The
Goddess
Medea
Before
Jason Medea was the Goddess of Healing. She was a priestess of
Hecate and a powerful healer. She used herb lore and magic to
bring about healing for the people of her community. Because of
her service to the people, she was respected and loved.
Perhaps
that is the reason for the stories that were told about her later in
her life. Perhaps her service was such that it took such
horrendous stories to ruin the reputation of this much loved and
respected goddess of healing. So many had been helped by her that
only the worst of crimes could change that love to fear.
The
story of Medea is one that begins with the power of the Goddess
expressing through this daughter of Idyia of the Oceanids and Aeetes,
King of Ephyraea. Because her mother was divine, Medea possessed
the power of healing and used it in the service of Hecate who taught
her to use her powers and to whom Medea was in service. Her
skills included the ability to bring back life from the dead and extend
life. Of course, she also possessed the ability to take
life. According to legend, this is what she did.
This
priestess of Hecate fell in love with Jason of the Argonauts when he
came to Ephraea to find the Golden Fleece. This love was a part
of a greater plot devised by Athena through jealousy. This alone
makes much of the story suspect. These sort of duel between
goddesses over who is the most beautiful, desired, or over some god or
man developed largely after the take over of the patriotically myth
systems. Medea may have been one of the most maligned of the
goddesses and servants of goddesses of this take over.
Because
of Medea's love for Jason, she agrees to help him get the golden
fleece. For this help, Jason agreed to take her to Hellas and
marry her. He also swore to never dishonor her. This
promise key to understanding Medea's actions upon Jason's
betrayal. Medea killed her kinsmen and betrayed her own family to
help Jason. She cut ties with her whole life and the reputation
she had earned through her hard work and loyal service to the Goddess
Hecate. In other words, she gave up her life to support the life
of her husband.
We
can see the universality of this story. It still has great
meaning for women today.
"The
Colchians came after the ARGONAUTS and, among them, also King Styrus of Albania, who at the
time had come to Colchis to marry Medea. He drowned during the pursuit,
but the rest caught them up when they came to Phaeacia (Corcyra), where King Alcinous received the fugitives and
protected them. When the Colchians demanded of Alcinous to give her up,
he answered that if she already knew Jason, he
would give her to him, but that if she were still a maid he would send
her away to her father. It was then that his wife, Queen Arete,
anticipating matters, married Medea to Jason in the
cave of Macris, causing the Colchians to give up their pursuit. " (The Greek Mythology Link, Carlos
Parada & Maicar Förlag 1997.)
Medea was
able to restore youth and used this ability to restore Jason's father,
Aeson, to his youthful body. Medea's powers were much sought, but
as we find out, she was also feared because of these skills.
Medea and
Jason went to Corinth and settled down there. For ten
years Medea was faithful to Jason, bearing him four
children. But it was in the tenth year that Jason betrayed Medea
by leaving her for Glauce, the daughter of the Corinth king
Creon. Jason did fall in love with this younger woman, but
his ambition was fulfilled in this union also. Even though Medea
was indeed the daughter of a king, not to mention a goddess, Medea no
longer enjoyed the advantages of that connection. Glauce,
being much loved and cherished by her father, was able to offer
Jason all the advantages of being married to a King's daughter.
Medea was
devastated. She was a respected wise woman
of Corinth and yet had given up any hope of family support in
favor of a life with Jason. She had four children who Jason had
abandoned along with her. Her hope of supporting them in
Corinth was dashed when Creon banished Medea and her children from
Corinth. Upon hearing Medea's promise to cause no harm
to Jason or his new wife, Creon tells Medea that he is afraid of
her power. He explains that if he were to allow her and her
children to stay, she may use her powers of life and death to do harm
to his beloved daughter and her new husband. Medea begs to stay
but is banished.
Medea then
pretends that she understands what has happened and accepted her
fate. She makes plans for herself and her children to
leave Corinth peaceably and satisfies King Creon that she is
really leaving in peace.
She then sends
an offering of good will to her husband's new bride. It is a
wedding dress of such beauty that the young girl can not
resist putting it on. The dressed is cursed and explodes
into flames. The king, seeing this, attempts to save his daughter
by taking the dress off. They are both consumed by Medea's
flaming vengeance.
Dress of Fire |
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Jason payed for his betrayal also. Jason killed himself
in deep grief over the loss of his new wife and the resulting
consequences of his betrayal of Medea. He was no longer able to
live with himself. Now part of that grief was said to be due to
Medea killing her own children, Jason's sons. This is the crime
that no woman could understand in a goddess or servant of a
goddess. The story says that she killed Jason's children in order
to take everything from him. This is the story portrayed in the
Greek tragedy "Medea" by Euripides. This makes for a good tragedy
and the most tragic is Medea who is so helpless at the loss of her
husband that her only recourse, according to the play, is to kill their
children.
But there are
other accounts, and more likely ones than what we have been offered by
Euripides. His is not the only account of what happened after the
death of Glauce and her father Creon.
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It is said
that Medea, upon giving the dress to Glauce, hid her children in the
temple of Hecate for safe keeping. Once it was learned that Medea
had killed the king and his daughter in revenge for Jason's betrayal,
the Corinthians took the children from the Goddess's temple and stoned
them to death. Presumably they felt justified in dishonoring the
protection of the Goddess for these children because their mother had
used her skills learned from Hecate to produce this deadly vengeance.
There are also
stories of the children joining Medea in Athens, for that is where she
went afterward. Jason died and Medea went to Athens on a winged
chariot with the blood of the Titans tied to it. Here she married
King Aegeus I who protected her from the Corinthians's pursuit of her.
Still more
intrigue followed Medea, but she was loved by the Athenians because of
her considerable healing skills and service to her community.
Symbols of
Medea
She shares the
symbols of Hecate, to whom she was devoted.
The three
legged cauldron
The loyal dog
The color black
My Gift to Medea and All Who Have Been
Betrayed
Please accept
this gift, a healing garden, as a token of peace with Medea.
Her name has
been tarnished and her life made weak and tragic.
I offer this
garden as an offering of healing.
May the heart of Medea be softened and
healed and may she find her home.
May love again
live within her and be offered by her to all.
May the sweet
love of romance be trusted and shared.
May Medea
again know the light touch of love, the embrace of lover, and the
assurance that no betrayal will again reach her.
I offer this
garden of healing to the memory of Medea that we too may know that
no matter the pain and suffering we may endure through our own actions
and the actions of those we love, our hearts can again trust.
Our hearts can
be healed and we are able to love completely once again.
All is well
Medea.
Walk the path
of healing and bless this garden of love.
So Mote It Be.