Medea

Medea is one of Western literature’s most famous archetypal witches. Ancient and modern representations often depict her participating in traditionally “witchy” activities like casting spells and brewing potions. Spells and potions are important aspects of her rich literary history; for example, Medea traditionally murders Jason’s uncle, Pelias, by having his daughters chop him up for a cauldron brew that will make him young again (of course, it doesn’t) (8-10). So it is interesting that in the text of Euripides’s play, Medea only uses poison once, when she corrupts the wedding gifts for Jason’s new bride, the princess of Corinth. Instead of taking the “double double toil and trouble” route for his sorceress, Euripides concentrates instead on another, more subtle power of ancient witches: their supreme control over language and the spoken word.

In ancient Greece it was believed that the power of a magical person’s voice could effect dramatic change on the natural environment. One of Jason’s Argonauts, the heroic bard Orpheus, is most famous today for his descent into the Underworld to rescue his wife Eurydice, but in antiquity he was most associated with the occult power of his voice (550-51).