Xuthus

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In Greek mythology, Xuthus (Ancient Greek: Ξοῦθος) was a son of Hellen and Orseis and founder (through his sons) of the Achaean and Ionian nations. He had two sons by Creusa: Ion and Achaeus and a daughter named Diomede.

According to Hesiod's (probably) "Eoiae" or "Catalogue of Women" on the origin of the Greeks, Pandora (named after her grandmother Pandora, sister of Hellen and daughter of Deukalion and Pyrrha) together with Zeus had three sons: Graecus, Magnetas and Macedon who together with Hellen's three sons Dorus, Xuthus (with his sons Ion and Achaeus) and Aeolos, comprised the set of progenitors of the ancient tribes that formed the Greek/Hellenic nation.[1]

Aiclus and Cothus are sometimes described as being his children. Euripides's play, Ion, provides an unusual alternate version, according to which Xuthus is son of Aeolus and Cyane and Ion has in fact been begotten on Xuthus's wife Creusa by Apollo. Xuthus and Creusa visited the Oracle at Delphi to ask the god if they could hope for a child. Xuthus will later father Dorus with Creusa, though Dorus is normally presented as Xuthus's brother.

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  1. ^ Hesiod (probably), "Eoiae" or "Catalogue of Women", c. 650 BC.

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