Old Ser. And me. But declare more clearly how this oracle is finding its fulfilment, and say who is the child.
Cho. Whomso thy husband first should meet as he issued from the shrine, him the god gave him for his son.
Cre. Ah me! my fate, it seems, has doomed me to a childless life, and all forlorn am I to dwell in my halls, without an heir.
Old Ser. To whom did the oracle refer? whom did our poor lady's husband meet? how and where did he see him?
Cho. Dear mistress mine, dost know that youth that was sweeping yonder shrine? He is that son.
Cre. 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 Ser. Dost know the name his father gave to him, or is that left as yet unsettled[1] and unsaid?
Cho. He called him Ion, because he was the first to cross his path.
Old Ser. Who is his mother?
Cho. 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 Ser. 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
- ↑ Nauck reads ἀκήρυκτον for MSS. ἀκύρωτον.
