Miscellaneous Myths: Medea
Summary
TLDRThe script discusses the release of enamel pins inspired by Greek mythology, highlighting the complex character of Medea. It contrasts the typical one-dimensional portrayal of women in myths with Medea's multifaceted persona, exploring her story from the epic 'Argonautica' to the tragic play 'Medea'. The narrative delves into her love for Jason, betrayal, and eventual descent into a vengeful fury, showcasing her as a morally ambiguous figure who retains divine favor despite her actions.
Takeaways
- đ The script introduces a new set of enamel pins featuring Greek mythological characters Zeus and Hera, united by their dislike for Jason.
- đș The creator critiques Greek mythology for its lack of nuanced female characters, with most being one-dimensional and often defined by their relationships with heroes.
- đ§ââïž Medea stands out as an exception, being a complex character with a rich backstory that includes being a sorceress and having a morally ambiguous role.
- đ Medea's story is primarily found in two texts: the 'Argonautica', an epic poem, and a tragic play by Euripides, which together present her life as a mix of epic and tragedy.
- đ¶ The 'Argonautica' tells the story of Jason and the Argonauts' quest for the Golden Fleece, with Hera's divine intervention playing a key role in their journey.
- đ„ Medea helps Jason by providing him with magical assistance to overcome challenges set by her father, King Aetes, showing her conflict between love and loyalty.
- đ After their marriage, Jason's betrayal of Medea by courting another woman, Glauce, sets off a tragic chain of events, highlighting the darker side of their relationship.
- đź Medea's intelligence and resourcefulness are key to her actions, as she carefully plots her revenge against Jason and the royal family of Corinth.
- đ The tragic play 'Medea' ends with Medea killing her own children to spite Jason, showing the extent of her despair and the tragic consequences of Jason's infidelity.
- đ Medea escapes her fate using divine aid and is prophesied to live a long life, contrasting with Jason's miserable end, suggesting a moral complexity in her character.
- âïž The story of Jason and Medea serves as a cautionary tale about the consequences of ambition, betrayal, and the human capacity for both love and destruction.
Q & A
What are the newly released enamel pins themed around?
-The enamel pins are themed around Greek mythology characters Zeus and Hera, who are brought together by their mutual dislike of Jason.
What is the main criticism of Greek mythology in terms of female characters as presented in the script?
-The script criticizes Greek mythology for lacking nuanced female characters, often portraying them as one-dimensional figures defined by their relationships with heroes or as victims of divine retribution.
Who is Medea in Greek mythology, and what makes her unique?
-Medea is the granddaughter of Helios, princess of Colchis, a powerful sorceress, and is considered a unique character due to her complexity, existing in a gray area between being a girlboss and a supervillain.
What are the two main texts that tell Medea's story?
-Medea's story is mainly told in two texts: the Argonautica, an epic poem from the 200s BCE by Apollonius Rhodius, and Medea, a tragic play by Euripides around 431 BCE.
Why is the story of Jason and the Argonauts significant in Greek mythology?
-The story of Jason and the Argonauts is significant as it takes place before the Trojan War and involves a quest for the Golden Fleece, showcasing a generation of heroes and their various challenges.
What was the favor that Hera granted Jason after he helped an old woman across a river?
-After helping the old woman, who was actually Hera in disguise, Jason gained her favor, which she would call upon to subtly intervene and assist him throughout his journey.
What series of tasks did King Aetes set for Jason to retrieve the Golden Fleece?
-King Aetes set Jason the tasks of yoking a field full of deadly fire-breathing oxen, plowing the field with dragon's teeth, and defeating an army of warriors that sprouted from the teeth.
How does Medea assist Jason in overcoming King Aetes' challenges?
-Medea provides Jason with a potion called the 'Charm of Prometheus' to make him invulnerable, and she also gives him advice on how to handle the other challenges, including how to deal with the warriors that sprouted from the dragon's teeth.
What tragic event occurs in Euripides' play 'Medea'?
-In Euripides' play 'Medea', after being betrayed by Jason, Medea takes a tragic revenge that includes murdering her own children and poisoning the Corinthian princess and her father, King Creon.
What is the ultimate fate of Jason as depicted in the script?
-The script depicts Jason's ultimate fate as dying alone and unhappy, crushed under the rotting prow of the Argo, which serves as a crumbling monument to his only heroic achievement.
How does the script characterize the relationship between Jason and Medea?
-The script characterizes the relationship between Jason and Medea as a classic tragedy, where they were once heroes and lovers but were ultimately torn apart by their human flaws, particularly Jason's betrayal and abandonment of Medea.
Outlines
đș Enamel Pins and Greek Mythology: Medea's Tale
The script introduces a new set of enamel pins featuring Zeus and Hera, united by their disdain for Jason. It critiques the lack of depth in Greek mythology's female characters, highlighting Medea as an exception. Medea, a sorceress and princess of Colchis, is portrayed as complex, with her story spanning from the 'Argonautica' to Euripides' tragedy. The summary sets the stage for Medea's narrative, which begins with Jason's quest for the Golden Fleece and the divine intervention of Hera. Medea's conflicted loyalty between Jason and her father, King Aetes, is explored, culminating in her decision to aid Jason by providing him with magical assistance.
đ„ Medea's Conflict and Tragic Descent
This section delves into the darker aspects of Medea's story, detailing her and Jason's escape from Colchis with the Golden Fleece, the murder of Medea's brother Absyrtus, and the curse from Zeus that follows. The narrative shifts to their life in Corinth, where Jason's betrayal through a new marriage proposal to Glauce, the Corinthian princess, incites Medea's wrath. Medea's cunning and her quest for revenge are highlighted, including her poisoning of gifts for Glauce and King Creon, which results in their deaths. The summary also touches on Medea's contemplation of killing her own children to spite Jason, setting the stage for the tragic events to unfold.
đĄ The Downfall of Jason and Medea's Escape
The final paragraph recounts Medea's ultimate revenge and Jason's tragic end. Medea, after poisoning Glauce and inadvertently killing King Creon, decides to murder her own children to complete her vengeance against Jason. She escapes using Helios's flying chariot, a divine symbol of her sorceress powers. The script describes Jason's realization of his mistake and Medea's parting words, which include a prophecy of his miserable death. The summary concludes with Medea's escape to Athens and her continued presence in mythology, juxtaposed with Jason's lonely and tragic demise, underscoring the moral complexity and the tragic nature of their story.
Mindmap
Keywords
đĄEnamel Pins
đĄGreek Mythology
đĄMedea
đĄArgonautica
đĄGolden Fleece
đĄHera
đĄTragedy
đĄJason
đĄFavor of the Gods
đĄOathbreaker
đĄCurse
Highlights
New enamel pins featuring Zeus and Hera have been released, united by their dislike of Jason.
Greek mythology is often criticized for its lack of nuanced female characters.
Atalanta and Circe are mentioned as exceptions to the one-dimensional portrayal of women in Greek mythology.
Medea stands out as a complex character in Greek mythology, being a powerful sorceress and a figure between a girlboss and supervillain.
Medea's story is primarily told in two texts: the Argonautica and Euripides' Medea.
The Argonautica is set decades before the Trojan War and follows Jason's quest for the Golden Fleece.
Jason is aided by Hera and assembles a team of heroes called the Argonauts to sail to Colchis.
Medea, the daughter of King Aetes, falls in love with Jason and helps him overcome challenges to retrieve the Golden Fleece.
Medea's assistance to Jason includes providing him with a potion that makes him invulnerable and advice on how to handle other tasks.
Jason and Medea's escape from Colchis involves a murder plot against Medea's brother Absyrtus.
The voyage home is cursed by Zeus due to the murder, leading to a long and complicated journey.
Medea and Jason eventually marry on an island to prevent her from being sent back to Colchis.
In Euripides' play, Medea becomes a tragedy as Jason betrays Medea by courting Glauce, the princess of Corinth.
Medea's revenge involves poisoning gifts that kill Glauce and her father, King Creon.
Medea contemplates but ultimately decides against killing her children to hurt Jason.
Medea escapes to Athens with the help of King Aegeus, who offers her sanctuary.
Jason is left to face the consequences of his actions, including the loss of Hera's favor and a tragic end.
The story of Medea and Jason serves as a cautionary tale about the consequences of betrayal and the complexity of love and loyalty.
Transcripts
Uh, real quick, we've just released another set of enamel pins! We finally got Zeus and Â
Hera ready to go, brought together by their mutual dislike of Jason, Â
and I'm honestly really happy with how these ones turned out, Â
so check out the link to our crowdmate shop and snag a set before they're gone!
I donât think itâs exactly controversial to suggest that Greek Mythology is a bit lacking Â
in the ânuanced female charactersâ department. The goddesses have their fair share of personality, Â
and you do get the occasional anomalous powerhouse like Atalanta and Circe, but for the most part, Â
the ladies of greek mythology are fairly one-note - queens who mother heroes, princesses who fall Â
in love with heroes, random targets of divine retribution, Zeusâs victims of the week. Not Â
a whole lot of variety, and certainly not much in the depth department. Usually the most interesting Â
thing about these women is either what hero they boinked or how they died. Nice to know modern Â
mediaâs really sticking to its roots on that one! But thereâs one crowning exception to the rule, Â
and that is Medea. Granddaughter of Helios, princess of Colchis, powerful sorceress, Â
and somewhere in the gray area between girlboss and supervillain, Medea is anything but boring. Â
She shows up off and on through later Greek mythology, but her story is mostly codified Â
in two texts - first, the Argonautica, a Greek epic poem from the 200s BCE written by Apollonius Â
Rhodius and based on the well-known Hellenistic mythology of the time; and second, Medea, a tragic Â
play written earlier by Euripides around 431 BCE. The first half of her life is an epic, the Â
second half is a tragedy - I think we can safely assume this story is gonna have some twists in it.
Now this video is not about the Argonautica. Itâs about Medea. So weâre gonna play a Â
little fast and loose with this summary until our leading lady hits the stage. Â
Got it? Good. Now the events of the Argonautica take place a few decades before the Trojan Â
War - this is the previous generation of heroes before the Iliad and Odyssey.Â
So the Argonautica is about Jason, prince of Thessaly, whose father Aeson was overthrown by Â
his treacherous half-brother Pelias, who kills all of Aesonâs descendants except for Jason, Â
whoâs smuggled out to be raised by the centaur Chiron. Many years later, Jason returns to Â
Thessaly to claim his rightful throne and runs into an old lady who needs help getting across Â
a river. Jason carries her across, losing a sandal in the process but gaining something very valuable Â
in return - the favor of Hera, who it turns out was the old woman all along. From this point on, Â
Hera regularly intervenes with subtle acts of divine intervention to help her boy out. Jason Â
arrives at the palace and demands Pelias give him his rightful throne, but Pelias hits him with the Â
classic hey-kid-ya-like-proving-yourself and sends Jason on a quest to retrieve the golden fleece, Â
a textbook macguffin that couldâve been literally anything. Jason assembles a crack team of heroes Â
called The Argonauts and they set sail on the Argo for Colchis, where the Golden Fleece is Â
stowed. The exact crew kinda depends on who you ask - every version of the story has a different Â
set of heroes onboard. Sometimes Atalantaâs onboard, sometimes Jason decreed the Argo a Â
strictly no-girls-allowed zone; sometimes Theseus and Pirithous are there, sometimes theyâre already Â
stuck in hades for the crime of being absolute morons. Heracles is usually onboard, but amusingly Â
he gets totally ditched early on and they keep having near-misses for the rest of the book Â
without ever meeting back up again. The cast list doesnât really matter - this is basically just an Â
excuse to let an ensemble cast of heroes deal with a bunch of Weird Island Sh*t for a while.Â
After a lot of filler they eventually reach the kingdom of Colchis, where the Golden Fleece is Â
held. But unfortunately, Colchis is ruled by a different, unrelated evil king named Â
Aetes who also hits Jason with the patented hey-kid-you-like-proving-yourself gambit and Â
sets him a series of tasks to do before he gets the fleece. First heâll have to yoke a field Â
full of deadly fire-breathing oxen and then use them to plow the field, then heâll need to sow Â
the field with dragonâs teeth, and finally defeat an army of warriors. Jasonâs not too Â
optimistic about his prospects, so he and the Argonauts head off to discuss their options.Â
But fortunately for Jason, Aetes has a sexy sorceress daughter named Medea, and with a little Â
nudging from Hera, Eros hits her with the arrow of love. Suddenly head-over-heels for this handsome Â
stranger, Medea finds herself utterly tormented by this new conflict of interests. She desperately Â
wants to help Jason out, but she hates the thought of betraying her father, and sheâs pretty scared Â
of what he might do to her if he finds out sheâs been involved. Hera sends her dreams where Jason Â
came to her kingdom, not for the golden fleece, but for her hand in marriage, but when she Â
chooses him over her family and accomplishes his impossible tasks for him, her family is enraged. Â
She wakes up, conflicted almost to the point of suicide, but while sheâs absolutely terrified Â
of dying in disgrace, known to the world only as a foolish woman who gave up everything for Â
a stranger, she eventually steels her resolve and decides to help Jason out, because love.Â
She arranges for a covert meeting at the Temple of Hekate where she serves as a priestess, Â
tricking her handmaidens into thinking sheâs only pretending to like Jason so she can sabotage his Â
success with evil magic. When Jason arrives, they awkwardly blush for a hot minute before Â
Jason explains that he knows sheâs his only hope of success, and if she helps him, heâll make sure Â
sheâs famous throughout Greece for her heroism. He compares her to Ariadne helping Theseus Â
through the minotaurâs maze, and, smitten by his praise, Medea gives him a potion called the âCharm Â
of Prometheusâ thatâll make him invulnerable. She also explains how to handle the other challenges.Â
Anyway, the day arrives and Jason heads to the field, where, currently invulnerable Â
thanks to Medeaâs potion, he easily yokes the fire-breathing bulls and sows the field with Â
dragonâs teeth. After a quick snack break, he returns to find an army of warriors have Â
sprouted from the dragon's teeth, and, recalling Medeaâs advice, he chucks a rock at them and Â
all the warriors get confused and pissed off thinking one of them did it, and then they all Â
kill each other. With the tasks completed, Jasonâs riding pretty high, and King Aetes Â
is baffled that Jason managed to pull it off. That night, Hera sends Medea nightmares to warn Â
her that Aetes has figured out her involvement, and Medea wakes up and runs into the night, Â
arriving at the Argo and telling them they gotta get outta there right this minute and also please Â
take her with them. Jason promises to do her one better and marry her the minute they get Â
back to greece. They obviously need to grab the Golden Fleece first, so Medea charms the dragon Â
guarding it to sleep while Jason retrieves the fleece. Then they get the heck outta dodge. The Â
Colchians obviously give chase, with one of the fleets led by Medeaâs brother Absyrtus, and Jason Â
and Medea come up with a cunning plan to deal with him. Itâs murder. The plan is murder. They Â
lure him into a trap and Jason dismembers him. Now Zeus gets pretty pissed about the family Â
murder thing, so he curses the voyage to get all turned around and confused by the wind, Â
so the journey home ends up taking a lot longer than expected, although thatâs partially Â
resolved when they end up blowing ashore on Circeâs island and she magically cleanses Â
Medea and Jason of the guilt for the murder. Hm, didnât know she could do that! Useful!Â
A few more filler arcs happen while they sail home, and Jason and Medea end up getting properly Â
married on an island so Medea wonât be sent back to Colchis by the king of the island, Â
whoâs a pretty nice guy and wonât break up a properly married couple. Jason and Medea are Â
married in a sacred cave on the cliffside and take a nice little wedding night nap Â
on top of the golden fleece, which I will admit was not a detail I was expecting to Â
read in this ancient greek epic. Yeah, Pelias, I donât know if youâre gonna wanna touch that.Â
So after a long and complicated voyage home, the lovers finally return to Thesally. Now Â
thatâs around where the Argonautica peters out, but the storyâs not over - the next Â
bit is recounted in a short now-lost play by Euripides called the Peliades. Now obviously Â
Pelias doesnât wanna give up the throne, proving-himself be damned. Heâs also gone Â
ahead and killed all of Jasonâs relatives, just to, you know, be proactive. But donât worry, Â
Medea has a solution! Itâs murder. The solution is murder. She shows Peliasâs daughters a cool Â
spell she knows for rejuvenation by butchering an old ram and throwing the pieces into a boiling pot Â
of herbs - at which point a young and healthy lamb jumps out! The daughters think thatâs really cool, Â
so they go grab their dad and butcher him, and heâs dead. Heâs just dead. Oops.Â
So thatâs basically the first half of Medeaâs story. A young, demure, lovestruck woman falls Â
head over heels for a handsome, heroic stranger and gives up everything to save him from an Â
impossible situation, and then he rescues her from her vengeful family and brings her to a Â
better land to marry him and live happily ever after. That is a beautiful, classic, textbook Â
love story á”ËĄá”Ëą á”Êł á”ᶊâżá”Ëą á” á¶á”á”á”ËĄá” á”á”Êłá”á”ÊłËą. SoâŠâŠ why is the play Medea a tragedy? Â
Buckle up, itâs actually kinda fascinating. So to start us off, Jason has a bit of a problem. Â
See, what with whole the gruesome death of Pelias and all, Jason is now an accessory to a crime, Â
and he canât really claim the throne of Thessaly - little-known downside to solving all your problems Â
with murder - so he and Medea decide to head to Corinth instead. A few years evidently pass and Â
they make a home there, but Jason ends up courting Glauce, princess of Corinth and daughter of King Â
Creon, in the hopes that marrying her will make him royalty and ensure the future of his line, as Â
well as the safety of Medea and their two children á”á”á¶á”á”Ëąá” á”Êž á”Ê°á” Ê·á”Êž á”Ê°á”Êž Ê°á”á”á” á”Ê·á” á¶Ê°á¶ŠËĄá”Êłá”âż.Â
Now, this isâŠâŠ aw, whatâs the wordâŠâŠ adultery! That's right. Jason is married to Medea, both Â
in the eyes of the law and the gods, and now heâs trying to marry this Corinthian princess for the Â
perks. Medea is, understandably, furious, and has been completely inconsolable with grief and rage Â
for long enough that King Creon is starting to get worried she might end up doing something drastic, Â
like⊠ah, just spitballing here⊠murder, so he decides that he should exile her and her Â
children so she canât do any murdering. She successfully pleads with him to give her one Â
more day to get her affairs in order before he exiles her, and he agrees, which is unwise, Â
because now heâs given her 24 hours to get all that murdering out of her system.Â
But Medea isnât stupid. Weâve already seen how clever she is, and how carefully she arranges Â
her exit strategies. We also already know from the argonautica that her worst fear is Â
being abandoned and suffering the humiliation of sacrificing everything for a stranger who Â
doesnât even care about her. She definitely wants revenge, but she knows she canât just Â
start willy-nilly murdering people - then sheâll still be abandoned and also wanted for murder.Â
While sheâs pondering this conundrum, Jason shows up to tell her if sheâd just been cool about him Â
ditching her for this new woman, she wouldnât be getting exiled right now. Medea enumerates the Â
many ways sheâs saved his ass in the past and accuses him of denying his oaths to the gods, Â
which sets up a pretty interesting theme in this story of Medeaâs actions - no matter how Â
murdery - having the tacit approval of the gods. More on that later. Anyway, Medea points out that Â
exile is almost a death sentence because sheâs made enemies everywhere by constantly helping Â
out Jason, who has a habit of pissing people off and then requiring magical assistance, and Jason Â
counters that really she got more than she gave in that bargain, because sure, she sacrificed her Â
family and homeland to do his impossible tasks for him and saved his life over and over again - but Â
hey, now she gets to live in greece, not that icky barbarian place she came from. And also Â
sheâs famous now because of all that cool stuff she did for him that he got to take the credit Â
for! Besides, Medea is just some barbarian woman with phenomenal cosmic powers. Jason canât pass Â
up a real princess. His genius plan was to keep Medea as his mistress when he marries the princess Â
so he could get them some sweet royal protection - and then eventually Medeaâs lame non-royal kids Â
will have some properly royal half-siblings! Isnât that lovely? Unfortunately Medea getting Â
herself exiled has spoiled his brilliant plan somewhat, but donât worry, heâs totally willing Â
to give her some money to make that whole wandering-the-wastelands-with-two-young-kids Â
thing easier. Ah, man. I wanna see her kill him so bad.Â
So Jason leaves, and when Medea heads outside to think, she runs into Aegeus, king of Athens, Â
who greets her like an old friend. Apparently heâs in town cuz he wanted to ask the oracle Â
why his wiener doesnât work, but when he sees Medea looking so down he asks whatâs wrong, Â
and she fills him in on Jason being the absolute worst. Heâs totally sympathetic and offers her Â
sanctuary in Athens, though he does say he canât actually get her there - sheâll have to make her Â
own way over. Medea, cautious as ever, tells him sheâs made quite a lot of enemies and she needs to Â
know heâll be willing to protect her from..... I dunno...... retribution or somethin'? He promises, Â
and with her exit strategy firmly in place, Medea gets down to the brass tacks of plotting a murder.Â
So Medea takes a beautiful golden gown and coronet - two gifts from Helios - and applies a poison to Â
them so potent that it wonât just kill whoever wears them, itâll also kill anyone that person Â
touches. She also thinks about killing her kids, reasoning thatâll hurt Jason pretty Â
bad - although the chorus points out itâll also hurt her a lot more, since Jason is kind of a Â
terrible dad who doesnât really like them that much - but she decides itâs worth it. I meanâŠÂ Â
it wouldnât be the first family sheâs murdered. Anyway, she calls Jason back in and pretends to Â
be all remorseful about their argument, and Jason totally buys it because he knows women Â
tend to get emotional when their husbands leave them for other women. Medea tells him she hates Â
the thought of their poor children sharing her exile, and couldnât he possibly convince Creon Â
to let them stay? Jasonâs not sure about Creon, but he thinks he can convince Glauce to do it, Â
what with her being a woman, and thus dumb and emotional and stuff.Â
Medea gives the gown and coronet to her kids, and tells them to be very convincing and persuade Â
Glauce to let them stay by giving her these wedding gifts. She sends them off, and evidently Â
theyâre very persuasive, because they come back without the presents. Medea suffers from a brief Â
internal conflict over murdering them, and then a messenger arrives in a panic telling her to get Â
the hell out of dodge because everyoneâs dead and theyâre definitely gonna blame her. Heâs probably Â
not expecting Medea to respond âOoooh, spill the tea! Did she suffer? Tell me she suffered.âÂ
So apparently when the kids showed up, everyone was excited because it meant Medea was maybe Â
getting over her grudge - everyone except for Glauce, who refused to even look at them Â
until they showed her the shiny presents. She immediately put them on, stumbled around for Â
a bit, and then caught fire. Thatâs a hell of a poison. So she dies, and Creon cradles her body, Â
at which point he also dies. Whoopsies! The messenger books it, and Medea decides Â
this at least makes the whole child-murder thing easier, since killing the entire royal family of Â
Corinth is gonna get them killed anyway. She heads discreetly offstage and the kids yell about how Â
they are Very Definitely Getting Murdered Right Now, which is when Jason shows up, loudly talking Â
about how he sure hopes nobody kills the kids to retaliate against him. Ooooh! Poor timing!Â
So Medea rises out of the house and into the air in Heliosâs flying chariot, using a bit of Â
stagecraft usually reserved for gods, by the way, and she taunts Jason that heâll never reach her up Â
here and sheâs successfully taken everything from him. Jason yells about how he probably shouldâve Â
taken Medeaâs willingness to betray her family for him as a red flag. He also says that the souls of Â
their children will avenge him on her, but Medea says the gods know who really messed up in this Â
situation, and sheâs gonna bury their kids in Heraâs sacred lands before purifying herself Â
of the crime - presumably with Circeâs help again - and then heading to Athens for a nice long nap, Â
and meanwhile she prophesizes that Jasonsâs gonna die a miserable death crushed under Â
the ruins of his only heroic achievement. Jason swears that an avenging fury will destroy her, Â
and Medea tells him âgood luck finding one thatâll listen to a liar and an oathbreaker!â Â
and flies away. Jason leaves, asking the gods to avenge him, and the play closes out with the Â
chorus singing that the gods donât always give us what we want. Honestly? Hilarious.Â
Sure enough, Medea remains conspicuously un-smote, and makes sporadic appearances in later mythology, Â
heading to Athens and marrying Aegeus fairly happily until his son Theseus shows up and she Â
tries to kill him a little bit and runs off to a nebulous faraway land. Medea quietly vanishes Â
into the mythos, never even canonically dying. Her story seems to vindicate that, Â
despite all the familicide and the poisoning and stuff, she really did retain the favor Â
of the gods right up to the end, framing her as a bizarrely morally nuanced figure.Â
And in contrast, JasonâŠâŠ well, things really donât go so hot for Jason. As you may recall, Â
his whole heroâs journey really got started when he won the favor of Hera through that secret test Â
of character thing. She was essentially his patron god, and basically the only reason he passed all Â
those proving-himself dealios - as well as the only reason Medea falls in love with him. Well, Â
Hera was the goddess of marriage and family - and then Jason betrayed his Â
wife. Medea wasnât just sassing when she called him an oathbreaker, he was quite literally Â
breaking a divine oath by abandoning her and their children. Without the favor of Hera, Jason dies Â
alone and unhappy when the rotting prow of the Argo breaks off and crushes him in his sleep - a Â
crumbling monument to his only heroic achievement. Jason and Medea are a classic tragedy that hits Â
surprisingly hard. They were in love, they were heroes, they did incredible things, and then when Â
the situation changed, their very human flaws tore them apart. Two characters who were heroes in one Â
context become nightmares in another. Reading the Argonautica is a genuinely very weird experience, Â
seeing the beginning of their relationship knowing how terribly itâs going to end, and you can kinda Â
tell it was written with that in mind. There are a few little tidbits of Medea's character that seem Â
like they're deliberately written there to make the impact of the original tragedy hit harder. Â
Jason could have never succeeded in his quest without Medea, but because of the murderiness Â
of Medeaâs methods, he ended up failing to win the throne heâd been after in the first place, Â
driving him to further extremes to try and claim the royalty he deserved. Jason loved Medea, Â
but not more than he wanted the future heâd been after, and in casting her aside he made a terrible Â
enemy. And Medea was always brilliantly clever, and she loved Jason very fiercely - she had no Â
other choice, thanks to Hera. And she loved their children in a way Jason didnât - throughout the Â
play he only ever calls them HER children until theyâre dead, and suddenly theyâre Â
HIS children and he feels really bad about it. In a better time, in a better situation, Â
they probably couldâve been happy together for the rest of their lives - if only Jason werenât Â
such an đźđŻđđŒđčđđđČ đ±đ¶đ»đŽđđ. Oh yeah, Iâll just ditch my incredibly cunning and powerful sorceress-wife Â
for this random princess. Iâm sure sheâll be cool about it! What could possibly go wrong?!
[Thunder Rolls]
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