Stasimon 4
[Episode]
Ah me! I see no way at all to turn death’s
Chorus
hand aside; all, all, ere this, is brought to light owing to that fatal draught of the wine-god’s juice mixed for death with drops of viper’s gore, quick to slay;
1230
detected is our offering to the dead; for me my life must end in woe, while death by stoning waits my mistress. How can I escape? Shall I take wings and fly away, or creep beneath the darksome caverns of the earth,
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striving to shun the doom of death by stoning? or shall I mount the car drawn by swiftest steeds, or embark upon a ship?
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No man may hide his guilt, save when some
god of his own will steals him away. Ah! my poor mistress! what suffering now awaits thy soul? Must then our wish to work another harm end in our own discomfiture, as justice doth decree?
1245
Creusa
My trusty maids, the men of death are on my track; the vote of Delphi goes against me; they give me up to die.
1250
Chorus
Unhappy one! we know thy sad mischance, how thou art placed.
Creusa
Oh! whither can I fly? for scarce had I the start of my pursuers from the house in my race for life; ’tis by stealth alone that I have thus far escaped my foes.
Chorus
Where shouldst thou fly except to the altar?
1255
Creusa
What good is that to me?
1255
Chorus
To slay a suppliant is forbidden.
Creusa
Aye, but the law has given me over to death.
Chorus
Only if thou fall into their hands.
Creusa
Look! here they come, cruel champions of vengeance, eagerly brandishing their swords.
Chorus
Sit thee down upon the altar of burnt-offering! for if thou art slain there, thou wilt fix
upon thy murderers the stain of bloodguiltiness; but we must bear our fortune.
1260
Ion
O father Cephissus, with the bull-shaped head, what a viper is this thy child, or dragon with fiery eyes that dart a murderous gleam, in whose heart is throned incarnate daring,
noxious as those Gorgon drops of venom wherewith she sought to compass my death. Seize her, that the peaks of Parnassus may card the flowing tresses of her hair, for thence shall she be hurled headlong amid the rocks. My lucky star hath kept me
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from going to Athens, there to fall beneath the power of a step-mother. For I have gauged thy feelings towards me—the full extent of thy bitter hostility—whilst yet amongst my friends; for hadst thou once shut me tip within thy house, my road to Hades’ halls had led direct from thence.
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This altar shall not save thee, nor yet Apollo’s courts, for that pity thou implorest cries out more loudly for me and my mother, who, though absent in the flesh, is never in name far from me.
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Behold this cursed woman, see the web of trickery she hath woven! yet comes she cowering to Apollo’s altar, thinking to escape the punishment of her misdeeds.
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Creusa
I warn thee not to slay me, both in my own name and in his at whose altar I am stationed.
Ion
What hast thou to do with Phoebus?
Creusa
This body I devote unto that god to keep.
1285
Ion
And yet thou wert for poisoning his minister?
Creusa
But thou wert not Apollo’s any longer, but thy father’s.
Ion
Nay, I was his son, that is, in absence of a real father.
Creusa
Thou wert so then; now ’tis I, not thou, who am Apollo’s.
Ion
Well, thou art not guiltless now, whereas I was then.
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