Nor would she have persuaded the daughters of Pelias to kill their father, and be living here in the land of Corinth with her husband and children, an exile who pleased the citizens of the land she came to, and who went along with Jason in everything. That is the greatest safety there is, when a wife does not stand apart from her husband.

The nurse runs through the story so far in a few lines. Medea persuaded the daughters of Pelias to kill their father, and the family fled to Corinth. The Athenian audience knew the tale; the nurse only has to point at it. Then she describes a marriage that worked: Medea pleased the citizens of her new city and went along with Jason in everything, "and that is the greatest safety, when a wife does not stand apart from her husband." The verb, διχοστατέω, is literally "to stand in two." Everything the play does next turns on that safety failing.