I love the myth of Jason and I even liked that B-movie with dreadfully poor special effects, Jason and the Argonauts. While trying to find a summary of the myth of Jason, I found that there are many versions of everything that happened. I've therefore composed a summary made up of how I feel the story should be told and apologise to anyone who thinks that it should be otherwise.
Aison was cheated of his Iolcian throne by Pelias who is warned afterwards by the Delphic Oracle that he will be defeated by a one-sandalled man. This proves to be the son of Aison, Jason, who has been educated by the Centaur Cheiron. He arrives to Iolcus wearing one sandal having lost the other one in a river-crossing. Pelias becomes afraid of Apollo's oracle and decides to send Jason to Colchis to fetch the golden fleece of King Aietes. Many had tried before and had failed in the attempt and so Pelias was sure that this would end the life of Jason. Jason gathers all the young men in the region for the expedition, which turned out to be a 'Panhellenic affair' where anyone who was anyone joined in, even the likes of Orpheus and Heracles.
They boarded Jason's ship named the Argo and sailed north-east through the Dardenelles and met up with many adventures. They meet up with Phineus, a blind man, who tells them how to pass the Clashing Rocks after they save him from the attack of the bird-women called Harpies. They finally reach the river Phasis and the land of Aietes.
Pelias' daughter Medea falls in love with Jason and she uses her magic skills to help him obtain the fleece. She first protects him against the heat of the fire-breathing bulls so he can yoke them and then she helped him to kill the dragon that guarded the fleece so that he could sow it's teeth. Men dressed in armour immediately rose from the ground where he had planted the dragon's teeth and he panicked. Medea told him to throw a stone among them and they then began to fight among themselves. Jason then made way towards the dragon who guarded the Golden Fleece and Medea gives the dragon a potion which sends him into a deep sleep, saying that she does not want to harm the dragon since he was only doing his job. Jason takes the fleece back to the Argo and leaves, taking with him Medea and her brother Apsyrtus. However, they are closely pursued by Aietes and so Medea kills her brother and chops him up into small pieces which she throws overboard. Aietes stops to retrieve Apsyrtus' remains and so Medea, Jason and his Argonauts escape.
They arrive back in Iolcus where Jason and Medea trick Pelias' daughters into making their father young again. Demonstrating with a sheep, Medea plunges the sheep into a cauldron of boiling water and she transforms it into a lamb. Delighted with this trick, the girls persuade Pelias to jump into the boiling water where he consequently dies. Pelias' daughters are then punished for eternity to fill a broken vase. Medea and Jason are expelled for the murder of Pelias and find refuge in Corinth.
In Corinth, Jason acquires a 'proper Greek wife', much to the anger of Medea. In revenge for being unceremoniously dumped after all the help she had given him, Medea uses her witchcraft to kill Jason's new wife at a distance and also kills her children which she had begotten with Jason. She then condemns Jason to an unheroic death and flees to Athens to find refuge with King Theseus. Jason dies unheroicly as Medea predicted when the rotting bulkhead of the Argo falls on his head.