Medea recap

After Jason leaves Medea to marry the daughter of Creon, king of Corinth, Creon orders Medea and her children into exile. Medea wins one day's delay and secures future sanctuary in Athens from King Aegeus. She pretends to accept Jason's marriage, then sends their sons to the princess with poisoned gifts. The princess dies, and Creon is killed when he clings to her poisoned body. Medea completes her revenge by killing her own sons, despite her anguish and the Chorus's horror. When Jason comes to save or avenge them, Medea is already beyond his reach in a chariot associated with her divine ancestor Helios. She takes the children's bodies with her and departs for Athens, leaving Jason stripped of his new marriage, his heirs, and any power to answer what she has done.

Jason has abandoned Medea, the foreign princess who helped him win the Golden Fleece and fled to Greece with him, in order to marry the daughter of Creon, king of Corinth. Fearing Medea's anger and intelligence, Creon banishes her and her sons. She persuades him to allow one final day, then begins constructing revenge. Jason defends his new marriage as an advantage for the family, but Medea rejects his claim that ambition excuses betrayal. Aegeus, king of Athens, later promises her sanctuary after she offers help with his childlessness. With escape secured, Medea pretends to reconcile with Jason. She sends their sons to his bride carrying a poisoned robe and crown. The gifts kill the princess, and Creon dies while holding her body. Medea then turns against the last part of Jason's future: after a prolonged struggle with her own love for the boys, she kills both sons inside the house. Jason arrives too late. Medea appears with their bodies in a chariot from Helios and denies Jason even the right to bury them. She leaves for Athens, while Jason remains in Corinth mourning the complete destruction of his household.

Medea sends her sons to Jason's new bride with a robe and a crown treated with poison. The gifts kill the princess, and Creon also dies when he embraces his daughter's body. Medea then kills her two sons inside the house, choosing to inflict the deepest possible loss on Jason even though she grieves for the children herself. Jason arrives too late to save them or punish her. Medea appears above the house in a chariot provided by her divine ancestor Helios, holding the children's bodies beyond Jason's reach. She refuses to let him bury them and says she will establish rites in their memory before going to the refuge Aegeus promised her in Athens. Jason condemns her and mourns the destruction of his family, while Medea makes him confront his betrayal as the cause from which her revenge grew. She escapes Corinth, leaving Jason alive but without his bride, his children, or the future he meant the royal marriage to secure.