Jason and the Golden Fleece

The exploits of Jason and his Argonauts have served over the centuries as the basis for numerous translations and re-tellings, a fact which testifies to the permanent and universal appeal of this group of warriors who, in Riordan’s concluding words, ‘braved perils beyond imagination to bring the Golden Fleece back home to Greece’. In this particular version, Jason’s heroic quest is set within a narrative which focuses on the Argonauts’ muscular masculinity and their apparently endless confrontations with apparently invincible opposition. The raw passions of an ancient, mythic world and its threatening seascapes are well caught in a prose which succeeds in moving, as appropriate, between the gutsy and the poetic. Cockcroft’s full-colour artwork, dominated by richly bronzed male torsos and equally at ease with mortal and supernatural details, provides a distinct and distinguished visual accompaniment.