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.
- It may, but thou wilt be the saddest wife alive.
- No matter; wasted is every word that comes ’twixt now and then.
- (To the Nurse.) Ho! thou, go call me Jason hither, for thee I do employ on every mission of trust. No word divulge of all my purpose, as thou art to thy mistress loyal and likewise of my sex.
- Sons of Erechtheus, heroes happy from of yore,
- children of the blessed gods, fed on wisdom’s glorious food in a holy land ne’er pillaged by its foes, ye who move with sprightly step through a climate ever bright
- and clear, where, as legend tells, the Muses nine, Pieria’s holy maids, were brought to birth by Harmonia with the golden hair;
- and poets sing how Cypris drawing water from the streams of fair-flowing Cephissus breathes[*](Reading χώρας with Reiske. The passage is corrupt, and possibly some word is lost.) o’er the land a gentle breeze
- of balmy winds, and ever as she crowns her tresses with a garland of sweet rose-buds sends forth the Loves to sit by wisdom’s side,
- to take a part in every excellence.
- How then shall the city of sacred streams, the land that welcomes those it loves, receive thee, the murderess of thy children,
- thee whose presence with others is a pollution? Think on the murder of thy children, consider the bloody deed thou takest on thee. Nay, by thy knees we, one and all, implore thee,
- slay not thy babes.
- Where[*](Of the numerous emendations of this corrupt passage, Nauck’s τέκνυν for τέκνοις is the simplest, if it goes far enough. Verrall suggests that a word has fallen out after the second ἢ and conjectures μένος of τέχναν. This is not less satisfactory than most of the emendations.) shall hand or heart find hardihood enough in wreaking such a fearsome deed upon thy sons?
- How wilt thou look upon thy babes, and still without a tear retain thy bloody purpose? Thou canst not, when they fall at thy feet for mercy, steel thy heart and dip
- in their blood thy hand.
- I am come at thy bidding, for e’en though thy hate for me is bitter thou shalt not fail in this small boon, but I will hear what new request thou hast to make of me, lady.
- Jason, I crave thy pardon
- for the words I spoke, and well thou mayest brook my burst of passion, for ere now we twain have shared much love. For I have reasoned with my soul and railed upon me thus, Ah! poor heart 1 why am I thus distraught, why so angered ’gainst all good advice,
- why have I come to hate the rulers of the land, my husband too, who does the best for me he can, in wedding with a princess and rearing for my children noble brothers? Shall I not cease to fret? What possesses me, when heaven its best doth offer?
- Have I not my children to consider? do I forget that we are fugitives, in need of friends? When I had thought all this I saw how foolish I had been, how senselessly enraged. So now I do commend thee and think thee most wise in forming