MEDEA, in fabulous history, a celebrated sorceress, daughter of Aeetes king of Colchis. Her mother’s name, according to the more received opinion of Hesiod and Hyginus, was Idyia, or, according to others, Ephyre, Hecate, Asterodia, Antiope, and Neaera. She was the niece of Circe. When Jason came to Colchis in quest of the golden fleece, Medea became enamoured of him, and it was to her well-directed labours that the Argonauts owed their preservation. Medea had an interview with her lover in the temple of Hecate, where they bound themselves by the most solemn oaths to eternal fidelity. No sooner had Jason overcome all the difficulties which Aeetes had placed in his way, than Medea embarked with the conquerors for Greece. To stop the pursuit of her father, she tore to pieces her brother Absyrtus, and left his mangled limbs in the way through which Aeetes was to pass. This act of barbarity some have attributed to Jason, and not to her. When Jason reached ĭolchos, his native country, the return and victories of the Argonauts were celebrated with universal rejoicings; but Aeson the father of Jason was unable to assist at the solemnity, on account of the infirmities of his age. Medea, at her husband’s request, removed the weakness of Aeson; and by drawing blood from his veins, and filling them again with the juice of certain herbs, she restored him to the vigour and sprightliness of youth. This sudden change in Aeson astonished the inhabitants of Iolchos; and the daughters of Pelias were also desirous to see their father restored by the same power to the vigour of youth. Medea, willing to revenge the injuries which her husband’s family had suffered from Pelias, increased their curiosity, and betrayed them into the murder of their father as preparatory to his rejuvenescence, which she afterwards refused to accomplish. This action greatly irritated the people of Iolchos, and Medea with her husband fled to Corinth to avoid their resentment. Here they lived for ten years with mutual attachment, when the love of Jason for Glauce the king’s daughter interrupted their harmony, and Medea was divorced. Medea revenged the infidelity of Jason by causing the death of Glauce, and the destruction of her family. She also killed two of her children in their father’s presence; and when Jason attempted to punish the barbarity of the mother, she fled through the air upon a chariot drawn.by winged dragons. From Corinth Medea went to Athens, where, after she had undergone the necessary purification of her murder, she married King Aegeus, or (according to others) lived in an adulterous manner with him. From her conduct with Aegeus, Medea had a son who was called Medus. Soon afterwards, when Theseus wished to make himself known to his father, Medea, jealous of his fame and fearful of his power, attempted to poison him at a feast which had been prepared for his entertainment. Her attempts however failed of success, and the sight of the sword which Theseus wore by his side convinced Aegeus that the stranger against whose life he had so basely conspired was his own son. The father and the son were reconciled; and Medea, to avoid the punishment which her wickedness deserved, mounted her fiery chariot and disappeared through the air. Her aerial voyage terminated at Colchis, where, according to some, she was reconciled to Jason, who had sought her in her native country after her sudden departure from Corinth. She died at Colchis, as Justin mentions, when she had been restored to the confidence of her family. After death she married Achilles in the Elysian fields, according to the tradition mentioned by Simonides. The murder of Mermerus and Pheres, the youngest of Jason’s children by Medea, is not to be attri-. buted to the mother, according to Aelian, but to the Corinthians, who assassinated them in the templc of Juno Acraea. To avoid the resentment of the gods, and to deliver themselves from the pestilence which had visited their country after so horrid a massacre, they engaged the poet Euripides for five talents to write a tragedy, which cleared them of the murder, and represented Medea as the cruel assassin of her own children. And, besides, that this opinion might be the better credited, festivals were appointed, in which the mother was represented with all the barbarity of a fury, murdering her own sons.