Creusa and Ion

Xuthus was the son of Hellen and Orseïs (Orseis). Xuthus became the king of Iolcus. Xuthus was the father of Diomede, who married Deion, the son of Aeolus and the king of Phocis, and became the mother of Cephalus.

Xuthus married Creüsa (Creusa or Κρέουσα), daughter of Erechtheus, the king of Athens. She was the mother of Achaeüs (Achaeus), the eponym of the Achaeans, and Ion (Ἴων), the eponym of the Ionians. According to the play, Ion, Euripides said that Xuthus became the king of Athens at the death of his father-in-law.

Some said that Xuthus was not the father of Ion, but that Ion was the son of Apollo and Creüsa. When Creüsa was young, the god took her into a cave and raped her. She secretly gave birth to Ion before she abandoned the infant in the same cave. She wrapped him in some cloth she had embroideries herself, adding jewelled pins to hold the cloth together. But she soon regretted abandoning her son and returned to the cave, only to find that the infant was gone.

Years later, Creüsa married Xuthus. The couple was desperate to have a child, and they went to Delphi. Xuthus was seeking to discover if it was possible for them to have a child, while Creüsa wanted to know what had happened to her own son, whom she had abandoned in the cave.

There she met Ion at the temple, now a teenager, brought up by the priestesses and prophetesses. Creüsa told Ion that, on behalf of her friend, she sought to discover why Apollo had raped her friend and abandoned her when she was pregnant. Ion did not believe her story, nor did he believe the god he worshipped was that cruel.

When Xuthus returned to his wife, he told her that the priestesses had decided to give the child Ion to Xuthus and Creüsa. At first, Creüsa was jealous. But when the priestess gave Ion the cloth and pins, saying that they belonged to him, Creüsa instantly recognised them.

She told Ion the truth: that she was his mother and Apollo had forced himself on her. Ion thought she was mad, until she accurately described the cloth and pins.

Soon, the goddess Athena appeared and told Ion that he was indeed Creüsa's and Apollo's son. Ion happily went to Athens with his new parents.

According to Pausanias, Xuthus didn't rule Athens. Originally, Xuthus was a king of Thessaly, but he took money that was intended for a common inheritance for all of Hellen's sons, so Xuthus' brothers drove him out of Thessaly. Xuthus settled in Athens and married Erechtheus' daughter, Creusa. When Erechtheus died, the sons of Erechtheus asked Xuthus to judge who should rule Athens; Xuthus chose Cecrops, Erechtheus' eldest son, as king. Cecrops' brothers, Pandorus and Metion, angrily drove Xuthus out of Athens.

Xuthus settled in Aegialeus, Achaea, with his wife, and Creusa bore him three sons – Achaeüs, Ion and possibly Dorus; others said that Dorus was the son of Hellen, and therefore Xuthus' brother. Xuthus died in Aegialeus

Achaeüs returned to Thessaly with his followers to take the crown. Achaeüs had two sons, Archander and Architeles. His two sons married two daughters of Danaus in Argos.

Ion stayed in Achaea and married Helice, daughter of King Selinous. Ion founded a city, which he named after his wife. When Athens was at war against Eleusis, and they asked Ion for aid. Ion died in battle, and the Athenians erected his tomb in the district of Riverside, in Attica.