a celebrated sorceress in Greek mythology, was the daughter of Æetes, King of Colchis. Her mother is variously supposed to have been Idyia, Eurylete, Hecate, and Antiope. (Apollod. i., Schol. Apollon. iii., Schol. Hesiod. 957, Hygin. 25.) Medea first appears in fabulous history at the time when the Argonauts landed in her father's kingdom. She then became enamoured of Jason, the leader of the expedition, and promised him her assistance on condition that she should become his wife and return with him to Greece. By her magical arts the Golden Fleece, the object of the enterprise, was obtained, and she set sail with her betrothed in the ship Argo. Æetes, however, gave chase, and was on the point of overtaking the fugitives, when Medea murdered her brother Absyrtus, tore him to pieces, and strewed the sea with his bleeding limbs. The father tarried to gather up the remains of his son, and his daughter escaped, and continued on her course towards Iolcus, the native city of her husband. On arriving at the land of the Phæacians, the Argonauts and their companions were overtaken by the Colchians, who demanded the restoration of Medea. The case was then brought before Alcinous, King of Phæacia, who decided that Medea must be given up unless she was married to Jason; but, by the assistance of his wife Arete, the marriage was hurriedly performed, and Jason was allowed to take his wife with him to Iolcus, without any further delay or hindrance. There Jason learned for the first time that his brother had been murdered, and that his father and mother had been driven to commit suicide by the ruler Pelias. He therefore called upon Medea to employ all her arts for the purpose of revenge. The sorceress summoning the daughters of Pelias, showed them by actual experiment how an animal might be restored to youth by being seethed in a cauldron, and persuaded them to try the same process on their aged father. The limbs of Pelias failed to be revived, and thus the revenge of Jason was glutted. Owing to this barbarous deed, Medea and her husband were forced to quit Iolcus. Another version of the story is given by Ovid, who relates that on his return to Iolcus, Jason found his father Æson still alive, and that he was restored to youth by the arts of Medea. Medea and Jason then fled to Corinth, and there, after the lapse of ten years, Jason fell in love with Glaucœ and Creusa, daughter of Creon, King of Thebes. Full of revenge at being thus deserted, Medea presented her rival with a poisonous garment, which, as soon as it was put on, consumed its new owner to ashes. She then killed her own sons, Phæres and Mermerus, and escaping from the enraged father, fled through the air in a chariot drawn by winged dragons. Alighting at Athens, she underwent the purification for murder, and was then married to King Ægæus. In no long time, however, she began to plot the destruction of Theseus, the son of her husband by a former marriage; but her intentions having been discovered, she was again compelled to mount her airy chariot and flee. According to one account, she repaired to Asia and gave to the nation of the Medes their name. (Paus. ii., Ovid, Met. vii.) But other authorities state that she returned to her native Colchis, and, with the aid of her son Medus, restored her father Æetes to his throne. (Apollodor. i.) Medea is also said to have become latterly reconciled to Jason. (Tacit. Ann. vi.) After death she was married to Achilles in the Elysian Fields. (Schol. Apollon. iv.) The story of Medea is the subject of several tragedies. Those of Euripides and Seneca are the most famous.