Phrixus

Key facts and history

According to Hyginus, Athamas refused to sacrifice Phrixus, but Phrixus voluntarily promised to free the state from its distress.^[2] Phrixus and Helle were rescued by a flying or swimming ram with golden wool sent by their mother Nephele.^[3] During the flight, Helle fell to her death at the point later called the Hellespont.^[4] Phrixus was carried to Colchis, where he sacrificed the ram and placed its gilded fleece in the temple of Mars.^[2]

One account states that Aeetes later learned from an oracle that he would die at the hands of a descendant of Aeolus and therefore killed Phrixus.^[5] Ino, the stepmother, bore animosity toward both Phrixus and his sister Helle.^[3] Alarmed by potential famine, the local cultivators sought counsel from an oracle in the vicinity.^[3] Those dispatched to the oracle were bribed by Ino to fabricate a message claiming that Phrixus and Helle needed to be sacrificed.^[3]

Aeetes, the monarch of Colchis, received Phrixus hospitably and wed him to his daughter Chalciope.^[2]

What the cited sources add

Hyginus records that Ino conspired with the women of the entire tribe to parch the seed grain, causing sterility and scarcity.^[2] The same source notes that Ino instructed a servant to bring back a false reply from Delphi that the pestilence would end if Phrixus were sacrificed to Jove.^[2] Hyginus also states that Phrixus and Helle were wandering in a forest under madness sent by Liber when their mother brought the gilded ram.^[2] The Greek Legends and Myths account specifies that Ino had an intense hatred of Phrixus especially.^[4]

That account describes how Phrixus managed to hang on to the fleece while Helle lost her grip and plunged to her death.^[4] Hyginus names Phrixus' sons as Argus, Melas, and Cylindrus, who later took ship to go to their grandfather Athamas.^[2]