Histories

It is the descendants of Phrixus' son Cytissorus who are treated in this way, because when the Achaeans by an oracle's bidding made Athamas son of Aeolus a scapegoat for their country and were about to sacrifice him, this Cytissorus came from Aea in +Caucasus (region (general)), Asia Colchis and delivered him, thereby bringing the god's wrath on his own descendants.

Hearing all this, Xerxes, when he came to the temple grove, refrained from entering it himself and bade all his army do likewise, holding the house and the precinct of Athamas' descendants alike in reverence.[*](The legend, in its main features, originates in the cult of “Zeus Laphystius,” a tribal god who, like the Jehovah of the O. T. and the Moloch and Melqart of the Phoenicians, has a right to all first-born, especially of the priestly house. In time human sacrifice is avoided by the substitution of a ram; but even then the first-born child must leave the country.)