Medeawas the daughter of KingAeetesofColchisin Greek mythology, and wife of the mythicalheroJason.
Medeamet her husband whenJasonand theArgonautsarrived inColchisto claim the famousGolden Fleecefrom the king. She fell in love with him and told him she would help him in his quest, under the condition that he would take her with him.Jasonaccepted and when he presented himself in front of the king,Aeetesagreed to give him the fleece if he passed a number of tasks.
The first taskJasonhad to complete was to yoke fire-breathing oxen and plough a field with them. To help him,Medeagave him an ointment to apply on himself and his weapons, in order to protect them from the flames. Secondly, he had to take dragon teeth and sow them in the field he had ploughed. No sooner had he sowed them than an army of warriors sprang up. Having been told byMedea, though,Jasonwas not surprised; he threw a rock amidst the army, and the warriors, not knowing who had thrown the rock, started fighting each other and killed themselves. The third and final task was to kill the sleepless guardian dragon of theGolden Fleece.Medeaprovided the sleeping herbs with which the dragon fell asleep andJasonthen slew him and retrieved theGolden Fleece.
After taking the fleece and sailing away,JasonandMedeawere pursued by her father. To slow him down,Medeakilled her brother Absyrtus, dismembered him and threw the body parts at sea; her father stopped to gather all the pieces and give his son a proper burial. On the way home, they stopped atCirce's island,Medea's aunt and goddess of magic, in order to absolveMedeaof her sin.
They then went nearCrete, whereTalos, a giant bronze man, guarded the island and threw stones against any ship that approached.Taloshad a single vein, through which the blood of the gods, calledichor, flowed.Medeamanaged to remove the nail which kept theichorinside, andTalosbled out and died. Landing onCrete, they found out thatJason's father, Aeson, was very ill and old, andJasonaskedMedeato help; what she did was to remove the blood of Aeson, infuse it with magical herbs and put it back into his body, reinvigorating him.
Returning toIolcus, KingPelias' daughters askedMedeato do the same for their father. AsPeliaswas refusing to give the throne toJason,Medeathought of making his daughters kill him. She told them that she could restore life by cutting a person in pieces and boiling the parts with herbs. So, the daughters killed their father and threw the body parts in a pot. Thus, this was the ending of a master plan that the goddessHerahad conceived to killPeliasfor being disobedient; it was her who madeJasonfall in love withMedea, knowing that she had the power to killPeliasin the future.
AfterPelias' murder,JasonandMedeawent toCorinthand had a number of children. Although the myth has different endings, the best known is thatJasonabandoned his wife to marryGlauce, the king's daughter.Medea, enraged, sent a dress and a coronet covered in poison, causing the deaths of bothGlauceand her father. She then killed her children, and fled toAthenson a golden chariot sent by her grandfather, the godHelios. Afterwards, she went toThebeswhere she healedHeraclesfrom a curse thatHerahad inflicted on him.
Returning toAthens, she marriedAegeus, with whom she had a son, Medus. However, some time later,Theseus,Aegeus' long-lost son, came back toAthens, but father and son did not recognise each other.Medea, though, realised who the newcomer was, and wanting to ensure the kingdom would pass to her own son, tried to poisonTheseus. At the very last minute,Aegeusrecognised his son by a sword he carried and knocked the cup beforeTheseusdrank the poison.
Finally, there are two versions as to whereMedeaand her son went after that event. According to one source, she went to modern day Iran, and lived with the locals, who changed their name to the Medes. Another version is that she returned to her homeland,Colchis, where the throne had been usurped by her uncle,Perses. Angry, she killed her uncle and restored her father to the throne.