Medea

by Euripides

The Medea was brought out in 431 B.C., receiving the last place, although it is recognized as one of the most powerful of the tragedies of Euripides. Medea was the princess of Colchis, who, for love of Jason, helped him by her magic arts to win the golden fleece in quest of which he and the Argonauts had sailed. She fled with him to Greece as his wife. But Jason has abandoned her for the daughter of the king of Corinth.

In her jealousy Medea causes the death of her rival, slays the children whom she had borne to Jason, and makes her escape through the air on an enchanted car. [Source: From Homer to Theocritus; A Manual of Greek Literature, Edward Capps. 1907, pp. 242.]