Phrixus

Hyginus, Fabulae, Fabula 3.

Previous fabula: Ino (Fabula 2). This page is Fabula 3 only. Latin and English are given paragraph by paragraph, so each paragraph can be checked against the other. Further fabulae are added as they are finished; see the Hyginus index.

1

Phrixus et Helle insania a Libero obiecta cum in silua errarent, Nebula mater eo dicitur uenisse et arietem inauratum adduxisse, Neptuni et Theophanes filium, eumque natos suos ascendere iussit et Colchos ad regem Aeolum Solis filium transire ibique arietem Marti immolare.

While Phrixus and Helle, driven mad by Liber, were wandering in a forest, their mother Nebula is said to have come there and brought a gilded ram, son of Neptune and Theophane, and ordered her children to mount it and cross to Colchis, to King Aeolus [sic: i.e. Aeetes], son of the Sun, and there sacrifice the ram to Mars.

2

ita dicitur esse factum; quo cum ascendissent et aries eos in pelagus detulisset, Helle de ariete decidit, ex quo Hellespontum pelagus est appellatum, Phrixum autem Colchos detulit; ibi matris praeceptis arietem immolauit pellemque eius inauratam in templo Martis posuit, quam seruante dracone Iason Aesonis et Alcimedis filius dicitur petisse.

So it is said to have been done. When they had mounted it and the ram had carried them out to sea, Helle fell from the ram, from which the sea was named the Hellespont, but the ram carried Phrixus to Colchis. There, following his mother's instructions, he sacrificed the ram and placed its gilded fleece in the temple of Mars, which Jason, son of Aeson and Alcimede, is said to have sought while a dragon guarded it.

3

Phrixum autem Aeeta libens recepit filiamque Chalciopen dedit ei uxorem; quae postea liberos ex eo procreauit. sed ueritus est Aeeta ne se regno eicerent, quod ei responsum fuit ex prodigiis ab aduena Aeoli filio mortem caueret; itaque Phrixum interfecit.

Aeetes, however, gladly received Phrixus and gave him his daughter Chalciope as wife. She afterwards bore him children. But Aeetes feared they [Phrixus and his descendants] would drive him from his kingdom, because it had been foretold to him by portents that he should beware of death at the hands of a stranger, a son of Aeolus, and so he killed Phrixus.

4

at filii eius, Argus Phrontis Melas Cylindrus, in ratem conscenderunt, ut ad auum Athamentem transirent: hos Iason cum pellem peteret, naufragos ex insula Dia sustulit et ad Chalciopen matrem reportauit, cuius beneficio ad sororem Medeam est commendatus.

But his sons, Argus, Phrontis, Melas, and Cylindrus, embarked on a raft to cross to their grandfather Athamas. Jason, when he was seeking the fleece, picked them up, shipwrecked, from the island of Dia and brought them back to their mother Chalciope, by whose favour he was commended to her sister Medea.

Notes

Paragraphs 1-2, inauratus / inauratam: "gilded", overlaid with gold, not simply "golden".
Paragraph 1, Aeolum: kept as supplied, with [sic: i.e. Aeetes] in the translation. The online text used here prints Aeolum, and so does the Packhum text; paragraph 3 calls the same king Aeeta, and Aeetes, king of Colchis and son of the Sun, is clearly meant. The name is not harmonised.
Paragraph 3, Aeoli filio: literally "son of Aeolus", but Phrixus is Athamas's son and therefore Aeolus's grandson. The Latin is loose here, and the translation keeps it literal.
Paragraph 3, no ut: the text as supplied has no ut before mortem caueret, an unmarked indirect command, and it is kept as supplied.
Paragraph 4, Athamentem: a variant spelling as supplied, not the regular form. The regular accusative is Athamantem (genitive Athamantis, dative Athamanti, as in Fabula 2, paragraph 3). It is not corrected and not described as regular.
Edition check, still open: this Latin text has not yet been checked against a printed critical edition. The points above were checked against the Packhum online text, which agrees with the text used here on Aeolum, Athamentem, and the absence of ut.

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