Medea, sorceress scorned

I. Female divinities associated with magic

The image represents the sorceress par excellence in Greek mythology, Medea (the figure on the right). This princess of Colchis, the remote land on the Black Sea coast, is rejuvenating her beloved, the Greek hero Jason, in a cauldron to promote success in his adventures. The desire to stop the passage of time, to stop decay and to regain vigor is universal. In Greek culture, which is obsessed with the beauty of youthful splendor, it is a constant of its literature and thought. Medea is using for her sorcery a magic cauldron, one of the main tools of witchcraft of all times and places. Inside it, the basic transformations of potions and ointments are carried out, but a much more complex process can also take place. Those who want to be reborn or regain their youth must bathe in it, because the cauldron symbolizes the maternal womb, the womb of the Mother Earth, and the broth, the placental waters. 

Thus, Medea’s magic is beneficial in her first actions. But, for Greek culture, Medea was deeply contrary to the normative: she was a woman, foreign and powerful thanks to her extraordinary magical knowledge. Because of that, she soon becomes a dangerous witch who only uses her knowledge for evil: with the same cauldron she deceives the daughters of Pelias so that, thinking to rejuvenate their father, they cause his death in him. The coup de grace to her fame was given by Euripides, when in 431 BC, in his tragedy of the same name, he presented her killing her own children to take revenge on Jason for having abandoned her, as a way of condemning and persecuting female knowledge.

Begoña Ortega Villaro