Jason of the Argonauts
If we examine both Medea and Jason according to Lord Raglan’s list of heroic characteristics, we see that Medea starts off well down the road to heroism. The first two descriptives require the hero to be the child of a royal virgin and a king. Jason is the son of king Aeson, rightful king of Iolcus, and either Polymede, daughter of Autolycus, or Alcimede, daughter of Phylacus and Clymene. Interestingly enough, however, is that Autolycus is not ever mentioned to definitely be king. Phylacus is, but as his mother’s personage is disputed according to discordant sources, this heroic characteristic cannot be fully settled. Medea’s parentage, however, is much more concrete in ancient writings.
Her father is also a king, AeÃ?«tes of Colchis, and her mother is either Eidyia, the youngest of the Oceanids, or the divine Hecate herself. AeÃ?«tes himself is the son of divine parents Helios, the sun-god, and Perse or PerseÃ?¯s, a daughter of Oceanus. Medea’s own aunt was the witch Circe. This makes Medea’s parentage sound much more divinely-inspired than Jason’s parentage, although he is reputed by an obscure source to be the son of Poseidon. Jason was spirited away because of trouble in his youth, just as Lord Raglan describes often happens to heroes, and he was reared by Cheiron, the ultimate foster-parent in Magnesia until he was grown. Medea does not have this distinction, but it could be argued that because she was born a woman, there was no immediate perceived threat of what might come. However, they both, upon adulthood, travel to their future kingdom, though in vastly different circumstances.
Jason returns sooner to the land he is supposed to rule, traipsing about with one sandal on by the design of Hera, who seeks to punish Pelias the usurper, and overall does not care much one way or the other about Jason being heroic. At the ripe age of twenty-one he marched to declare his right to the Iolcan throne. Considering the fact that Pelias stole the throne away originally, it is not surprising that he would then seek to send Jason on the impossible quest that all heroes must endure. Medea does not go abroad until after Jason has landed at Colchis to gain the Golden Fleece, but she does eventually travel to Corinth, where she had some ties to the throne through her father, AeÃ?«tes. A version of the story of Jason and Medea in Corinth actually attests that the Corinthians offered the throne to Medea, instead of the usually accepted story that Jason was the one welcomed and honored. It is possible that this heroic attribute of Medea’s was not very acceptable because it undermined Jason’s heroism. Of further interest is the nature of Jason’s quest. One distinction is that he has an overwhelming supply of help and heroes around him at all times. Different authors supply different heroes, but on some heroes all authors agree: Herakles, the greatest hero of Greece took time out of his busy schedule to accompany Jason, as well as the famed musician Orpheus, the winged Dioscuri, Zetes and CalaÃ?¯s, the father of the famed Ajax of the Trojan War, Telamon, and Peleus, the father of the greatest fighter of the Trojan War, Achilles. The ship’s builder, Argus, went to maintain the ship he had so lovingly built.
Other greats made the journey, and Pelias’ own son Acastus went also. With help like that, Jason would hardly need skills of his own, but that is not where the help ends. He also has Hera working on his side, who also persuades another very powerful goddess, Aphrodite, to contribute as well. And then, the final bonus: through the agency of Hera, Aphrodite sends her son to cause Medea to fall madly and hopelessly in love with Jason, thereby securing a number of things: Medea’s vast skills in witchcraft learned only from the best, as well as her inside information into the manner in which Jason would be ‘impossibly’ tested, as a result of her blind loyalty to him, and thus to his cause. So now, according to the heroic formula, Jason must overcome AeÃ?«tes, king of Colchis, by yoking a couple of wild, fire-breathing oxen, cutting down some men who grew out of the ground like stalks of corn, and finally best the dragon that guards the objet du jour, the golden fleece. But if we examine the circumstances a little more closely, we see that Medea supplies an ointment to protect Jason from the fire-breathing bulls.
When Jason sows the dragon’s teeth and must fight the Spartoi, she tells him the simple secret to defeating them, saving him all the work of fighting by causing them to all fight themselves. Furthermore, she defeats the dragon herself, though more cleverly than facing it with sword or shield; she lulls it to sleep magically, and Jason is free to take the fleece. So together one might say, Jason and Medea defeat the wild bulls and scary men that grow out of the ground, and then Medea herself conquers the guard-dragon. Then, the final obstacle is the vengeful king himself. Medea takes this one on solo also. She cuts up her own little brother and casts him over the side of the Argo, forcing AeÃ?«tes to sail about, picking up the pieces in order to perform a proper burial. This sounds gruesome and unheroic, but it could be argued that Medea did the lesser of evils by not forcing a battle engagement, and thereby saving more lives overall while still accomplishing Hera’s plans. After the bon voyage, Jason again fits into the heroic molding of Lord Raglan. He forsakes Medea, a tool he no longer feels he needs, to marry Glauce or CreÃ?¼sa, the daughter of Creon, king of Colchis, setting him in line for kingship. But by putting Medea away for another, he has also sealed his doom: she kills their mutual children to prevent any succession. In this act, and in the speech she gives, she states the importance of her pride, a trait shared by other great heroes (most notably Herakles himself): “Go forward to the dreadful act. The test has come for resolution. You see how you are treated. Never shall you be mocked by Jason’s Corinthian wedding, whose father was noble, whose grandfather Helios. You have the skill.” For the slight to her pride and dignity she also kills Jason’s bride.
So interestingly enough, Medea’s own children are therefore unable to succeed her in any way also. A few last criteria concern the death of the hero. Jason’s end is disputed, ranging from the ironic to the simply miserable, but there is no settled, widely accepted account of his demise, nor is his burial recorded anywhere. Similarly, Medea’s death is shrouded in mystery. There is not even a consensus on whether she died at all. Some even say that she was afterwards worshiped as a goddess, although this claim is disputed. Jason was not hailed as anything but mortal after his death, in fact hardly hailed as anything at all by many. Another source claims that Medea became Achilles’ consort in the Elysian Fields, the sweet spot of the Underworld reserved for the greatest heroes of antiquity. It is interesting that the only stories to be found concerning her death should honor her in such a way, while Jason received quite a lot less accolades. So who is the real hero? Examined from Lord Raglan’s stance, one might very well conclude that Jason was hardly the hero that Medea was. Perhaps she might have been more if she had been a he. Medea is also featured in the epic mainly concerning Jason, and Euripides’ play is, after all, called after Medea, not Jason. She fits just as many of the heroic criteria, and in some cases, the criteria is more aptly applied to her circumstances than to his. Overall, when examined closely, Jason as the hero is a weak argument full of flaws, and a legitimate, well-earned claim to fame on his part is dubious at best.
