The Argonauts
Fifty-odd heroes aboard the Argo — Heracles, Orpheus, Castor and Pollux, Atalanta, Peleus
Myth · Greek
Jason
Greek mythology — hero, captain of the Argonauts
The prince of Iolcus sent to fetch the Golden Fleece from Colchis by his usurping uncle Pelias, who expected the quest to kill him. He assembled the greatest crew in myth aboard the Argo, won the Fleece with the help of the sorceress Medea, and came home to a marriage that ended in the most famous revenge in Greek tragedy. Apollonius of Rhodes told the voyage; Euripides told the aftermath.
How to spot them
- ▸Arrived at court with one sandal, having carried a disguised goddess across a river
- ▸Quiz clue: 'Iolcus', 'Pelias', 'Colchis', 'Aeëtes', 'the Symplegades'
- ▸Raised in the wild by the centaur Chiron
- ▸The Golden Fleece, and the ship built by Argus with a speaking prow from Dodona
Stories & episodes
Arrived at his uncle's court wearing a single sandal, fulfilling a prophecy
Pelias had been warned to beware a man with one bare foot
Passed the Clashing Rocks by sending a dove through ahead of the ship
The Symplegades closed on the dove's tail feathers and then on the ship's stern ornament
Ploughed a field with fire-breathing bronze-hoofed bulls and sowed dragon's teeth
The task set by Aeëtes; the armed men who sprang up were set fighting each other
Drugged the sleepless serpent coiled around a golden ram's hide
Medea's potion let him take the Fleece and flee Colchis
His uncle was boiled by his own daughters on a witch's advice
Medea persuaded Pelias's daughters that dismembering him would restore his youth
His wife killed their own children when he left her for a Corinthian princess
The plot of Euripides' tragedy of 431 BC
Killed in old age by a falling beam from the rotting hulk of his own ship
An inglorious end for the captain of the greatest voyage in myth
Quick-fire facts
- •Son of Aeson, rightful king of Iolcus in Thessaly; his uncle Pelias had seized the throne
- •He was raised and taught by the centaur Chiron, tutor of Achilles too
- •The Argo was built by Argus, with a beam from the prophetic oak of Dodona set in her prow
- •The Golden Fleece came from the ram Chrysomallos, which had carried Phrixus and Helle — Helle fell off, giving the Hellespont its name
- •Apollonius of Rhodes's Argonautica (3rd century BC) is the great surviving epic of the voyage
- •Medea was the daughter of King Aeëtes of Colchis and a priestess of Hecate
- •Euripides' Medea (431 BC) ends with her escaping in the chariot of the Sun
- •The 1963 film Jason and the Argonauts is famous for Ray Harryhausen's fighting skeletons
Drill it — 9 cards
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Sources
- Apollonius of Rhodes — Argonautica The voyage out, the tasks at Colchis and the return
- Apollodorus — The Library (Bibliotheca) Book 1.9 gives the Argonaut catalogue and the fate of Pelias