This carved marble sculpture, by William Wetmore Story (c. 1819–1895), was inspired by the character, Medea, from ancient Greek mythology. She was the daughter of King Aeëtes, ruler of the Black Sea coastal realm of Colchis, whose land played host to the myth of Jason and the Golden Fleece. Jason, a claimant to his uncle Pelias’ Thessalian city of Iolcos, was dispatched by his scheming uncle on a perilous journey to obtain the Golden Fleece, which was possessed and defended by King Aeëtes and the people of Colchis. It was a mission that was meant to lead to Jason’s death or disappearance, but the Greek hero would go on to receive more help than Pelias could have ever imagined. Jason recruited as companions storied figures such as Heralces, Orpheus, Peleus of Phthia (the future father of Achilles), Meleager, and King Admetus of Pherae, to name a few. As many of Jason’s crew were demigods sired by deities such as Zeus, Apollo, Poseidon, Hephaestus, and Dionysus, their party was naturally helped by supportive Greek gods and goddesses, who assisted the heroes while they sailed to the Black Sea on their ship, the Argo. Yet, despite all of these heroes, King Aeëtes and the defenders of Colchis had tricks up their sleeves that threatened to thwart Jason’s mission to obtain the Golden Fleece.
King Aeëtes set a gauntlet of near-insurmountable trials and tribulations between Jason and the Golden Fleece. These included multiple magical beasts and an army of humanoid warriors that grew from the earth. Medea, as the king’s daughter, possessed vital knowledge of many secrets, weaknesses and remedies for all of the trials and defenses associated with the Golden Fleece, and she, herself, was well-versed in magic and the making of powerful potions. All of her knowledge and power, however, ultimately undermined the defenses of King Aeëtes and Colchis, for Medea fell in love with Jason (likely due to divine intervention), and she began to aid the hero in overcoming each challenge. In the end, when the king continued to refuse to hand over the fleece even after Jason successfully overcame the trials, Medea decided to help the hero penetrate the local security layout and steal the Golden Fleece. Consummating their partnership, Medea decided to elope with Jason and leave Colchis to join the hero on his adventures. Yet, as the knife-wielding appearance of William Story’s Medea gives away, her marriage with Jason became tragically entangled with sadness, rage and violence.
On board the Argo, Jason, Medea and the Argonauts fled from Colchis and resumed their seaborne adventuring, eventually finding their way back to Jason’s homeland of Iolcos. There, Jason and Medea brought about the death of Pelias. Yet, instead of power or stability, this violent act caused them to be exiled, upon which they made their way to Corinth, where King Creon was ruling. By this point, Jason and Medea had children, but instead of setting roots in Corinth and living a happy life, their stay in that city unfortunately diverged into death and destruction.
Jason, so the tragic tale goes, fell in love with Glauce, the daughter of King Creon of Corinth. Glauce reciprocated the adventurer’s affection and wanted to marry him. Yet, Jason was already married. Creon, for his part, approved of the match and decided to use his kingly power to eject Medea from Jason’s life. Lobbying for his daughter’s interests with legal loopholes, Creon pointed out that Medea was a foreigner and that her marriage to Jason had taken place in a distant land, insinuating that her union with the hero was tenuous. Similarly, that argument could be used to imply that Medea’s children with Jason were illegitimate, clearing the way for Glauce’s future offspring to jump ahead in succession, but that line of inquiry was not stressed at that time.
Jason, fatefully, sided with the Corinthian royals, agreeing to abandon Medea and marry Glauce. Medea ultimately came to terms with her situation and she realized that she would not be able to charm or otherwise convince Jason back to her side. Yet, coming to terms was not the same thing as making peace with the situation. Instead, Medea plotted cruel revenge. Acting as if she was sending a congratulatory wedding gift to Glauce, Medea had her uninformed children carry garments laden with poison, incendiary traps, or foul magic to the unsuspecting princess. These gifts were a beautiful robe and a golden garland headpiece, the former of which was coated in an acidic substance that ate away at flesh, while the latter was cursed with a fatal spell that spread fire to whoever placed it on their head. The deadly gift was received and accepted by the doomed bride, and in the toxic inferno that ensued, both Glauce and King Creon were killed. After the killings of the Corinthian royals, Medea was said to have murdered (or abandoned) the children she had by Jason. He, meaning Jason, survived the magical horrors at Corinth, but was left painfully and totally alone, and he eventually took his own life or was anticlimactically crushed by a falling beam.
Medea, meanwhile, fled to Athens, where she married King Aegeus. Yet, the new darker and murderous side to Medea’s character remained, impacting her marriage and her relationship with the city. Ultimately, Medea was kicked out of Athens after she was discovered to be plotting murder against Aegeus’ famous son, Theseus. Such is the tragic, but violent, character that inspired William Wetmore Story’s artwork.
Written by C. Keith Hansley
Sources:
- Euripides’ Medea, translated by James Morwood in Medea and Other Plays. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997, 1998, 2008).
- Apollodorus, The Library of Greek Mythology, translated by Robin Hard. New York, Oxford University Press, 1997.
- Jason and the Argonauts by Apollonius of Rhodes, translated by Aaron Poochigian. New York: Penguin Classics, 2014.
- https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/12651
