Page:The Plays of Euripides Vol. 1- Edward P. Coleridge (1910).djvu/300

272. Creusa is my name, the daughter of Erechtheus I; my native land is Athens.

. A glorious city thine, lady, a noble line of ancestry! with what reverence I behold thee!

. Thus far, no further goes my luck, good sir.

. Pray, is the current legend true

. What is thy question? I fain would learn.

. Was thy father's grandsire really sprung from Earth?

. Yes, Erichthonius was; but my high birth avails me not.

. Is it true Athena reared him from the ground?

. Aye, and into maidens' hands, though not his mother's

. Consigned him, did she? as 'tis wont to be set forth in painting.

. Yes, to the daughters of Cecrops, to keep him safe unseen.

. I have heard the maidens opened the ark wherein the goddess laid him.

. And so they died, dabbling with their blood the rocky cliff.

. Even so. But what of this next story? Is it true or groundless?

. What is thy question? Ask on, I have no calls upon my leisure.

. Did thy sire Erechtheus offer thy sisters as a sacrifice?

. For his country's sake he did endure to slay the maids as victims.

. And how didst thou, alone of all thy sisters, escape?

. I was still a tender babe in my mother's arms.

. Did the earth really open its mouth and swallow thy father?

. The sea-god smote and slew him with his trident.