The Nurse's prologue

The Nurse comes out from the closed front of the house and speaks alone. The whole backstory of the play, told in one speech: the Argo, the quest, the Golden Fleece, Medea's betrayal of her father, her flight from Colchis, the murder of Pelias by his own daughters which she engineered, and the long exile to Corinth with Jason. Then the new fact, the one the play turns on: Jason has left Medea to marry Glauce, daughter of Creon king of Corinth. Inside the house Medea is fasting, weeping, lifting no eyes. The Nurse has known her since Colchis and is terrified. Her heart, the Nurse says, is no light thing.

The Attendant — the boys' old tutor — comes from the right with the children, who have been off playing. He has news from the agora. He overheard an old man at the fountain say it is Creon's will that Medea and her two sons be expelled today. He is not sure whether to believe it. The two slaves agree to keep the rumour from their mistress and send the children inside. From within the house Medea's voice rises, twice — first cursing her own life, then cursing the children. The Nurse hurries the boys through the door.

Left alone, the Nurse reflects on what she has heard. The wills of princes are rough things. It is best for ordinary people to walk the level way. She has lived long enough to know that the fiercely great fall most deep when the gods turn against them. The Chorus of Corinthian women begins to enter from the left as her speech ends. The play has been running one minute. The audience has been told everything it needs to know and warned by the person who knows Medea best that something is about to happen.