Chorus Leader
[1510]
From what has happened now, let no mortal ever consider anything unexpected.
Ion
O Fortune, you that have already changed the lives of countless mortals, involving them in ills, and raising them to happiness again, to what a point of life had I come,
[1515]
ready to kill my mother and suffer unworthily. Ah! Is it possible to learn all this day by day, in the sun's bright encircling rays? I have made a dear find in you, mother; nor do I see anything to blame in my birth;
[1520]
For the rest, I want to talk to you alone. Come here; for I wish to say this in your ear and draw a dark veil over the matter. Look, mother; isn't it true that you went astray into a secret affair—an affliction that happens to girls;
[1525]
and now you are ascribe the blame to the god and attempt to escape the shame of my birth by saying that you bore me to Phoebus, when your lover was not a god?
Creusa
By Athena Nike, who once raised her shield against the giants, in her chariot beside Zeus,
[1530]
your father is not a mortal, but the one who who brought you up, lord Loxias.
Ion
How then did he give his child to another father and say that I was born the son of Xuthus?
Creusa
Not born, but he gives you,
[1535]
born from himself; for so a friend might give to a friend his son to be master of the house.
Ion
The god is true, or prophecy is in vain—this troubles my heart, mother, and with reason.
Creusa
Hear now what has come to me, my child:
[1540]
Apollo establishes you in a noble house as a kindness to you. but if you were said to be his, you could not ever have a wealthy home or a father's name; how could it be, since I myself concealed the union and tried to kill you secretly?
[1545]
But he gives you to another father, to benefit you.
Ion
My search is not so careless; I will go into Phoebus' house and ask him if I have a mortal father or Loxias.
Athena appears from above.
Ah! what god is revealing a countenance as bright as the sun,
[1550]
above the house that breathes incense? Let us try to escape, mother, before we see divinities—if it is not the proper time for us to see them.
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Table of Contents:
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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