Athamas

Family: Theban royal family · Role: husband of Ino · First appears: Fable 37

Life events

Tisiphone poisons Athamas and Ino, driving them into madness.(Fable44 · 📍 Palace of Athamas)
- With: Tisiphone Ino
- “But these creep along the breasts of Ino and Athamas, and inspire them with direful intent.”
In his madness, Athamas seizes Learchus and dashes him against stones.(Fable44 · 📍 Palace of Athamas)
- With: Learchus
- “Immediately the son of Æolus, filled with rage, cries out, in the midst of his palace, ‘Ho! companions, spread your nets in this wood; for here a lioness was just now beheld by me with two young ones.’ And, in his madness, he follows the footsteps of his wife, as though of a wild beast; and he snatches Learchus, smiling and stretching forth his little arms from the bosom of his mother, and three or four times he whirls him round in the air like a sling, and, frenzied, he dashes in pieces[65] the bones of the infant against the hard stones.”

married with Ino “Athamas was the son of Æolus, and being the husband of Ino, was the son-in-law of Cadmus”

child: Learchus “Tisiphone, being sent by Juno to the Palace of Athamas, causes him to become mad; on which he dashes his son Learchus to pieces against a wall.”
married with Ino “Tisiphone, being sent by Juno to the Palace of Athamas, causes him to become mad; on which he dashes his son Learchus to pieces against a wall. He then pursues his wife Ino, who throws herself headlong from the top of a rock into the sea, with her other son Melicerta in her arms:”
enemies with Juno “After the daughter of Saturn has beheld all these with a stern look, and Ixion before all; again, after him, looking upon Sisyphus, she says, ‘Why does he alone, of {all} the brothers, suffer eternal punishment? and why does a rich palace contain the proud Athamas, who, with his wife, has ever despised me?’”
with Tisiphone (interaction) “But these creep along the breasts of Ino and Athamas, and inspire them with direful intent.”
parent: Æolus “Immediately the son of Æolus, filled with rage, cries out, in the midst of his palace, ‘Ho! companions, spread your nets in this wood; for here a lioness was just now beheld by me with two young ones.’”
with Learchus (interaction) “and he snatches Learchus, smiling and stretching forth his little arms from the bosom of his mother, and three or four times he whirls him round in the air like a sling, and, frenzied, he dashes in pieces[65] the bones of the infant against the hard stones.”

child: Palæmon “nor have Proteus, and Triton, and Palæmon, the son of Athamas, a more uncontrolled reign over the deep.”

Extracted from the original text of The Metamorphoses of Ovid. Made with Rho MD.