As a spectator merely, or to consult the oracle?Creusa’Tis his wish to hear the self-same answer from Trophonius and Phoebus too.IonIs it to seek earth’s produce or fruit of offspring that ye come?CreusaWe are childless, though wedded these many years.IonHast thou never been a mother? art thou wholly childless?CreusaPhoebus knows whether I am childless. IonUnhappy wife! how this doth mar thy fortune else so happy!CreusaBut who art thou? how blest I count thy mother!Ion Lady, I am called the servant of Apollo, and so I am.CreusaAn offering of thy city, or sold to him by some master?IonNaught know I but this, that I am called the slave of Loxias.CreusaThen do i in my turn pity thee, sir stranger.IonBecause I know not her that bare me, or him that begat me.CreusaIs thy home here in the temple, or hast thou a house to dwell in?IonThe god’s whole temple is my house, wherever sleep o’ertakes me.CreusaWas it as a child or young man that thou earnest to the temple?IonThose who seem to know the truth, say I was but a babe.CreusaWhat Delphian maid, then, weaned thee?IonI never knew a mother’s breast. But she who brought me up—CreusaWho was she, unhappy youth? I see thy sufferings in my own.