Cook, Arthur B.: Zeus: a study in ancient religion (Band 1): Zeus god of the bright sky (Cambridge, 1914)

2$2 The Solar Wheel in Greece

Meantime still greater horrors are in progress before the palace.
Medeia (Medeia), wearing a Phrygian cap and an embroidered
oriental costume, has grasped by the hair one of her two boys and
is about to run him through with a sword, in spite of the fact that
the little fellow has taken refuge on a square altar1. He is making
desperate efforts to reach his father (Idson), who with spear and
sword, followed by an armed retainer, is hurrying towards him-—
but just too late to prevent the murder. Another retainer behind
Medeia's back safeguards the second boy, who otherwise would
share his brother's fate2. Between Iason and Medeia is the chariot
drawn by two monstrous snakes, which will carry her beyond reach
of his vengeance. In it stands her charioteer, a sinister-looking
youth with snakes in his hair and torches in his hands. His name
Oistros shows that the artist, doubtless copying the dramatist3, con-
ceived him as a personification of Medeia's frenzy, past, present, and
future4. Standing on a rocky eminence at the extreme right and
pointing with a significant gesture to the over-turned bridal bath5
and the whole tragic scene before him is a kingly figure draped in
a costume resembling that of Medeia. The inscription eidolon
Aetou, the 'ghost of Aetes,' suggests that in the play Medeia's
father, who during his lifetime had done his best to thwart her
marriage, appeared after his death to point the moral. If so, he
probably spoke from the theologezon, a raised platform here indicated
by the rock. Finally, in the background by way of contrast with
all the human action and passion we get the tranquil forms of the
gods—Herakles and Athena on one side, the Dioskouroi on the
other. Their domain is bounded by a pair of Corinthian columns
supporting votive tripods, perhaps a hint that the whole painting
was inspired by a successful play.

1 J. H. Huddilston op. cit. p. 149 inclines to think that Medeia has lifted the boy on
to the altar in order to slay him there. That is certainly a possible interpretation.

2 Cp. Diod. 4. 54 7t\t]v yap evbs rod dtacpvyovros tovs aWovs vlods awoacpa^ai.

Poll. 4. 142 includes Olarpos among a list of eKaKeva irpoauma (along with AiKrj,
Q&vcltos, 'Epwvs, Avaaa,' T/3pts etc.). See also E. Bethe Prolegomena zur Geschichte des
Theaters im Alterthum Leipzig 1896 p. 147 ft".

4 This figure is usually taken to represent the mad rage that drove Medeia to commit
the desperate deed. Furtwangler op. cit. ii 165 f. prefers to regard it as the embodiment
of Medeia's remorse, at least of the torments that await her as a murderess of her own
child. He holds that, whereas Euripides had allowed his Medeia to escape, exulting and
unpunished, the later dramatist thus hinted at repentance to come. Furtwangler may
well be right; but it must be remembered that, from a Greek point of view, the infatua-
tion that instigates to the deed and the punishment that avenges it are one and the same.
See e.g. K. Wernicke in Pauly-Wissowa Real-Enc. ii. 1898 s.v. Ate, 'Personification der
Unheil bringenden Verblendung, ebenso aber auch eines durch diese herbeigefiihrten
Frevels und des ihm als Strafe folgenden Unheils.'

3 Furtwangler op. cit. ii. 163 n. 1.