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The Golden Fleece By Bro. Jonathan Paz More ancient than the Golden Fleece or Roman Eagle. More honorable than the Star and Garter, or any other order […]. This line, spoken by the Master to an Entered Apprentice Mason when presented with the Lambskin apron, is meant to impress upon the mind of the brother the overwhelming significance of this object about to be placed in his hand. Entered Apprentice Masons in the 18th or 19th century may well have been aware of these images from ancient Greek or Roman mythology or contemporaneous European orders of chivalry, but these have since been largely forgotten in American Freemasonry. This series of articles will correct this oversight. The Golden Fleece is an object of Greek mythology. Like many stories in Greek Mythology, it involves a lot of overly complicated characters and plots, and changes frequently with the telling, so arbitrary decisions must be made in the retelling today. This retelling begins with the nymph Theophane, daughter of Bisaltes, son of Helios (god-personification of the Sun) and Gaia (goddess-personification of the earth). Her good parentage blessed her with extraordinary beauty, which unfortunately cursed her with annoying lovers. Poseidon (god of the sea) was also smitten and wanted her for himself, so he took her to the island of Crinissa. Her other lovers followed them there, so Poseidon turned himself into a ram, Theophane into a sheep, and the rest of the inhabitants of the island into various other animals. The lovers proceed to slaughter all the animals of the island (like you do when looking for metamorphosed girlfriends, I guess?), so he turned them into wolves (I’m not sure how this fixes things). This crisis averted (exacerbated?), ram-Poseidon then mated with ram-Theophane to produce Chrysomallos, the golden-fleeced, winged ram. We now temporarily set aside the story of Chrysomallos to introduce Ixion, king of the Lapiths, the most ancient tribe of Thessaly. He married Dia, daughter of King Deioneus of Phocis, but neglected to pay her bride price to her father. Deioneus therefore took some of Ixion’s horses for himself. Ixion considered this as theft, so he lured Deioneus to his capital, Larissa, under the pretense of a feast. When he arrived, Ixion pushed Deioneus onto a bed of coals and wood, immolating him and committing Murder Most Foul: the slaying of one’s kin and a grave violation of xenia, the sacred law of hospitality! Ixion was unable to be absolved of such a heinous crime, so he was exiled, shunned, declared an outlaw (one who is outside the protection of the law), and went mad. Zeus (king of the gods), strangely enough, took pity on poor Ixion and invited him to Olympus, introducing him to the table of the gods. As Ixion already had demonstrated his disrespect for xenia, he again violated it by lusting after Hera (goddess of marriage, wife of Zeus). To prove Ixion’s infidelity, he created a nymph named Nephele by fashioning a cloud into the form of Hera (Nephele is a pun from nephos meaning “cloud”) and placed her next to Ixion whom he found sleeping in a field. Unaware of this deception, Ixion saw the bare form of Hera beside him and thereupon consummated his lust. Zeus, having uncovered Ixion’s repeat act of violating xenia, blasted him out of Olympus with a thunderbolt, ordered him bound to a perpetually spinning winged fiery wheel, and banished him to Tartarus. Nephele, having fulfilled her role in Zeus’s schemes, gave birth Ixion’s son Centaurus during a rain-shower on the slopes of Mount Pelion in Magnesia (a peninsular region of Thessaly). He was badly deformed and could find no peace among men, so he withdrew to the place of his birth and mated with the legendary mares who resided there, creating the centaurs. Nephele eventually married King Athamas of Orchomenus and had twins: a son Phrixus and a daughter Helle. Unfortunately, politics won out over love, so Athamas divorced Nephele and married Ino, daughter of King Cadmus of neighboring Thebes. Nephele left in anger and she caused a drought to fall on the land. Ino despised her stepchildren and devised a plan to remove them. Ino broke into the grain storage of the city and roasted all the grain, preventing crops from being planted. The terrified farmers sought the advice of a local oracle. Ino intercepted the men sent to confer with the oracle and bribed them to lie to the city, saying that the oracle required the sacrifice of Phrixus and Helle. The grieved Athamas reluctantly agreed to sacrifice his children to appease the oracle and hopefully get his city out from the terrible plight under which they found themselves. At this point, Nephele appeared to her children along with Chrysomallos, the golden-fleeced, winged ram! He bore the children on his back and attempted to escape to Colchis (in modern-day Georgia). Along the way, Helle lost her grip and fell into the straits between modern day Greece and Turkey, whose waters continue to bear her name as the Hellespont or Sea of Helle. Chrysomallos encourages the shaken Phrixus to continue and they arrive at Colchis. Phrixus demonstrates his gratitude to the ram by sacrificing him to Poseidon, thereby returning him to his father and becoming the constellation Aries. He then gives the Golden Fleece to King Aeetes of Colchis, who hangs the Golden Fleece on an oak tree growing in a sacred grove. Enter Jason, son of Aeson, the rightful king of Iolcos. Pelias overthrew his half-brother Aeson and usurped the throne. While he spared Aeson, he killed as many of his children as he could. Aeson’s wife Alcimede saved the newborn Jason by sending him away to be reared by the Centaur Chiron. Pelias, always knowing that his claim to the throne was tenuous, consulted an oracle who warned him to beware of a man wearing one sandal. Many years later, Jason traveled to Iolcos to challenge his half-uncle’s claim to the throne when he came across an old woman at the river Anauros. He assisted her across, losing one of his sandals in the process. The old woman revealed herself to be Hera and blessed Jason’s plans to retake the throne. He appeared before Pelias and proclaimed himself the rightful king. Pelias, in one last desperate measure to protect his claim, replied, “To take my throne, which you shall, you must go on a quest to find the Golden Fleece.” Jason accepted this task. Jason took his 20 Argonauts to Colchis to claim the Golden Fleece from King Aeetes, who offered it to him upon the completion of three tasks: to plow a field with the fire-breathing oxen that Jason must yoke himself, to sow the teeth of the dragon into a field, and to defeat the army that sprung up from the teeth. Only then could he take the fleece, should he survive the dragon guarding it. Jason fell into despair, but Hera was watching. She convinced Aphrodite (goddess of love) to persuade her son Eros (god of love) to cause Medea, King Aeetes’s daughter, to fall in love with Jason. Medea, being familiar with these beasts, helped Jason complete his tasks and they returned to Iolcos together. The Golden Fleece continues to be used today by the Republic of Georgia as an important cultural symbol, as well as by the Catholic chivalric Order of the Golden Fleece. .
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