She escaped, however,
but had little enjoyment of the fruits of her crime. Jason, for
whom she had done so much, wishing to marry Creusa, princess of
Corinth, put away Medea. She, enraged at his ingratitude, called
on the gods for vengeance, sent a poisoned robe as a gift to the
bride, and then killing her own children, and setting fire to the
palace, mounted her serpent-drawn chariot and fled to Athens,
where she married King Aegeus, the father of Theseus, and we shall
meet her again when we come to the adventures of that hero.
The incantations of Medea will remind the reader of those of the
witches in "Macbeth." The following lines are those which seem
most strikingly to recall the ancient model:
"Round about the caldron go;
In the poisoned entrails throw.
Fillet of a fenny snake
In the caldron boil and bake;
Eye of newt and toe of frog,
Wool of bat and tongue of dog,
Adder's fork and blind-worm's sting,
Lizard's leg and howlet's wing:
Maw of ravening salt-sea shark,
Root of hemlock digged in the dark," etc
--Macbeth, Act IV, Scene 1
And again:
Macbeth.--What is't you do?
Witches,--A deed without a name.
There is another story of Medea almost too revolting for record
even of a sorceress, a class of persons to whom both ancient and
modern poets have been accustomed to attribute every degree of
atrocity.
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