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1lquilter
Back in the early 1980s I read a book that retold the story of Medea from her perspective. It began with her first encountering Jason in her family's city and sowing of the dragon's teeth; Hecate was seen as a woman's mystery but not necessarily evil per se. It concluded with her not killing her two children, but somehow making it appear that they had been killed, while in fact, she and they had spirited off together. Jason was a cad.
I know there have been a number of retellings of Medea, and I have tried and tried to find this one to no avail. I thought I'd turn it over to the LTers.
-- lquilter
I know there have been a number of retellings of Medea, and I have tried and tried to find this one to no avail. I thought I'd turn it over to the LTers.
-- lquilter
2lquilter
... thought i'd bump this, since a whole new breed of folks might have the answer now. anybody?
3weener
Perhaps Medea by Miranda Seymour? It came out in 1982.
The novel tells the mythical story of Medea, a woman whose passion exceeds all bounds. She falls in love with Jason and after helping him gain the Golden Fleece goes with him to Greece. Her second husband is Aegeus, king of Athens, who must judge Medea's actions based on passion, betrayal, and a relentless pursuit of revenge.
The novel tells the mythical story of Medea, a woman whose passion exceeds all bounds. She falls in love with Jason and after helping him gain the Golden Fleece goes with him to Greece. Her second husband is Aegeus, king of Athens, who must judge Medea's actions based on passion, betrayal, and a relentless pursuit of revenge.
4Kegsoccer
Maybe short story: The Evil Little Mother and the Tragic Old Bat by Jonathan Blum? (in Wildthyme on Top ) A bit different than you described.....
Summary: Everybody knows that Medea killed her own sons to avenge herself against her faithless husband, Jason. Moments before she can do so, however, Iris Wildthyme shows up and offers her a way out. Torn between conflicting emotions, Medea allows Iris to transport her into the future, where she watches a number of plays telling the story of her life from different angles, and realises that the lines from the performances have been echoing in her mind all day, even before Iris showed up. Iris claims that the emotional pressure of the famous tragedy is reaching back through Time, influencing the real Medea’s actions and driving her towards an inevitable outcome; if she goes through with it, she will become an archetypal character, freed from the bounds of real history but forced to re-enact her own tragedy from the perspectives of everyone with something to say about it. Iris offers her a chance to escape all that -- but Medea demands to know whether Jason’s story has survived as well, and is infuriated to learn that he’s regarded as a great hero, the star of a story in which she barely appears. Wanting her husband to suffer for what he’s done, Medea demands that Iris take her back home, but Tom, furious, points out that her sons don’t even get names in the play; they’re just innocent bystanders in Medea’s tragedy. Iris admits that she has tried once before to intervene in an archetypal tragedy, but young Juliet Capulet just wouldn’t listen to her. Medea returns home, but rather than kill her children, she fakes their deaths and escapes with them on the bus. Jason still suffers in the belief that his children have been murdered, but they are alive and well, living anonymously with their mother in Athens in a different era. However, since the real Medea chose not to become the archetype, the archetypal Medea has sprung into existence on the bus, manifested by the Universe itself. Iris explains to the archetypal Medea that she’s tired of having fluffy, small adventures; she wants to do big things, and she needs a big Character by her side if she’s to do so. Medea thus agrees to go out into the Universe with her new companions and raise a little hell.
Summary: Everybody knows that Medea killed her own sons to avenge herself against her faithless husband, Jason. Moments before she can do so, however, Iris Wildthyme shows up and offers her a way out. Torn between conflicting emotions, Medea allows Iris to transport her into the future, where she watches a number of plays telling the story of her life from different angles, and realises that the lines from the performances have been echoing in her mind all day, even before Iris showed up. Iris claims that the emotional pressure of the famous tragedy is reaching back through Time, influencing the real Medea’s actions and driving her towards an inevitable outcome; if she goes through with it, she will become an archetypal character, freed from the bounds of real history but forced to re-enact her own tragedy from the perspectives of everyone with something to say about it. Iris offers her a chance to escape all that -- but Medea demands to know whether Jason’s story has survived as well, and is infuriated to learn that he’s regarded as a great hero, the star of a story in which she barely appears. Wanting her husband to suffer for what he’s done, Medea demands that Iris take her back home, but Tom, furious, points out that her sons don’t even get names in the play; they’re just innocent bystanders in Medea’s tragedy. Iris admits that she has tried once before to intervene in an archetypal tragedy, but young Juliet Capulet just wouldn’t listen to her. Medea returns home, but rather than kill her children, she fakes their deaths and escapes with them on the bus. Jason still suffers in the belief that his children have been murdered, but they are alive and well, living anonymously with their mother in Athens in a different era. However, since the real Medea chose not to become the archetype, the archetypal Medea has sprung into existence on the bus, manifested by the Universe itself. Iris explains to the archetypal Medea that she’s tired of having fluffy, small adventures; she wants to do big things, and she needs a big Character by her side if she’s to do so. Medea thus agrees to go out into the Universe with her new companions and raise a little hell.
5lquilter
interesting! but it was definitely a novel.
it also had a strong presence of the supernatural: medea was really a witch (in the sense of women's mysteries witch), the dragon's teeth were really real, she bewitched people into thinking that she had killed her sons when really i think they all went off into a chariot together.
i have a vague memory also that she did not really do the horrible dress trick to jason's new wife; was either framed or that was retold as worse.
her brother really did die in the argonauts' escape -- i can't remember how or why. i remember very clearly the sowing of the dragons' teeth ...
... also, it's not the Miranda Seymour book. in searching around for medea retellings, i came across that one, and agree it seems like a very likely contender, but that's definitely not it.
it also had a strong presence of the supernatural: medea was really a witch (in the sense of women's mysteries witch), the dragon's teeth were really real, she bewitched people into thinking that she had killed her sons when really i think they all went off into a chariot together.
i have a vague memory also that she did not really do the horrible dress trick to jason's new wife; was either framed or that was retold as worse.
her brother really did die in the argonauts' escape -- i can't remember how or why. i remember very clearly the sowing of the dragons' teeth ...
... also, it's not the Miranda Seymour book. in searching around for medea retellings, i came across that one, and agree it seems like a very likely contender, but that's definitely not it.
6Helcura
I'm betting it's Witch Princess. I loved this book and read it over and over again.
7lquilter
Yes, in digging around again yesterday I found this one, but couldn't find enough information about it to identify it with certainty. Can you tell me more about it? What did you like about it, and/or what stood out in your mind about it? God I'd love it if this were it! This has been a question that has plagued me for years.
8Helcura
This is a rough synopsis off the top of my head. My copy is at home and I may need to dig for it.
The narrator is Medea's handmaiden. She's with Medea nearly the whole story. Medea uses hyponotics and herbal concoctions to make Jason think he's sown the dragon's teeth and defeated the army that rises up from it; she basically helps him to fulfill all the requirements of his quest by fooling both Jason and the King and all of the onlookers. The golden fleece is an old sheepskin that's been put into the river to collect gold flakes that come downstream, but Medea makes the onlookers think it's solid gold. The death of princess is an accident, for which Medea is blamed. She makes everyone think she's killed her children and that a chariot drawn by dragons flies away with her, but she really escapes with her sons with the help of the handmaiden. The handmaiden stays behind with the man she's fallen in love with. Hecate is a three fold women's goddess who is not evil, but does have characteristics of both creation and destruction, and Medea as her Priestess shares these as well.
I loved it because Medea wasn't evil, she was just a powerful woman trying to survive in an age when powerful women weren't tolerated. The handmaid was a teenage girl, as was I when I read it the first time, and I really identified with her sense of being involved with great things and both excited and scared by them. I also appreciated the woman's perspective, as I'd only heard the story from the male (Jason's) point of view and was uncomfortable with the way it portrayed Medea. Finally, I liked the magic that was really more science than magic - at the time I was very interested in the whole Clarke's Law way of looking at things.
The narrator is Medea's handmaiden. She's with Medea nearly the whole story. Medea uses hyponotics and herbal concoctions to make Jason think he's sown the dragon's teeth and defeated the army that rises up from it; she basically helps him to fulfill all the requirements of his quest by fooling both Jason and the King and all of the onlookers. The golden fleece is an old sheepskin that's been put into the river to collect gold flakes that come downstream, but Medea makes the onlookers think it's solid gold. The death of princess is an accident, for which Medea is blamed. She makes everyone think she's killed her children and that a chariot drawn by dragons flies away with her, but she really escapes with her sons with the help of the handmaiden. The handmaiden stays behind with the man she's fallen in love with. Hecate is a three fold women's goddess who is not evil, but does have characteristics of both creation and destruction, and Medea as her Priestess shares these as well.
I loved it because Medea wasn't evil, she was just a powerful woman trying to survive in an age when powerful women weren't tolerated. The handmaid was a teenage girl, as was I when I read it the first time, and I really identified with her sense of being involved with great things and both excited and scared by them. I also appreciated the woman's perspective, as I'd only heard the story from the male (Jason's) point of view and was uncomfortable with the way it portrayed Medea. Finally, I liked the magic that was really more science than magic - at the time I was very interested in the whole Clarke's Law way of looking at things.
