Parodos
(131-213)The chorus enters singing. (1)
Chorus
I heard a sound, I heard a cry
of the unhappy Colchian woman, not yet
gentled. But, old woman,
tell us. For at my doorway I heard a cry 135
from inside this house. And I was sorry for the troubles
of the family, since it is dear to me.Nurse
There is no more house. It’s all gone.
Royal sheets have taken him 140
but she weeps away her life,
my mistress, taking no comfort
in the words of her loved ones.Medea
Aah! <Oh Zeus and Earth and Light>
Hurl your fiery bolt of lightening straight through
my skull. What use is life to me?145
Aah, aah. Let me die and leave
this life I hate.Chorus
— Did you hear? "Oh Zeus and Earth and Light"
what a cry the unhappy
bride intones. 150
— why this futile longing
for the bed you have lost?
It will carry you to an early grave.
Do not pray for that.
— If your husband155
honors a new bed
that is his affair. Do not fret.
— Zeus will set this right. Do not weep
so much, grieving for your lost husband.Medea
O great Themis and Lady Artemis,160
do you see what I suffer, though I bound him
with mighty oaths, that perjurer,
my husband? I wish I could see him and his bride
ground down to nothing, house and all,
who have dared to wrong me first.165
O father, o city from which I am parted
after killing my brother without a qualm.Nurse
Do you hear what she is saying and crying out
to Themis invoked in prayer and Zeus, who is
by custom the caretaker of oaths for mortal men?170
There is no way that my mistress will
satisfy her anger in anything small.Chorus
Is there any way you could get her to come out into our sight
to hear the sound of our words spoken in comfort?175
If only she would somehow put aside
her deeply felt anger and distemper,
I am eager to help my friends.
But [you] go in and bring her here180
out of the house. Repeat our words spoken from the heart.
Hurry before she hurts anyone inside.
Her grief is stirred up to such a pitch.Nurse
I will do that but I am afraid I will not persuade
my mistress.
Still I do not begrudge you the effort.185
Yet it’s the look of a lioness who has just given birth
that she glares at the servants —or like a bull— when anyone
ventures near her, bringing a word of solace.
You would not be wrong in saying they were fools, not wise at all,190
those men of earlier times who
invented songs for festivals,
feasts, and dinner parties
joyful sounds full of life.
But no one has found a way with music on the lyre with all its strings195
to stop the hateful torments people suffer
from which deaths and terrible fates bring down our homes.
And yet it would help us all to be able to cure sadness with songs.
Where there are bounteous dinners why lift the voice pointlessly?200
The fullness of the feast on the table
has delight enough in itself for most of us.Chorus
I heard the sound of laments, full of sadness;
she cries shrill sad sounds of mourning 205
at the betrayer of her marriage-bed, her evil husband.
For the injustice she suffers, she invokes
Themis keeper of oaths, daughter of Zeus,
who brought her
into Greece across the way210
over the sea by night
upon the key of the ocean hard to cross.