the.com/golden fleece
Ancient Greek MacGuffin that launched a thousand oars and zero refunds.
means A legendary treasure of pure gold wool, and by extension anything prized as a rare, almost mythical prize worth a perilous quest.
from From Greek myth: the hide of a magical ram, sacrificed and hung in a sacred grove, that Jason and the Argonauts sailed off to steal in their ship the Argo — a story so old it's woven (no pun intended) into the Argonautica, with no further 'real' etymology beyond the tale itself.
- origin
- wool from a flying golden ram
- quest
- jason sailed with the argonauts to steal it
- real-world theory
- sheepskins used to pan gold from rivers
- modern usage
- slang for any prize worth absurd risk