Medea regina Colcorum · Centre for Early Modern Visual Culture

Title: Medea regina Colcorum
Subject: King Aeetes; Important Women; Famous Women; Important Queens; The Golden Fleece; Medea; Jason
Period: 1450-1500;
Geographic: Ancient Greece; Colchis; Modern day Georgia
Description: Jason of Thessaly and Medea of Colchis are illustrated riding on a horse together as they flee from Medea’s father, King Aeetes. Boccaccio explains that Medea betrayed her father by helping Jason with his task of finding the Golden Fleece. Jason is seated at the front of the horse and Medea is riding behind him. Medea is depicted holding a severed head in her left hand, which is the head of her brother Aegialeus. Medea had dismembered her own brother and scattered his limbs around the road behind her and Jason in order to distract her father from pursuing them. King Aeetes is illustrated on the right side of the engraving picking up his son’s limbs. One of his servants is illustrated behind him on horseback.
Image Creator: Anonymous (Engraver)
Type: Text; Woodcut Engraving
Identifier: mta:18138
Language: lat
Source Name: Iohannis Bocacij in librum de claris mulieribus
Parent Collection: 1487 Leuven; 1487 Leuven
Image: mta_18138_OBJ.jpg
Collection: Early Modern Women
Subject: King Aeetes; Important Women; Famous Women; Important Queens; The Golden Fleece; Medea; Jason