摘要:At its very outset, Seneca's Medea leaps off to a bad start. For the initial prologos or soliloquy (1-55) is presented by a Medea already appealing to the shades and powers of the underworld: ... nodis aeternae chaos, aversa superis regna manesque impios dominumque regni tristis. ...1) It is an ill-omened series of prayers, imprecations, and curses upon the new bride Creusa and her bridegroom Jason. Even her plans for effera ignota horrida (45) she dismisses as being too tepid, as having been already performed in her childhood; now she requires more grown-up and more dastardly crimes.