Medea Quotes

“Jason: Anything you or the children want in exile, let me know; I’ll gladly furnish it … Medea: The presents of the wicked are pure poison.”

“Chorus: If only Apollo, Prince of the lyric, had put in our hearts the invention Of music and songs for the lyre Wouldn’t I then have raised up a feminine paean To answer the epic of men?”

“Jason: But, Medea, what is this -- these dewy eyes, these tears; … Medea: It is nothing. I was just thinking of our sons.”

“Medea: Well, suppose they are dead: … will any man afford me home in a country safe for living…?”

“Medea: I had rather stand my ground three times among the shields than face a childbirth once.”

“Chorus: Woman of stone, heart of iron, Disconsolate woman, ready to kill The seed of your hands with the hand that tilled.”

“Medea: Of all creatures that can feel and think, we women are the worst treated things alive.”

“Medea: we (women) bid the highest price in dowries just to buy some man to be dictator of our bodies… How that compounds the wrong!”

“Medea: Oh, what misery! … Cursed sons, and a mother for cursing! Death take you all – you and your father … Nurse: Why make the sons share in their father’s guilt?”

“Medea: Divorce is a disgrace (at least for women), to repudiate the man, not possible.”

“Chorus: One day the story will change: then shall the glory of women resound… Reversing at last the sad reputation of ladies.”

“Medea: how I bless you both… not here—beyond… every blessing here you father has despoiled.”

“Medea: In point of fact, my knowledge does not amount to much.”

“Nurse: Yes, now (Medea) knows at a terrible first hand what it is to miss one’s native land.”

“Medea: Because I have a little knowledge, some are filled with jealousy, others think me secretive, and crazy. ”

“Nurse: (Medea) might be a rock or wave or the sea, for all she heeds of sympathy from friends, except sometimes to…moan to herself about her father--whom she loved--and her country and the home she sacrificed.”

“Jason: I wanted above all to let us live in comfort, not be poor.”

“Nurse: She never would have baited Pelias’ daughters to the murder of their father.”

“Medea: I agree, of course, that a foreigner should conform, adapt to his society.”

“Jason: So…this is not the first time I have seen irrevocable damage done by a barbarous rage.”