Mnemosyne — Classical Greek Myth Library

When the golden ram lifted Phrixus and Helle from Athamas’s altar, it flew toward the east. Over the strait between Europe and Asia Helle lost her hold and fell into the sea; that water was afterward called the Hellespont—“Helle’s sea.” Phrixus clung on and came safe to Colchis, at the edge of the Black Sea, where Aeetes son of Helios ruled. Phrixus sacrificed the ram to Zeus Phyxios (or to Ares, in variant notices) and gave the golden fleece to Aeetes. The king pinned it to an oak in the grove of Ares and set a sleepless dragon to guard it. Phrixus married Aeetes’ daughter Chalciope (or a similar Colchian princess) and begot sons—Argus, Melas, Phrontis, Cytisorus—who later appear in Argonautic returns. He died in Colchis; his fleece remained the prize whose fame reached Iolcus and gave Pelias the means to send Jason to the world’s end. The flight is the aetiology of the Hellespont and the prologue to the Argonautica: one child’s death names a sea; the other’s arrival hangs the fleece that will cost Pelias his life and make Medea’s name.