Jason, Medea and philosophical investigation

Use in the book

At the end of II.3 the curious disciples of learned Medea seek the sanctuary of mysterious natural philosophy. The phrase dignifies inquiry and distinguishes it from the fraudulent transmutation and painted imposture attacked in the same passage. In II.4.32 the pair organizes two goals: metallic perfection and the recovery of bodily health and youth. The cold aconite of years is a metaphor for age's destructive force, not an ingredient Medea is prescribing.

The narrative remains difficult and uncertain. The philosopher may spend a lifetime in laborious navigation without reaching the port. The bulls and armed men, sleepless dragon, vessel and final fermentation are interpreted as successive problems in the work. The author denies that prepared mercury by itself accomplishes the double effect: the conjunction figured as solar butter and pure wheat remains required. The prose's completed quest distributes the double treasure: riches to Jason and vigorous health to his aged father Æson. Medea's famous power therefore does not cancel the practical insufficiencies and qualifications attached to Jason's quest, nor make every benefit belong to the same recipient.

Sonnet IX turns Jason into the culminating figure of acquired health, riches, happiness, honour and glory. Experience assures him of living better than he dared expect; his disdain of misery and defiance of death are encomiastic language. They must be read beside the explicit mortality retained in Book III, not as a reversal of it. The final rhetorical question returns to the book's advertised philosophical good rather than furnishing a literal record of an immortal historical adept.

Places to read

1. Book Two · Chapter 3 · Unit 36Learned enchantress emblematizes chymical inquiry, not literal instructions from Medea.
2. Book Two · Chapter 4 · Unit 18The watchful dragon embodies ceaseless active movement before its later interpreted sleep.
3. Book Two · Chapter 4 · Unit 32The interpreted pair organizes two philosophical goals: metallic transmutation and bodily restoration.
4. Book Two · Chapter 4 · Unit 33The interpreted fiery bulls and reported vessel failures give substance to the quest’s difficulties.
5. Book Two · Chapter 4 · Unit 34Final fermentation is necessary; the prepared subject alone cannot accomplish the twofold outcome.
6. Book Three · Unit 12The explicit denial of bodily immortality controls the closing sonnet’s heroic defiance of death.
7. Sonnet 9 · Unit 1The closing rhetorical question gives Jason as the figure of gained health, riches and the title’s threefold fulfilment.

Translation

The translation presents “Medea means” as the author's own interpretation and “Jason, who is the investigator or philosopher” as his explicit gloss. Sonnet IX's experiment is translated as experience, appropriately avoiding an unsupported suggestion of a modern controlled trial. Its artist is a practitioner, not specifically a fine artist.

Attested forms

Medee; curieux disciples; Medée veut dire cogitation, meditation, ou investigation; Jason (qui est l’inquisiteur ou Philosophe); Jason; bien tant desiré; l'experiment; Desdaignant la misere; bravant le trespas; Egal aux demidieux; Medée; cogitation; meditation; investigation; Æson