Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 15.djvu/809

Rh M E D M E D made a voyage from the home of Jason, lolchus in the Thessalian Magnesia, is virtually identical with the fiery robe which Medea prepared for her rival Glauce, the new bride, with the Homeric &quot; a?gis,&quot; and with the garment smeared with phosphorus which was sent by Deianira to Hercules, and burst into a flame when brought near to a sacrificial fire. 1 Jason, as the story went, was not allowed by the guardian of the fleece, King JEetes, to approach it till he had performed a certain task in putting to the yoke fire-breathing bulls, which he effected by the aid of Medea. The bull is a well-known symbol of the sun, and it occurs in the bull-slaying group representing the Persian sun-god Mithras. Again, the slaying of a father by a son (the old sun killed by the new one) is seen alike in CEdipus having caused the death of his father Laius, in ^Eson, the father of Jason, having been restored to life by the magic arts of Medea, and in Pelias having been killed and boiled in a caldron by his own daughters at the instigation of the sorceress. Lastly, the legend that Medea was herself the granddaughter of the Sun, and that she escaped in a car drawn by flying dragons, given to her for safety by her grandsire, 2 equally tends to prove that the whole story is of solar origin, and can be explained on that theory alone. This, indeed, has been well stated by Sir G. W. Cox, 3 The &quot; dragon chariot is simply the chariot of Indra, Helios, and Achilles ; and it is drawn by dragons because the word denoted simply beings of keen sight, and was naturally applied to the creatures which may be supposed to bear the sun across the heaven.&quot; In all these legends about the sun the performance of certain imposed &quot; toils &quot; or labours is included, the idea expressed beiiig the hard necessity of the sun going his daily course in the appointed time in spite of thickening storm-clouds and opposing powers of darkness, through which he has to fight his way, both visibly above and invisibly underneath the earth. Thus Hercules has his twelve labours (the number corresponding to the lunar months), while Jason is not only required by his uncle King Pelias to bring the golden fleece, but is commanded by ^Eetes to tame the bulls as a condition of obtaining it. The name M^Seia may possibly be referred t) /x^Seo-tfcu., &quot; to care for,&quot; as Jason may contain the root ulcr&u, &quot; to heal,&quot; which is the meaning that Pindar attaches to it, 4 or to iov, the violet-coloured dawn, as in locaste, lainos, and lolaus. 5 In his relation to the snake, which guarded the fleece, and to the dragons teeth which he sowed on the ground ploughed by the fiery bulls, compared with the serpent entwining the staff of the healing god Asclepius, we see that almost invariable connexion that subsists between solar and phallic worship. 6 This view is confirmed by the &quot; ship Argo,&quot; one of the many sexual symbols of cup-shaped and boat-like form. 7 It is the &quot;ship&quot; which was the Teutonic symbol of the goddess Isis. 8 The existing literature on the love of Medea for JMSOU shows how popular was the story in antiquity for its pathos and its sentimen tality. Thus the Medea of Euripides vvas rendered by Ennius ; Neophron of Sicyon and Melanthius 9 wrote plays of the same name ; we have the long and fine Pythian ode of Pindar, already referred to, the touching epistle &quot;Medea Jasoni&quot; in te Jfcroidcs of Ovid, and the interesting, beautiful, and too little read Argonautica of Apollonius. Of course, the sitnilnrity of the names Mr/Sot and Mr/Sfta led to 1 Soph., Track., 765. 2 Eur., Med., 1321; Hesiod, TJieng., 958. 3 Mythology and Folklore, p. 264; see also Mythology of the Aryui Nations, pp. 240, 384, 388. 4 Pyth., iv. 119. 6 Cox, Aryan Mythology, pp. 244, 385. 6 Cox, ibid., p. 363. 7 Aryan Mythology, p. 104 and 354. 8 Tac., Germ., 9. 9 Ar., Pac., 1012. 777 etymological speculations on the identity of tlie nomenclature, and one Medus, a son of Medea, was believed to have been an eponym hero. 10 The author of the compilation known as Hesiod s Thcoyony says that Medeus was a son of Medea by Jason, 11 and was brought up, as Jason himself had been, by Chiron in the mountains. Euripides assigns but two children to Medea and Jason, 1 * and Apollodorus 13 gives their names us Mermerus and Pheres. MEDELLIN, a town of Colombia, South America, capital of the state of Antioquia, is situated at a height of 4845 feet above the sea, in the valley of the Rio Force, a right-hand tributary of the Rio Cauca, and, though 100 miles from the confluence, not- more than 16 miles cast from the valley of the larger stream. It is a clean and well-built place, but has no public buildings of note. Though the population is estimated at 14,000, there is no great activity except on the market days, twice a week, when the buyers and sellers flock in from the country. See Fr. von Schenck in Petermann s Mittheil., 1880. MEDFORD, a town of the United States, in Middlesex county, Massachusetts, at the head of navigation on Mystic river, and 5 miles north-west of Boston by a branch of the Boston and Maine Railroad. It is a busy place, with a considerable variety of manufactures woollens, carpets, buttons, bricks, leather, &c. Tufts College, situated near the town on Walnut Hill, was founded by the Universalists in 1853, and rtamed in honour of Charles Tufts, the donor of the 70 acres occupied by the building and its grounds. The endowment amounts to more than 81,0(10,000. The population of Medford was 5717 in 1870 and 7537 in 1880. MEDHURST, WALTER HENRY (1796-1857), one of the most distinguished Protestant missionaries to the Chinese, was born in London in 1796. His education began at St Paul s Cathedral school. As he grew up, he learned the business of a printer ; and, having become interested in missions to the heathen, he sailed in 1816 for the London Missionary Society s station at Malacca, which was likely to be a gie.it printing-centre. His linguistic powers soon showed themselves. He became proficient in Malay, in a knowledge of the written characters of Chinese, and in the colloquial use of more than one of its dialects. He was ordained at Malacca in 1819, and was in all missionary labours &quot; more abundant/ first at Peuang, then at Ba- tavia, and finally at Shanghai. To give only the names of his various works, some in English, some in Chinese, would take a considerable space. A dictionary of one of the Fuh-Kien dialects is still valuable ; and his Chinese- English and English-Chinese dictionaries (Batavia, 1842) are more complete and reliable than any earlier or later works of the same kind. After the conclusion of the first English war with China he removed to Shanghai in 1843, and there he continued till 1856, laying the foundations, broad and deep, of a successful mission. His principal labour for several years, as one of a committee of delegates of whom he was facile jjrinceps, was in the revision of existing Chinese versions of the Sacred Scriptures. The result was what should be called a new version of the Bible, marvellously correct in idiom, and faithful to the meaning of the original. The university of New York conferred upon him in 1843 the degree of D.D. Medhurst left Shanghai in 1856, with several members of his family, to try the effect of a visit to England for his failing health. He died, however, two days after reaching London, on the 21th January next year. Strong, sprightly, versatile, and genial, he vvas a man of extraordinary gifts and generous soul. No efforts (and many were made) could draw him from his devotion to the work of missions. MEDIA. See PERSIA. 10 Pausan., ii. 3, 8. &quot; Theog., 1001. 12 A/TTTUVOS yovh v. 1136. Hence in 969 the dual is used, jiVeA.- 6&amp;lt;Wf 13 Bill., i. 9, 28. XV f)8