Epeisodion 2
[Episode]
Attendant maids, that watch and wait your mistress here at the steps of the temple fragrant with incense, say, hath Xuthus already left the holy tripod and the sanctuary, or doth he still abide within to ask yet further of his childlessness?
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Chorus
He is still in the temple, sir, nor hath he passed this threshold yet.
But hark! I hear a footstep at the outlet of the door, and lo! thou mayst see my master this moment coming out.
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Xuthus
All hail! my son; that word suits well as my first greeting to thee.
Ion
’Tis well with me; do but restrain thyself, and then both of us will be happy.
Xuthus
Give me thy hand to grasp, thy body to embrace.
Ion
Art thou in thy senses, sir, or hath some spiteful god reft thee of them?
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Xuthus
I am in my senses, for I have found what I hold most dear, and am eager to show my love.
Ion
Cease! touch me not, nor tear these garlands of the god!
Xuthus
I will embrace thee, for I am not seizing what is not my own, but only finding my own that I love full well.
Ion
Hands off! or thou shalt feel an arrow pierce thy ribs.
Xuthus
Why dost thou shun me, now that thou findest in me thy nearest and dearest?
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Ion
I am not fond of schooling boors and crazy strangers.
Xuthus
Kill me, burn me, if thou wilt; for, if thou dost, thou wilt be thy father’s murderer.
Ion
Thou my father, indeed i Oh! is not news like this enough to make me laugh?
Xuthus
Not so; my tale, as it proceeds, will prove to thee what I assert.
Ion
Pray, what hast thou to tell me?
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Xuthus
That I am thy own father, and thou my very child.
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Xuthus
Loxias, who gave thee nurture, though thou wert my son.
Ion
Thou art thy own witness.
Xuthus
Nay, I have learnt the answer of the god.
Ion
Thou art mistaken in the dark riddle thou hast heard.
Xuthus
It seems then I do not hear aright.
Xuthus
That the man who met me—
Xuthus
As I came forth from the god’s temple—
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Ion
Well! what should happen to him?
Xuthus
Should be my own true son.
Ion
Thy own true son, or a gift from others?
Xuthus
A gift, but mine for all that.
Ion
Am I the first that thou didst meet?
Xuthus
I have met no other, my son.
Ion
Whence came this piece of luck?
Xuthus
To both of us alike it causes surprise.
Ion
Ah I but who was my mother?
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Xuthus
I cannot tell.
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Ion
Did not Phoebus tell thee that?
Xuthus
I was so pleased with this, I did not ask him that.
Ion
I must have sprung from mother earth.
Xuthus
The ground brings forth no children.
Xuthus
I know not; I refer it to the god.
Ion
Come, let us try another theme.
Xuthus
Better hold to this, my son.
Ion
Didst thou e’er indulge in illicit amours?
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Xuthus
Yes, in the folly of youth.
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Ion
Ere thou didst win Erechtheus’ daughter?
Ion
Could it be, then, thou didst beget me?
Xuthus
The time coincides therewith.
Ion
In that case, how came I hither?
Ion
After that long journey too?
Xuthus
That, too, perplexes me.
Ion
Didst thou in days gone by come to the Pythian rock?
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Xuthus
Yes, to join in the mystic rites of Bacchus.
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Ion
Didst thou lodge with one of the public hosts?
Xuthus
With one who at Delphi—
Ion
Initiated thee? or what is it thou sayest?
Xuthus
Among the frantic votaries of Bacchus.
Ion
Wert thou sober, or in thy cups?
Xuthus
I had indulged in the pleasures of the wine-cup.
Ion
That is just the history of my birth.
Xuthus
Fate hath discovered thee, my son.
Ion
How came I to the temple?
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Xuthus
Maybe the maid exposed thee.
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Ion
I have escaped the shame of slavish birth.
Xuthus
Acknowledge then thy father, my son.
Ion
It is not right that I should mistrust the god.
Xuthus
Thou art right there.
Ion
What more can I desire—
Xuthus
Thine eyes now open to the sights they should.
Ion
Than from a son of Zeus to spring?
Xuthus
Which is indeed thy lot.
Ion
May I embrace the author of my being?
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Xuthus
Aye, put thy trust in the god.
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Ion
Hail to thee, father mine.
Xuthus
With joy that title I accept.
Xuthus
Hath made me blest.
Ion
Ah, mother dear! shall I ever see thee too? Now more than ever do I long to gaze upon thee, whoe’er thou art.
But thou perhaps art dead, and I shall never have the chance.
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Chorus
We share the good luck of thy house; but still I could have wished my mistress too, and Erechtheus’ line, had been blest with children.
Xuthus
My son, albeit the god hath for thy discovery brought his oracle
to a true issue, and united thee to me, while thou, too, hast found what most thou dost desire, till now unconscious of it; still, as touching this anxiety so proper in thee, I feel an equal yearning that thou, my child, mayst find thy mother, and I the wife that bare thee unto me.
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Maybe we shall discover this, if we leave it to time. But now leave the courts of the god, and this homeless life of thine, and come to Athens, in accordance with thy fathers wishes, for there his happy realm and bounteous wealth await thee; nor shalt thou
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be taunted with base origin and poverty to boot, because in one of these respects thou something lackest, but thou shalt be renowned alike for birth and wealth. Art silent? why dost fix thy eyes upon the ground? Thou art lost in thought, and by this sudden change from thy former cheerfulness, thou strikest thy father with dismay.
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Ion
Things assume a different form according as we see them before us, or far off. I am glad at what has happened, since I have found in thee a father; but hear me on some points which I am now deciding.
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Athens, I am told,—that glorious city of a native race,—owns no aliens; in which case I shall force my entrance there under a twofold disadvantage, as an alien’s son and base-born as I am. Branded with this reproach, while as yet I am unsupported, I shall get the name of a mere nobody, a son of nobodies;
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and if I win my way to the highest place in the state, and seek to be some one, I shall be hated by those who have no influence, for superiority is galling; while ’mongst men of worth who could show their wisdom, but are silent, and take no interest in politics,
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I shall incur ridicule and be thought a fool for not keeping quiet in such a fault-finding city. Again, if I win a name amongst the men of mark who are engaged in politics, still more will jealous votes bar my progress; for thus, father, is it ever wont to be;
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they who have the city’s ear, and have already made their mark, are most bitter against all rivals.
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Again, if I, a stranger, come to a home that knows me not, and to that childless wife who before had thee as partner in her sorrow, but now
will feel the bitterness of having to bear her fortune all alone,—how, I ask, shall I not fairly earn her hatred, when I take my stand beside thee; while she, still childless, sees thy dear pledge with bitter eyes; and then thou have to choose between deserting me and regarding her,
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or honouring me and utterly confounding thy home? How many a murder, and death by deadly drugs have wives devised for husbands! Besides, I pity that wife of thine, father, with her childless old age beginning; she little deserves
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to pine in barrenness, a daughter of a noble race. That princely state we fondly praise is pleasant to the eye; but yet in its mansions sorrow lurks; for who is happy, or by fortune blest, that has to live his life in fear of violence with many a sidelong glance?
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Rather would I live among the common folk, and taste their bliss, than be a tyrant who delights in making evil men his friends, and hates the good, in terror of his life. Perchance thou wilt tell me, Gold outweighs all these evils,
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and wealth is sweet. I have no wish to be abused for holding tightly to my pelf, nor yet to have the trouble of it. Be mine a moderate fortune free from annoyance! Now hear the blessings, father, that here were mine; first, leisure, man’s chiefest joy,
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with but moderate trouble; no villain ever drove me from my path, and that is a grievance hard to bear, to make room and give way to sorry knaves. My duty was to pray unto the gods, or with mortal men converse, a minister to their joys, not to their Sorrows.
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And I was ever dismissing one batch of guests, while another took their place, so that I was always welcome from the charm of novelty. That honesty which men must pray for, even against their will, custom and nature did conspire to plant in me in the sight of Phoebus. Now when I think on this,
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I deem that I am better here than there, father. So let me live on here, for ’tis an equal charm to joy in high estate, or in a humble fortune find a pleasure.
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Chorus
Well said! if only those I love find their happiness in thy statement of the case.
Xuthus
Cease such idle talk, and learn to be happy; for on that spot where I discovered thee, my son, will I begin the rites, since I have chanced on the general banquet, open to all comers, and I will offer thy birth sacrifice which aforetime I left undone. And now will I bring thee to the banquet as my guest and rejoice thy heart,
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and take thee to the Athenian land as a visitor forsooth, not as my own son. For I will not grieve my wife in her childless sorrow by my good fortune. But in time will I seize a happy moment
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and prevail on her to let thee wield my sceptre o’er the realm. Thy name shall be Ion, in accordance with what happened, for that thou wert the first to cross my path as I came forth from Apollo’s sanctuary. Go, gather every friend thou hast, and with them make merry o’er the flesh of sacrifice,
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on the eve of thy departure from the town of Delphi. On you, ye handmaids, silence I enjoin, for, if ye say one word to my wife, death awaits you.
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Ion
Well, I will go; one thing my fortune lacks, for if I find not her that gave me birth, life is no life to me, my father;
and, if I may make the prayer, Oh may that mother be a daughter of Athens! that from-her I may inherit freedom of speech. For if a stranger settle in a city free from aliens, e’en though in name he be a citizen,
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yet doth he find him-setf tongue-tied and debarred from open utterance.
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