Brey Willows

It is by going down into the abyss that we recover the treasures of life. Where you stumble, there lies your treasure.

Joseph Campbell

When I began my doctorate in 2013, I thought I was prepared. I was excited, proud, and anticipating putting that big D R in front of my name.

I was not prepared.

And it took me to lows I’d never experienced before and haven’t been to since. Two years in, I became a statistic: another of the 50% of people who don’t finish the program. So the book I was writing and had done SO much research on languished in a drawer, a reminder of a failure and a particularly dark part of my life.

Fast forward to 2022. I’ve waded back in and finished the book. It was just as alive, maybe more so, as it had been a decade earlier. Medea sat with me as I traveled beside her in ancient Greece, facing monsters, gods, men, and expectations with fury and fervor. I can see them still, and I was sad to leave the characters at the end of our journey together.

Medea is a complex character in Greek myth. The story of Jason and the Argonauts is one of the very earliest Greek myths–it came about centuries before Homer’s Odyssey. Medea was there from the start. There are many versions of the Argonaut myth, and Medea’s place in the story is never a small one. Her story continues after Jason stops sailing, and Eurpides picked up on the versions of her story in order to write the play, Medea.

That dark play fascinated me. She’s the only character in Greek myth to get away with murder. Repeatedly. And I wanted to understand that story.

So I went to Greece.

I walked ancient paths up long, steep mountains that led to ancient, crumbled temples where elements of her story throughout the ages took place. I could feel her there, I could see the dramas playing out, and I could feel the gods in a way that we can’t anymore. There was magic in those dry, heat baked places. In many ways, I found and lost myself in those places.

And so, here she is. I hope you enjoy getting to know her the way I did.