King Athamus of northern Greece had two children, Phrixus and Helle. After he left his first wife and mar ried Ino, a wicked woman, the two children received all the cruel treatment that a stepmother could devise. At one time the kingdom was ruined by a famine. Ino persuaded her credulous husband into believing that his son, Phrixus, was the actual cause of the disaster, and should be sacrificed to Zeus to endit. The poor boy was then placed on the altar and was about tobe knifed when a ram with golden fleece was sent down by thegods and carried off the two children on its back. As they flew over the strait that divides Asia from Europe, Helle, faint at the vast expanse of water below , fell into the sea and was drowned. Thus the sea of Helle, Hellespont, became the ancient name of the strip of water. Her brother kept on and arrived in Colchis on the eastern shore of the Black Sea. There he sacrificed the ram to Zeus and gave its golden fleece to King Aeetes, who nailed it on a sacred tree and put a sleepless dragon in charge .

希臘北部國王阿塔瑪斯有兩個孩子, 法瑞克斯和赫勒。當國王離開第一個妻子和一個名叫伊諾的壞女人結婚后, 兩個孩子受到后母殘忍虐待, 整個王國也受到毀滅性瘟疫的侵襲。伊諾在愛輕信的丈夫耳邊進讒言, 終于使國王相信: 他的兒子法瑞克斯是這次災害的罪魁禍首, 并要將他獻給宙斯以結束瘟疫?？蓱z的孩子被推上了祭壇, 將要被處死。正在此時, 上帝派了一只渾身上下長著金色羊毛的公羊來將兩個孩子馱在背上帶走了。當他們飛過隔開歐洲和亞洲的海峽時, 赫勒由于看到浩瀚的海洋而頭暈目眩, 最終掉進大海淹死了。這片海洋古時候的名稱叫赫勒之海, 赫勒拉旁海峽便由此而來。金色公羊馱著法瑞克斯繼續(xù)向前飛去, 來到了黑海東岸的科爾契斯。在那里, 法瑞克斯將公羊獻給了宙斯; 而將金羊毛送給了埃厄忒斯國王。國王將羊毛釘在一棵圣樹上, 并派了一條不睡覺的龍負責看護。