object:Medea - A Vergillian Cento
author class:Hosidius Geta
subject class:Poetry
class:Cento
translator class:Joseph J. Mooney
class:chapter
(1919)
MEDEA: A VERGILLIAN CENTO
Hosidius Geta
c. 203 CE
trans. Joseph J. Mooney (1919)
A popular ancient parlor game in late Antiquity was to construct new poems out of borrowed lines and half-lines taken from the works of
Vergil and rearranged to speak on a new topic. The earliest surviving cento (and one of the longest) is the Medea of HOSIDIUS GETA, who
flourished around the turning of the second into the third century CE. Unfortunately, all that is known of Geta is that Tertullian read
his work ("Hosidius Geta hath most completely extracted from Virgil the tragedy of Medea" [De Praescriptione Haereticorum 14.39, trans.
C. Dogson, 1842]). The story, of Medea was, of course, by this point well-known in Rome through such works as Seneca's Medea, and there
is little here not found there, but it is an interesting composition nonetheless, though more for its style than its content.
DRAMATIS PERSONAE
CREON, King of Corinth
JASON, the husband of Medea
Jason’s attendant
Messenger
Medea’s son
Ghost of Absyrtus
MEDEA, the wife of Jason, whom he casts aside in order to marry the daughter of Creon
Her nurse
Chorus of Colchian women
SCENE--AT CORINTH
Enter MEDEA
Medea. O Sun be thou my witness now, and Earth
At my entreaty witness this, and ye
Avenging Furies and, from Saturn sprung
O Juno, thou. I fly to thee, for they
Assert that thou dost rights to wedlock give.
If old affection doth at all regard
Our human labours, then our effort aid,
O kindly Venus. Whosoe'er the god
That lookest down on this with kindly eyes,
Receive these words and turn thy wrath deserved
On evil deeds! Deserted, what shall be
My first lament? Our marriage and the gods
O' th' hearth besprinkled with a brother's blood
He's cast aside. What benefit to me
Has been the Syrtes, Scylla, or the vast
Charybdis, aye, or through the midst of foes
To have pursued our flight? O wicked Love,
What dost thou not the hearts of mortals force
To do? Thou forcest them to tolerate
A foreign lord's commands, to pass again
Through mishaps, and again to fall to tears,
But he's by no amount of weeping moved;
Beneath his breast there creaks a deep-thrust wound.
My chastity is lost, and broken is
The ruthless monarch's covenant, and he's
Forgetful of a lover's better fame,
Or else has been forgetful of his own.
My tears are shed in vain. Undoubted faith
Is nowhere to be found and cruel, he
Has mocked his loving wife with idle hope.
Why thus doth he requite my maidenhead,
Unless he's seeking someone else's land,
And houses not to him at present known?
Ah piety, ah faith of olden times!
A captive woman I shall see the queen
In bedroom lingering in purple bright--
But not indeed escaping punishment
If aught of power my incantations hold.
CHORUS OF COLCHIAN WOMEN
O thou to whom the highest power
Of all the universe belongs,
If thou wilt yield to any prayers
And if by piety we may
Deserve it, then our effort aid.
And Juno, Saturn's daughter, thou
Whose care the ties of marriage are,
Dost see these things with kindly eyes?
O Dian, guardian of the groves,
Invoked with cries at night throughout
The cities where the roads are forked,
Dost thou for thrones reserve us thus?
O handsomest of husbands how
Couldst thou thus leave her desolate,
O man from dangers snatched away
In vain, amid the turning points
So many of thy past career?
For deep in mind remaineth stored
How he with valiant heart and arms
[Has sailed upon the open sea
And has from 'mid the foe reta'en]
A dowry [i.e. the Golden Fleece] which was bought with blood.
Ah fortunate, too fortunate,
While god and fate did that allow!
Ah lost one, yet thou'rt ignorant!
What madness has deluded thee
To dangers to expose thy life?
Were these the last things waiting us?
Were fires and altars this to bring?
Now pay attention to our plan
And snatch the sword from out its sheath
And turn aside thy grief with steel.
Enter CREON
Creon. O woman who art wandering within
Our territories as an enemy,
By sail your course divert; for neither are
Thy city and thy hateful race and spells
Maleficent unknown to us. Let not
Thy hostile face intrude and spoil our signs.
Medea. No stratagems are here, nor insolence
So great in conquered folks, and not in mind
Of mine is vigour such, nor have I thus So To battles come.
Creon. The news has not escaped
My ears as thou dost think, from whence thou dost
Derive thy race, an ever changeable
And fickle one. United brethren canst
Thou arm to strife, canst fun'ral torches bring
On men and canst encircle them with flame,
With branches in thy hand canst plead for peace,
Yet backward turn the stars and overturn
Our homes with hate. Thou hast a thousand names,
A thousand silent arts of injuring,
A heart exuberant in punishments,
And known it is what frenzied woman can.
Depart from these localities and spread
In flight thy sails upon the open sea.
Medea. O king, illustrious the race that's thine,
It is permissible for thee to be
Admonished by my voice. Of many things
A few to thee I'll mention, seeing that
An opportunity has offered, though
It is within thy right to threaten arms
And death to me. In wedlock don't desire
To join thy daughter, it will benefit
Thee later to remember this. Annul
The compact that's been made: commiserate
Thine own.
Creon. Don't conjure up such terrors great
For me, nor follow me with omen dire,
Thou weav'st in vain a chain of idle pleas,
His day is fixed for each. Whate'er is held
By th' law of Fate the dwellers in the sky
Themselves do not avail to cleave with steel.
Nor is my resolution altered now,
Nor doth it from the post it's ta'en withdraw.
Medea. I've no ill-will towards thy son-in-law
And nuptials worthy him. No longer do
I plead the ancient marriage which he has
Forsworn: 'tis time alone that I request,
And grant me leave to draw my ships ashore.
This final favour do I beg. Assist
A woman left alone, commiserate
A mother while the winter on the sea
Doth rage! O father we as well have borne
Some reputation and distinction too,
And thou thyself dost know it, nor can aught
Deceive thee. Now we vanquished, sad, (because
The wheel of Fortune turneth everything)
Upon the earth submissive fall and ask
A harmless strip of land, the violence
Of anyone may not subdue thee there.
Creon. Why seekest thou for pretexts such against
Myself, and for the ruin of my folks?
Whate'er it is I fear the prophecies
Of former seers. Now come! Cut short delays!
How long does it become me to be kept?
Medea. But whom are we to follow? Whither dost
Thou bid us go? Or where to place our homes?
Creon. To thy dear father's sight and presence
Would bid thee go, while fears are unfulfilled
And while uncertain is the future's hope.
Medea. What love consisteth of I now do know!
We're e'en denied the welcome of the sand,
Nor is there any hope of flight nor power
To go from here, for battered are my ships,
And sons, a pair of them, I have in arms,
And icy winter with the north wind's blasts
Doth ruffle up the waves. If any show
Of piety so great do move thee not,
For not beyond a single night resign
Thyself to hospitality! Oh let
Me have this hope of thine, I'll bolder go!
Creon. And now at length have done. What thou with all
Thy wit hast sought I grant, and saying it
Again and yet again will warning give—
If dawn shall find thee ling'ring in this land
A single life for many shall be given. [Exit Creon.
A VOICE within is heard.
Voice. O maiden wedded to a worthy lord
Thou shalt be dowered. Torches quickly bring,
Ye men engaged to lead her from her room.
Then do ye all be well disposed in speech,
With twigs and leaves of trees your temples wreathe.
CHORUS
We deck us with a wreath of leaves
Throughout the city, and with vows
We kindle altars. Ah! ye hearts
Unmindful of the prophecies
Of former predicants of yours,
Of fate, and of your future lot!
Deluded much by empty hope
He slaughters sheep as is the wont
To Phoebus, and to Bacchus who
From care delivers, and to her
Whose care the bonds of wedlock are,
And piles their altars with his gifts.
When on a sudden everything
Appeared to tremble, fibres too
Of import threatening appeared,
A hollow voice is to my ears
Inborne, "No trust do thou repose
In bridal chambers all prepared,
A cruel funeral thou'lt see!"
The limbs of men were taking rest,
And sleep possessed the animals;
With funereal song the owl
Doth into wailing draw its notes,
It thus denounces sullen wrath.
O citizens what frenzy great
Has seized you that you have your brows
With leafy chaplets covered o'er?
Ye men who are engaged to lead
Her from her bedroom have, I beg,
Compassion on your sov'reign lord!
[And we have been admonished not
Contemptuously to treat the gods.]
Reclining 'neath a canopy
Of beech the shepherd with a song
Divine to contests challenges
The gods: he hung from leafy bough.
What madness has deluded thee,
O shepherd, from the boulder's top
In singing Phoebus to surpass
Though by Minerva's skill divine?
He hastily doth cleave the sky
With wings, as, fleeing from the realm
Of Minos, to the sky he dared
To trust himself, and leaves his life
Amid the breezes o'er the sea.
Beside himself doth Pentheus see
The bands of Maenads, mothers fired
In heart, he calls the cruel bands
Of sisters to a saner mind:
His head was torn from neck away
The man they scatter through the fields.
Enter NURSE
Medea. Behold! of what avail is what I do,
What utterance o' th' mob doth reach my ears?
Amazed I was, and love adverse doth flow
With monstrous tide of wrath: it wearies me
To look upon the vault of heaven. What more
Could I, unfortunate, accomplish? I,
Who into everything myself have turned,
Whom victim's fibres, stars of heaven, obey!
Alas! by Furies fired I'm borne along!
The favour of my deed doth stand. Through flames
And through a myriad aftercoming darts,
Through varied mishaps, through so many risks
Of things that man I've snatched away from death.
I've taken impious arms, I do confess.
But why, however, uselessly do I
Unroll these thankless things? What do I say?
Or where am I? The marriage contract now
Is ratified and all conditions are
Arranged. My wounds, I think, are left behind.
Nurse. The present time doth not demand such sights
As those, but mindful hear the words I say,
The consolations of thy lot severe,
And here and now within thine inmost soul
Receive my thought. Oh flee these cruel lands,
Oh flee in haste this avaricious shore.
Medea. O nurse to me so dear, the sea doth shut
Us with a barrier in, already land
Is lacking for our flight; the other part
O' th' Universe is ta'en away. From this
Their land the father and the son-in-law
Do recommend me now to get me gone.
Nurse. By evils don't be overcome, but thou
Against them must more boldly go, and thus
Thou mayest every toil both shun and bear.
For pardon do thou only ask the gods,
And suppliant do thou present thy gifts
Desiring peace, and causes of delay
Inweave with charms: and haply better things
Will follow in the track of wretched men.
Medea. Forgotten now by me are num'rous charms;
My voice is stifled in my throat: unmoved
My mind remains and by a hidden fire
Is wasted. Charms can even draw the moon
From heaven, stay the water in the streams,
From mountains drag the ash-trees. He himself
These herbs, these juices too, in Pontus cull'd
Did give to me. He careth nought for gods
And nought for charms.
Nurse. What plannest thou or with
What hope dost linger 'midst a hostile race?
Enter JASON and ATTENDANT
Jason. What ye with vows have sought is present here;
Ye must away with every fear. This house,
This country's yours, no surface of the sea
You need to plough. From heart dispell your dread.
You've gained the land at length through various risks:
Things having been accomplished well, refresh
Your bodies, men: you like to join in dance.
Attendant. From what doth come this trembling in the land?
By what compulsion do the deep seas swell?
Why hastes the sun so much to dip himself
I' th' ocean? What is fixed to happen know
I not: the air is thickened into mist.
Observe the nodding world with pond'rous vault,
And th' moon, to brother's rays indebted, rise.
Jason. A land imbued with poisons, Media bears
Some juices harsh, and one by them may snatch
A bridal bed away and in the bones
A fire implant. [medea comes forward] Now say why thou dost come,
And on that very spot restrain thy step.
Medea. I fly to thee, to bend thee with my prayers
O husband sweet! these things do happen not
Without the will o' th' gods. [And right it is
For us to make for realms outside of this.]
If weariness so great of praise of mine
Has seized thee, take as comrades of thy fate
These men, with them procure thy walls.
Jason. Dost not from here precipitately flee
While yet there is the power to haste, with day
Already somewhat near? Thou knowest not,
Ah, lost one, knowest not nor dost perceive
The dangers which thereafter circle thee.
Medea. This home as well we leave. To thee a wife
Is being brought. To whom is left thy sire,
To whom am I abandoned, once declared thy spouse?
And this is settled in thy mind, a throne
By way of dowry to thy liking is
And foreign bridal beds again. Dost flee
From me? And have I followed this by land
And sea? Is this my final toil? Is this
The goal of journeys long? Are these to be
Our hoped for triumphs, this our coming back?
What worth is now thy sacred faith? Again
The cruel Fates are summoning me back.
O man from so great dangers snatched in vain,
Dost flee from me? By these my tears, by thy
Regard if any for a girl beloved
Doth touch thy soul, and by the board to which
Thou camest a stranger, by our wedlock too And by the Hymeneal rites begun,
I do entreat thee, pity take upon
A soul enduring what is undeserved.
For what is there beside which now I can
Implore for aid? In Libyan waters thou
Thyself a witness lately wast to me:
The hollow rocks were then resounding far
With unremitting surge, and with the waves
So great arising from th' Ionian Sea:
The struggling winds and sounding tempests I
Suppressed, and th' monstrous rage of sky and sea.
Against the death of one unfortunate
And on behalf of all a single life
Did I oppose expecting this would be
A service to my love. But why do I
These devious things and lengthy prefaces
Unroll? About the sov'reign power I'm not
Concerned: I hoped for that what time I first
The bullocks strong and bulls exhaling fire
From out their nostrils to the plough did put,
And having sown the monstrous hydra's teeth
As seeds a host arose, and th' legion stood
Upon the open plain, and there a crop
Of darts with pointed javelins grew. Its head
An iron progeny did rear from fields
As hard. They wounds exchange between themselves
With mighty force, with missiles of their own
They're pierced, and through their breasts transfixed by wood
That's hard they in their wounds lay down their lives.
The branches with their gold upon a tree1
A mighty snake was guarding; hard it is
For any to endure the sight of him,
Of him unpleasant 'tis to speak. But he,
Enduring hand of mine, his monstrous back
Relaxes. Whirling round his flaming eyes
As he beheld me, down his drooping neck
He laid and courted sleep. If thee no fame
Of things so great doth move, if safety's ta'en
Away and Fortune has no backward step,
If country none there be which spouse of thine
To wretched ones may give—go, go, our pride!
A parent by her offspring meanwhile let
Thy spouse distinguished make thee, but I hope
With better auspices. Creiisa hence
I may be able to transport: at least,
If righteous deities avail for aught,
I hope that thou i' th' midst of rocks wilt drain
Thy punishment; thou'lt pay the penalty,
O villain, though thou little thinkest it,
Already things have duly been prepared.
Jason. Oh cease to aggravate thyself and me
With thy complaints. For I have gained my rest;
No surface of the sea I need to plough.
I had not hither come unless the Fates
Had granted me a place and settlement.
Medea. Alas! wilt thou endure so many toils
Expended uselessly, and doth the bull
Beneath the ploughshare smoking, Pelias
The monarch somewhat weighted down with years
And th' brazen cauldrons bubbling on the flames,
The scaly dragon and the dowry bought
With blood no longer come across thy mind?
And this I dared in realms thine own
Jason. These regions have no bulls exhaling fire
From out their nostrils [ploughed for th' planted teeth
Of monstrous hydra], nor the harvest field
With helmets bristled and the crowded spears
Of men, nor do our weapons purpose force. So
Dismiss this trouble therefore from thy breast.
Medea. But who had bidden thee, most impudent
Of men, to come to my abode? Didst come
There driven by the sea's uncertainties,
Or that my wretched brother's cruel death
Thou mightest see?
Jason. We, whether driven by
Uncertainty o' th' way or by the storms,
Have whither god and whither Fortune hard
Doth call us, followed. Into crime what god
Impelled thyself, what madness thee possessed
To both pollute thy hands and household gods
With brother's blood? Did I the weapons give?
Or did we bid thee cast his life to th' winds?
Or what unyielding sway is this of ours?
Medea. For me thou nought of pity hast, my spells
Thou carest nothing for: I'll make it come
To pass that after this thou no one dost
Excite with voice of thine. Nor darling sons
Nor Venus's rewards shalt thou possess.
Jason. Why pretexts seekest thou, and handiest
Thy bootless bickerings? And now farewell
Since now the better part o' th' day is spent.
Medea. Thy fortune use; the work begun complete.
Jason. The way to th' king is now the one for me;
And what I tell thee, that is what I mean.
[Exit Jason and attendant.
Medea. At all my weeping did he sigh, or did
He any pity show for one who loves?
And do we further hesitate? He left
Me weeping and desiring many things
To say, and swift he into th' house withdrew.
What benefit are toils and kindly deeds?
My melancholy fates do wearied lie.
O where is now that god who was to me
Instructor, where the love disquieted
By Furies, where my conscious fortitude?
For why do I dissemble, or for what
Far greater things do I reserve myself?
To meet anew all chances doth remain,
To spread my sails for journey back, and th' fir's
Again about to see the haps o' th' sea.
'Twill be without thee, brother; yet if mine
The powers are not, if those above to bend
I am unable, hell below I'll move. [Exit Medea.
CHORUS
She at the words doth into wrath
Outflame with love of raving Mars,
As used in Carthaginians' fields
The lioness with yellow neck
Hemmed by a ring of hunters in.
As fed on baneful herbage doth
A snake collect his length to coils,
Whom swollen, winter covered o'er,
His head for fights he's lifted high
And darts from mouth his triple tongue.
[As], being by the Furies vexed
Orestes [with his dart pursued]
His mother armed with burning brands,
Excited over all the plain
He driveth her, and close before
His father's altars takes her life.
As every third recurring year
To Bacchus through the city howled
The Maenad, at the crossing roads,
Amid the desert haunts of beasts,
With bloody garment gathered up
She calls the cruel sister's bands.
As 'neath the shade the nightingale
Distinguished by its bloody breast
With its complaints doth fill the parts
Around, lamenting doleful strains
Distress it solaced with its song.
[As wretched Orpheus] greviously
Doth rage by reason of his wife
At solitary Strymon's wave,
On thee he all alone did call
Upon its desert shore, thy soul
The while escaping if the gods
Below had knowledge to forgive.
Enter CREON and MESSENGER
Messenger. Oh whither am I borne? whence have I come?
For fear doth rend me, sweat has broken forth
On all my body and doth bathe my bones
And limbs. My knees are trembling, torpor cold
My sluggish eyes is weighing down. My hair
Doth stand from fear, my voice sticks in my throat.
Creon. In what position is the power o' th' state?
Whence rageth unrestrained this tempest loud
So suddenly? It's mingled every sea
With sky, the lightnings flash from riven clouds.
Then speak and true these things to me explain.
Messenger. I shudder while relating all the sad
Affairs that I myself have seen i' th' midst
O' th' house. With bloody garments gathered up
Nocturnal altars she inaugurates
And hearths i' th' midst, and strews the place with wreaths
And crowns herself with funereal leaves.
She twined her hair with bloody wreaths and freed
A foot from sandal, sprinkling honey moist
And water she had sprinkled which would seem
To be the fountain of Avernus's,
And rolling bloodshot eyes, with bloody hands
Instead of gentle violet and bark
Of Cassia and the crocus golden red,
Upon her brazier for a light i' th' night
She burns the perfumed cedar and the squill
And heavy hellebore and sulphur live,
Enshrouding real things in gloom, and forced
To tears, invoking Hecat with her voice,
And girt with steel she calls upon a god
Unmentionable.
These being uttered she her peace doth hold
And flashes fire from out her gleaming eyes,
Awaiting, ignorant of what's about to come,
The portents which they bring. Then suddenly
Do clouds remove the sky and day, and th' earth
From its foundations trembled; th'aether doth
With lightning flashes gleam. Immediately
Are voices heard and wailing loud; there seemed
To be a sound of feet at hand and swish
Of cruel lashes; then amid the gloom
The dogs appeared to howl as nearer came
The goddess, and the river terrified
Doth backward flow, and frightened mothers pressed
Their children to their breasts. And hereupon
Allecto, in Gorgonean poisons steeped,
Arises, brandishing her torch and out
She thunders, "Give thou heed to these my words
I'm present from th' abode of Sisters fell,
Within my hand I carry wars and death."
At length to her determining such things
She thus replied in turn: "Thou'rt come at last
To share the toil with me, O goddess, now
In person here do thou inspire my soul.
In sunder tear the pact arranged and sow
The crimes of war (for thou art able) if
I've always on thine honours care bestowed."
At words like these Allecto into rage
Outflamed, and hissing terribly she this
From raving mouth did add: "O sister mine,
Dismiss this care from out thy breast, and now
If thou art ready war to wage and mix
Their marriage rites with mourning, and to bring
The fun'ral torches in and wreathe with flame,
Whatever through my art is possible
'Tis only requisite to bear in mind;
As much as flames and blasts avail—desist
From praying for." She this had said and wings
She raises hissing with their snakes and seemed
To give her burning brands, departing from
The upper heights of air. The other guile
And wrath with its pursuing flames attached
To th' work she had in hand, a double crown
With gems and gold and scales of serpents bound:
A flame enfolds her flying off, and then
In blinding darkness doth she shroud the house,
The view removing from one's eyes: as one
Who either sees or thinks he saw among
The brambles rough an unexpected snake,
And fearful of the danger doth begin
To speak but neither voice nor words ensue
Was I. Enough to hear is this. Till when
Doth it become me to be kept? Depart,
And mindful bear these gleanings to the king. [Exeunt.
Enter MEDEA and NURSE
Nurse. He's hit by this. Presented to the great
Divinities this better victim is.
And let them celebrate such nuptial rites,
Such wedlock too, as theirs is like to be.
Medea. Do thou, O Nurse, my children's fun'ral pile
Erect, but with the greatest secrecy.
And thou thyself with sacred fillet bind
Thy brows, set fire to sacred branches rich
And dusky pitch. The rites to Stygian Jove,
Which duly entered on I have prepared,
It is my purpose to complete and put
An end to troubles.
Nurse. All the middle ones
O' th' crowd have drawn aside and left a space.
Enter MEDEA'S sons.
Medea. Ah! hated race and things to Fates of mine
Opposed! Come hither, O my handsome lad.
What spirit he possesses! Thus was he
To bear his eyes, his hands, his features wont!
And I could wish his faithless father might
Himself be present as spectator here.
Son. Forbear to criminate thy pious hands;
Or whither has thy love of us been driven?
If watchfulness of mother's rights disturb—
Thy children spare and take us off with thee
In spite of everything. However things
Befall, there then would be for each of us
A single common danger.
Enter The GHOST OF ABSYRTUS
Ghost. Look on me!
I from the dwelling of the sisters fell
Am present here: a hapless phantom I
My body all to pieces torn.
[A ghost I'll present be to thee in every place:
Thou'lt pay the penalty, O wicked one.]
[GHOST fades away.
Medea. [To herself] Why hesitatest thou? It must be dared
By my right hand. The thing itself now calls.
The author of what must be dared am I.
Exhaust your ingenuity. If I
Do ask for lawful things, if I with lips
Do claim a man for punishment there is
No guilt in slaying him, and love doth not
Regard such niceties.
Son. O bitter foe
Why dost thou rail about my doleful fate?
Medea. The weapons bring to me and put an end
To this distress. In blood our going back
Is to be sought.
Son. Does neither love of ours
Nor any justice soften thee, nor comes
It into mind of thine [to lead away
Thy little sons? No deities do press]
A mother with her children's blood to foul
Her hands. Has care of us forsaken thee,
590 And love been from a mother snatched away?
Medea. Your crime—'tis love and slighted beauty's
wrong—They've plunged you into these calamities. [Stabs him.
A brother shouldn't from a brother part. [Stabs the other also.
Enough of punishment has been secured
And through the foe a way is made, and I
With my right hand have sent the hated race
To lowest Tartarus. Now, now there need
Be no delay to drive my flying car. [Exeunt omnes.
Enter JASON and MESSENGER
Jason. Ah me! why are the walls disturbed with grief
So loud? Whate'er th' misfortune is, 'tis mine.
What finally awaits me? Say, for thou
To me before was not deceitful found.
Messenger. Behold! accomplished by thy spouse's art
The presents promised thee! Nor ask about
Thy people's monstrous grief. But if so great
A love within thy mind, so great desire
There is, thy fate I'll teach thee and unfold
In words. For when in view of all around
Upon the altars did she place her gifts
(Ah, hapless damsel!) with her beauteous eyes
Downcast, from every side together come
Through joyful portals men and matrons too
In crowds, and heap the altars with their gifts.
The pipe in th' worship of our fathers used
Its double strains doth give, when suddenly
Appears a portent wonderful to tell.
Behold! a swift destruction passes down
From th' highest portion of her frame and doth
Begin to scatter fire on all her clothes;
Her royal locks were fired, her crown was fired,
Her members followed and the sacred fire
Devoured her limbs. Companions scattered fly,
And each was these things fearing for herself.
They make for shelters in their fear, and thus
When stealthily they seek the hollowed rocks
The fire is raging unrestrained. Nor are
The strength of heroes and the streams upon
Her poured of use and, wretched to relate!
The arts they sought are but injurious.
Moreover that one1 through the peoples, through
The trackless parts, access doth seek, by art
That's new she watched the place, [she into th' clouds
Doth flee and harnessed dragons take upon
Themselves the chariot of their mistress, she
(A bright refulgence lighted up their scales)]
With equal coils of serpents fastened them,
And added wings of wind; with naked sword
She's lightly armed, her car was stained with blood.
Jason. O whither shall I follow thee? or what
Doth now remain at last for wretched me?
Me, me, for here am I who did the deed,
Together all your weapons hurl on me!
This life destroy by any kind of death.
Alas! I've been the cause of death to thee;
A woman was directress of the deed.
MEDEA appears above in her chariot drawn by flying dragons.
Medea. Now hither bend the gaze of both your eyes,
And lay our children's bodies in the grave;
Receive the final gifts of kin of thine,
And make a tomb and on it add the verse:
"Ferocious Love a mother taught to stain
Her hands with blood that's from her children twain,
With grief to mingle nuptials, and to stray
Above the winds of heaven in freer way."
Jason. O cruel mother, hast thou reckoned me
Deserving of so great a crime, and hast
Thou in their death defiled a father's eyes?
Arms, men, bring arms! serve out darts, mount the walls!
Medea. O whither dost thou rush to seek thy death?
The promised bridal-chambers don't forsake!
Encourager of crimes, now learn my mind,
If thou by either bravery or skill
Hast power, [if strength is fostered in thy breast,]
And if a kingdom's so much to thy heart
As dowry, [onward go as it behoves.
Perhaps a kingdom and a royal bride
May be prepared for thee, so banish tears
For thy beloved Creusa.
Jason. What dost thou
Contrive? or with what hope dost thou remain
I' th' chilly clouds? The final moment's come.
Devoid of wit hadst thou the hope that thou
Couldst reach on wings the lofty stars desired,
Or hide thyself enclosed in hollow earth,
And that thou thus wert able to annul
The infamy of evil doings old?
Medea. This was the only way, this was the last
Awaiting me to set a bound to hurts.
Enough to Venus and the Fates is given.
I'm borne away an exile on the deep,
My brother shunning, and unlucky darts,
Beyond the pathways of the year and sun.
Then what remains at last? O handsome one,
And whosoe'er shall either fear the sweets
Or taste the sours of love, a long farewell!
FINIS
Source: Hosidius Geta, Hosidius Geta's Tragedy "Medea": A Vergillian Cento, trans. Joseph J. Mooney (Birmingham: Cornish Brothers, Ltd.,
1919).
questions, comments, suggestions/feedback, take-down requests, contribute, etc
contact me @ integralyogin@gmail.com or via the comments below
or join the integral discord server (chatrooms)
if the page you visited was empty, it may be noted and I will try to fill it out. cheers