Fabula 27. Medus — “Medus”: Medus in Perses’ kingdom, Medea’s unwitting betrayal of her own son, and the naming of Media. Latin from the standard text, with a new English translation below each paragraph. View:
1
Persi Solis filio, fratri Aeetae, responsum fuit ab Aeetae progenie mortem cauere: ad quem Medus dum matrem persequitur tempestate est delatus, quem satellites comprehensum ad regem Persen perduxerunt.
To Perses, son of the Sun, brother of Aeetes, an answer had been given to beware death from Aeetes’ offspring: to him Medus, while pursuing his mother, was carried by a storm, and the king’s guards seized him and brought him to King Perses.
2
Medus Aegei et Medeae filius ut uidit se in inimici potestatem uenisse, Hippoten Creontis filium se esse mentitus est. rex diligentius quaerit et in custodia eum conici iussit; ubi sterilitas et penuria frugum dicitur fuisse.
Medus, son of Aegeus and Medea, when he saw he had come into the power of an enemy, falsely claimed that he was Hippotes, son of Creon. The king inquired more carefully and ordered him to be thrown into prison. In that place there is said to have been barrenness and scarcity of crops.
3
quo Medea in curru iunctis draconibus cum uenisset, regi se sacerdotem Dianae ementita est; dixit sterilitatem se expiare posse, et cum a rege audisset Hippoten Creontis filium in custodia haberi, arbitrans eum patris iniuriam exsequi uenisse, ibique . . . . . . . . . imprudens filium prodidit.
When Medea had come there in a chariot drawn by yoked dragons, she falsely claimed to the king that she was a priestess of Diana; she said she could atone for the barrenness, and when she had heard from the king that Hippotes, son of Creon, was held in prison, thinking he had come to avenge his father’s wrong, and there . . . unwittingly she betrayed her son.
4
nam regi persuadet eum Hippoten non esse sed Medum Aegei filium a matre missum ut regem interficeret, petitque ab eo ut interficiendus sibi traderetur, aestimans Hippoten esse.
For she persuaded the king that he was not Hippotes but Medus, son of Aegeus, sent by his mother [i.e. Medea, of herself] to kill the king, and asked that he be handed over to her to be killed, she supposing him to be Hippotes.
5
itaque Medus cum productus esset ut mendacium morte puniret, ut illa aliter esse uidit quam putauit, dixit se cum eo colloqui uelle atque ensem ei tradidit iussitque aui sui iniurias exsequi. Medus re audita Persen interfecit regnumque auitum possedit; ex suo nomine terram Mediam cognominauit.
So when Medus had been brought out to pay for his lie with death, when she saw that things were other than she had supposed, she said she wished to speak with him, and gave him a sword and told him to avenge his grandfather’s wrongs. When Medus had heard the matter, he killed Perses and took possession of his ancestral kingdom; from his own name he called the land Media.
Notes
- Convention: the Latin gives the editor’s supplied letters in full, without brackets; the notes record them as < > for a supplement, [ ] for a deletion, and † for a corrupt word.
- Para 2: <Hi>ppoten and qu<a>erit are supplied in the text. Ubi in the last clause is unclear in its antecedent — the prison, or the country — so the English says “in that place” and leaves it open.
- Para 3: <Hi>ppoten is supplied. There is a lacuna after ibique (dots as supplied, kept here); the sentence is incomplete in the Latin, and the English does not fill it. “His father’s wrong” is patris iniuriam — Medea takes the prisoner for Hippotes, son of Creon, come to avenge his father (Creon died by Medea’s poisoned crown in Fabula 25).
- Para 3–4: mentiri and ementiri are “falsely claim”, kept apart from simulare, “pretend” (Fabula 22, para 3). The irony is Hyginus’s: in para 4 she denounces her own son as an assassin, believing him to be Hippotes, and speaks of herself in the third person while disguised.
- Para 5: <u>t is supplied. “Aui sui” is his grandfather Aeetes; regnum auitum is the ancestral kingdom of Aeetes. Re audita is “when he had heard the matter”, not “the truth”.
Next fabula: Otus et Ephialtes (Fabula 28). Corrections are welcome via the contact form; please say which paragraph you mean.