Aeetes (ee-EE-teez). Brother of Circe, father of Medea, and taskmaster of Jason. Aeetes was king of Colchis, a barbarian kingdom on the far edge of the heroic world. Here, in the sacred grove of the war god Ares, hung the golden fleece of a magical flying ram, object of a quest by the hero Jason and the Argonauts. Aeetes did not take kindly to Jason's request for the fleece and set the hero a daunting series of tasks before he would hand it over. He secretly had no intention of doing so, and it was only because his daughter Medea fell in love with Jason and came to his aid that the hero's quest was achieved.