Post by Z451 on Apr 27, 2014 3:25:51 GMT
Jason
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 could not bear to be near them.
The men then took concubines from the Thracian mainland opposite, and the spurned women, angry at Aphrodite, killed all the male inhabitants 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 had not taken part, which is truly unusual considering the numerous affairs he had with other women.
Cyzicus
After Lemnos the Argonauts landed among the Doliones, whose king Cyzicus treated them graciously.
He told them about the land beyond Bear Mountain, but forgot to mention what lived there.
What lived in the land beyond Bear Mountain were the Gegeines which are a tribe of Earthborn giants with six arms and wore leather loincloths.
While most of the crew went into the forest to search for supplies, the Gegeines saw that few Argonauts were guarding the ship and raided it.
Heracles was among those guarding the ship at the time and managed to kill most them before Jason and the others returned.
Once some of the other Gegeines were killed, Jason and the Argonauts set sail.
Sometime after their fight with the Gegeines, they sent some men to find food and water.
Among these men was Heracles' servant Hylas who was gathering water while Heracles was out finding some wood to carve a new oar to replace the one that broke.
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, got the Golden Girdle of the Amazons and slew the Stymphalian Birds at that time.
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 Cyzicus.
Cyzicus' wife killed herself.
The Argonauts realized their horrible mistake when dawn came and held a funeral for him.
Phineas and the Harpies
Soon Jason reached the court of Phineus of Salmydessus in Thrace.
Zeus had sent the Harpies to steal the food put out for Phineas each day.
Jason took pity on the emaciated king and killed the Harpies when they returned; in other versions, Calais and Zetes chase the Harpies away.
In return for this favor, Phineas revealed to Jason the location of Colchis and how to pass 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.
Phineas 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.
From that time on, the clashing rocks were forever joined leaving free passage for others to pass.
The arrival in Colchis
Jason and the Snake
Jason arrived in Colchis (modern Black Sea coast of Georgia) to claim the fleece as his own.
It was owned by King Aeetes of Colchis.
The fleece was given to him by Phrixus.
Aeetes promised to give it to Jason 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 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 teeth of a dragon into a field.
The teeth sprouted into an army of warriors (spartoi).
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, distilled from herbs.
The dragon fell asleep, and Jason was able to seize the Golden Fleece.
He then sailed away with Medea.
Medea distracted her father, who chased them as they fled, by killing her brother Apsyrtus and throwing pieces of his body into the sea; Aeetes stopped to gather them.
In another version, Medea lured Apsyrtus into a trap.
Jason killed him, chopped off his fingers and toes, and buried the corpse.
In any case, Jason and Medea escaped.
Links
Wikipedia> en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jason
Myth Web.com> www.mythweb.com/encyc/entries/jason.html
Ancient Greece.com> www.ancientgreece.com/s/GreekMyths/Jason/
Copyright Owner
Public Domain> en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_domain
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