Ion
O Cephisus, her ancestor, with a bull's face, what a viper have you bred, or serpent that glares a deadly flame! She has dared all, she is no less than
[1265]
the Gorgon's blood, with which she was about to kill me. Seize her, so that the uplands of Parnassus, from which she will be hurled to make her stony leaps, may comb out those smooth tresses of her hair. I met with a good genius, before I came
[1270]
to the city of Athens, and fell into a stepmother's hands. For in the midst of allies I have taken the measure of your intent, what an unfriendly bane you were to me; if you had encompassed me in your own house, you would have sent me utterly to the house of Hades.
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But neither the altar nor Apollo's shrine will save you. Pity for you is greater for me and for my mother; although she is absent, yet the name is present. Look at that wicked creature, how she wove
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craft out of craft; she has fled cowering to the altar of the god, as if she thought she would not pay the penalty for her deeds.
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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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