Name: The myth of Jason, Medea, and the Golden Fleece - Iseult Gillespie
Uploaded: 2020-12-08T18:45:35.000Z
Duration: 4 min 47 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

In the center of Colchis  in an enchanted garden,

the hide of a mystical flying ram  hung from the tallest oak,

Relative clauses (Restrictive vs. nonrestrictive)

Jason would have to tread carefully  to pry it from King Aeetes' clutches

But diplomacy was hardly  one of the Argonauts' strengths.

Jason would have to navigate  this difficult task alone.

Leaving most of his bedraggled crew  to rest,

Jason made for the palace with some  of his more even-tempered men.

His first instinct was to simply ask  the king for his prized possession.

But Aeetes was enraged  at the hero's presumption.

he would have to prove his worth  by facing three perilous tasks.

The trials would begin the following day,  and Jason was dismissed to prepare.

But another member of the royal family  was also plotting something.

Thanks to the encouragement  of Jason's guardians on Mount Olympus,

Medea, princess of Colchis  and priestess of the witch goddess Hecate,

She intended to protect her beloved  from her father's tricks — at any cost.

After a sleepless night, Jason  somberly marched to the castle—

The princess armed him  with strange vials and trinkets,

in exchange for a promise  of eternal devotion.

As they whispered  and planned their victory,

both hero and princess fell deeply  under each other's spell.

the king confidently led Jason  to face his first task.

The hero was brought  to a huge field of oxen

and told that he had to plough the land  around the crowds of oxen.

But Medea had concocted  a fire-proof ointment,

and so he plowed the flickering fields  unscathed.

he was given a box of serpent's teeth  to plant into the scorched earth.

As soon as Jason scattered them, each seed sprouted into a bloodthirsty warrior.

They burst up around him,  barricading his way forward,

but Medea had prepared him  for this task as well.

Hurling a heavy stone she had given him  into their midst,

the fighters turned on themselves  as they scrabbled for it,

Jason was finally face to face  with the guardian of the Fleece.

Jason scrambled up the tree  and sprinkled a sweet-smelling concoction

As the strains of Medea's incantations  reached its ears

and the potion settled in its eyes,  the dragon sank into a deep sleep.

Elated, Jason climbed  to the top of the tallest oak,

where he slipped the gleaming fleece  off its branch.

When the king saw the hero  sprinting away—

not only with the fleece,  but his daughter in tow—

Furious, he sent an army  led by his son Absyrtus

to bring the ill-gotten prize  and his conniving daughter home.

But all the players in this tale  had underestimated the viciousness

To the horror of the Gods, Jason ran  his sword through Absyrtus in cold blood.

Medea then helped him scatter pieces  of the body along the shore,

distracting her grieving father  while the Argonauts escaped.

As Colchis and their pursuers  grew smaller on the horizon,

Jason could now return  to Thessaly victorious—

but his terrible act  had tarnished his crew's honor,

the wretched crew washed up  on the island of Circe the sorceress.

Medea begged her aunt  to absolve them of wrongdoing—

but bloody deeds  are not so easily forgotten,

and fallen heroes  not so rapidly redeemed.