She spoke exulting even in the sky ; but the angry consort of Zeus fell heavily in surprise upon the house of Athamas and scared Ino into flight. She still resented the childhood of Dionysos,
Ino, unhappy wife, escaped from her chamber and fled, rushing unshod over the rough mountains and searching for a trace of Dionysos, but without tidings. The nymph wandered passing from hill to hill, until she entered the ravine of Delphian Pytho. At last after intolerable wanderings she turned her step into the dragon-breeding copse. She tore the shift from her naked breast in token of mourning, and roamed madly about : the shepherd trembled to hear her distracted lamentation in a language he did not know. Often she seized the serpent which coiled thrice around the divine tripod-seat, and wreathed it in spirals on her squalid hair, fastening the long tresses about the delicate head with a snaky ribbon, She drove away the maidens of the temple service ; no more libations, no more public worship, no man of Delphoi danced near the temple—the […] were scourged with […] tangles of long-plaited ivy. The huntsmen who saw Ino running on the hills left the traps of string on their stakes and fled. The goatherd drove his goats under cover of a hole in the towering rocks ; the old plowman as he drove the sweating oxen under the yoke shivered at Ino’s leaps. The Pythian prophetess herself choked down the foreign sounds of the under world voice and ran into the mountains, with her customary Panopeian laurel shaking upon her head : she plunged between the deep-kneed peaks of the ravine, and took refuge in the Delphic cavern, in her fear of maddened Ino.
But Apollo Allseeing did not miss the woman, as she went through the twinings and twistings of the open forest where she sojourned. He pitied her, and came quickly near the grove. Taking the shape of a man he approached Ino, and with gentle hands wreathed her head with leaves of clever laurel, and brought sweet sleep upon her. Then he anointed with ambrosia the whole body of mourning Ino in her sleep, bathing her maddened limbs in the grief-assuaging drops. Long she remained there in the Parnassian wood, until the fourth […]. Then she founded dances for Bacchos yet a young boy, hard by the rock of prophecy, by the oracle of Phoibos ; with unsleeping torches the Corycian Bacchants followed their fragrant rites, and gathered healing drugs with their divine hands, and healed the woman of her madness. Meanwhile at the call of Athamas the servants had been scattered, hunting everywhere for Ino. The women wandered over the hills like her, passing by many a winding path in search of any footstep of their […] lady, who moved leaving neither trace nor tidings. The women wept and wailed, cruel nails tore the reddened cheeks, willing fingers attacked the rosy breasts. The house plunged in mourning and sorrow cried aloud, and sent the loud sound of lamentation through the city. Most of all the inventive mind of Mystis felt the hard oppression, for she had a double grief, when unhappy Ino was still lost with all her troubles to bear, and Dionysos was stolen away,
However, Athamas did not mourn his afflicted bride. He forgot his fickle passion for untraced Ino, and after the bed of his first wife Nephele had given him two children he sought the luxurious couch of deep-bosomed Themisto, and took as a third wife the daughter of Hypseus—and thus threw off Ino’s love. Once as he played prettily nurse-like to comfort Melicertes calling for papa, lifting and throwing him up in the air with high somersaults, when the boy cried for the milky teat, he offered his man’s breast and made him forget his mother.
From the bed of Athamas, Themisto bred two warrior sons, a sure defence against battle, Schoineus and Leucon, a fine new manly breed, the fruit of her first births. After these two, the mother bore twin offspring of one common birth, and nursed at her rich breast Porphyrion and Polos, boyish blossoms of foe-defying youth, both beloved and of one age: these boys Themisto herself destroy in later days, like stepmother’s children, believing them to be the twin offspring of Ino the glorious mother.
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