Posted on 06/16/2008 3:02:22 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
A replica of the Argo, the ship that according to legend carried Jason and the 50 Argonauts in search of the Golden Fleece, sailed Saturday from the central Greek city of Volos on a two-month journey to Venice in Italy.
Turkey's refusal to guarantee the 93.5-foot (28.5-meter) wooden ship safe passage through the Bosporus Strait meant that the ship will not reach its ancient predecessor's destination of Colchis, in what is modern-day Georgia, at the eastern end of the Black Sea. Its route, instead, will retrace part of the Argonauts' return trip...
The ship's crew comprises 50 oarsmen with another 22 on standby on a ship following the Argo, said Vangelis Constantinou, a spokesman for the project...
The ship was built according to known designs for warships during the Mycenaean era. The Argonauts' trip is said to have taken place in the 14th century BC, almost 200 years before the Trojan war. The ship includes a ram, used to attack and sink enemy ships.
The trip is scheduled to end in Venice on August 11.
(Excerpt) Read more at thestar.com.my ...
Thank you for the link. Though I couldn’t find anything that would limit them from passing through on their own.
“I couldnt find anything that would limit them from
passing through on their own.”
I don’t either. I think Turkey is saying “there is no way to *guarantee* the safety of a pentaconter rowing through the straights, unless we shut down all traffic in it, and we don’t want to do that.”
It’s not as if Jason had a guarentee of safe passage.
Then again, the Boreads (who could fly), Heracles, Philoctetes, Peleus, Telamon, Orpheus, Castor and Pollux, Atalanta, and Euphemus were in the crew of the first Argo. Nothing like a bunch of classic heroes and demigods to provide a guarantee of safe passage.
I think they are proving a point. It isnt the boat that was special it was the crew. These guys are a bunch of nerds afraid to go through on their own.
Odysseus did that...I don’t think Jason did it too.
Odysseus did that...I don’t think Jason did it too.
They also have a boat of “spare sailors” tagging along.
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