Argonauts

The Argonauts were the heroes who sailed in the ship Argo under the command of Jason to Colchis, at the eastern edge of the known world, to bring back the Golden Fleece. The voyage was one of the great adventures of Greek myth, a generation before the Trojan War, and its crew included Heracles, Orpheus, Peleus, Telamon and the twin sons of Zeus and Leda.

Pelias and Jason

The story begins in Iolcus. Cretheus, the founder of the city, had sons by Tyro, daughter of Salmoneus: Aeson, Amythaon and Pheres. Tyro was also, by Poseidon, the mother of Pelias and Neleus (Apollodorus 1.9.8, 1.9.11), and Pelias held the throne in place of his half-brother Aeson. In Apollonius of Rhodes (Argonautica 1.5–17), as in Apollodorus (1.9.16), Pelias had been told by an oracle to beware of the man with only one sandal. Jason, Aeson’s son, came to Iolcus having lost a sandal in the river Anaurus, and Pelias set him a task that he thought would end in his death: to bring back the Golden Fleece from Colchis. In Pindar’s version (Pythian 4.165–167) Pelias swore to hand over the kingship if Jason brought the fleece home.

Jason’s mother is Polymede, daughter of Autolycus, in Apollodorus (1.9.16), and Alcimede in Apollonius (Argonautica 1.47). Pindar (Pythian 4.102–116) has Jason tell how his parents, fearing Pelias, made a show of dark mourning in the house as if the child had died, and sent him away by night in purple swaddling clothes to Chiron, in whose cave he was raised by the centaur’s mother Philyra and his wife Chariclo. In Apollonius, Hera favours Jason and helps him throughout the voyage.

The Ship and Its Crew

The ship was built by Argus, who worked, as Apollodorus puts it (Library 1.9.16), by the advice of Athena; it had fifty oars and was named Argo after its builder. Athena fixed in the prow a speaking timber from the oak of Dodona. Apollodorus makes this Argus a son of Phrixus; Apollonius (1.18–19, 1.111–112) calls him the son of Arestor and likewise says that he built the ship under Athena’s guidance.

The names of the crew differ from author to author. Apollodorus names about fifty heroes. He gives Tiphys as the helmsman, with Orpheus, Zetes and Calais (the winged sons of Boreas), Castor and Pollux, Telamon and Peleus, Heracles, Idas and Lynceus, Amphiaraus, Admetus, Meleager, Acastus, Euphemus, Autolycus and Atalanta among the others. He also lists Augeas, son of the Sun. Apollonius, who counts Heracles, Orpheus, Peleus, Telamon, Castor and Pollux, Idas, Lynceus and the sons of Boreas among the crew, does not list Atalanta: Jason carried a spear she had once given him on Mount Maenalus, but he had refused to take her on board for fear of quarrels over a woman among the men (1.769–773).

The Voyage

Lemnos and Cyzicus

The first stop was Lemnos, an island ruled by a queen, Hypsipyle, where the women had killed their husbands. The Argonauts stayed there for some time, until Heracles urged them to go. At Cyzicus they were welcomed by the king, but fought a night battle against the local people by mistake in which Cyzicus himself was killed (Apollodorus 1.9.17–18; Apollonius 1.609–1077).

Hylas

In Mysia the young Hylas, who was Heracles’ companion, went to fetch water and was carried off by nymphs. Heracles and Polyphemus went to look for him and were left behind when the ship sailed (Apollonius 1.1207–1240; Apollodorus 1.9.19).

Phineus and the Harpies

The Argonauts then met the blind seer Phineus, whom the Harpies robbed of his food whenever he sat down to eat. Zetes and Calais, the sons of Boreas, drove the Harpies away, and Iris promised that they would never come back (Apollonius 2.178–300). In return, Phineus told Jason how to sail on.

The Clashing Rocks

Phineus warned the crew of the Symplegades, rocks at the entrance of the Black Sea that clashed together. They were to send a dove through first: if it got through, they were to row after it. Euphemus released the dove, which lost only its tail feathers, and the Argonauts rowed through, helped by Athena, who pushed the ship; the rocks then stood fixed for ever (Apollonius 2.549–606).

Colchis and the Golden Fleece

The Argo reached the river Phasis and the kingdom of Aeetes in Colchis (Apollonius 2.1262ff). Aeetes was the son of Helios. Hera and Athena arranged with Aphrodite that Eros should make Aeetes’ daughter Medea fall in love with Jason (Apollonius 3.1–167). Aeetes agreed to give him the fleece if he did what he demanded in one day: yoke the bronze-footed, fire-breathing bulls, plough the field of Ares and sow it with the teeth of a dragon, and fight the armed men who sprang up from them (Apollonius 3.396–432; Apollodorus 1.9.23).

Medea, a priestess of Hecate, gave Jason a drug, which in Apollonius is the “charm of Prometheus”, to protect him from the fire and the iron. Jason yoked the bulls, ploughed the field and sowed the teeth, and when the men appeared he threw a great stone among them, so that they turned and killed each other (Apollonius 3.1278–1407). The fleece still hung on an oak tree in the grove of Ares, guarded by a dragon that never slept. Medea put the dragon to sleep with spells, and Jason took the fleece (Apollonius 4.1–162; Apollodorus 1.9.23).

The Return

Aeetes pursued the Argo. In Apollodorus (1.9.24) Medea killed her brother Apsyrtus and threw the pieces of his body into the sea; in Apollonius (4.452–481) Jason killed him in an ambush that Medea helped to arrange. Because of the murder the Argonauts needed to be purified, and at Aeaea they went to Circe, who purified them but condemned the deed (Apollonius 4.552–749). The ship passed through the land of the Phaeacians, where Jason and Medea were married (4.1000–1200), and then across the Libyan desert and the lake Tritonis. When they reached Crete, Medea destroyed the bronze giant Talos by her spells (4.1638ff).

In Iolcus the story ended badly for Pelias. Apollodorus (1.9.27) says that while the Argonauts were away Pelias had driven Aeson to kill himself and had murdered Jason’s infant brother Promachus. Jason dedicated the Argo to Poseidon at the Isthmus and asked Medea for revenge: she persuaded the daughters of Pelias to cut up their father and boil him, having shown them a ram turned into a lamb by boiling, in the belief that he would become young again. Jason and Medea then lived at Corinth for ten years, until Jason married Glauce, the daughter of King Creon; Medea sent the bride a poisoned robe that burned her and her father, killed her own sons Mermerus and Pheres, and escaped to Athens in a chariot drawn by winged dragons that she had from the Sun (1.9.28). Those stories are told on the pages of Jason, Medea and Pelias.

See Also: Jason, Golden Fleece, Colchis, Medea, Aeetes, Pelias, Chiron, Phineus