Medea

''“It has been a while, but our poisons remain potent! We shall test them on your flesh!”'' – Medea’s introduction.

“Blindicus Maximus!” – Medea’s power.

''“No! My spells were too weak!”'' – Medea’s last words.

Medea is a boss of the Lost City of Atlantis, shared with Penthesilea.

She is based on the witch Medea from Greek Mythology.

Early life
Medea was born in Aea, a colony on the mouth of the river Phasis, in Colchis, in the area that is now present-day Georgia, a country on the Black Sea. She was the daughter of King Aeëtes and Idyia; King Aeëtes was the son of Helios the Sun God, and Idyia was a nymph and the daughter of Oceanus, the eldest of the Titans.

Medea’s family originally came from the Kingdom of Corinth, but later migrated to Colchis. Before they moved on, they gave the Kingdom of Corinth to Sisyphus.

In 1263 B.C. – during the Euxine era – a hero named Jason and his team of Argonauts arrived in Colchis to search for the Golden Fleece so that Jason could rightfully reclaim the throne that belonged to him.

The Argonautic Expedition
20 years earlier, in 1283 B.C., Jason’s power-hungry uncle Pelias had overthrown the king – his half-brother and Jason’s father Aeson – and taken control over Iolcus (present-day Volos, Thessaly), hoping to gain dominion over all of Thessaly. In addition, Pelias visited a prophet who told him that he would be overthrown by a man wearing only one sandal. Knowing that Pelias would murder any of Aeson’s heirs, Aeson and his wife hid their newborn baby Jason and gave him to Cheiron, a centaur who would raise him on Mount Pelios. Aeson and his wife then committed suicide by drinking poison, before Pelias would have a chance to kill them.

Jason, now 20 years old, arrived to reclaim the throne that was rightfully his. Along the way, he helped Hera – in the form of an old woman – cross a bridge over the River Anauros; he lost a sandal while doing so. In gratitude, she blessed him, for she knew what Pelias had planned for him. When he arrived, the town recognized him as a man with only one sandal. Jason demanded that Pelias surrender the throne to him. Immediately realizing that this was his successor to the throne, he told Jason to perform a challenge to prove that he is worthy. The challenge: locate and return the Golden Fleece; thus began The Argonautic Expedition: a 4-month-long search for the Golden Fleece, which is said to have been hidden in a secret grove in Colchis. Jason served as the Argonauts’ commander, and they set sail from Jason’s home of Iolcus in Thessaly, to Aea in Colchis.

King Aeëtes, who knew the location of the Golden Fleece, promised to give it to Jason, but only if he completed certain near-impossible tasks. Hera, who was still angry with Pelias, had Aphrodite's son Eros bewitch Medea to fall in love with Jason and assist him in his tasks.


 * Jason had to yoke two fire-breathing oxen together and plow a field using dragon's teeth.


 * Jason had to defeat an army of warriors that sprouted from the dragon's teeth; Jason threw a rock into the group, and since they could not determine where the rock came from, they attacked and killed each other.


 * Jason had to fight and kill the sleepless dragon that guarded the Golden Fleece; Medea created a potion from herbs, and gave it to Jason who sprayed the dragon with it so that it could fall asleep and they could take the Fleece.

Realizing that Jason could actually use the Fleece, Aeëtes and his son Absyrtus set out to capture them before they could reach Iolcus. While out at sea, Absyrtus caught up with Medea and tried to take her back to Colchis, but Medea murdered her brother, chopped his body into pieces, and threw them into the sea, prompting Aeëtes to halt so that he could gather the remains of his son.

While sailing, Medea prophesied to the Argo's helmsman Euphemus that one day he would rule Cyrene, in Libya (his descendant Battus ended up become the ruler of Cyrene). To punish Medea for murdering her brother, Zeus made typhoons that blew the Argo off course. The boat became enchanted and said that they should be purified by Circe, a nymph who lived on Aeaea, who was notorious for turning people into pigs. Circe cleansed the group, and they were on their way again.

While passing the three rocky islands of Sirenum scopulo (present-day Licosa, St. Pietro and La Galetta), the crew of the Argo encountered the Sirens that would later encounter Odysseus on his journey home. The sirens were human-like creatures who lived in the seas, enchanted sailors with their voices, and then drowned them. Orpheus, to distract them, performed on his lyre and overpowered the music of the sirens.

When the Argo approached Crete, they found the way blocked by Talos, a giant bronze man who guarded the Cretan harbor. Medea cast a spell on Talos, calming him down, while she removed a bronze nail that bound a single blood vessel from his neck to his ankle. The vein opened and blood and ichor (the blood of gods) flowed out, causing Talos to bleed to death. Returning triumphantly to Iolcus, they proved the power of the Golden Fleece to Pelias's daughters by killing an old ram, chopping the ram's body into millions of pieces, and put the ram into a bronze cauldron of boiling water with some magical herbs, while saying some magical words to rejuvenate the ram. When it worked, Pelias's daughters decided to do the same to their own father, so they killed him, chopped his body into a million pieces, and put him in a bronze cauldron with boiling water, herbs, and spices, and said the magic words, but it did not work. This, however, further denied Jason his right to the throne, so Medea and Jason fled to Corinth, where they lived happily for 10 years.

Murdereress
In 1253 B.C., When Medea was 25, Jason divorced her so that he could marry Glauce, the daughter of a Corinthian king. Having been betrayed by Jason,  Medea vengefully murdered the children that she bore him, and destroyed Jason and Glauce’s family. Before Jason could retaliate, Medea cursed him to die an unfitting death, and took flight in a golden chariot sent by her grandfather Helios. To add further insult to injury, Medea set fire to the city of Corinth, burning it to the ground.

Along the way, Medea stopped at Thebes, where she healed Heracles from a curse put on him by Hera, during which he murdered his best friend.

Medea eventually stopped in Athens, where she married King Aegeus - the father of Theseus - and had one son with Aegeus: Medus.

However, their happiness would not last long; on Hekatombaion 8, 1235 B.C., Theseus arrived at Aegeus’s palace, and Aegeus was suspicious of him. Aegeus did not know that Theseus was his son, and Theseus likewise. However, Medea, having noticed the sandals and sword that belonged to Aegeus, recognized who Theseus was, and – to ensure that Medus would rule the throne after Aegeus’s passing – planned for him to be killed. She asked Theseus to capture the Marathonian Bull and bring it to her as proof. Theseus returned triumphant, so Medea gave him a goblet of wine which she had poisoned with aconite.

However, as Theseus held the goblet, Aegeus noticed the sword which Theseus had carried with him, and recognizes it as his own: he had buried it underneath a giant stone before Theseus was born, and proclaimed that whoever could remove the weapon was his son. Realizing that Theseus was his son, Aegeus knocked the goblet aside before Theseus could drink from it, saving Theseus’s life.

Aftermath
Aegeus banished both Medea and Medus from Athens. Riding the flying chariot, Medea and Medus fled into Persia, where Medus built an empire while Medea fled further, passing through before reaching the Iranian plateau, where she founded a kingdom of her own: Media, the area which nowadays is present-day northwestern Iran and South Azerbaijan, but is primarily in Iran’s Kurdistan Province and parts of Kermanshah Province.

Medea lived amongst the Aryans, who later changed their names to the Medes.

Not long after founding Media, Hera granted Medea with immortality because she would frequently refuse Zeus’s advances; Medea was honored with divine worship. And no myths ever reported her death or death cause.

Because of Jason’s betrayal, Medea was transported to The Elysian Fields, and married Achilles.

Return
Medea returned as a witch, teamed up with Penthesilea; together, and usurped the Lost City of Atlantis.

Both of them use their magic to cause harm to the player; Medea makes the player blind, while Penthesilea makes the player nauseous.

Physical Description
In Greek Mythology, Medea is described as an eastern-looking woman with black skin and woolly raven-black hair, wears a Phrygian cap, and was possibly Jewish.
 * Helios's family heirlooms were a golden circlet and a golden silk gown.

Like Penthesilea, Medea bears no armor and carries no specific weapon in the game.

Trivia

 * The Minecraft skin for her in the Greek Mythology Mashup Pack is designed after the 1907 painting "Jason and Medea" by John William Waterhouse.
 * Her symbols are:
 * Animals: snake and dragon.
 * Planetary object: Medea is the name of a large asteroid.
 * Offerings: Georgian wine, flowers, herbs, perfume, incense, and images of snakes.
 * Source: https://occult-world.com/medea/
 * Her name is Iranian, and the name of her brother Apsyrtos is Abkhazian.