Description of Greece

​For those taking the other road from the marketplace, the one leading to Sicyon, there is to be seen on the right of the road a temple and a bronze statue of Apollo, and a little further on a fountain called Glauce; for into this she threw herself, as they say, thinking that the water would be a cure for the drugs of Medea. Above this fountain has been built what is called the Odeum, and beside it is the monument to the children of Medea. Their names were Mermerus and Pheres, and they are said to have been stoned to death by the Corinthians on account of the gifts which they say they brought to Glauce.

​But because their death was violent and unjust, the young children of the Corinthians were destroyed by them, until, at the command of the oracle, annual sacrifices were established for them and a statue of Terror (Deima) was set up. This indeed still remains even down to our time, being an image of a woman made in a rather terrifying fashion; but since Corinth was laid waste by the Romans and the ancient Corinthians perished, those sacrifices are no longer performed for them by the settlers, nor do their children cut their hair or wear black clothing.

​Medea, however, went at that time to Athens and lived with Aegeus, but afterwards, being detected plotting against Theseus, she fled from Athens also, and coming to the land then called Aria, she gave the people her name, so that they were called Medes after her. The son whom she took with her in her flight to the Arians they say she had by Aegeus, and that his name was Medus; but Hellanicus calls him Polyxenus and says his father was Jason.

​There is also a Greek epic poem called the Naupactia. In this it is represented that Jason, after the death of Pelias, migrated from Iolcus to Corcyra, and that Mermerus, the elder of his sons, was destroyed by a lioness while hunting on the opposite continent; but nothing is added to the memory of Pheres. Cinaethon the Lacedaemonian—for he too wrote genealogies in verse—said that Medeius and a daughter Eriopis were born to Jason by Medea; but beyond this, nothing is written by him either concerning the children.

​Eumelus said that Helios gave the land to Aloeus, namely Asopia, and to Aeetes Ephyraea; and that Aeetes, when going to Colchis, entrusted the land to Bunus, who was the son of Hermes and Alcidameia, and when Bunus died, in this way Epopeus, the son of Aloeus, obtained the rule also over the Ephyraeans. Afterwards, when Corinthus the son of Marathon left no child, the Corinthians sent for Medea from Iolcus and handed over the rule to her.

​So indeed, through her, Jason reigned in Corinth, and children were born to Medea, but as each one was born, she carried it to the temple of Hera and concealed it, concealing them because she believed they would be immortal. But finally she realized that she had failed in her hope, and at the same time she was detected by Jason—for he would not grant her forgiveness when she begged, but sailed away to Iolcus—and for these reasons Medea also departed, handing over the rule to Sisyphus.