Meaning
A prize that justifies an epic quest - the goal whose pursuit gathers a crew, survives monsters, and usually costs more than the object is worth. Used of anything from a championship to a research grant, it carries both the glory and the dubiousness of Jason's errand. Elevated, usually with a smile at the quest's cost; remember the story ends badly for nearly everyone, which the phrase politely forgets. Regional use: General English; classical origin.
Origin
The myth: when Ino plotted against her stepchildren, Nephele sent the winged golden ram Chrysomallos to carry Phrixus and Helle east; Helle fell into the strait named the Hellespont for her, and Phrixus reached Colchis, sacrificed the ram - it became Aries - and gave the fleece to King Aeetes, who hung it in a grove of Ares guarded by a sleepless dragon. Jason, ordered by Pelias to fetch it, sailed with the Argonauts, took the fleece with Medea's help, and in Pindar's Fourth Pythian the fleece is simply the prize. The story was old in Homer's day. Its afterlife kept the symbol current: the Order of the Golden Fleece, founded by Philip III of Burgundy in 1430 and still a prestige honour in Spain and Austria, made the fleece an emblem of authority and kingship, and the arms of Kutaisi, capital of ancient Colchis, still display it.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- a golden fleece
- like Jason seeking the Golden Fleece
- the quest for the Golden Fleece
Usage Examples
- The archive's uncatalogued correspondence was the team's golden fleece, sought for six summers and three grants.
- Every four years the cup becomes rugby's golden fleece, gathering its Argonauts from every hemisphere.
- The assay result was the golden fleece of the prospecting decade - and, like Jason's, it ended in family catastrophe.