 | Medea |  |
SCENE the FIRST.
THEANO descending from the temple, ÆSON and COLCHIANS.ÆSON.
Where is the priestess, Colchian?
FIRST COLCHIAN.
There descending.
Pale consternation overcasts her visage.
THEANO.
O most portentous, execrable sight!
I led the virgins to rejoin your princess,
Who had escap'd their care—Mysterious heav'n!
Where was thy pow'r to check a mother's rage?
Where was thy mercy, when her savage hand
Unclos'd the jaws of slaughter on her children?
ÆSON.
Oh! all-surpassing evil!
FIRST COLCHIAN.
When and how?
Oh! speak.
83
A knife of sacrifice she seiz'd,
And in their tender bosoms plung'd its point.
We found her planted near their welt'ring limbs;
Her fiery eye-balls on their wounds were fix'd;
A ghastly triumph swell'd her wild revenge,
And madness mingled smiles with horror.
ÆSON.
Horror
Is my companion now. The race of Jason
One common crime hath swallow'd in its gulph.
THEANO.
The goddess bow'd in pity from her shrine;
When straight a voice oracular in thunder,
Whose awful clamour must have reach'd your ears,
Peal'd o'er the rocking temple. “Impious Creon,”
The voice proclaim'd, “thy guilt hath fill'd its measure;
“Then fall, thou victim to the gods of hell.”
ÆSON.
Tremendous sentence!
THEANO.
I with fearful steps
Haste to the palace.
ÆSON.
Make me thy associate,
And I to calm his violence will join.
| Medea | |