Medea was written by Euripides in 431 BCE. The play was performed at the annual Festival of Dionysus in Athens, where it was not well-received. Although the play is based on the ancient Greek myths of Jason and Medea, Euripides departed from the basic story of the myths and has Medea kill their two sons, which appears to have offended the first Greek audience who watched the play.

When the leader of the Chorus tells Jason that Medea killed their children, Jason is utterly devastated. His children were the only people in his life that he truly loved. He desperately wants to see his sons, but while the doors to Medea's house are being battered open, Medea appears on the roof of the house, standing in a winged chariot, with the bodies of her dead children at her side.

Jason's grief is coupled with rage at Medea for killing their children and ruining his life. Until now, Jason has tried to reason with Medea, to moderate her rash behavior, and to avoid her murderous wrath. Now he rages at her.

JASON. Thou living hate! Thou wife in every age

Abhorrèd, blood-red mother, who didst kill

My sons, and make me as the dead.

Jason blames himself for not realizing what kind of person Medea is and for what has happened to him and his children. "Oh, God hath laid / Thy sins on me!"

Jason demands that Medea give their sons to him so he can mourn them and give them a proper burial, but Medea refuses.

JASON. Childless, I go, to weep and weep....

My sons, mine own!

MEDEA. Not thine, but mine . . .

JASON. ...Who slew them!

MEDEA. Yes: to torture thee.

As Medea is carried off in the chariot, Jason appeals to Zeus, but he doesn't really pray to Zeus for help or guidance. He tells Zeus that Medea denied his requests to hold his sons one last time and to bury them. He wishes he had never met Medea or had children with her only to have her kill them. His life has been destroyed.

JASON. I weep upon these dead, and say

Their last farewell, and raise my hand

To all the daemons of the air

In witness of these things; how she

Who slew them, will not suffer me

To gather up my babes, nor bear

To earth their bodies; whom, O stone

Of women, would I ne'er had known

Nor gotten, to be slain by thee!