and left the
sheep for him, and he ate of it; and then he knew that the oracle was
fulfilled at last. So he wandered no more; but settled, and built a
town, and became a king again.

But 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. So
those narrow straits are called "Hellespont," after her; and they bear
that name until this day.

Then the ram flew on with Phrixus to the northeast across the sea which
we call the Black Sea now; but the Hellenes called it Euxine. And at
last, they say, he stopped at Colchis, on the steep Circassian coast;
and there Phrixus married Chalchiope, the daughter of Aietes the king;
and offered the ram in sacrifice; and Aietes nailed the ram's fleece to
a beech, in the grove of Ares the war god.

And after awhile Phrixus died, and was buried, but his spirit had no
rest; for he was buried far from his native land, and the pleasant hills
of Hellas. So he came in dreams to the heroes of the Minuai, and called
sadly by their beds: "Come and set my spirit free, that I may go home to
my fathers and to my kinsfolk, and the pleasant Minuan land."

And they asked: "How shall we set your spirit free?"

"You must sail over the sea to Colchis, and bring home the golden
fleece; and then my spirit will come back with it, and I shall sleep
with my fathers and have rest."

He came thus, and called to them often, but when they woke they looked
at each other, and said: "Who dare sail to Colchis, or bring home the
golden fleece?" And in all the country none was brave enough to try it;
for the man and the time were not come.

Phrixus had a cousin called AEson, who was king in Iolcos by the sea.
There he ruled over the rich Minuan heroes, as Athamas his uncle ruled
in Boeotia; and like Athamas, he was an unhappy man. For he had a
stepbrother named Pelias, of whom some said that he was a nymph's son,
and there were dark and sad tales about his birth. When he was a babe he
was cast out on the mountains, and a wild mare came by and kicked him.
But a shepherd passing found the baby, with its face all blackened by
the blow; and took him home, and called him Pelias, because his face was
bruised and black. And he grew up fierce and lawless, and did many a
fearful deed; and at last he drove out AEson his stepbrother, and then
his own brother Neleus, and took the kingdom to himself, and ruled over
the rich Minuan heroes, in Io