Myth & LegendGreek → English
Medea
/mɪˈdiːə/noun
The sorceress of Greek myth who helped Jason win the Golden Fleece, and a given name.
The Greek roots
μήδομαι
mḗdomai
to plan, contrive
Literally: “the one who plans”
Follow a root:μήδομαι1 word
The story of the word
The name is built on μήδομαι, to contrive, so it announces cunning before the story begins. She is Helios' granddaughter and the only reason Jason survives Colchis; Euripides' play of 431 BC gave her the murder of her own children, which may have been his own stroke rather than the older tradition. The same element sits in Diomedes, Ganymede and Andromeda, and Latin medeor, to heal, is thought to come from the same Indo-European root of taking the right measures.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
Same family
DiomedesGanymedeAndromeda
In a sentence
The company staged Medea in a bare concrete room and cut the chorus to three voices.