmatic Greek world represented by Jason.^[233] In 1988, Lars von Trier directed a Danish television film Medea based on an unproduced screenplay by Carl Theodor Dreyer, emphasizing stark, Nordic visual aesthetics and the intense rivalry between Medea and Glauce.^[234][235] Other notable screen adaptations include Don Chaffey's Jason and the Argonauts (1963), with Nancy Kovack as Medea, and Tonino De Bernardi's Médée Miracle (2007), starring Isabelle Huppert.^[236]

Psychology and Science

In psychoanalysis and clinical psychiatry, Medea's myth gave rise to the term Medea complex, introduced in the mid-twentieth century by clinicians such as Joseph C. Rheingold to describe a mother's conscious or unconscious destructive hostility toward her children, frequently motivated by a desire to punish the father.^[237][238] Forensic psychiatry also uses the term Medea syndrome to designate maternal filicide committed specifically to exact revenge against an unfaithful or separating spouse.^[239]

In the natural sciences, several things bear her name. The asteroid (212) Medea, discovered in 1880, is named after her. In evolutionary genetics, Medea refers to a selfish genetic element (Maternal effect dominant embryonic arrest) found in flour beetles (Tribolium castaneum), in which a maternal toxin kills all embryos that do not inherit the selfish gene encoding the corresponding antidote.^[240] The Medea hypothesis, coined by the paleontologist Peter Ward, is also named after her; it holds that the Earth is a self-destructive system which, like Medea, kills its children and finally falls back to a state in which only microbial life can exist.

References

1. Room, Adrian (2003). Who's who in Classical Mythology. Gramercy Books. ISBN 978-0-517-22256-0.
2. étymologie du nom Médée.
3. Jean Haudry, Les origines de la légende argonautique, etudesindoeuropeennes.fr, 2015
4. «Medea», etymonline.no
5. Angeliki Kottaridou: Kirke und Medeia. Köln 1991, S. 149 f.; Alain Moreau: Le mythe de Jason et Médée. Paris 1994, S. 101–115.
6. Dagegen argumentiert Christine Harrauer: Der korinthische Kindermord. Eumelos und die Folgen. In: Wiener Studien. 112, 1999, S. 5–28, hier: 22.
7. Alain Moreau, Le mythe de Jason et Médée, Les Belles Lettres, Paris, 1994, p. 107.
8. Alain Moreau, Le mythe de Jason et Médée, Les Belles Lettres, Paris, 1994, p. 108-109.
9. Édouard Will: Korinthiaka. Paris 1955, p. 97–103 ; Sarah I. Johnston, Corinthian Medea and the Cult of Hera Akraia. In: James J. Clauss, Sarah I. Johnston (éds.): Medea. Essays on Medea in Myth, Literature, Philosophy, and Art, Princeton, 1997, p. 44–70.
10. Se, for eksempel, Krevans, Nita (1997): «Medea as foundation-heroine» i: Clauss, James Joseph & Johnston, Sarah Iles red. (1997): Medea: essays on Medea in myth, literature, philosophy, and art, Princeton University Press, s. 71-82.
11. For dette generelle aspektet, se særlig Ruck, Carl A.P. & Staples, Danny (1994): The World of Classical Myth: Gods and Goddesses, Heroines and Heroes, University of North Carolina, part III: The Liminal Hero.
12. Nita Krevans, "Medea as foundation-heroine", raamatus James Joseph Clauss, Sarah Iles Johnston, toim "Medea: essays on Medea in myth, literature, philosophy, and art" (Princeton University Press) 1997:71-82.
13. Carl A.P. Ruck ja Danny Staples, "The World of Classical Myth: Gods and Goddesses, Heroines and Heroes" University of North Carolina 1994, part III: The Liminal Hero.
14. Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica 3.241–244, 269
15. Hesiod, Theogony 956–962
16. Hesiod, Theogonie 992–996
17. Hesiod, Teogonia 956-962
18. Apolonio de Rodas: Argonáuticas III 241 ss
19. Diodoro Sículo, Biblioteca histórica IV 45 1-3
20. Гигин. Мифы. Введение 37
21. Диодор Сицилийский. Историческая библиотека IV 46, 1
22. Diodorus Siculus, 4.45
23. ロドスのアポローニオス、3巻287行-288行。
24. ロドスのアポローニオス、4巻683行-684行。
25. ロドスのアポローニオス、4巻727行-730行。
26. グスターフ・シュヴァープ 『ギリシア・ローマ神話』第1巻、角信雄/訳
27. Studies in Heliodorus, s. 35
28. Apolodoro, Biblioteca mitológica I 9, 1
29. ロドスのアポローニオス、3巻241行-244行。
30. Diodorus Siculus, Historic Library 4.45.2
31. "Hesiod, Theogony". The Center for Hellenic Studies. Retrieved November 12, 2021.
32. Théogonie, 956-962.
33. Apollonius, Rhodius. "The Argonautica". Project Gutenberg. Retrieved November 12, 2021.
34. B. M. W. Knox. Word and Action: Essays on the Ancient Theatre. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1979, p. 303.
35. Siehe dazu Jan H. Barkhuizen: The psychological characterization of Medea in Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica 3, 744–824. In: Acta classica. 22, 1979, S. 33–48.
36. Ovid, Metamorphosen 7,7–158
37. Clauss, James J. (1997). Medea: Essays on Medea in Myth, Literature, Philosophy, and Art. Princeton, NJ.: Princeton University Press. pp. 149–177.
38. Clauss, James J. (1997). 《Medea: Essays on Medea in Myth, Literature, Philosophy, and Art.》. Princeton, NJ.: Princeton University Press. 149–177쪽.
39. Griffiths, Emma (2006). Medea. London: New York: Routledge.
40. (la) Michael Maier, Arcana arcanissima, 1614, 285 p., p. 267.
41. Griffiths, Emma (2006). 《Medea》. London: New York: Routledge.
42. ロドスのアポローニオス、3巻529行-533行。
43. ロドスのアポローニオス、4巻55行-66行。
44. ロドスのアポローニオス、4巻1665行-1669行。
45. ロドスのアポローニオス、4巻1670行-1672行。
46. ロドスのアポローニオス、4巻1638行-1689行。
47. ロドスのアポローニオス、3巻851行-853行。
48. MANTO. Dostupné online. [cit. 2022-10-08].
49. ロドスのアポローニオス、3巻1029行-1050行。
50. 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
51. ロドスのアポローニオス、3巻844行-850行。
52. ロドスのアポローニオス、3巻1194行-1264行。
53. Godwin, William (1876). "Lives of the Necromancers". p. 41.
54. see K. Kerényi's essay on the Daughters of the Sun and C. Isler-Kerényi's, Immagini de Medea, and Csepregi, I. "Medea rejuvenates herself". Clotho 2024 (6.2): 5–31.
55. Angeliki Kottaridou: Kirke und Medeia. Köln 1991, S. 131 f.
56. ロドスのアポローニオス、4巻145行-164行。
57. オウィディウス『変身物語』7巻。
58. Ovid, Metamorphosen 7,159–424
59. アポロドーロス、1巻9・27。
60. シケリアのディオドロス、4巻51・1。
61. シケリアのディオドロス、4巻51・5。
62. Die Vorstellung, dass das Vlies ein heilskräftiges Objekt sei, dessen Besitz einem König seine Herrschaft gewährleiste, war aus der hethitischen Religion in die griechische Mythologie gelangt. Siehe dazu Volkert Haas: Medea und Jason im Lichte hethitischer Quellen. In: Acta Antiqua Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae. 26, 1978, S. 241–253.
63. Cet épisode est considéré par les folkloristes comme l'origine probable du motif de la fuite magique, dans la version où la magicienne sème des obstacles derrière elle pour protéger sa fuite et celle de son compagnon (conte-type AT 313, motif D672 selon Stith Thompson). Voir (de) Die magische Flucht - 313.
64. Euripides, Medea 165–166
65. Grant, 1997, p. 55.
66. Ovid, Tristia 3,9. Siehe dazu Marcus Beck: Tatort Tomi. In: Sven Conrad u. a. (Hrsg.): Pontos Euxeinos. Langenweißbach 2006, S. 391–396.
67. Virtualtourist.com, The Ancient City of Tomis consulté le 16 novembre 2008.
68. Apollonios Rhodios, Argonautika 4,303–349
69. Jan N. Bremmer: Why Did Medea Kill Her Brother Apsyrtus? In: James J. Clauss, Sarah I. Johnston (Hrsg.): Medea. Essays on Medea in Myth, Literature, Philosophy, and Art. Princeton 1997, S. 83–100, hier: 84 f.
70. ロドスのアポローニオス、4巻410行-481行。
71. Grant, 1997, p. 55-56.
72. Apollonios Rhodios, Argonautika 4,350–521. Siehe dazu Calvin S. Byre: The Killing of Apsyrtus in Apollonius Rhodius’ Argonautica. In: Phoenix. 50, 1996, S. 3–16.
73. Grimal, 2008, p. 52. (Grimal, Pierre. Diccionari de mitologia grega i romana. Barcelona: Edicions de 1984, 2008. ISBN 978-84-96061-97-2.)
74. Grant, 1997, p. 56.
75. Apollonios Rhodios, Argonautika 4,982–1222
76. アポロドーロス、1巻9・24。
77. Francis Vian, « Poésie et géographie : les retours des Argonautes », Comptes rendus des séances de l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, 131-1, 1987, p. 249-262 (en ligne).
78. Marie-Nicolas Bouillet et Alexis Chassang, « Absyrtides insulae », dans Dictionnaire universel d’histoire et de géographie Bouillet Chassang, t. 1, Librairie Hachette, 1878 (lire sur Wikisource), p. 9 : dans cet article, les auteurs ne prennent pas parti parmi les hypothèses concernant les « îles Absyrtides » qu'aucune source antique ne situe avec précision et qui pourraient se trouver aussi bien à Paliastomi en Colchide, dans le Pont Euxin (îles Leukè ou Eukon aux bouches du Danube - cf.: Bogdan Cacuci, « Le relief de la Dacie antique » sur www.antica.home.ro ), en Propontide (îles Démonesoi, Proconnèse, Halonée ou autre - cf.: Konrad Mannert, Geographie der Griechen und Römer: Kleinasien, vol. 6, Grattenauer, 1802 (lire en ligne), p. 595, Samuel S. Cox, Isles of the Princes, G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1887 (lire en ligne), p. 1), dans l'Adriatique (îles Absyrtides) ou en mer Tyrrhénienne (archipel Toscan, îles Pontines, îles Phlégréennes, Capri, îles Éoliennes ou îles Égades - cf.: Louis Deroy et Marianne Mulon, Dictionnaire des noms de lieux, Le Robert 1994, (ISBN 285036195X)).
79. Pour Alain Moreau, l’expédition aboutit ainsi à une nouvelle naissance grâce à Argo qui les a « portés dans son ventre » et leur a fait passer l’initiation nécessaire pour qu’ils deviennent des héros : cf.: Le Mythe de Jason et Médée. Le Va-nu-pied et la Sorcière, Les Belles Lettres, coll. « Vérité des mythes », Paris 1994, p. 118.
80. Мищенко Ф. Медея // Энциклопедический словарь — СПб.: Брокгауз — Ефрон, 1896. — Т. XVIIIа. — С. 871—872.
81. ロドスのアポローニオス、4巻995行以下。
82. Perseus Project P.4
83. Pindar, Pythische Oden 4, 213. Vgl. Paul Dräger: Die Argonautika des Apollonios Rhodios. München 2001, S. 19–24.
84. Apollodorus I. Benezit Dictionary of Artists. 2011. p. 1.140. doi:10.1093/benz/9780199773787.article.b00006218.
85. Zu dieser Episode siehe Richard Buxton: Les yeux de Médée: le regard et la magie dans les Argonautiques d’Apollonios de Rhodes. In: La magie. Actes du Colloque International de Montpellier 25–27 mars 1999. Bd. 2, Montpellier 2000, S. 265–275. Zur Ikonographie siehe Angeliki Kottaridou: Kirke und Medeia. Köln 1991, S. 273–275.
86. Apolonio de Rodas, Argonáuticas 4.1665-1689.
87. Grimal, 2008, p. 53. (Grimal, Pierre. Diccionari de mitologia grega i romana. Barcelona: Edicions de 1984, 2008. ISBN 978-84-96061-97-2.)
88. Rhodius, Argonautica 4.1638
89. Apollodoros 1.140
90. Euripidies. Medea. pp. 1.1.483–485.
91. Euripidies. 《Medea》. 1.1.483–485쪽.
92. Grimal, 2008, p. 344. (Grimal, Pierre. Diccionari de mitologia grega i romana. Barcelona: Edicions de 1984, 2008. ISBN 978-84-96061-97-2.)
93. Die Fragmente sind ediert von François Jouan und Herman Van Looy: Euripide. Bd. 8, Teil 2: Fragments. Bellérophon – Protésilas. Paris 2000, S. 515–530.
94. DIODORO SÍCULO: Biblioteca histórica, IV, 50 - 52; HIGINO: Fábulas (Fabulae), 24. Diodoro excluye a una de las hijas de Pelias, Alcestis, de tomar parte en la muerte de su padre.
95. Biblioteca mitológica, I, 9, 28.
96. Godwin 1876, p. 42. (Godwin, William (1876). "Lives of the Necromancers". p. 41.)
97. Godwin 1876, 42쪽.
98. OʻzME. Birinchi jild. Toshkent, 2000-yil
99. Zur Datierung von Eumelos’ Lebenszeit siehe Cecil M. Bowra: Two Lines of Eumelus. In: The Classical Quarterly. New Series Band 13, 1963, S. 145–153, hier: 146 f.
100. Pausanias 2,3,11. Voir Christine Harrauer: Der korinthische Kindermord. Eumelos und die Folgen. In: Wiener Studien 112, 1999, p. 5–28, not.: 8–15 ; Édouard Will, Korinthiaka, Paris, 1955, p. 85 et suiv., 88–90.
101. パウサニアス、2巻3・9。
102. Euripides, Medea
103. 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.
104. Pausanias 2,3,11. Siehe dazu Christine Harrauer: Der korinthische Kindermord. Eumelos und die Folgen. In: Wiener Studien. 112, 1999, S. 5–28, hier: 8–15; Édouard Will: Korinthiaka. Paris 1955, S. 85 f., 88–90.
105. Christine Harrauer: Der korinthische Kindermord. Eumelos und die Folgen. In: Wiener Studien. 112, 1999, S. 5–28, hier: 15–17; Édouard Will: Korinthiaka. Paris 1955, S. 87, 95 f.
106. EURÍPIDES: Medea; Biblioteca histórica 4.54.7; Fábulas 25; Biblioteca mitológica I, 9, 28.
107. Diodoro Sículo: Biblioteca histórica 4.54.55.
108. Biblioteca histórica IV, 54, 1 y 55, 3
109. PTOLOMEO QUENO: Historia nueva o Historia paradójica (Περί παραδόξου ιστορίας) 2.
110. アポロドーロス、1巻9・28。
111. シケリアのディオドロス、4巻54・1。
112. Scholia on Pindar's Olympian Odes 13.74
113. Repath & Hermann 2019, p. 29. (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.)
114. Схолии к Пиндару. Олимпийские песни XIII 74 // Комментарий Д. О. Торшилова в кн. Гигин. Мифы. СПб, 2000. С.47
115. Giovanni Tarditi, Guido Milanese, Antonietta Porro, studi di poesia greca e latina, Vita e Pensiero, 1998, pp. 51-65, ISBN 978-8834317433.
116. Siehe zur Interpretation Kurt von Fritz: Die Entwicklung der Iason-Medeasage und die Medea des Euripides. In: Kurt von Fritz: Antike und moderne Tragödie. Berlin 1962, S. 322–429, hier: 344–370; Ruth E. Harder: Die Frauenrollen bei Euripides. Stuttgart 1993, S. 356–396.
117. Euripides, Medea line 788
118. As noted in a scholium to Pindar's Olympian Ode 13.74; cf. Pausanias 2.3.10–11.
119. West, M. L. (2007). "A New Musical Papyrus: Carcinus, Medea". Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik. 161: 1–10. JSTOR 20191275.
120. As noted in the scholium to Medea 264.
121. Édouard Will: Korinthiaka. Paris 1955, S. 87.
122. Scholie 264 à la Médée d'Euripide. Voir Louis Séchan, « La Légende de Médée », dans Revue des études grecques, 40, 1927 .
123. Christine Harrauer: Der korinthische Kindermord. Eumelos und die Folgen. In: Wiener Studien 112, 1999, p. 5–28, ici : 15–17 ; Édouard Will, Korinthiaka, Paris, 1955, p. 87, 95 f.
124. West, M. L. (2007). “A New Musical Papyrus: Carcinus, Medea”. 《Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik》 161: 1–10. JSTOR 20191275. | //www.jstor.org/stable/20191275
125. PAUSANIAS: Descripción de Grecia, II, 3, 6. II: Texto español. II, 3: texto francés en el sitio de Philippe Remacle. Texto griego, en el mismo sitio. Philippe Remacle (1944 - 2011): helenista y latinista belga de expresión francesa. II, 3, 6: texto inglés en el Proyecto Perseus. En la parte superior derecha se encuentran los rótulos activos «focus» (para cambiar al texto griego) y «load» (para el texto bilingüe). II: texto griego en Wikisource.
126. Pausanias 2,3,7
127. Édouard Will: Korinthiaka. Paris 1955, S. 97–103; Sarah I. Johnston: Corinthian Medea and the Cult of Hera Akraia. In: James J. Clauss, Sarah I. Johnston (Hrsg.): Medea. Essays on Medea in Myth, Literature, Philosophy, and Art. Princeton 1997, S. 44–70.
128. EURÍPIDES: Medea. Alianza.
129. Nella Medea di Carcino, però, era testimoniata la variante secondo la quale sarebbero stati i Corinzi ad ucciderli, incolpandola del delitto: cfr. M. Martinelli, Una nuova Medea in musica: P.Louvre inv. E 10534 e la Medea di Carcino, in M.S. Celentano (a cura di), Ricerche di metrica e musica greca per Roberto Pretagostini, Alessandria, Edizioni dell'Orso, 2010, pp. 61-76.
130. See McDermott 1985, 10–15.
131. PARMENISCO: escolio del verso 9 de la Medea de Eurípides. Parmenisco: filólogo griego de los ss. II y I a. C.; se ocupaba sobre todo de la obra homérica y de la de Eurípides.
132. CLAUDIO ELIANO: Varia Historia, V.
133. Siculus, s. I dC, p. 4.54. (Siculus, Diodorus. Bibliotheca historica (en anglès). Traducció: Charles Henry Oldfather, s. I dC.)
134. Diodorus Siculus, 4.55–4.56
135. Диодор Сицилийский. Историческая библиотека IV 55, 4
136. Paul Dräger: Die Argonautika des Apollonios Rhodios. München 2001, S. 25–29.
137. DIODORO SÍCULO: op. cit., IV, 54 - 55. Texto griego, con índice elecrónico, en el Proyecto Perseus.
138. Herodotus Histories VII.62i
139. Hesiod Theogony 1000-2
140. Biblioteca mitológica, I, 9, 28. I, 9, 23-28: texto francés. Texto inglés, con índice electrónico, en el Proyecto Perseus; ed. de 1921 de James George Frazer. En la parte superior derecha se encuentran los rótulos activos «focus» (para cambiar al texto griego) y «load» (para el texto bilingüe). I: texto griego en Wikisource ([A 9,28]).
141. Grant, 1997, p. 250.
142. Die Fragmente sind ediert von François Jouan und Herman Van Looy: Euripide. Bd. 8, Teil 1: Fragments. Aigeus – Autolykos. Paris 1998, S. 1–13.
143. Biblioteca mitológica: Epítome, I, 5-6. I, 5-24: texto francés. Texto inglés en el Proyecto Perseus, con las características indicadas antes: 5; 6.
144. SERVIO: Comentarios sobre la Eneida VII, 750. Sin embargo, según un escrito de Gayo Gelio recogido por Solino, Angitia era hermana de Medea.
145. Smith, William (ed.). «Angitia». A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. [Consulta: 22 agost 2022].
146. "Amanda: A thesszáliai boszorkányság". 2016. szeptember 1. dátummal az eredeti címről archiválva. Hozzáférés: 2019. december 30.
147. Ptolemaeus Chennus, New History Book 5, as epitomized by Patriarch Photius in Myriobiblon 190.36
148. FOCIO: Biblioteca, 190.
149. フォティオス『図書総覧』190話。
150. Grimal, 2008, p. 286. (Grimal, Pierre. Diccionari de mitologia grega i romana. Barcelona: Edicions de 1984, 2008. ISBN 978-84-96061-97-2.)
151. Ki kicsoda az antik mítoszokban? - Médeia
152. Diodore de Sicile, Bibliothèque historique [détail des éditions] [lire en ligne], IV, 56, 2.
153. DIODORO: op. cit., IV, 56. Texto griego, con índice electrónico, en el Proyecto Perseus. HIGINO: Fábulas, 27 (Medo). Texto inglés en el sitio Theoi.
154. Hygin, Genealogiae 21–27
155. ヒュギーヌス、27話。
156. Herodot 7,62
157. Hérodote, Enquête, VII, 62.
158. Herodot: Historier VII.62i
159. Herodot, 440 aC, p. VII.62i.
160. Marcus Iunianus Iustinus, Epitoma historiarum Philippicarum Pompei Trogi 42,2–3
161. Siehe zu dieser Überlieferung Alain Moreau: Le mythe de Jason et Médée. Paris 1994, S. 60.
162. Alain Moreau: Le Mythe de Jason et Médée. Paris 1994, p. 60.
163. APOLONIO DE RODAS: Argonáuticas, IV, 811. Texto griego en el Proyecto Perseus.
164. Tzetes, sobre Licofrón, Alejandra § 798
165. Псевдо-Аполлодор. Мифологическая библиотека Э V 5; Ликофрон. Александра 173
166. Примечания Н. А. Чистяковой в кн. Аполлоний Родосский. Аргонавтика. М., 2001. С.213
167. Grimal, 2008, p. 343-344. (Grimal, Pierre. Diccionari de mitologia grega i romana. Barcelona: Edicions de 1984, 2008. ISBN 978-84-96061-97-2.)
168. Apollonius of Rhodes (October 28, 2014). Jason and the Argonauts [Aaron]. Translated by Poochigian. Penguin Classics. p. 179. ISBN 978-0143106869.
169. アポロドーロス、適用（E）5・5。
170. Hesiod Theogony 993–1002
171. Ein Überrest dieser Tradition findet sich auch in einem Fragment des verlorenen Werks Peri Skython (oder Skythika) des Timonax, wo Aietes Medea dem Iason zur Frau gibt und die beiden in Kolchis heiraten; man habe dort später das Brautgemach gezeigt: Die Fragmente der griechischen Historiker. Teil 3 C, Band 2, Leiden 1958, S. 928 (Nr. 842).
172. Théogonie 992–1002.
173. Teogonía, 993 ss.
174. Pindar, Pythische Oden 4,211–250. Siehe dazu den Kommentar von Bruce Karl Braswell: A Commentary on the Fourth Pythian Ode of Pindar. Berlin 1988, S. 293–345.
175. Kurt von Fritz: Die Entwicklung der Iason-Medeasage und die Medea des Euripides. In: Kurt von Fritz: Antike und moderne Tragödie. Berlin 1962, S. 322–429, hier: 326 f.
176. Arnaud Fabre, « La magie de Médée : (1) Les origines mythiques de la magie chez les Anciens », Profondeur de champs,‎ 13 janvier 2014 (lire en ligne, consulté le 28 janvier 2018)
177. Die Übersetzung der Stelle ist umstritten; sie kann auch lauten „doch herrscht die Leidenschaft über meine Beschlüsse“.
178. Euripides, Medeia 1078–1080. Allerdings halten manche Forscher diese Verse für unecht. Für Unechtheit plädiert unter anderem Herbert Eisenberger: Interpretationen zu Euripides’ „Medea“. In: Herbert Eisenberger (Hrsg.): Hermeneumata. Heidelberg 1990, S. 173–209. Vgl. dazu Charles Segal: Euripides’ Medea: Vengeance, Reversal and Closure. In: Médée et la violence (= Pallas. 45). Toulouse 1996, S. 15–44, hier: S. 24 Anm. 27.
179. John M. Dillon: Medea among the Philosophers. In: James J. Clauss, Sarah I. Johnston (Hrsg.): Medea. Essays on Medea in Myth, Literature, Philosophy, and Art. Princeton 1997, S. 211–218. Vgl. GailAnn Rickert: Akrasia and Euripides’ Medea. In: Harvard Studies in Classical Philology. 91, 1987, S. 91–117.
180. Haidt, Jonathan (2006). 《The happiness hypothesis : finding modern truth in ancient wisdom》. New York. ISBN 0-465-02802-0. OCLC 61211244.
181. Aristoteles, Poetik 1454a–b. Vgl. dazu Ian Worthington: The Ending of Euripides’ ‘Medea’. In: Hermes. 118, 1990, S. 502–505.
182. Aristoteles, Poetik 1461b
183. Zu dieser Problematik siehe Hermann Fränkel: Noten zu den Argonautika des Apollonios. München 1968, S. 488–490; Paul Dräger: Die Argonautika des Apollonios Rhodios. München 2001, S. 123–125; Andrew R. Dyck: On the Way from Colchis to Corinth: Medea in Book 4 of the ‚Argonautica‘. In: Hermes. 117, 1989, S. 455–470.
184. Kurt von Fritz: Die Entwicklung der Iason-Medeasage und die Medea des Euripides. In: Kurt von Fritz: Antike und moderne Tragödie. Berlin 1962, S. 322–429, hier: 332, 372–376.
185. Siehe dazu die Analyse von Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff: Hellenistische Dichtung in der Zeit des Kallimachos. 2., verbesserte Auflage. Bd. 2, Berlin 1962, S. 200–203, 212 f.
186. Siehe dazu Kurt von Fritz: Die Entwicklung der Iason-Medeasage und die Medea des Euripides. In: Kurt von Fritz: Antike und moderne Tragödie. Berlin 1962, S. 322–429, hier: 374 f.
187. Eine ausführliche Analyse bietet Alan Huston Rawn: Tradition and Innovation in Apollonios’ Characterization of Medea in the Argonautika. Seattle 1993. Vgl. Paul Dräger: Die Argonautika des Apollonios Rhodios. München 2001, S. 120–125.
188. Ovid also wrote a full play called Medea, from which only a few lines are preserved.
189. Die Fragmente sind herausgegeben und kommentiert von Theodor Heinze (Hrsg.): P. Ovidius Naso: Der XII. Heroidenbrief: Medea an Jason. Leiden 1997, S. 221–252.
190. Ovid, Metamorphosen 7,53
191. Ovid, Metamorphosen 7,55
192. Ovid, Metamorphosen 7,20 f.; 7,92 f.
193. 오비디우스 또한 《메데이아》라는 제목의 완전한 희곡을 썼으나, 이 작품에서는 단지 몇 줄만이 보존되어 있다.
194. Seneca, Medea 991 f.
195. Zu Senecas Medeabild siehe Christine Walde: Senecas Medea – Göttin wider Willen? In: Bernhard Zimmermann (Hrsg.): Mythische Wiederkehr. Freiburg 2009, S. 167–198; Stefanie Grewe: Die politische Bedeutung der Senecatragödien und Senecas politisches Denken zur Zeit der Abfassung der Medea. Würzburg 2001, S. 50–60, 72–74, 78–90.
196. Dies ist allerdings umstritten; siehe zum Beispiel Nikolaus Thurn: Die Medea Senecas und die Medeia Euripides’: Kein Wechsel des Mediums? In: Hans Jürgen Wendel u. a. (Hrsg.): Wechsel des Mediums. Zur Interdependenz von Form und Inhalt. Rostock 2001, S. 87–115, hier: 88 f.
197. Zur Interpretation siehe François Ripoll: L’inspiration tragique au chant VII des Argonautiques de Valérius Flaccus. In: Revue des Études Latines. 82, 2004, S. 187–208; Gesine Manuwald: Die Argonauten in Kolchis. In: Antike und Abendland. 48, 2002, S. 43–57, hier: 48–52; Ulrich Eigler: Medea als Opfer – die Götterintrige im VII. und VIII. Buch der Argonautica (VII 1 – VIII 67). In: Matthias Korn, Hans Jürgen Tschiedel (Hrsg.): Ratis omnia vincet. Untersuchungen zu den Argonautica des Valerius Flaccus. Hildesheim 1991, S. 155–172; Attila Ferenczi: Medea – eine Heldin. In: Ulrich Eigler, Eckard Lefèvre (Hrsg.): Ratis omnia vicet. Neue Untersuchungen zu den Argonautica des Valerius Flaccus. München 1998, S. 337–346.
198. Siehe zu diesem Motiv Fritz Graf: Medea, the Enchantress from Afar. In: James J. Clauss, Sarah I. Johnston (Hrsg.): Medea. Essays on Medea in Myth, Literature, Philosophy, and Art. Princeton 1997, S. 21–43, hier: 25–27.
199. Der Text ist kritisch ediert und kommentiert von Helen Kaufmann: Dracontius: Romul. 10 (Medea). Heidelberg 2006.
200. Zur Interpretation siehe Werner Schubert: Medea in der lateinischen Literatur der Antike. In: Annette Kämmerer u. a. (Hrsg.): Medeas Wandlungen. Heidelberg 1998, S. 55–91, hier: 83–89.
201. Hugo Meyer: Medeia und die Peliaden. Rom 1980, S. 25–27.
202. Margot Schmidt: Medeia. In: Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae (LIMC). Band 6.1, Zürich 1992, S. 386–398, hier: 388, 395 f. (Text) und Band 6.2, S. 194–202, hier: 194 (Abbildungen). Vgl. Mata Vojatzi: Frühe Argonautenbilder. Würzburg 1982, S. 93 f.
203. Zur Ikonographie von Medeas Rolle in der Peliassage siehe Margot Schmidt: Medea at Work. In: Gocha R. Tsetskhladze u. a. (Hrsg.): Periplous, London 2000, S. 263–270; Mata Vojatzi: Frühe Argonautenbilder, Würzburg 1982, S. 94–100; Verena Zinserling-Paul: Zum Bild der Medea in der antiken Kunst. In: Klio 61, 1979, S. 407–436, hier: 412–419; Angeliki Kottaridou: Kirke und Medeia, Köln 1991, S. 184–195, 250–259.
204. 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.
205. Сенека. Медея 1024
206. Luca Giuliani, Glenn W. Most: Medea in Eleusis, in Princeton. In: Chris Kraus u. a. (Hrsg.): Visualizing the Tragic. Oxford 2007, S. 197–217; Jean-Marc Moret: Médée à Eleusis. In: Guy Labarre (Hrsg.): Les cultes locaux dans les mondes grec et romain. Paris 2004, S. 143–149.
207. Zum Gemälde des Timomachos und seiner literarischen Rezeption siehe Sean Alexander Gurd: Meaning and Material Presence: Four Epigrams on Timomachus’ Unfinished Medea. In: Transactions of the American Philological Association. 137, 2007, S. 305–331.
208. Margot Schmidt: Medeia. In: Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae (LIMC). Band 6.1, Zürich 1992, S. 386–398, hier: 388 f. (Text) und Band 6.2, S. 194–202, hier: 195 (Abbildungen).
209. Siehe dazu Hans G. Frenz: Medeia. In: Akten des IV. internationalen Kolloquiums über Probleme des provinzialrömischen Kunstschaffens. Ljubljana 1997, S. 119–126, hier: 119–121. Eine gründliche Untersuchung der Sarkophage bietet Vassiliki Gaggadis-Robin: Jason et Médée sur les sarcophages d’époque impériale. Rom 1994. Vgl. Genevieve Gessert: Myth as Consolatio: Medea on Roman Sarcophagi. In: Greece & Rome. 51, 2004, S. 217–249.
210. Zu den Einzelheiten siehe Elisabeth Lienert: Geschichte und Erzählen. Studien zu Konrads von Würzburg ‚Trojanerkrieg‘. Wiesbaden 1996, S. 57–76.
211. Nathaniel Edward Griffin (Hrsg.): Guido de Columnis: Historia destructionis Troiae. Cambridge (Massachusetts) 1936, S. 15–32.
212. Florence Percival: Chaucer’s Legendary Good Women. Cambridge 1998, S. 199–220.
213. Zu Gowers Medea-Rezeption siehe Joel N. Feimer: The Figure of Medea in Medieval Literature: A Thematic Metamorphosis. New York 1983, S. 286–297.
214. Boccaccio, De claris mulieribus 17
215. Christine de Pizan, Le livre de la cité des dames 1,32 und 2,56
216. Zu Voltaires Auffassung siehe Kurt von Fritz: Die Entwicklung der Iason-Medeasage und die Medea des Euripides. In: Kurt von Fritz: Antike und moderne Tragödie. Berlin 1962, S. 322–429, hier: 386–403.
217. Matthias Luserke-Jaqui: Medea. Studien zur Kulturgeschichte der Literatur. Tübingen 2002, S. 125–130; Yixu Lü: Medea unter den Deutschen. Freiburg 2009, S. 57–85; Sabine Eichelmann: Der Mythos Medea. Marburg 2010, S. 45–72.
218. Zu Grillparzers Medea-Gestalt siehe Horst Albert Glaser: Medea. Frauenehre – Kindsmord – Emanzipation. Frankfurt am Main 2001, S. 111–120; Matthias Luserke-Jaqui: Medea. Studien zur Kulturgeschichte der Literatur. Tübingen 2002, S. 189–207; Konrad Kenkel: Medea-Dramen. Bonn 1979, S. 62–82; zu seinem Verhältnis zur antiken Tradition Hans Schwabl: Antike Gestaltungen der Argonautensage und Grillparzers ‚Goldenes Vließ‘. In: Wiener Humanistische Blätter. Heft 36, 1994, S. 5–43.
219. Fragments are printed and discussed by Theodor Heinze, Der XII. Heroidenbrief: Medea an Jason Mit einer Beilage: Die Fragmente der Tragödie Medea P. Ovidius Naso. (in series Mnemosyne, Supplements, 170. 1997
220. William Morris: The Life and Death of Jason.
221. Pindar, Pythische Oden 4,212
222. Eine ausführliche Interpretationen bietet Christoph Steskal: Medea und Jason in der deutschen Literatur des 20. Jahrhunderts. Aktualisierungspotential eines Mythos. Regensburg 2001, S. 120–151. Vgl. Konrad Kenkel: Medea-Dramen. Bonn 1979, S. 83–105; Yixu Lü: Medea unter den Deutschen. Freiburg 2009, S. 172–200.
223. Jean Anouilh: Médée. In: Jean Anouilh: Nouvelles pièces noires. Paris 1961, S. 351–399, hier: 388–391.
224. Jean Anouilh: Médée. In: Jean Anouilh: Nouvelles pièces noires. Paris 1961, S. 351–399, hier: 398.
225. Achim Block: Medea-Dramen der Weltliteratur. Göttingen 1957, S. 244–247, 263.
226. Christa Wolf: Von Kassandra zu Medea. In: Marianne Hochgeschurz (Hrsg.): Christa Wolfs Medea. München 2000, S. 15–24, hier: 22 f.
227. Christa Wolf: Medea. Stimmen (= Werke. Bd. 11). München 2001, S. 216.
228. Ernst-Richard Schwinge: Medea bei Euripides und Christa Wolf. In: Poetica. 35, 2003, S. 275–305, hier: 293–305, Zitat: 296.
229. Anne Dufourmantelle, La Femme et le Sacrifice, Denoël, 2007 (ISBN 978-2-207-254-127).
230. Zum Inhalt und zur Medea-Figur siehe Andrea Winkler: Medea-Libretti. Detmold 2001, S. 92–98.
231. Zu Noverres Medea-Interpretation und seinen Erfolgen siehe Andrea Winkler: Medea-Libretti. Detmold 2001, S. 86–91; Margret Schuchard: Medea trivial. In: Annette Kämmerer u. a. (Hrsg.): Medeas Wandlungen. Heidelberg 1998, S. 143–175, hier: 153–159.
232. YouTube
233. Zu Pasolinis Mythosverständnis siehe Angela Oster: Moderne Mythographien und die Krise der Zivilisation. Pier Paolo Pasolinis Medea. In: Zeitschrift für Ästhetik und Allgemeine Kunstwissenschaft. Heft 51, 2006, S. 239–268. Vgl. Bernd Hessen: Pasolinis Medea – aus der Perspektive eines Klassischen Philologen. In: Martin Korenjak, Karlheinz Töchterle (Hrsg.): Pontes II. Antike im Film. Innsbruck 2002, S. 95–106.
234. Diesen Film behandelt Margherita Rubino: Medea di Lars von Trier. In: Margherita Rubino (Hrsg.): Medea contemporanea. Genova 2000, S. 13–81.
235. Medea (TV Movie 1988) - IMDb
236. മീഡിയ ഇന്റർനെറ്റ് മൂവി ഡാറ്റാബേസിൽ
237. Alain Moreau: Le mythe de Jason et Médée. Paris 1994, S. 283–285; Ludger Lütkehaus: Der Medea-Komplex. Mutterliebe und Kindermord. In: Bernhard Zimmermann (Hrsg.): Mythische Wiederkehr. Freiburg 2009, S. 121–133, hier: 125–128.
238. Joseph C. Rheingold: The Mother, Anxiety, and Death. The Catastrophic Death Complex. Boston 1967, S. 126–129. Vgl. Anton Schaule: Tötungshandlungen von Müttern an ihren eigenen Kindern unter besonderer Berücksichtigung des Medea-Komplexes. München 1982, S. 5–21.
239. Andreas Marneros: Intimizid. Die Tötung des Intimpartners. Ursachen, Tatsituationen und forensische Beurteilung. Schattauer, Stuttgart 2008, ISBN 978-3-608-40013-7, S. 136 f.; 2013, S. 24 f.; Andreas Marneros: Warum Ödipus keinen Ödipus-Komplex und Adonis keine Schönheitswahn hatte. Psychoanalyse und griechische Mythologie – eine Beziehungsklärung. Springer, Heidelberg 2018, ISBN 978-3-662-56731-9, S. 155 f.; Andreas Marneros: Schlaf gut, mein Schatz. Eltern, die ihre Kinder töten. Fischer, Frankfurt 2015, ISBN 978-3-596-30626-8, S. 183 f.
240. Richard W. Beeman, Kenlee S. Friesen, Rob E. Denell: Maternal-effect selfish genes in flour beetles. In: Science. Band 256, Nummer 5053, 1992, S. 89–92, doi:10.1126/science.1566060, PMID 1566060. | //www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1566060?dopt=Abstract