Untitled Flashcards Set

Once upon a time, there were two brothers, Pelias and Aeson. Either they were kings of neighboring towns, or Aeson was king and Pelias wanted to be. Either way, Pelias killed Aeson and became king of Iolcus. He wanted to kill Aeson’s son, Jason, but Jason’s mom sent him into hiding and said he was dead. Jason was raised by the centaur Chiron, who lived on Mt. Pelion in Thessaly.

Years later, Pelias was concerned about losing his throne, and consulted an oracle. He was told to beware of a man wearing only one shoe.

Pelias put on a festival and Jason came to Iolcus to see it. Along the way, he saw an old woman trying to cross the Anauros River. Being a helpful guy, he carried her across. In doing so, he lost a shoe in the river and had to continue on without it. However, the “old woman” was secretly the goddess Hera in disguise, testing Jason. She didn’t like Pelias, and now decided to help Jason.

Pelias was freaked out by Jason showing up wearing one shoe. He offered to give Jason the kingdom of Iolcus if Jason would fetch the golden fleece for him. Jason agreed. Since it was a long trip (and since Jason himself is kind of a pathetic hero), he sent out a message asking other heroes to accompany him. They sailed on a ship called the Argo; therefore, they are called Argonauts (nauta = sailor).

They land at Lemnos, where the women had killed all the men on the island in revenge for mistreatment. The women welcome the Argonauts. The Argonauts stay a few days and then move on.

They then go to a city on the Propontis ruled by Cyzicus. The people there, the Doliones, welcomed the Argonauts and hosted them for a few days. When the Argonauts left, they were hit by a storm that pushed them back to the city at night. Not realizing who they were, the Doliones attacked. The Argonauts fought back and slaughtered many of the Doliones, including Cyzicus. The Argonauts felt pretty bad the next day when they realized, and cut their hair to apologize to the surviving Doliones.

They arrive at the Land of the Bebryces, where the king challenges everyone who visits to a boxing match. When he wins, he kills the loser. Among the Argonauts is the famous boxer Pollux, who kills the king with a blow to the elbow. That’s not normally lethal, but I guess you should be careful of your elbows, just in case.

In Thrace, they meet Phineas. He can tell the future, but has also been punished by the gods - first, by being blinded, and second, by being harrassed by Harpies. Harpies are half-women, half-birds. They are huge and smell terrible. Whenever Phineas tries to eat, they fly in and steal his food (and leave a smelly mess). The Argonauts agree to help him. Harpies cannot be harmed by swords, but two Argonauts happened to be able to fly (long story), and flew above the Harpies to attack from the sky. This terrified the Harpies, who fled. To thank them, Phineas explained how to survive the Symplegades.

The Symplegades are two cliffs that float in the ocean in the Bosporus strait. When something comes between them, they smash together. The Argo positioned itself just before them. Jason let loose a dove, which flew through. The Symplegades slammed together, crushing the dove’s tail. As the rocks started to separate, the Argo went through quickly. The rocks had to reset to open and then close again, so the Argo got through. After that, the cliffs never moved again (probably too embarrassed to do so).

They land on the island of Dia, where they meet the Stymphalian birds, a.k.a “The Birds of Ares”. These man-eating birds had bronze beaks and sharp metallic feathers they could use as arrows. The Argonauts couldn’t defeat them, so they used their shields for protection and made a lot of noise to scare them away.

They make it to Colchis, on the Black Sea. Colchis is ruled by King Aeetes, who has a daughter Medea. Hera makes Medea fall in love with Jason. Which is helpful, because it turns out she’s also a witch. Aeetes doesn’t want to hand over the golden fleece to Jason, but he figures some god is helping him, so he doesn’t want to just kill him. He proposes two tasks. Jason must yoke together some fire-breathing oxen he has and then plow a field with dragon teeth. Medea gives Jason a special fire-protection ointment and he is able to accomplish both tasks. He then takes a nap. While he sleeps the teeth grow into soldiers. Medea had already told Jason what to do: he threw a rock in the middle of them. Dragontooth Soldiers apparently can’t resist a rock, so they fight over it. Then Jason is able to kill the few remaining ones.

While Aeetes plots a new way to kill Jason, Medea takes him to where the fleece is kept. It is guarded by a dragon, but Medea lulls him to sleep with a magic ointment and Jason puts a stick in his mouth. They take the fleece and sail off. Aeetes follows them, but Medea slows him down by killing her little brother Apsyrtus (who was on the ship with her and Jason) and cutting him into pieces. She throws the pieces into the water, and Aeetes naturally stops to collect the pieces of his son for burial, so the Argonauts escape.

They pass by the Sirens, who sing so sweetly that men shipwreck themselves just to get closer, and then die of hunger and thirst because they forget everything but the music. One of the Argonauts is Orpheus, the musician who will later charm the Underworld into (temporarily) returning his dead wife, so he just sings louder than the Sirens and they get past.

They also pass by Scylla and Charybdis, better known in the Odysseus story.

While passing by the Syrtes in Libya (North Africa in the ancient world), the Argo is driven off-course and winds up surrounded by sand. The Argonauts carry the boat to try to find water. Along their route, they pass the Garden of the Hesperides, where the tree that produces golden apples is guarded. They find that Hercules had been there before them (he had been an Argonaut for about two minutes) and killed the dragon that guarded the tree. The Hesperides tell the Argonauts how to get to Lake Triton. The god of the lake (a merman, or mere) shows them how to get back to the sea and back on course.

At some point, the Argonauts saw the mythical land of Hyperborea, which just means “north”. But they don’t go there.

Jason et al. make it back to Iolcus. Medea kills Pelias, they get exiled to Corinth, Jason dumps Medea for the princess, Medea kills the princess (and the king), Medea then kills the kids she had with Jason, Medea is exiled and goes to Athens (to briefly reappear in Theseus’ myth). Jason lives the rest of his life in awkward obscurity and is eventually killed when the Argo (or part of it, depending on the version) falls on him while he’s sleeping.