Chen Li

Thompson

Latin 2

2 September 2007

Jason and the Argonauts

Jason and the Argonauts, the 1961 movie, has a very large number of significant

differences with the actual myth. A lot of the movie’s plot strays quite a bit from the myth, but

for a normal fantasy movie, it does a good job telling a myth (in this case, a modified myth).

Some differences include: the movie plot of King Pelias and Jason, obstacles that Jason faced on

his way to Colchis, and what happened on the island of Colchis.

In the movie, King Pelias is the illegitimate ruler of Thessaly. Jason is supposed to be the

real ruler of Thessaly. Jason has been prophesied to take the throne of Thessaly. He saves Pelias

from drowning, but does not recognize him as the man who had earlier killed his father. Pelias

then tells Jason to go find the Golden Fleece, which is on the island of Colchis. Pelias wants to

give this quest to Jason so that Jason will die, and Pelias will keep the throne. This is completely

different than the myth. In the myth, Jason does not save Pelias from drowning; when Jason

confronts Pelias, Jason does know who Pelias is. Pelias says that he will give up the throne

voluntarily, but also suggest that Jason should seek the Golden Fleece because it would be a

good quest for Jason to go on.

Once Jason has gotten the idea to go on the quest for the Golden Fleece, he orders the

building of a ship that could travel to Colchis and the strongest men in all of Greece to go on a

perilous journey. This happens in both the movie and the myth. The things that separate the
movie and the myth are the obstacles in which Jason and his crew were put through. In the

movie, Jason lands upon an island with large bronze statues of gods. Some of Jason’s crew try

and steal things from the gods and the giant statue of Talos chases them around the island and

destroys their ship. In the myth, none of this happened. Also in the movie, the scene of the

clashing rocks is depicted wrong; in the movie, Jason was able to pass through the rocks because

he threw some carving of a god into the water and Poseidon pops out of the water and holds the

rocks from killing Jason. In the myth, Jason escapes the clashing rocks by using a bird. The bird

first flys through the rocks with the purpose of making them close. Then, Jason uses the lag time

in which the rocks would have to open and close again to go through the rocks. In the movie,

after the Argo made it through the clashing rocks, Jason and his crew save Medea, a priestess of

Colchis; this event never happened in the myth.

In the movie, when Jason arrived at Colchis, he is imprisoned because the ruler of

Colchis, King Aeetes, believes that Jason is a thief that wants to steal the Golden Fleece. In the

myth, Jason is welcomed and openly announces that he wants the Golden Fleece. Aeetes agrees

to give Jason the Fleece, only if he can sow some seeds by using bulls that breathe fire and have

brazen feet. Jason does this with the help of Medea, who, in the myth is a sorceress (She is not

in the movie). Medea gives him a potion that makes him invincible against the flames of the

bulls. The last major difference is the appearance of the hydra in the movie. In the myth, there is

no hydra; instead, the guardian of the Fleece is a dragon.

The movie of Jason and the Argonauts is very different from the actual myth. I

personally thought the movie was somewhat weird, due to the strange harpies and the giant

bronze statue that moved. My favorite part is definitely the skeleton fighting scene. The effects

seemed more realistic than some of the movies today.