‘Medea’ is a play written by the ancient Greek writer and tragedian Euripides.
The play is based on the myth of Jason and Medea. It’s an ancient tale of a woman who seeks revenge against her unfaithful husband.
Medea Important Quotes
Here are the best Euripides quotes from ‘Medea’.
1. “Not yet do you feel it. Wait for the future.”
– Euripides.
2. “We are women, quite helpless in doing good but surpassing any master craftsman in working evil.”
– Euripides.
3. “I understand too well the dreadful act I’m going to commit. but my judgement can’t check my anger, and that incites the greatest evils human beings do.”
– Euripides.
4. “Because I have a little knowledge, some are filled with jealousy, others think me secretive, and crazy.”
– Euripides.
5. “Gods often contradict, our fondest expectations.”
– Euripides.
6. “It’s human; we all put self interest first.”
– Euripides.
7. “I expect I’ll win her around all right, if she’s a woman like all the rest!.”
– Euripides.
8. “To have learnt to live on the common level is better. No grand life for me, Just peace and quiet as I grow old. The middle way, neither great nor mean, Is best by far, in name and practice.”
– Euripides.
9. “Amongst mortals no man is happy.”
– Euripides.
10. “The criminal with a gift for speaking deserves the worst of punishment.”
– Euripides.
11. “Mortal fate is hard. You’d best get used to it.”
– Euripides.
12. “It would have been better far for men To have got their children in some other way, and women Not to have existed. Then life would have been good.”
– Euripides.
13. “These be things that cannot be!”
– Euripides.
14. “Yes, now [Medea] knows at a terrible first hand what it is to miss one’s native land.”
– Euripides.
15. “What city will open its doors to me? Who will show me hospitality and grant me protection by providing a country here I cannot be harmed, a home where I would enjoy security? Impossible!”
– Euripides.
16. “You have the skill. What is more, you were born a woman, And women, though most helpless in doing good deeds, Are of every evil the cleverest of contrivers.”
– Euripides.
17. “Not for the first time I find our lives are a shadow, and I am not afraid to say that people who think they have everything figured out and are masters of logic – they are responsible for the greatest folly. No human being is happy.”
– Euripides.
18. “The rolling ages have much to tell of our side., much, as well, of men’s.”
– Euripides.
19. “No cowardice, and no remembering your children, how they were your dears, or how you gave them birth. Instead for this one fleeting day forget that they are yours, and afterward take time to grieve. Although it’s you who’s killing them, they were your lovely babes.”
– Euripides.
20. “Of all creatures that can feel and think, we women are the worst treated things alive.”
– Euripides.
Medea Love Quotes
Here are the best ‘Medea’ play quotes about love. These Greek quotes about love are some famous quotes from the play.
21. “Nurse: Oh, what an enemy [Jason’s] proved to those he should have loved!
Tutor: What human being is not?”
– ‘Medea’.
22. “Jason: And so she slew them.
Medea: To get at your heart.”
– ‘Medea’.
23. “I have acted like a true friend to you and my children.”
– Jason.
24. “Anything you or the children want in exile, let me know. I’ll gladly furnish it.”
– Jason.
25. “I must find it within me to do this thing…I shall not weaken my hand! Let them be, poor fool, spare your children!”
– Medea.
26. “It was sheer shooting passion, that drove you (Medea) to save my life.”
– Jason.
Medea Revenge Quotes
Here are some quotes about revenge from ‘Medea’. Revenge is among the ‘Medea’ themes and quotes from Euripides’ play on revenge are iconic.
27. “The children are dead. I say this to make you suffer.”
– Medea.
28. “I know indeed what evil I intend to do, but stronger than all my afterthoughts is my fury, fury that brings upon mortals the greatest evils.”
– Medea.
29. “Do you imagine I would have ever stooped to flattery of this man without having some profit, some scheme in mind?”
– Medea.
30. “Why make the sons share in their father’s guilt?”
– Nurse.
31. “That anger of hers won’t die down until someone’s felt the force of her thunderbolt.”
– Nurse.
32. “O great Themis and lady Artemis, do you see what I suffer, though I bound my accursed husband by weighty oaths?”
– Medea.
33. “For never shall he see children born of me loving in the years ahead, never father a child by his new-won bride, since, foul creature, she must meet a foul end through my poisons.”
– Medea.
34. “Yes; it is by doing this [murdering her children] that I shall hurt my husband most.”
– Medea.
Medea Betrayal Quotes
Here are some quotes about betrayal from ‘Medea’.
35. “I can unload some venom from my heart and you can smart to hear it. To begin at the beginning, I saved your life.”
– Medea.
36. “For if you still had no sons, it would be something I could forgive, this desire you have for a new bride.”
– Medea.
37. “And what man is not? dost thou only now know this, that every one lives himself dearer than his neighbour.”
– Medea.
38. “Woman, on the whole, is a timid thing, but, wronged in love, there is no heart more murderous.”
– Medea.
Medea Chorus Quotes
Here are some ‘Medea’ quotes from the chorus, a well-known feature in ancient Greek plays.
39. “It’s a fearful thing for men/to spill the blood of gods.”
– The Chorus.
40. “Jason, you have put a fine gloss on your words. But – I may not be wise to say this – I think you’ve acted wrongly: you have betrayed your wife.”
– The Chorus.
41. “If your husband has gone to adore A new bride in his bed, why, this Has often happened before.”
– The Chorus.
42. “Tell us, Nurse. At the gate I heard (Medea) Crying inside the house.”
– The Chorus.
43. “How frightening is resentment how difficult to cure, When lovers hurl past love at one another’s hate.”
– The Chorus.
44. “You have no father’s home, unhappy lady, to offer haven from your troubles.”
– The Chorus.
