Terracotta plaque
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.
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.
Artwork Details
- Title: Terracotta plaque
- Period: Classical
- Date: ca. 450 BCE
- Culture: Greek, Melian
- Medium: Terracotta
- Dimensions: 7 1/8 × 9 11/16 in. (18.1 × 24.6 cm)
- Classification: Terracottas
- Credit Line: Rogers Fund, 1912
- Object Number: 12.229.20
- Curatorial Department: Greek and Roman Art
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East Greek
4th quarter of the 6th century BCE
Roman
27 BCE–68 CE
Greek, Melian
ca. 460–450 BCE
Greek, Cretan
ca. 540–520 BCE
Greek, Melian
ca. 450 BCE
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