Athămas

, king of Thebes in Bœotia, was son of Æolus. He married Them is to, whom some call Nephele, and Pindar, Demotice, and by her he had Phryxus and Helle. Some time after, on pretence that Nephele was subject to fits of madne , he married Ino the daughter of Cadmus, by whom he had two sons, Learchus and Melicerta. Ino became jealous of the children of Nephele. Because they were to ascend their father’s throne in preference to her own, therefore she resolved to destroy them; but they escaped from her fury to Colchis, on a golden ram. See: Phryxus and Argonautæ . According to the Greek scholiast of Lycophron, li. 22 , Ino attempted to destroy the corn of the country; and as if it were the consequence of divine vengeance, the soothsayers, at her instigation, told Athamas, that before the earth would yield her usual increase, he must sacrifice one of the children of Nephele to the gods. The credulous father led Phryxus to the altar, where he was saved by Nephele. The prosperity of Ino was displeasing to Juno, and more particularly because she was descended from Venus. The godde therefore sent Tis i phone, one of the furies, to the house of Athamas, who became inflamed with such sudden fury that he took Ino to be a lione , and her two sons to be whelps. In this fit of madne he snatched Learchus from her, and killed him against a wall; upon which Ino fled with Melicerta, and, with him in her arms, she threw herself into the sea from a high rock, and was changed into a sea deity. After this, Athamas recovered the use of his senses; and as he was without children, he adopted Coronus and A liart us, the sons of Thersander his nephew. Hyginus , fables 1, 2, 5, 239.— Apollo dor us , bk. 1 , chs. 7 & 9.— Ovid , Metamorphoses , bk. 4 , li. 467 , . ; Fasti , bk. 6 , li. 419 .— Pausanias , bk. 9 , ch. 34 .――A servant of Atticus. Cicero , Letters to Atticus , bk. 12 , ltr. 10 .――A stage dancer. Cicero , Piso , ch. 36 .――A tragic poet. Cicero , Piso , ch. 20 .――One of the Greeks, concealed in the wooden horse at the siege of Troy. Virgil , Æneid , bk. 2 , li. 263 .