The Medea, in spite of its background of wonder and enchantment, isnot a romantic play but a tragedy of character and situation. It deals,so to speak, not with the romance itself, but with the end of theromance, a thing which is so terribly often the reverse of romantic. Forall but the very highest of romances are apt to have just one flawsomewhere, and in the story of Jason and Medea the flaw was of a fatalkind.
The wildness and beauty of the Argo legend run through all Greekliterature, from the mass of Corinthian lays older than our presentIliad, which later writers vaguely associate with the name of Eumêlus,to the Fourth Pythian Ode of Pindar and the beautiful Argonautica ofApollonius Rhodius. Our poet knows the wildness and the beauty; but itis not these qualities that he specially seeks. He takes them almost forgranted, and pierces through them to the sheer tragedy that lies below.
Jason, son of Aeson, King of Iôlcos, in Thessaly, began his life inexile. His uncle Pelias had seized his father's kingdom, and Jason wasborne away to the mountains by night and given, wrapped in a purplerobe, to Chiron, the Centaur. When he reached manhood he came down toIôlcos to demand, as Pindar tells us, his ancestral honour, and stood inthe market-place, a world-famous figure, one-sandalled, with his[Pg vi]pard-skin, his two spears and his long hair, gentle and wild andfearless, as the Wise Beast had reared him. Pelias, cowed but loath toyield, promised to give up the kingdom if Jason would make his way tothe unknown land of Colchis and perform a double quest. First, if I readPindar aright, he must fetch back the soul of his kinsman Phrixus, whohad died there far from home; and, secondly, find the fleece of theGolden Ram which Phrixus had sacrificed. Jason undertook the quest:gathered the most daring heroes from all parts of Hellas; built thefirst ship, Argo, and set to sea. After all manner of desperateadventures he reached the land of Aiêtês, king of the Colchians, andthere hope failed him. By policy, by tact, by sheer courage he did allthat man could do. But Aiêtês was both hostile and treacherous. TheArgonauts were surrounded, and their destruction seemed only a questionof days when, suddenly, unasked, and by the mercy of Heaven, Aiêtês'daughter, Mêdêa, an enchantress as well as a princess, fell in love withJason. She helped him through all his trials; slew for him her ownsleepless serpent, who guarded the fleece; deceived her father, andsecured both the fleece and the soul of Phrixus. At the last moment itappeared that her brother, Absyrtus, was about to lay an ambush forJason. She invited Absyrtus to her room, stabbed him dead, and fled withJason over the seas. She had given up all, and expected in return aperfect love.
And what of Jason? He could not possibly avoid taking Medea with him. Heprobably rather loved her. She formed at the least a brilliant addition