Jason, between the jaws of the dragon which guards theGolden Fleece, is saved byAthena. The fleece hangs from a tree behind them. Attickylix,c.480–470 BC, attributed toDouris.[1]
Jason appeared in various literary works in theclassical world ofGreece andRome, including the epic poemArgonautica and the tragedyMedea. In the modern world, Jason has emerged as a character in various adaptations of his myths, such as the 1963 filmJason and the Argonauts and the 2000 TV miniseries of thesame name.
Persecution by Pelias
Pelias, king ofIolcos, stops on the steps of a temple as he recognises young Jason by his missing sandal; Romanfresco fromPompeii, 20-25 AD.
Pelias (Aeson's half-brother) was power-hungry and sought to gain dominion over all ofThessaly. Pelias was the progeny of a union between their shared mother,Tyro ("high born Tyro"), the daughter ofSalmoneus, and the sea godPoseidon. In a bitter feud, he overthrew Aeson (the rightful king), killing all the descendants of Aeson that he could. He spared his half-brother for unknown reasons.[2]
Aeson's wifeAlcimede I had a newborn son named Jason, whom she saved from Pelias by having female attendants cluster around the infant and cry as if he werestillborn. Fearing that Pelias would eventually notice and kill her son, Alcimede sent him away to be reared by thecentaurChiron.[2] She claimed that she had been having an affair with him all along. Pelias, fearing that his ill-gotten kingship might be challenged, consulted anoracle, who warned him to beware of a man wearing only one sandal.
Many years later, Pelias was holdinggames in honor of Poseidon when the grown Jason arrived in Iolcus, having lost one of his sandals in the riverAnauros ("wintry Anauros") while helping an old woman (actually the goddessHera in disguise) to cross.[2] She blessed him, for she knew what Pelias had planned. When Jason entered Iolcus (the present-day city ofVolos), he was announced as a man wearing only one sandal. Jason, aware that he was the rightful king, so informed Pelias. Pelias replied, "To take my throne, which you shall, you must go on a quest to find the Golden Fleece." Jason readily accepted this condition.
The Argonauts and the Quest for the Golden Fleece
Jason assembled for his crew, a number of heroes, known as theArgonauts after their ship,theArgo.[2] The group of heroes included:[3]: 485
The island was inhabited by a race of women who had killed their husbands. The women had neglected their worship ofAphrodite, and as a punishment the goddess made the women so foul in stench that their husbands could not bear to be near them. The men then tookconcubines from theThracian mainland opposite, and the spurned women, angry at Aphrodite, killed all the male inhabitants while they slept. The king,Thoas, was saved byHypsipyle, his daughter, who put him out to sea sealed in a chest from which he was later rescued. The women of Lemnos lived for a while without men, withHypsipyle as their queen.
During the visit of the Argonauts the women mingled with the men creating a new "race" calledMinyae. Jason fathered twins with the queen. Heracles pressured them to leave as he was disgusted by the antics of the Argonauts. He had not taken part, which is truly unusual considering the numerous affairs he had with other women.[note 1]
Cyzicus
After Lemnos the Argonauts landed among theDoliones, whose kingCyzicus treated them graciously. He told them about the land beyond Bear Mountain, but forgot to mention what lived there. What lived in the land beyond Bear Mountain were theGegeines, which are a tribe of Earthborn giants with six arms who wore leather loincloths.
While most of the crew went into the forest to search for supplies, the Gegeines saw that few Argonauts were guarding the ship and raided it.Heracles was among those guarding the ship at the time and managed to kill most of them before Jason and the others returned. Once some of the other Gegeines were killed, Jason and the Argonauts set sail.
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 Cyzicus. Cyzicus' wife killed herself. The Argonauts realized their horrible mistake when dawn came and held a funeral for him.
Phineus and the harpies
Soon, Jason reached the court ofPhineus ofSalmydessus inThrace.Zeus had sent theharpies to steal the food put out for Phineus each day. Jason took pity on the emaciated king and killed the Harpies when they returned; in other versions,Calais and Zetes chase the harpies away. In return for this favor, Phineus revealed to Jason the location of Colchis and how to pass theSymplegades, or The Clashing Rocks, and then they parted.
The only way to reach Colchis was to sail through theSymplegades (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, and if the dove made it through, to row with all their might. If the dove was crushed, he was doomed to fail. 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 inColchis (modernBlack Sea coast ofGeorgia) to claim the fleece as his own. It was owned by KingAeetes of Colchis. The fleece was given to him byPhrixus. Aeetes promised to give it to Jason only if he could perform three certain tasks. Presented with the tasks, Jason became discouraged and fell into depression. However,Hera had persuadedAphrodite to convince her sonEros to make Aeetes' daughter,Medea, fall in love with Jason. As a result, Medea aided Jason in his tasks.[4]
First, Jason had to plow a field with fire-breathing oxen, theKhalkotauroi, that he had to yoke himself. Medea provided an ointment that protected him from the oxen's flames. Then, Jason sowed theteeth of a dragon into a field. The teeth sprouted into an army of warriors (spartoi). Medea had previously warned Jason of this and told him how to defeat this foe.[4]
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 theGolden Fleece. Jason sprayed the dragon with a potion, given by Medea, distilled from herbs. The dragon fell asleep, and Jason was able to seize the Golden Fleece.[4]
He then sailed away with Medea. Medea distracted her father, who chased them as they fled, by killing her brotherApsyrtus and throwing pieces of his body into the sea; Aeetes stopped to gather them. In another version, Medea lured Apsyrtus into a trap. Jason killed him, chopped off his fingers and toes, and buried the corpse. In any case, Jason and Medea escaped.
On the way back to Iolcus, Medea prophesied toEuphemus, the Argo's helmsman, that one day he would ruleCyrene. This came true throughBattus, a descendant of Euphemus.Zeus, as punishment for the slaughter of Medea's own brother, sent a series of storms at theArgo and blew it off course. TheArgo then spoke and said that they should seek purification withCirce, anymph living on the island of Aeaea. After being cleansed, they continued their journey home.
Sirens
Chiron had told Jason that without the aid ofOrpheus, the Argonauts would never be able to pass theSirens—the same Sirens encountered byOdysseus inHomer'sepic poem theOdyssey. The Sirens lived on three small, rocky islands calledSirenum scopuli and sang beautiful songs that enticed sailors to come to them, which would result in the wrecking of their ship on the islands. When Orpheus heard their voices, he drew hislyre and played music that was more beautiful and louder, drowning out the Sirens' bewitching songs.
Talos
TheArgo then came to the island ofCrete, guarded by the bronze man,Talos. As the ship approached, Talos hurled huge stones at the ship, keeping it at bay. Talos had oneichor vessel which went from his neck to his ankle, bound shut by only one bronze nail (as in metal casting by the lost wax method).Medea cast a spell on Talos to calm him; she removed the bronze nail and Talos bled to death. TheArgo was then able to sail on.
Thomas Bulfinch has an antecedent to the interaction of Medea and the daughters of Pelias. 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. Medea withdrew the blood from Aeson's body and infused it with certain herbs; putting it back into his veins, returning vigor to him.[5] Pelias' daughters saw this and wanted the same service for their father.
Medea, using her sorcery, claimed to Pelias' daughters that she could make their father smooth and vigorous as a child by chopping him up into pieces and boiling the pieces in a cauldron of water and magical herbs. She demonstrated this remarkable feat with the oldest ram in the flock, 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.[6] 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 marryCreusa (sometimes referred to asGlauce), 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 she 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.[6]
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 learned of this, Medea was already gone. She fled to Athens in a chariot of dragons sent by her grandfather, the sun-godHelios.[6]
Although Jason calls Medea most hateful to gods and men, the fact that the chariot is given to her by Helios indicates that she still has the gods on her side. AsBernard Knox points out, Medea's last scene with concluding appearances parallels that of a number of indisputably divine beings in other plays by Euripides. Just like these gods, Medea "interrupts and puts a stop to the violent action of the human being on the lower level, ... justifies her savage revenge on the grounds that she has been treated with disrespect and mockery, ... takes measures and gives orders for the burial of the dead, prophesies the future", and "announces the foundation of a cult".[7]
Later Jason andPeleus, father of the heroAchilles, attacked and defeated Acastus, reclaiming the throne of Iolcus for himself once more. Jason's son,Thessalus, then became king.
As a result of breaking his vow to love Medea forever, Jason lost his favor withHera and died lonely and unhappy. He was asleep under thestem of the rottingArgo when it fell on him, killing him instantly.[8]
Though some of the episodes of Jason's story draw on ancient material, the definitive telling, on which this account relies, is that ofApollonius of Rhodes in hisepic poemArgonautica, written inAlexandria in the late 3rd century BC.
AnotherArgonautica was written byGaius Valerius Flaccus in the late 1st century AD, eight books in length. The poem ends abruptly with the request ofMedea to accompany Jason on his homeward voyage. It is unclear if part of theepic poem has been lost, or if it was never finished. A third version is theArgonautica Orphica, which emphasizes the role ofOrpheus in the story.
Jason is briefly mentioned inDante'sDivine Comedy in the poemInferno. He appears in the Canto XVIII. In it, he is seen by Dante and his guideVirgil being punished in Hell's Eighth Circle (Bolgia 1) by being driven to march through the circle for all eternity while being whipped bydevils. He is included among the panderers and seducers (possibly for his seduction and subsequent abandoning of Medea).
The story ofMedea's revenge on Jason is told with devastating effect byEuripides in his tragedyMedea.
William Morris wrote an English epic poem,The Life and Death of Jason, published in 1867.
The mythical geography of the voyage of the Argonauts has been connected to specific geographic locations byLivio Stecchini[26] but his theories have not been widely adopted.
^abcdHyginus (2011).The Orphic Argonautica [The Fabulae of Hyginus]. Albany, New York: Jason Colavito. pp. 58–59, 12th and 13th Fabulae.ISBN9781105198946.
^Powell, Barry B. (2015).Classical Myth. with translations by Herbert M. Howe (8th ed.). Boston: Pearson.ISBN978-0-321-96704-6.
^Smith, William (1870). "Medeia".A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology: Vol 2. p. 1004. Retrieved6 December 2016.Her children are, according to some accounts, Mermerus, Pheres or Thessalus, Alcimenes and Tisander, and, according to others, she had seven sons and seven daughters, while others mention only two children, Medus (some call him Polyxemus) and Eriopis, or one son Argos.
Alain Moreau,Le Mythe de Jason et Médée. Le Va-nu-pied et la Sorcière. Paris: Les Belles Lettres, collection «Vérité des mythes», 2006 (ISBN2-251-32440-2).
Gaius Valerius Flaccus,Argonautica translated by Mozley, J H. Loeb Classical Library Volume 286. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1928.Online version at theio.com.
Hesiod,Catalogue of Women fromHomeric Hymns, Epic Cycle, Homerica translated by Evelyn-White, H G. Loeb Classical Library Volume 57. London: William Heinemann, 1914.Online version at theio.com
King, David.Finding Atlantis: A True Story of Genius, Madness, and an Extraordinary Quest for a Lost World. Harmony Books, New York, 1970. (Based on works of Olof Rudbeck 1630–1702.)
Powell, B. The Voyage of theArgo. In Classical Myth. Upper Saddle River, NJ. Prentice Hall. 2001. pp. 477–489.
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