Jason
Jason was the son of Aeson, who should have been the king of Iolcus. When Aeson's father died, however, Aeson's half-brother Pelias usurped the throne. He spared Aeson but killed his sons. One son, Jason, was saved when his mother and her attendants encircled the new baby, crying and pretending that the child had been born dead. Jason was secretly sent to be raised by Chiron, a wise Centaur. Pelias still feared being overthrown, so he consulted an oracle, which warned him that a man with one sandal would cause his downfall.
When Jason grew up, he learned of his heritage and was determined to claim the throne. He left Chiron and journeyed to Iolcus. On the way, Jason had to cross a river. When he came to the river's edge, he met an old woman who asked him to carry her across. Jason agreed, but he lost a sandal in the process.
When Jason arrived in Iolcus, he wore his lone remaining sandal when he was presented to Pelias. Jason told the king that he had come to claim his birthright. Pelias could not kill Jason outright because of the laws of hospitality, plus he did not want to start a riot among Aeson's supporters. Therefore, Pelias replied that Jason could have the throne if he brought back the Golden Fleece of Chrysomallos, a magnificent winged ram. Jason agreed, and thus began the famous quest for the Golden Fleece.
The old woman whom Jason carried across the river was actually Hera in disguise. Hera hated Pelias because he had never given her due reverence. Therefore, Hera supported Jason in his quest to regain the throne.
The Quest for the Golden Fleece
Jason gathered some of the noblest and greatest heroes of Greece, including Heracles, to join him on his quest. Under the direction of Athena, they had a great ship built and named it the Argo. The band of heroes called themselves the Argonauts, or “sailors of the Argo.” They set sail for Colchis, where the fleece was located, but the journey was long and fraught with many obstacles. The Argonauts dallied with the women of the island of Lemnos (Jason fathered twins there), got lost, fought battles, rescued the prophet Phineus from some Harpies, and got through the Symplegades (cliffs that crashed together, crushing any ships that attempted to sail between them).
Finally, the Argonauts landed in Colchis, where Jason claimed the fleece. Aeetes, King of Colchis, told Jason he could have the fleece if he accomplished three tasks:
Yoke a team of fire-breathing oxen and use them to plow a field.
Plant a dragon's teeth in the plowed field.
Conquer the never-sleeping dragon that guarded the fleece.
Jason was favored by both Hera and Athena, who helped him on his quest. Athena summoned Eros to make Medea, a witch who was Aeetes' daughter, fall madly in love with Jason. Medea became infatuated with the hero and helped him in each task:
She gave him an ointment to protect his skin from the fire-breathing oxen.
She warned Jason that the dragon's teeth, once planted, would create an army of warriors and told him how to defeat them. Jason threw a rock into the crowd of warriors. Confused, they attacked and killed each other.
She gave Jason a sleeping potion that put the guardian dragon to sleep, and he was able to grab the fleece.
As soon as Jason had the fleece, the Argonauts left Colchis, taking Medea with them.
Aeetes sent his son Apsyrtus and a fleet of ships to pursue the fleeing Argonauts. Again, Medea acted to help her lover. She sent word to her brother that she had been kidnapped and told him that he must rescue her at a particular location. When Apsyrtus went there to rescue his sister, Jason ambushed and killed him. At the same time, the Argonauts attacked and killed Apsyrtus's crew.
In another, more gruesome myth, Apsyrtus was just a boy while Jason was in Colchis. To aid the Argonauts' escape, Medea kidnapped her brother, chopped him into small pieces, and threw his remains in the water as they sailed away. Aeetes had to collect all the pieces of his son for a proper burial — and he needed his ships to retrieve the pieces of his son's body — so the pursuit of the Argonauts was called off.
The Argonauts faced more challenges on the way home. They had to navigate between the whirlpool Charybdis and the cave-dwelling monster Scylla (Chapter 18), face terrible sea storms, find their way back to the Mediterranean after being blown far off course, and defeat a terrible bronze Giant. But they eventually made it home to Iolcus.
An Unsuccessful Mission
While the Argonauts were on their quest, a rumor spread in Iolcus that their ship had sunk. Thinking that Jason was dead, Pelias killed Jason's younger brother and his father Aeson. This upset Jason's mother so much that she killed herself.
Faced with the deaths of his parents and brother, Jason knew that Pelias would never give up the throne. He agreed to let Medea get rid of him. Medea convinced Pelias's daughters that they could restore their father's youth and demonstrated what they needed to do: She killed a ram, cut it into pieces, and boiled those pieces. A little while later, a lamb leaped from the pot. Pelias's daughters did the same thing to their father. They cut him into pieces and boiled the pieces. But no young boy emerged from the pot; Pelias had been killed by his own family.
Even with Pelias out of the way, Jason did not get the throne. He and Medea were exiled from Iolcus due to the ghastly way in which they had disposed of Pelias. They fled to Corinth. There, Jason fell in love with Glauce, daughter of the king of Corinth, and planned to leave Medea to marry her. Medea gave Jason's new bride-to-be a poisoned dress and crown; when Glauce put them on, she was killed, along with her father, who rushed to save her. Medea then murdered the two children she'd had with Jason and escaped to Athens, leaving Jason to mourn his losses.
Because Jason had abandoned his wife, he lost Hera's favor. Although he did regain the throne of Iolcus for his son Thessalus, the rest of his life was unhappy. Eventually, Jason died when a timber from the Argo fell on him.
