Ion
Euripides
Euripides. The Plays of Euripides, Translated into English Prose from the Text of Paley. Vol. I. Coleridge, Edward P., translator. London: George Bell and Sons, 1906.
- Did the earth really open its mouth and swallow thy father?
- The sea-god smote and slew him with his trident.
- Is there a spot there called Macrae?
- Why ask that? what memories thou recallest!
- Doth the Pythian god with his flashing fire do honour to the place?
- Honour, yes! Honour, indeed! would I had never seen the spot!
- How now? dost thou abhor that which the god holds dear?
- No, no; but I and that cave are witnesses of a deed of shame.
- Lady, who is the Athenian lord that calls thee wife?
- No citizen of Athens, but a stranger from another land.
- Who is he? he must have been one of noble birth.
- Xuthus, son of Aeolus, sprung from Zeus.
- And how did he, a stranger, win thee a native born?
- Hard by Athens lies a neighbouring township, Euboea.
- With a bounding line of waters in between, so I have heard.
- This did he sack, making common cause with Cecrops’ sons.
- Coming as an ally, maybe; he won thy hand for this?
- Yes, this was his dower of battle, the prize of his prowess.
- Art thou come to the oracle alone, or with thy lord?
- With him. But he is now visiting the cavern of Trophonius.