Character guide

Jason

major

Also known as Jason the valiant, Rose Jason, Rose

Jason arrives in Colchis carrying the hopes of a crew and the weight of a task no mortal should survive. His real weapon is charm: he binds Medea with an oath sworn before Zeus and Hera, then lets her magic do what his spear cannot. He matters because the poem keeps asking whether a hero who needs so much help still deserves the name.

Medea

major

Also known as Aiaian Medea

Medea is the king's daughter and a priestess of Hecate's craft, watched by maids who know her secrets and a father who does not yet suspect her. When Hera floods her with love for Jason, she dreads exposure more than death, clutching at her throat and tearing her hair before she flees by night. Her choice to help him is the hinge on which the whole quest turns.

Aiêtes

major

Also known as Glorious Aiêtes

Aiêtes rules the Kolchian host with a haughty scorner's temper, and the Golden Fleece hangs in his sacred grove under a serpent's sleepless eyes. He assumes no mortal can pass his test without help, and he is right, which is exactly what enrages him when the trial is won. His fury in the night, devising treachery against the heroes, sets the escape in motion.

Hera

supporting

Also known as Pelasgian Hêrê, Hêrê, great Hêrê, Hêrê of Wedlock

Hera watches the Argonauts ambushed in the reeds and decides the Fleece must come to Hellas, whatever Zeus or Aeetes thinks. She proposes the plan that sends Aphrodite's son to bewitch Medea, and she steadies the girl when panic nearly drives her to poison. As Hêrê of Wedlock she also hears Jason's oath, which makes her both the quest's architect and its silent guarantor.

Zeus

supporting

Also known as King Zeus, Rain-giver Zeus

Zeus never strides onto the deck, yet his presence shapes every landfall: Phrixus built him an altar for exiles, and Jason swears by him when he takes Medea's hand. Hera and Athena deliberately turn aside from him to plot the Fleece's return, which tells you how much his authority hangs over the story. He is the quiet standard against which the heroes' oaths and the gods' schemes are measured.

Heracles

supporting

Also known as Herakles, Herakles lion-souled, Sore loth

Heracles joins the crew as its obvious muscle, the man whose presence makes the voyage seem possible at all. He brings his squire Hylas, who carries his arrows, and the poem quietly plants the bond that will matter later when the ship must choose between the quest and one man's grief. His departure from the company is one of the poem's sharpest losses.

Phineus

supporting

Also known as Phineus Agênor, Agênor, Phineus withal

Phineus belongs to the older generation of prophets whose visions have outlasted their bodies, and the Argonauts seek him out precisely because his knowledge of the route to Colchis is unmatched. His affliction is inseparable from his gift: the gods have punished his too-accurate sight with blindness and a daily siege by winged tormentors that strips the food from his table. When the heroes free him, his gratitude becomes their first real map — a reminder that the quest advances as much through debts owed and repaid as through oars and sails.

Pelias

supporting

Pelias holds the throne of Iolcus that rightfully belongs to Jason's line, and he knows it — an oracle has warned him that a man wearing one sandal will bring his downfall. When Jason arrives exactly so, Pelias conceals his fear behind hospitality and a royal commission, dispatching the young hero on a voyage from which no one expects him to return. His quiet, calculating malice sets the entire poem in motion, making the Argo's launch less an adventure than a sentence handed down by a nervous tyrant.

Argus

supporting

Also known as Argus the wright, Argus spake

Argus is the craftsman among heroes, the man whose skill with timber and joinery turned Athena's design into a ship that could cross the dark sea. He is also a kinsman of Phrixus, which gives him a personal stake in the Fleece beyond glory — he knows the land, the altar, and the grove where the serpent coils. His counsel steers the crew through unfamiliar shores, and his presence aboard the Argo quietly argues that the quest belongs as much to makers as to warriors.

Athena

supporting

Also known as Athênê, Pallas Athênê

Athena is the patron of craft and cunning, and the Argo is her project as much as Jason's — she inspires its building and watches its voyage with proprietary care. Yet when the heroes stall at Colchis, she admits to Hera that she knows nothing of love or its spells, and must defer to Aphrodite's son for the plan that will actually work. Her partnership with Hera reveals a divine politics behind the mortal quest: the gods disagree, negotiate, and maneuver, and the Argonauts succeed only because two goddesses decide to cooperate.

Hypsipylê

supporting

Hypsipyle rules an island of women who slaughtered their husbands, and her authority rests on a crime she did not prevent and cannot undo. When the Argonauts land, she offers hospitality that slides quickly into something more intimate, and Jason becomes for her both a political guest and a private hope. Her episode is the poem's first real encounter with desire and its costs — a queen who knows how easily welcome can curdle into abandonment, and who lets the heroes leave anyway.

Orpheus

supporting

Orpheus is the poem's resident miracle, a musician whose song once drew oak trees down from Pieria and stills quarrels among men. On the Argo he functions as both entertainer and stabilizer, his voice smoothing the friction that arises when proud heroes share a cramped deck. His presence signals that this voyage is not merely a military expedition but a civilizing one — and that the Argonauts' greatest asset may be the ability to keep singing when the sea turns hostile.

Idmon

supporting

Also known as Idmon the seer

Idmon joins the company at Argos, schooled by Apollo in prophecy yet not of the royal line of Abas, a distinction that sharpens his hunger for a hero's fame. He reads omens for the crew, but the knowledge he carries is double-edged: the birds have told him how he will die, and he sails anyway rather than let his people begrudge him glory. His presence gives the voyage its dread undertow — every fair wind carries a price already named.

Mopsus

supporting

Also known as Mopsus Ampykus, Ampykus

Mopsus, son of Ampycus, stands among the assembled heroes as one of the voyage's two diviners, a man whose craft lies in translating the speech of birds and the smoke of sacrifice. Where Idmon carries foreknowledge of his own end, Mopsus carries the daily burden of guidance — the small, unglamorous decisions of when to sail and where to land. His counsel keeps the Argo moving through a world where the gods' intentions are legible only to those patient enough to read them.

Tiphys

supporting

Also known as Tiphys Hagnias, Hagnias, Tiphys the Hagniad

Tiphys the Hagniad holds the one post no amount of heroic strength can fill: the helm. While the sons of gods argue and boast, he reads the sea's moods and keeps the ship's course true, his skill the quiet condition of every feat the others will later claim. His authority is practical rather than glorious, and the voyage's early arc rests on it — without a helmsman who knows the hidden currents, the quest ends before it begins.

Ankaius

supporting

Also known as Ankaius the mighty, Ankaius the dauntless son of Lykurgus, Lykurgus

Ankaius comes to the Argo as the youngest of the Arcadian contingent, sent in the care of his kinsmen Amphidamas and Kepheus while his father Lykurgus stays home to tend the aged Aleus. His gear is a story in itself: the fell of a Maenalian bear for a buckler and a massive axe his grandsire had locked away, as if to keep the eagle's wings from being clipped. He brings the voyage its flavor of youth and inherited violence — a boy carrying weapons older than himself.

Polydeuces

supporting

Also known as Prince Polydeukes, Polydeukes

Polydeuces, called Polydeukes, leaves Sparta with his brother Castor at his side, both of them sons of Leda and raised in Tyndareus' palace. Where Castor masters the reins, Polydeuces masters the ring — his strength is the kind that ends arguments in a single blow, and the voyage will need it. He embodies the twin ideal of the Argonaut company: noble birth, physical excellence, and a brotherhood so close it functions as a single unit.

Castor

supporting

Also known as Kastor, Kastor withal

Castor, called Kastor, is the horseman of the pair, trained in Tyndareus' palace alongside Polydeuces and sent forth by Leda with her blessing. His craft is speed and control — the management of animals that outrun men — and it marks him as the subtler half of the famous twins. Together the brothers give the Argo its aristocratic sheen and its assurance that, whatever the voyage demands, one of Leda's sons will have the answer.

Peleus

supporting

Peleus joins the voyage as one of many veteran heroes whose names fill the muster-roll, a man already marked by the gods through his union with Thetis. His presence lends the expedition the weight of a generation that has fought Centaurs and earned divine favor, yet he remains a supporting figure beside Jason's central quest. For readers, he is a thread tying the Argo's voyage to the larger web of Greek myth that will culminate at Troy.

Telamon

supporting

Also known as Telamon Arês

Telamon sails with Jason as one of the crew's most formidable fighters, a man whose prowess in war has already earned him a name that pairs him with the god of battle. He stands among the heroes who land at the sacred grove where the Fleece hangs, sharing the danger of the serpent's watch. His blunt courage and martial reputation give the expedition a backbone of force, even as Jason's diplomacy and Medea's cunning carry the day.

Idas

supporting

Idas comes aboard with his brother Lynceus, both sons of Apharetus, renowned for prowess that tips into arrogance. Where other heroes measure their words, Idas speaks with a swagger that invites friction, setting him apart from the more diplomatic Argonauts. His presence keeps the crew's dynamics tense and human, a reminder that even a divinely sponsored voyage carries men whose pride can flare at any campfire.

Lynceus

supporting

Also known as Lynkeus

Lynceus joins the Argo alongside his arrogant brother Idas, bringing a gift of sight so keen it borders on the uncanny. The poem pauses to marvel at the tale that he could see through solid ground to a hidden body, a detail that marks him as something more than an ordinary warrior. His extraordinary perception makes him a natural scout and lookout, useful on a voyage where unknown coasts and hidden dangers await.

Euphemus

supporting

Also known as Euphêmus

Euphemus arrives from Tainarus, child of Europa and the sea-god Poseidon, and his speed on foot is unlike any other man's. The poem describes him running across the water's face, his soles barely wetting the spray, a marvel that marks him as a favorite of the sea. On a voyage that depends on reading winds and currents, his divine parentage and uncanny swiftness make him both a practical asset and a sign of Poseidon's interest in the Argo's fate.

Aethalides

supporting

Also known as Aithalides

Aethalides joins the crew as the third of Hermes' sons, a herald whose craft depends on remembering precisely what he is sent to say. His father's gift of perfect recall makes him invaluable for carrying words between leaders and crews, where a single misremembered phrase could mean disaster. In a poem obsessed with lineage and the transmission of names, his role as living archive quietly underscores how the Argonauts' deeds will be remembered.

Aphrodite

supporting

Also known as Kypris, Kythereia

Aphrodite owes Jason an old debt: years ago he carried her, disguised as a crone, across a flooded river, and she has not forgotten. When Hera and Athena come asking her to bewitch Medea with love for the hero, she bristles less at the request than at her own unruly son, whose arrows she cannot always aim. Her reluctant compliance sets the entire romance—and the quest's success—in motion.

Eros

supporting

Eros is the beautiful, willful child Aphrodite cannot quite control, and he knows it—he laughs off her commands and threatens her with his own bow. Found playing dice in Zeus's orchard beside Ganymede, he is summoned to do what only he can: lodge an irresistible longing in Medea's heart. His single arrow is the hinge on which the whole Argonautica turns.

Chalciope

supporting

Also known as Chalkiopê

Chalciope is a mother and sister caught between her father's suspicious court and the shipwrecked Argonauts her own sons have befriended. When the strangers arrive seeking the Fleece, she becomes their unlikely advocate inside the palace, pressing Medea to help them. Her loyalty to her children pulls against her loyalty to Aeëtes, and that fracture is what lets the Argonauts in.

Absyrtus

supporting

Absyrtus is the boy at the center of Colchis's royal house—the son whose claim to his father's throne makes Medea's flight with a foreign hero an act of dynastic treason, not just romance. He is young, sheltered, and largely unaware of the forces gathering around his sister. His presence shadows every choice Medea makes, and his fate will become the story's darkest reckoning.

Arete

supporting

Also known as Arêtê

Arete rules beside Alcinous on Scheria, the last friendly shore before home—and the last place Medea and the Argonauts can be handed back to Colchian pursuers. She takes pity on the desperate couple, and her private word to her husband shapes the judgment he delivers the next day. In a poem full of kings and gods, she is the rare figure whose mercy actually changes outcomes.

Alcinous

supporting

Also known as Alkinoüs

Alcinous receives the Argonauts and the Colchian fleet on his island and finds himself arbiter of a case no one wants to judge: is Medea a fugitive daughter or a wedded wife? He is a just, hospitable king, but his verdict will either hand her back to Aeëtes or set the Argo free. His ruling—delivered after Arete's night-time persuasion—becomes the legal pivot of the entire homeward voyage.

Thetis

minor

Also known as Goddess Thetis

Sea nymph who aids the Argonauts.

Aeson

minor

Also known as Aison, drear Aison

Father of Jason, deposed by Pelias.

Dionysus

minor

Also known as The God Dionysus, God

God of wine, associated with the Argonauts.

Eribotes

minor

Argonaut skilled in healing.

Oileus

minor

Argonaut from Locris.

Canthus

minor

Also known as Kanthus

Argonaut who dies in Libya.

Iphitus

minor

Argonaut, brother of Eurystheus.

Clytius

minor

Argonaut, son of Eurytus.

Phlias

minor

Argonaut from Araethyrea.

Menetius

minor

Argonaut, father of Patroclus.

Laertes

minor

Argonaut, father of Odysseus.

Naubolus

minor

Argonaut from Phocis.

Hylas

minor

Squire of Heracles, lost to nymphs.

Phocus

minor

Argonaut, son of Caeneus.

Priasus

minor

Argonaut from Pallene.

Eurymedon

minor

Argonaut, son of Dionysus.

Lycurgus

minor

Argonaut, father of Ancaeus.

Erceus

minor

Argonaut from Tegea.

Astypalaea

minor

Mother of Ancaeus by Poseidon.

Alcon

minor

Argonaut, son of Hippasus.

Eupolemeia

minor

Mother of Argonaut Phlias by Dionysus.

Ares

minor

God of war, father of the Colchian dragon.

Triton

minor

Sea god who guides the Argo from Libya.

Circe

minor

Also known as Circê

Sorceress who purifies Jason and Medea.

Phrixus

minor

Also known as Phrixus the Aiolid, Phrixus the Minyan

Original owner of the Golden Fleece, now dead.

Helle

minor

Sister of Phrixus who fell into the sea.

Athamas

minor

Father of Phrixus and Helle.

Nephele

minor

Mother of Phrixus and Helle.

Aeolus

minor

Also known as Aiolus

Ancestor of the Argonauts, keeper of the winds.

Minyas

minor

Also known as Minyas Aiolus

Founder of the Minyan race, ancestor of many Argonauts.

Cretheus

minor

Founder of Iolcus, father of Aeson.

Polymele

minor

Mother of Jason.

Thalia

minor

Nymph, mother of the Argonaut Palaimonius.

Palaimonius

minor

Argonaut, son of Hephaestus.

Hephaestus

minor

Also known as Hephaistus

God of fire, maker of the Argo's fittings.

Hermes

minor

Messenger god who gives the Argonauts a magic herb.

Hecate

minor

Also known as Hekatê, Brimo, Hekatê Brimo, nightmare Hekatê bare

Goddess of witchcraft, worshipped by Medea.

Apollo

minor

Also known as O Phoebus, Phoebus, Phoebus Apollo, Nisaian Apollo

God of prophecy, patron of the Argonauts.

Artemis

minor

Goddess of the hunt, sometimes hostile.

Poseidon

minor

Also known as Poseidon of old Amymônê

God of the sea, father of many heroes.

Hades

minor

God of the underworld, mentioned in oaths.

Persephone

minor

Also known as Persephonê

Queen of the underworld.

Prometheus

minor

Titan chained in the Caucasus, visited by the Argo.

Talos

minor

Bronze giant who guards Crete, defeated by Medea.

The Harpies

minor

Also known as The Harpies of Zeus

Monstrous birds that torment Phineus.

Calais

minor

Argonaut, winged son of Boreas.

Zetes

minor

Argonaut, winged son of Boreas.

Butes

minor

Argonaut who is saved by Aphrodite.

Periclymenus

minor

Argonaut with shape-shifting powers.

Augias

minor

Argonaut, king of Elis.

Asterion

minor

Argonaut from Pellene.

Polyphemus

minor

Also known as Polyphemus Eilatus, Eilatus

Argonaut who stays to found a city.

Iphiclus

minor

Argonaut, uncle of Jason.

Admetus

minor

Argonaut, king of Pherae.

Acusilaus

minor

Argonaut from Abydos.