| Phrixus or Phryxus | |
|---|---|
| Member of the Athamantian Royal House | |
 Phrixus and Helle | |
| Abode | Athamantis inBoeotia, laterColchis |
| Genealogy | |
| Parents | Athamas andNephele |
| Siblings | Helle,Learches,Melicertes,Schoeneus,Leucon,Ptous (half brothers) |
| Consort | Chalciope |
| Offspring | Argus,Phrontis,Melas andCytisorus |
InGreek mythologyPhrixus (/ˈfrɪksəs/; also speltPhryxus;Ancient Greek:Φρίξος,romanized: Phrixos means "standing on end, bristling") was the son ofAthamas, king ofBoeotia, andNephele (a goddess of clouds). He was the older brother ofHelle and the father ofArgus,[1]Phrontis,Melas andCytisorus byChalciope (Iophassa[2]), daughter ofAeetes, king ofColchis.
Phrixus and Helle were hated by their stepmother,Ino. She hatched a devious plot to get rid of the children, roasting all ofBoeotia's crop seeds so they would not grow. The local farmers, frightened of famine, asked a nearbyoracle 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,[3] ram with golden wool sent byNephele, their natural mother; their starting point is variously recorded asHalos in Thessaly andOrchomenus in Boeotia. During their flight Helle, for unknown reasons, 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 theDardanelles); Phrixus survived all the way toColchis, where King Aeëtes, the son of the sun godHelios, took him in and treated him kindly, giving Phrixus his daughter, Chalciope, in marriage. In gratitude, Phrixus sacrificed the ram toZeus (or in some less-common variations of the telling,Poseidon) and gave the king theGolden Fleece of the ram, which Aeëtes hung in a tree in the holy grove ofAres in his kingdom, guarded by a dragon that never slept. Phrixus and Chalciope had four sons, who later joined forces with theArgonauts. The oldest was Argos/Argus, the others were Phrontis, Melas, and Cytisorus.
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 ofAeolus (the paternal grandfather of Phrixus) and so he killed Phrixus.[4] However, other sources claim that Phrixus lived peacefully at Colchis and died of old age.[5]
