Ion (mythology)

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For other uses of this term, see Ion (disambiguation).

According to Greek mythology, Ion was the illegitimate child of Creüsa, daughter of Erechtheus and wife of Xuthus. Creusa conceived Ion with Apollo then she abandoned the child. Ion was saved by a priestess of the Delphic Oracle. Later, Xuthus was informed by the oracle that the first person he met when leaving the oracle would be his son, and this person was Ion. He interpreted it to mean that he had fathered Ion, when, in fact, Apollo was giving him Ion as an adoptive son. His story is told in the tragedy Ion by Euripides.

Ion founded a primary tribe of Greece, the Ionians. He is the equivalent of the Hebrew Javan.