Ion of Chios

Ion of Chios ( ancient Greek Ἴων ) - Greek poet and historian of the V century BC. er (died 422 BC. e.).

In his youth, he was in Athens , where he met Cimon and Aeschylus . Subsequently, during the Samos war , he met Sophocles at home. He died shortly before the setting of the Aristophanes "Peace" ( 421 BC. E. ).

Possessing a rare versatility at that time, Ion composed tragedies, elegies, hymns, praises; wrote in prose travel notes "πιδημιαι" and the historical narrative of the founding of Chios .

In addition to a few passages (in the collections of Muller ^[2] , Jacobi ^[3] , Bergka and Science ), all his works for us have disappeared. In Muller, the surviving texts of Jon occupy eight pages of printed text. Only two fragments have been translated into Russian (given in the popular science book by the famous historian Kravchuk about the epoch of Pericles ). Both have the form of a feast with the participation of an outstanding person, in which the narrator himself was present. The same literary device was later used willingly by Xenophon and Plato .

The first surviving fragment depicts the famous playwright Sophocles , who arrived as an Athenian strategist on the island of Chios. Here, the permanent representative of Athens Hermesilay, a close friend of Sophocles, immediately gave a feast in his honor ^[4] .

The second fragment dates back to the days of Jonah’s youth, when he came to Athens for some business and was invited to the feast of Laomedon, a man, apparently very respectable, because Cimon himself, the famous Athenian commander, appeared at his feast Miltiada . It is Cimon that is the main character of the second story ^[5] .