Colchian Dragon- Greek DragonDragon"Guardian of the Golden Fleece"

Origins

The Colchian Dragon was a monstrous serpent of uncertain parentage. Some traditions count it among the offspring of Typhon and Echidna, kin to Cerberus and the Hydra. Others describe it as a primordial guardian set in place by Ares, in whose sacred grove the Golden Fleece hung.

The Sleepless Guardian

The dragon lay coiled around the great oak in the sacred grove of Ares at Colchis, from whose branches hung the Golden Fleece of the ram Chrysomallos. It never slept. Its eyes stayed open night and day, scanning for any approach, and its hissing carried far beyond the grove. The beast was enormous — its crest rose above the tree, and its coils stretched across the clearing.

Medea's Sorcery

When Jason arrived in Colchis to claim the Golden Fleece, King Aeetes set him impossible tasks. Even after Jason completed them, the sleepless dragon remained. No warrior's strength could overcome it.

Medea, princess of Colchis and priestess of Hecate, led Jason to the grove by night. She invoked Hypnos, sang incantations over branches of juniper dipped in her potion, and anointed the dragon's eyes. The great serpent's coils slowly relaxed, its crest drooped, and for the first time in its existence the Colchian Dragon closed its eyes. Jason climbed over the sleeping coils, took the Golden Fleece from the oak, and fled with Medea to the Argo.

Aftermath

Some traditions say Jason or Medea killed the dragon outright. Others say it woke after the theft and raised the alarm, but too late. The dragon's teeth, like those of the serpent slain by Cadmus at Thebes, held the power to produce armed warriors when sown in the earth — Aeetes had already used a portion of them as one of Jason's trials, the sowing from which the Spartoi sprang.