The Argonautica

I too have gone over all this in my thoughts, devising

whether you might share counsel and fashion some means of assistance.

But swear now by Earth and by Heaven that whatever I tell you

keep it in heart and stand beside me, working together.

I beg by the blessed gods, by yourself, and our mother and father,

do not let me see them shattered under an evil doom,

piteously; or, dying together with my own dear children,

may I rise from Hades thereafter, a hateful Fury to haunt you.

So she spoke, and at once a great flood of tears poured freely;

low down she clasped both knees of Medea in both of her hands,

then cast her head and face down together into Medea's lap.

Together they raised piteous mourning, each for the other; a wailing

thin and faint rose throughout the halls as they sorrowed in anguish.

Medea, chafing with anguish, first addressed her sister:

Poor sister, what cure shall I devise for all these sayings,

the hateful curses and Furies? If only the power were granted

that I might firmly guard your sons, keeping each one unharmed.

Let the mighty oath of the Colchians witness, the one you command me

myself now to swear, by great Heaven and by the Earth beneath us,

mother of gods: so far as my strength and power can reach it,

you shall not lack me, if what you ask can ever be accomplished.

Thus she spoke, and Chalciope answered in words such as these:

Would you then dare, for a stranger who stands in such need himself,

to devise either guile or wise counsel for the contest,