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This article is about King Pelias of Aeolia. For Peleus, father of Achilles and King of Phthia, see Peleus


In Greek mythology, Pelias (Ancient Greek: Πελίας) was the son of Tyro and the sea god Poseidon, and was the usurping king of Iolcus in Thessaly. When Pelias usurped the throne from Aeson, his half-brother and the rightful king, he sent his nephew Jason on a quest for the Golden Fleece. Eventually, after Jason returned with Medea the sorceress, Medea cut up Aeson's aged body and placed in into a pot, which he then climbed out of, revived and youthful. Pelias' daughters tried to do this themselves and ended up killing their father. He was the father of Acastus, who usurped the kingdom from Jason.

Mythology[]

Early years[]

Tyro was married to King Cretheus of Iolcus, with whom she had three sons, Aeson, Pherês, and Amythaon, but she loved Enipeus, a river god. She pursued Enipeus, who refused her advances. One day, Poseidon, filled with lust for Tyro, disguised himself as Enipeus and lay with her; from their union were born twin sons, Pelias and Neleus.

NeleusRIII

Pelias (left) and his brother Neleus (right) find their mother Tyro (center)

Tyro exposed her sons to Poseidon on a mountain to die, but they were found by a herdsman who raised them as his own, as one story goes, or they were raised by a maid. When they reached adulthood, Pelias and Neleus found Tyro and killed her stepmother Sidero for having mistreated her (Sidero hid in a temple dedicated to Hera but Pelias killed her anyway, causing Hera's undying hatred of Pelias).

Pelias was power-hungry and he wished to gain dominion over all of Thessaly. To this end, he banished Neleus and Pherês, and locked Aeson in the dungeons in Iolcus. While in the dungeons, Aeson married and had several children, most famously, Jason. Aeson sent Jason away from Iolcus in fear that Pelias would have him killed as a potential heir to the throne.

Jason grew in the care of Chiron the centaur, on the slopes of Mount Pelion, to be educated while Pelias, fearing that he would be overthrown, was warned by an oracle to beware a man wearing one sandal.

Quest for the Golden Fleece[]

Many years later, Pelias offered a sacrifice by the sea in honor of his father, Poseidon. Jason, who was summoned with many others to take part in the sacrifice, lost one of his sandals in the flooded river Anaurus while rushing to Iolcus. In Virgil's Aeneid and Book 13 of Hyginus' Fabulae, Hera/Juno disguised herself as an old woman, whom Jason helped across the river when he lost his sandal.

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Pelias commands Jason to acquire the Golden Fleece

When Jason entered Iolcus, he was announced as a man wearing one sandal. Fearful, Pelias asked Jason what he would do if confronted with the man who would be his downfall. Jason responded that he would send that man after the Golden Fleece. Pelias took Jason's advice and sent him to retrieve the Golden Fleece. It would be found at Colchis, in a grove sacred to Ares, the god of war. Though the Golden Fleece simply hung on an oak tree, this was a seemingly impossible task, as an ever-watchful dragon guarded it.

Jason made preparations by commanding the shipwright Argus to build a ship large enough for fifty men, which he would eventually call the Argo. These heroes who would join his quest were known as the Argonauts.

Death of Pelias[]

During Jason's absence, Pelias thought the Argo had sunk, and this was what he told Aeson and Promachus, who committed suicide by drinking poison. However, it is unknown but possible that the two were both killed directly by Pelias.

Pelias-Moreau

The Murder of Pelias by His Daughters by Georges Moreau de Tours (1878)

When Jason and Medea returned, Pelias still refused to give up his throne. Medea conspired to have Pelias' own daughters (the Peliades) kill him. She told them she could turn an old ram into a young ram by cutting up the old ram and boiling it. During the demonstration, a live, young ram jumped out of the pot. Excited, the girls cut their father into pieces and threw them into a pot, in the expectation that he would emerge rejuvenated. Pelias, of course, did not survive.

As he was now an accessory to a terrible crime, Jason was still not made king. Pelias' son Acastus later banished Jason and Medea, to Corinth, and so reclaimed the kingdom.

An alternate telling of the story in Book 7 of Ovid's Metamorphoses has Medea slitting the throat of Jason's father Aeson, who she then really does revive as a much younger man; Pelias' daughters then slit their father's throat after she promises to do the same for him, and she merely breaks her word and leaves him dead.

Family[]

Salmonid Genealogy in Greek mythology
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Aeolids
 
 
 
 
 
 
Sisyphids
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Athamanides
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Alcidice
 
Salmoneus
 
 
Cretheus
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Amythaon
 
Idomene
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Poseidôn
 
Tyro
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Cretheids
 
 
 
 
 
 
Periclymene
 
Pheres
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Neleus
 
Chloris
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Alastor
 
Nestor
 
Eurydice
 
Pero
 
Bias
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Pelias
 
Anaxibia
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Admetus
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Acastus
 
Alcestis
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Thrasymedes
 
Aretus
 
Antilochus
 
Castalia
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Paeon
 
Cymothoe
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Melanthus
Preceded by:
Aeson (First Rule)
King of Iolcus
Mythic
Succeeded by
Aeson (Second Rule)
This page uses content from Wikipedia. The original article was at Pelias (view authors). As with Myth and Folklore Wiki, the text of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License 3.0 (Unported).
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