All Topics  
Golden Fleece

 
Golden Fleece

 
   Email Print
   Bookmark   Link
 

 

Golden Fleece
 
 
  Topics Golden Fleece Topic Home

In Greek mythology
Greek mythology

Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the Ancient Greece concerning their List of Greek mythological figures#Immortals and Greek hero cult, Cosmology#Metaphysical cosmology, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices....
, the Golden Fleece is the fleece
Fleece

Fleece is a general term for a soft bulky fabric with deep pile, and may refer to:* The woolen coat of a domestic sheep, especially after having been sheep shearinged ...
 of the winged ram Chrysomallos (???s?µa????). It figures in the tale of Jason
Jason

Jason was a late ancient Greece Greek mythology figure, famous as the leader of the Argonauts and their quest for the Golden Fleece. He was the son of Aeson, the rightful king of Iolcus....
 and his band of Argonauts
Argonauts

In Greek mythology, the Argonauts were a band of heroes who, in the years before the Trojan War, accompanied Jason to Colchis in his quest to find the Golden Fleece....
, who set out on a quest for the fleece in order to place Jason rightfully on the throne of Iolcus in Thessaly
Thessaly

Thessaly is one of the 13 Peripheries of Greece of Greece, and is further sub-divided into 4 Prefectures of Greece. The capital of the periphery and traditional Regions of Greece is Larissa....
.






Discussion
Ask a question about 'Golden Fleece'
Start a new discussion about 'Golden Fleece'
Answer questions from other users
Full Discussion Forum



Encyclopedia


Jason Pelias Louvre K127
In Greek mythology
Greek mythology

Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the Ancient Greece concerning their List of Greek mythological figures#Immortals and Greek hero cult, Cosmology#Metaphysical cosmology, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices....
, the Golden Fleece is the fleece
Fleece

Fleece is a general term for a soft bulky fabric with deep pile, and may refer to:* The woolen coat of a domestic sheep, especially after having been sheep shearinged ...
 of the winged ram Chrysomallos (???s?µa????). It figures in the tale of Jason
Jason

Jason was a late ancient Greece Greek mythology figure, famous as the leader of the Argonauts and their quest for the Golden Fleece. He was the son of Aeson, the rightful king of Iolcus....
 and his band of Argonauts
Argonauts

In Greek mythology, the Argonauts were a band of heroes who, in the years before the Trojan War, accompanied Jason to Colchis in his quest to find the Golden Fleece....
, who set out on a quest for the fleece in order to place Jason rightfully on the throne of Iolcus in Thessaly
Thessaly

Thessaly is one of the 13 Peripheries of Greece of Greece, and is further sub-divided into 4 Prefectures of Greece. The capital of the periphery and traditional Regions of Greece is Larissa....
. The story is of great antiquity – it was current in the time of Homer
Homer

Homer is traditionally held to be the author of the ancient Greek language epic poems the Iliad and the Odyssey, as well as of the Homeric Hymns....
 (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
Poseidon

In Greek mythology, Poseidon was the god of the sea and, as "Earth-Shaker," of earthquakes. The name of the god Nethuns in Etruscan mythology was adopted in Latin for Neptune in Roman mythology: both were sea gods analogous to Poseidon....
 and Themisto
Themisto

In Greek mythology, Themisto was the third and last wife of Athamas. According to Apollodorus, she had five children by him: Leucon, Erythrius, Schoeneus, Ptous, and Porphyrion....
 (less often, Nephele
Nephele

In Greek mythology, Nephele was a cloud nymph who figured prominently in the story of Phrixus and Helle .Greek myth also has it that Nephele is the cloud whom Zeus created in the image of Hera to trick Ixion, since he tried to rape the goddess....
). The classic telling is the Argonautica of Apollonius of Rhodes
Apollonius of Rhodes

Apollonius of Rhodes, also known as Apollonius Rhodius , early 3rd century BCE - after 246 BCE, was a librarian at the Library of Alexandria....
, composed in mid-third century BC Alexandria
Alexandria

Alexandria , with a population of 4.1 million, is the second-largest city in Egypt, and is the country's largest seaport, serving about 80% of Egypt's imports and exports....
, 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
Valerius Flaccus

Valerius Flaccus may refer to:*Gaius Valerius Flaccus, Roman poet at the time of Vespasian*Lucius Valerius Flaccus, name of a number of Roman politicians...
 during the time of Vespasian
Vespasian

Titus Flavius Vespasianus, commonly known as Vespasian , was a Roman Emperor who reigned from 69 A.D. until his death in 79 A.D. Vespasian was the founder of the short lived Flavian dynasty, which ruled the Roman Empire between 69 A.D....
.

Synthesised plot synopsis

Athamas
Athamas

The king of Orchomenus in Greek mythology, Athamas , was married first to the goddess Nephele with whom he had the twins Phrixus and Helle . He later divorced Nephele and married Ino , daughter of Cadmus....
 the Minyan
Minyans

According to Greek mythology, the Minyans were an autochthonous group inhabiting the Aegean region. However, the extent to which the prehistory of the Aegean world is reflected in literary accounts of legendary peoples is subject to repeated revision....
, a founder of Halos
Halos

Halos was a settlement in Ancient Greece, in the region of Thessaly. It was destroyed by an earthquake and abandoned....
 in Thessaly but also king of the city of Orchomenus in Boeotia
Boeotia

Boeotia, Beotia, or B?otia , formerly Cadmeis, was a region of ancient Greece, north of the eastern part of the Gulf of Corinth. It was bounded on the south by Megaris and the Kithairon mountain range that forms a natural barrier with Attica, on the north by Opuntian Locris and the Euripus Strait at the Gulf of Euboea, and on the...
 (a region of southeastern Greece
Greece

Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , is a country in southeastern Europe, situated on the southern end of the Balkans. It has borders with Albania, Bulgaria and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia to the north, and Turkey to the east....
), took as his first wife the cloud goddess Nephele
Nephele

In Greek mythology, Nephele was a cloud nymph who figured prominently in the story of Phrixus and Helle .Greek myth also has it that Nephele is the cloud whom Zeus created in the image of Hera to trick Ixion, since he tried to rape the goddess....
, by whom he had two children, the boy Phrixus
Phrixus

File:Phrixos und Helle.jpgIn Greek mythology, Phrixus was the son of Athamus, king of Boeotia and Nephele . His twin sister Helle and him were hated by their stepmother, Ino....
 and the girl Helle
Helle (mythology)

In Greek mythology, Helle figured prominently in the story of Jason and the Argonauts. Phrixus, son of Athamus and Nephele, along with his twin sister, Helle, were hated by their stepmother, Ino....
. Later he became enamored of and married Ino
Ino

*In Greek mythology, Ino was a Queen consort of Thebes .*173 Ino is an asteroid.*Ino is a trademark of the small Swedish loudspeaker maker Ino Audio....
, the daughter of Cadmus
Cadmus

Cadmus or Kadmos , in Greek mythology mythology, was a Phoenician prince, the son of Agenor and the brother of Phoenix , Cilix and Europa ....
, bringing drought upon his land when Nephele removed herself. Ino was jealous of her stepchildren and plotted their deaths: in some versions, she persuaded Athamas that sacrificing Phrixus is the only way to end the drought. Nephele, or her spirit, appeared to the children with a winged ram whose fleece was of gold
Gold

Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and atomic number 79. It is a highly sought-after precious metal, having been used as money, as a store of value, in jewelry, in sculpture, and for ornamentation since the beginning of recorded history....
. The ram had been sired by Poseidon
Poseidon

In Greek mythology, Poseidon was the god of the sea and, as "Earth-Shaker," of earthquakes. The name of the god Nethuns in Etruscan mythology was adopted in Latin for Neptune in Roman mythology: both were sea gods analogous to Poseidon....
 in his primitive ram-form upon a nymph
Nymph

In Greek mythology, a nymph is any member of a large class of mythological entities in human form. They were typically associated with a particular location or landform....
, Theophane, the granddaughter of Helios
Helios

Helios is the god of sun.In Greek mythology the sun was personified as Helios . Homer often calls him simply Titan or Hyperion , while Hesiod and the Homeric Hymn separate him as a son of the Titans Hyperion and Theia or Euryphaessa and brother of the goddesses Selene, the moon, and Eos, the dawn....
, the sun-Titan. According to Hyginus
Hyginus

Hyginus can refer to:*Gaius Julius Hyginus , Roman poet, author of Fabulae, reputed author of Poeticon astronomicon*Hyginus Gromaticus, Roman surveyor...
, he carried her away to an island where he made her into a ewe and enjoyed her as a ram among the flocks, where Theophane's other suitors could not distinguish the ram-god and his consort.

On the ram the children escaped over the sea, but Helle fell off and drowned in the strait now named after her, the Hellespont
Hellespont

Hellespont was the ancient name of the narrow strait, now known by the modern European term 'Dardanelles'. It was so called from Helle , the daughter of Athamas, who was drowned here in the mythology of the Golden Fleece....
. The ram spoke to Phrixus, giving him heart, and took Phrixus, whose name means "curly"—as ram's fleece—safely on to Colchis
Colchis

In ancient geography, Colchis or Kolkhis was an ancient Georgia , state monarchy and region in the Western Georgia , which played an important role in the ethnic and cultural formation of the Georgians and its subgroups....
 (modern-day Georgia
Georgia (country)

Georgia is a transcontinental country in the Caucasus region, located at the dividing line between Europe and Asia. It is bordered by the Russia to the north, Azerbaijan to the east, Armenia to the south, and Turkey to the southwest....
), on the easternmost shore of the Euxine (Black) Sea
Black Sea

The Black Sea is an inland sea sea bounded by southeastern Europe, the Caucasus and the Anatolia and is ultimately connected to the Atlantic Ocean via the Mediterranean Sea and Aegean Seas and various straits....
. Phrixus then sacrificed the ram to Poseidon and settled in the house of Aietes, son of Helios the sun-Titan, and lived to a ripe old age. He hung the Golden Fleece reserved from the sacrifice on an oak
Oak

The term oak can be used as part of the common name of any of about 400 species of trees and shrubs in the genus Quercus , which are listed in the List of Quercus species, and some related genera, notably Lithocarpus....
 in a grove sacred to Ares
Ares

In Greek mythology, Ares is the son of Zeus and Hera. Though often referred to as the Twelve Olympians God of warfare, he is more accurately the god of bloodlust, or slaughter personified: "Ares is apparently an ancient abstract noun meaning throng of battle, war."...
, where it was guarded by a dragon
Dragon

File:Ukiyo-e dragon 2.jpgThe dragon is a legendary creature with serpentine shape or otherwise reptilian traits that features in the mythology of many cultures....
. There it remained until taken by Jason. The ram became the constellation Aries
Aries (constellation)

Aries is one of constellations of the zodiac, located between Pisces to the west and Taurus to the east. Its name is Latin for sheep, and its symbol is , representing a ram's horns....
.

Interpretations

The very early origin of the myth in preliterate times means that during the more than a millennium during which it was to some degree or other part of the fabric of culture its perceived significance can be expected to have passed through numerous developments, in the end losing cultural significance expressed in any ritual and passing into the stock-in-trade of poets and artisans. 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

Lolcos was an ancient city in Thessaly, central-eastern Greece . Today Lolcos is a small village , which has a school and a small square . It is located in the surrounding Iolk?s Communities and Municipalities of Greece, in central Magnesia Prefecture, north of the Pagasitic Gulf....
.

Pindar
Pindar

Pindar , was an Ancient Greek Lyric poetry poet.Of the canonical nine lyric poets of ancient Greece, Pindar is the one whose work is by far the best preserved, and critics in antiquity tended to regard him as the greatest....
 employed the quest for the Golden Fleece in his Fourth Pythian Ode (written in 462 BC), though the fleece itself 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".

Where the written sources fail, through accidents of history, sometimes the vase-painters preserve the continuity of a mythic tradition. It seems that the story of the Golden Fleece had little resonance for Athenians of the Classic age, for only two representations on Attic painted wares of the fifth century have been identified, a krater
Krater

A krater was a vase used to mix wine and water. At a Greek symposium, kraters were placed in the center of the room. They were quite large, so they were not easily portable when filled....
 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Metropolitan Museum of Art is an art museum located on the eastern edge of Central Park, along what is known as Museum Mile, New York City in New York City, USA....
 and a kylix
Kylix (drinking cup)

A kylix is a type of wine-drinking Drinkware with a broad relatively shallow body raised on a stem from a foot and usually with two horizontal handles disposed symmetrically....
 in the Vatican collections. In the kylix
Kylix

Kylix may mean:*Kylix , a type of drinking cup used in ancient Greece*Kylix , a programming tool...
 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 an untoward history in Athens as the opponent of Theseus
Theseus

For other uses, see Theseus Theseus was a legendary king of Athens, son of Aethra , and fathered by Aegeus and Poseidon, with whom Aethra lay in one night....
— but Athena
Athena

In Greek mythology, Athena is the shrewd companion of Hero and the goddess of Hero endeavour. She is the virgin patron of Athens, which built the Parthenon to worship her....
.

Euhemeristic
Euhemerus

Euhemerus was a Greek Mythography at the court of Cassander, the king of Macedon. Euhemerus' birthplace is disputed, with Messina in Sicily or Messene in the Peloponnese as the most probable locations, while others champion Chios, or Tegea....
 attempts on the part of readers whose own cultural background dismisses the mythic fleece as a fanciful object have interpreted the Golden Fleece "realistically" as reflecting some actual cultural object or alleged historical practice grounded in economics: for example, in the twentieth century it was suggested that the story of the Golden Fleece signified the bringing of sheep husbandry
Animal husbandry

Animal husbandry, also called animal science, stockbreeding or simple husbandry, is the agriculture practice of animal breeding and raising livestock....
 to Greece from the east; in other readings more schooled in mythology it would refer to golden grain, or to the sun.

Another interpretation rests on references in some versions to purple or purple-dyed cloth. The purple dye extracted from snails of the Murex
Murex

Murex is a genus of medium to large sized predatory tropical sea snails. These are carnivore marine gastropod molluscs in the family Muricidae, the murexes or rock snails....
 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.

A more widespread interpretation relates it to a method of washing gold from streams that is well attested (but only from c. 5th century BC) in the region of Georgia
Georgia (country)

Georgia is a transcontinental country in the Caucasus region, located at the dividing line between Europe and Asia. It is bordered by the Russia to the north, Azerbaijan to the east, Armenia to the south, and Turkey to the southwest....
 to the east of the Black Sea. Sheep fleeces, sometimes stretched over a wood frame, would be submerged in the stream, and gold
Gold

Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and atomic number 79. It is a highly sought-after precious metal, having been used as money, as a store of value, in jewelry, in sculpture, and for ornamentation since the beginning of recorded history....
 flecks borne down from upstream placer
Placer mining

Placer mining is the mining of Alluvium deposits for minerals. This may be done by Open pit mining or by various forms of tunneling into ancient riverbeds....
 deposits would collect in them. The fleeces would then 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 even 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.

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
      Marcus Porcius Cato

      Marcus Porcius Cato may refer to:*Cato the Elder , born Marcus Porcius Priscus and then nicknamed Cato'*Marcus Porcius Cato Licinianus , son of Cato the elder by his first wife...
       and Marcus Terentius Varro
      Marcus Terentius Varro

      Marcus Terentius Varro , also known as Varro Reatinus to distinguish him from his younger contemporary Varro Atacinus, was a Ancient Rome scholar and writer....
      , Roman Farm Management (“A Virginia Farmer” (1918), Roman Farm Management, The Treatises of Cato and Varro, Done into English, with Notes of Modern Instances )
    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 and Antonios Rengakos (eds.). 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. It represents the flayed skin of Krios (‘Ram’), companion of Phrixus
    Phrixus

    File:Phrixos und Helle.jpgIn Greek mythology, Phrixus was the son of Athamus, king of Boeotia and Nephele . His twin sister Helle and him were hated by their stepmother, Ino....
    .
    1. Diodorus Siculus
      Diodorus Siculus

      Diodorus Siculus , was a Roman Greece historian who flourished in the 1st century BC. According to Diodorus' own work, he was born at Agira in Sicily ....
       4. 47; cf. scholia on Apollonius Rhodius 2. 1144; 4. 119, citing Dionysus’ Argonautica
  3. It represents a book on alchemy.
    1. Palaephatus
      Palaephatus

      Palaephatus was the original author of a rationalizing text on Greek mythology, On Incredible Tales , which survives in a Byzantine edition....
       (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
      Strabo

      Strabo was a Ancient Greeks history, geography and philosophy....
       (first century BC) Geography I, 2, 39 (Jones, H.L. (ed.) (1969) The Geography of Strabo (in eight volumes) London )
    2. Tran, T (1992) "The Hydrometallurgy of Gold Processing", Interdisciplinary Science Reviews (UK), 17, pp. 356-365
    3. "Gold During the Classical Period"
    4. Shuker, Karl P. N. (1997), From Flying Toads To Snakes With Wings, LLewellyn
    5. Renault, Mary
      Mary Renault

      Mary Renault born Mary Challans, was an England writer best known for her historical novels set in Ancient Greece. In addition to vivid fictional portrayals of Theseus, Socrates, Plato and Alexander the Great, she wrote a non-fiction biography of Alexander....
       (2004), The Bull from the Sea, Arrow (Rand)
    6. refuted in: Braund, David (1994), op. cit., p. 24 and Otar Lordkipanidze (2001), op. cit.
  6. It represents the forgiveness of God
    1. Müller, Karl Otfried
      Karl Otfried Müller

      Karl Otfried M?ller , was a Germany scholar and Philodorian, or admirer of ancient Sparta, who introduced the modern study of Greek mythology but whose life was cut tragically short....
       (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), op. cit.
  8. It represents a land of golden grain.
    1. Faust, Adolf (1898), Einige deutsche und griechische Sagen im Lichte ihrer ursprünglichen Bedeutung. Mulhausen
    2. refuted in: Bacon, Janet Ruth (1925), op. cit.
  9. It represents the spring-hero.
    1. Schroder, R. (1899), Argonautensage und Verwandtes, Poznan
    2. refuted in: Bacon, Janet Ruth (1925), op. cit.
  10. It represents the sea reflecting the sun.
    1. Vurthiem, V (1902), “De Argonautarum Vellere aureo”, Mnemosyne, New Series, XXX, pp. 54-67; XXXI, p. 116
    2. Mannhardt
      Wilhelm Mannhardt

      Wilhelm Mannhardt was a German scholar and folklorist. He is known for his work on Baltic mythology, as a collector, and for his championing of the solar theory....
      , in Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, VII, p. 241 ff, 281 ff
    3. refuted in: Bacon, Janet Ruth (1925), op. cit.
  11. It represents the gilded prow of Phrixus’ ship.
    1. Svoronos, M. (1914), in Journal International d’Archéologie Numismatique, XVI, pp. 81-152
    2. refuted in: Bacon, Janet Ruth (1925), op. cit.
  12. It represents a breed of sheep in ancient Georgia.
    1. Ninck, M. (1921), “Die Bedeutung des Wassers im Kult und 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), op. cit.
  14. It represents the wealth or technology of Colchis.
    1. Akaki Urushadze (1984), The Country of the Enchantress Medea, Tbilisi
    2. Colchis
    3. Colchis, Land of the Golden Fleece
  15. It was a covering for a cult image of Zeus in the form of a ram.
    1. Robert Graves
      Robert Graves

      Robert Ranke Graves was an England poet, translator and novelist. During his long life, he produced more than 140 works. He was the son of the Anglo-Irish writer Alfred Perceval Graves and Amalie von Ranke, a niece of the famous German historian Leopold von Ranke....
       (1944/1945), The Golden Fleece/Hercules, My Shipmate, New York: Grosset & Dunlap
  16. It represents a fabric woven from sea silk
    Sea silk

    Sea silk is an extremely fine, rare and valuable textile produced from the long silky filaments or byssus secreted by a gland in the foot of several bivalve mollusks by which they attach themselves to the sea bed....
    .
    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
    4. Mussel Byssus Facts
    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


See also

  • Order of the Golden Fleece
    Order of the Golden Fleece

    The Order of the Golden Fleece is an order of chivalry founded in 1430 by Duke Philip III, Duke of Burgundy of Duchy of Burgundy to celebrate his marriage to the Portugal princess Isabel, Duchess of Burgundy....

See also

  • Jason
    Jason

    Jason was a late ancient Greece Greek mythology figure, famous as the leader of the Argonauts and their quest for the Golden Fleece. He was the son of Aeson, the rightful king of Iolcus....
  • Aeetes
    Aeëtes

    In Greek mythology, Ae?tes was a son of the king-god Helios and the nymph Perseis , brother of Circe and Pasiphae, and father of Medea, Chalciope and Apsyrtus....
  • Medea
    Medea

    Medea is a woman in Greek mythology. She was the daughter of Aeetes of Colchis, niece of Circe, granddaughter of the sun god Helios, and later wife to the hero Jason, with whom she had two children: Mermeros and Pheres....
  • Apsyrtus
  • Argonauts
    Argonauts

    In Greek mythology, the Argonauts were a band of heroes who, in the years before the Trojan War, accompanied Jason to Colchis in his quest to find the Golden Fleece....
  • Placer mining
    Placer mining

    Placer mining is the mining of Alluvium deposits for minerals. This may be done by Open pit mining or by various forms of tunneling into ancient riverbeds....
  • Gold mining
    Gold mining

    Gold mining consists of the processes and techniques employed in the resource extraction of gold from the ground. There are several techniques by which gold may be extracted from the Earth....


External links

  • The Project Gutenburg text of