Challenger

[aggienaut]

Iolcus, Greece -- "Aand a young man with but one sandal!" the announcer announced as yet another attendee from the countryside entered the courtyard that had been decorated for the festivities. One sandal? King Pelias, seated at the dias, said to himself, as he examined the newcomer. He looked about the right age to fit the prophecy. Pelias frowned.
   "Why does that man come wearing only one sandal?" he asked an aid
   "I don't know sire" the aid foolishly responded,
   "Well find out!" Pelias angrily admonished him, adding as an afterthought as the aid began to turn away "but don't tell him I asked." He strummed his fingers irritably on the table, barely paying attention to his wife and courtiers around him.
   "It seems sire, he lost it helping an old woman cross the river Anaurus, which is currently in flood." The attendant reported upon his return. Pelias frowned and picked at his food.
   "That's silly" Pelias said grumpily. "Why doesn't he take it off?"
   "Sire?" asked the attendant, as if this sentiment required some action. Pelias disgustedly waved him away.

   His mood didn't improve as the youth won the wrestling competition, and the foot race, and the swim race... and all the other competitions. It was like he couldn't be beaten. No one knew where he had come from, some whispered that he had been raised by the centaur Chiron himself. Finally with the games over, there was no avoiding talking to the young man.

   The young man stood before the dias in his simple tunic as all the gathered crowd watched how the king would congratulate this unexpected champion. The youth had a serious, almost defiant expression on his face. Pelias, eating grapes languidely, bestowed upon him the minimum of congratulations he felt were due.
   "Tell me, young man, you have bested all the other young men gathered here today, I wonder, what would you do if you were confronted by the man destined to be your downfall?" he asked.
   The young man thought a moment and then responded "I would tell him to retrieve the golden fleece they say is guarded by a dragon in Colchis"
   The king raised an eyebrow. "A thing probably you yourself couldn't even do!"
   "Oh, I could" responded the youth. The impertinence! But Pelias saw he had him now!
   "Well then! I command you to bring me the golden fleece!" declared Pelias with a triumphant grin.
   "I shall." responded Jason, with a confidence that unsettled the king a bit even in his triumph.

---

Jason and the Argonauts is a tale known to just about everyone but modern retellings seem to exist almost exclusively as oversimplified children's tales. There doesn't appear to be a serious modern prose retelling of it (the original is a bit tedious to follow), so I've had a hankering to work on it for awhile.

Comments

[wpadmirer.livejournal.com]

That is a good project!

[fauxklore]

It's a bit peripheral, but you might be interested in Tim Severin's book, The Jason Voyage. Severin recreates historic / mythical voyages and he traced the legend of the golden fleece to a system of gold panning, using a fleece, in Georgia.

[furzicle.livejournal.com]

I like this golden fleece of which you speak. How very logical!

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Yeah I'd read in a few places about the fleece being used to pan for gold. And read a short book about recreating the journey too -- it's interesting the journey up to Colchis is very straightforward but after that there's lots of mystical places that are hard to trace, but the thing I read made a compelling argument the went up the Danube, portaged to another river, and came out in the Adriatic

[theun4givables.livejournal.com]

Challenge accepted! Hah.

[rayaso.livejournal.com]

I always enjoy stories based on Greek/Roman/whatever myths, and Jason and the Golden Fleece is a great one! You did an excellent job with this. Modern retellings are hard to do, and you pulled this off!

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

This may be only the beginning!! I'm not sure how I'll handle the more fanciful occurances that happen later in the story :-/

[tatdatcm.livejournal.com]

I always enjoy the retelling of classics. Well done. I hope you choose to continue.

I love the persistence, but also the "careful what you wish for" vibe on Pelias's part.

[eternal-ot.livejournal.com]

Ah! you got me interested in the original tale and this was simple and effective way of doing it :) good to see you here this season ..Looking forward to reading your stories :) Cheers!

[bellatrix.livejournal.com]

As someone else above me said I love stories that are re-tellings or based on Greek/Roman/Norse etc mythology. Loved this one so much <3

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Even though it aggravates my OCD a bit, I also kind of love that the Norse myths literally cannot be put in any kind of order because they all reference something that "already happened" in some other myth which itself references things that "already happened" in that one or a chain of such events. It gives the whole thing a good proper feeling that it all occurs outside the conventional idea of time.

The Greek myths are much better behaved, and while many would appear to take place in no particular time, I like that the Argonautica clearly takes place before the story of Bellerophon and together they take place about a generation before the events of the Trojan War (:

[murielle.livejournal.com]

Yes! Love the retelling of myths!

Great to see you back!

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Thanks! (:

[(Anonymous)]

I liked this. We read Circe in a book club this year. I like the modern retelling.

(this is wolfden - I don't have an lj anymore and I couldn't get my open id to work)

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Ah and how is the book??

[bewize.livejournal.com]

I look forward to seeing your take on the retelling!

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I hope future prompts suit to continue!

[morettaallstar.livejournal.com]

Rewriting Jason and the Argonauts is a big project, but I am here for it! It has been a long time since I read the original. I really enjoyed this, well done!

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

It is! I'm definitely thinking the whole undertaking would be a novel length project (:

I think as I flesh out the other characters I would probably go back to this first scene and insert many of them in.

[dmousey.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed this. Are you going to continue with the rewriting of the myth?
I'd like to read that! Thanks for penning! 💜✌😊

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

I hope future prompts suit, its a project I've wanted to do for awhile! (:

[favoritebean.livejournal.com]

It's nice to see you participating in Idol! It's also fantastic to see a retelling of the story of Jason with the golden fleece.

[flipflop-diva.livejournal.com]

Ahhh, I hope we get to see more of this! I love these retellings as well and I'd love to see more of your take on it.

[alycewilson.livejournal.com]

Your retelling makes good use of detail. I agree thia is a great project.