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The Ionians are descendants of
Ion 1, son of Xuthus 1, son
of Hellen 1 (after whom the
Hellenes are called),
son of Deucalion 1,
the man who survived the
Flood. The Ionians, led by
the sons of Codrus 1, colonized in southwestern
Asia Minor the region that was called Ionia after
them.
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Xuthus 1
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Xuthus 1 was expelled by his brothers from
Thessaly, and having come to
Athens, he married the
princess Creusa 1, daughter of King Erechtheus.
This privilege he won for having defeated the
Euboeans, who were at war with
Athens.
When Erechtheus died, Xuthus 1 was forced to
emigrate to Achaea (then
called Aegialus) where he died.
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Achaeus 1
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His son Achaeus 1, having raised an army of
Aegialeans and Athenians returned to Thessaly and
recovered his father's rights.
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Ion 1
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But his other son Ion 1,
having married the daughter of King Selinus, became
the master of the territory which was later called
Achaea, and called the
inhabitants Ionians after himself.
Ion 1, they say, met his
death in Attica helping the Athenians against the
Eleusinians.
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Ion 1 said to be the son
of Apollo
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Some have said that Ion
1 was not the son of Xuthus 1, but the son of
Apollo and Creusa 1. She,
they say, exposed the child, out of shame, in a
cavern in Attica. But
Hermes, following
Apollo's instructions,
took little Ion 1 to
Delphi where he was
brought up in the service of the god by the Pythian
priestess who found him abandonned lying in a
cradle inside the temple. Years later, Xuthus 1 and
Creusa 1 came to Delphi
to inquire of the oracle how they could cease to be
childless. It was then that Ion
1 was given by the Oracle and
Apollo to Xuthus 1 as a
son. But Creusa 1, fearing to become the only one
to be called childless, attempted against the life
of Ion 1, whom she tried to
poison with the help of a drop of
Medusa 1's blood, which
she had inherited. The criminal attempt, carried
out by an old servant of Creusa 1, failed, and
Creusa 1 had to take refuge in the altar, lest she
be killed by her own son, who was in an avenging
mood. While Ion 1 waited
for Creusa 1 to leave the altar so that he could
slay her, the Pythian priestess who had nurtured
him appeared with the old cradle. When Creusa 1
recognized the cradle, she declared to
Ion 1 what was inside it,
thus proving she was his mother. This is how, they
say, Ion 1 found his place
in Attica, for having thus been found by Creusa 1
and adopted by Xuthus 1, he followed them back to
Athens.
About Creusa 1 it is also told that she had by
Xuthus 1, besides Ion 1, a
daughter Diomede 1, who married King Deion of
Phocis. Creusa 1 is also said to have consorted
with Hermes, and given
birth to a child Cephalus 2, who was later carried
off by Eos to Syria.
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Argives, Danaans and Achaeans
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The descendants of Achaeus 1, however,
established themselves in Argolis and mingled with
the Danaans. That is why each of the terms Argives,
Danaans, and Achaeans may be applied to designate
these peoples.
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Ionians expelled by the Achaeans
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When the
HERACLIDES attacked
the Peloponnesus, the Achaeans, led by Tisamenus 2
(son of Orestes 2, son
of Agamemnon, son of
Atreus, son of
Pelops 1), were forced
to leave Argolis. They tried at first to persuade
the Ionians to accept them peacefully in their
territory, but when the Ionians refused their
proposal, they conquered the territory by force,
renamed it Achaea, and
expelled the Ionians.
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Ionians settle in Attica
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Because of their ties with the Athenians, the
Ionians were allowed by King Melanthus 1 of
Athens to settle in
Attica. Melanthus 1 was in time succeeded in the
throne by his son Codrus 1, who died in the
battlefield defending
Athens against an attempt
of the HERACLIDES to
take the city.
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Royal dispute
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After Codrus 1's death, his sons quarrelled for
the throne, for Neileus refused to accept his
brother Medon 11 as king because he was lame in one
foot. The dispute had to be settled by the oracle
of Delphi which, caring
nothing about the foot, appointed Medon 11 as king.
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Ionian emigration
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When the throne succession was thus decided,
Neileus and the rest of the sons of Codrus 1 set
out to found a colony in Asia Minor, taking with
them anyone who wished to go. But the majority of
those who emigrated were the Ionians who had
settled in Attica during the rule of Melanthus 1.
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Other Greeks follow
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In this way the Ionians came to Asia Minor, and
they were soon followed by other Greeks.
The Phocians received ships from the Athenians
Philogenes and Damon 1, sons of Euctemon, and
sailed to Asia Minor. There were expeditions from
Euboea, and Philotas, a descendant of Peneleus (a
Boeotian leader who fought in the
Trojan War), led the
expeditionary force from
Thebes.
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Still others
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Minyans from
Orchomenus also came, as they were said to be
related to the sons of Codrus 1. They founded, led
by Athamas 4 (a descendant of
Athamas 1, the son of
Aeolus 1), a city Teos
in the mainland north of Samos. Apoecus,
great-grandchild of King Melanthus 1 of
Athens, introduced the
Ionians in Teos, and later received the new
settlers led by the Boeotian Geres and Naoclus, a
bastard son of Codrus 1.
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Neileus in Miletus
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When the invasion started, Neileus, son of
Codrus 1, attacked Miletus, and having conquered
the city, he let all males be killed, and the
Ionians married the wives of the murdered
Milesians.
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Miletus before Neileus
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The land which they conquered had been called,
in former times, Anactoria, after Anax, son of
Gaia. This Anax was
succeeded by his son Asterius 4, but then Miletus
(son of Apollo, though
some say son of Asterius 5, son of
Minos 2) came from
Crete with an army, and
being supported by the Carians, took the city and
called it after himself, and there he and his
descendants ruled until the arrival of Neileus and
the Ionians.
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Neileus' son
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Neileus was buried at Didyma, a city near
Miletus, and his son, Aepytus 1 is one of the
founders of the city of Priene, which is also in
Caria. The other co-founder is said to be Philotas
[see above].
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Androclus
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Androclus, another son of Codrus 1, was, some
say, appointed king of the Ionians, and sailed
against Ephesus, but others say he was himself the
founder of Ephesus as well as the leader of the
Ionian colonization.
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Samian wars
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The island of Samos was occupied by the Ionians
under the leadership of Procles 1. His son Leogorus
reigned in Samos when he was accused by Androclus
and the Ionians from Ephesus of conspiring with the
Carians against the Ionians. War followed this
charge, and Leogorus and his Ionians from Samos
were expelled from the island. Some Samians
resettled in the island of Dardania, which they
renamed Samothrace, whereas the rest, led by
Leogorus, fortified themselves in Anaea, on the
mainland opposite Samos, and ten years later
attacked the island and expelled the Ionians from
Ephesus.
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Death of Androclus
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After the return of the Samians to their island,
Androclus helped successfully the city of Priene
against the Carians, but he himself died in the
battlefield, and was later buried in Ephesus.
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Cyaretus and Andraemon 5
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Cyaretus (sometimes called Cydrelus), another
son of Codrus 1, founded Myus in Caria, and
Andraemon 5, also son of Codrus 1, is said to have
expelled the Carians from Lebedus, or else he
founded that city and seized a place called Artis
before he died, being buried at Colophon.
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Colophon already Greek
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About Colophon it is said that the city was
already Greek when the Ionians arrived. The first
Greeks to establish themselves in this country, it
is said, were the Cretans, led by Rhacius, son of
Lebes.
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Rhacius & Manto 1
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When the EPIGONI
sacked Thebes, a group of
Theban refugees sailed to Asia Minor, and among
them was Manto 1, daughter of the seer
Tiresias and herself a
seeress. They came to Clarus, which is near Ephesus
where they were seized by the Cretans, but when
Rhacius learned who they were, he let them settle
in the country and married Manto 1.
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Conquests of Mopsus 2
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Their son Mopsus 2 completed the conquest,
defeating the Carians and expelling them from the
country, for until then the colonists, though
having a strong fleet at their disposal, had not
been able to extend their territory significantly.
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Wandering visitors
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When Mopsus 2 was still ruling in Colophon after
the Trojan War, he
received those who having left their ships in
Troy, journeyed by land to
Colophon. These were Amphilochus 2, the seer
Calchas, Leonteus 1,
Podalirius, and Polypoetes 1. Amphilochus 2 is son
of Manto 1 by Alcmaeon 1, son of
Amphiaraus; Leonteus
1 was a Lapith leader son of Coronus 1, son of
Caeneus 1, the man who under the name of Caenis had
been a woman but was turned into an invulnerable
man by Poseidon;
Podalirius is the healer son of
Asclepius; Polypoetes
1, leader of the Gyrtonians, was son of
Pirithous,
Theseus' notorious
friend.
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Death of the seer
Calchas
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When the two seers
Calchas and Mopsus 2
met, they started wrangling about the art of
divination, putting each other to the test with
difficult questions, and
Calchas died because of
a pig. For Mopsus 2 asked, showing him a pregnant
sow, about the number of pigs she had in her womb,
and Calchas answered
eight, but Mopsus 2 corrected him and said that
they were nine, adding that all were male and that
they would be farrowed at a certain hour. When this
proved to be true,
Calchas died of a broken
heart, as it had been predicted that he would die
if he met a wiser diviner than himself.
Calchas was buried at
Notium, which is between Ephesus and Colophon.
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Damasichthon 3 and Promethus
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When the Ionians came to Colophon, they and the
Greeks living in the city agreed to enjoy together
equal rights, though the government was taken by
the Ionian leaders Damasichthon 3 and Promethus,
sons of Codrus 1. Later these brothers quarrelled,
and Promethus, having murdered Damasichthon 3, fled
to the island of Naxos where he died.
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Cleopus
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Another son of Codrus 1 called Cnopus, though
some say Cleopus, founded Erythrae or gathered men
from all the cities of Ionia, and let them settle
among the Erythraeans. For it is also said that the
city was founded by Erythrus, son of Radamanthys,
son of Zeus and
Europa. Besides the
Cretans of Erythrus, there were in the city many
Lycians, who are of Cretan origin as well. They had
come to Lycia with Sarpedon 1 (son of
Zeus and
Europa), to whom
Zeus granted life for three
generations. Patroclus
1 put an end in Troy to
Sarpedon 1's long life.
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Ancestors and sons of Codrus 1
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Thus carried out the colonization of Ionia the
sons of Codrus 1, son of Melanthus 1, son of
Andropompus 1, son of Borus 3, son of Penthilus 2,
son of Periclymenus 1, son of
Neleus, son of Tyro,
daughter of Salmoneus, son of
Aeolus 1, son of Hellen
1, son of Deucalion
1, the man who survived the
Flood.
The sons of Codrus 1 were Neileus, Androclus,
Cyaretus (Cydrelus), Damasichthon 3, Promethus,
Andraemon 5, Naoclus, Cleopus (Cnopus), and Medon
11, who was king of
Athens.
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