Athamas

Athamas is a figure in Greek mythology who is most often described as the king of Boeotia. He is traditionally said to have married Nephele, a cloud spirit, and together they had two children, Phrixus and Helle. The family’s fortunes were affected by a plague or famine, and an oracle or divine intervention led to a dramatic flight of Phrixus and Helle on a golden ram.

The ram carried Phrixus and Helle away to safety, but Helle fell from its back into the sea, and the strait between Europe and Asia was named the Hellespont in her memory. Phrixus survived and reached Colchis, where he sacrificed the ram to Zeus and, in gratitude, the golden fleece thereafter became famed as the Golden Fleece, a central quest in later Greek mythology.

Athamas later took a second wife, Ino, daughter of Cadmus, who became stepmother to Phrixus and Helle. Ino’s jealousy and fear of losing power reportedly led her to schemes against the children, contributing to further danger for the royal family. The gods’ displeasure and divine intrigues surrounding the household drove Athamas into madness in some versions of the story.

Ino and her son Melicertes are said to have perished at sea in various tellings, with Ino sometimes identified with the sea goddess Leucothea in later myth. The tale of Athamas thus intersects with origins of the Hellespont, the Golden Fleece, and the later cultic and symbolic roles these figures acquired in Greek myth.