Skip to main content

Ino


Ino
Ino was a queen of Thebes in Greek mythology, the daughter of Cadmus and Harmonia. She was the second wife of King Athamas, with whom she had two children, Learches and Melicertes. Her sisters were Agave, Autonoe, and Semele, who was the mother of the god Dionysus.
Ino hated Athamas' children from his first marriage with the goddess Nephele, especially the twins Phrixus and Helle. So, she devised a plot to kill them. She collected all crop seeds from the region and roasted them. The farmers, seeing that their crops wouldn't grow and afraid of famine, sent messengers to a nearby oracle for advice. Ino bribed the messengers to say that the oracle demanded the sacrifice of the twins. Athamas reluctantly agreed, and everything was prepared for the sacrifice. However, just before the children were killed, their natural mother Nephele sent a flying golden ram to save them. Phrixus Helle were told never to look down while flying on the ram, but at some point, Helle ignored her mother's advice and fell to her death. The patch of sea where Helle died later took her name and has been called Hellespont since then. Phrixus survived the flight and reached Colchis, where the king Aeetes welcomed him; Phrixus, grateful for the hospitality, gave the golden fleece of the ram as a gift to the king, which would later be the object of desire for Jason and the Argonauts.
Ino helped raise her nephew Dionysus, causing Hera's jealousy. Hera caused Athamas to get mad, thus killing one of his sons, Learches; Ino, in an attempt to escape, took her other son Melicertes, and together fell into the sea. Due to this event, Ino was later deified and was worshipped as the goddess Leucothea, while Melicertes became the god Palaemon. Athamas regained his sanity and fled, and later married Themisto with whom he had a number of children. When he returned to Ino, he caused Themisto's jealousy, who devised a plot to kill Ino's children. She dressed Ino's children in black and her own in white, and paid to have the children in black killed. However, Ino had switched the clothes among the children, and Themisto's children were killed instead.



Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Gorgon

In Greek mythology, a Gorgon  is a mythical creature portrayed in ancient Greek literature. While descriptions of Gorgons vary across Greek literature and occur in the earliest examples of Greek literature, the term commonly refers to any of three sisters who had hair made of living, venomous snakes, as well as a horrifying visage that turned those who beheld her to stone. Traditionally, while two of the Gorgons were immortal, Stheno and Euryale, their sister Medusa was not and she was slain by the demigod and hero Perseus. The large Gorgon eyes, as well as Athena 's "flashing" eyes, are symbols termed "the divine eyes" by Gimbutas (who did not originate the perception); they appear also in Athena's sacred bird, the owl. They may be represented by spirals, wheels, concentric circles, swastikas, firewheels, and other images. Anyone who would gaze into their eyes would be turned to stone instantly. Essential Reads: Engaging Books You Can't Miss...
Post a Comment
Read more

Paris And Helen

WHEN Helen, Leda’s beautiful daughter, grew to womanhood at Sparta in the palace of her foster-father Tyndareus, all the princes of Greece came with rich gifts as her suitors, or sent their kinsmen to represent them. Diomedes, fresh from his victory at Thebes, was there with Ajax, Teucer, Philoctetes, Idomeneus, Patroclus, Menestheus, and many others. Odysseus came too, but empty-handed, because he had not the least chance of success-for, even though the Dioscuri, Helen’s brothers, wanted her to marry Menestheus of Athens, she would, Odysseus knew, be given to Prince Menelaus, the richest of the Achaeans, represented by Tyndareus’s powerful son-in-law Agamemnon. b. Tyndareus sent no suitor away, but would, on the other hand, accept none of the proffered gifts; fearing that his partiality for any one prince might set the others quarrelling. Odysseus asked him one day: ‘If I tell you how to avoid a quarrel will you, in return, help me to marry Icarius’s daughter Penelope?’ ‘It...
Post a Comment
Read more

Merope - Pleiades

Merope is one of the seven Pleiades, daughters of Atlas and Pleione . Pleione, their mother, is the daughter of Oceanus and Tethys and is the protector of sailors. Merope is the faintest of the stars because she was the only of the Pleiades to have married a mortal. Her sisters had relations with gods and bore them sons, but Merope married Sisyphus and lived on the island Chios. Merope gave birth to Glaukos, Ornytion, Almus, Thersander and Sinon. The star Merope is often called the "lost Pleiad" because she was at first not seen by astronomers or charted like her sisters. One myth says that she hid her face in shame because she had an affair with a mortal man, another says she went to Hades with her husband, Sisyphus . They were the sisters of Calypso, Hyas, the Hyades , and the Hesperides. The Pleiades were nymphs in the train of Artemis , and together with the seven Hyades were called the Atlantides, Dodonides, or Nysiades, nursemaids and teachers to the infant Di...
Post a Comment
Read more