Jason returns with the golden Fleece on an Apulian red-figure calyx krater, ca. 340–330 BC

In Greek mythology, the Golden Fleece (Greek: Χρυσόμαλλον Δέρας, Georgian: ოქროს საწმისი) is that of the winged ram Chrysomallos (Χρυσόμαλλος). It figures in the tale of Jason and his band of Argonauts, who set out on a quest for the Fleece in order to place Jason rightfully on the throne of Iolcus in Thessaly. The story is of great antiquity – it was current in the time of Homer (eighth century BC) – and consequently it survives in various forms, among which details vary. Thus, in later versions of the story the ram is said to have been the offspring of the sea god Poseidon and Themisto (less often, Nephele). The classic telling is the Argonautica of Apollonius of Rhodes. Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (1915x2650, 4032 KB) Description Description: Jason bringing Pelias the Golden Fleece. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (1915x2650, 4032 KB) Description Description: Jason bringing Pelias the Golden Fleece. ... This article is about the Italian region. ... Woman officiating at an altar, Attic red-figure kylix by Chairias, c. ... A krater (Greek κρατηρ, from the Greek verb κεραννυμι, to mix. ... The bust of Zeus found at Otricoli (Sala Rotonda, Museo Pio-Clementino, Vatican) Greek mythology is the body of stories belonging to the Ancient Greeks concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. ... Binomial name Ovis aries Linnaeus, 1758 The domestic sheep (Ovis aries), the most common species of the sheep genus (Ovis), is a woolly ruminant quadruped which probably descends from the wild mouflon of south-central and south-west Asia. ... Jason (Greek: Ιάσων, Etruscan: Easun) was a hero from Greek mythology. ... The Argo, by Lorenzo Costa In Greek mythology, the Argonauts (Ancient Greek: ) were a band of heroes who, in the years before the Trojan War, accompanied Jason to Colchis in his quest for the Golden Fleece. ... Iolcos (also known as Iolkos or Iolcus, Greek: Ιώλκος) was an ancient city in Thessaly, central-eastern Greece (near the modern city of Volos). ... Map showing Thessaly periphery in Greece Thessaly (Θεσσαλια; modern Greek Thessalía; see also List of traditional Greek place names) is one of the 13 peripheries of Greece, and is further sub-divided into 4 prefectures. ... Homer (Greek: ) is the name given to the supposed unitary author of the early Greek poems the Iliad and the Odyssey. ... Neptune reigns in the city of Bristol. ... In Greek mythology, Themisto was the third and last wife of Athamas. ... In Greek mythology, Nephele (from Greek: nephos, cloud) was the goddess of Clouds who figured prominently in the story of Phrixus and Helle. ... The Argonautica (Greek: ) is a Greek epic poem written by Apollonius Rhodius in the 3rd century BC. The only surviving Hellenistic epic, the Argonautica tells the myth of the voyage of Jason and the Argonauts to retrieve the Golden Fleece from the mythical land of Colchis. ... Apollonius of Rhodes, also known as Apollonius Rhodius (Latin; Greek Apollōnios Rhodios), early 3rd century BC - after 246 BC, was an epic poet, scholar, and director of the Library of Alexandria. ...

Athamas, king of the city of Orchomenus in Boeotia (a region of southeastern Greece), took as his first wife the cloud goddess Nephele, by whom he had two children, the boy Phrixus and the girl Helle. Later he became enamored of and married Ino, the daughter of Cadmus. Ino was jealous of her stepchildren and plotted their deaths. (In some versions, she persuades Athamas that sacrificing Phrixus is the only way to end a famine.) Nephele, or her spirit, appeared to the children with a winged ram whose fleece was of gold. On the ram the children escaped over the sea, but Helle fell off and drowned in the strait now called after her the Hellespont. The ram took Phrixus safely on to Colchis (modern-day Georgia), on the far (eastern) shore of the Euxine (Black) Sea. Phrixus then sacrificed the ram and hung its fleece on a tree (sometimes an oak tree) in a grove sacred to Ares, where it was guarded by a dragon. There it remained until taken by Jason. The ram became the constellation Aries. The king of Orchomenus in Greek mythology, Athamas (rich harvest) was married first to the goddess Nephele with whom he had the twins Phrixus and Helle. ... A king in Greek mythology, Orchomenus was the father of Elara. ... Boeotia or Beotia (//, (Greek Βοιωτια; see also list of traditional Greek place names) was the central area of ancient Greece. ... In Greek mythology, Phrixus figured prominently in the story of Jason and the Argonauts. ... In Greek mythology, Helle figured prominently in the story of Jason and the Argonauts. ... Ino was a mortal queen in Greek mythology. ... Cadmus Sowing the Dragons teeth, by Maxfield Parrish, 1908 Caddmus, or Kadmos (Greek: Κάδμος), in Greek mythology, was the son of the king of Phoenicia (Modern day Lebanon) and brother of Europa. ... General Name, Symbol, Number gold, Au, 79 Chemical series transition metals Group, Period, Block 11, 6, d Appearance metallic yellow Standard atomic weight 196. ... The Helespont/Dardanelles, a long narrow strait dividing the Balkans (Europe) along the Gallipoli peninsula from Asia Anatolia (Asia Minor). ... In ancient geography, Colchis (sometimes spelled also as Kolchis) (Greek: Κολχίς, kŏl´kĬs; Georgian: კოლხეთი, Kolkheti) was a nearly triangular district in Caucasus. ... For other uses, see Black Sea (disambiguation). ... Species See List of Quercus species The term oak can be used as part of the common name of any of several hundred species of trees and shrubs in the genus Quercus (from Latin oak tree), and some related genera, notably Cyclobalanopsis and Lithocarpus. ... In Greek mythology, Ares (Ancient Greek: , modern Greek Άρης [pron. ... It has been suggested that European dragon be merged into this article or section. ... Aries (IPA: , Latin: , symbol , ) is one of the constellations of the zodiac. ...

Interpretations

Attempts have been made to interpret the Golden Fleece not just as a fanciful object in a myth but as reflecting some actual cultural object or practice. For example, it has at various times been suggested that the story of the Golden Fleece signified the bringing of sheep husbandry to Greece from the east, or that it refers to golden grain, or to the sun. Shepherd with his sheep in Făgăraş Mountains, Romania. ...

Another interpretation rests on 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, and clothing made of cloth dyed with it was a mark of great wealth and high station (hence the phrase “royal purple”). The association of gold with purple is thus natural and occurs frequently in the literature. Species see text Murex (Linnaeus, 1758) is a genus of tropical carnivorous marine gastropods. ...

A more widespread interpretation relates it to a method of capturing gold from streams that is well attested (but only from c. 5th century BC) 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 then be hung in trees to dry before the gold was shaken or combed out.^[1]. Miners operate a hydraulic sluice in San Francisquito Canyon, Los Angeles County. ...

The very early origin of the myth in preliterate times means that all extant interpretations are greatly post facto and in greater or lesser degree rationalizations that suffer from very incomplete knowledge of the culture in which it arose. Most have been effectively criticized in the archaeological literature. An attempt to construct a most plausible explanation by locating it in what is known of that culture points, interestingly, to one of the earliest proposals, namely that the Golden Fleece represents the ideas of kingship and legitimacy; hence the journey of Jason to find it, in order to restore legitimate rule to Iolcos. Iolcos (also known as Iolkos or Iolcus, Greek: Ιώλκος) was an ancient city in Thessaly, central-eastern Greece (near the modern city of Volos). ...

Sources

The following are the chief among the various explanations that have been offered, with notes on sources and major critical discussions:

1. It represents royal power.
   1. Marcus Porcius Cato and Marcus Terentius Varro, Roman Farm Management (“A Virginia Farmer” (1918), Roman Farm Management, The Treatises of Cato and Varro, Done into English, with Notes of Modern Instances [1])
   2. Braund, David (1994), Georgia In Antiquity, Oxford: Clarendon Press, pp. 21-23
   3. Popko, M. (1974) “Kult Swietego runa w hetyckiej Anatolii” [“The Cult of the Golden Fleece in Hittite Anatolia”], Preglad Orientalistyczuy 91, pp. 225-30 [In Russian]
   4. Newman, John Kevin (2001) “The Golden Fleece. Imperial Dream” (Theodore Papanghelis & Antonios Rengakos (edd.). A Companion to Apollonius Rhodius. Leiden: Brill (Mnemosyne Supplement 217), 309-40)
   5. Otar Lordkipanidze (2001), “The Golden Fleece: Myth, Euhemeristic Explanation and Archaeology”, Oxford Journal of Archaeology 20, pp. 1-38 [2]
2. It represents the flayed skin of Krios (‘Ram’), companion of Phrixus.
   1. Diod. (?) Sic. 4. 47; cf. schol. Ap. Rhod. 2. 1144; 4. 119, citing Dionysus’ Argonautica
3. It represents a book on alchemy.
   1. Palaephatus (fourth century BC) ‘On the Incredible’ (Festa, N. (ed.) (1902) Mythographi Graeca III, 2, Lipsiae, p. 89
4. It represents a technique of writing in gold on parchment.
   1. Haraxes of Pergamum (c. first to sixth century) (Jacoby, F. (1923) Die Fragmente der griechischen Historiker I (Berlin), IIA, 490, fr. 37)
5. It represents a form of placer mining first practiced in Georgia.
   1. Strabo (first century BC) Geography I, 2, 39 (Jones, H.L. (ed.) (1969) The Geography of Strabo (in eight volumes) London [3])
   2. Tran, T (1992) "The Hydrometallurgy of Gold Processing", Interdisciplinary Science Reviews (UK), 17, pp. 356-365
   3. Gold During the Classical Period [4]
   4. refuted in: Braund, David (1994), Georgia In Antiquity, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 24
6. It represents the forgiveness of God
   1. Muller, Karl Ottfried (1844), Orchomenos und die Minyer, Breslau
   2. refuted in: Bacon, Janet Ruth (1925), The Voyage of the Argonauts, London: Methuen, p. 64 ff, 163 ff
7. It represents a rain cloud.
   1. Forchhammer, P. W. (1857) Hellenica Berlin p. 205 ff, 330 ff
   2. refuted in: Bacon, Janet Ruth (1925), The Voyage of the Argonauts, London: Methuen, p. 64 ff, 163 ff
8. It represents golden corn land.
   1. Faust (1898), “Einige deutsche und griechische Sagen im Liche ihrer ursprünglichen Bedeutung”. Mulhausen
   2. refuted in: Bacon, Janet Ruth (1925), The Voyage of the Argonauts, London: Methuen, p. 64 ff, 163 ff
9. It represents the spring-hero.
   1. Schroder, R. (1899), Argonautensage und Verwandtes, Posen
   2. refuted in: Bacon, Janet Ruth (1925), The Voyage of the Argonauts, London: Methuen, p. 64 ff, 163 ff
10. It represents the sea reflecting the sun.
    1. Vurthiem, V (1902), “De Argonautarum Vellere aureo”, Mnemosyne, N. S., XXX, pp. 54-67; XXXI, p. 116
    2. Mannhardt, Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, VII, p. 241 ff, 281 ff
    3. refuted in: Bacon, Janet Ruth (1925), The Voyage of the Argonauts, London: Methuen, p. 64 ff, 163 ff
11. It represents the gilded prow of Phrixus’ ship.
    1. Svoronos, M. (1914), Journal International d’Archéologie Numismatique, XVI, pp. 81-152
    2. refuted in: Bacon, Janet Ruth (1925), The Voyage of the Argonauts, London: Methuen, p. 64 ff, 163 ff
12. It represents a sheep bred in ancient Georgia.
    1. Ninck, M. (1921), “Die Bedeutung des Wassers im Kult u.Leben der Alten,” Philologus Suppl 14.2, Leipzig
    2. Ryder, M.L. (1991) ‘The last word on the Golden Fleece legend?’ Oxford Journal of Archaeology 10, pp. 57-60
    3. Smith, G.J. and Smith, A.J. (1992) “Jason's Golden Fleece,” Oxford Journal of Archaeology 11, pp. 119–20
13. It represents the riches imported from the East.
    1. Bacon, Janet Ruth (1925), The Voyage of the Argonauts, London: Methuen, p. 64 ff, 163 ff
14. It represents the wealth or technology of Colchis.
    1. Akaki Urushadze (1984), The Country of the Enchantress Medea, Tbilisi
    2. Colchis [5]
    3. Colchis, Land of the Golden Fleece [6]
15. It was a covering for a cult image of Zeus in the form of a ram.
    1. Robert Graves (1944/1945), The Golden Fleece/Hercules, My Shipmate, New York: Grosset & Dunlap
16. It represents a fabric woven from sea silk.
    1. Verrill, A. Hyatt (1950), Shell Collector’s Handbook, New York: Putnam, p. 77
    2. Abbott, R. Tucker (1972), Kingdom of the Seashell, New York: Crown Publishers, p. 184
    3. History of Sea Byssus Cloth [7]
    4. Mussel Byssus Facts [8]
    5. refuted in:
       1. Barber, Elizabeth J. W. (1991), Prehistoric textiles : the development of cloth in the Neolithic and Bronze Ages with special reference to the Aegean, Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press
       2. McKinley, Daniel (1999), “Pinna And Her Silken Beard: A Foray Into Historical Misappropriations,” Ars Textrina 29, pp. 9-29
17. It represents trading fleece dyed murex-purple for Georgian gold.
    1. Silver, Morris (1992), Taking Ancient Mythology Economically, Leiden: Brill [9]

Palaephatus (Παλαιφατος) is the name of four literary persons in Suidas, who, however, seems to have confounded different persons and writings. ... Die Fragmente der griechischen Historiker, better known as FGrH (Fragments of the Greek Historians), is a monumental collection by Felix Jacoby of the works of those ancient Greek historians whose works have been lost, but we have citations, extracts or summaries. ... Wilhelm Mannhardt (1831- 1880) was a German scholar and folklorist. ... Robert von Ranke Graves (24 July 1895 – 7 December 1985) was an English poet, scholar, and novelist. ... Sea silk. ...

Modern Connections

Brooks Brothers uses the Golden Fleece as its logo. This article does not cite any references or sources. ...

In Donald Barthelme's The Dead Father, the group is on a pilgrimage to seek what the Dead Father thinks is the Golden Fleece. However, they are really just taking the Dead Father to be buried. Donald Barthelme (April 7, 1931 - July 23, 1989) was an American author of short fiction and novels. ...

In God of War II for the Playstation 2, the Golden Fleece is an item that Kratos can use after defeating a Cerberus creature that has slain Jason. In the game the Fleece is depicted as an armguard and is used to counter attacks and reflect projectiles. God of War II is the sequel to the popular God of War video game. ... “PS2” redirects here. ... This article is about the main character in the SCEA games God of War and God of War II. For the character in Greek Mythology, see Cratos. ...

Reference

1. ^ Shuker, Karl P N (1997). From Flying Toads To Snakes With Wings. Llewellyn. ISBN 1-56718-673-4. 

Dr. Karl P. N. Shuker (born 1959) is a British zoologist, specialising in cryptozoology. ...

See also

• Jason
• Aeetes
• Medea
• Apsyrtus
• Argonauts
• Order of the Golden Fleece
• Golden Fleece Award
• The Sea of Monsters

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Golden Fleece