Juno, jealous of the prosperity of Ino, the nurse of Bacchus, sends the fury Tisiphone to the house of Athamas, her husband, who is seized with such a sudden frenzy, that he mistakes his wife and children for a lioness with her whelps, and dashes his son Learchus against a wall—Ino effects her escape, and from a high rock precipitates herself into the sea with Melicerta in her arms—She is promoted by Neptune to the dignity of a sea-deity, afterward called Leucothoe, while Melicerta becomes a sea-god, known by the name of Palaemon.
The power of Bacchus now o’er Thebes had flown: With awful reverence soon the god they own. Proud Ino all around the wonder tells, And on her nephew deity still dwells. Of numerous sisters, she alone yet knew No grief, but grief which she from sisters drew.