Phrixus

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In mythology, Phrixus was the son of Athamus, king of Boiotia, and Nephele (a goddess of Clouds). His twin sister Helle and he were hated by their stepmother, Ino. Ino hatched a devious plot to get rid of the twins, roasting all of Boiotia's crop seeds so they would not grow. The local farmers, frightened of famine, asked a nearby oracle for assistance. Ino bribed the men sent to the oracle to lie and tell the others that the oracle required the sacrifice of Phrixus and Helle. Before they were killed, though, Phrixus and Helle were rescued by a flying ram with golden wool sent by Nephele, their natural mother. During their flight Helle swooned, fell off the ram and drowned in the Dardenelles, renamed the Hellespont (sea of Helle), but Phrixus survived all the way to Colchis, where King Aeëtes, the son of the sun god Helios, took him in and treated him kindly, giving Phrixus his daughter, Chalciope, in marriage. In gratitude, Phrixus sacrificed the ram to Zeus and gave the king the golden fleece of the ram, which Aeëtes hung in a tree in theholy grove of Ares in his kingdom, guarded by a dragon that never slept.

Phrixus and Chalciope had four sons, which later joined forces with the Argonauts. The oldest was Argos.

References

This story can be found in The Anthology of Clasical Mythology as well as the following:

• Apollodorus G1-2
• Eratosthenes 14, 19
• Hyginus 1-3, 12, 21, 22, 188
• Ovid 12.8
• Palaephatus 30
• Earlier part referenced, later part told in Apollonius' Argonautica

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Last updated on Wednesday March 12, 2008 at 18:56:33 PDT (GMT -0700)
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