Epeisodion 1
Ion
Lady, whosoe’er thou art, I see thou art of noble birth, and thy bearing proves thy gentle breeding. For from his bearing one may mostly judge
whether a man is nobly born. Yet am I much amazed to see thee close thine eyes in grief and with tears bedew thy noble face, when thou standest face to face with the holy oracle of Loxias. Why, lady, art thou thus disquieted?
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Here, where all others show their joy at sight of Phoebus’ sanctuary, thine eye is wet with tears.
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Creusa
Most courteously, sir stranger, dost thou express surprise at these my tears; the sight of this temple of Apollo
recalled to me a memory of long ago, and somehow my thoughts went wandering home, though I am here myself. Ah, hapless race of women! ah, ye reckless gods! What shall I say? to what standard shall we refer justice if through the injustice of our lords and masters we are brought to ruin?
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Ion
Why, lady, art thou thus cast down, past all finding out?
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Creusa
’Tis naught; I have shot my bolt; for what remains, I say no more, nor seek thou further to inquire.
Ion
Who art thou and whence? who is the father that begat thee? by what name are we to call thee?
Creusa
Creusa is my name, the daughter of Erechtheus I; my native land is Athens.
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Ion
A glorious city thine, lady, a noble line of ancestry! with what reverence I behold thee!
Creusa
Thus far, no further goes my luck, good sir.
Ion
Pray, is the current legend true—
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Creusa
What is thy question? I fain would learn.
Ion
Was thy father’s grandsire really sprung from Earth?
Creusa
Yes, Erichthonius was; but my high birth avails me not
Ion
Is it true Athena reared him from the ground?
Creusa
Aye, and into maidens’ hands, though not his mother’s—
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Ion
Consigned him, did she? as ’tis wont to be set forth in painting.
Creusa
Yes, to the daughters of Cecrops, to keep him safe unseen.
Ion
I have heard the maidens opened the ark wherein the goddess laid him.
Creusa
And so they died, dabbling with their blood the rocky cliff.
Ion
Even so. But what of this next story? Is it true or groundless?
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Creusa
What is thy question? Ask on, I have no calls upon my leisure.
Ion
Did thy sire Erechtheus offer thy sisters as a sacrifice?
Creusa
For his country’s sake he did endure to slay the maids as victims.
Ion
And how didst thou, alone of al thy sisters, escape?
Creusa
I was still a tender babe in my mother’s arms.
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Ion
Did the earth really open its mouth and swallow thy father?
Creusa
The sea-god smote and slew him with his trident.
Ion
Is there a spot there called Macrae?
Creusa
Why ask that? what memories thou recallest!
Ion
Doth the Pythian god with his flashing fire do honour to the place?
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Creusa
Honour, yes! Honour, indeed! would I had never seen the spot!
Ion
How now? dost thou abhor that which the god holds dear?
Creusa
No, no; but I and that cave are witnesses of a deed of shame.
Ion
Lady, who is the Athenian lord that calls thee wife?
Creusa
No citizen of Athens, but a stranger from another land.
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Ion
Who is he? he must have been one of noble birth.
Creusa
Xuthus, son of Aeolus, sprung from Zeus.
Ion
And how did he, a stranger, win thee a native born?
Creusa
Hard by Athens lies a neighbouring township, Euboea.
Ion
With a bounding line of waters in between, so I have heard.
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Creusa
This did he sack, making common cause with Cecrops’ sons.
Ion
Coming as an ally, maybe; he won thy hand for this?
Creusa
Yes, this was his dower of battle, the prize of his prowess.
Ion
Art thou come to the oracle alone, or with thy lord?
Creusa
With him. But he is now visiting the cavern of Trophonius.
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Ion
As a spectator merely, or to consult the oracle?
Creusa
’Tis his wish to hear the self-same answer from Trophonius and Phoebus too.
Ion
Is it to seek earth’s produce or fruit of offspring that ye come?
Creusa
We are childless, though wedded these many years.
Ion
Hast thou never been a mother? art thou wholly childless?
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Creusa
Phoebus knows whether I am childless.
Ion
Unhappy wife! how this doth mar thy fortune else so happy!
Creusa
But who art thou? how blest I count thy mother!
Ion
Lady, I am called the servant of Apollo, and so I am.
Creusa
An offering of thy city, or sold to him by some master?
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Ion
Naught know I but this, that I am called the slave of Loxias.
Creusa
Then do i in my turn pity thee, sir stranger.
Ion
Because I know not her that bare me, or him that begat me.
Creusa
Is thy home here in the temple, or hast thou a house to dwell in?
Ion
The god’s whole temple is my house, wherever sleep o’ertakes me.
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Creusa
Was it as a child or young man that thou earnest to the temple?
Ion
Those who seem to know the truth, say I was but a babe.
Creusa
What Delphian maid, then, weaned thee?
Ion
I never knew a mother’s breast. But she who brought me up—
Creusa
Who was she, unhappy youth? I see thy sufferings in my own.
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Ion
The priestess of Phoebus; I look oh her as my mother.
Creusa
Until thou earnest unto man’s estate, what nurture hadst thou?
Ion
The altar fed me, and the bounty of each casual guest.
Creusa
Woe is thy mother, then, whoe’er she was!
Ion
Maybe my birth was some poor woman’s wrong.
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Creusa
Hast thou any store, for thy dress is costly enough?
Ion
The god I serve gives me these robes to wear.
Creusa
Wert thou never eager to inquire into thy birth?
Ion
Ah! yes, lady! but I have no clue at all to guide me.
Creusa
Alas! I know another woman who hath suffered as thy mother did.
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Ion
Who is she? If she would but help me in the task, how happy should I be!
Creusa
’Tis she on whose account I have preceded my husband hither.
Ion
What are thy wishes? be sure I will serve thee, lady.
Creusa
I would fain obtain a secret answer from Apollo’s oracle.
Ion
Name it, then; the rest will I undertake for thee.
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Creusa
Hear, then, this story. Yet am I ashamed.
Ion
Thus wilt thou accomplish naught, for shame is a goddess slow to act.
Creusa
A friend of mine asserts that Phoebus lay with her.
Ion
Phoebus with a mortal woman? Stranger lady, say not so.
Creusa
Yea, and she bare the god a child without her father’s knowledge.
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Ion
It cannot be; some man did wrong her, and she is ashamed of it.
Creusa
This she denieis herself; and she hath suffered further woe.
Ion
How so, if she was wedded to a god?
Creusa
The babe she bare she did expose.
Ion
Where is the child who was thus cast forth? is he yet alive?
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Creusa
No man knoweth. That is the very thing I would ask the oracle.
Ion
But if he be no more, how did he perish?
Creusa
She supposes that beasts devoured the hapless babe.
Ion
What proof led her to form this opinion?
Creusa
She came to the place where she exposed him, but found him no longer there.
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Ion
Were any drops of blood upon the path?
Creusa
None, she says; and yet she ranged the ground to and fro.
Ion
How long is it since the babe was destroyed?
Creusa
Thy age and his would measure out the self-same span, were he alive.
Ion
Hath she given birth to no other child since then?
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Creusa
The god doth wrong her, and wretched is she in having no child.
Ion
But what if Phoebus privily removed her child, and is rearing it?
Creusa
Then is he acting unfairly in keeping to himself alone a joy he ought to share.
Ion
Ah me! this misfortune sounds so like my own.
Creusa
Thee too, fair sir, thy poor mother misses, I am sure.
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Ion
Oh! call me not back to piteous thoughts I had forgotten.
Creusa
I am dumb; proceed with that which touches my inquiry.
Ion
Dost know the one weak point in this thy story?
Creusa
’Tis all weak in that poor lady’s case.
Ion
How should the god declare that which he wishes hidden?
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Creusa
He must, if here upon the tripod he sits for all Hellas to seek to.
Ion
He is ashamed of the deed; do not question him.
Creusa
Aye, but his victim has her sorrows too.
Ion
There is none who will act as thy medium in this.
For were Phoebus in his own temple proved a villain, he would justly wreak his vengeance on the man who expounded to thee his oracles; desist then, lady; we must not prophesy against the god’s will,
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for it would be the height of folly in us, were we to try and make the gods against their will declare reluctant truths either by sacrifice of sheep at their altars, or by omens from birds. For those answers we strive to extort from heaven, lady, are goods that bring no blessing on our getting;
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but what they freely offer, thereby we profit.
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Chorus
Many are the chances that befall the many tribes of men, and diverse are their forms. But scarce one happy scene canst thou find in all the life of man.
Creusa
Ah! Phoebus, here as there, art thou unjust
to that absent sufferer, whose cause I now am pleading. Thou didst not preserve thy child, as in duty bound, nor wilt thou, for all thy prophetic skill, answer his mother’s questioning, that, if he be no more, a mound may be raised o’er him, or, if he live, he may some day be restored to his mother’s eyes.
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In vain is this the home of oracles if the god prevents me from learning what I wish to ask. But lo! I see my noble lord, Xuthus, nigh at hand, returning 278 from the lair of Trophonius; say nothing,
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sir, to my husband of what I have told thee, lest I incur reproach for troubling about secrets, and the matter take a different turn to that which I sought to give it. For women stand towards men in a difficult position, and the virtuous from being mingled with the wicked amongst us are hated;
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such is our unhappy destiny.
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Xuthus
First to the god all hail! for he must receive the first-fruits of my salutation, and next all hail to thee, my wife! Has my delay in arriving caused thee alarm?
Creusa
By no means; but thou art come at an anxious time.
Tell me what response thou bringest from Trophonius, touching our future hopes of mutual offspring.
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Xuthus
He deigned not to forestal the prophecies of Phoebus. This only did he say, that neither thou nor I should return unto our house childless from the shrine.
Creusa
Majestic mother of Phoebus, to our journey grant success, and may our previous dealings with thy son now find a better issue!
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Xuthus
It will be so; but who acts as the god’s spokesman here?
Ion
I serve outside the shrine, others within,
who stand near the tripod, even the noblest of the Delphians chosen by lot, sir stranger.
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Xuthus
’Tis well; I have attained the utmost of my wishes. I will go within; for I am told that a victim has been slain in public before the temple for strangers,
and to-day,—for it is a lucky day,—I would fain receive the god’s oracle. Do thou, my wife, take branches of laurel, and seated at the altars pray to the gods that I may carry home from Apollo’s shrine an answer that bodeth well for offspring.
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Creusa
All this shall be. Now, at any rate, if Loxias would retrieve his former sins, e’en though he cannot be my friend entirely, yet will I accept whate’er he deigns to give, because he is a god.
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Ion
Why doth this stranger lady hint dark reproaches against the god
unceasingly, either out of affection for her on whose behalf she seeks the oracle, or maybe because she is hiding something needing secrecy? Yet what have I to do with the daughter of Erectheus? She is naught to me.
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No, I will go to the laver, and from golden ewers sprinkle the holy water. Yet must I warn Phoebus of what is happening to him; he ravishes a maid and proves unfaithful to her, and after secretly begetting a son leaves him to die. O! Phoebus, do not so, but as thou art supreme,
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follow in virtue’s track; for whosoever of mortal men transgresses, him the gods punish. How, then, can it be just that you should enact your laws for men, and yourselves incur the charge of breaking them? Now I will put this case, though it will never happen.
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Wert thou, wert Poseidon, and Zeus, the lord of heaven, to make atonement to mankind for every act of lawless love, ye would empty your temples in paying the fines for your misdeeds. For when ye pursue pleasure in preference to the claims of prudence, ye act unjustly; no longer is it fair
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to call men wicked, if we are imitating the evil deeds of gods, but rather those who give us such examples. [Exit Ion
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