Page "Golden Fleece" Paragraph 2

Athamas the Minyan, a founder of Halos in Thessaly but also king of the city of Orchomenus in Boeotia ( a region of southeastern Greece ), took as his first wife the cloud goddess Nephele, by whom he had two children, the boy Phrixus and the girl Helle.

Later he became enamored of and married Ino, the daughter of Cadmus, bringing drought upon his land when Nephele removed herself.

Ino was jealous of her stepchildren and plotted their deaths: in some versions, she persuaded Athamas that sacrificing Phrixus was the only way to end the drought.

Nephele, or her spirit, appeared to the children with a winged ram whose fleece was of gold.

The ram had been sired by Poseidon in his primitive ram-form upon a nymph, Theophane, the granddaughter of Helios, the sun-god.

According to Hyginus, he carried her away to an island where he made her into an ewe so that he could have his way with her among the flocks, where Theophane's other suitors could not distinguish the ram-god and his consort.