Ion. Is there a spot there called Macræ?
Cre. Why ask that? what memories thou recallest!
Ion. Doth the Pythian god with his flashing fire do honour to the place?
Cre. Honour,[1] yes! Honour, indeed! would I had never seen the spot!
Ion. How now? dost thou abhor that which the god holds dear?
Cre. No, no; but I and that cave are witnesses of a deed of shame.
Ion. Lady, who is the Athenian lord that calls thee wife?
Cre. No citizen of Athens, but a stranger from another land.
Ion. Who is he? he must have been one of noble birth.
Cre. Xuthus, son of Æolus, sprung from Zeus.
Ion. And how did he, a stranger, win thee a native born?
Cre. Hard by Athens lies a neighbouring township, Eubœa.
Ion. With a bounding line of waters in between, so I have heard.
Cre. This did he sack, making common cause with Cecrops' sons.
Ion. Coming as an ally, maybe; he won thy hand for this?
Cre. Yes, this was his dower of battle, the prize of his prowess.
Ion. Art thou come to the oracle alone, or with thy lord?
Cre. With him. But he is now visiting the cavern of Trophonius.
- ↑ Reading τιμᾷ. τί τιμᾷ; but Bothe's τιμᾷ γ ἄτιμ᾽· ὡς which is adopted in Nauck's text, is a tempting emendation.
