In Greek mythology, the Golden Fleece is the fleece of the gold-hair winged ram, 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 band 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.
Plot Athamas the Minyan, a founder of Halos in
Thessaly but also king of the city of Orchomenus in Boeotia, took as his first wife the cloud
goddess Nephele. 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 an ewe, so that he could
procreate with her among the flocks. There Theophane's other suitors could not distinguish
the ram-god and his consort. Nepheles' children escaped on the winged ram
over the sea, but Helle fell off and drowned in the strait now named after her, the Hellespont.
The ram spoke to Phrixus, encouraging him, and took the boy safely to Colchis, on the
easternmost shore of the Euxine Sea. There Phrixus sacrificed the winged ram to
Poseidon, essentially returning him to the god. The ram became the constellation Aries.
Phrixus settled in the house of Aeetes, son of Helios the sun god. He hung the Golden
Fleece reserved from the sacrifice of the ram on an oak in a grove sacred to Ares, the
god of war and one of the Twelve Olympians. The golden fleece was defended by bulls with
hoofs of brass and breath of fire. It was also guarded by a never sleeping dragon with
teeth which could become human soldiers when planted in the ground. The dragon was at the
foot of the tree on which the fleece was placed. Evolution of plot
Pindar employed the quest for the Golden Fleece in his Fourth Pythian Ode, though the fleece
is not in the foreground. When Aeetes challenges Jason to yoke the fire-breathing bulls, the
fleece is the prize: "Let the King do this, the captain of the ship! Let him do this,
I say, and have for his own the immortal coverlet, the fleece, glowing with matted skeins of
gold". In later versions of the story, the ram is
said to have been the offspring of the sea god Poseidon and Themisto. The classic telling
is the Argonautica of Apollonius of Rhodes, composed in mid-third century BC Alexandria,
recasting early sources that have not survived. Another, much less-known Argonautica, using
the same body of myth, was composed in Latin by Valerius Flaccus during the time of Vespasian.
Where the written sources fail, through accidents of history, sometimes the continuity of a
mythic tradition can be found among the vase-painters. The story of the Golden Fleece appeared to
have little resonance for Athenians of the Classic age, for only two representations
of it on Attic-painted wares of the fifth century have been identified: a krater at
the Metropolitan Museum of Art and a kylix in the Vatican collections. In the kylix painted
by Douris, ca 480-470, Jason is being disgorged from the mouth of the dragon, a detail that
does not fit easily into the literary sources; behind the dragon, the fleece hangs from an
apple tree. Jason's helper in the Athenian vase-paintings is not Medea— who had a history
in Athens as the opponent of Theseus— but Athena.
Interpretations The very early origin of the myth in preliterate
times means that during the more than a millennium when it was to some degree part of the fabric
of culture, its perceived significance likely passed through numerous developments.
Several euhemeristic attempts to interpret the Golden Fleece "realistically" as reflecting
some physical cultural object or alleged historical practice have been made. For example, in the
20th century, some scholars suggested that the story of the Golden Fleece signified the
bringing of sheep husbandry to Greece from the east; in other readings, scholars theorized
it referred to golden grain, or to the sun.
A more widespread interpretation relates the myth of the fleece to a method of washing
gold from streams, which was well attested in the region of Georgia to the east of the
Black Sea. Sheep fleeces, sometimes stretched over a wood frame, would be submerged in the
stream, and gold flecks borne down from upstream placer deposits would collect in them. The
fleeces would be hung in trees to dry before the gold was shaken or combed out. Alternatively,
the fleeces would be used on washing tables in alluvial mining of gold or on washing tables
at deep gold mines. Judging by the very early gold objects from a range of cultures, washing
for gold is a very old human activity. Strabo describes the way in which gold could
be washed:
"It is said that in their country gold is carried down by the mountain torrents, and
that the barbarians obtain it by means of perforated troughs and fleecy skins, and that
this is the origin of the myth of the golden fleece—unless they call them Iberians, by
the same name as the western Iberians, from the gold mines in both countries."
Another interpretation is based on the references in some versions to purple or purple-dyed
cloth. The purple dye extracted from snails of the Murex and related species was highly
prized in ancient times. Clothing made of cloth dyed with Tyrian purple was a mark of
great wealth and high station. The association of gold with purple is natural and occurs
frequently in literature. Main theories
The following are the chief among the various interpretations of the fleece, with notes
on sources and major critical discussions: It represents royal power.
Marcus Porcius Cato and Marcus Terentius Varro, Roman Farm Management, The Treatises of Cato
and Varro, in English, with Notes of Modern Instances
Braund, David, Georgia In Antiquity, Oxford: Clarendon Press, pp. 21–23
Popko, M. “Kult Swietego runa w hetyckiej Anatolii” [“The Cult of the Golden Fleece
in Hittite Anatolia”], Preglad Orientalistyczuy 91, pp. 225–30 [In Russian]
Newman, John Kevin “The Golden Fleece. Imperial Dream”. A Companion to Apollonius Rhodius.
Leiden: Brill, 309-40) Otar Lordkipanidze, “The Golden Fleece:
Myth, Euhemeristic Explanation and Archaeology”, Oxford Journal of Archaeology 20, pp. 1–38
It represents the flayed skin of Krios, companion of Phrixus.
Diodorus Siculus 4. 47; cf. scholia on Apollonius Rhodius 2. 1144; 4. 119, citing Dionysus’
Argonautica
It represents a book on alchemy. Palaephatus ‘On the Incredible’ Mythographi
Graeca III, 2, Lipsiae, p. 89 John of Antioch fr.15.3 FHG
It represents a technique of writing in gold on parchment.
Haraxes of Pergamum Die Fragmente der griechischen Historiker I, IIA, 490, fr. 37)
It represents a form of placer mining practiced in Georgia, for example.
Strabo Geography I, 2, 39 The Geography of Strabo London
Tran, T "The Hydrometallurgy of Gold Processing", Interdisciplinary Science Reviews, 17, pp. 356–365
"Gold During the Classical Period" Shuker, Karl P. N., From Flying Toads To Snakes
With Wings, LLewellyn Renault, Mary, The Bull from the Sea, Arrow
refuted in: Braund, David, op. cit., p. 24 and Otar Lordkipanidze, op. cit.
It represents the forgiveness of God Müller, Karl Otfried, Orchomenos und die
Minyer, Breslau refuted in: Bacon, Janet Ruth, The Voyage
of the Argonauts, London: Methuen, p. 64 ff, 163 ff
It represents a rain cloud. Forchhammer, P. W. Hellenica Berlin p. 205
ff, 330 ff refuted in: Janet Ruth Bacon|Bacon, Janet
Ruth, op. cit.
It represents a land of golden grain. Faust, Adolf, Einige deutsche und griechische
Sagen im Lichte ihrer ursprünglichen Bedeutung. Mulhausen
refuted in: Bacon, Janet Ruth, op. cit.
It represents the spring-hero. Schroder, R., Argonautensage und Verwandtes,
Poznań refuted in: Bacon, Janet Ruth, op. cit.
It represents the sea reflecting the sun. Vurthiem, V, “De Argonautarum Vellere aureo”,
Mnemosyne, New Series, XXX, pp. 54–67; XXXI, p. 116
Mannhardt, in Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, VII, p. 241 ff, 281 ff
refuted in: Bacon, Janet Ruth, op. cit.
It represents the gilded prow of Phrixus’ ship.
Svoronos, M., in Journal International d’Archéologie Numismatique, XVI, pp. 81–152
refuted in: Bacon, Janet Ruth, op. cit.
It represents a breed of sheep in ancient Georgia.
Ninck, M., “Die Bedeutung des Wassers im Kult und Leben der Alten,” Philologus Suppl
14.2, Leipzig Ryder, M.L. "The last word on the Golden Fleece
legend?" Oxford Journal of Archaeology 10, pp. 57–60
Smith, G.J. and Smith, A.J. “Jason's Golden Fleece,” Oxford Journal of Archaeology 11,
pp. 119–20
It represents the riches imported from the East.
Bacon, Janet Ruth, op. cit.
It represents the wealth or technology of Colchis.
Akaki Urushadze, The Country of the Enchantress Medea, Tbilisi
Colchis Colchis, Land of the Golden Fleece
It was a covering for a cult image of Zeus in the form of a ram.
Robert Graves, The Golden Fleece/Hercules, My Shipmate, New York: Grosset & Dunlap
It represents a fabric woven from sea silk. Verrill, A. Hyatt, Shell Collector’s Handbook,
New York: Putnam, p. 77 Abbott, R. Tucker, Kingdom of the Seashell,
New York: Crown Publishers, p. 184 History of Sea Byssus Cloth
Mussel Byssus Facts refuted in:
Barber, Elizabeth J. W., Prehistoric textiles : the development of cloth in the Neolithic
and Bronze Ages with special reference to the Aegean, Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University
Press McKinley, Daniel, “Pinna And Her Silken
Beard: A Foray Into Historical Misappropriations,” Ars Textrina 29, pp. 9–29
It is about a voyage from Greece, through the Mediterranean, across the Atlantic to
the Americas. Bailey, James R., The God Kings and the Titans;
The New World Ascendancy in Ancient Times, St. Martin's Press
It represents trading fleece dyed murex-purple for Georgian gold.
Silver, Morris, Taking Ancient Mythology Economically, Leiden: Brill
See also List of mythological objects
Apsyrtus Gold mining
Order of the Golden Fleece The Sea of Monsters
References
External links The Project Gutenberg text of The Golden Fleece
and the Heroes Who Lived Before Achilles