Stasimon 5
[Episode]
Oft ere now have I pursued subtler themes and have faced graver issues than woman’s sex should seek to probe;
Chorus
but then e’en we aspire to culture, which dwells with us to teach us wisdom; I say not all; for small is the class amongst women—(one maybe shalt thou find ’mid many)— that is not incapable of culture.
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And amongst mortals I do assert that they who are wholly without experience and have never had children far surpass in happiness those who are parents. The childless, because they have never proved
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whether children grow up to be a blessing or curse to men are removed from all share in many troubles; whilst those who have a sweet race of children growing up in their houses do wear away, as I perceive,
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their whole life through; first with the thought how they may train them up in virtue, next how they shall leave their sons the means to live; and after all this ’tis far from clear whether on good or bad children they bestow their toil.
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But one last crowning woe for every mortal man I now will name; suppose that they have found sufficient means to live, and seen their children grow to man’s estate and walk in virtue’s path, still if
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fortune so befall,Reading κυρήσει (Ald. et. Schol.). The MSS. vary between κυρήσας, σαι, σει. comes Death and bears the children’s bodies off to Hades. Can it be any profit to the gods to heap upon us mortal men beside our other woes this further grief for children lost,
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a grief surpassing all?
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Medea
Kind friends, long have I waited expectantly to know how things would at the palace chance. And lo! I see one of Jason’s servants coming hither, whose hurried gasps for breath
proclaim him the bearer of some fresh tidings.
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Messenger
Fly, fly, Medea! who hast wrought an awful deed, transgressing every law; nor leave behind or sea-borne bark or car that scours the plain.
Medea
Why, what hath chanced that calls for such a flight of mine?
Messenger
The princess is dead, a moment gone, and Creon too, her sire, slain by those drugs of thine.
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Medea
Tidings most fair are thine! Henceforth shalt thou be ranked amongst my friends and benefactors.
Messenger
Ha! What? Art sane? Art not distraught, lady,
who hearest with joy the outrage to our royal house done, and art not at the horrid tale afraid?
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Medea
Somewhat have I, too, to say in answer to thy words. Be not so hasty, friend, but tell the manner of their death, for thou wouldst give me double joy,
if so they perished miserably.
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Messenger
When the children twain whom thou didst bear came with their father and entered the palace of the bride, right glad were we thralls who had shared thy griefs, for instantly from ear to ear a rumour spread
that thou and thy lord had made up your former quarrel. One kissed thy children’s hands, another their golden hair, while I for very joy went with them in person to the women’s chambers. Our mistress, whom now we do revere in thy room,
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cast a longing glance at Jason, ere she saw thy children twain; but then she veiled her eyes and turned her blanching cheek away, disgusted at their coming; but thy husband
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tried to check his young bride’s angry humour with these words: O, be not angered ’gainst thy friends; cease from wrath and turn once more thy face this way, counting as friends whomso thy husband counts, and accept these gifts, and for my sake crave thy sire
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to remit these children’s exile. Soon as she saw the ornaments, no longer she held out, but yielded to her lord in all; and ere the father and his sons were far from the palace gone, she took the broidered robe and put it on,
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and set the golden crown about her tresses, arranging her hair at her bright mirror, with many a happy smile at her breathless counterfeit. Then rising from her seat she passed across the chamber, tripping lightly on her fair white foot,
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exulting in the gift, with many a glance at her uplifted ankle.τένοντ’ ἐς ὀρθὸν σκοπουμένη, (1) she stretches out her foot to see how the robe falls over it (Paley), (2) she stands on tiptoe and looks back to see how the dress hangs behind = erecto pede (Pflugk) When lo! a scene of awful horror did ensue. In a moment she turned pale, reeled backwards, trembling in every limb,
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and sinks upon a seat scarce soon enough to save herself from falling to the ground. An aged dame, one of her company, thinking belike it was a fit from PanAny sudden seizure was ascribed to Pan’s agency. or some god sent, raised a cry of prayer, till from her mouth she saw the foam-flakes issue, her eyeballs
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rolling in their sockets, and all the blood her face desert; then did she raise a loud scream far different fiom her former cry. Forthwith one handmaid rushed to her father’s house, another to her new bridegroom to tell his bride’s sad fate,
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and the whole house echoed with their running to and fro.
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By this time would a quick walker have made the turn in a course of six plethraThe reading is doubtful, still more the meaning. The conjecture ἀνελθών is adopted here, with Musgrave’s ἂν ἥπτετο for ἀνθήπτετο, ἀνελθὼν κῶλον ἑκπλέθρου δρόμου. This would mean, her swoon lasted as long as a man would take to go and return the distance of six plethra. The κῶλον then must be the limb, lap of the course up to the turning post. and reached the goal, when she with one awful shriek awoke, poor sufferer, from her speechless trance and oped her closed eyes,
for against her a twofold anguish was warring. The chaplet of gold about her head was sending forth a wondrous stream of ravening flame, while the fine raiment, thy children’s gift, was preying on the hapless maiden’s fair white flesh;
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and she starts from her seat in a blaze and seeks to fly, shaking her hair and head this way and that, to cast the crown therefrom; but the gold held firm to its fastenings, and the flame, as she shook her locks, blazed forth the more with double fury.
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Then to the earth she sinks, by the cruel blow o’ercome, past all recognition now save to a father’s eye; for her eyes had lost their tranquil gaze, her face no more its natural look preserved, and from the crown of her head blood and fire in mingled stream ran down;
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and from her bones the flesh kept peeling off beneath the gnawing of those secret drugs, e’en as when the pine-tree weeps its tears of pitch, a fearsome sight to see. And all were afraid to touch the corpse, for we were warned by what had chanced. Anon came her hapless father
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unto the house, all unwitting of her doom, and stumbles o’er the dead, and loud he cried, and folding his arms about her kissed her, with words like these the while, O my poor, poor child, which of the gods hath destroyed thee thus foully? Who is robbing me of thee, old as I am and
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ripe for death? O my child, alas! would I could die with thee! He ceased his sad lament, and would have raised his aged frame, but found himself held fast by the finespun robe as ivy that clings to the branches of the bay, and then ensued a fearful struggle.
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He strove to rise, but she still held him back; and if ever he pulled with all his might, from off his bones his aged flesh he tore. At last he gave it up, and breathed forth his soul in awful suffering; for he could no longer master the pain.
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So there they lie, daughter and aged sire, dead side by side, a grievous sight that calls for tears. And as for thee, I leave thee out of my consideration, for thyself must discover a means to escape punishment. Not now for the first time I think this human life a shadow;
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yea, and without shrinking I will say that they amongst men who pretend to wisdom and expend deep thought on words do incur a serious charge of folly; for amongst mortals no man is happy; wealth may pour in and make
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one luckier than another, but none can happy be.
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Chorus
This day the deity, it seems, will mass on Jason, as he well deserves, a heavy load of evils. Woe is thee, daughter of Creon! We pity thy sad fate, gone as thou art to Hades’ halls
as the price of thy marriage with Jason.
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Medea
My friends, I am resolved upon the deed; at once will I slay my children and then leave this land, without delaying long enough to hand them over to some more savage hand to butcher.
Needs must they die in any case; and since they must, I will slay them—I, the mother that bare them. O heart of mine, steel thyself! Why do I hesitate to do the awful deed that must be done? Come, take the sword, thou wretched hand of mine!
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Take it, and advance to the post whence starts thy life of sorrow! Away with cowardice! Give not one thought to thy babes, how dear they are or how thou art their mother This one brief day forget thy children dear, and after that lament; for though thou wilt slay them yet
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they were thy darlings still, andThe construction is intentionally irregular. Her emotion prevents a grammatical completion of the sentence. am a lady of sorrows.
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[Choral 1]
O earth, O sun whose beam illumines all, look, look upon this lost woman, ere she stretch forth, her murderous hand upon her sons for blood;
Chorus
for lo! these are scions of thy own golden seed, and the blood of gods is in danger of being shed by man. O light, from Zeus proceeding, stay her, hold her hand, forth from the house
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chase this fell bloody fiend by demons led.
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Vainly wasted were the throes thy children cost thee; vainly hast thou born, it seems, sweet babes, O thou who hast left behind thee that passage through the blue Symplegades, that strangers justly hate.
Ah! hapless one, why doth fierce anger thy soul assail? WhyThis use of ἀμείβεται is so unusual that the passage is open to grave suspicion. The three following lines are extremely confused and probably corrupt. Weil proposes ἐπέγειρεν for ἐπὶ γαῖαν; var. lect. for ξυνῳδὰ is ξύνοιδα. in its place is fell murder growing up? For grievous unto mortal men are pollutions that come of kindred blood poured on the earth,
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woes to suit each crime hurled from heaven on the murderer’s house.
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[Choral]
Ah!This is bracketed in the Greek and not found in the Coleridge edition. It has been added here for clarity.
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[Choral 2]
Didst hear, didst hear the children’s cry? O lady, born to sorrow, victim of an evil fate!
1st Son
(within). Ah, me; what can I do? Whither fly to escape my mother’s blows?
2nd Son
(within). I know not, sweet brother mine; we are undone.
Chorus
Shall I enter the house? For the children’s sake I am resolved to ward off the murder.
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1st Son
(within). Yea, by heaven I adjure you; help, your aid is needed.
2nd Son
(within). Even now the toils of the sword are closing round us.
Chorus
O hapless mother, surely thou hast a heart of stone or steel
to slay the offspring of thy womb by such a murderous doom.
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Of all the wives of yore I know but one who laid her hand upon her children dear, even Ino,This is Euripides’ version of the legend, not the usual one; which makes Athamas the father go mad and kill one son, while Ino leaps into the sea with the other. whom the gods did madden in the day
that the wife of Zeus drove her wandering from her home. But she, poor sufferer, flung herself into the sea because of the foul murder of her children, leaping o’er the wave-beat cliff, and in her death was she united to her children twain.
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Can there be any deed of horror left to follow this? Woe for the wooing of women fraught with disaster! What sorrows hast thou caused for men ere now!
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