MEDE'A (Lat., from Ck. 31?),Icca, .11Mcia). In (recian legend, a famous sorceress, the daughter of „Fetes, King of Colchis. and of the Oceanid Idyia. or of Ileente, and niece of Circe. On the arrival of the Argonauts (Tv.) at the Court of .Ectes, in search of the Oolden Fleece, she fell in love with ,fa,oti, aided hini by her inagie arts to perform the tasks set him. and finally to carry the lleeve. Pursued in her flight with the Argonauts by her father, she killed her brother Absyrtos and scattered the fragments of his body on the sea. Her father pausing to give burial to the remains, the Ar gonauts gained fine for their escape, On the return of .Mason to lohms. she aided him to take vengeance on Pelias, who had murdered her hus band's parents. Having cut up an old sheep and boiled the pieces with magic herbs. she brought forth from the caldron a young lamb, an incident represented not infrequently on I;rook vases, She then easily persuaded the daughters of l'elias to (lit their father in pieees, he might, his youth: but when they had yielded, she refused to employ her art. For this shy and .111s1m wore forced to live to Corinth, where .1ason repudiated Medea to marry (]lance, or Crensa, the daughter of the King. sent her rival a poisoned robe and crown, N1 hereby both the princess and her father were destroyed.
her she they slew the children she had borne Jason. and fled at her dragon chariotto Adams. where she was received by King .Feeus„ to ‘‘ hum some said she bore a son, Medos, tin the arrival of the son of .Egens„ Theseus. she plotted against his life. but was diserwered, and with her Son fled Inek to Asia, Where 1\ledos gave hi: name to the :\ledes. ,„orecress she seems, like Circe, nn mortal in some of the writers, while others regarded her as a heroine and united her to Achilles in the Elysian fields. Thee outliiws of the legend were often very variously tilled in, and it is clear that in the story many ele ments are combined. Much points to an original divinity sunk to heroine, as is so often the ease, and nineh also to an original good sorceress. a counterpoise to the wicked Circe. The attempts to interpret the myth in the light of natural phenomena cannot be regarded as stweessful. The figure of Medea was a favorite one in art, ,specially•with the vase-painters. The Corinthian i.pisiide is M111111011 uW Roman sarcophagi. It at tained especial prominence through the great tragedy licilea, by Euripides.