Episode I (214-409)

Enter Medea from the house.

Women of Corinth, I have come out of the house,

so that you will not hold anything against me. I know that many people 215

are standoffish, some in private

and others out in the open. Some because of a retiring disposition

have acquired bad repute for indifference.

There is no justice in the eyes of men,

if anyone, before knowing a person inside out, 220

hates him on sight, though never wronged by him.

A stranger in particular must conform to the ways of the city.

And even a native: I do not approve of one who out of self-will

is galling to the citizens through insensitivity.

But for me this unexpected disaster 225

has wrecked my life. I am adrift, and giving up

all pleasure in life I long to die, my friends.

The man who was everything to me, try to understand,

has turned out to be the vilest of men, my own husband.

Of all the creatures who have life and reason 230

we women are the sorriest lot,

who first must at a great expenditure of money

buy a husband and take on a master

of our body: this evil even more galling than the first.

Here is the greatest contest, whether we will get a bad 235

or a good one. And divorce is unsavory

for a woman and it is not possible to say no to one’s husband.

And coming into new customs and rules

she must be a prophet, never learning at home

how best to deal with her marriage partner, 240

and if we work it out right and a husband shares

our life with us, not bearing the yoke with violence,

life is to be envied. Otherwise we are better off dead.

But the man, when he is bored with his home life

he can go out to ease the weariness of his heart. 245

But we have to look to just one person.

They say that we live a life free of danger

at home while they face battle with the spear.

How wrong they are. I would rather stand three times 250

in the line of battle than once bear a child.

But the same story does not apply to you and me.

You have this city and your father’s home,

enjoyment of life and the companionship of friends,

but, alone and without a city, I am abused 255

by my husband, carried off as booty from a foreign land,

I have no mother, not brother, no relative

to offer me a safe haven from this disaster.

So much I would like to receive from you:

if some way or means should be found 260

to make my husband pay for this abuse

[and the man who gave him his daughter and the bride herself]

to keep it silent. For a woman in other things is full of fear

and a coward when it comes to looking on deeds of valor and the sword

but when she is wronged in her marriage 265

there is no heart more bloodthirsty.

I will do this. It is right that your husband should pay,

Medea. I am not surprised that you grieve over your loss..

But I see Creon, the king of this country,

coming, a messenger of some new proclamation. 270

Creon enters along one of the parodoi with an entourage of his henchmen.

Do not delay. I am judge and jury² of this sentence

and I will not go back home again 275

until I have cast you outside the borders of my country.

Oh no! I am ruined, in my sorrow ... desperate!

My enemies are letting out the full sail

and there is no clear landing place from ruin.

But still, though I am in dire straits, I must ask why. 280

Why are you banishing me for this country, Creon?

Creon:

I am afraid of you —no need to cover up my reasons—

in case you do some irreparable harm to my daughter.

Many factors contribute to my dread:

You are by nature clever and skilled in many evils, 285

and you are grieved because your husband has been taken from you.

I hear that you are making threats: this is the news they bring me,

against the father of the bride, the bridegroom, and the bride

to do us some hurt. I shall take precautions against these things.

It is better to suffer your hatred, madam, 290

than to be soft now and regret it later.

Not now for the first time, but over and over again, Creon,

people’s opinion has injured me and done great harm.

A man who has full use of his faculties should not

educate his children in any special skills; 295

for apart from the reputation for being unproductive,

they reap hostility from the citizens.

If you introduce clever innovations to the inept

you will seem profitless and hardly skilled at all;

if you are thought better in the city than those who think 300

they know something shrewd you will be irksome.

And I share in this fate myself:

because I have skills, I suffer the envy of some,

[to others I’m unassuming and to others of the other sort]

and to others I am a rival; but I am not so very wise. 305

And then you are afraid of me. What harm can you suffer from me?

It is not in my power —don’t be afraid of me, Creon—

to do wrong to the royal family.

What wrong have you done me? You married your

daughter to the man you chose for her. But my husband, 310

I do hate him. You, I think, have acted with good sense in this.

And now I do not begrudge you your good fortune.

Give your daughter in marriage, prosper; but let me live

in this land. Though wronged,

I will be silent, defeated by my betters. 315

I am afraid you are forming some evil new plan,³

So much the less, then, do I trust you than before.

For a quick-tempered woman —the same goes for a man—

is easier to guard against than a silent clever one. 320

But you must leave at once, speak no more.

This is settled and you do not have the skill

to stay here among us, being an enemy to me.

No, please, at your knees⁴ I beg you in the name of the new bride.

You are wasting words. You will never get your way. 325

But will you drive me away and not respect my prayers?

Yes, because I do not love you more than my own family.

O homeland, how deeply now I remember you.

Yes, after my children, it is by far the dearest thing to me.

Aah, aah, mortal affections, how great an affliction they are! 330

That, I think, is according to circumstances.

Oh Zeus, let it not escape you who is responsible for this.

Go, you foolish woman, and relieve me of my troubles.

I am in trouble and have no shortage of toils.

Soon you will be forced out by the hands of my guard. 335

Not that, I beg you, Creon....

It is clear that you are going to make a scene, madam.

I will go into exile. That is not why I supplicated you.

Why then are you trying to force me and will not let go of my hand?

Just one day. Let me stay for one day 340

and make plans how we will manage in exile,

and find resources for my children, since their father

does not put his children’s welfare first.

Pity them. You, too, are a father. You have a child

and it’s right for you to feel kindly toward them. 345

For myself I do not care, if I have to go into exile,

but I weep for them suffering misfortune.

My nature is not at all tyrannical,

and on many occasions in showing respect I have suffered for it

and even now I see that I am making a mistake, madam, 350

but still you may have this. But I warn you

if the coming light of the sun will see you

and your children within the borders of this country

you will die. This is my final word; it will not be taken back. —

[Now, if stay you must, stay for one day. 355

you can not do any dreadful deed of which I am in terror.]

Unhappy woman,

Ah, ah, unhappy for your miseries.

Where will you turn? To what sheltering host?

Or what home or land will you find 360

to rescue you from shipwreck?

How god has brought you, Medea, into an

impassable surge of woes.

Things have gone wrong at every turn. Who will deny it?

But this is not how it will be. Don’t ever think it. 365

There are still struggles for the newly-weds

and for their kin no small troubles.

Do you think that I would ever have fawned on him

if not in the hope of gain and with some scheme in mind?

I would not have spoken to him or touched his hands. 370

He has reached such a state of folly,

that though he could have destroyed all my plans

by forcing me out of the country, he has allowed me to remain

this one day, in which I will turn three of my enemies into

corpses, the father, the daughter, and my husband. 375

I have many routes to death for them;

I do not know which to try first, my friends.

Whether I should set the bridal chamber on fire

or thrust a whetted sword through the liver

in silence entering the house where the bed is laid. 380

But one thing is in the way: if I am caught

entering the house in secret and carrying out my scheme,

I will die and become a laughing stock to my enemies.

Best the straight route in which I am

most skilled—to take them off with poisons. 385

Very well.

And then they are dead. What city will take me in?

What friend abroad will offer me asylum

and a secure home and save my life?

There is none. I will wait a short time

in case some tower of strength be revealed to me 390

and then with deceit and in silence proceed to the murder.

But if I am driven by resourceless misfortune

I will myself take the sword—even if I must die—

and kill them—I will go to such a degree of daring.

No! By the mistress I worship 395

most of all and have chosen as my helpmate,

Hecate, dwelling in the inmost recesses of my hearth,

no one will bruise and batter my heart and get away with it.

I will make their marriage bitter and painful,

bitter the royal connection and my exile from this land. 400

But come. Spare nothing of what you know,

Medea, planning and scheming.

Go now over the edge. This is a contest for heroes.

You see what you suffer. You must not be a laughing stock

to these sons of Sisyphus and this marriage of Jason, 405

you who are born of a noble father, son of the Sun god.

But you know that. And besides we are

women most helpless for the good,

but skilled craftsmen of all that is evil.