Pelias

Pelias, the son of Tyro and the sea-god Poseidon, was the power-hungry King of Iolcus who famously initiated the legendary quest for the Golden Fleece. After usurping the throne from his half-brother Aeson and earning the eternal enmity of the goddess Hera by violating her sanctuary to commit murder, Pelias lived in constant fear of an oracle. This prophecy warned him to beware a man wearing only one sandal.

The warning became a reality when his nephew Jason arrived in Iolcus missing a shoe, having lost it in the river Anaurus while assisting an old woman who was actually Hera in disguise. In a calculated move to eliminate his rival, Pelias promised to surrender the throne only if Jason could retrieve the Golden Fleece from the far-off land of Colchis, a task guarded by a sleepless dragon and fire-breathing bulls.

Despite Pelias’s hope that the journey would be fatal, Jason returned victorious with the Golden Fleece and the sorceress Medea. When Pelias still refused to relinquish his power, Medea orchestrated a grisly end for the king by exploiting the love of his daughters, the Peliades. She demonstrated a magical ritual where she cut up an old ram and boiled it in a cauldron, only for a young lamb to leap out.

Convinced they could similarly rejuvenate their aging father, the daughters dismembered Pelias and threw his remains into a boiling pot. However, Medea withheld her magic, leaving the daughters to realize they had murdered their own father. Although the tyrant was dead, the stain of the crime prevented Jason from taking the throne, and Pelias’s son Acastus eventually banished Jason and Medea from the kingdom.