Medea of the luminous eyes

Medea is the daughter of Aeëtes — who was himself the son of the Sun and king of Colchis, a region at the extreme borders of the Greek world, on the Black Sea — and of Hecate, the goddess of the Underworld and full moon nights. These connections to the Sun and the Underworld make Medea a unique figure, endowed with extraordinary magical powers. In the secret chambers of her royal palace, the young Medea keeps all sorts of potions and concoctions.

It is not easy to speak of Medea’s character without being influenced by the interpretations that poets, writers, directors, and men of letters throughout the ages have given this figure, and without falling into the risk of oversimplification and trivialization. Particularly from Euripides onwards, Medea has become the modern symbol of the infanticide, the unnatural mother, the monstrous murderess. The tragic playwright has a mythological repertoire to draw upon, initially transmitted orally; the theatre audience already knew the plot of the tragedies, so what was of interest was the way in which this myth was represented each time.

Let us now look at Medea in the Greek literary tradition preceding the tragedian from Salamis. Medea’s role is that of Jason’s helper. In the poem Nostoi, it was narrated that Medea rejuvenated Aeson, Jason’s father, by cooking him in a cauldron — the same experiment was practiced on Jason himself, as Simonides tells us (fr545, 548 Page). Medea is also mentioned in the Naupactian Songs and by the epic poet Eumelus of Corinth (8th century BC), author of a mythical history of Corinth, according to which the Corinthians sent for Medea and handed the kingdom over to her. Thanks to her, Jason reigned in Corinth. Medea had children and hid them underground in the temple of Hera to make them immortal.

The first Greek author from whom we derive direct information about Medea is Hesiod, in the passage where he reviews the immortal women who united with mortals. From her father’s side, Aeëtes, Medea can boast a direct link with the god Helios. Her mother is Idyia (properly, “she who knows”), one of the Oceanids who express intellectual qualities, just like her sister Metis. The root meh (which indicates the idea of measure) is related to the root med- of médo (“to rule”), whose middle-passive form already reflects the concept of “to think of,” “to take care of,” and médomai (“I think,” “I devise”), already reflecting the main characteristics of Médeia.

However, the most significant testimony from the archaic period is that of Pindar, who in Pythian Ode IV presents the myth of Medea and Jason in an excursus, describing the protagonist as a sorceress who, with her arts, aids the leader of the Argonauts in his undertaking. We therefore find the princess of Colchis enveloped in her divinity, with luminous eyes, as the granddaughter of the sun and rich in med, like her sister Metis.