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| Character | Tutor | |
|---|---|---|
| Gender | Male | |
| Age Range(s) | Young Adult (20-35), Adult (36-50), Senior (>50) | |
| Type of monologue / Character is | Persuasive, Descriptive, Reminiscing life story/Telling a story, Malicious/scheming | |
| Type | Dramatic | |
| Period | Ancient Greek | |
| Genre | Tragedy, Drama | |
| Description | The tutor urges Creusa to poison her husband and son | |
Summary
Ion is the illegitimate son of Creausa, daughter of Erechtheus and a rich Athenian. After being raped by Apollo she gives birth to Ion and abandons him. Ion is saved by Hermes who takes him to the temple of Apollo in Delphi.
Several years later Creusa marries Xuthus but they are unable to have a child. They decide to travel to Delphi to talk to the oracles. When Xuthus arrives to the temple, he is told in a prophecy that the first person that he will meet when he will leave the temple is his son. He meets Ion and believes that he is his son. Xuthus asks him to move to Athens with him and Creusa but urges him to keep it secret. He threatens his servants to keep it secret. One of Creusa's servants learns about it and in this monologue advices her to kill her husband and son by poisoning them since he argues her husband has betrayed her and her life is in danger.
Several years later Creusa marries Xuthus but they are unable to have a child. They decide to travel to Delphi to talk to the oracles. When Xuthus arrives to the temple, he is told in a prophecy that the first person that he will meet when he will leave the temple is his son. He meets Ion and believes that he is his son. Xuthus asks him to move to Athens with him and Creusa but urges him to keep it secret. He threatens his servants to keep it secret. One of Creusa's servants learns about it and in this monologue advices her to kill her husband and son by poisoning them since he argues her husband has betrayed her and her life is in danger.
Written by Administrator
| Excerpt |
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| TUTOR Lady, we by thy husband are betrayed, For I with thee am grieved, with contrived fraud Insulted, from thy father's house cast forth. I speak not this in hatred to thy lord, But that I love thee more: a stranger he Came to the city and thy royal house, And wedded thee, all thy inheritance Receiving, by some other woman now Discover'd to have children privately: How privately I'll tell thee: when he saw Thou hadst no child, it pleased him not to bear A fate like thine; but by some favourite slave, His paramour by stealth, he hath a son. Him to some Delphian gave he, distant far, To educate; who to this sacred house Consign'd, as secret here, received his nurture. He knowing this, and that his son advanced To manhood, urged thee to attend him hither, Pleading thy childless state. Nor hath the god Deceived thee: he deceived thee, and long since Contrived this wily plan to rear his son, That, if convicted, he might charge the god, Himself excusing: should the fraud succeed, He would observe the times when he might safely Consign to him the empire of thy land. And this new name was at his leisure form'd, Ion, for that he came by chance to meet him. I hate those ill-designing men, that form Plans of injustice, and then gild them over With artificial ornament: to me Far dearer is the honest simple friend, Than one whose quicker wit is train'd to ill. And to complete this fraud, thou shalt be urged To take into thy house, to lord it there, This low-born youth, this offspring of a slave. Though ill, it had been open, had he pleaded Thy want of children, and, thy leave obtain'd, Brought to thy house a son that could have boasted His mother noble; or, if that displeased thee, He might have sought a wife from Aeolus. Behooves thee then to act a woman's part, Or grasp the sword, or drug the poison'd bowl, Or plan some deep design to kill thy husband, And this his son, before thou find thy death From them: if thou delay, thy life is lost: For when beneath one roof two foes are met, The one must perish. I with ready zeal Will aid thee in this work, and kill the youth, Entering the grot where he prepares the feast; Indifferent in my choice, so that I pay What to my lords I owe, to live or die. If there is aught that causes slaves to blush, It is the name; in all else than the free The slave is nothing worse, if he be virtuous. I too, my honour'd queen, with cheerful mind Will share thy fate, or die, or live with honour. |
