The Mythology
The myth about "Jason and the Argonauts" deals with falsehood, betrayal and deceit, heroic deeds and legendary characters, hatred and jealousy, pride and glory, magic and mystery and finally, a tragic ending.
In Thessaly and Colchis
The saga starts in Thessaly, where king Athamas rules with his wife Nephele and his twins Phrixos and Helle. One day, Athamas repudiates Nephele and takes Ino as his new wife. However, Ino hates the twins and thus designs a cruel plot to get rid of them.
She initiates a famine and manipulates an oracle which now asks for Phrixos to be sacrificed to end it. Nephele finds out about Phrixos’ and Helle's fate and she prays to the gods to save him. Hearing her prayers Hermes sends a magical gold ram flying to earth to rescue Phrixos and his sister Helle. However, only Phrixos arrives at their destination, a foreign land called ‘Colchis’, as Helle falls off the ram and dies.
The king of Colchis, Aeetes, kindly welcomes Phrixos and later marries his daughter to him. Being blessed by the gods Phrixos sacrifices the gold ram and presents the Golden Fleece to Aeetes as a gift.
Aeetes has the precious fleece guarded by a fierce dragon. A prophecy has told Aeetes that he will live as long as the Golden Fleece is in his possession.
Back to Thessaly
Pelias, son of the sea god Poseidon, now rules over Thessaly. He usurped the throne by killing his own brother Aeson. Just before Pelias was able to kill Aeson's son Jason he was brought to safety and lives with Chiron, a centaur, in hiding since. Chiron had taught many heroes before and also Jason has become a strong and wise man unter Chiron's guidance. Finally, Chiron sends Jason out to reclaim the throne and thus his father's legacy since Jason is the rightful king of Thessaly.
Pelias bears the cross of an oracle predicting that a man with just one sandal will come and claim his throne. Indeed, when Jason arrives at Pelias’ palace at the Poseidon’s Festival he is wearing only one sandal having lost the second one on his journey. Pelias realizes that the oracle has come true. He pretends to acknowledge Jason’s claim to the throne, on the condition that Jason brings the Golden Fleece in return for the throne. Pelias thinks that this quest is impossible to fulfill and that Jason will die.
However, Jason agrees to Pelias' condition. So he asks Argus, a famous shipwright, to build a ship for him. Furthermore, he gathers some of the greatest heroes of ancient Greece around him. Heracles, Philoctetes, Peleus, Telamon, Orpheus, Castor and Pollux and the Boread brothers come to participate in this adventure, just to name a few. Jason gains Athene's affection due to his courage and thus the goddess blesses the Argo, named after Argus. So, the "Argonauts" are ready to set the sail.
A dangerous journey
On their way to Colchis, the Argonauts meet many challenges. At the isle of Lemnos they have to face strange women who killed their husbands and now live under the leadership of a self-entitled queen. Later on, the crew lands about the Doliones, whose king Kyzicos treats them graciously. When they depart, a storm emerges leaving the Argo completely confused and without any orientation. As they land on the same spot again, they don't realize where they are in the darkness. Hence, they take the Doliones for enemies and start fighting each other. In Mysia, they lose one of their men who got attracted and pulled into a stream by nymphs when searching for food and water.
Finally, the heroes reach Bythynia where king Phineus reigns. He once was given the the gift of prophecy, yet he had to decide whether he wants to live a long life and be blinded or otherwise to have sight and lead only a short life. His choice of being blind enrages Helios because Phineus refuses to live under the sun the God provides. As consequence, Helios sends Phineus strange creatures, namely the so-called Harpies, which are half women and half birds-of-prey. Their task is to prevent Phineus from eating any more than what is necessary to survive. The Argonauts take pity on the blind man and put the Harpies to flight. In return for this favour, Phineus tells Jason the way to the Symplegades and how to pass them.
The Symplegades are giant rocks which draw together and smash everything travelling between them. Yet, Phineus has given Jason a dove. He told him, that he should release the dove when approaching the "Crashing Rocks". Jason does what he was told and the rocks draw near. They smashed against each other but the dove makes it through. When afterwards the Symplegades part from each other again, the heroes row with all their might. The rocks draw near again with a tremedous roar but with the help of Athene the Argo makes it through as well. Since then, the magic of the Symplegades has vanished and the "Crashing Rocks" are standing still.
In Colchis
Finally, the Argonauts arrive at Colchis where Jason directly steps in front of king Aeetes to claim the Golden Fleece. Like Pelias before, Aeetes also sets one condition for the delivery of the artefact: He asks Jason to tame two fiery bulls and to plough the fields with them.
Medea, the daughter of Aeetes who is skilled in magic, immediately falls in love with Jason the first time she sees him. Thus, she fears for Jason since she knows how dangerous these strange creatures are. She decides to help him and hands him over some magical balm which makes Jason invulnerable for one day. The next morning, Jason is brought to the barn of the two bulls. A servant opens the door and the fight begins. The bulls' fiery breath is absolutely ineffective due to the protection of Medea's balm. Finally, Jason accomplishes to appease the bulls and really ploughs the fields with them.
Aeetes is shocked but directly thinks up a new plan to get Jason eliminated. Solemnly, he hands over seeds to Jason and asks him to ritually sow them onto the fields. Jason doesn't know, that the seeds actually are magic dragon teeth. Right after he sowed them, strange iron men with rusty swords grow from them. Full of hate, they immediately attack Jason. Again, it is up to Medea to save her beloved by throwing a stone amongst the creatures which are distracted from Jason. They start fighting for the stone and even kill each other. Even though Aeetes now has to fulfill his promise, Medea is aware of the fact that her father will never do so.
As consequence, she conjures Jason to steal the Golden Fleece at night and to leave Colchis straight away. Jason agrees and so they both leave for the grove where a fierce dragon guards the artefact. No man would have been able to defeat this creature with sword and shield, yet Medea accomplishes to disable the dragon with her magical skills. They take the Golden Fleece and immediately set sails heading towards Thessaly.
The return to Iolkos
As Jason and his fellows return to Iolkos in Thessaly they step in front of Pelias with the Golden Fleece in their hands. Yet, the false king does not even think about to keep his promise. Once again, Medea solves the problem: She slaughters an old ram and put it into a cauldron filled with magical ingredients infront of Pelias' children. She casts some magic spells and right out of the cauldron steps a reborn ram. Pelias' children are amazed for they know about their father's wish to be much younger again. Hence, they ask Medea to do the same with Pelias. His children killed him and Medea simply refuse to perform her ritual once more: The false king of Thessaly has vanished! However, the throne of Iolkos shall be refused to Jason though. Akastos, son of Pelias, gathers all his man and banishes Jason, who fleed to Corinth with Medea.
They spend many prosperous years there and Medea bears two children, Mermeros and Pheres, during this time. At this stage, the story could come to a happy ending. Yet, Jason succumbs to the charm of Glauce, the daughter of the corinthian king Creon, who offers his daughter to him as his wife. Jason even asks Medea to voluntarily renounce their marriage. She agrees but immediately thinks up a cruel plan to take revenge. She offers a beautiful wedding gown to Glauce as a gift. However, Medea has soaked it with poison so Glauce horribly dies when she puts on the vesture. Being terribly enraged, Medea even kills her own two children and vanishes.
When Jason returns to their home he finds his own children lying dead in their own blood. Now, he's overcome by strong senses of guilt and he ends his life by his own hands.