Jason and The Argonauts

In the movie, Jason and the Argonauts, Jason crossed the world to steal the Golden Fleece. There are ways that this movie is similar to The Quest of The Golden Fleece. This movie and The Quest of The Golden Fleece also have some big differences. Jason and the Argonauts and The Quest of The Golden Fleece have many more differences than similarities.

There are events that happened in the movie and the myth that are similar. At the beginning of both the myth and movie, Pelias killed the rightful heir to Iolcus, King Aeson, Jason’s father. With King Aeson dead, Pelias was made the King. When Jason was a baby, he was delivered from King Aeson. When Jason was older, he went in search of the Golden Fleece to Colchis. He searched for his crew in Greece. The Argo built Jason’s ship. On the way to Colchis, the Argonauts freed the blind King Phineus from the curse of the Harpies. Every time King Phineus tried to eat, the Harpies would attack him and eat all of his food. Stealing the Fleece was very different in the movie and the myth, but in both the movie and the myth Medea helped Jason and they made it with the Golden Fleece to safety. Medea helped Jason because she loved Jason in both myth and the movie. These are the events that are similar in both the myth and the movie, but there are many more events that are different.

At the beginning the myth, King Aeson’s wife faked the death of Jason. Jason grew up with help from Chiron, the Centaur. King Pelias did not know that Jason was alive. When Jason was a man, Jason claimed his kingdom. King Pelias wanted to kill Jason but Jason’s uncles surrounded King Pelias. Jason’s uncles were happy that Jason was alive. To get rid of Jason, King Pelias sent Jason on a quest for the Golden Fleece. Jason sent heralds all over Greece to find brave volunteers who would later be known as the Argonauts. Athena named the ship “the Argo.” Athena put a branch on the Argo from Zeus’ sacred oak. The branch spoke the future. The Argonauts saved the blind man by having a feast and almost killing the Harpies. Iris, the goddess of the rainbow, said the Harpies would never trouble the blind man. The blind man, King Phineus, told the Argonauts to let a dove go through the Symplegades first. Usually when a ship went through the Symplegades some boulders came tumbling down and sunk the ship. The Argonauts let out a dove to go through the Symplegades, and only the end of the dove’s tail was hit. The Argonauts went through the Symplegades, and lost only the end design on their ship. When the Argonauts got to Colchis, King Aeetes demanded them to accomplish some tasks to get the Golden Fleece. Medea was in love with Jason and helped him on all of these tasks. Medea put a sleeping potion on the dragon. Jason and Medea took the fleece with little difficulty. These are the differences in events in the myth that are different than the movie.

In the movie, when Pelias killed King Aeson, Jason was already born. Jason had a couple sisters that Pelias’s killed. A guard escaped with Jason. There was a prophecy that Jason would take over the Kingdom from King Pelias. King Pelias would know a man to be Jason if that man had only one sandal. King Pelias fell off his horse into a lake and Jason saved King Pelias. King Pelias and Jason did not know each other. When Jason saved King Pelias, Jason lost one of his sandals. King Pelias took Jason to King Pelias’s camp. King Pelias told Jason that he should go on his quest for the Golden Fleece before Jason told King Pelias unknowingly his plans. Hermes took Jason to Zeus and all the other gods, and Jason started to believe in the gods. Jason held a tournament for the people in his crew. Argo built a statue of Hera on the ship. Through this statue of Hera, Jason was able to talk to Hera. Jason was able to ask Hera for help five times because Jason’s sister asked Hera to bless Jason five times. There was an entire adventure in the movie that was not in the myth. The adventure occurred when the Argonauts stopped to receive some water and food. The Argonauts were told if they took anything else from the island, one of the Titans would kill them. Heracles took a javelin from the island and in result a Titan broke the Argonaut’s ship and killed one of their crew. The Argonauts had to rebuild their ship before they could continue on their journey. On the next adventure, the Argonauts helped the blind man. They trapped the Harpies in a cage and then King Phineus told them the directions to Colchis, and he also gave them a statue that was on a necklace. When the Argonauts arrived at the Symplades, another ship was coming through the other side. It was crushed by some boulders and sunk. The Argonauts now made their attempt to make it through the Symplades. Jason tossed the statue that was on a necklace in the water and a merman appeared. The merman helped them through the Symplades safely. On the other side of Symplades there was a woman on a piece of the newly wrecked ship. This woman was Medea. When the Argonauts got to Colchis, King Aeetes put them in prison with a sentence to death because he did not want them to steal the Golden Fleece. During that night Medea let them out of prison. Jason went to steal the Golden Fleece. Instead of the Golden Fleece being guarded by a dragon, the Hydra guarded it. Jason killed the Hydra and started making his way back to the ship. The King took the dead Hydra’s teeth and made “the Children of the Hydra.” Jason made a narrow escape and sailed off with his crew and Medea. These events are some of the many differences in the movie.

The myth and the movie have many more differences than similarities. The differences have been shown above in how Jason crossed the world and stole the Golden Fleece. The changes made for the movie version of the myth increased the length to a full length feature, and to make the movie more exciting.