Ion by Euripides

1/ Many years before the play begins, Creusa, daughter of King Erechtheus, was raped by the god Apollo. She abandoned the child, not knowing that he would be raised at Apollo’s temple. 

“CREUSA: […] Oh! the wrongs of women! the wickedness of gods! When our oppressor is all-powerful, where shall we fly for justice?” 

(translated by Philip Vellacott) 

Now, after many years of marriage, they still have no child, so they go to the temple of Apollo to ask the oracle. Apollo deceitfully tells Xuthus that Ion is his son, who’s actually the child of Apollo and Creusa. Creusa doesn’t know that, however—all she knows is that Xuthus, not a native Athenian like her, now has a son whereas she herself has no children—Ion is a threat she must eliminate.     

“CREUSA […] Now by the starry throne of Zeus, 

By the Guardian of the Rock of Athens, 

By the holy shore of the Tritonian Lake, 

I will ease the lead from my heart, 

Hold my secret no longer. 

With tears falling from my eyes, my soul tormented 

By the scheming cruelty of man and god alike, 

Who demand love and give treachery in return – 

I will expose them! 

Listen, Apollo, you who can wake to song

The seven strings of your lifeless lyre 

Till they cheat immoral music to lonely shepherds – 

Here in the white light of heaven I denounce you!...” 

As I’m ignorant about ancient Greek culture, I have no idea how shocking or blasphemous that speech was to Euripides’s audience, but I like that. You can see her anger, her anguish, her sense of injustice. 

Creusa then decides to poison Ion at the sacrificial ceremony—the entire scene is not depicted, but reported, so we have this interesting image: 

“MESSENGER: […] The bird sipped; at once its whole body shook; it was convulsed; then it uttered an extraordinary scream of agony. The whole company in amazement watched the bird writhing; it struggled; then lay dead; its purple claws dropped.” 

Surviving the murder attempt, Ion has to kill the “evil stepmother”, only to discover that Creusa’s actually his mother and Apollo’s his father. Here I must be honest: I was enjoying the play up till this point, but the reunion scene was not satisfying. Some reviewers have remarked on the deus ex machina (the Priestess appearing with the cradle), but I don’t think that’s the only reason. 

“CREUSA: Now I will make my confession! Before, I blamed Apollo: now I bless him because, though for so long he did nothing, now he gives my son back to me. Before, I hated this holy temple: now its porch smiles upon me, I caress this dear doorway, and touch every stone with delight. 

ATHENE: You have changed your curses into blessings: you do well. The ways of gods are slow; but in the end their power is shown.” 

Apollo does save the child and intervene so that they can be reunited. But at the same time, he gets away with raping Creusa and making her suffer for years—and his intervention also forces Creusa and Ion to deceive Xuthus, to live the rest of their lives with a lie. 

2/ I’ve got the impression that, unlike the plays of the 16th and 17th centuries, the ancient Greek plays are not really about actions and events, but about the characters’ reactions to them. 

Ibsen, at least in the plays I have read, seems closer to the ancient Greek dramatists than to Shakespeare.