Embracing her son and heir, Creusa expresses her joy. There is no more unlikely chance than this, Ion tells her than to discover that you are my mother. I am childless no longer, she tells him. When Ion questions her about his father, Creusa tells him with some embarrassment that he is the son of Apollo and that she reluctantly abandoned him in a deserted cave to be the prey of birds. As they celebrate their change of fortune, Ion takes her aside to ask if perhaps she conceived him with a mortal father and made up the story about Apollo. After all, Apollo said that Xuthus was his father.