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LegendUndated

The Trials of Colchis — Fire-Breathing Bulls and Dragon’s Teeth

Also called: Aeëtes, Dragon’s teeth

A legend handed down over the centuries.

A Greek myth told in Books 3–4 of the Argonautica. King Aeëtes of Colchis demanded that Jason yoke fire-breathing bulls, plough a field, sow dragon’s teeth and defeat the warriors who sprang up. With the drugs and cunning of the princess Medea, who had fallen in love with him, Jason passed the trials and took the Golden Fleece from the sleeping dragon.

This Greek myth is told in Books 3–4 of Apollonius’ Argonautica. Unwilling to give up the Golden Fleece, King Aeëtes of Colchis demanded that Jason yoke two fire-breathing, bronze-hoofed bulls made by Hephaestus, plough a field, sow it with dragon’s teeth and defeat in a single day all the armed warriors who sprang from the earth.

Made by Hera and Aphrodite to fall in love with Jason, the princess Medea, a priestess of Hecate, gave him a salve to protect his body from fire and told him that a stone thrown among the warriors would make them fight each other to the death. Jason passed the trials, but when the king broke his word Medea led him into the grove by night, lulled the sleepless dragon with drugs and song, and Jason took the fleece from the oak where it hung.

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Themes that include this event

  • Heroes of Greek Myth1400 BC – 1900

    Perseus and Medusa, the labours of Heracles, Jason and the Golden Fleece, Theseus and the Minotaur, the wings of Icarus, Oedipus and Antigone — the heroes of Greek myth, alongside the real sites of Tiryns, Knossos and Thebes, the first performance of a tragedy, and the sculptures and paintings their stories inspired