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. It may, but thou wilt be the saddest wife alive.
Medea
  1. No matter; wasted is every word that comes ’twixt now and then.
  2. (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.
Chorus
  1. Sons of Erechtheus, heroes happy from of yore,
  2. 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
  3. and clear,
    where, as legend tells, the Muses nine, Pieria’s holy maids, were brought to birth by Harmonia with the golden hair;
Chorus
  1. 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
  2. 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,
  3. to take a part in every excellence.
Chorus
  1. How then shall the city of sacred streams, the land that welcomes those it loves, receive thee, the murderess of thy children,
  2. 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,
  3. slay not thy babes.
Chorus
  1. 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?
  2. 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
  3. in their blood thy hand.
Jason
  1. 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.
Medea
  1. Jason, I crave thy pardon
  2. 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,
  3. 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?
  4. 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
  5. this connexion for us; but I was mad, I who should have shared in these designs, helped on thy plans, and lent my aid to bring about the match, only too pleased to wait upon thy bride. But what we are, we are, we women, evil I will not say;
  6. wherefore thou shouldst not sink to our sorry level nor with our weapons meet our childishness.