Editing Jason (section)

== Persecution by Pelias ==
[[File:Pelias meets Jason MAN Napoli Inv111436.jpg|thumb|[[Pelias]], king of [[Iolcos]], stops on the steps of a temple as he recognises young Jason by his missing sandal; Roman [[fresco]] from [[Pompeii]], 20-25 AD.]]

[[Pelias]] (Aeson's half-brother) was power-hungry and sought to gain dominion over all of [[Ancient Thessaly|Thessaly]]. Pelias was the progeny of a union between their shared mother, [[Tyro]] ("high born Tyro"), the daughter of [[Salmoneus]], and the sea god [[Poseidon]]. In a bitter feud, he overthrew Aeson (the rightful king), killing all the descendants of Aeson that he could. He spared his half-brother for unknown reasons.<ref name="pbs"/>

Aeson's wife [[Alcimede|Alcimede I]] had a newborn son named Jason, whom she saved from Pelias by having female attendants cluster around the infant and cry as if he were [[Stillbirth|stillborn]]. Fearing that Pelias would eventually notice and kill her son, Alcimede sent him away to be reared by the [[centaur]] [[Chiron]].<ref name="pbs">{{Cite book |last=Hyginus |title=The Orphic Argonautica |publisher=Jason Colavito |year=2011 |isbn=9781105198946 |location=Albany, New York |pages=58-59, 12th and 13th Fabulae |language=en |trans-title=The Fabulae of Hyginus}}</ref> She claimed that she had been having an affair with him all along. Pelias, fearing that his ill-gotten kingship might be challenged, consulted an [[oracle]], who warned him to beware of a man wearing only one sandal.

Many years later, Pelias was holding [[Olympic Games|games]] in honor of Poseidon when the grown Jason arrived in Iolcus, having lost one of his sandals in the river [[Anauros]] ("wintry Anauros") while helping an old woman (actually the goddess [[Hera]] in disguise) to cross.<ref name="pbs" /> She blessed him, for she knew what Pelias had planned. When Jason entered Iolcus (the present-day city of [[Volos]]), he was announced as a man wearing only one sandal. Jason, aware that he was the rightful king, so informed Pelias. Pelias replied, "To take my throne, which you shall, you must go on a quest to find the Golden Fleece." Jason readily accepted this condition.