Pelias in the ancient sources

Ancient Sources / Figures / Pelias

20 passages from 8 ancient authors that tell of Pelias, in the original with English translation, author by author in the order the Greeks read them. Pelias was the king of Iolcus in Greek mythology, son of the god Poseidon and Tyro. He was married either to Anaxibia or Phylomache; with his wife, th... For the story in one place, read our article on Pelias.

Homer (1)

Homer, Odyssey 11.225–332The women of oldPersephone sends up the ghosts of the women who were wives and daughters of heroes, and Odysseus questions each in turn. He sees Tyro, Antiope, Alcmene, Megara, Epicaste, Chloris, Leda, Iphimedeia, Phaedra, Procris, Ariadne, Maera, Clymene and Eriphyle. He then breaks off, saying that the night is late.

Apollodorus (3)

Apollodorus, The Library (Bibliotheca), with the Epitome 1.9.1–15Athamas, Sisyphus, Salmoneus, Melampus and AdmetusThe sons of Aeolus: Athamas, whose children Phrixus and Helle flee on the golden ram and who later loses Ino and Learchus to madness, then Sisyphus, Deion, Perieres, Magnes and Salmoneus, who is struck down for impersonating Zeus. Salmoneus's daughter Tyro bears Pelias and Neleus to Poseidon, and the section follows Neleus and Nestor at Pylus, Pelias in Thessaly, and Cretheus's line with the seer Melampus winning Pero for his brother Bias. It ends with Pheres, Admetus and Alcestis.
Apollodorus, The Library (Bibliotheca), with the Epitome 1.9.16–22Jason and the Argonauts: the voyage to PhineusPelias is warned against the man with one sandal and sends Jason to fetch the Golden Fleece from Colchis. Argus builds the Argo, the crew is listed, and the ship calls at Lemnos, at the land of the Doliones where Cyzicus is killed by mistake, and at Mysia, where Hylas is lost and Heracles is left behind. Polydeuces kills Amycus of the Bebryces, and at Salmydessus Zetes and Calais drive the Harpies from the seer Phineus, who tells the crew how to pass the Clashing Rocks.
Apollodorus, The Library (Bibliotheca), with the Epitome 1.9.23–28Jason and Medea: the Golden Fleece, the return and CorinthAt Colchis Aeetes sets Jason the tasks of yoking the fire-breathing bulls and sowing dragon's teeth, and Medea's drugs bring him through; she then helps him take the fleece. Medea kills her brother Apsyrtus to delay pursuit, and the Argo sails on to Circe, the Sirens, the Phaeacians, Crete (where Talos is killed) and Iolcus. Medea tricks the daughters of Pelias into boiling him, and when Jason marries Glauce at Corinth she destroys the bride and her father and kills her own sons. She flees to Athens and marries Aegeus, bears Medus, and finally returns to Colchis to restore Aeetes.

Pindar (2)

Pindar, Pythian Odes 4.1–142Pythian 4: for Arcesilas — Medea's prophecy and Jason at IolcusPindar honours Arcesilas, king of Cyrene and victor in the chariot race, and recalls the word that Medea spoke at Thera, that her companions' descendants would colonise Libya, so that Arcesilas is eighth in the line from Battus. He then turns to Jason, who arrives at Iolcus wearing one sandal and astonishes the crowd in the market-place, and who says that he has come to recover his father's honour. His kinsmen Pheres, Amythaon, Admetus and Melampus gather to him, and he leads them to the hall of Pelias and begins his appeal to the king.
Pindar, Pythian Odes 4.143–299Pythian 4: for Arcesilas — the Argonauts and the golden fleeceJason offers Pelias the flocks and herds but asks for the sceptre and throne of his father Aeson, and Pelias answers softly, sending him to fetch the golden fleece and the spirit of Phrixus. Jason gathers the Argonauts, including Orpheus, Echion and Eurytus, who sail after his prayer to Zeus. At Colchis Aeëtes sets him a task, and with Medea's charms Jason wins the fleece, kills the serpent and carries Medea off, and the ode ends with a plea that Arcesilas recall the exile Damophilus.

Euripides (2)

Euripides, Medea 446–544Second episode: Medea reproaches JasonJason says that Medea's own rash words brought her exile, and that he is willing to help her. Medea answers with a list of what she did for him, among them saving his life from the fire-breathing bulls and the dragon, helping him win the Fleece, and persuading the daughters of Pelias to kill their father, and she asks where she can now go. The Chorus calls such quarrels terrible, and Jason begins his reply.
Euripides, Medea 1–130Prologue: the Nurse laments Medea's plightThe Nurse wishes the ship Argo had never sailed and tells how Medea, who followed Jason from Colchis, has been betrayed now that he has married the daughter of King Creon. The children's Attendant tells her what he has heard, that Creon means to banish Medea and her sons, and the Nurse sends the boys inside. Medea's cries of grief and anger are heard from within the house, and the Nurse fears what she may do.

Apollonius Rhodius (4)

Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica 1.1–121Pelias' oracle and the catalogue of the ArgonautsThe poet invokes Phoebus and tells how Pelias, warned by an oracle to beware the man with one sandal, sends Jason after the Golden Fleece when Jason loses a sandal crossing the Anaurus. The catalogue of the Argonauts begins with Orpheus and goes on through Asterion, Polyphemus, Admetus, Mopsus, Peleus and Telamon and Tiphys, who steers the ship Athena and Argus built. It closes with Phlias and the sons of Bias from Argos.
Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica 1.234–305The Argonauts leave Iolcus; Alcimede's lamentThe heroes go through the city to the ship at Pagasae while the townspeople wonder at Pelias' purpose and the women pity Alcimede. Alcimede clings to Jason, wishing she had died before this day, and Jason comforts her and tells her to trust the oracles and Athena.
Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica 3.1–166Hera and Athena ask Cypris to make Medea love JasonThe poet calls on Erato, and Hera and Athena decide to go to Cypris to ask her to make Aeetes' daughter Medea fall in love with Jason. Cypris finds her son Eros playing dice with Ganymede, and persuades him with the promise of a ball that once belonged to Zeus.
Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica 1.306–447Jason is chosen leader and Argo is launchedJason walks to the shore at Pagasae, where the heroes assemble and he asks them to choose the bravest as leader. They offer the command to Heracles, who refuses and names Jason instead. Argo is launched and the heroes draw lots for their benches, and Jason sacrifices to Apollo while the seer Idmon reads the omens as good and foretells his own death in Asia.

Diodorus Siculus (4)

Diodorus Siculus, Library of History, Books 4 to 6 (the Greek myths) 4.50.1–4.53.7The Argonauts III: Medea, Pelias and the return to IolcusWhile the Argonauts are away Pelias puts Jason's father and brother to death, and Jason's mother kills herself. Medea promises to kill Pelias by a trick: she fashions a hollow image of Artemis and, appearing as an old woman made young by drugs, persuades his daughters to boil their father, and the Argonauts then take the palace. Jason gives the kingdom to Acastus, marries Pelias' daughters to notable men, dedicates the Argo at the Isthmus and settles at Corinth, and as the chiefs part Heracles proposes an oath of mutual aid and the games at the Alpheius that he names Olympia.
Diodorus Siculus, Library of History, Books 4 to 6 (the Greek myths) 4.40.1–4.44.7The Argonauts I: Jason and the voyage to PhineusJason, nephew of Pelias, has a great ship built on Mount Pelion and gathers the chiefs of Greece, with Heracles among them. On the way they rescue Hesione at Sigeium, come through a storm thanks to Orpheus' prayers to the gods of Samothrace, and reach Phineus, whose sons are freed by the Boreadae and Heracles. They then put in on the coast of the Tauric Chersonese, where strangers are sacrificed to Artemis.
Diodorus Siculus, Library of History, Books 4 to 6 (the Greek myths) 4.67.1–4.70.4Aeolus and Boeotus, Salmoneus and Neleus, the Lapiths and CentaursAfter the Epigoni return home, Teiresias dies at Tilphossaeum and the Cadmeans leave it, and the historian gives the story of Arne, Aeolus and Boeotus. He then follows Salmoneus, Tyro and their descendants as far as Nestor, and turns to the Lapiths and Centaurs: the sons of Peneius, Ixion's crime against Eïoneus, and the origin of the Centaurs.
Diodorus Siculus, Library of History, Books 4 to 6 (the Greek myths) 6.2.1–6.9.1Book 6: other fragmentsThe fragments that follow take up the gods named after lands they conquered, the Titans Xanthus and Balius, crowns, Picus who was called Zeus, and the Dioscori. They go on to Salmoneus, who imitated Zeus's thunder, to Admetus, Alcestis and Melampus, and end with Bellerophon at the court of Proetus and the Chimaera.

Ovid (1)

Ovid, Metamorphoses 7.297–403Medea and the daughters of PeliasMedea, to punish Pelias, who had wronged Jason's family, pretends to have quarrelled with Jason and persuades Pelias' daughters to cut up their old father and boil him in a cauldron, promising to make him young. She shows them how a ram is made young again by the same method, but she leaves out the magic herbs for Pelias, and the daughters kill him. Medea flees in a chariot drawn by dragons and flies over Greece, over the places of many transformations, and takes refuge with Aegeus, king of Athens.

Pausanias (3)

Pausanias, Description of Greece 8.11.1–12Mantinea: the daughters of Pelias and the grave of EpaminondasPausanias describes the oak wood of Pelagus on the road from Mantinea to Tegea and the graves of the daughters of Pelias, who went to Arcadia after Medea tricked them into killing their father. He also notes the tomb of Areithous at Phoezon. He discusses who killed Epaminondas, Machaerion or Grylus, describes his death, his burial on the battlefield and the grave with its dragon-bearing shield, and praises him as a general. He ends with oracles misunderstood, including Pelagus for Epaminondas and the Libyan earth for Hannibal.
Pausanias, Description of Greece 5.17.1–11Olympia: the Heraeum’s images and the Chest of Cypselus, first fieldPausanias lists the images in the temple of Hera, among them Zeus and Hera, the Seasons, Themis, the Hesperides and works by Praxiteles, and then describes the cedar Chest of Cypselus, in which the infant Cypselus was hidden. He explains the inscriptions in boustrophedon and describes the first field of its reliefs, the chariot race of Pelops and Oenomaus, the house of Amphiaraus and the funeral games of Pelias.
Pausanias, Description of Greece 10.30.1–9Delphi: Polygnotus' painting of the underworld (3): the daughters of Pandareos, Phocus, Orpheus and ThamyrisPausanias continues the underworld painting with the daughters of Pandareos, Antilochus, Agamemnon, Protesilaus, Achilles and Patroclus, and Phocus giving a signet to Iaseus. He describes Maera, Actaeon with his mother and hound, and Orpheus seated in the grove of Proserpine beside the willows and Promedon. He ends with Schedius, Pelias, the blind Thamyris with his broken lyre and Marsyas teaching Olympus to play the flute.