Medea Read Online Free PDF Page B

dark with calculation.
    I froze. I could not move or speak.
    He shook himself, tossing his head. His tusks dripped with blood. He was hideous and proud, lord of his world, and we mere humans could not dent his arrogance. The stench of him encompassed me. Almost human, the scent of a boar. An unwashed human who reeks with maleness and blood - that is the smell.
    Then Jason screamed a challenge aloud, and thrust a spear into the creature's side.
    The boar turned quicker than sight; I heard his jaw snap closed on the boar spear, and the splinter of breaking wood. Jason was shaken as the boar shook his heavy head and then, as the spear broke, my lord was thrown to one side.
    I had to distract the attacker. I grounded my spear, braced it with my foot, and whistled. The boar spun again, moving like a snake, and pawed the ground, grunting with fury. I saw the red wound in his side, bleeding fresh red in gouts, not slowing his advance. I cried to Jason, who was caught in the thorns, 'Help!' and he felt for his knife, shaking his head.
    Everything was moving very slowly. The boar gouged great furrows in the leaf-mould with his front feet, challenging me. I braced the spear and myself for his rush, knowing that if I did not hold him he would run along the spear, that even spitted through the whole length of his gullet he could still tear me to pieces before he died. I needed Jason to cut the boar's throat, and he was still lying in the bushes, looking dazed.
    'Jason! Help me!' I screamed, and the boar charged.
    The spear entered his mouth, a wet red cavern, and the shock of his attack knocked me to the ground. I was lying on my back, the spear grounded deep in the earth, and the boar was between my legs.
    I was so afraid that I ceased to be afraid. I thought how we must look, the huge beast and the boy, the fragile limbs vainly wrapping the barred sides as the tusks sank into the belly, tore and destroyed, the toss of the head as he flung up loops of guts like a domestic pig roosting in beechmast. I was dead, I was floating. I heard some noises as something tore through the thorns, and then someone cut the string which tied my soul to my body, and I floated away like a butterfly.

--- III ---
MEDEA
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    I was still pondering the nature of the relations between men and women when I went into Colchis for the autumn festival.
    My two black bitches, Scylla and Kore, were well trained, silent mouthed, and watchful. They were sometimes just hounds, of course, but they had the ability to receive the goddess; they could become avatars of She Who Meets, and speak with her voice. They never left me. The priestess of Hekate is known by her black garments, her pale skin, her dangerous gaze and her fanged escorts. I was eleven years old, still unwomaned, but the crowds made way as I walked through the streets, and men and boys avoided my eyes. Women gazed hopefully on me, presenting me with their squealing offspring to bless, and although I disliked their sour, milky smell, I always kissed them with Hekate's kiss, She of the Newborn. I had duties now, and power. I had seen the goddess and felt her influence.
    And alone in my bed I still yearned for that safety, rocked in the arms of the Dark Mother, cradled against her cloudy breast.
    Colchis was crowded with foreigners. It is a small but rich city, Colchis Phasinos. When they came from Egypt, our ancestors brought with them seeds, tinctures and skills, and they used them, making a small island of civilisation in an ocean of barbarians. Colchis was built in a square, protected against strong winds and assault by high walls of dark local stone in which there are four gates. Scythgate looks towards the south and the plains. Eastgate towards the curve of the river which embraces the town at Rivergate, and west is Mountaingate.
    Very high and cold are the peaks we see from Mountaingate, and there is always snow on them. There men search for gold, Colchis' reason for existence, together with the poison