Jason and the Argonauts sail to Colchis for the Golden Fleece. The centrepiece is Medea's torment — a teenage girl falling in love against her will and betraying her father to help a stranger. The most psychologically acute epic after Homer.
Start ReadingJason assembles the Argonauts and sets sail from Iolcos. The heroes stop at Lemnos, where the women have killed their men, and navigate the Hellespont to the court of King Cyzicus.
The Argonauts pass through the Clashing Rocks into the Black Sea. Polydeuces boxes the savage Amycus, and the blind seer Phineus reveals the route to Colchis in exchange for rescue from the Harpies.
The Argonauts reach Colchis. Aphrodite sends Eros to make Medea fall in love with Jason. Torn between loyalty to her father and her passion, Medea agrees to help Jason yoke the fire-breathing bulls and sow the dragon's teeth.
Jason seizes the Golden Fleece with Medea's sorcery. The Argonauts flee with Aeetes in pursuit. Medea murders her brother Absyrtus. The voyage home takes them through the Adriatic, past Scylla and Charybdis, and to the shores of Libya.