View source for Ino (mythology)

{{Short description|Princess in Greek mythology}}
{{Infobox deity
| type = Greek
| name = Ino
| deity_of = Queen of [[Boeotia]]
| member_of = the [[Thebes, Greece|Theban]] Royal Family
| image = Leucothea Allasseur cour Carree Louvre.jpg
| alt = 
| caption = ''Leucothea'' (1862)<br>by [[Jean Jules Allasseur]] (1818-1903).<br>South façade of the Cour Carrée in the [[Palais du Louvre]].
| other_names = [[Leucothea]]
| cult_center = 
| abode = Thebes, later Athamantia in Boeotia
| planet = 
| consort = [[Athamas]]
| parents = [[Cadmus]] and [[Harmonia]]
| siblings = [[Agave of Thebes|Agave]], [[Autonoë of Thebes|Autonoë]], [[Semele]] and [[Polydorus of Thebes|Polydorus]]
| offspring = [[Learchus]] and [[Melicertes]]
| predecessor = 
| successor = 
| Roman_equivalent = 
| Etruscan_equivalent = 
}}
In [[Greek mythology]], '''Ino''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|aɪ|n|oʊ}} {{respell|EYE|noh}}; {{math|{{langx|grc|Ἰνώ}}}} {{IPA|grc|iːnɔ̌ː|}}<ref>{{cite dictionary |title={{math|Ἰνώ}} |trans-title=Ino |editor1-first=Henry George |editor1-last=Liddell |editor1-link=Henry Liddell |editor2-first=Robert |editor2-last=Scott |editor2-link=Robert Scott (philologist) |year=1940 |dictionary=[[A Greek-English Lexicon]] |place=Oxford, UK |publisher=Clarendon Press |url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3D*%29inw%2F |url-status=dead |access-date=2024-07-18 |via=[[Tufts University]] (perseus.tufts.edu) |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230321225437/https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3D*%29inw%2F |archive-date=2023-03-21 }}</ref>) was a [[Thebes, Greece|Theban]] princess who later became a queen of [[Boeotia]]. After her death and transfiguration, she was worshiped as a goddess under her [[epithet]] [[Leucothea]], the "white goddess." [[Alcman]] called her "Queen of the Sea" ({{math|{{lang|grc|θαλασσομέδουσα}}}} ''thalassomédousa''),<ref>{{cite book |author-link=Alcman |author={{math|Ἀλκμάν}} |year=1988 |title=Alcman Fragments |section=Fragment&nbsp;50b |editor=Campbell |pages=428, 429 |series=[[Loeb Classical Library]] |place=Cambridge, MA |publisher=[[Harvard University Press]] |section-url=https://www.loebclassics.com/view/alcman-fragments/1988/pb_LCL143.429.xml |via=[[Harvard University Press|Harvard U. Press]] (loebclassics.com) }}</ref> 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]]{{efn|
In ''[[Theogony ]]'' she is only called "Ino", and is listed among the "glorious offspring" of unions between a mortal and a goddess. ({{harvnb|Hesiod|1914|pp=975 ff}})
}} of Thebes and one of the three sisters of [[Semele]], the mortal woman of the house of Cadmus who gave birth to [[Dionysus]]. Her only brother was [[Polydorus of Thebes|Polydorus]], another ruler of Thebes. Together with her two sisters, [[Agave of Thebes|Agave]] and [[Autonoë of Thebes|Autonoë]], they were the surrogates and divine nurses of Dionysus:
: Ino was a primordial Dionysian woman, nurse to the god and a divine [[maenad]]. ({{harvnb|Kerenyi|1976|p=246}})
Ino was the second wife of the [[Minyans|Minyan]] king [[Athamas]], mother of [[Learchus]] and [[Melicertes]] and stepmother of [[Phrixus]] and [[Helle (mythology)|Helle]].

== Mythology ==
[[File:(Toulouse) Nymphe appelée Ino ou Dotô Saint-Rustice - Musée Saint-Raymond Ra 20b.jpg|left|thumb|Mosaic fragment: ''Ino'' ({{math|Δωτω}}, ''Dotô''), discovered 1833 in a Roman villa in [[Saint-Rustice]], 4th or 5th&nbsp;century, [[Saint-Raymon Museum]] ]]
In the [[back-story]] to the heroic tale of [[Argonautica|Jason and the Golden Fleece]], [[Phrixus]] and [[Helle (mythology)|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 [[Boeotia]] so they would not grow.<ref>{{harvp|pseudo-Apollodorus|1921|at=1.9.1}}</ref>{{efn|
However {{harvtxt|Kerenyi|1951|p=264}} suggests "...&nbsp;it is possible that originally she did not cause the seed-corn to be roasted, but introduced the practice of roasting corn in general."
}} The local farmers, frightened of famine, asked a nearby oracle for assistance. Ino bribed the men sent to the [[oracle]] to lie and tell the others that the oracle required the sacrifice of Phrixus. Athamas reluctantly agreed.

Before he was killed though, [[Phrixus]] and [[Helle (mythology)|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]], 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 [[Dionysus]], her nephew, son of her sister [[Semele]] by Zeus,{{efn|
Local tradition sited the suckling of Dionysus at [[Brasiai]] in [[Laconia]]. ({{harvnb|Kerenyi|1951|p=264}})
}} causing [[Hera]]'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 (Greek myth)|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]] did not want Ino to die, and transfigured her and Melicertes as Leucothea and Palaemon.
[[File:Athamas tue le fils d'Ino - Gaetano Gandolfi (1801).jpg|thumb|347x347px|''Athamas tue le fils d'Ino'' by [[Gaetano Gandolfi]] (1801)]]

The story of Ino, [[Athamas]] and [[Melicertes]] is relevant also in the context of two larger themes.<!-- are these themes identified? --> Ino, daughter of [[Cadmus]] and [[Harmonia (Greek goddess)|Harmonia]], had an end just as tragic as her siblings: [[Semele]] died while pregnant with [[Zeus]]' child, killed by her own pride and lack of trust in her divine lover; [[Agave (mythology)|Agave]] 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]] 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 [[Hera]], so the goddess turned them into birds according to [[Ovid]],<ref>{{cite book | first = Micaela | last = Janan | date = 22 October 2009 | title = Reflections in a Serpent's Eye: Thebes in Ovid's ''Metamorphoses'' | publisher = [[Oxford University Press]] | location = Oxford New York | isbn = 978-0-19-955692-2  | page = [https://books.google.com/books?id=Gf5QEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA93 93]  | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=Gf5QEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA93 }}</ref> perhaps ''aithuia'' birds (shearwaters?).<ref>{{cite book | author = Aratus | author-link = Aratus | date = 10 June 2004 | translator-first= Douglas |translator-last=Kidd | title = Aratus: Phaenomena | series = Classical Texts and Commentaries |volume = 34 | publisher = [[Cambridge University Press]] | page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=FwAN_Z5iwaAC&pg=PA293 293] | isbn = 0-521-58230-X | url= https://books.google.com/books?id=FwAN_Z5iwaAC&pg=PA293 }}</ref>

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 [[Euripides]]. Previously unknown fragments of Euripedes' ''Ino'' were found in 2022 and publicized in 2024.<ref name="m362">{{cite web | title=Uncovered Euripides fragments are 'kind of a big deal' | website=Colorado Arts and Sciences Magazine | date=1 August 2024 | url=https://www.colorado.edu/asmagazine/2024/08/01/uncovered-euripides-fragments-are-kind-big-deal | access-date=10 August 2024}}</ref>

Transformed into the goddess ''Leucothea'', Ino also represents one of the many sources of divine aid to [[Odysseus]] in the ''[[Odyssey]]'' (5:333&nbsp;ff), her earliest appearance in literature. Homer calls her
: "Ino-Leocothea of the beautiful ankles [{{math|καλλίσφυρος}}], 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]]), home of the Phaeaceans.

In historical times, a sisterhood of [[maenad]]s of [[Thebes, Greece|Thebes]] in the service of [[Dionysus]], 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.<ref>{{harvp|Burkert|1992|p=44}}</ref>

== Festivals ==
Inoa ({{math|Ἰνῶα}}), there were festivals which were celebrated in many different places in honour of Ino.<ref>{{cite dictionary |title={{math|Ἰνῶα}} |trans-title=Inoa |year=1890 |dictionary=A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities |url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0063:id=inoa-cn |via=perseus.tufts.edu ([[Tufts University]]) }}</ref>

== Genealogy ==
{{Argive genealogy in Greek mythology}}

== Gallery ==
<gallery mode="packed-hover">
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]]
</gallery>

==Notes==
{{notelist}}

==References==
{{reflist|25em}}

==Sources==
{{refbegin|25em|small=yes}}

* {{cite book |author-link=Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus) |author=pseudo-Apollodorus |year=1921 |title=Bibliotheca |trans-title=The Library |title-link=Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus) |translator-last=Frazer |translator-first=J.G. |translator-link=James George Frazer |place=Cambridge, MA / London, UK |publisher=Harvard University Press / William Heinemann Ltd. |ISBN=0-674-99135-4 |section-url=http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0022 |section=Online version |via=[[Perseus Digital Library]], [[Tufts University]] (perseus.tufts.edu) |postscript=none}} (2&nbsp;volumes). — {{cite web |title=Greek text |url=http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0021 |via=[[Perseus Digital Library]], [[Tufts University]] (perseus.tufts.edu) }}

* {{cite book |author-link=Walter Burkert |last=Burkert |first=Walter |year=1992 |title=The Orientalizing Revolution: Near Eastern influence on Greek culture in the early Archaic Age |place=Cambridge, MA |publisher=Harvard University Press }}

* {{cite book |last=Campbell |first=David A. |year=1988 |title=Greek Lyric |section={{nobr|Volume II: Anacreon,}} Anacreontea, choral lyric from Olympus to Alcman |series=[[Loeb Classical Library]] |volume=143 |place=Cambridge, MA |publisher=[[Harvard University Press]] |ISBN=978-0-674-99158-3 |section-url=https://www.loebclassics.com/view/LCL143/1988/volume.xml |via=[[Harvard University Press|Harvard U. Press]] (loebclassics.com) }}

* {{cite book |last=Dalby |first=Andrew |year=2005 |title=The Story of Bacchus |place=London, UK |publisher=British Museum Press |ISBN=0-7141-2255-6 |pages=36–42, 151 }} (US {{ISBN|0-89236-742-3}})

* {{cite book |author=Hesiod |author-link=Hesiod |year=1914 |section=[[Theogony]] (English translation) |title=The Homeric Hymns and Homerica |translator-first=H.G. |translator-last=Evelyn-White |translator-link=Hugh Evelyn-White |place=Cambridge, MA / London, UK |publisher=Harvard University Press / William Heinemann Ltd. |url=http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0130%3Acard%3D1 |via=Perseus Digital Library ([[Tufts University]]) |access-date=2024-07-18 }} {{cite web |title=Greek text also available |via=Perseus Digital Library ([[Tufts University]]) |url=http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0129 }}

* {{cite book |author-link=Karl Kerenyi |last=Kerenyi |first=K. |year=1976 |title=Dionysus: Archetypal image of indestructible life |place=Princeton, NJ |publisher=Bollingen }}

* {{cite book |author-link=Karl Kerenyi |first=K. |last=Kerenyi |year=1951 |title=The Gods of the Greeks |publisher=Thames and Hudson |place=London, UK }}

{{refend}}

== External links ==
* {{Commons category-inline|Ino}}

{{Metamorphoses in Greco-Roman mythology}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Greek goddesses]]
[[Category:Family of Athamas]]
[[Category:Princesses in Greek mythology]]
[[Category:Queens in Greek mythology]]
[[Category:Metamorphoses characters]]
[[Category:Metamorphoses in Greek mythology]]
[[Category:Deeds of Hera]]
[[Category:Mythological Thebans]]
[[Category:Boeotian mythology]]
[[Category:Theban mythology]]
[[Category:Mythology of Dionysus]]
[[Category:Suicides in Greek mythology]]
[[Category:Metamorphoses into birds in Greek mythology|Ino's companions]]
[[Category:Odyssean gods]]