Phrixus and Helle Orpheus and Eurydice Text editing: Margaret McGlin Cover and interior design: Efthimis Dimoulas
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Produced in Greece I LOVE MYTHOLOGY Phrixus and Helle Orpheus and Eurydice Text: Anastasia D. Makri Illustrations: Akis Melachris
Translated from Greek into English by Dr Ioannis Georganas Archaeologist
UNDER THE AEGIS OF
ΑGYRA publications Phrixus and Helle
thamas, king of Orchomenus in Boeotia1, was married A to the beautiful Nephele. The couple had two very cute children, Phrixus and Helle. The happiness of the couple, however, was to come to an abrupt end. Nephele got very sick and died. Athamas was heartbroken. As he had to raise two very young children who needed a mother, he decided to remarry. His second wife was called Ino, and Athamas felt that she would make a good wife and a caring stepmother. Ino, however, was jealous of the two children, especially of Phrixus. Cunning as she was, she managed to hide her jealousy and pretended to love the children. At the same time, she started plotting a devious scheme to get rid of them. Ino ordered some of her trusted men to roast the crop seeds that were meant to be given to the people of Orchomenus. The farmers planted the seeds and waited for them to grow, but not a single seed grew.
5 Famine and misery hit the town. Nobody could explain how such a thing could have happened. Athamas decided to consult the oracle at Delphi2 and ask the Pythia the rea- son for the lack of crops. The real answer, however, never reached Athamas. Ino had already bribed the people that the king had sent to Delphi, and she asked them to say that the gods were an- gry at the king and that in order to appease them Athamas had to sacrifice his son, Phrixus. As soon as Athamas heard this message, he was devastated.
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