Daughter of Athamas by Nephele and sister of Phrixus. Marked with her brother for sacrifice through their stepmother Ino's plot, she was caught up by the golden-fleeced ram their mother had of Hermes; but over the strait between Sigeum and the Chersonese she slipped from its back into the deep and was drowned, and the sea was called Hellespont after her.1
Of the sons of Aeolus, Athamas ruled over Boeotia and begot a son, Phrixus, and a daughter, Helle, by Nephele. When he took a second wife, Ino, she plotted against Nephele's children: she persuaded the women to parch the seed-corn so that the earth bore no crop, then bribed the messengers sent to Delphi to report that the dearth would lift only if Phrixus were sacrificed to Zeus. As Athamas, forced by the people, brought his son to the altar, Nephele caught up both children and gave them a ram with a golden fleece, which she had received from Hermes; borne through the sky upon its back they crossed land and sea. But when they were over the sea that lies between Sigeum and the Chersonese, Helle slipped into the deep and was drowned, and the sea was thereafter called the Hellespont after her.2
Apollonius keeps her death in the Argonaut frame, as a measure of grief. As Jason set out for the fleece, the women of Iolcus lamented over his mother Alcimede, and one cried out that it would have been better had the dark wave that took the maiden Helle overwhelmed Phrixus and the ram along with her — for then no such voyage, and no such sorrow, would ever have come to be.3
Hyginus tells the flight with other causes and a different ram. Phrixus and Helle, driven by a madness sent by Liber, wandered in a forest, where their mother Nebula came to them bringing a gilded ram — the offspring not of Hermes' craft but of Neptune and Theophane — and bade them mount it and journey to Colchis. When the ram had carried them out over the sea, Helle fell from its back; and from this the sea was called the Hellespont.4
The Astronomica preserves a stranger sequel. After Helle fell into the strait that bears her name, many have said she did not simply drown but was embraced by Neptune in the deep, and bore him a son — Paeon, or, as some have it, Edonus — so that the drowned maiden became a sea-god's bride beneath the waters of her own Hellespont.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
