The Early Years
A
Greek king Athamas, gets tired of his wife Nephele and put her
jail. He marries Io, a young princess, in her place. Nephele prays
that Io will not kill her two children in order to make Io own children inherit
the kingdom. Io does attempt this murder, however. She secretly gathers seed –
corn and parches the seed so that no crops will grow. Then,
when Athamas asks for word from an oracle about how to end the
famine, Io bribes a messenger to say that the only way to bring back the crops
is to sacrifice his son, Phrixus. Athamas and Io bring the boy to
the sacrificial altar, but just before the murder, a wondrous ram with a golden
fleece takes the boy and his sister and runs away. The ram, send
by Hermis, is an answer to Nephele’s prayer.
The
ram carries the children across the water from Europe to Asia, and on the way,
the girl sleeps off and drowns. Phrixus arrive safely in the country of Colchis
where he sacrifices the ram and gives it to king Aetes.
Meanwhile,
in another part of Greece, a King name Pelias has stolen the crown from his
brother. An oracle tells him that he will die at the hands of a kinsman and
that he should wary of a man wearing only one sandal. One day, a man wearing
one sandal comes to town. This is Jason, the king’s nephew, come to claim his
rightful place as king. Pelias tells Jason that he would give up the throne if
Jason would go out and retrieve the Golden Fleece.
Jason assembles a remarkable group of heroes to help him. Their ship is named the Argo, so they the group is called the Argonauts.
The Argonauts face many challenges on the way to Colchis. They first meet the fierce women of Lemnos, who have killed their men, but find them atypically kind.
Hercules leaves the crew, and the Argonauts meet an oracle, Phineus. The sons of Boreas, the North Wind, help Phineus by driving off some terrible Harpies who foul his food whenever he tries to eat.
Phineus gives the Argonauts information that helps them pass safely through their next challenge – the Symplegades, gigantic rocks that smash together when a ship sail through them.
Hera and Aphrodite arrange for Cupid to make king Aetes’ daughter, Medea, fall in love with Jason. Jason asks Aetes for the fleece, but Aetes says Jason must do the following:
–The first challenge is to yoke two fierce magical bulls with hoofs of bronze and breath of fire, and Medea gives Jason an ointment that makes him invincible.
–The second task is to use the bulls to plow a field and sow it with dragon’s teeth, which causes armed men to spring up from the earth and attack Jason. (Medea tells him that if he throws a rock in the middle of the armed men, they will attack each other, not him.)
And Jason succeed.
The treacherous king will not give him the fleece, however. He plans to kill Jason. Medea helps him again. She leads him to the fleece, charms the serpent guarding it, and flees with Jason back home.
On the journey home, Medea kills her brother in the idea that she is protecting Jason. This is the first sign of her madness.
On the way home, the Argonauts pass more challenges, including safely navigating:
– Scylla, the dreaded rock
– Charybdis, the whirlpool
– Talus, the giant bronze man
Upon returning, Jason finds that Pelias has killed his father and that his mother has died of
sadness.
Jason and Medea plot revenge – Medea convinces Pelias’s daughters that they will retore Pelias to youth if they kill him, chop him up, and put the pieces into her magic pot. Out of love for their father, they slice him to bits, but Medea leaves the city, taking her magic pot with her after first restoring Jason’s father to life.
Medea and Jason have two children, but Jason leaves out of personal ambition to marry the daughter of the king of Corinth, who banishes Medea and her children.
Medea enact a terrible revenge, sending her two sons with a beautiful magic robe as a gift for Jason’s new bride. When the girl dons the robe, it bursts into flame, consuming her and the king as he rushes to her. Medea then kills the two sons she had with Jason and flies away on a magic chariot.
Credits: (Pictures)
http://www.howarddavidjohnson.com/myth&.htm
http://garysfacts.tumblr.com/post/117913053814/the-harpies-mythology-in-greek-mythology-and
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