Main Characters

Phrixus, Jason, Medea

Plot

King Athamas of Greece got tired of his first wife, Nephele, and married Princess Ino. Ino finds an urge to kill Nephele's son and daughter, especially the son Phrixus. She destroys a crop that evidently was vital to Greece, and the region begins to starve.

In desperation, the citizens demand a solution. The King sends a person to an oracle, but is intercepted and bribed by Ino to say to sacrifice the two children. The King executes the comand. While sacrificing, a ram with golden fleece comes out and rescues Phrixus and his sister, being sent by Hermes. While crossing the strait that divided Europe and Asia, the sister falls and drowns. The strait is then called the Sea of Helle, the Hellespont.

Phrixus then lands at the country of Colchus near the Black Sea, where he sacrifices the bull to Zeus. The Golden Fleece is then given to King Aeetes of Colchus.

The later story of the Golden Fleece tells how the usurper of the throne of Colchis tried to get his nephew Jason out of the way by sending him on a quest to the far side of the world in those days, to retrieve the Golden Fleece. It was a grand affair. According to the myth, his ship the Argo was the first ship ever built, and Athena and the other gods assisted him. Heroes like Hercules and Orpheus came with him.

In the end, they did not win the Fleece by heroics, but magic. Jason seduced King Aeetes' second daughter Medea, who was a powerful magician. So she assisted him when Aeetes set Jason a dangerous task to "prove" himself: harness a team of magical fire-breathing bulls, plow and sow a field with dragon's teeth, and destroy the warriors that sprang from the earth from the dragon's teeth.

Medea gave Jason a potion to make him invulnerable for a day. She also told him to cast a stone at one of the warriors to make him think a comrade had struck him, so that they would turn and fight one another. Jason followed her instructions and made short work of the survivors. King Aeetes was disappointed and still wanted to keep his treasure, but Medea and Jason didn't give him a chance. The witch put to sleep the serpent guarding the Golden Fleece with her magic, and Jason stole away with his prize and the princess.

Medea used her magic to help him become king, promising the daughters of his uncle that she could restore him to youth and vigor if they would chop him up and put him in her magic cauldron. Medea gave a demonstration with an old ram, plucking a young kid from the pot. So the daughters of the tyrant rushed to murder their father, only to have Medea laugh in their faces. Jason might have ruled Colchis then with no opposition.

But after having two sons by her, he found it expedient to divorce and exile his wife and marry the daughter of the king of Corinth, another powerful city. Knowing her sons would be a nuisance to the new Queen, Medea grew furious: she killed them and threw their bodies at Jason, and sent a poisoned gown as a present to his new bride that killed both her and her father. Then Medea, more than avenged for Jason's betrayal, took off in a chariot drawn by dragons.

Moral/Purpose

People, when convinced that they got less than than their fair share, get angry.

Relevance to Society