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Medea was a mythological ancient Greek sorceress, a priestess of Hecate, and a murderer. But her name has nothing to do with the modern meaning and usage of the word ‘media’. Being the plural of ‘medium’, it’s highly appropriate you are reading this article here, on the Medium platform, across the media that comprise the internet.
Etymologists have posited that the term originates with the mysterious Medes people who lived in the Media region straddling the eastern and western territories of what are now Europe and Asia. Thus, it was a channel of communication between many cultures. They were ‘in the middle’ and the Persian word māda-, meaning ‘middle’, gave rise to the words maidiia- in old Iranian, méso in ancient Greek, and medium in Latin. I have also read that the Medes people were, possibly, the first society to place public notices in more than one language to disseminate information among their multicultural traders — a public medium, hence the origin of the term and meaning of ‘media’. Though this is difficult to corroborate conclusively as no writing of the Medes has been ever been found. What little we know of them comes from accounts written by other cultures contemporary with their later eras, such as the…
