The Argonautica

you soon will carry back the Golden Fleece upon your homecoming.

But here am I, who lost my country and my own parents,

who lost my home and every joy that life can give;

For you I won your homeland and your halls once more,

and you will see your loving parents once again

with your own eyes; but heavy fate has robbed me utterly

of splendor; wretched, I roam long with foreign strangers.

Fear your agreements and your oaths; fear too the dread Erinys

of Suppliants, divine wrath, if I go back to Aeetes'

hands to face cruel outrage, suffering, and death.

No shrine, no tower, no other shelter guards me;

you are my sole defense; to you I yield myself.

Hard men, pitiless and cruel deep in your hearts!

Are you not shamed? A foreign queen stretches both hands

at your knees, helpless in plain sight; against them all--

you raised spears, eager for the Fleece, against each Colchian,

and against overbearing Aeetes himself; but now you forget

your manhood, when the Colchians stand alone and cut off.

Thus she entreated; each hero whose knees she clasped

would hearten Medea, checking her deep, bitter grief.

They shook their sharp-pointed spears within their open palms

and drew swords from sheaths, resolved never to withhold

their aid if ever she met cruel, lawless judgment.

Night, bedfellow of men, came on the suffering band