Heaven its collected store of evil seems
This day resolved with justice to pour down
On perjured Jason. Thy untimely fate
How do we pity, O thou wretched daughter
Of Kreon, who in Pluto’s mansions go’st
To celebrate thy nuptial feast.
When the Chorus urge Medea not to slay her children, we feel that they are prompted by feelings of pity and humanity, rather than by any sense of legal or religious guilt. In the following passage in which we see the strongest and most emphatic instance of their disapproval of Medea’s act, their main objection is that her act is unusual! Only one woman, they say, has ever been known to do such a deed before![279]
Art thou a rock, O wretch, or steel to slay
With thine own hand that generous race of sons
Whom thou didst bear? I hitherto have heard