Page:Greek and Roman Mythology.djvu/139

 THE GREEK HEROES 125 again and to renew his youth, but did not fulfill her word. According to the later version of the legend, which com- bines its individual features in a confused manner, she then fled with Jason before Pelias's son Acastus to Cor- inth, while magnificent funeral games were celebrated in honor of the murdered man. Alcestis was the only daughter of Pelias that took no part in the murder of her father. She afterwards voluntarily died for her husband Admetus, the king of Pherae, since according to the will of the Moerae he could be saved by the sacrificial death of another. She was then brought back from the realm of death by Hercules. 163. The myth of the golden fleece seems to have developed principally in Orchomenus. King Athamas, who of course is closely related to the Athamantian plains near Halos in the Thessalian Phthiotis, had from Nephele (' cloud ') the children Phrixus and Helle. When his second wife Ino instigated him to sacrifice Phrixus to Zeus Laphystios, to remove the unfruitf nines s of the land, Nephele carried off her children through the air upon a golden-fleeced ram furnished her by Hermes. On the way Helle fell into the arm of the sea named after her (Helles- pont), while Phrixus successfully reached Aea, the land of the light of sunrise and sunset, which was located sometimes in the east and sometimes in the west. He there offered the ram in his stead to Zeus Lapliystios, and hung up its golden fleece in the grove of Ares, where it was guarded by a dragon. In this part of the myth a process of nature is symbolized, the carrying away of a rain cloud gilded by the sun, which is also at other times thought of as a shaggy pelt, being thus picturesquely expressed. On the other hand, the story of the offering