Legends of Heroes
Wu Shiyu
http://sla.sjtu.edu.cn/bbs
Jason and the Golden Fleece)
tale told for 3000 years.
金羊毛的来历
Athamas,king in Boeotia
first wife, cloud goddess
Nephele
two children, Phrixus and Helle
His second wife: Ino
Jealous,plotted their deaths
Sacrificing Phrixus end drought.
Nephele, winged ram
金羊毛的来历
Helle fell, drowned, Hellespont.
ram spoke,Phrixus, heart, and
took Colchis.
Phrixus sacrificed, Poseidon,
settled in the house of Aietes
the Golden Fleece on an oak in
a grove sacred to Ares,
guarded by a dragon.
The Golden Fleece
Photo: Hellespont
Aeson rightful king of Thessaly.
Pelias, power-hungry, overthrew Aeson
killing all descendants of Aeson, spared
Jason saved, women cluster, still-born.
Alcimede sent, centaur Chiron for education.
Centaur Chiron
Pelias: beware of a man with one sandal.
games in honor of Poseidon
Jason claimed, lost one sandals, helping an old woman
Iolcus, announced, one sandal
"To take my throne, which you shall, you must go on a
quest to find the Golden Fleece."
Jason accepted the quest.
assembled group heroes,
the Argonauts
ship, the Argo
The Argonauts
the Argo
一路上的磨难实在是难以尽述。
The Isle of Lemnos (races of women)
Cyzicus (Heracles returned to Labors, Hylas lost)
Phineas and the Harpies (Harpies,how to pass ~)
The Symplegades (the only way to reach Colchis)
The arrival in Colchis
The Claim of the Golden Fleece
Jason arrived in Colchis
modern Black Sea coast of Georgia
claim the fleece as his own
Aietes promised to give, perform three tasks
Jason discouraged depression.
Hera Aphrodite, Medea, fall love.
Medea aided Jason
ointment from oxen's flames.
threw a rock into the crowd
sprayed a potion, herbs.
The dragon fell asleep,
seize the Golden Fleece.
sailed away with Medea.
Medea distracted her
father, who chased them
as they fled, by killing
her brother Apsyrtus and
throwing pieces of his
body into the sea;
Aietes stopped to gather
them.
Return Journey
Zeus, punishment
storms at the Argo and
blew it off course.
The Argo spoke and
seek purification with
Circe, a nymph living on
the island called Aeaea.
After being cleansed,
they continued their
journey home.
Return Journey
Sirens
Chiron had told Jason that without the
aid of Orpheus, the Argonauts would
never be able to pass the Sirens.
The Sirens lived on three small, rocky
islands, sang beautiful songs that lured
sailors to come to them
crashing of their ship into the islands.
When Orpheus heard their voices, he
drew his lyre and played music
more beautiful and louder, drowning
out the Sirens' bewitching songs.
Talos
The Argo then came to
the island of Crete,
bronze man, Talos.
hurled huge stones
Talos one blood vessel
neck to his ankle,
by only one bronze nail
make him immortal by
removing the nail
Talos bled to death.
Jason returns
Pelias' daughters
make father younger pieces, boiling
pieces cauldron water magical herbs.
demonstrated with a sheep, a lamb.
The girls, sliced and diced their father
and put him in the cauldron.
Medea did not add the magical herbs
Pelias dead.
Pelias' son, drove them into exile
Treachery of Jason
the couple settled in Corinth
Jason engaged to Creusa
Medea confronted Jason
all the help, retorted, thank Aphrodite
Infuriated, revenge, a cursed dress,
stuck to her body and burned her to death
father, burned to death, save her.
killed the two boys
fearing that be murdered or
enslaved
already gone; Athens
chariot sent by her
grandfather, the sun-god
Helios.
As a result of breaking his vow to love Medea
forever, Jason lost his favor with Hera and died
lonely and unhappy.
He was asleep under the stern of the rotting
Argo when it fell on him, killing him instantly.
The manner of his death was due to the deities
cursing him for breaking his promise to Medea.
never achieved his true goal—to become king
of the land of Iolcus
one of violence and tragedy as well as
adventure
Heracles: The Greatest Hero of all
The son of Zeus and a mortal woman, Alcmene
The greatest hero of all
Zeus tricks Alcmene
Hera hated Zeus’s son
Babyhood, difficulties
Heracles' Maturity
Great strength and courage
Exceptional or excessive appetites, and power
Extremes of sexual appetite
50 daughters (king Thespios)
Cleanse of his crime
Excessive passion, of rage
The madness by Hera.
madness, children, wife Megara
consult the oracle
Cleanse of his crime
The twelve labors
serve his cousin as a slave for 12 years
perform whatever labors
Three recognizable groups
Peloponnesus(6); further away(7-9), Far West
(10-12)
The first six labors
Involves animals
First labor
The second labor
The third labor
Labor four
Labor five
Labor six
Labor 7-9
Stranger and more dangerous
The Seventh Labor (the Cretan bull)
The Mares of Diomedes
Girdle of Hippolyta
Labor 10-12
Edge of the world
The Cattle of Geryon
Apples of the Hesperides
The Labor of Cerberus
Side Works
A warrior, not a king
A fighter of animals, of monsters
Role as a pan-Hellenic hero
Achieve immortality
Marry Deinira
Nessos, the cetaur
His blood
Burn and eat away his flesh
Funeral pyre
burns
Body dies, psyche
Interpretation
1. Represents the spread of Greek culture,
spread through colonies
2. Representing the humanizing of unknown
lands.
a contradictory character
First, both admirable and horrifying, both
powerful and powerless.
Second, supremely ill-fated, and supremely
fortunate.
And thirdly, resists Death, and intentionally
embraces it.
both a serious figure and also a comic figure
both masculine and feminine
kind of “everyman”
see in him both our best and worst potential.
embodying, and thus mediating between,
nature and culture.
violent side representing nature.
His civilizing side representing culture.
The Boreads (sons of Boreas, the North Wind)
who could fly,
Heracles, Philoctetes,
Peleus, Telamon, Orpheus,
Castor and Pollux,
Atalanta, and Euphemus.
First, plow a field with fire-breathing oxen, the
Khalkotauroi, that he had to yoke himself.
Then, sowed the teeth of a dragon into a field.
Overcome the sleepless dragon which guarded
the Golden Fleece.