Using java + jython, results in 15 pids, 2010M Virt / 196M Res.
Jython is probably the more apt comparison, vs the compiled interpreter. But, it falls into the same trap as powershell: You couldn't invoke jython in a loop like you would 'python' or 'perl'.
According to my machine, running the python interpreter results in 1 PID, 129M virt, 4.6M res.