The narrator announces that he will take his cue from Apollo to “recall the glorious deeds of men of long ago” who sailed the Argo from Hellas to Colchis to recover the golden fleece (3). Pelias initiated the quest after a prophecy warned him about a man “wearing only one sandal,” which is how the eponymous Jason appears at his court (3). To rid himself of the hero, Pelias sets him the quest, which he assumes will be so full of danger that Jason will not return.

A catalogue of the heroes who join the quest follows, including Herakles, Polymphemos of Elates, Mopsos the Titaresian, who knows how to interpret bird omens, Telamon (whose son Ajax would become famous in the Trojan war), Peleus of Pythia (father of Trojan war hero Achilles), Kastor and Polydeukes of Sparta, swift Euphemos of Tainaron, sons of Boreas Zetes and Kalais, who have wings on their feet and temples, and others. They are called the Argonauts, after their ship, the Argo, which was built with the help of Athena and outfitted with a plank from Zeus’ oracular site of Dodona.

On board the Argo, Jason asks the crew to choose a leader.