Ino Euripidis
Previous fabula: Phrixus (Fabula 3). This page is Fabula 4 only. Latin and English are given paragraph by paragraph, so each paragraph can be checked against the other. Further fabulae are added as they are finished; see the Hyginus index.
1
Athamas in Thessalia rex cum Inonem uxorem, ex qua duos filios . . . , perisse putaret, duxit nymphae filiam Themistonem uxorem; ex ea geminos filios procreauit.
Athamas, king in Thessaly, thinking that his wife Ino, by whom he had two sons ..., had perished, married Themisto, daughter of a nymph; by her he fathered twin sons.
2
postea resciit Inonem in Parnaso esse, quam bacchationis causa eo peruenisse; misit qui eam adducerent; quam adductam celauit.
Afterwards he learned that Ino was on Parnassus, having come there for Bacchic rites; he sent men to fetch her, and when she had been brought, he hid her.
3
resciit Themisto eam inuentam esse, sed quae esset nesciebat. coepit uelle filios eius necare; rei consciam quam captiuam esse credebat ipsam Inonem sumpsit, et ei dixit ut filios suos candidis uestimentis operiret, Inonis filios nigris.
Themisto learned that she had been found, but did not know who she was. She began to want to kill Ino's sons; she took Ino herself, whom she believed to be a captive, as a confidante in the matter, and told her to cover her own (Themisto's) sons in white garments and Ino's sons in black.
4
Ino suos candidis, Themistonis pullis operuit; tunc Themisto decepta suos filios occidit; id ubi resciit, ipsa se necauit.
Ino covered her own sons in white, and Themisto's in dark clothing; then Themisto, thus deceived, killed her own sons; when she learned this, she killed herself.
5
Athamas autem in uenatione per insaniam Learchum maiorem filium suum interfecit; at Ino cum minore filio Melicerte in mare se deiecit et dea est facta.
Athamas, however, while hunting, in his madness killed his elder son Learchus; but Ino threw herself into the sea with her younger son Melicertes and became a goddess.
Notes
- The heading, INO EURIPIDIS, is the Euripides version: a retelling of the Fabula 2 story with different details (Themisto remarried, Ino found on Parnassus and hidden, the clothing trick reversed). The title is kept as supplied; nothing in the translation harmonises it with Fabula 2.
- Paragraph 1, the lacuna: the dots are as supplied in both online texts checked (the text used here and Packhum, which gives . . . . .). The gap swallows the verb as well as the names (habebat or similar), and no names are inserted, since the supplied Latin has none. Other editions supply the sons' names there; they are not adopted here.
- Paragraph 2, bacchationis: rendered “Bacchic rites”, not “revelry”. Adductam is “when she had been brought”: “back” is not in the Latin. Packhum gives qua<m>, with the m supplied; the translation is unaffected.
- Paragraph 3, eius: “Ino's sons”, not Themisto's. Themisto wants to kill Ino's sons; reading “her children” as Themisto's own would make the clothing trick and the deception incoherent.
- Paragraph 3, rei consciam: predicative, so Themisto takes Ino “as a confidante in the matter”, believing her a captive chosen for the role, not merely a captive who happened to know of it.
- Paragraphs 3-4, nigris / pullis: Themisto orders black (nigris) for Ino's sons; Ino dresses Themisto's sons in dark clothing (pullis, dark-coloured, not the same word as nigris). The distinction is kept.
- Paragraph 5, maiorem / minore are elder / younger. Learchus and Melicertes are named here, unlike Fabula 5, where the son is unnamed.
- Edition check, still open: this Latin text has not yet been checked against a printed critical edition; the points above were checked against the Packhum online text, which agrees with the text used here on the lacuna dots and on paragraphs 2-5.
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