Both Lope de Vega and
Corneille
followed him in their plays called The
Golden Fleece, and Calderon treated similar material in his drama, The
Three Greatest Prodigies.
Golden Fleece, and Calderon treated similar material in his drama, The
Three Greatest Prodigies.
Ovid - 1934 - Metamorphoses in European Culture - v2
In the story of Medea these objections would not occur.
It
was probable that she would review her problem in dramatic meditation.
It was possible to reserve explanations for the accompanying narrative.
In the Heroides Ovid had shown his heroines meditating unhappily
about past events, but in the soliloquy of Medea he would picture a more
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? JASON AND MEDEA
dramatic situation. Medea would consider her course in the future and
would hesitate between prudence and passion. To Ovid it suggested the
idea of a debate. Euripides in a number of dramas, one of them his
Medea, had shown two characters presenting the two sides of an im-
portant moral issue. Vergil had followed his example in a conversation
between Dido and Anna, and in Vergil's tale the issue lay between duty
and love. Euripides had gone a step further. In his Meleager he showed
Althaea herself presenting both sides of a moral issue, duty to her
brothers conflicting with duty to her son (cf. Bk. 8). Ovid followed
both Vergil and Euripides. He pictured Medea debating the opposite
claims of duty and love and herself presenting both sides of the issue.
For the material used in the soliloquy Ovid drew chiefly on Apol-
lonius, but he introduced important ideas suggested by Euripides and
Vergil.
Medea guessed, he said, that a deity was overcoming her resistance.
Naively she wondered if the strange experience could be love. Then she
tried to calm her agitation. It was neither reasonable to feel such anxiety
for a stranger nor in accord with maidenly modesty to entertain such a
passion. But she could not follow the course of reason. Euripides had
shown his Medea declaring that her judgment was better than her
wishes. He had shown Phaedra confessing that she knew what was best
but she did not do it. Ovid imagined his Medea as stating the case with
even more tragic clarity: "I see the better course, and I approve it; I
follow the worse. "
Medea reflected that, if she was going to love a man, he ought to be
a Colchian. She added quickly, however, that only a heartless person
could be indifferent to Jason's merit and his imminent peril; and she
mentioned the fiery bulls, the warriors, and the unsleeping dragon. Dido
had accused Aeneas of being so cruel that he must have been nursed by
Hyrcanian tigresses. Medea stated the thought even more emphatically.
To be indifferent, she would have to be the offspring of a tigress. But
pity without action would be of no avail. She must betray her father and
become liable to punishment for treason.
Jason might treat her with ingratitude. He might sail away indif-
ferent to her fate and marry a princess of Greece. Medea recoiled indig-
nantly at the thought of his preferring another woman to her, who had
sacrificed so much for his sake, and held it better for him to perish at
once. Under the circumstances these reflections were natural; but Ovid
also expected his readers to know that, after returning to Greece, Jason
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK SEVEN
really showed ingratitude of this kind and Medea resented it in a still
more terrible way. At the moment, Ovid continued, Medea rejected the
thought of Jason's proving ungrateful. According to Apollonius, Jason
had inferred from Medea's appearance that she would act graciously.
Ovid attributed a similar inference to Medea. Jason's expression, his
noble mind, his gracious appearance assured her that he would be hon-
orable and appreciative. The Manual had spoken of Medea as requiring
him to promise in advance that he would make her his wife. Ovid showed
her devising this plan as further reassurance against her fear. She then
reflected on the advantages which would be hers in such a marriage.
She should have the profound gratitude of Jason and his people. Her
future husband would feel always that he owed his life to her kindness;
the Greek matrons would acclaim her as the preserver of their sons.
Medea hesitated again at the sacrifice which her departure would
require. She must leave sister, brother, father, gods, and native land.
But the loss did not appear too great. Her brother was an infant, her
father was a ferocious man, her land was barbarous, and Love, the great-
est god, was in her breast. Apollonius had noted that Chalciope urged
Medea to help the Argonauts, in order to protect the sons of Phrixus.
Ovid added, therefore, that Medea's sister was favorable to her project.
But in the new context this implied that she favored her marrying Jason
-- an improbable idea and a strange reason for leaving her with equa-
nimity. Apollonius had told how Medea grieved at departing from her
mother and how she left a tress of hair as an affectionate memento. In
the Epistle of Medea, Ovid had spoken of her as forsaking a loved
mother. But in the Metamorphoses he ignored this idea because he did
not wish to confuse the issue between prudence and passion. Euripides,
presenting the view of Jason, had observed that when Medea left bar-
barous Colchis, she obtained in compensation an acquaintance with the
famous cities of civilized Greece. Ovid pictured Medea as herself, look-
ing forward to this compensation. And he added --- rather without war-
rant -- that even before the coming of the Argo, the fame of the Greek
cities had spread to Colchis. But her greatest comfort would be such a
husband as Jason. Ovid imagined her as repeating the idea of Apol-
lonius that she should be called loved of the gods and echoing the famous
phrase of Horace that with her head she should touch the stars.
Still another deterrent occurred to Medea, the mysterious perils of
the sea. Since the Colchians had a fleet of ships, it might be possible for
her to know something of those perils which were most famous. Ovid
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? JASON AND MEDEA
showed Medea speaking vaguely of the Symplegades, of Charybdis, and
of Scylla barking in Sicilian waters and so alluding unconsciously to
the chief perils that she was soon to encounter. Ovid did not attempt to
give a clear description of their nature because he planned to do this
later. In the speech of Pythagoras (Bk. 15) he would have occasion to
mention the Symplegades as mountains which originally kept dashing
together with high flung spray but which afterwards became immovable.
And he was to deal with Charybdis and Scylla in his account of Aeneas.
Medea reassured herself on this point also. With Jason protecting her
she could have no fear, unless it were for the safety of her husband.
Vergil had spoken of Dido as hesitating between duty and love and
then declaring emphatically that she would follow duty, and later he had
spoken of her as using the term "marriage" for her relations to Aeneas
and with a good name covering sin. Both passages influenced Ovid in the
conclusion of Medea's soliloquy. Medea had spoken of fearing for her
husband. The word brought a sudden revulsion of feeling. She re-
proached herself for giving the name marriage to her intended relations
and for using a specious name to hide her sin. In horror she bade herself,
while it still was possible, to shun the crime. Ovid indicated the moment
when reason prevailed and love defeated was on the point of flight.
In a passage of only sixty lines, Ovid had presented well the issue
before Medea, he had awakened sympathetic interest in his heroine, and
without sacrificing probability he had given his readers a surprise. After
drifting far in accordance both with the traditional story and with self-
indulgent passion, Medea had been able to draw back and resolve to
follow reason and virtue.
Ovid came now to the meeting at the temple of Hecate. Apollonius
had given a picturesque description of Medea as she drove out in her
chariot, with twelve handmaidens attending. Ovid, intent on her con-
flicting motives, had no time for such decorative detail. Medea went
forth to the temple, he said, strong in her righteous resolve.
Dido had been unable to keep her resolution. When she met Aeneas
at the cave, love returned with overwhelming force. A similar fate Ovid
imagined in the case of Medea. When she met Jason at the temple, love
revived, she reddened and grew pale. Improving on a hint of Apollonius,
Ovid compared her love to a tiny spark, which lies hidden in the ashes
and which a breath of wind revives in all its previous flame. So Medea's
passion, all but dead, blazed up at the sight of Jason. Ovid spoke of this
as natural, because Jason appeared even more attractive than usual.
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK SEVEN
For the early part of the interview, Ovid followed Apollonius. He
pictured the abashed silence of Medea, and he said that Jason spoke
first, requesting her aid. In the Epistle of Medea Ovid had declared that
Jason not only offered marriage but promised it of his own accord. In
the Metamorphoses, Ovid repeated the circumstance and then made an
important innovation. Medea, bursting into tears, confessed that she
did wrong and knew it, because she was overcome by love. Although
Ovid habitually had made it clear that his evil characters did wrong de-
liberately, he never before had shown one of them admitting it. After-
wards he showed another example in the story of Myrrha (Bk. 10).
Medea then assured Jason that she would help him. She urged him to
remember his promise. Regarding the moral issue of Medea's betraying
her father and her country, Jason was silent. Euripides had emphasized
the idea that he was willing to profit by Medea's crimes. Ovid may have
assumed that his readers would be familiar with the passage and would
notice how on this important occasion Jason made no attempt either to
assure her that she was doing right or to dissuade her from doing wrong.
Ovid noted that Jason swore to be faithful, and he emphasized the sol-
emnity of the oath.
The rest of that day, according to Apollonius, had been uneventful
and the next day had been given to obtaining the dragon's teeth and
performing certain weird rites essential to the effect of the charm, so
that it was not until the dawn of the third day that Jason undertook the
required labors. But Ovid omitted the intervening circumstances and
assigned the labors to the second day.
In regard to the setting Ovid followed Apollonius. He told how the
spectators looked on from the hills above and how King Aeetes sat
among them in all his regal state. For the details of the conflict Ovid
drew on his own imagination. Briefly and vividly he recorded the ap-
proach of the bulls, the alarm of the Argonauts, the intrepid courage of
Jason. Ovid imagined the charm as able not only to protect Jason but
also to subdue the bulls. After stroking their dewlaps, Jason harnessed
them to the plow and began cultivating the field.
Indicating the excitement of the spectators, Ovid proceeded to his
planting of the formidable teeth. He spoke of them as dipped in poison,
probably because the Theban dragon was supposed to have a poisonous
bite. When covered with the earth, he continued, the teeth swelled and,
before emerging, they assumed the complete human form, just as a child
assumes the complete human form before leaving the womb. In the tale
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? JASON AND MEDEA
of Cadmus, Ovid had pictured the warriors rising slowly from the ground,
and so he did not repeat the description here. Appearing fully armed,
he said, they levelled their spears at Jason and filled the Greeks with
alarm for their leader. In the Epistle of Medea he had declared that
Jason took no part in the combat, and he now repeated this idea. The
Argonauts rejoiced and embraced their victorious chief, and Ovid added,
not very happily, that, if Medea had not feared publicity, she would
have followed their example.
Assuming that his readers would remember how Aeetes refused to
give up the Fleece, Ovid proceeded immediately to the encounter with
the dragon. Pindar had mentioned the creature's gleaming eyes and
speckled back. Apollonius had noted its keen eyes, myriad coils, hard
dry scales, and fear-inspiring hiss. Ovid in the Epistle of Medea had
spoken of the dragon as hissing and rattling its scales. In the Meta-
morphoses he gave a different description, suggested in one detail by
Vergil's Georgics. The tongue of a serpent is divided into two parts,
which move rapidly about the jaws in order to catch vibrations of sound.
This twofold division Ovid mentioned later in his tale of Achelous and
Hercules (Bk. 9). Vergil described a serpent's tongue as divided into
three parts, an idea which became general with Roman poets. Ovid re-
ferred to the Colchian dragon as conspicuous by reason of its crest,
hooked fangs, and triple tongue.
Apollonius had supposed that Medea sprinkled the dragon with
Lethaean juice and chanted a magic spell. Ovid had followed him in the
Heroides, but in the Metamorphoses he attributed the act to Jason and
so gave a further impression of his courage. Apollonius and the Manual
had spoken of the Golden Fleece as hung from the limbs of an oak. Pre-
sumably Ovid agreed with them; but, using an ambiguous phrase, he
told of the dragon's watching over a golden tree.
The rest of the story had nothing valuable for Ovid's present pur-
pose. Although he had shown Medea committing treason for the sake of
love, he was anxious to keep the reader's sympathy with her and there-
fore could say nothing about the traditional murder of Absyrtus. The
chief perils met in the return voyage he was reserving for his account of
Aeneas. Of Jason and Medea he said only that at last they came safely
to Iolcus.
In Ovid's narrative the most novel and dramatic incident had been
the soliloquy of the Colchian princess -- her debating whether she would
betray her father for the sake of the Greek hero. Impressed by the
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK SEVEN
effectiveness of his innovation, Ovid imitated it in many subsequent tales
of the Metamorphoses. In all these tales a heroine at a critical point
debated her future conduct, and in each there was still further resem-
blance to the soliloquy of Medea. Atalanta too, would have found it
expedient to let the hero incur his fate (Bk. 10). Byblis (Bk. 9) and
Myrrha (Bk. 10) debated a grave moral issue. Scylla (Bk. 8) pondered
the question whether she would betray her father for the sake of love.
Althaea (Bk. 8) and Iphis (Bk. 9) ended with a resolve to follow duty.
But despite essential likeness Ovid contrived so to vary the circum-
stances as to make every soliliquy interesting and distinct.
Within brief compass Ovid had given a good story of the events in
Colchis and had presented Medea as an interesting romantic heroine.
Although later authors dealing with the subject made some use of mate-
rial in Ovid's other poetry and in the work of Roman authors after his
time, they found the Metamorphoses their most available and most im-
portant source of information.
Several leading poets used Ovid while treating the whole story of
the Argo. Valerius Flaccus showed his influence in a new Argonautica.
Both Lope de Vega and Corneille followed him in their plays called The
Golden Fleece, and Calderon treated similar material in his drama, The
Three Greatest Prodigies.
Other poets were content with brief allusion to the Argo or to the
Fleece. Petrarch declared even Jason's ship inferior to the one which
carried Laura. Marlowe suggested that, if Leander's hair had been
transported to the shore of Colchos, it would have persuaded the Greek
heroes to hazard more than they ventured for the Fleece. Shakespeare
observed in The Merchant of Venice that Portia's sunny locks
Hang on her temples like a golden fleece,
Which makes her seat of Belmont Colchos' strand,
And many Jasons come in quest of her.
Still other poets, following Ovid, treated of the events in Colchis.
Remembering that Valerius Flaccus had given Jason an adventure at
Troy, Benoit de St. Maure commenced his Roman de Troie with a long
account of Jason's Colchian experiences. In accord with the practice
of medieval romance, he showed Medea aggressively courting Jason. He
also changed many of Ovid's details. The Italian Guido della Colonna
and the Germans Herbort von Fritzlar and Conrad von Wiirtemburg
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? JASON AND MEDEA
regarded these alterations of detail as a mistake and while translating
Benoit's poem they were careful to reject most of his innovations. Jean
de Meun retold Ovid's tale in the Romance of the Rose. Spenser imag-
ined that the story of Jason and Medea was carved in ivory on Acrasia's
gate.
Many poets showed particular interest in the love story of Jason
and Medea. Chretien de Troyes in Sir Cliges pictured Loredamor as
falling in love under circumstances resembling those of Medea and as
reflecting in a similar monologue that reason was of no avail against
love. His heroine Fenice pondered in a monologue the danger that Cliges
might deceive her and decided, like Medea, that his appearance and man-
ner justified perfect confidence. Fenice also had a nurse, Thessala, who
knew more witchcraft than Medea. Chaucer in his Legend of Good
Women used chiefly the Heroides and later versions than Ovid's; but he
too remembered that Medea was reassured by Jason's appearance and
bearing. In the Knight's Tale he referred to love as inspiring the en-
chantments of Circe and Medea. Tasso described the enchantress
Armida as excelling in beauty both Medea and Circe.
The circumstances under which Medea yielded to temptation in-
terested a number of the greatest poets. Ovid had shown her stating
clearly, both in her soliloquy and in her interview with Jason, that she
knowingly did wrong. The first of these statements had the more obvious
effect. Cowper used it as the text for a poem against the slave trade.
Petrarch, reflecting that he ought to renounce love and worldly glory,
confessed that he too saw the better way and followed the worse. Ariosto
echoed the same idea in a sonnet. In Paradise Regained Milton showed
Satan observing that most men admire virtue who follow not her lore.
Both of Medea's declarations appear to have made a deep impression
on Shakespeare and to have influenced the method by which he pre-
sented his three chief villains, Richard Third, Iago, and Edmund. Early
in the play he gave each of these arch plotters a soliloquy in which the
villain meditated on his future conduct and stated clearly that he under-
stood the wicked nature of his plans. But Shakespeare did not attempt
to enlist the reader's sympathy for the evil character.
Ovid had said that Medea's passion revived as a tiny spark is
kindled by a breath of wind. This detail attracted later poets. When
Dante asked Cacciaguida to tell him of old-time Florence, the spirit
brightened with joy, as if a breath of wind should kindle a spark into
flame. And, according to Ariosto, love for Medore began in Angelica's
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK SEVEN
heart as a tiny spark and kindled into a flame so fierce that she burned
with desire.
Several poets recalled the labors of Jason. Dante in his Paradiso
mentioned the wonder of the Argonauts when they saw their leader suc-
cessfully plowing the field. Boiardo told of Orlando's yoking furious
bulls and killing a crop of armed men, and of Mandricardo's reaping
still another magic crop. He showed Angelica providing her lover with
the means of overcoming a monster. Lucan compared the strife of
Caesar's troops on the raft to that of the earthborn warriors crazed by
Medea's herbs. Spenser, remembering both Horace and Ovid, observed
in his Ruins of Rome that Roman armies grew up as readily as the war-
riors planted by Jason and perished as disastrously by civil strife.
Ariosto noted that, if Doralice had not feared publicity, she would have
joined in celebrating the victory of Rogero. But his imitation was more
temperate and more appropriate than the original. Shakespeare, con-
fusing the hydra with the Colchian dragon, declared in the Second Part
of Henry Fourth that dangerous eyes of the Hydra, war, may be
charmed asleep.
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? AESON REJUVENATED
Aeson Rejuvenated
When Jason and his followers arrived in Iolcus, Ovid continued,
the fathers and mothers of Jason's followers held a celebration in their
honor, offering to the gods incense and a victim with gilded horns. The
parents of Jasons did not share in the public rejoicing. Following the
Theogony, Ovid supposed that Aeson still was alive, but he described
him as old, feeble, and almost dead. For Jason, his father's absence
marred the joy of the festival, and it occasioned his plea that Medea
might prolong old Aeson's life.
Many savage peoples have regarded fire as a potent remedy for the
evil influences which cause blight, disease, old age, and death. At the
annual festivals commemorating Hallowe'en -- the beginning of win-
ter, and Beltane -- the beginning of summer, they purified their villages
with ceremonial fires and drove their cattle through the flames. At the
birth of a child they often arranged for exposing the infant to the fire,
in order that he might have long life, an idea which entered into the
Greek myth of Triptolemus (Bk. 5).
Exposure to fire was considered beneficial in a similar way for per-
sons of riper years. An African tribe near Mt. Kilimanjaro habitually
attempted by the following ceremony to give their chieftains length of
days. At dawn the wizard caused a trench to be dug in the ground and
the chieftain and his favorite wife to lie down in it, side by side. Over
the trench, poles were laid and were covered with banana bark and soil.
Then the hearthstones of the chieftain were set above his head, a fire was
kindled among them, and food was boiled in a caldron for his relatives
and friends. And in this manner he was baked until evening.
Even more remarkable treatments by fire were recorded in popular
mythology. According to a story current among the Papuans of Dutch
New Guinea, a certain magician, finding his wife displeased at his being
old and ugly, built a fire, flung himself on it, and came forth young and
attractive. According to folk tales popular in many European coun-
tries, either Christ or Satan burned some aged man in a forge and so
restored him to his youthful prime. In other mythical tales the same
result was obtained by boiling the man in a caldron of magic herbs.
Often the old man's body had first to be cut to pieces. This was reported,
for example, by the Shans of Lakon in Cambodia. By such mincing and
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK SEVEN
boiling, they declared, a very old, decrepit prince was transformed into
a perfect beau. In other cases the old man was killed but not cut up and
then was boiled and restored to his youth. This method was described in
another Cambodian myth and also in the Greek myth of Medea and
Aeson.
The rejuvenating of Aeson was mentioned in an early epic called
Returns. According to this authority, Medea boiled numerous drugs in
golden caldrons and metamorphosed Aeson from an old man into an
attractive lad of fifteen. Presumably she did this by immersing his body
in at least one of the caldrons. An unknown Alexandrian scholar, who
wrote a preface to the Medea of Euripides, referred to Medea's power of
rejuvenation and quoted three lines from the Returns. This brief refer-
ence gave Ovid the hint from which he developed his remarkable tale.
Ovid invented the conversation between Jason and Medea. Before
making his request, he observed, Jason admitted that already Medea
had saved his life and had conferred benefits exceeding all his hopes. But
he now desired her to give one more favor -- to shorten by a few years
his own appointed length of life and to prolong by the same amount the
life of his father. Medea was impressed by his pious regard and still
more impressed when she compared it with her own neglect of Aeetes.
Ovid seems to imply that in benefiting Jason's father she hoped to make
some atonement for deserting her own.
But first she deprecated the method which Jason had proposed.
Medea began with the reproach used often by characters of the Iliad,
"What an evil thought has escaped from your mouth! " It would be
wrong, she continued, to help another by shortening her husband's life,
and she could not bring herself to do so. It would even be impossible.
Jason had expressed the belief that spells could accomplish anything.
She declared that Hecate would not allow them to do him such wrong.
Medea would try in some other, less costly manner to prolong the days
of Aeson.
Tradition had suggested a magic process which included the use of
mysterious herbs. Ovid saw here a chance to deal at some length with
the strange, uncanny ways of magic. The theme has interested many
savage and partly civilized peoples. Certain persons have been thought
to control supernatural powers and by their help to accomplish seem-
ingly impossible feats. Among savages a knowledge of magic was
attributed usually to men, but among partly civilized peoples it was
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? AESON REJUVENATED
attributed oftener to women, and this has been the prevalent idea in
literature.
The theme of magic attracted frequent attention of Greek authors.
The Odyssey included a famous account of the enchantress Circe.
Many Greek writers associated magic prominently with the stories
of Triptolemus and Medea, and in the latter tale they sometimes
had treated briefly of gathering materials. Sophocles and Apollonius
told of Medea's obtaining the Promethean herb which protected Jason,
and Sophocles in his play the Root Cutters told of her collecting certain
materials in order to deceive the daughters of Pelias. Theocritus had
made the subject of magic very famous by recording the incantation
with which Simaetha tried to regain her unfaithful lover.
Roman poets found the idea of magic congenial. Vergil and
Horace followed especially the example of Theocritus. In the Eighth
Eclogue Vergil recorded an incantation to recover Daphnis, implying
that it was successful; and in the Aeneid he told of Dido's employing a
Massylian priestess to help her retain Aeneas, but he indicated clearly
that Dido's attempt was doomed to fail and was intended only to ob-
scure her plan of suicide. Horace in an Epode pictured Canidia and
her fellow witches torturing a boy, in order that his liver and marrow
might help Canidia regain her lover. One of his Satires pictured the
same witches in a graveyard collecting their gruesome materials, but he
did not indicate their purpose.
Ovid in his treatise on cosmetics alluded to witchcraft as a means
of retaining love. In the Epistle of Hypsipyle he discussed the idea at
greater length, taking suggestions both from Vergil and from Horace.
The queen of Lemnos accused Medea of winning Jason by the use of
magic and spoke of her as visiting burial places by night, in order to
collect materials for her nefarious art. In the tale of Aeson, Ovid now
planned to deal at still greater length with Medea's use of magic, and he
proceeded to draw many suggestions from his Greek and Roman prede-
cessors.
Although ancient poets believed that magic could be practised any-
where, certain regions were famous for it. One region was Thessaly.
There Chiron had resided and had taught Aesculapius and others the
use of potent herbs. There Medea had dealt in magic when she plotted
against Pelias. By Ovid's time the country appears to have acquired a
fame for witchcraft in general, which Lucan commemorated afterwards
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK SEVEN
in his Pharsalia. Thessaly was auspicious for the scene of a new story
of Medea and the process of magic.
Theocritus had told of Simaetha pronouncing her incantation
under the light of a full moon. Following his example, Vergil spoke of
the Massylian priestess as gathering herbs under a full moon. He noted
also that, when she performed magic rites, her hair was streaming down
her back. He observed that Dido, when she performed such rites, was
dressed in flowing robes and had one foot bare. Ovid followed Vergil.
Medea delayed her gathering of herbs until the moon shone full, and she
went forth with her hair streaming over her shoulders and with flowing
robes. Ovid added that her foot was bare, and, although his phrase was
ambiguous, he seems to have meant that one foot was covered and the
other bare.
Theocritus had contrasted briefly the peace of nature with the
wakeful activity of Simaetha. Horace in his Epode made a similar brief
contrast between the repose of wild creatures in the forest and the fierce
zeal of Canidia invoking the deities who preside over witchcraft. And
Vergil in a very beautiful passage had pictured the calm of night and
the unsleeping sorrow of Dido. Ovid showed the influence of all three.
He contrasted the peace of nature with the wakeful activity of Medea;
he showed her choosing this quiet hour for an invocation of the deities
governing witchcraft; and he described at some length the calm of night.
But the details of his description were as original as they were beautiful.
Theocritus had pictured Simaetha as performing each of her rites
three times. Vergil in his Eighth Eclogue noted a similar threefold repe-
tition and added that by such uneven numbers the deity is pleased. Ac-
cordingly Ovid observed that Medea turned about three times, sprinkled
her hair three times with water taken from a flowing stream, and uttered
three wailing cries. Simaetha, according to Theocritus, had invoked the
goddess Hecate. Vergil's Massylian priestess invoked threefold Hecate,
the triple-faced maiden Diana, alluding picturesquely to the idea that
Hecate, Diana, and the Moon (Luna) were three manifestations of the
same goddess. Canidia in Horace's Epode invoked Night and also
Diana, who presides at the hour when mysterious rites are performed.
Ovid combined freely ideas taken from Vergil and Horace. Medea ad-
dressed both three-headed Hecate and Night, but it was Night to whom
she attributed the care of mysterious rites.
Simaetha had invoked vaguely the other deities associated with
night and the Lower World. The Massylian priestess addressed speci-
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? AESON REJUVENATED
fically Erebus, Chaos, and other divinities, three hundred in all. Ovid
showed Medea, too, invoking the deities associated with night. But she
named also Earth and the many forces of nature -- appropriately, for
these would be potent in furnishing her magic herbs. In this way Ovid
obtained an unusually impressive list. He did not mention any deities
associated exclusively with the Lower World because later Medea would
invoke their special aid to save Aeson from the imminence of death.
From impressive enumeration of deities Medea passed to the theme
of reversing natural law. This had been a favorite subject of ancient
poetry. Euripides had treated it first in a chorus of his Medea. So
great, he said, was the injustice done the heroine that it would seem to
be impossible -- one could now imagine all the laws of nature giving way
to their opposites. Theocritus and Horace used the same idea, and in
the Tristia, Ovid was to associate it with the disloyalty of a trusted
friend. Vergil in his First Eclogue gave the theme a new direction.
Speaking of a certain act which had not occurred, he declared that its
occurrence was impossible -- one could imagine as easily a reversal of
nature. Propertius followed his example, and Ovid was soon to follow
it in the Ibis.
In all these instances ancient authors had considered the possibility
that laws of nature might give way.
was probable that she would review her problem in dramatic meditation.
It was possible to reserve explanations for the accompanying narrative.
In the Heroides Ovid had shown his heroines meditating unhappily
about past events, but in the soliloquy of Medea he would picture a more
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? JASON AND MEDEA
dramatic situation. Medea would consider her course in the future and
would hesitate between prudence and passion. To Ovid it suggested the
idea of a debate. Euripides in a number of dramas, one of them his
Medea, had shown two characters presenting the two sides of an im-
portant moral issue. Vergil had followed his example in a conversation
between Dido and Anna, and in Vergil's tale the issue lay between duty
and love. Euripides had gone a step further. In his Meleager he showed
Althaea herself presenting both sides of a moral issue, duty to her
brothers conflicting with duty to her son (cf. Bk. 8). Ovid followed
both Vergil and Euripides. He pictured Medea debating the opposite
claims of duty and love and herself presenting both sides of the issue.
For the material used in the soliloquy Ovid drew chiefly on Apol-
lonius, but he introduced important ideas suggested by Euripides and
Vergil.
Medea guessed, he said, that a deity was overcoming her resistance.
Naively she wondered if the strange experience could be love. Then she
tried to calm her agitation. It was neither reasonable to feel such anxiety
for a stranger nor in accord with maidenly modesty to entertain such a
passion. But she could not follow the course of reason. Euripides had
shown his Medea declaring that her judgment was better than her
wishes. He had shown Phaedra confessing that she knew what was best
but she did not do it. Ovid imagined his Medea as stating the case with
even more tragic clarity: "I see the better course, and I approve it; I
follow the worse. "
Medea reflected that, if she was going to love a man, he ought to be
a Colchian. She added quickly, however, that only a heartless person
could be indifferent to Jason's merit and his imminent peril; and she
mentioned the fiery bulls, the warriors, and the unsleeping dragon. Dido
had accused Aeneas of being so cruel that he must have been nursed by
Hyrcanian tigresses. Medea stated the thought even more emphatically.
To be indifferent, she would have to be the offspring of a tigress. But
pity without action would be of no avail. She must betray her father and
become liable to punishment for treason.
Jason might treat her with ingratitude. He might sail away indif-
ferent to her fate and marry a princess of Greece. Medea recoiled indig-
nantly at the thought of his preferring another woman to her, who had
sacrificed so much for his sake, and held it better for him to perish at
once. Under the circumstances these reflections were natural; but Ovid
also expected his readers to know that, after returning to Greece, Jason
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK SEVEN
really showed ingratitude of this kind and Medea resented it in a still
more terrible way. At the moment, Ovid continued, Medea rejected the
thought of Jason's proving ungrateful. According to Apollonius, Jason
had inferred from Medea's appearance that she would act graciously.
Ovid attributed a similar inference to Medea. Jason's expression, his
noble mind, his gracious appearance assured her that he would be hon-
orable and appreciative. The Manual had spoken of Medea as requiring
him to promise in advance that he would make her his wife. Ovid showed
her devising this plan as further reassurance against her fear. She then
reflected on the advantages which would be hers in such a marriage.
She should have the profound gratitude of Jason and his people. Her
future husband would feel always that he owed his life to her kindness;
the Greek matrons would acclaim her as the preserver of their sons.
Medea hesitated again at the sacrifice which her departure would
require. She must leave sister, brother, father, gods, and native land.
But the loss did not appear too great. Her brother was an infant, her
father was a ferocious man, her land was barbarous, and Love, the great-
est god, was in her breast. Apollonius had noted that Chalciope urged
Medea to help the Argonauts, in order to protect the sons of Phrixus.
Ovid added, therefore, that Medea's sister was favorable to her project.
But in the new context this implied that she favored her marrying Jason
-- an improbable idea and a strange reason for leaving her with equa-
nimity. Apollonius had told how Medea grieved at departing from her
mother and how she left a tress of hair as an affectionate memento. In
the Epistle of Medea, Ovid had spoken of her as forsaking a loved
mother. But in the Metamorphoses he ignored this idea because he did
not wish to confuse the issue between prudence and passion. Euripides,
presenting the view of Jason, had observed that when Medea left bar-
barous Colchis, she obtained in compensation an acquaintance with the
famous cities of civilized Greece. Ovid pictured Medea as herself, look-
ing forward to this compensation. And he added --- rather without war-
rant -- that even before the coming of the Argo, the fame of the Greek
cities had spread to Colchis. But her greatest comfort would be such a
husband as Jason. Ovid imagined her as repeating the idea of Apol-
lonius that she should be called loved of the gods and echoing the famous
phrase of Horace that with her head she should touch the stars.
Still another deterrent occurred to Medea, the mysterious perils of
the sea. Since the Colchians had a fleet of ships, it might be possible for
her to know something of those perils which were most famous. Ovid
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? JASON AND MEDEA
showed Medea speaking vaguely of the Symplegades, of Charybdis, and
of Scylla barking in Sicilian waters and so alluding unconsciously to
the chief perils that she was soon to encounter. Ovid did not attempt to
give a clear description of their nature because he planned to do this
later. In the speech of Pythagoras (Bk. 15) he would have occasion to
mention the Symplegades as mountains which originally kept dashing
together with high flung spray but which afterwards became immovable.
And he was to deal with Charybdis and Scylla in his account of Aeneas.
Medea reassured herself on this point also. With Jason protecting her
she could have no fear, unless it were for the safety of her husband.
Vergil had spoken of Dido as hesitating between duty and love and
then declaring emphatically that she would follow duty, and later he had
spoken of her as using the term "marriage" for her relations to Aeneas
and with a good name covering sin. Both passages influenced Ovid in the
conclusion of Medea's soliloquy. Medea had spoken of fearing for her
husband. The word brought a sudden revulsion of feeling. She re-
proached herself for giving the name marriage to her intended relations
and for using a specious name to hide her sin. In horror she bade herself,
while it still was possible, to shun the crime. Ovid indicated the moment
when reason prevailed and love defeated was on the point of flight.
In a passage of only sixty lines, Ovid had presented well the issue
before Medea, he had awakened sympathetic interest in his heroine, and
without sacrificing probability he had given his readers a surprise. After
drifting far in accordance both with the traditional story and with self-
indulgent passion, Medea had been able to draw back and resolve to
follow reason and virtue.
Ovid came now to the meeting at the temple of Hecate. Apollonius
had given a picturesque description of Medea as she drove out in her
chariot, with twelve handmaidens attending. Ovid, intent on her con-
flicting motives, had no time for such decorative detail. Medea went
forth to the temple, he said, strong in her righteous resolve.
Dido had been unable to keep her resolution. When she met Aeneas
at the cave, love returned with overwhelming force. A similar fate Ovid
imagined in the case of Medea. When she met Jason at the temple, love
revived, she reddened and grew pale. Improving on a hint of Apollonius,
Ovid compared her love to a tiny spark, which lies hidden in the ashes
and which a breath of wind revives in all its previous flame. So Medea's
passion, all but dead, blazed up at the sight of Jason. Ovid spoke of this
as natural, because Jason appeared even more attractive than usual.
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK SEVEN
For the early part of the interview, Ovid followed Apollonius. He
pictured the abashed silence of Medea, and he said that Jason spoke
first, requesting her aid. In the Epistle of Medea Ovid had declared that
Jason not only offered marriage but promised it of his own accord. In
the Metamorphoses, Ovid repeated the circumstance and then made an
important innovation. Medea, bursting into tears, confessed that she
did wrong and knew it, because she was overcome by love. Although
Ovid habitually had made it clear that his evil characters did wrong de-
liberately, he never before had shown one of them admitting it. After-
wards he showed another example in the story of Myrrha (Bk. 10).
Medea then assured Jason that she would help him. She urged him to
remember his promise. Regarding the moral issue of Medea's betraying
her father and her country, Jason was silent. Euripides had emphasized
the idea that he was willing to profit by Medea's crimes. Ovid may have
assumed that his readers would be familiar with the passage and would
notice how on this important occasion Jason made no attempt either to
assure her that she was doing right or to dissuade her from doing wrong.
Ovid noted that Jason swore to be faithful, and he emphasized the sol-
emnity of the oath.
The rest of that day, according to Apollonius, had been uneventful
and the next day had been given to obtaining the dragon's teeth and
performing certain weird rites essential to the effect of the charm, so
that it was not until the dawn of the third day that Jason undertook the
required labors. But Ovid omitted the intervening circumstances and
assigned the labors to the second day.
In regard to the setting Ovid followed Apollonius. He told how the
spectators looked on from the hills above and how King Aeetes sat
among them in all his regal state. For the details of the conflict Ovid
drew on his own imagination. Briefly and vividly he recorded the ap-
proach of the bulls, the alarm of the Argonauts, the intrepid courage of
Jason. Ovid imagined the charm as able not only to protect Jason but
also to subdue the bulls. After stroking their dewlaps, Jason harnessed
them to the plow and began cultivating the field.
Indicating the excitement of the spectators, Ovid proceeded to his
planting of the formidable teeth. He spoke of them as dipped in poison,
probably because the Theban dragon was supposed to have a poisonous
bite. When covered with the earth, he continued, the teeth swelled and,
before emerging, they assumed the complete human form, just as a child
assumes the complete human form before leaving the womb. In the tale
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? JASON AND MEDEA
of Cadmus, Ovid had pictured the warriors rising slowly from the ground,
and so he did not repeat the description here. Appearing fully armed,
he said, they levelled their spears at Jason and filled the Greeks with
alarm for their leader. In the Epistle of Medea he had declared that
Jason took no part in the combat, and he now repeated this idea. The
Argonauts rejoiced and embraced their victorious chief, and Ovid added,
not very happily, that, if Medea had not feared publicity, she would
have followed their example.
Assuming that his readers would remember how Aeetes refused to
give up the Fleece, Ovid proceeded immediately to the encounter with
the dragon. Pindar had mentioned the creature's gleaming eyes and
speckled back. Apollonius had noted its keen eyes, myriad coils, hard
dry scales, and fear-inspiring hiss. Ovid in the Epistle of Medea had
spoken of the dragon as hissing and rattling its scales. In the Meta-
morphoses he gave a different description, suggested in one detail by
Vergil's Georgics. The tongue of a serpent is divided into two parts,
which move rapidly about the jaws in order to catch vibrations of sound.
This twofold division Ovid mentioned later in his tale of Achelous and
Hercules (Bk. 9). Vergil described a serpent's tongue as divided into
three parts, an idea which became general with Roman poets. Ovid re-
ferred to the Colchian dragon as conspicuous by reason of its crest,
hooked fangs, and triple tongue.
Apollonius had supposed that Medea sprinkled the dragon with
Lethaean juice and chanted a magic spell. Ovid had followed him in the
Heroides, but in the Metamorphoses he attributed the act to Jason and
so gave a further impression of his courage. Apollonius and the Manual
had spoken of the Golden Fleece as hung from the limbs of an oak. Pre-
sumably Ovid agreed with them; but, using an ambiguous phrase, he
told of the dragon's watching over a golden tree.
The rest of the story had nothing valuable for Ovid's present pur-
pose. Although he had shown Medea committing treason for the sake of
love, he was anxious to keep the reader's sympathy with her and there-
fore could say nothing about the traditional murder of Absyrtus. The
chief perils met in the return voyage he was reserving for his account of
Aeneas. Of Jason and Medea he said only that at last they came safely
to Iolcus.
In Ovid's narrative the most novel and dramatic incident had been
the soliloquy of the Colchian princess -- her debating whether she would
betray her father for the sake of the Greek hero. Impressed by the
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK SEVEN
effectiveness of his innovation, Ovid imitated it in many subsequent tales
of the Metamorphoses. In all these tales a heroine at a critical point
debated her future conduct, and in each there was still further resem-
blance to the soliloquy of Medea. Atalanta too, would have found it
expedient to let the hero incur his fate (Bk. 10). Byblis (Bk. 9) and
Myrrha (Bk. 10) debated a grave moral issue. Scylla (Bk. 8) pondered
the question whether she would betray her father for the sake of love.
Althaea (Bk. 8) and Iphis (Bk. 9) ended with a resolve to follow duty.
But despite essential likeness Ovid contrived so to vary the circum-
stances as to make every soliliquy interesting and distinct.
Within brief compass Ovid had given a good story of the events in
Colchis and had presented Medea as an interesting romantic heroine.
Although later authors dealing with the subject made some use of mate-
rial in Ovid's other poetry and in the work of Roman authors after his
time, they found the Metamorphoses their most available and most im-
portant source of information.
Several leading poets used Ovid while treating the whole story of
the Argo. Valerius Flaccus showed his influence in a new Argonautica.
Both Lope de Vega and Corneille followed him in their plays called The
Golden Fleece, and Calderon treated similar material in his drama, The
Three Greatest Prodigies.
Other poets were content with brief allusion to the Argo or to the
Fleece. Petrarch declared even Jason's ship inferior to the one which
carried Laura. Marlowe suggested that, if Leander's hair had been
transported to the shore of Colchos, it would have persuaded the Greek
heroes to hazard more than they ventured for the Fleece. Shakespeare
observed in The Merchant of Venice that Portia's sunny locks
Hang on her temples like a golden fleece,
Which makes her seat of Belmont Colchos' strand,
And many Jasons come in quest of her.
Still other poets, following Ovid, treated of the events in Colchis.
Remembering that Valerius Flaccus had given Jason an adventure at
Troy, Benoit de St. Maure commenced his Roman de Troie with a long
account of Jason's Colchian experiences. In accord with the practice
of medieval romance, he showed Medea aggressively courting Jason. He
also changed many of Ovid's details. The Italian Guido della Colonna
and the Germans Herbort von Fritzlar and Conrad von Wiirtemburg
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? JASON AND MEDEA
regarded these alterations of detail as a mistake and while translating
Benoit's poem they were careful to reject most of his innovations. Jean
de Meun retold Ovid's tale in the Romance of the Rose. Spenser imag-
ined that the story of Jason and Medea was carved in ivory on Acrasia's
gate.
Many poets showed particular interest in the love story of Jason
and Medea. Chretien de Troyes in Sir Cliges pictured Loredamor as
falling in love under circumstances resembling those of Medea and as
reflecting in a similar monologue that reason was of no avail against
love. His heroine Fenice pondered in a monologue the danger that Cliges
might deceive her and decided, like Medea, that his appearance and man-
ner justified perfect confidence. Fenice also had a nurse, Thessala, who
knew more witchcraft than Medea. Chaucer in his Legend of Good
Women used chiefly the Heroides and later versions than Ovid's; but he
too remembered that Medea was reassured by Jason's appearance and
bearing. In the Knight's Tale he referred to love as inspiring the en-
chantments of Circe and Medea. Tasso described the enchantress
Armida as excelling in beauty both Medea and Circe.
The circumstances under which Medea yielded to temptation in-
terested a number of the greatest poets. Ovid had shown her stating
clearly, both in her soliloquy and in her interview with Jason, that she
knowingly did wrong. The first of these statements had the more obvious
effect. Cowper used it as the text for a poem against the slave trade.
Petrarch, reflecting that he ought to renounce love and worldly glory,
confessed that he too saw the better way and followed the worse. Ariosto
echoed the same idea in a sonnet. In Paradise Regained Milton showed
Satan observing that most men admire virtue who follow not her lore.
Both of Medea's declarations appear to have made a deep impression
on Shakespeare and to have influenced the method by which he pre-
sented his three chief villains, Richard Third, Iago, and Edmund. Early
in the play he gave each of these arch plotters a soliloquy in which the
villain meditated on his future conduct and stated clearly that he under-
stood the wicked nature of his plans. But Shakespeare did not attempt
to enlist the reader's sympathy for the evil character.
Ovid had said that Medea's passion revived as a tiny spark is
kindled by a breath of wind. This detail attracted later poets. When
Dante asked Cacciaguida to tell him of old-time Florence, the spirit
brightened with joy, as if a breath of wind should kindle a spark into
flame. And, according to Ariosto, love for Medore began in Angelica's
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK SEVEN
heart as a tiny spark and kindled into a flame so fierce that she burned
with desire.
Several poets recalled the labors of Jason. Dante in his Paradiso
mentioned the wonder of the Argonauts when they saw their leader suc-
cessfully plowing the field. Boiardo told of Orlando's yoking furious
bulls and killing a crop of armed men, and of Mandricardo's reaping
still another magic crop. He showed Angelica providing her lover with
the means of overcoming a monster. Lucan compared the strife of
Caesar's troops on the raft to that of the earthborn warriors crazed by
Medea's herbs. Spenser, remembering both Horace and Ovid, observed
in his Ruins of Rome that Roman armies grew up as readily as the war-
riors planted by Jason and perished as disastrously by civil strife.
Ariosto noted that, if Doralice had not feared publicity, she would have
joined in celebrating the victory of Rogero. But his imitation was more
temperate and more appropriate than the original. Shakespeare, con-
fusing the hydra with the Colchian dragon, declared in the Second Part
of Henry Fourth that dangerous eyes of the Hydra, war, may be
charmed asleep.
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? AESON REJUVENATED
Aeson Rejuvenated
When Jason and his followers arrived in Iolcus, Ovid continued,
the fathers and mothers of Jason's followers held a celebration in their
honor, offering to the gods incense and a victim with gilded horns. The
parents of Jasons did not share in the public rejoicing. Following the
Theogony, Ovid supposed that Aeson still was alive, but he described
him as old, feeble, and almost dead. For Jason, his father's absence
marred the joy of the festival, and it occasioned his plea that Medea
might prolong old Aeson's life.
Many savage peoples have regarded fire as a potent remedy for the
evil influences which cause blight, disease, old age, and death. At the
annual festivals commemorating Hallowe'en -- the beginning of win-
ter, and Beltane -- the beginning of summer, they purified their villages
with ceremonial fires and drove their cattle through the flames. At the
birth of a child they often arranged for exposing the infant to the fire,
in order that he might have long life, an idea which entered into the
Greek myth of Triptolemus (Bk. 5).
Exposure to fire was considered beneficial in a similar way for per-
sons of riper years. An African tribe near Mt. Kilimanjaro habitually
attempted by the following ceremony to give their chieftains length of
days. At dawn the wizard caused a trench to be dug in the ground and
the chieftain and his favorite wife to lie down in it, side by side. Over
the trench, poles were laid and were covered with banana bark and soil.
Then the hearthstones of the chieftain were set above his head, a fire was
kindled among them, and food was boiled in a caldron for his relatives
and friends. And in this manner he was baked until evening.
Even more remarkable treatments by fire were recorded in popular
mythology. According to a story current among the Papuans of Dutch
New Guinea, a certain magician, finding his wife displeased at his being
old and ugly, built a fire, flung himself on it, and came forth young and
attractive. According to folk tales popular in many European coun-
tries, either Christ or Satan burned some aged man in a forge and so
restored him to his youthful prime. In other mythical tales the same
result was obtained by boiling the man in a caldron of magic herbs.
Often the old man's body had first to be cut to pieces. This was reported,
for example, by the Shans of Lakon in Cambodia. By such mincing and
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK SEVEN
boiling, they declared, a very old, decrepit prince was transformed into
a perfect beau. In other cases the old man was killed but not cut up and
then was boiled and restored to his youth. This method was described in
another Cambodian myth and also in the Greek myth of Medea and
Aeson.
The rejuvenating of Aeson was mentioned in an early epic called
Returns. According to this authority, Medea boiled numerous drugs in
golden caldrons and metamorphosed Aeson from an old man into an
attractive lad of fifteen. Presumably she did this by immersing his body
in at least one of the caldrons. An unknown Alexandrian scholar, who
wrote a preface to the Medea of Euripides, referred to Medea's power of
rejuvenation and quoted three lines from the Returns. This brief refer-
ence gave Ovid the hint from which he developed his remarkable tale.
Ovid invented the conversation between Jason and Medea. Before
making his request, he observed, Jason admitted that already Medea
had saved his life and had conferred benefits exceeding all his hopes. But
he now desired her to give one more favor -- to shorten by a few years
his own appointed length of life and to prolong by the same amount the
life of his father. Medea was impressed by his pious regard and still
more impressed when she compared it with her own neglect of Aeetes.
Ovid seems to imply that in benefiting Jason's father she hoped to make
some atonement for deserting her own.
But first she deprecated the method which Jason had proposed.
Medea began with the reproach used often by characters of the Iliad,
"What an evil thought has escaped from your mouth! " It would be
wrong, she continued, to help another by shortening her husband's life,
and she could not bring herself to do so. It would even be impossible.
Jason had expressed the belief that spells could accomplish anything.
She declared that Hecate would not allow them to do him such wrong.
Medea would try in some other, less costly manner to prolong the days
of Aeson.
Tradition had suggested a magic process which included the use of
mysterious herbs. Ovid saw here a chance to deal at some length with
the strange, uncanny ways of magic. The theme has interested many
savage and partly civilized peoples. Certain persons have been thought
to control supernatural powers and by their help to accomplish seem-
ingly impossible feats. Among savages a knowledge of magic was
attributed usually to men, but among partly civilized peoples it was
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? AESON REJUVENATED
attributed oftener to women, and this has been the prevalent idea in
literature.
The theme of magic attracted frequent attention of Greek authors.
The Odyssey included a famous account of the enchantress Circe.
Many Greek writers associated magic prominently with the stories
of Triptolemus and Medea, and in the latter tale they sometimes
had treated briefly of gathering materials. Sophocles and Apollonius
told of Medea's obtaining the Promethean herb which protected Jason,
and Sophocles in his play the Root Cutters told of her collecting certain
materials in order to deceive the daughters of Pelias. Theocritus had
made the subject of magic very famous by recording the incantation
with which Simaetha tried to regain her unfaithful lover.
Roman poets found the idea of magic congenial. Vergil and
Horace followed especially the example of Theocritus. In the Eighth
Eclogue Vergil recorded an incantation to recover Daphnis, implying
that it was successful; and in the Aeneid he told of Dido's employing a
Massylian priestess to help her retain Aeneas, but he indicated clearly
that Dido's attempt was doomed to fail and was intended only to ob-
scure her plan of suicide. Horace in an Epode pictured Canidia and
her fellow witches torturing a boy, in order that his liver and marrow
might help Canidia regain her lover. One of his Satires pictured the
same witches in a graveyard collecting their gruesome materials, but he
did not indicate their purpose.
Ovid in his treatise on cosmetics alluded to witchcraft as a means
of retaining love. In the Epistle of Hypsipyle he discussed the idea at
greater length, taking suggestions both from Vergil and from Horace.
The queen of Lemnos accused Medea of winning Jason by the use of
magic and spoke of her as visiting burial places by night, in order to
collect materials for her nefarious art. In the tale of Aeson, Ovid now
planned to deal at still greater length with Medea's use of magic, and he
proceeded to draw many suggestions from his Greek and Roman prede-
cessors.
Although ancient poets believed that magic could be practised any-
where, certain regions were famous for it. One region was Thessaly.
There Chiron had resided and had taught Aesculapius and others the
use of potent herbs. There Medea had dealt in magic when she plotted
against Pelias. By Ovid's time the country appears to have acquired a
fame for witchcraft in general, which Lucan commemorated afterwards
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK SEVEN
in his Pharsalia. Thessaly was auspicious for the scene of a new story
of Medea and the process of magic.
Theocritus had told of Simaetha pronouncing her incantation
under the light of a full moon. Following his example, Vergil spoke of
the Massylian priestess as gathering herbs under a full moon. He noted
also that, when she performed magic rites, her hair was streaming down
her back. He observed that Dido, when she performed such rites, was
dressed in flowing robes and had one foot bare. Ovid followed Vergil.
Medea delayed her gathering of herbs until the moon shone full, and she
went forth with her hair streaming over her shoulders and with flowing
robes. Ovid added that her foot was bare, and, although his phrase was
ambiguous, he seems to have meant that one foot was covered and the
other bare.
Theocritus had contrasted briefly the peace of nature with the
wakeful activity of Simaetha. Horace in his Epode made a similar brief
contrast between the repose of wild creatures in the forest and the fierce
zeal of Canidia invoking the deities who preside over witchcraft. And
Vergil in a very beautiful passage had pictured the calm of night and
the unsleeping sorrow of Dido. Ovid showed the influence of all three.
He contrasted the peace of nature with the wakeful activity of Medea;
he showed her choosing this quiet hour for an invocation of the deities
governing witchcraft; and he described at some length the calm of night.
But the details of his description were as original as they were beautiful.
Theocritus had pictured Simaetha as performing each of her rites
three times. Vergil in his Eighth Eclogue noted a similar threefold repe-
tition and added that by such uneven numbers the deity is pleased. Ac-
cordingly Ovid observed that Medea turned about three times, sprinkled
her hair three times with water taken from a flowing stream, and uttered
three wailing cries. Simaetha, according to Theocritus, had invoked the
goddess Hecate. Vergil's Massylian priestess invoked threefold Hecate,
the triple-faced maiden Diana, alluding picturesquely to the idea that
Hecate, Diana, and the Moon (Luna) were three manifestations of the
same goddess. Canidia in Horace's Epode invoked Night and also
Diana, who presides at the hour when mysterious rites are performed.
Ovid combined freely ideas taken from Vergil and Horace. Medea ad-
dressed both three-headed Hecate and Night, but it was Night to whom
she attributed the care of mysterious rites.
Simaetha had invoked vaguely the other deities associated with
night and the Lower World. The Massylian priestess addressed speci-
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? AESON REJUVENATED
fically Erebus, Chaos, and other divinities, three hundred in all. Ovid
showed Medea, too, invoking the deities associated with night. But she
named also Earth and the many forces of nature -- appropriately, for
these would be potent in furnishing her magic herbs. In this way Ovid
obtained an unusually impressive list. He did not mention any deities
associated exclusively with the Lower World because later Medea would
invoke their special aid to save Aeson from the imminence of death.
From impressive enumeration of deities Medea passed to the theme
of reversing natural law. This had been a favorite subject of ancient
poetry. Euripides had treated it first in a chorus of his Medea. So
great, he said, was the injustice done the heroine that it would seem to
be impossible -- one could now imagine all the laws of nature giving way
to their opposites. Theocritus and Horace used the same idea, and in
the Tristia, Ovid was to associate it with the disloyalty of a trusted
friend. Vergil in his First Eclogue gave the theme a new direction.
Speaking of a certain act which had not occurred, he declared that its
occurrence was impossible -- one could imagine as easily a reversal of
nature. Propertius followed his example, and Ovid was soon to follow
it in the Ibis.
In all these instances ancient authors had considered the possibility
that laws of nature might give way.
