Medea
Enchantress of Colchis in Greek myth
- Father (myth)
- Aeetes, king of Colchis
- Husband
- Jason
- Known for
- Helping Jason win the Golden Fleece; destroying Talos
- Literary sources
- Apollonius of Rhodes; Euripides' Medea (431 BCE)
The enchantress who brought down Talos, the bronze giant of Crete, with spells and the evil eye.
What is Medea known for?
Medea is the enchantress of Greek myth, daughter of King Aeetes of Colchis and granddaughter of the sun god Helios. When Jason came for the Golden Fleece, she fell in love with him and used her magic to help him through her father's deadly tasks, then fled with him.
On the voyage home the Argonauts reached Crete, guarded by the bronze giant Talos. In the Argonautica of Apollonius of Rhodes, Medea defeats him by casting the evil eye and spells on him; he grazes his ankle on a rock, the divine ichor runs out of his single vein and he crashes down. In Apollodorus' version she either drugs him or promises to make him immortal and then pulls out the bronze nail that sealed his vein.
In Euripides' tragedy Medea, Jason abandons her in Corinth to marry the king's daughter, and she takes revenge by killing the princess, the king and her own children before escaping in a chariot of the sun. Medea is a mythic figure, much retold in drama, opera and modern fiction.
She is the one who disables Talos, the bronze guardian of Crete.
Mentioned on these pages
- Rabbit holeTalos
- PassageTalos, the bronze giant (Apollonius, Argonautica 4.1638–1688)
- PersonApollodorus (the Bibliotheca)
- PersonApollonius of Rhodes
- PersonJason
- PersonR. C. Seaton
- PlaceCrete
Sources
- Encyclopaedia Britannica, 'Medea'Reference
- Wikipedia, 'Medea'Reference
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