sons, Learchus and Melicerta. Ino, hating the children of Nephele,
sought to destroy them. Phryxus being informed thereof, ordered a ship
to be privately prepared; and taking his father's treasures, sailed
with his sister Helle, to seek a retreat in the court of AEetes, his
kinsman. Helle died on the voyage, but Phryxus arrived in Colchis,
where he dedicated the prow of his ship to Neptune, or Jupiter. He
there married Chalciope, by whom he had four sons, Argos, Phrontes,
Molas, and Cylindus. Some years after, AEetes caused him to be
assassinated; and his sons fleeing to the court of their grandfather,
Athamas, were shipwrecked on an island, where they remained until
found there by Jason, who took them back to their mother. Having
mourned them as dead, she was transported with joy on finding them,
and used every exertion to aid Jason in promoting his addresses to
Medea. AEetes having seized the treasures of Athamas on the death of
Phryxus, the Greeks prepared an expedition to recover them, and to
avenge his death. Pelias, who had driven his brother AEson from the
throne of Iolcos, desiring to procure the absence of his son Jason,
took this opportunity of engaging him in an enterprise, which promised
both glory, profit, and a large amount of personal exertion. The
uneasiness which Pelias felt was caused by the prediction of an
oracle, that he should be killed by a prince of the family of AEolus,
and which warned him to beware of a person who should have but one
shoe. Just at that period, Jason, returning from the school of Chiron,
lost one of his shoes in crossing a river. On this, his uncle was
desirous to destroy him; but not daring to do so publicly, he induced
him to embark with the Argonauts, expecting that he would perish in an
undertaking of so perilous a nature. Many young nobles of Greece
repaired to the court of Iolcos, and joined in the undertaking, when
they chose Jason for their leader, and embarked in a ship, the name of
which was Argo, and from which the adventurers received the name of
Argonauts.

Diodorus Siculus says, that the ship was so named from its swiftness;
while others say, that it was so called from Argus, the name of its
builder, or from the Argives, or Greeks, on board of it. Bochart,
however, supposes, that the name is derived from the Phoenician word
'arco,' which signifies 'long,' and suggests, that before that time