LP0075 -RELAUNCH- The Argonauts, from Diodorus

Legendary Passages #0075 -RELAUNCH-
The Argonauts, from Diodorus.

Welcome to Legendary Passages, a thrice weekly podcast about Greek and Roman classical mythology. My name is Joel; I have been doing this podcast for several years now. I have always loved science fiction and fantasy and comic-book super-heroes, as well as history and religion, so I searched far and wide for podcasts about the old Greek heroes. There were a few gems like 'Mythology Translated', and 'The Myths and History of Greece and Rome', but none that featured the ancient texts themselves, aside from LibriVox.

The problem with reading classical mythology texts verbatim is that most of them are anthologies. Here's an overview of Theseus; Hercules performed his fourth labor here; the founder of this city was an Argonaut and sent his sons to the Trojan War, and so on. What we call mythology was their religion and common knowledge. Imagine future scholars coming across references to tooth fairies and easter bunnies, or Spider-Man or Darth Vader, and trying to figure out what the heck we were talking about. The contexts and the stories are all but lost.

Now, the stories are what I am interested in. My hope is to reconstruct something resembling the lost epics by presenting every known version of specific adventures in a rough chronological order. Between the similarities and the differences between the texts, perhaps we can gleam a whisper of the histories that Greeks and Romans looked back on as the bedrock of their civilizations. These passages give us a window onto their culture, their own sense of history, and the beginnings of Western Civilization.

Now, the original incarnation of this podcast began with the best of intentions. I was doing research for books I was going to write about the origins and adventures of Hercules and Theseus, and their going on the voyage of the Argonauts. I was trying to sync up the timelines for their adventures, but I couldn't keep all the details in my head. Hence, this podcast. We started off with the early adventures Hercules, then Theseus, then Minos and Crete. But then I went back to re-edit and 'improve' the original episodes, and added more stuff on Hercules, an overview of the Argonauts, more Theseus, lots and lots more Hercules.... and it all became a messy anthology, just like the original texts.

So for the foreseeable future, instead of organizing stories in groups of six, we will hear more long-form story-based collections of twenty-five passages each, starting with this one. The episodes will still be less than fifteen minutes long, but I will try to put them out three times a week, ideally publishing twelve a month. The larger scope will give better sense of where we are going, and more incentive for me to put them out regularly.

With the bigger format, I can now fit in actual drama and plays. I hope to recruit others to participate, otherwise I'm just talking to myself. I will also be redoing previous episodes, likely with breaks in different places, just to keep the overall narrative intact.

For the next twenty-five episodes, we will journey with Jason and the Argonauts, steal Medea and the Golden Fleece, return home to a kingdom in crisis, reenact the tragedy of Medea in Corinth, and end up in Athens just in time for the next twenty-five episodes on Theseus.

This passage explores the multiple origins of the Golden Fleece, reveals that murder and dark magic run in Medea's family, and shows just how Jason stole the fleece and why Medea was willing to help him do it.

http://www.theoi.com/Text/DiodorusSiculus4C.html#6

The Argonauts,
a Legendary Passage from,
DIODORUS SICULUS,
LIBRARY OF HISTORY,
BOOK IV. Sections 45 - 48,
trans. by C. H. OLDFATHER.

[4.45.1] - [4.48.5]

AEETES, HECATE AND CIRCE

Since it is the task of history to inquire into the reasons for this slaying of strangers, we must discuss these reasons briefly, especially since the digression on this subject will be appropriate in connection with the deeds of the Argonauts.

We are told, that is, that Helius had two sons, Aeëtes and Perses, Aeëtes being king of Colchis and the other king of the Tauric Chersonese, and that both of them were exceedingly cruel.

And Perses had a daughter Hecatê, who surpassed her father in boldness and lawlessness; she was also fond of hunting, and when she had no luck she would turn her arrows upon human beings instead of the beasts. Being likewise ingenious in the mixing of deadly poisons she discovered the drug called aconite and tried out the strength of each poison by mixing it in the food given to the strangers. And since she possessed great experience in such matters she first of all poisoned her father and so succeeded to the throne, and then, founding a temple of Artemis and commanding that strangers who landed there should be sacrificed to the goddess, she became known far and wide for her cruelty.

After this she married Aeëtes and bore two daughters, Circê and Medea, and a son Aegialeus. Although Circê also, it is said, devoted herself to the devising of all kinds of drugs and discovered roots of all manner of natures and potencies such as are difficult to credit, yet, notwithstanding that she was taught by her mother Hecatê about not a few drugs, she discovered by her own study a far greater number, so that she left to the other woman no superiority whatever in the matter of devising uses of drugs.

She was given in marriage to the king of the Sarmatians, whom some call Scythians, and first she poisoned her husband and after that, succeeding to the throne, she committed many cruel and violent acts against her subjects.

For this reason she was deposed from her throne and, according to some writers of myths, fled to the ocean, where she seized a desert island, and there established herself with the women who had fled with her, though according to some historians she left the Pontus and settled in Italy on a promontory which to this day bears after her the name Circaeum.

AEETES AND MEDEA

Concerning Medea this story is related:- From her mother and sister she learned all the powers which drugs possess, but her purpose in using them was exactly the opposite. For she made a practice of rescuing from their perils the strangers who came to their shores, sometimes demanding from her father by entreaty and coaxing that the lives be spared of those who were to die, and sometimes herself releasing them from prison and then devising plans for the safety of the unfortunate men. For Aeëtes, party because of his own natural cruelty and partly because he was under the influence of his wife Hecatê, had given his approval to the custom of slaying strangers.

But since Medea as time went on opposed the purpose of her parents more and more, Aeëtes, they say, suspecting his daughter of plotting against him consigned her to free custody; Medea, however made her escape and fled for refuge to a sacred precinct of Helius on the shore of the sea.

THE ARGONAUTS AND MEDEA

This happened at the very time when the Argonauts arrived from the Tauric Chersonese and landed by night in Colchis at this precinct. There they came upon Medea, as she wandered along the shore, and learning from her of the custom of slaying strangers they praised the maiden for her kindly spirit, and then, revealing to her their own project, they learned in turn from her of the danger which threatened her from her father because of the reverence which she showed to strangers.

Since they now recognized that it was to their mutual advantage, Medea promised to co-operate with them until they should perform the labour which lay before them, while Jason gave her his pledge under oath that he would marry her and keep her as his life’s companion so long as he lived.

After this the Argonauts left guards to watch the ship and set off by night with Medea to get the golden fleece, concerning which it may be proper for us to give a detailed account, in order that nothing which belongs to the history which we have undertaken may remain unknown.

PHRIXUS, AEETES AND THE GOLDEN FLEECE

Phrixus, the son of Athamas, the myths relate, because of his stepmother’s plots against him, took his sister Hellê and fled with her from Greece. And while they were making the passage from Europe to Asia, as a kind of Providence of the gods directed, on the back of a ram, whose fleece was of gold, the maiden fell into the sea, which was named after her Hellespont, but Phrixus continued on into the Pontus and was carried to Colchis, where, as some oracle had commanded, he sacrificed the ram and hung up its fleece as a dedicatory offering in the temple of Ares.

After this, while Aeëtes was king of Colchis, an oracle became known, to the effect that he was to come to the end of his life whenever strangers should land there and carry off the golden fleece. For this reason and because of his own cruelty as well, Aeëtes ordained that strangers should be offered up in sacrifice, in order that, the report of the cruelty of the Colchi having been spread abroad to every part of the world, no stranger should have the courage to set foot on the land. He also threw a wall about the precinct and stationed there many guardians, these being men of the Tauric Chersonese, and it is because of these guards that the Greeks invented monstrous myths.

For instance, the report was spread abroad that there were fire-breathing bulls (tauroi) round about the precinct and that a sleepless dragon (drakon) guarded the fleece, the identity of the names having led to the transfer from the men who were Taurians to the cattle because of their strength and the cruelty shown in the murder of strangers having been made into the myth of the bulls breathing fire; and similarly the name of the guardian who watched over the sacred precinct, which was Dracon, has been transferred by the poets to the monstrous and fear-inspiring beast, the dragon.

Also the account of Phrixus underwent a similar working into a myth. For, as some men say, he made his voyage upon a ship which bore the head of a ram upon its bow, and Hellê, being troubled with a sea-sickness, while leaning far over the side of the boat for this reason, fell into the sea.

Some say, however, that the king of the Scythians, who was a son-in-law of Aeëtes, was visiting among the Colchi at the very time when, as it happened, Phrixus and his attendant were taken captive, and conceiving a passion for the boy he received him from Aeëtes as a gift, loved him like a son of his own loins, and left his kingdom to him. The attendant, however, whose name was Crius (ram), was sacrificed to the gods, and when his body had been flayed the skin was nailed upon on the temple, in keeping with a certain custom.

And when later an oracle was delivered to Aeëtes to the effect that he was to die whenever strangers would sail to his land and carry off the skin of Crius, the king, they say, built a wall about the precinct and stationed a guard over it; furthermore, he gilded the skin in order that by reason of its brilliant appearance the soldiers should consider it worthy of the most careful guardian. As for these matters, however, it rests with my readers to judge each in accordance with his own predilections.

THE ARGONAUTS AND THE GOLDEN FLEECE

Medea, we are told, led the way for the Argonauts to the sacred precinct of Ares, which was seventy stades distant from the city which was called Sybaris and contained the palace of the rulers of the Colchi. And approaching the gates, which were kept closed at night, she addressed the guards in the Tauric speech.

And when the soldiers readily opened the gates to her as being the king’s daughter, the Argonauts, they say, rushing in with drawn swords slew many of the barbarians and drove the rest, who were struck with terror by the unexpected happening, out of the precinct, and then, taking with them the fleece, made for the ship with all speed.

Medea likewise, assisting the Argonauts, slew with poisons the dragon which, according to the myths, never slept as it lay coiled about the fleece in the precinct, and made her way with Jason down to the sea.

The Tauri who had escaped by flight reported to the king the attack which had been made upon them, and Aeëtes, they say, took with him the soldiers who guarded his person, set out in pursuit of the Greeks, and came upon them near the sea. Joining battle on the first contact with them, he slew one of the Argonauts, Iphitus, the brother of Eurystheus who had laid the Labours upon Heracles, but soon, when he enveloped the rest of them with the multitude of his followers and pressed too hotly into the fray, he was slain by Meleager.

The moment the king fell, the Greeks took courage, and the Colchi turned in flight and the larger part of them were slain in the pursuit.

http://www.theoi.com/Text/DiodorusSiculus4C.html#6

This passage continues with the Argonauts journeying home, but our next passage is about why Phrixus ran away from his step-mother Ino.