And what was that first Golden Fleece?  I do not know, nor care.  The old Hellenes said that it hung in Colchis, which we call the Circassian coast, nailed to a beech tree in the war-god’s wood; and that it was the fleece of the wondrous ram, who bore Phrixus and Helle across the Euxine Sea.  For Phrixus and Helle were the children of the cloud nymph, and of Athamas the Minuan king.  And when a famine came upon the land, their cruel stepmother, Ino, wished to kill them, that her own children might reign, and said that they must be sacrificed on an altar, to turn away the anger of the gods.  So the poor children were brought to the altar, and the priest stood ready with his knife, when out of the clouds came the Golden Ram, and took them on his back, and vanished.  Then madness came upon that foolish king Athamas, and ruin upon Ino and her children.  For Athamas killed one of them in his fury, and Ino fled from him with the other in her arms, and leaped from a cliff into the sea, and was changed into a dolphin, such as you have seen, which wanders over the waves forever sighing, with its little one clasped to its breast.

But the people drove out King Athamas, because he had killed his child; and he roamed about in his misery, till he came to the Oracle in Delphi.  And the Oracle told him that he must wander for his sin, till the wild beasts should feast him as their guest.  So he went on in hunger and sorrow for many a weary day, till he saw a pack of wolves.  The wolves were tearing a sheep; but when they saw Athamas they fled, and left the sheep for him, and he ate of it; and then he knew that the oracle was fulfilled at last.  So he wandered no more; but settled, and built a town, and became a king again.

But the ram carried the two children far away over land and sea, till he came to the Thracian Chersonese, and there Helle fell into the sea.  So those narrow straits are called “Hellespont,” after her; and they bear that name until this day.

Then the ram flew on with Phrixus to the northeast across the sea which we call the Black Sea now; but the Hellenes called it Euxine.  And at last, they say, he stopped at Colchis, on the steep Circassian coast; and there Phrixus married Chalchiope, the daughter of Aietes the king; and offered the ram in sacrifice; and Aietes nailed the ram’s fleece to a beech, in the grove of Ares the war god.

And after awhile Phrixus died, and was buried, but his spirit had no rest; for he was buried far from his native land, and the pleasant hills of Hellas.  So he came in dreams to the heroes of the Minuai, and called sadly by their beds:  “Come and set my spirit free, that I may go home to my fathers and to my kinsfolk, and the pleasant Minuan land.”

And they asked:  “How shall we set your spirit free?”

“You must sail over the sea to Colchis, and bring home the golden fleece; and then my spirit will come back with it, and I shall sleep with my fathers and have rest.”