Mistress, your children are pardoned from exile

and the royal bride happily took the gifts

in her hands. There is peace from that quarter for your children.

Ah!

Why do you stand in confusion when the news is good? 1005

[Why have you turned away your face

and do not gladly accept this word from me?]

Aah! Aah!

That is not in tune with my message.

Aah! Aah! yet again.

Have I announced a misfortune

I was not aware of, and been cheated of my hope of being a bearer of good news? 1010

You have told what you had to tell. I do not blame you.

Why then is your face downcast and why are you crying?

It has to be, old man. For the gods and I...

yes, I with faulty reasoning have devised these things.

Cheer up. You too will come home with your children’s help. 1015

I will send others home before that, unhappy woman that I am.

You are not the only woman to be separated from her children.

As humans we must lightly bear misfortunes.

I will do that. But go into the house

and prepare for the children what they need for today. 1020

Oh children, children, you have a city

and a home in which, after leaving me to my misery,

you will live forever deprived of a mother.

And I will go to another land, a refugee,

before enjoying you and seeing you happy 1025

before adorning your nuptial bath and bride

and marriage bed and holding up the wedding torch.

Oh how my own daring has wrecked my life.

A waste my care for you, dear children!

A waste the toils which wore me down, 1030

when I endured the hard useless pangs of childbirth.

Truly once, sad as I am now, I had high hopes

in you, that you would care for me in my old age

and when I died, with your own hands would tend me,

something we humans crave. But now it’s all gone, 1035

my sweet expectation. For without you

I will live a life of sorrow, painful to me.

And you with your dear eyes will no longer

look at your mother, when you have gone away to another life.

Aah. Why do you stare at me with your eyes, children? 1040

Why do you smile that very last smile?

Aah, aah! What will I do? My heart is not in it,

women, when I look at the gleaming eyes of my children.

I could not do it. Goodbye, my plans

of before. I shall take my children with me. 1045

Why should I, to wound their father by hurting them,

have twice as many woes myself?

I will not do it. Goodbye, my plans.

But what is the matter with me? Do I want to be

a laughing stock, letting my enemies go unpunished? 1050

These things must be endured. Oh for my cowardice,

that I let soft words enter my heart.

Go, children, into the house. Whoever

is not permitted to partake of my sacrifice

stay way. I shall not let my hand grow slack. 1055

Ah Ah.

Do not, oh my heart, do not do these things.

Leave them, oh unhappy woman, spare your children.

Living there with me they will delight you.

No! By the avengers down in Hades!

There is no way that I will leave my children 1060

to be abused by my enemies.

[They must die. And since they must,

I will kill them who gave them birth.]

The plan is underway and she will not escape.

On her head is the crown, dressed in the robes, 1065

the royal bride is dying; I am certain of it.

But I shall set out upon a most sorrowful road

and I shall send them on one more sorrowful still.

I want to speak to my children. Give me, children,

give your mother your right hand to kiss. 1070

Oh dearest hand, dearest mouth,

and form and noble face of my children,

I want you to be happy, but there. Your father has ruined

everything here. Oh sweet embrace

Oh soft skin and lovely breath of my children. 1075

Go, go on. I am no longer able to look

at you. I am overcome by evils.

I understand what evils I am about to do

but my wrath is stronger even that my plans

which is the cause of the greatest wrongs for humankind. 1080

Often now

I have gone through the more subtle stories

and I have entered greater disputes

than is suitable for the feminine gender to investigate.

But we have a Muse too 1085

who associates with us for the sake of wisdom.

Not with all of us, for small indeed

is the number you would find among many,

not unmused of womankind.

And I say those of mortals who are 1090

altogether inexperienced and have not had

children, excel in happiness

those who are parents.

For the childless through inexperience

whether children turn out 1095

sweet for humans or a misery

are free of many troubles.

But those who have in their houses the

sweet growth of children—I see them

worn down by care all the time, 1100

first how they will bring them up right

and how they will leave a livelihood for their children.

But still beyond this whether their toil

is spent on worthless or good ones

is unclear.

But one misfortune—last of all 1105

for all mortals—I have to say it:

yes, suppose they have found sufficient living

and the children have grown up to adulthood

and they have turned out good. If fate

should have it so, gone to Hades 1110

is Death carrying the bodies of the children.

How then does it profit, in addition to the other woes

that the gods cast upon mortals,

to have to bear this bitterest grief

for the sake of children? 1115

My friends, I have been waiting a long time,

expecting news of how events are progressing there.

And now I see one of Jason’s servants coming

this way. His agitated breathing

shows that he is the messenger of a new disaster. 1120

Oh, Medea, you have perpetrated a terrible,

criminal act! You must flee, flee at once.

Take ship or chariot, but go.

What happened that I need to take off in this way?

The royal princess is dead just now 1125

and Creon her father through your poisons.

That’s wonderful news. You will have my eternal

gratitude and I will call you my friend forever.

What are you saying? Have you gone mad, woman?

You have destroyed the royal household, 1130

and are glad to hear it with no fear of the consequences?

I too have something to say in answer

to your words. But do not rush off, my friend,

tell your tale. How did they die? You will delight me

twice as much if they died horrible deaths. 1135

When your two children came in

with their father, and went to the bridal chambers

we slaves were glad; before we had been troubled

by your wrongs. From ear to ear at once talk spread

that you and your husband had called a truce to your earlier quarrel. 1140

One kisses the hand, another the blond head

of the children. And I myself out of joy

followed along to the women’s quarters with the children.

And our mistress, whom we pay respects to now instead of you,

before she caught sight of your two children 1145

kept her eyes fixed eagerly on Jason.

But then she covered up her face

and turned away her pale cheek,

sickened by the approach of the children. But your husband

was trying to soothe the rage and venom of the young woman 1150

by telling her this: "Do not be angry at my family.

Won’t you put an end to your rage and turn back your face,

thinking your husband’s loved ones are your own,

and take the gifts and ask your father to revoke

the sentence of exile from my children, for my sake?" 1155

And she, when she saw the fine garments, did not resist

but agreed with her husband in everything, and

before father and children were far from the house,

picking up the fine robe she put it on

and she placed the golden crown around her curls 1160

and arranged her hair in a shimmering mirror,

smiling at the lifeless image of her figure.

And then she gets up from her chair and walks

through the room, stepping lightly on her delicate feet

overjoyed with the gifts, again and again 1165

casting an eye upon her arched foot.

But then there came a terrible sight to see:

the color drains from her face; her step unsteady, she tries

to go back, limbs trembling, and she barely manages

to stumble into her seat and avoid falling on the ground. 1170

Then an old woman, one of her slaves, thinking a fit

from Pan or one of the gods had seized her,

let out a wail, before she saw white foam

streaming from her mouth and from her eyes

the pupils turned back; and the blood was drained from her skin. 1175

Then there came a terrible cry in answer

to the wail. At once one slave ran to her father’s

rooms, another to her new husband,

to inform them of what was happening to the bride.

The whole house reverberated with the sound of running feet. 1180

And by now a quick walker turning the last lap

of the course would be reaching his goal.

And the poor woman stirred from her silence

and with a deep groan was trying to get up.

But a twofold trouble was warring against her: 1185

the crown of gold around her head

was spewing out an eerie stream of all-consuming fire,

and the fine robes, gifts of your children,

were eating away the poor girl’s beautiful flesh.

She stands up and tries to escape, but she is on fire. 1190

She shakes her head this way and that,

trying to throw off the crown, but firmly

the gold holds its bonds; and the fire—when she shook

her head—burned twice as bright.

Overcome by the disaster she falls to the floor, 1195

unrecognizable at sight except to her parent.

For the condition of her eyes and her once lovely face

were not clear, and blood dripped

from the top of her head mingled with fire,

and the flesh was dropping from her bones like resin 1200

from a pine, through the hidden gnawing of the poisons,

a terrible sight. We were all afraid to touch

the body. For we had her fate to teach us.

But her poor father in ignorance of the tragedy

suddenly bursts into the room and throws himself on the body. 1205

He cries out and enfolding her in his hands

he kisses her and speaks to her," My poor child,

which of the gods has mangled you so horribly?

Who has turned me into an aged tomb, to grieve for you.

Ah me let me die with you, my child." 1210

And when he stopped his weeping and wailing

he wanted to raise his old body

but was held back by the fine robes like ivy

by the shoots of laurel. The struggle was hair-raising.

He wanted to get up on his feet 1215

but she held him fast. When he tried to use force

she tore the aged flesh from his bones.

After a time he was exhausted and the poor man

let go of life. For he was not strong enough to fight the disaster.

They lie dead together, child and aged father 1220

beside her. A tragedy that makes you want to cry.

In my view your part is beyond my telling.

You will know an escape from punishment.

Not for the first time I find our lives are a shadow,

and I am not afraid to say that people who think 1225

they have everything figured out and are masters of logic

—they are liable to the greatest folly.

No human being is happy.

Strike it rich and you are luckier

than your neighbor—but happy, never. 1230

The god has inflicted many troubles

on Jason today and he deserves them.

Oh unhappy daughter of Creon, done to death,

how we pity you for your tragedy,

all because of your marriage to Jason. 1235

My friends. I have determined to do the deed at once,

to kill my children and leave this land,

and not by delaying to give over my children

to another more hostile hand to murder.

They must die and since they must 1240

I will kill them who brought them into the world.

But arm yourself, my heart. Why hesitate

to do these terrible, but yet necessary, evils?

Come, oh unhappy hand of mine, take the sword

take it, move to the mournful turning point of life. 1245

Do not be a coward. Do not think of your children

how much you love them, how you gave them birth.

For this one short day forget your children,

and then mourn. For even if you will kill them

still they were dear to you. I am an unhappy woman. 1250