in fabulous history, a celebrated sorceress, daughter of Æetes king of Colchis. Her mother's name, according to the more received opinion of Hesiod and Hyginus, was Idyia, or, according to others, Ephvre, Hecate, Asterodia, Antiope, and Neæra. She was the niece of Circe. When Jafon came to Colchis in quest of the golden fleece, Medea became enamoured of him, and it was to her well directed labours that the Argonauts owed their preservation. Medea had an interview with her lover in the temple of Hecate; where they bound themselves by the most solemn oaths to eternal fidelity. No sooner had Jafon overcome all the difficulties which Æetes had placed in his way, than Medea embarked with the conquerors for Greece. To stop the pursuit of her father, she tore to pieces her brother Absyrtus, and left his mangled limbs in the way through which Æetes was to pass. This act of barbarity, some have attributed to Jafon, and not to her. When Jafon reached Iolchos his native country, the return and victories of the Argonauts were celebrated with universal rejoicings; but Jafon the father of Jafon was unable to attend at the solemnity on account of the infirmities of his age. Medea, at her husband's request, removed the weakness of Ælion; and by drawing away the blood from his veins, and filling them again with the juice of certain herbs, she restored him to the vigour and sprightliness of youth. This sudden change in Ælion astonished the inhabitants of Iolchos; and the daughters of Pelias were also desirous to see their father restored by the same power to the vigour of youth. Medea, willing to revenge the injuries which her husband's family had suffered from Pelias, increased their curiosity; and betrayed them into the murder of their father as preparatory to his reiuvencence, which she afterwards refused to accomplish. This action greatly irritated the people of Iolchos; and Medea with her husband fled to Corinth to avoid their resentment. Here they lived for 10 years with mutual attachment, when the love of Jafon for Glauce the king's daughter interrupted their harmony, and Medea was divorced. Medea revenged the infidelity of Jafon, by causing the death of Glauce, and the destruction of her family. She also killed two of her children in their father's presence; and when Jafon attempted to punish the barbarity of the mother, she fled through the air upon a chariot drawn by winged dragons. From Corinth Medea came to Athens, where, after she had undergone the necessary purification of her murder, she married King Ægeus, or (according to others) lived in an adulterous manner with him. From her conduct with Ægeus, Medea had a son who was called Medus. Soon after, when Theseus wished to make himself known to his father, Medea, jealous of his fame and fearful of his power, attempted to poison him at a feast which had been prepared for his entertainment. Her attempts, however, failed of success, and the sight of the sword which Theseus wore by his side convinced Ægeus that the stranger against whose life he had so safely confided was his own son. The father and the son were reconciled; and Medea, to avoid the punishment which her wickedness deserved, mounted her fiery chariot and disappeared through the air. She came to Colchis; where, according to some, she was reconciled to Jafon, who had brought her in her native country after her hidden departure from Corinth. She died at Colchis, as Justin mentions, when she had been restored to the confidence of her family. After death she married Achilles in the Elysian fields, according to the tradition mentioned by Simonides. The murder of Mermerus and Pherecs, the youngest of Jafon's children by Medea, is not to be attributed to the mother, according to Elian; but to the Corinthians, who affainted them in the temple of Juno Acæa. To avoid the resentment of the gods, and to deliver themselves from the pestilence which visited their country after so horrid a massacre, they engaged the poet Euripides for five talents to write a tragedy, which excelled them of the murder, and represented Medea as the cruel assassin of her own children. And besides, that this opinion might be the better credited, festivals were appointed, in which the mother was represented with all the barbarity of a fury murdering her own sons.