Jason

Jason was the leader of the Argonautic Expedition in the quest to retrieve the Golden Fleece. The son of Aeson and Polymede, he was supposed to succeed his father on the throne of Iolcus, but the position was held by his half-uncle Pelias. Fearing an oracle that warned him against a man with one sandal, Pelias wanted Jason as far as possible from Iolcus, so he sent him to fetch the Golden Fleece from King Aeetes of Colchis (Apollodorus, Library 1.9.16). Jason had a ship built and assembled a crew made up of the greatest heroes of his time; after a long voyage beset by monsters and hostile peoples, the Argonauts retrieved the Golden Fleece and brought it back to Iolcus. Jason received a great deal of help along the way, not just from a goddess (Hera, who wanted to punish Pelias for neglecting to honor her), but also from the members of his crew and, especially, from King Aeetes’ daughter, Medea, who fell in love with him and left everything behind her to be with him. Years after the expedition, in Euripides’ and Apollodorus’ account, Jason left her for the Corinthian princess Glauce; Medea killed the princess, her father, and her two sons by Jason, and fled to Athens (Library 1.9.28).

Jason’s Early Life

The rightful prince, Jason was born while Pelias held the throne of Iolcus. After being raised by the Centaur Chiron, Jason returned to his hometown to claim his father’s honor and instead ended up being sent to fetch the Golden Fleece.

Pelias Usurping the Throne of Iolcus

Jason was the son of Aeson, son of Cretheus, and the family held Iolcus by right. His mother is named differently in different sources. In the main version she was Polymede, one of the daughters of Autolycus (Apollodorus, Library 1.9.16). In another version (Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica 1.47, 1.233) she was Alcimede, the daughter of Phylacus and Clymene. Aeson’s half-brother Pelias, a son of Poseidon, had taken the kingdom (Library 1.9.8–11). In Pindar, Jason’s parents feared Pelias and gave out that the baby had died, with the wailing of women in the house, and sent him secretly by night to Chiron, the Centaur, to be raised (Pythian 4.100–119). Jason stayed in Chiron’s cave for twenty years. Pelias, in the meantime, had learned from an oracle at Delphi to be wary of a man wearing a single sandal who would come from the country to Iolcus (Pythian 4.73–78; Library 1.9.16).

Jason Returning to Iolcus

Now a grown man, Jason returned to Iolcus at the time of a sacrifice that Pelias was offering to Poseidon by the sea (Library 1.9.16). On the way he lost one of his sandals in the river Anaurus; in Apollonius it was while he carried across it an old woman who was in fact Hera in disguise (Argonautica 3.66–75). Hera hated Pelias for neglecting to honor her, and from then on she favored Jason. Jason appeared before Pelias and introduced himself as the son of Aeson, come to recover his father’s honor (Pindar, Pythian 4.97–120). Recognizing the man of the oracle, Pelias asked what Jason would do if he had received an oracle that one of his fellow citizens would murder him. Jason answered, whether at random or prompted by the angry Hera, that he would send that man to fetch the Golden Fleece (Library 1.9.16). In Pindar, Pelias tells Jason that he must appease the ghost of Phrixus and bring home the fleece, and he swears by Zeus to hand over the kingship if Jason does it (Pythian 4.109–168).

Jason and Argonauts

Jason accepted the mission to bring the Golden Fleece from Colchis to Iolcus. He called on the help of Argus, son of Phrixus, who by Athena’s advice built a fifty-oared ship named Argo after its builder, with a speaking timber from the oak of Dodona set in her prow. The heroes who joined included Heracles, Orpheus, Castor and Pollux, Peleus and Telamon, the Boreads Zetes and Calais, Atalanta, Meleager and others (Library 1.9.16; the lists differ, compare Pindar, Pythian 4.171–188 and Apollonius, Argonautica 1.20–227). They are called Argonauts after the ship, and in Apollonius also Minyans. In the course of their journey Jason and the Argonauts met with many adventures and perils (see Argonauts for a more extended account).

The Isle of Lemnos

After the Argonauts set sail, they first reached the island of Lemnos. At the time of the Argonauts’ arrival it was ruled by the queen Hypsipyle and had no men. The Lemnian women had not honored Aphrodite, and she made them smell foul; their husbands took Thracian captives to their beds, and in revenge the women killed their fathers and husbands, Hypsipyle alone saving her father Thoas by hiding him (Library 1.9.17). The Argonauts stayed for a while on Lemnos and slept with the women of the island. Hypsipyle bore Jason sons, Euneus and Nebrophonus (Library 1.9.17). According to Herodotus, the Minyans who later settled in Laconia claimed descent from the Argonauts and the women of Lemnos (4.145).

The Gegeines

After Lemnos, the Argonauts went to the land of the Doliones, where they were warmly greeted by their king Cyzicus. While most of the Argonauts had gone up the mountain called Bear Mountain, their ship was attacked by the Gegeines, “the Earthborn,” monsters with six arms who lived on the same peninsula. Heracles, who had been left behind with the younger heroes, shot many of them before the rest of the Argonauts came back and killed them all (Apollonius, Argonautica 1.936–1011). At night the Argo set sail once again, but contrary winds blew her back to the island, where the Doliones, thinking that Pelasgian raiders had landed, armed themselves and fought them in the dark; many Doliones were killed, including Cyzicus himself. According to Apollonius he was struck in the chest by Jason (Argonautica 1.1030–1035); Apollodorus says only that the Argonauts killed him (Library 1.9.18). The following day, when the morning light revealed the mistake, the Argonauts held a funeral for the slain king; his wife, Cleite, hanged herself from grief (Argonautica 1.1063–1069).

Phineus and the Harpies

The Argonauts’ next stop was Salmydessus in Thrace, where they found the blind seer Phineus, starved almost to death. The gods had sent the Harpies, winged creatures, to snatch his food and foul what they left (Library 1.9.21). Phineus said that he would advise the Argonauts if they rid him of the Harpies. The Argonauts laid a table, the Harpies swooped down, and Zetes and Calais, the sons of Boreas, drew their swords and chased them through the air. Phineus, grateful for the help, revealed the course of their voyage and the way past the Symplegades, the Clashing Rocks (Library 1.9.21–22; Apollonius, Argonautica 2.176–300).

The Symplegades

The Symplegades were huge cliffs that dashed together and closed the sea passage. Phineus told Jason to release a dove between them and see if it made it through, an omen for what would happen to the ship. The dove passed, losing only the tip of its tail; so, when the Argo rowed through with the help of Hera, only the end of her ornamented stern was sheared off (Library 1.9.22; compare Apollonius, Argonautica 2.317–340, 2.549–606). After a ship had once made the passage, the rocks stood still forever.

At Colchis: Aeetes’ Tasks

Jason and the Argonauts eventually reached Colchis, where they came to King Aeetes. The Golden Fleece hung on an oak in a grove of Ares, guarded by a sleepless dragon (Library 1.9.16). It was the fleece of the ram on which Phrixus had arrived in Colchis (Pindar, Pythian 4.160–164). Aeetes said he would give the fleece to Jason if he first yoked the bronze-footed, fire-breathing bulls given to him by Hephaestus and sowed a field with dragon’s teeth, half of the teeth that Cadmus had sown at Thebes (Library 1.9.23). Upon learning of them, Jason was at a loss.

In Apollonius, Hera and Athena went to Aphrodite, who persuaded her son Eros to shoot one of his arrows into Medea, Aeetes’ daughter, and make her fall in love with Jason (Argonautica 3.6–166). And Medea was not just anyone: in addition to being a princess, she was a priestess of Hecate well-versed in drugs and sorcery (Argonautica 3.250–252; Library 1.9.23 calls her a witch).

Medea promised to help Jason yoke the bulls and win the fleece if he would swear to marry her and take her with him to Greece. She gave him a drug with which to anoint his shield, spear and body; for a single day it protected him from fire and iron (Library 1.9.23; compare Pindar, Pythian 4.220–223). Anointed, Jason yoked the bulls, which charged him with flames, and plowed the field.

When he sowed the teeth, armed men sprang up from the earth. Following Medea’s instructions, Jason threw stones into the midst of them from a distance; they turned on each other, and when they fought among themselves, he drew near and killed them (Library 1.9.23; Argonautica 3.1354–1398).

Even so, Aeetes did not hand over the Golden Fleece. According to Apollodorus he wished to burn down the Argo and kill the crew. Before he could, Medea brought Jason by night to the grove, put to sleep with her drugs the dragon that guarded the fleece, and seized it; she came to the Argo with Jason, bringing her brother Apsyrtus (Library 1.9.23; compare Argonautica 4.123–182).

Jason and Medea

Fully committed to Jason, Medea helped him against Talos, the bronze giant, and, in the main account, killed her own brother. Even so, Jason eventually left her and married another woman. Medea’s revenge was both tragic and gruesome.

The Murder of Apsyrtus

After retrieving the Golden Fleece, Jason, Medea and the Argonauts left Colchis. In Apollodorus, when Aeetes caught up with the ship, Medea killed her brother Apsyrtus, cut him limb from limb and threw the pieces into the sea; Aeetes stopped to gather them and fell behind (Library 1.9.24). In Apollonius it was Jason who ambushed and killed Apsyrtus at a temple of Artemis, after Medea had lured him there (Argonautica 4.303–481). Zeus, angry at the murder of Apsyrtus, sent storms and drove the Argo off her course until the ship itself spoke, saying that the Argonauts must be purified by Circe (Library 1.9.24). They sailed to the island of Aeaea, where Circe, Aeetes’ sister, purified them with the blood of a sacrificed piglet, and, learning in Apollonius who they were and what they had done, sent them away (Apollonius, Argonautica 4.557–752).

The Sirens and Talos

On their voyage back to Iolcus, the Argonauts faced many dangers, two of which especially stand out.

First, they sailed past the Sirens, whose singing drew sailors to their deaths. The Argo was different, since it had Orpheus on board. He played his lyre and sang a counter-melody, which restrained the Argonauts; only Butes swam off to the Sirens, and Aphrodite carried him away to Lilybaeum (Library 1.9.25; Apollonius, Argonautica 4.891–921).

Near Crete, the Argonauts were kept from landing by Talos, a bronze man who guarded the island by running round it three times a day and pelting ships with stones. He had a single vein from neck to ankles closed by a bronze nail. In Apollodorus Medea either drove him mad with drugs or promised him immortality and drew out the nail, so that all the ichor (the divine blood) gushed out and he died; Apollodorus also mentions a version in which Poeas shot him in the ankle (Library 1.9.26). In Apollonius, Medea cast spells on him with her evil eye, and he grazed his ankle on a rock, so that the ichor flowed out (Argonautica 4.1638–1688).

Aeson and Pelias

The Argonauts eventually managed to return to Iolcus. In Apollodorus, Pelias, despairing of their return, had been about to kill Aeson, who asked to take his own life and drank bull’s blood; Jason’s mother cursed Pelias and hanged herself (Library 1.9.27). In Ovid, Jason found Aeson alive at a very old age and asked Medea to transfer some years of his own life to his father. Instead, Medea drained Aeson’s old blood and filled his veins with a magic brew, and Aeson woke forty years younger, “in all the vigor of bright youth, no longer lean and sallow” (Metamorphoses 7.159–293). Jason wished to punish Pelias, and Medea persuaded Pelias’ daughters to cut up their father and boil him, promising to make him young again as she had done with a ram; but she made sure that there was no resurrection to follow (Library 1.9.27; Ovid, Metamorphoses 7.297–349). Pelias met his end at the hands of his daughters; his son Acastus buried him and expelled Jason and Medea from Iolcus (Library 1.9.27).

Jason’s Unfaithfulness and Medea’s Revenge

The couple went to Corinth, where they lived for ten years. Then King Creon betrothed his daughter Glauce to Jason, who married her and divorced Medea (Library 1.9.28; Euripides, Medea). Medea invoked the gods by whom Jason had sworn and, after reproaching him for his ingratitude, sent the bride a poisoned robe. In Apollodorus, “when Glauce had put it on, she was consumed with fierce fire along with her father, who went to her rescue.” In Euripides the gifts are a robe and a golden crown (Medea 1136–1230). Medea then killed Mermerus and Pheres, the two sons she had with Jason, and fled to Athens in a chariot drawn by winged dragons, given to her by her grandfather, the Sun (Library 1.9.28; Medea 1296–1322). In Euripides Medea kills the boys to hurt Jason as deeply as she can. In another tradition the Corinthians stoned the boys to death because of the gifts that they were said to have brought to Glauce, and their tomb stood near the well of Glauce (Pausanias 2.3.6).

The Death of Jason

The sources are not full on Jason’s end. In Euripides’ Medea, Medea foretells that Jason will die a wretched death, struck on the head by a piece of the Argo (Medea 1386–1388). Apollodorus says that Peleus, with Jason and the sons of Tyndareus, captured Iolcus and killed Acastus’ wife (Library 3.13.7; compare Pindar, Nemean 4.54–59). No fuller ancient account of his death survives.

Sources

The voyage of Jason and the Argonauts serves as the basis of the only surviving Hellenistic epic, “The Argonautica” of Apollonius Rhodius (1.1–1011, 1.1030–1069, 2.176–606, 3.6–166, 3.1354–1398, 4.123–921, 4.1638–1688). Pindar tells the story of Jason’s youth and the Fleece in his Pythian 4 (73–188, 220–223). The same story – with some variations – is told in the seventh book of Ovid’s “Metamorphoses” (7.159–349). Apollodorus’ Library (1.9.8–28, 3.13.7) gives a summary; Euripides’ Medea (1136–1322, 1386–1388) tells the end of the story at Corinth, and Pausanias (2.3.6) records the Corinthian tradition of the death of the children. Herodotus (4.145) mentions the Minyans descended from the Argonauts.

See Also: Pelias, Centaur, Hera, Argonauts, Harpies, Aeetes, Phrixus, Medea, Talos, Ichor