let her head
sink on to her breast. Then they both made piteous lamentation over each
other, and through the halls rose the faint sound of women weeping in
anguish. Medea, sore troubled, first addressed her sister:

"God help thee, what healing can I bring thee for what thou speakest of,
horrible curses and Furies? Would that it were firmly in my power to
save thy sons! Be witness that mighty oath of the Colchians by which
thou urgest me to swear, the great Heaven, and Earth beneath, mother of
the gods, that as far as strength lies in me, never shalt thou fail of
help, if only thy prayers can be accomplished."

She spake, and Chalciope thus replied: "Couldst thou not then, for the
stranger--who himself craves thy aid--devise some trick or some wise
thought to win the contest, for the sake of my sons? And from him has
come Argus urging me to try to win thy help; I left him in the palace
meantime while I came hither."

Thus she spake, and Medea's heart bounded with joy within her, and at
once her fair cheeks flushed, and a mist swam before her melting eyes,
and she spake as follows: "Chalciope, as is dear and delightful to thee
and thy sons, even so will I do. Never may the dawn appear again to my
eyes, never mayst thou see me living any longer, if I should take
thought for anything before thy life or thy sons' lives, for they are my
brothers, my dear kinsmen and youthful companions. So do I declare
myself to be thy sister, and thy daughter too, for thou didst lift me to
thy breast when an infant equally with them, as I ever heard from my
mother in past days. But go, bury my kindness in silence, so that I may
carry out my promise unknown to my parents; and at dawn I will bring to
Hecate's temple charms to cast a spell upon the bulls."

Thus Chalciope went back from the chamber, and made known to her sons
the help given by her sister. And again did shame and hateful fear seize
Medea thus left alone, that she should devise such deeds for a man in
her father's despite.

Then did night draw darkness over the earth; and on the sea sailors from
their ships looked towards the Bear and the stars of Orion; and now the
wayfarer and the warder longed for sleep, and the pall of slumber
wrapped round the mother whose children were dead; nor was there any
more the barking of dogs through the city, nor sound of men's voices;
but silence held the blackening gloom. But not indeed upon Medea came
sweet sleep. For in her love for Aeso