Athamas was the son of Aeolos (God of the Winds) and Enarete, while his brothers were Kretheas, king of Iolkos, Sisyphos, king of Korinthos, Salmoneas, and Peieres king of Boeotia. From his first wife, Goddess Nephele (= cloud) he had two children: Phrixos and Helle. Falling in love with Ino, daughter of the Theban king Kadmos, Athamas left Nephele and Thessaly, to marry Ino and become king in her city of origin. There, she bore him two sons: Learchos and Melikertes. Ino hated Nephele’s children and deeply wished to get rid of them. She thus concocted a terrible plan. She convinced women to secretly roast the seeds before planting them on the pretext that their potency would be enhanced. The famine that ensued led King Athamas – her husband- to seek answers from the oracle of Delphi. Ino bribed the emissaries, who delivered her own oracle that the king had to sacrifice his firstborn son, Phrixos, on the altar of Zeus.
Athamas had no choice before his desperate subjects. However, as Phrixos lay on the altar ready for the sacrifice, his mother, Nephele, filled the space with a deep cloud. In the awe and confusion that followed, Hermes’ Golden-fleece Ram appeared next to the boy, who grabbing his sister Helle by the hand, got on the Ram that carried them off into the skies. The two children flew safely over lands and seas till they came over the part between Sigeion and Thrace at which point Helle leaning over to look down, slipped and fell in the strait know known as the Hellespont, or the sea of Helle.
Phrixos flew on until he came to the East shores of the Black Sea (Euxeinos Pontos), the land of the people of Kolchis and their king, Aietes son of Hekios and Perseis, brother of Circe and Pasephae, and father of Medea and Chalckiope whom Phrixos ends up marrying. Phrixos made Kolchis his home after sacrificing the Golden Ram in the name of Zeus and giving the Golden Fleece to his father in law who placed it in the sacred grove of Ares guarded by a terrible sleepless dragon long as a fifty oared ship. Athamas and Ino did not escape punishment. Eventually their various mishandlings were punished by Hera who causing them madness led them and their children to their ends. Their son Melikertes deified as Hero Palaemon was associated to the Isthmian games founded by Sisyphus.
Cassandra, whose name became a synonym of prophet of bad tidings, was the fourth and most beautiful daughter of Priam, the king of Troy.
Echo drama begins later when she falls in love with Narcissus, the handsome but vain son of the Nymph Liriope of Thespia. Echo would follow him everywhere longing to address him but would be unable to speak.
Psyche, whose name means soul in Greek was neither a goddess nor a divine creature of mythology. She was just a woman, but an extraordinary woman.
Harmonia in Greek mythology is the goddess of harmony and unity, the exact opposite of Eris. She is the patron goddess of the love that unites all people, the embodiment of order and civic unity.
Icarus was the son of Daedalus, the most talented Athenian craftsman of his time.
Zagori is an area of great natural beauty and unique architecture in the Pindus Mountains in Epirus in Northwestern Greece. The area is of about 1.000 square kilometers and contains 46 villages. Zagoria villages is called by Greeks “Zagorochoria” meaning the villages behind the mountain.
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In 1989, Professor of Byzantine Studies, Helen Ahrweiler is appointed Chairman of the Cultural Centre Pompidou in Paris