Ino

Family: Thebes · Role: sister of Semele · First appears: Euripides, Medea — Scene 8

As a sister of Semele and daughter of Cadmus, Ino was driven mad and expelled from the house by Dionysus alongside Agave and Autonoe, after she and her sisters denied that he was born of Jove. At Cithæron, under Dionysus’s command, she joined Agave, Autonoe, and the Bacchae in attacking Pentheus, tearing his flesh and helping complete his slaughter.

Afterward, Dionysus decreed the banishment of Cadmus and his daughters to foreign lands. In Euripides’ Medea, Ino is also described as an enemy of Hera, who sent her into banishment from her home.

Relationship record

Life events

• Bacchus drove Agave, Autonoe, and Ino mad and expelled them from the house.(Euripides, The Bacchæ — Scene 1)
  • With: Dionysus Agave Autonoe
  • “Upon this, Bacchus excited his mother Agave, together with the sisters of Semele, Autonoe and Ino, to madness”
• Ino tears flesh from Pentheus, helping complete his slaughter.(Euripides, The Bacchæ — Scene 6 · 📍 Cithæron)
  • With: Pentheus
  • “and Ino completed the work on the other side, tearing his flesh.”
• The Bacchae tear Pentheus apart and scatter his body in pieces.(Euripides, The Bacchæ — Scene 6 · 📍 Cithæron)
  • With: Agave Autonoe Pentheus
  • “the whole band, with gory hands, tore to pieces the flesh of Pentheus: and his body lies in different places”
• Agave and her sisters kill Pentheus during the Bacchic frenzy.(Euripides, The Bacchæ — Scene 7 · 📍 Cithæron)
  • With: Agave Autonoe Pentheus
  • “And having returned again to the mountain, I bring back my child, slain by the Mænads.”
• Dionysus's decree banishes Cadmus and his daughters to foreign lands.(Euripides, The Bacchæ — Scene 7 · 📍 Thebes)
  • With: Dionysus Cadmus Agave Autonoe
  • “Alas! a miserable banishment is the decree [for us,] old man. BAC. Why do ye then delay what must needs be? CAD. O child, into what terrible evil have we come; both you wretched and your * * * * sisters, and I miserable, shall go, an aged sojourner, to foreigners.”

Euripides, Medea — Scene 8

• enemies with Hera “Ino, maddened by the Gods when the wife of Jove sent her in banishment from her home”

Euripides, The Bacchæ — Scene 1

• siblings with Semele “the sisters of Semele, Autonoe and Ino”
• enemies with Dionysus “the sisters of my mother, whom, it least of all became, said that I, Bacchus, was not born of Jove; but that Semele, having conceived by some mortal, charged the sin of her bed upon Jove, a trick of Cadmus; on which account they said that Jove had slain her, because she told a false tale about her marriage. Therefore I have now driven them from the house with frenzy”
• with Dionysus (Bacchus drove Ino to madness.) “Upon this, Bacchus excited his mother Agave, together with the sisters of Semele, Autonoe and Ino, to madness,”

Euripides, The Bacchæ — Scene 6

• parent: Cadmus “And when the daughters of Cadmus' recognized the distinct command of Bacchus, they rushed forth, having in the eager running of their feet a speed not less than that of a dove; his mother, Agave, and her kindred sisters, and all the Bacchæ: and frantic with the inspiration of the God, they bounded through the torrent-streaming valley, and the clefts. But when they saw my master sitting on the pine”
• siblings with Agave “his mother, Agave, and her kindred sisters, and all the Bacchæ: and frantic with the inspiration of the God, they bounded through the torrent-streaming valley, and the clefts. But when they saw my master sitting on the pine, first they threw at him handfuls of stones, striking his head, mounting on an opposite piled rock; and with pine branches some aimed, and some hurled their thyrsi through the air at Pentheus”
• siblings with Autonoe “and Ino completed the work on the other side, tearing his flesh. And Autonoe and the whole crowd of the Bacchæ pressed on”
• mentor: Dionysus “And again he proclaimed his bidding. And when the daughters of Cadmus' recognized the distinct command of Bacchus, they rushed forth, having in the eager running of their feet a speed not less than that of a dove; his mother, Agave, and her kindred sisters, and all the Bacchæ: and frantic with the inspiration of the God, they bounded through the torrent-streaming valley, and the clefts. But when they saw my master sitting on the pine, first they threw at him handfuls of stones, striking his head, mounting on an opposite piled rock; and with pine branches some aimed, and some hurled their thyrsi through the air at Pentheus”
• enemies with Pentheus “and Ino completed the work on the other side, tearing his flesh.”

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Extracted from the original text of Greek Tragedy. Made with Rho MD.