MEDEA

And how did I choose it? Did I betray my husband?

JASON

YOU called down wicked curses on the king’s family.

MEDEA

A curse, that is what I am become to your house too.

JASON

I do not propose to go into all the rest of it;

But, if you wish for the children or for yourself

In exile to have some of my money to help you,

Say so, for I am prepared to give with open hand,

Or to provide you with introductions to my friends

Who will treat you well. You are a fool if you do not

Accept this. Cease your anger and you will profit.

MEDEA

I shall never accept the favors of friends of yours,

Nor take a thing from you, so you need not offer it.

There is no benefit in the gifts of a bad man.

JASON

Then, in any case, I call the gods to witness that

I wish to help you and the children in every way,

But you refuse what is good for you. Obstinately

You push away your friends. You are sure to suffer for it.

MEDEA

GO! NO doubt you hanker for your virginal bride,

And are guilty of lingering too long out of her house.

Enjoy your wedding. But perhaps—with the help of God—

You will make the kind of marriage that you will regret.

(Jason goes out with his attendants.)

CHORUS

When love is in excess

It brings a man no honor

Nor any worthiness.

But if in moderation Cypris comes,

There is no other power at all so gracious.

O goddess, never on me let loose the unerring

Shaft of your bow in the poison of desire.

Let my heart be wise.

It is the god’s best gift.

On me let mighty Cypris

Inflict no wordy wars or restless anger

To urge my passion to a different love.

But with discernment may she guide women’s weddings,

Honoring most what is peaceful in the bed.

O country and home,

Never, never may I be without you,

Living the hopeless life,

Hard to pass through and painful,

Most pitiable of all.

Let death first lay me low and death

Free me from this daylight.

There is no sorrow above

The loss of a native land.

I have seen it myself,

Do not tell of a secondhand story.

Neither city nor friend

Pitied you when you suffered

The worst of sufferings.

O let him die ungraced whose heart

Will not reward his friends,

Who cannot open an honest mind

No friend will he be of mine.

(Enter Aegeus, king of Athens, an old friend of Medea.)

AEGEUS

Medea, greeting! This is the best introduction

Of which men know for conversation between friends.

MEDEA

Greeting to you too, Aegeus, son of King Pandion.

Where have you come from to visit this country’s soil?

AEGEUS

I have just left the ancient oracle of Phoebus.

MEDEA

And why did you go to earths prophetic center?

AEGEUS

I went to inquire how children might be born to me.