“How I wish the Argo never had reached t...

“How I wish the Argo never had reached the land

Of Colchis, skimming through the blue Symplegades,

Nor ever had fallen in the glades of Pelion

The smitten fir-tree to furnish oars for the hands

Of heroes who in Pelias’ name attempted

The Golden Fleece! For then my mistress Medea

Would not have sailed for the towers of the land of Iolcus,

Her heart on fire with passionate love for Jason;

Nor would she have persuaded the daughters of Pelias

To kill their father, and now be living here

In Corinth with her husband and children. She gave

Pleasure to the people of her land of exile,

And she herself helped Jason in every way.

This is indeed the greatest salvation of all–

For the wife not to stand apart from the husband.

But now there’s hatred everywhere, Love is diseased.

For, deserting his own children and my mistress,

The daughter of the ruler of this land, Creon.

And poor Medea is slighted, and cries aloud on the

Vows they made to each other, the right hands clasped

In eternal promise. She calls upon the gods to witness

What sort of return Jason has made to her love.

She lies without food and gives herself up to suffering,

Wasting away every moment of the day in tears.

So it has gone since she knew herself slighted by him.

Not stirring an eye, nor moving her face from the ground,

No more than either a rock or surging sea water

She listens when she is given friendly advice.

Except that sometimes she twists back her white neck and

Moans to herself, calling out on her father’s name,

And her land, and her home betrayed when she came away with

A man who now is determined to dishonor her.

Poor creature, she has discovered by her sufferings

What it means to one not to have lost one’s own country.

She has turned from the children and does not like to see them.

I am afraid she may think of some dreadful thing,

For her heart is violent. She will never put up with

The treatment she is getting. I know and fear her

Lest she may sharpen a sword and thrust to the heart,

Stealing into the palace where the bed is made,

Or even kill the king and the new-wedded groom,

And thus bring a greater misfortune on herself.

She’s a strange woman. I know it won’t be easy

To make an enemy of her and come off best.

But here the children come. They have finished playing.

They have no through at all of their mother’s trouble.

Indeed it is not usual for the young to grieve.”

Trans. Rex Warner, The Medea, originally published Bodley Head Limited, 1944. Ed. David Grene and Richard Lattimore, Euripides I. University of Chicago Press, 1955, pp. 59-60.