It is little known that
Seneca adapted Greek tragedies into Latin – of course Latin scholars know, but students
doing courses Latin hardly if ever get to read them. The reason is that often
we have the Greek original and to be honest, Seneca was not a great dramaturge:
his treatment of the material is more based on the sensational aspects of a
tragedy, than on psychological insights about the motives of a character. I can feel sympathy for Euripides’ Medea, as
he delves into her psychology and makes her choices understandable for the
public – at least I do, but maybe I should consult a psychiatrist - but these
psychological investigations are foreign to Seneca’s Medea.
In the following passage,
the choir comments on Medea’s spells and invocation of the gods during the
night to help her to fulfil her revenge on her former husband Jason: the
destruction of the two children she has with him and of his new bride – and of
Creon, king of Corinth.
Seneca, Medea, 849-878
Meter: irregular iambic
Chorus
Quonam cruenta maenas
praeceps amore saevo 850
rapitur? quod impotenti
facinus parat furore?
vultus citatus ira
riget et caput feroci
quatiens superba motu 855
regi minatur ultro.
quis credat exulem?
Flagrant genae rubentes,
pallor fugat ruborem.
nullum vagante forma 860
servat diu colorem.
huc fert pedes et illuc,
ut tigris orba natis
cursu furente lustrat
Gangeticum nemus. 865
Frenare nescit iras
Medea, non amores;
nunc ira amorque causam
iunxere: quid sequetur?
quando efferet Pelasgis 870
nefanda Colchis arvis
gressum metuque solvet
regnum simulque reges?
Nunc, Phoebe, mitte currus
nullo morante loro, 875
nox condat alma lucem,
mergat diem timendum
dux noctis Hesperus.
cruentus: bloody
maenas maenadis
(f.): maenad (priestess of Bacchus, alleged to behave frantic when in ecstasy)
praeceps:
headlong
amore saevo:
by wild passion
parat:
subject Medea
impotenti furore: The prefix `in' in Latin is in this case related to English `un' and
not to `in'. Like in English `un' is only used as a prefix, but for reasons of
historical phonology it became homologous with `in’. The compound impotentia
can be resolved as `having no (un) power’ or `in power’. In this case the
latter meaning is intended
citatus:
roused
rigeo: to
stiffen
quatio: to
shake
superbus:
haughty
minor (often
with dat.): to threaten
exulem:
Medea came as a foreigner to Corinth
flagro: to
glow
pallor palloris
(m.): paleness
nullum vagante forma servat diu colorem: because of her changing form, she preserves no
colour for long
huc…illuc:
hither…tither
orba natis:
bereaved of her cubs
lustro: to
go around
Gangeticus:
of the Ganges
freno: to
check, control
causam iunxere
(= iunxerunt): have joined a (common)
cause
quando efferet Pelasgis nefanda Colchis arvis gressum
metuque solvet
regnum simulque reges?: when will the impious woman from Colchis bring her
step away from the Pelasgian fields (ex
arvis Pelasgis) and free at the same time the kingdom the kingdom and the
royal family (reges) from fear?
mitte currus:
send out your chariot (currus: poetic
plural), i.e. the chariot of the sun
moror: to
delay
lorum: rein
condo condidi conditum: to hide
almus:
nourishing, `kind’
mergat diem:
may you merge into the day (i.e. go asap away)
Hesperus:
the evening star
Translation by F.J. Miller
(1917)
CHORUS
[849] Whither is this
blood-stained maenad borne headlong by mad passion? What crime with reckless
fury is she preparing? Her distraught face is hard set in anger, and with
fierce tossings of her head she haughtily threatens e’en the king. Who would
think her an exile.
[858] Her cheeks blaze
red, pallor puts red to flight; no colour in her changing aspect does she keep
long. Hither and thither she wanders, as a tigress, robbed of her cubs, ranges
in mad course through the jungles of Ganges.
[866] How to curb her
anger Medea knows not, nor yet her love; now that anger and love have joined
cause, what will the outcome be? When will the wicked Colchian be gone from the
Pelasgian borders and free from terror at once our kingdom and our kings? Now,
O Phoebus, speed thy chariot with no check of rein; let friendly darkness veil
the light and let Hesperus, vanguard of the night, plunge deep this fearful
day.
