Editing Melicertes (section)

== Origins ==
[[File:Egitto, piatti in argento con scene mitologiche, 590-650 dc ca. 03 ino e melikertes sun un centauro marino, con parziale doratura.jpg|thumb|250px|Silver plate with relief of Ino, Melicertes and an ichthyocentaur, ca. 590-650 AD, [[Benaki Museum]].]]

No satisfactory origin of the name Palaemon has been given. The name means the "wrestler",<ref>Fowler, [https://books.google.com/books?id=scd8AQAAQBAJ&pg=PA316 p. 316]; [[Joseph Fontenrose|Fontenrose]], [https://books.google.com/books?id=wqeVv09Y6hIC&pg=PA352 p. 352]</ref> and is an epithet of [[Heracles]], with whom [[Melqart]] is identified by ''[[interpretatio graeca]]'' and referred to as the "Tyrian Herakles", but there does not appear to be any traditional connection between Heracles and Palaemon. Melicertes being Phoenician, Palaemon also has been explained as the "burning lord" (''Baal-haman''), but there seems little in common between a god of the sea and a god of fire. The Romans identified Palaemon with [[Portunus (mythology)|Portunus]] (the harbour god), and some took the name Palaemon to mean "the honey eater".