Jason & The Argonauts - The Epic Quest for the Golden Fleece (Greek Mythology)

when people ask me where it all began where my interest for mythology came from the answer is always the same Jason and the Argonauts more specifically the 1963 movie growing up in the UK in the early 90s for whatever reason that movie would be on almost every weekend without fail and whenever I visited my grandparents there was no cable TV so having seen the movie about a hundred times it's fair to say bits a story I know quite well when I tell people this the response I get most often is well why haven't you made a video out jason and the argonauts then and to that question i've never really had an answer that is until today because we are finally looking at the story of jason and the argonauts as they embark on their epic quest to find the Golden Fleece [Music] [Music] [Music] there are numerous tellings of jason's quest for the golden fleece but the most comprehensive comes from Apollinaris of roads in his epic poem argonautica which is one of the only surviving epics from the Hellenistic period before we get into the story it's probably best to start with Jason's backstory and heritage it's pretty much agreed upon that Jason's father was a man named Ehsan who also happened to be next in line to be king of alko's a city in Thessaly his mother however is something that not every poet seems to agree on Apollinaris and many others claim this woman's name to be awesome edy another pretty common belief is that Jason was a descendant of the gods not quite a demigod in the same vein as Heracles or Perseus but there was some divine blood there whether it was his grandparents great-grandparents or even further down the line some say it eventually stems back to Hermes and others say it's Poseidon but if it's just mere speculation you may authorize us in there for good measure simply put Jason's father was a king his mother was a beautiful woman and somewhere along the line there is some divine blood which is a fairly normal backstory for any Greek Hera before Jason was born his father Ehsan was overthrown and imprisoned by his half-brother and Jason's uncle Elias who believed he was the rightful king of southern Thessaly their mother pleaded of peles not to kill a son and so he was left alive but locked away from the rest of the city Ehsan eventually met her woman named al Sammy D and she would later fall pregnant with Jason knowing that peles would have any child of a sons and hos killed she did the only thing she could to deceive the new king she had her hand maidens weep and sew up when Jason was born convincing peles that the boy did not survive the birth she then sent the baby away to keep him safe Jason was raised outside of the city on Mount Pelion by the Centaur Chiron it was best known for educating God's demigods and future kings if someone had the potential to do great things from a young age it's likely they would be sent kyron at some point where they would be taught a variety of skills from combat and archery to medicine and philosophy after he's rather eventful birth Jason's childhood was fairly quiet and uneventful it wasn't until he was a young man that people would start to pay attention to Jason the city of Caledon had been played for years by an enormous bore sent by Artemis when the king refused the sacrifice in her name to solve this problem the hunt for the Caledonian bore became a massive celebrated event attended by the most prestigious hunters and even heroes such as Theseus despite the sheer number that joined in on this hunt the boar was slain by Jason rather impressive for someone who not many knew of especially when you consider he was still in his teenage years at the age of 20 Jason finally decided it was time to return home where King Pelias was hosting a series of games in honor of Poseidon after Jason was sent away as a child all those years ago the king feared someone would challenge him in the same way he had done to his brother and so he consulted an Oracle who told him to be wary of a man wearing just one sandal on his way home Jason came across an old woman attempting to cross a river and offered her his assistance in doing so he lost one of his sandals downstream the old woman then gave him a blessing but this wasn't because he had helped her this was because that old woman was actually the goddess Hera in disguise and she could see what the king had planned for Jason and decided that he needed all the blessings he could get when Jason entered the city nobody knew who he was but he was brought before the king when they noticed he was wearing only one sandal Jason knew that he was the rightful king but pelas had planned for this day he knew he would encounter a man with one sandal he just didn't know it would be his nephew the boy he thought died all those years ago he asked Jason a question what would you do if an Oracle told you one of your citizens was destined to kill you Jason laughed and told the King he would send them to the far lands of Colchis to retrieve the Golden Fleece for surely they would fail and never be seen again these words were spoken by Jason but they came from Hera who believed they would save Jason from an execution when Jason then declared himself the rightful heir to the throne pellis did not deny his claim but merely set the conditions of their deal he swore to Zeus that Jason could take the throne if he embarked on a quest to retrieve the golden fleece a deal that everyone would agree heavily favored the king the odds of Jason returning alive was slim and to return with the golden fleece was considered impossible however this didn't stop Jason except in the offer but he wasn't foolish enough to make the journey to Colchis by himself first he would need a ship when he managed to procure the legendary ship known as Argo what many consider to be the first ship to ever sail the seas now he would need a crew to join him on this voyage this crew consisted of a group of men known as the Argonauts if you've ever wondered where the name came from it simply means Argo sailors or sailors of Argo being named off that a ship they sailed doesn't mean that they were a bunch of random men that Jason picked up off the streets to make up the numbers the Argonauts were comprised of the sons of Kings heroes and gods to say that it was a raw the stacked crew doesn't really tell the whole story some of the more well-known names included Heracles who needs no introduction pie Lea's the father of Achilles the sons of the northern wind known as the boriates who could fly the divine twins castor and pollicis sons of Zeus the legendary musician Orpheus and the hearer of Philoctetes who appears in numerous stories including the 12 labors of Heracles and the Trojan War much of the crew was also made up of hunters many of which took part in the hunt for the Caledonian boar these included you famous a son of Poseidon who could walk on water the Prince of Caledon himself Meleager and the Huntress Atalanta who was the only woman to embark on this journey before they set sail they took a vote to decide who should captain this journey unsurprisingly they chose Heracles but he rejected this notion this was Jason's quest and he should lead so with introductions out of the way Jason and the Argonauts left Thessaly and began their voyage to Colchis the home of the Golden Fleece modern-day Colchis is a stretch of land that covers parts of Russia Georgia and Turkey with the majority being in Georgia the first stop of note was on the island of Lemnos which is in modern-day Turkey this island however was far from normal it was inhabited by a group of women who had killed all of their husbands the women of Lemnos ignored their worship of Aphrodite and so she cursed all of them what this curse did was make the women smell really bad which sounds pretty tame but were probably talking a stench that was vomit-inducing the men of Lemnos unable to bear just being around these women spent most of their time on mainland Thrace with women who probably didn't smell like death this drove their wives crazy and so one night they just decided to kill all of the men when they were sleeping the only man left alive was king Louis he was thrown into a barrel and left to float away at sea by his daughter princess sapele who in all this madness had become queen sapele queen of the disgusting smelling women a title you could only dream of when the Argonauts landed on the island the women decided they would encourage them to stay Jason has taken before the Queen and she falls instantly in love the women then take Jason and the rest of the crew home leaving only Heracles and a few stragglers to look after the ship so either Aphrodite's curse had no effect on the Argonauts and the women smelt fine or they'd been at sea for that long that they care regardless it creates this weird situation where Herakles is actually the voice of reason which is ironic in itself considering how many wives he went through Jason and his men remained with the women for longer than originally planned every day the voyage was postponed they would set sail the next morning but the same excuse would be used again and again that is until Heracles decided it was enough he rallied the Argonauts and told them it was time to start behaving like heroes retrieving the Golden Fleece was their quest and they had made no progress it does give us a small insight into why the men may have chosen Heracles to lead as without him Jason would have fallen at the very first hurdle Jason fathered two twins with the Queen and the rest of the Argonauts most likely had a bunch of children they left behind to continue this quest it does raise the question as to whether these children were born of the same curse as their mothers it has no relevance to the story but that is a pretty unlucky childhood never knowing your fathers and thinking it was no more torn of vomit every time you went near a woman the island of Lemnos just sucks anyway the Argonauts losing their bearings landed on an island inhabited by a group of people known as the Dolan oi the descendants of Poseidon they greeted Jason and his men with hospitality inviting them to join in on the celebrations as they had just crowned a new king king sized ekeus they also told them to be wary of the Gianni's a race of savage six armed giants who didn't take kindly to trespassers on their land as Jason and most of the Argonauts celebrated and enjoyed the festivities Heracles in a small group of men stayed behind once again to look after the Argo unknown to the Argonauts that you jenny's watched as most of them went into the forest and decided they would raid the ship not knowing that a few men had stayed behind Heracles in the few men he had killed most of the Giants buying enough time for Jason and the rest of the crew to return and drive them away so I guess the reasons why Heracles should have led counter is now at - Jason had been given directions by king size ekeus so they set sail that evening unfortunately they once again lost their bearings and ended up back where they started king-sized accurse and his people seeing a ship approaching in the dead of night assumed the worst and with it being so dark neither one could recognize the other which resulted in the Argonauts slaughtering the natives and the newly crowned king-size ekeus was now the newly deceased king after a brief apology and the tending King Cizek as his funeral piece was made and when the weather improved the Argonauts left the island for good this time so to recap the story so far the Argonauts have wasted a bunch of time knocking up some cursed women killed some six armed Giants got themselves lost numerous times and killed the king of the only people who have helped them thus far stellar attempt at retrieving the Golden Fleece at this point in the story the relationship between Jason and the Argonauts begins to fray when his leadership is challenged when they stopped off at the river seus to resupply Heracles sent his squire Hylas to fetch water but on his way he was abducted by a water nymph Heracles an another Argonaut named Polyphemus set out to find the missing squire Jason and the rest of the crew however sets sail and when they finally realized that there are three missing Argonauts they turned to Jason accusing him of leavin without Heracles on purpose out of jealousy before this turned into a full-blown mutiny the god Glaucus appeared from the depths of the ocean to tell the crew that it was in fact the gods who are responsible for the missing men this would ease the tension between Jason and the rest of the crew as they continued on they finally passed the Aegean Sea and into the Sea of Marmara where they encountered the Bereans a group of tribes from Thrace that migrated to Asia with many of them stopping off in Turkey this time the Argonauts were not given a friendly welcome instead King amicus challenged at any one of the Argonauts to a fist fight to the death one of the twins we mentioned earlier Polydeuces took exception to the king's lack of hospitality he accepted the Kings challenge and after a brief fistfight he punched the king to death when the guards tried to intervene there was a standoff of the rest of the Argonauts after a while they decided enough damage had been done and the natives fled which means the murdered Kings counter is also at - before leaving they stole some cattle and took it back to the Argo now this next part of the story is the most memorable for me mostly because of the movie the Argonauts landed on the opposite coast of Thrace with a group of natives they just encountered migrated from here they come across an old man named Phineas he doesn't question who they are or why they're there because he already knows the answer Phineas possessed powers of prophecy so powerful that not even the gods could hide their dealings when he began to share their divine secrets and reveal the future of man that's when Zeus would intervene Phineas was originally a young man until Zeus cursed him with old age and blindness which for Zeus to sound rather tame but that's because there was more whenever Phineas sat down to enjoy a meal he would be tormented by a group of harpies who would defile his food he was blind old and always hungry despite this he was pretty relaxed about the whole situation because he knew jason and the argonauts were destined to save him when the harpies came that evening they were chased off by the boria's so I guess the ability to fly came in handy in return for their assistance Phineas help them plot a course to Colchis and he warned them of the clashing rocks which happens to be their very next obstacle the clashing rocks saw the wandering rocks are exactly what you would expect a pair of cliffs that crash together whenever something tries to go through them this is where Phineas advice would save the day he suggested that the Argonauts allowed a dove to fly above the rocks as when they crashed together it would only lose its tail feathers when they then reopened the Argonauts rode as fast as they could trying to catch these rocks off guard and as phineas predicted this worked the rocks reopened and slammed again as quick as they could but the Argo sustained only minor damage after this encounter the rocks never moved again so I guess being bested by the Argonauts meant they just gave up squashing people forever and just became regular boring rocks finally reaching the Black Sea they passed the river Acheron where they meet King Lycus who hated the Britons with a passion upon hearing that the Argonauts had killed their king he gave them more than a friendly welcome luckily for like us this brief stop did not end with the death of a king but we do lose some more Argonauts sadly the helmsman of the ship typhus died from illness and the prophet Edmund was killed by a wild boar they built some graves for their fallen comrades and moved swiftly on because at this rate of travel there would be no one left by the time they arrived in Colchis luckily for the Argonauts they found some more crew members when they came across three men stranded by none other than Heracles during his 12 labors when he journeyed to the Amazons there was a fourth man named the Sten Ellis who died during this neighbor but the crew could still see his ghost it was this ghost that led them to his tomb where they found the other three survivors and in order to honor this ghost man who had just saved them they all poured a drink in his name they continued on once again this time with their newly bolstered ranks until they reached the river Therma Don where they had planned to rest for a while but when it was revealed that this harbour belonged to the Amazons they quickly left the next morning instead they found a nearby deserted island with a temple dedicated to Ares that they could rest in the temple itself was only guarded by birds which they easily fended off inside the temple they found four more stranded survivors these were the children of frick seus and the grandchildren of the king of Colchis himself a tease as they were closing in on Colchis they decided it would make sense to have some natives on board and so Jason welcomed them to the crew once they were rested they set sail leaving the island behind for the first time the Argonauts had their destination in their sights but this was only the halfway point of their journey not wanting to announce their presence just yet they chose to dock in the backwaters so far the influence of the gods on Jason's quest has been quite small but this is where Hera and Athena decided it was time to help Jason the king of Colchis was quite a stubborn man and so they decided that his daughter may be the key to retrieve in the Golden Fleece if they could enlist the help of Aphrodite they could make her fall in love with Jason when they visited Aphrodite she was busy arguing with her son eros she told them it was unlikely he'd be willing to shoot his arrow at Medea whilst he was in this mood Hera then suggests that it was as simple as bribing him to keep him happy and so Aphrodite gave him a Golden Ball to carry with him as he flew through the sky which would leave a trail of gold dust behind him resembling a shooting star this pleased heiress and whatever they were arguing about before no longer mattered back in Colchis Jason decided that it would be best to first negotiate rather than just storming in and just taking the Golden Fleece they could use the king's grandsons to help smooth over this negotiation process when they entered the palace Medea let out a cry at the sight of her four nephews in this commotion aris was able to sneak in unbeknownst to anybody and fire his arrow at Medea and just as planned she fell instantly in love with Jason the king was less than pleased when his grandsons are asked for the Golden Fleece to be taken back to jankis he accused them of conspiring against him to try and take his kingdom away from him Jason tried to defuse the situation and make a bargain with the king but he just responded with a series of tasks that he deemed impossible for Jason with no other choice Jason reluctantly accepts and heads back to the Argo to inform his crew Medea is left torn between helping Jason and facing the wrath of her father or doing nothing and watching her nephews and new love Dart she tells her sister that she fears her children may die if Jason is unsuccessful her sister then convinces Medea that she must help Jason regardless of the consequences Medea is extremely conflicted and it starts to wear down in her mental state to the point where she considers suicide but ultimately she decided this would help neither her nephews or Jason with her mind made up however she arranges a secret meeting between the two outside of a temple of her karta Jason promises Medea that if she helps him he will make her the most famous sorceress across Greece and she told him if he was to forget about this act of kindness she would fly to Greece on the wind and make him pay Jason then tells Medea that there is no need to fly to Greece because she should come back with him as his future wife to that question she refused to give him an answer but she gave him all the advice needed to complete the trials ahead of him when Jason returned to his men they were once again divided some thought accepting help from Medea was unheroic and the others believed it was their best option the trial itself consisted of plowing fields that were plagued by fire-breathing oxen entering the fields with a blessing Medea and given him Jason was able to wrestle the oxen unaffected by the fire and began to plow the field an army of warriors then sprouted from the soil but Jason was able to fend them off with the advice Medea had given him knowing they were coming Jason threw rocks into the crowd as they sprouted unaware of where these rocks came from the majority of these warriors fought amongst each other instead of stopping Jason Jason had completed the trial and won over the crowd that had gathered but king et's returned to his palace furious and began to plot a way that allowed him to cheat Jason out of their deal the king was aware of madea's treason but the Golden Fleece was still guarded by a giant serpent which he believed would buy him enough time to stop Jason she warned the Argonauts of her father's plan to not honor their deal so they had to hurry when they found the tree where the Golden Fleece resided it was guarded by an enormous dragon Medea had already concocted a potion would stop this beast and when Jason sprayed the dragon it fell instantly asleep allowing them to grab the Golden Fleece and leave quickly and thus began the long and perilous journey home to e alkis sailing back the Argo was pursued by several Culkin's leading the fleet was madea's half-brother absolutists who managed the corner the Argo just off the coast of the bridge Ian Islands here the local Kingdom mediated peace talks between the two and Jason was allowed to keep the fleece as it was deemed to have been won fairly Medea however was not so lucky she would be tried for treason by the local Kings a crime that she would surely be found guilty of they instead came up with a plan that would involve tricking her brother into believing she would go peacefully back to Colchis when he came to collect her they would murder him and chop his body into pieces the Argo set sail and the remaining coconut began to give chase but they stopped when up Sara toises body parts were thrown overboard the King would surely want his son brought back in one piece to be given a proper burial in some stories up Sara tiss was dismembered to avoid the wrath of the arenas and whether this worked or not it didn't take into account to the wrath of Zeus who would watch the entire murder happen he summoned a gale that blew the Argo further north closer to Italy than Greece here they came across the Enchantress Circe a figure that Medea is often compared and associated to she absolves them of any guilt regarding AB sirrah toises murder and they continued on their way this is when we see her ago against Seuss's wishes trying to help Jason get back home she convinced the scene of Thetis to give the Argo safe passage by telling her that Medea was destined to marry her newborn child Achilles in the afterlife before meeting Thetis the argonauts came across the same group of sirens encountered by Odysseus luckily Chiron had warned Jason before leaving and that is why they needed Orpheus a master musician when the sirens began to sing their song Orpheus took out his lyre and played a song that overpowered their voices allowing the crew to sail on by unaffected there was of course a one organ or two felt the need to jump overboard but he was rescued by Aphrodite and taken back to Sicily with the help of Thetis the Argonauts plan the route they would take Jason chose to avoid the Straits of Messina and in turn Scylla and Charybdis which was a wise choice considering what happened to Odysseus they would instead travel through the wandering rocks an area where the sea was particularly violent and treacherous with help from Thetis and in a raids the Argo was guided safely by their next stop would be the island of Corfu where they encountered the second half of the culkin fleet which unknown to them had continued giving chase the king of Corfu Alcinous offered to mediate this dispute once again he agreed that the Golden Fleece belonged to Jason but Medea should be surrendered to the Cole consult the two get married in a sacred cave leaving the Culkin's to go home once again disappointed Zeus angered by Hera's previous involvement sent another gust of wind after the Argo knocking them off course once again but this time onto the shores of Libya isolated in a foreign land like no other the Argonauts began to lose hope there was no way home this time until they were visited by the three nymphs known as the guardians of Libya who told them how to survive and how to return to their home they would have to carry the Argo across the desert after 12 days they would arrive at Lake Triton and the garden of the Hesperides here the Hesperides tell them that the garden was raided the day before by Heracles and he killed its guardian serpent at Ladin encouraged by news that Heracles was alive the Argonaut set sail this time full of hope that they would be reunited with their friends and family as they journey down the lake triton appeared to them and revealed the route that would lead to open sea now all but home there was one last encounter on the island of Crete with the bronze giant Talos who wouldn't let them pass believing they were pirates Talos was built by Hephaestus and he had one vein that went from his neck to his ankle Medea cast a spell that would calm the Giant she would then remove the bronze nail that held this vein in place and talus would bleed to death so after all this time Jason returned home with the Golden Fleece and celebrated with his people as the soon-to-be king of a alkis he had restored his family name he had a wife and he had the Golden Fleece but one thing still saddened him his father had grown old over the years and was unable to celebrate with his son Jason asked Medea if she could take years off his own life and give them to his father she told him it was possible but Jason wouldn't have to pay with his own life she took blood from Ehsan and transfused it with a mixture of magical herbs and pumped it back into his veins which restored his strength and youth King Pelias his daughter witnessing this demanded that she did the same for her father Medea obliged telling the girl that she could restore his youth and vigor if they chopped him into pieces and boiled them in a cauldron she convinced Pelle as his daughter by taking the oldest Ram in the flock and boiling its pieces only for a much younger ram to leap out of the cauldron the girl needed to see no more and began hacking away at her father in his sleep and threw him into the cauldron Medea however refused to add the magical herbs and peles was finally dead many would argue that peles had it coming for a long time and either Jason or his father should have killed him anyway madea's actions driven out of spite and revenge would backfire grossly the king's son Acastus would rally the people after his father's death Medea would be charged with killing the king and Jason would follow as an accessory to murder for those paying attention the King slain counter is now at 3 they would then travel to Corinth where they were allowed to settle jason agreed to marry the king's daughter hoping to gain some political allies that would aid him and take him back his city but when Medea found out she was less than pleased considering the vow he had taken and all the help she had given him Jason then revealed that it was Aphrodite who made her fall in love with him and if he should be thankful to anyone it should be her she attended the wedding and gave the bride a dress that was cursed it stuck to her body and burned her to death taking the king with her when he tried to help his daughter she then killed two of the three children that she bought jason fearing they would be killed in retaliation because Medea logic I guess she was able to flee Athens in a chariot sent by her grandfather Helios before Jason or the people of Corinth could find her Jason would eventually reclaim his throne when he defeated a castis with help from Achilles father Peleus his one remaining son with Medea these'll as' would become the new king Jason however lost his favor with Hera and the rest of the gods when he broke his vow to Medea and so he spent the rest of his life alone and unhappy until he died in the most ironic way possible one day Jason fell asleep by the Argo which at this point was old and rotting and as I'm sure many of you have already guessed it collapsed and fell on top of Jason killing him instantly Jason's life was many things but boring was certainly not one of them he traveled the world and went on an epic quest to restore his family name he experienced things that most could only imagine he married a sorceress who was both brilliant and insane and let's not forget that he was responsible for the death of no less than five kings and a couple thousand people and some Giants but we can just forget about them it's an underdog story where Jason goes from zero to hero and then back to zero numerous times as crazy as the story is it still feels somewhat relatable the lines between who's good and who's bad are always blurred and Jason himself is far from what we would expect from a hero he becomes the leader only because Heracles turned down the position he never really commands the Argo every time he faces some kind of test he has assistance and when disaster strikes he isn't the first to step forward or even come up with a solution he isn't the ever stoic ever brave fearless hero that is common in so many of these stories Jason is honestly a regular person who at times is capable of great things like we all are but even then he still has his flaws which I guess is what makes his story somewhat relatable in a weird weird way for those who have been waiting for these episodes to be available as a podcast the wait is now over starting with today's episode you'll be able to download all future videos and past videos using itunes google play spotify and any other major platform I'll leave a link in the description for you to click on or you can find it yourself by simply searching the mythology in fiction explained podcast on any major app or platform as always I've been your host mythology and fiction explained reminding you to stay away from Lemnos it sucks [Music]

Channel: Mythology & Fiction Explained

Views: 636,003

Rating: 4.9226804 out of 5

Keywords: Jason and the argonauts, mythology and fiction explained, golden fleece, argonauts, jason and the golden fleece, argonauts greek mythology, greek mythology, Jason greek mythology, heracles, argo

Id: JiFZn0l7EYE

Length: 34min 42sec (2082 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 13 2020