ABSTRACT
Reading through Euripides’ Ion to the Genesis patriarchs, and Moses’ birth story, drives home how traditional all the principal motifs are, from the foundling, preserved in a basket, to the patriarch’s speaking name – particularly close correspondences between those of Ion and Moses in their names and naming, from the divine promise the patriarch receives, to his attempted human sacrifice/murder by his parent. The angel’s appearances to Abraham and Hagar can be understood as deus ex machina scenes in Euripides, especially close to that in the Ion. In two other frames, Xuthus and Isaac in Genesis 27 both instantiate the deceived father, while Ion and Joseph, both cast the patriarchs as romance protagonists.
