Great Books Ep 83. Euripides - Ion. In Search of One's Parents
It is a tragedy to be forced to abandon one's child due to being born out of society's norms. It is tragic to be brought up as an orphan often wondering who ones parents are.
“for just when I ought to have lain softly in a mother’s arms, tasting somewhat of the joys of life, was I deprived of a fond mother’s fostering care. Nor less is she a prey to sorrow that bare me, seeing she hath suffered the self-same pang in losing all the joy a son might bring.”
~ ‘Ion’ by Euripides (Edward P. Coleridge translation. GB5 - p. 295)
Summary
The play starts with Hermes providing a background of the story thus far. He introduces himself as the son of Maia and Zeus. Maia was the daughter of Atlas, the god who held the sky on his back. He says he is in the land of Delphi at the temple of Apollo, which is the center of the world. Then he talks about Athens and how Apollo had forced his love on an Athenian princess named Creusa, daughter of Erechtheus. Creusa gave birth to a son and, to avoid shame, abandoned him near the cave in the water in a small ark. Hermes takes the child to the temple at Delphi as per his brother Apollo’s ask. There, a priestess finds him and decides to raise him. He grows up as a devotee of Apollo, gains a reputation as a virtuous and principled young man and is given the responsibility of the treasurer of god and the steward of the store. During this time, Creusa gets married to Xuthus who had helped Athens when a war had broken out with Euboea. But they remain childless for many years, and they have come to the temple to seek advice from the oracle. Hermes says that the oracle will say that Ion is Xuthus’ son, Xuthus would legitimize him, the incident between Creusa and Apollo will remain hidden and everyone would be happy in the end.
Ion enters the scene, and by his words of praise to Apollo, we get to know that he is an ardent devotee of Apollo, and he enjoys his position to serve in the temple. A chorus of Creusa’s handmaidens enters. They admire and describe various artworks they see on the temple walls. Ion notices Creusa being sad and asks about her. She talks about her city and her lineage. We get to know that her father had to sacrifice his daughters for his country’s sake while she was just a baby and that he was swallowed by Earth. When he asks about Macrae, she is even more distressed since that was where Apollo had forced himself on her and says she doesn’t wish to think of the past. He then asks about Xuthus, who had gone inside to consult the oracle. Creusa says to Ion that his mother must be blessed since he is so devout and caring. Ion says that he doesn’t know his mother and was raised in the temple. He says that he was raised by the priestess in the temple. Creusa says she feels sorry for his mother, who was compelled to give up her child. She says she had a friend who had a child by Apollo and had to abandon him and who probably died. She says she is going to ask the oracle, to which Ion says that if Apollo is ashamed, she will not get an answer, as it is not good to question a god’s actions.
Xuthus enters with the good news that they will not return home childless. He chats briefly with Ion and then goes to the main sanctuary to consult the oracle of Apollo. Ion ponders about the story that Creusa told him, wondering how gods can act unjustly. Xuthus returns and hugs Ion, saying he is his son. Ion is taken aback and asks how this could be. Xuthus says that the oracle told him so. He says that it might have happened during some drunken encounter before his marriage. Ion finally believes him, wishing that his mother could be an Athenian slave so that he might have some connection to Athens. He still does not want to go with Xuthus since he prefers his simple life in the temple and does not want to invoke the jealousy or anger of the citizens, the nobles, or his stepmother.
In the meantime, while Creusa is chatting with an old servant about her misfortune of being childless, the Chorus comes in and tells that Apollo has given Xuthus a son who he has named Ion. Creusa is taken aback since she was probably expecting to be pregnant after hearing from the oracle that they would return with a child. The old servant poisons her mind, saying that this whole thing might have been a ploy by Xuthus. When he could not have a child through Creusa, he might have had an affair with a servant who begat a son, and to escape detection, he arranged him to be raised in the temple. When the child grew up to be a youth, he persuaded Creusa to go to the temple to seek the oracle’s help. He says Xuthus’ falsehood and deception have led Ion to be declared as a son all of a sudden. The Chorus joins in, saying that it is a cunning trick by Xuthus to take full possession of Creusa’s heritage. The old servant and the Chorus tell Creusa that she must take revenge for being cheated either through dagger or poison, and they will help her. Creusa is overcome with sadness, and says that all this might be due to her leaving her child to die. The Chorus and the old servant are surprised to hear this, and on further questioning, Creusa reveals the story of how she had a child since Apollo forced himself on her and she had to abandon him to die. The old servant is shocked by this and says that she should take revenge against Apollo by burning his temple. Creusa says no to this and no to killing Ion using a dagger. She says she has two drops of Gorgon’s blood, one being medicinal and the other being poisonous. The poison could be used to kill Ion.
After a while, a servant comes by and informs the Chorus that the people of the land are seeking to stone Creusa to death. They are shocked to hear this and ask if the plot to poison Ion was discovered and how it happened. The servant explains that during the feast for everyone in Delphi in honor of Ion becoming the heir to Athens, the old servant poured wine for Ion and just as he was about to drink, he heard some servant say something bad. Thinking it is an ill omen, Ion pours the drink as a libation and drinks from another cup. A dove that drinks the wine dies shortly in the view of all, revealing the attempted murder. After inquiry, the old servant confesses that Creusa wanted him killed.
Creusa goes to Apollo’s altar and seeks refuge. Ion, finding her there, says that her misdeeds will not go unpunished even if she is a suppliant at Apollo’s altar. Creusa defends her actions, claiming she was protecting her home from being taken over by outsiders. The priestess enters and advises Ion to show restraint and not seek revenge. She shows the ark (basket) in which she found Ion as a baby. Creusa recognizes this and says that it was the ark that she put her baby in while abandoning him. Ion challenges her to describe the contents before seeing them, and she does. Ion is happy that she is his mother but doesn’t believe the story about Apollo forcing her. So goes into the altar to question Apollo. Athena appears and confirms the story and says that Apollo was always looking after him from above. Athena prophesies that Ion’s descendants will be prosperous and will conquer further lands. Ion accepts Athena’s word and his parentage.
My Thoughts:
I think I went overboard this time and wrote a longer summary than a brief one. Probably because I was writing it in parts over the week. Anyway, throughout the play, during all the twists and turns, I was expecting some tragedy to happen, and it didn’t. It had a happy ending. But the more I thought about it, the more I understood that the story had different dimensions and things to think about.
From Ion’s perspective, he was a young man, an ardent devotee of Apollo, an orphan brought up by a priestess, often wondering who his parents were. One fine day, the King of Athens tells him that he is his son as per the oracle. He hosts a feast, and there is a murder attempt on him by the queen during the event. When he tries to ensure that she gets punished, it is revealed that she is his actual mother and Apollo is his father.
From Creusa’s perspective, she was violated by the god she revered and was forced to abandon her child out of fear. She has carried a grudge against Apollo throughout her life, even while people around her praise him. Throughout her long years of childlessness, she probably thought that she didn’t have a child because she left her baby to die. When the oracle pronounces Ion as Xuthus’ child, she is broken and is easily manipulated by people around her to think that it was all a ploy to take possession of her inheritance. She feels cornered and wants to punish the evildoers. But it backfires, and the people of Delphi accuse her of attempted murder. Luckily, it all works out in the end.
Many stories have been written about young girls abandoning babies at the doorsteps of churches, temples, homes, orphanages, etc. What if the government has the DNA of all the people? Then, they could easily identify the parents. No mystery anymore! No one needs to grow up not knowing who their parents were. Is the advancement of technology removing human privacy completely, one step at a time? Is that a good thing? Are we going back to our tribal roots, where there was no individual freedom or privacy? Everything belonged to the community, and everyone in the community knew most things about others pretty well - whether they snored or not, what diseases and ailments they had, what they ate, etc. However, people have always sought privacy to do intense personal things. All the technological progress that has happened in the modern world, at least the key inventions, could be attributed to people having privacy, space, and time to think.
Knowing the details about our DNA has revealed that all of humanity is one species, and a lot of other beliefs about different races of people springing forth from different parts of a god’s body have been debunked. But still, racism and differentiation continue, and I wonder if people in the future might ask for their potential spouse’s DNA details before marrying to verify their ancestry. Or, will people check each others’ DNA reports to verify probabilities of illnesses or common things like snoring and baldness? If that happens, so few people might get married. Modern technological developments have reduced infant mortality drastically in comparison to a few centuries ago and have also increased the average lifespan. But over time, people’s choice to have kids has reduced, childlessness has increased, and now, there is a decline in the number of new children being born in many countries.
Other than the question of parentage, the play touches on a few more themes that one can ponder - abuse of power, foreigners taking up leadership, memory suggestion, monogamy, etc.
The hypocrisy of people in power - Apollo is a god who is held in high esteem by the people; he has a temple at Delphi, which, as per the people there, is the center of the world. And yet, he is the villain who destroys Creusa’s life when she is a young maiden. Even his ardent devotee wants to question him for this lapse of judgment. One could draw a parallel to many famous people who use their positions of power to abuse others and still move around as respectable people.
Leadership to foreigners - Another theme is that of leadership going to foreigners. Creusa wants someone in her bloodline to inherit her father’s kingdom and is distraught when she finds that her husband has a son from another woman and he might inherit the kingdom.
Memory suggestion - When Ion asks Xuthus if he could have had a child from some drunken tryst, he agrees. I was reminded of an episode from David Eagleman’s podcast about memory drift, where it was shown that people could develop false memories based on suggestions. There was a case about a town where multiple people confessed to a murder that they did not commit, just due to the line of questioning.
Overall, though it wasn’t a tragedy per se, it had many things to think about.
Gemini (AI Chatbot) Response
1. Parentage and Technology
You’re right, the play really highlights the anguish of not knowing one’s origins. Ion’s identity crisis resonates throughout the story. This theme of unknown parentage is common in Greek tragedy and mythology (think Oedipus!).
Your point about DNA technology is fascinating. Imagine if Creusa had access to a simple DNA test! It would have prevented so much suffering. But “Ion” forces us to consider the potential downsides of such readily available information.
Here are some examples of stories where abandoned children are a key element:
Moses: Left in a basket on the Nile river to avoid infanticide.
Romulus and Remus: Abandoned and raised by a she-wolf, they later founded Rome.
Oedipus: Left to die on a mountainside to avoid a prophecy.
These stories, spanning different cultures and time periods, all explore themes of identity, fate, and free will. In “Ion,” Euripides uses the lack of knowledge about parentage to drive the plot and explore deeper questions about divine justice and human agency.
2. Deeper Analysis of Themes and Symbolism
Abuse of Power: You’ve rightly pointed out Apollo’s abuse of power. This is a recurring theme in Greek mythology, where gods often act unjustly towards mortals. Euripides, however, doesn’t let Apollo off the hook. He allows Creusa and Ion to question the god’s actions, which was quite daring for the time. This theme remains relevant today, where we see those in power abusing their position. The play reminds us to hold even the most powerful accountable for their actions.
Foreigners and Leadership: Creusa’s anxiety about Xuthus potentially having a child with another woman and that child inheriting the Athenian throne speaks to the xenophobic anxieties of the time. Athens was a powerful city-state, and the idea of a foreigner ruling was unsettling to many. This theme continues to resonate today, with debates about immigration and national identity.
Memory and Suggestion: Xuthus readily accepting the oracle’s pronouncement that Ion is his son, even though he has no memory of it, highlights the power of suggestion and the fallibility of human memory. This is a complex issue with implications for legal systems and personal relationships even today.
Monogamy and Patriarchy: The play also subtly critiques the institution of marriage and patriarchal society. Creusa’s suffering is partly due to her inability to openly acknowledge her child with Apollo. She is trapped in a patriarchal system where her reputation and her husband’s desires are paramount.
Symbolism:
The Temple of Delphi: Represents the seat of divine authority and knowledge but also highlights the potential for that authority to be misused.
The Ark: Symbolizes both abandonment and salvation. It represents Ion’s uncertain origins but also the means by which he is ultimately recognized.
The Gorgon’s Blood: Represents the duality of human nature, capable of both healing and destruction.
3. Thought-Provoking Questions for Modern Readers:
How does the play challenge our understanding of divine justice and human agency?
In what ways does the play reflect the social and political anxieties of its time?
How does the play portray the relationship between parents and children?
Is the play ultimately a tragedy or a comedy? Why?
What are the ethical implications of technologies like DNA testing?
How do we balance individual privacy with the need for knowledge and security?
AI generated podcast
I got to know about notebooklm’s ability to generate podcast based on sources that you provide. I provided the text of the play and the above contents (my summary & thoughts, not the AI response). It generated a podcast. Here is the audio. It is surprising in many ways. I enjoyed listening to it.