Penny Dreadfuls, 1912 · page 11 of 118
The Medea — page 11: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Description This is a page of running prose from an introduction (page vii). The text discusses the Greek mythological figures Jason and Medea, specifically their return home after the voyage of the Argonauts. It describes how Medea, a "barbarian princess" from Colchis, could not legally marry Jason in fifth-century Athens, and recounts her actions upon their arrival—particularly how she killed King Pelias by tricking his daughters into attempting a rejuvenation ritual. The passage explains the consequences: forced to flee, Jason and Medea escaped to Corinth, where the ruler Creon (described as aging with only a daughter) might desire a son-in-law. The text presents Medea as increasingly problematic to Jason's ambitions in civilized Greek society.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
INTRODUCTION vii produce a barbarian ‘princess ready to leave all and follow them in blind trust. For of course, as every one knew without the telling in fifth-century Athens, no legal marriage was possible between a Greek and a barbarian from Colchis. All through the voyage home, a world-wide baffled voyage by the Ister and the Eridanus and the African Syrtes, Medea was still in her element, and proved a constant help and counsellor to the Argonauts. When they reached Jason’s home, where Pelias was still king. things began to be different. An ordered and law- abiding Greek state was scarcely the place for the un- tamed Colchian. We only know the catastrophe. She saw with smothered rage how Pelias hated Jason and was bent on keeping the kingdom from him, and she determined to do her lover another act of splendid ser- vice. Making the most of her fame as an enchantress, she persuaded Pelias that he could, by a certain pro- cess, regain his youth. He eagerly caught at the hope. His daughters tried the process upon: him, and Pelias died in agony. Surely Jason would be grateful now! The real result was what it was sure to be in a civil- ised country. Medeaand her lover had to fly for their lives, and Jason was debarred for ever from succeeding to the throne of Idlcos. Probably there was another result also in Jason’s mind: the conclusion that at all costs he must somehow separate himself from this wild beast of a woman who was ruining his life. He di- rected their flight to Corinth, governed at the time by a ruler of some sort, whether “ tyrant’ or king, who was growing old and had an only daughter. Creon would naturally want a son-in-law to support and suc GOmichboo <S (E(0) S