A modern-day quest for the Golden Fleece

My dream assignment would be to create a photo narrative following the quest of Jason and Argonauts in their quest to find the Golden Fleece through the terrifying and legendary landscape of ancient Greece.

There have been many books, plays and films dedicated to the Argonauts' journey for the Golden Fleece, but nothing represented through still photographs. This would be an homage to the myth’s continuing ability to captivate and inspire. This photo essay would cover both contemporary Greek festivals/celebrations of the events, as well as shots of the unchanging Greek landscape that have changed little since then. This assignment would be unique in its involvement of both the real locales (as speculated by scholars) and also staged models to recreate vital points of the myth (but not in the stilted History Channel-esque reenactments way).

Stops might include Lemnos, inhabited by the husband-murdering wives, Medea’s shrine near Corinth, the annual festival in Analfi, the Symplegades (“Clashing Rocks,”), Thrace where Jason slays the Harpies and finally Colchis where Jason meets Medea, who helps him sow dragon teeth in a field and win the Golden Fleece.

I think it’d be an interesting journey because Greek mythology and epics still form the basis of many of our stories today. They’re one of the most timeless and transporting examples of literature I know of. It would be great to document, firsthand, the physical locations that inspired the stories to see what “echoes” remain. And it is not everyday, that one would get to follow in the footsteps of a questing mythical hero, minus the expected occupational hazards.

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