Bellerophon
Tamer of Pegasus
The Corinthian hero who tamed the winged horse Pegasus and killed the fire-breathing Chimera, until pride brought him down.
Parentage Son of Glaucus of Corinth, or of Poseidon, and Eurynome
Read the legendThe man with one sandal
Jason’s uncle Pelias had seized the throne of Iolcus, and an oracle warned him to beware a man wearing one sandal. Raised in secret by the centaur Chiron, Jason returned as a young man, having lost a sandal while carrying an old woman, Hera in disguise, across a river. Pelias recognised the danger and sent him on a quest he hoped would kill him: to fetch the Golden Fleece from Colchis at the far end of the Black Sea.
The Argonauts
Jason gathered the greatest heroes of the age aboard the ship Argo, among them Heracles, Orpheus and the twins Castor and Polydeuces. They survived the clashing rocks, the women of Lemnos and the winged Harpies. In Colchis, King Aeetes set Jason impossible tasks, but his daughter Medea, a sorceress, fell in love with Jason and helped him yoke fire-breathing bulls, defeat the warriors who sprang from sown dragon’s teeth and lull to sleep the serpent guarding the fleece.
Betrayal
Medea fled with Jason, but their story ended in tragedy. In Corinth, Jason abandoned her to marry the king’s daughter. Medea took a terrible revenge, killing his new bride and, in Euripides’ version, her own children. Jason died an old man, struck by a falling timber from the rotting Argo.
Legacy
The voyage of the Argo was one of the best-loved Greek adventures, told at length by Apollonius of Rhodes. Euripides’ tragedy Medea shows the darker side of Jason’s story.
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More legends of Hellas
Atalanta
The Swift Huntress
A fearless huntress and the fastest runner in Greece, who drew first blood in the hunt for the Calydonian boar.
Parentage Daughter of Iasus of Arcadia, or of Schoeneus
Read the legendOrpheus
The Legendary Musician
The poet and singer whose music could charm animals, trees and stones, and who descended into the underworld to bring back his wife.
Parentage Son of the Muse Calliope and King Oeagrus, or of Apollo
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