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Definition: Golden Fleece |
Golden FleeceNoun1. In Greek mythology, a fleece of gold owned by the king of Colchis and guarded in a sacred grove by a dragon; recovered by Jason and the Argonauts. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
| Domain | Definition |
Literature | Golden Fleece Ino persuaded her husband, Athamas, that his son Phryxos was the cause of a famine which desolated the land, and the old dotard ordered him to be sacrificed to the angry gods. Phryxos being apprised of this order, made his escape over sea on a ram which had a golden fleece. When he arrived at Colchis, he sacrificed the ram to Zeus, and gave the fleece to King Æe'tes, who hung it on a sacred oak. It was afterwards stolen by Jason in his celebrated Argonautic expedition. (See Argo.) "This rising Greece with indignation viewed, And youthful Jason an attempt conceived Lofty and bold; along Peneus' banks, Around Olympus' brows, the Muses' haunts, He roused the brave to re-demand the fleece." Dyer: The Fleece, ii. Golden fleece of the north. The fur and peltry of Siberia is so called. Australia has been called "The Land of the Golden Fleece," because of the quantity of wool produced there. Golden Fleece An order of knighthood by this title was instituted by Philip III., Duke of Burgundy, in 1429. The selection of the fleece as a badge is perhaps best explained by the fact that the manufacture of wool had long been the staple industry of the Low Countries, then a part of the Burgundian possessions. Source: Brewer's Dictionary. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
In Greek mythology, the ram with the golden fleece was given to Nephele of Thessaly by Hermes for her to transport her children, Helle and Phrixus, away from Ino. The ram flew eastwards and while Helle fell into the sea (at the point named Hellespont) Phrixus was carried to Colchis. Phrixus sacrificed the ram to Zeus and presented its fleece to the king of Colchis, Æetes.
Jason and the Argonauts tried to take the fleece from Colchis to enable Jason to claim his inheritance. Overcoming many hazards, they eventually recovered the fleece with the help of Medea, who married Jason.
The legend of the fleece has been explained by the way that early gold prospectors in what is now Georgia searched for gold in the rivers by trawling with a sheep's fleece.
For more details, see Jason.
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Golden Fleece."
Crosswords: Golden Fleece |
| English words defined with "Golden Fleece": argonaut ♦ Colchis ♦ Jason ♦ Medea. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "Golden Fleece": Knights of the Order of the Golden Fleece ♦ Mede'a ♦ Ram and Teazle, Ram of the Zodiac. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | I've been grabbed more times than the golden fleece. (Xena: Warrior Princess; writing credit: Serge Rodnunsky) | |
Movie/TV Titles | The Golden Fleece (1918) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
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Books | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
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| Thumbnail | Description & Credit |  | Golden Fleece. Credit: Library of Congress. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
Expression using "Golden Fleece": the golden fleece. Additional references. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
golden fleece | 48 |
jason the golden fleece | 27 |
golden fleece retirement plan | 11 |
golden fleece award | 4 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "Golden Fleece"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Afrikaans | Gulde Vlies (Golden). (various references) | |
Dutch | Gulden Vlies. (various references) | |
Esperanto | Ora Lanfelo. (various references) | |
Greek | χρυσόμαλλο δέρασ. (various references) | |
Hungarian | aranygyapjú. (various references) | |
Manx | Yn Loamrey Airhey (The Golden Fleece). (various references) | |
Pig Latin | oldengay eeceflay.(various references) | |
Russian | золотое руно. (various references) | |
Swedish | gyllene skinnet (the golden fleece). (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | Abies magnifica, Alepes djedaba, Bucephala clangula, Caranx djedaba, Caranx kalla, Gobius auratus, solidago virgaurea. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "c-d-e-e-e-e-f-g-l-l-n-o" | |
-5 letters: colleen, college, congeed, defence, fleeced. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
