Favorite Greek Myths by Bob Blaisdell

Author:Bob Blaisdell
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780486110301
Publisher: Dover Publications
Published: 2012-10-19T04:00:00+00:00

A twisting, terrible snake, the fleece’s protector, shot out its tongue on seeing their approach.

“Hurry, men!” said Jason. “Let us be off!” The Argonauts rowed out on to the river and back to sea, narrowly evading King Aeetes’ warships.

King Aeetes had sent his ships to chase down the Argonauts, and he demanded revenge on his daughter. Before the Argonauts had got very far, so many of Aeetes’ ships blocked them, that they decided to give up Medea to Aeetes’ sons.

At this, Medea grew angry, and Jason changed his mind, declaring that he would not give her up. And so Medea sent a message to Absyrtus, her brother, telling him she had been kidnapped, and wished to escape the Argonauts and that she would steal the Golden Fleece and return with him to their father. Absyrtus, believing her story, came to Medea from his ship. While he sat and talked to her, Jason came up from behind the innocent man and ruthlessly killed him.

This was a terrible crime: almighty Zeus was outraged by it and swore that the Argonauts would suffer for a long time before they reached home. The Argonauts learned of Zeus’s wrath when the talking plank of the Argo told them of it.

They sailed for weeks and came within sight of the island of the dangerous Sirens, whose lovely voices drew sailors off their course and to their deaths on the rocky shores. They would have destroyed the Argo had not Orpheus plucked sweet music from his lyre, drowning out the voices of the Sirens. After the Sirens, the Argonauts sailed beyond the menacing Scylla and Charybdis, death traps to all ships, and towards the Wandering Rocks, steaming like lava. The Wandering Rocks would have tumbled up out of the sea and burned their ship had not lovely sea nymphs, at the command of Peleus’ wife Thetis, taken hold of the ship and guided it safely past.

They next landed on the island of King Alcinous, where Jason and Medea married, spending their wedding night under the cover of the wondrous Golden Fleece. With gifts and treasures, the Argonauts set out once more.

They were soon home. The Argonauts again saw their dear families, their wives, their loving children.

As for Jason and Medea, their murder of Absyrtus haunted them the rest of their lives. Zeus resolved that even though they possessed the Golden Fleece and were able to bring about the death of the wicked King Pelias who had sent Jason on the quest, they were not to be happy. They ended their guilty lives far from either of their homelands.

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