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The
Argonauts. By Egerton Sykes (a summary)
Miss Janet Bacon, then director of Classical Studies at Girton, assembled
all the evidence then available. It is my intention to carry the matter
somewhat further, by effecting a partial reconciliation between the various
versions of the story, and to put the episode in its proper relation to those
other stories of Hercules and medusa which belong to the same period.
The Greeks were late bloomers in the
For this reason all early Greek attempts at colonization or trade could
only be at the expense of their predecessors, and were not, as one might
imagine, fruitful attempts to open up virgin lands. By the time the Greeks had
established themselves, they had managed to forget this side of the story, and
to assert that they were the first comers, which was certainly not the case.
Jason story outline- King deposed by his younger brother, had his son
brought up as rightful heir. (similar to Hercules in its aspects). Reaching of
age he claimed his Uncle's throne, and was told he could have it only if he
brought back the Golden Fleece from
That Jason was a contemporary of Hercules is reasonably certain, although
he may well have been twenty years his junior.
Homer says that Jason founded a royal house at
Jason the grandson of Aeolus, founder of the dynasty, the first
The Golden Fleece is a subject of a far older legend. In a previous
generation the two children of Nephele, and grandchildren of King Aeolus, were
endanger of being murdered by their father's second wife. They fled eastwards
on a vessel called the Flying Ram and Helle was drowned in the Hellespont,
while Phryxius her brother, managed to reach
First stop was Amazonian Island Lemnos, ruled by Queen Hypsipyle. The
ship stayed for several months long enough for Jason to father a child from the
queen whom named him Eumenos. Eumenos , who became King on the death of his
mother, was mentioned by Homer as sending supplies for the Trojan War. Leaving
Lemnos, the Argo stopped at the land of Doliones, ruled over by Cyzicus. This
was a small Peninsula on the south side of the Sea of Marmora. Here the
Argonauts became involved in a local war where the king of that land was
killed. In a sense they stopped in a early trade settlement on route to the
Black Sea. Next Port was Bithynia, now the Skutari peninsula opposite of
Istambul, where Hercules was left behind. Here the blind king of Phineas was
encountered, who was pestered by the harpies, who were driven away, but also
King Amycus, of an adjacent area, who was forced to stake his kingdom at the
challenge of any visitor who desired to fight him. Pollex said to have done so and
to have won, staying behind as king.
The passage through the Symplesades rocks, at the entrance to the Black
Sea, must refer to some natural obstruction, which no longer exists. It is
clear that great skill was needed to pass them without being dashed against
them by the waves, hence the story that the rocks opened and shut at regular
intervals. Black Sea was almost unknown to the Greeks, the Egyptians had long
before established a chain of trading colonies along the northern and eastern
shores, a fact which has been confirmed by Herodotus, Diodorus, and Apolonius
Rhodius. Celts also had a chain of settlements for trade with the Danube, and
the Norsemen had worked down the middle of the European Russia in a similar
manner.
The Argo, however, decided to hug the southern shores of the Black Sea,
and in due course reached the Island of Artas, where the Priestess of
Stymphalus had sought refuge after having been raided by Hercules. These
unfortunate women were again attacked by the Argonauts, but this time the
battle was indecisive. Before reaching their destination they sighted the snow
capped Caucuses and heard a rumble of an earthquake or an eruption, a fact
which may one day enable the date of the trip to be fixed more accurately. The
Argo reached Colchis the land of King Aetas, the capital city of which lay some
miles up the river Phasis. According to Herodotus and other writers the
Colchians were of Egyptian descent, in that they were dark skinned, practicing
circumcision and other Egyptian rites. That King Aetes was rich is shown by the
descriptions of his palace and possessions, and by his subsequently being able
to send a fleet in pursuit of Jason.
His power arose from the fact that he controlled the main terminal port
of the most important trade route of the ancient world, stretching from China
through the Gobi Desert and Turkestan to Hrycan, the port of the Caspain or
Hyracanian Sea on to Teheran, where one branch went via Ecbatana-the modern
Hamadan-to Babylon: and the other via Tabriz to the River Phasis and the
Kingdom of Aetes. For how long this route had been opened it is difficult to
say. That there was a Chinese Civilization round about 4,000 B.C.-at which time
a Sothic Cycle began in Lower Egypt-seems certain and the myths and legends of
China which have come down to us show evidence of contacts with the barbaric
nations to the westward, as far as the Middle Seas, certainly at the time of
the Hsia Dynasty, ca 2000 B.C..
Webmaster Note- The recent programs on Discovery Channel
about the Vikings in Russia transporting has pushed back the dates of their
finds on the Volga. Also, the findings of the Gobi Mummy's of a Caucasian type
people contacting the Mongols Discovery program now further confirms dates
being pushed back and the truth of these aforementioned historical notes of
Greek writers which they had previously implied.
Another point, which may possibly facilitated trade was the fact that the
chain of lakes stretching from the former Gobi Sea to the Caspian had not dried
up to their present extent, the Caspain and the Aral Sea being one (Aral Sea
has recently dropped 75 feet). Lake Balkash, being much larger, as was also the
case with the minor lakes between there and Lake Balkial. This relative
abundance of water enabled the trade routes to be opened up without great
difficulty.
The importance of Poti-the present name for the town at the mouth of the
Phasis-as a traffic enter, it would seem that it was a center for the disposal of
the alluvial gold found in the rivers of the Caucuses. I am aware that at the
present the gold supplies of this area, as with Britain, are no more, but four
thousand years ago they may have been large enough for economy of the period.
It is with this the possible solution of the Golden Fleece comes in. Many
years ago, as a child, I remember reading that alluvial gold miners of
Australia and in the Americas, used sheepskin for trapping the grains of fine
gold in suspension in the water. This method, I understand, had been picked up
from the natives and had been in use for long periods of time.
Jason being the cousin of Phryxius had claims to throne the walking off
with the fleece from King Aetes and his court was not welcomed. He was cooly
received and was asked by the king for further tasks such as harnessing the
brazen bulls to the plough and sowing the dragon teeth.
From the Webmaster- I believe I am the only person who has ever found the
connection of this verse to an actual prehistoric ritual practice of the
harnessing of Bulls with plough and the Dragon's teeth sowed. In a region of
Sardinia and North Western Italy's Val d' Aosta of the 'nuraghi' monument
ancient culture the archaeologists found ploughed fields with ritual teeth put
in the ground as if they were seeds in Saint Martin De Corleans. The bull cult
is well known there and the teeth were found to be animal or people teeth. The
fact of the Dragon association had more to do with not just a reptiles tooth
like a crocodile's for it could be substituted, but a ritual note on Moon
Cycles, and Sirius Cycles of rising or setting dates. The point that Jason had
to do both is the fact that the king felt Jason might want to settle down there
with his crew from traveling and be apart of Aetes Riches. The toil of what
Jason had to do was to break his spirit down from the labor of ploughing and
sowing be it celestial or terrestrial. The brazen bull might have even been as
Sykes goes onto say a kind of early fire breathing agriculture tractor. Man may
have very early used that fire and steam. The fuel of course would be the
factor of accessibility, yet crude oil from Batoum-, which as Sykes says in
this case, may have been for amusement rather then true use. The point is that
the Sardinia Island People had a cult very much like the southern Black Sea
King Aetes's regional cult. This may well be the first time discovered (by
myself) that they may in fact be cousins between the Colchis and the Sardinia
cultural groups in regards to agriculture practices? The date in Sardinia for
this cult has been fixed as pre-Dorian and goes back to 2,400 B.C.. What is
interesting is that they claim to have come originally from Africa when waters
drowned out the pillars of salt which people were turned into (reminds of the
tale of Lot and his city turned into pillars of salt?). Ironically, the cult on
the Island like Malta has similarities to those found in Anatolia which is a
hop and a skip form the Black Sea domain. That culture is at least 5,000 B.C.
in earliest form in Sardinia and Malta. It would seem the Dragon teeth and
Brazen Bull are an old cult of possible African origin, and when Egypt
colonized the Black Sea by 3,500 B.C..
Cont. The Argonauts
With the help of Princess Medea Jason mastered this locomotive bull and
ploughed the field of Ares (here we see Ares as not just Mars-Planet and Ram,
but a Greek form of Apollo in a Horus name). The soldiers growing from the
field out of the dragon teeth may have been the soldiers of the king putting
down a disturbance in the crowd watching this Jason Trial which gave Jason the
chance of escape to his boat-(the soldiers clan name may have been the same as
'Dragon Teeth' like Senti Ibrea or Sept-Yeb-Ur, and the reason is that the Po
is next to the Danube River which leads to the other Italian Coast to
Sardinia). Medea told Jason to leave with the Fleece at night since the king
wanted to kill them. The meaning of Jason stealing the fleece out of the grove
under drugged guards was accomplished by Medea a Priestess witch of Hecate and
cousin to Circe. Even Dragon may mean a 'commander of a place guard' wearing
this emblem, rather than an animal.
In hot pursiut Aetes sent a fleet of ships as Jason went Northwards and
westwards, which Aetes fleet only caught up with him at Gulf of Kertsch, at the
entrance of Sea of Azof 500 miles away or a ten day trip under good conditions.
Absyrtus, stepbrother of Medea was slain as commander of the fleet defeated by
a strategem. Jason was forced to due to forces or condition to flee up the
Tanais River or Don. Earliest mention of the route is by Timaeus in 300 B.C.,
as reported by Diodorus two hundred and sixty years later. The Orphic Argonaut
also says that they passed from the sea of Maeotis (Azof) northwards to the
lands of the Scythians and the Hypoboreans. Scymnus of Chios, in 100 B.C. said
the Argo took a northward route via Tanais, and that to get from one river to
another they took the ship on rollers.The route was the same the Egyptians took
with their established trade posts at Tanais at the mouth of the Don, and went
northwards to the Great Bend, where they carried ships overland to the Volga, a
distance of 30 miles, to a point near Stalingrad of today. Egyptians
established themselves in the Hrycanian or Caspian Sea, and established
themselves at Astrakhan, or 'City of Ra and Isis', and gone northwards to start
Moscow which in Egyptian means 'Fur Town'. Volga the Rha ment Ra, Sun God, and
the Moscow has a tributary near it called Pra, or Pharoah i.e. 'Great House' in
Egyptian. The Argo made way northwards to Rejv, from where they would have to
transport 45 miles over land to get to the upper reaches of the Dvina, with a
clear run down the Gulf of Riga. The ordeal was not accomplished in under 6
months. The Greeks knew of the Cronian Sea or Baltic and that it was called a
dead sea because no sun could pierce the mists, which indicates the Argo
arrived in Autumn, and managed to get away by spring. Two routes to return home
to Greece they had to choose from:
Amber route Frische Nehrung, from Danzig to Konigsberg, and the Kurische
Nehrung, from Konigsberg (Krantz) to Memel, found its way south.
Vistula via Bydgoszcz and Krakow, thence to eastern Galacia and down the
Dniester to the Black Sea.
The second- Branching off this route at Krakow, striking southwards over
the Tatras to the Danube or ister, and thence to Bucharest (Ister Mouth) and
the Black Sea. Either route endangered them so the probably took the most
western route back.
Elbe, Moldau, Trieste are tempting journeys, probably the Rhine was selected
in order to keep the Argo. The mention is of Stormy Lakes, which spread
throughout the Celtic Mainland and implies Switzerland, in union with sailing
down the Rhodianus or Rhone to its mouth. After reaching Rhone, ship would
follow coastline home, going round Italy and up the Adriatic, which explains an
attempt to sail up the Eridanus or Po. Then down the Dalmatian Coast, round the
south of Greece and home. The journey took four years, and not suprising. The
journey's influence rivals the exploits of Alexander the Great in exposing
early Greek Culture to the Amber and Fur world of Central Europe.
Flood
Myths and History, by Hugh Soar (a short summary) cont. 1953
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