In Greek mythology, Creusa was an Athenian princess, the youngest daughter of Erechtheus, king of Athens, and his wife Praxithea. She is best known as the mother of Ion — by her husband Xuthus in the genealogical tradition of Apollodorus, but by the god Apollo in Euripides' tragedy Ion, where she is a central character. Spared the suicide pact that destroyed her sisters because she was still an infant, she became the ancestress through her sons of major branches of the Greek peoples.
Adapted from Wikipedia, "Creusa of Athens" · CC BY-SA 4.0
I.Family
Creusa was the youngest daughter of Erechtheus, King of Athens, and his wife Praxithea, daughter of Phrasimus and Diogeneia. She was the sister of Protogeneia, Pandora, Procris, Oreithyia, Chthonia, Cecrops, Pandorus and Metion. Her other possible siblings were Merope, Orneus, Thespius, Eupalamus and Sicyon.
Apollodorus mentions Creusa as the mother of Achaeus and Ion by her husband Xuthus; she is presumably also the mother of Xuthus' daughter Diomede. However, according to Euripides' Ion, in which she is a prominent character, Creusa was the mother of Ion by Apollo, while Xuthus was infertile and so accepted Ion as his own son. Creusa is also named as the mother of Ion with Apollo by Stephanus of Byzantium. Hyginus calls Creusa the mother of Cephalus by Hermes.
II.Mythology
Creusa was spared the fate of her sisters because she was an infant at the time they had sworn to commit suicide if one of them died. According to the general tradition, she had Ion, Achaeus and Dorus by Xuthus.
In Euripides' play Ion, Apollo dragged Creusa into a cave and assaulted and impregnated her before her marriage to Xuthus. To protect her from her father's anger, Apollo concealed the pregnancy. She delivered the child painlessly but abandoned the infant out of fear of reproach. Apollo arranged for Hermes to bring Ion to his temple to be raised. Creusa later returned seeking the child, but believing wild beasts had consumed him, she grieved.
Years later, Xuthus consulted the Delphian oracle about their childlessness and encountered Ion, who had been raised at Apollo's temple. The prophecy suggested that Ion was Xuthus' son, prompting Xuthus to adopt him. Creusa, unaware of her husband's infertility, suspected that Ion was the product of past adultery and attempted to poison him. Ion discovered the conspiracy and pursued her, and Creusa fled to Apollo's altar. The Pythia eventually revealed that Ion was a foundling and produced the basket in which he had been found. Recognizing the basket and its contents as Ion described them, Creusa realized that Ion was the son she had abandoned by Apollo. Athena promised that Creusa and Xuthus would have two future sons together, Achaeus and Dorus, commanding that the truth be kept secret from Xuthus.
III.Culture
In 1754 the play Creusa, Queen of Athens by William Whitehead was produced at the Drury Lane Theatre in London.