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Jason Arriving at Iolcos, D683

Explanation

  • The king’s son Jason has arrived in the city of Iolcos, where he intends to lay claim to the throne that is his by rights. In the market place in the city he encounters Pelias, the king, his uncle and a tyrant, all three in one. Pelias had been warned by the oracle in Delphi of a hero wearing a single sandal and carrying two spears. Pelias now sets Jason the task of proving his right to the throne and tells him to fetch the Golden Fleece. The source for the motif of Jason Arriving at Iolcos is the fourth Pythian ode by the ancient poet Pindar, here transformed into a watercolour by Koch after Carstens. Thorvaldsen, too, was inspired by the motif in his first important early work, the sculpture Jason with the Golden Fleece.