lot, but took to himself a slave to be his stealthy paramour and thus begat a son, whom he sent abroad, giving him to some Delphian maid to nurse; and, to escape detection, the child was dedicated to the god and reared in his temple. But when he heard his boy was grown to manhood, he persuaded thee to come hither to inquire about thy childless state. And after this, 'twas not the god that lied, but thy husband, who long had been rearing the child, and he it was that wove this tissue of falsehood, intending, if he were detected, to refer it to the god, whereas if he escaped exposure,[1] to repel all odium,[2] he meant to vest the sovereignty in this son of his. Likewise he devised anew his name, coined to suit the circumstances, Ion, because, as he asserts, he met him on his way.
Cho. Ah! how I ever hate the wicked who plot unrighteousness and then cunningly trick it out. Far rather would I have a virtuous friend of no great intellect than a knave of subtler wit.
Old Ser. Of all thy wretched fate this will be the crowning sorrow, the bringing to thy house to be its lord some slave-girl's child, whose mother is unknown, himself of no account. For this evil had been to itself confined, had he persuaded thee, pleading thy childlessness, to let him establish in the house some high-born mother's son; or if this had displeased thee, he ought to have sought a daughter of Æolus in marriage. Wherefore must thou now put thy woman's wit to work; either take the dagger, or by guile or
- ↑ Reading with Nauck λαθὼν for the MSS. ἐλθὼν. This was Musgrave's proposal. Paley reading ἐλθών suggests as a possible interpretation "having returned to Athens, and wishing to take advantage of the time;" but neither this nor any of the other numerous interpretations are satisfactory.
- ↑ Seidler's reading τὸν φθόνον for τὸν χρόνον, though not very probable in itself, gives an intelligible meaning, and its adoption may perhaps be condoned in a passage which Badham gives up in despair (cf. Paley's note).
