Tutor
And you will be persuaded to the last evil of all: to take into your house as master someone motherless, insignificant, born from a slave woman. The evil would have been a single one, if he had persuaded you
[840]
by pleading your lack of children and settled in the house a son of a noble mother; or, if that displeased you, he should have sought a wife from the Aeolians. Now indeed you must act a woman's part: with a sword or by some trick or with poison
[845]
kill your husband and his son, before death comes to you from them. [For if you give up, your life is lost. For when two enemies come together under one roof, either one must fail, or the other.]
[850]
I wish to help you in this work, and kill the boy, entering the house where he is preparing the feast, and when I have paid back my living to my masters, either to die, or live and see the light. There is one thing in slavery that brings shame,
[855]
the name; in all other respects a good slave is no worse than the free-born.
Chorus Leader
And I, my dear mistress, wish to share your fate, either to die, or live with honor.
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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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