Monday, June 28, 2010

Myths and Legends: Ino and Melicertes

Ino and Melicertes. To find out more about Ino, also known as Leucothea, see this Wikipedia article: link; for information about the image: image source.

Ino was the wife of King Athamas of Thebes. They had two sons, Melicertes and Learchus. Ino was also the sister of Semele, mother of Dionysus, and so she helped to raise the baby Dionysus (Semele having been killed by Zeus' thunderbolt when she was pregnant with Dionysus). Ino's kindness to the infant Dionysus enraged Hera, who drove Athamas mad. Athamas killed his son Learchus, while Ino fled with Melicertes in her arms. She ran to the shore of the sea and then jumped in; she was transformed into a goddess, Leucothea, the "white goddess," while Melicertes became the sea god Palaemon.

You can also find more myths and legends for the week of June 24-30 here. For more information and links to the actual javascript code, see the Myths & Legends Widget Reference Page.