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Medea's Nurse on moderation

431 BCE, Athens (Theatre of Dionysus). The Nurse speaking, in Euripides’ play.

Where and when

431 BCEAthens (Theatre of Dionysus)

2,456 years ago

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Euripides

, Athens (Theatre of Dionysus)The Nurse speaking, in Euripides’ play

In plain words, ours

Moderation is the best thing to talk about and the best way to live. Greatness that overreaches brings people no good.

Moderation wins the day first as a better word for men to use, and likewise it is far the best course for them to pursue; but greatness that doth o’erreach itself, brings no blessing to mortal men;

Euripides, Medea line 125Translated by E. P. Coleridge (1906)Read the full passage (Euripides, Medea line 125, opens scaife.perseus.org)

What was going on, our summary

In Euripides' play, Medea is heard weeping inside and cursing her own children. Her old Nurse grieves outside and fears for the boys, since Jason has taken a royal bride.

Checked claim by claim against: the passage around the quote.

Related moments

In time order, with this one in its place. Each says why it is here.

  1. c. 441 BCEabout 10 years earlier Haemon begs his father to bend Also about how to live well
  2. c. 433 BCEabout 2 years earlier Socrates says no one does evil willingly Also about how to live well
  3. 431 BCESame year Thebans attack Plataea and the war begins Same years
  4. 431 BCEThis momentMedea's Nurse on moderation
  5. 431 BCESame year Medea on childbirth and battle Same passageMore from Euripides
  6. 431 BCESame year Medea on being too clever More from Euripides
  7. 431 BCESame year Medea on the lot of women Same passageMore from Euripides
  8. 431 BCE, written laterSame year Thucydides opens his history of the war Also in Athens
  9. 431 BCE0.10000000000002274 years later Spartan army invades Attica Same years
  10. 430 BCE1 year later Plague breaks out in Athens Same years
  11. 431/430 BCEBegins this year Athens holds a public funeral for its first war dead Same years
  12. 430 BCE, written later1 year later Thucydides on the plague he caught Also in Athens
  13. 430 BCE, written later1 year later Thucydides on the plague in Athens Also in Athens
  14. 429 BCE2 years later Pericles dies Same years

Just before and after

The text around the quote, word for word from the same translation.

Show the passageHide the passage

Medea: Ah, me! the agony I have suffered, deep enough to call for these laments! Curse you and your father too, ye children damned, sons of a doomed mother! Ruin seize the whole family!

Nurse: Ah me! ah me! the pity of it! Why, pray, do thy children share their father’s crime? Why hatest thou them? Woe is you, poor children, how do I grieve for you lest ye suffer some outrage! Strange are the tempers of princes, and maybe because they seldom have to obey, and mostly lord it over others, change they their moods with difficulty. ’Tis better then to have been trained to live on equal terms. Be it mine to reach old age, not in proud pomp, but in security!

The quote: Nurse: Moderation wins the day first as a better word for men to use, and likewise it is far the best course for them to pursue; but greatness that doth o’erreach itself, brings no blessing to mortal men;

Nurse: but pays a penalty of greater ruin whenever fortune is wroth with a family.

Chorus: I heard the voice, uplifted loud, of our poor Colchian lady, nor yet is she quiet; speak, aged dame, for as I stood by the house with double gates I heard a voice of weeping from within, and I do grieve, lady, for the sorrows of this house, for it hath won my love.

Nurse: ’Tis a house no more; all that is passed away long since; a royal bride keeps Jason at her side, while our mistress pines away in her bower, finding no comfort for her soul in aught her friends can say.

Medea: (within). Oh, oh!

Euripides, Medea lines 111–144Translated by E. P. Coleridge (1906)Read the full passage (opens scaife.perseus.org)

When, and whose words

Date
431 BCE. Medea was first staged at the City Dionysia in 431 BCE.
Whose words
The Nurse speaking, in Euripides’ play.
How this post was checked
  • The plain-words line was read against the quote alone by a second, independent pass, which found it adds no claim the quote does not make (2026-10-03).
  • Each claim in the summary was checked by an independent pass against only the material it cites.
  • The quote itself is checked by the build: word for word, once, at the cited section of the stored translation.

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