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An Attendant of Creusa enters.
Attendant
Women of Athens, where may I find our mistress, the daughter of Erechtheus? I have completed a search of the whole city for her, and I cannot find her. Chorus Leader
What is it, my fellow-slave? Why your [1110] swiftness of foot? What tidings do you bring? Attendant
We are being hunted; the rulers of the land seek her, so that she may die by stoning. Chorus Leader
Alas! what are you saying? We have surely not failed to keep secret our plans of murder against the boy? Attendant
[1115] You are right. You will not be among the last to share the punishment. Chorus Leader
How were the hidden contrivances seen? Attendant
The god, who did not wish to be stained with blood-pollution, exposed that which was wrong and weaker than the right. Chorus Leader
How? As a suppliant, I beg you, tell me about this. [1120] For when we know, we would die more pleasantly, whether we die or live. Attendant
Attendant
When Creusa's husband left the god's oracular shrine, he took his new son to the feast and the sacrifice he was preparing for the god. [1125] Xuthus then went where the flame of Bacchus leaps, so that he might drench both rocks of Dionysos with the slaughter, as a thank-offering for the sight of his son, and he said: “You, my child, stay here and raise a tent, fitted on both sides, by the toil of carpenters. [1130] If I should remain a long time in my sacrifice to the gods of birth, set up the banquet for the friends who are there.”
Euripides. The Complete Greek Drama, edited by Whitney J. Oates and Eugene O'Neill, Jr. in two volumes. 1. Ion, translated by Robert Potter. New York. Random House. 1938.
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