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Athamas 1 was king first in Boeotia and then in
Thessaly. As his second wife Ino plotted against
the children of his first wife Nephele 2, he almost
sacrificed his son Phrixus 1.
Hermes entrusted
Dionysus 2 to Athamas
1 and Ino, and persuaded them to rear him as a
girl. But Hera (or
Tisiphone 1) drove them mad, and Athamas 1 hunted
his elder son Learchus as a deer, killing him.
Athamas 1 was then banished, and settled in the
country he named Athamantia marrying Themisto 2 and
having other children by her.
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Ino's plot
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Athamas 1 married first Nephele 2 and had
children, Phrixus 1 and Helle by her. But when
Athamas 1 married his second wife Ino, she plotted
against the children of his first wife. This is
what Ino did: she persuaded the women of the
country to parch the wheat without the knowledge of
the men, and as a result the earth did not yield
its annual crops.
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Falsification of the oracle
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When the country was then suffering from dearth,
Athamas 1 sent messengers to the oracle of
Delphi to inquire how
they might be delivered from the calamity. But Ino
persuaded the messengers, in one way or another, to
falsify the oracle and say that it had been
foretold that the dearth would cease if Phrixus 1
were sacrificed.
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Nephele 2 saves her children
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When this was known, the people, easily deluded
by the promises of the false oracle, demanded from
Athamas 1 compliance with it, forcing him to bring
his own son to the sacrificial altar. However,
before he was able to satisfy the public demands,
his wife Nephele 2 put her son Phrixus 1 along with
her daughter Helle on the back of the Ram with the
Golden Fleece, which she had received from
Hermes, and flying on it
they escaped.
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Fate of Phrixus 1 and Helle
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Helle slipped into the sea, which was called
Hellespont after her, and was drowned; her tomb was
said to be in the Chersonesus, which is the
Thracian peninsula separated from Asia Minor by the
Dardanelles. But Phrixus 1 came to Colchis (Georgia
in the Caucasus), and having sacrificed the Ram, he
gave the Golden Fleece to King
Aeetes and married his
daughter Chalciope 2, who some have called
Iophossa.
[More about Phrixus 1 under Mates &
Offspring below]
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Or was it Demodice's plot?
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Others have said that it was Demodice who
plotted against Phrixus 1. For she, though being
married to Cretheus 1, brother of Athamas 1, fell
in love with Phrixus 1 and when he did not return
her love, she accused him to Cretheus 1, saying
that he had attacked her. On hearing this report,
Cretheus 1 persuaded his brother Athamas 1 to put
Phrixus 1 to death, and, they say, it was then that
Nephele 2 intervened to save her son, sending him
away on the back of the Ram with the Golden Fleece,
along with his sister Helle.
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Athamas 1 and Ino protect the child
Dionysus 2
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These are the times when the god of the vine
Dionysus 2 was born
out of Zeus' thigh. For
Dionysus 2's mother
Semele, deluded by
Hera, asked
Zeus to appear before her
as he usually appeared before
Hera and he, having
promised to grant whatever she asked, could not
refuse. So the god came in the midst of
thunderings, lightnings and thunderbolts, and
Semele died of fright.
Zeus then snatched from the
fire the six-months abortive child and sewed it
inside his thigh, but when later he undid the
stitches and gave birth to
Dionysus 2, he
entrusted him to Hermes,
who in turn gave the child to Athamas 1 and Ino,
persuading them to rear him as a girl.
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Hera's wrath
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This is why Hera, who
already had succeeded in destroying
Semele, decided to
destroy both Athamas 1 and
Semele's sister Ino
(these two girls are daughters of
Cadmus), who now were
protecting and rearing the son of her husband's
mistress.
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Hera engages the
ERINYES
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For this purpose, Hera
descended to the
Underworld and asked
the ERINYES, with
commands, promises and prayers, to drive Athamas 1
to madness.
So one of them, Tisiphone 1, who usually guards
the entrance to Tartarus, seizing a torch steeped
in gore, putting on her bloodstained robe, and
girding round her waist a snake, came out from the
Underworld followed,
as they say, by Grief, Terror, Dread and
Madness.
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Dreadful vision
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Tisiphone 1 was not the sight King Athamas 1 and
his wife were longing to see, and when they tried
to escape, the vision stood in their way,
stretching her arms wreathed with serpents. Some of
these, they say, lay on her shoulders and others
twined round her breasts, hissing and vomiting
poisonous gore and darting out their tongues.
Tisiphone 1 then teared away two serpents and
these, having been hurled at Athamas 1 and Ino,
breathed their pestilential breath upon them.
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Tisiphone 1 injures their minds
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Next Tisiphone 1 poured over their breasts a
maddening poison brew composed of froth of Cerberus
1, poison of the Hydra, Hallucinations, Oblivion,
Crime and Tears, Love of Slaughter, and blood and
hemlock, making it sink to the core of their being.
For, as it is said, the king and queen did not
suffer any physical injury, the deadly stroke being
aimed at their minds.
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Athamas 1 kills Learchus
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Her task accomplished, Tisiphone 1 left.
Straightaway Athamas 1 started to hallucinate,
believing her wife was a lioness. And snatching his
little son Learchus from his mother's arms, he
whirled him round and dashed his head against a
rock. But others affirm that Learchus died shot by
an arrow, being hunted by his father as if he were
a deer.
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Death of Ino and Melicertes
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Ino, stung to madness too, took their other
child Melicertes, and fled away howling. Having
climbed to a cliff, and still bereft of sense, she
then leaped with her child far above the sea.
Others say that Ino threw her child Melicertes into
a boiling cauldron and that, carrying it with the
dead child, she sprang into the sea. Still others
assert that it was Athamas 1 who laid Melicertes in
the cauldron.
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Ino and Melicertes become gods
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However, Ino was no ordinary girl, but the
granddaughter of
Aphrodite. And the
goddess, having witnessed the end of Ino and her
child Melicertes, asked
Poseidon to receive
them as sea-deities and he, consenting to her
prayer, took away from Ino and her son their mortal
parts. From that day Ino and Melicertes are known
as Leucothea and Palaemon 3, a goddess and a god
who live in the sea, giving help to sailors during
storms.
Some have said that Melicertes was landed on the
Isthmus of Corinth by a
dolphin. He was then renamed Palaemon 3, and the
Isthmian games were celebrated in his honour.
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Saving Dionysus 2
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In any case, Dionysus
2 had to elude Hera's
wrath; and so, when these events took place,
Zeus turned his child
Dionysus 2 into a kid,
and Hermes took him to
Nysa in Asia, giving him to the nymphs called
HYADES 1, who dwell
there and are said to be the daughters of
Atlas.
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Athamas 1 emigrates
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In the meantime, Athamas 1 was banished from
Boeotia, having suffered two plots and lost all his
children. Not knowing where to live, he inquired
the oracle, receiving the answer that he should
dwell in whatever place he should be entertained by
wild beasts. So when Athamas 1, being in Thessaly,
fell in with wolves that were devouring sheep and
saw them abandon their prey and flee, he thought
that this was the oracle's fulfilment. He then
stayed in that country, and called it Athamantia
after himself.
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New marriage of Athamas 1
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There Athamas 1 married his third wife Themisto
2 (daughter of King Hypseus 1 of the
LAPITHS, son of the
river god Peneus), and had children by her.
[For more details about Themisto 2 and her
children see Mates & Offspring below].
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Death and namesakes
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The death of Athamas 1 has not been reported.
- Athamas 2 is a son of Oenopion 1, son of
Ariadne, the daughter
of Minos 2, either by
Theseus or by
Dionysus 2.
- Athamas 3 is one of the sons of Aegyptus 1;
he married Pyrante, one of the DANAIDS,
and was killed by her.
- Athamas 4 is a descendant of Athamas 1 and
the founder of Teos in
Ionia.
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Parentage
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Mates
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Offspring
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Notes
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Nephele 2
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Phrixus 1
Helle
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To avoid being sacrificed, Phrixus 1 fled and
was borne through the sky to Colchis by the Ram
with the Golden Fleece. On reaching the shore, the
Ram was turned into a constellation, but his golden
fleece was carried to Colchis. Phrixus married King
Aeetes' daughter
Chalciope 2, and had children by her. However,
Aeetes, fearing for his
own life and kingdom on account of prodigies that
had warned him against a foreigner descendant of
Aeolus 1, killed Phrixus
1. But others have said that Phrixus 1 died after a
long life, and that suddenly there appeared a flame
in heaven, and the ram in a constellation.
[For Phrixus and Helle see also main text above]
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Ino
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Learchus
Melicertes
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Some have said that Ino's plot against Phrixus 1
[see main text above] was revealed by the
messengers or messenger who had lied about the
oracle, saying that it demanded the sacrifice of
Phrixus 1. When Athamas 1 was thus informed of
Ino's plot, he decided to execute her and her son
Melicertes. It is said that
Dionysus 2 then
protected them, casting mist around his nurse Ino.
When later Athamas 1 went mad, and Ino threw
herself into the sea with her child Melicertes,
Dionysus 2 called them
Leucothea and Palaemon 3.
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Themisto 2
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Leucon 1
Erythrius
Schoeneus 2
Ptous
Sphincius
Orchomenus 6
Porphyrion 2
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Themisto 2 is daughter of Hypseus 1 by a Nymph.
Some have said that Themisto 2 had two sons,
Sphincius and Orchomenus 6, and that she plotted
against the children of Ino. Themisto 2, they say,
hid in the palace and, deceived by a nurse who had
put the wrong garments on the children, killed her
own sons instead of killing Ino's. When Themisto
discovered what she had done, she killed herself.
Leucon 1 died of a sickness. He had a daughter
Evippe 3, who married Andreus 1 (after whom Andreis
in Boeotia is called), son of the river god Peneus.
Eteocles 2, son of Andreus 1 and Evippe 3, was king
in Boeotia and died childless. Leucon 1 had also a
son Erythras 2 after whom Erythrae in Boeotia was
named. He was one of the SUITORS OF HIPPODAMIA 3,
being killed by King
Oenomaus 1.
Ptous is said to be the twin brother of
Porphyrion 2. It is told that these were the
children that Themisto 2 killed, believing they
were Ino's sons. Mont Ptous in Boeotia is called
after Ptous.
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Abolengo
Album - High Resolution Genealogical Charts
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Names in this chart
Aeetes,
Aeolus 1, Agenor 1,
Aphrodite,
Ares, Argus 3, Athamas
1, Belus 1, Cadmus,
Chalciope 2, Creusa 3, Cytisorus, Deimachus 1,
Deucalion 1, Enarete,
Epaphus 1, Erythrius, Gaia,
Harmonia 1, Helius,
Helle, Hellen 1, Hypseus 1, Idyia 1, Ino,
Io, Learchus, Leucon 1,
Libya, Melas 2, Melicertes, Nephele 2, Nymph 7,
Orchomenus 6, Orseis, Peneus, Perseis, Phrixus 1,
Phrontis 1, Porphyrion 2, Presbon, Ptous, Pyrrha 1,
Schoeneus 2, Sphincius, Themisto 2.
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