Ion was a demigod son of Apollo, god of the sun, and was the founder of Helike (modern Eliki) in Anchaea. Ion was also believed to have founded a primary tribe of Greece, the Ionians.
History[]
Ion was the illegitimate child of Creüsa, the daughter of Erechtheus and wife of Xuthus. Creusa conceived Ion with Apollo then she abandoned the child. Apollo asked Hermes to take Ion from his cradle. Ion was saved (and raised) by a priestess of the Delphic Oracle. He had a wife named Tulipi, the daughter of Strimon. She died of an unknown cause.
Later, Xuthus (his grandfather) was informed by the oracle that the first person he met when leaving the oracle would be his son, this person was Ion. He interpreted it to mean that he had fathered Ion, when, in fact, Apollo was giving him Ion as an adoptive son. Creusa was planning on killing Ion due to her jealousy that Xuthus had a son while she was still childless. At the same time, Ion was planning on doing harm to Creusa. In the end, Creusa found out that Ion was her child, and only Xuthus' adopted child. This is the story told in the tragedy Ion by Euripides.
Ion founded Helike (the modern Eliki) in Achaea, which he built and named after his second wife Helike, and made it the capital of the kingdom. Later he took an expedition against Eleusis (now Elefsina) with the help of the Athenian and in the battle he was killed near Eleusis.