Medea

Medea was a sorceress and princess of Colchis and the daughter of King Aeëtes, the niece of the famed sorceress Circe and also Pasiphaë (wife of King Minos of Crete and mother of the Minotaur). As such she was a granddaughter of Helios, the Titan god of the Sun.

She plays a major part in the story of Jason and the Argonauts in their quest for the Golden Fleece.

Jason and the argonauts
Without Medea jason would have never gotten the fleece, nevertheless he still betrayed her. Jason's uncle had killed Jason's father and stole the throne his mother secretly sent jason to Chiron the famed centaur. Jason trained for years before finally claiming the throne that was his. His uncle said that Jason must perform a difficult task, and if he did, King Pelias would abdicate the throne to him. The task was complex. A winged ram with Golden Fleece had been sacrificed to Zeus, and its pelt had been saved. King Pelias demanded that Jason bring him that Golden Fleece. The Golden Fleece was in the far land of Colchis. It hung from an oak tree and was guarded by a dragon who never slept. What an adventure!

Jason met medea
The Argo moored in Colchis. Jason went to King Aietes and explained that he needed the Golden Fleece, just like that, as though now everything would fall into place. The king said he would turn it over if Jason yoked the Chalcotaurus bulls without assistance and plowed a field with them, sowing dragon’s teeth. These two huge wild bulls had bronze hooves, and they breathed fire. Jason had no idea how to begin. But Medea did. She was the daughter of the king and a sorceress, and she had fallen in love with this daring stranger. When he pledged his eternal love, she gave him instructions. First, he rubbed himself with a potion that protected him from the bulls’ fire. When they charged him, he managed to yoke them and sow the dragon’s teeth. Men in armor sprang up from the sown teeth, ready to attack. Jason threw stones in their midst, as Medea had advised, and the soldiers turned upon each other. While they fought, he killed them. When King Aietes saw that the tasks had been done, he knew Jason couldn’t have managed alone. He flew into a rage and threatened to kill the Argonauts. But Medea snuck off with Jason to the oak tree, where they put the dragon to sleep with another magic potion. They took the Golden Fleece back to the Argo and the men set off for home, bringing Medea’s brother Apsyrtus with them.

Jason's betrayal
The Argo managed to skirt past danger after danger, and the quest for the Golden Fleece wound up taking four months. But King Pelias had no intention of turning over his throne. So Medea called together Pelias’ daughters for a demonstration of magic. She cut up an old sheep and threw it into a cauldron with special herbs. The sheep leapt out as a newborn lamb. The daughters were convinced that if they cut up their aging father and boiled him, he’d leap out as a young man again. Instead, of course, Medea didn’t add the magical herbs this time, and the girls wound up slaughtering their own father. Medea and Jason were banished from the country for this deed. They went to Corinth for ten years. Then the king of Corinth offered his daughter Glauce in marriage to Jason, and Jason set aside Medea. How Jason could have thought Medea was a person one could cross is hard to fathom. Medea sent Glauce a robe soaked in poison. When the girl put it on, she was consumed in fire. Then Medea killed the sons she’d had with Jason and fled to Athens where she married King Aegeus.

Medea and theseus
King Aegeus had no idea that the famed young stranger named Theseus was his son. But he feared that the youth was becoming so popular the people might overthrow him and make Theseus king. His wife at the time, a magician called Medea, who had once been married to Jason, proposed to poison Theseus. At the banquet in honor of the young hero, Medea handed him the poisoned cup. But Theseus, in his eagerness to be united with his father, drew his sword. King Aegeus recognized it at once and dashed the cup to the ground. Theseus chased Medea, who knew exactly the mischief she had almost succeeded in causing, but the enchantress escaped.