- A Messenger runs in.
- Panicked, he tells Medea to run. The Princess and Creon are both dead.
- Medea is tickled pink and asks the Messenger to tell her every grisly detail.
- The Messenger launches into the story:
- He talks about how excited all the servants were when the boys showed up. They were all glad that there was peace between Medea and Jason.
- At first, the princess was all snobby towards them, but then Jason talked her into letting the boys stay.
- Medea's presents sealed the deal.
- Jason and the children left the house, thinking everything was cool.
- The Princess was all about the gifts. She put the gown and diadem on and pranced around the palace looking at herself in the mirror.
- Then things got ugly.
- Her skin changed color, her eyeballs bulged, and she started foaming at the mouth.
- The princess shrieked in pain.
- The diadem caught fire and the gossamer gown ate away her flesh.
- Her whole body caught fire and clots of blood dripped from her.
- She ran around until she finally collapsed with pain.
- Her flesh dripped from her bones.
- Then Creon showed up.
- The King was stricken with grief and grabbed his daughter's flaming body. He caught fire too, and, before you knew it, his flesh was also bubbling from his bones.
- Before too long two ghastly corpses were lying on the palace floor.
- The Messenger tells Medea that she'd best have a good escape route.
- Before taking his leave he observes that there's no such thing as a happy human being.
- The Chorus Leader says she feels bad for the princess.
- Now Medea says that it's time to kill her sons. She tells herself that they'd be killed anyway after the assassination. It's better that it be by her hand.
- Media pushes down her feelings of motherly love and enters the house to murder them.
Sixth Choral Ode
- The Chorus prays to the Sun and the Earth to stop the murders.
- They ask if there was any point in the boys being born at all and observe that people who kill their own family will be haunted forever.