Jason and the Argonauts.

    When Jason set out to recapture the Golden Fleece, he took with him fifty of the greatest Greek heroes, including Heracles (Hercules), Orpheus, Peleus, Telamon, Zetes and Calais (the winged sons of Boreas), and the Dioscuri, Castor and Polydeuces (Pollux). They sailed on the Argo, named for its shipwright, Argus; it was the first ship built for forty oarsmen, a marvel of its time.
    The Argonauts first landed at Lemnos, an island populated only by women and ruled by Queen Hypsipyle. She fell in love with Jason and prevailed on the Argonauts to stay for a year. They then put in at various ports throughout the Aegean and beyond. At Samothrace, they were initiated into the local mysteries; at Cyzicus, Heracles killed the giants who were menacing the local citizens. At Cius, the youth Hylas, beloved of Heracles, was taken by water nymphs. Heracles remained behind to look for the boy, and the voyage continued without him. The Argo then passed into the Black Sea, to the land of the Bebryces; there Polydeuces inadvertently killed their king, Amycus, which led to a battle in which the Argonauts triumphed.
    The next port was Salmydessus, in Thrace, where they met the blind prophet and king, Phineus, whom they helped by sending Zetes and Calais to chaseaway the Harpies who were tormenting him. In return, Phineus foretold the remainder of the Argonauts’ journey and warned them of impending dangers.
    At Colchis, Jason, with the help of the princess Medea, secured the Golden Fleece and escaped the Colchian king’s wrath, taking Medea with him as his intended bride. On the homeward journey the Argonauts sailed successfully past the Sirens’ rocks, the perils of Scylla and Charybdis, and the Clashing Rocks. In Phaeacia, they were overtaken by the Colchians, but the Phaeacian king, Alcinous, agreed to give Medea over to her father’s emissaries only if she were still an unmarried virgin; upon learning this, Jason and Medea were immediately married. After several more adventures the Argo returned safely home, where Jason dedicated the Golden Fleece in the temple of Zeus at Orchomenus.
    
     Classical Sources. Anonymous Orphic Argonautica. Pindar, Pythian Odes 4. Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica. Theocritus, Idylls 22.45-136. Diodorus Siculus, Biblioteca 4-4I-53- Apollodorus, Biblioteca 1.9.17-26. Valerius Flaccus, Argonautica. Hyginus, Fabulae 14.