Golden Fleece. In Greek mythology, the Golden Fleece is the fleece of the golden-woolled, winged ram, Chrysomallos, which was held in Colchis.
The fleece is a symbol of authority and kingship. It figures in the tale of the hero Jason and his crew of Argonauts, who set out on a quest for the fleece by order of King Pelias, in order to place Jason rightfully on the throne of Iolcus in Thessaly.
Through the help of Medea, they acquire the Golden Fleece. The story is of great antiquity and was current in the time of Homer.
It survives in various forms, among which the details vary. Athamas the Minyan, a founder of Halos in Thessaly but also king of the city of Orchomenus in Boeotia, took the goddess Nephele as his first wife.
They had two children, the boy Phrixus and the girl Helle. Later Athamas became enamored of and married Ino, the daughter of Cadmus. When Nephele left in anger, drought came upon the land. Ino was jealous of her stepchildren and plotted their deaths;in some versions, she persuaded Athamas that sacrificing Phrixus was the only way to end the drought. Nephele, or her spirit, appeared to the children with a winged ram whose fleece was of gold. The ram had been sired by Poseidon in his primitive ram-form upon Theophane, a nymph and the granddaughter of Helios, the sun-god. According to Hyginus, Poseidon carried Theophane to an island where he made her into a ewe, so that he coul
The fleece is a symbol of authority and kingship. It figures in the tale of the hero Jason and his crew of Argonauts, who set out on a quest for the fleece by order of King Pelias, in order to place Jason rightfully on the throne of Iolcus in Thessaly.
Through the help of Medea, they acquire the Golden Fleece. The story is of great antiquity and was current in the time of Homer.
It survives in various forms, among which the details vary. Athamas the Minyan, a founder of Halos in Thessaly but also king of the city of Orchomenus in Boeotia, took the goddess Nephele as his first wife.
They had two children, the boy Phrixus and the girl Helle. Later Athamas became enamored of and married Ino, the daughter of Cadmus. When Nephele left in anger, drought came upon the land. Ino was jealous of her stepchildren and plotted their deaths;in some versions, she persuaded Athamas that sacrificing Phrixus was the only way to end the drought. Nephele, or her spirit, appeared to the children with a winged ram whose fleece was of gold. The ram had been sired by Poseidon in his primitive ram-form upon Theophane, a nymph and the granddaughter of Helios, the sun-god. According to Hyginus, Poseidon carried Theophane to an island where he made her into a ewe, so that he coul
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