MEDEA
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
Euripides and Murray, Gilbert
[She rises on the chariot and is slowly borne away.
Jason.
May They that hear the weeping child Blast thee, and They that walk in blood!
Medea.
Thy broken vows, thy friends beguiled Have shut for thee the ears of God.
Jason.
Go, thou art wet with children's tears!
Medea.
Go thou, and lay thy bride to sleep.
Jason.
Childless, I go, to weep and weep.
Medea.
Not yet! Age cometh and long years.
Jason.
My sons, mine own!
Medea.
Not thine, but mine . . .
Jason.
. . . Who slew them!
Medea.
Yes: to torture thee.
Jason.
Once let me kiss their lips, once twine Mine arms and touch. . . . Ah, woe is me!
Medea.
Wouldst love them and entreat? But now They were as nothing.
Jason.
At the last, O God, to touch that tender brow!
Medea.
Thy words upon the wind are cast.
Jason.
Thou, Zeus, wilt hear me. All is said For naught. I am but spurned away And trampled by this tigress, red With children's blood. Yet, come what may, So far as thou hast granted, yea, So far as yet my strength may stand, I weep upon these dead, and say Their last farewell, and raise my hand To all the daemons of the air In witness of these things; how she Who slew them, will not suffer me To gather up my babes, nor bear To earth their bodies; whom, O stone Of women, would I ne'er had known Nor gotten, to be slain by thee!
[He casts himself upon the earth.
Chorus.
Great treasure halls hath Zeus in heaven, From whence to man strange dooms be given, Past hope or fear. And the end men looked for cometh not, And a path is there where no man thought: So hath it fallen here.