As a spectator merely, or to consult the oracle?Creusa’Tis his wish to hear the self-same answer from Trophonius and Phoebus too.IonIs it to seek earth’s produce or fruit of offspring that ye come?CreusaWe are childless, though wedded these many years.IonHast thou never been a mother? art thou wholly childless?CreusaPhoebus knows whether I am childless. IonUnhappy wife! how this doth mar thy fortune else so happy!CreusaBut who art thou? how blest I count thy mother!Ion Lady, I am called the servant of Apollo, and so I am.CreusaAn offering of thy city, or sold to him by some master?IonNaught know I but this, that I am called the slave of Loxias.CreusaThen do i in my turn pity thee, sir stranger.IonBecause I know not her that bare me, or him that begat me.CreusaIs thy home here in the temple, or hast thou a house to dwell in?IonThe god’s whole temple is my house, wherever sleep o’ertakes me.CreusaWas it as a child or young man that thou earnest to the temple?IonThose who seem to know the truth, say I was but a babe.CreusaWhat Delphian maid, then, weaned thee?IonI never knew a mother’s breast. But she who brought me up—CreusaWho was she, unhappy youth? I see thy sufferings in my own.IonThe priestess of Phoebus; I look oh her as my mother.CreusaUntil thou earnest unto man’s estate, what nurture hadst thou?IonThe altar fed me, and the bounty of each casual guest.CreusaWoe is thy mother, then, whoe’er she was!IonMaybe my birth was some poor woman’s wrong.CreusaHast thou any store, for thy dress is costly enough?IonThe god I serve gives me these robes to wear.CreusaWert thou never eager to inquire into thy birth?IonAh! yes, lady! but I have no clue at all to guide me.CreusaAlas! I know another woman who hath suffered as thy mother did.