Jason.

    The son of Aeson, the Thessalian hero Jason was the leader of the Argonauts, the band of heroes who took part in the quest for the Golden Fleece. Jason was by right to become the king of Iolchus, but the throne was usurped by Pelias, his father’s half-brother. In one version of the myth, Jason’s mother staged a mock funeral and convinced Pelias that the boy was dead in order to get him safely out of Iolchus. Then, she arranged for him to be sent to the centaur Chiron, who reared and educated him.
     When he reached adulthood, Jason returned to claim his throne. Approaching Iolchus, he lost one of his sandals while helping an old woman to cross a river. (According to one version, the old woman was the goddess Hera in disguise, and she thereafter placed Jason under her protection.) Pelias, who had been warned by an oracle to beware a descendant of Aeson wearing one sandal, equivocated when Jason confronted him. He assured the youth that he would be happy to relinquish his throne if only Jason could recapture the Golden Fleece, believing such a task would be impossible. The fleece of the golden ram on which Phryxus and Helle had escaped the wrath of Athamas now hung in Colchis, and Jason was charged with restoring it to its rightful home in Greece.
    For this epic quest, Jason gathered together fifty of the bravest heroes in Greece. They put in at a number of ports and took part in numerous adventures before arriving at Colchis to claim the Golden Fleece. They were aided by the king’s daughter, Medea, a sorceress who fell in love with Jason and helped him to steal the fleece and escape. During the return journey — filled with epic perils and adventures — Jason married Medea. When they reached Iolchus, Medea killed Pelias with her magic. Jason was thus avenged for the mistreatment of his family, but because he was responsible for the murder of his uncle, he and Medea were banished by Pelias’s son, Acastus.
     Jason placed the fleece in the temple of Zeus at Orchomenus, then went with Medea in exile to Corinth, where he dedicated his ship, the Argo, to Poseidon. After ten years he divorced Medea in order to marry King Creon’s daughter Glauce (Creusa). In a rage, Medea killed her two children by Jason, then escaped to Athens. Jason remained in Corinth, or, according to other accounts, was exiled and wandered about Greece for many years before returning to Corinth. There, resting beneath the hull of the Argo, he was struck and killed by a piece of timber that fell from the ship’s stern.
    
    
    
Listings are arranged under the following headings:
     Jason and the Argonauts
     Jason and Hypsipyle
     Hylas
     Phineus and the Harpies
    
See also: Athamas; Chiron; Medea; Meleager and the Calydonian Boar Hunt.