[The scene is Delphi, in front of the temple of Apollo, where ION is the young sacristan. HERMES enters. The time is shortly before sunrise.]

HERMES: Atlas,¹ whose bronze shoulders support the weight of the heavens, ancient home of the gods, was father of Maia by one of the goddesses, and she bore me, Hermes, to mighty Zeus, to run errands for the gods. To this land of Delphi I have come, where Phoebus chants his oracles to men from his seat at the earth’s navel, giving them constant prophecy of things that are and things that are to be.

Now there is in Greece a city whose fame is well known among Greeks, one that is named after Pallas of the gilded [10] spear. Here it was, under the hill of Pallas in the land of the Athenians, where stand the northerly cliffs called by the lords of Attic soil the Long Cliffs, that a child of Erechtheus,² Creusa, fell victim to Phoebus’ violent passion.³ Without her father’s knowledge (for this was the god’s wish) Creusa endured her pregnancy to the end; but when her time came, she took the baby boy she had borne in the palace to the very same cave where the god had seduced her and there she exposed him to die, so she thought,⁴ inside the shelter of a round cradle. But [20] she showed regard for a custom established by her ancestors and Erichthonius, who was born from the earth. To him the daughter of Zeus had assigned as sentinels in his cradle a pair of serpents⁵ that kept him safe from harm, and she had entrusted him to the care and protection of Aglaurus’ maiden daughters. From this derives the custom in Athens whereby Erechtheus’ people dress their infant young in serpent necklaces of beaten gold.⁶ Creusa adorned her child with such finery as she had and left it to die.

Now, Phoebus, speaking to me as one brother to another, made this request: ‘Go, brother, to famous Athens (you know [30] the city of the goddess), to the people who are sprung from the land itself, and there take from a hollow rock a new-born baby, together with its cradle and the clothes it is wrapped in, and carry it to Delphi, to my oracle, putting it down at the very entrance to my temple. The rest will be my concern (the child, you should know, is mine).’

I obliged my brother Loxias. Taking up the wicker basket, I carried it off and here, at the top of the steps to his temple, I deposited the child, after first turning back the lid of its woven [40] cradle so that he might be seen. This was done just before the sun’s disk rose to start its race across the heavens, the time when the god’s prophetess makes her way into his shrine. When she set eyes on the baby boy, she wondered if some Delphian girl could have dared to cast her love-child into the dwelling-place of the god, and her first thought was to get rid of it from the sanctuary. But pity made her abandon this cruel impulse, and the god was also working to prevent his son’s ejection from the temple; she took up the child and gave it her loving care, not knowing that Phoebus was the father or who [50] the mother was.

The lad shares this ignorance of his parents’ identity. In his early days he would wander in play about the altars that gave him sustenance, but, when he came to manhood, the Delphians appointed him warden of the god’s treasure and trusted steward of all, and to this very day he lives a life of holiness in the sanctuary of the god.

Creusa, the young man’s mother, became the wife of Xuthus. This came about in the following way. War had engulfed Athens and Chalcodon’s people, who occupy the [60] land of Euboea. Because he had shared Athens’ dangers in this war and had helped destroy her enemies by the service of his spear, Xuthus was granted the honour of marrying Creusa, though he was not of Athenian stock but an Achaean, from Phthia, and a son of Aeolus, whose father was Zeus. For many years he has tried to father children but he and Creusa have been denied offspring. This is the reason why they have come here to Apollo’s oracle, to satisfy their desire for children.⁷ Loxias is directing fortune to this end and he is not as forgetful [70] as it seems. When Xuthus enters the shrine here, the god will give him his own son, declaring him to be the son of Xuthus, so that the boy may enter his mother’s home and become known to Creusa.⁸ It is also Loxias’ wish that her union with himself should remain a secret, although his son will enjoy the honours that are his due. He shall cause him to be called throughout Greece by the name of Ion, the one who shall found cities in the land of Asia.⁹

Now I shall retire to the groves of laurels over there, to learn what happens to the boy. Here I see him making his way out, the son of Loxias, to make the portals before his temple bright [80] with branches of laurel. I am the first of the gods to call him Ion, the name he is destined to bear.

[As HERMES withdraws, ION enters from the interior of the temple and begins to sing.]

ION: See the sun’s chariot and team of four, shining bright! Already his radiance lights up the earth, as his fiery strength makes the stars flee into sacred night. Parnassus’ peaks, untrodden by men, catch the flames and, to bless mortals, receive the wheels of day. Fumes from the [90] desert myrrh waft up to the roof of Phoebus’ temple, while the Delphic mistress sits on her holy tripod, chanting to men of Greece all that Apollo’s prophetic mouth declares.

[To the god’s servants whom he has seen entering from the side] Come, you men of Delphi who serve Phoebus, go down to Castalia’s silvery fountain and, when you have bathed in the pure dew of her waters, make your way into the temple. Avoid unseemly language! Keep guard on your tongues, revealing in your own speech fair words [100] for those wishing to consult the god.

And I will busy myself with the tasks that have been my constant occupation since boyhood, sweeping Phoebus’ portals clean with laurel branches bound in holy wreaths and sprinkling the ground with drops of water. As for the flocks of birds that foul our sacred offerings, I’ll use my bow and arrows to make them flee. Having no mother or father, I give my loving service to Phoebus’ temple; it has been my nurse. [110]

[Strophe:] Come, servant broom,¹⁰ offspring of the lovely bay, you that sweep the platform in the temple’s shadow, grown from groves immortal where holy springs, pouring forth their everlasting stream, water the myrtle’s sacred foliage! With you I sweep all day the god’s [120] floor, performing this daily service from the time the sun’s swift flight begins.

O Healer, Healer, bless us, bless us, son of Leto!

[Antistrophe:] Phoebus, it is a task that brings me honour, this service before your temple, as I show reverence to your oracular seat. A [130] glorious task for me, to serve a god as my master, no mortal man but an immortal god! How could I weary of the toil in so honourable a service? Phoebus is my sire and father;¹¹ he gives me nurture and so wins my praise; he it is, Phoebus, this temple’s lord, who brings [140] blessings to me; he it is whom I call by the name of father.

O Healer, Healer, bless us, bless us, son of Leto!

But now I will abandon my efforts at sweeping with this laurel-broom, and from this urn of gold I will fling fresh water that issues from Castalia’s whirling spring. I cast these liquid drops myself, unsullied and pure as I am. Oh, may I never cease to serve Phoebus [150] with such labour all my days, or, if I do, may it be with fortune’s blessing!

[ION suddenly starts back at the sight of birds.] See, over there! The birds are stirring; already they’ve left their nests on Parnassus and have taken to the skies! I give you warning: stay away from the temple’s eaves, and do not enter the golden house! You, too, will feel the force of my bowshot, herald of Zeus, though you subdue with your [160] talons the strongest birds that fly!

Look! Another wings his way towards the sanctuary, a swan! Away with you and those crimson feet of yours, fly elsewhere! Apollo’s lyre, your partner in song, will not save you from my bow. Continue onyour flight! Come to rest on Delos’ lake; do my bidding or you will change that lovely song of yours to a woeful lament!

[170] Ah, look there! What strange bird is this coming towards us? Surely you don’t mean to build your nest of straw for your young under our eaves? The twang of my bow will make you keep your distance! Take my advice: go to the waters of Alpheus or the Isthmian grove to raise your brood and leave undefiled the offerings and sacred dwelling of [180] Phoebus. And yet I hesitate to kill you who bring word to mortal men of heaven’s will. But I will not shirk my allotted task; I will serve my master Phoebus and never cease to worship the one through whom I live.

 

[ION now withdraws into the temple. The CHORUS enter, female servants of CREUSA, and express their admiration of the sacred buildings. Individuals contribute their thoughts after each strophe is introduced by the leading singer.]

CHORUS [Strophe]: So not only in sacred Athens, then, are temple-courts with fine columns to be found, and pillars in honour of the god who protects streets. Here, too, at the shrine of Loxias, child of Leto, are a temple’s twin façades, shining in fair-eyed beauty.¹² [190] See! Look there: the Hydra of Lerna being slain by Zeus’ son with his scythe of gold! Oh, look, dear, look!

I see him! And at his side stands another who lifts up a blazing torch; can it be the one whose story I hear as I work at the loom, the [200] warrior Iolaus, who shared with Zeus’ son the burden of his labours and endured them to the end? Oh, here, look over here: the one who sits, mounted on his winged horse! He is killing the mighty fire-breathing monster with its three bodies!

[Antistrophe:] My eyes go everywhere, believe me! Look, there on the marble walls – the rout of the Giants!

We see it here, friends.

[210] Then do you see her, shaking her shield with its Gorgon-face over Enceladus?

I see Pallas, my goddess!

What have we now? It is the mighty thunderbolt of Zeus, with both ends aflame, held in his powerful hands!

I see it; that is Mimas who battles with him and is burned black by his flame!

And Bromius, too, is slaying another of Earth’s children, the revelling god who has as weapon a mere ivy-wand!

[ION appears again at the temple entrance. One of the chorus addresses him.]

CHORUS-MEMBER [Antistrophe]: You, sir, standing at the way into the temple: are we permitted to enter the sanctuary, bare-footed? [220]

ION: You are not, ladies.

CHORUS-MEMBER: Then might I ask you…

ION: Say what you wish.

CHORUS-MEMBER:… is it true that Phoebus’ temple lies at the very mid-point of the earth?

ION: The naval-stone is here, wreathed with sacred garlands, and guarded by a pair of Gorgons.

CHORUS-MEMBER: So runs the tale we have heard.

ION: If you have made the offering of a cake in front of the temple and you wish to make some enquiry of Phoebus, you may enter the forecourt; the interior of the shrine is forbidden to you unless you have first sacrificed a sheep.

CHORUS – MEMBER: I understand; we have no wish to transgress the [230] god’s law and shall be more than happy to look at what may be seen outside.

ION: Enjoy the sight of all that it is lawful to view.

CHORUS -MEMBER : My master and mistress gave me leave to come here and look at the god’s sanctuary.

ION: You are household servants? What family do you serve?

CHORUS -MEMBER : The palace where my mistress grew up is under one roof with the dwelling of Pallas.¹³ [CREUSA enters with attend-ants.] But the lady you ask me about is here.

ION: Lady, I welcome you to the shrine; for, whoever you are, there is nobility in your looks and your bearing gives proof of your good character. In most people nobility may be discerned [240] by outward appearance. But what’s this? You surprise me now, shutting your eyes and letting tears moisten your noble cheeks at the sight of Loxias’ holy oracle! Whatever has made you so anxious, lady? In this place, where all others rejoice at the sight of the god’s sanctuary, do you weep?

CREUSA: It shows courtesy in you, sir, that my tears cause you surprise. The fact is, when I saw Apollo’s temple here, it [250] awakened an old, old memory in me; my thoughts were on that, though I stand here now. [Aside] Oh, what hardships women must endure!¹⁴ What may gods dare to do! I ask the question: to what authority shall we refer justice, if our masters’ injustice is the cause of our ruin?

ION: What is this sadness that defies explanation, lady?

CREUSA: It is nothing; I have shot my bolt; for the rest, as I am silent, please give it no more thought.

ION: Who are you? Where have you come from? What country do you belong to? What name should we call you by?

[260] CREUSA: Creusa is my name and Erechtheus my father; my homeland is the city of Athens.

ION: O my lady, how I honour you! The city you live in is a glorious one and your ancestors noble.

CREUSA: That is the extent of my good fortune, sir, that and no more.

IOΝ : In heaven’s name, is it true, as the story goes among men…

CREUSA: What is your question, sir? What do you want to learn?

ION:… that the father of your grandfather was born from the earth?¹⁵

CREUSA: Yes; this was the manner of Erichthonius’ birth; little good has this lineage done me!

ION: And did Athena really take him up from Earth?

[270] CREUSA: Into her arms, virgin though she was and not the child’s mother.

ION: And then she gave it, as pictures always show…

CREUSA:… to Cecrops’ daughters to keep safe but not to see.

ION: I heard the maidens opened the casket of the goddess.

CREUSA: And for this they died and made the cliff-face red with their blood.

ION: Ah! [He pauses.] But there is another story… is it true or false?

CREUSA : What is your question? I am not pressed for time.

ION: Your father Erechtheus, did he kill your sisters in sacrifice?¹⁶

CREUSA : For his country’s sake he brought himself to spill their virgin blood at the altar.

ION: But what about you? How were you the only sister to escape with her life?

CREUSA: I was a new-born baby in my mother’s arms. [280]

ION: Is it true that your father was swallowed up in the yawning earth?¹⁷

CREUSA: The sea-god struck the ground with his trident and so my father perished.

ION: Have you a place there called the Long Cliffs?

CREUSA [startled]: Why do you ask this? Oh, you have brought back a memory!

ION: It is a place Apollo honours and sanctifies with the fire of his lightning.

CREUSA: Honours, you say? I wish I had never set eyes on it!

ION: I don’t understand; you hate what the god holds most dear?

CREUSA: Never mind; we share a guilty secret, the caves and I.

ION: Is your husband an Athenian, lady?

CREUSA: He does not come from Athens but a different land. [290]

ION: Who is he? He must be a man of good family.

CREUSA: Xuthus, of the line of Aeolus and of Zeus.

ION: How was it that a foreigner became your husband, when you are Athenian-born?

CREUSA: There is a land called Euboea that is a neighbour of Athens.

ION: They are separated by sea, I have heard.

CREUSA: He fought alongside the sons of Cecrops and helped them sack this place.

ION: He came to their assistance in war? And then he won your hand in marriage?

CREUSA: I was his battle-dowry, the prize won by his spear.

ION: Are you here at the oracle with your husband or have you come alone?

[300] CREUSA: With my husband; he is detained at Trophonius’ sacred cavern.¹⁸

ION: Did he go there merely to see it or to consult the oracle?

CREUSA: The answer he sought from him and from Phoebus was one and the same.

ION: Was it to ask for fertile crops he went or for the sake of children?

CREUSA : We remain childless after all our years of marriage.

ION: You have never to this day borne a child, never been a mother?

CREUSA: Phoebus knows the truth about my childlessness.¹⁹

IO N: Poor lady, so blessed in the rest of your life and yet so cursed!

CREUSA : But what of you? Who are you? What a fortunate mother you have!

ION: They call me the servant of god, lady, and so I am.

[310] CREUSA : Did some city give you as a dedication or did an owner sell you?²⁰

ION: I only know one thing: I am called Loxias’ boy.

CREUSA: Well then, you have my sympathy in turn, young man.

ION [bitterly] : For not knowing who my mother is or who my father.

CREUSA : Do you live in the temple here or in one of the houses?

ION: All the god’s dwelling is my home, wherever sleep comes over me.

CREUSA: Did you come here as a boy or were you full-grown?

IOΝ : I was a baby according to those who claim to know.

CREUSA: And who among the womenfolk of Delphi nurtured you?

ION: I never knew a nurse’s breast; the woman who reared me…

[320] CREUSA: Who was she, you poor boy? I have found a misery to match my own!

ION: Phoebus’ prophetess is the one I think of as my mother.

CREUSA: How did you live from day to day as you grew to manhood?

ION: The altars and each new visitor gave me food.

CREUSA: Well, you are not without means; these are not shabby clothes you are wearing.

ION: I wear the livery of the god who is my master.

CREUSA : Have you made no effort to find out who your parents are?

ION: No, lady; I lack any evidence.

CREUSA: Then I pity your mother, whoever she is!

ION: Perhaps some woman was violated and I am her child.

CREUSA : Oh, that is sad! [Pause] Another woman shares your [330] mother’s fate.

ION: Who? If only she would help me in my search, that would make me glad!

CREUSA: The woman for whose sake I came here before my husband.

ION: What is it that she wants? I will assist, lady.

CREUSA: She requires the counsel of Phoebus on a secret matter.

ION: Please tell me and I will set your enquiry in motion.

CREUSA: Listen, then, to her story; even though it makes me ashamed.

ION: That won’t help you; shame’s the enemy of action!

CREUSA : She says – this friend of mine – she lay with Phoebus.

ION: With Phoebus – a mortal woman? My lady, don’t say such a thing!

CREUSA : Yes, and she bore the god a son, unknown to her [340] father.

ION: It cannot be! She was raped by some man and she is ashamed!

CREUSA: This is not what she says happened; and she had suffering yet to endure.

ION: In what way, if the god did lie with her?

CREUSA: The baby boy she bore she cast away.

ION: And where is he, this castaway child? Is he alive?

CREUSA: No one knows; this is my very reason for consulting the oracle.

ION: If he no longer lives, how did he die?

CREUSA: She imagines he was killed by wild beasts, poor creature.

ION: What kind of proof did she have for thinking so?

[350] CREUSA : When she went to the spot where she had left him, he was nowhere to be found.

ION : Was there any trace of blood on the ground?

CREUSA: None, she said; and yet she scoured the area several times.

ION: How long is it since the child met its end?

CREUSA : If he were alive, he would be the same sort of age as you.

ION: What if Phoebus took up the child and raised it in secret?

CREUSA: Then he is acting unjustly in enjoying for himself what should be a pleasure shared!²¹

1ON: The god then wrongs her still; I pity the mother.

CREUSA: She had no other child after this one.

ION: Ah, this tale strikes a chord with my own case!

[360] CREUSA: I imagine your own poor mother yearns to see you, too, young man!

ION: Ah, do not make me think of my own sorrows so long forgotten.

CREUSA: Forgive me; let us turn again to my own enquiry.

ION: Well, are you aware of the chief weakness in your case?

CREUSA : Is there anything that is not amiss in that poor woman’s condition?

ION: There is little chance of the god revealing in his oracle what he wishes to keep secret.

CREUSA: He must, if the tripod where he sits serves all Greece!

ION: He feels shame at what happened; do not examine him further.

CREUSA : And she, his victim, feels pain at her suffering!

ION: There is not a man here will put this question on your [370] behalf. If he were shown here in his own temple to have acted shamefully, Phoebus would justly punish the one who performed such a task for you. You must abandon this request, lady. It is wrong to consult the god on matters that go against his will. When the gods answer our prayers unwillingly, we win blessings that bring us no profit, lady; our benefit lies in those blessings that they freely confer. [380]

CHORUS-LEADER: The world is wide and wide is its breadth of fortunes, with none of their manifestations the same; but scarcely would you find a single human life blessed by happiness.

CREUSA: O Phoebus, the woman whose cause I plead in her absence has found you no friend of justice either in that land or now in this; you did not save your son as you should have done and, when his mother asks about him, though you are a prophet, you will give her no reply. Thus you deny him a burial mound if he no longer lives, and you take from her the chance of ever seeing her son again if he still is alive.

[Enter XUTHUS with servants and a number of Delphi’s citizens.]

But it is pointless to pursue this, if it is the god who prevents [390] me from learning what I want to know. I ask you, sir – for here I see my noble husband Xuthus approaching, his business at Trophonius’ oracle over – not to mention to my lord the conversation that we have had; I do not wish to be blamed for meddling in so delicate a matter and one that may turn out differently from the result we have been trying to achieve. We women find men harsh judges; those of us who are honest are lumped together with those who are not and tarred with the [400] same brush; this means we are born to a life of tears.

XUTHUS: First to the god I give my greetings – let him receive the first fruits of my salutation – and then, my lady, to you. [XUTHUS notices that CREUSA is distressed.] What’s this? Has my staying away so long upset you? Were you afraid?

CREUSA: No, no, but I had become anxious. Tell me, though, what is the oracle you bring from Trophonius? How shall we be blessed with children?

XUTHUS : He did not presume to anticipate the response of Apollo. Only one thing did he say: I would not return home childless from the oracle, nor would you.

[410] CREUSA: O blessed Lady, mother of Phoebus, may our coming here be propitious and the dealings we had before with your son change for the better!

XUTHUS: So they shall! But who is the god’s spokesman?

ION: That is my responsibility, at least outside the temple; others have charge inside, sir, those who sit near the tripod, the nobility of Delphi, chosen by lot.²²

XUTHUS : Thank you; I am entirely satisfied and now would like to go inside. I hear that a victim has been sacrificed before the [420] temple on behalf of all the visitors; on this day (as it is propitious) I wish to consult the god.

[Turning to CREUSA] You, my lady, with branches in your arms, go round the altars decked with bay, praying to the gods that the oracle I bring from Apollo’s house gives promise of children.

CREUSA: So I shall! [XUTHUS now enters the temple.] If Loxias consents this day at last to rectify the wrong he did me once, he would still not be wholly my friend, but whatever he is willing to grant I will accept, since he is a god. [CREUSA exits.]

[430] ION: Why does this lady speak in riddles to the god, constantly hiding the meaning of her words and taking him to task? Either it is out of friendship for the woman she seeks an answer for or she may even be concealing some unutterable secret. But what do I care for Erechtheus’ daughter? She is no kin of mine. Time to take up the golden jug and put water in the sacred bowls. And yet I should ask Phoebus to account for this behaviour of his;²³ can he have forced himself on an unmarried girl, then abandoned her? Fathered a child illicitly only to let it die without a thought? Never this, my lord! As you possess [440] strength, make it your aim to be virtuous! Wickedness in men is punished by the gods. How can it then be just for you, who prescribed the law for man, to be guilty of lawlessness? If you and Poseidon and Zeus²⁴ who rules the heavens are to answer to men for your predatory behaviour towards women (this is impossible but I will put the case), then in paying fines for your misdeeds you will empty your temples. You do wrong when you go beyond caution in satisfying your desires. Who, then, deserves the title ‘wicked’? No longer mankind if we imitate [450] behaviour sanctioned by the gods, but the ones who teach us these lessons! [Exit ION .]

CHORUS [Strophe] : My own Athena, born without the pains of childbirth, delivered by the aid of Titan Prometheus from the crown of Zeus’ head,²⁵ come, I entreat you, blessed Lady of Victory, to the Pythian dwelling; forsake your golden chambers and wing your way [460] down to these avenues, where, from the earth’s centre, from his own hearth and tripod, circled by dancing worshippers, Phoebus issues oracles sure and true! Come, then, Athena, come, child of Leto’s womb,²⁶ goddesses both, virgins both, revered sisters of Phoebus! Take to him our humble prayer, you maids divine; ask that Erechtheus’ ancient line may win by means of clear prophecy the long-awaited [470] blessing of offspring!

[Antistrophe:] For mortals possess a sure and steadfast source of abundant happiness, when youngsters in their vigour, who promise fruit hereafter, are a shining light in their fathers’ halls, destined to enjoy a wealth that can inherit from father to son through different[ 480] generations. This is a defence in times of trouble and a source of joy when fortune shows favour; it brings saving strength to a man’s countrymen in battle. Before wealth and a king’s palace may I have the privilege of raising children of my own, true to their father’s ways. The life that admits no children repels me; the advocate of such a life wins no praise from me. May I hold fast to a life blessed with children[ 490] and with modest means.

[Epode:] O you rocks that border on the Long Cliffs with their many caves, where Pan has his seat, what have you seen? You saw Aglaurus’ daughters three treading in dance the green slopes before Pallas’ shrines, to the quivering sound of the pipe’s music, when you [500] played your tunes, o Pan, in your sunless caves. You saw a wretched maid²⁷ bear a child to Phoebus and then cast it out for birds to feast upon and beasts to make their bloody prey, an outrage to her joyless union. Neither at the loom’s work nor in story have I heard of happiness coming to children borne by mortals to the gods.

 

[ION enters from the precinct.]

[510] ION: You serving women,²⁸ who keep watch at the steps of this house of sacrifice and wait for your mistress, has Xuthus already left the sacred tripod and oracle or does his enquiry about childlessness still keep him in the temple?

CHORUS-LEADER: He is inside, sir; he has not yet come out through this entrance. But we hear a sound from the doors here, as if someone is about to emerge, and now you can see him, the master, coming out!

[Enter XUTHUS from the temple. At the sight of 10 N he rushes to him and tries to clasp him in his arms.]

XUTHUS: My child – I greet you! These are my first words and none could be more fitting!

ION [shocked]: And my greetings to you; only regain your senses and all will be well with both of us!

XUTHUS : Let me kiss your hand! Let me embrace you!

[520] ION: Are you in your right mind? Has a god harmed your wits and made you mad?

XUTHUS: Am I not in my right mind when I have found my heart’s desire and long to hold him close?

ION: Enough! Take your hands off the god’s sacred bands – you will break them!

XUTHUS: I will not let go; I am no robber but have found what is my own!

10N: Get away from me before you feel my arrows in your ribs!

XUTHUS: What is it makes you refuse to recognize me, your dearest relative?

ION: I am not in the habit of enlightening boorish strangers who have lost their senses.

XUTHUS: Kill me and give me creation; you will be shedding your father’s blood, if you do this!

ION: You, my father? How can this be? Are you mocking me in saying this?

XUTHUS : No; my meaning will become clear as my tale unfolds.

ION: And what are you going to tell me? 530

XUTHUS: I am your father and you are my son.

ION: Who says so?

XUTHUS: Loxias, who raised you when you were mine.

ION: There’s only your own word for this!

XUTHUS: No, it’s the god’s oracle I have been told.

ION: He spoke in riddles and you mistook his meaning.

XUTHUS: Then my ears deceive me.

ION: What was it that Phoebus said?

XUTHUS: He said that the person who crossed my path…

ION: Crossed your path – in what way?

XUTHUS:… as I was coming out of the temple here,…

ION: What should happen to him?

XUTHUS:… he should be my son.

ION: The son born to you or a gift from other hands?

XUTHUS : A gift, but the child is mine.

ION: Then I was the first person to cross your path?

XUTHUS: No one else, my child!

ION: However has this happened?

XUTHUS: I’m as perplexed as you.

ION: What woman bore me to you? [540]

XUTHUS: I cannot say.

ION: Did Phoebus not tell you?

XUTHUS: I failed to ask, such was my joy in his response.

ION: Is the Earth, then, my mother?

XUTHUS: Children are not born of the soil.²⁹

ION: How, then, would I belong to you?

XUTHUS: I don’t know; I can only refer this to the god.

ION: Come, let’s examine this in a different way.

XUTHUS: That would be better, my child.

ION: Did you sleep with any woman before marriage?

XUTHUS : Yes, in the folly of youth.

ION: Before you took Erechtheus’ daughter as your wife?

XUTHUS: And not at any time since then.

ION: Then it was on that occasion that you fathered me?

XUTHUS: It agrees with the time.

ION: How did I then end up in this place?

XUTHUS: Here I have no answer.

ION: To come so far!

XUTHUS: I’m baffled too.

[550] ION: Have you visited rocky Delphi before now?

XUTHUS: Yes, when I attended Bacchus’ torchlight mysteries.³⁰

ION: Did you lodge with one of the welcoming officials?

XUTHUS: Thanks to him I made the acquaintance of some young women of Delphi.

ION: He introduced you to their company of worshippers, do you mean?

XUTHUS : I knew them when they were Maenads in the power of Bacchus.

ION: Were you in control of your faculties or drunk with wine?

XUTHUS: My thoughts were on the pleasures of Bacchus.

ION: Here’s the answer to my question! That was how I was conceived!

XUTHUS: Fate has brought it to light, my child.

ION: How did I come to the temple?

XUTHUS: I suppose you were exposed by the girl.

ION [to himself]: I have escaped the taint of slavery.

XUTHUS [opening his arms]: Now accept me as your father, my child!

ION: It seems I cannot doubt the god.

XUTHUS : Now you are coming to your senses!

ION: And what better could I wish for…

XUTHUS: Now your eyes are truly open!

ION:… than to prove the son of a son of Zeus?³¹

XUTHUS: And so you are!

[560] ION: May I, then, touch the one who fathered me?

XUTHUS: If you put your trust in the god!

ION [opening his own arms] : My father!

XUTHUS: What joy that name gives! What pleasures to hear it! [They embrace.]

ION: Let this day be blessed!

XUTHUS : It has blessed me indeed.

ION: O mother dear, when, oh when shall I see you also? Now more than ever I long to see you, whoever you are! But perhaps you are dead and even in dreams would escape me!

CHORUS-LEADER: We share the happiness that has blessed this-household. And yet I could have wished that my mistress and Erechtheus’ house were also blessed with children.

XUTHUS : My child, as to finding you the god has truly proved [570] his word; he has joined you to me and you in turn have discovered your own dear father, unknown to you before. Now, I too long for what you so properly desire, for you to find your mother, my boy, and I the woman who bore you to me. If we trust that time will solve this riddle, perhaps the answer will be revealed to us.

But now you must leave the god’s shrine and this homeless existence you lead, and accompany your father back to Athens. Have you nothing to say?³² Why do you keep your [[580]] eyes fixed upon the ground, absorbed in thought? What’s become of the joy you felt just now? You are making your father afraid!

ION: When things are at a distance they strike the eye quite differently from when they are seen at close quarters. I welcome what has happened, now that I have found a father in you; but let me tell you, Father, what is on my mind. Illustrious Athens [590] they say, is sprung from the soil and her people wholly indigenous. I will intrude upon them labouring under two disadvantages, the foreign birth of my father and my own bastard status.³³

With this reproach over my head I will never gain any influence and will have the name of a nobody. If I do aspire to the first rank of citizens and seek to make my mark, I will earn the hatred of those who lack influence in the State: superiority attracts envy. Then there are the worthy and capable men who, in their wisdom, keep their counsel and do not join the rush into public life;³⁴ these men will laugh at me and think me a [600] fool for not minding my own business in a city so prone to apportioning blame. As for those who do take part in politics, men who engage in public speaking, if I do succeed in gaining some repute, they will keep still closer watch over me with their votes as weapons. This is what usually happens in such cases, Father; men who hold positions of authority in their cities wage ceaseless war against those who would take their place.

Furthermore, I am to enter a house that is not mine, a stranger, and be in the company of a childless woman who [610] used to share your former grief but now will bitterly resent having to bear her own misfortune alone. Will she not have every cause to hate me, when I stand beside your throne and she, having no child, casts a jaundiced eye on your heart’s delight? If you show favour to your wife, you will be betraying me; if you uphold my rights, that means the destruction of your house for ever. How many times have women plotted to destroy their husbands by the sword or with deadly poisons? Besides, father, I feel sorry for your wife as she grows old [620] without children; she comes from a noble line of ancestors and does not deserve to languish in childlessness.

As for kingship,³⁵ which men foolishly praise, it has an attractive face but pain lurks within. What happiness, what good fortune is there for a man who lives in constant fear, looking round him for the assassin’s knife? I would rather live the life of an ordinary man who is happy than be a king, who likes to have vicious men for friends and hates honest men for fear they may kill him. You may say that gold outweighs such [630] misgivings, that wealth is a delightful thing. I have no desire to clutch riches to my chest if I must listen to the voices of carping criticism and be a prey to anxiety. No, modest means and a carefree existence are what I pray to have.

Let me tell you of the blessings in my life here, Father. First of all, I have enjoyed what men value most, leisure, and little trouble, with no fellow of the lower sort jostling me off the road.³⁶ It is intolerable when one has to give way on the road to men of low birth. I spent my time praying to the gods or talking to my fellow men and in serving them I found them joyful, not sad. No sooner had I bidden some visitors farewell [640] than others would arrive, so that I was constantly in the agreeable position of meeting new people. Custom and nature alike made me serve the god with a just heart, something that men desire, even if they don’t think they do. When I take this into account, Father, I consider my life here superior to what awaits me in Athens. Allow me to live here; to be content with little can give as much pleasure as rejoicing in greatness.

CHORUS-LEADER: I applaud your words, if my dear mistress is to prosper along with those you count as friends!

XUTHUS : You must stop talking like this and learn to enjoy your [650] good fortune. I want to inaugurate a public feast³⁷ in the place I found you, my child, holding a banquet for all the people, and to offer the sacrifice that was neglected at your birth. Indeed, I’ll offer you a delicious feast as if I’m bringing a friend to my home, and in Athens itself I shall treat you as an admiring visitor, not as my own flesh and blood. For I don’t want this good fortune of mine to be a cause of grief to my wife in her childlessness. In time, when the moment is right, I will win [660] my lady’s consent to your inheriting my throne.

As suits the lucky chance that brought us together as I came out of the god’s shrine, I give you the name ‘Iοn’.³⁸ Now gather all your friends together and, when they are engaged in the pleasure of feasting, bid them farewell on the eve of your departure from this town of Delphi. [Turning to address the CHORUS directly] And my orders to you, women of my house, are to say nothing about this; one word to my lady and you shall die for it!³⁹

ION: I will go. But in one respect my happiness is incomplete; Father, if I fail to discover my mother, there is no life for me. [670] If I am to hope for more, I pray that the woman who bore me may prove Athenian by birth, so entitling me to the right of free speech on my mother’s side.⁴⁰ For when a man seeks to live in a city whose people are of unmixed blood, one that is not his own, he may be a citizen in name but his speech is that of a slave and he may not express his true thoughts. [ION and XUTHUS leave the stage.]

CHORUS [Strophe]: Tears and cries of sorrow I foresee, and transports [680] of grief, when my royal mistress discovers her husband is blessed with a son, while she is childless and alone, alone and childless!

O prophet son of Leto, what manner of oracle did you chant? Where did he come from, this boy reared in your precinct? What woman gave him birth? This response of yours makes me uneasy; it may harbour some deception. I fear the outcome, whatever it might be.

[690] Strange are these tidings which the god’s strange oracle delivers to me. A cunning web of trickery does he weave,⁴¹ this boy who has been raised of no Athenian blood. Who will not agree with us in this?

[Antistrophe:] Friends, shall we let our mistress know this news, discreetly but in plain terms?⁴² † † Now her fortunes decline, [700] while her husband’s climb high; she is becoming old and grey-haired, while he shows no regard for his dear wife. Wretched man, he came, a foreigner, into her home and into great wealth, but has not shared herfortune.

I pray he meets his death, yes, death, for deceiving my royal lady, and when he makes his offering to the gods, may they frustrate him [710] and no bright flame leap up from the mixture! He shall know where my feelings lie and how much I love my queen! But they are now on the threshold of horror, the pair of them, new-found father and new-found son.

[Epode:] O summit of Parnassus with your rocky cliffs and heaven-soaring uplands, where Bacchus with flaming torch raised high in either hand leaps nimbly in company with his worshippers by night! May [720] this boy never come to my city, but rather end his young life this very day! Our people would have every excuse for rejecting the unwelcome arrival of a foreigner. It was by repelling the babbling throng of foreign invaders that our one-time ruler, Erechtheus, kept Athens safe.⁴³

 

[CREUSA enters from the precinct, accompanied by an OLD MAN in her service.]

CREUSA: Come, old servant of mine, who once was tutor to my father Erechtheus while he still lived; climb up to the god’s oracle to share my happiness if Lord Loxias prophesies that I will have children! It is a joy to share in the good fortune of [730] those we love; but, should any disaster happen, which heaven forbid, it is a joy no less to look into the eyes of a loyal friend! I care for you, though I am your mistress, as I would for my father, just as you once cared for him.

OLD MAN : Daughter, your nature is noble and worthy of your noble forebears; you bring no shame upon your family, descended as they are from the ancient sons of Earth. [Stretching out his arms to CREUSA] Pull me, pull me towards the temple! Help me on my way! Oracles are steep for me; give me your [740] strength to stir myself and cure the frailty of my old age!

CREUSA [taking hold of his arm]: Come along with me, then; [he nearly falls] but watch where you put your step!

OLD MAN: Look, I may be slow on my feet but my mind is quick enough.

CREUSA: Use your walking stick to support you; it is a winding track.

OLD MAN: When my eyes let me down, my stick fails me too.

CREUSA: True enough; [he nearly falls again] oh, you’re exhausted but don’t give up!

OLD MAN : Not while I have the will; but if my strength is gone I do not control it. [He finally succeeds in reaching a place to sit near CREUSA.]

CREUSA [turning to address the CHORUS]: Now you women who serve me loyally at loom and shuttle, what luck regarding children has my husband received from here – for that was the reason for our visit? Speak out! Tell me good news and you [750] will be warming the heart of a mistress who knows how to be grateful!

CHORUS – LEADER: O heavens above!

CREUSA: This is not a happy beginning to your tale!

CHORUS-LEADER: Oh, you poor woman!

CREUSA: Has the oracle given to your master something terrible?

CHORUS-LEADER [to the rest of the CHORUS]: Oh, no! What are we to do about this business with the threat of death over our heads?

CREUSA : What is this refrain? What is making you afraid?

CHORUS-LEADER [still appealing to the other members of the CHORUS]: Should we speak or stay silent? What shall we do?

CREUSA: Oh, speak! You have a tale of woe to tell and it points to me!

[760] CHORUS-LEADER [addressing CREUSA directly]: Then it will be told, even if I am to die twice over for telling it. Never, my lady, will you take a child in your arms or lay it to your breast.

[CREUSA sinks down beside the old man. In the lament that ollows she sings throughout in contrast to the OLD MAN and CHORUS-LEADER.]

CREUSA: Oh, let me die!

OLD MAN : O my dear child!

CREUSA: Oh, pity me for my fate! My friends, this anguish that has come over me, this anguish I feel, it takes all the sweetness from life! I am ruined!

OLD MAN [still making no impression on her]: Child…

CREUSA: Oh no, oh no! The pain passes straight through me, it pierces to my heart!

OLD MAN: Don’t give way to tears yet…

CREUSA: My grief is already here!

[770] OLD MAN:… until we learn…

CREUSA: What news, I ask?

OLD MAN :… if the master is in the same position and shares your misfortune or if this burden of sorrow is yours alone.

CHORUS-LEADER: Oh yes, Loxias has given him a son, old man, and now he is celebrating his luck in private, apart from this lady!

CREUSA: Another misery for me to mourn, one that crowns the first!

OLD MAN: And is this child you speak of yet to be born to some woman or did the oracle describe him as already born?

[780] CHORUS – LEADER: Already born and a young man full-grown when he was given to him by Loxias; I saw him with my own eyes.

CREUSA: What are you saying? What you tell me is unutterable, unspeakable!

OLD MAN: Unspeakable indeed! But tell me more clearly how the oracle came to be fulfilled and who the son is.

CHORUS-LEADER [to CREUSA]: The god gave your husband as his son whichever man he met first on hurrying out of the temple.

CREUSA: Monstrous, and the house where I live shall be empty [790] and desolate! For me he has decreed a life, then, with no children, no children!

OLD MAN : Who was he, then, whom the oracle spoke of? Who was it crossed the path of this poor lady’s husband? How did he set eyes on him and where?

CHORUS-LEADER: Dear mistress, do you know the young man who was sweeping this temple? He is the son.

CREUSA: Oh, to fly away,⁴⁴far from the land of Greece, up into the liquid air, towards the stars of the west, such is the misery I suffer, friends!

OLD MAN [continuing to question the CHORUS] : And what was the [800] name his father gave him? Do you know, or does this remain unspoken yet and undecided?

CHORUS -LEADER: ‘Ion’, since he was the one who met his father first; who his mother is I cannot say. But, so you may know all I have to tell, he’s gone, this lady’s husband, to cheat her by holding a birth-feast for his son in a consecrated pavilion, offering sacrifice on his behalf as if he were a stranger but intending to honour his new-found son at a banquet for all.

OLD MAN: Mistress, we are betrayed by your husband, we, for I count your sufferings as mine! This is a plot to dishonour us [810] and banish us from the house of Erechtheus! I say this, not out of hatred for your husband, but because I love you better than him. Into Athens he came, no Athenian himself, and won your hand in marriage. He took over your palace and your inheritance⁴⁵ and now it appears he has been fathering children in secret by another woman! How much in secret I will now tell.

On learning you were childless,⁴⁶ he was not prepared to share your misfortune and shoulder his part of the burden; he took a slave-girl to his bed and, when he had fathered this boy [820] by her in secret, he sent the child away from Athens, entrusting it to some Delphian to bring up. And so it was he spent his boyhood days wandering free in the sanctuary of the god, so making it easy for him to escape detection.

When his father came to know that the boy had grown to manhood, he persuaded you to make the journey here because you had no children. And so it was not Phoebus who lied; it was he who lied; all this time he was bringing up the child. This was the web of deceit he was fashioning: if he was detected, he meant to throw the responsibility on to the god, and, once in Athens, wishing to guard against the onset of time, he intended to invest his son with sovereignty of that [[830]] city.

CHORUS -LEADER: Ah, how I have always detested unprincipled people who commit crimes and then use clever words to put them in a more favourable light! I’d rather have as a friend a simple fellow who is honest than a villain who is clever.

OLD MAN [to CREUSA]: And a disgrace that is worse than all of this will be reserved for you; he is bringing as a master into your home someone who has no mother and no standing in law, the son of a slave-woman! It would have been a less [840] embarrassing difficulty if he had fathered a child by a woman of good family, first gaining your consent by pleading your [[850]] lack of children, and then had introduced the boy into his family. If this notion was offensive to you, he should have taken a wife from the house of Aeolus. All this means that you must now perform a deed worthy of your sex!⁴⁷

CREUSA [breaking into passionate song]⁴⁸: O my soul, how can I stay [860] silent? Yet how reveal that secret union and lose all modesty?

Oh, what remains to hinder me now? Whose virtue is there for me to emulate? Has my husband not been exposed as a traitor? I am cut off from home, cut off from children; gone are the hopes I wished, in vain, to realize with honour, by saying nothing of my ravishment, nothing of that birth which broke my heart!

No, by the starry seat of Zeus I swear, by the goddess who dwells [870] on my city’s rocky height and by the sacred shore of the Tritonian lake, no longer shall I conceal my lover; once I have lifted this weight from my breast, I shall be more at ease. My eyes are wet with tears, my heart aches at such malice done to me by men and gods together; but I will reveal their ingratitude and faithless treatment of my love! [880]

[CREUSA turns to face the temple.] O you, who make music from the seven-stringed lyre that rouses sweet echoes of the Muses' song from the lifeless horns of beasts, I will proclaim your shameful act, son of Leto, to the bright light of day! You came to me with gold shimmering in your hair, that day when I was gathering in the folds of my dress flowers whose saffron hue reflected the golden sunlight; you grasped [890] my white arms, like fruit on a tree, and dragged me, screaming ‘Mother!’ to lie with you, a god, in the cave, where you shamelessly indulged your lust.

Wretch that I am, I bore you a baby boy, only to expose him, through fear of my mother, in that cave of yours where you had ravished me in my misery, finding no joy on that joyless bed. Oh, I cannot [900] bear it! Now he is gone, snatched up as a feast by birds of prey, my little boy, and yours! And all the same – oh, your heart is hard! – you sing songs of victory to the music of your lyre!⁴⁹

Ho, Leto’s son, I call on you, who dispense your oracles from golden throne in your shrine at earth’s centre! I will proclaim my message to 910 the sunlight: ‘Despicable seducer! To my husband who has done you no previous service you give a son to inherit his house; but the child born to me and to you, you heartless creature, is no more, carried off by birds, snatched from the shawl his mother had wrapped him in! You are hateful to your Delos and to the laurel saplings beside the [920] soft-leaved palm-tree, where in holy birth-pangs Leto bore you in the bower of Zeus!’⁵⁰ [CREUSA collapses.]

CHORUS-LEADER: What woe is here! How vast a treasury of suffering is now laid open! No one can fail to weep at this!

OLD MAN : Daughter, I look at your face and I am filled with pity; my judgement has deserted me. As soon as I bale out one wave of trouble, your words cause a fresh one to raise me up astern, and, diverting them from the woes you had already, [930] you have started on a different tack of sorrows! What are you saying? What is this charge you are bringing against Loxias? What do you mean by saying you gave birth to a son? Where in Athens did you say you left him out for beasts to make their welcome meal? Tell me again!

CREUSA : I am ashamed before you, old man, but none the less I’ll speak.

OLD MAN: Yes, do; I know how to share a loved one’s grief as finer feeling dictates.

CREUSA: Then listen: do you know the cave to the north of Cecrops’ rocks, the ones we call the Long Cliffs?

OLD MAN: I do; it is where Pan has his shrine, and there is an altar nearby.

CREUSA: That was where I underwent a terrible trial.

[940] OLD MAN : What trial? How your words make the tears start in my eyes!

CREUSA: Against my will – oh, what misery! – I lay with Phoebus.

OLD MAN: My daughter, was that, then, what I noticed about you?

CREUSA: I don’t know; if you are right in what you say I’ll tell you.

OLD MAN: I mean the time when a secret illness was causing you to suffer and keep away from prying eyes.

CREUSA: That was when it happened, the grim experience I am now revealing to you.

OLD MAN : But what happened next? How did you manage to conceal your liaison with Apollo?

CREUSA: I gave birth [the OLD MAN steps back, shocked]; wait, old man, hear what I have to say!

OLD MAN : Where? Who delivered you? Or were you alone when you went through this ordeal?

CREUSA : I was alone; it was in the same cave where I was ravished.

OLD MAN : And the boy, where is he, to bring your child- [950] less days to an end?

CREUSA: He is dead, old man; he was left out for the wild beasts.

OLD MAN: Dead? Apollo was so cruel? He gave him no help at all?

CREUSA: No help; my son is being raised in Hades’ halls.

OLD MAN: Who then left him out to die? It can’t have been you, surely?

CREUSA : I did, first wrapping him in my shawl under cover of darkness.

OLD MAN: And no one shared with you the secret of the child’s exposure?

CREUSA: Only my sorrow and concealment.

OLD MAN: And how did you have the heart to abandon your child in a cave?

CREUSA: How? I uttered many cries that would have stirred the heart to pity, I… [CREUSA breaks off, unable to continue.]

OLD MAN: O my dear girl! Hard-hearted in what you dared to [960] do, but less so than the god!

CREUSA: Oh, if you had seen my little boy stretching his hands out towards me!

OLD MAN: Searching for your breast or wanting to be laid in your arms?

CREUSA : Yes, the very place I wrongly barred him from!

OLD MAN: What prompted the idea of leaving your child out to die?

CREUSA: I thought the god would take steps to protect his own son!

OLD MAN: Oh, what sorrow! How your prosperous house has been ravaged by storm!

CREUSA: Why do cover your head and weep, old man?

OLD MAN: Because I see how you and your father are abused by fortune!

CREUSA: Such is the life of man; nothing remains constant.

OLD MAN [squaring his shoulders]: Enough of this grieving now, [970] my daughter; we must not dwell on it.

CREUSA: What then should I do? Misery offers no solutions.

OLD MAN: Take revenge on the one who wronged you in the first place – the god!

CREUSA: And how am I to escape retribution, a mortal against a mightier power?

OLD MAN: Set fire to Loxias’ holy oracle!⁵¹

CREUSA: I am afraid; my cup of sorrows is already full.

OLD MAN : Then dare to do what can be done. Kill your husband!

CREUSA: He was once a good and loving husband. That compels my respect.

OLD MAN : Well, at least there is the boy who has risen up to do you harm – you must not let him live!

CREUSA: Yes, but how? If only I were able! How I would like to!

[980] OLD MAN: Arm your serving-men with swords.

CREUSA: I will set about it; but where shall this take place?

OLD MAN : Inside the sacred pavilion where the father is giving a banquet for his friends.

CREUSA: Murder is easily detected and there is no strength in slaves.

OLD MAN [losing his patience momentarily]: This won’t do, surely! You’re losing your nerve! Come on, it’s your turn now to think up a plan!

CREUSA: Well, I do have a scheme; it is clever and will work.

OLD MAN: I am your ready servant, with head and heart!

CREUSA: Then listen; you know about the Battle of the Giants?

OLD MAN: I do; it was when the Giants opposed the gods at Phlegra.

CREUSA: There, Earth gave birth to the Gorgon, a fearful monster.[⁵²]

[990] OLD MAN: To assist her own sons in battle and plague the gods?

CREUSA: Yes; it was slain by divine Pallas, child of Zeus.

OLD MAN: Is this the story I heard many years ago?

CREUSA: Yes; it is this creature’s hide that Athena wears upon her breast.

OLD MAN: What they call the ‘aegis’, the armour of Pallas?

CREUSA: It received this name when she rushed into battle at the side of the gods.

OLD MAN : What form did its savage shape take?

CREUSA: It was a breastplate armed with coiling snakes.

OLD MAN: Just what harm might this bring to your enemies, Daughter?

CREUSA: Do you know of Erichthonius ⁵³ or… but of course you must, old man.

OLD MAN : The ancestor of your family first spawned by Earth? [1000]

CREUSA: When he was newly born, Pallas gave to him…

OLD MAN : What? You still have something to say.

CREUSA:… two drops from the Gorgon’s blood.⁵⁴

OLD MAN: What effect do they have on a man’s constitution?

CREUSA : One causes death, the other cures diseases.

OLD MAN: What did she use to fasten them to his body and put them round the boy?

CREUSA: A golden chain; Erichthonius bequeathed the gift to my father.

OLD MAN: And when he died it passed to you?

CREUSA: Yes; I am the one who wears it, here on my wrist.

OLD MAN: How, then, is it constituted, this twofold gift of the [1010] goddess?

CREUSA : The blood that flows from the hollow vein…

OLD MAN: What must be done with it? What is its effect?

CREUSA :… it protects from disease and nurtures life.

OLD MAN: And what is the effect of the second one on your list?

CREUSA: It kills; it is venom from the Gorgon’s snakes.

OLD MAN: Do you carry it mixed with the first one or separately?

CREUSA: Separately; good does not mix with bad.

OLD MAN : My dearest girl, you have all that you need!

CREUSA: This will bring about the boy’s death; and the killer will be you.

OLD MAN: Where? What must I do? It is for you to say and me 1020 to dare.

CREUSA : In Athens, as soon as he comes to my home.

OLD MAN: That’s not a good idea; after all, you found fault with my scheme.

CREUSA: Why? Are you worried by the same thing that strikes me?

OLD MAN: People will think that you killed the boy, even if you did not.

CREUSA: You are right; they say the stepmother has no love for the children.⁵⁵

OLD MAN: Then kill him here, where you can deny the murder!

CREUSA : And at least I’ll enjoy the taste of my revenge the sooner!

OLD MAN: And this way you will make your husband think you do not know the secret he is so eager to keep from you.

CREUSA: You know, then, what to do. Take from my hand this [1030] golden bracelet of Athena’s, ancient piece of jewellery, and go to the place where this husband of mine is making his secret sacrifice. When they stop feasting and are about to pour libations in honour of the gods, take this poison you will have secreted under your robe and drop it in the young man’s drinking-cup without being seen – not in everyone’s, mind. You must keep his drink separate, for the one who intends to lord it over my house. And if he swallows it, he’ll never reach Athens but remain here, a dead man!

[1040] OLD MAN: Go now inside our lodgings. I will see to the task I have been assigned. [CREUSA withdraws.] Come, old feet of mine, find the spring of youth for this deed, in spite of your years. Assist your mistress, march out against her enemy. Give her your support in killing him and ridding her home of him. When Fortune smiles on a man, it is a good thing for him to honour piety; but when a man wants to do harm to his enemies, no law must stand in his way. [Exit OLD MAN.]

CHORUS [Strophe]: Lady of the Cross-ways, daughter of Demeter,⁵⁶ [1050] who presides over visitations by night, at the noontide also guide the filling of the deadly bowl for those that my dear mistress intends, drawn from drops of gore from the Earth-born Gorgon’s sundered neck; guide it to the lips of the one who seeks to lay his hands on the throne of Erechtheus! Never may any foreigner become our king, only someone from the noble house of Erechtheus! [1060]

[Antistrophe:] But if my lady’s plot fails, if her efforts to kill him founder and she loses the opportunity for this act of daring that now seems so hopeful, she will end her life, either by means of a sharpened sword or by tightening a noose around her neck.⁵⁷ And so, by bringing her own wretchedness to a wretched end, she will enter a new phase of existence. Never would she tolerate, while yet she lived in the sun’s bright light, the rule of another, not of Athenian stock, she the heir to [1070] a house of noble sires.

[Strophe:] lam ashamed to face the god praised in many a hymn,⁵⁸ if this youth shall be among the pilgrims by Callichorus’ spring, keeping vigil to see the torches blaze forth on the night of the Twentieth, when the stars themselves in heaven’s vault start up the dance, and the moon joins in, together with Nereus’ fifty daughters in the sea and [1080] the nymphs of the immortal eddying streams, as they dance in honour of the Maid who wears the golden crown and her holy mother. And it is there he hopes to become king, seeking to profit by other men’s labours, this homeless gypsy of Phoebus!

[Antistrophe:] All you poets, who float down music’s stream, [1090] singing in slanderous strains of women’s sinful loves and criminal passions, mark how much we surpass in virtue the lawless race of men!⁵⁹ Change your song and let your voices ring out against their lustful ways! Witness the ingratitude of the one who claims descent [1100] from Zeus. Not in union with my mistress did he father offspring to ensure the fortune of the house; he turned his loving attentions to another woman and got himself a bastard son!

 

[A SERVANT of CREUSA enters in some agitation.]

SERVANT: Good women, where can I find Erechtheus’ daughter, our royal mistress? I have searched the whole town through for her, running and changing tack in every direction, and yet I’ve had no luck!

CHORUS-LEADER: What’s troubling you, fellow-slave? What makes you rush in so excitedly? What’s the news you bring? [1110]

SERVANT: They’re after us! The local authorities of the region are trying to track her down. They mean to stone her to death!

CHORUS–LEADER: Oh, no, no! I can’t believe it! They haven’t found us out, surely, plotting the secret murder of the boy?

SERVANT: It’s true; you will be among the first to suffer punishment.

CHORUS–LEADER: How was it detected, our hidden scheme?

SERVANT: The god exposed it; he wished to avoid pollution.

CHORUS – LEADER: But how? I beg you, for mercy’s sake, tell [1120] me the story! Once I know, I will die the happier, if die I must, and so, too, if I’m spared!

SERVANT: When Creusa’s husband had left the shrine, taking his new-found son with him, to attend the feast and sacrifices he was preparing for the gods, he went to the place where the Bacchic fire of the god leaps high so that he might make Dionysus’ twin crags⁶⁰ run with sacrificial blood in recognition of his newly discovered child. These were his words: ‘You stay here, my son, and supervise workmen in their efforts as they [1130] construct a spacious pavilion. If after sacrificing to the gods who preside over birth I should linger for any length of time, let the feast go forward for our gathered friends.’ Then he took his victims and went on his way.⁶¹

With due attention to piety the young man erected on upright posts the framework of a pavilion, as yet lacking walls. He guarded well against the sun’s shafts, so that it faced neither the noonday rays of his fire, nor yet his dying beams. For each side of his square he measured one hundred feet in length, so that the area inside came to ten thousand feet, so the experts [1140] say, his intention being to invite all the folk of Delphi to the feast.

Next he took from the treasury sacred tapestries and hung them as an awning, a marvel for people to see. First he spread⁶² over the roof-tree a fold of drapery that Heracles, son of Zeus, had brought back as part of the spoils of the Amazons and had dedicated to the god. Among them were webs woven with figures of this kind: Uranus mustering his starry host in the vault of heaven; Helios driving his steeds towards his flaming goal and drawing behind him the radiant light of Hesperus; Night, goddess in black robes, urging her chariot onward, [1150] drawn by two horses unassisted, while the stars made up her escort; the Pleiad holding to her course in mid-heaven, with Orion the swordsman beside her, while overhead the Bear was lashing round his golden tail in the sky; Moon in full orb was darting her beams upward, dividing the month in two, and there were the Hyades, sign most sure to mariners, and Dawn, bringer of light, chasing the stars. On the walls the young man hung different tapestries, of oriental work: well-oared ships [1160] ranged against vessels of Greece, prow to prow, creatures half man, half beast, the hunting of deer by mounted men, the stalking of savage lions. At the entrance, with his daughters at his side, was Cecrops coiling his serpent tail, the offering made by some Athenian, and in the middle of the banqueting space he had set mixing bowls of gold.

Then a herald, drawing himself up to his full height, proclaimed that any man of Delphi who wished might come to the feast. When the pavilion was filled, the guests, with garlands adorning their hair, eagerly started consuming the generous quantities of food laid out before them. Once their appetites [1170] had been satisfied, an old man moved forward⁶³ and planted himself in the middle of the floor-space, causing the banqueters to laugh loud and long as he fussed over every detail. He passed among them with ewers, pouring water from them for the washing of hands, and went on to burn myrrh resin as incense, presiding over the golden goblets all the while, a self-appointed major-domo. When it came to the flute-playing as everyone was to be served from the communal bowl, the old man spoke up: ‘Away with the small winecups, it’s big ones we need to bring, if these here gentlemen are to drown their sorrows in [1180] good time!’ That gave the servants work to do, as they carried round the goblets of gold and wrought silver.

Then he took in his hands a special cup and, as if paying a compliment to his new master, he handed it to him full. But first he had put in the wine the potent poison given him, they say, by our mistress to bring an end to the youngster’s life. No one was aware of this but, as he was holding it in his hands, preparing to offer libation with the other guests, the newly [1190] revealed son heard a slave let slip an unlucky word. Since he had been reared in a holy place, among men skilled in divination, he took this as an omen and ordered another fresh bowl to be filled.⁶⁴ The earlier drink offering to the god he poured on the ground, telling everyone else to follow suit.

There followed silence, as we filled the sacred bowls with wine of Byblus and with water. While we were engaged in this, further guests arrived – a troop of doves that winged its way into the pavilion (they live unafraid in Loxias’ temple). In their thirsty state the creatures dipped their beaks in the wine [1200] spilled by the guests and started drawing it down their pretty throats.

The rest of the birds came to no harm from the god’s libation but the one that settled where the new young master had poured no sooner tasted the drink than it went into violent spasms throughout its downy frame and uttered an unintelligible shriek, a cry of anguish. We were amazed, every one of the assembled throng, as we witnessed the bird’s agony. At last the crimson legs and claws relaxed, as death brought an end to its gasping for breath.

Then the oracle’s child bared his arms and thrust them across [1210] the table at the old man, shouting, ‘Who’s trying to kill me? Out with it, old man! You were the one making such a fuss; it was your hand I took the cup from!’ Without delay he seized him by his wrinkled arm and started to search the old fellow in the hope of catching him red-handed, in possession of the poison. He was found out and under pressure, reluctantly, he revealed Creusa’s crime and the device of the cup.

At once the young man whose birth Loxias’ oracle had disclosed ran outside with the guests at his heels and, taking his [1220] stand before the lords of Delphi, spoke these words: ‘O sacred Earth, Erechtheus’ daughter, a stranger to us, is trying to end my life with poison!’ By many a vote Delphi’s rulers determined that my mistress should be executed by stoning for her attempt to kill the temple boy and commit murder in the sanctuary. All Delphi is hunting for the woman whose wretchedness set her on this wretched course. It was desire for children that brought her to Phoebus’ door but now she has lost all hope not just of children but of her own life. [The SERVANT runs off stage.]

CHORUS: Oh how miserable I am! I have no means, none, to escape [1230] from death! All is now clear; our plan stands revealed from the libation of Dionysus’ grape-clusters mixed murderously with the viper’s swift-working drops of blood. It is discovered, our sacrificial offering to the powers below – disastrous for my life, but death by stoning for my lady! Oh, how am I to escape the horror of those stones – should fly [1240] away on wings⁶⁵ or journey below the earth and find refuge in its dark recesses? Should I mount a chariot drawn by horses of swiftest hoof or take to a speedy ship?

CHORUS – LEADER: There is no escape for us if it is not the god’s will to aid our concealment. O my lady, how I pity you! What pain yet awaits your suffering heart? As it was our wish to do harm to our neighbour, shall harm be done to us in turn, as justice requires?

 

[CREUSA rushes on stage, wearing a veil.]

CREUSA: They are chasing me, good women, to kill me, to [1250] slaughter me! The Pythian vote seals my fate; I am betrayed!

CHORUS: We know of your plight, poor lady, we know the state of your fortunes.

CREUSA: Where am I to take refuge? I barely got clear of my house, running for my life, but I managed to give them the slip and so am here.

CHORUS: Your only place of sanctuary is the altar.

CREUSA: And how can that do me any good?

CHORUS: It is not lawful to shed a suppliant’s blood.

CREUSA: Yes, but it is the law that demands my life.

CHORUS: But first they have to catch you.

CREUSA: Look! Here they come, my adversaries, hurrying this way with swords at the ready and anger in their eyes.

CHORUS: Sit down now at the altar!⁶⁶ If they kill you when you [1260] are there, you will mark your killers with the stain of blood-guilt. But you must endure your fate.

[CREUSA takes her seat at the altar and holds fast to the statue there. ION enters with armed followers.]

ION: O father Cephisus, who took the form of a bull, what a viper is this woman you have bred in your family! What a dragon, with deadly fire blazing in her eyes! Nothing makes her flinch; not even those drops of Gorgon’s blood with which she meant to kill me contain more poison than her heart! Seize her! I want to see those lovely locks of hair being shredded when we send her spinning down Parnassus’ cliff to bound from rock to rock!

It was lucky for me that this happened before I reached [1270] Athens and fell into the clutches of a stepmother. I still had friends around me when I got the measure of your feelings and learned how dangerous an enemy I had in you! Once you had lured me into your home, the net would have been cast and you would have sent me straight on my way to Hades’ halls!

[ION turns to his companions.] Look at her, the woman who will stop at nothing – what web on web of trickery has she [1280] woven; she crouches at the altar of the god, thinking she will escape punishment for her crimes!

CREUSA [as ION ’s men move towards her]: No, do not kill me! I give you warning, in my own name and in the god’s in whose sanctuary we stand!

ION: You and Phoebus? What circumstances links the pair of you?

CREUSA: My body is consecrated to the god and I have placed it in his care.

ION: And yet you attempted to kill with poison one who belonged to the god?

CREUSA: No, one who belonged to your father; you no longer belonged to Loxias.

ION: I was indeed the god’s – I speak of when my father was not here.

CREUSA : Then was the time when you were Apollo’s; now you no longer are but I am his.

ION: But you are hardly innocent now; my life was one of [1290] innocence then.

CREUSA : I tried to kill you as an enemy to my house.

ION: I never tried to enter your country with weapons of war.

CREUSA: But with weapons of fire, to set alight the house of Erechtheus!

ION : Torches and firebrands? What fancy is this!

CREUSA : You intended to take by force the house and home that are mine!

ION: Then, because you feared what I ‘intended’, you sought to [1300] kill me?

CREUSA: Yes, to save my own life, in case you should succeed.

ION: Are you envious that my father found me, while you remain childless?

CREUSA : If I am childless, you will see fit to rob me of my home?

ION: The land was my father’s, won by him and his to bestow.

CREUSA : And what claims do Aeolus’ sons have on the land of Pallas?

ION: With weapons, not arguments, he delivered it from harm.

CREUSA: A mercenary could never make his home in Athens!

ION: Then could I have no share in that land, together with my father?

CREUSA: Only a shield and a spear – there is all your patrimony!

ION: Come away from the altar and its holy sanctuary!

CREUSA: Save your orders for your mother, wherever she is!

ION: And you, the one who tried to murder me, are you to escape punishment?

CREUSA: Not if you mean to cut my throat here in the sanctuary.

ION: Why do you want to die surrounded by the garlands of the [1310] god?

CREUSA: I will be giving pain in return for pain received.

ION: What a state of affairs! ⁶⁷ How terrible it is when the laws the gods have made for men are made neither well nor wisely! The criminal should be driven from the altar, not granted its protection. It is an offence that something holy should be touched by criminal hands; only the just have this right. It is the victim of wrongdoing who should receive the privilege of sanctuary; the good man and the bad when they seek refuge should not be given equal treatment by the gods.

[Apollo’s PROPHETESS enters from the temple. She carries in her arms a cradle decorated with woollen wreaths similar to those on the altar.]

[1320] PROPHETESS: Wait, my son! I have left my tripod of prophecy and step over this threshold, I, Phoebus’ prophetess, chosen from all Delphi’s womenfolk to preserve the time-honoured custom of the tripod.

ION: Greetings, Mother mine, though you did not give me birth.

PROPHETESS: Well, so I am called; the name is not unwelcome to me.

ION: Have you been told how this woman attempted to kill me by treachery?

PROPHETESS: I have; but this cruelty makes you guilty also.

ION: Is it not right that I should take her life when she tried to take mine?

PROPHETESS: Married women have never shown affection to stepsons.

[1330] ION: And we have the same feelings for our stepmothers when they make us suffer!

PROPHETESS: Enough; leave the sanctuary and go to your own land…

ION: What is it I should do? Give me your advice.

PROPHETESS : Go to Athens with innocent hands and good omens.

ION: A man has innocent hands if he kills his enemies.

PROPHETESS: This is not for you. Listen to what I have to say.

ION: Then speak. Whatever you say will be well meant, I know.

PROPHETESS: Do you see this basket⁶⁸ I keep cradled in my arms?

ION : I see an ancient cradle with wreaths covering it. PROPHETESS: You were placed in this when you came into my hands long ago, a new-born babe.

ION: What’s that you say? This is a new detail in the story! [1340]

PROPHETESS: Yes, I kept the facts concealed; but now I reveal them.

ION: How could you keep it from me all this time?

PROPHETESS: It was the god’s wish that you should serve him in his temple.

ION: And now he no longer wants that? How can I be sure of this?

PROPHETESS: He has shown you your father and lets you take your leave of Delphi.

ION: Did you keep this basket safe at his order or was there some other reason?

PROPHETESS: Loxias inspired me then with the thought.

ION: To do what? Speak! Finish your story!

PROPHETESS: To keep this discovery safe until the present time.

ION: What does it hold in store for me? What profit or harm? [1350]

PROPHETESS: In here is hidden the clothing in which you were wrapped.

ION: Are these clues you are producing that can help me find my mother?

PROPHETESS: Yes, for it is the god’s will; until now he did not wish it.

ION [raising his hands on high]: How I bless this day for what it is revealing!

PROPHETESS [giving him the cradle]: Now take this and strive to find your mother.

ION: So I shall, if it means crossing all of Asia and Europe’s boundaries!

PROPHETESS: This you must decide for yourself. To please the god I reared you, my child, and now hand over to you these things he wished me, uninstructed, to take and keep safe; his [1360] motive in this I cannot tell. Not a living soul knew that these articles were in my possession, or where they were hidden. And now, farewell! [The PROPHETESS embraces ION.] I take my leave of you as fondly as a mother! [Exit.]

ION: Oh, this is too much! How my eyes stream with tears as I [1370] think of that day when my mother, in her shame at being seduced, tried to dispose of me, her unsuckled child, in secret! A waif without a name, I lived a servant’s life in the god’s temple. My holy master was kind but my lot a heavy one; all the time I should have known the luxury of a mother’s embrace and taken delight in life, I was denied a loving mother’s care and nurture. I pity, too, the woman who gave me birth; her own suffering is no less than mine, for she lost the joy of a son.

[1380] Now I will take this cradle and offer it in dedication to the god; this will save me from making any discovery I may regret.⁶⁹ If in fact some slave-woman gave me birth, it would be worse to find my mother than to let the truth rest unspoken. [Raising the cradle in both hands and facing the temple] To your shrine, Phoebus, I here dedicate – no, what is wrong with me? Should I try to thwart the god’s purpose when he has preserved my mother’s tokens for me? I must not falter; I must open it; I cannot cheat my destiny.

[ION lays the cradle down on the ground and begins to untie its wrappings. CREUSA stares at him with rising excitement.]

[1390] O holy wreaths and fastenings that kept guard on my precious secret, what have you been concealing, I wonder? See how by some miracle the rounded cradle’s covering has not aged and no mould has grown on the plaited work, though many a year has passed since this was stored away!

CREUSA [breaking her silence]: Oh, what sight is this that I never hoped to see!

ION: Hold your tongue! I have already had cause to know your dangerous nature!

CREUSA: I have no reason for silence; do not criticize me! I see the basket in which I exposed you all those years ago, my child, when you were just a baby boy, laying you down inside the [1400] cave of Cecrops at the Long Cliffs with their roofs of rock. [CREUSA rises from her place of sanctuary and rushes to clasp ION.] I will leave this altar, even if I am to die for it!

ION [to his men]: Seize her! The god has made her mad; she has leapt up from the altar, leaving its images behind. Bind her arms!

CREUSA : Kill me! Show no mercy! But I will hold fast to this cradle, to you and to the things that are hidden inside it!

ION: Is this not outrageous – making me out to be her property by using deceit!

CREUSA: No, you are discovered as her own by one who loves you!

ION: You love me? And yet you tried to kill me by treachery?

CREUSA : You are my son – can a mother love anyone more than this?

ION: Stop spinning your cunning lies – I will catch you out! [1410]

CREUSA: Oh, this is what I want, this is my aim, my child!

ION [disengaging himself from CREUSA]: Is it empty, this basket, or does it contain something?

CREUSA: The clothing I wrapped you in when I exposed you all those years ago.

ION: And will you name these articles before seeing them?

CREUSA: Yes, and if I fail, I agree to die.

ION: Then speak; there is something impressive in this confidence you show.

CREUSA [to the CHORUS and ION]: Look, all of you, at the cloth I wove all those years ago when I was a girl!

[The CHORUS moves behind ION to gain a better view.]

ION: What kind of cloth? Girls produce all sorts!

CREUSA: An unfinished piece, the sort of thing we are taught to weave as beginners.

ION: What design does it have on it? Don’t expect to take me in [1420] like this!

CREUSA : There is a Gorgon in the middle of the cloth.

ION: O Zeus, what destiny is it that is hunting me down?

CREUSA: The Gorgon is fringed with snakes as is the aegis. ⁷⁰

ION: See! Here is the web, revealed to us just like an oracle!

CREUSA: O the work of my virgin youth, how long it is since I set eyes on you!

ION: Can you add any detail to this or were you just making a lucky guess?

CREUSA: A pair of serpents, gleaming with jaws all golden, the gift of Athena; for she bids us rear our young with serpents by them, imitating Erichthonius our ancestor.⁷¹

[1430] ION: Tell me, what does she bid you do? What use should you make of the golden trinket?

CREUSA: It is for a new-born child to wear as a necklace, my son.

ION: Here it is! But I long to hear about the third thing here.

CREUSA: There was a wreath I placed on your head; it came from the olive-tree that Athena’s rock first brought forth.⁷² If that wreath is still there, its greenness will not have faded and it will continue to bloom, sprung as it is from an olive that is inviolate.

ION [embracing CREUSA, at last convinced]: O my darling mother, what a joy it is to see you! Let me hug you, blissful, my cheek against yours!

CREUSA: My child, light more precious to your mother than the [1440] sun (the god will forgive these words), I have you in my arms… [CREUSA now breaks into song as her emotions overtake her] the treasure I never hoped to see, the one I thought was living with Persephone and the dead below the earth!

ION [showing more calm]: Dearest Mother, here you see me in your arms, the son who was dead and yet was alive.

CREUSA: O you expanse of glittering sky, what words should I utter or cry out? How did this unexpected delight come about? How has this joy become mine?

[1450] ION: This is the last thing I would ever have imagined possible, Mother, that I should find myself your son.

CREUSA: I still tremble with fear!

ION: Fearing you do not hold me when you do?

CREUSA: Yes; I had cast my hopes far way. [Now addressing the PROPHETESS in her absence] Ah, lady, how did you come to take my baby in your arms? By what hand did he come to the dwelling of Loxias?

ION: It was the work of a god; but I pray that our fortune may be as good in days to come as it has proved bad in the past.

CREUSA : My child, tears in plenty accompanied your time of birth and with cries of mourning were you separated from your mother’s arms. But now, when I have won this most blessed of joys, I breathe anew, [1460] my cheek pressed close to yours.

ION: Your words equally describe my own happiness.

CREUSA: No longer do I lack a son and heir! My house has its hearth, my country a prince and Erechtheus is young once more! The palace of the Earth-born looks no more upon the dark but gazes into the sun’s rays!

ION: Mother, my father is here as well;⁷³ let him share in this joy I have given to you!

CREUSA: What are you saying, child? Oh, how my past is finding me [1470] out!

ION: What do you mean?

CREUSA: Your father is quite different, quite different!

ION: Oh, no! Am I a bastard? You bore me out of wedlock?

CREUSA: O my child, my darling boy, no torches or dances accompanied the union that led to your birth!

ION: Oh, this pains me! I am of low birth, Mother? By whom?

CREUSA: The Gorgon-slayer be my witness…

ION: Why did you say that?

CREUSA:… she who has her seat on the hill of olives, on the [1480] rock of Athens…

ION: I find your words obscure and far from clear.

CREUSA:… by the rock where nightingales sing, with Phoebus…

ION: Why do you speak of Phoebus?

CREUSA:… I lay in secret union.

ION: Oh, say more! The news you bring me is good, is happy news!

CREUSA: When nine months had completed their circle, I bore you to Phoebus, and no one knew of it.

ION: Oh, what welcome news is this, if you speak the truth!

[1490] CREUSA: I wrapped you in these baby-clothes, your maiden-mother’s wayward efforts at weaving. I gave you no mother’s nurture with the milk of my breasts, nor did I wash you with these hands; I left you to die in a lonely cave, offering you up to taloned birds to make their bloody feast.

ION: How could you bring yourself to do something so awful, Mother?

CREUSA: Fear had made me its prisoner, my child, and so I threw your life away. I did not want you dead.

[1500] ION: And when I tried to kill you, was I not sinning also?

CREUSA: Ah, what we went through then was terrible, and terrible, too, is what we have just experienced! We are buffeted this way and that by fortune which is now good, now bad, as the winds change. Let our luck stay constant; our earlier sufferings were enough. My son, may a kindly breeze spring up now to blow us beyond our troubles!

[1510] CHORUS-LEADER: Let no one think that anything in human affairs is beyond hope, in the light of what is happening here.

ION: O Fortune, whose shifting favours have sunk so many mortals in misery before now and raised them up again in joy, how close I came to killing my mother – monstrous fate! Ah, is it possible, wherever the sun enfolds us in his shining light, that we can learn so much each day? Precious indeed, Mother, is my discovery of you, and honourable, I would say, the parentage I have found.

520 But there is something else I want to say to you alone. Come here! [ION draws CREUSA towards him, away from the CHORUS.] Let me whisper my words in your ear and veil the matter in darkness. Mother, I hope you are not showing the weakness that often affects young women betrayed into a secret love; you must not put the blame on the god and say you bore me to Phoebus, when my father was someone else, hoping to avoid the shame I would bring you.⁷⁴

CREUSA: No! By our Lady of Victory, by Athena who marched once at the side of Zeus’ chariot against the Earth’s brood, no mortal man is your father, my child, but the one who reared [1530] you, Loxias the King.

ION: How, then, did he come to give his own son to another father and claim that I was born the son of Xuthus?

CREUSA: Not born to that man but presented as a gift to him, though you were his own offspring. A friend may give his own son to another friend for purposes of inheritance.⁷⁵

ION: Does the god give true prophecy or false? This troubles my mind, mother, and not without reason.

CREUSA: Listen to what has just occurred to me, my child. It [1540] was out of kindness to you that Loxias intended you to find a noble home; if men spoke of you as son of the god, you would never have won your royal inheritance or a father’s name. This would have been impossible when I myself was trying to conceal the union and to kill you by stealth! The god has assigned you to another father for your own benefit.

ION: My enquiry into this matter will not accept so weak an explanation. I will go into the temple and ask Phoebus whether I am born of a mortal father or of Loxias.

[The goddess ATHENA appears⁷⁶ above the temple.] Ah! What [1550] deity is this who rises up above the place of sacrifice, showing a face as radiant as the sun? O Mother, let us flee in case we see forbidden sights [ATHENA motions them to stay], unless the time is right for us to see.

ATHENA: Do not flee! It is no enemy you seek to escape; I am one who wishes you well, both here and in Athens. It is I, Pallas Athena, who have come, the one whose name your country bears. I have hastened here from Apollo, who has not seen fit to appear before your eyes, in case blame for past misfortunes should be aired in public.⁷⁷ He has dispatched me to deliver to you this message: you are the child of this woman [1560] and Apollo is your father; when he gave you to the man he did, it was not as a gift to a parent, but to bring you into a noble house. When the true position was revealed, he feared that you might be killed by your mother’s plotting, or she by you, and so devised this stratagem to save your lives. It was King Apollo’s intention to observe an interval of silence before making the facts known in Athens,⁷⁸ revealing that this woman is your mother and you the child born to her and your father, Phoebus.

But let me now complete my business; listen, both of you, [1570] to the god’s oracle, the command I yoked my chariot to bring to you. Take this boy, Creusa, and return to Cecrops’ land, and there establish him on a royal throne. As he is sprung from the sons of Erechtheus, he has the right to rule over my country, and great shall be his fame throughout Greece.⁷⁹ The sons he shall sire, four in number from a single root, shall give their names to the land and to its tribal people who inhabit my rock.[1580] Geleon shall be the first; then⁸⁰ † † will come the Hopletes and Argades and the Aegicores, named after my aegis, will make up one tribe. The sons born to them shall in time be destined to settle the island cities of the Cyclades and the coastal lands, a source of strength to my own country. They will make their homes in the lands of two continents, on both sides of the straits, those of Asia and of Europe. In honour of his name they shall be called ‘Ionians’ and they will enjoy fame.

[To CREUSA] To you and Xuthus sons shall be born⁸¹ – [1590] Dorus, from whom shall spring the Dorian state whose glories shall be sung throughout the land of Pelops; the second, Achaeus, shall rule over the coastal regions by Rhion, and its people shall be distinguished by being called by his name. All has been well managed by Apollo. First he spared you the sickness of labour, to keep the truth from your family. Next, when you had given birth to this boy and wrapped him in his baby blankets, he ordered Hermes to snatch him up in [1600] his arms and convey the infant here. He nurtured him and did not allow him to expire. So say nothing about his child being your own, woman, so that Xuthus may find comfort in his illusion,⁸² and you in turn may go on your way cherishing your blessings. I bid you farewell; now that you have found respite from suffering, I promise your fortune will be a happy one. ION: O Pallas, daughter of mighty Zeus, we do believe the words you have spoken to us; I am persuaded that Loxias and this lady are my parents. Even before this I could have believed it.⁸³

CREUSA : Now hear what I have to say. I praise Phoebus, though [1610] I did not do so before, for protecting his son and giving him back to me. These portals, this oracle of the god, now appear fair in my eyes, though they were hateful before. Gladly I now cling to the door-knocker and greet his portals.

ATHENA: I commend your praise of the god and your change of heart. The gods’ purposes may be slow in coming to fruition but they are fulfilled without fail.

CREUSA: My child, let us go home.

ATHENA: Go on your way and I will share your journey.

ION: Worthy is the one who guides our path!

CREUSA: And the one who loves her city!

ATHENA: Assume your seat upon your ancient throne.

ION: A worthy prize for me to take!

[ATHENA disappears from sight. ION and CREUSA leave together.]

CHORUS: Apollo, child of Zeus and Leto, farewell! The man whose house is troubled by misfortune should revere the gods and not lose [1620] heart; for at the end the good get their just reward, while the wicked, as their nature directs, shall never know happiness.⁸⁴