Jason and the Theft of the Golden Fleece

Author: Apollonius Rhodius

Time Period: 999 BCE–1 BCE

Country or Culture: Greek

Genre: Myth

Overview

The myth of Jason the Argonaut and his theft of the Golden Fleece is told by numerous sources but is most cohesively recorded in Apollonius Rhodius’s Argonautica. The four-book epic was written in the third century BCE during the Hellenistic period, when the famous Library of Alexandria flourished, and it is considered the only surviving epic from that period. Although written specifically for Ptolemaic Alexandria, Apollonius fashioned the Argonautica on the Homeric epic tradition that preceded it. While following the great epic tradition of Homer, Apollonius is also credited with doing much to add to tradition by incorporating studies of geography, phenomena, and peoples and religions. Perhaps because of his fusion of scholarship and storytelling, the Argonautica initially experienced a hostile reception by its audiences, but it eventually grew in success once it was translated into Latin. In translation, it influenced Roman writers Valerius Flaccus, Catullus, Ovid, and perhaps most important, Virgil. Appreciation of the Argonautica has also grown in modern scholarship, where the work and its author have received admiration for its unprecedented poetic and empirical techniques.

The story of the Argonautica begins in Jason’s kingdom, Iolcus (Iolcos); however, when Jason was a young boy his evil uncle, Pelias, assumed power, and Jason was secretly whisked away by those who feared Pelias would try to kill him. After receiving a prophesy that a stranger wearing only one sandal would herald his destruction, Pelias is greeted by his long-lost nephew, Jason, who has returned to take back his kingdom, having lost one of his sandals along the way. Pelias tells Jason that he will return the kingdom to Jason only if he brings him the Golden Fleece, a sacred gift of Zeus that hangs in a tree in distant Colchis, where it is protected by a dragon. Jason accepts Pelias’s challenge and assembles a crew of heroes, said to be the most famous crew there ever was, including Heracles, Theseus, and Orpheus. The crew departs for their journey on the ship named Argo (meaning “swift”), which is assembled with a plank of divine wood and thought by the Greeks to be the first boat to have both a name and a personality. Before reaching Colchis, the crew, captained by Jason, encounters many different peoples and endures different heroic trials. After successfully obtaining the sought-after Golden Fleece, Jason and the Argonauts are pursued by irate Colchians, experience many more difficulties, and finally return home to Iolcus.

Analysis of Jason and his crew reveals Jason to be a highly problematic hero, while Medea, the traitorous daughter of the Colchian king and later wife of Jason, proves a formidable female character.

Summary

When the Argonauts finally reach Colchis, Jason decides that it would be most diplomatic of him to negotiate calmly for the Golden Fleece with the king, Aeetes. The king receives the strangers warmly and offers them a banquet; however, when Jason brings up the Golden Fleece, King Aeetes erupts with anger. Thinking the tasks impossible, Aeetes tells Jason that the fleece is his only if he ploughs the fields of Ares with fire-breathing oxen, sows dragon’s teeth into four acres of land, and then cuts down the crop of armed men. With reluctance, Jason accepts the challenge. Meanwhile Aeetes’s daughter, Medea, a young princess with magical powers, has been shot by Eros’s arrow and fallen in love with Jason. Fearing the fate of her four nephews, whom the Argo has captured, and the fate of her love interest, Medea gives Jason the magical powers he needs to complete the tasks. On the day of the trial, Jason performs the impossible tasks with ease, and the third book ends with Aeetes in a state of disbelief, already speculating about Jason’s feats and scheming ways to prevent him from obtaining the fleece, which he has rightly earned.

The fourth book of the Argonautica begins with the invocation of the muse, who is asked to tell of the labor and wiles of Medea, who after treasonously assisting her love, Jason, in his quest to obtain the Golden Fleece, has made the hasty decision to flee her home with her four nephews. She approaches the camp of Jason and his Argonauts cautiously and asks that Jason help her escape, reminding him that she is in this precarious position because she helped him. Jason not only assures his assistance but also promises to marry her when they return to his home. The pair then goes about obtaining the Golden Fleece; Medea uses her magic to subdue the dragon, allowing Jason to attain the glorious fleece.

They return to the others and assemble to depart on the Argo, suspecting by now that the Colchians will be in pursuit. One of the two fleets chasing the Argo sails into the Propontis, while the other ship, captained by Medea’s brother, Apsyrtus, tails the Argo up the Ister River. Apsyrtus eventually corners the Argo on the Brygean islands in the Sea of Cronos, where the two crews decide to make peace by allowing Jason to keep his rightfully earned fleece under the condition that Medea’s fate be decided by a third-party mediator. Fearing the outcome of this, Medea devises a different plan and lures her brother into a trap in which he is murdered and then dismembered by Jason. Without their leader, Apsyrtus’s crew does not put up much of a fight, and they decide that instead of returning home to announce their failure, they will reestablish themselves elsewhere. Zeus, enraged by this brutal murder, decides to delay the Argonauts’ return home.

The Argonauts are blown north up the Eridanus River and then through to the Sardinian Sea, where they are met by the witch Circe (Kirkê), the daughter of Perse and Helios. There Jason, Medea, and the Argonauts supplicate before Circe, the only one capable of cleansing them from their bloodguilt and thus freeing them from Zeus’s curse. Circe cleanses them from their guilt, but she notably scorns Medea, telling her that her crimes are intolerable and will likely be avenged and then asking her to leave.

Meanwhile on Olympus, Hera asks the goddess Iris to summon the nymph Thetis so that they might have a conversation. The two have an amicable chat during which Hera informs Thetis that her young son, the future hero Achilles, will eventually marry Medea in the Elysian Fields. After sharing this information with the water nymph, Hera asks her to protect Medea and the Argonauts by ensuring that the Argo makes it safely to the south.

“And as a maiden catches on her finely wrought robe the gleam of the moon at the full, as it rises above her high-roofed chamber; and her heart rejoices as she beholds the fair ray; so at that time did Jason uplift the mighty fleece in his hands; and from the shimmering of the flocks of wool there settled on his fair cheeks and brow a red flush like a flame. And great as is the hide of a yearling ox or stag, which huntsmen call a brocket, so great in extent was the fleece all golden above.”

The Argo successfully passes the treacherous Sirens, beautiful songstresses who are notorious for luring sailors to doom with their enchanting songs. One of the Argonauts, Butes, falls overboard and comes close dying, but he is rescued by the goddess Cypris. Next, the Argo encounters the dangerous Wandering Rocks that boom beneath the sea and cause great and powerful surges. At this point, the crew is assisted by the Nereids, who protect them from danger. After making it through these obstacles, the Argo lands at Drepane, where it encounters another fleet from Colchis. Intent on preventing any harm from occurring on his soil, the king of Drepane, Alcinous, offers to mediate the conflict. In private, he tells his wife, Aretê, that his plan is to surrender Medea to the Colchians unless he finds out that she is married. Aretê takes pity on Medea and reveals Alcinous’s plan to her and Jason. The couple then secretly marry, preventing Alcinous’s plan from coming to fulfillment. Unsuccessful in their attempt to capture Medea, the Colchians think better of returning home and, like the previous fleet, decide to settle there.

When the Argonauts depart from Drepane, another strong wind blows them off course to the southern sandbank called Syrtis. Trapped on the sandbank, which renders their ship essentially useless, the Argonauts are overwhelmed with feelings of helplessness. They assume they have met their ends in Syrtis and go about preparing for their doom. Medea and her maids huddle together and lament their dismal fates. When it seems that all is lost, Jason is encountered by three nymphs, who provide him with unusual instructions for survival. When Jason shares these instructions, Peleus interprets them as meaning that the crew must carry their ship across the desert. After twelve days of trekking, they arrive at the Garden of the Hesperides and Lake Triton.

While they are gathered with the Hesperides, the nymph Aegle tells them that Heracles had been to the garden and raided it only one day before their arrival. During the group’s time with the Hesperides, Canthus encounters and is killed by a shepherd defending his flock. On the same day, Mopsus is bitten by a snake and is poisoned to death. Orpheus decides that it would be a good idea to offer libations to the gods and to fetch the tripod for Apollo from the Argo; when they arrive at the ship, Triton, the messenger god of the sea, is waiting for them. He tells them of a route from the lake that opens into the sea, and he offers Euphemus a magical piece of the earth that will be used to become the island Thera. The Argonauts take Triton’s suggested route and land at the island Anaphe. The heroes set up worship to the god Apollo. They also found Aegina, where they have a festival and competitions. The story finishes here, and the heroes eventually make it home with no further adventures to report.

Bibliography

Apollonius Rhodius. Apollonius Rhodius, the Argonautica. Trans. R. C. Seaton. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1961. Print.

Clauss, James Joseph. The Best of the Argonauts: The Redefinition of the Epic Hero in Book One of Apollonius’s Argonautica. Berkeley: U of California P, 1993. Print.

DeForest, Mary Margolies. Apollonius’ Argonautica: A Callimachean Epic. New York: Brill, 1994. Print.

Euripides. Medea and Other Plays. Trans. James Morwood. New York: Oxford UP, 1997. Print.

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Hunter, Matthew L. Jason and Medea: A Whirlwind of Ruin. New York: IUniverse, 2005. Print.