Ino

Mortal Theban princess, second daughter of Cadmus and Harmonia (greek_harmonia, whose own notes name 'Ino' among her children). Wife of Athamas; mother of Learchus and Melicertes; foster-mother of Dionysus. After Athamas' Hera-sent madness she leapt into the sea and was deified as the saving sea-goddess Leucothea (Melicertes → Palaemon). Authored as mortal (matching her existing sister greek_autonoe and the canonical mortal Theban line; her divinity is a post-mortal apotheosis recorded in lifecycle).

Parentage

• mother: HarmoniaApollodorus, Library 3.4.2 (primary)
• father: CadmusApollodorus, Library 3.4.2 (primary)

Children

• Melicertes

Domains

• the sea
• salvation of sailors
• nursing and fosterage

Powers

• Rescues the shipwrecked at sea
• Nurses and shelters the infant Dionysus

Epithets

• Λευκοθέα — the White GoddessHomer, Odyssey 5.334; Pausanias 1.44.7 (primary)
• Ἰνὼ Καδμηΐς — Ino daughter of CadmusHomer, Odyssey 5.333 (Ἰνὼ … Κάδμου θυγάτηρ) (primary)

Relations

• sibling: AutonoeSister; eldest of the Cadmeid daughters (one-way edge to the pre-existing figure).Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 3.4.2 (primary)
• sibling: SemeleSister; mother of Dionysus.Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 3.4.2 (primary)
• sibling: AgaveSister; mother of Pentheus.Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 3.4.2 (primary)
• sibling: Polydorus of ThebesBrother; the only son of Cadmus and Harmonia, king of Thebes.Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 3.4.2 (primary)
• spouse: Athamas (Boeotian king, son of Aeolus) · GreekApollodorus, Bibliotheca 1.9.1-2, 3.4.3 (primary)
• mother of: Melicertes / Palaemon (sea-god honoured at the Isthmus) · GreekSon, transformed with her into the sea-god Palaemon; no corpus entry.Ovid, Metamorphoses 4.519-542; Pausanias 2.1.3 (primary)
• mother of: Learchus (son killed by the maddened Athamas) · GreekSon, slain by Athamas in his madness; no corpus entry.Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 1.9.2; Ovid, Metamorphoses 4.512-519 (primary)
• father: CadmusApollodorus, Library 3.4.2 (primary)
• mother: HarmoniaApollodorus, Library 3.4.2 (primary)
• counterpart of: LeukotheaTradition-specific counterpart; this link does not transfer parentage.Orphic Hymns 73 (Taylor; modern 74) (primary)
• counterpart of: Mater MatutaTradition-specific counterpart; this link does not transfer parentage.Hyginus, Fabulae 2 (primary)

Sources

• existence and parentage (daughter of Cadmus and Harmonia, wife of Athamas): Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 3.4.2-3; Hesiod, Theogony 975-978; Diodorus Siculus 4.2-4 (primary)
• leap into the sea and apotheosis as Leucothea (Melicertes as Palaemon): Ovid, Metamorphoses 4.464-542; Homer, Odyssey 5.333-353; Pausanias 1.44.7-8, 2.1.3 (primary)