THE METAMORPHOSES OF PUBLIUS OVIDIUS NASO

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