===
Euripides’
Ion === One story of Ion is told in the tragedy play
Ion by
Euripides. Apollo had visited Creusa in a cave below
Propylaea where she conceived Ion. When the princess gave birth to the child, she abandoned him in the same cave but his father Apollo asked
Hermes to take Ion from his cradle. Ion was saved, raised and educated by a priestess of the
Delphic Oracle. When the boy had grown, and Xuthus and Creusa came to consult the oracle about the means of obtaining an heir, the answer was, that the first human being which Xuthus met on leaving the temple should be his son. Xuthus met Ion, and recognized him as his son but, in fact, Apollo was giving him Ion as an adoptive son. Creusa, thinking the boy to be a son of her husband by a former beloved while she was childless, she caused a cup to be presented to the youth, which was filled with the poisonous blood of a dragon. However, her plot was discovered, for as Ion, before drinking, poured out a libation to the gods, a pigeon which drank of it died on the spot. Creusa thereupon fled to the altar of the god. Ion dragged her away, and was on the point of killing her, when a priestess interfered, explained the truth, and showed that Ion was the son of Creusa. The mother and son thus reconciled, but Xuthus was not let into the secret. The latter, however, was satisfied after receiving a promise that he should become a father, namely of
Dorus and
Achaeus.
Ionian tradition The inhabitants of
Aegialus, on the northern coast of the
Peloponnese, were likewise Ionians, and among them another tradition was current. Ion was the son of Xuthus (rather than Apollo in this account) who after being expelled from
Thessaly or
Attica was brought to the area during the reign of king
Selinus. After his father’s death, Ion was on the point of marching against the Aegialeans, when Selinus offered him his only child
Helice in marriage, as well as to adopt him as his son and successor. It so happened that the proposal found favour with Ion, and on the death of King Selinus he succeeded to the throne. He called the city he founded in Aegialus Helice (the modern
Eliki) in honour of his wife and made it the capital of the kingdom, and called the inhabitants Ionians after himself. This, however, was not a change of name, but an addition to it, for the folk were named Aegialian Ionians. By his wife, Helike, Ion became the father of
Bura, eponym of the city of Bura. Later he took an expedition against
Eleusis (now Elefsina) with the help of the
Athenians and in the battle he was killed near Eleusis.
Attic tradition Other traditions represent Ion as king of
Athens between the reigns of
Erechtheus and
Cecrops; for it is said that his assistance was called in by the Athenians in their war with the Eleusinians, that he conquered
Eumolpus, and then became king of Athens. He there became the father of four sons,
Geleon (
Teleon),
Aegicores,
Argades, and Hoples, according to whom he divided the Athenians into four classes or tribes, which derived their names from his sons:
Hopletes (
Hoplites),
Teleonites (
Geleontes),
Aegicoreis,
Argadeis (
Ergadeis). After his death he was buried at
Potamus.
Other stories According to some accounts, Ion was the father of
Ellops, founder of
Ellopia, and possibly of
Aïclus (Aiklos) and
Cothus (Kothos). These last two founded the Euboean towns of
Eretria and
Cerinthus, respectively. Ion was also believed to have founded a primary tribe of
Greece, the
Ionians. He has often been identified with
Javan, who is mentioned in the
Hebrew Bible as the ancestor of the Greek people, but in the
Bible, Javan is a son of
Noah's son
Japheth. The earlier Greek form of the name was
*Ἰάϝων "
Iáwōn", which, with the loss of the digamma, later became Ἰάων
Iáōn, or plural
Iáones, as seen in epic poetry. In addition,
Dionysius Periegetes, Dionysius the Voyager, of Alexandria, in his
Description of the Known World ver. 416 mentions a river in
Arcadia called
Iaon. This river
Iaon is further alluded to in Hesiod's
Hymns of Callimachus, Hymn to Jupiter 22. This river has also been connected to the earlier forms of the name. ==Genealogical chart==