Euripides, Ion
Robert Potter, Ed.

Chorus Leader
To him, old man, Loxias has given a son, [775] and he is fortunate by himself, apart from her.

Creusa
sung
You have cried out this evil upon that, the height of grief for me to mourn.

Tutor
Will he have to breed the child you speak of from some other woman, or did the god declare one already born?

Chorus Leader
[780] Loxias gave him a youth already full grown; I was present.

Creusa
sung
What are you saying? Your words are amazing to me, unspeakable!

Tutor
[785] And to me. How is this oracle to be fulfilled? Tell me most clearly who the boy is.

Chorus Leader
The god gave him as a son the one whom he should first encounter, when he rushed away from the god.

Creusa
sung
Oh, oh! Has he then sung out [790] my childless, childless life? I shall live in a bereaved house, in loneliness.

Tutor
Who was proclaimed? Whom did the husband of this unhappy woman encounter? How and where did he see him?

Chorus Leader
Do you, my dear mistress, know the youth [795] that was sweeping this temple? That is the boy.

Creusa
sung
If only I might fly up to the soft sky, far from the land of Hellas, the western stars, such pain have I suffered, my friends!

Tutor
[800] What name did his father give him? Do you know or does it remain unratified, in silence?

Chorus Leader
Ion, since he was the first to meet his father.

Tutor
And who was his mother?

Chorus Leader
I can not say. Her husband is gone—so that you may know everything from me, old man— [805] to the holy tent to celebrate a feast and birth-rites for his son, in secret from her, and to give a public banquet to his new son.