Ion
Let us touch on some other topic.
Xuthus
This one is better, my child.
Ion
[545]
Have you gone to an unlawful bed?
Xuthus
Yes, in the folly of youth.
Ion
Was that before your marriage with the daughter of Erechtheus?
Xuthus
Yes, never afterwards.
Ion
So did you beget me then?
Xuthus
The time agrees.
Ion
Then how did I arrive here—
Xuthus
I cannot account for that.
Ion
Coming a long way?
Xuthus
That perplexes me also.
Ion
[550]
Have you come to the Pythian rock before?
Xuthus
To the torch-processions of Bacchus.
Ion
You stayed with one of the public hosts?
Xuthus
He, with the girls of Delphi—
Ion
Brought you into their company, or what are you saying?
Xuthus
The maenads of Bacchus.
Ion
Were you sensible, or under the influence?
Xuthus
In the pleasures of Bacchus.
Ion
It was then that I was conceived.
Xuthus
Fate has discovered you, my son.
Ion
[555]
How did I come to the temple, then?
Xuthus
Perhaps you were exposed by the girl.
Ion
I have escaped from slavery.
Xuthus
Now receive your father.
Ion
It is reasonable not to distrust the god, at any rate.
Xuthus
Now you are in your right mind.
Ion
And what else do I want—
Xuthus
Now you are seeing what you ought to see.
Ion
Than to be the son of Zeus' son?
Xuthus
Which is yours.
Ion
[560]
Am I really touching the one who gave me birth?
Xuthus
If you trust in the god.
Ion
Welcome, father!
Xuthus
What a sweet word to hear!.
Ion
This present day—
Xuthus
Has made me happy.
Ion
0 my dear mother, when shall I see you also? Now I long to see you, whoever you are, more than before;
[565]
but perhaps you are dead, and it could never happen.
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Table of Contents:
Euripides. The Complete Greek Drama, edited by Whitney J. Oates and Eugene O'Neill, Jr. in two volumes. 1. Ion, translated by Robert Potter. New York. Random House. 1938.
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