Phrixus, son of King Athamas of Boeotia and the half-nymph Nephele, along with his younger sister, Helle, were hated by their stepmother, Ino.

Ino hatched a devious plot to get rid of the children, roasting all the town's crop seeds so they would not grow.

For reasons unknown, Helle fell off the ram into the Hellespont (which was subsequently named after her) and either drowned or was rescued by Poseidon[citation needed] and turned into a sea-goddess, but Phrixus survived all the way to Colchis, where King Aeetes took him in and treated him kindly, giving Phrixus his daughter, Chalciope, in marriage.

In gratitude, Phrixus gave the king the golden fleece of the ram, which Aeetes placed in a consecrated grove, under the care of a sleepless dragon.

With the Greek god Poseidon, Helle was the mother of the giant Almops and Paeon (called Edonus in some accounts).