Fair-cheeked daughter of Ocean whom Aeetes, king of Colchis and son of Helios, took to wife by the will of the gods — and by her he begot neat-ankled Medea, the witch who would flee with Jason and the Golden Fleece.1
Hesiod closes the Sun-born house with her marriage: Perseis daughter of Ocean bore Circe and Aeetes to Helios, and Aeetes in turn wedded Idyia, daughter of Ocean the perfect stream; through golden Aphrodite she was subject to him in love and bore neat-ankled Medea — the only child the Theogony names in this Colchian line.2
Apollodorus knows her only as the mother behind the witch: when Jason came to Aeetes for the fleece and won it through Medea's drugs and counsel, the king learned what his daughter had done and pursued the Argo — while Medea, fleeing with Jason, would cast her brother Apsyrtus limb from limb into the deep for Aeetes to gather.3
Apollonius makes her the Oceanid ancestress of Medea's power: the maiden who loved Jason is daughter of Aeetes and Idyia, and Hecate's priestess draws her craft from that eastern house at the river Phasis.4
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the spine ignites as you read · hover a bond on the card — every mention of them lights in the story