Ion. As a spectator merely, or to consult the oracle?
Cre. 'Tis his wish to hear the self-same answer from Trophonius and Phœbus too.
Ion. Is it to seek earth's produce or fruit of offspring that ye come?
Cre. We are childless, though wedded these many years.
Ion. Hast thou never been a mother? art thou wholly childless?
Cre. Phœbus knows whether I am childless.
Ion. Unhappy wife! how this doth mar thy fortune else so happy!
Cre. But who art thou? how blest I count thy mother!
Ion. Lady, I am called the servant of Apollo, and so I am.
Cre. An offering of thy city, or sold to him by some master?
Ion. Naught know I but this, that I am called the slave of Loxias.
Cre. Then do I in my turn pity thee, sir stranger.
Ion. Because I know not her that bare me, or him that begat me.
Cre. Is thy home here in the temple, or hast thou a house to dwell in?
Ion. The god's whole temple is my house, wherever sleep o'ertakes me.
Cre. Was it as a child or young man that thou camest to the temple?
Ion. Those who seem to know the truth, say I was but a babe.
Cre. What Delphian maid, then, weaned thee?
Ion. I never knew a mother's breast. But she who brought me up—
Cre. Who was she, unhappy youth? I see thy sufferings in my own.
