#aegeus

Aegeus: Girl leave him

just a collective list of all da fun facts of medea I've found so far cuz shes so interesting and weird and retellings and modern medea don't do her justice, shes like a BIG hero guys. disguise statue drug cache

 "Medea, the tale goes on, fashioning a hollow image of Artemis secreted in it drugs of diverse natures, and as for herself, she anointed her hair with certain potent ointments and made it grey, and filled her face and body so full of wrinkles that all who looked upon her thought that she was surely an old woman." tricked others into thinking she was blessed by the gods "and showing herself to the king, she amazed those who gazed upon her, and they thought that a kind of Providence of the gods had transformed her old age into a maiden's youth and striking beauty" made dragons appear probably via illusions. "Also, by means of certain drugs, Medea caused shapes of the dragons to appear" asked heracles to act as a mediator  "made her way safely to Heracles in Thebes. Her reason for doing so was that Heracles had acted as a mediator in connection with the agreements​ which had been entered into in the land of the Colchians and had promised to come to her aid if she should ever find them violated" her son lived and became king "Thessalus, they say, who had escaped being murdered by his mother, was reared as a youth in Corinth and then removed to Iolcus, which was the native land of Jason; and finding on his arrival that Acastus, the son of Pelias, had recently died, he took over the throne which belonged to him by inheritance and called the people who were subject to himself Thessalians after his own name." Cured heracles of his madness "Now as for Medea, he says, on finding upon her arrival in Thebes that Heracles was possessed of a frenzy of madness and had slain his sons,​ she restored him to health by means of drugs. But since Eurystheus was pressing Heracles with his commands,​ she despaired of receiving any aid from him at the moment and sought refuge in Athens with Aegeus," Found innocent/in the right of murdering her children in court "but certain writers give the account that, when her person was demanded by Hippotes, the son of Creon, she was granted a trial and cleared of the charges he raised against her." - Diodorus Siculus

Possibly a creator for GREEK FIRE/ some other type of chemical fire weapon.

"And they had filled pots with sulphur and bitumen and the substance which the Persians call "naphtha" and the Greeks "Medea's oil," "so the flame rising little by little, fed by the oil which bears Medea's name " -Procopius, History of the Wars

cursed the people of Crete/has beef with thetis

"says that Thetis and Medea had a dispute in Thessaly as to which was the most beautiful; their judge was Idomeneus, who gave the victory to Thetis; Medea in anger said that the Cretans were always liars and in revenge she made the curse that he would never speak the truth, just as he had lied in his judgement" -Photius, Bibliotheca excerpts Being a freak in the sheets saved her.

"Alcinous at once allowed the armed ships to lead the girl away so that she could receive her punishment. The famous Queen Arete felt sympathy for Medea, and coaxed her husband, speaking thusly: "It is not pleasing to break a marriage, to disturb the nuptial bed, to extinguish the torch of love. Aphrodite, daughter of Dionaea, will become violently angry at the man or woman who undertakes such an effort

(weird speech about virginitty i cut out for length) …Alcinous absorbed this speech in his soul, and ordered that everything should be done as the queen had said" -Orphic Argonautica

Magic water powers saved the day "the Argonauts were at a loss about the passage when Triton, the son of Poseidon, appeared and guided them, to whom Medea gave a golden mixing bowl as a reward, which she had from her father's spoils. Or, being a sorceress, Medea saved the situation by using her magic to water the place where the ship was stuck, so that it was as it had been at first" john tzetzes

has winged dragons

Ovid, Metamorphoses "[Medea flees Thessalia (Thessaly) after the murder of King Pelias :] Had she [Medea] not soared away with her winged Serpents (Serpentes), she surely must have paid the price. Aloft, over the peak of shady Pelion . . . she fled, and over Othrys . . . [Until] at last, borne on her Vipers' (Vipereae) wings"

Valerius Flaccus, Argonautica "[Medea] with Winged Serpents cleaves the air, dripping with murder"

discovered the herb that would resurrect her cousin "and she observed the herbs by Ossa born, the weeds on lofty Pelion, Othrys, Pindus and vast Olympus — and from here she plucked the needed roots, or there, the blossoms clipped all with a moon-curved sickle made of brass — many the wild weeds by Apidanus, as well as blue Amphrysus' banks, she chose, and not escaped Enipeus from her search; Peneian stretches and Spercheian banks all yielded what she chose: — and Boebe's shore where sway the rushes; and she plucked up grass, a secret grass, from fair Euboean fields life-giving virtues in their waving blades, as yet unknown for transformation wrought on Glaucus" -ovid

she went to persia "of Medea in Greece, and of her flight thereafter into Persia,"-Lucian: Of Pantomime, Of Dancing Invented hair dye

'The Carthaginians were the first to fit out a quadrireme, and it was built off hand by Bosporus. Medea of Colchis, the daughter of Aeetes, first devised the dyeing of the hair.- Eusebius: Preparation for the Gospel Book 10 thicc also medus got raised by charon.

"he came to Iolcus after long toil bringing the coy-eyed girl with him on his swift ship, and made her his buxom wife. And she was subject to Iason, shepherd of the people, and bare a son Medeus whom Cheiron the son of Philyra brought up in the mountains. And the will of great Zeus was fulfilled."-Hesiod: Theogony HYMN TO THE MUSES

ENGINEEERRRR????!!! (if this is the same Medea)

"For it is said that a woman, Medea, was formerly queen of those parts, who spanned the river underneath in a manner in which no river was ever bridged before; for she got stones, it is said, and copper and pitch and all that men have discovered for use in masonry under water, and she piled these up along the banks of the river. Then she diverted the stream into lakes; and as soon as the river was dry, she dug down two fathoms, and made a hollow tunnel, which she caused to debouch into the palaces on either bank like a subterranean grotto; and she roofed it on a level with the bed of the stream. The foundations were thus made stable, and also the walls of the tunnel; but as the pitch required water in order to set as hard as stone, the Euphrates was let in again on the roof while still soft, and so the junction stood solid."-Philostratus: The Life of Apollonius built a temple to venus to stop him from loving THETIS?? THE BEEF

"For it was a thing divulged abroad, concerning which Simonides made an epigram to be inscribed on the brazen image set up in that temple of Venus which is said to have been founded by Medea, when she desired the Goddess, as some affirm, to deliver her from loving her husband Jason, or, as others say, to free him from loving Thetis. The tenor of the epigram follows: For those who, fighting on their country’s side, Opposed th’ imperial Mede’s advancing tide, We, votaresses, to Cythera pray’d; Th’ indulgent power vouchsafed her timely aid, And kept the citadel of Hellas free From rude assaults of Persia’s archery." -Plutarch: Of Herodotus' Malice can cure infertility

"Aegeus also, and his whole private family, laboring under the same distemper; for Medea, having fled from Corinth, and promised Aegeus to make him, by her art, capable of having children, was living with him."-Plutarch: Life of Theseus

edit: more stuff is

"It is remembered of Medea that she lived in Corinth and stopped the famine afflicting the Corinthians by sacrificing to Demeter and the Lemnian nymphs. There Zeus fell in love with her, but Medea did not yield, turning aside the wrath of Hera. Therefore Hera promised to make her children immortal. And after they died, the Corinthians honor them, calling them Mixobarbaroi ("mixed-barbarians")." "But that Medea was loved by Sisyphus, Theopompos says." -scholia to pindar

"is also expounded . But since Medea was the queen of Corinth , Eumelus [frg. 3] Simonides also tells [frg. 48] that Medea was also immortal

"Pelias' daughter : Medea , the daughter of Peleus , persuaded her father to slaughter and roast him as if he were a younger son , she roasted an older ram and made him a lamb with the medicines " BRO WHAT THE FUCK

Pandion was son of the latter and of Metadiouse

And from Pandio and Peleia Aigeus was born.

He had daughters from Autocthe

And a bastard son, Theseus, from Aithra.

Acamas and Demophon are Theseus’ and Phaedra’s sons.”

Tzetzes, Chiliades

This part of Medea’s life is so fascinating to me. It’s essentially the end of her story, so I want to compile the sources that we have about it in chronological order:

Diodorus Siculus, Bibliotheca historica:

“[…] some indeed, in their desire to win favour with the Athenians, say that she took that Medus whom she bore to Aegeus and got off safe to Colchis; and at that time Aeetes, who had been forcibly driven from the throne by his brother Perses, had regained his kingdom, Medus, Medea's son, having slain Perses; and that afterwards Medus, securing the command of an army, advanced over a large part of Asia which lies above the Pontus and secured possession of Media, which has been named after this Medus.”

Apollodorus’ Bibliotheca:

“So Medea went to Athens, where she married Aigeus, and bore him a son, Medos. Afterwards, however, when she tried to plot against Theseus, she was driven from Athens and went into exile with her son. Medos conquered many of the barbarians, and gave the name Media to the whole territory under his control. He died during an expedition against the Indians. Medea returned to Colchis without being recognized, and finding that Aietes had been deprived of his kingdom by his brother Perses, she killed Perses and restored the throne to her father.”

Hyginus’ Fabulae (my favorite version):

“An oracle told Perses, son of Sol, Aeetes' brother, that he should beware of death from Aeetes' descendants. Medus, following his mother, was brought to him by a storm, and guards seized him and brought him to King Perses. When Medus, son of Aegeus and Medea, saw that he had come into the power of his enemy, he falsely asserted he was Hippotes, son of Creon. The king carefully investigated, and ordered him cast into prison. There sterility and scarcity of crops are said to have occurred. When Medea had come there in her chariot with the yoked dragons, she falsely claimed before the king to be a priestess of Diana. She said she could make atonement for the sterility, and when she heard from the king that Hippotes, son of Creon, was held in custody, thinking he had come to avenge the injury to his father . . . there, unknowingly, she betrayed her son. For she persuaded the king that he was not Hippotes, but Medus, son of Aegeus, sent by his father to dispatch the king, and begged that he be handed over to her to kill, convinced that he was Hippotes. And so when Medus was brought out to pay for his deceit by death, when she saw that things were otherwise than she had thought, she said she wished to talk with him, and gave him a sword, and bade him avenge the wrongs of his grandfather. Medus, at this news, killed Perses, and gained his grandfather's kingdom; from his name he called the country Media.”

Tzetzes, Ad Lycophronem:

Cerberus

Cerberus (also spelt Kerberos) is a vicious three-headed dog in Greek mythology, who guards the entrance to the underworld. He allowed the souls of the dead to enter Hades but prevented the living (except for a few exceptions) from entering. Cerberus is a son of Typhon, a Giant, and Echidna, a half-woman, half-snake creature.

Anubis is the Egyptian counterpart of Cerberus. Like Cerberus, he had the head of a dog and guarded the underworld. Cerberus' name is first mentioned in Hesiod's (c. 700 BCE) Theogony.

Birth & Family

In his Theogony, Hesiod states that Cerberus was the son of Typhon, a serpentine Giant that breathed fire, and Echidna, a half-woman and half-snake creature. In addition, he was the brother of other fearsome creatures, including the two-headed dog Orthos and the Lernaean Hydra (a water serpent).

They say that Typho, terrible and proud And lawless, loved this nymph with glancing eyes, And she conceived and bore fierce progeny: First, Orthos the dog of Geryon, and next, Unspeakable Cerberus, who eats raw flesh, The bronze-voiced hound of Hades, shameless, strong, With fifty heads.

(Hesiod, Theogony, 310-316).

(Slight spoilers)

Their version of how Aegeus killed Androgeus:

Minos falling in love with a pet monkey:

Theseus being Theseus:

Aethra getting a letter from her son:

Zeus being a badger:

(The guy to the right of him is Ares btb)

Finally…Theseus and Ariadne being kind of cute: