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Home , Jason, Medus, Pelias, Phineus, Phineus (son of Belus), Symplegades

Heroic Women

ARCH 0412 From Gilgamesh to : Heroes of the Bronze Age

Kathryn McBride, JIAAW Friday, April 8th, 2016 Mesopotamia and Egypt: Goddesses of Love and War

Cylinder Seal of Ishtar Sekhmet and Rome: Virgin Warrior Goddesses

Athena in the Greek Imagination

• Began with a royal women who excelled in courage and strength, raised an army of women who subdued neighboring lands

• Assigned men the women’s tasks, maimed the bodies of men so they couldn’t fight

• Cauterized right breast of young girls a mazos “without breast”

• Followers of and Artemis

• Wild, barbarian, not really Greek

(none of this is actually true. blame Herodotus.) Penthesileia

• Amazon Queen, sister of Hippolyta

• Fought in against the

• Killed by

• At the moment of her death, Achilles instantly fell in love with her

Scythian Kurgans

Medea (and ) Caveats!

• Keep in mind the timeline  This is NOT the Bronze Age

• Several versions of this story  (8th century BCE?)  , (5th century BCE)  Apollonius of , (3rd century BCE)  , , (1st century CE)  Seneca, Medea (1st century CE) Jason and the

• (Jason’s uncle) becomes king of (city north of Athens) • Because of a prophecy, Pelias becomes suspicious of his nephew, sends him on an impossible • Pelias orders him to obtain the • The (swift), attaches a piece of sacred prophesying timber • Jason gathers the heroes of Greece including , Castor and Polydeuces, , and

• What does this quest potentially signify?

Journey to (the Quest)

•  Heracles convinces them to leave

• Contest with Heracles  Jason wins by default

• King Amycos  Polydeuces wins

• and the  Calaïs and Zetes win

• Wandering rocks-  Phineus helps Lemnos Heracles and Jason Phineus and the Harpies The Symplegades Adventures in Colchis (the Challenge)

• Colchis = modern day

• King Aietes’ tasks  Yoking bronze-footed, fire-breathing bulls to plow a field  Sow the teeth of a , fight the resulting warriors  Retrieve the fleece

• Medea, daughter of Aietes  Niece of , devotee of Hekate (goddess of witchcraft)

• Medea makes Jason swear an oath to the gods that he will never betray her

• Jason asks for Medea’s help

• Medea gives him a salve, knowledge, and a potion

• The Argo sets sail at night The Serpent Jason and the Golden Fleece Homeward Bound (the Return)

• Aietes pursues Jason and Medea

• Medea murders her brother, Aietes falls behind

• Sirens  helped by Orpheus

• , Scylla, Wandering Rocks  helped by , the , and

• of , “bronze man”  killed by Medea The Death of Talos Death of Pelias and in • Jason’s father’s renewal

• Jason returns, gives Pelias the fleece  Pelias retracts his promise

• Jason asked Medea for help (again…)

• Medea tricks Pelias’ daughters  Jason and Medea are forced into exile at Corinth

• (king of Corinth) wanted to wed his daughter to Jason  Jason decided to put aside Medea  Medea’s revenge

The End of the Tale

• Medea escapes (many variations)  Driven out of Thebes, then Athens  Returns to Colchis to reunite with her father  Travels to the Iranian plateau with her son ( = Persians)

• Jason’s death

• Who is the hero in this story?  Who has agency?  Can someone do terrible things and still be a hero?  Hero vs Antihero Themes?

• Women in Greek tradition can only be heroic if:  They’re virgins  taming of wildness/sexuality by marriage  They’re foreigners, barbarians, sorceresses

• No real place in Greek for heroic Greek women (who aren’t chaste)

• Exceptions?  Perhaps in the story of & Modern Interpretations