#iophossa

[laiapolypharmakos]

Chalciope/Iophossa

Wife of Phrixus, Chalciope, daughter of Aeetes, sister of Medea

She's staring at Phrixus, mesmerised, while he is yapping about random stuff🥰.

The only canonical thing is attested in the aspect of Chalciope is a generalistic characteristic of the race of Helios, that is:

Ap. Rhod. Argon. 4. 727-29:

For all those of the race of Helios were plain to discern, since by the far flashing of their eyes they shot in front of them a gleam as of gold.

The earring is an inspiration of these earrings found in Colchis from the 5th century BC. I found in this post and here a zoom:

Of course, it couldn't be any other way: Chalciope had to have a reference to her husband Phrixus. The earrings represent the Chrysomallos with Phrixus and Helle on its back. The acorns, apart from referring to the original jewel, refer to the oak tree on which the golden fleece was hung, and also refer to the fact that Phrixus sacrificed the ram to Zeus of the fugitives (Zeus Phyxos), and Zeus is associated with oak trees.

4. 123:

And they two by the pathway came to the sacred grove, seeking the huge oak tree on which was hung the fleece, like to a cloud that blushes red with the fiery beams of the rising sun. 

2. 1146:

The ram, at its own prompting, he then sacrificed to Zeus, son of Cronos, above all, the god of fugitives.

Fun fact:

Why Iophossa?

In Hesiod fragments edition, GE.F15 it says: 

PHRIXUS Scholiast on Apoll Rhod, Arg. ii. 1122: Argus. This is one of the children of Phrixus. These . . . Hesiod in the Great Eoiae says were born of Iophossa the daughter of Aeetes. And he says there were four of them, Argus, Phrontis, Melas, and Cytisorus.

In spanish editions it also says that Acusilaus also mentioned the name of Iophossa.

Regarding this variation in the name, I found a paper analysing the etymology of the names of the figures from Colchis (I have included a reference below; it is in Russian, I do not know Russian, so I used Google Translate). From what I understand, certain authors may have used real names or symbolic names of mythological figures and made calques in Greek. It also says that if we accept that Calciope is a calque of Iophossa, we can trace the same roots that make up the name, which are “ayas”, meaning “metal”, and “abhasa”, meaning “looking like" and can give more information of the "original name" of this Colchian princess.

Lebedev, A. V., & RAS Institute of Philosophy. (2021b). Indo-Aryan names in the saga of Argonauts, onomastics of Colchis and Greek inscriptions of the Northern Black Sea region. Indo-European Linguistics and Classical Philology, 25, 728–782. https://doi.org/10.30842/ielcp230690152546 

[laiapolypharmakos]

It saddens me greatly that Chalciope/Iophossa is often overlooked. The relationship between the sisters could be explored much further, especially since Chalciope was a kind of mother figure to Medea (she also is implied somehow being her wet-nurse). I haven't found any fanfic about her on ao3... 😢 I'll keep looking 🙂