Jason and the Golden Fleece.

    When the Argo arrived at Colchis, Hera and Aphrodite caused the king’s daughter, Medea, a priestess of Hecate, to fall in love with Jason. When Jason explained his quest, King Aeëtes refused to hand over the Golden Fleece until the Argonauts had performed an impossible task: to yoke a pair of fire-breathing bronze bulls, use them to plow a large field, sow it with dragon’s teeth, and fight the armed men who sprang from these seeds. By the use of her magical powers Medea enabled the Argonauts to accomplish the task.
    However, the king was still not prepared to relinquish his treasure and planned to lull the Argonauts. Medea revealed his intentions to Jason and helped him to find the fleece, drug the serpent that guarded it, and steal it away. After a battle with Aeëtes’ men, the Argonauts escaped from Colchis, accompanied by Medea. According to Apollodorus, they also took along Medea’s brother Apsyrtus; when Aeëtes pursued them, they killed the child and cut him up, throwing his body into the sea piece by piece to delay Aeëtes as he stopped to retrieve the limbs. The Argonauts subsequendy went to Aeaea to be purified by Circe.
    In the postclassical era most treatments of the Argonautic expedition have focused on the episode at Colchis: the taking of the Golden Fleece and the love of Jason and Medea. Some narrative works also include other passages of the story.
    
    Classical Sources. Pindar, Pythian Odes 4. Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica 4.92-211. Diodorus Siculus, Biblioteca 48.1—5. Ovid, Metamorphoses 7.1—159. Apollodorus, Bib-lioteca 1.9.1, 1.9.23—24. Hyginus, Fabulae 3, 22,188.
    
     See also Athamas and Ino; Medea.