First Episode  (214-409)

Enter Medea.

Medea
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 ill 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 city.
And even a native: I do not approve of one who out of obstinacy
is galling to the citizens through insensitivity.
But for me this unexpected disaster 225
has wrecked my life. I am cast 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 man alive, 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
over our body: this evil even more galling than the first.
Here is the most challenging contest, whether we will get a bad 235
or a good one. Besides, divorce is unsavory
for a woman and it is not possible to say no to one’s husband.
And when she comes into new customs and rules
a woman must be a prophet, of what she never learns at home:
how best to deal with her marriage partner; 240
and if we work it out well and a husband shares
our life with us, who does not bear the yoke with violence,
life is to be envied. Otherwise we are better off dead.
But the man, when he is bored with things at home
he can go out to ease the weariness of his heart. 245
But we have just one person to look to.
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, no brother, no relative
to offer me a safe haven from this disaster.
So much then 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 father of the bride and the bride herself] (1)
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.

Chorus
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.

Creon
You there with the scowl on your face, in a rage against your husband,
Medea, I command you to leave this land,
taking your two children with you.
Do not delay. I am judge and jury (2) of this sentence of banishment
and I will not go back home again 275
until I have cast you outside the borders of my country.

Medea
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 will ask why. 280
Why are you banishing me from 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.

Medea
This is not the first time, Creon, but over and over again,
people’s opinion has injured me and done me great harm.
A man who has full use of his faculties should not
educate his children in any special skills; 295
apart from the reputation they get for being unproductive,
they reap the enmity of the citizens.
If you introduce clever innovations to the incompetent
you will seem unproductive and hardly skilled at all;
if people in the city think you are better than those who imagine 300
themselves ingenious you irritate them.
And I share in this fate myself:
because I have skills, I suffer the envy of some,(3)
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.
Now I do not begrudge you your good fortune.
Give your daughter in marriage, prosper; but let me live
in this land. I have been wronged,
but I will keep quiet, defeated by my betters. 315

Creon
Your words are cajoling to my ears, but inside my heart
I am afraid you are forming some new evil plan,(4)
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. No more arguments.
The matter is settled and you do not have the skill
to stay here among us, being an enemy to me.

Medea
No, please, at your knees (5) I beg you in the name of the new bride.

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

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

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

Medea
O homeland, how deeply now I remember you.

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

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

Creon
That, I think, is according to circumstances.

Medea
Oh Zeus, never forget who is responsible for this.

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

Medea
I am in trouble and have no lack of toils.

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

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

Creon
Apparently you are going to make a scene, madam.

Medea
I will go into exile. It was not for that that I supplicated you.

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

Medea
Just one day. Let me stay for one day 340
to 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 are a father, too.. You have a child
and it’s natural for you to feel kindly toward them. 345
I’m not concerned for myself, if I have to go into exile,
but I weep for them suffering misfortune.

Creon
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 I will grant you this. But I warn you
if the coming light of the sun will find 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.](6)

Chorus
Unhappy woman,
Ah, ah, unhappy for your miseries.
Where will you turn? To what host for shelter?
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.

Medea
Things have gone wrong at every turn. Who can 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
So far so good.
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. Let me 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.
Step 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.

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