410BC
ION by Euripides translated by Robert Potter CHARACTERS IN THE PLAYMERCURY
ION
CREUSA,daughter of Erechtheus XUTHUS,husband of CREUSATUTOR
ATTENDANT
PRIESTESS OF APOLLO
MINERVA
CHORUS OF HANDMAIDENS OF CREUSA
Attendants of the Temple of Apollo ION
(SCENE:-Before the Temple of Apollo at Delphi.The sun is about to rise.MERCURY enters.)
MERCURY
Atlas,that on his brazen shoulders rolls Yon heaven,the ancient mansion of the gods,Was by a goddess sire to Maia;she To supreme Jove bore me,and call'd me Hermes;Attendant on the king,his high behests I execute.To Delphi am I come,This land where Phoebus from his central throne Utters to mortals his high strain,declaring The present and the future;this is the cause;Greece hath a city of distinguish'd glory,Which from the goddess of the golden lance Received its name;Erechtheus was its king;His daughter,call'd Creusa,to the embrace Of nuptial love Apollo strain'd perforce,Where northward points the rock beneath the heights Crown'd with the Athenian citadel of Pallas,Call'd Macrai by the lords of Attica.
Her growing burden,to her sire unknown (Such was the pleasure of the god),she bore,Till in her secret chamber to a son The rolling months gave birth:to the same cave,Where by the enamour'd god she was compress'd,Creusa bore the infant:there for death Exposed him in a well-compacted ark Of circular form,observant of the customs Drawn from her great progenitors,and chief From Erichthonius,who from the Attic earth Deriv'd his origin:to him as guards Minerva gave two dragons,and in charge Consign'd him to the daughters of Aglauros:
This rite to the Erechthidae hence remains,Mid serpents wreathed in ductile gold to nurse Their children.What of ornament she had She hung around her son,and left him thus To perish.But to me his earnest prayer Phoebus applied,"To the high-lineaged sons Of glorious Athens go,my brother;well Thou know'st the city of Pallas;from the cave Deep in the hollow rock a new-born babe,Laid as he is,and all his vestments with him;Bring to thy brother to my shrine,and place At the entrance of my temple;of the rest (For,know,the child is mine)I will take care."To gratify my brother thence I bore The osier-woven ark,and placed the boy Here at the temple's base,the wreathed lid Uncovering,that the infant might be seen.