Di coniugales tuque genialis tori , Lucina , custos quaeque domituram freta
Tiphyn nouam frenare docuisti ratem ,
et tu , profundi saeue dominator maris ,
clarumque Titan diuidens orbi diem ,
tacitisque praebens conscium sacris iubar
Hecate triformis , quosque iurauit mihi
deos Iason , quosque Medeae magis
fas est precari : noctis aeternae chaos ,
auersa superis regna manesque impios
dominumque regni tristis et dominam fide
meliore raptam , uoce non fausta precor .

Gods of wedlock , and thou , Lucina , guard
Of the marriage bed , and thou who taught Tiphys
To rein the first ship and master the seas ,
And thou , the deep ocean ' s brutal lord ,
And Titan , who slices the world ' s bright day ,
And triformed Hecate , gleaming witness
Of silent rites-and gods by whom Jason
Swore oaths to me and whom Medea more
Rightly invokes : chaos of eternal night ,
Kingdoms hated on high , unholy ghosts ,
That grim realm ' s master and its mistress raped
In better faith-hear my ill-omened prayer .

Gods who couple men and women , hear me !
Lucina , listen , bright guardian of birth ,
midwiving children from the womb . Pallas ,
you taught Tiphys how to guide Argo ,
the first ship , to master a straight course ,
making itself at home upon the seas ,
now straits themselves . Hear me . Neptune , vicious
enough to master Ocean ' s heaving threats ,
I pray to you . And you , Titanic god ,
marking and making day with blazing eye
of light . You too , perceptive Hecate ,
governor of heaven , hell , and earth ,
illuminating rituals that are ,
and should be , secret , I appeal to you .
I call those gods upon whose names Jason
swore his oaths , names Medea might
more rightly spell in prayer . Hollow oneness
of eternal night , realms faced away
from life above , ghosts in chains , dripping
loathsome murder . Ominous master
of those realms of horror , hear my prayer ,
my hideous prayer . You too , Proserpina ,
ominous mistress , carried off like me
but not abandoned , treacherously left .

nunc , nunc adeste sceleris ultrices deae ,
crinem solutis squalidae serpentibus ,
atram cruentis manibus amplexae facem ,
adeste , thalamis horridae quondam meis
quales stetistis : coniugi letum nouae
letumque socero et regiae stirpi date .

Come now , now , vengeful goddesses of crime ,
With your filthy hair of writhing snakes ,
Clutching black torches in your bloody hands ,
Come in all your horror , as once ye did
In my bride-chamber . Bring death to the new wife ,
Death to the father-in-law and the royal line .

Powers of feuding vengeance , snakes writhing
repulsively upon a single head ,
come to me now . Grasp the black fires of death
in ghastly hands dripping blood , and stand
menacing , as when I married him .
Kill his new partner , kill his new father ,
snap all the royal family ' s living shoots .