At Argon. 4.1653–88, Medea steps forward among the Argonauts and asserts that their harbourage on Crete will not be blocked by the bronze giant Talos, who stands menacingly throwing rocks at their ship. She claims that she alone can subdue him, and then steps forward and proceeds to do so. Using a sequence of ‘magical’ ritualistic acts, she causes Talos to scrape his vulnerable heel on a rock and fall down dead, as the ichor pours from his wound.Footnote 1 This scene is the last in which Medea appears in the epic, and accordingly it forms the final opportunity to bridge the gap between the Medea of the Argonautica and the future Medea, one whose actions are already well known from such works as Pindar's fourth Pythian Ode and Euripides’ Medea. The importance for Apollonius to create a plausible transition between the Medea of earlier myth and the Argonautic Medea is evident.Footnote 2 A clear-cut break from tradition would allow Medea to become an alternative Medea, perhaps akin to the alternative portrayal of Helen by Euripides; a continuation would allow corroboration with earlier sources, which would lend authority and validation to Apollonius’ version. It is now the common consensus that Apollonius tried, however successfully, to bridge the gap between a young and an adult Medea and between tradition and innovation in her character.
One way in which the transition is reflected is by repeated allusions to Jason and Medea's doomed marriage. Throughout Books 3 and 4, in the lead up to their actual marriage at Argon. 4.1127–69, scenes in which Medea appears contain moments that can be read symbolically as representative of her relationship with Jason. For example, her veiled (or unveiled) face is repeatedly mentioned (3.444–7, 3.828–35, 4.41–6, 4.465–7), which both highlights her status as an unmarried girl and draws the reader repeatedly to Medea's use of vision as an erotic signifier.Footnote 3 Moreover, the narrator twice draws on comparisons to grieving wives to elucidate Medea's emotional turmoil (3.656–64, 4.1062–7); these two unhappy similes hint at a similarly unpleasant end to Medea's relationship with Jason. Furthermore, Medea enacts a series of symbolic marital rituals as she flees her home (4.26–49), transferring into Jason's protection during the night and leaving symbols of her virginity behind for her mother.Footnote 4 These are some of the key ways in which wedding imagery pervades Medea's representation throughout Books 3 and 4.Footnote 5
In addition, the actual wedding between Jason and Medea contains aspects of wedding ritual; all of them are, however, undermined by the unsuitability of location, time and context. Queen Arete gauges from her husband King Alcinous that he intends to decree that Medea should only belong with the Argonauts if she is already married to Jason. This provokes a midnight marriage, performed in secret, with an armed guard and an unenthusiastic couple (οὐ μὲν ἐν Ἀλκινόοιο γάμον μενέαινε τελέσσαι | ἥρως Αἰσονίδης, μεγάροις δ᾽ ἐνὶ πατρὸς ἑοῖο, | νοστήσας ἐς Ἰωλκὸν ὑπότροπος· ὧς δὲ καὶ αὐτὴ | Μήδεια φρονέεσκε· τότ᾽ αὖ χρεὼ ἦγε μιγῆναι ‘The hero Jason wished to hold the wedding not in Alcinous’ land but rather in the halls of his father, having returned home to Iolcus. So too did Medea wish this: but necessity forced them to join there’, 4.1161–4).Footnote 6 The marriage scene itself, performed out of necessity rather than will, provides an inauspicious beginning for their marriage and allows for the possibility that the eventual failure of their marriage can be traced to as far back as its origins.
Their wedding precedes by some five-hundred lines the scene which is to be the focus of this paper (4.1635–88). This episode, in which Medea kills the bronze giant Talos, draws again on wedding imagery, connecting it back to the actual wedding and to the symbolic scenes which occur prior to it. This imagery is unsuitable for the context and again highlights the doomed future of the lovers. In this paper, I argue that this scene marks the culmination of subverted wedding imagery, the final moment of anticipation for the grim future of Medea and Jason.Footnote 7 Medea subverts gender roles, uses symbolic garments and performs actions reminiscent of wedding ritual, all of which occur in a martial context. In doing so, she also draws both on her own and on Jason's general characterization in the narrative and on their failures to live up to their epic expectations (she as a loyal obedient daughter and wife and he as a pre-eminent warrior and leader).Footnote 8 She establishes herself as the woman who would rather stand in battle three times than give birth once (Eur. Med. 250–1), foreshadowing the dark future which is to come as a result of her marriage to Jason. Furthermore, the figure of Talos can be read as a symbol of Achilles, whose future marriage to Medea in the afterlife has been hinted at earlier in Book 4; this connection reinforces the eventual breakdown of Medea and Jason's marriage.
1. TALOS CHALLENGED
After the Argonauts leave Libya, they attempt to land on Crete and find the bronze man Talos guarding the island and throwing rocks to prevent them from landing (4.1638–44):
Bronze Talos, tearing rocks from a hard outcrop, prevented them from fastening their anchors to the ground as they entered the Dictaean shelter of a harbour: the son of Cronos ordered him, the last remaining bronze root of the ash-born among semi-divine men, to remain on the island, as guard to Europa, encircling Crete thrice with his bronze feet.
The narrator describes Talos as a figure to be understood and pitied. He is the last of the ash-born men, belonging to a bygone age.Footnote 9 This description portrays him as a creature who no longer holds a place in this world, being as it is in transition between the mythic and the heroic ages.Footnote 10 He was tasked with protecting Europa, though there is no indication of whether she is still on Crete at that time or whether his task is finished. Her absence may further emphasize Talos’ obsolete status.
A sense of pathos is created for Talos, first by the repeated association with the race of men (ἀνθρώπων, ἀνδράσιν); he belongs to the ἡμίθεοι, and is therefore perhaps to be considered more man than monster.Footnote 11 His dissimilarity to the Odyssean Polyphemus also emphasizes his civility. The scene of Polyphemus throwing rocks at Odysseus’ retreating ship (Od. 9.471–566) is reversed by Talos throwing rocks in defence, primarily to prevent the Argonauts from coming closer.Footnote 12 While Polyphemus notably defies Zeus's governance and laws of ξενία, Talos follows Zeus's orders to protect Europa by blocking the Argonauts’ landing.Footnote 13 There is nothing to suggest that Talos is flouting the divine order of Zeus and therefore deserves punishment. He is not a straightforward antagonist, nor an obstacle that the narrator and the reader anticipate and enjoy seeing destroyed for the heroes’ collective κῦδος. He is a symbol of isolation, vulnerability and innocence, a creature whose demise, although appropriate for the heroic post-mythic world, is treated with a sympathetic undertone.
As well as evoking Talos’ humanity, the narrator also highlights his fragility. He is entirely bronze except for a ‘small membrane’ (λεπτὸς ὑμήν) covering his heel, which ‘governs the boundaries of life and death’ (ζωῆς ἔχε πείρατα καὶ θανάτοιο, 4.1648). This depiction recalls Achilles’ fatal vulnerability and also evokes ideas of maidenhood, ὑμήν being both the name of the god of marriages and the physical marker of a woman's virginity.Footnote 14 The term does not appear in Homer, although a D scholium glosses the bridal song (ὑμέναιος) at Il. 18.493 as being named because it accompanies the consummation of the marriage (ὑμήν ἐστιν ὁ ῥηγνύμενος ἐν τῇ τῶν παρθένων διακορήσει ‘The hymen is broken in the deflowering of maidens’).Footnote 15 In the description of Talos, there is a sense of gender reversal, since the weakness revealed by the narrator will presumably be targeted by Medea. The ὑμήν points out his vulnerability and associates Talos with a bride and Medea with a prospective husband. The anticipation for the scene to follow, then, has a subtext of a new husband about to subdue his new bride, warped by clear gender-reversal between the two characters.
This reversal is made much clearer by Medea's introduction in the scene, which forms a clear counterpoint to that of Talos. While he is vulnerable, Medea is clearly not, as she steps forward and asserts masculine martial dominance over Talos (4.1651–8):
And at this moment they would have gone far from Crete, miserable, deprived of both food and water, if Medea had not addressed them in their retreat: ‘Hear me; I alone can subdue this man, whoever he is, even if his body be made entirely of bronze, unless he is immortal. But come, move the ships away from the reach of his rocks, until he gives way to destruction.’
The reader is told that the Argonauts were ready to back off, despondent (ἐπισμυγερῶς) and plagued by both thirst (δίψα) and grief (ἄλγος). Their hopelessness is unanimous, showing either their sensibility in face of a terrible foe or their unwillingness to attempt a landing against this unknown creature. Their weakness is thrown into sharp relief against Medea's bravery, as she checks their decision and asserts that she can defeat Talos herself. In doing so, she goes against the group decision and endows herself with an authoritative voice.Footnote 16
Medea interjects with the line κέκλυτέ μευ, a common cry among Iliadic heroes, which associates her actions with those of Homeric warriors, since she asserts herself as the one person who above all others will step forward and both speak and act on behalf of the group.Footnote 17 Her companions confirm the allusion, since they parallel the Achaean and the Trojan armies, sitting as the two main warriors step forward to fight (κληῖδας ἰοῦσαν, Argon. 4.1664; οἳ μὲν ἔπειθ᾽ ἵζοντο κατὰ στίχας, Il. 3.327). Notably, Hector provokes one-on-one combat twice in the Iliad (3.86–94; 7.67–91). On both occasions, he invites combatants to step forward, not asserting his own ability but asking for a worthy opponent. Medea, in contrast, asserts her own superiority. In doing so, she subverts gender expectations and surpasses the heroic precedent set by Hector. She then tells the Argonauts that she can defeat Talos alone (μούνη), as long as he is not immortal (ὁππότε μή οἱ ἐπ’ ἀκάματος πέλοι αἰών).Footnote 18 This is a grand claim, further emphasizing a power that extends beyond that of the Argonauts or of any other warrior. Hector, like Medea, states that he could beat Achilles if they were on even terms, notwithstanding Achilles’ claim to be made wholly of bronze (εἰ δὲ θεός περ | ἶσον τείνειεν πολέμου τέλος, οὔ κε μάλα ῥέα | νικήσει᾽, οὐδ᾽ εἰ παγχάλκεος εὔχεται εἶναι, Il. 20.100–2). This line is clearly evoked by Medea's similar claim; for her, however, the limit is immortality. She could win if he were made entirely of bronze, but not if he were immortal. Hector needs equal terms to defeat Achilles.Footnote 19 Medea's confidence and ability are likened to this Iliadic scene but heightened to emphasize her superior power, Talos paralleling Achilles while also posing a greater challenge than him.
Medea's masculine depiction continues at line 1654, as she claims that she alone can ‘subdue’ Talos (δαμάσσειν). The use of δαμάσσειν along with δαμῆναι at line 1658 encircles her speech with her primary aim, that is, to subdue. The verb commonly appears in Homeric epic, but notably twice with the meaning ‘to seduce’ (at Il. 3.301 and in Od. 3.269) and once to describe subduing a bride (Il. 18.432).Footnote 20 It generally carries a sense of dominance over another and, when referred to women, this dominance has a sexual dimension.Footnote 21 Medea's assertion reverses the female passivity associated with the verb, as she is not the subdued or seduced but the one who subdues and seduces. The use of this verb connects back to Talos’ vulnerable ὑμήν, which is the ultimate target of her attack. Thus, the gender reversal established between the two figures results in a masculine warrior-like Medea who announces her ability to subdue (or seduce) the feminine maiden-like Talos. Within their opening stances, the reader gets a sense of the gender reversal at play and a sense that there is a sexual undertone to the attack.
2. MEDEA POISED
Having asserted herself as superior and capable of subduing Talos, Medea then moves into place, accompanied by Jason (4.1659–64):
Thus, she spoke and the men drew back the ship from the missiles, resting on their oars, anticipating what plan she might unexpectedly bring to pass. She, holding the folds of her purple robe over each cheek, made her way to the stern; Jason, holding her hand with his, led her through those sitting on the benches.
The Argonauts acquiesce to her order, and rest their oars, inactive, while she carries out her attack. They expect a μῆτις from Medea, which presumably will comprise something non-violent, since the term usually denotes an alternative to brute force.Footnote 22 In the Argonautica, when used in conjunction with Medea, the term has a negative aspect, connoting underhand deceptive acts which worsen during the course of the epic.Footnote 23 She represents ‘the strongest aspects of μῆτις, the salvational and the destructive mixed in equal parts’.Footnote 24 In the Talos episode, her μῆτις is both feminine and masculine, however, since its appearance in this context associates her with Odysseus, whose clever μῆτις ensures his escape from Polyphemus.Footnote 25 This parallel suggests that her μῆτις might, like that of Odysseus, be profitable and positive. Since Talos can be read as a counterpoint to Polyphemus, however, it may be the case that Medea's μῆτις forms a parallel counterpoint to Odysseus, that is, that her bad use of μῆτις balances the positive reworking of Polyphemus’ character in the figure of Talos.
Medea proceeds along the rows of those sitting on the ship, accompanied by Jason holding her hand in his (χειρὸς δέ ἑ χειρὶ μεμαρπώς | Αἰσονίδης ἐκόμιζε). This is not the first time the couple has held hands in the narrative (see 3.1067–8, 4.99), but here Jason specifically holds her hand as he leads her into position. Medea's procession is reminiscent of her journey from her parents’ home to the ship, a journey which itself is symbolic of Medea's loss of innocence and deceitful transferral to another man's protection. This transition has already been indicated by the narrator. When Medea visits her sister Chalciope in her love-struck state, she is unable to cross the threshold of her room (see 3.646–55, especially τρὶς μὲν ἐπειρήθη, τρὶς δ᾽ ἔσχετο, τέτρατον αὖτις | λέκτροισιν πρηνὴς ἐνικάππεσεν εἱλιχθεῖσα). The struggle is tangible for Medea at first, because, by entering Chalciope's room and by agreeing to help Jason, Medea will irreversibly cross a symbolic boundary. The gesture is also accompanied with a simile of a new bride weeping for a slain husband (3.656–64). Here Medea's act of crossing the threshold is likened to what she will later become, namely a grieving bride.Footnote 26 At that point in the narrative, Medea occupies a liminal space, being in the process of transferring from one mode of existence to another, from one man's protection to another's.Footnote 27
The realization that she has betrayed her father in favour of Jason causes Medea to flee her home at the beginning of Book 4 (αὐτίκα γὰρ νημερτὲς ὀίσσατο, μή μιν ἀρωγὴν | ληθέμεν, αἶψα δὲ πᾶσαν ἀναπλήσειν κακότητα, 4.14–15). She leaves a lock of hair as a symbol of her virginity and kisses her bed and doorposts (κύσσε δ᾽ ἑόν τε λέχος καὶ δικλίδας ἀμφοτέρωθεν | σταθμούς, καὶ τοίχων ἐπαφήσατο, χερσί τε μακρὸν | ῥηξαμένη πλόκαμον, θαλάμῳ μνημήια μητρὶ | κάλλιπε παρθενίης, ἀδινῇ δ᾽ ὀλοφύρατο φωνῇ, 4.26–9). These gestures are clear symbols of marriage, the lock of hair being a ritual dedication and the kissing of her bed and doorposts clearly showing Medea's farewell to the symbols of her paternal guardianship, namely her own maiden-bed and the home in which she lives.Footnote 28 The doors of the palace then fly open at her magical incantations as she steals away during the night (τῇ δὲ καὶ αὐτόματοι θυρέων ἱπόειξαν ὀχῆες, | ὠκείαις ἄψορροι ἀναθρώσκοντες ἀοιδαῖς, 4.41–2). This transferral of control is later acknowledged by Medea, when she forces Jason not to hand her over to the Colchians, claiming that she is now Jason's wife, sister and daughter (4.368–9: τῶ φημὶ τεὴ κούρη τε δάμαρ τε | αὐτοκασιγνήτη τε μεθ᾽ Ἑλλάδα γαῖαν ἕπεσθαι). The subsequent killing of Apsyrtus at 4.421–81 most clearly shows her symbolic transferral of protection, since Apsyrtus represents the paternal protection which Medea has abandoned; the killing of Apsyrtus is a clear sign of Medea severing ties with that lingering protection and of transferring to Jason's protection. Further on in Book 4, the quasi-official wedding takes place (4.1127–69), confirming once and for all, in the eyes of the adjudicating King Alcinous, that Medea belongs with the Argonauts. Much of what the wedding represents is redundant, since Medea has already carried out actions that cement her refusal of her father's protection and her acceptance of Jason's.
Up to this point, the reader can follow the development from girl on the threshold of a doomed marriage to one who is going to do anything but sit and grieve at the failed marriage. These earlier symbols of transferred guardianship are evoked again in the Talos episode, which forms the culminating point of Medea's forced transferral to Jason's protection. Jason holds her hand while accompanying her through the rows of Argonauts. Her path through the Argonauts creates a specific gesture, reminiscent of a wedding procession, in which the bride would be accompanied to her husband's house by the wedding party (here the Argonauts) and, in some depictions, hand in hand with the groom.Footnote 29 Jason's role of guiding (ἐκόμιζε) is reminiscent of the new husband (or, in some accounts, the paternal guardian) leading the girl to her new home.Footnote 30 The ship may, furthermore, be read as a vessel for delivering the girl, an analogy for the cart in which she would normally travel.Footnote 31 It carries her towards Talos, the destined end of her procession through the Argonauts, but will also later carry her to her new home in Iolcus.
The Argonauts are not mentioned in these lines, which diminishes their presence in the scene; instead, the narrator draws attention to κληῖδας, a term which can mean both benches and bolts.Footnote 32 The former meaning is clearly the contextual meaning, while the latter finds resonance among the wider marital imagery in the scene. The sense of ‘door-bolts’ may evoke the doors through which a new bride travels as she enters her new marital home. The term is used explicitly of this wedding ritual at Ar. Thesm. 973–6. Accordingly, the emphasis on this word is an indication of the marital tone present in the gesture. Not only does Jason accompany Medea in a manner reminiscent of a wedding procession, but also he takes her symbolically through the doors of her new home.Footnote 33
Significantly, Medea proceeds towards a figure who is reminiscent of Achilles, the man whom Medea is, according to Hera, destined to marry in the afterlife (4.810–16; χρειώ μιν κούρης πόσιν ἔμμεναι Αἰήταο | Μηδείης, 814–15). In this context, Medea becomes the conquering figure, led (unknowingly) by her current husband towards her future husband. This gesture, then, makes clear that the actions carried out by Jason and Medea (here and throughout the epic) will ultimately lead her towards her marriage to Achilles in the afterlife.Footnote 34 Thus, the procession reflects a component of a wedding ceremony, but also hints at a marriage which will fail and at a second marriage which is brought about as a result of the sequence of events caused by the first marriage.
The ideas of marriage and transferral from maiden to bride are brought to the forefront again in the clear paralleling of wedding procession and battle procession. By this point, however, Jason's gesture is futile, since he is already married to Medea. This futility is also enhanced by the fact that Jason's ‘leading’ of Medea is anything but controlling. She is about to do battle, while he presumably will stand aside and wonder at (and fear?) her abilities. His role is redundant, and any guise of control he has over her is overtly false. The final message of this scene is clear: the walk along the benches represents the journey of Jason and Medea which projects into the future, where there is, for Jason and Medea, a destructive ending and, for Medea and Achilles, a marriage tainted by the martial subjugation of her new husband.
3. MEDEA (UN)VEILED
Before proceeding to attack Talos, Medea raises her πέπλος over both cheeks (ἡ δὲ πτύχα πορφυρέοιο | προσχομένη πέπλοιο παρειάων ἑκάτερθεν, 4.1661–2).Footnote 35 The act is one of separation, as she creates a delineated space in which she can carry out her magic.Footnote 36 Moreover, the gesture she carries out recalls anakalypsis (from ἀνακαλυπτήρια), the unveiling of a bride in front of her new husband, an act that generally takes place at the house of the groom.Footnote 37 The aim of the ritual is to remove the barrier between wife and husband and between her and her new home. She moves from the protection of her father to the protection of her husband. Here Medea's veiling act, preceding as it does the symbolic procession to the edge of the ship, alludes to this ritual of unveiling.Footnote 38 What the overall scene evokes is an accompaniment of a new bride to her marital home, where she will unveil herself to her new husband.
The allusion to anakalypsis, however, is undermined in two respects: first is the fact that Medea is married to Jason by this point. During the actual wedding-scene at the Cave of Macris (4.1128–69), Medea's veil is not mentioned at all. Its absence in the earlier scene undermines the idea of anakalypsis which is evoked here; what the unveiling represents has already happened. In addition, as Goff notes, the act of anakalypsis is a demonstration by the young woman of her submission to her new husband.Footnote 39 Medea, however, clearly does not submit to anyone, and so when she holds her πέπλος over the sides of her face or over her cheeks she imitates the action of a bride performing anakalypsis but subverts the motif through her martial motives and Jason's blatant lack of control over her.
Moreover, Medea's unveiling before Talos also subverts the idea of her second marriage, that is, her marriage to Achilles. The act of uncovering her eyes is directed towards Talos who, as mentioned above, can be read as a representation of Achilles. Because of this, Jason leads Medea in a manner reminiscent of a wedding procession, but, rather than being unveiled to him, she is unveiled to Talos. Because of this, the anakalypsis motif evokes Medea's future marriage to Talos, along with a sense that Jason's actions are leading Medea both to a life with him and more importantly to an afterlife with Achilles. Both of these allusions are undercut by the martial tone of the scene.
As part of her magic ritual, Medea appears to fix Talos with the evil eye (ἐχθοδοποῖσιν | ὄμμασι χαλκείοιο Τάλω ἐμέγηρεν ὀπωπάς, 4.1669–70).Footnote 40 This gesture is one of the clearest social markers of a woman releasing her μίασμα or lust.Footnote 41 Medea's loss of αἰδώς is manifested in her eye-contact, which has been slowly developing through the narrative as Medea directs her gaze at Jason several times while in Colchis (3.287–8, 3.444–6, 3.951–3, 3.1022–5, 3.1066–7).Footnote 42 The removal of the veil during anakalypsis is a sign of the husband's newly granted access to the intimate personal space of his wife. The veil, which can be interpreted as a symbol of a woman's αἰδώς and a barrier preventing the spread of μίασμα,Footnote 43 is removed because there can be no shame in a husband seeing his wife's face after she has come under his protection. In the Talos scene, however, Medea displays no subsequent signs of acquiescence or modesty,Footnote 44 since her eyes are directed at Talos in order to subdue him. Medea asserts her warrior capabilities, and then unveils herself to a symbol of her future husband and proceeds to attack it. This active malicious gesture of viewing also aids the subversion of gender roles which is established in the preceding lines and, moreover, subverts the anakalypsis motif.Footnote 45
The colour of the garment (πορφύρεος) itself may also be significant for the reader's interpretation of the marital subtext in the scene, since it can be used to denote the colour of blood. It is used thus on one occasion in the Iliad (ὣς Αἴας ἐπέτελλε πελώριος, αἵματι δὲ χθὼν | δεύετο πορφυρέῳ ‘Thus mighty Ajax ordered them, and wet the ground with crimson blood’, 17.361–2),Footnote 46 and is glossed by Pseudo-Aristotle as being ‘blood-coloured’ (αἱματίτιδος).Footnote 47 Moreover, it is the colour of the crimson carpet in Aeschylus’ Agamemnon (πορφυρόστρωτος πόρος, 910), which has been interpreted as symbolic of blood.Footnote 48 In the Argonautica, πορφύρεος is the colour of the garment used to lure Apsyrtus to his death (πορφύρεος πέπλος, 4.423–4); moreover, when Apsyrtus dies, he stains Medea's καλύπτρα and πέπλος with his blood (τῆς δὲ καλύπτρην | ἀργυφέην καὶ πέπλον ἀλευομένης ἐρύθηνεν, 4.473–4), thus connecting redness and garments with bloodshed and deception.
Her use of πέπλος in the Talos episode, which may be the one which was stained by Apsyrtus’ blood, should remind the reader immediately of the preceding marital associations and the bloodguilt accrued from Apsyrtus’ murder.Footnote 49 Because the bloodied garments are associated with transferral from paternal to spousal protection, the reader can interpret the blood as symbolic of menstruation, loss of virginity, and childbirth; this may be evoked directly in anakalypsis, since in some accounts a bride's veil would be dyed with saffron.Footnote 50 In the Apsyrtus scene, the stained garments represent the symbolic act of marriage which Jason and Medea carry out. Accordingly, in the Talos episode, the act of anakalypsis is evoked in two ways, first by the veiling gesture that Medea carries out and second by the colour of the garment, which can be read as evocative of the stained garments (or perhaps the very same ones) from the Apsyrtus episode.Footnote 51
4. TALOS BEWITCHED
The destruction of Talos reflects the culminating moments of a series of moments associated with weddings, including the actual wedding-ceremony on Drepane, and in doing so connects Medea's final appearance in the epic to her actions in Euripides’ play, in which she plots the death of Creusa. Her destruction of Talos includes her invoking infernal deities (4.1665–6), along with casting the evil eye on him (4.1669–70) and projecting ‘terrifying visions’ (ἀίδηλα δείκηλα, 4.1671–2). Her actions, as Hunter notes, are similar to her defeat of the dragon at 4.145–73;Footnote 52 here, however, there is far less at stake than the golden fleece and a greater sense of brutality to the act.Footnote 53 Talos’ portrayal in the episode means that his death is laden with pathos and, what is more, that he is unable to retaliate or defend himself. Medea's magic frightens and confounds even the narrator (घεῦ πάτερ, ἦ μέγα δή μοι ἐνὶ φρεσὶ θάμβος ἄηται, | εἰ δὴ μὴ νούσοισι τυπῇσί τε μοῦνον ὄλεθρος | ἀντιάει, καὶ δή τις ἀπόπροθεν ἄμμε χαλέπτει ‘Father Zeus, such great astonishment whirs in my mind, whether harm can affect one person without striking or disease, and how someone can hurt another from afar’, 4.1673–5), confirming how extreme and confounding her actions are. This line also recalls Medea's plans to kill Creusa. At 4.376–85, she claims she could not kill them up close, but would be better to use φάρμακα; her actions in the Argonautica may then be less striking to the reader, because this is her style; she uses her magic to effect violence from afar.
In this culminating moment, the prayers and the songs Medea uses to invoke infernal deities may put the reader in mind of the epithalamium sung at a wedding ceremony. Songs are used in a variety of ritualistic contexts (funerals, weddings, invocations), and the lack of evidence for the nature of epithalamia prevents a clear-cut connection to this episode.Footnote 54 Nevertheless, the whirling Keres may be reminiscent of the whirling wedding-dancers at Il. 18.494 (ἐδίνεον). They are also associated with the Moirai, who appear to have been attendants at weddings (cf. Pind. fr. 30; Ar. Av. 1134; Aesch. PV 894–6; Catull. 64.382–408).Footnote 55 This suggests that similar song-and-dance ritual takes place at a wedding and during a divine invocation such as the one performed here. However, the songs and the prayers performed by Medea are considerably darker, focussed entirely around death and violence. This subverts any comparison to wedding ritual. Medea proceeds towards a man and enacts rituals which evoke marital connotations, but the singing which accompanies it instead reinforces violence and aids Medea's representation as a warrior rather than as a bride.
Following the sequence of allusions to wedding rites, the reader may expect the moment of consummation to follow the procession and the songs. This comes true, since Medea manages, as promised, to subdue Talos (δαμῆναι, 4.1676). Instead of a marital act, Medea performs an attack. Marriage and death, for girls, are closely associated in Greek ritual. Marriage is in some ways the death of a girl, since she transforms from παρθένος to γυνή.Footnote 56 The resulting destruction of Talos is laden with sexual imagery, continuing the motif of warped wedding-imagery.Footnote 57 Her wanton eye-contact suggests that an intimate connection is being set up between the two, as would be the case in anakalypsis. Moreover, her magic causes Talos to scrape his heel on a rock (4.1667–9), and the ἰχώρ to flow out from the wound (ἐκ δέ οἱ ἰχὼρ | τηκομένωι ἴκελος μολίβωι ῥέεν, 4.1679–80).Footnote 58 The use of τήκειν evokes a sexual dimension to this act, since it not only means ‘to melt’ but also has connotations of melting from lovesickness.Footnote 59 In Theoc. Id. 2, Simaetha wishes her love, Delphis, to melt with love for her (ὡς τοῦτον τὸν κηρὸν ἐγὼ σὺν δαίμονι τάκω, | ὣς τάκοιθ´ ὑπ´ ἔρωτος ὁ Μύνδιος αὐτίκα Δέλφις, 2.28–9). In addition, it is the term used of the victims of the Sirens at 4.902 (τηκεδόνι φθινύθουσαι). Here the act of Talos’ ἰχώρ melting has an erotic connotation, which analogizes his destruction with lovesickness. Talos is the defeated maiden, while Medea is the conquering male.
At the very end of the passage, Talos is given a final moment of defeat comparable to an Iliadic warrior. He is likened to a pine tree crashing to the ground, a simile which recalls Iliadic warriors falling like trees (ἀλλ᾽ ὥς τίς τ᾽ ἐν ὄρεσσι πελωρίη ὑψόθι πεύκη … ὧς ὅγε ποσσὶν | ἀκαμάτοις τείως μὲν ἐπισταδὸν ᾐωρεῖτο, | ὕστερον αὖτ᾽ ἀμενηνὸς ἀπείρονι κάππεσε δούπῳ ‘But like a mighty pine, high in the mountains … thus did Talos stand a while in suspense on his unwearied feet, and then, enfeebled, he fell with an immense thud’, 4.1682, 4.1686–8), evoking again the sympathy with which he is depicted at the beginning of the episode.Footnote 60 This may make the reader think again of Achilles, the Iliadic warrior whom Talos, in some respects, represents and who, eventually, will fall in battle after taking a similar wound to the heel (Ov. Met. 12.597–611; Quint. Smyrn. 3.62; Apollod. Epit. 5.4).Footnote 61 The Iliadic simile attempts to portray Talos in a way that sets him up as a worthy opponent to Medea, though it comes too late.
5. CONCLUSIONS
I have aimed in this paper to outline how wedding imagery pervades the final scene in which Medea appears. The passage leaves the reader in no doubt about the power of Medea and the dark future that will result from her marriage to Jason.Footnote 62 The Argonauts’ reaction to her magic goes unmentioned, since the narrator instead interjects directly. There is no sense whether Jason is in awe or in fear of her, which conforms more broadly to Jason's apathy in the face of Medea's skills.Footnote 63 In many respects, Talos represents the other men that Medea will destroy with her magic, including Jason, Creon, Pelias and her two sons. Talos’ guardianship of Europa establishes him as a male guardian figure, and as such Medea's destruction of him represents once and for all Medea's refusal to be governed by a man, a refusal which reflects her earlier abandonment of Apsyrtus and Aeëtes. His connection to Achilles, moreover, reflects the eventual marriage of Medea and Achilles in the afterlife (cf. 4.810–15). Even this allusion, however, is ruined by the fact that she destroys Talos, suggesting that this future relationship will also be a failure.
Her description as πολυφάρμακος is cemented by this being her final epithet (4.1677). Her role as warrior asserts her refusal to conform to gender expectations and symbolizes the combative approach which she will later employ. The abundance of wedding imagery in the scene makes clear that the wedding is a pivotal theme in Medea and Jason's relationship; first through its repeated evocations in the epic, second through the actual wedding, which is imbued with sinister foreshadowing, and through the eventual breakdown of their relationship. Talos’ death parallels Creusa's. Medea attacks from afar, sending drug-smeared πέπλοι as a wedding gift, which kill both Creusa and her father. Therefore, Medea's gesture urges the reader to connect her marriage to future events. This assertion also confirms Medea as the same woman who would rather stand in battle three times than give birth once (ὡς τρὶς ἂν παρ ̓ ἀσπίδα | στῆναι θέλοιμ ̓ ἂν μᾶλλον ἢ τεκεῖν ἅπαξ, Eur. Med. 250–1). Apollonius appears to lend authority to the Euripidean line by giving Medea her moment as a warrior, the experience of which reinforces her claim. Through the motif of wedding imagery, then, the scene is analeptic and proleptic of the marriage and the destruction which come before and after this episode, connecting Medea's roles as love-struck girl and avenging witch, παρθένος and γυνή.
