The Golden Fleece was the subject of a celebrated Greek myth. A mother, whose boy and girl were in danger, appealed to Mercury for assistance. He gave her a ram with a golden fleece, on which she placed her two children to be conveyed to a place of safety. The ram sprang into the air and took his course toward the east. The girl, whose name was Helle, fell from her seat into the sea, in that part now called the Hellespont. The boy kept his hold and he reached the land of Colchis on the eastern shore of the Black Sea. Here he sacrificed the ram and gave its fleece to the king of that country, who had received him hospitably. The fleece was hung up in a sacred grove and guarded night and day by a dragon that never slept. Later, Jason, with his ship, Argo, and his crew, known as the Argonauts, set out to obtain the Golden Fleece. The cruise of the Argo has been supposed by some to be another version of Noah's deluge; by others the Golden Fleece is held to typify the wealth-bringing caravan commerce of the East, the land of Colchis being the point at which this traffic reached the Black Sea.
