Page 16 - GALIET INFINITE MEDEA: Euripides IV

She bears him Medus. Until. Aegeus’ son, Theseus, reaches Athens from Troezen. Medea alone recognizes him. She connives. She persuades naïve Aegeus to send stranger Theseus on a lethal quest: bring back the Marathonian Bull. Yet, like Jason, Theseus returns. Medea is shocked. Then Persuades Aegeus to poison him. At a nanosecond’s blink, Aegeus recognizes Theseus’ sword and flings the poisoned cup from his lips. Once more, Medea flees. She arrives in Colchis with Medus to find that Perses, Aeetes brother, is king. Either Medea or Medus kills Perses and restores Aeetes to throne. Medea’s death is a mystery. Except for Simonides. Bliss. He says Medea and Achilles married in the Elysian Fields.
Other Traces. Graf traces Medea’s mythical and historical personae, chronologically and geographically, to conclude that Medea’s foreignness and cultic-ritual initiation affinities are the most constant elements in her multi-narrations. Medea either dwells beyond world bounds, or comes from a far-off place, or leaves to a distant place. Medeas’ affinity to Helios, Themis,17 Artemis18 and Hecate19 also signifies foreignness. Barbarian Medea is no Olympian goddess: she is Hecate’s
17This affinity is fascinating. Medea calls upon Themis, goddess associated with justice, law and order. Themis is also the mother of the three Horae and the three fates, personified aspects of order in the universe. Like her mother Gaia, Themis has prophetic powers. March, Jenny. Cassell Dictionary of Classical Mythology. UK: Cassell, 1998. See also Graf, Fritz. “Medea, the Enchantress from Afar: Remarks on a Well-Known Myth”, Ch. 1 in J. Clauss and S.I. Johnston (eds.), Medea: Essays on Medea in Myth, Literature, Philosophy and Art, Princeton 1997: 39.
18In Dionysus Scytobrachion’s version (see note 3), Medea acts as cult priestess to Artemis. 19Hecate, presumably from Caria, SW Asia Minor, is a trimorphic goddess (Hecate of the heavens, of the Underworld, of the three roads, etc.) associated with cult of magic and witchcraft, lunar lore and night creatures and dog sacrifices. She is also protector of doorways and crossroads. Like all chthonian figures, she is simultaneously terrible and benign. By Euripides’ time, Hecate may have already earned her magic-goddess connotations.
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