< Presbon, son of Phrixus >

1 Origin

Presbon (or Phrontis) was born in 1385 BC in Colchis.

Presbon's father was Phrixus, son of Athamas.

Presbon's mother was Chalciope, daughter of Aeetes.

2 Family

Presbon had a son Clymenus.

3 Others

Pausanias mentions that Phrixus or his son Presbon returned from Colchis to Athamas in Boeotia.

Hyginus notes that it was the sons of Phrixus who tried to return to Athamas.

Herodotus states that it was Cytissorus, son of Phrixus, who returned to Athamas.

Although there is some confusion in the tradition, it is assumed that it was Melas and Presbon, the two sons of Phrixus, who returned to Athamas, for the following reasons.

1) Apollonius notes that Phrixus died of old age in the house of Aeetes.

2) Melas married Eurycleia, daughter of Athamas.

3) Presbon's son Clymenus succeeded Orchomenus.

4) Cytissorus, son of Phrixus, founded Cytorus on the southern shore of the Black Sea.

The cause of the migration of Phrixus' sons is presumably related to the migration of Asterios, son of Minos, son of Europa, to Colchis.

As a result, Asterios took up residence in Colchis, while the two sons of Phrixus, Presbon and Melas, migrated to Boeotia and Phrixus' son Cytissorus to the southern coast of the Black Sea.

These events are estimated to have occurred in 1370 BC.

Who ruled Colchis after Asterios is unknown.

Presumably, Asterios married a daughter of Phrixus, and their granddaughter Perseis (or Perse) married into the Tauric Chersonese (now Crimea) and had two sons, Perses and Aeetes.

Perses succeeded his father as governor of Tauric Chersonese, and Aeetes emigrated from Tauric Chersonese to Colchis.

This Aeetes is not Sisyphus' son Aeetes who first migrated to Colchis, but Perseis' son Aeetes who appears in the Argonauts' expedition story.