Ion
- an Athenian, son of Xuthus, who led a colony into Asia; from him is derived the name Ionia, Vitr. 4, 1; Stat. Th. 8, 454.—
- II A sculptor of the one hundred and thirteenth Olympiad, Plin. 34, 8, 19, § 51.
➳.
(Ἴων), the fabulous ancestor of the Ionians, is described as a son of Apollo by Creusa, the daughter of Erechtheus and wife of Xuthus. (Apollod. 1.7.3; Creusa.) The most celebrated story about him is that which forms the subject of the Ion of Euripides. Apollo had visited Creusa in a cave below the Propylaea, and when she gave birth to a son, she exposed him in the same cave. The god, however, had the child conveyed to Delphi, and there had him educated by a priestess. 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 recognised him as his son; but Creusa, imagining him to be a son of her husband by a former beloved, caused a cup to be presented to the youth, which was filled with the poisonous blood of a dragon. However, her object 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 mystery, and showed that Ion was the son of Creusa. Mother and son thus became reconciled, but Xuthus was not let into the secret. The latter, however, was satisfied, for he too received a promise that he should become a father, viz. of Dorus and Achaeus.
The inhabitants of Aegialus, on the northern coast of Peloponnesus, were likewise Ionians, and among them another tradition was current. Xuthus, when expelled from Thessaly, went to Aegialus. After his death Ion was on the point of marching against the Aegialeans, when their king Selinus gave him his daughter Helice in marriage. After the death of Selins, Ion succeeded to the throne, and thus the Aegialeans received the name of Ionians, and the town of Helice was built in honour of Ion's wife. (Paus. 7.1.2; Apollod. 1.7.2 ) 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, Aegicores, Argades, and lloples, according to whom he divided the Athenians into four classes, which derived their names from his sons. After his death he was buried at Potamus. (Eur. Ion 578 ; Strab. viii. p.383; Conon, Narrat. 27; comp. Hdt. 5.66.) [L.S]
(Ἴων), of Thessalonica, was an officer of Perseus, king of Macedonia, and commanded, with Timanor, his light-armed troops in the battle in Thessaly, in which the Romans were defeated, B. C. 171. In B. C. 168, after Perseus had been conquered at Pydna, Ion delivered up at Samothrace to Cn. Octavius (the commander of the Roman fleet) the king's younger children, who had been entrusted to his care. (Liv. 42.58, 45.6.) [E.E]
(Ἴων).
1. Of Chios, was one of the five Athenian tragic poets of the canon, and also a composer of other kinds of poetry; and, moreover, a prose writer, both of history and philosophy. He is mentioned by Strabo (xiv. p.645) among the celebrated men of Chios. He was the son of Orthomenes, and was surnamed the son of Xuthus : the latter was probably a nickname given him by the comic poets, in allusion to Xuthus, the father of the mythical Ion. (Schol. ad Aristoph. Pac. 830; Suid. Eudoc. Harpocr. s. v.) When very young he went to Athens, where he enjoyed the society of Cimon, of whom he left laudatory notices in some of his works (probably in the ύπομνήματα), which are quoted by Plutarch. (Cim. 5, 9, 16.) The same writer informs us that Ion severely criticised Pericles (Peric. 5, 28), who is said to have been his rival in love. (Ath. x. p. 436f.) Ion was familiarly acquainted with Aeschylus, if we may believe an anecdote related by Plutarch (De Profect. in Virt. 8, p. 79), but he did not come forward as a tragedian till after that poet's death. We also learn from Ion himself (in his ἐπιδηυίαι, apud Aih. xiii. p. 603e.) that he met Sophocles at Chios, when the latter was commander of the expedition against Samos, B. C. 440. His first tragedy was brought out in the 82d Olympiad (B. C. 452); he is mentioned as third in competition with Euripides and Iophon, in Ol. 87, 4 (B. C. 429-428); and he died before B. C. 421, as appears from the Peace of Aristophanes (830), which was brought out in that year. Only one victory of Ion's is mentioned, on which occasion, it is said, having gained the dithyrambic and tragic prizes at the same time. he presented every Athenian with a pitcher of Chian wine. (Schol. ad Aristoph. l.c. ; Suid. s. v. Ἀθήναιος; Ath. i. p. 3f.; Eustath. ad Hom. p. 1454, 24.) Hence it would seem that he was a man of considerable wealth. Works Tragedies
The number of his tragedies is variously stated at 12, 30, and 40. We have the titles and a few fragments of 11, namely, Ἀγαμέμνων, Ἀλκμήνη, Ἀργεῖοι, Μέγα Δρᾶμα, Φρουροί, Φοῖνιξ ἢ Καινεύς, Φοῖνιξ δεύτερος, Τεῦκρος, Ὀμφάλη, Εὐρυτίδαι and Λαέρτης, of which the Ὀμφάλη was a satyric drama.
Longinus (33) describes the style of Ion's tragedies as marked by petty refinements and want of boldness, and he adds an expression which shows the distance which there was, in the opinion of the ancients, between the great tragedians and the best of their rivals, that no one in his senses would compare the value of the Oedipus with that of all the tragedies of Ion taken together.
Nevertheless, he was greatly admired, chiefly, it would seem, for a sort of elegant wit. Περιβόητος δὲ ἐγένετο, says the scholiast. There are some beautiful passages in the extant fragments of his tragedies. Commentaries were written upon him by Arcesilaus, Batton of Sinope, Didymus, Epigenes, and even by Aristarchus. (D. L. 4.31; Ath. x. p. 436f, xi. p. 468cd xi 634, c, e.) Other Poetic Works
Besides his tragedies, we are told by the scholiast on Aristophanes, that Ion also wrote lyric poems, comedies, epigrams, paeans, hymns, scholia, and elegies. Comedies
Respecting his comedies, a doubt has been raised, on account of the confusion between comedy and tragedy, which is so frequent in the writings of the grammarians; but, in the case of so universal a writer as Ion, the probability seems to be in favour of the scholiast's statement. Elegies Editions
Of his elegies we have still some remnants in the Greek Anthology. (Brunck, Anal. vol. i. p. 161.) Prose Works
His prose works, mentioned by the scholiast on Aristophanes, are one called πρεσβευτικόν, which some thought spurious; κτίσις, κοσμολογικός, ὑπομνήματα, and some others, which are not specified. The nature of the first of these works is not known. The κτίσις
The full title of the κτίσις was Χίου κτίσις : it was an historical work, in the Ionic dialect, and apparently in imitation of Herodotus : it was probably the same as the συγγραφή, which is quoted by Pausanias (7.4.6.) The κοσμολογικός
The κοσμολογικός is probably the same as the philosophical work, entitled τριαγμός (or τριαγμοί, which seems to have been a treatise on the constitution of things according to the theory of triads, and which some ancient writers ascribed to Orpheus. The ὑπομνήματα
The ὑπομνήματα are by some writers identified with the ἐπιδημίαι or ἐκδημητικός (Pollux, 2.88.), which contained either an account of his own travels, or of the visits of great men to Chios. Further Information
Bentley, Epist. ad Joh. Millium, Chronico Joannis Malelae subjecta, Oxon. 1691, Venet. 1733; Opusc. pp. 494-510 ed. Lips.; C. Nieberding, De Ionis Chii Vita, Moribus, et Studüs Doctrinae, with the fragments, Lips. 1836; Köpke, De Ionis Poetae Vita et Fragmentis, Berol. 1836, and in the Zeitschrift für Alterthhumswissenschaft, 1836, pp. 589-605; Welcker, die Griech. Trag. pp. 938-9.58; Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. ii. pp. 307, 308; Kayser, Hist. Crit. Trag. Graec. (Götting. 1845, pp. 175-190.)
2. Ion, of Ephesus, a rhapsodist in the time of Socrates, from whom one of Plato's dialogues is named, has been confounded by many writers with Ion of Chios; but Bentley has clearly proved that they are different from the character and circumstances of the rhapsodist as described by Plato. (Epist. ad Mill.; Nitzsch, Proleg. ad Plat. Ion. ; Kayser, Hist. Crit. Trag. Graec. p. 180.) [P.S]
ION (Ἴων), a river of Tymphaea in Thessaly, rising in the Cambunian mountains, and flowing into the Peneius: now river of Krátzova. (Strab. 7. p. 327; Leake, Northern Greece, vol. iv p. 546.)
(Ἴων). (1) According to the Attic story, the son of Apollo and Creüsa, daughter of the Athenian king Erechtheus. He was exposed at his birth by his mother in a grotto on the cliff of the Acropolis, whence he was taken by Hermes to Delphi and brought up by the Pythian priestess to be an attendant in his father's temple. Creüsa afterwards married Xuthus, who had migrated from Thessaly, and was son of Hellen and brother of Aeolus and Dorus. As this marriage was childless, the pair went to Delphi to consult the god as to the cause. Xuthus received the command to consider as his son the first person he should meet in front of the temple. This happened to be Ion, who had meanwhile grown up, and was at once accepted by Xuthus as his son. But Creüsa, fancying he was her husband's son by a former union, resolved to poison him. Ion detected her design in time and would have killed Creüsa, who, however, took refuge at the altar of the god. Then the Pythian priestess produced the cradle in which he had been exposed as an infant, and thus brought about recognition and reconciliation between mother and son. Ion married Helicé, the daughter of Selinus, king of the Aegialeans on the north coast of the Peloponnesus. At the death of this king he became monarch of the land, and the inhabitants assumed the name of Ionians after him. Afterwards being called upon by the Athenians to help them against Eumolpus and the Eleusinians, he conquered the enemy and was made king of Athens. From the four sons who are attributed to him, Geleon, Aegicores, Argades, and Hoples, were descended the four Ionic tribes.
(2) Of Chios. A Greek author of rare versatility for his time. He composed historical writings, among them a kind of memoirs of men of mark he had met, such as Sophocles; also lyric poems of the most varied types, and thirty or forty tragedies which were more remarkable for elegance and erudition than for elevation of style. When in B.C. 452 he won a dramatic victory at Athens, he is said to have presented every Athenian with a flask of Chian wine. He died at Athens in B.C. 422. There remain only scanty fragments of his works.
- Paus. 6.22.7
- Paus. 1.31.3, Paus. 2.14.2, Paus. 2.26.1, Paus. 7.1.2, Apollod. 1.7.3
- marries Helice daughter of Selinus and succeeds to kingdom of Aegialus: Paus. 7.1.3ff.
- eponymous ancestral hero of the Ionians: Apollod. 1.7.3, Hdt. 5.66, Hdt. 7.94, Hdt. 8.44
- names the people Ionians: Paus. 7.1.4
- commands Athenians in war with Eleusis: Paus. 1.31.3, Paus. 2.14.2, Paus. 7.1.5
- his grave at Potami: Paus. 1.31.3, Paus. 7.1.5
- tragic poet: Paus. 5.14.9, Paus. 7.4.8
- his hymn to Opportunity: Paus. 5.14.9
- his history of Chios: Paus. 7.4.8-10