Euripides: Ion 0856682446, 9780856682445

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GENERAL EDITOR:

Professor Christopher Collard

EURIPIDES

Ion

with Introduction, Translation and Commentary

by

K.H. Lee

Aris & Phillips Ltd - Warminster -- England

© Kevin H. Lee 1997.

All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be

reproduced or stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means

without the prior permission of the publishers in writing The Greek text © Oxford University Press 1981. Reprinted from the Oxford Classical Texts edition of Zuripides Fabulae vol II edited by J. Diggle (1981) by permission of Oxford University Press. ISBNS cloth 0 85668 244 6 limp 085668 245 4

To the memory of my parents

Cyrıl Hargreaves Lee 122. 7. 1966 Dorothy Jane Lee 127. 10. 1995

Printed and published in England by Aris & Phillips Ltd, Teddington House, Warminster, Wiltshire BAl2 8PQ

iii

CONTENTS General Editor's Foreword

lv

Preface Abbreviations General Introduction to the Series by Shirley A. Barlow

OO

JO

tA

Bw

D

—

INTRODUCTION

TO

21

ION

. Plot and Meaning . Structure . Characters . Themes and Issues

. Myth . Staging . Date

. Text and Translation

Manuscripts and Editorial Symbols

TEXT

AND

TRANSLATION

COMMENTARY General Bibliography Bibliography for Jon Index

OF [ON

IV

General Editor’s Foreword Euripidess remarkable variety of subject, ideas and methods challenges each generation of readers — and audiences - to fresh appraisal and closer definition. This Series of his plays is in the general style of Aris and Phillips Classical Texts: it offers university students and, we hope, sixth-formers, as well as teachers of Classics

and Classical Civilization at all levels, new editions which emphasise analytical and literary appreciation.

In each volume there is an editor’s introduction which sets the

play in its original context, discusses its dramatic and poetic resources, and assesses its meaning.

The Greek text is faced on the opposite page by a new

translation which attempts to be both accurate and idiomatic.

English

The Commentary,

which is keyed wherever possible to the translation rather than to the Greek, pursues the aims of the Introduction in analyzing structure and development, in annotating and appreciating poetic style, and in explaining the ideas; since the translation itself

reveals the editor's detailed understanding of the Greek, philological comment is confined to special phenomena or problems which affect interpretation. Those are the guidelines within which individual contributors to the Series have been asked to work, but they are free to handle or emphasise whatever they judge important in their particular play, and to choose their own manner of doing so. It is natural that commentaries and commentators on Euripides should reflect his variety as a poet.

These last points are being borne out by the volumes as they appear, all of them different in emphasis and style. Reviewers in a very wide range of journals have been generally sympathetic to the purpose of the Series and appreciative of what it offers. Some of the warmest welcomes have come from countries where English is not the first language.

fon is the eleventh complete play in the Series, which is now beyond its half-way point. Within a year or so Iphigenia in Tauris (Martin Cropp) can be expected, with Helen

(Peter Burian), Iphigenia

in Aulis (Christopher Collard), Medea

(Judith

Mossman), Selected Fragmentary Plays, Volume II (Collard, Cropp, Lee) and the probably spurious Rhesus (Edith Hall) further off. Inclusion of the remaining plays is still under discussion. In this volume the General Introduction, by Shirley Barlow, reprinted (pp. 1-19), as is the General Bibliography (321-25).

is once again

The Greek text is that

of the Oxford Classical Text of Prof. James Diggle, to whom, and to the Clarendon Press, the publisher and I once more express our thanks. Christopher Collard

Oxford

(formerly, University of Wales Swansea)

PREFACE This volume conforms to the format and aims of the others in the series. Philological commentary is kept to a minimum with translation and apparatus criticus often left

to speak for themselves. My principal aim has been to explicate the poetry, dramatic technique and thematic interest of the play for those who need to rely, to a greater or lesser degree, on the translation. I have used extensively the commentaries on the plays of Euripides which have appeared in recent years besides those in this series. The commentaries on /on by Paley, Wilamowitz, Bayfield and Owen, though dated,

remain valuable, particularly on matters of language and form. My references to the vast interpretative literature have been highly selective. /on, though less well known than other plays, is receiving growing attention, and I hope that this volume will make this ‘jewel of Euripidean dramaturgy’ more accessible to students of drama and literature. It is a pleasure to record my thanks to those who have assisted me in various ways. À. W. James, M. Cropp, R. Hannah, M. Huys, W. Ritchie provided valuable advice on draft material. R. Garner's draft commentary gave me several important references and the ideas acknowledged with his initials in the Commentary. I benefitted geatly from the insights of the members of my graduate seminar given in

the spring of 1996 at the University of Pennsylvania. My two greatest debts are to Michael Curran who did much spade-work, drafted material for the Introduction and Commentary and read the final copy, and to Christopher Collard whose suggestions,

constructive criticism and unfailing encouragement went well beyond the duties of a general editor. K. H. Lee

The University of Sydney October 1996

vi

ABBREVIATIONS

Abbreviations used for ancient authors and their works, and for modern periodicals

are standard (cf. LSJ and L ‘Année Philologique). Note that A. = Aeschylus, S. = Sophocles. Euripides’ works are cited without author's name. Fragments of Aeschylus and Sophocles are cited from Tragicorum Graecorum Fragmenta (Göttingen, 1971-), those of Euripides from Nauck2, except in the case of named fragmentary plays which are cited, unless otherwise stated, from Euripides: Selected Fragmentary Works short title is Bibliography texts are cited

Plays (Warminster, 1995). listed in the Bibliogaphy for /on are cited by author's name alone; added where necessary for clarity. Works listed in the General are cited by author's name and short title. Commentaries on classical in the form 'Kannicht on Hel. 75’.

>> introduces references to further reading. Denniston

J.D. Denniston, The Greek Particles (Oxford, 19542)

LIMC Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae (Zürich, 1981—) LSJ H. G. Liddell ἃ R. Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, rev. H. Stuart Jones

(Oxford, 1940°) with Supplement (1968) Ms(s). Manuscript(s)

NFE

C. Austin, Nova Fragmenta Euripidea in Papyris Reperta (Berlin, 1967)

PW

H.W.Parke ἃ D. E. W. Wormell, The Delphic Oracle (Oxford, 1956)

SFP

Euripides: Selected Fragmentary Plays

ed. C. Collard, M. C. Cropp, K. H.

W-I

Lee (Warminster, 1995) R.P. Winnington-Ingram,'The Delphic Temple in Greek Tragedy’

n.

Miscellanea Tragica in Honorem J.C. Kamerbeek ed. J.M. Bremer et al. (Amsterdam, 1976) 483-500 | Note in the present Commentary: 26n.- note on line 26.

in

General Introduction To The Series by Shirley A. Barlow

I. The Ancient Theatre

The contemporary theatre consists of many different types of performance, and these

are on offer most of the time at numerous small theatres in many places, particularly in centres like London and New York where the cultural choice is vast. Audiences go to only one play at a time — unless, that is, they are attending something special like Wagner’s Ring Cycle - and they go primarily for entertainment, not to be overtly instructed or to discharge a religious obligation. The choice includes musicals, ballets, operas, variety shows, classical plays, contemporary plays, thrillers, serious prose plays, verse dramas, domestic comedies and fringe theatre. Audiences range from the highly intellectual, who might be devotees of serious opera, or of Becket or Eliot or Stoppard, to the self-acknowledged low-brow, who go to the theatre to escape from real life and have a night out away from the harassments of home and work. In spite, however, of this range in type of audience, the English speaking theatre-going public has long been, and probably still is, predominantly middle class. It is not representative of all strata of the population. I mention all these obvious things merely to draw a contrast with the ancient

theatre. For the classical Greek theatre did not have this fragmentation of genre, location or audience. The genres were few, all in verse, consisting of only four types — tragedy, satyric drama, comedy and dithyramb.

There were neither scattered small

theatres, nor performances on offer all the time. Theatres were outdoor, few and far between, and performances were concentrated into one or two dramatic festivals held at select times of the year. One could not go to the theatre all the time in ancient Greece.

Audiences were vast mass ones (probably 14,000, for instance, at the theatre

of Dionysus in Athens) and were drawn from a wide section of the population. Moreover their reasons for going were as much religious, or to glean instruction, as for pure entertainment. They would not have expected their tragedies to allow them to escape into a fantasy world which bore little relation to reality — or to escape into another private domestic world which had no public relevance. Greek Tragedy was in no way portrayed on a small canvas, nor was it personal

in character.

It was grand and large, and it dealt with elevated social, political,

religious, and moral issues in elevated poetic language. It conveyed these themes through traditional myth, and was thus communal in another sense than just having a mass audience — it had a mass audience with a shared heritage about to be presented on stage. This heritage had both religious and secular associations. First, religious. Tragedy, like the other dramatic genres, was an offering to the

God Dionysus whose statue stood in the theatre throughout dramatic performances. The main festival at Athens, the Great Dionysia, happened once a year for a few days in the Spring when tragedies, comedies, satyr plays and dithyrambs were performed

in open competition

in Dionysus’

honour.

The occasion

was

for the whole

2 GENERAL INTRODUCTION community and a kind of carnival air reigned. The law courts were closed. Distraints for debt were forbidden. Even prisoners were released, according to Demosthenes, and any outrage committed during the performance was treated as a

sacrilegious act. Although such religious ceremonial was essential to the presentation of drama at Athens, it was the state which managed the production side. A selected official, an archon, in charge of the festival, initially chose the poets and plays, and was responsible for the hiring and distribution of actors. Thus the theatre was also a state function.

Peisistratus had been the one to institute tragic contests recognised by the state, and the first competition was held in 534 B.C. when Thespis won first prize. At each festival from then on, three poets were appointed as competitors, and each exhibited

four plays (three tragedies and a satyr play). The general name for the group of plays was didaskalia or teaching, because the author taught (edidaxe) the plays to the

actors. A herald proclaimed the victorious poet and his choregus (trainer of the Chorus), and these were crowned with ivy garlands. The poet and choregus who won a prize were

lısted on public monuments,

recorded on official lists.

and in later times actors’

The monuments,

also recorded on official lists.

names

were also

and in later times actors’ names

were

The monuments of stone erected near the theatre, or

the dedication of masks, marble tablets or sculptural reliefs and the didaskaliai, show how high a place the tragic poet held in society. The place of the poet in ancient fıfth century society is thus different from the way poets or dramatists are regarded by most people today. His place was in a context of the whole community and so was

the subject matter of his plays.

Note The most scholarly and detailed discussions and evidence for the festivals, staging

and performances of the ancient Greek theatre may be found in A. W. PickardCambridge, The Dramatic Festivals of Athens

and The

Theatre

of Dionysus

in

Athens; among newer literature see esp. J. J. Winkler, F. Zeitlin (eds.), Nothing to do with Dionysos?, including the essay by S. Goldhill, “The Great Dionysia and Civic

Ideology’, pp. 97-129.

Shorter and more easily digestible treatments, also suitable

for the Greekless reader, may be found in H. C. Baldry, The Greek Tragic Theatre; J.

Gould, “Tragedy in Performance’ in The Cambridge History of Classical Literature, I, 263-81; G. Ley, Ancient Greek Theatre; R. Rehm, Greek Tragic Theatre, Part I, pp. 3-42; P. Walcot,

The Ancient Theatre.

Greek Drama

in its Social and Theatrical Context; E. Simon,

(See General Bibliography, Section VIII.)

A. E. Haigh’s The

Attic Theatre (Oxford, 1907), though very old now, and in many ways superseded, has some very useful details on ancient sources.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

3

II. Greek Tragedy Greek Tragedy treats passions and emotions of an extreme kind (fear, anger, hate, madness, jealousy, love, affection) in extreme circumstances (murder, suicide, incest,

rape, mutilation). Its potency is felt all the more because such circumstances and such emotions occur within the close confines of a family.‘ Were the protagonists

unrelated, such intensity would be lacking. Yet offsetting all this violence is the concentrated and controlled form of the plays which serves as a frame for the action. Of all art forms Greek Tragedy is one of the most formalised and austere.

The

combination of such formality with the explosive material it expresses, is what gives this drama its impact. In life, extremes of emotion do not often have shape and ordered neatness. They are incoherent and chaotic.

The newspapers show every day the havoc wrought by

acts like murder, incest, rape and suicide -- the very

stuff of Greek Tragedy.

Amid

such havoc the perpetrators or victims of violent deeds seldom have either the temperament or the opportunity to express in a shaped form how they feel or felt at the time. Lawyers may later impose an order for them, but it cannot be their own

response as it was at the actual moment of disaster. What Greek Tragedy does is to create an imagined action, through myth, where the characters are able to articulate the thoughts and emotions which drive them, and where the audience is given the thoughts and emotions of those involved with the main actors, Le., relatives, friends,

outsiders.

It does this moreover in such a way that the lasting effect 1s not one of

repugnance, but of acceptance and understanding.

The material of Greek Tragedy is shaped and transformed into art in two main ways.

One is through the creative harnessing of ancient myth and more modern

insights. The other is through the formal conventions of language and structure. First the combination of myth with more contemporary elements.

By this I

mean the blending of traditional stories, the shared heritage, with the perspectives which come from the city state, particularly fifth century Athens. This means an explosive mixture of past and present. Consider first the mythical element:

1) Myth means the past to a Greek tragedian, a past which he has inherited over centuries, ever since the earliest stories were recited to his ancestors.

2) This past myth is usually concerned with the heroic — the great heroes as they are presented in epic and lyric poetry. 3) In this telling of the heroic, the individual is important. It is the single

figure and his greatness which stands out, whether Achilles or Agamemnon or Odysseus or Ajax or Philoctetes or Heracles. 4) This single figure is so glorified that he may often have become, in epic and particularly in lyric poetry, a model, an archetype of heroic qualities. Against this let us set the other side — the contemporary world of the poet which must confront this mythical material. 1) It is the present with present values and attitudes. 2) It is not a heroic world — it is the city state with its keen interest in contemporary politics and social issues. Aristotle, Poetics, ch. XIV, 1453b, 19-22.

4

GENERAL INTRODUCTION 3) It is interested in collective values much more than in the lone outstanding

individual. The community matters. 4) It is interested in asking questions, not in eulogising the great heroes — at least not exclusively. As Vernant says, when past heroes become incorporated into contemporary tragedy, they turn into problems and cease to be models. In the creation of tragedy, therefore, we have the meeting of the mythical past,

with its stress on the greatness of the hero, with the contemporary present, with its stress on collective values and the asking of fundamental questions. Vernant puts it very elegantly.

“Tragedy is a debate with a past that is still alive” and “Tragedy

confronts heroic values and ancient religious representations with new modes of

thought that characterise the advent of law within the city state"? So too Nestlé, "Tragedy is born when myth starts to be considered from the

point of view of an (ordinary) citizen"? The heritage of myth is well represented by epic poetry in the shape of Homer, and lyric poetry in the shape of Pindar. Tragedy borrows heavily from the stories told by Homer. In fact Aeschylus was said to have called his plays “rich slices from the banquet of Homer".* From the Iliad we meet again in tragedy the heroes Agamemnon, Ajax, Menelaus, and Odysseus, as well as Hecuba, Andromache, Helen and Clytemnestra. Other figures

from the other epic cycles such as Philoctetes, Heracles, Theseus and Oedipus form the main subject of tragedies. Agamemnon for instance plays a leading role in Homer's /liad and Aeschylus' Oresteia, yet in the transformation from one author to another, setting, concept and

climate have changed. Agamemnon is no longer seen as prestigious leader against the backdrop of a glorious war. The new domestic situation in which he is depicted strips him both of prestige and of a glorious cause. The righteousness of the Trojan war is questioned, Agamemnon's motives are questioned, his weaknesses dwelt upon rather than merely lightly indicated.

In this new setting our concept of the hero is

found to undergo a change, but it is not only that the setting alone brings about that change, it is that the tragic poet explores a complexity of motive, both human divine, which would have been inconceivable in Homer's day. It 1s not simply greatness of the heroic figure which interests Aeschylus, but the weakness complex negative traits which underlie the reputation of that heroic greatness. uses the familiar epic frame in which to paint a new picture in a dramatic form. In Homer, whatever the heroes' faults, they are unquestionably great

glorious.

Eulogy is implicit in the very epithets used to describe them.

and the and He and

Pindar also

eulogises several of the great hero figures who become later the subject of tragedies.

Among them are Ajax, Heracles, Jason and Philoctetes. Homer and Pindar both celebrate Ajax's greatness, particularly his physical strength.

;

Homer calls him “great”, "huge",

Vernant & Vidal-Naquet, 10; 4. Cited ib., 9. Athenaeus, 347e.

33)

ét

"strong", *3

66

"tower of defence", >

6

“rampart

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

5

of the Achaeans”, “like a blazing lion". He defended the ships against the onslaughts of Hector. He was pre-eminent in the battle for the body of Patroclus.

He held a special place of honour at one end of the Greek encampment.° Even in the Odyssey, in the Underworld, where he turns his back on Odysseus, his silence is majestic and impressive.’ Pindar glorifies Ajax in the fourth /sthmian and pays tribute also to Homer's celebration of the hero’s greatness. Neither Homer nor

Pindar, however, ask fundamental questions about the nature of the man - they are content merely to celebrate him as a hero.

But Sophocles begins from where Homer

and Pindar left off. He too acknowledges this hero’s greatness, but he asks stringent questions at the same time. His play Ajax is the vehicle for such questions: How can the world comfortably contain such an individual? How can society function properly with one such as him in its midst? How can Ajax himself survive when he confuses so tragically the röles of comrade-in-arms and arch enemy? What does it mean to him mentally to take the decision to kill himself?

In this play we see Ajax not only as a glorious single heroic figure, but also as a tragic character who

is so because he is isolated from others, and is unable to

communicate with them successfully.

He is seen in the perspective of those around

him — Odysseus, Tecmessa, Teucer, Agamemnon

and Menelaus.

Undoubtedly he

has that epic star quality which the others do not possess and the continuity with the heroic past is important and a fundamental part of the whole conception — but that is

not the whole of it. He is a problem both for himself and for others, and because he is a problem we see the tragedy unfold. The heroic individual is balanced against the collective values of a more modern society, represented particularly by Odysseus, and to some extent by Agamemnon and Menelaus — odious though they are What

makes the drama of the play is precisely this tension between the old heroic individual concerns (the core of the myth), and the newer collective values of society

which had more relevance to Sophocles’ own time.

Of course this is an over-

simplification - there are problems implicit in epic too, as in Achilles’ case, but they

are not articulated as problems, they are just told and the audience must draw its own conclusions.

One of the most eulogised heroes in Pindar is Heracles. glorious the first exploits Pythian

He is celebrated as the

hero par excellence — monster-slayer and civiliser of the known world. In Nemean Pindar introduces him, and then goes on to describe his miraculous as a baby when Hera sent snakes to destroy him in his cradle.’ In the ninth are the words:

Stupid is the man, whoever he be, whose lips defend not Herakles,

a

sw

7

te

who remembers not the waters of Dirke that gave him life, and Iphikles. I, who have had some grace of them, shall accomplish my

?

Homer, //. 23.708, 842; 3.229; 7.211; 17.174, 360; Od. 11.556; Il. 3.229; 6.5; 7.211. Il. 11.5-9. Od. 11.543ff. See especially Soph., Aj. 121ff. where Odysseus rejects the traditional Greek view of the rightness of hating one's enemies and 1067ff. where Menelaus complains of the problems an individual such as Ajax poses for the army as a whole and its discipline.

Pindar, Nem. 1.33ff.

6

GENERAL INTRODUCTION vow to bring them glory; let only the shining

light of the singing Graces fail me not."° In the fourth /sthmian he speaks of Heracles’ civilising the known world, and in the second

ascension to Olympus after

Olympian he greets Heracles as the

founder of the Olympic games." Euripides takes the spirit of the Pindaric celebration and incorporates it early in

his play, The Mad Heracles, in an ode somewhat reminiscent of Pindar."

In it the

chorus eulogises the great labours of Heracles, stressing his superhuman strength and

effortless valour. But this dramatist too is concerned ultimately not with mere celebration but with problems. The end of the play shows a transformation: not the glorious invincible hero, but a vulnerable human being struck down by madness. This is a disgraced and humiliated Heracles who is broken and dependent. It is society who rescues him in the shape of Theseus his friend and Amphitryon his father. As the hero is brought down to the level of others, the superhuman isolation goes and human social values are seen to count. Once again the tension between the lone heroic figure and socially co-operative values are worked through in the course

of the drama. Perhaps nowhere is this blend of archaic myth and more recent thought, of the

clash between the heroic individual and collective co-operation, seen more clearly than in Aeschylus'

Oresteia.

There, an archaic story of the heroic Mycenaean age

ends up in Athens — not famous in Mycenaean times at all, and an Athens, at that, with contemporary resonances.

The old story of a family's blood feud is played out

in the Agamemnon and Libation Bearers where the tribal law of vendetta rules, and blood is shed for blood in seemingly endless succession. In the last play of the trilogy — the Eumenides — a modern legal solution is imposed, and by means of a new jury system at the court of the Areopagus at Athens, a public not a private judgement is made on the crime of murder. The setting up of this court in the play reflects an historical event, the confirmed attribution to the Areopagus of homicide cases in 462 B.C. by Ephialtes, and the patronage which Athene, the patron goddess of Athens, extended to this institution and to Athens as a whole. Thus the present community of the whole city is inextricably blended with what is ostensibly an archaic drama

recounting an ancient myth. Thirty-two tragedies survive, and of these, nineteen have as their setting a city or

polis, a polis with a ruler,

a community and political implication which have a

bearing on contemporary issues.

Of these nineteen, the Eumenides is set in Athens

itself, Sophocles’ Oedipus at Colonus 1s set at Colonus, very near Athens, Euripides’ Suppliants is set at Eleusis very near Athens, and his Heracleidae is set in Athens itself.

The rest are in Greek cities like Corinth, Thebes, Mycenae, or Troizen.

these cities have a turannos or sole ruler.

All

The setting and the form of rule are

ostensibly archaic to fit the traditional myth, but again and again the dramatist

imports contemporary resonances which will be of particular interest to his audience.

“

Pyth. 9.87ff., transl. by R. Lattimore.

1

Isth. 4.56ff., Ol. 2.3ff.

1

HF 348ff.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

7

Two of Sophocles’ plays — the Antigone and Oedipus the King - are set in a

polis, though that of Thebes not Athens, and both, particularly the Antigone, are to some extent concerned with the question of rule in relation to the ruler and his citizens. Sophocles was not on the whole aiming to make specific references to the contemporary political scene" although the plague at Thebes in Oedipus the King will have awoken familiar echoes in the audiences’ minds of their own privations from plague at Athens in the opening years of the Peloponnesian War.'* But this aside, Sophocles was concerned in these plays much more with general questions of what makes a good ruler in a city, what stresses affect him and what should be his

relations with the citizens.

Such questions would be of perennial interest to the

inhabitants of a city like Athens, even though the mechanisms of rule were no longer the same as they had been under the tyrants, and even though the dramatic location was Thebes not Athens. Such examples show that in Greek tragedy the archaic myths are transmitted not only to preserve their traditional features — though this transmission of the past is a vital ingredient of the dramatic conceptions and indeed forms an assumption from which to view the whole dramatic development? — but they are also permeated by a sense of what the present and the city state mean. The old hero is put in a new context where new judgements are made on him. There is a sense of the community, sometimes represented by the comments of the chorus as ordinary citizens, e.g. in the

Antigone, Oedipus the King, Medea and Hippolytus and sometimes by the comments of other characters who represent the common good like Odysseus in the Ajax, Theseus in the Heracles, the messengers in the Bacchae. The hero may have greatness, as he often has in Sophocles, but the greatness does not go unchallenged. It is not flawless. In Euripides the greatness may disappear altogether, as in the case of Jason, once the great hero of the Argonauts, and now a paltry mean-minded

person caught in a shabby domestic situation, or Menelaus as he appears in the Helen or Agamemnon in the Iphigenia in Aulis.

This questioning spirit so characteristic of Greek Tragedy is also important when one considers it as a religious event. It has often been said that tragedy’s

origins lie in ritual.'°

This may be true.

But that implies repetition, dogma and

unquestioning belief, and classical tragedy was never like this, although its performance was sacred to a god, and its content still reflected to some extent the

relations between gods and men. ^

For gods as well as heroes were inherited from

Unless the use of the term ton strategon ‘the commander’ Ant. 8, and andron proton ‘first of men’ OT 33 are veiled references to Pericles who was strategos ‘general’, and whose influence was very much that of first citizen. See Thuc. 11.65.10; V. Ehrenberg, Sophocles and Pericles (Oxford, 1954), 105ff.

M

OT 168ff. In fact Aristophanes set great store by what he saw as the róle of tragedy to preserve traditional heroic features and criticised Euripides strongly for debasing such features.

See next section. For a recent analysis of ritual elements in Greek Drama see F. R. Adrados, Festival, Comedy and Tragedy (Leiden, 1975), chs. II, VII, VIII, XI; R. Seaford, Ritual and Reciprocity (Oxford, 1994), 238-75.

8 GENERAL INTRODUCTION earlier myth and the innovations the dramatists bring to religious consciousness are Just as important as the developing complexity in their grasp of human behaviour. In fact the two are inextricably linked. It is not too much to say that the gods dominate the world of tragedy and those gods are no longer the sunny Olympians of Homer. In the interval between the eighth century and the fifth, moral consciousness has been born and the gods become associated with the implacable punishment of men’s wrongdoing. Whether Aeschylus’ all-seeing Zeus who is associated with Justice, or

Sophocles’ relentless oracles which always come true in the fullness of time, or Euripides’ pitiless Aphrodite or Dionysus, the gods hover above the heroes’ actions

watching men trip themselves up.

And

whether it is the passionate belief of

Aeschylus, or the inscrutable acceptance of Sophocles, or the protesting criticism of

Euripides, the gods are always there at the heart of tragedy and the new problematic lives of the heroes must be seen against this divine background. not sacred texts.

But tragedies are

By classical times the art form was emancipated, and the authors

free to change traditional treatments, criticise even the divine figures and sometimes, as Euripides did, show radical scepticism about the gods, their morals and even their very existence. This 1s all the result of a creative meeting between two worlds — the archaic, traditional, aristocratic, heroic world of myth, and the newer contemporary values of the democratic, highly social city state where the ordinary citizen’s views counted in the general reckoning of human conduct and achievement, and where contemporary thinkers were questioning moral and theological issues. The tragedians had available to them all the resources of inherited myth which they incorporated into their own experience as beings within the polis. They also

had to work through the contrived shapes of language and structure which conventionally belonged to the dramatic genre of tragedy. As we see them, these contrived shapes are overt and analysable, and their variety of style and development is largely responsible for the rich and complex experience which comes from watching this drama. Through them the dramatic action is assimilable: through them the reactions of those watching and listening are orchestrated. In other words

they filter through their disciplined structures the inherent turbulence of the basic material, thus controlling by form and pace the responses of the audience. First the verse form.

Greek Tragedy was written in verse in an elevated and

traditional poetic language. Most translations, even the verse ones, are misleading in that they do not record the variety of verse forms employed in the different sections of the plays. Spoken dialogue was in iambic trimeter. The sung portions, choral odes and solo arias, and some exchanges between actor and chorus, were in lyric

metres of which there was a wide range and variety to express different moods. Rhyme was not used. Music would accompany the lyric portions, often on the pipe but the music accompanying the drama has unfortunately not survived except for tiny almost unintelligible fragments.

The long spoken episodes, rather like acts, stand between shorter sung choral odes, or stasima as they are sometimes called, of which there are usually three or

four in the course of the play.

A processional song called the parodos

marks the

first entrance of the chorus into the orchestra and the name is clearly associated with that of the parodoi or side-entrances.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

9

The choral odes were danced as well as sung, and had elaborate choreography which again has not survived. Modern productions have to use imagination in providing steps and music in which to express the lyric parts of tragedy, but they can on the whole successfully reproduce the basic metrical rhythms and recurring

patterns of the words themselves. lyric are written differs.

The language in which iambic speech and choral

The former is in the Attic dialect, the latter includes

elements from a Doric form of Greek, perhaps reflecting the Peloponnesian origins of choral songs.

There is the utmost contrast in Greek Tragedy between the spoken

portion and the lyric. The former, though in verse, resembles more nearly ordinary conversation and, with occasional colloquialisms, particularly in Euripides, its language also owes much to rhetoric, particularly in the set debate and the longer speeches. Euripides’ language here ıs outstanding for its fluency and clarity of diction whether employed in argument, appeal, statement of feeling or philosophical

reflection." The lyrics on the contrary are in more elaborate metres and highly poetic language containing more ornament, more images, more condensed syntactical

structures and more compressed thought patterns.

They are composed

in the

tradition of the great lyric poets, particularly Pindar whose somewhat obscure but highly colourful and elaborate style was famous in antiquity and would have been familiar to the dramatists' audience. It is hard to communicate in a few words just what the lyric metres achieve in Greek Drama. And indeed we do not always know. But one can say that they characterise and control pace, mood, and tone. They act as a kind of register of emotion. Certain metres, like the dochmiac, for instance, are associated with high points of excitement, others like the ionic rhythms have cult associations, others, like the dactylic, convey a strong sense of insistent and forward movement, or may recall

the hexameter beat of epic. Frequently it is the subtle blend and changing of rhythms which create special effects as for instance when the opening ionics of the Bacchae parodos, evoking religious and cult associations, turn eventually through choriambs and glyconics to excited dactyls as the pace gathers momentum and the women sing

of rushing off to the mountains," or when the primarily iambic first stasimon of the Trojan Women is given an epic flavour at the beginning by its opening The lyric metres, more emotional than iambic trimeters, are contrast with the trimeter in mixed dialogues where one actor sings another replies in spoken utterance or where an actor will speak his

chorus reply in sung lyrics.

dactyls. often used in in lyrics and lines and the

In this way the different emotional levels are offset as

for instance at Alc. 244, where Alcestis, in a semi-delirious trance, as she has a vision

of approaching death, is given lyrics, and the uncomprehending Admetus speaks in

iambics.

|

The chorus are always at the heart of the play.

Singing and dancing to music,

they have a function which is both a part of, and yet slightly separated from, the Collard (1981), 20-3, 25-7; on the formal conventions and "rhetoric" of Tragedy see esp. Heath (1987) and Goldhill (1986), 222-43; cf. nn. 27 and 28 below.

ib.

26-7; cf. Heath (1987), 137-40.

" A Bacch. 64ff. and Dodds’ analysis, Bacchae (1960), 72-4.

10

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

main action. Placed in the orchestra, the circular dancing space, the chorus are physically distanced from the actors and like the messenger they are usually, though not always, outsiders who look at the happenings from a slightly different point of view from the protagonists. They are ordinary citizens," the protagonists are not.

The chorus’ task is to change the gear of the action, interrupting its forward flow and examining it in new perspectives. Their look at events allows time for reflection and Judgement, leisure to consider motivation and causal explanations. They may as so often in Aeschylus — e.g. in the parodos of the Agamemnon (40 ff.) — bring to light a

whole realm of background material which sets into relief the immediate events, or they may as in the ode on Man

in the Antigone (332 ff.), cast specific actions in a

more universal context. Their röle ıs that of an interested commentator who ıs able not only to reflect, but to look around as well as directly at an action, providing a sort of philosophical pause in highly poetic form. But sometimes, as in the Bacchae,

for instance, they are strongly involved in the action as participants, and here their songs actually enact the religious rituals which are at the heart of the play’s experience. Here there is no detachment, only devotion to the god. The choral function is complex and multiple, and varies from context to context, particularly in

Euripides. The varied lyric metres show a fine register of different emotions and indicate tone and mood. Frequently they change as an ode proceeds. Lyric is however not restricted to the chorus, and the solo aria is often a four de force in the play and associated with high emotion expressed through the lyric metres in which it is cast. This actor’s song in lyric is called a monody. Not all plays have one but some, as for instance the /on, Trojan Women and Phoenician Women of

Euripides, have two or more.

The monodies of Greek tragedy formed high points of

sympathetic identification with hero or heroine — more usually the latter since only a very few male characters are given one to sing in all of extant Greek tragedy. Here the author sought to move his audience with stirring music and words that excited

pity. The monody is often designed to present a subjective and partial point of view which reflects the strong preoccupations of the singer, but which may be at variance with other views presented in the play. Euripides, the most renowned composer of monodies, gives his singers just such passionate commitment and bias." Examples are Ion's adoration of Apollo, Creousa's blasphemy against the same god, Hecuba's aching despair, Cassandra's delirious wedding song, or Electra's passionate grief.? The monody has a lyric non-logical structure with images, personal apostrophes,

laments and prayers predominating.^ Among the spoken parts of the play are certain set pieces, easily recognisable in

formal terms, such as the messenger speech, agon (debate), rhesis

(single set

speech) and stichomythia (line dialogue). In Euripides these are much more obviously marked off than in Sophocles and Aeschylus so that they sometimes seem almost crystallised and isolable in themselves rather than merging into one another Not in the technical sense of course since women were not full citizens but in the sense

of people concerned at issues in the community. On the function of the monody see Barlow, ch. III, 43ff.

= ?

Jon 82ff., 859ff, Tro. 98ff., 308ff., ; El. 112ff. Eg.Hipp.817ff.; lon 82ff., 859ff.; Tro. 98ff. See also Barlow, 45ff.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

11

or growing naturally. Euripides no doubt had his own reasons for this and indeed often the sharp contrast between modes creates a dramatic excitement of a peculiarly

impelling kind.” The messenger speech, much beloved by Euripides, is one such spoken device.” It is a set narrative speech in iambics, reporting offstage action to the actors on the stage and to the audience. Perhaps here the röle of the imagination for the audience is at its height. A whole scene is set for the spectator with exact detail sketched in so that visual and auditory images etch themselves sharply on the mind. Gone are the

personal apostrophes, images, laments and prayers of the lyric style.

Here, instead,

is ordered narrative in strict chronological sequence, full of verbs of action and

graphic physical detail.

Unlike the monodist, the messenger is an outsider, a third

person objective witness who records events in an unbiased way and in such a manner that the audience can make their own judgements.

It would be a mistake to think of the messenger’s report as a poor substitute which fails to make up for what cannot be shown on the stage. On the contrary it is superior to spectacle. The Greeks delighted in narrative ever since the performances of the epic rhapsodes were formally instituted by Peisistratus, and long before that no

doubt, and such extended reports will have given special pleasures in themselves.

As

Aristotle saw, there were disadvantages to mere horror spectacles even had it been

feasible to stage them.’ For they produce confusion and shock - so that their impact would preclude proper assimilation of the events. What the messenger does is to control and stage the experience so that it is assimilable to the spectator bit by bit in an ordered way. Euripides’ messenger speeches with their quiet pictorial beginnings, their slow build-ups, their fragments of recorded conversation, and their graphic descriptions of

the climactic acts of horror in visual terms, are masterpieces of the art of narrative. The two in the Bacchae for instance not only tell the audience what has happened, but make imaginable through pictures the whole Bacchic experience. Here the narrative is indispensable, for it is inconceivable that the audience would ever be able to view directly the mass attack of the women upon the cattle or upon Pentheus. It would be utterly beyond stage resources. But if by any chance they were allowed to view it, it is unlikely that they would emerge with as clear and as objective a picture as the messenger is able to give. Narrative enables greater total

understanding than mere spectacle, and can condense more into a short space of time. In that it is one degree removed from direct sight, and is delivered by an impartial witness, it practises a kind of distancing which reduces the crude horror of the tragic action and requires balanced judgement as well as an emotional response.

= *

See for instance the contrasts in Trojan Women between the monody, between Cassandra’s monody and her iambic rhesis, and the subsequent choral ode, between the iambic dialogue kommos which ends the play; on these conventional variations 18 above. On the messenger speech see Barlow, 61ff.; Heath (1987), (1991). Aristotle, Poetics, ch. XIII, 1453b, 8-10.

prologue and Hecuba’s between the great debate at 1260ff. and the lyric see Heath in nn. 17 and 149-50,

153-7; de Jong

12

GENERAL INTRODUCTION Many tragedies contain a set debate or ‘agon’ where one character presents a

case in formal terms, and another, as adversary, responds point for point in a counter speech. Euripides, particularly, formalised such debates, so that they often resembled law-court speeches, and they are indeed sometimes cast in formal

rhetorical terms." Examples are Medea’s great debate with Jason, or Hecuba's with Helen in the Trojan

Women.

important than naturalism.

In these, logical and orderly exposition

is more

It is never possible entirely to separate feelings from

reasoned thought — nor should it be. But the modes of tragedy assault both, in differing degrees, by different routes. The solo aria is a direct appeal to the feelings

through emotive sound and image, through words of personal address and reaction. The messenger speech appeals to the audience's consciousness through an ordered evocation of the senses so that one perceives and hears a chronological sequence of

events in the mind's eye and ear.

The agon,

on the other hand, captures the

audience’s hearts and minds by persuasion through reasoned argument. the result may involve the emotions, the method is more intellectual than in aria or the messenger speech. Thus the agon in the Trojan Women with development of points of debate gives an academic edge to an action otherwise predominantly lyric in mood.

Although either the its sharp which is

The rhesis is a set speech of an actor which works by persuasive and ordered logic and which may none the less often make strong appeal to the emotions. It is the commonest of all dramatic forms and one of the most varied, and overlaps with other parts. It may, for example, form part of a debate scene, it may convey extended dialogue or it may stand on its own in monologue. Its tenor may be argumentatve, reflective, pathetic, informative or questioning. Many set speeches

take the form of a monologue where the speaker examines his of her motive and actions in an intense process of self-examination.“ Such are Medea's speech to the women of Corinth at Med. 214 ff. or her monologue at 1021 ff., Phaedra's speech at Hipp. 373 ff. or Hippolytus' at 616 ff., Hecuba's speech at Hec. 585 ff. Often it is hard to separate the emotional element from the thought element

when the poet gets the balance right. For instance Medea's speech at Med. 1021 ff., where she debates whether she can bring herself to kill her own children, has a tight logical structure, but through this makes strong appeal also to the emotions.” There is a delicate balance between direct apostrophe, a simple expression of raw feeling,

and reasoned alternatives which are worked out logically.

But the dramatist

brilliantly gives the impression that the logic is forced out desperately by a person fighting for control in a situation where the emotions threaten to take over. The result is a powerful speech which assaults both our emotional and our thinking

faculties, made no less effective by the violent swings of stance which Medea takes

On the agon see J. Duchemin, L'Agon dans la tragédie grecque? (Paris, 1968); C. Collard, G&R 22 (1975), 58-7] (with Addendum in I. McAuslan, P. Walcot (eds.), Greek Tragedv, 153-66); Lloyd (1992).

% ~

Collard (1981), 21-2; Lloyd (1992), 19-36. |n G&R 36 (1989), 165-6 and n.22 I accept Kovacs’ arguments for deleting 1056-64 but keeping 1065-80 (pace Diggle who in his Oxford Classical Text deletes all of 1056-80).

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

13

as she is torn between the immediate sight of her children before her, and the more

long-term thought of her future life as it must follow from present circumstances. Stichomythia is a special kind of formal dialogue where the characters speak in

single line exchanges. It is not the only kind of dialogue or even the commonest in tragedy but I single it out here because of its regular and easily identifiable form. Such a tight and formal framework permits speed, concentrated and pointed utterance within its compass.”

It is particularly suited to scenes of interrogation such

as we see in the Bacchae where it communicates with its economy and rapid pace the extreme tension and changing shifts between the god Dionysus and Pentheus the

King." All these items, monody, choral ode, messenger speech, set debate, rhesis and stichomythia make up the ‘formal’ elements of Greek Tragedy. Now ‘formal’ sometimes conjures up an image of fossilisation and aridity, but this is far from the case. On the contrary, the variety of metre, language, dialect and mode within the compass of one tragedy, and the alternation of song and speech, and of lyric and dialogue, made Greek Tragedy a rich experience offering a range seldom even dreamt of today. Each mode approaches the same dramatic action in a new way,

with its own perspective and its own style, so that the audience is constantly exposed to shifts of perception, and the contrasts such shifts imply. Moreover each mode would have had its own associations — lyric arousing echoes of the great lyric tradition in Greece, narrative, reminiscent of epic, catering for the pleasure in storytelling the Greeks always had. And each mode carried with it its own responses which contrasted with others. Thus the great debates provided intellectual stimulus

and were set off against the more emotional colouring of choral odes and arias. All were combined within the one dramatic action.

With great range of form went an economy and concentration lacking in much modern drama. The action was usually confined to twenty-four hours in one place, and was so arranged that all the parts could be taken by three actors. Scenery was sparse, subtle gestures and expressions were precluded by masks, heavy costumes and the sheer size of the theatre. But these things in themselves explain why the burden must be on the language (speech and song) and why the words were so important. In them were all the things which today are done by elaborate costume, make-up, close-up photography, lighting, scenery, stage directions, and all the rest.

To the Greeks the expressed utterance was all — or almost all.” So it was that the very great range of form in Greek Tragedy evinced in the different modes of speech and sung lyric, was matched by an equal range of expressions of complex human emotion, action, and thought made to fit those forms and channelled into patterns of plot, setting and action of extreme economy. It was

this rich content within a controlling structure which involved too a creative harmonising of past and present attitudes through use of myth, as I outlined at the 9

Collard (1981), 22; contrast Heath (1987), 128-30.

*

Bacch.

®

distichomythia, at 923-62. But for the rôle of the non-verbal in theatrical performance see Taplin (1978), passim; Heath (1987), 140-5; Gould (Note on p. 2 above).

463-508, 647-55, 802-41.

N.B. the change to two-line

dialogue,

i.e.

14 GENERAL INTRODUCTION beginning, which gave, and still does give, Greek tragedy its forceful, concentrated impact.

III. Euripides Euripides was the youngest of the three great Athenian tragedians (c. 484-406 B.C.) although Sophocles, his slightly older contemporary, outlived him by a few months. In his lifetime he was not as popular with the Athenian public as the others, winning

fewer prizes (four first prizes out of twenty two occasions) and ending his life in

voluntary exile away from Athens at the court of Archelaus of Macedon.”

More of

his work has survived than the meagre seven plays each we have of Aeschylus and Sophocles. Nineteen plays entire have come down to us under his name including the satyr play Cyclops, the Alcestis, a substitute for a satyr play, and the probably spurious Rhesus. Perhaps because of the wider sample known to us, part of which has been preserved by accident and not by deliberate selection, his work seems

uneven and diverse in range.”

There are the great tragedies of a very high order

such as the Medea, Hippolytus,

Trojan Women

and Bacchae.

But there are also

plays where tragic themes mix with lighter elements and the ending is happy, such as the Alcestis, Ion, Iphigenia in Tauris, Helen. Attempts to categorise Euripides’ style and plot by chronological criteria, thematic groupings, or structural elements, have largely failed, since there always. seem to be exceptions which prevent such

categories being watertight.’ most resistant to fixed labels.

Euripides is the most elusive of dramatists and the |

Not that his contemporaries hesitated.to fix labels upon him.

The comic poet

Aristophanes was one such, a sharp critic who parodied him for his choice of subject matter, characters, plots, opinions and style.” Aristophanes saw him as ultra-trendy,

undermining introducing

traditional religious and moral beliefs in a dangerous outrageous

musical

innovations.

He

saw

Euripides’

way

and

characters,

particularly his women characters, as unprincipled and shameless, too clever for their own or anybody else’s good. He thought that Euripides elevated the ordinary to an absurd degree, making the trivial seem important, and low characters appear too

a

See the chart of chronology and award of prizes in Collard (1981), 2; charts also in M.

*

Barrett, Hippolytos (1964), 5Off.; Collard (1981), 3; Michelini (1987), 19-51.

#

Collard (1981), 5; cf. Michelini (1987), 48-51. Criticisms of Euripides occur extensively in Frogs, Thesmophoriazusae, substantially in Acharnians and in scattered references throughout Aristophanes’ other works. See G.

Cropp, G. Fick, BICS Supplement 43 (1985), 5, 22, 23, 70.

M.

A. Grube,

The

Greek

Paratragodia (München,

and Roman

Critics (London,

1967); K. J. Dover, Aristophanic

1965), Comedy

22-32; (London,

P.. Rau, 1972),

183-9; on Thesmophoriazusae see esp. A. M. Bowie, Aristophanes (Cambridge, 1993), 217-27. D. Kovacs, Euripidea (Leiden and New York, 1994) gives English translations of the principal Aristophanic passages but also of the most important ancient testimonies to Euripides’ life and work. |

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

significant.

He

therefore

saw

him

as destroying

15

the old heroic values and

introducing instead ambiguous moral standards." A rebel in fact of a most subversive kind. This 1s quite a catalogue of blemishes. How misleading is it? Aristophanes is concerned of course mainly with raising a laugh — and for this, gross exaggeration is necessary. None the less much of his criticism is apt, if in a superficial way. Euripides does introduce women characters who are criminal in their actions,

like Medea who kills her children and two others, or like Phaedra who falsely incriminates her stepson thus indirectly causing his death. But Aeschylus had portrayed Clytemnestra — surely

now?

a woman

of towering criminality.

Why the fuss

Perhaps because Euripides led the audience to see the action from these

characters’ points of view, whereas Aeschylus with Clytemnestra. Euripides was able to show children or your mother; to be consumed by revenge; to fight in overmastering love and

madness."

hardly encourages us to sympathise what it felt like to have to kill your devouring jealousy or a desire for struggle with the consequences of

And in so doing, unlike Sophocles, who on the whole portrayed

characters who retained their wholeness and integrity throughout their tragedies, he explored weakness not strength, and exposed those elements in character which revealed disintegration and the split persona. Electra, Orestes, Pentheus, Phaedra,

Admetus and even Medea or the great Heracles all reveal in some degree traits which

characterise such disintegration and a nature divided against itself.” —

—

To say that in so presenting his characters Euripides was debunking the heroic is only part of the truth. Undeniably in a play like the Electra all the old heroic assumptions and settings are undermined or changed.

longer longer longer setting ?

Electra and Orestes are no

the single-minded champions of justice. Clytemnestra and Aegisthus are no the uncompromising villains they were in Aeschylus. The murders are no performed in such a way that they can be seen as heroic actions. Even the has changed from grand palace to impoverished hovel.

Religious beliefs:

Frogs. 888ff.

Immorality:

Frogs 771ff., 1079ff., Thesm. 389ff.

Musical innovations: Frogs 1298ff., 1331ff. Women characters: Frogs 1049ff., Thesm. 389ff. Cleverness: Frogs 775ff., 956ff, 1069ff. Stress on the ordinary or the sordid, the

antiheroic: Frogs 959ff., 1013ff., 1064, Ach. 41 0ff. "

A point made by Vickers, 563-4 and 566 (apropos of the Electra). See Medea's agonised speech at 1021ff., Electra’s remorse at 1183ff., Hermione’s vindictive jealousy expressed in the scene at And. 147ff., Hecuba’s gloating revenge over Polyınestor at Hec. 1049ff. and her justification before Agamemnon 1233ff., Phaedra’s struggle with her love at Hipp. 373ff. particularly 380-1 and 393ff., Heracles’ struggle to face the consequences of his madness from HF 1089 to the end. Electra and Orestes in the Electra both suffer remorse for their murder of their mother. Orestes in the Orestes is reduced to madness through guilt and tormented by conscience (sunesis). Pentheus is destroyed by the very thing he professes to despise, ending his life as voluntary spectator at a Bacchic revel from which he had previously dissociated himself. Phaedra knows how she should be but cannot achieve it. Her love overndes her better judgement as does Medea’s hate (Hipp. 380-1, Med. 1078-9). Admetus suffered acute remorse for letting Alcestis give her life for him (Alc. 861 ff. and 935ff.). Heracles is on the brink of total disintegration (HF 1146ff.).

16

GENERAL INTRODUCTION And in other plays too such as /phigenia in Aulis, great leaders of the heroic

tradition like Agamemnon and Menelaus appear in particularly despicable lights, shifting their ground, arguing for expediency and promoting personal ambition at the expense of principles. _ Yet it would be a mistake to say that Euripides had no concept of what it meant to be heroic if we think of this word not in its narrow archaic sense of military and

physical valour, but in more general terms. It is that often he redefines traditional heroic qualities or else transfers them to women, placed in different situations from male heroes.

Medea for instance, although a woman, shows many of the great heroic

qualities of say an Ajax or an Achilles: bravery, desire to preserve her own honour, refusal to be laughed at by her enemies, the decisive nature to act in revenge.” What makes her interesting is the combination of these traditional qualities with her röle as a woman and mother. In the Trojan Women, Hecuba the old queen of Troy is heroic in her endurance of the sufferings inflicted on her by the Greeks, and in her fight to preserve her family. And when Euripides in the first stasimon makes the chorus “Sing, Muse, of

Ilium, a lament consisting of new songs" he is redefining the old epic notions of glorious war and transferring them to a setting where it is the victims who are seen as the true heroes — a point Cassandra also makes in her speech at Tro. 365 ff. Several women characters voluntarily surrender their lives for a noble cause —

such as Iphigeneia in Iphigenia in Aulis, the parthenos in the Heracleidae, or Evadne in the Suppliants, not to mention Alcestis who dies to save her husband. These are all examples of heroism, though not in the traditional masculine mould. In the Heracles where the protagonist is male, Euripides contrasts the old traditional and active heroism of Heracles in performing the labours, with the more passive qualities of endurance he must display in facing up to the terrible consequences of his subsequent madness. He rejects the traditional hero’s solution to disgrace, namely suicide - the way Ajax had taken - and decides to live on in the

company of his humiliation and misery. A new heroism perhaps for a newer age.” Aristophanes, through the mouthpieces of Aeschylus and Dionysus in the Frogs, regretted the passing of the old standards and saw nothing but demeaning and undignified negativism in their place. “Oikeia pragmata”, “ordinary things”, to him were not worthy of tragedy. But Euripides’ celebration of the ordinary, if so it may

be called, is often a positive and important part of the way he saw events and actions. It is not only

characters. 9? 4l

€

small

actions

we

see it at work,*

but also in

Again and again relatively humble characters play a significant röle in a

B.M. W. Knox, “The Medea of Euripides," YCS 25 (1977), 193-225, esp. 198-9; see my G&R 36 (1989), 161-3. Tro. 511ff. See my note on this passage. See esp. H. H. O. Chalk, ‘Arete and Bia in Euripides’ Herakles, JHS 82 (1962), 7ff.; see my

?

in settings and

G&R 29 (1982), 115-25 (now also in I. McAuslan, P. Walcot (eds.), Greek Tragedy,

193-203); D. J. Furley, "Euripides and the Sanity of Heracles” in Studies in Honour of T. B. L. Webster, Vol. I (Bristol, 1986), 108ff. Settings such as the farmer's cottage in the Electra or the drab tents of the Greek encampment in the Trojan Women. Often ordinary actions are described such as when the chorus and companions are doing the washing (Hipp. 121ff., Hel. 179ff.) or Ion is

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

17

play’s events. The farmer husband of Electra is arguably the only sane person in the Electra. The old servant in the Hippolytus has the wisdom Hippolytus lacks. The two messengers in the Bacchae grasp the truth of the Dionysiac phenomenon with an

instinctive sense denied to all the other characters in the play.“

They in fact carry

the message of the play — that it is dangerous to deny such instinctive wisdom and to

mock at belief. Aristophanes was therefore right when he said that Euripides introduced the ordinary into tragedy. He did. The ordinary person is listened to and often proved nght.

And if this is regarded as an overturning of values, it is a positive

and significant one and should not be dismissed as mere rabble rousing. What Arıstophanes saw as frivolity and irresponsibility in Euripides in fact sprang from a deep care for the world and a wish to protest at its wrongs.

what his characters show.

This is

It was not to abandon a portrayal of the heroic but to

redefine it. And all the charges of agnosticism or heresy which the comic poet loved to heap upon Euripides’ shoulders are likewise superficially true, but in a deeper sense misleading.

Aristophanes was wrong to see Euripides’ own views in every character who railed against the gods. Indeed his own views are difficult to recognise since he ts usually much too good a dramatist to intrude his own persona. His characters

display many different beliefs as their röle and the occasion demands. It is true however that attack on the gods is a persistent and recurring theme from major characters. Repeatedly his leading characters — Hecuba, Iphigeneia, Amphitryon, Heracles, Ion, Creousa, Electra, Orestes — express their despair at a Universe negligently managed by divine beings." But his reluctance to believe at all on their part, but from an commonly understood, can be so amoral and utterly It is the disillusion of the perfectionist that Euripides is made to say, but I do not believe the gods commit adultery, or bind each other in chains. I never did believe it; I never shall;

despair springs not from a outrage that gods, as they are uncaring of human well-being. so often portrays. As Heracles

nor that one god is tyrant of the rest. If god is truly god, he is perfect,

lacking nothing. These are poets’ wretched lies.“ Such sentiments come not from the frivolity of his characters, but from their

taking the Universe too seriously. If there is a fault it is the latter not the former, that should be laid against Euripides’ door. And no one who has heard or read the Bacchae could possibly accuse its creator of either agnosticism or superficiality. There are depths in it still being explored today.

* »

*

sweeping out the temple with a broom (Jon 112ff.) or Hypsipyle sweeping the step (Hyps. fr. 1.ii Bond), or the chorus describe themselves getting ready for bed (Hec. 914ff.). Bacch. 769ff., 1150ff. Trojan Women 469ff., 1240ff., 1280ff., IT 384ff., HF 339ff., 1340ff., Jon 435ff., 911ff., 1546ff., Εἰ. 979, 1190, 1246.

]341-6 transl. by W. Arrowsmith; cf. 17 384ff.

18

GENERAL INTRODUCTION The very characteristics in Euripides’ work which disturbed Aristophanes and

his contemporaries — his moral ambiguity, his scepticism, his anti-heroic stance and ‘his common touch — are what appeal to the modern reader for they seem more in keeping with our own age. In the twentieth century we have been preoccupied with doubt and disintegration, demythologising and rationalising, and this is what Euripides epitomises.

We can admire the sheer brilliance with which he manipulates

the myths in a way which both uses and exposes their assumptions.

While keeping

the traditional stories as a frame, he yet undercuts them by rationalising many of the

attitudes which have previously underpinned them. Notions of the very gods he uses come under attack: old conceptions about pollution and guilt are questioned; traditional criteria for judging character are scrutinised and found wanting. And in this problematic climate his characters like Electra, Orestes, Medea, Phaedra or

Pentheus, pick their way, on the verge of collapse under the strain, as their rational grip loses the battle with the forces of disintegration. But the drama he created did not always offer purely negative perspectives. Again and again positive human values are seen to triumph over divine neglect or apathy — the friendship of Amphitryon and Theseus, the supporting love of Hecuba for her family and her courage, the integrity of Ion, the compassion of Cadmus and Agave, the selfless sacrifice of Iphigeneia, Alcestis, the parthenos in the

Heracleidae, and the cheerful sanity of ordinary people like messengers, or servants. In the importance he attached to supporting röles and to the close interaction between his characters, Euripides prefers not to focus upon one dominating protagonist. The whole social context is what matters, and environment and social

factors play a much larger part in determining the main character’s röle and the course of the action than they do in Sophocles (with the exception perhaps of the

Philoctetes )"

.

In short Euripides was adventurous — adventurous above all in his treatment of myth.

And

adventurousness

here meant

an entirely new

character, moral and religious values, and social factors.

perspective

on plot,

But he was adventurous too

in treatment of form and structure. He experimented with music and lyrics, with metrical forms and with the breaking up of dialogue. He increased the röle of the solo aria and messenger speech and he sometimes changed the traditional function of the chorus. He introduced more colloquialism into the dialogue and more elaboration than Sophocles into the late lyrics, thus increasing contrasts between the modes. What is clear is that he reshaped tragedy in a radical way so that it could never be quite the same again. He went as far as he could in giving it a new image without abandoning its basic conventions. And there is common agreement that his work is, at its best, of the first rank.

Of course there are faults and unevennesses in the plays: echoes from the soapbox occasionally, irrelevant rhetorical excrescences sometimes, self-indulgence in

over-elaborate ornamentation of some of the later lyrics, too blatant melodrama perhaps in certain plays, loose plot construction in others." But informing all is an "

See n. 43.

*

These points are covered by Collard (1981), e.g. rhetorical excresences 25-6, over-

GENERAL INTRODUCTION 19 understanding of a very powerful sort, a mind which for all its critical sharpness, also knew the human heart and dissected it not only with uncanny perception but also

with compassion. It was Aristotle who called Euripides tragikotatos ton poieton, “the most emotionally moving of the poets”, a paradox one might think for one who was also the most intellectual of dramatists, but a paradox that for him somehow makes sense.

ornamentation of lyrics 26-7, melodrama to be seen in last minute rescues or recognitions 6. Many plays have been criticised for their plot construction in the past; see my article on HF in G&R 29 (1982), 115-25, although, as I have pointed out, opinions on this subject are now changing. Aristotle, Poetics, ch. XIII, 1453a, 28-30.

2]

Introduction to Jon Tell all the Truth but tell it slant — Success in Circuit lies

Too brıght for our infirm Delight The Truth's superb surprise

As Lightning to the Children eased With explanation kind

The Truth must dazzle gradually Or every man be blind — Emily Dickinson

c. 1868

1. Plot and Meaning Ion has a carefully engineered plot, rich in incident and varied in tone. Hermes tells us in the prologue that Kreousa, an Athenian princess, had been raped as a young girl by Apollo. She bore her child and left it in a cave to die, but at Apollo's behest

Hermes brought it from Athens to his temple in Delphi, the setting of the play, where it was found and reared by Apollo's Priestess. Kreousa has in the meantime married Xouthos, a foreigner who came to the assistance of the Athenians in a war, but they

are still without children. Hermes then gives a preview of the play's action. The couple will come to Delphi to consult the oracle about their childlessness. Apollo will give his and Kreousa's son to Xouthos as his own; when back in Athens mother and son will be reunited and Ion, as Hermes calls the boy, will become founder of the Ionian race.

The action of the play itself begins with the entrance of Ion, who sings in praise of Apollo as he performs his duties as a temple-attendant. He is interrupted by the Chorus, Kreousa’s serving-women, who enter to describe in song the sculptures

which decorate the temple. Kreousa then appears in great sorrow. She and Ion feel an instant sympathy and converse about their respective situations: pretending that it is the story of a friend, she tells him of the rape and baby; he is unable to give any account of his identity. Xouthos enters, goes into the temple to consult the oracle, and coming out soon afterwards claims Ion as his son. Though sceptical and reluctant, Ion at last accepts him and agrees to leave Delphi for Athens. The Chorus, disobeying Xouthos’ order, tell Kreousa and the Old Man, a family tutor who has

accompanied her to Delphi, about the oracle, adding gratuitously that Kreousa will never bear a child. Kreousa is distraught and tells the story of her rape and loss of her baby in a monody, after which she and the outraged Old Man plot to poison Ion at

the banquet celebrating his new status. A long report describing the failed murder attempt follows, and then Kreousa, who has been condemned to death, enters, and, pursued by the furious Ion, seeks asylum at Apollo's altar. The ensuing stalemate is broken by Ion's foster mother, the Priestess, who enters to bid Ion farewell and to

22

INTRODUCTION TO ION

give him the basket in which he was exposed. It and Ion are recognised by Kreousa

and after she answers his testing questions about the basket's contents mother and son are reunited. The play comes to an end with the epiphany of Athena who assures the doubting Ion that he is indeed Apollo's son and reveals his destiny as the founder of the Ionian race.

The main lines of the plot are drawn from the familiar tale of the hero exposed as a baby, rescued and eventually restored to his true home and status.” Such a talepattern provided a ready matrix for a patriotic account of the descent of the Ionians'

eponymous ancestor: son of the autochthonous princess Kreousa and of the god Apollo, who was patron of the arts, and born in Delos, the spiritual centre of Athens’ imperial ambitions. But even with the tense excitement brought by the threats and failures normalin such tales, the dramatisation of such an account of the hero's

adventures would have not taken the play beyond the shallow waters of romance or melodrama. /on is a tragedy which, despite its moments suggesting otherwise, runs deeper than this.

Euripides enlarges the impact of the story by manipulating the focus and content of various motifs. Ion is confronted not with dangers from without in the shape of terrifying monsters or malicious rivals; it is his own mother who in her ignorance

plots to destroy him with a determination fuelled by those with the best of intentions: the deeply sympathetic Chorus and the over-loyal Old Man (760ff., 808ff., 972ff.).‘!

The hostility of the group which is in fact closest to Ion is ironically underlined by the

warmth

shown

him

by the

outsider,

the

ductile

Xouthos

(517ff.,

569ff.).

Challenges to Ion's status, while heard occasionally from others, are largely the

ringing sounds of his own fears (589ff., 673ff.). Most significantly, unlike other heroes separated from family and birthright, Ion spends his ‘lost period’ not in some wild or evidently unworthy environment, but in Delphi, the centre of the world (5f.,

222f.). Slave though he is, he enjoys respect (54ff.), and he is so content in the place of his rearing that he hesitates to leave (646). In fact, Delphi is presented as his home because it is indeed his father's home, and because his surrogate mother, the Priestess, is a woman in an all but physical union with the god who fathered him. Parallel to the internalisation of Ion's situation is the enduring pain felt by Kreousa, which is occasioned not by an outraged father or importunate suitors, but

by her own feelings of shame and guilt, and by grief at the loss of her baby. Unlike other women blessed by the visitation of a god,” she is not driven from home, but continues to enjoy her status as a princess. It is precisely this which allows her to

dwell obsessively on Apollo's seeming neglect. Her resentment and tears, scarcely to

i

*

For the use of this tale-pattern in Euripides see the comprehensive and impressively detailed study of Huys. Burnett (Jon 12) is too negative in speaking of the Chorus’ ‘treason and lies’ and the Old Man's 'rash exaggerations and foolish amorality'.

Cf. the well known stories of Danaé, Antiope and Melanippe.

INTRODUCTION TO ION 23 be condemned as 'faithless',? are presented not as misguided obstacles to Apollo's intentions, but as the reactions of flesh and blood long kept in check by hopes that evaporate when she hears news that seems to make her childless twice over (865ff.). In other tales the hero comes home to find family and his rightful place in the world. This was planned for Ion, but as it turns out the essence of his return is worked out even before he leaves for Athens. The transfer of the revelation from

there means that the Delphic setting, beside the mechanical purpose of giving Ion the fictitious identity he can share with the world, is used for deeper thematic purposes as well. Delphi is the only home Ion knows (110f., 315). But to Kreousa Delphi is a source of tears because the place, replete with Apollonian associations, can only conjure up images of her rape at Athens and the time of Ion's infancy (249f.). For all his splendour, the god is now remembered as ungrateful lover and neglectful parent (384ff.). Thus their contrary attitudes to Delphi are an expression of the temporal and spatial gulf which exists between mother and son. But this is bridged by the over-

arching concern of Apollo who, though unseen, is ever present and intensely involved. For the god the years Kreousa spent longing for her child are as brief as the

fleeting moment of his liaison with her; the distance between Athens and Delphi matters as little as the slight adjustment to his plans which shifted their reunion from

one place to the other. At last, in the light of Athena's commentary, Apollo's behaviour will be understood, but this will not undo what has been done. Even amidst the words of reconciliation there is a reminder of the sorrow that was (1610). This beautifully wrought, challengingly ambiguous drama has given rise to ἃ

variety of interpretations, aspects of which will be discussed in some detail below. In the meantime some brief formulation of its meaning is as necessary as it 1s futile.

The play has been seen as the satirical condemnation of Apollo and traditional religion. On the other hand, it has been taken as giving full approval to the god, whose providence, despite appearances to the contrary, is thoroughly vindicated. Are these approaches too earnest, and should we read the play as a light-hearted piece which sees everything come right in the end, and allows us to laugh quietly at human failings, some more excusable than others, but all redeemable in a world whose standards ‘though not perfect, are sound’? Such divergent readings, with many and

varied nuances, have been expounded by sensitive, well-informed critics. This leaves us not with interpretative chaos, but with the conviction that ambiguity and absence of closure are central to this drama. This is not because Euripides failed to present a

clear message, it is the message itself. The play of light and shade, the amalgam of error and virtues like loyalty, piety and compassion, the benevolence of a god who yet seems to act in fits and starts produce the remarkable texture of a play which reflects mortal uncertainty. Ion grows to find a life which, though splendid, will not evoke the joy and peace of his opening song. Kreousa never loses our sympathy,

8

Cf. Burnett, Jon 8.

M

Knox, Word and Action 266

24 INTRODUCTION TO ION even when hate seems to be her only emotion. Apollo is worthy of neither blame nor unqualified approval. So the play, like Ion himself, is a hybrid in its tone and in the judgements it provokes. It leaves us at the end continuing to brood over the scales which balance the grand Athenian future against Kreousa’s image of her abandoned

baby, holding out its arms and appealing to its mother for warmth and nourishment (961). 2. Structure

Ion's journey home is structured in three stages, each marked by a revelation: first he is ‘identified’ as the son

of Xouthos;

then as Apollo's

son, born

of Erechtheus'

daughter; finally Athena, after confirming his past, announces his future. In between the first two come the obstacles laid not in the wild, by the birds and animals of

Kreousa's imaginings, but by his unrecognised mother and by a member of the household to which he belongs. The third is preceded by Ion's own doubts and hesitations. This material is shaped with remarkable coherence and focus by means of imaginative use of plot-elements known from other plays: intrigue, recognition,

asylum sought at ani altar.? Hermes’ account of Apollo's plans introduces the idea of intrigue (69ff.), since they involve an element of deception. Apollo's intentions are

served first by the withholding of the information desired by Kreousa (369ff.), and

then in the false information given to Xouthos about Ion (530ff.). The Chorus’ indiscretion sets in motion a much more elaborate and explicit intrigue in the scheme to kill Ion. Whereas in other plays the intrigue-motif follows the recognition and after the tense excitement of possible failure ensures rescue for the reunited parties, here it expresses the distance between the related pair, is darker and willed to fail by the audience.” The failure of the intrigue sets in train the true recognition, but not before we are reminded of Apollo and his plans by means of the asylum-motif, staged at his altar, and by the entrance of Apollo's Priestess with Ion's baby-things,

the catalyst of the recognition. But the discovery of his mother is in itself insufficient to cancel the effects of the pseudo-recognition. Ion's lingering doubts about his father (1546ff.) neatly link beginning and end both theatrically and thematically. Apollo had brought Ion to Delphi by favour of Hermes, whom we saw leave as an interested

spectator of a plan taking its course. Ion's self-assured return to Athens requires the intervention of a second deity who will not be Apollo's agent, but his mouthpiece, dispelling the illusions demanded by his arrangements for Ion's future. Apollo, his plans already served by the passage of time as Ion grew to maturity in Delphi, assumed a like delay in Athens before Ion and Kreousa discovered each other and the truth. But the god's leisure is out of touch with the mortal needs for immediate

assurance and so Athena must come in haste (1556) to resolve the play's final crisis.” à *

"

Cf. Strohm, Form 30ff., 76ff., 134ff.; Webster, Tragedies of Eur. 202ff. — Cf.F. Solmsen, Hermes 69 (1934) 390ff., K. Matthiessen, Elektra, Taurische Iphigenie und Helena (Góttingen, 1964).

Onthe differing attitudes to time in the play see H. Strohm, WS 10 (1976) 74ff.

INTRODUCTION TO ION

25

The appearance of a deity at beginning and end is but one of several structural and formal repetitions which knit together the movements of the play. Ion's monody

(112-83), expressive of his devotion to Apollo and contentment in the god's service, is in direct contrast with Kreousa's song (859-922), which is an outraged attack on

the god for his neglect of the very child whose carefree lyrics we have heard. But this mirroring 1s more than an ironic commentary on Kreousa's misguided feelings. Her song is expressive of her limited view of the past, just as Ion's reveals his exclusive

attachment to the present. The truth will allow her to move away from her misguided obsessions with the past, and it will take Ion beyond Delphi and the present, allowing -

him to recover his past and serve the needs of his true home.” Recognition

of mother and son, significantly delayed to accommodate

other

concerns,” is anticipated by the pseudo-recognition of Ion by Xouthos. Verbal and theatrical correspondences abound (see Commentary

1402n.), and the mirroring of

the scenes is underlined by the lyric expression of emotion each generates. After she hears about

Xouthos

and his 'son', Kreousa shares an antiphonal

lament with the

Chorus and the Old Man (752ff.); a duet shared with Ion voices her delight when she is at last reunited with her lost child (1439ff.). In the former case it is falsehood which prompts the response, the trigger for still greater despair and then for the

determined and eerily cool plotting of Ion's death. In the latter it is the sudden realization of the truth which allows Kreousa to ignore death-threats, overcome Ion's hesitation and then tell in bursts of song the story which will give him a new life. The movements of the characters towards and away from each other are marked

by the extensive use of stichomythia. Ion's opening discussion with his mother (264-368) 1s informed by their mutual sympathy and regard. But there is here no exchange of the truth they share: she can tell her story only in disguised form and his ignorance is simply deepened as he treats with a mixture of scepticism and shock her version of the truth. In contrast is the passage leading to their reunion (1406-26), when Kreousa shares openly with her son the facts, no longer clouded by her fears of his death, and his scepticism is replaced by willing belief. In between we hear two discussions which are in equally sharp contrast, though they both seem marked by

progress and agreement. The stichomythia of Xouthos and Ion (517-62) ends with Ion accepting Xouthos' account of his conception, and greeting him as his father; that between Kreousa and the Old Man (934-1028) ends with the shared determination to

kill Ion. The former discussion is based entirely on a fiction, but one that must be maintained for Ion's future good; the latter is based partly on a misapprehension

which will be dissolved, and partly on the truth which Ion will eventually come to share. *

Cf Lee 103ff.

”

The recognition is not completed before 1. 1437. In S. Electra the recognition is delayed for like reasons to |. 1225. For this form of dialogue see Gen. Intro. p. 13, B. Seidensticker in Jens, Bauformen

200ff.

26

INTRODUCTION TO /ON Two shorter stichomythic passages are similarly the vehicles of ironic contrast.

Ion's bitter exchange with Kreousa (1282-1311) leaves him frustrated and resentful

of the protection given her by the god whom she seems determined to offend. The distance between them is emphasised in the discussion with the Priestess immediately following (1324-56), which is characterised by the affection one might expect from son and mother. But the Priestess enters only to say farewell, since Ion's

attachment to her no less than to his circumscribed life in Delphi must end. It is the woman from whom he turned in disgust who will share the fuller life he will recover. These structura! and formal patterns go hand in hand with the repetition of emotional rhythms in the early scenes of the play. In each of the Kreousa-Ion, Xouthos-Ion and Old Man-Kreousa-Chorus scenes a dialogue, fairly neutral in tone, introduces the circumstances and characters (219-40, 510-6, 725-51). This is followed by a brief outburst of emotion, painful from Kreousa (247-54, 762-8),

delighted from Xouthos (517-27). The ‘rational’ grounds of this outburst are then investigated more calmly (251ff., 528ff., 769ff.) and, quite mistakenly, confirmed in

more prosaic dialogue.

A somewhat similar pattern occurs with Kreousa's monody

(859-922) which follows the Old Man's more calculated reaction to the news (808-

56) and precedes the stichomythic analysis of its contents and the action to which it will lead (934ff.). 3. Characters Ion, the play's central character with the most extensive role, is given a full and interesting treatment. The vicissitudes of his story are the focus of the plot, and many

of the themes of personal and political development with which the play is concerned centre on his person. If Kreousa is 'the fullest...portrait of a woman in all Euripides', then Ion is the fullest picture of ‘a boy germinating the seeds of heroism'! Like Hippolytus, he is pure (150), a bastard, and devoted to a god. But lacking Hippolytus'

extremism and spiritual pride, he is destined for development rather than ruin.

He

must surrender his narrow notions of purity for a wider more comprehensive view of its role in human life, and accept even violence, from which he was born: in short, he

must grow away from the temple to the great world.” It is his relationship with his mother and his father that reveals so much of his own character. With each he undergoes a double change. At first sympathetic to Kreousa, he afterwards tries to kill her and at last accepts her joyfully, convinced that she is his mother. Towards Apollo he at first feels absolute devotion, then he challenges the god for his immorality, but finally is happy to acknowledge him as father. From the beginning Ion is very much his father's son, sporting his bow and arrows? and at home in the

god's house. Yet there is also a distance between them; Ion is no simple devotee, and "

Whitman 145.

*

Cf. J.O. de G. Hanson, MusAfricum 4 (1975) 27ff., Whitman 89ff., Walsh, Hermes 106

(1978) 305-6, R.F. Willetts, JHS 93 (1973) 209, Huys 343.

@

For these as Apollo's standard equipment cf. Alc. 39f.

INTRODUCTION TO ION 27 is ready to subject Apollo to human standards of morality (436ff., prepared for by the curt 355). His willingness to criticise Apollo matches the scepticism with which he hears Kreousa's accounts (in her own and her pretended persona) of his conception (cf. 1523ff., 339ff.). But both fade once spiritual sonship is replaced definitively by the sharing of blood (cf. 1606ff.). Perhaps Ion's two other most important qualities are concern about his origins (556ff., 592, 673ff., 1382f., 1477, 1485) and his curiosity and fondness for rational

argument (349ff., 543ff., 585ff., 1312ff.).* Both these must be recast for him to gain his heritage, yet both are satisfied when he does so. His status proves to be higher

than he could ever dream, and the puzzles and doubts associated with his birth are triumphantly removed not by the application of reason but by the say-so of a deity.

Both status and knowledge are in the end something conferred on Ion rather than won by his own efforts. Kreousa (with the Chorus and the Old Man) and, to a lesser

extent, Ion both attempt to achieve their several misguided ends by positive action. But Delphi, as the behaviour of the Priestess shows, is not a place of action—or of

reason—but of simple obedience and susceptibility to divine influence.9 Fortunately Apollo, whose action is all that is necessary, is also able and willing to undo the actions of those who, in ignorance, are fighting against him. Even at the very end when Ion attempts an action which will reveal his father's identity (1546ff.), he is

prevented from going further by Athena's appearance and must rest content with her words. Despite the play's name, Kreousa is often seen as its main character. Even when off-stage she is seldom out of our minds. Her character is more fully rounded and

less obviously theatrically manipulated than Jon's, and her actions both in the past and during the play provoke our sympathetic or horrified interest. We are touched by her misery, heroically controlled except for the sobs of the monody, and by her sense of isolation from her husband; we share the sympathy which both strangers like Ion and friends like the Chorus and the Old Man feel for her. She is thus a deeply engaging figure who carries most of the play's serious, tragic weight.‘

Some critics, particularly Burnett,“ view Kreousa as a tragic figure of a different kind. She is, it is argued, at fault and almost brings disaster upon herself and others because she is determined to oppose Apollo's benevolent plans by clinging so tenaciously to her own version of the past. She resists Apollo's divine favour, shows lack of faith in his providence, and converts the love she felt for her child into hatred

for its father, and, in the course of the play, for her husband and Ion. Her main failing See Wassermann 593ff. on these characteristics. It is ironic that it is the Priestess who advises Ion ‘to labour’ (1355) at the task of finding his mother.

*

So Wilamowitz

1], Rivier, Essai 125 (who thinks maternal love the dominant

theme), Whitman 82.

*

Cf. Loraux 184, 236.

e

In Introd. to /on

and Cat. Survived 101ff.

28

INTRODUCTION TO /ON

is that she is impious, a theomachos, ‘one at war with god', who must be punished. So

she is threatened with death, but in the end her errors are exposed and instead of destruction from the god she defied, she finds reconciliation and enlightenment. But this view of Kreousa is untenable. She ıs neither impious nor faithless and

insofar as she resists Apollo's will earlier, it is both understandable and justified. The alternative to being the victim the question for any reputable from thwarting Apollo's plan, visit to Delphi. Her frustration

of rape was to be prone to seduction, something out of woman of standing.” Her exposure of the child, far is necessary to fulfil it, as is her supposedly defiant at Apollo's refusal to give her any information is not

condemned by Ion, and when driven to murder she again acts on misinformation and under the powerful influence of the Old Man. And how is she punished? Her suffering ıs seen as undeserved; her later fear of execution is occasioned by a tragic mistake. And Apollo, who saved her from pain when it suited his needs (1596), will once again intervene, not to punish her but to make her happier than she ever had been before. Kreousa, it is true, does to some extent contribute to her own grief. She does not reason herself into despair, she seems rather to reason herself out of hope. When she found that her child had disappeared from the cave (350ff.), she ignored signs of the rescue she hoped for and concluded that it had been devoured by beasts. When Ion suggests that Apollo might be looking after the child on his own—again what Kreousa herself apparently had hoped— she dismisses the idea with disgust (358). But I doubt that we are to see this as a flaw. That Kreousa's hopes are extinguished, quite irrationally, by her fears is a requirement of the plot and paves the way for the

eventual peripeteia; it is also a natural touch in a woman whose isolation and need for secrecy have drained from her any balanced view of a long-past experience. A major criticism made of Euripides’ handling of these characters is that they

change suddenly and unconvincingly in order to perform the actıons that the plot requires. As in the notorious cases of Hecuba and Iphigenia," Kreousa undergoes a

remarkable

change

and,

shedding

the role of passive

victim, is prepared

to

contemplate and then help to plan a stealthy murder of revenge." But her new resolve is made credible first by the emphasis placed, even in her passive phase, on the determination and self-control which kept the rape long secret and which allowed her to regain her composure in the first encounter with Jon. Secondly, the change is motivated by powerful forces: her patriotic and family concerns, highlighted by the

Old Man, the isolated joy of her husband and her apparently ever to be frustrated

*

" "

Contrary opinions in Wassermann 589f., Burnett, CP 90, 97, Rosivach, CQ 27 (1977) 29]. It is important to note here that the punishment for seduction in Athenian law was more severe than that for rape (A.R.W. Harrison, The Law of Athens 1 [Oxford, 1968] 30ff.) Note also Ion's assumption in 437 that Kreousa's ‘friend’ had been raped.

Onthe former see Collard Hec. p.21, on the latter Aristotle, Poetics 1454? 32. Strohm, Form 135 mentions this as a long-standing interpretative issue.

INTRODUCTION TO /ON 29 mother-love. For this reason she retains our sympathy throughout, and we will the

plot to fail as much for her sake as Ion's." More difficult to explain is the inconsistency in Jon. The naive temple-attendant, intrigued by visitors and flustered by the advances of Xouthos, becomes the worldlywise and cynical political realıst (585ff.) who is prepared to torture the Old Man (1213ff.) and even to join in the execution of Kreousa (1266ff.). This can be explained as simply the obtrusive clanking of dramatic machinery: the changes are needed to set in train the crisis and to make Ion the character demanded by the outcome. It may be, however, that the changes (which should not be exaggerated: even in the early part of the play Ion's authority and acuity are evident) are thematic.

Ion does not suddenly change: he grows and develops from childhood to adulthood, from innocence to experience in a process energised by the recognition of his roots and the acceptance of his heritage. The conversation with Kreousa introduces him to an unknown world of pain (241 ff., 638f.); his encounter with Xouthos compels him

to come to terms with the world at large; even the murder plot serves as an initiation into adult life." A long-past event confers on Ion all the high birth that he craves; in the course of the play we see him show signs of the nobility which has hitherto been concealed. The minor characters are drawn with a deft hand. Xouthos has been called a plain, matter-of-fact man', a miles gloriosus, Apollo's dupe.” He is all these things, and the scene to which he owes his dramatic existence certainly brings the play down

to earth. The contrast between his total lack of interest in explanations, his childlike belief that all will come right in the end, and Ion's probing is almost painful (531ff., 575, 659). Why such a character? Amusement is only part of the answer, because behind the fun of it all we see that Xouthos' very ernptiness adds a spin to Apollo's intentions. He is totally Apollo's man and acts precisely as the god wants, even to the point of having an erotic adventure at the right time and keeping Kreousa childless

for the requisite period but no longer.” The god can deal readily with mortals like

X

E

ἢ

5

this, his relations with those who react and are self-aware are more strained. But Xouthos' function goes beyond his active role in the play. He is mentioned repeatedly as an immigrant who came to Athens’ aid (63f., 290, 703), and Kreousa's marriage to him is represented as less than desirab!e (293, 297, 813f.). But at the same time he is central to the realisation of Apollo's plans and the re-introduction of Ion to the life of the city. The irony of this is meant to reflect on Athenian exclusivity.

Contrast our reponse to the similarly jealous excesses of Hermione in Andr. Cf. Mastronarde, CSCA 8 (1975) 163ff. Cf. Owen xxix, Knox, Word and Action 267, Zacharia 57. Note that he is the only character, with the exception of the Priestess, who enters the temple during the course of the play; even Ion is excluded from it by the appearance of Athena. Cf. $ 6 below.

30

INTRODUCTION TO /ON

The Old Man is the personification of one of the play's many ironies. Decrepit and in need of Kreousa's guiding hand, ‘his mind’, he says, ‘is quick though his gait is slow’ (742). Like

that other servant out of control, Phaedra's

Nurse,

he takes

advantage of the emotions of his mistress and promotes a revenge which suits his own

ideas of loyalty. He has been seen as sinister and manipulative, but these

characteristics make him not evil but the effective tool of a plot which, for purposes of dramatic tension, must be as truly threatening as it is wrong-headed. The Priestess is much more than the faithful guardian and deliverer of Ion's basket. Her evident affection for the boy (1363) amplifies the hint of her character in Hermes’ speech (47), and suggests that Apollo has not been quite heartless in the arrangements he has made for Ion's care.

The presentation of the Chorus turns necessity into virtue. Instead of being treated as unwanted witnesses of the stage-events, they are deliberately made a part of the action, the direction of which they influence decisively. Their interference

here is neatly integrated with the content of their songs, all of which are expressive of their devotion to Kreousa, whose deliberative and emotional concerns control their own. It is interesting that their uniquely decisive, independent action during the course of the play contrasts strongly with the impression they make when we first see them: their entrance song is thoroughly superficial, concerned with appearances and concludes with a clear statement of their docility and their dependence on their owners (230ff.).

4. Themes and Issues a) Truth and Illusion

Recognition,

anagnorisis, both in the sense of reunion with a loved one and in

reference to enlightenment more generally, is, as Aristotle saw, a key element of tragedy. Euripides' treatment of the theme in Jon shapes both the structure and the language of the play. The ignorance of the characters is repeatedly stressed in their faltering attempts to discover the truth." The Priestess (44-5), the Chorus (683f.), the Old Man (815-22) and Ion himself (325, 540-55, 1370-1, 1473) speculate on the

circumstances which made Ion a bastard. These erroneous hypotheses are set beside

the account of Kreousa's imaginary friend, which, though in essence true, is doubted (339, 341), and beside the truth of Kreousa's own story, which also occasions persistent doubts (1488, 1520ff. and again, despite her assurances, 1546ff.). On the other hand, Kreousa's imagined version of Ion's end, devoured by beasts (348, 933,

951) or birds (504-5, 902-4, 917, 1494-6), progressively hardens into conviction passed on to others. The unlocking of the secrets of identity is central to several plays, notably OT and Helen, but in Jon this motif is complicated by the idea that alongside revelation the

Poetics 1452ff. Even the god Hermes needs to wait and watch in order to learn exactly the outcome (77).

INTRODUCTION TO ION

31

final, positive outcome requires deception and concealment. The play as a whole resonates with this theme in the repeated use of related words for hiding,

concealment and silence.” Kreousa and Apollo, if for different reasons, are united in their efforts to keep their union and her pregnancy and childbirth hidden (14, 72f., 257, 340, 438, 859-74, 944-6, 957, 1484/7, 1544, 1566, 1596). Kreousa wants to consult the oracle secretly and Apollo is unwilling to reveal what he wants kept concealed (334, 365ff., 396, 430-2). In the absence of any true information, a secret union of mortals is thought to have produced Ion (45, 683-4, 816/19,

1371,

1524).

Kreousa hides from Xouthos her attempt to consult the oracle (394f.), and Xouthos

plans to keep from Kreousa the oracle's advice about Ion (666f.). When this is revealed, Kreousa, the Old Man and the Chorus conspire in their own secret plot (985, 1028, 1114, 1408). The Priestess at last produces the basket which she has kept

hidden for so long (1341f., 1351, 1362),* but Ion is reluctant to unlock its secrets (1383), and attempts to silence Kreousa as she moves towards the truth (1396). Athena directs that the truth of the objects it hides (1389, 1405) must be kept secret

from Xouthos (1601f.). Thus both secrecy and revelation serve the god's purposes

right to the ἐπαἢ" What is the tone of this exploration of human (mis)understanding? Are we meant to be wryly amused by the desperate human search for truth which in its meanderings threatens the plans of the god, happily secured at the end? Or are we to sense the tragic impact of human groping in a dark manipulated, not always with

finesse, by a god with his own agenda? Certainly, Apollo's paradoxical relationship with enlightenment and truth prompts some misgivings about his providence. He is

the god of prophecy and Delphi, his shrine of light, is known for illumination and revelation. But Apollo's intentions are served by human ignorance, by oracles that

are not ambiguous but simply false. Delphi is to be the place not of revelation but of false messages and false recognition: the true recognition is to wait until mother and

son return to Athens. As it turns out, Delphi 1s the place of enlightenment, but only because the human ignorance on which he relies forces Apollo's hand. Thus the relation between illusion and reality embraces both human and divine spheres, a theme which was to receive dazzlingly complex dramatisation in Helen. Euripides" treatment of it here may not have a tragic edge, but neither is it reassuringly comic.

x

»

Cf. 1601 ff. which shows that not only Xouthos, but also anyone interested in Ions claims to rule must remain in the dark about Apollo's paternity. Contrast the enlightment of Thoas and Theoclymenos at the end of /T and Hel. respectively. Words connected with the roots «pur- Aa0σιγoccur remarkably frequently (cf. Loraux 231).

9?

δ

Unlike the disobedient Kekropides time it must be opened (1387), just as a baby. For the expression of this theme Rabinowitz, Anxiery Veiled (Ithaca,

(272ff.), she kept the basket closed; but at the right as it was by Hermes (39f.) when Ion was kept alive in Apollo's refusal to appear at the end cf. N. S. 1993) 216.

32

INTRODUCTION TO /ON

b) Apollo and Others

A feature that /on incontrovertibly shares with tragedy is the significance attached to the gods: Hermes and Athena are both given roles; Dionysus is repeatedly evoked in various forms of his cult; Apollo is central to the play's plot and overall meaning, and to the political implications which will be considered in the following section.

The issue of Apollo's moral standing and even competence has polarised critics. The play has been interpreted as an attack on the god, condemned as a thoughtless Lothario and unable, despite his reputation in the matter, to foresee the problems attached to his plans. Others insist that Apollo, whose behaviour has Athena's approval (1595), is vindicated by the outcome; this is welcomed by the characters, who ultimately acknowledge the god's providence. To treat the ending as ironic is

perverse and without textual support. The former view is difficult to sustain." Certainly, the characters criticise Apollo's behaviour. The rape, and divine lust in general, is roundly condemned, by Kreousa

(887-96,

941)

and

by Ion

(444ff.).

Even

harsher criticism

is made

of

Apollo's neglect of the baby—by Kreousa (306, 358, 384ff., 902ff., 916ff.), by Ion (355, 438ff.), and even by the Old Man

with Kreousa's suffering, pity Ion for distaste for the god's behaviour, we are mistaken and that Apollo is working made in ignorance." Apollo may have

448f., he puts pleasure before The rape is to be seen in the general, but he is delighted to rape are overshadowed by her

(952, 960). But while we may sympathise

his motherlessness, and join him in feeling constantly reminded that Kreousa and Ion are to help them. All the characters‘ charges are raped Kreousa because, as Ion complains in

prudence, but in fact little is made of his motivation. light of its results. Ion disapproves of divine rape in be the product of one. Kreousa's ugly memories of the delighted reunion with its fruit, the noblest of heirs to

the royal house (1540f., 1609ff.). Everyone leaves Delphi with Apollo outdoing their wishes. Ion, anxious about his bastard status but still ready to go to Athens with

Xouthos, finds the mother of his hopes and the father of his prayers. Kreousa, prepared to accept other children as partial compensation for the loss of her baby (410ff., 425ff.), gets Ion back and more children as well (1589).

It needs noting in this connection that it is Apollo's supposed neglect of his child, rather than the rape itself, which is Kreousa's chief complaint.5 Had lechery been the issue, Apollo could not remain anything but guilty: he certainly did rape Kreousa. Concentration on the results of the rape both highlights human ignorance—the characters think the child is dead, while we see him alive on stage—and points forward to the ending where the god's neglect is seen in a broader context, and after Apollo's planning and concern have been made clear by the action of the play itself.

© — Cf. Heath, Poetics 54ff. # B

Its extreme form is now rarely seen; cf. Murray, Eur. and his Age 59ff., T. G. Rosenmeyer, The Masks of Tragedy (Austin, 1963) 105ff. — Cf. A. Farrington RAM 134 (1991) 122f. See Whitman 84, Burnett CP 90f., Wassermann 588, 590-1.

INTRODUCTION TO /ON 33 But acceptance of Apollo's dispensation does not mitigate the human suffering. Kreousa, like Xouthos, has been deceived, but while his is a happy delusion, hers has been the source of pain. Both were necessary: the one to keep Ion from his mother until the right time; the other to attach him, again at the right time, to an acceptable father. Apollo works hand in hand with a mortal to ensure Athens’ future, but after the ınitial encounter he makes no allowance for questions and explanations. This leaves room for the tragic gap between the divine management of events and the human execution of them.“ To blame Apollo for this is neither right nor wrong, it is simply inappropriate. To challenge him on the issue is pointless, as Athena's

intervention makes clear. Athens’ acquisition of a divine ancestor entailed pain and ran the risk of error. The human response to this can only be acceptance. The appearance of Athena in the finale is evidently appropriate. Hermes, who

once brought Ion from Athens to Delphi, gives an account of his past and then waits expectantly to observe the course of events. Now Athena, pointing forward to his destiny, leads him back to her city. Her epiphany and guiding hand form the tangible climax to the many verbal and symbolic references to her power and her interest ın

Ion's cause. In the first lines of the play she is linked with Ion's city (9), and her dominance over threatening forces is kept repeatedly in mind (209, 991, 1528f.). The

Acropolis, her home (235, 497, 1478ff.), witnessed the very beginning of Ion's journey and the very first threat to his existence. Her victim, the Gorgon, provides the instrument of his planned death (1001ff.,

1055ff.,

1265), and ıs symbolically

associated with his recognition as a true Athenian (1421). Symbols give way to reality as Athena appears to accompany Ion's final steps home (1616). She once raised Erichthonios,

Ion's ancestor,

from

the darkness

of Earth (269f.); now

she

attends Ion as he brings light to the Erechtheids (1465ff.), seemingly doomed to the dark despair brought by childlessness and the control of an outsider (966ff.). Though he is never seen, Dionysus’ cultic associations are made part of the background to Ion's journey home. The god's uncanny power is first mentioned in the

parodos, where he is seen to overcome a Giant with his 'unwarlike' weapon, the thyrsus (216f.). In their ignorance, the Chorus later want to harness this power to rid Athens of the threatening intruder. Taking up Xouthos' suggestion that Ion was conceived among Delphic 'Bacchic delights’ (553), they call on the heights of Parnassus, site of the Dionysiac rıtuals and the place where sacrifices will be made to

welcome the boy (1125ff.), in a prayer for his early demise (714ff.). They resume the theme later when with deepening error they hope for the success of the attempt on

Ion's life; the shame they would feel before Dionysus-Iacchus if a stranger witnessed the Eleusinian

mysteries justifies

their prayer (1074ff.).

But

the evocation

of

Dionysus ironically suggests the truth. The god, like Ion, provides a link between Athens and Delphi; the rituals celebrated on the heights above Delphi every other

-

Cf. Webster, Tragedies of Eur. 293.

34

INTRODUCTION TO /ON

year were attended by a delegation of women, the thyiades, from Athens.” The ritual journey of Dionysus-Iacchus to Eleusis is a figure of Ion's return to his own city and his true status. Thus, Dionysus, erroneously associated with the paternity of Xouthos

and the need to exclude Ion from Athens, favours Ion's cause, and the god's own

history, born of god and mortal, spurned by kin and then triumphant in the end, may

be a paradigm of Ion's story.” c) Imperialism

The story dramatised in /on can be readily seen as a glorification of the city itself and a charter for Athens' claims to hegemony over other Greek states. The shadowy

figure who was the eponymous founding-father personality and a splendid lineage: son of a Erichthonios and of Apollo, the god whose honoured in the cult-title patroos.9? The heritage

of the Ionians is given a definite descendant of the autochthonous fatherhood of Ion the Athenians conferred by this line overshadows

the tradition, retained here in a modified form for legalistic requirements, that gave Ion a mortal father. If status is rooted in origins, the Athenians can be seen as superior to the Dorian and Achaian races, related to them but of merely mortal ancestry (1590ff.), and as the natural leaders of the Ionians, descended from one of

their kings?" Such a patriotic theme might have been comforting at a time when

Athens faced both internal disturbance and rebellion from without.” On the other hand, it may have challenged the Athenians to see that the present war was a fratricidal conflict among those with common roots.” It is, in any case, impossible to

view the patriotic elements simply as incidental 'political superstructure', unrelated to the effect of the play as a whole.” If the god is exposed as a shabby deceiver and

uncaring rapist, then, of course, the glory of his paternity is simply a sham. But even if the god is freed from such charges, the status which he confers on Athens cannot be separated from the problematic aspects of the union which brought this about. The

*

Cf. Dodds, Bacchae pp.xiiif., A. F. H. Bierl, Dionysos u. die gr. Tragódie (Tübingen, 1991) 93 and for the sources M.-Ch. Villanueva Puig in Pub. Ecole de Rome 1986, 485].

Cf. Zeitlin 156ff. and, more briefly, in Masks of Dionysus ed. T. H. Carpenter & C. A.

Faraone (Ithaca, 1993) 168ff. On the criticism of exclusivity by way of the Dionysiac theme cf. Bierl, op. cit. 108f.

® ”

Cf.Plato, Euthydemus 302d, Demosth. 18. 141, 57. 54. For nationalistic interpretations see Grégoire, Introd. to Budé III 164ff., R. Goossens, Euripide et Athenes (Brussels, 1962) 487ff., J. Barron, JHS 84 (1964) 35ff., Conacher,

Eur. Drama 270ff. For the treatment of this theme in a near-contemporary comedy cf. (Henderson on) Aristoph. Lys. 582-6.

2

I discuss a likely date below. For economic and political difficulties confronting Athens and the alliance at the time of the Sicilian expedition and its aftermath see R. Meiggs, The Athenian Empire (Oxford, 1972) 45ff.

?

Cf. R. Rehm, Tragic Theatre 147. M. Hose, Drama u. Gesellschaft (Stuttgart, 1995) 74f.

^

dates the play to 412 and sees 1575-81 as a challenge to Athens to preserve the Ionian alliances. So Conacher, Eur. Drama 284.

INTRODUCTION TO JON

35

relationship between Apollo, Kreousa and Ion is thus to be considered not simply in terms of its effect on individuals, but also in its ramifications for the polis and its relations with deity. d) Autochthony: ‘otherness at the heart of sameness' The Athenian tradition of their autochthonous origins pervades /on.* The myth of

autochthony legitimises a people's hold on their land, defines their identity and associates the foundation of the city with unity and peace.” But autochthony can have a dangerous, monstrous aspect as well, and this is not neglected in a play which

sees Kreousa attempt murder with the assistance of the blood of a fellow product of the earth, the Gorgon.” The earth-born Erichthonios is linked with the terrible death

of the Aglaurids (268ff.), while his son Erechtheus is returned to the earth by a vengeful deity (281f.), but not before he sacrifices Kreousa's sisters on behalf of the land (277f.).

Some critics have tried to show that the play presents an explicit critique of autochthony which is seen to promote the exclusivity leading to evil actions. The xenophobia of the Chorus and the Old Man in particular corrupts Kreousa and would exclude Ion himself from the city, thus exemplifying the attitudes he fears. That

these attitudes are shown by the lower strata of society and are tied to antiquated traditions undermines the myth still further.” But even Kreousa is ready to share these beliefs and her refusal to accept the child she thinks is not her own fuels the crisis at the play's centre. Autochthonous beliefs exclude not only foreigners but women as well, since they foster the fantasy of an exclusively patrilinear filiation. Mothers are unnecessary for reproduction in the terms of the myth, so that the

Athenians, like Athena, can be the children of fathers only. But the play challenges this orthodoxy by reintroducing woman into the foundation myth in a play which 'extols the unity of the mother and the child. Loraux makes Kreousa ‘the paradoxical carrier of Athenian legitimacy’ and the centre of a tragedy whose

tensions emerge from the bringing of the myth of autochthony into the life of the polis.” Apollo's plan has centred on the male, but Kreousa reclaims her reproductive

role by speaking out, contrary to the demands of shame,'” about her rape, and by rebelling against Apollo so that he is forced to reveal that she is Ion's mother.

'Recited not once but almost ad nauseam in the play' Knox, Word and Action

* * 7

267.

Saxonhouse 255f. For the dark side of autochthony cf. Whitman 97ff., Farrington, op. cit. 130f., Mastronarde, op. cit. 173. Saxonhouse 268; cf. G. B. Walsh, op. cit. 301ff., who stresses the play's preoccupation

with noble birth and relates the theme of exclusiveness to current debates on citizenship laws. €

48

”

Saxonhouse 267 Loraux 70, 234ff. Cf. A. Scafuro, differences 2 (1990) 138ff.

36

INTRODUCTION TO /ON

Xouthos

who attempted to deceive her is himself the deceived male, and his

ignorance becomes parallel to that of all men: ‘the uncertainty of paternity’.'°!

The challenge to the autochthony myth goes hand in hand, some argue, with the play's challenge to woman's social position. If the oppression of Kreousa by Apollo stands for the oppression

of women

challenges the position given women

by myth, then her oppression

by Xouthos

by society and law in the institution of

marriage. Kreousa is forced to accept marriage to a foreigner because of the exigencies of war; she is thus exploited and treated like a piece of booty. Furthermore, her husband deceives her and his behaviour elicits from the Chorus a demand for the reevaluation of the stereotyping from which women suffer.'”

Such interpretations rest on and exemplify the claim that ‘in Euripides’ hands tragedy involves a systematic distortion of all dominant values’.'” But if Jon cannot be treated simply as a vehicle for national pride, subversive readings too need to take account of the complexity of the play and of Euripides' work generally. Thus to see the low status of the Old Man as a string to the anti-xenophobic bow is contradicted

by the fact that Euripides elsewhere challenges the idea that low status is a guarantee of mean-mindedness. Furthermore, neither the Old Man's nor the Chorus’ national

pride is presented as wrong-headed in itself; it 1s its application to Ion which is wrong and the relief which all feel at the end arises partly from the fact that Ion's status requires no change to the xenophobia expressed earlier. Again, Xouthos cannot be a medium for criticism of the institution of marriage and at the same time

be treated sympathetically as a foreigner excluded by Athenian xenophobia. Both views, I suggest, ask too much of his role, which is part of the machinery of the plot, and deliberately cut short when that purpose is served. That the play's treatment of the autochthony myth is a tangle of ambiguities is shown by the wide-ranging, difficult discussion of Loraux, and one should be careful of finding in the play any simple critique of its implications. Thus the idea that Kreousa is reclaiming the female role in reproduction by her rebellion ignores the

point that she is in fact acting on behalf of autochthonous traditions, which are ultimately reinforced when it is shown that her rebellion is in error. Even more fundamentally, to the extent that Kreousa does reclaim the female role in the play, she does so not to serve her own interests, but Ion's. Her role will remain concealed,

just as it was planned by Apollo, but by then Ion will be relieved of the fears which he voiced when the status of his mother was unknown. If the myth of autochthony

does exclude the female, this is because a place had to be found for the earth as mother in the initial generative process. Thereafter heterosexual reproduction, understood in terms of differing physiologies, operates. /on takes this for granted.

What the play seeks is to define the role of the father(s), rather than redefine the role of the mother. " =

=

Saxonhouse 272 Cf. F. Dunn, Ramus 19 (1990) 133ff., Rehm, Tragic Theatre 142f., interpreting 1090ff.

Loraux 210

INTRODUCTION TO /ON

37

e) Genre and Tone The occasion of its production, the festival involving a competition among tragedies, means that on external criteria /on can only be classed as a tragedy.' But scholars

debate whether the themes, tone and overall impact of the play are not rather that of domestic comedy, a genre unavailable to Euripides, but one on the development of which his plays would have great influence. The question, then, is whether we read the play as serious drama exploring weighty issues, or a light-hearted piece in which threats of disaster and dark moments are included simply for thrills and to make the

conclusion the more satisfying. Arguments for treating the play as comedy are based on a consideration of its

overall structure as well as the details of its dramaturgy. Several scenes have been seen as amusing if not downright comical: the Chorus behaving like day-trippers to

Delphi, Ion's earnest activity with arrows and broom, the cross-purposes of the

pseudo-recognition, the doddering entry of the Old Man.'* Pervading it all is an irony, not productive of tragic tension, but simply clever for its own sake. Most important, the play traces an upward trend towards satisfaction marked by a peripeteia

from ignorance to knowledge,

from hostility to reconciliation and the

blissful dissipation of all fears. But whether all this adds up to a ‘full-fledged comedy', as Knox thinks," is uncertain. The comic moments of the play need to be assessed in context. Humorous

in themselves, they may, however, serve the larger purpose of intensifying the effects of the serious scenes to come. Furthermore, the function of the humorous elements

should be aligned with Euripides’ well known exploitation of the domestic and mundane not to serve comic purposes, but to make the world of tragedy less remote. Ion's story belongs in the realm of heroic legend, but Jon presents the story in a way which does not strain off the tiny details of existence." Burnett stresses that there is ‘no awkwardness in a god's having engendered a child...this is standard sacred

history’.'” So it is. But it is precisely the 'awkwardness' that Jon raises by introducing the woman's point of view and by including the vivid details of rape, birth and

exposure as they are remembered by Kreousa. The impact of her stories is enhanced by the fact that so much of the early part of the play sharpens our awareness of the tangible, ordinary elements of life. Ion's housekeeping, the Chorus' sightseeing and

?

For a discussion of generic criteria see the introductory section of B. Seidensticker, Palintonos Harmonia (Göttingen, 1982).

"

® N

Forcomic/melodramatic views of the play see Kitto, Greek Tragedy 314ff., Knox 257ff., Gellie 93ff., Rosenmeyer, op. cit. 120 (‘theological romance’); Hose, op. cit. 17 suggests that it was pro-satyric. The play is taken as serious drama by Whitman 69f., Loraux 236, Matthiessen 289, Taplin, Tragedy in Action 52ff. Seidensticker, op. cit. 214ff. systematically analyses the effect of these scenes. Word and Action 257 On the force of the comic elements see the discussions of Zacharia and Lee.

lon 10

38

INTRODUCTION TO ION

even Xouthos’ fatuity keep us in the world to which memories also belongs.

the sadness of Kreousa's

A happy ending does not in itself exclude tragedy, as the Philoctetes and Oedipus Coloneus show. In fact, Aristotle describes the situation in Jon, where the killing of

one loved one by another is narrowly avoided, as the most tragic of plots. ''? The ending of the play may guarantee the future, but the past cannot be undone and the

scars remain.!!! We know, of course, that Kreousa is wrong, but her feelings

are

independent of that and we suspend our superior knowledge in our sympathy for her.

The effect of the scenes presenting her situation depends upon it.'!? She has lost her child— whether it has been killed or spirited away does not affect her grief. So too with Ion. His life in Delphi is happy, but this does not conceal his longing for the

mother he cannot bear to think about. Thus we are left with a play whose tone and material fail to direct our response in

a clear, linear way.!? The strict generic separation of comedy from tragedy!'* suggests that the Athenians were uncomfortable with this, and Aristophanes' parody of the Euripidean oeuvre may reflect the unsettling effect of his allowing the

everyday a place on the tragic stage. But Euripides’ portrayal of life entailed this risk. In the end, the paths laid by /on would lead to a more monochrome form of drama in the shape of New Comedy. This would be thoroughly domestic and consistent in tone, but would lack the challenge of Jon's generic instability and unique blending of the heroic and the ordinary. 5. Myth

The story of Ion does not belong to the earliest tradition. He has no place among the

kings of Athens and no famous descendanıs.''* The first mention of any detail connected with him is found in Hesiod," where Xouthos is mentioned as the son of Hellen. Xouthos is named as Ion's father in Hesiod, Herodotus and also in Euripides’ Wise Melanippe, where he is the child of an unnamed daughter of Erechtheus.'” Ion's military qualities are spoken

of in the Herodotean

passages

and also in

!"

Poetics 14544 For a discussion of the effect Aristotle may have had in mind see S. Murnaghan, NewLitHist 26 (1995) 755ff. Matthiessen, Gnomon 56 (1984) 678.

'?

Cf. the situation in S. El. 660ff. where, although we know that the report of Orestes’ death is false, we identify with the reactions of Clytemnestra and Electra to the news.

IP ^— Cf. Rehm, Tragic Theatre 142. "^

Onthis see O.Taplin in JHS 106 (1986) 173ff.

"Cf.

Frogs 948-79, 1013-68.

!5^

Cf. Schol. H. Il. 2. 536, Apollod. 3. 14. 2, and for the fluidity of the tradition, which

7 "

might therefore easily accommodate Ion, see T. Gantz, Early Greek Myth (London, 1993) 233ff. fr. 9MW Hesiod fr. 10(a), 20ff. MW; Hdt. 7. 94, 8. 44; Wise Mel. fr. 665a-c Mette. 1 ff.

INTRODUCTION TO ION 39 Aristotle, and he is said to have brought assistance to Athens in the war with the

Eleusinians and their Thracian allies led by Eumolpos.'” In Jon this tradition seems to have been transferred to Xouthos and used to explain his marriage to Kreousa and his control over rights to the Athenian throne (cf. 814f.). Wilamowitz thought that Ion's connection with the war against the Thracians appears in Erechtheus where he

is the child addressed by Erechtheus before he departs for battle. But this is very

speculative.'”” There is no definite evidence for Apollo as Ion's father before Euripides’ play. But the long-standing cult of Apollo patroos suggests that this was already part of a

tradition.'*' We know very little about the Sophoclean handling of the material in his fon and Kreousa, and even less about the possible relationship between /on and these

plays.'? There is no justification for Burnett's confidence in seeing the Delphic setting as Euripidean innovation." It may be, however, that the aetiology contained in Athena's speech together with the change of Doros from brother to son of Xouthos

are of Euripides’ making. '** 6. Staging The theatre of Dionysus, situated beneath the south-east slope of the Acropolis, at the

time of /on's production took the form of terraced seating enclosing a dancing area, the orchestra, at the far end of which was an acting area. Behind this was a structure with a central door, the skene, made of impermanent material but substantial enough

to support the weight of actors.'? This provided the backdrop to the action and could represent a palace, a tent, a cave or, as in Jon, a temple (see Commentary, pp. 177f.

Introd. to Parodos). Characters entered and exited through the central door and by way of passages to the sides of the skene. It is likely that these parodoi, as they are

traditionally called, consistently designated exits in different directions." [ assume that in /on the entrance to the audience's left was thought to lead to the area south of Apollo's temple and away from the precinct; that to the audience's right to the north

and the upper parts of the sanctuary giving access to the heights beyond." It is significant that, whereas people come and go freely and in a variety of attitudes

'" I?

Arist. Const. of the Athenians 3, Strabo 8.7.1., Pherecyd. i.119 Jacoby, Paus. 7.1. 2-5. Cf.Erec. fr. 362 and see Cropp SFP I. 151.

7

Cf. Conacher, Eur. Drama 271.

= — Cf. S. frs. 319-22 and 350-59. See Radt for the view that we are in fact dealing with a single play.

|

Cat. Survived 101. On Owen's doubtful idea (xiii) that Kreousa's name was unfamiliar as

the mother of Ion see Commentary 10-1 In. Cf. Wilamowitz lon 9 and Conacher, Eur. Drama 272.

For details on the ancient theatre see Gen. Introd. pp. If. See Hourmouziades, Production

Bauformen 409f.

7

Cf. Burnett, Jon 134.

128ff., Taplin, Stagecraft 449ff., K. Joerden in

Jens,

40

INTRODUCTION TO /ON

through the parodoi, the skene marks off limited access to Apollo's space:'” Ion comes out of it, never to go back, symbolic of his permanent departure from the precinct; the only others to pass through the doors are the Priestess, to whom the space naturally belongs, and Xouthos, the one character on whom Apollo can rely

completely (cf. n. 25 above). The only substantial stage-property was an altar (see 1255-6n.). The performers, all male, included three actors sharing the main roles, fifteen members of the singing and dancing Chorus, and several mutes, the attendants

helping Ion, Xouthos' entourage, the men entering with Ion in pursuit of Kreousa. The distribution of parts among the actors is likely to have been: a) Ion; b) Kreousa; c) Xouthos, Priestess, Athena. Hermes, the Old Man and the Servant could also have

been played by c); if this was thought too demanding, Hermes could be b), the Old Man and Servant

a).

7. Date In the absence of external criteria, we must attempt to derive the date from a variety

of indications in the text itself. Supposed references to contemporary events and issues are of little evidential value, since a) we cannot be certain that there is in fact

allusion to a given event, and b) any such allusion would only provide a terminus post quem. Thus the possible reference in 1.1592 to Alcibiades’ actions at Rhium in 419 (Thucydides 5. 52. 2) carries little weight as an indication of a date soon

afterwards'*’. Imagined references in passages of Aristophanes, e.g. to 164ff. in Birds 769ff. and to 1132ff. in Birds 999ff.' are unconvincing. The most secure indication of date is stylistic, and relies on the statistically significant and progressive increase in the freedom with which Euripides composed the iambic trimeters of

spoken verse."! This criterion suggests a date near that of Troades (415); application of other criteria based on development of dramatic technique is less reliable, but corresponds with this range. evidence allows.

Diggle's 'circa 413' is therefore as precise as the

8. Text and Translation The

Greek

text

in this

volume

reproduces,

with

the permission

of editor

and

publisher, that of J. Diggle in Euripidis Fabulae Tomus II (Oxford, 1981). All Diggle's editorial signs are reproduced as exactly as possible in the translation. Given the slender tradition on

"

which

the text is based (see below),

there are naturally

The function of the skene as a fixed boundary with a definite shape is stressed by the Chorus in the parodos when they describe in unusual detail its striking decoration. So Grégoire 167-8, seemingly supported by Owen xl. Delebecque, Eur. et la guerre du Péloponnése (Paris, 1951) 226. For this method of dating see Webster, Tragedies 1-9 and the refinements in M. Cropp, G. Fick, Resolutions and Chronology in Eur. (London, 1985). QCf.Matthiessen, op. cit. 89-91.

INTRODUCTION TO ION

41

several places where scholarly views on what precisely Euripides wrote vary; this is particularly true regarding the extent of interpolation, i.e. the inclusion of extra lines by actors or copyists to enhance their performance or to supply analogous material.

The discussion of textual questions in the Commentary is necessarily brief, but I hope that it will not be opaque to those without Greek, and that it will show that problems of text cannot be separated from issues of style and interpretation. The apparatus criticus, a severely abridged version of Diggle's, is printed underneath the text; ıts contents are described below. Our knowledge of the text of /on (as of the other eight so-called alphabetic plays

of Euripides: Elektra, Helen, Herakles, Herakleidai, Hiketides [= Suppliant Women], Iphigeneia in Tauris, Iphigeneia in Aulis, Kyklops ) is based principally on a single

manuscript of the early 14th century now in the Laurentian library in Florence (L).'” The scribe himself included some variants and explanatory matter. Later the manuscript was heavily annotated and altered in three stages, distinguishable by inkcolours and hand, by the Byzantine scholar Demetrius Triclinius (Tr).

The witness of this Ms. is occasionally supplemented by that of P, a Ms. of the same date as L and in fact copied from it. Soon after it was copied P was divided into two parts; the /on 1s contained in the half held in the Vatican library (Palatinus graecus 287). P's readings are of value only when L's original reading is illegible,

most often because of Triclinius' subsequent alterations. Jon was not often quoted in antiquity, but there are independent tradition is ancient copies of the play The translation has no

some dozen places where the text handed down by an preferable to that of the main stream. No fragments of written on papyrus have survived. pretentions to elegance or performability; its chief purpose

is to make clear the meaning and structure of the Greek. To this end I have retained, wherever English idiom permitted, the Greek word-order. I have not avoided repetition where the Greek uses the same word, and I have tried to preserve, sometimes at the expense of more natural English, the Greek syntax. Proper names

have been transliterated, except where tradition proved too strong. Every fifth line of the translation is given a number, conforming as closely as possible to the Greek numeration. Stage-directions, not found at all in the Greek text, have been kept to a minimum.

'*

For a full discussion of the history of the text and the inter-relationship of Mss. see the works listed in the General Bibliography $ 1.

42

INTRODUCTION TO JON

Manuscripts

and editorial symbols

L

Laurentianus 32.2

early 14th cent.

L2/pc

L before/after correction

Ls!

written above the line in L

Tr

Demetrius Triclinius, Byzantine corrector of L

Tr!

Phases of Triclinius' corrections

P

Palatinus graecus 287

early 14th cent.

test.

testimonia, evidence from later writers for the text

[|]

enclose matter judged spurious

< t

> t1 *

enclose matter supplied by conjecture enclose matter judged incurably corrupt letter erased, illegible

Apparatus

Criticus

The apparatus is based on that of J. Diggle in the Oxford Classical Text edition; corrections made by Diggle himself and others (cf. Euripidea 522f.) have been taken into account. I have been necessarily very selective in what has been included:

matters of orthography, punctuation, accentuation, dialect-variation, attribution of speakers and minor or obvious corrections have generally been omitted. Conjectures not accepted in the text are reported very sparingly. Some information is provided in the commentary rather than in the apparatus. Readers wanting full evidence for the constitution of the text should consult Diggle's apparatus.

43

EURIPIDES Ion Text and Translation

44

ΥΠΟΘΕΣΙΣ

IQNOZ

Κρέουσαν τὴν Ἐρεχθέως ᾿Απόλλων φθείρας ἔγκνον ἐποίησεν ἐν ᾿Αθήναις ἡ δὲ τὸ γεννηθὲν ὑπὸ τὴν ἀκρόπολιν ἐξέθηκε, τὸν αὐτὸν τόπον καὶ τοῦ ἀδικήματος καὶ τῆς λοχείας μάρτυρα λαβοῦσα. τὸ μὲν οὖν βρέφος Ἑρμῆς ἀνελόμενος εἰς Δελφοὺς ἤνεγκεν: εὑροῦσα δ᾽ ἡ προφῆτις ἀνέθρεψε. τὴν Κρέουσαν δὲ Ξοῦθος ἔγημε: συμμαχήσας γὰρ ᾿Αθηναίοις τὴν βασιλείαν καὶ τὸν τῆς προειρημένης

γάμον

ἔλαβε

δῶρον.

τούτωι

μὲν

οὖν

ἄλλος

Tats οὐκ ἐγένετο: τὸν δ᾽ ἐκτραφέντα ὑπὸ τῆς προφήτιδος οἱ Δελφοὶ νεωκόρον ἐποίησαν. ὁ δὲ ἀγνοῶν ἐδούλευσε τῶι πατρί... τὰ τοῦ δράματος πρόσωπα Ἑρμῆς, Ἴων, χορὸς ἐκ θεραπαινίδων Κρεούσης, Κρέουσα, Ξοῦθος, πρεσβύτης, θεράπων Κρεούσης, Πυθία ἤτοι προφῆτις, ᾿Αθηνᾶ. ἡ σκηνὴ τοῦ δράματος ὑπόκειται ἐν Δελφοῖς.

10

15

45

Hypothesis Apollo made Kreousa the daughter of Erechtheus pregnant after raping her ın Athens. She exposed the child she bore beneath the Acropolis, making the same place a witness of both the wrong she had suffered and her child-bearing. Hermes, taking up the infant, carried ıt to Delphi where it was found [5] and then reared by the priestess. But Kreousa became the wife of Xouthos, for after assisting the Athenians in battle he received the kingship and the hand of the aforementioned girl as a reward. No child was born to him, whereas the Delphians made the boy who had been brought up by the priestess a temple-keeper. So unawares he served [10]

Characters

the one who was his father...

of

the

play:

Hermes,

Ion,

Chorus

of

Kreousa's

maidservants, Kreousa, Xouthos, Old Man, Servant of Kreousa, Pythia or Priestess, Athena.

The play is set in Delphi.

46

ION EPMH2 Ὁ

χαλκέοισιν

οὐρανὸν

νώτοις

"ATÀas

θεῶν παλαιὸν οἶκον ἐκτρίβων θεῶν μιᾶς ἔφυσε Μαῖαν, t) '!' ἐγείνατο Ἑρμῆν μεγίστωι Ζηνί, δαιμόνων λάτριν. ἥκω δὲ Δελφῶν τήνδε γῆν, tv’ ὀμφαλὸν μέσον καθίζων Φοῖβος ὑμνωιδεῖ βροτοῖς τά τ᾽ ὄντα καὶ μέλλοντα θεσπίζων del. ἔστιν γὰρ οὐκ ἄσημος Ἑλλήνων πόλις, τῆς xpucoAóyxov Παλλάδος κεκλημένη,

οὗ παῖδ᾽ Ἐρεχθέως

Φοῖβος ἔζενξεν γάμοις

βίαι Κρέουσαν, ἔνθα προσβόρρους πέτρας Παλλάδος ὑπ᾽ ὄχθωι τῆς ᾿Αθηναίων χθονὸς Μακρὰς καλοῦσι γῆς ἄνακτες ᾿Ατθίδος.

ἀγνὼς δὲ πατρί (τῶι θεῶι γὰρ ἦν φίλον) γαστρὸς διήνεγκ᾽ ὄγκον. ὡς δ᾽ ἦλθεν χρόνος, τεκοῦσ᾽ ἐν οἴκοις

παῖδ᾽ ἀπήνεγκεν

βρέφος

ἐς ταὐτὸν ἄντρον οὗπερ ηὐνάσθη θεῶι Κρέουσα,

κἀκτίθησιν

ὡς

θανούμενον

κοίλης ἐν ἀντίπηγος εὐτρόχωι κύκλωι, προγόνων νόμον σώιζουσα τοῦ τε γηγενοῦς Ἐριχθονίον. κείνωι γὰρ ἡ Διὸς κόρη φρουρὼ παραζεύξασα φύλακε σώματος δισσὼ δράκοντε, παρθένοις ᾿Αγλαυρίσιν δίδωσι σώιζειν: ὅθεν Ἐρεχθείδαις ἐκεῖ νόμος τις ἔστιν ὄφεσιν ἐν χρυσηλάτοις

τρέφειν τέκν᾽. ἀλλ᾽ ἣν εἶχε παρθένος

χλιδὴν

τέκνωι προσάψασ᾽ ἔλιπεν ὡς θανουμένωι. κἄμ᾽ ὧν ἀδελφὸς Φοῖβος αἰτεῖται τάδε᾽ |

ὁ χ]αλκέοισ[ιν οὐρανὸν] νώτοις ["Atkas Philod. On Piety p. 37 Gomperz as read and restored by Page:"AtAas ὁ χαλκέοισι νώτοις οὐρανὸν L

9 1] 15

χρυσολόγχου p: χρυσολόχου L tpoaBdppous πέτρας Barnes: -Bópous -as L*!: Böpors -ais L ὄγκον ed. Hervagiana?: οἶκον L

22

φύλακε

Porson: -kàs L

47

Ion [Scene: Delphi, before the east front of Apollo's temple. There is an altar at the front and side of the acting area. The time is just before sunrise on

a day in the legendary past. Hermes enters from the left parodos.] Hermes Atlas, who with his back

of bronze

rubs up

against

heaven,

the

ancient dwelling of the gods, fathered Maia on one of the goddesses. She ıt was who bore me, Hermes, to Zeus the supreme god, and I am the gods’ servant. I have come to this land of Delphi, where [5] Phoebus, sitting at the very navel of the earth, sings to mortals, continually explaining in prophecy the things that are and those that are to be. Now there

ıs a city of the Greeks,

far from

unknown,

which

is

named after Pallas, who carries a spear of gold. In this place Phoebus had intercourse with the daughter of Erechtheus, [10] Kreousa,

against

her

will, where

the

north-facing

cliffs

beneath

Pallas’ hill in the land of the Athenians are called ‘Long Rocks’ by the lords of Attic soil. Without her father's knowledge (this was the

god's pleasure) she carried the child in her womb until its birth. When her time came, [15] after giving birth at home, Kreousa took her infant son away to the same cave where she had slept with the god, and exposed him, to die, ın a basket deep and neatly rounded; ın so doing she observed the custom of her forebears and of Erichthonios born from

the earth. [20]

For the daughter

of Zeus after attaching to him as watchful guards over his body pair of snakes, gave him to the maiden

daughters

of Aglauros

a for

safe keeping. This is the origin of the custom kept in Athens by the descendants of Erechtheus, who bring up their children adorned with snakes of beaten gold. [25] But Kreousa put on her child what finery a maiden had, and then abandoned it to die.

Now

Phoebus,

who

is my

brother,

made

this

request

of

me:

48

Ὦ

σύγγον᾽,

κλεινῶν

ἐλθὼν

λαὸν

εἰς

αὐτόχθονα

᾿Αθηνῶν (οἷσθα γὰρ θεᾶς πόλιν)

λαβὼν

βρέφος

νεογνὸν

ἐκ κοίλης

αὐτῶι

σὺν ἄγγει σπαργάνοισί

30

πέτρας

θ᾽ οἷς ἔχει

ἔνεγκε Δελφῶν τἀμὰ πρὸς χρηστήρια καὶ θὲς πρὸς αὐταῖς εἰσόδοις δόμων ἐμῶν.

τὰ δ᾽ ἄλλ᾽ (ἐμὸς γάρ ἐστιν, ὡς εἰδῆις, ὁ παῖς) ἡμῖν μελήσει. Λοξίαι δ᾽ ἐγὼ χάριν πράσσων ἀδελφῶι πλεκτὸν ἐξάρας κύτος ἤνεγκα καὶ τὸν παῖδα κρηπίδων ἔπι τίθημι ναοῦ τοῦδ᾽, ἀναπτύξας κύτος ἑλικτὸν ἀντίπηγος, ὡς ὁρῶιθ᾽ ὁ παῖς. κυρεῖ δ᾽ ἅμ᾽ ἱππεύοντος ἡλίου κύκλωι

προφῆτις

ἐσβαίνουσα

35

40

μαντεῖον θεοῦ"

ὄψιν δὲ προσβαλοῦσα παιδὶ νηπίωι ἐθαύμασ᾽ εἴ τις Δελφίδων τλαίη κόρη

λαθραῖον ὠδῖν᾽ ἐς θεοῦ ῥῖψαι δόμον, ὑπέρ τε θυμέλας διορίσαι πρόθυμος tQ: οἴκτωι

δ᾽ ἀφῆκεν

ὠμότητα,

45

καὶ θεὸς

συνεργὸς ἦν τῶι παιδὶ μὴ κΚπεσεῖν δόμων" τρέφει

δέ νιν λαβοῦσα,

τὸν σπείραντα

δὲ

οὐκ οἷδε Φοῖβον οὐδὲ μητέρ᾽ ἧς ἔφυ, ὁ παῖς

τε τοὺς τεκόντας

νέος μὲν οὖν ὧν ἀμφὶ

οὐκ ἐπίσταται.

βωμίους τροφὰς

ἠλᾶτ᾽ ἀθύρων᾽ ὡς δ᾽ ἀπηνδρώθη δέμας, Δελφοί σφ᾽ ἔθεντο χρυσοφύλακα τοῦ θεοῦ ταμίαν

τε

πάντων

πιστόν,

ἐν δ᾽ ἀνακτόροις

θεοῦ καταζῆι δεῦρ᾽ ἀεὶ σεμνὸν βίον. Κρέουσα δ᾽ ἡ τεκοῦσα τὸν νεανίαν Ξούθωι γαμεῖται συμφορᾶς τοιᾶσδ᾽ ὕπο᾽ ἦν

ταῖς

᾿Αθήναις

οἱ γῆν ἔχουσ᾽

τοῖς

Εὐβοῖδα,

ἔνεγκε Δελφῶν Reiske: Éveyk' κύτος P: σκύτος L

τε

Χαλκωδοντίδαις,

πολέμιος

ἀδελφῶ! L

κύτος Stephanus: σκύτος L ὁρῶιθ' Canter: ὁρᾶθ᾽ L ἅμ᾽ ἱππεύοντος Musgrave: dvint- L te Kirchhoff: δὲ L

κλύδων:

60

49

‘Kinsman, go to the earth-born

people

of renowned

Athens (you

know the goddess’ city) [30] and take a new-born babe from the recesses of a cave. Bring it with its cradle as well and the babythings it has to my oracle at Delphi and put it at the very entrance of my temple. The rest (for—I must mine) [35] will be my concern .'

tell you

this—the

child

is

Doing the favour to Loxias my brother, I picked up the wickerwork cradle and bringing it here I put the child on the floor of this temple, folding back the rounded lid of the basket so that the child should

be seen. [40]

It happened

that, with the sun's orb

starting its course, the priestess was just making her way into the oracular seat of the god. Catching sight of the helpless infant she was astonished that some Delphian girl had dared to get rid of the offspring she had borne in secret in the god's house, [45] and she was ready to remove the baby from the sanctuary. But pity got the better of her harsh feeling, and the god helped to prevent the child from being cast out of the temple. She picked it up and reared it and did not know that Phoebus was its father, or the mother

who gave it birth,[50]

and the child does

parents. While he was a boy he used to altars that fed him. But when he grew made him guardian of the god's gold all things. [55] Ever since he has kept god's shrine. Kreousa, the mother

the

of the young

following

not know

wander in play to manhood the and the trusted living a devoted

man,

Xouthos

in

circumstances.

engulfed

Athens and the Khalkodontians

came

A who

around the Delphians steward of life in the

to be married

wave inhabit

his

of

to

conflict the island

50

ὃν συμπονήσας

γάμων

Kat συνεξελὼν

Κρεούσης

δορὶ

ἀξίωμ᾽ ἐδέξατο,

οὐκ ἐγγενὴς ὦν, Αἰόλου δὲ τοῦ Διὸς γεγὼς 'Axatós. χρόνια δὲ σπείρας λέχῃ

ἄτεκνός ἥκουσι

ἐστι kal Kpeovo” πρὸς

μαντεῖ᾽

ὧν οὕνεκα

᾿Απόλλωνος

65

τάδε

ἔρωτι παίδων. Λοξίας δὲ τὴν τύχην ἐς τοῦτ᾽ ἐλαύνει, κοὺ λέληθεν, ὡς δοκεῖ" δώσει γὰρ εἰσελθόντι μαντεῖον τόδε Ξούθωι τὸν αὑτοῦ παῖδα, καὶ πεφυκέναι κείνου σφε φήσει, μητρὸς ὡς ἐλθὼν δόμους γνωσθῆι Κρεούσηι καὶ γάμοι τε Λοξίου κρυπτοὶ γένωνται mals τ᾽ ἔχηι τὰ πρόσφορα. Ἴωνα δ᾽ αὐτόν, κτίστορ᾽ ᾿Ασιάδος χθονός, ὄνομα κεκλῆσθαι θήσεται καθ᾽ Ἑλλάδα. ἀλλ᾽ ἐς δαφνώδη γύαλα βήσομαι τάδε, τὸ κρανθὲν ὡς ἂν ἐκμάθω παιδὸς πέρι. ὁρῶ γὰρ ἐκβαίνοντα Λοξίου γόνον τόνδ᾽, ὡς πρὸ ναοῦ λαμπρὰ θῆι πυλώματα

δάφνης Ἴων᾽

κλάδοισιν.

ἐγώ

ὄνομα δ᾽, οὗ μέλλει τυχεῖν,

Ψιν» πρῶτος

ὀνομάζω

70

75

80

θεῶν.

ION ἅρματα μὲν τάδε λαμπρὰ τεθρίππων᾽ Ἥλιος ἤδη λάμπει κατὰ γῆν, ἄστρα δὲ φεύγει πυρὶ τῶιδ᾽ αἰθέρος ἐς νύχθ᾽ ἱεράν" Παρνασσιάδες δ᾽ ἄβατοι κορυφαὶ καταλαμπόμεναι τὴν ἡμερίαν ἁψῖδα βροτοῖσι δέχονται. σμύρνης δ᾽ ἀνύδρου καπνὸς εἰς ὀρόφους Φοίβου πέτεται. 68 8] 84 87 90

kob λέληθέ

μ' Schoemann, καὶ λέληθεν Page,kob λέληγεν Dawe

«uw Scaliger τῶδ᾽ P* it seems: τόδ᾽ L ἡμερίαν Canter: ἡμέραν L

πέτεται Musgrave: πέταται L

85

90

Sl

of Euboea. [60] Sharing the burden of this and helping with his army to bring it to an end, Xouthos was given the honour of marriage with Kreousa though not a native but an Achaian born of Aıolos, the son of Zeus. After trying to have children

in a long

marriage he is childless as is Kreousa. For this reason [65] they have come here to Apollo's oracle longing for children. It 15 Loxias who guides fortune to this point and things have not passed him by, as they seem to have done. He will give to Xouthos when he enters this oracular shrine his own son [70] and will

assert that he is the offspring of that man, so that after going to his mother's house he will be recognized by Kreousa, and so that Loxias union with her will remain secret and the boy will have what is his due. Apollo will bring it about that he is called all over Greece by the name Ion, founder of the settlement in Asia. [75]

But I shall go into this dell of bay trees in order to learn fully what is accomplished in regard to the boy, for I see the child of Loxias coming out here to brighten up the temple porticoes with branches of bay. I first of the gods call by the name

which

is going to be his, Ion. [81 [Exit Hermes. Enter Ion from the temple with implements for Ion

cleaning; he is met by attendants coming from the right parodos] Here is the bright chariot with its four horses! Sun is now shining bright over the earth and the stars flee before this fire high above into sacred night. [85] The untrodden peaks of Parnassus are bathed

in bright light and receive for mortals the wheel

chariot. Smoke

of day's

of waterless incense wings its way into Phoebus'

52

θάσσει δὲ γυνὴ τρίποδα ζάθεον Δελφίς, ἀείδουσ᾽ Ἕλλησι βοάς, ἃς ἂν ᾿Απόλλων κελαδήσῃι.

ἀλλ᾽, ὦ Φοίβου Δελφοὶ θέραπες, τὰς Κασταλίας ἀργυροειδεῖς βαίνετε δίνας, καθαραῖς δὲ δρόσοις ἀφυδρανάμενοι στείχετε ναούς" στόμα τ᾽ εὔφημοι φρουρεῖτ᾽ ἀγαθόν, φήμας ἀγαθὰς τοῖς ἐθέλουσιν μαντεύεσθαι γλώσσης ἰδίας ἀποφαίνειν. ἡμεῖς δέ, πόνους obs ἐκ παιδὸς μοχθοῦμεν ἀεί, πτόρθοισι δάφνης στέφεσίν θ᾽ ἱεροῖς ἐσόδους Φοίβου καθαρὰς θήσομεν ὑγραῖς τε πέδον ῥανίσιν vorepóv: πτηνῶν τ᾽ ἀγέλας, αἱ βλάπτουσιν σέμν᾽ ἀναθήματα, τόξοισιν ἐμοῖς φυγάδας θήσομεν" ὡς γὰρ ἀμήτωρ ἀπάτωρ τε γεγὼς τοὺς θρέψαντας Φοίβου ναοὺς θεραπεύω.

ἄγ᾽, ὦ νεηθαλὲς ὦ

110

115

τέγγουσ᾽ ἱεραί,

ἀέναον

παγὰν ἐκπροὶϊεῖσαι, μυρσίνας ἱερὰν φόβαν᾽

120

di σαίρω δάπεδον θεοῦ παναμέριος

ἅμ᾽ ἁλίου πτέρυγι

θοᾶι

λατρεύων τὸ κατ᾽ ἦμαρ. 98 99 112 118

105

ἐξ ἀθανάτων,

ἵνα δρόσοι 1ràvt

100

στρ.

καλλίστας προπόλευμα δάφνας, ἃ τὰν Φοίβου θυμέλαν σαίρεις ὑπὸ ναοῖς, κάπων

95

εὔφημοι Camper: εὔφημον L φήμας Hermann: φήμας τ᾽ L νεηθαλὲς LP or Tr: νεοθαλὲς L

τὰν Tr! (L illegible): merpäv Wecklein, γαίας Diggle

53

roof [90] and the Delphian woman sits on the sacred tripod, chanting to the Greeks whatever utterances Apollo proclaims. Come, Delphian servants of Phoebus, go to the silvery streams of Kastalia, [95]

and

after cleansing

yourselves

in the pure

water

approach the temple. With careful speech keep your mouths pure, revealing in your own talk pure utterances to those wanting to consult

the oracle.

[100]

Meanwhile,

busy

with

tasks

which

I

have performed ever since I was a boy, I shall clean the entrance of Phoebus' temple with branches of bay tied with sacred bands and shall dampen the ground [105] with sprinkled water. As for

the flocks of birds which foul the holy offerings, with my bow I shall drive them away. For motherless and fatherless as I am, I serve the temple of Phoebus which reared me. [111

[Sings ] Strophe

Come, new-grown shoot of fairest bay, instrument of my task, you who sweep the steps beneath

the temple of Phoebus.

[115]

You

come from gardens always green where sacred springs, sending forth tthet ever-flowing stream, drench the sacred leaves of myrtle. [120] With this I sweep the god's ground, performing all the day long my daily toil in company with the sun's speedy wing.

54

ὦ Παιὰν ὦ Παιάν, εὐαίων eins, »

[25

εὐαίων ὦ Λατοῦς T

~

παῖ. =

καλόν γε τὸν πόνον, ὦ Φοῖβε, σοὶ πρὸ δόμων λατρεύω, τιμῶν μαντεῖον ἕδραν: κλεινὸς δ᾽ ὁ πόνος μοι θεοῖσιν δούλαν χέρ᾽ ἔχειν, οὐ θνατοῖς, ἀλλ᾽ ἀθανάτοις" εὐφάμους δὲ πόνους μοχθεῖν οὐκ ἀποκάμνω. Φοῖβός μοι γενέτωρ πατήρ᾽ τὸν βόσκοντα γὰρ εὐλογῶ, τὸ δ᾽ ὠφέλιμον ἐμοὶ πατέρος ὄνομα Φοίβου τοῦ κατὰ ναόν. ὦ Παιὰν εὐαίων

135

λέγω 140

εὐαίων

παῖ.

ἀλλ᾽ ἐκπαύσω γὰρ μόχθους δάφνας ὁλκοῖς, χρυσέων δ᾽ ἐκ τευχέων ῥίψω γαίας παγάν, dv ἀποχεύονται Κασταλίας

μαντεῖον Tr: τὴν μαντεῖον P (L illegible) εὐφάμους...πόνους Porson: ebhdpois..névots L Φοῖβον τὸν Heath: Φοίβου τοῦ L

L

145

δῖναι,

νοτερὸν ὕδωρ βάλλων, ὅσιος ἀπ᾽ εὐνᾶς ὦν. εἴθ᾽ οὕτως αἰεὶ Φοίβωι λατρεύων μὴ παυσαίμαν, ἢ παυσαίμαν ἀγαθᾶι μοίραι.

ἢ Lei

130

ὦ Παιάν,

εἴης, ὦ Λατοῦς

130 134 140 153

[ἀντ.

150

55

O Paian!

O Paian! [125]

Blessed, blessed may

you

be, O

child

of Leto. Antistrophe

Noble indeed, O Phoebus, is the task I perform in front of your house, honouring with hands

your oracular seat. [130]

Glorious

is my

that serve the gods, not mortals, but immortals.

are the tasks I grow not weary to perform.

[135]

Phoebus

task Pious

is the

father who begat me. I speak in praise of him who nurtures me and I call by the name of father my benefactor, Phoebus, god of the temple. [140] O Paian! O Paian! Blessed, blessed may you be, O child of Leto. But I shall stop my work with the sweeping branches of bay [145] and shall splash around from golden vessels spring water which the streams of Kastalia pour forth, sprinkling the raining water, pure as I am from

serving Phoebus

any woman's bed. [150]

May

I never cease

in this way, or may I stop with good fortune!

56

ἔα ἔα" φοιτῶσ᾽ ἤδη λείπουσίν τε πτανοὶ Παρνασσοῦ κοίτας. αὐδῶ μὴ χρίμπτειν θριγκοῖς μηδ᾽ ἐς χρυσήρεις οἴκους.

μάρψω

155

σ᾽ αὖ τόξοις, ὦ Ζηνὸς

κῆρυξ, ὀρνίθων γαμφηλαῖς ἰσχὺν νικῶν.

160

ὅδε πρὸς θυμέλας

ἄλλος ἐρέσσει

κύκνος οὐκ ἄλλαι φοινικοφαῆ πόδα κινήσεις; οὐδέν σ᾽ ἁ φόρμιγξ ἁ Φοίβου σύμμολπος τόξων ῥύσαιτ᾽ ἄν. πάραγε πτέρυγας" λίμνας ἐπίβα τᾶς Δηλιάδος:"

165

αἰάξεις, εἰ μὴ πείσηι, τὰς καλλιφθόγγους

ὠιδάς.

ἔα éa’

170

τίς ὅδ᾽ ὀρνίθων καινὸς προσέβα; μῶν ὑπὸ θριγκοὺς εὐναίας καρφυρὰς θήσων τέκνοις;

Ψαλμοί

σ᾽ εἴρξουσιν τόξων.

οὐ πείσηι; χωρῶν δίνας τὰς ᾿Αλφειοῦ παιδούργει ἢ νάπος Ἴσθμιον, ὡς ἀναθήματα μὴ βλάπτηται ναοί θ᾽ οἱ PolBov < >. κτείνειν δ᾽ ὑμᾶς αἰδοῦμαι τοὺς θεῶν ἀγγέλλοντας φήμας θνατοῖς οἷς δ᾽ ἔγκειμαι μόχθοις Φοίβωι δουλεύσω κοὺ λήξω τοὺς βόσκοντας θεραπεύων. 156 161

θριγκοὺς Wilamowitz πρὸς Canter: πρὸ L

162

κύκνος Victorius/Brodaeus: κύκλος L

165

ῥύσαιτ᾽ Tr!: picet’ L

166

πάραγε

Scaliger: παρά

168

αἰάξεις

Nauck: αἱμάξεις L

173

καρφυρὰς Arnaud from Hesychius s.v.: καρφηρὰς

174-5

178

δίνας

«αντεῖοι»

τὰς

175

180

τε L

Badham:&ivais

ταῖς

L

L

Hartung, «λαμπροί» Fix, ναοί

τ᾽ «εὔθριγκοοι

Diggle

|

57

Oh no! The birds are already flocking here, leaving their nests on Parnassus. [155] I tell you not to go near the eaves or the temple covered with gold! I shall get you too with my arrows, herald of Zeus, even though with your beak you outstrip the strength of other birds. [160] Here is another bird wheeling towards the temple—a swan. Won't you take your bright red feet somewhere else? In no way would Phoebus’ lyre, your partner in song, save

you from my arrows. [165] Fly away! Go off to the lake on Delos! You will turn your sweet-toned notes to cries of woe if you don't listen! Oh look! [170]

What is this strange bird that's come?

Is it to build under the eaves nests of straw for its chicks to settle in? My twanging bow-string will keep you off! Take no notice, will you? Go to the streams of Alpheios and have your family [175]

or to the grove on the Isthmus, so that you won't

offerings and the temple of Phoebus < you

since you

foul

the

>. I am reluctant to kill

bring messages from the gods [180]

to mortals.

But with the tasks I am engaged in it is Phoebus I shall serve, and I shall never stop ministering to those who nurture me.

58

XOPOZ

οὐκ ἐν ταῖς ζαθέαις 'AOavais εὐκίονες ἦσαν αὐ-

στρ.

185

Aal θεῶν μόνον οὐδ᾽ ἀγυιάτιδες θεραπεῖαι" ἀλλὰ καὶ παρὰ Aokiaı τῶι Λατοῦς διδύμων προσώπων καλλιβλέφαρον φῶς. ἰδοῦ, ταῖδ᾽ ἄθρησον’ Λερναῖον ὕδραν ἐναίρει χρυσέαις ἅρπαις ὁ Διὸς παῖς" φίλα, πρόσιδ᾽ ὄσσοις.

190

ὁρῶ. καὶ πέλας ἄλλος avτοῦ πανὸν πυρίφλεκτον al-

ρει Tis’ dp’ ὃς ἐμαῖσι

a

[üvT.

a 195

μυ-

θεύεται παρὰ πήναις, ἀσπιστὰς Ἰόλαος, ὃς κοινοὺς αἱρόμενος πόνους Δίωι παιδὶ συναντλεῖ; καὶ μὰν τόνδ᾽ ἄθρησον πτεροῦντος ἔφεδρον ἵππου" τὰν πῦρ πνέουσαν ἐναίρει τρισώματον ἀλκάν.

200

πάνται τοι βλέφαρον διώκω. σκέψαι κλόνον ἐν τείχεσσι λαΐνοισι Γιγάντων.

[oTp. B

te δερκόμεσθ᾽, ὦ φίλαι. λεύσσεις οὖν ἐπ᾽ Ἐγκελάδωι γοργωπὸν

πάλλουσαν

ἴτυν...

.;

188

διδύμων Tr? ? (perhaps L): διδύμων te P (perhaps L)

189 190 195° 203 205

καλλιβλέφαρον Brodaeus: Täıd’ Dobree: τάνδ᾽ L: mavóv Pierson: travov L πῦρ Reiske: πυρὶ, πάνται Musgrave: πάντα

καλλίφαρον L τόνδ᾽ Milton cf. 1294 L

208 ἃ 222 metre uncertain ὦ φίλαι, ὧδε δερκόμεσθα Murray, ὧδε δερκόμεθ᾽, ὦ φίλαι « δή > Hermann

210

59

[Enter Chorus from the left parodos] Cho.

[Sings]

Strophe Not ın sacred Athens alone then are there courts of the gods with lovely columns [185] and altars in the service of Agyieus. But also in the house of Loxias, Leto's son, there is the brightness of beautiful eyes shining from twin façades. Look, see here! [190] The son of Zeus slays the hydra from Lerna with his golden sickle. My friend, take a close look. Antistrophe I see, and beside him someone else holds a torch blazing with fire. Is it the man whose story is told while I am at my loom, the warrior Iolaus who undertakes to share with the son of Zeus the full endurance of his labours? [200]

Look here now at the man astride a winged horse! He slays the mighty three-bodied creature that breathes fire. Strophe As you see, I cast my eye in every direction.[205] Look rout of the Giants on the walls of stone! tWe are looking there, friends. Do you see, then, the woman brandishing the gorgon-faced in front of Enkelados...? [210]

at the

shield

60

λεύσσω Παλλάδ᾽, ἐμὰν θεόν. τί γάρ; κεραυνὸν ἀμφίπυρον ὄβριμον ἐν Διὸς ἑκηβόλοισι χερσίν; ὁρῶ" τὸν δάϊον Μίμαντα πυρὶ καταιθαλοῖ. καὶ Βρόμιος ἄλλον ἀπολέμοισι κισσίνοισι βάκτροις ἐναίρει Tas τέκνων 6 Βακχεύς.

215

[ἀντ.

σέ τοι, τὸν παρὰ ναὸν αὐὖδῶ: θέμις γυάλων ὑπερβῆναι λευκῶι ποδί γ᾽ «οὐδόν»;

β 220

«lav» οὐ θέμις, ὦ ξέναι. totvS’ ἂν ἐκ σέθεν ἂν πυθοίμαν τίνα τήνδε θέλεις;

αὐδάν;

ap’ ὄντως μέσον ὀμφαλὸν lov Ιων

γᾶς Φοίβου κατέχει δόμος; στέμμασί γ᾽ ἐνδυτόν, ἀμφὶ δὲ Γοργόνες. οὕτω καὶ φάτις αὐδάᾶι.

εἰ μὲν ἐθύσατε πελανὸν πρὸ δόμων καί τι πυθέσθαι χρήιϊιζετε Φοίβου, πάριτ᾽ ἐς θυμέλας" ἐπὶ δ᾽ ἀσφάκτοις μήλοισι δόμων μὴ πάριτ᾽ ἐς μυχόν. ἔχω μαθοῦσα’ θεοῦ δὲ νόμον οὗ παραβαίνομεν, ἃ δ᾽ ἐκτός ὄμμα τέρψει.

213 218 22] 222 223 224 226

225

230

ἑκηβόλοισι p: ἑκηβόλης L τέκνων Elmsley: τέκνον L «οὐδόν»

Lindau, ApıyKöv/ous> Hense/Wecklein (γ᾽ deleted)

ἐκ σέθεν Av πυθοίμεθ᾽ αὐδάν; L. Dindorf (οὐδ᾽ Av deleted) and Paley, οὐδ᾽ dv ἐκ σέθεν Av πυθοίμαν; luv αὔδα τήνδε Musgrave: δὲ L

ἐνδυτόν Musgrave: ἐνδυτός

ἐθύσατε

τί θέλεις

Hermann

L

Stephanus: ἐδύσατε L: ἐλύσατε [Ὁ

61 I see Pallas, my own goddess. What about this? The mighty thunderbolt flaming at both ends in Zeus’ far-shooting hands”? I see it. The dread Mimas he burns to ashes with fire. [215]

And Bromios, the god of the Bacchai, slays another of Earth's children with his staff crowned with ivy, unwarlike though it is. Antistrophe

lon Cho. Ion Cho. lon Cho. lon

Cho.

You there, I am talking to you beside the temple. Is it proper for me to step [220] over the sanctuary's with bare feet? It is not proper, strangers. t Could we not even get some information from you then?t

What is it you want to know? Does the temple of Phoebus really contain the very navel of the earth? Yes; it is bound with woollen bands and around it are Gorgons.

That's just how the report of it goes. [225] If you have offered the sacrificial mixture in front of the building and want to learn something from Phoebus, pass in to the altar. But if you have not sacrificed sheep, do not proceed into the enclosure. I fully understand. We do not mean to transgress the god's law, [230] but will enjoy the sights outside.

Igv -

πάντα θεᾶσθ᾽, ὅτι καὶ θέμις, ὄμμασι. μεθεῖσαν δεσπόται με θεοῦ γύαλα τάδ᾽ εἰσιδεῖν. ὃδμωαὶ δὲ τίνων κλήιζεσθε δόμων; Παλλάδι σύνοικα τρόφιμα μέλαOpa τῶν ἐμῶν τυράννων: παρούσας δ᾽ ἀμφὶ Táào8' ἐρωτάις.

ἴων -

lv




YEVVALÔTNS

σοι Kal τρόπων

τεκμήριον

τὸ σχῆμ᾽ ἔχεις τόδ᾽, ἥτις εἶ ποτ᾽, ὦ γύναι. γνοίη δ᾽ ἂν ὡς τὰ πολλά γ᾽ ἀνθρώπου πέρι τὸ σχῆμ᾽ ἰδών τις εἰ πέφυκεν εὐγενής.

240

ἔα" ἀλλ᾽ ἐξέπληξάς μ᾽, ὄμμα συγκλήισασα δακρύοις θ᾽ ὑγράνασ᾽ εὐγενῆ Tapniôa,

σὸν

ὡς εἶδες ἁγνὰ Λοξίου χρηστήρια. τί ποτε μερίμνης ἐς τόδ᾽ ἦλθες, ὦ γύναι; οὗ πάντες ἄλλοι γύαλα λεύσσοντες θεοῦ χαίρουσιν,

ἐνταῦθ᾽ ὄμμα

245

σὸν δακρυρροεῖ;

ΚΡΕΟΥ͂ΣΑ ὦ ξένε, τὸ μὲν σὸν οὐκ ἀπαιδεύτως ἔχει ἐς θαύματ᾽ ἐλθεῖν δακρύων ἐμῶν πέρι᾽ ἐγὼ δ᾽ ἰδοῦσα τούσδ᾽ ᾿Απόλλωνος δόμους μνήμην παλαιὰν ἀνεμετρησάμην τινά"

250

ἐκεῖσε τὸν νοῦν ἔσχον ἐνθάδ᾽ οὖσά περ. ὦ τλήμονες

γυναῖκες: ὦ τολμήματα

θεῶν. τί δῆτα; ποῖ δίκην ἀνοίσομεν, εἰ τῶν κρατούντων ἀδικίαις ὀλούμεθα; 233

με

θεοῦ

Hermann: θεοῦ με

235

Παλλάδι

237

lacuna, 6.5. ὦ

L

σύνοικα Badham: Παλλάδος

χαῖρ᾽, ἄνασσα:

ἔνοικα L

καὶ γὰρ οὖν μορφῆι τ᾽ ἔνι», posited before this line

by Lloyd-Jones

245

ob Pierson: δὶ,

251

ἐκεῖσε Owen: οἴκοι

8ë L

ἔσχον

L

253 254

ἀνοίσομεν Musgrave: ἀνήσομεν L ὀλούμεθα Hülsemann: ὀλοίμεθα L

Stephanus: ἔσχομεν

L περ Dobree/Hermann:

mou

63 lon Cho. lon Cho.

lon

Do look intently at everything—that is quite proper. My masters sent me off to view this sanctuary of the god. Of which house are you called the servants? The nurturing dwelling of my rulers shares a roof with Pallas' shrine. [235] But you ask about the lady here at hand. [Enter Kreousa from the left parodos] « > you have nobility, and a clear sign of your character is your bearing, whoever you are, madam. One could tell, for the most

part at any

rate, whether a person

is well-born

or not

by

looking at his appearance. [240] Oh! You upset me by closing your eyes and drenching your noble cheek with tears when you caught sight of the sacred shrine of Loxias. What brings you this concern, lady? Where everyone else gazes upon the god's shrine [245] with pleasure, here do your eyes stream with tears? Kreousa Stranger, it shows your good upbringing that you are astonished by my tears. When I saw this temple of Apollo I retraced an age-old memory. [250] I turned my mind there, though standing here. Unhappy women! The things gods dare! So what to do then? Where shall we turn to for justice if we are going to be ruined by the unjust deeds of those above us?

Iw Kp.

τί χρῆμ᾽ ἀνερμήνευτα δυσθυμῆι, γύναι; οὐδέν: μεθῆκα τόξα’ τἀπὶ τῶιδε δὲ ἐγώ τε σιγῶ καὶ σὺ μὴ φρόντιζ᾽ ἔτι.

lav

τίς δ᾽ el; πόθεν γῆς ἦλθες; ἐκ ποίας πάτρας

Κρ.

πέφυκας; ὄνομα τί σε καλεῖν ἡμᾶς χρεών; Κρέουσα μέν μοι τοὔνομ᾽, ἐκ δ᾽ Ἐρεχθέως πέφυκα, πατρὶς γῆ δ᾽ ᾿Αθηναίων πόλις.

Iav

ὦ

πατέρων,

ὥς σε θαυμάζω,

κεὐτυχοῦμεν,

γύναι.

Kp.

τοσαῦτα

lav

πρὸς

Κρ.

τί χρῆμ᾽ ἐρωτᾶις, ὦ ξέν᾽, ἐκμαθεῖν θέλων;

Iw Κρ.

ἐκ γῆς πατρός σου πρόγονος ἔβλαστεν πατήρ; Ἐριχθόνιός ye: τὸ δὲ γένος μ᾽ οὐκ ὠφελεῖ.

Iw

7 καί σφ᾽ ᾿Αθάνα γῆθεν ἐξανείλετο;

Κρ. Iw Κρ. lov Kp.

ἐς παρθένους γε χεῖρας, οὐ τεκοῦσά νιν. δίδωσι δ᾽, ὥσπερ ἐν γραφῆι νομίζεται... Κέκροπός γε σώιζειν παισὶν οὐχ ὁρώμενον. ἤκουσα λῦσαι παρθένους τεῦχος θεᾶς. τοιγὰρ θανοῦσαι σκόπελον ἥιμαξαν πέτρας.

θεῶν,

ἀληθῶς,

ὦ ξέν᾽, οὐ πέρα.

ὡς μεμύθευται

βροτοῖς...

— elév TL Sai τόδ᾽, dp’ ἀληθὲς À μάτην λόγος;

Kp. lov Kp.

τί χρῆμ᾽ ἐρωτᾶις; καὶ yap ov κάμνω σχολῆι. πατὴρ Ἐρεχθεὺς σὰς ἔθυσε συγγόνους; ἔτλη πρὸ γαίας σφάγια παρθένους κτανεῖν.

Ιων

σὺ δ᾽ ἐξεσώθης πῶς κασιγνήτων

Κρ. Ιων Kp. lov Κρ. lav

βρέφος νεογνὸν μητρὸς ἦν ἐν ἀγκάλαις. πατέρα δ᾽ ἀληθῶς χάσμα σὸν κρύπτει χθονός; πληγαὶ τριαίνης ποντίου σφ᾽ ἀπώλεσαν. Makpai δὲ χῶρός ἐστ᾽ ἐκεῖ κεκλημένος; τί δ᾽ ἱστορεῖς τόδ᾽; ὥς μ᾽ ἀνέμνησάς τινος. τιμᾶι σφε ὑ Πύθιος ἀστραπαί τε Πύθιαι.

255 266 285

260

κλεινὸν οἰκοῦσ᾽ ἄστυ γενναίων τ᾽ ἄπο τραφεῖσα

lav

259

ἀνερμήνευτα Wakefield: dvepeivntal θέλων Badham: θέλω L Φοῖβος Matthiae, ᾿Απόλλων Blaydes,γ᾽ ὁ θεὸς

265

270

275

μόνη;

Kayser

280

285

are

you

despondent

over

things

65 interpretation,

lon

Why

beyond

Kr.

madam? [255] It is nothing; I have let fly what I have to say. Now I am staying

silent about the matter and you think about it no longer. Ion

Who are you?

Where do you come

from?

From

what homeland

do you spring? By what name should I call you? Kr. lon Kr. Ion Kr. lon Kr. lon Kr.

lon Kr. lon Kr.

Kreousa 1s my name, Erechtheus [260]

is my

father and the city

of the Athenians is my homeland. Lady, you dwell in a famed city and are born of noble ancestors. How you fill me with respect! To that extent I am fortunate, stranger; no further. By the gods, 1s it true that, as the story goes among men ... [265] What are you asking about, stranger, in your desire for information? your father's father, ancestor of the family, sprang from the earth? Yes, that was Erichthonios. But my ancestry is no use to me. Did Athena really take him up from the earth? Yes, into her virginal hands as she was not his mother. [270] She gave him, as is regularly depicted...

to the daughters of Kekrops to look after though not visible to them. I heard that the maidens opened the goddess' chest. That is why they met their death spattering with their blood a rocky crag .

lon

So much

for that. What about

this then? Is it true or an empty

tale? [275] Kr.

What are you asking about? Rest assured that I am not pressed for

lon

time. Did your father Erechtheus sacrifice your sisters?

Kr.

He steeled himself to slay his daughters country.

lon

How was it that you alone of your sisters was saved?

Kr.

I was As for Blows Is the

lon Kr. lon Kr. lon

as

offerings

for

his

a new-born infant in my mother's arms. [280] your father, does a rent in the earth really cover him up? from the trident of the sea god destroyed him. place there known as ‘Long Rocks’?

Why do you ask about this? You remind me of something! {The Pythiant reveres the place as do the Pythian lightnings.

[285]

Kp. ἴων Κρ. Iwy Κρ. Ϊων Κρ.

Trınä τιμᾶτΤ᾽ ὡς μήποτ᾽ ὠφελόν σφ᾽ ἰδεῖν. τί δέ; στυγεῖς σὺ τοῦ θεοῦ τὰ φίλτατα; οὐδέν ξύνοιδ᾽ ἄντροισιν αἰσχύνην τινά. πόσις δὲ τίς σ᾽ ἔγημ᾽ ᾿Αθηναίων, γύναι; οὐκ ἀστὸς ἀλλ᾽ ἐπακτὸς ἐξ ἄλλης χθονός. τίς; εὐγενῆ νιν δεῖ πεφυκέναι τινά. Ξοῦθος, πεφυκὼς Αἰόλου Διός τ᾽ ἄπο.

Ιων

καὶ πῶς ξένος σ᾽ àv ἔσχεν οὖσαν ἐγγενῆ;

Kp. Iw Κρ.

Εὔβοι᾽ ᾿Αθήναις ἔστι τις γείτων πόλις. ὅροις ὑγροῖσιν, ὡς λέγουσ᾽, ὡρισμένη. ταύτην ἔπερσε Κεκροπίδαις κοινῶι δορί.

Iw

ἐπίκουρος ἐλθών; κἄάιτα σὸν γαμεῖ

Kp. lov Kp. luv Κρ. lov Κρ. Iw

φερνάς ye πολέμον καὶ δορὸς λαβὼν γέρας. σὺν ἀνδρὶ δ᾽ ἥκεις ἢ μόνη χρηστήρια; σὺν ἀνδρί: σηκοῖς δ᾽ ὑστερεῖ Τροφωνίου. πότερα θεατὴς ἢ χάριν μαντευμάτων; κείνου τε Φοίβου θ᾽ ἕν θέλων μαθεῖν ἔπος. καρποῦ δ᾽ ὕπερ γῆς ἥκετ᾽ ἢ παίδων πέρι; ἄπαιδές ἐσμεν, χρόνι᾽ ἔχοντ᾽ εὐνήματα. οὐδ᾽ ἔτεκες οὐδὲν πώποτ᾽ ἀλλ᾽ ἄτεκνος εἶ;

Κρ.

ὁ Φοῖβος οἷδε τὴν ἐμὴν ἀπαιδίαν.

lov

— à τλῆμον,

Κρ. Iw

ἀνάθημα πόλεως ἤ τινος πραθεὶς ὕπο; οὐκ οἶδα πλὴν Ev: Λοξίου κεκλήμεθα.

Κρ.

ἡμεῖς σ᾽ ἄρ᾽ αὖθις, ὦ ξέν᾽, ἀντοικτίρομεν.

lw Kp.

ὡς μὴ εἰδόθ᾽ ἥτις μ᾽ ἔτεκεν ἐξ ὅτου τ᾽ ἔφυν. ναοῖσι δ᾽ οἰκεῖς τοισίδ᾽ ἢ κατὰ στέγας;

288 300 314

800

305

ὡς τἄλλ᾽ εὐτυχοῦσ᾽ οὐκ εὐτυχεῖς.

σὺ δ᾽ εἶ τίς; ὥς σου τὴν τεκοῦσαν ὦλβισα. τοῦ θεοῦ καλοῦμαι δοῦλος, εἰμί T', ὦ γύναι.

τιμᾶι; τιμᾶι᾽ ξύνοιδ᾽ σηκοῖς τοισίδ᾽

295

λέχος;

Κρ. Iw

286

290

τί τιμᾶι; (ὡς deleted) Hermann, τιμᾶι᾽ τί μήν; anonymous in Matthiae, τάλαιν᾽ Kirchhoff σφ᾽ Scaliger:σ᾽ L Tyrwhitt: ξέν᾽ olö’L Scaliger: σηκοὺς 1, ὑστερεῖ Badham:εὖ στρέφει! L Wakefield: τοῖσδε γ᾽ L

310

67 Kr.

lon Kr.

lon Kr. lon Kr.

lon Kr. lon

fHonours honours I wish that I had never set eyes on it. Why? Do you hate things very dear to the god? It 1s nothing. I share with the cave the knowledge of some shameful deed . Well, who of the Athenians is your wedded husband, madam? He is not a citizen, but a man brought in from another country. [290] Who is he? He must be someone noble by birth. Xouthos, born from Aiolos, son of Zeus. How came it that though a foreigner he won you, born in the land? There is a land called Euboia bordering on Athens. Divided from it, people say, by a stretch of water. [295]

Kr.

He sacked Kekrops.

lon

After

this

arnving

place

as an

siding

ally?

in

war

with

the

And

then

he

shares

descendants

your

of

bed

in

Kr.

Yes, gaining my dowry as a reward for fighting in the war.

lon

Have you come to the oracle with your husband or alone? With my husband; but he is kept waiting at the precinct Trophonios. [300]

of

marriage?

Kr. lon Kr. lon

To see the sights or in order to receive an oracle? Wanting to get a single response from him and from Phoebus. Is it about the produce of the soil or about children that you have come?

Kr. lon Kr. lon

We are childless though we have been married a long time. Have you never ever given birth and are you barren? [305] Phoebus knows the nature of my childlessness. Poor woman!

Though

fortunate in other respects, how unfortunate

you are! Kr.

And you, who are you? How happy I count the woman you!

lon Kr. Ion Kr. lon Kr.

I am called a slave of the god, and so I am, madam. The offering of a city or sold by someone? [310] I know but one thing: I am called Loxias'.

Then I feel pity for you in turn, stranger. Because I do not know who bore me and who begat me. Do you live in this temple or in a house ?

who bore

lav Κρ. Iov Kp. Iwy

ἅπαν θεοῦ μοι δῶμ᾽, tv’ Gv λάβηι μ᾽ ὕπνος. παῖς δ᾽ Qv ddikov ναὸν ἢ νεανίας; βρέφος λέγουσιν οἱ δοκοῦντες εἰδέναι. καὶ τίς γάλακτί σ᾽ ἐξέθρεψε Δελφίδων; οὐπώποτ᾽ ἔγνων μαστόν' ἣ δ᾽ ἔθρεψέ με...

315

Κρ.

τίς, ὦ ταλαίπωρ᾽, ὡς νοσοῦσ᾽ ηὗρον νόσους.

320

Iw Κρ. ΙΪων

Φοίβου προφῆτιν μητέρ᾽ ds νομίζομεν. ἐς δ᾽ ἄνδρ᾽ ἀφίκου τίνα τροφὴν κεκτημένος; βωμοί μ᾽ ἔφερβον οὑπιών τ᾽ ἀεὶ ξένος.

323

Κρ. ἴων

ἔχεις δὲ βίοτον: εὖ γὰρ ἤσκησαι πέπλοις. τοῖς τοῦ θεοῦ κοσμούμεθ᾽ ὧι δουλεύομεν.

Kp.

οὐδ᾽ ias

lov Κρ.

ἔχω γὰρ οὐδέν, ὦ γύναι, τεκμήριον. τάλαινά σ᾽ ἡ τεκοῦσ᾽ ἄρ᾽, ἥτις ἦν ποτε.

329 324

lov

ἀδίκημά

325

Κρ.

φεῦ:

Iwy

πέπονθέ τις σῆι μητρὶ ταὔτ᾽ ἄλλη γυνή. τίς; εἰ πόνου μοι ξυλλάβοι, χαίροιμεν ἄν.

Kp.

ἧς οὕνεκ᾽ ἦλθον δεῦρο πρὶν πόσιν μολεῖν.

Iwy Κρ. Iwy Kp.

ποῖόν τι χρήιζουσ᾽, ὡς ὑπουργήσω, γύναι. μάντευμα κρυπτὸν δεομένη Φοίβον μαθεῖν. λέγοις dv: ἡμεῖς τἄλλα προξενήσομεν. ἄκουε δὴ τὸν μῦθον: ἀλλ᾽ αἰδούμεθα.

Iw Κρ.

οὔ τἄρα πράξεις οὐδέν: ἀργὸς ἡ θεός. oiBur μιγῆναί φησί τις φίλων ἐμῶν.

lav

ΦφΦοίβωι γυνὴ γεγῶσα; μὴ λέγ᾽, ὦ ξένη.

Κρ. [uv Kp.

καὶ παῖδά γ᾽ ἔτεκε τῶι θεῶι λάθραι πατρός. οὐκ écTiv: ἀνδρὸς ἀδικίαν αἰσχύνεται. οὔ φησιν αὐτή καὶ πέπονθεν ἄθλια.

Iw Κρ.

τί χρῆμα δράσασ᾽, εἰ θεῶι σννεζύγη; τὸν παῖδ᾽ ὃν ἔτεκεν ἐξέθηκε δωμάτων.

[uw

321 324-5 324 33] 340 342

ὁ

εἰς ἔρευναν ἐξευρεῖν γονάς; του γυναικὸς

δ᾽ ἐκτεθεὶς

mals

ποῦ

ἐγενόμην ἴσως.

στιν;

εἰσορᾶι

φάος;

προφῆτιν Reiske: προφῆτις L placed after 329 Herwerden, Jacoby; after 327 Wecklein

τεκοῦσ᾽ dp’, ἥτις ἦν tote Porson: texoto’ ἥ τίς ποτ᾽ ἦν dpa L τίς; εἰ

πόνον

326

μοι

ξυλλάβοι

πατρός Stephanus: πάρος L οὔ Seager: ὃ L

Yxem: τίς εἶπον

εἴ

μοι

EvAdBHL

330

335

340

345

Ton

Kr. lon Kr.

69 The whole of the god's dwelling is my home, wherever sleep takes me. [315] Did you come to the temple while a child or as a young man? Those who seem to know say it was as an infant.

lon

Who of the women of Delphi nurtured you with milk? At no time did I know the breast. She who reared me...

Kr.

Who, poor boy?

lon

[320] the priestess of Apollo, I treat her like a mother.

How, pained myself, I have found

others’ pains!

Kr. lon

What sustenance brought you to manhood? The altars provided my food and the visitors who came from day to day. [323]

Kr.

You do not lack a decent [326]

lon Kr. lon Kr.

I am dressed 1n the raiment of the god whose servant I am.

life. You

are certainly

well dressed.

Did you not spring to the search to find your parents? No, madam, because I had no definite clue. [329] Wretched, then, is the woman who bore you, whoever

she

was.

[324] lon Kr. lon

Kr. lon Kr. lon Kr. lon Kr. lon Kr.

Perhaps I came into the world as some woman's wrong. [325]

Ah! Some other woman has suffered the same as your mother. [330] Who? If she were to share in my task, I should be pleased. The woman on whose account I have come here before my husband arrives. With what in mind? Be assured that I shall assist you, madam. Wanting to hear from Phoebus a secret oracle.

Please tell me. I shall be your sponsor regarding the rest. [335] Listen then to the story. But no, I am ashamed to speak.

You will achieve nothing then; shame is an ineffectual power. One of my friends says that she had intercourse with Phoebus.

Phoebus with a mortal woman? Don't say so, stranger! What is more she bore a child to the god unbeknown father.

Ion Kr. lon Kr. lon

[340]

Impossible! Some man's wrongdoing causes her shame. She says not, and she has suffered terribly.

By what action, seeing that she was coupled with a god? She put out of the house the child which she bore. Where

is the child that had been exposed? Is it alive? [345]

to her

οὐκ ol8ev οὐδείς ταῦτα καὶ μαντεύομαι. εἰ δ᾽ οὐκέτ᾽ ἔστι, τίνι τρόπωι διεφθάρη; θῆράς σφε τὸν δύστηνον ἐλπίζει κτανεῖν. ποίωι τόδ᾽ ἔγνω χρωμένη τεκμηρίωι;

ἐλθοῦσ᾽ tv’ αὐτὸν ἐξέθηκ᾽ οὐχ Nop’ ἔτι. ἦν δὲ σταλαγμὸς

350

ἐν στίβωι τις αἵματος;

οὔ φησι’ καίτοι πόλλ᾽ ἐπεστράφη πέδον. χρόνος δὲ τίς τῶι παιδὶ διαπεπραγμένωι;

σοὶ ταὐτὸν ἥβης, εἴπερ ἦν, εἶχ᾽

ἂν μέτρον.

τί δ᾽ εἰ λάθραι νυν Φοῖβος ἐκτρέφει λαβών; τὰ κοινὰ χαίρων οὐ δίκαια δρᾶι μόνος. ἀδικεῖ νυν ὁ θεός, ἡ τεκοῦσα δ᾽ ἀθλία. οὔκουν ἔτ᾽ ἄλλον «γ᾽» ὕστερον τίκτει γόνον. otpot* προσωιδὸς ἡ τύχη τὠμῶι πάθει.

καὶ σ᾽, ὦ ξέν᾽, οἶμαι μητέρ᾽ ἀθλίαν ποθεῖν.

à μή μ᾽ én’ οἶκτόν ἔξαγ᾽ où ᾿λελήσμεθα. σιγῶ’ πέραινε δ᾽ ὧν σ᾽ ἀνιστορῶ πέρι. οἶσθ᾽ οὖν ὃ κάμνει τοῦ λόγου μάλιστά σοι; τί δ᾽ οὐκ ἐκείνηι τῆι ταλαιπώρωι νοσεῖ; πῶς ὁ θεὸς ὃ λαθεῖν βούλεται μαντεύσεται; εἴπερ καθίζει τρίποδα κοινὸν Ἑλλάδος. αἰσχύνεται τὸ mpáypa: μὴ Ἐἔέλεγχέ νιν. ἀλγύνεται δέ γ᾽ ἡ παθοῦσα τῆι τύχηι. οὐκ ἔστιν ὅστις σοι προφητεύσει τάδε. ἐν Tois γὰρ αὑτοῦ δώμασιν κακὸς φανεὶς Φοῖβος δικαίως τὸν θεμιστεύοντά σοι δράσειεν ἄν τι πῆμ᾽. ἀπαλλάσσου, γύναι. τῶι γὰρ θεῶι τἀναντί᾽ οὐ μαντενυτέον. [eg γὰρ τοσοῦτον ἀμαθίας ἔλθοιμεν ἄν,

349 ἔγνω Brodaeus: ἔγνως L 355-56 placed after 358 Diggle 355 vw Page: vv L 356 «γ᾽ > Badham à μή μ᾽ én’ οἶκτον Nauck: καὶ 361 374-77 deleted by Holthoefer

μή γ᾽ ἐπ᾽ οἶκτόν μ᾽ L

365

370

7] Kr.

No one knows. This is exactly my question to the oracle.

lon

If it is no longer alive, in what way did it meet its death? She assumes that wild beasts killed the poor thing. On the basis of what evidence did she decide that? Going to the spot where she left him she did not find him again. [350] Was there any drop of blood on the track?

Kr.

lon Kr. lon Kr. lon Kr. lon

Kr. lon Kr.

lon Kr. lon

Kr. lon Kr. lon

Kr. lon Kr. lon

She says not; and yet many is the time she went over the ground.

How long is it since the child was done away with? If he was alive, he would be about the same youthful age as you. [354 What if Phoebus took him and rears him in secret? [357] Enjoying on his own pleasures to be shared, he acts unjustly.

[358] The god does wrong, then, and the mother is most unfortunate. [355] What is more she has not given birth afterwards to another child. [356] Alas! Her misfortune chimes in with my own suffering. [359]

Your poor mother yearns, I expect, for you too, stranger. [360] Ah! Do not prompt me to grieve over what had been forgotten. I say no more. Continue with the matter I am asking you about. Well, are you aware of the point in which your case is weakest?

What is not amiss for that most wretched woman? How will the god give an oracle on what he wants kept hidden? [365] He will if he sits on the tripod shared by Greece. He feels shame at the matter. Do not try him with questions. But it is pain she feels, the one who suffers for her ill fortune. There is no one who will speak for you in this matter. If he were shown

to be a villain in his own

house,

[370]

Phoebus

would

rghtly visit with harm anyone announcing the oracle to you. Leave well alone, madam. It 1s not right to question the oracle contrary

to the god's

will. [We

would

come

to such

a pitch

of

72

el τοὺς θεοὺς ἄκοντας ἐκπονήσομεν φράζειν ἃ μὴ θέλουσιν, ἢ προβωμίοις

σφαγαῖσι

375

μήλων ἢ δι᾽ οἰωνῶν πτεροῖς.]

üv yàp βίαι σπεύδωμεν

ἀκόντων

θεῶν,

ἀκόνητα κεκτήμεσθα τἀγάθ᾽, ὦ γύναιἃ δ᾽ ἂν διδῶσ᾽ ἑκόντες, ὠφελούμεθα. πολλαί γε πολλοῖς εἰσι συμφοραὶ βροτῶν, μορφαὶ δὲ διαφέρουσιν: ἕνα δ᾽ ἂν εὐτυχῆ μόλις ποτ᾽ ἐξεύροι τις ἀνθρώπων βίον.

Xo.

ὦ Φοῖβε, κἀκεῖ κἀνθάδ᾽ οὐ δίκαιος εἶ ἐς τὴν ἀποῦσαν, ἧς πάρεισιν οἱ λόγοι᾽ ὃς γ᾽ οὔτ᾽ ἔσωσας τὸν σὸν ὃν σῶσαί σ᾽ ἐχρῆν οὔθ᾽ ἱστορούσηι μητρὶ μάντις ὧν ἐρεῖς, ὡς, εἰ μὲν οὐκέτ᾽ ἔστιν, ὀγκωθῆι τάφωι, εἰ δ᾽ ἔστιν, ἔλθηι μητρὸς εἰς ὄψιν ποτέ. t ἀλλ᾽ ἐᾶν χρὴ τάδ᾽ ἡ, εἰ πρὸς τοῦ θεοῦ κωλυόμεσθα μὴ μαθεῖν ἃ βούλομαι.

380

385

390

ἀλλ᾽, ὦ ξέν᾽, εἰσορῶ γὰρ εὐγενῆ πόσιν Ξοῦθον πέλας δὴ τόνδε, τὰς Τροφωνίου λιπόντα θαλάμας, τοὺς λελεγμένους λόγους σίγα πρὸς ἄνδρα, μή τιν᾽ αἰσχύνην λάβω διακονοῦσα κρυπτά, καὶ προβῆι λόγος οὐχ ἧιπερ ἡμεῖς αὐτὸν ἐξειλίσσομεν. τὰ γὰρ γυναικῶν δυσχερῆ πρὸς ἄρσενας, κἀν ταῖς κακαῖσιν ἁγαθαὶ μεμειγμέναι μισούμεθ᾽: οὕτω δυστυχεῖς πεφύκαμεν.

ΞΟΥ͂ΘΟΣ πρῶτον

μὲν «ὁ» θεὸς

λαβὼν ἀπαρχὰς μῶν

375 379 382 386 401

χρόνιος

τῶν ἐμῶν

προσφθεγμάτων

χαιρέτω, σύ τ᾽, ὦ γύναι.

ἐλθών

σ᾽ ἐξέπληξ᾽

ὀρρωδίαι;

ἄκοντας Brodaeus: ἑκόντας L

ἀνόνητα Stephanus: ἄκοντα ἕνα

L

δ᾽ ἂν εὐτυχῆ Heath:ἕν δ᾽ dv εὐτυχὲςL

ὅς γ᾽ οὔτ᾽ Dobree: o-y’ οὐκ LP: *y' οὐκ L*: σύ γ᾽ oix Tr! «ὃ

>ed. Brubachiana

395

400

73

folly if we put pressure [375]

Cho.

Kr.

to reveal

what

on they

the gods do

not

when want,

they by

are unwilling

means

either

of

anımals sacrificed at altars or by the flight of birds.] The blessings we get by force striving against the gods' will are futile, madam. It is what they grant willingly which benefits us. [380] Many men are afflicted by many calamities, different though they are ın form. With difficulty could one find a mortal life that is wholly fortunate. Phoebus, both there and here you do wrong to the woman who is not here and whose story is being told. [385] You neither saved your own child whom you ought to have saved nor, though a

seer,

will you give an answer to the mother who makes enquiry so that, if the child ıs dead, it can have the dignity of a grave-mound, and if it is still alive, it may one day get to see its mother. But nothing can be done about thatf, if we are prevented by the god [390] from learning what I want. But listen, stranger, I see that my

noble

husband ıs here nearby, having left the halls of Trophonios; say nothing to my husband about our conversation, lest I incur some shame [395] helping someone secretly, and lest the conversation does not move on as we unfolded it. Women's affairs are a source of irritation to men, and even those of us who are upright are mixed up with the evil ones and are reviled. That's how unfortunate we are! [400] [Enter Xouthos from the left parodos]

Xouthos

First I greet the god who gets the first-fruits of my address, and then greetings to you, my wife. I hope that my late arrival has not upset you with dread.

οὐδέν y” ἀφίγμην

δ᾽ és μέριμναν.

ἀλλά

μοι

λέξον, τί θέσπισμ᾽ ἐκ Τροφωνίον φέρεις, παίδων

ὅπως

νῶιν σπέρμα

405

σνγκραθήσεται;

οὐκ ἠξίωσε τοῦ θεοῦ προλαμβάνειν μαντεύμαθ᾽: ἕν δ᾽ οὖν εἶπεν: οὐκ ἄπαιδά με πρὸς οἶκον ἥξειν οὐδὲ σ᾽ ἐκ χρηστηρίων. ὦ πότνια Φοίβου μῆτερ, εἰ γὰρ αἰσίως

410

ἔλθοιμεν, ἅ τε νῶιν συμβόλαια πρόσθεν ἦν ἐς παῖδα τὸν σόν μεταπέσοι βελτίονα. ἔσται τάδ᾽: ἀλλὰ τίς προφητεύει θεοῦ; ἡμεῖς τά γ᾽ ἔξω, τῶν ἔσω δ᾽ ἄλλοις μέλει,

οἱ πλησίον θάσσουσι

τρίποδος,

«ὦ» ξένε,

Δελφῶν ἀριστῆς, οὺς ἐκλήρωσεν πάλος. καλῶς" ἔχω δὴ πάνθ᾽ ὅσων ἐχρήιϊιζομεν. στείχοιμ᾽ ἂν εἴσω: καὶ γάρ, ὡς ἐγὼ κλύω, χρηστήριον πέπτωκε τοῖς ἐπήλυσι κοινὸν πρὸ ναοῦ: βούλομαι δ᾽ ἐν ἡμέραι

415

420

τῆιδ᾽ (αἰσία γάρ) θεοῦ λαβεῖν μαντεύματα. σὺ δ᾽ ἀμφὶ βωμούς, ὦ γύναι, δαφνηφόρους λαβοῦσα κλῶνας, εὐτέκνους εὔχου θεοῖς χρησμούς μ᾽ ἐνεγκεῖν ἐξ ᾿Απόλλωνος δόμων. ἔσται

τάδ᾽,

ἔσται.

Λοξίας

δ᾽, ἐὰν

θέληι

425

νῦν ἀλλὰ τὰς πρὶν ἀναλαβεῖν ἁμαρτίας, ἅπας μὲν οὐ γένοιτ᾽ ἂν εἰς ἡμᾶς φίλος,

ὅσον δὲ χρήιζει (θεὸς γάρ ἐστι) δέξομαι. [ov

τί ποτε

λόγοισιν ἡ ξένη

κρυπτοῖσιν

αἰεὶ

πρὸς

λοιδοροῦσ᾽

τὸν θεὸν

αἰνίσσεται;

ἤτοι φιλοῦσά γ᾽ ἧς ὕπερ μαντεύεται, ἢ καί

ἀτὰρ

τι σιγῶσ᾽

θυγατρὸς

ὧν

τῆς

σιωπᾶσθαι

Ἐρεχθέως

χρεών;

τί μοι

ἀφίγμην Badham: ἀφίκου L σνγκραθήσεται Wakefield: σνγκαθήσεται L μαντεύμαθ᾽ Milton: μάντευμ᾽ 1. δ᾽ οὖν Seager: γοῦν L

«ὦ > Scaliger πάλος Tr^: πάρος L γ᾽ ἧς ὕπερ

μαντεύεται

Victorius: γῆς

ὑπερμαντεύεταιL

430

75 Kr.

Xo.

Not at all, though response do you child-seed of the He did not think

I had bring two of it right

did say one thing: that Kr.

begun to be concerned. But tell me, what from Trophonios [405] as to how the us will be mixed together? to anticipate the oracle of the god. But he I would not go home

from

the oracular

seat without a child and neither would you. O mistress, mother of Phoebus, may our visit here be opportune, [410] and may the dealings the two of us shared earlier take a turn for the better where your son is concerned.

Xo. lon

I am sure they will. But who will act as our spokesman to the god? I shall attend to things outside; things inside are the concern of those who sit near the trıpod, stranger, [415] the Delphian noblemen who have been selected by lot.

Χο.

Good! I have everything that I need. I should like to For, as I am told, the sacrificial victim offered for all fallen in front of the temple. I want on this day, [420] as it is, to receive the responses of the god. You, my branches around the altars laden with bay, pray to the

go in now. visitors has auspicious wife, taking gods that I

bring from Apollo's temple oracles that bode well for children. [Exit Xouthos into the skene] Kr.

I shall, I shall. As for Apollo, if he is willing [425] now at least to make amends for earlier failings, he would not wholly become a friend of mine, but his wishes—he is after all a god—I shall accept. [Exit Kreousa by the left parodos]

lon

Why does this visiting woman keep up a riddling attack on the god in cryptic words? [430] She is either very attached to the woman on whose behalf she consults the oracle or she is actually

hiding something which demands secrecy. But what has the daughter of Erechtheus to do with me? She is certainly no

76

μέλει; προσήκει γ᾽ οὐδέν. ἀλλὰ χρυσέαις πρόχοισιν ἐλθὼν εἰς ἀπορραντήρια δρόσον καθήσω. νουθετητέος δέ μοι Φοῖβος, τί πάσχει᾽ παρθένους βίαι γαμῶν προδίδωσι; παῖδας ἐκτεκνούμενος λάθραι θνήισκοντας ἀμελεῖ; μὴ σύ y" ἀλλ᾽, ἐπεὶ κρατεῖς, ἀρετὰς δίωκε. καὶ γὰρ ὅστις ἂν βροτῶν κακὸς πεφύκηι, ζημιοῦσιν οἱ θεοί. πῶς οὖν δίκαιον τοὺς νόμους ὑμᾶς βροτοῖς γράψαντας αὐτοὺς ἀνομίαν ὀφλισκάνειν; εἰ δ᾽ (οὐ γὰρ ἔσται, τῶι λόγωι δὲ χρήσομαι) δίκας βιαίων δώσετ᾽ ἀνθρώποις γάμων σὺ καὶ Ποσειδῶν Ζεύς θ᾽ ὃς οὐρανοῦ κρατεῖ, ναοὺς τίνοντες ἀδικίας κενώσετε. τὰς ἡδονὰς γὰρ τῆς προμηθίας πέρα σπεύδοντες ἀδικεῖτ᾽. οὐκέτ᾽ ἀνθρώπους κακοὺς λέγειν δίκαιον, εἰ τὰ τῶν θεῶν καλὰ μιμούμεθ᾽, ἀλλὰ τοὺς διδάσκοντας τάδε. Xo.

σὲ τὰν ὠδίνων λοχιᾶν ἀνειλείθνιαν, ἐμὰν ᾿Αθάναν,

440

445

450

στρ.

ἱκετεύω,

Προμηθεῖ Τιτᾶνι λοχενθεῖσαν κατ᾽ ἀκροτάτας κορυφᾶς Διός, ὦ Τμάκαιραΐ μόλε Πύθιον οἶκον, Ὀλύμπου χρυσέων θαλάμων πταμένα

435

πρὸς

455 Nixa,

ἀγυιάς,

γ᾽ οὐδέν Reiske: προσήκει

460

434

προσήκει

τοὗδαςL

435

πρόχοισιν test. and p: πρόχουσιν L

438

ἐκτεκνούμενος

440 444 447 448 449

ἂν test: ὦν L λόγωι test.: our L Tlvovres test.: Tlvovtes δ᾽], πέρα Conington: πέρας test.: πάρος L κακοὺς test: κακῶς L

450 453 457

κακά Stephanus ἀνειλείθυιαν Musgrave from Hesychius s.v.:elke(Ouav L πότνα Tr^: μόλε Page, Diggle

458

μόλε ed. Aldina: μόλει

test.: τεκνούμενος L

L

77

relation. Well, I shall go and pour water into the stoups with my golden jugs. [435] But I must admonish Apollo. What has come over hım? Raping virgins he then abandons them? Siring children secretly he lets them die without a thought? Don't you, Apollo! But since you wield power, pursue virtue. Remember, whoever of mortals [440] proves to be base the gods punish. How then is it right for you yourselves to incur the charge of lawlessness after prescribing laws for men? If (this will not be the case; I am saying so for the sake of argument) you are going to pay the penalty to mortals for rape, [445] I mean you and Poseidon and Zeus who rules the heavens, then in paying

for your crimes you will empty

your temples. For in pursuing pleasures beyond the limit of prudence you do wrong. If we imitate what the gods find good, [450] it is no longer right to call men evil but those who teach them these things. [Exit lon by the right parodos] Cho. [Sings] Strophe

You, my Athena, I beg you, brought to birth not with the help of Eileithuia in pangs of labour, but by the Titan Prometheus [455] from the very top of Zeus’ head, O fblessedf Victory, come to the

Pythian dwelling, flying to its streets from the golden chambers of Olympus.

[460]

78

Φοιβήιος ἔνθα yas μεσόμφαλος ἑστία παρὰ χορενομένωι τρίποδι μαντεύματα κραίνει, σὺ καὶ παῖς ἁ Λατογενής, δύο θεαὶ δύο παρθένοι, κασίγνηται foeuvai Φοίβου.

465

ἱκετεύσατε δ᾽, ὦ κόραι, τὸ παλαιὸν Ἐρεχθέως γένος εὐτεκνίας χρονίου καθαροῖς μαντεύμασι κῦρσαι. ὑπερβαλλούσας γὰρ ἔχει θνατοῖς εὐδαιμονίας ἀκίνητον ἀφορμάν,

[ἀντ.

τέκνων οἷς ἂν καρποφόροι λάμπωσιν

πατρίοισι

470

475

ἐν θαλάμοις

νεάνιδες ἧβαι,

διαδέκτορα πλοῦτον ὡς ἕξοντες ἐκ πατέρων ἑτέροις ἐπὶ τέκνοις. ἄλκαρ τε γὰρ ἐν κακοῖς σύν τ᾽ εὐτυχίαις φίλον δοῤί τε γᾶι πατρίαι φέρει

480

σωτήριον ἀλκάν. ἐμοὶ

μὲν πλούτον

τε πάρος

485

βασιλικῶν τ᾽ elev θαλάμων fTrpobal

κήδειοι

γᾶς

κεδνῶν

γε τέκνων.

Reiske: γᾶ L Tr?: Te καὶ L metre uncertain: κασίγνηται σεμνόταται Diggle, following Fritzsche, Nauck, Tr - cf. 487 καρποφόροι Diggle: kapmorpöbor L älkap Dawe, Willink: ἀλκά L metre uncertain: τροφαὶ κηδείων (or κήδειοι) τεκέων Diggle, following Fritzsche, καὶ

Nauck, Tr?- cf. 467

79

There the altar of Phoebus at the very navel ofthe earth beside the

tripod honoured by the dance gives oracles that do not fail. I pray to you and the daughter of Leto, [465] both goddesses, both virgins, sisters faugust of Phoebust. Ask, O maidens, that the ancient race of Erechtheus be blessed with fertility at long last [470]

through

oracles that are clear.

Antistrophe

It ıs a secure fund of exceeding happiness for mortals [475] when the vigorous young lives of children fruitful themselves shine brightly in one's ancestral halls. For they shall possess wealth in succession from their fathers on the promise of children to come. [480] In bad times to have children is a safeguard and in prosperity it is lovely and in war it brings a saving defence to the land of one's fathers. To me at least [485] may fnurture caring for cherished childrent be preferable to wealth and royal palaces.

80

Tov ἄπαιδα

δ᾽ ἀποστυγῶ

βίον, ὧι τε δοκεῖ ψέγω: μετὰ δὲ κτεάνων μετρίων εὔπαιδος ἐχοίμαν.

ὦ Πανὸς θακήματα

βιοτᾶς

490

καὶ

[ἐπωιδ.

παραυλίζουσα πέτρα μυχώδεσι Μακραῖς, ἵνα χοροὺς στείβουσι ποδοῖν 'AyAabpou κόραι τρίγονοι

495

στάδια χλοερὰ πρὸ Παλλάδος ναῶν συρίγγων ὑπ᾽ αἰόλας ἰαχᾶς Τὕμνωνγ ὅτ᾽ ἀναλίοις

500

συρίζεις, ὦ Πάν, τοῖσι σοῖς ἐν ἄντροις, ἵνα τεκοῦσά τις παρθένος μελέα βρέφος Φοίβωι πτανοῖς ἐξόρισεν θοίναν θηρσί τε φοινίαν δαῖτα, πικρῶν γάμων ὕβριν.

505

οὔτ᾽ ἐπὶ κερκίσιν οὔτε λόγων φάτιν ἄιον εὐτυχίας Inv

μετέχειν

θεόθεν

τέκνα

θνατοῖς.

πρόσπολοι γυναῖκες, αἱ τῶνδ᾽ ἀμφὶ κρηπῖδας δόμων θυοδόκων -φρούρημ᾽ ἔχουσαι δεσπότιν φυλάσσετε, ἐκλέλοιπ᾽ ἤδη τὸν ἱερὸν τρίποδα καὶ χρηστήριον

510

Ξοῦθος ἢ μίμνει κατ᾽ οἶκον ἱστορῶν ἀπαιδίαν; Xo.

ἐν δόμοις ἔστ᾽, ὦ ξέν᾽: οὔπω δῶμ᾽ ὑπερβαίνει τόδε. ὡς δ᾽ ἐπ᾽ ἐξόδοισιν ὄντος, τῶνδ᾽ ἀκούομεν πυλῶν δοῦπον, ἐξιόντα T’ ἤδη δεσπότην ὁρᾶν πάρα.

494 μυχώδεσι Tyrwhitt: μυχοὶ δαισὶL 500-1 ὅτ᾽ ἀναλίοις συρίζεις Herwerden: ὅταν

503

μελέα Badham: ὦ μελέα L

505

φοινίαν Burges: dovlav L

507 511

λόγων Badham: λόγοις L ἔχουσαι Stephanus: ἔχοντα

1,

αὐλίοις συρίζης 1.

δεσπότιν Richards: δεσπότην L

515

81

The childless life I detest, and I reproach him who finds it pleasing. With modest possessions [490] may I cling to a life rich in children. Epode O haunts of Pan and neighbouring rock by the caves of the Long

Rocks, where the three daughters of Aglauros tread with their feet [495] the grassy spaces in front of Pallas’ temples, dancing to the shimmering tune fof the songs? of the pipes when you, [500] O Pan,

play

them

in your

sunless

cave.

Here

it was

wretched maiden bore to Phoebus a child, and exposed for birds and for beasts a bloody

[505]

that

some

it, a meal

feast, the outrage

of a

bitter union. Neither at the loom nor in the telling of stories have I heard that children born to mortals from gods have a share in good fortune. [Enter lon from the right lon

You women attendants who keep watch by the steps of this temple [510]

Cho.

parodos]

in

which

sacrifice

is offered

and

look

out

for

your

mistress! Has Xouthos already left the sacred tripod and oracle, or is he still in the temple enquiring about his childlessness? He is inside, stranger, and has not yet come out of this building. But he is on the way out as I can hear the sound of the doors, [515] and now in fact I can see my master coming out.

ὦ τέκνον,

xaip"

ἡ γὰρ ἀρχὴ

χαίρομεν:

σὺ δ᾽ εὖ φρόνει γε, καὶ δύ᾽ ὄντ᾽ εὖ πράξομεν.

δὸς χερὸς

φίλημά

μοι σῆς

Tov λόγον πρέπουσά σώματός

μοι.

τ᾽ ἀμφιπτυχάς.

εὖ φρονεῖς μέν; À σ᾽ ἔμηνεν θεοῦ τις, ὦ ξένε, βλάβη; Οὐ φρονῶ, τὰ φίλταθ᾽ εὑρὼν εἰ φιλεῖν ἐφίεμαι; παῦε, μὴ Ψαύσας τὰ τοῦ θεοῦ στέμματα ῥήξηις ἅψομαι’ κοὺ ῥυσιάζω, τἀμὰ δ᾽ εὑρίσκω φίλα. οὐκ

ἀπαλλάξηι,

πρὶν

εἴσω

τόξα

πλευμόνων

520

χερί.

λαβεῖν;

ὡς τί δὴ φεύγεις με σαυτοῦ γνωρίσας τὰ φίλτατα; 525 οὐ φιλῶ φρενοῦν ἀμούσους καὶ μεμηνότας ξένους. κτεῖνε kal πίμπρη᾽ πατρὸς γάρ, ἢν κτάνηις, ἔσηι φονεύς.

ποῦ δέ μοι πατὴρ σύ; ταῦτ᾽ οὖν οὐ γέλως κλύειν ἐμοί; ob: τρέχων ὁ μῦθος ἄν σοι τἀμὰ σημήνειεν ἄν. καὶ τί μοι λέξεις; Ho. πατὴρ σός εἰμι καὶ σὺ παῖς ἐμός.

lw

τίς λέγει τάδ᾽

lov

μαρτυρεῖς σαυτῶι. Zo. τὰ τοῦ θεοῦ γ᾽ ἐκμαθὼν xpnστήρια. ἐσφάλης αἴνιγμ᾽ ἀκούσας. Ho. οὐκ dp’ ὄρθ᾽ ἀκούομεν. 06 δὲ λόγος τίς ἐστι Φοίβου; Eo. τὸν συναντήσαντά μοι...

Iwy Iw

συνάντησιν;

o.

ὅς σ᾽ ἔθρεψεν ὄντα Λοξίας ἐμόν.

Iw

τίνα

lov

συμφορᾶς

Iw

σὸν γεγῶτ᾽ ἢ δῶρον ἄλλων; Zo. δῶρον, ὄντα δ᾽ ἐξ ἐμοῦ.

τίνος

Zo.

δόμων

κυρῆσαι;

521

οὐ φρονῶ Jacobs: σωφρονῶ[,

525 526 528 532 537

γνωρίσαι Page: γνωρίσας L οὐ φιλῶ Scaliger: ὀφείλωL

τῶνδ᾽

ἐξιόντι

Seager: ἄλλως L

τοῦ

θεοῦ...

Ho. παῖδ᾽ ἐμὸν πεφυκέναι.

φιλεῖν Tr^: φυγεῖν L

ἐμοί LS: ἐμοῦ L γ᾽ added by Tr?: omitted inL ἄλλων

530

δ᾽ Musgrave:T' L'* it seems:σ᾽ LP“

535

83

Χο.

My son, I wish you good health!

It is perfectly fitting for me to

begin like this.

Ion Χο. Ion Xo.

I am

in good

health.

Just you

be sensible, and

the two of us will

both be fine. Give me your hand as a greeting and let me put my arms around you. Are you in your senses? Has some divine affliction, stranger, sent you out of your mind? Am I not sane if, after finding it, I want to embrace what is dearest to me?

Χο.

Stop! You might break the god's fillets with your rough handling. I will lay hold of you. It's not that I am seizing another's property, but I have discovered what is my very own. Won't you lay off before you get an arrow between the ribs? What makes you shy away from acknowledging me, your nearest

lon

and dearest? [525] I am not in the habit

Ion Xo. lon

of

humouring

gauche

and

deranged

strangers. Xo.

Go on, kill and burn!

You

will be the murderer

of your

father, if

you kill me. lon

You, my father!

Xo.

No! The story as it runs on would quickly make my situation clear to you. Well, what are you going to tell me? Xo. I am your father, you

fon

are my

Now

isn't this a joke I'm hearing?

son. [530]

Ion

Who says so? mine.

Ion

You are your own witness.

Ion

the god's oracle. You made a mistake after getting a riddling didn't hear properly then.

response.

Ion

What did Loxias actually say

the person

Ion

with me. Met you how? [535]

lon lon

Xo.

Xo.

Was destined for what?

Loxias, who reared you Xo.

?

though

you

were

Granted, but only after hearing

Xo.

That

Xo. who

1 met

as I came out of this temple of the god... Xo.

was my son.

Yours by birth, or the gift of others? from me.

Xo.

A gift, but being born

ἴων ἴων ἴων

πρῶτα δῆτ᾽ ἐμοὶ ξυνάπτεις πόδα σόν; Xo. οὐκ ἄλλωι, τέκνον. ἡ τύχη πόθεν ποθ᾽ ἥκει; Zo. δύο μίαν θαυμάζομεν. ἐκ τίνος δέ σοι πέφυκα μητρός; Eo. οὐκ ἔχω φράσαι. 540

Iav

οὐδὲ Φοῖβος εἶπε; Eo. τερφθεὶς τοῦτο, κεῖν᾽ οὐκ ἠρόμην.

lov

γῆς ἄρ᾽ ἐκπέφυκα

IGv Iw

πῶς ἂν οὖν εἴην ads; Zo. οὐκ οἶδ᾽, ἀναφέρω δ᾽ ἐς τὸν θεόν. φέρε λόγων ἁψώμεθ᾽ ἄλλων. Zo. τοῦτ᾽ ἄμεινον, ὦ τέκνον.

lav

ἦλθες ἐς νόθον τι λέκτρον; Xo. μωρίαι γε τοῦ νέου.

lav lav

πρὶν κόρην λαβεῖν Ἐρεχθέως; Xo. οὐ γὰρ dpa δῆτ᾽ ἐκεῖ μ᾽ ἔφυσας; Xo. τῶι χρόνωι

lov

μητρός;

— kávra πῶς ἀφικόμεσθα μακρᾶς

ἐλθὼν

Ho. οὐ πέδον

δεῦρο

κελεύθου;

τίκτει

τέκνα.

545

ὕστερόν γέ πω. γε συντρέχει.

Zo. ταῦτ᾽ ἀμηχανῶ.

[uv

διὰ

Zo.

τοῦτο

κἄμ᾽

Iov

Πυθίαν 8’ ἦλθες πέτραν πρίν; Xo. ἐς φανάς

ἀπαιολαῖ.

ye Βακ-

χίου.

550

Iw

προξένων

8’ ἔν του κατέσχες;

lov Iov Ϊων Iw

ἐθιάσευσ᾽, ἢ πῶς τάδ᾽ αὐδᾶις; Ho. Μαινάσιν γε Βακχίου. ἔμφρον᾽ ἢ κάτοινον ὄντα; Xo. Βακχίου πρὸς ἡδοναῖς. τοῦτ᾽ ékeiv" tv’ ἐσπάρημεν Xo. ὁ πότμος ἐξηῦρεν, τέκνον. πῶς δ᾽ ἀφικόμεσθα ναούς; Xo. ἔκβολον κόρης ἴσως. 555

[uv

ἐκπεφεύγαμεν

lov

τῶι

θεῶι

τὸ δοῦλον.

Eo.

γοῦν οὐκ ἀπιστεῖν

1,

πέφυκα

Ho. ὅς με Δελφίσιν κόραις...

πατέρα

εἰκός.

540

ἐκ Bothe:éa

μητρός Canter: μητρὸς

54] 544 548 549 55l

τοῦτο Paris apograph: τούτω L τοῦτ᾽ Herwerden: ταῦτ᾽ L τοῦτ᾽ Hermann: ταῦτ᾽ L ἀπαιολᾶι Musgrave: ἀπαιολεῖ L tou L. Dindorf: τῶ L: τοῦ Madvig

552

ἐθιάσευσ᾽ Musgrave: ἐθίασέ

553 554

κάτοινον ed. Hervagiana*: κάτοικον L ἐκεῖν᾽ ἵν᾽ Elmsley: ἐκεῖ viv L πότμος

σ᾽ L

νυν

δέχου,

Zo. εὖ φρονεῖς

πέφυκα L

ye Musgrave: τε

L

Scaliger: πότμος

σ᾽ L

τέκνον.

ἄρα.

85 lon lon

Well then, was I the first person you came across? Xo. No one else, my son. How did this turn of events come about? Xo. We both marvel at the same thing.

lon

From what mother am I born your son?

lon

[540] But didn't Phoebus tell you? I didn't ask about that.

Xo.

Xo.

I am unable to say.

Being delighted with this news,

lon

Did I spring then from the earth as my ground does not produce children.

lon

How then could I be yours?

Xo.

mother?

Xo.

The

I don't know, but I refer the

matter to the god. lon

Come,

let us get hold of other considerations.

better, my lon

lon lon

lon lon

Did you ever enter into some irregular liaison?

[550]

Did you lodge with one of the sponsors? with Delphian maids...

lon

joined you as an initiate, or what do you mean?

Ion

they were under Bacchus’ spell. Were you sober or under the influence of wine? the midst of Bacchus’ pleasures.

Ion

That's it! Where I was conceived...

lon

Yes, in the

Before you took the daughter of Erechtheus as wife? Χο. Certainly not since then. Well then was it there you fathered me? Xo. It does coincide with the time. How then did I get here... Xo. I am at a loss to explain this. travelling over so long a distance? Xo. This bewilders me as well. Have you been before to Delphi's rock? Xo. Yes, to the

lon

lon

Xo.

[545]

torchlight rituals of Dionysus.

lon

That is

son.

folly of youth. Ion

Xo.

Xo.

Xo.

Yes, the one who Xo.

Xo.

Fate has found

Yes, when

I was in out, my

son. How then did I get to the temple? Xo. Perhaps you were thrown out by a young girl. [555] I have escaped slavery. Xo. Come, my son, embrace your father. I suppose it is not reasonable to disbelieve the god. Xo. Now that is a sensible attitude.

86

Iwy ΙΪων

καὶ Ti βουλόμεσθά γ᾽ ἄλλο Xo. viv ὁρᾶις à χρή σ᾽ ὁρᾶν. ἢ Διὸς παιδὸς γενέσθαι παῖς; Ho. ὃ σοί γε γίγνεται.

lav lw

à θίγω δῆθ᾽ ὅς μ᾽ ἔφυσας; Ho. πιθόμενός γε τῶι θεῶι. yaipé μοι, πάτερ Zo. φίλον γε φθέγμ᾽ ἐδεξάμην τόδε.

Ϊων

ἡμέρα

lov

θ᾽ ἡ νῦν παροῦσα.

Ho. μακάριόν

γ᾽ ἔθηκέ

560

με.

— à φίλη μῆτερ, πότ᾽ dpa καὶ σὸν ὄψομαι δέμας;

νῦν ποθῶ σε μᾶλλον ἢ πρίν, ἥτις εἶ ποτ᾽, εἰσιδεῖν. ἀλλ᾽ ἴσως τέθνηκας, ἡμεῖς δ᾽ οὐδ᾽ ὄναρ δυναίμεθ᾽ ἄν. κοιναὶ μὲν ἡμῖν δωμάτων εὐπραξίαι" ὅμως δὲ καὶ δέσποιναν ἐς τέκν᾽ εὐτυχεῖν ἐβουλόμην ἂν τούς T' Ἐρεχθέως δόμους.

Xo.

565

5

ὦ τέκνον, ἐς μὲν σὴν ἀνεύρεσιν θεὸς ὀρθῶς

ἔκρανε,

καὶ συνῆψ᾽ ἐμοί

τε σὲ

570

σύ τ᾽ αὖ τὰ φίλταθ᾽ ηὗρες οὐκ εἰδὼς πάρος. οἱ δ᾽ ALEas ὀρθῶς, τοῦτο κἄμ᾽ ἔχει πόθος, ὅπως σύ τ᾽, ὦ παῖ, μητέρ᾽ εὑρήσεις σέθεν ἐγώ θ᾽ ὁποίας μοι γυναικὸς ἐξέφυς. χρόνωι δὲ δόντες ταῦτ᾽ ἴσως εὕροιμεν ἄν. ἀλλ᾽ ἐκλιπὼν θεοῦ δάπεδ᾽ ἀλητείαν τε σὴν

ἐς τὰς

᾿Αθήνας στεῖχε

κοινόφρων πατρί

lob σ᾽ ὄλβιον μὲν σκῆπτρον ἀναμένει πατρός, πολὺς δὲ πλοῦτος" οὐδὲ θάτερον νοσῶν δυοῖν κεκλήσηι δυσγενὴς πένης θ᾽ ἅμα, ἀλλ᾽ εὐγενής τε καὶ πολυκτήμων βίου.] σιγᾶις; τί πρὸς γῆν ὄμμα σὸν βαλὼν ἔχεις ἐς φροντίδας τ᾽ ἀπῆλθες, ἐκ δὲ χαρμονῆς πάλιν μεταστὰς δεῖμα προσβάλλεις πατρί; οὐ ταὐτὸν εἶδος φαίνεται τῶν πραγμάτων πρόσωθεν ὄντων ἐγγύθεν θ᾽ ὁρωμένων. ἐγὼ δὲ τὴν μὲν συμφορὰν ἀσπάζομαι,

Iav

πατέρα

σ᾽ ἀνευρών'

ὃ Scaliger: L

560

ὅς

561

γε added by LP or Tr’: omitted in L

565

οὐδ᾽ ὄναρ

Bothe:

δυναίμεθ᾽

580

585

ὧν δὲ γιγνώσκω, πάτερ,

559

μ᾽ ἔφυσας

575

of μ᾽ ἔφυσαν

L

dv Harry, Parmentier: οὐδὲν dp δυναίμεθα L: οὐδὲν ἂν δυναίμεθα

Barnes

572

οἱ Herwerden: ὃ L

578-81 deleted by Diggle (579-80 suspected by Murray, 581 deleted by Herwerden, Wilamowitz) 583 T'Dindorf: δ᾽ L

585

ταὐτὸν εἶδος Scaliger: ταὔτ᾽ ὄνειδοςL

87 lon

lon lon

What else could I really ask for... Xo. Now you see things as you should. than to be born the grandson of Zeus? Xo. Which is what you are!

Am

1 then

to touch

the man

obedience

to the god.

lon

Greetings

to you, father...

lon

salutation. and greetings to the present

who

begat

me?

Xo.

Xo.

With delight

Yes, in

[560]

day.

Xo.

Which

I accept

this

has made

me

happy. lon

Cho.

Dear mother, when, I wonder, will I see your face now more than ever before to see you, whoever perhaps you are dead, and I could not see you even We share the good fortune of the house. But all the

as well? I long you are. But in a dream. same, I would

have wanted our mistress too to be blessed with children, house of Erechtheus as well. Xo.

My

son, in your discovery the god

has brought

and

the

things to a right

conclusion and has united you and me. [570] For your part you have found what is most dear, though you did not know it earlier.

As for what you rightly spring to, this is what I want as well: that you, my son, will discover your mother, and I the sort of woman

from whom you were born to me. If we give it time we may well find her. [575]

But come now,

leaving behind

the god's precinct

and your homeless state, go to Athens one in mind with your father. [There your fathers rich crown awaits you and much wealth. Nor, though disadvantaged in one of two respects, will you be called both base-born and poor, [580] but rather you will be seen as noble and well endowed with life's comforts.] Why the silence? Why do you keep your face downcast and turn to

lon

worries? Why retreat from happiness and occasion your father anxiety? It is clear that things at a distance have a different appearance [585] when seen close up. I welcome the way things have turned out, in that I have found you to be my father.

what has been on my mind.

But listen, father, to

ἄκουσον. εἶναί φασι τὰς αὐτόχθονας κλεινὰς ᾿Αθήνας οὐκ ἐπείσακτον γένος, ἵν᾽ ἐσπεσοῦμαι δύο νόσω κεκτημένος, πατρός τ᾽ ἐπακτοῦ καὐτὸς ὧν νοθαγενής.

καὶ τοῦτ᾽ ἔχων τοὔνειδος ἀσθενὴς

590

μένων

Tundev καὶ οὐδὲν ὦν κεκλήσομαι. ἣν δ᾽ ἐς τὸ πρῶτον πόλεος ὁρμηθεὶς

ζυγὸν

595

ζητῶ τις εἶναι, τῶν μὲν ἀδυνάτων ὕπο μισησόμεσθα᾽ λυπρὰ γὰρ τὰ κρείσσονα. ὅσοι δέ, χρηστοὶ δυνάμενοί τ᾽, ὄντες σοφοί, σιγῶσι κοὺ σπεύδουσιν ἐς τὰ πράγματα, γέλωτ᾽ ἐν αὐτοῖς μωρίαν τε λήψομαι οὐχ ἡσυχάζων ἐν πόλει ψόγον πλέαι.

τῶν δ᾽ tab λογίων Tet χρωμένων ἐς ἀξίωμα

βὰς πλέον

τε τῆι πόλει

φρουρήσομαι

ψήφοισιν. οὕτω γὰρ τάδ᾽, ὦ πάτερ, φιλεῖ: οἱ τὰς πόλεις ἔχουσι κἀξιώματα τοῖς ἀνθαμίλλοις

600

605

εἰσὶ πολεμιώτατοι.

ἐλθὼν δ᾽ ἐς οἶκον ἀλλότριον ἔπηλυς ὧν γυναῖκά θ᾽ ὡς ἄτεκνον, ἣ κοινουμένη τὰς συμφοράς σοι πρόσθεν ἀπολαχοῦσα νῦν αὐτὴ καθ᾽ αὑτὴν τὴν τύχην οἴσει πικρῶς, πῶς οὐχ ὑπ᾽ αὐτῆς εἰκότως μισήσομαι, ὅταν παραστῶ σοὶ μὲν ἐγγύθεν ποδός, ἡ δ᾽ οὖσ᾽ ἄτεκνος τὰ σὰ φίλ᾽ εἰσορᾶι πικρῶς,

κάιτ᾽ ἢ προδοὺς σύ μ᾽ ἐς δάμαρτα

σὴν βλέπηις

ἡ τἀμὰ τιμῶν δῶμα συγχέας ἔχηις; ὅσας σφαγὰς δὴ φαρμάκων «τε» θανασίμων

615

γυναῖκες ηὗρον ἀνδράσιν διαφθοράς. ἄλλως 588 594 598 601 602 609 610 611 616

τε τὴν σὴν ἄλοχον

οἰκτίρω,

πάτερ,

πάτερ Dobree: πέρι L « καὐτὸς

τὸ

» μηδὲν

κοὐδένων Seidler (αὐτὸς Badham, τὸ

ὄντες

Herwerden: εἶναι L

ψόγου

Musgrave: φόβου

ἐν λόγωι

1.: φθόνον

τῆς συμφορᾶς Diggle: τὰς αὐτὴ ed. Aldina: αὐτὴν!, πῶς Canter: πῶς

te

δ᾽ 1,

added by Heath/Tyrwhitt

Scaliger)

Badham, ψόφον Stephanus

τε Matthiae, αὖ λεγόντων Schaefer συμφορὰς L

610

89

They say that the renowned

earth-born

inhabitants of Athens are

not a people brought in from outside. [590] I shall land there suffering from two disadvantages: being the son of an outsider and being myself born out of wedlock. Burdened by this slur, if I stick to a position without influence,

nobodyt. [595]

But

and

I shall be spoken

of fas a

if I aim for a place in the first ranks of the city

strive to become

someone,

I shall be detested by

the

powerless. Superiority causes offence. On the other hand, from all those who are sound as well as capable, but in their wisdom keep quiet and do not rush into the business of public life, I shall attract ridicule

for being

foolish,[600]

because

I do

not

stay

in the

background in a city full of censure. Then again, if I manage to acquire a standing superior to those fagain chroniclers} having dealings with the city I shall be hemmed in by their votes. This is the way things tend to be, father. Those who control cities and

enjoy

privilege

[605]

are full of hostility

towards

any

rival

contenders.

What is more I shall be moving into a strange house as an outsider to face a woman who is childless and who, after sharing your lot earlier, but with no share in it now, will bear with bitter resentment the misfortune all on her own. [610] It is perfectly reasonable that I shall incur her hatred when I stand close by your side while she, still childless, looks with bitter resentment on

what you

find

dear. Will you then, neglecting me, look to the welfare of your wife or respect my needs and keep your household in turmoil? [615] Think

of the number

of stabbings and deaths

by

noxious

drugs

women have found for their husbands! And besides, father, I feel sorry for your wife growing old without children. She doesn't

90

ἄπαιδα

πατέρων

ynpáckoucav:

ob γὰρ

ἀξία

ἀπ᾽ ἐσθλῶν οὖσ᾽ ἀπαιδίαι

νοσεῖν.

τυραννίδος δὲ τῆς μάτην αἰνουμένης τὸ μὲν πρόσωπον ἡδύ, τάν δόμοισι δὲ λυπηρά: τίς γὰρ μακάριος, τίς εὐτυχής, ὅστις δεδοικὼς καὶ παραβλέπων βίαν αἰῶνα τείνει; δημότης ἂν εὐτυχὴς ζῆν ἂν θέλοιμι μᾶλλον ἢ τύραννος ὦν,

620

625

ὧι τοὺς πονηροὺς ἡδονὴ φίλους ἔχειν, ἐσθλοὺς δὲ μισεῖ κατθανεῖν φοβούμενος. εἴποις ἂν ὡς ὁ χρυσὸς ἐκνικᾶι τάδε, πλουτεῖν τε τερπνόν: οὐ φιλῶ ψόγους κλύειν ἐν χερσὶ σώιζων ὄλβον οὐδ᾽ ἔχειν πόνους" εἴη γ᾽ ἐμοὶ «qiév» μέτρια μὴ λυπουμένωι.

630

ἃ δ᾽ ἐνθάδ᾽ εἶχον ἀγάθ᾽ ἄκουσόν μου, πάτερ᾽ τὴν φιλτάτην μὲν πρῶτον ἀνθρώποις σχολὴν ὄχλον TE μέτριον, οὐδέ μ᾽ ἐξέπληξ᾽ ὁδοῦ πονηρὸς οὐδείς κεῖνο δ᾽ οὐκ ἀνασχετόν, εἴκειν ὁδοῦ χαλῶντα τοῖς κακίοσιν.

635

θεῶν δ᾽ ἐν εὐχαῖς ἢ λόγοισιν À βροτῶν ὑπηρετῶν

χαίρουσιν

οὐ γοωμένοις.

καὶ τοὺς μὲν ἐξέπεμπον, οἱ δ᾽ ἧκον ξένοι, ὥσθ᾽ ἡδὺς αἰεὶ καινὸς ἐν καινοῖσιν À. ὃ δ᾽ εὐκτὸν ἀνθρώποισι, κἂν ἄκουσιν AL,

Xo.

620 624 625 630 632 634 638 641 646

δίκαιον

εἶναί

παρεῖχε

τῶι

μ᾽ ὁ νόμος θεῶι.

ταῦτα

ἡ φύσις

θ᾽ ἅμα

συννοούμενος

κρείσσω νομίζω τἀνθάδ᾽ ἢ τἀκεῖ, πάτερ. ἔα δέ μ᾽ αὐτοῦ ζῆν: ἴση γὰρ ἡ χάρις μεγάλοισι χαίρειν σμικρά θ᾽ ἡδέως ἔχειν. καλῶς ἔλεξας, εἴπερ obs ἐγὼ φιλῶ ἐν τοῖσι σοῖσιν εὐτυχήσουσιν φίλοις. ἀπαιδίαι Dobree, L. Dindorf: ἀπαιδίαν L περιβλέπων test.: παραβλέπων L βίαν Stephanus: βίον L and test. δημότης test.: δημότης δ᾽ L ψόγους mentioned by Brodaeus: ψόφους L μὲν added in ed. Brubachiana ἀνθρώποις Dobree: ἀνθρώπων L

λόγοισιν À Musgrave: γόοισιν ἢ L ev Scaliger: dv L δέ μ᾽ αὐτοῦ Badham: δ᾽ ἐμαυτῶ! ,

640

645

91

deserve to be afflicted with childlessness, coming as she does from noble

stock. [620]

As for supreme rule which is falsely praised, it has a fair appearance but ts painful within. For who can be happy, who fortunate,

who

stretches

out

his

existence

in

fear

looking

with

suspicion for any sign of violence? [625] I should prefer to live asa happy commoner than to be a monarch whose pleasure it is to have base men as friends, while in fear for his life he shuns the noble. You might reply that wealth fully overcomes these things and that to be rich is a joy. I am not one to listen to taunts [630] as I hoard wealth in my possession, and I do not want to have worries. The life of moderation without care is for me! Now listen, father, to the good things which I enjoyed here. First of all, leisure, a thing most dear to men, and a modicum

of care.

No base fellow ever pushed me out of his way. [635] This is intolerable: to yield and give way to one's inferiors. In prayer to gods or converse with men, I waited on those who were cheerful not sad. As I used to send some on their way, other visitors would

arrive, [640] so that I was always welcome, a fresh face to fresh arrıvals. And what is prayed for by men, even if against their will,

namely to be just, both the law and my such to the god.

Pondering

nature presented

these things I reckon

me as

that life here is

better than there, father. [645] Let me continue to live right here! For the delight in being pleased with great things and in being contented with small is just the same. Cho.

I approve of what you have said, provided that

dear will

those whom I hold

find happiness along with those who are dear to you.

B S

παῦσαι

λόγων

τῶνδ᾽, εὐτυχεῖν

δ᾽ ἐπίστασο"

650

θέλω γὰρ οὗπέρ σ᾽ ηὗρον ἄρξασθαι, τέκνον, κοινῆς τραπέζης, δαῖτα πρὸς κοινὴν πεσών, θῦσαί θ᾽ d cov πρὶν γενέθλι᾽ οὐκ ἐθύσαμεν. καὶ νῦν μὲν ὡς δὴ ξένον ἄγων σ᾽ ἐφέστιον δείπνοισι τέρψω, τῆς δ᾽ ᾿Αθηναίων χθονὸς ἄξω θεατὴν δῆθεν, ὡς οὐκ ὄντ᾽ ἐμόν. καὶ γὰρ γυναῖκα τὴν ἐμὴν οὐ βούλομαι

655

λυπεῖν ἄτεκνον οὖσαν αὐτὸς εὐτυχῶν. χρόνωι δὲ καιρὸν λαμβάνων προσάξομαι δάμαρτ᾽ ἐᾶν σε σκῆπτρα τἄμ᾽ ἔχειν χθονός. Ἴωνα δ᾽ ὀνομάζω σε τῆι τύχηι πρέπον,

ὁθούνεκ᾽ ἀδύτων ἐξιόντι

Ιων

660

μοι θεοῦ

ἴχνος συνῆψας πρῶτος. ἀλλὰ τῶν φίλων πλήρωμ᾽ ἀθροίσας βουθύτωι σὺν ἡδονῆι πρόσειπε, μέλλων Δελφίδ᾽ ἐκλιπεῖν πόλιν. ὑμῖν δὲ σιγᾶν, δμωΐδες, λέγω τάδε, ἢ θάνατον εἰπούσαισι πρὸς δάμαρτ᾽ ἐμήν. στείχοιμ᾽ ἄν. ἕν δὲ τῆς τύχης ἀπεστί pot’ εἰ μὴ γὰρ ἥτις μ᾽ ἔτεκεν εὑρήσω, πάτερ,

ἀβίωτον ἡμῖν. εἰ δ᾽ ἐπεύξασθαι

665

χρεών,

670

ἐκ τῶν ᾿Αθηνῶν μ᾽ ἡ τεκοῦσ᾽ εἴη γυνή, ὥς μοι γένηται μητρόθεν παρρησία. καθαρὰν γὰρ ἤν τις ἐς πόλιν πέσηι ξένος,

κἂν τοῖς λόγοισιν ἀστὸς FL, τό γε στόμα δοῦλον Χο.

πέπαται

κοὐκ

ἔχει

παρρησίαν.

675

ὁρῶ δάκρυα kal πενθίμους «ἀλαλαγὰς» στεναγμάτων τ᾽ ἐσβολάς, ὅταν ἐμὰ τύραννος εὐπαιδίαν πόσιν ἔχοντ᾽ εἰδῆι,

[cTp.

αὐτὴ δ᾽ ἄπαις ἧι καὶ λελειμμένη 656 661 666 677

679

οὐχ ὡς Badham: ὡς οὐκ, ὀνομάζω Tr!:övona δ᾽ ὀνομάζω L δμωίδες Barnes: δμωίδεσσι L ἀλαλαγὰς Hermann: Lillegible: ἄλλας στεναγμῶν L εἰδῆι Wakefield: HönL

γε Tr

τέκνων.

στεναγμάτων

680

Musgrave:

Xo.

93 Enough of this talk! Learn to be happy! [650] I want to make a beginning, my son, where I found you, with a table for all, taking my place at a feast for everyone, and I want to offer in honour of your birth the sacrifices which we did not make

Ion

before.

And

now

taking you with me as if you were a friend of the house I shall delight you with the feast, and then to the city of Athens [655] Ill take you, as a sight-seer, of course, and not as my son. For in fact I do not want to cause pain to my wife, childless as she is, while I am fortunate myself. But in time I shall grasp the right moment and induce my wife to allow you to inherit my rule over the country. [660] I name you 'Ion' as befits the turn of chance, because you were the first to cross my path as I came out of the god's temple. Now call all your friends together and bid them farewell amidst the delights going with the sacrifice of an ox, since you are about to leave Delphi for good. [665] You serving women! I order you to be quiet about these things, or I promise you death if you speak of them to my wife! I am on my way. My good fortune is lacking in one point. If I do not discover the woman who bore me, father, then my life is unlivable. If it is right to pray for this as well, [670] may it turn out that my mother is of Athenian stock so that I can enjoy freedom of speech inherited from my mother. The fact is that if an outsider lands in a city of pure blood, then, though he be a citizen in theory, he possesses the voice of a slave and have freedom of speech. [675]

does

not

[Exeunt Xouthos and Ion by the right parodos) Cho.[Sings]

Strophe I see tears and grief-stricken «shouts» and the onset of groans when my royal mistress learns that her husband is blessed with children and that she herself is childless and deprived of

tiv’, ὦ Tat πρόμαντι

Λατοῦς, éxpn-

σας ὑμνωιδίαν; πόθεν ὁ παῖς ὅδ᾽ ἀμφὶ

τρόφιμος

ναοὺς

σέθεν

ἐξέβα; γνναικῶν τίνος;

od γάρ με σαίνει θέσφατα δειμαίνω συμφοράν, ἐφ᾽ ὅς«τι» ποτὲ βάσεται.

ἄτοπος ἄτοπα

μή τιν᾽ ἔχηι

γὰρ παραδίδωσί

τάδε θεοῦ φήμα. πλέκει δόλον τέχναν

δόλον.

685

μοι

690

θ᾽ ὁ παῖς

ἄλλων τραφεὶς ἐξ αἱμάτων. τίς οὐ τάδε

ξυνοίσεται;

φίλαι, πότερ᾽ ἐμᾶι

δεσποίναι

[ἀντ.

695

τάδε τορῶς ἐς οὖς γεγωνήσομεν πόσιν ἐν ὧι τὰ πάντ᾽ ἔχουσ᾽ ἐλπίδων μέτοχος ἦν τλάμων: νῦν δ᾽ ἡ μὲν ἔρρει συμφοραῖς, ὁ δ᾽ εὐτυχεῖ, πολιὸν ἐσπεσοῦσα γῆρας, πόσις δ᾽ ἀτίετος φίλων. μέλεος, ὃς θυραῖος ἐλθὼν δόμους μέγαν ἐς ὄλβον οὐκ ἴσωσεν τύχας. ὄλοιτ᾽ ὄλοιτο πότνιαν ἐξαπαφὼν ἐμάν, καὶ θεοῖσιν μὴ τύχοι καλλίφλογα πελανὸν ἐπὶ πυρὶ καθαγνίσας᾽ τὸ δ᾽ ἐμὸν εἴσεται « » τυραννίδος ἤδη πέλας δεινῶν κυρεῖ Tals καὶ πατὴρ νέος νέου.

689 691 692 704 711 712

φίλα.

τι added by Fix τάδε θεοῦ φήμα Nauck: τόδε τ᾽ ebpnuaL πλέκει Diggle: ἔχει L τέχναν Schoemann: τύχαν L ἴσωσεν Wakefield: écoce L τύχας Heath: τύχης L πέλας Seidler: πελάσας L δεινῶν Diggle: δείπνων!, νέον Burges: νέων L

700

705

710

95 offspring. [680] What oracular song, O prophetic son of Leto, did you sing? From where did he issue, this boy brought up around your temple? From what woman? The pronouncements do not mollify my fear that they conceal

some trickery. [685]

I

am fearful of the outcome, to whatever it is they will tend. Strange, for strange this message it gives me, [690] is the god's saying. He weaves a cunning trick, the boy grown from the blood of strangers. Who will not agree with me in this? Antistrophe Friends, will we relate this plainly to the ear of our mistress, [696]

tshe who

shared

with her husband,

poor

one,

hopes

in every

respect? But now, she is ruined by the turn of events—but he is happy—having fallen into grey old age, while her husband [700] dishonours those close to him. He is a wretch who, after coming to

a house of great fortune. May he lady [705] and gods on the fire

wealth as an outsider, did not share equally its ill be damned, be damned, I say, for deceiving my may he have no success in consecrating to the the brightly flaming mixture. He will come to

know my state of mind
things dear to the royal house. [710]

At this very moment new found son and new found the verge of dread things.

father are on

ἰὼ δειράδες

Παρνασσοῦ

πέτρας

[ἐπωιδ.

ἔχουσαι σκόπελον οὐράνιόν θ᾽ ἕδραν, ἵνα Βάκχιος ἀμφιπύρους ἀνέχων πεύκας λαιψηρὰ πηδᾶι νυκτιπόλοις ἅμα σὺν Βάκχαις. μή «τί» ποτ᾽ εἰς ἐμὰν πόλιν ἵκοιθ᾽ ὁ παῖς, νέαν δ᾽ ἁμέραν ἀπολιπὼν θάνοι. στεγομένα γὰρ ἂν πόλις ἔχοι σκῆψιν ξενικὸν ἐσβολὰν «

715

720

>

Tälloast

ὁ πάρος ápxayós

dv

Ἐρεχθεὺς ἄναξ. ὦ TpéoBu παιδαγώγ᾽ Ἐρεχθέως πατρὸς τοὐμοῦ ποτ᾽ ὧν τόθ᾽ ἡνίκ᾽ ἦν ἔτ᾽ ἐν φάει, ἔπαιρε

σαυτὸν

πρὸς

725

θεοῦ χρηστήρια,

ὥς μοι συνησθῆις, εἴ τι Λοξίας ἄναξ θέσπισμα παίδων ἐς γονὰς ἐφθέγξατο. σὺν τοῖς φίλοις γὰρ ἡδὺ μὲν πράσσειν καλῶς" ὃ μὴ γένοιτο δ᾽, εἴ τι τυγχάνοι κακόν, ἐς ὄμματ᾽ εὔνουν φωτὸς ἐμβλέψαι γλυκύ. ἐγὼ δέ σ᾽, ὥσπερ καὶ σὺ πατέρ᾽ ἐμόν ποτε,

δέσποιν᾽ ὅμως οὖσ᾽ ἀντικηδεύω πατρός. ΠΡΕΣΒΥΤΗΣ

ὦ θύγατερ, ἄξι᾽ ἀξίων γεννητόρων ἤθη φυλάσσεις

κοὺ καταισχύνασ᾽

735

ἔχεις

τοὺς σούς, παλαιῶν ἐκγόνους αὐτοχθόνων. ἕλχ᾽ ἕλκε πρὸς μέλαθρα καὶ κόμιζέ με. αἰπεινά μοι μαντεῖα τοῦ γήρως δέ μοι σννεκπονοῦσα κῶλον ἰατρὸς γενοῦ. ἕπου vuv: ἴχνος δ᾽ ἐκφύλασσ᾽ ὅπου τίθης.

Κρ. 721

στεγομένα

Grégoire: στενομένα

L

722-4lacuna indicated by Badham; ἀλεύσας «yàp οὖν / πίτυλον ἀλλόθρουν ὀθνείον 726 731 732 737 739

δορὸς 7 πόλιν ἔσωσεν & πάρος ἀρχαγὸς dw e.g. Diggle ὧν τόθ᾽ Wecklein: ὄντος L ὃ Stephanus: & L ἐμβλέψαι test.: εἰσβλέψαι L παλαιῶν... αὑτοχθόνων Jackson: παλαιοὺς... αὐτόχθονας L μοι

Barnes: δέ μοι L: δὴ Wakefield, τοι

Valckenaer

740

97

Epode Ah rocky ridges of Parnassus with your upland tract that reaches to heaven, [715]

where

Bacchus,

holding

aloft torches

in each

hand, springs with light foot in the company of the Bacchants who roam at night! May the boy never come to my city but bringing to an end his young life may he die! [720] Our city would have reason for fending off an invasion of foreigners < > tafter musteringt our former ruler, king Erechtheus.

Kr.

[Enter Kreousa with an old man from the left parodos] Come, aged friend, you who were once the tutor of Erechtheus, my father, [725] when he still saw the light of day; climb up to the oracular shrine of the god.

I want you to share in my joy, if

lord Apollo has made some pronouncement portending the birth of children. It is pleasant to share good fortune with friends. [730] But—god forbid!—if some evil should befall us, it is sweet to look on the face of a sympathetic man. Though I am your

mistress, just as you once tended my father, I tend you like a father. Old Man Daughter, you preserve the worthy habits of worthy forebears [735] and you have not brought shame upon your family, descendants

of those earth-born

men

of old. Pull me up;

that's it, pull me up to the building and give me a hand. The shrine is steep for me. Please be a healer of my old age by sharing the effort of my legs. [740] Kr.

Keep close to me and watch carefully where you step.

ἰδού" τὸ τοῦ ποδὸς μὲν βραδύ, τὸ τοῦ δὲ νοῦ ταχύ. βάκτρωι δ᾽ épef8ov: περιφερὴς στίβος χθονός. καὶ τοῦτο τυφλόν, ὅταν ἐγὼ βλέπω βραχύ. ὀρθῶς ἔλεξας ἀλλὰ μὴ παρῆις κόπωι. οὔκουν ἑκών ye: τοῦ δ᾽ ἀπόντος οὐ κρατῶ.

745

γυναῖκες, ἱστῶν τῶν ἐμῶν καὶ κερκίδος δούλευμα

βέβηκε

πιστόν,

τίνα τύχην

λαβὼν

πόσις

παίδων, ὧνπερ οὕνεχ᾽ ἥκομεν;

σημήνατ᾽- el γὰρ ἀγαθά μοι μηνύσετε, οὐκ εἰς ἀπίστους δεσπότας βαλεῖς χάριν. ἰὼ δαῖμον. τὸ φροίμιον μὲν τῶν λόγων οὐκ εὐτυχές. ἰὼ τλᾶμον.

750

ἀλλ᾽ À τι θεσφάτοισι

755

alat- τί δρῶμεν

τίς ἥδε μοῦσα

δεσποτῶν νοσεῖ;

θάνατος

ὧν κεῖται

πέρι;

χὠ φόβος τίνων πέρι;

εἴπωμεν ἢ σιγῶμεν ἢ τί δράσομεν; εἴφ᾽. ὡς ἔχεις γε συμφοράν tiv’ εἰς ἐμέ.

εἰρήσεταί

«Πρ.»

τοι, kel θανεῖν μέλλω διπλῆι.

οὐκ ἔστι σοι, δέσποιν᾽, ἐπ᾽ ἀγκάλαις λαβεῖν τέκν᾽ οὐδὲ μαστῶι σῶι προσαρμόσαι ποτέ. ὦμοι θάνοιμι. θύγατερ. «Κρ.: ὦ τάλαιν᾽ ἐγὼ συμφορᾶς, ἔλαβον ἔπαθον ἄχος ἀβίοτον,

φίλαι.

διοιχόμεσθα.

743 745 746 750 751 755 756 762 764

760

Πρ.

τέκνον.

765

περιφερὴς στίβος Diggle: περιφερῆ στίβον L μὴ παρῆις κόπωι Tyrwhitt: μὴ "mápeoké πω L ἀπόντος Reiske: ἄκοντος L μηνύσετε Bames: μηνύσατε L

χάριν Elmsley: χαράν L ἀλλ᾽ A τι Scaliger: ἀλλὰ τί 1, alat F. W. Schmidt: εἶεν L ποτέ

Jacobs: τάδε

aBlotov

L

Seidler: βίοτον ὦ L

νοσεῖ

G. Schmid: vooû L

99

O.M.

There! My feet may be slow, but my mind is nimble.

Kr.

Lean on your stick; the path winds over the ground. My stick too is blind when my sight is so dim.

O.M. Kr.

O.M. Kr.

That's true, but don't give in to your weariness. [745] Not willingly, I'm not, but I can't control what I haven't got.

Women, faithful servants of my loom and shuttle, with what outcome regarding children, the purpose of our visit, has my husband gone off? Tell me. If you reveal to me good

Cho. Kr. Cho. Kr.

news [750]

you will not throw away a favour on an unreliable mistress. Ah, fortune! The opening of what you have to say is inauspicious. Ah, poor one! Is there something amiss, I ask you, in your masters’ affairs because of the oracle? [755]

Cho. Kr. Cho. Kr. Cho.

Ah, ah! What are we to do ın a case where death threatens? What is this song and what occasions your fear? Are we to speak out, or remain silent, or what shall we do? Speak! It is clear that you have some calamity for me. I will speak then, even if I am to die a double

death. [760]

My

lady, you can never hold a child in your arms nor press it to your breast. Kr.

O.M. Kr.

O.M.

Alas. I yearn for death! Daughter... Ah wretched me for the calamity, I have received a blow, I have suffered pain that makes life unlivable, friends. I am finished. My child... [765]

Kp.

Πρ. Πρ.

Πρ. Χο. Kp. Πρ.

— aloi aiat: διανταῖος ἔτυπεν ὀδύνα pe πλευμόνων τῶνδ᾽ ἔσω. μήπω στενάξης Kp. ἀλλὰ πάρεισι γόοι. πρὶν ἂν μάθωμεν Κρ. ἀγγελίαν τίνα μοι;

770

εἰ ταὐτὰ πράσσων δεσπότης τῆς συμφορᾶς κοινωνός ἐστιν ἢ μόνη σὺ δυστυχεῖς. κείνωι μέν, ὦ γεραιέ, παῖδα Λοξίας ἔδωκεν, ἰδίαι δ᾽ εὐτυχεῖ ταύτης δίχα.

775

τόδ᾽ ἐπὶ τῶιδε κακὸν ἄκρον Elaxes «ἔλακες» ἄχος ἐμοὶ στένειν. πότερα δὲ φῦναι δεῖ γυναικὸς ἔκ τινος

τὸν παῖδ᾽ ὃν εἶπας À γεγῶτ᾽ ἐθέσπισεν; Χο.

ἤδη πεφυκότ᾽ ἐκτελῆ νεανίαν δίδωσιν αὐτῶι Λοξίας" παρῆ δ᾽ ἐγώ.

Kp.

πῶς ds; Τἄφατον λόγον ἐμοὶ θροεῖς.

Πρ.

κἄμοιγε. πῶς δ᾽ ὁ χρησμὸς ἐκπεραίνεται σαφέστερόν μοι φράζε χωστις ἔσθ᾽ ὁ παῖς, ὅτωι ξυναντήσειεν ἐκ θεοῦ συθεὶς

Χο. Kp.

ἄφατον

ἀναύδητον

πρώτωι πόσις σός, παῖδ᾽ ἔδωκ᾽ αὐτῶι θεός. ὀὄὀτοτοτοῖ᾽ τὸν ἐμὸν ἄτεκνον ἄτεκνον ἔλακ᾽ ἄρα βίοτον, ἐρημίαι δ᾽ ὀρφανοὺς δόμους οἰκήσω.

Πρ.

τίς οὖν ἐχρήσθη; τῶι συνῆψ᾽ ἴχνος ποδὸς

Χο.

πόσις ταλαίνης; πῶς δὲ ποῦ νιν εἰσιδών; οἶσθ᾽, ὦ φίλη δέσποινα, τὸν νεανίαν

ὃς τόνδ᾽ ἔσαιρε ναόν; οὗτός ἐσθ᾽ ὁ παῖς. Kp.

dv’ ὑγρὸν ἀμπταίην

ας Ἑλλανίας

αἰθέρα πόρσω

Yal-

ἀστέρας ἑσπέρους,

οἷον οἷον ἄλγος ἔπαθον, φίλαι. 775

εὐτυχεῖ p: εὐτυχῶ L ἔλακες added by Seidler δὲ φῦναι δεῖ Scaliger: διαφῦναι δὴ L πεφυκότ᾽ Tr: παραπεφυκότ᾽ L τὸν Badham: τὸ δ᾽ 1, ἔλακ᾽ (after Murray) Conomis: ἔλαβενL ποῦ...εἰσιδών Scaliger: που... εἰσίδω L ἑσπέρους

Seidler: &oteplous

L

780

785

790

795

101 Kr.

O.M. Kr.

O.M.

Ah, my Do But

Ah! A pain that goes right through me has struck deep within breast. not groan in sorrow yet... the cries of anguish are here.

O.M.

until we learn... What news, I ask you. [770] If the master is in the same state and shares in the calamity, or if it

Cho.

is you alone who are unfortunate. To him, old man, Loxias gave a child and he is fortunate on his

Kr.

own, apart from her. [775] Kr.

O.M. Cho.

This is the peak of woe you have uttered, , coming on top of the other, a grief for me to lament. Must the child you mentioned be born from some woman, or did the oracle say that it was already alive? A child already born and well into young manhood [780] Loxias gives him. I was there.

Kr.

What do you

mean?

TUnspeakable,

O.M.

the message you give me. My feelings are the same. But tell me more oracle comes to fulfillment [785]

unspeakablet,

unutterable

precisely

is

how

the

and who the child is.

Cho.

Whomsoever your husband first met temple the god gave to him as his son.

with as he left the god's

Kr.

Aaaahh! Then he declared my life to be childless, childless. [790]

In desolation I shall inhabit a house that is orphaned. O.M.

Who then did the oracle

mean?

Whom

did

the husband

of this

poor woman meet with? How and where did he set eyes on him? Cho. Kr.

Do

you

remember,

dear

mistress,

the

young

man

who

was

sweeping this temple? That is the child.[795] May I fly up by the fluid air far from the land of Greece to the Stars in the west; such, such is the pain I have suffered, dear friends.

102

ὄνομα

δὲ ποῖον αὐτὸν

olc0', ἢ σιωπῆι

ὀνομάζει

πατήρ;

τοῦτ᾽ ἀκύρωτον

800

μένει;

Ἴων᾽, ἐπείπερ πρῶτος ἤντησεν πατρί᾽ μητρὸς δ᾽ ὁποίας ἐστὶν οὐκ ἔχω φράσαι. φροῦδος

δ᾽, tv’ εἰδῆις

πάντα

TAT’

ἐμοῦ,

γέρον,

παιδὸς προθύσων ξένια καὶ γενέθλια σκηνὰς ἐς ἱερὰς τῆσδε λαθραίως πόσις,

805

κοινὴν ξυνάψων δαῖτα παιδὶ τῶι νέωι. δέσποινα, προδεδόμεσθα (σὺν γάρ σοι νοσῶ) τοῦ σοῦ πρὸς ἀνδρὸς ὑβριζόμεσθα δωμάτων

ἐκβαλλόμεσθα.

καὶ μεμηχανημένως T' Ἐρεχθέως

810

καὶ σὸν οὐ στυγῶν πόσιν

λέγω, σὲ μέντοι μᾶλλον ἢ κεῖνον φιλῶν. ὅστις σε γήμας ξένος ἐπεισελθὼν πόλιν καὶ δῶμα καὶ σὴν παραλαβὼν παγκληρίαν ἄλλης γυναικὸς παῖδας ἐκκαρπούμενος λάθραι πέφηνεν: ὡς λάθραι δ᾽, ἐγὼ φράσω. ἐπεί σ᾽ ἄτεκνον ἤισθετ᾽, οὐκ ἔστεργέ σοι

815

ὅμοιος εἶναι τῆς τύχης τ᾽ ἴσον φέρειν, λαβὼν τὸν

δὲ δοῦλα

παῖδ᾽

Δελφῶν δόμοισιν

ἔφυσεν,

δίδωσιν ἄφετος,

λέκτρα

νυμφεύσας

ἐξενωμένον

ἐκτρέφειν. ὡς

λάθοι,

δέ

λάθραι τωι

820

ὁ δ᾽ ἐν θεοῦ παιδεύεται.

νεανίαν δ᾽ ὡς ἤισθετ᾽ ἐκτεθραμμένον, ἐλθεῖν σ᾽ ἔπεισε δεῦρ᾽ ἀπαιδίας χάριν.

κάιθ᾽ ὁ θεὸς οὐκ ἐψεύσαθ᾽, ὅδε δ᾽ ἐψεύσατο

820

πάλαι τρέφων τὸν παῖδα, κἄπλεκεν πλοκὰς τοιάσδ᾽- ἁλοὺς μὲν ἀνέφερ᾽ ἐς τὸν δαίμονα, Τέλθὼν δὲ καὶ τὸν χρόνον ἀμύνεσθαι θέλωντ τυραννίδ᾽ αὐτῶι περιβαλεῖν ἔμελλε γῆς.

ἱκαινὸν δὲ τοὔνομ᾽ ἀνὰ χρόνον πεπλασμένον Ἴων, ἰόντι δῆθεν ὅτι συνήντετο.

807 κοινὴν Kirchhoff: κοινῆ 1, δαῖτα ed. Hervagiana?: παῖδα!L 825 ὅδε 8' Canter: ὅδ᾽ L 828 λαβὼν (or εὑρὼν) δὲ καιρόν, φθόνον Jacobs 830-31 deleted by Dindorf

830

103

O.M.

What name

Cho.

does this matter remain unresolved in silence? ‘Ion’, since in fact he was the first to meet his father. But from what sort of mother he is born I am not able to say. And he has gone

does his father give him?

[800]

Do

you

know,

or

off—let me tell you all I know, old man—in order to make for the boy sacrifices associated with guests and a new birth, [805] to a

sacred tent unbeknown to this lady, her husband does this intending to set up a feast for everyone in honour of his newfound son. O.M.

Mistress,

we

are

betrayed—I

say

‘we’

because

I

share

your

distress—by your husband, and we are insulted in a contrived way and are being ousted from the palace of Erechtheus. [810] I say this not because I hate your husband, but because I have a higher regard for you than him. He is a man who, after marrying you, he a foreigner who had made his way into our city, and getting hold of your house and entire inheritance, has been shown to be fathering children by another woman.

[815]

How this was done

ın secret I shall explain. When he realised that you were childless, he was not content to be like you and share your ill-fortune. No, but secretly taking to his bed some slave woman he begat the child and sending it away [820] gave it to some Delphian to rear. The boy grew up free to wander ın the god’s halls so that he would be kept out of the way. When your husband became aware that he had grown to manhood, he persuaded you to come here on account of your childlessness. It follows then that the god did not lie but your husband lied, [825] rearing the boy for some time, and fabricated tricks like this. If found out, he meant to throw the blame onto the god fand having come and wanting to ward off timet he intended to invest the boy with the rulership of our country. [The new-fangled name 'Ion' was invented to suit the

occasion, [830] to him.]

because, of course, he met his father coming

up

104

οἴμοι, κακούργους

ἄνδρας

ὡς del στυγῶ,

οἱ συντιθέντες τἄδικ᾽ εἶτα μηχαναῖς κοσμοῦσι. φαῦλον χρηστὸν ἂν λαβεῖν φίλον θέλοιμι μᾶλλον ἢ κακὸν σοφώτερον.

καὶ τῶνδ᾽ ἁπάντων ἔσχατον πείσηι κακόν" ἀμήτορ᾽, ἀναρίθμητον, ἐκ δούλης τινὸς γυναικὸς ἐς σὸν δῶμα δεσπότην ἄγει.

ἁπλοῦν ἂν ἦν γὰρ τὸ κακόν, εἰ παρ᾽ εὐγενοῦς μητρός,

πιθών σε, σὴν λέγων

ἀπαιδίαν,

840

ἐσώικισ᾽ οἴκους" εἰ δέ σοι τόδ᾽ ἦν πικρόν, τῶν Αἰόλον νιν χρῆν ὀρεχθῆναι

γάμων.

ἐκ τῶνδε δεῖ σε δὴ γυναικεῖόν τι δρᾶν. [ἢ γὰρ ξίφος λαβοῦσαν ἢ δόλωι τινὶ ἢ φαρμάκοισι σὸν κατακτεῖναι πόσιν καὶ παῖδα, πρὶν σοὶ θάνατον ἐκ κείνων μολεῖν. εἰ γάρ γ᾽ ὑφήσεις τοῦδ᾽, ἀπαλλάξηι βίου.

845

δνοῖν γὰρ ἐχθροῖν εἰς Ev ἐλθόντοιν στέγος fj θάτερον

δεῖ δυστυχεῖν

À θάτερον.

ἐγὼ μὲν οὖν σοι καὶ συνεκπονεῖν θέλω, καὶ συμφονεύειν παῖδ᾽ ἐπεισελθὼν δόμους

οὗ Said’ ὁπλίζει καὶ τροφεῖα δεσπόταις ἀποδοὺς θανεῖν τε ζῶν τε φέγγος εἰσορᾶν. ἕν γάρ τι τοῖς δούλοισιν αἰσχύνην φέρει,

τοὔνομα’ τὰ δ᾽ ἄλλα πάντα τῶν ἐλευθέρων οὐδὲν κακίων δοῦλος, ὅστις ἐσθλὸς Ti. κἀγώ, φίλη δέσποινα, συμφορὰν θέλω κοινουμένη τήνδ᾽ ἢ θανεῖν À ζῆν καλῶς.)

ὦ ψυχά, πῶς σιγάσω; πῶς δὲ σκοτίας ἀναφήνω εὐνάς, αἰδοῦς δ᾽ ἀπολειφθῶ;

833 μηχαναῖς Stephanus: μηχανάς L 838 ἄγει Hermann: ἄγειν L suspected by Murray, deleted by Diggle (847 already deleted by Dindorf, 848-49 by 844-58 Badham)

851

ὑπεισελθὼν Wakefield: ἐπ- L

856

οὐδὲν

δόμους ed. Hervagiana?: δόμοις L

Dobree: οὐδεὶς L and test.

105

Cho.

Ah, how I shall never stop hating deeds and then disguise them

O.M.

vile men,

who

devise unjust

with subtle contrivances!

I should

prefer to have as a friend someone lowly who is good than someone who may be cleverer but is evil. [835] And the ultimate of all the evils you will feel ıs this: motherless, worthless, sprung from some slave-woman, is the fellow he brings as master into your house. It would have been a straightforward fault, if after persuading you on the grounds of your sterility, [840]

he had

settled in his

house

children

from

a well-born

mother. And if this were not to your liking, he ought to have sought a marriage among Aiolos’ people. In view of this, you must act—like a woman! [Either with a sword or by means of some plot or poison you must kill your husband [845] and the boy, before you suffer death at their hands. For if you flinch from this you will be deprived of life. For when two enemies come under the one roof then one or the other must fare ill. Now I am willing to share your efforts to the full [850] and to join in killing the boy after going stealthily into the place where he prepares the feast, and in repaying my masters for their nurture either to die or live and see the light of day. There is only one thing that brings disgrace to slaves: their name. In all other respects [855]

Cho.

a slave who is honest 1s no worse than a free man.

1 too, my lady, in sharing with you this calamity am willing to die or live with honour. ]

Kr. [Sings] My soul, how am I to keep silent? But how can I reveal my darkly secret [860] love-affair and shed my sense of shame? But

106

τί yap ἐμπόδιον κώλυμ᾽ ἔτι μοι; πρὸς τίν᾽ ἀγῶνας τιθέμεσθ᾽ ἀρετῆς; οὐ πόσις ἡμῶν προδότης γέγονεν; στέρομαι δ᾽ οἴκων, στέρομαι παίδων, φροῦδαι δ᾽ ἐλπίδες, ἃς διαθέσθαι xpñi£ouoa καλῶς οὐκ ἐδυνήθην, σιγῶσα γάμους, σιγῶσα τόκους πολυκλαύτους. ἀλλ᾽ οὐ τὸ Διὸς πολύαστρον ἕδος καὶ τὴν ἐπ᾽ ἐμοῖς σκοπέλοισι θεὰν λίμνης τ᾽ Eviöpov Τριτωνιάδος πότνιαν ἀκτήν, οὐκέτι κρύψω λέχος, ὃ στέρνων ἀπονησαμένη ῥάιων ἔσομαι. στάζουσι κόραι δακρύοισιν ἐμαί, ψυχὴ δ᾽ ἀλγεῖ κακοβουληθεῖσ᾽ ἔκ T' ἀνθρώπων ἔκ τ᾽ ἀθανάτων, obs

865

870

875

ἀποδείξω

λέκτρων

προδότας

ἀχαρίστους.

880

ὦ τᾶς ἑπταφθόγγου μέλπων κιθάρας ἐνοπάν, ἅτ᾽ ἀγραΐύλοις κεράεσσιν ἐν ἀψύχοις ἀχεῖ μουσᾶν ὕμνους εὐαχήτους,

σοὶ μομφάν, πρὸς

ὦ Λατοῦς παῖ,

τάνδ᾽ αὐγὰν

ἦλθές μοι χρυσῶι

885

αὐδάσω.

χαίταν

μαρμαίρων, εὖτ᾽ ἐς κόλπους κρόκεα πέταλα φάρεσιν ἔδρεπον τἀνθίζειν χρυσανταυγῆ᾽: λευκοὶς δ᾽ ἐμφὺς καρποῖσιν

863 874 877 886 89]

ἀγῶνας Musgrave: dyavaL ὃ Reiske: ws L κακοβουληθεῖσ᾽ Bames: κακοβουλευθεῖσ᾽ L

αὐγὰν Tr^: atryav αἰθέρος L ἐμφὺς Reiske: €udtoas L

890

107

what obstacle ıs still ın my contest of virtue? Has not

way? With whom do I engage in a my husband turned out to be my

betrayer? I am bereft of house, bereft of children, [865] and all my hopes are gone. I wanted to set these right, but I could not,

though concealing my affair, concealing childbirth. But, by the starry seat of Zeus [870] who

resides on

the rock

in my

city

and

the

my lamentable and the goddess revered

shore

of

Triton's lake with its deep water, no longer shall I conceal my shared bed; removing this burden from my breast I shall feel easier. [875]

My eyes stream with tears and my

spirit is grieved,

plotted against foully both by men and immortals, whom I shall show to be thanklesss betrayers of the beds they share. [880] Ah, you who sing to the tune of the seven-stringed lyre, which in

lifeless horn

that once

roamed

the fields gives voice to lovely

songs of the muses, on you, child of Leto, [885]

shall I call out

blame with this light of day as my witness. You approached me, your hair flashing with gold, when I was gathering in my lap saffron

petals,

which

fto

light on my robes. [890]

adom

with

flowerst

reflected

golden

Gripping my pale white wrists you led

108

χειρῶν els ἄντρον κοίτας κραυγὰν Ὦ μᾶτέρ μ᾽ αὐδῶσαν θεὸς ὁμευνέτας

dyes ἀναιδείαι

895

Κύπριδι χάριν πράσσων. τίκτω δ᾽ ἁ δύστανός σοι κοῦρον, τὸν φρίκαι ματρὸς βάλλω τὰν σὰν εἰς εὐνάν,

ἵνα μ᾽ ἐν λέχεσιν μελέαν μελέοις

900

ἐζεύξω τὰν δύστανον. οἴμοι μοι’ καὶ νῦν ἔρρει TTavols ἁρπασθεὶς θοίνα mais μοι καὶ σοί. τλᾶμον,

σὺ δὲ

«καὶ» κιθάραι

παιᾶνας

μέλπων.

ὠἔή, τὸν

Λατοῦς

κλάζεις

905

αὐδῶ,

ὅστ᾽ ὀμφὰν κληροῖς impos χρυσέους θάκους ft καὶ γαίας μεσσήρεις ἕδρας. ἐς φῶς αὐδὰν kapbtor Ἰὼ «ἰὼ» κακὸς εὐνάτωρ, ὃς τῶι μὲν ἐμῶι νυμφεύται χάριν ov προλαβὼν παῖδ᾽ εἰς οἴκους οἰκίξεις" 6 δ᾽ ἐμὸς γενέτας καὶ σὸς

910

915

Τἀμαθής Ὁ

οἰωνοῖς ἔρρει συλαθείς, σπάργανα ματέρος ἐξαλλάξας. μισεῖ σ᾽ ἁ Δᾶλος καὶ δάφνας ἔρνεα φοίνικα παρ᾽ ἁβροκόμαν, 890 900 904 905 908 909 911 912 917 920

βάλλω τὰν σὰν els εὐνάν Bothe: els εὐνὰν μ᾽ ἐν λέχεσιν Heath: με λέχεσι!L σοί Page: σός

βάλλω

L

τλᾶμον, σὺ δὲ «καὶ» Diggle: τλάμων: ὅστ᾽ Herwerden: ὃς L « ἐλθοῦσιν » θάκους Page

φῶς Wilamowitz: obs L ἰὼ added by Paley συλαθείς

920

Hermann: συλαθεὶς

φοίνικα Brodaeus: φοίνια L

οἰκεῖα L

σὺ δὲ

[,

τὰν σάν

L

109

me, my mother’, I bore, mother coupled

lover-god, to lie down in a cave as I loudly cried Ὁ in shameless fashion [895] doing a favour to Aphrodite. wretched woman, a son to you, and with the fear of a I cast him out in the place you lay with me, where you with me in a miserable union, miserable, [900] wretched

woman. Ah me! And now he is gone, snatched away by birds as a feast, my son and yours. You wretch, but you just keep playing the lyre [905]

while singing paians! Ooee, I call on

the son

of

Leto, who gives response by lot fat the golden seatst and the throne at the centre of the earth. [910] I shall proclaim my piece to the light of day! Oh, , cowardly lover, you who lodge a son at home for my husband, although no favour was received beforehand. [915] But my offspring and yours is gone, fbrutishf, snatched away by birds and losing the baby-things from his mother. Delos hates you and so too do the sprigs of bay

110

ἔνθα

λοχεύματα

Λατὼ

Χο.

Δίοισί

σέμν᾽ ἐλοχεύσατο

σε

κάποις.

οἴμοι, μέγας θησαυρὸς ὡς ἀνοίγννται κακῶν, ἐφ᾽ οἷσι πᾶς ἂν ἐκβάλοι δάκρν. ὦ θύγατερ, οἴκτου σὸν βλέπων ἐμπίμπλαμαι

Πρ.

πρόσωπον,

ἔξω δ᾽ ἐγενόμην γνώμης ἐμῆς.

Κρ. Πρ.

κακῶν γὰρ ἄρτι κῦμ᾽ ὑπεξαντλῶν φρενί, πρύμνηθεν αἴρει μ᾽ ἄλλο σῶν λόγων ὕπο, ols ἐκβαλοῦσα τῶν παρεστώτων κακῶν μετῆλθες ἄλλων πημάτων κακὰς ὁδούς. τί φήις; τίνα λόγον Λοξίου κατηγορεῖς; ποῖον τεκεῖν bits παῖδα; ποῦ ᾿κθεῖναι πόλεως θηρσὶν φίλον τύμβευμ᾽; ἄνελθέ μοι πάλιν. αἰσχύνομαι μέν σ᾽, ὦ γέρον, λέξω δ᾽ ὅμως. ὡς συστενάζειν γ᾽ οἶδα γενναίως φίλοις.

Kp.

ἄκονε

ἄντρον,

ἃς Μακρὰς

935

κικλήσκομεν;

Πρ.

οἶδ᾽, ἔνθα Πανὸς ἄδυτα καὶ βωμοὶ πέλας.

Κρ. Πρ. Κρ.

ἐνταῦθ᾽ ἀγῶνα δεινὸν ἠγωνίσμεθβα. τίν᾽; ὡς ἀπαντᾶι δάκρυά μοι τοῖς σοῖς λόγοις. DolBur ξυνῆψ᾽ ἄκουσα δύστηνον γάμον.

940

ὧὦ θύγατερ, ἄρ᾽ ἦν ταῦθ᾽ ἅ γ᾽ ἠισθόμην ἐγώ; οὐκ oló" ἀληθῆ δ᾽ εἰ λέγεις φαίημεν ἄν.

Πρ. Κρ.

νόσον κρυφαίαν ἡνίκ᾽ ἔστενες λάθραι" τότ᾽ ἦν ἃ νῦν σοι φανερὰ σημαίνω κακά.

Πρ.

καἀιτ᾽ ἐξέκλεψας

Κρ. Πρ.

ἔτεκον: ἀνάσχου ταῦτ᾽ ἐμοῦ κλύων, γέρον. tov; τίς λοχεύει σ᾽; ἢ μόνη μοχθεῖς τάδε;

Κρ.

μόνη

Πρ.

930

Toívuv: οἶσθα Κεκροπίων πετρῶν

πρόσβορρον

Πρ. Κρ.

925

ὁ

πῶς

γάμους;

κατ᾽ ἄντρον οὗπερ ἐζεύχθην γάμοις.

παῖς δὲ ποῦ στιν, ἵνα σὺ μηκέτ᾽ "is ἄπαις;

922

κάποις Kirchhoff: καρποῖς

925

οἴκτου Nauck: οὔτοι L

927

κακῶν

ed. Aldina: κακὸν

xdelvaı

L L

Dobree: θεῖναι L

Kexpotlwy τότ᾽

᾿Απόλλωνος

945

πετρῶν

Page: Kexpotlas

L. Dindorf: τοῦτ᾽

L

πέτρας L

950

111

by the feathery palm [920]

where Leto gave you solemn birth in

the gardens of Zeus. Cho.

O.M.

Ah me, what a vast treasure-trove of evils is opened up! Everyone would shed a tear at this. Daughter, I am filled with pity as I look on your [925] face and I am beyond clear thought. I was just draining from my mind one wave of evils, when another surge lifts me from the stern as I hear your words. In uttering these you have moved off in the midst of our present evils onto evil paths of other sorrows. [930]

What do

O.M.

you mean? What is the charge you make against Apollo? What is this child you say you bore? Where in the city do you say you cast him out, in a grave welcome to the beasts? Please go back to your story. I feel shame before you, old man, but I shall speak all the same. Do, for I know how to join nobly in the lamentation of loved ones. [935] Well then, listen. Do you know the north-facing cave up on the Kekropian cliffs which we call 'Long Rocks"? I do, where the shrine and altar of Pan are close by. There it was that I struggled in a terrible struggle. What struggle? Ah! my tears flow to meet your words. [940] I joined against my will with Phoebus in an unhappy union. Daughter, is this then what it was that I noticed? I do not know, but if what you say is true, I would admit it. It was when you used to lament secretly over some hidden illness.

Kr.

Those were the woes which I now reveal openly to you . [945]

O.M.

How then did you hide to the end your union with Apollo? I bore the child. Bear up, as you hear this from me, old man. Where? Who acted as midwife for you? Or was it on your

Kr.

O.M. Kr.

O.M. Kr.

O.M. Kr.

O.M. Kr.

Kr.

O.M.

own

you went through labour ? Kr.

Yes, on my own in the cave where I was yoked in intercourse.

O.M.

And the child, where

no

longer.

[950]

is it? Tell me, so that you

may

be childless

τέθνηκεν, ὦ γεραιέ, θηρσὶν ἐκτεθείς. τέθνηκ᾽, ᾿Απόλλων δ᾽ ὁ κακὸς οὐδὲν ἤρκεσεν; οὐκ ἤρκεσ᾽" “AtSou δ᾽ ἐν δόμοις παιδεύεται.

τίς γάρ νιν ἐξέθηκεν; οὐ γὰρ δὴ σύ γε; ἡμεῖς, ἐν ὄρφνηι σπαργανώσαντες πέπλοις. οὐδὲ ξυνήιδει σοί τις ἔκθεσιν τέκνου; αἱ ξυμφοραί γε καὶ τὸ λανθάνειν μόνον. καὶ πῶς ἐν ἄντρωι παῖδα σὸν λιπεῖν ἔτλης; πῶς; οἰκτρὰ πολλὰ στόματος ἐκβαλοῦσ᾽ ἔπη.

955

ded:

τλήμων ov τόλμης, ὁ δὲ θεὸς μᾶλλον σέθεν. εἰ παϊδά γ᾽ εἶδες χεῖρας ἐκτείνοντά μοι. μαστὸν διώκοντ᾽ ἢ πρὸς ἀγκάλαις πεσεῖν; ἐνταῦθ᾽ ἵν᾽ οὐκ ὦν ἄδικ᾽ ἔπασχεν ἐξ ἐμοῦ. σοὶ δ᾽ ἐς τί δόξ᾽ ἐσῆλθεν ἐκβαλεῖν τέκνον; ὡς τὸν θεὸν σώσοντα τόν γ᾽ αὑτοῦ γόνον. οἴμοι, δόμων σῶν ὄλβος ὡς χειμάζεται.

965

τί κρᾶτα κρύψας, ὦ γέρον, δακρυρροεῖς; σὲ καὶ πατέρα σὸν δυστυχοῦντας εἰσορῶν. τὰ θνητὰ τοιαῦτ᾽ οὐδὲν ἐν ταὐτῶι μένει. μή νυν ἔτ᾽ οἴκτων, θύγατερ, ἀντεχώμεθα. τί γάρ με χρὴ δρᾶν; ἀπορία τὸ δυστυχεῖν. τὸν πρῶτον ἀδικήσαντά σ᾽ ἀποτίνον θεόν. καὶ πῶς τὰ κρείσσω θνητὸς οὖσ᾽ ὑπερδράμω; πίμπρη τὰ σεμνὰ Λοξίου χρηστήρια. δέδοικα: καὶ νῦν πημάτων ἄδην ἔχω. τὰ δυνατά νυν τόλμησον, ἄνδρα σὸν κτανεῖν.

970

975

αἰδούμεθ᾽ εὐνὰς τὰς τόθ᾽ ἡνίκ᾽ ἐσθλὸς ἦν. νῦν δ᾽ ἀλλὰ παῖδα τὸν ἐπὶ σοὶ πεφηνότα. πῶς; εἰ γὰρ εἴη δυνατόν: ὡς θέλοιμί γ᾽ ἄν. ξιφηφόρους σοὺς ὁπλίσασ᾽ ὀπάονας.

953 “Atdou Brodaeus: αἰδοῦς L 959 πῶς; Matthiae; πῶς δ᾽], 964 δόξ᾽ ἐσῆλθεν Dobree, Hermann: δόξης 965 cogovra Wakefield: σώζοντα L 970 οἴκτων LP*: οἰκῶν LA

TAdev L

980

113

O.M.

He ıs dead, old man, after being exposed to wild beasts. Dead? Did Apollo, the vile one, not help him at all? He was no help; it is in Hades' halls that the child grows up. Who exposed him then? It was certainly not you? Yes, I did, after wrapping him in my robes in the darkness. [955] But was anyone else complicit in your exposure of the child? |

Kr.

Only the disaster itself and its concealment.

O.M.

How did you bring yourself to leave your child in the cave? How? With many a sobbing word passing my lips. Ah! Wretched you for your hardness of heart, and even more hard

Kr.

O.M. Kr.

O.M. Kr.

Kr.

O. M.

of heart the god!

[960]

Kr.

If you had seen the child stretching out its hands to me!

O.M.

Searching for your breast or wanting to fall into your embrace?

Kr.

Yes, being away from which meant unjust treatment from me. To what end did it occur to you to expose the baby? I hoped that the god would rescue his own offspring. [965]

O.M. Kr.

O.M. Kr.

Ah, how storm-tossed is the prosperity of your house! Why, old man, do you cover your head and weep?

O.M.

Because I look on you and your father in the midst of misfortune.

Kr.

That ts the human condition; nothing remains the same.

O.M.

O.M.

Now let us not, daughter, keep clinging to piteous cries. [970] What then must I do? To be unfortunate is to be resourceless. The god who first treated you unjustly, take your revenge on him. And how, being a mortal, am I to overcome higher powers? Burn down the proud oracular shrine of Loxias.

Kr.

That frightens me; I have enough trouble even now. [975]

O.M.

Kr.

Well then, make a husband. I have some respect Then at least kill the How? If only it were

O.M.

By arming your attendants with swords. [980]

Kr.

O.M. Kr.

Kr.

O.M.

bold

attempt

at what is possible;

kill your

for our marriage at the time he was upright. child who has shown up to supplant you. possible it were my dearest wish!

στείχοιμ᾽ dv: ἀλλὰ

ποῦ γενήσεται

τόδε;

ἱεραῖσιν ἐν σκηναῖσιν οὗ θοινᾶι φίλους. ἐπίσημον ὁ φόνος καὶ ὦμοι, κακίζηι᾽ φέρε, σύ καὶ μὴν ἔχω γε δόλια ἀμφοῖν ἂν εἴην τοῖνδ᾽

τὸ δοῦλον ἀσθενές. νυν βούλενέ TL. καὶ δραστήρια. ὑπηρέτης ἐγώ.

985

ἄκονε To(vuv: οἶσθα γηγενῆ μάχην; οἶδ᾽, ἣν Φλέγραι Γίγαντες ἔστησαν θεοῖς. ἐνταῦθα Γοργόν᾽ ἔτεκε Γῆ, δεινὸν τέρας. ἦ παισὶν αὑτῆς σύμμαχον, θεῶν πόνον; ναί: καί νιν ἔκτειν᾽ ἡ Διὸς Παλλὰς θεά.

ἄρ᾽ οὗτός ἐσθ᾽ ὁ μῦθος ὃν κλύω πάλαι; ταύτης ᾿Αθάναν δέρος ἐπὶ στέρνοις ἔχειν. ἣν αἰγίδ᾽ ὀνομάζουσι, Παλλάδος στολήν;

τόδ᾽ ἔσχεν ὄνομα θεῶν ὅτ᾽ ἧιξεν ἐς δόρυ. ποῖόν τι μορφῆς σχῆμ᾽ ἔχουσαν ἀγρίας; θώρακ᾽ ἐχίδνης περιβόλοις ὡπλισμένον. τί δῆτα, θύγατερ, τοῦτο σοὶς ἐχθροῖς βλάβος; Ἐριχθόνιον οἷσθ᾽ ἢ «οὔ»; τί δ᾽ οὐ μέλλεις, γέρον; ὃν πρῶτον ὑμῶν πρόγονον ἐξανῆκε γῆ; τούτωι δίδωσι Παλλὰς ὄντι νεογόνωι...

τί χρῆμα;

μέλλον

1000

γάρ τι προσφέρεις ἔπος.

δισσοὺς σταλαγμοὺς αἵματος Γοργοῦς ἄπο. ἰσχὺν ἔχοντας τίνα πρὸς ἀνθρώπου φύσιν; τὸν μὲν θανάσιμον, τὸν δ᾽ ἀκεσφόρον νόσων.

1005

ἐν τῶι καθάψασ᾽ ἀμφὶ παιδὶ σώματος; χρυσέοισι δεσμοῖς: ὁ δὲ δίδωσ᾽ ἐμῶι πατρί. κείνου δὲ κατθανόντος ἐς σ᾽ ἀφίκετο; ναί: κἀπὶ καρπῶι γ᾽ αὔτ᾽ ἐγὼ χερὸς φέρω.

πῶς οὖν κέκρανται

δίπτυχον δῶρον θεᾶς;

992-3 placed after 997 by Kirchhoff 995 ᾿Αθάναν Victorius/Stephanus: 'Addvas

997 999

L

ἧιξεν anonymous in Paley: ἦλθεν L ob added by Badham

1002 ἄδηλον Herwerden 1004 ἔχοντας Reiske: ἔχοι γ᾽ ἂν L¥ or Tr: €xom 1010 δῶρον Stephanus: Sépos L

ἂν

L

1010

115

O.M.

I would go to it; but where is this to happen? In the sacred tent where he is feasting his friends. Murder is conspicuous and slaves make weak support. Ah! You play the coward. Come then, you propose something. Well, I do have a plan, cunning and effective. [985] On both scores you may count on my assistance. Listen then. Do you recall the battle fought by Earth's progeny? I do, when the Giants did battle with the gods at Phlegra.

Kr.

At that time Earth gave birth to Gorgon, a terrible monster.

O.M.

To fight alongside her children, a trial to the gods? [990]

Kr.

Yes. Pallas, the goddess, daughter of Zeus, killed her. [991]

O.M.

O.M.

Is this the story that I heard long ago? [994] Yes, that Athena wears on her breast the hide of this creature. [995] Which people call the 'aigis', the armour of Pallas? It acquired this name when she rushed into the ranks of the gods. [997] Roughly what sort of fierce shape does the object have? [992]

Kr.

A breastplate, fitted with snaky coils. [993]

O.M.

What harm, might I ask, will this bring to your enemies, daughter? [998] Do you recall Erichthonios or ? Why would you not, old

Kr.

O.M. Kr.

O.M. Kr.

O.M. Kr.

Kr.

O.M. Kr.

Kr.

man?

O.M.

O.M.

You mean your earliest ancestor whom Earth brought [1000] When he was new-born Pallas gave to him... What possession? You make some Thesitantt statement. two drops of the Gorgon's blood. What effect do these have on the human constitution?

Kr.

The one is deadly, the other wards off disease. [1005]

O.M.

In what did In a golden And on his Yes, and it

Kr.

O.M. Kr.

Kr.

O.M. Kr.

O.M.

forth?

she attach them to the child's body? bracelet; he gave it to my father. death it passed into your possession? is on my wrist that I carry it.

How then has the purpose? [1010]

two-fold

gift

of the

god

been

fixed

in

its

κοίλης μὲν ὅστις φλεβὸς ἀπέσταξεν φόνος... τί τῶιδε χρῆσθαι; δύναμιν ἐκφέρει τίνα; νόσους ἀπείργει καὶ τροφὰς ἔχει βίου.

6 δεύτερος δ᾽ ἀριθμὸς ὧν λέγεις τί Spat; κτείνει, δρακόντων ἰὸς ὧν τῶν Γοργόνος. ἐς ἕν δὲ κραθέντ᾽ αὐτὸν ἢ χωρὶς φορεῖς; χωρίς κακῶι γὰρ ἐσθλὸν οὐ συμμείγνυται.

ὦ φιλτάτη

1015

παῖ, πάντ᾽ ἔχεις ὅσων σε δεῖ.

τούτωι θανεῖται παῖς" σὺ δ᾽ ὁ κτείνων ἔσηι. ποῦ καὶ τί δράσας; σὸν λέγειν, τολμᾶν δ᾽ ἐμόν. ἐν ταῖς ᾿Αθήναις, δῶμ᾽ ὅταν τοὐμὸν μόληι. οὐκ εὖ τόδ᾽ εἶπας" καὶ σὺ γὰρ τοὐμὸν ψέγεις.

1020

πῶς; ἄρ᾽ ὑπείδου τοῦθ᾽ ὃ κἄμ᾽ ἐσέρχεται; σὺ παῖδα δόξεις διολέσαι, kel μὴ κτενεῖς. ὀρθῶς φθονεῖν γάρ φασι μητρυιὰς τέκνοις. αὐτοῦ νυν αὐτὸν κτεῖν᾽, iv’ ἀρνήσηι φόνους. προλάζυμαι γοῦν τῶι χρόνωι τῆς ἡδονῆς. καὶ σόν γε λήσεις πόσιν ἅ σε σπεύδει λαθεῖν.

οἶσθ᾽ οὖν ὃ 5pácov:

Πρ.

1025

χειρὸς ἐξ ἐμῆς λαβὼν

χρύσωμ᾽ ᾿Αθάνας τόδε, παλαιὸν ὄργανον, ἐλθὼν ἵν᾽ ἡμῖν βουθυτεῖ λάθραι πόσις, δείπνων ὅταν λήγωσι καὶ σπονδὰς θεοῖς μέλλωσι λείβειν, ἐν πέπλοις ἔχων τόδε κάθες βαλὼν ἐς πῶμα τῶι νεανίαι ἰδίαι γε, μή «τι» πᾶσι χωρίσας ποτόν, τῶι τῶν ἐμῶν μέλλοντι δεσπόζειν δόμων. κἄνπερ διέλθηι λαιμόν, οὔποθ᾽ ἵξεται κλεινὰς ᾿Αθήνας, κατθανὼν δ᾽ αὐτοῦ μενεῖ. σὺ μέν νυν εἴσω προξένων μέθες πόδα"

1030

ἡμεῖς δ᾽ ἐφ᾽ ὧι τετάγμεθ᾽ ἐκπονήσομεν.

1040

1011 φόνος Canter: φόνω L 1012 χρῆσθαι L. Dindorf/Dobree: χρῆσθε 1,

δύναμιν

Calder: δύνασιν

1035

L

1014 ὧν Nauck: ὃν L 1015 1016 1026 1028 1035

Γοργόνος Bothe: Γοργόνων L À χωρὶς φορεῖς Snape: ἰχῶρ᾽ elopopeis L κτεῖν᾽ Barnes: Kreivov L λαθεῖν Stephanus: λαβεῖν L ye Hermann (ye μηδὲ already Seager):5€ L

τι added by Wakefield

117

O.M.

The drop of blood which oozed from the hollow vein... What does one do with it? What power does it have? wards off disease and gives nourishment for life. And the second item you speak of, what does it do?

Kr.

It is fatal, being the venom of the Gorgon's snakes. [1015]

O.M.

Do you carry them mixed together—or separately? Separately, because the beneficial does not blend with the fatal. O dearest child, you have all that you need! By this means the boy will die; you will be the killer. What am I to do and where? Yours to say; to dare is for me. [1020]

Kr.

O.M. Kr.

Kr.

O.M. Kr.

O.M. Kr.

In Athens, when he comes to my house.

O.M.

This 1s not a good proposal—you too, remember, found fault with my suggestion. In what way? Have you suspected what occurs to me as well? It will be thought that you did away with the boy, even if you are not the killer. True; people say that stepmothers are ill-disposed to children. [1025]

Kr.

O.M. Kr.

O.M. Kr.

O.M. Kr.

So kill him here on the spot where you will deny the murder. Certainly I enjoy the sweetness of revenge so much sooner. And you will conceal from your husband what he is eager

conceal from you. Well you have your instructions! Take from my hand this golden ornament of Athena, a phial made long ago, [1030] and go where my husband, without telling me, is sacrificing an ox. When they stop the feasting and are about to offer libations to the gods, concealing this in your robes, quickly pour it into the boy's drink—just his—taking care to separate it from all the others [1035]

O.M.

to

—his, who intends to be master of my

house.

Once

the

drink goes through his throat, never will he reach the famous city of Athens, but will stay here, as a corpse. You go inside now to the sponsors' house. We shall carry out to its end

the task which we have been

assigned.

[1040]

Come,

aged

118

dy’, ὦ γεραιὲ

πούς, νεανίας γενοῦ

ἔργοισι, kel μὴ τῶι χρόνωι πάρεστί σοι. ἐχθρὸν δ᾽ ἐπ᾽ ἄνδρα στεῖχε δεσποτῶν μέτα καὶ oupddveve kal συνεξαίρει δόμων. τὴν δ᾽ εὐσέβειαν εὐτυχοῦσι μὲν καλὸν τιμᾶν: ὅταν δὲ πολεμίους δρᾶσαι κακῶς θέληι τις, οὐδεὶς ἐμποδὼν κεῖται νόμος.

Xo.

Εἰνοδία θύγατερ Δάματρος,

ἃ τῶν

νυκτιπόλων ἐφόδων ἀνάσσεις, καὶ μεθαμερίων ὅδωσον δυσθανάτων κρατήρων πληρώματ᾽ ἐφ᾽ οἷσι πέμπει πότνια πότνι᾽ ἐμὰ χθονίας Γοργοῦς λαιμοτόμων ἀπὸ σταλαγμῶν τῶι τῶν Ἐρεχθεϊδᾶν δόμων ἐφαπτομένωι᾽

μηδέ

1045

στρ. a 1050

1055

ποτ᾽ ἄλλος ἥ-

κων πόλεως ἀνάσσοι πλὴν τῶν εὐγενετᾶν Ἐρεχθειδᾶν. el δ᾽ ἀτελὴς θάνατος σπουδαί TE δεσποίνας ὅ τε καιρὸς ἄπεισι τόλμας,

1060 ἰἀντ. a

di νῦν ἐλπὶς ἐφαίver’, ἢ θηκτὸν ξίφος ἢ λαιμῶν ἐξάψει βροχὸν ἀμφὶ

δειράν,

1065

πάθεσι πάθεα δ᾽ ἐξανύτουσ᾽ εἰς ἄλλας βιότου κάτεισι μορφάς. od γὰρ δόμων γ᾽ ἑτέρους ἄρχοντας ἀλλοδαποὺς (aod ποτ᾽ «ἐν» daev vais ἀνέχοιτ᾽ ἂν αὐγαῖς ἁ τῶν εὐπατριδᾶν γεγῶσ᾽ οἴκων.

1070

1058-9 ἄλλος ἥκων Murray (deleting ἄλλων dm’) and Diggle: ἄλλος ἄλλων ἀπ᾽ οἴκων L 1063 ἄι (or ὧι)... ἐφαίνετ᾽ Badham: ὦ... φέρετ᾽ L ἄι... ἐφέρβετ᾽ Headlam 1065 λαιμῶν Scaliger: δαίμων L 1068 κάτεισι μορφάς Hermann: μορφὰς κάτεισι

1071 ποτ᾽ Badham: ποτ᾽ ὄμμασι

L

P(L illegible) ἐν added by Tr?

119

foot, show youthfulness in your action even if time has taken it from you! Attack a hostile man along with your mistress; kill with her; clear with her a foe from the house. For those who are fortunate it is a fine thing to revere piety; [1045] but when one wants to get the better of enemies, then no law stands in the way. [Exeunt Kreousa and the Old Man by left and right parodoi] Chorus [Sings] Strophe

Einodia, goddess of the cross-ways, daughter of Demeter! You who rule assaults made at night, steer also the contents of the fatal cups

drunk

by

day

[1050]

towards

those

against

whom

my

mistress, my mistress, sends them: from the gore dripping from the earth-born Gorgon's severed throat [1055] to the one making an attack on the house of the Erechtheidai. Never may a newcomer rule my city in place of the Erechtheidai of noble birth! [1060] Antistrophe If my mistress’ eager attempt at murder is frustrated, and Opportunity passes away for daring, whereby hope just recently appeared, she will take a sharpened sword or fasten a noose to her throat, around her neck, [1065] and accomplishing woes upon woes she will go down to a different form of life. For never would she tolerate others who are foreigners controlling her house, [1070] as long as she lives in the sun's brilliant rays, she who is born of noble stock.

120

αἰσχύνομαι τὸν πολύυμνον θεόν, εἰ παρὰ Καλλιχόροισι λαμπάδα θεωρὸς εἰκάδων ἐννύχιον ἄυπνος ὄψεται, ὅτε καὶ Διὸς ἀστερωπὸς ἀνεχόρευσεν αἰθήρ, χορεύει δὲ σελάνα καὶ πεντήκοντα κόραι fNnpéos αἱ κατὰ πόντον ἀεναῶν τε ποταμῶντΤ δίνας χορενόμεναι τὰν χρυσοστέφανον κόραν καὶ ματέρα oepváv: ἵν᾽ ἐλπίζει βασιλεύσειν ἄλλων πόνον ἐσπεσὼν «ὁ» Φοίβειος ἀλάτας.

στρ. παγαῖς

B 1075

1080

1085

ὁρᾶθ᾽, ὅσοι δυσκελάδοισιν κατὰ μοῦσαν ἰόντες ἀείδεθ᾽ ὕμνοις ἁμέτερα λέχεα Kal γάμους Κύπριδος ἀθέμιτος ἀνοσίους,

lävr. B 1091

ὅσον εὐσεβίαι κρατοῦμεν ἄδικον ἄροτον ἀνδρῶν. παλίμφαμος ἀοιδὰ καὶ μοῦσ᾽ εἰς ἄνδρας ἴτω Ἰδυσκέλαδος ἀμφὶ λέκτρων. δείκνυσι γὰρ ὁ Διὸς ἐκ TalSwvt ἀμνημοσύναν,

1076 θεωρὸς

1095

1100

Musgrave: θεωρὸν L

1077 évvixtov ἄυπνος ὄψεται Musgrave and Hartung: ὄψεται ἐννύχιος 1082-3/1098-9 metre uncertain 1088 ἄλλων ed. Hervagiana?: ἄλλον!, ἐσπεσὼν Heath: τ᾽ εἰσπεσεῖν L

ἄυπνος

1089 6 added by Tr? 1093 1095 1096 1097

κύπριδος Tr’: κύπριδας P (Lillegible) ἀθέμιτος dpotov Scaliger: dpotpovL παλίμφαμος Brodaeus: παλίμφαος LP: πάλιμφας pote’ εἰς.. ἴτω Canter: μούσιος.. ἴστω L

Bayfield: ἀθέμιτας L*

L

av

L

121

Strophe

I feel shame before the much-hymned Kallichoros [1075]

the twentieth day

god, if by the streams of

a sleepless outsider will gaze on the torch of

which burns

ether led off the dance

all night, when even Zeus’ starry

and the moon

joins ın [1080]

and

the

fifty daughters tof Nereus by the sea and the ever-flowing rivers't eddies celebrate in dance the golden-crowned maiden [1085] and her august mother. It is here he hopes to rule, preying upon the toil of others, Phoebus' vagabond. Antistrophe

Look, all you who [1090] advancing down the path of the muse sing in discordant songs of our love-affairs and unholy unions made by a lawless Aphrodite! See how far we women outdo in piety the unjust breeding of men! [1095] Let the muse of song recoil against men Twith ugly tones about their amours. For the descendant

of Zeus’

children

reveals}

his forgetfulness

[1100]

122

OÙ KOLVAV τεκέων τύχαν οἴκοισι φυτεύσας Seotrotvar: πρὸς δ᾽ ᾿Αφροδίταν ἄλλαν θέμενος χάριν νόθον παιδὸς ἔκυρσεν.

1105

ΘΕΡΑΠΩΝ κλεινήν, γυναῖκες, ποῦ κόρην Ἐρεχθέως δέσποιναν εὕρω; πανταχῆι γὰρ ἄστεως « » ζητῶν νιν ἐξέπλησα κοὐκ ἔχω λαβεῖν. Χο.

τί δ᾽ ἔστιν, ὦ ξύνδουλε; τίς προθυμία ποδῶν ἔχει σε καὶ λόγους τίνας φέρεις; θηρώμεθ᾽- ἀρχαὶ δ᾽ ἁπιχώριοι χθονὸς ζητοῦσιν αὑτὴν ὡς θάνηι πετρουμένῃ. οἴμοι, τί λέξεις; οὔτι που λελήμμεθα κρυφαῖον ἐς παῖδ᾽ ἐκπορίζουσαι φόνον; ἔγνως μεθέξεις δ᾽ οὐκ ἐν ὑστάτοις κακοῦ.

1110

1115

ὥφθη δὲ πῶς τὰ κρυπτὰ μηχανήματα; [TO μὴ δίκαιον τῆς δίκης ἡσσώμενον) ἐξηῦρεν ὁ θεός, ob μιανθῆναι θέλων. πῶς; ἀντιάζω σ᾽ ἱκέτις ἐξειπεῖν τάδε. πεπυσμέναι γάρ, εἰ θανεῖν ἡμᾶς χρεών, ἥδιον ἂν θάνοιμεν, εἴθ᾽ ὁρᾶν φάος. ἐπεὶ θεοῦ μαντεῖον ὠιχετ᾽ ἐκλιπὼν πόσις Κρεούσης παῖδα τὸν καινὸν λαβὼν πρὸς δεῖπνα θυσίας θ᾽ ἃς θεοῖς ὡπλίζετο, Ξοῦθος μὲν ὥὦιχετ᾽ ἔνθα πῦρ πηδᾶι θεοῦ βακχεῖον, ὡς σφαγαῖσι Διονύσου πέτρας δεύσειε δισσὰς παιδὸς ἀντ᾽ ὀπτηρίων,

1120

1125

1105 νόθον παιδὸς Tr’: νόθων παίδων L 1106 κλεινήν Reiske: κλειναὶ L: iaarElmsley 1108 1111 1115 1116

Badham posited ἃ lacuna before this verse ἀπιχώριοι Scaliger: αἵδ᾽ ἐπιχώριοι L verse restored by Porson: ἐγνώσμεθ᾽ ἐξ ἴσον κἐν ὑστάτοις ὥφθη Stephanus: ἔφθη L

1117 deleted by Kvicala 1120 ἡμᾶς

Stephanus: ὑμᾶς

L

κακοῖς

L

123

in not producing

for our mistress the shared

children in the house. But gratifying he got a bastard child. [1105]

good

Aphrodite

fortune

of.

in another union

[Enter a servant hurrying from the right parodos] Servant

Tell me, women, where am I to find the renowned Erechtheus,

Cho.

our

mistress?

For

everywhere

in

the

daughter town

«

of >

searching for her I went up and down and have not been able to find her. What ıs it, fellow-slave? What ıs the reason for your eager step and what news do you bring? [1110]

Ser. Cho. Ser. Cho. Ser. Cho.

We are hunted. The local rulers of the land are searching for our mistress for her to die by stoning. Ahh, what will you say? I hope that we have not been caught in the act of procuring the death of the boy in secret? You have it. And you will not be the last to share in the pain. [1115] How then did the secret designs come to light? [Injustice worsted by justice] They were exposed by the god, not wishing to be polluted. How? I beg you as a suppliant to tell us all. For having got the information,

Ser.

if we must die, we should die less painfully, [1120]

and so too if we can live. When Kreousa's husband left the shrine with his new son and went off to the feast and sacrifice which he was arranging for the gods, Xouthos went to the place where the bacchic fire of the god leaps about, [1125] so as to drench with sacrificial blood the double

crags of Dionysus in place of birth-offerings for his son. First he

124

λέξας: Σὺ μέν νυν, τέκνον, ἀμφήρεις

μένων

σκηνὰς ἀνίστη τεκτόνων μοχθήμασιν. θύσας δὲ γενέταις θεοῖσιν ἣν μακρὸν

χρόνον

μείνω,

παροῦσι

Sdites

ἔστωσαν

φίλοις.

λαβὼν δὲ μόσχους ὠιχεθ᾽ ὁ δὲ νεανίας σεμνῶς ἀτοίχους περιβολὰς σκηνωμάτων ὀρθοστάταις ἱδρύεθ᾽, ἡλίου βολὰς καλῶς φυλάξας, οὔτε πρὸς μέσας φλογὸς ἀκτῖνας οὔτ᾽ αὖ πρὸς τελευτώσας βίον, πλέθρον σταθμήσας μῆκος εἰς εὐγωνίαν, μέτρημ᾽ ἔχουσαν τοὺν μέσωι γε μυρίων ποδῶν ἀριθμόν, ὡς λέγουσιν οἱ σοφοί, ὡς πάντα Δελφῶν λαὸν ἐς θοίνην καλῶν. λαβὼν δ᾽ ὑφάσμαθ᾽ ἱερὰ θησαυρῶν πάρα κατεσκίαζε, θαύματ᾽ ἀνθρώποις ὁρᾶν. πρῶτον μὲν ὀρόφωι πτέρυγα περιβάλλει πέπλων, ἀνάθημα Δίου παιδός, ols Ἡρακλέης ᾿Αμαζόνων σκυλεύματ᾽ ἤνεγκεν θεῶι. ἐνῆν δ᾽ ὑφανταὶ γράμμασιν ToLald’ ὑφαί, Οὐρανὸς ἀθροίζων ἄστρ᾽ ἐν αἰθέρος κύκλωι"

ἵππους

1135

1140

1145

μὲν ἤλαυν᾽ ἐς τελευταίαν φλόγα

Ἥλιος, ἐφέλκων λαμπρὸν Ἑσπέρον φάος" μελάμπεπλος δὲ Νὺξ ἀσείρωτον ζυγοῖς ὄχημ᾽ ἔπαλλεν, ἄστρα δ᾽ wuapreı Beau: Πλειὰς μὲν ἤιει μεσοπόρου δι᾽ αἰθέρος

ὅ τε ξιφήρης

1150

Ὠρίων, ὕπερθε δὲ

"APKTOS στρέφουσ᾽ οὐραῖα χρυσήρη πόλωι᾽ κύκλος δὲ πανσέληνος ἠκόντιζ᾽ ἄνω μηνὸς διχήρης, Ὑάδες τε, ναυτίλοις σαφέστατον σημεῖον, ἥ τε φωσφόρος Ἕως διώκουσ᾽ ἄστρα. τοίχοισιν δ᾽ ἔπι ἤμπισχεν ἄλλα βαρβάρων ὑφάσματα: εὐηρέτμους ναῦς ἀντίας Ἑλληνίσιν

1131 μείνω Diggle: μενῶ L: μένω PA 1134-5 βολὰς... φλογὸς A. Schmidt: φλογὸς....βολὰςL 1137 evywviav

1130

Elmsley: εὐγώνιονL

1155

1160

125

said: ‘Now you, my son, stay here and erect with the labour of workmen a well-fitted tent. If, in making offerings to the gods who preside at births, I am delayed for a long time, [1130] let the feast go ahead for those of your friends who are present.' Then taking some cattle he went. With solemn authority the young man started to set up with vertical props the sides—they were not walls—of the tent, deftly observing the angle of the sun so as to

face neither the scorching mid-day rays [1135] nor on the other hand those ending their course. He measured a square of 10 feet having an enclosed area of 10,000 feet, as experts put it, since he was going to invite all the people of Delphi to the feast. [1140] Taking sacred tapestries from the treasuries, he hung them as shady coverings, wonders for men to behold. First of all he threw over for a roof a wing-like covering of robes, the offering of Zeus’ son, which Heracles had dedicated to the god as spoils from

the Amazons. [1145] There were among them tapestries like these woven with designs. Heaven was assembling the stars in the circle of the sky; Helios

was driving

his horses

to their flaming

goal, dragging after him the brilliant light of Hesperus. Blackcloaked Night swung her chariot onwards, drawn by a pair with no trace-horses, [1150]

and the stars accompanied

Pleiades moved on a path through Orion with his sword, and above

the middle

them

as at mid-month,

and

The

of the sky as did

was the Bear turning

pole its golden tail. The full circle of the moon upwards [1155]

the goddess.

at the

darted her beams

the Hyades,

the clearest

sign to sailors, were there, while light-bearing Dawn put the stars to flight. On the sides he fitted other tapestries from barbarian lands: gracefully oared ships opposing Greek vessels; [1160]

126

καὶ μιξόθηρας φῶτας ἱππείας τ᾽ ἄγρας ἐλάφων λεόντων τ᾽ ἀγρίων θηράματα. κατ᾽ εἰσόδους δὲ Κέκροπα θυγατέρων πέλας σπείραισιν εἱλίσσοντ᾽, ᾿Αθηναίων τινὸς ἀνάθημα, χρυσέους τ᾽ ἐν μέσωι συσσιτίωι κρατῆρας ἔστησ᾽. ἐν δ᾽ ἄκροισι βὰς ποσὶν

κῆρυξ ἀνεῖπε

1165

τὸν θέλοντ᾽ ἐγχωρίων

ἐς δαῖτα χωρεῖν. ὡς δ᾽ ἐπληρώθη στέγη, στεφάνοισι κοσμηθέντες εὐόχθου βορᾶς ψυχὴν ἐπλήρουν. ὡς δ᾽ ἀνεῖσαν ἡδονήν

«

1170

» παρελθὼν πρέσβυς ἐς μέσον πέδον

ἔστη, γέλων δ᾽ ἔθηκε συνδείπνοις πολὺν πρόθυμα πράσσων: EK T€ yàp κρωσσῶν ὕδωρ

χεροῖν ἔπεμπε σμύρνης

νίπτρα κἀξεθυμία

ἱδρῶτα

χρυσέων

τ᾽ ἐκπωμάτων

1175

Mpx’, αὐτὸς αὑτῶι τόνδε προστάξας πόνον. ἐπεὶ δ᾽ ἐς αὐλοὺς ἧκον ἐς κρατῆρά τε κοινόν, γέρων éAcE" ᾿Αφαρπάζειν χρεὼν οἰνηρὰ τεύχη σμικρά, μεγάλα δ᾽ ἐσφέρειν,

ὡς θᾶσσον ἔλθωσ᾽ οἵδ᾽ ἐς ἡδονὰς φρενῶν.

1180

ἦν δὴ φερόντων μόχθος ἀργυρηλάτους χρυσέας ὡς

τῶι

ἔδωκε

τε φιάλας" ὁ δὲ λαβὼν ἐξαίρετον, νέωι

δὴ δεσπότηι

χάριν φέρων,

πλῆρες τεῦχος, εἰς οἶνον βαλὼν

ὅ φασι δοῦναι φάρμακον δραστήριον δέσποιναν, ὡς παῖς 6 νέος ἐκλίποι φάος" κοὐδεὶς τάδ᾽ ἤιδειν. ἐν χεροῖν ἔχοντι δὲ σπονδὰς μετ᾽ ἄλλων παιδὶ τῶι πεφηνότι βλασφημίαν τις οἰκετῶν ἐφθέγξατο. ὁ δ᾽, ὡς ἐν ἱερῶι μάντεσίν τ᾽ ἐσθλοὶς τραφείς, 1164 σπείραισιν εἱλίσσοντ᾽ Hermann: σπείραις 1167 ἐγχωρίων Lobeck: ἐγχώριον L 1171 «στέγης» Diggle, « εὐθὺς» Fix

1177 ἧκον 1178 1179 1181 1187 1188

συνειλίσσοντ᾽

Dobree: ἧκεν L

κοινόν τεύχη μόχθος ἤιδειν xepoiv

Musgrave: καινόν L Wakefield: σκεύη L ed. Hervagiana? and perhaps p: μόχθους Scaliger: ἤδει LP: ἤδη L*? Canter: xepolv L

L

L

1185

1190

127

creatures half-men, half-beast; the hunting on horseback of deer and the chase of savage lions. At the entrance he positioned Kekrops, curling in spirals like a snake, with his daughters, the offering of some Athenian. In the middle of the dining area he set out golden [1165] mixing-bowls. A herald then standing tall went about and invited to the feast any of the local people who wished to partake. When the tent was full, after putting on garlands they feasted on abundant food to their hearts’ content. When they had sated their appetites [1170] < > an old man came in, stood in the middle of the enclosure and caused much laughter among the diners with his fussy actions. For he brought water for washing their hands from pitchers and burnt as incense the essence of myrrh, and took charge of the golden cups, [1175] assigning to himself this task by his own authority. Now when it was time for music and the bowl shared by all, the old man said: 'The small wine cups must be taken away and big ones brought in, so that these people may the sooner enjoy delights of the spirit’. [1180] There followed the bustle of those bringing in cups made of gold and beaten silver. Then he took a special cup and, as if doing a favour to the new master, gave it to him, full to the top, but only after pouring into the wine the potent drug which they say was given him [1185] by our mistress hoping to procure the death of the new son. No one knew this. But as the son

who

had

shown

up

held

the libation

in his

hand along with the others, one of the servants uttered an 1llomened cry. He, in that he had been reared in a temple amidst noble

seers, [1190]

recognized

this as an

omen

and

ordered

128

οἰωνὸν ἔθετο κἀκέλευσ᾽ ἄλλον νέον κρατῆρα πληροῦν᾽ τὰς δὲ πρὶν σπονδὰς θεοῦ δίδωσι γαίαι πᾶσί τ᾽ ἐκσπένδειν λέγει. σιγὴ δ᾽ ὑπῆλθεν: ἐκ δ᾽ ἐπίμπλαμεν δρόσου κρατῆρας ἱεροὺς Βιβλίνου τε πώματος. κἀν τῶιδε μόχθωι πτηνὸς ἐσπίπτει δόμοις κῶμος πελειῶν (Λοξίου γὰρ ἐν δόμοις ἄτρεστα ναίουσἾ, ὡς δ᾽ ἀπέσπεισαν μέθυ ἐς αὐτὸ χείλη πώματος κεχρημέναι καθῆκαν, εἷλκον δ᾽ εὐπτέρους ἐς αὐχένας. καὶ ταῖς μὲν ἄλλαις ἄνοσος ἦν λοιβὴ θεοῦ" ἣ δ᾽ ἕζετ᾽ ἔνθ᾽ ὁ καινὸς ἔσπεισεν γόνος ποτοῦ τ᾽ ἐγεύσατ᾽ εὐθὺς εὔὕπτερον δέμας ἔσεισε κἀβάκχευσεν, ἐκ δ᾽ ἔκλαγξ᾽ ὄπα

ἀξύνετον αἰάζουσ᾽: ἐθάμβησεν δὲ πᾶς

1195

1200

1205

θοινατόρων ὅμιλος ὄρνιθος πόνους. θνήισκει δ᾽ ἀπασπαίρουσα, φοινικοσκελεῖς χηλὰς παρεῖσα. γυμνὰ δ᾽ ἐκ πέπλων μέλη

ὑπὲρ τραπέζης fix’ ὁ μαντευτὸς γόνος, βοᾶι δέ: Τίς μ᾽ ἔμελλεν ἀνθρώπων σήμαινε,

καὶ πῶμα

πρέσβυ’

κτανεῖν;

1210

σὴ γὰρ ἡ προθυμία

χειρὸς σῆς ἐδεξάμην πάρα.

εὐθὺς δ᾽ ἐρευνᾶι γραῖαν ὠλένην λαβών, ἐπ᾿ αὐτοφώρωι πρέσβυν ὡς ἔχονθ᾽ ἕλοι

«

».

ὥφθη δὲ καὶ κατεῖπ᾽ ἀναγκασθεὶς μόλις τόλμας Κρεούσης πώματός τε μηχανάς. θεῖ δ᾽ εὐθὺς ἔξω συλλαβὼν θοινάτορας ὁ πυθόχρηστος Λοξίου νεανίας, κἀν κοιράνοισι Πυθικοῖς σταθεὶς λέγει" Ὦ γαῖα σεμνή, τῆς Ἐρεχθέως ὕπο, ξένης γυναικός, φαρμάκοισι θνήϊισκομεν.

1196 δόμους Badham: δόμοις L 1205 -ovo’ ἐθάμβησεν Heath: -ovca:

θάμβησε

1209 Ax’ Barnes: ἧκεν L 1214 Herwerden posited a lacuna after this line

L

1215

1220

129

another fresh bowl to be filled. He poured the earlier libation to the god onto the ground and ordered all to pour out theirs too. Silence came over the gathering. We filled up the sacred bowls with water and Bibline wine. [1195] While we were busy with this, a winged flock of doves descended into the enclosure (since they fly about without fear in Loxias' house), and since some wine had been poured away, into this they lowered their beaks in want of a

drink, and drew it up into their pretty feathered throats. [1200] For all the rest the libation of the god was harmless, but the bird which landed where the new son had poured his drink after tasting it straightway shook its pretty feathered body in a wild convulsion and screeched a frenzied cry impossible to interpret. The whole gathering of feasters was astounded [1205] at the bird's pains. Choking for breath it met its end relaxing its reddish feet and claws. Barıng his arms from under his cloak, the boy spoken of by the oracle flung them over the table and person

who

was

man. It was you

intent

on

killing

me?

shouted:

[1210]

who were full of bustle and

hand that I took the drink." At once he grabbed

Out

"Who is the with

it was from

it, old

your

his aged arm and

searched him, hoping to catch the old man in the act and in possession < >. He was found out but only under compulsion did he reluctantly admit to [1215] Kreousa's daring plot with the drink. At once taking with him a group of feasters, Loxias’ young man who had been named by the Pythian oracle ran out. Standing up among the Delphic leaders he said: 'O sacred land, at the hands of the daughter of Erechtheus, [1220] the foreign woman, I was on

130

Xo.

Δελφῶν δ᾽ ἄνακτες ὥρισαν πετρορριφῆ θανεῖν ἐμὴν δέσποιναν οὐ ψήφωι μιᾶι, τὸν ἱερὸν ὡς κτείνουσαν ἔν τ᾽ ἀνακτόροις φόνον τιθεῖσαν. πᾶσα δὲ ζητεῖ πόλις τὴν ἀθλίως σπεύσασαν ἀθλίαν ὁδόν: παίδων γὰρ ἐλθοῦσ᾽ εἰς ἔρον Φοίβου πάρα τὸ σῶμα κοινῆι τοῖς τέκνοις ἀπώλεσεν.

1225

οὐκ ἔστ᾽ οὐκ ἔστιν θανάτον παρατροπὰ μελέαι pot φανερὰ φανερὰ τάδ᾽ ἤδη

1230

σπονδὰς

ἐκ Διονύσου

βοτρύων θοᾶς ἐχίδνας σταγόσι μειγνυμένας φόνωιf. φανερὰ θύματα νερτέρων, συμφοραὶ μὲν ἐμῶι βίωι, λεύσιμοι δὲ καταφθοραὶ δεσποίναι. τίνα φυγὰν πτερόεσσαν ἢ χθονὸς ὑπὸ σκοτίους μυχοὺς πορευθῶ, θανάτου λεύσιμον ἄταν ἀποφεύγουσα, τεθρίππων

1235

1240

ὠκιστᾶν χαλᾶν ἐπιβᾶσ᾽ ἢ πρύμνας

ἔπι ναῶν;

οὐκ ἔστι λαθεῖν ὅτε μὴ χρήιζων θεὸς ἐκκλέπτει. τί trot’, ὦ μελέα δέσποινα, μένει

ψυχῆι σε παθεῖν; ἄρα θέλουσαι δρᾶσαί τι κακὸν πεισόμεθ᾽ ὥσπερ

τοὺς πέλας τὸ δίκαιον;

αὐταὶ

1227 Φοίβον Matthiae: Φοῖβον L 123] φανερὰ φανερὰ Dindorf: φανερὰ γὰρ φανερὰ L 1232-4 σπονδαί γ᾽...μειγνύμεναι Page 1237 δεσποίναι Hermann: δέσποινα L 1239 σκοτίους μυχοὺς Hartung: σκοτίων μυχῶν L 1242 ὠκιστᾶν χαλᾶν Paley: ὠκίσταν χαλὰν L 1244 λαθεῖν Stephanus: λαβεῖν L 1246 μένει Portus: μέλει L

1245

13]

the point of death by poison. The lords of Delphi determined death by stoning for my mistress, and not by a single vote, on the charge of attempting to kill the consecrated youth and polluting the

temple

with

murder.

The

whole

city

is in

search

for

her,

[1225] a woman who unhappily hastened on a most unhappy road. Having got the desire of children from Phoebus, she has lost her life and any children as well. Chorus [Sings]

There is not, there is not any escape from wretchedness.

[1230]

Clear,

clear

are

death for me in my

these

things

now

Tthe

hbation from the clusters of Dionysus fatally mixed with the oozing gore of the darting reptile}. Clear are the offerings to those below, [1235]

catastrophe for my

life, and destruction by

stoning for my mistress. What escape by winged flight or down into the dark bowels of the earth can I make, as I attempt to escape from the disfigurement of death at the stoners' hands? [1240] Shall I mount a chariot drawn by swift-footed steeds or leap on the stern of a ship? It is not possible to hide, unless a willing god steals one away. [1245] What, O wretched

mistress, remains

for you

life? Shall we, desiring to do some harm ourselves as justice demands?

to suffer with your

to those nearby,

suffer

132

πρόσπολοι, διωκόμεσθα θανασίμους ἐπὶ σφαγάς, Πυθίαι ψήφωι κρατηθεῖσ᾽, ἔκδοτος δὲ γίγνομαι.

1250

ἴσμεν, ὦ τάλαινα, τὰς σὰς συμφοράς, iv’ εἶ τύχης. ποῖ φύγω δῆτ᾽; ἐκ γὰρ οἴκων προύλαβον μόλις πόδα μὴ θανεῖν, κλοπῆι δ᾽ ἀφῖγμαι διαφυγοῦσα πολεμίους. tot δ᾽ ἂν ἄλλοσ᾽ ἢ m βωμόν; Κρ. καὶ τί μοι πλέον τόδε; ἱκέτιν οὐ θέμις φονεύειν. Κρ. τῶι νόμωι δέ γ᾽ ὄλλυμαι. χειρία γ᾽ ἁλοῦσα. Κρ. καὶ μὴν οἵδ᾽ ἀγωνισταὶ πικροὶ δεῦρ᾽ ἐπείγονται ξιφήρεις. Χο. ἵζε νυν πυρᾶς ἔπι.

κἂν θάνηις γὰρ ἐνθάδ᾽ οὖσα, τοῖς ἀποκτείνασί προστρόπαιον Ιων

αἷμα

ὦ ταυρόμορφον

θήσεις"

ὄμμα

οἰστέον

1255

σε

δὲ τὴν τύχην.

1260

Κηφισοῦ πατρός,

οἵαν ἔχιδναν τήνδ᾽ ἔφυσας ἢ πυρὸς δράκοντ᾽ ἀναβλέποντα φοινίαν φλόγα,

ἧι τόλμα πᾶσ᾽ ἔνεστιν οὐδ᾽ ἥσσων ἔφυ Γοργοῦς σταλαγμῶν, οἷς ἔμελλέ με κτανεῖν. λάζυσθ᾽, ἵν᾽ αὐτῆς τοὺς ἀκηράτους πλόκους κόμης καταξήνωσι Παρνασσοῦ πλάκες, ὅθεν πετραῖον ἅλμα δισκηθήσεται. ἐσθλοῦ δ᾽ ἔκυρσα δαίμονος, πρὶν ἐς πόλιν μολεῖν ᾿Αθηνῶν χὐπὸ μητρυιὰν πεσεῖν. ἐν συμμάχοις γὰρ ἀνεμετρησάμην φρένας τὰς ods, ὅσον μοι πῆμα δυσμενής τ᾽ ἔφυς" ἔσω γὰρ ἄν με περιβαλοῦσα δωμάτων

ἄρδην ἂν ἐξέπεμψας

αὐτῆς,

τοὔνομ᾽

οὐκ

ἄπεστί

Stephanus: Πυθίω

1252 el τύχης 1253 οἴκων

L

Scaliger: εὐτυχεῖς L

Victorius: ἄκων

L

1275-8 deleted by Diggle, placed after 1281 by Musgrave 1280 ἔπλεξε Elmsley: ἔπλεξ᾽ où L

1275

πάρα

πω.]

ἴδεσθε τὴν πανοῦργον, ἐκ τέχνης τέχνην οἵαν ἔπλεξε: βωμὸν ἔπτηξεν θεοῦ ὡς οὐ δίκην δώσουσα τῶν εἰργασμένων. 1251 Πυθίαι

1270

εἰς “Αἰδου δόμους.

[ἀλλ᾽ οὔτε βωμὸς οὔτ᾽ ᾿Απόλλωνος δόμος σώσει 8^ ὁ δ᾽ οἶκτος 6 σὸς ἐμοὶ κρείσσων καὶ μητρὶ τἠμῆι᾽ καὶ γὰρ εἰ τὸ σῶμά μοι ἄπεστιν

1265

1280

133 [Enter Kreousa hastily from the left parodos] Kr. Cho. Kr.

Cho. Cho. Cho.

Cho.

Servants,

I am

driven

by

pursuers

to a violent

death,

[1250]

overcome by the vote of the Delphians, and I am betrayed. We are aware, wretched mistress, of your disaster, we know how your fortune stands. Where then am I to flee? I only just managed to slip away from death at the house and it is by stealth that I got here escaping my enemies. Where else can you go if not to the altar? Kr. In what way is this any help to me? [1255] It is not right to slay a suppliant. Kr. But it is by the law that I am to die. Yes, but only after they have you in their hands. Kr. Look, here come my bitter adversaries at a run with swords in their hands. [Enter lon hurriedly with attendants from right parodos] Get up on the altar. Even if you are killed sitting here you will infect your slayers with the pollution of blood-guilt. But you must endure what turns out. [1260]

lon

O bull-shaped face of Kephisos, her ancestor, begat in this woman, or is she rather a snake which brings death? She is capable of anything not inferior to the drops of Gorgon's blood with to kill me. [1265]

what a viper you with a fiery look and her nature is which she meant

Grab her, so that the heights

of Parnassus—

from there she will be hurled like a discus to the rocks below— can tear to shreds her unsullied tresses. It was a piece of good fortune that this happened before I came to the city of Athens and fell under

the power of a stepmother. [1270]

friends that I got the measure

of your

For it was among

intentions and saw how

harmful and ill-disposed towards me you are. Having got me into

your snares at home you would have despatched me once and for all to Hades' halls. [But no altar nor temple of Apollo [1275]

is

going to protect you. Pity for you is felt more strongly by me and my own mother. Even if her body is not with me, her name is not yet faded.] Look at the villain, how she has woven one trick after

another. She has crouched at the god's altar, [1280] pay the penalty for her crimes.

so as not to

ἀπεννέπω

σε μὴ κατακτείνειν ἐμὲ

ὑπέρ τ᾽ ἐμαυτῆς

τοῦ θεοῦ θ᾽ ἵν᾽ ἕσταμεν.

τί δ᾽ ἐστὶ Φοίβωι σοί τε κοινὸν ἐν μέσωι; ἱερὸν τὸ σῶμα τῶι θεῶι δίδωμ᾽ ἔχειν. κἄπειτ᾽ ἔκαινες φαρμάκοις τὸν τοῦ θεοῦ;

1285

ἀλλ᾽ οὐκέτ᾽ ἦσθα Λοξίου, πατρὸς δὲ σοῦ. Tadd’ ἐγενόμεσθα,

πατρὸς

δ᾽ οὐσίαν

λέγω.

οὐκοῦν τότ᾽ ἦσθα νῦν δ᾽ ἐγώ, σὺ δ᾽ οὐκέτι. οὐκ εὐσεβεῖς ye: τἀμὰ δ᾽ εὐσεβῆ τότ᾽ ἦν. ἔκτεινά

σ᾽ ὄντα

πολέμιον

δόμοις

1290

ἐμοῖς.

οὔτοι σὺν ὅπλοις ἦλθον ἐς τὴν σὴν χθόνα. μάλιστα᾽ κἀπίμπρης γ᾽ Ἐρεχθέως δόμους. ποίοισι πανοῖς ἢ πυρὸς ποίαι φλογί; ἔμελλες οἰκεῖν τἄμ᾽, ἐμοῦ βίαι λαβών. κἄπειτα τοῦ μέλλειν μ᾽ ἀπέκτεινες φόβωι; ὡς μὴ θάνοιμί γ᾽, εἰ σὺ μὴ μέλλων τύχοις.

φθονεῖς ἄπαις οὖσ᾽, εἰ πατὴρ ἐξηῦρέ

1295 1300 130] 1302

με;

σὺ τῶν ἀτέκνων δῆτ᾽ ἀναρπάσεις δόμους; πατρός γε γῆν διδόντος ἣν ἐκτήσατο. τοῖς Αἰόλου δὲ πῶς μετῆν τῆς Παλλάδος; ὅπλοισιν αὐτήν οὐ λόγοις ἐρρύσατο.

1303 1296

ἐπίκουρος οἰκήτωρ γ᾽ ἂν οὐκ εἴη χθονός.

1299 1304

ἡμῖν δέ γ᾽ ἀλλὰ maTplt γῆς οὐκ ἦν μέρος; ὅσ᾽ ἀσπὶς ἔγχος 0” ἥδε σοι παμπησία. ἔκλειπε βωμὸν καὶ θεηλάτους ἕδρας. τὴν σὴν ὅπου σοι μητέρ᾽ ἐστὶ νουθέτει. σὺ δ᾽ οὐχ ὑφέξεις ζημίαν κτείνουσ᾽ ἐμέ; ἤν γ᾽ ἐντὸς ἀδύτων τῶνδέ με σφάξαι θέληις.

1286 Ekaives

Duport and Scaliger?: ἔκτανες

1305

[,

1289 οὐκέτι Dobree: οὐκέτ᾽ el L 1291 ἔκτεινά σ᾽ Wakefield: ἔκτεινα δ᾽ L: ἔκτεινον Elmsley 1294 πανοῖς Musgrave: πτανοῖς L: Sadcts variant inL see on 195 1297 τῆς ed. Aldina: τῶν L: γῆς Blaydes 1300-3 placed after 1295 by Nauck 1304 δέ γ᾽ ἀλλὰ πατρικῆς ed. Aldina:δέ γ᾽ dua « τῶι > πατρὶ

Page

Kr.

135 I forbid you to kill me where I have taken my position, I say this on my own account and on that of the god.

lon Kr. lon Kr. lon Kr. lon Kr.

What do you and Phoebus have in common between you? I give my body to the god as his sacred possession. [1285] And then you tried to kill by poison one belonging to the god?

But you were no longer Loxias’, but your father’s. Well,

I became his; I speak of the essence of a father.7

At that time, then, you were Apollo's. But now I am his possession and you are no more. You are without piety, whereas my behaviour then was pious. [1290] I meant to kill you because you are an enemy to my house.

lon

I did not invade your country with arms. Yes you did, and you were for burning Erechtheus. Where were the torches and blazing fire?

Kr.

You

lon

Kr.

intended

force. lon Kr.

Kr.

lon Kr.

what was mine

taking

the

house

of

me

by

it from

[1295]

So then you tried to kill me in fear of what I intended? [1300] Yes, so that I would not perish if you were in fact to stop just intending.

Ion

to control

down

[1301]

Being childless you feel ill-will, now that father has [1302] And you, will you snatch a house from the childless? Yes, as it is my father who gives me the land which [1296] How did the descendants of Aiolos have a share in

found

me?

[1303] he acquired. the land of

Pallas? Ion Kr.

It was with arms not with talk that he rescued the place. Granted, but a hired ally could not be a true inhabitant of the land. [1299]

lon

Well thent, did fathert? [1304]

Kr.

As much

I not have as much

as shield

inheritance.

and

spear can

share

claim.

in the land

This

is your

fas my

entire

[1305]

lon

Leave the altar and the god's sacred seat.

Kr.

Keep your advice for your mother—wherever she is. Will you not submit to punishment for attempting to kill me? Only if you are prepared to slay me within this sacred precinct.

Ion

Kr.

Iw

τίς ἡδονή

σοι θεοῦ θανεῖν

Ev στέμμασιν;

Κρ.

λυπήσομέν

τιν᾽ ὧν λελυπήμεσθ᾽ ὕπο.

lav

φεῦ" δεινόν γε θνητοῖς τοὺς νόμους ὡς οὐ καλῶς ἔθηκεν ὁ θεὸς οὐδ᾽ ἀπὸ γνώμης σοφῆς"

1310

τοὺς μὲν γὰρ ἀδίκους βωμὸν οὐχ ἵζειν ἐχρῆν ἀλλ᾽ θεῶν ἱερὰ καὶ τόν

ἐξελαύνειν: οὐδὲ γὰρ ψαύειν καλὸν πονηρᾶι χειρί, τοῖσι δ᾽ ἐνδίκοις" καθίζειν «δ᾽» ὅστις ἠδικεῖτ᾽ ἐχρῆν, μὴ mM ταὐτὸ τοῦτ᾽ ἰόντ᾽ ἔχειν ἴσον T' ἐσθλὸν ὄντα τόν τε μὴ θεῶν πάρα.

ΠΡΟΦΗΤΙΣ ἐπίσχες, ὦ Tati: τρίποδα γὰρ χρηστήριον λιποῦσα θριγκοὺς τούσδ᾽ ὑπερβάλλω ποδὶ Φοίβου προφῆτις, τρίποδος ἀρχαῖον νόμον σώιζουσα, πασῶν Δελφίδων ἐξαίρετος.

Iav Πρ.

χαῖρ᾽, ὦ φίλη μοι μῆτερ, οὐ τεκοῦσά περ. ἀλλ᾽ οὖν λεγόμεθά y” ἡ φάτις δ᾽ οὔ μοι πικρά.

lov Πρ. lav Πρ. lov Πρ. [uv Πρ. lov Πρ.

ἤκουσας ὥς μ᾽ ἔκτεινεν ἥδε μηχαναῖς; ἤκουσα’ καὶ σὺ δ᾽ ὠμὸς ὧν ἁμαρτάνεις. οὐ χρή με τοὺς κτείνοντας ἀνταπολλύναι; προγόνοις δάμαρτες δυσμενεῖς ἀεί ποτε. ἡμεῖς δὲ μητρυιαῖς γε πάσχοντες κακῶς. μὴ ravra: λείπων ἱερὰ καὶ στείχων πάτραν. .. τί δή με δρᾶσαι νουθετούμενον χρεών; καθαρὸς ᾿Αθήνας ἔλθ᾽ ὑπ᾽ οἰωνῶν καλῶν. καθαρὸς ἅπας τοι πολεμίους ὃς dv κτάνηι. μὴ σύ γε’ παρ᾽ ἡμῶν δ᾽ ἔκλαβ᾽ obs ἔχω λόγους.

Ιων

λέγοις dv: εὔνους δ᾽ οὖσ᾽ ἐρεῖς ὅσ᾽ dv λέγηις.

Πρ. lav

1316 1317 1321 1325 1327 1333

|. ópüis τόδ᾽ ἄγγος χερὸς ὑπ᾽ ἀγκάλαις ὁρῶ παλαιὰν ἀντίπηγ᾽ ἐν στέμμασιν.

πονηρᾶι χειρὶ Owen: πονηρὰν χεῖρα [, δ᾽ addedby Owen θριγκοὺς τούσδ᾽ Blomfield: θριγκοῦ τοῦδ᾽ L λεγόμεθά γ᾽ Elmsley: λεγόμεσθ᾽ L δ᾽ Hermann: γ᾽ L καθαρὸς Porson: καθαρῶς L

ἐμαῖς;

1315

1320

1325

1330

1335

Ion

Kr. lon

137 What joy will you get from dying amidst the god's holy emblems?

[1310] I shall cause grief to one of those at whose hands I have been grieved. Ah!Itis a terrible thing that the god has laid down laws for men improperly and without wise judgement. Villains ought not to cling to altars but be driven from them. For it is not right either [1315] to touch the gods’ altars with a wicked hand; this is for the just. Only one treated unjustly ought to occupy altars, and it

ought not to be that, having recourse to the same thing, both the good and the evil get equal treatment from the gods. [Enter the Delphic priestess from the skene] Priestess Stop, my child! After leaving the oracular tripod, [1320] I step over the sill here, I Apollo’s priestess, who maintain the ancient ritual of the tripod, having been picked out from all the women of Delphi. lon Greetings, dear mother. I call you this, though you did not bear me. Pr. Well, this is what I am called and I do not find the name objectionable.

[1325]

Ion Pr. lon Pr.

Did you hear how this woman tried to kill me with her plotting? I did. But you are wrong in being so harsh. Ought I not kill in retaliation those who attempt to destroy me? Wives are always ill-disposed to earlier children.

lon

And we to stepmothers when suffering at their hands. [1330]

Pr. lon

No more of that! Leaving the shrine homeland... What must I do following your advice?

Pr.

enter Athens without stain and attended by fair omens.

Ion Pr. Ion Pr. Ion

Without stain, I assure you, is anyone who kills his enemies. Don't you! But listen to what I have to say. [1335] Please tell me. Wishing me well you will say whatever you say. Do you see this container that I carry in my arms? I see an age-old basket wrapped in sacred ribbons.

and

going

to

your

ἐν τῆιδέ σ᾽ ἔλαβον veóyovov βρέφος ποτέ. τί φήις; ὁ μῦθος εἰσενήνεκται νέος.

1340

σιγῆι γὰρ εἶχον αὐτά: νῦν δὲ δείκνυμεν.

πῶς οὖν ἔκρυπτες τότε λαβοῦσ᾽ ἡμᾶς πάλαι; ὁ θεὸς ἐβούλετ᾽ ἐν δόμοις «σ᾽» ἔχειν λάτριν. νῦν δ᾽ οὐχὶ χρήιζει; τῶι τόδε γνῶναί με χρή;

πατέρα

κατειπὼν τῆσδέ σ᾽ ἐκπέμπει

χθονός.

1345

σὺ δ᾽ ἐκ κελενσμῶν ἢ πόθεν σώιζεις τάδε; ἐνθύμιόν μοι τότε τίθησι Λοξίας. τί χρῆμα δρᾶσαι; λέγε, πέραινε σοὺς λόγους. σῶσαι τόδ᾽ εὕρημ᾽ ἐς τὸν ὄντα νῦν χρόνον. ἔχει δέ μοι τί κέρδος À τίνα βλάβην;

ἐνθάδε κέκρυπται

1350

σπάργαν᾽ οἷς ἐνῆσθα σύ.

μητρὸς τάδ᾽ ἡμῖν ἐκφέρεις ζητήματα; ἐπεί γ᾽ ὁ δαίμων βούλεται: πάροιθε δ᾽ οὔ.

ὦ μακαρία μοι φασμάτων ἥδ᾽ ἡμέρα. λαβών νυν αὐτὰ τὴν τεκοῦσαν ἐκπόνει. πᾶσάν γ᾽ ἐπελθὼν ᾿Ασιάδ᾽ Εὐρώπης θ᾽ ὅρους. γνώσηι τάδ᾽ αὐτός. τοῦ θεοῦ δ᾽ ἕκατί σε

1355

ἔθρεψά τ᾽, ὦ παῖ, καὶ τάδ᾽ ἀποδίδωμί σοι, ἃ κεῖνος ἀκέλευστόν μ᾽ ἐβουλήθη λαβεῖν Towoal 9’ ὅτου δ᾽ ἐβούλεθ᾽ οὕνεκ᾽ οὐκ ἔχω ἤιδει δὲ θνητῶν οὔτις ἀνθρώπων τάδε

λέγειν.7

ἔχοντας ἡμᾶς οὐδ᾽ ἵν᾽ ἦν κεκρυμμένα. καὶ χαῖρ᾽" ἴσον γάρ σ᾽ ὡς τεκοῦσ᾽ ἀσπάζομαι.

[ἄρξαι δ᾽ ὅθεν σὴν μητέρα ζητεῖν σε χρή᾽ πρῶτον μὲν εἴ τις Δελφίδων τεκοῦσά σε ἐς τούσδε ναοὺς ἐξέθηκε παρθένος, ἔπειτα δ᾽ εἴ τις Ἑλλάς. ἐξ ἡμῶν δ᾽ ἔχεις ἅπαντα Φοίβου θ᾽, ὃς μετέσχε τῆς τύχης] 1342 1343 1348 1351 1354

1356

1365

τότε Hermann: τόδε L θεὸς Badham and P: θεός σ᾽ L δόμοις «σ᾽ > Badham δρᾶσαι Musgrave: δράσειν L σπάργαν᾽ οἷς ἐνῆσθα Reiske: σπαργάνοισιν οἶσθα L μακαρία Hermann: μακαρίων L y' Kirchhoff: δ᾽ L ᾿Ασιάδ᾽ Scaliger: ᾿Ασίαν L

1357-62 suspected by Diggle 1360 ὅτον δέ γ᾽ οὕνεκ᾽ (del. €BotAc6)} Badham, où λέγω (del. ἔχω) Paley; Diggle would prefer to delete σῶσαί θ᾽ 1364-8 deleted by Hirzel

1364 ζητεῖν oe Tr: ζητεῖσθαι L

139 Pr. Ion Pr.

It was in this that I once picked you up as a new-born babe. What do you mean? This ıs a new story you have brought in. [1340] That is because I kept these things secret. But now I make them known.

Ion Pr. lon Pr.

Why then did you keep them hidden at the time you rescued me long ago? The god wanted to have you in his temple as his servant.

Does he not want this now? How must I know this? Now that he has announced the name of your father he sends you forth from this land. [1345]

Ion Pr. Ion Pr. lon Pr. lon Pr. lon Pr.

lon Pr.

Was it at his At that time To do what? To keep this

bidding or how came it that you stored these things? Loxias put it into my head. Tell me, continue with your story. find right up to this moment.

What profit or what harm does it have for me? [1350]

Here lie hidden the baby-things in which you were wrapped. Do you produce these as a means of tracking down my mother? Yes, since the god wills it; he did not before. O blissful this day for what has come to light! Now take them and diligently search out your mother. [1355] Yes, going over all Asia and to the bounds of Europe. You will discover that for yourself. It was on account of the god that I both reared you, my child, and hand over to you these things which, he wanted me, though unbidden, to take fand keep. Why he wanted it, I cannot sayt. [1360] No mortal man knew that I had these things ın my possession nor where they were hidden. Farewell now; just as if I had given you birth, I embrace you. [Start now where you must search for your mother. First, in case some Delphian maid bore you [1365] and then exposed you in this temple; then, if some other Greek woman did so. But from me you have everything and from Phoebus, who had a share in your fate.] [Exit Priestess into the skene]

140

Ι͂ων

φεῦ φεῦ κατ᾽ ὄσσων ὡς ὑγρὸν βάλλω δάκρυ, ἐκεῖσε τὸν νοῦν δοὺς ὅθ᾽ ἡ τεκοῦσά με Kpudata νυμφευθεῖσ᾽ ἀπημπόλα λάθραι καὶ μαστὸν οὐκ ἐπέσχεν ἀλλ᾽ ἀνώνυμος

1370

ἐν θεοῦ μελάθροις εἶχον οἰκέτην βίον. τὰ τοῦ θεοῦ μὲν χρηστά, τοῦ δὲ δαίμονος βαρέα" χρόνον γὰρ ὅν μ᾽ ἐχρῆν ἐν ἀγκάλαις μητρὸς τρυφῆσαι καί τι τερφθῆναι βίου ἀπεστερήθην φιλτάτης μητρὸς τροφῆς. τλήμων δὲ χὴ τεκοῦσά μ᾽ ὡς ταὐτὸν πάθος πέπονθε, παιδὸς ἀπολέσασα χαρμονάς. καὶ νῦν λαβὼν τήνδ᾽ ἀντίπηγ᾽ οἴσω θεῶι

1375

1380

ἀνάθημ᾽, iv’ εὕρω μηδὲν ὧν οὐ βούλομαι. εἰ γάρ με δούλη τυγχάνει τεκοῦσά τις, εὑρεῖν κάκιον μητέρ᾽ ἢ σιγῶντ᾽ ἐᾶν.

ὦ Φοῖβε, ναοῖς ἀνατίθημι

τήνδε σοῖς"

καίτοι τί πάσχω; τοῦ θεοῦ προθυμίαι πολεμῶ, τὰ μητρὸς σύμβολ᾽ ὃς σέσωκέ μοι; ἀνοικτέον τάδ᾽ ἐστὶ καὶ τολμητέον᾽ τὰ γὰρ πεπρωμέν᾽ οὐχ ὑπερβαίην ποτ᾽ ἄν.

1385

SEP

ὦ στέμμαθ᾽ ἱερά, τί ποτέ μοι κεκεύθατε,

καὶ σύνδεθ᾽ οἷσι τἄμ᾽ ἐφρουρήθη φίλα;

1390

ἰδοὺ περίπτυγμ᾽ ἀντίπηγος εὐκύκλον ὡς οὐ γεγήρακ᾽ ἔκ τινος θεηλάτου, εὐρώς τ᾽ ἄπεστι πλεγμάτων᾽ ὁ δ᾽ ἐν μέσωι χρόνος πολὺς δὴ τοῖσδε θησαυρίσμασιν. τί δῆτα φάσμα τῶν ἀνελπίστων ὁρῶ;

1395

σίγα où πῆμα

καὶ πάροιθεν Nodd μοι.

οὐκ ἐν σιωπῆι τἀμά: μή με νουθέτει. δρῶ γὰρ ἄγγος ὧι ᾿ξέθηκ᾽ ἐγώ more

σέ γ᾽, ὦ τέκνον μοι, βρέφος ἔτ᾽ ὄντα νήπιον, Κέκροπος ἐς ἄντρα καὶ Μακρὰς πετρηρεφεῖς. λείψω δὲ βωμὸν τόνδε, κεὶ θανεῖν με χρή. 1372 οὐκ ἐπέσχεν

1400

Dobree: οὐχ ὑπέσχεν L

1378 xt) Schaefer: θ᾽ à L

1380 οἴσω Brodaeus: oloov L 1386 σέσωκέ Dobree: ἔσωσε L 1388 οὐχ Nauck: οὐδ᾽ L ὑπερβαίην

1396 σίγα L. Dindorf: σιγᾶν L 1398 ὧι

Ἐέθηκ᾽

πῆμα

Barnes: οὐξέθηκ᾽ L

Dobree:

ὑπερβαίη

L

Broadhead: roXà L

ἦσθα Musgrave: οἷσθα L

141 Ton

Ah! How I shed a moist tear down my cheeks, as I think time when the woman who bore me [1370] after some

of that hidden

love-affair tried to smuggle me away secretly and gave me no nurture from her breast. Without a name I lived the life of a slave in the sanctuary of the god. The god's part was good, but fortune's

doing was have been life, I was the woman same fate,

hard to bear. For at the time when I ought [1375] to coddled in my mother's arms and taken some delight in wrenched away from a mother's most loving care. And who bore me is wretched as well. She has suffered the having lost the joys of her child. Well, I am now going

to take this basket and offer it to the god [1380]

as a dedication,

so that I do not discover something I do not want to know. For if it turns out that some slave woman is my

mother, then to find my

mother would be worse than to leave things alone in silence. O Phoebus, I dedicate this basket in your temple.

But wait, what's

come over me? Am I opposing the god's eager wish, [1385] seeing that he has preserved for me tokens linked with my mother? No, I must open these things up and brave what comes. In any case, I could never circumvent what has been fated. O holy ribbons, what is it, I wonder, that you have kept concealed? You fastenings, what things dear to me have you kept secure? [1390] Look how the covering of the beautifully rounded basket has by some miracle not aged and how mildew has kept away from its woven sides. Yet it has been a long time indeed since these Kr. lon Kr.

treasures were laid up. What, I ask, is this unhoped-for revelation before my eyes? [1395] You be quiet! You were the source of harm to me even before. My situation does not call for silence. Don't give me advice. For I see in front of me the crib in which one day I exposed you, O my son, while you were just a new-born infant, in the cave of Kekrops roofed

over by

the Long

altar, even if I have to die.

Rocks.

[1400]

But I shall leave this

142

lav

λάζυσθε

τήνδε:

θεομανὴς

γὰρ ἥλατο

βωμοῦ λιποῦσα ξόανα: Seite δ᾽ ὠλένας. Kp. lov Κρ.

σφάζοντες οὐ λήγοιτ᾽ dv: ὡς ἀνθέξομαι καὶ τῆσδε καὶ σοῦ τῶν τε σῶν κεκρυμμένων. τάδ᾽ οὐχὶ δεινά; ῥυσιάζομαι δόλωι. οὔκ, ἀλλὰ σοῖς φίλοισιν εὑρίσκηι φίλος.

Iw

ἐγὼ φίλος σός; κάιτά μ᾽ ἔκτεινες λάθραι;

Κρ.

παῖς γ᾽, εἰ τόδ᾽ ἐστὶ τοῖς τεκοῦσι φίλτατον.

luv

παῦσαι

Κρ.

ἐς

Iwy

κενὸν

Kp. lov

od γ᾽ ἔνδυθ᾽, οἷσί σ᾽ ἐξέθηκ᾽ ἐγώ ποτε. καὶ τοὔνομ᾽ αὐτῶν ἐξερεῖς πρὶν εἰσιδεῖν;

Κρ. ΙΪων

κἂν μὴ φράσω γε, κατθανεῖν ὑφίσταμαι. λέγ᾽: ὡς ἔχει τι δεινὸν À γε τόλμα Gov.

Κρ.

σκέψασθ᾽ ὃ παῖς ποτ᾽ οὖσ᾽ ὕφασμ᾽ ὕφην᾽ ἐγώ.

ΙΪων

ποῖόν τι; πολλὰ

Κρ.

οὐ τέλεον, οἷον δ᾽ ἐκδίδαγμα κερκίδος.

lux Kp.

μορφὴν Topywv

Iw

ὦ

Κρ. Ιων

Κρ. Iwv Kp.

πλέκουσα

τοῦθ᾽ ἱκοίμην,

τόδ᾽ ἄγγος

τοῦδε

σ᾽ ἐγὼ -- πλοκάς.

τοξεύω,

ἢ στέγει

παρθένων

1410

τέκνον.

πλήρωμά

τι;

1415

ὑφάσματα.

ἔχον τίν᾽; ὥς pe μὴ ταύτηι λάβηις. μὲν ἐν μέσοισιν ἠτρίοις πέπλων.

Ζεῦ, τίς ἡμᾶς

ἐκκυνηγετεῖ

1420

πότμος;

κεκρασπέδωται δ᾽ ὄφεσιν αἰγίδος τρόπον. ἰδού: τόδ᾽ ἔσθ᾽ ὕφασμα θέσφαθ᾽ ὡς εὑρίσκομεν.

ὦ

χρόνιον ἱστῶν παρθένευμα τῶν ἐμῶν.

1425

ἔστιν τι πρὸς τῶιδ᾽ ἢ μόνωι τῶιδ᾽ εὐτυχεῖς; | 8pákovre μαρμαίροντε πάγχρυσον γένυν,

δώρημ᾽

'A0ávas, ols τέκν᾽ ἐντρέφειν λέγει,

Ἐριχθονίου 1405 1406 1410 1416 1421 1423 1424 1426 1427

-- λήψομαί

1405

γε τοῦ πάλαι

μιμήματα.

T' ἔσω Tyrwhitt: τε σῶν L δόλωι Jacobs: λόγω L σ᾽ Tyrwhitt: δ᾽ L πλοκάς Jacobs: καλῶς L À ye τόλμα Jodrell: ἣ τόλμα ye L Arploıs Musgrave: ἠτρίωνL κεκρασπέδωται δ᾽ p: κἐκκρασπέδωτ᾽ L ὕφασμ᾽, ἔφησθά θ᾽ ὡς Campbell τῶιδ᾽ L. Dindorf: τῶ γ᾽ 1, μόνον τόδ᾽ Usener: μόνω τῶδ᾽ L line restored by Porson (γένυν already Toup): δράκοντες ἀρχαῖον γένει L

1428 ols Page: ἣ L: ὧι Wilamowitz

τι παγχρύσω

143 lon

Grab her! In a fit of divine madness she has leapt away from the altar and its images. Bind her arms!

Kr. Ion Kr. lon Kr. lon Kr. lon Kr. lon Kr. lon Kr. Ion Kr. Ion Kr. lon Kr. lon Kr. lon Kr.

Slaughter away! I am going to take hold of this cradle, and you, and the things hidden inside it. [1405] Is this not too much? I am claimed as property by deceit. No, you are discovered as one dear to them by those who are dear. I dear to you? And then you attempted stealthily to kill me? Yes—dear as a son is, if this 15 the dearest thing to parents. Stop weaving your wiles—lI'll get a hold on you. [1410] May I attain to that, this is my aim, my child. Is this crib empty, or is it full of hidden objects? Yes, your baby-things which I once put out with you. Will you be able to name them precisely before looking at them? Yes, and if I do not describe them, I submit to death. [1415]

Say on. Your confidence has something uncanny about it. Look for a piece of weaving which I did while just a child. What sort of weaving? Young girls do lots of weaving. It is incomplete; like a sampler from the loom. | What is its form? I ask so you don't take me in over this. [1420]

There is a Gorgon in the centre threads of the material. O Zeus, what destiny seeks me out like a hunter? It is edged with snakes in the manner of the aigis. Look! Here is the piece of weaving thow we discover oracles!1 Ah, girlish work of my loom seen after so long!1425] Is there anything besides this, or are you lucky just in this? A pair of snakes shimmering with jaws all of gold, the gift of Athena, who bids children to be reared with them, in imitation, that is, of Erichthonios of old.

τί δρᾶν, τί χρῆσθαι, φράζε μοι, χρυσώματι; δέραια παιδὶ νεογόνωι φέρειν, τέκνον. ἔνεισιν οἵδε: τὸ δὲ τρίτον ποθῶ μαθεῖν. στέφανον ἐλαίας ἀμφέθηκά σοι τότε, ἣν πρῶτ᾽ ᾿Αθάνας σκόπελος ἐξηνέγκατο, ὅς, εἴπερ ἐστίν, οὔποτ᾽ ἐκλείπει χλόην, θάλλει δ᾽, ἐλαίας ἐξ ἀκηράτου γεγώς. Ιων

ὦ φιλτάτη πρὸς

1430

1435

μοι μῆτερ, ἄσμενός σ᾽ ἰδὼν

ἀσμένας

πέπτωκα

σὰς παρηίδας.

ὦ τέκνον, ὦ φῶς μητρὶ κρεῖσσον ἡλίου (συγγνώσεται γὰρ ὁ θεός), ἐν χεροῖν σ᾽ ἔχω, ἄελπτον εὕρημ᾽, ὃν κατὰ γᾶς ἐνέρων χθονίων μέτα Περσεφόνας τ᾽ ἐδόκουν ναίειν. Ιων

1440

ἀλλ᾽, ὦ φίλη μοι μῆτερ, ἐν χεροῖν σέθεν ὁ κατθανών τε κοὺ θανὼν φαντάζομαι. ἰὼ ἰὼ λαμπρᾶς αἰθέρος ἀμπτυχαί, τίν᾽ αὐδὰν ἀύσω βοάσω; πόθεν μοι συνέκυρσ᾽ ἀδόκητος ἡδονά; πόθεν ἐλάβομεν χαράν;

1445

Ιων

ἐμοὶ γενέσθαι πάντα

μᾶλλον ἄν ποτε,

Iov

μῆτερ, παρέστη τῶνδ᾽, ὅπως σός εἰμ᾽ ἐγώ. ἔτι φόβωι τρέμω. μῶν οὐκ ἔχειν μ᾽ ἔχουσα; Κρ. τὰς γὰρ ἐλπίδας ἀπέβαλον πρόσω. ἰὼ «ἰὼ» γύναι, πόθεν ἔλαβες ἐμὸν

1450

βρέφος ἐς ἀγκάλας; Inv

1430 1434 1435 1442

τίν᾽ ἀνὰ χέρα δόμους ἔβα λΛοξίου; θεῖον τόδ᾽. ἀλλὰ τἀπίλοιπα τῆς τύχης εὐδαιμονοῖμεν, ὡς τὰ πρόσθ᾽ ἐδυστύχει.

χρυσώματι L. Dindorf: χρυσώμια L σκόπελος éEnvéykaTo Stephanus and Scaliger: σκόπελον otmot’ Barnes: omep L χθονίων μέτα Bothe and Heath: χθόνιον peta L

1454 là added by Bothe 1457 πρόσθ᾽

ἐδυστύχει

πόθεν Burges: πόθεν mó0evL Bothe: πρόσθε

δυστυχῆ

L

1455

elonvéyxato

L

145 lon

What

must

ornament Kr. lon Kr.

they

do, how

must

they

use,

tell me,

the

golden

? [1430]

It is a necklace for a new-born baby to wear, my child. They are in here. I long to be told about the third thing. At that time I put around you a garland of olive which first sprouted from the rock of Athena and which, if it is the one, has lost none

of its colour, [1435]

but is still green,

grown

as it is

Ion

from an inviolable olive tree. O dearest mother! Seeing you I fall with delight delighted cheeks. ~

Kr.

O my child, O light brighter to your mother than the sun (the god

will forgive me), I hold you in my arms, [1440] discovery, lon Kr.

lon Kr. lon Kr.

whom

I thought

was

dwelling

under

upon

your

an unhoped-for the

earth

with

those below in the underworld and with Persephone. But, O dear mother, I am in your arms for all to see, one dead but not dead. Ah, ah! Expanse of the brilliant ether, [1445] what words am I to speak, to cry out loud? From where did this unexpected joy come to me? From where did I get this delight? Everything, I think, was ready to happen.rather than this, [1450] mother, that I prove to be yours. I still tremble with fear. Anxious that though you hold me you do not? Yes, for my hopes I had cast far off. Ah, «ah», woman, how came it that you took my infant into your arms? By what hand did he come into Loxias' house? [1455]

lon

This was a god's doing. But may we enjoy come, just as the past was miserable.

happiness

in time to

146

τέκνον, οὐκ ἀδάκρυτος ἐκλοχεύηι, γόοις δὲ ματρὸς ἐκ χερῶν ὁρίζηι. νῦν δὲ γενειάσιν παρὰ σέθεν πνέω μακαριωτάτας τυχοῦσ᾽ ἡδονᾶς. τοὐμὸν λέγουσα καὶ τὸ σὸν κοινῶς λέγεις. ἄπαιδες οὐκέτ᾽ ἐσμὲν οὐδ᾽ ἄτεκνοι" δῶμ᾽ ἑστιοῦται, γᾶ δ᾽ ἔχει τυράννους, ἀνηβᾶι δ᾽ Ἐρεχθεύς" ὅ τε γηγενέτας δόμος οὐκέτι νύκτα δέρκεται, ἀελίου δ᾽ ἀναβλέπει λαμπάσιν. μῆτερ, παρών μοι καὶ πατὴρ μετασχέτω

τῆς ἡδονῆς

1460

1465

τῆσδ᾽ ἧς ἔδωχ᾽ ὑμῖν ἐγώ.

ὦ τέκνον,

[470

τί φήις; οἷον οἷον ἀνελέγχομαι. πῶς εἶπας; «Κρ.: ἄλλοθεν γέγονας, ἄλλοθεν.

Ι͂ων

ὦμοι" νόθον με παρθένευμ᾽ ἔτικτε σόν; οὐχ ὑπὸ λαμπάδων οὐδὲ χορευμάτων ὑμέναιος ἐμός, τέκνον, ἔτικτε σὸν κάρα. alat: πέφυκα δυσγενής, μῆτερ; πόθεν; ἴστω Γοργοφόνα ἴων τί τοῦτ᾽ ἔλεξας; ἃ σκοπέλοις ἐπ᾽ ἐμοῖς τὸν ἐλαιοφυῆ πάγον θάσσει Taw λέγεις μοι σκολιὰ Kol σαφῆ παρ᾽ ἀηδόνιον πέτραν PoilBur Ιων τί Φοῖβον αὐδᾶις: κρυπτόμενον λέχος ηὐνάσθην λέγ᾽" ὡς ἐρεῖς τι κεδνὸν εὐτυχές τέ μοι. δεκάτωι δέ σε μηνὸς ἐν κύκλωι κρύφιον ὠδῖν᾽ ἔτεκον Φοίβωι. ὦ φίλτατ᾽ εἰποῦσ᾽, εἰ λέγεις ἐτήτυμα.

1464 δῶμ᾽ 1466 νύκτα

1473 ὦμοι 1481 σκολιὰ

Hermann: δῶμα

δ᾽ L

Markland: νύκτας

Tr:ló

γᾶ δ᾽ Reiske: τάδ᾽1,

L

μοι P (L illegible) .

Herwerden: δόλια!L

1475

1480

τάδε.

1485

147 Kr.

My

lon

lamentation were you parted from your mother's arms. But now I sigh close to your cheeks, [1460] having found the very deepest joy. You tell of my feelings as well as yours as you speak.

Kr.

No longer am I without a child, without an heir. The

lon Kr. lon KT. Ton Kr. lon

Kr. Kr. lon Kr. Ion Kr.

Ion

child,

your

Ion

was

attended

by

many

tears,

and

house

with

has its

hearth secure, the land has its prince, Erechtheus is restored to youth. [1465] The house of the earth-born no longer sees night, but recovers its sight in the sun's gleaming rays. Mother, let my father too come and have a share in the joy which I have just given you. O my child, [1470] what are you saying? How, how I am caught out! What do you mean? From elsewhere were you begotten, from elsewhere.

Ah me! Did your maidenhood bear me as a bastard? Unaccompanied by torches and dancing did my wedding

ritual,

[1475] my son, bring forth your dear self. No! Am I then born ignoble, mother? From where?

Let the Gorgon-slayer bear witness ... she who

atop

my

rocky

crags

fon

occupies

Why do you say this?

the olive-bearing

[1480] What you say is roundabout and far from clear to me. that, by the rock where nightingales sing, with Phoebus... Why do you speak of Phoebus ? in secret intercourse I was united... Speak on, as you are going to say something splendid fortunate for me.

Kr.

birth

hill...

and

[1485]

and in the tenth month's circle in hidden labour I bore you to Phoebus. O most sweet are the things you have said—if you say what is true.

Ae. 6

148

Kp.

Iwv

Kp.

παρθένια δ᾽ Τἐμᾶς patépost σπάργαν᾽ ἀμφίβολά σοι τάδ᾽ κίδος ἐμᾶς πλάνους. γάλακτι δ᾽ οὐκ ἐπέσχον οὐδὲ τροφεῖα ματρὸς οὐδὲ λουτρὰ ἀνὰ δ᾽ ἄντρον ἔρημον οἰωνῶν γαμφηλαῖς φόνευμα θοίναμά “ἍΑιδαν ἐκβάλληι.

ὦ δεινὰ τλᾶσα,

μῆτερ. Kp.

ἐνῆψα

κερ1490

μαστῶι χειροῖν, τ᾽ εἰς

1495

ἐν φόβωι, τέκνον,

καταδεθεῖσα σὰν ἀπέβαλον ψυχάν. ἔκτεινά σ᾽ ἄκουσ᾽. Ιων TEE ἐμοῦ τ᾽ οὐχ dar’ ἔθνηισκες t. iw «ἰώ»: δειναὶ μὲν «αἱ» τότε τύχαι, δεινὰ δὲ καὶ τάδ᾽- ἑλισσόμεσθ᾽ ἐκεῖθεν

1500

ἐνθάδε

1505

δυστυχίαισιν

εὐτυχίαις

μεθίσταται δὲ πνεύματα. μενέτω τὰ πάροιθεν ἅλις kaká:

τε

πάλιν,

νῦν

δὲ γένοιτό τις οὖρος ἐκ κακῶν, ὦ παῖ. Χο.

μηδεὶς

δοκείτω

μηδὲν

ἀνθρώπων

ποτὲ

ἄελπτον εἶναι πρὸς τὰ τυγχάνοντα Iw

ὦ μεταβαλοῦσα

μυρίους

ἤδη

1510

νῦν.

βροτῶν

καὶ δυστυχῆσαι καὖθις αὖ πρᾶξαι καλῶς τύχη, παρ᾽ οἵαν ἤλθομεν στάθμην βίου μητέρα φονεῦσαι καὶ παθεῖν ἀνάξια.

1515

med:

dp’ ἐν daevvais ἡλίου περιπτυχαῖς ἔνεστι

πάντα

τάδε

καθ᾽ ἡμέραν

φίλον μὲν οὖν σ᾽ εὕρημα,

μαθεῖν,

μῆτερ, ηὕρομεν,

καὶ τὸ γένος οὐδὲν μεμπτόν, ὡς ἡμῖν, τόδε" τὰ δ᾽ ἄλλα πρὸς σὲ βούλομαι μόνην φράσαι.

1520

δεῦρ᾽ ἔλθ᾽. ἐς οὖὗς γὰρ τοὺς λόγους εἰπεῖν θέλω 1489 δὲ σᾶς Paley:éuds «ékàg > ματέρος Jackson 1490 ἀνῆψα Paley: ἐνῆψα L 1498-9 so arranged by Wilamowitz: καταδεθεῖσα σὰν ψυχὰν 1500 « Jaw » ἔκτεινας ἄκουσ᾽, ἐξ ἐμοῦ τ᾽... Diggle

1502 ἰὼ added by Hermann, αἱ by Matthiae 1504 δεινὰ Barnes: δειλία L 1509 δὲ γένοιτό Wilamowitz: δ᾽ ἐγένετο! L

1513 αὖ Pierson: ed L

ἀπέβαλον

τέκνον

L

149 Kr.

The maiden's work fof my mothert I put this around you as your baby-coverings, [1490] the uncertain work of my loom. But I did not give you a mother's nurture with milk from my breast, nor washing with my hands, but in a lonely cave, a victim of slaughter for the claws of birds, and their feast, [1495]

Ion

Kr. Ion Kr.

you

were thrown

out into Hades. O mother, what terrible things you dared to do! Tied down in fear, my son, I threw away your life. I put you to death against my will. And you were near to being killed impiously by me.t [1500] Ah! «Ah!» Terrible were «our» fortunes then and terrible are these things too. We are rolled this way and that in misfortune and then again in good fortune. [1505] The winds keep changing.

Cho.

Let them now set fair. Our previous evils were sufficient. But now may a favourable wind arise after our troubles, my son. Let no man imagine ever that anything [1510] is beyond hope, in view of the things that

lon

are happening now.

O fortune, with your changes you have made before now countless men unhappy and then fare well once again! What a critical point I reached in my life, nearly slaying my mother and then

suffering

what

I did

not

deserve!

[1515]

— Well!

Isn't

it

possible to hear of all these things within the bright embrace of the sun day after day? Now, mother, it is a most precious thing to have found you and, I may say, this ancestry is far from contemptible. But there are other things which I want to say to you on your own. [1520] Come here. I wish to say this in a whisper and shroud the subject in darkness.

150

Kal περικαλύψαι τοῖσι πράγμασι σκότον. ὅρα σύ, μῆτερ, μὴ σφαλεῖσ᾽ ἃ παρθένοις ἐγγίγνεται νοσήματ᾽ ἐς κρυπτοὺς γάμους ἔπειτα τῶι θεῶι προστίθης τὴν αἰτίαν καὶ τοὐμὸν αἰσχρὸν ἀποφυγεῖν πειρωμένη Φοίβωι τεκεῖν με φήις, τεκοῦσ᾽ οὐκ ἐκ θεοῦ. μὰ τὴν παρασπίζουσαν ἅρμασίν ποτε Νίκην ᾿Αθάναν Ζηνὶ γηγενεῖς ἔπι, οὐκ ἔστιν οὐδείς σοι πατὴρ θνητῶν, τέκνον, ἀλλ᾽ ὅσπερ ἐξέθρεψε Λοξίας ἄναξ. luv

Iov

1525

1530

πῶς οὖν τὸν αὑτοῦ παῖδ᾽ ἔδωκ᾽ ἄλλωι πατρὶ Ξούθου τέ φησι πεφυκέναι μὲν αὑτοῦ yeyüTa: δοίη τὸν αὑτοῦ ὁ θεὸς ἀληθὴς ἐμοῦ ταράσσει,

παῖδά μ᾽ ἐκπεφυκέναι; οὐχί, δωρεῖται δέ σε καὶ γὰρ ἂν φίλος φίλωι παῖδα δεσπότην δόμων. ἢ μάτην μαντεύεται; μῆτερ, εἰκότως φρένα.

1535

ἄκουε δή vuv ἅμ᾽ ἐσῆλθεν, ὦ τέκνον" εὐεργετῶν σε Λοξίας ἐς εὐγενῆ

1540

δόμον καθίζει. τοῦ θεοῦ δὲ λεγόμενος οὐκ ἔσχες ἄν TOT’ οὔτε παγκλήρους δόμους

οὔτ᾽ ὄνομα πατρός. πῶς γάρ, οὗ γ᾽ ἐγὼ γάμους ἔκρυπτον αὐτὴ καί σ᾽ ἀπέκτεινον λάθραι; ὁ δ᾽ ὠφελῶν σε προστίθησ᾽ ἄλλωι πατρί. Iov

1545

οὐχ ὧδε φαύλως αὔτ᾽ ἐγὼ μετέρχομαι, ἀλλ᾽ ἱστορήσω Φοῖβον εἰσελθὼν δόμους εἴτ᾽ εἰμὶ θνητοῦ πατρὸς εἴτε Λοξίου. ἔα" τίς οἴκων θνοδόκων ὑπερτελὴς ἀντήλιον πρόσωπον ἐκφαίνει θεῶν;

φεύγωμεν, ὁρῶμεν,

1550

ὦ τεκοῦσα, μὴ τὰ δαιμόνων

εἰ μὴ καιρός

ἐσθ᾽ ἡμᾶς

1523 σφαλεῖσ᾽ à παρθένοις Musgrave: σφαλεῖσα 1530 οὐδείς Diggle: ὅστιςL 1549 θνοδόκων Pierson: θεοδότων L

ὁρᾶν.

παρθένος

L

151 Take care, mother, that after falling into a secret union, with the weakness to which girls are prone, you do not then impute blame to the god, [1525] and in attempting to evade any shame attaching to me, claim to have borne me to Phoebus, when you did not conceive by a god. Kr.

No, I swear by Athena Nike, who once carried

Zeus' chariot against the earth-born father, my son, [1530] lon Kr.

How is it then declares that I He did not say gift of you, his

her shield beside

monsters, no mortal

is your

but he who reared you, lord Loxias.

that he gave his am born the child you were actually own son, to him.

as friend to friend [1535] of the house.

own son to another father and of Xouthos? born from him, but he makes a For a man might well give away

his own son for him to become

lon

Is the god's oracle true or misleading? mother, with good reason.

Kr.

Well then listen, my

son, to the thoughts

It troubles

my

master

mind,

which have occurred

to

me. Loxias does you a favour in setting you up in a noble house. [1540] If you were known as the son of the god you would never have got a house as your inheritance nor the name of a father. How could you, in a case where I myself tried to hide my union and attempted to kill you in secret? It is to benefit you that Loxias attaches you to another as your father. lon

I am not going to deal with the matter the temple I shall ask Phoebus whether mortal father or of Loxias. [Athena appears on the machine above Oh! What god is this, appearing above

[1545]

so lightly, but going into I am the offspring of a the skene] the temple

in which

we

sacrifice, who reveals a face looking into the sun? [1550] Let us run off, mother, so that we do not see the divine apparition unless

it 1s opportune for us to do so.

152

AGHNA μὴ DedyeT”

ov yap πολεμίαν

pe φεύγετε

ἀλλ᾽ Ev τ᾽ ᾿Αθήναις κἀνθάδ᾽ οὖσαν εὐμενῆ. ἐπώνυμος δὲ σῆς ἀφικόμην χθονὸς Παλλάς, δρόμωι σπεύσασ᾽ ᾿Απόλλωνος πάρα, ὃς ἐς μὲν ὄψιν σφῶιν μολεῖν οὐκ ἠξίου, μὴ τῶν πάροιθε μέμψις ἐς μέσον μόληι, ἡμᾶς δὲ πέμπει τοὺς λόγους ὑμῖν φράσαι"

1555

ὡς

1560

ἥδε

τίκτει

σ᾽ ἐξ

᾿Απόλλωνος

πατρός,

δίδωσι δ᾽ οἷς ἔδωκεν, οὐ φύσασί σε, ἀλλ᾽ ὡς κομίζηι ᾿ς οἶκον εὐγενέστατον. ἐπεὶ δ᾽ ἀνεώιχθη πρᾶγμα μηνυθὲν τόδε, θανεῖν σε δείσας μητρὸς ἐκ βουλευμάτων καὶ τήνδε πρὸς σοῦ, μηχαναῖς ἐρρύσατο.

ἔμελλε

δ᾽ αὐτὰ διασιωπήσας

ἄναξ

ἐν ταῖς ᾿Αθήναις γνωριεῖν ταύτην τε σοὶ σέ θ᾽ ὡς πέφυκας τῆσδε καὶ Φοίβου πατρός. ἀλλ᾽ ὡς περαίνω πρᾶγμα καὶ χρησμοὺς θεοῦ, ἐφ᾽ οἷσιν ἔζευξ᾽ ἅρματ᾽, εἰσακούσατον. λαβοῦσα τόνδε παῖδα Κεκροπίαν χθόνα χώρει, Κρέουσα, κἀς θρόνους τυραννικοὺς ἵδρυσον. ἐκ γὰρ τῶν Ἐρεχθέως γεγὼς δίκαιος ἄρχειν τῆς γ᾽ ἐμῆς ὅδε χθονός, ἔσται δ᾽ dv’ Ἑλλάδ᾽ εὐκλεής. οἱ τοῦδε γὰρ παῖδες γενόμενοι τέσσαρες ῥίζης μιᾶς

ἐπώνυμοι λαῶν

γῆς κἀπιφυλίων

ἔσονται,

σκόπελον

1565

1570

1575

χθονὸς oi ναίουσ᾽ ἐμόν.

Γελέων μὲν ἔσται πρῶτος" εἶτα δεύτερος Ὅπλητες

᾿Αργαδῆς

τ᾽, ἐμῆς

«Tr

dm’ αἰγίδος

1561 ob φύσασί σε Stephanus: οὗ φασί σε L 1562 1567 1569 1570

κομίζηι ᾿ς Diggle after Lenting and Reiske: νομίζης σοὶ Kuiper: ofv L θεοῦ Scaliger: de@ L οἷσιν ἔζευξ᾽ Scaliger: ols ἐζεύξαθ᾽ L

1574 τῆς Hartung: τῆσδ᾽ L 1575 δ᾽ L. Dindorf: tT’L 1577 κἀπιφυλίων Paley: κἀπιφυλίου 1579 Γελέων

1580

Canter: τελέων

L

L

L Badham posited a lacuna after this line

“Ὅπλητες ᾿Αργαδῆς Canter: ὅ πάντες ἀργαλῆς

L

τ᾽ added by Canter

1580

153 Athena Do not run away! For you flee from me who am not hostile, but well dısposed both in Athens and here. I have come, the one who gave my name to your land, [1555] Pallas, rushing in haste from Apollo, who did not thınk it right to face the two of you, lest some reproach

for his earlier acts come

into the open, and

sent me

to

give you this message: this woman bore you from Apollo your father [1560] and he gives you to whom he gave you not because he is your father, but so that you may be taken into a most noble family. But after this affair was disclosed and brought into the open, fearing that you might be killed as a result of your mother's plotting and she at your hands, he rescued you with devices of his own.

[1565]

But it was lord

Apollo’s

intention,

after keeping this quiet all along, to make this woman known to you ın Athens and reveal that you were born from her and your father Phoebus. But, to finish with the matter in hand and the oracles of the god, the purpose for which I yoked my chariot, listen both of you. [1570]

Taking

your

child

here

go

to the

land

of

Kekrops,

Kreousa, and set him upon the regal throne. For sprung as he is from Erechtheus' line, he has a right to rule my land and he will be renowned throughout Greece. For his [1575]

sons, four born

from one stock, will give their names to the land and the tribal people of the land, those who inhabit my rock. Geleon will be first. The second will be « > the Hopletes and the Argades, and, named after my aigis, [1580] the Aigikores will have one tribe.

154

ev φῦλον ἕξουσ᾽ Alyıkopfis. ol τῶνδε δ᾽ ab παῖδες γενόμενοι σὺν χρόνωι πεπρωμένωι Κυκλάδας ἐποικήσουσι νησαίας πόλεις χέρσους TE παράλους, ὃ σθένος τὐμῆι χθονὶ

δίδωσιν: ἀντίπορθμα

δ᾽ ἠπείροιν δυοῖν

1585

πεδία κατοικήσουσιν, ᾿Ασιάδος τε γῆς Εὐρωπίας Te: τοῦδε δ᾽ ὀνόματος χάριν Ἴωνες

ὀνομασθέντες

ἕξουσιν

κλέος.

Ξούθωι δὲ καὶ σοὶ γίγνεται κοινὸν γένος, Δῶρος μέν, ἔνθεν Δωρὶς ὑμνηθήσεται πόλις κατ᾽ αἷαν Πελοπίαν ὁ δεύτερος 'Axatós, ὃς γῆς παραλίας Ῥίου πέλας τύραννος ἔσται, κἀπισημανθήσεται κείνου κεκλῆσθαι λαὸς ὄνομ᾽ ἐπώνυμον.

καλῶς δ᾽ ᾿Απόλλων πάντ᾽ ἔπραξε: πρῶτα ἄνοσον

λοχεύει

σ᾽, ὥστε

μὴ γνῶναι

1590

μὲν

1595

φίλους"

ἐπεὶ δ᾽ ἔτικτες τόνδε παῖδα κἀπέθου ἐν σπαργάνοισιν, ἁρπάσαντ᾽ ἐς ἀγκάλας Ἑρμῆν κελεύει δεῦρο πορθμεῦσαι βρέφος, ἔθρεψέ τ᾽ οὐδ᾽ εἴασεν ἐκπνεῦσαι βίον.

νῦν οὖν σιώπα παῖς ὅδ᾽ ὡς πέφυκε

1600

σός,

ἵν᾽ ἡ δόκησις Ξοῦθον ἡδέως ἔχηι σύ T’ αὖ τὰ σαυτῆς ἀγάθ᾽ ἔχουσ᾽ ἴηις, γύναι. καὶ χαίρετ᾽" ἐκ γὰρ τῆσδ᾽ ἀναψυχῆς πόνων εὐδαίμον᾽ ὑμῖν πότμον ἐξαγγέλλομαι. Iw

1605

ὦ Διὸς Παλλὰς μεγίστου θύγατερ, οὐκ ἀπιστίαι σοὺς

λόγους

Λοξίου

τἀμὰ

καὶ

ἐδεξάμεσθα, τῆσδε:

νῦν dkovoov:

καὶ

πείθομαι

πρὶν

τοῦτο

αἰνῶ Φοῖβον

δ᾽ εἶναι πατρὸς δ᾽ οὐκ

ἄπιστον

οὐκ alvotoa

πρίν,

οὕνεχ᾽ οὗ ποτ᾽ ἠμέλησε παιδὸς ἀποδίδωσί μοι. αἵδε

δ᾽ εὐωποὶ

δυσμενῆ

1581 1594 1603 1607 1610

πύλαι

μοι

καὶ θεοῦ χρηστήρια,

πάροιθεν ὄντα. νῦν δὲ kal ῥόπτρων

ἐν φῦλον Hermann: ἔμφυλον L ἐπώνυμον Kirchhoff: ἐπώνυμος L ἴηις Porson: εἴη 1.: εἴης Tr? ἐδεξάμεσθα Musgrave: δεξόμεσθα ἠμέλησα Heath

L

ἦν.

χέρας

1610

155 of these will at the destined time settle in the

The descendants

island cities of the Cyclades

this gives strength to my

and

the territory

land. They

on

the sea-coasts;

will also settle in the area

facıng the straits from both continents, [1585]

part of both

Asia

and Europe. Called by the name Ionians after this man, they will wın glory. Xouthos and you will have children between you: Doros, after whom the city-state of Doris [1590] in the land of Pelops will be named in song; next Achaios, who will be ruler of the land by the sea near Rhium, and a people shall be distinguished as called after his name.

Now Apollo managed he delivered you

everything excellently. First of all, [1595]

without illness so that your loved

ones

did not

know. After you gave birth to this child and exposed him in his baby things, he bade Hermes to pick up the infant in his arms and

transport it here, and he saw to its nurture and prevented it from dying.

lon

[1600]

ıs your

son,

so that Xouthos may happıly retain his delusion and you too, lady, may go on your way enjoying your blessings. Farewell. After this respite from tribulations I promise you a blessed fate. [1605] O Pallas, daughter of mighty Zeus, not with disbelief have I heard your words,

Kr.

So now keep it a secret that this boy

but

I am

convinced

that I am

the son

of Loxias

and

this woman. Even before, this was not something beyond belief. Now hear what I have to say. I approve of Phoebus, though I did not earlier, because he returns to me the child which he once neglected. [1610]

These temple doors and shrine of the god

are

a welcome sight to me, whereas earlier they were a cause of pain. But now I happily hang on to the door-knocker with my hand and give the doors greeting.

156

ἡδέως ἐκκρημνάμεσθα

kal προσεννέπω

ἤινεσ᾽ οὕνεκ᾽ εὐλογεῖς

πύλας.

θεὸν μεταβαλοῦσ᾽

tdel Tout

χρόνια μὲν τὰ τῶν θεῶν πως, ἐς τέλος δ᾽ οὐκ ἀσθενῆ. ὦ τέκνον, στείχωμεν

1615 οἴκους.

AB.

στείχεθ᾽,

ἕψομαι

δ᾽ ἐγώ. AQ. Xo.

ἀξία y ἡμῶν ὁδουρός. «Kp.» καὶ φιλοῦσά ye πτόλιν. ἐς θρόνους δ᾽ ἵζον παλαιούς. lav ἄξιον τὸ κτῆμά μοι. ὦ Διὸς Λητοῦς τ᾽ ”AmoAkov, xaip" ὅτωι δ᾽ ἐλαύνεται συμφοραῖς οἶκος, σέβοντα δαίμονας θαρσεῖν χρεών᾽ ἐς τέλος γὰρ οἱ μὲν ἐσθλοὶ τυγχάνουσιν ἀξίων, οἱ κακοὶ δ᾽, ὥσπερ πεφύκασ᾽, οὔποτ᾽ εὖ πράξειαν ἄν.

[613 πύλας

Barnes: πύλαις

L

1614 ἀεὶ γὰρ οὖν Hermann: ἀμείνονα Musgrave 1616 στείχωμεν

Barnes: στείχοιμεν

1618 θρόνους Tr':6pôvou L

L

1620

157 Ath.

It has my approval that you speak well of the god after your change falways I supposef. The gods' will takes time, yes, but in the end is not without effect. [1615]

Kr.

My son, let us go home.

Arh.

Go, and I shall accompany you.

Ion

You are a fitting guardian of our way. city.

Ath.

Take your place on the ancient throne. /on The possession is fitting, I say. [Exeunt lon and Kreousa by left parodos, Athena by the machine]

Cho.

O Apollo, son of Zeus and Leto, farewell. Anyone

Kr.

Yes, and a lover of our

harassed by calamities ought to keep honouring confident.

[1620]

For in the end

the good

whose house is

the gods and be and

noble

secure

fitting outcomes, whereas the mean and evil, as befits their nature, would never fare well.

159

Commentary HYPOTHESIS The text of /on is preceded in the Ms. by a ‘hypothesis’ or plot-summary which breaks off before it reaches the action of the play itself. As Owen says, all the Information, except for the—inappropriate (cf. H. Yunis, A New Creed [Göttingen,

1988]

122)—description

of Ion as a temple-keeper

is drawn

from Hermes’

monologue. Hypotheses of this kind probably belong to a lost collection of "Tales from Euripides’ compiled in the Ist or 2nd cent. AD but attributed to Dicaearchus of Messene, a pupil of Aristotle. >> Zuntz, Political Plays 129ff., Rusten, GRBS 23

(1982) 357ff.; SFP 1,2 n.l. Lists of characters were probably first added to the collections of plays edited by Alexandrian scholars in the 3rd cent. BC.

INTRODUCTORY SEQUENCE: 1-236 a) Hermes: prologue-speech 1-81 b) Ion: recitative 82-111;,lyrics 112-83 C) Chorus and Ion: shared parodos 184-236 The introductory section of the play serves several dramatic purposes. The audience is given all the facts necessary for an understanding of the action and at the same

ume several important themes are suggested. After the background and relationship of the principal characters are sketched the young man Ion is given prominence at the outset in a charming scene which expresses both his youthful exuberance and his devotion to Apollo, the deity at the cenue of the play's development. The parodos

(entrance-song) of the Chorus generates the atmosphere and local colour which lighting and set would furnish in a modern production. Delphic purity, which was

the focus of Ion's song, is darkened in their description of representations of monstrous combat. This mixture of brilliance and shadow will run through the play.

Eur. skilfully varies the emotional register of the introduction. We move from the factual spoken report of the prologue through the energetic devotion of Ion's recitative anapaests and song to the surprised delight and exhilarated questions of the choral lyrics. Scene: just before sunrise (cf. 82ff.) in front of the temple of Apollo at Delphi. In the acting area between the skene (stage-building) and the orchestra there is placed to one side an altar (cf. 1255, 1258). It is a moot point whether the works of art which

so intrigue the Chorus were represented in some way or were simply to be imagined

by the audience at the prompting of their description. parodos below.

See the introduction to the

160

COMMENTARY

a) Prologue-speech of Hermes: 1-81

Eur. regularly begins his plays with a monologue which is directed to the audience. These speeches tend to be frankly extra-dramatic and are largely expository in

content. In five plays the speaker is a supernatural visitant who, as here, has some interest in the events which constitute the plot and who, because of his superior knowledge, can prepare the audience with both an account of earlier events and some hints of what is to happen. Hermes’ speech is unusually long (that of Iokaste in Pho. is comparable) and is carefully structured as follows: a) 1-7 self-introduction

and setting of the scene; b) past events: 8-27 Apollo's union with Kr(eousa) and the birth and exposure of her child; 28-40 Hermes’ rescue of the child; 41-56 his infancy and growth at Delphi; 57-65 Kr.'s childless marriage to X(outhos); c) future events:

66-75 the couple have just arrived in Delphi and will leave with Ion as X.'s child; d) 76-81 Hermes’ exit and his introduction of Ion. Several factors account for the unusual length of the speech. The plot is complex

and its ironical turns depend on a firm grasp of the facts, including the precise circumstances of the child's exposure. The importance of two themes is signalled: Apollo's interest in and guarantee of the boy's welfare; the history and status of Athens. Related to the latter point is the stress on the fact that X. is an outsider. On

the extent to which the plot 1s built on Eur.'s own invention see Introd. §5. >> Erbse, Prolog 73-88. 1-4 Hermes

enters and speaks at ground level. Hourmouziades,

Production

157ff. and W-I, 496f. think that he speaks from the theologeion, i.e. a platform above the skene, and then disappears behind the skene into the temple itself (see below). Hermes’ account of his ancestry is couched in

rather grandiloquent terms which contrast sharply with the gods’ servant at its end. Fulsome language is not uncommon at the very start of Eur.'s plays

(cf. Med., And., Hel.); perhaps it is an attention-winning device. The unnamed grandmother is called Pleione by Apollodorus (3.10.1). On Atlas’

wearing task cf. H. Od. 1. 52f., HF 403ff., Virgil, Aen. 4. 481f. 1

The Ms. version of the line introduces irregular word-end after long anceps in the third metron of the trimeter (Porson's Jaw >> West, Greek Metre 84).

Page reconstructs the papyrus remains of a quotation in the Ist cent. BC writer Philodemus. But Luppe (Cron. Erc.13 [1983] 47ff.), reads Ἰνωτοις o[ in the papyrus, and, excluding Atlas as a gloss, suggests ó[xàv or &[xwv:

"The one bearing/holding...'. For other possibilities see Owen ad loc. and J. Ebert, WJA 9 (1983) 49ff., D. Sansone, CP 79 (1984) 339.

of bronze: an adj. normally and predictably used of weapons, utensils and the like (Cyc.

392, Pho.

1359). Here the metaphor stresses the Titan's

endurance, expressed in his name which is based on the root TÀa

and

means 'sustainer..

2

gods...goddesses: the repetition of θεῶν at beginning and end of the verse is marked; the intrusion of the divine into human affairs is a theme stressed

COMMENTARY

161

early ın the play. Text: Luppe loc. cit. troubled by the odd sense of ἐκτρίβων

(normally ‘produce by rubbing/rub out i.e. destroy') and by the

syntax of 2-3 would read, too boldly in my view, ... ἐκ θεῶν

pds/tpiBwv’

épuoe…'from one of the goddesses produced the wily one...' servant: for Hermes as the gods’ servant cf. S. Inachus frs. 269 c,d. His particular task here arises from his close relationship to Apollo (cf. 36f.).

These verses set the scene, an important function of the prologue which was spoken

to an audience

without

programmes.

Such

recurrent,

almost

mechanical, features of Euripidean prologues, among other things, prompted the famous parody in Aristoph. Frogs 1197ff. very navel of the earth: the ὀμφαλός was a round stone where two eagles, sent by Zeus from the periphery, met and marked the earth's centre (Pind.

Pyth. 4. 6). The original, sacred object was located inside the temple of Apollo; Paus. 10. 16. 2 seems to be referring to a copy, like the one now in the museum at Delphi, which was placed outside. >> Burnett, Jon 135-6. The central position of Delphi is an aspect of its renown (cf.Or. 331) stressed in the play; cf. 223, 4611. Phoebus: an alternate name for Apollo. It is derived in A. Eum. 7 from Phoebe, the mother of Leto, Apollo's mother. things that are...to be: this formula describing the function of prophecy recurs in Hel. 14, 923 and S. El. 1498; it 1s an adaptation of the fuller

statement in ἢ. /l. 1. 70. For the thematic importance of Delphi's oracle, stressed again in 92f., see Introd. $4b.

8-9

Hermes’ narrative moves from Delphi straight to Athens so that the two places of chief interest to the play are juxtaposed and brought into focus at the outset. >> M. Kuntz, Narrative Setting and Dramatic Poetry (Leiden,

1993) 43ff. spear of gold: this is an anachronistic allusion to Pheidias' statue of Athena Promachos on the Acropolis; the goddess carried a spear with a gilded point which was visible from some distance (cf. Aristoph. Th. 318). This is the first of several references which underline Athena's thematic importance and prepare for her entry at the end of the play. For Eur.'s penchant for etymologising on the basis of proper names cf. IT 32f., JA 321, Pho. 636f.; in 661ff. below (see n.) the etymology is suggested by the action itself. There is a riddle involved here, since the derivation comes not trom Pallas, but from the goddess' alternative name (cf. S. OC 107f. and Kannicht on

Hel. 13-5). Loraux (70f., 227) suggests that the goddess has two sides in the

10-1

play: Athena, benevolent protector of the autochthonous child Erichthonios, and Pallas, Giant-slayer and eponymous deity of Athens. daughter of Erechtheus, Kreousa: for Kr. as daughter of Erechtheus cf. Hesiod fr. 10 (a). 20ff. MW. In Erec. frs. 357, 360. 36 there are three, unnamed, daughters all of whom died (cf. 277ff.n. for the circumstances).

162

COMMENTARY Apollod. 3. 15. 1ff. names Kr., Procris, Chthonia, Orithyia in addition, it seems, to the daughters involved in the sacrifice story (3. 15. 4). >> Cropp SFP

I, 150. Owen

thinks that the recurrence of her name

(‘woman

with

power’) in the prologue (cf. 18, 57, 62, 65, 72) suggests that it was unfamiliar. But Jason's name recurs four times in the prologue of Med.,

Theseus’ five times in that of Hipp. and both those speeches are much shorter than Hermes". intercourse...against her will: this detached description of Kr.'s rape by Apollo will be followed by four emotional accounts by Kr. herself (338ff.,

887ff., 941ff., 1474ff.). For the wording cf. Ba. 468. 13

Long Rocks, Maxpal 937,

1400)

to the

is the name repeatedly given by Eur. (cf 283, 494,

cliffs

on

the

northern

face

of the

Acropolis.

The

impression is that the name was common, but no other writer seems to use it (cf. Wilamowitz ad loc.). Just below the cliffs there is a rocky shelf and at

14

the western end are some caves in one of which (cf. 17) Apollo had mtercourse with Kr. without her father's knowledge: the god's miraculous intervention at an

early stage of his son's history is stressed again at the end of the play (cf.1596).

The

ignorance

inclinations regarding

of her father allowed

the baby

Kr.

to follow

her own

and to retain her status as a princess.

Otherwise she might have been expelled with it (cf. the fate of other solo mothers like Danae and Antiope and see Pind. Ol. 6. 29-38). >> Huys 94 ff. Kr.'s secret pregnancy (with which cf. Pasiphae's in Cretans) seems more credible if we remember that normal arrangements in an Athentan household allowed women who were barren to pass off supposititious 16

children as their own (cf. Lacey 170). at home: the birth at home is stressed here (contrast 949) to explain the

presence of the tokens and the basket, objects which a woman in labour would scarcely have carried with her on the steep path down to a cave. Eur. is very careful with detail of this kind to ensure that improbabilities do not

17

distract the audience. same cave: the place was chosen to remind Apollo of his obligations which he duly met. For a cave as a place of child-exposure cf. the fate of Antiope's twins (Paus. 1. 38. 9).

18

exposed him, to die: it is clear both from her subsequent actions (350ff.) and from her own account later in the play (964f.) that, though expecting the child to die, Kr. retained the hope that it might somehow survive. See Huys 246ff. and, for the ws + fut. part. constr. which can cover both expectation and intention, D. W. Lucas, Arist. Poetics p. 129. Kr.'s action might not have horrified an audience familiar with exposure as a legitimate

means of population control, but cf. 954n. Several legends, notably that of Oedipus,

involve the story of an exposed child later rescued; for their

COMMENTARY

163

adaptation by Eur. see Huys passim. For Sth century practice see M. Golden, Phoenix 35 (1981) 316ff., and Children and Childhood in Ancient Athens (Baltimore, 1990) 86ff.; Lacey 164 ff.

19

basket: R. S. Young (Hesperia 10 [1941] 138-42) shows that the unusual term ἀντίπηξ refers to a round, wicker-work basket with a hinged lid (not,

as LSJ suggests, a perambulator!). The term (used again in 40, 1338, 1380, 1391) and the repeated, though varied, mention of the object in the prologue (32, 37, 39f.) draw attention to what will be a significant property later in

the action. Cf. the description of the funerary urn in S. El. 54. >> J. Dingel 20-5

in Jens, Bauformen 355, Taplin, Tragedy in Action 97. Several important themes are introduced in this passage: i) the protective

power of Athena who raised Erichthonios from the ground; ii) the close relationship between the salutary, positive aspects of autochthony and its monstrous

features, symbolised

in the snakes; iii) the action of maidens

who suffer willingly or unwillingly for the sake of the city. These themes will all be developed as the play progresses.

Erichthonios: son of Earth who had been impregnated by Hephaistos' semen which fell on her after his interrupted coitus with Athena (cf. fr. 917, Eratosth. Catast. 13). He was later fused with Erechtheus and the two honoured under either name. >> Huys 381, R. Parker in /nterpretations of Greek Mythology ed. J. Bremmer (London, 1987) 187ff.

daughters of Aglauros: Aglauros, Herse and Pandrosos, names all suggestive of dew: "The Sparkling One’, 'Dew', 'All-Bedewed'. Their father

26

was Kekrops. For their subsequent behaviour and the ritual associated with them see 271-4n., 496. finery: the objects in question, of great importance for the recognition, are detailed in 14171f. Kr. dresses her child not only in accordance with the custom mentioned, but also because it was normal to dress a corpse for burial. (Cf. Hecuba's dressing of Astyanax's corpse in Tro. 1212f. and Megara's dressing of Heracles' children in preparation for their deaths in HF

327ff., 525f.). Thus her action expresses both her hope that the child will be brought up and her conviction that he is as good as dead. This ambiguity characterizes her attitude through the play.

29-36

The inclusion of a passage of direct speech in the course of a narrative is a regular technique used to enliven a report and lend emphasis to a theme. Cf. IT 17ff., Pho. 40,

IA 463f. The point here is to stress Apollo's concern for

his son and the precise instructions given by him to Hermes. For Hermes' errand cf. Apollon. Rhod. 4. 1137, Paus. 3. 18. 11. 29

earth-born: this adj. connects with the earlier references to Erichthonios, the Athenians' ancestor. To claim autochthony was an effective way to deal

with attempts to deprive a people of its land on the basis of prior settlement

COMMENTARY

164

(cf. Introd. $ 4d). The matter is stressed here to make a contrast with X., the

immigrant.

32

cradle...baby things: Apollo ıs careful to provide the means

for the

recognition years later (cf. 1337ff. and 1395ff.). very entrance: the exact positioning of the baby in its cradle is important for its rescue by the Priestess, who must be the first person—others may

have been less compassionate—to come across the baby. This set of circumstances will be repeated during the course of the play, when X. is reunited with his ‘son’, the first person he meets on leaving the temple. 35-6

The rest...my concern: Apollo's speech ends with an emphatic statement of his paternity and his interest in what is to happen. This will be important to the audience in the face of his apparent neglect ın the course of the play.

Loxias: another alternate name for Apollo. Burnett, Jon 26 points out that this name occurs 23 times in Jon alone, while it is found 26 times in all the other tragedies. Eur. is taking advantage, she suggests, of the supposed derivation of the name from λοξός ‘slanting’ which connected Apollo both with the sun, because it traversed the ecliptic, λοξὸς κύκλος, and with

41-8

‘slanting’ oracles. In fon Apollo is radiant as well as devious and so the name is particulary appropriate. floor: the area above the temple steps and in front of the doorway. Hermes’ words neatly draw attention to the combined effects of chance and divine management in procuring the child's safety. In the course of the play

this same combination will save Ion from his mother's plot to poison him (1187ff.), and later on will save Kr. from Ion's murderous intent at the altar (1320ff.). In the latter case the Priestess’ timely entrance has the same

salutary effect as when the baby himself was threatened with death from 42

Kr.'s actions. oracular seat: this is a reference to the adyton inside the temple from which oracular responses were given. See Burnett, /on 135ff.

some Delphian girl: the assumption that the baby is the product of a straightforward mortal liaison emphasises by contrast his true parentage. The technique is repeated in Ion's scepticism over Kr.'s ‘friend's’ tale (cf. 341), in X.'s hypothesis as to how he came to be Ion's father (cf. 545ff.) and

in Ion's suspicions voiced to his mother in 1520ff. For the exposure of a baby in a temple-precinct cf. the fate of Auge's child (Apollod. 2. 7. 4). The

use of the optat. τλαίη expresses the Priestess' incredulity at the woman's action.

46

sanctuary: the word θυμέλας originally meant a hearth or altar, but its meaning

47-8

was

considerably

extended.

Cf. (Stockert on) /A

152.

»»

W-I

4941, pity...the god helped: human and divine cooperation saved Ion as a baby and it will again when he is threatened by Kr.'s poison (1564f.). The θεός

COMMENTARY

49-51

165

referred to in 48, pace Wilamowitz ad loc., must be Apollo. Cf. Lloyd, 35 n.12. This ıs the first of several incidents (cf. 179, 524ff., 1312) where second thoughts overcome the initial tendency to violence. παιδί is dat. of advantage (not controlled by συνεργός), and ἐκπεσεῖν is consecutive infin. The complete ignorance regarding the baby's parentage seems to be stressed beyond

bounds

here, and

Kovacs

(TAPA

109

[1979]

111f.) resuscitates

Herwerden's deletion of 51. But the play's development requires that the point be kept firmly in mind by the audience, and it is appropriate that the

Priestess’ ignorance at the time of her decisive interference in the boy's fate

53

be emphasised. She will act with equal ignorance later, in the course of the play. The linguistic objections to 51 are not compelling and the change of subject from τρέφει to olde, entailed by the loss of 51, is difficult. wander in play: since the verb dAdopat, frequent in tragedy, is normally used of the painful wandering of a beggar or an exile (cf. Med. 515,

Hcld.15, S. OT 1566, Tr. 300), Eur's. combining of it here with ἀθύρων neatly expresses the ambiguous status of Ion's carefree life. Of course, X.

takes a different view; in 576 he uses the cognate word dAnrelav without qualification to describe Ion's disadvantaged lifestyle.

grew to manhood: the verb ἀπηνδρώθη, used in contrast with νέος

above,

suggests that Ion is now physically mature. Even so, his youthfulness is stressed repeatedly (cf. 57, 780, 794, 1034, 1218, 1132), and, despite the

important duties he has, we should imagine him as no older than 20 and in a period of transition (cf. Loraux 186).

54

guardian of the god's gold: one of the principal uses of gold in archaic and

classical Greece was as a gift to win the favour of the gods.

For the riches

sent to Delphi for this purpose cf. Bacchylides' praise of the Sicilian tyrant

Hiero in his third epinician ode and Croesus' generosity in Hdt. 1. 50. Ion's

58

office combines in a unique way serious responsibility with the most menial tasks: cf. Yunis, New Creed 122f. married to Xouthos: X. is named as Kr.'s husband in Hesiod fr. 10(a) MW,

59-60

20-4, where, it is likely, Ion is also named

as his and Kr.'s son; cf.

Wise Mel. fr. 665a-c Mette, 9ff.; Paus. 7. 1. 2 where X.'s wife is an unnamed daughter of Erechtheus. wave of conflict: a recurrent metaphor (cf. Supp. 473ff., IT 316) likely to be moribund by this date. At the time of Erechtheus' rule Athens fought a

war against the Eleusinians (cf. Cropp, SFP I. 152) and was assisted by Ion (Paus. 7. 1. 5). Eur. has transferred his role to X., who elsewhere comes to Athens as an exile from Thessaly (Paus. 7. 1. 2), and made the enemy

Euboea, perhaps, as Owen suggests, because of Athenian successes there in 446 (cf. Thuc. 1. 114).

166

COMMENTARY Khalkodontians:

these

inhabitants

of Euboea

were

named

after

Khalkodon, who was the father of Elephenor, leader of the Abantes (a people of Euboea) in the Trojan war. Cf. H. JI. 2. 541, S. Ph. 489. 62

honour of marriage: for marriage as a reward for services rendered cf. Oedipus' marriage to Iocaste after his victory over the Sphinx.

63-4

Achaian:

though X.'s ancestral home was Thessaly, the area ruled by

Aiolos (cf. Wise Mel. fr. 665a-c M, 1ff.), Eur. links him here with the n-

west Peloponnese, where he is said to have ended his days (cf. Paus. 7. 1. 3). born of Aiolos: in other versions Aiolos is X.'s brother and he is the son of

Hellen (cf. Hesiod fr. 9 MW, Wise Mel. loc. cit.). Eur. is at pains to give X. a respectable pedigree (cf. 292, 392), but to stress at the same time that he is a foreigner whose marriage to Kr. was imposed by the circumstances of

war. trying:

an attempt to translate σπείρας,

lit. 'sowing'. The verb is very

common in this context (cf. 49, 554): it can have as object the children produced (cf. Or. 750, Ba. 1234) or the place sown, as here and Pho. 18. 67

longing for children: for the strong word ἔρως

Med.

in this context cf. 1227,

T14f., Archelaos fr. 2.19ff. Austin. Desire for children regularly

prompted the seeking of oracular or other supernatural advice. Cf. Aigeus' situation in Med. 667ff. and 303n.

67-8

This emphatic assertion of Apollo's concern for his offspring forms the hinge between the account of events to date and those to come. (H. Neitzel, Hermes 116 [1988] 273f., takes τοῦτο in 68 of future events, but it must refer to the present situation.) That X. and Kr. are led to come to Delphi just when Ion is ready to leave there seems simply τύχη ‘chance’, but it is in fact the work of Apollo's guiding hand. I take τύχη, ‘the run of events’, as

subject of λέληθεν and δοκεῖ. This may seem difficult with Apollo as subi. of ἐλαύνει before and δώσει after, but to make Apollo subj. is pointless, hence the emendations proposed. Schoemann's ‘he has not escaped my notice’ introduces unwanted opposition between Apollo and Hermes; Dawe's ‘he has not ceased’ is odd with the verb absolute; Page's deletion of the negative does not cohere with ws δοκεῖ. On τύχη in the play see Burnett, Jon Append. III.

71-3

will assert: Apollo must do this explicitly enough to convince X. (cf. his answer to Ion's question in 537 below). X. will thus afford Ion the rights which are, in fact, his from his mother's side (73 below). Apollo's paternity must remain concealed (72f. below) because there is little likelihood that X.

would allow an adopted child to exclude from his inheritance any son which may be born to him later. What Apollo actually said is introduced as an issue in 533ff., 1532ff. For possible ambiguity resting on the reference

of the pronoun κείνου cf. Neitzel, op. cit. 274f.

COMMENTARY

167

going to his mother's house...be recognized: there is no reason to imagine that this will not happen according to plan, and so we must expect either a change of scene, or that the recognition will be reported or delayed to a time after the play's close. In fact, Apollo has miscalculated, and the tum of events makes it necessary that the mutual recognition of mother and son takes place on stage before they leave Delphi. remain secret: the first hint of a theme to be developed: the revealing and

keeping hidden of significant truths. Words involving the same root as κρυπτοί, used here, are remarkably common in this play and serve as a kind of Leitmotif. >> Introd. § 4a.

his due: Ion in fact gets his rights from Kr., who as a daughter without

brothers is in the position of a 5th cent. epikleros (conventionally translated ‘heiress'), who can pass on property to legitimate children. >> Lacey 139ff.,

R. Just, Women in Athenian Law and Life (London, 1989) 95ff. But for Ion to get these rights his true status must be concealed, since he could not claim them as Kr.'s bastard, least of all as she was going to produce legitimate children

by X. (1589ff.).

Thus

h? will be passed

off as X.'s

natural son and, with Kr.'s approval (659f.), will claim succession from his father, whose rights arise from success in war (61, 1305) and his marriage to Kr. (cf. 814f. and Oedipus' situation in S. OT). It is unlikely that X. was

seen as the adopted son of Erechtheus (so Burnett, Jon 29), who had died some time before Kr.'s marriage (281f.). >> Loraux 202ff.

74

settlement in Asia: the Ionian cities of Asia Minor. Such prophecies linked with etymology are not uncommon in Eur., though they are found generally

at the ends of plays, where this one recurs (cf. 1587f.n.). Making the

76

Athenian Ion the eponymous founder of the Asian Ionian cities, and by extension, all Ionian settlements, is linked with the contemporary Athenian control of the so-called Delian League, in theory a confederacy of states bound by a common Ionian culture and the worship of Apollo. Hermes ends his monologue and exits, it is likely, behind a panel to one

side of the skene painted to represent greenery (cf. Halleran, Stagecraft 115), ostensibly to observe the outcome of tlie affair. His interest in what

will happen curiosity of action. For Stagecraft Huys 147f. dell of bay Delphi. Cf.

anticipates the complications which in fact occur and whets the the audience. As it turns out, Hermes takes no further part in the the scenic motif used here, common in Menander, see Taplin, 334f., Handley on Men. Dys. 171f. and for the tale-motif see trees: the bay is regularly associated with Apollo and hence Hom. h. Apollo 395f., Tro. 329, And. 1115 and its repeated

mention in this play: 80, 103, 113, 145, 422, 919. »» P. Amandry, La mantique apollinienne à Delphes (Paris,1950) 126ff. γύαλα here means a secluded area; cf. 'rocky recess’ of the Nympli's refuge in Hel. 189 and

168

COMMENTARY

‘grove of fruit trees’ of Leda's birthing-place in IT 1236 (for other meanings see 220n.). W-I, 496 thinks that it refers to the temple which Hermes enters

to learn the truth from the fountain-head'. But what had Hermes to learn from the oracle? He already knows all it could tell him. He is interested

rather to observe for himself τὸ κρανθέν ‘what is accomplished’ which, as 79-80

the sequel shows, goes beyond Apollo's wishes. The motivation for Ion's entrance is noteworthy: he comes out to sweep the

porticos. This activity is expressive of his youthful simplicity and homely devotion to his patron deity. The stress on the physical seen throughout his opening recitative and song confers on him an attractive, business-like vigour, which neatly complements his strong feelings and firm reactions.

There is also the ironic point that the Delphic treasurer and founder of the 80-1

grand Ionian settlement is first seen engaged in the most menial tasks. It is appropriate that Hermes in his role of herald proclaims the boy's name;

cf his similarly etymological naming of Pandora in Hesiod WD 79ff. Text: Scaliger's addition of the pronoun him

is demanded

by both sense and

metre. (b) Ion

i. recitative anapaests: 82-111 ii. lyrics: 112-83 The monody is a very characteristic formal element of Eur.'s plays, the use and style of which are singled out for ridicule by Aristophanes (Frogs 944, 1331-63). The monody is regularly used to express high emotion, most commonly grief, but Eur. is

adept at varying its tone, intensity and setting. >> General Introd. 10; W. Barner in Jens, Bauformen 277ff.; Barlow, Imagery 43-60. Several of the monodies, like Ion's, precede and then lead into the Chorus' entrance song, the parodos, which may then be shared between actor and Chorus. Cf. Hec.,

El., Tro., Hyps. The effect of this is to isolate the solo voice as the centre of interest at the outset (in some cases, as here, at the character's first appearance), and then allow for depth and development by choral interaction. The manner of linking

varies. Ion's monody is most like that of Hecuba in Tro. His opening words, like hers, are in recitative anapaests. These regular, carefully modulated verses are followed by a much freer song with which Ion accompanies his tasks. For the theatrical effect of this cf. Hecuba's painful swaying and slow rising in Tro. 98ff., and Hypsipyle's singing as she pacifies the baby in her arms in Hyps. fr.

1.11.6ff.Bond. The tempo of Ion's busy lyrics is taken up by the Chorus whose voices, both ensemble and divided, are punctuated by admiring glances at the temple's decoration. The smooth transition here will offset the sharp contrast between the

jolly mood at the end of the parodos and Kr.'s upset at her entry (241ff.). Ion greets the rising sun which is nowhere more brilliant than on the towering cliffs near his home at Delphi. He then gets straight down to business. Today the oracle is in session and he instructs his attendants to purify themselves and to speak with due

COMMENTARY

169

discretion (94ff.). Finally, he turns to his own duties and lists systematically the tasks which he goes on to perform (102ff.). Metre: regular recitative anapaests (>> West, GM 94ff.; Raven, GM 56ff.) with a

roughly even proportion of spondees; paroemiacs define the four sections: 81-88 the new day; 89-93 activity in the shrine; 94-101 instruction to attendants; 102-111 Ion's own tasks. 82 bright chariot: the play opens, like many others (cf. A. Ag., S. Ant., El, IA, [Diggle

on]

Pha.

63),

before

sunrise.

For

the

sun's

chariot

cf.

Pho.

Iff.,1562f., ZA 156ff., (Diggle on) Pha. 2. The metaphor may be commonplace, but it is enlivened by the image in wheel of day's chariot in 87f. below. 83

shines: the emendation κάμπτει, ‘turns its course’, (Matthiae/Wakefield) is

tempting, but the repetition in λαμπρά, λάμπει is significant since words for brightness and brilliance are deliberately accumulated (cf. 79, 87 and see Barlow 14ff.). It is noteworthy that in this opening passage Ion's

preferred name for his patron is Phoebus, 'the Bright, Shining One', which he uses no fewer than 12 times. flee: for the image cf. 1157 below and see Diggle on Pha. 63. this fire high above: lit. ‘this fire of aether', referring either to the sun or to the brightening morning sky. For the identification of fire with the aether in pre-Socratic cosmology see Diggle, Studies 94. peaks of Parnassus: the first of several references to Delphi's mountain. It provides a haven for the birds (155), it is the site of the Dionysiac revels

(714) supposedly linked with Ion's conception (550ff., 1126f.), and it is used to threaten Kr. with the same death as suffered by the ancestral women of her race (1267, cf. 274). In fact, the summit of Parnassus is not visible

from Delphi and Ion is probably speaking here of the cliffs, the Phaidriades, which rise to two peaks to the north-east of the temple and which were the mountain's

89-90

famous

characteristic

(cf. RE s.v. Parnassos

III. 3) If so, he

embroiders his picture, since the Phaidriades do not catch the morning sun until well after sunrise. He may be referring to the two peaks on the southern side of the valley, which are clearly visible from the temple and are the first in the region to catch the sun's rays. As today is a day on which the oracle is open, preparation for the Priestess' pronouncements is already in train and incense burns in the temple. The oracle was originally open only once a year on Apollo's birthday; later, no doubt due to pressure of business, it opened on the 7th day of each of the

nine summer months. >> PW I, 30f., Amandry, op. cit. 81ff. waterless: this is taken by some to refer to the source of myrrh, the dry area of Arabia. Wilamowitz, adducing Dioscorides 1. 64, thinks that dry as distinct from oily incense is referred to by Ion. This, more specific, use of the adj. coheres with his attention to detail.

170

COMMENTARY wings its way: a striking metaphor, as expressive of Jon's pleasure as the

91

similar image in Tro.1298 is of the Chorus’ horror. sits on the sacred tripod: the day has a crowded agenda and so begins even before sunrise. The Priestess has already taken up her position, having come in earlier from where she sleeps to open the temple and enter the adyton. The tripod, a structure of three metal legs supporting a bowl, was a central part of the Delphic furniture; cf. 463 below, IT 1254, Or.164. >> PW I, 24ff., Amandry, 140ff., J. Boardman, Attic Red-Figure Vases, the Classical Period (London, 1989) fig. 171.

92 93

chanting: the Priestess made her oracular utterances in verse, hence the verb deldovoa; cf. ὑμνωιδεῖ, ‘sings’, in 6 and ὑμνωιδίαν, ‘song’, in 682. proclaims: the expressive verb keAa8éo covers a range of sounds (cf. Pho. 1102, trumpets, /T 1093, a bird's cry); for its use here cf. HF 694.

94-101

The

Priestess' song is transferred to her inspiration, the god. Ion's instructions to the attendants are interesting for their content and tone. An obsession with ritual purity, both physical and verbal, is clear, and his

sensitivity to appropriate language is a characteristic which will be further instanced in the play. Though young, he is sure of himself. His orders are confident, as we shall see again later when he instructs the Chorus (226ff.),

and when

the adverb σεμνῶς,

‘with solemn authority’, is used of his

supervision of arrangements for the party in his honour (1133).

Kastalia: used because it was nearby and, like mountain streams generally, manifestly pure. For the association of the stream with Delphi cf. IT 1256.

Its link with poetic inspiration comes much later: cf. Virgil, G. 3. 293, Horace, Odes 3. 4 .61. »» H. W. Parke, BCH 102 (1978) 199ff. For silvery streams, epic in its associations (H. //. 21. 8; Hesiod Th. 340), cf. ZA 752.

your own talk: i.e. private conversation, of the kind Ion is shortly to have with the Chorus, as distinct from ritual or official statements. This seems the best way to take ἰδίας. Barlow 13 translates ‘of the appropriate tongue and takes φήμας of prophetic utterances; but would they be the business of these attendants? The gen. γλώσσης depends on φήμας. Text: Camper's εὔφημοι in 98 removes the unwanted second adj. with στόμα which is clearly the result of assimilation. Hermann's deletion of τ᾽

in 99 makes ἀποφαίνειν

103-6

in 101 epexegetic infin. with ἀγαθόν, rather than

imperatival, rare in any case and unlikely to be paired with an imperative. >> Diggle, Studies 10. Ion's first two tasks, linked with the shared factitive verb θήσομεν, are

regularly paired as parts of the same exercise: cf. And. 166f., Hyps. i. ii.15ff.Bond. Note that Ion picks out with some pride the task regularly presented as the meanest of a slave's duties. Cf. Hec. 363 and Bond on Hyps. loc. cit.

COMMENTARY

sacred bands: στέφεσίν

107

109-11

112-83

171

could mean chaplets, decorative wreaths, or

bands of wool worn around the head or wrappped around branches. But since decoration is not on Ion's duty list, the word seems to refer here to bands used to hold together the branches of bay to make a broom. For the association of bay with ritual purity cf. Parker 228. holy offerings, ἀναθήματα were tripods, statues, armour and other valuable objects dedicated by states or individuals (examples are mentioned in 1144, 1165); cf. W. Burkert, Greek Religion [trans. J. Raffan] (Oxford, 1985) 92ff. Since the birds might spoil these with their droppings, Ion's interest in

cleanliness and purity goes beyond mere ritualistic concerns. Ion concludes his recitative with a dedication of himself to Apollo's service, repeated in 151ff., 181ff. The irony of motherless, fatherless, the first of many such ironies through the play, 1s underlined by the solemn effect of the anaphoric alpha-privative compounds ἀμήτωρ ἀπάτωρ; cf. And. 1256, HF 1302 and, in lyric, /T 864. Ion's self-identification can be left appropriately vague because of the very explicit information provided about him by Hermes in the prologue. Ion now begins his tasks and sings while he works. His song is carefully structured: a strophic pair (112-24-128-140) with an ephymnic refrain addressed to Apollo (125ff.2141ff.); then an astrophic song of roughly equal length (144-83). The song develops the list of tasks in 103-8: the strophic verses accompany the more measured sweeping; the freer lyrics suit the more varied action associated with the sprinkling of water and shooing of birds. At the end of each activity there is a kind of sphragis or

seal (cf. 109-11n.) which stamps on Ion's work a sacral quality stemming from his permanent devotion to his patron Apollo.

Ion's song, especially the strophic part, has the form of a hymn. The apostrophe at its opening, the repeated use of Apollo's name, the inclusion of a refrain and the register of the language all suggest the solemnity of a prayer. The form and tone show that what Ion is doing is to be understood

as a kind of ritual: activity which is timeless, predictable and with a meaning which goes beyond what is actually done. Jon's contentment and dismissal of any change serve as a background to the momentous changes

which lie ahead of him. Furthermore, his profound devotion to Apollo will clash with Kr.'s experience, and her monody (859ff.), precisely because of its similarity to his song, will joltingly disturb the attitudes generated here. Ion's monody is one of the most memorable in Eur. because of its naiveté and the deep attachment to Apollo it expresses. That emotional energy and verbal pyrotechnic are linked with the most of tasks is certainly not tragic: cf. Knox, Word and Action

to Apollo charming so much mundane 259 and

COMMENTARY

172

Seidensticker, Palintonos Harmonia (Göttingen, 1982) 217ff. But neither is

it straightforwardly comic: cf. Zacharia, 45ff. and Lee, 85ff. Metre: 112-24-128-40 aeolic with 122/3~138/9 iambic >>West, GM 115ff.; Raven, GM 71ff.; for the iambics in the sacral context cf. Ba. 414f.=429f., 875=985 125-7=141-3 refrain in molossi. >>West, GM 55; Owen on 125-7 144-83 lyric anapaests with a preponderance of spondees and several

paroemiacs, especially in the final system. >> West, GM 121f. 112-4

Ion's is no ordinary broom. The repeated interjection ὦ, the unique adj. νεηθαλές and the unusual abstract noun προπόλευμα stress his attachment to a special work companion. Come...bay: the vocative is left hanging without any imperative or

equivalent. This is quite natural when there is an extended modifier. Cf. Med. 824 and see Barrett on Hipp. 752-7.

steps:

116

117-9

Owen is right against Gow JHS 32 (1912) 212 that this refers to an

area visible to the audience and not the hearth inside the temple (cf. 46n.). Ion is seen already at work outside; the sense of Polßov θυμέλαν is repeated less expressively in δάπεδον θεοῦ in 121. always green: not as distinct from deciduous, since such trees would be as little cause for comment in Greece as in Australia. ἀθανάτων means that because of the plentiful water supply the gardens are always fresh and growing. Wilamowitz sees here a reference to the spring Kassotis which was fed by Kastalia and flowed underground. Text: in 118 the Ms. text is a syllable

short. To introduce a noun depending on ἐκπροιεῖσαι, sending forth, is preferable to an adj. like Fix's «ῥυ»τάν, ‘flowing’, paleographically easy

though it is. Diggle's yatas, ‘from the earth’, is colourless and I prefer 120 122/3

Wecklein's πετρᾶν, ‘from rocks’. myrtle: it seems that Ion's broom comprises shoots of two species. But we may simply have ornamental variation rather than botanical specificity. sun's speedy wing: the metaphor is difficult to determine precisely. Is the sun being compared to a bird flying across the sky (so Owen)? Or do we

have a reference here to the sun's winged steeds as in El. 464f. and other passages mentioned by Diggle on Pha. 173? I prefer the idea canvassed by Diggle (/oc. cit.) that the sun's light is to be pictured as a wing moving

across the sky. Cf. Tro. 848 where Day ıs called 'white-winged'. Speedy is subjective; Ion's daily and day-long tasks, far from dragging, make the day pass quickly. 125-7=141-3 The refrain may be a recognizable Delphic hymn. Apollo is called Paian in his role as healer. Why does Ion invoke him with such a name

here? Other instances, e.g. Alc. 92, 220, fr. 477, are clearer. The hymnic

COMMENTARY

128-40

173

quality of the refrain is seen in the anadiplosis (cf. Dodds on Ba. 107), in the reference to the deity's parentage and in the rhythm (see above). The invocation ὦ Λατοῦς mal will recur in 885 when instead of praise it will be attached to Kr.'s bitter reproach. For other refrains see Dodds, Ba. p.183, Fraenkel on A. Ag. 121, Kranz, Stasimon 130. >>L. Kappel, Paian (Berlin, 1992). blessed: εὐαίων ‘is a strong word, implying permanent happiness such as man attributes to gods’ (Dodds on Ba. 426). Ion is not singing a refrain of petition (he wants for nothing), but one of praise (cf.137) which recognizes divine bliss and feels no envy of it. The first instance of Ion's sphragis (cf. 112-83n.) is elaborate enough to embrace the entire antistrophe. Simplicity and emphasis produced by repetition and challenging paradox stress Ion's sincerity. Words denoting labour and slavery occur six times but are unexpectedly linked with positive terms. The answer to the paradox lies in the benevolence of the deity,

named thrice, whom Ion speaks of as a father. 128

noble: the adj., antithetical to slavery, is stressed by ye and placed at the head of its clause. Cf. the placing of glorious and pious in 131/134 below.

134-5

Text: the Ms. modal dative πόνοις

is possible, 'I do not grow weary to

labour in pious tasks’, but is very likely to have ousted by visual assimilation the idiomatic internal accus. RG points out that Goodwin's distinction (MT 8903) between participle and infinitive after ἀποκάμνω

is

not helpful here. While there is a parallel for the infinitive (Plato, Crito 45b), Wakefield's participle produces the regular construction after such a

verb and is preferable. 136

Phoebus...begat me: this seems like a heart-felt credo which is then explained as a facon de parler. It is, in fact, a further instance of the irony

which will be multiplied as the play develops. 139-40

Ion's explanation of his term for Apollo is a further ironic elaboration of the simple conviction of his earlier statements. Text: the Ms. reading produces contorted

146

sense; Heath's

simple

emendation

allows

us to take πατέρος

ὄνομα as internal accus. enclosed by the external obj. and its modifier. golden: the vessels are golden (cf. 434) in keeping with the splendour of Apollo's house (cf. 157, 909 and And.1093). As is natural for one with his

office (cf. 54n.), Ion is used to having gold around him and it is a feature of the party in his honour: cf.1154, 1165, 1175, 1182. But he is not overimpressed by it: cf. 629. For Kr. gold has unhappy associations. It reminds

her of Apollo's assault (cf. 888, 890, 909) and of the snake-emblems she put on her baby (cf. 25, 1427). It is to the golden vial of poison that she turns in

desperation: cf. 1007, 1030, 1430. 147

spring water: proverbially pure, but particularly here, coming as it does from Kastalia (cf. 94-101n.).

COMMENTARY

174

147b-50 are best taken as forms of dochmiac with the two last verses adjusted to the anapaestic context. Cf. 896 and see Dale LM 59f. pure...bed: Ion's chaste purity fits him well for the task in hand. But he is 150 purer than the god he serves (cf. 10f.), and when confronted with this

possibility he rejects it with unfounded confidence. >> Barrett on Hipp. 151-3

p.172. May I...fortune: Ion's wish is clearly ironical in the light of the outcome, but Wilamowitz goes too far in saying that Ion's breeding expresses itself in his wish not to be a slave. This kind of disjunctive wish is simply formal,

with one limb introduced merely to stress the point of the other (cf. And.

154-81

766f.). Ion's only real wish is to continue to serve Apollo as he now does (cf. 182). In the—to him unthinkable—event of this not happening, he hopes for a vague and unspecified good outcome. Ion now comes to the most elaborately presented of his tasks: the shooing away, even shooting, of messy birds. Three unwelcome visitors are singled out: an eagle, a swan and an unspecified bird. Each is carefully characterised. The eagle is marked for its power and its connection with Zeus, the swan for its singing, approved by Apollo. The third bird seemsto intend a prolonged visit, since it has nesting in mind. The concretising effect of the detail adds interest to the scene and also characterises Ion as thoroughly familar with the whole Delphic setting. The birds are, of course,

imaginary (cf. Taplin, Stagecraft 34), and this gave the actor the mimetic scope which was noted already in antiquity: cf. Demetrius, On Style 4.195. The effect of actors’ playing birds (so Ruck in CJ 71 [1975/6] 250), especially in view of the nuisance that is described, would be grotesque. Two important themes are raised here. First, Ion's obsession with purity is related to the need for even distasteful violence; brightness, shining grandeur are to be sought after, but they may come at a price. Secondly, dealing with the birds contrasts with Ion's other duties because of its ultimately unpredictable nature. While he is fully aware that the birds will come and his bow shows that he is prepared for them, in the end they are a surprise; these ‘messengers of the gods’ follow their own rules. Surprising

intrusions of far more significance will mark Ion's and others’ lives in the course of the day just begun. There is, finally, the specific point that this scene prepares for the decisive involvement of a bird, the warning dove, later on (1202ff.). On birds in the play generally see M. H. Giraud, RPh 61 (1987) 83ff.

155

156

Parnassus:

the second mention

of the mountain

(cf. 86), which

is to be

held in the mind as part of the distant background. For the correct spelling Παρνασσός see Mastronarde on Pho. 207. go near: χρίμπτειν is an expressive word (cf. And. 530, Cyc. 406 and, ina sacral context, Cretans fr. 472. 18); Ion attributes to the birds shy

COMMENTARY

175

hesitation. Text: The double construction after χρίμπτειν

158

with dat. and

then with és and accus. is unlikely; read Wilamowitz's θριγκούς with the construction lıke that ın 703f. you too: Ion is not going to let the eagle's superior strength or exalted position give it an advantage here over other birds. For the eagle as Zeus’

messenger cf. H. /l. 24. 293, Broadhead, A. Pers. p. 82; for its frequenting Delphi cf. Diodorus Siculus 16. 27. 2. get: μάρπτω describes determined action that has violent intent (cf. Alc. 847, 1142, Hec.1061) or simply means business (cf. Pha. 172). 161

162

164-7

wheeling: the metaphor in the verb €péooet, 'rows', defies translation. The expression goes back to A. Ag. 52, where see Fraenkel, and recurs in 17 289. bright red: the same feature is picked out in the case of the dying dove in 1207 below. As W. G. Arnott points out (Tragedy and the Tragic ed. M. Silk [Oxford, 1996] 116), this detail (like the swan's singing) serves simply ornamental purposes: in fact, the swan had black feet and was mute.

Eur.'s wit comes out neatly here. Like the eagle, the swan can claim divine patronage, associated as it is with Apollo in its song and its attendance at Leto's delivery on Delos. (Cf. Aristoph. Birds 769, IT 1102ff. Call. Hymn to Delos 254). But song will be no help, unless a lyre could match a bow. The alternative is to rely on the Delian connection, where there is an equally good temple and a lake. To see Ion's suggestion here and later as indicating real disregard for other seats of worship (Owen on 174-5) 15 too earnest.

Lloyd 36 suggests that there is a playful allusion to the formulae of the apopompe, the ritual dismissal, of a malevolent power which require the naming of an alternate victim. Apollo's musical virtuosity will be invoked again, by Kr., in 881ff. Here it can do nothing before Ion's threats; there it

foregrounds Apollo's brutal assault on Kr. 167

lake on Delos: there is a small circular lake on Delos (Hdt. 2. 170), frequented by swans (/T 1103), beside which Leto gave birth to Apollo and Artemis (Theognis Sff.). The temple of Apollo there vies with Delphi in importance.

return to the point of the swan's singing. The swan's song is associated with its death (the locus classicus is Plato, Phaedo 84 c), but that is not the point

here, where

Δηλιάδος

death/injury

will ruin the song. Text:

the last syllable of

in 167 must be long. But there is no need for emendation in the

following lines, since the strong sense-pause following Ion's orders allows for the metrical pause required to lengthen the short syllable (cf. West, GM

4f., Diggle, Studies 95-7). Text: the Ms. αἱμάξεις will bloody

your notes’. This has engendered

in 168 produces ‘you

disbelief, hence

Nauck's

emendation, which is itself not without difficulties (Sansone CP 79 [1984]

COMMENTARY

176

339). Diggle thinks (Studies 97) my defence of the Ms. (CR 19 [1969] 13f.)

‘misguided’, but see, most recently, Kraus 37.

170

strange: since the lack of specification is deliberate, it is perverse to speculate, as some do, whether this bird was, e.g. a swallow.

172-3

nests...to settle in: Kapbupds itself means nests of straw, so εὐναίας is ornamental, though the wording may be a deliberate anticipation of Kr.'s description in 899f. of her action with the baby.

174-6

Olympia with its famous temple of Zeus is on the river Alpheios; a grove of pines stood beside the temple of Poseidon on the Isthmus. All the places Inentioned as alternatives are quite remote, though they become progressively closer to Delphi. Text: Badham's correction of dat. to accus.

δίνας

makes the construction of the localities parallel; cf. 156n. His

infinitive at the end of 175 (depending on πείσηι, not imperatival) would

177 178

remove hiatus and the consequent metrical pause, but cf. Diggle, Studies 96. foul: towards the end of his treatment of the birds we hear again (cf. βλάπτουσιν in 107) the grounds for his concern.

The mention of Apollo here is emphatic; his seat of worship is contrasted with those of Zeus and Poseidon mentioned earlier. For Apollo actually protecting birds nesting around the temple at Branchidae cf. Hdt. 1. 159. Text: we must either accept this verse as a dochmiac in the midst of the anapaests (so Owen referring to Hec.182, 190, IT 188), or assume a lacuna of two or three long syllables. I prefer a supplement and suggest σεμνοί. (cf.

107) or χρυσήρεις

(cf. 157) which would be in keeping with the striking

amount of repetition in Ion's verses (cf. Barlow 15f.).

179

reluctant: the reluctance arises from αἰδώς, a sense of what is required by due respect for others or oneself. >> D. L. Cairns, Aidos (Oxford, 1993) 307f. The claims of αἰδώς play (cf. 336, 861, 977).

180

will be heard repeatedly in the course of the

Observation of birds was central to the exercise of mantic; cf. 377, and the angry Pentheus' method of wrecking Teiresias’ activity in Ba. 346ff. For an understandably exaggerated view of the importance of the role of birds cf.

the Chorus in Aristoph. Birds 716ff. 181-3

The monody ends with the final instance of Ion's seal. Even violence to the birds may be justified by the service of the god who nurtures him; note the emphatic near-repetition of 137 with the allusive pl. used for the sake of variety. The dat. μόχθοις is attracted from the accus. into the case of the relative olg.

Owen is tempted by Bayfield's view that Ion exits to return in 219. It is better to imagine Ion remaining on stage, busy with his tasks and unnoticed by the visitors until they need his advice. See Taplin, Stagecraft 283, Halleran, Stagecreft

103 and Mastronarde,

Contact 33

for the common

COMMENTARY

177

situation in which a character already on stage is out of contact with those who have just entered.

c) Chorus and Ion—Parodos

: 184-236

The Chorus comprises 15 serving women who belong to Kr.'s house. Euripidean choruses are often closely attached to one of the main characters, and in this case the Chorus bring to Delphi the support which Kr. would normally find at home. When a chorus enter after an actor has sung a monody we might expect the shared section of the parodos to precede the choral section as a transitional device (cf. the

arrangement in Tro. 153ff.). But here the Chorus keep the first three-quarters of the parodos to themselves and only then (219ff.) engage with Ion in a remarkable

dialogue

which

has

his recitative

utterances

standing

outside

the

strophic

composition. The reason for this structure is that the Chorus are absorbed by their

own reactions to their surroundings—hence the division of the parodos among several voices—and have no ties with the character whose song we have just heard. The person who is the focus of their emotions will enter later. In the meantime, the

parodos provides a transition from Ion's devoted hymn in Apollo's service to Kr.'s account of her open and secret reasons for coming to Apollo's shrine. Normally, the Chorus' motive for entry is provided by a principal character, either directly or indirectly; here they have been sent ahead by Kr. (233), who allows them to indulge their curiosity. For tourists at Delphi cf. And. 1085ff. where three days were taken up with sight-seeing, and for the motif in drama cf. A. Theoroi fr. 78a and other passages cited by Hose, Studien I, 137. The strictly choral part of the parodos poses three problems of general interpretation, theatrical and thematic: i) How do the images described relate to the actual decoration of Apollo's temple? ii) Were these represented in any way or is the text alone prompting the audience's imagination? 111) What is the meaning of the images in the context of the play? I deal with these questions in turn. i) The sixth century Alkmaionid temple of Apollo was destroyed in the fourth century and then rebuilt, so that descriptions of writers like Paus. 10.19. 4 (cf. Frazer, Paus. v. 329) are not reliable for our period. Archaeological evidence for representations of Heracles and Iolaus contending with the hydra (our 191-200) is lacking, but excavations have shown that the west pediment was decorated with scenes from the gigantomachy (our 206-18). The east pediment (the side facing the audience) depicted Apollo's entry into the sanctuary. >>Fouilles de Delphes IV 3, 16-32, 33-62. Unless we are to imagine the Chorus as walking around the building while they sing (W-I 484f.), we must assume that, just as he seems to have freely added the depiction of the hydra battle, Eur. transferred for his own purposes the decoration of the west pediment to the eastern end of the temple. See 207n. for

another possibility.

|

178

COMMENTARY

11) Owen (p. 83) thinks that 'the description is so elaborate that we can hardly believe that the scenes described were left to the imagination’, and suggests that they were represented 'on projecting wings'. He is now followed by Hose, Studien I, 138, and Hartigan 72, who thinks that both east and west pediments were represented in a non-dimensional form. But the detail of an elaborate back-drop would have been scarcely visible to most in the theatre. Tragedy regularly relies on the vigorous response of the audience's imagination to words (cf. earthquakes in Bacchae and HF

and see Dodds, Ba. pp. 148ff., Hourmouziades, Production 53ff.), which here would have triggered the imagination of those who had themselves seen, or at least knew of, the famous artwork at Delphi. iii) Given Eur.'s manipulation of the actual decoration on the temple (scarcely, as

Owen thinks on 190, due to oversight), and the fact that the images here described form a network with others running through the play, recent opinion has rightly seen them as organic and rejected the view of Wilamowitz (14f.) that the description is of no importance to the action and is intended merely as 'besondere Belustigung' for the audience. Cf. G. Müller, Hermes

103 (1975) 24ff.; D. Mastronarde, CSCA

8 (1975)

163ff.; V. Rosivach, CQ 27 (1977) 284ff., Hose, Studien I, 137ff. These scholars have pointed out that both the scenes with the monsters and the gigantomachy impress on the audience the struggle between Olympian, civilizing powers and monstrous, earth-born figures which represent violence and uncultivated brutality. This theme can be readily related to Apollo's takeover of Delphi from Python (on which see /T 1244ff.) and to the play's action which concerns the fate of mortals with clear earth-born, autochthonous connections who must come to terms with the plans and desires of the Olympians, notably Apollo and Athena. The struggle described here by the Chorus will be rehearsed in the attempt on Ion's life, and in his

retaliation; in Jon's hesitation to accept X.'s proposals and Kr.'s assurances that Apollo is his father. We should not, however, construct simple parallelisms which e.g. align Kr. with evil chthonic powers as a theomachos. This leads to distorting schematism. So Rosivach (291) is wrong to see Kr.'s exposure of Ion as parallel to the Aglaurids' act of disobedience and as counter to Apollo's plan: the exposure was precisely what Apollo wanted and prepared for in the miraculous concealment of Kr.'s pregnancy (14f.). The play is more than a moralisuc contrast between human intractability and divine beneficence. Autochthony and the myth of Erechtheus, a source of great Athenian pride, could hardly be straighforward symbols of evil (cf. Lloyd, 42), and Kr.'s opposition to Apollo and outrage at his apparent neglect are presented with great sympathy. Eur. offers something more complex and engaging: the struggle within humans, especially those whose outlook and behaviour are

conditioned by blood and heritage, to find an equilibrium between violent, darker tendencies and acceptance of a higher order. (Cf. on this point Mastronarde's conclusion, op. cit. 171).

The Chorus' description of the sculpture, like the Servant's of the decoration of the festive tent (1141ff.) is an example of tragic ekphrasis, a term used for the verbal

COMMENTARY

179

representation of a work of art ın the widest sense. Other instances occur in A. Seven 387-649, Pho. 1107-38, El. 442-78. >> Wolff, 179f., F. Zeitlin, "The artful eye: vision, ecphrasis and spectacle in Euripidean theatre’ in Art and text in ancient Greek culture ed. S. Goldhill, R. Osborne (Cambridge, 1994) 138ff. and, more generally, J. A. W. Heffernan, Museum of Words (Chicago, 1994). 1) Strophe and Antistrophe

a: 184-93-194-204.

The Ms. divides the verses between the Chorus and Ion, but Ion is evidently brought into the scene only at 219. Diggle rightly follows earlier editors and has two groups of choreutai share the first strophic pair. Metre: Chiefly aeolic (190-201 is iambic), taking up Ion's verses in 112ff. The opening two systems (184-6a, 187-9) are regular glyconic with pherecratean clausula; the third (190-3) is introduced with change of speaker and is more free.

184

sacred: ζάθεος

is a favourite Euripidean epithet, largely ornamental, used

often of places, as in epic, and of Athens also in Tro. 219. 185-7

courts of the gods...altars: the Chorus are meant to be some distance from

the temple and are impressed by the general view as distinct from the particular images which they pick out later in 190ff. They note the impressive symmetry of the columns around the pronaos, then they note an image or altar of Apollo Agyieus, 1.6. in his capacity as protector of those leaving home for the streets. The image took the aneikonic form of a pillar

with a conical top, but Apollo's presence may have also been indicated by an altar with

a flat surface

(see Mastronarde

on

Pho. 631, LIMC

s.v.

Apollon Agyieus and BCH 49 [1925] 211). Müller (op.cit. 26) thinks the

188-9

latter is meant here and that the reference to service in θεραπεῖαι confirms this. If we do have an altar, then economy suggests that this is the altar to which Kr. later flees. See 1254n. The imperfect ἦσαν represented by are is used colloquially of unexpected realisation. >> Stevens, Coll. Exp. 62. brightness...facades: a bold and unusually developed metaphor, literally light with lovely eyelids of twin faces'. The Chorus are struck by the marble of the temple and its surroundings reflecting the early morning sunlight, and compare the sight to the brilliance of shining eyes (for which 'eyelids’ stand by a natural metonymy). Cf. 'dawn's gleaming countenance' in El. 102 and ‘golden day's eye' in S. Ant. 104. The metaphor is extended in ‘twin faces’, for which cf. Pind. Ol. 6. 3-4, Pyth. 6. 13-4. But to what does διδύμων προσώπων refer? Wilamowitz thought of the buildings (e.g. treasuries) on either side of the road leading to the temple, and this idea has been

developed

Suggests thinks of but these and W-I

by E. Simon

in ZPE

57 (1984)

1ff. But παρὰ

Aotí(at

a sight closely attached to the temple itself. Müller (op. cit. 25) the temple on the one hand and the statue of Apollo on the other, sights are not symmetrical enough for nvin faces. Bayfield, Owen 484, n.5 think that the two pediments of the temple are meant and

180

COMMENTARY this seems likely. The Chorus cannot see both pediments, but they are giving here a general impression of the temple's structure, already evident, before going on to describe in more detail its decoration which they can view at close quarters: the metopes (190-204) and then the pediment (205-

18). Text: for the omission, by haplography (?), of the syllable in καλλι«βλέ»φαρον cf. L's reading in 677, the variants in A. Seven 710 and other scribal errors listed by Owen.

190

One group inspects more carefully and tells the other to do the same. Text: the Ms. τάνδ᾽ and τόνδ᾽ of the poet Milton (who made significant reference to Jon, a favourite play, in the ode Ad Joannem Rousium of 1646) are too specific for this stage of the viewing; contrast τόνδε in 201 where

closer inspection is in progress. 191-200 The first metope describes the killing of the hydra: Heracles (the son of Zeus par excellence who need not be named) cuts off its heads while Iolaus cauterizes the wounds thereby preventing further growth. The hydra-killing is the canonical second labour and is mentioned as early as Hesiod (see below). It was seen among the metopes of the temple of Zeus at Olympia, the Hephaistion in Athens, and the Athenian Treasury at Delphi. >> Bond

HF pp. 153ff., C. H. Morgan, Hesperia 31 (1962) 211ff.. It is among the marks of Heracles’ courage praised by the chorus in HF 419ff. (having been pooh-poohed by the tyrant Lycus in 151f.), and he himself picks it out as a sign of endurance in S. Tr. 1094, HF 1274f. slays: the verb &valpw, which has epic associations, recurs in 203 and 218.

It is used of Heracles slaying the centaurs in HF 367. hydra: regularly linked with Lerna (cf. passages cited above), a place in

the Peloponnese. This monster, noted for the multiplicity of its heads (HF 419, Apollod. 2. 5. 2), was the offspring of Typhon and Echidna (Hesiod,

Th. 313ff.). sickle: a farming tool also used for amputation (cf. West on Hesiod, Th. 175), notably of the Gorgon's head by Perseus (Apollod. 2. 4. 2). The adj. golden may refer to the colouring of the relief or be simply ornamental (cf. Hyps. fr. i. ii. 37 Bond, Hec. 110).

The apparently less conspicuous segment of the relief is now described in two parts: first, an unidentified ally of Heracles is noticed; then, closer inspection shows him to be Iolaus. torch: we recover the form mavös, misunderstood by L here and in 1294, from Athenaeus 700 E; cf. A. Ag. 284, S. fr. 184.

at my loom: a detail of self-identification adding the fact that the Chorus are slaves to the initial clue that they are from Athens. The stories are either told (or sung, cf. Hyps. fr. i. ii.19ff. Bond) as they work, or are woven into the fabric. Cf. 507 below, JA 788ff., Hec. 466ff. and Ovid, Met. 4. 53f.

COMMENTARY

181

warrior, lit. 'shield-bearer': in the Chorus’ hymn of praise in HF 419ff. Heracles is naturally in no need of a helper, but for Iolaus' participation see (Wilkins on) Hcid. 216.

share...full endurance:

the verb owvavrket,

lit. joins in draining the

bilge', involves a metaphor frequently found in Eur. Cf. Hipp. 1049, And. 1217, (Seaford on ) Cyc. 282.

The Chorus conclude the description with a return to the opening: reference to Heracles as son of Zeus. 201-4 The description of the second metope is shorter and all three figures are unnamed: Bellerophon, Pegasus and the Chimaira. For the story cf. H.

Il. 6. 179ff., Hesiod, Th. 319ff., Pind. OL 13. 84ff. Bellerophon is a major character in Eur.'s Stheneboea and Bellerophon. >> SFP 1, 79ff., 98ff. winged horse: Pegasus, who sprang from the Gorgon's blood after Perseus (in the traditional story; contrast 991 below) killed her; cf. Hesiod, Th. 280f.

For Pegasus as Bellerophon's mount cf. El. 473ff., Stheneboea fr. 665a, and see LIMC s.v. Pegasus $ 173. three-bodied...breathes fire: for the Chirnaira's composite form (lion,

snake and goat) cf. Apollod. 31. 3. 3, LIMC s.v. Chimaira and Cropp on El. 474. Fire issues from the Chimaira's throat even as it is cut in Sthen. fr. 665a. ii) Strophe and Ántistrophe b : 205-18~219-36 The Ms. again divides the verses between the Chorus and Ion; Diggle has them

shared among seven speakers, as implied by the text. The division of speakers is managed with precise strophic correspondence (cf. Page CQ 31 [1937] 96) even though in the antistrophe the choral statements are divided by six utterances from Ion.

Metre: aeolics continuing from the previous strophic pair and then, in keeping with the brisk exchange of views, more lively iambic. In the antistrophe the choral lyrics are uniquely interspersed with recitative anapaests from Ion which do not affect the corresponsion. >> Dale LM 50f.

205

cast my eye: the verb διώκω, lit. 'impel, send on the way’, is here expressive of the Chorus' excitement and curiosity. See Willink on Or. 988f. and cf. fr.

206

114. 2. rout: kAóvos is an appropriately epic word (cf. H. II. 16. 331, 713), found only here in Eur., but cf. A. Ag. 405, Per.107. walls: Bayfield thinks that this is 'impossible in the context'. But from the Chorus' view-point it is natural that the decoration of the pediment be seen as above or on the temple's walls. For the responsion of — with U produced by the epic ending in -eooı see Diggle, Studies 97.

COMMENTARY

182

of stone: the adj. Adivos is a Euripidean favourite (18 instances; none in

Aes. and one in Soph.), which Arıstophanes puts parodically into the mouth 207

of the character Eur. ın Ach. 449. Giants: monstrous progeny of Earth (cf. 218) who had been impregnated by the amputated genitals of Ouranos. They threatened the rule of Zeus and the other children of Kronos and were eventually defeated with the

assistance of Heracles. Cf. Hesiod, Th. 185 and 987f. below. >> Burkert, Religion 127f. A favourite topic for sculpture, the gigantomachy was also represented on the eastern metopes of the Parthenon and the northern frieze of the Siphnian Treasury which Simon (op. cit.) thinks ıs described here. >> LIMC s.v. Gigantes $ 3.

208

This verse does not correspond with 222 in the antistrophe and neither line can serve as a control. No convincing solution has been offered. I prefer

Hermann's reduction of 222 (see n.) which preserves the aeolic rhythm, and I would read here e.g. δερκόμεσθα, φίλαι, μένος θεῶν, ‘we see, friends, the might of the gods’. This gives the speaker a positive response taken up in the next utterance, in place of the colourless ὧδε, ‘this way' which might

have intruded by dittography. For μένος θεῶν cf. A. Supp. 560. 209-10

The first scene of combat to be particularised naturally involves Pallas Athena, the Chorus‘ ‘own god' (211). Eur. has subtly introduced a subjective element into the Chorus’ opening song: first the comparison of Delphi with their own city, then reminders of their work at home and of their patroness. The two latter points are connected, for Athena was honoured by the annual

presentation at the Panathenaia of a robe on which was embroidered her defeat of Enkelados. >> H. W. Parke, Festivals of the Athenians (London, 1977)

33ff., E. J. W.

Barber in J. Neils,

Goddess and Polis (Princeton,

1992) 103ff. For other references to Athena as Zeus’ ally against the Giants cf. Hec. 466ff., IT 221 ff. and Kr.'s solemn oath in 1528f. below. Zeitlin (op. cit. 150f.) suggests that this description of Pallas’ activity replacing the actual depiction of Apollo on the east side of the temple (cf. p. 177 above) hints at the ‘absent presence’ of Apollo in the play and looks ahead to the end when Athena will indeed take his place. brandishing: for the verb πάλλω (normally of a spear) used of a shield cf.

Ba. 783. Its supposed connection with Παλλάς (cf. P. Oxy. 2260, 3-5) is Volksetymologie. gorgon-faced: a reference to Athena's slaying of the Gorgon which will be

developed later; cf. 991n. For the pictorial association of Athena with the Gorgon cf. the panathenaic vase attributed to the Berlin Painter pictured in

Neils, op. cit. 28. Enkelados: mentioned as Athena's adversary also in HF 907. He was despatched by having Sicily thrown on him and now expresses volcanic displeasure (Apollod. 1. 6. 2).

COMMENTARY

211 212

Metre: for these two choriambic dimeters in responsion, as is frequent, with glyconics in 222-3 see Denniston, El. p. 215, Kannicht, Helen p. 376. my own goddess: for the Chorus' strong expression of attachment to Athena cf. 453 below. flaming at both ends: so too in Hec. 473 and Hipp. 559. The thunderbolt was regularly depicted with flame above and below; see the vases illustrated in M. Robertson, The art of vase-painting in classical Athens (Cambridge,

213

215

216-8

183

1992) 76 and in Neils, op.cit. 144.

mighty...far-shooting: both adjectives are laden with epic associations. The latter is the regular epithet for Apollo, but it is used of Artemis, also as archer, in S. fr. 401; the former is used somewhat bombastically of Mt. Ida by the Phrygian in Or. 1454. Mimas: not normally numbered among Zeus' victims. For references to him as one of the Giants cf. LIMC s.v. Mimas II, Horace, Odes 3. 4. 53. burns to ashes: a very strong verb, used also in Supp. 640, Aristoph. Birds 1242 of the effects of the thunderbolt. Bromios 'the Roarer' is a very common title for Dionysus in poetry (cf. Dodds on Ba. 66). For his part in the battle with the Giants cf. Cyc. Sff.; his

adversary, here unnamed, might be Eurytos (cf. Apollod. 1. 37. 6). Dionysus, like Athena, is mentioned here for thematic reasons which will be developed as the play proceeds; cf. Introd. $ 4b. staff crowned with ivy: the thyrsus, a rod to which ivy leaves were attached (cf. Dodds on Ba.113); it was carried by bacchants as a symbol of the god's power and so is naturally used by Dionysus as a weapon (cf. his description of it in Ba. 25).

unwarlike: the adj. may mean 'invincible', as in A. Ag. 768, Cho. 55, but the active sense (cf. Hec. 1034) suits the normally pacific character of Dionysus; his weapon is thus contrasted with the evidently bellicose ones used by the other Olympians. The symmetrical structure of the Chorus' ekphrasis has been pointed out by Rosivach

219

(op.

cit. 285).

The

first section

comprises

involving three figures; the second three scenes There is a similar structure in Ion's monody: two third also involving three 'enemies' two of whom third is left vague. You there: the Chorus notices Ion and attracts his formula (cf. S. El.

1445, Jebb on Ant. 441

two

scenes

each

each with two figures. tasks are followed by a are identified, while the attention with a brusque

and Kannicht on Hel. 546ff.).

Though Ion may sec himself as Apollo's special servant, to the world at large he is an ordinary functionary.

220-1

proper: θέμις is used of behaviour in keeping with the natural order. It is generally found in the universal prescriptions of ritual (this passage, 1256

184

COMMENTARY

below, Med.

1053f., IT 1035), but extends to particular situations (Hipp.

1033, Pha. 46) and regulates even the behaviour of deities (Hipp. 1396). sanctuary's: the word γύαλα originally referred to the topography of

Delphi and its position in a hollow below Parnassus (cf. Hesiod Th. 499 and other passages cited by W-I 496). It then came to be used of the precinct generally and its buildings, further specified, if necessary, by context or by appositional explication as in And. 1093. The context here (cf. 233, 245)

shows that the temple is meant. W-T's (loc. cit.) 'the temple inside and out' is too precise and arises from his misunderstanding of the word in 76 above.

«threshold»: the line is two syllables short; the supplement οὐδόν

has

palaeography but little else to commend it. The word does not occur in this form in tragedy and it is questionable whether γύαλα could be thought of as having thresholds. bare: lit. ‘white’. The adj. combines two ideas; the feet were bare and were the feet of women. For 'white' conventionally of women's skin cf. Cyc. 72, Alc. 159, Or. 1466, Ba. 457 (where Pentheus sees Dionysus' complexion as a sign of his effeminacy) and the colouring of women's skin on black-figure

vases. 221b

not proper: the servants cannot enter as they are women and, theatrically

speaking, the Chorus cannot contravene convention and leave the orchestra to enter the skene. For the self-conscious teasing of the audience over a

convention here see Winnington-Ingram, Arethusa 130f. 222 is metrically faulty like 208 above. Hermann's suggestion produces appropriate rhythm and allows Ion to interrupt the Chorus before they can

supply an obvious object for dv πυθοίμαν, 'might I learn’; this would be in 224

keeping with his crisp, businesslike manner (cf. 226ff. below). woollen bands: these showed that the object was sacred (cf. the altar to

which Kr. clings in 1310 below), and they become symbolic of the god's power (cf. Aristoph. Wealth 39), hence their use by suppliants; cf. (Lloyd on) And. 894. Gorgons: Strabo (9. 3. 6.) identifies these figures with the eagles which met at the spot (cf. note on 5-7 above). No doubt the report (cf. 225) of the

figures' form varied widely; they would have been worn with age and like most mysterious objects attracted imaginative description. To specify them

here as Gorgons (for the plurality of which cf. Hesiod, Th. 274ff., A. Cho.

226-9

1048) extends the connection between Delphi and the world of monsters which has already been made. »» Burnett, Jon 135f. Ion turns abruptly away from tourists' questions and gets down to business.

W-I notes (492f.) that the lines 'give the impression of a formula which this long-suffering functionary has used to visitors dozens of times before'. Two distinct rites and consequent entitlements are involved. i) Offering of a πελανός (see below) allows access to the θυμέλαι. The latter word is used

COMMENTARY

185

here (contrast the instances in 46, 111, 161) in the narrow sense of altar or

area of an altar and refers to the altar inside the temple itself (W-I 494f., Burnett, Jon

138). πελανός, usually translated 'cake', is a thick mixture of

barley, honey and milk resembling batter. Cf. Erec. fr. 350. 1 and see Fraenkel on A. Ag. 96, P. Amandry, op. cit. 86ff. ii) The sacrifice of an

animal (outside—cf. 419f. and note that this interpretation makes the statements introduced by the particles μένδέ appropriately parallel) allows

enquirers to go beyond the altar area to an inner enclosure called here μυχός. This must be distinct from the adyton (though it seems to mean that

in A. Eum. 180; cf. W-I 486f.) where the omphalos and tripod were, since that area was restricted to temple officials. >>Burnett, /on 138.

231

233

235

The Chorus is here characterised as biddable and appropriately pious. This will soon be overshadowed by a stronger characteristic, intense loyalty to their mistress, which encourages them to transgress unintentionally the god's will on more than one count. My masters: respectful pl. in reference to Kr. alone (cf. 'rulers' in 236 below, Alc. 138) whose imminent entrance is thus prepared. Text: Hermann's easy transposition is necessitated by the metre. dwelling of my rulers: the Erechtheion, which is under the same roof as the shrine of Athena Polias (cf. J. Travlos, Pictorial Dictionary of Athens (London, 1971] 218, fig. 281 and H. II. 2. 546ff., Od. 7. 78ff.). The location

of Kr.'s dwelling will become important later; cf. 1433ff. The parodos ends as it began with reference to Athens and its buildings. Text: the Ms. reading

would have Kr. sharing a dwelling with Pallas; for the confusion between 236

cvv- and év- postulated by Badham cf. readings at S. Ajax 624. The announcement of an entrance in lyric is unusual. Cf. Alc. 233 and see Taplin, Stagecraft 173f. and R. Hamilton's list in HSCP 82 (1978) 76ff.

FIRST EPISODE: 237-451 a) Ion and Kreousa: 237-400 l. Action Kr. enters to consult the oracle, and converses with Ion about her ancestry, his life,

and the rape. 2. Structure

i. Introductory dialogue 237-64 11. Kr. 265-307 a. Her ancestors and Athens 265-88 b. Her childlessness 289-307 iii. Ion 308-29 iv. Kr.'s 'friend's' story; the rape and aftermath 330-68 v. Ion's reaction and Kr.'s response 369-400

186

COMMENTARY

3. Form The bulk of the scene is taken up with a long passage of stichomythia (the longest in Greek drama; the second longest is 934-1028), fast-moving and crammed with

information. For this form of dialogue see Gen. Introd. p.13 Eur. regularly uses a long passage of stichomythia with largely expository function early in plays and just prior to a recognition scene (El. 547ff., IT 723ff., Hel. 541ff.). Thus it teases our expectations

here, but leads nowhere

(we must remember

Hermes'

prologue) and it is soon followed by the pseudo-recognition Seidensticker in Jens, Bauformen 183ff., Heath, Poetics 128ff. 4. Function

words

in the

of Ion and X. »»

a. Plot. The scene is important in preparing for the coming action. The characters are introduced, more details about the rape are given, and the possibility that Apollo's plan—that the recognition will take place in Athens—will be overturned is averted, as Kr. 1s prevented from asking the truth from the god himself. In its picture of a growing sympathy between mother and son, it parallels and contrasts with the later agonistic dialogue between Kr. and Ion (1282ff.).

b. Character. Ion's character is skilfully and economically filled out. We see that the god-besotted temple-boy of the monody is naive and defensive about Apollo (339, 341) but is also: very conscious

conscious of his own

of social distinctions (237ff., 262f., 293ff.) and

lowly status (309); instinctively sensitive and sympathetic

(241ff., 307); curious and inquisitive (265ff.), and concerned to establish the precise

details of any story (347ff.). Kr. is seen here for the first time, and the scene lays the

foundation for one of tragedy's most engaging characters. She is responsive to kindness (247f.) and able to offer sympathy herself (312, 320, 324), though overwhelmed by the memories of her past sufferings (249ff., 264, 284ff.). At the same time Kr. is strong-willed, resentful (252ff., 358, 384ff.) and aware of her grand lineage (260ff.). These often conflicting characteristics are vital to an understanding

of how and why she acts as she does later in the play.

c. Themes. Various themes are introduced or expanded: nobility and social status (237f., 258ff.), especially in the context of autochthony (267ff.) and native and foreign (289ff.); truth, knowledge, doubt and certainty (237, 239f., 328f., 346, 349)

alongside the all-knowing power of the oracle (302ff., 387ff.); divine justice and injustice (252ff., 358f., 384f.); reticence and shame (288, 336f.). 237

In only thirteen of 107 Euripidean entrances (cf. Hcld. 52, Or. 1321, Taplin,

Stagecraft 397, Halleran, Stagecraft 103f.) does the character on stage address one entering. Here the unusual structure stresses Kr.'s distracted grief and Ion's sensitivity to it. Text: the lack of an initial, formal greeting combined with an abrupt change of syntax led to the positing of a lacuna (e.g. ‘Greetings, lady! There is in your bearing...) by Lloyd-Jones (CR 7 [1957] 97). The Ms. text is defended by Kraus 38 who thinks Ion's shyness accounts for the oddities.

COMMENTARY

187

nobility: the subject of Ion’s first four lines, as Kr.'s misery is that of the

238

next six; these topics are then developed in the ensuing dialogue: Kr.'s ancestry, 258-83; her wretchedness, 304-7, 330ff. sign: the word τεκμήριον is thematic in this scene, and in a play where discovery and proof are of such importance. Ion has no clue, τεκμήριον, as to his parents’ identity (329), and his question in 349 shows that Kr. has no proof, τεκμήριον, that her child is dead. These statements cast ironic light on Ion's confidence that a person('s status) can be judged by appearance when he does not know his own status or identity, or that it is his mother who stands before him. bearing: for one's appearance as a pointer to one's birth and character cf. Hyps. fr. 60, 23f.Bond. madam: addresses between Ion and Kr. are polite and formally distant. He calls her 'madam/lady' in his initial address, in his final words to her (379), and several times in between: 244, 255, 263, 289, 309, 329, 333, 372;

241

‘stranger’ (an obvious irony) is her first word to him in 247, and it is used in her closing appeal for silence (392) and four times besides (264, 266, 312, 360). Such addresses—like whoever you are—are frequent between characters who are soon to recognise each other. Cf. El. 247, 259, 265, 283. You upset me: in 403 X. uses the same word of Kr.'s agitation, due not, as he thinks, to his late arrival but to a resurgence of the upset she feels here. closing your eyes: this contrasts with the repeated emphasis on intrigued observation in the parodos (e.g. 190, 194, 201, 205f., 232f.). Ion's point that

Kr.'s response

differs from

that of other pilgrims

has already

been

exemplified by the delight of the Chorus. your eyes stream with tears: an echo of the first line (241) of this section of Ion's speech, just as in its opening section 'well-born' as the last word in 240 echoes ‘nobility’ in 237. This tells against Kraus’ deletion (39) of 239-

247

40. Ion is naturally disturbed by Kr.'s display of grief because Apollo more than most gods dislikes sorrow. Cf. 639 below, Supp. 974ff., A. Ag. 1074f. good upbringing: Kr.'s speech, like Ion's, opens with an irony: the woman who exposed Ion says that the youth who spent his boyhood playing in the temple (53) was well brought up. In 953 she says that her child was

brought up’, παιδεύεται, in Hades' house. Despite the formality of this opening exchange, Kr. and Ion express an instinctive mutual sympathy, while X. and Ion, who are soon to be revealed as apparent father and son, feel none. Text: M.J. Cropp (CQ 36 [1986] 261) adducing /A

249-51

1402 argues

that 247 was meant to stand on its own and was made more explicit by the interpolator's 248. But 247 is rather bare without definition. Kr. begins emphatically with the pronoun to distinguish her case from Ion's everyone else.

188

COMMENTARY age-old memory: the burden of the past, and the burden of place (283ff.) oppress Kr. until the recognition. Kr. and Ion share the feeling that memories are painful (284 and 361). The verb she uses, dvenetpnodunv,

lit. measured up', expresses a very deliberate, careful recall of detail. Cf. Et. 52, IT 346 and Ion's use of the verb in 1271. there...here: a neat juxtaposition of the two spatial foci of the play: cf. 384,

645. This is a further reason (Diggle, Studies 97f.) for accepting Owen's

252-4

correction. Kraus (40f.) defends the Ms. οἴκοι, but this is neither precise enough nor vague enough for the present state of the discussion. For the expression cf. [7 781. Kr.'s agitation is expressed in the accumulation of clipped ejaculations and perplexed questions. Though self-directed, these verses are not an aside, since Ion responds to them at 255. >> Bain, Actors and Audience 36. unhappy...gods dare!: the combination τλήμονες... τολμήματα neatly

expresses another thematic polarity in the play: the Greek root TAa* (seen in τλάω, τλήμων, τόλμα, and the name of the Titan Atlas [cf. In.]) can be either active, ‘dare, do heartlessly', or passive ‘suffer, endure’. >> J. R. Wilson, AJP 92 (1971) 292ff. turn to for: Musgrave's neat correction introduces the idea of a standard to which one can refer (cf. Plato, Rep. 484c); irresponsible divine behaviour

255

would deprive men of any standard. Ion will develop this idea in his address to Apollo in 436ff. Why, lit. ‘in respect of what thing’: a colloquialism, only in Eur. in this sense (cf. Hcld. 646, El. 831, Stevens, Coll. Exp. 22 and D. lakov, EEThes 14 [1975] 375ff.), which may suggest Ion's growing sympathy for Kr. beyond interpretation: i.e. things I cannot fathom. Wakefield's conjecture,

necessitated by metre, gives Ion a word, now attested in Hyps. fr. i. iv. 18 Bond, appropriate to one brought up in an oracular environment; Iakov's (loc. cit.) ἀδιερεύνητα ‘inscrutable’ merits consideration.

256

It is nothing: for οὐδέν used to close off unwanted discussion cf. 288, Med. 925, IT 781. I have let fly, lit. 'I have shot my arrow": probably a dead metaphor (cf. A. Eum. 676, Hec. 603, Supp. 456, Tro. 446).

257

silent: an important theme in this play of intrigue that is connected with the idea of keeping hidden discussed in 73n. above. Silence is mostly seen to be destructive (because of it Kr. fails to find the truth from Apollo), though it accords with Apollo's plan; the breaking of silence (the Chorus to Kr.: 666ff., Kr. in her monody: 859, 874, 868-69) can lead to equally ruinous results.

258-61

Ion asks four questions (for the excited formulation cf. Kannicht on Hel.

84-6); Kr. gives only three replies because the answer to the second and third question is the same. For the order of the answers cf. the standard

COMMENTARY

189

Homeric chiasmus (e.g. Od. 11.171-203). Text: L. Dindorf's πατρός ‘father’ for homeland in 258 is tempting. But a) Kr. does not give her father's name unasked as some think, for to ask a woman who she was would normally elicit the reply ‘I am the daughter/wife of X' (cf. Just, op. cit. 27f.); b) the unusual junction of πέφυκας ‘born from‘ with πάτρας puts appropriate, if unconscious, emphasis on Kr.'s relationship with her Attic homeland. Cf. the unusual linking of γῆς with ἔβλαστεν in 267 below and Ion's wry remark in 542a. For linguistic factors for and against

the correction see Diggle, Studies 98, Kovacs, AJP 105 (1984) 240. 263 265

266

fill me with respect: for θαυμάζω expressing respect rather than wonder cf. A. Seven 772, S. El. 393, Med. 1144. While the sympathy which develops between Ion and Kr. is obvious, there are also many discontinuities in the dialogue. Here Ion ignores her statement of 264 which invites a query, and asks further about her ancestry instead. Cf. 289 below. By the gods, is it true: Badham thinks Ion speaks with 'the simple eagerness of a child'. But the words may be formulaic; cf. /T 509. Text: Though the indicative θέλω would produce a common filler in stichomythia (cf. Supp. 1060, ZA 1130, Antiope fr. 60. 63 Kambitsis), the participle (cf. Ba. 475 for the corruption) keeps the focus on Ion in Kr.'s

interruption of his sentence. 267

father's father: the Greek might mean that Erichthonios is Kr.'s greatgrandfather and the standard genealogy is Erichthonios-Pandion-Erechtheus (cf. Apollod.

269-70

3. 14. 2, Paus.

1. 5. 8), but Eur. excludes Pandion

to make

Kr.'s autochthonous links more immediate. For the circumstances of Erichthonios' birth cf. 21n. Earth gave the baby Erichthonios to Athena for rearing and thus her role in

the origin of the autochthonous Athenians is stressed. The verb take up is

271

271-4

that regularly used of the symbolic raising of a child from the ground as a declaration of paternity. Cf. Aristoph. Clouds 531, Lacey 111f. regularly depicted: for representations of the scene see LIMC s.v. Aglauros, Herse, Pandrosos $ 6-8, 15-22. For other references to art as a source of knowledge in tragedy cf. Tro. 687, Hipp. 1005, A. Supp. 282f., Eum. 49ff. Athena put the baby Erichthonios with two snakes to guard him (22) in a basket, which she then gave to the daughters of Kekrops (the Kekropids or Aglaurids) with instructions to leave it unopened. They disobeyed, were driven mad by the sight, and leapt from the Acropolis. Like Callimachus (Hecale fr. 260. 27ff.), Eur. makes all the sisters disobedient; other versions

distribute the blame variously. See Apollod. 3. 14. 6, Paus. !. 18. 2 and Bómer on Ovid Mer. 2. 552ff. In a different tradition Erichthonios was himself a snake, identified with the serpent at the feet of the Athena

190

COMMENTARY

Parthenos on the Parthenon, and with the sacred serpent which lived in the Erechtheum. a rocky crag: Kr. will be in danger of sharing the fate of the Aglaurids after Ion discovers her plot. Cf. 1266-68 below.

275

Ion's interest as he turns abruptly from one scene of blood to another is pointed by his briskly colloquial tone. For the extra-metrical interjection cf.

Med. 386, IT 467 and see Stevens, Coll. Exp. 34; for colloquial δαί

276

expressing not surprise (so Page on Med. 339) but lively curiosity see Stockert on JA 1443, Stevens, Coll. Exp. 45. I am not pressed: not simply a filler, but intended to inject some natural colour into the very formal dialogue. Cf. Hec. 238. The dative σχολῆι 15

referential; cf. the accus. of respect in S. Tr. 1215. 277-8

Erechtheus, on oracular advice, sacrificed his daughters (or daughter; the accounts of the sources quoted by Austin in NFE 22f. vary) to ensure

success in the war against Eumolpus

king of Eleusis (or against the

Thracians, coming to the aid of Eleusis). Eur. treated the episode in Erechtheus, where a single daughter is sacrificed and the patriotism of the

mother Praxithea is an important theme. For other dramatisations of sacrifice as the price of victory against an invader cf. Pho., Hcld. and see Mastronarde Pho. p.393, Wilkins, Held. pp. xxiiff., N. Loraux, Tragic Ways of Killing a Woman trans. A. Forster (Cambridge Mass., 1987) 31ff. and other literature cited by Cropp, SFP 1.148. steeled himself: ἔτλη denotes resolve either high-minded or hard-hearted

(cf. 252-4n.). The word is frequent in sacrificial contexts (cf. A. Ag. 224, S. El. 531, IT 617, IA 96ff.) and is used later (958, 1497) of Kr.'s exposure of

her baby. Similar resolve in the face of an apparent threat to the national

interest 1s almost acted out later in the play when the Old Man and Kr. form 279-80

their plot to dispose of Ion. This account implies that all the daughters save Kr. were sacrificed. But in other accounts, including Eur.'s own in Erectheus (cf. fr. 370. 68ff.), the

sisters of the sacrificed girl killed themselves in accordance with a vow. Eur.'s version here allows Kr. to share in her family's protection of the city and at the same time survive to continue the line. The baby Kr. was protected by her mother's arms from murder by her father; the baby Ion was saved by his father's care after being deprived of his mother's embrace. These links are made clear in the language: βρέφος veoyvóv 'new-born infant' is also used of Ion in 31 (cf. 1339) and ἀγκάλαι ‘arms’, first occurring here, is used repeatedly later of Ion's exposure and rescue (cf. 962, 1375, 1454, 1598).

281-2

Erechtheus won the war and killed Eumolpus, but Poseidon, his father, caused an earthquake by striking the Acropolis with his trident and

Erechtheus disappeared into a chasm in the earth (cf. Erec. fr. 370. 59f.).

COMMENTARY

191

This is not an unexampled form of death (cf. Amphiaraus' end), but one particularly appropriate to an autochthonous being, and similar to other rocky deaths mentioned in the play—those of the Aglaurids, and, it might have been, Kr. A brackish spring marked the place where Poseidon struck the rock, and a hole in the rock between the caves of Apollo and Pan—

where Kr. was raped—was the supposed grave of Erechtheus. See Apollod. 3. 15. 4, Hyg. 46.

In a few lines the impression is given that the whole Erechtheid house is

283-8

doomed: the play becomes a tussle between the cursed past of the house working with the unhappy past of Kr. against the possibility of a bright future through the reunion of Kr. and her son. Kr. has been happy to answer questions about the distant past, beyond her real experience; but mention of the Makrai touches her too closely (remind echoes memory in 250) and she brings discussion to a halt again (cf. 256)

285

with οὐδέν in 288. Pythian lightnings: the numinous character of the place and its continued link with Apollo is noted by Ion. For three days and nights each month the Athenians looked towards Harma on Mt. Parnes (on the Attic-Boeotian border) for lightning. If it appeared, Apollo thus 'honoured' Athens and the Athenians sent an embassy to Delphi. Ion's identification of the

observation-post contradicts Strabo 9. 2. 11 who says it was at the altar of

286

287

Zeus Astrapaios, 'of the lightning', (between the temples of Apollo and Olympian Zeus). Either Ion is mistaken, or the place had changed by Strabo's time or, most likely, Eur. uses poetic licence to introduce reference to the Long Rocks. Text: Πύθιος, an unlikely repetition in any case, is excluded metrically. Kayser's suggestion, 'the god', introduces an allusive reference to Apollo which was ousted by a gloss, and is more probable than others. never set eyes on it: an expression of strong regret or even, as in S. Tr. 997, IT 518, disgust. Text: Hermann's solution at the beginning of the line is palaeographically inviting. For the taking up of a previous speaker's word see Diggle, Studies 50f., and for the intensifying duplication cf. ZA 460 where it is used in self-correction. Scaliger's correction of the impossibly rude σ᾽ "never set eyes on you' is obviously right.

things very dear: τὰ φίλτατα is unusual of a place; it is regularly used of one's family (cf. S. OC 1110, HF 514, Tro. 371, IA 458 and, ironically, 521,

289

525 below), and is thus ironically appropriate to the place where Apollo fathered Ion. Ion ignores the clue which Kr. gives to the cause of her misery. He changes the subject partly because he takes the hint in οὐδέν without the need for an explicit request as in 257, and partly because shameful deed does not encourage follow-up.

192

COMMENTARY

292

For X.'s genealogy see 63n. The wording is unusual; normally the genitives

293

connected with T€ would express separate blood lines: HF 826, 844, Alc. 509. How came it: the tone is one of surprise and mild indignation (Cf. Heid.

294

254, Hec. 883). land: the word πόλις

297

more extensive area: of all Sicily in Aristoph. Peace 251, of the whole Peloponnese in fr. 730. And then: κάιτα and κἄπειτα are used in surprised, indignant or sarcastic

normally denotes a city-state, but can be used of a

questions. >> Denniston 311, Fraenkel on A. Ag. 481, Diggle, Euripidea 498. As all examples in this play (548, 946, 1286, 1300, 1408) except 946

are from Ion, the expressions may characterise his naiveté, shocked by the series of disclosures: foreigners marrying Athenians, mothers trying to kill 298

300

sons, Apollo's licentious behaviour. dowry: marriage to Kr. brought with it the rule over Athens; cf. Or. 1662 and for the range of property covered by ¢epv see Friis-Johansen/Whittle on A. Supp. 979. Note the chiastic structure: acc., gen., gen., acc. Are we meant to see in Kr.'s fulsome description of herself resentment at her status as a gift to a helpful foreigner? Trophonios: Trophonios was a Boeotian seer who helped to build the fourth temple at Delphi (Hom. h. Apollo 294ff.). His oracle was fifteen miles from Delphi in a ravine or cavern at Lebadaea on the slopes of Mt Helicon (PW I, 368). The complex procedure at his shrine, related by Paus.

3. 39. 5, evidently took time. By allowing X. to consult Trophonios, Eur. neatly achieves two ends: Kr. and Ion are able to meet alone, and X. gives

Kr. the advance information that they will not return childless from Delphi, thus deepening the reversal of expectation when the Chorus tell her that she will never have a child. Text: Badham's totepet with the local dat. onkois connects with the fact that X. was late (cf. 403), but gives the verb the unparalleled sense of ‘tarry, linger’. Reiske's ‘turned away to the precinct’

makes ἐκστρέφει

301

intrans.; this too is without parallel but may be justified

by uses of the simple verb (LSJ s.v. D). σηκοὺς δ᾽ ἐστάλη ‘went off to the precinct’ is another possibility (cf. Med. 668). To see the sights: a reasonable suggestion, given the behaviour of his

wife's servants at Delphi, but introduced here chiefly to foreground the 302 303

actual reason. a single response: like Croesus (cf. Hdt. 1. 46) X. wants the reassurance of mantic agreement. Ion could reasonably presume that a king would consult the oracle about

either his own or his land's fertility, common causes for concern (cf. PW II nos. 6, 10, 28, 43, 58, 110, 111, 156), so there is no need for Diggle's ποίων, ‘about what sort of issues’, which is weakly vague.

COMMENTARY

193

The long duration of the couple’s childless marriage (the emphatic dual ἔχοντ᾽ prepares for the ambiguous reference to Kr.'s own state of childlessness below), already stressed by Hermes (64), explains X.'s unquestioning delight later and also places in the distant past the important events before their marriage. Kr.'s memory

306

307

308

of that time, we shall see, is as

vivid as X.'s is vague and unreliable. Like Apollo himself, Kr. gives a riddling and misleading answer to Ion's almost artificially exact question. Kr. cannot afford to be any more candid with Ion than with X. Ion's realisation that noble birth and a famous homeland are no guarantee of bliss echoes Kr.'s words to him in 264. The focus of the dialogue shifts to Ion, the verse opening with a question

parallel to Ion's in 258. Struck by his demeanour (247) and appearance, on

309

310

311

which she later (326) remarks with surprise, Kr. counts Ion's mother fortunate. She mentions only Ion's mother, rather than using the usual formula which includes both parents (cf. H. Od. 6. 154), but Ion (313) mentions both his mother and father, since both are relevant to him. Eur. uses a conventional locution (cf. Bond on Hyps. i. i. 5,) to telling effect: by calling Ion's mother happy, Kr. touches on the apparent pathos, and future Joy, of both their situations. The irony of Kr.'s exclamation referring unwittingly to herself arises naturally from the situation; contrast the knowing irony of Orestes in El. 248ff. For the so-called 'instantaneous' or 'dramatic' aorist ὥλβισα referring to the immediate past and represented by the English present cf. (Denniston on) ET. 215, (Kannicht on) Hel. 330. Ion stresses the anonymity attaching to a slave (cf. Y. Garlan, Slavery in Ancient Greece, trans. J. Lloyd (Ithaca, 1988] 22f.); a chance meeting will give him his name. He repeats the point in 311, but there the omission of the word for 'slave' allows the meaning 1 am called Loxias' «child». Kr. asks whether Ion was the official offering of a state to Delphi (cf. the Chorus in Pho. [203ff.] who are Tyrian women sent as slaves to Delphi), or was sold to the temple by an individual. For the latter possibility cf. Oedipus' question in S. OT 1025. I know but one thing: formulaic in Eur. (Hipp. 599, Supp. 933, El. 627, 752), but also found

in Soph.

(OC

1161), and parodied

by Aristoph.

in

Peace 228. Here the formula has more than normal weight: as the dialogue progresses we discover that Ion indeed has very little knowledge of his past. This is in direct contrast with Kr.; she has a long story to tell (336), but 15

314-5

prevented by shame from revealing it. The question of Ion's housing naturally follows that about imagines some definite arrangement either in the temple attached dwellings such as are used by the Priestess or 1253). Ion's reply reveals a much freer lifestyle (cf. 53).

his parents. Kr. or in one of the by visitors (cf. For the idea of

COMMENTARY

194

317 319-20

sleep ‘taking’ one cf. S. Ph. 766. Text: Musgrave's ἁπανταχοῦ ‘everywhere is my home’ is unnecessary and would exclude appropriate reference to the god (cf. 309, 311 and later 321, 327). those...know: an allusive reference to the Priestess.

At no time did I know the breast: the point of this statement is to put limits on the maternal role of the Priestess; though she treated Ion like a mother (321), she was unable to nurture him as his own mother could have

done. Kr.'s question shows her deep anxiety about never having reared her child (cf. 963, 1492f.), and her interruption to Ion's answer shows her eagerness to discover who did for him what she failed to do for her own child. The breast was for the Greeks the most powerful symbol of the bond

between mother and child, and the baring of a mother's breast was perhaps the most affective gesture of supplication: cf. H. I. 22. 80, (Garvie on) A. Cho. 896ff., El. 1206f., Pho. 1568, and Mastronarde on Pho. 30.

poor boy: Kr. uses ταλαίπωρος also of herself (her 'friend') in 364, again in conjunction with disease imagery. pained...pains, lit. 'sick...sicknesses': for the emphatic repetition cf. Alc. 1047, Or. 1615. Kr. comes upon not parallel but complementary woes: Ion was abandoned as a baby and never knew his mother's breast, while Kr.

abandoned a baby and never offered it her breast. Ion recognises a similar complementarity in 359. The metaphor of disease and illness is used for a

wide range of difficulties: political (HF 542, where see Bond); familial (And. 548, IT 680); sexual (And. 220f., Hipp. 463).

321

This expression

of Ion's strong attachment

to the Priestess will be

developed in their dialogue in 1324ff. Text: Reiske's προφῆτιν makes the noun depend, as is logical, on νομίζομεν. But the nom. is more natural, with Ion resuming the emphatic nom. of his own opening in 319 and of Kr.'s question in 320. ταύτην is easily understood as object of νομίζομεν.

322-7

Kr.'s attention to the concrete detail of Ion's upbringing, food and clothing is expressive of a woman obsessed with her failure to provide for own child. Ion's sturdy manhood and eye-catching garb are in strong contrast with her image of her baby torn from her breast and left untended in swaddling clothes. altars...visitors: Ion must have had a share in the sacrificial meats and benefitted from the generous mood which visits to Delphi still encourage. He took a less practical view of his livelihood in 182f. Text: 324-5 evidently interfere with the excellent junction of 323 and 326 and, on the other hand, 326 gives Kr. an unacceptably prim response to Ion's unhappy suspicion in 325. Where do they belong? Ion's factual statement in 329 scarcely accounts for Kr.'s cri de coeur in 330, whereas it is nicely followed by 324 and her sympathy with his mother who, it seems, will never find him. Then Ion's guess that he is the product of some wrong

COMMENTARY

195

is the perfect remark to elicit her gasp of pain. >> Diggle, PCPS 19 and, an unconvincing defence of the Ms. order, Kraus 42.

328

spring to: a verb expressive of vigorous enthusiasm. Kr. projects her eagerness to find her son onto Ion. Once he has found his ‘father’ Ion will indeed ‘spring to’ thoughts of his mother; cf. X.'s words in 572.

search: for the hunting imagery carried by the word ἔρευναν 329

cf. H. Od. 19.

435f. definite clue: cf. 237n. Since τεκμήριον was the regular word for a sign or token connected with recognition (cf. S. El. 904, ET. 575, IT 808, 822) Ion's insistence that he has no such clue creates an obstacle to any imminent

recognition and makes the audience wonder when and how clues may be 324

325

331

produced. Wretched: the opposite view of Jon's mother to the one Kr. voiced at 308. The similarity between his mother's and her own situation moves her to focus now on the mother's grief, ın having and losing a son. The words whoever she was, 'almost a formula in pre-recognition scenes' (Bond on Hyps. fr. 1. i. 5: cf. 564 below, IT 483, 628), take up Ion's opening address in 238 and tease our expectations even though Hermes promised a recognition in Athens. Text: for Porson's correction see Diggle, Studies 99f. wrong: the Greek is perhaps intentionally ambiguous; the gen. some woman's can be either subjective or objective and so the woman may be thought of as having either committed or suffered the wrong. If Kr. is responding to this line in 330, it is interesting that she assumes the latter. This is the first of three accounts of his birth given by Ion which assume human sexual indiscretion: cf. 550ff.—X. and a bacchant; 1520ff.— Kr. and a mortal. He also has the same rationalising suspicion about Kr.'s 'friend'— that she is just covering up a mortal failing (341).

Owen finds the irony contrived because it is not easy to see how a woman in search of her son could help Ion find his mother. But her behaviour could assist Ion in the task referred to in 328, giving him by analogy some clue of the kind he now lacks (329). In fact, 361 shows that Ion is too upset by any experiences similar to his own to make use of them. Text: Kraus (44) would

332

333 334

keep εἶπον as an imperative: ‘Who? Tell me! If she were to assist...' But this is to introduce a late and unlikely form of the verb. before my husband arrives: so Kr. deliberately left X. at Trophonios' shrine for her own purposes. Here we see the first hint of the determination which will become more evident in the plot against Ion's life.

be assured that: for this ‘elliptical’ use of ὡς cf. And. 255, Hec. 400. a secret oracle: again the theme of secrecy which here shows a striking confluence of Apollo's and Kr.'s purposes. She wants from him a secret,

KpuTTOV, oracle on the fruit of the intercourse, γάμος, which they both

196

335

COMMENTARY want to keep secret (73, 396, 1484, 1524, 1544) by riddling language or silence (430, 533). sponsor: it was the sponsor's task to lodge and entertain visitors to Delphi, and then to introduce and guide them when they wanted to consult the oracle. At Delphi the proxenoi were not severally in a special relationship

with particular states, but acted generally on behalf of consultants. Cf. And. 1103 and see PW I, 32. For the polite request in optative with dv, please

tell me, cf. 1336 and Mastronarde on Pho. 335; R. Lattimore in Arktouros: Essays Knox

336

ed. G. Bowersock et al. (Berlin, 1979) 211.

I am ashamed to speak: Kr. can speak openly of the rape only in her monody, after grief and outrage dissolve her sense of shame (αἰδώς 861-62,

ct. 934). The climax of her charges against Apollo is that he shamelessly (ἀναιδείαι, 895) did a favour to Aphrodite.

337

shame

is an ineffectual power:

Eur. frequently deifies abstracts (cf.

Tyranny in Pho. 506 and see Kannicht on Hel. 560, Mikalson, Honor Thy

Gods 277 n.7). As it turns out, it is less Kr.'s αἰδώς than Ion's αἰσχύνη on behalf of Apollo (367) which prevents further inquiry. >> Cropp on Erec. fr. 365, Barrett, Hipp. p. 230, Cairns, Aidos 324. 338

One of my friends: the device of the fictitious friend standing for oneself goes back to the false tales of the Odyssey (cf. 19. 300ff.). Cf. also Melanippe's disguising her own case behind the hypothetical act of an unnamed girl (Wise Mel. fr. 485). The fiction is sustained until the end of the dialogue (something which a scribe failed to do, writing ἔγνως ‘did you decide’ for ἔγνω in 349). Phoebus: the Greek word-order has Kr. open emphatically with the god's

name which is immediately taken up in the same case in Jon's rejoinder. Cf. 339

341

the exchange of Medea and Jason in Med. 1370ff. Don't say so: Ion's polite invitation to Kr. to tell her story (335) is replaced by an abrupt imperative μὴ Aéy' once he has heard what she has to say. Further, his agitation modifies his courtesy as, for the only time in this long exchange, he calls her ξένη, stranger. Impossible!: the dismissive οὐκ ἔστιν (cf. Alc. 539, Or. 1097) is again expressive of Ion's agitation.

Some

man's

wrongdoing:

scepticism about divine births, expressed

frequently in Eur. (Ba. 27ff., HF 353f., Hel. 17ff., IA 793ff.), may reflect a common social phenomenon.

342

she has suffered terribly: it is a feature of this whole scene, underlined by a careful use of language, that the characters, while at first reluctant to offer their sympathy, grow to a greater understanding as the other's story is told.

So at first Ion ignores Kr.'s statement that her lineage has not made her happy (264, 268), but then as he learns more of her history, he concludes, in language similar to hers, that while fortunate in other respects (i.e. her

COMMENTARY

197

lineage) she is not so generally (307). Kr. thinks Ion's mother happy (308), but then, seeing the parallel between his mother and herself, her son and him, she concludes that his mother is wretched (324) and that they share the

same sickness (320). Ion denies Kr.'s 'friend's' story and implicates her in a mortal

ἀδικία

(339, 341), while Kr. claims sympathy

terribly’ ἄθλια 342) for the ‘friend’. When

(‘she has suffered

he has discovered more Ion

responds to this, concluding (355) that it is the god who is in the wrong

343

(ἀδικεῖ) and that the mother is indeed wretched (ἀθλία). Text: Bayfield claims that the reading οὔ for ὅ produces a ‘disjointed and foolish line’. But with 6 Kr. must ignore, most unnaturally, Ion's emphatic denial; οὔ has her respond to it in a way which, while preserving the fiction, allows Kr.'s own view to intrude. By what action: Ion immediately changes Kr.'s passive mode to an active one in the participle öpdoaoa; if Apollo showed a girl favour, as is claimed, then anything she suffered must have been the result of her own actions. For the Späv/taßetv link cf. 1248f. below, Ba. 801. Bayfield is wrong to see öpdoaca as quite unemphatic and simply equivalent to 'how'.

No one knows: the same perplexing ignorance as besets Ion (311, 329). 347

in what way did it meet its death: Ion's line of questioning brings out Kr.'s unfounded assumption

that the child is dead (348), which hardens into a

conviction as the play goes on (902-3, 917, 951), even though she has come to the oracle to learn whether it might be alive. This is less a contradiction than a realistic piece of psychology, with Eur. subtly dramatising Kr.'s wavering between deepening despair and fleeting hope. wild beasts: cf. 951 and Oedipus' thoughts on the fate he escaped P/io.

1602f. It is not significant that the predators are elsewhere assumed to be birds (902f., 917). In 504f. the Chorus imagine both beasts and birds. evidence: Ion's focus on evidence (cf. τεκμήριον in 237, 329) is a trait of his character which will be developed in his discussion with X. (528ff.).

350-2

Here as elsewhere Eur. stresses the fallibility of human reason, as it arises in dramatic situations partly ironic, partly pathetic. Kr. exposed the child, assuming it would die (18), but hoping at the same time that Apollo might save it (965). When she returned to the cave, presumably seeking confirmation of its fate, she found exactly the signs suggesting that Apollo had acted as she wished—the baby gone and no sign of bloodshed. But her fear led her to conciude that the baby had been killed. The fact that the

exposed child is standing before her hearing all this makes the irony still 353

more piquant. A further discontinuity between what Kr. says and the line of thought which

Ion picks up. Here the effect is the opposite to that of 265: Ion's interest in Kr.'s story leads away

from the obvious

conclusion

that there are no

198

COMMENTARY grounds for thinking that the child is dead. Eur. is closing off, one by one,

every road which might have led to recognition. 354

357-8

Kr.'s syntax (indicative with dv in a conditional) is a strong sign that, although she has come to the oracle for information, she assumes the child is dead. The irony here is both natural and moving. Parents who have lost children are continually reminded of what might have been when they see those of the same age. Ion's suggestion that the child might be alive provokes an outburst against Apollo. Recognition is now prevented by her bitterness against the god: if the child is dead, it is his fault; if it is alive and cared for by him, he is selfish, even though she later says that this is precisely what she wanted (965). Kr. continues to be blinded by her tears (cf. 241f.)—unable to see the

truth because she is What if: τί δ᾽ εἰ Stevens, Coll. Exp. an off-hand way his

consumed by misplaced grief and bitterness. is a colloquialism common in Plato and comedy (cf. 30f.). The irony is neat as Ion unwittingly describes in own situation. Text: Diggle argues for the transposition

of 355-6 in PCPS 16ff. For another possibility, the shifting of the couplet to 355

356

after 352, see Lee, Hermes 119 (1991) 469ff. An emphatic chiasmus marks Ion's first criticism of the god. Even with Diggle's order of verses viv. should be kept (cf. Kraus 44ff.). Ion now sees that even if Apollo has saved the child he has done him wrong in depriving him of a mother's love.

This detail brings together the secret and open reasons for consulting the oracle. Kr. is so carried along by Ion's sympathy that she lets her own situation surface (cf. 342), and introduces a potentially embarrassing similarity between her 'friend' and herself. Text: For Badham's insertion of ye, idiomatic in this kind of response, cf. 746, Denniston 424.

359

chimes in with, lit. 'is in harmony with': for the metaphor cf. Med. 1008. While 356 establishes the similarity of the 'friend's' fate to Kr.'s (304ff.), it

360

is scarcely congruent with Ion's; he must be talking vaguely of the general situation which seems a poor response to the particularity of 356. This unsatisfactory junction tells against Diggle's rearrangement; see Lee, op. cit. 470, Matthiessen, Gnomon 56 (1984) 680. Kr.'s emotions again prevent her from seeing that the similarity of fact and situation might point to the identity of Ion and her son. Her statement, clear in the context, has the formal ambiguity of an oracle (cf. 306, deliberately obfuscating) and could mean that Ion longs for his mother, which, as his response shows, is how he takes it.

361

For d, 'a sharp cry of protest', followed by the negative command see Barrett on Hipp. 503-4.

364

Eur. has Kr. respond to an ambiguity in Jon's question. By λόγου he meant 'cause, case', but she takes it as 'story'. Ion's your case comes too close to

COMMENTARY

366

199

the truth, so Kr. distances herself with the very pointed that...woman. Cf. Orestes' deliberate misleading of Electra in El. 290f. the tripod shared by Greece: cf. 91n., and for Apollo sitting on the tripod cf. Or. 955f., IT 1252ff., the hydria illustrated (fig.157) in J. Boardman,

Athenian Red Figure Vases, The Archaic Period (London, 1975) and the relief pictured (fig. 169) in J. Boardman, Greek Sculpture, The Classical

367

Period (London, 1985). For the universal importance of the oracle, established as early as the 8th cent., see C. Morgan in N. Marinatos, R.Hägg eds., Greek Sanctuaries (London, 1993) 27ff. and R. Flacelière, Greek Oracles (London, 1965) 55f. Like Kr., Ion jumps to conclusions: having assumed that Apollo wants to

keep his liaison secret, he attributes to him the motive of shame, the very motive he earlier attributed dismissively to Kr.'s 'friend' (341).

368

Kr.'s rejoinder on the side of her friend has a bitter edge pointed by rhyme

and syllabic correspondence: αἰσχύνεται-ἀλγύνεται. We are dealing here

369

with much more than a jingle like those in Hcld. 541-2 and other passages cited in Wilkins’ note. speak for you: the προφῆται, ‘spokesmen’, indispensable in the oracular

procedure (cf. X.'s question in 413), were chosen by lot from the five most prominent families of Delphi, supposedly descended from Deucalion who, like the Athenians, was earthborn. Their duty was to bring the questions to

the oracle and return the answer formed into intelligible verse or prose. It is to the latter activity that θεμιστεύοντα (371) refers. >> G. Roux, Delphes son oracle et ses dieux (Paris, 1976) 56ff., Amandry, op. cit. 118ff.

371-3

rightly... Leave well alone: Ion's attitude to Apollo here seems a little

374-7

inconsistent with his criticisms in 355 and later 436ff., though the psychology is understandable: he feels indignant at Apollo's alleged behaviour, but has lingering doubts about whether it is really true. He certainly does not want to antagonise the god, and so he warns Kr. off first with recourse to oracular protocol, and then with a curt imperative supported by a general reflection. This prompts a lecture (more or less extensive—see below) on the foolishness of twisting divine arms. The engaging visitor initially elicited eagerness to help (333/5), but the details were unpalatable and so Ion finds refuge in the general principles which have guided his thinking up to now. Ion's point is that consulting unwilling oracles is no less unwise than to

attempt to extort information from the gods by other means: the inspection of sacrificial victims or the observation of birds. operandi in S. Ant. 999ff. and see Kovacs, TAPA 109 idea of forcing the gods to give information cf. S. difficulties in these lines, on which see Owen ad emendation, and deletion is unjustified: a) ἑκόντας

Cf. Teiresias' modus (1979) 113ff. For the OT 280ff. Text: the loc., are curable by ‘willingly’ going with

200

COMMENTARY ‘gods’ must be wrong; Diggle's text is preferable to Wakefield's ἑκόντες ‘willingly’ going with the subject; Ὁ) δι᾽ οἰωνῶν, ‘through birds’ is oddly otiose with πτεροῖς, ‘by wings’, and looks like a gloss which ousted a modifier like σκοπουμένοις. ‘being observed" (cf. Ba. 347,

Supp.

500); c)

the chief objection to 374-7 is that they seem to be a doublet of 378-80 (cf. Kraus 46f.). But as Biehl (Philologus 16f.) points out, Ion's final lines refer

to the forcing of favours generally and so follow climactically rather than duplicate the detailed observations on forced mantic. folly: a difficulty for English readers of Greek is that words may cover moral, intellectual and aesthetic fields which we prefer to keep separate.

Here ἀμαθία is as much moral insensibility as stupidity or ignorance. >> Denniston on El. 294-6, Seaford on Cyc. 173 and cf. 916n. put pressure on: this meaning of ἐκπονέω with an object and an infinitive

is unique. Eur. uses this favourite word (cf. 1040, 1355), which has the basic meaning ‘bring to completion with work’, in a variety of senses; cf. J. M. Bremer CQ 22 (1972) 236ff.

378-80

Kr. does in one way force Apollo to give her what she wanted sooner than he wished, but he shows himself quite willing to do so, and there are no evil

consequences. despite: the use of Bia, lit. ‘force’, in this context recalls Apollo's treatment of Kr. (11 above) for which he will soon be criticised (437ff.). Text: Stephanus’ correction is unnecessary (cf. Matthiessen, Gnomon 56 [1984]

680): ἄκοντα ἀγαθά ‘forced benefits‘ is a neat paradox (for ἄκοντα not of persons cf. A. Supp. 39, 5. OT 1230), and the cumulative effect of ἀκόντων «ἄκοντα produces a pointed contrast with ἑκόντες below. 381-3

Ion's speech

is divided

from

Kr.'s attack on Apollo

by a sententious

reflection from the Chorus, a regular structural technique (cf. 1510f.). Such choral tags help to distance the audience from the deeply involving sentiments just heard; they are essentially commonplace, bear only slight relevance to the context, and certainly provide no authoritative guide for interpretation. The Chorus' sympathy with Kr. prompts pessimism, but events will show that the diversity of human fortunes can embrace unexpected bliss. >> Heath, Poetics 127f.

381

many...many: Eur. is fond of polyptoton—the repetition of the same word in different grammatical forms—cf. 690, 900, (found in other tragedians:

cf. A. Cho.

766,

1066,

1279. Such jingles

5. Ajax 866 πόνος

πόνωι

πόνον φέρει ) were a mark of the sophist Gorgias’ style, but they are as old as Homer, and are often a mannerism of no real significance. >> Denniston on El. 337. The sentiment has much in common with the tail-pieces (for their authenticity see Barrett on Hipp. 1462-6) of And., Alc., Hel., Ba. and

(with a different opening) Med.

COMMENTARY

384Aff.

201

single: in contrast with many...many above, as fortunate is opposed to calamities. Text: the Ms. ἔν... εὐτυχές with the correction in L βίωι, ‘a single stroke of good fortune in man's life' is defended by Kraus (47f.), but this seems too deeply pessimistic. Kr. returns to the attitude of her first speech (247-54). The ring composition emphasises that her encounter with Ion has only deepened her bitter frustration. 247-54 begins with an address to Ion and concludes with criticism of Apollo; 384-400 begins with criticism of Apollo and ends with

an address to Ion. She assails Apollo as if he were in the dock, and in direct

384

385

386

387 388

contrast with Ion's generalisations, her speech is concrete and specific. It 1s lent force by having the charges of a single woman represented as though they came from two plaintiffs. both there and here: Kr. returns to the two foci of the play which she introduced in similar language in her first speech (251); 386 explains how Apollo was unjust 'there', 387 how he is unjust 'here'. Cf. the careful articulation of alternatives at 388-9, each expressed in one line. you do wrong: Kr. has found the answer to her question of 253-4; she will get neither justice nor even a hearing from Apollo. absent...at hand: the irony, pointed by the antithesis (falsified by the facts) of the different compounds of the verb 'to be', is effective. For a similar, but more complex, irony cf. El. 245.

is marked by sigmatism, the repetition of "s", a habit of Eur. (cf. Med. 476, IT 165, Ba. 792-3 and Dodds' note) parodied by Plato the comedian (fr. 29 KA). While many instances may be random, others, like this one, seem intended to express passion. the mother who makes inquiry: Kr. nearly drops her defences here (cf. 391), but Ion will supply ‘through me.

grave-mound: the only allusion in the play to the Greek anxiety for burial. Eur. chooses to make little of this theme, which is highlighted in other cases of children's deaths (HF 1360ff., Med. 1377, Tro. 1133ff.), because it would have been a distracting complication in a drama already rich in themes.

390-1

After making her charges against the god, Kr. sees that she must concede defeat and so agrees in the end to Ion's behest in 372. The change in number from we to I is regarded by Kraus (49) as significant: at first both

Kr. and her fictitious friend are represented as frustrated by the god; in the end the truth emerges in the singular. Text: the Ms. version is metrically faulty. Any emendations must accommodate the fact that ἐᾶν is never monosyllabic in Eur. (J. Rumpel, Philologus 26 [1867] 241ff.). Kraus (49)

favours Biehl's ἀλλ᾽ «abT'» αἰνέσαι

ἐᾶν

«με»

xpfj

Tá65'..; Badham's ἀλλ᾽

μέν... is a possibility, but ἐᾶν seems the right word here (cf. HF

1125, IT 927, Or. 1028). C. Collard suggests ἀλλ᾽ οὖν

ἐᾶν

χρὴ

τοιάδ᾽;

202

COMMENTARY the recurrence of ἀλλ᾽ in 392 is not an objection since there it has the different function of bringing the dialogue to a close. For ἀλλ᾽ οὖν cf. Tro.

1192. 392ff.

395-7

A prolonged entrance announcement, normally used to show that the entrance is 'of particular emotional significance’ (Taplin, Stagecraft 297). Here it tells us little about X. which we did not already know, but while putting a seal on the growing affinity between Kr. and Ion it implicitly marks X. as an outsider. On the other hand, Kr.'s description of X. as noble suggests the respect she has for him which will surface later (977). Two important themes already raised are stressed at the end of Kr.'s speech:

the need for silence and secretive dealing; the deeply felt need to avoid shame.

helping: the fiction that she acts on a friend's behalf is preserved to the end. 398-400 It is typical for a speech to end with a generalisation; here this allows Kr. to find a plausible reason for her appeal for silence. She ends with a complaint (cf. 252ff.) about how badly done by women are (cf. Hipp. 406f.). But she is no modern feminist overthrowing masculine distinctions between 'good' and 'bad' women; on the contrary, she claims that the distinction is applied too loosely. For a fuller attack on the same lack of discrimination cf. Captive Mel. fr. 660 Mette. 22ff.; fr. 493. b) Xouthos, Ion and Kreousa: 401-51

1. Action

X. arrives with an answer from Trophonios and prepares to enter the oracle at Delphi itself. 2. Structure 1. X. brings the news and discusses his intention of procuring a response from Apollo 401-24. ii. Kr. responds briefly 425-8.

ii. Ion concludes with a long speech criticising Apollo 429-51. 3. Form Brief speeches, concluding with Ion's longer rhesis. 4. Function a. Plot. This scene introduces X. and gets him into the oracle; it also gives some hope to Kr. (by the oracle from Trophonios: 408-9, 410-2, 425-8). b. Character. X. is economically characterised as ponderously serious about the oracular consultation (401-3), business-like and practical (413, 417ff.), with little

understanding of Kr.'s feelings (403). His dismissive attitude to Ion (whom

he

scarcely addresses), contrasts with the sympathy which grew up between Ion and Kr., and also with his effusive behaviour in the scene immediately following. Kr. shows signs of hope and resignation (410-2, 428), but she leaves the stage retaining her ill-feeling towards Apollo (425-8). Ion is still worried by Kr.'s revelations. His

COMMENTARY

203

speech of 429ft. is essential for understanding the growth of his character, the depth of his previous piety, and his determination to judge the gods by human moral

standards, not human moral standards by what the gods do. He is also perplexed (429-32), more deeply affected by the sympathy which he felt for Kr. than he is comfortable with. Though determined to dismiss his doubts (434-6), he is unable to

quell his righteous indignation at what Apollo has done. c. Themes. The alienation and cross-purposes of the married couple continue and

even deepen (408-9, 410-2, 425-8). For Ion's criticism of Apollo see 429-51n. 401-2

first-fruits: X. rather solemnly compares hıs opening greeting to the god

with the ἀπαρχαί, ‘first-fruits’, which were offered to the gods at sacrifices. 403

has not upset you with dread: just as visitors to a shrine were expected to

be joyful (241-6), so those coming from one expected a joyful welcome (cf.

404

Hipp. 792f.). X. describes Kr.'s attitude in exaggerated language (6ppwôla, ‘dread’, is a strong word used only by Eur. in poetry) thereby revealing his own concern about the consultation; this prepares for his euphoric reaction afterwards. I was concerned: Kr. uses the same word, μέριμνα, of her state of mind as Ion had used in 244. There she fobbed off his interest by inventing concern

for a friend;

406

here she implies

that her agitation

ıs connected

with

Trophonios' response. Text: Diggle discusses the need for Badham's 151 pers. verb in Studies 100f. For a defence of the Ms. 2nd pers. ἀφίκου see Kraus 50f. mingling of our seed: there were two Greek theories on the role of the

woman

in conception. One (held e.g. by Apollo in A. Eun. 657-66, by

Anaxagoras and other early physiologists [cf. Arist. Gen. An. 763b 31-3])

was that she was a mere receptacle for male seed. The other, expressed

407-8

here, and shared by the Hippocratic school, Empedocles and Democritus (Guthrie, History of Greek Philosophy Ill [Cambridge, 1965] 467), was that the female also produces seed, and the child is formed by the mingling of the two. Trophonios' pronouncement dovetails with the god's oracle. Oracles were generally ‘how to’ statements, rather than simply ‘that’ statements: X. will be told by Apollo precisely how he will go about getting his son, not just that he will get one. X.'s words are structured so as to distinguish his parenthood from Kr.'s (contrast the inclusive dual νῶιν of her question and compare the structure of Hermes’ statement in 65). This anticipates ironically the outcome—each will find Ion in a different way—and should be seen as X.'s faithful précis of Trophonios' prophetic words, rather than, with Forehand (Ramus 8 [1979]

410

182), as characterising of X.'s selfishness

mother of Phoebus: Leto, mother of both Apollo and Artemis. Kr. turns in

prayer to Leto partly because her earlier attempt to approach Apollo had

204

COMMENTARY been futile and partly because she hopes for the sympathy which a mother

410-2

might feel for her case. show more Apollonian

riddling

and

obfuscation

from

Kr.

Just as

Trophonios' statement was aimed at two addressees, who will come

to

realise that it means different things for each of them, so Kr. speaks to Leto

in words which are meant to be heard with different meanings by both Apollo and X. So συμβόλαια

πρόσθεν to Apollo will mean their past

liaison, to X. it will mean their past offerings for children; παῖδα τὸν σόν

413

415-6

417

to Apollo will mean Ion, to X. their future child. dealings...take a turn: a mixed metaphor. The first term συμβόλαια is commercial (a contract, bond cf. 5. Ph. 884), the second μεταπέσοι suggests the common tragic metaphor from dicing (cf. A. Ag. 32, JA 1343 and see Bond on HF 1228). they will: ἔσται τάδε is a common Euripidean expression of confidence (see Collard on Supp. 1182). It can also express wholehearted assent (cf. 425 below, Hel. 1294). Delphian noblemen: the 'spokesmen' referred to in 369, where see n. The choice by lot may refer either to their order of service in rotation, or to the selection of the 'spokesmen' themselves. >> Plutarch, Quaest. Gr. 292d. Good!: the curt expression of approval and thanks, καλῶς, (cf. Aristoph.

Frogs 888) is colloquial. >> Stevens, Coll. Exp. 54f. This is the only word X. addresses directly to Ion whom he, in strong contrast with Kr., treats as a functionary in whom he can have no interest.

419-20

the sacrificial victim: the animal used to determine whether the day was auspicious (see below) was then sacrificed outside to indicate to all prospective consultants that it was so. »» Parke, Greek Oracles (London, 1967) 82, Amandry, op. cit. 86ff. in front of the temple: this refers to an altar, off-stage, like those at which

Kr. is to pray (422ff.) while X. is inside the temple, and is not the altar at

which Kr. later (1254) seeks asylum. It may or may not refer to the large 421

Chian altar directly to the east of Apollo's temple. auspicious as it is: the oracle was in session only on certain days: in the early period it was once a year, on the 7th day of Bysios (February-March), while later it was on the 7th day of every non-winter month (Apollo wintered in Delos). It first had to be discovered, however, whether any

individual day was auspicious, alota. This was done by pouring cold water over a kid, which had to tremble to show that the Priestess (who trembled

when she was inspired) was susceptible to the god's influence. See Plutarch

Quaest. Gr. 292e, Amandry, op. cit. 81ff., Roux, op. cit. 71ff. 422-4

It was the woman's role to offer prayers on matters closely connected with the family. Cf. Pha. 245ff., Alc. 162ff.

COMMENTARY

205

laden with bay: the suppliants carried branches of bay (for its importance in the cult of Delphic Apollo see 76n.) and laid them on the altars. X. exits eager to ask his question of the oracle (for the exit formula στείχοιμ᾽ ἄν see 981n.). He has been characterised as brusque (for his

inclination to give orders cf. 650ff.) and business-like; this highlights his joyful haste to leave the oracle with some pertinent questions unasked (cf. esp. 541).

425-8

Kr. assumes that the departing X. will not hear her closing words. They are not an aside, since they are heard by Ion (cf. Bain, Actors 37ff.), but are spoken after X. has left dialogue-contact (cf. Mastronarde, Contact 30).

Before she departs Kr. returns to the past and Apollo's earlier failings. She makes it clear that no new child will compensate for her loss, but the

429-51

positive statement from Trophonios makes her more resigned to Apollo's behaviour. Her closing words prepare for her reaction to Apollo's seeming withdrawal of even this favour. Ion's criticism of Apollo in this passage has been taken as an expression of Eur.'s own ideas because it seems inappropriate to the character of Ion, who is too young and naive to think such thoughts (cf. Bayfield, Owen on 436). But why should the poet mount an attack on the god which the play itself

shows to be based on error? Ion is the living proof that Apollo neither abandons maidens nor lets his children die. In any case, the details of the text show that the speech is entirely appropriate to the character of Ion the

temple servant: it has been prepared for with Ion's brief criticism at 355; his disquiet at Apollo's sexual misbehaviour parallels his earlier concern with purity (150); his attempt to shrug off his worries (433-4) echoes his dismissive reaction to Kr.'s story (339ff); it is precisely because Ion was so devoted before (note the echo of his monody in 434ff.) that he is somewhat

disillusioned now. Furthermore, the style of the speech is in keeping with his

youthful

confidential

concern.

tone.

It is colloquial

Ion's

interest

(437,

in the

439)

and

has

practical—even

a familiar,

financial—

consequences of immorality is bathetic (447). Thus there is here no deeply

felt outrage, and in the next scene we hear his emphatic praise of Delphi (633ff.). What we have, then, is a speech which shows Ion's movement away from his own isolated world as his sympathy for Kr. is deepened and

he responds, out of her hearing, to her earlier reproaches against the god (384ff.). But the sympathy and criticism are founded on less than full understanding, as 1s made clear at the outset in Ion's ironically misguided question (433-4): what has the daughter of Erechtheus to do with me?

429-30

For parallels in tragedy for human criticism of divine neglect of offspring see S. Tr. 1266, HF 339-47. riddling...words: a further hint at the parallel between Kr. and the god

whom she has been reproaching. At 533 Ion naturally thinks that X. has

206

431-6

COMMENTARY been misled by a riddling oracle. The locus classicus for Apollo's riddling style is Heraclitus fr. 93DK (interestingly, however, Heraclitus claims that the god neither ‘speaks’ [λέγει], nor ‘hides' [κρύπτει], while Ion applies both these terms to Kr.'s riddling: she uses λόγοι κρυπτοί). It is Kr.'s closing speech which prompts Ion's query, but he is reminded of her earlier criticisms (cf. 384ff.), hence keep up. Ion cuts short his musing about Kr.'s motives for reproaching Apollo by ironically insisting on her lack of connection with him, but even as he does

so he wistfully recalls her blue blood. He typically distracts himself from thoughts about the stranger with the sort of concrete tasks he had been performing during his monody, at the same time motivating his exit before the choral ode. But he is still not at ease: even before he can complete the verse, he turns (436) to a more general worry: what is Apollo up to? stoups: these held the purifying water from Kastalia for use by visitors to the temple. The word ἀπορραντήρια occurs only here in literature; it is a variant on the commoner περιρραντήρια.

436ff. 436-9

Ion may be facing an image and/or altar of Apollo here; cf. 186f. and see 185-7n. These staccato utterances with their colloquial tone and asyndetic structure express Ion's earnest agitation which rises as he shifts from the milder third person questioning to the direct address in 439f. For the tone see Winnington-Ingram, Arethusa 128 and for such 'nouthetic' speeches see Bond on HF 339-47. What has come over him?: a colloquialism; cf. 1385, where Ion upbraids himself for fighting against divine providence, and see Stevens, Coll. Exp. 41. raping virgins: Ion assumes that Kr.'s 'friend' was a virgin, and that she

was raped, not seduced (neither of which Kr. had told him). This is natural, since all divine intercourse with humans is assumed to involve force and

since he would think that any friend of Kr. would be respectably above seduction. It may also, however, show Ion now ready to believe the worst of Apollo, because of his disappointment, and his sympathy with Kr., just as before he gave Apollo the benefit of the doubt (339ff.).

Don't you, Apollo!: the tone of μὴ où ye (with which a verb in the subjunct. is understood, cf. Ba. 951, Med. 1056) is familiar, though mildly

indignant (Cf. Hec. 408, JA 1459, Pho. 532 and see Jebb on S. OC 1441). It is used again in 1335 where the Priestess’ 'maternal' advice to Ion seems

even condescending. 439-43

Ion develops the implications of Kr.'s brief outburst of 252-4 and explains to Apollo that the standard of just behaviour implied by the gods' punishment of the wicked cannot operate among men if the gods themselves ignore it. In 370ff. Ion was prepared to consider only the matter

COMMENTARY

207

of Apollo being seen to do wrong and was prepared to connive at his desire

for concealment. Now he looks at the deeper issue of the gods' behaviour itself and what this means for their insistence on human moral action.

since...virtue: the abuse of power, especially in sexual matters, was the chief complaint against tyrants. Cf. Cropp on Erec. fr. 362. 24ff. base...punish: Ion has less faith in the gods’ discrimination in 1312ff. when he complains that the god does not punish, but gives shelter to, the good and bad alike. How...right: Ion's question implies that the gods’ licentious behaviour would encourage men to do the same. Cf. the advice of Phaedra's nurse in

Hipp. 4531f. incur the charge of: for this sense of the verb ὀφλισκάνω cf. HF

1348,

(Mastronarde on) Pho. 763.

prescribing: I doubt that the notion of ‘written’ law is stressed here, but it is noteworthy that it is sufficiently entrenched to make reference to the gods' ‘unwritten’ laws (cf. S. Ant. 454f.) needless.

444

445

Ion's parenthetic denial of any basis in fact for what he is about to say shows his reluctance to believe ill of Apollo and is also apologetic; he may be genuinely afraid of punishment from the god whom he is about to show up (cf. 370ff.). pay the penalty: the gods are said to have raped so many girls that a fine for all of them (the actual Athenian penalty in a dike biaion, 'case for violence’; see D. MacDowell, Law in Classical Athens [London, 1978] 124)

would bankrupt their shrines. Greek temples were enriched with offerings, and Delphi's wealth was legendary (cf. 54n., 146n.). Ion's concern here is amusingly in character: the temple-treasurer (54f.) is worried about the effects of divine misbehaviour on the shrine's finances.

446

447

Poseidon and Zeus: each appears in the play, at least implicitly, producing human children: Poseidon, as father of Eumolpos, Erechtheus' adversary (277f.), and Zeus, as forefather of X. (63f.). Both were known for having their way with mortal women (Melanippe, Alope, Tyro; Leda, Danae, Semele, Alcmene); Poseidon punished Laomedon of Troy for injustice. It is perhaps odd that Ion, who seemed to disbelieve, if not to be entirely unaware of, any suggestion of divine sexual misbehaviour in his discussion with Kr. (339ff.), now seems familiar with all the traditional stories. empty: as Owen says, this refers not only to the removal of treasure, but also to the absence of devotees. Delphi, with its vast wealth and wide

popularity, would suffer in particular. beyond the limit of prudence: this para prosdokian (surprise) phrase shows that Ion's criticism of Apollo is prudential rather than moral: we expect something like ‘beyond justice/nobility' (cf. e.g. Hipp. 382), but Ion reproaches Apollo only for lack of caution.

208 449-51

COMMENTARY Ion ends with a reprise of the point made in 442f., here expressed positively: the gods’ behaviour would provide a model which blurs the distinction between what is καλόν, ‘good, noble’ and κακόν, ‘evil, base’. This is neatly brought out in the sequence κακοὺς - καλὰ which Stephanus’

κακὰ in 450 would destroy. Ion's exit is the third within fifty lines. Eur. expresses theatrically the divergent interests of the three characters destined to share the future in Athens. X. disappears into the temple and fails to hear Kr.'s outburst of

emotion; she then exits by one of the parodoi before the speech in which Ion voices his anxieties; Ion now leaves, probably by the other parodos, to resume the routine duties interrupted by the visitors.

FIRST STASIMON: 452-509 1. Structure: a single triad consisting of a strophic pair + epode 1. Strophe 452-71: appeal to Athena and Artemis to intercede with Apollo to grant Kr. children ii. Antistrophe 472-91: the blessings of children iii. Epode 492-509: reflection on the story of the raped girl

2. Metre: chiefly aeolic verses with anapaests+reizianum clausula; the epode includes a number of dochmiacs, reflecting heightened emotion, and ends with a series of dactyls which separate the choral comment from the rest of the epode and suit the implied reference to traditional stories.

3. Function The ode is carefully integrated into the action of the play. The Chorus begin by

joining earnestly in Kr.'s off-stage prayers for children. This is followed by general observations on the blessings of children which provide grounds for their prayer. The childless life is abhorrent, but even worse is the fate of Kr.'s friend, of whom

they are now

reminded.

The

intensity

of the Chorus’

desires sharpens

the

disappointment of the coming episode. But the tension between human ignorance and divine providence is marked in the ode itself: the sad events, ‘the outrage of a bitter union’ (506) described in the epode are in fact Apollo's answer to their prayer and a direct contradiction of their belief that good fortune does not result from liaisons with deities. Beyond this central function, the ode has a number of other purposes. Its conclusion reflects on the story which Kr. had told Ion, while its opening looks forward to the following scene between Ion and X. X.'s business-like entrance and speedy exit gave us little time to think about the oracle, but this ode focuses our minds on it and on

the question: how is Apollo going to arrange things? It consolidates the idea that what troubles Kr. is not the rape itself, but the loss of her child; by concentrating on this the Chorus prepare both for the apparent frustration of their own and Kr.'s hopes (cf. 747 ff. esp. 761-2), and for the happy ending. Athena's involvement in this as

COMMENTARY

209

dea ex machina is remotely prepared for in the Chorus' strong appeal to her for help. In stressing the deep sympathy between Kr. and her attendants, the ode prepares for the later action, when the Chorus, through misdirected affection and loyalty, disobey

X.'s order and misrepresent to their mistress the oracle which they have overheard; as a result she plots to kill Ion and almost brings about the childlessness the Chorus

abhors. Their reflection on the rape also reinforces the assumption that the child is dead (504-6) and thus creates the right background for Kr.'s despairing attack on Ion. >> Hose, Studien II, 173ff. 452ff. The language of the strophe displays features of a ‘cletic' hymn (a hymn of Invocation, asking a deity to ‘come’ and achieve some end: cf. Sappho 1): direct address to the deity (452), who is later named (454), and given several attributes and activities (in dependent clauses or participles 452-3, 455ff.); an appeal to 'come' (458) from a certain place typically inhabited by the god

452

453

(459) to where

s/he is needed

(458, 460ff.); more

generally the

performative language of invocation (‘I beg you' 454) and a rich style characterised by long, loosely structured sentences (452-7). Athena, though a virgin and herself without a mother, is called on first, as the deity who assisted at the birth of Erichthonios (cf. 269), and is most concerned with the Erechtheid cause. Athena's association with childbirth was marked at Delphi where structures in the sanctuary of Athena Pronaia carried inscriptions to Eileithuia and Athena Zósteria. You: personal pronouns were standard elements in hymns: cf. 465, S. Ant. 787ff., 1126ff. Here there is a particular intimacy brought out in my Athena which echoes 211.

Eileithuia: the goddess of birth who was sent to help Leto in the delivery of Artemis and Apollo (cf. 410n.,

Hom.

h. Apollo

102ff.). Whitman

(95f.)

believes that what is stressed here is the purity—not the associations with

455

fertility—of Athena and Artemis, both virgins, with Athena undefiled by the miasma of birth and connection with Eileithuia. I find far-fetched Loraux's suggestion (211f.) that the 'insistent presence of the feminine sign challenges the dominance of the paternal principle' and that the Chorus' message about 'patrilinear filiation' is thus rendered ambiguous and reflects the equivocal position of Kr. 'a woman acting in place of a man, a mother standing in for a father. from the very top of Zeus' head: after learning that his first wife Metis would bear him children of great wisdom Zeus grew apprehensive. He dared Metis to change herself into water and then swallowed her and Athena, the child she was carrying; Athena was born afterwards directly from Zeus' head. Cf. Hesiod, Th. 886ff., Pind. Ol. 7. 35ff., where the phrasing is very close to that used here, and see L/MC s.v. Athena §B 1. Prometheus: the son of the Titan Iapetus. Traditionally it is Hephaestus who cleft Zeus' head to allow the baby Athena to spring forth (Apollod. 1.

210

457

COMMENTARY 3. 6). Eur. may have changed this to Prometheus to reflect an older Attic legend (so Wilamowitz), or to link with Ion's mention of ‘prudence (προμηθίας: in 448, and more generally to stress the foresight of the gods and the role of wisdom in their birth. Victory: for the identification of Athena and Nike, victory, cf. 1529 below, S. Ph. 134, and see Roscher s.v. Nike, 305ff. The cult of Athena-Nike,

popular after the Persian wars, must have been consolidated by the building of the Nike temple just to the south-west of the Propylaia. The date is

disputed, but it is likely to have been completed some years before the production of /on (cf. Meiggs, Athenian

Empire [Oxford,

1972] 496ff.).

Text: the verse does not correspond with 477. The rhythms (aeolıc here, anapaestic there) are both acceptable, but as 477 does not invite emendation Diggle (PCPS 17ff.) supports change here: πότνα ‘mistress’ or μόλε, an urgent doubling of the imperative in 458 (cf. And. 843, Ba. 977).

459

golden chambers: the house of the gods was traditionally said to be of gold; cf. Sappho 1. 8.

460

flying: Victory can be presented as winged, as here and Aristoph. Birds 574, or as wingless, as in the temple mentioned above, where there was a Wingless Victory, which would never fly away from Athens (cf. Paus. 1. 22.4).

streets: left without specification these would naturally include the area of 461-3

the temple of Athena Pronaia below and to the east of Apollo's temple. There: Owen finds the shift trom Delphi generally to Apollo's temple awkward. But this gives point to the prayer. Athena is to come not in vague support of childbirth, but specifically to procure a favourable oracle, hence she is deliberately called to the place which is the focus of all hopes. altar...navel...tripod: the Chorus recall their conversation with Ion (223ff.) and bring together an impressionistic account of the oracular furniture and procedure. The key elements are mentioned, and the detail, e.g. that the altar (ἑστία. lit. hearth) is the source of the oracles, should not be pressed.

honoured by the dance: the modifier χορενομένωι

is ornamental and has

the sense ‘an object of worship’ (cf. S. OT 1093); it need not imply that 465

466

467

dancers actually went around the tripod. daughter of Leto: Artemis, Apollo's sister, a virgin goddess, but patroness of birth and all that is young; cf. A. Ag. 135-45, and her epithet Lochia, ‘of childbirth’, in Supp. 958, IT 1097. both...both: the repetition and balance produce a solemn, urgent effect. For similar structures, reinforced by rhyme, cf. Med. 131, Hel. 348 and Diggle on Pha. 99. Text: this verse does not correspond with 487 and both defy metrical analysis. Diggle's tentative suggestion is to read sisters most august here

COMMENTARY

468 469

470-1

472ff.

211

and nurture of beloved children or nurture caring for children in 487 thus producing choriambic dimeters. O maidens: just as inviolate maidens are especially efficacious as victims, so too they are particularly potent in supplication.

the ancient race of Erechtheus: the Chorus speak from the viewpoint of the audience. Such anachronism is common in tragedy. Cf. 24, 737, Alc. 1154, Ba. 210ff. oracles that are clear: i.e. devoid of the ambiguity characteristic of oracles. The adj. καθαρός, lit. ‘pure, clean’, is used in this sense in Aristoph. Wasps 631. Certainly where children are concerned the oracle which is given is just what the Chorus want, for lon is a son twice over. But the oracle proves to be completely deceptive, and one which the Chorus themselves misrepresent (761ff.). Praise or criticism of children and parenthood is common in tragedy, which

deals so much with family strife. And. 418-20 provides the closest parallel; the opposite sentiments are expressed at Med. 1081-1115. The long period, rıch in imagery and complex in structure, stresses the Chorus’ profound conviction. The subject of ἔχει is provided by the rel. clause τέκνων... Bar (cf. [Bond on] HF 162f. ).

474

a secure fund: a commercial metaphor referring to capital which keeps producing

476

and so need never be disturbed (ἀκίνητον,

lit. 'unmoved')

i.e.

reduced. shine: a frequent image for the glow of the young (cf. S. El. 685, Aristoph. Clouds

1012); the verb λάμπωσι

echoes words used to describe the bright

Delphic morning in Ion's monody (82ff.). Text: Diggle (PCPS 20f.) objects to the transmitted καρποτρόφοι 'fruit-nourishing', questioning whether it aptly describes ‘the function of a human being’ and doubting its suitability

here. But καρπο-

takes up the commercial metaphor of the preceding verse:

for the word and its cognates used of profit, interest and the like cf. Aristoph. Knights 326, Ach. 837, Dem. 27. 5; for its use of children cf. fr.

571. 3 and perhaps And. 935. Children nourish, increase the family's capital and

so they can

be said to inherit wealth

which

itself receives them

(διαδέκτορα in 478). 481-2 483-4

The chiasmus underlines the proverbial thought: children halve cares and double joys. in war it brings a saving defence: this ıs precisely what X. did for Athens (S8ff., 297ff.), but it is apparently not enough to guarantee the loyalty of the Chorus or the Old Man (666ff., 808ff.). Text: Diggle’s text ἄλκαρ (Dawe, Willink)...a\xkav seems lame to me. The repetition and ring-composition

ἀλκά.. ἀλκάν stress the point that children have the same beneficial effect in both domestic and public spheres.

212 485-7

COMMENTARY wealth...palaces: regularly found as the unattractive limb in a polarity; cf. (Bond on) HF 643ff. For the text of 487 see on 467 above.

488-9

The childless life I detest: Eur. often uses an emotionally charged word,

490-1

e.g. μισέω, ‘hate’, to express first-person disapproval of some attitude or group. Cf. 832, Hipp. 413, Or. 518, Supp. 1108f. and the parody in Aristoph. Frogs 14271f. The Chorus conclude with a preference for moderate wealth and a life rich

in children. Owen finds these sentiments inappropriate to the Chorus, who, as slaves, will have little chance of 'clinging' to such a life. But this is to look for too consistent characterising of the Chorus whose views are generally too universal to be confined to their persona in the play. In Hecuba (466ff.) the Chorus of captive Trojan slaves aspire to the weaving of Athena's robe for the Panathenaia! In any case, slaves in tragedy frequently express opinions suitable to free citizens (e.g. Med. 123-30). The Chorus' hopes here are in harmony with the Delphic environment and its maxim 'nothing in excess', and connect with Ion's views (621ff.). They are

unsentimental about the benefits of children: they are desirable because

they bring considerable

advantages,

forming

a link in the chain of

inheritance (478-80) and defending their country (483-4). For the latter cf. Praxithea's strong words in Erec. fr. 360, 14ff.

492-4

The epode turns to the sad fate of Kr.'s 'friend' and her child. It begins, as in Kr.'s own

accounts of this episode (936ff.,

1481f.), with an evocation of

place: the cave of Pan, the Acropolis, the Long Cliffs; it goes on to develop the apostrophe with a balanced account of cheerful and sad events associated with the place. For the extended apostrophe, Euripidean form, cf. Hel. 1451ff., Hipp. 752ff. and the parody Frogs 1309ff. >> Kranz, Stasimon 191f., 238ff., Fraenkel Agam. O haunts of Pan: Pan had a shrine in a cave on the north

a typically in Aristoph. III. 698. face of the

Acropolis which was dedicated after the battle of Marathon to honour his role in the Greek victory; cf. Lucian, Twice Charged 9, Hdt. 6. 105, Paus. 1. 28. 4 and see Travlos, Pictorial Dictionary 417ff. and 93 for a plan. Pan's

connections with Apollo were topographical (his grotto was just to the west of Apollo's), and musical (the multiple pan-pipe was supposedly his invention [cf. 498, El. 702ff.]).

496

daughters

of Aglauros:

the Aglaurids are perhaps to be imagined

as

returning to dance after their deaths on the rocks beneath the Acropolis (cf. Bayfield and 271-4n.). There may also be a reference to their story in the ritual of the summer festival known as Arrephoria. This involved the passage of two specially the steep northern slope of the Acropolis to the precinct

the re-enactment of the Hersephoria or selected girls down of Aphrodite in the

Gardens which had an entrance heading underground. The girls carried closed baskets which they left in the precinct to return with different secret

COMMENTARY

213

objects (Paus. 1. 27. 3f.). >> W. Burkert, Homo Necans

trans. P. Bing

(Berkeley, 1983) 150ff., E. Simon, Festivals of Attica (Madison, 39ff., N. Robertson, HSCP 87 (1983) 241 ff.

The Chorus develop the link between

498

1983)

the Aglaurids and ‘their baby’

Erichthonios and Kr. and her lost child. For the moment the gloomier aspects of their story and that told by Kr. are forgotten in the idyllic picture created by the blending of cheerful sights and sounds (cf. Huys 172f.). But this serves only to foreground the dark violence soon to be described. So too in Kr.'s monody, the beauty and brightness of Apollo (887ff.) are in sinister contrast with his treatment of the young girl. Pallas’ temples: probably an anachronistic reference to the Erechtheum, the building of which started in 420 (cf. M. Robertson, Shorter History of Greek Art (Cambridge, 1981] 121), and the Parthenon, structurally complete by 438 (cf. R. A. Tomlinson, Greek Architecture [Bristol, 1989],

68). The girls are pictured as dancing in a green area in front of the Erechtheum, just west of which was the Pandroseion (named after one of the Aglaurids) Paus. II. 337).

499

where

shimmering: alóXos

the sacred olive grew. (Cf. Paus.

1. 27. 3, Frazer,

is an adj. referring to both visual (of wriggling

worms Il. 22. 509, of a starry night S. Tr. 94) and aural (of the croaking of frogs Aristoph. Frogs 248) impressions. Here it neatly describes the wide,

quickly traversed, pan-pipe's range of notes. 500

sunless: either because of the position of the cave, on the northern side of the Acropolis, or because it was night; Pan was a nocturnal god. Text: 1)

Herwerden's easy correction sunless seems to remove a difficult adi. 'connected with sheep-folds' with caves; Verrall fancifully derives it from

an unexampled diminutive of aulos, ‘flute’ which is in any case unwanted alongside συρίγγων, Pan's pipes. On the other hand, a) its predicative position gives sunless unwanted emphasis; b) sunless ill suits the cheery atmosphere established elsewhere and Huys (172f.) may be right to see in αὐλίοις the creation of a rustic ambience. ii) of songs, ὕμνων, produces with συρίγγων an embarrassment of genitives depending on laxäs tune; Page's suggestion has the girls sing as they dance, but does one sing accompanied by pan-pipes? Müller (Hermes

502ff.

103 [1975] 31n.) thinks that

ὑμνῶν, participle ‘making music’ is 'unbedingt richtig’; but the participle going with the subject of συρίζεις is awkward with ὅτε intervening. Appropriately in this context, the fate of the unknown maiden's baby is the Chorus' first thought, while the rape is mentioned only briefly afterwards. They take up Kr.'s fear (348) that the child is dead, adding the possibility that

birds

were

responsible,

and

Ion's

assumption

(437)

that

rape

is

involved. That the child was left in the cave of Pan is their own idea and requires no realistic justification.

214 503

COMMENTARY Text: Badham's deletion of &

produces a regular glyconic and removes the

unwanted apostrophe to the unknown girl in this extended address to Pan. 504-6

506

The Chorus imagine the circumstances of the child's death in language reminiscent of references to the unburied dead; cf. H. /. 1. 4f., A. Supp. 800f., S. Ant. 205f., 1017. outrage of a bitter union: a concisely forthright condemnation of the matter. The rape itself is condemned as bitter and ὕβρις, outrage, is used not, as it might have been, of the rape, but of its consequence, the exposure

of the baby. 507-9

at the loom: either the pictures which were woven, or the stories which the women would tell each other while weaving. Cf. 196f. φάτιν is internal

accus. depending construction. λόγοις

Text:

on dtov Diggle

which

also controls the accus. and infin.

prints Badham's

conjecture

because

(ἐπὶ)

here ‘is an improbable expression' (Studies 24).

children...good fortune: the translation rests on Owen's interpretation. That the Chorus’ statement is contrary to the traditional stories stresses their exaggerated horror at the fate of the friend's child and prepares for their

reaction to Kr.'s own ill-fortune. The Chorus’ pessimistic generalisation will be falsified but in the interim it serves to intensify our sympathies for Kr. whose fortunes will be further damaged in the ensuing episode. Kovacs’ interpretation (TAPA 109 [1979] 115f.): ‘Children of the gods possess no share of happiness for mortals' strains the usage of μετέχειν, 'share in’.

SECOND EPISODE: 510-675 l. Action X. comes out of the temple, claims Ion as his son and, despite his lengthy objections,

persuades him to return with him to Athens. 2. Structure: i. Introduction 510-6 ii. X. claims Ion as his son 517-62 iii. Comments by Ion, the Chorus and X. 563-84

iv. Ion outlines the dangers of life in Athens 585-647 v. Concluding comments from the Chorus, X. and Ion 648-75 3. Form

After a brief exchange between Ion and the Chorus, X. and Ion converse first in stichomythia, and then in even more hectic hemistichomythia (produced by antilabe,

the division of a verse between speakers) which culminates in Ion's acceptance of his 'father'. Long speeches from X. and Ion, with two brief choral intrusions, fill the rest of the episode. The initial trochaic tetrameters (510-65) express a heightening of emotion,

as

elsewhere in Eur.; cf. Tro. 444-61, Pho. 588-637, Ba. 604-41 and 1250-60, 1606-22

COMMENTARY

215

below. After brief scenes in earlier tragedy (cf. A. Ag. 1649ff.), this ancient metre (cf. Arist. Poetics 14494 20ff.) falls into disuse but then appears regularly in Eur.'s later plays in both dialogue and rhesis. It may have been archaising initially, and seems a further instance of the poet's penchant for making full use of the forms available to him. >> West, GM 91f., T. Drew-Bear, AJP 89 (1968) 385ff., M. Imhof,

MH 13 (1956) 125ff. 4. Function

a. Plot. A pivotal scene with three key movements: i. The recognition between officially acknowledged father and son takes

place, as foreshadowed by Hermes in the prologue (69-71). ii. The Chorus witness what happens and are ordered not to tell Kr. This prepares for their breaking of silence and initiation of the crisis leading to the premature recognition of mother and son. iii. Ion's celebratory party is arranged, as is necessary for the plotting of the murder and its consequences. b. Character. X., the plain, common-sense man, disinclined to investigate things at depth, delighted by unexpected fatherhood, is shown to be the ideal instrument of

Apollo's plans. Ion's character 1s developed: he shows further signs of maturity as he questions his 'father's' assumptions and considers life in Athens. His sympathy for Kr. is sharpened in its focus as is his yearning for his unknown mother. c. Themes. Eur. has carefully fashioned this pseudo-recognition so that, while its

language and structure imitate true recognition scenes, it is markedly different from them. At the same time, motifs are announced here which will be repeated in the real recognition of mother and son. So Ion's reluctance to accept X. as his kin is closely paralleled in other Euripidean plays of recognition: El. 563ff., /T 803ff., Hel. S64ff. But while in those cases the reluctance is the precursor of unbounded joy, here Ion

expresses only a muted, almost forced pleasure in having found his ‘father’. On the other hand, X., like others in the same situation (cf. Hel. 595, 625; El. 567, 576; IT 795, 827), uses words

like φίλτατα

‘most dear’

of his relationship with Ion, but

these terms are never reciprocated. 510ff.

The episode opens with striking stage-action as lon enters from the parodos, just as X. is about to come out of the skene. Ion's speech and the

choral reply are carefully crafted to underline the fortuitous nature and momentous significance of their almost simultaneous similar, significant double entrance cf. A. Seven 369ff.)

510-3

entrances.

(For a

The style here is formal and dignified, with an extended relative clause (510-1), pleonasm

(511, 512), a fully stated alternative question (512-3)

encouraging cqually fulsome positive-negative answers (514). The effect is

to add solemnity and suspense to X.'s expected arrival, which is then dissipated in the rapid stichomythia accompanying the frantic joy of the father and the perplexed reluctance of the son.

216

COMMENTARY keeping watch...look out for: for these terms, normally of guarding a person or place, used of Kr.'s attendants cf. Tro. 462.

tripod: no enquirer was permitted to approach the tripod (cf. 220f.). Ion is using Delphic parlance to mean simply ‘has he finished the consultation?

514-6.

Text: the masc. participle ἔχοντα is against the sense and is clearly the result of assimilation to the erroneous masc. noun δεσπότην 'master'; the change to mistress keeps Kr. before our minds in a scene from which she is physically excluded; also, it underlines the Chorus' attachment to Kr. just before their loyalty is to be tested. The Chorus' three-part description of X.'s arrival parallels what the audience hear and see on stage: first he is in the temple (514), then we hear the door (515-6), and finally we see him (516). The almost slow-motion description gives weight to this very significant entrance which marks a

vital stage in the plan foreshadowed by Hermes. sound of the doors: interest in a person's entrance is signalled by anxious listening at the skene door. This was to become a regular motif of New

Comedy; cf. Men. Pk. 126, Epit. 454. »» B. Bader, Antichthon 5 (1971) 35ff.

517

coming out: Halleran (Stagecraft 106) notes that this verb is almost never used in entrance announcements. Here its participial form ἐξιών acquires oracular importance, being used again by X. in 535 and in 662 when he ceremoniously names Ion. My son: these words must be spoken in an effusive tone; this accounts for X.'s explanation of his opening and for Ion's frigid response. For the contrasting attitudes here cf. Orestes and Electra in 17 793ff. It is a mannerism of Eur. (possibly parodied in Aristoph. Wasps 1297, Thes. 582)

to have a form of address explained by the speaker; cf. Med. 465, And. 56, Hel. 1193. It is now generally assumed (following Grube's [Drama of Eur. 266]

and

Knox's

[Word

and Action

260]

resuscitation

of an idea of

Wilamowitz on 517) that Ion takes X.'s address and attempted show of affection in 519 as a homosexual advance; this occasions his horrified repulse of the older man, and the resultant comedy of misunderstanding. This view, based principally on the ambiguity of τέκνον which can mean either ‘son’ or simply ‘boy’, is questionable and, in any case, does not account totally for the comic tension of the scene. τέκνον is not a word regularly used in sexual approaches (contrast παῖς, παιδικά, ‘boy, darling

boy’), and it can be taken simply as an affectionate term between an older man and someone whom he looks on as his ‘child’ (cf. the Old Man to Kr.

765). Ion's response is not couched in obviously sexual language; he ascribes (520) X.'s odd behaviour not to lust but to divinely-caused madness, and he is afraid that X. will spoil the god's ribbons (522). Ion's

retorts emphasise not that he knows just what X. is up to, but that he does

COMMENTARY

217

not understand X.'s behaviour at all (518, 520, 526). His attempts to explain

X.'s antics are met by remarks which simply compound the lad's exasperation. The repeated terms of endearment in 521, 523, 525 are all

combined with the—to Ion incomprehensible—idea of finding, recovering. That X. ıs taken for a paedophile is possible, but Ion is certainly aware that 518

he is dealing with more than the romantic intentions of a stranger. I am in good health: Ion plays on χαῖρε, which X. uses as a conventional greeting, but which Ion deliberately takes literally to contrast his own good (mental) health with X.'s apparent insanity. (For play on χαῖρε cf. Hec.

426f., Supp.1181, Pho. 618). Kr.'s sad looks were enough to tell Ion that something was seriously amiss (241ff.); here it is X.'s delirious happiness which upsets him. two of us: with ironic intent Ion uses the numeral stressed by the rare dual participle; he and X. are anything but two of a kind. For the ordinary use of the locution cf. Hel. 647, El. 649. X. makes emphatic use of the numeral

519

520

himself in 539 to stress their unified surprise at the same circumstance. Give...hand: a sign of affection, as seen on grave reliefs, and here a solemn gesture of recognition like that going with Erechtheus' farewell to his son in Erec. fr. 362. 32. The words could mean that X. asks Ion to let him kiss his hand, but this would be a gesture without parallel in tragedy; cf. M. Kaimio, Physical Contact in Greek Tragedy (Helsinki, 1988) 38. in your senses: for similar inference about behaviour prior to recognition cf. El. 568 and S. El. 879 of Electra's dismissal of Chrysothemis' claim to have recognised signs of Orestes. divine affliction: normally used as an explanation of quite outrageous behaviour (cf. Pasiphae's apology in Cretans fr. 472eK, 9f.), and so an

indication of Ion's horror. Text: Diggle's &unvev avoids the irregular short

521

syllable before monosyllabic θεοῦ. stranger: cf. Kr. repeatedly to Ion, as noted on 238. They remained 'strangers', while X. and Ion come to think themselves related. Ion normally has a positive relationship with strangers (cf. 323, 640f.), but the term here has an edge meant to keep X. at a distance, and by 526 Ion repeats it but with even more force. dearest...embrace: the Greek ta $(XTra0'...fiAeiv. shows that X., though something of a dullard, is given to plays on words and small jokes of that kind; cf. 523 below. So too, he archly picks up Ion's φρονεῖς, ‘are you in

your senses?', in this reply, a further point (beside the parallels in ZI. 569, Hel. 575) in favour of Jacob's correction of Ms. σωφρονῶ, 'I am of sound mind’. For the superlative of φίλος, 'dear' see D. B. Gregor, CR 7 (1957)

| 4f. It is particularly common

in recognition scenes (525ff., 1437 below,

and A. Cho. 235, S. El. 1224,

1354, IT 785, 815), but can also be used in

218

523

COMMENTARY appeals for favours or even good news (cf. Hec. 505, And. 64 and the parody in Aristoph. Ach. 475). Stop!: rejection of physical contact is a regular feature of incipient recognition scenes (cf. Hel. 567, IT 798f., El. 223 [at the initial meeting of brother and sister] and, an interesting inversion, S. El. 1205ff.). While he makes out that X. is transgressing religious bounds, it is in fact personal indignation that Ion feels. seize another's property: X. jokingly introduces a legal term and denies that he distrains upon the goods of another (cf. Fraenkel on A. Ag. 528,

Taplin, Tragedy in Action 138)—but the joke is that he actually is. For Ion's use of the same term cf. 1406n. X.'s humour is rather tactless, since his use

524

of the verb ῥυσιάζω of Ion can only remind the boy that property, i.e. a slave. what is my very own: the word φίλα can mean not only more strongly, can refer to one's own person or property. an arrow: Ion prepares to drive X. from the god's fillets servant, just as before he threatened to shoot the birds who

he is, in fact, ‘dear’ but also, and the god's would invade

the god's sanctuary (154ff.). This is a light-hearted foreshadowing of the approaching serious threat of reciprocal violence between true φίλοι, ‘loved ones’. shy away from acknowledging me: X. gives Ion no clue as to how they are related, or why Ion should believe him, until 527. This is no doubt to

prolong the comedy of disbelief. But it also seems characteristic of X. Just as he is so delighted with the oracle that he did not ask who Ion's mother is (541), so here he is so sure that Ion is his son that he assumes

that Ion

should automatically recognise him as his father. Kr., on the contrary, makes clear her relation to Ion, and why he should accept that relation, as soon as she sees the truth in 1395ff. Text: Page's infinitive is just right (cf. Tro. 891); even X. would think twice before saying ‘after you have recognised me’ to someone threatening him with an uncomprehending glare and a bow.

526

gauche: ἀμούσους, lit. "without the Muses’, is a strong term of disapproval from the boy at home in Delphi, the shrine of the god of music (881-4, 905). Ion's opening word φιλῶ (Scaliger's palmary correction of the nonsensical and unmetrical Ms. reading) suggests that he is taking his cue from the accumulation of φιλ- words used by X. (in each statement from 519). Instead, he uses the word with the meaning ‘be wont to, 1n the habit

527

of '. Go on, kill and burn!: playful exaggeration based on X.'s confidence in the truth of what follows. For similar language, challengingly confident cf. And. 258, 260, and note Kr.'s delighted surrender in 1404. Verrall's

COMMENTARY

528 529 530

219

interpretation: ‘if you kill me, you'll have to prepare my pyre, since a son must do that for his father‘ is too literal for the context. For a discussion of the variants see Zacharia 54n. L's ἐμοῦ ‘ridicule of me' is Inappropriate since Ion thinks that X. ıs in demented earnest. as it runs on...quickly: for the metaphor, expressing X.'s eagerness to confirm the relationship, cf. Ba. 268. Ion's initial shock has passed and now he begins the inquisition. The rising intensity of the dialogue is marked in the antilabe, readily accommodated in the longer trochaic verse. This is the longest passage of antilabe in Eur.; cf. IA 1341-68, Pho. 603-24 and see Willink on Or. 774-98. X.'s reply is

marked by its emphatic simplicity; his delight with the oracle has prevented 533

534-6

him from seeing any trace of ambiguity. a riddling response: Ion suspects that X. has misinterpreted an ambiguous oracle, as Croesus did (Hdt. 1. 53). Some have agreed with Ion and have tried to reconstruct the sort of response which X. may have heard, partly in order to dispose of the problem that Apollo told X. an outright lie. >> Owen xixf., Hartigan 76 and H. Neitzel (see 71n.), who shapes the oracle into a third person statement rather than a direct address. But X. is nowhere presented as the victim of an ambiguity; contrast the explicit enlightenment of the deceived Heracles in S. Tr. 1164ff. In any case, even if Apollo is not guilty of a material lie, he certainly intended to deceive X., whose conviction that Ion is his son is a vital element in the lad's future. hear properly: X. is so confident that the oracle was clear (i.e. what the Chorus prayed for in 470) that he facetiously attributes any ambiguity to a mis-hearing of the pronouncement. X.'s over-confidence is partly due to a certain obtuseness, and partly to his unbounded delight in having got a son. We shall soon see, in the Chorus’ reaction, a further example of overconfident interpretation occasioned by stirred emotion. For the ‘first person you meet' typc of oracular reponse cf. PW II, nos. 23, 60, 78, 231, 381; Aristoph. Wealth 40ff., and Jephthah's meeting of his daughter in Judges 11. 35. Text: West (BICS 28 [1981] 64) argues for the

future participle συναντήσοντά

as representing the original ὃς dv and the

subjunct. This would entail the consequential change κυρήσειν in 536. Note

that Ion in both his responses depersonalises what X. has told him and implies in 536 that Fortune rather than Providence is at work (cf. 539). The

537

hemistichs are used here not to suggest that there is some understanding between X. and Ion, but rather to stress Ion's sceptical opposition. gift: for this word used of children not one's own cf. S. OT 1022. X. means by it that his finding of Ion was Apollo's gift to him; his emphasis on his natural paternity repeats the point already made in 531. X.'s claim that Ion was both gift and his own son coheres with the terms of Hermes' narrative in 69ff. Text: Diggle (Studies 102) objects to the idea of disparagement that

220

COMMENTARY ἄλλως, ‘just, only’ would convey (but cf. Kraus 52f.); Seager's ἄλλων, of others, produces a nice balance with σόν, yours, and provides the first limb of the contrast with X.'séE ἐμοῦ, from me.

538

The investigative, cautious Ion, already seen in the scene with Kr., is in

strong contrast with his ‘father’. He knows full well that X. met him first (cf.

the almost laboured point of 510-16), but he wants to exclude definitively 539

all alternatives. marvel: the first of a series of responses revealing X.'s insouciant and

shallow disregard for any thoughts beyond the fact that he now has a son. 540

From what mother: Ion turns immediately to his mother's identity, partly because this offers a way of verifying X.'s story (541ff.), partly because he now, for the first time, feels a real need to know her (563-5, 668-72). Text:

the imperative ἔα, ‘hands off, is unidiomatic and implies a show of affection from X. which would be inappropriate here. The interjection ἔα is equally out of place; X. has said nothing to give Ion a start. Bothe's ἐκ is an

obvious correction. 541

delighted...I didn't ask: for a similarly motivated failure to ask for vital information see Hel. 536f.; there too, the resulting ignorance is necessary for the tension of the following scenes. At 308ff. Kr. warms to Ion partly because she has suffered and so feels his suffering. Here X. gives evidence of the tunnel-vision which is only deepened by his good fortune. Apollo carefully exploits X.'s psychology (cf. also 654ff. below), as he does that of the other characters

542

(cf. Erbse,

Prolog

80). Thus

the Priestess, the old

spinster, is ready to receive and rear a baby; Ion's piety is later central in rescuing him from the murder attempt; Kr.'s dwelling on the past will at last save her, when by an act of memory she is able to reclaim Ion and his birth tokens. earth...mother: perhaps a proverbial phrase for one who doesn't know his parents (cf. Latin terrae filius). lon means the expression as a wryly comic

adunaton—something which cannot possibly be true. But, given autochthonous heritage, his suggestion does in fact apply to his case.

his

The ground does not produce children: X. makes an obvious reply, but one which is extraordinary for the king of the earthborn Athenians. X. is not deliberately casting doubt on the Athenian origin myth, but he does show

that his thinking, foreigner that he is, is not aligned with those he rules. 543

I refer the matter to the god: X. means that only Apollo could explain it, but his language also means that he ascribes paternity to the god; See LSJ

s.v. ἀναφέρω II. 4 and cf. 827n. 544

get hold of: it is now clear to Ion that X. can convey no further useful

information from the oracle; he therefore turns to a rigorous application of logic, in the use of which X. proves sadly deficient. For ἅπτομαι of coming to grips with argument cf. And. 662, Plato, Rep. 461a.

COMMENTARY

545

221

better: X. thinks that Ion is now persuaded of the main point, that he is his son, and is pursuing the minor matters he raised in 539/40. folly of youth: acommon excuse in tragedy and one which would receive a

sympathetic hearing from the Greeks; cf. Alc. 1052ff. (youthful sexual misbehaviour is to be expected), Supp.

160, Hipp. 117ff., and see Dodds on

Ba. 973-6. In fact, Ion's conception was the result not of rashness, but of the 546

547

deliberate action of a provident god. X.'s fidelity as a husband is a saving feature (cf. 977); furthermore, the putative occasion of Ion's conception is made to harmonize with the real time, the period of Kr.'s maidenhood. there: not necessarily referring to a specific place (Phthia: Owen), but vaguely taking up Ion's suggestion in 545. Owen and others think that X. is aware of two separate escapades. It may be, however, that he is simply bewildered (note his replies in 548/9) and is led by Ion's logic in 548/9 (cf. 349ff.) to see that the episode he is forced to recall must have been at

Delphi and happily fits with a visit to the place at the right time.

549

coincide with the time: again (cf. 354) Ion's age synchronises with a memory, here by chance, earlier significantly. The syntax of Ion's previous remark is continued through X.'s interruption; this is a formal sign of increasing excitement. The structure recurs in 558/9,

561/2, and in 552 Ion completes X.'s sentence, as he completes lon's in 554. 550

bewilders: X. uses a very unusual verb to emphasize his puzzlement. Delphi's rock: Delphi, like the Acropolis, is rocky. While the Long Rocks seem a place of death, but are really a place of life, the rock of Delphi appears to X. and Ion here a place of life, but will soon become a place of near death for Kr. (1267-8).

torchlight rituals of Dionysus: for torch-processions in the Dionysiac cult cf. 716n. Dionysus was a prominent deity at Delphi (cf. A. Eum. 24 ), particularly on Parnassus, and occupied it each year in the three months of Apollo's winter absence. Delphi, where there was a great festival of Dionysus every second year (cf. 716-8n.), was instrumental in the sixth century spread of Dionysiac worship (see PW I, 330ff.). For the thematic importance of Dionysus in the play see Introd. §4b. Religious festivals and ceremonies, because they allowed women relative freedom, are regularly associated with sexual liaisons and clandestine births. Cf. the narrative of infidelity in Lysias 1, the liaison of Moschion and Plangon in Men. Samia, and Lacey 168.

551

sponsors: for X. lodging with an official sponsor see 335n. Text: Madvig's Tov

‘with which of the sponsors’ is preferable to the indefinite Tov; Ion

could assume that X. would have stayed with a sponsor and wants to know

precisely where. Also, this is the question X. answers; Tov elicited the answer ὅς γε...

would have

222 552

COMMENTARY Ion's familiarity with Delphic protocol allows him to give X. the technical term, lit. made you one of the thiasos', (the characteristic term for a group

of Dionysiac worshippers; cf. Dodds on Ba. 379). 554

That's it!: a colloquial formula of realisation (Stevens, Coll. Exp. 31f.); cf. (Willink on) Or. 804. Text: restoration comes from three separate hands: Scaliger very early removed the unmetrical σ᾽, Elmsley rectified L's false division of words (cf. the corrections in 33, 585, 646, 1016); Dobree's stop before ἵν᾽, ‘where’, neatly allows X. to cap Ion's statement. Willink (on Or.

804), who thinks that Ion looks ahead to the difficulty raised in 555, suggests ἐσπάρην μέν, ‘where I was conceived at least... 555

thrown out by a maiden: X. supposes the same as the Priestess (44f.). As

in the near-recognition scene with Kr., Ion fails to respond to the one statement which might have led to the truth (cf. 355 etc.). For the word

ἔκβολον of an exposed child cf. 964, 1496 below and Pho. 804. 556

I have escaped slavery: Ion assumes that his mother must be a freewoman, because she was a 'Delphic maid' (551) at the Dionysiac ritual, yet below he hopes that she might be an Athenian (670-5); later he fears that his basket and tokens might show that she was a slave (1380ff.). For Ion's interest in arıstocratic lineage, see the whole of his first dialogue with Kr.,

and also 592, 1380f., 1477, 1485f. Text: should we divide μέν

from the Ist

pers. verb: 'I have escaped slavery at least"? son: relieved that he has satisfied Ion's curiosity, X. returns to his opening address but now makes it clear why he can call Ion son. 557

disbelieve the god: Ion ascribes his acceptance of X. to reverence for Apollo (cf. 1606-8 where he accepts Kr. at Athena's bidding). He feels

bound to accept the oracle because it is Apollo's will; he feels reconciled to it because it provides him with an instant aristocratic lineage (556, 558/9). The last we heard from Ion on the subject of the god he so adored was a strong denunciation (436ff.); now he implicitly excludes any charge of

decepuon against the god; later, after the real recognition, it is precisely this untruth of which Apollo must be convicted.

sensible: X. returns to the sanity theme which Ion introduced (518, 520). 559

Ion recalls the genealogy told him by Kr. in 292, but loosely makes X. the

son, not grandson of Zeus; X. unwittingly underlines the truth, since Ion is, 560

as Apollo's son, Zeus' grandson. in obedience to the god: X. appeals to the pious docility he has detected in Ion (cf. 557). Text: Bothe's 2nd pers. sing. 1s more direct and logical, but a

case can be made (Kraus 53) for the allusive 3rd pers. pl. 561-2

Greetings to you, father: Ion now welcomes X. with the same phrasing and gesture of affection that X. had first used to greet him (517). X. accepts Ion's salutation with the solemnity appropriate to an oracle. Cf. Hdt. 1. 6. 3., S. El. 668.

COMMENTARY

223

present day: consciously Ion can regard the day as partially welcome; the

ironic point is that it will make both him and his mother as happy, μακάριος

(a strong word

appropriate

to the bliss of the gods; cf. M.

MacDonald, Terms of Happiness in Eur. [Göttingen, 1978] 203/9) as X. is now (cf. 1354,

1461). Text: Biehl's text (defended by Kraus 53f.), which

gives all 562 to X., ruins the symmetry of the exchange at its close. 563-5

As soon as Ion 'knows' one parent, he wants to know the other (note the placement of mother in the same metrical position as father in 561); so too when he has found his real mother, he immediately wants to know who his father is (1468). For the first time Ion takes up the accumulation of φιλwords in X.'s speech (cf. 526n.), but he uses dear not of his 'father' but of

his unknown mother. your face: σὸν δέμας, lit. ' your body, frame’, more expressive than 'you' (cf. its use in periphrases, for which see Bond on HF 1036), brings out the

irony that Ion has indeed seen the living figure of his mother. whoever you are: Ion has already used the formulaic phrase prior to recognition (Bond on Hyps. i. i. 5) when he was actually facing the woman he now longs for (238). Text: Diggle's text gives Ion an unlikely thought, since dreams

566-8

569-70

are precisely

where one might see, even for the first time,

loved ones; cf. Megara's fears on seeing the returned Heracles in HF 517. Barnes’ suggestion, 'I could not see you at all’, produces flat, if unobjectionable, sense. The Chorus' brief comment marks the formal transition from trochaics to trimeters and divides the 'recognition' scene from its aftermath: the discussion of Ion's future and his attitude to life in. Athens. That their intervention is predictable and their reaction to events very restrained masks the far more decisive and unprecedented step the Chorus will take later. I would have wanted: this wish echoes their prayer in 469ff. The Chorus pair their personal and family loyalties, and it is difficult to judge which is uppermost with them, or later with the Old Man. X. is clearly still thought of very much as the outsider. X. sums up the situation by giving due credit to Apollo's hand in the matter.

Note that the verb €xpave, brought to a conclusion echoes Hermes' To 571 572-5

kpavdev used of the future course of events in 77. you have found what is most dear: the wording here repeats that of 521 and transfers to Ion the experience X. claimed for himself. Before getting down to business, X., prompted by Ion's speech, spares a thought for his mother. spring to: the strong word dloow has already (328) been used of Ion's search for his mother. The construction there confirms Herwerden's conjecture here. For X.'s hope that time will reveal all: cf. S. fr. 301, Hipp.

224

COMMENTARY

1051f. and Antiope fr. 48. 107f. Kambitsis. His wording sort of woman draws attention to Ion's concern about his mother's status.

576

577

578-81

homeless

state: dAntela

has negative

overtones; cf. the term dAdtas,

'vagabond', used contemptuously of Ion by the Chorus in 1089 and contrast Hermes' description of Ion's life in 53. It suits X.'s purposes to stress Ion's vagrant status in contrast with the settled life in a polis which he intends to give him. one in mind with your father: X. stresses their common interest, but this excludes Kr. as the Chorus has already said in 566-8, and X.'s plans for a happy future with Ion remind us of Kr.'s charge against Apollo in 358. These lines must be kept (cf. Biehl, Matthiessen, Gnomon 56 [1984] 680, Kraus 54f.). They provide necessary explanation of X.'s behest that Ion follow him to Athens, and Ion's silence and preoccupation seem unjustified in the absence of something more substantial for him to ponder. Furthermore, they prepare for the voicing of Ion's concerns in 585ff. The logical difficulty can be explained by X.'s eagerness to make the strongest

possible contrast between Ion's life in Delphi and his prospects in Athens, where, X. claims, his manifest wealth will mask his ignoble origins (so Verrall on 579). your father's rich crown: as at 660, X. shows no anxiety about his foreign

status. well endowed with life's comforts: a fulsome expression marking a climax

after rich crown and much wealth, and in emphatic contrast with poor. In 582-4

fact, Ion was evidently not leading an indigent life in Delphi (cf. 326). Why the silence?: Ion resembles Kr. in their dialogue (362), and in her silence before X. at 401ff. His mind is fixed on Athens and the problems awaiting him there (585ff.), just as hers was fixed on the sufferings she had

endured there in the past (251, 257). For the significant silence cf. Hipp. 911, Hyps. fr. 60, 7 Bond. your face downcast: an expression of abstraction suggesting that he does not share X.'s enthusiasm. Antigone's similar gesture before Creon (S. Ant. 441) also expresses distance, but one arising from defiance. Ion, like Kr. (24 1ff., 401ff.), fails to express the expected emotion. retreat...anxiety: with disappointed exaggeration X. contrasts Ion's pensive

mood here with his apparent contentment in 561f. Ion on Athens: 585-647 1. Structure

1. Introduction: 585-9 ii. The political problems he will face: 589-606 iii. The domestic difficulties ahead: 607-20 iv. The disadvantages of tyranny: 621-32

COMMENTARY

225

v. The delights of Delphi: 633-47 2. Form

Ion's speech has many of the marks of one half of a formal element traditional in tragedy and especially favoured by Eur.: the agon or debate. All but one of Eur.'s early plays include one, but in the plays of this period it is usually dissolved in agreement (cf. 17), or, as here, abruptly truncated by one of the characters (650). It

would have been dramatically futile to continue the debate in this case, since the

premisses on which it 1s based will be shown to be imaginary: Ion will rule Athens with Athena's authorisation, and Kr. will be a loving mother rather than a hateful stepmother. A similar discussion may have occurred between Merops and Phaethon in Pha. (see Collard SFP I, 230). >> M. Lloyd, The Agon in Eur.

3. Function The speech has been seen as inappropriate to Ion because of his youth and his lack of experience of Athenian conditions, and has been read as a virtual Aristophanic

parabasis, with Eur. using lon as a mouthpiece to voice his own opinions. (Cf. Bayfield and Owen ad loc., L. B. Carter, The Quiet Athenian (Oxford, 1986] 157). Kovacs (TAPA 109 [1979] 116ff and GRBS 23 [1982] 35f.) holds that nearly half the

speech should be deleted: the digressive and incoherent content, formal oddities and anachronistic themes manifest in 595-606 and 621-32 can be put down to interpolation; the passages are intrusive essays in favour of quietism belonging to the centuries after the death of Alexander. On the realistic level some of these arguments can be met by the consideration that Ion shows a mature intelligence in the play and would have had many opportunities to discuss affairs with visitors to the shrine, as he says (638ff.), and we have seen

him do with Kr. (265ff.). More deeply, the speech seems entirely in character. He exhibits many of the traits which we have seen to be typical of him: his scepticism and determination to view things from as many angles as he can; his sympathy for Kr. (607ff., esp. 618-9); his concern for good breeding (619-20); his acute consciousness of differing styles of life—especially those of Delphi and Athens. Furthermore, the speech is evidence of his growing maturity and prepares for his characterisation later in the play as a forceful, and even worldly-wise, prince. What is really 'inappropriate' to the Ion of the play is that the picture of Athens belongs to the time of the play's production, not that of its dramatic setting: the problems which Ion expects to face are those of a democratic politician competing with demagogues in the moral climate of the fifth century, not of an hereditary prince, grandson of Erechtheus. But such an amalgam of mythical and contemporary realities, in large things and small, 1s typical of tragedy ın general, and of Eur. in particular (cf. e.g. 469 and see Kamerbeek Entretiens VI 7ff., Hanson, MusAfr 4 [1975] 37f., Collard on Supp. 352-3). What is stressed here in particular is the contrast between the apolitical life of Delphi, and the intensely political and competitive life of Athens (cf. Kraus 58). In this contrast there may be opposition to the ideals of Pericles, as they are presented in Thucydides 2. 37ff. (cf. Lloyd 38). In

226

COMMENTARY

595ff. the idyllic picture of an equal citizenry (Thuc. 2. 37. 1) is challenged, and in 598f. there is approval of the apolitical life which Pericles so roundly condemns (2. 40. 2). In terms of the action itself, the speech is at least partly a series of objections to life in Athens which, though real in one sense, are manufactured to display Ion's unease with the plan of Apollo, an unhappiness which is parallel to, if less intense than, that of his mother. It is important that the unhappiness remain unfocussed (this is not, pace Kovacs, a sign of inauthenticity) and not personalised as an attack on X., who cannot become an object of enmity to Ion because of his key function in Apollo's plan. Ion's misgivings here will foreground his later joy when his situation will have

changed in two fundamental ways: in the public sphere, he will know that he is a legitimate prince, with Athena as his patron; in the private sphere, he no longer need fear Kr.'s hatred, nor pity her predicament. Thus to begin with, both Ion and Kr. are unhappy with Apollo's intentions, but by the end the god will have accommodated both of them better than either could have imagined. See further Lloyd 35-9, who argues that the final result, after mortal action has forced the plan to be modified, is

better than Apollo's initial aims: the play represents divine and human in a fruitful symbiosis. 585 things at a distance...close up: for the phrasing cf. Rh. 482, Plato, Rep.

602c. This is a programmatic statement for a play so much about appearance and reality, and about how things scem at different times and from different places. By the end of the play Ion's notions of life in Athens will have changed again, as he views with enthusiasm his future there with Kr. things: πράγματα means both 'things' in general, and ‘political affairs’ in particular, the main subject of Ion's discourse (589-606, 621-32), where the word will recur in this more limited sense (599).

588 589

591

father: the preceding declaration is taken up with this endearing vocative which signals the seriousness of what Ion is about to say. earth-born: Ion has learned of the Athenians' autochthonous origins from Kr. (265ff.), and has also heard, with surprise, that X. is 'from another country' (290). For similar sentiments from within the city cf. Praxithea in Erec. fr. 360. 7ff. two disadvantages: Ion responds to X.'s claim that he will suffer from neither of two disadvantages (579-80); but the two disadvantages here are

his foreign and bastard birth, there they were low-birth and poverty. He may either be trumping X.'s argument (so Verrall on 591—this is how Ion expresses his annoyance with X.), or else Eur. wants to create a discontinuity between seeming father and son: X. naturally imagines two difficulties which can be overcome; Ion two trom which X. cannot protect him. For Athenian xenophobia (denied in Pericles’ ‘open’ society Thuc. 2.

COMMENTARY

592

594

227

37. 39), especially towards resident aliens, the metics, cf. Med. 222ff. and see Collard, Supp. p. 331f. born out of wedlock: Ion, though concerned about his sexual purity (150), feels no internal stain about being a bastard—he fears only that others will despise him for it (cf. Hipp. 1083). Later he will be anxious that he is Kr.'s bastard (cf. 1473n.), but he can accept without hesitation being Apollo's bastard because that is a source of pride not shame. For prevailing attitudes to illegitimate children cf. And. 634ff. The Ms. text involves intolerable duplication of the idea 'nobody'. Seidler's correction ‘and I shall be called a nobody myself sprung from nobodies' has a good chance of being right, even though 'sprung from’ is not expressed.

Owen demurs because it seems too rude of Ion to speak of X. as a nobody'. But Ion includes his unidentified mother in the term and, more importantly, he is representing the views of others. Cf. Med. 32 where the Nurse's

betray' expresses not her own, but the prevailing view of Medea's conduct. 595-606 Ion envisages a tripartite state, and devotes an increasing number of lines of his speech to each class, reaching a climax with the most actively troublesome: 1) those who have no power (595-7); 11} those who could have it, but choose not to (598-601); 1) those who do have it (602-6). For the,

essentially rhetorical, division cf. Supp. 238ff. (economic criteria), Bellerophon fr. 285. 3ff. (mixture of birth and means). In respect of each group Ion stresses the effect on himself; in so doing he applies-two different

models: the archaic one, where he will be a prince and be forced into

595

596

597

politics, and the anachronistic, democratic one, where he will have to struggle against competitors like any popular politician. >> Collard, Supp. pp. 171f. the first ranks: a nautical metaphor referring to the banks of rowers on a trireme (cf. A. Ag. 183, 1618), but one which gains added force from the context of Ion's complaints about Athenian democracy, where naval employment for the loweg classes was a prominent reason for their supposed dominance (see the Old Oligarch, passim). to become someone: colloquial (Stevens, Coll. Exp. 25), like the English idiom ‘to be a somebody’. Cf. Electra to the dead Aegisthus in Εἰ. 939. powerless: a unique use of the word, which when unqualified normally means ‘disabled, invalid' (cf. the title of Lysias’ speech 24). For its meaning here, where it is used to set up the contrast with capable mentioned below, cf. δυνατός of political influence in Ba. 270. Superiority causes offence: see Thuc. 2. 64. 5 (Pericles on Athens), 6. 16.

5 (Alcibiades of individuals). This may have been the common

Athenian

perception of the cause of the Peloponnesian War. 598-601 sound: the word χρηστοί, lit. ‘useful, serviceable’, is common as a term of general approbation with moral as well as political overtones; cf. Or. 773,

228

COMMENTARY Lys.

14. 31. Text: The infin. εἶναι, ‘to be', of the Ms., evidently due to

association with capable, produces faulty sense; Kraus’ attempt (57) to save it as final with σιγῶσι is to force the grammar, and the approbation expressed by the participle is right. The objections of Kovacs (AJP 105 [1984] 240f.) to the language will not stand: δυνάμενοι can mean capable in a context where it is contrasted with powerless and σόφοι has the

participle because it is stressed as causal. business of public life: the word πράγματα is cognate with the term polypragmosyne, ‘excessive activity, penchant for interference’ which was used as an anti-democratic slogan by conservative politicians. Pericles attacks its opposite, the quietism mentioned below, in his epitaphios, Thuc. 2. 40. 2. >> Carter, op. cit. 155ff., V. Ehrenberg, JHS 67 (1947) 53f.,

Dodds, Ba. pp.120f., Collard on Supp. 577. ridicule: Ion is imbued with the Greek fear of mocking laughter, which drove Ajax to suicide (cf. S. Ajax 367, 382, 454f.) and Medea to murder (cf.

Med. 383, 1049, 1362). For the hendiadys, lit. ‘ridicule and foolishness’, cf. Med. 218, Tro. 1035

censure: praise and blame were key driving forces in Greek society and literature. Diggle compares El. 904 and Theognis 287. For Athens as a city

of 'whingers' cf. Aristoph. Frogs 1459. Text: The Ms. ‘fear’ is inappropriate

602-4

to Ion's. ruminations here which are concerned with approval and its opposite. The third category is introduced in terms directly contrary (if Schaefer's

λεγόντων ‘those having their say’ is right) to the silent inactivity described in 599. Text: λογίων would have to be given the unexampled sense of ‘eloquent’ to be right; O. Musso (ASNP 15 [1985] 41 ff.) suggests λογιστῶν, a reference to the public auditors. The sense of χρωμένων, lit.'using', here is

unusual, but cf. Hipp. 997, IA 88. The verb is chosen to connect with χρηστοί in 598. hemmed in: this may be an allusion to ostracism (the last of which, Hyperbolus', took place in 417/6), but reference to more general and everyday events (e.g. to voting at the assembly and in the courts) is preferable. things tend to be: Ion rounds off this section of his speech with an appealing address to X. (cf. 588) and by justifying what he says on a priori grounds. This would mark an appropriate break before Ion tackles the domestic

situation, and Kraus’ deletion

(61) of the somewhat

repetitive

605f. (quoted in a slightly different form by Stobaeus as from the Glaukos) is tempting. outsider: he uses the same term as was used of X. visiting Delphi (cf. 607), but with pejorative overtones (cf. HF 257, which shows the same emphatic

pleonasm), as suits the household's viewpoint.

COMMENTARY 608

a woman

229

who is childless: just as it is assumed that Kr.'s child is dead

(345ff., 436ff., 502ff.), so here, despite the prophecy of Trophonios (408-9), Ion assumes that the fact that X. alone has got a child from the god means that Kr. will never have one. The theme is reinforced at 613, 619 and 620 and thus prepares for the much more explicit and almost ruinous assumption made by the Chorus later (76 1ff.).

609

610

no share in it: the surface meaning is complicated by the fact that Kr. will indeed, in a way now hidden from Ion, not share in X.'s lot, and will at the same time ‘gain her due portion’ (a further meaning of the verb ἀπολαγχάνω, cf. [Bond on] HF 331). Text: Diggle's substitution of the gen. sing. for the accus. pl. seems unnecessary; the pl. may be emphatic, and for the accus. cf. A. Ag. 1347. with bitter resentment: the adverb πικρῶς is repeated, significantly I think, in 613, and is meant to stress (cf. And.

611

615

not be simply passive, but that her resentment will find an outlet in action; this is made explicit in 616-7. It is perfectly reasonable: Ion shows the sort of understanding for Kr. which he voiced earlier. But later, when she actually puts her hatred into action, he is outraged: ‘things at a distance have a different appearance when seen close up’ (585f.). For the hateful stepmother topos see 1025n. in turmoil: Ion uses strong language to impress on X. that grave domestic trouble is in store. The same word, lit. 'pour together, mix up' is used by Medea

616-7

619

190) that Kr.'s reaction will

(794) of the devastation she will wreak on Jason's house, and in

Hipp. 813 of the effects of Phaedra's suicide. The translation needs to break up the long period which began in 607 and comes only now to an end. There is a breathless urgency in Ion's graphic account of the effects of his intrusion into X.'s house. That Ion is able to understand the viewpoint of others is the more marked when we remember that he himself has had no proper experience of a home. Deletion of these lines (Dindorf, supported most recently by Kraus 62) would remove a fine touch. They form the climax, the threat to X.'s life, of the many undesirable effects of Ion's joining his ‘father’ at home in Athens. While Ion can sympathise with Kr., his object here is to persuade his ‘father’ that even she will be a source of trouble. Ion's fears will be shown to be well founded, but the irony of the sequel is that the death of which he warns X. is expressly (976f.) diverted from him and threatens Ion himself. Ion thinks of the standard lethal alternatives; cf. the Old Man's suggestions in 844f., Hec. 876ff., fr. 403. 6. For the murderous wives Ion has in mind cf. Clytemnestra, par excellence, and the Danaids. Owen thinks that Ion, like the Chorus in 700, exaggerates Kr.'s age. Perhaps, but he may be adopting her viewpoint: she now felt old enough to be worried about childbearing and seek supernatural advice. Andromache

230

620

COMMENTARY was young enough to charm Neoptolemus and bear him a child but still she claims to be ‘past it’ in And. 196. is deleted by Nauck as a filler after deserve «it». But it is appropriate that Ion's especial sympathy for Kr.'s childless state be based on the nobility which

621ff.

so impressive

(237ff., 262f.) and which

he will be

discovered to share. Tragedy is fond of 'Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown' passages; cf.

Hipp. 623-5

he has found

1013ff., S. OT 584ff. Ion's opposing of the ‘outward face’ to the

domestic reality of autocracy is purposely calculated to move X. These lines display rhetorical style, with anaphora and asyndeton in the opening two balanced phrases leading to a longer rhetorical question. Ion uses the devices of an Attic orator to criticise the political system of Athens. On the tyrant's fear of assassins, cf. OT 583ff., Hipp. 1019f. stretches out his existence: for the negative choice of words cf. Med. 670, Supp. 1109. Text: περιβλέπων, ‘looking around‘, in Stobaeus' text seems appropriate to the apprehensive glances of an autocrat, but is never used in this concrete sense with an external object like βίον 'life', hence Stephanus' βίαν. Perhaps we should take περιβλέπων more aggressively and make βίαν an

internal object of the kind found in A. Seven 498, Aristoph. Frogs 603. The meaning then is 'frightened and yet (cf. Denniston 292 for adversative Kal) casting looks of violence around him...'. 626 I

should prefer: the use of ἂν θέλοιμι in such insistent expressions of preference may be formulaic; cf. Med. 251, Hipp. 1017, IT 1009.

627

base men as friends...shuns the noble a commonplace of Greek thought; cf. Hdt 3. 80, Plato, Rep. 567b, Arist. Pol. 1314al, Supp. 444ff., Erec. fr. 362. 19ff. and Hipp. 1018, where the reverse point is made. You might reply: again like an orator, Ion anticipates the counterarguments of his opponent. For this device, hypophora, cf. Pho. 1618ff., HF 298, Hipp. 966f., Lloyd, Agon 29ff. X., it turns out, refuses to participate in the debate at all. This specific criticism of the tyrant's life— that it inevitably involves excess and so the private citizen is happier—is first voiced here; it reaches its culmination in Plato, Rep. 576b11-c2. »» J.

629-31

O'Neil, Antichthon 20 (1986) 26ff.

riches get the better of these things: Ion assumes that the wealthy must

also be political, but he has already referred to a class of leisured, apolitical, and presumably wealthy citizens (598ff.). His thought is probably by the commonplace association of tyranny and wealth (Solon fr. Ant. 1168-9). taunts: this word links with and stresses the earlier mention of (601); the Ms. 'noises' is too vague and was evidently suggested by to.

moulded 33W, S. 'censure' to listen

COMMENTARY

632

633

231

worries: the word is chosen to make a strong contrast with joy in 630. For the use of πόνους referring to mental anguish rather than physical toil cf: Pind. Nem. 10. 78, S. OC 232 and for the traditional association of wealth with care see Mastronarde on Pho. 552-3. The life of moderation without care is for me!: a skilful transıtion from the purely negative arguments against tyranny to the happy life of Delphi, where the maxim ‘nothing in excess’ is a way of life. Ion's concluding wish is an echo of the Chorus’ hope in 490f. These considerations tell against Wilamowitz's deletion of the verse. Ion begins the closing section of his speech with a summarising appeal which, as before, gains force from the endearing address to X. He will conclude in the same way (645).

enjoyed: throughout this passage Ion speaks in the past tense. Though reluctant, he recognises that he must go to Athens. This speech is his

farewell to Delphi, as 429-51

is his farewell to innocence. There he

criticised the god who will soon be revealed to be his father, here he criticises the city which is soon to be revealed as his mother".

here: Ion's speech, like so much of the play, turns on the contrast between ‘here’ (Delphi) and ‘there’ (Athens)— see also 645. But there is a reversal in

Ion's expectations of what will happen ‘here’ and 'there': the violent animosity which he foresees at Athens is already at Delphi, while the good life which he values so much here will be even more true of Athens. Critics have noted that Ion's love of Delphi hardly arises from any special

religious devotion. Apart from 638-9, what he likes about Delphi is its life

634

of refined hedonism, with friends and authority. But we must remember that Ion is listing those good things which he thinks might make an impression on his 'father'; his own heartfelt priorities were made clear in his monody 82-183. leisure: that Ion sees leisure as the greatest good is partly for the sake of argument and partly to impress X. It is noteworthy that he should praise the

leisure of Delphi, when earlier he had stressed the incessant toil of his life there (102, 121-4, 128ff.). Arist. Pol. 1334221 records the proverb that 'slaves have no leisure', but Ion's tasks are of a kind (cf. 128, 134) which

make them very like leisure. >> Carter, op. cit. 160.

.

635

care: for this sense of ὄχλος

cf. Med. 337, Hel. 439, Or. 282. The basic

635-7

meaning of the word, 'crowd, throng', surfaces in the following lines where bustle and jostling in the streets are mentioned. These statements reflect the egalitarianism in Athens which made those of inferior rank disinclined to give way to their superiors; cf. Old Oligarch i. 10, Plato, Rep. 563c, S. OT 800ff. and J. Gregory, JHS 115 (1995) 144f.

Ion's consciousness of status emerges in the use of the verb ἐκπλήσσω, frequent in Eur. of emotional upset (cf. 241, 403).

COMMENTARY

232 638-9

cheerful: as befits visitors to Apollo's shrine. This was why Ion was upset by Kr.'s demeanour in 241ff. For the correct interpretation of these lines see Diggle, Studies 102f.

640-1

We have seen Ion doing just this in the play—conversing first with the Chorus, then Kr., then X. The use of polyptoton (cf. 381n.) in fresh...fresh stresses the delight shared between Ion and his visitors in contrast with the suspicion and competitive ethos he imagines in Athens. For the use of ἡδύς here cf. Pho. 771, Hipp. 289 and see Stinton, JHS 76 (1976) 131f. The word contrasts with the 'bitter' reactions of Kr. (610, 613).

642-4

Ion's climactic point goes beyond what he finds irksome or dangerous and touches on his own moral position. In Delphi, he claims, both his natural

tendency and the mores of the place make him just. This is in strong contrast with the situation described in 595ff. where competition breeds the reverse of justice (cf. 603f., 605f.). As for princely rule, it scarcely promotes a just assessment of men (cf. 627f.), and wealth is traditionally the enemy of justice (cf. HF 774ff., Solon fr. 13. 11 W).

even against their will: the point seems to be that in principle everyone wants justice, even though with certain individuals at certain times justice is not in their interests and therefore they feel no need for it. Cf. the arguments

of Thrasymachus in Plato, Rep. 338c ff. the law and my nature: Ion's use of a key weapon of sophistic argument in

the 5th century, the opposition between nomos

and phusis (cf. Guthrie,

History of Greek Philosophy III [Cambridge, 1969] 55ff.) is, of course, as

inappropriate as his knowledge of Athenian politics. It may be playful on Eur.'s part (Walsh, Hermes 106 [1978] 305), or it may be a further element

in the openly artificial texture of Ion's speech. presented me as such to the god: Ion cannot see any difficulty in the fact that the god, it appears, is not so interested in justice; cf. 355, 384, 449. Ion resumes the strategy of his opening statement (633) and appeals to X. as

his father. He then goes on to his closing request which gains force from its simple brevity (cf. Phaedra's appeal to her Nurse in Hipp. 323) and urgency (note αὐτοῦ, 'right here’, intensifying ἐνθάδε, ‘here’, in 633, 645). 646-7

Ion justifies his request with insistence on the benefits of moderate means; this is a strong, climactic contradiction of X.'s repeated focus on the effects of wealth (578ff.). delight: for the word χάρις of one's life-style cf. Hipp. 1020. The word here is in direct contrast to the worries (631) of the wealthy. For the same

contrast cf. S. OC 232. 648-9

The choral distich leads us to expect the second, contrary speech of an agon; cf. Pho. 497f., Hec. 1238f., Tro. 966ff. and see Heath, Poetics 127f. Though expressing agreement, the Chorus-leader does not seem to have

COMMENTARY

233

listened closely and restates the point of 566ff. regarding Kr.'s apparent 650

exclusion from the good fortune under discussion. Enough of this talk!: X. abruptly ends the nascent agon. He is a plain, nononsense man who is keen to get on with the business at hand with a minimum

652

of talk (see 401ff.). Eur. gives us just enough of the debate to

highlight the contrast between Ion's reluctance to go to Athens with his supposed father, and his later eagerness to go with his real mother. X.'s staccato instructions answer Ion's curt request in 646. to be happy: X. has quite missed Ion's point which was to ask where happiness might really lie (cf. 623/5). for all...for everyone: X. again stresses unity and common purpose, but it

surprisingly turns out that he himself will not share in this shared feast, and

653

the feast is the first step towards the revelation that X. and Ion have nothing in common at all. offer in honour of your birth: X. really wants to celebrate three different festivals: the genethlia, the dekaté, and the xenos-feast. The genethlia (including the amphidromia, the ritual of carrying the child around the family hearth) was celebrated on the fifth (or seventh) day after a child's

birth, with presents, banquets and a sacrifice (cf. Plato, Theaet.

160e,

Plautus, Truc. 423f.). The dekaté, held on the tenth day after birth involved the naming of the child (cf. El. 1126, Birds

494, 922f., Isaeus 3. 30. 70), a

significant theme here and elsewhere in the play. The xenos-feast for a new guest-friend has nothing to do with childbirth >> Lacey

111f., Hastings,

Encyc. of Religion s.v. Birth 648, M. Golden EMC 5 (1986) 245ff. We shall discover later (1125ff.) that the sacrifice is largely a theatrical convenience

655

which keeps X. out of the way for the rest of the dramatic time. But it also has deeper significance: X. sacrifices the genethlia on Parnassus, paralleling his supposed fathering of Ion there; events at Jon's feast parallel his exposure, with an attempt on his life by his mother and his salvation by his real father Apollo. delight you with the feast: the τέρψις, ‘delight’, of a feast is proverbial; cf. Med. 200ff., Pind. Pyth. 9.19. This reference foreshadows the elaborate

preparations and the euphoric tone which will precede the near disaster. 656

of course: the particle δῆθεν expresses a knowing tone which neatly stresses the irony of the supposedly misleading not as my son.

658

childless: again (cf. 608/20) the assumption that Kr. will remain childless which the Chorus will represent later as oracular information. X.'s

659-60

statement is included chiefly for the irony, but it also characterizes him as anything but the villain pictured by the Old Man in 813ff. in time: X. is a great believer in the power of time as it passes (cf. 575 above); his attitude is unwittingly right: cf. 1349, 1582, 1615.

234

COMMENTARY I shall...induce...my rule: for the legal aspects of Ion's inheritance see 713n. It is nicely 1ronic that X. thinks, and will continue to think, that he must persuade Kr. to allow the arrangement which she herself deeply desires and understands (1540ff.)

661

I name you 'Ion' as befits the turn of chance: ἰών is the participle of the verb ‘to come/go'; lon met X. as he ‘came out (ἐξιόντι, dat. case of the participle) of the temple. X. virtually repeats the wording of 535 to show that the little naming ceremony caps the previous information. He may see the proposed feast partly as the normal naming celebration ten days after a child's birth (cf. 653n.). Since Ion had no previous name

664

666-7

(cf.309/11), he

simply agrees to his father's little pun; later he will see that the name is the product of more than chance. Eur. is fond of providing etymological explanations for his characters’ names. This may be a mannerism, but it is more likely to spring from an exploitation of the belief that names were signifiers of destiny and character; cf. Ba. 367 and 508, Supp. 496, IT 32. >> Collard, Supp. p. 241, Kannicht on Hel. 13-5. all your friends, lit. ‘full complement of your friends' implies a large number and prepares us for the need for a marquee. Even though X. cannot know how many friends Ion has, the lad's preceding speech suggests quite a few, and, as X. says twice above (652), he wants everyone to share in the feast. X.'s demand for silence echoes Kr.'s request to Ion (394ff.); sympathy for Kr. prompts him to keep quiet, as it encourages the Chorus to speak. Pledging of the chorus (or of others, cf. Or. 1103f.) to secrecy is common in tragedy, especially in Eur.: cf. A. Cho. 555, 581f., S. El. 468f., Med. 259ff., Hipp. 706ff., IT 1056ff., El. 272f., Hel. 1387ff.,IA 542. This is natural, since no intrigue can succeed without the complicity of the ever-present chorus. Eur.'s use of the motif is adventurous and varied. As the chorus are usually sympathetic to the character making the request, their obedience is to be expected, and need not even be expressed (so A. Cho., S. EL, El.., IA). But in Med. 267f. and Hipp. 713f. the Chorus agree to silence quite explicitly before knowing what is involved because they are bound to disagree with the proposed action. (Contrast the silence asked from the Nurse in Med. 822f.) The example here is unique. Aware that their sympathy does not lie with him (as in all other cases of those asking for silence) X. does not merely ask, but orders, and instead of promising rewards (cf. /T 1067f., Hel. 1389) he threatens the Chorus with death. The Chorus do not answer; this is normal (exceptional are the passages mentioned above and /T 1076f, which follows a remarkably elaborate appeal and which helps to explain the Chorus' active, deceitful involvement afterwards in 1296ff.); but usually silence means consent. Here hints of their answer are heard in the following stasimon, where their complete lack

COMMENTARY

235

of sympathy for X. and his bastard son is powerfully voiced. Their eventual disobedience to the command (the strong wording of which suggests that it

may be broken) is also unique, and sets in motion the unexpected second half of the action. Eur. could have had Kr. informed by other means (e.g. through different use of the Old Man), or made far less of the Chorus

decision (cf. And. 1053ff.). Instead, he makes the Chorus fully one of the actors (cf. Aristotle's prescription, Poet. 14562), whose interference arises from their affection and loyalty to Kr. and her house, seen already in the parodos and preceding stasimon. >> Barrett on Hipp. 710-2, Kannicht on Hel.

1387-9, Taplin, Tragedy in Action 118, Gauger 12ff., Hose, Studien I,

299ff., 305f. 668

670

I am on my way: Lattimore (op. cit. 211) suggests marks hesitation and resignation on Ion's part: he has and gives in reluctantly. Lattimore compares Ba. 515 giving way), 845 (Pentheus yielding). Could the use

that the optative + dv been overruled by X. (Dionysus apparently of the formula in 418

suggest X.'s nervousness as he walks into the temple? As X.'s order is given to be disobeyed, so, on the contrary, Ion's prayer is made to be answered. But we next see Ion's mother in the scene where she plots her son's death, and the next time he sees her he threatens to kill her.

671

of Athenian stock: at 551f. the assumption is made that Ion's mother was a Delphic devotee of Bacchus; that satisified him at the time, since it meant she must have been free. But now that Ion must go to Athens, he hopes for

more. 672

freedom of speech inherited from my mother: Ion means that if his mother is an alien he will feel inhibited from speaking his mind, a particular

quality of Athenian life. While his desire is natural enough in one who has not been slow to say what he thinks, the theme is a further instance of anachronism in Ion's speech, and its vacillation between mythical past and theatrical present. The importance of one's mother's blood was underlined by Pericles' law of 451, which restricted citizenship to those with both parents citizens (Lacey 100, 282); the much vaunted Athenian παρρησία,

‘freedom of speech’, (cf. Hipp. 421ff., Aristoph. Thes. 540f., Collard on

673

Supp. 438-41) may have been topical as a readily abused feature of the democracy; there are hints of this in Or. 905. an outsider: X. has told Ion that he will take him to Athens as a guestfriend (xenos) 645, but Ion refers to his earlier concerns that he will be a foreigner (xenos) in autochthonous Athens (589ff.), and repeats the

pejorative image there by the use of the verb πέσηι, ‘lands, falls’. of pure blood: the word καθαρός brings with it (cf. 96, 105) associations of ritual purity. Later (cf. 1333), Ion nearly disqualifies himself from sharing this with his future subjects.

236 674-5

COMMENTARY in theory...the voice: the standard Greek parallelism ‘in theory/word...in fact’ (cf., in the same context, Erec. fr. 360. 13) is adjusted to accommodate Ion's concerns with freedom, not of action, but speech. For the extreme polarity slavery/free speech cf. Pho. 392. Text: Conington's vópototv, ‘by law', would sharpen the reference to legal arrangements within the polis.

SECOND STASIMON: 676-724 1. Structure: a single triad consisting of a strophic pair + epode i. Strophe 676-94: anticipation of Kr.'s distress followed suspicions of foul play.

quickly

by

ii. Antistrophe 695-712: the possibility of revelation to Kr.; suspicion hardens into strong abuse of X. iii. Epode 713-24: the imagined scene of Ion's conception is invoked and

followed by curses on the boy and by patriotic xenophobia. 2. Metre: chiefly dochmiac and iambic verses to convey the Chorus' misery at the

news and their agitation over the decision on how they should act. 3. Function On the exit of X. and Ion we are encouraged to think that Apollo's plan is well under way and may only wonder how Kr. is to be brought into the rest of the drama. The central function of the ode is to complicate our expectations by giving us the Chorus' reaction to events and, more particularly, hints of their response to X.'s demand for

silence. The ode provides three powerful reasons why the Chorus should disobey their master's order: their personal feelings for Kr. (676-80), whose point of view on developments, already briefly expressed in S66ff., 648f., is voiced; their patriotism (702, 719-24); their suspicion that the oracle is a trick (681-7). >> Hose, Studien II,

148f. The Chorus works itself up into believing that Ion's going to Athens will be a disaster for Kr., when in fact it will be the fulfilment of all her hopes; but by imagining disaster they almost create it. When they falsely report that X.'s getting a

son means that Kr. will not, they spark the crisis in the plot, so that the day of Ion's departure for Athens is almost the day of his death. The ode is thus central in triggering both the change of plot and the change in the play's tone. Yet these

changes—and the intense hatred of Ion—are largely the effect of the Chorus’ picking up themes which Ion himself had already raised. Just as he asks what the oracle might mean (533ff.), so do the Chorus (681-2). More importantly, they share his foreboding about the future in Athens, as well as his sympathy for Kr., and especially his assumption that she will remain childless (607-20). But their

sympathy helps to rouse in Kr. the murderous reaction which Ion fears and envisages. So the Chorus have the same anxieties as Ion, but they themselves establish the grounds for those anxieties to be realised, first by their indiscretion and

then by their misinformation on the oracle. In one important respect, however, the

COMMENTARY

237

Chorus is independent: they manufacture the idea of deceit on the part of the oracle (685), Ion (692, but see note), and X. (705). This prepares for the Old Man's fantasies, and also for the real deceit of the play in which Kr. will be agent, not victim. 676-80 A powerfully evocative opening contrasts Kr.'s imagined tears and groans and bereft state with her husband's repeated expressions of pleasure and

good fortune in finding Ion (cf. 650, 655, 658, 664). As in the distich (648f.), the Chorus reveal their almost exclusive concern with Kr.'s interests

and reaction. tears...groans: the tricolon is expressive of their emotion, as in And. 112.

onset: Eoßokai is taken by LSJ s.v. 3 to mean ‘beginnings’ (cf. Collard on Supp. 92). But the sense ‘invasion, assault’, which the word carries at the end of the stasimon (722), 1s also suggested: Kr. is attacked by her own

expressions of grief. when: the Chorus, like the audience, must imagine that this will be later in Athens (659f.). They themselves allow it to happen sooner. my mistress: an endearing feature of the Chorus‘ character, their close identification with Kr. (cf. 648 and their frequent use of the pronominal

adjective, even when it is hardly needed, 236, 695, 705), almost leads to catastrophe. Text: several syllables are missing from the beginning of 677; Triclinius'

addition, evidently a guess to cure the metrical deficiency, was built on by

681-2

Hermann; but his supplement Mastronarde on Pho. 335). What oracular song...did you know what Apollo's prophecy believe it. But in fact they have

is a word

with doubtful credentials (see

sing?: the Chorus, like Ion (533ff.), want to said, what it means and why they should already accepted it as true and decided that

it means that Kr. will never have a child (680). Like Ion himself, they are

interested in his origin, and particularly in his mother (683-4). son of Leto: the motherhood of Leto is again important to the Chorus, as it was in the previous ode (465). There they prayed for children for Kr.; they now think they have their answer and so hope is replaced with confusion

685

(cf. 690f.). mollify: the word σαίνω is very expressive; it denotes the fawning of a dog and ‘is then used (chiefly in tragedy) of a person or thing which attempts to rouse...favourable emotion’ (Barrett, Hipp. p. 328). conceal some trickery: the Chorus prayed for a clear prophecy (470-1); now they fear that it contains some deceit, as indeed it does—to Kr.'s advantage. Deception and plotting increasingly dominate the play. We have already heard Apollo's plan (69-73), Kr.'s concealment in her 'friend's' story (334ff., 392-400), and X.'s plan to bring Ion to Athens

(654-60) without

238

689

COMMENTARY Kr.'s knowledge of developments (666-7). Here the Chorus’ suspicion that the oracle is a trick prepares for the plot to kıll Ion. Text: there ıs little to choose between Fix and Badham; for the former, preferred by Diggle on metrical grounds, cf. Hel. 186, El. 1161 and other

passages listed by him, Studies 18. 690

message it gives: the oracle ıs personified, like the rumour destroying Helen's name (Hel. 224f.) and thought of as handing on something of its own

(for this sense of

παραδίδωμι

cf. Pho.

1232, Hcld.

764), an idea

reinforced by the repetition of strange with subj. and obj. For the adj. ἄτοπος, which includes the idea of ‘unexpected’, cf. 17 842.

691

Text: the Ms. words are nonsensical. There is no responding line in the antistrophe, but to eject 691 as the vestige of a gloss (so Biehl) leaves the verb in 690 without a satisfactory subject. Nauck's restoration, though bold,

neatly makes the oracle the subject; this forms a ring with 681 before the 692

topic changes to the boy. weaves a cunning trick:

Diggle's emendation

is attractive beside the

colourless ἔχει, ‘involves’; the moribund metaphor (cf. And. 66, JA 936f.) of weaving deceit is given thematic importance in this play (cf. 826, 1279f., 1410). On the other hand, the emendation does make Ion rather too actively involved in the imagined conspiracy. Even the malicious Old Man sees him as merely a pawn in X.'s machinations.

694 695-6

Who...agree: this question appealing for agreement suggests that the Chorus is aware that their statements are mere conjecture. The hinge between strophe and antistrophe is the key suggestion that Kr. be apprised of what has happened. plainly: i.e. explicitly and without equivocation. But, whatever their

intentions, the Chorus give Kr. misleading information. to the ear: Ion in 1521 invites Kr. to tell him the real story of his birth in

very similar wording. our mistress: their relationship with Kr. is stressed (cf. 678) at the decisive

point of their song. Text: the Ms. reading at the end of 695 has molossus

answering

698

cretic in the strophe, hence

the suggested

substitution of

synonyms: δεσπότει Diggle or ποτνίαι Badham. But cf. (Willink on) Or. 171~192. The original is irrecoverable, but the Chorus seem to be bewailing Kr.'s betrayal by the husband on whom she totally relied. In saying this they prepare for the Old Man's response (808f.) to their report. The Chorus exaggerate Kr.'s reliance on X.: the first episode showed that she had an agenda of her own, and the sequel will show that she is quite prepared to be independent. Text: Page changes τλάμων to the infinitive τολμᾶν, ‘dare’, depending on reveal; but its only possible object, τάδε, ‘these things' (696),

COMMENTARY seems

too

distant.

Kraus

(66f.)

resurrects

239 Wilamowitz's

positing

of

aposiopesis after τλάμων: ‘poor thing... 699

700

701

703-4

705

The reference to X. is set apart from the flow of the sentence for the sake of emphasıs. For even more violent disruptions of a grammatical unit see Diggle, Studies 116. grey old age: sympathy prompts the Chorus to exaggerate. Kr.'s age, her reliance on X., and, most significantly, the actual content of the oracle are all heavily coloured by their concern for the victim. Here there is also a certain proleptic effect: the Chorus vividly imagine Kr.'s life in years to come.

dishonours: the adj. dtietos, only here in Eur., is normally passive, hence Diggle's suggestion, πόσει T’...blAwı transfering the adj. to Kr.: ‘and dishonoured by her own husband'. But adjectives in -Tos are frequently ambiguous in voice; see Barrett, Hipp. pp. 289f. The Chorus returns to the condemnation of X. to produce neat interlacing structure. These strictures on X.'s behaviour are taken up with more detail and more vehemence by the Old Man in 814ff. This point lends further support (cf. esp. 818) to Wakefield's correction towoev (lit. ‘did not make fortunes equal’) of the Ms. ‘saved’, an easy error producing feeble sense. be damned, be damned: anadiplosis is a Euripidean mannerism; it annoyed Aristophanes (cf. Frogs 1331ff. for parody) and annoys modern readers (cf. Denniston on El.

169). Here it seems to suit the Chorus’ mood

and emphatic dislike of their master. deceiving: X.'s well intentioned lie (656ff.) is damned as deception, while at the end of the play, Kr.'s similar deception of X. draws no criticism. The vehemence of the Chorus' condemnation comes out in the epic verb

ἐξαπαφίσκω, found only here in tragedy. 706-8

A sputtering flame at a sacrifice (the Chorus refer to 653) would indicate the god's displeasure; see S. Anr. 1009. For the nature of the mixture offered see 226n.

709-10

The text is six syllables short (see on 691). What remains of the sentence is

711-2

enough to suggest an expression of loyalty to Kr. and her family. This would pick up the threads of the question at the beginning of the strophe and hint strongly at what the Chorus will eventually decide it must do. The Chorus ends its strophic section with a bitter reference to the closeness of father and son (note the repetition and interlacing word-ordery and (with

Diggle's text) their awful plans. Text: Diggle (PCPS 21f.) discusses the emendations he prints. I am not convinced by his replacement of 'feasts' by dread things. His paraphrase of the end of the antistrophe as in the Ms. does indeed produce 'insipid and inconsequential’ sense. But this is because he alters the word-order. In fact, the Chorus end with a snide and quite pointed remark: ‘and now they are off to a feast, the new found son and new

240

COMMENTARY found father’ (reading νέου). The feast is relevant because it is a symbol of the new, ghastly order (cf. 652), and thus reinforces the point of 704 that Kr.'s misery is her own. Further, it provides a neat frame: Kr.'s tears and

groans opened the ode, the celebration of the happy pair round off its strophic section. In the epode (714-24) the Chorus turn to the place of X.'s proposed sacrifice and to rituals supposedly associated with Ion's conception. Their imagination is anchored in place, and they visualise what happened at various locations, but they are usually quite mistaken. The epode of the

previous stasimon reflected on Ion's apparent death by visualising the cave of Pan (492-509); here the Chorus focus on his putative conception by visualising Parnassus. This epode shares, in slightly abbreviated form, the structure of the previous one: apostrophe to a locality (492-4/714-5); a where (tva) clause describing the activities which occur there (495502/716-7);

an emotional

outburst of grief or hatzed (503-5/719-20);

a

concluding generalisation (507-8/721-4). Both epodes evoke a ritual, which is marked by dancing (495/717) and which takes place at night; in the second case the presiding deity is Dionysus, in the first it is his attendant

Pan. In the earlier epode, the Chorus falsely imagined Kr.'s 'friend's' child dying in Pan's cave where it was conceived; now, thinking of Parnassus and his supposed conception, they mistakenly pray for that child's death. If answered, their prayer would bring about the realization of the fears of the

first stasimon. Prayers in tragedy, unlike those in epic, are usually answered; those that are not are marked, as here, by imprecise language, an address to minor, exotic, or non-deities (here the ridges of Parnassus, at 1048ff. Hecate), and the impiety or, as here, the ignorance of the person praying. Although the specific wish is not granted, the intent of this prayer, like that of the prayer in

1048-60,

is answered.

»»

J. Mikalson,

JHS

109

(1989)

84f.

Text:

Badham's correction of Ms. {va in 713 restores the dochmiac, highlights the apostrophe and removes an unwanted link between epode and preceding antistrophe. 714

rocky ridges...heaven: stretching beyond the Phaidriades above Delphi (see 86n.) to the peak of Parnassus were extensive uplands (the plateau of Livadi), where the revels mentioned below were held (cf. Pho. 226ff.). Like the epode of the preceding stasimon, this one begins with graphic evocation

716-8

of space: rocky areas are common to both, but there caves and darkness were dominant, here it is high cliffs reaching up to the light of the heavens. The activities of his devotees are shared by the god: night-long carrying of torches and wild dancing; cf. Ba. 306ff., Aristoph. Clouds 603ff. The Dionysiac revels held at Delphi in winter every second year (hence the term

COMMENTARY trieteris) were famous:

see PW

24]

I, 11ff., Burkert, op. cit. 224f., and cf. S.

Ant. 1126ff., IT 1242ff., Pho. 226. holding aloft torches: a feature of rites in honour of many

gods; cf.

Arıstoph. Frogs 1361 (Hecate) and 313f. (Eleusinian Mysteries).

719-20

721ff.

in each hand: ἀμφίπυρος meant ‘burning at each end’ in 212; appropriate for Zeus’ thunderbolt, this would be uncomfortable for those accompanying Dionysus. The Chorus pray for what Kr. will attempt, and the loathing which fuels their wish is instrumental in creating the conditions for murder. young life: the word ἁμέραν, lit. ‘day’, is regularly used for life or state of life; cf. Med. 649, Hec. 364, Pho. 540, S. Ajax 623. Alternatively, the Chorus may be hoping for Ion's immediate demise and by the ‘new day’ may mean the day of the genethlia, which officially marks Ion's birth. Text: Hermann's addition (for the combination μή τί more Diggle compares A. Supp. 392) restores a complete dochmiac. Whatever words are lost, it 1s clear that the Chorus justifies its hopes for

Ion's death in terms of its city's history. Similar considerations on the part of the Old Man will motivate the attack on Ion. Text: there is no verb for the concluding nominative Erechtheus, hence Badham's positing of a lacuna; Diggle suggests: ‘for removing (d\evoas, correction of ἁλίσας, ‘mustering') the alien onslaught of a foreign army he saved the city, he who was our former ruler...'. This links with Grégoire's fending off and refers to Erechtheus' defeat of the invading Eleusinians (278n.). Whitman (CP 59 [1964] 2581.) defends otevopéva 'bewailing'; but the use of the word in Ba.

72A

1372, where it is appropriate to the impotent lament of Agave, shows how lame it would be here. Erechtheus: the resumption of the Erechtheus-theme has a number of functions: it reinforces the sense of the Chorus' loyalty to the native side of the house; it prepares for the entrance of Kr. who immediately addresses the Old Man as 'tutor of Erechtheus' (725); more broadly it prepares for the whole of the next scene, which is so much concerned with Kr.'s past and the

past of the house. But we have here more than foreshadowing. What the Chorus contemplate as a possible action, they carry out and thus affect, almost disastrously, the fate of the house and city they serve.

242

COMMENTARY

THIRD EPISODE: 725-1047 1. Action: Kr. enters with an old family slave; the two of them are told of the oracle by the Chorus. Kr. and the Old Man react to the news and then, after she sings of the rape

and the loss of her baby, plan the death of Ion. 2. Structure: i. Introduction: identity and character of the Old Man; Kr.'s request for news 725-751 ii. Amoibaion in which the Chorus reveal the news 752-99 in. The Old Man questions the Chorus 800-58 iv. Kr.'s monody 859-922 v. Reaction to the monody 923-69 vi. Kr. and the Old Man plot Ion's death 970-1047 3. Function a. Plot. The action of the play, which accelerated in the scene between Ion and X., gathers more pace here. The Chorus give the news, with the added false detail that Kr. will be childless forever (760-2). This feeds the fantasy of the Old Man (808ff.)

who suggests revenge (841-56). But discussion of this is retarded by the emotional outburst of Kr.'s monody. Tension is increased by the long discussion with the Old

Man and it is only in the closing stages of the episode that guile, bitterness and family pride combine in a plot which threatens Ion's life. >> Gauger, 8-59. b. Character. The Old Man is introduced. After Phaedra's nurse, he is the most fully characterised slave in tragedy. Several aspects of his character are stressed initially: his extreme age (725, 737); his servile status (725); his loyalty to the house of Erechtheus (725, 732, 735-7); his resultant sympathy for its present mistress (735-7, 765). These more favourable qualities are quickly seen to have a darker side. His pretence to a free spirit despite his slave's position (854-6) is merely an offer to conspire in murder, and his loyalty to the Erechtheids fuels paranoid fantasies and xenophobic

hatred

(808ff.).

counsellor, or Phaedra's destructive. These aspects in the attempt on Ion's life ending. The development of Kr.'s

He resembles

Pylades

in Orestes,

another ruthless

nurse, priding himself on a loyalty which is really of his character are important for diminishing Kr.'s guilt and thus leaving the way open for an untarnished happy character serves similar ends. Her sensitivity is further

dramatised, now in her assistance of the Old Man (725ff.). Her reliance on him for

guidance and support is stressed at the outset and this explains her response to his suggestion of revenge. But it is the monody that is central to the portrayal of Kr. Its revelations fill us with sympathy and account for her later behaviour so that even in the midst of the plotting scene we see her as misguided rather than evil. c. Themes. Two pasts return to drive Kr. to despair. When the near past of the rape and her childlessness, as announced by the Chorus, is mixed with the more distant

past and pride of the Erechtheid house, embodied in the Old Man, the result is

COMMENTARY explosive.

While

243

Kr. has been almost casual, even dismissive,

of her house's

greatness, from now on it becomes a principal theme. First, it acts as one of the main impulses behind Kr.'s (and the Old Man's) desperate hatred of the bastard usurper (837f., 1056f., 1069f., 1087f., 1293f.). Then, it becomes one of the sources of joy at the recognition (1463f.).

In some ways this scene mirrors the previous one between X. and Ion. Ion represents

youth and a future, as the Old Man represents age and the past which almost destroys Kr. and her future. As Ion reconstructs one version of his birth, with X. in the role of harmless drunken lecher (544), so the Old Man constructs another more

sinister one, with X. in the part of the scheming villain (808ff.). The object of both is falsely to verify the false oracle (557, 560/825), but while, in the case of X. and Ion, this accords with Apollo's plan, in that of Kr. and the Old Man it threatens the plan's success. The scene involves a variation on the typical motif that brings mother and servantconfidant together before exposure of a baby: Kr.'s shame forced her to act alone when she threatened Ion's life as a baby; now she has the support of her loyal servant in the plot against him as a young man. >> Huys 148f. 725ff. The introductory dialogue between Kr. and the Old Man is similar to that

between the Chorus and Ion preparing for the entrance of X. at 510-6: it slows down the action, raises the tension and augments the suspense generated in the preceding ode. Retardation is concretely represented in the action itself: nothing can develop until the slow-moving Old Man takes his place on the stage. The resumption of the drama proper is marked by the initial contact with the Chorus made in 747, The slow movement is also an opportunity to display the sympathy between Kr. and her tutor, and to add to the surprise at his later (1041 ff.) rejuvenation. >> Halleran, Stagecraft 106f., Kaimio, op. cit. 13.

725-6

Although

an

entrance

(Hamilton, HSCP

after

uninterrupted

strophic

song

is expected

82 [1978] 76ff.), it is a surprise to the audience that Kr.

enters accompanied by the Old Man, unknown to them. That it is Kr. who identifies him highlights immediately the bond between them. For the entrance of two characters already in conversation cf. S. Ph. 1222ff., Alexandros fr. 23 Snell. tutor: the traditional translation of paidagogos, the slave who was responsible for tending to the children's needs, accompanying them when

they left the house (cf. Med. 53, El. 16). As the tutor of Erechtheus, the Old Man is to be imagined as very old indeed; he must be at least as old as Agamemnon's tutor in Electra who is described frankly, if not unkindly, by Orestes as an ‘ancient remnant of a man' (554). Text: The Ms. ὄντος 'being'

(gen.) in 726, evidently the result of assimilation, 15 a redundant reminder that Erechtheus is now dead.

244

COMMENTARY

727

climb up, lit. ‘lift yourself: a formula of encouragement, used here in both figurative and literal senses. Cf. Alc. 250, Hcld. 635, And. 717, 1077. For the possible implications of the statement for staging see 739n.

728-32

A slightly lame justification for the Old Man's entry into the play, not improved by his evident lack of mobility: if he finds it difficult to get to the temple, it is hard to imagine how he got all the way from Athens. This very lack of realism, however, only underlines the significance of his dramatic role, and the importance of his being characterised as he is, despite the realistic difficulties.

More important is the somewhat optimistic shade which Eur. gives Kr.'s expectations, even though she was at best cautious at her exit (425-8). This

is dramatically effective, since it contrasts powerfully with the despair to come; it is psychologically subtle as well: the expectations after she has

heard the promise of Trophonios (408-9), the prayers she has uttered in the meantime and the reassuring presence of the Old Man combine to seduce her to a fragile hope. Similarly, when she eventually turns to the Chorus, she articulates only her positive hopes, not any fears about what the oracle might reveal (750-1).

730-2.

The close relation between master and servant is a recurrent motif in tragedy: cf. Med. 53ff., Hipp. 284ff., IA 867ff.

friends: φίλος

often refers more specifically to relations, and so we may

well think of Kr.'s husband, who has dishonoured his φίλοι their fortune’ (701ff).

and not ‘shared

some evil: reference to an unpleasant outcome is preceded by the apotropaic wish and is far more vague than the expression of the desired result (728-9), on the principle that what is put into words might be put into action (cf. 848-9 below). But, cven if Kr. wanted to name it, she could

hardly imagine the

κακόν, 'evil', which is about to strike. Text: for the

change to the idiomatic singular relative ὅ in 731 see Diggle, Studies 104. sympathetic man: Kr. imagines that her response to any bad news will be passive, and treated with the same resignation as the rape; she therefore wants to rely on the Old Man as a partner in lamentation. In fact, he will urge her to the active reponse of revenge and himself be an active agent in

the planned murder. Text: for the compound with Ep, carried by the secondary tradition, cf. Dem. 19. 69. The Ms. εἰσβλέψαι, on the other hand,

is strongly supported by Or. 105. 733-4

like a father: alternative interpretations, 'in my father's place/as my father

did', deprive the concessive clause of its force. For the constr. after ἀντικηδεύω cf. Hec. 57. The Old Man as a substitute father is an important theme: cf. 725, 733-4, 765, 807-11, 970. This is an aspect of the warmth of their relationship, but it also dramatises the isolation of Kr.: a substitute father is important only to onc who feels alone (cf. Electra's outburst in S.

COMMENTARY

El.

245

1361); Kr. is emotionally estranged from X., and this scene will

convince her that she will be alone and without children for the rest of her life. This theme also serves as a further link between mother and son: Kr.'s

relationship with the Old Man parallels that between Ion and the Priestess. 735-6

the worthy habits of worthy forbears: the polyptoton brings out Kr.'s fidelity to her ancestors (cf. S. Ph. 874, Or. 1676). Like Ion's (237ff.), the Old Man's opening remarks to Kr. concern her proud lineage. But while Ion grows from respect to sympathy, the Old Man's sympathy degenerates into manipulation of his noble mistress as a tool in his struggle against foreigners. The meaning of the Old Man's words also becomes darker and

more ironic as the action progresses: she is about to uphold another of the 737

739

Erechtheids' 'worthy habits'—the tendency to sacrifice their own children. Hermann deletes the verse as a defective filler. But Jackson's easy correction restores idiomatic sense to a line which is an appropriate gloss on forebears and is an instance of the chauvinistic pride which Ion fears (589ff.). For autochthony as the guarantee of nobility cf. (Cropp on) Erec. fr. 360. 5-13. steep for me: Barnes’ correction is simplest and best. The introduction of

unduly emphatic particles has led to fanciful interpretations involving supposed proverbs and puns on the words 'steep/hard' and 'shrine/oracles'. But see Kraus (67) who suggests that the explanatory asyndeton creates a parenthesis between the requests for help. References to difficulty of progress here and in other plays (see 745n.) have been taken, e.g. by Arnott, Scenic Conventions 27ff., as evidence for a raised stage. But they

may be simply part of the mimetic depiction of old age, here linked with

739-40

742

features of the imagined Delphic landscape, the steepness of which still tries even young limbs. >> Hourmouziades, Production 64f., W-I 485. Please...old age: a strangely fulsome and somewhat pompous expression of the ordinary request: ‘help me walk’. This may be simply comic, but it may also characterize the self-importance of the Old Man asserting itself after his declarations of weakness. The verb συνεκπονέω will be used again by the Old Man (850), but then of him working to assist Kr. >> J. M. Bremer CQ 22 (1972) 236ff. healer: the Old Man takes up Kr.'s tend (734), a verb which can be used of assisting in illness (cf. Or. 883), and relates it specifically to the ailment of age. The conventional mind-body antithesis (cf. H. /L 4. 313ff., HF 268f., And.

552f.) becomes unexpectedly significant, almost programmatic, in the following scene: the Old Man's mind is only too quick to urge and plot revenge. The sententious colloquialism (Stevens, Coll. Exp. 20) of this line

helps to characterise the Old Man. For ἰδού, ‘there!', another colloquialism (Stevens, Coll. Exp. 35) indicating compliance, see Denniston on El. 566.

246 743

COMMENTARY stick: a regular stage-property of the aged in tragedy; cf. A. Ag. 74, HF 108, Cresph. fr. 448a K, 110ff. The Old Man is too worked up at his exit to be bothered by it, though he refers to his age (1041f.), and it does not seem to hinder his bustle at the feast later (1170ff.).

the path winds: a precise description of the approach to Apollo's temple, impossible to represent realistically in the theatre. Text: Diggle's adjustment (Studies 104f.) to the grammar and articulation of the line makes excellent

sense; the short utterances may be mimetic of the Old Man's struggling 744

breath (so Kraus 67). sight...dim: the Old Man protests his impaired vision, but soon enough he

‘sees’ with his quick mind (cf. Hel.

122) precisely what has happened

(808ff.), even though he is then more blind than ever. Kr., who tends and

745

748-9

leads him here, because of the tears which will blind her, relies on this short-sighted guide, believes his falsehoods, and joins in his revenge. don't give in: cf. the self-directed encouragement in 1041f., HF 119f. On the typically Euripidean motifs in this entrance-scene (complaints of frailty, use of a stick, difficulty of the route, encouragement) cf. El. 489ff., HF 107ff., and, an exit, Hcid. 729ff. >> Wilamowitz on HF 107ff., Seidensticker, Palintonos Harmonia (Góttingen, 1982) 92ff., and Cropp SFP I. 140f. faithful servants of my loom and shuttle: this is not needed for the

identification of the Chorus, already clear, but is intended to evoke female solidarity and it underlines, just before the crucial disclosure, the loyalty of

the Chorus and their relation to Kr. The Chorus would not do the actual

751

weaving, free women's work, but the menial tasks associated with it. >> Collard on Hec. 362-3. unreliable mistress: Kr. refers back to 748, now telling her 'faithful servants' that they will have a mistress on whom they can rely (for the sense of ἀπίστους cf. Hel. 1148) for a reward if they report good news. Ingratiating oneself with messengers in the hope of good news (the reverse

of the 'shoot-the-messenger' motif, cf. S. Ant. 277, Ba. 668ff.) is typical; cf. Tro. 267, Hec. 505, El. 229. The pl. δεσπότας is likely to be allusive for the sing. (cf. 233), but it may be a true pl., as in 755, preparing for the deep shock which Kr. will feel when she realises that her husband is not involved in her suffering. 752-5

With the Chorus' exclamations (possibly truncated forms of dochmiac) cf.

HF 886/90/99. Kr. responds not so much to the content as to the tone and form which betray bad news (cf. HF 1178). Arguments for following

Musgrave and giving 753/5 to Kr. are carefully marshalled alongside alternatives by M. Huys, Hermes 121 (1993) 422f. The subsequent alternation of Kr.'s speeches with those of the Chorus and the desirability of having Kr. react first to the hints of the information she requested are all

COMMENTARY

247

against the Old Man as speaker. There is also the point that his involvement

which comes later is typically cautious, rational and probing: the emotional, immediate response better suits Kr. In 755 Huys wants to keep vood pers.) and emend

δεσποτῶν

to

Λοξίου,

‘of Loxias', as Wecklein

(1st once

proposed. But emending the verb is easier; the 3rd pers. at this point is, pace Huys, appropriately detached. Kr. does not yet want to believe in bad news; later (759) she is forced to relate what the Chorus says to her own

case. Furthermore, δεσποτῶν neatly takes up δεσπότας in 751; that Kr. adopts her servants' viewpoint is part of her strategy of appeal. opening...inauspicious: for the wording of this anticipation of bad news cf. Tro. 712, Hipp. 568.

756-9

The Chorus wails a third time and elicits a divided response from Kr.: first she asks the meaning of their song-like (hence μοῦσα; cf. 1097, IT 182, Hel. 165) cries in 752/3, next she wonders why they should fear death (756). They then rehearse in a more pointed way the hesitation of the stasimon (695f.), but when they hear Kr.'s order, based on the assertion that their news concerns her, they make up their minds to speak. The Chorus' question in 756 is compendiously expressed and stands for: 'What are we to

do «about those things» over which there is threat of death‘. Text: L's elev, 'all right then', in 756, which may have come in on the coat tails of the

following question (cf. HF 451, Supp. 1094), has to go; the word marks, mostly in monologue, but also in dialogue, a closing off of one topic before

change to another (cf. 275) and would be most inappropriate here. For a defence see Kraus 69f. 758

For the combination of deliberative subj. with future indic. in a question cf.

S. Ajax 403f., IA 442, and for the tricolon of aporetic questions cf. HF 1283ff. For the delay in responding to a request for bad news cf. Tro.

759 760 761-2

713/17, Pho. 1335. There is, however, an extra point here: the Chorus hesitate not only because the news is bad, but because they are not entitled to give it. Speak!: Kr.'s order outweighs X.'s demand for silence in 666f. For the exaggerated protestation of willingness to die cf. (Willink on) Or. 1116. Naturally enough, the Chorus first come out with their own, false version of the oracle's message; the bare facts will be drawn from them by the Old Man later. Kr.'s suffering is focused on her not being able to hold a child in her arms, or offer it her breast. These motifs are recurrent as expressions of her separation from Ion. (cf. 962, 318, 1454). But they also point ironically to her relationship with him. He has never known the comfort of a mother's breast (320, 1372) nor of being cradled in her arms (1375ff.). Just as Kr. was saved in the arms of her mother (280), so too Ion was saved by Hermes taking him from the cave in his arms (1598). It is in her arms

248

COMMENTARY (1337) that the Priestess holds the cradle which will be the instrument of reuniting Ion and his mother. Cf. 279-80n. The word προσαρμόσαι press

is emotional in tone; cf. HF 486, Supp. 816. The Chorus’ report is worded as if they were reporting what the oracle actually said: the two

‘legalistic’ οὐκ

ἔστι

lines are solemnly

σοι

words of the Dioskouroi

set-off from their context; the

lit. ‘it is not possible for you' (cf. the solemn in El.

1250f.) and the universalising tote ‘ever’

form a frame while the central idea is repeated in a grandly pleonastic style. The Chorus misreport what they have heard, rather than deliberately lie, as

do the Chorus in 17 1293f. Loyalty to Kr. leads them to exaggerate the bad news because they increase thereby their own sympathy

for her as the

victim. Amoibaion: 763-803

The Chorus’ appalling news leads to a half-lyric exchange shared by them, Kr. and the Old Man. Kr. sings mostly in sobbing dochmiac and iambic rhythms marked by

a high number of resolutions. The Old Man and the Chorus respond in spoken verse. At

first

(764-71)

Kr.'s

shock

overwhelms

interventions are snuffed out by her cries. (770) leads to a more ordered epirrhematic trimeters, divided between the Chorus and each further horror. This exchange looks Chorus

(219ff.). Then the mood

other

speakers:

the

Then her need for further structure as five groups of the Old Man, cap her sung back to the duet between

Old

Man's

information four spoken response to Ion and the

was light and optimistic with the Chorus asking

intrigued questions; now they give answers in an atmosphere of deepening gloom and suspicion. >> Popp in Jens, Bauformen 233ff., 264ff. 763ff.

Kr.'s

response,

with

its sharp

interjections

(763,

765),

short

staccato

sentences, broken syntax and asyndeton (764), is typical of those following horrific revelations, especially murders (cf. HF 909ff., Hec. 681ff.). Her yearning for death (763) is quickly transformed into what is, poetically at

least, the virtual description of her death. Her language, rich with the vocabulary of dying and wounding (763, 764, 765, 766), resembles that of the distraught Medea in Med. 144ff. The Old Man unavailingly attempts to break in twice with an admonishing address (763b, 765 cf. 925, 970) which

could begin or continue a spoken attributed

to him

in the

Ms.

trimeter. The emotional

at 763

and

765

are,

outbursts

as Diggle

says,

inappropriate to his role. >> M. Huys, Hermes 121 (1993) 428ff. 764

that makes life unlivable: Kr. says that life without a child is unlivable; at 670 Ion said that life without his mother is unlivable. Even as they are

about to be revealed as apparent mortal enemies, the congruence of their language hints at their clective affinity, maintained from their first meeting, which

is soon to be confirmed

Seidler's correction cf. Hipp. 821.

as a biological relationship. Text:

for

COMMENTARY

249

friends: at 750-1 Kr. told the Chorus she could be relied upon if they gave

good news. They give the opposite, but she can still be relied upon, both to believe and to remain well disposed (cf. 799, reciprocating the Chorus’

767-8 769

address in 794). This makes her both more pathetic and more fearsome in her single-minded hatred of Ion and X., and also stresses how far she must be roused by another (the Old Man) to contemplate any violence. deep: for the intensifying effect of the pleonastic ἔσω cf. A. Agam. 1343.

Do not groan in sorrow yet: the Old Man now takes the lead and attempts to calm Kr. in this and the next verse. In each case he speaks half a trimeter which Kr. caps with a dactylic hemiepes; cf. Hyps. fr. 64. 88f. Bond, HF 1184ff. Hıs eliciting of further information at first retards the expression of emotion, but in the end it only provides grounds for deeper sorrow.

771-803 The epirrhematic system is carefully designed. The Old Man asks questions in a neutral tone, insistently using interrogative who, to whom) so as to get a complete picture answer succinctly, and again rather neutrally, all provides the emotion, marked most notably by

words (if, whether, how, from the Chorus. They his questions in turn. Kr. the favourite Euripidean

device of anadiplosis (783, 789, 799, cf. 705n.), and reaching a peak in

771-2

another favourite device, the 'escape-to-elsewhere' motif (796-9). Her outbursts hardly respond to what the Chorus says, and in respect of content they could be rearranged in any order, though in depth of emotion they form a climax. The Old Man brings to a head the themes of X. and Kr. sharing a common

fate, emphasising the point with the polar positive-negative structure often found in Eur. (cf. Denniston on El. 1017). That it is he who introduces it as the crucial question for the nature of Kr.'s suffering skews both the tone and

plot of the play, which now becomes a far darker struggle of wife against husband, native against foreigner.

774-5

To him...Loxias gave a child: the Chorus hammer home this refrain, repeating it three times in very similar language; cf. 780-1, 789. Again,

pleonasm, with words linking the reply closely to the Old Man's query, 776-7

stresses that Kr. is on her own. uttered: the verb Adokw is used of speech marked in some way by its sound or significance (cf. Dale on Alc. 343-7). Here the weight of an oracular voice (cf. Or.

778-9

163, IT 976) is transferred to the Chorus. Text: the

repetition of the verb, easily lost by haplography, restores metre and an appropriate anadiplosis (cf. 790, 799). The Old Man's question begins with and stresses the obvious of the alternatives; he assumes that X. was given advice like that to Aegeus in Med. 679ff. as to how children might be engendered. The other alternative is presented as merely formal and so its truth occasions shocked surprise.

COMMENTARY

250 781

783-4

787

I was there: the Chorus speak with the impregnable certainty of eyewitnesses; their certainty is as wrong as Kr.'s conviction that her child is now dead (348ff.) and X.'s report of the false oracle (see esp. 533). That X. is eventually to have a son on his own is devastating enough, but that he has already got one seems so much worse because it introduces the possibility that he has been plotting against Kr., as the Old Man suggests at 808-31. Text: ἄφατον ἄφατον suits Kr.'s pleonastic style but requires the acceptance of unlikely forms of dochmiac (cf. Biehl's metrical analysis). met with: the Chorus attempt a precise account and use the very same word they heard in X.'s report of the oracle in 534. Note they repeat the

uncompounded form of the word in 802. 790-1

Kr. elaborates on the cry of 782f. and explains that the news is 'unutterable' because of its personal and dynastic effects: it deprives her of children and

the house of heirs. childless, childless: for the repeated privative adjs. cf. /T 864; they are

often repeated in tricola in lyric cf. (Stevens on) And. 491. Text: Diggle (cf. Studies

105ff.) restores sense and metre; he shows that exclamations are

often expanded in the Mss. (hence Hermann's contraction of ὀτοτοττοτοῖ), and that τὸ 8' ἐμόν, ‘my affair’, needs change to an adjectival phrase going with βίοτον, ‘life’, as the object of the restored verb declared (for which cf. 776n.).

792-3

The matter of the identity of X.'s son has been skilfully postponed until this climax, even though the Old Man first asked about it in 786. His agitated

excitement over this central issue is brought out in his barrage of questions. 794-5

The Chorus’ points: how sweeper (cf. assume the

identification of Ion by his function emphasises little they know of him; how little they think of And. 166, Hec. 363, Hyps. i. ii. 17 Bond) who is inheritance of the Erechtheids; how little they

a number of him, a mere now about to know of the

sympathy which has grown up between him and Kr., and which provides 796-9

the emotional background of her following wish. A conventional] Euripidean response to great suffering, but one which also

has particular resonances here. The stars both recall the brightness of Ion's monody (84f.) and point forward to the deadly beauty of the tent where he is almost killed (1147ff.). Kr.'s longing for death is quickly transformed,

partly on the encouragement of the Old Man, into a longing for murder, and yet it is through the murder-attempt that mother and son will be reunited. Most of the motifs in this particular wish are variously present in other such wishes: flying (Med. 440, Hec. 1100, And. 861 ff.); reference to the point of departure (And. 861); escape to the west (Hipp. 742), and to the stars (Hec.

1103).

COMMENTARY

251

fluid: the adj. ὑγρός has the basic sense ‘damp, wet', but its meaning broadens to ‘fluid, flexible’ (cf. Pho. 1439); it may be simply ornamental

here or be used to underline Kr.'s desire for a rapid escape from her pain. such, such: for the explanatory causal use of οἷον cf. /T 150, HF 817 and Hipp. 879, where see Barrett. Diggle ıs doubtful about the metre of 799, but the analysis hypodochmiac+dochmiac seems sound. 800

What

name

does his father give him?:

the question is introduced,

somewhat unnaturally on the realistic level, to underline the irony that all the xenophobic bile of the Old Man is about to be directed against the very person who will give his race its name (cf. 803). Where the Old Man sees

human deception, we see the divine providence of Apollo. 802-3

The etymology of the name here needs to be derived from a synonym (cf.

662) of the word used by the Chorus; cf. 9n., and Ba. 508 where Pentheus' name is related not to a cognate word (cf.

to the synonym ἐνδυστυχῆσαι.

Πενθεύς -πένθος

in Ba. 367), but

The laboured explanation in 830f. was

interpolated to clarify this point. mother: the first point on which the Chorus proffer information unasked; the topic of so much interest to Ion is not even raised by the Old Man. The wording what sort of mother may have a contemptuous tone, but cf. X.'s wording in 574. The Chorus here omits any reference to X.'s own ignorance and theories, since this would anticipate the Old Man's reconstruction of events which can thus be to X.'s greatest disfavour. Text: the Ms. division of 803 between the Chorus and the Old Man destroys the epirrhematic pattern at its close and is rightly corrected by Kirchhoff. Kraus (70f.), who

is inclined to read ἔχει

for ἔχω, ‘he is able’ for 'I am able’, points to the

Chorus’ careful quoting of X.'s reply to Ion in 540. Old Man and Chorus: 804-58

804-7

The Chorus’ closing statement, important for further developments, is made in some agitation—hence the convoluted word-order visible in the translation—and with a rush of detail expressed in the asyndetic final participles, in order to make, intending to set up, wrongly suspected by Wilamowitz. The final lines resume the theme of X.'s deceit and the exclusion of Kr. let me tell you: lit. 'so that you know', used as a summarising/concluding formula also ın Tro. 1029. sacrifices associated with guests and a new birth: the Chorus have muddled the sacrifices with the party for a stranger, but they naturally infer from 65 1ff. that these will be held in the same place, i.e. the tent. It is made

clear only later (1125ff.) that the sacrifices are performed separately by X. They rightly imply that in celebrating the xenia for a stranger, X. will in

252

COMMENTARY fact be performing the genethlia for his son (cf. 653n.). It is in this that the deception of Kr. lies; the party itself would have been difficult to conceal.

tent: the Chorus

have heard nothing of the tent, and the Old Man's

knowledge of it (982) is based simply for its construction are first mentioned realistically defended as based on the intentions of X.' (so Verrall referring to

on what is said here; arrangements in 1122ff. The slip should not be need to accommodate 'the liberal 663), but explained as dramatically

important for the hatching of the plot which requires knowledge of Ion's location and activity. 808-31

To this point the Old Man has been a restrained and objective enquirer. Now, in equally measured language, he draws his conclusions from what he has heard. I share your distress, lit. 'I share in your illness': at the beginning of the scene, the Old Man

810

begged

Kr. to be his healer (739-40); as the scene

progresses their roles are subtly reversed, with the Old Man's physical incapacity falling away as he becomes the support and guide (cf. 741-9) of Kr. in her spiritual malaise. The Old Man begins with an emphatic address to Kr. and the remainder of his speech contains nine 2nd pers. references expressing his eagerness to involve her in his analysis of the situation. Prominent in this speech is the language of secrecy, deception and plotting; cf. 816, 819, 822, 825, 826, 830; the weighty and unusual adverb μεμηχανημένως, in a contrived way, (cf. for the formation A. Supp. 724, [A 1021) at the end of the line stresses the theme. A rare three-word trimeter—a phenomenon more common in Aes. than Soph. and Eur., and typical of sonorous high-flown style. >> M. Marcovich,

Three-Word Trimeter in Greek Tragedy (Kónigstein, 1984) 110f. Note the rhetorical features of the Old Man's indictment: a programmatic statement (816),

unusual

vocabulary

(809),

periodic

sentences

(813-6,

817-21),

811-2

picking up of key words (816/19/22, 825); pointed antithesis (825), figura etymologica (826). The exclusion of malice as a motive is contrived to give his reconstruction of events an objective colour. For his attachment to his mistress rather than his legal master cf. /A 871.

813ff.

A carefully crafted statement which includes both the political and domestic crimes of which X. is alleged to be guilty. The perfect tense of the climactic verb, πέφηνεν, ‘has been shown’, is typical of forensic language; cf. Lysias 10. 22-5; 16. 19; 12. 100. Kr. herself ought to suspect that the Old Man is mistaken in thinking that X. fathered Ion after their marriage, since she has

already commented on how Ion's age tallies with that of her own baby, conceived before her marriage (354).

813-4

coming...inheritance: a sneeringly biased version of the facts given earlier by Hermes and Kr. (61ff., 292ff.).

COMMENTARY

253

815

begetting: the tired metaphor, lit. 'gets fruit from' (cf. 475n.), is enlivened here by a contemptuous tone; cf. the edge to Deianeira's words in S. Tr. 31ff.

816

children: the allusive pl. for sing. (cf. 869) here adds the sneering idea that X. may have spawned a whole family of bastards so that Ion is not an isolated indiscretion.

817

818

819

childless: the Old Man's repeated expression (cf. 824, 840) of the general view that Kr. is barren (cf. 608, 658) prepares for her avowal of the true state of affairs, already hinted at in 306. This condemnation of X.'s selfishness echoes the Chorus' comment in 704. But in fact both he and Ion are aware of Kr.'s likely sense of exclusion (cf. 608ff., 658). some slave woman: the Old Man's reconstruction is wrong not only

generally but also in its details, and conflicts with the more plausible

821-2

reconstruction of X. and Ion, which the Chorus have heard. But it is both dramatically convenient, and psychologically convincing, that the Chorus nowhere mention any contradictions. They were ready to imagine the worst, and now they are ready to believe the worst about Ion's conception and X.'s behaviour, especially as the Old Man exonerates Apollo (825). So Ion is not only a foreigner but a slave (cf. 837ff.). grew up...way: this much is true, and even the detail on the purpose of the

Delphic sojourn is objectively right but attributed to the wrong agent.

825

826 827

free to wander: cf. 52f., 314f. The word ἄφετος may be pejorative, since it is used of sacred animals with free run of a god's precinct (cf. Plato, Rep. 498c). the god did not lie: the Old Man is the first to raise the possibility, so important in the later action (e.g.1537-8), that the oracle is actually false (though the Chorus also has suspicions at 685). Despite all his resistance, Ion never imagined this, and preferred to think that X. was mistaken (533ff.). fabricated tricks, lit. 'wove weavings': for the figura etymologica, an emphasising device, cf. ZA 936, El. 234. he meant to throw the blame on the god: phrasing reminiscent of 543: TI refer the matter to the god'. For the verb in this context cf. /T 390. X. does indeed 'blame it on the god', but while to the Old Man this shows his cunning, it really indicates X.'s complete bafflement at what has happened. The Old Man is playing the part of the male authority figure so prominent in other stories of exposed heroes. The usual reason for the child's exposure is the scepticism about divine birth on the part of the male (usually the girl's father). Here the Old Man's refusal to believe X.'s account of the boy's birth promotes the repetition of the exposure in the plot on Ion's life. >> Huys 99ff.

254 828

COMMENTARY These words, which make no sense, seem incurable. Jacobs' suggestion has

the Old Man stray here into the truth: 'grasping the right time and so warding off ill will..." (cf. 659f.). [830-1] A further (cf. 802) explanation of Ion's name is out of place here, and interrupts the choral reaction to X.'s intentions; cf. Kraus 72. For a possible reason for the interpolation cf. 802n. 832-5 The idea that the rule of Athens will fall into a stranger's hands brings from

the Chorus an indignant reaction typically framed as sententious reflections. For the contrast between lowly, φαῦλος, and clever, σοφός, cf. And. 379, fr. 473 and other passages listed by Dodds on Ba. 430-3. The Chorus, although aware that he is wide of the mark (cf. 819n.), approve of the Old Man's assessment. Why? Largely because they know that X. is in fact

plotting behind Kr.'s back to give Ion the kingship (659f.), which is the sum of the Old Man's speech (829).

subtle contrivances: μηχαναῖς is an approving echo of the Old Man's word in 809. The truth lies elsewhere: Kr. tries to kill Ion by such contrivances (1116, 1216, 1326), while it is by means of these (1565) that

836ff.

837-8 839-41

Apollo must save him, as he has already done. Text: the Ms. assigns 832-5 to the Old Man, but this gives him an inappropriately emotional and sententious reaction to his own remarks, hence Hermann's attribution to the Chorus. Having outlined the history of Ion's birth and X.'s perfidy, and concluded with the political aspects of X.'s plans, the Old Man turns more deliberately to the personal effects on Kr. and to what her reaction should be. Both the Chorus and the Old Man in one sense 'play on' Kr.'s weakness. The Chorus have done so by mis-reporting the oracle; the Old Man does so by dwelling on the most painful aspects of her situation in order to work her up to a yearning for revenge. worthless: lit. 'not to be counted'; cf. (Kannicht on) Hel. 1679. The repeated privative adjectives are strongly emotional; cf. HF 1302, 109-11n. This seems a reference to an earlier practice, revived because of population shortage in the 5th cent., allowing a man to produce legitimate children by a woman other than his wife. See Just, op.cit. 52ff., Lloyd, Andromache pp. 6ff. If this was intolerable to Kr., X. could have married one of the family of his father Aiolos (cf. 63). For the idea that childlessness might excuse the

desire for another wife cf. Med. 488ff. persuading you: RG points to the similar contrast between open persuasion

and deceit in Med. 586f. settled in his house: the unusual use of the verb (only here in tragedy) is underlined by the figura etymologica (cf. 826n.) and taken up in Kr.'s monody 915.

COMMENTARY

843

255

you: the pronoun is stressed by the particle ön; Kr.'s silence and apparent lack of response prompt the Old Man to insist that as the wronged wife it is her turn to take action.

like

a woman!:

conventional

Kr.

means

so acts by choosing of 'womanish'

murder

the most (cf.

the

traditional Old

Man's

and own

suggestions in 844f.). This is in keeping with the stereotype of woman as given to underhand plots, rather than open action (cf. yuvaikelais τέχναισιν, 'womanish wiles', in Hel.

844-58

1621, and more generally Med.

407,

Hipp. 478ff., IT 1032, [Stevens on] And. 85). >> Heath, Poetics 160. These lines, suspected by Murray, are deleted by Diggle, who is robustly

supported by Kraus 73f. But their removal would produce a very abrupt conclusion before the monody, hence Diggle's suggestion that they may have replaced genuine lines. His idea that 832-5 might follow 843 is unlikely; the Chorus’ passive horror at X.'s machinations would be an

unsuitable response to a call for action (contrast 857f.). In place, the passage provides an effective contrast between the corporate response of the Old Man and the Chorus to the imagined outrage and the intensely personal revelation of Kr.'s real sense of grievance. Though there are some linguistic pecularities in the use of particles and vocabulary, the chief

problem

is that the

verses

seem

ineptly

to anticipate

the plotting

stichomythia of 970ff. But this does not take into account the widely differing contexts and mode of exposition. The Old Man's words here scarcely amount to planning: they are chiefly an incitement to revenge and an expression of willingness to assist which the self-absorbed Kr. seems not to hear. The brief references to what Kr. might do are simply thoughtless

elaborations of 843. For arguments in favour of retention see Biehl, Philologus 21f., Matthiessen, Gnomon 56 [1984] 680.

sword: despite the previous statement, the Old Man's own preferences intrude, and his first alternative involves a masculine frontal assault; the third alternative must be seen as a specific instance of the second. kill your husband and the boy: the Old Man naturally means 'your husband X. and his son’ but his words might refer to 'your husband and your son'. The Old Man begins by trying to direct Kr.'s revenge against both X. and Ion, but by 851 he envisages killing only the latter.

suffer death: the first and only suggestion that X. and Ion might plot

847-9

against Kr. This suspicion too is shown to be groundless by the previous discussion (657-8), but is introduced to persuade Kr. that she would be taking only defensive action. , Even Biehl deletes these lines: the combination γάρ γε is unexampled; flinch should refer to an action already in progress, not one being contemplated; 0áTepov,'the one/the other', as masc. is a late usage, and to

256

850-1

COMMENTARY take it as neut. with Owen seems an awkward subterfuge. >> K. Alt, Philologus 110 (1966) 133f., D. Sansone, ibid.121 (1977) 157f. share...join in: the Old Man now returns to the language of cooperation (note the repeated prefix avv- 'with') with which he started his first speech (808). There he was a fellow-sufferer; now he is a co-conspirator. In the

space of two short speeches the Old Man alters his view of Kr. from victim

851-2

853 854-6

to avenger: the simple development he imagines foregrounds the far more complex state of her own emotions. Although the Chorus have said X. will be in the tent (806f.), the suggestion here (cf. 982) is that Ion will be in charge; this prepares for the slightly awkward absence of X. from the banquet. either...or: for the disjunctive use of the particles Te...te cf. Hel. 153, [A 56 and see Denn. GP 515. Like other slaves in Eur., the Old Man is acutely aware of his status. While he seems to represent traditional views, he voices here radical opinions associated with the Sophists, and allows for a noble slave, reducing social differences to a mere name. For the idea cf. (Kannicht on) Hel. 729ff., and the debate between Paris and Deiphobos in Alexandros frs. 50-7 N2. >> Aelion 2. 178-80. For subj. without dv in the rel. clause, an archaism, cf. (Page on) Med. 516.

858

The Chorus take up the theme of cooperative action from the Old Man (cf. 850f.) in an attempt to offset the exclusion which Kr. now feels. They also reformulate his words in 853 as an expression of the typically heroic polarity—a noble death or a noble life (cf. S. Ajax 479f. and the challenge to it in JA 1250ff.). Slaves though they are, they have indeed risked death to side with Kr.

Kreousa's Monody: 859-922 Bibliography: Schadewaldt, Monolog 161f., 217f., Burnett, CP 95f. LaRue, TAPA 94 (1963) 126ff., Gauger 32-40, Barlow, Imagery 48-50, Dunn, Ramus 19 (1990) 130ff. 1. Action Kr. last spoke at 799. We expect her to take up the Old Man's call to action, or, if words must come first, his condemnation of her husband. Instead, she wonders like the Chorus

(cf. 758)

whether

she should speak

at all and then breaks

out in a

passionate lyric condemnation of Apollo. Clearly one effect of the delay is to make the eventual outburst all the more stunning and effective. Beyond this, we see dramatised the silence which Kr. has kept for years, of which she is so conscious (859, 868, 869) and which the monody itself breaks. >> J. R. Porter, Studies in Euripides’ Orestes (Leiden, 1994) 66f.

COMMENTARY

257

2. Structure i. Should I speak out? 859-69

ii. Decision to speak 870-80 iii. Call on Apollo and evocation of the rape 881-96 iv. The baby's birth and death 897-904

v. Final condemnation of Apollo for abandoning her and helping X. 905-22 3. Metre. Kr. begins emotionally with lyric anapaests (859-61); she then turns to a more regular system of recitative anapaests (862-80), before voicing her condemnation of Apollo in lyric anapaests once again (881-92), with the extra intensity of dochmiacs

interspersed (894-6, 906). >> West, GM

122ff.; Diggle, Studies 96f. for hiatus in

860, 886, 907, 911. 4. Form and Style For Eur.'s use of the monody cf. p. 168 above. This monody contrasts with Ion's monody of praise (82ff.), and subverts the conventional form and language of a hymn by using it to express dark and troublesome thoughts, long kept secret; cf. Cassandra's marriage song in Tro. 308ff. Kr. uses the conventions of praise to attack bitterly the god whom she believes has treated her unjustly. Just as Apollo is presented (especially at 887ff.) as physically attractive but a brute in action, so Kr.'s hymn is beautiful in form but its content and intention are violent and shocking. 5. Function a. Plot. The monody can be seen as the emotional and structural centre of the play. It

provides the rationale for the plotting scene, since it explains Kr.'s suffering caused by the rape, which is itself monody brings her from the will for vengeance, and leads previous two speeches which

both state her will

the centre of the monody and of the play. The of passive lamentation and self-pity to an active to accept the urgings to revenge in the Old Man's be strengthened in what follows. Kr.'s change of

character leads naturally to the change in the direction of the plot. The report of the Chorus and the xenophobia of the Old Man determine that an attempt will be made on the life of X.'s son. What the monody does 1s to relate that attempt to the larger story of Kr.'s rape and lost son. While deepening the horror of the situation and

motivaung Kr.'s turn to action, it also serves to point ironically to Apollo's continued care for his child. b. Character. Does the monody show us any new feature in Kr.'s character, or does it just deepen and reinforce what we know of her already? We find again her strong

sense of shame (859, 861, cf. 336, 395), which is overcome only by the stronger impact of her suffering (862ff.); her hatred of Apollo and resentment at his treatment of her (877ff.);

her feelings

of abandonment

and

despair

(864ff.),

which

then

naturally result in her falling in with the only person who seems loyal—the Old Man; her vivid memory

of the rape and her conflicting ideas about it (887ff.); her

hatred of X. and his betrayal (913).

258

COMMENTARY

c. Themes.

Kr.'s monody belongs to that type of song, common in Eur. and indeed

the other tragedians, that looks back in sorrow and bitterness on the past, especially a woman's

unhappy

love affair (cf. A. Ag.

1204ff., Cassandra;

S. Tr. 497ff.,

Deaneira and Heracles; see Strohm 156ff.).

The chief thematic question, however, is how precisely Kr. presents the rape, particularly with regard to the rich language which she uses. Is she really criticising Apollo and showing the rape to be utterly horrible, in which case the fine language

only deepens her and our revulsion at the actual lust and violence of the god? Or does Eur. use a 'baroque technique' (Burnett,

CP 96) in which

there is a tension

between what Kr. intends—severe criticism of the god—and the picture which the

language creates of a god who appears in glory and seems an ethereal seducer rather than an earthy rapist (cf. 887-8n.)? Such a tension parallels what is perhaps the fundamental tension of the play, and the tension in the presentation of Apollo within

it. The rape which the monody recounts was of course an all-too-human action. But Eur. compensates for this by making Apollo seem mysterious, remote, august (see Lloyd 36, Gellie 96, Wassermann 590). The monody presents his only substantial 'appearance' in the play, and the tension between his failings and ineffable distance is at its centre. This tension foreshadows the ending, where the benevolence of his

plans and the providence of his actions do not overshadow the human suffering that has been caused. 859-64 Multiple questions, which here high emotional register; cf. Hec. 859 My soul: Kr. externalises with overcoming the habitual silence

suit Kr.'s hesitation, open a monody in a 153ff., 1056ff., A. PV 561ff. this apostrophe the struggle she feels in of many years. Contrast /T 839 where the

apostrophe highlights not the problem of speech itself, but its inadequacy. Address of one's own soul is an old device to express personal crisis and the need for determination. Cf. S. Tr. 1260, Or. 466, Bellerophon fr. 308, and

(Page on) Med. 1056. how am I to keep silent? The dilemma is often merely formal (cf. Tro. 110, PV 106, 197), but here the whole monody is the culmination of the silence theme so prominent throughout the play (note the repeated participles in 868/9 and see Intro. $ 4a). Before the previous scene stress

had always been on the need for silence—Kr.'s silence about the rape

861

(256ff.), Ion's silence about Kr.'s 'friend's' story (394ff.), X.'s command that the Chorus keep silent (666f.). At 758ff. the Chorus for the first time in the play break a silence imposed by self or another. shed...shame: for the construction and sense of the verb cf. Med. 35, Or.

216. The theme of αἰδώς, shame, had been raised in the discussion with Ion (336f.). He pointed out then that it was an 'ineffectual power'; the effects of 862ff.

the loss of shame could scarcely have been imagined. The switch to the calmer recitative anapaests is marked by: a) language—

the words obstacle, in my way are distinctly prosaic and not found

COMMENTARY

863

259

elsewhere in tragedy; b) structure—each of the opening three dimeters (the song began uniquely with paroemiacs) is a discrete, ordered grammatical unit expressing a question. contest of virtue: she means that X.'s treachery absolves her from any need

to (be seen to) remain upright. The metaphor from athletic competition is very common in Eur. (cf. Supp. 427, Pho. 1355) and scarcely felt, although it 15 resumed twice by Kr., significantly I think, in 939 and 1257. For the defining gen. cf. Med. 403, Aristoph. Frogs 883. 864

865-9

betrayer: this charge, repeated of both X. and Apollo in 880, frames the recitative system. For the word used of marital disloyalty cf. Med. 206, Alc. 180, Hipp. 590. Having answered the aporetic questions with which she began in the rhetorical questions which followed, Kr. turns to a statement of the facts from her viewpont. bereft...bereft: for the emphatic repetition, rhyme and symmetry in the di-

colon cf. Pho. 1033, (Stevens on) And. 497. Kr. repeats in calmer tones the point made in 790ff. hopes: she hoped that she might have had good news of her child (345, 388) or at least news that might compensate for its loss (425ff.).

union...childbirth: though vague, these are pointers to the revelations to

come, but there is still no hint at the name of the rapist. Contrast the 870-3

emphatic opening with Phoebus' name in the 'friend's' story in 338. For the triple oath cf. Med. 752ff., H. II. 19. 258f. Hom. h. Dem. 69. Kr. invokes deities, either directly or through associated elements, powerful enough to ward off any reprisals from Apollo. Place is important to each adjuration: the starry seat of Zeus like the sun and the light (cf. Med. 752, A. Ch. 985ff.) sees all beneath it; the Acropolis, specifically its rocky caves (cf. 11f., 936f.), is witness to both the rape and the exposure; the Tritonian lake in North Africa, as Athena's birthplace (A. Eum. 293), or as the place she first came to after being born from Zeus' head (Lucan 9. 350-4), has

resonances with the natal and post-natal experiences about to be revealed.

revered

shore:

for the use of the adj. of a place cf. A. Cho.

722 (of

Agamemnon's tomb), Ba. 520 (of the river Dirce).

875

easier: a medical, and possibly colloquial (Stevens, Coll. Exp. 50), usage; cf. HF 1407. Kr. believes that by getting her secret off her chest she will feel better. But just as the Chorus’ betrayal of X.'s secret created the ground for the catastrophe, so Kr.'s unburdening of her soul prepares her to take an

active part in it. Text:

since

we cannot

assume

that dtovnoapévn,

'unburdening , requires an object, ὡς, ‘because’, should not be changed to 6.

876

stream with tears: we see Kr. as she was at her first entrance (247ff.) with

nothing left to her but the memory

of rape and its consequences. So far

260

878

COMMENTARY tears have been her only response, but they afford no relief and so she will speak out. both by men and immortals: the first suggestion of the central topic of Kr.'s monody. There have been hints that she has some secret to reveal (850-61, 868-9, 874), but it might well seem that she is responding solely to the news about X. and his bastard (862-7, 877), and there is certainly no clue, till now, that her complaint has anything to do with Apollo. Even here men and immortals could be a conventional polar expression (H. /l. 2.

669, Hipp. 675, Bond on HF 647f.), or give expectation of a mythical

881ff.

parallel, her use singular Having

or refer simply to Apollo's oracle that X. alone will have a child; of betrayers in 880 may be taken simply as variation on the used in 864. made up her mind to reveal her secret, Kr. returns to the high

emotion of song. Her lyrics are carefully structured. After the challenging apostrophe she tells of the rape, her pregnancy and delivery, the fate of the

baby, and then returns to Apollo's indifference. Thus the pattern of the

881-3

‘friend's’ story (338-44) is repeated precisely. The monody concludes with a reprise of her earlier complaints, adding the ultimate crime, the bestowing of a child on X. alone. tune: the word évorá occurs only in epic, lyric and Eur. in classical Greek. Denniston on El. 1302 thinks it is ‘furiously insulting’ of the lyre, since it 1s often used of shrill screeches (Bacchic at Ba. 159, of vengeance at El. 198); there may be an unconscious, ironic reference to the oracle, as the word is used of oracles at /T 1277 and El. 1302.

seven-stringed...horn: the lyre had strings of equal length (traditionally

887-8

seven, though there were probably more in the 5th century) with a soundbox of tortoise-shell or wood with hide covering the depression. It had two curved side pieces of horn or wood. The story of its invention by Hermes is told in the Hom. h. Hermes 41ff, and referred to in S. Ichn. fr. 314. 132ff. »» M. L. West, Ancient Greek Music (Oxford, 1992) 49ff. present an interpretative crux. Despite her bitterness, Kr. still portrays Apollo as attractive. More generally, the whole hymnal form yoked to such distasteful content creates tension and ambivalence. Is it deliberate irony, intended to sharpen the contrast between Apollo's divine appearance and all-too-human brutality, even if she may have been susceptible to his beauty at one time (so Barlow 16 and Imagery 48ff.)? Or is Kr. compelled to confess Apollo's attractiveness even as she tries to criticise him, a confession that foreshadows (unconsciously) how 'Apolline beauty will triumph over human error' (Burnett, CP 97)?

flashing: the same word is used of the brilliance of the Dioskouroi in JA 1154. and of Aphrodite's eyes when she appears to Helen in H. /l. 3. 397.

COMMENTARY

261

with gold: see 146n. For 'golden-haired' of Apollo in Eur. cf. Tro. 254, IT 1237, (Collard on) Supp. 975. 888-90

A traditional scene in rape stories, going back to that of Persephone (Hom h. Dem 5-15, cf. also Hel. 244f.). Kr. is thus like Persephone, but also like Demeter, a mother in search of her child. For the flowery background to an erotic episode cf. H. //. 14. 346ff., S. Slings on Archilochus' 1st Cologne epode in Some Recently Found Greek Poems (Leiden, 1987) 28. The kaleidoscopic ımage is deftly fashioned and typical of Eur.'s interest in colour; cf. Hec. 468ff., Barlow, /magery 8ff., 58f. Text: Diggle (PCPS 23n.) points out that ἀνθίζειν needs an object; his own suggestion

ἀνθιζομένα, ‘culling flowers', seems to labour the point made in ἔδρεπον, but cf. αἰρόμενος (s.v.L), ‘plucking’, with ἔδρεπεν in Hyps. fr. 754. 3. The metre of 889 (once 'inscrutable' to Diggle, but no longer, Studies 96n.) is taken by Kannicht (Hel. p. 84n.) as trochaic; he compares /T 197, 220, 232 for the anapaestic context. reflected golden light: for the compound adj. cf. dvtavyet φόνον, ‘flashes murder', in Or. 1519.

891

gripping

my

pale white

wrists: the Homeric

word ἐμφύω

is used

especially of affectionate handclasps (cf. H. JL. 6. 253, Od. 10. 397). Kr. may therefore intend it ironically, or the choice of word may be unconscious and work against her intentions. Alternatively, the context may be sufficient to colour the Homeric phrase with a hint of violence. The gesture χεὶρ ἐπὶ καρπῶι, ‘hand on wrist’, indicated possession of one

person by another (cf. H. /l. 21. 489) and was part of the Athenian wedding ritual; cf. I. Jenkins, BICS 30 (1983) 137ff. and, with illustrations, G. Neumann, Gesten und Gebdrden in der gr. Kunst (Berlin, 1965) 59ff. The

adj.

λευκοῖς, lit. 'white', is not merely ornamental here (cf. 221n.), but

stresses Kr.'s youthfulness and effects a contrast with the brilliant colours of

893

887ff. Cf. Cropp on El. 1023. Text: the alternative dat. pl. ending καρποῖσιν restores a spondaic paroemiac in place of the dubious colon called 'hexamakron' by A. M. Dale (Lyric Metres 60ff.). cried 'O mother': for the emphasising quotation cf. (Page on) Med. 21. The cry established that the erotic approach was unwelcome; cf. Hecuba's sarcastic question to Helen in Tro. 999f. and the cry of Potiphar's wife in

Gen. 39. Kr.'s cry, apart from the resistance implied elsewhere (891, 895), is enough to establish her reluctance. Some critics (especially Burnett, CP 91), however, argue that the reluctance itself is only a minimal conventional

gesture (see Richardson on Hom h. Dem. 20) to show that Kr. was not a loose woman, without suggesting that she was averse to the divine favour.

894

lover: the word ὁμευνέτας, lit. 'bed-sharer', may be pejorative here as it seems to be in Med. 953.

262 895

COMMENTARY shameless fashion: this is the heart of Kr.’s accusation. But what weight does it have? Is it a brief and weak criticism of a moment of lust, or is it

rather the revelation that Apollo fails the funadamental test of Greek morality, which was so rooted in a 'shame' culture? Throughout the play Kr. herself has been hemmed in and prevented even from speaking about the rape by the traditional demands of shame (336, 861), yet Apollo had no

shame in satisfying his lust on her. His crime is highlighted by Kr.'s refusal, because of αἰδώς, 'shame', to attack X. later on (977). 897-904 Kr.'s complaint, that her child is lost, is in two parts: the first focuses on

herself and is framed with the word wretched, δύστανος, repeated with what Owen ad loc. calls the 'self-pitying use of the article'; the second describes the child's disappearance and ends with climactic reference to herself and Apollo.

898

fear of a mother: Owen (cf. Hartigan 80) takes ματρός as objective gen. with a reference could not save persuasively for it is fear of the

to the mother who saved Kr. from death her from Apollo's embrace (893). But the subjective gen. and a reference to Kr. father, not the mother, that is traditional

stories (cf. 14, 340) and that Kr.'s motherhood play (918, 1439, 1459, 1493).

899

(280), though she Huys 95f. argues He points out that in other exposure

is a constant motif in the

cast: an expressive word chosen to underline the terrible deed she had to perform. Cf. Hermes' report (45) of what the Priestess thought had happened to the baby. in the place you lay with me, lit 'into your bed': Kr. exposed her child in the place she hoped might stir Apollo's memory. Her bitterness at his

apparent neglect is visible in her choice of words, reminiscent of the expression ἐς εὐνὴν μολεῖν, 'to enter a (lover's) bed’ (cf. 545, HF 344, Tro. 1037f., Antiope 31. 3 Kambitsis). Text: Bothe's rearrangement

removes 902-4

905-6

the unexampled

brevis in longo (see West, GM

4f. for this

phenomenon) after patpds (Diggle, Studies 97). By making her old mistake the climax of her complaint here, Eur. subtly removes much of the identification, if not the sympathy, with Kr. which the monody itself has built up in the audience. The effect is repeated in the coda at 916-8. Kr.'s nightmare of the birds echoes the fantasies of the Chorus in 504 and will be repeated in 1494f. It will turn out that birds save Ion rather than destroy him (1196ff.). The ring composition with 881 here does more than merely frame. Kr. has narrated the immense change which has destroyed her life. Now immediately after the narrative of this change Apollo appears exactly as he did at the beginning—removed, indifferent, playing a joyful paian on his kithara. For the effect cf. HF 1303, Pha. 224ff., A. fr. 350. For the paian in direct antithesis to death and things connected with death cf. A. Cho. 340ff.,

COMMENTARY

263

fr. 161., and for Apollo's incongruous singing here cf. 17 179-86 and I. Rutherford, Arion 3 (1994/5) 112ff. Text: the jarring address to the hardhearted wretch (for the sense of τλᾶμον cf. 252-4n.) follows neatly on the

907

908-10

fact' of 902ff. while the nom. 'wretched' with son is weak. The addition of kal creates a dimeter, but rather overdoes Apollo's insouciance. >> Diggle, PCPS 24. For the cry ooee, used to attract attention, see Seaford on Cyc. 51 and Kannicht on Hel. 435-6; he points out that it is regularly used to people of lower station (e.g. doorkeepers) and may have contemptuous overtones here. The indicative αὐδῶ, 'I call on’, draws appropriate attention to the cry (cf. Ba. 580, 219 above) and should not be altered to the participle αὐδῶσ᾽ (Diggle); for the hiatus see Diggle, PCPS 25. son of Leto: she gives Apollo a solemn title as she goes on bitterly to list his credentials. Also, she harks back, now despairingly, to the prayer addressed to Leto in 410ff. Kr. twists the usual hymnal detailing of the god's power and glory by condemning the very attributes of Apollo which should be so appropriate to the Delphic setting. The adj. golden used elsewhere with positive overtones (cf. 146n.) here echoes her description of his violent approach (887); the

911

reference to the central importance of his oracular seat (cf. 5f., 222f.) resumes her disgust at his dismissal of her enquiry in 384ff. (cf. 366). response: dun, lit. 'voice', carries the ironic solemnity of its Homeric usage of the utterances of the gods. Text: the prepositional phrase introduced by πρός in 909 needs a verb; hence Page's addition of ‘to those who have approached' which would create an anapaestic dimeter like the verse following. to the light: Kr. introduces the conclusion of her song with a return to the determination of 886 after the hesitation of 860. Address to the sky or light of day is a common tragic convention (see Stevens on And. 93), but its use here goes beyond that. Kr. reveals to the light, after long years of concealment, the crime of the god of light. Text: the Ms. os ‘ear’, which

may have intruded as a reminiscence of 696, is inept; Kr., far from whispering confidentially (contrast 1521) to Apollo, wants to tell the world,

hence the verb καρύξω, ‘proclaim aloud’, explicitly contrasted with the need 912-22

for secrecy in Cretans fr. 472e K, 29-33. Kr.'s closing attack is more closely related to the prompted her outburst; Apollo's neglect is exacerbated Text: the easy duplication of the interjection in 912 Diggle, PCPS 23f., Studies 107) restores an anapaestic the unlikely 'hexamakron'; cf. 891n.

disclosure which by his favour to X. (for the facts see dimeter in place of

264 914-5

916

COMMENTARY favour: having contrasted in emphatic positions at the end of successive lines her lover and her husband, Kr. now links Apollo's favour to X. with the favour he bestowed, at her expense, on Aphrodite (896). lodge at home: the treatment afforded X.'s bastard (cf. 841) is set against Kr. having had to ‘cast’ her child into a cave (899). Tbrutisht: the word ἀμαθής can cover intellectual ignorance as well as

absence of moral feeling; cf. Med 223, El. 294, (Bond on) HF 347, Tr. 972, IT 386 (last three of gods). This would suit Kr.'s view of Apollo (cf. 895),

917-8:

but it is difficult to make the nom. apply to him. The alternative, to take the word with offspring, requires strange senses: ‘unaware, without trace’. an emphatic return to the baby's fate (cf. 902f., with near repetition of the words) before the closing abuse of the god. losing the baby-things: mention of the σπάργανα (harking back to 32) prepares for the recognition; Kr. picks out the very detail which shows just how carefully Apollo has arranged everything, for it is by means of these objects that he will restore son to mother. Losing is puzzling, since Kr.

found that both baby and σπάργανα 919

were gone; Ion was separated from

his baby-things later by the Priestess, but Kr. cannot refer to that. Delos hates you: Kr.'s accusation ends with the bitter claim that even

Delos, Apollo's own birthplace and winter residence, hates him. The chief point of Kr.'s outburst is to contrast Apollo's hallowed and beatific birth (Zeus fastened Delos to the sea floor as a refuge for Leto in her labor, and a

palm and bay tree canopied her; cf. Hec 458ff., IT 1098ff.) with her own

923-4:

suffering and the terrors of her child's conception, birth and exposure. The idyllic, leafy atmosphere surrounding Leto's delivery resonates with the images associated with Kr.'s rape (888ff.). Text: Kirchhoff's gardens is an easy change and suits the ambience better than Ms. ‘fruits’. a reactive choral couplet which effects a transition from the high emotion of the monody to the calmer, reflective approach of the Old Man. The conventional

response (underlined by the formulaic ἐκβάλοι

δάκρυ,

lit.

‘cast out a tear', cf. Bond on HF 1210) is enlivened by the oxymoron treasure-trove of evils, the positive associations of which are concealed from the Chorus: Kr.'s encounter with Apollo will indeed prove to be a

treasure laden with good things for Kr. herself and the Athenian people. 925-6

Daughter: after each piece of shocking news—the Chorus' at 763 and Kr.'s here—the Old Man expresses his sympathetic horror with this emotional address; his final such address —'dearest child’ in 1018—comes when they have discovered the means (so he thinks) to end Kr.'s distress.

Text: sense can be made of the Ms. οὔτοι in 925: the Old Man explains that he turns away from Kr. not because his sympathy has reached its limits (cf. Kr.'s assertion in 732), but because of his upset and confusion (so Kraus

74f.). But the correction οἴκτου

is preferable: the Old Man takes up the

COMMENTARY

265

Chorus’ reaction immediately with an expression of pity, but this is cut short by his inability to understand Kr.'s news. After hearing Kr.'s explanation of events he returns in 966ff. to a fuller expression of pity. He voices his distraught reaction in strong terms, lit. 1 became out of my mind’, :

used elsewhere (cf. Or. 1021, Ba. 359) of derangement. 927-8

a wave of evils: the image of a ‘sea of troubles’ is frequent in tragedy; cf. A.

Pers. 433, Sept. 788, Hipp. 824, Med. 362, Supp. 824. The image is here neatly elaborated in the idea of a second, unexpected wave striking from the rear and tossıng the boat upwards. The nom. participle draining is

irregularly linked with the accus. me; the anacoluthon is readily paralleled

930

(cf. Cyc. 330f., IT 695ff. and other passages adduced by Diggle, Studies 107) and ıs here appropriate to the Old Man's confusion. evil paths of other sorrows: the metaphor shifts to a recurrent theme of the

play, that of movement and journeys, particularly between Athens and

931-3

Delphi. The evil path onto which Kr. has turned will in the end lead to the triumphant journey she and her son will take, after some false starts, back to Athens. The fourfold repetition (cf. 924, 927, 929) of evil, κακός, disturbed Owen and prompted Musgrave's correction Kaıvds, 'new'. But the theme of apparent woe is deliberately stressed (cf. Hec. 585ff.) at this turning point between Kr.'s passivity and extravagant reaction. The Old Man is characteristically (cf. 769ff.) concerned to elicit by question and answer a sober account of the facts already presented in emotional terms. His sense of urgency is manifest in the asyndetic series of staccato questions which form the programme of the dialogue in 934-65. What is this: the word ποῖον here carries a tone of incredulous surprise; cf. (Kannicht on) Hel. 567.

934

grave: for the pathetic description of exposure in terms appropriate to burial cf. S. Εἰ. 1488 where Electra bitterly orders Aegisthus' corpse to be thrown to 'buriers', the birds and beasts which will devour it. shame: Kr.'s initial reaction is to feel once again the shame which prevented her from being frank with Ion in 336, and which only the depth of her grief overcame in 862ff.

935

join...loved ones: he reacts just as Kr. expected and hoped (cf. 730ff.). The

936-7

repetition of Kr.'s story proceeds in the same way as the previous conversation: the Old Man begins as sympathiser (808, 935ff.) and ends as conspirator (843ff., 970ff.). north-facing cave...'Long Rocks': the strong echo of Hermes’ account (11ff.) of how he saved Ion alerts us again to the blindness of Kr. and the

Old Man. Text: the Ms. accus. 'Kekropian cliffs' does not cohere with 937.

But deletion of 937 (Burges) is not the answer, since without this line the response of the Old Man does not have a proper reference; Page's gens. are

266

COMMENTARY likely. For the disruption of the incipient stichomythia see Diggle, Studies 110f.

938

shrine of Pan: the precise location of Kr.'s encounter with Apollo takes up

939

the Chorus’ surmise in 492, 501; see 492-4n. struggled...struggle: lit. ‘contested a contest’,

cf. 863n.

The

cognate

structure (cf. Alc. 648, Or. 1124, Hel. 843) emphasizes Kr.'s resistance to Apollo's demands (cf. 893, 941).

942

The Old Man is not at all incredulous about Kr.'s claim that she had been raped by Apollo. This is partly because it would be thematically out of

place and repetitious after [on’s doubts at 339ff. and also because his unquestioning acceptance is entirely consistent with what we know of his 944

946

947

949

loyalty to Kr. Kr.'s pregnancy went unnoticed even by her father (cf. 14, 340), but her distress was spotted by the Old Man, a further indication of his closeness to his mistress. This is not inconsistent with 1596 where Athena refers to the delivery itself. The Old Man's words here underline Kr.'s desperate need for secrecy and isolation. did you hide to the end: the imperfect verb in 944 refers to the whole period of Kr.'s pregnancy; here the Old Man uses the aorist of the moment of her delivery. I bore the child: she would have gone on to explain, as in 340ff., that she gave birth secretly and then immediately exposed the child, but the Old Man's shock at this revelation distracts her and she tries to soothe him with bear up. For a similar verbal response to the reaction expressed by gesture cf. A. Cho. 233, Med. 550. on my own: Kr. begins with the emphatic word in the Old Man's shocked

question as a poignant expression of her terrible plight; cf. Electra's fictitious account of her delivery in El. 1128ff. and contrast the companions sent to Evadne by Apollo when she gave birth to Iamos, Pind. Of. 6. 42ff. in the cave: Kr. says that she bore Ion in the cave where she was raped, yet we have already heard the reliable account of Hermes (16) that she bore

950

951-4

him at home; cf. 1596n. and the less unambiguous evidence of 344, 899, 1399. This may be simply a slip, but it is more likely to be deliberate, and characterising of Kr. as a woman whose memory of the past is a set of fluid impressions. Here she combines the site of Apollo's rape with the place of Ion's birth and subsequent exposure, not deliberately to excite pity, but unconsciously as an expression of her own despair and grief. you: the pronoun is emphatic; the Old Man asks his question in the hope that, like her husband, Kr. too may still be the mother of a living child born before her marriage. These lines are neatly linked by repetition and carefully structured wordorder. The Old Man takes up Kr.'s dead and then she takes up his help. He

COMMENTARY

267

remarks on the negligence of the god Apollo; she says bitterly that it is another deity, Hades, in whose care her son now is. Then the Old Man

returns to the point of 951 and asks who it was who exposed the child. grows up: I have found no parallels for this idea, but cf. the association between the death of young girls and marriage to Hades in Med. 1234f., IT 369ff., HF 481, IA 461, and see R. Seaford, JHS 107 (1987) 106ff., R. Rehm,

Marriage

to Death

(Princeton,

1994).

Kr.'s words make

a bitter

contrast between the fate of her child and that of X.'s, who 'grew up...in Apollo's halls’ (821f.), and thus they stress her ignorance of the real situation. 954

956-7

certainly not you:

this line and others after it (956, 958, 960, 964) are

fundamental to the question as to how far the Old Man condemns Kr. for the exposure. It seems that he 1s horrified by what she has done, almost as horrified as he ıs at Apollo's rape (960). Such questioning of the morality of exposure Is as rare as Kr.'s freely talking about her rape. >> Vickers, Towards Greek Tragedy 333. The Old Man's question ıs natural from one who is Kr.'s confidant; he ıs as startled by the idea that Kr. acted alone as he was by the thought that she gave bırth alone. It ıs a regular feature of exposure-tales that the mother

makes

use

of an

agent.

>>

Huys

143ff.

Kr.

underlines

her sole

responsibility by making her only partners the catastrophe from which she suffered and the secrecy which she managed to contrive. For the personification of the circumstances cf. the personification of deceit and

lust in S. El. 197. 958

959

960

in the cave: Kr. has not explicitly told the Old Man where she exposed the child, but he can infer this from a connection of 939 with 899ff. A realıstic exchange on this point, known already to the audience (cf. 17), would inconveniently retard the pace of the dialogue. How: the Old Man's question focused on Kr. as agent and on her determination to do away with her child; Kr.'s reply focuses on herself as victim of an action imposed on her. For the asyndetic πῶς repeating the Old Man's word cf. 951/2, 338/9 and see Diggle, Studies SOf. Wretched: the Old Man resumes his point in 958 by using the words τλήμων and τόλμης which are cognate with ἔτλης. It is significant that he uses of Kr.'s action the same word she used in 905 of Apollo's neglect. He will later (1020) claim ‘daring’, τολμᾶν, as his own contribution to the plot

961-2

against Ion. The image presented here is of a child much older than a new-born infant. This is another instance of Kr.'s subjective memory which invests the child with a response that deepens her own sense of loss. Cf. Tro. 1180ff., where Hecuba imagines the dead child Astyanax as having been capable of more mature actions and words.

268

COMMENTARY breast...embrace: the Old Man takes up the pathos of Kr.'s image and sees the baby wanting to be close to its mother perhaps for nurture, perhaps

simply for comfort. This picture will be resumed in Ion's reverie in 1375ff. unjust treatment: Kr. here shares the charge of injustice earlier brought

against Apollo (cf. 355, 358, 384). The portrait of a woman torn between conflicting needs and emotions is very skilful. Kr. expresses profound guilt,

but she also has a deep need to blame others (953, 965); she 15 aware of her own motives (shame necessitating secrecy—957), yet attempts to put the best gloss on them (965), and to make herself, as well as the child she tried

965

to kill, a dramatically pathetic figure (959, 961). Just as his neglect of the child, not the rape itself, is the main complaint against Apollo, so the exposure, not the rape, is the main source of Kr.'s suffering. The way is thus left open for the reconciliation with Apollo at the end when Kr. becomes aware that the exposure did not have the effects she feared. An important statement for our understanding of Kr.'s motives for exposing the child. Her explanation conflicts with Hermes' statements (18, 27) that

966

967

969

she expected the child would die. Her hope that Apollo would save it explains why she returns to the cave (350/1), but her hope was weak and easily abandoned (902/17, 951), even though what she found was quite consistent with the rescue of the child. At 1494-5 when she has found that Ion is alive she is at last able to admit that she exposed him expecting that he would die. storm-tossed: the Old Man returns to the storm image with which he began this dialogue (927). your house: here and at 968 the Old Man makes it clear that dynastic considerations weigh with him as much as does any personal sympathy for Kr. cover: covering the head was a traditional gesture of mourning (cf. H. Od. 8. 92, HF 1198, JA 1122f. and Wilkins on Held. 604), symbolising withdrawal from the inescapable cause of grief or shame. The Old Man's gesture of despair here foregrounds the determination he will soon show to turn passive lament into dynamic revenge. For the common sentiment on the instability of mortal fortunes cf. 1510f. below, HF 101 ff., ZA 31f., frr. 304, 415. Kr. seems for the moment suddenly and strangely calm and reflective, able to view her suffering in a larger context of consoling mutability. Mutability underpins the play not only thematically, but also structurally, with all its twists, surprises and reversals.

Plotting Scene: 970-1047 In Eur.'s other plays (El., IT, Hel.) which combine recognition and a mechanema (crafty intrigue for personal ends) the recognition is worked out before the

COMMENTARY

269

mechanema begins. In the /on the mechanema is a stage on the way to the recognition and subordinate to it, a feature which lends unity and produces at once heightened suspense and greater psychological depth. >> Solmsen, Hermes 69 (1934) 390ff., Gauger 45ff.

970

let us not: Ion could not bear to think of the past (361) and so he was prevented from recognizing his mother. In turning Kr. away from her grief over the past, the Old Man sets in train a series of events which will lead eventually to the recognition. The shift from emotional to deliberative mode is very abrupt. In other plays the devising of the mechanema is introduced by a choral interlude (Εἰ. 585ff.) or discussion with a third party (17 902ff., Hel. 700ff.). But the unusual structure discussed above does not leave room

971

for this here. resourceless: Kr. seems at a loss and protests her lack of means, but by 984

she takes over the role of chief plotter after the Old Man's suggestions are shown to be inadequate. The motif of adviser and advised changing places is recurrent in Euripidean plotting scenes: cf. Hel. 1035ff./1049ff., IT 1017ff./1029ff. Here the motif is used to highlight Kr.'s active role in the plot against Ion; just as she was the principal agent of Ion's near destruction as a baby, so too she devises the means which will nearly kill him now. 972

974

977

979

980

first treated you unjustly: again injustice is laid at Apollo's door. The Old

Man assumes, correctly, that the rape took place before Kr. was married; he earlier assumed, incorrectly, that X.'s affair and Ion's conception took place after his marriage to Kr. (817ff.). His assumption here justifies his naming of Apollo as the first target for Kr.'s vengeance. burn...the shrine: a wild and shocking suggestion which might well make an Athenian audience think of the Persian burning of the Acropolis. It is introduced to characterize the Old Man's immoderate rage, which must be harnessed by Kr., and to provide a foil for the much more subtle means of revenge which will eventually emerge. For the taking of vengeance by burning down a house cf. Med. 378 and Aristoph. Clouds 1484ff. upright: the word ἐσθλός here refers to decency in regard to sexual matters (cf. Hipp. 1254) and specifically to the proper behaviour of a husband. Kr. implicitly denies the Old Man's fantasies about X.'s infidelity and her opinion accords with what we have seen of X.'s attitude to his wife. The purpose of her statement is not to rehabilitate X., but to relegate him to a position of small dramatic importance. Once again (cf. 336), alöws inhibits Kr.'s actions; for the wording cf. H. Od. 19. 527. The irony of Kr.'s enthusiasm for making Jon the target is underlined by her language which is reminiscent of Ion's despair in 565 of ever finding his mother. Again (cf. 974n.), the Old Man's preference for an open frontal attack expresses his rage and foregrounds the stealth of Kr.'s proposal.

270 981

983 984

988

989

COMMENTARY Text: Diggle (Studies 101n.) points out that elsewhere στείχοιμ᾽ dv I would go to it indicates immediate intention to depart, hence Herwerden's conjecture στείλαιμ᾽, But it may be that Kr.'s ignorance of all the facts gets in the way of her expressed enthusiasm. slaves make weak support: for slaves as unreliable and time-serving cf. El. 633 and fır. 93, 313.

coward: it is not surprising that Kr.'s caution should meet with this remark from one who had proposed the burning down of Apollo's shrine. Once again, Kr.'s hesitation is used to foreground the which she will so determinedly put into action. Phlegra: this area, later called Pallene, is on the Khalkidike peninsula and is mentioned again in gigantomachy, for which cf. 207n. Gorgon: in Hesiod (Th. 274ff.) the Gorgon is

bold plot against Ion's life western promontory of the HF 1194 as the site of the a sea-creature, daughter of

Phorkys and Keto; by making her a child of Earth (cf. Diodorus Siculus 3. 70), Eur.

991

links the monster with the autochthonous

Erechtheidai

whose

imagined interests its blood will protect. This point is reinforced by the use of the adj. 'earth-born' in the following stasimon (1054). Pallas...killed her: traditionally the Gorgon is Perseus' victim (cf. Andromeda fr. 123, El. 459ff. and K. Schauenburg, Perseus in der Kunst des Altertums

[Bonn,

1960],

19ff.). The version given here (likely to be

recent and possibly even an innovation of Eur. which 994 validates; cf. Mastronarde,

CSCA

8 [1975]

174), it is said, would be more welcome

to

Athenian ears. Perhaps, but, more important, it is dramatically appropriate; the fatal liquid, which was acquired by Athena after overcoming a monstrous threat, will now be used to ward off what seems another threat to

her city and its ancestral family. 997

rushed: the colourless 'went' of the Ms. is very likely a gloss on the true reading, aorist of the verb dioow, which provides a typically Euripidean etymology (cf. 9, 661nn.) for Athena's aigis which connects it closely with the goddess' own exploit. The more common tradition (cf. Hdt. 4. 189) linked the aigis with the skin of goats, atyes. Kraus (78), who wants to delete 996-7 (see next n.), thinks that the subject of ἧιξεν would have to be

992-3

the Gorgon. But Παλλάδος στολή is easily understood as the subject of ἔσχεν and then Παλλάς can be supplied as the subject of ALEev. The aigis was one of Athena's most striking attributes, given to her by Zeus. The edging of snakes is regularly represented on vase-paintings. >> J. Neils, op. cit. (209-10n.) 43, 144f., LIMC s.v. Athena $40. The halting

progress of the dialogue 991-7 prompted Kraus (77f.) to delete these lines and 996-7 as well. But the extra detail on the Gorgon's appearance and its link with Athena prepares for the goddess' vital involvement below and also helps to create a sinister, mysterious atmosphere in association with Kr.'s

COMMENTARY plot which elicits the Old Man's Rosenmeyer says (Masks of Tragedy mood here are reminiscent of a ritual the attempt on Ion's life takes place in

puzzled [Austin, and this the midst

271 question in 998. As T. 1963] 116), the rhythm and is picked up in the fact that of a religious act (1182ff.),

as in other similar scenes in Eur.; cf. V. Langholf, Die Gebete bei Eur.

999

(Göttingen, 1971) 104. The transposition of 992-3 produces strained syntax after 997 and gives an unnaturally delayed place to the detail on the aigis. The traditional order (defended by Mastronarde, loc. cit. and Biehl, Philologus 22ff.) creates a neat balance: a couplet on the appearance of the Gorgon's armour (θώρακ᾽ then means not 'breastplate' but 'breast'; cf. HF 1095) straight after mention of Athena's victory; then a separate couplet on its name after its acquisition as spoil by Athena. This is not a real question, since the Old Man's knowledge of Erichthonios is evident (cf. 725ff.), but a conventional way of enlivening a shift to a new

1002

topic in stichomythia; cf. 936f., 987 and see Mastronarde, Contact 43f. Text: the Ms. has Kr. break off after or before she mentions any alternative. This is preferable to Badham's addition of not which gives an unwanted precision to the formulaic question. Thesitantt: Kraus (79f.) argues for the Ms. text, saying that Kr. is not interrupted by the Old Man, but is reluctant to mention the poison. But, apart from the oddity of having her statement itself called hesitant (real

parallels are not forthcoming), this interpretation is false to Kr.'s manner. Once vengeance has been decided on, she proceeds without misgiving or 1003-5

qualms. Herwerden's unclear is colourless. The mention of the Gorgon's blood will remind the audience of traditional stories of the potency, for good or ill, of a monster's blood. The flying horse Pegasus sprang from Earth after it had absorbed a drop of Medusa's blood; Deianeira, persuaded that it was a love-potion, destroyed Heracles' body with the centaur Nessos' blood. Text: I agree with Kraus (80) that 1004-5

should be deleted: they are an unwanted anticipation of the description of

the two-fold effect of the Gorgon's blood in 1010-15. Furthermore, it is

1007

1009

strange that after hearing of the remarkable qualities of the liquid the Old Man should calmly turn to its method of attachment to the baby Erichthonios. golden bracelet: again the motif of gold appears and, as elsewhere, acts as a foil to the subject of death and deception; cf. also 1030. my wrist: Kr. wears the object, with which she hopes to destroy Ion and which will eventually bring her and her son together, where Apollo grasped her when he led her off to the cave (891).

1010

fixed...purpose: kékpavrat brings with it the idea that the nature of the god's gift is unalterably determined. The verb is thematic in the play; cf. 77, 464, 570.

272

COMMENTARY

1011-15 The detail on the effect of the poison characterizes Kr.'s familiarity with this heirloom and also her business-like approach to the murder of the intruder. hollow vein: the vena cava through which the blood enters the heart (cf.

1017

Hippocr. On Regimen 1. 9); for the different properties of the Gorgon's blood cf. Apollod. 3. 10. 3. second item: for the sense of ἀριθμόβ, one member of a group, see Dodds on Ba. 209. snakes: the reptiles that formed the Gorgon's hair/skin; cf. the appearance of the Gorgon on the vase illustrated in D. Williams, Greek Vases (London, 1985) 31. beneficial...fatal: Kr.'s belief in this maxim is a reflection of her flawed understanding. The play shows that the beneficial and harmful are often combined and that what appears to be the one turns out to be the other. Kr.'s

plot on the life of Ion now seems to be to her advantage; soon she will see

1018

1019

1021

that it nearly deprives her of the child she so desperately longs for; cf. Burnett, Cat. Survived 115f. dearest child: in what is an exclamation rather than a true address (cf. Cyc. 418, Supp. 641, Or. 1100), the Old Man welcomes the cleverness and aptness of Kr.'s plan. you will be the killer: Kr. does not hesitate to give this dangerous task to the Old Man whom she had treated so solicitously at the beginning of this episode. As the scene nears its end Kr. becomes progressively more ruthless in her attitude to Ion's proposed death. in Athens: Eur. teases the audience's expectations right to the end. We are reminded of Hermes' preview of the story and wonder even now whether the denouement is going to be transferred, either by scene-change or in narrative, to Athens (cf. 71-3n.). Burnett, Cat. Survived

103 sees the Old

Man's response as a playfully critical reference to Sophocles' lost Creusa. 1025

Kr.'s reaction as stepmother of X.'s son had already been mentioned by Ion, but very sympathetically, in 607ff. The traditional picture of the evil

stepmother introduced here and raised again in 1270, 1329 is widespread:

1027

1028

cf. Alc. 305-10, fr. 4, Hdt. 4. 154 and see P. Watson, Ancient Stepmothers (Leiden, 1994) 35ff. For the laconic ὀρθῶς agreeing to an objection cf. Ba. 838 and see Bond on HF 599. sweetness: Kr. describes the delight she will feel at Ion's death in the strongest terms. That her anticipated pleasure is misplaced is shown in the use of the same word ἡδονή three times (1448, 1461, 1469) of the delight she feels after her reunion with the son she is now planning to kill. conceal...conceal: she will conceal from X. her knowledge of the son he wants to keep hidden from her. The Old Man ends the stichomythia by returning to the person who triggered his hate: Kr.'s disloyal husband. His

COMMENTARY choice of the theme overtones. he thinks,

273

words stresses that Kr. will repay his deceit in kind. Once again of concealment and stealth is raised with multiple and ironic Such stealth as X. intends is in accord with Apollo's plans and is, in Kr.'s interests. Kr.'s deception is more deliberate, and is quite

contrary not only to the wishes of the god, but also to her own desires. 1029ff.

Kr.'s instructions take the form of a long, circuitous sentence: the central imperative pour is encircled by participles and subordinate clauses which look ahead to the murderous events. The effect of this is to give the audience sufficient detail in preparation for the Servant's account of the events themselves.

1029

you have your instructions: this colloquial expression (cf. Stevens, Coll.

1031

1032 1034

Exp. 36 Kannicht on Hel. 315) introducing the details of the plot's execution stresses Kr.'s steely resolve. my husband: Kr. is led to believe by the Chorus (cf. 804ff.) that X. will be at the banquet; that Ion should die in the presence of his deceitful father adds to the pleasure of the deed. libations: it was normal procedure to follow the meal with prayers and libations; after this the drinking and entertainment took place. Cf. 1169ff.n. quickly: translation of the participle βαλών, lit. throwing', which adds the

notion of urgency to the imperative κάθες. Text: βαλών is protected by its recurrence in 1184 and by its meaning sprinkling in 149. West's emendation λαθών, 'stealthily', (B/CS 28 [1981] 64) needlessly states an obvious point. 1035

1036 1037-8

Kraus (80f.) rightly argues for Paley's deletion of this line, the syntax of which is confused. It labours the point that the Old Man is to keep Ion's drink separate from the rest and interrupts the effective connection between boy's in 1034 and the participial phrase going with it in 1036. master: Kr. bitterly takes up the word which rounded off the Old Man's vehement attack on Ion in 836-8. once the drink goes through his throat...: Kr. finishes her speech with macabre relish, as she describes the instanteously fatal effect of the poison. The word λαιμός, ‘throat’, is found only here in the context of drinking; it is most often used of the cutting of the throat of sacrificial victims (cf. Hec. 565, Pho.

1092, Or. 1472) and this is how Kr. imagines her killing of Ion.

She kills him to save the city, just as Erechtheus slew her sisters to advance the same cause (cf. 277f.).

Athens...here: again the juxtaposition of the play's two local foci: Apollo's intervention brought Ion, seemingly doomed by Kr.'s action to remain as a corpse in Athens, to Delphi; now the boy's return to Athens from Delphi is threatened by his mother's misguided attack.

274 1039

1040

COMMENTARY sponsors: for Kr. lodging with these officials cf. 551 and 335n. Mention of the sponsors reminds us of Kr.'s own reason for consulting the oracle, just

as the Old Man goes off to kill the son about whom she wanted to enquire. carry out...end: the verb ἐκπονέω (here used in a regular sense; cf. Hel. 1514, Hipp. 381 and contrast 375n., 1355n.) picks up its compounded form

in 850 and shows that the determination of the Old Man ıs undiminished in the face of his murderous task. 1041-2

1044

aged foot: it 1s normal for self-exhortation to take the form of address to the part of the body most involved. In Tro. 1275 the aged Hecuba steels herself with similar words for the Journey from Troy to slavery in Greece; cf. Heracles' resolute address to his heart and hand in Alc. 837 and Amphitryon's regret at the infirmity of his right hand in HF 268. The Old Man's reference to his gait harks back to his halting entrance (738ff.), and stresses the rejuvenating effect of his wicked enterprise. The illusion of youth given by the Dionysiac experience to Teiresias and Cadmus in Ba. 187ff. is comparable. with her...with her: the repeated prefix ovv- stresses the Old Man's sense

of unity with his mistress just as he leaves to commit the crime (cf. 851f.);

1045-7

it also recalls Kr.'s motive for bringing the servant with her (730ff.) and justifies her confidence in him. The Old Man's cynicism is an expression of Sth century moral relativism (cf. Thuc. 6. 85. 1) attached to the traditional ‘help friends harm enemies’

ethic.

>>

M.

W.

Blundell,

Helping

Friends

and Harming

Enemies

(Cambridge,

1989) 26ff. Ion fortunately does not follow this doctrine; his

subscription

to the demands

even of what he sees as perverse

nomos

(1312ff.) saves Kr.

enemies: the word πολεμίους strictly refers to public foes, whereas the word ἐχθρόν was used more precisely in 1043 of the private enemy Ion. But

for slippage in the use of these terms see Blundell, op. cit. 39. Owen makes a point of Kr.'s approving silence here; but it is likely that she started to move off at 1039 and did not hear these words. The plotting scene ends unusually without any appeal to the Chorus for its complicity (cf. Hose, Studien I, 301). This is because we have had clear

indications of the Chorus’ sympathy

and because a further demand for

silence (cf. 666f.) would overwork the motif.

THIRD STASIMON: 1048-1105 1. Structure: two strophic pairs i. Strophe a 1048-60: an appeal to Einodia to guide the assault against Ion, who is a threat to the Erechtheid clan. Antistrophe a 1061-73: the dire results of failure.

COMMENTARY

275

ii. Strophe b 1074-89: shame for the Chorus if a vagrant will usurp the rule of Athens and witness the sacred mysteries.

Antistrophe b 1090-1105: the cause of it all—X.'s treacherous fathering of a bastard and Apollo's neglect of his own. 2. Metre: aeolic rhythms, suitable vehicle for the solemn prayer and fears voiced by the Chorus, are predominant; rising excitement is occasionally marked by highly resolved iambic rhythm, as in 1077~1093. 3. Function The ode fills with tense expectation the time between the agreement to kill Ion and news of the murder attempt. Its focus, tone and language are skilfully varied. The first strophic pair is more closely related to the foregoing scene and underlines the Chorus’ sympathy for Kr. in their prayer for the plot's success and, on the other hand, their prediction of the effect of failure on their mistress. The language is relatively free of imagery and the antistrophe in particular is almost prosaic, as the Chorus try, with remarkable detachment, to keep failure at a distance. There is the further consideration, that the murder attempt and its possible consequences cannot be treated here in a way which would anticipate the material of the following episode. The second strophic pair is more general in content, rich in imagery and charged with emotion. Resentment and shame at both past and possible future events are colourfully presented. These are echoes of the sentiments voiced by Kr. and the Old Man, implicit justification of the attack on the boy and his deceitful father, and, importantly, elaboration of the erroneous view of things taken by those now executing the plot. >> Hose, Studien II, 61f. 1048 Einodia: another name for Hekate (cf. [Kannicht on] Hel. 569f.), here

invoked as patron of witchcraft and especially poison (cf. Med. 395ff.), and, by virtue of her identification with Demeter's daughter Kore (cf. Pha. 268), as a deity celebrated at the Eleusinian mysteries (cf. 1085 below). Her

image stood at the cross-roads, hence possibly the name Einodia (ὁδός = road) which is here stressed in the language of the prayer: ἐφόδων and ὅδωσον. 1049 1052 1054

at night: the time naturally favoured by Hekate; cf. her regular epithet φωσφόρος, 'torch-bearing', (Hel. 569, Aristoph. Lys. 443 and cf. S. fr. 535). those against whom: allusive pl., quickly sharpened in 1056ff. my mistress, my mistress: the anadiplosis, frequent in appeals, adds intensity to the Chorus’ prayer; it is matched by the polyptoton in the

corresponding line 1066. 1055

severed throat: the adj.

λαιμοτόμων

recalls the word

Aatuds

used

earlier of Ion's throat (1037) and so links his threat to the house with the

terrors inspired by the monstrous Gorgon. 1056

making an attack: the verb could also mean 'to lay claim to as one's own' (cf. S. OC 859), and this is in fact what Ion, with good reason, is about to

do.

276

COMMENTARY

1058-60 The Chorus’ prayer will be answered, but not in the way it expects; cf. 71424n. The repeated reference to the family of Erechtheus (cf. 1056) stresses the Chorus’ loyalty, resumes the themes raised in the foregoing scene and emphasises Ion's supposed intrusion. This is well brought out in Diggle's

conjecture ἥκων

for οἴκων, ‘houses’, which makes poor sense (cf. PCPS 15

[1969] 48f.). For Murray's deletions here see 1071n.

1062

opportunity: the Chorus' term καιρός (for its range of meanings in tragedy see Barrett, Hipp. p. 231, W. Race, TAPA 111 [1981] 197ff.) brings with it the notion of ‘right time’ (note νῦν below) and thus prepares for the circumstances of Ion's narrow escape; just as the timing of events rescued him when he was a baby (cf. 41ff.), so too will it frustrate Kr.'s misguided

1063

plan. just recently:

for νῦν

uncertain here. Badham's

1064-5

with

imperf.

cf. Hec.

1144. The text is very

dı, ‘for which‘, seems right, but ἐφαίνετ᾽ is a

bold change and gives less forceful sense than ἐφέρβετ᾽, ‘was fostered', (for the error cf. the variant papyrus readings ebepßov/edepov in Hyps. fr. 60. 12 Bond). The Chorus’ stress on hope picks up Kr.'s desperate cry: ‘my hopes are gone’ in 866. sword...noose: the Chorus imagine Kr.'s desperate reaction to failure in conventionally heroic terms; cf. Tro. 1012f., Hel. 353ff., Andr. 811ff., Or. 1035ff. >> A. Katsouris, Dioniso 47 (1976) Sff. throat: the use of the word λαιμῶν picks up Kr.'s λαιμόν in 1037 and neatly underlines her suicide as a reaction to failure of the plot. For around

her neck, emphasising pleonasm, cf. Tro. 99, 768n. Text: for Scaliger's 1066

1067

easy correction of Ms. δαίμων 'fate' cf. errors in Ba. 993/1014. woe upon woe: the polyptoton (cf. 381n.) is typical of emotional utterances of this kind meant to excite sympathy; cf. Hel. 173, Supp. 598. another form of life: a grandly euphemistic reference to death by suicide. Commentators refer to the similarly worded Med. 1039, but there Medea is being deliberately ambiguous in front of her children; Iphigenia's words in IA 1507ff. are a closer parallel.

1069-73 The antistrophe is concluded with grounds for the suicide which repeat (cf. 1058ff.) the contrast between the apparently interloping foreigner and the noble stock to which Kr. belongs. In the Greek word-order house is at the head of the sentence and is further emphasised by the particle ye. Text: the word ὄμμασι, ‘with her eyes’, is intrusive and can be explained as an inept gloss on the rays of the sun. Its deletion requires similar reduction in the strophe, hence Murray's excision of ἄλλων dt’ there. 1074-89 Having expressed the consequences of failure for Kr., the Chorus return to the opening and invoke, now implicitly, divine support by pointing to the sacrilege of having a stranger witness the sacred Mysteries of Eleusis.

COMMENTARY

277

1074

much-hymned god: Iacchos, Ant. 1146ff., fr. 959. He was day of the month Boedromion only here in tragedy, cf. Hom.

1075

Kallichoros: the best known of Eleusis' sacred springs, where

identified with Dionysus also in Ba. 725, S. the son of Zeus and Kore and the twentieth (see below) bore his name. For the epithet, h. Dionysus 7.

Demeter

was said to have rested during her search for Persephone, was the site of

dancing by maidens. Cf. N. J. Richardson, Hom. h. Demeter, pp. 326-8. 1076

twentieth day: the Eleusinia were celebrated from the 15th to the 23rd of the month Boedromion; on the 20th, the most sacred day of the festival, a

torch-lit procession, in which a statue of Iacchos was carried, made its way from Athens to Eleusis. >> H. W. Parke, Festivals of the Athenians (London, 1977) 59ff. The introduction of Dionysus-Iacchos here takes up the god's association with the prayer of 714ff. 1077 sleepless...all night: the fact that the ceremony is held through the night adds to its air of mystery and stresses the outsider's improper involvement. His identification is left until the climactic position at the end of the strophe. Text: the corresponding line is best taken as a resolved iambic dimeter; similar scansıon here requires emendation, hence Diggle's hesitant acceptance of Hartung's complicated transposition. >> Studies 111. 1078-84 starry ether...moon...fifty daughters: the solemnity of the occasion and

the consequent horror at Ion's intrusion is intensifed by the idea that the elements themselves are moved to share in the ritual: the dancing in the heavenly sphere (for which cf. El. 467, Diggle on Pha. 66) is matched by the choral participation of the Nereids (for whom

1085

see West on Hesiod, Th.

240-64) representing water in all its forms. For similar sympathy on of nature cf. 5. Ant. 1146ff., Ba. 726f., IT 1242ff. starry: chiefly ornamental (cf. 870), but the adj. may also link the with the torch-lit night below. Text: the sense is clear enough, but the metre is unsatisfactory strophe and antistrophe. golden-crowned: an epithet not found elsewhere of Persephone, with appropriately sacral associations; it is used of Aphrodite in Aphrodite 6. 1, of Hebe in Hesiod, Th. 17.

the part heavens in both but one Hom. h.

1087-89 Borthwick's idea (B/CS 37 [1990] 61f.), that the Chorus picture Ion as a

drone aspiring to rob the rich Attic hive of its honey, seems to me farfetched and lacking connection with the other image-clusters in the play. preying upon: the Chorus describe Ion's hostile intent with the verb ἐσπίπτω (cf. Pho. 1469), which Ion had himself used in 591 of his disadvantaged arrival in the city. vagabond: effectively placed last to produce contemptuous emphasis and to underline the contrast with rule in 1087 and with the closing words of the preceding strophe/antistrophe.

278 1090ff.

1095

COMMENTARY The Chorus are encouraged by X.'s infidelity to reject the stories in circulation about women as the lascivious, sexually intemperate gender: cf. the similar reaction of the Chorus to Jason's infidelity in Med. 410ff. The stories of Eriphyle, Clytemnestra, Phaedra and Stheneboea were well known as were the misogynistic views of poets like Semonides and Archilochus. breeding, lit. 'ploughing': for the sense of ἄροτον, here not 'breed, race’, cf. Tro. 135, Pho. 18 and the marriage formula: 'I give you this woman for the

ploughing, ἐπ᾿ dpóTox, of legitimate children' (cf. Men. Peir. 1014). 1096

recoil: the παλίμφαμος doLdd is not merely a ‘recantation’ (so LSJ) nor even a song of praise for women (cf. Med. 418f.); the Chorus call more aggresively for a song attacking men.

1099-1100 Tdescendant of Zeus' childrent: X. who is the son of Aiolos, the son of

1105

Zeus (cf. 63). But reference to Zeus' progeny and forgetfulness brings Apollo to mind as well. If, as Owen rightly says, X. is condemned as unworthy of his ancestry, there is a similar, veiled attack on the god also. Text: corruption here and in the foregoing words is indicated by the defective metre. bastard: the contemptuous, closing reference to Ion echoes the ending of the strophe. Note that there he was coupled with Phoebus, supposedly his foster-father, here with his putative natural father X.

FOURTH EPISODE: 1106-228 1. Action

A Servant, in the role of the Euripidean messenger, enters and breathlessly asks after Kr.'s whereabouts. Eventually he reveals that the plot against Ion's life has been discovered and is then asked by the Chorus for all the details. In a speech of some 100 lines he tells of the preparations for Ion's farewell banquet, of the banquet itself and of the Old Man's attempt to poison Ion. He concludes with the news that Kr. has been condemned to die and is now being sought by Ion and his assistants. The episode ends abruptly with the Servant's exit. 2. Structure: i. Introduction: 1106-21 ii. Messenger's speech: 1122-228 a) Time-setting: 1122-32; b) The tent 1) construction: 1132-40, ii): decoration and

furnishing 1141-66: C) the banquet and attempt on Ion's life: 1166-208; d) apprehension and questioning of the Old Man: 1208-16; €) accusation, condemnation and pursuit of Kr.: 1217-28

COMMENTARY

279

3. Form The messenger's speech is a recurrent feature of Euripidean dramaturgy; all the plays except 7ro. have one. Their function is to report some critical, often violent action

which for aesthetic or practical reasons could not be performed before the audience and thus they broaden the scope of the dramatic landscape. Naturally, messengers' speeches owed much to epic: the use of direct speech, the structure of the narrative and even linguistic and stylistic features point to the genesis of this dramatıc element. Eur.'s command of language and skilful narrative technique are readily seen in this example which establishes the festive mood of the banquet, and then conveys the tension associated with the foiled murder attempt and Ion's enraged reaction. The bustle and movement of this narrative is balanced by the extended passage of description (ekphrasis) concerned with the erection and decoration of the festal marquee. »» Collard, Supp. pp. 274f., de Jong, Narrative in Drama, Gen Introd. p.11. 4. Function a. Plot. This episode marks a turning point in the action. The plot against Ion is carried out but meets with failure. This is remarkable, since in other plays involving a mechanema

(El., IT, Hel.) the ruse is successful and is followed by predictable

developments. Here we await an unexpected, complicating shift in direction which will take the action still further from the smooth path of Apollo's plans. b. Themes. While the principal theme of the episode is Ion's narrow escape from his mother's misguided attack several other themes are raised. The Servant's account makes it clear that Ion's escape was due to more than mere chance or natural means; the boy's own nature cooperates with the divine protection he enjoys. The erection

and decoration of the tent help to characterize Ion and put into a larger, cosmic context his departure to a new life in Athens. The site of X.'s sacrifices is connected with Dionysus, a deity whose importance to Ion's future is stressed repeatedly. 1106 While Owen is right that the Servant enters abruptly, the bearer of some news is certainly not unexpected, since the opening strophic pair of the stasimon focused on the plot and the possibility of failure. The Servant will give his news to the Chorus alone; this is unusual, but cf. HF 910ff., Ba. 1024ff. and see Hose, Studien II, 62f. Text: the Ms. form of renowned must go with women, which is not a possible way for the Servant to address

fellow-slaves. The emendation postulates an easy assimilative error; that the

1106-8

Servant should stress Kr.'s station as he is about to tell of her ruin is appropriate. where...find her: the messenger often enters to ask the whereabouts of the most interested person who then either appears or, if already present, confronts him (cf. Hipp. 1153ff., Hec. 484ff., IT 1284ff.—where the partisan Chorus try to side-track him). Here, the question is dropped because it is overshadowed by the involvement of the Chorus themselves (cf. 1113ff.). When Kr. enters in 1250 she is familiar with the news; we

280

COMMENTARY must assume that she had other informants or that the Servant reached her during the intervening choral interlude. Text: the verb ἐξέπλησα lit. 'I filled, completed’, trans. I went up and down, lacks an object; the

assumption of a lacuna allows for an object like Diggle's suggested runnings turning hither and thither". 1110

1111-8

fellow-slave: this form of address by the Chorus makes the Servant's sympathies clear at the outset. 980 shows that Kr. came to Delphi with attendants other than the Chorus. It is a structural feature of the messenger's speech that it is preceded by a brief dialogue conveying the essence of the news; cf. Collard, Supp. p. 275. Here, the Servant reveals that the plot has been discovered, but it is not

made quite clear, despite the hint in 1118, whether Ion has escaped with his

1112

life. This allows for the tension to be maintained during the course of the narrative. >> Hartigan 82. stoning: an exceptional form of execution which stresses that the crime (here sacrilege against Apollo's servant) has defiled the community which thus takes collective retribution. >> Fraenkel on A. Ag. 1616, Dodds on Ba. 356, Willink on Or. 50, Parker 194ff. The Servant repeats the sentence of stoning in 1222 and the Chorus echo his words in 1237, but in 1266ff. Ion

speaks of Kr. being thrown from a cliff. Owen suggests that the action contemplated by Ion would either follow or precede the formal execution

1113

1115

1117

1118

(cf. Burnett, Jon 104). But Ion's words may be simply an expression of his rage as he imagines an end which will most disfigure his would-be murderess. what will you say?: a formulaic response in Eur. expressive of agitation at what one has just heard (cf. Barrett on Hipp. 353). I hope: for οὔτι Tou hoping for a negative reply see Willink on Or. 1510. share: how does the Servant know that the Chorus is implicated? He must have inferred that their close association with Kr. made them privy to the plot which they then concealed. Text: pace Biehl (Philologus 25), this somewhat oracular statement puts an unwanted moral judgement into the Servant's mouth, and is likely to have been interpolated as an object for exposed which in fact governs designs understood from 1116.

polluted: the gods can be affected by pollution; cf. Hipp. 1437ff. and see Parker 143. Note that the Servant simply guesses that divinity saved Ion, an intuition we are encouraged to share and confirmed by Athena in 1563ff.

1119-21 I beg you...: this is not a good time for a long speech and it is, WinningtonIngram says, ‘lamely (or humorously) justified in terms of feminine curiosity’ (Arethusa 140). The Chorus’ plea for information is certainly artificial, both in content and form, but is partially justified by their quite

COMMENTARY

281

unusual involvement. The closing words are added simply as a formal 1122

antithesis rather than any real hope for escape. When: the majority of Eur.'s messengers' speeches begin with a timemarker (Cf. A. Rijksbaron, Essays Kamerbeek ed. J. M. Bremer et al. (Amsterdam,

1125-7

1976)

293ff.); here we return not to the action before the

preceding stasimon, but well before that, to the exit of Ion and X. in 675. Xouthos: Owen comments on the awkwardness of the name after his

description as Kreousa's husband. The name is introduced for emphasis and as a focus for the μέν to be answered by δέ going with veavias, 'young man', in 1132. where...leaps: X. intended to sacrifice in the area described in 714ff. (see n.), where the same verb 1mödw is used of the movement of the torches by the god and his devotees. double crags: a reference to the famed double peak of Parnassus; cf. 86n.,

S. Ant. 1126, Ovid, Met. 2. 221, Lucan 3. 173. birth-offerings, lit. ‘gifts at seeing’: these were properly offerings given by friends to the child when first seen on the fifth day after its birth (cf. Callim.

Hymn to Artemis 74); the Servant means it more generally of sacrificial rituals connected with a birth. In fact, the term suits X.'s sacrifice, because

though he thinks he is Ion's father, he is in fact an outsider who has just 1128ff.

1129

seen him for the first time. The first (cf. 1178ff., 1210ff., 1220ff.) of four passages of direct speech, a regular structural feature of messengers' speeches (cf. de Jong, Narrative App. H). The direct speech is used for variety, liveliness and shift in point of view. Further, the content is often significant in some way: here, X.'s parting words express his authorisation of the party and its arrangements and cover for his somewhat inappropriate absence (cf. 851-2n.). well-fitted tent: for the use of such temporary structures for ritual banquets cf. the likely arrangements in the Kerameikos for the distribution and consumption of meat after the sacrifices at the Panathenaia (for which cf. Parke, op. cit. 48f.), Plato, Rep. 614e, and the description and function of

the Persian King's tent(s) in Hdt. 9. 80ff. For the adj. ἀμφήρης of the 1130-2

specifications of a construction cf. HF 243. long time: X.'s absence from the banquet and the rest of the action is prepared for and explained. There are theatrical reasons for X.'s absence: his actor will be needed for the roles of the Priestess and then Athena. But, more importantly, he is unwanted, even in the narrated action, for thematic reasons. X.'s presence would dilute the effect of the murder attempt as a confrontation between Kr. and Ion which is to be developed until it reaches a climax, first in the retaliation and recognition and then in the acceptance of Apollo's dispensation. Text: for Diggle's replacement of the present with the

aorist

subjunctive

petvw

see PCPS

15

(1969)

49f.,

and

for

the

282

COMMENTARY ‘coincident’ aorist participle θύσας see Barrett on Hipp. 289-92. The form of the 3rd pers. imptve. ἔστωσαν is remarkable at this date, but protected by ἴτωσαν in /T 1480, where see Platnauer. he went: X.'s departure from the scene (and from the play) is firmly marked

by this resumption of the point made in 1125 after the intervening reported 1133

speech. solemn authority: the adv. σεμνῶς describes Ion's confident, informed manner in supervising the arrangements (the fulsome detail on the

avoidance of the glare and on dimensions in 1134ff. exemplifies this); we

1137

1138-9

have seen these tendencies from his first appearance in the play and Hermes used the adj. σεμνόβΞ of him in 56. not walls: dtolxous means that the periphery, mepiBokds, was first fixed just by struts; later, the intervening spaces (except the entrance, carefully located [1134-6]) would be filled in with tapestries (1158). square: lit. 'to form a rectangle’. Bayfield points out that this specification combined with the single dimension adds up to a square.

have been suspected because of the unwanted stress on a simple piece of arithmetic and on the oddly postponed particle ye in 1138. But the Servant is naturally pleased to have picked up some technical language, which he

faithfully reports, and the ye stresses the whole phrase μέτρημ᾽ 1140

ἔχουσαν

τοὺν μέσωι which the sophoi use for 'to have an internal area’. Those with experience of teenage children will readily understand why, having been told to invite his friends (663), Ion needs a tent large enough to

1141

accommodate all the people of Delphi. The thematic reason for the large gathering is to invest Ion's farewell from Delphi with the solemnity of a communal rather than merely private gathering and at the same time to provide a mass of witnesses for Kr.'s attempt at murder and thus increase its enormity. Ion has access to the treasuries because of the offices he holds (cf. 54f.). Owen finds it strange that the precious objects be used for a private banquet, but the point is that the use of these dedicated treasures, like the

large gathering,

attributes

official, even

ritual significance

to Ion's

departure. The Decoration and Furnishing of the Tent The roof: 1147-58; the sides: 1158-62; the entrance: 1163-65; the setting of cups:

1165-6. The Servant interrupts his report with a remarkably extended ekphrasis (cf.184-236n.), justifed by the marvels

plans for Ion's complete so here the narrative of The description of the *emple in their parodos:

(1142)

he will describe. Just as Apollo's

rescue and return have had to wait until the god was ready, his second rescue is delayed by the pictorial passing of time. tent's decoration parallels the Chorus' description of the both concern scenes of conflict with Heracles playing a part

COMMENTARY

283

in each. Zeitlin (166ff.) points out that unlike the temple, the tent is Ion's private space, decorated and used by him in a way which symbolises who he actually is and his transitional state at the very time his putative identity is being celebrated:

'situated...between birth and leave-taking, between beginnings and ends, and between

ınside and outside, the tent becomes

the theatrical site of enigmatic

reenactment and reversal’ (168f.). Goff in a careful, if over-zealous, interpretation of the ekphrasis suggests that 'the play can, as it were, be read through the tent’ (42): its

images are vehicles for the discussion of Athenian identity, autochthony and, in the labour of decipherment it requires, it reflects this Delphic play's discussion of truth and interpretation. 1143 wing-like: for the metaphor, a homely one after the Servant's technical language, cf. 122n., Tro. 751 and see Stockert on JA 120f. 1145 spoils from the Amazons: one of Heracles' labours was to do battle with the Amazons, ferocious women who lived beyond the Black Sea, and return

1146

with the girdle of their queen. The girdle, which was preserved in a temple in Mycenae (cf. HF 408ff.), was the most famous spoil. but this passage shows that other booty was won. The singular verb ἐνῆν is followed by a fem. pl. subject ὑφαί: the so-called schema Pindaricum. This is rare in spoken verse and may add a lyric

colouring to the introduction of the ekphrasis. >> Barrett, Hipp. pp. 436f., 1147ff.

1147 1148-9

Mastronarde on Pho. 349. The decoration of the roof naturally represents the sky complete with the principal heavenly bodies which mark the progression of day to night and the seasons of the year. The Servant's eye sweeps from one edge of the roof-tapestry, where Sun is about to set, through to the pole at the centre and then to the other edge with the approach of Dawn. For the concept as a whole and the traditional choice of constellations for mention cf. the description of Achilles’ shield in H. /l. 18. 483ff., El. 464ff. Eur.'s interest in meteorology is noted in the second hypothesis to the Rhesus. stars: here used in the most general sense of 'heavenly bodies’, including the sun, moon and planets. was driving: the verb ἤλαυνε, like all the other verbs in this description, is in the imperfect tense. This is a regular feature of Greek epic ekphrasis; cf. the Homeric description of the activities depicted on the shield of Achilles, loc. cit. The Chorus had used the more vivid and dramatic present tense for its description of the action depicted in the temple reliefs (190ff.).

horses: for the 1138, El. 466; head; cf. Diggle Hesperus: the

sun-god's the sun's on Pha. evening

chariot cf. Hom. h. Hermes 68f., Med. 1321f., IT radiance emanates from a disc on the sun-god's 2, 173. star, only later identified with the morning star

Phosphoros; for its especial brilliance cf. H. //. 22. 318, Pind. /sth. 3. 42.

COMMENTARY

284 1150

Night: for the personification of night cf. El. 54, Or. 176 and see LIMC s.v. astra A. Nyx b); for her dress cf. Aristoph. Frogs 1337. Night's chariot is not as impressive as the Sun's and is drawn only by the horses under the yoke; cf. Andromeda fr. 114, Virgil, Aen. 5. 114; her entourage of stars (cf.

1152

Theoc. 2. 166) here introduces the description of the constellations. Pleiades: a group of seven stars (cf. Or. 1005, /A 7), part of the constellation Taurus, here for the first time called by the collective sing. (cf.

[Willink on] Or. 1005) which was frequent later. Conspicuous because of their grouping, these stars were used by various peoples to mark the passage of time and the seasons (cf. D. Dicks, Early Greek Astronomy to Aristotle [London,

1970] 36) for both farmers (cf. Hesiod, W&D

383) and

sailors (cf. H. Od. 5. 271ff., Hesiod, W&D 619ff.). 1153

Orion: the giant hunter, son of Poseidon (cf. Hesiod fr.148a), from whose

dogs the Pleiades are in continual flight; for their pairing cf. Hel. 1489ff., Hesiod, W&D 619. Orion traditionally carries a club (cf. H. Od. 11. 572ff., Aratus, Phaen. 638ff.); for his sword cf. Aratus, Phaen. 588, Ovid, Met. 8.

1154

1156

207. Bear: the constellation Ursa Major, also called the Waggon, whose turning tail was a characteristic feature; cf. H. /l. 18. 487, S. Tr. 130f., Ovid, Met. 10. 446f. The tail is described as golden because of the stars which compose it and because of the colour of the tapestry threads representing it. mid-month: for the description of the full moon cf. Bacch. 9. 27ff. The

personification of the moon rests on the metaphorical use of the verb ἠκόντιζε, lit.'hurled javelins', which reflects the image of Orion the hunter.

Hyades:

stars making up the head of Taurus, whose morning setting

marked the onset of the stormy season in November and the closure of the seas; cf. Aratus, Phaen. 169 and the implication of Hesiod, W&D 619ff. The mention of the Hyades on their own as a weather sign seems to be an innovation of Eur.; cf. O. Wenskus, Astronomische Zeitangaben von Homer bis Theophrast (Stuttgart, 1990) 48, 76. The Hyades vary in number: in Hesiod fr. 291 MW they are five; in Erec. fr. 370.107K (see Cropp SFP I. 194) they seem to be the three catasterised daughters of Erechtheus; their

1158

mention here would then link with 277f. Dawn...flight: this image of Dawn, complementary to that of the fleeing stars in Ion's monody 84 above, forms a ring with 1151 in closing the section dealing with the stars.

1158-62 The representation of the predictable, peaceful order of the cosmos is followed by the scenes of conflict on the tent's sides. These tapestries also come from barbarian territory (like those in Aristoph. Frogs 938), probably thought of as the Persian near-east. The picture of barbarians engaged with Greeks in naval conflict could not fail, despite the anachronism, to suggest the battles of Lade, Salamis and the encounters between the Persian and

COMMENTARY

285

allied fleets after the foundation of the Delian League.

For monstrous

beings like centaurs as a theme for artistic representation cf. the southern

1163-5

1165

1166

1169ff.

metopes of the Parthenon and the western pediment of the Zeus temple at Olympia; for hunting cf. [Hesiod] Shield 302ff.; At the entrance: a prominent position is given to the statue (this rather than tapestry is suggested by the verb ἔστησε, ‘positioned’, in 1166) of Kekrops, whose snakey tail recalls the autochthonous origins of Ion's future city (cf. Aristoph. Wasps 438, Eupolis fr. 156). The daughters are mentioned (cf. 21ff., 271 ff.) because they opposed the god's intentions, just as, it seems, Kr. is doing now. For such representations of Kekrops cf. 271n. golden: the bowls used for this significant celebration are naturally special (see also 1175, 1182). But they will be used to carry the deadly drink and thus bring into a darker context the golden pitchers from which Ion drew water to clean the temple at 146 and 434-5. standing tall: as Owen says, this 15 to give the herald (and his message) an air of importance. His business-like and formal demeanour sets the tone of the proceedings and will emphasize the seemingly ineffectual fussing of the doddery Old Man. The order of proceedings here seem to reflect those at an Attic symposium: the meal (at which no wine was drunk) was followed by hand-washing and perfuming of the room (1174f.). Undiluted wine was then drunk (for this

the small cups mentioned in 1175 and 1179 were used) before the singing of the paian to the accompaniment of flutes (cf. 1177, A. Ag. 245). This

ceremony

1176

ushered

in the symposium

proper which was preceded by

libations of wine that had been mixed with water in a common bowl. >> Bury on Plato, Smp. 176a. The Old Man follows Kr.'s instructions in 1031f. precisely. Owen finds it strange that he should be so prominent at the banquet given by X. But as a very old member of the house he would naturally be given a key role by X. with whom his relations are not uncordial (cf. 811f.). Of course, the Old Man would not have waited on all the guests; he confines his attention to those who would share Ion's mixing-bow! (such a large party required several—cf. 1165f.). His laughable behaviour inevitably suggests the halting ministrations of Hephaestus in H. /l. 1. 599ff. But the humour of the scene foregrounds the Old Man's dire purpose and his careful management of the death plot. Text: two syllables are lacking at the beginning of 1171; a noun going with middle, e.g. Diggle's ‘of the enclosure’ or a word going with appetites in 1170, e.g. Reiske's ‘for the feast’ (with which cf. the Homeric formula in e.g. /l. 1. 469), is more likely than Fix's 'straightway’. The Old Man's officiousness, made possible by his seniority, expresses the clever way in which he disguises his chief object, to take control of Ion's drink.

286 1178ff.

COMMENTARY The order to remove the smaller cups from the group including Ion (οἵδε in 1180) enables the Old Man to keep Ion's cup separate and in his hands; this important aspect of the murder plot, disguised as serving the interests of

good cheer, is given the prominence of direct speech. For the call for larger cups cf. Alcibiades' demand in Plato, Smp. 213e.

1182-7

took a special cup...knew this: the Servant makes it explicit that this is information

acquired

after the event,

known

to both the internal and

external audience, but not to the participants at the time; this adds to the

1188

tension of the narrative. His use of relies on rumour (he had heard the but is intended to distance himself Jong, Narrative 15, 5Of. shown up: the participle πεφηνότι

they say in 1185 is not to show that he Old Man's confession reported in 1215), from the assertions of Kr.'s guilt. >> de conveys a sneer (cf. the Old Man's use

of the same verb in 978). De Jong points out (op. cit. 102) that the Servant's

1190ff.

1192f.

continually varied terms for Ion, whom he never names, reflects his own feelings and his attempt to influence those of his hearers. παιδί is a dative of interest loosely connected to uttered. with the others: this stresses ironically that just as he is on the point of tasting the fatal drink Ion is convivially engaged with well-wishers. Eur. artfully paces the revelation of the plot by dividing Ion's suspicion that something was wrong from his discovery that the poison was not in the mixing-bowl, but was meant for him alone. reared...seers: Ion's knowledge of and sensitivity to the demands of protocol, here explained, have been seen already in the play; cf. 96ff., 222, 226ff. noble: for the social standing of the Delphic officials cf. 369n., 416. At a regular libation part of the wine was drunk and part poured into the earth. But the ill-omened word causes Ion to abort the libation and so the entire drink (note the prefix in ἐκσπένδειν) is poured out. His authority asserts itself again (cf. 1133n.) in his order to the guests.

to the god: three libations were made: to Zeus Olympios and the Olympian gods; to the Heroes; to Zeus Soter (cf. Schol. Plato Phileb. 66d). Owen

1194 1195

thinks that the sing. god suggests that the last one is meant; but delay would endanger the plot (Ion must be given the poisoned wine as soon as possible); the sing. may be used loosely for Zeus Olympios standing for all the Olympians as a group. For the significant silence at a critical moment cf. S. OC 1623, HF 930, Ba. 1084. Bibline: for this wine from an unidentified place in Thrace, a region known for the strength and fragrance of its wines (cf. Pliny NH 14. 53), cf. West on Hesiod, W&D 589.

COMMENTARY 1196ff.

287

The episode with the doves is notable for its cinematic technique: we begin with the general picture of the birds swooping in and drinking enthusiastically; in 1201-2 the others' continued enjoyment is set off against the fate of the one whose convulsions attract the crowd. In the final scene

we ‘zoom’ in on a dead bird's most conspicuous feature: its upturned legs. 1197-8

flock: the word κῶμοβ, suggested here by the birds’ interruption to the feasting, compares them to a band of revellers. The detail on the birds’ : untroubled visits to the temple (cf. Diodorus Siculus 16. 27. 2) explains the need for Ion's activity in the opening scene (154ff.) and shows how little

1200

1204

1205

action lay behind the threatening words he used there. drew...throats: the drinking of the birds is described in words reminiscent of Kr.'s picture of Ion swallowing the poison in 1037. pretty feathered: the adj., repeated in 1203, is not merely ornamental, but also offsets the deadly effects of the poison on the bird’s colourful body. in...convulsion, lit. ‘acted in bacchic frenzy': the verb, used of Heracles’ madness in HF 966, is chosen here because adulterated wine is the cause of the bird's spasms. Given that the bird's condition arises from Kr.'s attempt on Ion's life, the word may bring with it the associations bacchic frenzy had with the sacrifice of children; cf. R. Seaford, TAPA 119 (1989) 94f. impossible to interpret: normally, the cries of birds were a source of

understanding (cf. 180f.). Here the unintelligibility is itself a bad omen (cf. Teiresias' misgivings in S. Ant.

1001f.) sensed by the alert Ion (cf. 1190f.

and the overtones of pavteutos,

1209

1210

1214

lit. 'oracled',

in

1209).

For the bird's

remarkable intervention cf. Aelian's story (On Animals 17. 37) of an eagle spilling the poisoned drink of the man who had saved it from a snake. astounded: the dumbstruck reaction of the party as a whole offsets the energetic activity of the perspicacious young man. Text: though easily emended, the Ms. unaugmented aorist is tempting. Page on Med. 1141 has the facts on this epicising tendency in messengers' speeches. The epic form after a strong sense-break and at a marked shift in focus from the bird's fate to the response of the party may have a deliberate heightening effect. flung: the verb ἵημι is expressive of energy (cf. El.799) and aggression. This is the first overtly aggressive action in the play: Ion's threatening of the birds was mere form, as was his threat to X.; X.'s behaviour towards Ion was misinterpreted as aggressive. Ion's action keeps the table between him and the Old Man as a sign of his superiority; on the other hand, the table affords the servant no protection. Who is the person: Ion naturally assumes that the Old Man is an agent; as a slave he cannot act otherwise. For the direct speech marking a high point in the narrative cf. Pentheus to Agave in Ba. 1118ff. in the act: used somewhat loosely, since the deed has been long done, but

finding the poison on the Old Man's person would justify the term. Text:

288

COMMENTARY the participle ἔχονθ᾽

understood

1215-6

from

badly

what

needs

precedes.

an

object

Emendation

which

can

would

scarcely

remove

be

words

necessary to the sense, hence a lacuna including a word for the poison and its attributes is likely. compulsion: possibly by torture, which was a permissible, if rarely used (cf. M.

Gagarin,

CP

91

[1996]

Iff.), procedure

in the interrogation

of

slaves. Cf. Oedipus’ threats in OT 1152ff. The lines concluding the report of the murder attempt echo the key words ὠφθηϊμμηχανήματα ‘found

out/designs' of the Chorus’ question in 1116.

1218 1220-1

1223

1225

1227-8

Kreousa's...drink: a neatly chiastic line with expressive hendiadys that gives weight to the name extracted from the Old Man. Loxias' young man: the same unconscious double entendre as in 311. The essence of Ion's charge is reported (cf. the report of Orestes' defence in Or. 932ff.): he begins with an outraged appeal to the land represented by its authorities; given Delphi's central position (cf. 5f., 222f.), the word yata involves the idea of earth as universal witness (cf. Jason's rebuke to Medea in Med. 1327). foreign woman: Ion, Athenian that he soon will be, speaks from the viewpoint of the Delphic authorities, but the term is included chiefly for the sake of the irony and to hark back, shortly before the recognition, to the opening encounter between mother and son (cf. 339, 429, 247, 238n.). on the point of death: Ion uses the graphic present θνήισκομεν to emphasize his narrow escape. not by a single vote: litotes for 'by a large majority'; cf. A. Seven 103. Reiske's év, 'with a unanimous vote', is tempting; cf. Aristoph. Lys. 270, A. Supp. 9421. whole city: this stresses the outrage which Kr.'s crime has caused and is linked with the execution by stoning (cf. 1112n.) to which she is condemned. The contrast of πᾶσα, ‘whole’, with the foregoing μιᾶι, 'single', is a typical emphasising device; cf. HF 1392f., JA 1127, (Stevens on) And. 1116. Reference to the pursuit of Kr. resumes the opening topic (cf. 1111f.) and prepares for her hasty, unannounced entrance. Commentators have found these lines weak and have been inclined to delete them. But messengers' speeches regularly end with a concluding evaluation, general or specific (see de Jong, Narrative App. E). Furthermore, the lines seem to me a neat expression of the seemingly utter

ruin into which Kr. has fallen, and are thus a succinct preparation for the peripeteia which will restore to her both life and child from the hands of

Apollo. The irony is untranslatable: on the surface παρὰ

Φοίβου refers

simply to Kr.'s reason(s) for consulting the oracle (cf. 67); but the phrase can go with 1228 as well and refer to Apollo's possession of her person and the loss of her child 'from Apollo’.

COMMENTARY

289

The Servant's abrupt exit is an attempt to recapture the realism of his hasty entrance (cf. 1109f.)

CHORAL INTERLUDE: 1229-49 This brief astrophic song, rounded off by recitative anapaests (1244-9), functions primarily as a transition from the restrained exposition of the Servant's speech to the intense emotion after the entry of Kr. pursued by her son. The Chorus is shown distraught and despairingly anxious for their own safety. Their gloom prepares for the tone of the following scene, but also acts as a foil to the delayed happy end. Similar short interludes leading to the play's climax are found in Hec. 1023ff., Ba.

1153ff., Hipp.

1268ff. But in this case much of dramatic weight remains: Ion's

frustrated attack on Kr., the recognition, and the final resolution aided by the appearance of a deity. Metre: chiefly aeolic, with a preponderance of glyconics and pherecrateans; the inclusion of ionics in 1240-1 adds variety and possibly a sense of urgency. The anapaests of 1244-9 prepare for the excited entrance of Kr.; cf. the trimeters announcing Agave's entrance after the lyric interlude in Ba. 1165ff. 1229-30 The Chorus' first and last (1249) thoughts are for themselves, not for their

mistress. This self-absorption takes up the Servant's opening in 1115, and underlines the unusual complicity of the Chorus. There is not, there is not: repetition of words is a feature of this brief song

which as a whole comprises the repeated expression of three ideas: no 1232-4

escape; exposure of the plot; pain of execution. the clusters of Dionysus: the introduction of the god's name, as a metonym for the grape, points again to his thematic importance in the play (cf. 716ff.n.) and links with the verb éBákxevcev in 1204 of the bird's dying convulsions. darting: lit. 'speedy', the adj. combines the idea of the Gorgon's reptilian movements with the quick-acting effect of its poisonous blood. Text: the Ms. accus. σπονδὰς....μειγνυμένας is without construction, the modal dat. φόνωι difficult, and the anacreontic in 1233 surprising. But Page's nom., ' the libation...mixed with', in explanatory apposition to τάδ᾽, removes the chief difficulty.

1235

1236

Clear: the repetition of the word used in 1231 suggests that the punishment is as definite as the exposure of the plot. offerings: so sure are they of death that the Chorus refer to themselves as sacrificial victims after slaughter and roasting, θύματα; cf. HF 453. catastrophe: Owen thinks that συμφοραί 'seems flat as applied to almost inevitable death'. But the word can carry a very strong reference; cf. Ba. 1154f., IT 549.

290

COMMENTARY

1238-43 What escape...ship: for the internal accus. φυγάν see Dodds on Ba. 7-8. The futile wish for escape is couched in terms of a polarity, each limb of which ıs impossible (cf. HF 1157f., Hec. 1099ff., Pha. 270ff. and, for the first limb, Kr.'s wish in 796). The Chorus' desperation is stressed in this

case by the addition of two further, more realistic alternatives. For the

whole complex cf. Med. 1122f./1296f. 1239

dark bowels of the earth: the imagined place of refuge echoes ironically the repeated evocation of the cave (cf. 502f., 892, 936f.) in which Kr. experienced such fear and grief. Text: the accus. with ὑπό is more natural,

but for the gen. Owen compares Hesiod, Th. 717f. 1240 1241-2

1243 1244-5

1246

disfigurement: for the sense of ἄταν cf. 17 226, Tro. 535, (Willink on) Or. 962. chariot...steeds: the construction is very condensed, with the gen. χαλᾶν defining τεθρίππων in its basic meaning of ‘team of four". stern: ships were moored stern to shore so this would be the natural place for a hasty embarkation. The Chorus add as an unlikely climax an Homeric form of rescue at the hands of a god (cf. Aphrodite's rescue of Paris in /l. 3. 380ff.). This ironically prepares for the actual rescue of Kr. engineered by Apollo, partly through his altar, partly through his agent, the Priestess. Text: Ms. Aaßeiv, ‘grab, hold’, is defended by Neitzel, Hermes 117 (1989) 354ff., but it requires the awkward supplying of a subject and an object and is too precise an anticipation of what follows.

O wretched mistress: this address to the absent Kr. prepares for her unannounced and hasty entrance soon after. For this technique cf. Halleran, Stagecraft 43ff. Text: Neitzel (loc. cit.) defends the paradosis in 1246 and reads δέσποιν᾽

1248

ἀμελεῖ, 'why is he (Apollo) not concerned...'. But such an

indictment of the god when the stress is on punishment arising from admitted fault is misplaced. For the slip μελεῖ for μενεῖ cf. the errors in 162, 1504. those nearby: more irony not only in respect of the planned murder but

also in anticipation of the following scene. The Chorus use the term τοὺς πέλας

to mean simply ‘people with whom we have dealings' (cf. HF 730,

Med. 86); the audience will apply the term to a closer relationship as in Hel. 1249

915. suffer:

the Chorus'

word

πεισόμεθ᾽

stands in a reciprocal relation to

δρᾶσαι, to do, as in 342/3, HF 727f., and expresses the notion of justice formulated in A. Cho. 313 δράσαντι ‚which see Fraenkel on A. Ag. 533. CLOSING SEQUENCE: 1250-1622 Ion and Kreousa 1250-1319 a)

b)

Jon and the Priestess 1320-68

παθεῖν, ‘suffering for the doer’, for

COMMENTARY c)

Ion and Kreousa

d)

Ion, Kreousa and Athena

291

1369-1548 1549-1622

The closing movements of the play are filled with tense and varied activity. The long-awaited recognition takes place, ironically preceded by a bitter exchange

between mother and son, and an affectionate, parting dialogue between Ion and his foster mother, the Delphic Pr(iestess). Her unexpected entry has the immediate effect of turning Ion's thoughts away from the evil Kr: to his infancy and his apparently absent mother. It is only after she leaves that her role as intermediary between mother and son is fully realized. The joy of recognition soon follows, but there is still room for doubt about Ion's father. Athena appears to reassure Ion on this point, but like the Pr., her intervention goes beyond immediate needs. Having settled Ion's doubts, she proceeds to explain the wider implications of Apollo's actions and leads Ion away from his present concerns to an understanding of his fated destiny. a) Ion and Kreousa: 1250-1319 1. Action Kreousa enters hurriedly, pursued by Jon and his attendants, and is encouraged by

the Chorus to take refuge at the altar of Apollo. Ion follows angrily, draws attention to Kr.'s suppliant position and, after mutual recrimination, attempts to persuade her to quit the altar. She refuses and Ion turns to leave frustrated by the seemingly unjust conventions of asylum. 2. Structure

i. Opening dialogue between Kr. and Chorus 1250-60 ii. Ion's monologue and his reaction to Kr.'s asylum 1261-81 iii. Dialogue between Ion and Kr. 1282-311 iv. Ion's monologue on the rights of suppliants 1312-9 3. Form For the trochaic tetrameters at the opening of accompanying a hasty entrance are like those in 4. Function This scene has two main purposes: to bring the just before their loving reunion, the deeply felt

the scene cf. 510ff.n. The trochaics Or. 729ff. and S. OC 887ff. action to an impasse and to express, animosity between mother and son.

Ion's two long statements of condemnation, first of Kr.'s wiles (1261-81) and then of

the rules of asylum generally (1312-9), frame a fruitless and bitter stichomythta which separates the participants as much as their opening stichomythia (236ff.) reflected their affinity. They were kept apart then by their sorrow; now it is hostility arising from rage and upset which foils recognition. The distance between them is marked at the end by Kr.'s resolve not to move from the altar and Ion's turning away from his mother with resigned frustration. The scene is structured to show that the human deadlock is complete and will not be resolved without extraordinary intervention of some kind.

292 1251

COMMENTARY

overcome: for the sing. participle after the pl. verb cf. 548f. and see Bond on HF 858. betrayed: she refers to the Old Man's forced confession mentioned in

1215f. 1252

The Chorus speedily insist that they are well informed and thus obviate the

1253

need for even a summary of the facts given at some length by the Servant. house: the dwelling of one of the Delphic sponsors officially charged with

1254

Kr.'s accommodation; cf. 1039. my enemies: Kr. uses the word for a public rather than a private enemy of Ion and his men, as the Old Man did in justification of their attack on Ion;

cf. 1046f.n. 1255-6

altar...suppliant: these pointers lead us to expect a suppliant scene of the kind much favoured by Eur.; cf. the situations described in Held. 40ff., Andr. 42ff., HF 44ff. Hel. 63ff. and Supp. 32ff. But there 1s a difference here in that Ion can scarcely be treated as a thorough villain like Menelaus or Lycus, and Kr. cannot claim to be a wholly innocent victim like Andromache or the wife of Heracles. Thus the outcome is uncertain and while we may expect a recognition, it remains a puzzle as to how thıs will be reconciled with the planned reunion in Athens and with Kr.'s condemnation to death in Delphi. The urgent discussion of Kr.'s possible refuge is marked by the introduction of antilabe; cf. 530ff.n. An altar was a regular feature of a sanctuary; this one, hardly to be

identified with the great Chian altar some 13 m. to the east of the temple represented by the skene, was decorated with garlands and reliefs (cf. 1310, 1403, A. Supp. 885) and is likely to have been placed to one side of the skene door. Some argue for an altar as a permanent feature of the theatre, distinct from the altar of Dionysus in the orchestra; but this would be a distraction in plays not requiring such a property. >> Arnott, Scenic Conventions 45ff., W-1 497f., J. P. Poe, ClAnt 8 (1989) 116ff.

1257-8

not right...by the law: even at this desperate climax Eur. makes room for some rather sophistic argument. The Chorus declare that θέμις, '(divine) law’, forbids suppliant-murder; Kr. replies that νόμος, '(human) law', has condemned her; she does not see that her attack on Ion puts her outside divine law as well. bitter adversaries...with swords: Kr. sets the confrontational mood of the

coming scene well before any words or actions from Ion and his men. 1259-60 The Chorus encourage Kr. with the thought that as a suppliant she will bring pollution on her assailants if they attack her while still at the altar. This is why villains like Lycus in HF 240ff./284ff. and Menelaus in Andr.

425ff. must entice their opponents away eventually

concedes

from the altar and why Ion

defeat. >> J. Kopperschmidt

32 1ff., Gould JHS 93 (1973) 74ff., Parker 146.

in Jens, Bauformen

COMMENTARY

293

what turns out: the Chorus cannot be sure how Ion will react and attribute

the ultimate outcome to chance, τύχῃ. But they are unaware that Apollo has

1261

guided chance in the past (67f.; cf. the Pr.'s concluding words in 1368), and will, we can guess, continue to do so. bull-shaped: river-gods were often represented with bull-like features; cf. S. Tr. 508f., Or. 1378, [A 275, Aelian VH 2. 33. >> LIMC s.v. Kephisos I. Kephisos: the principal river of Athens and Kr.'s great-grandfather. On catching sight of Kr. Ion calls on the deity representing a central physical feature of his future city (cf. Med. 835 where see Page) to witness the evil of his descendant. Note the contrast with 237ff.: his very first view of Kr.'s

bearing was evidence of her noble ancestry. 1262

viper: repeatedly used of a treacherous woman; cf. And. 269ff., A. Cho. 247ff., S. Ant. 531. In going on to compare Kr. with a snake Ion links his image of her with the Gorgon and its snakes (cf. 1015).

1266-8

The interpretation of these lines is closely linked with the envisaged staging of this scene. Mastronarde, Contact 110ff. suggests, against Owen, that Ion sees Kr. from the start (his opening speech, especially the demonstrative in 1262 which suggests that a character on stage is seen [passages like Alc. 881, S. El. 540 of off-stage persons are irrelevant], points to this), but that she does not reach the altar before 1279. Thus the order given in 1266-8, which is effectively cancelled by the observation made in 1279-81, does not run counter to Ion's observance of the rules (cf.1306/07/12ff.). That Kr. does not go to the altar immediately accords with the hesitation of 1255f.

and with her ambivalent feelings towards the god (cf. Taplin, Tragedy in Action T2f.). D. Bain (CQ 29 [1979] 266ff.) deletes the lines, but they are

an appropriate

expression

of Ion's irate vigour

(cf.

1208ff.) which

foregrounds the inertia forced on him later. >> D. Bain, Masters Servants (Manchester, 1981) 35f., Diggle, Studies

and

121.

like a discus: Ion relishes the brutal associations of the image, used with horror to describe Astyanax hurled from the walls of Troy in Tro. 1121. It is possible that the agonistic language found earlier (cf. 1257) 1s taken up here and again in 1514. tear to shreds: the verb καταξαίνω is very frequent in Eur. to describe

various forms of destruction; for its use here cf. Supp. 503, Pho. 1145 and see Barrett on Hipp. 274. unsullied tresses: meant as a sarcastic description of her hair to emphasize the ruinous effect of her execution (cf. the adjs. used of the doomed bird in 1200/03); for uncut hair as a sign of elegance cf. Or. 128f., Tro. 1026. But by using the word dxnpdTous, lit. "uncut, inviolate’ (cf. S. OC 471, Hipp. 73), Ion unconsciously refers to Kr.'s rights as a suppliant.

294 1270

COMMENTARY stepmother: Ion had earlier (607ff.) viewed Kr.'s position with great sympathy, but now she is seen as a typical stepmother, object of the

suspicion and ill-will she herself assumed would arise (cf. 1025n.). 1271-2

1273-4

1275-6

1276-7

Ion finally addresses Kr., ten lines after the beginning of his speech. This piece of stagecraft recalls the antithetical scene at the beginning of the play, where Ion responds with immediate sympathy to Kr.'s troubled entrance, but for that very reason delays directly addressing her (at 244). Now Ion does not speak to her because of his rage at her true colours, which, fortunately, were exposed on friendly ground. Ion's picture here of the scheming Kr. at home contrasts with that of the justly resentful wife in 607ff. His presumption of what Kr. might have done in Athens is worded to resemble her thoughts of what she had done to him there as a baby; cf. 953, 1496. A piece of bravado on Ion's part meant to deter Kr. from the action she goes on to take; cf. his similarly worded threat to Apollo's bird, the swan, in 164f. Once it is clear that Kr. is determined not to forsake the refuge of the altar Ion modifies his threats. Such an interpretation of Ion's words and the accompanying action (cf. 1266-8n.) meets Diggle's objection (PCPS 28ff.) to the logic of the lines. Pity...mother: this, the only possible translation of the words 6 8’

OlkTos..umTpl

τὐμῆι, pace Biehl (Philologus 26), makes no sense. The

text must be a corrupt expression of a contrast between Ion's pity for his mother and the lack of any such feeling for Kr. This would be the first of a series of ironical statements which show that the ignorance enveloping

mother and son has deepened and transformed the well-founded feelings of

1277-8

affinity in their opening encounter into misguided hostility. Diggle's (loc. cit.) strictures on the language of 1276-7 do not justify the deletion of the whole passage 1275-8 which neatly expresses Ion's ironic distance from the woman he will soon lovingly embrace (cf. Matthiessen, Gnomon 56 [1984] 680). body...name: a special application of a favourite Euripidean antithesis (cf. 1100,

IT 504, Hel.

588).

Ion makes

a distinction between

his mother's

physical absence and the ever-present thought of her (this is what ὄνομα must mean,

since Ion does not know

his mother's

name);

in fact, she 1s

physically at hand, but it is precisely Ion's idée fixe of his mother that keeps

her at a distance. For the wording of the irony cf. 385, IT 62. 1279-81 Ion draws the attention of his men to the fact that Kr. has taken refuge at an altar. He sees this not as a last-minute escape-hatch suggested by the Chorus, but as part of her scheming from the outset, hence the weaving image in ἔπλεξε and the neat polyptoton at the end of 1279 which links the present ploy with the murder plot. Bain's tentative transposition (loc. cit.

COMMENTARY

295

1266-8n.) of the lines to before 1261 would destroy the emphasis on Kr.'s 1282-3

1284

series of stratagems, the first of which is mentioned in 1264f. Dialogue begins with Kr. showing that the fear she felt initially has given way to confidence arısing from her own rights and those demanded by Apollo. taken my position, lit. 'stopped': Kr. has been moving towards the altar and now finally reaches it. For the meaning of ἕσταμεν cf. JA 861, and for the action cf. El. 227, Hel. 5551. What...between you: Ion does not realize that he himself is the answer to the question and his ignorance is highlighted by the fact that the Old Man and even the Chorus know what was between Kr. and Apollo. The implication of his question is as misguided as his assertion in 433f. that the daughter of Erechtheus had nothing to do with him. The expression with the double dat., here with the pleonastic κοινὸν Ev μέσωι, becomes formulaic later; see G. R. Stanton, RAM

1285

116 (1973) 84ff.

sacred possession: for suppliants giving a deity possession of their person cf. Hdt. 2. 113. Kr.'s wording is deliberately ambiguous; she thinks not only of her present situation but also refers obliquely to Apollo's earlier

possession of her body and thus challenges the god to protect her now. Her choice of the word ἱερόν

reminds us of her crime of attempting to kill one

who was ἱερόν (1224). 1286

one belonging to the god: unconscious irony, as Ion thinks of himself as

nothing more than Apollo's minister (cf. 309/311, 1218). 1287 1288

1290

Loxias'...father's: for the irony in the false antithesis cf. 385n. The Ms. text is nonsensical and unmetrical. Kraus’ suggestion (88) is attractive: ἀλλ᾽ ἐγενόμεσθα: πατρὸς ἀπουσίαι λέγω, But I had been his; I mean in my father's absence’. Since Ion confines Apollo's ownership of himself to the time before X.'s arrival, he allows Kr. to repeat in reply the assertion of 1287 and to emphasise her own status as a contrast. Ion takes up Kr.'s division of now and then and reverts to her claim in 1285 which he denies; whatever else she may be now, she is not ἱερόν but impious. Text: West (BICS 28 [1981] 64) disallows ye with the negative

verb and suggests either δέ or εὐσεβὴ

el. But the negative is only formal;

the particle stresses the implied positive point that Kr. is sacrilegious. Kraus (88f.) argues for Dindorfs οὐκ εὐσεβής γε, but the reference of the bare nom. to Kr. is awkward. 1291

enemy: Kr.'s response is to deny in turn Jon's claim in 1286; she did not kill (the aorist amounts to a vivid admission of her intention to kill Ion; cf. 1500, S. Ajax 1126f. and Ion's use of the present in 1221) a servant of the god, but a declared enemy of her house. Her description of Ion, which

reflects ideas in 1046f. and 1254, is taken to an absurdity by him in his rejoinder.

296 1293

COMMENTARY burning down the house: this exaggeration, suggested perhaps by the Old Man's idea in 974, is meant metaphorically (cf. 527, Tro. 893), but it allows

Ion to score with literalism such as that used by X. in 542. Kraus (89) points out that in thıs dialogue Kr. focuses on the house (1291/3/5), while

Ion talks about the land (1292/6/8). 1295-1301 Nauck's transposition obviates the awkward transition from 1299 to 1300 (Kraus [91] takes 1300 as a delayed retort to 1295 made after Ion's claims to the land were shown to be groundless; Matthiessen [loc. cit.], in rejecting the transposition, does not discuss this difficulty), and provides good junctions, in particular in these lines, where the different senses of the verb μέλλω, ‘intend, delay', are manipulated to each speaker's advantage. For

similar ambiguity in the use of the word cf. Cresph. fr. 451. 1302

childless: Ion is right to see not fear but ill-will as the cause of Kr.'s evil intent, but he does not understand, as Apollo does (cf. 306), the real nature

1296

of her childlessness. acquired: for X.'s claims on property and Ion's rights of inheritance see 73n. Ion's gives emphatically opposes Kr.'s ‘snatch’.

1297

The Ms.

1298

1299

1304

τῶν seems an attempt to produce symmetry with tots

Αἰόλου,

but it produces the wrong sense and leaves αὐτήν in 1298 without reference. Diggle points to Hc/d. 140 for the ellipse, made easier by the γῆν in 1296. A seemingly gratuitous intrusion of the typical word/deed contrast; the second limb is meant simply to emphasize the first, that X. did act decisively on Athens’ behalf (cf. 61). hired ally: the word ἐπίκουρος, ‘helper, ally’, is used pejoratively by Kr. (cf. Thuc. 2. 3 and Xen. Hell. 7.1.2) in contrast with οἰκήτωρ, for the positive associations of which cf. Supp. 658. Ion cannot counter this, since he shares Kr.'s view of X.'s status; cf. 297. The Ms. text is defective and emendations (e.g. the Aldine's 'of my father's property") have sought to produce the general sense given in the translation. But this is against the run of the argument. Ion is not insisting here on his own rights arising from X.'s position (that was done in 1296); he is intent on justifying his father's claim to some share in the land. In her reply Kr. puts severe limits on X.'s rights and after that is prepared to admit Ion's assertion in 1296. Perhaps ἡμῖν δέ γ᾽ conceals an adj. or participle going with μέρος which justifies X.'s claim on the land (ἀλλά will then mean ‘at least‘), and counters Kr.'s dismissive statement in 1299.

1306

Jon's order both ends and underlines the futility of the preceding dialogue. He must concede the nghts of sanctuary Kr. claimed in 1282f. and recognize that any action on his part is dependent on her willingness to undergo punishment.

COMMENTARY 1307

1309

297

wherever she is: the irony in Kr.'s conscious meaning is obvious, stressed by the untranslatable hyperbaton, and somewhat contrived. But Kr.'s use of the word νουθέτει unconsciouly alludes to Ion's earlier advice

(voude TTEOS in 436) to his equally unknown parent, Apollo. within this sacred precinct: the term ἀδύτων, strictly referring to the

innermost part of the shrine, is used loosely by Kr. to attach special sanctity to the place of her asylum. 1310-11 What joy...grieved: Ion makes a last attempt to shift Kr. by arguing that since she must in any case die, desecration of the god's altar would be pointless (cf. the consideration that moves Megara in HF 284ff.). But Kr. counters by explaining—in an allusive way that Ion cannot understand (the sing. indefinite tiv’ refers to Apollo, but the allusive pl. ὧν following is deliberately misleading)—that she does have something to gain from so dying. This elicits from Ion an exclamation of disgusted resignation and a speech which amounts to an admission of defeat. 1312ff. Ah!: φεῦ is an exclamation often used before general reflections which can express surprised admiration or wonder (1516, El. 262, Or. 1155) or disgust, as here and in Hipp. 936. terrible thing: for δεινόν introducing a general reflection cf. And. 269, Hec. 846, IA 376. without wise judgement: for the expression ἀπὸ γνώμης cf. A. Eum. 674 and ἀπὸ τῶν μετρίων, 'beyond due measure’, in S. El. 140. Ion concludes the scene with a criticism, similar to that in fr. 1049, of the

divinely established law of suppliant immunity. In 436-51 he criticised the gods for disregarding the rules; here he questions the rules themselves. His strictures both here and there will be shown to be of limited validity: divine foresight goes beyond apparently just and rational human responses. Ion's

criticism, though mistaken, widens the issue beyond the personal quarrel to the question of divine justice with which the play ends (1619-22). This partly explains its pleonastic expression which need not be abbreviated by the deletion of 1316f. (Diggle, PCPS 30f.). Owen's emendations neatly dispose of the difficulties (cf. Matthiessen, loc. cit.).

b) Ion and the Priestess: 1320-68 l. Action The Delphic Pr. enters unexpectedly from the skene. She admonishes Ion, gives him the cradle and baby-things with which she found him and then bids him a final farewell. 2. Function a. Plot. This short scene provides the impetus for eventual recognition and peripeteia. The entrance of the Pr. prevents the separation of Ion from Kr. and is the catalyst for the eventual recognition.

298

COMMENTARY

b. Character. The chief characteristics of the Pr. are a fondness for Ion (1325, 1336, 1363), a pride in her office (1322-3) and obedience to divine will (1347, 1353, 1357,

1359). These combine to make her the ideal person to dissuade Ion from thoughts of sacrilege and to send him on his destined way to Athens and, though she is unaware

of it, to his mother. Her role—essential to the plot in that she keeps Ion and Kr. together and then gives them the means that will effect the recognition—has been compared with that of a dea ex machina (Schmid-Stählin 3. 554). For Ion this is a

transitional scene of return from self-confident vigour to the combination of emotional dependence and intellectua! uncertainty with which he began. He feels

warmly towards the Pr. (1324), but Eur. cannot afford to over-emphasise this now, since it might dilute the interest in Ion's finding his real mother.

c. Themes. The central theme is the power of the deity who controls things in the midst of human ignorance and misguided activity. Having thwarted one act of violence, Apollo prevents thoughts of a further one and now will set in motion the positive movement with which the play comes to an end. The scene is the centre of a three-part finale of divine intervention and salvation. First comes the divinely sanctioned practice of asylum which prevents violence; then an act of direct divine inspiration (the entrance of the Pr. with the basket) breaks the deadlock and provides a way out; finally deity itself (Athena) appears to guarantee mortal reconciliation

and show the blessings which lie ahead. These three stages of divine interference draw the play step by step back from dark catastrophe.

1320

The Pr., who has already been mentioned at 41-51

and 318ff., enters

unannounced and unexpected. For her intervention cf. that of Amphiaraus

in Hyps. fr. 60. 22 Bond, and Hermes in Antiope fr. 48. 67 Kambitsis. Stop: The imperative ἐπίσχες is regular in Eur. to interrupt some kind of action in progress (cf. Andr. 550, Supp. 397, Hel. 1642, Hyps. fr. 60. 22 Bond); this tells against Taplin's idea (Tragedy in Action 117) that Ion is frozen with indecision when the Pr. enters. On the other hand, the preceding speech (and Ion's command to his men in 1402 once Kr. leaves sanctuary) rules out the possibility that Ion is moving to attack Kr. at the altar (cf. Burnett, Cat. Survived 119f. and her stage direction in Jon). The alternative is that he turns to exit in frustrated disgust and is stopped by the Pr.'s order

(cf. the use of ἐπίσχες 1320-3

The

in Or. 1069, Pho. 896).

Pr.'s self-introduction

resembles

that of Athena

in

1555ff.;

she

announces where she has come from (1320-1), and, in some detail, who she

is (1322-3). The speech is partially extra-dramatic (Ion, whom

she is

addressing, certainly does not need this information); the recitation of the

Pr.'s credentials adds weight to her entrance, and the description of her almost ceremonial departure from her accustomed spot highlights the decisive action she is about to take. sill: the word Opıykös was used earlier (156, 172) of the temple's eaves; here it refers to a low wall marking off the adyton which is to be imagined

COMMENTARY

299

as visible through the skene doors. The accus. θριγκούς, an easy change,

regularizes the constr. after ὑπερβάλλω; for the pl. cf. IT 74, El. 1151. For 1324

the tripod cf. 91n. dear mother: for Ion's attitude to the Pr. cf. 321. His form of address reciprocates and elaborates the affectionate tone of ὦ παῖ in 1320, and

produces an ironic contrast with Ion's hateful words to his natural mother. 1325 1326-7

name: for this sense of φάτις cf. A. fr. 6. 3. Did you hear...I did: Ion's first word is repeated as the Pr.'s first word. At 1333-4 and 1337-8 the Pr.'s first word is repeated as Ion's first word. This stylistic mannerism establishes a kind of linguistic empathy between the Pr. and Ion. 1327 harsh: the Pr. recognizes in Ion the same feelings which prompted her to get rid of him when a baby; cf. 46. 1328 Ought I not...: [on's response to the Pr.'s criticism takes the form of a general reflection which mitigates his own responsibility. 1329-30 wives...hands: the Pr. replies with a further generalisation (cf. 1025) which is an echo of Ion's former sympathy with Kr.'s position (cf. 607ff.). Ion's rejoinder ironically stresses the stepmother theme just before the truth is revealed. 1331 No more of that!: for the expression μὴ ταῦτα cf. the colloquial ταῦτα voicing assent to a command or request (Stevens, Coll. Exp. 30). The Pr., with maternal assurance, guides Ion away from argument to consideration of what lies ahead. Hıs verbal dexterity wıll score one more point before the

Pr. finally concludes the discussion in 1335. 1332

your advice: having attempted to advise his unrecognised mother (1307), Ion must now take advice from his surrogate mother.

1333

without stain: a polluted person would be shunned in Athens; cf. the

1334

Chorus’ anxious questions to Medea in Med. 846ff. enemies: like Kr. at 1291 Ion uses the word for public rather than private

enemies and appeals to the belief that blood shed in battle is not polluting; 1335

1336

cf. Plato, Laws 869d. Don't you!: the Pr. brings thoughts of retaliatory action to an abrupt halt and turns instead to the words she has to offer. She admonishes Ion with the same phrase he used to Apollo in 439. Please tell me: he welcomes her words as he did Kr.'s in 335, but now Kr., in contrast with the Pr., appears to be ill-disposed to him (1272, cf. 1329) and so he will silence her in 1396.

1337

in my arms: the use of the word ἀγκάλαι

links the Pr.'s attitude to the

1338

cradle with that appropriate to the baby itself, cf. 280, 761, 962 and 1375. age-old: this prepares for the miraculously preserved condition of the crib and its contents.

300

1339 1342

COMMENTARY sacred ribbons: as Owen suggests, these marked the crib as belonging to the temple; but beyond this, the stemmata, brought to our attention again in 1389, symbolically link the crib with Ion and those dear to him: cf. 224, 522, 1310. new-born babe: the same term was used of Ion by Apollo in 31. at the time: this takes up the Pr.'s now, but the contrast is expressed in πάλαι, ‘long ago’, and τότε, ‘at the time’, seems an unnecessary change for τόδε, ‘this’, which would refer to the dyyos, ‘container’, of 1337 and provide

ἔκρυπτε, ‘keep hidden’, with an object. 1343

The god wanted...: so Ion's surmise in 357 is shown to be essentially correct. Text: Diggle's exhaustive researches into the scansion of deös/d in Euripidean

1347

trimeters (PCPS 31ff., Studies

111f., 121, cf. Euripidea 475)

show that this verse must begin with a tribrach and that the indispensable pronoun σ᾽ must therefore be placed not after θεός (so Biehl), but after δόμοις. into my head: the adj. ἐνθύμιον must go with the substantival infin.

σώιζειν

understood from Ion's question in 1346. Ion does not see this and

so the Pr. repeats the verb, in the aorist infin. (cf. his δρᾶσαι

in 1348), in

1349. LSJ wrongly interprets ἐνθύμιον as expressing scruples Apollo's inspiration preserves the boy's means of finding his mother, earlier (cf. 47f.) it had preserved his life. Apollo's initial plan would Ion to take the carefully stored tokens to Athens where they eventually be recognised by his mother. But the production of them moment’

1350

1351 1352

here. just as enable would at ‘this

(1349) is necessary to resolve the crisis which has arisen in the

course of the play. what harm: not an actual alternative, but simply a formal polar antithesis as in HF 1106 where see Bond. baby-things: the presence of these had been carefully insisted on in 32.

means of tracking down: these are the pieces of evidence which Ion said he lacked ın 329.

1354

blissful: Ion's exhilarated reference (for μακαρία

cf. 561-2n.) to the day

that has produced the link with his birth and mother echoes the exchange between him and X. in 562. For the nom. in the exclamation introduced by ὦ cf. 5. El. 934 and see Jebb on 5. Tr. 377. Text: Hermann's correction produces a natural construction but deprives φασμάτων of definition,

which Wecklein's τῶνδ᾽ for ἥδ᾽ would provide. 1355 1356

diligently search out: the verb ἐκπονέω is used in yet another sense; for its varied usage see 374-7n. Asia...Europe: the exaggerated claim that he will go from one end of the earth to the other in search of his mother both expresses Ion's delight and stresses the irony that she sits unrecognised in front of him. For the polar expression cf. Tro. 927f. Text: Kirchhoffs assignation of this line to Ion is

COMMENTARY

301

certain; it suits the boy's enthusiasm and while coming from him it neatly

complements the Pr.'s ékmôver, spoken by her it scarcely coheres with 1357. 1357-62 Diggle (Studies 113ff.) is inclined to delete these verses, but, as he admits, each of the difficulties he raises lacks due weight and accumulation does not compensate for this. Without the passage the Pr.'s farewell in 1363 would follow very abruptly on 1356 and the lines provide appropriate accompaniment to the ceremonial handing over of Ion's things (note their repeated mention). Even Kraus's more modest deletion of 1359-62 (92ff.)

1357

1359 1360

1361.

would weaken this function of the passage. >> Erbse, Prolog 85ff. for yourself: the extent of his searches will be up to him. By underlining Ion's own responsibility, the Pr. stresses that her involvement in his fortunes now comes to an end with the giving up of the crib. unbidden: the Pr. was not acting, like Hermes (cf. 28), on an explicit command, but on inspiration from the god (1347; cf. 47f.). This verse has seven feet, and it is unclear how best to reduce it. I favour Badham's excision of he wanted which is easily understood; keep resumes the important idea stressed in 1346/9 and should not therefore be excluded (Diggle), nor should cannot (Paley) which emphasizes that the Pr. too has limited information; she knows what the contents of the cradle are for, but does not know why they had to be kept hidden up to this time.

no mortal man: Diggle points out (Studies 114) that θνήτων... ἀνθρώπων

is

epic and unique in tragedy. This gives a solemn emphasis to the Pr.'s assertion that no one could have interfered with the cradle's contents, the evidence of which is therefore reliable. (Cf. Matthiessen, loc. cit.).

1363

Farewell: the particle kat is not, as elsewhere before χαῖρε (Diggle, loc. cit.), the copula, but is used to stress the word of farewell, the emphatic tone of which is explained by the statement which follows. given you birth: the Pr.'s closing words echo Ion's opening address to her in 1324. As she hands him the basket, she severs the link between them; Ion must now leave the reliable care of his surrogate mother and make his own way, whatever the uncertainties concealed in the crib.

1364-8

Pace Bichl (Philologus 26ff.), who imagines complex interaction between

Ion and the Pr. while they are spoken, and Matthiessen (/oc. cit.), these verses should be deleted. They ruin the effective finality of 1363; the giving of advice contradicts 1357; the laying of false trails harking back to 44f., 551ff. is unwanted at this juncture. All this is scarcely redeemed by the apt

irony of 1368. Erbse's (Prolog

82ff.) defence of the verses is based on the

idea that the Pr. is aware that the recognition will soon take place and that

Kr. is likely to be Ion's mother. But this 1s unsupported by the text which suggests that the Pr. is the unwitting agent of Apollo's intentions (cf. Owen on 1320).

302

COMMENTARY

c) Ion and Kreousa: 1369-1548 1. Structure i. Ion's rhesis 1369-94 ii. Recognition 1395-1438 iii. Duet 1439-1509 iv. Dialogue 1510-48 2. Function

a. Plot. The play reaches a climax in this scene which brings together mother and son at last. In similar plays reunion is followed by the mechanema and the excitement attendant on escape. But the recognition here leaves room for doubt as Ion, though secure in the arms of his mother, needs reassurance about his father. This issue generates the tension which motivates the finale. b. Character. The harsher side of Ion's character was seen in his encounter with the fugitive Kr.; the rhesis of 1369ff. is a beautifully controlled exposition of his more tender emotions and long-harboured regrets. The speech forms the background to his business-like examination of Kr.'s claims and prepares for the delighted relief of the

recognition duet. At the end the anxious Ion following the first encounter with Kr. and the pseudo-recognition is seen once more. For Kr. the scene means an end to the isolation which was marked by her silence during Ion's dialogue with the Pr. She is quickly convinced that Ion is her son and the burden of the past is lifted at last. The

final version of her story is told to Ion himself and now not with the pretended distance of a friend but with the real distance brought by relief. c. Themes. The theme of secrecy and concealment is again presented, but now as a background to the revelation of the truth, as mother and son are reunited. The movement away from uncertainty to secure knowledge is neatly symbolised in the

unwrapping of the crib, long hidden away, and the close examination of its contents, not

seen

since

Ion

was

found

as a baby.

Apollo's

guiding

hand

becomes

progressively more in evidence as Ion realises that the god has preserved his babythings to a definite end (1385f.), and then Kr. recognises the nature and purpose of Apollo's actions (1539ff.).

1369-70 Ion repeats the Pr.'s parting word τεκοῦσα which, together with the crib he

1371

now handles, puts him in mind of his natural mother and brings him to tears. He closely resembles Kr. on her first entrance: they both weep (241f./1369) as they cast their minds back to the same past event (251/1370). smuggle: the verb ἀπημπόλα suggests underhand commercial dealing (cf. IT 1360,

[Mastronarde

on]

Pho.

1228),

emphasised

here by

the word

λάθραι, secretly. But Ion is not critical of his mother; he imagines her driven to secretive dealings to ensure his survival. In fact, the interference

of Apollo and Hermes meant that no hostile persons were aware of the existence of the baby whose rescue was easily managed.

COMMENTARY 1372

1373

303

Without a name: Ion's namelessness is an expression of his past low status (309n., 661ff., 800ff.) and ironically anticipates his destiny as the eponymous ancestor of the famed Ionian race (74f., 1587ff.). life of a slave: Ion's regrets contrast strongly with his previous glorification of and contentment with his status as Apollo's servant (cf.128ff.,

181ff.).

Now that he is on the verge of a fuller life, he sees the limitations of his past

and shrinks from anything (cf. 1380ff.) which may limit his new-found freedom. 1374-5

Ion seems to mean that while Apollo did all for the best, his dispensation meant a lot hard to bear for the human participants. δαίμων has referred to the gods generally (4) and to Apollo in particular (827, 1353), but Ion here uses the word of fortune, luck (cf. [Platnauer on] 77 203) in contrast with

1375-7

1378-9

the working of a deity. But 67f. and (if genuine) 1368 show that god and fortune are not separable In preparation for the re-union, we have a strong evocation of the babyhood which Ion could not enjoy. The verb tpuddw, used of luxurious, sumptuous living (see Stockert on JA 1304), here describes the carefree plenty of a loved baby. Ion's thought of being taken from his mother naturally suggests (with the wording of 1377 cf. S. El. 775f.) the pain she felt in turn. The description of

her grief in πάθος

πέπονθε is reminiscent of 330 and Jon dwells here on

thoughts which he found unbearable in 360f.

1380ff.

Even as he speaks of his mother's loss of joy in him, Ion proposes to make that loss permanent, as Kr. herself had nearly done twice, by returning the crib to Apollo. Once again things present a different aspect when viewed from far away and close at hand (585f.). His dearest wish was to find his mother (563ff., 669f., 1356), but now he hesitates, conscious as he is of his own status (cf. 325, 556, 591ff., 670ff., 1382f.). These considerations tempt

1385

1387

him to surrender the clues to his mother's identity in the fear, like that wrongly attributed to Iocaste by Oedipus (S. OT 1078f.), of what may be revealed. Even at the last moment Eur. endangers the recognition; this is not a metatheatrical ploy to amuse the audience, but a further instance of human emotion coming near to derailing divine arrangements. what's come over me? Ion proceeds solemnly to dedicate the crib when he breaks off. For the expression τί πάσχω cf. Med. 1049 (also of second thoughts) and 437 where Ion applied the same expression to Apollo's inexplicable behaviour. I must open: the crib and the secrets it contains are reminders of the story of Erichthonios whose crib was not to be opened (cf. 271ff.); history is

repeated but with positive results for those who act not out of curiosity but in the conviction that they fulfill the god's own wishes.

304

COMMENTARY

1388

fated: the fatalism is ordinary enough and as old as H. //. 6. 487ff., but Ion's resignation is at odds with much of the action, freely chosen it would seem, which has gone before. 1389-94 O holy ribbons...laid up: a long passage devoted to the deliberate, almost ceremonial unwrapping and opening of the crib, during which time Kr. comes slowly to recognize the object. Frequent references and close description (19, 32, 37, 39-40, 1337f.) have prepared for its significance, underlined here by the direct address to the bindings (cf. Hecuba's address to Hector's shield in Tro. 1194ff.). Untouched by the passing years, the crib

and its contents function as a virtual time-machine transporting mother and son from the sad time of their parting to the joyous present and their reunion. >> Huys 214ff. treasures: for the emotional overtones of the word cf. El. 565 where ‘treasure’ is used of Orestes, just recognised by the Old Man. Recognition and duet: 1395-1509 1395 What...eyes: withdrawn through fear and seemingly unconcerned with the foregoing discussion, Kr. has kept silent for some 80 lines. But just as she broke her long silence in 859 to make a revelation, now she suddenly speaks out to welcome one. For φάσμα of an unexpected sight, pleasant or

unpleasant, cf. 1354, S. Εἰ. 1466. 1396

You be quiet!: Ion is so absorbed in what he thinks are his own affairs that he attempts to cut short his mother's interruption. This stops him from examining the contents of the basket and causes him to repeat his earlier judgement of her (1272). For the irony of Ion's dismissive tone here cf. /T

773. Text: three separate emendations salvage a verse which may be original; at any rate, the Ms. attribution to the Chorus, whose advice is unwanted here, is certainly wrong, and the infin. σιγᾶν is likely to be the result of adjustment to olo@a later in the verse. >> Diggle, Studies 10, Mastronarde, Contact 70. 1397 advice: Kr. brusquely repeats her earlier (1307) rejection of Ion's orders. But after she has recognised him she happily acts in 1401 on the advice he gave her in 1306. 1398-1400 One recognition follows another as Kr., repeating the verb of her selfdirected question in 1395, realizes that the familiar crib is the link between

the young man holding it in front of her at Delphi and the baby left in it by her in the cave at Athens. The crib as the catalyst for the recognition functions like the skiff in which the twins were exposed in S. Tyro (cf.

Arist. Poetics 1054b 25). cave of Kekrops: there is no inconsistency with 936ff., as the phrase means a cave beneath the Acropolis (cf. 936n.), the north-western slope of which is then specified by Makpás. That the cave of Aglauros might be meant

COMMENTARY

305

(see Owen) 15 unlikely, given that it was located some distance away, on the extreme eastern side of the Acropolis (cf. G. S. Dontas, Hesperia 52 [1983]

48ff.). Text: Cobet's deletion of 1399, revived by Kraus

1401

1402

(95f.), is ruinous to the

rhythm of the recognition which has one character see the truth and act accordingly before the other. Kr.'s initial delight is self-directed and so it is not disturbing that Ion, still enraged with her, makes no response (cf. Biehl, Philologus 29). Kr.'s recognition of her son must be made clear at this point not to Ion but to the audience who will then understand the action of 1402f./1404f. It is only after Kr.'s decisive action that Ion is made aware of her state of mind. For a similar progressive structure in a recognition cf. IT 772ff. I have to die: this is expressive of her unconsidered delight rather than a reminder of her death-sentence which, though the facts have not changed, will be quickly forgotten.

Grab

her!: the action here mirrors that earlier in the scene. Then Kr.'s

response 10 the same command (1266) was to steal away from Ion towards the altar; now, ıgnoring the command, she runs towards him. fit of madness: this is one of the many verbal and visual correspondences between the true and false recognition scenes, as Taplin (Tragedy in Action 137f.) points out. Ion thought that X.'s startling behaviour was also the result of derangement (520, 526).

1404-5

Slaughter away!: this 1s reminiscent of X.'s insouciance in 527, but Kr. faces a real threat (1259, 1282, 1402), and so her absorption in her delight to the exclusion of any fears ıs felt more powerfully. take hold of: Kr. is in fact prevented from putting her arms around Ion and the basket by his attendants (cf. the statement of what she wants in 1411).

Kraus (97) rightly dismisses Whitman's bizarre idea (CP 59 [1964] 257f.) that τῆσδε refers not to the basket but to the Priestess. Text: the emendation T' ἔσω, ‘inside’, is tempting, but does not cohere well with Ion's question in 1412; for the Ms. Te σῶν, ‘your things’, cf. 1413. claimed as property: Ion is outraged and describes Kr.'s attempt to 1406 embrace him with the same commercial metaphor as X. used of his apparently legitimate claim on Ion in 523. Text: the Ms. λόγωι, 'verbally', is not suitable in a response to Kr.'s startling, vigorous action; Jacobs’ easy correction (for the common confusion of A and A cf. 1065 app.) has Ion assume that this is yet another of her wiles (cf. 1279f., 1326, 1410), used here to escape punishment. 1407-11 Kr. now progressively reveals her recognition of Ion with the words φίλος, mais and climactically τέκνον (cf. X.'s words in 517, 556, 651). On hearing this Ion is moved to test her claims in the interrogation which

begins in 1412.

306

1412

1414

COMMENTARY that...this: the pronouns refer to the action described in Ion's verb λήψομαι by which he means ‘catch out, convict’ (cf. Hipp. 955, S. OT 266) and which she reinterprets as ‘hold, embrace’ (cf. Alc. 190, Hel. 624): the trans. of his words attempts to keep the ambiguity. Text: Diggle's arguments for the text printed (Studies 115f.) are twofold: in the Ms. figurative πλέκουσα without an object is unexampled, and καλῶς is curiously attached to λήψομαι. But πλέκουσα absolute suits Ion's curt order and the metaphor can here do without elaboration in view of 692, 826, 1279f. For καλῶς ‘Tl get a proper hold of you’ cf. S. OT 1008 and see Kraus 98f. empty...full: in beginning the test Ion returns to his own examination of the basket, interrupted by Kr. in 1395. His first question is quite general and simply based on what the Priestess told him. The precision of Kr.'s reply (note the similarity of the wording in 1413/1351) persuades him to continue in more detail. The examination of the tokens is replete with a range of emotions. Ion is not simply testing Kr.'s knowledge of objects with which he is familiar. He is looking at his baby-things for the first time. As he asks Kr. about each item, her replies coincide with his own growing knowledge of the objects

which shared his baby experiences. But for Kr. this 1s familar ground; she cannot wait for the ‘formality’ of the test to be over so that she can have her dearest wish (1411).

14151

submit to death: this 1s what Ion wanted in 1308, but Kr. now has lost both the fear (1253) and the defiance (1282, 1309) she showed earlier.

1417

1419

Look for: the pl. imptve. is surprising in this intimate exchange. Kr., who is still held by Ion's attendants, must be inviting them as well as her son to examine the proof of her claims. a sampler: a young girl's first attempts at weaving carried emotive associations (cf. 1425) which suited the fabric's use as a token. Cf. 17 814ff., A. Cho. 231f., wilfully reinterpreted and then ridiculed in El. 539ff.

1420

take me in: Ion had used the same verb in 1410 of his determination to catch out Kr. in her deception; now he feels on the defensive as she answers so confidently. For the elliptical purpose clause introduced by ws cf. the

clause introduced by ἵνα in 804. 1421-3

1422

1424

Gorgon...aigis: Athena's victory over the monster was raised in connection with Kr.'s apparent protection of her house from an intruder (989ff.). Here it recurs pictorially at the moment the rightful heir is to be discovered. Text: the accus. l'opyoyT'opyóva of L. Dindorf/Diggle would allow Kr.'s answer to connect with the syntax of Ion's question. like a hunter: cf. the image used by Kr. of Ion tracking his mother (328). X. wrongly thought (554) that Ion's destiny had already sought him out.

Look!: an interjection here tinged with surprise; cf. 1391, HF 1094. Ion produces the piece of weaving and in the traditional text seems to connect it

COMMENTARY

1425 1427-9

with an oracle. But there has been no oracle regarding Ion's mother and to compare this early stage of the test with an oracular revelation would be premature (note the scepticism of 1426). Thus most editors agree (but cf. Kraus 99f.) that there is corruption here. Campbell's 'Here is the piece of weaving and you spoke «of it» as I discovered ', reported by Owen, is attractive and connects with the attitudes of the two speakers discussed in 1414n. seen...long: for the sense of the adj. χρόνιον cf. Helen to the long-lost Menelaus in Hel. 566. The basket contains not only a symbol of Athena's protective patronage, but also a reminder of the autochthonous

1432

307

founder of the race who, like Ion,

came from his mother, Earth, into the arms of his surrogate mother, Athena. For the snakes and the practice referred to cf. 20ff. Text: Porson's brilliant, if bold, emendation takes up the dual of 23 and gives to Kr. the same vivid memory of the snakes' glitter as she had of Apollo's in 888. It does, however, leave gift bare after the too fulsome description of the snakes. Wilamowitz's less radical changes (succinctly and persuasively supported by Kraus 100), 'snakes, Athena's gift all of gold to the ancient race', produce better balance with ancient race looking forward to Erichthonios of old. For pl. snakes cf. 'they are in here (pl.)' in 1432. The Ms. attribution of 1428 to Ion is evidently a mistaken restoration of the stichomythia. long: Ion's sceptical, distant tone in 1418/20/26 is replaced by a betrayal of his own hope that Kr. will pass the last of the three tests connected with the basket's contents. Cf. Iphigenia's reaction to Orestes' evidence of their

relationship in /T 815. 1433

1434-6

put around you: Kr. responds to the change in Ion's attitude; the previous two items were described objectively, now, picking up the tone of τέκνον, 'my child', in 1431 she confidently links the olive wreath with Ion himself. garland of olive: the third item forms a climactic surprise since it would not have been expected to be among the xA Gr, 'finery', mentioned in 26. which...tree: it seems that Kr. made the wreath from the sacred olive which grew in a garden just to the west of the Erechtheion, her home (cf. 235n.), so she could easily have procured a branch from it. For the story of Athena's gift of the olive to the Athenians and the tree's miraculous

qualities cf. Tro. 801f., Paus. 1. 27. 2, Hdt. 8. 55. Like the others, the third item in the basket is connected with Athena, symbolic of her virginal purity and of her continued protection of her city's growth and fertility. Text: Diggle's text (cf. Studies 116) gives needed qualification to rock and follows the tradition that the olive sprouted from the Acropolis (cf. 1480). Badham's aynpatov 'ageless’ for inviolable (cf. 1266n. and A. Pers. 616f. for its use here) repeats is still green and excludes the sacral associations of ἀκηράτου.

308 1437-8

COMMENTARY Ion gets the answer he hoped for (cf. 1432n.) and, without any word of

confirmation (contrast 1424/32), straightway falls firmly (note the perfect πέπτωκα

attendants.

and cf.

His

1460)

delight

into the embrace

denied

earlier to Kr.

is expressed

words

almost

recognition-reunions, ὦ φιλτάτη

in

by his

formulaic

at

(cf. IT 827, Hel. 625/636, 5. El. 1224),

and in the polyptoton ἄσμενος ἀσμένας. Recognition Duet: 1439-1509 The completed recognition is followed here, as in other plays (cf. IT 827ff., Hyps. fr. 64. 721f. Bond, Hel. 625ff., where see Dale and Kannicht) by a duet in which the

reunited parties take turns to express their joy and to share details of their separate past. The duets are astrophic and composed in a mixture of sung and spoken verses. The former are given to the female partner, the latter to the male. The lyrics are predominantly dochmiac and iambic, with dactylic and anapaestic rhythms occasionally interspersed to provide variety. 1439-40 light: this common metaphor of a suddenly appearing long-desired person (cf. S. El. 1224, HF 531, IT 849, [Dodds on] Ba. 608) is enlivened by Kr.'s comparison with and apology to the sun-god. For unqualified θεός used of Helios see Diggle on Pha. 6. hold...arms: the words and stage action are reminiscent of the pathetic picture of the baby Ion in 961f. 1441-2 those below...Persephone: the pleonasm here is marked and expresses Kr.'s conviction that Ion was dead. Text: Heath's correction is unavoidable, as Diggle shows (Studies 117) and, pace Owen, χθονίων with ἐνέρων is not

‘flat’ but deliberately emphatic. 1444

1445-9

for all to see: Ion's choice of word φαντάζομαι (for its sense here cf. And. 876) links with Kr.'s use of φάσμα when she first sighted the basket in 1395. dead but not dead: the sort of paradox (cf. 1453, Alc. 141, 521, [Kannicht on] Hel. 138) which gave Eur. the reputation for cleverness and encouraged parody as in Aristoph. Ach. 396f., Frogs 1477f. A series of questions, each shorter than the previous one, expresses Kr.'s

increasing

emotion

(cf. the questions

in 859-65)

at her unexpected

discovery of Ion. ether: just as she called on ‘Zeus’ starry seat’ (870) to witness the revelation of the rape and loss of Iom, so now she addresses her delight to this

ubiquitous, all-knowing element; cf. Tro. 1024, fr. 487 (Stockert on) ZA 365. am I to speak:

correction). 1451

αύσω,

like Bodow,

is deliberative

subj. (LSJ

needs

)

was ready: for this sense of παρέστη, not impersonal (so Owen), but with πάντα as subj. and γενέσθαι epexegetical, cf. Med. 331, Hec. 229.

COMMENTARY

1453 : 1454

1455

309

hopes: Kr. here recalls the despair of the monody ın 866. woman: Kr. addresses the absent Priestess. Text: Diggle's choices produce two dochmiacs, but the removal of the repeated πόθεν is undesirable (cf.1446/9, 1471, 1472). Wilamowitz's change, ὦ γύναι, 'O woman’, produces satisfactory metre: hypodochmiac+dochmiac. By what hand: Kr. asks the very question which Ion put to X. in 548, but her full knowledge of the circumstances of his birth does not allow for a

like answer. The sense of the preposition dvd+accus. seems to be unparalleled; it may be related to that in phrases like ἀνὰ μέρος, ‘in turn‘. 1456

1459

god's doing: in ways known to the audience from Hermes’ detailed report in 28ff. and to be learned by Ion and Kr. from Athena in 1597ff. Ion's almost nonchalant, if pious, dismissal of the difficulty contrasts with his persistent questioning of X. in 548ff. parted: lit. ‘divided with a boundary’, a striking use of the verb (used more naturally in Hec. 940f. of women sailing away from Troy), which highlights

the terrible moment of separation and takes up the Chorus' E£öpıoev 1461

1463-7

in

504. very deepest joy: the superlative μακαριωτάτας is a remarkably strong expression of delight, going beyond even X.'s words in 562 (see n.), and found elsewhere in tragedy only in the raving lyrics of Cassandra in Tro. 327, 365. Kr.'s feelings here will be given elaborate explanation in her next utterance. No longer...rays: Kr. relates her delight at recovering Ion to the rehabilitation of her house and the Erechtheid family. Her lyrics recall the Chorus’ words in 468ff. and nullify their fears in 1058ff. The triumphant tone of the statement is a product of its rhetorical artifice and image-laden language. Kr. frames her opening statement with repeated privative

compounds; this is followed by a tricolon; pointed antithesis, the first limb of which recalls the opening, makes a rousing climax. without a child...: both form and content recall the expression of loss in the monody (865). hearth: the symbol of a family's stability, prosperity and continuity. Cf. Alcestis' prayer of farewell to the hearth-goddess in Alc. 163ff. and the ritual at the amphidromia, five days after a child’s birth, when it was carried around the hearth, symbol of its connection with and continuation of the family. land: Reiske's palmary correction (the confusion of l and T is very common [cf. L's error in 166]) of the Ms. flat τάδ᾽, 'these things', introduces

in the moment of jubilation the national theme which will be greatly expanded in the finale.

310

COMMENTARY earth-born: the autochthony theme is stressed explicitly here and also obliquely in the following words which suggest the image of Erichthonios

rising from the ground into Athena's arms and the daylight (cf. 269).

1468-9

recovers its sight: Kr. resumes the metaphor used in 1439, but now relates the discovery of Ion to the future of her family. The boy is a light, but can also be seen as the eye of the house which is now restored. Cf. Andr. 406 and see Dodds on Ba. 1308. For the darkness/light contrast cf. A. Pers. 300f., HF 5631. Mother...you: the climactic tone of his mother's statement prompts Ion to change the topic. To this point he shares his mother's unalloyed bliss (1462)

because the desires and anxieties of 563ff./668ff. have evaporated. But mention of his putative father sets in train a new concern to both him and Kr., and introduces a second anagnorisis, which directly cancels the effects of the earlier ‘recognition’. The brief mention of X.'s paternity would give an audience no time to wonder, as Owen does, how Ion imagines he was conceived. That Ion's statement prompted a scribe to introduce X. into this scene is a further illustration (cf. 1396) of the unreliable distribution of

1472

parts in our Mss. elsewhere: Kr.'s agitation interrupts Ion; additions have been suggested to allow her to complete his trimeter, but this seems fussy. She sings independently a cretic+dochmiac, while his words stand alone like an interjection (cf. Kraus

1473

101f.). For the split anadiplosis cf. (Willink on) Or.

200. bastard: having seen through Kr.'s euphemism, Ion immediately reverts

(cf. 670ff.), but in the hopeful form of a question, to his fear of illegitimacy and base parenthood. Patterson in ClAnt

1474

For the whole issue of Ion's 'bastardy' cf. C. B.

9 (1990) 66ff.

torches and dancing: Kr. picks out for mention central features of the regular wedding ritual (note their prominence in Cassandra's demented

parody of the ritual in Tro. 308ff.) which characterized it as a conspicuous event shared in by the community; cf. J. H. Oakley & R. H. Sinos, The

Wedding in Ancient Athens (Madison, 1476

1993) 24f., 26f. Her union with

Apollo was marked in contrast by dark secrecy and solitude. your dear self: σὸν κάρα is essentially periphrasis for σέ, as Bayfield notes, but the term carries considerable emotional weight. Cf. Barrett on

Hipp. 651-2 and J. Davidson, QUCC 38 (1991) 87ff. 1478

Gorgon-slayer: there is irony of the Gorgon's blood and its adjuration is sung in dactylic relevance of Athena, interrupts

1481

roundabout: deliberately

in Kr.'s naming Athena by a title reminiscent near fatal effects on her son. Kr.'s solemn rhythm; Ion, puzzled by her tone and the her with a truncated trimeter.

lit. ‘curved, not straight’. Kr. is being indirect rather than obscure

(as she was

when

she last spoke

to Ion of her

COMMENTARY

1482

1485

1486-7

1488

311

experiences). For this reason the Ms. δόλια, ‘deceitful, crafty’, is inappropriate. With Diggle's arrangement Ion completes Kr.'s sung spondee as a spoken trimeter; cf. 1483 where the trimeter itself is cut short. nightingales sing: the ornithological facts raised by Owen are irrelevant. Nightingales are introduced because of the story of Procne and their traditional associations with the loss of a child. In describing the place of her rape by Apollo Kr. is unable to exclude reference to it as the place where she also exposed Ion. »» Huys 174, Loraux 222. splendid: because her news will give him the noblest of fathers. For the adj. Keövöv used of speech cf. Alc. 38 and for its connotations here cf. JA 371. Ion does not greet her account of his conception with any of the doubts or recriminations that he brought to the story of the 'friend' in 339, 341, 370ff. The sentence is carefully structured to put weight on the delayed (note the extended time-marker, for which cf. Alc. 449f.) and climactic Φοίβωι which picks up the emphasis of the repeated Φοίβωι.. Φοῖβον in 1483. Note also the stress on secrecy with κρύφιον taking up κρυπτόμενον above. if...is true: Ion immediately voices doubts which are overshadowed by the sad experiences related by Kr. But they will recur in 1520ff., and again, despite Kr.'s assurances, in 1546ff. and not be finally dispelled until he hears the authoritative voice of Athena (1607f.).

1489-91 Kr. now links her story to the objects which she left with Ion and which have just brought her son to light. These provide evidence, compelling to her mind, that her account of his conception is true. maiden's work...mother: the Ms. ἐμᾶς ματέρος makes no sense. Emendations which involve reference to Kr.'s mother, e.g. the inclusion of

€Kds, ‘apart from my mother’, are unlikely; she herself is the mother referred to here (cf. 918 and Huys 96f.). Paley's ‘of your mother’, which produces cretic+dochmiac, neatly expresses the ambiguity in Kr.'s status; though she is a mother, she can wrap her child only in the fabric she herself produced as a young unmarried girl (cf. Hermes’ words in 26f.).

uncertain work: we have already been told (1419) that the fabric was a sampler and not finely finished work, a feature which helps to identify Ion's

swaddling definitely and introduces the pathetic point of Kr.'s age, a factor in her fear. Owen Kr.'s movements

1493

takes πλάνους, 'wanderings’, neutrally as referring to with the shuttle, but the word always has the connotation

of errant or confused movement. washing: for this as a deprivation suffered by an exposed child cf. Antiope's twins, washed eventually by the shepherd who found them (Paus. 1. 38. 9); for its ritual importance see Parker SOf.

312 1494-5

COMMENTARY victim...birds: the knowledge that Ion was rescued has not obliterated the

memory of what she did nor the mghtmarish imaginings of the intervening

1497-9

years. Kr. sadly contrasts Ion's providing the birds with a feast with her own failure to nurture him. Cf. the same contrast in Oedipus’ description of himself Pho. 1602f. dared to do: Ion's reaction to his mother's admissions echoes that of the Old Man in 958/60: amazement at her grim resolve. fear: cf. its importance in the monody's account in 898. Text: Wilamowitz's rearrangement produces satisfactory metre and gives τέκνον appropriate

emphasis at the head of the sentence. 1500

Kr.'s mitigation of her guilt by the element of fear and compulsion (she cannot therefore be referring to the attempted poisoning) is compounded (not logically, of course) by Ion's admission of his attempt on her life.

I put you to death: the aorist ἔκτεινα is not simply a description of a failed attempt, as in 1291, but means that Kr. thought Ion was as good as dead when she exposed him; cf. Huys 248f. Diggle's suggestion 'you killed me unwillingly' spoken by Ion would remove this effect. No convincing way of allowing Ion to complete a trimeter has been found, and so Kraus (105) returns to Masqueray's idea that Ion momentarily breaks into song with cretic+dochmiac. This may be right (cf. Menelaus' brief sally

into lyric in Hel. 659, 692f.). Wilamowitz deletes 'impiously', but this is an appropriate expression of Ion's natural piety which the Priestess reinforced (1333ff.) and which saved both him (1188f.) and his mother.

1502-4

Terrible...terrible: Kr.'s binary statement expands on the parallelism of her

1504-9

last exchange with Ion, so that τάδ᾽, 'these their murder attempts on each other in the wrongly sees a reference to her need to face a pre-marital pregnancy. Kr. concludes the duet with an extended tragedy; cf. A. Pers. 602, EL

1147,

things', refers, as Owen says, to course of the play; Kraus (106) X. with the shame (cf. 1526) of nautical metaphor (frequent in

[Bond

on]

HF

216, fr. 153) which

combines the idea of misery and danger with that of unpredictable change. Let...fair: for the use of μενέτω in a weather-context cf. Tro. 19f. favourable wind: cf. HF 95f. which strongly supports Wilamowitz's optative.

1510-11 The Chorus divides the duet from the following dialogue with a typical sententious distich; cf. 566-8n., and for the thought cf. Hyps. fr. 761, and

the tail-piece concluding Alc., Hel., Andr., Ba. 1513 1514-5

|

Pierson restores a typical pleonasm (cf. /T 377, [Wilkins on] Hcld. 796) in place of the Ms. 'well', redundant with καλῶς. Having voiced a generalisation about fortune's fine distinction between happiness and misery, Ion shows how the negative aspect nearly applied to his case.

COMMENTARY

313

What...point, lit. ‘what a line’: Bayfield explains that this is the finishing line, i.e. the decisive point, in the race-course to which βίου is added to signal the metaphor (cf. Med. 1245). But it cannot be said that Biov adds little to the sense. Ion means that he reached a point which was decisive for 1516

1518

1519

1521

a life worthy or otherwise of his lineage. Isn't it: dpa is used for dp’ ov; cf. S. OT 822. bright embrace: a somewhat grand phrase, expressive of Ion's astonishment (cf. of Kr.'s delight 1445), for all that the sun covers in its course, the whole world. | After the joyof recognition it is normal to return to the matter in hand which elsewhere involves action decisive for the reunited parties; cf. (Cropp on) El. 596-7, 970n. Here Ion initiates a sober discussion with Kr. on a matter which is intimately connected with the recognition itself. This sets in train the play's final crisis which can be resolved only by the intervention of Athena. far from contemptible: Ion, now satisified about the anxieties raised in 6691f., makes this observation of his maternal origins. He withdraws from the initial enthusiasm of 1485 regarding his father in preparation for the serious doubts he goes on to express. in a whisper, lit. ‘in your ear': the stage action (for which cf. Aristoph. Birds

1647) underlines the intimate nature of the discussion and should not

be taken as signalling an aside meant to exclude the Chorus (see Bain, Actors 59ff.). The secondary tradition offers cot, but it is unreliable and γάρ is needed to explain the imptve. (so Kraus 106f.). 1522 shroud in darkness: Kr. was moved to bring into the open her σκοτίας, ‘darkly secret, (860f.) union with Apollo. Ion now wants σκότος, ‘darkness’, to cover his mother's irregular intercourse. 1523-27 Be sure...god: lon now wonders whether Kr. may be guilty of the misrepresentation

he earlier suspected

from her ‘friend’ (339ff.); cf. the

uncharitable views of Semele's sisters regarding the conception of Dionysus, Ba. 26ff. For the idea of love tripping people up cf. Andr. 223, fr. 493, and for the common designation of love's effects as illness, νοσήματα, cf. S. fr. 149.1, Hipp. 764ff., Andr. 220f. νοσήματα depends as internal accus. on σφαλεῖσα, ‘falling’. 1528-31 No, I swear: Kr. firmly rejects Ion's suggestion with a solemn oath which invokes the deity repeatedly involved in the play's action and echoes her adjuration in 871f. and 1478. Mention of Athena here prepares for her imminent appearance. For Athena-Nike cf. 457n. no mortal...Loxias: appropriate weight is given to Kr.'s solemn statement by its polar form (taken up in Ion's persistent doubt 1548) enclosing the

voc. τέκνον. Her description of Apollo echoes Jon's pious sentiments in 137, 183, 327.

314

COMMENTARY

1532-3 gave...born: Ion repeats the terms of the discussion with X. in 536ff., and

underlines the discrepancy between Kr.'s claim and X.'s report of the oracle.

1534

1535-6

It is noteworthy that though the Chorus is careless with the truth it does not report that Ion is X.'s child but repeatedly says that he was given to him (775, 781, 788). born...gift: Kr. simply contradicts Ion's (and X.'s) report of the oracle. Owen rightly points out that Kr. is not in a position to know what the god said, but she is not 'simply inventing’. She is attempting to reconcile what she believes to be true with what the god is reported to have told X. give away: Kr. describes Apollo's action in terms of the Sth century practice of adoption (on which see Lacey 145 ff., Just, Women in Athenian Law and Life (London, 1989) 90ff.). But, while this may apply to the facts of the case, the public and legal position will not be presented in terms of adoption at all (see 1540-5n.), since Ion is to be known as X.'s natural son.

1537

true or misleading: the same disjunction as in 275. Kr. is satisfied that her

claims about Ion's paternity are consistent with the god's treatment of X., but Ion, anxious as before to get to the bottom of things, sees that the status

of the oracle itself remains doubtful. Text: The corrections proposed link this line with what follows: 'whether the god is truthful or...troubles me' (Reiske); 'the god is truthful; if his oracle misleads troubles me' (West). But

the asyndeton and direct question aptly emphasize Ion's concern and the 1540-5

subject of troubles is easily understood. Kr. skirts the issue of the oracle's veracity by discussing the reason for the god's giving away of his own son. Her reconstruction of the god's intentions

is simply inference, but it is significant that it coincides with Hermes' statement and will be confirmed by Athena. Owen is wrong to think that Kr. is talking here of the requirements of adoption; she is explaining why Apollo had to pass Ion off as X.'s own son. Had he been known as Apollo's son he would obviously have enjoyed no rights and, since the process of adoption involved the naming of one's natural father, he could not have acquired rights by this means. does you a favour: the very positive account of Apollo's action and motives (repeated in 1545) runs directly contrary to that of the monody, 912ff. name of a father: essential for Athenian citizenship, for the freedoms Ion values (673ff.) and for the process of inheritance which 15 put first because of its importance (cf. 1464f.).

How...secret: the impossibility of having Ion known publicly as the god's son is explained by the extreme measures Kr. felt she had to take as a girl to prevent this happening. attaches to: for the sense of προστίθησι (wrongly classified by LSJ) cf. 1525 and LSJ II. 2.

COMMENTARY

1546

315

so lightly: Ion is dismissive of Kr.'s explanation and determines to consult the oracle, not, as Owen says, on the god's veracity generally, but on the specific question of his own origins. Again, 'things look different when close up’ (585f.); now that he deals with his own case Ion is not hindered

from a direct approach to Apollo by the considerations he raised in 363ff. d) Ion, Kreousa and Athena: 1549-1622 1549-50 The sudden appearance of a deity above

the temple

is marked

by the

exclamation €a, as in HF 815, Hipp. 1391. This is the only epiphany in extant tragedy announced by a character and not the Chorus (Halleran, Stagecraft 25f.). It is appropriate that Ion should confront the deity as he is about to take decisive action; his announcement of her entrance and fear of contravening the rules accord with his pious attitude seen earlier and prepare for his acceptance of her words (cf. Mastronarde, ClAnt 9 [1990] 272). The apparition is described by Ion only in general terms, and the name of the visitor ıs unclear until the self-identification which follows. While the appearance of Apollo would not have been surprising, it is not unexpected that he keeps his distance and acts, as he has repeatedly, through an agent. On the other hand, it is appropriate that Ion's future in Athens and the destiny of his progeny be forecast by the goddess whose links with the city have been stressed throughout the play. Divine epiphanies end several of Eur.'s plays (Hipp., And., Supp., El, IT, Hel., Or. Ba., IA (originally), Rh.; cf. the vestiges of varying extent from Antiope, Erechtheus and Hypsipyle); like Jon, Hipp. begins and ends with one, as does Ba., where Dionysus opens the play in human form. Although it is conventional to speak of the deus/dea ex machina as a device for solving an ineluctable impasse in the plot, this is in fact rarely the case (cf. Collard, Supp. p. 407). The deity does not contribute

significantly to the play's action, but brings to it a wider perspective and an authoritative voice which removes uncertainties and relates the actions of the legendary past to current realities. In Jon Athena's role is to confirm Kr.'s story of Ion's birth and to flesh out the hints regarding his future which were given by Hermes in 74ff. In so doing she vindicates Apollo's actions, and her approval of the god gains the assent of the mortal characters. Even so, the play ends with the

enigmatic god of prophecy keeping his distance from the mortals whose lives he has deeply touched. This must leave the audience pondering the cost of the grand plan

which invests the Ionian race with the superiority of an immortal ancestor. appearing above:

I follow

Mastronarde's

conclusion

(he surveys

the

relevant passages, the testimonia and the literature in C/Ant 9 [1990] 247ff.) that the hint here and the likely presence of Athena's chariot (cf. 1570)

make it probable that the the μηχανή, a crane-like device, was used to suspend Athena above the skene. >> Hourmouziades, Production 146ff., Taplin, Stagecraft 443ff., Csapo & Slater, Context of Athenian Drama 268îf.

316

1552

COMMENTARY looking into the sun: the goddess would have faced east from her position above the skene representing the temple's east front. For the meaning of ἀντήλιον cf. Dodds on Ba. 1097. opportune: for καιρός see 1062n. For Ion's doubts cf. the hesitation of the

chorus to approach and converse with the Dioskouroi in El. 1292ff. 1555

my name: but she then goes on to use her alternative name, not the one she shares with the city; cf. 9n.

1556

in haste: this stresses her need to arrive in time to prevent Ion from

1558

confronting the god with his challenging question. lest some reproach: the meaning and tone of this line have been much disputed because of its importance for the play's picture of Apollo. I agree with Matthiessen (op. cit. 681) that it can only refer to open criticism of Apollo's past behaviour by Kr. and Ion. The former had already vilified the god in the monody, but any condemnation would be much more intense with Ion's participation (note the emphatic dual σφῶιν in 1557). Apollo wishes to avoid this not because he is ashamed

(so Owen

xxxi and

178,

Wilamowitz 13), nor because he wants to save Ion and Kr. from blasphemy (Wassermann

602),

but because

‘he distances

himself

from

a dispute

conducted in the terms of mortals’ limited perspective’ (Strohm 162 n.3) so that the grand vision with which the play ends will not be blurred by a nasty

altercation. But Athena's very mention of Apollo's need to avoid this possibility reminds us of the price of the divine dispensation, however justified in the long run.

1560-3

Yet another report of Apollo's words and intentions. The structure of the sentence and the repetition gives/gave are meant to put the facts beyond doubt. The pls. oÎs...püoaot are allusive and X. alone is meant. be taken into: the point made by Kr. in 1540f. is repeated. For κομίζηι having the connotation ‘settle into, give a place in’ cf. Alc. 1110. Text: Kraus (108f.) argues for νομίζηι, ‘so that you might be considered (so)’, but Ps. Dem. 40, 47, adduced as a parallel, expresses the complement which can only with dificulty be supplied here; furthermore, the phrase

into...family' must then depend on the distant δίδωσι. disclosed: by the indiscretion and disobedience of the Chorus (761f., 774ff.). make...known: this is not inconsistent, as Owen (xix n.3) thinks, with 72f.; 1567 Hermes means there that the circumstances of Ion's birth would be hidden not from Ion and Kr., but from others who might dispute his inheritance. 1569-70 mark a change in topic to the god's more general, political intentions and to 1563

Ion's future. Note that, despite the dual imptve. in 1570, the speech which follows is

addressed to Kr. (1572, cf. 1589/96/97, 1603), wıth Ion mentioned ın the 3rd pers.

(1574/75/87/97, 1601) except for the pl. imptve. and pron. in 1604/5.

COMMENTARY

317

chariot: this would add pomp to Athena's epiphany (cf. Medea's imperious arrival in Med.

1573

1575-8

1579

gigantomachy (cf. 1528f.). set him upon: Kr. had no authority to do this herself, but she is now given Athena's sanction for the succession which X. will persuade her to accept (659f.) and which she would in any case approve for the same reason (cf. 1465) as the goddess gives here. Before the reforms of Kleisthenes in 509 the people of Attica were divided into four tribes; Athena gives their founders a common heritage as sons of Ion. my rock: the Acropolis is picked out as a prominent sign of Athena's links with the city (cf. 871, 1479) and because of its importance to the early stages of Ion's story. Geleon: the eponymous hero of the Geleontes, whose name has been explained as ‘noble’. Text: some editors have emended δεύτερος to suit the following pl., but the opening suggests that first the founders were named and then the tribes listed, hence Badham's lacuna printed by Diggle. Owen thinks this structure would have been tedious, but there may have been some

1580-1

1317ff.), associated as it is with her victorious role in the

elaboration for variety, as can be seen in the case of the last tribe

named. Hopletes/Argades/Aigikores: usually explained as 'warriors'/ "workers'/'goatherds'. Eur. derives, probably independently, the last name from alyis and κόρη (cf. the etymology of the aigis itself in 996f.). Eur.'s fondness for etymology (cf. 8-9n.) is particularly evident in the divine pronouncements which end his plays where etymology is often linked with the aetiology of a place-name; cf. 1590ff., /T 1453ff., Hel. 1670ff., Or. 1646f. The origin of the tribal names is a vexed question, since there is conflicting evidence as to whether they represented local, caste, religious or

1583

1584-5

racial divisions. »» Owen pp.194ff. Cyclades: not in the narrow sense of the islands encircling Delos, but generally to mean the island members of the Athenian alliance. For the colonisation of these and the Ionian parts of Asia-Minor see Thuc. 1. 12. gives strength: a reference to the alliance formed after the defeat of Persia in 478 which grew by mid-century into an Athenian empire. The allies contributed, often under compulsion, to the strength of the Athenian navy either by supplying ships or, in most cases, tribute, which was assessed at four-yearly intervals and paid annually at the time of the Great Dionysia. For the 'prophetic' present δίδωσιν cf. Med. 938, IT 1038, (Mastronarde on) Pho.

1590

1253. » P.J. Rhodes, CAH V 34ff.

area...straits: i.e. the Hellespont, the modern Dardanelles. Doros: in Hesiod fr. 9 MW he is, like Aiolos, X.'s brother and a son of Hellen (cf. 63n.); Eur. makes both him and Achaios junior to Ion and of

318

COMMENTARY purely mortal is thus given Athens itself. superiority is

origin. The city-state Athenian connections, The implications are being asserted and at

Doris must refer here to Sparta, which but a less distinguished pedigree than not clear: it would seem that Athenian the same time the current war is being

condemned as a conflict among kin. Cf. Introd. §4c. 1592

Achaios: the eponymous ruler of Achaia, an area in the north of the Peloponnese. It is identified here by reference to Rhium, a place on a promontory at the southern entrance to the Corinthian gulf, which seems to

be named for a specific reason. It has been connected with the victories of Phormio over the Peloponnesians in 429 and the exploits of Alcibiades in 419 (cf. Thuc. 5. 52).

1594

called after his name: cf. Hermes’ prediction in 75. For the use of the verb in the perfect tense in such naming

statements

Kamerbeek ed. J. M. Bremer et al. (Amsterdam,

1595

1596

cf. C. Ruigh, Essays

1976) 333ff. Text: the Ms.

ἐπώνυμος, ‘named after‘, with λαός, ‘people’, (cf. El. 1275) makes the construction of ὄνομα, 'name', awkward. With Kirchhoff's ἐπώνυμον it is taken naturally as internal accus. depending on κεκλῆσθαι, as in 75. everything excellently: having forecast the glory which awaits Ion and his progeny, Athena introduces the summary of his past with approbation of Apollo's deft control. The facts seen from a god's viewpoint justify her view, but the play has taken us beyond the immortal perspective. First of all: with purposeful tact, Athena begins the account of Apollo's handling of the matter not with his rape of Kr. (contrast 10f. of Hermes’ more objective report), but with her pregnancy. without illness: this is a reference to Kr.'s actual delivery (contrast the normal situation described in El. 656) and therefore not inconsistent with the Old Man's observations of her distress (944), which he evidently did not connect with Kr.'s pregnancy. Athena's emphasis on the ignorance of Kr.'s family only makes sense if Kr. gave birth at home, as Hermes said she did (16), and not in the isolation of the cave, as she wrongly remembers (949).

1601

secret: one of the play's recurrent themes, the need for secrecy alongside revelation, is raised at the end.

1605 1606ff.

promise: for this sense of ἐξαγγέλλομαι

cf. Hcld. 531, S. OT 148.

As elsewhere (cf. Hel. 1680ff., Or. 1666ff.,IT 1475ff.), the deity's words

meet with explicit assent. But it is noteworthy that neither Ion nor Kr. in

1608

their initial speeches refer to what is to happen: Jon expresses assurance that Apollo is his father and Kr. revises her opinion of the god. The unity of the finale is stressed by the three-way dialogue (cf. Or. 1678ff.). and given prominence by the use of trochaic tetrameters (for which see p. 215), as in A. Ag. 1649ff., S. OT 1515ff. and perhaps Pho. 1758ff. not...beyond belief: this has been seen as an inadequate expression of Ion's earlier scepticism, hence the emendations of Wakefield and Owen: kei

COMMENTARY

πρὶν τοῦτό γ᾽ οὐκ εὔπιστον

1610

319

(οὐχὶ πιστὸν) ἦν, 'even if before this was

not (readily) believable’. But while he wanted more direct assurance, Ion did not find Kr.'s account of his paternity incredible; if he had done, his attempt to question Apollo would have been nonsensical. neglected: Kr. might mean ‘neglected, as I thought’, but it is better to see here a reference to the objective fact that Apollo allowed Ion to suffer for a time from the loss of his mother (cf. 312f., 360f., 563ff.). Thus, while he did not allow the child to die (cf. 439), the fault imputed to him in 426,

though mitigated, remains. Heath's emendation ‘whom I neglected’, which makes Kr. voice now relieved feelings of guilt (cf. 963), resuscitated by Wassermann AJP 62 (1941) 229, is supported by Kraus 110. But much is against this: Kr. cannot speak of herself as ‘neglecting’ Ion; she thought she had

killed

him

(1499).

The

emphasis

of the

sentence

is on

Apollo's

behaviour and Kr.'s judgement of it; the second half of 1610 explains αἰνῶ in 1609, its first half explains οὐκ alvotoa πρίν which, with the emendation would be left bare. On the other hand, the Ms. text resumes, at

the play's end, the recurrent theme that the suffering of the past is not obliterated by its happy consequences. Apollo has been responsible for both. I am not persuaded by H. Neitzel's (WJA 14 [1988] 82ff.) more radical

1611-3

changes: οὕνεκ᾽ οὔποτ᾽ ἠμέλησε, παῖδ᾽ ὃς ἀποδίδωσί μοι, ‘because he was never guilty of neglect, he who now gives me back my son’. Kr.'s changed attitude to Apollo's temple symbolises the new light in which she sees the god. Now she does not weep at its sight (241f.), but shares the joy of other visitors (245f.). I can find no parallels for Kr.'s symbolic clinging to the door-knocker; as Owen says, the episode in Hdt. 6. 91

involves a fugitive seeking asylum, and Kr. is now very different from the 1614

1616-8

woman who clung to Apollo's altar in fear of punishment. The ending of the line is faulty both metrically and in sense. The corrupted words may have introduced the following point e.g. ‘For always then...’ (Hermann); more likely, the gnome in 1615 stood emphatically on its own and this line ended with a qualification to Kr.'s change, e.g. ‘for the better’ (Musgrave). The attribution of speakers in the Ms., which has little authority, leaves Ion

out of the finale. The arrangement printed gives two utterances to each speaker in the same order (for three speakers in trochaics cf. Pho. 616ff.): Athena issues commands; Ion, concerned as before with justice and propriety, repeats that fitting arrangements have been made (cf. his relief at escaping ἀνάξια in 1515); Kr. has home and the city on her mind. accompany: this need not mean that she had to descend and join the others as they leave; cf. Athena's intention, voiced from above the acting area, to travel back to Greece with those already at sea (17 1488f.).

320

COMMENTARY

1619-22 The Chorus end the play with a solemn farewell to Apollo and then with two sententious statements: the fırst is tied to the action (cf. their own view of the threat to the Erechtheid house in 1056ff.); the second, more general,

statement takes up Athena's in the end (1615) and Ion's fitting (1617/8).

321

General Bibliography (This Bibliography has been compiled by the General Editor, and concentrates on

works in English; a supplementary Bibliography for /on, has been compiled by the editor of this volume). I: complete critical editions The standard edition is by J. Diggle in the Oxford Classical Texts (3 vols., 1981-94); to accompany his edition Diggle has published many papers on the manuscripts and on individual plays, collected in Studies on the Text of Euripides (Oxford, 1981) and

Euripidea (Oxford, 1994). The edition of R. Prinz and N. Wecklein (Leipzig, 1878-1902) is still useful for its apparatus and appendices. The ‘Collection Budé' edition, by L. Méridier and others

(Paris,

1923

onwards),

sull

lacks

Rhesus;

it has

French

translation,

introductory essays and some notes. The ‘Bibliotheca Teubneriana’ issues plays singly, each with bibliography and some with brief critical notes, by different editors (Leipzig, 1964 onwards).

Fragments:

when it is published, Volume V of Tragicorum Graecorum

Fragmenta, Euripides, ed. R. Kannicht, will at last unite in one book the many longknown and frequently re-edited fragments with modern finds. For the present, see Hypsipyle, ed. G. W. Bond (Oxford, 1963); Phaethon, ed. J. Diggle (Cambridge, 1970); A. Nauck, Tragicorum Graecorum Fragmenta (Leipzig, 18892, reprinted Hildesheim, 1964 with Supplementum by B. Snell); D. L. Page, Greek Literary Papyri ('Loeb', London, 1942); C. Austin, Nova Fragmenta Euripidea in Papyris Reperta (Berlin, 1967). In this Series, C. Collard, M. J. Cropp, K. H. Lee, Selected Fragmentary Plays, Volume I (1995). History of the text: W. S. Barrett, Euripides: Hippolytos (Oxford, 1964) 45-90; G. Zuntz, Án Inquiry into the Transmission of the Plays of Euripides

(Cambridge, 1965) esp. 249-88; J. Diggle, Praefatio to his OCT Tomus I, v-xiv; The Textual Tradition of Euripides' Orestes (Oxford, 1991). Ancient evidence about Euripides' life and work is collected and translated by D. Kovacs, Euripidea (Leiden and New York, 1994). II: complete commentaries

F. A. Paley (London, 18571-18802 (commonsensical and still useful). E. Schwartz, Scholia in Euripidem (Berlin, 1887-91) (nine plays only; a more widely based edition of the ancient and medieval scholia is needed).

‘Reference’ commentaries on single plays are: W. S. Barrett, Hippolytos (Oxford, 1964); G. W. Bond, Heracles (Oxford, 1981); C. Collard, Supplices (Groningen, 1975); J. D. Denniston, Electra (Oxford, 1939); E. R. Dodds, Bacchae (Oxford, 1960); R. Kannicht, Helena (Heidelberg, 1969); D. J. Mastronarde, Phoenissae (Cambridge, 1994); R. Seaford, Cyclops (Oxford, 1984); U. von Wilamowitz-

322

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Moellendorff, Herakles (Berlin, 18952: reprinted Bad Homburg 1959); J. Wilkins, Heraclidae (Oxford, 1993); C. W. Willink, Orestes (Oxford, 1986).

Commentaries on the other tragedians important for reference are: E. Fraenkel, Aeschylus: Agamemnon (Oxford, 1950); R. C. Jebb, Sophocles (7 vols., Cambridge, 1883! - 19033); A. C. Pearson, The Fragments of Sophocles (3 vols.,

Cambridge, 1917). III: complete English translations D. Grene, R. Lattimore (eds.), The Complete Greek Tragedies: Chicago, 1958-9).

Euripides (2 vols.,

D. Kovacs, Euripides (Cambridge, Mass. and London 1994—), new 'Loeb' edition in progress. P. Vellacott, Euripides (4 vols., Harmondsworth, 1953-72) (‘Penguin Classics’).

IV: lexicography J. T. Allen, G. Italie, A Concordance to Euripides (Berkeley/London, 1954; reprinted Groningen, 1970); Supplement by C. Collard (Groningen, 1971). V: bibliographical aids L'Année Philologique has recorded publications since

1924.

Anzeiger für die

Altertumswissenschaft has published occasional evaluative surveys since 1948. D. Jakob, S. Said, Metis 3 (1988), 364-512 (Greek Tragedy, 1500-1988).

From Section VI below, see Burian, Cambridge History of Classical Literature, I, Collard (evaluative), Lesky (bibliography only till 1971) and Webster (esp. lost plays). VI: general studies and handbooks (Greek Tragedy; Euripides) A. Brown, A New Companion to Greek Tragedy (London, 1983) (a ‘dictionary’). P. Burian (ed.), New Directions in Euripidean Criticism (Durham, U.S.A., 1985).

A. P. Burnett, Catastrophe Survived: Euripides' Plays of Mixed Reversal (Oxford, 1971). The Cambridge History of Classical Literature, Volume I: Greek Literature, eds. P. E. Easterling, B. M. W. Knox (Cambridge, 1985), 258-345, 758-73 (chapters by leading scholars). C. Collard, Euripides, 'Greece and Rome' New Surveys in the Classics No. 14 (Oxford, 1981) (brief survey with bibliographical emphasis). D. J. Conacher, Euripidean Drama: Myth, Theme and Structure (Toronto, 1967) (best general introduction of its kind).

E. Csapo,

W.

J. Slater,

The

Context

of Ancient

Drama

(Ann

Arbor,

1994)

(comprehensive collection of ancient sources in translation).

A. M. Dale, Collected Papers (Cambridge, 1969) (on many aspects of drama). K. J. Dover (ed.), Ancient Greek Literature (Oxford,

1980), 53-73 (Ch. 4, "Tragedy’,

by K. J. Dover). H. Erbse, Studien zum Prolog der euripideischen Tragódie (Berlin, 1984) (analyses complete plays).

BIBLIOGRAPHY Entretiens sur l'Antiquité Classique,

VI:

323

Euripide (Vandoeuvres-Genève,

1960)

(seven papers, and transcribed discussion, by leading scholars). H. S. J. —

P. Foley, Ritual Irony. Poetry and Sacrifice in Euripides (Cornell, 1985). Goldhill, Reading Greek Tragedy (Cambridge, 1986). R. Green, Theatre in Greek Society (London, 1994). and E. W. Handley, Images of the Greek Theatre (London, 1995).

G. M. Grube, The Drama of Euripides (London, 19612) (handbook). S. Halliwell, Aristotle's Poetics (London, 1986).

M. Heath, The Poetics of Greek Tragedy (London, 1987). J. Jones, On Aristotle and Greek Tragedy (London, 1962).

H. D. F. Kitto, Greek Tragedy: a Literary Study (London, 19612). B. M. W. Knox, Word and Action (Baltimore, 1979) (collected papers on drama). W. Kranz, Stasimon (Berlin, 1933) (fundamental work on the Chorus).

R. Lattimore, The Poetry of Greek Tragedy (Oxford, 1958). — Story Patterns in Greek Tragedy (London, 1964). A. Lesky, Greek Tragic Poetry, trans. M. Dillon (New Haven, handbook).

1983) (scholar's

D. W. Lucas, Aristotle: Poetics (Oxford, 1968) (commentary). | I. McAuslan, P. Walcot (eds.), Greek Tragedy (‘Greece and Rome’ Studies, Vol. II: Oxford, 1993) (seventeen articles reprinted from the years 1972-89).

À. N. Michelin, Euripides and the Tragic Tradition (Wisconsin, 1987). G. Murray, Euripides and his Age (London,

19462) (an 'evergreen').

R. Padel, In and Out of the Mind. Greek Images of the Tragic Self (Princeton, 1992). A. W. Pickard-Cambridge, Dithyramb, Tragedy and Comedy, 2. ed. by T. B. L. Webster (Oxford, 1962). A. Powell (ed.), Euripides, Women and Sexuality (London, 1990). R. Rehm, Greek Tragic Theatre (London, 1992). A. Rivier, Essai sur le tragique d'Euripide (Paris, 19752). R. A. S. Seaford, Reciprocity and Ritual: Homer and Tragedy in the Developing City State (Oxford, 1994).

L. Séchan, Etudes sur la tragédie grecque dans ses rapports avec la céramique (Paris, 1926). E. Segal (ed.), Oxford Readings in Greek Tragedy (Oxford, 1984) (important essays by leading scholars reprinted). M. S. Silk (ed.), Greek Tragedy and the Tragic (Oxford, 1996) (important collection

of wide-ranging papers). W.B. Stanford, Greek Tragedy and the Emotions (London, 1983).

O. Taplin, The Stagecraft of Aeschylus (Oxford, 1977) (important for all Tragedy). — Greek Tragedy in Action (London, 1978) (vigorous introduction). — Comic Angels (Oxford, 1993) (vase-paintings and drama). A. D. Trendall, T. B. L. Webster, /llustrations of Greek Drama (London,

1971)

(vase-paintings and plays). P. Vellacott, /ronic Drama: a Study of Euripides' Method and Meaning (Cambridge, 1976) (the plays as veiled social criticism).

324

BIBLIOGRAPHY

J. P. Vernant, P. Vidal-Naquet, Tragedy and Myth in Ancient Greece, English trans. (Brighton, 1981). B. Vickers, Towards Greek Tragedy: Drama, Myth, Society (London, 1973). P. Walcot, Greek Drama in its Theatrical and Social Context (Cardiff, 1976).

T. B. L. Webster, The Tragedies of Euripides (London,

1967) (a profile of the

dramatic and poetic career as it developed). J. J. Winkler, F. I. Zeitlin (eds.), Nothing to do with Dionysos?

Athenian Drama in

its Social Context (Princeton, 1990).

Yale Classical Studies

25 (1977):

Greek Tragedy (papers invited from prominent

scholars).

VII: Euripides and contemporary events and ideas R. G. Buxton, Persuasion in Greek Tragedy: a Study of 'Peitho' (Cambridge, 1982). J. Gregory, Euripides and the Instruction of the Athenians (Ann Arbor, 1991). E. Hall, Inventing the Barbarian. Greek Self-definition through Tragedy (Oxford,

1991). J. D. Mikalson, Honor Thy Gods.

Popular Religion in Greek Tragedy (Chapel Hill,

1991). K. Reinhardt, Tradition and Geist (Göttingen,

1960) 223-56 (‘Die Sinneskrise bei

Euripides': classic discussion of Euripides' intellectualism and its reflection in his dramaturgy). A. H. Sommerstein, S. Halliwell, J. Henderson, B. Zimmermann (eds.), Tragedy, Comedy and the Polis (Bari, 1993) P. T. Stevens, 'Euripides and the Athenians', JHS 76 (1976), 76-84 (contemporary

reception).

R. P. Winnington-Ingram, ‘Euripides:

Poietes Sophos’, Arethusa

2 (1969), 127-42

(need for balanced interpretation of Euripides' cleverness). G. Zuntz, The Political Plays of Euripides (Manchester, 19632).

Cf. esp. Csapo, Green, Lesky, Murray, Padel, Vellacott, Vernant, Vickers and Walcot from Section VI above. VIII: theatre and production P. D. Arnott, Greek Scenic Conventions in the Fifth Century B.C. (Oxford, 1962). — Public and Performance in the Greek Theatre (London and New York, 1989).

H. C. Baldry, The Greek Tragic Theatre (London, 1971). M. Bieber, The History of the Greek and Roman Theatre (Princeton, 19612) (copious illustrations).

R. C. Flickinger, The Greek Theater and its Drama (Chicago, 19364). G. Ley, Ancient Greek Theatre (Chicago, 1991) (brief general introduction). A. W. Pickard-Cambridge, The Theatre of Dionysus in Athens (Oxford, 1946).

—

The Dramatic Festivals of Athens, 3. ed. by J. Gould, D. M. Lewis (Oxford, 1990). E. Simon, The Ancient Theatre, trans. C. E. Vafopoulo-Richardson (London, 1982).

T. B. L. Webster, Greek Theatre Production (London, 19702).

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

325

Cf. esp. Csapo, Dale, Green, Green and Handley, Rehm, Taplin (1978), Trendall and Walcot in Section VI above; Mastronarde in Section IX below.

Bain,

Halleran,

Hourmouziades,

Jens

and

IX: dramatic form and theatrical technique D. Bain, Actors and Audience: a Study of Asides and Related Conventions in Greek Drama (Oxford, 1977).

I. J. F. de Jong, Narrative in Drama.

The Art of the Euripidean Messenger Speech

(Leiden, 1991). M. R. Halleran, Stagecraft in Euripides (London, 1985). M. Hose, Studien zum Chor bei Euripides (2 vols., Stuttgart, 1990-1). N. C. Hourmouziades, Production and Imagination in Euripides (Athens, 1965).

W. Jens (ed.), Die Bauformen der griechischen Tragódie (München, 1971). M. A. Lloyd, The 'Agon' in Euripides (Oxford, 1992).

D. J. Mastronarde, Contact and Discontinuity: Some Conventions of Speech and Action on the Greek Tragic Stage (Berkeley, 1979). W. Schadewaldt, Monolog und Selbstgespräch (Berlin, 1926). W. Steidle, Studien zum antiken Drama unter besonderer Berücksichtigung des Bühnenspiels (München, 1968). H. Strohm, Euripides: Interpretationen zur dramatischen Form (München, 1957).

Cf. esp. Burnett, Heath, Kranz, Lesky, and Taplin (1977) from Section VI above. X: language and style S. A. Barlow, The Imagery of Euripides (Bristol, 19862) (widest appreciative study).

W. Breitenbach, Untersuchungen zur Sprache der euripideischen Lyrik (Stuttgart, 1934) (Index Locorum

by K. H. Lee, Amsterdam,

1979).

P. T. Stevens, Colloquial Expressions in Euripides (Wiesbaden, 1977). Cf. Section IV above; Lattimore (1958), Lesky, Padel and Stanford from Section VI above; Buxton from Section VII above; de Jong, Hose and Lloyd from Section IX above. XI: verse and metre À. M. Dale, The Lyric Metres of Greek Drama (Cambridge, 19682).

—

Metrical Analyses of Tragic Choruses, BICS

Supplement 21.1 (1971), 21.2

(1981); 21.3 (1983) (index of Choruses in 21.3).

D. S. Raven, Greek Metre (London, 1962) (analyses many complete odes). M. L. West, Greek Metre (Oxford, 1982) (standard handbook).

—

Introduction to Greek Metre (Oxford,

version of Greek Metre). U. von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff,

1987) (abridged and slightly simplified

Griechische

and interprets many complete odes).

Verskunst (Berlin, 1921) (analyses

326

Bibliography for Ion Editions and Commentaries C. Badham, Euripidis Ion (London, 1853)

M. A. Bayfield, /on of Euripides (London, 1889) W. Biehl, Euripides Ion (Leipzig, 1979)

A.P. Burnett, /on by Euripides (Englewood Cliffs, 1970) J. Diggle, Euripidis Fabulae 11 (Oxford, 1981) A.S. Owen, Euripides Ion (Oxford, 1939) A. W. Verrall, Jon of Euripides (Cambridge, 1890) U. von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, Euripides Ion (Berlin, 1926) Discussions of Text and Interpretation S. A. Barlow, "The Language of Euripides' Monodies' in Studies in Honour of T.B.L. Webster I ed. J. H. Betts et al. (Bristol, 1986) 10-22 W. Biehl, "Textprobleme in Euripides’ Ion’, Philologus 136 (1992) 14-30 A. P. Burnett, 'Human resistance and divine persuasion in Euripides' Jon’, CP 57

(1962) 89-103 J. Diggle, ‘On the ‘Heracles’ and ‘Ion’ of Euripides, PCPS 20 (1974) Euripidea 90-136)

3-36 (=

H. Erbse, 'Der Gott von Delphi in Jon des Euripides’ in Festschr. H. Rüdiger ed. B. Allemann, E. Koppen (Berlin, 1975) 40-54 B. Gauger, Gott und Mensch im Ion des Euripides (Bonn, 1977)

G. Gellie, 'Apollo in the Ion', Ramus 13 (1985) 93-101 B. Goff, 'Euripides' Jon 1132-1165: The Tent', PCPS 34 (1988) 42-54 R. Hamilton, 'Prologue, prophecy and plot in four plays of Euripides', AJP 99 (1978)

277-302 K. Hartigan, Ambiguity and Self-Deception. Euripides

The Apollo and Artemis Plays of

(Frankfurt, 1991)

M. Huys, The Tale ofthe Hero who was Exposed at Birth in Euripidean Tragedy: a Study of Motifs (Leuven, 1995) W. Kraus, 'Textkritische Erwägungen zu Euripides' Jon ', WS 102 (1989) 35-110 W. K. Lacey, The Family in Classical Greece

(London, 1968)

K. Lee, ‘Shifts of Mood and Concepts of Time in Euripides' /on' in Tragedy and the

Tragic ed. M. S. Silk (Oxford, 1996) 85-109 M. Lloyd, ‘Divine and human action in Euripides’ /on', A&A 32 (1986) 33-45 N. Loraux, 'Autochthonous Kreousa: Euripides, fon' in The Children of Athena trans.

C. Levine (Princeton, 1993) 184-236

BIBLIOGRAPHY K.

R. A.

F. C.

327

Matthiessen, ‘Der /on—eine Komödie des Euripides?’ in Opes Atticae: Miscellanea philologica et historica R. Bogaert et H. Van Looy Oblata ed. M. Geerard (The Hague, 1990) 271-91 Parker, Miasma: Pollution and Purification in Early Greek Religion (Oxford, 1983) Saxonhouse, 'Myths and the Origins of Cities: Reflections on the Autochthony Theme in Euripides' /on' in Greek Tragedy and Political Theory ed. J. P. Euben (Berkeley, 1986) 252-73 Wassermann, ‘Divine violence and providence in Euripides’ fon’, TAPA 71 (1940) 587-604 H. Whitman, Euripides and the Full Circle of Myth (Cambridge Mass.,1974)

C. Wolff, "The design and myth in Euripides' Jon’, HSCP 69 (1965) 169-94

K. Zacharia, "The Marriage of Tragedy and Comedy in Euripides’ Ion' in Laughter down the Centuries ed. S. Jakel, A. Timonen (Turku, 1995) 45-62

F. Zeitlin, ‘Mysteries of identity and designs of the self in Euripides' Jon', PCPS 35 (1989) 144-197.

328

INDEX Bold

figures refer to page-numbers;

other figures

give line-references

in the

Commentary.

address, to light 911, to part of body 1041-2 adjectives, privative 109-11, 790-1, 837-8 Aeschylus 4 Agamemnon 4 agon 12, 225 aigis 992-3 Aiolos 63-4 Ajax 5

Chimaira 201-4 Chorus 9f., 30 inconsistently portrayed 490-1 parodos of 177ff. request for silence from 234f. sententious reflection from 381-3 cletic hymn 452ff. colloquialisms 255, 275, 357-8, 417, 554, 742, 1331 covering of head 967

altar, on stage 1255-6

crib, Ion's19, 1389-94

Amazons

cry of protest 893 dekate 653 Dionysus 33, 216-8, at Delphi 550, 716-8

Acropolis

1575-8, buildings on 235, 498,

caves beneath 13, 1398-1400

1145

amoibaion 248 anadiplosis 705, 771-803, 1054 anapaests 169 antilabe 530 aorist, unaugmented 1205, ‘instantaneous’ 308 Apollo 32, birth on Delos 167, 919, Ion’s criticism of 205 apostrophe 492-4, to one’s soul 859 Artemis 465

Athena 33, 8-9, 452, birth of 455, identified with Nike 457 Athenian empire 34, 1584-5 athletic metaphor 863 autochthony 35 bastards 592 bay 76, 422-4, Bibline wine 1195 birds 154-81, 1196ff., 1494-5, in mantic 180,

1205 body-name antithesis 1277-8 breast 319-20, 761-2

Bromios see Dionysus burning a house in revenge 974, 1293 chance (τύχῃ) 41-8, 1259-60

chiasmus 258-61, 298, 355, 481-2, 1217

direct speech in narrative 29-36, 1128ff.

divine epiphany 25, 315 divisions in the state 595-606 dowry 298 earth's navel 5-7 Eileithuia 453 ekphrasis 178f., 282f. Eleusinia 1076 Enkelados 209-1 entrances 236, 237, 392ff., 510ff., 725-6, 1106, 1320 epikleros 71-3 Erechtheus 277-8, 724 Erichthonios 20-5, 29, 271-4 escape to elsewhere wish 796-9 Euripides: Aristophanes' view of 14 career of 14 characters in 15 fondness for paradox 1444 innovation in 18 interest in meteorology 1147ff. etymology in 8-9, 802-3, 997, 1580-1 ordinary life in 16f.

INDEX sigmatism in 386 women in 16 exits 449-51 exposure of children 18, 827, 954, 956-7, 1493 festal tent 1129, 282f. festivals: Arrephoria 496 dramatic 1ff. Panathenaia 209-10 flowers in rape setting 888-90 genethlia 653 genitive, subjective/objective 325, 898 genre 37 gesture 519 Giants 207 gods, in tragedy 8, in Euripides 17 gold 54, 146, 887-8, 1165 Gorgon 224, 989, blood of 1003-5 hearth 1463-7 Hekate/Einodia 1048 help friends-harm enemies 1045-7 Heracles 5f., 191-200 Hesperus 1148-9 Homer 4f. Hyades 1156 hydra 191-200 hypophora 629-31 hypotheses 15 lacchos 1074 illness of love 1523-7 imperfect, in ekphrasis 1148-9 Ionian cities 74 irony 109-11, 139-40, 308, 331, 354, 385, 979, 1248, 1276-7, 1286, 1307, 1324, 1329-30, 1372, 1478 Kallichoros 1075 Kastalia 84-101 Kekropids/Aglaurids 20-5, 271-4, 496 Kekrops 1163-5 Kephisos 1261 Leto 410 libations 1192f.

329 Long Rocks 13, 285 lost hero, tale of 22f Loxias 36 lyre 881-3 lyric metres 9 master-servant relationship 730-2 mechanema (intrigue) 268f.

Medea 12 messenger speech 11, 279 metaphor 59-60, 122, 161,188-9, 256, 31920, 410-2, 692, 1439-40 Milton, J. 190 mind-body antithesis 742 monody 10, 168, Ion’s 171f., Kreousa’s 256ff. myth 3f., 38f. names, significant 661 Nereids 1078-84 Night 1150 nightingales 1482 noble slave 854-6 nomos-phusis 642-4 Oedipus the King 7 old age, depiction of 739, 745 olive 1434-6 oracle at Delphi 5-7, 366, 421 oracles, wording

of 407-8, 429-30, 470-1,

533, 534-6 Oresteia 6 Orion 1153 paian 905-6 Pan 492-4 Parnassus 86, 155 Pegasus 201-4 perfect, forensic use 813ff. Pericles' citizenship law 672 Phlegra 988 Pindar 4ff. play on words 518 Pleiades 1152 polarity 485-7, 1238-43 polypragmosyne 598-601 polyptoton 381, 1066

330

INDEX

Porson's law 1 Poseidon 281-2, 446 prayers 240 privative adjectives 790-1, 837-8 prologue 160 Prometheus 455 proxenoi 335 rape, penalty for 445 recognition 25, duet 308, true and false 1402 refrain 172f. reproduction, theories of 406 rhesis 12 ring composition 246, 384ff., 905-6 sacrifice 10-1, 226-9, 277-8, 279-80, 401-2, 419-20, 653, 706-8, 804-7, 1125-7, 1204, 1235 schema Pindaricum 1146 silence, need for 257, 334, 859

slaves, torture of 1215-6, anonymity of 309, unreliable 983 Sophocles 7 stage, raised 739 stepmothers 1025 stichomythia 13, 25, 186 stoning 1112

suicide 1064-5 suppliant scene 1255-6 suppliant's rights 1259-60, 1312ff. swan 162, 164-7, 168-9 symposium 1169ff. theatre of Dionysus 39 three-word trimeter 810 thyrsus 216-8 tribes of Attica 1579, 1580-1 tripod 91, 366 trochaic tetrameters 215, 1606ff. Trophonios 300 tutor 725-6 vocative, hanging 112-4 wave of evils metaphor 927-8 weaving 191-200, 507-9, 748-9, 1419, 14899]

wedding ritual 1474 womanish wiles 843

youthful folly 545 Greek Words ἀγκάλαι 1337 αἰδώς 179,337 alölos 499 ἀμαθής 916 ἀναθήματα 107 ἀντίπηξ 19 δαίμων 1374-5

elév

756-9

ἐκπονέω 374-7, 1040 ἐνοπά 881-3 ἐπίσχες 1320 ἔρως 67 ἐσθλός 977 γύαλα 76, 220-1 θυμέλη 46 καιρός 1062 καταξαίνω 1266-8 κάρα 1476 λαιμός 1037-8 Adıvos 206 \dokw 776-7 μακάριος 561-2, 1354, 1461 μάρπτω 158 παρρησία 672 πελανός 226-9 προφῆται 369 ῥυσιάζω 523, 1406 calvw 685 στέμματα 224, 1338, 1389-94 τέκνον 517 τλὐἠμωμτλάω 252-4 τρυφάω 1375-7 φεῦ 1312ff. φίλτατος

χεὶρ Em χρηστοί

287, 521

καρπῶν. 891 598-601