THE MEDEA
Chorus
And you, too. Of women you will be most unhappy.
Medea
So it must be. No compromise is possible.
(She turns to the Nurse.)
Go, you, at once, and tell Jason to come to me. 820
You I employ on all affairs of greatest trust.
Say nothing of these decisions which I have made,
If you love your mistress, if you were born a woman.
Chorus
From of old the children of Erechtheus are
Splendid, the sons of blessed gods. They dwell 825
In Athens' holy and unconquered land,
• Where famous Wisdom feeds them and they pass gaily
Always through that most brilliant air where once, they
say, 830
That golden Harmony gave birth to the nine
Pure Muses of Pieria.
And beside the sweet flow of Cephisus' stream, 835
Where Cypris sailed, they say, to draw the water,
And mild soft breezes breathed along her path,
And on her hair were flung the sweet-smelling garlands 840
Of flowers of roses by the Lovers, the companions
Of Wisdom, her escort, the helpers of men
In every kind of excellence. 845
How then can these holy rivers
Or this holy land love you,
Or the city find you a home,
You, who will kill your children,
You, not pure with the rest? 850
O think of the blow at your children
And think of the blood that you shed.
101