The Myths of the Zodiac- Aries the Ram

[swetha]

The ram with the golden fleece is believed to have been born of the union of Poseidon and Theophane, the daughter of Bialius. It is said that Poseidon had changed her into a sheep to keep her away from her many suitors, and the god himself turned himself into a ram to couple with her. But this ram is not remembered because of this amorous adventure.

This ram carried the children of King Athamas of Boetia Phrixus and Helle in the air, across the waterway now known as the Hellespont. The ram, according to Pseudo-Eratosthenes, and given to the youngsters by their mother, Nephele ("cloud"). Eratosthenes mentions that as they crossed that narrow straight between Europe and Asia, the ram threw the young girl Helle off, and lost a horn at the same time. Poseidon, the god of the sea and of horses, purportedly rescued her. Hyginus in his Poetica Astronomia, however, is a little more candid, and notes that Poseidon raped her. Helle would later give birth to Paeon or to Edonus, depending on the source.

According to Hyginus, after Phrixus arrived at Colchis, the kingdom of Aeetes, father of the Medea and brother to Circe and Pasiphae, the young man sacrificed the ram to Zeus and hung the golden fleece in the temple on the altar. Eratosthenes, however, says that the ram shed the fleece and gave it to Phrixus as a souvenir. The ram then went to the stars, where it is very faint. Not one star of Aires is brighter than the third-magnitude.

Hyginus says the ram was placed among the stars by Nephele to preside over spring, because formerly Ino sowed parched grain at that time, which was responsible for the flight of Phrixus and Helle in the first place. It is here where the story is murky and requires a bit of deduction. Ino, the daughter of Cadmus and Harmony and a descendent of Aphrodite, would later marry Athamas after he divorced Nephele. Ino also would later go insane and kill her own children because of the anger of Hera. The goddess sought revenge for Ino caring for one of Zeus’s sons, the god Dionysos, a god of madness and the frenzy that is visited upon women in particular. In turn, Ino would commit suicide and throw herself into the sea, where she was transformed into Leucothea, the nymph who would save Odysseus during a great storm. There is a strong theme of underlying madness as part of the myth.

Of course, it is not so clear as to why the flight took place. One account has it that Cretheus, Athamas’s brother, had a wife Demodice (or Biadice).

She had fallen in love with Phrixus, because the young man was very handsome, but she could not seduce him. Enraged, she denounced the young man before Cretheus, accusing him of trying to rape her. A man who loved his wife or perhaps to because he felt his own honor at stake, Cretheus prevailed upon Athamas to killed his son. It was then that Nephele placed her two children on the ram that led Phrixus to Colchis and Helle either into the arms of Poseidon or to her death in the Hellespont. One account has it that Hermes, the messenger of the gods, brought Phrixus back to his father, persuading him that the young man was innocent. It is reported that Demodice was later executed for her treachery.

Later, of course, the golden fleece would be the quest of Jason and the Argonauts.

The usual modern explanation for this myth is that in times of famine or drought, the son of the king would be sacrificed just as a ram would be sacrificed to Zeus. The ram is the animal favored for sacrifice to Zeus. Clearly, spring is a good time for sacrifice. If spring planting is unsuccessful, starvation is imminent. This explanation is likely to be true. However, very little is ever said about Helle, who is treated as if she were just an incidental to the story. Helle is said to have been raped by Poseidon. The terminology is not rape in the modern sense of the word, but more like hierogamy, the coupling of a woman with a god. In this story of Phrixus and Helle, we find the twin parts of mystery of sacrifice. For women, it is often hierogamy instead of death or perhaps death sometimes interpreted as hierogamy.

There are many children who are lost in ancient times to the gods, and even today some go to the god, albeit not as a sacrifice. That such a story is composed over such a hard occasion is one way to appease the pain and sorrow of the parents, family, and the community. Most anthropologists would say instead that this story also depicts the time when human sacrifice was ended, and a ram was substituted for the young man. That interpretation is probably correct as well.

Yet, in the end, isn’t hierogamy and sacrifice the same thing? In the beginning, the god would copulate and kill himself at the same time. Human beings could not do this, so instead they used the two genders they had to duplicate the divine way: killing and copulation, sacrifice and marriage.

As for the erotic tale of Demodice as the foundation of the flight, it is probably a late interpolation. Yet there is another erotic side, between the lines.

It involves the profound marital discord between Athamas and his two wives, Nephele and Ino. The reason for her divorce from Athamas was an accusation by her husband that Nephele was given to fits of insanity. However, Ino, who was jealous of the divorced Nephele, because Phrixus and Helle would succeed Athamas, intrigued against the children. So to save them, Nephele put them on the ram. Perhaps Nephele throws a mist over her children so they can escape. Later would Nephele be turned into a cloud. The Latins called her Nube or Nebula. (Sometimes the golden wool is referred to as the Nephelian fleece.)

One wonders exactly what it was that Ino said to Athamas that would have prompted Nephele to save her children. Hyginus tells us that Ino sowed parched grain; there is no elaboration in this exceptionally laconic passage. In all likelihood, it was Ino who demanded Phrixus be sacrificed during a period of drought and Athamas no doubt had no choice but to enforce the ancient law, while Nephele wanted to substitute the ram. Ino, a very special woman, prevailed because of her beauty and ambition. Of course, it is Hera, the goddess of marriage, who would destroy her.

For a time of renewal associated with spring, Aires the Ram also is a reminder of a tragedy.


By Kalev Pehme
winshop.com.au/annew/MythsZodiac.html