Aries: The Legend of Phrixus and Helle

Wicked stepmother strikes again!

Phrixus and his twin sister Helle were the children of Athamas, king of Boeotia and Nephele, a cloud nymph. Nephele abandoned Athamas and the children to return to the clouds, and Athamas divorced her to marry Ino, on the condition  that she treat the children well. Which she did to begin with; however Ino grew more resentful of the twins after the birth of each of her own children.

Eventually, after Athamas proclaimed his intention to make Phrixus his heir, Ino hatched a plot to get rid of the young prince. First, she roasted all of the town's crop seeds so that they would not grow. When the local farmers sent to the local oracle for a solution, she bribed the men sent to the oracle to proclaim that the sacrifice of Phrixus was required to make the crops grow again.

On the morning of his intended sacrifice, Nephele arrived on a cloud along with a flying golden ram which she urged Phrixus to mount so that it could carry him to safety. Helle insisted on going along as well.

In some versions, the pair were told not to look down to earth for the duration of their journey, in others a storm blew up when they were crossing the narrow strait connecting the Aegean to the Sea of Marmara. Either way Helle became
terrified, fell off and drowned in what then became known as Hellespont (now the Dardanelles in Turkey).  In the storm version, this was at the moment the sun broke throught the clouds.

Phrixus survived to reach Colchis (now in Georgia), where he sacrificed the ram as per his mother's instructions and gave the fleece to King Aeetes, who gratefully took him in and gave his daughter Chalcope in marriage.

The fleece became known as the golden fleece and was later stolen by Jason.

You can read a fuller account of the story here : [link]

Later the golden ram became associated with the sign of Aries.

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Phrixus and Helle created using Genesis Young Teens. Rendered in Lux using Reality plugin for Daz Studio. Postwork in PSP

Golden fleece created using LookAtMyhair plug-in
Helle's peplos made using Marvellous Designer 2
Rams Horns freebie from CoolTuna [link]
Phrixus kilt is AS Zoel which I think was a bonus freebie with something else, but not sure what
Rain brushes by Ron Deviney

All other items purchased from DAZ3d