Medea [17]
ere thou cam'st aboard our fair ship, Argo. Such was the outset of thy life of crime; then didst thou wed with me, and having borne me sons to glut thy passion's lust, thou now hast slain them. Not one amongst the wives of Hellas e'er had dared this deed; yet before them all I chose thee for my wife, wedding a foe to be my doom, no woman, but a lioness fiercer than Tyrrhene Scylla in nature. But with reproaches heaped thousandfold I cannot wound thee, so brazen is thy nature. Perish, vile sorceress, murderess of thy babes! Whilst I must mourn my luckless fate, for I shall ne'er enjoy my new-found bride, nor shall I have the children, whom I bred and reared, alive to say the last farewell to me; nay, I have lost them. MEDEA To this thy speech I could have made a long reply, but Father Zeus knows well all I have done for thee, and the treatment thou hast given me. Yet thou wert not ordained to scorn my love and lead a life of joy in mockery of me, nor was thy royal bride nor Creon, who gave thee a second wife, to thrust me from this land and rue it not. Wherefore, if thou wilt, call me e'en a lioness, and Scylla, whose home is in the Tyrrhene land; for I in turn have wrung thy heart, as well I might. JASON Thou, too, art grieved thyself, and sharest in my sorrow. MEDEA Be well assured I am; but it relieves my pain to know thou canst not mock at me. JASON O my children, how vile a mother ye have found! MEDEA My sons, your father's feeble lust has been your ruin! JASON 'Twas not my hand, at any rate, that slew them. MEDEA No, but thy foul treatment of me, and thy new marriage. JASON Didst think that marriage cause enough to murder them? MEDEA Dost think a woman counts this a trifling injury? JASON So she be self-restrained; but in thy eyes all is evil. MEDEA Thy sons are dead and gone. That will stab thy heart. JASON They live, methinks, to bring a curse upon thy head. MEDEA The gods know, whoso of them began this troublous coil. JASON Indeed, they know that hateful heart of thine. MEDEA Thou art as hateful. I am aweary of thy bitter tongue. JASON And I likewise of thine. But parting is easy. MEDEA Say how; what am I to do? for I am fain as thou to go. JASON Give up to me those dead, to bury and lament. MEDEA No, never! I will bury them myself, bearing them to Hera's sacred field, who watches o'er the Cape, that none of their foes may insult them by pulling down their tombs; and in this land of Sisyphus I will ordain hereafter a solemn feast and mystic rites to atone for this impious murder. Myself will now to the land of Erechtheus, to dwell with Aegeus, Pandion's son. But thou, as well thou mayst, shalt die a caitiff's death, thy head crushed 'neath a shattered relic of Argo, when thou hast seen the bitter ending of my marriage. JASON The curse of our sons' avenging spirit and of justice, that calls for blood, be on thee! MEDEA What god or power divine hears thee, breaker of oaths and every law of hospitality? JASON Fie upon thee! cursed witch! child-murderess! MEDEA To thy house! go, bury thy wife. JASON I go, bereft of both my sons. MEDEA Thy grief is yet to come; wait till old age is with thee too. JASON O my dear, dear children! MEDEA Dear to their mother, not to thee. JASON And yet thou didst slay them? MEDEA Yea, to vex thy heart. JASON One last fond kiss, ah me! I fain would on their lips imprint. MEDEA Embraces now, and fond farewells for them; but then a cold repulse! JASON By heaven I do adjure thee, let me touch their tender skin. MEDEA No, no! in vain this word has sped its flight. JASON O Zeus, dost hear how I am driven hence; dost mark the treatment I receive from this she-lion, fell murderess of her young? Yet so far as I may and can, I raise for them a dirge, and do adjure the gods to witness how thou hast slain my sons, and wilt not suffer me to embrace or bury their dead bodies. Would I had never begotten