Jason and the Argonauts Reflection

There are many different heros who went on difficult quests in Anicent Greek. Whenever a hero went on a journey, they often fit into the cycle of the hero. This cycle was created by Joseph Campbell, which shows the life cycle of a hero. Like most myths, Jason and the Argonauts is a good example of the cycle of the hero.

Birth/Home: Jason’s father was an honorable king named Ioclus, but Jason’s uncle, Pelias, took over the throne from him. Then Jason’s mother hid Jason from his uncle because she knew that Pelias will immediately give an order to kill Jason when he found out Jason was alive.

Call to Adventure: When Jason got older, he went to Pelias himself and ordered his uncle to hand over his throne. Pelias responded to Jason that if Jason brought him the Golden Fleece, only then Jason could take over the kingdom.

Elixir: The Golden Fleece was Jason’s goal and aim of the journey.Helpers: In the story, Jason’s helpers were the Argonauts. The Argonauts were a group of stron and powerful people such as Hercules.

Crossing the Threshold: In order for Jason to reach the Golden Fleece, he and the Argonauts had to go through the ocean and get to the kingdom of King Aeëtes. In the ocean they had a challenging time with the massive waves, and had to go through difficult obstacles, which made their journey even more of a challenge.

Helpers/amulet: For Jason, his best helper was Chiron and his sword. Chiron and the sword gave Jason hope to carry on the journey in difficult situations and supported him trust himself and believe that this journey was possible to accomplish.

Tests: Throughout the task for the Golden Fleece, Jason and the Argonauts went through many tests. Some examples are the dangerous clashing rocks in the ocean, the fire-breathing bulls, and the dragon that guarded the Golden Fleece. Each test showed how courageous Jason and the Argonauts were.

Climax/Final Battle: Jason’s climax of the journey was when he had a battle with Medea to save the Argonauts from going into the Underworld. Chiron’s sword was a huge help to destroy Medea, to free the Argonauts and to bring the Golden Fleece to Pelias.

Return/Flight: Jason and the Argonauts returned to Jason’s kingdom on a ship through the ocean and made haste to prepare for Jason to take over the throne from Pelias.

There are a huge amount of different variations for the myth, Jason and the Argonauts. In some myths, Aphrodite puts a spell on Medea to make her fall in love with Jason and help him throughout the quest. In other different myths, Medea is on the bad side and uses magic to stop Jason from accomplishing the quest. Another difference between the variations of the myth was Jason’s strength. In some of the myths, Jason is expressed as a weak hero and depended on the Argonauts for strength. But on the videos on the class blog, he is shown as a very courageous and strong hero. Even though there might be different thoughts to the myth, the story is basically the same; Jason going on a journey to get back his throne.

There are lots of evidences that indicate that this myth happened for real. Although I am not 100% sure, maybe Jason really existed as a person who went on a challenging task to take over the throne from his evil uncle. Here are some evidences I found while watching the video in humanities class…

· Mount Pelion does exist

· The myth happened at the time of the Trojan War, which is a true history

· Archeologists found the Argo ship that Jason and the Argonauts used and people could manage to build one for real

· The first quest took place on the real island of Lemnos, Greece

· The cliff where the Lemnian women murdered the men exists

· Jason and the Argonauts wanted to reach the Black Sea

· Istanbul, which is where they went exists

· There is a sacred cave with drawings of Jason

· Georgia is the “Land of the Golden Fleece”

· There is a drawing and a record of all the people who went on the quest.

. The bronze maze destruction, which was a historical artifact, was found by Archeologists