The Story of the Golden Fleece
down. She fell into the narrow seas, at last, that run between Europe and Asia, and there she was drowned. And that strait is called Helle’s Ford, or Hellespont, to this day. But Phrixus and the Ram flew on up the narrow seas, and over the great sea which the Greeks called the Euxine, till they reached a country called Colchis. There the Ram alighted, so tired and weary that he died, and Phrixus had his beautiful Golden Fleece stripped off, and hung on an oak tree in a dark wood. And there it was guarded by a monstrous Dragon, so that nobody dared to go near it. And Phrixus married the king’s daughter, and lived long, till he died also, and a king called Æêtes ruled that country. Of all the things he had, the rarest was the Golden Fleece, and it became a pro-
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