Shall we, who plann'd the deathful deed,
Be caught within the toils we spread,

While justice claims severe her chast'ning part?
(CREUSA rushes in.)

CREUSA
I am pursued, ye faithful females, doom'd

To death: the Pythian council hath decreed it:
My life is forfeited.

LEADER OF THE CHORUS
Unhappy lady,

We know the dreadful ills that close thee round.
CREUSA

Ah, whither shall I fly? From instant death
Scarce hath my foot sped hither, from my foes

By stealth escaping.
LEADER

Whither wouldst thou fly,
But to this altar?

CREUSA
What will that avail me?

LEADER
To kill a suppliant there the law forbids.

CREUSA
But by the law I perish.

LEADER
If their hands

Had seized thee.
CREUSA

Dreadful contest, with drawn swords
They hastily advance.

LEADER
Now take thy seat

At the altar: shouldst thou die ev'n there, thy blood
Will call the vengeance of the god on those

That spilt it: but our fortune we must bear.
(She takes refuge at the altar as ION, guards, and Delphians enter.)

ION
Bull-visaged sire Cephisus, what a viper

Hast thou produced? a dragon from her eyes
Glaring pernicious flame. Each daring deed

Is hers: less venomous the Gorgon's blood,
With which she purposed to have poison'd me.

Seize her, that the Parnassian rocks may tease
Those nice-adjusted ringlets of her hair,

As down the craggy precipice she bounds.
Here my good genius saved me, e'er I came

To Athens, there beneath my stepdame's wiles
To fall; amid my friends thy fell intents

Have I unravell'd, what a pest to me,
Thy hate how deadly: had thy toils inclosed me

In thine own house, thou wouldst at once have sent me
With complete ruin to the shades below.

But nor the altar nor Apollo's shrine
Shall save thee. Pity, might her voice be heard,

Would rather plead for me and for my mother,
She absent, yet the name remains with me.

Behold that sorceress; with what art she wove
Wile after wile; the altar of the god

Impress'd her not with awe, as if secure.
No vengeance waited her unhallow'd deeds.

CREUSA
I charge thee, kill me not, in my own right,

And in the god's, whose suppliant here I stand.
ION

What right hast thou to plead Apollo's name?
CREUSA

My person hallow'd to the god I offer.
ION

Yet wouldst thou poison one that is the god's.
CREUSA

Thou wast no more Apollo's, but thy father's.
ION

I have been, of a father's wealth I speak.
CREUSA

And now I am: thou hast that claim no more.
ION

But thou art impious: pious were my deeds.
CREUSA

As hostile to my house, I would have kill'd thee.
ION

Did I against thy country march in arms?
CREUSA

And more; thou wouldst have fired Erechtheus' house.
ION

What torch, what brands, what flames had I prepared?
CREUSA

There wouldst thou fix, seizing my right by force.
ION

The land which he possess'd, my father gave me.
CREUSA

What claim hath there the race of Aeolus?
ION

He was its guardian, not with words but arms.
CREUSA

Its soldier then; an inmate, not its lord.
ION

Wouldst thou, through fear of what might happen, kill me?
CREUSA

Lest death should be my portion, if not thine.
ION

Childless thou enviest that my father found me.
CREUSA

And wilt thou make a childless house thy spoil?
ION

Devolves my father then no share to me?
CREUSA

His shield, his spear; be those thine heritage.
ION

Come from the altar, quit that hallow'd seat.
CREUSA

Instruct thy mother, whosoe'er she be.
ION

Shalt thou unpunish'd meditate my death?
CREUSA

Within this shrine if thou wilt murder me.
ION

What pleasure mid these sacred wreaths to die?
CREUSA

We shall grieve one, by whom we have been grieved.
ION

Strange, that the god should give these laws to men,
Bearing no stamp of honour, nor design'd

With provident thought: it is not meet to place
The unrighteous at his altars; worthier far

To be chased thence; nor decent that the vile
Should with their touch pollute the gods: the good,

Oppress'd with wrongs, should at those hallow'd seats
Seek refuge: ill beseems it that the unjust

And just alike should seek protection there.
(As ION and his followers are about to tear CREUSA from the altar,

the PRIESTESS of Apollo enters from the temple.)
PRIESTESS

Forbear, my son, leaving the oracular seat,
I pass this pale, the priestess of the god,

The guardian of the tripod's ancient law,
Call'd to this charge from all the Delphian dames.

ION
Hail, my loved mother, dear, though not my parent.

PRIESTESS
Yet let me have the name, 'tis grateful to me.

ION
Hast thou yet heard their wily trains to kill me?

PRIESTESS
I have; but void of mercy thou dost wrong.

ION
Should I not ruin those that sought my life?

PRIESTESS
Stepdames to former sons are always hostile.

ION
And I to stepdames ill intreated thus.

PRIESTESS
Be not, this shrine now leaving for thy country.

ION
How, then, by thy monition should I act?

PRIESTESS
Go with good omens, pure to Athens go.

ION
All must be pure that kill their enemies.

PRIESTESS
So do not thou: attentive mark my words.

ION
Speak: from good will whate'er thou say'st must flow.

PRIESTESS
Seest thou the vase I hold beneath mine arm?

ION
I see an ancient ark entwined with wreaths.

PRIESTESS
In this long since an infant I received thee.

ION
What say'st thou? New is thy discourse and strange.

PRIESTESS
In silence have I kept them: now I show them.

ION
And why conceal'd, as long since thou received'st me?

PRIESTESS
The god would have thee in his shrine a servant.

ION
Is that no more his will? How shall I know it?

PRIESTESS
Thy father shown, he sends thee from this land.

ION
Hast thou preserved these things by charge, or how?

PRIESTESS
It was the god that so disposed my thought.

ION
With what design? Speak, finish thy discourse.

PRIESTESS
Ev'n to this hour to keep what then I found.

ION
What gain imports this to me, or what loss?

PRIESTESS
There didst thou lie wrapp'd in thy infant vests.

ION
Thou hast produced whence I may find my mother.

PRIESTESS
Since now the god so wills, but not before.

ION
This is a day of bless'd discoveries.

PRIESTESS
Now take them: o'er all Asia, and the bounds

Of Europe hold thy progress: thou shalt know

• severe [si´viə] a.严厉的；苛刻的 (初中英语单词)
• faithful [´feiθfəl] a.忠实的；可靠的 (初中英语单词)
• dreadful [´dredful] a.可怕的；讨厌的 (初中英语单词)
• instant [´instənt] a.立即的 n.紧迫；瞬间 (初中英语单词)
• hither [´hiðə] ad.到此处 (初中英语单词)
• contest [kən´test, ´kɔntest] v.争辩 n.争夺；竞赛 (初中英语单词)
• hastily [´heistili] ad.急速地；草率地 (初中英语单词)
• refuge [´refju:dʒ] v.&n.避难(所)；庇护 (初中英语单词)
• dragon [´drægən] n.龙 (初中英语单词)
• genius [´dʒi:niəs] n.天才(人物)；天赋 (初中英语单词)
• deadly [´dedli] a.致命的 ad.死一般地 (初中英语单词)
• absent [´æbsənt, əb´sent] a.不在的 vt.使缺席 (初中英语单词)
• charge [tʃɑ:dʒ] v.收费；冲锋 n.费用 (初中英语单词)
• poison [´pɔizən] n.毒物 v.毒害 a.有毒的 (初中英语单词)
• wealth [welθ] n.财富，财产 (初中英语单词)
• hostile [´hɔstail] a.敌方的，敌意的 (初中英语单词)
• portion [´pɔ:ʃən] n.嫁妆；命运 vt.分配 (初中英语单词)
• shield [ʃi:ld] n.盾牌；防御 v.保护 (初中英语单词)
• sacred [´seikrid] a.神圣的；庄严的 (初中英语单词)
• grieve [gri:v] v.&n.(使)悲痛；哀悼 (初中英语单词)
• thence [ðens] ad.从那里；因此 (初中英语单词)
• protection [prə´tekʃən] n.警戒；护照；通行证 (初中英语单词)
• apollo [ə´pɔləu] n.阿波罗 (初中英语单词)
• grateful [´greitful] a.感谢的；令人愉快的 (初中英语单词)
• attentive [ə´tentiv] a.注意的；殷勤的 (初中英语单词)
• infant [´infənt] n.&a.婴(幼)儿 (初中英语单词)
• vengeance [´vendʒəns] n.报复，复仇 (高中英语单词)
• athens [´æθinz] n.雅典 (高中英语单词)
• guardian [´gɑ:diən] n.监护人；保护人 (高中英语单词)
• shrine [ʃrain] n.神龛；神殿；圣地 (高中英语单词)
• decent [´di:sənt] a.体面的，正派的 (高中英语单词)
• discourse [´diskɔ:s] n.论文；演说；说教 (高中英语单词)
• daring [´deəriŋ] a.&n.勇敢(的) (英语四级单词)
• precipice [´presipis] n.悬崖；危急的处境 (英语四级单词)
• meditate [´mediteit] v.考虑；策划；反省 (英语四级单词)
• whence [wens] ad.从何处；从那里 (英语四级单词)
• pernicious [pə´niʃəs] a.有害的；有毒的；致命的 (英语六级单词)
• venomous [´venəməs] a.有毒的；恶意的 (英语六级单词)
• impious [´impiəs] a.不敬的；不孝的 (英语六级单词)
• inmate [´inmeit] n.(医院，监狱)同宿者 (英语六级单词)
• pollute [pə´lu:t] vt.弄脏；败坏，玷污 (英语六级单词)