Jason

Alternate Names

According to some traditions, Jason was originally called Diomedes.^[1]

Family Tree

Origins

Jason was the son of Aeson, the rightful king of Iolcus in northern Greece. Aeson’s half-brother Pelias, however, overthrew Aeson when Jason was a newborn. Aeson knew that Pelias wanted to dispose of Jason, as he was a potential rival for the throne, so he gave him to the centaur Chiron for safekeeping. As predicted, Pelias soon began to fear challengers to his throne. An oracle warned him to beware a man wearing only one sandal. 

Jason was reared and trained by Chiron in the mountains. Once he had reached adulthood, he set out to reclaim his father’s rightful throne in Iolcus. On his journey, he came to a river. An old woman on the bank (actually Hera in disguise) asked him to help her make the crossing. Jason took the old woman on his shoulders and carried her across the river, but lost one of his sandals to the rushing stream. He thus entered Iolcus wearing only one sandal.

As soon as Pelias saw that Jason was wearing only one sandal, he understood the oracle and feared that Jason would take away his throne. Wanting to be rid of Jason once and for all, he sent him on what he thought to be an impossible mission: to retrieve the Golden Fleece. Jason accepted the challenge.

The Golden Fleece

The Golden Fleece coveted by Pelias had a strange origin. Years before, the Boeotian king Athamas had had two children, Phrixus and Helle, by his first wife, the goddess Nephele. Athamas’ second wife, Ino, hated her stepchildren and plotted to get rid of them. 

As part of her plan, Ino roasted the crop seeds of the city so that they would not grow. The people were frightened by the famine, and men were sent to seek advice from an oracle. Ino bribed the men to say that the famine would end if Phrixus and Helle were sacrificed. 

Before the sacrifice could be carried out, however, Nephele sent a flying golden ram to carry her children away. Helle fell off as they were crossing the narrow strait separating Europe from Asia, which was subsequently called the Hellespont after her. 

Phrixus made it to the city of Colchis on the Black Sea, where the king, Aeetes, welcomed him and gave him his daughter Calchiope’s hand in marriage. In gratitude, Phrixus sacrificed the golden ram that had saved him and gave its precious fleece to Aeetes. This was the Golden Fleece that Pelias ordered Jason to retrieve.

The Argo and the Argonauts

To get to the Golden Fleece, Jason had to make the long and dangerous sea journey to Colchis, on the far side of the Black Sea. Jason knew that he would need a good ship and a brave crew. With Athena’s help, the shipbuilder Argus created Jason’s famous vessel, the Argo, named after its builder. It was the greatest ship of Greek mythology. 

Jason then set out to put together his crew, bringing together some of the mightiest heroes of his time. The so-called “Argonauts” included Heracles, Castor and Polydeuces (also called the Dioscuri), the Calydonian hero Meleager, the divine musician Orpheus, Peleus (the father of Achilles), and Peleus’ brother Telamon. According to some sources, the Arcadian heroine Atalanta was also among the Argonauts.^[5] 

In Apollonius of Rhodes’ epic poem Argonautica, the Argonauts were later joined by Phrixus’ four sons (Argus, Melas, Phrontis, and Cytisorus), who were found stranded on a desert island.^[6]

The Voyage of the Argonauts

On their way to Colchis, Jason and the Argonauts enjoyed a series of colorful adventures. 

Lemnos

The Argonauts first put in on the island of Lemnos, off the coast of Asia Minor (modern Turkey). There they encountered a society of women who had all killed their husbands. Years before, Aphrodite, furious at the women of Lemnos for neglecting her worship, had punished them—she made it so that their husbands could not bear to be near them and instead took concubines from the mainland. The jealous women of Lemnos then murdered their husbands; only Thoas, the king, managed to escape with the help of his daughter Hypsipyle. The women of Lemnos, now living without men, made Hypsipyle their queen.

When the Argonauts came to Lemnos, they took lovers among the women there. Hypsipyle partnered with Jason and bore him twin sons named Eueneus and Thoas (according to most sources).^[7]

Cyzicus

After leaving Lemnos, the Argonauts came to the land of the Doliones on the coast of the Sea of Marmara. Cyzicus, the king of the Doliones, received Jason and the Argonauts and entertained them generously. 

But after the Argonauts left, they were driven back at nightfall by adverse winds. The Doliones, not recognizing their former guests in the darkness, attacked the ship, leading to casualties on both sides. Among those killed in the chaos was King Cyzicus. 

In the morning, both sides realized their mistake. The Argonauts were deeply saddened by the death of Cyzicus and held a funeral for him before departing again.

Heracles and Hylas

On one of their landfalls, the Argonaut Hylas, Heracles’ young male lover, wandered inland and was carried away by nymphs. Heracles searched far and wide for Hylas but could not find him, and the ship eventually sailed away without them. The Argonauts thus lost Heracles before even reaching Colchis.

Amycus

The Argonauts then arrived at the land of the Bebryces, where they received a tense welcome. The king of the Bebryces, Amycus, was a son of Poseidon who challenged all strangers to a boxing competition. The Argonauts sent their own champion boxer, Polydeuces, to take Amycus on. Polydeuces defeated and killed Amycus, and in the aftermath, the Argonauts successfully defended themselves against an attack by the Bebryces.

Phineus and the Harpies

Drawing nearer to Colchis, the Argonauts stopped at Salmydessus in Thrace. Phineus, the king of Salmydessus, was a blind seer who had incurred the anger of the gods. As punishment, the food set out for Phineus every day was stolen by the Harpies, winged monsters that were half-bird and half-woman. 

Jason took pity on the wasted Phineus and vowed to help him. Two of the Argonauts, Calais and Zetes, were the sons of the North Wind and so had the power of flight; Jason sent them to chase away the Harpies. 

The grateful Phineus revealed to the Argonauts the way to Colchis and gave them advice on how to successfully make it through the Symplegades, or the “Clashing Rocks.”

The Symplegades

To finally get to Colchis, the Argonauts needed to clear one last hurdle: the Symplegades, sometimes called the “Clashing Rocks.” These were two huge cliffs that came together and crushed anything that passed between them. 

Phineus told the Argonauts to unleash a dove before they attempted to pass through the Symplegades. If the dove made it through, they were to row with all their strength. If the dove did not make it, they were destined to fail. 

The Argonauts followed Phineus’ instructions: the dove made it through, losing only a few tail feathers as the rocks closed. The Argonauts then rowed their ship through the rocks, taking only minor damage on the stern. After the Argo had passed, the Symplegades stood still and no longer posed a threat to travellers.

Colchis

When the Argonauts finally reached Colchis, Jason went to see King Aeetes to claim the Golden Fleece. Aeetes promised to let Jason have the fleece if he could yoke a pair of fire-breathing bulls and harness them to plow a field and sow it with dragons’ teeth. 

Aeetes was confident that Jason would never survive the task. But Jason’s patron-goddess Hera, helped by Aphrodite, caused Medea, the daughter of Aeetes and a powerful witch, to fall in love with Jason. Medea promised to help Jason if he agreed to take her home with him and make her his wife. When Jason consented, Medea explained to him how he could accomplish Aeetes’ tasks. 

Medea gave Jason an ointment that would prevent the bulls’ fire from harming him. After Jason had yoked the bulls and sown the dragons’ teeth, an army of warriors sprouted from the earth. But before they could attack, Jason threw a stone into their midst, following Medea’s instructions. Not knowing where the stone came from, the warriors slew each other. 

Although Jason successfully completed these impossible tasks, Aeetes reneged on his promise and refused to hand over the Golden Fleece. Thus, at nightfall, Medea took Jason to the grove where the Golden Fleece was kept, guarded by a giant serpent. Medea put the serpent to sleep with a special drug, and Jason was able to steal the fleece. With Medea at his side, Jason rounded up the Argonauts and sailed away from Colchis.

The Return Voyage

The Argonauts’ return to Greece as they escaped the furious Aeetes was no less eventful than their voyage to Colchis.

Apsyrtus

When Aeetes discovered that Jason and Medea had stolen the Golden Fleece, he was furious and set out to pursue them. He almost caught the Argonauts as they were leaving or shortly thereafter, but Medea helped Jason distract him by killing Aeetes’ son (and her brother) Apsyrtus. In the version recounted by Apollodorus, Medea cut Apsyrtus’ body into pieces and cast them into the sea. Aeetes stopped to gather the pieces, and his pursuit was slowed.^[8]

Circe

After outrunning Aeetes, the Argonauts were blown off course by a storm that almost destroyed their ship. When they ran aground, the helm of the Argo spoke to them, revealing that Zeus was angry with Jason and Medea for the unholy murder of Apsyrtus. In order to be purified of their crime, the Argonauts sailed to the island of Circe, a daughter of the sun god Helios and a powerful sorceress.

The Sirens

After leaving Circe’s island, the Argonauts sailed past the Sirens. The Sirens lived on a series of small, rocky islands and lured sailors to their death by singing beautiful, haunting songs. The Argonauts were able to escape the Sirens with Orpheus’ help: as the Sirens began to sing, Orpheus played an even more beautiful tune that drowned out their voices.

The Island of the Phaeacians

The Argonauts next made a stop at the island of the Phaeacians, ruled by Alcinous and his queen, Arete. There the Colchians caught up to them. But because Jason and Medea were now married (Arete had hastily married them in secret), Alcinous refused to send Medea back to Aeetes. The Argonauts then sailed away, while many of the Colchians settled on the nearby islands.

Talos

The Argonauts then came to Crete, guarded by Talos. Talos was a bronze giant with a single vein running from his neck to his ankle. As the Argo passed, Talos started hurling boulders at the ship and the crew. Medea was able to kill Talos by enchanting him and causing him to graze his ankle on a rock, so that he cut his vein and bled to death.^[9]

Return to Iolcus

Jason finally returned to Iolcus with the Golden Fleece, only to find that Pelias had brought about his parents’ deaths during his absence.^[10] Jason enlisted Medea’s help to seek vengeance. 

Medea came to the palace of Iolcus and convinced Pelias’ daughters that she had the power to restore their father’s youth. In a demonstration, she picked out the oldest sheep in their herd, cut it into pieces, and boiled it with magical herbs: a lamb leapt out of the cauldron. Pelias’ daughters, trusting Medea, cut their father into pieces and boiled him; but Medea did not add the magical herbs, and Pelias died at his daughters’ hands.

The people of Iolcus were horrified by the brutal murder of Pelias and feared Medea. Thus, Jason was banished by Pelias’ son Acastus.

Jason’s Treachery

Jason and Medea went to the city of Corinth, where they lived as husband and wife for some years. But Jason’s eye eventually wandered, and he became engaged to Glauce, the daughter of the Corinthian king Creon. 

The jealous Medea sent Glauce a poisoned robe: as soon as Glauce put it on, she burst into flames. Her father and the attendants who tried to help her were burned alive with her. 

In the most familiar version of this story, recounted in Euripides’ tragedy Medea, Medea then murdered her children by Jason and escaped to Athens. In another version, however, Medea did not murder her children but instead abandoned them in Corinth when she escaped, leaving them to be killed by the angry Corinthians.^[11] 

Death

After betraying Medea and losing his children by her, Jason lost divine favor. In Euripides’ Medea, his death is foretold by Medea before she leaves Corinth:

...you, as is fitting, shall die the miserable death of a coward, struck on the head by a piece of the Argo, having seen the bitter result of your marriage to me.^[12]

One day, sure enough, Jason was sitting beneath the Argo when a rotting piece of it fell on his head and killed him.13