Old Blooded Murder: Medea and the
Morality of Rejuvenation in the Metamorphoses

Corinne E. Shirley (Indiana University, Bloomington)

This paper places Medea’s rejuvenation of Aeson and murder of Pelias within the context of Augustan imagery and argues that in these episodes Ovid attempts to sever the association of youth with pietas which the emperor promoted in images of himself and his family.[1]       

The undermining of the link between youth and pietas begins when Jason discovers his elderly father is near death. Jason asks Medea if she can extend Aeson’s life by cutting some years off his own (7.164-168). Though this request is motivated by genuine pietas, Medea labels it a crime. She offers to rejuvenate Aeson instead, insisting that this would be an even greater gift (7.171-178). In so doing, she begins to shift the definition of pietas: no longer a desire to save the life of a parent, it becomes simply an intolerance of a parent’s age.

The absence of the dutiful hero from the rest of the story coupled with Medea’s reliance on magic to achieve Aeson’s transformation assure that the reader will not perceive pietas in Medea’s actions nor in the rejuvenated Aeson. Furthermore, for the Roman reader accustomed to an ageless representation of an aged emperor, Aeson’s metamorphosis would cast doubt on the implication of these images. The transformation removes Aeson’s wrinkles, leanness, and gray hair; in other words, precisely those elements present on the emperor’s body but missing on his portrait. However, Aeson emerges from his rejuvenation with unbelieving amazement, not the inscrutable dignity this classically youthful appearance was intended to convey (7.288-293).

Ovid then mocks the popularity of this aesthetic. First Bacchus wants to apply the same magic to his nurses; then the gullible daughters of Pelias decide their father should be rejuvenated, after they see Medea transform a ram into a lamb (7.294-321). Notably, the nurses, the ram, and Pelias are not said to be near death; they are simply old. Clearly, the principle has been taken too far, but the final undercutting of the link between youth and pietas occurs when Medea persuades Pelias’s daughters to kill their own father.

Medea’s rhetorical strategy relies on closely linking pietas with the daughters’ desire to see their father made young again. In Medea’s words, youth and life are parallel, equal goals, and it is the duty of the daughters to expel the old age of their father. Loyal children would not allow their father to remain old and any hesitation Medea calls cowardice (7.332-338). The success of this strategy is also its failure. When the daughters stab their father’s body, they sever any lingering connection between youth and pietas by so vividly illustrating the immorality and foolishness of youth.[2]