that he would lead them with all the mind and all the courage that he possessed. And he prayed the gods that it would be given to him to lead them back safely with the Golden Fleece glittering on the mast of the Argo.They drew lots for the benches they would sit at; they took the places that for the length of the voyage they would have on the
ship. They made sacrifice to the gods and they waited for the breeze of the morning that would help them away from Iolcus.
And while they waited AEson, the father of Jason, sat at his own hearth, bowed and silent in his grief. Alcimide, his wife, sat near him, but she was not silent; she lamented to the women of Iolcus who were gathered around her. "I did not go down to the ship," she said, "for with my grief I would not be a bird of ill omen for the voyage. By this hearth my son took farewell of me--the only son I ever bore. From the doorway I watched him go down the street of the city, and I heard the people shout as he went amongst them, they glorying in my son's splendid appearance. Ah, that I might live to see his return and to hear the shout that will go up
when the people look on Jason again! But I know that my life will not be spared so long; I will not look on my son when he comes
back from the dangers he will run in the quest of the Golden Fleece." [pg 27]
Then the women of Iolcus asked her to tell them of the Golden Fleece, and Alcimide told them of it and of the sorrows that were upon the race of AEolus.
Cretheus, the father of AEson and Pelias, was of the race of AEolus, and of the race of AEolus, too, was Athamas, the king who
ruled in Thebes at the same time that Cretheus ruled in Iolcus. And the first children of Athamas were Phrixus and Helle.
"Ah, Phrixus and ah, Helle," Alcimide lamented, "what griefs you have brought on the race of AEolus! And what griefs you your-
selves suffered! The evil that Athamas, your father, did you lives to be a curse to the line of AEolus!
"Athamas was wedded first to Nephele, the mother of Phrixus and Helle, the youth and maiden. But Athamas married again while
the mother of these children was still living, and Ino, the new queen, drove Nephele and her children out of the king's palace.
"And now was Nephele most unhappy. She had to live as a servant, and her children were servants to the servants of the palace. They were clad in rags and had little to eat, and they were beaten often by the servants who wished to win the favor of the new queen.
"But although they wore rags and had menial tasks to do, Phrixus and Helle looked the children of a queen. The boy was tall, and
in his eyes there often came the flash of power, and the girl looked as if she would grow into a lovely maiden. And when Athamas,
their father, would meet them by chance he would sigh, [pg 28] and Queen Ino would know by that sigh that he had still some love for them in his heart. Afterward she would have to use all the power she possessed to win the king back from thinking upon his children.
"And now Queen Ino had children of her own. She knew that the people reverenced the children of Nephele and cared nothing
for her children. And because she knew this she feared that when Athamas died Phrixus and Helle, the children of Nephele, would
be brought to rule in Thebes. Then she and her children would be made to change places with them.
"This made Queen Ino think on ways by which she could make Phrixus and Helle lose their lives. She thought long upon this, and
at last a desperate plan came into her mind.
"When it was winter she went amongst the women of the countryside, and she gave them jewels and clothes for presents. Then
she asked them to do secretly an unheard-of thing. She asked the women to roast over their fires the grains that had been left for
seed. This the women did. Then spring came on, and the men sowed in the fields the grain that had been roasted over the fires. No
shoots grew up as the spring went by. In summer there was no waving greenness in the fields. Autumn came, and there was no grain
for the reaping. Then the men, not knowing what had happened, went to King Athamas and told him that there would be famine in
8
the land.
"The king sent to the temple of Artemis to ask how the people might be saved from the famine. And the guardians of the temple, [pg 29] having taken gold from Queen Ino, told them that there would be worse and worse famine and that all the people of Thebes
would die of hunger unless the king was willing to make a great sacrifice.
"When the king asked what sacrifice he should make he was told by the guardians of the temple that he must sacrifice to the god-
dess his two children, Phrixus and Helle. Those who were around the king, to save themselves from famine after famine, clamored to
have the children sacrificed. Athamas, to save his people, consented to the sacrifice.
"They went toward the king's palace. They found Helle by the bank of the river washing clothes. They took her and bound her.
They found Phrixus, half naked, digging in a field, and they took him, too, and bound him. That night they left brother and sister in
the same prison. Helle wept over Phrixus, and Phrixus wept to think that he was not able to do anything to save his sister.
"The servants of the palace went to Nephele, and they mocked at her, telling her that her children would be sacrificed on the mor-
row. Nephele nearly went wild in her grief. And then, suddenly, there came into her mind the thought of a creature that might be a helper to her and to her children.
"This creature was a ram that had wings and a wonderful fleece of gold. The god of the sea, Poseidon, had sent this wonderful
ram to Athamas and Nephele as a marriage gift. And the ram had since been kept in a special fold.
"To that fold Nephele went. She spent the night beside the [pg 30] ram praying for its help. The morning came and the children
were taken from their prison and dressed in white, and wreaths were put upon their heads to mark them as things for sacrifice. They
were led in a procession to the temple of Artemis. Behind that procession King Athamas walked, his head bowed in shame.
"But Queen Ino's head was not bowed; rather she carried it high, for her thought was all upon her triumph. Soon Phrixus and
Helle would be dead, and then, whatever happened, her own children would reign after Athamas in Thebes.
"Phrixus and Helle, thinking they were taking their last look at the sun, went on. And even then Nephele, holding the horns of the
golden ram, was making her last prayer. The sun rose and as it did the ram spread out its great wings and flew through the air. It flew
to the temple of Artemis. Down beside the altar came the golden ram, and it stood with its horns threatening those who came. All
