Jason and the Argonauts

Triton XIV, Lot: 102. Estimate $3000. Sold for $6500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

THESSALY, Larissa. Circa 479-460 BC. AR Triobol (12mm, 2.59 g, 7h). Head of Jason left, wearing petasos / ΛAR-IΣA within incuse square. Herrmann Group I, b1 corr. (incorrect weight listed); Moustaka -; SNG Copenhagen -; SNG München -; Traité I 1413 = de Luynes 1831 (same dies); CNG E-131, lot 34 (same dies). Near EF, minor die break on reverse. Exceptional relief and quality. Extremely rare.

Jason was the son of Aison, king of Thessaly. When Aison’s half-brother, Pelias, overthrew Aison and seized the kingdom, he sought out all of Aison’s progeny for destruction. Fortuitously, Jason was spared and spent his youth in the Thessalian countryside, where he grew to young manhood under the tutelage of the great centaur Chiron (who also tutored Achilles). In the meantime, it had been prophesied to Pelias that he would be destroyed by a man wearing one sandal. On his way to Iolchos to claim his throne, Jason lost one of his sandals in the river Anauros while helping an aged woman (the goddess Hera in disguise) across it. Arriving at the city, he demanded the throne from Pelias who, in turn, said he would relinquish it on one condition – that Jason successfully bring back the Golden Fleece from where it was at the edge of the world in the kingdom of Kolchis. To do this, Jason called together all the great heroes of his day, including Herakles, to assist him, and had built a special vessel for the voyage, the Argo.

Arriving at Kolchis after a series of adventures, he demanded the Fleece from its king, Aietes, the son of the god Helios and brother of the witch Kirke. Aietes responded that he would hand over the Fleece only after Jason performed a series of three supposedly impossible tasks. To accomplish them, Jason had the assistance of Aietes’ young daughter, Medea, who, like Kirke was also a witch. After Jason, with the help of Medea (who, by now, had “fallen in love” with Jason), had taken the Golden Fleece, Aietes plotted to take his revenge and pursued the young couple as they fled in the Argo. To hedge against this, Medea had taken her younger brother, Apsyrtos, as hostage. As Aietes drew closer in pursuit, Jason and Medea distracted him by dismembering Aspyrtos and throwing parts of his body overboard. By causing Aietes to stop to collect them, the lovers were able to escape.

Back in Iolchos, Pelias, thinking that Jason would never have been successful, hesitated to relinquish his throne. Medea then devised a way to remove the old king and give Jason the throne. Restoring a dismembered old sheep to its youthful appearance, she convinced the daughters of Pelias that their aged father could be restored to his youth if they likewise dismembered him and applied Medea’s sorcery. The daughters gladly chopped Pelias to bits, but Medea secretly withheld the necessary magical herbs, causing the restoration of the king to fail.

After becoming king, Jason soon tired of Medea. In order to strengthen his political position, he sought to put aside Medea, take the children of their union, and marry the daughter of the king of Corinth. To avenge herself, Medea did not slay Jason directly, but killed him by making him a pariah with no hope of descendants; she not only slew the king of Corinth and his daughter, but she slew her own children with her own hands. Afterward, lonely and disconsolate, Jason fell asleep under the stern of the Argo. Now old and in disrepair, a rotten beam fell from the ship upon Jason, killing him.