The Medea Tradition

Sources
Hesiod, Theogony (7th century BCE)
Pindar, Pythian IV ( 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)

Who was Medea?

 in the Theogony

 in the Theogony

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

Athamas, Nephele, and Ino (Apollodorus)

 source (Perseus Atlas)

Ino and her children

Phrixus leading the golden ram to sacrifice source

Jason and Pelias (Apollodorus)

Jason and Pelias (Pindar)

source Carlos Parada

source Morford & Lenardon

PRINCIPAL EPISODES IN MEDEA'S MYTH

Who was Medea?

Medea as sorceress

 

Colchis and Return Voyage of the Argo

source

modern map source

diadem necklace bracelet golden bowl from Vani source

Colchis and modern site

Colchis (Dioscurias) and Greek colonization source

coin (400-325 bce) source

Herodotus on Colchians as Egyptians

Apollodorus (Colchis)

Pindar 1, Pindar 2

Jason aided by Athena in Colchis; images; texts

Herodotus (Io - Europa -Medea - Helen)

Apollodorus (Apsyrtus)

Sophocles and Apollonius of Rhodes (Apsyrtus)

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

Apollodorus (Phaeacia)

Apollodorus (Talos)

Attic Red Figure Volute Krater (drawing) source

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

 

 

Medea in Colchis MAK

Iolcus

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
  • Side A: Medea at left; daughter of Pelias at right source
  • Side B: daughters of Pelias source
  • Side A: Medea source
  • Detail of Medea source

 

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)

 

Medea and the daughters of Pelias

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

 

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

Medea as sorceress

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

Study for above source

 

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

 

The Death of Pelias; Vergilius Solis (1514-1562): Johann Postius von Gemersheim, Frankfurt, 1563; Woodcuts and Engravings of Ovid's Metamorphoses source

 

Medea in Iolcus MAK

Corinth

Apollodorus

Euripides summary

"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'.

smaller image of the same source

 

Medea and her children

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

 

Medea killing her children

  • late fourth century vase
  • main panel

 

Medea killing her children

  Ixion painter vase source

 

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 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 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

 

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

Euripides or 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

Medea in Corinth MAK

Athens

Apollodorus

Pausanias

Medea and Athenian Tribal Heroes

  • Attic Red Figure Hydria
    Meidias Painter (signed)
    ca. 410-400 BCE
    London E 224
  • Overview (handle at rear) source
  • Overview (handle at right; Medea at center of lower frieze, just under handle) source
  • Drawing of lower frieze (Arniope, Medea, Elera, Philoktetes, Akamas, Hippothon, Antiokhos, Klymenos, Oineus, Demophon, Chrysis) source
  • Detail of Medea in lower frieze (bw drawing) source
  • Detail of Medea (color) source

 

Monument of the Eponymous Heroes in Athens

Pausanias and Herodotus on Athenian tribal heroes

Herodotus on Medes and Colchians in Xerxes' army

Medea in Athens MAK

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

 

Medea in Media MAK

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

 

Medea MAK

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