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Servant
Ladies of another land, where may I find your mistress, daughter of Erechtheus? For I have searched each nook and corner of this town, and cannot find her.
Ladies of another land, where may I find your mistress, daughter of Erechtheus? For I have searched each nook and corner of this town, and cannot find her.
Chorus
What news, my fellow-thrall? why that hurried gait? what tidings bringest thou?
What news, my fellow-thrall? why that hurried gait? what tidings bringest thou?
Servant
I am pursued; the rulers of this land are seeking her to stone her to death.
I am pursued; the rulers of this land are seeking her to stone her to death.
Chorus
Alas, what is thy tale? say not we are detected in our secret plot for murdering the boy?
Alas, what is thy tale? say not we are detected in our secret plot for murdering the boy?
Servant
Thou hast guessed aright; nor wilt thou be the last to share the trouble.
1115
Thou hast guessed aright; nor wilt thou be the last to share the trouble.
1115
Chorus
How was the hidden scheme laid bare?
How was the hidden scheme laid bare?
Servant
The god found means to master wrong with right, unwilling to see his shrine polluted.
The god found means to master wrong with right, unwilling to see his shrine polluted.
Chorus
How so? I do conjure thee, tell us all.
For if to die or yet to live be ours, ’twere sweeter so, when we know all.
1120
How so? I do conjure thee, tell us all.
For if to die or yet to live be ours, ’twere sweeter so, when we know all.
1120
Servant
Soon as Xuthus, husband of Creusa, had left the god’s prophetic shrine, taking with him his new-found son, to hold the feast and sacrifice that he designed to offer to the gods,
himself departed to the place where leaps the Bacchic flame, with blood of sacrifice to dew the double peaks of Dionysus for the son now offered to his gaze, and thus he spake,
My son, abide thou here, and raise a spacious tent by craftsmen’s toiling skill;
1125
and if I remain long time away after I have sacrificed to the gods of thy birth, let the feast be spread for all friends present.
1130
Soon as Xuthus, husband of Creusa, had left the god’s prophetic shrine, taking with him his new-found son, to hold the feast and sacrifice that he designed to offer to the gods,
himself departed to the place where leaps the Bacchic flame, with blood of sacrifice to dew the double peaks of Dionysus for the son now offered to his gaze, and thus he spake,
My son, abide thou here, and raise a spacious tent by craftsmen’s toiling skill;
1125
and if I remain long time away after I have sacrificed to the gods of thy birth, let the feast be spread for all friends present.
1130
Ion. Euripides. Edward P. Coleridge (Translator). London. 1906.
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