@@JoshtheOverlander Medea: What if they... Crowd: Is it murder? Medea: No... what if they die of natural causes... Crowd: Yeah? Medea: That um... we orchestrated? Crowd: So its murder
Atalanta: we need a plan. Medea: I have a plan Atalanta: we're not committing murder Medea: *sighs* you just like to suck the fun out of everything Later: Orpheus: he's dead. Medea: hey! I had nothing to do with it *points a bloody dagger at him and then hides it*
Hera: “Jason is my favorite human” Jason: *betrays his wife* Hera: “My friendship with Jason has ended.” Medea: *ruins Jason’s life for betraying him* Hera: “Medea is my favorite human now”
I mean punishing your cheating husband by hurting or killing other people is Herra's whole thing. 😂. She probably saw that it was like, " Finally somebody gets it ". 😅
The only couple in Greek myth I’d fear more is Hades and Persephone, and thankfully those two are reasonable, kind, and patient... Zeus and Hera on the other hand... Yeaaaaaah, yikes...
ORORORORO!!! I spend half of my day sleeping! ORORORO!!! Then I sometimes get up and tell you that I am a famous content creatorORORORORO!!! Please don't sleep while driving, dear rea
@@Thisone109 If i recall, most of Zeus' sons end up hating him at some point and make active efforts to not be like him (probably the most moral thing to do). But those who aren't his son but get godly blessings tend to steer towards becoming like him since there's no giant anti-rolemodel to give them a reminder of the awful thing that they have the potential of becoming via going mad with responsibility-free power.
Considering that Hera CONSTANTLY gets cheated on and always reserves and awful punishment for the people involved, its understandable that she'd totally be on Medea's side and be fully prepared to protect and forgive her.
Later Medea:uh...so. ... definitely did some...things. ...were still good right? Hera:...look,my brother/hubby is a pig and a half,our family is beyond dysfunctional and the only gods not completely insane are hades,his wife and the 3 kids he has. Considering the shit you went through were good. Medea: allright fair enough. Spill the tea did jason suffer? Hera:he died via the argo. Medea:...thats briliant. Later Medea:anyway thats why me and jason,really hate each other. Zagreus:hm...you ever think its because neither of you really talked about each others issues much? Medea:i mean maybe? ...probably. Zagreus: allright well ill see you. ...*looks at zeus and hera and sighs* ...who made you come see me? Hera:...im not at liberty to say. Zagreus:blood and darkness...OK. lady hera,lord Zeus,take a seat...we are going to be here a while.
@@Fummy007Huh? Do you mean Helios? Meda is a niece of Cierce, and thus a granddaughter of the sun god. In Greek mythology, if the character isn't a demigod or an oracle, they are almost certainly a descendant of Helios. Why, I do not know.
@@stygian8049 They jump on and off the ship as they progress through their mythological history. The main peeps only get off the boat to attend the funerals of those whose journey is concluded.
Let's be fair I doubt any woman would help her husband's affairs in anything. Just because she's a goddess doesn't mean she owes anyone anything. Jason is the biggest dumbass, he forgot who favored him and that there are conditions.
@@lyone2983 IIRC the myth correctly, it's never made clear if Jason ever even KNEW he had Hera's favour. There are versions of the myth where it's never mentioned that Hera ever revealed herself to him after he won her favour by helping her while she was disguised as the old woman, and she just helped him in secret the whole time, and Jason went on assuming that every time he got out of some predicament because she intervened to help him, he did it all himself, and he was just THAT good, steadily swelling his ego the whole time.
@Adam Wu That makes his downfall in the play make even more sense! With his ego gradually swelling and swelling, he definitely wouldn't be happy not being able to be royalty.
Zeus: You're being weirdly nice to this hero Hera: He's literally the only person in Greece who isn't your bastard child Jason: *proceeds to cheat on his wife* Hera: Oh no, we're nipping this one in the bud!
@Squishy Soft Ducky Agreed. There was always this weird thing in Greek myth about Zeus eventually being usurped by his son just like how Cronos usurped his father and Zeus usurped him. Hera totally would have aided in that.
@@mvalthegamer2450 Yeah the timeline is a bit wonky, sometimes Theseus is an Argonaut, sometimes he is earlier, sometimes he is later. Hurray for unmodified oral traditions!
I feel like at that moment Zeus just sat in a chair like Captain America did in Spider-Man Homecoming and went, "So, your chosen hero did something unbelievably stupid."
@@Ian-wn5lc Yeah, but I thought most of, if not all of Athena's charges turned out okay, and just figured Zeus fathered enough tragic heroes to root for at least one of them.
@@hellocentral5551 Athena was great. She was also one of the people that picked up after other gods on the regular. Also the only son of Zeus I know that wasn't partially an asshole was Perseus and he's also one of the few smart heroes who decided charging headfirst into combat was stupid when sneaking was an option and when you had a magic head that could turn anything to stone.
Jason to Medea: You're just the granddaughter of Helios and a priestess of Hecate(whom even Zeus doesn't dare disrespect), that's nothing compared to a normal Greek princess.
It's even more alarming when you consider the icongrophy of Medea on Helios' chariot. That shit's powerful, it got one of his son killed, and Medea just casually flies out with it.
Not just the granddaughter of Helios. Medea is a straight up demigoddess. Why? Because Aeëtes doesn't have a single drop of human blood in him. He's the son of a titan a a nymph, whose sisters are explicitly goddesses, so he's likely one himself.
Hera: “I gave you a hot, smart, powerful wife and you cheated on her. As queen of the gods and your patron goddess, I’m gonna go with a “No” on this one.”
@@hellothere702 Hades: Sis, pretty rare to see you down here. Knowing you guys, you're not just here to see me and Persie, are you? (sigh) What did our brother do now? Hera: No, he's clean...this time. But I do have some beef with someone here. I don't suppose, out of all the shades who end up down here everyday, you'd know a "Jason". Hades: Jason, lessee....ah, yeah him. He probably deserves whatever you wanna do to him, but please don't make a mess. Hera: Oh don't worry, I just wanna rub it in his face how much he screwed the pooch by wanting to screw some girl that's not the one I basically gift wrapped to him. (Hera finds Jason's shade and she basically does the "Think, Jason, Think!" routine on him)
Can we compliment how Medea successfully planed and carried out a but ton of murders, got cursed magic artefacts, secured an escape plan in the span of 24 hours and had time to spare to give a bomb ass speech to Jason about how he's a disgrace
"compares her to ariadne helping theseus through the maze" Given that that ends with theseus abandoning her on a random island Medea should have taken this as a red flag. It's practically foreshadowing
@@NotesFromTheVoid I mean, she wanted to bang Odysseus and Odysseus DEFINITELY DID NOT want to cheat on his wife, so I don't know if she really would have helped him out she did, after all, tell Odysseus to literally go to hell :P
Yeah, when i saw that i winced, even though i kinda knew beforehand how things go for her later, because Theseus totally ditches Ariadne at the first opportunity. At least she gets a happy ending though, cause Dionysus falls in love with her. I guess Medea was too stabby for a divine marriage?
@@AskMia411 There are so many variants of the Medea myth, we simply can't say. The on thing that is clear is that Medea got turned more and more from an innocent victim to a murderess over the centuries (It's a pity that we have lost Ovid's Medea tragedy. He could have been the one to go against the trend but we will likely never know).
If you think about it, if one doesn't consider the Argo a home, then Jason and the Argonauts might be one of the earliest tellings of a DnD murderhobo story filled with failed skill rolls at the worst times.
If you want extra spice for your poison, the servants initially think Glauke is being possessed by Pan and they're happy because the ecstasy of Pan is a good thing I think? Then when she sets on fire they are all suddenly horrified. Also there's a vivid description of the death of Creon (Glauke's dad) which Red completely glosses over because it's nasty. He gets stuck to her and basically tears himself apart trying to pull himself off.
One of the last lines Medea says in the play is to Jason in regards to why she killed their children: "I hated you more than I loved them" and let me tell you, after watching a stage production of Medea, that line hits hard as fuck because at this point, Jason is on the floor bawling his eyes out while Medea's hands are covered in blood
Red's recreation makes it seem all so light and happy-go-lucky, (with Oresteia too) but these are TRAGEDIES. They're heavy, heavy plays with blood-soaked and dark storylines
Jason being crushed under the falling prow of the rotting Argo is all the funnier when you remember the figurehead on the prow of the Argo WAS AN IMAGE OF HERA. Hera was so miffed at Jason she DROPPED A STATUE OF HERSELF ON HIM. Given how anal the greek pantheon are about desecration and destruction of their images, he had to have managed some SERIOUS Hera-rage for that to happen! And, for the record, before anyone points it out, this is from a more hollywoodized version of the legend where the figurehead of the Argo was on the back... along with its prow. I prefer to think of it as being this version because the thought of a guy who pissed of Hera to such an extreme degree being squished to death under a big wooden statue of Hera is too ironically hilarious.
This is the version of the story I heard way back in the day, and it's still the one I cling to. It's just too poetic justice that he literally got squished by Hera she was so DONE with him after he screwed over his wife
I heard that it might not have been the prow, but the magically enchanted-by-Hera mast that used to be a guiding voice in the trip for the Golden fleece. Either way he got crushed by the most substantial parts of the boat that was decorated by Hera.
@@cgkase6210 Zeus: (readies lightning) Hera: "Nonono, honey... I got something better. Besides, you get to smite people all the time. Let me have a turn." (Hera drops the chunk of the Argo on Jason. Zeus stares a moment, thinks, and then they both just start laughing hysterically.) Zeus: "You know, I might get with other ladies, but THIS is why I married YOU."
Jason: Girl, you could be the Ariadne to my Theseus. Medea: You... want me to be the only reason you succeed on and survive your quest so that you can ditch me later? Jason: *sweats nervously*
Jason: No. Medea: OK, sure. Years later... Medea: I hate you. Jason: I don't care. You're useless. Medea: Then die by your own achievement, (bleep)! Jason: Yeah, right.
The King of Athens is probably the only unambiguously good mortal adult in this whole story. Heard what happened, offered sanctuary. He couldn’t bring Medea there himself (because politics or something) but the man knew who Medea was, knew about the murder of Jason’s uncle and Medea’s brother, among others, and he said she was welcome in Athens. That’s probably the nicest non-murdery person Medea ever encountered, honestly.
or he was just smarter than most of the rest of them. be friendly with badass boss woman, get a chick that not only looks hot on your arm but Also can smoke any enemies that try to pester your kingdom. plus he prolly knew jason... nuff said.
@fionagibson eh, sorry to ruin things for you, but the king of Athens pulls a Jason, marrying Medea, only to ditch her and their son Medus, for Theseus later on 😢
@@pagemasterartemis well to be fair Medea tried to get him to murder his own son, Theseus. I think if I had a wife I trusted and then she tried to murder my long lost son I would also kick her out.
@@pagemasterartemisTrue but in this case Medea basically got trauma triggered and got murdery as soon as she realized Theseus was Aegeus's son. Not that I don't understand where she is coming from, but if she hadn't tried to kill Theseus she wouldn't have been chased away.
@jedsultanik3093 especially since poor elderly Aegeus had come up with a whole contingency plan to find Theseus and basically told everyone that he was his last hope for Athens (he was an adult while Medea’s son was like 5) so Medea knew how much he was hoping Theseus would return. Debatable on how well that whole “sink all hopes into mystery abandoned son” plan worked out for him later though.
I remember discussing this with a professor of mine and she pointed out that Medea thoroughly and completely ended Jason's legacy. When she killed her children, Jason no longer had sons to carry on his line. By killing the king and princess, she also ensured that no woman on earth would ever want to get close to Jason knowing that his very angry, magical ex-wife was out there and ready for murder. Jason's line ended with him, and in a culture that put a lot of weight on family lineage, that is a huge deal.
Also we already established how all of Jason's family and relatives were murdered before because of politics so he was literally the last of his lineage.
@@Suntensatsu21 I mean, one could argue that he was also trying to protect them by becoming king but yeah, that's still not exactly what I'd call a great plan.
@@ecurewitz Option #2: you live happy ever after ... as King and Queen of the Underworld. And terrifyingly dispose anyone who even so much tries to seduce your beloved
You’d have to be very, VERY, stupid to, especially when the someone in question you cheat on is the niece of Circe and granddaughter of Helios and you know is a powerful sorceress who has no problem with murder. And Jason was very very stupid
To be fair Jason didn’t cheat because he was attracted to another woman. He cheated because he was a king without a kingdom. He wanted to be a king because it was his birthright that’s why he went on the Argo to begin with. It was his whole goal in life
Mythologically, if someone is fucking with Hera and it's NOT Zeus, the usual suspects would be Aphrodite and/or Discord...and I could totally see Aphrodite shipping Jason and Glauce over Medea, and setting the two up while Discord just laughs and laughs and laughs in the background, the entire time. Medea isn't the type of hero that Aphrodite goes for...she's too clever and strong-willed, like Psyche...Medea is more Athena's cup of tea, being a strategic planner, highly skilled in various arts, and passing her trials through metis (cunning/brilliance/mental strength) like Odysseus. Kind of little wonder then, that Euripedes has Medea find shelter in Athens, Athena's patron-city, at the end of the play (besides the fact that Euripedes had almost all of his main characters find shelter in Athens after their tragedies, like Heracles, because Euripedes was an Athenian playing to an Athenian audience and used the other citystates and Greek kingdoms as allegories for socio-political issues going on in Athens, like Star Trek uses aliens and planets-of-the-week for tackling real issues and events).
@@sklaWlivE oooh interesting! Also, I can see it now Hera and Zeus both raging, Aphrodite wondering how it all ended so badly and Eris (goddess of discord) just laughing her head off in the background-
Something I just realized on my rewatch that adds a layer to this story: Jason wanted to court Glauce because she was royalty. However, his current wife, Medea, was already of royal blood, being the daughter of King Aeetes. This just goes to show that, even though Medea was royalty, he still saw her status as lower, and his feelings towards Colchis emphasizes that when he calls the place "barbarian." It could also emphasize even more that ruling is more important to him than his marriage, as Medea being exiled means there's no throne for him to inherit, despite his wife having royal blood. And even if he could inherit it, again he thinks if the place as "barbaric."
@@Silverwind87 To be fair, everyone was racist back then _especially_ the Greeks. Unless you were a king yourself, taking a foreign bride was downright scandalous in Greece.
Yeah georgia gave many thing to Greeks and greeks gave many things to Georgians and calling us barbarians is an absolute idiotic thing we were one of the most developed civilizations behind old greeks persians and Chinese
@@WinglessMoonstone well it was hard most of our people lived in mountains and small villages yeah Georgians were still new to all the fighting and stuff and because of that we didn't have copious amount of castles that we got after gaining independence from the Persians so it was normal people lived with normal lives in villages and everything was peaceful cholchis even had some Greek citys on its shore that were outposts welcomed by Georgians I even think it was better living there than in China because all the war collapse and stuff and to be honest that was the only period were Georgians had a good time of peace
A further irony to all of this: City-state kingdoms are a dime a dozen and there are Kings aplenty in every myth. But the Golden Fleece is a unique, one-of-a-kind artefact. In and of itself it is more valuable and precious than any kingship of some dinky little petty kingdom like Thessaly or Corinth. And Medea having blonde hair in the original telling puts a link between her and the Golden Fleece. Symbolically, one could say that she IS the Golden Fleece, and, ultimately, she was the REAL prize/reward/goal for Jason's Quest. A beautiful, intelligent, powerful, dangerous wife who loves you with the burning passion of a thousand suns, with whom you could like happily for the rest of your life (your patron deity is the Goddess of Marriage, what more fitting prize could she give you?). A prize worth more than any kingdom. And Jason throws it all away for what in comparison is just a hunk of dirt.
You know that Georgians could make more of those things yeah some families of Georgians knew how to make those things without trouble so basically the golden fleece is a one of many thing that both iberians and cholchis(2 georgian kingdoms) could make with ease so by myth standards yeah it's important by history standards not so much
@@benjaminmadrigalperez9010 true because it's only made in georgia true it can be made outside but it takes 5 times more time and effort at least outside of georgia in those ages
The part about Jason’s comparison of Madea gets weirdly funny if it’s in a story where Theseus is part of the argonauts. Like “Yeah babe you totally remind me of that lady my boy Theseus screwed over that one time.”
Or if Theseus sees her later in Athens and is like “Wow, you look JUST like this girl who killed her brother for this dude I sailed with! Ever been to Corinth?” Medea: “Okay, yeah, time to die.”
“You might be the only thing they ever agree on.” Wow. I’ll be honest, I can’t think of a worse position to be in than having pissed off Zeus and Hera to the point that they *team up against you from shared hatred*.
@@Edunomat plus no matter WHAT Hera and Zeus do to Jason it has to end eventually. Sisyphus pissed off the only group of gods who can punish him FOREVER. That being said, you KNOW you done goofed if you can get Hera and Zeus to cooperate
@@Additonious187 too be fair as far as the gods were concerned she WAS in the right, every murder (other than of the princess, the king and her kids) was for her husband and the ones that weren’t were approved of by Hera because Jason broke a Divine Oath, morally and legally however- yeah she wasn’t the hero to say the least (then again a lot of Hero’s have killed people and we still call them hero’s-)
Given how the gods (and Hera specifically) are usually depicted as being pretty down to murder anyone who pisses them off, Medea’s actions can be seen as her carrying out their will.
@@KillerQueen-gx4vb The job of the furies is to relentlessly hound those who have committed crimes. It doesn't matter how many or how dire the crime is, if you commit a crime you will be hunted by them. Now, Medea was cleansed both by Circe and herself from all of her crimes by the end of her play, so the furies would no longer target her. Jason, on the other hand, has not been cleansed from his crime of adultery. So, I can't agree that the furies would go after Medea for what she did. I think they would be far more likely to hound Jason. Medea is cleansed; Jason is not.
@@KillerQueen-gx4vb The furies saw Medea as morally justified. She even said to Jason, good luck trying to convincing them to go after her. Moreover, Medea could just cleanse her sin.
Medea: "Then I give him his ship back... right on top of him." Chorus: "He had it coming! He had it coming! He only had himself to blame. If you'd have been there, if you'd have seen it, I betcha you would have done the same!"
Now I want a cover of this with some of the wronged women in Greek mythology. We got Medea, Ariadne, and Helen so far. I vote Penelope for Hunyak (the one woman who didn't murder her husband).
Plus Zeus punishes oathbreakers, making Jason the second thing in the Greek Mythos to make Hera and Zeus agree on something. The first thing was that they needed to kill their dick of a dad
@@supreme_king_obama1158, correction, Jason's the third: second is that Hestia and Hades are going to be the only ones with some semblance of sanity. Not even the gods could have been that chaotic in by their own doing without some form of planning.
Jason, at the end of the play: "Oh no, being an arsehole to a powerful sorceress, who's the granddaughter of the sun Titan and abandoned everything to constantly save my arse, came back to bite me!"
@@louparis1909 yeah...also jason is like one of the very few heroes who does not have some direct divine blood connection. this is very much a case of jason being more than a little screwed in this kind of situation. like seriously, he should have just been happy with medea and maybe go see circe again to try and get that whole accessory to crime thing clensed. but Nope. jason you absolute dingus.
@@KiixPronouncedKicks That was just my way of saying that Medea is a wicked witch. She practices witchcraft and she's a detached murderer; she more than fits the bill.
“Jason is married to medea, both in the eyes of the law and the gods and now he’s trying to marry this princess for the perks” I can just imagine the gods in the clouds watching them and just saying “ oooooooooooohhhhh” While eating popcorn
@@smileyface81mc77 I like to imagine that Hera isn't paying attention and Hermes just comes running in all like "Guess what? Your boy is cheating on his wife and ditching her for a princess", and then everyone else just slowly backs away as Hera slowly turns around and glares at everyone.
@@richeybaumann1755 i can imagine their reactions: Zeus, Hephaestus,Poseidon and Hestia trying to calm her down, Apollo, Artemis and Athena with their weapons out just in case, Hermes running the taratarus out of there, Dionysus and Aphrodite trying not to laugh and Ares happy watching he's mom go nuclear.
@@foldabotZ Persephone and Hades are just chilling and Hades just gets thos strange gut feeling that something happened with Hera, brushes it off and goes to play with Cerberus with his wife then sees Jason a few years later and goes “oooooooh”
@@pogfection787 He was in the Malebolge, the Eighth Circle, reserved for those guilty of fraud. Specifically, he was found in the First Bolgia, in which "panderers and seducers" are forced to march forever while demons scourge them. This is justified by him not only seducing and using Medea, but also doing the same to Queen Hypsipyle of Lemnos before her. Longfellow's translation: And the good Master, without my inquiring, Said to me: "See that tall one who is coming, And for his pain seems not to shed a tear; Still what a royal aspect he retains! That Jason is, who by his heart and cunning The Colchians of the Ram made destitute. He by the isle of Lemnos passed along After the daring women pitiless Had unto death devoted all their males. There with his tokens and with ornate words Did he deceive Hypsipyle, the maiden Who first, herself, had all the rest deceived. There did he leave her pregnant and forlorn; Such sin unto such punishment condemns him, And also for Medea is vengeance done. With him go those who in such wise deceive; And this sufficient be of the first valley To know, and those that in its jaws it holds."
@@WraythSkitzofrenik he didn’t put Jason in hell because he was a deceiver because he deceived Medea. He put him in hell like allot of other greek heroes because he was greek. For some reason Dante had a real fetish for hating greeks and their notable heroes. One reason is because he was Italian and “ roman excellence” or whatever. Let’s not forget this is the man who made an entire epic story about his imaginary hell, purgatory, and heaven just so he could find a women who he might as well as have met once. And then loves her until he dies. Not exactly the best judge of character here. Great fiction writing but not great character.
@@rezafebriansyah8620 I'd say it's more cheating men must suffer, if medea had just wanted to kill Jason he would have died. But ruining his life "albeit by murdering her own children" was way more satisfying
@@rezafebriansyah8620 Then again, this does make me think of the Oresteia. If Medea let the kids live, they could have killed her later. I do not condone murdering your kids but we know how they would have gotten away with matricide.
So out of all the Heroes the only one I can think of that Hera would absolutely adore is Odysseus. He wasn't a bastard born from Zeus which is already a huge starting point. He was intelligent, a family man, and incredibly loyal to his wife. Shunning all the other women that threw themselves at him but he remained faithful to his true love.
Also like the marriage bed made of s living tree thing. Honestly now that I think of it I'm surprised Hera isn't involved with that whole myth cuz like Penelope's whole thing is that shes trying to reject the suitors and stay faithful to her husband as well. Honestly im surprised Hera didn't like drag Poseidon away by the ear for continuing to ruin the most healthy monogamous relationship in ancient Greece
@@ariake18 also in these versions Circe often coerces him into sleeping with her while Calypso straight-up bewitches him until the gods tell her to knock it off.
For me, Jason muttering "...but I'm the hero." was the part that hits the hardest. It perfectly encapsulates the feeling of entitlement crumbling around him when he realizes, possibly for the first time in his life, that he might not come out on top this time.
@@catherinecao4810 especially greek heroes. they usually have help from the greek gods on their joyrney, giving magical artifacts or advice that makes their quest even remotely possible, making most of what they accomplished a testament and achievement of the gods that helped them rather than their own achievement. this kinda adds to their entitlement until everything comes crashing down around them. most heroes do experience great tragedy after their quest is done. like Jason who accomplished his quest, but never got to reap his rewards. if it weren't becoming an immortal god, heracles would be tragic as well. and there are countless other heroes who experience tragedy.
@@michaellarose4913 Thankfully, there are exceptions to this, like Perseus, who (as far as I can tell) doesn’t have any flaws. Though he is protective of his family.
@@firemarioproductions2003 yeah, perseus doesn't seem to have any and is probably the only greek hero whose life DIDN'T end in tragedy, he got married, became a king(i think), had children, and as far as i know didn't have many adventures after he slayed medusa, who either was always a monster or turned into one by athena.... there could have been more tales about him though that were lost to time.
@@michaellarose4913 To be fair Perseus still needed Athena's Mirror Shield and Hermes' Winged Sandals to complete his quest. Once again undercutting their actual heroism.
To me, Jason’s tragic flaw is usually best boiled down as “weakness”. Timidity, insecurity - that kind of weakness. There’s a lot of moments in the Argonautica where the crew just berates him for panicking and not knowing what to do in a given situation and constantly needing to get help from others, like Medea. That doesn’t make him a bad hero per say, because everyone has flaws, but it makes the moment in the play where he says that Medea was never really all that important to him hit so much harder. Because he’s STILL being insecure and weak by failing to admit that Medea was integral to his success and that he’s nothing without her - and this time, he doesn’t rise above that flaw
@TK Wallace you make a good point! Lol but yeah, he does have moments where his strengths do shine. I’m not exactly sure where your perception of him as lacking charisma or strategy comes from, because while he isn’t perfect he does successfully lead the Argo’s voyage and get through some pretty sticky situations. He has a TON of natural charisma and he’s very good at getting what he wants just by talking to people, including Medea. During his journey, there’s an island full of women who killed their cheating husbands and he has to negotiate with their leader in order to get their hospitality (they do also deceive him a little bit by lying about what happened to their husbands, but it’s still by the nature of Jason’s charm and diplomacy that they don’t get kicked off the island or get attacked). There’s also an old man being attacked by harpies who they help out with a pretty clever ambush, and there are a lot more miscellaneous fights and negotiations as well. He’s also good at actually GETTING help. Humility is a virtue and Jason knows when to pick his battles and when he needs help to get through a situation. He understands the value of his crew mates, he doesn’t get too proud or fly off the handle any time someone insults him, he understands the limits of his strength and finds ways to succeed even when he’s at a disadvantage. Jason isn’t ALWAYS incompetent. And yeah, he does have the favor of a goddess which helps him get through a lot of it, but so do ALL the heroes. Like, NONE of the famous heroes in the Iliad or Odyssey would have survived or succeeded however they did without the gods’ help, including but not limited to Diomede, Odysseus, Achilles, Hector, and the Ajaxes. They all get stat boosts, magic protection, special equipment, behind-the-scenes machinations of the gods influencing other people’s behavior or even their OWN behavior, etc. That isn’t special to Jason Also, just as a quick note, while Apollonius of Rhodes’s version of the Argonautica is the one I’m most familiar with, there are other versions of Jason’s voyage where he’s shown as more traditionally “masculine.” I’ve only read excerpts of them, but they generally show him having more of a backbone and even a lot more natural combat prowess. For example, in Apollonius’s version, Medea drugs the dragon guarding the golden fleece to get past it, but there’s artwork and other written accounts where Jason just fights it. He’s also just shown arguing with or outwitting more people, like Pelias before his voyage begins. That kind of thing. The old Harryhausen movie “Jason and the Argonauts” has a pretty faithful depiction of that “manlier” version of Jason, and also my favorite movie depiction of Heracles 😄 it’s a fun watch
@TK Wallace yeah I recommend it. It's a good read, especially when paired with the Medea tragedy. But then again, I really liked reading Medea hahaha. as with any epic, it's kind of dense and may drag a bit, but it's a fun adventure for the most part and I don't deny that the Greek heroes draw the attention of their patron gods based on traits they already have, but I don't think that necessarily disputes the notion that the other gods are still interfering with mortals' lives directly through their own actions. Like, how is Hera enlisting Eros to make Medea fall in love with Jason significantly different from Athena magically shielding Diomede from Pandarus's arrows and commanding him to attack Ares, or Aphrodite straight up lifting Paris off the battlefield to save him from his single combat with Menelaus?
@TK Wallace and yeah, there are less important things than being "convinced" about Jason haha. And I stand by that he's a pretty bad hero compared with, say, Perseus or Odysseus and whatnot. I'm just saying there's more than one way than looking at it and that he's not ALL bad. And that also becomes more clear when you actually see his words and actions (especially before he meets Medea) in the text, rather than just having it summarized
“Hey your husband wants to marry this other woman so that he can pursue his dreams of power so we’re just gonna exile you before you can do anything about it” WHAT
Tbf, "because when you do something about it it always involves murdering family members, and as the father of the new wife I think I see where this is going".
With how greek stories go and medea's pre existing history of murder, that was probably the smartest decision the king had ever made. Only to be followed by the worst decision the king ever made, giving her time.
@@orlando780 I would argue the worst decision he made was agreeing to let Jason marry his daughter, knowing full well that Jason was married to a woman who had previously demonstrated just how far she'll go in the name of a cause.
Fun fact: the whole story about Medea killing her kids is basically Euripides's private fanfic. Older sources most commonly say that Medea's children were lynched by the Corinthians in revenge for Medea's own murders. Euripides came up with the filicide on his own, and it wasn't particularly well-received at the time.
Wikipedia does mention that Euripedes popularized, if not invented, the filicide part of the story, so there's one source at least, depending on how much you trust Wikipedia
"So apparently when the kids showed up, everyone was excited because Medea was maybe getting over her grudge. Everyone except for Glauce, who refused to even LOOK at them until they showed her the shiny presents." Really can't say I'm that sympathetic to a woman who actively decided to take a married man as a lover and then as her husband and showed blatant disrespect to his children from his first marriage until they showed that they had some presents for her-
I think I'm basing this off a production I saw so I could be wrong, but isn't Glauce fairly young? Like teenager-ish age? I don't know how much it would have mattered to a Greek audience but certainly her actions make her sound as such. Also makes Jason extra douchie.
Interestingly, the “won’t look at the kids” thing could _almost_ be interpreted as feeling too guilty to see the faces of the kids who she’s partially responsible for making miserable until curiosity got the better of her. I doubt that’s the case, but it’s just a thought
@@beccag2758 that is a perfectly valid interpretation because whoo boy does she deserve to feel bad for that. Like it seems more than well known to everyone within the city that Medea and Jason are husband and wife, and have children so Glauce herself was more than aware of it so being reminded of how much of a homewrecker she was being had to sting 🤣
You could honestly say that Medea was acting exactly like Hera. Jason cheats on her just as Zeus has cheated on Hera multiple times. Despite having the power to kill him, Medea chooses to instead kill his fiancé and his kids so that he can experience the same pain as her. Again, this method is used by Hera all the time. You could go even further and say that Medea betraying her father for Jason so that he can become king is similar to Hera betraying Cronos so that Zeus can become king of the gods. Even Medea managing to get away with murdering Jason’s girlfriend and kids is exactly like Hera. Once more, Hera ends up saving Medea and punishing Jason. I don’t know what’s more ironic, Jason being punished the exact same way Zeus is or Hera creating a couple who has the exact same relationship as her and Zeus. Either way, Red you made me want to read this story.
Hera didn't betrayed Cronus because she wanted to marry Zeus but to overthrew him and his tyranny ( because he ate his own children to protect his throne). It was Zeus who tricked Hera to marry him. Hera initially didn't wanted to marry Zeus at all.
@@agniswar3 Feel like a closer equivalent would perhaps be Metis, who helped Zeus overthrow Cronus, despite not being in danger of being killed by Cronus, only to eventually be betrayed be Zeus (her son would continue the trend of ruling gods being overthrown by the progeny)
@@luminaravelms4701 Instead, Athena came of this union, who joined her half siblings in the rank of Zeus' wretched blood which had already been Cronus' wretched blood. She could have become a true Goddess of Wisdom like her mother, but she instead remained her father's violent little schemer.
One gets a distinct sense that Jason 1. never really understood Medea as a person, what she wanted or how she thought or felt, despite being married to her long enough to have two children, 2. treats all the women in his life, be it Medea, the Princess, or even Hera herself, transactionally, in terms of what they can DO for him and what he needs to do to get that from them, 3. might have been just a little bit perturbed by Medea's penchant for gruesome murder as prime option for solving problems and was looking for an exit strategy with plausible deniability to get out of that relationship. Though even granting 3, there is no interpretation wherein he comes out looking good. The ironic thing about the above is that Jason was supposed to be a natural-born leader. That's his heroic role. He took this all star cast of the greatest heroes, all with "Hubris" as their middle name, and kept them all together, all on target, massaging all the various egos, to keep the Argonauts a well-oiled functional machine, and got them all (? can't remember) home alive, wealthy and even more famous, at the end of the day. By rights he should be absolutely GREAT and managing people. But if those people happen to have a pair of boobs he can't even figure out that a wife might just be a tad miffed when her husband dumps her for a younger woman who just happens to be rich. A final irony is that, if we take the metaphor of a family as a kingdom writ small and that a king (at least a good one) is supposed to act in a parental role with respect to his subjects, then Jason's failure to manage his family then becomes a demonstration of his unfitness to be a King, no matter how much he wanted to be so, or felt that it was his birthright.
In so many ways, he is the anti-Perseus, more than any other hero. Perseus is what we in the modern era would consider a hero, whereas Jason is a hero in the antiquated sense, but only has his charisma that makes him heroic
It is really fun comparing Jason to Perseus and Ulysses. Both Perseus and Odysseus have trouble dealing with the men over and under them in rank... but they also have legitimately good relationships with the women in their lives, manage to keep their patron goddesses favor the entire time and end up with their kingdoms intact in the end.
It's funny that he wanted to be King because it was his birthright but at the end he didn't even care if he ruled his homeland, the moment he tried to become King by a method that pretty much anyone could use, seducing your way into a palace, he showed that he really wasn't good king or hero material.
Also, for a supposed natural born leader, Jason sure neglected the utmost importance of gathering intelligence. A little research into Medea's profile should have deterred anyone from deceiving her the way Jason did. She's daughter to Aeetes, a powerful witch king, niece to two other powerful witch goddesses: Circe and Pasiphae, herself the head priestess and favored disciple to the literal goddess of witchcraft, Hecate to whom all Olympian gods pay tribute and to whom Zeus, Poseidon and Hades yield parts of their dominion. You'd think someone with vision would not risk trifling with someone at her caliber. Hell, by divine rank alone, her patron deity outranked his.
Fun fact: In some versions the prow of the Argos was a gift from Hera herself and could speak to give the advice in tines of danger. So it being the part of the ship that ends up killing Jason is even MORE ironic than before :=)
@@ConnanTheCivilized Yeah, there's lots of slightly different versions of all the myths floating around, each with tiny differences that can change the entire story :=)
Prow: Hey, Jason? Jason: Yeah? Prow: Close your eyes for a second. I want to show you a trick. Jason: OK. What is it? Prow: *crunch* Hera: Heh, that always slays me.
Adultery against the woman who likes to solve problems with *MURDER* was a terrible idea. Shame most of these Greek heroes aren't blessed with Foresight
I love the idea of a Jason and the Argonauts movie that after it ditches Heracles, periodically cuts back to him for like 5-10 seconds at a time for a running cutaway gag
listen, sometimes you just can't have kids and gotta enlist the help of your powerful sorceress friend to help out, you know (and also offer her sanctuary before you even figure out her plan is killing the royal family and also her children)
There is no other context. He was just impotent. (In some tellings Medea gets offered sanctuary in Athens only after she fixes that for him so its slightly more plot relevant)
Naw, pretty sure this is self explanatory. In a world where Viagra hasn't been invented yet, making a call directly to the gods is the next best solution to erectile dysfunction.
I mean, girl was literally commanded by the god's to love this guy and risked everything to help him, only for him to betray her trust and break every promise he'd ever made to anyone/any deity. While I don't condone child murder, I can see how someone would be driven to murder just to spite someone. Because sometimes living with the consequences of your actions is worse than dying to atone for them.
That's because the writer of this myth was presenting it to an all male audience. Ancient Greek men weren't very keen on the idea of justified mariticide because many of them were abusive to their wives, themselves. Besides condemning someone to self-torture is much better than killing them.
Another thing -and I’m sure someone’s already said this- there are interpretations of Medea’s killing her children as an act of mercy. In this version the children weren’t to be banished with Medea; so they would essentially be staying in a city with no allies and with their new stepmother, and step-grandfather, who probably wouldn’t want Jason’s former heirs lying around, and would potentially have had them killed. So by killing them herself she ensured they would die without pain and with utmost care, and given a proper burial. Seeing as Jason didn’t really care much for the children in the first place I think it makes more sense than her just killing them to piss him off; she can’t bare the torturous thoughts of what might be done to them in her absence, and despite the agony it causes her, she decides to kill them to save them
Considering how women were treated as property of the husband along with children she probably couldn’t take them with her. It’s sad to say if Jason didn’t give her permission to take them they probably would have been returned to him if Medea had fled with them.
@@Olimar92 I'm pretty sure most versions have Medea do the killing, only a few early versions have the Corinthians do the killing. Euripides possibly refers to this version in the play itself because Medea says she has to kill the kids to protect them from the Corinthians. Most versions after Euripides have Medea kill the kids, because it's far more interesting as a story.
"Jason compares Medea to Ariadne helping Theseus." You mean the person who was abandoned on an island by the hero she helped? Wtf Jason, how can you be so bad at this.
And Medea chopped her brother up specifically so that the pursuing ship would have to slow down multiple times to gather up the assorted body parts. Homicidal AND clever!
if you think about it, Argos was the fastest ship greeks ever had, but a giant Colchian fleet was faster. Now the weird part is that greeks are island spread sea fairing people but colchians were not. but another fact is that boat made for Mediterranean Aegean seas would have trouble with stormy black sea.
It depends on the version. In one version she chops her brother to pieces and throws them overboard and the Argonauts are so horrified by her actions that they are about to lynch Medea right then and there, and Jason actually saves Medea's life by convincing the Argonauts to stand down. So Medea was the murderess and Jason actually saved her. 2. In Apollonius's version, Medea's brother is persuaded to meet on the shore to discuss a truce, but it's a trap. In this version Medea sets up an ambush so Jason stabs her brother in the back while the Argonauts make a surprise attack on the Colchians. In this version they are all equally guilty.
These two stories sound great. Story 1: Medea is a hero because she is a powerful sorceress who is will to kill people to achieve her goals. Story 2: Medea is an anti-hero or villain because she is a powerful sorceress who is will to kill people to achieve her goals.
Jason: Violence isn't the answer. Medea: You’re right. Jason: *sighs in relief* Medea: Violence is the question. Jason: What? Medea, bolting away: And the answer is yes. Jason, running after them: NO-
@@ckl9390 IT'S NOT MURDER WHEN IT'S BEING ENGAGED WITH AN ARMED ENEMY DURING A WAR! Chin was an evil, warmongering man! He and Kyoshi were locked in battle with each other, with Kyoshi intending to put a stop to his war! She saved the people of Yokoya! Medea, on the other hand, was a murderous wicked witch who killed her own brother AND her own children just to emotionally wound her own father and Jason respectively! She also tricked Jason's girl cousins into murdering their dad; leading to their brother, Acastus, putting them to death! She didn't even HAVE to do that! Pelias swore before Zeus that he'd give the throne to Jason if he returned with the fleece and he broke that promise! All they had to do is wait for Zeus to smite him and bam! Jason's king! Medea's cruelty and blood thirst should have been enough to make even ARES wanna puke! You want a modern fictional character that would see eye to eye with Medea?! Let her meet Carnage! They'd have a field day!
@@videogollumer Not even counting Chin, Kyoshi's up to her elbows in gore. I'm not discounting her decision to eliminate Chin, it's just that compared to other avatars she tends to go for permanent solutions. Hence why I imagine her nominating "murder" as the solution to any problem before the strategy meeting even starts.
A whole alternative telling that has Medea take her brother with her and chopping him up and throwing his pieces into water to slow her pursuing father's ship, since he has to stop to fish out the pieces, so yeah, Variety.
@@ludekmaly3900 I got this image in my head of dad stopping the ship, and ordering everybody to get out their fishing rods to pick up the bits of meat in the sea. Then just as he's about to collect the last piece, a seagull grabs it and flies off, leading to another adventure that keeps him distracted for a while.
Jason: Compares Medea to Ariadne, the chick who got *Abandoned* in an island by her husband Medea: I choose to ignore this red flag. Medea: Has a complete and unwavering willingness to kill her family members to accomplish her goals Jason: I choose to ignore this red flag.
when Jason compliments Medea by saying he'll love her as Theseus loved Ariadne: oh. oh dear. f o r e s h a d o w i n g edit: the intentionality of this by apollonius is beautifully well done
Jason kept trying to prove how amazing he was, and how much he doesn't need Medea, but he literally has one myth that you can't tell without her. Meanwhile, his wife that he "didn't need" has multiple and her story can be told without him
"Murder, the plan is murder" "We can make a religion out of this" "No, don't" This has actually been one of the most fascinating stories I've watched, it feels really modern and by how widespread misogynistic the ancient world was it's really cool to see that the tragedy of Medea isn't because she ends up in tragedy but due to the actions of a dipshit. Never cheat on anyone, but specially on your touched by the gods sorceress wife. There's screwing up hard and then there's Jason. Don't be Jason.
Exactly! This is why Euripedes is often called an early feminist writer. This play is aggressively modern and the text itself dissects Medea's status as a foreign woman and what that means. Women's lack of personal power is a theme, which Medea turns on its head with her sorcery. The chorus serves as the "public" character and Medea convinces them she's sympathetic. It forces the audience to address the plight of women, which in ancient Greece was Not Great.
Yeah, don't be Jason. Be like Percy! He got all that he wanted in life, and helped those who needed it, and all he had to do was kill some monsters. Remember kids, killing people is bad, but killing monsters is good!
Said to Medea, granddaughter of the sun, in a flying chariot sent by the gods, exiting in a literal Deus ex machina. Medea who is also a priestess of Hecate. That Medea will be punished by the gods.
With Medea's success rate, had Jason asked, they probably could have taken the throne through other means. Most likely those means are murder, but hey, it works.
I mean, not like he didn't try. His original adventure was trying to get a throne by "other means." After all his quests and hardships, Palias just backs out on his end of the deal and Jason gets jack shit. Medea also tries to help him get that throne, by murdering Pelias. Which gets Jason exiled from his own kingdom. The "marrying into royalty" was a backup plan. After just normally trying to win a throne, and murdering didn't work.
The fact that Jason didn't achieve anything after the Argo, despite being the damn LEADER is also hilarious and a bit sad when you realise all of his crewmates got immortalised one way or another - Orpheus was immortalised by being one of the only people to go to the underworld and come back. - Heracles was immortalised through his twelve labours - Pelias married a nymph, fathered the greatest hero ever and was part of a controversy that culminated in the bloodiest war in Greek myth-history. - Castor and Pollux were both immortalised through constellations and the whole sharing half their immortality - Depending on which version of the myth you know, Atalanta was immortalised as one of the most badass Greek heroines ever. - Even Medea was immortalised. The only thing Jason had to his name was that he went on a quest, and won a fleece, but other people helped him. Even Theseus managed to kill the Minotaur by himself. One of the biggest tragedies of the Argonautica and Medea is that if Jason didn't keep trying to become royalty and admit that he wasn't this great hero, he could have been known for something other than being "that one guy who went on a quest for some golden fleece and ALSO his kickass girlfriend murdered several people for him." The entire point of Medea is that people would find Medea more interesting than Jason, simply because Medea did the heavy lifting, and besides, who doesn't like a story about a girlboss supervillian murderung everybody because her husband cheated on her.
To be true, Theseus and Jason has the same flaw. He didn't kill the Minotaur by himself either! He couldn't have done it without Ariadne, who went on to become a goddess after he dumped her on an island on the way back home. He was trapped in the underworld with his cousin while she ascended to mount Olympus, basically living out the same story as Jason with less murder and twenty years earlier. And he's only on the Argo because HERACLES let him out, he didn't even escape on his own!
The weirdest thing in this story (maybe it's because of Red retelling): Jason couldn't reclaim the throne because he was somewhat complicit with the murder? The murder of his uncle? The same uncle who murdered his brother family then claimed the throne ? Was it a personal conviction or did he not catch on that?
@@BogySC I think the problem is that Medea tricked innocent girls into killing their own father. That was horrendously evil. If Pelias had been killed in battle, or some less dishonorable way, I think Jason probably could have taken the throne on the grounds that Pelias was a usurper, oath breaker, and had killed most of Jason's family.
One interesting thing to note is that there is a version of the story in which Jason does achieve something after the quest: Jason's son Thessalus manages to avoid being killed by his mother, and Jason teams up with Peleus (an Argonaut, and Achilles' father) to defeat Acastus and retake Iolcus. While Jason is still unable to become king, the throne passes to Thessalus, so Jason's line does carry on.
What I also think is a kinda interesting detail: Aetes and Circe are siblings. So: Medea is the niece of Circe (which is (as far as I know) the reason why she came to Circe for help). ALSO: Aetes and Circe are also siblings of Pasiphea, the wife of Minos, mother of the minotaur AND mother of Adriadne. So basically: Jason did basically compare her to her cousin.
I read a modern novel about Circe, and the chapter where Medea came Circe immediately recognized the parallels with her other niece Ariadne and very clearly told Medea that Jason didn’t love her and was gonna abandon her the first chance he got. Medea basically called her an old bitter spinster.
@@artemiswolf4508 tbf - Medea was kinda forced to love Jason by Cupid's arrow. Magically induced love is apparently more fraught than Hera really gave it credit for.
@@artemiswolf4508 I know where she went with Helios's chariot Medea (pulling up to to Circe's house): "Hello, Auntie..." Circe: "He betrayed you, didn't he." Medea: "Yes, Auntie." Circe: "I warned you. Medea: "Yes you did." Circe: "So how much murder did you do?" Medea: "Yes."
@@alexanderguerrero347 Probably conformed more to popular tastes at the time. Medea winning against her husband would offend their tender sensibilities about how women were only good for being baby makers. When I studied this play in college, the professor was sure it led a trilogy that would've ended with Medea imprisoned or dead for her crimes. The other two were lost to time. The way she kept turning up later, I have doubts about that idea my prof had.
@@lysanamcmillan7972 Not always in well known greek plays (a lot, but not always. Sometimes they are there for other purposes). Look at Antigone (Sophocles). She's actually stands up to her uncle the king when he refuses to give one of her brother's a proper burial, goes and buries him anyway even though she knows she'll die if caught. It does not end well for anyone involved... Ironically I just found out that Euripides also wrote a play called Antigone where he changed the ending from a tragedy to everything somehow getting sorted out when she marries her cousin...
Nope, the only real moral is "Never go to Greece, and if your in there, Leave as soon as posisble." Your in danger wether your married or single, truthfull or deceitfull, good or bad, man or woman... very few people have peacefull lifes and thos who do often get target by the Gods Bullshit or by the Heros Bullshit.
Further moral: Always remember those who have contributed to your success. Jason screwed up when he screwed over both of the women who were behind his glory.
“Anybody have a plan?”
Medea raises hand*
“Not murder”
Medea puts hand down*
Dammit, now I want a comedy centered around Medea as a tricksy antihero who's Plan A is always murder in one way or another.
@@JoshtheOverlander Medea: What if they...
Crowd: Is it murder?
Medea: No... what if they die of natural causes...
Crowd: Yeah?
Medea: That um... we orchestrated?
Crowd: So its murder
but murder is teh best plan
@@coolgreenbug7551 PERFECT! PRINT IT, SELL IT, MERCHANDISE IT!
Atalanta: we need a plan.
Medea: I have a plan
Atalanta: we're not committing murder
Medea: *sighs* you just like to suck the fun out of everything
Later:
Orpheus: he's dead.
Medea: hey! I had nothing to do with it *points a bloody dagger at him and then hides it*
The Audio:
“Zeus’ girlfriend of the week”
The Captions:
“Zeus’ victim of the week”
Sad but true
Dear God I thought you were being punny but you were actually being serious!
😂
LOL
They are pretty much the same thing
Moral of the story: Medea thought Jason was a himbo, turns out he was actually a frat bro
Tell me he' wrong!
@@jacobnoelle8428 He's wrong.
... you never said anything about lying.
Yes, he was beefy. Yes, he was dumb of ass. But was he pure of heart? No
@@lunastudios1817 "dumb of ass" I love it.
Jason: I'm going to cheat on my wife and marry someone else!
Zeus: Shucks, Chuck! I thought you were a cool poppa, but I guess you're just an ANUS!
Hera: “Jason is my favorite human”
Jason: *betrays his wife*
Hera: “My friendship with Jason has ended.”
Medea: *ruins Jason’s life for betraying him*
Hera: “Medea is my favorite human now”
Hera was the real power behind the gods.
Nice pfp
Perfect! 😂
I mean punishing your cheating husband by hurting or killing other people is Herra's whole thing. 😂. She probably saw that it was like, " Finally somebody gets it ". 😅
@@alexgregg1058not that it was not justified, Medea was right till the end
Jason: "Hera, I thought we were freinds!"
Hera: "that ended when you did something my husband would do"
THIS!!!!^^^^^ Exactly!! The entire story summed up!! Thank you!!
Yeah, Hera was probably watching Medea, sipping on wine, and saying "wreck his shit, girlfriend!"
Best summary of the ending
Yep that definitely feels right.
The second half of this video in a nutshell.
*Media telling Jason he’ll be crushed under the weight of his only achievement*
Hera watching from the sidelines: Ooh let me make a note of this
I thought he was gonna get squished by a giant sandal
@@turnipmanz1754 lmao like a bug
Write that down, write that down!
Medea: You'll be crushed under the weight of your only achievement
Jason: Proceeds to sleep under the roting weight of his only achievement
@@lockdown550 to be fair, was anyone expecting her statement to be quite that literal?
“Zeus punishes oathbreakers and Hera is the goddess of marriage. You might be the only thing they ever agree on.” Spot on
It was at this moment Jason knew... _he fucked up._
The only couple in Greek myth I’d fear more is Hades and Persephone, and thankfully those two are reasonable, kind, and patient...
Zeus and Hera on the other hand... Yeaaaaaah, yikes...
“Zeus punishes oathbreakers”
Zeus, you cheat on your wife, that HAS to be breaking some kind of oath.
@@yumiendercat3685 Zeus is also King of the gods. You can break any oath you want if there's nobody who can punish you for it.
@@yumiendercat3685 They never said he punishes hypocrites.
“It’s murder. The plan is murder.”
*THE WAY SHE SAYS IT SO DEADPAN GETS ME EVERY TIME*
SAME
I loved: He started to worry she would do something drastic, like, just spitballing here, murder.
Lol
It's Ancient Greece, if the plan wasn't murder then that'd be more of a surprise than anything actually
it’s in almost every fun myth or legend 😂
Jason: “Alright, what I miss?”
The chorus: “You’ll never have child support again...”
😅😂🤣💀. Horrible but funny lol.
ORORORORO!!! I spend half of my day sleeping! ORORORO!!! Then I sometimes get up and tell you that I am a famous content creatorORORORORO!!! Please don't sleep while driving, dear rea
I'm having DMC 5 Vergil vibes ok this
@@AxxLAfriku that’s good advice, but it has nothing to do with the video. Please stop advertising your irrelevant videos where they are not wanted.
@@anacromacia Don’t bother responding, it’s a spam bot
For not being Zeus's son, he sure acts like one.
He acts like a Zeus son more than most actual Zeus sons.
Perseus and Heracles didn't really act like Zeus tbh.
@@Thisone109
If i recall, most of Zeus' sons end up hating him at some point and make active efforts to not be like him (probably the most moral thing to do). But those who aren't his son but get godly blessings tend to steer towards becoming like him since there's no giant anti-rolemodel to give them a reminder of the awful thing that they have the potential of becoming via going mad with responsibility-free power.
@@decoral Heracles died because he was about to ditch his N-th wife.
its basically
Zeus's sons: man dad is an asshole
People blessed by zeus: we are the origin of fuckboy's
"Mom, there's this bully in school and i need your hel-"
"It's murder, the solution is murder."
Me to my kids I'll never have.
Jojolion moment
To paraphrase the legendary orator Cicero:
"STAB STAB STAB STAB STAB STAB STAB!! And then...STAB STAB STAB STAB STAB STAB STAB!!!"
...wait, wrong Cicero...
@@BlackSwordMeister”RULE BREAKER!”
Considering that Hera CONSTANTLY gets cheated on and always reserves and awful punishment for the people involved, its understandable that she'd totally be on Medea's side and be fully prepared to protect and forgive her.
Later
Medea:uh...so. ... definitely did some...things. ...were still good right?
Hera:...look,my brother/hubby is a pig and a half,our family is beyond dysfunctional and the only gods not completely insane are hades,his wife and the 3 kids he has. Considering the shit you went through were good.
Medea: allright fair enough. Spill the tea did jason suffer?
Hera:he died via the argo.
Medea:...thats briliant.
Later
Medea:anyway thats why me and jason,really hate each other.
Zagreus:hm...you ever think its because neither of you really talked about each others issues much?
Medea:i mean maybe? ...probably.
Zagreus: allright well ill see you. ...*looks at zeus and hera and sighs* ...who made you come see me?
Hera:...im not at liberty to say.
Zagreus:blood and darkness...OK. lady hera,lord Zeus,take a seat...we are going to be here a while.
exactly!
@@lolbots686 I mean, it’s not like Medea wasn’t attempting to tell Jason about her issues.
Apollo saved Medea cos she was his granddaughter, not Hera.
@@Fummy007Huh? Do you mean Helios? Meda is a niece of Cierce, and thus a granddaughter of the sun god.
In Greek mythology, if the character isn't a demigod or an oracle, they are almost certainly a descendant of Helios.
Why, I do not know.
“An excuse to let an ensemble cast of heroes do weird island shit for a while”
Why has nobody told me of the existence of ancient greek One Piece
☝️😯.....🤔.....wait that actually genius.
Or avengers...but ancient Greek, in seas, and losing casts on their way
@@stygian8049
They jump on and off the ship as they progress through their mythological history. The main peeps only get off the boat to attend the funerals of those whose journey is concluded.
@@clayxros576 the production can't keep up with herakles' high pay so they just put his name on the title and 5 minutes screentime.
@@stygian8049
Oh I love that. Maybe get an actor to play him like one of the Marvel Chris actors to make said appearance just for the bit.
I like how Hera is explicitly saying that she *would* help more heroes if the majority of them weren't Zeus' bastards xD
Let's be fair I doubt any woman would help her husband's affairs in anything. Just because she's a goddess doesn't mean she owes anyone anything. Jason is the biggest dumbass, he forgot who favored him and that there are conditions.
@@lyone2983 IIRC the myth correctly, it's never made clear if Jason ever even KNEW he had Hera's favour. There are versions of the myth where it's never mentioned that Hera ever revealed herself to him after he won her favour by helping her while she was disguised as the old woman, and she just helped him in secret the whole time, and Jason went on assuming that every time he got out of some predicament because she intervened to help him, he did it all himself, and he was just THAT good, steadily swelling his ego the whole time.
@Adam Wu That makes his downfall in the play make even more sense! With his ego gradually swelling and swelling, he definitely wouldn't be happy not being able to be royalty.
@@lyone2983
Too freaking true
@@adora_ble_ He lost his royalty and that’s his whole motivation for the deeds he’s done. There’s a bit of nuance here.
Zeus: You're being weirdly nice to this hero
Hera: He's literally the only person in Greece who isn't your bastard child
Jason: *proceeds to cheat on his wife*
Hera: Oh no, we're nipping this one in the bud!
lol
Zeus: So he also broke an oath to her, which is my domain. I know we don't agree on most things, but... truce?
Hera: Truce.
She can't even have one nice hero.
@Squishy Soft Ducky Agreed. There was always this weird thing in Greek myth about Zeus eventually being usurped by his son just like how Cronos usurped his father and Zeus usurped him. Hera totally would have aided in that.
@@louparis1909 wouldn't blame her for that tho
Friendly reminder: Medea is Circe's niece.
Makes sense.
EVEN BETTER
Circe and Aeetes (Medea's father) are both children of Helios (God of the Sun), so that means Circe is Medea's aunt. It does make sense.
@@Blokewood3 That explains why Medea had access to Helios's chariot.
Yoooo😎🤟🏼
And Ariadne’s Cousin ^^
"He compares her to Ariadne helping Theseus through the Minotaur's maze."
GIRL THAT’S A RED FLAG-
"So you're setting me up with Dionysus?"
Before Thesus is even born
Hey, at least she didn't get replaced with a child like Ariadne.
I'm told the Minotaur loved red flags.
@@mvalthegamer2450 Yeah the timeline is a bit wonky, sometimes Theseus is an Argonaut, sometimes he is earlier, sometimes he is later. Hurray for unmodified oral traditions!
Hera, goddess of MARRIAGE: “I like this hero, he’s my favorite.”
Jason: ~disregards his marriage~
Hera: “You had ONE! JOB!”
No wonder Hera always seems to be cranky.
I feel like at that moment Zeus just sat in a chair like Captain America did in Spider-Man Homecoming and went, "So, your chosen hero did something unbelievably stupid."
@@hellocentral5551 I feel like it would be athena saying that if anyone, considering half the heroes of Greek mythology are Zeus's kids
@@Ian-wn5lc Yeah, but I thought most of, if not all of Athena's charges turned out okay, and just figured Zeus fathered enough tragic heroes to root for at least one of them.
@@hellocentral5551 Athena was great. She was also one of the people that picked up after other gods on the regular. Also the only son of Zeus I know that wasn't partially an asshole was Perseus and he's also one of the few smart heroes who decided charging headfirst into combat was stupid when sneaking was an option and when you had a magic head that could turn anything to stone.
Jason: "So how much murder will this involve?"
Medea: "Yes."
I thought that said Japan for a second.
That like 90 % of D&D (or any TTRPG) plan.
@@somik-i3x UNLEASH THE MURDER HOBOS!!!
Jason to Medea:
You're just the granddaughter of Helios and a priestess of Hecate(whom even Zeus doesn't dare disrespect), that's nothing compared to a normal Greek princess.
Jason's own idiotic logic
It's even more alarming when you consider the icongrophy of Medea on Helios' chariot. That shit's powerful, it got one of his son killed, and Medea just casually flies out with it.
Medea is so cool!!!😁
Not just the granddaughter of Helios. Medea is a straight up demigoddess. Why? Because Aeëtes doesn't have a single drop of human blood in him. He's the son of a titan a a nymph, whose sisters are explicitly goddesses, so he's likely one himself.
@@tanyanikolaevagizdova6571 Just a straight up goddess herself.
Jason: "I know I ruined everything and screwed everyone over, but AVENGE ME!"
Gods: "lolnope"
Hera: “I gave you a hot, smart, powerful wife and you cheated on her. As queen of the gods and your patron goddess, I’m gonna go with a “No” on this one.”
@@Grim_Sister I like to imagine that after he died Hera made a special trip to the underworld to explain in excruciating detail how much he fucked up
@@hellothere702
Hades: Sis, pretty rare to see you down here. Knowing you guys, you're not just here to see me and Persie, are you? (sigh) What did our brother do now?
Hera: No, he's clean...this time. But I do have some beef with someone here. I don't suppose, out of all the shades who end up down here everyday, you'd know a "Jason".
Hades: Jason, lessee....ah, yeah him. He probably deserves whatever you wanna do to him, but please don't make a mess.
Hera: Oh don't worry, I just wanna rub it in his face how much he screwed the pooch by wanting to screw some girl that's not the one I basically gift wrapped to him.
(Hera finds Jason's shade and she basically does the "Think, Jason, Think!" routine on him)
@@reyonXIII truth be told: Jason is probably not rotting in the Pits of Tartarus. He is probably in Elysium since he is still a hero after all.
@@BoostedMonkey05 Sadly.
But I'd like to imagine that Hera still did that anyway, because he did screw the pooch (and someone else other than Medea).
Most tragedies in a nutshell: “I’m gonna do this obviously dumb thing, what could go wrong!”
Protagonist: nothing can go wrong!
* Everything goes wrong*
Protagonist: except for that, that went wrong.
Lets piss of the gods!
-Greek hero probably
"Oh no! the consequences of my actions!"
People in fables never read fables themselves smh 🙄✋
Jason (probably): Ha, I have PLOT ARMORRR!!!
Medea: Nope. No you don't.
Red: "...Zeus' girlfriend of the week."
Subtitles: "Zeus' victim of the week."
_wheezes_
It’s not wrong 👀
Considering how Zeus's affairs usually turn out, I'm not surprised😂
0:32 For those looking for the line.
I literally chocked on my laughter
What's the difference?!
Can we compliment how Medea successfully planed and carried out a but ton of murders, got cursed magic artefacts, secured an escape plan in the span of 24 hours and had time to spare to give a bomb ass speech to Jason about how he's a disgrace
She heard "How much Damage can you do in only one day?" and accepted the challange.
@@plinfan6541 i aspire to one day be at her level
@@plinfan6541
Her answer tae that question was clearly "Yes".
Ok, I’m saying this so it might be seen, but, did Jason not explain the whole “ marrying the princess to protect Medea and his kids” to Medea?
@@charlemagne2442
He didn't. He wasn't thinking of anyone but himself. If it had been a scheme, Medea likely would hae had notes.
"compares her to ariadne helping theseus through the maze" Given that that ends with theseus abandoning her on a random island Medea should have taken this as a red flag. It's practically foreshadowing
Also, circe can cleanse people of the god's salt towards them, wow that would have made the odyssey a shorter book.
@@NotesFromTheVoid even "forgot about his powers" was invented by classic mythology lol.
@@NotesFromTheVoid I mean, she wanted to bang Odysseus and Odysseus DEFINITELY DID NOT want to cheat on his wife, so I don't know if she really would have helped him out
she did, after all, tell Odysseus to literally go to hell :P
Yeah, when i saw that i winced, even though i kinda knew beforehand how things go for her later, because Theseus totally ditches Ariadne at the first opportunity. At least she gets a happy ending though, cause Dionysus falls in love with her.
I guess Medea was too stabby for a divine marriage?
@@AskMia411 There are so many variants of the Medea myth, we simply can't say. The on thing that is clear is that Medea got turned more and more from an innocent victim to a murderess over the centuries (It's a pity that we have lost Ovid's Medea tragedy. He could have been the one to go against the trend but we will likely never know).
"The plan is murder"
Every D&D game i ever played.
If you think about it, if one doesn't consider the Argo a home, then Jason and the Argonauts might be one of the earliest tellings of a DnD murderhobo story filled with failed skill rolls at the worst times.
i once launched a magic missile at a poor goblin who was just armed with bow and arrow, i decimated the poor thing
Every game I started... when I have the opinion
@@joshuakim5240 imagine being a bunch of low tier trash classes and betraying the only wizard on the team.
@יובל רוט Or leaving behind easily your most competent martial party member
"And then caught fire. That's a hell of a poison"
Me taking notes for my next D&D session.
If you want extra spice for your poison, the servants initially think Glauke is being possessed by Pan and they're happy because the ecstasy of Pan is a good thing I think? Then when she sets on fire they are all suddenly horrified.
Also there's a vivid description of the death of Creon (Glauke's dad) which Red completely glosses over because it's nasty. He gets stuck to her and basically tears himself apart trying to pull himself off.
Medea's Murder Marinade: For when you want a poison that burns in more ways than one.
Poison of Vehement Flammability
Remember that you can also say that refined basilisk blood can be used as poison that turns people into stone
@TK Wallace isn't that just napalm?
One of the last lines Medea says in the play is to Jason in regards to why she killed their children: "I hated you more than I loved them" and let me tell you, after watching a stage production of Medea, that line hits hard as fuck because at this point, Jason is on the floor bawling his eyes out while Medea's hands are covered in blood
holy sh!t...that's insane. i just got chills.
holy hell, that's wild. chills. chills.
Red's recreation makes it seem all so light and happy-go-lucky, (with Oresteia too) but these are TRAGEDIES. They're heavy, heavy plays with blood-soaked and dark storylines
Jason being crushed under the falling prow of the rotting Argo is all the funnier when you remember the figurehead on the prow of the Argo WAS AN IMAGE OF HERA. Hera was so miffed at Jason she DROPPED A STATUE OF HERSELF ON HIM. Given how anal the greek pantheon are about desecration and destruction of their images, he had to have managed some SERIOUS Hera-rage for that to happen!
And, for the record, before anyone points it out, this is from a more hollywoodized version of the legend where the figurehead of the Argo was on the back... along with its prow.
I prefer to think of it as being this version because the thought of a guy who pissed of Hera to such an extreme degree being squished to death under a big wooden statue of Hera is too ironically hilarious.
This is the version of the story I heard way back in the day, and it's still the one I cling to. It's just too poetic justice that he literally got squished by Hera she was so DONE with him after he screwed over his wife
I heard that it might not have been the prow, but the magically enchanted-by-Hera mast that used to be a guiding voice in the trip for the Golden fleece. Either way he got crushed by the most substantial parts of the boat that was decorated by Hera.
@@cgkase6210
Zeus: (readies lightning)
Hera: "Nonono, honey... I got something better. Besides, you get to smite people all the time. Let me have a turn."
(Hera drops the chunk of the Argo on Jason. Zeus stares a moment, thinks, and then they both just start laughing hysterically.)
Zeus: "You know, I might get with other ladies, but THIS is why I married YOU."
@@GuukanKitsune dude 😅😂🤣💀
Huh. I wonder if that’s why Rick Riordian had Annabeth get a statue of Hera dropped on her.
"Could it be you're craving my McNuggies?" Why is this so funny?
YEah it's beyond cursed
I sent a screencap of that moment to my boyfriend in an attempt to confuse him. The attempt was successful.
Lolllll
Wait what? What’s the time stamp ? lol
Because we are all shitposting meme lords.
Jason: Girl, you could be the Ariadne to my Theseus.
Medea: You... want me to be the only reason you succeed on and survive your quest so that you can ditch me later?
Jason: *sweats nervously*
THATS EXACTLY WHAT I WAS THINKING
@@ishithamantripragada9514 pretty much. man, the name Jason is just fuckin cursed as far as fiction is concerned.
Jason: No.
Medea: OK, sure.
Years later...
Medea: I hate you.
Jason: I don't care. You're useless.
Medea: Then die by your own achievement, (bleep)!
Jason: Yeah, right.
I really can't blame Jason for cheating lol.
@@N.I.A23 What! Why?
The King of Athens is probably the only unambiguously good mortal adult in this whole story. Heard what happened, offered sanctuary. He couldn’t bring Medea there himself (because politics or something) but the man knew who Medea was, knew about the murder of Jason’s uncle and Medea’s brother, among others, and he said she was welcome in Athens. That’s probably the nicest non-murdery person Medea ever encountered, honestly.
or he was just smarter than most of the rest of them.
be friendly with badass boss woman, get a chick that not only looks hot on your arm but Also can smoke any enemies that try to pester your kingdom.
plus he prolly knew jason... nuff said.
@fionagibson eh, sorry to ruin things for you, but the king of Athens pulls a Jason, marrying Medea, only to ditch her and their son Medus, for Theseus later on 😢
@@pagemasterartemis well to be fair Medea tried to get him to murder his own son, Theseus. I think if I had a wife I trusted and then she tried to murder my long lost son I would also kick her out.
@@pagemasterartemisTrue but in this case Medea basically got trauma triggered and got murdery as soon as she realized Theseus was Aegeus's son. Not that I don't understand where she is coming from, but if she hadn't tried to kill Theseus she wouldn't have been chased away.
@jedsultanik3093 especially since poor elderly Aegeus had come up with a whole contingency plan to find Theseus and basically told everyone that he was his last hope for Athens (he was an adult while Medea’s son was like 5) so Medea knew how much he was hoping Theseus would return. Debatable on how well that whole “sink all hopes into mystery abandoned son” plan worked out for him later though.
I remember discussing this with a professor of mine and she pointed out that Medea thoroughly and completely ended Jason's legacy. When she killed her children, Jason no longer had sons to carry on his line. By killing the king and princess, she also ensured that no woman on earth would ever want to get close to Jason knowing that his very angry, magical ex-wife was out there and ready for murder. Jason's line ended with him, and in a culture that put a lot of weight on family lineage, that is a huge deal.
Medea certainly wasn't kidding when she said she had successfully taken EVERYTHING from Jason
Also we already established how all of Jason's family and relatives were murdered before because of politics so he was literally the last of his lineage.
Damn feel a bit bad for him now
@@MackenziiRivers for a man who betrayed the woman who loved him and saw his children as objects rather than people?
@@Suntensatsu21 I mean, one could argue that he was also trying to protect them by becoming king but yeah, that's still not exactly what I'd call a great plan.
“Honey have you been cheating on me?”
“Yes...”
*Murders his children* “Now say sorry”
Gosh I hate it when that happens
Zeus and Hera's Relationship In A Nutshell
Your name takes this comment from funny to god teir.
Wimen, amirite?
@@reaperking2121 g-god teir?
The story of Jason and Medea is basically just “You either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become the villain”
Funny how it works for both people huh
a lot of Greek stuff is like this
Option #2 please!
@@ecurewitz Option #2: you live happy ever after ... as King and Queen of the Underworld. And terrifyingly dispose anyone who even so much tries to seduce your beloved
@@Darkman-ug2he And why didn't Jason think of that. He's such a dumbass
Jason is the literal fulfillment of “you die the hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain”
Jason died and Medea kept on living after destroying both her family and Jason's; who's gonna live long enough to see who become a villain now?!
So Jason Alter is definitely a thing now?
@@Lemuel928 Would give Souichirou Hoshi an excuse to basically act like Black Mask Akechi in FGO, and I'm all for that
N0 ALWAYS EVL
Not Heracles tho, he lived long and still died a hero
Imagine having HERA HERSELF set you up with a powerful, hot, rich girl and then you cheat on her cause ‘haha hot girl is hot’
You’d have to be very, VERY, stupid to, especially when the someone in question you cheat on is the niece of Circe and granddaughter of Helios and you know is a powerful sorceress who has no problem with murder. And Jason was very very stupid
@@adeleaslan8182 the only reason he didn’t live with the guilt of murdering a bunch of people was cause Circe was like “oh cool my niece”
@@morelikeabitc-7241 for real, Jason’s biggest accomplishment was getting women to do his work and look good
To be fair, Hera making Medea fall in love with Jason against her will led to Medea losing access to her family fortune.
To be fair Jason didn’t cheat because he was attracted to another woman. He cheated because he was a king without a kingdom. He wanted to be a king because it was his birthright that’s why he went on the Argo to begin with. It was his whole goal in life
Zeus: I’ve never seen you this invested in a hero
Hera: He’s not your kid, di-
Jason: **cheats on Medea**
Hera: WHO JINXED IT/
Zeus: You sure?
Pffft hahaha
Hades:”Sorry Hera, but this is on you.”
Mythologically, if someone is fucking with Hera and it's NOT Zeus, the usual suspects would be Aphrodite and/or Discord...and I could totally see Aphrodite shipping Jason and Glauce over Medea, and setting the two up while Discord just laughs and laughs and laughs in the background, the entire time.
Medea isn't the type of hero that Aphrodite goes for...she's too clever and strong-willed, like Psyche...Medea is more Athena's cup of tea, being a strategic planner, highly skilled in various arts, and passing her trials through metis (cunning/brilliance/mental strength) like Odysseus.
Kind of little wonder then, that Euripedes has Medea find shelter in Athens, Athena's patron-city, at the end of the play (besides the fact that Euripedes had almost all of his main characters find shelter in Athens after their tragedies, like Heracles, because Euripedes was an Athenian playing to an Athenian audience and used the other citystates and Greek kingdoms as allegories for socio-political issues going on in Athens, like Star Trek uses aliens and planets-of-the-week for tackling real issues and events).
@@sklaWlivE oooh interesting!
Also, I can see it now
Hera and Zeus both raging, Aphrodite wondering how it all ended so badly and Eris (goddess of discord) just laughing her head off in the background-
The chorus singing “Get wrecked, boat boy” had me laughing in tears.
Oh, hello! What a pleasant surprise to see you here.
Fancy seeing you here
Wait when does that happen?
@@celtofcanaanesurix2245 12:08
Up there in the pantheon of Powerful Boy Comebacks, alongside “Wouldn’t you like to know, weather boy”
Something I just realized on my rewatch that adds a layer to this story: Jason wanted to court Glauce because she was royalty. However, his current wife, Medea, was already of royal blood, being the daughter of King Aeetes. This just goes to show that, even though Medea was royalty, he still saw her status as lower, and his feelings towards Colchis emphasizes that when he calls the place "barbarian." It could also emphasize even more that ruling is more important to him than his marriage, as Medea being exiled means there's no throne for him to inherit, despite his wife having royal blood. And even if he could inherit it, again he thinks if the place as "barbaric."
So on top of being an adulterer, a gaslighter, and a complete douche, he's also a racist! Charming.
@@Silverwind87
To be fair, everyone was racist back then _especially_ the Greeks. Unless you were a king yourself, taking a foreign bride was downright scandalous in Greece.
Yeah georgia gave many thing to Greeks and greeks gave many things to Georgians and calling us barbarians is an absolute idiotic thing we were one of the most developed civilizations behind old greeks persians and Chinese
@@georgiancountryball202 Interesting! What was your country's daily living like in ancient times compared to those two countries?
@@WinglessMoonstone well it was hard most of our people lived in mountains and small villages yeah Georgians were still new to all the fighting and stuff and because of that we didn't have copious amount of castles that we got after gaining independence from the Persians so it was normal people lived with normal lives in villages and everything was peaceful cholchis even had some Greek citys on its shore that were outposts welcomed by Georgians I even think it was better living there than in China because all the war collapse and stuff and to be honest that was the only period were Georgians had a good time of peace
Jason: surely my patron God Hera, the goddess of marriage, will side with me when I insist on cheating on my wife.
Hera: Dude Zeus has been cheating on me for centuries, it's time for some CATHARSIS!
Danny Hera do be using their marriage as an outlet to her own misery and we’re lowkey here for it
Would love a running gag of: "Murder. The solution is murder"
This was so catchy, so immediately, that it feels like it's always been there. I hope that it does become a running gag.
Kratos: I mean, yeah.
@AESON NG HCI I understood that reference.
@AESON NG HCI You really are hopeless, Kotomine-kun
@TK Wallace I was thinking "I have a plan" when hot and "Murder" when depleted of the ever-precious focus juice.
A further irony to all of this: City-state kingdoms are a dime a dozen and there are Kings aplenty in every myth. But the Golden Fleece is a unique, one-of-a-kind artefact. In and of itself it is more valuable and precious than any kingship of some dinky little petty kingdom like Thessaly or Corinth. And Medea having blonde hair in the original telling puts a link between her and the Golden Fleece. Symbolically, one could say that she IS the Golden Fleece, and, ultimately, she was the REAL prize/reward/goal for Jason's Quest. A beautiful, intelligent, powerful, dangerous wife who loves you with the burning passion of a thousand suns, with whom you could like happily for the rest of your life (your patron deity is the Goddess of Marriage, what more fitting prize could she give you?). A prize worth more than any kingdom. And Jason throws it all away for what in comparison is just a hunk of dirt.
You know that Georgians could make more of those things yeah some families of Georgians knew how to make those things without trouble so basically the golden fleece is a one of many thing that both iberians and cholchis(2 georgian kingdoms) could make with ease so by myth standards yeah it's important by history standards not so much
@@georgiancountryball202 still by Bronze age standards It would be an exotic comodity. Like salt and spices.
@@benjaminmadrigalperez9010 true because it's only made in georgia true it can be made outside but it takes 5 times more time and effort at least outside of georgia in those ages
...so the real treasure was the (girl)friend he made along the way?
This is a beautiful analysis
The part about Jason’s comparison of Madea gets weirdly funny if it’s in a story where Theseus is part of the argonauts. Like “Yeah babe you totally remind me of that lady my boy Theseus screwed over that one time.”
Or if Theseus sees her later in Athens and is like “Wow, you look JUST like this girl who killed her brother for this dude I sailed with! Ever been to Corinth?”
Medea: “Okay, yeah, time to die.”
Also, Ariadne and Medea are cousins.
@@Blokewood3 Awkward.
“You might be the only thing they ever agree on.”
Wow. I’ll be honest, I can’t think of a worse position to be in than having pissed off Zeus and Hera to the point that they *team up against you from shared hatred*.
Maybe Sisyphus when he angered Hades, Thanatos and Persephone.
@@Edunomat
He also angered Ares, just for good measure. The war god wanted death and there was no death.
@@Edunomat plus no matter WHAT Hera and Zeus do to Jason it has to end eventually. Sisyphus pissed off the only group of gods who can punish him FOREVER.
That being said, you KNOW you done goofed if you can get Hera and Zeus to cooperate
@@SuperSwordman1 before Jason, I'm pretty sure the last time they agreed was on killing Cronus, their asshole dad.
@@wildcardjoey4776 Sounds about right.
Now, there's a woman who, when she says she's sacrificed everything for her man, she *really* means it.
Both in terms of husband and arch nemesis.
@@N.I.A23 she was shot by one of eros' golden arrows which make you hopelessly in love with a person
@@SouffleDude_256 emphasis on *hopelessly*
Yeah but don’t pretend like she was the good guy in the story because she kinda murdered multiple people and her own children
@@Additonious187 too be fair as far as the gods were concerned she WAS in the right, every murder (other than of the princess, the king and her kids) was for her husband and the ones that weren’t were approved of by Hera because Jason broke a Divine Oath, morally and legally however- yeah she wasn’t the hero to say the least (then again a lot of Hero’s have killed people and we still call them hero’s-)
"It's murder, the plan is murder" "Boinking in progress" "We could make a religion out of this"
Oh, red, you're the reason I'm so into mythology
"get wrecked, boat boy"
@@zealotoftheorchard9853 that one was the best ngl
@@gamerin4d i think the murder one was funnier
Isn't she though? :)
Where is the we could make a religion out of this?
Given how the gods (and Hera specifically) are usually depicted as being pretty down to murder anyone who pisses them off, Medea’s actions can be seen as her carrying out their will.
Not all the gods. The furies had a moral code. Technically, the furies should have gone after Medea.
@@KillerQueen-gx4vb The job of the furies is to relentlessly hound those who have committed crimes. It doesn't matter how many or how dire the crime is, if you commit a crime you will be hunted by them. Now, Medea was cleansed both by Circe and herself from all of her crimes by the end of her play, so the furies would no longer target her. Jason, on the other hand, has not been cleansed from his crime of adultery.
So, I can't agree that the furies would go after Medea for what she did. I think they would be far more likely to hound Jason. Medea is cleansed; Jason is not.
@@KillerQueen-gx4vb The furies saw Medea as morally justified. She even said to Jason, good luck trying to convincing them to go after her. Moreover, Medea could just cleanse her sin.
Medea: "Then I give him his ship back... right on top of him."
Chorus: "He had it coming! He had it coming! He only had himself to blame. If you'd have been there, if you'd have seen it, I betcha you would have done the same!"
Now I want a cover of this with some of the wronged women in Greek mythology. We got Medea, Ariadne, and Helen so far. I vote Penelope for Hunyak (the one woman who didn't murder her husband).
@@animeotaku307 Can’t forget Clytemnestra
@@josephheiskell3493 I guess it depends on what her thoughts are. She could also be pissed that Orpheus didn’t follow the one rule given to him.
@@animeotaku307 Oh! She's the POP one!
@@animeotaku307 If you want a wronged woman, you really cannot (and I mean seriously, try to find someone who has it worse) go past Cassandra.
Jason married another woman while married: What can go wrong!?
Hera the Goddess of Marriage: You have no idea what’s coming to you.
"Honey, you got a BIG storm comin'."
Plus Zeus punishes oathbreakers, making Jason the second thing in the Greek Mythos to make Hera and Zeus agree on something. The first thing was that they needed to kill their dick of a dad
Fuck around and find out as per Zeus’s motto
Metaphorically spitting in the face of your Patron god who has been showering you in gifts.
Not a great plan.
@@supreme_king_obama1158, correction, Jason's the third: second is that Hestia and Hades are going to be the only ones with some semblance of sanity. Not even the gods could have been that chaotic in by their own doing without some form of planning.
Jason, at the end of the play: "Oh no, being an arsehole to a powerful sorceress, who's the granddaughter of the sun Titan and abandoned everything to constantly save my arse, came back to bite me!"
She is also the nice of Circe, another powerful sorceress.
@@louparis1909 yeah...also jason is like one of the very few heroes who does not have some direct divine blood connection. this is very much a case of jason being more than a little screwed in this kind of situation. like seriously, he should have just been happy with medea and maybe go see circe again to try and get that whole accessory to crime thing clensed. but Nope. jason you absolute dingus.
"arse" you german or something?
Jason: Oh no! Consequences to my actions! My only weakness!
@@theartisthasarrived That's British though.
I like the idea that Medea is still out there somewhere, as she never canonical dies.
She probably ended up moving to Russia where she became Baba Yaga. lol
@@videogollumerMYTHOLOGY HEADCANNON TIME
@@KiixPronouncedKicks That was just my way of saying that Medea is a wicked witch. She practices witchcraft and she's a detached murderer; she more than fits the bill.
Medea is just like Polka; both never die
@@videogollumeroh god, that would be pure horror
“Jason is married to medea, both in the eyes of the law and the gods and now he’s trying to marry this princess for the perks”
I can just imagine the gods in the clouds watching them and just saying “ oooooooooooohhhhh”
While eating popcorn
They’re all just staring in horror at Hera’s pissed off facial expression. “He’s trying to do… *what*?”
@@smileyface81mc77 I like to imagine that Hera isn't paying attention and Hermes just comes running in all like "Guess what? Your boy is cheating on his wife and ditching her for a princess", and then everyone else just slowly backs away as Hera slowly turns around and glares at everyone.
@@richeybaumann1755 i can imagine their reactions: Zeus, Hephaestus,Poseidon and Hestia trying to calm her down, Apollo, Artemis and Athena with their weapons out just in case, Hermes running the taratarus out of there, Dionysus and Aphrodite trying not to laugh and Ares happy watching he's mom go nuclear.
@@despinasgarden.4100 While Hades and Persephone are peacefully chilling in The Underworld, unaware.
@@foldabotZ Persephone and Hades are just chilling and Hades just gets thos strange gut feeling that something happened with Hera, brushes it off and goes to play with Cerberus with his wife then sees Jason a few years later and goes “oooooooh”
Jason: Watches his life crumbling around him
Chorus: *G E T W R E C K E D B O A T B O Y*
Jason, one of the few Greek "heroes" whose punishment in Dante's Inferno was TOTALLY warranted.
@@WraythSkitzofrenik what would his punishment be?
@@pogfection787 He ended up in the first chasm of the malebolge being chased by demons with whips and flogs, called a pimp and a seducer.
@@pogfection787 He was in the Malebolge, the Eighth Circle, reserved for those guilty of fraud. Specifically, he was found in the First Bolgia, in which "panderers and seducers" are forced to march forever while demons scourge them. This is justified by him not only seducing and using Medea, but also doing the same to Queen Hypsipyle of Lemnos before her.
Longfellow's translation:
And the good Master, without my inquiring,
Said to me: "See that tall one who is coming,
And for his pain seems not to shed a tear;
Still what a royal aspect he retains!
That Jason is, who by his heart and cunning
The Colchians of the Ram made destitute.
He by the isle of Lemnos passed along
After the daring women pitiless
Had unto death devoted all their males.
There with his tokens and with ornate words
Did he deceive Hypsipyle, the maiden
Who first, herself, had all the rest deceived.
There did he leave her pregnant and forlorn;
Such sin unto such punishment condemns him,
And also for Medea is vengeance done.
With him go those who in such wise deceive;
And this sufficient be of the first valley
To know, and those that in its jaws it holds."
@@WraythSkitzofrenik he didn’t put Jason in hell because he was a deceiver because he deceived Medea. He put him in hell like allot of other greek heroes because he was greek. For some reason Dante had a real fetish for hating greeks and their notable heroes. One reason is because he was Italian and “ roman excellence” or whatever. Let’s not forget this is the man who made an entire epic story about his imaginary hell, purgatory, and heaven just so he could find a women who he might as well as have met once. And then loves her until he dies. Not exactly the best judge of character here. Great fiction writing but not great character.
This story is basically "Murder is not the answer. Murder is the question, and the answer is yes"
It's also, cheating men must die.
@@rezafebriansyah8620 I'd say it's more cheating men must suffer, if medea had just wanted to kill Jason he would have died. But ruining his life "albeit by murdering her own children" was way more satisfying
@@sadowphoenix01 Then again, he died, miserably, in the end. And Medea, has the last laugh.
@@rezafebriansyah8620 no arguments on that
@@rezafebriansyah8620 Then again, this does make me think of the Oresteia. If Medea let the kids live, they could have killed her later.
I do not condone murdering your kids but we know how they would have gotten away with matricide.
So out of all the Heroes the only one I can think of that Hera would absolutely adore is Odysseus. He wasn't a bastard born from Zeus which is already a huge starting point. He was intelligent, a family man, and incredibly loyal to his wife. Shunning all the other women that threw themselves at him but he remained faithful to his true love.
Also like the marriage bed made of s living tree thing.
Honestly now that I think of it I'm surprised Hera isn't involved with that whole myth cuz like Penelope's whole thing is that shes trying to reject the suitors and stay faithful to her husband as well.
Honestly im surprised Hera didn't like drag Poseidon away by the ear for continuing to ruin the most healthy monogamous relationship in ancient Greece
Except the part where he had a son with Circe that ended up being the death of him.
@@ariake18That's only some versions of the story.
@@fangsabre her brother Hades & Persephone be like 🙄 (yes yes we know he kidnapped her buuuttT)
@@ariake18 also in these versions Circe often coerces him into sleeping with her while Calypso straight-up bewitches him until the gods tell her to knock it off.
"How much murder could you possibly do in a day"
-" *good question.* "
Weird austrian man with weird moustache : *a lot*
@@billylauwda9178 well, yeah, but what about just personally?
@@comradewindowsill4253 well i cant tell you that
@@billylauwda9178 oh, I suppose I was unclear, I meant, how much murder can you possibly do in a day, without any outside help
@@comradewindowsill4253 well, i cant tell you that too.
For me, Jason muttering "...but I'm the hero." was the part that hits the hardest. It perfectly encapsulates the feeling of entitlement crumbling around him when he realizes, possibly for the first time in his life, that he might not come out on top this time.
This is what’s wrong with “heroes”
@@catherinecao4810 especially greek heroes. they usually have help from the greek gods on their joyrney, giving magical artifacts or advice that makes their quest even remotely possible, making most of what they accomplished a testament and achievement of the gods that helped them rather than their own achievement. this kinda adds to their entitlement until everything comes crashing down around them. most heroes do experience great tragedy after their quest is done. like Jason who accomplished his quest, but never got to reap his rewards. if it weren't becoming an immortal god, heracles would be tragic as well. and there are countless other heroes who experience tragedy.
@@michaellarose4913 Thankfully, there are exceptions to this, like Perseus, who (as far as I can tell) doesn’t have any flaws. Though he is protective of his family.
@@firemarioproductions2003 yeah, perseus doesn't seem to have any and is probably the only greek hero whose life DIDN'T end in tragedy, he got married, became a king(i think), had children, and as far as i know didn't have many adventures after he slayed medusa, who either was always a monster or turned into one by athena.... there could have been more tales about him though that were lost to time.
@@michaellarose4913 To be fair Perseus still needed Athena's Mirror Shield and Hermes' Winged Sandals to complete his quest. Once again undercutting their actual heroism.
To me, Jason’s tragic flaw is usually best boiled down as “weakness”. Timidity, insecurity - that kind of weakness. There’s a lot of moments in the Argonautica where the crew just berates him for panicking and not knowing what to do in a given situation and constantly needing to get help from others, like Medea. That doesn’t make him a bad hero per say, because everyone has flaws, but it makes the moment in the play where he says that Medea was never really all that important to him hit so much harder. Because he’s STILL being insecure and weak by failing to admit that Medea was integral to his success and that he’s nothing without her - and this time, he doesn’t rise above that flaw
I love this analysis.
Good point!
@TK Wallace you make a good point! Lol but yeah, he does have moments where his strengths do shine. I’m not exactly sure where your perception of him as lacking charisma or strategy comes from, because while he isn’t perfect he does successfully lead the Argo’s voyage and get through some pretty sticky situations. He has a TON of natural charisma and he’s very good at getting what he wants just by talking to people, including Medea. During his journey, there’s an island full of women who killed their cheating husbands and he has to negotiate with their leader in order to get their hospitality (they do also deceive him a little bit by lying about what happened to their husbands, but it’s still by the nature of Jason’s charm and diplomacy that they don’t get kicked off the island or get attacked). There’s also an old man being attacked by harpies who they help out with a pretty clever ambush, and there are a lot more miscellaneous fights and negotiations as well. He’s also good at actually GETTING help. Humility is a virtue and Jason knows when to pick his battles and when he needs help to get through a situation. He understands the value of his crew mates, he doesn’t get too proud or fly off the handle any time someone insults him, he understands the limits of his strength and finds ways to succeed even when he’s at a disadvantage. Jason isn’t ALWAYS incompetent.
And yeah, he does have the favor of a goddess which helps him get through a lot of it, but so do ALL the heroes. Like, NONE of the famous heroes in the Iliad or Odyssey would have survived or succeeded however they did without the gods’ help, including but not limited to Diomede, Odysseus, Achilles, Hector, and the Ajaxes. They all get stat boosts, magic protection, special equipment, behind-the-scenes machinations of the gods influencing other people’s behavior or even their OWN behavior, etc. That isn’t special to Jason
Also, just as a quick note, while Apollonius of Rhodes’s version of the Argonautica is the one I’m most familiar with, there are other versions of Jason’s voyage where he’s shown as more traditionally “masculine.” I’ve only read excerpts of them, but they generally show him having more of a backbone and even a lot more natural combat prowess. For example, in Apollonius’s version, Medea drugs the dragon guarding the golden fleece to get past it, but there’s artwork and other written accounts where Jason just fights it. He’s also just shown arguing with or outwitting more people, like Pelias before his voyage begins. That kind of thing. The old Harryhausen movie “Jason and the Argonauts” has a pretty faithful depiction of that “manlier” version of Jason, and also my favorite movie depiction of Heracles 😄 it’s a fun watch
@TK Wallace yeah I recommend it. It's a good read, especially when paired with the Medea tragedy. But then again, I really liked reading Medea hahaha. as with any epic, it's kind of dense and may drag a bit, but it's a fun adventure for the most part
and I don't deny that the Greek heroes draw the attention of their patron gods based on traits they already have, but I don't think that necessarily disputes the notion that the other gods are still interfering with mortals' lives directly through their own actions. Like, how is Hera enlisting Eros to make Medea fall in love with Jason significantly different from Athena magically shielding Diomede from Pandarus's arrows and commanding him to attack Ares, or Aphrodite straight up lifting Paris off the battlefield to save him from his single combat with Menelaus?
@TK Wallace and yeah, there are less important things than being "convinced" about Jason haha. And I stand by that he's a pretty bad hero compared with, say, Perseus or Odysseus and whatnot. I'm just saying there's more than one way than looking at it and that he's not ALL bad. And that also becomes more clear when you actually see his words and actions (especially before he meets Medea) in the text, rather than just having it summarized
the "Get wrecked boat boy" had me absolutely wheezing
Jason: "what could possibly go wrong"
Everyone: literally everything
Tragedies
benny hill theme music starts playing
Rule breaker.
Jason is essentially Bubsy.
"Zeus's girlfriend of the week" shouldn't be as funny as it is
More like “girlfriend of the hour“
Week? Do you mean hour?
I also love how the subtitles say “Zeus’s victim of the week”.
@@EcclesiastesLiker-py5ts You mean minute?
More like "Zeus' rape victim", really
“Hey your husband wants to marry this other woman so that he can pursue his dreams of power so we’re just gonna exile you before you can do anything about it” WHAT
Tbf, "because when you do something about it it always involves murdering family members, and as the father of the new wife I think I see where this is going".
With how greek stories go and medea's pre existing history of murder, that was probably the smartest decision the king had ever made. Only to be followed by the worst decision the king ever made, giving her time.
@@orlando780 I would argue the worst decision he made was agreeing to let Jason marry his daughter, knowing full well that Jason was married to a woman who had previously demonstrated just how far she'll go in the name of a cause.
"Jason compares her to Ariadne helping Theseus." That probably should have been her first red flag...
Theseus could have been one of the Argonauts so I bet if Medea pointed it out he’d be like “He never told me that part, are you sure that happened?”
It’s actually “girlfriend of the hour” and girlfriend is generous
dude turn on captions, Red pulled a total gamer move and replaced "girlfriend" with "Victum"
@@blueberry1vom1t lmaooo
@@blueberry1vom1t victim*
Yea it's more like a one night stand
Wow a whole hour. He must really like them then.
Fun fact: the whole story about Medea killing her kids is basically Euripides's private fanfic. Older sources most commonly say that Medea's children were lynched by the Corinthians in revenge for Medea's own murders. Euripides came up with the filicide on his own, and it wasn't particularly well-received at the time.
What is it with all the damn kid killing.
Do you have a source for this? Just wanna do some reading.
@@Eros_MoonKnight tag me If they give you sources, please?
@fabRic_jAck Yep. I mean, admittedly calling it "fanfic" is kind of biased on my part as a Medea fan, since there's no canon mythology. But still yep.
Wikipedia does mention that Euripedes popularized, if not invented, the filicide part of the story, so there's one source at least, depending on how much you trust Wikipedia
"So apparently when the kids showed up, everyone was excited because Medea was maybe getting over her grudge. Everyone except for Glauce, who refused to even LOOK at them until they showed her the shiny presents."
Really can't say I'm that sympathetic to a woman who actively decided to take a married man as a lover and then as her husband and showed blatant disrespect to his children from his first marriage until they showed that they had some presents for her-
I think I'm basing this off a production I saw so I could be wrong, but isn't Glauce fairly young? Like teenager-ish age?
I don't know how much it would have mattered to a Greek audience but certainly her actions make her sound as such. Also makes Jason extra douchie.
@@gota7738 oh god that makes it so much worse-
How the hell did I forget about Grecian characters often being kids themselves smfh
Interestingly, the “won’t look at the kids” thing could _almost_ be interpreted as feeling too guilty to see the faces of the kids who she’s partially responsible for making miserable until curiosity got the better of her. I doubt that’s the case, but it’s just a thought
@@beccag2758 that is a perfectly valid interpretation because whoo boy does she deserve to feel bad for that. Like it seems more than well known to everyone within the city that Medea and Jason are husband and wife, and have children so Glauce herself was more than aware of it so being reminded of how much of a homewrecker she was being had to sting 🤣
Hera : This one looks fun, hope he doesn’t che-
Jason : *cheats*
Hera : …just fucking kick his ass
Huh, so that's why Dante sent him to the section of hell for seductors.
He was fair on that one.
@@oculttheexegaming2509 Yeah, this time he was.
That and for being Greek
@@Grim_Sister Well, yeah, I kow hes greek nationality affected that, but still.
Seductors or adulterers?
Jason: "I'll set the Furies on you!"
Medea: "I'm a woman scorned. I outrank them."
I read this as furries and was stricken with horror for a moment before rereading it
That is an excellent pun, and i thank you for it
@@laurenkirby97 ok, so it wasn't just me
Once Jason broke his vows to her Maeda becomes like a fury; taking divine vengeance in Hera's name.
@@laurenkirby97 SAME 😭😭😭
You could honestly say that Medea was acting exactly like Hera. Jason cheats on her just as Zeus has cheated on Hera multiple times. Despite having the power to kill him, Medea chooses to instead kill his fiancé and his kids so that he can experience the same pain as her. Again, this method is used by Hera all the time. You could go even further and say that Medea betraying her father for Jason so that he can become king is similar to Hera betraying Cronos so that Zeus can become king of the gods. Even Medea managing to get away with murdering Jason’s girlfriend and kids is exactly like Hera. Once more, Hera ends up saving Medea and punishing Jason. I don’t know what’s more ironic, Jason being punished the exact same way Zeus is or Hera creating a couple who has the exact same relationship as her and Zeus. Either way, Red you made me want to read this story.
No wonder she retained Hera's favor after child murder.
So Hera has a type.
Hera didn't betrayed Cronus because she wanted to marry Zeus but to overthrew him and his tyranny ( because he ate his own children to protect his throne).
It was Zeus who tricked Hera to marry him. Hera initially didn't wanted to marry Zeus at all.
@@agniswar3 Feel like a closer equivalent would perhaps be Metis, who helped Zeus overthrow Cronus, despite not being in danger of being killed by Cronus, only to eventually be betrayed be Zeus (her son would continue the trend of ruling gods being overthrown by the progeny)
@@luminaravelms4701 Instead, Athena came of this union, who joined her half siblings in the rank of Zeus' wretched blood which had already been Cronus' wretched blood. She could have become a true Goddess of Wisdom like her mother, but she instead remained her father's violent little schemer.
I love the subtle nod to the characters with lineage from Helios. Kirke’s, Medea’s, and The king of Colchis all have yellow eyes
One gets a distinct sense that Jason 1. never really understood Medea as a person, what she wanted or how she thought or felt, despite being married to her long enough to have two children, 2. treats all the women in his life, be it Medea, the Princess, or even Hera herself, transactionally, in terms of what they can DO for him and what he needs to do to get that from them, 3. might have been just a little bit perturbed by Medea's penchant for gruesome murder as prime option for solving problems and was looking for an exit strategy with plausible deniability to get out of that relationship.
Though even granting 3, there is no interpretation wherein he comes out looking good.
The ironic thing about the above is that Jason was supposed to be a natural-born leader. That's his heroic role. He took this all star cast of the greatest heroes, all with "Hubris" as their middle name, and kept them all together, all on target, massaging all the various egos, to keep the Argonauts a well-oiled functional machine, and got them all (? can't remember) home alive, wealthy and even more famous, at the end of the day. By rights he should be absolutely GREAT and managing people. But if those people happen to have a pair of boobs he can't even figure out that a wife might just be a tad miffed when her husband dumps her for a younger woman who just happens to be rich.
A final irony is that, if we take the metaphor of a family as a kingdom writ small and that a king (at least a good one) is supposed to act in a parental role with respect to his subjects, then Jason's failure to manage his family then becomes a demonstration of his unfitness to be a King, no matter how much he wanted to be so, or felt that it was his birthright.
In so many ways, he is the anti-Perseus, more than any other hero. Perseus is what we in the modern era would consider a hero, whereas Jason is a hero in the antiquated sense, but only has his charisma that makes him heroic
Medea isn't the first woman he fobs off in the story either. Hypsipyle of Lemnos has kids by him and he left and married Medea instead
It is really fun comparing Jason to Perseus and Ulysses. Both Perseus and Odysseus have trouble dealing with the men over and under them in rank... but they also have legitimately good relationships with the women in their lives, manage to keep their patron goddesses favor the entire time and end up with their kingdoms intact in the end.
It's funny that he wanted to be King because it was his birthright but at the end he didn't even care if he ruled his homeland, the moment he tried to become King by a method that pretty much anyone could use, seducing your way into a palace, he showed that he really wasn't good king or hero material.
Also, for a supposed natural born leader, Jason sure neglected the utmost importance of gathering intelligence. A little research into Medea's profile should have deterred anyone from deceiving her the way Jason did. She's daughter to Aeetes, a powerful witch king, niece to two other powerful witch goddesses: Circe and Pasiphae, herself the head priestess and favored disciple to the literal goddess of witchcraft, Hecate to whom all Olympian gods pay tribute and to whom Zeus, Poseidon and Hades yield parts of their dominion. You'd think someone with vision would not risk trifling with someone at her caliber. Hell, by divine rank alone, her patron deity outranked his.
Fun fact: In some versions the prow of the Argos was a gift from Hera herself and could speak to give the advice in tines of danger. So it being the part of the ship that ends up killing Jason is even MORE ironic than before :=)
🤔 I never realized that.
@@ConnanTheCivilized Yeah, there's lots of slightly different versions of all the myths floating around, each with tiny differences that can change the entire story :=)
Prow: Hey, Jason?
Jason: Yeah?
Prow: Close your eyes for a second. I want to show you a trick.
Jason: OK. What is it?
Prow: *crunch*
Hera: Heh, that always slays me.
@@colinmerritt7645 Ha! LOL! I can see that happening :=)
Lol😂😂😂😂😂😂
Adultery against the woman who likes to solve problems with *MURDER* was a terrible idea. Shame most of these Greek heroes aren't blessed with Foresight
It's not their fault, some idiot chained Foresight on a cliff somewhere and had eagles eat his liver.
Cursed hubris.
@@timothymclean holy shit i never tought about it that way.
@@timothymclean to be fair he was released, but I think by this point Jason was already dead so it made little difference
They aren't blessed with Foresight because He's chained into the mountain and perpetually eated by Aquila, at least until Heracles pass by.
I love the idea of a Jason and the Argonauts movie that after it ditches Heracles, periodically cuts back to him for like 5-10 seconds at a time for a running cutaway gag
Heracles: "OK so last they saw them they were here, and I'm here... God this gonna take so long..."
“He wants to ask the oracle why his wiener doesn’t work” I feel like this needs more context...
listen, sometimes you just can't have kids and gotta enlist the help of your powerful sorceress friend to help out, you know (and also offer her sanctuary before you even figure out her plan is killing the royal family and also her children)
It's a metaphor you see
@@TH-is8cf ah yes, you put the murderess IN your royal court but you don't let her kill you (unless)
There is no other context. He was just impotent. (In some tellings Medea gets offered sanctuary in Athens only after she fixes that for him so its slightly more plot relevant)
Naw, pretty sure this is self explanatory. In a world where Viagra hasn't been invented yet, making a call directly to the gods is the next best solution to erectile dysfunction.
Also the “Sorry, Jason, looks like the Olympians love to see a girl boss winning.” Cracked me up
Time stamp?!
@@whoopsiedoodle.26 14:37
@@clouddd8053 thx
Time to write an alternate revenge story Jason you will be sad no longer cause another god has answered your prayers
In the play, Medea has a line to Jason about killing her kids, saying "I hate you more than I love them" and when I tell you I was SHOOK-
That instantly reminded me of Mai saying to Azula "I love him more than I fear you" in Avatar. Very different situations, but both are amazing quotes.
@@witchshairlichen Kind of the exact opposite sentiment
@@jeffbenton6183 Yeah I know, it still reminded me of it. Like weighing how much you fear or hate one person versus how much you love another.
I mean mother’s love is lauded as the strongest type of love and yet how much hate do you need to create to overcome it?
I mean, girl was literally commanded by the god's to love this guy and risked everything to help him, only for him to betray her trust and break every promise he'd ever made to anyone/any deity. While I don't condone child murder, I can see how someone would be driven to murder just to spite someone. Because sometimes living with the consequences of your actions is worse than dying to atone for them.
Gotta love the fact that despite Medea's murderiness, she never murdered Jason
She wanted him to suffer
Living to see the hell that you spawn is a worse torture than death
That's because the writer of this myth was presenting it to an all male audience. Ancient Greek men weren't very keen on the idea of justified mariticide because many of them were abusive to their wives, themselves.
Besides condemning someone to self-torture is much better than killing them.
Another thing -and I’m sure someone’s already said this- there are interpretations of Medea’s killing her children as an act of mercy.
In this version the children weren’t to be banished with Medea; so they would essentially be staying in a city with no allies and with their new stepmother, and step-grandfather, who probably wouldn’t want Jason’s former heirs lying around, and would potentially have had them killed. So by killing them herself she ensured they would die without pain and with utmost care, and given a proper burial.
Seeing as Jason didn’t really care much for the children in the first place I think it makes more sense than her just killing them to piss him off; she can’t bare the torturous thoughts of what might be done to them in her absence, and despite the agony it causes her, she decides to kill them to save them
Golden flying chariot says otherwise. She totally could have let them ride with her. She left them to die for her vengeance.
...Couldn't she just take them with her at Athenes?
Considering how women were treated as property of the husband along with children she probably couldn’t take them with her. It’s sad to say if Jason didn’t give her permission to take them they probably would have been returned to him if Medea had fled with them.
@@heavyc4450 Most versions have the children killed before she leaves, often not by her.
@@Olimar92 I'm pretty sure most versions have Medea do the killing, only a few early versions have the Corinthians do the killing. Euripides possibly refers to this version in the play itself because Medea says she has to kill the kids to protect them from the Corinthians. Most versions after Euripides have Medea kill the kids, because it's far more interesting as a story.
"Jason compares Medea to Ariadne helping Theseus."
You mean the person who was abandoned on an island by the hero she helped? Wtf Jason, how can you be so bad at this.
Damn it, you beat me to this comment. I’m glad I’m not the only one who had that thought, though.
asdafdfj A PALPABLE POINT THERE
Foreshadowing bites again
Also weird because in the Theseus myth, Medea tries to poison Theseus. Medea hasn’t been to Athens yet so Jason is talking about future events.
@@aidenparker1466 confirmation of a lost myth about time
travelling goatfish!
And Medea chopped her brother up specifically so that the pursuing ship would have to slow down multiple times to gather up the assorted body parts. Homicidal AND clever!
I was hoping someone would mention that detail!
if you think about it, Argos was the fastest ship greeks ever had, but a giant Colchian fleet was faster. Now the weird part is that greeks are island spread sea fairing people but colchians were not. but another fact is that boat made for Mediterranean Aegean seas would have trouble with stormy black sea.
Man what a woman. Jason how could you betray that!?
It depends on the version. In one version she chops her brother to pieces and throws them overboard and the Argonauts are so horrified by her actions that they are about to lynch Medea right then and there, and Jason actually saves Medea's life by convincing the Argonauts to stand down. So Medea was the murderess and Jason actually saved her.
2. In Apollonius's version, Medea's brother is persuaded to meet on the shore to discuss a truce, but it's a trap. In this version Medea sets up an ambush so Jason stabs her brother in the back while the Argonauts make a surprise attack on the Colchians. In this version they are all equally guilty.
These two stories sound great.
Story 1: Medea is a hero because she is a powerful sorceress who is will to kill people to achieve her goals.
Story 2: Medea is an anti-hero or villain because she is a powerful sorceress who is will to kill people to achieve her goals.
Cool note, Medea is actually Circe's niece! Being a girlboss who encounters heros and commits murder seems to run in the family
Really? Over what side?
@@niemand-4881 I think Medea's father is Circe's brother.
@@niemand-4881 Aeetes is Circe's brother. Their sister, Pasiphae, married king Minos of Crete and gave birth to the Minotaur!
What cool siblings.
Do you know who were there parents?
@@niemand-4881 Helios, and the nymph Perse
Jason: Violence isn't the answer.
Medea: You’re right.
Jason: *sighs in relief*
Medea: Violence is the question.
Jason: What?
Medea, bolting away: And the answer is yes.
Jason, running after them: NO-
man i wish jason stayed nice
It seems to me that Medea and Avatar Kyoshi would get along somewhat. Because, you know, murder being both their go-to solution to most problems.
@@ckl9390 the duo we never thought of but always needed
@@ckl9390 IT'S NOT MURDER WHEN IT'S BEING ENGAGED WITH AN ARMED ENEMY DURING A WAR! Chin was an evil, warmongering man! He and Kyoshi were locked in battle with each other, with Kyoshi intending to put a stop to his war! She saved the people of Yokoya! Medea, on the other hand, was a murderous wicked witch who killed her own brother AND her own children just to emotionally wound her own father and Jason respectively! She also tricked Jason's girl cousins into murdering their dad; leading to their brother, Acastus, putting them to death! She didn't even HAVE to do that! Pelias swore before Zeus that he'd give the throne to Jason if he returned with the fleece and he broke that promise! All they had to do is wait for Zeus to smite him and bam! Jason's king! Medea's cruelty and blood thirst should have been enough to make even ARES wanna puke! You want a modern fictional character that would see eye to eye with Medea?! Let her meet Carnage! They'd have a field day!
@@videogollumer Not even counting Chin, Kyoshi's up to her elbows in gore. I'm not discounting her decision to eliminate Chin, it's just that compared to other avatars she tends to go for permanent solutions. Hence why I imagine her nominating "murder" as the solution to any problem before the strategy meeting even starts.
note: there are mentions that Medea herself actually kills her brother
A whole alternative telling that has Medea take her brother with her and chopping him up and throwing his pieces into water to slow her pursuing father's ship, since he has to stop to fish out the pieces, so yeah, Variety.
Exactly what i mean
@@ludekmaly3900 I got this image in my head of dad stopping the ship, and ordering everybody to get out their fishing rods to pick up the bits of meat in the sea. Then just as he's about to collect the last piece, a seagull grabs it and flies off, leading to another adventure that keeps him distracted for a while.
“Jason compares Medea to Ariadne helping Theseus.”
Me, knowing the context behind that bullshit:
*He’s leaving her in three, two, one-*
Hera: Take the shot, over
*Eros shoots Medea*
Eros: Target is in love, over.
The fates: wait thats illegal
If you don’t it’s because the fates can see the future
I forgot get
I need an Urban Fantasy story where Eros has upgraded to a love sniper rifle
@@coolgreenbug7551 And wears pink sniper ghilie suit with hearts and sh*t.
@@Irmarinen he has a Cupid spotter for him
Jason: Compares Medea to Ariadne, the chick who got *Abandoned* in an island by her husband
Medea: I choose to ignore this red flag.
Medea: Has a complete and unwavering willingness to kill her family members to accomplish her goals
Jason: I choose to ignore this red flag.
Lol
Well he was the one who made that comparison, soooo... yeah, he kind of planted that red flag himself.
Lmfao Ariadne and Medea are COUSINS
@@procrastinatkivazNice thing to know.
Greeks sure loved some toxic love
when Jason compliments Medea by saying he'll love her as Theseus loved Ariadne:
oh. oh dear.
f o r e s h a d o w i n g
edit: the intentionality of this by apollonius is beautifully well done
fun fact Ariadne and Medea are cousins. Parsepae and Aietes are siblings
I can't help but imagine her and Dionysus listening in and going "oooh, noooo...Medea, honey, please, this man ain't good for you..."
@@Leiliel1 The novel Circe - which I'm not a huge fan of - at least has Circe be like "oh honey - this isn't a good match - he ain't worth murder"
Jason kept trying to prove how amazing he was, and how much he doesn't need Medea, but he literally has one myth that you can't tell without her. Meanwhile, his wife that he "didn't need" has multiple and her story can be told without him
"Murder, the plan is murder" "We can make a religion out of this" "No, don't"
This has actually been one of the most fascinating stories I've watched, it feels really modern and by how widespread misogynistic the ancient world was it's really cool to see that the tragedy of Medea isn't because she ends up in tragedy but due to the actions of a dipshit. Never cheat on anyone, but specially on your touched by the gods sorceress wife. There's screwing up hard and then there's Jason. Don't be Jason.
Exactly! This is why Euripedes is often called an early feminist writer. This play is aggressively modern and the text itself dissects Medea's status as a foreign woman and what that means. Women's lack of personal power is a theme, which Medea turns on its head with her sorcery. The chorus serves as the "public" character and Medea convinces them she's sympathetic. It forces the audience to address the plight of women, which in ancient Greece was Not Great.
''There's screwing up hard and then there's Jason. Don't be Jason.''
I will be using this from now on, whenever it is appropriate.
Oof!
(Somebody somewhere regrets his username.)
Euripedes isn't the only Greek playwright who dabbled in feminist themes. Sophocles' "Antigone" could be looked throught the lense of feminism too!
Yeah, don't be Jason. Be like Percy! He got all that he wanted in life, and helped those who needed it, and all he had to do was kill some monsters. Remember kids, killing people is bad, but killing monsters is good!
Jason: "The gods will damn you, Medea!"
The Gods: "No we won't. Fuck him up, queen."
Medea: "Lol"
Said to Medea, granddaughter of the sun, in a flying chariot sent by the gods, exiting in a literal Deus ex machina. Medea who is also a priestess of Hecate. That Medea will be punished by the gods.
The gods: After looking over the case files, you sir Jason. Are beyond our help. This whole shebang because you cheated on her first.
Just pushes the fact:
Gods are shitty, to another level.
The chorus: ♪ You f**ked up, boat boy♪ ♪3, 2, 1♪
*Cue a Tim Burton Oompa Loompa song*
@@ConcernedAboutCrows Yeeeeaaa Jason really really underestimated his own importance in this situation.
With Medea's success rate, had Jason asked, they probably could have taken the throne through other means. Most likely those means are murder, but hey, it works.
Such as Proving Himself and getting adopted into the royal family, then murder?
I mean, not like he didn't try. His original adventure was trying to get a throne by "other means." After all his quests and hardships, Palias just backs out on his end of the deal and Jason gets jack shit. Medea also tries to help him get that throne, by murdering Pelias. Which gets Jason exiled from his own kingdom.
The "marrying into royalty" was a backup plan. After just normally trying to win a throne, and murdering didn't work.
He could have thought about it for himself, being a local and presumably knowing the laws better than a woman from the other shore of the seas.
The Argonauts are literally a D&D party.
Hercules - Barbarian
Jason - Fighter
Atalanta - Ranger
Medea - Wizard
Orpheus - Bard
In some versions Autolycus might be there too, in which case he'd be the rogue.
A Madea's and Jason's breakup was because the players broke up to
I think sorcerer fits Medea more, since she was a granddaughter of Helios, who's other female offspring also had a penchant for magic (see Circe).
And then Heracles is left on an island because he's way too optimized for the rest of the party and makes the campaign unfun.
TIL orpheus was an argonaut
The fact that Jason didn't achieve anything after the Argo, despite being the damn LEADER is also hilarious and a bit sad when you realise all of his crewmates got immortalised one way or another
- Orpheus was immortalised by being one of the only people to go to the underworld and come back.
- Heracles was immortalised through his twelve labours
- Pelias married a nymph, fathered the greatest hero ever and was part of a controversy that culminated in the bloodiest war in Greek myth-history.
- Castor and Pollux were both immortalised through constellations and the whole sharing half their immortality
- Depending on which version of the myth you know, Atalanta was immortalised as one of the most badass Greek heroines ever.
- Even Medea was immortalised.
The only thing Jason had to his name was that he went on a quest, and won a fleece, but other people helped him. Even Theseus managed to kill the Minotaur by himself.
One of the biggest tragedies of the Argonautica and Medea is that if Jason didn't keep trying to become royalty and admit that he wasn't this great hero, he could have been known for something other than being "that one guy who went on a quest for some golden fleece and ALSO his kickass girlfriend murdered several people for him." The entire point of Medea is that people would find Medea more interesting than Jason, simply because Medea did the heavy lifting, and besides, who doesn't like a story about a girlboss supervillian murderung everybody because her husband cheated on her.
To be true, Theseus and Jason has the same flaw. He didn't kill the Minotaur by himself either! He couldn't have done it without Ariadne, who went on to become a goddess after he dumped her on an island on the way back home. He was trapped in the underworld with his cousin while she ascended to mount Olympus, basically living out the same story as Jason with less murder and twenty years earlier. And he's only on the Argo because HERACLES let him out, he didn't even escape on his own!
Well, Jason did get immortalised as the guy who cheated on Medea 🤣🤣
The weirdest thing in this story (maybe it's because of Red retelling): Jason couldn't reclaim the throne because he was somewhat complicit with the murder? The murder of his uncle? The same uncle who murdered his brother family then claimed the throne ? Was it a personal conviction or did he not catch on that?
@@BogySC I think the problem is that Medea tricked innocent girls into killing their own father. That was horrendously evil. If Pelias had been killed in battle, or some less dishonorable way, I think Jason probably could have taken the throne on the grounds that Pelias was a usurper, oath breaker, and had killed most of Jason's family.
One interesting thing to note is that there is a version of the story in which Jason does achieve something after the quest: Jason's son Thessalus manages to avoid being killed by his mother, and Jason teams up with Peleus (an Argonaut, and Achilles' father) to defeat Acastus and retake Iolcus. While Jason is still unable to become king, the throne passes to Thessalus, so Jason's line does carry on.
What I also think is a kinda interesting detail: Aetes and Circe are siblings. So: Medea is the niece of Circe (which is (as far as I know) the reason why she came to Circe for help). ALSO: Aetes and Circe are also siblings of Pasiphea, the wife of Minos, mother of the minotaur AND mother of Adriadne. So basically: Jason did basically compare her to her cousin.
This also means that Medea is cousins with the Minotaur.
@@rotciv557 there are stranger family trees in Greek mythology.
I read a modern novel about Circe, and the chapter where Medea came Circe immediately recognized the parallels with her other niece Ariadne and very clearly told Medea that Jason didn’t love her and was gonna abandon her the first chance he got.
Medea basically called her an old bitter spinster.
@@artemiswolf4508 tbf - Medea was kinda forced to love Jason by Cupid's arrow. Magically induced love is apparently more fraught than Hera really gave it credit for.
@@artemiswolf4508 I know where she went with Helios's chariot
Medea (pulling up to to Circe's house): "Hello, Auntie..."
Circe: "He betrayed you, didn't he."
Medea: "Yes, Auntie."
Circe: "I warned you.
Medea: "Yes you did."
Circe: "So how much murder did you do?"
Medea: "Yes."
So here's a fun fact about the Euripides stage play: he created it as an entry for a contest. He lost.
Damn imagine which one was the winner
@@alexanderguerrero347 Probably conformed more to popular tastes at the time. Medea winning against her husband would offend their tender sensibilities about how women were only good for being baby makers. When I studied this play in college, the professor was sure it led a trilogy that would've ended with Medea imprisoned or dead for her crimes. The other two were lost to time. The way she kept turning up later, I have doubts about that idea my prof had.
@@lysanamcmillan7972 Especially since i believe Red mentioned that the Argonautica epic came AFTER the Medea tragedy was written. Like a prequel.
Lol, guess Euripides got the last laugh
@@lysanamcmillan7972 Not always in well known greek plays (a lot, but not always. Sometimes they are there for other purposes). Look at Antigone (Sophocles). She's actually stands up to her uncle the king when he refuses to give one of her brother's a proper burial, goes and buries him anyway even though she knows she'll die if caught. It does not end well for anyone involved... Ironically I just found out that Euripides also wrote a play called Antigone where he changed the ending from a tragedy to everything somehow getting sorted out when she marries her cousin...
Moral of the story: never discuss divorce/infidelity when your yandere sorceress wife is in ear shot.
Or just don't marry Jason
Nope, the only real moral is "Never go to Greece, and if your in there, Leave as soon as posisble."
Your in danger wether your married or single, truthfull or deceitfull, good or bad, man or woman... very few people have peacefull lifes and thos who do often get target by the Gods Bullshit or by the Heros Bullshit.
@@peterwhite6415 "never go to Greece unless your name is Perseus"
Moral of the story: Go insane in Greece if you can.
Further moral: Always remember those who have contributed to your success. Jason screwed up when he screwed over both of the women who were behind his glory.
Or discuss it _with_ her, rather than behind her back