Is the Greek legend of Jason and the Argonauts true?The history of Jason and the group of Greeks known as the Argonauts is one of the oldest and best-known legends of ancient Greece.
According to the legend, a Greek prince named Jason was charged with the task of finding and returning to Greece the golden fleece, which came from the skin of a golden ram. When the ram was sacrificed its skin was hung in a forest, guarded by a dragon that never slept.
Jason departed in a ship called Argos, the first warship ever built. After many adventures, Jason and his men reached Colchis, a land on the eastern shore of the Black Sea. The king of the place forced Jason to perform a series of tests.
One of these tests was to put the plow yoke on a pair of bulls exhaling fire. After successfully performing his test, Jason planted a field with the teeth of a dragon, from which armed men were born. Then, aided by the sorceress Medea, Jason managed to take the golden fleece and return to Greece.
This story was well known before the Greek poet Homer was born. For a long time it was considered a mere legend. But a few years ago, a stone with the inscription of an ancient period was found in Maikop, Russia, in what was once the Colchis. The stone tells a possible version of Jason's story. It speaks of a trip to the region by a group of Greeks during a previous period.
The legend of Jason and the Argonauts is now believed to represent a true journey by ancient Greeks to the shores of the Black Sea. The golden fleece that Jason and his men were looking for perhaps represented the gold that abounded in the ancient land of Colchis.
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