Talk:Medea

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This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 22 September 2021 and 10 December 2021. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Crocaholic. Peer reviewers: Scorpiohistory, Matisse123.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 03:43, 17 January 2022 (UTC)

Aegeas, Theseus, etc.

There is a problem in the last part of the Medea article. There it is said that Aegeas is father of Medus who is father of Theseus, which is not right. Medus is a brother of Theseus and the hate of Medea against Theseus is due to a conflict for the throne. I would put this version but I do not remember which author supports it. Can someone confirm? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 213.45.189.230 (talk • contribs) 00:31, 2 January 2005 (UTC)

I can confirm this. Theseus and Medus are, in fact brothers.Firestorm 17:43, May 15, 2005 (UTC)

• National Theatre; Live 2014-2015 season of Medea with Helen McCrory as Medea is missing from the "Cinema/TV" list.121.223.56.112 (talk) 02:27, 29 September 2014 (UTC)

das mutterrecht

the whole myths-harking-back-to-matriarchy-and-mother-goddesses, etc- the whole "das mutterrecht" thing- is so outdated. Does it really belong here? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 138.251.235.227 (talk • contribs) 12:50, 27 April 2005 (UTC)

Thanks -

for this marvellous article! Am involved with the preparation of a performance of "Médé" by Milhaud at "Musikhochschule Hamburg" in January/Februery 2006. And this article is a great help. (2005 11 24 10:00 CET)ko

that is nice but your words of appreciation do not belong here — Preceding unsigned comment added by 96.233.73.41 (talk) 22:37, 25 July 2011 (UTC)

Disambugation

Somebody should put up a disambugation page for Medea. I came from the Algeria page looking for the province Medea and came across this. The top of the page lists at least 2 other possible entries the page could link to.

Daemon 14:21, 25 November 2005 (UTC)

Pelias pieces quote

"Excited, the girls cut their father into pieces and threw them into a pot. Pelias did not survive." This seems kind of laconic, and, although amusing, not very encyclopedic. Kranak

for all the statement that we have, where are the authors to back up the evidence? I saw in the discussion that Medea's child Medus is linked as a brother to Theseus, but where is the support to back up such horrendous statement? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 142.103.168.75 (talk • contribs) 19:21, 17 March 2006 (UTC)

I don't disagree with the above, but I think it should also be pointed out that Pelias is rather abruptly introduced to us in this article with the first mention of him

"Pelias' daughters saw this and wanted the same service for their father."

Is there any way to introduce Pelias in such a way that we understand who he is and his relationship to Jason a little bit better? Emerald Evergreen 23:02, 1 June 2015 (UTC)

Confusing line

"Medea is known in most stories as an enchantress and is often depicted as being a priestess of Hecate. She is the granddaughter of the sun god Helios and a niece of the witch Circe, famous for her encounter with Odysseus in his journey home from the Trojan War."

The last part "famous for her encounter with Odysseus..." is confusing in that the reader doesn't know if its talking about Medea or Circe. I'm going to delete it as I find that it's unnecessary anyway. Beowulf Lee 13:08 (GMT -05:00) Nov/04/2006

Suggestion

I reckon Medeashould also be put under fictional serial killers, or femmes fatales. You've got to admit, she is an extremely bad girl... CO. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 194.81.33.111 (talk • contribs) 06:58, 24 November 2006 (UTC)

Another Suggestion

We need to distinguish what happens in different myths.. which will require sourcing the info. For example, in certain tellings, Medea kills her brother during her flight from home, while in others Jason does. Ideally, we would distinguish them by event and source: either by giving a synopsis of each source, or by telling the story overall and noting differences as they come up. CC. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.15.121.40 (talk) 23:58, 29 October 2007 (UTC)

Checking back in here... The article's shaping up, I can see everyone's done a lot since last Fall. This is my thought:

Properly, there is no "story" of Medea. This is part of what's tripping us up. There are many stories of Medea, and the later authors tend to add sequels on to her story. So, we have retellings of the primary story and updates explaining what happened next.

So it's difficult (and not very useful) to try to tell "the story" when we have to keep switching between versions: "in some versions" this, and "in other versions" that... it'd be fine, except there are so many versions and differences.

What I'd like to do is to reorganize the article, so that it gives a quick precis of the different major versions of the story. This would be less interpretive, more accurate, and remove the impression that there is "a" Medea.

I don't want to devote a lot of time to this and then have someone delete it all... so, what do you folks think? CC. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.15.121.40 (talk) 00:21, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

Agreed that the sources for the versions should be distinguished from each other as clear as possible. Preferebly with a mention to the date that each mythographer lived so we can have a more chronological perspective of the story evolving under a series of reinterpratations. Dimadick (talk) 15:35, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

Plagiarism?

Six full paragraphs ("Medea was a devotee ... the country which was later called Media.") were copied verbatim from http://www.pantheon.org/articles/m/medea.html. The text was added by user Mattacampa on April 15, 2007. The page at pantheon.org was written by James Hunter, and last edited April 24, 1999. --74.99.119.107 22:13, 25 May 2007 (UTC)

I justed saw that, too. I'm going to remove it. --Joelmills 13:47, 1 July 2007 (UTC)

Proposed improvements

I would like to propose the following improvements to the article.
1. Replace bad link just below the section Jason and Medea to a none existing picture of

"Image:John William Waterhouse, - Jason and Medea (1907).jpg|thumb|left|230px|Jason and Medea by John William Waterhouse (1907)."

Media

to image shown here ------------------------>

"Image:Medea-Sandys.jpg|thumb|left|230px|Media, 1868 painting by Anthony Frederick Augustus Sandys"

2. Revise the Reference section since it now has an "Unreferenced" tag on it calling for references,

References

Primary sources

• Ovid

Heroides XII

Metamorphoses VII, 1-450

Secondary sources

• Huth, Andrew (19 October 2007). "Killer queen". The Guardian. Retrieved 2007-10-19.

I'll assume if I don't hear any objections until next year, then I will update and put in these improvements. --Doug ^talk 14:27, 25 December 2007 (UTC)

Fixing the link to the image is good, adding primary sources is fine; an article in the Guardian is not a very good source for us when there are hundreds of peer-reviewed sources available. --Akhilleus (talk) 07:21, 28 December 2007 (UTC)

Tend to agree with you on the "Guardian" source, and in fact had taken it out awhile back but it was put back in. In the proposal I then left it in as a Secondary source for whomever wanted to keep it. I'll then make these changes next year and take out the "Guardian" source if there are no further objections.--Doug ^talk 12:21, 28 December 2007 (UTC)

Did some notes, refs.

Looks like no one's been here in a while. Ifnkovhg (talk) 03:22, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

"For a moment, nothing happened. Then, after a second or so, nothing continued to happen."

WurmWoode^T 15:20, 26 April 2010 (UTC)

Crypt of Medea

This old computer game may be a good link to place as a mention in the "Medea in popular culture" section. -- œ^™ 07:18, 14 February 2011 (UTC)

Image selection

As an art historian, I often find that images widely separated from the time and culture of the topic under discussion can be very misleading. All of the images in this article are 19th century and early 20th century interpretations of the Medea legend(s). While fascinating in their own right, presentation of these images as illustrative of the topic under discussion (i.e. ancient Greek myth) are pretty wide of the mark. I suggest searching for illustrations that provide ideas of how the ancients visualized the stories, or at least captions that comment on the disparity between the context of the images and that of the original stories. There are many ancient examples, including a spectacular 5th/4th cent. BC vase now at the Cleveland Museum but contested by Italian authorities. Just as there are sections for "Medea in cinema," "Medea in popular culture," etc., a topic on "Medea in the visual arts" could also provide an appropriate context for presentation of images drawn from various periods and cultural situations.Djacobs5 (talk) 03:47, 14 July 2011 (UTC)

Thanks for your comment, I agree with much of it. Sometimes ancient depictions are unavailable, for various reasons, so I hope you as an art historian will help Wikipedia obtain images that meet copyright requirements. One of the reasons that topics from classical mythology are notable is their continuance in the classical tradition, so I think it's fine to use historical interpretations of myths with these articles. For instance, T.P. Wiseman starts his recent book on Roman myths with a discussion of how Tiepolo's Triumph of Flora is based on Ovid's presentation of the Floralia, as a way of outlining what "classical tradition" is. I try to choose images based on the significance scholars have given them, when these are available for WP use, and will sometimes provide an "interpretational" caption with a footnote. I would also emphasize as you have that the captions should give a date and an aesthetic frame of reference. But again, I hope that someone with your knowledge can help by uploading free images for use. Cynwolfe (talk) 13:50, 14 July 2011 (UTC)

I agree, at this point an image of Tyler Perry from "medea goes to jail" could even be used. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 96.233.73.41 (talk) 22:41, 25 July 2011 (UTC)

And as an art historian, I don't agree. The the ancient mythological themes have been widely represented in modern time too and they are a valuable part of our culture. To insist that ancient godesses and god's articles only be illustrated with Greek and Roman BC vases is cutting away centuries of cultural heritage. Hafspajen (talk) 13:23, 7 March 2015 (UTC)

Medea the source of the word Medicine?

I have a bachelor's in Classical Culture and I seem to recall that Medea is the basis of the word Medicine. This is a terribly significant fact (if indeed a fact) that should be included (I am NOT a linguist). The land she comes from is the current area of the Republic of Georgia which is bordered on the north by the Caucus mountains (sounds similar to where she is said to come from). It is amusing in that she is not seen in a negative light by the Georgians and they see her as a great folk hero from their past. The Georgians of the Caucus mountains even today will take sheep's fleece and put it under a spout from a flowing stream and allow gold dust to collect in the fleece (as the mud gets washed away). This is very likely to be the historical source of the golden fleece myth and is fairly well accepted by Greek mythologists (though I have no way to cite this).

I am not an editor, nor do I have any desire to edit this article. I would however love to see someone dig into these areas and add them to the article with appropriate citations. Thanks for all you folks do! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.176.235.65 (talk) 04:20, 28 November 2011 (UTC)

Euripides' inventions

1.This deliberate murder of her children by Medea to be Euripides' invention. 2.No suggestion in evidence that Jason leaves Medea for another woman before the Medea (by Euripides) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Milangru (talk • contribs) 13:35, 17 May 2018 (UTC)

Final story about Medea

1. Diodorus Siculus in Bibliotheca Historica: she married an Asian king and bore Medus.

2. Pausanias' Description of Greece: she and her son Medus fled to Aria.

3. Strabo's Geographica and Justin's Epitoma Historiarum Philippicarum: she returned home and conquer neighboring lands with her husband Jason. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Milangru (talk • contribs) 17:21, 19 June 2019 (UTC)

Medea included in the list of Corinthian rulers

Aeetes came from Corinth: It is said that the land of Ephyra or Ephyraea, which later was called Corinth, was given to Aeetes by his father Helius. Aeetes, however, did not remain in Corinth , but instead emigrated to Colchis, the land at the eastern end of the Black Sea. Medea’s rule at Corinth is hereditary through her father Aeetes. Medea, as the daughter of Aeetes, inherited the kingdom after Corinthus died childless. When Medea lost her children, she passed on the kingdom to Sisyphus and his sons. Medea becomes the linchpin that makes possible the orderly succession of rulers from Helius to Sisyphus. As for Medea and her children, the cult of Hera Acraea, located at Perachora, the promontory jutting out into the Gulf of Corinth just north of the isthmus, helped protect mothers in pregnancy and the children who might die in the first years of life. Homer mentions Sisyphus as King of Ephyra in Iliad 6.152, 210, and Pausanias reports that he rescued Melicertes, helped establish the Isthmian Games, and was buried on the isthmus; and Medea and her children were central to the cult of Hera Acraea. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Milangru (talk • contribs) 14:26, 21 June 2019 (UTC)

Medea is the national heroine of Corinth vilified by athenians

In Corinth Medea was worshipped as a national heroine. She is supposed to have saved the city from a famine. Corinth and Athens were more or less arch-enemies. It is therefore hardly a coincidence that it is from athenian dramatists and others that the darkest things about Medea stem; like her murdering her own children - and her alleged attempted murder of Theseus, National heros of Athens! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 90.130.31.203 (talk) 09:51, 13 September 2019 (UTC)

This article lacks an infobox

That is all. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 5.173.123.100 (talk) 16:46, 9 August 2020 (UTC)

Did she kill her children?

"[A] feminist interpretation of the Greek tragedy suggest[s] that Medea had never killed her children and was only blamed for it by patriarchal traditions", per Samuel Moyn (2021). Humane: How the United States Abandoned Peace and Reinvented War. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ISBN 978-0-374-71992-0. OL 34118912M. Wikidata Q108896140., p. 268.

Should this be mentioned in this article?

It's just sufficiently quirky that I felt a need to mention it here before I changed the article. Thanks to all who have brought this article to this point. DavidMCEddy (talk) 12:50, 8 October 2022 (UTC)