The Argo ("swift sailing") was a ship built by Argos of Thessaly out of beech trees from Mount Pelion. Athena aided in the construction herself. Jason and the other Argonauts sailed on the Argo in their quest for the Golden Fleece. It was the largest ship ever built, with a full fifty oars, one for each of the Argonauts. Athena fitted the bow with a figurehead of lumber cut from her sacred oaks at Dodona that could speak and had the gift of prophecy.

Some of the Argonauts included:

Jason, the captain
Atalanta of Calydn, the virgin huntress
Calais, the winged son of Boreas
Heracles, the strongest man in Greece
Peleus the myrmidon, Achilles' father
Orpheus, the Thracian bard
Polydeuces, a Spartan boxer
Nauplius the Argive, son of Poseidon and a great navigator
And that most famous of Greek heroes, Butes of Athens, the bee-master