Themisto

In Greek mythology, Themisto /θəˈmɪstoʊ/ (Ancient Greek: Θεμιστώ), daughter of Hypseus, was the third and last wife of Athamas. According to some sources, she had four children by him: Leucon, Erythrius, Schoeneus, and Ptous. In other sources there were but two: Sphincius and Orchomenus, or else Schoeneus and Leucon. Some say that the father of Leucon was Poseidon (see also Leuconoe).

Themisto intended to kill her husband's children by his previous wife, but accidentally slew her own sons. This was the subject of a non-surviving tragedy by Euripides, retold by Hyginus as follows. Athamas married Themisto as he believed his second wife, Ino, was dead, but Ino turned out to be alive and to have been on Mount Parnassus with the Maenads. Athamas had her brought home but kept her return a secret; Themisto did find out she was back, and resolved to kill Ino's children as an act of revenge. However, she had never seen Ino in person and took her for a servant as they met, and ordered the "servant" to dress all her own children in white clothing, and Ino's in black. Themisto then proceeded to kill all the black-clothed children. What Themisto did not realise was that Ino had switched the children's clothing, and so she in fact killed her own children. Upon discovering that, she killed herself. According to Pseudo-Apollodorus, however, Themisto married Athamas after the death of Ino, and the whole story with the murder of the children did not take place.

Themisto (disambiguation)

Themisto may refer to:

Greek mythology

Other meanings

See also

Themisto (moon)

Themisto (/θᵻˈmɪstoʊ/; from Greek: Θεμιστώ), also known as Jupiter XVIII, is a small prograde irregular satellite of Jupiter. It was discovered in 1975, lost, and rediscovered in 2000.

Discovery and naming

Themisto was first discovered by Charles T. Kowal and Elizabeth Roemer on September 30, 1975, reported on October 3, 1975, and designated S/1975 J 1. However, not enough observations were made to establish an orbit and it was subsequently lost. (See also lost minor planet.)

Themisto appeared as a footnote in astronomy textbooks into the 1980s. Then, in 2000, a seemingly new satellite was discovered by Scott S. Sheppard, David C. Jewitt, Yanga R. Fernández and Eugene A. Magnier, and was designated S/2000 J 1. It was soon confirmed that this was the same as the one observed in 1975. This observation was immediately correlated with an observation on 6 August 2000 by the team of Brett J. Gladman, John J. Kavelaars, Jean-Marc Petit, Hans Scholl, Matthew J. Holman, Brian G. Marsden, Philip D. Nicholson and Joseph A. Burns, which was reported to the Minor Planet Center but not published as an IAU Circular (IAUC).