Golden Fleece

In Practice

The ram itself begins as a rescue: sent by the gods, or by the children's own mother Nephele, to save Phrixus and Helle from being sacrificed by their father Athamas at the urging of a scheming stepmother, it carries them off through the air. Helle falls into the strait later named for her, the Hellespont, but Phrixus reaches Colchis safely. In Colchis, Phrixus sacrifices the ram in gratitude and gives its fleece to King Aeëtes, who hangs it in a sacred grove of Ares, guarded afterward by a sleepless, unblinking serpent. Retrieving it from that guarded grove, years later, becomes the task King Pelias sets for Jason, intending the voyage as a death sentence rather than a real errand, since the fleece's guardian is meant to make the theft impossible. Apollonius of Rhodes adds a divine motive behind Jason's eventual success that has nothing to do with the fleece itself: Hera favors Jason because Pelias had neglected her worship, and she arranges for Aphrodite to make Aeëtes's daughter Medea fall in love with him, since the fleece cannot realistically be taken from its guarded grove by force or stealth alone. The fleece functions in the story less as an end in itself than as the impossible condition that forces Jason to acquire allies - the Argonauts for the voyage, Medea for the theft - he could not have succeeded without. As a symbol, the fleece stands for legitimate kingship and divine favor rather than simple wealth: obtaining it is what finally lets Jason press his claim to the throne Pelias had usurped from his father, tying an object from a children's rescue story generations earlier directly into a dispute over royal succession in Jason's own generation.

Where This Appears

• Character Jason
• Character Ares
• Character Hera
• Story Jason and the Golden Fleece
• Mythology Greek Mythology
• Character Talos
• Term Argonauts

Referenced By

• Term Harpies

Sources