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Voyage to
Colchis: On the voyage to Colchis,
in addition to numerous other adventures, Jason and his crew of
Argonauts freed blind King Phineus from the curse of the
Harpies. These Harpies were frightful flying creatures with
hooked beaks and claws, also known as the Hounds of Zeus, who
daily tormented Phineus.
Whenever he was about to dine the Harpies would swoop down from
the sky and help themselves to the blind man's dinner, defiling
the leftovers with their foul smell. One couldn't stand to be
near the food after they were finished, let alone eat it! Poor
Phineus was starving to death.
King Phineus was a seer and he promised to help the Argonauts if
they rid him of the Harpies. The king's servants set a feast for
Phineus and the Argonauts. Immediately the Harpies darted down
from the sky and in a moment had devoured just about everything,
leaving behind their stench. Yuck!
Swords in hand, Calais and Zetes arose and gave chase to Ocypete
and Aellopus, which were the proper names of the Harpies. These
Argonauts were the swift-flying sons of the North Wind, Boreas.
In not time they caught up with the monsters and would have
killed them had not Iris, Hera's messenger,
intervened.
Promising that the Harpies would never again trouble Phineus, the
goddess of the rainbow Iris beseeched the sons
of Boreas to spare their lives.
"Forbear to kill the Hounds of Zeus," she said,
"and by the waters of the river Styx I swear an unbreakable
oath that Phineus will no longer be troubled by the Harpies."
Cool. It's hard to say "no" to a rainbow...Calais and Zetes
returned with the good news and the grateful Phineus instructed
Jason on navigating the perilous waters, particularly the
Symplegades, these terrifying rocks which had an annoying habit
of clashing together whenever anything passed between them.
Whenever a vessel attempted to pass between the Symplegades the
mist-shrouded rocks drove together, crushing her. But Phineus
instructed Jason to first release a dove - if the bird made it
through the Symplegades, then so would the Argo. If not, turn
around and go home, it was hopeless.
Approaching the rocks Jason released the dove and the Argonauts
were ecstatic to see it fly through and come out safely, with
only its tail feathers harmlessly torn away near the end.
Waiting for the rocks to say "ah", the Argonauts blasted
through, with only the extreme end of the Argo's stern ornament
shorn off as they snapped shut behind them.
The best part was, the Symplegades had gotten lockjaw. Evermore
they remained open and never again imperiled sailors.
Getting the Fleece: When they arrived at Colchis,
King Aeetes wasn't about to hand over the Golden Fleece without
a fight. He demanded that Jason accomplish a series of tasks to
earn the Golden Fleece: he must yoke a team of fierce,
fire-breathing bull oxen and plow a field with them; then he
must sow the teeth of a dragon in the field, and deal with the
warlike armored men who sprouted from these "seeds".
As if that wasn't enough, he must brave the sleepless dragon who
guarded the Fleece. Jason accomplished all these tasks with the
help of Medea, Aeetes' daughter, who had fallen in love with
him.
You see, Athena and the goddess Hera, who had helped Jason and
the Argonauts throughout the voyage, had asked the goddess of
love Aphrodite to intervene. Aphrodite instructed her son, Eros,
to let fly an arrow at the heart of beautiful Medea the moment
she laid eyes on Jason. Sure enough, the mischievous Eros did
what he does best and Medea fell madly in love with our hero
Jason.
It's a good thing, too! Medea was a powerful witch and she gave
Jason a charm which, when sprinkled on himself and his weapons,
would make them invincible for a day. Jason subdued the bulls as
they rushed him from their lair, breathing flames of fire from
their nostrils. He harnessed them to the yoke and drove them
over the field, casting the dragon's teeth into the furrows.
In no time a wild-looking and ferocious army of creeps had
sprouted forth and as one they attacked Jason. He dispatched a
bunch of them with his sword and then, remembering Medea's
words, he flung a stone in their midst. Just like she had told
Jason, his attackers turned on each other and within moments
they all lay dead, as the Argonauts cheered and King Aetes
gritted his teeth.
The King returned to his palace, determined that Jason would
never have the Golden Fleece, but Hera was looking out for the
Argonauts. She made Medea, her heart all aflutter for Jason,
determined to leave with him. As the unsuspecting Argonauts
celebrated Jason's victory and King Aetes conspired on ways to
kill them, she raced to the ship and warned them of her father's
deadly plans. Medea said that her father planned on burning the
Argo and slaying its crew and she vowed to help Jason get the
Golden Fleece, if only he would take her along with him, away
from Colchis.
Grateful Jason promised to marry Medea and make her his queen.
After all, she had saved his life on more than one occasion. She
urged him to get the Fleece quickly and leave, before they were
killed. In the dark of the night they reached the sacred grove
where the Golden Fleece hung. The skilled witch Medea soothed
the loathsome and hissing dragon with incantations and then gave
Jason drops of a magic potion to sprinkle on its eyelids. With
the dragon fast asleep, Jason stealthily unfastened the Fleece
from the oak tree and with Medea hurried down to the waiting
Argo.
The Pursuit: King Aeetes started off in
pursuit of the Argonauts but could not overtake them. Medea's
brother, Apsyrtus, had also joined her aboard the Argo and
during the flight from Colchis Medea killed or took part in the
murder of her brother. It is sometimes said that Medea cut her
brother limb from limb and threw the pieces into the sea and
that, gathering Apsyrtus' limbs, Aeetes fell behind in the
pursuit. But some say that it was Jason who cut Apsyrtus into
pieces to slow down their pursuers, or even that he was, with
Medea's help, treacherously killed by Jason on an island in the
mouth of the river Ister (now known as the Danube). As is the
case in most of mythology, various sources cite different
versions.
According to some, King Styrus of Albania, who had come to
Colchis to marry Medea at the time when the Argonauts arrived in
the country, joined Aeetes, but he drowned during the pursuit.
Because of the death of his son King Aeetes gave up the chase
and returned to Colchis, but he sent many others to search for
the Argonauts, threatening that, if they did not bring the
Golden Fleece and his daughter back to him, they should suffer
the punishment due to her...and he planned on punishing her
plenty!
In the meanwhile, because of the horrendous acts which they had
committed, the Argonauts were driven off course by fierce storms
that Zeus sent. The Argo's oracular branch then spoke and said
that they should seek purification with Circe, a witch living on
the island called Aeaea. The witch Circe, who purified the
Argonauts for the murder of Apsyrtus, is sometimes said to be
the daughter of the sun god Helios. But some say that she was
the daughter of Aeetes by Hecate. Circe was the one who later
would trap Odysseus and his men, turning them into swine. But
that's another story...
When the Argonauts had been purified by Circe they sailed past
the Sirens, who tried to attract the crew with their seductive
song. Orpheus, by chanting a counter melody restrained all of
them except for Butes, who was unable to resist their
enchanting song and swam off to the Sirens. However he was saved
by Aphrodite, who carried him away and settled him in Lilybaeum
(the island of Sicily).
During the escape the Argonauts received help from the the
goddess Thetis and her Nereids, who were fifty sea-nymphs, in
order to avoid the danger of Scylla and Charybdis, sea monsters
guarding each side of the passage between Sicily and Italy.
Scylla is one of the sea-monsters which was on one side of the
Strait of Messina, between Italy and Sicily, the other being
Charybdis. Scylla had the face and upper body of a woman, but
from the flanks she had six heads and twelve feet of dogs. Not a
pretty sight.
Charybdis was a sea-monster, who three times a day drew up the
water of the sea and then spouted it again, thus forming a
whirlpool. She lay in wait on one side of the narrow Strait of
Messina, and on the other side was Scylla. The two sides were so
close to each other that one could even shoot an arrow across.
So sailors, on trying to avoid Charybdis became the victims of
Scylla.
Before they returned to Iolcus the Argonauts landed at Crete,
where Medea killed the giant bronze creature called Talos, who
guarded the island and threw huge rocks at any approaching ship.
Four months after the start of the voyage, the Argo returned
home.
But when they reached Iolcus Jason found out that his parents
and brother Promachus had been killed - Mean King Pelias had
seen to that! Jason surrendered the Golden Fleece as per the
agreement and dedicated the mighty Argo to Poseidon. He then
conspired with Medea as to how to punish King Pelias for the
murder of his kin.
To avenge her new husband's family Medea caused King Pelias'
daughters to cut him into pieces and put them into a boiling
pot, thinking that this "magic" would restore their father's
youth. They were dead wrong! The daughters were hysterical once
they realized that they had murdered their own father. Too late.
With Pelias dead, Acastus, the king's son and one of the
Argonauts, became king, and having buried his father, or what
was left of him, he expelled Jason and Medea from Iolcus. They
settled in Corinth, had two sons and lived happily for ten
years. But Jason eventually grew restless, dumped Medea, the
"foreign witch" as everybody called her, and took on a younger
wife called Glauce, who was the daughter of the King of Corinth.
Bad move. Medea, who had done so much out of her love for Jason,
including betraying her father, murdering her brother and
causing the death of King Pelias, grew most bitter and sought
revenge. So with the help of poisonous drugs she made a golden
crown and bade her sons give it as a gift to their stepmother
Glauce. Once worn, the crown burned its wearer. When this was
done the evil woman killed her own sons and fled to Athens.
Some say that the young princess Glauce accepted the gift, and
was burned to death along with Jason and Creon, her father. But
others say that Jason survived, yet, unable to endure the loss
of both wife and children, killed himself. Still others say that
Medea cursed him a foul death: that the wreckage of the Argo
would fall upon Jason and kill him...and that's what happened.
JASON & THE
ARGONAUTS PAGE ONE
GREATEST HEROES OF
GREEK MYTHOLOGY
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