Melicertes
(Μελικέρτης), a son of Athamas and Ino, was metamorphosed into a marine divinity, under the name of Palaemon. (Apollod. 1.9.5; comp. Athamas, Palaemon, and Leucothea.) [L.S]
(Μελικέρτης). In Greek mythology the son of Athamas and Ino, and changed after his death by drowning into the marine deity Palaemon, while his mother became Leucothea. (See Ino.) His name (=Melkart), however, shows him to have been originally a Phoenician god. Like Ino-Leucothea, he was worshipped on all the coast of the Mediterranean, especially on that of Megara and at the Isthmus of Corinth, where he was so closely connected with the cult of Poseidon that the Isthmian Games, originally instituted in honour of this god, came to be looked upon as the funeral games of Melicertes. The Romans regarded him as a beneficent god of the sea, and identified him with Portunus, the god of harbours.
- Apollod. 1.8.6
- thrown by his mother into a boiling cauldron: Apollod. 3.4.3, Apollod. 3.4.3
- leaps into sea: Apollod. 1.9.1, Apollod. 3.4.3; Paus. 1.44.7, Paus. 9.34.6
- landed by a dolphin: Paus. 1.44.8, Paus. 2.1.3
- his name changed to Palaemon as a seagod: Apollod. 3.4.3; Paus. 1.44.8
- Isthmian games held in his honour, Apollod. 3.4.3; Paus. 2.1.3
- altar of M.: Paus. 2.1.3