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Ion 1, after whom Ionia
was called, was exposed as a child, and saved by a
god who took him to
Delphi, where, reared in
a temple, he grew up as a peaceful worshipper. Yet,
after several vicissitudes of fortune, he turned
into a warlord and died in the battlefield.
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Birth and exposure of Ion 1
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Apollo, they say, made
love to Creusa 1, daughter of King Erechtheus of
Athens, beneath the Mount
of Pallas in Attica; and in due time she gave birth
to a child, whom she exposed in the same cave
wherein she had met her divine lover. There she
left the child to die, lying in an ark with
broidery from her robe attached to him as small
serpents, in remembrance of those which once had
warded little Erichthonius 2, her
great-grandfather.
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Saved by Apollo
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But Apollo asked
Hermes to save the child
and bring it to his temple at
Delphi, where a priestess
found him and nursed him, not knowing that his
father was the same god that there had his seat.
This is how Ion 1 came to
Delphi, and having grown
up inside and among the sacred buildings, he was
made steward and treasurer of the god, of which he
was proud, since he could say:
"Nor mother is
mine, neither father: his temple has nurtured me,
and I serve his shrine." [Euripides,
Ion
110ff]
And while he went about, making the
temple-portals bright with boughs of bay, he would
chant praises to Apollo,
calling the god his begetter and his defender, and
praising him in all possible ways.
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Xuthus 1, ally of
Athens
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In the meantime, war broke up between
Athens and the Euboeans
from Chalcidice. It was then that Xuthus 1, a
Thessalian banished by his brothers
Aeolus 1 and Dorus 1,
appeared in Attica with an army, and defeated the
enemies of Athens. And
for this invaluable service, he was given Creusa
1's hand, becoming influential in his new home.
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Childless couple
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But the man who had been blessed by victory in
the battlefield, and who although a foreigner,
would later appoint the king of
Athens himself, could not
boast of a similar fortune within the walls of his
own household, since he and his wife were still
childless after years of wedlock. So in order to
find a remedy to this annoying deficiency, Xuthus 1
and Creusa 1 travelled to
Delphi, hoping for
Apollo's good counsel to
come out of the mouths of those priests and
priestesses who tended the god's shrine at the very
navel of the earth.
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Visitor meets steward
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This remedy they wanted badly. For Xuthus 1 and
Creusa 1, as others in similar circumstances,
regarded offspring as a most fair boon, preventing
their line to perish. And they are many, who find
in their children the motivation for all their
actions, feeling for example, that there is little
purpose in producing and accumulating wealth if it
cannot be passed on to their descent. On that
account, and for many other reasons, children are
set above all other things, including a golden
treasure, since they are believed to brighten life
itself.
Keeping this fact of life in mind, it is curious
then to learn that Creusa 1 met Ion 1 in
Delphi when he was
sweeping the temple's floor, and that the mother
was just a visitor, and the son just a steward,
neither of them knowing who they were.
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Wonders of Delphi
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While Creusa 1 then talked with the steward, and
Xuthus 1 consulted the god, their handmaids went
around the sanctuary wondering at everything they
saw, saying both "Oh!", and "Ah!" when seeing
depicted in the marble walls, the gods, heroes,
giants, and monsters they had heard about.
And quite a few visitors of the 21st century
react likewise, that is, also saying "Oh!" and
"Ah!", and even "Wow!" when watching the same
monuments that the handmaids of Xuthus 1 admired;
but not generally those who come to
Delphi forced by some
institution that wishes to enlighten them; for they
wander beneath the crests of Parnassus like the
shadows of Hades in
their gloomy abode. And there is no one to cheer
their expectation up by saying, for example:
"Unto
Castaly's silvery-swirling spring, pass ye, and
cleanse with the pure spray-rain your bodies
..." [Euripides,
Ion
95]
... since the waters of Castalia are disposed
of, as if they were a nuisance, by the efficiency
of AD 2001, and expeditiously discharged into an
outlet beside dead stones. For most men of the 21st
century cherish those stones more than water
itself, and more than whatever might be behind or
beyond them both, and also more than the ancient
ever cherished the living soul of the gods. And
this is one reason why some look like the
aforementioned shadows, since the mere worship of
old stones can accomplish nothing, and resembles a
punishment.
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Xuthus 1 is given a son
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On the other hand, Xuthus 1 himself had every
reason to love Delphi,
and the oracle, since the latter declared that he,
Xuthus 1, was already father of a son, and that he
would recognize him in the first man he would meet
on coming out from
Apollo's holy place.
And the man Xuthus 1 met was Ion 1, to whom he
immediately said: "My
true-begotten son is this." And when Ion 1
questioned him: "Born thy
son, or given of others?", Xuthus 1 replied
with the same kind of clarity that oracles
sometimes show: "Given—and born from me he
is." [Euripides,
Ion
536]
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Ion 1 sceptic
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But Ion 1 wished to reject this sudden adoption,
foreseeing that Athens,
not exactly a great lover of foreigners, would
regard him as a Nobody and as a Nobody's son
besides, since Xuthus 1 himself was a Thessalian.
He also believed that, if he sought a name in that
xenophobic city, he would win great hatred among
the ambitious, while becoming laughing-stock among
those who, although influential, kept a low
profile. Besides, he reasoned, he would be coming
as an alien to the house of a childless lady, who
until then had shared her sorrow with her husband,
but who was now forced to bear her bitterness
alone. And Xuthus 1 himself, Ion 1 continued, would
have to choose everyday between casting his
adoptive son off and cleave to his wife, or else
honour his new son and wreck his household's peace.
Ion 1 also rejected political influence, which
he considered inferior to the happiness which comes
from an obscure life. For a ruler must feel joy in
being supported by vile friends, and must hate what
is good, if the State so requires. And he rejected
wealth, saying that men groan under its load,
except if it comes in just measure and sorrowless.
Having thus judged the offer, Ion 1 proceeded to
sum up the blessings he now owned at
Delphi, naming first of
all leisure, "dearest of
delights", he said. Then the friendliness of
all surrounding him, while he prayed to the gods or
had conversations with smiling faces, far away from
grief, villains and base men, and close to joy.
"Father", he concluded,
"My own life let me
live" [Euripides,
Ion
645]
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Xuthus 1 keeps secret his bliss
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But Xuthus 1, who would not accept such an
answer, made arrangements to take Ion 1 with him,
and organized a thanksgiving feast and sacrifice,
keeping the secret from Creusa 1, for as he
generously put it:
"I have no
heart to vex my wife with my own bliss, while she
is childless still." [Euripides,
Ion
656]
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Creusa 1 discovers her husband's bliss
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However, Creusa 1 discovered her husband's bliss
while they still were in
Delphi, and more sooner
than later. For tongues moving faster than many
other things in the world, she learned the whole
moving story from some servants, including the
following detail; that the son whom the god had
given Xuthus 1 was the same steward she had seen
sweeping the temple's floor when she arrived to
Delphi.
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The nature of aliens
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When her servants, now turned into confidants,
saw her in despair, they added more, saying that
this is of course the kind of betrayal that can be
expected from aliens, who come as strangers, wed
somebody, receive the heritage, and so on, only to
appear later with clandestine offspring, or another
treacherous surprise. Naturally they do not have
any intention of sharing fortune, neither for bad
nor for worse, since they look for good elsewhere,
as Xuthus 1, who most certainly took a slave to his
bed, sending his son to the Delphians for both
concealment and upbringing.
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Great labyrinth
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Now, many feel that unhappiness is easier to
bear if caused by plots, and easiest if the
plotters are aliens. For an alien, they think,
knows better than a fellow countryman how to
exploit innocence, and abuse the goodness of those
who are not aliens, since the moral inhibitions
that stand in the way of the countryman, cannot
stop an alien (who ignores or despises them) from
damaging someone else, who for him, is but an alien
too, that is, someone deprived of moral inhibitions
as well. Strange thought! A labyrinth greater than
Daedalus'! And inside
it, Creusa 1 lost herself, yielding to her
suspicious mind, stirred up by servants, who as
they sincerely admitted, loved her more than Xuthus
1, the Thessalian, of whom they said that he ought
to have sought a wife of his own race in the first
place.
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Conspiracy
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When mistress and servants were thus conversing
on this delicate subject, it became evident that
Creusa 1 should not be still, but instead should do
something "worthy of a
woman", as they called it. It was then this
proposal suddenly popped up:
"Grasp the
sword, or by some wiliness or poison slay your
husband and his son, before some treacherous death
shall come from them to you." [Servant to
Creusa 1. Euripides,
Ion
844]
Now Creusa 1 felt that
Apollo had double-crossed
her; for not only had he, after ravishing her,
heartlessly ignored the child she bore him, but
also given her husband a son while leaving her
childless. True that she had once exposed the god's
son in the same cave he was born, the same again
where Apollo ravished
her, but that was in the hope that the god yet
would save his own child. But, as some say, a gods'
heart is harder than steel, and
Apollo did nothing, or so
believed Creusa 1.
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Victim chosen
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All these circumstances, until then unknown,
came to the knowledge of the servants, who in their
indignation pushed Creusa 1 against the god. But as
she did not dare to go against
Apollo, they pushed her
against her husband, and as she still refused, for
old love and loyalty's sake, they pushed her
against Ion 1; and since the latter was a complete
unknown and a potential intruder, she yielded.
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Weapon selected
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When they had come so far, and already some of
the servants dreamt of becoming ministers and
statesmen—crime being one of the ways to reach
public office—, they proceeded to choose an
appropriate method to commit the murder. Dagger was
soon discarded because of the risk a public murder
involves, and instead poison was chosen, since
Creusa 1 had inherited two drops of
Medusa 1's blood, which
once Athena had given
Erichthonius 2, her great-grandfather, who in turn
handed them over to Erechtheus, her own father.
These drops she kept in a golden clasp which she
bore on her wrist, and as she herself explained to
her servants and now fellow plotters, one of them
was for healing of disease, and the other for
death.
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Do not blend
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On hearing this wonder, the plotters were
delighted: "O dearest, you
have all you need!", said the ambitious one,
asking whether Creusa 1 kept the drops mingled in
one, or several. And the lady had to enlighten him:
"Several: good
and evil do not blend." [Creusa 1 to her
servant. Euripides,
Ion
1017]
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Slayer appointed
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Having decided about the victim and the method,
they appointed the ambitious servant as slayer, who
himself chose Delphi and
not Athens as the place
of the murder. For in those now remote days the
theme of 'the stepmother's jealousy' was already an
old one, and if the crime were committed in
Athens, the lady of the
house would be held as murderess, though innocent.
And so, cleverness inviting not to look guilty,
they agreed to slay Ion 1 where they were, so that
he also should stay where he was, and so that (as
they put it) "never an alien
of alien strain in
Athens may reign" [Euripides,
Ion 1059].
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Instructions given
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Creusa 1's instructions to her prospective
minister were clear: to drop the poison of
Athena into Ion 1's cup
(and not into the general bowl) in the banquet's
pause, when Xuthus 1 and the other guests were
pouring wine to the gods.
The ambitious servant then, following his
mistress' orders, appeared at the banquet when the
men had already eaten and, taking charge of the
cups and filling them with wine, offered them to
the guests—the one poisoned to Ion 1.
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Assassin fails
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But when Ion 1 was about to drink from the
deadly chalice, he heard some servant speak some
inappropriate word. On hearing it, Ion 1, who had
been reared in a temple and therefore was well
acquainted with forebodings, held the word for
ominous, and bade fill up with wine another bowl.
He then cast the first to earth, and asked the
guests to do the same. Suddenly a flight of doves
dropped down, and dipped their beaks in the spilled
wine and none was harmed, but the one who sipped
Ion 1's wine died in convulsion.
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Creusa 1 chased
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This is how the murderous servant was detected;
and once the guests had forced him to reveal the
plot, they went hunting Creusa 1, the alien lady,
whom they intended to hurl from the precipice for
planning murder within the precinct.
Creusa 1, being chased, sought then refuge at
the altar and sat upon it; for heaven's vengeance
falls upon those who shed blood in the shrines. And
there she was confronted by Ion 1 and the armed men
who, in an avenging mood, followed him.
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Cradle appears
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Ion 1 would not kill her at the altar, nor she
would leave it; and that is why they exchanged many
words and accused each other, Ion 1 reproaching her
criminal disposition, and Creusa 1 accusing him of
wishing to take over, through Xuthus 1, the
heritage of the Erechtheids, which belonged to her.
But while Ion 1 waited for Creusa 1 to leave the
altar so that he could slay her, the Pythian
priestess who had once nurtured him appeared with
Ion 1's old cradle. And Creusa 1, having recognized
it, described to Ion 1 what was inside it, that is,
the patterns in that which wrapped him when she
exposed him in the cave.
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New home
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This is how Creusa 1 proved that she was Ion 1's
mother; and he, having been adopted by Xuthus 1,
found a new home in
Athens, not as the son of
an alien (which he had feared), but as full member
of the royal family. Or so he thought ...
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Xuthus 1 banished
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When King Erechtheus died, Xuthus 1, being a man
of influence, was asked to decide who among the
sons of Erechtheus should succeed him on the
throne. Xuthus 1 then appointed Cecrops 2 as the
successor of Erechtheus, and thereby he won the
enmity of the other sons of Erechtheus, being
banished by them from the city. Xuthus 1 then came
as an exile to Aegialus (near
Sicyon) where he made his
home and died.
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Peaceful man turns into warlord
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After his adoptive father's death, Ion 1, who,
from having been a peaceful temple tender had
turned into a warlord, waged war against King
Selinus, who had inherited and enlarged the kingdom
of Aegialeus 2. As this war was taking place,
Selinus offered Ion 1 his daughter Helice 2, and
proposed to adopt him as son and successor. Ion 1
accepted this proposal (thus being adopted for the
second time), marrying the king's daughter, and in
time succeeding Selinus on the throne.
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Death
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It was Ion 1 who founded the city Helice, and
called the inhabitants of his realm Ionians. When
later war between Athens
and Eleusis broke out,
Ion 1 was invited by the Athenians to be their
commander in chief. And despite the previous
conflicts with the Athenians, he came to their aid,
as Xuthus 1 once had done, and died in the
battlefield being buried at Potami in Attica, where
his grave could still be seen many years after his
time. It is told (although disputed) that during
this war Ion 1 expelled Dysaules (sometimes called
father of
Triptolemus) from
Eleusis, causing him to
settle among the Phliasians (near
Sicyon), where he brought
the Eleusinian rites.
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Ruler and eponym
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Others have said, however, that Ion 1 conquered
the Thracians under Eumolpus 1 during the
Eleusinian war (for the Thracians supported
Eleusis in that war),
thereby gaining such repute that the Athenians gave
the government to him. They add that Ion 1 divided
the people into four occupations, designating them
as farmers, artisans, sacred officers, and guards,
and establishied other regulations, leaving his own
name to the district Attica which was called Ionia.
Later the Athenians, to avoid overpopulation, sent
forth a colony to Aegialus, which was called Ionia
(after those who founded the colony), dividing the
new inhabitants into twelve cities, and calling
them Ionians instead of Aegialeians. And this is
the country which otherwise is called
Achaea.
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Epilogue
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The descendants of Ion 1 continued, after his
death, to rule Achaea.
But when after the Trojan
War, the
HERACLIDES invaded
the Peloponnesus, the Achaeans, who then lived in
Argolis under the rule of Tisamenus 2, son of
Orestes 2, sent heralds
to the Ionians asking for permission to settle
among them without warfare. The Ionians, fearing
the power of Tisamenus 2, rejected the proposal,
and a war broke out in which the Achaeans were
victorious. Having been expelled from their
country, the Ionians emigrated first to Attica and
later to Caria in Asia Minor, where they, led by
the sons of Codrus 1, founded some cities and
conquered others.
Among the descendants of Ion 1 who settled in
southwestern Asia Minor (or in the islands off that
coast) was Procles 1, son of Pityreus. The latter
is said to have reigned in Epidaurus, before he was
expelled by Deiphontes (one of the
HERACLIDES), to whom
he handed over the kingdom without a struggle,
while he himself settled in
Athens.
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Others with identical name
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- Ion 2 was son of Gargettus. After him the
Ionides Nymphs in Elis
were called.
- Ion 3 was a soldier in the army of the
SEVEN AGAINST
THEBES.
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