Melikertes
Melikertes ( Greek Μελικέρτης ) was the son of Athamas and Ino , daughter of Kadmos . Melikertes is thrown into a kettle of boiling water by his mother, who has been maddened by Hera . When the mother comes to her senses again, she plunges into the sea with the body of the son (according to legend, from the Molurian rock near Megara ). Both are transformed into sea gods : Ino becomes Leukothea , Melikertes becomes Palaimon , who, riding a dolphin, guides the ships safely into the harbor. In Roman mythology , Leukothea and Palaimon were equated with Mater Matuta and Portunus .
According to Nonnos ( Dionysiaka 5,556) Melikertes was the milk brother of Dionysus . That was also the reason for his deification and that of his mother.
The Isthmia of Corinth were celebrated in honor of Melikertes .
swell
- Euripides Medea 1284ff
- Callimachus fragments 91f
- Library of Apollodor 1,9,1f. 3,4,3
- Ovid Metamorphoses 4,506-542
- Nonnos Dionysiaka (various positions)
literature
- Lewis R. Farnell: Ino-Leukothea. In: The Journal of Hellenic Studies . Volume 36, 1916, pp. 36-44.
- Eduard Meyer : History of Antiquity. Vol. 2/2. 4th edition. Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 1965. S. 120ff.
Web links
- Palaimon (Eng.)