Editing Jason (section)

== The return journey ==
[[File:Jason and Medea - John William Waterhouse.jpg|right|thumb|250px|Jason and Medea - as depicted by [[John William Waterhouse]], 1907.]]
On the way back to Iolcus, Medea prophesied to [[Euphemus]], the Argo's helmsman, that one day he would rule [[Cyrene, Libya|Cyrene]]. This came true through [[Battus I of Cyrene|Battus]], a descendant of Euphemus. [[Zeus]], as punishment for the slaughter of Medea's own brother, sent a series of storms at the ''Argo'' and blew it off course. The ''Argo'' then spoke and said that they should seek purification with [[Circe]], a [[nymph]] living on the island of Aeaea. After being cleansed, they continued their journey home.

===Sirens===
Chiron had told Jason that without the aid of [[Orpheus]], the Argonauts would never be able to pass the [[Siren (mythology)|Sirens]]—the same Sirens encountered by [[Odysseus]] in [[Homer]]'s [[epic poem]] the ''[[Odyssey]]''. The Sirens lived on three small, rocky islands called [[Sirenum scopuli]] and sang beautiful songs that enticed sailors to come to them, which would result in the wrecking of their ship on the islands. When Orpheus heard their voices, he drew his [[lyre]] and played music that was more beautiful and louder, drowning out the Sirens' bewitching songs.

===Talos===
The ''Argo'' then came to the island of [[Crete]], guarded by the bronze man, [[Talos]]. As the ship approached, Talos hurled huge stones at the ship, keeping it at bay. Talos had one [[ichor]] vessel which went from his neck to his ankle, bound shut by only one bronze nail (as in metal casting by the lost wax method). [[Medea]] cast a spell on Talos to calm him; she removed the bronze nail and Talos bled to death. The ''Argo'' was then able to sail on.

===Jason returns===
[[File:Douris cup Jason Vatican crop.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Jason and the Snake]][[Thomas Bulfinch]] has an antecedent to the interaction of Medea and the daughters of Pelias. Jason, celebrating his return with the Golden Fleece, noted that his father was too aged and infirm to participate in the celebrations. He had seen and been served by Medea's magical powers. He asked Medea to take some years from his life and add them to the life of his father. She did so, but at no such cost to Jason's life. Medea withdrew the blood from Aeson's body and infused it with certain herbs; putting it back into his veins, returning vigor to him.<ref name="William Godwin 1876 41">{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/livesnecromance04godwgoog|title=Lives of the Necromancers|last=Godwin|first=William|year=1876|page=41}}</ref> Pelias' daughters saw this and wanted the same service for their father.

Medea, using her sorcery, claimed to Pelias' daughters that she could make their father smooth and vigorous as a child by chopping him up into pieces and boiling the pieces in a cauldron of water and magical herbs. She demonstrated this remarkable feat with the oldest ram in the flock, which leapt out of the cauldron as a lamb. The girls, rather naively, sliced and diced their father and put him in the cauldron. Medea did not add the magical herbs, and Pelias was dead.{{sfn|Godwin|1876|p=42}} Pelias' son, [[Acastus]], drove Jason and Medea into exile for the murder, and the couple settled in Corinth.

===Treachery of Jason===
In Corinth, Jason became engaged to marry [[Creusa (daughter of Creon)|Creusa]] (sometimes referred to as [[Glauce]]), a daughter of the King of Corinth, to strengthen his political ties. When Medea confronted Jason about the engagement and cited all the help she had given him, he retorted that it was not she that he should thank, but Aphrodite who made Medea fall in love with him. Infuriated with Jason for breaking his vow that he would be hers forever, Medea took her revenge by presenting to Creusa a cursed dress, as a wedding gift, that stuck to her body and burned her to death as soon as she put it on.{{sfn|Godwin|1876|p=42}}

Creusa's father, [[Creon (king of Corinth)|Creon]], burned to death with his daughter as he tried to save her. Then Medea killed the two boys that she bore to Jason, fearing that they would be murdered or enslaved as a result of their mother's actions. When Jason learned of this, Medea was already gone. She fled to Athens in a chariot of dragons sent by her grandfather, the sun-god [[Helios]].{{sfn|Godwin|1876|p=42}}

Although Jason calls Medea most hateful to gods and men, the fact that the chariot is given to her by Helios indicates that she still has the gods on her side. As [[Bernard Knox]] points out, Medea's last scene with concluding appearances parallels that of a number of indisputably divine beings in other plays by Euripides. Just like these gods, Medea "interrupts and puts a stop to the violent action of the human being on the lower level, ... justifies her savage revenge on the grounds that she has been treated with disrespect and mockery, ... takes measures and gives orders for the burial of the dead, prophesies the future", and "announces the foundation of a cult".<ref>B.M.W. Knox. ''Word and Action: Essays on the Ancient Theatre.'' Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1979, p. 303.</ref>

Later Jason and [[Peleus]], father of the hero [[Achilles]], attacked and defeated Acastus, reclaiming the throne of Iolcus for himself once more. Jason's son, [[Thessalus]], then became king.

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 [[stem (ship)|stem]] of the rotting ''[[Argo]]'' when it fell on him, killing him instantly.<ref>{{Cite book|url=http://archive.org/details/medeatranslatedi00euriuoft|title=The Medea. Translated into English rhyming verse with explanatory notes by Gilbert Murray|last=Euripides|last2=Murray|first2=Gilbert|date=1912|publisher=New York Oxford University Press|others=Robarts - University of Toronto|pages=77–78, 96}}</ref>