Negative Cable Issues or Maybe Starter Issues

I tried starting my 99 Cutlass a couple of days ago but it wouldn't turn over so I looked under the hood and saw that the negative battery cable/battery was melting inside of the connection(side post battery). The negative cable was also very hot so I checked to see if the connections were secure and they were so I tried restarting but still nothing. There was also a whining sound coming from the starter. Could it just be the starter or a wire issue OR a combination of battery, wire and starter??? :mad:

When things melt, you have a bad connection.......bad connections create heat, and create a voltage drop, depriving voltage to the rest of the circuit...

And your battery may be crapping out.

Well I guess I'll start with the wire connection first and if that's not the problem then I'll see about the battery. Thanks Y'all