“His father has named him Ion. To protect her from her father's anger, Apollo used his powers to keep her pregnancy hidden. “It contains the linen in which you were wrapped, dear son,” said the priestess. “I lay in my mother’s arms.”, “And did the earth split and devour your father Erechtheus?” persisted the boy. And Hermes, the winged god, sped to Athens, found the boy in the hiding-place Apollo had described, and carried him to Delphi in the basket woven of willow withes. Creusa, unaware of this went back to bring the child after feeling guilty. The goddess then told them to keep all of this a secret from Xuthus.[8]. The rest you may leave to me, for he is my own child, and I shall see to him.”. With renewed suspicion he tried to free himself from her embraces, thinking that this was only another ruse. About this time the Athenians began to wage a fierce war with the people of the neighboring island of Euboea, and in the end the Euboeans were defeated, largely because a certain stranger from Achaea brought particularly effective aid to the Athenians. “Welcome, dear mother,” he said, “for so I must call you, although you did not give birth to me. Seated at her tripod, the priestess prophesied that Ion would be the father of a glorious race, to be named Ionians, in honor of him. “Unhappy mistress!” they called out to her, “your husband rejoices, but you will never hold a child in your arms or suckle it at your breast. ERECHTHEUS, king of Athens, had a beautiful daughter named Creusa. “But how is this basket to help me?” asked Ion. Confused with sorrow and hopelessness she agreed to the evil plans of the old man and, in return, confided to him her relationship to the god. Hardly had she wetted her bill when she began to beat her wings and reel about, until at last she died in spasms of pain, while the guests looked on in amazement. But Creusa herself released him and stepping back said: “This linen shall testify to the truth of my words. Creusa, in the meantime, had not stirred from Apollo’s altar, at which she had prostrated herself in prayer. Xuthus recognized him as Creusa’s old servant, praised his industry and faithfulness, and, for the rest, let him do as he pleased. “And the last token,” said Creusa, “is a wreath of unfading olive leaves which I set on the head of my newborn son. With these in her hands, she hastened to the altar where Creusa was struggling with Ion for her very life. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library. Try to forget what I have told you—perhaps too readily and openly.”, Xuthus advanced joyfully toward his wife. “Now that he has given you a father, he has freed you to go to Athens.”. Ion searched the basket and, smiling in delight, drew out the necklace. Speak, old man, for it was you who lent your aid. Greek text available from the same website, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Creusa_of_Athens&oldid=984373656, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 19 October 2020, at 19:43. He himself hastened to the shrine within, while the boy remained on guard in the outer court. Creusa was the youngest daughter of Erechtheus, King of Athens and his wife, Praxithea. Now tell me what to do, and I will obey your command.”, The priestess lifted a warning finger and said: “Ion, start for Athens with unstained hands, and under favorable auspices.”, Ion thought for a moment and then countered: “Is he not stainless who kills his foes?”, “Do not kill until you have heard me,” said the priestess in majesty. Apollo, whose divine insight revealed to him the birth of his son, did not want to betray his beloved nor fail to help the boy, so he turned to his brother Hermes, the messenger of the gods, for—since he was a go-between familiar to both heaven and earth—he could walk among men without attracting undue attention. But not utterly, for even as he kissed and embraced his father he sighed: “O darling mother, where are you? But it seemed as though the sun-god took revenge on his beloved for marrying another, for she did not conceive, but lived childless. This son she exposed in a certain place, and ever since that time she has not known whether he is alive or dead. Then Xuthus sent his herald down to the city of Delphi and invited all its inhabitants to share in his joy. Impetuously he flung his arms about the boy, called him “son” over and over, and begged him to clasp him in return and kiss him with filial devotion, until the young servant of Apollo thought the old man must be out of his mind and thrust him aside with youthful strength. How famous the family from which you are descended! In order that the newborn boy might not be without some token of his identity, she put upon him a necklace linked of small golden dragons, which she had worn as a girl. Scarcely had I found a father, when my evil stepmother planned my destruction! But Xuthus would not accept such denial. You will find the tokens I shall describe to you. When Xuthus left the temple with Ion, he took him to the double peak of Mount Parnassus, where the people of Delphi used to worship Dionysus, whom they held no less sacred than Apollo himself and celebrated with wild orgies. “And I envy your mother so fair a son.”, “I know nothing of my mother, nor of my father,” the boy answered dejectedly. “The god himself revealed this to me,” he insisted. In 1754 the play Creusa, Queen of Athens by William Whitehead was produced at the Drury Lane Theatre in London. Without her parents’ knowledge she had become the bride of Apollo and borne him a son whom, for fear of her father’s wrath, she hid in a basket and placed in the grotto … Do not hope, however, that the god will give you the answer you desire. But what happened to her took place in a far-off land, and we are strangers to each other. He threatened us with death if we told you these things, and only the love we bear you compels us to disobey him. Is it true—what we have seen pictured—that your father’s grandfather Erichthonius came up out of the earth like a young tree? Online version at the Topos Text Project. After the prince had poured a libation in gratitude for his son, the boy—with the help of the servants who had accompanied him—set up a large and magnificent tent under the open sky and covered it with tapestries finely woven, which he had bidden them bring from the temple of Apollo. “There must be a necklace of small dragons, wrought of gold, in memory of the dragons in the chest of Erichthonius.”. As he approached Ion and poured a few drops on the ground as a libation, a servant who stood close by inadvertently uttered a curse. “Mother, mother!” he cried in a voice broken with sobs, flung his arms around Creusa, and covered her face with kisses. But in the play Ion, Creusa was impregnated by Apollo long before her marriage to Xuthus. Eventually, due to the intervention of Pythia who told to Ion that he was found abandoned and gave him the basket in which she had found him, Creusa realized that Ion was her son by Apollo she had abandoned, after Ion described to her the contents of the basket he had been found in as a baby. Apollodorus mentions Creusa as the mother of Achaeus and Ion by her husband Xuthus; she is presumably also the mother of Xuthus' daughter Diomede. Creusa is also mentioned as the mother of Ion with Apollo by Stephanus of Byzantium. [2] Apollodorus mentions Creusa as the mother of Achaeus and Ion by her husband Xuthus;[3] she is presumably also the mother of Xuthus' daughter Diomede. In the middle of the stuff you will see the Gorgon’s head, ringed with serpents, as it appears on the shield of Athene.”, Dubiously Ion unfolded the linen, but suddenly he cried out joyfully: “O mighty Zeus, here is the Medusa, and these are the serpents!”, “It is not enough,” said Creusa. And now the boy too gave up his reserve and yielded himself up to happiness. “But—if you will—tell me who you are and from whence you have come.”, “I am Creusa,” the princess replied. There he set it down at the gates of the temple and raised the lid a little, so that the child might be seen easily. He grew tall and handsome, and the inhabitants of Delphi, who had become accustomed to seeing in him a little guardian of the temple, now put him in charge of the precious offerings made to the god. “I never lay at my mother’s breast, nor do I know how I came here. And now an old servant, who was completely loyal to the house of Erechtheus and loved his mistress with deep devotion, separated himself from the rest and began to rail against Prince Xuthus, calling him a faithless adulterer. Creusa was awaiting the outcome of her desperate attempt at Apollo’s altar. Who is this youthful priest?”, The boy modestly approached the prince and told him that he was only Apollo’s servant, that the noblest among the men of Delphi, chosen by lot, were in the innermost sanctuary, seated around the tripod from which the priestess was preparing to issue the oracle. All the guests followed his example. His glance rested on the woman of noble bearing who came toward the temple, weeping at sight of the sanctuary. His divine will carried the news of Creusa’s attempted crime and of the punishment to be meted out to her to the ears of his priestess and illumined her spirit, so that she suddenly grasped the meaning in all that had happened and knew that her foster child Ion was not the son of Xuthus, as she herself had declared in ambiguous prophecy, but of Apollo and Creusa. And I shall confide her secret to you, who are the god’s servant, before her husband arrives. When Ion saw the priestess, he at once loosened his hold and advanced toward her reverently. But he, standing before her, continued his guileless questioning. Where is that viper with poisonous fangs, that she-dragon with eyes flashing flames of death? Then Ion, whom Apollo’s oracle had declared son of Xuthus, left the tent, and all crowded after him in wild confusion. “Linen?” exclaimed Ion. The prophecy given by Apollo seemed to indicate Ion as his son, so Xuthus decided to adopt the youth. The embroidery which adorns them I myself stitched long ago, when I was a girl. If and when he will, let him lay bare the secret.”. Toward the end of the banquet, when the flutes were beginning to play, he bade the serving-boys take the small cups from the festal board and set large vessels of gold and silver before the guests. They come from the first olive tree planted in Athens.”. Creusa was spared of the fate of her sisters because she was an infant at the time they had sworn to commit suicide if one of them died. “Creusa!” he called out to her, “Trophonius has given me happy tidings. “How long ago was all this?” asked the youth. “Did Poseidon really destroy him with his trident, and is his grave near a grotto dear to Pythian Apollo, whom I serve?”, “O stranger, speak not of that grotto!” Creusa interrupted him with mournful agitation. He alone can help me.”. That the goddess Athene placed the earth-born child in a chest, with two dragons to guard it, and brought it for safekeeping to the daughters of Cecrops? In this you were once exposed; from this I took you and reared you.”, Ion looked at her in astonishment. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library. She left her tripod and fetched forth the basket in which the newborn babe, together with certain tokens she had carefully preserved, had once been found at the gates of the temple at Delphi. How this can be I do not know, for my wife has never borne me a child. For the fate I mourn may well be visible in my face.”, “It is not my wish to intrude upon your grief,” said the boy. So she lifted him tenderly and reared him herself, and the boy played about his father’s altar and knew nothing of his parents. We do not know who his mother is. A gust of sound from far off roused her from her lonely brooding, and as it swelled and came nearer, one of her husband’s serving-men, who was loyal to her above all others, ran in the van of the surging mob to tell her that her plot had been discovered and that the people of Delphi were resolved to kill her. Help me rescue my son! You blended the draught and handed me the cup!” And he gripped the servant’s shoulder and would not release him. As far back as I can remember, the house of the god has been my dwelling. “It is for her sake I have come to consult the oracle. In his passionate zeal he even offered to do away with this bastard son, who would otherwise unlawfully acquire the heritage of the Erechthides. [7] According to the general tradition, Creusa had Ion, Achaeus and Dorus by Xuthus. In the meantime the furious Delphians, led by Ion, came closer and closer, and even before they reached the temple, the boy’s angry words were carried to her by the wind. In Greek mythology, Creusa (/kriˈuːsə/; Ancient Greek: Κρέουσα Kreousa "princess" ) was an Athenian princess. “So you have no children?” the youth asked her sadly. He came to meet Xuthus, as he was coming from the temple. At this Ion rose from his seat, angrily shook his arms free of his robe, clenched his fists, and cried: “Who is it that wanted to kill me?
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