In
Greek mythology Phrixus (; also spelt
Phryxus; ,
Phrixos) was the son of
Athamas, king of
Boeotia, 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
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
Dardanelles, 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 the holy grove of
Ares in his kingdom, guarded by a dragon that never slept.
