Word: phryxus
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Scientists, who go after everything with a fine-tooth comb, are always taking the fun out of mythology. Now they are currying the Golden Fleece. According to Greek legend, the fleece first belonged to a ram provided by the god Hermes to help two children, Helle and Phryxus, dodge an untrustworthy stepmother. The ram took off through the air with the children on its back. Helle fell off and was drowned (hence the Hellespont, now the Dardanelles), but Phryxus reached the eastern shore of the Black Sea. He ungratefully sacrificed the ram to Zeus and gave its fleece...
Jason, a relative of Phryxus, decided to get the fleece back. He outfitted a ship, the Argo, and manned it with big-muscled demigods, including Hercules. After some thrilling adventures with shipwrecks, sorcery, brazen bulls and aggressively amorous women, the Argonauts snatched the fleece and brought it home to Thessaly...
...According to Hercules, My Shipmate, by Robert Graves, the Golden Fleece was a bone of contention in divine power politics. Helle and Phryxus, tools of the "old religion" faction, stole it to spite Zeus, and Phryxus took it to Colchis. Jason, who was pro-Zeus, won it back...
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