MEDEA, daughter of Aeetes, king of Colchis, and niece of Circe, was famous for her powers of healing and witchcraft. She fell passionately in love with Jason when he came to Colchis seeking the Golden Fleece of Phrixus's Ram, and she helped him perform the impossible tasks her father set for him. He took her with him when he sailed with the Fleece and married her in Greece. Later, however, he decided to marry Glauce, Creon's daughter, for political reasons, and Medea took her revenge by killing their two children and by poisoning the bride (Met VII.1-403; Heroides XII; OM VII.250-1506).
The enchantments of Medea appear on the wall of Venus's oratory, KnT 1944. The poet points out that none of Medea's enchantments could hold Jason, RR 14404-14405. The Man of Law says that Chaucer has told of Queen's Medea's cruelty; she hanged her children by the neck because Jason was false, MLI 72-74. Medea strangles her children in RR 13259. Medea appears with characters from the Roman de la Rose in the stained-glass windows of the Dreamer's room, BD 321-330. The Dreamer tells the Man in Black that, if he slays himself, he will be as surely damned as Medea, who slew her children for Jason, BD 725-726. Medea is a betrayed woman, HF I.401; she stands among the sorcerers, HF III.1271-1272. She is one of love's martyrs, LGW 1580-1679. Gower also makes Medea a more positive figure, Confessio Amantis V.3247-4237, and cites Ovid as his source, possibly Heroides XII. Machaut tells of Jason's treachery to Medea, Le Jugement dou roy de Navarre 2770-2804. Chaucer omits the slaying of the children and Medea's killing of Glauce (sometimes called Creusa in classical sources). At the end of the story, Medea laments that she liked Jason's yellow hair, fair speech, and infinite graciousness better than her own honesty, LGW 1672-1675. [Eson: Jason: Oetes]
Medea appears once initially, LGW 1599; seven times in medial positions, KnT 1949; BD 330, 726; LGW 1395, 1629, 1652, 1663; and three times in final rhyming position, MLI 72; HF I.401; HF III.1271.