And the seer touched Jason as he lay wrapped in soft sheepskins and woke him at once, and thus spake:
Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica, I.

Jason, Medea's muse

Merry Christmas to those who believe! For those who don't, merry you! And for those of you who are polytheists, here I dwelve the lyrics of the gods!

In this third delivery of the GU mythology series, we are having a feast with the most expensive card, Jason, Medea's Muse. To some of you it might sound familiar the name of a crew called "The Avengers" based on the Marvel comics, well, Jason was the protagonist of the greek mythologic version of the avengers, wait, maybe it was the other way around. Without further introduction, let's embark on the history and symbology of Jason's card.

Free stock Source

I will recount the famous deeds of men of old, who, at the behest of King Pelias, down through the mouth of Pontus and between the Cyanean rocks, sped well-benched Argo in quest of the golden fleece
Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica, I.

The Argonautica

The ship above is a replica of the Argo, the legendary ship in which Jason and his crew of heroes, semi-gods, and legendary characters traveled through the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, in a quest for the Golden fleece. You can see the same ropes behind Jason in the card, and the map he has could perfectly symbolize his trip, I couldn't find a free source for it, but Here you have a nice map that shows the journey.

The roar effect of the card is, of course, not random neither, it symbolizes the ability whom Jason had to assemble the team of the so-called "argonauts", from Argo (In honor to the ship-builder, Argus) plus the Greek -nautes- "sailor". Some of the names who were at the start of the sailing were, for example, the famous demigod Heracles; legendary poet and musician Orpheus; The Boreads, winged sons of the Northwind; and the patrons of sailors, the twins Pollux and Castor, also known in Roman mythology as the Gemini (from whom the constellation takes its name).

In the tribe of the card, we have "Olympian" which, for the categories in the game is the most fitting, but not accurate, given that the term Olympian is utilized for those who participate in the olympian games, ancient or modern, the pantheon of gods, meaning those who lived in the Olympus or related to the region of the Mount Olympus itself, and Jason was from the region of Thessaly, which is south from the Mount Olympus.

The last thing we have to analyze in the card is the term "Medea's muse". Medea is one of the most famous characters in Greek mythology, she is one of the nine muses, a sorcerer, and daughter of the king of Cochise, where the golden fleece is. I do not understand the term Medea's muse, or at least I don't find it very fitting. Muse can refer to as a fountain of inspiration for an artist, or, as Medea is, a muse, one of the nine goddess daughters of Zeus. In the Argonautica, which is the epic poem where Jason's adventure is depicted, Medea plays a vital role, she is directly responsible for the retrieval of the golden fleece, and later she marries Jason, and although we can say that Jason inspired her to abandon her father's kingdom, the term as it is normally used, it is not correct, at least in my opinion.

I recommend everyone interested in mythology to read the Argonautica by Apollonios Rhodius, it is an epic poem of an epic adventure, where you'll find all of the characteristics that made the great greek writers, great. You'll find fights against kings, mythological creatures, love, betrayal, heroism, the tragedy of course, in a text that you will be able to read infinite times, and you'll still find something new every single time, because of its powerful symbolism, history, and because like me, like anyone, we change with time and that makes us resignify everything we read, and if the book is thoughtfully constructed and operates metaphysically, it will provide an insurmountable amount of knowledge.

Here you can find a free copy of the Argonautica, which you can download in a variety of formats.

That is all for today, I hope you enjoy the history and the stories, and I'll be here next week for another episode.

Have a great grind!