Ion Why, lady, art thou thus cast down, past all finding out?
Creusa ’Tis naught; I have shot my bolt; for what remains, I say no more, nor seek thou further to inquire.
Ion Who art thou and whence? who is the father that begat thee? by what name are we to call thee?
Creusa Creusa is my name, the daughter of Erechtheus I; my native land is Athens.
Ion A glorious city thine, lady, a noble line of ancestry! with what reverence I behold thee!
Creusa Thus far, no further goes my luck, good sir.
Ion Pray, is the current legend true—
Creusa What is thy question? I fain would learn.
Ion Was thy father’s grandsire really sprung from Earth?
Creusa Yes, Erichthonius was; but my high birth avails me not
Ion Is it true Athena reared him from the ground?
Creusa Aye, and into maidens’ hands, though not his mother’s—
Ion Consigned him, did she? as ’tis wont to be set forth in painting.
Creusa Yes, to the daughters of Cecrops, to keep him safe unseen.
Ion I have heard the maidens opened the ark wherein the goddess laid him.
Creusa And so they died, dabbling with their blood the rocky cliff.
Ion Even so. But what of this next story? Is it true or groundless?
Creusa What is thy question? Ask on, I have no calls upon my leisure.
Ion Did thy sire Erechtheus offer thy sisters as a sacrifice?
Creusa For his country’s sake he did endure to slay the maids as victims.
Ion And how didst thou, alone of all thy sisters, escape?
Creusa I was still a tender babe in my mother’s arms.
Ion Did the earth really open its mouth and swallow thy father?
Creusa The sea-god smote and slew him with his trident.
Ion Is there a spot there called Macrae?
Creusa Why ask that? what memories thou recallest!
Ion Doth the Pythian god with his flashing fire do honour to the place?
Creusa Honour, yes! Honour, indeed! would I had never seen the spot!
Ion How now? dost thou abhor that which the god holds dear?
Creusa No, no; but I and that cave are witnesses of a deed of shame.
Ion Lady, who is the Athenian lord that calls thee wife?
Creusa No citizen of Athens, but a stranger from another land.
Ion Who is he? he must have been one of noble birth.
Creusa Xuthus, son of Aeolus, sprung from Zeus.
Ion And how did he, a stranger, win thee a native born?
Creusa Hard by Athens lies a neighbouring township, Euboea.
Ion With a bounding line of waters in between, so I have heard.
Creusa This did he sack, making common cause with Cecrops’ sons.
Ion Coming as an ally, maybe; he won thy hand for this?
Creusa Yes, this was his dower of battle, the prize of his prowess.
Ion Art thou come to the oracle alone, or with thy lord?
Creusa With him. But he is now visiting the cavern of Trophonius.
Ion As a spectator merely, or to consult the oracle?
Creusa ’Tis his wish to hear the self-same answer from Trophonius and Phoebus too.
Ion Is it to seek earth’s produce or fruit of offspring that ye come?
Creusa We are childless, though wedded these many years.
Ion Hast thou never been a mother? art thou wholly childless?
Creusa Phoebus knows whether I am childless.
Ion Unhappy wife! how this doth mar thy fortune else so happy!
Creusa But who art thou? how blest I count thy mother!
Ion Lady, I am called the servant of Apollo, and so I am.
Creusa An offering of thy city, or sold to him by some master?
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