THE FLEECE AS COVENANT
The concept of the Golden Fleece as a covenant between Zeus and humanity appears to stem from a apparent similarity between the aborted sacrifice of Phrixus and that of Isaac in Genesis, with a ram serving in each youth's stead. It is another in the many theories of the Argonauts directly or indirectly inspired by an unconscious or explicit desire to prove the Bible true. As related in Genesis 22:9-18:
When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. But the angel of the LORD called out to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!” “Here I am,” he replied. “Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.” Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called that place The LORD Will Provide. And to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided.” The angel of the LORD called to Abraham from heaven a second time and said, “I swear by myself, declares the LORD, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, and through your offspringall nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.”
The concept of Fleece as divine contract could be found, without elaboration, in the French Jesuit François Pomey's 1659 Pantheum mythicum, translated into English in 1698 by Andrew Tooke:
It was called the Golden Fleece, because it was of a golden colour; and it was guarded by bulls that breathed fire from their nostrils, and by a vast and watchful dragon, as a sacred and divine pledge, and as a thing of the greatest importance.
Source: Tooke's Pantheon of the Heathen Gods and Illustrious Heroes (Baltimore: William and Joseph Neal, 1833), 258.
It was called the Golden Fleece, because it was of a golden colour; and it was guarded by bulls that breathed fire from their nostrils, and by a vast and watchful dragon, as a sacred and divine pledge, and as a thing of the greatest importance.
Source: Tooke's Pantheon of the Heathen Gods and Illustrious Heroes (Baltimore: William and Joseph Neal, 1833), 258.
Nineteenth-century scholar Karl (Carl) Otfried Müller proposed in Orchomenos und die Minyer (1820, rev. 1844; never translated into English) that the Argonauts' journey was spiritual in nature, with the fleece taking the role of Isaac's ram: "According to C. O. Müller, it had its origin in the worship of Zeus Laphystius; the fleece is the pledge of reconciliation; Jason is a propitiating god of health, Medea a goddess akin to Hera; Aeetes is connected with the Colchian sun-worship" (Encyclopedia Britannica [1911], s.v. Argonauts).
The Bavarian classical scholar Ernst von Lasaulx held the same position in an 1844 article, adding that the Golden Fleece and the Argonauts' venture foreshadowed the life of Christ:
The Bavarian classical scholar Ernst von Lasaulx held the same position in an 1844 article, adding that the Golden Fleece and the Argonauts' venture foreshadowed the life of Christ:
Athamas, his son Phryxus, and the ram, strikingly remind us of the account in the Old Testament, of Abraham's sacrifice, and the mysterious ram by which Isaac was saved. If we consider, as does the Scripture, this mystic ram, by which the reconciling God prevents the dreadful sacrifice of Isaac, as a symbol of the Lamb, who was to be offered up for the sins of the world; then Jason, and his heroic expedition after the golden fleece, may have a higher significancy, and appear like a wondrous foreshadowing of the coming of Him, who brought to men the true redemption.
Source: Ernst von Lasaulx, "The Expiatory Sacrifices of the Greeks and Romans, and Their Relation to the One Sacrifice upon Golgotha," trans. Henry B. Smith, Bibliotecha Sacra and Theological Review 1, no. 2 (May 1844), 390.
Source: Ernst von Lasaulx, "The Expiatory Sacrifices of the Greeks and Romans, and Their Relation to the One Sacrifice upon Golgotha," trans. Henry B. Smith, Bibliotecha Sacra and Theological Review 1, no. 2 (May 1844), 390.
In the posthumously published Creed of Japhet, Alexander William Crawford Lindsay (1812-1880), the author attempted a radical thesis--that the Christianity was simply one of many Indo-Aryan (Indo-European) religions sharing the same core myth, that of a covenant between the sky god and humanity, sealed with the sacrifice of the sky god's son. However, Lindsay's ideas were rooted in the Bible. He believed that this revelation was a secret tradition handed down from Adam to Noah, and from Noah to the descendents of his eldest son, Japhet, whom he identified with the Aryan (Indo-European) peoples. It was in this light that he saw in Phrixus and the Golden Fleece a duplicate of the covenant God established through the ram substituted for Isaac, itself prefiguring the sacrifice of Christ (the lamb of God) on the cross.
THE CREED OF JAPHET
Alexander William, Lord Lindsay
1891
III. ATHAMAS
The name of Athamas, the son of Aeolus, leads us a step further in the classification and intelligence of the old Japhetan heroes. I have already briefly noticed the personal history of Athamas, but a closer inspection of it by the light of the preceding chapter will reward the trouble. While belonging to the present and second, it will be found to involve the root and basis of the legends which form the third series in the present enumeration.
The son of Aeolus, and thus of a distinct race from that of Cadmus—akin to the later Suryavansa or race of the sun, as opposed to the Chandravansa or Lunar race,—Athamas married Nephele, a goddess, by the command of Hera, by whom he had two children, Phrixus and Helle. He loved, however, Ino, a mortal, the daughter of Cadmus, by whom he had two other children, Learchus and Melicertes. The name of Nephele connects her with Niobe and Ixion's cloud, with νεϕέλη the alternate name of saivala, the soul— with the Nibeluugen-treasure and with Nifl-heim; while her association with Hera ranks her with the group of deities—Hera, Athena, and Poseidon, who act on so many occasions in antagonism to Zeus as the reforming usurper of the throne of Cronos and Uranus.
The name of Ino, on the contrary, points to the root οιν, wine, as the symbol of the newer law promulgated by Iacchus or Dionysus, and the influence of that God mingles throughout the story of Athamas and Ino.
Nephele was, then, the representative of Zeus Laphystius, the Father-God under his severer aspect, to whom piacular victims were offered, and Ino that of emancipation, or what I may here call gospel, proclaimed to all the earth by the younger deity. While Athamas halted between these two systems of doctrine, or, if the reader will, these two αλοχοι, but inclined in affection towards the latter, Nephele, his immortal spouse, forsook him, as Thetis long afterwards forsook Peleus, retired to heaven and demanded his death—some say in sacrifice—in punishment for his infidelity,—a demand, however, which does not seem to have been attended to. Ino, left in possession of the field, engaged the matrons of the land in a conspiracy with herself, secretly to roast the seed of πυρόςor wheat which they should give out for sowing, in order that no harvest should come up and the land be visited with famine and plague; and, at the same time, she sent a messenger to Delphi, but asked him to report the oracular answer in these words, 'that the famine and plague should cease if Athamas sacrificed Phrixus to Zeus'—the plot being thus to make Phrixus responsible for the cessation of the supply of wheat bread through the roasting the seed as aforesaid, and thus guilty of death. The oracle was announced to the people, and Ino requires Phrixus' death, to restore bread to people. The oracle was announced to the people, and they clamoured for the denounced victim. This question of roasting the wheat as the alleged 'origo mali' is of capital importance here; and the clue to the understanding of these intermediate incidents is afforded through the considerations dwelt upon in a former page, viz. that the element of breadmeat or ambrosia in the sacrificial or eucharistic feast, whether on earth or in heaven, appears to have represented the Son-Deity in his quality of God, or immortality, while the wine, drink, or nectar, represented the correlative element of the Human or mortal nature,—the former associated representatively with the Law, and the latter with the evangelic or emancipating message of God.
The demand of Ino that Phrixus should die in order that bread might be restored to the people, must thus be understood as implying that the law of guilt incurred towards Zeus Laphystius must be appeased as a preliminary consideration by the death of Phrixus, as representing through his mother Nephele the Godhead of the Saviour-Deity,—he himself becoming the πυρός, or 'ambrosia,' or 'bread' for the people, which could only be secured by the immolation. Athamas (to resume the legend) refused to sacrifice his son, whereupon Phrixus offered himself to die—in the spirit of the 'devotio'—that the State might be relieved, and was led crowned to the sacrificial altar.
The conflict thus far carried out between the old and the new law—each of which, as I have shewn in my chapter on Propitiation, was constituted by contract or covenant between God and Man—was thus brought to a close, and a solution found in the intervention of Hermes—necessarily implying the authority of Zeus,—who brought Nephele, with the celebrated ram with the golden fleece, named Chrysomallus, upon which Phrixus and Helle mounting, were carried off through the air—Helle as far as the Hellespont, where she fell off, but Phrixus to Colchis, where Phrixus sacrificed the ram in his own stead to Zeus Phystius or Laphystius.
The remainder of the tale finds its place in that of the Argonauts, but it may be remarked that Colchis—the heavenly home to which it may be inferred Nephele belonged—appears to be a Western form of the Eastern Kailasa, the paradise of Siva, or Maha-Deva, in whom we may perhaps recognise a degraded representative in Hindostan of the Zeus or Deva, chief of the hated Devas of the Zoroastrians. He was thus the representative of the Father-God, Zwarz or Hek—otherwise Laphystius, as the stern punisher of guilt,—rather than of the milder conception of him conveyed by the titles Ahura Mazdao,'Ερρος, and Jupiter. The ceremonial fact pointed at by the substitution of the ram Chrysomallus for Phrixus would appear to be the institution of animal sacrifice to the exclusion (except in rare and exceptional cases) of human, as figurative of the supreme piaculum performed by the Son-Saviour.
Source: Alexander William, The Creed of Japhet (privately published by author, 1891), 614-617.
The name of Athamas, the son of Aeolus, leads us a step further in the classification and intelligence of the old Japhetan heroes. I have already briefly noticed the personal history of Athamas, but a closer inspection of it by the light of the preceding chapter will reward the trouble. While belonging to the present and second, it will be found to involve the root and basis of the legends which form the third series in the present enumeration.
The son of Aeolus, and thus of a distinct race from that of Cadmus—akin to the later Suryavansa or race of the sun, as opposed to the Chandravansa or Lunar race,—Athamas married Nephele, a goddess, by the command of Hera, by whom he had two children, Phrixus and Helle. He loved, however, Ino, a mortal, the daughter of Cadmus, by whom he had two other children, Learchus and Melicertes. The name of Nephele connects her with Niobe and Ixion's cloud, with νεϕέλη the alternate name of saivala, the soul— with the Nibeluugen-treasure and with Nifl-heim; while her association with Hera ranks her with the group of deities—Hera, Athena, and Poseidon, who act on so many occasions in antagonism to Zeus as the reforming usurper of the throne of Cronos and Uranus.
The name of Ino, on the contrary, points to the root οιν, wine, as the symbol of the newer law promulgated by Iacchus or Dionysus, and the influence of that God mingles throughout the story of Athamas and Ino.
Nephele was, then, the representative of Zeus Laphystius, the Father-God under his severer aspect, to whom piacular victims were offered, and Ino that of emancipation, or what I may here call gospel, proclaimed to all the earth by the younger deity. While Athamas halted between these two systems of doctrine, or, if the reader will, these two αλοχοι, but inclined in affection towards the latter, Nephele, his immortal spouse, forsook him, as Thetis long afterwards forsook Peleus, retired to heaven and demanded his death—some say in sacrifice—in punishment for his infidelity,—a demand, however, which does not seem to have been attended to. Ino, left in possession of the field, engaged the matrons of the land in a conspiracy with herself, secretly to roast the seed of πυρόςor wheat which they should give out for sowing, in order that no harvest should come up and the land be visited with famine and plague; and, at the same time, she sent a messenger to Delphi, but asked him to report the oracular answer in these words, 'that the famine and plague should cease if Athamas sacrificed Phrixus to Zeus'—the plot being thus to make Phrixus responsible for the cessation of the supply of wheat bread through the roasting the seed as aforesaid, and thus guilty of death. The oracle was announced to the people, and Ino requires Phrixus' death, to restore bread to people. The oracle was announced to the people, and they clamoured for the denounced victim. This question of roasting the wheat as the alleged 'origo mali' is of capital importance here; and the clue to the understanding of these intermediate incidents is afforded through the considerations dwelt upon in a former page, viz. that the element of breadmeat or ambrosia in the sacrificial or eucharistic feast, whether on earth or in heaven, appears to have represented the Son-Deity in his quality of God, or immortality, while the wine, drink, or nectar, represented the correlative element of the Human or mortal nature,—the former associated representatively with the Law, and the latter with the evangelic or emancipating message of God.
The demand of Ino that Phrixus should die in order that bread might be restored to the people, must thus be understood as implying that the law of guilt incurred towards Zeus Laphystius must be appeased as a preliminary consideration by the death of Phrixus, as representing through his mother Nephele the Godhead of the Saviour-Deity,—he himself becoming the πυρός, or 'ambrosia,' or 'bread' for the people, which could only be secured by the immolation. Athamas (to resume the legend) refused to sacrifice his son, whereupon Phrixus offered himself to die—in the spirit of the 'devotio'—that the State might be relieved, and was led crowned to the sacrificial altar.
The conflict thus far carried out between the old and the new law—each of which, as I have shewn in my chapter on Propitiation, was constituted by contract or covenant between God and Man—was thus brought to a close, and a solution found in the intervention of Hermes—necessarily implying the authority of Zeus,—who brought Nephele, with the celebrated ram with the golden fleece, named Chrysomallus, upon which Phrixus and Helle mounting, were carried off through the air—Helle as far as the Hellespont, where she fell off, but Phrixus to Colchis, where Phrixus sacrificed the ram in his own stead to Zeus Phystius or Laphystius.
The remainder of the tale finds its place in that of the Argonauts, but it may be remarked that Colchis—the heavenly home to which it may be inferred Nephele belonged—appears to be a Western form of the Eastern Kailasa, the paradise of Siva, or Maha-Deva, in whom we may perhaps recognise a degraded representative in Hindostan of the Zeus or Deva, chief of the hated Devas of the Zoroastrians. He was thus the representative of the Father-God, Zwarz or Hek—otherwise Laphystius, as the stern punisher of guilt,—rather than of the milder conception of him conveyed by the titles Ahura Mazdao,'Ερρος, and Jupiter. The ceremonial fact pointed at by the substitution of the ram Chrysomallus for Phrixus would appear to be the institution of animal sacrifice to the exclusion (except in rare and exceptional cases) of human, as figurative of the supreme piaculum performed by the Son-Saviour.
Source: Alexander William, The Creed of Japhet (privately published by author, 1891), 614-617.
Modern Discussions
The parallel between Isaac and Phrixus has proved irresistible to modern theorists as much as their nineteenth century counterparts. Such parallels are primarily drawn by scholars whose specializations focus on the connections between the Near East and ancient Greece, as shown in these two recent quotations from the controversial Afrocentric scholar Martin Bernal and the scholar of religion Jan Bremmer.
[I]t is likely that at some stage, all Caananite speakers practiced child sacrifice. [...] Another distinctive feature of the rite's symbolism was the substitution of a sheep for the sacrificial child: the ram caught in the thicket, the Lamb of God and the sheep and goat sacrificed at Arafat during the Haj to celebrate Abraham's offering his son there. This substitution is also found in the legend of the Golden Fleece; Zeus send the ram to replace Phrixos the son that King Athamas was about to sacrifice.
Source: Martin Bernal, Black Athena: The Linguistic Evidence (Rutgers University Press, 2006), 559.
Source: Martin Bernal, Black Athena: The Linguistic Evidence (Rutgers University Press, 2006), 559.
One is of course reminded of the ram that was given as a substitute for the sacrifice of Isaac, which seems to be another example of an independent parallel.
Source: Jan Bremmer, Greek Religion and Culture, the Bible, and the Ancient Near East (Leiden: Brill, 2008), 308.
Source: Jan Bremmer, Greek Religion and Culture, the Bible, and the Ancient Near East (Leiden: Brill, 2008), 308.