The best known among them is, perhaps, the Medea. In this play, as in the Medea of Euripides, the part of the myth is treated in which Jason deserts his wife Medea to marry Creüsa, daughter of Creon, king of Corinth. The Medea. Medea sends her two sons to Creüsa to give her a poisoned robe, which causes her death and that of her father Creon. Then Medea, in order to pain Jason, kills the two children. The following passage is taken from Medea’s reply to her nurse, who urges her to flee when the news is brought that Creon and Creüsa have been killed by the poisoned robe she had sent:
Shall I fly? I? Were I already gone
I would return for this, that I might see
These new betrothals. Dost thou pause, my soul?
This joy’s but the beginning of revenge.
Thou dost but love if thou art satisfied
To widow Jason. Seek new penalties;
Honor is gone and maiden modesty—
It were a light revenge pure hands could yield.
Strengthen thy drooping spirit, stir up wrath,