The Transformations of Ovid’s Medea (Metamorphoses vii. 1–424)

Abstract

Few figures in ancient myth have provoked such abiding fascination as Medea, the Colchian princess and sorceress who betrayed family and nation out of love for the Greek hero Jason, and then exacted horrific vengeance years later when Jason abandoned her for another woman. The tale of the Argonauts, the Greek heroes who sailed to Colchis in quest of the golden fleece, was among the most widely treated myths in ancient literature. A more technical impediment to a psychological reading arises from the peculiarities of the narrative treatment in the wake of Medea's monologue. Her subsequent actions are increasingly deprived of the kind of psychological illumination needed properly to motivate them. The foregoing suggests a conception of Medea less as a psychological subject than as a metaliterary figure and metamorphic agent. The focus on Medea as sorceress, and more particularly as an agent of transformation, is an important part of Ovid's re-articulation of her literary persona.