THE ION 
 
 OF 
 
 EURIPIDES, 
 
 LITERALLY TRANSLATED. 
 
 Price, 2- 
 
 J. HALL AND pOX, CAMDUIDGK.
 
 IM 
 
 THE ION OF EURIPIDES, 
 
 A NEW AND ACCURATE 
 
 TRANSLATION 
 
 FROM THE TEXT OF F. A. PALEY, 
 
 With Notes Critical and Explanatory. 
 
 BY E. S. CROOKE, B. A., 
 
 Late ofPemb. Coll. Cambridge. 
 
 CAMBRIDGE : J. HALL AND SON ; 
 
 LONDON : WHITTAKER & CO ; SIMPKIN, MARSHALL & OO. 
 
 AND BELL AND DAI DY. 
 1866.
 
 THE ION, if one of the most beautiful, is in some 
 respects one of the most difficult of Euripides' plays, and 
 the more so, because there are no scholia upon it extant. 
 The edition of Hermann, published forty or fifty years ago, 
 is a valuable one. But the recent edition of Mr Paley, 
 embodying as it does the corrections and explanations of all 
 the best critics, with his own judicious and valuable remarks, 
 seems far the best that has appeared. The following 
 translation is based upon his text, and I have pretty gene- 
 rally adopted the English versions of particular passages 
 given in his notes : here and there I have ventured to differ 
 from him, but always with reluctance and hesitation. The 
 only thing (and that a minor matter) with which I 
 should be disposed to find any fault, is a peculiarity of 
 punctuation in several places, in which he has, it is clear, too 
 implicitly followed Hermann and other German editors. 
 I have endeavoured to be very literal, perhaps to a -fault, 
 and at the same time as far as possible to preserve the 
 spirit of the original Greek. In how many cases I have 
 failed, I am well aware. Any one who has made the 
 attempt, knows the extreme difficulty of combining the 
 literal with the virtual in the translation of a Greek play. 
 
 E. S. C. 
 June, 1866. 
 
 2015287
 
 PLOT. 
 
 CKEUSA, daughter of Erechtheus, having been ravished by 
 Apollo, gave birth to a son, whom she exposed in the grotto 
 which had been the scene of this amour. At the request of 
 Apollo, Mercury brought the infant to his temple at Delphi, 
 and laid him down on the steps. There he was found by the 
 Pythia, and was brought up in the temple, where he was 
 afterwards taken into the special service of the god. In the 
 meanwhile Creusa has married Xuthus. Having no family, 
 but desiring one, they come to Delphi to consult the oracle 
 on the subject, Creusa secretly hoping at the same time to 
 have an opportunity of learning the fate of her offspring. In 
 answer to Xuthus, Apollo bids him salute as his son the first 
 person he should meet on leaving the temple. He meets the 
 son of of Apollo and Creusa, and declares himself his father, 
 naming him Ion, but, to avoid offence to Creusa, bids him 
 keep the matter a secret for the present. Creusa however 
 gets information of it, and attemps to poison Ion. This plot 
 is discovered, and Ion is only prevented from killing her by 
 her taking refuge at Apollo's altar. The Pythia endeavours 
 to calm him, and bids him seek out his mother, taking with 
 him as tokens the cradle or basket in which she found him, 
 and the clothes and ornaments which she has carefully 
 preserved with it. Creusa suddenly recognizes these, and a 
 de'nouement takes place.
 
 DRAMATIS PERSONS. 
 
 MERCURY. 
 
 ION. 
 
 CHORUS OF CREUSA'S HANDMAIDS. 
 
 CREUSA. 
 
 XUTHUS. 
 
 PEDAGOGUE. 
 
 MALE ATTENDANT OF CREUSA. 
 
 THE PYTHIA. 
 
 MINERVA. 
 
 SCENE. DELPHI.
 
 THE ION OF EURIPIDES. 
 
 *** Italics (except in the foot-notes) mark that there is no 
 corresponding word in the Greek text. 
 
 MERCURY. Atlas, who with brazen shoulders 
 upholds heaven the ancient abode of the gods, by one 
 of the goddesses begot Maia, who bore me, Mercury, 
 minister of the deities, to all-great 1 Jove. And I am 5 
 come to this land of Delphi, where Phoebus occupying 
 the central navel of the earth chants responses to 
 mortals, ever divining of the things that are and 
 are to be. 2 For there is a not obscure city of the 
 Greeks, called the city of Pallas of the golden 10 
 spear, where Phoebus by force subjected to his 
 embraces 3 Creusa daughter of Erechtheus, at that spot 
 in the land of the Athenians where are the northern 
 rocks below the hill of Pallas which the kings of 
 the Attic territory call the Macrae. 4 And unknown to 
 her father (for so it was well-pleasing to the god) 
 she bore the burden of her womb; and when the 15 
 time came, having brought forth a boy in the 
 palace, Creusa bore away the babe to the same cavern 
 
 1. Lit. Greatest. 
 
 2. i. e. Giving oracular explanations or directions about things 
 that are, and prophesying things that are to be. 
 
 3. Lit. Yoked to nuptials. 
 
 4. Lit Where of the land of the Athenians &c. the kings of the 
 Attic territory call the northern rocks the Macro:. 
 
 A
 
 EURIPIDES 17 39 
 
 where she had lain 1 with the god, and exposes him 
 to die 2 in the well-rounded circle of a hollow basket, 
 
 20 observing the custom of her forefathers and earth- 
 born Erichthonius : for to him the daughter of 
 Jove attached two guardian snakes as protectors 
 of his person, when she gave him to the Agraulian 
 
 25 maids to take care of. Hence there is there a 
 custom among the Erechthidse 3 to rear their children 
 in snakes of beaten gold. Well : 4 having put what 
 fine raiment the maid had upon the child, about to 
 die, as she supposed, 5 she left him. And Phcebus, 
 
 30 being my brother, makes this request 8 of me ; My 
 brother, go to the earth-born people of renowned 
 Athens (for thou knowest the city of the goddess), 
 take the new-born babe and bring him out of the 
 hollow rock, with the basket itself and the swaddling- 
 clothes which he has, to my oracle of Delphi, and 
 
 35 lay him at the very entrance of my house. And 
 the rest, for (that thou mayst know it) the boy is 
 mine, shall be my care. 7 And I, wishing to do 8 a 
 favour to my brother Loxias, took up the wicker 
 basket and brought it, and place the boy on the steps 
 of the temple here, having opened the woven basket of 
 
 1. Lit Lay. 
 
 2. Lit. Ai to die. 
 
 3. Lit. For to him the daughter of Jove having attached two 
 guardians snakes protectors of Ms person, gives him to #c. whence 
 there is there a certain custom to the Erechthidce. For the 
 Mythological allusions see Dictionary of Mythology. 
 
 What the poet's exact meaning is in this passage, is not quite 
 transparent. It seems however to be, that the memory of 
 Erichthonius' guardian snakes was preserved, in the case of Creusa, 
 by the round, coil-like shape of the cradle and by the coil or collar 
 of snakes round the child's neck, and in the case of his later 
 descendants, by a similar coil or collar which children used to wear. 
 
 4. Lit. But. 
 
 5. I/it. As about to die. 
 
 6. Lit. Bequests these things. 
 
 7. Lit. Shall be a care to us. 
 
 8. Lit Doing.
 
 4065 ION. 3 
 
 the cradle, that the boy might be seen. And early as 40 
 the orb 1 of the sun riding Jorth the prophetess chances 
 to enter the oracle of the god, and having cast 
 her eyes on the infant boy, wondered that 2 any damsel 
 of the Delphian maids should dai'e to place her 45 
 stealthy offspring 3 at the house of the god, and she 
 was minded to eject him beyond the area of the temple : 
 but for pity she left her cruelty, and the god was 
 an ally to the boy, that he should not be cast out from 
 the edifice. And she takes him and rears him : but 
 she knows not of Phoebus who begat him, nor of 50 
 the mother of whom he was born, and the boy is 
 ignorant of those who gave him birth. He roved 
 therefore, as long as he was young, sporting about the 
 altars amid which he was reared : 4 but when his form 
 grew to manhood, the Delphians made him treasure- 
 keeper of the god and trusty guardian of all, and 55 
 in the palace of the god he lives on a holy life to this 
 very day. 5 And Creusa who bore the youth marries 
 Xuthus by such coincidence as this : between Athens 
 and the sons of Chalcodon, who possess the Eubcean 60 
 land, intervened the flood of war, 6 which having toiled 
 through with the Athenians and aided them with 
 his spear in driving back, 7 he received the honour 
 of marriage with Creusa, not being a native of the 
 land, but born an Achaean 8 of ^Eolus the son of 
 Jupiter: and having entered into late wedlock, he 
 is childless, and Creusa: and for this reason they 65 
 
 1. Lit. Along with the orb. 
 
 2. Lit.//. 
 
 3. Lit. Labour. 
 
 4. Lit. Altar rearings. 
 
 5. Lit. Constantly thus far. 
 
 6. Lit. There was to Athens Sfc. a flood of war. 
 
 7. Lit. Having jointly iaken away. 
 
 8. i. e. Phthian.
 
 4 EURiriDEs 66 95 
 
 are come to the oracle here of Apollo through 
 desire of children. But Loxias puts off his 1 good for- 
 tunes to this time, and he has not been forgotten by 
 him, as he seems to be. For he will present to Xuthus, 
 
 70 when he has entered this oracle, his own son, and will 
 declare that he is his offspring, 2 in order that having 
 come to his mother's abode, he may be made known 
 to Creusa, and both the loves of Loxias may be s con- 
 cealed, and the boy may have his rights. 4 And 
 he will bring it to pass that he be called throughout 
 
 75 Greece Ion by name, founder of colonies in the Asiatic 
 land. But I will go into the laurel coverts here, 
 that I may learn what is determined about the youth. 
 For I see the son of Loxias coming out, 5 that he may 
 make the portico in front of the temple clean with 
 
 80 branches of laurel. And I am the first of the gods to 
 
 call him by the name which he is about to obtain, Ion. 
 
 IOBT. Already the sun is wheeling this his bright 
 
 chariot of four steeds over the earth, and the stars are 
 
 85 flying from the sky before these his fires into sacred 
 night, and the untrodden Parnassian peaks illumined 
 welcome the car 6 of day for mortals. And the smoke 
 
 90 of myrrh from desert lands 7 wings its way to the roof 
 of Phoebus, and the Delphic priestess 8 is sitting on the 
 divine tripod, chanting to the Greeks the utterances 
 which Apollo pronounces. But, ye Delphian mi- 
 
 95 nisters of Phoebus, go to the Castalian silvery 
 
 1. i. e. Ion's. 
 
 2. Lit. Has been begotten of Mm i. e. XvtTws. 
 
 3. Li t. Become. 
 
 4. Lit The ihintis meet. 
 
 5. Lit. The -rovce, which is not wanted in the English, denotes 
 his entrance on the stage. 
 
 6. lAi Wheel. 
 
 7. Lit. Waterless myrrh. 
 
 8. Lit. Woman. But ywr, is virtually a much higher word.
 
 96139 IOK. 5 
 
 eddies, and having laved yourselves in the pure dews, 
 come to the temple : guard a mouth of good omen 
 and favourable, and utter 1 from your own tongue words 
 favourable to those who desire to consult the god. 100 
 And I (a labour which I have ever from a boy 
 performed) will make the portals of Phoebus bright 
 with branches of laurel and holy garlands, and the 105 
 ground moist with sprinkled water, 2 and will put 
 to flight with my bow and arrows 3 the flocks of 
 birds which mar the holy offerings; for as 
 being motherless and fatherless I serve the temple no 
 of Phcebus which reared me. Come, thou new- 
 grown implement 4 of fairest laurel, which sweepest the 
 pavement of Phoebus beneath his temple, from im- 115 
 mortal groves where sacred dews sending forth 
 their ever-flowing stream lave the sacred foliage of 120 
 the myrtle, with which the livelong day I sweep 
 the floor of the god, serving him day by day early 
 as 5 the fleet wing of the sun. Paean, Paean, 
 be thou blessed, blessed, O son of Latona. Honour- 125 
 able is the work in which I serve thee, Phoebus, 
 before thine house, revering thy oracular abode: 130 
 and glorious to me is the work to have hands 8 minis- 
 tering to the gods, and not to mortals, but immortals : 
 and I faint not to labour in works of praise. Phcebus 135 
 is to me a sire, a father: for I bless him that 
 nourishes me. And for his benefits to me I call 
 Phcebus who dwells in the temple by the name of 
 
 1. Inf. in the imperative sense. The previous clause seems 
 to imply a negative, as this a positive evtprjuia. 
 
 2. Lit. Watery sprinklings. 
 
 3. The pi. has very commonly a wider or looser sense than 
 the singular, as here. 
 
 4. Lit. thou service. Abstr. for concrete. 
 6. Lit. Together with. 
 
 6. Lit. A hand. 
 
 A2
 
 6 EURIPIDES 140 171 
 
 140 father. 1 Pa?an, Paean, be thou blessed, blessed, 
 son of Latona. But I will cease 2 from my labours 
 
 145 with the trailing of the laurel, and from golden vessels 
 will sprinkle on the ground the stream which the 
 
 150 eddies of Castalia pour forth, throwing on it moisten- 
 ing water, all holily, as being pure from the love 
 of women. that I may not cease thus to serve 
 Phcebus ever, or may cease with happy destiny. Ha ! 
 
 155 ha ! the winged ones are already on the move and are 
 leaving their nests on Parnassus: 4 I bid them not 
 approach the eaves nor to the gold-decked temple. 
 Once more 5 I will hit thee with my bow and arrows, 
 
 1 60 thou messenger of Jove, surpassing the strength of all 
 other birds with thy beak. Here is a swan too steer- 
 ing his flight towards the steps of the temple. 6 Wilt 
 thou not move thy bright red foot another way? In no 
 
 165 way shall the lyre of Phcebus in unison with thy song 
 save thee 7 from my bow : turn aside thy wings : go to 
 the Delian lake. Thou shalt quench in blood thy 
 
 170 sweet-voiced songs, if thou wilt not obey. Ha! ha! 
 What fresh bird is this that has come ? Is it to place 
 
 1. This is somewhat involved, but the literal sense appears 
 to be And according to the beneficial to me I call (the name) of 
 Phoebus in the temple the name of father. 
 
 2. Lit. But (I will now perform another duty,) for I ivill 
 cease fyc. 
 
 3. Tbe genitive in such a sense is extremely unusual. Commonly 
 there is the same ethical difference between piirTem with genitive, 
 and pliTTfiv Trpos as between cast at and cast on. 
 
 4. Lit. The couches of Parnassus. 
 
 5. Either this alludes to Ion's having hit the Eagle on some 
 former occasion, or it may be taken (preferably perhaps) as elliptical 
 I warn thee once more. 
 
 6. Lit. This here another swan is rowing towards the area aXXos 
 used in tbe same way as it is in ol ai/opes KOI al ii\\ai ywaiKti, 
 
 or as the superlative in aioXoyo>TaTos TWV irpoyeyevrineviav. 
 QvpeXri (1) An altar: (2) the quasi-altar of Dionysus in a Greek 
 theatre, on a rectangular platform ascended by steps : hence (3) 
 generally, a platform, an area: and hence (4) the platform or 
 area, ascended by steps, on which a temple stood : perhaps (5) these 
 steps. 
 
 7. Lit. Should save thee (if thou thoughtest so).
 
 172 205 ION - 7 
 
 a nest of dry twigs beneath the eaves for its young 
 ones? The twanging of the bow shall prevent thee. 
 Wilt thou not obey? Go and breed in the eddies 175 
 of Alpheus, or to the Isthmian glen, that the offerings 
 and temple of Phrebus be not interfered with. For I 
 am loth to slay you that announce the oracles of 180 
 the gods to mortals : but I will serve Phoebus in the 
 work to which I am devoted, and will not cease to 
 minister to those who nourish me. 
 
 CHO. A. Not in divine Athens only were there 
 dwellings of the gods decked with fair columns, nor 185 
 there only the service of Agyieus : but in the house of 
 Loxias also the son of Latona is there the fair- 
 eyed light of the twin countenances. 1 
 
 CHO. B. Lo ! see here; 2 the son of Jupiter is 190 
 slaying the Lerntean hydra with golden scimetar : 
 dear sister, behold this with thine eyes. 
 
 CHO. A. I see. And near him another is raising 195 
 a blazing torch. Who is this? Is it the warrior 
 lolaus whose story is related to me as I work at my 
 loom, 3 who undertaking a common labour with the son 200 
 of Jove is helping him to accomplish it ? 
 
 CHO. c. And look too at this hero mounted 
 on winged steed: he is slaying the fire-breathing 
 three-formed monster. 4 
 
 CHO. A. Yes, I am directing my eyes 5 all 205 
 
 1. i. e. The images of Apollo and Diana, painted on the walls. 
 Heath. 
 
 2. Lit. This here (sc. the hydra). 
 
 3. Lit. Who is related in story beside my web i. e. whose story 
 is related to me by some one at my side, that I may weave a represen- 
 tation of it. 
 
 4. Lit. Might. 
 
 5. IAt. Eyelid.
 
 EURIPIDES 206 230 
 
 around. Observe the conflict with the giants on 
 the stone walls. 
 
 CHO. D. We are looking here, dear sisters, * * * 
 
 CHO. E. Seest thou then one brandishing her 
 210 gorgon shield against Enceladus? 
 
 CHO. F. I see Pallas my own deity. 
 
 CHO. G. Why, dost thou not see the mighty 
 thunderbolt all- blazing in the far-darting hands of 
 Jove? 
 
 CHO. H. I see : he is burning up the hostile 
 215 Mimus with the flames. 
 
 CHO. i. And Bromius Bacchus is slaying another 
 of the sons of earth with unwarlike ivy -bound staff. 
 
 CHO. A. To thee I call who art by the temple, 
 220 is it lawful to ascend to the shrine, I mean 1 with purc- 
 washed foot * * * ? 
 
 ION. It is not lawful, stranger-maids. 
 
 CHO. K. And might I not enquire a word from 
 thee? 
 
 ION. What then wilt thou ? 
 
 CHO. L. Does the house of Phoebus really occupy 
 the central navel of the earth ? 
 
 ION. Ay, clad in garlands, and on either hand are 
 Gorgons. 
 225 CHO. M. So also rumour declares. 
 
 ION. If you have offered a cake before the 
 
 temple, and ye desire to enquire aught of Phoebus, 
 
 pass on to the steps : but without sheep sacrificed 2 
 
 pass not into the chambers of the house. 
 
 230 CHO. N. I understand: and we offer not to 
 
 1. The force of ?<?, limiting the question. If the passage is to be 
 taken as it stands, I know of no other intelligible way of translating 
 it. But it is evidently imperfect, perhaps quite corrupt. 
 
 2. Lit. On condition of sheep unsacrificed.
 
 2j i 251 ION. 9 
 
 transgress 1 the law of the god; but that which is 
 without shall delight our eye. 
 
 ION. Survey all with your eyes, everything which 
 it is lawful to behold. 
 
 CHO. o. My lord and lady 2 have allowed me to 
 come forth to see this shrine. 3 
 
 ION. And of what house are ye called the 
 handmaids ? 
 
 CHO. P. The halls that nurtured my lord and 235 
 lady are the abode of Pallas. And here she is of 
 whom thou questionest me 4 . 
 
 ION. High birth hast thou, and this mien of thine 
 indicates thy rank, 5 whoever thou art, lady. For 
 any one may tell for the most part about man or 240 
 woman, when he has observed their mien, if they 
 are nobly born. 6 But, 0, thou hast made me wonder 
 because thou hast closed thine eyes and bedewed 
 thy high-born cheek with tears, when thou beheldest 
 the holy oracle of Loxias. What grief is this into 
 which thou art come, lady ? Where all else rejoice 245 
 at beholding the shrine of the god, there 7 thine eye 
 sheds tears. 
 
 CREUSA. stranger, thou art not unkind to 
 marvel at my tears : 8 but when I saw this temple 
 of Apollo, I retraced certain memories of the past, and 250 
 somehow while I was here had my thoughts at home. 
 
 1. Force of the present. 
 
 2. See note on 108. 
 
 3. As before in 220. Lit. These recesses. 
 
 4. Lit. The roof-trees nutritive of my lords are indwelt of 
 Pallas, and about this woman here being present thou questionest me. 
 
 5. Lit. And thou hast this mien here a proof of thy ways of life. 
 
 6. Lit. About a human being if it is by nature of good birth. 
 
 7. Lit. .Here. 
 
 8. Lit. Thine has itself^ in a way not lacking (the humanizing 
 effects of) education to come into wonderments about my tears.
 
 EURIPIDES 
 
 252 270 
 
 hapless women ! daring deeds of the gods ! 
 What then shall ice soy? Whither shall we refer 
 our claims for justice, if \ve are to be outraged by the 
 unjust acts of those that rule the u-orldl 
 255 ION. But why art thou secretly sad at heart, 
 lady? 
 
 CE. "lis nought, I have shot my bolt : : and 
 henceforth I am silent, and do thou no more think 
 of this. 
 
 ION. And who art thou ? From what part of the 
 land hast thou come ? Of what father art thou sprung ? 
 By what name must I call thee ? 
 
 260 CR. My name is Creusa, and I am a daughter of 
 Erechtheus, and my native land is the city of the 
 Athenians. 
 
 ION. inhabiting a renowned city, and bred 
 of noble ancestors, how I honour thee, lady. 
 
 CR. Thus far I am really 1 fortunate, stranger, 
 but no further. 
 
 265 ION. By the gods I pray thee, did in truth (as he 
 is declared by men) 
 
 CR. What it is thou askest, stranger, I would 
 know. 
 
 ION. A forefather of thy father spring from 
 the earth ? 
 
 CR. Yes; Erichthonius did: but my descent 
 avails me nought. 
 
 ION. And did Minerva take him up from the 
 earth? 
 
 270 CR. Yes, though she bore him not, into her 
 virgin hands. 
 
 1. i. e. I have said my sat/. 
 
 2. Kai, really, seems to add &fact to the appearance of one.
 
 271 284 ION. II 
 
 ION. And she entrusts him, as is commonly 
 represented in the picture ? 
 
 CB. Yes, to the daughters of Cecrops to take 
 care of without being seen by them. 
 
 ION. I have heard that the maids opened the 
 chest of the goddess. 
 
 OR. For that reason they died and stained the 
 crag of the rock with their blood. 
 
 ION. Well. What then of this? is the story 275 
 a truth or falsely told ? 
 
 CR. What is it thou askest ? for I am not tired 
 of attending to thee. 1 , 
 
 ION. Did thy father Erechtheus sacrifice thy 
 sisters ? 
 
 CR. He forced himself 2 to slay the maids as sacri- 
 fices for the land. 
 
 ION. But how wast thou the only one of thy 
 sisters 3 saved ? 
 
 CR. I was a new-born babe in the arms of my 280 
 mother. 
 
 ION. And does afterwards a yawning of the earth 
 really swallow up thy father ? 
 
 CR. A blow from the trident of the sea destroyed 
 him. 
 
 ION. And the place there is called Macrae ? 
 
 CR. Why dost thou ask this? How hast thou 
 reminded me of a certain event ! 
 
 1. Sxo\deii/ -rivi = vacare alicui, to give heed to a person, bestow 
 one's time on him, do all one can for him. Here ff\o\fi in a 
 corresponding sense. 
 
 2. For the various meanings of r\fjvai see] very good ones in 
 Monk's Alcestis. 
 
 3. See note on 162. Though " the only one of thy sisters " will 
 hardly stand in plain prose, Milton has not hesitated to sa^- "the 
 fairest of her daughters, Eve", and therefore I see no objection 
 to retaining the Gresism here.
 
 12 EURIPIDES 285 302 
 
 285 ION. Pythius honours it with his presence, and 
 the bright light of Pythius ? 
 
 CR. He does honour it with his presence. 
 Honour it indeed 1 ! O that I had never seen him there. 
 
 ION. But why? Dost thou hate that which 
 the god best loves ? 
 
 CR. 'Tis no matter : I know of a deed which is 
 the shame of the caves. 2 
 
 ION. And what husband of the Athenians mar- 
 ried thee, lady ? 
 
 290 CR. Not a citizen, but a stranger from another 
 land. 
 
 ION. Who ? He must be one of noble birth. 
 
 CR. Xuthus, sprung from .^Eolus and from Jupi- 
 ter. 
 
 ION. And how being a foreigner did he wed thee 
 being a native ? 
 
 CR. Eubcea is a neighbouring state to Athens : 
 295 ION. Bounded, as they say, by watery bounds. 
 
 CR. This he ravaged with spear united to the 
 Cecropida?. 
 
 ION. Having come as an ally, and then he 
 weds thy couch ? 
 
 CR. Yes, receiving me as a dowry of war and re- 
 ward of his spear. 
 
 ION. And art thou come to the oracle with thy 
 husband or alone ? 
 
 300 CR. With my husband. But he is visiting the 
 shrine of Trophonius. 
 
 ION. As a spectator, or for the sake of oracles ? 
 
 CR. Wishing to learn one thing both from 
 him and from Phoebus. 
 
 1. Lit What does Tie hon&itr if, ? 
 
 2 Lit / am cognizant tcith the caves of a certain shame (to 
 them).
 
 33 3*3 10N - X 3 
 
 ION. And are ye come about the fruits of the 
 land, or respecting children ? 
 
 CR. We are childless, though we have had a 
 long wedded life. 
 
 ION. And hast thou never yet borne any offspring, 305 
 but art barren ? 
 
 CR. Phoebus knows how true it is that I am 
 childless. 1 
 
 ION. unhappy lady, how unfortunate thou art, 
 in all else fortunate ! 
 
 CR. But who art thou? How blessed in thee 
 have I deemed her who bore thee ! 
 
 ION. I am called and am the servant of the god, 
 lady. 
 
 CR. An offering from the city, or having been 310 
 sold by some one ? 
 
 ION. I know not, save one thing I am called the 
 servant of Loxias. 
 
 CR. I then in turn, O stranger, mutually pity 
 thee. 
 
 ION. As not knowing who bore me and of what 
 father I was begotten. . 
 
 1. In the preceding lines there is evidently an Euripidean 
 refinement of distinction between airaii and dreKvoi cbrais who has 
 no children at the present time, a-renvoi (rj oil reKovara) who has never 
 bonie children. 
 
 We must not, I think, regard the assertion in this 306th line 
 as a direct falsehood, but as an equivocation, which again is one of 
 Euripides' special delights. Creusa evidently intends Ion to understand 
 her words, as a solemn asseveration, that she is childless, especially as 
 she had already said diraiSe* ear/iev (apparently the same thing, really 
 very different). But her words also had a reserved meaning; Phoebus 
 knows (the degree of) my childlessness i. e. whether my child yet lives 
 or not. This way of speaking (in which a word, without any 
 necessarily intended equivocation, may virtually get the meaning 
 of its opposite) is n9t uncommon in Greek, and the larger Grammars 
 will supply sufficient examples of it. I have endeavoured, as 
 best I could, to preserve the equivoque of the original. All the three 
 lines are thoroughly Euripidean.
 
 14 EURIPIDES 314 331 
 
 CR. And dwellest thou in this temple, or at 
 home? 
 
 315 ION. All the abode of the god is mine, wherever 
 sleep may come upon me. 
 
 CR. And didst thou come to the temple when 
 thou wast a boy, or a young man ? 
 
 ION. Those who appear to know say that I came 
 as a babe. 
 
 CE. And who of the women of Delphi reared 
 thee with her milk ? 
 
 ION. Never did I know the breast. But she who 
 reared me was 
 
 320 CR. Who, hapless one? How being troubled 
 have I found troubles. 
 
 ION. The prophetess of Phoebus ; I regard her as 
 a mother. 
 
 CR. And possessed of what maintenance, hast 
 thou arrived at manhood ? 
 
 ION. The altars fed me and the stranger that 
 came from time to time. 
 
 CE. To be pitied then was she that bore thee, 
 whoever she was. 
 
 325 ION. I was the fruit perchance of some woman's 
 error. 
 
 CR. And thou hast a livelihood? for thou art 
 handsomely decked in robes. 
 
 ION. I am arrayed in the garb of the god, whom 
 I serve. 
 
 CR. And didst thou not go in search to discover 
 thy parentage ? 
 
 ION. No, lady, for I have no token of it. 
 330 CR. Alas ! Another woman has suffered the 
 same troubles as thy mother. 
 
 ION. Who ? I should rejoice, if she would sym- 
 pathize with my misfortunes.
 
 332348 ION. 15 
 
 CR. She for whose sake I came hither before my 
 husband should arrive. 
 
 ION. What manner of thing desiring ? as I will 
 give thee my services, lady. 
 
 CR. Wishing to learn a secret oracle from 
 Phoebus. 
 
 ION. Speak : I will arrange for thee all the rest. 335 
 
 CR. Hear then the story. But I am ashamed 
 
 ION. Thou wilt accomplish nothing then: the 
 goddess (At'Seos) is an inactive deity. 
 
 CR. One of my friends declares that she had 
 intercourse with Phoebus. 
 
 ION. A woman born, with Phoebus ? Say not so, 
 stranger lady. 
 
 CR. Yes, and bore a son to the god unknown 340 
 to her father. 
 
 ION. Impossible ! She is ashamed of seduction by 
 a man. 
 
 CR. She herself says that it is not so : and she 
 has suffered sad griefs. 
 
 ION. What doing? since she was united with a 
 god. 
 
 CR. She carried forth the son which she bore out 
 of the house and exposed Mm. 
 
 ION. And where is the boy which was exposed ? 345 
 does he behold the light ? 
 
 CR. None knows. This would I learn from the 
 oracle. 1 
 
 ION. But if he is no more, in what manner did he 
 perish ? 
 
 CR. She supposes that wild beasts killed him, 
 poor boy. 
 
 1. The Kai seems to imply lam ignorant of this, and also would 
 learn, $c.
 
 1 6 EURIPIDES 349 362 
 
 ION. What evidence had she to make her think 
 this? 1 
 
 350 CR. When she went to the place where she had 
 exposed him, she found him no longer there. 
 
 ION. And were there any drops of blood in the 
 way? 
 
 CR. She says there were not, although she tra- 
 versed the ground oft. 
 
 ION. And how long is it since the child was 
 destroyed ? 2 
 
 CR. If he were alive, he would have the same 
 measure of youth as thou. 
 
 355 ION. Did 3 she not then afterwards bear any other 
 child? 
 
 CR. The god seduced her : but she has borne no 
 other and is wretched. 
 
 ION. But what, if Phoebus has taken him and is 
 rearing him up secretly. 
 
 CR. He does not right to rejoice alone in a sub- 
 ject of common rejoicing. 4 
 
 ION. Alas ! his fortunes are in harmony with my 
 fate. 
 
 360 CR. After thee too, stranger, I ween that a 
 wretched mother yearns. 
 
 ION. Yet tempt me not to a grief which I have 
 forgotten. 
 
 CR. I am silent. But go on with those matters 
 about which I ask thee. 
 
 1. Lit. What sort of evidence using did she think this f 
 
 2. Lit. And what time is there to the child having been made an 
 end of? 
 
 3. Lit. Does. The histor. pres. does not quite always bear 
 a literal translation. So ASiKfi below. 
 
 4. i. e. Sis mother is entitled to rejoice in the boy's safety as 
 well as the god.
 
 ION. Knowest thou then what feature of thy story 
 involves most difficulty ? 
 
 OR. And what is there that does not with her, 
 poor soul, go wrong ? 
 
 ION. How shall the god declare what he wishes to 365 
 be concealed ? 
 
 CR. He will, since he is seated on the common 
 tripod of Greece. 
 
 ION. He is ashamed of his deed. Seek not to 
 convict him. 1 
 
 CR. But still she who suffered from it is dis- 
 tressed by her misfortunes. 
 
 ION. There is not any who will reveal these 
 things to thee. For Phoebus being made to appear 370 
 guilty in his own temple would with reason work some 
 ill to him that delivered the oracle to thee : Cease, 
 lady : we must not by oracles enquire into what is 
 adverse to the god. For to such a height of folly 
 should we come, if we shall constrain the gods against 375 
 their will to declare the things that they would 
 not, either by the sacrifices of sheep before their altars, 
 or through auguries by birds. For the good things 
 which 2 we seek after against the will of the gods and 
 in spite of them, we gain nothing by possessing, 3 380 
 lady : but by those which they grant willingly, we are 
 benefited. 
 
 CHO. Many are the misfortunes of many amongst 
 mortals, and the forms of them differ. But scarcely 
 can one ever find one unvarying course of prosperity iri 
 the life of men. 
 
 1. See note on 231. 
 
 2. "A.V = d a.v. 
 
 3. Lit. We possess not being.
 
 1 8 EURIPIDES 384 404 
 
 OR. Phoebus, both in that and in this thou art 
 
 385 unjust to her who is absent from thee, 1 but whose re- 
 quest is present. Neither hast thou protected thy 
 son, whom thou shouldest have protected, nor being a 
 prophet wilt thou inform his mother when she en- 
 quires of thee, in order that, if he is no more, he may 
 be honoured with a tomb, but, if he is alive, he 
 
 390 may come to behold his mother 2 at last. But I must 
 investigate this matter by myself, if, I am forbidden 3 
 by the god to learn what I wish. But, stranger, 
 (for I see my noble spouse Xuthus already near, 
 having quitted the caves of Trophonius) say nought to 
 
 395 my husband of the words which have been spoken, lest 
 I should incur any reproach by undertaking secret 
 missions, and the story may be spread 4 not quite 
 in the way in which I was unfolding it to thee. For 
 the position of women is difficult with respect to men, 
 
 400 and we are liable to be hated 5 all alike, the good con- 
 founded with the bad : so unfortunate ai'e we. 
 
 XTJTIIUS. First, all hail the god, receiving the 
 prime offerings of my salutations, and thou next, 
 my lady. Have I alarmed thee with fears by the 
 lateness of my coming ? 8 
 
 CR. In no wise, but thou hast come as I was be- 
 ginning to be anxious. 7 However tell me what 
 
 1. There seems to be a double entente in TI}V airovcrav. 
 
 2. Lit. Into the sight of his mother, which may either mean 
 to see his mother, or to be seen by his mother. 
 
 3. KtoXuto is to prevent.- the sense of forbid is due to the tense. 
 See note ou 231. 
 
 4. Lit. Advance. 
 
 5. The present here is, strictly speaking, habitual in sense. 
 G. Lit. Saving come after a long time. 
 
 7. Lit. Thou earnest in time for my anxiety (to be stopped?) . 
 Paley explains the passage differently, perhaps better. But the 
 interpretation here given avoids an unnaturalness (if his explanation 
 be adopted) in the subsequent dialogue, arising from the omission of 
 all enquiry on the part of Xuthus into the cause of his wife's grief.
 
 405 421 ION. 19 
 
 response thou bringest from Trophonius, how a seed of 405 
 children shall be obtained by us. 
 
 Xu. He thought it not right to anticipate the re- 
 sponse of the god: but one thing he said, that 
 I should not go home from the oracle, nor thou, 
 childless. 
 
 CR. revered mother of Phoebus, may it be with 410 
 good omen that we have come hither, and may our 
 former votive offerings to thy son change and become 
 more auspicious 1 . 
 
 Xu. This will be. But who is interpreter for the 
 god? 
 
 ION. I am without, but things within are 
 entrusted to others, who sit near the tripod, 415 
 stranger, nobles of the Delphians, to whom the lot has 
 fallen. 
 
 Xu. ' Tis well : I have learned now all that 
 I wanted. I will go in : for, as I hear, the common 
 victim for the visitors to the oracle has fallen in front 
 of the temple : and I desire this day, for it is a pro- 420 
 pitious one, to receive the response of the god. And 
 
 3. Lit. May the votive offerings to thy son tvhich were to us 
 before, by a chanyefall out letter. 
 
 In this remarkably difficult passage, Paley follows Hermann, who 
 says Quod nobis prius cum filio tuo commercii intercessit melius 
 cddat. Ita Xutho videbitur orare, ut quse nunc sacra facturi sint, 
 tnagis propitia menteacci piat Apollo, quam quse ei antehac fuerint 
 oblata : ipsa autem orat, ut quso sibi olim infelix fuit cum Apolline 
 consuetude, quippe cujus premium orbitatem habet, ea ut in melius 
 convertatur, ereptumque sibi filium inveniat. I can understand the 
 first explanation, but the second I cannot. For vtav undoubtedly= 
 nobis, and nobis as undoubtedly = mihi: but is it true that va>v = 
 mild ? If not, are we to take VMV to mean Apollo and me ? Then what 
 is the meaning of e Tralda TOV rrov, Apollo again ? It makes nonsense. 
 The " double entente " must, I fear, be given up, though the passage 
 at first sight, presents every appearance of one. Though I can see 
 nothing in the commentators better than Hermann's first explanation, 
 it is not one which very naturally belongs to the words, and 
 I am inclined to believe that the passage has not yet been 
 properly understood.
 
 2O EURIPIDES 422 445 
 
 do thou, my lady, take branches of laurel and at 1 the 
 altars pray to the gods that I may bring away from 
 the house of Apollo a response granting children 
 to us. 
 
 425 CR. This shall be done, it shall be. But if 
 Loxias should choose even now 2 to make amends for 
 his former misdeeds, he would not be all favourable to 
 us, but whatever he deigns, for he is a god, will 
 I accept. 
 
 ION. What can be the reason why 3 the stranger- 
 
 430 lady is constantly speaking by dark hints and 
 throwing out reproaches against the god in secret 
 speeches ? Is it either because she loves her on whose 
 behalf she consults the god, or else 4 because she would 
 conceal something which need be concealed? 5 But 
 what care I for the daughter of Erectheus? She 
 is noiight to me. 8 Well, I will go and with golden 
 
 435 pitchers place water in the lavers. But I must 
 remind Phoebus what he is doing : he deflowers 
 virgins by force and deserts them : he begets children 
 clandestinely and suffers them to die. Do not thou 
 thus : but, since thou art mighty, pursue virtuous 
 
 440 deeds. For whoever among mortals is evil, him the 
 gods chastise. How then is it right that ye, having 
 laid down the law for mortals, should yourselves 
 be guilty of breaking the law ? But if ye (it will not be 
 so, but I will use the argument) shall make satis- 
 
 445 faction to men for your forcible amours, thou and 
 
 1. Lit. About. 
 
 2. Nui/ dXXd i. e. el fj.ii trporepov, &\\a vvv. 
 
 3. Lit. Why ever? 
 4 Lit. Or also. 
 
 5. Lit. Something of ihe things which it is necessary shoitld be 
 kept silent. 
 
 6. Lit. She nought appertains to me.
 
 446 488 ION. 2 1 
 
 Neptune and Jove who rules the sky, you will empty 1 
 your temples to pay the penalties of your wrong deeds. 
 For ye do wrong by your eagerness for your pleasures 
 in preference to reason : no more is it right to 
 call men evil, since we imitate the evil deeds of 450 
 the gods, but those who teach them these things. 
 
 CHO. I beseech thee, ray patron goddess Minerva, 
 who didst need no Ilithyia to assist at the pangs 
 of thy birth, 2 brought forth from the crown of Jove's 455 
 head by Promethean Titan, thou august Vic- 
 tory, fly from the golden chambers of Olympus 
 to the public ways and come to the Pythian 460 
 abode, where the Phcebean shrine in the mid- 
 navel of the earth delivers unfailing 3 oracles at 
 the choir-girt tripod, thou and the maid Latona-born, 465 
 two goddesses, two virgins, revered sisters of Phcebus. 
 And supplicate him, maidens, that the ancient 
 race of Erectheus may obtain the blessing of off- 470 
 spring, though late, by his holy responses. For 
 it 4 involves 5 surpassing happiness, an undisturbed fund 
 of joy, to mortals to whom youthful scions of children 475 
 flourish 6 fruitful in their fathers' halls, to keep 7 wealth 
 inherited from their fathers for other children: for 480 
 it is an aid in troubles, and with good fortune it 
 is a delightful thing, and it brings protecting aid 
 to their native land with the spear. To me before 485 
 wealth and royal nuptials be a dear offspring of 
 beloved children. But I abhor childless life, and 
 
 1. 
 
 2. 
 3. 
 4. 
 5. 
 6. 
 7. 
 
 i. e. Of treasure. 
 I/it. Ilithyia-less of birth-pangs. 
 Lit. Accomplishes. 
 Sc. rfreiw/a. 
 Lit. Has (in it). 
 Lit. Shine. 
 "Eoi>re Constr. KOTO: aweo-ii/, agrees with iraToes implied 
 
 in
 
 22 EURIPIDES 489 516 
 
 I blame him for whom it has charms : l and, with 
 490 moderate possessions in life, may I be reckoned blest 
 
 with children. ye abodes of Pan and thou rock 
 
 neighbouring to the cavernous Macrae, where the three 
 495 daughters of Agraulos 2 foot it in the dance o'er the 
 
 green course 3 before the temple of Pallas, to the varied 
 500 sound of the strains of thy pipe, when thou pipest, 
 
 Pan, in thy rustic cave, where a maid, wretched 
 one ! having brought forth a babe to Phoebus, exposed 
 it as a banquet to birds and a bloody repast to 
 
 505 wild beasts, the offspring of forced embraces bearing 
 bitter fruit. 4 Neither in works of the loom have 
 
 1 seen it, nor in story have I heard 5 the fame that 
 children of mortals by the gods partake of a happy 
 destiny. 
 
 510 ION. Ye attendant women, who wait for your 
 master, keeping watch about the steps of this incensed 
 temple, has Xuthus already quitted the sacred 
 tripod and oracle, or is he staying yet in the house en- 
 quiring of his childless condition ? 
 
 CHO. He is in the temple, stranger : he comes 
 not forth from this house as yet. But I hear the 
 
 515 noise of the doors here, as if he were at the por- 
 tals, and now thou mayst see my lord coming out. 
 
 1. Lit. To whom it seems good. 
 
 2. Viz. Agraulos, Herse and Pandrosus, daughters of Cecrops 
 and Agraulos. 
 
 3. The construction appears to be Xopous crrelfiovai TroSolv o-ra&a, 
 taking ardSia as the object of the compound expression xopoii? 
 cn-f i/3oucri Tro&olv. See the larger grammars for other examples of this 
 peculiar Grecism. 
 
 4. Lit. The violence of bitter nuptials, where the cause is put 
 for the effect. 
 
 5. "A'iov used by Zeugma with e-n-l Ktasiaa as well as \6yoti 
 4>driv. So JSsch. Prom. Vinct. (in init.) "lv oCre <pu>vi]v cure TOW
 
 517530 ION. 23 
 
 Xu. All well to thee, my child (for it becomes 
 me to address thee first 1 ). 
 
 ION. All's well with me: but be thou in thy 
 sober senses, and two of us will be the better for it. 2 
 
 Xu. Give me to kiss thy hand and to embrace 
 thy body. 
 
 ION. Art thou in thy sober senses, stranger, or 520 
 has some curse of the god driven thee mad ? 
 
 Xu. I am in my senses, since, having found 
 my best beloved, I seek to embrace him. 
 
 ION. Hold, touch not the fillets of the god nor 
 break them with thy hand. 
 
 Xu. I will touch thee and yet I seek not to tear 
 thee away, 3 but I have found 4 my beloved child. 
 
 ION. Wilt thou not let me go, before thou 
 receivest my arrows in thy lungs ? 
 
 Xu. Why, I pray, wouldst thou fly 5 from me, now 525 
 that thou hast discovered thy own dearest parent ? 
 
 ION. I love not to bring rude and crazy strangers 
 to their senses. 
 
 Xu. Slay me, burn me: well, if thou slay me, 
 thou wilt be the murderer of thy father. 
 
 ION. And how art thou my father ? Is not 
 this laughable for me to hear ? 
 
 Xu. No : My account of the matter will quickly 
 shew thee who I am. 6 
 
 ION. And what is it thou wilt tell me ? 530 
 
 1. Lit. For the beginning of speaking is becoming to me. 
 
 2. Lit. And we, being tivo, shall fare well. Paley explains this 
 differently. But I believe the above version is right. We must 
 suppose Xuthus, as he said u> TCKVOV, yalpe, to have added some 
 demonstrative expression of his paternal love, such as seeking to 
 embrace him. Ion naturally repels this familiarity. 
 
 3. 'Pvffiaw lit. to seize a pledge as a matter of right. See also 
 note on 231. 
 
 4. Lit. Ifind. 
 
 5. See note on 231. 
 
 6. Lit. Sunning would shew thee my affairs.
 
 24 EURIPIDES 531543 
 
 Xo. I am thy father, and thou art my son. 
 
 ION. "Who declares so ? 
 
 Xu. Loxias who reared thee, being really mine. 
 
 ION. Thou to thyself art witness. 
 
 Xu. Yes, but after learning the oracle of the god. 
 
 ION. Thou didst mistake, having heard some 
 ambiguous response. 
 
 Xu. Then my ears deceive me. 1 
 
 ION. What now are Ph rebus' words ? 
 
 Xu. That he who met me 
 
 535 ION. Met thee how? 4 
 
 Xu. As I came out from this temple of the god 
 
 ION. What then of him ? 3 
 
 Xu. Was my son. 
 
 ION. Thine born, or the gift to thee of others ? 
 
 Xu. A gift, but of me begotten. 
 
 ION. And thy footsteps first fall in with me ?* 
 
 Xu. None else, my child. 
 
 ION. Whence can the strange event have come to 
 pass? 5 
 
 Xu. We twain marvel at one strange event alike. 
 
 540 ION. Good heavens ! But of what mother was 
 
 I born to thee ? 
 
 Xu. I cannot tell. 
 
 ION. And did not Phoebus say ? 
 
 Xu. At this rejoiced, I questioned not of that. 
 
 ION. I sprung, it seems then, from the earth 
 as my mother. 
 
 Xu. The ground brings not forth children. 
 
 ION. How then should I be thine ? 
 
 1. Lit. Then I hear not aright. 
 
 2. Lit. (Met thee) what meeting ? cogn. ace. 
 
 3. Lit. Fell in with what event ? 
 
 4. Lit. Thou joinest thy foot first indeed with me. 
 
 5. Lit. Whence ever has the fortune come (to us) ?
 
 543553 I0 *- 25 
 
 Xu. I know not, but I refer the conformation of it 
 to the god. 
 
 ION. Come, let us take up other discourse. 
 
 Xu. 'Twere better to do this, my son. 
 
 ION. Didst thou ever approach any illegitimate 545 
 bed? 
 
 Xu. In the folly of youth. 
 
 ION. Before thou tookest to wife the daughter of 
 Erectheus ? 
 
 Xu. Yes ; for never yet have I since approached 
 any. 
 
 ION. Didst thou then beget me thus I 1 
 
 Xu. There is a correspondence in time at least. 
 
 ION. And then how could I come 2 hither ? 
 
 Xu. I am at a loss to tell this. 
 
 ION. And accomplish so long a journey ? 3 
 
 Xu. This confounds me too. 
 
 ION. And earnest thou ever before to the Pythian 550 
 rock? 
 
 Xu. Yes, to the orgies 4 of Bacchus. 
 
 ION. And didst thou tarry in the house of any of 
 the public hosts ? 
 
 Xu. One, who with the Delphian maids 
 
 ION. Joined thee in the Bacchic dances ? or what 
 meanest thou ? 5 
 
 Xu. Yes with the Msenades of Bacchus. 
 
 ION. Whilst thou was in thy senses, or drunk 
 with wine ? 
 
 1. lAi.-There. 
 
 2. Person on Eurip. Phcen. 13/3 lays it down that TTUJS nal, TTOV 
 xai &c. simply ask for information, but KKI iru>, icai irou &c. mark an 
 objection or contradiction. This will be most clearly expressed 
 in the present passage by inserting could. 
 
 3. Lit. Hailing come through the^ long way. 
 
 4. Lit. Torches or torch-processions. 
 
 5. Lit. How (i. e. in what sense) sayest thou these things?
 
 26 EURIPIDES 553 568 
 
 Xu. In the pleasures of Bacchus. 
 
 ION. This is the source whence I was sprung. 1 
 
 Xu. Fate hath found thee, my child. 
 555 ION. And how came I to the temple ? 
 
 Xu. A cast-away perhaps by the hands of the 
 maiden. 
 
 ION. I have escaped the fate of servile origin. 
 
 Xu. Receive thy father then, my child. 
 
 ION. It is not meet indeed to disbelieve the god. 
 
 Pu. Then thou art wise. 
 
 ION. And what else should I wish 
 
 Xu. Now thou seest as thou shouldest see. 
 
 ION. Than to be born son of the son of Jove ? 
 
 Xu. "Which falls to thy lot. 
 560 ION. Shall I indeed embrace him that begot me ? 
 
 Xu. Yes, in obedience to the god. 
 
 ION. Hail, father. 
 
 Xu. Joyous those accents have I heard. 
 
 ION. And hail, thou day now present. 
 
 Xu. Yes, happy has it made me. 
 
 ION. mother dear, shall I ever 2 see thy form 
 also? Now long I more than ever 3 to behold thee, 
 565 whoever thou art. But perhaps thou art dead, and I 
 can never 4 behold thee. 
 
 CHO. Shared by us are the good fortunes of thy 
 house : but still I had wished that our mistress also 
 and the race of Erectheus were happy in possessing 
 children. 6 
 
 1. Lit. This is that where tee were "begotten. 
 
 2. HOT' Spa L e. dpa vo-re, unquamne 1 Vide prsefat. ad Soph. 
 CEdip. Col. p. 13. Hermann. But see Paley's note. 
 
 3. Lit. Before. 
 
 4. Lit. Nought, in no way. 
 
 5. Lit. As to children.
 
 569593 ION - 27 
 
 Xu. My son, as to thy recovery the god has duly 
 accomplished the oracle, and he hath both united thee 570 
 to me, and thou on thy part hast discovered thy dear 
 parent, not knowing him before. But what thou hast 
 rightly with so much eagerness desired, this I too long 
 for 1 that thou, my son, mayst discover thy mother, 
 and her, I of whom thou wast brought forth. And, if we 
 leave it to time, we may perhaps discover this. But 575 
 quit the temple of the god and thy unsettled life, 2 and 
 yielding thy will to thy father come to Athens, where 
 the prosperous sceptre of thy father awaits thee and 
 abundant wealth; and thou wilt not, though unfor- 
 tunate in one respect, 3 be called at the same time 580 
 ignobly born and poor, but high-born and rich in 
 substance. Art thou silent ? Why keepest thou thine 
 eye fixed on the ground? 4 And thou art lost in 
 thought, 5 and changed again from thy joyfulness 
 inspirest fears in thy father. 8 
 
 ION. The face of things whilst they are at a 585 
 distance, and when looked at close, appears not the 
 same. I embrace my fortune in having discovered 
 thee as my father : but hear about what I am thinking 
 on. They say that the famed earth-born Athens is no 590 
 alien race, and there 7 I shall fall under two disadvan- 
 tages which I possess, 8 being of an alien father and 
 myself of bastard birth. And having this reproach, I 
 
 1. Lit. This a longing possesses me too. 
 
 2. Lit. The floor of the god and thy wanderings. 
 
 3. Lit. In one thing of two i. e. in not knowing thy mother. 
 
 4. Lit. Why having cast thine eye to the ground keepest thou it 
 (there)? 
 
 5. Lit. Thou art gone away into thoughts. 
 G. Lit. Addest fear to thy father. 
 
 7. Lit.- Where. 
 
 8. Lit. Shall fall into two disabilities, possessing them.
 
 2 8 EUIUPIDE3 593 ^21 
 
 shall be esteemed * * * nought and of mean birth, 1 if 
 
 595 destitute of power : but if aiming at the first seat in 
 the vessel 2 of the state, I seek to be something, I shall 
 be hated by the humbler sort : 3 for superiors are 
 obnoxious to them : and amongst all that, being 
 good and enduring to be wise, hold their peace and 
 
 600 are not eager to engage in state affairs, I shall incur 
 ridicule and the charge of folly 4 , because I keep not quiet 
 in a city full of censure : and I shall be the more 
 jealously guarded by the votes of those on the other 
 hand who are eloquent and follow politics, if I attain to 
 
 605 eminence. For thus, my father, are these things wont 
 to be : those who possess political power and eminence, 
 are most hostile to their rivals. And when I come an 
 intruder to a strange house, and to a childless lady, 
 who, sharing thy misfortune with thee before, but now 
 
 6 10 having ceased to be of equal lot, 5 will bear her fate 
 alone with bitter sorrowing, how 6 shall I fail to be 
 naturally hated by her, when I stand by thee near thy 
 foot, and she, childless as she is, beholds thy beloved 
 one with bitter jealousy, and then either thou 
 abandonest me and hast regard to thy wife, or 
 
 615 upholdest me, and embroilest thy house? How many 
 ways of blood-shed and destruction by deadly poisons 
 have women invented for men. And moreover I pity 
 thy wife, my father, growing old still childless : for, 
 
 620 born of noble ancestors, she ought not to lack children 
 to continue the race. Of royalty that is falsely praised, 
 
 1. Lit. Of -no (parents). 
 
 2. Lit. Rower's bench. 
 
 3. Lit. The powerless. 
 
 4. Lit. Folly cause for effect. Corap. Eurip. Med. 298. Xtopj* 
 
 yap aXXtjs ijs fX vaiv <fyy'< QOovov Trpos no-run/ aXrpavova-t dvarfievTJ. 
 
 6. Lit. Now having obtained a lot. apart (from thee). 
 
 6. Ae is merely the former Se (eXQuiv te ) repeated in the 
 
 apodosis.
 
 622 646 lOtf. 29 
 
 the outside indeed is pleasing, but the domestic state 
 is grievous : for who is happy, who is fortunate, that 
 spends 1 his life in fear and in apprehension of vio- 
 lence 1* And I would choose to live having the good for- 625 
 tune to be a commoner rather than a monarch, to whom 
 it is a pleasure to have bad men for his friends, but 
 he hates good men, fearing to be put to death. Thou 
 wilt say that gold outweighs this, and that it is 
 pleasing to the rich: I love not to hear reproaches 630 
 because I keep my wealth in my hands, or to incur 
 trouble. Be mine the mean, and no disturbing cares. 8 
 Now hear from me, my father, what blessings I had 
 here : first, leisure which is very dear to men, and 
 little disturbance : nor did any ruffian ever drive 635 
 me from the path ; for this 4 is unendurable to yield 
 to the baser sort and make way for them. And I was 5 
 engaged in prayers to the gods or converse with men, 
 attending on those well pleased and not murmuring. 
 And to some visitors I would 6 bid farewell, and others 640 
 would come, so that I was always cheerful being new 
 to new comers. And (what should be prayed for by 
 men, even though it should be against their will 7 ) duty 
 and natural disposition led me to be faithful to the 
 god. Considering all these things, I deem my life 645 
 here better than living there, my father. Permit 
 me to live in my own way : 8 for equal is the delight to 
 
 1. TeiVei may perhaps mean something more than this drags 
 out. 
 
 2. I/it. Casting a sheep's eye on violence. 
 
 3. Lit. But to me be moderate things, not being grieved. 
 
 4. IAt.That. 
 
 5. T H a rare form of fjv. Hermann reads nv, which seems 
 preferable in tragic dialogue. 
 
 6. Force of the imperfect habit. 
 
 7. Lit. To them unwilling. 
 
 8. Lit. For myself. 
 
 c2
 
 30 EURIPIDES 647 667 
 
 rejoice in great possessions, or 1 to haye a little and be 
 pleased. 
 
 CHO. Well hast thou said, if those whom I love, 
 shall find happiness in thy words. 
 
 650 Xu. Cease from this discourse, and learn to be 
 happy : for I wish to make a beginning, 2 my son, at 
 the very place where I have found you, by joining in 3 
 the common feast of a common table, and to offer the 
 sacrifices which I offered not before in acknowledgement 
 of thy birth. 4 And for the present, I will take thee as 
 
 655 merely 5 a guest at my hearth and entertain thee with 
 banquets ; and I will take thee as a supposed 6 visitor 
 come to see the land of the Athenians, as if thou wert 
 not my son. For I wish not to pain my wife, childless 
 as she is, by my own happiness. But in time, taking 
 
 660 a proper occasion, I will induce my spouse to let thee 
 hold my sceptre over the land. And I name thee Ion, 7 
 a name suited to thy destinies, because thou wast the 
 first to present thy footstep to me as I came out from 
 the shrine of the god. But gather together the crew 
 of thy friends, and with feast of slaughtered ox s bid 
 
 665 them farewell, before thou quittest 9 the Delphian city. 
 And I bid you, ye handmaids, say nought of these 
 matters, or, if ye tell them to my spouse, I threaten 
 you with death. 10 
 
 1. Lit. And. 
 
 2. So. TTJ? <n> evTuX'as implied in ev-rvxelv. 
 
 3. In v-eviav there is an allusion perhaps to the reclining attitude 
 of banqueters. Paley. 
 
 4. Lit Natal of thee. 
 
 5. This seems to be the force of $n. 
 
 6. AJjOei; 
 
 7. From Iwv going. 
 
 8. Lit. With ox-slaughtered enjoyment. 
 
 9. Lit. Being about to quit. 
 
 10. Lit. I (declare) death to you having told fyc.
 
 668699 IOK - 3 1 
 
 ION. I will go : but one thing in my fortune is 
 lacking to me : if I shall not find her who bore me, my 
 father, I cannot endure life : but, if I must utter a 670 
 prayer, may the woman who gave me birth be of 
 Athens, that freedom of speech may be accorded to me 
 through my mother. For if any alien's lot is cast in a 
 city 1 of pure race, though he be in name a citizen, yet 
 has he his mouth enslaved, and possesses not freedom 
 to speak his thoughts. 675 
 
 CHO. Tears,* tears I see, and the woful beginnings 
 of groans besides 2 , when my royal mistress beholds her 
 husband blessed with a son 8 , and she is childless herself 680 
 and destitute of offspring. What a prophetic strain 
 didst thou utter, presaging son of Latona ? whence, 
 from whom of women, did this youth nurtured about 
 thy temple, spring ? For the response of the god not 685 
 pleases me, as I am afraid that it involves some deceit. 
 I fear to what the event will come. For marvellous he 690 
 (i. e. apparently, Xuthus) reports responses marvel- 
 lous to me, sounding well perhaps 4 to this young man. 
 The youth bred of some other race has this good fortune 
 by some deceit. 5 Who will not agree with me in this ? 
 Dear sister slaves, shall we tell all this distinctly to my 695 
 lady's ear about her husband, whose hopes and fears, 
 poor soul, she used to share, having all her affections 
 bound up in him 6 ? But now she is overwhelmed with 
 
 1. Lit. For if any alien fall into a city. 
 
 2. See note on 161. 
 
 3. Lit. Having child-blessedness. 
 
 4. It seems impossible to make sense of -nadi TTOT" ev^tjua. I have 
 substituted TX for TroVe. This however is not satisfactory, and the 
 passage appears hopelessly corrupt. 
 
 5. Lit. -Ha* deceit and the fortune hendiadys, if the text is not 
 corrupt, which is most probably the case. 
 
 6. In Greek it is more usual, when a participle and verb are 
 combined in a clause, to put the participle first and construct the 
 relative or other pronoun with it, leaving the pronoun to be understood 
 with the verb. English idiom requires this to be reversed.
 
 32 EURIPIDES 699 727 
 
 calamity, but he is fortunate, she fallen into grey 
 
 700 age, 1 but her husband caring nought for his partner. 2 
 Wretched man ! who having come an alien to the 
 house, into great power and wealth, 8 has not preserved 
 consistency ivith his fortunes. May he perish, may he 
 
 705 perish who has deceived my beloved mistress: and 
 may he not find favour when he offers at the fire the 
 cake sending forth its bright flame to the gods : but he 
 
 710 shall know me * * * * friend of the royal house.* 
 Already is approaching to the new-spread banquet the 
 son, and the new-found father. ye crags that 
 
 715 occupy the peaks and cloud-girt heights 5 of the rock 
 of Parnassus, where uplifting blazing torches, Bacchus 
 nimbly bounds with night-roaming Bacchanals. Never 6 
 
 720 may the youth come to my city, but may he quit his 
 young life and die. For the city would have reason 
 in lamenting the entering in of strangers. But enough, 
 enough for as King Erectheus that was our prince 
 before. 
 
 725 CR. aged pedagogue 7 of Erectheus the father 
 that once was mine, when he was still in being, 8 ascend 9 
 
 1. Hermann translates el<nre<rovffa y^pos by quum consenuerit, 
 and says such a use of the aorist is rare, but gives no other examples. 
 This usage is not very uncommon, when the main verb is future or 
 present with a really future sense. But it can hardly be correct with 
 fppei, which, though present, closely approximates in meaning 
 to a perfect. We must not press the words too closely, especially as 
 the chorus may naturally be supposed to exaggerate a little ; and then 
 the passage is plain enough. 
 
 2. 'ATieros (pi\iovContemptor uxoris. Hermann. 
 
 3. Both included in o\/3o. 
 
 4. Hermann supplies the lacuna by conjecture thus TO V euo 
 elcrfTai Tfis x^ofos &p\ala.<i (orTas dir' 'E/oex6e<"*) ouov Ti/pawicos <>i'Xa. 
 This may be. 
 
 5. Lit. Abode. 
 
 6. Lit Never at all. 
 
 7. For some account of the position and duties of a " psedagogus 
 see Diet, of Antiq. 
 
 8. Lit. In light. 
 
 9. Lit. Raise thyself I e. come up the steps.
 
 727743 ION - 33 
 
 to the oracle of the god, that thou mayest rejoice with 
 me, if King Loxias has spoken any oracle purporting 1 
 the birth of children ; for it is delightful to be pros- 730 
 perous in the company of friends, and if any evil (but 
 may it not so prove) should befal, it is sweet to look 
 upon the face of a man that loves us. But thee 
 I cherish in a father's place, thy mistress though I am, 
 as thou too didst my father once. 
 
 PEDAGOGUE. 
 
 Daughter, thou preservest the worthy manners of 735 
 worthy parents, and hast not disgraced thy race, 
 ancient as it is, sprung from the soil itself. 2 Pull me 
 on, pull me on and lead me to the temple. The oracle 
 is high up in truth : but do thou, helping my limbs to 
 accomplish the task, 3 be physician of mine old age. 740 
 
 CR. Come along with me then : but be careful 
 where thou settest thy foot. 
 
 PED. See. My foot indeed is slow, but my will 
 is quick. 
 
 CR. And support thyself, with thy staff as thou 
 goest over the ground. 4 
 
 1. 'Es not regarding, but to the purpose of. 
 
 2. If the old reading is correct, which is very doubtful, we 
 certainly cannot take together TOUS o-oiis auTo'xfWns or any similar 
 words, but must put commas after o-ous and TraXaious; and then 
 I know of no better way of understanding eKyovov? auro'xOovas than 
 that proposed by Barnes, viz. as = -rous e' ainij^ rjjs x^ "^ yeyevij- 
 fjLfvovi, though this is violent. 
 
 3. Lit. Working out my limb icith me. 
 
 4. ~Explora solum scipione circa te. Hermann. The accusative 
 is that of motion over a place (Hel. 598). More fully fldx-rvw epeidou 
 
 (cf. Tro. 150. Hec. 66) trrifiov Tropevonevo* The real difficulty 
 
 is rather in the epithet irepi^^ than in the grammatical construction. 
 Faley. 
 
 I am somewhat disposed to think that the words may be taken thus 
 
 fpelduv (i. e. epetSe <reauTu5) crTi'/3ov (i. e. @d<riv) 7Tfu</>6p7) -)(Qovot 
 
 PCIKTIHO support for thyself thy going ambient of the ground with 
 thy staff i. e. support thy footsteps with thy staff as they go over the
 
 34 EURIPIDES 744 _ 759 
 
 FED. This too is a blind guide, when I cannot 
 see. 
 
 745 CR. Thou hast well said: but do not give in to 
 the toil. 
 
 FED. I will not do so then willingly, but I have 
 no control over what is wanting to me. 
 
 CR. Ye women, faithful slaves of my loom and 
 shuttle, inform me what luck my husband who is 
 gone, has met with as to children, 1 for the sake 
 750 of whom we came : for if ye shall declare good neivs to 
 me, thou 2 wilt not confer joys on a mistress 3 that will 
 be faithless to reward you. 
 
 CHO. fate ! 
 
 FED. The prelude to your words is not fortunate. 
 
 CHO. Ah ! wretched. 
 
 755 FED. But is there aught should grieve me in the 
 response given to my lord ? 4 
 
 CHO. Well. What are we to do about a matter 
 about which death is the appointed penalty ? 
 
 CR. What strain is this, and about what are your 
 fears ? 
 
 CHO. Shall we tell her, or be silent, or what shall 
 we do? 
 
 CR. Tell me ; as thou knowest some calamity 
 affecting me. 
 
 ground. Though this is not the ordinary meaning of tpeloofjiai, it is 
 strictly in analogy. But even taking epeioov in its usual sense 
 and regarding trriflav as a kind of cognate accus., as Paley suggests, 
 I must at least strongly contend for the meaning I have assigned to 
 7re/H</>epf) <rri'/3oi; ^Ooi/os. 
 
 1. Lit. Having received what luck of children my husland is 
 gone. 
 
 2. Addressed to the leader of the chorus. 
 
 3. Lit. Masters i. e. master and mistress, but by the enallage 
 of number here evidently referring to the latter only. 
 
 4. Lit. But am I aught distressed by the responses of my 
 masters f
 
 760783 ION. 35 
 
 CHO. Told it shall be, even if I have to die twice 760 
 over. It is not granted to thee, my mistress, to take 
 children in thine arms, or ever draw them to thy 
 breast. 
 
 CB. Ah me ! May I die ! 
 
 PED. Daughter. 
 
 CR. Ah poor me for my calamity ! I have 
 sustained, I have suffered, dear handmaids, a woe that 
 will not let me live. 
 
 PED. "We are utterly undone, my daughter. 765 
 
 CR. Alas ! alas ! grief has stricken me through 
 and through to my heart. 1 
 
 PED. Groan not yet 
 
 CR. But cause for wailing is here. 
 
 PED. Before we learn 770 
 
 CR. What news for me ? 
 
 PED. If our master fares in like manner and is a 
 sharer in thy calamity, or thou art unhappy alone. 
 
 CHO. To him, old man, did Loxias grant a child, 
 and he is happy by himself without this lady. 775 
 
 CR. This evil upon evil 2 hast thou uttered, hast 
 thou uttered, a crowning grief for me to mourn. 
 
 PED. But is the child whom thou sayest, to 
 be begotten of some woman, or did he speak in the 
 oracle of one already born ? 
 
 CHO. Loxias gives him for a son one that is 780 
 already a grown up young man: and I was present 
 when he received him. 
 
 CR. How sayest thou ? Thou speakest words too 
 shocking to my ears 3 to be told, too shocking to 
 be told, too sad to utter. 
 
 1. Lit. Within these lungs. 
 
 2. Lit, Upon this. 
 
 3. The ethical dative euot.
 
 30 EURIPIDES 784 805 
 
 PED. Yes, and to mine also. But tell me more 
 785 particularly how the oracle is fulfilled, and who 
 the youth is. 
 
 CHO. Him whom thy husband should meet first 
 after departing from the god, the god gave to him for 
 a son. 
 
 CK. Welladay ! and I have gotten, have gotten 
 for my portion a life all childless, childless, and 
 790 in solitude shall inhabit a desolate home. 
 
 PED. Who then was it that was spoken of by the 
 oracle ? Whom did the husband of the poor lady 
 meet? 1 and how, where did he see him? 
 
 CHO. Knowest thou, my dear mistress, the young 
 795 man who was wont to sweep this temple? This is the 
 youth. 
 
 CR. that I might fly through the humid air 
 afar from the Hellenic land up to the western 
 stars, such 2 woe, such 2 woe have I suffered, dear 
 handmaids. 
 
 800 PED. And knowest thou by what name his father 
 calls him, or does this rest in silence not yet deter- 
 mined? 
 
 CHO. Ion, as he was the first to meet his father. 
 
 PED. And by what mother is he ? 
 
 CHO. I am not able to say. But (that thou 
 
 mayst know all, old man, so far as I can tell thee s ) the 
 
 husband of this lady is gone by stealth to the holy 
 
 805 house to offer for his son hospitable and natal 
 
 1. Lit. To whom did the husband of the poor woman join the step 
 of his foot? 
 
 2. Lit Of what sort. The Gr., and Engl. and Lat. idioms differ 
 in such expressions. Engl. and Lat. express the antecedent words, 
 omit the relative: Greek expresses the relative words, omits the 
 antecedent. 
 
 3. Lit. According to the things which are in my case.
 
 806 829 ION. 37 
 
 sacrifices, 1 and to join in a banquet along with his 
 new-found son. 
 
 PED. My mistress, we are betrayed (for with thee 
 do I suffer) by thy husband, and of set purpose are we 
 outraged, and cast out from the house of Erectheus. 810 
 And I say it, not because I hate thy husband, but 
 because I love thee more than him. For, when he 2 
 had wed thee, though he came into the city and into 
 thy house a stranger, and had received all thy inheri- 
 tance, he is proved to have stealthily begotten children 8 1 5 
 by some other woman : and how he stealthily did so, I 
 will tell thee. When he found thee childless, he was 
 not content to be like thee and to bear an equal share 
 of this fate, but taking a servile partner, he lay witli 
 her secretly and begot the boy, and sending him out of 820 
 the country, gives him to one of the Delphians to rear : 
 and he is nurtured holy-free 3 in the abode of the god, 
 that he might remain unknown. But when he knew 
 that he had grown up to be a young man, he persuaded 
 thee to come hither on account of thy being childless. 
 So then it was not the god who spoke falsely, but this 825 
 thy husband who spoke falsely, having long reared up 4 
 the boy, and fabricated some such web of deceit as this: 
 if detected, he was ready to lay the blame 5 on the deity, 
 but if he came home with him, wishing that lapse 
 of time also would speak in its own defence, 8 he 
 intended to invest him with the sovereignty of the land. 
 
 1. Apparently sacrifices to celebrate Ion's admission into his house 
 and Ion's birth. 
 
 2. lAl. Who. 
 
 3. See Paley's note on a^eros. 
 
 4. Lit. Long ago rearing up the Greek, Latin aud French 
 idiom, but not the English. 
 
 5. See note on 231. 
 
 6. This is nearly, if not quite, nonsense. The passage seems 
 hopelessly corrupt. See Hermann and Paley. 
 
 u
 
 38 EURIPIDES 830849 
 
 830 And new is the name, devised for him after a long 
 course of time 1 , Ion, because, I suppose, he met him as 
 he was going. 
 
 CHO. Ah me ! how I always detest wicked men, 
 who contrive acts of injustice, and then cloak them by 
 
 835 their devices. I had rather get a dull honest man for 
 my friend than a bad man of quicker wit. 
 
 FED. And thou wilt suffer, if he has his will, 
 that which is the crowning evil of all these, introducing 
 into thine house, as its future lord, one who knows no 
 mother, who is of no account, and born of some woman 
 that is a slave. 2 For the evil would have been single 
 
 840 in its kind, if pleading thy childlessness, he had 
 persuaded thee, and supplemented 3 his house from a 
 well-born mother : but if this was grievous to thec, 
 he should have sought a union with some descendant 
 of ^Eolus 4 . After this thou must now do some deed 
 worthy of a woman : for thou must slay thy husband 
 
 845 and his son, either by taking a sword, or by some 
 plot, or by poison, before death befal thee by them : 
 for if thou shalt spare him, thou wilt be deprived of 
 life : 5 for when two enemies 6 come beneath one roof, 
 either the one 6 or the other 6 must suffer. 
 
 1. i. e. Not Ms original name. 'Ava xpovov cannot mean, as 
 Paley hesitatingly suggests, according to the circumstances of tlie time. 
 This would be avd Koipov. 'Avd \p6vov is merely another expression 
 for \p6viov. 
 
 2. Paley cannot see why Hermann should prefer ayet to &yeiv= 
 TO ayeiv eKtfvov, he says. If this is to be the sense, I certainly with 
 Hermann prefer ayei, not because ayeiv would in any way require the 
 article, but because after -jretaei 2. pers. ayeiv would naturally have a 
 subject in the 2. pers., unless enelvov or its equivalent were expressed. 
 But I can see no objection to ayeiv really, because this is no doubt 
 the true way of understanding the passage. 
 
 3. Lit. Colonised, settled. 
 
 4. Lit The nuptials of ^olus. 
 
 5. Lit Depart from life. 
 
 6. Observe that these words are neuter. Such neuters are used 
 especially in indefinite and general expressions.
 
 850884 ION. 39 
 
 I then am willing both to aid thee in accomplishing 850 
 the deed, and to go into the house where he is 
 making ready the banquet, and help to slay the youth, 
 and, if I but repay my mistress 1 for my nurture, 
 either 2 to die, or 2 to live and still behold the light. 
 For there is one thing that brings shame upon slaves, 
 the name: but in all else no slave, who is right- 855 
 minded, is worse than the free. 
 
 CHO. I too, my beloved mistress, am willing to 
 share this calamity with thee, and either to die, or to 
 live, if it be with honour. 
 
 Cu. my soul, how shall I be silent? yet how 
 shall I reveal my clandestine loves and bid farewell to 860 
 shame ? And yet why should I not ? For what obstacle 
 is yet left to hinder me ? With whom should 3 I now 
 engage in contests of virtue? Has not my husband 
 been a traitor to me ? And I am bereft of home, bereft 865 
 of children, and gone are the hopes which I cherished 
 to arrange matters happily but failed, 4 by keeping my 
 loves secret, by keeping secret my deeply bewailed 
 child-bearing. But no, fo/Hhe starry dwelling of Jove, 870 
 and by the goddess of 3 my native rocks, and by the 
 hallowed shore of the watery Tritonian pool, no longer 
 will I conceal my loves, as I shall be relieved by un- 875 
 burdening my breast. My eyes drop with tears, and my 
 soul is sick, conspired against both by men, and by im- 
 mortals, whom I will proclaim ungrateful betrayers of my 880 
 love. thou that modulatest the voice of the seven-toned 
 harp, which utters forth the sweet melodies of song to 
 
 1. See note on 751. 
 
 2. Lit. Both and. 
 
 3. See note on 231. 
 
 4. Lit. The hopes, which seeking to arrange well, I was not able. 
 
 5. On the omission of M> see Paley's note. 
 
 6. Lit At.
 
 4 EURIPIDES 884 g22 
 
 shepherds on the dumb sounding-board, to thee, son 
 
 885 of Latona, will I proclaim reproach before this light 
 of day. Thou earnest to me, thy locks all glittering 
 with gold, when I was gathering into the bosom of 
 
 890 my robe the blooming crocus leaves of golden sheen : 
 and clinging to the white wrists of my hands, thou, a 
 god, leddest me, in spite of my virgin shame, crying 
 out " mother, mother," into the chamber of a grot, 
 
 895 to lie with me, doing a pleasure to the Cyprian queen. 
 And I, ill-fated maid, bear to thee a boy, whom from 
 fear of my mother I place in the grotto ivldch thou 
 closest for thy couch, where thou didst embrace 
 
 900 hapless me in hapless intercourse, ill-fated maid: 
 (ah me ! ah me !) and now to me is lost thy poor 
 boy, carried away as a feast for the birds, but thou 
 
 905 makest music with thy lyre, playing songs of joy. 
 Ho ! to the son of Latona I speak, to thee who 
 grantest by lot 1 the divine voice of prophecy ; before thy 
 
 910 golden shrine and dwelling in mid-earth, in thine ears 
 will I utter aloud my speech. Ha ! base seducer that 
 thou art, who, having received from him no favours to 
 
 915 repay, 2 art bringing a son to dwell in the house of my 
 husband ; whilst my child and thine own 3 has perished 
 unnoticed, carried off by birds of prey, stripped of his 
 mother's swathing bands. 4 Hates thee Ddos, and the 
 
 920 branches of the laurel beside the delicate-leaved palm, 
 where Latona bore thee, her divine offspring, by 
 impregnation of Jove. 
 
 1. Those who would consult the god, cast lots for the order in 
 which they should receive responds. 
 
 2. The force of IT/DO iu 7rpoXo/3o>p. 
 
 3. The force of ye. 
 
 4. Lit. Having passed out of, not, I think, having exchanged 
 hem for others (Paley's version) for what could these others be?
 
 9 2 3~ 939 ION - 4i 
 
 CHO. Alas ! how great a store of evils is being 
 opened, at which any one might shed the tear. 
 
 PED. Daughter, I cannot in truth look long 925 
 enough on thy face to satisfy myself that this is not a 
 dream, and I am beside my senses. For as I was just 
 getting rid of a wave of troubles in my mind, 1 another 
 in the wake upheaves me, raised by thy words, in 
 which, 2 no sooner hast thou spoken of the troubles 
 immediately before thee, than thou hast gone off to a 
 sad recital of other woes. 3 "What sayest thou ? what 930 
 charge bringest thou against Loxias ? what son is this 
 thou sayest thou didst bear ? where placedst him in the 
 city, to be entombed as a sweet meal in the bowels of 
 wild beasts ? 4 Repeat it to me again. 
 
 CR. I feel abashed before thee, old man, but 
 nathless I will tell it. 
 
 PED. Ay, for I know how to mourn in generous 935 
 sympathy with friends. 
 
 CR. Hear then : thou knowest the cavern on the 
 north side of the Cecropian rock, 5 which we call 
 the Macro) ? 6 
 
 PED. I know it, where there are a shrine and 
 altars of Pan close by. 
 
 CR. Here I went through 7 a terrible struggle. 
 
 1. This sentence is an instance of anacoluthon, the construction 
 in this line, nominative, being changed in the next to the accusative. 
 
 2. See note on 697. 
 
 3. Lit. Thou hast by a change gone the sad direction of other 
 woes. See Paley's note on the genitive TUV imp. KO.KU>V in the 
 preceding line. 
 
 4. Lit. An entombed thing dear to the wild beasts. 
 
 5. i. e. The Acropolis. 
 
 6. This is spoken in a loose sense. Strictly speaking the cavern 
 was not called Macrae, but the rocks in which it was situated. 
 
 7. 'HywvtffneOa, must here be pluperf., not perf. Engl. idiom 
 requires that it should be translated as an aor., which would be the 
 more usual tense in Greek.
 
 42 EURIPIDES 940 955 
 
 940 PED. What struggle ? Say, for my tears rise at 
 thy words. 1 
 
 CR. I contracted a hapless intercourse with 
 Phoebus against my will. 
 
 PED. Daughter, was this then what I heard of? 
 
 CR. I know not : but if thou art right in what 
 thou speakest of, I will confess it. 
 
 PED. When thou wast suffering in secret from 
 some concealed malady ? 
 
 945 CR. Then it was that the evil happened which I 
 now plainly declare to thee. 
 
 PED. And after how didst thou conceal thy 
 amours with Phoebus ? 
 
 CR. I bore a child : endure to hear this from 
 me, aged man. 
 
 PED. Who delivers thee ? and where ? Or dost 
 thou go through these sufferings all alone ? 
 
 CR. Alone, in the very 2 cavern where I was em- 
 braced by the god. 
 
 950 PED. But where is the child ? Say, that no longer 
 childless thou mayest be. 
 
 CR. He is dead, old man, having been exposed to 
 the wild beasts. 
 
 PED. Dead ? And did that base Apollo in no way 
 aid him ? 
 
 CR. He aided him not, but he is spending his 
 boyhood in Hades. 
 
 PED. Why, who exposed him ? For surely thou 
 didst not. 
 
 955 CR. I did, in the darkness, swathing him with my 
 robe. 
 
 1. Lit. Since tears meet for me thy wards. 
 2. The irep in olirep.
 
 956966 ION. 43 
 
 PED. And did none aid thee in exposing the 
 child? 
 
 Ca. None beside my misfortunes and the necessity 
 for concealment. 1 
 
 PED. And how hadst thou the heart to leave thy 
 child in the cavern ? 
 
 CR. How ? / left him after uttering many piteous 
 words from my mouth. 
 
 PED. Alas ! hard-hearted thou for the deed, but 960 
 more than thou the god. 
 
 CR. Yes, hadst thou seen the boy stretching out 
 his hands to me. 
 
 PED. Seeking the breast, or to lie in thy arms ? 
 
 CR. In them, from which it was cruel of me 
 to keep him. 2 
 
 PED. But how came it into thy mind to expose 
 the child ? 
 
 CR. I thought that the god would preserve his 965 
 own son. 3 
 
 PED. Ah me ! How is the prosperity of thy 
 house destroyed by storms. 
 
 1. Palcy corrects Dr. Badhain's translation "Calamity and 
 concealment were my only witnesses," on which his own version is 
 undoubtedly a considerable improvement; but he seems to have 
 mistaken the meaning of TO Xavtidveiv. 
 
 2. Lit. There, where being not he was suffering unjust things 
 from me. 
 
 3. On this and the preceding line, Paley has the following 
 
 " 'Es TI 86% r|s jjX6e crot for rrii de inos es S6av 7\t)e. Hermann 
 gives not $ es Tt <5o'ei(T77\0ei/. With the following o>? supply e^ej3a\ot> 
 cos von'fyvva &c. See Ehes. 145. The old reading <7o>oin-a was 
 corrected by several critics." 
 
 About the general meaning of the passage there cannot be two 
 opinions. But this is rather special pleading. 1 must confess 1 
 prefer Hermann's reading. Or I should like still better o-u <V cs ri 
 86ri? ]\6es eKpaXwv TCKVOV; but what didst thou expect, when thou 
 hadst exposed the child f to which the answer is (e TJ)J/ 6%av f)/\6ot/) 
 (is TOV Qedv aiaaovra &c. (I expected) that the god would preserve fyc.
 
 44 EURIPIDES 967 981 
 
 CR. Why dost thou hide thy head, old man, and 
 shed tears ? 
 
 PED. Because I see thee and thy father 1 in- 
 volved in misfortunes. 
 
 CR. Such are human affairs : nothing remains 
 constant. 
 
 970 PED. Let us therefore, daughter, no longer go on 
 lamenting. 2 
 
 CR. Why, what must I do ? To be in misfortunes 
 is to be helpless. 3 
 
 PED. Eequite the god who was the first to do thee 
 wrong. 
 
 CR. And how am I, mortal as I am, to overcome 4 
 mightier beings ? 
 
 PED. Fire the holy oracle of Loxias. 
 975 CR. I am afraid : even now I have woes enough. 
 
 PED. Dare then what thou canst do to slay thy 
 husband. 
 
 CR. I cannot do it, for the sake of our wedded 
 life 5 in those days when he was faithful. 
 
 PED. But do thou at least 8 slay the youth who 
 has appeared as a usurper over thee. 
 
 CR. How ? that it were possible ! For 7 1 should 
 be glad to do it. 
 980 PED. By arming thy attendants with swords. 8 
 
 CR. I will go and do so ; but where shall this 
 be done ? 
 
 1. See Paley's note. 
 
 2. Lit. Stick to lamentations. 
 
 3. Lit. A fix. for this vulgar English word expresses it exactly. 
 
 4. I think Paley is mistaken in supposing virepfya/ueu; to mean 
 escape from punishment in this passage. For, if so, where is the 
 connexion in sense between this line and the following one ? 
 
 5. Lit. I reverence our wedded life. 
 
 6. For u\\d, compare line 426. 
 
 7. Lit. Since. 
 
 8. 5i<i<o>m appears, preferably, proleptic in sense.
 
 982 gg6 ION. 45 
 
 FED. In the sacred tent, where he is feasting 
 his friends. 
 
 CR. The slaying of him thus is an undisguised 
 deed, and my slaves are weak to protect me. 
 
 PED. Alas ! thou art turning coward. Come, do 
 thou then propose something. 
 
 CR. Well, I have a plan to kill him by guile and 985 
 a plan to act. 1 
 
 FED. In either 3 of these will I be thy helper. 
 
 CR. Hear then : thou knowest about the battle of 
 the sons of Earth ? 
 
 PED. I do, the battle which the Giants waged 
 with the gods at Phlegra. 
 
 CR. There Earth brought forth the Gorgon, 
 terrible monster. 
 
 PED. As an ally to her children and foe of the 990 
 gods ? 3 
 
 CR. Yes: and the daughter of Jupiter, the 
 goddess Pallas, slew her. 
 
 PED. What sort of savage appearance had she ? 
 
 CR. She had a breast-plate armed with the coils 
 of a hydra. 
 
 PED. Is this the story which I have long ago 
 heard ? 
 
 CR. That it is her hide which Minerva wears on 995 
 her breast. 
 
 PED. What they call the aegis, the accoutrement 
 of Pallas ? 
 
 1. I have endeavoured to preserve the "double entente." 
 Apa<rr?'ipta means either active, effectual, the sense intended by 
 Creusa S6\ia KM opatTTi'ipia, a plan to kill him by guile, and that an 
 efficacious one, or accomplished by action, the sense in which the 
 pedagogue (as appears from the next line) understood her a plan 
 to kill him by guile, and another plan to kill him by violence. 
 
 2. Lit. Both. 
 
 3. Qeiav TTOVOV i. e. Oeols irovovs trape^ovaav.
 
 46 EURIPIDES 997 IOII 
 
 CR. It got this name, when she came to the wars 1 
 of the gods. 
 
 PED. What harm, I pray, is this to thy enemies, 
 my daughter? 
 
 CR. Knowest thou Erichthonius, or not? But 
 how canst thou fail to know him, 2 old man ? 
 1000 PED. Him, whom the earth produced, the 
 first ancestor of your race ? 3 
 
 CR. To him, when new-born, Pallas gives 
 PED. What? For thou art saying something 
 which excites my expectation. 4 
 
 CR. Two drops from the blood of the Gorgon 
 PED. And what virtue should it have against 
 the life 5 of a man ? 
 
 1 005 CR. One of them causing death, and the other 
 able to heal diseases. 
 
 PED. By what did she attach it to the boy's 
 body? 8 
 
 CR. By a band of gold: and he gives it to 
 my father. 
 
 PED. And, when he died, it came to thee ? 
 CR. Yes : and I wear it on the wrist of my hand. 
 10 10 PED. How then is the two-fold gift of the 
 goddess made effectual ? 7 
 
 CR. That which 8 dropped from the gore of the 
 hollow vein 
 
 1. Lit. Spear. Paley observes" He probably means that the 
 scgis now first obtained its name from dto-o-eiv, not from a<." 
 
 2. Lit. But why art thou not likely (to know him) f 
 
 3. Lit. Of you. 
 
 4. Unusual as such a meaning may be, I am inclined to think 
 Paley is right in the interpretation of ueXXov. 
 
 5. Lit. Nature, constitution. 
 
 6. Lit. Attach it about the boy from his body. 
 
 7. Lit. Effected.. 
 
 8. "Ocms sc. ffToXay/io's. If the vulgate text be right, this is 
 one of the very few passages where OO-TIS is a synonym of os. Paley. 
 The Gorgon's head was cut off.
 
 IOI2 IO26 ION. 47 
 
 PED. For what purpose is this to be used p 1 
 What virtue does it exert ? 
 
 CB. It wards off diseases and has the power of 
 supporting life. 
 
 PED. But the second 2 which thou speakest of, 
 what does it ? 
 
 CK. It kills, being the venom of the Gorgon's 1015 
 snakes. 
 
 PED. And dost thou bear it mingled in one, 
 or separately ? 
 
 CR. Separately : for good mixes not with evil. 
 
 PED. My dearest daughter, all hast thou which 
 thou needest. 
 
 CR. By this the youth shall die : and thou shalt 
 be his slayer. 
 
 PED. Where ? And what shall I do ? 5 'Tis thine 1020 
 to speak, and mine to dare. 
 
 CR. In Athens, when he comes to my house. 
 
 PED. This hast thou not well said : forgive my 
 words, for thou too findest fault with my plan. 
 
 CR. How not well said? Hast thou suspected 
 that which now occurs to me also ? 
 
 PED. Thou wilt appear to have slain the boy, 
 even if thou shalt not kill him. 
 
 CR. Eight: for they say that stepmothers bear 1025 
 enmity to children. 
 
 PED. Kill him therefore here,* that thou mayst 
 be able to deny the murder. 
 
 1. Lit. Ti TtmSe XP^0' sc. et; Lit. What (use) does it behove 
 to use this 1 
 
 2. Lit. TJie second number, much like the English number 
 two. 
 
 3. Lit. Saving done what 1 
 
 4. Lit At the place itself.
 
 48 EURIPIDES IO27 1043 
 
 CR. Ay, and I enjoy the pleasure of slaying him 
 so much the earlier. 1 
 
 PED. And thou wilt not be known to thy 
 husband to possess the secret which he is anxious 
 should not be known to thee. 2 
 
 CR. Knowest thou then what thou art to do ? 
 
 1030 Take from my hand this gold bracelet of Minerva's, an 
 antique work, go where my husband by stealth is 
 banqueting on the slain ox, 3 and when they cease 
 from the feast and are about to pour libations to the 
 gods, keeping this concealed in thy robe, drop 4 the 
 contents into the young man's cup (but into his 
 
 1035 individually, not the cups of all, distinguishing his 
 
 draught from the rest 5 ) who is about to lord it over my 
 
 house. And if it once pass his throat, never will he 
 
 come to renowned Athens, but will die and abide here. 
 
 PED. Do thou then depart 6 to the house of our 
 
 1040 hosts ; 7 and I will perform the task to which I am 
 appointed. Come, aged foot, grow young for work, 
 though it is not natural to thee from long course 
 of time. And go with my mistress 8 against a foe, 
 
 1. Lit. Hake (a portion) of the pleasure earlier by the (amount 
 of) time MOI/T/S partitive gen., \pov<? dat. of measure of excess. Paley 
 gives another explanation ; but I have no doubt this is the true 
 interpretation of the passage. 
 
 2. This is Hermann's interpretation "Latebit maritum tuum, 
 scire te, quse ille te latere cupit." Paley follows. It is not easy to 
 get this sense out of the Greek, and when got, it is not very much 
 to the purpose, however ingeniously Hermann has explained the 
 motive for Creusa's concealing her knowledge of Ion's parentage. 
 Conjectural criticism is rather out of fashion ; but I cannot help 
 believing that Euripides wrote ai aov ye \?jo-ei TTOVIV a av cnreuoeiv 
 \a6eiv. 
 
 3. Cpmpare 664. 'Hftiv ethical dative. 
 
 4. Lit. Drop having thrown. 
 
 5. The reasons for rejecting this line may be seen in Paley's 
 note. To say the least, it comes in very awkwardly. 
 
 6. Lit. Transfer thy foot. 
 
 7. The trp6evoi were public entertainers whose duty it was u> 
 
 8. See note on 852.
 
 1044 10 74 10N - 49 
 
 and help to slay him and to rid her house of him. 1 
 For it is a fine thing for men in prosperity to hold 1045 
 righteousness in honour, but when any one would 
 work harm to enemies, there is no law laid down 
 to forbid it. 
 
 CHO. Enodia, 2 daughter of Ceres, who art queen 
 of nightly visitants, 3 guide also in the light of day the 1050 
 contents of the fatal bowl to them for whom my loved, 
 loved mistress sends it, contents taken from the drops 
 trickling from the wounded throat of earth-born 1055 
 Gorgon, to him who aspires to the house of the 
 Erecthidae. 4 Nor may any other of another house 
 ever reign over the city besides the noble Erecthidae. 1 060 
 But if his death shall fail to be accomplished, and the 
 eager schemes of our mistress, and the opportunity 
 for the daring deed shall pass away, by which her 
 hopes are now sustained, 5 either she will take 8 a 
 sharpened sword, or she will fasten a noose to 1065 
 her throat about her neck, and putting an end to her 
 sufferings by sufferings, she will go down to another 
 form of life. 7 For never would she live and endure 
 in the sight of her brightly beaming eyes 8 others of 1070 
 alien race ruling her house, she that is bom of 
 so noble a line as hers. 9 I feel shame for the god of 
 
 1. Lit. Jointly remove him from the house. 
 
 2. i.e. Goddess of the roads, Lat. Trivia. Hecate is here 
 invoked, as presiding over poisons. In making her the daughter of 
 Ceres, Euripides confounds here with Proserpine. 
 
 3. i. e. Apparitions. 
 
 4. Paley's interpretation of this passage seems the only right 
 one. 
 
 5. <J>ep<:T' i. e. rfreperai. See Paley's note. 
 
 6. By a zeugma, <!<njrei in the following line is used with t<o 
 as well as its proper object Pp6\ov. 
 
 7. Viz. in Hades. 
 
 8. I/it. The bright splendours of her eyes. 
 
 9. This seems to be the force of Twvof the noble line (of which 
 ahe comes).
 
 SO EURIPIDES 1075 
 
 1075 many hymns, 1 if keeping vigil he shall in the night 
 behold 2 the torch that witnesses the Icades about the 
 springs of Callichorus, 8 when the star-eyed heavens of 
 
 1080 Jove too wont to dance, and dances the Moon, and 
 the fifty daughters of Nereus, who dance over the sea 
 
 1085 an d ti 16 eddies of ever flowing-streams, in honour of 
 the Daughter* with the golden crown and the 
 hallowed Mother ; 4 where, entering on the possessions 
 
 1090 of others, the homeless foster-child of Phrebus 5 hopes 
 to reign. All ye who, following after poesy, sing in 
 reproachful strains our loves and unlawful unholy 
 alliances coming of the Cyprian queen, see how much 
 
 1095 we surpass in purity the unrighteous race of men. 
 Let the contrary song go forth against men, and 
 the verse reproachful for 8 their amours. For the 
 
 noo descendant from the sons of Jove shews his forgetful- 
 ness of her in not begetting for my mistress children 
 who should be a boon common to the house : 7 but 
 
 1105 instead of this, to please Venus, 3 he has gotten him 
 a bastard son. 
 
 ATTENDANT. Stranger women, 9 where shall I find 
 
 1. Bacchus, who was escorted with a solemn torch-procession 
 from Athens to Eleusis on the twentieth day of Boedromion, whence 
 the whole nine days' festival is called ei/ca<5es (eoco<ri). The hymns are 
 specially the dithyrambs. 
 
 2. i. e. He, viz. Ion, shall ever be allowed to behold, though his 
 mother was, as supposed, a slave. 
 
 3. A spring near Eleusis. 
 
 4. i.e. Proserpine and Ceres, worshipped under these special 
 names at Athens. These accusatives seem to depend on xP " et above 
 in the sense of celebrates in dances. 
 
 5. Lit. The Phoebean wanderer. 
 
 6. Lit. About. 
 
 7. Lit. Not having begotten for my mistress the luck of children 
 common to the house. 
 
 8. Lit. Having laid up in store for himself an obligation. Paley 
 seems to me to misunderstand a\\av. It is best taken in agreement 
 with 'AQpo&iTav, in a corresponding sense to that of aXXos in 161, 
 where see note. 
 
 9. i. e. Strangers to Delphi,
 
 no; II2 4 ION - 5 1 
 
 my mistress the daughter of Erectheus ? For I have 
 gone all over the city seeking her, 1 and am not able 
 to find her. 
 
 CHO. But what is the matter, my fellow-slave ? 
 What makes thy feet in such eager haste ? 2 and what mo 
 tidings dost thou bring ? 
 
 ATT. We are pursued; and the native magis- 
 trates of the land are in search of her, that she may 
 be stoned to death. 
 
 CHO. Alas ! What wilt thou say ? Surely we 
 have not been discovered in contriving a secret 
 murder against the youth p 
 
 ATT. Thou art right: 3 and thou wilt be not 1115 
 amongst the last to share in the evil consequences. 
 
 CHO. But how was the secret plot discovered ? 
 
 ATT. The god, not willing to be defiled, found 
 out a way for unrighteousness to be overcome of 
 right. 
 
 CHO. How ? I pray and beseech thee 4 to tell me 
 this. For we should die more contentedly, when we 1120 
 have learned whether we must die or still behold the 
 light. 5 
 
 ATT. When the husband of Creusa, having left 
 the oracle of the god, and having received his new 
 son, had gone away to the banquet and offerings 
 which he was preparing in honour of the gods, 
 
 1. Lit. For seeking Tier in every direction of the city I have com- 
 pleted (the round of) it. 
 
 2. Lit. What eagerness of feet possesses thee f 
 
 3. Lit. Thou hast knoivn. 
 
 4. Lit. A suppliant I beseech thee. 
 
 5. I follow Paley's punctuation and the translation implied in 
 his note. But the ei0' bp&v $aos is sadly in the way. I much prefer 
 Hermann's comma after jreirvcrfjLfvai, the meaning, I think, being 
 For when we have learned this, if we must needs die, ive shall die more 
 contentedly, and, if we are to live, (we shall be able to rest, which ive 
 cannot now do for curiosity).
 
 52 EURIPIDES 1125 1143 
 
 1125 Xuthus himself 1 went where the fire of the god 
 bounds in Bacchic dance, 2 that he might steep the 
 twin rocks in the blood of sacrifices to Bacchus in the 
 place of his son's opteria, 3 first saying to him: 
 Do thou then, my son, stay and rear a spacious 4 tent 
 
 1130 by the labours of artificers. But if I stay a long time 
 in sacrificing 5 to the gods presiding over birth, let 
 there be a feast for thy assembled friends. And 
 taking the calves, he went his way. But the young 
 man in due form proceeded to erect the unwalled 
 
 1135 enclosure of the tent with upright poles, carefully 
 guarding neither towards the mid-day 9 beams of the 
 sun's fires to erect it, nor on the other hand towards 
 his dying rays, and measuring out a plethrum's 
 length square (a space of ground having 7 for the 
 contents of its area a sum of ten thousand feet, as say 
 
 1140 those skilled in numbers), with intent to invite 
 all the people of Delphi to the feast. And having 
 gotten sacred hangings from the treasury of the 
 temple, works wondrously beautiful for men to behold, 
 he made with them a covering jor the tent. First he 
 
 1. In the Greek, SoOOos jus'" is opposed to 6 <5e veaviat in 1132 
 
 XutTius on the one hand Hie youth on the other hand. We may 
 
 get this sense virtually in English by saying Xitthus Himself. 
 
 2. The two peaks of Parnassus were sacred to Apollo and Bacchus 
 respectively, and on one lights were said to be seen, which were 
 attributed to the torch-light dances of Bacchus and the nymphs. 
 
 3. This festival (on occasion of a child's being shewn to the 
 friends of the parents on the eighth or ninth day) had not of course 
 been celebrated at the proper time in Ion's case. 
 
 4. See Paley's note on the proper meaning of a^i'ip^, 
 
 5. Guo-os Having begun to sacrifice, and therefore here virtually= 
 6uu>v. This use of the aorist participle, in itself remarkable enough, 
 is common in such expressions as /3a<ri\eu(ra, having begun to 
 reign See. 
 
 6. Lit Middle 
 
 7. I have pushed in yrjv for e%ovrrav to agree with, though of 
 course this cannot be. The two lines 1138, i!39, are either corrupt, 
 or, as Paley says, a downright interpolation.
 
 1 144 1162 ION. 53 
 
 spreads over the roof a dependent awning 1 of pepli, 
 the offering of the son of Jove, which Hercules 
 presented to the god as the spoils of the Amazons. 1145 
 And there was 2 woven in them in pictured forms 
 a design 3 of this kind: Uranus 4 marshalling the 
 heavenly bodies in the circle of the sky. The 
 Sun was urging his horses towards his last fires, 
 ushering in the bright light of Hesperus. And 
 dark-robed Night was whirling her car with a yoke of 1 150 
 two steeds : 5 and the stars were bearing the goddess 
 company. The Pleiad was going through the 
 mid sky, and Orion girt with sword : and above, the 
 Bear wheeling round her tail-stars by the revolution of 
 the golden pole. And the orb of the full moon 1155 
 dividing the month in the midst was shooting upward, 
 and the Hyades, most certain token for mariners, and 
 the light-bringing Aurora chasing away the stars. 
 And on the walls 8 he hung other works of bar- 
 barian looms, 7 well-rowed ships opposed to Grecian 1160 
 s/ujps, and wights, half men, half beasts, and 
 their huntings on horses' 8 feet, the chase of stags and 
 
 1. An awning laid across the ridge and falling upon the slanting 
 roof on either side, would appropriately be called vrepv^, as 
 resembling the drooping pinions of a bird. Paley. 
 
 2. Paley remarks that this usage, where a verb, placed before a 
 plur. masc. or fern., is itself in the singular number, is rare in Attic 
 Greek; but he quotes other instances in Pers. 49. Trachin. 520. 
 Bacch. 1350, Hel. 1358. 
 
 3. ~L\\,. Weavings. 
 
 4. i. e. A personification of the heavens. 
 
 5. When there were two horses to a chariot, they were attached 
 to the pole by a yoke. Any beyond this number were harnessed on 
 each side of the yoke-horses by traces. 'Aaeipwrov ox'jju" is therefore 
 a chariot without such additional horses. 
 
 6. i.e. Sides. 
 
 7- Lit. Other webs of barbarians. 
 
 8. I cannot but think Paley wrong in supposing that i-mrtia.? 
 ay pat alludes to the capture of the Thracian Diomede's mares by 
 Hercules. It is much more natural to give it an active sense, and
 
 54 EURIPIDES 1163 1 1 86 
 
 fierce lions, and at the entrance, Cecrops beside 
 his daughters coiling himself in folds, 1 the offering of 
 
 1 165 one of the Athenians : and in the midst of the feast 
 he set goblets of gold : and a herald standing 
 on tip-toe proclaimed that any inhabitant of the city 
 who would was to come to the banquet. But when 
 the tent was filled, adorned with garlands they 
 
 1170 satisfied their appetite with abundant food. And 
 when they had ceased from the enjoyment of it, 
 an old man * came forward and stood in the midst, 2 
 and caused great laughter to the guests by his zealous 
 activity : 8 for he sent round water from the water- 
 pots to wash' their hands, 4 and burned the gum 
 
 1175 of myrrh, and took charge of the gold vessels of 
 libation, of his own accord setting himself this task. 
 And when they came to the flutes and to the common 
 bowl, the old man said, Ye must take away the 
 small wine-cups, and bring in large ones, that 
 
 1 1 80 the guests who are present may more quickly make 
 their hearts merry. 5 Forthwith 6 there was a bustle 
 of attendants bringing silver-wrought patene and 
 golden : and he, taking a vessel selected from the rest, 
 as if forsooth to do a pleasure to the new lord, offered 
 
 1 185 it to him full, having first put into the wine an active 
 poison which they say our mistress gave him, that the 
 
 take it in apposition with dripd/maTa, as there is no connecting word 
 after eXdqxav. I may be wrong in considering it involves a kind of 
 supplementary description of the Centaurs (they have been called 
 4><oTes, and now are iVn-oi), but the connexion in which the words 
 occur, is at least an apology for this idea. 
 
 1. Cecrops was represented in statues with the tail of a serpent 
 instead of legs and feet. 
 
 2. Lit. Having come forward into the middle ground. 
 
 3. Lit. Doing zealous th 
 
 4. Lit. As washings for their hands. 
 
 5. Lit. Come to delights of their midds, 
 
 6. Aj.
 
 n86 1 2 10 ION. 55 
 
 young man might quit the light : and none knew 1 of 
 this : but whilst the new-found son amongst the rest 
 was holding the libation 2 in his hands, one of the 
 slaves spoke an unlucky word: and he, as being 1190 
 brought up in the temple and amongst holy sooth- 
 sayers, deemed it an omen, and bade fill a fresh 
 bowl: and the first libation intended for the god 3 
 he throws to the ground, and tells all to empty their 
 paterae. And silence came over them. And we fill 
 the sacred bowls with liquor and Byblian juice. 1195 
 And in the midst of this act a winged company 
 of doves alights in the tent; for in the house 
 of Loxias they dwell without fear. And when they 
 had poured away the wine, they, in want of drink, 
 dipped their beaks into it, and drew it into their 1200 
 feathered throats. And to the rest of them the 
 intended libation to the god was harmless : but the 
 one which had settled 4 where the new-found son had 
 poured out his cup, and had tasted the liquor, anon 
 shewed her plumed body convulsed, 5 and became wild 
 as a bacchanal, and screaming uttered sounds unac- 
 countable: and all the company of banqueters 1205 
 marvelled at the sufferings 6 of the bird: and she 
 dies heaving convulsively, stretching 7 out her red 
 claws. But the predicted son dashed forth his bare 
 arms 8 from his robe across the table, and shouts, 
 
 1. For rjdeiv 3 pers., see Paley's note. 
 
 2. Lit. Sut for the son who had appeared, holding with others 
 the Illation. IlaiBi is dat. of disadvantage. We lose the precise force 
 in the English. 
 
 3. Lit. The before libations of Ike god. 
 
 4. Lit. \Vas aitting. 
 
 5. Lit. Shook her plumed body. 
 
 G. I am not sure that it is not rather actions, like the vulgar 
 English (as it now is) works. On Oaju/ityo-ei/ without augm. see 
 Paley's note. 
 
 7. Lit. Having relaxed. 
 
 8. Lit. Limbs.
 
 56 EURIPIDES 1 2 10 1233 
 
 1 2 10 Who of men intended to kill me? Shew me, old 
 man : for thine was the officious zeal that served me, 
 and from thy hand I received the draught. And 
 immediately he seizes his aged arm and searches him, 
 that he might catch the old man in the fact in 
 
 1215 possession of the poison. And he was discovered, 
 and then he was with difficulty compelled to reveal 1 
 the attempt of Creusa and the plot of the draught 
 of wine. And the youth who had been made known 
 by the oracle of Loxias, 2 rushes out, taking the 
 banqueters with him, and standing before the Pythian 
 
 1220 rulers, he says, sacred land ! An attempt is made 
 to murder me 3 with poison by the daughter of 
 Erectheus, a stranger woman. And the princes 3 
 of Delphi decreed by general vote 4 that my mistress 
 should die by being hurled from a rock, as plotting 
 to kill 5 him that is consecrated, and attempting to 
 
 1225 enact 5 a murder in the temple. And all the city 
 is seeking her who with wretched fate pursued 
 her wretched journey hither : for having come hither 
 to ask children 5 from Phoebus, she has lost her life 7 
 along with the hope of offspring. 
 
 CHO. No way there is, no way for hapless 
 
 1230 me there is to escape from death : for discovered now, 
 discovered are these schemes of a libation from the 
 clusters of Bacchus mingled with death by the infusion 
 
 1. Lit. Having been compelled, he revealed . 
 
 2. Lit. The youth Pythian-oracle-declared of Loxias. 
 
 3. Probably the same as the dpio-TJ/s of 416. 
 
 4. Lit. By not one vote (only) a, litotes to signify by their 
 unanimous votes. 
 
 6. See note on 231. 
 
 6. Lit. To the desire of children. 
 
 7. Lit. Body.
 
 1233 I2 5 X 10N - 57 
 
 of the swiftly working drops of the hydra's blood, 1 
 discovered is the purposed sacrifice to the gods 
 below, a discovery putting an end to my life, and 1235 
 bringing the penalty on my mistress of being stoned 
 to death. 3 Whither shall I flee 3 with wings or under 
 the dark depths of the earth, to escape the calamity 
 of death by stoning ? Shall I mount a chariot with four 1 240 
 steeds of fleetest hoof, or the poop of ship p 1 It is not 
 possible to escape detection, when the god desires not 
 to screen us from the penalty of crime. 5 What fate 
 awaits thee, my poor mistress, to suffer bodily? 6 1245 
 Shall we, before we suffer, determine to do some 
 mischief to others 7 ourselves, as is but just ? 
 
 CR. My handmaids, I am pursued to be put 
 to death, condemned 8 by the Pythian vote, and I am 
 on the point of being given up to justice. 
 
 CHO. We know thy misfortunes, wretched 1250 
 lady, in what a sad condition thou art. 
 
 CR. Whither then shall I fly ? For with diffi- 
 
 1. This seem? to be better than Paley's way of taking the passage, 
 both on general grounds, and because </>oVo seems a strange word to 
 apply to the death of the dove. 
 
 2. Lit. A misfortune to my life, and a stony death to my mistress, 
 aufjifpopal being in apposition not with one word, but all the former 
 part of the sentence. In the previous /o^o-is Creusa was to die 
 
 ppt.fyri's, which may either mean by hurling from a rock, or by 
 being stoned. The former was the meaning intended, as we find 
 
 by-and-by, but the Chorus seems to have understood it in the latter 
 sense. 
 
 3. Lit. What flight shall I go f 
 
 4. Lit. Having mounted the swiftest hoof of four-horse chariots, 
 or the poops on ships 1 The construction is rather involved, and the 
 expression forced. Why not read reQp. tb/a<rrai/ -^a\St> (all gen.) 
 
 eirifidtr', fi irfwuvas eiri vawv ? 
 
 5. A general proposition. Lit. When the god does not get us 
 off stealthily, desiring it. 
 
 6. Lit In thy life. 
 
 7. Lit. Shall we suffer, choosing to do some mischief to our 
 neighbours ? 
 
 8. Lit. For fatal slaughter, having been overcome. On the sing. 
 K/3cn-jj6eIo-a after the pi. oiiaKomeaQa, see Paley.
 
 58 EURIPIDES 1251 1268 
 
 culty hare I avoided death by getting the start of my 
 pursuers in rushing from the house, 1 and it is only by 
 stealth, by eluding my enemies, that I have come 
 here. 
 
 CHO. And whither else shouldest thou fly but 
 to the altar ? 
 
 CR. And what will this avail me ? 2 
 
 CHO. The gods permit not to slay a suppliant. 
 
 CR. Yes, but it is by the law that I am to die. 
 1255 CHO. Yes, if thou shouldst be taken and shouldst 
 be in their power. 3 
 
 CR. Ay, and here come on apace towards us 4 
 my bitter enemies sword in hand. 
 
 CHO. Sit therefore at the altar. For even if 
 thou shouldst be slain whilst thou art there, thou 
 wilt entail on those who kill thee blood demanding 
 vengeance : but we must bear our lot. 
 
 ION. bull-faced visage of Cephisus her fore- 
 
 1 260 father, what a viper is this that thou hast begotten, or 
 
 rather dragon with eyes flashing murderous flames of 
 
 fire, 5 in whom is all daring, nor is she less cruel 6 than 
 
 the drops of Gorgon's blood, with which she sought 
 
 1265 to kill me. Seize her, that the summit of Parnassus, 
 
 whence she shall be hurled by a bound from the rock, 
 
 may cause those unsullied locks of hers to be torn. 7 
 
 But a good fortune was mine, that prevented me 
 
 from going 8 to the city of Athens and falling under 
 
 1. Paley's explanation is excellent ec/>0ao-a iro&a v-n-e^dyova- 
 
 (e OLKIDV), coo-Te fail Qavelv. 
 
 2. Lit. And what more is this to me f 
 
 3. Lit. Having been taken in. their power. Xeipuz is proleptic. 
 
 4. Lit. Hither. 
 
 5. Lit. Looking up or back the murderous flame of fire. 
 
 6. Lit. Less. 
 
 7. Lit. May card thoroughly Hie unsullied locks of her. 
 
 8. Lit, But a good deity I met ivith, before I went $c.
 
 ia68 1286 ION. 59 
 
 the power of a step-mother. For amongst those who 1270 
 have befriended me do I reckon 1 thy disposition 
 towards me, in that thou wast a spite and a foe to 
 me : for if thou hadst once entrapped me in thy 
 house, thou wouldst have sent me outright to the 
 mansions of Hades. But neither will the altar nor 
 the temple of Apollo save thee, and any feeling of 
 pity for thee is outweighed by pity for me and for 
 my mother: 2 for though her bodily presence is 1275 
 wanting to me, yet thus far is not the name of a 
 mother wanting. 3 See what scheme after scheme 
 this vile woman 4 has contrived : she has now crouched 
 down at the altar, thinking to escape from the 
 punishment due to her deeds. 
 
 CR. I warn thee not to slay me where I have 1280 
 stationed myself, both for my sake and the god's. 
 
 ION. And what hast thou to do with Phoebus ? 5 
 
 CR. I commit my body as sacred to the keeping 
 of the god. 8 
 
 ION. And yet thou didst try to slay the child of 
 the god with poison. 
 
 CR. But thou wast no longer the child of 1285 
 Loxias, but thy own father's. 
 
 ION. But I was, I mean in the absence of 
 my father. 
 
 1. The aorist here has much the same sense as a perfect/ have 
 reckoned and do reckon still. So eliroi in Med. 274 (Pors.) 
 
 2. Lit. And the pity that is thine is present i. e. is accorded 
 stronger to me and to my mother. The meaning of the passage seems 
 to be that the general feeling of pity for him and for his mother 
 was so strpng, that none would connive at Creusa's escape from the 
 altar, or aid her whilst she remained there. 
 
 3. This seems to mean As yet there is no reason to disbelieve 
 that she still lives. 
 
 4. Lit. This vile woman, what scheme fyc. 
 
 5. Lit. And what is there in the midst common to Phcebtti and 
 to thee f 
 
 6. Lit. To the god to keep.
 
 60 EmuriDES 1287 1302 
 
 CR. Well, thou wast then : but now I am his, 
 and thou art so no longer. 
 
 ION. If thou art, thou art impious, 1 but I was 
 pious then. 
 
 CR. And I slew 2 thee, because thou wast an enemy 
 to my house. 
 1290 ION. I never 3 came in arms into thy land. 
 
 CR. Yes, most certainly; thou wast going to 
 set the house of Erectheus in a blaze. 
 
 ION. With what torches, or with what flames of 
 fire? 
 
 CR. Thou was going to dwell in my home, and 
 take it away in spite of me. 
 
 ION. 'Twas because my father offered me the 
 rule ofihe land which he had won. 
 
 1295 CR. But how had the descendants of ^Eolus 
 any share in the land of Pallas ? 
 
 ION. He delivered it by arms, not words. 
 
 CR. An ally cannot be an original possessor o^ 
 the soil. 
 
 ION. And so thou didst attempt to slay me 
 from fear of what ? 4 
 
 CR. In order that I might not die, the sure 
 alternative, if thou shotildst not. 
 
 1300 ION. Art thou envious, because thou art child- 
 less, at my father's having discovered me ? 
 
 CR. Wilt thou then make havoc of the homes of 
 the childless ? 
 
 ION. Nay, but was I to have no share at least 
 of my father's possessions ? 5 
 
 1. Lit. Not pious at least. 
 
 2. If the expression sleiv in the English seems violent, it must 
 be remembered that the aorist in the original is violent also. 
 
 3. I^rce of the negative aorist. 
 
 4. Lit. From a fear of what, that it should come to pass f 
 
 5. Lit. Was there no portion to me (not of thine) but of my 
 father's (property) f
 
 r 33 r 3 r 7 I0 *- 6 r 
 
 CR. No more than 1 spear and shield : this is 
 thy whole inheritance. 
 
 ION. Quit the altar and the divine abode. 
 
 CR. Keep thy exhortations for thy mother, 1305 
 wherever she is. 2 
 
 ION. And shalt thou attempt to kill me, and 
 not undergo the penalty of thy crime ? 
 
 CR. Yes, if thou art willing to slay me in this 
 sanctuary. 
 
 ION. What pleasure is it to thee to die grasping 
 the wreaths 3 of the god ? 
 
 CR. I shall cause grief to one of those by whom 
 grief has been caused to me. 4 
 
 ION. Alas! Tis strange, how unfairly and 1310 
 without wise counsel the god has laid down his laws 
 to mortals : for the wicked should not have been 
 allowed to take refuge at 5 the altar, but it should 
 have been permitted to drive them away from it ; for 
 it is not good that evil hand should touch the gods : 6 
 but the righteous 7 only, any one that was wronged, 
 should have been allowed to take refuge in holy 1315 
 places, and not the man that is good, and the man 
 that is not, to meet together there and have equal 
 protection from the gods. 
 
 1. Lit. As much as (and no more). 
 
 2. Lit. Exhort thy mother, wherever she is for thee. Sot is the 
 ethical dative, here used with an ironical force. The allusion to 
 Ion's mother is generally considered to involve a " double entente." 
 The hyperbaton of wrepa is, as Mr. Paley observes, remarkable. 
 
 3. This is probably the meaning of eu o-re/x^ao-t, the i/ of 
 circumstance. 
 
 4. These words are no doubt intended to be ambiguous. The 
 one she inwardly meant was Apolto : Ion, would understand it of 
 himself. 
 
 5. Lit. To occupy. 
 
 G. Paley follows Hermann's punctuation, which is extremely 
 awkward. There surely should be a colon at x e 'P a - 
 7. This dative evSiaoiv with expfjv is puzzling. 
 
 F
 
 62 EURIPIDES. 1318 1333 
 
 PYTHIA. Hold, my son: for I have left the 
 
 divining tripod within 1 this enclosure, and am passing 
 
 over it with my feet to come to thee, /, the prophetess 
 
 1320 of Phoebus, chosen out of all the Delphian women 
 
 according to the ancient custom of the tripod. 8 
 
 ION. Hail, mother dear to me, although thou 
 barest me not. 
 
 PY. But at least I was called thy mother ; and 
 the name is not unpleasing to me. 
 
 ION. Hast thou heard how this woman en- 
 deavoured to kill me by a plot ? 
 
 1325 PY. I have heard: and yet thou art doing 
 wrong to be so wrathful. 
 
 ION. Is it not right that I should in turn 
 destroy those who seek to slay me ? 
 
 PY. Wives were ever yet hostile to children 
 born before their marriage. 
 
 ION. Yes, and so are we to step-mothers, if we 
 are ill treated. 
 
 PY. Say not so. Leave the temple, and going 
 to thy country 
 
 1330 ION. What, I pray, wouldst thou exhort me to 
 do? 3 
 
 PY. With hands pure 4 from blood-guiltiness 
 proceed to Athens attended by good omens. 
 
 ION. Surely the hands of every one are pure who 
 slays his enemies. 
 
 PY. This do not thou: but hear from me the 
 words which I have to tell thee. 
 
 1. Lit. Of. See Hermann's or Paley's note on this i 
 
 2. Lit. Preserving the ancient S(c. The two clauses form a sort 
 of hendiadys. 
 
 3. Lit. Is it right tJtat, being exhorted, I should do ? 
 
 4. Lit. Purely.
 
 1334 J347 10N - 6 3 
 
 ION. Speak : for thou wilt say whatever thou 
 mayest say, in a friendly spirit. 1 
 
 PY. Seest thou this vessel which I am carrying 1335 
 in my hands ? 2 
 
 ION. I see an old basket decked with chaplets. 8 
 
 PY. In this I found thee once upon a time, 
 a new-born babe. 
 
 ION. What sayest thou? New to me is the 
 story that has been related. 4 
 
 PY. Yes, for I kept it 5 secret, but now I make 
 it known to thee. 
 
 ION. How hast thou then concealed it from me 1340 
 so long, 6 if thou didst find me then ? 
 
 PY. The God wished to keep thee as a minister 
 in his temple. 
 
 ION. And does he not desire to do so now ? In 
 what way am I to be assured of this ? 
 
 PY. Having revealed thy father, he bids thee 
 depart from this land. 
 
 ION. And hast thou preserved this by command, 
 or from what motive ? 
 
 PY. Loxias at the time suggested to my 1345 
 mind 
 
 ION. To do what ? Say, finish thy story. 
 
 PY. To preserve this that I had found, to the 
 present time. 
 
 1. Lit. Being of friendly spirit. 
 
 2. Lit. Under-arm load (probably) of my hand. Anything 
 can be put under the arm and yet carried with the hand, so that 
 the expression seems not so forced as it has been called. 
 
 3. Lit. In chaplets. For this ev, see note on 1308. 
 
 4. Lit. Has been brought in. 
 
 5. Lit. Those things. 
 
 6. Lit. Wast thou concealing it. ..long since.
 
 64 EURIPIDES 1348 1370 
 
 ION. But what good, or what harm does it do to 
 meP 1 
 
 PY. Herein are laid up the swaddling-clothes in 
 which thou wast. 
 
 1350 ION. Thou bringest these things forth as helps 
 to discover 2 my mother. 
 
 PY. Yes, as the god so wills, but did not before. 
 
 ION. this day of happy omens to me ! 
 
 PY. Take them therefore, and find her that bore 
 
 thee. And when thou hast visited all Asia and 
 
 the limits of Europe, thou wilt learn about these 
 
 1355 matters thyself. For the sake of the god I reared 
 
 thee, my son, and I now restore to thee these things, 
 
 which he willed that I should find and keep, though 
 
 without express command: but wherefore he so 
 
 willed, I am not able to say. But none of mortal 
 
 1360 beings knew that I had these, nor where they were 
 
 hidden. And noiv farewell : for I embrace thee with 
 
 equal affection as though I had given thee birth. 
 
 But begin where thou oughtest to begin searching 
 
 for thy mother; first, enquiring if any Delphian 
 
 maid 8 having bom thee, brought thee to this temple 
 
 1365 and exposed thee, and next, if any Greek woman. 4 
 
 And now thou hast learned all from me and from 
 
 Phoebus, who took part in thy fortunes. 
 
 lox. Alas ! alas ! How I shed the moist tear 
 
 from my eyes, when I turn my thoughts to the time 5 
 
 when she who bore me after furtive embraces, 
 
 1370 secretly put me away, and gave me not the breast; 
 
 1. Lit. Does it involve for me 1 
 
 2. Lit. Investigations. _ 
 
 3. Lit. Maid of Delphian icomen. 
 
 4. i. e. From any other part of Greece. 'EXXa? here ="EXXjws, 
 very uncommon. 
 
 5. Lit. Thither.
 
 !37 J 39 2 ION - 6 5 
 
 but I passed the life of a servant in the abode of the 
 god, without a name. The god was good, but 
 my fate was hard : l for at the time that I ought to 
 have been delicately nurtured 2 in the arms of 
 my mother, and to have had some enjoyment of life, 
 I was deprived of my dearest mother's nourishment. 1375 
 And wretched also is she who bore me, since 
 she has shared the same fate 8 in losing the joy 
 of possessing a son. And now I will take this 
 basket and present it an offering to the god, that 
 I may discover nothing that I would not. 4 For if a 
 slave happens to have given me birth, to discover my 1380 
 mother is a worse thing for me than to say nought 
 about her. 5 Phoebus, I present this to thy temple. 
 Yet what am I doing ? I am opposing the good will 
 of the god towards me, who has preserved these 
 tokens of my mother for me. I must open this, 1385 
 and take heart. For never can I escape from 6 
 what is fated. sacred chaplets, 7 why, I pray, have 
 ye been hidden from me, and ye bands, 8 by which my 
 treasures were guarded? Behold the covering of 
 the round basket, how it has been saved from growing 1390 
 old by some divine care, and the wicker-work is free 
 from mouldiness : 9 but the interval of time is long 
 indeed for these hoarded relics to have lasted. 
 
 1. Lit. The matters of tlie god were good, lut of fate heavy. 
 
 2. Lit. To have lived delicately. 
 
 3. Lit. Has experienced the same experience. 
 
 4. Lit. Nothing of the things which I do not wish. The meaning 
 is that none of my discoveries may be of an unhappy nature. 
 
 5. Lit. Being silent, to let her be. 
 
 6. 'Yirep/foiV, pass over, leap over, a metaphor from an animal 
 leaping over a hunting net to escape. 
 
 7. See 1336. 
 
 8. The fastenings of the am-lirn^. 
 
 9. Lit. Mould is absent from the things entwined.
 
 66 EURIPIDES 1393 1408 
 
 CR. What apparition do I behold of things not 
 even hoped for ? 
 
 ION. Silence : thou wast an enemy to me before, 
 1395 CR. I cannot be silent c 1 exhort me not. For I 
 see the basket in which 2 I formerly exposed thee, my 
 child, when thou wast yet a helpless 3 babe, taking thee 
 to the grotto of Cecrops and the cavernous Macrae. 4 
 But I will leave this altar, even if I must die. 
 400 ION. Seize this woman ; for inspired with a 
 sudden frenzy by the god, she has leaped up and left 
 the sculptured altar ; 5 and bind her arms. 
 
 CR. Go on to slay me, if ye will; 6 since I 
 will cling both to this and to thee and to what is shut 
 up within it. 
 
 ION. Is not this abominable? I am being 
 dragged away on a pretended claim of relationship. 7 
 1405 CR. Not so, but thou near and dear to me art 
 found by one near and dear to thee. 
 
 ION. I near and dear to thee ? And that is the 
 reason why thou wouldst have secretly murdered me ? 
 
 CR. Yes, thou art my son, if that 8 is nearest and 
 dearest to one who bore 9 thee. 
 
 ION. Leave off inventing falsehoods : right 
 surely will I take thee. 10 
 
 1. Lit. My affairs are not in silence. 
 
 2. Lit. Where. 
 
 3. Lit. Infant, dumb. 
 
 4. This line is suspected, and probably with good reason, as the 
 grotto of Cecrops or rather of Aglauros Cecrops' daughter was not 
 the same as the Paneum, hitherto described as the scene of Creusa's 
 amour. 
 
 5. Lit. Sculptures of the altar. 
 
 6. Lit. Ye would not cease slaying me, (if ye did as Ibid you). 
 
 7. Lit. -By reason of mere words. On pua-td'touai comp. 523. 
 
 8. Lit. This. 
 
 9. Si mulier, de se loquens, pluralem adhibet numerum, genus 
 etiam adhibet masculinum ; si masculinum adhibet genus, numerum 
 etiam adhibet pluralem. Dawes' Canon. 
 
 10. Ion means/ trill convict thee right well. She affects to 
 misunderstand him, and answers as though he meant I will accept 
 thee as my mother.
 
 1409 1423 lox - 67 
 
 CR. May I arrive at this happiness ; this, my 
 son, is what I am aiming at. 
 
 ION. Is this basket empty, or hides it any 1410 
 contents ? 
 
 CR. Yes, thy garments, in which I formerly 
 exposed thee. 
 
 ION. And wilt thou tell the name of them, 
 before thou seest them ? 
 
 CR. Yes, and if I tell thee not, I will be bound 1 
 to die. 
 
 ION. Speak; since thy boldness has about it 
 something passing strange. 
 
 CR. Look for the work which I wove when I was 1415 
 a girl in days gone by. 
 
 ION. What sort of work ? Many are the works 
 woven by maidens. 
 
 CR. Not a perfect piece of work, but such 
 as a first attempt at the loom might be. 
 
 ION. What pattern has it ? thou must not try to 
 catch me in this way. 2 
 
 CR. A Gorgon in the central tissue of the robe. 
 
 ION. Jupiter, what destiny is this that pursues 1420 
 me to the end ? 3 
 
 CR. And it is bordered with snakes after the 
 manner of the aegis. 
 
 ION. See here ! this is the piece of work : sure 
 as an oracle we find it. 4 
 
 CR. work 5 of my maidenhood found at last. 
 
 1. Lit. I put myself under (an engagement). 
 
 2. Lit. That thou mayst not catch me in this way. 
 
 3. 'E K , to the end. 
 
 4. I have ventured to give a new sense to the words, reading 
 
 them 0e'<r(a0' us 6vpi<TKOfi.ev. 
 
 5. The accusative (io-roV) after <S is rare in Greek, though 
 common after o in Latin.
 
 68 EURIPIDES 1424 1439 
 
 ION. Is there anything besides this ? or art thou 
 lucky in guessing at this alone ? 
 
 1425 CR. An antique thing, some snakes with jaws all 
 gold. 1 
 
 ION. The gift of Minerva, who bids Athenians 
 deck their children with these ornaments ?" 2 
 
 CR. Yes, in imitation 3 of what she did to Erich- 
 thonius of olden time. 
 
 ION. Do what, make what use, tell me, of the 
 golden ornament ? 
 
 CR. As a necklace, for a new-born child to wear, 
 my son. 
 
 1430 ION. Here are the snakes* inside. But I want 
 to know what the third thing is. 
 
 CR. I put round thy head at the time a chaplet 
 of the olive, which Minerva first planted on 5 the 
 rock : which, if it still exists, never leaves its green- 
 ness, but flourishes as being produced from the 
 original olive. 
 
 1435 ION. mother most dear to me, with gladness 
 beholding thee I kiss 9 thy glad cheeks. 
 
 CR. my son, thou light of joy more precious 
 to thy mother than the light o/the sun (for the god 
 will pardon this word), I- hold thee in my arms, 7 
 a discovery beyond my hopes, who I thought was 
 
 1. The reading in the text ought to give this sense, but gives 
 none. Toup and Hermann read WyXP" 1 yevw, which is good 
 enough. After all, is not the true reading likely to be^ <?pa<coj/res 
 ap-^aiov TI Trdy\pvaoi y' evi Yes, an antique thing is in it, some 
 snakes all of gold ? The hyperbaton involves no difficulty. 
 
 2. Lit. Who bids rear children in it. See 24 seqq. 
 
 3. Lit. Imitations. 
 
 4. The want of inflection in the English pronoun makes it 
 necessary to repeat the substantive. In Greek the o'ioe is sufficient 
 as necessarily referring to dpdKovres. 
 
 5. Lit. Introduced to. 
 
 6. Lit. I have flung myself upon. 
 
 7. ~L\i. Hands.
 
 1440 
 
 dwelling beneath the earth in the depth with the 1440 
 shades and Proserpine. 
 
 ION. But, my dear mother, in thy arms I 
 seem as he that is dead and yet is not dead. 
 
 CR. thou expanse of the bright sky, what 
 words shall I utter, shall I cry aloud? 1 Whence 
 comes it that this unlooked-for delight has happened 1445 
 to me ? Whence comes it that I have gotten this joy ? 
 
 ION. To me it would at one time have seemed 
 likely that anything in the world 2 would happen 
 sooner than this, that I am thy son. 
 
 CR. I still tremble with fear. 
 
 ION. That thou hast me not, now that thou hast 1450 
 me? 
 
 CR. So it seems, for far away my hopes had I 
 cast. lady, 3 from whom, from whom didst thou 
 receive my babe into thy arms ? By what hand came 
 he to the house of Loxias ? 
 
 ION. This was the work of the god : but as to the 1455 
 remainder of our destinies may we be as fortunate 
 as the former part of them was unfortunate. 
 
 CR. Not without tears wast thou born, 4 my child, 
 and with sighs wast thou parted from thy mother's 
 arms : but now, against thy cheek, I freely breathe, 
 having found a joy most blissful. 1460 
 
 ION. What thou sayest is true of thee and me 
 alike. 5 
 
 CR. I am no longer childless nor without 
 offspring : our house is established, and the land has 
 
 1. BoaVto Not future, which would be /Joa'o-o/uai, but (as Paley 
 observes) deliberative subjunctive. 
 
 2. Lit. It would have presented itself that all things. 
 
 3. The Pythia. 
 
 4. 'EicXoxeuei Histor. pres. 
 
 5. Lit. Thou speakest of my matter and thine jointly.
 
 70 EURIPIDES 1464 1482 
 
 a prince : and Erechtheus flourishes again in youthful 
 1465 vigour, and the earth-born race no more looks on 
 darkness, but is again enlightened by the rays of the 
 sun. 1 
 
 ION. My mother, let my father, I pray, 2 come 
 and share the gladness which I have caused thee. 
 
 CR. My child, my child, what t's'f thou sayest ? 
 How, how am I put to shame. 
 1470 ION. How saidst thou ? 
 
 CR. Thou wast born to another, 3 to another. 
 
 ION. Ah me ! thy maidenhood brought me forth 
 a spurious son ? 
 
 CR. Not celebrated by torches nor by dances did 
 my union, bring thee 4 forth, my son. 
 
 1475 I N - Alas ! I was begotten, my mother, of some 
 ignoble father. 5 
 
 CR. Bear witness the slayer of the Gorgon 
 
 ION. What is that 6 thou saidst ? 
 
 CR. Who amid 7 my native rocks dwells on the 
 olive-planted hill. 
 
 1480 ION. This that thou tellest me, this is an attempt 
 to deceive me and no truth. 8 
 
 CR. At the rock haunted by nightingales with 
 Phoebus 
 
 ION. What sayest thou of Phcebus ? 
 
 1. Lit. Recovers sight by the torches of the sun. The metaphor 
 is expressive of joy and gladness, a sense which the word <u> 
 sometimes actually obtains. 
 
 2. Mot the ethical dative. 
 
 8. Lit. From some other quarter. 
 
 4. Lit. Thy head. 
 
 5. Lit. ^Base-born from some quarter. 
 
 6. Lit. This. 
 
 7. Lit. At. 
 
 8. Lit. Crafty and not true. When words are doubled in Greek, 
 as Xcyeis \eyeiv, it will be sometimes necessary, in consequence 
 partly of the different order of the words, to double some other words 
 in a translation.
 
 1483 
 
 CR. Was I united in stealthy love. 
 
 ION. Say on ; for thou art about to tell me some- 
 what acceptable and fortunate to hear. 
 
 CR. And at the tenth revolution of the month, I 1485 
 brought thee forth, a stealthy child, to Phoebus. 
 
 ION. thou that hast spoken words of greatest 
 joy, if thou speakest words of truth. 
 
 CR. And I put on thee to cover thee 1 these 
 swaddling-clothes the work of thy mother's maiden- 
 hood, 2 the clumsy attempts 8 of my shuttle. And 1490 
 I gave thee not a mother's nurture with milk, nor with 
 the breast, nor bathings with my hands, but in 
 solitary cavern, for beaks of birds a prey 4 and feast, 
 wast thou exposed to die 5 1495 
 
 ION. my mother that couldst endure to commit 
 so terrible a deed. 
 
 CR. By fear constrained I cast away thy life, my 
 child ; 'twas against my will I slew 6 thee 
 
 ION. And thou wast about to die by my hand in 1500 
 an impious way. 
 
 CR. Ah ! Ah ! terrible was our fate then, and 
 terrible are these last events too : we are tossed to 
 and fro by misfortunes and back again by good 
 fortunes, and the gale 7 is ever shifting. Be it 1505 
 constant at last : enough are the troubles of the past ; 
 but now there has sprung up a fair wind to bear us 
 forth out of our troubles, my son. 
 
 CHO. Let none of men e'er think that aught is 
 beyond hope, seeing what is happening now. 
 
 1. Lit. Cast about thee. 
 
 2. Lit. Maiden swaddling-clothes of thy mother. 
 
 3. Lit. Blunders. See 1417. 
 
 4. Lit. A slaughter. 
 
 5. Lit. For Hades. 
 
 6. On the aorist see Paley's note, and compare 1293. 
 
 7. Viz. Of fortune.
 
 ?2 EURIPIDES 1510 1530 
 
 1510 ION. Fortune that hast in turn caused 
 myriads of mortals ere this both to be unfortunate and 
 to be prosperous again, to what a point in life's 
 career have I arrived in so nearly having killed 
 a mother, 1 and in so nearly having suffered an unde- 
 
 1515 served death myself. Is it possible for the sun's 
 bright course to witness 2 all these freaks of thine day 
 by day? Well then, I have discovered thee, my 
 mother, a joyful discovery for me, and such an 3 origin 
 in my judgment, 4 is not at all to be despised. But 
 the rest I wish to say to thee alone. Come hither ; 
 for I would whisper 5 my words into thine ear, and 
 
 1520 cast the veil of secrecy over the facts. Be thou sure, 
 my mother, that thou didst not first fall into the 
 unfortunate error to which maidens are liable with 
 regard to secret attachments, and then art laying the 
 blame to the god, and art endeavouring to avoid the 
 
 1525 disgrace to me by saying that thou borest me to 
 Phoebus, when thou borest me by no god at all. 8 
 
 CR. By Minerva the Victorious, 7 who of old 
 aided Jove in battle against the giants with her car, 
 'tis none of mortals that is father to thee, my son, but 
 the same king Loxias that reared thee up. 
 
 1530 ION. How then was it that he gave his son to 
 
 1. I fear that the exact meaning of this passage has not yet been 
 thoroughly explained. I have followed Paley. 
 
 2. Lit. Learn. This passage again has not been quite satis- 
 factorily cleared up. 
 
 3. Lit. This. 
 
 4. 'Qs fiftiv, 'itfv being the ethical dative. 
 
 5. Lit. Speak. 
 
 G. Lit. See thou, mother, lest having tripped what irregularities 
 arise amongst maidens vnih regard to secret nuptials, thou afterwards 
 luyest the blame to the god, and endeavouring to Jlij from my dis- 
 graceful, sayest thou borest me to Phoelus, having lorne me not from 
 a god. On the indicative after M^J see Paley's note. Noo-ji/toTa is a 
 cogn. ace. after o-^aXeicrct. 
 
 7. Comp. 457, which identifies Nfcnj with 'AflaW.
 
 ION - 73 
 
 another father, and declares that I was born son of 
 Xuthus ? J 
 
 CR. That thou wast so born, he says not, but 
 though begotten of him, to Xuthus he gives thee : for 
 a friend may give a friend his own son to be master of ' 
 his house. 2 
 
 ION. Whether the god is true, or divines falsely, 1535 
 is a question, my mother, which not without reason 
 disturbs my mind, 
 
 CR. Hear now therefore the thoughts which 
 have occurred to me, my son. It is to benefit thee, 
 that 3 Loxias settles thee in a noble family : but, if 
 thou hadst been called the god's, thou wouldst never 
 have had a home entitling thee to full rights of citizen- 1540 
 ship, 4 nor the name of any father. For how couldst 
 thou, when I myself wished to conceal my loves, 
 and was for secretly killing thee 5 ? And it is to serve 
 thee that 3 he assigns thee to another father. 
 
 ION. I am following them up by no means 
 inattentively : 8 but I will go into the temple and enquire 1545 
 of Phoebus whether I am the son of a mortal sire or 
 of Loxias. Ha ! Who of the gods appears from the 
 house fragrant with incense and shows a coun- 
 tenance bright with the rays of the sun ? 7 Let us fly, 
 
 1. Lit. That I have been produced from Xuthus a son. 
 
 2. i. e. His heir. 
 
 3. Lit. Benefiting thee. Serving thee. 
 
 4. Lit. Of whole inheritance. 
 
 5. Paley's notes on this passage are well worth reading, though 
 no explanation I have seen is quite satisfactory. O5 appears to me to 
 be the adverb rather than the pronoun where = in a ease in which, 
 when. 
 
 6. Lit. I am coming after them (i.e. thy tJwughts, as expressed 
 ly thee) not so inattentively. On this meaning of <au\ws, see 
 Paley's note. 
 
 7. Lit. Who of the gods, coming into view from the house 
 receiving incense, shows a countenance opposite the sun? The 
 transverse rays of the rising sun (the Attic stage facing N.N.W.) 
 imparted brightness to the countenance of the statues or persons of 
 the gods, as seen by the audience in the theatre. Paley.
 
 74 EURIPIDES 1549 1571 
 
 1550 my mother, lest we should look upon the gods, if it 
 is not meet 1 that we should look upon them at the 
 present time. 1 
 
 MIXERVA. Fly not : for / am not an enemy that 
 
 *ye should fly from me, but friendly to you both 
 
 in Athens and here. For it is I, Pallas, that am 
 
 come, the deity giving a name to thy land, having in 
 
 1555 haste sped hither from Apollo, who thought not fit to 
 present himself to you, 2 lest reproaches for the past 
 should interrupt, 3 but he sends me to speak to you the 
 message that this lady bore thee by Apollo 
 for thy father, and he gives thee to whom he gave 
 thee, not as having begotten thee, but that he 
 
 1560 (Xuthus) may take thee into a family of most noble 
 birth. And when this purpose 4 was disclosed and re- 
 vealed to him (Xuthus), fearing that thou wouldst be 
 slain by the plots of thy mother, and that she icould be 
 slain by thee, he rescued you both by plans which he 
 devised. And king Apollo intended still to remain 
 
 1565 silent about these things and 5 to make this lady 
 known to thee as thy mother in Athens, and' to her 
 that thou wast born 6 of her and Phcebus as thy sire. 
 But, that I may complete the business for the god, 
 and fully explain 7 his divine will, for the sake of 
 which I yoked my chariot, listen to me. Creusa, take 
 
 1570 this youth and go to the Cecropian land, and seat him 
 on the royal throne : for he, being born of the line of 
 
 1. Lit. It is not the season. 
 
 2. Lit. To come into your sight. 
 
 3. Lit. Should intervene. 
 
 4. Lit. Thing. The purpose was of course the intention to give 
 him to Xuthus for a son. 
 
 5. Lit. Having throughout teen silent about them. 
 
 6. Lit. Thee, that thou wast born. 
 
 7. Jlepaivio, the verb common to the two members of the sentence, 
 hardly admits of one translation suitable to both objects.
 
 15711594 ION. 75 
 
 Erechtheus, has a right to rule my land. And he shall 
 be famous throughout Hellas : for his sons, four born 
 from one root, shall give their names to the land, and 1575 
 to the people of the country arranged by tribes who 
 inhabit my rock. Teleon shall be the first: then 
 next the Hopletes, and the Argades, and the 
 ^gicores, named from my -^Egis, shall possess one 
 tribe each. 1 And the sons born in turn to them in 1580 
 course of time decreed shall occupy the island towns 
 of the Cyclades, and the continent along the coast, 2 
 which will give 3 strength to my country ; and they 
 shall inhabit the plains of two continents, the land of 
 Asia and of Europe, on opposite sides of the strait: 4 1585 
 and named lonians for the name's sake of this youth, 
 they shall have renown. But to Xuthus and thee 
 shall be born 5 a common offspring, Dorus, from whom 8 
 the Dorian state shall arise, and be celebrated in 
 song ; and the second, Achasus, in the land of Pelops/ 
 who shall be lord of the sea-coast near Khium, and 1590 
 the people shall be distinguished by being called after 
 his name. 8 And well has Apollo brought all to pass. 
 In the first place, he makes thy delivery free from 
 sickness, so that thy friends knew it not : and when 
 
 1. Pallas' meaning seems to be, that the four original tribes of 
 Attica should get their names, Teleontes, Hopletes, Ergades,' J3gicores, 
 from Ion's four sons, Teleon, Hoples, Argades and J^lgicoreus (aiyt's, 
 Ko'ptj). See Paley's note. 
 
 2. Alluding to the Ionian colonies in Asia Minor. 
 
 3. Lit. Gives. 
 
 4. Viz. The Hellespont. 
 
 5. Lit. Is born. 
 
 6. Lit. Wlience. 
 
 7. The Peloponnesus. 
 
 8. If the reading of this line is correct, it is by no means easy to see 
 the construction of the words. The least objectionable way of taking 
 them appears to me Xads eTrto-tj/iai/fbiaeTCU (lutr-re) eTTtoi/v/uos 
 
 oi/o/ia Keivov. 

 
 76 ETTKIPIDES J 595 1614 
 
 1595 thou barest 1 this thy son, and hadst exposed him 2 in 
 swaddling-clothes, he requests Mercury to snatch np 
 the babe in his arms and convey him hither, and he 
 reared him and suffered him not to die. 3 Now there- 
 fore keep it secret that this youth is thy son, that 
 
 1 600 Xuthus may be pleased with the belief that he is his, 4 
 and that thou, lady, on thy part mayst enjoy thy 
 own blessings. 5 And now fare ye well : for, after this 
 rest from your troubles, I announce to you a happy 
 destiny. 
 
 ION. Pallas daughter of Jove supreme, I will 
 
 1605 accept thy words with no want of faith : for I believe 
 that I am born of Loxias/br my father and of this lady : 
 and even before this was not incredible to me. 
 
 CR. Hear me then. I praise Phoebus though I 
 praised him not before, because he restores to me the 
 son whom he once neglected. And of pleasant 
 aspect to me are these gates and this oracle of the 
 
 1610 god, though before they were hateful. And now I 
 am pleased to linger with my hand upon the knocker 
 and to seek admission at the gates. 6 
 
 MIN. I commend 7 thee, because thou art changed 
 and praisest the god : the aid of the gods was ever 
 wont to be long in coming, 'tis true, 8 but at last 'tis 
 mighty. 9 
 
 CR. My son, let us go home. 
 
 Mm. Go ye, and I will bring you on your way. 
 
 1. Lit. Proceededst to leai imperf. 
 
 2. KdirtQov = not Kai eTretiov, but icai &-rre&ov. 
 
 3. IAi Breathe out Jiis life. 
 
 1. Lit. That his belief may pleasingly possess Xuthns. 
 
 5. Lit. Mayst go having the good things of thyself. 
 
 6. Lit. We gladly hang as to hands from the knocker and speak 
 the gates. 
 
 7. Lit See note on 1269. 
 
 8. Lit. Somehow. 
 
 9. Lit. Not weak.
 
 1615 1620 EURIPIDES 77 
 
 ION. A noble escort have we. 1 1615 
 
 CR. Yes, and one that loves the city. 
 
 MIN. And take thy place on the ancient throne. 
 
 ION. A noble possession is it for me. 2 
 
 CHO. Farewell, Apollo, son of Jove and Latona. 
 He whose house is vexed with calamities, must 
 reverence the gods and be of good courage : for at 
 last the good obtain their due, but the wicked shall 1620 
 never prosper such as their nature is, such is their 
 lot. 5 
 
 1. Lit. The guardian of our way is a worthy one at least. 
 
 2. Lit. The possession is a worthy one for me. 
 
 3. Paley explains the last few words extremely well W 
 01 eitri TIJV <t>u<riv, OVTUI /cat /ca/cais dei irpa^oucrt. 
 
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