🌊Medea (ancient Greek: Μήδεια, Ionian: Μηδείη; from μήδεα — "thought, intention, design", then from μέδω — "to ponder, to plot") — in ancient Greek mythology, a princess from the country of Aeetes, the western Georgian kingdom of Colchis, a sorceress, the legendary founder of medicine and the beloved of the Argonaut Jason.

🌊Medea (ancient Greek: Μήδεια, Ionian: Μηδείη; from μήδεα — "thought, intention, design", then from μέδω — "to ponder, to plot") — in ancient Greek mythology, a princess from the country of Aeetes, the western Georgian kingdom of Colchis, a sorceress, the legendary founder of medicine and the beloved of the Argonaut Jason.
Genre: tragedy
Author of the entries: Euripides
Play (myth): Medea (431 BC, 3rd place)
Original language: Latin
Plot: Having fallen in love with Jason, Medea helped him take possession of the Golden Fleece, killed her own brother and fled with the Argonauts from Aeetes (Colchis) to Greece. When her beloved later decided to marry another, Medea killed her rival, killed her two children by Jason, and fled on a winged chariot sent by her grandfather, the god Helios.
Myth
Medea was the daughter of the Colchian king Aeetes and the oceanid Idia, the granddaughter of the god Helios, the niece of Circe (or the daughter of Aeetes and Clytia), a sorceress, and also a priestess (or even daughter) of Hecate.
Having fallen in love with the leader of the Argonauts, Jason, with the help of a magic potion, helped him take possession of the Golden Fleece and withstand the tests that her father subjected him to. First, Jason had to plow a field with a team of fire-breathing oxen and sow it with dragon's teeth, which grew into an army of warriors. Warned by Medea, Jason threw a stone into the crowd, and the warriors began to kill each other.
Medea then used her herbs to put the dragon guarding the fleece to sleep, allowing her lover to steal it. (Some versions of the myth claim that Medea fell in love with Jason only because of a direct order from Hera to Aphrodite - the goddess wanted someone to help the hero, whom she patronized, get the fleece.) Pindar calls her the savior of the Argonauts.
Sailing on the Argo
After stealing the fleece, Medea fled with Jason and the Argonauts, taking her younger brother Apsyrtus with her. When her father's ship began to overtake the Argo, Medea killed her brother and dismembered his body into several pieces, throwing them into the water - she knew that Aeetes would have to hold up the ship to pick up the remains of his son's body. (Another version: Apsyrtus did not flee with Medea, but led the Colchians in pursuit of the Argonauts. The sorceress lured her brother into a trap, and Jason killed him.)
Healed the Argonaut Atalanta, who was seriously wounded. On board the ship, she married Jason, since the Phaeacians demanded that the fugitive be handed over, unless she had already become his wife. Then the ship made a stop at the island of Medea's aunt, Circe, who performed a ritual to cleanse them of the sin of murder. She prophesied to Euphemus, the helmsman of the Argo, that one day he would gain power over Libya - the prediction came true through Battus, his descendant. In Italy, Medea taught the Marsi spells and cures for snakes.
Then the ship tried to dock at the island of Crete, which was guarded by a bronze man named Talos. He had a single vein that ran from his ankle to his neck and was plugged with a bronze nail. According to Apollodorus, the Argonauts killed him like this: Medea gave Talos herbs to drink and convinced him that she would make him immortal, but to do this she had to take out the nail. She took it out, all the ichor flowed out, and the giant died.
A variant - Talos was killed with a bow by Poeas, another version - Medea drove Talos mad with magic, and he pulled out the nail himself. Thus, the ship was finally able to dock.
When the Argonauts finally reached Iolcus, for the sake of whose throne Jason had obtained the Golden Fleece, his uncle Pelias still ruled there. He refused to give up power to his nephew.
The daughters of Pelias, deceived by Medea, killed their father. The plan of the deception was as follows: the sorceress told the princesses that they could turn an old man into a young man if they cut him up and threw him into a boiling cauldron (and demonstrated this to them by slaughtering and resurrecting a ram). They believed her, killed their father and cut him up, but Medea did not resurrect Pelias, unlike the demonstration lamb.
Ovid describes in detail how she prepared a potion for Aeson, to whom she nevertheless returned youth.
At the request of Dionysus, she returned youth to his nurses and Jason.
Medea invented a hair dye that rejuvenated old people.
After the murder of Pelias, Jason and Medea were forced to flee to Corinth.
In Corinth
There are several versions of the myth further.
In Corinth, she ended the famine by sacrificing to Demeter and the Lemnian nymphs.
Zeus loved her, but she rejected him, for which Hera promised immortality to her children, whom the Corinthians revered as mixobarbarians (semi-barbarians). Theopompus told of the love of Medea and Sisyphus.
According to the poem of Eumelus, Jason and Medea reigned in Corinth. When Medea gave birth to children, she hid them in the sanctuary of Hera, planning to make them immortal. She was exposed by Jason, who left for Iolcus, and Medea left, handing over power to Sisyphus.
According to Euripides and Seneca, she killed her two children, whom they do not mention by name.
According to one of the sub-variants (historian Didymus), the king of Corinth Creon decided to give Jason his daughter Glauce (variant: Creusa) in marriage and convinced him to leave Medea. In turn, Medea poisoned Creon and fled the city, but she could not take her children with her, and they were out of revenge...