★ Ino, the first king of Thebes ★

PHRYGIA. Cibyra. Pseudo-autonomous issue. Assarion (Bronze, 17 mm, 4.30 g, 6 h), Klau. Bias, high priest. Time of Domitian, 81-96. ΚΙΒΥΡΑΤΩΝ - [Ι-ΝΩ] Veiled and draped bust of Ino to right. Rev. ЄΠΙ ΑΡΧΙЄΡ ΚΛΑΥ ΒΙΑΝΤΟϹ Zebu bull butting to right. BMC 21. RPC II 1267.4 ( this coin ). Edge crack and with minor scratches on the reverse, otherwise, very fine.

From the collection of G. Plankenhorn (with collector's ticket), ex Hirsch 173, 18 February 1992, 450.

Ino was a daughter of Kadmos, the founder and first king of Thebes, and one of the nurses of the infant Dionysos, himself a son of her sister, Semele, and Zeus. For this, Ino was punished by the ever-jealous Hera, who drove her husband, Athamas, mad with rage. He first murdered his eldest child, Learches, then pursued his wife, who, out of despair, jumped off a cliff into the sea with her other son, Melikertes. The mother-son pair was welcomed by the sea-gods, however, and were themselves granted godhood as Leukothea and Palaimon.