Greek audiences would have known the story of the ill-fated
marriage between Jason, hero of the Golden Fleece, and Medea,
barbarian witch and princess of Colchis. The modern reader, to
fully understand the events of Medea, needs to be familiar with
the legends and myths on which the play is based. Medea was of a
people at the far edge of the Black Sea; for the Greeks of
Euripides' time, this was the edge of the known world. She was a
powerful sorceress, princess of Colchis, and a granddaughter of
the sun god Helias. Jason, a great Greek hero and captain of the
Argonauts, led his crew to Colchis in search of the Golden
Fleece. King Aeetes, lord of Colchis and Medea's father, kept
the Fleece under guard. A sorcerer himself, he was a formidable
opponent. This legend takes place quite early in the chronology
of Greek myth. The story is set after the ascent of Zeus, King
of the gods, but is still near the beginning of his reign;
Helias, the ancient sun god before Apollo's coming, is Medea's
grandfather. Jason's vo