The Argonauts were the heroes which took part with Giasone to the conquest of the Golden Fleece on the Argo ship.

Argo ship was built by shipwright Argus and the mythology tells that the ship's company was specially protected by the the goddess Hera. It is said that the ship was promoted and carried out also thanks to the help of the goddess Athena, Zeus and his first wife's daughter; she was the goddess of the wisdom, weaving, crafts and of the most noble of the war.

She provided the oak wood, able to speak and make predictions because it came from the sacred forest of Dodona, necessary for the construction of the ship.


After its long  journey, Argo was consecrated to Poseidon in the isthmus of Corinth and its audacity allowed it to be turned into a constellation, the Argo Navis.

The story is very old and was celebrated in folk songs even before Homer.

In the years before the Trojan war, there was a group of heroes called Argonauts, fifty-five navigators guided by Giasone in searching of the Golden Fleece of the Colchis.

Lots of Argonauts became famous heroes, in particular during the Trojan war. Among the most famous are the Argonauts:

• Heracles: The greatest of the Greek heroes. He was known for his twelve labors, including the killing of the Hydra of   Lerna
  
  
• The Gemini Gemini: Castor and Pollux, who were enrolled in the constellation of Gemini. They were considered as sailors' protectors.
  
  
• Nestor: Often defined as "the wisest of the Greeks". Nestor was the councillor of King Agamemnon during the Trojan war, a characher mentioned both in the Iliad and in the Odyssey.
  
  
• Theseus: Poseindon and Aethra's son. He is famous mostly for the killong of the fierce Minotaur of the labyrinth. His father, a mortal, Aegean, gave his name to the Aegean sea when he fell in those waters during the return of Theseus from Crete.