JASON: How vile a Mother, O my sons, was yours!
MEDEA: How did ye perish thro' your Father's lust!
JASON: But my right hand was guiltless of their death.
MEDEA: Not so thy cruel taunts, and that new marriage.
JASON: Was my new marriage a sufficient cause
For thee to murder them?
MEDEA:Canst thou suppose
Such wrongs sit light upon the female breast?
[tr. Wodhull (1782)]

JASON: My children, a bad mother have you found.
MEDEA: My sons, you perish'd through your father's folly.
JASON: Yet my right hand plung'd not the muurderous sword.
MEDEA: But thy foul wrongs, and thy new nuptials plung'd it.
JASON: And for these nupturals hast thou kill'd thy sons?
MEDEA: This to a woman deem'st thou a slight pain?
[tr. Potter (1814)]

JASON: Oh sons, how foul a mother have ye had!
MEDEA: Oh boys, how died ye by your father's guilt!
JASON: Not this right hand of mine slew them, indeed.
MEDEA: No, but thine outrage and new wedding ties.
JASON: So for a bed lost thou thoughtst fit to slay them?
MEDEA: Dost thou count that a light wrong to a woman?
[tr. Webster (1868)]

JASON: O my children, how vile a mother ye have found!
MEDEA: My sons, your father's feeble lust has been your ruin!
JASON: 'Twas not my hand, at any rate, that slew them.
MEDEA: No, but thy foul treatment of me, and thy new marriage.
JASON: Didst think that marriage cause enough to murder them?
MEDEA: Dost think a woman counts this a trifling injury?
[tr. Coleridge (1891)]

JASON: My children, what a wicked mother have ye found!
MEDEA: My sons, how did ye perish by your father's fault!
JASON: Nevertheless my hand slew them not.
MEDEA: But injury, and thy new nuptials.
JASON: And on account of thy bed didst thou think fit to slay them?
MEDEA: Dost thou deem this a slight evil to a woman?
[tr. Buckley (1892)]

JASON: O children mine, what miscreant mother had ye!
MEDEA: O sons, destroyed by your own father's lust!
JASON: Sooth, 'twas no hand of mine that murdered them.
MEDEA: Nay, but thine insolence and thy new-forged bonds.
JASON: How, claim the right for wedlock's sake to slay them!
MEDEA: A light affliction count'st thou this to woman?
[tr. Way (Loeb) (1894)]

JASON: Oh, what a womb of sin my children bore!
MEDEA: Sons, did ye perish for your father's shame?
JASON: How? It was not my hand that murdered them.
MEDEA: 'Twas thy false wooings, 'twas thy trampling pride.
JASON: Thou hast said it! For thy lust of love they died.
MEDEA: And love to women a slight thing should be?
[tr. Murray (1906)]

JASON: O children, what a wicked mother Fate gave you!
MEDEA: O sons, your father’s treachery cost you your lives.
JASON: It was not my hand that killed my sons.
MEDEA:No, not your hand;
But your insult to me, and your new-wedded wife.
JASON: You thought that reason enough to murder them, that I
No longer slept with you?
MEDEA:And is that injury
A slight one, do you imagine, to a woman?
[tr. Vellacott (1963)]

JASON: O children, what an evil mother you encountered!
MEDEA: O children, how your father’s illness killed you!
JASON: At least it wasn’t my right hand that killed them.
MEDEA: No, your insults and your recent marriage.
JASON: Was it really for sex that you decided to kill them?
MEDEA: Do you think that this is small suffering for a woman?
[tr. Podlecki (1989)]

JASON: Children, what an evil mother you got.
MEDEA: Children, how you have perished by your father's fault.
JASON: It was not my hand, you know, that killed them.
MEDEA: No: it was the outrage of your new marriage.
JASON: Did you really think it right to kill them because of a marriage?
MEDEA: Do you imagine that loss of love is a trivial grief for a woman?
[tr. Kovacs (Perseus)]

JASON: Children, what an evil mother you got!
MEDEA: Children, how you have perished by your father's fault!
JASON: It was not my hand, you know, that killed them.
MEDEA: No: it was the outrage of your new marriage.
JASON: Did you really think it right to kill them because of a marriage?
MEDEA: Do you imagine that loss of this is a trivial grief for a woman?
[tr. Kovacs (Loeb) (1994)]

JASON: O children, what a wicked mother you had!
MEDEA: O my sons, how your father's weakness caused your deaths!
JASON: Yet it was no right hand of mine that dealt them ruin!
MEDEA: No, it was your lustful heart and that new marriage of yours.
JASON: What? You decided to kill them because I loved another?
MEDEA: Do you think this is a minor annoyance to a woman?
[tr. Davie (1996)]

JASON: My darling children! What a despicable woman gave birth to you!
MEDEA: My darling children! What a despicable man gave you such a destruction!
JASON: They were not murdered by my hand!
MEDEA: No, what killed them was the shame and your new marriage.
JASON: Was an empty bed a good enough reason for your murders?
MEDEA: Do you think an empty bed is such a small thing for a woman?
[tr. Theodoridis (2004)]

JASON: Oh children, what a terrible mother you had.
MEDEA: Oh children, how you were destroyed by your father’s disease.
JASON: My right hand did not strike them.
MEDEA: But your abuse and your new marriage.
JASON: You thought the marriage bed was worth your children’s lives?
MEDEA: Do you think this a trivial wrong for a woman?
[tr. Luschnig (2007)]

JASON:O my children,
you had such an evil mother!
MEDEA:O my children,
victims of your father’s evil actions!
JASON: At least it was not my hand that killed them.
MEDEA: No. It was an insult — your new marriage.
JASON: Was it right to murder them for that?
MEDEA: Do you think an insult to a woman
is something insignificant?
[tr. Johnston (2008)]

JASON: My children, how kakē is the mother you have found!
MEDEA: My sons, your father’s lust has been your ruin.
JASON: It was not my right hand that slew them.
MEDEA: No, your hubris and your new marriage-bed.
JASON: Did you think that that was reason enough to murder them?
MEDEA: Do you think a woman finds that a tiny pain?
[tr. Coleridge / Ceragioli / Nagy / Hour25]

JASON: Oh, children, what a wicked mother you had!
MEDEA: Oh, sons, you were ruined by your father's disease.
JASON: It wasn't my right hand that murdered them.
MEDEA: No, it was your insolence, your new-forged marriage.
JASON: You judged it right to kill them for your bed?
MEDEA: You think that pain's a small thing for a woman?
[tr. Kovacs / Kitzinger (2016)]