Ion (1346-1408)

Is it by his command thou keepest these relics, or why?

Loxias put in my heart that day—

What purpose? Oh! speak, finish thy story.

To preserve what I had found until the present time.

What weal or woe doth this import to me?

Herein were laid the swaddling-clothes in which thou wert enwrapped.

These relics thou art producing may help me to find my mother.

Yes, for now the deity so wills it, though not before.

Hail! thou day of visions blest to me!

Take then the relics and seek thy mother diligently.

[*]And when thou hast traversed Asia and the bounds of Europe,

thou wilt learn this for thyself; for the god’s sake I reared thee, my child, and now to thee do I entrust these relics, which he willed that I should take

into my safe keeping, without being bidden; why he willed it I cannot tell thee. For no living soul wist that I had them in my possession, nor yet their hiding-place. And now farewell! as a mother might her child, so I greet thee. The starting-point of thy inquiry for thy mother must be this;

first, was it a Delphian maid that gave birth to thee, and exposed thee in this temple; next, was it a daughter of Hellas at all? That is all that I and Phoebus, who shares in thy lot, can do for thee. [Exit Pythian Priestess.

Ah me! the tears stream from my eyes

when I think of the day my mother bore me, as the fruit of her secret love, only to smuggle her babe away privily, without suckling it; nameless I led a servant’s life in the courts of the god. His service truly was kindly, yet was my fortune

heavy; for just when I ought to have lain softly in a mother’s arms, tasting somewhat of the joys of life, was I deprived of a fond mother’s fostering care. Nor less is she a prey to sorrow that bare me, seeing she hath suffered the self-same pang in losing all the joy a son might bring.

Now will I take and bear this ark unto the god as an offering, that herein I may discover naught that I would rather not. For if haply my mother proves to be some slave-girl, ’twere worse to find her out than let her rest in silence. O! Phoebus, to thy temple do I dedicate this ark.

Yet why? this is to war against the god’s intention, who saved these tokens of my mother for my sake. I must undo the lid and bear the worst. For that which fate ordains, I may ne’er o’erstep. O! hallowed wreaths and fastenings,

that have kept so safe these relics dear to me; why, ah! why were ye hidden from me? Behold the covering of this rounded ark! No signs of age are here, owing to some miracle; decay hath not touched these chaplets; and yet ’tis long enough since these were stored away.

Ha! what unlooked-for sight is here?

Peace, woman! now, as erst, thou art my enemy.

Silence is not for me. Bid me not be still; for lo! I see the ark wherein I did expose thee, my child, in days gone by, whilst yet a tender babe in the cavern of

Cecrops, ’neath the rocky roof of Macrae. So now will I leave this altar, though death await me.

Seize her; she is mad, springing thus from the shelter of the carved altar. Bind her arms.

Kill! spare not! for I to thee will cleave,

and to this ark, and all that is within it.

Is not this monstrous? here am I laid claim to on a specious pretext.

Nay, nay, but as a friend art thou by friends now found.

I a friend of thine! and wouldst thou, then, have slain me privily?