The New International Encyclopædia/Ion of Chios

ION (ī′ŏn) OF CHIOS, kī′ŏs (c.500-c.422 B.C.). A Greek author, who came to Athens when he was still young (B.C. 478). He was a member of the circle which included Cimon and Pericles, and was probably personally acquainted with Æschylus and Sophocles. His only work in prose, so far as we know, was the Ἐπιδημίαι, reminiscences of celebrated visitors at Chios, which was of great importance to the Greek historians who succeeded him, and has some value for literary history. The fragments of this work may be found in Müller, Fragmenta Historicorum Græcorum (1853). There is also a tradition that he wrote on the colonization of Chios. But his poetry was even more important; he wrote tragedies, lyrics, and elegiac and dithyrambic verse. Consult: Nauck, Tragicorum Græcorum Fragmenta (1889); and Bergk, Poetæ Lyrici Græci (1900).