Anguish and revenge made visible, her serpents lifted
Medea above pity and horror of the enacted
Crime; murderess to herself most cruel,
Absolute in power of absolute loss,
Invulnerable by human justice or human hate,
Apollo whose ancestral fire seethed in her veins
Snatched among the gods who acknowledge only
The truth of life, fulfilled in her
To the last bitter blood-drop of her being.
On amphora and crater apotheosis
Has raised into the myths of Greece the barbarous
Wronged woman whose outstretched parting hand
Warns that there are furies among the immortals,
That anguish is an avenging frenzy
Of passionate love that slaughters her own children.
What could earth-bound Jason who rated calculation above the gods
Answer Medea departing on the dragon-chariot of her desolation?