Ion

Family: Athens · Role: son of Creusa and Apollo · First appears: Euripides, Ion — Scene 1

Before Ion is born, Apollo fathers him with Creusa; she secretly bears him, then carries him to a cave and abandons him. Hermes takes the infant to Apollo’s shrine at Delphi, where he is raised by the priestess. When he comes of age, the Delphians make him treasurer and steward of Apollo’s store, and Ion serves at the temple as “the servant of Apollo.”

In Scene 3, Creusa confides to Ion that she bore and exposed Apollo’s child, asking him to keep her secret from Xuthus. Xuthus believes the oracle has revealed Ion as his own son, embraces him, and Ion accepts him as his father. Xuthus names him Ion and invites him to Athens, but plans to introduce him to Creusa as a visitor, not as his son. At Delphi, Creusa learns of Ion and tries to poison him; when her plot is exposed, she admits she feared he would threaten her home and inheritance.

The Pythian Priestess reveals that she found Ion as a newborn and kept the tokens from his swaddling. In Scene 10, Creusa recognizes the ark and tokens, and mother and son reunite; she tells Ion that Apollo is his father and explains that Apollo gave him to Xuthus as a son, not by birth. In Scene 11, Athena confirms their parentage and says Apollo had Hermes bring Ion to Delphi and rear him. She directs Creusa to take Ion to Athens and establish him on the throne, while keeping his true parentage from Xuthus. Ion accepts Athena’s words and calls her their “kindly friend.”