She goes into the house; and a moment later the shrieks of the children are heard. They have hardly ceased when Jason rushes in, bent on carrying off his sons before the king’s avengers can capture them. A woman warns him of what is passing within; and as the agonized father bursts open the door of the house, Medea appears on the roof, in the dragon-chariot of the Sun, with the poor dead bodies lying at her feet. There is something weird in this touch of the supernatural; but there is something symbolic too. For Medea is a woman no longer: with her own hand, driven by foul wrong and an untamed heart, she has cast humanity away.
We need not follow to the end the last clash of the two bitter spirits. Jason pleads piteously for one poor boon: “Give me the dead to weep and make their grave.” But the fury that has smitten him is inexorable.
“_Never! Myself will lay them in a still Green sepulchre.... ... For thee, behold, death draweth on, Evil and lonely, like thine heart: the hands Of thine own Argo, rotting where she stands, Shall smite thine head in twain, and bitter be To the last end thy memories of me._“[31]
From Dr. A. S. Way’s translation of the _Argonautica_ (Dent and Sons Ltd.).
From Professor Gilbert Murray’s translation of the _Medea_ (George Allen & Co. Ltd.).
The _Hippolytus_ of Euripides, to which we turn for the story of Phædra, is frequently called the earliest love-tragedy in European literature. That is to say, it is the first to deal fully and frankly with the power of love toward tragic issues. This can hardly be said about the _Medea_, for that drama is only the last incident of a story wherein love has been changed to hatred; and the motive is revenge. But in the _Hippolytus_ the story is unfolded from its inception; and Phædra’s passion is found to be the force that moves the whole action of the tragedy. This fact has a peculiar attraction for the modern mind; but the drama has other claims upon us too. First, for its sheer beauty, as poetry and as dramatic art of a special type; then, for its accurate study of character, three people at least gripping our interest as complete and convincing human creatures; and again, for its lofty tone and a reflective element which, though characteristically original, is calm and clear. But the most wonderful fact of all is the surprising contrast between the nature of the theme and the austere beauty of the drama which has been built upon it.