Ovid gave the mother a
different
transformation, suggested
probably by that of the nymph Cyane (Bk.
probably by that of the nymph Cyane (Bk.
Ovid - 1934 - Metamorphoses in European Culture - v2
hathitrust.
org/access_use#pd-google
? PELIAS AND MEDEA'S FLIGHT TO ATHENS
Pelias and Medea's Flight to Athens
In the tale of Aeson, Ovid treated a popular belief that by judicious
use of fire it is possible to make an old man young. In the story which
followed, Ovid was concerned with an idea related so closely to belief in
rejuvenation by fire that many popular tales deal first with one and then
with the other.
The European folk stories which tell how Christ or Satan restored
an old person by treating him either in a forge or in a caldron, tell often
how some bungler tried later to imitate the magic process but was un-
successful. Other popular tales record how the magician himself first
rejuvenated some old person but later was urged to perform another
miracle for the benefit of someone with whom he was displeased, and how
he intentionally failed. According to the Shans of Lakon in Cambodia,
the decrepit old prince was not content with his transformation to a
beau but insisted on a repetition of the treatment, hoping in this way to
become still more attractive. The magician, angered at his persistence,
again cut him to pieces and laid him in a caldron but did not apply the
magic process. In still other popular tales the magician first gave a
demonstration of his power by rejuvenating an animal. According to
another Cambodian myth, a Brahmin restored a dog and then tried the
experiment, unsuccessfully, with a human being.
Greek tradition recorded a similar myth about the wicked King
Pelias. The tale ran usually as follows. Not content with usurping the
throne of Iolcus and sending Jason in quest of the Fleece, Pelias re-
solved to kill his brother, Aeson. The latter, feeling that he could not
escape, drank poison. His wife committed suicide, and Pelias murdered
their infant son, Promachus. When Jason returned from Colchis, he at
first was unable to punish the crime. He delivered the Fleece to Pelias,
dedicated the Argo in Neptune's grove at Corinth, and settled once more
in Iolcus. Then he appealed for aid to Medea. She took advantage of
the fact that Pelias had become old and feeble. Informing his daughters
that it was possible to restore his youth, she won their confidence by a
demonstration with a ram. She cut the animal to pieces, boiled it in her
caldron of herbs, and metamorphosed it into a lamb. By her advice the
daughters minced and boiled their father. But this time the caldron
held nothing but ordinary water. Acastus, son of Pelias, tried to punish
Jason and Medea, but they escaped by fleeing to Corinth.
109
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-26 11:21 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015005276665 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK SEVEN
Pindar alluded to the tale, Sophocles treated it in his Root Cutters,
and Euripides made it the theme of his Daughters of Pelias and men-
tioned it prominently in his Medea. The Manual told the tale in full,
naming four daughters of the king. Greek vase painters imagined that
Medea persuaded Pelias, as well as his daughters. They showed the king
and two of the princesses looking on with surprise and joy, while Medea
brought forth a lamb from her caldron.
Among earlier Roman authors the story appears to have been well
known. In Cicero's dialogue On Old Age, Cato declared that he would
not be tempted by such a boon as Medea promised to confer on Pelias.
He would not desire to regain youth by sacrificing all the experience of a
long life. Propertius alluded to the death of Pelias in Medea's caldron.
And Ovid in his Epistle of Medea spoke of the daughters cutting their
father to pieces.
In the Metamorphoses, Ovid rejected the first part of the story.
With the Theogony and the Returns he imagined that, when Jason re-
visited Iolcus, Aeson was still alive. Pelias suffered not for the murder
but for his earlier acts of hostility. Ovid said nothing of Jason's inciting
his wife against Pelias. According to the Medea of Euripides, Jason
took no part in the treacherous murder, but he knew Medea's purpose
and was willing to profit by the crime. He would not play false and yet
would wrongly win. Following Euripides, Ovid implied that Medea took
the initiative and that Jason was careful not to interfere.
For the deception of Pelias's daughters, Ovid elaborated and im-
proved the incidents given by the Manual. Medea, he said, pretended to
quarrel with Jason and took refuge in the palace of the king. Because
of age and infirmity, Pelias had left the management of his household to
his children, and Ovid, following the Manual, implied that Acastus hap-
pened to be absent, leaving the four daughters in charge. Deceived by
Medea's pretense, they entertained her hospitably and gave her a chance
to continue her plot. According to the Manual, Medea had offered to
rejuvenate the king. Ovid supposed that she was more cautious and
allowed the suggestion to come from the daughters. Beginning with the
idea of rejuvenation in general, she proceeded to tell at some length of
her recent success with Aeson. The daughters then urged her to confer
a similar blessing on Pelias and offered to give any reward that she might
ask. Still careful to disarm suspicion, Medea hesitated for a while and
then offered to give a preliminary demonstration with a ram. Let them
choose the oldest of their flock.
110
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-26 11:21 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015005276665 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? PELIAS AND MEDEA'S FLIGHT TO ATHENS
Since Ovid had told in the previous story of Medea's collecting
herbs and of her incantations, he proceeded immediately to the treat-
ment of the animal. The tottering old ram was brought to the caldron.
As before in the case of Aeson, Medea did not cut the body to pieces but
merely severed the throat. This gave Ovid another chance to indicate
the senility of the ram. Vergil in the Georgics had observed that animals
exhausted by the plague would hardly stain the sacrificial knife with their
blood. To such a pass, Ovid continued, age alone had brought this feeble
ram. Yet the potent herbs soon had their effect. Ovid pictured the result
and told humorously of the lamb which jumped out of the caldron and
frisked about in search of his mother. The daughters now were even more
eager to have Medea undertake the rejuvenation of their father.
For the circumstances of the king's death Ovid probably took
suggestions from the Root Cutters of Sophocles. Without warning the
father of their intent, the daughters made their plans. They waited three
days -- a magic number. On the night following, Medea prepared her
caldron. Tradition had spoken of her as using merely water. Ovid
imagined plausibly that she added some herbs without potency. Then
magically she lulled Pelias and his guards to sleep.
At Medea's bidding, the daughters gathered with drawn swords
about their father's couch. By this extraordinary method they felt sure
of delivering their loved father from infirmity and approaching death.
Yet they hesitated, reluctant to strike. Medea was obliged to urge them
on. In the name of filial piety she besought them to let out their father's
exhausted blood and to drive away his grievous old age. The more dutiful
they were, the more quickly they would respond to such an appeal. Ovid
noted the tragic fact but unwisely diverted the reader's attention with
an ill-timed play on words. As each is filial, he said, she is the first to be
unfilial, and in order to avoid being criminal she commits the crime. Even
so, the girls could not bear to see their father bleed. They turned away
and struck blindly with their swords.
Although old Pelias had been lulled to sleep, he wakened with the
pain and found his own daughters mangling him with their bloody swords.
He tried feebly to rise and cried out at their unnatural cruelty. Ovid
softened the traditional horror of the catastrophe. The daughters, he
said, lost their courage and ceased. It was Medea who killed old Pelias
and plunged his body into the caldron.
Ovid already had made it clear that for Pelias there was no recov-
ery. He passed at once to the events which followed. Having said noth-
111
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-26 11:21 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015005276665 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK SEVEN
ing of Acastus, Ovid did not introduce him as the one who tried to punish
Medea. He probably assumed that his readers were acquainted with the
circumstance, but in any case they might well infer a similar attempt by
the daughters. To avoid punishment, he continued, Medea fled at once,
and he added that she was obliged to use her dragon car. According to
the Medea of Euripides and the Manual, Jason accompanied his wife.
Ovid implied that he escaped later. Since Ovid had allowed the reader to
imagine that Aeson was still residing with Jason and was now enjoying
a second youth, it would appear necessary to indicate whether he too
escaped the wrath of the pursuers. But the ordinary tradition had
spoken of him as having fallen victim to Pelias. With this idea in mind,
Ovid forgot to make allowance for his own innovation.
The Phoenicians, who appear originally to have occupied the site of
Corinth, had worshipped a goddess named Medea. The Greeks who fol-
lowed them associated this older worship with Juno and identified the
Phoenician goddess, Medea, with the Colchian princess, Medea. In the
opinion of the early poets, Epimenides and Eumelus, Medea's father,
Aeetes, had been at first a ruler of Corinth and later had migrated to
Aea. When Jason and his wife left Iolcus, tradition noted their going
to Medea's ancestral kingdom of Corinth. The author of an early epic,
The Taking of Oeclialia, alluded to this belief, adding that Creon was
then ruler of the city. Subsequent authors followed his example.
Ovid observed accordingly that Medea left Iolcus in her dragon car
and flew in a southeasterly direction to Corinth. As before in the tale of
Aeson, he imagined that she soared high in air and was able to observe
below her an immense area of land and sea. This area included many
places famous for mythological events. Ovid saw a chance to mention a
number of tales which otherwise would not enter readily into his plan;
and he seized it, with less regard than usual either for consistent geogra-
phy or for his own established sequence of time. He alluded briefly to
seventeen myths, almost all of them taken from little known Alexandrian
poets. Six of these we know only from him.
Rising from Iolcus, Medea ascended above the summit of Mt. Pelion,
which had been famous as the residence of Chiron. Then, turning in the
direction of Corinth, she flew over Mt. Othrys, which had witnessed
the transformation of Cerambus into a beetle. According to Nicander,
Cerambus offended the local nymphs and was punished by metamor-
phosis. Ovid imagined rather that they desired to save him from the
flood of Deucalion's time (Bk. 1).
112
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-26 11:21 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015005276665 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? PELIAS AND MEDEA'S FLIGHT TO ATHENS
As Medea continued her flight, the coast of Asia appeared at a
great distance to her left. Ovid called attention first to the northern
part and proceeded to note places which had heen the scene of strange
events. At the Phrygian seaport of Pitane a huge snake had been turned
into stone. This was a snake petrified for trying to devour the head of
the singer Orpheus. But later, when Ovid told the story, he localized the
event at Methymna on the neighboring island of Lesbos (Bk. 11).
A little north of Pitane stood a grove on Mt. Ida. Here a son of
Bacchus had stolen a bullock, and Bacchus had concealed the theft by
transforming the animal into a stag. The same region was destined to
include the grave of Paris, who caused the Trojan War (Bk. 12) and
perished by an arrow of Philoctetes. In his youth, Paris was said to have
courted the nymph Oenone and to have become the father of Corythus.
Ovid gave him this obscure title, adding that his grave was distinguished
by a little heap of sand. In the fields near Mt. Ida a certain Maera had
become a dog. Ovid did not tell the story because he intended later to
recount a similar, but more interesting transformation of Hecuba (Bk.
Much farther south from Mt. Ida and Pitane, there were visible the
shores of Caria and the island of Cos. In this island, Hercules, when he
returned from his capture of Troy (Bk. 11), was mistaken for a pirate
and was attacked by the inhabitants. Their king, Eurypylus, fell in
battle, and their women were transformed into cows. A little south of
Cos lay the island of Rhodes, beloved of the Sun (See Leucothoe, Bk. 4).
There Ialysus and other cities were reputed to have been founded by the
Telchins. These were skilled workers in metal, but they were suspected
of causing evil by the glance of their eyes. For this reason, said Nican-
der, Jove changed them into denizens of the sea.
All these places were visible far to the left of Medea's course. To
the left also but much nearer, lay the island of Cea, just east of Attica.
From her lofty position Medea could look down on it and distinguish the
walls of Carthaea. In this town Alcidamas was to behold the transfor-
mation of his daughter, Ctesylla. According to Nicander, the gods took
her life because her father promised her in marriage to a certain youth
113
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-26 11:21 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015005276665 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK SEVEN
and then broke his promise, but at the funeral they metamorphosed the
girl's body into a dove. *
To the right of Medea's course other places were discernible, which
had been the scene of remarkable events. One of them was an Aetolian
lake, gleaming among the hills just north of the Corinthian Gulf. Ac-
cording to Nicander, this lake originally was named Conope, and it was
noted for the following story. Cycnus, a child of Apollo, and his mother,
Hyrie, lived among the neighboring hills. Cycnus, who possessed excep-
tional beauty, was courted by many suitors but repelled them with rude
indifference. A certain Phyllius persisted longer than the others but
finally abandoned the courtship. Cycnus then despaired and resolved to
kill himself. In all this the myth resembled a number of Alexandrian
tales of persons who repelled their lovers cruelly, and it resembled espe-
cially the Alexandrian accounts of Narcissus (cf. Bk. 3). But in two
respects the tale of Cycnus was different. Cycnus kept putting off
Phyllius by imposing a series of difficult tasks. At his command Phyllius
brought him first a lion, then some formidable vultures, then a savage
bull. And the denouement was unusual. Cycnus plunged into the lake
Conope; his mother, grief-stricken, followed his example; and Apollo
saved their lives by transforming them into swans. Because of this event
the name of the water afterwards was changed to Swan Lake.
Ovid, retelling the tale, confined himself to the parts which were
unusual, and he considerably improved it. He made more plausible the
boy's attempted suicide. Displeased at the continued evasion of Cycnus,
he said, Phyllius withheld the bull, and Cycnus acted in a fit of sudden
resentment.
Ovid gave the mother a different transformation, suggested
probably by that of the nymph Cyane (Bk. 5). Cycnus, he said, leaped
over a cliff. His mother, believing that he had perished, lamented until
she dissolved into a lake. And the name of this lake Ovid altered to
Hyrie, in harmony with the new event.
The idea that Phyllius might capture a wild Aetolian lion was by
no means improbable. During early prehistoric times lions were common
*The youth, whose name was Hermochares, first won Diana's assistance by the
following means. He wrote on an apple the oath, "I swear by Diana that I will marry
no one but Hermochares"; and left the fruit on an altar of the goddess. Ctesylla,
finding the apple, read the oath aloud and was regarded as under obligation to fulfill
it. Hermochares afterwards approached Alcidamas and obtained his promise, sanc-
tioned with an oath by Apollo. In the version of Nicander, these events occurred at
Carthaea, but the death and transformation took place either at the neighboring town
of Iulis or at Athens. Ovid, simplifying the account, imagined all the events as hap-
pening at Carthaea. He may have dismissed the tale briefly, because in the Heroides
he already had told a similar, but more attractive story of Acontius and Cydippe.
114
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-26 11:21 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015005276665 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? PELIAS AND MEDEA'S FLIGHT TO ATHENS
in many parts of southern Europe. During the Heroic Age they prob-
ably were to be found at least occasionally in all parts of Greece, for in
the southern district of Argolis tradition localized the adventure of
Hercules with the Nemean lion (cf. Bk. 9). And as late as the fifth cen-
tury B. C. , Herodotus tells us, they still were abundant in Macedonia
and northern Greece, including the whole region of Aetolia, and the lions
of Macedonia made havoc among the camels which bore supplies for the
great army of Xerxes. Although Cycnus lived in Aetolia, Ovid spoke of
his leaping into a vale of Tempe because the name Tempe was trans-
ferred from the Thessalian vale to other valleys of similar nature.
Not far from the lake of Hyrie, Medea could see the village of
Pleuron. There lived at one time Combe, mother of the Aetolian Curetes.
For some reason the Curetes tried to kill their mother, and she escaped
them by transformation into a bird.
Medea now was approaching the Isthmus of Corinth, a narrow,
dark strip of land dividing the luminous waters of the Corinthian Gulf
on the west from those of the Saronic Gulf on the east. Near the head of
the Saronic Gulf she could see plainly the fertile island of Calaurea,
where once a king and queen were metamorphosed into birds. Much
farther ahead and a little to the right, Medea could discern the white
peak of Mt. Cyllene in southern Greece. Within the shadow of this moun-
tain a certain Menephron afterwards committed incest with his mother.
Ovid described the guilty pair as acting in the manner of wild beasts. He
may have alluded to a mistaken idea that such animals are in the habit
of breeding with their near kindred. But probably he referred to a tra-
dition that Menephron and his mother had been transformed into wild
beasts.
Looking back over her right shoulder, Medea still could see clearly
the region of Thebes in Boeotia. There she observed the river god
Cephisus lamenting because Apollo had metamorphosed his grandson
into a seal. She saw, too, Eumelus grieving for his son Botres. Boeus
had recorded the tale as follows. While Eumelus was offering an animal
to Apollo, the child ate the creature's brain. In sudden anger Eumelus
killed him with a firebrand. Apollo, to lessen the father's remorse,
changed the son into a bird called the bee-eater.
But now Medea's dragons had finished the course and were descend-
ing to Corinth and the springs of Pirene. Here in early times men were
said to have been created from mushrooms.
Ovid could assume that his countrymen knew the traditional route
115
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-26 11:21 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015005276665 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK SEVEN
of Medea from Iolcus to Corinth. By associating it with these many
picturesque events, he gave the journey novelty and interest. But even
for his contemporaries, a number of the allusions must have been obscure
both in themselves and in their relation to Medea's flight, and for readers
unacquainted with Greek literature they were utterly bewildering.
Ovid was coming now to the most famous event in the whole tradi-
tion of Medea. It grew out of the same world-wide fairy tale which had
provided so many of the incidents in Colchis. After mentioning the
young hero's return with the enchanter's daughter, the fairy tale re-
corded that for some reason the hero forgot his many obligations to her
and arranged to marry a princess of his own country. Only at the last
moment did he recall his obligations and go back to his wife. A similar
episode occurred in the Greek tradition of Jason and Medea.
But, instead of noting that Jason returned of his own accord, the
story introduced another idea of fairy lore, the belief that a magician
could burn his enemy alive by inducing him to put on a fair-seeming robe.
In the German fairy tale of Faithful John, an enemy sent the king a
wedding robe of gold and silver, and a loyal servant preserved the king's
life by destroying the robe. If the king had put it on, he would have been
consumed with magic fire. The idea of a fatal robe occurred also in the
old Greek myth of the death of Hercules (cf. Bk. 9). In the tradition of
Medea the Colchian princess used a garment of this kind to prevent the
second marriage of Jason. She destroyed her rival with a magic wedding
robe.
Then Medea fled from Corinth. Jason followed her and became
reconciled to her. This continued to be the usual version of the tale; but
very early certain authorities imagined a different ending. Jason, they
said, did not follow Medea but resided a while in Corinth. Then one day
he fell asleep near the ship Argo, and the stern of the ship broke loose
and crushed him. Some added that Medea, knowing the ship would break
apart, treacherously persuaded him to sleep on the fatal spot.
Referring to the events in Corinth, The Taking of Oechalia men-
tioned further particulars. Medea not only destroyed the princess but
also poisoned her father, Creon. To escape the angry Corinthians, she
fled with her infants to Juno's temple. There, since the boys could not
accompany her on foot, she left them, and herself departed to Athens.
Jason's influence she thought would suffice to protect her children. But
Creon's relatives murdered the boys and then reported that Medea had
116
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-26 11:21 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015005276665 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? PELIAS AND MEDEA'S FLIGHT TO ATHENS
killed them. This account was repeated afterwards in the Manual.
Simonides, alluding to the tale, called Medea's rival Glauke.
Euripides in his tragedy Medea retold the story with remarkable
originality and power. Medea, he said, had received Jason's promise that
he always would be faithful to her. In her opinion he violated the oath
by planning to marry another woman, and he also proved indifferent to
the manifold benefits which she had conferred on him. Jason thought
otherwise. By Athenian law in the time of Euripides, a marriage was
not recognized between a Greek and a barbarian. Euripides imagined
that a similar law existed in Corinth at the time of Jason. Therefore his
wife and children would have no legal rights. But an alliance with the
heiress to the throne might allow Jason to provide for them. Jason
planned to marry Glauke and retain Medea as his concubine, an arrange-
ment which even Medea admitted was possible. In this way he hoped both
to keep his promise and to protect his family. Medea insisted on her own
interpretation of the oath and became so violent that Creon imposed on
her a sentence of banishment. At this time King Aegeus of Athens hap-
pened to pass through Corinth on his way to Troezen in southern Greece.
He arranged to have Medea take refuge in Athens and promised on his
return to marry her. Euripides then recorded the death of Glauke, add-
ing that Creon perished in a similar manner when he tried to save her.
Tradition had supposed that Medea escaped on foot and so could not
take her children. Euripides imagined that she fled in a dragon car but
still could not take them, presumably because they would not be accept-
able to Aegeus. Tradition supposed the Corinthians murdered the chil-
dren. Euripides declared that Medea herself killed them. She did this,
he said, because'she thought it better than leaving them to the mercy of
the Corinthians. But earlier in the play, he showed her threatening to
kill them in order to avenge herself on Jason, and this idea became dom-
inant in most later treatments of the story.
The Manual, repeating the tale, agreed in the main with Euripides.
But it declared that, when Jason planned to marry Glauke, he divorced
Medea. Diodorus added that the fire destroyed not only the royal familv
but also the palace. Greek painters dealt several times with the myth.
Timomachus in a famous picture showed Medea about to kill her sons.
Other painters treated the subject in two Pompeiian frescoes.
The Roman poets found the story of great interest. In the Culex
and the Eighth Eclogue, Vergil mentioned the horror of Medea's killing
her children. Horace thought the event too repulsive for presentation
117
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-26 11:21 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015005276665 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK SEVEN
on the stage. Propertius alluded to it as a notorious result of female
lust. Both Horace and Propertius alluded more than once to the death
of Creon's daughter, and Propertius called her Creiisa. Afterwards this
was her usual designation.
Ovid found Medea's adventures at Corinth a theme of continual
interest. His tragedy Medea seems to have presented the story in full.
Probably it recorded the burning of Creon's palace and attributed
the murder of the children wholly to the desire for revenge, for both ideas
appeared in all Ovid's later treatments of the theme. In the Heroides
Ovid dealt often with Medea's misfortunes at Corinth. The Epistle
of Helen described her as left forlorn in a strange land; the Epistle of
Hypsipyle ended with a curse predicting the evils to befall her; the
Epistle of Medea showed chiefly her ineffectual reproaches of Jason.
Theocritus and Horace had implied that even the power of magic might
be unable to protect an enchantress from the torture of unrequited love.
Ovid called attention to this fact in his Epistle of Medea and again both
in the Art of Love and in the Remedies for Love. In the Fasti Ovid noted
that King Aegeus gave Medea ceremonial purification after the murder
of her children. In the Tristia Ovid longed for the dragon car which
allowed her to escape from Corinth.
After treating the events so fully elsewhere, Ovid thought it enough
in the Metamorphoses to indicate them as briefly as possible. He added,
however, a suggestion that Aegeus was to incur punishment for receiving
the guilty Medea. Regarding the fate of Jason, Ovid said nothing. But
evidently he rejected the idea that Jason was soon to perish, for later he
spoke of him as joining in the hunt for the Calydonian Boar (Bk. 8).
Medea's arrival in Athens gave Ovid occasion for-mentioning two
little known stories of transformation, which had been localized in the
city. One of them Boeus had told as follows. Not long after the found-
ing of Athens, the king and queen, who were named Periphas and Phene,
won such admiration among their people as to receive honors appro-
priate only for Jupiter and Juno. Jupiter planned at first to destroy
them, but at Apollo's intercession he allowed them to be transformed,
Periphas becoming an eagle and Phene an osprey. The second tale was
told as follows by Theodoras. An Athenian named Sciron accused his
daughter of being immoral and pushed her into the sea; but the gods,
aware of her innocence, metamorphosed the girl into a halcyon. Ovid
merely alluded to these transformations, reserving an account of the
halcyon for the remarkable tale of Ceyx (Bk. 11).
118
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-26 11:21 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015005276665 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? PELIAS AND MEDEA'S FLIGHT TO ATHENS
During later times Ovid's tale of Pelias and Medea's flight to
Athens interested several prominent authors. Hobbes in his Leviathan
spoke of radical reformers as children hewing their father to pieces in
the hope of giving him long life and perfect health. Burke repeated the
comparison in his French Revolution. William Morris followed Ovid's
account of the death of Pelias in the course of his Life and Death of
Jason. To Goethe, Ovid's mention of Telchins at Rhodes appears to
have suggested a passage introducing Telchins in the Second Part of
Faust.
Indirectly, the adventures at Corinth appear to have been far more
important. Ovid's account in the Metamorphoses was the first one read
by men of later times, and it encouraged them to seek further informa-
tion elsewhere. Of all ancient treatments of the theme the best was
the Medea of Euripides, but the most accessible and influential was the
Medea of Seneca. The story was retold by an extraordinary number of
modern dramatists, of whom the chief were Corneille and Grillparzer;
it influenced plays dealing with other themes, such as Lessing's tragedy,
Miss Sara Sampson; and it was retold in narrative poetry by William
Morris.
119
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-26 11:21 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015005276665 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK SEVEN
The Origin of Aconite
Medea resided with Aegeus for a considerable time. Euripides im-
plied that her residence began a little earlier than the birth of Theseus
and continued until Theseus became a man. Others, including the author
of the Manual, regarded the time as much less, but sufficiently long for
Medea to bear Aegeus a son named Medus. Ovid probably accepted this
idea, although he did not mention the son. All authorities agreed that
Medea's residence ended with the coming of Theseus.
Regarding the parentage of this hero, there were two different ac-
counts. According to an ode of Bacchylides, his father was the god
Neptune and his mother was Aethra, daughter of King Pittheus of
Troezen. The Manual repeated this idea, and Ovid afterwards men-
tioned it in the opening lines of his Ninth Book. But usually Theseus
was regarded as a son of Aegeus. Bacchylides himself implied this in
another of his odes.
Euripides in his Medea mentioned the circumstances. Aegeus, he
said, was for a long time without a son to inherit the throne. When his
wife died, he appealed for counsel to the Delphic Oracle. The reply was
so obscure that he visited Pittheus in order to have it interpreted. Be-
lieving that it was the oracle's intention to have Aethra bear Aegeus a
son, Pittheus arranged for this ; and, although her son would be illegiti-
mate, the understanding was that he should inherit the throne of Athens.
The Manual repeated this account and noted further circumstances.
Aegeus took care that during the childhood of Theseus his parentage
should remain a secret. Aethra was to rear her son quietly at Troezen
until he should acquire strength sufficient to push away a certain boulder.
Under this he was to find a pair of sandals and a sword bearing on its
ivory hilt an emblem of the Athenian royal family.
? PELIAS AND MEDEA'S FLIGHT TO ATHENS
Pelias and Medea's Flight to Athens
In the tale of Aeson, Ovid treated a popular belief that by judicious
use of fire it is possible to make an old man young. In the story which
followed, Ovid was concerned with an idea related so closely to belief in
rejuvenation by fire that many popular tales deal first with one and then
with the other.
The European folk stories which tell how Christ or Satan restored
an old person by treating him either in a forge or in a caldron, tell often
how some bungler tried later to imitate the magic process but was un-
successful. Other popular tales record how the magician himself first
rejuvenated some old person but later was urged to perform another
miracle for the benefit of someone with whom he was displeased, and how
he intentionally failed. According to the Shans of Lakon in Cambodia,
the decrepit old prince was not content with his transformation to a
beau but insisted on a repetition of the treatment, hoping in this way to
become still more attractive. The magician, angered at his persistence,
again cut him to pieces and laid him in a caldron but did not apply the
magic process. In still other popular tales the magician first gave a
demonstration of his power by rejuvenating an animal. According to
another Cambodian myth, a Brahmin restored a dog and then tried the
experiment, unsuccessfully, with a human being.
Greek tradition recorded a similar myth about the wicked King
Pelias. The tale ran usually as follows. Not content with usurping the
throne of Iolcus and sending Jason in quest of the Fleece, Pelias re-
solved to kill his brother, Aeson. The latter, feeling that he could not
escape, drank poison. His wife committed suicide, and Pelias murdered
their infant son, Promachus. When Jason returned from Colchis, he at
first was unable to punish the crime. He delivered the Fleece to Pelias,
dedicated the Argo in Neptune's grove at Corinth, and settled once more
in Iolcus. Then he appealed for aid to Medea. She took advantage of
the fact that Pelias had become old and feeble. Informing his daughters
that it was possible to restore his youth, she won their confidence by a
demonstration with a ram. She cut the animal to pieces, boiled it in her
caldron of herbs, and metamorphosed it into a lamb. By her advice the
daughters minced and boiled their father. But this time the caldron
held nothing but ordinary water. Acastus, son of Pelias, tried to punish
Jason and Medea, but they escaped by fleeing to Corinth.
109
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-26 11:21 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015005276665 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK SEVEN
Pindar alluded to the tale, Sophocles treated it in his Root Cutters,
and Euripides made it the theme of his Daughters of Pelias and men-
tioned it prominently in his Medea. The Manual told the tale in full,
naming four daughters of the king. Greek vase painters imagined that
Medea persuaded Pelias, as well as his daughters. They showed the king
and two of the princesses looking on with surprise and joy, while Medea
brought forth a lamb from her caldron.
Among earlier Roman authors the story appears to have been well
known. In Cicero's dialogue On Old Age, Cato declared that he would
not be tempted by such a boon as Medea promised to confer on Pelias.
He would not desire to regain youth by sacrificing all the experience of a
long life. Propertius alluded to the death of Pelias in Medea's caldron.
And Ovid in his Epistle of Medea spoke of the daughters cutting their
father to pieces.
In the Metamorphoses, Ovid rejected the first part of the story.
With the Theogony and the Returns he imagined that, when Jason re-
visited Iolcus, Aeson was still alive. Pelias suffered not for the murder
but for his earlier acts of hostility. Ovid said nothing of Jason's inciting
his wife against Pelias. According to the Medea of Euripides, Jason
took no part in the treacherous murder, but he knew Medea's purpose
and was willing to profit by the crime. He would not play false and yet
would wrongly win. Following Euripides, Ovid implied that Medea took
the initiative and that Jason was careful not to interfere.
For the deception of Pelias's daughters, Ovid elaborated and im-
proved the incidents given by the Manual. Medea, he said, pretended to
quarrel with Jason and took refuge in the palace of the king. Because
of age and infirmity, Pelias had left the management of his household to
his children, and Ovid, following the Manual, implied that Acastus hap-
pened to be absent, leaving the four daughters in charge. Deceived by
Medea's pretense, they entertained her hospitably and gave her a chance
to continue her plot. According to the Manual, Medea had offered to
rejuvenate the king. Ovid supposed that she was more cautious and
allowed the suggestion to come from the daughters. Beginning with the
idea of rejuvenation in general, she proceeded to tell at some length of
her recent success with Aeson. The daughters then urged her to confer
a similar blessing on Pelias and offered to give any reward that she might
ask. Still careful to disarm suspicion, Medea hesitated for a while and
then offered to give a preliminary demonstration with a ram. Let them
choose the oldest of their flock.
110
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-26 11:21 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015005276665 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? PELIAS AND MEDEA'S FLIGHT TO ATHENS
Since Ovid had told in the previous story of Medea's collecting
herbs and of her incantations, he proceeded immediately to the treat-
ment of the animal. The tottering old ram was brought to the caldron.
As before in the case of Aeson, Medea did not cut the body to pieces but
merely severed the throat. This gave Ovid another chance to indicate
the senility of the ram. Vergil in the Georgics had observed that animals
exhausted by the plague would hardly stain the sacrificial knife with their
blood. To such a pass, Ovid continued, age alone had brought this feeble
ram. Yet the potent herbs soon had their effect. Ovid pictured the result
and told humorously of the lamb which jumped out of the caldron and
frisked about in search of his mother. The daughters now were even more
eager to have Medea undertake the rejuvenation of their father.
For the circumstances of the king's death Ovid probably took
suggestions from the Root Cutters of Sophocles. Without warning the
father of their intent, the daughters made their plans. They waited three
days -- a magic number. On the night following, Medea prepared her
caldron. Tradition had spoken of her as using merely water. Ovid
imagined plausibly that she added some herbs without potency. Then
magically she lulled Pelias and his guards to sleep.
At Medea's bidding, the daughters gathered with drawn swords
about their father's couch. By this extraordinary method they felt sure
of delivering their loved father from infirmity and approaching death.
Yet they hesitated, reluctant to strike. Medea was obliged to urge them
on. In the name of filial piety she besought them to let out their father's
exhausted blood and to drive away his grievous old age. The more dutiful
they were, the more quickly they would respond to such an appeal. Ovid
noted the tragic fact but unwisely diverted the reader's attention with
an ill-timed play on words. As each is filial, he said, she is the first to be
unfilial, and in order to avoid being criminal she commits the crime. Even
so, the girls could not bear to see their father bleed. They turned away
and struck blindly with their swords.
Although old Pelias had been lulled to sleep, he wakened with the
pain and found his own daughters mangling him with their bloody swords.
He tried feebly to rise and cried out at their unnatural cruelty. Ovid
softened the traditional horror of the catastrophe. The daughters, he
said, lost their courage and ceased. It was Medea who killed old Pelias
and plunged his body into the caldron.
Ovid already had made it clear that for Pelias there was no recov-
ery. He passed at once to the events which followed. Having said noth-
111
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-26 11:21 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015005276665 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK SEVEN
ing of Acastus, Ovid did not introduce him as the one who tried to punish
Medea. He probably assumed that his readers were acquainted with the
circumstance, but in any case they might well infer a similar attempt by
the daughters. To avoid punishment, he continued, Medea fled at once,
and he added that she was obliged to use her dragon car. According to
the Medea of Euripides and the Manual, Jason accompanied his wife.
Ovid implied that he escaped later. Since Ovid had allowed the reader to
imagine that Aeson was still residing with Jason and was now enjoying
a second youth, it would appear necessary to indicate whether he too
escaped the wrath of the pursuers. But the ordinary tradition had
spoken of him as having fallen victim to Pelias. With this idea in mind,
Ovid forgot to make allowance for his own innovation.
The Phoenicians, who appear originally to have occupied the site of
Corinth, had worshipped a goddess named Medea. The Greeks who fol-
lowed them associated this older worship with Juno and identified the
Phoenician goddess, Medea, with the Colchian princess, Medea. In the
opinion of the early poets, Epimenides and Eumelus, Medea's father,
Aeetes, had been at first a ruler of Corinth and later had migrated to
Aea. When Jason and his wife left Iolcus, tradition noted their going
to Medea's ancestral kingdom of Corinth. The author of an early epic,
The Taking of Oeclialia, alluded to this belief, adding that Creon was
then ruler of the city. Subsequent authors followed his example.
Ovid observed accordingly that Medea left Iolcus in her dragon car
and flew in a southeasterly direction to Corinth. As before in the tale of
Aeson, he imagined that she soared high in air and was able to observe
below her an immense area of land and sea. This area included many
places famous for mythological events. Ovid saw a chance to mention a
number of tales which otherwise would not enter readily into his plan;
and he seized it, with less regard than usual either for consistent geogra-
phy or for his own established sequence of time. He alluded briefly to
seventeen myths, almost all of them taken from little known Alexandrian
poets. Six of these we know only from him.
Rising from Iolcus, Medea ascended above the summit of Mt. Pelion,
which had been famous as the residence of Chiron. Then, turning in the
direction of Corinth, she flew over Mt. Othrys, which had witnessed
the transformation of Cerambus into a beetle. According to Nicander,
Cerambus offended the local nymphs and was punished by metamor-
phosis. Ovid imagined rather that they desired to save him from the
flood of Deucalion's time (Bk. 1).
112
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-26 11:21 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015005276665 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? PELIAS AND MEDEA'S FLIGHT TO ATHENS
As Medea continued her flight, the coast of Asia appeared at a
great distance to her left. Ovid called attention first to the northern
part and proceeded to note places which had heen the scene of strange
events. At the Phrygian seaport of Pitane a huge snake had been turned
into stone. This was a snake petrified for trying to devour the head of
the singer Orpheus. But later, when Ovid told the story, he localized the
event at Methymna on the neighboring island of Lesbos (Bk. 11).
A little north of Pitane stood a grove on Mt. Ida. Here a son of
Bacchus had stolen a bullock, and Bacchus had concealed the theft by
transforming the animal into a stag. The same region was destined to
include the grave of Paris, who caused the Trojan War (Bk. 12) and
perished by an arrow of Philoctetes. In his youth, Paris was said to have
courted the nymph Oenone and to have become the father of Corythus.
Ovid gave him this obscure title, adding that his grave was distinguished
by a little heap of sand. In the fields near Mt. Ida a certain Maera had
become a dog. Ovid did not tell the story because he intended later to
recount a similar, but more interesting transformation of Hecuba (Bk.
Much farther south from Mt. Ida and Pitane, there were visible the
shores of Caria and the island of Cos. In this island, Hercules, when he
returned from his capture of Troy (Bk. 11), was mistaken for a pirate
and was attacked by the inhabitants. Their king, Eurypylus, fell in
battle, and their women were transformed into cows. A little south of
Cos lay the island of Rhodes, beloved of the Sun (See Leucothoe, Bk. 4).
There Ialysus and other cities were reputed to have been founded by the
Telchins. These were skilled workers in metal, but they were suspected
of causing evil by the glance of their eyes. For this reason, said Nican-
der, Jove changed them into denizens of the sea.
All these places were visible far to the left of Medea's course. To
the left also but much nearer, lay the island of Cea, just east of Attica.
From her lofty position Medea could look down on it and distinguish the
walls of Carthaea. In this town Alcidamas was to behold the transfor-
mation of his daughter, Ctesylla. According to Nicander, the gods took
her life because her father promised her in marriage to a certain youth
113
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-26 11:21 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015005276665 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK SEVEN
and then broke his promise, but at the funeral they metamorphosed the
girl's body into a dove. *
To the right of Medea's course other places were discernible, which
had been the scene of remarkable events. One of them was an Aetolian
lake, gleaming among the hills just north of the Corinthian Gulf. Ac-
cording to Nicander, this lake originally was named Conope, and it was
noted for the following story. Cycnus, a child of Apollo, and his mother,
Hyrie, lived among the neighboring hills. Cycnus, who possessed excep-
tional beauty, was courted by many suitors but repelled them with rude
indifference. A certain Phyllius persisted longer than the others but
finally abandoned the courtship. Cycnus then despaired and resolved to
kill himself. In all this the myth resembled a number of Alexandrian
tales of persons who repelled their lovers cruelly, and it resembled espe-
cially the Alexandrian accounts of Narcissus (cf. Bk. 3). But in two
respects the tale of Cycnus was different. Cycnus kept putting off
Phyllius by imposing a series of difficult tasks. At his command Phyllius
brought him first a lion, then some formidable vultures, then a savage
bull. And the denouement was unusual. Cycnus plunged into the lake
Conope; his mother, grief-stricken, followed his example; and Apollo
saved their lives by transforming them into swans. Because of this event
the name of the water afterwards was changed to Swan Lake.
Ovid, retelling the tale, confined himself to the parts which were
unusual, and he considerably improved it. He made more plausible the
boy's attempted suicide. Displeased at the continued evasion of Cycnus,
he said, Phyllius withheld the bull, and Cycnus acted in a fit of sudden
resentment.
Ovid gave the mother a different transformation, suggested
probably by that of the nymph Cyane (Bk. 5). Cycnus, he said, leaped
over a cliff. His mother, believing that he had perished, lamented until
she dissolved into a lake. And the name of this lake Ovid altered to
Hyrie, in harmony with the new event.
The idea that Phyllius might capture a wild Aetolian lion was by
no means improbable. During early prehistoric times lions were common
*The youth, whose name was Hermochares, first won Diana's assistance by the
following means. He wrote on an apple the oath, "I swear by Diana that I will marry
no one but Hermochares"; and left the fruit on an altar of the goddess. Ctesylla,
finding the apple, read the oath aloud and was regarded as under obligation to fulfill
it. Hermochares afterwards approached Alcidamas and obtained his promise, sanc-
tioned with an oath by Apollo. In the version of Nicander, these events occurred at
Carthaea, but the death and transformation took place either at the neighboring town
of Iulis or at Athens. Ovid, simplifying the account, imagined all the events as hap-
pening at Carthaea. He may have dismissed the tale briefly, because in the Heroides
he already had told a similar, but more attractive story of Acontius and Cydippe.
114
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-26 11:21 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015005276665 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? PELIAS AND MEDEA'S FLIGHT TO ATHENS
in many parts of southern Europe. During the Heroic Age they prob-
ably were to be found at least occasionally in all parts of Greece, for in
the southern district of Argolis tradition localized the adventure of
Hercules with the Nemean lion (cf. Bk. 9). And as late as the fifth cen-
tury B. C. , Herodotus tells us, they still were abundant in Macedonia
and northern Greece, including the whole region of Aetolia, and the lions
of Macedonia made havoc among the camels which bore supplies for the
great army of Xerxes. Although Cycnus lived in Aetolia, Ovid spoke of
his leaping into a vale of Tempe because the name Tempe was trans-
ferred from the Thessalian vale to other valleys of similar nature.
Not far from the lake of Hyrie, Medea could see the village of
Pleuron. There lived at one time Combe, mother of the Aetolian Curetes.
For some reason the Curetes tried to kill their mother, and she escaped
them by transformation into a bird.
Medea now was approaching the Isthmus of Corinth, a narrow,
dark strip of land dividing the luminous waters of the Corinthian Gulf
on the west from those of the Saronic Gulf on the east. Near the head of
the Saronic Gulf she could see plainly the fertile island of Calaurea,
where once a king and queen were metamorphosed into birds. Much
farther ahead and a little to the right, Medea could discern the white
peak of Mt. Cyllene in southern Greece. Within the shadow of this moun-
tain a certain Menephron afterwards committed incest with his mother.
Ovid described the guilty pair as acting in the manner of wild beasts. He
may have alluded to a mistaken idea that such animals are in the habit
of breeding with their near kindred. But probably he referred to a tra-
dition that Menephron and his mother had been transformed into wild
beasts.
Looking back over her right shoulder, Medea still could see clearly
the region of Thebes in Boeotia. There she observed the river god
Cephisus lamenting because Apollo had metamorphosed his grandson
into a seal. She saw, too, Eumelus grieving for his son Botres. Boeus
had recorded the tale as follows. While Eumelus was offering an animal
to Apollo, the child ate the creature's brain. In sudden anger Eumelus
killed him with a firebrand. Apollo, to lessen the father's remorse,
changed the son into a bird called the bee-eater.
But now Medea's dragons had finished the course and were descend-
ing to Corinth and the springs of Pirene. Here in early times men were
said to have been created from mushrooms.
Ovid could assume that his countrymen knew the traditional route
115
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-26 11:21 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015005276665 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK SEVEN
of Medea from Iolcus to Corinth. By associating it with these many
picturesque events, he gave the journey novelty and interest. But even
for his contemporaries, a number of the allusions must have been obscure
both in themselves and in their relation to Medea's flight, and for readers
unacquainted with Greek literature they were utterly bewildering.
Ovid was coming now to the most famous event in the whole tradi-
tion of Medea. It grew out of the same world-wide fairy tale which had
provided so many of the incidents in Colchis. After mentioning the
young hero's return with the enchanter's daughter, the fairy tale re-
corded that for some reason the hero forgot his many obligations to her
and arranged to marry a princess of his own country. Only at the last
moment did he recall his obligations and go back to his wife. A similar
episode occurred in the Greek tradition of Jason and Medea.
But, instead of noting that Jason returned of his own accord, the
story introduced another idea of fairy lore, the belief that a magician
could burn his enemy alive by inducing him to put on a fair-seeming robe.
In the German fairy tale of Faithful John, an enemy sent the king a
wedding robe of gold and silver, and a loyal servant preserved the king's
life by destroying the robe. If the king had put it on, he would have been
consumed with magic fire. The idea of a fatal robe occurred also in the
old Greek myth of the death of Hercules (cf. Bk. 9). In the tradition of
Medea the Colchian princess used a garment of this kind to prevent the
second marriage of Jason. She destroyed her rival with a magic wedding
robe.
Then Medea fled from Corinth. Jason followed her and became
reconciled to her. This continued to be the usual version of the tale; but
very early certain authorities imagined a different ending. Jason, they
said, did not follow Medea but resided a while in Corinth. Then one day
he fell asleep near the ship Argo, and the stern of the ship broke loose
and crushed him. Some added that Medea, knowing the ship would break
apart, treacherously persuaded him to sleep on the fatal spot.
Referring to the events in Corinth, The Taking of Oechalia men-
tioned further particulars. Medea not only destroyed the princess but
also poisoned her father, Creon. To escape the angry Corinthians, she
fled with her infants to Juno's temple. There, since the boys could not
accompany her on foot, she left them, and herself departed to Athens.
Jason's influence she thought would suffice to protect her children. But
Creon's relatives murdered the boys and then reported that Medea had
116
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-26 11:21 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015005276665 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? PELIAS AND MEDEA'S FLIGHT TO ATHENS
killed them. This account was repeated afterwards in the Manual.
Simonides, alluding to the tale, called Medea's rival Glauke.
Euripides in his tragedy Medea retold the story with remarkable
originality and power. Medea, he said, had received Jason's promise that
he always would be faithful to her. In her opinion he violated the oath
by planning to marry another woman, and he also proved indifferent to
the manifold benefits which she had conferred on him. Jason thought
otherwise. By Athenian law in the time of Euripides, a marriage was
not recognized between a Greek and a barbarian. Euripides imagined
that a similar law existed in Corinth at the time of Jason. Therefore his
wife and children would have no legal rights. But an alliance with the
heiress to the throne might allow Jason to provide for them. Jason
planned to marry Glauke and retain Medea as his concubine, an arrange-
ment which even Medea admitted was possible. In this way he hoped both
to keep his promise and to protect his family. Medea insisted on her own
interpretation of the oath and became so violent that Creon imposed on
her a sentence of banishment. At this time King Aegeus of Athens hap-
pened to pass through Corinth on his way to Troezen in southern Greece.
He arranged to have Medea take refuge in Athens and promised on his
return to marry her. Euripides then recorded the death of Glauke, add-
ing that Creon perished in a similar manner when he tried to save her.
Tradition had supposed that Medea escaped on foot and so could not
take her children. Euripides imagined that she fled in a dragon car but
still could not take them, presumably because they would not be accept-
able to Aegeus. Tradition supposed the Corinthians murdered the chil-
dren. Euripides declared that Medea herself killed them. She did this,
he said, because'she thought it better than leaving them to the mercy of
the Corinthians. But earlier in the play, he showed her threatening to
kill them in order to avenge herself on Jason, and this idea became dom-
inant in most later treatments of the story.
The Manual, repeating the tale, agreed in the main with Euripides.
But it declared that, when Jason planned to marry Glauke, he divorced
Medea. Diodorus added that the fire destroyed not only the royal familv
but also the palace. Greek painters dealt several times with the myth.
Timomachus in a famous picture showed Medea about to kill her sons.
Other painters treated the subject in two Pompeiian frescoes.
The Roman poets found the story of great interest. In the Culex
and the Eighth Eclogue, Vergil mentioned the horror of Medea's killing
her children. Horace thought the event too repulsive for presentation
117
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-26 11:21 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015005276665 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK SEVEN
on the stage. Propertius alluded to it as a notorious result of female
lust. Both Horace and Propertius alluded more than once to the death
of Creon's daughter, and Propertius called her Creiisa. Afterwards this
was her usual designation.
Ovid found Medea's adventures at Corinth a theme of continual
interest. His tragedy Medea seems to have presented the story in full.
Probably it recorded the burning of Creon's palace and attributed
the murder of the children wholly to the desire for revenge, for both ideas
appeared in all Ovid's later treatments of the theme. In the Heroides
Ovid dealt often with Medea's misfortunes at Corinth. The Epistle
of Helen described her as left forlorn in a strange land; the Epistle of
Hypsipyle ended with a curse predicting the evils to befall her; the
Epistle of Medea showed chiefly her ineffectual reproaches of Jason.
Theocritus and Horace had implied that even the power of magic might
be unable to protect an enchantress from the torture of unrequited love.
Ovid called attention to this fact in his Epistle of Medea and again both
in the Art of Love and in the Remedies for Love. In the Fasti Ovid noted
that King Aegeus gave Medea ceremonial purification after the murder
of her children. In the Tristia Ovid longed for the dragon car which
allowed her to escape from Corinth.
After treating the events so fully elsewhere, Ovid thought it enough
in the Metamorphoses to indicate them as briefly as possible. He added,
however, a suggestion that Aegeus was to incur punishment for receiving
the guilty Medea. Regarding the fate of Jason, Ovid said nothing. But
evidently he rejected the idea that Jason was soon to perish, for later he
spoke of him as joining in the hunt for the Calydonian Boar (Bk. 8).
Medea's arrival in Athens gave Ovid occasion for-mentioning two
little known stories of transformation, which had been localized in the
city. One of them Boeus had told as follows. Not long after the found-
ing of Athens, the king and queen, who were named Periphas and Phene,
won such admiration among their people as to receive honors appro-
priate only for Jupiter and Juno. Jupiter planned at first to destroy
them, but at Apollo's intercession he allowed them to be transformed,
Periphas becoming an eagle and Phene an osprey. The second tale was
told as follows by Theodoras. An Athenian named Sciron accused his
daughter of being immoral and pushed her into the sea; but the gods,
aware of her innocence, metamorphosed the girl into a halcyon. Ovid
merely alluded to these transformations, reserving an account of the
halcyon for the remarkable tale of Ceyx (Bk. 11).
118
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-26 11:21 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015005276665 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? PELIAS AND MEDEA'S FLIGHT TO ATHENS
During later times Ovid's tale of Pelias and Medea's flight to
Athens interested several prominent authors. Hobbes in his Leviathan
spoke of radical reformers as children hewing their father to pieces in
the hope of giving him long life and perfect health. Burke repeated the
comparison in his French Revolution. William Morris followed Ovid's
account of the death of Pelias in the course of his Life and Death of
Jason. To Goethe, Ovid's mention of Telchins at Rhodes appears to
have suggested a passage introducing Telchins in the Second Part of
Faust.
Indirectly, the adventures at Corinth appear to have been far more
important. Ovid's account in the Metamorphoses was the first one read
by men of later times, and it encouraged them to seek further informa-
tion elsewhere. Of all ancient treatments of the theme the best was
the Medea of Euripides, but the most accessible and influential was the
Medea of Seneca. The story was retold by an extraordinary number of
modern dramatists, of whom the chief were Corneille and Grillparzer;
it influenced plays dealing with other themes, such as Lessing's tragedy,
Miss Sara Sampson; and it was retold in narrative poetry by William
Morris.
119
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-26 11:21 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015005276665 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK SEVEN
The Origin of Aconite
Medea resided with Aegeus for a considerable time. Euripides im-
plied that her residence began a little earlier than the birth of Theseus
and continued until Theseus became a man. Others, including the author
of the Manual, regarded the time as much less, but sufficiently long for
Medea to bear Aegeus a son named Medus. Ovid probably accepted this
idea, although he did not mention the son. All authorities agreed that
Medea's residence ended with the coming of Theseus.
Regarding the parentage of this hero, there were two different ac-
counts. According to an ode of Bacchylides, his father was the god
Neptune and his mother was Aethra, daughter of King Pittheus of
Troezen. The Manual repeated this idea, and Ovid afterwards men-
tioned it in the opening lines of his Ninth Book. But usually Theseus
was regarded as a son of Aegeus. Bacchylides himself implied this in
another of his odes.
Euripides in his Medea mentioned the circumstances. Aegeus, he
said, was for a long time without a son to inherit the throne. When his
wife died, he appealed for counsel to the Delphic Oracle. The reply was
so obscure that he visited Pittheus in order to have it interpreted. Be-
lieving that it was the oracle's intention to have Aethra bear Aegeus a
son, Pittheus arranged for this ; and, although her son would be illegiti-
mate, the understanding was that he should inherit the throne of Athens.
The Manual repeated this account and noted further circumstances.
Aegeus took care that during the childhood of Theseus his parentage
should remain a secret. Aethra was to rear her son quietly at Troezen
until he should acquire strength sufficient to push away a certain boulder.
Under this he was to find a pair of sandals and a sword bearing on its
ivory hilt an emblem of the Athenian royal family.
