Phrixus and Helle, twins of Athamas, king of Boeotia, and Nephele (a goddess of clouds), attempt to flee their hate-filled stepmother by crossing the sea between Europe and Asia on a flying (or swimming) golden ram. Helle has fallen from the ram and her brother Phrixos is attempting to save her. He fails to rescue her and she drowns, giving her name to that crossing point which became known as the Hellespont. Ancient roman fresco found in Pompeii, now in the Archaeological Museum in Naples; book illustration of 1902 or earlier
Phrixus and Helle (also known as Ellie) were hated by their stepmother, Ino. She hatched a devious plot to get rid of the twins, roasting all of Boeotia‘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, or swimming, ram with golden wool sent by Nephele, their natural mother; their starting point is variously recorded as Halos in Thessaly and Orchomenus in Boeotia. During their flight Helle swooned, fell off the ram and drowned in the strait between Europe and Asia, which was named after her the Hellespont, meaning the sea of Helle (now Dardanelles); 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 Poseidon and gave the king the Golden Fleece of the ram, which Aeëtes hung in a tree in the holy grove of Ares in his kingdom, guarded by a dragon that never slept. Phrixus and Chalciope had four sons, who later joined forces with the Argonauts. The oldest was Argos/ Argus, Phrontis, Melas, and Cytisorus.
Flying is conventional in modern treatments, but see D. S. Robertson, “The Flight of Phrixus“, The Classical Review, Vol. 54, No. 1 (Mar., 1940), pp. 1–8.
Depiction of Phrixos flying on ram to Colchis on AE dichalkon struck in Halos, Phthiotis in 3rd century BC.
Phrixus thus lived at the court of Aeëtes but one day Aeëtes learned from an oracle that he would die at the hands of a descendant of Aeolus and so he killed Phryxus. His sons, on the other hand, managed to return to Orchomenus.
Flying is conventional in modern treatments, but see D. S. Robertson, “The Flight of Phrixus“, The Classical Review, Vol. 54, No. 1 (Mar., 1940), pp. 1–8.
Gaius Valerius Flaccus, Argonautica translated by Mozley, J H. Loeb Classical Library Volume 286. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1928. Online version at theio.com.
