jason and the golden fleece

Jason and the Golden Fleece

By: Olivia Broughton

Summary

CHARACTERS

• starts with Athamas's wife in prison and Athamas with Ino who is a young princess
• Nephele was afraid that Io would try to kill her and athamas's children so Ino's children would inherit the throne
• afraid of this happening, Nephele prays to Hermes, messanger god.

ATHAMUS: King of greece

NEPHALE: Queen of greece

INO: Marries king/ princess

PHRIXES: Athamus and Nephale's son

AETES: King of Colchis

PELIAS: Jason's uncle

MEDEA: Aetes daughter

JASON: Main character

• Nephele was right, Ino was trying to kill her kids
• Ino dehydrated seeds so when the went to be planted the crops wouldnt grow
• when Aetes went to an oracle to ask what to do for the crops to grow again, Ino bribed the oracle to tell the king he had to sacrifice his children.
• they were about to sacrifice his children when a golden ram came down and rescued them taking them away from the king and Ino
• the golden ram was sent by hermes to answer Nephele's prayers
• while the flying ram was taking Phrixus and his sister, Helle, away Helle fell off the ram and died

• Phrixes and the ram safely arrive at Colchis and then Phrixes gives the ram to Zeus and gives the Fleece to the king of Colchis Aetes
• Meanwhile, Jason's uncle, Pelias stole the throne from Jason's father.
• Pelias, living in constant fear of loosing the kingdom he unjustly took put Iolcus, Jason's father, in jail and Jason was ordered to be killed.
• Jason's mother tricked Pelias into thinking that Jason had died and sent Jason away to live in a cave with a centaur
• the centaur taught jason the lore of plants, civilized art and hunting
• once jason was of age, he set off to reclaim his rightful place to the throne.

• Pelias recieved a prediction from an oracle that he would soon be overthrown by a stranger wearing only one sandal.
• En route to the Pelias's kingdom, Jason looses his sandal so when Pelias sees this he soon decides to do what he can to kill Jason.
• Pelias decides to pretend he is being cooperative but tell's Jason he has to retrieve the golden fleece for the kingdom first knowing that there was no possible way that Jason could make it back alive
• Jason is intrigued by this challenge and assembles a team consisting of Hercules, Theseus, Peleus, and Orpheus to retrieve the golden fleece
• their ship's name is called the Argo so this team of hero's is referred to as Argonauts

• jason and the argonauts face many challeges on their way to get the fleece
• when they arrive the king, Aetes, similar to Pelias, try to trick Jason and says he can have the fleece if he can complete two tasks which are designed to kill Jason
• the first task consist of yoking two fierce magical bulls with hooves of bronze and breath of fire
• luckily jason gets some help from the goddess aphrodite
• aphrodite sends cupid down to shoot madea, Aetes's daughter, with an arrow so she falls in love with jason
• she then continues to help jason by giving him an ointment that makes him invinsible for an entire day so he is able to complete his task of yoking the bulls

• the second task he has to complete is to use the bulls to plant dragon teeth in a field
• in doing this every dragon tooth he plants, an armed man to spring up and attack Jason
• Madea then tells him to throw a rock in the middle of them which will make the armed men kill eachother
• since Jason completed all of the tasks successfully, the king had no other choice but to take matters into his own hands and kill the argonauts
• Madea interferes again and tells Jason of her fathers intentions so jason ends up stealing the golden fleece by putting the serpent who guards it to sleep
• she then joins the argonauts and heads back with them to Greece

• upon his return jason learns that Pelias has murdered his father resulting in his mother to die of saddness
• Madea and Jason plan their revenge
• Madea convinces Pelias's daughters that if they want to restore their fathers youth they need to kill him and chop him up into little pieces and put them in Madea's magic pot
• since they loved their father they proceeded to chop their father up and then Madea and Jason flee the city taking their magic pot and Jason's father who they brought back from the dead
• after they flee the city, Jason gets a sudden ambition to marry the king of Corinth's daughter who banished Madea
• jason didnt care so for her revenge she sent her and jasons kids with a robe to the bride and once she puts on the robe it engulfs her in flames
• her father goes over to help her but ends up burning as well
• madea then kills her and jasons sons and flees in a magic chariot

Hero Cycle

• call to adventure
• leaving to take his rightful place at the throne
• supernatural aid
• Aphrodite and cupid
• crossing the first threshold
• their journey at sea, unfamiliar territory
• the road of trials
• obtaining the fleece
• planting the dragon teeth
• yoking the bulls
• meeting with the goddess/temptress
• madea
• atonement with the father
• getting Pelias's daughters to murder him
• return
• goes back to a nomal life

carl jung's heroic archetypes

• encounter the shadow
• usually clever/witty
• shadow is impulsive
• see this when he pursues the king of corinthia's daughter
• encounter animus/anima
• uses help from feminine assets
• madea
• aphrodite
• masculine way doesnt always work
• encounter self
• becomes wiser after completing tasks

bibliography

• http://www.livingmyths.com/Greeksum.htm
• http://www.gradesaver.com/mythology/study-guide/section14/