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I.9.2 But
afterwards Athamas was bereft also of the children
of Ino through the wrath of Hera; for he went mad
and shot Learchus with an arrow, and Ino cast
herself and Melicertes into the sea. Being banished
from Boeotia, Athamas inquired of the god where he
should dwell, and on receiving an oracle that he
should dwell in whatever place he should be
entertained by wild beasts, he traversed a great
extent of country till he fell in with wolves that
were devouring pieces of sheep; but when they saw
him they abandoned their prey and fled. So Athamas
settled in that country and named it Athamantia
after himself; and he married Themisto, daughter of
Hypseus, and begat Leucon, Erythrius, Schoeneus,
and Ptous.
III.4.3 But
Zeus loved Semele and bedded with her unknown to
Hera. Now Zeus had agreed to do for her whatever
she asked, and deceived by Hera she asked that he
would come to her as he came when he was wooing
Hera. Unable to refuse, Zeus came to her bridal
chamber in a chariot, with lightnings and
thunderings, and launched a thunderbolt. But Semele
expired of fright, and Zeus, snatching the
sixth-month abortive child from the fire, sewed it
in his thigh. On the death of Semele the other
daughters of Cadmus spread a report that Semele had
bedded with a mortal man, and had falsely accused
Zeus, and that therefore she had been blasted by
thunder. But at the proper time Zeus undid the
stitches and gave birth to Dionysus, and entrusted
him to Hermes. And he conveyed him to Ino and
Athamas, and persuaded them to rear him as a girl.
But Hera indignantly drove them mad, and Athamas
hunted his elder son Learchus as a deer and killed
him, and Ino threw Melicertes into a boiling
cauldron, then carrying it with the dead child she
sprang into the deep. And she herself is called
Leucothea, and the boy is called Palaemon, such
being the names they get from sailors; for they
succour storm-tossed mariners. And the Isthmian
games were instituted by Sisyphus in honor of
Melicertes. But Zeus eluded the wrath of Hera by
turning Dionysus into a kid, and Hermes took him
and brought him to the nymphs who dwelt at Nysa in
Asia, whom Zeus afterwards changed into stars and
named them the Hyades.
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