Jason and the Golden Fleece

The Greek tale of Jason and the Golden Fleece has been told for 3,000 years. It's a classic
hero's quest tale - a sort of ancient Greek mission impossible - in which the hero embarks on a
sea voyage into an unknown land, with a great task to achieve. He is in search of a magical
ram's fleece, which he has to find in order to reclaim his father's kingdom of Iolkos from the
usurper King Pelias.

The Greeks have retold and reinterpreted it many times since, changing it as their
knowledge of the physical world increased.

The story is a set a generation before the time of the Trojan War, around 1300 BC, but the
first known written mention of it comes six centuries later, in the age of Homer (800 BC). The
tale came out of the region of Thessaly, in Greece, where early epic poetry developed. The
Greeks have retold and reinterpreted it many times since, changing it as their knowledge of
the physical world increased.

No one knows for sure where the earliest poets set the adventure, but by 700 BC the poet
Eumelos set the tale of the Golden Fleece in the kingdom of Aia, a land that at the time was
thought to be at the eastern edge of the world. At this point the Jason story becomes fixed as
an expedition to the Black Sea. The most famous version, penned by Apollonius of Rhodes,
who was head of the library at Alexandria, was composed in the third century BC, after the
invasion of Asia by Alexander the Great.

Since the 1870s a series of excavations at Mycenae, Knossos, Troy and elsewhere has brought
the Greek Heroic Age - the imaginary time when the great myths were set - to life. The
archaeologists' discoveries of Bronze Age (2300-700 BC) artefacts made it clear that the Greek
myths and epic poems preserve the traditions of a Bronze Age society, and may refer to actual
events of that time. The story could also perhaps represent an age of Greek colonisation
around the shores of the Black Sea.

Jason's task
According to the legend, Jason was deprived of his expectation of the throne of Iolkos (a real
kingdom situated in the locale of present day Volos) by his uncle, King Pelias, who usurped the
throne. Jason was taken from his parents, and was brought up on Mount Pelion, in Thessaly,
by a centaur named Cheiron. Meantime his uncle lived in dread of an oracle's prophecy, which
said he should fear the 'man with one shoe'.

His task would take him beyond the known world to acquire the fleece of a magical
ram that once belonged to Zeus, the king of the gods.

At the age of 20 Jason set off to return to Iolkos - on his journey losing a sandal in the river
while helping Hera, Queen of the Gods, who was in disguise as an old woman. On arriving
before King Pelias, Jason revealed who he was and made a claim to the kingdom. The king
replied, 'If I am to give you the kingdom, first you must bring me the Fleece of the Golden
Ram'.

And this was the hero's quest. His task would take him beyond the known world to acquire the
fleece of a magical ram that once belonged to Zeus, the king of the gods. Jason's ancestor
Phrixus had flown east from Greece to the land of Cochlis (modern day Georgia) on the back of
this ram. King Aietes, son of Helios the sun god, had then sacrificed the ram and hung its
fleece in a sacred grove guarded by a dragon. An oracle foretold that Aietes would lose his
kingdom if he lost the fleece, and it was from Aietes that Jason had to retrieve it.
Why a fleece? Fleeces are connected with magic in many folk traditions. For the ancient
Etruscans a gold coloured fleece was a prophecy of future prosperity for the clan. Recent
discoveries about the Hittite Empire in Bronze Age Anatolia show celebrations where fleeces
were hung to renew royal power. This can offer insight into Jason's search for the fleece and
Aietes' reluctance to relinquish it. The fleece represented kinship and prosperity.

Black Sea colonisation

Ships in the old Turkish harbour at Lemnos, Greece. Legend has it that Lemnos was populated
entirely with women ©

Jason's ship, the Argo, began its journey with a crew of 50 (which swelled to 100, including
Hercules, in subsequent retellings of the myth) - known as the 'Argonauts'. The Greek claim
that the Argo was the first ship ever built can not be true, but Jason's journey was seen by the
ancient Greeks as the first long-distance voyage ever undertaken.

Indeed, the voyage can be seen as a metaphor for the opening up of the Black Sea coast.
Historically, once the Greeks learned to sail into the Black Sea they embarked on a period of
colonisation lasting some 3,000 years - but the time they first arrived in the region is still
controversial. had murdered their husbands after being cursed by Aphrodite. Next the Argo
sailed to Samothrace, where the Argonauts were initiated into the Kabeiroi, a cult of 'great
gods' who were not Greek and who offered protection to seafarers. From Samothrace the
adventurers passed the city of Troy by night, and entered the Sea of Marmara the next day.

The Jason tale is a founding myth for many towns along this shore.

The Jason tale is a founding myth for many towns along this shore. It is, however, most likely
that local accounts of events have arisen out of the story itself, rather than being based on
historic facts that themselves became the basis of the myth.

It is along this stretch of coast that the Argonauts rescue a blind prophet, Phineus, by chasing
away the Harpies - the ugly winged females Zeus had sent to torment Phineus. In return
Phineus prophesies that Jason will be the first mariner to sail through the 'clashing rocks' that
guard the entrance to the Black Sea. The myth arose when Greek sailors were first able to
negotiate their way up the powerful currents of the Bosphorus to enter the Black Sea beyond.
In time the sea was transformed in Greek eyes from Axeinos Pontus, the 'hostile sea' to
Euxeinos Pontus, the 'welcoming sea'.

City of Aia
The story continues with the Argonauts finally reaching the land of Colchis, and the first part of
their quest is achieved. The heroes land and hold council, deciding to walk up to the city of Aia.
Along the way they see bodies wrapped in hides and hung in trees, a sight that travellers in
Georgia recount right up to the 17th century.

The ancient Greeks speak of Aia as a real city on the River Phasis (the modern River Rhion).
Archaeologists have yet to find it, although in 1876 gold treasure was found in this region at
an ancient site near the town of Vani, and it was suggested that this might be the city of the
Argonaut legend. Heinrich Schlieman, the excavator of Troy and Mycenae, proposed to dig
here but was not given permission.

This suggests that some parts of the myth depict the culture of the historical Iron
Age rather than the earlier Bronze Age of Jason.

Then in 1947 excavations revealed that between 600 and 400 BC (the time the Jason legend
took its final shape) Vani was indeed an important Colchin city. The city was not inhabited
during the Heroic Age (when the Jason story is set), but it was the Colchin 'capital' at the time
the Greek poets located the myth here. This suggests that some parts of the myth depict the
culture of the historical Iron Age rather than the earlier Bronze Age of Jason.

The story continues

In the myth, once in Colchis Jason asks King Aietes to return the Golden Fleece. Aietes agrees
to do so if Jason can perform a series of superhuman tasks. He has to yoke fire- breathing
bulls, plough and sow a field with dragons' teeth, and overcome phantom warriors. In the
meantime Aphrodite (the goddess of love) makes Medea, daughter of King Aietes, fall in love
with Jason. Medea offers to help Jason with his tasks if he marries her in return. He agrees,
and is enabled to complete the tasks.

Thus the classic triangle of hero, dark power and female helper is formed, to be
repeated in stories all the way down to Hollywood.

Thus the classic triangle of hero, dark power and female helper is formed, to be repeated in
stories all the way down to Hollywood. And it seems possible that this theme was based on an
even earlier myth. An excavation of the 1920s and 30s, at Boghaz Koy, in central Turkey,
uncovered Indo-European tablets from a Hittite civilisation dating to the 14th century BC. One
of these has an account on it of a story similar to that of Jason and Medea, and may reveal the
prehistory of the myth.

It is not known at what date the Greeks borrowed it, but it very possibly happened in the ninth
or eighth century BC. This was the time when many themes were taken from the east and
incorporated into Greek poetry.

To continue the story. King Aietes organises a banquet, but confides to Medea that he will kill
Jason and the Argonauts rather than surrender the Golden Fleece. Medea tells Jason, and
helps him retrieve the Fleece. From here the Argonauts flee home, encountering further epic
adventures. The ancient storytellers give several versions of the route Jason took back to
Greece, reflecting changes in Greek ideas about the geography of the world.

On the final leg of their journey, the Argonauts are caught in a storm, and after they pray to
Apollo an island appears to them. The inhabitants of modern-day Anafi, 'the one which was
revealed', and which is said to be the island in question, continue to celebrate their part in the
story to this day. They regularly hold a festival inside an ancient temple to Apollo, built on the
spot where legend says Jason gave thanks to the god for his rescue.

Dénouement
On his return to Iolkos Jason discovers that King Pelias has killed his father, and his mother
has died of grief. Medea tricks Pelias by offering to rejuvenate him, and then kills him. Jason
and Medea go into exile in Corinth, where Jason betrays Medea by marrying the king's
daughter. Medea takes revenge by killing her own children by Jason.

Pausanias, in his first-century guidebook to Greece, describes a shrine to the

murdered children next to a temple to Hera, queen of gods, at Corinth.

Pausanias, in his first-century guidebook to Greece, describes a shrine to the murdered

children next to a temple to Hera, queen of gods, at Corinth. Centuries later, in the 1930s, a
British excavation at Perachora uncovered an eighth-century BC temple to Hera, supposedly
dedicated by Medea, near an oracle site with pilgrimage offerings left by women devotees over
many centuries - perhaps there's a historic basis to the myth?

In the end, Jason becomes a wanderer once more, and eventually returns to beached hull of
the Argo. Here the beam of the ship (which was said to speak and was named Dodona) falls on
him and kills him. His story has come full circle - as in all Greek myths, the hero's destiny is in
the hands of the gods.

We know the story of Jason, but not exactly when it was first told. By classical times the myth
had spread across the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, and it continues to fascinate us in our
own day, informing archaeological investigations and bearing continued retellings - a testimony
to the perennial appeal of the tale of the hero's quest.

Bibliography:
Jason and the Golden Fleece (The Argonautica) by Richard Hunter (Oxford World's Classics,
1998)

The Voyage of the Argo by David Slavitt (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999)

Pindar's Mythmaking: The Fourth Pythian Ode by Charles Segal (Princetown University Press,
1986)

Early Greek Myth: A Guide to Literary and Artistic Sources, vol. 1 by T Gantz (Johns Hopkins
University Press, 1993)

Medea edited by JJ Clauss and S Johnson (Princeton University Press, 1997)

Ritual Myth and Drama in the Ancient Near East by T Gaster Thespis (Gordian Press, 1961)

Structure and History in Greek Mythology by W Burkert (University of California Press, 1983)

The Greeks in the Black Sea by Mariama Koromila (Aristide D Caratzas Publishing, 1991)

The Greek Myths by Robert Graves (Penguin, 1992)

Greek Gods and Heroes by Robert Graves (Random House, 1965)

The Jason Voyageby Tim Severin (Simon and Schuster, 1986)