Terracotta plaque

Unknown

ca. 450 BCE · Terracotta · Greek and Roman Art

Phrixos carried over the sea by a ram Phrixos and his sister, Helle, were threatened with death by their stepmother, the wife of King Athamas who ruled part of Thessaly. They escaped thanks to a ram with a golden fleece. It was carrying them to Kolchis, the region east of the Black Sea, when Helle drowned in the straits connecting the Sea of Marmara with the Aegean Sea; the straits became known as the Hellespont. This fine relief plaque shows Phrixos alongside the ram and holding its horns, as fish cavort in the sea below.

Artist

Unknown

Date

ca. 450 BCE

Medium

Terracotta

Culture

Greek, Melian

Department

Greek and Roman Art

Credit line

Rogers Fund, 1912