Eros Wounds Medea

Canonical narrative

Hera and Athena watch Jason's danger in Colchis and decide that force alone will not win the golden fleece. They go to Aphrodite and ask her to persuade Medea, daughter of Aeetes, to desire Jason. Aphrodite answers that her son Eros is difficult even for her, but she agrees to seek him.

They find Eros playing knucklebones with Ganymede. Eros gathers the winnings while Ganymede stands angry and nearly empty-handed. Aphrodite crouches beside her son, touches his cheek, and offers a prize if he shoots Medea: a splendid ball once made for the infant Zeus, traced with golden rings and bright enough to throw a fiery trail through the air. Eros wants it at once. His mother makes him wait until the task is done.

In Aeetes' hall, Eros arrives unseen through a grey mist. He crouches behind Jason, chooses a fresh arrow, bends his bow, and strikes Medea beneath the heart. Then he slips away laughing. The shaft burns in her like flame. Her eyes return again and again to Jason; her thoughts leave her; sweetness and pain move through her face.

The wound is brief, but its consequences fill the epic. Medea's knowledge and choices will help Jason survive Aeetes' trials and seize the fleece. She will also leave her family and homeland. Apollonius does not turn Eros' act into harmless romance. The god works as an unseen agent in Hera's plan, and Medea bears the cost of a desire placed inside her for the Argonauts' success.

Episodes in this myth

Participants and roles

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