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CHRISTOPHER BARON

University of Notre Dame

Mythical figure, son of AEOLUS. The general story (see Gantz, EGM 176–80 for variants) is that Athamas was forced to sacrifice his son, PHRIXUS, in order to end a famine, but Phrixus was rescued by a golden ram which took him to the COLCHIANS. Athamas then went mad, killing his son Learchus, while his wife INO and another son jumped into the sea (Apollod. Bibl. 1.9.1–2). Herodotus introduces the story of Athamas (7.197) as part of a “local legend” (epikhōrios logos) which, he says, was reported to XERXES by his guides at HALUS in Achaea PHTHIOTIS (THESSALY), in connection with a temple of ZEUS Laphystius (“Devourer”: Larson 2007, 16). In the version Herodotus relates, Athamas and Ino plot to have Phrixus killed; when the Achaeans are about to SACRIFICE Athamas in order to purify their land, he is rescued by a son of Phrixus named CYTISSORUS. As a result, the wrath of the gods falls upon the descendants of the FAMILY, operating through an ordeal inflicted on the eldest living male by the Achaeans: he is sacrificed if he enters the town hall (PRYTANEION). The passage contains textual and logical difficulties (Fowler 2013, 199); possibly we are dealing with a rite of passage ceremony rather than actual HUMAN SACRIFICE (Hughes 1991, 92–96; cf. the pseudo‐Platonic Minos 315b–d). STRABO (9.5.8/C433) names Athamas as the founder of Halus; he is also connected with ORCHOMENUS in BOEOTIA (Paus. 9.34.5).

SEE ALSO: Achaeans of Phthiotis; Curses; Helle; Myth; Ritual