Does Athens offer us the hope of a world of justice and fair play in
Euripides' Ion?
Introduction:
• Ion can be read as an exultation of Athenian selfhood/citizenship as well as the bestower
of its imperial ideology. Play is concerned with the fates of its founding heroes, the
auctothonous Erechtheid family, which define its civic identity.
Yes:
• Play sees the elevation of Athens' founding heroes from the tragic cycle of revenge,
typically invloving kin-killing. Contrast to the Orestaia, the best example of this, in which
Apollo's intervention leads to Orestes killing Clytemnestra because she killed his father
because he killed her daughter - sequence of revenge and counter- revenge characteristic
to tragedy is interrupted. Tragic formula is reversed: anagnorisis occurs before Creusa
and Ion murder each other in error, as a result of Athene's divine intervention on the
behalf of Apollo and in her own right as Athenian state goddess. Contrast to Oedipus
Tyrannos, where Oedipus kills his father and sleeps with his mother before he knows
what he's doing.
• Link to: Euripides emphasises the importance of a legal framework in which the
punishment of intra-familial wrongs inflicted within (and outside) the oikos is
transferred from individual to the collective responsibility. Legal framework also a
necessary context for validation of Ion as an Athenian citizen. Contrast between bia and
peithe
• Similar to the Eumenides, in which the Furies' important role as punishers of
wrongdoing is emphasised but they are still sunk down symbolically below the Earth's
surface where they have a less immediate power - compare this to suppression of
wronged individuals rage through the intercession of the Athenian state on their behalf.
Athene uses legal language, and uses Peruasion - which was the polar opposite of force
(bia) in the Athenian mind - to convince Ion and Creusa that they are really mother and
child.
• Rationality triumphs over human excess. The emotionality of Creusa and Ion when they
are about to kill each other is suppressed by Athena's intervention - importance placed
on peace, reason and diplomacy reflects these Athenian values; prefigures them if we
take Euripides to be solidifying imagined Athenian mythic past. Note importance of a
court in the Eumenides - court emblemises Athenian justice - and the similar role Athene
plays there as an advocator of fair play.
• Link emotionality of Creusa to: reconciliation of masculine and feminine identity. Play
emphasises the need both Creusa and Ion feel for physical mother-child intimacy, even
when Ion's childhood is over. Audience sense of satisfaction/joy at their reunion, which
is what the rest of the action points towards. This is reconciled with 'masculine' political,
cultural, legal activities symbolised by Xouthos. Presence of autochthonous myth might
have erased the role of mothers completely but this doesn't happen - Creusa plays a vital
role in the play as an agent who makes her own decisions and whose grievances are
validated by the rest of the characters, whose motherhood of Ion legally validates his
existence in Athenian society.
No:
Amelia Williams
1
• We might not be satisfied with the fact that for Creusa, justice is delayed but not denied.
She goes many years thinking Apollo has raped her and then completely abandoned her
child, and suffers terribly when she thinks that her husband has conceived a child by
another woman. No revelation will take away the pain she has already suffered at the
hands of a god who dispenses justice but doesn't act justly himself. Counter argument: It
would be an interpretative mistake to think about Apollo's rape of Creusa in the same
way we would think about a rape committed today. Her abandonment of Ion is not
justified in the play by her inability to look at her baby because he's product of a
damaging sexual trauma, but because she believes Apollo himself will provide for his son
- and she's right. She is delighted to meet Ion in the end, and forgives Apollo, whose
intentions we can read as ultimately benevolent: Ion is a gift to Athens and the Ionian
race, his divinity empowering the Athenian bloodline and making Athens blessed among
other cities because of it's founding story which reconciles autochthony with a human
mother and an Olympian father. Euripides would not have wanted us to be too critical of
Apollo, who must not be read as totally anthropomorphic, but unable to predict Creusa's
pain and intended violence when he tells Xouthos Ion is his becuase such emotionality
constitutes human excess, which he is above: being divine, he wouldn't be capable of the
brutality Ion and Creusa are both hinted at being capable of as they plot to kill each
other.
• We might take issue with Apollo's dishonesty - he tells Xouthos the false oracle that Ion
is his son. 'here, Apollo commits a wrong himself that then drives others to attempt
murder since their vengeance against the god cannot be directed at the god himself. His
complicity in the vengeance as justice cycle, however, is clear in both cases.' [Kennedy
Athena's Justice p92] Made worse by the fact that Apollo is supposed to embody a divine
voice of truth. Also, the future of Athens rests on the lie that Ion is Xouthos' biological
son. How can the city be stable when a fundamental truth in its mythic history has been
suppressed? Counter argument: justice is still asserted, even if it is at the expense of
truth. Xouthos will still father two biological children by Creusa. He is happy in his
duping, and will still get what he deserves. The outcome effected by Apollo is still the best
for everyone from Athenian society's perspective: Creusa once barren older woman
becomes the mother of children, Ion the ephebe with no future within the polis acquires
full citizen rights and a vital maternal bond, Xouthos the middle aged man with no heirs
acquires one and will acquire two more. Nonetheless Apollo's portrayal is unsettling, and
the ending certainly uncomfortable - doesn't answer his child's questions, whom he has
disturbed with his immoral conduct.
Conclusion:
• Overall the picture of Athens is very positive, notwithstanding the ambiguous portrayal
of Apollo. It is a place where the laws take on the responsibility of punishing people for
their wrongdoing, and the importance of having Athenian parents and a citizen existence
validated by the legitimate marriage of one's parents is paramount. The injustice
committed by Apollo is ultimately righted and becomes a positive act, as the divine
heritage of Ion provides his Ionian and Athenian descendants with eternal illustrious
glory.
Bibliography
A.P. Burnett, 'Human resistance and divine persuasion in Euripides' Ion' Classical
Philology 57 (1962)
Amelia Williams
2
N. Loraux, 'Kreousa the Autochthon' in J. Winkler and F. Zeitlin (eds.) Nothing to do with
Dionysos? (Princeton 1990)
G. S. Meltzer, Euripides and the Poetics of Nostalgia (Cambridge 2006)
C. Segal 'Euripides' Ion: generational passage and civic myth' in M. W. Padilla (ed.) Rites of
Passgae in Ancient Greece (London 1999)
F. Zeitlin, 'Mysteries of identity and designs of the self in Euripides' Ion' proceedings of the
Cambridge Philological Society 215 (1989)
R. F. Kennedy, Athena's justice : Athena, Athens and the concept of justice in Greek
tragedy, Peter Lang (New York 2009)
Amelia Williams
3