Unchanged by any teller — how the centuries since have seen Apsyrtus.
The gallery
Plaque with Medea's Murder of Absyrtus
Martin Didier Pape, c. 1570–1580
Limoges enamel (Walters Art Museum): Medea kills her brother Absyrtus so she and Jason can escape — the Colchian prince as the cost of the Golden Fleece flight.
Medea Kills Her Brother Absyrtus
Ludovico Carracci, c. 1584
Carracci's Palazzo Fava frieze freezes the murder: Medea turns on Absyrtus — Aeëtes' son cut down so the Argo can outrun Colchian pursuit.
Absyrtus' Limbs Presented to His Father
René Boyvin (after Léonard Thiry), 1563
Mannerist engraving (MET): Absyrtus' dismembered limbs returned to Aeëtes — the brother's body used as a delaying trail for the Colchian fleet.
Escape of Jason with Medea and the Death of Absyrtus
Unknown, 15th–16th century
Early woodcut of the Argonaut escape: Absyrtus dies as Medea flees with Jason — the brother whose murder stains the fleece's afterstory.
Medea and Absyrtus (Four Seasons Mosaic, Antioch)
Unknown (Roman mosaic), 2nd–3rd century
Antioch mosaic panel (Antakya Museum): Medea and Absyrtus named in tesserae — the Colchian siblings fixed in a Roman floor narrative of the Argonaut saga.
In play
Argonautica
Apollonius of Rhodes
Apollonius places Absyrtus' death at the escape from Colchis — the brother Medea betrays so Jason can keep the fleece and outrun Aeëtes.
Absyrtus
Son of Aeëtes, brother of Medea — slain and (in many tellings) dismembered so the Argonauts can escape Colchis.