Jason and the Argonauts

Quest for the Golden Fleece

Characters:
1. Jason is the leader of the Argonauts and their quest for the Golden Fleece. He was the son of Aeson, the rightful king of
Iolcus. He was married to the sorceress Medea. Jason is considered to be one of the heroes of Greek mythology, along with such
others as Herakles and Odysseus.
2. Heracles was a divine hero, the son of Zeus and Alcmene, foster son of Amphitryon and great-grandson (and half-brother)
of Perseus. He was the greatest of the Greek heroes, a paragon of masculinity, the ancestor of royal clans who claimed to be
Heracleidae and a champion of the Olympian order against chthonic monsters.
3. Philoctetes was the son of King Poeas of Meliboea in Thessaly. He was a Greek hero, famed as an archer, and was a
participant in the Trojan War.
4. Peleus was the son of Aeacus, king of the island of Aegina, and Endeïs, the oread of Mount Pelion in Thessaly; he was the
father of Achilles. He and his brother Telamon were friends of Heracles, serving in his expedition against the Amazons, his war
against King Laomedon, and with him in the quest for the Golden Fleece.
5. Telamon is the son of the king Aeacus, of Aegina, and Endeis and brother of Peleus, accompanied Jason as one of his
Argonauts, and was present at the hunt for the Calydonian Boar.
6. Orpheus is an important figure from ancient Greek mythology of a Thracian origin, presented also as a Thracian poet and
singer, the inspiration for subsequent Orphic cults, much of the literature, poetry and drama of ancient Greece and Rome and,
due to his association with singing and the lyre.
7. Castor and Pollux were the twin sons of Lēda and Zeus/Tyndareus (Pollux's father was Zeus, Castor's was Tyndareus), the
brothers of Helen of Troy and Clytemnestra and the half-brothers of Timandra, Phoebe, Heracles and Philonoe.
8. Atalanta was the daughter of Schoeneus or Iasius, and she was a Boeotian or an Arcadian princess. A she-bear suckled and
cared for Atalanta until hunters found and raised her, and she learned to fight and hunt as a bear would.
9. Euphemus was the son of Poseidon, granted by his father the power to walk on water. Euphemus joined the voyage of the
Argonauts, and served the crew well as helmsman.
10. Hylas was the son of King Theiodamas of the Dryopians. During the journey for the Golden Fleece, Hylas was kidnapped by
the nymph of the spring of Pegae, Dryope, that fell in love with him in Mysia and vanished without a trace.
11. Medea was the daughter of King Aeëtes of Colchis, niece of Circe, granddaughter of the sun god Helios, and later wife to
the hero Jason, with whom she had two children: Mermeros and Pheres.

Summary of the Story:

The rightful heir to the kingdom, Jason, had been sent away secretly to later take the kingdom away from Pelias. Pelias, still fearful
that he would one day be overthrown, consulted an oracle which warned him to beware of a man with one sandal.

Many years later, Pelias was holding games in honor of the sea god and his alleged father, Poseidon, when Jason arrived in Iolcus
and lost one of his sandals in the river Anauros, while helping an old woman (the Goddess Hera in disguise), to cross. She blessed
him for she knew, as goddesses do, what Pelias had up his sleeve. When Jason entered Iolcus, he was announced as a man wearing
one sandal. Jason, knowing that he was the rightful king, told Pelias that and Pelias said, "To take my throne, which you shall, you
must go on a quest to find the Golden Fleece." Jason happily accepted the quest.

Pelias then said he would give up the throne to Jason as soon as he brought back the Golden Fleece. Jason though of the idea to be
great and went and gathered together the best and noblest. Heracles, the greatest of all heroes, Orpheus, the master musician,
Castor and his brother Pollux, Achilles' father, Peleus, and many others. They called themselves the Argonauts and used a ship called
Argo.

The Isle of Lemnos

The isle of Lemnos is situated off the Western coast of Asia Minor (modern day Turkey). The island was inhabited by a race of
women who had killed their husbands. The women had neglected their worship of Aphrodite, and as a punishment the goddess
made the women so foul in stench that their husbands couldn't bear to be near them.

Kyzicos
After Lemnos, the Argonauts landed among the Doliones, whose king Kyzicos treated them graciously. The Argonauts departed,
losing their bearings and landing again at the same spot that night. In the darkness, the Doliones took them for enemies and they
started fighting each other. The Argonauts killed many of the Doliones, among them the king Kyzicos. Kyzicos' wife killed herself. The
Argonauts realized their horrible mistake when dawn came.
Mysia
When the Argonauts reached Mysia, they sent some men to find food and water. Among these men was Heracles' servant, Hylas.
The nymphs of the stream where Hylas was collecting were attracted to his good looks, and pulled him into the stream. Heracles
returned to his Labors, but Hylas was lost forever.

Phineus and the Harpies

Soon Jason reached the court of Phineas of Salmydessus in Thrace. Phineas had been given the gift of prophecy by Apollo. Helios the
sun god sent the Harpies, creatures with the body of a bird and the head of a woman, to prevent Phineas from eating any more than
what was necessary to live, because he was enraged that Phineas had chosen to live in a continual state of darkness than live in the
sun he provided. Jason took pity on the emaciated king and killed the Harpies when they returned. In return for this favor, Phineas
revealed to Jason the location of Colchis and how to cross the Symplegades, or The Clashing Rocks, and then they parted.

The Symplegades
The only way to reach Colchis was to sail through the Symplegades (Clashing Rocks), huge rock cliffs that came together and crushed
anything that traveled between them. Phineus told Jason to release a dove when they approached these islands. Jason released the
dove as advised, which made it through, losing only a few tail feathers. Seeing this, they rowed strongly and made it through with
minor damage at the extreme stern of the ship. From that time on, the clashing rocks were forever joined leaving free passage for
others to pass.

The Arrival in Colchis

Jason arrived in Colchis to claim the fleece as his own. King Aeetes of Colchis promised to give it to him only if he could perform
three certain tasks. Presented with the tasks, Jason became discouraged and fell into depression. However, Hera had persuaded
Aphrodite to convince her son Eros to make Aeetes's daughter, Medea, fall in love with Jason. As a result, Medea aided Jason in his
tasks. First, Jason had to plow a field with fire-breathing oxen, the Khalkotauroi, that he had to yoke himself. Medea provided an
ointment that protected him from the oxen's flames. Then, Jason sowed the teeth of a dragon into a field. The teeth sprouted into
an army of warriors. Medea had previously warned Jason of this and told him how to defeat this foe. Before they attacked him, he
threw a rock into the crowd. Unable to discover where the rock had come from, the soldiers attacked and defeated one another. His
last task was to overcome the Sleepless Dragon which guarded the Golden Fleece. Jason sprayed the dragon with a potion, given by
Medea, diluted from herbs. The dragon fell asleep, and Jason was able to seize the Golden Fleece. He then sailed away with Medea.
Medea had to distract her father, who chased them, as they fled by killing her brother Apsyrtus and throwing pieces of his body into
the sea, which Aeetes had to stop for and gather.

Return journey
On the way back to Iolcus, Medea prophesised to Euphemus, the Argo's helmsman, that one day he would rule Libya. This came true
through Battus, a descendant of Euphemus. Zeus, as punishment for the slaughter of Medea's own brother, sent a series of storms
at the Argo and blew it off course. The Argo then spoke and said that they should seek purification with Circe, a nymph living on the
island called Aeaea. After being cleansed, they continued their journey home.

Sirens
Chiron had told Jason that without the aid of Orpheus, the Argonauts would never be able to pass the. The Sirens lived on three
small, rocky islands and sang beautiful songs that enticed sailors to come to them, which resulted in the crashing of their ship into
the islands. When Orpheus heard their voices, he drew his lyre and played music that was more beautiful and louder, drowning out
the Sirens' bewitching songs.

Talos
The Argo then came to the island of Crete, guarded by the bronze man, Talos. As the ship approached, Talos hurled huge stones at
the ship, keeping it at bay. Talos had one blood vessel which went from his neck to his ankle, bound shut by only one bronze nail.
Medea cast a spell on Talos to calm him; she removed the bronze nail and Talos bled to death. The Argo was then able to sail on.

Jason returns
Medea, using her sorcery, claimed to Pelias' daughters that she could make their father younger by chopping him up into pieces and
boiling the pieces in a cauldron of water and magical herbs. She demonstrated this remarkable feat with a sheep, which leapt out of
the cauldron as a lamb. The girls, rather naively, sliced and diced their father and put him in the cauldron. Medea did not add the
magical herbs, and Pelias was dead.
Jason, celebrating his return with the Golden Fleece, noted that his father was too aged and infirm to participate in the celebrations.
He had seen and been served by Medea's magical powers. He asked Medea to take some years from his life and add them to the life
of his father. She did so, but at no such cost to Jason's life. Pelias' son, Acastus, drove Jason and Medea into exile for the murder,
and the couple settled in Corinth.

Treachery of Jason
In Corinth, Jason became engaged to marry Creusa, a daughter of the King of Corinth, to strengthen his political ties. When Medea
confronted Jason about the engagement and cited all the help she had given him, he retorted that it was not her that he should
thank, but Aphrodite who made Medea fall in love with him. Infuriated with Jason for breaking his vow that he would be hers
forever, Medea took her revenge by presenting to Creusa a cursed dress, as a wedding gift, that stuck to her body and burned her to
death as soon as she put it on. Creusa's father, Creon, burned to death with his daughter as he tried to save her. Then Medea killed
the two boys that she bore to Jason, fearing that they would be murdered or enslaved as a result of their mother's actions. When
Jason came to know of this, Medea was already gone; she fled to Athens in a chariot sent by her grandfather, the sun-god Helios.

Later Jason and Peleus, father of the hero Achilles, would attack and defeat Acastus, reclaiming the throne of Iolcus for himself once
more. Jason's son, Thessalus, then became king.

Because he broke his vow to love Medea forever, Jason lost his favor with Hera and died lonely and unhappy. He was asleep under
the stern of the rotting Argo when it fell on him, killing him instantly.

Moral Lesson:
In Greek Mythology, forsaking a divine vow with the gods will lead the human to his/her death through misery and despair.

Theme:
To return the title as the true heir, one must undergo a very difficult task in order to achieve it, but if something along the journey
wasn’t been prepared to face, it has the possibility to turn the victorious achievement into a devastating failure.
~Quest for the Golden Fleece Finale by Daniel Zamudio~