The Voyage of the Argo in Greek Mythology

While the legend of Jason and the Argonauts is an intriguing one, the events during the sailing of the Argoa in The Voyage of Heroes differ slightly from the original ancient myth. Some of the mythical events such as the Gegeines Giants and Talos have little bearing on the overall plot of my story. Others, like getting advice from the seer Phineas, were better handled by another character who has a vested interest in what happens to Jason. 

The return journey also needed to be greatly sped up to maintain Odysseus’s impatient urgency to get back to Salemnos. In addition, in mythology the crew lingers at each stopping place for much longer than in The Voyage of Heroes – sometimes for years. To maintain the pace of the book, the timeline of all stopovers had to be shortened. 

Although Orpheus, Castor and Pollux were part of the mythical crew on board the Argo, the rest of the crew in The Voyage of Heroes have been changed as I wanted to use this book to introduce all the men who will have vital roles to play in the upcoming books in The Osteria Chronicles series.

The following is the original sequence of the legendary events during the sailing of the Argo (italicized events have been cut from The Voyage of Heroes):

1. Departure

2. The Isle of Lemnos

3. The Gegeines Giants

4. Death of Hylas

5. The Doliones

6. Phineas & the Harpies (instead of Phineas, Hermes gives Jason the advice he needs)

7. Passing Through the Symplegades (known in The Voyage as The Needle)

8. The Colchis Challenges

9. Purification by Circe (performed by Maxinia instead)

10. The Sirens

11. The Bronze Monster Talos

12. Return