Summary

Noting that love involves men in dishonor and disgrace, the chorus prays the land of Cyprus uses discernment to assort the matings of women, and they also pray that they are never exiled as that is an intolerable existence. Aegeus, King of Athens, visits Medea, informing her that he has just come from the oracle of Phoebus where he enquired about how to father children since he is still childless, but he does not understand the oracle’s advice. When Aegeus asks why Medea is so sad, she informs him of Jason’s betrayal, and Aegeus sympathizes with her resentment, unable to believe that Jason is allowing Creon to exile Medea and her sons. Medea tells Aegeus that she knows potions to cause his wife to conceive if he will receive her in Athens, and Aegeus agrees on the stipulation that she...