The Life and Death of Jason: A Poem was published by Bell and Daldy in 1867. Morris had originally planned it as one of the tales within The Earthly Paradise, but it grew to 7,000 lines — too long for inclusion — and was published separately. The poem retells the complete Argonaut legend: Jason’s youth, the building of the Argo, the voyage to Colchis, the winning of the Golden Fleece with Medea’s help, the return voyage, and the aftermath — Jason’s abandonment of Medea and his lonely death beneath the rotting hull of the Argo.
Morris follows the ancient sources (Apollonius of Rhodes, Euripides, Ovid) but expands them with his own invention — particularly the love story between Jason and Medea, which he treats with a psychological depth unusual for Victorian narrative verse. Medea is the poem’s true center: brilliant, passionate, and ultimately betrayed. Jason is handsome and brave but morally weak — a hero who uses women and discards them.
The poem established Morris as a serious poet after the mixed reception of The Defence of Guenevere (1858). Its fluent, Chaucerian couplets demonstrated that Morris could sustain narrative across thousands of lines without monotony — a rare skill that would serve him through The Earthly Paradise and beyond.
Collecting The Life and Death of Jason
First edition (Bell and Daldy, London, 1867): Green cloth.
Market values:
- First edition, fine: $200–$600
- Very good: $80–$200