P. 24, l. 409, Things most vain for help.]--See on ll. 230 ff. P. 24. ll. 410-430, CHORUS.]--The song celebrates the coming triumph of Woman in her rebellion against Man; not by any means Woman as typifying the domestic virtues, but rather as the downtrodden, uncivilised, unreasoning, and fiercely emotional half of humanity. A woman who in defence of her honour and her rights will die sword in hand, slaying the man who wronged her, seems to the Chorus like a deliverer of the whole sex. P. 24. l. 421, Old bards.]--Early literature in most countries contains a good deal of heavy satire on women: _e.g._ Hesiod's "Who trusts a woman trusts a thief;" or Phocylides' "Two days of a woman are very sweet: when you marry her and when you carry her to her grave." It is curious how the four main Choruses of the _Medea_ are divided each into two parts, distinct in subject and in metre. P. 25, l. 439, Faith is no more sweet.]--Copied from a beautiful passage in Hesiod, _Works and Days_, 198 ff.: "There shall be no more sweetness found in the faithful man nor the righteous. . . . And at last up to Olympus from the wide-wayed earth, shrouding with white raiment their beautiful faces, go Ruth and Rebuking." (Aidos and Nemesis: _i.e._ the Ruth or Shame that you feel with reference to your own actions, and the Indignation or Disapproval that others feel.) P. 27, ll. 478 ff., Bulls of fiery breath.]--Among the tasks set him by Aiêtês, Jason had to yoke two fire-breathing bulls, and plough with them a certain Field of Ares, sow the field with dragon's teeth, and reap a harvest of earth-born or giant warriors which sprang from the seed. When all this was done, there remained the ancient serpent coiled round the tree where the Golden Fleece was hanging. P. 29, l. 507, The first friends who sheltered me.]--_i.e._ the kindred of Pelias. P. 29, l. 509, Blest of many a maid in Hellas.]--Jason was, of course, the great romantic hero of his time. Cf. his own words, l. 1340, p. 74. Pp. 29 ff., ll. 523-575.--Jason's defence is made the weaker by his reluctance to be definitely insulting to Medea. He dares not say: "You think that, because you conceived a violent passion for me,--to which, I admit, I partly responded--I must live with you always; but the truth is, you are a savage with whom a civilised man cannot go on living." This point comes out unveiled in his later speech, l. 1329, ff., p. 74. P. 30, ll. 536 ff., Our ordered life and justice.]--Jason has brought the benefits of civilisation to Medea! He is doubtless sincere, but the peculiar ironic cruelty of the plea is obvious. P. 30, ll. 541 ff., The story of Great Medea, &c. . . . Unless our deeds have glory.]--This, I think, is absolutely sincere. To Jason ambition is everything. And, as Medea has largely shared his great deeds with him, he thinks that she cannot but feel the same. It seems to him contemptible that her mere craving for personal love should outweigh all the possible glories of life.