Beware the Blood of a Gorgon, Euripides’ Ion (Part 1)

Published May 21, 2024, 7:00 AM

Back with another fascinating Euripidean woman... Mistaken identities, lost half divine children, and the horrors of Apollo. Help keep LTAMB going by subscribing to Liv's Patreon for bonus content!

CW/TW: far too many Greek myths involve assault. Given it's fiction, and typically involves gods and/or monsters, I'm not as deferential as I would be were I referencing the real thing.

Sources: Euripides' Ion: translation by Cecelia Eaton Luschnig; introduction to Euripides' Orestes and Other Plays by Edith Hall.

Attributions and licensing information for music used in the podcast can be found here: mythsbaby.com/sources-attributions.

Hi, Hello there. This is Let's talk about miss Baby, and I am your host, live here with an attempt to drag myself from this depressive rat that I've been in by returning to my favorite man of the ancient world, Euripides. Honestly, it's already working last month. So at last month, I wrote this piece on Medusa. It's for a collection of short stories. I've mentioned it before. I will link to it in the episode's description. My job was to write almost thirty thousand words on Medusa. God's no I you know, I leapt at the chance. I'd write about her forever and be perfectly happy. And I'm really proud of how the piece turned out, Like I've never dug so deep into her character and an amounted to just like endless amounts of inspiration that now I'm just trying to like wade through and find ways of transitioning some of the stuff I learned and into an episode or episodes for the podcast. But I have this great habit of like overthinking the podcast episodes despite having to do them weekly, and like having overthinking be quite detrimental to you know, like actually getting something written once a week, so instead of of dwelling on all the many things I want to talk about in the future, but which don't easily line up into a script, I decided to be inspired by something very simple, this play by Euripides. So I've never read the ion. I will admit that now we're going to dive into it together like we often do with these plays, you know, with me discovering most of the plot along with you all, because honestly, I know very little about the plot of this play, particularly unlike most others, because it isn't tied to a myth that we know of, or at least as the mythology around these characters survive. This story is unique to Euripides and what I know of it. Though what I know of this play is intriguing enough to get us all excited, because the reason I found this inspiration from writing about this cultural history of Medusa is that it features the blood of a Gorgan, but not Medusa, not even her Gorgon sisters. This is a whole other Gorgan, one that I haven't found elsewhere, one that is not born of forcis in Cato, like the more famous Gorgans in every source we have for them, but instead one that is far more primordial. This gorgan, whose blood means both life and death, was born of the earth itself. But we've got a whole lot of play to get through before we actually learn of this gorgan and heads up. Like so many stories from Greek myth, this play does feed assault by a god. It is a pretty heavy plot point, so take care. The play begins after the assault, but the trauma is revisited in the play. Take care, but you know, from an antiquity perspective, actually, this is one of the rare cases where assault is treated as exactly that we can trust Euripides to handle the story with care. And that's why I'm sharing a play in the first place. I'm using a couple of versions of it, which I will detail in the end and in the episode's description. But as the introduction of one of the versions says, this introduction is written by Edith Hall quote, few rape victims in Western literature have until recently been offered such a full hearing, and Creusa's reaction to the assault is informed by a realistic, malignant anger against her rapist. That's right, once more, Euripides is bringing us a story of realistic ancient female rage. I just love him. Before we get there, though, I want to tell you about some future plans featuring my beloved playwright, because I'll never let him go. It will be either August or September. Plans haven't yet been confirmed, but we will be dedicating an entire month of episodes to eur because I simply have to as much as I can manage. This won't be episodes retelling the plot of any of his plays, but instead about him as a person or you know, his theater, whatever I can do outside of just reading the plays. I want to learn everything there is about him as a real person who wrote the plays that I am so deeply obsessed with, and who seemed so interested in women's lived experiences, This man who sought to tell their stories in ways that set him so distinctly apart from the other surviving playwrights and ancient writers generally. I just want to know Euripides as a person. But until then we will continue learning about him through this particular work. This is episode two sixty Beware the Blood of a Gorgon. Euripides is Ion Part one. Euripides' Ion is one of his alphabet plays. If you don't remember what that means. It's the thing I talk about far too often. The reason we have so many more plays from Euripides than the other two tragedians because of this dumb random luck. The plays generally broadly survived because they became school texts or otherwise were specific works that became famous and well read enough that manuscripts managed to survive time. This would be because they were recopied off enough, which is why it was specific to texts that were revered or used in these particular ways that had them surviving. That's true of many of Euripid's plays, just as it's why we have the plays by Sophocles and Escylists that we do have. But a collection of other Euripides plays weren't used in schools. They weren't necessarily considered to be his best work or the best work of tragedians at all. They weren't like the other plays that we have. Instead, it was this dumb random luck. This Byzantine period collector had an alphabetically sordid collection of Euripides, and one portion of it managed to survive. It's how we have the helen Ifig and Eye among the Tatorians, many others, and this Ion. So these are not his most famous plays from the ancient world, but if anything to me that makes them more interesting. In the Helen and if Aganie among Theatorians, we have some of his weirder plays, like those that are less tragic and more bizarre in the best ways possible. And I gather and have every hope that the Ion fits into this description. And we're off to a good start because it opens with a speech from a god, Hermes. But first a little necessary background. This play features a character named Creusa. This Creusa is the daughter of Erectheus, one of Athens's earliest and most important mythological kings. She was also, like so many other women of myth raped by Apollo. Now this is the plot summary that survives from some of the earliest surviving forms of this play. Quote. Apollo raped Creusa, daughter of Erectheus, in Athens and made her pregnant. She exposed the child that was born under the Acropolis, making this same place a witness to the crime and the birthing. Then Hermes lifted up the infant and took him to Delphi, where the prophetess found him and brought him up. Creusa was married to Xuthus. After assisting the Athenians in battle, he received as a reward the kingship and marriage to the woman in question. No other child was born to him. On the other hand, the people of Delphi made the boy who was brought up by the prophetess a temple keeper. In this way, without being aware of it, he served his father. The boy is, as you might have guessed, going to be named Ion, and the setting of the play Delphi. Enter Hermes. This play begins with a god on stage that always really stands out to me, particularly when we're talking about a play where the mythological backstory is either primarily lost or was maybe just fully invented by Euripides. Ion as a character exists beyond the playwright, but the Apollo of it all may have been his invention, and so enter Hermes. He addresses the audience, telling them the backstory. As this kind of prologue. Hermes introduces himself and then he says where he is Delphi the realm of Apollo. But it is Apollo, he says, who raped the daughter of Erectheus Creusa at the base of the acropolis in Athens, at a place they call the Long rocks the act. He tells the audience resulted in a child. Creusa hid her pregnancy from her father. When she gave birth, she brought the baby to the spot where Apollo had assaulted her, and there she exposed the child, left him to die in a wicker basket and with whatever gold riches she had on her, as her tradition required. Hermes goes on. He says that Apollo sent him to Athens to save the child, to take him in his basket, and to bring him to Delphi, to take him to the oracle and leave him by the entrance of the temple, and from there Apollo had instructed he'd handle things. The priestess at the temple found the baby and fed him, cared for him, though she didn't know who the parents were, So there the child grew up, becoming a steward of the god at the temple in Delphi. Meanwhile, Creusa in Athens went on to marry Xuthus. For years they were together, but remained childless. That Hermi says is why they are now in Delphi seeking an audience with the oracle. But he says, Apollo will once again take it from here. He will give the boy who will shortly be named Ion touke Xuthus when he comes to speak with the Pithia, and he will be told that the boy is his. Then, Hermes explains, when the boy reaches Xuthus and Creusa's home, she will recognize him, and Apollo's assault will remain secret. Hermes finishes his speech saying quote, well, now I'll move aside into this grove of Laurel, so I can learn just what is decided concerning the boy. I see Loxias's son coming out here to festoon the doors of the temple with bay branches, and I, first among the gods, call him Ion, with the name that is going to be his. Hermes leaves to hide in some bushes and watch as Ion joins the stage, followed by silent attendants. He sings of the chariot of the Sun, how Helios lights the earth and the stars fly off into the night. He sings of Parnassus, the mountain home of Delphi, and how it catches the sun's first light. He sings quote, the smoke of Phoebus's arid Arabian incense wafts to the rooftops. The woman of Delphi is seated on the sacred tripod, singing to the Hellenes whatever noises Apollo calls out to her. He then speaks to the other attendants, sending them off to the nearby Castalian springs where they can bathe and then return. He advises them to be silent, to be aware of those who are there to visit the oracle. Ion is immediately giving off this really intense piety. He's taken his role of temple attendant of Delphi very seriously and speaks of his concern that they all must appear as they should, speak as they should, and behave as they should. He speaks of toiling at the same tasks as he did as a child, keeping the space clean and fresh, and keeping away birds that might, to put it colloquially, shit on the temple's sacred offerings. He sings to the audience of his life, how he has no parents, but serves the temples and Apollo, how they have been both mother and father to him over the years. His speech is very poetic, more than usual. The way he speaks of Delphi and Apollo is moving. He is utterly devoted to the space and its tradition, the God and the overall importance of what he is a part of. He sings of Apollo, prays for his well being, and of the glory that he feels it just being an attendant to the god. Quote, Phoebus is a father to me, my bagetter, I bless the one who feeds me, and say the name of Father, so kind to me. Of Phoebus present in this temple, Ion sings of the birds, so many birds understood to be these messengers of gods. He threatens them, sending them off elsewhere where they won't disturb or defile the sacred sanctuary of Delphi, but he wouldn't harm them. And all along he sings these prayers to Apollo and of his love for his life as an attendant to that god, a god he sees as his kind of foster father. Because oh does Euripides love a story of mistaken or mysterious identity and Greek tragedy broadly. So it is here where Ion stops his song and continues on his duties of the temple, and the chorus arrives. They're women, like so many of Euripides, as choruses enslaved attendance to Creusa, who is there with her husband Xuthus, just as Harmony's laid out. The chorus sings of art and beauty. Specifically, they sing of the temples and the buildings of Delphi. They're from Athens, so they are first in awe of how fine the sanctuary is, even when compared to the ones in Athens. They speak of the art on the temple itself, pointing out the mythological scenes that were depicted on it, Heracles defeating the Hydra with the help of Iolaus, Bellerophon defeating the Chimera while riding atop the winged Pegasus. They sing of the gigantomic e, how the war between gods and giants is depicted in the stone walls. They see Athena and her gorgon shield facing down the giant. In Calidas, they see Zeus fighting another giant, and Bacchus too, how he wielded the thrsus as a weapon. Then the chorus spots Ion and they ask, quote, hello, there, I mean you by the temple. Is it lawful to enter the sacred hollows on women's feet ah? An unfortunately reasonable question, to which Ion replies, now, can we ask you for something? Then Ion agrees, so they ask if it's true that the temple houses the navel of the earth, the center of everything. Yes, he tells them, and it's quote wrapped in bands of wool, with gorgons all around it. Gorgans are already becoming a em here the navel too. If you don't remember, is this long standing tradition. Delphy was understood to be the center of the earth. The story goes that Zeus set out to find the center, so he sent two eagles flying in opposite directions, and where they met, there in Delphi, was it. And so there they sculpted the navel, the belly button of the earth. But it was also a physical thing, like a sculpture that looks a bit like a pine cone, maybe a boob, misshapen boob, a beehive. Maybe. Now that I've spoken to that Artemis expert, there's still a replica, in an ancient original of some kind in Delphi today. It's very cool and weird. Ion goes on to tell them that if they've sacrificed a meal offering, they can ask something of Phoebus Apollo at the altars, but without sacrificing sheep, they can't enter the temple itself. This is interesting, if only because it implies that maybe earlier like it wasn't that they were women that made it unlawful for them to go in, just that they hadn't made the necessary sacrifices. Regardless, the chorus is happy to adhere to whatever he said. They're not looking to anger the God, and what they can see from the outside is more than enough. When they reference that they've been granted permission by their master to visit the temple, Ion asks who that is, to which they say, and this is fascinating quote. The halls that raise dark kings share a roof with Pallas's temple. But here she is you can ask her in person. It's Creusa entering, and it's her that they're speaking of here. So they are acknowledging Creusa as their master, not just that they are her attendants, but that she is their master. I mean, this strong woman moment is of course cringe worthy because these choral women are enslaved. It's awful, but it still implies an importance and independence in Creusa that is quite unique, especially in Athens, Like there's no mention of Suthus at all, only Creusa when they are talking about like who owns them again. It's horrifying to talk about it in this way. It remains true. And this Creusa, who has just walked onto the stage, and this chorus has just called her their master, who has given them this permission. She is about to meet her long lost child, even if neither of them will realize it. Ion greets this woman he doesn't know is his biological mother and immediately notes that she must be of nobility. It's clear in her appearance, but he notes that she looks sad that she startled him with tears in her eyes at the sight of Apollo's temple quote everybody else on visiting the god's precinct feels joy, but your face is drenched with tears. Creusa tells him that he must have been brought up to be kind if he's so concerned about her just from the site. She tells him that at the sight of Apollo's space, an old memory came back to her that it made her think of home quote. Women's lives are full of woe. Gods can be so ruthless. What can be done? Where? How can we recover justice? If we are ruined by the injustice of those who rule us? And I don't even know how to begin unpacking how meaningful that quote is in so many ways. This is why your epanies is it for me? Because every time I dive into one of his plays, he gives me a woman who is a woman like she is not a woman written by an ancient Athenian who lived by the status quo and thought nothing of the lived experiences of the women around him. She was written by a man who gave us shit, who took stock of the women of Athens, and how they were oppressed, how incidents of assault resulted in this quote? How can we recover justice if we are ruined by the injustice of those who rule us? Like going beyond the experiences of women in the ancient world. That line just resonates in ways that I didn't see coming. It screams of the Western world right now. How so many of us see the impending collapse of capitalism and how it ties with imperialism and the West's obsession with controlling the world. How we protest and protest, how we show that the majority is against what our countries are doing, but they're doing it anyway, because now it doesn't matter what the people actually want not when the money and the power of the West is what's at stake. But Creusa, well, Creusa is talking about herself, the things she experienced when she was young. Ion asks her what has her so sad, But she doesn't tell him anything except who she is. She is Creusa, the daughter of Erectheus, that she comes from the land of the Athenians. Note she does not say she is an Athenian. She may be of Athenian nobility, that she is still a woman. And Ion has heard stories of Athens and its founding family, so he asks, quote by the gods, is it true? As the story goes among mortals, did your father's forefather really burst forth from the earth? He did, she tells him, But her own birth did her no good. Ion is still interested in this forefather Ericthonius together through an instance of this stichomythia. Actually, this whole thing between these two is this very very long back and forth, bouncing off each other of dialogue. They recall the story of Athens, how Erichthonius was born from the earth, how Athena fostered him even though he wasn't her child, that just as it's depicted in paintings. She gave the baby to the daughters of cay Crops to keep safe, but the daughters opened to the goddess's chest and so were cursed. They died on the rocks of the acropolis. Creusa and Ion speak of Creosa's own father, Erectheus. Ion asks if it's true that he sacrificed his daughters, her sisters to this, she says, quote, he took it upon himself to kill the girls for his country. Oh isn't that just Athens? She survived because she was only a newborn, Creusa explains, and when Ion asks, she confirms that her father is buried in a chasm in the earth, one caused by the strike of Poseidon's trident when he killed him. Then Ion asks about the place at the base of the acropolis that they call the long rocks. This, she tells him, has brought back a memory. He tells her that quote the Pithia honors it with Pythion flashes of lightning, to which Creusa replies, quote honors it, honors it. How I wish I had never seen it. Ion is confused. How could she hate such a sacred space? She tells him. Quote something shameful happened in the caves, which just that hits hard the idea of having to call your trauma something shameful, And because this is Euripides, this reveal is immediately followed by Ion asking her who she married. The most interesting part of all Greek tragedy is the idea of what the audience knows versus what the characters know. There is always a disconnect. Rarely is there ever a big surprise for the audience. You know, they tend to know the mythological backstory of nearly every play. But instead it's about how the story is told, how the anticipation is being built, just what is going to happen to lead up to the reveal that the audience knows is coming. So having Creusa mentioned the place of the assault that led to the conception of the very boy that she's talking to, even if she hasn't said what happened and neither know that they are mother and son, you know, only to have it followed by the question of who she married your repedies is just he is building that tension. Creusa tells Ion that she didn't marry an Athenian, but a man from Achaia, a foreigner Xuthus, She says it is a descendant of Zeus himself. She explains that she married this non Athenian because he came to the aid of her people her family in a battle on the nearby eyeland of Evia, that he won her as a result, and when Ion asks, she confirms that he is there at Delphi with her, but that her husband stopped along the way, and she continued on. So she is a woman standing at the entrance to the Temple of Apollo at Delphi, one of the most sacred and important places in all of ancient Greece, and she's there alone, like she is the important one here. We know it from the plot, but Euripides is making very clear that Xuthus is not the star of the show. Even Ion isn't the star of the show, even if it's named for him. This is about Creusa, the temple attendant, the son she doesn't know is her son. Asks her what it is that's brought her and her husband there to Delphi. What have they come to ask the oracle. They have no children, she tells him, despite having been married for a long time, to which Ion says, quote, you have never given birth, but are childless, and Creusa says only, quote, Phoebus knows the story of my childlessness. This is her way of avoiding one part of the question without telling a lie, and also adding so many jabs at Apollo as not only her rapist, but also the god of prophecy and the oracle itself. This is just so much happening. Ion tells her that he's sorry that she is lucky for many things, but not her childlessness. It's this very real response, like real empathy for someone who is struggling. And so Creusa tells him that she envies his mother and asks who he is. Ion tells her, quote, I am called the slave of the god, Lady, That's what I am. What a reply when we know that not only is I on her son, but Apollo's too, like he is a slave to his own father, because Apollo is Apollo. Creusa asks him how he came to be that way. Was he sold by some city or a person? But Ion says he knows only that he belongs to Apollo, and for this Creosa shows him the same compassion that he showed her. She asks him if he lives there in the sanctuary or in a house. Ion sleeps anywhere it finds him. He tells her he's been there since he was a child. He says he never knew his mother or father, and Creusa says, quote, I find in you a sickness that I share. When Ion tells her that it's the Pythia herself that he sees as his mother and that he's been sustained on the food left at the temple, Creusa says she feels sorry for his mother, to which he suggests, quote, perhaps I was born because of a woman's wrongs. Creosa doesn't entertain this. She points out that for his situation, he seems well off. He's dressed well, and he has a livelihood. She asks him if he's ever thought to look into where he came from, but he has no evidence at all to go off. He wouldn't know where to start, he says. To this, Creusa says, quote, ugh, another woman has suffered the same as your mother, who he asks he'd be happy if she'd help him in his search. Creusa says, quote, I have come here for her sake before my husband arrives. And so again we are reminded that she is this Athenian woman out on her own seeking answers away from her husband. Ion offers to help. He can be her sponsor for the oracle. He says, you know, help her with what she is seeking, So he asks her what it is that happened, but Criusa doesn't want to share the story. She says she's ashamed. Finally, though, she tells him quote one of my friends says that she lay with Phoebus, that she bore him a child in secret, that she isn't lying, dying, isn't covering up for being wronged by a man, that she suffered, that she birthed a baby by the god and exposed him. And when Ion asks if the baby still lives, she tells him that she doesn't know, and that's why she's here to ask the Oracle about this lost child. Nerds, I don't even know how to express how I feel about this play so far. Every single time I crack into a new play by Euripides, I'm just blown away. Like I keep thinking that I've got him figured out, that my love for him and my appreciation for his characters is like at its peak, And then I read lines like the ones that I've quoted to you today, like acknowledgments that women lived difficult life, that they were ruled by men, that assault happened by gods, and that it left trauma, that they were real people. You know, Even when Creusa says that her friend lay with Apollo like that is rendered in quotations by this translation, as if she is saying it in the same way that I say it on the show. All the time that I wrote so much of this into the meducipiece that I'm talking about this, this concept of lay with this amorphous phrase that implies nothing at all about agency or intent, and yet is so often used to defend the actions of the gods Crisa is. I mean, I'm fucking obsessed already with her, you know, and we're not even four hundred lines in. As always, I went searching for a translation by a woman, and she did not disappoint, So I'm using primarily a translation by Cecilia Lushnig, which is available through Diatoma. I've linked in the episode's description It's wonderful so far, and gods like lay with quotations line really sealed it from me. I've also got an Oxford Classics edition that that so far I've just used for its wonderful introduction, which is by Edith Hall. I mentioned some of that at the top. Again, both are listed in the apps of the description. And I can't wait for the rest of this play, which I mean, honestly, it's it's exciting for so many reasons. This is the first episode that I've written in weeks and weeks I've been really depressed and anxious, and the idea of sitting down and writing five thousand words of fun and interesting insights into the ancient world just it's really felt really daunting. I figured Ripides would help me bring back, you bring me back into this world, to this thing that I do fucking love doing, but I've had trouble loving lately. And of course, honestly, like he did fucking Eurippities, he helped more than I could have ever guessed, because I just the number of lines in those three point fifty that I've read for today's episode that are just gonna like stick with me for the foreseeable future. No one gets me like your Rippandies. So thank you well so much for listening, thank you for standing by me as I've gone through just like fucking everything, as I melt down because the state of the world in my own life has me drowning and sad. I'm doing better if yeah, even if the world is doing worse. I'm just so thankful for how many of you have reached out or left reviews or just like anything that you've done. You're awesome. Thank you. And speaking of reviews, I've gotten quite a few over the past couple of weeks, which is really fucking lovely and just they're all like I mean, they're so fucking nice, and they make me feel so good and they remind me of how much I do love what I do and how much it does mean to you all. I really needed them. So I'm going to read a couple today and more next week because you're all amazing and I love you. This first one is short and sweet from a username that honestly is just like a series of mostly consonants. It's very clearly just like jamming your hands on a keyboards. I'm not gonna bother trying to read it, but it is from the States and it's headlined just I love this shit. I'm so glad you found a use for all your studies and continuing the oral tradition of storytelling. Keep up the good work. Thank you. This next one I simultaneously wrenched at my heart and then soothed so much of the mess that is my psyche lately. Like, I really can't say how badly I needed this next review. I can't possibly express it. It's from a user called late in London from the UK. Came for the myths and stayed for the rants. I came to this show while researching me in need for work, but it is the very real and emotional tying in of the myths and history to current events that has kept me listening. I feel really grateful for Liv's bravery and talking about the horrors of this moment in time. I can hear that she is being so careful to articulate the unspeakable realities slash nightmares of the past six months especially, and I totally love her for it. Please keep talking about the horrific nature of imperialism today. Selfishly, it is helpful to hear someone else fraying at the edges in disbelief and sadness, but then also distracting me with stories from thousands of years ago. Thank you, really, Like sometimes I need to be told that my own praying at the edges and the rants that accompany those moments are actually resonating with people. Like podcasting is amazing, but it's also so isolating. I know conceptually that tens of thousands of people listen to me, but for the most part, like I don't hear much from you all, in in part because I haven't been able to be active on social media lately for my own mental health, and I just it's a mess. And sometimes I just wonder if anyone is like really hearing me. And this makes it clear that many of you are, and I really appreciate it, so thank you, and please everyone, don't let yourselves forget what is happening in Gaza and the West Bank too. Our governments don't want us seeing it because if we don't see it, then they can keep doing it. It's why they're trying to ban TikTok. I mean, that's the US, but it's gonna spread save Gaza softly and this killing of innocent people. Hold them accountable for turning down so many ceasefire deals that promised the full return of hostages just so long as they stopped killing all of these people. Don't let them continue to gaslight us into believing that, like anything about this is necessary or humane or justifiable in any way. We cannot. We cannot let them get away with the amount of propaganda and gaslighting that is happening in the West right now. We cannot let them convince us that killing like we're probably at one hundred thousand people. They killed everyone who counted at forty thousand, and that was months and months ago. We cannot let them convince us that killing one hundred thousand innocent people, mostly children, is justifiable. You can't convince me that children are terrorists. You can't convince me that a two year old or a three month old deserve to die because terrorism. That is absurd and no one should. We should not let them even keep saying this utter fucking bullshit. Let's talk about myths. Baby is written and produced by me Live Albert. MICHAELA. Smith is the hermes to my Olympians. My assistant producer, Laura Smith is the production assistant and audio engineer. Select music used in this episode was by Luke Chaos. The podcast is part of the iHeart podcast Network. Listen on Spotify or Apple or wherever you get your podcasts. Maybe also while you're there, stream hins Hall on repeat. Help me continue bringing you the world of Greek mythology and the ancient Mediterranean by becoming a patron, where you'll get bonus episodes and more. Visit patreon dot com, slash mythsmaby, or click the link in this episode's description. I am live and I love this shit.