Euripides, Ion

ToposText · Euripides · 160 sections

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§ 1010 PED. How then is the two-fold gift of the goddess made effectual? CREUSA: That which dropped from the gore of the hollow vein PED. For what purpose is this to be used? What virtue does it exert? CREUSA: It wards off diseases and has the power of supporting life. PED. But the second which thou speakest of, what does it? CREUSA: It kills, being the venom of the Gorgon's snakes. PED. And dost thou bear it mingled in one, or separately? CREUSA: Separately: for good mixes not with evil. PED. My dearest daughter, all hast thou which thou needest. CREUSA: By this the youth shall die: and thou shalt be his slayer.
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§ 1020 PED. Where? And what shall I do?'Tis thine to speak, and mine to dare. CREUSA: In Athens, when he comes to my house. PED. This hast thou not well said: forgive my words, for thou too findest fault with my plan. CREUSA: How not well said? Hast thou suspected that which now occurs to me also? PED. Thou wilt appear to have slain the boy, even if thou shalt not kill him. CREUSA: Eight: for they say that stepmothers bear enmity to children. PED. Kill him therefore here,* that thou mayst be able to deny the murder. CREUSA: Ay, and I enjoy the pleasure of slaying him so much the earlier. PED. And thou wilt not be known to thy husband to possess the secret which he is anxious should not be known to thee. CREUSA: Knowest thou then what thou art to do?
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§ 1030 Take from my hand this gold bracelet of Athena's, an antique work, go where my husband by stealth is banqueting on the slain ox, and when they cease from the feast and are about to pour libations to the gods, keeping this concealed in thy robe, drop the contents into the young man's cup (but into his individually, not the cups of all, distinguishing his draught from the rest ) who is about to lord it over my house. And if it once pass his throat, never will he come to renowned Athens, but will die and abide here. PED. Do thou then depart to the house of our
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§ 1040 hosts; and I will perform the task to which I am appointed. Come, aged foot, grow young for work, though it is not natural to thee from long course of time. And go with my mistress against a foe, and help to slay him and to rid her house of him. For it is a fine thing for men in prosperity to hold righteousness in honour, but when any one would work harm to enemies, there is no law laid down to forbid it. CHORUS: Enodia, daughter of Demeter, who art queen
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§ 1050 of nightly visitants, guide also in the light of day the contents of the fatal bowl to them for whom my loved, loved mistress sends it, contents taken from the drops trickling from the wounded throat of earth-born Gorgon, to him who aspires to the house of the Erechthidae. Nor may any other of another house
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§ 060 ever reign over the city besides the noble Erechthidae. But if his death shall fail to be accomplished, and the eager schemes of our mistress, and the opportunity for the daring deed shall pass away, by which her hopes are now sustained, either she will take a sharpened sword, or she will fasten a noose to her throat about her neck, and putting an end to her sufferings by sufferings, she will go down to another form of life. For never would she live and endure
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§ 1070 in the sight of her brightly beaming eyes others of alien race ruling her house, she that is bom of so noble a line as hers. I feel shame for the god of many hymns, if keeping vigil he shall in the night behold the torch that witnesses the Icades about the springs of Callichorus, when the star-eyed heavens of
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§ 1080 Zeus too wont to dance, and dances the Moon, and the fifty daughters of Nereus, who dance over the sea and the eddies of ever flowing-streams, in honour of Kore with the golden crown and the hallowed Mother; where, entering on the possessions
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§ 1090 of others, the homeless foster-child of Phoebus hopes to reign. All ye who, following after poesy, sing in reproachful strains our loves and unlawful unholy alliances coming of the Cyprian queen, see how much we surpass in purity the unrighteous race of men. Let the contrary song go forth against men, and the verse reproachful for their amours. For the descendant from the sons of Zeus shews his forgetfulness of her in not begetting for my mistress children who should be a boon common to the house: but instead of this, to please Venus, he has gotten him a bastard son. ATTENDANT. Stranger women, where shall I find my mistress the daughter of Erechtheus? For I have gone all over the city seeking her, and am not able to find her. CHORUS: But what is the matter, my fellow-slave? What makes thy feet in such eager haste? and what tidings dost thou bring? ATT. We are pursued; and the native magistrates of the land are in search of her, that she may be stoned to death. CHORUS: Alas! What wilt thou say? Surely we have not been discovered in contriving a secret murder against the youth? ATT. Thou art right: and thou wilt be not amongst the last to share in the evil consequences. CHORUS: But how was the secret plot discovered? ATT. The god, not willing to be defiled, found out a way for unrighteousness to be overcome of right. CHORUS: How? I pray and beseech thee to tell me
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§ 1120 this. For we should die more contentedly, when we have learned whether we must die or still behold the light. ATT. When the husband of Creusa, having left the oracle of the god, and having received his new son, had gone away to the banquet and offerings which he was preparing in honour of the gods, Xuthus himself went where the fire of the god bounds in Bacchic dance, that he might steep the twin rocks in the blood of sacrifices to Dionysus in the place of his son's opteria, first saying to him: Do thou then, my son, stay and rear a spacious tent
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§ 1130 by the labours of artificers. But if I stay a long time in sacrificing to the gods presiding over birth, let there be a feast for thy assembled friends. And taking the calves, he went his way. But the young man in due form proceeded to erect the unwalled enclosure of the tent with upright poles, carefully guarding neither towards the mid-day beams of the sun's fires to erect it, nor on the other hand towards his dying rays, and measuring out a plethrum's length square (a space of ground having for the contents of its area a sum of ten thousand feet, as say
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§ 1140 those skilled in numbers), with intent to invite all the people of Delphi to the feast. And having gotten sacred hangings from the treasury of the temple, works wondrously beautiful for men to behold, he made with them a covering for the tent. First he spreads over the roof a dependent awning of pepli, the offering of the son of Zeus, which Herakles presented to the god as the spoils of the Amazons. And there was woven in them in pictured forms a design of this kind: Uranus marshalling the heavenly bodies in the circle of the sky. The Sun was urging his horses towards his last fires, ushering in the bright light of Hesperus. And
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§ 150 dark-robed Night was whirling her car with a yoke of two steeds: and the stars were bearing the goddess company. The Pleiads were going through the mid sky, and Orion girt with sword: and above, the Bear wheeling round her tail-stars by the revolution of the golden pole. And the orb of the full moon dividing the month in the midst was shooting upward, and the Hyades, most certain token for mariners, and the light-bringing Aurora chasing away the stars. And on the walls he hung other works of barbarian looms,
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§ 1160 well-rowed ships opposed to Grecian ships, and wights, half men, half beasts, and their huntings on horses' feet, the chase of stags and fierce lions, and at the entrance, Cecrops beside his daughters coiling himself in folds, the offering of one of the Athenians: and in the midst of the feast he set goblets of gold: and a herald standing on tip-toe proclaimed that any inhabitant of the city who would was to come to the banquet. But when the tent was filled, adorned with garlands they
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§ 1170 satisfied their appetite with abundant food. And when they had ceased from the enjoyment of it, an old man came forward and stood in the midst, and caused great laughter to the guests by his zealous activity: for he sent round water from the water-pots to wash their hands, and burned the gum of myrrh, and took charge of the gold vessels of libation, of his own accord setting himself this task. And when they came to the flutes and to the common bowl, the old man said, Ye must take away the small wine-cups, and bring in large ones, that
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§ 1180 the guests who are present may more quickly make their hearts merry. Forthwith there was a bustle of attendants bringing silver-wrought paterae and golden: and he, taking a vessel selected from the rest, as if forsooth to do a pleasure to the new lord, offered it to him full, having first put into the wine an active poison which they say our mistress gave him, that the young man might quit the light: and none knew of this: but whilst the new-found son amongst the rest was holding the libation in his hands, one of the
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§ 1190 slaves spoke an unlucky word: and he, as being brought up in the temple and amongst holy soothsayers, deemed it an omen, and bade fill a fresh bowl: and the first libation intended for the god he throws to the ground, and tells all to empty their paterae. And silence came over them. And we fill the sacred bowls with liquor and Byblian juice. And in the midst of this act a winged company of doves alights in the tent; for in the house of Loxias they dwell without fear. And when they had poured away the wine, they, in want of drink,
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§ 1200 dipped their beaks into it, and drew it into their feathered throats. And to the rest of them the intended libation to the god was harmless: but the one which had settled where the new-found son had poured out his cup, and had tasted the liquor, anon shewed her plumed body convulsed, and became wild as a bacchanal, and screaming uttered sounds unaccountable: and all the company of banqueters marvelled at the sufferings of the bird: and she dies heaving convulsively, stretching out her red claws. But the predicted son dashed forth his bare arms from his robe across the table, and shouts,
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§ 1210 Who of men intended to kill me? Shew me, old man: for thine was the officious zeal that served me, and from thy hand I received the draught. And immediately he seizes his aged arm and searches him, that he might catch the old man in the fact in possession of the poison. And he was discovered, and then he was with difficulty compelled to reveal the attempt of Creusa and the plot of the draught of wine. And the youth who had been made known by the oracle of Loxias, rushes out, taking the banqueters with him, and standing before the Pythian
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§ 1220 rulers, he says, sacred land! An attempt is made to murder me with poison by the daughter of Erechtheus, a stranger woman. And the princes of Delphi decreed by general vote that my mistress should die by being hurled from a rock, as plotting to kill him that is consecrated, and attempting to enact a murder in the temple. And all the city is seeking her who with wretched fate pursued her wretched journey hither: for having come hither to ask children from Phoebus, she has lost her life along with the hope of offspring. CHORUS: No way there is, no way for hapless
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§ 1230 me there is to escape from death: for discovered now, discovered are these schemes of a libation from the clusters of Bacchus mingled with death by the infusion of the swiftly working drops of the hydra's blood, discovered is the purposed sacrifice to the gods below, a discovery putting an end to my life, and bringing the penalty on my mistress of being stoned to death. Whither shall I flee with wings or under the dark depths of the earth, to escape the calamity
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§ 1240 of death by stoning? Shall I mount a chariot with four steeds of fleetest hoof, or the poop of ship? It is not possible to escape detection, when the god desires not to screen us from the penalty of crime. What fate awaits thee, my poor mistress, to suffer bodily? Shall we, before we suffer, determine to do some mischief to others ourselves, as is but just? CREUSA: My handmaids, I am pursued to be put to death, condemned by the Pythian vote, and I am on the point of being given up to justice.
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§ 1250 CHORUS: We know thy misfortunes, wretched lady, in what a sad condition thou art. CREUSA: Whither then shall I fly? For with difficulty have I avoided death by getting the start of my pursuers in rushing from the house, and it is only by stealth, by eluding my enemies, that I have come here. CHORUS: And whither else shouldest thou fly but to the altar? CREUSA: And what will this avail me? CHORUS: The gods permit not to slay a suppliant. CREUSA: Yes, but it is by the law that I am to die. CHORUS: Yes, if thou shouldst be taken and shouldst be in their power. CREUSA: Ay, and here come on apace towards us my bitter enemies sword in hand. CHORUS: Sit therefore at the altar. For even if thou shouldst be slain whilst thou art there, thou wilt entail on those who kill thee blood demanding vengeance: but we must bear our lot. ION: O bull -faced visage of Cephisus her forefather,
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§ 1260 what a viper is this that thou hast begotten, or rather dragon with eyes flashing murderous flames of fire, in whom is all daring, nor is she less cruel than the drops of Gorgon's blood, with which she sought to kill me. Seize her, that the summit of Parnassus, whence she shall be hurled by a bound from the rock, may cause those unsullied locks of hers to be torn. But a good fortune was mine, that prevented me from going to the city of Athens and falling under
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§ 1270 the power of a step-mother. For amongst those who have befriended me do I reckon thy disposition towards me, in that thou wast a spite and a foe to me: for if thou hadst once entrapped me in thy house, thou wouldst have sent me outright to the mansions of Hades. But neither will the altar nor the temple of Apollo save thee, and any feeling of pity for thee is outweighed by pity for me and for my mother: for though her bodily presence is wanting to me, yet thus far is not the name of a mother wanting. See what scheme after scheme this vile woman has contrived: she has now crouched down at the altar, thinking to escape from the punishment due to her deeds.
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§ 1280 CREUSA: I warn thee not to slay me where I have stationed myself, both for my sake and the god's. ION: And what hast thou to do with Phoebus? CREUSA: I commit my body as sacred to the keeping of the god. ION: And yet thou didst try to slay the child of the god with poison. CREUSA: But thou wast no longer the child of Loxias, but thy own father's. ION: But I was, I mean in the absence of my father. CREUSA: Well, thou wast then: but now I am his, and thou art so no longer. ION: If thou art, thou art impious, but I was pious then. CREUSA: And I slew thee, because thou wast an enemy to my house.
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§ 1290 ION: I never came in arms into thy land. CREUSA: Yes, most certainly; thou wast going to set the house of Erechtheus in a blaze. ION: With what torches, or with what flames of fire? CREUSA: Thou was going to dwell in my home, and take it away in spite of me. ION:'Twas because my father offered me the rule of the land which he had won. CREUSA: But how had the descendants of Aeolus any share in the land of Pallas? ION: He delivered it by arms, not words. CREUSA: An ally cannot be an original possessor of the soil. ION: And so thou didst attempt to slay me from fear of what? CREUSA: In order that I might not die, the sure alternative, if thou shouldst not.
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§ 1300 ION: Art thou envious, because thou art childless, at my father's having discovered me? CREUSA: Wilt thou then make havoc of the homes of the childless? ION: Nay, but was I to have no share at least of my father's possessions? CREUSA: No more than spear and shield: this is thy whole inheritance. ION: Quit the altar and the divine abode. CREUSA: Keep thy exhortations for thy mother, wherever she is. ION: And shalt thou attempt to kill me, and not undergo the penalty of thy crime? CREUSA: Yes, if thou art willing to slay me in this sanctuary. ION: What pleasure is it to thee to die grasping the wreaths of the god? CREUSA: I shall cause grief to one of those by whom grief has been caused to me.
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§ 1310 ION: Alas! Tis strange, how unfairly and without wise counsel the god has laid down his laws to mortals: for the wicked should not have been allowed to take refuge at the altar, but it should have been permitted to drive them away from it; for it is not good that evil hand should touch the gods: but the righteous only, any one that was wronged, should have been allowed to take refuge in holy places, and not the man that is good, and the man that is not, to meet together there and have equal protection from the gods. PYTHIA: Hold, my son: for I have left the divining tripod within this enclosure, and am passing over it with my feet to come to thee, the prophetess
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§ 1320 of Phoebus, chosen out of all the Delphian women according to the ancient custom of the tripod. ION: Hail, mother dear to me, although thou barest me not. PYTHIA: But at least I was called thy mother; and the name is not unpleasing to me. ION: Hast thou heard how this woman endeavoured to kill me by a plot? PYTHIA: I have heard: and yet thou art doing wrong to be so wrathful. ION: Is it not right that I should in turn destroy those who seek to slay me? PYTHIA: Wives were ever yet hostile to children born before their marriage. ION: Yes, and so are we to step-mothers, if we are ill treated. PYTHIA: Say not so. Leave the temple, and going to thy country
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§ 1330 ION: What, I pray, wouldst thou exhort me to do? PYTHIA: With hands pure from blood-guiltiness proceed to Athens attended by good omens. ION: Surely the hands of every one are pure who slays his enemies. PYTHIA: This do not thou: but hear from me the words which I have to tell thee. ION: Speak: for thou wilt say whatever thou mayest say, in a friendly spirit. PYTHIA: Seest thou this vessel which I am carrying in my hands? ION: I see an old basket decked with chaplets. PYTHIA: In this I found thee once upon a time, a new-born babe. ION: What sayest thou? New to me is the story that has been related. PYTHIA: Yes, for I kept it secret, but now I make it known to thee.
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§ 1340 ION: How hast thou then concealed it from me so long, if thou didst find me then? PYTHIA: The God wished to keep thee as a minister in his temple. ION: And does he not desire to do so now? In what way am I to be assured of this? PYTHIA: Having revealed thy father, he bids thee depart from this land. ION: And hast thou preserved this by command, or from what motive? PYTHIA: Loxias at the time suggested to my mind ION: To do what? Say, finish thy story. PYTHIA: To preserve this that I had found, to the present time. ION: But what good, or what harm does it do to me? PYTHIA: Herein are laid up the swaddling-clothes in which thou wast.
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§ 1350 ION: Thou bringest these things forth as helps to discover my mother. PYTHIA: Yes, as the god so wills, but did not before. ION: this day of happy omens to me! PYTHIA: Take them therefore, and find her that bore thee. And when thou hast visited all Asia and the limits of Europe, thou wilt learn about these matters thyself. For the sake of the god I reared thee, my son, and I now restore to thee these things, which he willed that I should find and keep, though without express command: but wherefore he so willed, I am not able to say. But none of mortal
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§ 1360 beings knew that I had these, nor where they were hidden. And now farewell: for I embrace thee with equal affection as though I had given thee birth. But begin where thou oughtest to begin searching for thy mother; first, enquiring if any Delphian maid having born thee, brought thee to this temple and exposed thee, and next, if any Greek woman. And now thou hast learned all from me and from Phoebus, who took part in thy fortunes. lox. Alas! alas! How I shed the moist tear from my eyes, when I turn my thoughts to the time when she who bore me after furtive embraces,
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§ 1370 secretly put me away, and gave me not the breast; but I passed the life of a servant in the abode of the god, without a name. The god was good, but my fate was hard: l for at the time that I ought to have been delicately nurtured in the arms of my mother, and to have had some enjoyment of life, I was deprived of my dearest mother's nourishment. And wretched also is she who bore me, since she has shared the same fate in losing the joy of possessing a son. And now I will take this basket and present it an offering to the god, that I may discover nothing that I would not. For if a
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§ 1380 slave happens to have given me birth, to discover my mother is a worse thing for me than to say nought about her. Phoebus, I present this to thy temple. Yet what am I doing? I am opposing the good will of the god towards me, who has preserved these tokens of my mother for me. I must open this, and take heart. For never can I escape from what is fated. sacred chaplets, why, I pray, have ye been hidden from me, and ye bands, by which my treasures were guarded? Behold the covering of
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§ 1390 the round basket, how it has been saved from growing old by some divine care, and the wicker-work is free from mouldiness: but the interval of time is long indeed for these hoarded relics to have lasted. CREUSA: What apparition do I behold of things not even hoped for? ION: Silence: thou wast an enemy to me before, CREUSA: I cannot be silent c exhort me not. For I see the basket in which I formerly exposed thee, my child, when thou wast yet a helpless babe, taking thee to the grotto of Cecrops and the cavernous Macrae. But I will leave this altar, even if I must die.
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§ 1400 ION: Seize this woman; for inspired with a sudden frenzy by the god, she has leaped up and left the sculptured altar; and bind her arms. CREUSA: Go on to slay me, if ye will; since I will cling both to this and to thee and to what is shut up within it. ION: Is not this abominable? I am being dragged away on a pretended claim of relationship. CREUSA: Not so, but thou near and dear to me art found by one near and dear to thee. ION: I near and dear to thee? And that is the reason why thou wouldst have secretly murdered me? CREUSA: Yes, thou art my son, if that is nearest and dearest to one who bore thee. ION: Leave off inventing falsehoods: right surely will I take thee. CREUSA: May I arrive at this happiness; this, my son, is what I am aiming at.
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§ 1410 ION: Is this basket empty, or hides it any contents? CREUSA: Yes, thy garments, in which I formerly exposed thee. ION: And wilt thou tell the name of them, before thou seest them? CREUSA: Yes, and if I tell thee not, I will be bound to die. ION: Speak; since thy boldness has about it something passing strange. CREUSA: Look for the work which I wove when I was a girl in days gone by. ION: What sort of work? Many are the works woven by maidens. CREUSA: Not a perfect piece of work, but such as a first attempt at the loom might be. ION: What pattern has it? thou must not try to catch me in this way. CREUSA: A Gorgon in the central tissue of the robe.
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§ 1420 ION: Zeus, what destiny is this that pursues me to the end? CREUSA: And it is bordered with snakes after the manner of the aegis. ION: See here! this is the piece of work: sure as an oracle we find it. CREUSA: work of my maidenhood found at last. ION: Is there anything besides this? or art thou lucky in guessing at this alone? CREUSA: An antique thing, some snakes with jaws all gold. ION: The gift of Athena, who bids Athenians deck their children with these ornaments?” CREUSA: Yes, in imitation of what she did to Erichthonius of olden time. ION: Do what, make what use, tell me, of the golden ornament? CREUSA: As a necklace, for a new-born child to wear, my son.
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§ 1430 ION: Here are the snakes * inside. But I want to know what the third thing is. CREUSA: I put round thy head at the time a chaplet of the olive, which Athena first planted on the rock: which, if it still exists, never leaves its greenness, but flourishes as being produced from the original olive. ION: mother most dear to me, with gladness beholding thee I kiss thy glad cheeks. CREUSA: my son, thou light of joy more precious to thy mother than the light o/the sun (for the god will pardon this word), I- hold thee in my arms, a discovery beyond my hopes, who I thought was
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§ 1440 dwelling beneath the earth in the depth with the shades and Persephone. ION: But, my dear mother, in thy arms I seem as he that is dead and yet is not dead. CREUSA: thou expanse of the bright sky, what words shall I utter, shall I cry aloud? Whence comes it that this unlooked-for delight has happened to me? Whence comes it that I have gotten this joy? ION: To me it would at one time have seemed likely that anything in the world would happen sooner than this, that I am thy son. CREUSA: I still tremble with fear.
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§ 1450 ION: That thou hast me not, now that thou hast me? CREUSA: So it seems, for far away my hopes had I cast. lady, from whom, from whom didst thou receive my babe into thy arms? By what hand came he to the house of Loxias? ION: This was the work of the god: but as to the remainder of our destinies may we be as fortunate as the former part of them was unfortunate. CREUSA: Not without tears wast thou born, my child, and with sighs wast thou parted from thy mother's arms: but now, against thy cheek, I freely breathe,
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§ 1460 having found a joy most blissful. ION: What thou sayest is true of thee and me alike. CREUSA: I am no longer childless nor without offspring: our house is established, and the land has a prince: and Erechtheus flourishes again in youthful vigour, and the earth-born race no more looks on darkness, but is again enlightened by the rays of the sun. ION: My mother, let my father, I pray, come and share the gladness which I have caused thee. CREUSA: My child, my child, what is it thou sayest? How, how am I put to shame.
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§ 1470 ION: How saidst thou? CREUSA: Thou wast born to another, to another. ION: Ah me! thy maidenhood brought me forth a spurious son? CREUSA: Not celebrated by torches nor by dances did my union, bring thee forth, my son. ION: Alas! I was begotten, my mother, of some ignoble father. CREUSA: Bear witness the slayer of the Gorgon ION: What is that thou saidst? CREUSA: Who amid my native rocks dwells on the olive-planted hill.
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§ 1480 ION: This that thou tellest me, this is an attempt to deceive me and no truth. CREUSA: At the rock haunted by nightingales with Phoebus ION: What sayest thou of Phoebus? CREUSA: Was I united in stealthy love. ION: Say on; for thou art about to tell me somewhat acceptable and fortunate to hear. CREUSA: And at the tenth revolution of the month, I brought thee forth, a stealthy child, to Phoebus. ION: thou that hast spoken words of greatest joy, if thou speakest words of truth. CREUSA: And I put on thee to cover thee these swaddling-clothes the work of thy mother's maidenhood,
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§ 1490 the clumsy attempts of my shuttle. And I gave thee not a mother's nurture with milk, nor with the breast, nor bathings with my hands, but in solitary cavern, for beaks of birds a prey and feast, wast thou exposed to die ION: my mother that couldst endure to commit so terrible a deed. CREUSA: By fear constrained I cast away thy life, my child;'twas against my will I slew thee
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§ 1500 ION: And thou wast about to die by my hand in an impious way. CREUSA: Ah! Ah! terrible was our fate then, and terrible are these last events too: we are tossed to and fro by misfortunes and back again by good fortunes, and the gale is ever shifting. Be it constant at last: enough are the troubles of the past; but now there has sprung up a fair wind to bear us forth out of our troubles, my son. CHORUS: Let none of men ever think that aught is beyond hope, seeing what is happening now.
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§ 1510 ION: Fortune that hast in turn caused myriads of mortals ere this both to be unfortunate and to be prosperous again, to what a point in life's career have I arrived in so nearly having killed a mother, and in so nearly having suffered an undeserved death myself. Is it possible for the sun's bright course to witness all these freaks of thine day by day? Well then, I have discovered thee, my mother, a joyful discovery for me, and such an origin in my judgment, is not at all to be despised. But the rest I wish to say to thee alone. Come hither; for I would whisper my words into thine ear, and
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§ 1520 cast the veil of secrecy over the facts. Be thou sure, my mother, that thou didst not first fall into the unfortunate error to which maidens are liable with regard to secret attachments, and then art laying the blame to the god, and art endeavouring to avoid the disgrace to me by saying that thou borest me to Phoebus, when thou borest me by no god at all. CREUSA: By Athena the Victorious, who of old aided Zeus in battle against the giants with her car,'tis none of mortals that is father to thee, my son, but the same king Loxias that reared thee up.
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§ 1530 ION: How then was it that he gave his son to another father, and declares that I was born son of Xuthus? CREUSA: That thou wast so born, he says not, but though begotten of him, to Xuthus he gives thee: for a friend may give a friend his own son to be master of his house. ION: Whether the god is true, or divines falsely, is a question, my mother, which not without reason disturbs my mind, CREUSA: Hear now therefore the thoughts which have occurred to me, my son. It is to benefit thee, that Loxias settles thee in a noble family: but, if thou hadst been called the god's, thou wouldst never
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§ 1540 have had a home entitling thee to full rights of citizenship, nor the name of any father. For how couldst thou, when I myself wished to conceal my loves, and was for secretly killing thee? And it is to serve thee that he assigns thee to another father. ION: I am following them up by no means inattentively: but I will go into the temple and enquire of Phoebus whether I am the son of a mortal sire or of Loxias. Ha! Who of the gods appears from the house fragrant with incense and shows a countenance bright with the rays of the sun? Let us fly,
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§ 1550 my mother, lest we should look upon the gods, if it is not meet that we should look upon them at the present time. ATHENA: Fly not: for I am not an enemy that ye should fly from me, but friendly to you both in Athens and here. For it is I, Pallas, that am come, the deity giving a name to thy land, having in haste sped hither from Apollo, who thought not fit to present himself to you, lest reproaches for the past should interrupt, but he sends me to speak to you the message that this lady bore thee by Apollo for thy father, and he gives thee to whom he gave thee, not as having begotten thee, but that he
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§ 1560 ( Xuthus ) may take thee into a family of most noble birth. And when this purpose was disclosed and revealed to him ( Xuthus ), fearing that thou wouldst be slain by the plots of thy mother, and that she would be slain by thee, he rescued you both by plans which he devised. And king Apollo intended still to remain silent about these things and to make this lady known to thee as thy mother in Athens, and to her that thou wast born of her and Phoebus as thy sire. But, that I may complete the business for the god, and fully explain his divine will, for the sake of which I yoked my chariot, listen to me. Creusa, take
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§ 1570 this youth and go to the Cecropian land, and seat him on the royal throne: for he, being born of the line of Erechtheus, has a right to rule my land. And he shall be famous throughout Hellas: for his sons, four born from one root, shall give their names to the land, and to the people of the country arranged by tribes who inhabit my rock. Teleon shall be the first: then next the Hopletes, and the Argades, and the Aegicores, named from my aegis, shall possess one
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§ 1580 tribe each. And the sons born in turn to them in course of time decreed shall occupy the island towns of the Cyclades, and the continent along the coast, which will give strength to my country; and they shall inhabit the plains of two continents, the land of Asia and of Europe, on opposite sides of the strait: and named Ionians for the name's sake of this youth, they shall have renown. But to Xuthus and thee shall be born a common offspring, Dorus, from whom the Dorian state shall arise, and be celebrated in song; and the second, Achaeus, in the land of Pelops,
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§ 1590 who shall be lord of the sea-coast near Rhium, and the people shall be distinguished by being called after his name. And well has Apollo brought all to pass. In the first place, he makes thy delivery free from sickness, so that thy friends knew it not: and when thou barest this thy son, and hadst exposed him in swaddling-clothes, he requests Hermes to snatch np the babe in his arms and convey him hither, and he reared him and suffered him not to die. Now therefore keep it secret that this youth is thy son, that
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§ 1600 Xuthus may be pleased with the belief that he is his, and that thou, lady, on thy part mayst enjoy thy own blessings. And now fare ye well: for, after this rest from your troubles, I announce to you a happy destiny. ION: Pallas daughter of Zeus supreme, I will accept thy words with no want of faith: for I believe that I am born of Loxias for my father and of this lady: and even before this was not incredible to me. CREUSA: Hear me then. I praise Phoebus though I praised him not before, because he restores to me the son whom he once neglected. And of pleasant aspect to me are these gates and this oracle of the
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§ 1610 god, though before they were hateful. And now I am pleased to linger with my hand upon the knocker and to seek admission at the gates. ATHENA: I commend thee, because thou art changed and praisest the god: the aid of the gods was ever wont to be long in coming,'tis true, but at last'tis mighty. CREUSA: My son, let us go home. ATHENA: Go ye, and I will bring you on your way. ION: A noble escort have we. CREUSA: Yes, and one that loves the city. ATHENA: And take thy place on the ancient throne. ION: A noble possession is it for me. CHORUS: Farewell, Apollo, son of Zeus and Leto. He whose house is vexed with calamities, must reverence the gods and be of good courage:
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§ 1620 for at last the good obtain their due, but the wicked shall never prosper such as their nature is, such is their lot.

Via ToposText (topostext.org), a project of the Aikaterini Laskaridis Foundation created by Brady Kiesling. Translated by E.S. Crooke (b ca. 1822). Composed ca. 414 BCE. Licence: public domain. Source.