Hollywood is known to make multiple mistakes when filming movies based on novels, short stories, and myths. Hollywood likes to romanticize their movies to appeal to the viewers more.  These mistakes are very noticeable in the movie Jason and the Argonauts. There were very few similarities between the myth “Jason” and the movie. On the other hand, there were many differences.

There were not many similarities but there were enough to talk about. Firstly, both the myth and the movie had the goddess Hera disguised as an elderly women just wanting help to cross the rapid moving river. Jason helped her cross and she made one of his sandals come off so he could fulfill the oracal. Secondly, they both had the the island of Lemnos, which was ruled by only women in both the myth and the movie. It was only the women on the island because they killed all the men that lived there. Thirdly, they both had Jason’s mom taking her own life. She decided to commit suicide because she believed that her son Jason had been killed during his journey to get the Golden Fleece. She could not bear to lose her son. Fourthly, they both had the clashing rocks. The clashing rocks are two enormous rocks that close and smash anything that goes into them. Jason gets passed passed by sending a dove through them so they close then slowly open so Jason and his crew sailed as fast as they could to make it through. The rocks then stayed open forever. Lastly, the fifth similarity is that Medea and Jason falling in love. Madea got shot with cupid’s arrow and fell in love with Jason while helping him get the Golden Fleece from her own dad. They end up getting married.

Now on the difference’s side of things, there were lots of them. Firstly, the movie had Jason already born and around the age of eight years old when Pelias took over the throne from Jason’s dad. This is very different from the myth. In the myth Jason had not even been born yet when Pelias took the throne and his parents pretended that Jason had died. Secondly, in the movie, Pelias kills his brother King Aeson in the beginning right after he steals the throne from him. The difference is that in the myth, Aeson kills himself by drinking bull’s blood because Pelias wanted to kill him since Jason was thought to be dead. Thirdly, the movie had the women of Lemnos trick and fool Jason and his crew. They did this because they were against men and wanted to kill Jason and his crew. This is contrast to the myth because in the myth, the women allowed Jason and his crew to stay there and rest. They also let them leave without trying to kill them. Fourthly, the movie had King Pelias to get killed by Jason by stabbing him then throwing him into the the water that devoured his body. In contrary, in the myth, Medea tricks Pelias’s own daughters to cut him up. Madea told them that doing that would make him younger because she demonstrated it to them, but when they tried it, they realized Pelias was dead for good. Lastly, the movie has Hercules stay through almost  the whole movie to help Jason because Hera sent him to help. Hercules gets killed by Aeetes men after a long fight. This is probably the biggest difference. First of all, in the myth Hercules abandoned them them early in the journey because his best friend Hylas was kidnapped by nymphs and Hercules would not leave without him. Second of all, Hercules does not die in the myth because he left them all and does not die until he puts on the poisoned robe that burns him then decides to die.

It was really hard to decide between the “Jason” myth and the movie Jason and the Argonauts. It was difficult because one is the actual version, and the other one was romanticised to appeal to viewers. Despite this, in the end I have to choose the “Jason” myth. I choose the myth for a couple of reasons. One of those reasons is because the movie is not completely based off the myth. I enjoy for movies to be like the novel, short story, and myth that it comes from. My second reason is because I do not like that the movie changed Jason’s role so much. I think Jason should have been portrayed in the movie like he was portrayed in the myth. In the movie he was shown to be the big dog hero who did most of the work and in the myth he was more like the captain or boss and let his crew or Madea handle things for him. That is why I prefer the “Jason” myth over the movie Jason and the Argonauts.