Herein hast thou declared a further evil crowning all, a grief for me to mourn. Old Servant The child of whom thou speakest—is he some woman’s destined babe, or did the god declare the fate of one already born? Chorus A youth already born and grown to man’s estate doth Phoebus give to him; for I was there myself. Creusa What sayest thou? nor tongue nor lip should speak the word thou tellest me. Old Servant And me. But declare more clearly how this oracle is finding its fulfilment, and say who is the child. Chorus Whomso thy husband first should meet as he issued from the shrine, him the god gave him for his son. Creusa Ah me! my fate, it seems, has doomed me to a childless life, and all forlorn am I to dwell in ray halls, without an heir. Old Servant To whom did the oracle refer? whom did our poor lady’s husband meet? how and where did he see him? Chorus Dear mistress mine, dost know that youth that was sweeping yonder shrine? He is that son. Creusa Oh! for wings to cleave the liquid air beyond the land of Hellas , away to the western stars, so keen the anguish of my soul, my friends! Old Servant Dost know the name his father gave to him, or is that left as yet unsettled and unsaid? Chorus He called him Ion, because he was the first to cross his path. Old Servant Who is his mother? Chorus That I cannot say. But,—to tell thee all I know, old sir,— her lord is gone, with furtive step, into the hallowed tent, there to offer on this child’s behalf such gifts and victims as are offered for a birth, and with his new-found son to celebrate the feast. Old Servant Mistress mine, we are betrayed by thy husband, fellow-sufferers thou and I; ’tis a deep-laid plot to outrage us and drive us from Erechtheus’ halls. And this I say not from any hatred of thy lord but because I bear thee more love than him; for he, after coming as a stranger to thy city and thy home, and wedding thee, and of thy heritage taking full possession, has been detected in a secret marriage with another woman, by whom he hath children. His secret will I now disclose; when he found thee barren, he was not content to share with thee thy hard lot, but took to himself a slave to be his stealthy paramour and thus begat a son, whom he sent abroad, giving him to some Delphian maid to nurse; and, to escape detection, the child was dedicated to the god and reared in his temple. But when he heard his boy was grown to manhood, he persuaded thee to come hither to inquire about thy childless state. And after this, ’twas not the god that lied, but thy husband, who long had been rearing the child, and he it was that wove this tissue of falsehood, intending, if he were detected, to refer it to the god, whereas if he escaped exposure, to repel all odium, he meant to vest the sovereignty in this son of his.