LEADER
To kill a suppliant there the law forbids.
CREUSA
But by the law I perish.
LEADER
If their hands Had seized thee.
CREUSA
Dreadful contest,with drawn swords They hastily advance.
LEADER
Now take thy seat At the altar:shouldst thou die ev'n there,thy blood Will call the vengeance of the god on those That spilt it:but our fortune we must bear.
(She takes refuge at the altar as ION,guards,and Delphians enter.)
ION
Bull-visaged sire Cephisus,what a viper Hast thou produced?a dragon from her eyes Glaring pernicious flame.Each daring deed Is hers:less venomous the Gorgon's blood,With which she purposed to have poison'd me.
Seize her,that the Parnassian rocks may tease Those nice-adjusted ringlets of her hair,As down the craggy precipice she bounds.
Here my good genius saved me,e'er I came To Athens,there beneath my stepdame's wiles To fall;amid my friends thy fell intents Have I unravell'd,what a pest to me,Thy hate how deadly:had thy toils inclosed me In thine own house,thou wouldst at once have sent me With complete ruin to the shades below.
But nor the altar nor Apollo's shrine Shall save thee.Pity,might her voice be heard,Would rather plead for me and for my mother,She absent,yet the name remains with me.
Behold that sorceress;with what art she wove Wile after wile;the altar of the god Impress'd her not with awe,as if secure.
No vengeance waited her unhallow'd deeds.
CREUSA
I charge thee,kill me not,in my own right,And in the god's,whose suppliant here I stand.
ION
What right hast thou to plead Apollo's name?
CREUSA
My person hallow'd to the god I offer.
ION
Yet wouldst thou poison one that is the god's.
CREUSA
Thou wast no more Apollo's,but thy father's.
ION
I have been,of a father's wealth I speak.
CREUSA
And now I am:thou hast that claim no more.
ION
But thou art impious:pious were my deeds.
CREUSA
As hostile to my house,I would have kill'd thee.
ION
Did I against thy country march in arms?
CREUSA
And more;thou wouldst have fired Erechtheus'house.
ION
What torch,what brands,what flames had I prepared?
CREUSA
There wouldst thou fix,seizing my right by force.
ION
The land which he possess'd,my father gave me.
CREUSA
What claim hath there the race of Aeolus?
ION
He was its guardian,not with words but arms.
CREUSA
Its soldier then;an inmate,not its lord.
ION
Wouldst thou,through fear of what might happen,kill me?
CREUSA
Lest death should be my portion,if not thine.
ION
Childless thou enviest that my father found me.
CREUSA
And wilt thou make a childless house thy spoil?
ION
Devolves my father then no share to me?
CREUSA
His shield,his spear;be those thine heritage.
ION
Come from the altar,quit that hallow'd seat.
CREUSA
Instruct thy mother,whosoe'er she be.
ION
Shalt thou unpunish'd meditate my death?
CREUSA
Within this shrine if thou wilt murder me.
ION
What pleasure mid these sacred wreaths to die?
CREUSA
We shall grieve one,by whom we have been grieved.
ION
Strange,that the god should give these laws to men,Bearing no stamp of honour,nor design'd With provident thought:it is not meet to place The unrighteous at his altars;worthier far To be chased thence;nor decent that the vile Should with their touch pollute the gods:the good,Oppress'd with wrongs,should at those hallow'd seats Seek refuge:ill beseems it that the unjust And just alike should seek protection there.
(As ION and his followers are about to tear CREUSA from the altar,the PRIESTESS of Apollo enters from the temple.)
PRIESTESS
Forbear,my son,leaving the oracular seat,I pass this pale,the priestess of the god,The guardian of the tripod's ancient law,Call'd to this charge from all the Delphian dames.
ION
Hail,my loved mother,dear,though not my parent.
PRIESTESS
Yet let me have the name,'tis grateful to me.
ION
Hast thou yet heard their wily trains to kill me?
PRIESTESS
I have;but void of mercy thou dost wrong.
ION
Should I not ruin those that sought my life?
PRIESTESS
Stepdames to former sons are always hostile.
ION
And I to stepdames ill intreated thus.
PRIESTESS
Be not,this shrine now leaving for thy country.
ION
How,then,by thy monition should I act?
PRIESTESS
Go with good omens,pure to Athens go.
ION
All must be pure that kill their enemies.
PRIESTESS
So do not thou:attentive mark my words.
ION
Speak:from good will whate'er thou say'st must flow.
PRIESTESS
Seest thou the vase I hold beneath mine arm?
ION
I see an ancient ark entwined with wreaths.
PRIESTESS
In this long since an infant I received thee.
ION
What say'st thou?New is thy discourse and strange.
PRIESTESS
In silence have I kept them:now I show them.
ION
And why conceal'd,as long since thou received'st me?
PRIESTESS
The god would have thee in his shrine a servant.
ION
Is that no more his will?How shall I know it?
PRIESTESS
Thy father shown,he sends thee from this land.
ION
Hast thou preserved these things by charge,or how?
PRIESTESS
It was the god that so disposed my thought.
ION
With what design?Speak,finish thy discourse.
PRIESTESS
Ev'n to this hour to keep what then I found.
ION
What gain imports this to me,or what loss?
PRIESTESS
There didst thou lie wrapp'd in thy infant vests.
ION
Thou hast produced whence I may find my mother.
PRIESTESS
Since now the god so wills,but not before.
ION
This is a day of bless'd discoveries.
PRIESTESS
Now take them:o'er all Asia,and the bounds Of Europe hold thy progress:thou shalt know These tokens.To do pleasure to the god,I nurtured thee,my son;now to thy hand Restore what was his will I should receive Unbidden,and preserve:for what intent It was his will,I have not power to say.
That I had these,or where they were conceal'd,No mortal knew.And now farewell:the love I bear thee equals what a parent feels.
Let thy inquiries where they ought begin;
First,if some Delphian virgin gave thee birth,And in this shrine exposed thee;next,if one Of Greece.From me,and from the god,who feels An interest in thy fortune,thou hast all.
(She goes into the temple after giving ION the ark.)
ION
