ABSTRACT
There is a splendid and at the same time telling scene in Pasolini's 1970 film 'Medea', where Jason and his Argonauts steal the Golden Fleece from the Black Sea kingdom of Colchis. The act of stealing and the way in which the army of king Aietos sets out to pursue the intruders reflects the triumph of a calculated barbarism over a complacent archaic symbolism. While Jason and his men make off as quickly as possible with the fleece, the Colchian king is caught in a web of ancient ritual without the performance of which no successful pursuance can be possible. The whole episode leaves the impression of two utterly incomparable worlds. Its mise-en-scene highlights the historical nature of the encounter by showing the superiority of new technological equipment, the power of a magic unknown, and the disrespect for ancient values in the face of the holiest. The historical act of desecration heralds a new era, in which the cosmo-royal 'structures' of Colchis will never be the same. It sparks off a sudden consciousness that Colchis is not the only kingdom in the world. Ultimately it is an image of breaking the cultural cloisonnement of the classical world prefiguring the rise of a Hellenic empire in which alien cultures do not die but 'like old soldiers simply fade away'.
