Page:The Plays of Euripides Vol. 1- Edward P. Coleridge (1910).djvu/310

282. As I came forth from the god's temple

. Well! what should happen to him?

. Should be my own true son.

. Thy own true son, or a gift from others?

. A gift, but mine for all that.

. Am I the first that thou didst meet?

. I have met no other, my son.

. Whence came this piece of luck?

. To both of us alike it causes surprise.

. Ah! but who was my mother?

. I cannot tell.

. Did not Phœbus tell thee that?

. I was so pleased with this, I did not ask him that.

. I must have sprung from mother earth.

. The ground brings forth no children.

. How can I be thine?

. I know not; I refer it to the god.

. Come, let us try another theme.

. Better hold to this, my son.

. Didst thou e'er indulge in illicit amours?

. Yes, in the folly of youth.

. Ere thou didst win Erechtheus' daughter?

. Never since.

. Could it be, then, thou didst beget me?

. The time coincides therewith.

. In that case, how came I hither?

. That puzzles me.

. After that long journey too?

. That, too, perplexes me.

. Didst thou in days gone by come to the Pythian rock?

. Yes, to join in the mystic rites of Bacchus.

. Didst thou lodge with one of the public hosts?

. With one who at Delphi

. Initiated thee? or what is it thou sayest?