Learchus

Family: Mythological · Role: child · First appears: Book 1 · Chapter 44

Learchus was the oldest child of Ino and Athamas (father of Phrixus). In Book 1, Chapter 44, Athamas (father of Phrixus) killed him while mad, after suspecting Ino of causing the famine: “for Learchus the oldest was killed by his father.”

At Orchomenus in Book 9, Chapter 34, Athamas (father of Phrixus) laid violent hands on Learchus and Melicerta.

Relationship record

Life events

• Athamas killed his oldest son Learchus.(Book 1 · Chapter 44)
  • With: Athamas (father of Phrixus)
  • “for Learchus the oldest was killed by his father.”
• Athamas laid violent hands on Learchus and Melicerta.(Book 9 · Chapter 34 · 📍 Orchomenus)
  • With: Athamas (father of Phrixus) Melicerta
  • “for he had laid violent hands on Learchus and Melicerta”

Book 1 · Chapter 44

• parent: Ino “for Learchus the oldest was killed by his father”
• parent: Athamas (father of Phrixus) (Athamas is inferred to be Learchus's father from the account of his violence toward Ino and her children and the subsequent reference to escaping him.) “Athamas also is said to have acted in the same way when mad, and to have exhibited ungovernable rage to Ino and her children, thinking that the famine which befell the Orchomenians, which also apparently caused the death of Phrixus, was not the visitation of God, but a stepmother’s contrivance against them all. So she to escape him threw herself and her boy Melicerta into the sea”

Book 9 · Chapter 34

• with Athamas (father of Phrixus) (Athamas used violence against Learchus.) “for he had laid violent hands on Learchus and Melicerta”
• parent: Athamas (father of Phrixus) “Athamas thinking he had no male children left, (for he had laid violent hands on Learchus and Melicerta, and Leucon had died of some illness”

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Extracted from the original text of Pausanias' Description of Greece. Made with Rho MD.