Argonauts, heroes of Greek Mythology (so named from their ship Argo), who undertook a long voyage into unknown seas, under the command of Jason. The story is alluded to in the
Odyssey, and is related by Hesiod, and, among later writers, with great fullness by Apollonius Rhodius and Apollodorus, but the discrepancies are numerous and irreconcilable. The common story is as follows: In Iolcus, in Thessaly, reigned Pelias, who had unjustly taken the crown from his half-brother Æson. In order to get rid of Jason the son of Æson, the usurper commissioned him to fetch from the country of Æetes (Colchis) the golden fleece of the ram which had carried Phrixus in safety through the air. The ram had been the gift of Hermes; and Phrixus, after reaching Colchis safely, sacrificed it to Zeus, and gave the fleece to Æetes, who hung it up in the grove of Ares, on an oak-tree guarded by a sleepless dragon. Jason therefore caused Argus, the son of Phrixus, to build a ship of fifty oars; and for this adventure gathered together the bravest heroes from all parts of Greece, fifty in number, with whom he sailed. Their first landing-place was Lemnos, which they found inhabited entirely by women who had slain all their husbands. They were kindly received, and admitted to the closest intimacy. Next they sailed along the coast of Thrace, up the Hellespont to the Doliones, and were hospitably received by King Cyzicus, who was afterwards accidentally killed by Jason. After landing at Mysia, where they left Hercules and Polyphemus—who had wandered too far inland in pursuit of the lost Hylas—they came to the country of the Bebryces, whose king, Amycus, was killed by Pollux in a boxing-match. They next sailed along the coast of Thrace to Salmydessus, where the blind seer, Phineus, was tormented by the Harpies. Zetes and Calais, the two winged sons of Boreas, having delivered him from them, the aged prophet forewarned them of the dangers of the voyage and the precautions they should adopt, and especially warned them against the dangerous passage between the terrific rocks, the Symplegades, which alternately opened and shut so quickly that even a bird could scarcely pass safely through. When the Argo arrived at this place of danger, Euphemus let loose a dove in order to judge from its fortune what they themselves might expect. The bird escaped with the loss of its tail. The mariners resolved to risk the passage, and after rowing with all their might, while the powerful arms of Athena held the rocks asunder for a moment, got safely through, their ship only losing some of the ornaments of its stern.
Halting a while on the coast of the Mariandyni, where the seer Idmon and the helmsman Tiphys died, they sailed along the coast till they arrived at the mouth of the river Phasis, in Colchis. Here King Æetes promised to give up the golden fleece to Jason, on condition that the latter should yoke to a plough two fire-breathing bulls with brazen hoofs, and should sow the dragon's teeth not already sown by Cadmus in Thebes. Jason, by the help of the famous sorceress Medea, daughter of Æetes, who had fallen passionately in love with the bold navigator, fulfilled these conditions; and was also assisted by Medea in still more wonderful exploits. He obtained from her, under promise of marriage, a charm against fire and steel, and was enabled to destroy all the warriors who sprang up from the land sown with the dragon's teeth. While Jason was engaged in this task, Æetes formed a plan to burn the ship Argo, and put the crew to death; but Jason, informed of the scheme by Medea, anticipated it, hastened into the grove, stupefied the dragon-sentinel by an opiate-charm prepared by Medea, seized the golden fleece, and, embarking in the Argo with his mistress and her brother Absyrtus, sailed away from Colchis by night. Æetes followed, but before he overtook them, Medea slew her brother Absyrtus, and cut him into several pieces, which she threw overboard, one at a time. While King Æetes stayed to gather up the fragments, he gave Jason time to escape from the pursuit. The Argonauts now reached the mouth of the river Eridanus, but were driven on the Absyrtian Islands by a storm sent from Zeus, who was angry on account of the murder of Absyrtus. Meanwhile the mast of the Argo—which had been cut from the sacred grove of Dodona—delivered an oracle to the effect that Zeus could not be appeased unless they sailed towards Ausonia, and were purified through the expiatory agency of Circe. This was accomplished; and next the mariners passed by the Sirens, from whose charms they were preserved by Orpheus, who sang to them, but could not hinder one of their number, Butes, from swimming off to the sea-maidens; then through Scylla and Charybdis, by the help of Thetis, and at length landed on the island of Coreyra, where Alcinous ruled. On leaving this place, they encountered a storm at night, but were saved by Apollo, who in flashes of lightning revealed to them the haven of Anaphe, where they raised an altar to their preserver. At Crete, their landing was opposed by the brazen giant Talus, who was slain by the artifices of Medea. They subsequently touched at Ægina, and sailing between Eubœa and Locris, arrived safely at Iolcus. Jason dedicated the good ship Argo to Poseidon, at the Isthmus of Corinth.
Such is the epic and localised Greek form of a story more widely diffused than perhaps any other. It is an arrangement with local and quasi-historical features of a number of incidents common not only in European but in savage folk-lore. Grote dates the poetic elaboration of the story between 600 and 500 B.C. The situation from which the story starts is a familiar commonplace in folk-tales: a child in danger at home of being eaten, sacrificed, cheated of his birthright, or at least oppressed by a cruel stepmother, escapes by means of a gifted animal. Further common features are the attempt to evade prophecy, the arrival of the true heir, the endeavour to get rid of him by sending him on an impossible adventure, on which he starts accompanied by friends endowed with miraculous powers. The hero comes to the house of a powerful and malevolent being, becomes the lover of his daughter, and performs by her aid the impossible tasks imposed. The pair fly, throwing behind them in their flight various objects to detain the pursuer, often a comb which grows into a forest, or the like. How closely Jason's corresponds to the common story is at once obvious. He is the typical adventurer; his Argonauts are endowed with the usual supernatural powers of seeing, hearing, flying; the powerful and malevolent being is King Æetes; the daughter who falls in love with the adventurer, Medea. Mr Lang has collected variants of the story from Samoyed, Epirot, Kaffir, Malagasy, Algonquin, Gaelic, Norse, Russian, Italian, Japanese, and Samoan sources. This is not the place to discuss the question whether the same romantic series of incidents were invented through mere accidental coincidence by such widely different races, or whether the story, once known, drifted all round the world. But the fact of the universality of the story makes it unnecessary to discuss the rationalising of Greek geographers and historians like Strabo and Arrian. It is as idle to linger over the explanations of Sir George Cox and his school, discredited as these are by their own differences. Jason may be 'the violet-tinted morning from which the sun is born,' 'the far-darting ray of the sun' himself, or 'the spring with its soft suns and fertile rains;' while Medea may represent the dawn, the moon, or a lightning goddess, as the reader pleases. See Grote's History of Greece, vol. i.; 'A Far-travelled Tale' in Lang's Custom and Myth (1884); and Lang's Introduction to Mrs Hunt's translation of Grimm's Household Tales (1884).