The voyage of the Argonauts is one of the oldest adventures in Greek mythology, told above all by the poet Apollonius of Rhodes in the Argonautica (3rd century BC). It is the story of Jason and his companions, who set out from Greece aboard the ship Argo to win the Golden Fleece.
The man with one sandal
Jason was the rightful heir to the throne of Iolcus, in Thessaly, usurped by his uncle Pelias. Raised by the wise centaur Chiron, he returned to Iolcus as a young man to claim the kingdom. Crossing a river he helped an old woman, really the goddess Hera in disguise, and lost a sandal. An oracle had warned Pelias to beware a man with one sandal: to get rid of him, the king promised to give up the throne if Jason brought back the Golden Fleece, the skin of a magic ram guarded by a dragon in faraway Colchis, on the Black Sea.
The ship and the crew
With Athena's help, the shipwright Argus built the fastest ship ever seen, with a piece of the speaking oak of Dodona. Jason gathered the finest heroes of Greece, the Argonauts: among them Heracles, Orpheus, whose song calmed the waves, the twins Castor and Pollux, Peleus father of Achilles, the winged sons of Boreas and, according to some, the huntress Atalanta.
- LemnosThe Argonauts stop on the island inhabited only by women, who had killed their men.
- MysiaHeracles leaves the voyage to search for young Hylas, carried off by nymphs.
- BithyniaPollux beats King Amycus at boxing.
- ThraceThey free the seer Phineus from the Harpies, who stole his food.
- Clashing RocksThey pass the colliding cliffs after first releasing a dove.
- ColchisJason faces King Aeetes's trials and wins the fleece with Medea's help.
- ReturnA long journey that, depending on the version, passes the Danube, the Adriatic, Circe's island, the Sirens and Crete.
Medea and the Golden Fleece
The king of Colchis, Aeetes, set Jason impossible tasks: yoke two fire-breathing bulls with bronze hooves, plough a field and sow it with a dragon's teeth, from which armed warriors would spring. The king's daughter, the sorceress Medea, fell in love with Jason and helped him with an ointment that made him fireproof. Jason threw a stone among the earth-born warriors, who killed each other. Then Medea put the dragon to sleep with a spell, and Jason took the fleece. They fled together on the Argo.
The return and the tragedy
Back in Iolcus, Medea took revenge on Pelias by persuading his daughters to kill him. Jason and Medea settled in Corinth, but years later Jason left her to marry the king's daughter. Medea's revenge was terrible, as Euripides tells in his tragedy Medea. Jason died old and alone, struck by a piece of the rotting Argo.