Ion Thus wilt thou accomplish naught, for shame is a goddess slow to act.
Creusa A friend of mine asserts that Phoebus lay with her.
Ion Phoebus with a mortal woman? Stranger lady, say not so.
Creusa Yea, and she bare the god a child without her father’s knowledge.
Ion It cannot be; some man did wrong her, and she is ashamed of it.
Creusa This she denies herself; and she hath suffered further woe.
Ion How so, if she was wedded to a god?
Creusa The babe she bare she did expose.
Ion Where is the child who was thus cast forth? is he yet alive?
Creusa No man knoweth. That is the very thing I would ask the oracle.
Ion But if he be no more, how did he perish?
Creusa She supposes that beasts devoured the hapless babe.
Ion What proof led her to form this opinion?
Creusa She came to the place where she exposed him, but found him no longer there.
Ion Were any drops of blood upon the path?
Creusa None, she says; and yet she ranged the ground to and fro.
Ion How long is it since the babe was destroyed?
Creusa Thy age and his would measure out the self-same span, were he alive.
Ion Hath she given birth to no other child since then?
Creusa The god doth wrong her, and wretched is she in having no child.
Ion But what if Phoebus privily removed her child, and is rearing it?
Creusa Then is he acting unfairly in keeping to himself alone a joy he ought to share.
Ion Ah me! this misfortune sounds so like my own.
Creusa Thee too, fair sir, thy poor mother misses, I am sure.
Ion Oh! call me not back to piteous thoughts I had forgotten.
Creusa I am dumb; proceed with that which touches my inquiry.
Ion Dost know the one weak point in this thy story?
Creusa ’Tis all weak in that poor lady’s case.
Ion How should the god declare that which he wishes hidden?
Creusa He must, if here upon the tripod he sits for all Hellas to seek to.
Ion He is ashamed of the deed; do not question him.
Creusa Aye, but his victim has her sorrows too.
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