Melicertes

Melikertes (Greek Μελικέρτης ) was the son of Athamas and Ino, daughter of Cadmus. Melikertes is thrown from his stricken with madness by Hera mother into a cauldron of boiling water. When the mother comes back to her senses, she throws herself with the corpse of the son ( according to legend, by molurischen rocks at Megara ) into the sea. Both are transformed into sea gods: Ino is Leukothea, Melikertes will Palaimon, which led to a dolphin riding the ships safely into port. In Roman mythology Leukothea and Palaimon were equated with Mater Matuta and Portunus.

According to Nonnus ( Dionysiaca 5.556 ) Melikertes was the foster-brother of Dionysus. That was also the reason for his deification and his mother.

The Melikertes honor the Isthmian at Corinth were celebrated.

Swell

• Euripides Medea 1284ff
• Callimachus fragments 91f
• Libraries of Apollodorus 1,9,1 f 3,4,3
• Ovid Metamorphoses 4.506 to 542
• Nonnus Dionysiaca (various locations )