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. What took thee on thy travels to the prophetic centre of the earth?
Aegeus
  1. The wish to ask how I might raise up seed unto myself.
Medea
  1. Pray tell me, hast thou till now dragged on a childless life?
Aegeus
  1. I have no child owing to the visitation of some god.
Medea
  1. Hast thou a wife, or hast thou never known the married state?
Aegeus
  1. I have a wife joined to me in wedlock’s bond.
Medea
  1. What said Phoebus to thee as to children?
Aegeus
  1. Words too subtle for man to comprehend.
Medea
  1. Surely I may learn the god’s answer?
Aegeus
  1. Most assuredly, for it is just thy subtle wit it needs.
Medea
  1. What said the god? speak, if I may hear it.
Aegeus
  1. He bade me not loose the wineskin’s pendent neck.[*](i.e., enjoined strict chastity.)
Medea
  1. Till when? what must thou do first, what country visit?
Aegeus
  1. Till I to my native home return.
Medea
  1. What object hast thou in sailing to this land?
Aegeus
  1. O’er Troezen’s realm is Pittheus king.
Medea
  1. Pelops’ son, a man devout they say.
Aegeus
  1. To him I fain would impart the oracle of the god.
Medea
  1. The man is shrewd and versed in such-like lore.
Aegeus
  1. Aye, and to me the dearest of all my warrior friends.