Goddess · Character in Homer’s Odyssey
Ino Leucothea
Sea goddess who lends the veil
Knows what drowning is; lends the veil that forbids it.
Cadmus' daughter, who was once a mortal woman and is now the sea goddess Leucothea. When Poseidon shatters the raft she rises from the water like a cormorant, gives Odysseus her immortal veil to bind beneath his chest, and tells him to swim for it; two days later it carries him, past drowning, to the Phaeacian coast. He returns it to the sea, as instructed, without looking behind.
Bonds
- Ino Leucothea aids Odysseus — her veil through the wreck
- Ino Leucothea defies Poseidon — undoes a little of his storm
Appears in
- Book V Departure of Odysseus from Calypso
Scenes
- Ino Gives a Magic Veil — Book V. Cormorant Ino gives Odysseus her veil
- The Raft Breaks Apart — Book V. Poseidon shatters raft, Odysseus swims
- Exhausted on the Riverbank — Book V. The river calms, Odysseus collapses ashore