Last month I mentioned the second part of the story of the ram, Aries. This month you'll get the first part, a tragic story of two children, their wicked stepmother and a talking animal. The story is so important to the Greeks, they named their country after one of the children.

The story starts with King Athamas of Orchomenus in Boeotia, northwest of modern day Athens. He married the cloud nymph Nephele with whom he had two children, a boy Phrixos and a girl Helle. (The word "nebula" is derived from Nephele's name.) After several years the marriage soured, and King Athamas took another wife, the Princess Ino of the neighboring province of Thebes.

Ino bore him a son and daughter also, but she was the jealous sort, and didn't want any firstborn of Athamas interfering with her son's ascension to the throne. So she plotted to cause their elimination. First she got some women to bake all the seed for the next year's crops. By doing so, it would not germinate. The next year, with no crops and facing a famine, King Athamas sent a messenger to Delphi to ask the oracle's advice. Too bad the messenger had been bribed by Ino to state that only the sacrifice of his firstborn son and daughter would save his land. Human sacrifice was literally unheard of in Greek culture, but the people of Orchomenus demanded that

the oracle's advice be followed.

Dutifully Athamas led his children to the altar, but just as he was about to draw his knife across his son's throat, the magical ram Chrysomallus arrived. The ram, sent by Hermes, which had a coat of gold and could talk and fly, instructed the children to mount his back. They did, and off he flew, saving the children.

Unfortunately, in mid journey, Helle lost her grip, and fell into the sea and drowned. In her memory the people called that place Hellespont, and ultimately their country Hellas. (Today Hellespont is better known as the Dardanelles or the Bosphorus, the channel between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean. Istanbul is on its banks.)

Upon reaching their destination of Colchis on the eastern shore of the Black Sea, the ram instructed Phrixos to sacrifice him. Phrixos did so and presented the fleece to Aeetes, the King of Colchis, which he placed in a garden that was guarded by a dragon who never slept.

Shorn of his golden coat, the ram went up and placed himself amongst the stars, but lacking his wondrous coat, he's not a very bright constellation. Typically though, Aries is portrayed un-flayed, and resting with his head turned to admire his beautiful golden coat. The illustration is from John Flamsteed's Atlas Coelestis, published in 1753.

Also pictured is the front of a 1000 Drachma note. For those of you that don't know Greek, note the text in the upper left. Translated to English letters, it reads "Trapeza tis Ellados", which means "Bank of Greece". The word Ellados is derived from Helle's name. Greek culture is sometimes known as "Hellenic", a word also derived from her name.