April 27: Spring Month

When king Athamas met the cloud nymph Nephele, he couldn’t wait to propose. The couple got two children, Helle and Phrixos. But Nephele wasn’t happy. On earth, she was just… fog. She had to return to the skies, as the white and fluffy cloud she was supposed to be. Athamas quickly remarried, to the archetype of the evil stepmother, Ino, who hated her predecessors’ twins. Nephele had to send a winged ram to carry them to safety. Alas, Helle couldn’t hold on and drowned (giving her name to the “Hellespont”). Phrixos made it to shore and put the ram’s golden fleece on display (later to be retrieved by Jason and his famous Argonauts.) In the mean time, Ino became the foster mother of her sister Semele’s son by Zeus, baby Dionysos. To Hera’s outrage of course. The goddess struck husband Athamas with insanity and Ino had to jump into the ocean to escape, with their youngest in her arms. The pair didn’t drown, but transformed into marine deities. From evil stepmother to revered sea goddess, just a small step for Greek mythology.

Athamas taken by the Furies, Arcangelo Michele Migliarini,

Academia di San Luca, Rome, Italy

The Fury of Athamas, John Flaxman,Ickworth, Suffolk, UK