Movatterモバイル変換

Ino (mythology)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Princess in Greek mythology

Ino
Queen ofBoeotia
Member of theTheban Royal Family
Leucothea (1862) byJean Jules Allasseur (1818-1903). South façade of the Cour Carrée in thePalais du Louvre.
Other names	Leucothea
Abode	Thebes, later Athamantia in Boeotia
Genealogy
Parents	Cadmus andHarmonia
Siblings	Agave,Autonoë,Semele andPolydorus
Consort	Athamas
Offspring	Learchus andMelicertes

InGreek mythology,Ino (/ˈaɪnoʊ/EYE-noh;Ancient Greek:Ἰνώ[iːnɔ̌ː]^[1]) was aTheban princess who later became a queen ofBoeotia. After her death and transfiguration, she was worshiped as a goddess under herepithet Leucothea, the "white goddess."Alcman called her "Queen of the Sea" (θαλασσομέδουσαthalassomédousa),^[2] which, if nothyperbole, would make her a goddess parallel toAmphitrite.

Family

[edit]

Ino was the second daughter of the KingCadmus and QueenHarmonia^[a] of Thebes and one of the three sisters ofSemele, the mortal woman of the house of Cadmus who gave birth toDionysus. Her only brother wasPolydorus, another ruler of Thebes. Together with her two sisters,Agave andAutonoë, they were the surrogates and divine nurses of Dionysus:

Ino was a primordial Dionysian woman, nurse to the god and a divinemaenad. (Kerenyi 1976, p. 246)

Ino was the second wife of theMinyan kingAthamas, mother ofLearchus andMelicertes and stepmother ofPhrixus andHelle.

Mythology

[edit]

Mosaic fragment:*Ino* (Δωτω,*Dotô*), discovered 1833 in a Roman villa inSaint-Rustice, 4th or 5th century,Saint-Raymon Museum

In theback-story to the heroic tale ofJason and the Golden Fleece,Phrixus andHelle, twin children of Athamas andNephele, were hated by their stepmother, Ino. Ino hatched a devious plot to get rid of the twins, roasting all the crop seeds ofBoeotia so they would not grow.^[3]^[b] The local farmers, frightened of famine, asked a nearby oracle for assistance. Ino bribed the men sent to theoracle to lie and tell the others that the oracle required the sacrifice of Phrixus. Athamas reluctantly agreed.

Before he was killed though,Phrixus andHelle were rescued by a flying golden ram sent by their natural mother,Nephele. Helle fell off the ram into theHellespont (which was named after her, meaningSea of Helle) and drowned, but Phrixus survived all the way toColchis, where KingAeetes took him in and treated him kindly, and gave Phrixus his daughter,Chalciope, in marriage. In gratitude, Phrixus gave the king thegolden fleece of the ram, which Aeetes hung in a tree in his kingdom.

Later, Ino raisedDionysus, her nephew, son of her sisterSemele by Zeus,^[c] causingHera's intense jealousy. In vengeance, Hera struckAthamas with insanity. Athamas went mad, slew one of his sons,Learchus, hunting him down like a stag, and set out in frenzied pursuit of Ino. To escape him, Ino threw herself into the sea with her sonMelicertes. Both were afterwards worshipped as marine divinities, Ino asLeucothea ("the white goddess"), Melicertes asPalaemon.

Alternatively, Ino was also stricken with insanity and killed Melicertes by boiling him in a cauldron, then jumped into the sea with her dead son. A sympatheticZeus did not want Ino to die, and transfigured her and Melicertes as Leucothea and Palaemon. In rare versions, Ino killed Melicerted when she found out Athamas was sleeping with one of their slavewomen,Antiphera.

*Athamas tue le fils d'Ino* byGaetano Gandolfi (1801)

The story of Ino,Athamas andMelicertes is relevant also in the context of two larger themes. Ino, daughter ofCadmus andHarmonia, had an end just as tragic as her siblings:Semele died while pregnant withZeus' child, killed by her own pride and lack of trust in her divine lover;Agave killed her own son, KingPentheus, while struck with Dionysian madness, andActaeon, son ofAutonoe, the third sibling, was torn apart by his own hunting dogs. Also, the insanity of Ino and Athamas, who hunted his own sonLearchus as a stag and slew him, can be explained as a result of their contact with Dionysus, whose presence can cause insanity. None can escape the powers of Dionysus, the god of wine.Euripides took up the tale inThe Bacchae, explaining their madness in Dionysiac terms, as a result of their having initially resisted belief in the god's divinity.

After Ino's disappearance, some of her companions began to revileHera, so the goddess turned them into birds according toOvid,^[4] perhapsaithuia birds (shearwaters?).^[5]

When Athamas returned to his second wife, Ino,Themisto (his third wife) sought revenge by dressing her children in white clothing and Ino's in black and directing the murder of the children in black. Ino switched their clothes without Themisto knowing, and so Themisto instigated the murder her own children. The story of Ino and Themisto was the subject ofIno, a lost play ofEuripides. Previously unknown fragments of Euripedes'Ino were found in 2022 and publicized in 2024.^[6]

Transformed into the goddessLeucothea, Ino also represents one of the many sources of divine aid toOdysseus in theOdyssey (5:333 ff), her earliest appearance in literature. Homer calls her

"Ino-Leocothea of the beautiful ankles [καλλίσφυρος], daughter ofCadmus, who was once a mortal speaking with the tongue of men, but now in the salt sea-waters has received honor at the hands of the gods".

She provides Odysseus with a veil and tells him to discard his cloak and raft, then instructs him how he can entrust himself to the waves and succeed in reaching land, and eventually the island of Scheria (Corcyra), home of the Phaeaceans.

In historical times, a sisterhood ofmaenads ofThebes in the service ofDionysus, traced their descent in the female line from Ino. We know this because an inscription atMagnesia on the Maeander summoned three maenads from Thebes, from the house of Ino, to direct the new mysteries of Dionysus at Magnesia.^[7]

Festivals

[edit]

Inoa (Ἰνῶα), there were festivals which were celebrated in many different places in honour of Ino.^[8]

Genealogy

[edit]

Argive genealogy inGreek mythology

Colour key:

Male
Female
Deity

Gallery

[edit]

Atamante preso dalle Furie, byArcangelo Migliarini (1801)Accademia di San Luca, Roma, IT
Athamas und Ino by Radierung (17th century)
The insane Athamas killing Learchus, while Ino and Melicertor jump into the sea, byWilhelm Janson (Amsterdam, NL),Antonio Tempesta (Italy, Florence, 1555–1630) atLos Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA
Tisiphone maddens Athamas & Ino (17th century)
Athamas tearing apart his children, byGodfried Maes

Notes

[edit]

^InTheogony she is only called "Ino", and is listed among the "glorious offspring" of unions between a mortal and a goddess. (Hesiod 1914, pp. 975 ff)
^HoweverKerenyi (1951, p. 264) suggests "... it is possible that originally she did not cause the seed-corn to be roasted, but introduced the practice of roasting corn in general."
^Local tradition sited the suckling of Dionysus atBrasiai inLaconia. (Kerenyi 1951, p. 264)

References

[edit]

^Liddell, Henry George;Scott, Robert, eds. (1940)."Ἰνώ" [Ino].A Greek-English Lexicon. Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press. Archived fromthe original on 21 March 2023. Retrieved18 July 2024 – viaTufts University (perseus.tufts.edu).
^Ἀλκμάν (1988)."Fragment 50b". In Campbell (ed.).Alcman Fragments.Loeb Classical Library. Cambridge, MA:Harvard University Press. pp. 428, 429 – viaHarvard U. Press (loebclassics.com).
^pseudo-Apollodorus (1921), 1.9.1
^Janan, Micaela (22 October 2009).Reflections in a Serpent's Eye: Thebes in Ovid'sMetamorphoses. Oxford New York:Oxford University Press. p. 93.ISBN 978-0-19-955692-2.
^Aratus (10 June 2004).Aratus: Phaenomena. Classical Texts and Commentaries. Vol. 34. Translated by Kidd, Douglas.Cambridge University Press. p. 293.ISBN 0-521-58230-X.
^"Uncovered Euripides fragments are 'kind of a big deal'".Colorado Arts and Sciences Magazine. 1 August 2024. Retrieved10 August 2024.
^Burkert (1992), p. 44
^"Ἰνῶα" [Inoa].A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities. 1890 – via perseus.tufts.edu (Tufts University).

Sources

[edit]

pseudo-Apollodorus (1921)."Online version".Bibliotheca [The Library]. Translated byFrazer, J.G. Cambridge, MA / London, UK: Harvard University Press / William Heinemann Ltd.ISBN 0-674-99135-4 – viaPerseus Digital Library,Tufts University (perseus.tufts.edu){{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help) (2 volumes). —"Greek text" – viaPerseus Digital Library,Tufts University (perseus.tufts.edu).

Burkert, Walter (1992).The Orientalizing Revolution: Near Eastern influence on Greek culture in the early Archaic Age. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Campbell, David A. (1988)."Volume II: Anacreon, Anacreontea, choral lyric from Olympus to Alcman".Greek Lyric.Loeb Classical Library. Vol. 143. Cambridge, MA:Harvard University Press.ISBN 978-0-674-99158-3 – viaHarvard U. Press (loebclassics.com).

Dalby, Andrew (2005).The Story of Bacchus. London, UK: British Museum Press. pp. 36–42, 151.ISBN 0-7141-2255-6. (USISBN 0-89236-742-3)

Hesiod (1914). "Theogony (English translation)".The Homeric Hymns and Homerica. Translated byEvelyn-White, H.G. Cambridge, MA / London, UK: Harvard University Press / William Heinemann Ltd. Retrieved18 July 2024 – via Perseus Digital Library (Tufts University)."Greek text also available" – via Perseus Digital Library (Tufts University).