Medea

“ While I can open my newspaper to-day and read of mothers desperate with hunger, misery, or rage drowning themselves and their children, I cannot bring myself to look upon Medea as some elemental being from a dark and outrageous past. ”

“ Is some word of wrath Here hidden that I knew not of? And hath My hope to give thee joy so cheated me? Medea.
Thou givest what thou givest: I blame not thee. Attendant.
Thy brows are all o'ercast: thine eyes are filled. . . . Medea.
For bitter need, Old Man! The gods have willed, And my own evil mind, that this should come. Attendant.
Take heart! Thy sons one day will bring thee home. Medea.
Home? . . . I have others to send home. Woe's me! Attendant.
Be patient. Many a mother before thee Hath parted from her children. We poor things Of men must needs endure what fortune brings. ”

“ But by and by, just as some precious thought is being lost unto the world, let there come some Medea, by whose potent sorcery that old and withered idea receives new life-blood through its shrunken veins, and it starts to life again with recreated vigor—another Æson, with the bloom of youth upon him. ”

“ At the close of the Medea I actually find myself longing for a deus ex machinâ, for some being like Artemis in the Hippolytus or the good Dioscuri of the Electra, to speak a word of explanation or forgiveness, or at least leave some sound of music in our ears to drown that dreadful and insistent clamour of hate. The truth is that in this play Medea herself is the dea ex machinâ. The woman whom Jason and Creon intended simply to crush has been transformed by her injuries from an individual human being into a sort of living Curse. She is inspired with superhuman force. ”

“ But Medea answered, "O my lord, this report of craft and wisdom hath wrought me harm not this day only, but many times! Truly it is not well that a man should teach his children to be wise, for they gain thereby no profit, but hatred only. But as for me, my lord, my wisdom is but a small thing; nor is there cause why thou shouldest fear me. For who am I that I should transgress against a king? Nor indeed hast thou done me wrong. My husband, indeed, I hate; but thou hast given thy daughter as it pleased thee. The Gods grant that it may be well with thee and thine! ”

“ For him, Medea is not a goddess who has assumed the form of a woman, but a woman who has not yet put off this mortal coil, and who as yet has done little to deserve that she should, after death, attain to divinity! ”

“ Medea did not know about this vein when she stood forward upon the ship to use her spells against him. Upon a cliff of Crete, all gleaming, stood that huge man of bronze. Then, as she was ready to fling her spells against him, Medea thought upon the words that Arete, the wise queen, had given her that she was not to use spells and not to practice against the life of any one.
But she knew that there was no impiety in using spells and practicing against Talos, for Zeus had already doomed all his race. She stood upon the ship, and with her Magic Song she enchanted him. ”

“ There are, in the extant tragedies, only two really disagreeable women—Medea and Hermione (in the Andromache) —for the savage feelings of revenge in Alcmene (Heracleidæ) and in Hecuba are, so to speak, extorted from them by dreadful trials, and the injustice of fate. But Medea is no Greek, she is a foreigner from a wild and gloomy race, who is moreover deeply wronged in her ungovernable but therefore strong affections. She may be a human tigress, but she is a tigress with a mother's heart, and all her violence does not destroy our sympathy with her afflictions. ”

“ A woman quick of wrath, aye, or a man, Is easier watching than the cold and still. Up, straight, and find thy road! Mock not my will With words. This doom is passed beyond recall; Nor all thy crafts shall help thee, being withal My manifest foe, to linger at my side. Medea (suddenly throwing herself down and clinging to Creon) .
Oh, by thy knees! By that new-wedded bride . . . Creon.
'Tis waste of words. Thou shalt not weaken me. Medea.
Wilt hunt me? Spurn me when I kneel to thee? Creon.
'Tis mine own house that kneels to me, not thou. [Pg 20] Medea. ”

“ He promised her marriage, and as they stood before the altar of Hecate, called the goddess to witness his oath. Medea yielded, and by her aid, for she was a potent sorceress, he was furnished with a charm, by which he could encounter safely the breath of the fire-breathing bulls and the weapons of the armed men. ”

“ We may grant at once that the Medea of Euripides is not a faultless play; that the dialogue between the heroine and Aegeus is not happily conceived; that the murder of the children lacks an adequate dramatic motive; that there is something of a moral anti-climax in the arrangements of Medea, before the deed, for her personal safety. But the Medea remains a tragedy of first-rate power. ”

“ But with the dawn and the awakening of human life, the sounds of men react upon her troubled spirit and cause her to put aside her dread resolve. With her also, and with the Greek poet, the conception is fresher and better. It is the youth and health of Medea, the wine of life glowing in her veins which calls her back from suicidal gloom when cheerful sounds of human life illumine the dawn. ”

“ Then Medea said: "I have lost so much and have suffered so much that I would not have youth back at the price of facing the years. I would sink down to the quiet of the grave. But I hope for some ease before I die—for the ease that is in king's houses, with good food to eat, and rest, and servants to wait upon one's aged body. These are the things I desire, O Pelias, even as you desire youth. You can give me such things, and I have come to you who desire youth eagerly rather than to kings who have a less eager desire for it. ”

“ Oh holy Astræa! (Goddess of Justice) if thou art still to be found in the heavens, I invoke thee and call to my aid thy divine assistance! The love for my children has compelled me to elect to live, and I suppose that Medea herself, although she is of a naturally ferocious disposition, would rather consult the interests and welfare of her children, than trouble her head any more about this marriage business! ”

“ Hearing this cruel song in praise of her rival and of her false husband, Medea goes into a wilder passion of rage. Medea's old nurse tries to soothe her mistress and recall her to her right mind by wise saws and prudent philosophy. But the flood of passion will not be checked.
Nurse.
Be silent now, I pray thee, and thy plaints confine
To secret woe. The man who heavy blows can bear
In silence, biding still his time with patient soul,
Full oft his vengeance gains. 'Tis hidden wrath that harms;
But hate proclaimed oft loses half its power to harm. ”

“ Then Medea drew the phial out of her bosom and poured into the water some of the brew she had made in Creon’s garden in Corinth. The water in the vat took on a strange bubbling, and the ram sank down.
Then Medea, standing beside the vat, sang an incantation.
“O Earth,” she sang, “O Earth who dost provide wise men with potent herbs, O Earth help me now. I am she who can drive the clouds; I am she who can dispel the winds; I am she who can break the jaws of serpents with my incantations; I am she who can uproot living trees and rocks; who can make the mountains shake ”

“ I can't free myself from the thought of this Medea da Carpi. In my walks, my mornings in the Archives, my solitary evenings, I catch myself thinking over the woman. Am I turning novelist instead of historian? And still it seems to me that I understand her so well; so much better than my facts warrant. First, we must put aside all pedantic modern ideas of right and wrong. Right and wrong in a century of violence and treachery does not exist, least of all for creatures like Medea. ”

“ Do you suppose that a woman like Medea feels the smallest ill-will against a poor, craven Duchess Maddalena? Why, she ignores her very existence. To suppose Medea a cruel woman is as grotesque as to call her an immoral woman. Her fate is, sooner or later, to triumph over her enemies, at all events to make their victory almost a defeat; her magic faculty is to enslave all the men who come across her path; all those who see her, love her, become her slaves ”

“ Shall die an ill death, doomed by my drugged salves.
Let none believe me weak and lethargic ⁠806 (807)
Nor tame in spirit, but far other souled;
Dour to my foes, but to my friends most helpful:
For the lives of such do wear the nobler grace.
Chorus.
Now, since thou hast possessed us of thy thought,
Much anxious both to serve thee and give help
To human laws, I urge thee, do not thus. ⁠812 (813)
Medea.
It may no otherwise. But 'tis excused
That thou so speak'st, who bear'st not wrongs as I.
Chorus.
But, lady, hast thou heart to kill thy sons? ⁠815 (816)
Medea. ”

“ Some of the most profound and wounding things said both by Medea and by Jason might almost be labelled in a book of extracts "Any wife to any husband," or "Any husband to any wife." And Medea is also a witch; she is also at heart a maniac. It is the madness produced by love rejected and justice denied, by the sense of helpless, intolerable wrong. A lesser poet might easily have made Medea a sympathetic character, and have pretended that long oppression makes angels of the oppressed. ”

“ Thus it came about that Medea conceived a great passion for the young hero, and with the magic which she knew she made for him a salve. The salve rendered his body invulnerable. He yoked the bulls, and ploughed the field, and sowed the dragon's teeth. A crop of armed men sprang from the sowing, but Jason, prepared for this marvel by Medea, threw among them a stone which she had given him, whereupon they fell upon and slew one another.
But Æetes still refused to fetch the fleece, plotting secretly to burn the Argo and kill the heroic Argonauts. ”

“ Seek the king, and pray His pity, that he bid thy children stay! Jason.
He is hard to move. Yet surely 'twere well done. Medea.
Bid her—for thy sake, for a daughters boon. . . . Jason.
Well thought! Her I can fashion to my mind. Medea.
Surely. She is a woman like her kind. . . . Yet I will aid thee in thy labour; I Will send her gifts, the fairest gifts that lie In the hands of men, things of the days of old, Fine robings and a carcanet of gold, By the boys' hands.—Go, quick, some handmaiden, And fetch the raiment. ”

“ No man dare meet her or look on her, but only I her priestess, and she watches far and wide lest any stranger should come near.”
“No wall so high but it may be climbed at last, and no wood so thick but it may be crawled through; no serpent so wary but he may be charmed, or witch-queen so fierce but spells may soothe her; and I may yet win the Golden Fleece, if a wise maiden help bold men.”
And he looked at Medea cunningly, and held her with his glittering eye, till she blushed and trembled, and said: “Who can face the fire of the bull’s breath, and fight ten thousand armed men?” ”

“ Behold,
'Tis Creon's self, exalted high in Grecian sway.
[Medea retires to the back of the stage.
Creon.
[As he enters.] Medea, baleful daughter of the Colchian king,
Has not yet taken her hateful presence from our realm.
On mischief is she bent; well known her treacherous power.
For who escapes her? Who may pass his days in peace?
This cursed pestilence at once would I have stayed
By force of arms: but Jason's prayers prevailed. She still
May live, but let her free my borders from the fear
Her presence genders, and her safety gain by flight. ”

“ We were still puzzling our heads over the contrivance, when I became aware that Medea herself was moving down the path from the house. Dark-haired, supple, of a figure lightly poised and swayed, but pale and listless—I knew her at once, and having come out to find her, naturally felt no surprise at all. But Harold, who was trying to climb on the top of the sun-dial, having a cat-like fondness for the summit of things, started and fell prone, barking his chin and filling the pleasance with lamentation. ”

“ Medea.
This, with a wife, or knowing not the couch?
Aigeus.
Nay, not unyoked to wedlock's bed am I.
Medea.
Now what to thee spake Phœbus touching issue?
Aigeus.
Deep words of wisdom not for man to interpret. ⁠675
Medea.
Without sin might I know the God's reply?
Aigeus.
O yea—good sooth, it needs the wise heart most.
Medea.
What said he? Say, if sin be not to hear.
Aigeus.
The wine-skin's prominent foot I should not loose.
Medea.
Till thou shouldst do what thing, or reach what land? ⁠680
Aigeus. ”

“ Prologue.—The old nurse of Medea, alone upon the stage, laments that the Argo was ever framed and that Medea had ever fled from Colchis. Then had she never been here in Corinth an exile and now deserted even by her husband, Jason. In describing Medea's distracted condition, the nurse first voices the fear of that violence which forms the catastrophe of the play. Enter an old attendant with the two sons of Medea, who announces a new woe—that Creon, the king, has decreed the banishment of Medea and her children. ”

“ The relief of the Argonauts, when at last they reach haven after their fearful passage of the Symplegades, is like that of Theseus and Hercules, when they have forced a way through the gates of hell to the light of day once more. [511] Most remarkable of all is the strange accumulation of similes that describe the meeting of Jason and Medea. Medea is going through the silent night chanting a song of magic, whereat all nature trembles. ”

“ Medea.
There is no other way.—I pardon thee Thy littleness, who art not wronged like me. Leader.
Thou canst not kill the fruit thy body bore! Medea.
Yes: if the man I hate be pained the more. Leader.
And thou made miserable, most miserable? Medea.
Oh, let it come! All words of good or ill Are wasted now. [She claps her hands: the Nurse comes out from the house. Ho, woman; get thee gone And lead lord Jason hither. . . . There is none [Pg 48] Like thee, to work me these high services. ”