I fear me lest awful ills from the heroes’ voyage befall:

And my heart, my heart for the stranger is tossed in a storm of dismay.

Let him woo some girl in his own Achaia far away,

And be maidenhood mine, and mine in the house of my parents to stay! {640}

Yet—yet—though mine heart be by love made reckless, the desperate deed

I will try not unbid by my sister—never!—except she plead

With Medea to help in the toil, in her anguish of fear for the sake

Of her sons: this might peradventure assuage my sore heart-ache.’

She spake, and she rose from her bed, and she opened her chamber door

Barefooted, in vesture of linen alone; and she yearned full sore