Greek mythology Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the Ancient Greece, ancient Greeks, and a genre of ancient Greek folklore, today absorbed alongside Roman mythology into the broader designation of classical mythology. These stories conc ...

, Ino ( ; ) was a Theban princess who later became a queen of

Boeotia Boeotia ( ), sometimes Latinisation of names, Latinized as Boiotia or Beotia (; modern Greek, modern: ; ancient Greek, ancient: ), is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the modern regions of Greece, region of Central Greece (adm ...

. After her death and transfiguration, she was worshiped as a goddess under her

epithet An epithet (, ), also a byname, is a descriptive term (word or phrase) commonly accompanying or occurring in place of the name of a real or fictitious person, place, or thing. It is usually literally descriptive, as in Alfred the Great, Suleima ...

Leucothea, the "white goddess." Alcman called her "Queen of the Sea" ( ''thalassomédousa''), which, if not hyperbole, would make her a goddess parallel to Amphitrite.

Family

Ino was the second daughter of the King Cadmus and Queen

Harmonia In Greek mythology, Harmonia (; /Ancient Greek phonology, harmoˈnia/, "harmony", "agreement") is the goddess of harmony and concord. Her Greek opposite is Eris (mythology), Eris and her Roman mythology, Roman counterpart is Concordia (mythol ...

of Thebes and one of the three sisters of Semele, the mortal woman of the house of Cadmus who gave birth to

Dionysus In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, myth, Dionysus (; ) is the god of wine-making, orchards and fruit, vegetation, fertility, festivity, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, and theatre. He was also known as Bacchus ( or ; ...

. Her only brother was Polydorus, another ruler of Thebes. Together with her two sisters,

Agave ''Agave'' (; ; ) is a genus of monocots native to the arid regions of the Americas. The genus is primarily known for its succulent and xerophytic species that typically form large Rosette (botany), rosettes of strong, fleshy leaves. Many plan ...

and Autonoë, they were the surrogates and divine nurses of Dionysus: : Ino was a primordial Dionysian woman, nurse to the god and a divine maenad. () Ino was the second wife of the Minyan king Athamas, mother of Learchus and Melicertes and stepmother of

Phrixus In Greek mythology Phrixus (; also spelt Phryxus; means "standing on end, bristling") was the son of Athamas, king of Boeotia, and Nephele (a goddess of clouds). He was the older brother of Helle (mythology), Helle and the father of Argus (Gree ...

and Helle.

Mythology

In the back-story to the heroic tale of Jason and the Golden Fleece,

and Helle, twin children of Athamas and Nephele, were hated by their stepmother, Ino. Ino hatched a devious plot to get rid of the twins, roasting all the crop seeds of

so they would not grow. The local farmers, frightened of famine, asked a nearby oracle for assistance. Ino bribed the men sent to the

oracle An oracle is a person or thing considered to provide insight, wise counsel or prophetic predictions, most notably including precognition of the future, inspired by deities. If done through occultic means, it is a form of divination. Descript ...

to lie and tell the others that the oracle required the sacrifice of Phrixus. Athamas reluctantly agreed. Before he was killed though,

and Helle were rescued by a flying golden ram sent by their natural mother, Nephele. Helle fell off the ram into the Hellespont (which was named after her, meaning ''Sea of Helle'') and drowned, but Phrixus survived all the way to

Colchis In classical antiquity and Greco-Roman geography, Colchis (; ) was an exonym for the Georgian polity of Egrisi ( ka, ეგრისი) located on the eastern coast of the Black Sea, centered in present-day western Georgia. Its population, the ...

, where King Aeetes took him in and treated him kindly, and gave Phrixus his daughter, Chalciope, in marriage. In gratitude, Phrixus gave the king the golden fleece of the ram, which Aeetes hung in a tree in his kingdom. Later, Ino raised

, her nephew, son of her sister Semele by Zeus, causing

Hera In ancient Greek religion, Hera (; ; in Ionic Greek, Ionic and Homeric Greek) is the goddess of marriage, women, and family, and the protector of women during childbirth. In Greek mythology, she is queen of the twelve Olympians and Mount Oly ...

's intense jealousy. In vengeance, Hera struck Athamas 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 son Melicertes. Both were afterwards worshipped as marine divinities, Ino as Leucothea ("the white goddess"), Melicertes as Palaemon. 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 sympathetic

Zeus Zeus (, ) is the chief deity of the List of Greek deities, Greek pantheon. He is a sky father, sky and thunder god in ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, who rules as king of the gods on Mount Olympus. Zeus is the child ...

did not want Ino to die, and transfigured her and Melicertes as Leucothea and Palaemon. The story of Ino, Athamas and Melicertes is relevant also in the context of two larger themes. Ino, daughter of Cadmus and

, had an end just as tragic as her siblings: Semele died while pregnant with

' child, killed by her own pride and lack of trust in her divine lover;

killed her own son, King Pentheus, while struck with Dionysian madness, and Actaeon, son of Autonoe, the third sibling, was torn apart by his own hunting dogs. Also, the insanity of Ino and Athamas, who hunted his own son Learchus 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 Euripides () was a Greek tragedy, tragedian of classical Athens. Along with Aeschylus and Sophocles, he is one of the three ancient Greek tragedians for whom any plays have survived in full. Some ancient scholars attributed ninety-five plays to ...

took up the tale in '' The 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 revile

, so the goddess turned them into birds according to

Ovid Publius Ovidius Naso (; 20 March 43 BC – AD 17/18), known in English as Ovid ( ), was a Augustan literature (ancient Rome), Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a younger contemporary of Virgil and Horace, with whom he i ...

, perhaps ''aithuia'' birds (shearwaters?). 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 of ''Ino'', a lost play of

. Previously unknown fragments of Euripedes' ''Ino'' were found in 2022 and publicized in 2024. Transformed into the goddess ''Leucothea'', Ino also represents one of the many sources of divine aid to

Odysseus In Greek mythology, Greek and Roman mythology, Odysseus ( ; , ), also known by the Latin variant Ulysses ( , ; ), is a legendary Greeks, Greek king of Homeric Ithaca, Ithaca and the hero of Homer's Epic poetry, epic poem, the ''Odyssey''. Od ...

in the ''

Odyssey The ''Odyssey'' (; ) is one of two major epics of ancient Greek literature attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest surviving works of literature and remains popular with modern audiences. Like the ''Iliad'', the ''Odyssey'' is divi ...

'' (5:333 ff), her earliest appearance in literature. Homer calls her : "Ino-Leocothea of the beautiful ankles [], daughter of Cadmus, 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 Corfu ( , ) or Kerkyra (, ) is a Greece, Greek island in the Ionian Sea, of the Ionian Islands; including its Greek islands, small satellite islands, it forms the margin of Greece's northwestern frontier. The island is part of the Corfu (regio ...

), home of the Phaeaceans. In historical times, a sisterhood of maenads of Thebes in the service of

, traced their descent in the female line from Ino. We know this because an inscription at Magnesia on the Maeander summoned three maenads from Thebes, from the house of Ino, to direct the new mysteries of Dionysus at Magnesia.

Festivals

Inoa (), there were festivals which were celebrated in many different places in honour of Ino.

Genealogy

Gallery

File:Atamante preso dalle Furie 0014.jpg, ''Atamante preso dalle Furie'', by Arcangelo Migliarini (1801) Accademia di San Luca, Roma, IT File:Athamas und Ino ubs G 0732 II.jpg, Athamas und Ino by Radierung (17th century) File:The Insane Athamas Killing Learchus, While Ino and Melicertor Jump into the Sea LACMA 65.37.123.jpg, The insane Athamas killing Learchus, while Ino and Melicertor jump into the sea, by Wilhelm Janson (Amsterdam, NL), Antonio Tempesta (Italy, Florence, 1555–1630) at Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA File:Athamas i ino.jpg, Tisiphone maddens Athamas & Ino (17th century) File:Godfried Maes - Illustrations to the Metamorphoses of Ovid, Athamas tearing apart his Children.jpg, Athamas tearing apart his children, by Godfried Maes

Notes

References

Sources

* (2 volumes). — * * * (US ) * * *

External links

* {{Authority control Greek goddesses Family of Athamas Princesses in Greek mythology Queens in Greek mythology Metamorphoses characters Metamorphoses in Greek mythology Deeds of Hera Mythological Thebans Boeotian mythology Theban mythology Mythology of Dionysus Suicides in Greek mythology Ino's companions Odyssean gods