This month I'd like to share with all of you one of the myths and legends I'm fascinated by, especially because it is connected to one of the constellations, Carina, and its origin. Are you ready for an incredible adventure?
When Jason's uncle nastily
usurps the throne of Thessaly from Jason's grandfather , he sets a condition:
if Jason managed to retrieve the golden fleece he would give back the throne to
its real owner . So Jason calls the strongest heroes of Greece to fulfill the
mission : Hercules , Castor and Pollux , Orpheus and many others and navigate ahead to Colchis
, a region East of the Black Sea . But the path is marked with untold terrors
enough to test even the fiercest heroes
. The first stop was the isle of Lemnos, where the inhabitant are only women
because they killed all the men, and Aphrodite curses them with a nauseating
stink ; nevertheless all the men of the crew fall in love and spend a lot of
time on the isle, the only one who avoids the charm is Hercules that helps the others to
recover their reason and continue the mission.
Afterwards the crew has
to face other risks : humans with six
arms , a swirl of harpies and the Amazons , a population of ruthless warrior
women , this adventures cost the crew both in men and morale . Upon reaching
the clashing rocks (a group of rocks that tighten hindering the entrance of
boats in the Black Sea) but they manage to
surpass them using an advice of a seer called Phineas and the rocks for
the humiliation remain "petrified" and don't close anymore . Finally
they reach the fleece and with the help of Medea, Jason's wife, who makes the
dragon that guards it fall asleep, they steal the fleece and bring
it to Greece to recuperate the throne
from his uncle.
The boat , that was built on purpose for the mission using the
wood of a oak consecrated to Zeus , was left in the Corinth strait . One day
Jason , reminding the heroic deeds of
past times , went on the boat , but the
fate reserves it a death that doesn't fit his figure of hero , in fact an old
ruined girder breaks smashing and killing him , however the gods touched by the
death of Jason transforms the boat into a constellation named Carina which
means the keel of the ship .
Wonderfull post Giordano, but for in my opinion the myth (especially Jason's death part) is too much simplified. But don't worry amd continue this way!
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