The Medea Tradition


Sources
Hesiod, Theogony (7th century BCE)
Pindar, Pythian IV (462 BCE)
Herodotus, Histories (440-430 BCE)
Euripides, Medea (431 BCE)
Neophron,
Medea fragments, Notes to fragments (5th or 4th century BCE)
Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica (3rd century BCE)
Diodorus Siculus (1st century BCE)
Ovid, Metamorphoses (late 1st century CE)
Apollodorus, Library (1st or 2nd century CE)
Pausanias, Description of Greece (2nd century CE)


Medea Geography


Who was Medea?

Medea's Genealogy

 in the Theogony

 in the Theogony


Who was Jason and how did the golden fleece get to Colchis?

Jason's Genealogy

Athamas, Nephele, and Ino (Apollodorus)

Hellespont

 

Ino and her children

 

Jason and Pelias (Apollodorus)

Jason and Pelias (Pindar)

source Carlos Parada

source Morford & Lenardon

Jason and the Argonauts on Mythweb


PRINCIPAL EPISODES IN MEDEA'S MYTH

 

1. Colchis and Return Voyage of the Argo

source

source source from Vani

Colchis (Dioscurias) and Greek colonization source

Colchis and modern site

 coin (400-325 bce) source

Herodotus (Io - Europa -Medea - Helen)

Herodotus on Colchians as Egyptians

Pindar 1, Pindar 2, Pindar 3

Apollodorus (Colchis)

Jason and the Dragon source

Jason and the Golden Fleece source

Apollodorus (Apsyrtus)

Sophocles and Apollonius of Rhodes (Apsyrtus)

Medea 1323 (Apsyrtus)

Roman fortress of Apsaros, just south of Batumi

"The Golden Fleece"; Herbert Draper; 1880; British source

Apollodorus (Phaeacia) source

Apollodorus (Talos)

Attic Red Figure Volute Krater (drawing) source

  • name vase of Talos painter
  • ca. 400-390 BCE
  • Talos Vase in color source
  • Side A, center: death of Talos; Kastor and Polydeukes, Medea source
  • Side A, left side: the Argo, Kallias and Zetes, Medea source
  • Detail of Medea source
  • Detail of Medea source

 


2. Iolcus

source

Apollodorus (Pelias and the daughters of Pelias)

Anonymous hypothesis (Medea's rejuvenations)

Pausanias on Medea in Iolcus

 

Medea rejuvenating a ram before the daughters of Pelias (Perseus)

  • Attic Black Figure Neck Amphora
  • ca. 510-500
  • Harvard 1960.315
  • source

 

Medea and the daughters of Pelias

  • Pompeian Wall Painting (Naples, Museo Nationale)
  • detail of main scene

 

Medea rejuvenating a ram before an aged Jason (Perseus)

  • Attic Red Figure Hydria
    ca. 485-470

    London E 163
  • Medea on the left; Jason on the right source
  • Detail of central scene source

 

Rejuvenation of Aeson; rejuvenation of aged Jason (Apollodorus 1.9.27, n. 4)

  Aeson Rejuvenated; Johann Whilhelm Baur (1600-1640); one of 151 illustrations for the Metamorphoses; Vienna 1639.

Aeson rejuvenated by Baur; view of full text page source

 

"Medea" by Anthony Frederick Sandys (British, 1829-1904) source

Making jason young? "Jason and Medea" by John William Waterhouse; 1849-1917; source

Study for above source

 

"Medea" by Evelyn De Morgan British 1850-1919; source; This painting was exhibited at the New Gallery with a quotation from William Morris' "Life and Death of Jason":

'Day by day
She saw the happy time fade fast away
And as she fell from out that happiness
Again she grew to be the sorceress
Worker of fearful things, as once she was'.

 


3. Corinth

Apollodorus

Euripides summary

Euripides or Neophron?

Who was Neophron?

Aristophanes of Byzantium (3rd century BCE) on Medea in tragedy

Scholia on Medea in Corinth (Ancient commentaries on Euripides' Medea)

 

Aristotle on Carcinus' Medea

Remarks by Diodorus Siculus

Pausanias on Medea in Corinth

Eumelus on Medea in Corinth

Helios and his sons (Corinthia and Boeotia)

 

 

Lucanian Krater

  • Calyx krater
    ca. 400 BCE
    Cleveland Museum of Art
  • Lucanian krater
  • Main Panel
  • detail of Jason
  • detail of Medea
  • detail of Fury
  • detail of Altar

 

Fourth Century South Italian Vase

  • Main Panel
  • small color image source
  • top row left: Heracles (an Argonaut) and Athena (who helped in the construction of the Argo)
  • on Heracles as an Argonaut see Apollodorus 1. 9.19.n3
  • top row right : Castor and Pollux, the Dioscuri (also Argonauts)
  • middle row left: a servant woman, the paedagogus, and Merope, wife of Creon and mother of Glauce, who is running to the aid of her daughter
  • center of the composition: Creon holding Glauce, Glauce swooning upon a chair and clutching at the coronet, and her brother coming up to help her
  • middle row right: Medea's nurse and the ghost of Aeetes, Medea's father
  • bottom row left: a spearbearer shielding one of the children and Medea killing the other of the children
  • center of the bottom row: the chariot standing ready for Medea's escape, driven by a figure named "Frenzy" and holding a torch in each hand
  • right of the bottom row: Jason runs up, followed by a spearbearer, in a vain attempt to save his children

 

Medea killing her children

  • late fourth century vase
  • main panel

 

Medea killing her children

Ixion painter vase source

 

Bernard Picart (1673-1733) and other able masters; illustration for English translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses from the French of Abbot Banier, Amsterdam, 1732 source

 

Medea and her children

  • Pompeian Wall Painting (Naples, Museo Nationale)
  • Pompeian Wall Painting restored (Naples, Museo Nationale)

 

Medea deliberating

 

Medea by Delacroix 1838 and 1839

  • "Medea Slaying her Children" by Delacroix; 1838 source
  • "Medea Slaying her Children" by Delacroix; 1838 source
  • "Medea Slaying her Children" by Delacroix; 1838 source
  • "Medea Slaying her Children" by Delacroix; 1839 source

 

 "Medea's Raft" by Feuerbach

 

"Iphigenia" by Feuerbach 1870 and 1872


4. Athens

Apollodorus

Pausanias

Medea and Athenian Tribal Heroes

 

Athenian Tribal Heroes

Monument of the Eponymous Heroes in Athens

Pausanias and Herodotus on Athenian tribal heroes

Herodotus on Medes and Colchians in Xerxes' army

 


5. Media

map of Medes in relation to Colchis source

Apollodorus (end of section 28)

Xenophon

in the Assyrian Empire source

Median Empire (requires Shockwave plug-in); NB: "Babylonian Empire" = territory conquered from Assyrians by Babylonians and Medes beginning in 612 BCE

in 612 source

Pausanias (end of section 8)

Herodotus on Medes and Colchians in Xerxes' army

 


5a. Isles of the Blest

Apollodorus, Ibycus, Simonides

White Isle in Pausanias

location of White Isle? source

Elysian Fields (Isles of the Blest) in the Odyssey