Medea's family tree is pretty simple by Greek mythological standards. Helios, the sun god had two children: Circe and Aeetes. Aeetes became the king of Colchis (a kingdom on the east coast of the Black Sea), and he is the father of Medea. All the descendants of Helios (including Medea), are all said to have golden eyes, and Medea is said to have very blonde hair (which is weird since all Renaissance painting versions of her show her with brown or black hair).
Medea, like her aunt Circe, was a priestess of Hecate (the chthonic goddess of magic), which made her a powerful sorceress. Medea shows up all over the place in Greek mythology, but her main story comes to us from two written works. First, The Argonautica, an epic written by Apollonius Rhodes; and Medea, and play/tragedy written earlier by Euripides. The Argonautica focuses on Jason, the prince of Thessaly, whose uncle Pelias usurps the throne from his father and so Jason is raised in secret before returning to claim his throne. On the way, he helps an old lady cross a river. It turns out the old lady is the goddess Hera, who has a grudge against Pelias and so she helps Jason throughout the story.
When Jason reaches Pelias, Pelias tells him he'll give him the throne if he can retrieve the Golden Fleece from Colchis. The Golden Fleece is the skin of a golden ram that is protected in Colchis. So to go to Colchis, Jason (with help from Hera), builds a ship called the Argo and assembles a team of famous Greek heroes who he dubs the Argonauts. They deal with many problems along the way but they eventually reach Colchis. Aeetes didn't want to part with his kingdom's most prized possession so he gave Jason some tasks to accomplish. First, he had to plow a field with fire-breathing bulls, then he had to sow the field with dragon's teeth and then defeat an army of warriors.
While Jason thinks about how to do this, Medea falls deeply in love with Jason. She decides to help Jason by giving him an ointment to protect him and she also told him how to deal with the other tasks. Jason completes the tasks, and that night, Hera sends nightmares to Medea to warn her that Aeetes has found out about her involvement. So she runs to the Argo and warns them to flee from Colchis and take her with them. Jason promises to marry her when they go back to Greece and swears an oath to the gods to always love only her (remember that!). Medea then charms the snake guarding the Golden fleece to sleep, allowing them to steal it and run away. Medea's brother Absyrtus nearly catches them, but Medea lures him into a trap and throws his dismembered body parts into the ocean.
So Jason and Medea arrive in Thessaly and give Pelias the Golden Fleece. But Pelias doesn't care. Meanwhile, everyone is amazed, since they'd never seen an Eastern woman before, let alone one skilled in awesome sorcery. The king's daughters watch Medea take a sick, old goat; butcher it, dump it in her pot of herbs and resurrect it. A young and healthy lamb comes out. The princesses think that's really cool so they try to do the same to their dad and fail. Due to being the center of a gruesome crime, Jason and Medea are kicked out of Thessaly and they move to Corinth.
They have a pretty decent life in Corinth for ten years along with their two children. But then, Jason starts courting Creusa (princess of Corinth and daughter of king Creon), hoping that marrying her would secure the royalty of his lineage. Medea becomes crazy furious at this and so King Creon exiles her and her children to prevent Medea from murdering anyone. Medea pleads with him and he agrees to give her one whole day before she leaves. Medea is brilliant, clever, and powerful, and so starts carefully plotting her revenge (like the badass girlboss she is!).
Now, being strategic, she starts planning an exit strategy, because she knows that if she just starts murdering people, she'll be wanted for murder with no safe haven to run to. She encounters Jason, who is angry at her for getting herself exiled and isn't even ashamed of his own behavior. Medea roasts him by reminding him of all the times she saved him and everything she sacrificed for him. She reminds him of how (in helping him) she's made enemies everywhere, making exile a death sentence for her. He tells her that she got more than what she gave since she's famous now (I think you mean infamous) and that she gets to live in Greece instead of her Eastern homeland. He also doesn't consider her his wife because she's a barbarian witch (who is crazy powerful and could kill you if she wanted to).
Medea encounters Aegeus, the king of Athens, who sympathizes with her and offers her safety in Athens. Great! NOW she can enact her revenge plan. She takes a golden dress and crown (gifts from Helios) and covers them in a powerful poison. She also decides to kill her children (damn, she's going really far to hurt Jason). She calls Jason and pretends to be really sad about their argument and Jason buys it. She asks him to convince Creusa to convince Creon to at least let the children stay instead of joining her in exile. Jason agrees and Medea then gives the golden clothes to her children to give as wedding gifts to Creusa. Creusa wore the clothes and then caught fire! (Medea is badass, but where can I get poison like THAT?). King Creon laments, cradles Creusa's body, and also dies (haha!).
Medea then appears, carrying her dead children, in a flying chariot pulled by dragon-snakes (awesome!). She taunts Jason about how she's taken everything from him and there's nothing he can do about it. He tries to tell her that she will be punished for her actions, while Medea roasts him, saying that he broke his oath to the gods and that she will purify herself of her sins. On the other hand, Jason would die a horrible, lonely death, crushed under the ruins of his only heroic achievement. Medea then flies off to Athens and marries Aegeus. Jason meanwhile, gets crushed by the rotting remains of the Argo (representing his only heroic achievement. Oof). Medea, meanwhile, had a son with Aegeus named Medes, then failed to kill Theseus, and then went into hiding. She helped Hercules deal with some mental insanity issues before people recognized her and Hercules bought her enough time to run off again. This time, she left Greece, and either went back Colchis and killed her father's usurper (badass girlboss!) or went as far as Iran, where her son founded the Medes tribe.
It's also interesting that a pivotal character like Medea didn't have a story about her death. Her story is proof that despite being a nuanced villainess, SHE was the one who always had the tacit approval of the entire pantheon of Greek gods, and not Jason (the "hero"). Jason's heroism began when he won the favor of Hera, the goddess of MARRIAGE and FAMILY. She was his patron god and Zeus was known for punishing OATH BREAKERS. Then Jason BETRAYED HIS WIFE, and ABANDONED HIS CHILDREN, and BROKE HIS DIVINE OATH of loving only Medea. Medea was honestly, completely justified in doing everything she did. Jason would have never succeeded in his quest without Medea, but because of her murderous methods, he ended up failing to claim the royalty he had been after in the first place. The royalty he then tried to obtain through Creusa. But in casting aside Medea, he made a TERRIBLE enemy. I mean, I would LOVE to have a badass, girlboss, SORCERESS wife! Medea could have helped him gain royal status again through her cunning tactics WITHOUT him having to cheat on her! I mean, WHAT WERE YOU THINKING JASON?!!!
You can tell how much I love Medea by my enthusiasm in this post. What do YOU think about Medea? Do you consider her a girlboss or a supervillain? Or something in between? Comment below! (Comment responsibly. Constructive criticism is welcome.)
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