Editing Golden Fleece (section)

==Plot==
{{Greek myth}}
[[Athamas]] the founder of Thessaly, but also king of the city of [[Orchomenus (Boeotia)|Orchomenus]] in [[Boeotia]] (a region of southeastern [[Greece]]), took the goddess [[Nephele]] as his first wife. They had two children, the boy [[Phrixus]] (whose name means "curly", as in the texture of the ram's fleece) and the girl [[Helle (mythology)|Helle]]. Later Athamas became enamored of and married [[Ino (Greek mythology)|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]].{{efn|That the ram was sent by [[Zeus]] was the version heard by [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]] in the second century of the Christian era (Pausanias, ix.34.5).}} The ram had been sired by [[Poseidon]] in his primitive ram-form upon [[Theophane]], a [[nymph]]{{efn|''Theophane'' may equally be construed as "appearing as a goddess" or as "causing a god to appear".<ref>[[Karl Kerenyi]], ''The Heroes of the Greeks''</ref>}} and the granddaughter of [[Helios]], the sun-god. According to [[Gaius Julius Hyginus|Hyginus]],<ref>Hyginus, ''Fabulae'', 163</ref> Poseidon carried Theophane to an island where he made her into a ewe so that he could have his way with her among the flocks. There Theophane's other suitors could not distinguish the ram-god and his consort.<ref>Karl Kerenyi ''The Gods of the Greeks'', (1951) 1980:182f</ref>

Nephele's children escaped on the yellow 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,{{efn|Upon the shield of Jason, as it was described in Apollonius' ''Argonautica'', "was Phrixos the [[Minyans|Minyan]], depicted as though really listening to the ram, and the ram seemed to be speaking. As you looked on this pair, you would be struck dumb with amazement and deceived, for you would expect to hear some wise utterance from them, with this hope you would gaze long upon them.".<ref>Richard Hunter, tr. ''Apollonius of Rhodes: Jason and the Golden Fleece'', (Oxford University Press) 1993:21)</ref>}} and took the boy safely to [[Colchis]] (modern-day south-east coastal region of the Black Sea), on the easternmost shore of the [[Black Sea|Euxine (Black) Sea]].
There the ram was sacrificed to gods.
In essence, this act returned the ram to the god Poseidon, and the ram became the [[constellation]] [[Aries (constellation)|Aries]].

Phrixus settled in the house of [[Aeëtes]], son of Helios the sun god. He hung the Golden Fleece preserved from the ram on an [[oak]] in a grove sacred to [[Ares]], the god of war and one of the [[Twelve Olympians]]. The fleece was guarded by a never-sleeping dragon with teeth that could become soldiers when planted in the ground. The dragon was at the foot of the tree on which the fleece was placed.<ref name="Godwin_41">{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/livesnecromance04godwgoog|title=Lives of the Necromancers|author=William Godwin|year=1876|page=41|publisher=London, F. J. Mason}}</ref>

In some versions of the story, [[Jason]] attempts to put the guard serpent to sleep.