Palaemon
God of harbours and patron of the Isthmian Games, originally the mortal child Melicertes.
The Myth of Palaemon
Palaemon was originally Melicertes, the infant son of Ino and Athamas, grandson of Cadmus the founder of Thebes. When Hera drove Ino mad for sheltering the infant Dionysus, Ino seized Melicertes and leapt from the Molurian Rock near Corinth into the sea. A dolphin carried the child's body to the Isthmus, where his uncle Sisyphus found it and established funeral games in his honour — the origin of the Isthmian Games at Corinth. The sea gods transformed the dead child into the god Palaemon, protector of harbours and sailors, and his mother became Leucothea. Sailors from Athens to Sicily invoked Palaemon in storms. Poseidon and Palaemon shared sanctuaries along the coasts of Greece.
Parents
Athamas, Ino
Symbols
Fun Fact
The Isthmian Games, supposedly founded for Palaemon, were one of the four great Panhellenic festivals and awarded winners crowns of pine — later celery — rather than olive.
Explore Further
Melicertes
⚡ godsea
Son of Ino who was transformed into the marine god Palaemon after his mother leaped with him into the sea.
Leucothea
⚡ godsea, rescue
Sea goddess who rescued drowning sailors, formerly the mortal princess Ino.
Poseidon
⚡ godGod of the sea, earthquakes, and horses
Poseidon was the god of the sea and earthquakes whose moods determined whether sailors lived or died — and whose grudge against Odysseus drove the Odyssey.
Amphitrite
⚡ godGoddess-queen of the seas
Amphitrite co-ruled the oceans with Poseidon.
Glaucus the Sea God
⚡ godsea
Mortal fisherman who ate a magical herb, became immortal, and transformed into a blue-green sea deity.
Poseidon
⚡ godGod of the sea, earthquakes, horses
Lord of the seas and brother of Zeus. Poseidon's moods shaped the oceans — calm seas for those who pleased him, devastating storms for those who did not.
Nereus
⚡ godThe Old Man of the Sea
Nereus was the ancient, benevolent sea god known as the Old Man of the Sea — truthful, wise, gentle, and father of the fifty Nereids.
Glaucus
⚡ godsea, prophecy
A mortal fisherman who became an immortal sea god after eating a magical herb.
Anthedon
🏛 placegeography
A small Boeotian coastal town where the fisherman Glaucus ate a magical herb and became a sea deity.
Cape Sounion
🏛 placeworship, sea
The dramatic headland at the southern tip of Attica crowned by the Temple of Poseidon, where Aegeus watched for Theseus's returning ship.
Euphemus
🗡 herosea
Argonaut and son of Poseidon who could walk on water and was prophesied to be the ancestor of Cyrene's founders.
Proteus
⚡ godShape-shifting seer of the sea
Proteus knew all things but only spoke if held through shape-shifts.