44 pages • 1 hour read
Ed. John C. Gilbert, EuripidesIon
Fiction | Play | AdultA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Lines 1-236Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Lines 1-192 Summary: “Prologue”
The messenger god Hermes clarifies the circumstances at the outset of the plot. Specifically, Hermes explains that he is the son of Maia and Zeus, and that he is the messenger god. He claims that he is at the mountainous region of Delphi, where Apollo prophecies through the famous Delphic Oracle. Hermes next tells how Apollo raped Creusa, daughter of the Athenian king, in a cave. Unmarried, Creusa kept her pregnancy hidden, preferring to deliver her son in secret. After giving birth, Creusa brought her child back to the cave where Apollo forced himself on her, and she reluctantly abandoned the child, leaving him to an almost certain death. In her despair, she left two golden snakes to guard his cradle. Upon witnessing the child’s exposure from on high, Phoebus Apollo instructed Hermes to retrieve the infant and leave him at the entrance to Apollo’s temple at Delphi.
Considerable time has passed, and the child has grown to near adulthood. He now lives an honorable life as caretaker of the sanctuary at Delphi where he was left. Creusa has since married to Xuthus (a non-Athenian) as a prize for his victory in a war fought between the Athenians and the Euboeans. Xuthus and Creusa are childless, and they have come to the Delphic oracle for guidance. Hermes declares that Apollo plans for Xuthus to inherit his child. Hermes explains that the child’s name is destined to be Ion, in recognition of the fact that he will establish the land of Ionia. Hermes is the first to speak the boy’s destined name aloud.
The opening scene shows Ion sweeping the floor of the Delphic oracle’s sanctuary. He narrates Apollo’s flight in his chariot, which metaphorically announces the dawn of the new day. Ion also relates how the Pythian priestess is about to mount her tripod (a famous three-legged seat, reserved for oracles) to hear the queries of the visitors to her shrine. Ion instructs others in the sanctuary to clean the floors with sacred water in preparation for the day.
Ion has never known a mother or father, but he nevertheless feels grateful to have been raised in the sanctuary, where he has devoted his life to Apollo’s service. Finally, Ion shoes away the birds scavenging around the temple for food.
Lines 194-236 Summary: “Parados”
The chorus comprising Creusa’s handmaidens enters to revere the majestic temple of Apollo (“Leto-born”), where the action takes place. They maidens claim that it is equally impressive as any Athenian temple.
The maidens then survey the temple’s sculpture, which includes such scenes as Hercules slaying the Lernaean Hydra; alongside him appears his nephew, Greek warrior Iolaus, who is depicted assisting Hercules with his labors. Also pictured is the Corinthian hero Bellerophon, slaying the fire-breathing chimera (a mythological creature with combined features of a lion, goat, and snake). The final episode is the Gigantomachy, a famous battle between the gods and giants, in which Athena and Zeus played a prominent role.
The leader of the chorus asks Ion if they may enter the temple, but Ion says it is prohibited. He confirms that the precinct houses the so-called omphalos, a round marble statue that was thought to have represented the center of the world. Ion asks whom the maidens attend, and they report that their mistress is a noble Athenian.
Lines 1-236 Analysis
Among the conventions of Greek tragedy is the inauguration of the play by a messenger figure who delivers the prologue, which sets the stage of the play. Very often plays were not set in Athens (where they were most frequently performed, although eventually the tradition of theater spread to other parts of the country). The character delivering the prologue is responsible for communicating to the audience where the play is set. In this case, the messenger god Hermes announces that the play takes place at Delphi, located about 100 miles away from Athens. The ancient town of Delphi is home to a sanctuary that housed the temple of Apollo, wherein sat the most famous of the ancient oracles named the Pythia, who later figures in the play.
After Hermes establishes the circumstances surrounding the play, Ion invites the audience to arrive locally at Delphi: “I…Will clean the entrance ways, and pour / Libation to make sweet the floor / Of Lord Apollo’s House” (102-05). He also establishes the time of day: “Lo, where the Sun his chariot bright / Above the rim of earth hath driven” (84-85). These lines are designed to orient the audience and help them to suspend their disbelief, as was required by all spectators of ancient theater.
The lines read by the chorus of handmaidens represent the so-called parodos (Greek for “entrance”), which is chanted in verse rather than spoken and is accompanied by a dance back and forth across the stage. A fixture of ancient Greek theater, the chorus takes its name from the Greek verb khorós, meaning “to dance.” The chorus seldom advances the plot of Greek plays, instead preferring to comment on the action. Here, the choral section provides commentary on the specific architectural features of Apollo’s temple at Delphi. In this way, the chorus acts as a group of tourists, remarking at the splendor of the temple’s sculpture, which depicts several mythic exploits, including Hercules’s battle with the “Snake of Lerna” (190). Contemporary audience members who had visited Delphi would recognize this description of the Herculean labors depicted on the famous temple of Apollo in Delphi.
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