Important Heroes in Greek Mythology #3: Jason Quiz

Answer: Their mother, Tyro

Tyro and Cretheus were the king and queen of Iolchos, and had three sons, Aeson, Pheres, and Amythaon. Cretheus also adopted Tyro's two sons by Poseidon, Neleus and Pelias, from before their marriage. When Cretheus died, he left the kingdom to Aeson, but Pelias seized it and forced him out.

Answer: Alcimede

Alcimede was a daughter of Phylacus and Clemene, and the granddaughter of Minyas. She met Aeson when his half-brother had imprisoned him in the caves below Iolchos.

Answer: Pelion

Chiron, who lived in Pelion, was tutor to many heroes, including Jason. Alcimede feared that Pelias would kill Jason, so she pretended that he was still-born and sent him to Chiron.

Answer: He had helped an old woman cross a river

Before Jason arrived in Iolchos, when Pelias was holding games in honor of Poseidon, he helped an old woman, who was the goddess Hera in disguise, across the river Anauros and lost his sandal in the process. Since Pelias had received a prophecy years earlier to beware a man wearing one sandal, he ended up sending Jason to find the Golden Fleece.

His act of kindness did, however, give him Hera's blessing, which was extremely helpful in the rest of his journey.

Answer: Teucer

The Argo, a ship built by the monster Argus, was used by Jason and his crew in their quest for the Golden Fleece. Many later heroes sailed on it, including the Boreads (Zetes and Calais), Heracles, Philoctetes, Peleus, Telamon, Orpheus, Castor and Pollux, Atalanta and Euphemus.

Answer: Euneus and Nebrophonus

When the women of the island of Lesbos had neglected their worship of the goddess Aphrodite, she made them all smell so badly that their husbands couldn't bear to touch them. When the men of the islands got concubines, the women killed them and ruled for a time without men. Thoas, the king of the island, was spared when his daughter Hypsipyle set him adrift on the sea in a chest.

When Jason and the Argonauts arrived, the women welcomed them in, and through their efforts the island was repopulated with men. Jason coupled with the queen Hypsipyle and they had the twins Euneus and Nebrophonus.

Answer: Doliones

When the Argonauts arrived on the island of the Doliones, they were welcomed by all, including Kyzikos, their king. When they departed the next night, however, they got lost in a storm and mistakenly returned to the same island. Many lives were lost in the subsequent fighting, including that of King Kyzikos, before they realized their mistake.

Answer: Phineus

Phineus was given the gift of prophecy by Apollo. Later, when given the choice between being blind and living for a short time, he chose blindness and angered Helios, who resented that anyone would choose not to see the world that he illuminated. Helios sent the Harpies upon him, who fouled his food every time that he tried to eat.

A prophecy had said that only the sons of Boreas could save him, and they chased the Harpies until Iris promised that they would stop harming Phineus. In return for the help, Phineus helped them get through the Symplegades, a pair of clashing rocks.

He advised them that they should send a dove through ahead of the ship; if the dove survived, so would the ship, but if the dove perished, they must turn back and abandon the quest.

When Jason sent the dove through, only the tips of its tail feathers were caught in the rocks, and so only the tip of the stern of the Argo was damaged.

Answer: An adamantine sickle

When Jason arrived in Colchis, Aeetes agreed to give the Golden Fleece only to a man as brave as himself. He set forth a test that he claimed to have passed before, that of yoking fire-breathing oxen together, sowing a field with dragon's teeth, and destroying the warriors that sprang up as the crop. Medea, who had been hit by an arrow from Eros and fallen madly in love with Jason, gave him a jar of ointment to make him invulnerable to the flames of the oxen, a rock to throw among the warriors to make them defeat each other, and a sleeping potion so he could lull the dragon to sleep and steal the fleece.

Answer: Absyrtus

When Medea, Jason, and the Argonauts escaped in the middle of the night, they killed Absyrtus, cut him into pieces, and threw the pieces behind them into the sea. Aeetes stopped to pick them up and they escaped. When they returned to Greece, Jason repaid Medea for all the high crimes she committed for him by becoming engaged to another more politically advantageous woman and abandoning her and their two children.

She slew his bride and their children, then flew off in a chariot flown by dragons.