Unchanged by any teller — how the centuries since have seen Aeetes.
The gallery
Meeting of Jason and King Aeëtes
Annibale Carracci, c. 1584
Pen-and-wash study (Staatliche Graphische Sammlung München) for Carracci's Palazzo Fava frieze: Jason stands before Aeëtes, king of Colchis and guardian of the Golden Fleece. The Colchian monarch is staged as the forbidding host who will set the fire-breathing bulls and the dragon's teeth as terms of the prize.
Jason Taming the Bulls of Aeëtes
Jean-François de Troy, 1742
Oil on canvas (Barber Institute of Fine Arts, Birmingham): Jason yokes Aeëtes' fire-breathing bulls — the first of the Colchian king's impossible labours. De Troy's wide panel makes Aeëtes' court the arena where Medea's charms let the Greek survive the king's tests.
King Aeëtes
Bartolomeo di Giovanni, 1487
Quattrocento panel figure from the Argonauts-in-Colchis cycle: Aeëtes as crowned Colchian king, son of Helios and keeper of Phrixus' fleece. Florentine narrative painting gives the eastern monarch a face — the father whose daughter Medea will betray him for Jason.
Jason Received by King Oetes
Unknown illuminator (Histoire de Jason of Raoul Lefèvre), 15th century
Illuminated manuscript illustration (British Library) for Raoul Lefèvre's Histoire de Jason: Jason before King Oetes (Aeëtes) at the Colchian court. Medieval romance reception keeps the eastern king as the host who greets the Argonauts — and sets the price for the Golden Fleece.
Aeëtes Accepts the Dismembered Corpse of Absyrtus
René Boyvin (after Léonard Thiry), 1563
Mannerist engraving from The History of Jason and the Conquest of the Golden Fleece (Yale University Art Gallery): Aeëtes receives the scattered remains of his son Absyrtus, slain so Jason and Medea can escape Colchis. The Colchian king is shown not as fleece-keeper alone but as the father whose household Medea destroys.