AEGEUS, MEDEA, CHORUS.

AEG.  Medea, hail! for no one hath known a more honorable salutation to address to friends than this.

MED. Hail thou also, son of the wise Pandion, AEgeus, coming from what quarter dost thou tread the plain of this land?

AEG.  Having left the ancient oracle of Phoebus.

MED. But wherefore wert thou sent to the prophetic centre of the earth?

AEG.  Inquiring of the God how offspring may arise to me?

MED. By the Gods, tell me, dost thou live this life hitherto childless?

AEG.  Childless I am, by the disposal of some deity.

MED. Hast thou a wife, or knowest thou not the marriage-bed!

AEG.  I am not destitute of the connubial bed.

MED. What then did Apollo tell thee respecting thy offspring?

AEG.  Words deeper than a man can form opinion of.

MED. Is it allowable for me to know the oracle of the God?

AEG.  Certainly, inasmuch as it needs also a deep-skilled mind.

MED. What then did he say?  Speak, if I may hear.

AEG.  That I was not to loose the projecting foot of the vessel—­

MED. Before thou didst what, or came to what land?

AEG.  Before I revisit my paternal hearth.

MED. Then as desiring what dost thou direct thy voyage to this land?

AEG.  There is one Pittheus, king of the country of Trazene.

MED. The most pious son, as report says, of Pelops.

AEG.  To him I wish to communicate the oracle of the God.

MED. For he is a wise man, and versed in such matters.

AEG.  And to me at least the dearest of all my friends in war.

MED. Mayest thou prosper, and obtain what thou desirest.

AEG.  But why is thine eye and thy color thus faded?

MED. AEgeus, my husband is the worst of all men.

AEG.  What sayest thou? tell me all thy troubles.

MED. Jason wrongs me, having never suffered wrong from me.

AEG.  Having done what? tell me more clearly.

MED. He hath here a wife besides me, mistress of the house.

AEG.  Hath he dared to commit this disgraceful action?

MED. Be assured he has; but we his former friends are dishonored.

AEG.  Enamored of her, or hating thy bed?

MED. [Smitten with] violent love indeed, he was faithless to his friends.

AEG.  Let him perish then, since, as you say, he is a bad man.

MED. He was charmed to receive an alliance with princes.

AEG.  And who gives the bride to him? finish the account, I beg.

MED. Creon, who is monarch of this Corinthian land.

AEG.  Pardonable was it then that thou art grieved, O lady.

MED. I perish, and in addition to this am I banished from this land.

AEG.  By whom? thou art mentioning another fresh misfortune.