Seneca, Lucius Annaeus, Medea

parcite iusso.

spare him who was commanded.

Nvtrix

Nurse

Pavet animus, horret, magna pernicies adest.

My mind trembles, it shudders: a great disaster is at hand.

immane quantum augescit et semet dolor

It is monstrous how her pain grows, and kindles

accendit ipse vimque praeteritam integrat.

itself by itself, and renews its former force.

vidi furentem saepe et aggressam deos,

I have often seen her raging and assailing the gods,

caelum trahentem: maius his, maius parat

drawing down the sky: greater than these, greater

Medea monstrum, namque ut attonito gradu

is the horror Medea prepares. For as soon as with frenzied step

evasit et penetrale funestam attigit,

she went out and reached her deadly inner shrine,

totas opes effundit et quicquid diu

she pours out all her resources, and whatever for a long time

etiam ipsa timuit promit atque omnem explicat

even she herself has feared she brings out, and unfolds the whole

turbam malorum, arcana secreta abdita,

crowd of evils, things arcane, secret, hidden;

et triste laeva congregans sacrum manu

and, gathering the grim rite with her left hand,

pestes vocat quascumque ferventes creat

she calls up the plagues, whatever the burning

harena Libyae quasque perpetua nive

sand of Libya breeds, and those that with everlasting snow

Taurus cohercet frigore Arctoo rigens,

the Taurus holds fast, stiff with Arctic cold,

et omne monstrum, tracta magicis cantibus

and every monster. Drawn by magic chants,

squamifera latebris turba desertis adest.

the scaly crowd is here from its deserted lairs.

hic saeva serpens corpus immensum trahit

Here a savage serpent drags its immense body

trifidamque linguam exertat et quaerit quibus

and darts out its three-forked tongue and looks for those to whom

mortifera veniat: carmine audito stupet

it may come bringing death; hearing the spell it is stunned,

tumidumque nodis corpus aggestis plicat

and folds its body, swollen with heaped-up coils,

cogitque in orbεs. 'parva sunt' inquit 'mala

and forces it into rings. 'Small are these evils,' she says,

et vile telum est. ima quod tellus creat:

'and cheap the weapon, what the deepest earth creates:

caelo petam venena, iam iam tempus est

I shall seek poisons from the sky. Now, now is the time

aliquid movere fraude vulgari altius.

to set in motion something higher than common trickery.

huc ille vasti more torrentis iacens

Let that one, sprawling like a vast torrent, come

descendat anguis, cuius immensos duae.

down here, the serpent whose immense coils the two

maior minorque, sentiunt nodos ferae

beasts, the greater and the lesser, feel

(maior Pelasgis apta. Sidoniis minor)

(the greater a guide for the Pelasgians, the lesser for the Sidonians);

pressasque tandem solvat Ophiuchus manus

and let Ophiuchus at last loosen his gripping hands

virusque fundat; adsit ad cantus meos

and pour out the venom; let there come to my chants

lacessere ausus gemina Python numina.

Python, who dared to provoke the twin deities;

et Hydra et omnis redeat Herculea manu

and let the Hydra return, and every serpent cut down by the hand

succisa serpens, caede se reparans sua.

of Hercules, restoring itself by its own slaughter.

tu quoque relictis pervigil Colchis ades,

You too, ever-wakeful one, leave Colchis behind and come,

sopite primum cantibus, serpens, meis.'

you, serpent, first lulled to sleep by my chants.'

Postquam evocavit omne serpentum genus,

When she has called forth every kind of serpent,

congerit in unum frugis infaustae mala:

she heaps together the evil things of ill-omened growth:

quaecumque generat invius saxis Eryx,

whatever Eryx, pathless with its rocks, produces;

quae fert opertis hieme perpetua iugis

what is borne, on ridges covered by everlasting winter,

sparsus cruore Caucasus Promethei,

by Caucasus, spattered with the blood of Prometheus;

et quis sagittas divites Arabes linunt

and those with which the rich Arabs smear their arrows

pharetraque pugnax Mediis aut Parthi leves,

and the Mede, warlike with his quiver, or the light Parthians;

aut quos sub axe frigido sucos legunt

or the juices which, under the cold sky, are gathered

lucis Suebae nobiles Hyrcaniis;

by the noble Suebian women in the Hyrcanian groves;

quodcumque tellus vere nidifico creat

whatever the earth creates in the nest-building spring,

aut rigida cum iam bruma discnssit decus

or when stiff winter has already shaken down the glory

nemorum et nivali cuncta constrinxit gelu,

of the woods and bound all things fast with snowy frost;

quodcumque gramen flore mortifero viret

whatever plant flourishes with deadly flower,

cuiusve fortis sucus in radicibus

or whose strong juice in its roots

causas nocendi gignit, attrectat manu.

breeds the means of harm: she handles it with her hand.

Haemonius illas contulit pestes Athos,

Haemonian Athos contributed those plagues,

has Pindus ingens, illa Pangaei iugis

huge Pindus these; that one, on the ridges of Pangaeus,

teneram cruenta falce deposuit comam;

laid down its tender foliage to a bloody sickle;

has aluit altum gurgitem Tigris premens,

these the Tigris nourished, pressing down its deep flood,

Danuvius illas, has per arentes plagas

the Danube those; these, through parched regions,

tepidis Hydaspes gemmifer currens aquis,

the gem-bearing Hydaspes, running with warm waters,

nomenque terris qui dedit Baetis suis

and the Baetis, which gave its name to its own lands,

Hesperia pulsans maria languenti vado.

beating the Hesperian seas with languid stream.

haec passa ferrum est, dum parat Phoebus diem,

This one suffered the blade while Phoebus prepares the day;

illius alta nocte succisus frutex;

that one's stem was cut in the depth of night;

at huius ungue secta cantato seges.

but this one's crop was cut with an enchanted fingernail.

Mortifera carpit gramina ac serpentium

She plucks deadly grasses, and of serpents

saniem exprimit miscetque et obscenas aves

squeezes out the gore, and mixes in foul birds,

maestique cor bubonis et raucae strigis

and the heart of the mournful horned owl, and of the hoarse screech-owl

exsecta vivae viscera, haec scelerum artifex

the innards, cut out alive. These the craftswoman of crimes

discreta ponit; his rapax vis ignium,

sets out separately: in these is the ravening force of fire,

his gelida pigri frigoris glacies inest.

in these the icy chill of sluggish frost.

addit venenis verba non illis minus

To the poisons she adds words no less

metuenda, sonuit ecce vaesano gradu

to be feared than they. Look, her frenzied step has sounded,

canitque. mundus vocibus primis tremit.

and she sings. The world trembles at her first words.

Medea

Medea

Compreeor vulgus silentum vosque ferales deos

I pray to the throng of the silent, and to you, gods of the dead,

saepius arcus una atque eadem est

bow so often is one and the same:

semper Iason.

always Jason.

tu nunc vestes tinge Creusae,

Now dye Creusa's robes,

quas cum primum sumpserit, imas

so that, as soon as she has put them on, deep in her

urat serpens flamma medullas.

marrow a creeping flame may burn.

ignis fulvo elusus in auro

Fire, hidden by a trick in the tawny gold,

latet obscurus, quem mihi caeli

lies dark; it was given to me by him who for the thefts

qui furta luit viscere feto

of heaven pays with his teeming liver;

dedit et docuit condere vires

he gave it, and taught me to store up its powers

arte, Prometheus, dedit et tenui

by art, Prometheus; and Mulciber gave

sulphure tectos Mulciber ignes,

fires concealed in thin sulphur,

et vivacis fulgura flammae

and bolts of living flame

de cognato Phaethonte tuli.

I took from my kinsman Phaethon.

habeo en dirae dona Chimaerae,

See, I have the gifts of the dread Chimaera,

habeo flammas

I have flames

usto tauri gutture raptas,

snatched from the scorched throat of the bull,

quas permixto felle Medusae

which, with Medusa's gall mixed in,

tacitum iussi servare malum,

I have ordered to keep their evil silent.

adde venenis stimulos, Hecate,

Add goads to the poisons, Hecate,

donisque meis

and in my gifts

semina flammae condita serva.

keep stored the seeds of flame.

fallant visus tactusque ferant,

Let them deceive the sight and endure the touch;

meet in pectus venasque calor,

let the heat pass into her breast and veins;

stillent artus ossaque tument

let her limbs drip, her bones swell,

vincatque suas

and may she outdo her own

flagrante coma nova nupta faces.

torches with her blazing hair, the new bride.

Vota tenentur: ter latratus

My prayers are granted: three barks

audax Hecate dedit et sacros

has bold Hecate given, and sacred

edidit ignes face lucifera.

fires she has sent forth from her light-bringing torch.

Peracta vis est omnis: huc natos voca,

All the power is accomplished: call the sons here,

pretiosa per quos dona nubenti feram,

through whom I may carry precious gifts to the bride.