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 Ĉe'tes, who hung it on a
sacred oak. It was afterwards stolen by Jason in his celebrated Argonautic expedition. (See Argo.)

I have read that the "Golden Fleece" is somehow a garbled legend from the days when gold was
obtained by pouring sediments from river over a sheep's fleece, the heavy gold particles being
trapped in the wool while the mud and clay were washed away.