Xuthus

Family: Greeks · Role: husband of Creusa · First appears: Euripides, Ion — Scene 1

Xuthus, son of Aeolus and descended from Zeus, helped end the war between Athens and Chalcodon’s people; after taking part in the sack of Euboea alongside Cecrops’ sons, he received Creusa’s hand in marriage. Though they remained childless for many years, Trophonius’s response promised that neither would return home from the shrine without a child.

In Delphi, Xuthus called Ion his son and embraced him, believing he had found his own child. After Apollo’s revelation, Ion accepted Xuthus as his father, and Xuthus invited him to Athens, naming him Ion after the first person he met on leaving Apollo’s sanctuary. On the eve of their departure, Xuthus planned to present Ion to Creusa as a visitor rather than as his son, so as not to grieve her; later, Athena instructed Creusa and Ion to conceal Ion’s true parentage from him.