Golden Fleece

Before Jason went with the Argonauts to get the Golden Fleece, it had a storied history.

The old Greek story is that Ino persuaded her husband Athamus that his son Phryxus was the cause of a famine which desolated the land. Phryxus was thereupon ordered to be sacrificed but, being appraised of this, he made his escape over the sea on the winged ram, Chrysomallus, which had a golden fleece. When he arrived at Colchis, he sacrificed the ram to Zeus, and gave the fleece to king Aeetes, who hung it on a sacred oak.
(Source: Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, 1981)

And there it remained, guarded by an unsleeping serpent (or dragon), until Jason came along.

referenced on:

• "Jason and the Argonauts" (on English Settlement)

further reading:

• Other mythological references in XTC songs are dealt with in separate glossary entries (listed in chronological order of their appearance in XTC songs): Jason and the Argonauts, Icarus, and Venus.
• Perseus, an amazingly comprehensive site on Greek mythology, has Golden Fleece entries in its encyclopedia.