mind how she had saved him once again
from the bulls that breathed fire from their nostrils and from the great
dragon that guarded the fleece of gold, and how she had done the old man
Pelias to death for his sake; "and now," she said, "whither shall I go?
who will receive me? for I have made enemies of my kinsfolk on account
of thee, and now thou forsakest me. O Zeus! why can we discern false
money from the true, but as for men, when we would know which is the
good and which the bad, there is no mark by which we may know them?"

But to this Jason answered that if she had saved him in time past, she
had done it of necessity, being compelled by love; and that he had made
her a full recompense, taking her from a barbarous land to the land of
Greece, where men lived by law and not by the will of the stronger and
causing her to be highly reputed of for wisdom among the people of the
land. "And as to this marriage," he said, "for which thou blamest me, I
have made it in prudence and in care for thee and for thy children. For
being an exile in this city, what could I do better than marry the
daughter of the King? Nor is my heart turned from thee or from thy
children. Only I have made provision against poverty, and that I might
rear my sons in such fashion as befitted their birth. And now if thou
needest aught in thy banishment, speak; for I would give thee provision
without grudging, and also commend thee to such friends as I have."

"Keep thy gifts and thy friends," she said, "to thyself. There is no
profit in that which cometh from such hands as thine."

So Jason went his way; and when he was departed there came AEgeus, King
of Athens, who had been on a journey to inquire of the god at Delphi,
for he was childless, and would fain have a son born to him. But he
understood not what the god had answered, and was now on his way to King
Pittheus of Troezen, a man learned in such matters, that he might
interpret the thing to him. And when he saw that Medea had been weeping,
he would know what ailed her. Then she told him how her husband was
false to her, marrying a new wife, even the daughter of the king of the
land, and how she was on the point to be banished, and her children with
her. And when she saw that these things displeased King AEgeus, she
said--

"Now, my lord, I beseech thee to have pity on me, nor suffer me to
wander homeless and friendless, but receive me into thy house. So may
the Gods grant thee thy desire that