Seneca’s Medea 1-669 [Part I]
Medea 8ff.:
… and gods who better suit
Medea’s prayers: Chaos of endless night,
kingdoms that hate the gods of heaven, blaspheming powers,
master of the melancholy realm, and queen— [= Hades & Persephone]
abducted, but he kept his word to you. Now let me curse:
Come to me now, O vengeful Furies, punishers of sinners,
wild in your hair with serpents running free,
holding black torches in your bloody hands,
come to me scowling, as you did of old,
when you stood round my marriage bed. Kill his new wife,
kill his father, and all the royal family.
… Now it is born, my vengeance is delivered:
I mothered it.
Medea 102-5
Jason, you used to tremble as you held an untamed wife,
reluctant as you held her body close;
now torn away from your barbarian marriage,
lucky man, take hold of this Corinthian girl.
Medea 329-34 (chorus' attitude toward seafaring and the Voyage of the Argonauts?):
Glorious were the ages our forefathers saw
when deception was far distant.
Each person led an unambitious life, at home,
then growing old on ancestral farmland,
rich with a little, they knew no wealth,
except what their native soil brought forth.
Medea 579-82:
Force of flame, wind’s turbulent buffet, javelins,
none of these come down with a force so mighty,
none as fearful as when an ex-wife, rejected,
hates with passion.
Medea 668-69:
Now enough, O Gods, of your vengeance. Jason
acted on orders.
Medea 431ff. (soliloquoy?):
My luck is always bad, and fate is always cruel …
… If I wanted to be faithful
to my wife—she had earned it—I had to forfeit my life.
If I did not want to die, I had to give up—poor me!—
fidelity. It was not fear that conquered faith
but quaking duty; she killed her parents; it was likely
the children would be next. O Holy Power, if you,
Justice, inhabit heaven, I call to you as witness:
love for my children defeated me. Though she is fierce,
spirited, she will not bear the yoke,
she still, I think, cares more for her children than her marriage.
Medea 42-43:
… Away with feminine fears,
dress up your mind like your own cruel home.
Medea 266-8 (Creon)
You! You scheming source of every criminal act
you have a woman’s wickedness; your daring
shows masculine strength, ignoring what men say.
Medea 49-50, 55
I did those [crimes] as a girl. Let weightier rage swell up:
now I have given birth, my crimes ought to increase …
… A family formed by crime must be broken by more crime.
[cf. Medea 903ff.:
… Whatever I did before,
Name it dutiful love. Come now! I will reveal
how trivial and ordinary they were,
those crimes I did before. With them my bitterness
was only practicing: how could my childish hands
do something truly great? Could the rage of a girl do this?
Now, I am Medea. My nature has grown with my suffering.
I am happy that I ripped my brother’s head away …]
Medea 547-550
Jason
They [the children] are my reason for living; my scorched heart finds in them
my comfort for my pain. I would rather lose my breath,
my body, or the light.
Medea (aside)
Does he love his children so much?
Good! I have him trapped: there is a place to hurt him. [cf. the plan, 568ff.]
Pasolini's Medea (starring Maria Callas)
Open Book Quiz (#11): what is the nature of Jason's character?