Jason
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2008-07-15T09:57:37Z
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{{otheruses4|the hero from Greek mythology|information on "Jason" as a human name|Jason (name)|other uses|Jason (disambiguation)}}
{{Greek myth}}
'''Jason ''' ([[Koine Greek|Greek]]: '''Ιάσων''', [[Etruscan language|Etruscan]]: '''Easun''', [[Laz language|Laz]]: '''Yason''') was a Greek mythological Hero, famous for his quest for the [[Golden Fleece]]
== The early years ==
[[Pelias]] (Aeson's half-brother) was very power-hungry, and he wished to gain dominion over all of [[Thessaly]]. Pelias was the product of a union between their shared mother, [[Tyro]] ("high born Tyro") the daughter of [[Salmoneus]], and the sea god [[Poseidon]]. In a bitter feud, he overthrew Aeson (the rightful king), killing all the descendants of Aeson that he could. He spared his half-brother for unknown reasons. [[Alcimede|Alcimede I]] (wife of Aeson) already had an infant son named Jason whom she saved from being killed by Pelias, by having women cluster around the newborn and cry as if he were still-born. Alcimede sent her son to the [[centaur]] [[Chiron]] for education, for fear that Pelias would kill him - she claimed that she had been having an affair with him all along. Pelias, still fearful that he would one day be overthrown, consulted an [[oracle]] which warned him to beware of a man with one sandal.
Many years later, Pelias was holding [[Olympic Games|games]] in honour of the sea god and his alleged father, Poseidon, when Jason arrived in Iolcus and lost one of his sandals in the river [[Anauros]] ("wintry Anauros"), while helping an old woman (the Goddess [[Hera]] in disguise), to cross. She blessed him for she knew, as goddesses do, what Pelias had up his sleeve. When Jason entered Iolcus (modern-day city of [[Volos]]), he was announced as a man wearing one sandal. Jason, knowing that he was the rightful king, told Pelias that and Pelias said, "To take my throne, which you shall, you must go on a quest to find the Golden Fleece." Jason happily accepted the quest.
== The quest for the Golden Fleece ==
[[Image:Jason Pelias Louvre K127.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Jason bringing [[Pelias]] the [[Golden Fleece]], [[Apulia]]n red-figure [[calyx krater]], ca. 340 BC–330 BC, [[Louvre]]]]
Jason assembled a great group of heroes, known as the [[Argonauts]] after their ship, the ''[[Argo]]''. The group of heroes included the [[Boreads]] (sons of [[Boreas]], the North Wind) who could fly, [[Heracles]], [[Philoctetes]], [[Peleus]], [[Telamon]], [[Orpheus]], [[Castor and Pollux]], [[Atalanta]], and [[Euphemus]].
=== The Isle of Lemnos ===
The isle of [[Lemnos]] is situated off the Western coast of [[Asia Minor]] (modern day [[Turkey]]). The island was inhabited by a race of women who had killed their husbands. The women had neglected their worship of [[Aphrodite]], and as a punishment the goddess made the women so foul in stench that their husbands couldn't bear to be near them. The men then took [[concubine]]s from the [[Thracian]] mainland opposite, and the spurned women, angry at Aphrodite, killed every male inhabitant while they slept. The king, [[Thoas]], was saved by [[Hypsipyle]], his daughter, who put him out to sea sealed in a chest from which he was later rescued. The women of Lemnos lived for a while without men, with [[Hypsipyle]] as their queen.
During the visit of the Argonauts the women mingled with the men creating a new "race" called [[Minyae]]. Jason fathered twins with the queen. Heracles pressured them to leave as he was disgusted by the antics of the Argonauts. He hadn't taken part, which is truly unusual considering the numerous affairs he had with other women. [Note: In "Hercules, My Shipmate" [[Robert Graves]] claims that Heracles fathered more children than anyone else of the crew.]
=== Kyzicos ===
After Lemnos the Argonauts landed among the [[Doliones]], whose king [[Kyzicos]] treated them graciously. The Argonauts departed, losing their bearings and landing again at the same spot that night. In the darkness, the Doliones took them for enemies and they started fighting each other. The Argonauts killed many of the Doliones, among them the king Kyzicos. Kyzicos' wife killed herself. The Argonauts realized their horrible mistake when dawn came.
=== Mysia ===
When the Argonauts reached [[Mysia]], they sent some men to find food and water. Among these men was Heracles' servant, [[Hylas]]. The [[nymphs]] of the stream where Hylas was collecting were attracted to his good looks, and pulled him into the stream. [[Heracles]] returned to his Labors, but Hylas was lost forever. Others say that Heracles went to [[Colchis]] with the Argonauts and he got the Golden Girdle of the Amazons and slew the [[Stymphalian Birds]] at that time.{{Fact|date=February 2007}}
=== Phineus and the Harpies ===
Soon Jason reached the court of [[Phineus]] of Salmydessus in Thrace. Phineus had been given the gift of prophecy by [[Apollo]], but was later given the choice of being blind and having a normal life, or having sight and having a short life, for revealing to humans the deliberations of the gods. He chose to be blind. [[Helios]] the sun god sent the [[Harpies]], creatures with the body of a bird and the head of a woman, to prevent Phineus from eating any more than what was necessary to live, because he was enraged that Phineus had chosen to live in a continual state of darkness than live in the sun he provided. Jason took pity on the emaciated king and killed the Harpies when they returned (In other versions [[Boreads|Calais and Zetes]] chase the Harpies away). In return for this favor, Phineus revealed to Jason the location of Colchis and how to cross the [[Symplegades]], or The Clashing Rocks, and then they parted.
=== The Symplegades ===
The only way to reach Colchis was to sail through the [[Symplegades]] (Clashing Rocks), huge rock cliffs that came together and crushed anything that traveled between them. Phineus told Jason to release a dove when they approached these islands, and if the dove made it through, to row with all their might. If the dove was crushed, he was doomed to fail. Jason released the dove as advised, which made it through, losing only a few tail feathers. Seeing this, they rowed strongly and made it through with minor damage at the extreme stern of the ship.
=== The Arrival in Colchis ===
Jason arrived in [[Colchis]] (modern [[Black Sea]] coast of [[Georgia (country)|Georgia]]) to claim the fleece as his own. King [[Aeetes]] of Colchis promised to give it to him only if he could perform three certain tasks. Presented with the tasks, Jason became discouraged and fell into depression. However, [[Hera]] had persuaded [[Aphrodite]] to convince her son [[Eros (mythology)|Eros]] to make Aeetes's daughter, [[Medea]], fall in love with Jason. As a result, Medea aided Jason in his tasks. First, Jason had to plow a field with fire-breathing oxen, the [[Khalkotauroi]], that he had to yoke himself. Medea provided an ointment that protected him from the oxen's flames. Then, Jason sowed the [[Dragon's teeth (mythology)|teeth of a dragon]] into a field. The teeth sprouted into an army of warriors. Medea had previously warned Jason of this and told him how to defeat this foe. Before they attacked him, he threw a rock into the crowd. Unable to discover where the rock had come from, the soldiers attacked and defeated one another. His last task was to overcome the Sleepless Dragon which guarded the [[Golden Fleece]]. Jason sprayed the dragon with a potion, given by Medea, diluted from herbs. The dragon fell asleep, and Jason was able to seize the Golden Fleece. He then sailed away with Medea. Medea had to distract her father, who chased them, as they fled by killing her brother [[Apsyrtus]] and throwing pieces of his body into the sea, which Aeetes had to stop for and gather. Jason and Medea escaped.
== The return journey ==
On the way back to Iolcus, Medea prophesised to [[Euphemus]], the Argo's helmsman, that one day he would rule [[Libya]]. This came true through [[Battus]], a descendant of Euphemus. [[Zeus]], as punishment for the slaughter of Medea's own brother, sent a series of storms at the ''Argo'' and blew it off course. The ''Argo'' then spoke and said that they should seek purification with [[Circe]], a [[nymph]] living on the island called Aeaea. After being cleansed, they continued their journey home.
=== Sirens ===
Chiron had told Jason that without the aid of [[Orpheus]], the Argonauts would never be able to pass the [[Siren]]s — the same Sirens encountered by [[Odysseus]] in [[Homer]]'s [[epic poem]] the ''[[Odyssey]]''. The Sirens lived on three small, rocky islands called [[Sirenum scopuli]] and sang beautiful songs that enticed sailors to come to them, which resulted in the crashing of their ship into the islands. When Orpheus heard their voices, he drew his [[lyre]] and played music that was more beautiful and louder, drowning out the Sirens' bewitching songs.
=== Talos ===
The ''Argo'' then came to the island of [[Crete]], guarded by the bronze man, [[Talos]]. As the ship approached, Talos hurled huge stones at the ship, keeping it at bay. Talos had one blood vessel which went from his neck to his ankle, bound shut by only one bronze nail (as in metal casting by the lost wax method). [[Medea]] cast a spell on Talos to calm him; she removed the bronze nail and Talos bled to death. The ''Argo'' was then able to sail on.
=== Jason returns ===
Medea, using her sorcery, claimed to Pelias' daughters that she could make their father younger by chopping him up into pieces and boiling the pieces in a cauldron of water and magical herbs. She demonstrated this remarkable feat with a sheep, which leapt out of the cauldron as a lamb. The girls, rather naively, sliced and diced their father and put him in the cauldron. Medea did not add the magical herbs, and Pelias was dead.
[It should be noted that [[Thomas Bulfinch]] has an antecedent to the interaction of Medea and the daughters of Pelias. Jason, celebrating his return with the Golden Fleece, noted that his father was too aged and infirm to participate in the celebrations. He had seen and been served by Medea's magical powers. He asked Medea to take some years from his life and add them to the life of his father. She did so, but at no such cost to Jason's life. {See Thomas Bulfinch, page 134; compare to Shakespeare's witches in [[Macbeth]].} Pelias' daughters saw this and wanted the same service for their father.] Pelias' son, [[Acastus]], drove Jason and Medea into exile for the murder, and the couple settled in Corinth.
=== Treachery of Jason ===
However good a hero Jason seemed to be, it could not be hidden that all his heroic deeds were brought about only by the love of Medea toward him. In the end Jason showed his true self, when in Corinth he engaged himself to marry [[Creusa]] (sometimes referred to as [[Glauce]]), a daughter of the King of Corinth, to strengthen his political ties. When Medea confronted Jason about the engagement and cited all the help she had given him, he stated that it was not she that he should thank, but Aphrodite who made Medea fall in love with him. This proved too much for Medea, who angry at Jason for breaking his vow that he would be hers forever, got her revenge by presenting Creusa a cursed dress, as a wedding gift, that stuck to her body and burned her to death as soon as she put it on. Creusa's father, [[Creon]], burnt to death with his daughter as he tried to save her. Then Medea killed the two boys that she bore to Jason, fearing that they would be murdered, or enslaved as a result of their mother's actions. When Jason came to know of this, Medea was already gone; carried by a chariot drawn by dragons, she fled to Athens. Jason cursed her, never himself, for what came to be.
Later Jason and [[Peleus]], father of the hero [[Achilles]], would attack and defeat Acastus, reclaiming the throne of Iolcus for himself once more. Jason's son, [[Thessalus]], then became king.
Because he broke his vow to love Medea forever, Jason lost his favor with [[Hera]] and died lonely and unhappy. He was asleep under the stern of the rotting ''[[Argo]]'' when it fell on him, killing him instantly. The manner of his death was due to the deities cursing him for breaking his promise to Medea.
== Argonauts in Classical Literature ==
Though some of the episodes of Jason's story draw on ancient material, the definitive telling, on which this account relies, is that of [[Apollonius of Rhodes]] in his [[epic poetry|epic poem]] ''[[Argonautica]]'', written in [[Alexandria]] in the late [[3rd century BC]].
Another ''Argonautica'' was written by [[Gaius Valerius Flaccus]] in late [[1st century|1st century AD]], eight books in length. The poem ends abruptly with the request of [[Medea]] to accompany Jason on his homeward voyage. It is unclear if part of the [[epic poem]] has been lost, or if it had ever been finished. A third version is the ''Argonautica Orphica'', which emphasizes the role of Orpheus in the story.
The story of [[Medea]]'s revenge on Jason is told with devastating effect by [[Euripides]] in his tragedy ''[[Medea (play)|Medea]]''.
The mythical geography of the voyage of the Argonauts has been speculatively explicated by the historian of science and the cartography of Antiquity, [[Livio Catullo Stecchini]], in a suggestive essay, ''[http://www.metrum.org/mapping/argo.htm The Voyage of the Argo]'', that draws upon fragments of the mythic sources Apollonius employed in constructing his poem.
In [[the Divine Comedy]], Dante sees Jason in the eighth circle of Hell among the seducers.
==As city founder==
According to legend and certain historical sources (e.g. [[Herodotus]]), Jason is the legendary founder of the city of [[Aemona]], today [[Ljubljana]], the capital of [[Slovenia]]. The [[dragon]] in the city's [[coat of arms]] allegedly derives from the same legend.
==Jason on film==
*Two movies titled ''Jason and the Argonauts'' have been produced: ''[[Jason and the Argonauts (film)|Jason and the Argonauts]]'' ([[1963]]), directed by Don Chaffey, and ''[[Jason and the Argonauts (2000 film)|Jason and the Argonauts]]'' ([[2000]]), a Hallmark presentation TV movie.
*A 1958 spaghetti production of [[Hercules]] starring [[Steve Reeves]], featured Jason and the Argonauts, as well as Ulysses.
*In the children's show, ''[[Class of the Titans]]'', one of the main characters, Jay, is a descendant of Jason, and the characters have run-ins with Medea and Talos.
*Jason was also portrayed by [[Jeffrey Thomas]] (with [[Chris Conrad]] as young Jason) in [[Hercules: The Legendary Journeys]].
*[[Lars Von Trier]]'s made for TV movie entitled ''[[Medea]]'' ([[1988]]) depicts [[Udo Kier]] as Jason after he has retrieved the Golden fleece.
*The Michael Eisner-produced web show The [[All-for-nots]] is loosely based on the Argonautika, as an indie rock band whose name vaguely rhymes with `The Argonauts' tours America on their way to the golden fleece of rock stardom.
*A documentary named "In Search of Myths and Heroes" by [[Michael Wood]], third episode talks about Jason the Myth.
*The 2008 TV series AGE OF THE GODS: JOURNEYS EDITION, did their 2nd episode, JASON, based on the myth of Jason, telling the parts about King Pelias, the Argonauts, the Isles of Lemnos, Phineus and the Harpies, the Symplegades, Medea, the Iron Bulls and Sown Men, the Golden Fleece, the Betrayal of Medea, and the Death of Jason.
==Jason in video games==
*Jason is shown being devoured by [[Cerberus]] in the hit [[Playstation 2]] video game ''[[God of War 2]]'', before the player attempts to retrieve the Golden Fleece.
*In ''[[Age of Mythology]]'', Jason is a Greek hero character that can be purchased from the town center for use in combat.
*''[[Rise of the Argonauts]]'' is a [[role-playing game]] slated for release in 2008 which follows Jason and the Argonauts on his quest to find the [[Golden Fleece]].
*Jason appears in the 1997 console video game ''[[Herc's Adventures]]'' as one of the three playable characters.
==Jason on stage==
*[[Mary Zimmerman]] wrote and directed ''[[Argonautika (2006 play)|Argonautika]]'', which premiered in 2006 with the Chicago [[Lookingglass Theatre Company]]. It tells the story of Jason and the Argonauts from Pelias' initial charge through Jason's betrayal of Medea.
*[[Euripides]] wrote the play ''[[Medea]]'', which is focused around the period which leads to Medea killing Jason's bride and their two children. This play has nine characters as well as a chorus role.
==See also==
*[[Mermeros and Pheres]]
*[[Cape Jason]]
==External links==
*[http://www.i-politismos.gr/agonauts_sx_eng.html Museum of Argonautic Expedition], Volos, Greece
*[http://www.timelessmyths.com/classical/argonauts.html Timeless Myths - Argonauts], a summary of Jason and his Quest for the Golden Fleece
*[http://georgianwines.blogspot.com/2007/05/jason-voyage.html "The Jason Voyage," ''From the Cradle of Wine'']
* [http://www.robinhoodplay.com/Argonuttica.htm Argonuttica] is a stage comedy version of Jason's quest for the Golden Fleece written in 2006 by Scott Lynch-Giddings. Site includes photos from the premiere production.
*{{gutenberg|name=Argonautica|no=830}}
*[http://www.giorgioclementi.it/medea.htm The Medea of the modern times]
==References==
*Publius Ovidius Naso. Metamorphoses.
* Powell, B. The Voyage of the ''Argo''. In Classical Myth. Upper Saddle River, NJ. Prentice Hall. 2001. pp. 477-489.
* [http://recherche.univ-montp3.fr/cercam/article.php3?id_article=405 Alain Moreau], ''Le Mythe de Jason et Médée. Le Va-nu-pied et la Sorcière.'' Paris : Les Belles Lettres, collection « Vérité des mythes », 2006 (ISBN 10 2-251-32440-2).
*Bulfinch's Mythology, Medea and Aeson.
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[[Category:Greek mythology]]
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