Inachos (mythology)

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Inachos ( Greek  Ἴναχος ) is a river god in Greek mythology and the first king of Argos and ancestor of the kings of Argolis . He is considered to be the namesake of the river Inachos (also Inachis ) in the Argolis.

He is the son of Oceanus and Tethys or Iapetos and the Oceanid Klymene . Hesiod in turn names Oineus as his father. Inachus was married to Melia or his sister Argeia . With this he had the children Aigialeus , Io and Phoroneus . Other sources name other children: Argos Panoptes , Pegeus and Mycenae .

The wife of Zeus Hera and the sea god Poseidon challenged the river gods Phoroneus, Asterion , Kephisos and Inachos to appoint one of the two as ruler over the Argolis. Since they chose Hera, Poseidon allowed the sources of the rivers to dry up as a punishment.

Tell about the formation of the Inachus River

One day Hera came to Inachus to inspect her country. She asked him to build a temple for her. Inachus, to whom nothing was more important than keeping the peace, agreed. When it was finished, Hera was very happy with the construction. She offered Inachos a present. Hera wanted Io, Inachus' daughter, to become her priestess. That was her present to Inachos. He didn't really want any presents from the gods, but he agreed again, he didn't want to upset Hera. One night Io dreamed of Zeus that he wanted her. Io didn't know what to do now. So Inachus consulted the oracle . According to the oracle, Inachus should cast Io out, which he finally did. To hide his love for Io from his wife Hera, Zeus transformed Io into a cow.

Now the peace-loving Inachos had become really unhappy. He sat by his dry river bed and wept. Then a small, pathetic figure came up to him and incited him to protest against the gods who had done him so much harm. This was Eris , the goddess of discord, and she grew and became more splendid every time Inachus cursed the gods. Then he had already cursed everything that was alive, and Eris said that if Inachos wanted his daughter back, he would have to curse his own offspring. So he cursed his descendants in the fifth generation, they had agreed on that, since he didn't know any of them anyway.

But now it was enough for Zeus . He sent out the Erinye Tisiphone . She plucked a small piece of every damned animal, plant, whatever. And from it she braided a rope that she wrapped around Inachos' heart. All the evils in the world cut into his heart. Inachos fell into the dry river bed that no longer even belonged to him. But Zeus had mercy. He transformed Inachus. He should become the river of his home. The river was dry. But Zeus didn't care. Inachus became a dry river.

One day Io came to the river bed as a cow. She recognized her father but could not communicate with him. So she wrote her story in the sand. Then her father wept, and the tears filled the river bed. Now there was peace in his heart. But the fifth generation after him should be cursed: Danaos and Aegyptus .

swell

See also

  • The butterfly Inachis io was named after Inachos and his daughter.

literature

Web links

predecessor Office successor
no predecessor King of Argos
19th century BC BC
(mythical chronology) 		Phoroneus