Chapter M. B. Waistcoat to Medulla Theologiæ of M by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Medea, a famous sorceress of Colchis, who married Jason the leader of the Argonauts, and aided him in getting possession of the golden fleece. After being married ten years, Jason repudiated her for Glaucê; and Medea, in revenge, sent the bride a poisoned robe, which killed both Glaucê and her father. Medea then tore to pieces her two sons, and fled to Athens in a chariot drawn by dragons.

(The story has been dramatized in Greek, by Euripidês; in Latin, by Seneca and by Ovid; in French, by Corneille Médée, 1635), Longepierre (1695), and Legouve (1849); in English, by Glover, 1761.)

Mrs Yates was a superb “Medea.”—Campbell.

N. B.—Ovid, in his Heroides , has an hypothetical letter, in Latin verse, supposed to be wr itten by Medea to Jason after his marriage with Creusa (daughter of king Creon), reminding him of all she had done for him, and reproving him for his infidelity. It is well known that Medea sent the bride a poisoned robe, which caused her death; and, after a time, Jason himself was killed by the mast of the Argo falling on his head.

Medea and Absyrtus. When Medea fled with Jason from Colchis (in Asia), she murdered her brother Absyrtus, and, cutting the body into several pieces, strewed the fragments about, that the father might be delayed in picking them up, and thus be unable to overtake the fugitive.

Meet I an infant of the duke of York.
Into as many gobbets will I cut it
As wild Medea young Absyrtus did.
   —Shakespeare: 2 Henry VI. act v. sc. 2 (1591).

Medea’s Kettle. Medea the sorceress cut to pieces an old ram, threw the parts into her caldron, and by her incantations changed the old ram into a young lamb. The daughters of Pelias thought they would have their father restored to youth, as Æson had been. So they killed him, and put the body in Medea’s caldron; but Medea refused to utter the needful incantation, and so the old man was not restored to life. (See Vran.)

Change the shape, and shake off age. Get thee Medea’s kettle, and be boiled anew.—Congreve: Love for Love, iv. (1695).

Médecin Malgré Lui (Le), a comedy by Molière (1666). The “enforced doctor” is Sganarelle, a faggot-maker, who is called in by Géronte to cure his daughter of dumbness. (The rest of the tale is given under Geronte, No. 2.)

(In 1733 Fielding produced a farce called The Mock Doctor, which was based on this comedy. The doctor he calls “Gregory,” and Géronte “sir Jasper.” Lucinde, the dumb girl, he calls “Charlotte,” and Anglicizes her lover Léandre into “Leander.”)

Medham (“the keen”), one of Mahomet’s swords.

Medicine. So the alchemists called the matter (whatever it might be) by which they performed their transformations: as, for example, the “philosopher’s

stone,” which was to transmute whatever it touched into gold; “the elixir of life,” which was to renew old age to youth.

How much unlike art thou, Mark Antony!
Yet, coming from him, that great medicine hath
With his tinct gilded thee.
   —Shakespeare: Antony and Cleopatra, act i. sc. 5 (1608).

The Father of Medicine, Aretæos of Cappadocia (second and third centuries).

Also Hippocratês of Cos (B. C. 460–357).