Médée

The myth: of Colchide in Colchide

Particularly dark, the legend of Médée consists of a succession of punctuated murders of escapes, which see it achieving a voyage through Greece.

Argonautes in Colchide

The history of Médée begins with the arrival from the Argonautes in Colchide. Those seek the Golden Fleece under the command of Jason (the search having been initiated by his/her uncle Pélias, usurping king of Iolcos). The Fleece is held by king Éétès who accepts to yield it if the heroes achieve certain apparently impossible tasks.

However Médée falls in love with Jason as soon as that she sees it. The hero covets especially the providential assistance that its capacities could bring, also it gives the counterpart, promising in Médée to flee with her and to marry it as soon as they would have arrived to Greece. Thus Argonautes can triumph over the various obstacles and conquer the Golden Fleece.

Furious, Éétès, which does not intend in fact not to let escape the Fleece, undertakes to continue them, but Médée supports their escape by killing his younger brother Apsyrtos: according to a version of the history, it kills it and cuts out it of pieces, the dispersant, so that his/her father, with the continuation of Argonautes, is delayed to collect the fragments of the body; in other versions, Apsyrtos is already adult and carries out itself the continuation until the moment when Médée kills it.

Arrival with Iolcos

Of return to Iolcos, Jason notes that Pélias benefitted from its absence to kill his/her father and to get rid of its family. Médée then develops a trick to avenge it: it is presented to the palate of Pélias like a pretress of Artémis and in front of the girls of the king, it renovates a ram by making it boil in a cauldron with magic grasses; she then persuades them to make some as much with their father, but she gives them grasses without any capacity, and the girls of Pélias cause in spite of them the death of their father.

Exile

Jason and Médée are banished of Iolcos by Acaste, wire of Pélias; they take refuge then with Corinthe, where they are accommodated by the king Créon. But Jason falls in love with the girl from the king, Créüse, and it Marie with her, repudiating Médée. This one is avenged by killing its rival by offering a magic dress to him which burns it like his/her father, then fire the castle. She then kills with her hands the children whom she had had with Jason (Phérès and Merméros). Of despair, Jason gives itself death.

Escape towards Athens

Médée, threatened by the Corinthians, flees and finds refuge near Égée, king of Athens: she promises to him what he covets more - one son -, and he accepts to marry it. A child, Médos, will be born indeed a little later for which Médée will nourish a royal destiny; however the arrival of Thésée (wire unknown from Égée) in Athens will upset its plans and will draw up it against new-come. After several unfruitful attempts, Médée succeeds in convincing her husband that Thésée is a traitor, and that it is advisable to poison it: the drama is avoided of accuracy, Égée recognizing his/her son with his sword at the last time.

Return in Colchide

Discovered, Médée must flee Athens: it returns then towards its Colchide native with her Médos son. There, it finds on the throne Persès, her uncle, who had détrôné his father after the escape of Argonautes. It kills it and restores the capacity with her father, Éétès.

In certain traditions, Médée is presented after its death as the wife of Achille in the Îles of the Happy.

The myth of Médée with Éleusis

On a crater with volutes apulien of the Painter of Darius (Ca 340 av. J. - C. - 320 av. J. - C.), an alternative of the myth appears according to which Médée would have gone to Éleusis. On this crater today with the museum of the University of Princeton, Médée is in the temple of Éleusis as the inscription Ελευσισ το ιερον attests it. The interpretation of the vase by Arthur Dale Trendall lets think that, in a lost mythological tradition, Médée would not have finally killed his/her two children.

The interpretation of Christa Wolf

The author refers to sources former to the texts of the Tragiques , and discharges the character from any murder. Médée is a free and foreign woman, who one shows to be a magician, as soon as its presence disturbs.

The dumb queen Mérope reveals in Médée the murder founder of the city. The hidden funeral vault contains a skeleton of child, that of Iphinoé, the first girl of Créon and Mérope, killed on the order of Créon, which feared its arrival with the head of the city.

This revelation breaks silence, the false lapse of memory, the fear. The plague seizes the city. The people seek a culprit and finds it in the foreign one, quickly banished by Créon, and which must leave his/her children. She entrusts them, furiously, with the Héra goddess, in her temple. The people lapidate them, and show Médée to have killed them.

Artistic evocations

Child murder, fratricide and regicide, the character of Médée inspired by very many artists, in all the fields and at all the times. One can in particular quote homonymous works:

; Œuuvres arts persons:

Médée , Greek Tragedy of Euripide;
Médée , Roman tragedy of Sénèque;
The Legend off Good Women , account of Geoffrey Chaucer, about 1385;
Médée , French tragedy baroque of the péruse 1556;
Médée , French tragedy of Crow 1635;
Médée , French tragedy of Hilaire de Longepierre (1694), parodied with the Theater-Italian under the title the malicious woman in spite of a weak success;
Medea, third part of the trilogy Das goldene Vliess" , Franz Grillparzer, 1821;
Medea , news of Paul Heyse, 1890;
Medea , Hans Henny Jahnn, 1926 and 1959;
Médée , French tragedy of Jean Anouilh 1946;
Medea , Robinson Jeffers, 1948;
Medeamaterial theatrical work of Heiner Müller 1974;
Medea , Franca Rows and Dario Fo, 1979;
Médée : voice , novel of Christa Wolf 1996;
Manhatan Medea , Dea Loher, 1999;
Die Frau vom Meer , Dory Gercke, 2000;
Mein und dein Herz : Medeia , Nino Haratischwili, 2007;
Medea und ihre Kinder , Ljudmila Ulizkaja;

; Pictorial works:

Médée in Eleusis , crater with volutes apulien of the hand of Painter of Darius;
Médée , table of Delacroix;
Medea , table of Anselm Feuerbach;
Médée , posts Mucha;

; Musical works:

Médée , lyric tragedy of Marc-Antoine Charpentier on a booklet of Thomas Crow, 1693; it was not taken again with, because it was a failure; it on the other hand was recorded twice by William Christie (at Harmonia Mundi with Jill Feldman, at Erato with Lorraine Hunt-Lieberson) and once by Herve Niquet (DVD at Armide, version in concert, with Stéphanie d' Oustrac);
Médée and Jason , lyric tragedy of Joseph François Solomon on a booklet of the Pellegrin abbot, 1713, with the Theater-Italian by [[Domenico Biancolelli (1640-1688)|Biancolelli], Riccoboni and Romagnesi in 1727, by Carolet in 1737 and under the title the jealous woman by Valois d' Orville in 1749. Contrary to the lyric tragedy of Carpenter, this work have a certain success and was taken again four times at and was republished with each recovery;
Médée , Ballet tragi-mime of Jean-Joseph Rodolphe, choreography by Jean-Georges Noverre, 1762; begun again by the choreographer with a music of Louis Garnier in 1776; a parodic ballet also was written by Jean-Etienne Despréaux and was represented in 1780 at the court;
Medea , melodrama of Georg Benda, 1784;
Medea in Corinta , opera of Giovanni Simone Mayr on a booklet of Felice Romani, 1813; this opera was recorded on the sharp one with Leyla Gencer, but the disc published at MYTO is from now on untraceable;
Medéé , opera of Luigi Cherubini on a booklet of François Benoit Hoffman created in his French version on March 13rd, 1797; Cherubini also made an Italian version of this opera, Medea , taken again with great success by Maria Callas;
Medea , opera of Saverio Mercadante, 1851;
Médée , opera of Darius Milhaud, 1939;
Medea , opera of Mikis Theodorakis;
Freispruch für Medea , opera of Rolf Liebermann;
Medea , opera of Gordon Kerry, 1990-1992;
Medea , opera of Pascal Dusapin on a text of Heiner Müller, 1990;
Medea in Korinth , oratorium of Georg Katzer 2002;
Medea , chorus in Corsican of has Filetta 2005;
Medea , song of the German group Vland Stut;

; Œuuvres cinematographic:

Médée , film Italy N of Pasolini, with Maria Fixed (1969);
Medea , film of Lars von Trier (1988).

Sources

(I, 9,23-28), (I, 4; V, 5).
(III, 248).
(IV, 45,3; IV, 53,2; IV, 55,7).
( passim ).
(v. 962).
(XXV).
(VII, 1-424).
(II, 3,8-9).
( Pythiques , IV, 9).

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