“This is not the first occasion that I h...

“This is not the first occasion that I have noticed

How hopeless it is to deal with a stubborn temper.

For, with reasonable submission to our ruler’s will,

You might have lived in this land and kept your home.

As it is you are going to be exiled for your loose speaking.

Not that I mind myself. You are free to continue

Telling everyone that Jason is a worthless man.

But as to your talk about the king, consider

Yourself most lucky that exile is your punishment.

I, for my part, have always tried to calm you down

The anger of the king, and wished you to remain.

But you will not give up your folly, continually

Speaking ill of him, and so you are going to be banished.

All the same, and in spite of your conduct, I’ll not desert

My friends, but have come to make some provision for you,

So that you and the children may not be penniless

Or in need of anything in exile. Certainly

Exile brings many troubles with it. And even

If you hate me, I cannot think badly of you.”

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. 73-74.