THE MEDEA

A child (from within)

O help us, in God's name, for now we need your help.
Now, now we are close to it. We are trapped by the
sword.

Chorus

O your heart must have been made of rock or steel,
You who can kill 1280

With your own hand the fruit of your own womb.
Of one alone I have heard, one woman alone
Of those of old who laid her hands on her children,
Ino, sent mad by heaven when the wife of Zeus
Drove her out from her home and made her wander; 1285

And because of the wicked shedding of blood
Of her own children she threw
Herself, poor wretch, into the sea and stepped away
Over the sea-cliff to die with her two children.
What horror more can be? 0 women's love, 1290

So full of trouble,
How many evils have you caused already!

(Enter Jason, with attendants.)
Jason ,
You women, standing close in front of this dwelling,
Is she, Medea, she who did this dreadful deed,
Still in the house, or has she run away in flight? 1295
For she will have to hide herself beneath the earth,
Or raise herself on wings into the height of air,
If she wishes to escape the royal vengeance.
Does she imagine that, having killed our rulers,
She will herself escape uninjured from this house? 1300
But I am thinking not so much of her as for
The children—her the king's friends will make to suffer
For what she did. So I have come to save the lives
Of my boys, in case the royal house should harm them
While taking vengeance for their mother's wicked deed. 1305
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