Monday, December 8, 2014

Ovid Book 7

Jason appears before King Aeetes of Colchis to demand the Golden Fleece. Aeetes will give it to him only if he completes certain feats. Medea, who knows her father and the dangers that await Jason, is torn. She knows she should be loyal to her father, but she cannot deny the passion she feels for Jason. Jason promises to marry her in exchange for her help, and Medea uses her knowledge of magic to aid him. Jason succeeds and obtains the Golden Fleece. Jason asks Medea to transfer some of his strength to his aging father, Aeson. Moved by this request, Medea does something even better. She returns Aeson to youthfulness with her magic.

Pretending that she has been fighting with her husband, Medea seeks refuge in the palace of the aged Pelias. She says she could revive him as she revived Aeson and demonstrates her power on an old sheep. Pelias’s daughters ask Medea give their father youth. Medea tells them to cut their father with knives to empty him of old blood. The daughters cannot bear the sight of knives in their father’s flesh, so they strike blindly and unintentionally kill him. Medea flees and finds refuge in Athens until she must flee again following the attempted murder of the king’s son, Theseus.
The picture above is later in Theseus' life, but it is crazy to think that had Theseus been killed, the story of the Minotaur and the labyrinth would never have came to fruition. 

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