Robert GRAVES, The golden fleece, 1944, reprint Hutchinson, 1984, pp.262-264

Les neveux de Médée - les 4 fils de Chalciope, soeur de Médée - donnent 
à Jason des renseignements sur leur tante:

As soon as he could make himself heard, Phrontis, son of Phrixus, 
spoke. "Medea is famous for her beauty; but she has never yet fallen 
in love with anyone, so far as I know."

"No," his brother Melanion said, "she never has fallen in love; I am 
sure of that. Once I spoke with her at length about Greece. She told 
me that she had never felt herself at home among the dark-skinned 
Colchians, and also that she hated her mother's savage race. But she 
hoped that perhaps one day she might visit Greece, which she believed 
to be a very beautiful and progressive country."

Cytissorus, the third brother, chimed in: "She is a strange woman, 
in whose presence it is difficult to keep one's equanimity: sometimes 
she behaves like a sweet-tempered child, sometimes like the terrible 
Mother herself when she dances in ecstasy on her heap of skulls. 

Our sister Neaera adores Medea, who told her not long ago that no woman 
of good sense or dignity ever allows herself to be overcome by love of 
a man, and that men are the inferior sex. 

This has greatly unsettled Neaera's mind, for she is in love with one of 
the Taurian priests and does not wish Medea to think ill of her. Yet I cannot 
complain that Medea has ever treated me badly. She was most gracious to me 
just before we sailed for Greece and gave me a bag of rare medicines, 
which unfortunately went down with our ship. She begged me to act 
prudently at Corinthian Ephyra when I enquired about her father's 
inheritance there: I was to say nothing at all that would offend the 
religious feelings of the inhabitants. She told me, by the way, that if 
anything were to happen to her father, she would willingly resign her 
share in the Colchian inheritance to her brother Apsyrtus, but only on 
condition that he gave up his share in the Corinthian inheritance; and 
that Apsyrtus and she had indeed concluded a private treaty in this sense.

Here the fourth brother, Argeus, took on the tale. "It seems that our 
grandfather Aeëtes left Greece under a cloud at about the same time 
as his sister Circe also sailed away, and put his Corinthian lands under 
the stewardship of one Bunus, an Ionian. and his people under the 
regency of his nephew Sisyphus of Asopia. Then came the Achaean invasion; 
Bunus was killed in battle at the gate of Ephyra, and Sisyphus 
died in slavery, and now (so we hear) the Achaeans claim the whole 
kingdom of Corinth as their own. Creon rules in Asopia, and a governor 
of Ephyra appointed by King Sthenelus of Mycenae styles himself 
Corinthus to establish a sort of hereditary title to it. Yet, notwithstanding, 
Medea has hopes of recovering her father's inheritance; I 
understand that it has been promised her by the Mother in a dream. 
Now that Apsyrtus has resigned his claim, she stands the nearest in
succession - nearer than us, as being the child of Aeëtes, whereas we 
are only his grandchildren - except for her aunt Circe, who can never 
return to Ephyra because the Oracle of Asopus sentenced her long 
ago to perpetual banishment for some nameless crime."

Jason asked: "Why is Medea not already married? Has she never had suitors? 
Does her dislike of men perhaps conceal some incapacity or deformity?"

Argeus answered: "Many powerful chieftains of Colchis have wished 
to marry her, not for her beauty and wealth only, but for the peculiar 
favours that the Bird-headed Mother has shown her. But she has persuaded 
her father that any such alliance would breed jealousy among 
the rejected suitors, and that, if she marries, she must marry a foreigner. 

I do not believe that she is either deformed or incapable of 
passion; but she has often told Neaera that virginity endows a woman 
with extraordinary powers in witchcraft and medicine. Wild beasts or 
serpents have no power to hurt a virgin and she can safely pluck 
leaves and dig roots that it is death for men or their wives to touch."

"That is true," said Atalanta. "It is the gift of the Goddess Artemis." 
"Medea attributes it to Brimo," said Argeus, "but perhaps these are 
different names for the same aspect of the Ineffable One. Medea is the 
most skilful physician and witch in the whole kingdom."

Jason stroked his short, downy beard meditatively. "She appears to 
be the very woman for our purpose," he said. "Myself, I am not afraid 
of witches. Cheiron the Centaur taught me an infallible charm against 
them. She is beautiful, you say, and not very old, though she is your 
aunt? But `beautiful' to a Colchian may not be `beautiful' to a Greek. 

I hope that she has not black, kinky hair, flat feet, and inverted shins like 
your brother Melanion? I could never bring myself to kiss a woman 
of that sort"

"Oh, no!" Melanion answered, grinning. "Her mother was a white 
Taurian, not a Colchian. Medea has a round chin, yellow ringlets of 
hair (like those for which her aunt Circe was famous in her girlhood -
they are as yellow as mountain cassidony), voluptuous lips, amber-coloured 
eyes, a slightly hooked nose, and the neatest ankles in Colchis. 
Her age is about four-and-twenty."

"That is very well," said Jason. "I have always preferred mature 
women to girls. Now, comrades, to sleep. I wish you all propitious 
dreams. Our comrade Atalanta has pointed the path for our feet to tread."