Nephele

Nephele (Greek Nephele, “cloud”) was the first wife of King Athamas of Boeotia and the mother of Phrixus and Helle, whom she rescued from sacrifice by sending a ram with a golden fleece. The same name is given to the cloud that Zeus shaped in the likeness of Hera to deceive Ixion, the mother of the Centaurs.

Nephele and Athamas

Athamas, a son of Aeolus, ruled Boeotia and had a son, Phrixus, and a daughter, Helle, by Nephele (Apollodorus, Library 1.9.1). No ancient source names her parents. Athamas then married a second wife, Ino, who bore him Learchus and Melicertes. Ino plotted against the children of Nephele: she persuaded the women of the land to parch the seed wheat, so that the sown fields gave no crop. When Athamas sent to Delphi to ask how to end the famine, Ino persuaded the messengers to report that the infertility would cease if Phrixus were sacrificed to Zeus. The people forced Athamas to bring Phrixus to the altar (Library 1.9.1).

The Golden Ram

Nephele caught up Phrixus and Helle and gave them a ram with a golden fleece, which she had received from Hermes. The ram carried them through the air over land and sea. When they were over the sea between Sigeum and the Chersonese, Helle slipped into the deep and drowned, and the sea was called the Hellespont after her (Apollodorus, Library 1.9.1). Phrixus came to the Colchians and their king, Aeetes, son of the Sun and Perseis, who received him and gave him his daughter Chalciope. Phrixus sacrificed the ram to Zeus, the god of escape (Zeus Phyxios), and gave the fleece to Aeetes, who nailed it to an oak in a grove of Ares. Phrixus and Chalciope had four sons: Argus, Melas, Phrontis, and Cytisorus (Library 1.9.1). The same fleece was later the goal of Jason and the Argonauts. Hyginus, who calls the mother Nebula, “cloud”, in Latin, says that she came to her children when they were wandering in the forest, struck by madness sent by Dionysus, and brought them the golden ram (Hyginus, Fabulae 3).

Nephele and Ixion

The word for “cloud” also names the figure in the story of Ixion. Ixion fell in love with Hera and tried to force her. Zeus, wishing to know whether it was true, made a cloud in the likeness of Hera and laid it beside him; the cloud, made pregnant by Ixion, gave birth to Centaurus (Apollodorus, Epitome 1.20). Pindar tells the same story and says that Ixion lay with a cloud, thinking it was the daughter of Cronus, and that the cloud bore a son whom she named Centaur (Pindar, Pythian 2.21–48). Diodorus names the cloud Nephele and says that Ixion, lying with her, became the father of the Centaurs (Diodorus 4.69). Later Diodorus makes Nephele the mother of the Centaurs who fought Heracles at the cave of Pholus: she helped them by sending a heavy rain, which gave four-footed creatures no trouble but made the footing slippery for the hero on two feet (Diodorus 4.12). No ancient text says that the wife of Athamas and the cloud of Ixion are the same person.

Nephele Sources

Apollodorus, Library 1.9.1 and Epitome 1.20; Pindar, Pythian 2.21–48; Diodorus Siculus 4.12 and 4.69; Hyginus, Fabulae 3.

See Also: Phrixus, Helle, Athamas, Ino, Zeus, Hera, Ixion, Centaur, Aeetes, Jason, Argonauts, Hermes