104
See
von Blumenthal, A., Ion von Chios (Stuttgart and Berlin
1939)Google Scholar; F. Jacoby (n. 78) 4–7. The arguments are (1) The work is cited among Ion's prose works in the list given by the scholiast on Ar. Pax 835. But this scholion is clearly conflating more than one source, and its phraseology does not prove that the ktisis was grouped with the prose works: ἔγραψε δὲ καὶ κωμῳδίας καὶ ἐπιγράμματα καὶ παιᾶνας καὶ ὕμνους καὶ σκόλια καὶ ἐγκώμια καὶ ἐλεγεῖα, καὶ καταλογάδην τὸν πρεσβευτικὸν λεγόμενον, ὃν νόθον ἀξιοῦσί τινες, καὶ οὐχὶ αὐτοῦ. φέρεται δὲ αὐτοῦ καὶ κτίσις καὶ κοσμολογικὸς καὶ ὑπομνήματα· καὶ ἄλλα τινά. (2) It is called a σμγγραφή by Paus. vii 4.8: this certainly suggests a prose work, but the term ξυγγραφεύς is occasionally found of writers of verse works, e.g. Dio Pr. 12.5 ξυγγραέας ἡδίστους ἐμμέτρων καὶ ἀμέτρων λόγων. (3) The only extant verbatim fragment is in prose, fr. 19, from Etym. Magn. and Orion s.v. ‘λόγχας’. λόγχας τὰς μερίδας Ἴωνες λέγουσιν. Ἴων ἐν χίου κτίσει· ἐκ τῆς Τέω λόγχης λόγχας ποιεῖ πεντήκοτα. The MSS offer ποιεῖν, which was corrected to ποιεῖ ν' by Gaisford (1615 = 569.34). But the present tense ποιεῖ is not appropriate to a historical narrative (other fragments of Ion's works show no penchant to the historic present), and we ought to consider πόρε πεντήκοντα which would be easy palaeographically. If Ion wrote πόρε, then he wrote a hexameter:
ἐκ τῆς Τέω λόγχης λόγχας πόρε πεντήκοντα (with
). For πόρε in this sedes cf. Il. i 72; vii 146; ix 663; x 546; xv 441; xvi 690; xxii 472; xxiii 92; Od. iv 130; v 321, 372; vi 228; x 394, 494; xi 282. For πεντήκοντα at the end of a hexameter Il. ii 719; v 786; xi 679; Od. ix 35, 48; xvi 247.
If the text of fr. 19 were secure, the matter would be clear: unfortunately it is not, but the possibility of a verse ktisis must be kept open. If the ktisis was in verse, then the pentameter quoted by Plutarch Thes. 20.2 (= Ion fr. 29) could belong to it:
(Chios) τόν ποτε Θησεΐδης ἔκτισεν Οἰνοπίων
Jacoby thinks the line indicates an allusive reference and ‘shows clearly that the elegy … did not narrate the foundation of Chios at length’. That seems to go too far. So summary a reference would not be out of place in an opening sequence (which in turn would be more likely to be known to Plutarch or his source).