person
Medea
also: Medeae, Medeam
The Colchian sorceress of Greek myth; here the title-role of Ennius's tragedy Medea Exul, which Cicero quotes and 'plays' (Medeam agere) in Fam. 7.6 to tease Trebatius about leaving home for profit abroad. Mythological/literary figure, not a historical person.
Reading notes
- Ad Familiares 7.6 §1 as the matrons of Corinth excused Medea
Cicero quotes the opening of Ennius's tragedy Medea Exul (itself adapted from Euripides), where the Corinthian women address the exiled Medea. He casts himself as Medea and Trebatius as the reluctant traveller, pressing the moral that men prosper away from home.
- Ad Familiares 7.6 §2 since I have begun to play Medea
Cicero keeps up the theatrical conceit, closing with another line of the Ennian Medea: 'he who, being wise, cannot help his own self, is wise to no purpose' --- a jibe at the learned jurist who cannot manage his own career.
- Tusculan Disputations §4.69 This love of Medea
Medea, who out of love for Jason betrayed her father and later murdered her children. Cicero cites her as the type of the conflagration of miseries kindled by erotic passion.