Ion, of Chios, Greek poet, lived in the age of Pericles. At an early age he went to Athens, where he made the acquaintance of Aeschylus. He was a great admirer of Cimon and an opponent of Pericles. He subsequently met Sophocles in his native island at the time of the Samian war. From Aristophanes (Peace, 830 ff.) it is concluded that he died before the production of that play (421). His first tragedy was produced between 452-449 B.C.; and he was third to Euripides and Iophon in the tragic contest of 429. In a subsequent year he gained both the tragic and dithyrambic prizes, and in honour of his victory gave a jar of Chian wine to every Athenian citizen (Athenaeus p. 3). He is further credited by the scholiast on Aristophanes (loc. cit.) with having composed comedies, dithyrambs, epigrams, paeans, hymns, scolia, encomia and elegies; and he is the reputed author of a philosophical treatise on the mystic number three. His historical or biographical works were five in number, and included an account of the antiquities of Chios and of ἐπιδημίαι, recollections of visitors to the island.
See C. Nieberding, De Ionis Chii vita (1836, containing the fragments); F. Allègre, De Ione Chio (1890), an exhaustive monograph; and Bentley, Epistola ad Millium.
