Jason: Circle 8, Inferno 18   Jason, leader of the Argonauts (named for the Argos, the first ship) in their quest for the golden fleece of Colchis, stands out in the first ditch among the seducers--joined in the pit by the pimps and panderers moving in the opposite direction--as a large, regal figure enduring the torments of hell with no outward sign of suffering (Inf. 18.83-5). Jason earned his place in this location through his habit of loving and leaving women: first Hypsipyle of Lemnos, whom Jason seduced and impregnated before abandoning; and then Medea (daughter of the King of Colchis), whose magic enabled Jason to obtain the fleece by yoking fire-breathing oxen to a plow and putting to sleep the dragon guarding the fleece (91-6). Jason later left Medea (whom he had married) to wed Creusa. Medea brutally avenged Jason's disaffection by murdering their two children and poisoning Jason's new wife. Dante's primary sources are Ovid (Met. 7.1-158) and Statius (Thebaid 5.403-85).