S1E1 - Jason and the Quest for the Golden Fleece

Breaking out the greatest stories in history were told in Greek mythology.

Breaking out gods and heroes, amazing feats.

Listen, and you'll see it spread

out.

The list of heroes in Greek mythology has a lot of great names on it: Hercules, Odysseus, Perseus, Achilles.

But the greatest name on that list may be Jason.

And that's a guy on my train named Jason.

The name Jason was popular in the USA and the UK in the mid-1970s, but its popularity waned in the 80s.

Jace, a shortened variant of Jason, has been among the 100 most popular boys' names in each of the last three years.

Jason might be a popular name in today's world, but in ancient Greece, his his voyages and adventures were anything but common.

Things started out rough for Jason right from the moment he was born.

You see, Jason was the prince of a country called Yolchis, but his mean uncle Peleus had stolen the kingdom from Jason's father because he wanted to be king.

Peleus sought advice from the Oracle of Delphi.

Oracles were mysterious sacred spaces where the priestesses and priests could communicate with the gods.

The most famous one was the Oracle at Delphi, where a priestess spouted prophecies in a trance.

The oracle told Peleus that he would be king of Yolkis, but he should, quote, beware the young man with one sandal, for he would someday take Peleus' throne.

Jason's mother was so worried about what Peleus would do to her unborn son that she gave birth in secret and then sent him to live with a centaur.

a half horse, half human creature.

No, really, his name was Chiron, and apparently he was a pretty cool dad.

He was great at piggyback rides.

Once he grew up enough, Jason decided to reclaim his throne.

He said goodbye to his half-horse dad and traveled all the way across Greece, at some point losing a sandal along the way, but eventually making it to Yolkis to challenge his uncle Peleus for the throne.

So here's King Peleus sitting on his throne watching some sort of sporting event that they were having that day, when all of a sudden this dude pops up with one shoe and is all, hey, I'm your long-lost nephew.

I think you're sitting in my seat.

And by the way, do you you have like a sock or something clearly peleus remembered the oracle's warning so when jason claimed to be the rightful king he came up with a cunning plan peleus told jason that he'd give up the throne if jason could bring him the golden fleece

fleas are small insects that no no no no no not not fleas i said fleece fleece also refers to a soft cloth that is used to make warm clothes polar fleece creates a comfortable layer of insulation by trapping air in the pockets between its fibers.

This helps trap your natural body heat inside your clothes.

A fleece is also another word for the warmest part of a sheep's wool.

The golden fleece was the wool of an enchanted winged ram hanging in a faraway land called Colchis.

The king of Colchis, King Aedes, kept the fleece draped over the branch of a giant tree, guarded by a huge dragon that never slept.

Peleus figured that the quest for the Golden Fleece was so dangerous that his nephew would either give up or die trying.

But being a hero, Jason felt differently, and he decided to embark upon one of the greatest adventures of all time.

But first, he needed a ride.

Jason had no idea how to build a boat, but he had friends in high places.

He prayed to the goddess Athena for help.

Athena was a goddess of many things, reason, intelligent activity, arts, and literature.

And she was famous for her majestic gray eyes.

She was also the patron of craftsmen and taught the Greeks how to cook and sew.

Athena inspired a shipbuilder named Argos to create what would become his masterpiece.

A magical ship with places for 50 rowers and their oars that Jason called the Argo.

after its builder.

Then Jason put out the call for a crew.

And what a crew it was.

There were sons of gods and kings that came from all over Greece to join Jason.

50 of the finest adventurers in all of Greece, even the mighty Hercules signed on.

Hello, I'm Hercules.

The journey of Jason and his argonauts is legendary.

I mean, literally legendary.

On their way to find the island of Colchis, a journey to the edge of the known world, they got sidetracked several times and had lots of crazy adventures that we're just going to kind of fast forward through.

Let's see, they got tricked by wood nymphs,

mistaken for pirates,

even wound up in a boxing match with a king.

And along the way, they lost a lot of their valuable crew members.

Even the mighty Hercules left the voyage.

I'm Hercules.

Goodbye.

But eventually, they got a break in their search for the Golden Fleece.

Jason and his Argonauts wound up in the country of Thrace.

Thrace is a region in Southeast Europe that encompasses modern-day Bulgaria.

Thracians guest-starred in many Greek myths.

At that time, Thrace was ruled by a king named Phineas.

Phineas and Ferb is an American animated musical

comedy show.

I'm sorry, a different Phineas.

You see, in addition to being a king, this Phineas was also pretty handy at telling fortunes.

In fact, he was so good that the gods had punished him for it.

First, they blinded him.

Then, they sent these creatures called harpies to torment him.

A harpy is a half-woman, half-bird creature that loves to persecute humans and is always hungry.

So, every evening at dinner, Phineas would find a great feast laid out for him.

But as soon as he sat down to eat, the harpies would steal the food from him and leave behind such a stench that whatever food was left would be ruined.

The average healthy person passes gas around 14 times a day.

Most of it goes unnoticed.

This may not be the case for harpies.

Poor Phineas was hungry all the time, but he could never eat.

Also, he had to breathe through his mouth a lot.

Jason took pity on King Phineas and decided to set a trap for the harpies at the next dinner.

As soon as Phineas sat down to eat, the food snatchers appeared.

But Two of Jason's strongest warriors jumped out and attacked them.

The harpies were so surprised and scared that they flew away and never returned again.

Phineas was so happy that he immediately held a great feast to honor his guests.

And at this feast, he gave Jason two pieces of very important information.

One, how to get to the island of Colchis where the golden fleece was being kept.

And two,

how to get past the rocky cliffs that smashed every single ship on their way to the island.

The cliffs were really just two huge rocks called the Simpligades that guarded the Black Sea.

They were enchanted by an ancient spell so they could crash into each other without warning, like massive jaws that ate entire ships.

Unfortunately, the only way to get to Colchis was through those rocks.

Following the advice of their friend Phineas, who had just eaten his first meal in like a century, Jason released a dove and had it fly in between the two cliffs.

As expected, the rocks smashed together as fast as they could.

But the dove was small and quick, and the rocks only caught a little bit of its tail feather.

So the Argo went next.

The simpligatis pulled back to make sure they got a really good smash this time, but the Argo was faster than it looked.

The boat made it in between the rocks just in time.

Only a small part of the boat's stern was caught.

From that moment on, the enchantment was broken, and the two rocks remained fixed in place.

Finally, Jason and the Argonauts landed on the island of Colchis, home of the Golden Fleece.

Colchis is a real place.

It is located on the opposite end of the Greek world in what is now known as Russia.

This is the coast of the Black Sea near Sochi, where the Winter Olympics were held in 2014.

Finally, Jason was pretty sure that he was at the end of his quest.

Okay, there was that whole dragon thing, but but after everything he'd been through already, he was pretty confident that he could handle it.

Jason felt like he was nine episodes into a 10-episode binge watch, and all he had to do was check in with the king on the island and explain things to him.

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So, all Jason had to do was convince the king to give him the golden fleece.

But yeah, well, that didn't work out so good.

On the plus side, King Aedes of Colchis had a beautiful daughter named Medea who seemed to hit it off with Jason.

And she knew a little magic, which was pretty cool.

In the minus column was the fact that Aietes had no intention of giving up the golden fleece.

He knew Jason and the Argonauts were skilled warriors, so he didn't just try to attack them.

Instead, he made a deal.

King Aietes said that he would give Jason the Golden Fleece if Jason could plow a field with two wild magical bulls.

Great, another heroic deed.

What is it with these kings and their heroic deeds?

Oh, and did I mention the bulls breathe fire and that instead of planting regular seeds when he plowed the field, Jason was planting dragon teeth?

Poor Jason had no clue where to begin, but Medea did.

She had fallen in love with this handsome stranger and decided to help him on his quest.

So Medea gave gave Jason some ointment and a bag of rocks.

It doesn't sound like much, I know, but Medea had a plan.

The ointment protected Jason from fire, so he rubbed it all over himself.

Since they couldn't burn him, Jason was able to corral the bulls, put them in a yoke, and plow the field.

A yoke is sometimes considered to be the best part of the enemy.

No, no, no, no, no, wrong yoke.

A yoke is a wooden crosspiece that gets fastened over the necks of two animals.

It is then attached to the plow or cart that they are to pull.

But of course, Jason was dropping dragon teeth into the soil, not seeds.

And instead of growing tomatoes or rudimegas, dragon teeth grow human soldiers.

And apparently, they grow really, really, really fast because suddenly the field was full of men in armor who had sprung out of the ground ready to attack something.

Following Medea's advice, Jason started to throw rocks in the middle of the crowd of soldiers.

Now, this didn't hurt them, probably didn't even make a dent in their armor, but it made them turn on each other, each thinking the next guy over had struck him.

Instead of attacking Jason, as King Aietes had hoped, the soldiers attacked each other.

So that leaves the dragon.

The golden fleece was kept in the branches of an ancient oak tree, which was guarded by a giant dragon named Colchiko.

Once again, Medea saved Jason.

She brewed another potion, but this time, instead of making Jason fireproof, the the ointment made Jason

entirely unappetizing to Coke.

Now, I'm no expert, but from what I understand, dragons were pretty much hungry 24-7, 365, so if Coke took a pass on a fresh Greek hero sandwich, I'm guessing Jason must have been pretty stinky.

A hero is a Greek dish made from meat cooked on a vertical rotisserie.

It is usually served as a wrap or stuffed in a flatbread or pita.

It is not related to the classic American submarine sandwich, sometimes called a hero, although both go great with fries.

Regardless, the potion worked and Jason and Medea snatched the fleece and rushed back to the Argo for the long journey home.

As you might expect, the trip back to Yolkis wasn't easy either.

First, the Argonauts had to sail past the island of the sirens.

No one had ever seen the sirens and lived to tell about it.

Some people said they were beautiful mermaids with cruel appetites.

Others believed they were also bird creatures with the faces of beautiful women, but all of the legends said that their hypnotic singing voices would cast a spell on sailors, luring them towards the beautiful music and causing them to crash their ships on the rocks around the islands.

But Jason had a secret weapon on board the Argo.

His name was Orpheus, and he was a really good musician.

The legends said he could play his harp, which is also called a lyre, as well as the god Apollo.

Orpheus was indeed a legendary musician.

It was said that his music could charm wild animals and make rivers stand still.

So Jason ordered Orpheus to play as loudly as he could to drown out the sirens while the Argo sailed past the islands.

Now I think a lyre kind of sounds like this.

But for our purposes, you should probably imagine something more like this.

Yeah.

Orpheus shredded it, and the songs of the sirens did not pull the Argonauts off course.

Then, the Argo had to sail through the Straits of Messina, guarded on one side by Charybdis, the whirlpool monster, and on the other by Scylla, a six-headed sea creature who lurked among the rocks and waves.

The famous expression, between a rock and a hard place, originated from sailors who navigated Charybdis' whirlpool and Scylla's rocks.

This was the most dangerous passage in the sea at that time.

A little too far to one side and you're sucked into a whirlpool.

Too far to the other and a sea monster eats your ship.

It was slow going, one stroke at a time.

But very carefully, Jason and the Argonauts made it through and returned home to claim the throne of Iolkis.

Jason took his kingdom back from his power-hungry uncle, and Medea, princess of Colchis, became Jason's queen.

Thanks for listening to this week's episode of Greaking Out.

Stay tuned for next week's episode about Phadon and the Sun Chariot.

National Geographic Kids Greaking Out is written and hosted by Kenny Curtis, with Tori Kerr as the Oracle of Wi-Fi, audio production and sound design by Scotty Beam.

Jennifer Emmett is EVP of Kids Content at National Geographic, and Kate Hale edits Zeus the Mighty.

Diane Klein is our fact checker, and Perry Gripp composed our themes.

Emily Everhart is our production manager.