In Greek mythology, Nephele (Ancient Greek: Νεφέλη, "cloud") is the cloud-nymph wife of Athamas of Boeotia and mother of Phrixus and Helle. When their stepmother Ino's plot doomed Phrixus to sacrifice, Nephele rescued the twins on a golden-fleeced ram — the fleece that later drew Jason to Colchis. Latin authors call her Nebula. A separate same-named cloud figure, the eidolon Zeus shaped like Hera for Ixion, is treated elsewhere in the atlas as Nubes.
Adapted from Wikipedia, "Nephele" · CC BY-SA 4.0
I.Wife of Athamas
Nephele marries Athamas, Aeolid king in Boeotia (or Thessaly), and bears Phrixus and Helle. Athamas later takes Ino, Cadmus's daughter, who hates the twins. Ino roasts the seed-corn so crops fail, then bribes oracle-messengers to report that the dearth requires Phrixus's sacrifice (sometimes Helle's as well).
Before the killing, Nephele snatches up both children and sets them on a flying golden ram — a gift from Hermes in many tellings — bound for Colchis and King Aeëtes. Over the strait between Europe and Asia, Helle falls and drowns; the water is thereafter the Hellespont, "sea of Helle." Phrixus alone reaches Colchis, sacrifices the ram, and gives Aeëtes the Golden Fleece.
II.Homonym: the Ixion cloud
Ancient authors also use Nephele for the cloud-image of Hera that Zeus formed to expose Ixion's lust. Ixion assaults the eidolon, is bound to a fiery wheel, and the cloud bears Centaurus, ancestor of the centaurs. That figure is a distinct mythic persona from Athamas's wife; the atlas keeps the Ixion cloud under the id nubes-ixion.