Aeetes

Aeetes was the king of the Colchians in Greek mythology, the son of Helios, the sun god, and Perseis, an Oceanid. He ruled at Aea, near the river Phasis, at the far end of the Black Sea, and owned the Golden Fleece, which Jason and the Argonauts came to win. His daughter Medea helped Jason against him, and Aeetes became the pursuing father in the story of the Argo’s flight.

Aeetes’ Family

In Hesiod, the Oceanid Perseis bore to the tireless Helios Circe and Aeetes the king. Aeetes married Idyia, a daughter of Oceanus, who bore him the fair-ankled Medea (Hesiod, Theogony 956–962). Apollodorus calls him the brother of Circe and Pasiphae, whom Minos married (Apollodorus, Library 1.9.1). A brother named Perses is mentioned by Diodorus, who makes him king of the Tauric Chersonese (Diodorus Siculus 4.45.1).

Besides Medea, Aeetes had a daughter Chalciope, whom he gave in marriage to Phrixus (Apollodorus, Library 1.9.1), and a son, Apsyrtus. Apollonius says Apsyrtus was born to a Caucasian nymph, Asterodeia, before Aeetes married Idyia, and that the Colchians called him Phaethon (Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica 3.240–246). Diodorus gives a different account of the family: he makes Aeetes marry Hecate, a daughter of Perses, and have by her two daughters, Circe and Medea, and a son Aegialeus (Diodorus Siculus 4.45.1–5).

Aeetes and Phrixus

In the myth of Phrixus and Helle, the twins who escaped the plots of their stepmother Ino on a ram with a golden fleece, Helle fell into the sea and gave her name to the Hellespont. Phrixus came to the Colchians, whose king was Aeetes. Aeetes received him and gave him one of his daughters, Chalciope. Phrixus sacrificed the ram with the golden fleece to Zeus, the god of escape, and gave the fleece to Aeetes, who nailed it to an oak in a grove of Ares (Apollodorus, Library 1.9.1). Phrixus and Chalciope had four sons: Argus, Melas, Phrontis and Cytisorus.

Diodorus adds a darker setting. According to him, an oracle told Aeetes that he would die when strangers landed in his country and carried off the fleece; for this reason, and because he was cruel, Aeetes had strangers sacrificed, and he later put a wall and a guard around the fleece (Diodorus Siculus 4.47.2–6; also 4.45.1).

Jason and the Golden Fleece

The Golden Fleece became the object of desire for Jason and the Argonauts. When the Argo reached the river Phasis, Jason went to Aeetes and told him what Pelias had commanded, and asked for the fleece (Apollodorus, Library 1.9.23). Herodotus mentions the voyage in his own way: the Greeks sailed in a long ship to Aea, a city of the Colchians, and having done what they came for they carried off the king’s daughter Medea; the Colchian king sent a herald to ask for her back, but the Greeks refused, pointing to the abduction of Io (Herodotus 1.2.2–3).

The Tasks

Aeetes promised to give the fleece if Jason could yoke the bronze-footed bulls by himself. In Apollodorus these were two wild bulls of enormous size, a gift of Hephaestus, which had bronze feet and breathed fire; Jason was also to sow dragon’s teeth, for Aeetes had obtained from Athena half of the teeth that Cadmus had sown in Thebes (Apollodorus, Library 1.9.23). In Apollonius, Aeetes tells Jason to plough the four-acre field of Ares with the bulls, to sow the teeth of a terrible serpent and to cut down the earth-born armed men who spring from them, all in one day; only then would he give the fleece (Argonautica 3.401–421). Pindar tells the same ordeal with an adamantine plough and oxen that breathed flame, and has Aeetes cry out in speechless distress, though he marvelled at Jason’s strength, when Jason accomplished it (Pindar, Pythian 4.224–238).

Medea’s Help

Medea, who had fallen in love with Jason, kept the matter from her father. She promised to help Jason yoke the bulls and to deliver the fleece if he swore to marry her and take her with him to Greece. She gave him a drug to anoint his shield, spear and body, so that for a day he would be harmed neither by fire nor by iron, and she told him to throw stones among the armed men who would spring from the teeth so that they would fight each other. Jason did all this and killed them (Apollodorus, Library 1.9.23; Pindar, Pythian 4.220–222). Jason therefore did succeed in the tasks, but with Medea’s help, not alone, and he did not receive the fleece as Aeetes had promised.

The bulls were yoked, but Aeetes did not give the fleece. In Apollodorus he wanted to burn down the Argo and kill the crew. Before he could, Medea led Jason by night to the fleece, put to sleep with drugs the dragon that guarded it, took the fleece, and went with Jason to the Argo, accompanied by her brother Apsyrtus (Apollodorus, Library 1.9.23). Apollonius describes Aeetes after the earth-born men were destroyed: the king, weighed down by grief, went back to his city with the Colchians, pondering how to oppose the Argonauts as quickly as he could (Argonautica 3.1399–1407).

The Pursuit of the Argo

When Aeetes discovered what Medea had done, he went after the ship. In Apollodorus, when Medea saw him close, she killed her brother Apsyrtus, cut him up and threw the pieces into the sea. Aeetes stopped to gather the limbs, which fell behind the pursuit, and buried them at a place he called Tomi. He sent many Colchians to search for the Argo, threatening that if they did not bring Medea back they would suffer the punishment due to her (Apollodorus, Library 1.9.24).

In Apollonius, Aeetes assembles the Colchians in arms and rides out in a chariot drawn by horses given him by Helios, with Apsyrtus holding the reins, and he calls on Helios and Zeus to witness the crimes and threatens his people that if they do not bring Medea back they will pay for his anger (Argonautica 4.212–235). In this version Apsyrtus is lured to an island of Artemis and killed by Jason, while Medea turns her eyes away (Argonautica 4.452–481).

What Became of Aeetes

The sources differ. In Diodorus, Aeetes himself led his guard in pursuit and caught up with the Greeks near the sea; he killed the Argonaut Iphitus, but he was himself killed by Meleager, and the Colchians fled (Diodorus Siculus 4.48.4–5). In another passage Diodorus says that Aeetes had been driven from the throne by his brother Perses, but regained his kingdom when Medea’s son Medus killed Perses (Diodorus Siculus 4.56.1). Apollodorus tells this last story with Medea herself as the avenger: she came to Colchis unrecognised, found that Aeetes had been deposed by his brother Perses, killed Perses and gave the kingdom back to her father (Apollodorus, Library 1.9.28). Hesiod mentions him only as the king from whose house Jason took his daughter (Theogony 992–994).

Aeetes Sources

Hesiod, Theogony 956–962, 992–994; Apollodorus, Library 1.9.1, 1.9.23–24, 1.9.28; Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica 3.240–246, 3.401–421, 3.1399–1407, 4.212–235, 4.452–481; Pindar, Pythian 4.220–238; Herodotus 1.2.2–3; Diodorus Siculus 4.45–48, 4.56.1.

See Also: Helios, Perseis, Phrixus, Helle, Jason, Argonauts, Medea, Circe, Pasiphae, Golden Fleece, Colchis