Introduction
Medea was a princess of Colchis and a powerful sorceress, granddaughter of the sun god Helios. She fell in love with Jason when he arrived seeking the Golden Fleece and used her magic to help him complete her father's tasks and escape Colchis.
Family
- Spouse: Jason (married)
Power and Betrayal
Medea's magic features throughout the Argonautica — she charms the sleepless dragon guarding the Fleece, dismembers her own brother to delay her father's pursuing fleet, and later tricks the daughters of Pelias into killing their father. After settling in Corinth with Jason and bearing his children, she was cast aside when he sought a more advantageous marriage. In Euripides's canonical tragic version, she murders the new bride, the bride's father, and finally her own children before escaping in a chariot sent by her grandfather Helios.
As with all figures of Greek heroic legend, sources diverge on many particulars; the account above follows the most widely transmitted classical tradition.