Jason, The Hero Of Thessaly

_Phrixos and Helle_

Bœotia is a district northwest of Athens and quite different from the Attic plain. The name means The Land of Cattle, because it abounds in fat pasture-lands, is moist and fertile, and its beautiful green meadows slope up to the wooded mountains and lead down to well-watered valleys. Bœotia was always the paradise of farmers, who from the conditions of their life became famous for their stupidity.

[Illustration: THE TEMPLE TO THESEUS AT THE FOOT OF THE ACROPOLIS
IN ATHENS.]

Thebes was the capital of Bœotia, but each district had its own smaller city and its own ruling family, whose sons called themselves kings. One of these petty kings, Athamas, had a son and daughter named Phrixos and Helle, and when their mother died he took another wife, the fair Ino, but she was not as good as she was fair, for she was jealous of her step-children. So she contrived a plot for getting rid of them which was well carried out. Ino persuaded all the women of the country to use the seed grain or hide it so that none of it could be used for the next year's crop.

The women followed the queen's advice and the next year there was a great famine in the land. The women did not dare to tell their secret, although their families were beginning to starve. Then Athamas sent to the Oracle at Delphi in order to find out the cause of the trouble, and how he might deliver the country from the distress.

But Ino secretly persuaded the messenger to say that the Oracle had given the following answer: "The famine will cease when Athamas has sacrificed Phrixos to Zeus."

The king was almost stunned with grief when he received this message. How was it possible for him to sacrifice his own beloved son? But the wicked Ino published the false Oracle among the starving people, who, driven by hunger, clamored loudly for the death of Phrixos. The king being compelled by his people, allowed Phrixos to be led to the altar to be sacrificed.

But the spirit of the child's own mother came down in the form of a cloud to save him. She brought a large ram whose fleece was of shining gold, and said to the two children: "My dear unfortunate little ones, come and sit on this golden sheep and he will fly away with you and carry you safely into a far country, where the wicked Ino will no longer have the power of injuring you." Then she helped Phrixos to mount to the back of the ram and she placed his little sister Helle behind him with both her arms around him, and disappeared.

The ram flew up into the air like a bird and soared away over mountains and valleys and rivers and plains. Away, away they went through the blue sky until they reached the straits which separate Europe from Asia. There Helle lost her balance and fell into the sea. In vain did Phrixos try to save his sister, who cried and stretched out her arms to him. The poor child was swallowed by the waves and devoured by sea-monsters. From that time the sea in that place has been called the Hellespont.

Phrixos sailed on alone, on the back of the ram, which took him to the farthest shore of the Black Sea and landed him at Kolchis. There the king received Phrixos kindly. Phrixos sacrificed the ram to Zeus and hung up the golden fleece in a grove which was sacred to Ares, the God of War. The golden fleece was priceless in value and was guarded by a terrible sleepless dragon.