# Jason of the Argonauts **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 21, 2006, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jason-of-the-argonauts/381255 "2006-11-21T05:29:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2006, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jason-of-the-argonauts/381255/1 "2006-11-21T05:29:33Z")
While watching an incredibly insipid version of _Jason and the Argonauts_ where it seemed the actors were bored out of their minds while woodenly reading their lines, my mind started wandering a bit. Was “Jason” really the guy’s name, or is that merely the English version of his name? In Ancient Greek, would it have been “Jason” or something else? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Controvert](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dec6dc/32.png) [@The\_Controvert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Controvert)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2006, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jason-of-the-argonauts/381255/2 "2006-11-21T05:35:46Z")
Yes, [apparently](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jason) so. ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2006, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jason-of-the-argonauts/381255/3 "2006-11-21T05:40:44Z")
It was certainly ó Ιάσων when I did it in Greek at school. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2006, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jason-of-the-argonauts/381255/4 "2006-11-21T05:42:34Z")
Tis board doesn’t seem to reproduce Greek characters, but [here](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jason) is how Jason is spelled in the original Greek. [Parallel texts of the myth of Jason and the Argonauts](http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/argo/argo00.htm). ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2006, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jason-of-the-argonauts/381255/5 "2006-11-21T05:44:01Z")
Wouldn’t the word in Greek you guys are reproducing be pronounced “ee-ya-son”? -FrL- ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2006, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jason-of-the-argonauts/381255/6 "2006-11-21T06:01:27Z")
[QUOTE=Frylock] Wouldn’t the word in Greek you guys are reproducing be pronounced “ee-ya-son”? [/QUOTE] We pronounced it Ya-son. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2006, 9:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jason-of-the-argonauts/381255/7 "2006-11-21T09:09:14Z")
Since I don’t read Greek at all, showing me the written form doesn’t help me at all. I think I was going for pronounciation. Would “Jason” said at the time the man lived (assuming he’s not a complete fiction) sound like “Jason” or something else to my ears? ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2006, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jason-of-the-argonauts/381255/8 "2006-11-21T12:46:36Z")
The J-sound wouldn’t be there, it would be like a Y-sound. Think of German, where “Jah” is pronounced “Yah.” Ancient Eastern Mediterranean languages didn’t have a J-sound; many of them came to English as J through German, in fact; like, say, biblical names. The Hebrew was Yosef; in German, the initial Y-sound was written J, so spelled Josef (but pronounced Yosef) by Luther in his translation of the bible into German. That came into English through the German spelling, where the leading J was pronounced “J” so we got Joseph. Similarly for many Greek/Latin names, such as Iupiter = Jupiter, Iason = Jason, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2006, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jason-of-the-argonauts/381255/9 "2006-11-21T13:24:58Z")
[QUOTE=Cunctator] We pronounced it Ya-son. [/QUOTE] > [@](#): > > Location: Sydney, NSW, Australia Hm. I’d’ve thought you’d pronounce it ‘JI-sin’. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2006, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jason-of-the-argonauts/381255/10 "2006-11-21T13:50:50Z")
[QUOTE=C K Dexter Haven] Think of German, where “Jah” is pronounced “Yah.” [/QUOTE] Okay, but how many German Rastafarians _are_ there? ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2006, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jason-of-the-argonauts/381255/11 "2006-11-21T14:04:52Z")
[QUOTE=Biffy the Elephant Shrew] Okay, but how many German Rastafarians _are_ there? [/QUOTE] Well, they do have a lot of clocks. But after the number is increased by exactly one, is it decreased by exactly one? And do they have bowling alleys? ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2006, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jason-of-the-argonauts/381255/12 "2006-11-21T14:09:45Z")
The answers have been given, but I have to bring in something almost completely irrelevant. In the 1932 Weird Tales story “Wings in the Night”, Robert . Howard’s hero Solomon Kane encounters the remnants of the harpies Jason encountered, now living in the heart of Africa. The locals remwember that they were defeated far to the north by someone named “N’Yasunna” ( = “Jason”)