Creusa - Daughter of Erechtheus

Daughter of Erechtheus

Creusa was the daughter of Erechtheus, King of Athens and his wife, Praxithea, who was spared the fate of her sisters (see Chthonia) because she was an infant at the time they had sworn to commit suicide if one of them died. Apollodorus mentions her as the mother and of Achaeus and Ion by her husband Xuthus; she is presumably the mother of Xuthus' daughter Diomede.

However, according to Euripides' Ion, in which she is a prominent character, Creusa was mother of Ion by Apollo, while Xuthus was infertile so he accepted Ion as his own son. In the play, Creusa was seduced by Apollo long before her marriage to Xuthus, and exposed the newborn baby in fear of her parents' wrath. Years later, Xuthus went to consult the Delphian oracle about his marriage to Creusa being childless and met Ion, who had been raised at the temple of Apollo; the prophecy seemed to indicate Ion as his son, so Xuthus decided to adopt the youth. Creusa, unaware of her husband's infertility, thought that Ion's birth must have been the result of Xuthus' adultery in the past, and attempted to poison the young man, but he was in time to discover her intent, and was about to kill her. Eventually Creusa realized that Ion was her son by Apollo she had abandoned, after Ion described to her the contents of the basket he had been found in as a baby; they, however, agreed to keep it a secret from Xuthus. In the end of the play, Athena promised that Creusa and Xuthus would have two sons together, Achaeus and Dorus.

Creusa is also mentioned as the mother of Ion with Apollo by Stephanus of Byzantium and in several scholia. Hyginus calls Creusa mother of Cephalus by Hermes.