Editing Phrixus (section)

== Mythology ==
Phrixus and Helle were hated by their stepmother, [[Ino (Greek mythology)|Ino]]. She hatched a devious plot to get rid of the children, 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,<ref>Flying is conventional in modern treatments, but see D. S. Robertson, "[https://www.jstor.org/stable/705411 The Flight of Phrixus]", ''The Classical Review'', Vol. 54, No. 1 (Mar., 1940), pp. 1–8.</ref> ram with golden wool sent by [[Nephele]], their natural mother; their starting point is variously recorded as [[Halos (Thessaly)|Halos]] in Thessaly and [[Orchomenus (Boeotia)|Orchomenus]] 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 the [[Dardanelles]]); 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 [[Poseidon]] 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. Phrixus and Chalciope had four sons, who later joined forces with the [[Argonauts]]. The oldest was Argos/Argus, the others were Phrontis, Melas, and Cytisorus.
[[File:Halos, Phrixos.jpg|thumb|300px|right|Depiction of Phrixos flying on ram to [[Colchis]] on AE dichalkon struck in [[Halos (Thessaly)|Halos]], [[Phthiotis]] in 3rd century BC.]]

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 of [[Aeolus (son of Hellen)|Aeolus]] (the paternal grandfather of Phrixus) and so he killed Phrixus.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.theoi.com/Text/HyginusFabulae1.html|title=Hyginus, Fabulae 1-49 - Theoi Classical Texts Library|access-date=2022-03-28}}</ref> However, other sources claim that Phrixus lived peacefully at Colchis and died of old age.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Phrixus in Greek Mythology |url=https://www.greeklegendsandmyths.com/phrixus.html |access-date=2023-02-25 |website=Greek Legends and Myths |language=en}}</ref>