(Night. Dull sound of thunder. Flashes of lightning. In the background, in heavy shadows, the house of JASON and MEDEA, in Corinth. From within we hear MEDEA’s scream.)

MEDEA

Gods! Gods, be my witness!

(Sharper clashes of thunder. More frequent flashes of lightning. Again we hear MEDEA screaming:)

What is the use of living? Come thunder, come lightning of the sky, come and crash upon my head! I cannot stand the pain! Hades, come! Come Hades and cut down this miserable life of mine!

(Crescendo of thunder and lightning ... fade in day … Enter the NURSE. Tired. Spent a sleepless night. Shakes her head in despair.)

NURSE

How I wish!
How I wish!
That the fast ship, Argo had not made it past those cursed clashing rocks on its way to Colchis!
How I wish!
That forest of Pelium, clogged full of hardy pines, should not have supplied the sturdy sailors with oars! They wouldn’t have sailed on, then, all the way to Colchis, to get the golden fleece, as they were ordered by Pelias, nor would my mistress Medea, be here now!
Her heart, torn apart by her love for Jason, she had left her own home and the two had sailed off together to the great castles of Iolcos.
Then they left that place and came here, to Corinth, where they now live with their children.
Oh, but first, she had managed to convince Pelias’ daughters to murder him! Murder their own father!
When she first arrived here, the local folk loved her. They saw in her a perfect wife for Jason. Perfect in every way. She never argued with Jason. Always compromising, always accommodating – and that, you see, is how a woman earns her security: never argue with your husband!
But that was then.

Now, well, now there’s nothing but arguing, nothing but hatred, nothing but poison, nothing but…
Jason betrayed his children and his wife, married the Princess, King Creon’s daughter, Glauce^[3] and now sleeps in a royal bed. Meanwhile, my mistress, Medea, the Fates fully against her and feeling totally dejected, screams and cries out at him, asking him to remember his promises to her. Asks him to remember the mighty oaths he had sworn for her. She calls upon the Gods to bear witness to the awful way Jason rewards her for her obedience and for her compromises and for all the accommodating she did for him and for all the love she lavished upon him.

She lies there, in her bed all day. From the moment she found out about her husband’s adultery, she lies there, the poor creature, unable to put a bite in her mouth.
She has completely abandoned her body to her pain.
Her tears are wearing away her days and her eyes and her face are pinned hard to the ground.
The kind voices of her friends, friends who, one by one visit her and try to advise her, to comfort her, all those friendly voices, sound to her like ocean storms, clashing madly upon rocks.
Now and then the poor woman turns away her pale face and all alone, mourns heavily about her beloved father, about the land and the house she has abandoned just so as to be with a man who has now betrayed her.
It is only now that the poor woman has realised how horrible it is to leave one’s homeland. Her awful fortune has taught her that bitter lesson.

She hardly looks up at her children any more. No, she gets no joy in that.
In fact, I’m terribly afraid that she hates them!
I am so afraid!
I’m afraid that some evil thoughts might be taking over her mind. There’s something wild about her face!
Oh, I am so afraid!
I’m afraid that she might do something dreadful. I don’t think she’s able to cope well with this injustice.
Believe me, I know my mistress well and I fear her.
I am afraid that her mind might concoct some awful violence! Plunge a sharp sword into her heart.
And I’m afraid she’s capable of working her way into the palace, enter the king’s chambers and murder the princess and Jason, her groom!
Plunge a sharp knife deep into their body. Her reward for that deed would be horrible.
I am so afraid!
I’m afraid of her violence.

I’m afraid because those who cross angry words with her never win.

(Enter TUTOR^[4] with MEDEA’s two boys.)

Ah! And here are her little boys!
Playtime over, darlings?
What few cares enter the minds of children! How little they know of their mother’s fears! Children don’t like to think ugly thoughts ...

(Enter MEDEA with two attendants.)

MEDEA

Corinthian women^[5]. I have come out among you so that you’ll stop talking behind my back, condemning my every action.

I know many people – some directly, with my own eyes and others I’ve heard about – who were born good folk but because they stayed quietly away from society, got themselves the odious reputation of being arrogant and conceited individuals.
Eyes alone are inadequate judges of people. A judgement made without knowing a person well could result in hating that person, for no reason at all, except for the way he looks.
Sure, a foreigner must accept all the customs of his new city but I cannot praise the man who’s local-born but who, due to ignorance and immaturity, hurts bitterly his fellow citizens.

Corinthian women, you know that I have to suffer an insufferable thing, a thing that has worn my soul away. I’m no longer alive!
I refuse all of life’s charms and I seek death. Yes, death, Corinthians, because my husband, who was my whole world, had become the most evil of all men.
Of all the living things, of all those things that have a soul and a sense, we, yes we, the women, are the most pathetic!

Imagine!
We need to spend a fortune to buy us a man^[6] who… what will he do? He will become the master of our bodies! And, it’s obvious, that this dangerous thing we do, becomes even more dangerous when we don’t find the right husband. Is he a good husband? Or is he a bad one? By the time you find that out it’s already too late.

And then, for a woman to leave her husband is neither proper nor possible. To live in a place where new laws and customs apply one needs to be a prophet, since even your own folk don’t tell you how you should behave towards your husband.
And if all these things work out well and our husband lives with us without thinking the marriage yoke to be too heavy, well that would indeed be a great life. If not, though, only Death opens his arms for us. Only Death awaits us.
Whereas the husband, however, if he finds the house to be too great a burden for him, he leaves the place, he finds a friend or someone of similar age and immediately his heart shrugs off that weight. We, on the other hand, we, women, can only let our eyes fall upon one person and one person only, our husband.

Then people also say that while we live quietly and without any danger at home, the men go off to war. Wrong! One birth alone is worse than three times in the battlefield behind a shield.

In any case, Corinthians, things between you and me, are different. You are here, in your own country and in your own home, enjoying your life and your friends, whereas I am here alone and without a country. My husband deceives me and treats me like a prize he has just ripped out of some barbarous country; I have no mother, no brother, no relative at all to whom I can turn for support at this dreadful hour of mine.
From you, however I ask only one thing: If I manage to find some means by which I can punish my husband and his father-in-law, that man who gave him his daughter as wife, I ask of you to say nothing to anyone. Keep it a secret.
A woman is, in all things, timid, shy, weak and can’t even look at weapons but when she’s deceived by her husband, when her marriage is mocked, there is nothing more bloodthirsty than her.

CHORUS

Of course, Medea. Do as you please.

CHORUS^[7]

It’ll be a justified act to extract vengeance from your husband. It is no surprise to us that you lament your fate.

(Enter CREON with attendants.)