PRE-GREEK INFLUENCES

Sky god slaying the chaos dragon, Neo-Hittite relief. (© Georges Jansoone / Wikimedia Commons)

The myth of Jason and the Golden Fleece did not emerge ex nihilo. Scholars have proposed a wide range of possible influences on the developing myth, many from Near Eastern mythologies that the Greeks encountered during the Mycenaean period and in the eighth century BCE, two periods of intense Near Eastern influence on ancient Greece. The following pages provide key texts for some of these influences.

THE EPIC OF GILGAMESH
Sumerian, Akkadian, and Babylonian

INANNA AND DUMUZI
Sumerian, Akkadian, and Babylonian

ISIS AND OSIRIS
Egyptian

TESHUB AND THE DRAGON
Hattian and Hittite

ESHMUN
Phoenician

KRESNIK, PERUN, AND JARILO
Slavic

AMIRANI
Georgian

LINEAR B AND EARLY ORAL TRADITIONS
Mycenaean