In the materials provided, Giasone is treated as the leader of the Argonauts who is chosen or obliged to seek the Golden Fleece. The opera synopsis (prologue and three acts in Cavalli's 1649 Giasone) frames his fate within a theatrical contest of divine voices (Sole/Apollo and Amore/Cupid) and interpersonal drama, while a myth summary of the Jason and Medea cycle recounts the traditional sequence of trials in Colchis. Both sources emphasize that although Giasone performs the heroic actions (taming bulls, confronting warriors, seizing the Fleece), his success is contingent on Medea's magic (protective unguents, enchanted jewel, drugging the dragon) and on chthonic assistance invoked by Medea and a responding Chorus of Spirits.
The sources give Giasone a character profile rather than a precise physical portrait: he is a human male captain of the Argonauts, husband/lover and father of twin children in the operatic narrative, and the celebrated questing hero in the mythic summary. In Cavalli's opera he is theatrically characterized as a celebrated leader whose indulgence in erotic pleasure and domestic attachments produces tensions with companions (Ercole) and responsibilities; no specific measurements, facial features, or costume details are provided in the supplied texts.
The documented abilities and behaviors are human leadership and martial prowess evidenced by commanding the Argonauts, undertaking the voyage for the Golden Fleece, and engaging in combat (including against a horned beast). The sources record that he passes traditional trials—taming or surviving combat with fire-breathing bulls and overcoming warrior opponents—but only by means of supernatural aid: Medea prepares a magical ointment protecting him from the bulls' fire, gives or procures an enchanted ruby that protects him from warriors (source 3), and puts the guardian dragon to sleep so he can seize the Fleece. The opera source makes clear that invocations to Pluto and a Chorus of Spirits produce an additional talismanic gift (a magical ring); the sources do not attribute sorcery or spirit-invocation capabilities to Giasone himself.
Weaknesses
- conditiondependence on supernatural aid
- conditionvulnerability to trials without Medea's interventions
Wards
- substanceunguento magico (magical ointment) — Medea's protective ointment that shields Giasone from the fire-breathing bulls (source 3)
- otherrubino fatato (enchanted ruby) — described in the myth summary as capable of protecting him from the warriors of the second trial (source 3)
- otheranello magico (magical ring) — given by a Chorus of Spirits in response to Medea's invocation in the opera synopsis (source 1)
Medea
Medea is a mythic Greek woman of royal lineage associated with practiced pharmakeía (drugcraft) and ritual knowledge; in epic she functions as the helper who enables Jason's success, and in tragedy she becomes a transgressive avenger whose actions include murder. Sources present her variably as mortal with divine ancestry (granddaughter of Helios) and as a skilled worker in magical substances and rites often linked in literature to Hecate.
Dragon (Long)
Long (龍, "dragon") is a pervasive cultural and artistic motif that appears in Taoist sacred-geographical contexts, Chinese literature, and modern exhibitions; the provided sources treat it as part of the broader mythic imagery present around Taoist sites and ritual scenes rather than as a single, consistently described doctrinal entity.
*Péh₂usōn (reconstructed)
Péh₂usōn is a hypothetical Proto‑Indo‑European pastoral guardian reconstructed by comparative scholars from parallels in Greek and Vedic traditions. Proposed as a Graeco‑Aryan ancestor‑figure, the reconstruction describes a protector of flocks, roads, and travellers rather than an attested historical cultic personality.
Aba (disambiguation / name-form)
Aba is a polyvalent name-form attested across many unrelated contexts (place names, personal names, animal names, and brief mythological listings). The provided sources do not support a single, coherent supernatural entity called "Aba" and offer no descriptive or ritual material for such a being.
Abandinus
Abandinus is a locally attested Romano‑Celtic theonym known from a single inscribed bronze feather (votive object) dedicated at Godmanchester (the Roman fort Durovigutum) in Cambridgeshire. Scholars interpret him as a local god or male spirit tied to a specific place and possibly associated with a nearby spring or stream; this association is tentative and based on etymological readings of the name.
Abarbarea
Abarbarea is a name attested in classical Greek and Roman sources for freshwater nymphs (naiads). The name appears for at least two individual mythic figures — a naiad wife of Bucolion and a naiad counted among ancestors of the Tyrians — and Hesychius records plural forms that may indicate the name was also used as a class-name (Abarbareai / Abarbalaiai).
Abas
Abas (Ancient Greek: Ἄβας, gen.: Ἄβαντος) is not a single mythic being but a recurring personal name borne by multiple mortals and minor mythic figures in Greek epic and genealogical traditions — kings, founders, seers, warriors, attendants, a centaur, and a youth transformed by a goddess. The name is glossed in the sources as 'guileless' or 'good-hearted' and appears across Argive, Theban, Trojan, Euboean, and other local cycles.
Abderus
Abderus (Ancient Greek: Ἄβδηρος, romanized Ábdēros) is a mortal heroic figure in Greek myth closely associated with Heracles, remembered as the youth left in charge of the Mares of Diomedes who was killed by them. He functions as an eponymous local/divine-hero ancestor for the city of Abdera and received funerary commemoration and athletic agones at his tomb.
Abellio
Abellio is a theonym attested in Roman‑period inscriptions from the Comminges area of the Pyrenees and reported as worshipped in the Garonne Valley of ancient Gallia Aquitania. Surviving evidence is limited to a small number of inscriptions; scholars have variously hypothesized solar or arboreal associations and compared the name to forms of Apollo or to Celtic Belenus, but the deity's precise role in local cosmology remains uncertain.
Abnoba
Abnoba is a Gaulish theonym and toponym attested in Roman-era sources and inscriptions: a localized deity associated with woods, springs and the sources of rivers (notably the Danube) and simultaneously the name applied to a mountain or mountain range in the Black Forest/Baar/Odenwald region. Roman altars equate her with Diana, reflecting syncretic cult practice in frontier provinces.
Abomination of Desolation
An apocalyptic prophetic phrase originating in the Book of Daniel designating a profaning thing or act that renders the Jerusalem Temple cult desolate; later reused in the Synoptic Gospels as an eschatological sign prompting urgent flight. The term denotes ritual/cultic impurity (Hebrew shiqquts) and is variously interpreted as pagan offerings or altar, a foreign cult statue, or (in some New Testament readings) an acting agent.
Aborigines (mythology)
A mytho-historical label used in Roman and general reference sources to denote the oldest inhabitants of a region (specifically central Italy in the cited Roman context). The term functions as an identity/category for original human populations rather than as a characterized supernatural being in the provided sources.
Absyrtus
Absyrtus (Ancient Greek: Ἄψυρτος) is a Colchian prince in the Greek Argonautic cycle, son of King Aeëtes and brother or half-brother of Medea. He appears in variant traditions either as a companion taken by Medea during her flight with Jason and murdered/dismembered to delay pursuit, or as a pursuer sent by Aeëtes who is overtaken and slain by Jason; his death functions as a key narrative device in the escape from Colchis.
Abundantia
Abundantia is the Roman divine personification of abundance and material plenty, used primarily in imperial propaganda and public iconography to signify secure grain supplies, wealth, and the promise of a 'Golden Age' under the emperor. She also appears in later medieval European folklore as Domina Abundia / Dame Habonde, a household benefactor in accounts condemned by ecclesiastical writers.
Community Record
- [1]Giasone (opera) — synopsis referencing Medea's invocation and spirits' ring. Wikipedia: Giasone (synopsis; notes Medea's aria 'Dell'antro magico', invocation of Pluto, Chorus of Spirits giving a magical ring)wiki
- [2]Wikidata entry for Giasone. Wikidata: Giasone (identifier)other
- [3]La storia di Giasone e Medea, il vello d'oro - Mitologia (archive summary). Archive: Italian myth summary describing Medea's unguento magico, rubino fatato, and drugging of the dragon enabling Giasone to seize the Fleeceliterary