Athens in a Basket: Naming, Objects, and Identity in Euripides' Ion

In this essay I explore two distinctly gendered strategies of recognition in Euripides' Ion. His human surrogate father, Xouthos, names Ion but fails to recognize him as Athens' lost son, whereas Athenian heirlooms-an olive wreath, golden snakes, and a woven aegis-restore Ion, via Kreousa's memory, to the city of his birth. These material and maternal symbols of identity enroll Ion into the elite ranks of autochthonous Athenians. As icons, moreover, of foundational moments in Athens' own history, the recognition tokens exert their "pull" on the play's Athenian audience, prompting them to see themselves in Ion and consequently to recognize their own Erechtheid origins.