THE METAMORPHOSES OF PUBLIUS OVIDIUS NASO

II
FABULA III.
AD INFEROS: JUNO TISIPHONEM EDUCIT.
Juno, still incensed against the house of Cadmus on account of Semele,
resolves upon the ruin of Ino, one of the daughters of Cadmus. For this
purpose she descends to the infernal regions, and employs one of the
Furies to avenge her on Ino and her husband Athamas. who were ene
mies of her deity.
EXPLICATIO.
SOME erroneously say the account of Athamas and Ino is historical.
They tell us that Athamas was the son of ^Eolus, the god of the winds,
and the grandson of Deucalion; and that on the death of Themisto, his
first wife, he married Ino, the daughter of Cadmus. He divorced Ino
for Nephele, by whom he had Phryxus and Helle. Divorcing Nephele
in her turn, he took back again Ino, and had by her Learchus and Meli-
certa. Ino, wishing to destroy the children of Nephele, in order to make
room for her own children, bribed the oracle of Apollo to declare, that the
children of Nephele must be sacrificed to appease the anger of the gods;
whereupon Athamas in a rage killed Learchus, and would have slain
Ino also, had she not taken up Melicerta in her arms, and jumped with
him into the sea.
Now it is evident, from the etymology of the names employed here,
that a confused account of the diluvial history is given. Ino, by meta
thesis, Ion, is lona (the dove), and as she was the nurse of Bacchus (Noah),
is the Dove of the Deluge. She was the sister of Semele (sema-el, the
token of God), viz. the Rainbow. Athamas (a themis, without justice),
was the race of ungodly antediluvians. He is said to be King of Thebes
(theba, the ark), and was the son of .^Eolus, the god of winds, which we
may suppose prevailed at the Deluge. His first wife was Themisto
(Themis, justice), referring to the godliness of the early race of men.
His next wife was Nephele (nephelim, giants'), referring to the daugh
ters of Cain, from intermarriages with whom the " giants in those days"
arose. The oracle that declares the children of Nephele (the Ncphelim)
must be sacrificed to the anger of the gods, is the prophetic voice pro
claiming, through Noah, the destruction of the wicked by the flood. This
explanation will be pursued in the next Fable, with which this is con
nected. By Juno's descent into the infernal regions, which the ancients
believed to be in the centre of the earth, for the purpose of procuring a
Fury to work the destruction of Ino (lona, the dove), we may understand
the evoking of the vengeance of God for the destruction of man, when
the bursting forth of the waters of the central abyss engulphed the world,
at the breaking up of the " fountains of the great deep." The purifica
tion of Juno by Iris, refers to the Rainbow that succotued.
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UM vero totis Bucchi memorabilc Thebis
Nniurn crat: magnasque novi matertera vires
Narrat unique Dei: de totque sororibus expers
Una doJoris erat, nisi quern fecere sorores.
Aspicit hanc natis, thalamoque Athamantis habentem
Sublimes anirnos, et alumno numine, Juno.
Nee tulit: et secum, Potuit de pellice-natus
Vcrtcre Masonios, jielagoque immergere, nautas,
Et laceranda suce nati dare viscera matri,
Et tripliccs operire novis Minyei'das alis ?
Nil potent Juno, nisi inultos flere dolores ?
Idque mihi satis est ? Haec una potentia nostra est ?
Ipse docet quid agam ? Fas est et ab hoste doceri.
Quidque furor valeat, Penthea caede satisque
1. Tian ten. After the punish
ment of the Miiiye'ides.
2- Mtileiltrn. Ino. the sister of Semele.
4. Expert tlnloiis: free from sorrow. Ino
wni [lie only one of the sisters that had not
met vviih some signal calamity. Autonoe
li-i'l seen her son Aetceou torn in pieces by
dogs, nfier his transformation ; Semele was
destroyed by lightning; and Agave had
torn her son Penlhcus in pieces.
5. ffatis. Her sons Learchus and Me
licerta.
NOT^E.
10
C. Alumno numine. Bacchus had been
the foster-child of Ino.
7. Pcllice natus. Bacchus, the son of
Semele.
9. Lacerandu matri. She alludes to Pen
tlicus, who was torn in pieces by his mo
ther.
13. Ipte. Bacchus himself had given
Juno an example of what she ought to do.
He had inspired Agave and others with
madness, that had caused them unspeak
able sorrow.
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