Medea is a melodrama in one act with five scenes by Bohemian composer Georg Benda with a German libretto by Friedrich Wilhelm Gotter.

[1] Medea is considered to be one of Benda's best works and the composition had a significant impact on other composers of the late 18th century by popularizing the emerging genre of melodrama.

Among those inspired by the work are Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

Mozart in a letter to his father dated November 12, 1778 wrote, "The piece I saw was Benda’s Medea.

Mozart’s imagination was much fired by Benda’s new vehicle for dramatic expression, and in 1778 he wrote to his father with the greatest enthusiasm about a project for composing a duodrama on the model of Benda’s Ariadne auf Naxos and Medea, both of which he considered excellent.