ouds and the rain. Then Ino took the
messengers, before they set out on their journey, and gave them gold,
and threatened also to kill them, if they did not bring the message she
wished from the prophetess. Now this message was that Phrixus and Helle
must be burned as a sacrifice to the gods.

So the messengers went, and came back dressed in mourning. And when they
were brought before the king, at first they would tell him nothing. But
he commanded them to speak, and then they told him, not the real message
from the prophetess, but what Ino had bidden them to say: that Phrixus
and Helle must be offered as a sacrifice to appease the gods.

The king was very sorrowful at this news, but he could not disobey the
gods. So poor Phrixus and Helle were wreathed with flowers, as sheep
used to be when they were led to be sacrificed, and they were taken to
the altar, all the people following and weeping, and the Golden Ram went
between them, as they walked to the temple. Then they came within sight
of the sea, which lay beneath the cliff where the temple stood, all
glittering in the sun, and the happy white sea-birds flying over it.

Here the Ram stopped, and suddenly he spoke to Phrixus, for the god gave
him utterance, and said: 'Lay hold of my horn, and get on my back, and
let Helle climb up behind you, and I will carry you far away.'

Then Phrixus took hold of the Ram's horn, and Helle mounted behind him,
and grasped the golden fleece, and suddenly the Ram rose in the air, and
flew above the people's heads, far away over the sea.

Far away to the eastward he flew, and deep below them they saw the sea,
and the islands, and the white towers and temples, and the fields, and
ships. Eastward always he went, toward the sun-rising, and Helle grew
dizzy and weary. At last a deep sleep came over her, and she let go her
hold of the Fleece, and fell from the Ram's back, down and down, into
the narrow seas, 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 and we call the Black Sea, till
they reached a country named 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