Medea. Illustrated E-Book

Euripides

• Herausgeber: Strelbytskyy Multimedia Publishing
• Kategorie: Poesie und Drama
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

Seitenzahl: 91

Beschreibung

The story of Medea is only one part of a myth about the Argonauts' campaign. It portrays Jason joining a battle with fire-breathing bulls and a dragon guarding the Golden Fleece, Medea is helping him tame the beasts. She then follows him to Greece, because she falls in love. It is also a story of how a once young, beautiful and joyful woman, transforms into a monster, hungry for revenge, she kills even her own children. A long trail of horrible deaths, tied to her life path, is hard to imagine. Pretty illustrations by Vladislav Kolomoets provide you with new impressions from reading this legendary story.

Leseprobe

Euripides

Medea

The story of Medea is only one part of a myth about the Argonauts' campaign. It portrays Jason joining a battle with fire-breathing bulls and a dragon guarding the Golden Fleece, Medea is helping him tame the beasts. She then follows him to Greece, because she falls in love.

It is also a story of how a once young, beautiful and joyful woman, transforms into a monster, hungry for revenge, she kills even her own children. A long trail of horrible deaths, tied to her life path, is hard to imagine.

Pretty illustrations by Vladislav Kolomoets provide you with new impressions from reading this legendary story.

Table of Contents

Medea

Characters of the play

MEDEA, daughter of Aietes, King of Colchis.

JASON, chief of the Argonauts; nephew of Pelias, King of Iolcos in Thessaly.

CREON, ruler of Corinth.

AEGEUS, King of Athens.

NURSE of Medea.

TWO CHILDREN of Jason and Medea.

ATTENDANT on the children.

A MESSENGER.

CHORUS of Corinthian Women, with their LEADER.

Soldiers and Attendants.

The scene is laid in Corinth. The play was first acted when Pythodorus was Archon, Olympiad 87, year 1 (B.C. 431). Euphorion was first, Sophocles second, Euripides third, with Medea, Philoctetes, Dictys, and the Harvesters, a Satyr-play.

MEDEA

The Scene represents the front of MEDEA'S House in Corinth. A road to the right leads towards the royal castle, one on the left to the harbour. The NURSE is discovered alone.

NURSE

  Would God no Argo e'er had winged the seas

  To Colchis through the blue Symplegades[1]:

  No shaft of riven pine in Pelion's[2] glen

  Shaped that first oar-blade in the hands of men

  Valiant, who won, to save King Pelias' vow,

  The fleece All-golden! Never then, I trow,

  Mine own princess, her spirit wounded sore

  With love of Jason, to the encastled shore

  Had sailed of old Iolcos: never wrought

  The daughters of King Pelias, knowing not,

  To spill their father's life: nor fled in fear,

  Hunted for that fierce sin, to Corinth here

  With Jason and her babes. This folk at need

  Stood friend to her, and she in word and deed

  Served alway Jason. Surely this doth bind,

  Through all ill days, the hurts of humankind,

  When man and woman in one music move.

    But now, the world is angry, and true love

  Sick as with poison. Jason doth forsake

  My mistress and his own two sons, to make

  His couch in a king's chamber. He must wed:

  Wed[3] with this Creon's child, who now is head

  And chief of Corinth[4]. Wherefore sore betrayed

  Medea calleth up the oath they made,

  They two, and wakes the clasped hands again,

  The troth surpassing speech, and cries amain

  On God in heaven to mark the end, and how

  Jason hath paid his debt.

                             All fasting now

  And cold, her body yielded up to pain,

  Her days a waste of weeping, she hath lain,

  Since first she knew that he was false. Her eyes

  Are lifted not; and all her visage lies

  In the dust. If friends will speak, she hears no more

  Than some dead rock or wave that beats the shore:

  Only the white throat in a sudden shame

  May writhe, and all alone she moans the name

  Of father, and land, and home, forsook that day

  For this man's sake, who casteth her away.

  Not to be quite shut out from home... alas,

  She knoweth now how rare a thing that was!

  Methinks she hath a dread, not joy, to see

  Her children near. 'Tis this that maketh me

  Most tremble, lest she do I know not what.

  Her heart is no light thing, and useth not

  To brook much wrong. I know that woman, aye,

  And dread her! Will she creep alone to die

  Bleeding in that old room, where still is laid

  Lord Jason's bed? She hath for that a blade

  Made keen[5]. Or slay the bridegroom and the king,

  And win herself God knows what direr thing?

  'Tis a fell spirit. Few, I ween, shall stir

  Her hate unscathed, or lightly humble her.

    Ha! 'Tis the children from their games again,

  Rested and gay; and all their mother's pain

  Forgotten! Young lives ever turn from gloom!

The CHILDREN and their ATTENDANT come in.

ATTENDANT[6]

     Thou ancient treasure of my lady's room,

  What mak'st thou here before the gates alone,

  And alway turning on thy lips some moan

  Of old mischances? Will our mistress be

  Content, this long time to be left by thee?

NURSE

  Grey guard of Jason's children, a good thrall

  Hath his own grief, if any hurt befall

  His masters. Aye, it holds one's heart!...

      Meseems

  I have strayed out so deep in evil dreams,

  I longed to rest me here alone, and cry

  Medea's wrongs to this still Earth and Sky[7].

ATTENDANT

  How? Are the tears yet running in her eyes?

NURSE

  'Twere good to be like thee!... Her sorrow lies

  Scarce wakened yet, not half its perils wrought.

ATTENDANT

Mad spirit!.. if a man may speak his thought

Of masters mad. — And nothing in her ears

Hath sounded yet of her last cause for tears!

He moves towards the house, but the NURSE checks him.

NURSE

What cause, old man?... Nay, grudge me not one word.

ATTENDANT

'Tis nothing. Best forget what thou hast heard.

NURSE

Nay, housemate, by thy beard! Hold it not hid

From me... I will keep silence if thou bid.

ATTENDANT

I heard an old man talking, where he sate

At draughts in the sun, beside the fountain gate,

And never thought of me, there standing still

Beside him. And he said, 'Twas Creon's will,

Being lord of all this land, that she be sent,

And with her her two sons, to banishment.

Maybe 'tis all false. For myself, I know

No further, and I would it were not so.

NURSE

Jason will never bear it-his own sons

Banished, — however hot his anger runs

Against their mother!

ATTENDANT

                      Old love burneth low

When new love wakes, men say. He is not now

Husband nor father here, nor any kin.

NURSE

But this is ruin! New waves breaking in

To wreck us, ere we are righted from the old!

ATTENDANT

Well, hold thy peace. Our mistress will be told

All in good time. Speak thou no word hereof.

NURSE

My babes! What think ye of your father's love?

God curse him not, he is my master still:

But, oh, to them that loved him, 'tis an ill

Friend...

ATTENDANT

  And what man on earth is different? How?

Hast thou lived all these years, and learned but now

That every man more loveth his own head

Than other men's? He dreameth of the bed

Of this new bride, and thinks not of his sons.

NURSE

Go: run into the house, my little ones:

All will end happily!.. Keep them apart:

Let not their mother meet them while her heart

Is darkened. Yester night I saw a flame

Stand in her eye, as though she hated them,

And would I know not what. For sure her wrath

Will never turn nor slumber, till she hath...

Go: and if some must suffer, may it be

Not we who love her, but some enemy!

VOICE(within).

Oh shame and pain: O woe is me!

Would I could die in my misery!

The CHILDREN and the ATTENDANT go in.

NURSE

Ah, children, hark! She moves again

      Her frozen heart, her sleeping wrath.

      In, quick! And never cross her path,

Nor rouse that dark eye in its pain;

That fell sea-spirit, and the dire

      Spring of a will untaught, unbowed.

      Quick, now! — Methinks this weeping cloud

Hath in its heart some thunder-fire,

Slow gathering, that must flash ere long.

      I know not how, for ill or well,

      It turns, this uncontrollable

Tempestuous spirit, blind with wrong.

VOICE(within)

Have I not suffered[8]? Doth it call

No tears?.. Ha, ye beside the wall

Unfathered children, God hate you

As I am hated, and him, too,

      That gat you, and this house and all!

NURSE

For pity! What have they to do,

Babes, with their father's sin? Why call

      Thy curse on these?... Ah, children, all

These days my bosom bleeds for you.

Rude are the wills of princes: yea,

      Prevailing alway, seldom crossed,

      On fitful winds their moods are tossed:

'Tis best men tread the equal way.

Aye, not with glory but with peace

      May the long summers find me crowned:

      For gentleness-her very sound

Is magic, and her usages.

All wholesome: but the fiercely great

      Hath little music on his road,

      And falleth, when the hand of God

Shall move, most deep and desolate.

During the last words the LEADER of the Chorus[9] has entered. Other women follow her.

LEADER

I heard a voice and a moan,

A voice of the eastern seas:

Hath she found not yet her ease?

              Speak, O aged one.

For I stood afar at the gate,

          And there came from within a cry,

And wailing desolate.

          Ah, no more joy have I,

For the griefs this house doth see,

And the love it hath wrought in me.

NURSE

There is no house! 'Tis gone. The lord

      Seeketh a prouder bed: and she

Wastes in her chamber, not one word

      Will hear of care or charity.

VOICE(within)

O Zeus, O Earth, O Light,

Will the fire not stab my brain?

            What profiteth living? Oh,

            Shall I not lift the slow

            Yoke, and let Life go,

As a beast out in the night,

          To lie, and be rid of pain?

CHORUS

Some Women

A.

        "O Zeus, O Earth, O Light:"

         The cry of a bride forlorn

         Heard ye, and wailing born

             Of lost delight?

B.

Why weariest thou this day,

Wild heart, for the bed abhorred,

The cold bed in the clay?

Death cometh though no man pray,

Ungarlanded, un-adored.

Call him not thou.

C.

If another's arms be now

Where thine have been,

On his head be the sin:

Rend not thy brow!

D.

All that thou sufferest,

God seeth: Oh, not so sore

Waste nor weep for the breast

That was thine of yore.

VOICE(within).

Virgin of Righteousness,

Virgin of hallowed Troth,

Ye marked me when with an oath

I bound him; mark no less

That oath's end. Give me to see

Him and his bride, who sought

My grief when I wronged her not,

Broken in misery,

And all her house... O God,

My mother's home, and the dim

Shore that I left for him,

And the voice of my brother's blood.

NURSE

Oh, wild words[10]