MED. Alas! alas! I wretched have suffered, have suffered treatment worthy
of great lamentation. O ye accursed children of a hated mother, may ye
perish with your father, and may the whole house fall.

NUR. Alas! alas! me miserable! but why should your children share their
father's error? Why dost thou hate these! Alas me, my children, how beyond
measure do I grieve lest ye suffer any evil! Dreadful are the dispositions
of tyrants, and somehow in few things controlled, in most absolute, they
with difficulty lay aside their passion. The being accustomed then[7] to
live in mediocrity of life is the better: may it be my lot then to grow old
if not in splendor, at least in security. For, in the first place, even to
mention the name of moderation carries with it superiority, but to use it
is by far the best conduct for men; but excess of fortune brings more power
to men than is convenient;[8] and has brought greater woes upon families,
when the Deity be enraged.

NURSE, CHORUS.

CHOR. I heard the voice, I heard the cry of the unhappy Colchian; is not
she yet appeased? but, O aged matron, tell me; for within the apartment
with double doors, I heard her cry; nor am I delighted, O woman, with the
griefs of the family, since it is friendly to me.

NUR. The family is not; these things are gone already: for he possesses the
bed of royalty; but she, my mistress, is melting away her life in her
chamber, in no way soothing her mind by the advice of any one of her
friends.

MED. Alas! alas! may the flame of heaven rush through my head, what profit
for me to live any longer. Alas! alas! may I rest myself in death, having
left a hated life.

CHOR. Dost thou hear, O Jove, and earth, and light, the cry which the
wretched bride utters? why I pray should this insatiable love of the
marriage-bed hasten thee, O vain woman, to death? Pray not for this. But if
thy husband courts a new bed, be not thus[9] enraged with him. Jove will
avenge these wrongs for thee: waste not thyself so, bewailing thy husband.

MED. O great Themis and revered Diana, do ye behold what I suffer, having
bound my accursed husband by powerful oaths? Whom may I at some time see
and his bride torn piecemeal with their very houses, who dare to injure me
first. O my father, O my city, whom I basely abandoned, having slain my
brother.

NUR. Do ye hear what she says, and how she invokes Themis hearing the vow,
and Jove who is considered the dispenser of oaths to mort