Xuthus

Xuthus fled Thessaly after his brothers accused him of theft. He was the second son of Hellen, who had settled in Thessaly with his wife Orseis. Xuthus went to Athens, where he married Creusa, daughter of King Erechtheus. One account says that Creusa bore him Ion and Achaeus.

After Erechtheus was killed by Poseidon, his sons quarrelled over the succession. Xuthus acted as arbitrator and declared Cecrops, the eldest, the rightful heir. The decision angered the Athenians, and Xuthus was driven from Attica. He died in Aegialus, which was later called Achaia.

Another account gives a different history of Ion. Creusa secretly united with Apollo and bore a son. Fearing Erechtheus, she placed the infant in a wicker basket, hung golden charms around his neck, and hid him in a lonely cave. Apollo sent Hermes to Delphi with the child. The Delphic priestess found him on the temple steps, adopted him, and raised him in the service of the temple. In a further version, Apollo spirited the child to Delphi, where the priests named him Ion.

When Xuthus had no heir, he consulted the Delphic Oracle after many delays. He was told that the first person to meet him as he left the sanctuary would be his son. That person was Ion. Xuthus decided that he had fathered Ion years earlier during Dionysiac rites at Delphi, perhaps with a Maenad. Ion accepted him as his father. Creusa, angry that Xuthus now had a son while she had none, tried to poison Ion with wine. Ion first poured a libation to the gods. A dove drank from the spilled wine and died. Creusa fled to Apollo’s altar, where a priestess intervened as Ion tried to seize her. One related telling places the poison in Ion’s cup during a banquet celebrating his public adoption, and says that Creusa’s old servant confessed to the plot.