Oh, thou hast both brain and wit, Yet underneath . . . nay, all the tale of it Were graceless telling; how sheer love, a fire Of poison-shafts, compelled thee with desire To save me. But enough. I will not score That count too close. ‘Twas good help: and therefor I give thee thanks, howe’er the help was wrought.
In this portion of the text, Jason refutes Medea's argument that he owed her overly much for her aid to him in Colchis (using her magecraft to help him accomplish impossible deeds and slaying her brothers), arguing that she wanted to do it anyways because she was deeply in love with him. This is only technically true; in the Argonautica, Aphrodite exhorts her son Eros (Cupid) to strike Medea with his infamous love arrow: "This I will give thee; and do thou strike with thy shaft and charm the daughter of Aeetes with love for Jason; and let there be no loitering. For then my thanks would be the slighter" (Argonautica, Book III). Medea's love and help for Jason was not her choice, but rather a burden imposed on her by the Gods, who favored Jason and his crew.
Rhodius, Apollonius. The Argonautica. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved January 31, 2025, from https://www.gutenberg.org/files/830/830-h/830-h.htm.