Lightly thus,with constant care,The pavement of the god I sweep,When over the Parnassian steep Flames the bright sun's mounting ray;This my task each rising day.
Son of Latona,Paean,Paean,hail!
Never,O never may thy honours fail!
antistrophe Grateful is my task,who wait Serving,Phoebus,at thy gate;Honouring thus thy hallow'd shrine,Honour for the task is mine.
Labouring with unwilling hands,Me no mortal man commands:
But,immortal gods,to you All my pleasing toil is due.
Phoebus is to me a sire;
Grateful thoughts my soul inspire;
Nurtured by thy bounty here,Thee,Apollo,I revere;As a father's I repeat.
Son of Latona,Paean,Paean,hail!
Never,O never may thy honours fail!
Now from this labour with the laurel bough I cease;and sprinkling from the golden vase The chaste drops which Castalia's fountain rolls,Bedew the pavement.Never may I quit This office to the god;or,if I quit it,Be it,good Fortune,at thy favouring call!
But see,the early birds have left their nests,And this way from Parnassus wing their flight.
Come not,I charge you,near the battlements,Nor near the golden dome.Herald of Jove,Strong though thy beak beyond the feather'd kind,My bow shall reach thee.Towards the altar,see,A swan comes sailing:elsewhere wilt thou move Thy scarlet-tinctured foot?or from my bow The lyre of Phoebus to thy notes attuned Will not protect thee;farther stretch thy wings;Go,wanton,skim along the Delian lake,Or wilt thou steep thy melody in blood.
Look,what strange bird comes onwards;wouldst thou fix Beneath the battlements thy straw-built nest?
My singing bow shall drive thee hence;begone,Or to the banks of Alpheus,gulfy stream,Or to the Isthmian grove;there hatch thy young;Mar not these pendent ornaments,nor soil The temple of the god:I would not kill you:
'Twere pity,for to mortal man you bear The message of the gods;yet my due task Must be perform'd,and never will I cease My service to the god who nurtured me.
(The CHORUS enters.The following lines between ION and the CHORUSare chanted responsively as they gaze admiringly at the decorations on the temple.)CHORUS
The stately column,and the gorgeous dome Raised to the gods,are not the boast alone Of our magnificent Athens;nor the statues That grace her streets;this temple of the god,Son of Latona,beauteous to behold,Beams the resplendent light of both her children.
ION
Turn thine eyes this way;look,the son of Jove Lops with his golden scimitar the heads Of the Lernean Hydra:view it well.
CHORUS
I see him.
ION
And this other standing nigh,Who snatches from the fire the blazing brand.
CHORUS
What is his name?the subject,on the web Design'd,these hands have wrought in ductile gold.
ION
The shield-supporting Iolaus,who bears The toils in common with the son of Jove.
View now this hero;on his winged steed The triple-bodied monster's dreadful force He conquers through the flames his jaws emit.
CHORUS
I view it all attentively.
ION
Observe The battle of the giants,on the walls Sculptured in stone.
CHORUS
Let us note this,my friends.
ION
See where against Enceladus she shakes Her gorgon shield.
CHORUS
I see my goddess,Pallas.
ION
Mark the tempestuous thunder's flaming bolt Launch'd by the hand of Jove.
CHORUS
The furious Mimas Here blazes in the volley'd fires:and there Another earth-born monster falls beneath The wand of Bacchus wreathed with ivy round,No martial spear.But,as 'tis thine to tend This temple,let me ask thee,is it lawful,Leaving our sandals,its interior parts To visit?
ION
Strangers,this is not permitted.
CHORUS
Yet may we make inquiries of thee?
ION
Speak;
What wouldst thou know?
CHORUS
Whether this temple's site Be the earth's centre?
ION
Ay,with garlands hung,And gorgons all around.
CHORUS
So fame reports.
ION
If at the gate the honey'd cake be offer'd,Would you consult the oracle,advance To the altar:till the hallow'd lamb has bled In sacrifice,approach not the recess.
CHORUS
I am instructed:what the god appoints As laws,we wish not to transgress:without Enough of ornament delights our eyes.
ION
Take a full view of all;that is allow'd.
CHORUS
To view the inmost shrine was our lord's order.
ION
Who are you call'd?Attendants on what house?
CHORUS
Our lords inhabit the magnific domes Of Pallas.-But she comes,of whom thou askest.
(CREUSA and attendants enter.)
ION
Lady,whoe'er thou art,that liberal air Speaks an exalted mind:there is a grace,A dignity in those of noble birth,That marks their high rank.Yet I marvel much That from thy closed lids the trickling tear Water'd thy beauteous cheeks,soon as thine eye Beheld this chaste oracular seat of Phoebus.
What brings this sorrow,lady?All besides,Viewing the temple of the god,are struck With joy;thy melting eye o'erflows with tears.
CREUSA
Not without reason,stranger,art thou seized With wonder at my tears:this sacred dome Awakes the sad remembrance of things past.
I had my mind at home,though present here.
How wretched is our sex!And,O ye gods,What deeds are yours!Where may we hope for right,If by the injustice of your power undone?
ION
Why,lady,this inexplicable grief?
CREUSA
It matters not;my mind resumes its firmless:
I say no more;cease thy concern for me.
ION
But say,who art thou?whence?what country boasts Thy birth?and by what name may we address thee?
CREUSA
Creusa is my name,drawn from Erechtheus My high-born lineage;Athens gave me birth.
Illustrious is thy state;thy ancestry So noble that I look with reverence on thee.
CREUSA
Happy indeed is this,in nothing farther.
ION
But tell me,is it true what fame has blazon'd?
CREUSA
What wouldst thou ask?Stranger,I wish to know.
ION
Sprung the first author of thy line from the earth?
CREUSA
Ay,Erichthonius;but my race avails not.
ION
And did Minerva raise him from the earth?
CREUSA
Held in her virgin hands:she bore him not.
ION
And gave him as the picture represents?
CREUSA
Daughters of Cecrops these,charged not to see him.
ION
The virgins ope'd the interdicted chest?
CREUSA
