Quotes from Euripides Medea
Quote
Explanation: Provide some notes about the context
of the quote. Who are they talking to? What are they
saying? What happened before and after?
Nurse: They have frightening natures, those of royal
blood; because, I imagine, they’re seldom overruled
and generally have their way, they do not easily
forget a grudge. 119-122
Chorus: She calls upon the gods to witness how
unjustly she is treated, on Themis, child of Zeus,
protectress of oaths, who brought her over the salty
depths by night to where Greece faces the waters
that lock the boundless Euxine. 208-212
Medea: And so there is one small kindness I ask of
you, if I devise some ways and means of making my
husband pay for this suffering of mine: your silence.
Women are timid creatures for the most part,
cowards when it comes to fighting and as the sight
of steel; but wrong a women in love and nothing on
earth has a heart more murderous. 260-264
Creon: I am afraid of you . . .
You are a clever woman, versed in evil arts
And are angry at having lost your husband's love.I
hear that you are threatening, so they tell me,To do
something against my daughter and Jason. And me
too. (281-290)
Creon:. . . by showing mercy I have often been the
loser.Even now I know that I am making a mistake.
(349-350)
Medea: Do you think that I would ever have fawned
on that man. Unless I had some end to gain or profit
in it? (367-369)
Medea: Pain and sorrow I will give them for this
marriage, pain for this union and this exile they have
forced upon me! 399-400
Jason: In the first place, instead of an uncivilized
country your dwelling is now the land of Greece,
where you have come to know justice and the use of
law, instead of being subject to force.536- 539
Chorus Leader: Jason, you have set out your
arguments skilfully and plausibly; it is my view,
however, though I may surprise you with these
words, that you have betrayed your wife and are
behaving unjustly. 577-580
Medea is pleading with Creon to give her more
time before her exile. Against his better
judgement he gives it to her, already prophesising
the outcome.
Medea talking about how she manipulated Creon
to give her more time to benefit herself by
carrying out her plan to punish Jason.
Medea: The gifts of a bad man bring no good with
them. 618
Medea: And when I have ruined the whole of
Jason's house,I shall leave the land and flee from the
murder of myDear children, and I shall have done a
dreadful deed.
For it is not bearable to be mocked by enemies.So it
must happen. What profit have I in life?I have no
land, no home, no refuge from my pain.Let no one
think me a weak one, feeble-spirited,A stay at home,
but rather just the opposite,One who can hurt my
enemies and help my friends; For the lives of such
persons are most remembered. (795-810)
Medea: You see, my friends, to suffer the mockery
of my enemies is something I will not tolerate. 798
Medea: I know, indeed, the evil of that I purpose;
buy my inclination gets the better of my judgement
1078
Jason: You women standing here beside the house,
is she in this house, the arch criminal, Medea, or has
she fled from Corinth? For she must either hide
herself below the earth or soar on wings into the
vault of heavens if she is to escape the vengeance of
the royal house. 1295
Jason: She will be paid in kind by the victims of her
misdeeds, but I fear for my children and am here to
save them from any harm the king’s relatives may
intend them should they seek to avenge their
mother’s impious act of murder. 1301
Jason: I curse you! Now I see it clear but what a fool
I was before, when I brought you from the house of
yours in a barbarous land to a home in Greece, a
deadly passenger who had betrayed your father and
the country that reared you. The spirit of vengeance
for your crimes has been sent by the gods to punish
me 1329
Jason: May you be struck down by our children’s
avenging curse and Justice who punishes murder!
1390
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