32 Ernest Heinrich Klotsche 



The Delphic oracle and the Delphic God are exhibited in a very 

 unfavorable light in our play. Apollo is represented as a seducer 

 of women, who attempts to hide his misdeeds by means of fraud- 

 ulent response: 



Ion 365-67: 



TTUS 6 ?9e6s o Xa^elv jSouXerat fiavTevaerai; 

 e'iirep Ka^i^et. TpiiroSa kolvov EXXdSos. 

 alffxweTat to Trpayfxa- firj 'feXeyxe vi-v. 



Ion: "How should the God reveal that he would hide?" 



Creusa: "How not? — his is the nation's oracle." 



Ion : " His shame the deed is. Question not of him." 



In other words : the God will never reveal in the oracle secrets 

 against himself. Therefore the seer Trophonius 



"... took not on him to forestall the word 

 Of Phoebus. This he said — nor thou nor I 

 Childless shall wend home from the oracle." 



(vv. 407-09.) 



The following verses refer to the ambiguity of Apollo's oracle : 



Ion 787-88: 



oro) ^vvavTrjaeitv eK vaov (Tv&els 



TTpwTO) TTocris COS, TTalS' eSw/c' avT(^ d^eos. 



" Whomso thy lord should first meet as he passed 

 From the God's fane, the God gave him for son." 



According to vv. 537, 775, and 788 the God's oracle was : 8l8cofxl 

 aoL Tov TralSa, thus leaving it ambiguous whether the boy was the 

 son of Xuthus or his own son. Therefore Creusa says : 



Ion 1534-36: 



■irecf)VKkvaL fxev ovxh Scopetrat be ae 

 avTov yeyoiTa- koI yap av <^tXos <^tXc}) 

 Soiri TOV avTov iralda becnroTriv 86fj.icv. 



" Nay, not begotten ; but his gift art thou. 

 Sprung from himself, — as friend to friend should give 

 His own son, that his house might have an heir." 



and Ion asks : 



86 



