After supposedly killing her brother and assisting the love of her life, Medea traveled with Jason until his vessel, the Argo, reached the island of Crete. The two continue on their rampage together, but in the end, one of the pair is betrayed. In this article, you will learn what happened and what were the consequences of the deception.
The island of Crete was guarded by the bronze man named Talos (or Talus). With one vein that traveled from his neck to his ankle, a single bronze nail protected his lifeline. According to Apollodorus, there were two possibilities as to how the bronze man was killed. The first theory involves Medea using drugs to drive Talos mad and convincing him that she could make him immortal if the nail was removed. The second theory sees one of Poeas’ arrows killing the man. It is stated in the Argonautica that Medea hypnotized Talos so that the nail was removed. He bled to death and the Argo was allowed to land.
While Jason searched for the Golden Fleece, Jason and Medea concocted a plan to have Pelias killed. She helped by actually having his daughters do the deed. After the death of Pelias, the two fled to Corinth, which would later prove problematic for Medea. Jason abandoned Medea for the king’s daughter, Glauce. Seeking revenge, Medea sent Glauce a dress and golden coronet dipping in poison. When her father, King Creon, went to save the princess, they both died as a result.
The tragic poet Euripedes wrote that Medea continued on with her revenge by taking the lives of the two children that she and Jason had together. Afterwards, she left Corinth when Helios, god of the sun (her grandfather) gave her a golden chariot driven by dragons so that she could fly to Athens. When it comes to the children, there are inconsistencies regarding the details of their death. For example, some say that Medea killed her children by accident.
After fleeing Jason, Medea received a place to stay in Thebes after healed Heracles (a former Argonaut) who had murdered Iphitus. Heracles tried to lengthen her stay by arguing with the Thebans, who were angry with Medea and wound up driving her out of the city. Athens was her next place of security, where she met and married Aegeus. They had one son together, Medus. She was happy, but once again, it was not in the cards for her to live happily ever after. The long-lost son of Aegeus, Theseus, made an appearance. She worried about the inheritance of her own son and convinced Aegeus that Theseus was a threat and that he should be killed. However, as Medea handing a cup of poison to her husband to give to his son, he recognized the man as his own, and knocked over the poison , embracing his son.
Medea left for Colchis and learned that her uncle, Perses, had replaced her father. She quickly murdered her uncle and restored the kingdom to her father.