Euripides, Ion
Robert Potter, Ed.

Ion
[275] I see. Well, what about this? Is it true, or a vain rumor—

Creusa
What are you asking? For I am at leisure.

Ion
Did your father Erechtheus sacrifice your sisters?

Creusa
He dared to kill the maidens, as a sacrifice for their country.

Ion
And you were the only one of your sisters saved?

Creusa
[280] I was a new-born infant in my mother's arms.

Ion
Did a hollow of the earth truly hide your father?

Creusa
The blows of the sea-god's trident destroyed him.

Ion
There is a place there called Makrai?

Creusa
Why do you ask this? How you have reminded me of something!

Ion
[285] Phoebus and the Pythian lightning honor it.

Creusa
. . . Would that I had never seen it!

Ion
Why do you hate the place very dear to the god?

Creusa
No reason; I know of a shameful deed in a cave.

Ion
But what Athenian married you, lady?

Creusa
[290] No citizen, but a foreigner from another land.

Ion
Who? He must be someone of noble birth.

Creusa
Xuthus, born from Aeolus and Zeus.

Ion
And how as a stranger did he have you, a citizen?

Creusa
There is a city, Euboea, which is a neighbor to Athens—

Ion
[295] Divided by a watery boundary, they say.

Creusa
He destroyed it, in common battle with the Athenians.

Ion
He came as an ally? And then he married you?

Creusa
Taking me as the dowry of war and the prize of his spear.

Ion
Have you come to the oracle with your husband, or alone?

Creusa
[300] With him; he turned aside to the shrine of Trophonius.

Ion
To view it, or for the sake of prophecy?

Creusa
He wishes to learn one word from that shrine and from Phoebus'.

Ion
Have you come for the sake of harvests, or for children?

Creusa
We are without children, though married a long time

Ion
[305] You have never borne a child, but you are childless?

Creusa
Phoebus knows about my lack of children.

Ion
Unhappy one, that you are fortunate in all else, but not in this!