] thou wilt be celebrated by crowds of matrons, as the preserver
{of their sons}. And shall I then, borne away by the winds, leave my
sister[7] and my brother,[8] and my father, and my Gods, and my native
soil? My father is cruel, forsooth; my country, too, is barbarous;[9] my
brother is still {but} an infant; the wishes of my sister are in my
favor. The greatest of the Gods is in possession of me. I shall not be
relinquishing anything great; I shall be pursuing what is great; the
credit of saving the youth of Greece,[10] acquaintance with a better
country, and cities, whose fame is flourishing even here, and the
politeness and the arts of their inhabitants; and the son of AEson, whom
I could be ready to take in exchange for {all} the things that the whole
world contains; with whom for my husband I shall both be deemed dear to
the Gods, and shall reach the stars with my head. Why say that I know
not what mountains[11] are reported to arise in the midst of the waves,
and that Charybdis, an enemy to ships, one while sucks in the sea, at
another discharges it; and how that Scylla, begirt with furious dogs, is
said to bark in the Sicilian deep? Yet holding him whom I love, and
clinging to the bosom of Jason, I shall be borne over the wide seas;
embracing him, naught will I dread; or if I fear anything, for my
husband alone will I fear. And dost thou, Medea, call this a marriage,
and dost thou give a plausible name to thy criminality? Do but consider
how great an offence thou art meditating, and, while {still} thou mayst,
fly from guilt."

{Thus} she said, and before her eyes stood Virtue, Affection, and
Modesty; and now Cupid turned his vanquished back. She was going to the
ancient altars of Hecate,[12] the daughter of Perses, which a shady
grove and the recesses of a wood concealed. And now she was resolved,
and her passion being checked, had subsided; when she beheld the son of
AEson, and the extinguished flame revived. Her cheeks were covered with
blushes, and her whole face was suffused with a glow. As a spark is wont
to derive nourishment from the winds, which, but small when it lay
concealed beneath the ashes cast over it, {is wont} to increase, and
aroused, to rise again to its original strength, so her love, now
declining, which you would suppose was now growing languid, when she
beheld the youth, was rekindled with the appearance of him before her
eyes. And by chance, on that day, the son of AEson was more beauteous