The story of the journey of the Argonauts is the first Greek myth that tells of a long sea voyage outside the Greek world. It was headed by Jason, a contemporary of Hercules and Theseus. This event can be attributed to approximately the XIII century BC, 20-25 years before the Trojan War.
Jason was the son of Eson, king of the city of Regiment in Thessaly. When his uncle Pelius seized power, little Jason had to go into hiding. Having reached the age of twenty, he appeared to Pelius and demanded the return of the kingdom that legally belonged to him. Pelius promised to do this on condition that the young man obtains and brings him the golden fleece from Colchis.
The task posed by the cunning and cruel Pelius was clearly impossible. In those days, the Greeks usually sailed in the Mediterranean Sea and did not know much about what was beyond its borders. And they had to sail to the eastern part of the Black Sea. Colchis occupies the territory of the lowland of the same name in the coastal part of modern Abkhazia and Western Georgia.
There was no need to go for the golden fleece on such a long journey. Gold-bearing sand was also found in Greece. They washed it with the help of lamb skins, which were then burned and received a gold ingot.
ON THE EDGE OF OYKUMEN
Let's return, however, to our myth. Deciding to sail to Colchis, Jason, with the help of the goddess Athena, built a ship that had never been before him. Collected the most famous heroes and craftsmen from all over Greece. Among them were the famous shipbuilder the carpenter Arg (the ship was named after him), the best helmsman of Hellas Tifis, the fastest runner of that time Euthem of Tenar, the twins Castor and Pollux, the most skillful riders and fist fighters, the sons of the north wind Boreus, the brothers Calaid and Zet. The latter even knew how to fly. The great hero of Greece Hercules and the sweet-voiced singer Orpheus also boarded the ship.
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The Argonauts made their first stop on the island of Lemnos. It turned out that only women live there. A year ago, they killed all their men for treason, and therefore our travelers were quickly taken to their homes. Jason, naturally, went to the queen of the island. The men quickly forgot about the purpose of their journey. And only Hercules with great difficulty managed to return the Argonauts to the ship and continue their journey.
Then they sailed only at night, since the kings of Troy did not allow foreign ships into their waters. True, the Hellespont (Dardanelles) passed safely and entered the Sea of Marmara. Near the city of Cyzicus in Phrygia, the travelers had to fight with six-armed giants who threw rocks at passing ships. With the help of Hercules, the giants were killed. And then the gods gave Hercules another assignment - and he left the Argonauts.
Ahead was the Bosphorus, the most dangerous section of the route. The blind soothsayer Phineus suggested to the mariners how to safely navigate it, and most importantly, how to overcome the converging and diverging rocks of the Symplegada just before entering the Black Sea (Pontus Euxinsky). On the advice of the elder, Jason sent a dove ahead, and the helmsman Tifis, following the bird, managed to lead the ship between the rocks.
Now the Argonauts, moving along the Black Sea coast of modern Turkey, passed the country of the Amazons and approached the Caucasus Mountains. There they noticed a huge flying eagle and heard loud groans. This eagle, at the behest of Zeus, tormented Prometheus, chained to the rock. Later, Hercules will kill this eagle and free Prometheus from the shackles …
IN KOLKHID
"Argo" safely entered the mouth of the Phasis (Rioni) river and stopped at the city of Eyya, the capital of the Colchis kingdom. The goddesses Athena and Hera, located to Jason, asked Aphrodite to send Eros so that he kindled in the heart of Medea, the daughter of the Colchis king, love for the hero. And when Jason and his companions appeared in the palace of the local king Eetus, Medea was already burning with passion for the leader of the Argonauts.
Jason offered the king to give him the golden fleece in exchange for help in his war with hostile neighbors. However, the king was not going to part with his treasure. He suggested that Jason harness two fire-breathing bulls to the plow, plow the field and sow it with the dragon's teeth. From these teeth will grow the warriors that Jason had to defeat. All this had to be done in one day. Only then did the king agree to give up the golden fleece.
Such a test was beyond the strength of even the famous Greek heroes. Using her magical abilities, Medea helped the stranger to accomplish this feat. And then Jason and Medea put to sleep the dragon guarding the golden fleece, and, taking the precious burden, fled from the capital.
Russian researcher I. V. Mashnikov, the author of the book "Deciphered Mysteries of Ancient Myths", put forward the idea that the Argonauts sailed to Colchis not for gold, but … for linen. Rich Greek women were very fond of linen robes. There was flax in Greece, but in the local climate it turned out to be short, with short fibers. Long-fiber flax was brought to Hellas from Egypt and from somewhere else from the East.
These fabrics were very expensive. It was calculated that one gram of flax was worth the same as 13 grams of gold. And thin linen was even more expensive. For such a treasure one could go on such a long journey.
Several details of the Argonauts myth seem to support this hypothesis. For some reason, the Golden Fleece had to be soaked in a mountain river for two days. If in the myth we are talking about a lamb skin, such a period is incomprehensible. The longer you keep the skin in running water, the more gold particles will get there. But for soaking flax, such a period is just needed.
Another curious detail. Capturing the golden fleece, Jason hid it under his shirt. It was unlikely that a large, heavy hide full of golden sand could be shoved in there. And a roll of thin linen cloth could be hidden like that.
I. V. Mashnikov believes that the Argonauts did not strive so much to bring linen from Colchis. They had to find out how such flax is grown, how this extraordinary material is obtained from it. In ancient times, such production secrets were usually kept by the priests. The royal daughter Medea was a priestess of the temple of the goddess Hecate and, perhaps, she knew these secrets. Therefore, Jason took Medea away secretly from his father.
The king of Colchis immediately blocked the passage to the Black Sea straits with his ships. However, the Argonauts took a different path. They climbed up the Istra (Danube) and along its tributaries reached the Adriatic Sea.
The myth of the Argonauts was very popular in ancient times. A lot of ceramic items with images of individual episodes of this legendary journey have come down to us. Apollonius of Rhodes in the 3rd century BC BC, working in the famous Alexandria library, collected a lot of materials on this myth and wrote the poem "Argonautics", which, fortunately, has come down to us.
ARGONAUT ROUTE
In the summer of 1984, the Irishman Tim Severin, guided by the content of the poem "Argonautics", repeated the path from Greece to Abkhazia. For this purpose, he built a replica of a Greek ship of the Bronze Age, although somewhat smaller than the Argo.
Tim Severin's expedition covered a distance of 1,500 nautical miles, although few experts believed in the possibility of a successful sailing on such a primitive vessel. Severinus did not seek to confirm the veracity of the myth, the very fact of the existence of Jason and the voyage of the Argonauts. It was important for him to prove something else: thirty-three centuries ago, the ancient Greeks on a small ship could, in principle, go this way.
It is known that the Greeks began to colonize the Black Sea region in the 7th century BC. e. The daring experiment of the Irishman showed that even five centuries before that, the Greeks penetrated the Black Sea, as a result of which a fascinating heroic epic was born, which has been living for the fourth millennium.