Crimea. Mythological 1
The side roads that I once took to escape this classical antiquity which, at university, bored me, led me to the North, whose climate perhaps suited my temperament better, to meet the Vikings. The Vikings later took me on the Eastern route, to Russia, Ukraine and Crimea... Finally, Crimea made me rediscover Greek antiquity... Circumnavigation "in search of a passage(s) between us and the world(s)"...
Mythological 1. Jason and the Argonauts
If you no longer remember the story, I can only advise you to offer yourself a cinema session, to watch the cult film by Don Chaffey (1963) with special effects by Ray Harryhausen. If you have young children (teenagers, I fear that it is too late for them, although...) invite them to share this beautiful moment of adventure and wonder. You will see, they will be delighted by the magic... of cinema... As for the scenario, this is the best-known version, the one of Apollonius of Rhodes.
As far as we are concerned, or more precisely as far as Crimea is concerned, the version kept by Diodorus of Sicily turns out to be much more interesting. From the start, it links the destiny of Tauride (= Crimea) and Colchis (where the famous Golden Fleece is located).
According to Diodorus, the two regions belong to the sons of Helios, Perses for Tauride and Aietes for Colchis. Perses has a daughter, Hecate, who is particularly gifted in magic and making poisons. Poison that she uses to get rid of her own father and take over the Kingdom. She built a temple to Artemis where any foreigner who landed on the coast of Tauride would have to be sacrificed. This peril, added to the other trials encountered throughout their navigation by the Argonauts, justifies according to Diodorus the name Pontos Axeinos (lit. Inhospitable Sea) then given to the Black Sea (*).
Having then married Aiétès, Hecate will have two daughters: Circe and Medea, who in some way represent black magic and white magic. Circe, worthy daughter of her mother, marries the king of the Scythians and poisons him. Driven out of the kingdom, she finds refuge in Italy... Medea uses her gifts as a magician (others will say her knowledge of pharmaka) to help Jason with whom she escapes from Colchis...
Another episode that interests us, at the start of the journey, Jason arrives on the island of Lemnos where, with his companions and at the invitation of the women, only inhabitants of this island, they will undertake to repopulate the kingdom... It is the "adult peplum" part of the legend. But that's not why it interests us... In fact, if this island is only populated by women, it's because they, exasperated at being abandoned by men who preferred company of young captives that they brought back from their expeditions in Thrace, eliminated on a moonless night (detail added by your servant, for atmosphere) all the male individuals on the island. Only King Thoas, discreetly exfiltrated on a boat by his daughter Hypsipyle, will escape the massacre... To end up in Tauride, of which he will become king... Which we will find again in the Iliad (but it will be for another note...).
(*) See our Geography note... (with the North Sea...) of 09.21.2023
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Finally, for comics fans, let us point out an "other" version of the story of Medea, in the excellent "Médée" cycle of comics (in French), by Blandine Le Callet for the screenplay - Nancy Peña for the drawing
- As far as possible DO NOT buy on Amazon!!! There are (still) booksellers in this country -
Other Intercultural Notes...
"Si vis pacem..." the article, some kind of manifesto of our association.
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