Golden Fleece

The Golden Fleece ( gr Χρυσόμαλλον Δέρας Chrysómallon Deras ) was, according to Greek mythology, the fur of the Chrysomeles, a golden ram that could fly and talk.

Myth

The Boeotian king Athamas his wife Nephele had become a stranger. So he took Ino, daughter of Cadmus, as a new wife. Ino hated her stepchildren, Light, and in particular the pretenders Phrixus, because they wanted to have their own son, who should take the royal heritage.

Nephele realized that their children were in danger because of jealousy of her stepmother, and requested the help of the gods, whereupon Hermes Chrysomeles sent to her. The ram took the children on his back and carried them away. He rose into the air and flew to the east. As he crossed the strait that separates Europe and Asia, Helle fell off his back and fell into the water after her the Hellespont ( sea of ​​Helle) was named. The ram continued Phrixus safely in Colchis from, a country on the Black Sea, which was ruled by King Aeetes.

Phrixus was received hospitably, and out of gratitude that had saved his life the gods, they offered Chrysomeles in the temple of Zeus. Aeetes was the precious Golden Fleece, hung it in the sacred grove of the god Ares and had it guarded by a ship large dragon who never slept.

Later, the Argonauts stole under the leadership of Jason, with the help of Medea, daughter of Aeetes, the fleece of the Chrysomeles and brought it to Iolcus, where it was handed over to the Pelias ( Homer: Odyssey 12,70 ). Stories that describe disposing of the fleece, are not known.

Background

Background of the myth is that, sheepskins were used in the gold-rich Colchis, which is situated in the west of present-day Georgia in the Caucasus region, to wash gold dust from rivers. Excavations in Georgia brought forth particularly ornate, gold -driven objects from the tombs of the Archaic and Classical period. At the site Wani, 60 km from the Black Sea, since 1876 came to a large extent during the excavations in the 1960s, a high- culture with numerous testimonies of the goldsmith's art -a-days - including the finest fabric made ​​of gold threads. The highlight of this culture was in the 6th to 4th centuries BC

At the latest at the beginning of Greek colonization along the southern coast of the Black Sea in the 8th - 7th Century BC there was an oral tradition, which contained the essence of the Argonauts and must have referred to the region in the east of the Black Sea. In the 8th century a country Kolchida is mentioned in Greek literature for the first time, whose heyday was probably at this time.

Strabo ( Geography I, 2, 39) suggested that the background of the Argonauts was the greed of the Greeks after the mineral resources of the Black Sea. Appian knew in the 2nd century AD, that the rivers of the Caucasus led plenty of gold dust: The local residents hold dichtwollige sheepskins into the water, where the gold sand begins ( Appian, Mithridatischer War, 103).

Others

• Euripides put the Georgian Gold is a special monument. He let Medea's rival Glauce ( Creusa ), which took her husband Jason, give a particularly precious jewels: a gorgeous dress and gold tiara. When the Happy docked the robe, they burned up in the fire.
• Apollonius of Rhodes tells the story of the return of the Golden Fleece in the Argonautica.
• Philip the Good of Burgundy founded in 1430 the "Order of the Golden Fleece ," which became the House Order of the Habsburgs.
• Pietro da Cortona set up a reference between the Golden Fleece and the Lamb of God in his fresco of the 17th century by the Florentine Palazzo Pitti.