Son of Jason and Medea at Corinth, named in Pausanias' account of the tomb above the Well of Glauce — one of the two boys the Corinthians stoned to death because of Medea's gifts to Glauce, while Apollodorus also knows a tradition that Medea herself killed the children when she fled.1
Apollodorus names him Mermerus, one of the sons Medea bore Jason at Corinth, and records the fork in their fate: she may have killed Mermerus and his brother Pheres herself when she fled on Helios' dragon chariot, or left them still infants as suppliants on the altar of Hera of the Height, where the Corinthians removed and wounded them to death.2⚖
Hyginus makes Mermerus and Pheres the messengers of Medea's vengeance: they carry her drugged golden crown to Creusa — Hyginus' name for the bride — and when Creusa takes it she, Jason, and Creon are burned together before Medea slays both boys with her own hand.3⚖
Pausanias saw their memorial at Corinth: above the Well of Glauce, where the bride threw herself hoping to cure Medea's poison, stands what is called the tomb of Medea's children. Their names were Mermerus and Pheres, and they were stoned to death by the Corinthians because of the gifts Medea sent to Glauce; until Roman times the city still offered them sacrifices, and Corinthian children cut their hair and wore black for them.4⚖
Pausanias also cites Eumelus' older Corinthian tale: Jason was king at Corinth through Medea, and she carried each newborn to Hera's sanctuary and concealed the child there, believing they would become immortal — until Jason detected her and refused pardon, sailing away to Iolcus while she too departed.5
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the spine ignites as you read · hover a bond on the card — every mention of them lights in the story