Fleeced
In Thessaly, Ancient Greece, lived Aeson and Pelias who were sons of the king. When the king died, Pelias killed his big brother Aeson and took the kingdom for his own.
Jason, Aeson's young son, was forced to flee, but vowed the he would return to get revenge on his uncle.
The years passed and Jason grew into a strong and determined young man. It was time for him to come home to Thessaly and claim his kingdom.
Jason headed to the palace, where Pelias set him a challenge to prove he was fit to be the king. The challenge was to travel to Colchis to find the golden fleece and then bring it back.
After several days at sea, an island was spotted on the horizon. The weary Argonauts headed towards the beautiful island of Lemnos where they were greeted with fun, sunshine and an array of cocktails just like Club Tropicana.
Jason and his Argonauts spent two blissful years on the island until Herakles and Atlanta reminded them of their mission.
As the islanders of Lemnos wept, the Argonauts rowed to the nearest port where they watched blind Phineus attempt to eat his meal. Unfortunately, due to the harpies, Phineus didn't get a chance to eat a mouthful of food because they grabbed and ate his every bite.
The Argonauts recognised that Phieus was having a really heavy time so discussed ideas about how they could rid Phineus's tormentors. They settled on using their fishing net to catch the harpies as they filled their greedy faces. At last Phineus was able to eat his meals in peace. In return, Phineus gave Jason some valuable advice:
On the way to Colchis is a narrow stretch of sea with high rocks either side. These rocks clash together, smashing and any ship that's sailing between them! Work pout the timing of the clashes by sending a dove to fly in front of you. If you judge it correctly, you'll sail through unscathed.
As they sailed towards the rocks, the Argonauts could see they were in for a bumpy ride. Jason, like a true hero, held things together.
The dove was released as the counting began 1, 2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10.
The crew waited nervously for the next crash, then rowed like mad for the count of 10-hoping it would be fast enough to escape the crash. Much relieved the Argo came through unscathed.
Jason and his quest continued to Colchis.
After the Argo docked at Colchis, the home of the golden fleece, Jason headed off to meet with king Aetas to find out how to find this fleece.
Unhappy that Jason had arrived, Aetas gave him a small bag of seeds to plant in his ploughed up field.
Out of nowhere, Eros, the god of love appeared and show his poison arrow through the heart of Medea and another through the heart of Jason.
Straight away, the two fell in love!
The next day, Jason went to the field to sow the seeds that he had been given by king Aetes. Out of nowhere, a tribe of ghoulish warriors marched towards Jason. Argos offered them a great big precious jewel and as they squabbled over who should have it, the Argonauts surrounded them and killed them with their swords.
Jason saw the golden fleece hanging from the branch of a tree and as Typhus went to grab it, a dragon came from nowhere.
Dragon-Breath was a pretty scary dragon, but when the ging gets tough, the tough get going, which is just what they did. But everytime they approached Dragon his awful halitosis breath forced the heroes to retreat. Until, Medea recommended a more softly softly approach which left the dragon stunned still.
Jason quickly grabbed the fleece and headed home to sit on the throne and put on the only crown he had ever known. But Pelias was not too pleased to see Jason return with the fleece and claim the throne.
Pelias was not too pleased to see Jason and demanded that he be killed. But the bonds that bound the Argonauts together were strong so they lept to his defence. In a second, Pelias was left all alone-his servants and officers having flown in fear.
Pelias was locked in the Argo's hold, which was pretty grubby after so many years at sea-Pelias was given the job of cleaning the toilet buckets whenever the boat went on a voyage.
At last, the people of Thessaly had a good ruler. the golden fleece brought prosperity to the land and Jason and his wife Medea brought happiness to their citizens. All in all everybody lived happily ever after-or in the words of the final song:
'Here I sit again on my throne
Putting on the only crown I've ever known
As a hero, I was sure to come back home
And I've made up my mind
I ain't questing for some time.'
