#medus

[callmealioness]

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐥 𝐰𝐚𝐫 𝐛𝐞𝐭𝐰𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐌𝐞𝐝𝐞𝐚 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐲𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐮𝐧𝐜𝐥𝐞 𝐏𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐞𝐬

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:

“She then left for Athens on a chariot drawn by winged dragons, married Aegeus, the son of Pandion, and gave birth to Medus. Later, after plotting against Theseus, she was expelled from her homeland with her son, who, having conquered the barbarians, named the land after himself, Media, and died while campaigning in India. Medea, unknown, came to the Colchians and gave the kingdom back to her father, having killed Perses, her brother, who had expelled him from the kingdom.”

[community-gardenss]

Thought on medus? His relationship with his mom? His age? His time imprisoned? The whole thing give me all of your thoughts and do not spill

took me a second to respond to this ask but I DO HAVE SO MANY THOUGHTS ABOUT MEDUS. how did you know.

He is so momma's boy coded I'm sorry. That man is JUST like his mother. They basically came up with the exact same lie to Perses just in reverse. The exact same ruse. As well as the idea that he followed her willingly after her exile from Athens + I'm partial to the interpretation that he named Media after his mother. So to me I read them as having been fairly close !

Age wise. Uhm. There's no untangling anything related to the argonautica to me I'm sorry. The Greek myths have no true timeline and the heroes' ages are elusive and ill-defined by nature. But if I had to guess I would place him as likely being 16-17 at the time of Medea's exile. Still fairly young.

Medus is really interesting to me as a character despite information about him being very. Sparse. In a lot of ways it almost feels like he sort of inverts a lot of the traits of a typical Greek hero. His father is almost entirely irrelevant to his story. He isn't later compelled to take revenge on Aegaeus or kill Theseus for the throne of Athens (think Jason/Pelias or Pelias/Aeson). After he leaves Athens, he's completely uninvolved with his father or his father's line. Instead, his story focuses entirely on his mother's line. He's named after his mother. In a lot of ways he's a hero who's story is entirely defined by his relationship with his mother. Aside from maybe Achilles it's not something I can recall many examples of.

Like. Okay I know I've mentioned in the past that part of what makes Medea's decision to kill her kids compelling to me is the interpretation of her deciding to do it, in part, to spare them from the cycle of tragedy stemming from the glory-seeking, patriarchal society of Greece (They must die/and since they must/I who gave them birth will kill them). Her children are the sons of a hero, and as all sons of a hero are bound to do, they will suffer for their father's glory. Contrasting that with Medus. How his life is so obviously centered on her. It feels like a reversal.

They're both very interesting to me if you could not tell

[galusandmalus]

thessalus surviving medeas murder attempt fucks me up dawg like for all the shit jason did with replacing his family, medea kinda ends up doing the same thing Imagine thesselus, now more or less a half breed orphan, completely and utterly alone in Corinth, finding out that his mom now has a new family, married a different king, and has a new son in Athens.

and your just the son of a failure and a murderer and alone in a far away land who hates barbarians

[scriptorsapiens]

Classicstober Day 5: Chiron (𐀐𐀂𐀫)

Since I'm trying to stay away from direct depictions of the divine, and Chiron is a fully divine son of Cronus, I decided to focus on Chiron's students. From the top and going clockwise they are Medus, Actaeon, Aristaeus, Achilles, Asclepius, and Jason.

Medus (𐀕𐀈) was the son of the sorceress Medea (who we will meet later) and Aegeus, the king of Athens and the father of Theseus (who we will also meet). After Theseus returned and claimed the throne of Athens for himself Medus and his mother were both forced to flee. Mother and son have a fascinating story that eventually leaves Medus as the king of Colchis, but that's a bit too much to share here. Design-wise, Medus takes after his mother in palette, though his hair is a bit darker than hers, and even wears some of his mother's Colchian metal jewelry; I doubt Medea would let her son, even in exile, look shabby.

Actaeon (𐀀𐀪𐀓𐀲𐀂𐀃) was the demigod son of Aristaeus and a great hunter. The versions vary, such to the point I don't think there is a single definitive version, but all of them involve the same two elements: he offended a goddess (usually Artemis) and was killed by his hunting dogs. The way I would tell it, Actaeon was a great hunter and as a demigod had a very high opinion of what he was owed and allowed to do in the world. For this reason, when he stumbled upon Artemis and her hunters bathing, he did not look away and instead came back to spy on them. Artemis therefore turned him into a deer and allowed his hounds to devour him. I borrowed from early classical depictions of Actaeon by depicting him with antlers.

Aristaeus (𐀀𐀭𐀲𐀂𐀃) was the demigod son of Apollo and the mortal Cyrene, who eventually went on to found and rule the city that bears her name. The city is located in modern Libya, so I decided to depict Aristaeus as a Libyan. In addition to being Chiron's student, Aristaeus had apprenticeships with many gods, and after he was made immortal by Gaia he became the patron of many of these rustic arts, most prominently bee keeping. In Boetia he is often depicted with wings, like a wind-god, so I decided to mix that in too.

Achilles (𐀀𐀑𐀩𐀄) and Asclepius (𐀀𐀱𐀐𐀠𐀃) are going to appear later, so all I will say is that Achilles is wearing a Mycenaean panoply.

Jason (𐀂𐀀𐀰) sucks, all my homies hate Jason, but he was one of Chiron's students so he gets to appear here. In Edith Hamilton's Mythology (which, rereading now is VERY MUCH a 1960s white man's book) he is described as having long hair and wearing a leopard skin cloak. Descriptions of Classical characters are rare, so when I find them I run like hell with them. I offset the 'prettiness' of his long hair with a more rugged chin and some sailor's stubble.

Chiron (𐀐𐀂𐀫) is depicted as the small figure in the middle. To differentiate him from the more bestial centaurs I have borrowed from the Classical tradition of depicting him with clothes (though I draw the line at human legs).

[artofjessecoy]

Slither #art #drawing #sketch #sketchbook #pen #ink #brushpen #inking #penandink #medus #inktober #inktober2021 https://www.instagram.com/p/CVtaYfRrF72/?utm_medium=tumblr

[dxcl]

[galaxyofgover]

It's that time again. Some shots of Lady Venom the Medusa, Theo having a panic attack, Basil got real messed up at one point, Majima to the rescue, and Lothuk got hit with a critical hit via an elephant foot.

[comicbooksblogger]

Daily reading: Royals vol 1 #2 - "We Are The Dead" (Ewing, Meyers) - regular cover by Jonboy Meyers - variant cover by Adi Granov