Juno bears a deep grudge against the House of Cadmus, founder of the city of Thebes, and seeks an avenger to destroy Cadmus’s daughter Ino and her husband, Athamas. The choice falls on Tisiphone the Fury. Tisiphone is no less sinister than the darkness and vapours of the Hell that she inhabits. Ovid’s description of the terrifying avenger, with her head and arms covered in serpents, and of the savagery with which she inflicts on Athamas a madness which drives him to murder his children, is one of his most striking set-pieces. Hear Ovid’s Latin and follow in English here.
Photo courtesy Bari’ bin Farangi under CC BY-SA 4.0
