The Quest of the Golden Fleece Essay Example

The Quest of the Golden Fleece is the title of an epic about the first hero in Europe to set out on a great voyage, Jason. He and his ship's crew, which consisted of the most famous heroes, the well-known Hercules, the master musician Orpheus, Castor and his brother Pollux, the father of Achilles, Peleus and many more, called themselves the "Argonauts" after their ship, the "Argo". The Argonauts and Jason had to face many great dangers and adventures, but also almost invincible trials. All this just to complete a seemingly impossible task to return to Greece with the Golden Fleece, which was, however, just another task so that Jason could reclaim his rightful throne.

The saga begins with the remarriage of the Greek king Athamas, to the princess Ino, who however only wanted to change the succession to the throne by staging an intended famine & bribing or perhaps even menacing an messanger coming from an oracle to make it look like the sacrifice of the first born prince, the son of Nephele was the right and only way to end the disaster. Nephele was not without cunning and as she already saw this coming. She prayed to the gods and they heard her prayers. On the day of the gruesome sacrifice Hermes sent a flying ram with a fleece of pure gold to save her children Phrixus but also Helle. While Phrixus made it safe to the land of the Colchis, tragically his sister fell and drowned over the crossing separating Europe and Asia. The Colchis people; were considered as fierce people but nevertheless welcomed him with open arms and kindness. For these reasons Phrixus presented the precious golden fleece to Æetes, the king of the land, after he sacrificed  the ram to Zeus to thank the gods for saving him.Whereas Phrixus lived happily in Greek was chaos as the uncle of him, the rightful king of the country was overthrown by his own nephew Pelias. For the sake of his life the son of his was secretly brought to a safe place, to reclaim his throne when he was old enough. At the age of twenty he was considered as so and made his way to his hometown. When Jason arrived people saw him as a stranger and began to talk, which is why Pelias took notice of him and confronted him. Blank fear overcame him, as Pelias had been warned about by an oracle that a nobleman, wearing only one sandal would be his death and this stranger only wore one sandal. Jason introduced himself properly and with this Pelias only saw one choice, put him to a seemingly impossible quest, to bring the golden fleece to Greek in exchange for the throne.This seemed delightfull to the young Jason and he agreed. When this became widely known, the most famous heroes came to become his shipmates, the Argonauts. With the speed from Zeus they started their voyage, first anchoring at the island Lemnos where only women lived after they killed all the males but the old king, who was banished. Strangely the inhabitants welcomed them and let the Argonauts restock their supplies. After they harbored the southern shore of the Propontis at the Doliones tribe. The king Cyzicus treated them graciously, beyond Bear Mountain the Argonauts were attacked by the inhabitants, which were earthborn giants, when most of the crewmembers went searching for supplies. They managed to fight them off and sailed on but left Hercules and his armor-bearer Hylas because completely forgetting about the fleece and the argonauts  Hercules wanted to save Hylas, who was pulled into the stream by nymphs. An unfortunate storm happened to drive them back to Doliones but the Argonauts were disorientated and in the darkness they mistook the people for their enemies and killed many of the tribe, including king Cyzicus. In the morning when they realized this disaster they held a funeral and continued their voyage. They still had many adventures before them, saving an old truth teller named Phineas from the Harpies was the next one. The Harpies also called the “hounds of Zeus” were terrible creatures and the truth teller enraged Zeus by telling people their prophecies which is why he sent the Harpies after him. The two brothers Castor and Pollux, sons of Boreas were able to drive the Harpies away and surely they would have been dead if the rainbow messenger of the gods would not have requested them to keep them alive and promised they would never bother the old Phineas anymore. As thanks, Phineas predicted their upcoming dangers and gave them advice. To reach Colchis the Argonauts needed to sail through the Symplegades, clashing rocks. Phineas told them to first let a pigeon fly through and if it passed safely the Argonauts could also do so if not, Jason was doomed to fail. They made it through with minor damage. On the same day they made it to Colchis and to the capital city. Meanwhile in the Olympus, Hera worried about them so she asked for Aphrodites help, who sent Cupid to make Medea the princess fall in love with Jasons. When the heroes made their way to the palace, the Colchis king Æetes welcomed them and dined with them because of Xenia. But as he asked them about the reasons for their dangerous voyage to his country a rage was brewing in Æetes.  He felt the urge to kill the foreigners, but instead he said that if they proved to be brave men, he would give them the golden fleece. He gave them three tasks to prove to them "the trial of courage", which he claimed to have done by himself. Even though it seemed impossible, Jason decided to take the test even if it might mean his death. There was no hope left until they found out about Medea's magical powers and Jason decided to find her and beg for her help unknowingly that arrangements had already been made in the Olympus. Absolutely smitten by love, she agreed and promised to help him. The next morning the trial took place. First he had to plough a field bronzen bulls that he had to yoke, because of the ointment from Medea that made him invulnerable for that day he succeeded. Secondly Jason had to sow dragon teeth, from which the last task would sprout, an army of armed men. Jason threw a stone in the middle of them and they attacked each other, just as Medea told him. King  Æetes was enraged about the success of Jason and planned to betray them not giving them the golden fleece but that night Medea stole away to the ship. Together they decided to steal the precious golden fleece, with Medea helping them they made it. She led them to the grotto where with her magic, she lulled in the serpent, which was protecting the golden fleece. As the already enraged king noticed it he sent an army with the leader being Medea's brother to bring them back. By a list her brother was killed by his own sister, there is another variation of the story in which Jason killed him, but what we for sure know is that an army without a leader was nothing.  On their voyage back home, the Argonauts had to cross a rough sea with indescribably high waves, which were a sequence of the Storms Zeus sent because she killed her own brother. They went to the island of her aunt to cleanse this sin. Secondly they wanted to recover on an island called Crete but Talus, a guy only vulnerable on his ankle, threatened them that if they tried to do so, Medea saved them as she killed Talus with the help of Hades. The Argonauts separated, each returned to their homes, and Jason and Medea,  with the Golden Fleece, set out for Pelias. When they found out that Jason's father was forced to commit suicide and his mother died of longing, he asked Medea to help him, and by a clever trick, she had the daughters of Pelias murdered their own father. The people were afraid of such powerful magic, so when they learned that Medea possessed such powers, she and Jason went into exile to Corinth, where she gave birth to two sons.

All her losses were compensated by her great love for Jason. But Jason broke his marriage promise and engaged himself to the princess of Corinth. What Medea finally broke was that she had to leave Corinth, because the king feared for the life of his daughter. There she was, alone with her sons, wrapped in grief and betrayal, when Jason suddenly appeared. She could hardly look him in the eye after what he had done and they argued, Jason saw himself as a kind of salvation for her, because he appeased the king and she would not have been killed but only banished, also he accused her of the exile from Corinth she owed to herself with the threats to his new wife. He then offered her wealth and protection in exile, which she refused, and now reproached him for all the bloody deeds she had done to save him. Jason, however, did not see that Medea had been his saviour in Colchis, but believed that Aphrodite, who had made Medea fall in love with him, was his saviour. Enraged, Medea planned her revenge to kill his new bride. She sent her sons off with a drugged gift to the princess and when she put on the beautiful robe she died a horrible death. Medea knew she could not save her sons, but did not want to leave them to a tragic life, so she decided that even if it was hard, it was best to kill them, which she did with a heavy heart. Jason came full of rage, because of his dead bride and his dead sons, it was already too late. Medea flew far away in a carriage, pulled by dragons.