The Argonautica · Chapter
Book III: The Love of Medea explained
Hera and Athena seek Aphrodite's help to make Medea fall in love with Jason, ensuring his success in obtaining the Golden Fleece.
What happens
Hera and Athena seek Aphrodite's help to make Medea fall in love with Jason, ensuring his success in obtaining the Golden Fleece. Eros wounds Medea with an arrow, and she becomes consumed with passion. Jason meets Medea at Hecate's temple, and they pledge mutual aid. Medea, torn between loyalty to her father and love for Jason, agrees to help him overcome the trials set by King Aeëtes.
Themes in this chapter
Love and Fate
Medea's love for Jason, divinely orchestrated by Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite, becomes the driving force that determines the quest's outcome.
Divine Intervention and Mortal Agency
The gods actively manipulate events through Eros' arrow and Hera's enhancement of Jason, yet Medea and Jason still make personal choices.
Quest and Adventure
The chapter advances the central quest for the Golden Fleece, with Jason's success hinging on Medea's magical aid.
Characters to notice
- Hera
Queen of the gods, orchestrates the plan to use Medea's love for Jason to secure the Golden Fleece.
- Athena
Goddess of wisdom, accompanies Hera to Aphrodite and agrees to the scheme involving love magic.
- Aphrodite
Goddess of love, enlisted by Hera and Athena to have Eros shoot Medea with a love arrow.
- Eros
God of desire, wounds Medea with an arrow, causing her to fall deeply in love with Jason.
- Jason
Leader of the Argonauts, meets Medea at Hecate's temple and wins her promise of aid through his charm and Hera's enhancement.
- Medea
Sorceress daughter of Aeëtes, becomes love-struck by Jason and agrees to help him against her father.
Key passages
“Come, Erato, now, stand by me: of thy lips let me be taught In what manner thereafter Jason the Fleece to Iolkos brought Through the love of Medea”
The poet invokes the muse Erato to tell how Jason obtained the Golden Fleece through Medea's love.
Opening invocation setting the theme of love as central to the quest.
“Let us hence to the Cyprian Queen; and when we be come, we twain Will pray her to bid her son, if perchance he will do this deed, At Aiêtes’ sorceress-daughter a shaft from his bow to speed, And bewitch her with love for Jason”
Hera proposes that they ask Aphrodite to have Eros shoot Medea with an arrow to make her fall in love with Jason.
Key divine conspiracy to ensure Jason's success through Medea's love.
“But it was not long ere the hero appeared to her yearning eyes Stately striding, as out of the ocean doth Sirius uprise, Who climbeth the sky most glorious and clear to discern from afar, But unto the flocks for measureless mischief a baleful star: Even so came Aison’s son to the maiden glorious to see— But with Jason’s appearing dawned on her troublous misery.”
Jason approached Medea like the bright but dangerous star Sirius, bringing both beauty and turmoil to her heart.
Simile emphasizing the dual nature of Jason's impact on Medea.