Then the ram flew on with Phrixus to the northeast across the sea which we call the Black Sea now but the Hellens called it Euxine. So those narrow straits are called "Hellespont" after her and they bear that name until this day. So he wandered no more but settled, and built a town, and became a king again.īut the ram carried the two children far away over land and sea, till he came to the Thracian Chersonese, and there Helle fell into the sea. The wolves were tearing a sheep but when they saw Athamas they fled, and left the sheep for him, and he ate of it and then he knew that the oracle was fulfilled at last. So he went on in hunger and sorrow for many a weary day, till he saw a pack of wolves. And the Oracle told him that he must wander for his sin, till the wild beasts should feast him as their guest. For Athamas killed one of them in his fury, and Ino fled from him with the other in her arms, and leaped from a cliff into the sea, and was changed intoĪ dolphin, such as you have seen, which wanders over the waves forever sighing, with its little one clasped to its breast.īut the people drove out King Athamas, because he had killed his child and he roamed about in his misery, till he came to the Oracle in Delphi. Then madness came upon that foolish king, Athamas, and ruin upon Ino and her children. So the poor children were brought to the altar, and the priest stood ready with his knife, when out of the clouds came the Golden Ram, and took them on his back, and vanished. And when a famine came upon the land, their cruel stepmother Ino wished to kill them that her own children might reign, and said that they must be sacrificed on an altar, to turn away the anger of the gods. For Phrixus and Helle were the children of the cloud-nymph, and of Athamas the Minuan King. The old Hellens said that it hung in Colchis, which we call the Circassian coast, nailed to a beech tree in the War-god's wood and that it was the fleece of the wondrous ram who bore Phrixus and Helle across the Euxine Sea. NOW I have a tale of heroes who sailed away into a distant land, to win themselves renown forever, in the adventure of the Golden Fleece. HOW THE CENTAUR TRAINED THE HEROES ON PELION
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