Michael Lloyd

Divine and human action in Euripides' Ion

The main problem with Ion is that the happy ending does not seem to be the product of a consistently successful action. Ion and Creusa are eventually reunited, a glorious future predicted for Ion and his descendants, and at the end of the play he departs impressively for Athens under the escort of Athena. This is essentially the result intended by Apollo, as outlined by Hermes in his prologue speedi, and Athena says that he acted well in all respects (1595). But Apollos plan repeatedly threatens to go wrong during the play: Ion is indeed, as planned, accepted by Xuthus as his son and accepts him as a father, but he shows no enthusiasm for the life intended for him in Athens and would rather stay in Delphi; Creusa finds out about the plan and tries to kill him; he then threatens to kill Creusa himself, and is only reconciled with her by the intervention of the Pythia; and finally, even when mother and son have been reunited, Ion refuses to believe that Apollo is his father until he is enlightened by Athenas appearance ex machina. The god of prophecy fails to foresee these obstacles to his own plan. Apollos earlier behaviour can also be criticised: the anguish caused to Creusa by his rape of her is frequently expressed in the play, and even Ion is horrified that he might have acted in the way that she described. Various solutions have been offered to this problem. Some sdiolars have seen the play as an attack on Apollo, and have argued that the difficulties which beset his plan show that he is inefficient as well as immoral. Gilbert Murray, for example, thought that <the Ion is, of all the extant plays, the most definitely blasphemous against the traditional gods>. A more modern version of this idea is proposed by H. Erbse, who argues that Euripides does not so mudi criticise the gods as show that they have lost their meaning: möglicherweise sind also die Götter des «Ion» nur Hilfsfiguren, die demonstrieren sollen, wie Himmlische nicht vorgestellt werden können>. The objection to such views is that they fail to do justice to the happy ending. Euripides uses a version of the story which is highly creditable to Athens, in which the paternity of Apollo is essential to the patriotic