JASON, MEDEA, AND THE ARGONAUTS 585
Figure 24.2. Map of the World According to the Ideas of Hecataeus of Miletus (ca. 500
B.c.). The River of Ocean is assumed to run around the edge of the inhabited world, which
is divided into Europe and Asia. (© Laszlo Kubinyi, 1994.)¥
1 shall bury them with my hand, carrying them into the sanctuary of Hera Akraia
[Hera of the Acropolis], so that none of my enemies can violate them by dig-
ging up their graves. And I shall impose upon this land of Sisyphus [Corinth]
a solemn feast and ritual for the future, in return for this impious murder.
The death of the children of Jason and Medea therefore was a central fea-
ture in the original myth.
Another variant, however, named Creon as king of Corinth and the enemy
of Medea, who killed him and left her children in the sanctuary of Hera when
she fled to Athens. They were killed by Creon's family, who said that Medea
had killed them. This version was the foundation of Euripides' powerful drama,