Ἴων
Ion
Euripides · Date disputed, c. 418–410 BC
Creusa and Xuthus come to Delphi to ask for a child, and meet the temple servant Ion, the boy she once abandoned.
Persons, in order of appearance
- Ερ.Hermes
- ΙωνIon
- Χο.Chorus
- Κρ.Creusa
- Ξο.Xuthus
- Πρε.Old Servant
- Θε.Servant
- Προ.Pythian Priestess
- Αθ.Athena
Translations
- E. P. Coleridgeprose · 1891 · aligned by line · with Murray's Greek
- A. S. Wayverse · 1912 · aligned by speech · with Murray's Greek
Greek texts
Cite as Eur. Ion 1–1622
Full synopsis (tells the ending)
Creusa, queen of Athens, once bore Apollo a son and abandoned him. He was carried to Delphi and raised in the temple, and is now its young servant, Ion. Creusa and her husband Xuthus come to Delphi to ask for a child. The oracle gives Xuthus Ion. Creusa, told nothing of her own son and sure she has been supplanted, tries to poison the boy; the plot is found out and Ion comes to kill her at the altar. The Pythia produces the cradle he was found in, Creusa knows the tokens in it, and Athena confirms whose son he is.
Drawing: Line drawing after the 1857 plate of a red-figure vase (Lenormant and de Witte, Élite des monuments céramographiques II, pl. XLVI); cut out and retraced.