Third Episode (663-823)
.Aigeus, king of Athens, enters with royal entourage
Aigeus
Medea, hello. For no one knows a better way
than this to address friends and wish them well.
Medea
Oh, hello to you too, Aigeus, son of Pandion 665
the wise. What brings you to this country?
Aigeus
I have just come from the time-honored oracle of Phoebus Apollo.
Medea
And why did you visit the oracular navel of the world. (1)
Aigeus
To ask how I might have a child.
Medea
Good gods, are you still childless at your time of life 670
Aigeus
Yes, we are childless, through an affliction of some deity.
Medea
Do you have a wife or do you keep a celibate bed?
Aigeus
I share my bed with my wife.
Medea
What then did Phoebus tell you about children?
Aigeus
Words wiser than a man can understand. 675
Medea
Is it allowed for me to know the god’s oracle?
Aigeus
Oh yes, since it needs a wise mind.
Medea
What then did the oracle respond? Tell me if I am allowed to hear.
Aigeus
Not to loose the projecting foot of my wine sack...
Medea
Until after you do what? Or reach what country? 680
Aigeus
Until I come again to my own home.
Medea
Why then are you journeying to this land?
Aigeus
There is a man named Pittheus, king of Trozen...
Medea
The son, they say, of Pelops, a most god-fearing man.
Aigeus
I want to communicate the god’s oracle to him. 685
Medea
Yes, for he is a wise man and skilled in such things.
Aigeus
And he is, besides, the most friendly of my allies.
Medea
May you fare well, and gain your heart’s desire.
Aigeus
But why do I see your face and complexion so wasted?
Medea
Aigeus, my husband is the world’s most wicked man. 690
Aigeus
What are you saying? Tell me clearly of your despondency.
Medea
Jason wrongs me though I have done nothing to him.
Aigeus
What has he done? Tell me everything.
Medea
He has taken a new wife, to be mistress of his house over me.
Aigeus
He would not have dare such a disgraceful act. 695
Medea
You may be sure he did. And we who were loved before are now rejected.
Aigeus
Did he fall in love, or grow weary of his marriage to you?
Medea
Yes, a great love. He is disloyal to his family.
Aigeus
Let it go then, if, as you say, he is wicked.
Medea
He has fallen in love with making a marriage to the royal family. 700
Aigeus
And who is father of the bride? Finish the story.
Medea
Creon, who rules this country of Corinth.
Aigeus
It is understandable if you are upset, my lady.
Medea
I am ruined. And besides that I am driven into exile.
Aigeus
By whom? This is another new disaster you add. 705
Medea
Creon is sending me into exile from Corinth.
Aigeus
And Jason permits it? I don’t approve of that.
Medea
He says he does not, but he is willing to put up with it.
But I beg you by your beard
and I fall suppliant at your knees, 710
pity me, pity me in my despair
and do not let me be driven out destitute,
but take me in to share your home and country.
And then with the gods’ help I pray your desire for children
will bear fruit and you yourself die happy. 715
You do not know what a lucky find you have made in me.
I will put an end to your childlessness and cause you
to become a father. Such potions I can concoct.
Aigeus
For many reasons I am eager to grant you
this favor, my lady, first for the gods 720
and then for the children whose birth you predict.
For I am in utter despair over it.
This is how it is with me. If you come to my land
I will do my best as a man of honor to receive you as my guest.
So much I promise you, Medea: 725
I am not willing to give you escort from this land,
but if on your own you come to my home,
you will remain there under protection and I will not deliver you up to anyone.
But you must make your way from this country
for I want to be free from blame in the eyes of my hosts here. 730
Medea
That will be done. But if there could be a pledge to me
of these things, I will have everything I need from you.
Aigeus
Don’t you trust me? Or what is troubling you?
Medea
I trust you. But the house of Pelias is my enemy
and Creon. If you are bound by an oath you will not hand me over 735
to them if they try to take me from your country.
But if you come to terms in words and without an oath to the gods
you could become their friend and you might
yield to their heralds.(2) For I am in
straitened circumstances
and they have wealth and the royal house. 740
Aigeus
I see you are taking every precaution.
If you think best, I will not refuse to do as you ask.
This way things will be safer for me too:
I will have a pretext to show to your enemies
and you will be more secure. Bring on the gods. 745
Medea
Swear by the plain of Earth, and Helios the Sun, father
of my father, and add the whole race of gods.
Aigeus
To do and avoid doing what? Put it in words.
Medea
Never, yourself to cast me out of your country
nor if anyone else of my enemies desires 750
to take me away, ever to give me up of your own free will.
Aigeus
I swear by Earth and the bright light of Helios
and all the gods to abide by your words.
Medea
It is sufficient. And if you do not keep your word, what will you suffer?
Aigeus
What happens to all impious mortals.(3)
755
Medea
Farewell on your journey. All is well;
I will come to your city as soon as possible,
when I have done what I intend to do and achieved what I desire.
Chorus
May Lord Hermes, son of Maia, the kindly escort,
guide you to your home, and may you accomplish 760
what you desire, since,
Aigeus, you have proven yourself
to me to be a man of honor.
Medea
Oh Zeus and Justice, daughter of Zeus, and light of the Sun,
I shall be victorious over my enemies now, my friends, 765
and I have set out upon my journey.
Now I have hope that my enemies will pay the price.
For where I was most in trouble, this man
has appeared as a safe haven of my plans:
To him I shall attach a cable to guide me there, 770
going to the city and fortress of Pallas Athena.
And now I shall tell you all my plans.
Hear my words though there is no pleasure in them.
I will send one of my servants to Jason,
asking him to come into my sight. 775
And when he comes I will speak to him ingratiating words,
that I agree with him in these things and everything is fine–
this royal marriage he has, after betraying me.
And I will say that it is advantageous and sensible.
But I will beg for my children to stay here, 780
not that I would leave my children in hostile territory
for my enemies to abuse,
but so that with deceit I may kill the king’s daughter.
For I shall send my children with gifts in their hands,
bringing them to the bride, asking for reprieve from exile, 785
a finely woven dress and a tiara of beaten gold.
And if she takes them in her hands and puts them on her flesh,
she and anyone who touches her will die a miserable death,
such poisons I will smear on the gifts.
After this it is a new story. 790
I weep over the deed I must do
after this. For I shall kill my children.
There is no one who will rescue them.
And after confounding Jason’s whole house
I shall leave the country, in flight from the murder 795
of the children I love, after daring a most unholy deed.
For it is not bearable to be laughed at by my enemies, friends.
Let it pass. What good is life to me? I have no homeland
I have no home as a refuge from evils.
I made my mistake when I abandoned 800
my father’s house, won over by the words
of a Greek man, who will, with god’s help pay for this.
He will never see the children born from me
living, for the rest of his life, nor from the newly-wedded
bride will he father a child, since the wretch must die 805
wretchedly through my poisons.
Let no one think that I am mean or weak
nor peaceful, but of the other sort,
a weight upon my enemies and to my friends most kind.
For to such people belongs the heroic way of life. 810
Chorus
Since you have shared this story with us,
in my desire to help you and in keeping
with the customs of mortals, I tell you not to do this.
Medea
I will not change my mind. But it is understandable that
you would say this, not suffering abuse as I do. 815
Chorus
But will you dare to kill your own offspring, Medea?
Medea
Yes in this way my husband will feel the most pain.
Chorus
But you would be the sorriest of women.
Medea
Let it go. All other words are in vain.
She addresses her servant from the opening scene.
Go and bring Jason here. 820
For we rely on you in all confidential matters.
Tell him nothing of my decisions,
if you care for the well-being of your masters and are a real woman.