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Cook, Arthur B.
Zeus: a study in ancient religion (Band 1): Zeus god of the bright sky — Cambridge, 1914

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https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14695#0493

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The Golden or Purple Ram of Phrixos 415

accessible in its entirety is that of Sophokles, who told the tale
in the following form1. Athamas had two children, Phrixos and
Helle, by the goddess Nephele. Afterwards he deserted her and
took to him a mortal woman in her stead. Nephele out of jealousy
flew up to the sky, and punished him by sending a drought upon
his realm. Envoys dispatched to consult the Pythian Apollon
were bribed by the step-mother to bring back word that the
drought could be stayed only if Athamas sacrificed Phrixos and
Helle. Athamas, on hearing this, sent to fetch his children from
the flocks, when a ram speaking with human voice warned them
of their danger. They fled with the ram. Helle, in crossing the
strait at Abydos, fell from the ram and was drowned in the sea,
called after her Hellespontos, ' Helle's sea.' But Phrixos, riding
on the ram, got safely to the country of the Kolchoi. Here he
sacrificed the ram, which by the agency of the gods had become
golden-fleeced, to Ares or to Hermes. Phrixos settled in these
parts, which in memory of him were named Phrygia, 1 Phrixos'
land.' Meantime Nephele proceeded to avenge her children.
Athamas in his turn, garlanded like a victim, was led out to be
sacrificed at the altar of Zeus. But in the nick of time Herakles
appeared and rescued him.

In Sophokles' version the step-mother is anonymous. But
names were easy to supply. Pindar called her Demodike, Hippias
Gorgopis, and Pherekydes of Leros Themisto2. More popular,
however, than any of these was Ino, the daughter of Kadmos and
Harmonia, king and queen of Thebes. Her story was linked with
that of Athamas at least as early as the fifth century B.C.3 The
resultant myth is thus set out by Apollodoros4:

'Of the sons of Aiolos Athamas, ruler of Boiotia, became by Nephele the
father of two children, Phrixos a boy and Helle a girl. Again he married Ino,
of whom were born to him Learchos and Melikertes. Ino, plotting against the

1 Schol. Aristoph. nub. 257, Apostol. n. 58, Eudok. viol. 28, cp. schol. Aisch.
Pers. 70.

2 Schol. Pind. Pyth. 4. 288. For the MSS. Arj/xcjTiKTjP (A17ixotikt]v Gott.) A. Boeckh
ad loc. ( = Pind. frag. 49 Christ, 49 Schroeder) restores Arj/uLodiKrjv, cp. Hyg. poet. astr.
2. 20 Crethea autem habuisse Demodicen uxorem, quam alii Biadicen dixerunt. On the
name Top-y&Tris (Hippias frag. 12 (Frag. hist. Gr. ii. 62 Muller)) see E. Wilisch in Roscher
Lex. Myth. 1. 1727 f. Qefucrrw (Pherekyd. frag. 52 (Frag. hist. Gr. i. 86 Muller)) occurs
in several versions of the myth (as first wife in Herodoros ap. schol. Ap. Rhod. 2. 1144,
Athen. 560 D, as second wife in Eur. ap. Hyg. fab. 4, Hyg. fab. 1, as third wife in
Apollod. 1. 9. 2, Nonn. Dion. 9. 302 ff.).

3 Hdt. 7. 197, Eur. ap. Hyg. fab. 4, Eur. (?) frag. 399 Nauck2 ap. Plout. de sera
num. vind. 11.

4 Apollod. 1. 9. 1 f. An almost identical account is given by Tzetz. in Lyk. Al. 22,
Zenob. 4. 38, Eudok. viol. 342, 478, Hyg. fab. 2 f. Ap. Rhod. 2. 654 ff., H43ff utilises
the same version. Eudok. viol. 954 blends this with the Sophoclean form of the myth.
 
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