Jason's Argonauts and the Siege of Troy
So, I should be doing a lot of other things right now... lesson planning, grading papers, even writing my next novel (it’s in-progress), but instead I find myself down a literary rabbit-hole (again).
I’ve been prepping to teach The Odyssey to my Pre-AP English 9 (PAP9) students, and earlier this year The Iliad was a choice text for my AP Literature and composition students. Like a good teacher, I’ve been reading them, too (well, okay, listening on my commute).
Simultaneously, my PAP9 students have been giving presentations on Greek myths. I was particularly interested in the Greek myth of Jason and the Argonauts, when I heard that a hero by the name of Telamon was an Argonaut and a friend of Hercules. Now, I read Jason and the Argonauts years and years ago, but most of the names were meaningless to me then, and I was just reading for fun with no thought of academic research. Now, though, especially with so much Homer on my mind, I immediately made a connection to “Telamonian Ajax” or the Greater Ajax (a tower of a man and second greatest Greek warrior to Achilles). Long story short, it turns out that his dad was an Argonaut and sailed with Jason.
‘Hold up,’ I thought, ‘are there a lot of Argonaut sons besieging Troy?’ It turns out the answer to that is a resounding YES as well--not just sons, but some of the younger Argonauts themselves are encamped on the “ringing plains of windy Troy” (Tennyson quote). So, here’s a list of Argonauts that show up in The Iliad or The Odyssey (or both). You may recognize some names: Autolycus, Castor and Pollux, Idomeneus, Iphitos, Laertes, Leitus, Nauplias, Nestor, Oileus, Peleus, Peneleos, Philocthetes, Telamon, Theseus (yes, THAT Theseus), and Tydeus. And, so you don’t have to do the work, here are the connections:
Autolycus is the father of a fair daughter named Anticlea. She marries a friend of her father’s, Laertes, and as a result is Odysseus’ mom. Her son talks to her for a while in Hades.
Castor and Pollux (aside from having their names alluded to as characters in The Hunger Games) were twin brothers who fought beside Jason and Hercules. Their twin sisters are (get ready for this) Helen of Sparta and Clytemnestra of Mycenae--yep, the woman whose face launched 1,000 ships, and the wife of King Agamemnon himself. It turns out they married the great kings (themselves descended from Perseus) of Sparta and Mycenae, Menelaus and Agamemnon. Clytemnestra has her own myth in which she and her lover, Aegisthus, kill her husband upon his return.
Idomeneus is the son of Minos of Crete (yep--THAT Minos with the Minotaur and the Labyrinth and Dedealus and Icarus).
Idomeneus sends his sons to Troy with the Greeks, and Odysseus pretends to be one of those sons when he returns to Ithaca as a beggar.
Iphitos sent two sons to Troy to fight alongside Ajax the Greater. Their names were Schedius and Epistrophus and they were both killed by Hector.
Laertes is, in fact, Odysseus’ father. He was an Argonaut, and marrying the daughter of another Argonaut, their child, Odysseus, is basically like Argonaut royalty... which totally makes him a great person to put on a long sea voyage.
Leitus was one of the younger Argonauts and he actually fights in the Trojan war.
Nauplias is an interesting fellow. His son, Palamedes, embarked for Troy. In fact it was Palamedes who outwitted Odysseus, forcing him to honor his promise to fight with Menelaus. In retribution, Odysseus and Diomedes (another son of an Argonaut--see below) framed Palamedes for treason and had him stoned to death. Then, hearing of the outrage, Nauplias (who was really old) sailed to Troy to demand justice. Finding none, he cursed the Greeks’ homeward voyage and left.
Nestor was another young Argonaut in the Jason story. He also fights in the war, alongside two of his sons, Antilochus (a great hero who dies with honor) and Thrasymedes. I believe Nestor’s the only one of the Argo’s original crew to return home from Troy. So, when Odysseus’ son, Telemachus goes to visit Nestor in The Odyssey, it would be like a grandson visiting one of his veteran grandfather’s platoon-mates.
Oeleus was the father of the lesser Ajax, another great hero of the Greeks.
Peleus is an Argonaut, a great friend of Hercules, and (wait for it) Achilles’ father. Yeah. It’s starting to seem like all the big-name Greeks are connected with Argonauts. When he got married, the gods came, but he didn’t invite Eris, the goddess of discord, so she dropped the golden apple that started the whole Trojan war.
Penelos is another Argonaut that fights in the war. He’s just one of the many named Greeks to get laid low by Hector, Aeneas, or Paris.
Philocthetes is an Argonaut who went to Troy. Too old to face traditional combat, he still is an incredible archer and causes many casualties with his bow.
Telamon is the best bud of Peleus (Achilles’ dad). They were inseparable in Jason and the Argonauts. Telamon had two sons (by different women) who went to Troy. Ajax the Greater and Teucer the Archer. These two work together, Ajax holding a great shield and Teucer shooting from behind it. Ajax bests Hector in combat three times.
Theseus is famous in Athens for so many achievements, including slaying the Minotaur and defeating the Amazons, to name only two. It turns out his son, Acamas, was a Greek war-leader who was with Odysseus within the Trojan Horse.
And, finally, we come to the Argonaut Tydeus who was the father of Diomedes. Diomedes, if you’ll recall, was the third best Greek warrior after Achilles and Ajax. At one tense moment during the siege, Diomedes recognized that he was actually fighting against mighty Aries, and instead of yielding, incredibly, he went on to stab the god anyway. He had some guts.
Now, I’ve got to go grade some papers, but before I do, I just want to observe that there is some serious intertextuality going on here. The lines of great heroes seem to flow directly downstream from the Jason myth, through Troy, and into the Odyssey. Jason, too, connects to so may other myths--to Theseus, to Orpheus, Hercules, and Atalanta, to name a few. Oh, and I found most of this informally by surfing an obscene number of Wikipedia pages. Most of the info is linked here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argonauts
More on this later, when I’ve had time to process it all...
I’ve been prepping to teach The Odyssey to my Pre-AP English 9 (PAP9) students, and earlier this year The Iliad was a choice text for my AP Literature and composition students. Like a good teacher, I’ve been reading them, too (well, okay, listening on my commute).
Simultaneously, my PAP9 students have been giving presentations on Greek myths. I was particularly interested in the Greek myth of Jason and the Argonauts, when I heard that a hero by the name of Telamon was an Argonaut and a friend of Hercules. Now, I read Jason and the Argonauts years and years ago, but most of the names were meaningless to me then, and I was just reading for fun with no thought of academic research. Now, though, especially with so much Homer on my mind, I immediately made a connection to “Telamonian Ajax” or the Greater Ajax (a tower of a man and second greatest Greek warrior to Achilles). Long story short, it turns out that his dad was an Argonaut and sailed with Jason.
‘Hold up,’ I thought, ‘are there a lot of Argonaut sons besieging Troy?’ It turns out the answer to that is a resounding YES as well--not just sons, but some of the younger Argonauts themselves are encamped on the “ringing plains of windy Troy” (Tennyson quote). So, here’s a list of Argonauts that show up in The Iliad or The Odyssey (or both). You may recognize some names: Autolycus, Castor and Pollux, Idomeneus, Iphitos, Laertes, Leitus, Nauplias, Nestor, Oileus, Peleus, Peneleos, Philocthetes, Telamon, Theseus (yes, THAT Theseus), and Tydeus. And, so you don’t have to do the work, here are the connections:
Autolycus is the father of a fair daughter named Anticlea. She marries a friend of her father’s, Laertes, and as a result is Odysseus’ mom. Her son talks to her for a while in Hades.
Castor and Pollux (aside from having their names alluded to as characters in The Hunger Games) were twin brothers who fought beside Jason and Hercules. Their twin sisters are (get ready for this) Helen of Sparta and Clytemnestra of Mycenae--yep, the woman whose face launched 1,000 ships, and the wife of King Agamemnon himself. It turns out they married the great kings (themselves descended from Perseus) of Sparta and Mycenae, Menelaus and Agamemnon. Clytemnestra has her own myth in which she and her lover, Aegisthus, kill her husband upon his return.
Idomeneus is the son of Minos of Crete (yep--THAT Minos with the Minotaur and the Labyrinth and Dedealus and Icarus).
Idomeneus sends his sons to Troy with the Greeks, and Odysseus pretends to be one of those sons when he returns to Ithaca as a beggar.
Iphitos sent two sons to Troy to fight alongside Ajax the Greater. Their names were Schedius and Epistrophus and they were both killed by Hector.
Laertes is, in fact, Odysseus’ father. He was an Argonaut, and marrying the daughter of another Argonaut, their child, Odysseus, is basically like Argonaut royalty... which totally makes him a great person to put on a long sea voyage.
Leitus was one of the younger Argonauts and he actually fights in the Trojan war.
Nauplias is an interesting fellow. His son, Palamedes, embarked for Troy. In fact it was Palamedes who outwitted Odysseus, forcing him to honor his promise to fight with Menelaus. In retribution, Odysseus and Diomedes (another son of an Argonaut--see below) framed Palamedes for treason and had him stoned to death. Then, hearing of the outrage, Nauplias (who was really old) sailed to Troy to demand justice. Finding none, he cursed the Greeks’ homeward voyage and left.
Nestor was another young Argonaut in the Jason story. He also fights in the war, alongside two of his sons, Antilochus (a great hero who dies with honor) and Thrasymedes. I believe Nestor’s the only one of the Argo’s original crew to return home from Troy. So, when Odysseus’ son, Telemachus goes to visit Nestor in The Odyssey, it would be like a grandson visiting one of his veteran grandfather’s platoon-mates.
Oeleus was the father of the lesser Ajax, another great hero of the Greeks.
Peleus is an Argonaut, a great friend of Hercules, and (wait for it) Achilles’ father. Yeah. It’s starting to seem like all the big-name Greeks are connected with Argonauts. When he got married, the gods came, but he didn’t invite Eris, the goddess of discord, so she dropped the golden apple that started the whole Trojan war.
Penelos is another Argonaut that fights in the war. He’s just one of the many named Greeks to get laid low by Hector, Aeneas, or Paris.
Philocthetes is an Argonaut who went to Troy. Too old to face traditional combat, he still is an incredible archer and causes many casualties with his bow.
Telamon is the best bud of Peleus (Achilles’ dad). They were inseparable in Jason and the Argonauts. Telamon had two sons (by different women) who went to Troy. Ajax the Greater and Teucer the Archer. These two work together, Ajax holding a great shield and Teucer shooting from behind it. Ajax bests Hector in combat three times.
Theseus is famous in Athens for so many achievements, including slaying the Minotaur and defeating the Amazons, to name only two. It turns out his son, Acamas, was a Greek war-leader who was with Odysseus within the Trojan Horse.
And, finally, we come to the Argonaut Tydeus who was the father of Diomedes. Diomedes, if you’ll recall, was the third best Greek warrior after Achilles and Ajax. At one tense moment during the siege, Diomedes recognized that he was actually fighting against mighty Aries, and instead of yielding, incredibly, he went on to stab the god anyway. He had some guts.
Now, I’ve got to go grade some papers, but before I do, I just want to observe that there is some serious intertextuality going on here. The lines of great heroes seem to flow directly downstream from the Jason myth, through Troy, and into the Odyssey. Jason, too, connects to so may other myths--to Theseus, to Orpheus, Hercules, and Atalanta, to name a few. Oh, and I found most of this informally by surfing an obscene number of Wikipedia pages. Most of the info is linked here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argonauts
More on this later, when I’ve had time to process it all...
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