Jason

The leader of the Argonauts. Jason was the son of Aeson and of Polymede, Alcimede Amphinome. According to Diodorus Siculus, Jason had a younger brother named Promachus.

Being the eldest son of Cretheus, his father Aeson should have become king of Iolcus when his grandfather died, but Aeson's half-brother Pelias seized the throne. The Centaur named Cheiron brought up Jason.

An oracle told Pelias that an Aeolid with one sandal would one day bring about his death. Jason appeared to fulfil the oracle by appearing with one sandal. Jason claimed the right to rule Iolcus. Pelias tricked him into fetching the Golden Fleece, which was within Aeëtes' possession, in Colchis. According to Pindar, Jason was 20 years of age when he appeared with one sandal.

Aided by the goddesses Hera and Athena, Jason had a ship called Argo built and gathered heroes to join in the adventure. At Colchis, Jason received help from the daughter of Aeëtes (Aeetes), Medea. Medea was a powerful sorceress whom Hera and Aphrodite made fall madly in love with the young leader. Together they escaped with the Golden Fleece. After a long journey and many hardships, Jason and Medea were married and returned to Iolcus. In Iolcus, there were several accounts of Pelias' death, caused by Medea, when Pelias had Aeson murdered in prison.

One account says that Jason gave his throne to Acastus, son of Pelias, and an Argonaut. Another account says that he was banished from Iolcus for the death of Pelias by Acastus and the angry Iolcans. Later, Jason with the Dioscuri joined another fellow Argonaut, Peleus, in besieging Iolcus and killing Acastus.

After death of Pelias, Hera took no more part in Jason's life. Jason's heroic pursuits were generally unimpressive after his quest. Jason's successes in his adventures were really the result of Medea's involvement or Hera's. Jason took part in the Calydonian boar hunt, where he only managed to kill a dog with his miscast spear.

With Medea, they lived in Corinth, the city that her father Aeëtes once ruled before he moved to Colchis. There Creon, king of Corinth, offered Jason his daughter's (Glauce's) hand in marriage. But Jason already had Medea as his wife who bore him several sons. In revenge for Jason abandoning her, she had Glauce wear a dress that she smeared with poison. When Glauce put the dress on, the venom consumed her. When Creon tried to tear the dress from his daughter, the king was also killed by the venom.

Not satisfied with murdering the king and his daughter, Medea murdered her own sons so that Jason would have no sons as well. Medea did all this before she fled to Athens. Unable to punish Medea, the Corinthians turned against the former Argo captain, and banished Jason from their city.

The Greek geographer Pausanias recorded a couple of different accounts. Pausanias says that it was the Corinthians who killed her two sons by stoning the two boys near the spring in which Glauce had died, while trying to quench Medea's burning poison. The gods punished the Corinthians so that they died mysterious deaths. To atone for the boys' murder, they had to annually sacrifice to them and erect a temple with a bronze statue of Apollo, near Glauce's Spring.

Pausanias also tells a totally different account where Medea inherited the kingdom of Corinth, because Corinthus son of Marathon died childless. It was the Corinthians who asked Medea to rule. She ruled Corinth with Jason, until he discovered that Medea was burying each of their sons in a sanctuary of Hera, thinking that she could make them immortal.

Again, there were several accounts of Jason's death. But the irony was Jason sitting under the hull of the Argo, was reminiscing his past glory, when a rotting beam fell on top of him, killing him instantly.

Different authors gave different name to their sons. Euripides and Apollodorus said their sons were named Mermerus and Pheres. According to Diodorus Siculus, Thessalus was the son of Jason and Medea, and succeeded Acastus to Iolcus when his uncle died. Thessalus became the eponym of the Thessalians.

Medea wasn't the only woman whom Jason had a child with. When the Argonauts were in Lemnos, Jason stayed with the Lemnian queen, Hypsipyle, where she conceived a son or two depending on the authors. Apollonius didn't say, but it was hinted that he did have one. Homer mentioned only one son to Jason and Hypsipyle, whose name was Euneus. On the other hand, Apollodorus said that Hypsipyle bore twins – Euneus and Nebrophonus.