ABSTRACT
Chapter 18 begins by explaining the origin of the quest for the golden fleece, and examining why Pelias, king of Iolcos, sent his nephew Jason to fetch it in the expectation that he would not survive. The second part of the chapter describes the voyage of the Argonauts to Colchis at the far end of the Black Sea, and the events that followed their arrival, when Jason survived the ordeals set for him by the king, Aietes, to seize the fleece with some help from the king’s daughter Medeia. The third part of the chapter describes the adventures of Jason and Medeia in Greece, telling how Medeia contrived the death of Pelias in Iolcos, and how she later exacted revenge on Jason when he planned to abandon her for another woman, and then passing on to her later life in Athens and the East and to Jason’s death.
