Medea

Medea is overjoyed at the unexpected good fortune of her run-in with Aegeus. His promise of safe harbor in Athens will provide cover for any crimes she commits, and she immediately plots the details of her revenge.

She will act like she has accepted the situation to Jason and will suggest the children stay with him in Corinth, if possible. Her sons will be “the bait [she’ll] use to trap / and kill the princess bride”; Medea will send them to the princess with a poisoned dress and diadem, purportedly marriage gifts from Medea (773-74). The next part is significantly more difficult, but Medea is determined. She decides that to bring down Jason’s house once and for all, she must kill their children: “Who then will dare to say I’m weak or timid? / No, they’ll say I’m loyal as a friend, ruthless / as a foe, so much like a hero destined for glory” (800-2).

Dismayed, the Chorus is compelled by “the laws of man” to urge her to stop, but Medea has made up her mind and sends the Nurse to fetch Jason (804). The Chorus laments that Aegeus’s Athens, a city blessed by the gods and renowned for its excellence in the arts, will soon admit a kin-slayer (815-39).