sister, and crossed the threshold. And for long she stayed there at the
entrance of her chamber, held back by shame; and she turned back once
more; and again she came forth from within, and again stole back; and
idly did her feet bear her this way and that; yea, as oft as she went
straight on, shame held her within the chamber, and though held back by
shame, bold desire kept urging her on. Thrice she made the attempt and
thrice she checked herself, the fourth time she fell on her bed face
downward writhing in pain. And as when a bride in her chamber bewails
her youthful husband, to whom her brothers and parents have given her,
nor yet does she hold converse with all her attendants for shame and for
thinking of him; but she sits apart in her grief; and some doom has
destroyed him, before they have had pleasure of each other's charms; and
she with heart on fire silently weeps, beholding her widowed couch, in
fear lest the women should mock and revile her: like, to her did Medea
lament. And suddenly as she was in the midst of her tears, one of the
handmaids came forth and noticed her, one who was her youthful
attendant; and straightway she told Chalciope, who sat in the midst of
her sons devising how to win over her sister. And when Chalciope heard
the strange tale from the handmaid, not even so did she disregard it.
And she rushed in dismay from her chamber right on to the chamber where
the maiden lay in her anguish, having torn her cheeks on each side; and
when Chalciope saw her eyes all dimmed with tears, she thus addressed
her:

"Ah me, Medea, why dost thou weep so? What hath befallen thee? What
terrible grief has entered thy heart? Has some heaven-sent disease
enwrapt thy frame, or hast thou heard from our father some deadly threat
concerning me and my sons? Would that I did not behold this home of my
parents, or the city, but dwelt at the ends of the earth, where not even
the name of Colchians is known!"