The golden fleece
Aries is the ram with the golden fleece that carried Phrixus to safety, whose fleece Jason later sailed to fetch.
In the tradition
In the myth told by Eratosthenes and Hyginus, the children Phrixus and Helle were about to be sacrificed when a golden ram, sent by their mother, flew them away over the sea. Helle fell into the strait that took her name, the Hellespont. Phrixus reached Colchis, sacrificed the ram, and hung its fleece in a grove guarded by a dragon.
The ram was set among the stars, and its fleece became the prize that Jason and the Argonauts sailed for.
Sources
- Pseudo-Eratosthenes, Catasterismi (Hellenistic, surviving in an epitome). A collection of the myths told about how each constellation came to be in the sky.
- Hyginus, De Astronomia (1st century BCE or later). The Latin handbook of constellation myths, often giving several versions side by side.
Updated October 9, 2026.
See it in your own profile
Caelumia reads your whole birth chart and your numbers together, and shows where they agree. Your profile is free to start, and your first results appear while you answer.