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The Chorus in Medea on a world reversed

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

In plain words, ours

The world is turned upside down, like rivers flowing backwards. Now it is men who scheme and break their sworn promises.

Back to their source the holy rivers turn their tide. Order and the universe are being reversed. ’Tis men whose counsels are treacherous, whose oath by heaven is no longer sure.

Euripides, Medea line 410Translated by E. P. Coleridge (1906)Read the full passage (Euripides, Medea line 410, opens scaife.perseus.org)

What was going on, our summary

In Euripides' play, Medea has just sworn by Hecate to make Jason's wedding bitter and to plot against her enemies. The Chorus answers by singing that the world is turning upside down and that honor is dawning for women.

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 Antigone defies Creon Also about justice and law
  2. 431 BCESame year Thebans attack Plataea and the war begins Same years
  3. 431 BCEThis momentThe Chorus in Medea on a world reversed
  4. 431 BCESame year Medea on childbirth and battle More from Euripides
  5. 431 BCESame year Medea on being too clever Same passageMore from Euripides
  6. 431 BCESame year Medea on the lot of women More from Euripides
  7. 431 BCE, written laterSame year Thucydides opens his history of the war Also in Athens
  8. 431 BCE0.10000000000002274 years later Spartan army invades Attica Same years
  9. 430 BCE1 year later Plague breaks out in Athens Same years
  10. 431/430 BCEBegins this year Athens holds a public funeral for its first war dead Same years
  11. 430 BCE, written later1 year later Thucydides on the plague he caught Also in Athens
  12. 430 BCE, written later1 year later Thucydides on the plague in Athens Also in Athens
  13. 429 BCE2 years later Pericles dies Same years
  14. 423 BCE8 years later The Unjust Cause on making the worse cause win Also about justice and law

Just before and after

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

Show the passageHide the passage

Medea: By that dread queen whom I revere before all others and have chosen to share my task, by Hecate who dwells within my inmost chamber, not one of them shall wound my heart and rue it not. Bitter and sad will I make their marriage for them; bitter shall be the wooing of it, bitter my exile from the land. Up, then, Medea, spare not the secrets of thy art in plotting and devising; on to the danger. Now comes a struggle needing courage. Dost see what thou art suffering? ’Tis not for thee to be a laughing-stock to the race of Sisyphus by reason of this wedding of Jason, sprung, as thou art, from a noble sire, and of the Sun-god’s race. Thou hast cunning; and, more than this, we women, though by nature little apt for virtuous deeds, are most expert to fashion any mischief.

The quote: Chorus: Back to their source the holy rivers turn their tide. Order and the universe are being reversed. ’Tis men whose counsels are treacherous, whose oath by heaven is no longer sure.

Chorus: Rumour shall bring a change o’er my life, bringing it into good repute. Honour’s dawn is breaking for woman’s sex; no more shall the foul tongue of slander fix upon us. The songs of the poets of old shall cease to make our faithlessness their theme. Phoebus, lord of minstrelsy, hath not implanted in our mind the gift of heavenly song, else had I sung an answering strain to the race of males, for time’s long chapter affords many a theme on their sex as well as ours.

Euripides, Medea lines 395–430Translated 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 Chorus 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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