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.

  1. Give up to me those dead, to bury and lament
Medea
  1. No, never! I will bury them myself, bearing them to Hera’s sacred field, who watches o’er the Cape,
  2. that none of their foes may insult them by pulling down their tombs; and in this land of Sisyphus I will ordain hereafter a solemn feast and mystic rites to atone for this impious murder. Myself will now to the land of Erechtheus,
  3. to dwell with Aegeus, Pandion’s son. But thou, as well thou mayest, shalt die a caitiff’s death, thy head[*](Legend told how Jason was slain by a beam falling on him as he lay asleep under the shadow of his ship Argo.) crushed ’neath a shattered relic of Argo, when thou hast seen the bitter ending of my marriage.
Jason
  1. The curse of our sons’ avenging spirit and of Justice,
  2. that calls for blood, be on thee!
Medea
  1. What god or power divine hears thee, breaker of oaths and every law of hospitality?
Jason
  1. Fie upon thee! cursed witch! child-murderess!
Medea
  1. To thy house! go, bury thy wife.
Jason
  1. I go, bereft of both my sons.
Medea
  1. Thy grief is yet to come; wait till old age is with thee too.
Jason
  1. O my dear, dear children!
Medea
  1. Dear to their mother, not to thee.
Jason
  1. And yet thou didst slay them?
Medea
  1. Yea, to vex thy heart.
Jason
  1. One last fond kiss, ah me!
  2. I fain would on their lips imprint.
Medea
  1. Embraces now, and fond farewells for them; but then a cold repulse!
Jason
  1. By heaven I do adjure thee, let me touch their tender skin.
Medea
  1. No, no! in vain this word has sped its flight.