Second Episode (446-626)

This is not the first time, but over and over again, I have seen

what a futile evil is the truculent temper.

It was possible for you to stay in this country and keep your home

by patiently putting up with the determinations of your betters,

but for the sake of empty words you are exiled from the country. 450

It makes no difference to me: never let up

saying that Jason is the vilest man alive.

But for what you have said against the royal family

consider yourself lucky to be punished with exile.

I was constantly trying to assuage the passions 455

of the rulers in their anger and I wanted you to stay.

But you could not control your folly, never letting up on your abuse

of the royal family. That is why you are exiled from this land.

Still, in spite of this I have not come to renounce

my loved ones, but looking out for your good, woman, 460

so that you will not go into exile with the children in need

or lacking anything. Exile brings many problems

in its wake. And even if you hate me

I could never think ill of you.

Oh you utterly vile...this is the worst charge I have 465

to say for your total lack of manliness.

You have come to me, you have come being most hateful

[to the gods and to me and to the whole human race]?

This is not boldness; this is not courage,

to abuse your loved ones and look them in the face, 470

but the greatest of all human diseases

shamelessness. Still you have done me a favor in coming.

I will lighten my grief by reviling you

and you will feel the sting in hearing it.

I will begin to speak from the beginning. 475

I saved your skin, as all the Greeks know

who boarded the Argo with you,

when you were sent to master the fire-breathing bulls

with yokes and to sow the deadly field;

and the dragon which guarded the golden fleece 480

and, sleepless, protected it with its many coils,

I killed it and held up for you the light of safety.

As for me, after betraying my father and my home,

I came to Iolcus near Pelion

with you, more eager than smart. 485

Then I killed Pelias, so that he would die most tragically

at the hands of his own children and I confounded their whole house.

And you, after receiving this from me, you most vile of men,

you have betrayed me, and you have taken a new marriage,

though you already have children. If you were childless 490

it would be excusable for you to have a craving for another marriage bed.

Gone is the faith of oaths. I cannot understand

whether you believe the old gods no longer are in power

or that new covenants are established for men today,

since you must know that you have not kept your oath to me. 495

Aah, right hand how fervently you were taken

and these knees how futilely clung to in supplication

by an evil man. But I have lost my hopes.

Come. I will share with you as if you were a friend.

What will I get out of it? 500

Still... under questioning you will appear more shameless.

Now where will I turn? To my father’s house

which I betrayed for you along with my native land, when I came here?

Or to the unhappy daughters of Pelias? They would be happy

to take me in after I murdered their father. 505

This is how it is. I have made myself an enemy

to my loved ones at home, whom I should not have

hurt; in helping you I have enemies.

And for this you have made me an object of admiration

among the women of Greece: I have in you a wonderful 510

husband and faithful to me— oh, the pity of it

if I must go into exile, cast out of the country

without friends, a lonely mother with two lonely children,

a fine reproach to the new bridegroom

that your children are homeless beggars, with the woman who saved your life. 515

Oh Zeus! Why have you given us a clear test

of gold to tell which is counterfeit

but of men —where to identify an evil one is a must—

there is no such mark on his body?

Terrible is the rage and hard to heal 520

when loved ones join in strife with loved ones.

I must, it seems, not be a weak orator

but like the skillful captain of a ship

reefing my sails, outrun

the blasts of your tongue-lashing, woman. 525

And I, since you make such a mountain of it,

I think that Kupris, god of love, was the savior

of my expedition, and she alone of gods and men.

You have a subtle mind, and it would be tedious

to go through the whole story, how with his inescapable arrows 530

Love compelled you to save me.

Still, I will not put too fine a point on it.

However much you may have benefitted me, all well and good.

But you certainly got more out of saving me

than you put in, as I will demonstrate. 535

First you make your home in Greece instead of

an alien land and you experience justice

and the rule of laws, not merely force.

All the Greeks are aware that you are a wise woman

and you are famous. But if you still lived 540

at the ends of the earth no one would know your story.

Let me not have gold in my home;

let me not have a song to sing sweeter than Orpheus’

if my fate should be insignificant.

This much I had to say about my labors. 545

For you are the one who turned our debate into a contest.

But the reproaches you heap on my royal marriage,

in this I will show first that I am wise

and then prudent and then a great benefactor to you

and my children. Let me finish. 550

When I arrived here from the land of Iolcus

dragging with me many useless encumbrances,

what luckier opportunity could I have found

than, though a refugee, to marry the king’s daughter?

It is not the thing that is eating you, because I hated my marriage to you 555

and was smitten by desire of my new bride,

and not because I had a craving for many children

—the ones I have are enough and I am satisfied with them—

but so that —and this is important— we might live well

and not be in need. I am well aware that 560

even a friend shuns a poor man and stays out of his way.

so that we could live well. What need have you of children?9 565

It benefits me to help the living children

with future offspring. Have I made bad plans?

You would not say so if the marriage bed did not gnaw at you.

But you have reached such a point, you women,

that if your marriage is in good order you think you 570

have it all, but if anything goes wrong in your marriage

the best and finest things you count

as the opposite. There should be some other way

for men to produce children. Women would not have to exist at all.

And then there would be no more troubles for mankind. 575

Jason, you have given a very effective speech.

But still to me —even if I speak out against my custom—

you seem, in abandoning your wife, not to be doing the right thing.

In many ways I am different from most people.

For in my estimation anyone who is dishonest 580

but speaks well deserves the greatest censure.

In his confidence that he can conceal his injustice in speech,

he has the heart for any wrong. But he is not so very clever.

And you, then, do not try your specious argument

on me. For one word will lay you flat: 585

you should, if you were not vile, have made this marriage

only after convincing me, and not in secret from your loved ones.

Yes of course you would have been a fine confederate in this plan,

if I had told you of the marriage, when even now you do not

have the courage to put aside the great anger in your heart. 590

That is not what stopped you, but your foreign marriage

was not turning out illustrious enough for you as you approach old age.

Be assured of this: it was not because of the woman

that I made the marriage into the royal family which I now have,

but just as I said before, wanting to give you 595

security and to father royal brothers

for my children, a support for my house.

May I not have a prosperous life that is painful to me

nor wealth that gnaws at my heart.

Do you know how to change your prayer and appear wiser? 600

Pray that good things should never seem painful to you

and being well off not to think that you are suffering misfortune.

Carry on with your abuse, since you have a way out,

but I, abandoned, am exiled from this country.

It is your own choice. Don’t blame anyone else. 605

And what did I do? Get married and abandon you?

You disrespectfully uttered curses against the royal house.

Yes, I really am a curse to your house.

I will not carry on this quarrel any longer.

But if you want to receive any help 610

from my money for the children or your own exile

say so. I am ready to be generous to you

and to send letters to friends abroad who will take care of you.

And you are a fool, if you refuse my offer, woman.

Putting aside your venom you might get somewhere. 615

We will not be making use of your friends;

I would not take anything from you; don’t give me anything.

The gift of a bad man brings no pleasure.

I call the gods to witness

that I want to help you and the children in every way I can. 620

My kindness is not enough for you, but through self-will

you push your friends away. You just hurt yourself more.

Go. Desire for your new bride overcomes you

if you spend too much time away from the house.

Go on with your marriage. Perhaps with gods’ help it will be said 625

you make such a marriage that you will renounce it.

9. Children belonged to the man. In case of a divorce it was usual (almost universal) for the children to go with the father. The exile of Jason’s children, then, is strange and suggests that it is not only Medea whom Creon wants out of the way, but the children as well, because they are a reminder to him and his daughter that Jason is a married man. Jason does not need any more children by Medea. After he failed to regain his kingdom at the demise of Pelias, his only hope for royal status is through sons by the princess. Since Greek marriage was for the purpose of the birth of legitimate sons, by saying to Medea "What need have you for children?" Jason is denying her any value at all. The question, posed by some scholars, of the legitimacy of Medea’s children is, in my opinion, a red herring. First, neither Jason nor Medea is a citizen. Next, the laws of fifth-century Athens (according to which only children with citizen parents on both sides could be enrolled as citizens) cannot be imposed upon heroic age Corinth. Furthermore, many heroes are of mixed and illegitimate parentage, including Theseus (Athens’ national hero), who will be the product of Aegeus’ liaison with Pittheus’ daughter, on his way home to Athens, after he leaves Medea. And finally, Jason admits, "The [children] I have are enough and I am satisfied with them" (558). Return to Medea