1. For the purposes of this article I define the Middle Ages as the period between 500-1500 CE, an enormous period, to be sure, and one with many differences between the kingdoms that made up the region we now call Europe. Naturally, due to the complex political, religious, and literary situations and texts over this region and period to claim that this will be a complete examination of medieval Medea would be foolish and mendacious. Most of the texts under consideration here come from the 12th century or later, as the 12th century was the great age of revival of classical studies and, particularly in France, an especially fertile period for the reuse and reinterpretation of classical mythology (Blumenfeld-Kosinski [1997], 15-19).

2. In this Medea teaching Aeson how to rejuvenate himself and helping him find an assistant to regulate the flame under her cauldron is used as an example of how the alchemist must work on himself with great care (7.262-92; see further Willard [2005]). The text was printed in 1546, but is a compendium of earlier, medieval works on alchemy.

3. The order of Ovid's narratives may be rearranged to make the connection between Medea and Procne—and the faithless Jason and Tereus—more apparent. Book 5 of John Gower's Confessio Amantis flips Ovid's sequence, beginning with Medea and Jason (5.3,247-4,229) before moving on to Procne (Progne) and Tereus (5.5,551-6,074).

4. Léglu (2010), 68.

5. On medieval commentaries of Ovid see esp. McKinley (2001), 51-105.

6. The accessus is a prologue form which contains (usually in this order): title; name; the intention of the author; subject matter and material; their method of dealing with the material; usefulness; and the area of philosophy the text belongs to. See further Blumenfeld-Kosinski (1997), 5-7.

7. Copeland (1991), 87.

8. Copeland (1991), 103.

9. There were also two abridged prose versions made in the 15th century. One of these was translated into English and printed by William Caxton in 1480.

10. Jamison (2004), 14. Examples of the exchange going horribly wrong in the sagas, leaving the wife high and dry, are The Wife's Lament, Wulf and Eadwacer, and Hildeburh in Beowulf. On women as peaceweavers in the sagas see Ferrante (1988); on noble and royal women who struggled against this system see van Houts (1999), 83f. The relationship between non-classical traditions and the reception of Latin texts is hard to define or discuss precisely, but there was certainly cross-influence; on the influence of Celtic literature on Benoît's Roman de Troie's version of the Jason and Medea story see Feimer 1992.

11. Some texts, such as John Gower's Confessio Amantis, omit the murder of Absyrtus in an attempt to make her more sympathetic; we need to remember that while killing a brother is heinous in any society, in the Middle Ages it was not just an immoral act but one that destabilised a kingdom, leaving an entire people vulnerable. In one way Rome and the kingdoms of the Middle Ages are alike: neither had any system in place to deal with female succession. Usually the most queens could expect after the death of their husbands was to rule through their male children.

12. She also, obviously, upsets masculine rights in deciding to murder her son(s) to spite their father. Peggy McCracken points out in a study of the symbolism of maternal child murder that, unlike male sacrifice of children (such as Abraham's unfinished sacrifice of Isaac), maternal child murder is seen as the perverted shedding of blood in defiance of paternal authority and for private revenge: McCracken (2002).

13. Jewell (2007), 82f.

14. On concubines in the Middle Ages see particularly the seminal work of Stafford (1983).

15. Rezak (1988), 67.

16. Cooke (1927) is a good introduction to the history and practice of euhemerism in the Middle Ages.

17. Morse (1996), 240. Greece as an exotic, fabulous land was a feature of many medieval romances, such as the late medieval Seven Champions of Christendom, which was to survive even into the 19th century as a chapbook.

18. The British claimed to be descended from Brutus; the French royal family from Asytanax, who was miraculously saved from death by Hector (for England and Troy see MacDougall [1982] and Waswo [1995]); see Léglu (2010) on the use of Medea in narratives both by the French royal family and the ducal court of Burgundy, where Raoul Lefèvre's History of Jason was written.

19. At this length this text is three times the length of other romances of the Middle Ages.

20. Benoît's relationship to his source is problematic; it is easy to assume that he takes the entire tale as literal truth, but Rollo (1995) makes a strong case that he questions the historicity of Dares' narrative and the Trojan War, playing with ideas of truth and fiction within a ‘historical’ frame.

21. Jones (1972), 43. The other love stories are Paris and Helen, Troilus and Cressida, Diomedes and Briseis (an innovation that allows Benoît to point out that women can't be trusted [13,441-56]), and Achilles and Polyxena.

22. Les Deu vers lui s'en corocièrent/Qui trop asprement le vengièrent (‘This made the gods furious with him, and they took too harsh vengeance upon him’).

23. Jones (1972), 43f.

24. The story also adds in elements from other Latin sources, including a ring of invisibility like that of Gyges, a feature which Benoît probably found in Cicero's De Officiis 3.38; this ring is given by Medea to Jason to help him in his quest for the fleece and emphatically does not come from Ovid (Rollo [1995], 197). Turned one way this ring allows Jason to avoid being seen, turned the other it makes him visible (1,690-97). Once endowed with invisibility, Jason recites a necromantic text which enables him to get the fleece; this innovation makes him complicit in the use of magic and a particularly dark form of magic at that.

25. Jones (1972), 44; see, for example, lines 1,285-87.

26. De Boer (1915-38) provides the text; a good introduction is Pairet (2011). The Ovide Moralisé is normally attributed to a Franciscan friar (Blumenfeld-Kosinski [1997], 91, with bibliography). Precursors include Fulgentius' Mythologies, Arnulf of Orléans' allegory and commentary on the Metamorphoses (Allegoriae super Ovidii Metamorphoses, c.1175), and John of Garland's Integumenta Ovidii (c.1234).

27. Pairet (2011), 93; Copeland (1991), 108. An example of such building in earlier authors can be found in William of Orléans' (early 13th century) use of and deviation from Arnulf of Orléans' commentary on the Metamorphoses; whereas Arnulf does not address Medea directly and seems uninterested in her (he never mentions her name and instead focuses on the actual transformations, such as the dragon's teeth changing into armed men), William interacts with Book 7 in a much more direct fashion and constructs his commentary in a way that is sympathetic to Medea (McKinley [2001], 75; for Ovid's reception in Orléans see Coulson [2007]).

28. Demats (1973), 61-63.

29. Another allegorical reading of Ovid; unlike the Ovide Moralisé it was highly condensed rather than sprawling (260 Latin distichs in total). John of Garland was trained in Oxford but taught in Paris and intended this work to be a moral guide to his students. He is sympathetic to Medea, writing in his summarisation of Book 7 that Medea was herself the Golden Fleece, as she was a prize more beautiful than gold. John also attributes all of Jason's victories entirely to Medea, unlike the chivalric tradition, which tries hard to represent Jason as more active. For more on John of Garland see McKinley (2001), 69-73.

30. For a list of sources see Morse (1996), 129.

31. Ghisalberti (1945), 15.

32. Copeland (1991), 108-19.

33. Impulses to moralise were not confined to those working on the Metamorphoses, but were also attached to the Heroides, which one anonymous biographer of the fifteenth century argued was written to recompense for the immorality of the Ars Amatoria, spinning a tale where Ovid, whose virtue is shown by his three names, faces off against the evil emperor Nero (yes, Nero; Ghisalberti [1946], 12, 38; the life is reproduced at 33).

34. It is not as simple as just allegorising magic or Medea within a Christian framework, marking it as solely negative; in courtly literature of the 12th and 13th centuries ‘magic is both an intellectual power and a secret one’ (Ferrante [1988], 218). Thus Medea can be a powerful symbol of arcane knowledge and learning as well as evil.

35. Morse (1996), 133.

36. Though his failure cannot be attributed to his barbarian nature, but must come from another source, because, as I have said, within this framework both Jason and Medea are the Other and neither can be comfortably defined as Western. In this system Medea's father is no less or more strange or barbarian than Jason himself.

37. This is the date of the second redaction; the first was in 1340, before Bersuire had read the Ovide Moralisé. The 15th book of his Reductorium Morale (an extensive Biblical commentary), it proved to be so popular that it was frequently copied out and transmitted independently. It was intended to be a guide for clerics wishing to use Ovid in their sermons and writings; rather than citing Ovid directly, Bersuire summarises the stories, then gives the literal meaning followed by their allegorical and figurative meanings, all (obviously) in a Christian context. A text and translation can be found in Reynolds (1971).

38. McKinley (2007), 119; Ovidius Moralizatus fols 54v, 55r, 55v, 56r 56v.

39. Mainzer (1972), 219f., lists the deviations between Gower and the last two texts.

40. The theme of Book 5 is avarice (covoitise), which fits with Jason's pursuit of the Golden Fleece; perjury is represented as a subset of avarice. The ‘hero’, Amans, asks for a tale of long ago from the Confessor (Venus' chaplain), whose response is the story of Medea. Other stories in this book include both Ovidian and non-Ovidian narratives, and range from the story of Hercules and Faunus to that of the King and the Steward's Wife.

41. Gower follows Benoît in the first 680 lines of his story before deviating.

42. Jason's background is also altered; he goes on the quest for the fleece not because of trickery on the part of Peleus (who is completely innocuous in Gower), but because he seeks the adventure himself (3,263f.). While seeking glory is a perfectly acceptable action for a young man, it does mean that the pressure upon Jason to succeed is largely self-generated.

43. McKinley (2007), 115-17.

44. Oetes fears the Greeks' reaction should Jason come to grief (3,355-58); thus his actions are mitigated by the fact that he seeks to save his kingdom from external harm, and is not just acting from barbarian savagery or lack of knowledge of traditional hospitality.

45. Peck (2004), 15.

46. McKinley (2007). Gower not only repeats Benoît's oath of Jason to Medea, but doubles it (it appears at 3,483-93 and 3,652-59), stressing that Jason willingly and freely pledged himself.

47. On the theme of betrayed love and how this helps underline the horror of Jason's perfidy see Nicholson (2005), 291f.

48. See McKinley (2007), 119, and Mainzer (1972), 218.

49. Peck (2004), 20.

50. Blaming Jason for Medea's actions is not exclusive to Gower; other poems such as Guillaume de Lorris' and Jean de Meun's Roman de la Rose (Romance of the Rose, c.1250-75) insist that Jason is responsible for the murder of the children as Medea killed them in an fit of grief and rage explicitly linked to Jason's desertion, rather than out of a desire for revenge (13,251-63).

51. The Book of the Duchess says Medea is damned for killing her children, but she is listed among those who have been damned for murdering themselves out of sorrow over love, such as Dido, Echo and, surprisingly, Samson (721-41). Such classification emphasises Medea as romance heroine rather than child murderer. (Medea and Jason's story is also represented in stained glass as part of the narrative of the history of Troy.)

52. McMillan (1987), 3.

53. The poem is unfinished, however, so Chaucer may have intended to add more.

54. McMillan (1987), 4.

55. The text is that of Cowen & Kane (1995).

56. Blumenfeld-Kosinski (1997), 209f.

57. 1.32; this and all following translations from de Pizan are by Brown-Grant (1999).

58. Brown-Grant (1999), 174.

59. Brown-Grant (1999), 175.

60. The reformation of Jason is not shared by other texts, such as the slightly earlier Italian prose versions of the Medea tale like the Istorietta Troiana, in which Jason abandons Medea on a desert island, where she gives birth to twin sons during her three year stay there—forced to live off roots and grasses, she is understandably none too pleased when she finally runs into Jason after being rescued by a passing ship. Perhaps this is why the author decided to add the detail that Medea feeds Jason their sons in a Thyestean banquet. (Lefèvre settles for Medea flying into Jason's wedding feast, ripping his son into pieces and tossing the bits into Jason and Creusa's laps; only Jason survives the fiery bloodbath that follows.)

61. This court was a hotbed of literary production, especially in the realm of prose narrative ‘histories’ (Morse [1996], 154).

62. As Morse points out, this was not exactly an inspired choice and invited ridicule; his chancellor tried to make him change his heroic exemplar to the Biblical Gideon (Morse [1996], 161), while others mocked him for selecting a known perjurer like Jason as a symbol (ibid., 163).

63. Morse (1996), 150.

64. Passages are cited by page numbers of Munro (1913), an edition of William Caxton's translation.

65. Jason begins his career at a joust that celebrate Hercules' knighting and it is Hercules himself who knights Jason. Not only does this eradicate the problem of his carrying of Hera across a stream being Jason's first ‘heroic’ encounter, but it creates a first and important masculine association and knightly genealogy for Jason before he starts his love affairs and encounters the devious Pelias. In Lefèvre Jason loses his sandal while exercising with Hercules and Theseus—this is very much an all male group, except for lovers.

66. After he ‘felte her by hym all naked’ the inevitable happens, for, as the narrator comments, ‘he was a man’ (85).

67. Morse (1996), 178.

68. A detail taken from Giovanni Boccaccio's Genealogia deorum gentilium, which appears also in the slightly later romance, Fillastre's, GuillaumeLa Toison d'Or (1468)Google Scholar; on the intersections of these late romances see Léglu (2010).

69. Léglu (2010), 69.

70. McCracken (2003), 59.

71. Mulder-Bakker (2004b), 13.