EPISODE III
Aigeus, king of Athens, enters with a royal entourage.
Aigeus
Medea, hello. For no one knows a better way
than this to address friends and wish them well.
Medea
Hello to you too, Aigeus, son of Pandion
the wise. What brings you to this country?
Aigeus
I have just come from the time-honored oracle of Phoebus Apollo.
Medea
And why did you visit the oracular navel of the world?
Aigeus
To ask how I might get a child.
Medea
Dear gods, are you still childless at your time of life?
Aigeus
Yes, we are childless, through an affliction from some deity.
Medea
Do you have a wife or do you keep a celibate bed?
Aigeus
I share my bed with my wife.
Medea
What then did Phoebus tell you about children?
Aigeus
Words wiser than a man can understand.
Medea
Are you permitted to share with me the god's message?
Aigeus
Oh yes, since it needs a discerning mind.
Medea
What then did the oracle respond? Tell me if I am allowed to hear.
Aigeus
Not to loose the projecting foot of my wine sack ...
Medea
Until after you do what? Or reach what country?
Aigeus
Until I come again to my own home.
Medea
Why then are you passing through this country?
Aigeus
There is a man named Pittheus, king of Trozen ...
Medea
The son, it is said, of Pelops, a most god-fearing man.
Aigeus
I want to communicate the god's oracle to him.
Medea
Yes, for he is a prudent man and skilled in such things.
Aigeus
And he is, besides, the most friendly of my allies.
Medea
May you fare well, and gain your heart's desire.
Aigeus
But why do I see your face and complexion so wasted?
Medea
Aigeus, my husband is the world's most wicked man.
Aigeus
What are you saying? Tell me clearly why you are downcast.
Medea
Jason wrongs me though I have done nothing to him.
Aigeus
What has he done? Tell me everything.
Medea
He has taken a new wife, to be mistress of his house over me.
Aigeus
He would not have dared such a despicable act.
Medea
You may be sure he did. And we who were loved before are now rejected.
YOU ARE READING
Medea (Euripedes)
Ficción histórica[Play] "The mind of a queen Is a thing to fear. A queen is used To giving commands, not obeying them; And her rage once roused is hard to appease."
