A complete dictionary of the Greek and Roman antiquities explaining the obscure places in classic authors and ancient historians relating to the religion, mythology, history, geography and chronology of the ancient Greeks and Romans, their ... rites and customs, laws, polity, arts and engines of war : also an account of their navigations, arts and sciences and the inventors of them : with the lives and opinions of their philosophers / compiled originally in French ... by Monsieur Danet ; made English, with the addition of very useful mapps.

INO,

The Daughter of Cadmus and Her∣mione, who took for her second Husband Atha∣mas King of Thebes, who had married Nephele of whom he had two Children Phryxus and Helle. This cruel Step-mother attempted to destroy her two Children; but Phryxus to prevent her design, got a Ram with a golden Fleece, and riding upon him with his Sister Helle, fled away, and cross'd over the Sea, but this fair Lady, frightned by the depth of Waters, let go her hold, and fell into the Sea, which thereupon was called by her name Hellespontus. As for Phryxus, he safely arriv'd at Colchis, where he sacrificed his Ram to Jupiter, who plac'd him in the number of the twelve Constellations of the Zodiack, and the golden Fleece was left to King Aeta, who placed it in a Wood consecrated to Mars, un∣der the guard of a dreadful Dragon and two Bulls, casting fire and flame out of their Mouths. This is what Lucian reports of the same in the Dialogue of the Sea-Gods, where he introduces Neptune and Amphitrite, speak∣ing thus.

Nept.

Let the Sea where this fair Lady is fallen, be called after her name Hellespontus; and let the Nereids carry her Body into Tr••••••, where the Inhabitants of the Country shall take care to erect her a Monument.

Amph.

I think we should do better to bury her here; for her fate, and the barbarous dealing of her Step-mother break my heart.

Nept.

But she can't lye in the bosom of the waves, and it would not be decent to bury her in the sand. 'Tis comfort enough for her, that her Mother-in-law shall be attended by the same fate, and pursued by Athamas, she shall cast herself down from the top of Mount Cytheron into the Sea, together with her Son Melicerta.

Amph.

But how came it to pass that this fair one fell off the Ram she was riding upon, and her Brother did not?

Nept.

'Tis no wonder that a Man should ride better than a Maid; besides, that she was frightned by the depth of Waters she saw under her Feet.

Amph.

Why did not the Clouds help her in this encounter.

Nept.

No body can avoid their bad For∣tune.

The Bodies of Ino and her Son Palamus were carried by a Dolphin on the shoar of

Schenuntia, from whence Amphimacus and Donaci∣nus brought them to Corinth, and honour'd them like Gods, Ino by the name of Lucothoe or Matuta, and her Son under the name of Melicertes or Portumnus, and instituted solemn Games in their honour, kept every fifth year at the Streights of the Isthmus of Corinth. As we learn of Ovid, in the 6th Book of his Fasti, v. 541.

Laeta canam: gaude defuncta laboribus Ino, Dixit, & huic populo prospera semper ades. Numen eris Pelagi, natum quoque pontus habebit: In vestris aliud sumite nomen aquis. Leucothoe Graiis, Matuta vocabere nostris. In portus nato jus erit omne tuo. Quem nos Portumnum, sua lingua Palemona dicet: Este precor nostris aequus uterque locis.

This same Poet explains at large this Fable, in the 4th Book of his Metamorphosis.

Lactantius doth not question the History of Ino, called Leucothea or Matuta, and her Son, who had also three names, at least after his Apotheosis; for to put out of Men's memo∣ry that they were Men themselves, they chang'd their names after their consecration: Solent enim mortuis consecratis nomina immutare, credo ne quis putet eos homines fuisse. Ino post∣quam se praecipitavit, Leucothea, materque Matu∣ta, & Melicertes filius ejus Palaemon atque Por∣tumnus. Ino and Semele were the Daughters of Cadmus and Hermione; wherefore they were all Natives of Phaenicia, Cadmus himself being a Phaenician. The name of Melicertes is also a Phaenician name, and signifies also the King of the Town. And thus of the three names of the Mother and the Son, one was Phaenician, Ino and Melicertes; the other Greek, Leucothea and Palemon; and the last was Latin, Matuta and Portumnus. These three names shew, that the same History was brought from Phaenicia into Greece, and from Greece in∣to Italy.

Pausanias describes the fury of Athamas a∣gainst Ino his Wife, whom he took to be the cause of the death of Phryxus, and the flight of Ino, who run away with her Son, and cast herself headlong with him into the Sea, and tells us, that the Dolphins received Melicertes, and carried him to the Isthmus of Corinth, where he was named Palaemon, and there the Isthmian Games were dedicated to him: As for Phryxus, Ino his Step-mother had really conspired his ruin; and to compass her wick∣ed designs, she employed the Priests of Del∣phi to perswade the people, that the State of Thebes should enjoy no tranquility, till Phryx∣us was sacrificed to Jupiter; whereupon Phryxus fled away with his Sister Helle, who fell into the Sea called by her name; and retired himself to King Aeta at Colches. This is related by Apollodorus.