Mēdēa, a celebrated magician, daughter of Æetes king of Colchis. Her mother’s name, according to the more received opinion of Hesiod and Hyginus, was Idyia, or, according to others, Ephyre, Hecate, Asterodia, Antiope, or Neræa. She was the niece of Circe. When Jason came to Colchis in quest of the golden fleece, Medea became enamoured of him, and it was to her well-directed labours that the Argonauts owed their preservation. See: [Jason] and [Argonautæ]. Medea had an interview with her lover in the temple of Hecate, where they bound themselves by the most solemn oaths, and mutually promised eternal fidelity. No sooner had Jason overcome all the difficulties which Æetes had placed in his way, than Medea embarked with the conquerors for Greece. To stop the pursuit of her father, she tore to pieces her brother Absyrtus, and left his mangled limbs in the way through which Æetes was to pass. This act of barbarity some have attributed to Jason, and not to her. When Jason reached Iolchos, his native country, the return and victories of the Argonauts were celebrated with universal rejoicings; but Æson the father of Jason was unable to assist at the solemnity, on account of the infirmities of his age. Medea, at her husband’s request, removed the weakness of Æson, and by drawing away the blood from his veins, and filling them again with the juice of certain herbs, she restored to him the vigour and sprightliness of youth. This sudden change in Æson astonished the inhabitants of Iolchos, and the daughters of Pelias were also desirous to see their father restored, by the same power, to the vigour of youth. Medea, willing to revenge the injuries which her husband’s family had suffered from Pelias, increased their curiosity, and by cutting to pieces an old ram and making it again, in their presence, a young lamb, she totally determined them to try the same experiment upon their father’s body. They accordingly killed him of their own accord, and boiled his flesh in a cauldron; but Medea refused to perform the same friendly offices to Pelias which she had done to Æson, and he was consumed by the heat of the fire, and even deprived of a burial. This action greatly irritated the people of Iolchos, and Medea, with her husband, fled to Corinth to avoid the resentment of an offended populace. Here they lived for 10 years with much conjugal tenderness; but the love of Jason for Glauce, the king’s daughter, soon interrupted their mutual harmony, and Medea was divorced. Medea revenged the infidelity of Jason by causing the death of Glauce, and the destruction of her family. See: [Glauce]. This action was followed by another still more atrocious. Medea killed two of her children in their father’s presence, and when Jason attempted to punish the barbarity of the mother, she fled through the air upon a chariot drawn by winged dragons. From Corinth Medea came to Athens, where, after she had undergone the necessary purification of her murder, she married king Ægeus, or, according to others, lived in an adulterous manner with him. From her connection with Ægeus, Medea had a son, who was called Medus. Soon after, when Theseus wished to make himself known to his father [See: [Ægeus]], Medea, jealous of his fame, and fearful of his power, attempted to poison him at a feast which had been prepared for his entertainment. Her attempts, however, failed of success, and the sight of the sword which Theseus wore by his side, convinced Ægeus that the stranger against whose life he had so basely conspired was no less than his own son. The father and the son were reconciled, and Medea, to avoid the punishment which her wickedness deserved, mounted her fiery chariot, and disappeared through the air. She came to Colchis, where, according to some, she was reconciled to Jason, who had sought her in her native country after her sudden departure from Corinth. She died at Colchis, as Justin mentions, when she had been restored to the confidence of her family. After death she married Achilles in the Elysian fields, according to the traditions mentioned by Simonides. The murder of Mermerus and Pheres, the youngest of Jason’s children by Medea, is not attributed to their mother according to Ælian, but the Corinthians themselves assassinated them in the temple of Juno Acræa. To avoid the resentment of the gods, and deliver themselves from the pestilence which visited their country after so horrid a massacre, they engaged the poet Euripides, for five talents, to write a tragedy, which cleared them of the murder, and represented Medea as the cruel assassin of her own children. And besides, that this opinion might be the better credited, festivals were appointed, in which the mother was represented with all the barbarity of a fury murdering her own sons. See: [Heræa]. Apollodorus, bk. 1, ch. 9.—Hyginus, fables 21, 22, 23, &c.—Plutarch, Theseus.—Dionysius Periegetes.—Ælian, Varia Historia, bk. 5, ch. 21.—Pausanias, bk. 2, ch. 3; bk. 8, ch. 11.—Euripides, Medea.—Diodorus, bk. 4.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 7, fable 1; Medicamina Faciei Femineæ.—Strabo, bk. 7.—Cicero, de Natura Deorum, bk. 3, ch. 19.—Apollonius, Argonautica, bk. 3, &c.—Orpheus.—Flaccus.—Lucan, bk. 4, li. 556.
Medesicaste, a daughter of Priam, who married Imbrius son of Mentor, who was killed by Teucer during the Trojan war. Homer, Iliad, bk. 13, ch. 172.—Apollodorus, bk. 3.
Media, a celebrated country of Asia, bounded on the north by the Caspian sea, west by Armenia, south by Persia, and east by Parthia and Hyrcania. It was originally called Aria, till the age of Medus the son of Medea, who gave it the name of Media. The province of Media was first raised into a kingdom by its revolt from the Assyrian monarchy, B.C. 820; and after it had for some time enjoyed a kind of republican government, Deioces, by his artifice, procured himself to be called king, 700 B.C. After a reign of 53 years he was succeeded by Phraortes, B.C. 647; who was succeeded by Cyaxares, B.C. 625. His successor was Astyages, B.C. 585, in whose reign Cyrus became master of Media, B.C. 551; and ever after the empire was transferred to the Persians. The Medes were warlike in the primitive ages of their power; they encouraged polygamy, and were remarkable for the homage which they paid to their sovereigns, who were styled kings of kings. This title was afterwards adopted by their conquerors the Persians, and it was still in use in the age of the Roman emperors. Justin, bk. 1, ch. 5.—Herodotus, bk. 1, &c.—Polybius, bks. 5 & 10.—Curtius, bk. 5, &c.—Diodorus Siculus, bk. 13.—Ctesias.
Medias, a tyrant of Mysia, &c.
Medĭcus, a prince of Larissa, in Thessaly, who made war against Lycophron tyrant of Pheræ. Diodorus, bk. 14.
Mediolānum, now Milan, the capital of Insubria at the mouth of the Po. Livy, bk. 5, ch. 34; bk. 34, ch. 46.——Aulercorum, a town of Gaul, now Evreux, in Normandy.——Santŏnum, another, now Saintes, in Guienne.
Mediomatrices, a nation that lived on the borders of the Rhine, now Metz. Strabo, bk. 4.—Cæsar, Gallic War, bk. 4, ch. 10.
Mediterraneum mare, a sea which divides Europe and Asia Minor from Africa. It receives its name from its situation, medio terræ, situate in the middle of the land. It has a communication with the Atlantic by the columns of Hercules, and with the Euxine through the Ægean. The word Mediterraneum does not occur in the classics; but it is sometimes called internum, nostrum, or medius liquor, and is frequently denominated in Scripture the Great sea. The first naval power that ever obtained the command of it, as recorded in the fabulous epochs of the writer Castor, was Crete, under Minos. Afterwards it passed into the hands of the Lydians, B.C. 1179; of the Pelasgi, 1058; of the Thracians, 1000; of the Rhodians, 916; of the Phrygians, 893; of the Cyprians, 868; of the Phœnicians, 826; of the Egyptians, 787; of the Milesians, 753; of the Carians, 734; and of the Lesbians, 676, which they retained for 69 years. Horace, bk. 3, ode 3, li. 46.—Pliny, bk. 2, ch. 668.—Sallust, Jugurthine War, ch. 17.—Cæsar, Gallic War, bk. 5, ch. 1.—Livy, bk. 26, ch. 42.
Meditrīna, the goddess of medicines, whose festivals, called Meditrinalia, were celebrated at Rome the last day of September, when they made offerings of fruits. Varro, de Lingua Latina, bk. 5, ch. 3.
Medoacus, or Meduacus, a river in the country of the Veneti, falling into the Adriatic sea. Livy, bk. 10, ch. 2.