THE METAMORPHOSES OF PUBLIUS OVIDIUS NASO
THE METAMORPHOSES OF PUBLIUS OVIDIUS NASO
THE METAMORPHOSES OF PUBLIUS OVIDIUS NASO
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FABULA IV.<br />
INO ET MELICERTA IN DEOS MAKINGS.<br />
Obeying the commands of Juno, Tisiphone left the court of Pluto, and came<br />
to the house of Athamas, where she affected him and his wife Ino with<br />
madness. Athamas now eeizes Learchus, his son, and kills him; whereupon<br />
Ino, to avoid his fury, throws herself into the sea together with her son Me-<br />
licerta. By the entreaty of Venus, they are changed into sea-gods. The<br />
companions of Ino, about to cast themselves into the sea through despair, are<br />
changed into rocks and birds.<br />
EXPLICATIO.<br />
TISIPHONE, whose name signifies desire of revenge, clothed with her<br />
bloody robe, girt with a serpent girdle, her head bristling with snakes,<br />
bearing her flaming torch, and a fearful poison, and accompanied by Sor<br />
row, Terror, Fear, and Frenzy, comes forth to execute the vengeance of<br />
the offended Juno. The door-posts tremble beneath her tread, the doors<br />
grow pale, and the very sun shrinks back from her presence. No won<br />
der that Athamas is affrighted, and feels the awful power of the dread<br />
deity before him.<br />
Having abundantly proved before, that Bacchus was the Noah of Scrip<br />
ture, it is easy to recognise in the nurse of Bacchus, Ino, by metathesis,<br />
Ion, the lona, or Dove, which is connected with the story of Noah, and<br />
which, on ancient coins especially those of Apamea is sometimes found<br />
brooding over an ark; and is an allegorical representation of the Spirit<br />
of God watching over the human family when enclosed in that receptacle<br />
which divine wisdom had provided. As Venus and the Dove are<br />
always found associated, and as Venus is fabled to arise from the sea, de<br />
noting, probably, the new creation as coming forth from the sea, after the<br />
Deluge, we may regard Ino as the same as Venus; for, in her name Leu-<br />
cothoe, or Leucothea, as it is more commonly written, we have the white-<br />
goddess, corresponding exactly to Venus Aphrodite, the goddess of the<br />
foam.<br />
Palaemon on ancient coins and medals is often found upon the back of<br />
a Cetus, which is a huge fish that is evidently a type of the Ark. Some<br />
times the Ark itself is represented, and above it a Cetus with Palffimon<br />
on its back. It is most proper to regard Palremon as a type of the Ark of<br />
Noah. Mythologically the Ark may be said to be the son of the Dove.<br />
Its etymology will show it a type of the Ark, for Palaemon is Pake Man,<br />
or Maon, the ancient moon. Now the moon has always been a type of<br />
the Baris of Osiris, which is represented in the shape of a lunette.<br />
Hence, Osiris is said to have " entered the moon;" and, hence, in allusion<br />
to the Ark as the mother of the renovated world, the moon was worshipped<br />
anciently as " the mother of the whole world." It has been shown be<br />
fore that Osiris and Noah were the same, and that the Baris of the former<br />
was the Ark of the latter<br />
280<br />
EC mora; Tisiphone madefactam sanguine sumit<br />
Importuna facem: fluidoque cruore rubentem<br />
Induitur pallarn; tortoque incingitur angue:<br />
Egrediturque domo. Luctus comitantur euntcm,<br />
Et Pavor, et Terror, trepidoque Insama vultu. 5<br />
Limine constiterat; pcstes tremuisse feruntur<br />
^Eolii; pallorque fores infecit acemas ;<br />
Solque locum fugit. Mcnstris exterrita conjux,<br />
Territus est Athamas; tectoque exire parabant.<br />
Obstitit infelix, aditumque obsedit Erinnys: 10<br />
NOT.E.<br />
H. Cruc'e ruJientem: red wiih blood. Virgil describes Tisiphone<br />
as clad in the same habiliments:<br />
Sublime on these a tower of ptcel IB reared,<br />
And dire Ti ipb"»"* there keeps tile ward,<br />
Girt in her sanguine gown, by night and day. JENE1D Ti. 664.<br />
And o'er her shoulders was a gnrmcnt thrown<br />
Babbled in human blood; and in her look<br />
Was horror! and a deep funereal cry<br />
3. Torto angue. A snake bound around<br />
her waist formed a girdle.<br />
Two grisly snakes<br />
ITung from their girdles, and with forked tongues<br />
Licked their Infected jawB. and violent gnashed<br />
Their fangs fell glaring.<br />
Broke from her lipe. HESIOD'B SDIELD <strong>OF</strong> HERCULES.<br />
IlEtion'e SHIELD <strong>OF</strong> HERCULES.<br />
troop forms ihc irain of the Fury. Seneca<br />
describes Wars as accompanied by a train<br />
ol similar terror:<br />
Letnm. Luesqnc, Mors, Labor, Taben, Dolor,<br />
Comitgtus illo, dignus. (Enmjs, Aet. iii.<br />
8. Conjux. Ino, I he wife of Athamas.<br />
10. Infelix: unhappy ; that causes un<br />
Ltictus comitantur. What a fearful I happiness ; pernicious.<br />
36 2A2 281