After the world and times of Caligula, the next Penguin Little Black Classic took me to ancient Greece. This one is a selection from the story of Jason and the Argonauts.

At the risk of sounding silly, my acquaintance with Jason and the Argonauts so far had consisted largely of random videos I had come across online. And from a very cursory look at the thumbnails, I had somehow assumed that the Argonauts were creatures of some sort. Believe me, a YouTube thumbnail can do that to you.

So my first discovery was rather basic: the Argonauts were Jason’s companions.

But first things first. This book was written by Apollonius of Rhodes. I had encountered another Apollonius only a few books ago, the sage of cold philosophy in Keats’ Lamia. So naturally I checked whether this was the same man. The well-wisher of Lycius and the bane of Lamia wrote an epic filled with magic and enchantment?

But no. This was a different Apollonius, who lived centuries before Apollonius of Tyana.

The selection comes from his epic poem Argonautica, and the little book is called Jason and Medea.

The story in this selection is simple. Jason and the Argonauts have to obtain the Golden Fleece, a task considered almost impossible. Hera and Athena want to help Jason, so they enlist Aphrodite, who in turn persuades her son Eros to intervene. Eros shoots Medea with one of his arrows, and she falls hopelessly in love with Jason. She then helps him accomplish the impossible task set for him by her father.

A love story, it seems, has remained a love story across the millennia. The hero faces an impossible task. The heroine’s father doesn’t want him to succeed. The heroine falls in love and helps the hero against her own father.

The more I read these ancient Greek stories, the more I am reminded of the Hindi movies I have watched and loved. Lamia took me to Sridevi in Nagina. This one took me to so many films that I couldn’t settle on just one. It is an archetype in itself.

There is magic, enchantment, an impossible task and the hero’s eventual triumph. But the sections that put a smile on my face were those about Medea falling in love.

She knows that Jason is working against her father. She knows that helping him will bring shame upon her family. And yet she cannot stop herself.

There is a lovely section where she tries to leave her room to go to him. She reaches the door and comes back. Then she tries again. And again. Three times she goes towards the door and retreats. On the fourth attempt, unable even to cross the threshold, she breaks down and cries.

Two thousand years disappear rather quickly when you read something like that.

Then comes their meeting at the temple of Hecate. Medea asks Jason about the land he comes from, and he paints a picture of it for her with his words. You sense hope and longing on her part, but also despair. She knows that he may return to his own country and never come back. Still, all she asks is that he never forget her. She doesn’t ask for anything else.

Her feelings may have been induced by Eros’ arrow, but it still feels like such a pure expression of love.

Only after finishing the little volume did I discover that Jason and Medea is essentially Book 3 of the four books of the Argonautica. There is a story before this one and a story after it.

I had opened the book not even knowing who the Argonauts were. I closed it wanting to know what happened next.

And because of Medea, I now intend to read the whole Argonautica.