A monologue from the play by Euripides
NOTICE: This monologue is reprinted from The Plays of Euripides in English, vol. ii. Trans. Shelley Dean Milman. London: L. M. Reduction & Daughters, 1922.
MEDEA: From my own apartment, en Corinthian filles
Lest ye my conduct censure, I come forth:
For I have known complete many who obtained
Celebrity and substantial rank, some to the open public gaze
Was ever on, while others, in a sphere
More distant, chose their merits to display:
Neither yet a couple of, who, studious of oubli
Have with malignant obloquy been referred to as
Devoid of spirit: for simply no human sight
Can form a just discernment, at one glance
Prior to the inmost secrets of the cardiovascular
Are evidently known, a bitter hate \gainst him
Who hardly ever wronged us they too oft inspire.
Although \tis a stranger\s obligation to adopt
The manners with the land by which he dwells
Nor may i praise that native, led astray
By simply mere perverseness and o\erweening folly
Who have bitter enmity incurs coming from those
Of his very own city. But , alas! my friends
This unforseen calamity hath withered
The vigour of my soul. I was undone
Bereft of every joy that your life can yield
And therefore desire to die. For as to him
My husband, which it would import me personally most
To have a thorough knowledge of, he proves
The most detrimental of men. But sure among all individuals
Who have with breath and reason recently been endued
We women are the most miserable race.
1st, with abundant gold are we limited
To buy a husband, and in him get
A haughty master. Nonetheless doth there remain
1 mischief than this mischief yet even more grievous
The hazard whether we procure a mate
Worthless or virtuous: to get divorces deliver
Reproach to woman, nor must the lady renounce
The person she wedded, as for her who comes
Where usages and edicts, which at home
She learned not, are established, the lady the gift idea
Of necromancy needs to teach her just how
A hubby must be picked: if aright
These duties we carry out, and this individual the yoke
Of wedlock with complacency sustains
Ours is a content life, but once we are unsuccessful
In this great object, better \twere to die.
Pertaining to, when afflicted by domestic problems
A man will go forth, his choler to appease
Also to some friend or comrade can expose
What this individual endures, nevertheless we to him alone
For succour must research. They even now contend
We, at home outstanding, lead a life
Not impacted by danger, although they start the spear:
False will be these judgments, rather will I thrice
Armed with a target, in th\ embattled field
Preserve my stand, than undergo once the throes
Of labor. But this language meets not you:
This is the native city, the abode
Of your cherished parents, every single comfort life
Can produce is at hand, and along with your friends
You here converse: but My spouse and i, forlorn, and left
With out a home, i am by that husband scorned
Who taken me via a Churl realm.
Nor mother, buddy, or connection now
Have I, to whom I \midst these thunder or wind storms of woe
Like an auspicious haven, can repair.
So far I as a result crave en will espouse
My pursuits, as if haply any means
Or any stratagem can be invented
For me with justice to avenge these wrongs
On my perfidious spouse, on the king
Who to that particular husband\s forearms his daughter gave
And the new-wedded queen, to observe
Strict silence. For although at other times
A woman, stuffed with terror, can be unfit
Pertaining to battle, or to face the lifted sword
She the moment her spirit by relationship wrongs is definitely fired
Thirsts with a trend unparalleled pertaining to blood.
