When she had ended these words, there came Jason telling her that she did not well to be thus angry, and that she had brought upon herself this trouble of banishment by idle words against the rulers of the land; but that nevertheless he would have a care for her, and see that she wanted nothing needful.  But when Medea heard him so speak, she burst out upon him in great fury, calling to mind how she had saved him once again from the bulls that breathed fire from their nostrils and from the great dragon that guarded the fleece of gold, and how she had done the old man Pelias to death for his sake; “and now,” she said, “whither shall I go? who will receive me? for I have made enemies of my kinsfolk on account of thee, and now thou forsakest me.  O Zeus! why can we discern false money from the true, but as for men, when we would know which is the good and which the bad, there is no mark by which we may know them?”

But to this Jason answered that if she had saved him in time past, she had done it of necessity, being compelled by love; and that he had made her a full recompense, taking her from a barbarous land to the land of Greece, where men lived by law and not by the will of the stronger and causing her to be highly reputed of for wisdom among the people of the land.  “And as to this marriage,” he said, “for which thou blamest me, I have made it in prudence and in care for thee and for thy children.  For being an exile in this city, what could I do better than marry the daughter of the King?  Nor is my heart turned from thee or from thy children.  Only I have made provision against poverty, and that I might rear my sons in such fashion as befitted their birth.  And now if thou needest aught in thy banishment, speak; for I would give thee provision without grudging, and also commend thee to such friends as I have.”

“Keep thy gifts and thy friends,” she said, “to thyself.  There is no profit in that which cometh from such hands as thine.”

So Jason went his way; and when he was departed there came AEgeus, King of Athens, who had been on a journey to inquire of the god at Delphi, for he was childless, and would fain have a son born to him.  But he understood not what the god had answered, and was now on his way to King Pittheus of Troezen, a man learned in such matters, that he might interpret the thing to him.  And when he saw that Medea had been weeping, he would know what ailed her.  Then she told him how her husband was false to her, marrying a new wife, even the daughter of the king of the land, and how she was on the point to be banished, and her children with her.  And when she saw that these things displeased King AEgeus, she said—­

“Now, my lord, I beseech thee to have pity on me, nor suffer me to wander homeless and friendless, but receive me into thy house.  So may the Gods grant thee thy desire that thou mayest have a son to reign after thee.  And indeed I have such knowledge in these matters that I can help thee myself.”