Ion. How so, if she was wedded to a god?
Cre. The babe she bare she did expose.
Ion. Where is the child who was thus cast forth? is he yet alive?
Cre. No man knoweth. That is the very thing I would ask the oracle.
Ion. But if he be no more, how did he perish?
Cre. She supposes that beasts devoured the hapless babe.
Ion. What proof led her to form this opinion?
Cre. She came to the place where she exposed him, but found him no longer there.
Ion. Were any drops of blood upon the path?
Cre. None, she says; and yet she ranged the ground to and fro.
Ion. How long is it since the babe was destroyed?
Cre. Thy age and his would measure out the self-same span, were he alive.
Ion. Hath she given birth to no other child since then?
Cre. The god doth wrong her, and wretched is she in having no child.
Ion. But what if Phœbus privily removed her child, and is rearing it?
Cre. Then is he acting unfairly[1] in keeping to himself alone a joy he ought to share.
Ion. Ah me! this misfortune sounds so like my own.
Cre. Thee too, fair sir, thy poor mother misses, I am sure.
Ion. Oh! call me not back to piteous thoughts I had forgotten.
Cre. I am dumb; proceed with that which touches my inquiry.
Ion. Dost know the one weak point in this thy story?
- ↑ Paley's explanation is, "though he rejoices in doing justice publicly, (viz. by his oracles,) he does not in his private actions."
