Athamas 
Athamas' father is Aeolus and his mother is Enarete. His paternal grandparents are King Hellen of Thessaly and Orseis the Nymph; his maternal grandparents are Deimachus and Glaucia. He has ten brothers and five sisters, named Deion, Myrmidon, Sisyphus, Mimas, Minyas, Salmoneus, Aethlius, Magnes, Magnes, Cretheus, Antiope, Peisidice, Perimele, Calyce and Canace. He has two half-sisters named Melanippe and Arne.General Notes
[FAMILY.FTW]
In Greek mythology, King of Boeotia. He married Nephele, who bore him Phrixus and Helle, but he later fell in love with Ino, who bore him Learchus and Melicertes. According to one legend, Athamas went mad, killed Learchus and forced Ino, who was fleeing with Melicertes, to leap to her death in the sea.
Athamas 1 was king first in Boeotia and then in Thessaly. As his second wife Ino plotted against the children of his first wife Nephele 2, he almost sacrificed his son Phrixus 1. Hermes entrusted Dionysus 2 to Athamas 1 and Ino, and persuaded them to rear him as a girl. But Hera (or Tisiphone 1) drove them mad, and Athamas 1 hunted his elder son Learchus as a deer and killed him. Athamas 1 was banished and settled in the country he named Athamantia marrying Themisto 2 and having other children by her.
Ino's plot.
Athamas 1 married first Nephele 2 and had children, Phrixus 1 and Helle by her. But when Athamas 1 married his second wife Ino, she plotted against the children of his first wife Nephele 2. This is what Ino did: she persuaded the women of the country to parch the wheat without the knowledge of the men. As a result the earth did not yield its annual crops, being as it was sown with parched wheat.
Falsification of the oracle.
When the country was then suffering from dearth, Athamas 1 sent messengers to the oracle of Delphi to inquire how they might be delivered from the calamity. But Ino persuaded the messengers, in one way or another, to falsify the oracle and say that it had been foretold that the dearth would cease if Phrixus 1 were sacrificed.
Nephele 2 saves her children.
When this was known, the people, easily deluded by the promises of the false oracle, demanded from Athamas 1 compliance with it and forced him to bring his own son to the sacrificial altar. However, before he was able to satisfy the public demands, his wife Nephele 2 put her son Phrixus 1 along with her daughter Helle on the back of the Ram with the Golden Fleece, which she had received from Hermes, and flying on it they escaped.
Fate of Phrixus 1 and Helle.
Helle slipped into the sea, which was called Hellespont after her, and was drowned; her tomb was said to be in the Chersonesus, which is the Thracian peninsula separated from Asia Minor by the Dardanelles. But Phrixus 1 came to Colchis (Georgia in the Caucasus), and having sacrificed the Ram, he gave the Golden Fleece to King Aeetes and married his daughter Chalciope 2, who some have called Iophossa.
[More about Phrixus 1 under Mates & Offspring below]
Or was it Demodice's plot?
But others have said that it was Demodice who plotted against Phrixus 1. For she, though being married to Cretheus 1, brother of Athamas 1, fell in love with Phrixus 1 and when he did not return her love, she accused him to Cretheus 1, saying that he had attacked her. On hearing this report Cretheus 1 persuaded his brother Athamas 1 to put Phrixus 1 to death, and, they say, it was then that Nephele 2 intervened to save her son, sending him away on the back of the Ram with the Golden Fleece, along with his sister Helle.
Athamas 1 and Ino protect the child Dionysus 2.
These are the times when the god of the vine Dionysus 2 was born out of Zeus' thigh. For Dionysus 2's mother Semele, deluded by Hera, asked Zeus to appear before her as he uses to appear before Hera and he, having promised to grant whatever she asked, could not refuse. So he came in the midst of thunderings, lightnings and thunderbolts and Semele died of fright. Zeus then snatched from the fire the six-months abortive child and sewed it in his thigh, but when later he undid the stitches and gave birth to Dionysus 2, he entrusted him to Hermes, who in turn gave him to Athamas 1 and Ino and persuaded them to rear him as a girl.
Hera's wrath.
This is why Hera, who already had succeeded in destroying Semele, decided to destroy both Athamas 1 and Semele's sister Ino (these two girls are daughters of Cadmus), who now were protecting and rearing the son of her husband's mistress.
Hera engages the ERINYES.
For this purpose Hera descended to the Underworld and asked the ERINYES, with commands, promises and prayers, to drive Athamas 1 to madness.
Hera meets the ERINYES in the Underworld. Beside her is Cerberus 1; at a distance the DANAIDS fill the leaky jar, Ixion whirls in the wheel and Sisyphus pushes the stone
Tisiphone 1 takes the job.
So one of them, Tisiphone 1, who uses to guard the entrance to Tartarus, seizing a torch steeped in gore, putting on her bloodstained robe and girding round her waist a snake, came out from the Underworld followed, as they say, by Grief, Terror, Dread and Madness.
Dreadful vision.
Tisiphone 1 was not the sight King Athamas 1 and his wife were longing to see, and when they tried to escape, the vision stood in their way stretching her arms wreathed with serpents. Some of these, they say, lay on her shoulders and others twined round her breasts hissing and vomiting poisonous gore and darting out their tongues. Tisiphone 1 then teared away two serpents and these, having been hurled at Athamas 1 and Ino, breathed the pestilential breath upon them.
Tisiphone 1 injures their minds.
After this Tisiphone 1 poured over their breasts a maddening poison brew composed of froth of Cerberus 1, poison of the Hydra, Hallucinations, Oblivion, Crime and Tears, Love of Slaughter, blood and hemlock, making it sink to the core of their being. For, as it is said, the king and queen did not suffer any physical injury, the deadly stroke being aimed at their minds.
Athamas 1 kills Learchus.
Her task accomplished Tisiphone 1 left, but straightaway Athamas 1 started to hallucinate, believing her wife was a lioness, and snatching his little son Learchus from his mother's arms, he whirled him round and dashed his head against a rock. But others have said that Learchus died shot by an arrow being hunted by his father as if he were a deer.
Death of Ino and Melicertes.
Ino, stung to madness too, took their other child Melicertes, and howling fled away. Having climbed to a cliff and still bereft of sense, she then leaped with her child far above the sea. But some say that Ino threw her child Melicertes into a boiling cauldron and that, carrying it with the dead child, she sprang into the sea. Still others have said that it was Athamas 1 who laid Melicertes in the cauldron.
Ino and Melicertes become gods.
However, Ino was no ordinary girl, for being the daughter of Harmonia 1 she was the granddaughter of Aphrodite. And the goddess, having witnessed the end of Ino and her child Melicertes, asked Poseidon to receive them as sea-deities and he, consenting to her prayer, took away from Ino and her son their mortal parts. From that day Ino and Melicertes are known as Leucothea and Palaemon 3, a goddess and a god who live in the sea, giving help to sailors during storms.
Some have said that Melicertes was landed on the Isthmus of Corinth by a dolphin. He was then renamed Palaemon 3 and the Isthmian games were celebrated in his honour.
Saving Dionysus 2.
In any case Dionysus 2 had to elude Hera's wrath, and so, when these things happened to Athamas 1 and Ino, Zeus turned his child Dionysus 2 into a kid and Hermes took him to Nysa in Asia and gave him to the nymphs called HYADES 1 who dwell there and are said to be the daughters of Atlas.
Athamas 1 emigrates.
In the meantime Athamas 1, who having suffered two plots, had lost all his children, was banished from Boeotia. Not knowing where to live he inquired the oracle, receiving the answer that he should dwell in whatever place he should be entertained by wild beasts. So when he fell in with wolves that were devouring sheep and they abandoned their prey and fled, Athamas 1 thought that this was the oracle's fulfilment. He then stayed in that country, which is in Thessaly, and called it Athamantia after himself.
New marriage of Athamas 1.
There Athamas 1 married for the third time to Themisto 2, daughter of King Hypseus 1 of the LAPITHS, son of the river god Peneus, and had children by her.
[For more details about Themisto 2 and her children see Mates & Offspring below].
Death and namesakes.
The death of Athamas 1 has not been reported.
Athamas 2 is a son of Oenopion 1, son of Ariadne, the daughter of Minos 2, either by Theseus or by Dionysus 2. Athamas 3 is one of the sons of Aegyptus 1; he married Pyrante, one of the DANAIDS, and was killed by her. Athamas 4 is a descendant of Athamas 1 and the founder of Teos in Ionia.
Family
Parentage
Aeolus 1 & Enarete
Mates
Offspring
Notes
Nephele 2.
Phrixus 1.
Helle.
To avoid being sacrificed Phrixus 1 fled and was borne through the sky to Colchis by the Ram with the Golden Fleece. On reaching the shore, they say, the Ram was turned into a constellation, but his golden fleece was carried to Colchis. Phrixus married King Aeetes' daughter Chalciope 2, and he had children by her. However Aeetes, fearing for his own life and kingdom on account of prodigies which had warned him against a foreigner descendant of Aeolus 1, killed Phrixus 1. But others have said that Phrixus 1 died after a long life, and that suddenly there appeared a flame in heaven, and the ram in a constellation.
[For Phrixus and Helle see also main text above]
Ino.
Learchus.
Melicertes
Some have said that Ino's plot against Phrixus 1 [see main text above] was revealed by the messengers or messenger who had lied about the oracle, which falsely was said to demand the sacrifice of Phrixus 1. When Athamas 1 was thus informed of Ino's plot he decided to execute her and her son Melicertes. It is said that Dionysus 2 then protected them, casting mist around his nurse Ino. When later Athamas 1 went mad and Ino threw herself into the sea with her child Melicertes, Dionysus 2 called them Leucothea and Palaemon 3.
Themisto 2.
Leucon 1.
Erythrius.
Schoeneus 2.
Ptous.
Sphincius.
Orchomenus 6.
Porphyrion 2.
Themisto 2 is daughter of Hypseus 1 by a Nymph. Some have said that Themisto 2 had two sons, Sphincius and Orchomenus 6, and that she plotted against the children of Ino. Themisto 2, they say, hid in the palace and, deceived by a nurse who had put the wrong garments on the children, killed her own sons instead of killing Ino's. It is said that when Themisto discovered what she had done, she killed herself.
Leucon 1 died of a sickness. He had a daughter Evippe 3, who married Andreus 1, son of the river god Peneus and the man after whom the land Andreis in Boeotia was named. Eteocles 2, son of Andreus 1 & Evippe 3, was king in Boeotia and died childless. Leucon 1 had also a son Erythras 2 after whom Erythrae in Boeotia was named. He was one of the SUITORS OF HIPPODAMIA 3 and was killed by King Oenomaus 1.
Ptous is said to be the twin brother of Porphyrion 2. It is said that these were the children that Themisto 2 killed believing they were Ino's sons. Mont Ptous in Boeotia is called after Ptous.
Sources
Abbreviations Hyg.Fab.1, 4, 239; Apd.1.7.3, 1.9.1-2, 3.4.3; Ov.Met.4.480ff.; Hes.CWE.4; Hdt.7.197; Nonn.5.198, 5.557, 9.56, 9.304, 9.317; Pau.6.21.11, 9.34.7-8.
CALYCE was a daughter of Aeolus and Enarete. Her family tree produced some of the greatest heroes and heroines in mythology, since her brothers were Cretheus, Sisyphus, Athamas, Salmoneus, Deion, Magnes, Perieres, and Macareus. She did well in her own right. She married Aethlius, son of Zeus and Protogeneia and grandson of Deucalion. By him she became the mother of the famous Endymion, who was not only the lover of the moon goddess Selene but also king of Elis and ancestor of the Aetolians, Epeians, and Paeonians. By report, she had 50 half-immortal granddaughters by the union of Selene with her sleeping son, but this phenomenon is discussed elsewhere. [Apollodorus 1.7.2,3.5; Pausanias 5.1.2,8.1, 10.31.2.]
MEROPE was one of the Pleiades. In the constellation of the Pleiades she is the seventh and least visible star because she was ashamed of having had intercourse with a mortal man. This mortal was Sisyphus, and Merope should have been ashamed not so much that he was mortal but because of the type of mortal he was. He was the son of Aeolus and Enarete, and brother of Cretheus, Athamas, Salmoneus, Deion, Magnes, Perieres, and Macareus. He eventually reigned in Corinth, since Medea gave him the sovereignty when she left. He promoted commerce and helped make the city important. He was of bad character however, as Merope was soon to discover. She bore him Glaucus, Ornytion, Thersander, and Halmus. Sisyphus meanwhile had twin sons by his niece Tyro, but she killed them at their birth. Of Merope's sons we know Glaucus best, not only as the father of Bellerophon but also as the breeder of flesh-eating mares. When Sisyphus was on his deathbed, he begged Merope not to bury him. She complied, and when he got to the underworld he complained that he was neglected and needed to return to the upper world to punish his wife. Once there he refused to return, and Hermes, transporter of the dead, had to carry him back by force. [Apollodorus 1.9.3,3.10.1; Ovid, Fasti 4.175; Homer, Iliad 6.153; Eustathius on Homer's Iliad 1155; Pausanias 2.4.3, 6.20.9, 9.34.5; Hyginus, Fables 60.]
They have a son named Leucon.
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