Elder daughter of Aeetes and Idyia at Aea, given in marriage without gifts of wooing to Phrixus the Aeolid when he came on the golden ram; by him she bore Argus, Melas, Phrontis, and Cytisorus — and when Jason's company reached Colchis she pleaded with her sister Medea to save her sons from Aeetes' wrath.1
Apollodorus makes her the Colchian bride of Phrixus: Aeetes received the fugitive and gave him one of his daughters, Chalciope, and by her Phrixus had sons — Argus, Melas, Phrontis, and Cytisorus — before he sacrificed the golden-fleeced ram to Zeus the god of Escape and gave the fleece to the king.2
Apollonius sets her in the palace beside Medea: the handmaidens had their chambers, and the two daughters of Aeetes, Chalciope and Medea, had theirs — until Hera detained the younger sister within the halls on the day Jason came, and Medea went from chamber to chamber searching for Chalciope.3
When the Argonauts proved to be sons of her Phrixus, Chalciope feared Aeetes' anger against her children. Argus her son begged her to win Medea's aid; she herself had the same thought, yet dread of her father's deadly wrath held her back until Medea, testing her with a feigned dream, drew her out — and Chalciope swore by Earth and Heaven that her sister should not be betrayed if she devised help for Jason and for the sons of Phrixus.4
Medea kept her oath: she won the contest for Jason, and when she fled Colchis she left a long tress in her chamber as farewell to her mother Idyia and cried a last goodbye to Chalciope and all her home.5
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the spine ignites as you read · hover a bond on the card — every mention of them lights in the story