Argonauts

The Argonauts are a group of heroes in Greek mythology who accompanied Jason on his expedition to find the Golden Fleece with many adventures along the way. Their story is one of the most popular and long-lasting legends of Greek mythology, a classic adventure that has been told to audiences of all ages for thousands of years. Jason and the Argonauts are the ancient representation of every Greek boy’s dream about how to become a hero and find true love. Their tale is also a story about fear, anger, greed, jealousy, pride, and their consequences. The story is known as a myth, which for the ancient Greeks meant that it is anchored in reality, and most of the adventures encountered during the journey have links to real people, events, and places. Although myths were partially historical tales, their main purpose was entertainment, influencing authors to add extra adventures to display their skills and make the version more exciting.

Background

The story, as it is known today, comes mainly from Apollonius of Rhodes’s Argonautica, written in Alexandria, Egypt, in about 250 bce., at the time of the Ptolemaic kings of Egypt, although some researchers dispute the date and place it a generation later. Argonautica was based on multiple ancient sources (including Homer and Pindar) and is the only surviving Hellenistic epic, having a great influence on Latin poetry. Jason was the son of Aeson, king of Iolcus in Thessaly. Pelias, who stole the Iolcus kingdom from Aeson, tries to prevent Jason from claiming the throne and persuades Jason to go on a dangerous quest to capture the Golden Fleece, which was held by the king of Colchis, a region at the eastern end of the Euxine (Black) Sea, near the Caucasus Mountains.

To accompany him on the voyage Jason chose fifty of the noblest men in Greece, including Hercules, Orpheus, Castor and Pollux, and Peleus. Along the journey, the heroes stop at Lemnos, where they meet the female warriors called Amazons, then they sail to the country of the Doliones, where they are hospitably received. After their departure, however, they are driven back to the same place by a storm and attacked by the Doliones, who did not recognize them; in the battle Jason kills their king. In Bebryces, the Argonauts are challenged by King Amycus, who forces all passing travelers to box with him. Polydeuces accepts the challenge and defeats him.

Another notable adventure is the rescue of Phineus from the Harpies in Thrace, after which Phineus tells them how to reach Colchis and how to pass through the Cyanean rocks, a task that they accomplish with Athena’s help. When the Argonauts finally reach Colchis, they found that King Aeëtes would not give up the fleece. Medea, the king’s daughter, help Jason to accomplish the tasks assigned by the king. She casts a spell on the dragon that protects the Golden Fleece, so that Jason could retrieve the fleece. Various accounts are given of the journey back; eventually they reached Iolcos and their ship was placed in a grove sacred to Poseidon in the Isthmus of Corinth.

Overview

The name of the Argonauts literally means "Argo sailors" and comes from their ship Argo and its builder, Argus. The Argonauts were also sometimes called Minyans, after a prehistoric tribe in the Aegean region, because Jason’s mother came from that line, and several of his cousins joined in the adventure. There is no definite list of the Argonauts, ancient sources are contradictory in this respect. One possible explanation is that an Argonaut ancestor was a great source of pride and many important Greeks claimed the ancestry.

The myth of Jason and the Golden Fleece may have been an interpretation of early Greek expeditions to the east around the 13th century b.c.e., when the Mycenaean civilization was at its apogee. The tale also presents similarities to a Hittite myth involving a fleece and a god named Telipinu. A third connection with the east is the historical evidence suggesting that the area of Colchis, where Jason and the Argonauts were sent, was one rich in gold, often extracted from rivers and carried using sheepskins. The myths involving Jason and containing elements that fitted universal initiation patterns (gods, superheroes, and monsters) were popular subjects in ancient Greek art. An early example of this fact is offered by a scene on a Corinthian alabastron (pottery or glass vessel holding perfume or oils) and dated to the 7th century bce. The earliest depiction of the Argo comes from a fragmentary architectural element from the Treasury of the Sicyonians at Delphi (c. 570 bce). The presence of various scenes from the journey on Attic, Laconian, Corinthian, Chalcidian, and southern Italian pottery throughout the fifth and sixth centuries bce are evidence of the widespread and long-lasting appeal of the myth.

The Argonauts’s representations were also present in medieval and more modern art; however, due to the limited information about the myth available in the Middle Ages, medieval and early modern art tended to focus on the loves of Jason, rather than the exploits of the hero. Later art generally followed the same trend.

In ancient eras the expedition was regarded as a certain fact that occurred in the opening up of the Black Sea to Greek commerce and colonization. The Argonauts’s heroic adventures and Jason’s relationship with the Colchian princess/sorceress Medea were also already well-known to Hellenistic audiences, and this enabled Apollonius to exceed a simple narrative, and give the story an erudite emphasis. Beside Apollonius’s version of the myth, there have been numerous others adaptations; including in the first century ce, the unfinished epic by Valerius Flaccus, also named Argonautica; and the more recent The Life and Death of Jason (1867); and Hercules, My Shipmate (1945).

Although some adaptations offered new perspectives on the myth, generally they remained faithful to the original story. Throughout the millennia, the quest for the Golden Fleece has become embedded in the cultures of the western world, with the etymology of Argonaut becoming synonymous with "adventurer on a quest", and being reflected in words like astronaut, aeronaut, or cosmonaut. By association, the miners during California's 1849 gold rush for example, were known as Argonauts, because there was no easy way to get to California, and the journey was long and full of dangers.

Bibliography

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Rhodios, A. The Argonautika. Peter Green, trans. Los Angeles: U of California P, 2007. Print.