Medea
Euripides
Euripides. The Plays of Euripides, Translated into English Prose from the Text of Paley. Vol. I. Coleridge, Edward P., translator. London: George Bell and Sons, 1906.
- yea, and without shrinking I will say that they amongst men who pretend to wisdom and expend deep thought on words do incur a serious charge of folly; for amongst mortals no man is happy; wealth may pour in and make
- one luckier than another, but none can happy be.
- This day the deity, it seems, will mass on Jason, as he well deserves, a heavy load of evils. Woe is thee, daughter of Creon! We pity thy sad fate, gone as thou art to Hades’ halls
- as the price of thy marriage with Jason.
- My friends, I am resolved upon the deed; at once will I slay my children and then leave this land, without delaying long enough to hand them over to some more savage hand to butcher.
- Needs must they die in any case; and since they must, I will slay them—I, the mother that bare them. O heart of mine, steel thyself! Why do I hesitate to do the awful deed that must be done? Come, take the sword, thou wretched hand of mine!
- Take it, and advance to the post whence starts thy life of sorrow! Away with cowardice! Give not one thought to thy babes, how dear they are or how thou art their mother This one brief day forget thy children dear, and after that lament; for though thou wilt slay them yet
- they were thy darlings still, and[*](The construction is intentionally irregular. Her emotion prevents a grammatical completion of the sentence.) am a lady of sorrows.
- O earth, O sun whose beam illumines all, look, look upon this lost woman, ere she stretch forth, her murderous hand upon her sons for blood;
- for lo! these are scions of thy own golden seed, and the blood of gods is in danger of being shed by man. O light, from Zeus proceeding, stay her, hold her hand, forth from the house
- chase this fell bloody fiend by demons led.
- Vainly wasted were the throes thy children cost thee; vainly hast thou born, it seems, sweet babes, O thou who hast left behind thee that passage through the blue Symplegades, that strangers justly hate.
- Ah! hapless one, why doth fierce anger thy soul assail? Why[*](This use of ἀμείβεται is so unusual that the passage is open to grave suspicion. The three following lines are extremely confused and probably corrupt. Weil proposes ἐπέγειρεν for ἐπὶ γαῖαν; var. lect. for ξυνῳδὰ is ξύνοιδα.) in its place is fell murder growing up? For grievous unto mortal men are pollutions that come of kindred blood poured on the earth,
- woes to suit each crime hurled from heaven on the murderer’s house.
- Ah
- Didst hear, didst hear the children’s cry? O lady, born to sorrow, victim of an evil fate!
- (within). Ah, me; what can I do? Whither fly to escape my mother’s blows?
- (within). I know not, sweet brother mine; we are undone.
- Shall I enter the house? For the children’s sake I am resolved to ward off the murder.
- (within). Yea, by heaven I adjure you; help, your aid is needed.
- (within). Even now the toils of the sword are closing round us.
- O hapless mother, surely thou hast a heart of stone or steel