Thursday, December 4, 2014

Jason and the Golden Fleece - Jacquelyn Engel

The Greek King of Iolkos is usurped by his brother Pelias. The king's wife feigns her son's death, Jason, but actually sends him off to live with the centaur Cheiron where he will be raised until he is of age to come back and reclaim his rightful throne. When Jason is 20, he journeys back to his home to reclaim his title. He has quite a difficult journey but is helped by Hera, the Queen of the Gods who favors Jason because Pelias does not worship her. Hera is disguised as an old woman who needs help crossing the river. Jason encounters her and carries her across the river on his back where he ends up loosing one of his sandals. When he comes to court, Pelias sees him and was warned by a prophecy that a stranger with one sandal will claim the throne, so Pelias offers him a challenge to prove Jason's worthiness of the crown. Jason was to fetch the Golden Fleece, a golden ram given to Jason's ancestor Phrixus. Jason agrees and gathers a crew to find the Golden Fleece which is in the unknown part of the world and has several other dangerous encounters. Jason arrives in Colchis where he asks for the Fleece, but King Aietes challenges him to several other tasks before he can receive the Golden Fleece. King Aietes's daughter Medea takes interest in Jason and helps him since she is a powerful sorceress. Medea and Jason mart and return to Jason's home where he will be king, but his people are uncomfortable with Medea's magical powers, so Medea and Jason are exiled in Corinth. The King of Corinth offers Jason to marry his daughter, so Jason accepts which violates his and Medea's Marriage. Medea is enraged and kills the other women and her children. She leaves Jason and goes to Mount Olympus where she marries Achilles. Jason returns to his home where he is severely hit on his head and dies.

There is an endless amount of love stories, but as for love and revenge stories I cannot think of a lot within recent times. In our generation, love and revenge stories are considered quite disturbing, I think. If there is a novel or movie about a love and revenge situation it seems as if it is more likely to be categorized as a psycho thriller because it is an extreme and odd situation, but for some reason when one thinks of Wuthering Heights and Jason and The Golden Fleece, it is more associated with tragedy with a romantic flair to it.  Within each generation and time period there is bound to be differing perspectives given the different cultures, but love and revenge stories are creepy for the most part.

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