Page:Lives of Poets-Laureate.djvu/310

296

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And here to Loxias' Oracle are come

Yearning for children. Nor doth God forget,

But helpeth on the matter to this end.

For when old Xuthus to the sacred shrine

Cometh, t'will give up to him his own son—

His origin revealing, so the youth

May hie him to his mother's home, and there

Be recognised by her—Apollo's loves

Be kept in sacred secresy—and Ion

Gain all things fitting his estate and birth."

When Creusa appears at the Oracle, Ion meets her, and asks her for what purpose she comes? She is reminded of the scene of her early amour with the god, and exclaims (v. 251.):

She tells him the mission on which she and her husband have come.

He asks:

She adroitly avoids the question:

The dialogue between them is pathetic and beautiful. He commiserates her condition, and she grieves over his parentless state, and total ignorance of his birth and origin, She relates to him the story of her amour with