ON the journey out, Jason’s crew of fifty heroes, the Argonauts, had been agreeably delayed on Lemnos, an island populated entirely by women, and then less agreeably by six-armed giants near the Hellespont.

They had delivered the starving Phineus from the harpies, birds who stole every morsel of his food, and navigated the terrifying Symplegades, floating islands that continually bumped and ground against one another.

Their return was dogged by the pursuit of an angry Aetes, and when Jason did arrive home in Iolcus a very surprised Pelias refused point-blank to give up his throne.

Medea tricked the king’s daughters into murdering their father, so that prophecy came true; yet the crime brought no crown for Jason.

Banished to Corinth, he hoped to revive his fortunes by marrying the King’s daughter, but a jealous Medea murdered her, and as Jason sat brooding on the past in the rotten shell of the Argo, a piece of the prow broke off, and killed him.