Page:History of Greece Vol I.djvu/149

 MEDEA AT COEINTH. 117 as voluntary exiles t j> Arcadia : Akastus bis son celebrated splen- did funeral games in honor of his deceased father. 1 Jason and Medea retired from lolkos to Corinth, where they resided ten years : their children were Medeius, whom the Centaur Cheiron educated in the regions of Mount Pelion, 2 and Mermerus and Pheros, born at Corinth. After they had resided there ten years in prosperity, Jason set his affections on Glauke, daughter of Kreon 3 king of Corinth ; and as her father was willing to give her to him in marriage, he determined to repudiate Medea, who received orders forthwith to leave Corinth. Stung with this insult and bent upon revenge, Medea prepared a poisoned robe, and sent it as a marriage present to Glauke : it was unthinkingly accepted and put on, and the body of the un- fortunate bride was burnt up and consumed. Kreon, her father, who tried to tear from her the burning garment, shared her fate and perished. The exulting Medea escaped by means of a chariot with winged serpents furnished to her by her grandfather Helios : she placed herself under the protection of .^Egeus at Athens, by whom she had a son named Medus. She left her young children in the sacred enclosure of the Arkraean Here, relying on the protection of the altar to ensure their safety ; but the Corinthians were so exasperated against her for the murder this process upon Jason himself (Schol. Aristoph, I. c.). Diogenes (ap. Stobae. Florileg. t. xxix. 92) rationalizes the story, and converts Medea from an enchantress into an improving and regenerating preceptress. The death of 2Eson, as described in the text, is given from Diodorus and Apollodorus. Medea seems to have been worshipped as a goddess in other places besides Corinth (see Athenagor. Legat. pro Christ. 12; Macrobius, i. 12, p. 247, Gronov.). 1 These funeral games in honor of Pelias were among the most renowned of the mythical incidents : they were celebrated in a special poem by Stesicho- rus, and represented on the chest of Kypselus at Olympia. Kastor, Melcager. Amphiaraos, Jason, Peleus, Mopsos, etc. contended in them (Pausan. v. 17. 4; Stesichori Fragm. 1. p. 54, ed. Klcwe ; Athe'n. iv. 172). How familiar the details of them were to the mind of z. literary Greek is indirectly attested by Plutarch, Sympos. v. 2, vol. iii. p. 762, Wytt. 2 Hesiod, Theogon. 998. 3 According to the Schol. ad Eurip. Mcd. 20, Jason marries the daughter of Hippotes the son of Kreon, who is the son of Lykaethos. Lykaethos, after the departure of Bellerophon from Corinth, reigned twenty-seven years; then Kreon reigned thirty -five years ; then came Hippotes.