Medea helped Jason win the Golden Fleece, which was guarded by a fierce dragon. But now he has abandoned her for a "proper" Greek wife. In Ovid's imaginative elegiac rendition of a letter from her to Jason, she lets loose a torrent of angry remonstrance. She gives only a hint here of the terrible magic by which Jason's new wife will soon perish in agony:

...Why did
we of Colchis see the Argo? Why did your Greek crew stoop to drink from the [nearby river] Phasis?
And why did I take so much pleasure
in your golden hair, your fine ways and the lies
that fell so gracefully from your tongue?

Iwas helpless and the sight of you
enflamed me not with the usual flames but
like a knot of pine kindled [on the altar] before
some powerful god. While you were wonderful...