Jason in popular culture

Jason of the Argonauts, an ancient Greek mythological hero, appears often in popular culture.

Film

• Episode 2 of the 2008 TV series Age of the Gods: Journeys Edition, titled "Jason", is based on the myth of Jason and relates the stories of King Pelias, the Argonauts, the Isles of Lemnos, Phineus and the Harpies, the Symplegades, Medea, the Iron Bulls and Sown Men, the Golden Fleece, the Betrayal of Medea, and the Death of Jason.
• Michael Eisner's web show, All-for-nots, is loosely based on the Argonautika. It follows an indie rock band whose name is reminiscent of `The Argonauts' and that tours America on their way to the golden fleece of rock stardom.
• In the children's show, Class of the Titans, one of the main characters, Jay, is a descendant of Jason, and the characters have run-ins with Medea and Talos.
• A 1958 Italian production of Hercules starring Steve Reeves, featured Jason and the Argonauts, as well as Ulysses.
• Jason was portrayed by Jeffrey Thomas (with Chris Conrad as young Jason) in Hercules: The Legendary Journeys.
• Episode 3 of the documentary, In Search of Myths and Heroes by Michael Wood, talks about the Jason myth.
• Two movies titled Jason and the Argonauts have been produced: Jason and the Argonauts (1963), directed by Don Chaffey, and Jason and the Argonauts (2000), a Hallmark TV movie.
• Lars Von Trier's made for TV movie entitled Medea (1988) depicts Udo Kier as Jason after he has retrieved the Golden Fleece.

Literature

• The novel Jason (1961) by Henry Treece is narrated by Jason himself. The supernatural elements are largely removed, but a major theme of the book is the clash between the older religion of the mother goddess, favoured by women (who are portrayed as dangerous and hostile to men in many ways) and the newer religion of Zeus and Poseidon favoured by men.

• The book The Sea of Monsters, by Rick Riordan, parallels Jason's story in many ways.

• Jason Grace, a main character in the Heroes of Olympus series (also by Rick Riordan), was named after Jason.

In comics, outside of a comic book adaptation of the film Jason and the Argonauts published by Dell Comics in 1963 as part of their Movie Classics series, there were 2 series that featured Jason and The Argonauts. The first was a 5 issue series published by Caliber Press in 1991,^[1] while the other was a series called Jason and the Argonauts: Kingdom of Hades, a 5 issue mini-series, published by Bluewater Comics in 2007.^[2] In 2011, Campfire Books published a graphic novel called Jason and the Argonauts written by Dan Whitehead.^[3]

"Jason's Voyage" is the title of Book Five of Thomas Wolfe's autobiographical novel "Of Time and the River".

Radio

• In 2001, a radio drama adaptation of Apollonius' Argonautica, was produced by the Radio Tales series for National Public Radio.

Stage

• Mary Zimmerman wrote and directed Argonautika, which premiered in 2006 with the Chicago Lookingglass Theatre Company. It tells the story of Jason and the Argonauts from Pelias' initial charge through Jason's betrayal of Medea.
• Euripides wrote the play Medea, which depicts Medea killing Jason's bride and their two children. This play has nine characters and a chorus role.

Video games

• Jason is briefly featured in the 2007 video game God of War II. He has taken the Argonauts to the Isle of Creation, and has made it as far as Euryale's temple, where they were overcome by a cursed Cerberus. As Kratos walks into the monster's dungeon, Jason has been eaten alive and the Golden Fleece is hanging out of the creature's jaws. After Kratos kills the Cerberus, he takes the Golden Fleece as his own.

• Jason is a playable character in Herc's Adventures.

• Codemasters released Rise of the Argonauts, an action role-playing video game developed by Liquid Entertainment, in 2008. The game was loosely based on the mythology, telling a new version of Jason's search for the Golden Fleece with many changes to both characters and events.

Television

• Jason is portrayed in the BBC One series Atlantis by Jack Donnelly. In the series he was born in Atlantis but emigrated to the world of the 21st Century with his father when he was a child.

References