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Hello and welcome to Ancient History Encyclopedia,
I'm Kelly and today I will tell you
about the myth of Jason and the Argonauts.
The powerful Greek hero Jason was a very popular figure in Greek myth,
especially his famed expedition with the Argonauts
on board the Argo in search of the Golden Fleece.
Who is Jason, what is the Golden Fleece, and why did he have to find it?
Today, I will answer all of those questions and more!
Jason was the son of Aison, the king of Iolkos,
and Alcimede, although we're not entirely certain who his mother was.
When Aison’s half-brother Pelias usurped the throne of Iolkos in Thessaly,
Jason was put under the care of the centaur Chiron
to be educated in the forests of Mount Pelion.
When Jason became a man,
he participated in the celebrated hunt of the Calydonian boar
which many Greek heroes like Theseus had been involved in before.
The massive boar was sent to terrorize the city of Calydon
for their neglect in sacrificing for Artemis.
When Jason turned 20,
he returned to the city to reclaim his throne,
yet when he entered the city only wearing one sandal,
Pelias recalled what an oracle said many years ago
that he would lose his life and throne
to the hands of a one-sandaled man.
Thinking Jason was this man,
he sent him on an impossible mission to defy the oracle.
This presumably fatal expedition
was to retrieve the fabled Golden Fleece
and bring it back to Iolkos.
The Golden Fleece was the fur of a winged ram
owned by the god Hermes.
The ram was sent to save the children Phrixus and Helle
by their mother, the goddess Nephele,
as they were going to be sacrificed because their jealous step-mother Ino
turned the city of Thebes against them.
The ram saved the children, but unfortunately on their flight home
Helle fell off and landed in the sea between Asia Minor and Europe.
The Greeks after called this part of the sea the Hellespont
and it is known today as the Dardanelles.
Phrixus arrived safely home and promptly sacrificed the ram in thanks of the gods.
He put the Golden Fleece in the sacred grove of Ares,
and left it under the protection of a fearsome serpent.
Athena helped in the creation of the ship Argo.
It is believed that she favoured Jason because he was going up against Pelias,
who was violent and a bit of a jerk,
and as the goddess of justice she wanted to help defeat him.
The ship was strong and fast to take Jason across the seas to Colchis,
where the sacred grove of Ares lies.
Apparently the ship contained a piece of sacred wood
taken from the sanctuary of Zeus at Dodona
which was known to be able to speak.
The boat could fit 50 oarsmen and Jason filled the ship
with the greatest heroes he could find, including Hercules.
The Argonauts, as the ship's heroes were called,
had many adventures on their travels.
Most notable was the chasing or killing of the harpies
that were sent by Zeus to torment the blind Phineus
as a punishment for blinding his own sons.
In thanks for chasing away the harpies,
Phineus gave the Argonauts favourable winds
and also gave them information on the best route to Colchis.
They were also almost ensnared by the women on Lemnos
and attacked by savage giants on the island of the Doliones.
When Jason and the Argonauts reached Colchis,
the king Aietes would not simply give over the Golden Fleece.
He promised Jason the fleece
if he succeeded in a few dangerous and difficult tasks.
His tasks were as follows:
First, he had to plough a field using two fire-breathing bulls,
then he had to sow the teeth of a serpent in the field,
and then fight the warriors that emerged from the magical teeth.
Jason was helped by Athena who made Medea, the daughter of Aiete,
fall in love with him.
With Medea’s knowledge of magic,
she gave him a potion which made Jason resistant to fire,
and then she told him that if he threw a rock in the middle of the warriors
they would fight each other, not him.
Although Jason completed the tasks,
Aietes refused to give him the fleece.
So Medea took Jason to the sacred grove,
and gave him another potion which would drug the serpent
and then Jason stole the fleece and took it, and Medea, home.
On Jason's journey home, he was pursued by the king's men,
but to delay her father Medea killed her brother
and threw his body parts overboard to distract him.
The voyage home came with many more adventures,
such as Talos, the bronze man given to king Minos
by the god Hephaestus to guard the island of Crete.
Medea brought Talos down when he tried
to stop the Argonauts landing on the island.
When Jason returned home, Pelias still wouldn't give up the throne
and had even planned on killing Aison whilst Jason was away.
Medea made a potion to convince Pelias’ daughters
that if they cut him up and boiled him in a potion,
he would gain everlasting youth.
They did this and, of course, he died.
Instead of becoming king,
Jason appointed Akastos, Pelias’ son, to become ruler.
He married Medea and then moved to Corinth.
In a better-known version of the story
Akastos condemned Jason and Medea for the murder of Pelias
and they had to flee to Corinth.
Jason and Medea had three sons and lived happily for ten years
until Jason fell in love with the daughter of the king of Corinth, Glauce.
In jealous revenge,
Medea killed Glauce with a poisoned robe and crown,
and then killed their own children and flew away in a chariot pulled by dragons.
This tragic end to the myth of Jason and Medea
is the subject of the play Medea by Euripides.
Ultimately, Jason died alone and deserted by the gods
for his betrayal of Medea.
When he was sleeping under the Argo, it fell off its supports and crushed him.
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-- Subtitles by Rosa Baranda --