Ion (play)

Ion
Statue of Euripides
Written by	Euripides
Chorus	Creusa's handmaidens
Characters	Hermes Ion Creusa Xuthus Old Man Servant Servant of Creusa Priestess of Apollo Athena
Place premiered	Athens
Original language	Ancient Greek
Genre	Tragedy
Setting	before the Temple of Apollo at Delphi

Ion (/ˈaɪɒn/; Ancient Greek: Ἴων, Iōn) is an ancient Greek play by Euripides, thought to be written between 414 and 412 BC. It follows the orphan Ion in the discovery of his origins.

Creusa, daughter of Erechtheus, was a noble native of Athens. The god Apollo raped her in a cave; there she gave birth to his son and intended to kill him by exposure. She keeps all this a secret. Many years later she was near the end of child bearing age, and had so far been unable to have a child with her husband Xuthus, a Thessalian and son of Aeolus. So they traveled to Delphi to seek a sign from the oracles.

Outside the temple of Apollo at Delphi, Hermes recalls the time when Creusa, the daughter of Erectheus, was raped by Apollo in a cave at Long Rocks under the Acropolis. Creusa secretly gave birth to a child, whom she left in a basket, along with some trinkets, expecting that he would be devoured by beasts. Apollo sent Hermes to bring the boy to Delphi where he has grown up as an attendant at the temple. Creusa, meanwhile, was married to the foreign-born Xuthus, son of Aeolus, the son of Zeus. Xuthus won Creusa by assisting the Athenians in a war against the Chalcidians. Xuthus and Creusa have come to Delphi to ask if they can have children. Hermes says that Apollo will give the boy, soon to be named Ion, to Xuthus who will take him home to Athens where he will be recognized by his mother.

Hermes steps into a wooded grove when Ion arrives to begin his morning chores. As Ion sweeps the steps of the temple with a broom of laurel, he sings the praise of the god who is like a father to him. His reveries are disturbed by birds which he shoos away with his arrows, though not without a twinge of regret.