Medeae Daemones

Medea’s two children are two demons who occupied the witch’s mind, who invoked them from the abyss, and helped her to save her beloved Jason. In exchange, she had promised them to finally give them birth in human bodies. These two spirits constantly speak to her, but she is the only one who can hear their voice. Jason’s decision to leave Medea for Creusa, the daughter of Creon, king of Corinth, subverts the witch’s plans. Medea is desperate; she would stay in Corinth to win Jason back, and makes up a pregnancy in order to persuade Creon to permit her to stay. Meanwhile, the news arrives that Creusa is pregnant, and this generates in Creon the idea of a proposal of political and military alliance between Creusa’s future sons and Medea’s (who do not exist, but he is unaware of it), with expansionist aims towards Colchis, the witch’s native country. The same event generates in the demons the decision to occupy the princess’ foetuses, bypassing the problem of the separation between Medea and Jason. Medea, horrified by this perspective, performs an exorcism on herself and imprisons the demons in a dress: but neither she, who tries to imprison them, nor they, who try to free themselves, take some particulars into account.