The Death of Apsyrtus

Jason set out in search of his lost totemic fleece, but returned instead with a witch, scarcely concerning himself with the fetish once it was in his possession. What is the significance of this substitution, and who was Medea really? I mean to show that the voyage of the Argo symbolizes an historical passage from totemism to matriarchal religion, and that the Golden Fleece, though snatched with eager hands from the branches of the great oak in the sacred grove of Ares, was never again to be recovered in its full pyschological meaning, that is, as a sacral object. In its place a goddess went to Greece, an incarnation of that very maiden, the earth-born Pandora whom the tireless Halting One, Hephaistos, made at the behest of Zeus. I assume, of course, that the numerous legends that attach to the names of Jason and Medea do not refer to historcal events but are mythical in character. Before analyzing the unconscious symbolism of the Argosy saga it might be helpful to review the sequence of events that culminated in the safe return of the Golden Fleece to its homeland.

The story of Jason and the Argonauts, though filled with inconsistencies, is familiar in its general outline. Jason, the “healer,” whose original name was Diomedes, and who was the rightful heir to the throne of Iolcus, was sent on a suicidal mission by his enemy, the usurper Pelias. Jason's task was to bring back the ghost of King Phrixus from the far-off land of Colchis. Phrixus had fled from Iolcus years before, probably to escape becoming a sacrificial victim. Unless the ghost of Phrixus were laid to rest Iolcus was