Euripides' Medea Int. and Trans. by Marianne McDonald Copyright ...

Corinth. In front of MEDEA’s home. NURSE enters from the house.
NURSE
If only Jason’s ship,
had not flashed over dark waters,
past the clashing Symplegades
finally to reach Colchis.
I wish the pines in the groves of Pelion
had never been sent crashing to the ground
to make oars for the hands of heroes
chasing after a golden fleece.
Then my mistress would never have sailed to Iolcus,
following Jason, the man she loved.
If she hadn’t tricked the daughters of Pelias 10
into killing their father, she wouldn’t
have come here to Corinth
to settle with her husband and children.
By stopping a famine, she benefited the city
that was her new home.
She also helped Jason in every way!
That’s how it should be:
a wife standing at her husband’s side.
But now it’s the opposite: love has turned to hate.
By marrying the daughter of Creon, who rules this country,
Jason has betrayed my mistress and his children.
Now Medea is in despair, dishonored 20
she screams, “What about oaths?
What about your right hand in mine
when you swore you would be faithful to me?”
She calls on the gods to see how Jason has betrayed her.
She won’t eat, her body is in agony,
and she spends her time in tears
ever since she realized what Jason has done to her.
She just lies alone and stares at the ground.
She’s as deaf as a stone or a wave of the sea
and won’t listen to any advice from her friends.
From time to time she raises her head,
cries out to her father, her native land, 30
and her new home, now betrayed
by her husband who has dishonored her.
That poor woman has learned a hard lesson:
what it is to be a foreigner in a foreign country.
She hates to see her children now;
I’m afraid of what she may be planning.
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