And died,distaining with their blood the rock.
ION
But tell me,is this truth,or a vain rumour?
CREUSA
What wouldst thou ask?I am not scant of time.
ION
Thy sisters did Erechtheus sacrifice?
CREUSA
He slew the virgins,victims for their country.
ION
And thou of all thy sisters saved alone?
CREUSA
I was an infant in my mother's arms.
ION
And did the yawning earth swallow thy father?
CREUSA
By Neptune's trident smote;and so he perish'd.
ION
And Macrai call you not the fatal place?
CREUSA
Why dost thou ask?What thoughts hast thou recall'd?IONDoes Phoebus,do his lightnings honour it?
CREUSA
Honour!Why this?Would I had never seen it!
ION
Why?Dost thou hate the place dear to the god?
CREUSA
No:but for some base deed done in the cave.
ION
But what Athenian,lady,wedded thee?
CREUSA
Of Athens none,but one of foreign birth.
ION
What is his name?Noble he needs must be.
CREUSA
Xuthus,by Aeolus derived from Jove.
ION
How weds a stranger an Athenian born?
CREUSA
Euboea is a state neighbouring on Athens.
ION
A narrow sea flows,I have heard,between.
CREUSA
Joining the Athenian arms,that state he wasted.
ION
Confederate in the war,thence wedded thee?
CREUSA
The dowral meed of war,earn'd by his spear.
ION
Comest thou with him to Delphi,or alone?
CREUSA
With him,gone now to the Trophonian shrine.
ION
To view it,or consult the oracle?
CREUSA
Both that and this,anxious for one response.
ION
For the earth's fruits consult you,or for children?
CREUSA
Though wedded long,yet childless is our bed.
ION
Hast thou ne'er borne a child,that thou hast none?
CREUSA
My state devoid of children Phoebus knows.
ION
Bless'd in all else,luckless in this alone.
CREUSA
But who art thou?Bless'd I pronounce thy mother.
ION
Call'd as I am the servant of the god.
CREUSA
Presented by some state,or sold to this?
ION
I know not aught save this,I am the god's.
CREUSA
And in my turn,stranger,I pity thee.
ION
As knowing not my mother,or my lineage.
CREUSA
Hast thou thy dwelling here,or in some house?
ION
The temple is my house,ev'n when I sleep.
CREUSA
A child brought hither,or in riper years?
ION
An infant,as they say,who seem to know.
CREUSA
What Delphian dame sustain'd thee at her breast?
ION
I never knew a breast.She nourish'd me.
CREUSA
Who,hapless youth?Diseased,I find disease.
ION
The priestess:as a mother I esteem her.
CREUSA
Who to these manly years gave thee support?
ION
The altars,and the still-succeeding strangers.
CREUSA
Wretched,whoe'er she be,is she that bore thee.
ION
I to some woman am perchance a shame.
CREUSA
Are riches thine?Thou art well habited.
ION
Graced with these vestments by the god I serve.
CREUSA
Hast thou made no attempt to trace thy birth?
ION
I have no token,lady,for a proof.
CREUSA
Ah,like thy mother doth another suffer.
ION
Who?tell me:shouldst thou help me,what a joy CREUSAOne for whose sake I come before my husband.
ION
Say for what end,that I may serve thee,lady.
CREUSA
To ask a secret answer of the god.
ION
Speak it:my service shall procure the rest.
CREUSA
Hear then the tale:but Modesty restrains me.
ION
Ah,let her not;her power avails not here.
CREUSA
My friend then says that to the embrace of Phoebus-ION
A woman and a god!Say not so,stranger.
CREUSA
She bore a son:her father knew it not.
ION
Not so:a mortal's baseness he disdains.
CREUSA
This she affirms;and this,poor wretch,she suffer'd.
ION
What follow'd,if she knew the god's embrace?
CREUSA
The child,which hence had birth,she straight exposed.
ION
This exposed child,where is he?doth he live?
CREUSA
This no one knows;this wish I to inquire.
ION
If not alive,how probably destroyed?
CREUSA
Torn,she conjectures,by some beast of prey.
ION
What ground hath she on which to build that thought?
CREUSA
Returning to the place she found him not.
ION
Observed she drops of blood distain the path?
CREUSA
None,though with anxious heed she search'd around.
ION
What time hath pass'd since thus the child was lost?
CREUSA
Were he alive,his youth were such as thine.
ION
The god hath done him wrong:the unhappy mother-CREUSA
Hath not to any child been mother since.
ION
What if in secret Phoebus nurtures him!
CREUSA
Unjust to enjoy alone a common right.
ION
Ah me!this cruel fate accords with mine.
CREUSA
For thee too thy unhappy mother mourns.
ION
Ah,melt me not to griefs I would forget!
CREUSA
I will be silent:but impart thy aid.
ION
Seest thou what most the inquiry will suppress?
CREUSA
And to my wretched friend what is not ill?
ION
How shall the god what he would hide reveal?
CREUSA
As placed on the oracular seat of Greece.
ION
The deed must cause him shame:convict him not.
CREUSA
To the poor sufferer 'tis the cause of grief.
ION
It cannot be;for who shall dare to give The oracle?With justice would the god,In his own dome affronted,pour on him Severest vengeance,who should answer thee.
Desist then,lady:it becomes us ill,In opposition to the god,to make Inquiries at his shrine;by sacrifice Before their altars,or the flight of birds,Should we attempt to force the unwilling gods To utter what they wish not,'twere the excess Of rudeness;what with violence we urge 'Gainst their consent would to no good avail us:
What their spontaneous grace confers on us,That,lady,as a blessing we esteem.
LEADER OF THE CHORUS
How numberless the ills to mortal man,And various in their form!One single blessing By any one through life is scarcely found.
CREUSA
Nor here,nor there,O Phoebus,art thou just To her;though absent,yet her words are present.
