By Euripides
TRANSLATED BY H. D.
HERMES, the god.
ION, a young priest in the temple of Phoibos Apollo.
KREOUSA, queen of Athens.
AN OLD MAN.
ATHENÉ, the goddess.
Xounios, prince regent.
THE PYTHIAN PRIESTESS.
A SERVANT.
CHOROS, the queen's waiting-women.
PLACE: Delphi.
TIME: Dawn.
Hermes. The heaven is held aloft by a giant with
arms of brass,
Atlas supports the house of the gods and the house-roof,
my mother's father; my mother is Maia, a goddess;
Hermes speaks, legate of the first of the gods, Zeus.
I have come to Delphi:
at the centre of earth:
where Pholbos chants to men:
priests interpret present and predict future events:
there is a town, noted throughout Hellas:
named Athens, for Pallas of the gold-lance:
there, Pholbos loved Kreousa:
daughter of Erekhtheus, on the Acropolis:
masters of Atthis call the place Makra:
that Athenian cliff, great-rocks:
the god kept her father ignorant:
she bore her secret, month by month:
in secret, she brought forth:
she took the infant to the grot:
her bride-chamber:
she left it, exposed as to death:
in the deep basket:
attribute of Erckhtheus, son of earth:
and his descendants:
along with the serpent-necklace:
gift to each true-born Athenian infant:
(because of Athené's first gift:
actual serpents to protect Erekhtheus:
whom daughters of Agraulos nursed):
so a Virgin decked her son for death:
but Helios, my brother, spoke:
go to the earth-born people of Athens:
you know the city of Pallas, you shall take:
out of a hollow rock, a new-born infant:
carry him, his garments and basket:
to Delphi, my prophetic seat:
set him before the entrance of my house:
as to the rest, I will see to it:
for I tell you alone:
this is my son:
I obeyed my brother, Loxias:
I found the reed-basket:
I left the child there, on these steps:
I opened the basket, revealed the contents:
dawn broke:
the prophetess came out:
she saw the child, started back:
what girl (she thought) has left:
a child of pleasure, on these steps:
she was about to cast it out:
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