'And yet they say we live secure at home, while they are at the wars, with their sorry reasoning, for I would gladly take my stand in battle array three times o'er, than once give birth.'

Stills fra Lars von Triers 'Medea':

... og her et uddrag fra Sara Stridsbergs 'Land of Medea', scene 17:

THE GODDESS: A mother murdered both her children. Afterwards she walked into the 

sea with her dress loaded with stones. The sky was in flames above her. The beach was deserted. 

Medea is listening, surprised. 

MEDEA: Why are you in mourning? Who has died? 

THE GODDESS: A mother is sitting in the kitchen with her children. Her oven is full of 

roses. The kitchen is a yellow cone of light in which everything will be preserved. The 

melancholy, the window's glistening, flowing opening, the winter light. The big boy is 

standing on a chair by the sink. The little one is hanging on her hip. She is whisking and 
whisking. Then she puts on the gas oven. 

MEDEA: Why are you telling me this? 

Medea keeps studying her. She walks up to the Goddess listening closely to her as she 

speaks, reading her lips. As if she is in a hypnosis or stood at the bottom of the sea. Gets 

interrupted by the children's voices. 

AKILLES' VOICE: Mummy... Mummy? What are you doing? Are you sad, mummy? 

Should we phone dad? 

THE GODDESS: A mother goes out into the garden with her sleeping children. Shards 

in the wet grass. Her white feet are bleeding. The trees are asleep. All the birds don't 

sing. She beds her boys down into a soft bed of dirt. She is convinced that they are 

sleeping because she has fed them with soft drinks and sleeping pills. They are going to 

sleep undisturbed for a long time. Never unhappy again. She places the little boy's hand 

in the big boy's hand. She prays. Later she lies down on top of the soil and looks at the 

the sky rushing by overhead. 

MEDEA: Child murderer. 

THE GODDESS: The bridal bed is a woman's grave. 

MEDEA: Child murderer. 

AKILLES' VOICE: Mummy!  

THE GODDESS: A mother goes to see her children for the last time. The children 

are asleep in the bunk bed. The little one still has a teat. Gently she pushes the poison 

capsules into their mouths. The boys smell of sleep and sugar. Tenderly she squeezes  

their jaws shut over the glass. The poison explodes over their milk teeth. Death is 

immediate. She leaves the room-