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Medea Facts & Worksheets

Medea was an enchantress in Greek mythology who assisted Jason, commander of the Argonauts, in obtaining the Golden Fleece from her father, King Aeetes of Colchis.

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Medea was an enchantress in Greek mythology who assisted Jason, commander of the Argonauts, in obtaining the Golden Fleece from her father, King Aeetes of Colchis. She was of celestial blood and possessed the talent of prophecy. She married Jason and utilized her magical abilities and wisdom to assist him.

See the fact file below for more information on Medea, or you can download our 35-page Medea worksheet pack to utilize within the classroom or home environment.

Key Facts & Information

ETYMOLOGY

  • Medea was a sorceress and priestess of the goddess Hecate, her name derived from a word that means “cunning”, “planning”, or “cleverness”.
  • Medea was a princess of Colchis (and the granddaughter of the sun god Helios) who fell hopelessly in love with the adventurous Jason in Greek mythology.

MYTHOLOGY

  • Medea was a crucial figure in the quest for the Golden Fleece and the adventures of Jason and the Argonauts, making her one of the most famous female figures in Greek mythology.

ANCIENT SOURCES

  • Medea appears in most famous ancient writings, including Apollonius Rhodius’ Argonautica, Herodotus’ Histories, Hesiod’s Theogony, and Ovid’s Metamorphoses. She was also the subject of several antiquity plays, including Euripides’ Medea.

MEDEA IN COLCHIS

  • When Medea was recognized, the land of Colchis was at the far eastern end of the known world, a land of mystery and the uncivilized.
  • Stories tell of Aeetes, originally from Corinth, who had converted from a hospitable host to a stranger to death with the advent of Phrixus and the Golden Fleece in his kingdom. 
  • The shift occurred because Aeetes had been warned that if the Golden Fleece left Colchis, he would lose his kingdom.

MEDEA AND THE ARGONAUTS

  • Medea met her husband when Jason and the Argonauts landed in Colchis to take the king’s legendary Golden Fleece.

MEDEA AND JASON

  • Jason and the Argonauts sailed to Colchis when Pelias tasked Jason with bringing the Golden Fleece to Iolcus.
  • Jason was a favorite mortal of Hera and Athena, and these two Olympian deities asked for Aphrodite‘s help in making Medea fall in love with Jason.
  • Medea offered to assist Jason in removing the Golden Fleece from Ares‘ grove in exchange for a commitment to marry her, and Jason quickly accepted to marry Medea.
  • Aeetes assigned Jason a series of lethal tasks to keep the Golden Fleece in Colchis, but Medea came to Jason’s help for each task.

JASON AND THE FIRE-BREATHING OXEN

  • Jason’s first assignment was to yoke fire-breathing oxen and plow a field with them. Medea helped him by giving him an ointment to apply to himself and his weapons to protect them from the flames.

JASON AND THE DRAGON TEETH

  • Second, he needed to seed dragon teeth in the land he had plowed. Soon after he buried them, an army of warriors (Spartoi) arose. Jason, however, was not startled, having been warned by Medea; he hurled a rock among the troops, and the soldiers, not knowing who had thrown the rock, began fighting and killing one another.

JASON AND THE SLEEPLESS DRAGON

  • The third and last objective was to kill the Golden Fleece’s sleepless guardian dragon. Medea gave the dragon sleeping herbs, which caused him to fall asleep, and Jason subsequently killed him and took the Golden Fleece.

JASON AND MEDEA SAIL AWAY

  • Typically, a princess rebelling against her father would result in the daughter’s death, as was the case with Scylla, daughter of Nisos, and Comaetho, daughter of Pterelaos, but this was not the case with Medea. 
  • Medea abandoned Colchis on board the Argo.
  • After discovering the theft of the Golden Fleece, Aeetes dispatched the Colchian fleet to pursue the Argo, and it proved difficult for the Argo to outrun the entire fleet.
  • Medea devised a scheme to postpone the chase, one that entailed fratricide.
  • Medea slowed the Argo to allow the lead vessel of the Colchian fleet, commanded by Medea’s brother Apsyrtus, to approach. Apsyrtus was then permitted to board the Argonauts’ ship.
  • Apsyrtus was then murdered in an unchivalrous act, either by Medea’s hand or by Jason acting on Medea’s orders. 
  • They dismembered his body and threw the separate body parts into the sea.
  • Aeetes, who had now caught up with his fleet, ordered his ships to slow down and collect his son’s body parts and give him a dignified burial. 
  • The Colchian fleet’s slowness allowed the Argo to sail away.

MEDEA IN CRETE

  • Circe, the island, was one of Medea and Jason’s landing spots. Circe was, of course, Medea’s aunt, and it was supposed that Circe absolved Medea and Jason of Apsyrtus’ murder.
  • Medea helped save the Argo and its crew. 
  • Talos, the bronze robot that circled the island, protecting it from invaders and flinging boulders at unwelcome ships, guarded Crete at the time. 
  • With herbs and potions, Medea incapacitated Talos and possibly ensured she drained the automaton’s lifeblood away.
  • On the journey, Jason kept his word to Medea they would marry. They allegedly married on the island of Phaeacia, which King Alcinous ruled at the time. 
  • The Colchian fleet caught up with the Argo, but because Queen Arete had married Medea and Jason, Alcinous would not give up the couple, so King Aeetes’ fleet returned home empty-handed.

MEDEA IN IOLCUS

  • Finally, the Argo, carrying Jason, Medea, and the Argonauts, returned to Iolcus, much to King Pelias’ fear, as he had assumed the expedition would be fatal to Jason.
  • When they arrived in Iolcus, they discovered that Jason’s father, Aeson, was very ill and old. Jason sought Medea for assistance; she withdrew Aeson’s blood, infused it with magical plants, and reinvigorated him.
  • Pelias did not immediately relinquish Iolcus’ crown as he had promised if Jason was successful in his quest.
  • Medea demonstrated how she could revive an elderly sheep, transforming it into a young lamb, by chopping it up, placing it in a cauldron, and then adding herbs to the pot. 
  • Medea claimed to Pelias’ daughters that she could revitalize Pelias in the same manner.
  • His daughters agreed for Medea to do the same for their father. 
  • Medea considered having his daughters kill him. 
  • As a result, the girls murdered their father and disposed of his body parts in a pot. 
  • On the other hand, Jason had achieved just as Hera had intended because the gods of Mount Olympus were eager to punish Pelias. 
  • Thus, this was the culmination of Hera’s ultimate plan to kill Pelias for being disobedient; she had Jason fall in love with Medea, knowing that she could kill Pelias in the future.
  • Eventually, Medea was controlled by the gods, just as she had been when she first fell in love with Jason. 
  • The gods’ ultimate goal, known as the Curse of Pelias, was to see Pelias die due to Medea’s work.
  • Some stories say that Medea rejuvenated Aeson, Jason’s father, although in most cases, Aeson was dead by the time his son came to Iolcus.

MEDEA IN CORINTH

  • The death of King Pelias did not benefit Jason and Medea because his son, Acastus, would succeed his father in the kingdom. 
  • Despite being responsible for Pelias’ death, Medea could not be charged with murder because Acastus’ sisters did it. 
  • Acastus, on the other hand, exiled Medea and Jason and forbade them to return to Iolcus.
  • Medea and Jason established a new home in Corinth, where they would remain for up to ten years.
  • Medea gave birth to several children by Jason, ranging from two to six.
  • If Medea had two children, they were males, Mermerus and Pheres, but if she had six, they were five sons, Memerus, Pheres, Thessalus, Alcimenes, and Tisandrus, and one daughter, Eriopis.
  • Nonetheless, Medea and Jason were not to live happily ever after in Corinth.
  • Jason was assumed to grow tired of being married to Medea because, in Corinth, Medea was seen as a barbarian, as were all people who came from Colchis. 
  • To make a better life for himself, Jason agreed to marry Glauce, the daughter of King Creon of Corinth.
  • It is unknown how Jason expected the sorceress Medea to respond to this engagement, but Medea behaved as everyone expected her to, with homicidal purpose.

MEDEA KILLS HER CHILDREN

  • Medea created a lethal elixir and then covered a robe in it before discreetly mailing it to Glauce. 
  • Glauce put on the robe, taken by its beauty and unconscious of its fatal covering. Poison instantly soaked into her flesh, causing her to cry out in pain.
  • When King Creon heard his daughter’s cries, he sought to remove the robe, but in doing so, he killed himself since the poison began to race through him.
  • Medea then murdered her children before fleeing to Athens in a golden chariot sent by her grandfather, the god Helios. 
  • Some claim Medea did not commit filicide but that Medea and Jason’s children were killed by the people of Corinth in retaliation for the death of their king.
  • Medea then traveled to Thebes, where she cleansed Heracles of a curse placed by Hera.

MEDEA IN ATHENS 

  • Medea traveled to Athens, which was controlled at the time by King Aegeus.
  • For many years, Aegeus had anxiously attempted to conceive a male successor to give his son the Athenian throne. 
  • Medea worked on King Aegeus’ wish, and soon she and Aegeus married, for the witch had promised a male son.
  • Medea kept her pledge because Aegeus was afterward supposed to have fathered a son, Medus; however, some claim that Medus was a son of Jason, conceived before Medea’s exile from Corinth.
  • Medea was the queen of Athens, but there was no relief because Aegeus had previously fathered a son, Theseus, of whom he was unaware.

MEDEA AND THESEUS

  • When Theseus reached the age of maturity, he arrived in Athens, but Aegeus did not recognize his son. 
  • Medea, on the other hand, recognized who he was and realized that if Theseus lived, Medus would not accede to the throne of Athens.
  • As a result, Medea persuaded Aegeus to send the stranger on a mission to capture the Marathonian Bull. 
  • The Marathonian Bull, which Heracles had previously captured as the Cretan Bull, was spreading murder and ruin in the area surrounding Athens.
  • Theseus outperformed Heracles in this mission, and the son of Aegeus came to Athens with the bull ready for sacrifice to the gods.
  • Medea tried again to assassinate Theseus, and after convincing Aegeus that the stranger was a threat to the monarchy, she invented a poison for him to ingest. 
  • However, before Theseus drank from the poisoned chalice, Aegeus recognized the weapon in Theseus’s possession and smashed the goblet aside.
  • Thus, Medea fled her house once more, with Medus in tow.

MEDEA IN IRAN AND COLCHIS

  • Finally, there are two stories of what happened to Medea and her son after that occurrence. 
  • According to one legend, she traveled to modern-day Iran and lived with people who renamed themselves the Medes. 
  • Another tale has her returning to her homeland, Colchis.
  • Medea resolved to return to her first home, Colchis, because there was nowhere else in Greece that would welcome her anymore.
  • Colchis had altered dramatically since Medea’s departure, and Aeetes had lost the throne as predicted after the loss of the Golden Fleece; his brother, Perse, had overthrown Aeetes.
  • Medea intervened to restore Aeetes to the Colchian kingdom, and through her magic, she killed Perses and restored her father Aeetes to the Colchian throne.
  • Aeetes finally died, but Medus, Medea’s son, became King of Colchis.

FAMILY

  • Medea was described as a princess of Colchis in ancient texts because she was the daughter of King Aeetes and his first wife, the Oceanid Idyia. Therefore, Medea had two half-siblings: a sister, Calciope, and a brother, Apsyrtus.
  • As Aeetes’ daughter, Medea was a granddaughter of the Greek sun god Helios and a niece of Perses and the sorceresses Pasiphae and Circe. 
  • Sorcery flowed through the female line, and in Colchis, Medea was the priestess to the goddess Hecate, goddess of witches, and possessed abilities comparable to her aunts.
  • Alcimenes, Thessalus, Tisander, Mermeros, Pheres, Eriopis, Medus, and Argus were Medea’s eight offspring.
  • She married Aegeus and had a son named Medus with him.

SYMBOLISMS

  • A door, a poisoned crown, and chimeras are among Medea’s symbols.

MEDEA IN POPULAR CULTURE

  • Medea appears in many several forms of popular culture.

LITERATURE

  • The name Medea was cited multiple times in Cicero’s court case Pro Caelio to mock Clodia, sister of Publius Clodius Pulcher, the man who exiled Cicero.
  • Medea was immortalized in the 15th-century Italian Arthurian romance La Tavola Ritonda. She was a marvelously beautiful mistress of the island Perfida’s Cruel Castle (Castello Crudele).

MUSIC

  • Medea is the main character in George Frideric Handel’s 1713 opera Teseo [Theseus].
  • Medea, Aribert Reimann’s opera, premiered in 2011 at the Vienna State Opera under the direction of Marco Arturo Marelli, with Marlis Petersen in the title role.

CINEMA AND TELEVISION

  • Nancy Kovack played Medea in the 1963 film Jason and the Argonauts. She is a temple dancer whom Jason rescues when her ship sinks, prompting her to assist him.
  • Scottish actress Amy Manson plays Medea in the 2013 television series Atlantis.
  • Sonita Henry played Medea in the 2015 television series Olympus.

VIDEO GAMES

  • Medea is summoned as Servant Caster in the mobile game Fate/Grand Order in two forms: as an adult who has already witnessed Jason’s betrayal and as a young kid who has just recently met Jason, dubbed “Medea Lily”. In Fuyuki’s stories, Older Medea has darkened and become an antagonist. Yet, in the Okeanos plotline, when her younger incarnation is aboard the Argo with Jason, she is both the protagonist and the antagonist.
  • Chidori Yoshino’s Persona in Atlus’ was released in 2006, the fourth game in the Persona (series), “Persona 3”, and subsequent re-releases (FES and Portable). The game depicts Medea with a ram’s skull and wavy yellow hair, most likely to indicate her involvement in the narrative of the golden fleece.

Medea Worksheets

This is a fantastic bundle that includes everything you need to know about Medea across 35 in-depth pages. These are ready-to-use worksheets that are perfect for teaching kids about Medea, who was an enchantress in Greek mythology who assisted Jason, commander of the Argonauts, in obtaining the Golden Fleece from her father, King Aeetes of Colchis.

Complete List of Included Worksheets

Below is a list of all the worksheets included in this document.

  1. Medea Facts
  2. Godbook
  3. Journey of Medea
  4. Word Exercise
  5. Search Me!
  6. Medea’s Escape
  7. Return of Theseus
  8. Symbolism
  9. Euripides’ Medea
  10. Social Issues
  11. Comic Strip

Frequently Asked Questions

What is unique about Medea?

Medea, the divinely-descended enchantress of Greek mythology, aided Jason and his Argonauts in procuring the Golden Fleece from her father, King Aeëtes. Gifted with prophetic powers, Medea used her magical abilities and wisdom to guide them on their journey – ultimately marrying Jason after they obtained their treasured goal.

What is Medea goddess of?

Medea is ubiquitously described as a powerful enchantress and often depicted as an ordained acolyte of the divine Hecate.

Why is Medea called Medea?

Her name was derived from the Greek word Μήδεια Mēdeia, which could be interpreted as either deep contemplation or artful deception.

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