Jason and the Argonauts

I’ve been catching up on what ancient Greek epics I can, or that exist. This one was written by Apollonius during the 3rd century BC, but set before the epic cycle of which we have now just remaining Homer’s telling of the Iliad and the Odyssey. You can nearly think of this as a prequel to the entire cycle since it does feature Peleus, Achilles’ father, and Hercules before the first sacking of Troy they perform. So timeline wise it goes:

• Jason sails to retrieve the golden fleece, he is joined by Hercules and Peleus, among others. Hercules took a leave of absence to go on this journey with Jason and other heroes.
• Early on in the journey, Hercules is abandoned in the journey in search of Hylas.
• Some years after the return of the fleece, on the ninth labor, Hercules happens to visit Troy and saves princess Hesione. He was promised the horses gifted by Zeus in exchange for his heroism, but the Trojan king at the time, King Laomedon, betrayed him.
• After completing the 12th labor, Hercules returns to Troy with Peleus and others to sack it. He kills all of King Laomedon’s sons, save one that he allowed Hesione to choose. She chose Podarces who changed his name to Priam (translates to ‘ransomed’)
• A generation later, Achilles son of Peleus finds himself at the gates of Troy where he kills Hector and leads the Greeks to sack Troy

So that’s a long history lesson to say, the stories are all connected and the quest to retrieve the Golden Fleece was a known feat.

So the epic is perhaps the first hero team up story in existence. Jason is given an impossible quest to sail to Colchis and retrieve the Golden Fleece. You don’t really get the impression that Jason is a hero, in fact the whole epic starts with him bringing other heroes together to join him in his quest. Jason calls on a cast of heroes to sail with him including Hercules, Peleus, Telamon (father of Ajax), Orpheus (the famous musician) and several more with powers such as shapeshifting, seers, Lynceus with super eyesight, and more.

Then proceeds a sort of Gulliver’s Travels adventure to several different islands in an episodic nature where Jason’s crew outshine him every step of the way. Each with a bizarre plot and story of their own such as boxing matches with the king of one island, or the island of women. The story gets more interesting once Jason and the crew reach Colchis, and Medea is spellbound to Jason to assist him in retrieving the fleece. She gives up her family in order to see Jason succeed using her magic and power, once again re-emphasizing how un-heroic Jason really is in his own epic.

Overall, am glad I read the epic, but I can see why it wasn’t assigned reading in school. It pales in comparison to Homer’s epics, and feels quite forced. Recommended if you’re running out of epics to read :)