Athamas

The infamous father of Helle and Phrixus; the grandson of the euphonious founder of the Greeks, Hellen.

Athamas was the son of Aiolos (Aeolus) and Enarete; his siblings are variously listed as: Alkyone (Alcyone), Athamas, Kalyke (Calyce), Kanake (Canace), Kretheus (Cretheus), Makareos (Macareus), Perieres, Salmoneus, and Sisyphus.

Athamas was the ruler of Orkhomenos (Orchomenos) and married to the nymph, Nephele (Cloud); he rejected Nephele for the mortal woman, Ino, who then plotted to have Athamas’ son, Phrixus, killed as a sacrifice.

Nephele and the god, Hermes, devised the escape of Helle and Phrixus on a magical flying ram with a Golden Fleece; the youths flew away from Orkhomenos on the ram but Helle fell from its back and drowned in the sea.

Phrixus sought sanctuary in the land of Kolkhis (Colchis) on the eastern shores of the Euxine (Black Sea) and sacrificed the ram in the Garden of Ares; the Golden Fleece remained there until it was retrieved by Iason (Jason) and the Argonauts.

Athamas’ son, Phrixus, married a woman named Khalkiope (Chalciope) and had four sons; the grandsons of Athamas had sworn vengeance against him for the ill treatment of their father but when one of the sons, Kytissoros (Cytissoros), finally met Athamas, he found the old man in desperate circumstances; Athamas was in the town of Alus in Akhaia (Achaea) and was about to be sacrificed at the instruction of an oracle; Kytissoros saved his grandfather and incurred the wrath of Zeus; from that time forward, the eldest member of Athamas’ family was forbidden, on penalty of death, to enter the town hall of Alus.

• Histories, book 7, chapter 197
• Catalogues of Women, fragments 3 and 7