THE DEATH OF JASON IN GREEK MYTHOLOGY
Jason is one of the most famous of the mortal heroes, famous for his successful quest to retrieve the Golden Fleece.
Jason after Colchis
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Most people’s knowledge of Jason ends with Jason, Medea and the Argonauts leaving Colchis with the Golden Fleece. The story of Jason continues after this, and is a story with many more adventures and deaths.
The deaths include the murder of Medea’s brother Apsyrtus, as the Argo was fleeing Colchis; and Pelias, upon Jason’s return to Iolcus. This last death saw Jason and Medea exiled, and eventually the pair would end up in Corinth. |
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Jason would eventual become bored of being married to a “barbarian”, and seeking to establish a royal line, would become engaged to Creusa, daughter of King Creon of Corinth.
A spurned Medea though had her revenge, a poisoned cloak saw both Glauce and Creon die; whilst Medea would also have further revenge upon Jason, by killing all of his children.
A spurned Medea though had her revenge, a poisoned cloak saw both Glauce and Creon die; whilst Medea would also have further revenge upon Jason, by killing all of his children.
The Tragic Death of Jason
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In Euripides’ Medea, the sorceress prophecies the death of Jason, and some later writers took this prophecy and wrote of it coming true
By abandoning Medea, Jason lost the favour of Hera, and Jason was driven out of Corinth by the enraged populace. Now a sorry figure, with no city to call home, Jason would wander from polis to polis, but found no welcome anywhere. Jason’s heroic deeds were now all but forgotten, and the former hero was now remembered for the deaths that followed him. After the adventures of the Argonauts, the Argo had been beached upon the shoreline of the Isthmus of Corinth. I had been consecrated to the god Poseidon, but unlike the Ship of Theseus, the Argo was not maintained; and over time it began to decay. Eventually, possibly when Jason was an old man, of course, the wandering Jason would come to the very beach where the Argo was beached. Tired from his travails, Jason would lie in the shade of the Argo, and eventually he would fall asleep. Fate then of course intervened, and a rotting beam of the Argo, fell upon the sleeping Jason killing him. The body of Jason would eventually be found, but his burial was undertaken without ceremony, and his heroic earlier life all but ignored. |
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There are others versions of the end of Jason though, from obscure mentions of Jason living out his life happily with Medea, to death in Corinth at the hands of a mob, to tales of suicide, following the deaths of his children.
The story of the downfall of Jason is by no means unique and many writers and poets of antiquity specialised in the tragedies. The likes of Bellerophon and Oedipus also becoming wanderers shunned by men. The tragic endings though, are often just one version of the individual’s myth.
The story of the downfall of Jason is by no means unique and many writers and poets of antiquity specialised in the tragedies. The likes of Bellerophon and Oedipus also becoming wanderers shunned by men. The tragic endings though, are often just one version of the individual’s myth.
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Colin Quartermain - The Death of Jason - 19th April 2026