bring? What child is this thou dost assert that them didst bear? Where was it in the city that thou didst expose him, for beasts to rejoice o'er his burial? Tell me once again.
Cre. Old friend, although to meet thine eye, I am ashamed, yet will I tell thee.
Old Ser. Full well I know how to lend my friends a generous sympathy.
Cre. Then hearken; dost know a cave toward the north of Cecrops' rock, that we call Macræ?[1]
Old Ser. I know it; there is the shrine of Pan, and his altar hard by.
Cre. That was the scene of my dire conflict.
Old Ser. What conflict? see how my tears start forth to meet thy words.
Cre. Phœbus forced me to a woful marriage.
Old Ser. Was it then this, my daughter, that I noticed myself?
Cre. I know not; but I will tell thee if thou speak the truth.
Old Ser. At the time thou wert mourning in secret some hidden complaint?
Cre. Yes, 'twas then this trouble happened, which now I am declaring to thee.
Old Ser. How then didst conceal thy union with Apollo?
Cre. I bore a child; hear me patiently, old friend.
Old Ser. Where? and who helped thy travail? or didst thou labour all alone?
Cre. All alone, in the cave where I became a wife.
Old Ser. Where is the child? that thou mayst cease thy childless state.
Cre. Dead, old friend, to beasts exposed.
Old Ser. Dead? did Apollo, evil god, no help afford?
Cre. None; my boy is in the halls of Hades.
- ↑ Badham, whom Nauck follows, condemns this line as interrupting the στιχομυθία.
