It [myth of Jason and Medea] was a favorite of the alchemists for whom the golden fleece seemed identical with their own objective of making the incorruptible substance symbolized by gold. They considered Jason an early alchemist

RAM WITH GOLDEN FLEECE

The ram with the golden fleece carried the children from Greece to Colchis on the far side of the Black Sea. Helle was lost when she fell into the Hellespont, which took her name, but Phrixus survived and became an exile in Colchis, where the ram was sacrificed and the golden fleece was hung up as a shrine

MASCULINE ASPECT OF THE SELF

INITIAL CRIME COMMITTED

The situation that led up to the expedition is equally instructive psychologically. The initial crime committed in the past, the effects of which had impoverished the country, had to be expiated. This is a version of the theme of original sin that appears in both the Greek and Hebrew traditions: in some early psychological period a sin was committed that now needs restitution. In psychological terms, this refers to some crime against the natural state of things that is necessary for the ego to initiate its own development. An act of violence against the original state is the basis on which the ego evolves and takes for itself energies belonging to nature, but that also has the effect of alienating the ego from the natural condition. In the Jason myth, a kind of sickness lies upon the land because of a missing vital value; the land has been separated from its central meaning, and sooner or later the fruits of that crime come to the fore and must be dealt with. This was Jason's task

The account of the Argonauts opens at the time when the land was in distress and Jason was a young man, just starting out in life. When Jason was a child, his life had been in danger and he had been smuggled out of the royal palace to be raised by Cheiron, the centaur. When he was fully grown, he returned home to confront his uncle Pelias, who had usurped the kingdom. An oracle had warned Pelias to beware a man with one sandal, and the story relates that as Jason was heading for the city, intending to demand the throne as his rightful inheritance, he offered an old crone assistance in crossing a river. (Crucial events, often mishaps, tend to happen at rivers, as Jung has noted; it is the theme of the dangerous transition.) As he carried her across the river, the woman grew ever heavier and it turned out that she was Hera herself. Barely making it across, Jason lost one of his sandals, and here again is the Saint Christopher reference: it is as if the hero, as he proceeds to meet his destiny, encounters a certain aspect of the unconscious that leaves its mark on him. A variation on the theme of laming, Jason's lost sandal corresponds, for example, to Captain Ahab's wooden leg in Moby-Dick and to Oedipus' damaged foot

GOLDEN FLEECE AND SPIRIT OF PHRIXUS

The first stop of the voyage was the island of Lemnos, where the Argonauts found that the Lemnian women had been insulted by their husbands and in revenge had slaughtered them all. Jason and his group were accordingly welcomed to the beds of the Lemnian women for the sake of the children they could father, and the problem was to get the men back on the ships and on their way again. It is as if, on such a trip to the unconscious, when there is a first reconciliation of opposing factors, a strong temptation arises to succumb to the pleasure urge, to settle for that, and to forget about the goal that is still far distant

IMMATURE ROMANTICISM

ENCOUNTER WITH ARROGANT ATTITUDES

PHINEUS AND THE HARPIES

INTUITIVE KNOWLEDGE

THE SYMPLEGADES

EGO EXPOSED TO PRIMORDIAL POWERS

Eventually, the Argonauts arrived at Colchis where King Aeëtes proved willing to turn over the fleece, providing certain seemingly impossible tasks were performed: two fire-eating brazen bulls must be yoked, a field must be plowed with them, then sown with dragons' teeth, and the armed men that sprang from that sowing must be killed. What seems to be indicated by all of this is that the ego must expose itself to the primordial powers of the masculine archetype represented by the fire-breathing bulls, and the opposites that arise in the form of armed men must also be dealt with, In the event, when the soldiers sprang up, a stone was thrown in their midst and they turned against and annihilated each other. The psychological implication of that image is that one must not identify with one of a pair of warring opposites. If, in one's own psychic conflicts, one can refrain from such an identification, the opposites wear themselves out, leading to a transformation

None of the tasks could have been carried out, however, without the help of Medea, the king's daughter, who fell in love with Jason at her first sight of the hero. Medea was a sorceress and when Jason promised to take her home in the ship as his wife, she gave him a magic ointment that made him invulnerable for a day and thus enabled him to perform the necessary feats. This help from the anima, who had contact with arcane powerswe could say, with deep layers of the unconsciouswas indispensable to his success. She continued to help him when later, King Aeëtes went back on his word to give up the fleece and Jason had to steal it and flee Colchis, followed by the king's ships. From on board the Argo, Medea delayed the pursuing forces by killing her brother Apsyrtus and cutting up his body, throwing one piece after another from the ship. As the father paused to pick up each one, the Argonauts were able to escape

We are dealing with a version of the widespread theme of dismemberment; here, it is carried out in the service of the hero's taskto get away, get back to consciousness. There are different ways of interpreting this theme, but essentially in this myth Medea's relationship to her brother was sacrificed in the interests of her relationship to Jason. Although the image is repulsive, it represents the dissolving of a certain concretization of libido so that it may become available for a new kind of relationship

SERVICE FOR JASON

CONSEQUENCE OF MISUSING THE ANIMA,

Finally, for reasons of expediency, Jason decided to leave Medea and marry the princess of Thebes (a return of the Deianeira-Heracles theme). Medea sent a magic robe to the princess, which burst into flames and destroyed her when she put it on. Medea then killed her own children in revenge against Jason and finally disappeared in a dragon chariot into the sky. This was the end of Medea, as far as Jason was concerned. The whole process, the whole Argonaut journey, had failed, essentially because of the disregard of the feminine element. That was presaged at the beginning, when the child, Helle, drowned, and it continued in Jason's use of Medea's powers without honoring his promises to her. Psychologically speaking, a central feature of this myth is the consequence of misusing the anima, the man's feminine side and soul. As with Medea, the anima used to advance the aims of the masculine ego and not granted respect for her own reality, turns bitter and is lost to the man. Ultimately, Jason is said to have lost the favor of the gods and to have become a homeless wanderer

LIVES ITSELF OUT CONTINUOUSLY

STAGE OF DEVELOPMENT OF THE

Although we have plenty of examples of how this breakdown can apply to the psychology of modern men, it also indicates the stage of development of the early Greek psyche. It is as though the feminine principle could not be assimilated in any complete way at that time because the society was still too close to the matriarchal phase and the masculine principle was not securely established. The masculine could not achieve a balance with the feminine, hence the most that could be done was to exploit the feminine principle and then drop it again. The result was that the anima turned into bitterness

EVENTUAL FALL OF THE ANCIENT WORLD