Part of the Strong Women Postcards Series
“Wise One,” eponymous Mother Goddess of the Medes. Like Medusa and Metis, she was named from the Sanskrit concept of medha,”female wisdom.” (1.) She was a fount of the feminine art of healing, and her name was related to “medicine.”
(2.) She could restore the dead to life in her magic cauldron, as shown by the myth of Aeson, who was so restored. Pliny called Medea a Goddess whose magic arts could control the sun, moon, and stars. (3.)
She rode in a chariot drawn by serpents; it also had wings, to show that she ruled both earth and heaven. (4.)
According to Herodotus, Medea was the Great Goddess of all the Aryan tribes of Parthia. (5.) She was all-wise, and never died, but dwelt forever in heaven. (6.)
She seems to have been remembered in Ireland as the Goddess Medana, associated with a sacred tree and a regenerative well, whose waters were reputed to cure sore eyes. She was artificially canonized as a saint, and her Christian legend was copied from that of the equally bogus St. Lucy? (7.)
The classic story of Medea’s ill-starred marriage to Jason apparently was based on a captured idol of the Goddess. Her rites were imported into Greece but proved too sanguinary for Hellenic taste. {Play by Euripides.}
The Woman’s Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets by Barara G. Walker. Pg. 628.
1. Larouse, 312. 2. Briffault 1, 486. 3. Hawkins, 139. 4. Graves, G.M. 2, 253.
5. Herodotus, 390. 6. Graves, G.M. 2, 252, 257. 7. Gifford, 131.
- Larousse Encyclopedia of Mythology. London: Hamlyn Publishing Group
- Briffault, Robert. The Mothers (3 Vols.) New York Macmillan, 1927
- `Hawkins, Gerald S. Stonehenge Decoded. New York: Dell Publishing Co.
- Graves, Robert. The White Goddess. New York: Vintage Books. 1958
- Herodotus. The Histories (Henry Cary, trans) New York: Hawthorne
- *Graves, Robert. The White Goddess. New York: Vintage Books. 1958
- Gifford, Edward S. Jr. The Evil Eye. New York: Macmillan, 1958
- Internet Archive: Digital Library of Free & Borrowable Texts, Movies, Music & Wayback Machine (Find some of the books above here for free viewing)
- * Could Also so be Grave, Robert: The Greek Myths (2 Vols) New York: Penguin Books Inc. or Graves, Robert, and Patai, Raphael. Hebrew Myths, New York: Doubleday & Co.1964.
