The story of the mighty hero Jason continues….Under the guise of hospitality, his uncle, Pelias, invited Jason to a banquet. During the course of the meal, he engaged him in conversation.

“You say you’ve got what it takes to rule a kingdom,” said Pelias. “May I take it that you’re fit to deal with any thorny problems that arise? For example, how would you go about disposing someone who was giving you difficulties?”

Jason considered for a moment, eager to show a kingly knack for problem solving.

Pelias got a suggestion from one of his seers that he should send Jason after the Golden Fleece. He acknowledged that as not a bad idea. And he also stated that it would be the sort of quest that any worth of a hero would be worth the salt that he would leap at. He even questioned the fact that if Jason succeeded he would be remembered down through the ages.

But where did the Golden Fleece come from you might wonder. Well, the legend started in Thessaly. That was the home of king Athamas and queen Nephele. They had two children: a son named Phrixus and a daughter named Helle. After a time, the king began getting distant to his wife, put her away and took another by the name of Ino.

It was at that point that Nephele’s mother instinct kicked in. She suspected danger for her children from the influence of the stepmother and took measures to send them out of Ino and her reach. Hermes assisted her, and gave her a Kriari(ram) with a Xrysomallo Deras (Golden Fleece). She set her two children on the Kriari. She trusted the Kriari as it would convey them to a place of safety.

The Kriari then sprung into the thin air with the children on its back, taking its course to the east. While the ram was crossing the strait that divides Europe and Asia, the girl, whose name was Helle, fell from his back into the sea, which from her was called the Hellespont, and is now known as the Dardanelles. The Kriari continued his career till it reached the kingdom of Colchis on the easter shore of the Mavri Thalassa (Black Sea). It safely landed the boy Phrixus, who was hospitably received by Aeetes, the King of the Country. Phrixus sacrificed the ram to Jupiter, and gave the Golden Fleece to Aeetes, who placed it in a consecrated grove, under the care of a sleepless dragon.

And so it came to pass that word went out the length and breadth of Greece that Jason was looking for shipmates to embark upon his perilous but glamorous adventure. And in spite of the minuscule chances of anyone surviving to lay eyes upon the Fleece let alone pass the guarding dragon and return with the prize, large numbers of heroes were ready to run the risk. These were known as the Argonauts, after their ship, the famed Argo. Among them were Hercules and the heroine Atalanta. Jason had the vessel constructed by the worthy shipwright Argus, who in a fit of vanity named her more or less after himself.