Ion (1)

The eponymous ancestor of the Ionians.

Ion was a son of Apollon and Kreusa (Creusa) and abandoned by his mother in a cave; Ion was saved by Hermes and taken to Apollon’s temple at Delphi where he became an attendant; Kreusa eventually married a man named Xuthus but the couple was childless; they went to Delphi for advice and were told that they should adopt the first child they met when they left the temple; the first child they encountered was Ion but Kreusa was sure that Ion was a child of Xuthus born out of wedlock; she plotted to kill Ion but the priestess of Apollon showed her the swaddling clothing in which the infant was wrapped when he had been presented at the temple; Kreusa accepted the fact that Ion was her abandoned child and she and Xuthus took the child to Athens where, according to Athene (Athena), a prophecy had been fulfilled and that Ion would become the founder of the Ionian race.