JAS. Ye females, who stand near this mansion, is she who hath done these
deeds of horror, Medea, in this house; or hath she withdrawn herself in
flight? For now it is necessary for her either to be hidden beneath the
earth, or to raise her winged body into the vast expanse of air, if she
would not suffer vengeance from the king's house. Does she trust that after
having slain the princes of this land, she shall herself escape from this
house with impunity?--But I have not such care for her as for my children;
for they whom she has injured will punish her. But I came to preserve my
children's life, lest [Creon's] relations by birth do any injury,[42]
avenging the impious murder perpetrated by their mother.
CHOR. Unhappy man! thou knowest not at what misery thou hast arrived,
Jason, or else thou wouldest not have uttered these words.
JAS. What is this, did she wish to slay me also?
CHOR. Thy children are dead by their mother's hand.
JAS. Alas me! What wilt thou say? how hast thou killed me, woman!
CHOR. Think now of thy sons as no longer living.
JAS. Where did she slay them, within or without the house?
CHOR. Open those doors, and thou wilt see the slaughter of thy sons.
JAS. Undo the bars, as quick as possible, attendants; unloose the hinges,
that I may see this double evil, my sons slain, and may punish her.
MED. Why dost thou shake and unbolt these gates, seeking the dead and me
who did the deed. Cease from this labor; but if thou wantest aught with me,
speak if thou wishest any thing; but never shall thou touch me with thy
hands; such a chariot the sun my father's father gives me, a defense from
the hostile hand.[43]
JAS. O thou abomination! thou most detested woman, both by the Gods and by
me, and by all the race of man; who hast dared to plunge the sword in thine
own children, thou who bore them, and hast destroyed me childless. And
having done this thou beholdest both the sun and the earth, having dared a
most impious deed. Mayest thou perish! but I am now wise, not being so then
when I brought thee from thy house and from a foreign land to a Grecian
habitation, a great pest, traitress to thy father and the land that
nurtured thee. But the Gods have sent thy evil genius on me. For having
slain thy brother at the altar, thou embarkedst on board the gallant vessel
Argo. Thou begannest indeed with such deeds as these; and being wedded to
me, and bearing me children, thou hast destroyed them on account of another
bed and marriage. There is not one Grecian woman who would have dared a
deed like this, in preference to whom at least, I thought worthy to wed
thee, an alliance hateful and destructive to me, a lioness, no woman,
having a nature more savage than the Tuscan Scylla. But I can not gall thy
heart with ten thousand reproaches, such shameless confidence is implanted
in thee. Go, thou worker of ill, and stained with the blood of thy
children. But for me it remains to bewail my fate, who shall neither enjoy
my new nuptials, nor shall I have it in my power to address while alive my
sons whom I begot and educated, but I have lost them.
MED. Surely I could make long reply to these words, if the Sire Jupiter did
not know what treatment thou receivedst from me, and what thou didst in
return; but you were mistaken, when you expected, having dishonored my bed,
to lead a life of pleasure, mocking me, and so was the princess, and so was
Creon, who proposed the match to thee, when he expected to drive me from
this land with impunity. Wherefore, if thou wilt, call me lioness, and
Scylla who dwelt in the Tuscan plain. For thy heart, as is right, I have
wounded.
JAS. And thou thyself grievest at least, and art a sharer in these ills.
MED. Be assured of that; but this lessens[44] the grief, that thou canst
not mock me.
JAS. My children, what a wicked mother have ye found!
MED. My sons, how did ye perish by your father's fault!
JAS. Nevertheless my hand slew them not.
MED. But injury, and thy new nuptials.
JAS. And on account of thy bed didst thou think fit to slay them?
MED. Dost thou deem this a slight evil to a woman?
JAS. Whoever at least is modest; but in thee is every ill.
MED. These are no longer living, for this will gall thee.
JAS. These are living, alas me! avenging furies on thy head.
MED. The Gods know who began the injury.
JAS. They know indeed thy execrable mind.
Meo. Thou art hateful to me, and I detest thy bitter speech.
JAS. And I in sooth thine; the separation at least is without pain.
MED. How then? what shall I do? for I also am very desirous.
JAS. Suffer me, I beg, to bury and mourn over these dead bodies.
MED. Never indeed; since I will bury them with this hand bearing them to
the shrine of Juno, the Goddess guardian of the citadel, that no one of my
enemies may insult them, tearing up their graves. But in this land of
Sisyphus will I institute in addition to this a solemn festival and
sacrifices hereafter to expiate this unhallowed murder. But I myself will
go to the land of Erectheus, to dwell with Ægeus son of Pandion. But thou,
wretch, as is fit, shalt die wretchedly, struck on thy head with a relic of
thy ship Argo, having seen the bitter end of my marriage.
JAS. But may the Fury of the children, and Justice the avenger of murder,
destroy thee.
MED. But what God or Deity hears thee, thou perjured man, and traitor to
the rights of hospitality?
JAS. Ah! thou abominable woman, and murderer of thy children.
MED. Go to thy home, and bury thy wife.
JAS. I go, even deprived of both my children.