Ion (676-747)

Aged retainer of my father Erechtheus while yet he lived and saw the light of day, mount to the god’s prophetic shrine that thou mayst share my gladness, if haply Loxias, great king, vouchsafe an answer touching my hopes of offspring;

for sweet it is to share with friends prosperity, and sweet likewise to see a friendly face if any ill betide,—which God forbid! As thou of yore didst tend my sire, so now, thy mistress though I am, I take his place in tending thee.

Daughter, thy manners bear good witness still to thy noble lineage; thou hast never brought shame upon those ancestors of thine, the children of the soil. A hand, I prithee, to the shrine! a hand to lean upon!’Tis a steep path thither, truly;

but lend thy aid to guide my steps and make me young again.

Come follow then, and look where thou art treading.

Behold! though my steps loiter, my thoughts take wings.

Lean on thy staff as thou climbest this winding path.

Even this staff is a blind guide when I myself can scarcely see.

True, but do not yield through fatigue.

Never willingly, but I am not master of that which is mine no more.

Maidens mine, my trusty servants at the loom and web, declare to me how my lord hath fared as touching the question of offspring which brought us hither: