50 Fun Facts About Jason and the Argonauts

What did Jason lose carrying an old woman across a river, just as an oracle had warned King Pelias?

A sandal was all it took: an oracle had told Pelias to beware a man wearing only one. Jason lost his in the river Anauros and walked into town half shod.

Colchis, the kingdom where Jason sought the Golden Fleece, lies mostly in which modern country?

Georgia's western half was the Colchis of Greek myth. People there really did sink sheepskins in streams to catch flecks of gold, one likely root of the legend.

Which hero left the Argonauts to search for Hylas, a companion pulled into a spring by nymphs?

Heracles searched so long for Hylas that the Argo sailed on without him. In one Roman telling the boy appears to him in a dream and says the nymph's spring is now his home.

Which musician among the Argonauts saved the crew by out-playing the Sirens on his lyre?

Orpheus drew his lyre and drowned out the Sirens with music louder and lovelier than theirs. Jason's old tutor had warned that the Argonauts would never get past without him.

What did Jason sow in a ploughed field at Colchis, only to see armed warriors spring from the soil?

Dragon's teeth were the seed, and each one sprouted a fully armed fighter. The Greeks called such earth-born men Spartoi, meaning the sown ones.

The sea animals called argonauts, or paper nautiluses, after Jason's crew are a kind of what?

Octopus is the right group: the female argonaut secretes a paper-thin eggcase and drifts near the surface. Ancient Greeks believed it used two of its arms as sails.

Which Canadian city's football team, founded by a rowing club in 1873, is called the Argonauts?

Toronto's Argonauts are the oldest professional sports team in North America still using its original name. Fans call them the Boatmen, a nod to their rowing roots.

Which twin brothers of Helen of Troy sailed with Jason on the Argo?

Castor and Pollux both joined the crew of the Argo. On the voyage Pollux beat King Amycus of the Bebryces in a boxing contest.

In the 1963 film Jason and the Argonauts, what kind of army does Jason fight in the stop-motion climax?

Skeletons, seven of them, rise from the ground and duel three live actors. The scene outdid the single skeleton the same animator had brought to life in an earlier Sinbad film.

In which Rick Riordan series is the Golden Fleece once won by Jason used to heal a dying tree?

Percy Jackson and his friends sail the Sea of Monsters to take the Fleece from the Cyclops Polyphemus. It cures the pine tree that guards Camp Half-Blood.

Which goddess, disguised as an old woman, did Jason carry across a river, winning her lasting favour?

Hera had her own reason to back Jason: Pelias had killed a woman who was sheltering in her temple, earning the goddess's undying hatred.

Which wise centaur, teacher of Achilles and Asclepius, raised Jason in hiding from King Pelias?

Chiron ran something like a school for heroes on Mount Pelion. Jason's mother sent her baby there because she feared Pelias would have him killed.

Which winged monsters did two flying Argonauts chase from the table of a starving blind prophet?

The Harpies stole or fouled every meal the old man tried to eat. In thanks for his rescue he told the Argonauts how to survive the dangers ahead.

Which Athenian playwright wrote the tragedy Medea, about her revenge after Jason abandoned her?

Euripides took only third prize when Medea was first staged in 431 BC. It went on to become the most frequently performed Greek tragedy of the 20th century.

Which sea did the Argonauts enter once past the Clashing Rocks, on their way east to Colchis?

The Black Sea was first known to Greek voyagers as the Inhospitable Sea. They later renamed it the Hospitable Sea, because the old name seemed an ill omen.

The word Argonaut joins the ship's name Argo to the Greek word nautes, which has what meaning?

Sailor is all that nautes means, so an Argonaut is a sailor of the Argo. The same Greek word gives us astronaut, literally a star sailor.

Which goddess helped the shipwright Argus build the Argo, the vessel that carried Jason to Colchis?

Athena, patron of crafts, lent her skill to the shipwright. The prow held a beam of sacred oak that was said to speak with a human voice.

Which actor told an Oscars audience that Jason and the Argonauts is the greatest film ever made?

Tom Hanks made the claim in 1992, moments after the film's stop-motion animator was handed a lifetime achievement award.

Which beasts did the king of Colchis order Jason to yoke and plough a field with as a first trial?

Fire-breathing bulls with hooves of bronze had been made for the king by the smith god Hephaestus. Jason had to harness the pair himself.

In most ancient versions, how was the giant serpent guarding the Golden Fleece overcome for Jason?

Lulled to sleep by a potion of herbs from Medea, the guardian let Jason lift the Fleece from its tree. The 1963 film swaps the creature for a many-headed Hydra.

How did Jason defeat the earth-born warriors of Colchis without having to fight every one himself?

He threw a stone among them, on Medea's advice. Unable to tell who had thrown it, the warriors turned on one another.

What bird did the Argonauts release to fly ahead of them between the deadly Clashing Rocks?

A dove made it through with only its tail feathers clipped, which told the crew how fast they would have to row. The ship lost just the tip of its stern.

On which Aegean island did the Argonauts find only women, who had killed all of their husbands?

Lemnos was ruled by Queen Hypsipyle when the crew landed. She and Jason had two sons, twins in some tellings.

Which bronze giant, guardian of Crete, did Medea bring down as the Argonauts sailed for home?

Talos kept strange ships away by pelting them with boulders. Empire magazine once ranked his 1963 film version the second-best movie monster of all time, behind King Kong.

Which enchantress, aunt of Medea and later host to Odysseus, cleansed Jason of the guilt of a murder?

Circe performed the rite on her island of Aeaea. The crew went there because the Argo itself spoke up and told them to seek her out.

Medea, the sorceress who helped Jason, was the granddaughter of which Greek god of the sun?

Helios sends a flying chariot to carry her to safety at the end of the best-known play about her, a sign that the gods are still on her side.

Fortune seekers in which 19th-century American event were nicknamed argonauts, after Jason's crew?

The California Gold Rush sent thousands chasing a golden fleece of their own. The nickname was coined by the people who stayed at home.

Which stop-motion pioneer animated Jason and the Argonauts, the 1963 film he considered his best?

Ray Harryhausen was hooked on movie monsters from the day he saw King Kong as a boy. He later trained under that film's own animator.

In which Greek city did Jason and Medea settle in exile, only for him to leave her for a princess?

Corinth was where Jason agreed to marry the king's daughter to strengthen his political ties. Medea's answer to that betrayal is the subject of a famous Athenian tragedy.

In the best-known account, how did Jason die, many years after the voyage of the Argonauts?

Crushed by the rotting Argo as he slept beneath it, Jason died alone and out of favour with the gods. He had broken his vow to love Medea forever.

Which shipwreck was found in 1985 by a camera sled called Argo and toured by a robot called Jason Jr.?

The Titanic turned up on Argo's video cameras, and the little robot explored the wreck a year later. Its full-size successor, Jason, works with a companion unit named Medea.

What is Argo Navis, named after Jason's ship and so large that it was later split into three?

A constellation of the southern sky, Argo Navis was more than a quarter larger than any other. Astronomers now use its three pieces: the keel, the stern and the sails.

Which American clothing brand adopted the Golden Fleece, the prize sought by Jason, as its trademark in 1850?

Brooks Brothers chose a sheep hanging in a ribbon, long a sign of British wool merchants. Knights of a 15th-century order of chivalry had worn the same emblem.

Which huntress of the Calydonian boar hunt is the only woman among the Argonauts in some accounts?

Atalanta is named in one ancient crew list, while the best-known epic has Jason turn her away for fear of strife among the men. Another account has her wounded in battle at Colchis and healed by Medea.

What deadly wedding gift did Medea send to the princess whom Jason planned to marry in her place?

A poisoned robe, in some versions sent with a golden crown, burst into flame when the bride put it on. Her father died trying to save her.

Medea, whose spells helped Jason win the Golden Fleece, was a priestess of which goddess?

Hecate ruled over magic, crossroads and the night. In the 1963 film the king of Colchis prays to her before raising his army against Jason.

Which strait is named after the girl who fell from the golden ram whose fleece Jason later sought?

The Hellespont means the sea of Helle, the girl who slipped from the ram's back and drowned there. Maps now call the strait the Dardanelles.

Which blind seer of Thrace told the Argonauts how to get safely past the Clashing Rocks?

Phineus owed the crew a favour: two of them had just driven off the monsters that spoiled his every meal. In the best-known version he was blinded for revealing the future to mankind.

Which scholar of the Library of Alexandria wrote the Argonautica, the best-known epic poem about Jason?

Apollonius of Rhodes wrote it in the 3rd century BC, and it is the only epic to survive whole from the Hellenistic age. Virgil used it as a model for the Aeneid.

Which king of Colchis, a son of the sun god, kept the Golden Fleece and set Jason three tasks?

Aeetes was given the Fleece by the boy who had ridden the golden ram to Colchis, and he hung it in a sacred grove.

Jason was the rightful heir to which kingdom in Thessaly, seized by his uncle Pelias?

Iolcus is the present-day Greek city of Volos. Pelias agreed to give up its throne only if Jason brought home the Golden Fleece.

Which king, the father of Jason, lost his throne to his own half-brother Pelias?

Aeson gets a second youth in one telling, when Medea uses her arts to bring him back to life as a young man. In another he dies as a prisoner of Pelias.

Zetes and Calais, the flying brothers who sailed with Jason, were sons of which Greek wind god?

Boreas was the north wind, and his sons took after him. In some tales it was their fine hair, not wings, that kept the pair in the air.

Which Argonaut later married the sea nymph Thetis and became the father of Achilles?

Peleus sailed with his elder brother, the father of Ajax. At his wedding feast the uninvited Eris tossed in the apple that led to the Trojan War.

Which composer of the Psycho score also wrote the music for the 1963 film Jason and the Argonauts?

Bernard Herrmann scored the adventure without a string section, the reverse of his all-strings music for Psycho.

Which brother of Medea was killed during her escape from Colchis with Jason and the Golden Fleece?

Absyrtus meets a grim end in every version. In one, Medea scatters his remains so that their father must break off the chase to gather them.

Which helmsman steered Jason's ship through the Clashing Rocks but died before the crew reached Colchis?

Tiphys brought the ship through that deadly passage, then died on the coast beyond it, of a mysterious illness in most accounts. A crewmate named Ancaeus took over the steering oar.

Jason's ship the Argo held a speaking beam of oak from which sanctuary, home of an oracle of Zeus?

Dodona was the oldest oracle in Greece, where priests read the will of Zeus in the rustling of oak leaves. A beam from its grove gave the Argo a voice of its own.

Which boy escaped being sacrificed by riding the golden ram to Colchis, long before Jason's quest?

Phrixus sacrificed the ram to Zeus on arrival and gave its fleece to the local king, who took him in and gave him a daughter in marriage.

Which hero, the long-lost son of King Aegeus, did Medea try to kill after she had left Jason?

Theseus was saved at the last moment, when his father recognised the young stranger's sword and understood who he was. Medea had to flee once again.