Everything about Athamas totally explained
» Athamas is also a genus of
jumping spiders.
The king of
Orchomenos in
Greek mythology,
Athamas ("rich harvest"), was married first to the goddess
Nephele with whom he'd the twins
Phrixus and
Helle. He later divorced Nephele and married
Ino, daughter of
Cadmus. With Ino, he'd two children:
Learches and
Melicertes. Athamas also had a brother,
Salmoneus, who was the father of
Tyro.
Phrixus and Helle were hated by their stepmother, Ino. Ino hatched a devious plot to get rid of the twins, roasting all the town's crop seeds so they wouldn't grow. The local farmers, frightened of famine, asked a nearby oracle for assistance. Ino bribed the men sent to the oracle to lie and tell the others that the oracle required the sacrifice of Phrixus. Athamus reluctantly agreed. Before he was killed, though, Phrixus and Helle were rescued by a flying golden ram sent by Nephele, their natural mother. Helle fell off the ram into the
Hellespont (which was named after her) and died, but Phrixus survived all the way to
Colchis, where King
Aeëtes took him in and treated him kindly, giving Phrixus his daughter
Chalciope in marriage. In gratitude, Phrixus gave the king the
golden fleece of the ram, which Aeëtes hung in a tree in his kingdom.
Later, Ino raised
Dionysus, her nephew, son of her sister
Semele, causing
Hera's intense jealousy. In vengeance, Hera struck Athamas with insanity. Athamas went mad and slew one of his sons,
Learchus; Ino, to escape the pursuit of her frenzied husband, threw herself into the sea with her son
Melicertes. Both were afterwards worshipped as marine divinities, Ino as
Leucothea, Melicertes as
Palaemon.
Athamas, with the guilt of his son's murder upon him, was obliged to flee from
Boeotia. He was ordered by the oracle to settle in a place where he should receive hospitality from wild beasts. This he found at
Phthiotis in
Thessaly, where he surprised some wolves eating sheep; on his approach they fled, leaving him the bones. Athamas, regarding this as the fulfilment of the oracle, settled there and married a third wife,
Themisto (son:
Schoeneus). The spot was afterwards called the Athamanian plain. When Athamas returned to his second wife, Ino,
Themisto sought revenge by dressing her children in white clothing and Ino's in black. Ino switched their clothes without Themisto's knowledge, and she killed her own children.
According to some accounts, Athamas was succeeded on the throne by
Presbon.
Further Information
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