Jason and the Argonauts

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Fiction by Kenny Curtis and Jillian Hughes
Illustrations by J. Espila

Jason may have been born a prince, but things started out rough for the royal.

Jason’s father, King Aeson, had a very jealous little brother named Pelias. Before Jason was even born, his future uncle Pelias decided to steal the throne. Pelias was a little worried about how this would all play out when his future nephew was born, so he sought advice from the Oracle of Delphi.

The Oracle told Pelias that he would be the king of Iolcus, but he should “beware of the young man with one sandal.” The Oracle said that this mysterious one-shoed man would someday take Pelias’s throne.

Jason has a pretty stellar lineup in his crew, some of whom you might recognize from other Greek mythological adventures. Famous Argonaut alumni incluce Asclepius, Atalanta, Orpheus, Peleus, Theseus, and, of course, the famous Heracles.

Meanwhile, Jason’s mother was so worried about what Pelias would do to her unborn son (the rightful ruler of Iolcus) that she gave birth in secret. She then sent little Jason to live with the centaur Chiron, who raised and trained him to become a great hero. (If this was a movie, we would put a montage right here.)

In time, Jason grew into the smart, handsome and strapping young royal he was destined to be. He decided to return to his homeland and reclaim his throne.

Jason said goodbye to his Greek Hero 101 teacher and traveled all the way across Greece. At some point he lost a sandal, but eventually, Jason made it to Iolcus to challenge his uncle.

“Hey, I’m your long-lost nephew,“ Jason said when he came face to face with Pelias. “I think you’re sitting in my seat. And by the way, do you have, like, a sock or something?”

Pelias remembered the Oracle’s warning about a one-shoed man, so he came up with a cunning plan: Pelias told Jason that he’d give up the throne if Jason could bring him the Golden Fleece, the golden wool of an enchanted winged ram. The fleece was hanging in a faraway land called Colchis, at the edge of the known world. The king of Colchis, King Aeëtes, kept the fleece draped over the branch of a giant tree, guarded by a huge dragon that never slept.

Pelias figured that the quest was so dangerous that his nephew would either give up or die trying. He was so confident that Jason wouldn’t succeed that he even hired Argus, a talented ship builder, to make Jason a ship.

But Jason believed in himself. And so he decided to embark upon one of the greatest adventures of all time. Because he was a pretty smart guy, Jason began his quest by praying to the goddess Athena. She heard his pleas and inspired Argus to go all out and design one of the biggest and coolest ships to ever exist. Argus created a nautical masterpiece: a magical ship with places for 50 rowers. Jason called it the Argo, after its builder.

Ship? Check. Then Jason put the call out for a crew. And what a crew it was! The children of gods and kings came from all over Greece to join Jason — even the mighty Heracles signed on. The crew included 50 of Greece’s finest adventurers.

The journey of Jason and his Argonauts is legendary. You could fill a book with their adventures, but for now let’s just say their quest was not an easy one.

It seemed like Jason was never going to find the fleece, but eventually, he got a lucky break when they wound up in the country of Thrace.

Jason offered to take care of the harpies if Phineus would agree to help him get to Colchis.

“I’d pretty much do anything to never have to smell harpies again. If you can get rid of them, I’ll help you in any way I can,” the king promised.

Thrace was ruled by a king named Phineus, who was so good at telling fortunes that the gods had punished him for it. First, they blinded him. Then they sent harpies to torment him. A harpy was a half-woman, half-bird creature that loved to make people suffer. Every evening at dinner, Phineus would find a great feast laid out for him, but as soon as he sat down to eat, the harpies would steal the food from him! Then these feathery fiends would leave behind such a stench that whatever food was left was ruined. So poor Phineus was hungry all the time but could never eat. Also, he had to breathe through his mouth a lot.

So Jason decided to set a trap for the harpies at the next dinner party. As soon as Phineus sat down to eat, the food snatchers appeared. But this time, two of Jason’s strongest warriors jumped out and attacked. The harpies were so surprised and scared that they flew away and never returned.

Phineus was so happy that he immediately held a great feast to honor his guests. While munching on the first bites of normal-smelling food he’d had in a while, Phineus told Jason everything he knew about how to make it safely to the island of Colchis.

Finally, Jason was pretty sure he was at the end of his quest.

OK, there was that whole dragon thing, but after everything he’d been through already, he was confident he could handle it. They had some rough sailing and narrow escapes, but eventually, the crew of the Argo reached the island of Colchis.

Its king, Aeëtes, had a beautiful daughter named Medea, who seemed to hit it off with Jason. (And she knew a little magic, which was pretty cool.) But it became clear that King Aeëtes had no intention of giving up the precious Golden Fleece. He knew that Jason and the Argonauts were skilled warriors, so he didn’t try to attack them. Instead, he made a deal.

Medea was the grand-daughter of Helios, the sun god, and a famous sorceress in her own right.

King Aeëtes said that he would give up the Golden Fleece if Jason could plow a field with two magical wild bulls. Now at this point, Jason was getting fed up with all these heroic side quests. But he had no choice.

This wasn’t your average agricultural task, however. Turns out these bulls breathed fire. And instead of planting regular seeds while he plowed the field, Jason was supposed to plant dragon teeth — plucked from the very dragon guarding the fleece. Jason had no clue where to begin. It wasn’t like he had been trained in the art of dragon farming. But thankfully, Medea had an idea, which she promised to share with Jason as long as he promised to take her back with him to Greece. Jason looked over at the fire-breathing bulls one more time and quickly agreed.

Medea gave Jason some ointment and a bag of rocks. Not very flashy. But the ointment, she explained, would protect Jason from fire. So he rubbed it all over himself. Now since the fire-breathing bovines couldn’t burn him, Jason was able to corral the bulls and plow the field unscathed.

But he couldn’t declare victory just yet. Jason was dropping dragon teeth into the soil, not seeds. Instead of growing tomatoes or rutabagas, dragon teeth grow human soldiers, and apparently they grow really fast. Suddenly, the field was full of armed men who had sprung out of the ground ready to attack.

Following Medea’s advice, Jason started to throw rocks in the middle of the crowd of soldiers. The rocks didn’t hurt them but made them turn on each other. Each soldier thought the next guy over had struck him!

So instead of attacking Jason as King Aeëtes had hoped, the soldiers attacked each other. Soon, all the freshly grown soldiers were back in the dirt.

It seemed Jason had passed King Aeëtes’ test, but the hero and his crew of Argonauts still had to face the dragon guarding the oak tree where the Golden Fleece was kept. Jason sighed. The number of dangerous creatures on this expedition was starting to get out of hand.

Once again, it was Medea to the rescue. She brewed a potion to put the dragon to sleep. Jason hid the mixture in a bowl of water by the oak tree (even dragons get thirsty sometimes). The beast slurped it right up. In just a few seconds, the dragon was peacefully snoring away.

Jason and Medea snatched the fleece and rushed back to the Argo for the long journey back to Iolcus. Jason’s story was far from over, but hey, at least he managed to find that fleece!

This myth reminds us that to be a great hero, you have to surround yourself with a great team. Jason needed a lot of help to succeed on his quest to get the Golden Fleece. It’s important to surround yourself with great people, but it’s also good to surround yourself with great technology. Jason really could have used a GPS.