Book 1
Beginning with you, Phoebus, I will recount the famous deeds of
men of old, who, at the behest of King Pelias, down through the
mouth of Pontus and between the Cyanean rocks, sped well-benched
Argo in quest of the golden fleece.
Such was the oracle that Pelias heard, that a hateful doom
awaited him to be slain at the prompting of the man whom he
should see coming forth from the people with but one sandal. And
no long time after, in accordance with that true report, Jason
crossed the stream of wintry Anaurus on foot, and saved one
sandal from the mire, but the other he left in the depths held
back by the flood. And straightway he came to Pelias to share
the banquet that the king was offering to his father Poseidon
and the rest of the gods, though he paid no honour to Pelasgian
Hera. Quickly the king saw him and pondered, and devised for him
the toil of a troublous voyage, in order that on the sea or
among strangers he might lose his home-return.
The ship, as former bards relate, Argus wrought by the
guidance of Athena. But now I will tell the lineage and the
names of the heroes, and of the long sea-paths and the deeds
they wrought in their wanderings; may the Muses be the inspirers
of my song!
First then let us name Orpheus whom once Calliope bare, it is
said, wedded to Thracian Oeagrus, near the Pimpleian height. Men
say that he by the music of his songs charmed the stubborn rocks
on the mountains and the course of rivers. And the wild
oak-trees to this day, tokens of that magic strain, that grow at
Zone on the Thracian shore, stand in ordered ranks close
together, the same which under the charm of his lyre he led down
from Pieria. Such then was Orpheus whom Aeson's son welcomed to
share his toils, in obedience to the behest of Cheiron, Orpheus
ruler of Bistonian Pieria.
Straightway came Asterion, whom Cometes begat by the waters
of eddying Apidanus; he dwelt at Peiresiae near the Phylleian
mount, where mighty Apidanus and bright Enipeus join their
streams, coming together from afar.
Next to them from Larisa came Polyphemus, son of Eilatus, who
aforetime among the mighty Lapithae, when they were arming
themselves against the Centaurs, fought in his younger days; now
his limbs were grown heavy with age, but his martial spirit
still remained, even as of old.
Nor was Iphiclus long left behind in Phylace, the uncle of
Aeson's son; for Aeson had wedded his sister Alcimede, daughter
of Phylacus: his kinship with her bade him be numbered in the
host.
Nor did Admetus, the lord of Pherae rich in sheep, stay
behind beneath the peak of the Chalcodonian mount.
Nor at Alope stayed the sons of Hermes, rich in corn-land,
well skilled in craftiness, Erytus and Echion, and with them on
their departure their kinsman Aethalides went as the third; him
near the streams of Amphrysus Eupolemeia bare, the daughter of
Myrmidon, from Phthia; the two others were sprung from
Antianeira, daughter of Menetes.
From rich Gyrton came Coronus, son of Caeneus, brave, but not
braver than his father. For bards relate that Caeneus though
still living perished at the hands of the Centaurs, when apart
from other chiefs he routed them; and they, rallying against
him, could neither bend nor slay him; but unconquered and
unflinching he passed beneath the earth, overwhelmed by the
downrush of massy pines.
There came too Titaresian Mopsus, whom above all men the son
of Leto taught the augury of birds; and Eurydamas the son of
Ctimenus; he dwelt at Dolopian Ctimene near the Xynian lake.
Moreover Actor sent his son Menoetius from Opus that he might
accompany the chiefs.
Eurytion followed and strong Eribotes, one the son of Teleon,
the other of Irus, Actor's son; the son of Teleon renowned
Eribotes, and of Irus Eurytion. A third with them was Oileus,
peerless in courage and well skilled to attack the flying foe,
when they break their ranks.
Now from Euboea came Canthus eager for the quest, whom
Canethus son of Abas sent; but he was not destined to return to
Cerinthus. For fate had ordained that he and Mopsus, skilled in
the seer's art, should wander and perish in the furthest ends of
Libya. For no ill is too remote for mortals to incur, seeing
that they buried them in Libya, as far from the Colchians as is
the space that is seen between the setting and the rising of the
sun.
To him Clytius and Iphitus joined themselves, the warders of
Oechalia, sons of Eurytus the ruthless, Eurytus, to whom the
Far-shooting god gave his bow; but he had no joy of the gift;
for of his own choice he strove even with the giver.
After them came the sons of Aeacus, not both together, nor
from the same spot; for they settled far from Aegina in exile,
when in their folly they had slain their brother Phoeus. Telamon
dwelt in the Attic island; but Peleus departed and made his home
in Phthia.
After them from Cecropia came warlike Butes, son of brave
Teleon, and Phalerus of the ashen spear. Alcon his father sent
him forth; yet no other sons had he to care for his old age and
livelihood. But him, his well-beloved and only son, he sent
forth that amid bold heroes he might shine conspicuous. But
Theseus, who surpassed all the sons of Erechtheus, an unseen
bond kept beneath the land of Taenarus, for he had followed that
path with Peirithous; assuredly both would have lightened for
all the fulfilment of their toil.
Tiphys, son of Hagnias, left the Siphaean people of the
Thespians, well skilled to foretell the rising wave on the broad
sea, and well skilled to infer from sun and star the stormy
winds and the time for sailing. Tritonian Athena herself urged
him to join the band of chiefs, and he came among them a welcome
comrade. She herself too fashioned the swift ship; and with her
Argus, son of Arestor, wrought it by her counsels. Wherefore it
proved the most excellent of all ships that have made trial of
the sea with oars.
After them came Phlias from Araethyrea, where he dwelt in
affluence by the favour of his father Dionysus, in his home by
the springs of Asopus.
From Argos came Talaus and Areius, sons of Bias, and mighty
Leodocus, all of whom Pero daughter of Neleus bare; on her
account the Aeolid Melampus endured sore affliction in the
steading of Iphiclus.
Nor do we learn that Heracles of the mighty heart disregarded
the eager summons of Aeson's son. But when he heard a report of
the heroes' gathering and had reached Lyrceian Argos from
Arcadia by the road along which he carried the boar alive that
fed in the thickets of Lampeia, near the vast Erymanthian swamp,
the boar bound with chains he put down from his huge shoulders
at the entrance to the market-place of Mycenae; and himself of
his own will set out against the purpose of Eurystheus; and with
him went Hylas, a brave comrade, in the flower of youth, to bear
his arrows and to guard his bow.
Next to him came a scion of the race of divine Danaus,
Nauplius. He was the son of Clytonaeus son of Naubolus; Naubolus
was son of Lernus; Lernus we know was the son of Proetus son of
Nauplius; and once Amymone daughter of Danaus, wedded to
Poseidon, bare Nauplius, who surpassed all men in naval skill.
Idmon came last of all them that dwelt at Argos, for though
he had learnt his own fate by augury, he came, that the people
might not grudge him fair renown. He was not in truth the son of
Abas, but Leto's son himself begat him to be numbered among the
illustrious Aeolids; and himself taught him the art of prophecy
— to pay heed to birds and to observe the signs of the burning
sacrifice.
Moreover Aetolian Leda sent from Sparta strong Polydeuces and
Castor, skilled to guide swift-footed steeds; these her
dearly-loved sons she bare at one birth in the house of
Tyndareus; nor did she forbid their departure; for she had
thoughts worthy of the bride of Zeus.
The sons of Aphareus, Lynceus and proud Idas, came from Arene,
both exulting in their great strength; and Lynceus too excelled
in keenest sight, if the report is true that that hero could
easily direct his sight even beneath the earth.
And with them Neleian Periclymenus set out to come, eldest of
all the sons of godlike Neleus who were born at Pylos; Poseidon
had given him boundless strength and granted him that whatever
shape he should crave during the fight, that he should take in
the stress of battle.
Moreover from Arcadia came Amphidamas and Cepheus, who
inhabited Tegea and the allotment of Apheidas, two sons of
Aldus; and Ancaeus followed them as the third, whom his father
Lycurgus sent, the brother older than both. But he was left in
the city to care for Aleus now growing old, while he gave his
son to join his brothers. Antaeus went clad in the skin of a
Maenalian bear, and wielding in his right hand a huge two-edged
battleaxe. For his armour his grandsire had hidden in the
house's innermost recess, to see if he might by some means still
stay his departure.
There came also Augeias, whom fame declared to be the son of
Helios; he reigned over the Eleans, glorying in his wealth; and
greatly he desired to behold the Colchian land and Aeetes
himself the ruler of the Colchians.
Asterius and Amphion, sons of Hyperasius, came from Achaean
Pellene, which once Pelles their grandsire founded on the brows
of Aegialus.
After them from Taenarus came Euphemus whom, most
swift-footed of men, Europe, daughter of mighty Tityos, bare to
Poseidon. He was wont to skim the swell of the grey sea, and did
not wet his swift feet, but just dipping the tips of his toes
was borne on the watery path.
Yea, and two other sons of Poseidon came; one Erginus, who
left the citadel of glorious Miletus, the other proud Ancaeus,
who left Parthenia, the seat of Imbrasion Hera; both boasted
their skill in seacraft and in war.
After them from Calydon came the son of Oeneus, strong
Meleagrus, and Laocoon — Laocoon the brother of Oeneus, though
not by the same mother, for a serving-woman bare him; him, now
growing old, Oeneus sent to guard his son: thus Meleagrus, still
a youth, entered the bold band of heroes. No other had come
superior to him, I ween, except Heracles, if for one year more
he had tarried and been nurtured among the Aetolians. Yea, and
his uncle, well skilled to fight whether with the javelin or
hand to hand, Iphiclus son of Thestius, bare him company on his
way.
With him came Palaemonius, son of Olenian Lernus, of Lernus
by repute, but his birth was from Hephaestus; and so he was
crippled in his feet, but his bodily frame and his valour no one
would dare to scorn. Wherefore he was numbered among all the
chiefs, winning fame for Jason.
From the Phocians came Iphitus sprung from Naubolus son of
Ornytus; once he had been his host when Jason went to Pytho to
ask for a response concerning his voyage; for there he welcomed
him in his own hails.
Next came Zetes and Calais, sons of Boreas, whom once
Oreithyia, daughter of Erechtheus, bare to Boreas on the verge
of wintry Thrace; there it was that Thracian Boreas snatched her
away from Cecropia as she was whirling in the dance, hard by
Hissus' stream. And, carrying her far off, to the spot that men
called the rock of Sarpedon, near the river Erginus, he wrapped
her in dark clouds and forced her to his will. There they were
making their dusky wings quiver on their ankles on both sides as
they rose, a great wonder to behold, wings that gleamed with
golden scales: and round their backs from the top of the head
and neck, here and there, their dark tresses were being shaken
by the wind.
No, nor had Acastus son of mighty Pelias himself any will to
stay behind in the palace of his brave sire, nor Argus, helper
of the goddess Athena; but they too were ready to be numbered in
the host.
So many then were the helpers who assembled to join the son
of Aeson. All the chiefs the dwellers thereabout called Minyae,
for the most and the bravest avowed that they were sprung from
the blood of the daughters of Minyas; thus Jason himself was the
son of Alcimede who was born of Clymene the daughter of Minyas.
Now when all things had been made ready by the thralls, all
things that fully-equipped ships are furnished withal when men's
business leads them to voyage across the sea, then the heroes
took their way through the city to the ship where it lay on the
strand that men call Magnesian Pagasae; and a crowd of people
hastening rushed together; but the heroes shone like gleaming
stars among the clouds; and each man as he saw them speeding
along with their armour would say:
"King Zeus, what is the purpose of Pelias? Where is he
driving forth from the Panachaean land so great a host of
heroes? On one day they would waste the palace of Aeetes with
baleful fire, if he should not yield them the fleece of his own
goodwill. But the path is not to be shunned, the toil is hard
for those who venture."
Thus they spoke here and there throughout the city; but the
women often raised their hands to the sky in prayer to the
immortals to grant a return, their hearts' desire. And one with
tears thus lamented to her fellow:
"Wretched Alcimede, evil has come to you at last though late,
you have not ended with splendour of life. Aeson too, ill-fated
man! Surely better had it been for him, if he were lying beneath
the earth, enveloped in his shroud, still unconscious of bitter
toils. Would that the dark wave, when the maiden Helle perished,
had overwhelmed Phrixus too with the ram; but the dire portent
even sent forth a human voice, that it might cause to Alcimede
sorrows and countless pains hereafter."
Thus the women spoke at the departure of the heroes. And now
many thralls, men and women, were gathered together, and his
mother, smitten with grief for Jason. And a bitter pang seized
every woman's heart; and with them groaned the father in baleful
old age, lying on his bed, closely wrapped round. But the hero
straightway soothed their pain, encouraging them, and bade the
thralls take up his weapons for war; and they in silence with
downcast looks took them up. And even as the mother had thrown
her arms about her son, so she clung, weeping without stint, as
a maiden all alone weeps, falling fondly on the neck of her
hoary nurse, a maid who has now no others to care for her, but
she drags on a weary life under a stepmother, who maltreats her
continually with ever fresh insults, and as she weeps, her heart
within her is bound fast with misery, nor can she sob forth all
the groans that struggle for utterance; so without stint wept
Alcimede straining her son in her arms, and in her yearning
grief spoke as follows:
"Would that on that day when, wretched woman that I am, I
heard King Pelias proclaim his evil behest, I had straightway
given up my life and forgotten my cares, so that you yourself,
my son, with thine own hands, might have buried me; for that was
the only wish left me still to be fulfilled by time, all the
other rewards for your nurture have I long enjoyed. Now I, once
so admired among Achaean women, shall be left behind like a
bondwoman in my empty halls, pining away, ill-fated one, for
love of you, you on whose account I had aforetime so much
splendour and renown, my only son for whom I loosed my virgin
zone first and last. For to me beyond others the goddess
Eileithyia grudged abundant offspring. Alas for my folly! Not
once, not even in my dreams did I forebode this, that the flight
of Phrixus would bring me woe."
Thus with moaning she wept, and her handmaidens, standing by,
lamented; but Jason spoke gently to her with comforting words:
"Do not, I pray you, mother, store up bitter sorrows
overmuch, for you will not redeem me from evil by tears, but
will still add grief to grief. For unseen are the woes that the
gods mete out to mortals; be strong to endure your share of them
though with grief in your heart; take courage from the promises
of Athena, and from the answers of the gods (for very favourable
oracles has Phoebus given), and then from the help of the
chieftains. But remain here, quiet among your handmaids, and do
not be a bird of ill omen to the ship; and there my clansmen and
thralls will follow me."
He spoke, and started forth to leave the house. And as Apollo
goes forth from some fragrant shrine to divine Delos or Claros
or Pytho or to broad Lyeia near the stream of Xanthus, in such
beauty moved Jason through the throng of people; and a cry arose
as they shouted together. And there met him aged Iphias,
priestess of Artemis guardian of the city, and kissed his right
hand, but she had not strength to say a word, for all her
eagerness, as the crowd rushed on, but she was left there by the
wayside, as the old are left by the young, and he passed on and
was gone afar.
Now when he had left the well-built streets of the city, he
came to the beach of Pagasae, where his comrades greeted him as
they stayed together near the ship Argo. And he stood at the
entering in, and they were gathered to meet him. And they
perceived Aeastus and Argus coming from the city, and they
marvelled when they saw them hasting with all speed, despite the
will of Pelias. The one, Argus, son of Arestor, had cast round
his shoulders the hide of a bull reaching to his feet, with the
black hair on it, the other, a fair mantle of double fold, which
his sister Pelopeia had given him. Still Jason forebore from
asking them about each point but bade all be seated for an
assembly. And there, on the folded sails and the mast as it lay
on the ground, they all took their seats in order. And among
them with goodwill spoke Aeson's son:
"All the equipment that a ship needs for all is in due order
— lies ready for our departure. Therefore we will make no long
delay in our sailing for these things' sake, when the breezes
but blow fair. But, friends, — for common to all is our return
to Hellas hereafter, and common to all is our path to the land
of Aeetes — now therefore with ungrudging heart choose the
bravest to be our leader, who shall be careful for everything,
to take on him our quarrels and covenants with strangers."
Thus he spoke; and the young heroes turned their eyes towards
bold Heracles sitting in their midst, and with one shout they
all enjoined on him to be their leader; but he, from the place
where he sat, stretched forth his right hand and said:
"Let no one offer this honour to me. For I will not consent,
and I will forbid any other to stand up. Let the hero who
brought us together, himself be the leader of the host."
Thus he spoke with high thoughts, and they assented, as
Heracles bade; and warlike Jason himself rose up, glad at heart,
and thus addressed the eager throng:
"If you entrust your glory to my care, no longer as before
let our path be hindered. Now at last let us propitiate Phoebus
with sacrifice and straightway prepare a feast. And till my
thralls come, the overseers of my steading, whose care it is to
choose out oxen from the herd and drive them here, we will drag
down the ship to the sea, and do you place all the tackling
within, and draw lots for the benches for rowing. Meantime let
us build on the beach an altar to Apollo Embasius (1) who by an
oracle promised to point out and show me the paths of the sea,
if by sacrifice to him I should begin my venture for King Pelias."
He spoke, and was the first to turn to the work, and they
stood up in obedience to him; and they heaped their garments,
one on the other, on a smooth stone, which the sea did not
strike with its waves, but the stormy surge had cleansed it long
before. First of all, by the command of Argus, they strongly
girded the ship with a rope well twisted within, (2) stretching
it tight on each side, in order that the planks might be well
compacted by the bolts and might withstand the opposing force of
the surge. And they quickly dug a trench as wide as the space
the ship covered, and at the prow as far into the sea as it
would run when drawn down by their hands. And they ever dug
deeper in front of the stem, and in the furrow laid polished
rollers; and inclined the ship down on the first rollers, that
so she might glide and be borne on by them. And above, on both
sides, reversing the oars, they fastened them round the thole-pins,
so as to project a cubit's space. And the heroes themselves
stood on both sides at the oars in a row, and pushed forward
with chest and hand at once. And then Tiphys leapt on board to
urge the youths to push at the right moment; and calling on them
he shouted loudly; and they at once, leaning with all their
strength, with one push started the ship from her place, and
strained with their feet, forcing her onward; and Pelian Argo
followed swiftly; and they on each side shouted as they rushed
on. And then the rollers groaned under the sturdy keel as they
were chafed, and round them rose up a dark smoke owing to the
weight, and she glided into the sea; but the heroes stood there
and kept dragging her back as she sped onward. And round the
thole-pins they fitted the oars, and in the ship they placed the
mast and the well-made sails and the stores.
Now when they had carefully paid heed to everything, first
they distributed the benches by lot, two men occupying one seat;
but the middle bench they chose for Heracles and Ancaeus apart
from the other heroes, Ancaeus who dwelt in Tegea. For them
alone they left the middle bench just as it was and not by lot;
and with one consent they entrusted Tiphys with guarding the
helm of the well-stemmed ship.
Next, piling up shingle near the sea, they raised there an
altar on the shore to Apollo, under the name of Actius (3) and
Embasius, and quickly spread above it logs of dried olive-wood.
Meantime the herdsmen of Aeson's son had driven before them from
the herd two steers. These the younger comrades dragged near the
altars, and the others brought lustral water and barley meal,
and Jason prayed, calling on Apollo the god of his fathers:
"Hear, King, that dwell in Pagasae and the city Aesonis, the
city called by my father's name, you who did promise me, when I
sought your oracle at Pytho, to show the fulfilment and goal of
my journey, for you yourself have been the cause of my venture;
now do you yourself guide the ship with my comrades safe and
sound, there and back again to Hellas. Then in your honour
hereafter we will lay again on your altar the bright offerings
of bulls — all of us who return; and other gifts in countless
numbers I will bring to Pytho and Ortygia. And now, come,
Far-darter, accept this sacrifice at our hands, which first of
all we have offered you for this ship on our embarcation; and
grant, King, that with a prosperous weird I may loose the
hawsers, relying on your counsel, and may the breeze blow softly
with which we shall sail over the sea in fair weather."
He spoke, and with his prayer cast the barley meal. And they
two girded themselves to slay the steers, proud Ancaeus and
Heracles. The latter with his club smote one steer mid-head on
the brow, and falling in a heap on the spot, it sank to the
ground; and Ancaeus struck the broad neck of the other with his
axe of bronze, and shore through the mighty sinews; and it fell
prone on both its horns. Their comrades quickly severed the
victims' throats, and flayed the hides: they sundered the joints
and carved the flesh, then cut out the sacred thigh bones, and
covering them all together closely with fat burnt them on cloven
wood. And Aeson's son poured out pure libations, and Idmon
rejoiced beholding the flame as it gleamed on every side from
the sacrifice, and the smoke of it mounting up with good omen in
dark spiral columns; and quickly he spoke outright the will of
Leto's son:
"For you it is the will of heaven and destiny that you shall
return here with the fleece; but meanwhile both going and
returning, countless trials await you. But it is my lot, by the
hateful decree of a god, to die somewhere afar off on the
mainland of Asia. Thus, though I learnt my fate from evil omens
even before now, I have left my fatherland to embark on the
ship, that so after my embarking fair fame may be left me in my
house."
Thus he spoke; and the youths hearing the divine utterance
rejoiced at their return, but grief seized them for the fate of
Idmon. Now at the hour when the sun passes his noon-tide halt
and the ploughlands are just being shadowed by the rocks, as the
sun slopes towards the evening dusk, at that hour all the heroes
spread leaves thickly on the sand and lay down in rows in front
of the hoary surf-line; and near them were spread vast stores of
viands and sweet wine, which the cupbearers had drawn off in
pitchers; afterwards they told tales one to another in turn,
such as youths often tell when at the feast and the bowl they
take delightful pastime, and insatiable insolence is far away.
But here the son of Aeson, all helpless, was brooding over each
event in his mind, like one oppressed with thought. And Idas
noted him and assailed him with loud voice:
"Son of Aeson, what is this plan you are turning over in
mind. Speak out your thought in the midst. Does fear come on and
master you, fear, that confounds cowards? Be witness now my
impetuous spear, wherewith in wars I win renown beyond all
others (nor does Zeus aid me so much as my own spear), that no
woe will be fatal, no venture will be unachieved, while Idas
follows, even though a god should oppose you. Such a helpmeet am
I that you bring from Arene."
He spoke, and holding a brimming goblet in both hands drank
off the unmixed sweet wine; and his lips and dark cheeks were
drenched with it; and all the heroes clamoured together and
Idmon spoke out openly:
"Vain wretch, you are devising destruction for yourself
before the time. Does the pure wine cause your bold heart to
swell in your breast to your ruin, and has it set you on to
dishonour the gods? Other words of comfort there are with which
a man might encourage his comrade; but you have spoken with
utter recklessness. Such taunts, the tale goes, did the sons of
Aloeus once blurt out against the blessed gods, and in no way
you equal them in valour; nevertheless they were both slain by
the swift arrows of Leto's son, mighty though they were."
Thus he spoke, and Aphareian Iclas laughed out, loud and
long, and eyeing him askance replied with biting words:
"Come now, tell me this by your prophetic art, whether for me
too the gods will bring to pass such doom as your father
promised for the sons of Aloeus. And bethink you how you will
escape from my hands alive, if you are caught making a prophecy
vain as the idle wind."
Thus in wrath Idas reviled him, and the strife would have
gone further had not their comrades and Aeson's son himself with
indignant cry restrained the contending chiefs; and Orpheus
lifted his lyre in his left hand and made essay to sing.
He sang how the earth, the heaven and the sea, once mingled
together in one form, after deadly strife were separated each
from other; and how the stars and the moon and the paths of the
sun ever keep their fixed place in the sky; and how the
mountains rose, and how the resounding rivers with their nymphs
came into being and all creeping things. And he sang how first
of all Ophion and Eurynome, daughter of Ocean, held the sway of
snowy Olympus, and how through strength of arm one yielded his
prerogative to Cronos and the other to Rhea, and how they fell
into the waves of Ocean; but the other two meanwhile ruled over
the blessed Titan-gods, while Zeus, still a child and with the
thoughts of a child, dwelt in the Dictaean cave; and the
earthborn Cyclopes had not yet armed him with the bolt, with
thunder and lightning; for these things give renown to Zeus.
He ended, and stayed his lyre and divine voice. But though he
had ceased they still bent forward with eagerness all hushed to
quiet, with ears intent on the enchanting strain; such a charm
of song had he left behind in their hearts. Not long after they
mixed libations in honour of Zeus, with pious rites as is
customary, and poured them on the burning tongues, and bethought
them of sleep in the darkness.
Now when gleaming dawn with bright eyes saw the lofty peaks
of Pelion, and the calm headlands were being drenched as the sea
was ruffled by the winds, then Tiphys awoke from sleep; and at
once he roused his comrades to go on board and make ready the
oars. And a strange cry did the harbour of Pagasae utter, yea
and Pelian Argo herself, urging them to set forth. For in her a
beam divine had been laid which Athena had brought from an oak
of Dodona and fitted in the middle of the stem. And the heroes
went to the benches one after the other, as they had previously
assigned for each to row in his place, and took their seats in
due order near their fighting gear. In the middle sat Antaeus
and mighty Heracles, and near him he laid his club, and beneath
his tread the ship's keel sank deep. And now the hawsers were
being slipped and they poured wine on the sea. But Jason with
tears held his eyes away from his fatherland. And just as youths
set up a dance in honour of Phoebus either in Pytho or haply in
Ortygia, or by the waters of Ismenus, and to the sound of the
lyre round his altar all together in time beat the earth with
swiftly-moving feet; so they to the sound of Orpheus' lyre smote
with their oars the rushing sea-water, and the surge broke over
the blades; and on this side and on that the dark brine seethed
with foam, boiling terribly through the might of the sturdy
heroes. And their arms shone in the sun like flame as the ship
sped on; and ever their wake gleamed white far behind, like a
path seen over a green plain. On that day all the gods looked
down from heaven on the ship and the might of the heroes,
half-divine, the bravest of men then sailing the sea; and on the
topmost heights the nymphs of Pelion wondered as they saw the
work of Itonian Athena, and the heroes themselves wielding the
oars. And there came down from the mountain-top to the sea
Chiron, son of Philyra, and where the white surf broke he dipped
his feet, and, often waving with his broad hand, cried out to
them at their departure, "Good speed and a sorrowless
home-return!" And with him his wife, bearing Peleus' son
Achilles on her arm, showed the child to his dear father.
Now when they had left the curving shore of the harbour
through the cunning and counsel of prudent Tiphys son of Hagnias,
who skilfully handled the well-polished helm that he might guide
them steadfastly, then at length they set up the tall mast in
the mastbox, and secured it with forestays, drawing them taut on
each side, and from it they let down the sail when they had
hauled it to the top-mast. And a breeze came down piping
shrilly; and on the deck they fastened the ropes separately
round the well-polished pins, and ran quietly past the long
Tisaean headland. And for them the son of Oeagrus touched his
lyre and sang in rhythmical song of Artemis, saviour of ships,
child of a glorious sire, who has in her keeping those peaks by
the sea, and the land of Iolcos; and the fishes came darting
through the deep sea, great mixed with small, and followed
gambolling along the watery paths. And as when in the track of
the shepherd, their master, countless sheep follow to the fold
that have fed to the full of grass, and he goes before gaily
piping a shepherd's strain on Iris shrill reed; so these fishes
followed; and a chasing breeze ever bore the ship onward.
And straightway the misty land of the Pelasgians, rich in
cornfields, sank out of sight, and ever speeding onward they
passed the rugged sides of Pelion; and the Sepian headland sank
away, and Sciathus appeared in the sea, and far off appeared
Piresiae and the calm shore of Magnesia on the mainland and the
tomb of Dolops; here then in the evening, as the wind blew
against them, they put to land, and paying honour to him at
nightfall burnt sheep as victims, while the sea was tossed by
the swell: and for two days they lingered on the shore, but on
the third day they put forth the ship, spreading on high the
broad sail. And even now men call that beach Aphetae (4) of
Argo.
Thence going forward they ran past Meliboea, escaping a
stormy beach and surf-line. And in the morning they saw Homole
close at hand leaning on the sea, and skirted it, and not long
after they were about to pass by the outfall of the river Amyrus.
From there they saw Eurymenae and the sea-washed ravines of Ossa
and Olympus; next they reached the slopes of Pallene, beyond the
headland of Canastra, running all night with the wind. And at
dawn before them as they journeyed rose Athos, the Thracian
mountain, which with its topmost peak overshadows Lemnos, even
as far as Myrine, though it lies as far off as the space that a
well-trimmed merchantship would traverse up to mid-day. For them
on that day, till darkness fell, the breeze blew exceedingly
fresh, and the sails of the ship strained to it. But with the
setting of the sun the wind left them, and it was by the oars
that they reached Lemnos, the Sintian isle.
Here the whole of the men of the people together had been
ruthlessly slain through the transgressions of the women in the
year gone by. For the men had rejected their lawful wives,
loathing them, and had conceived a fierce passion for captive
maids whom they themselves brought across the sea from their
forays in Thrace; for the terrible wrath of Cypris came on them,
because for a long time they had grudged her the honours due.
Hapless women, and insatiate in jealousy to their own ruin! Not
their husbands alone with the captives did they slay on account
of the marriage-bed, but all the males at the same time, that
they might thereafter pay no retribution for the grim murder.
And of all the women, Hypsipyle alone spared her aged father
Thoas, who was king over the people; and she sent him in a
hollow chest, to drift over the sea, if haply he should escape.
And fishermen dragged him to shore at the island of Oenoe,
formerly Oenoe, but afterwards called Sicinus from Sicinus, whom
the water-nymph Oenoe bore to Thoas. Now for all the women to
tend kine, to don armour of bronze, and to cleave with the
plough-share the wheat-bearing fields, was easier than the works
of Athena, with which they were busied aforetime. Yet for all
that did they often gaze over the broad sea, in grievous fear
against the Thracians' coming. So when they saw Argo being rowed
near the island, straightway crowding in multitude from the
gates of Myrine and clad in their harness of war, they poured
forth to the beach like ravening Thyiades: for they deemed that
the Thracians were come; and with them Hypsipyle, daughter of
Thoas, donned her father's harness. And they streamed down
speechless with dismay; such fear was wafted about them.
Meantime from the ship the chiefs had sent Aethalides the
swift herald, to whose care they entrusted their messages and
the wand of Hermes, his sire, who had granted him a memory of
all things, that never grew dim; and not even now, though he has
entered the unspeakable whirlpools of Acheron, has forgetfulness
swept over his soul, but its fixed doom is to be ever changing
its abode; at one time to be numbered among the dwellers beneath
the earth, at another to be in the light of the sun among living
men. But why need I tell at length tales of Aethalides? He at
that time persuaded Hypsipyle to receive the new-comers as the
day was waning into darkness; nor yet at dawn did they loose the
ship's hawsers to the breath of the north wind.
Now the Lemnian women fared through the city and sat down to
the assembly, for Hypsipyle herself had so bidden. And when they
were all gathered together in one great throng straightway she
spoke among them with stirring words:
"O friends, come let us grant these men gifts to their
hearts' desire, such as it is fitting that they should take on
ship-board, food and sweet wine, in order that they may
steadfastly remain outside our towers, and may not, passing
among us for need's sake, get to know us all too well, and so an
evil report be widely spread; for we have wrought a terrible
deed and in nowise will it be to their liking, should they learn
it. Such is our counsel now, but if any of you can devise a
better plan let her rise, for it was on this account that I
summoned you here."
Thus she spoke and sat on her father's seat of stone, and
then rose up her dear nurse Polyxo, for very age halting on her
withered feet, bowed over a staff, and she was eager to address
them. Near her were seated four virgins, unwedded, crowned with
white hair. And she stood in the midst of the assembly and from
her bent back she feebly raised her neck and spoke thus:
"Gifts, as Hypsipyle herself wishes, let us send to the
strangers, for it is better to give them. But for you what
device have you to get profit of your life if the Thracian host
fall on us, or some other foe, as often happens among men, even
as now this company is come unforeseen? But if one of the
blessed gods should turn this aside yet countless other woes,
worse than battle, remain behind, when the aged women die off
and you younger ones, without children, reach hateful old age.
How then will you live, hapless ones? Will your oxen of their
own accord yoke themselves for the deep plough-lands and draw
the earth-cleaving share through the fallow, and forthwith, as
the year comes round, reap the harvest? Assuredly, though the
fates till now have shunned me in horror, I deem that in the
coming year I shall put on the garment of earth, when I have
received my meed of burial even so as is right, before the evil
days draw near. But I bid you who are younger give good heed to
this. For now a way of escape lies open at your feet, if you
trust to the strangers the care of your homes and all your stock
and your glorious city."
Thus she spoke, and the assembly was filled with clamour. For
the word pleased them. And after her straightway Hypsipyle rose
up again, and thus spoke in reply.
"If this purpose please all of you, I will now send a
messenger to the ship."
She spoke and addressed Iphinoe close at hand: "Go, Iphinoe,
and beg the man over there, whoever it is that leads this array,
to come to our land that I may tell him a word that pleases the
heart of my people, and bid the men themselves, if they wish,
boldly enter the land and the city with friendly intent."
She spoke, and dismissed the assembly, and thereafter started
to return home. And so Iphinoe came to the Minyae; and they
asked with what intent she had come among them. And quickly she
addressed her questioners with all speed in these words:
"The maiden Hypsipyle daughter of Thoas, sent me on my way
here to you, to summon the captain of your ship, whoever he be,
that she may tell him a word that pleases the heart of the
people, and she bids yourselves, if you wish it, straightway
enter the land and the city with friendly intent."
Thus she spoke and the speech of good omen pleased all. And
they deemed that Thoas was dead and that his beloved daughter
Hypsipyle was queen, and quickly they sent Jason on his way and
themselves made ready to go.
Now he had buckled round his shoulders a purple mantle of
double fold, the work of the Tritonian goddess, which Pallas had
given him when she first laid the keel-props of the ship Argo
and taught him how to measure timbers with the rule. More easily
you would cast your eyes on the sun at its rising than behold
that blazing splendour. For indeed in the middle the fashion
thereof was red, but at the ends it was all purple, and on each
margin many separate devices had been skilfully inwoven.
In it were the Cyclops seated at their imperishable work,
forging a thunderbolt for King Zeus; by now it was almost
finished in its brightness and still it wanted but one ray,
which they were beating out with their iron hammers as it
spurted forth a breath of raging flame.
In it too were the twin sons of Antiope, daughter of Asopus,
Amphion and Zethus, and Thebe still ungirt with towers was lying
near, whose foundations they were just then laying in eager
haste. Zethus on his shoulders was lifting the peak of a steep
mountain, like a man toiling hard, and Amphion after him,
singing loud and clear on his golden lyre, moved on, and a rock
twice as large followed his footsteps.
Next in order had been wrought Cytherea with drooping
tresses, wielding the swift shield of Ares; and from her
shoulder to her left arm the fastening of her tunic was loosed
beneath her breast; and opposite in the shield of bronze her
image appeared clear to view as she stood.
And in it there was a well-wooded pasturage of oxen; and
about the oxen the Teleboae and the sons of Eleetryon were
fighting; the one party defending themselves, the others, the
Taphian raiders, longing to rob them; and the dewy meadow was
drenched with their blood, and the many were overmastering the
few herdsmen.
And therein were fashioned two chariots, racing, and the one
in front Pelops was guiding, as he shook the reins, and with him
was Hippodameia at his side, and in pursuit Myrtilus urged his
steeds, and with him Oenomaus had grasped his couched spear, but
fell as the axle swerved and broke in the nave, while he was
eager to pierce the back of Pelops.
And in it was wrought Phoebus Apollo, a stripling not yet
grown up, in the act of shooting at mighty Tityos who was boldly
dragging his mother by her veil, Tityos whom glorious Elate
bare, but Earth nursed him and gave him second birth.
And in it was Phrixus the Minyan as though he were in very
deed listening to the ram, while it was like one speaking.
Beholding them you would be silent and would cheat your soul
with the hope of hearing some wise speech from them, and long
would you gaze with that hope.
Such then were the gifts of the Tritonian goddess Athena. And
in his right hand Jason held a fardarting spear, which Atalanta
gave him once as a gift of hospitality in Maenalus as she met
him gladly; for she eagerly desired to follow on that quest; but
he himself of his own accord prevented the maid, for he feared
bitter strife on account of her love.
And he went on his way to the city like to a bright star,
which maidens, pent up in new-built chambers, behold as it rises
above their homes, and through the dark air it charms their eyes
with its fair red gleam and the maid rejoices, love-sick for the
youth who is far away amid strangers, for whom her parents are
keeping her to be his bride; like to that star the hero trod the
way to the city. And when they had passed within the gates and
the city, the women of the people surged behind them, delighting
in the stranger, but he with his eyes fixed on the ground fared
straight on, till he reached the glorious palace of Hypsipyle;
and when he appeared the maids opened the folding doors, fitted
with well-fashioned panels. Here Iphinoe leading him quickly
through a fair porch set him on a shining seat opposite her
mistress, but Hypsipyle turned her eyes aside and a blush
covered her maiden cheeks, yet for all her modesty she addressed
him with crafty words:
"Stranger, why stay you so long outside our towers? for the
city is not inhabited by the men, but they, as sojourners,
plough the wheat-bearing fields of the Thracian mainland. And I
will tell out truly all our evil plight, that you yourselves too
may know it well. When my father Thoas reigned over the
citizens, then our folk starting from their homes used to
plunder from their ships the dwellings of the Thracians who live
opposite, and they brought back here measureless booty and
maidens too. But the counsel of the baneful goddess Cypris was
working out its accomplishment, who brought on them soul
destroying infatuation. For they hated their lawful wives, and,
yielding to their own mad folly, drove them from their homes;
and they took to their beds the captives of their spear, cruel
ones. Long in truth we endured it, if haply again, though late,
they might change their purpose, but ever the bitter woe grew,
twofold. And the lawful children were being dishonoured in their
halls, and a bastard race was rising. And thus unmarried maidens
and widowed mothers too wandered uncared for through the city;
no father heeded his daughter ever so little even though he
should see her done to death before his eyes at the hands of an
insolent step-dame, nor did sons, as before, defend their mother
against unseemly outrage; nor did brothers care at heart for
their sister. But in their homes, in the dance, in the assembly
and the banquet all their thought was only for their captive
maidens; till some god put desperate courage in our hearts no
more to receive our lords on their return from Thrace within our
towers so that they might either heed the right or might depart
and begone elsewhither, they and their captives. So they begged
of us all the male children that were left in the city and went
back to where even now they dwell on the snowy tilths of Thrace.
Do you therefore stay and settle with us; and should you desire
to dwell here, and this finds favour with you, assuredly you
shall have the prerogative of my father Thoas; and I deem that
you will not scorn our land at all; for it is deep-soiled beyond
all other islands that lie in the Aegaean sea. But come now,
return to the ship and relate my words to your comrades, and
stay not outside our city."
She spoke, glozing over the murder that had been wrought on
the men; and Jason addressed her in answer:
"Hypsipyle, very dear to our hearts is the help we shall meet
with, which you grant to us who need you. And I will return
again to the city when I have told everything in order due. But
let the sovereignty of the island be thine; it is not in scorn I
yield it up, but grievous trials urge me on."
He spoke, and touched her right hand; and quickly he turned
to go back: and round him the young maids on every side danced
in countless numbers in their joy till he passed through the
gates. And then they came to the shore in smooth-running wains,
bearing with them many gifts, when now he had related from
beginning to end the speech which Hypsipyle had spoken when she
summoned them; and the maids readily led the men back to their
homes for entertainment. For Cypris stirred in them a sweet
desire, for the sake of Hephaestus of many counsels, in order
that Lemnos might be again inhabited by men and not be ruined.
Thereupon Aeson's son started to go to the royal home of
Hypsipyle; and the rest went each his way as chance took them,
all but Heracles; for he of his own will was left behind by the
ship and a few chosen comrades with him. And straightway the
city rejoiced with dances and banquets, being filled with the
steam of sacrifice; and above all the immortals they propitiated
with songs and sacrifices the illustrious son of Hera and Cypris
herself. And the sailing was ever delayed from one day to
another; and long would they have lingered there, had not
Heracles, gathering together his comrades apart from the women,
thus addressed them with reproachful words:
"Wretched men, does the murder of kindred keep us from our
native land? Or is it in want of marriage that we have come here
from thence, in scorn of our countrywomen? Does it please us to
dwell here and plough the rich soil of Lemnos? No fair renown
shall we win by thus tarrying so long with stranger women; nor
will some god seize and give us at our prayer a fleece that
moves of itself. Let us then return each to his own; but him
leave you to rest all day long in the embrace of Hypsipyle till
he has peopled Lemnos with men-children, and so there come to
him great glory."
Thus did he chide the band; but no one dared to meet his eye
or to utter a word in answer. But just as they were in the
assembly they made ready their departure in all haste, and the
women came running towards them, when they knew their intent.
And as when bees hum round fair lilies pouring forth from their
hive in the rock, and all around the dewy meadow rejoices, and
they gather the sweet fruit, flitting from one to another; even
so the women eagerly poured forth clustering round the men with
loud lament, and greeted each one with hands and voice, praying
the blessed gods to grant him a safe return. And so Hypsipyle
too prayed, seizing the hands of Aeson's son, and her tears
flowed for the loss of her lover:
"Go, and may heaven bring you back again with your comrades
unharmed, bearing to the king the golden fleece, even as you
will and your heart desireth; and this island and my father's
sceptre will be awaiting you, if on your return hereafter you
should choose to come here again; and easily you could gather a
countless host of men from other cities. But you will not have
this desire, nor do I myself forbode that so it will be. Still
remember Hypsipyle when you are far away and when you have
returned; and leave me some word of bidding, which I will gladly
accomplish, if haply heaven shall grant me to be a mother."
And Aeson's son in admiration thus replied: "Hypsipyle, so
may all these things prove propitious by the favour of the
blessed gods. But do you hold a nobler thought of me, since by
the grace of Pelias it is enough for me to dwell in my native
land; may the gods only release me from my toils. But if it is
not my destiny to sail afar and return to the land of Hellas,
and if you should bear a male child, send him when grown up to
Pelasgian Iolcus, to heal the grief of my father and mother if
so be that he find them still living, in order that, far away
from the king, they may be cared for by their own hearth in
their home."
He spoke, and mounted the ship first of all; and so the rest
of the chiefs followed, and, sitting in order, seized the oars;
and Argus loosed for them the hawsers from under the sea-beaten
rock. Whereupon they mightily smote the water with their long
oars, and in the evening by the injunctions of Orpheus they
touched at the island of Electra, (5) daughter of Atlas, in
order that by gentle initiation they might learn the rites that
may not be uttered, and so with greater safety sail over the
chilling sea. Of these I will make no further mention; but I bid
farewell to the island itself and the indwelling deities, to
whom belong those mysteries, which it is not lawful for me to
sing.
Thence did they row with eagerness over the depths of the
black Sea, having on the one side the land of the Thracians, on
the other Imbros on the south; and as the sun was just setting
they reached the foreland of the Chersonesus. There a strong
south wind blew for them; and raising the sails to the breeze
they entered the swift stream of the maiden daughter of Athamas;
and at dawn the sea to the north was left behind and at night
they were coasting inside the Rhoeteian shore, with the land of
Ida on their right. And leaving Dardania they directed their
course to Abydus, and after it they sailed past Percote and the
sandy beach of Abarnis and divine Pityeia. And in that night, as
the ship sped on by sail and oar, they passed right through the
Hellespont dark-gleaming with eddies.
There is a lofty island inside the Propontis, a short
distance from the Phrygian mainland with its rich cornfields,
sloping to the sea, where an isthmus in front of the mainland is
flooded by the waves, so low does it lie. And the isthmus has
double shores, and they lie beyond the river Aesepus, and the
inhabitants round about call the island the Mount of Bears. And
insolent and fierce men dwell there, Earthborn, a great marvel
to the neighbours to behold; for each one has six mighty hands
to lift up, two from his sturdy shoulders, and four below,
fitting close to his terrible sides. And about the isthmus and
the plain the Doliones had their dwelling, and over them Cyzicus
son of Aeneus was king, whom Aenete the daughter of goodly
Eusorus bare. But these men the Earthborn monsters, fearful
though they were, in nowise harried, owing to the protection of
Poseidon; for from him had the Doliones first sprung. There Argo
pressed on, driven by the winds of Thrace, and the Fair haven
received her as she sped. There they cast away their small
anchorstone by the advice of Tiphys and left it beneath a
fountain, the fountain of Artaeie; and they took another meet
for their purpose, a heavy one; but the first, according to the
oracle of the Far-Darter, the Ionians, sons of Neleus, in after
days laid to be a sacred stone, as was right, in the temple of
Jasonian Athena.
Now the Doliones and Cyzicus himself all came together to
meet them with friendliness, and when they knew of the quest and
their lineage welcomed them with hospitality, and persuaded them
to row further and to fasten their ship's hawsers at the city
harbour. Here they built an altar to Ecbasian Apollo (6) and set
it up on the beach, and gave heed to sacrifices. And the king of
his own bounty gave them sweet wine and sheep in their need; for
he had heard a report that whenever a godlike band of heroes
should come, straightway he should meet it with gentle words and
should have no thought of war. As with Jason, the soft down was
just blooming on his chin, nor yet had it been his lot to
rejoice in children, but still in his palace his wife was
untouched by the pangs of child-birth, the daughter of Percosian
Merops, fair-haired Cleite, whom lately by priceless gifts he
had brought from her father's home from the mainland opposite.
But even so he left his chamber and bridal bed and prepared a
banquet among the strangers, casting all fears from his heart.
And they questioned one another in turn. Of them would he learn
the end of their voyage and the injunctions of Pelias; while
they enquired about the cities of the people round and all the
gulf of the wide Propontis; but further he could not tell them
for all their desire to learn. In the morning they climbed
mighty Dindymum that they might themselves behold the various
paths of that sea; and they brought their ship from its former
anchorage to the harbour, Chytus; and the path they trod is
named the path of Jason.
But the Earthborn men on the other side rushed down from the
mountain and with crags below blocked up the mouth of vast
Chytus towards the sea, like men lying in wait for a wild beast
within. But there Heracles had been left behind with the younger
heroes and he quickly bent his back-springing bow against the
monsters and brought them to earth one after another; and they
in their turn raised huge ragged rocks and hurled them. For
these dread monsters too, I ween, the goddess Hera, bride of
Zeus, had nurtured to be a trial for Heracles. And therewithal
came the rest of the martial heroes returning to meet the foe
before they reached the height of outlook, and they fell to the
slaughter of the Earthborn, receiving them with arrows and
spears till they slew them all as they rushed fiercely to
battle. And as when woodcutters cast in rows on the beach long
trees just hewn down by their axes, in order that, once sodden
with brine, they may receive the strong bolts; so these monsters
at the entrance of the foam-fringed harbour lay stretched one
after another, some in heaps bending their heads and breasts
into the salt waves with their limbs spread out above on the
land; others again were resting their heads on the sand of the
shore and their feet in the deep water, both alike a prey to
birds and fishes at once.
But the heroes, when the contest was ended without fear,
loosed the ship's hawsers to the breath of the wind and pressed
on through the sea-swell. And the ship sped on under sail all
day; but when night came the rushing wind did not hold
steadfast, but contrary blasts caught them and held them back
till they again approached the hospitable Doliones. And they
stepped ashore that same night; and the rock is still called the
Sacred Rock round which they threw the ship's hawsers in their
haste. Nor did anyone note with care that it was the same
island; nor in the night did the Doliones clearly perceive that
the heroes were returning; but they deemed that Pelasgian
war-men of the Macrians had landed. Therefore they donned their
armour and raised their hands against them. And with clashing of
ashen spears and shields they fell on each other, like the swift
rush of fire which falls on dry brushwood and rears its crest;
and the din of battle, terrible and furious, fell on the people
of the Doliones. Nor was the king to escape his fate and return
home from battle to his bridal chamber and bed. But Aeson's son
leapt on him as he turned to face him, and smote him in the
middle of the breast, and the bone was shattered round the
spear; he rolled forward in the sand and filled up the measure
of his fate. For that no mortal may escape; but on every side a
wide snare encompasses us. And so, when he thought that he had
escaped bitter death from the chiefs, fate entangled him that
very night in her toils while battling with them; and many
champions withal were slain; Heracles killed Telecles and
Megabrontes, and Acastus slew Sphodris; and Peleus slew Zelus
and Gephyrus swift in war. Telamon of the strong spear slew
Basileus. And Idas slew Promeus, and Clytius Hyacinthus, and the
two sons of Tyndareus slew Megalossaces and Phlogius. And after
them the son of Oeneus slew bold Itomeneus, and Artaceus, leader
of men; all of whom the inhabitants still honour with the
worship due to heroes. And the rest gave way and fled in terror
just as doves fly in terror before swift-winged hawks. And with
a din they rustled in a body to the gates; and quickly the city
was filled with loud cries at the turning of the dolorous fight.
But at dawn both sides perceived the fatal and cureless error;
and bitter grief seized the Minyan heroes when they saw before
them Cyzicus son of Aeneus fallen in the midst of dust and
blood. And for three whole days they lamented and rent their
hair, they and the Dollones. Then three times round his tomb
they paced in armour of bronze and performed funeral rites and
celebrated games, as was meet, on the meadow-plain, where even
now rises the mound of his grave to be seen by men of a later
day. No, nor was his bride Cleite left behind her dead husband,
but to crown the ill she wrought an ill yet more awful, when she
clasped a noose round her neck. Her death even the nymphs of the
grove bewailed; and of all the tears for her that they shed to
earth from their eyes the goddesses made a fountain, which they
call Cleite, (7) the illustrious name of the hapless maid. Most
terrible came that day from Zeus on the Doliones, women and men;
for no one of them dared even to taste food, nor for a long time
by reason of grief did they take thought for the toil of the
cornmill, but they dragged on their lives eating their food as
it was, untouched by fire. Here even now, when the Ionians that
dwell in Cyzicus pour their yearly libations for the dead, they
ever grind the meal for the sacrificial cakes at the common
mill. (8)
After this, fierce tempests arose for twelve days and nights
together and kept them there from sailing. But in the next night
the rest of the chieftains, overcome by sleep, were resting
during the latest period of the night, while Acastus and Mopsus
the son of Ampyeus kept guard over their deep slumbers. And
above the golden head of Aeson's son there hovered a halcyon
prophesying with shrill voice the ceasing of the stormy winds;
and Mopsus heard and understood the cry of the bird of the
shore, fraught with good omen. And some god made it turn aside,
and flying aloft it settled on the stern-ornament of the ship.
And the seer touched Jason as he lay wrapped in soft sheepskins
and woke him at once, and thus spoke:
"Son of Aeson, you must climb to this temple on rugged
Dindymum and propitiate the mother (9) of all the blessed gods
on her fair throne, and the stormy blasts shall cease. For such
was the voice I heard but now from the halcyon, bird of the sea,
which, as it flew above you in your slumber, told me all. For by
her power the winds and the sea and all the earth below and the
snowy seat of Olympus are complete; and to her, when from the
mountains she ascends the mighty heaven, Zeus himself, the son
of Cronos, gives place. In like manner the rest of the immortal
blessed ones reverence the dread goddess."
Thus he spoke, and his words were welcome to Jason's ear. And
he arose from his bed with joy and woke all his comrades
hurriedly and told them the prophecy of Mopsus the son of
Ampycus. And quickly the younger men drove oxen from their
stalls and began to lead them to the mountain's lofty summit.
And they loosed the hawsers from the sacred rock and rowed to
the Thracian harbour; and the heroes climbed the mountain,
leaving a few of their comrades in the ship. And to them the
Macrian heights and all the coast of Thrace opposite appeared to
view close at hand. And there appeared the misty mouth of
Bosporus and the Mysian hills; and on the other side the stream
of the river Aesepus and the city and Nepeian plain of Adrasteia.
Now there was a sturdy stump of vine that grew in the forest, a
tree exceeding old; this they cut down, to be the sacred image
of the mountain goddess; and Argus smoothed it skilfully, and
they set it on that rugged hill beneath a canopy of lofty oaks,
which of all trees have their roots deepest. And near it they
heaped an altar of small stones, and wreathed their brows with
oak leaves and paid heed to sacrifice, invoking the mother of
Dindymum, most venerable, dweller in Phrygia, and Titias and
Cyllenus, who alone of many are called dispensers of doom and
assessors of the Idaean mother, — the Idaean Dactyls of Crete,
whom once the nymph Anchiale, as she grasped with both hands the
land of Oaxus, bare in the Dictaean cave. And with many prayers
did Aeson's son beseech the goddess to turn aside the stormy
blasts as he poured libations on the blazing sacrifice; and at
the same time by command of Orpheus the youths trod a measure
dancing in full armour, and clashed with their swords on their
shields, so that the ill-omened cry might be lost in the air the
wail which the people were still sending up in grief for their
king. Hence from that time forward the Phrygians propitiate Rhea
with the wheel and the drum. And the gracious goddess, I ween,
inclined her heart to pious sacrifices; and favourable signs
appeared. The trees shed abundant fruit, and round their feet
the earth of its own accord put forth flowers from the tender
grass. And the beasts of the wild wood left their lairs and
thickets and came up fawning on them with their tails. And she
caused yet another marvel; for hitherto there was no flow of
water on Dindymum, but then for them an unceasing stream gushed
forth from the thirsty peak just as it was, and the dwellers
around in after times called that stream, the spring of Jason.
And then they made a feast in honour of the goddess on the Mount
of Bears, singing the praises of Rhea most venerable; but at
dawn the winds had ceased and they rowed away from the island.
Thereupon a spirit of contention stirred each chieftain, who
should be the last to leave his oar. For all around the windless
air smoothed the swirling waves and lulled the sea to rest. And
they, trusting in the calm, mightily drove the ship forward; and
as she sped through the salt sea, not even the storm-footed
steeds of Poseidon would have overtaken her. Nevertheless when
the sea was stirred by violent blasts which were just rising
from the rivers about evening, forspent with toil, they ceased.
But Heracles by the might of his arms pulled the weary rowers
along all together, and made the strong-knit timbers of the ship
to quiver. But when, eager to reach the Mysian mainland, they
passed along in sight of the mouth of Rhyndaeus and the great
cairn of Aegaeon, a little way from Phrygia, then Heracles, as
he ploughed up the furrows of the roughened surge, broke his oar
in the middle. And one half he held in both his hands as he fell
sideways, the other the sea swept away with its receding wave.
And he sat up in silence glaring round; for his hands were
unaccustomed to he idle.
Now at the hour when from the field some delver or ploughman
goes gladly home to his hut, longing for his evening meal, and
there on the threshold, all squalid with dust, bows his wearied
knees, and, beholding his hands worn with toil, with many a
curse reviles his belly; at that hour the heroes reached the
homes of the Cianian land near the Arganthonian mount and the
outfall of Cius. Them as they came in friendliness, the Mysians,
inhabitants of that land, hospitably welcomed, and gave them in
their need provisions and sheep and abundant wine. Hereupon some
brought dried wood, others from the meadows leaves for beds
which they gathered in abundance for strewing, whilst others
were twirling sticks to get fire; others again were mixing wine
in the bowl and making ready the feast, after sacrificing at
nightfall to Apollo Ecbasius.
But the son of Zeus having duly enjoined on his comrades to
prepare the feast took his way into a wood, that he might first
fashion for himself an oar to fit his hand. Wandering about he
found a pine not burdened with many branches, nor too full of
leaves, but like to the shaft of a tall poplar; so great was it
both in length and thickness to look at. And quickly he laid on
the ground his arrow-holding quiver together with his bow, and
took off his lion's skin. And he loosened the pine from the
ground with his bronze-tipped club and grasped the trunk with
both hands at the bottom, relying on his strength; and he
pressed it against his broad shoulder with legs wide apart; and
clinging close he raised it from the ground deep-rooted though
it was, together with clods of earth. And as when unexpectedly,
just at the time of the stormy setting of baleful Orion, a swift
gust of wind strikes down from above, and wrenches a ship's mast
from its stays, wedges and all; so did Heracles lift the pine.
And at the same time he took up his bow and arrows, his lion
skin and club, and started on his return.
Meantime Hylas with pitcher of bronze in hand had gone apart
from the throng, seeking the sacred flow of a fountain, that he
might be quick in drawing water for the evening meal and
actively make all things ready in due order against his lord's
return. For in such ways did Heracles nurture him from his first
childhood when he had carried him off from the house of his
father, goodly Theiodamas, whom the hero pitilessly slew among
the Dryopians because he withstood him about an ox for the
plough. Theiodamas was cleaving with his plough the soil of
fallow land when he was smitten with the curse; and Heracles
bade him give up the ploughing ox against his will. For he
desired to find some pretext for war against the Dryopians for
their bane, since they dwelt there reckless of right. But these
tales would lead me far astray from my song. And quickly Hylas
came to the spring which the people who dwell thereabouts call
Pegae. And the dances of the nymphs were just now being held
there; for it was the care of all the nymphs that haunted that
lovely headland ever to hymn Artemis in songs by night. All who
held the mountain peaks or glens, all they were ranged far off
guarding the woods; but one, a water-nymph was just rising from
the fair-flowing spring; and the boy she perceived close at hand
with the rosy flush of his beauty and sweet grace. For the full
moon beaming from the sky smote him. And Cypris made her heart
faint, and in her confusion she could scarcely gather her spirit
back to her. But as soon as he dipped the pitcher in the stream,
leaning to one side, and the brimming water rang loud as it
poured against the sounding bronze, straightway she laid her
left arm above on his neck yearning to kiss his tender mouth;
and with her right hand she drew down his elbow, and plunged him
into the midst of the eddy.
Alone of his comrades the hero Polyphemus, son of Eilatus, as
he went forward on the path, heard the boy's cry, for he
expected the return of mighty Heracles. And he rushed after the
cry, near Pegae, like some beast of the wild wood whom the
bleating of sheep has reached from afar, and burning with hunger
he follows, but does not fall in with the flocks; for the
shepherds beforehand have penned them in the fold, but he groans
and roars vehemently till he is weary. Thus vehemently at that
time did the son of Eilatus groan and wandered shouting round
the spot; and his voice rang piteous. Then quickly drawing his
great sword he started in pursuit, in fear lest the boy should
be the prey of wild beasts, or men should have lain in ambush
for him faring all alone, and be carrying him off, an easy prey.
Hereupon as he brandished his bare sword in his hand he met
Heracles himself on the path, and well he knew him as he
hastened to the ship through the darkness. And straightway he
told the wretched calamity while his heart laboured with his
panting breath.
"My poor friend, I shall be the first to bring you tidings of
bitter woe. Hylas has gone to the well and has not returned
safe, but robbers have attacked and are carrying him off, or
beasts are tearing him to pieces; I heard his cry."
Thus he spoke; and when Heracles heard his words, sweat in
abundance poured down from his temples and the black blood
boiled beneath his heart. And in wrath he hurled the pine to the
ground and hurried along the path where his feet bore on his
impetuous soul. And as when a bull stung by a gadfly tears
along, leaving the meadows and the marsh land, and recks not of
herdsmen or herd, but presses on, now without cheek, now
standing still, and raising his broad neck he bellows loudly,
stung by the maddening fly; so he in his frenzy now would ply
his swift knees unresting, now again would cease from toil and
shout afar with loud pealing cry.
But straightway the morning star rose above the topmost peaks
and the breeze swept down; and quickly did Tiphys urge them to
go aboard and avail themselves of the wind. And they embarked
eagerly forthwith; and they drew up the ship's anchors and
hauled the ropes astern. And the sails were bellied out by the
wind, and far from the coast were they joyfully borne past the
Posideian headland. But at the hour when gladsome dawn shines
from heaven, rising from the east, and the paths stand out
clearly, and the dewy plains shine with a bright gleam, then at
length they were aware that unwittingly they had abandoned those
men. And a fierce quarrel fell on them, and violent tumult, for
that they had sailed and left behind the bravest of their
comrades. And Aeson's son, bewildered by their hapless plight,
said never a word, good or bad; but sat with his heavy load of
grief, eating out his heart. And wrath seized Telamon, and thus
he spoke:
"Sit there at your ease, for it was fitting for you to leave
Heracles behind; from you the project arose, so that his glory
throughout Hellas should not overshadow you, if so be that
heaven grants us a return home. But what pleasure is there in
words? For I will go, I only, with none of your comrades, who
have helped you to plan this treachery."
He spoke, and rushed on Tiphys son of Hagnias; and his eyes
sparkled like flashes of ravening flame. And they would quickly
have turned back to the land of the Mysians, forcing their way
through the deep sea and the unceasing blasts of the wind, had
not the two sons of Thracian Boreas held back the son of Aeacus
with harsh words. Hapless ones, assuredly a bitter vengeance
came on them thereafter at the hands of Heracles, because they
stayed the search for him. For when they were returning from the
games over Pelias dead he slew them in sea-girt Tenos and heaped
the earth round them, and placed two columns above, one of
which, a great marvel for men to see, moves at the breath of the
blustering north wind. These things were thus to be accomplished
in after times. But to them appeared Glaucus from the depths of
the sea, the wise interpreter of divine Nereus, and raising
aloft his shaggy head and chest from his waist below, with
sturdy hand he seized the ship's keel, and then cried to the
eager crew:
"Why against the counsel of mighty Zeus do you purpose to
lead bold Heracles to the city of Aeetes? At Argos it is his
fate to labour for insolent Eurystheus and to accomplish full
twelve toils and dwell with the immortals, if so be that he
bring to fulfilment a few more yet; wherefore let there be no
vain regret for him. Likewise it is destined for Polyphemus to
found a glorious city at the mouth of Cius among the Mysians and
to fill up the measure of his fate in the vast land of the
Chalybes. But a goddess-nymph through love has made Hylas her
husband, on whose account those two wandered and were left
behind."
He spoke, and with a plunge wrapped him about with the
restless wave; and round him the dark water foamed in seething
eddies and dashed against the hollow ship as it moved through
the sea. And the heroes rejoiced, and Telamon son of Aeacus came
in haste to Jason, and grasping his hand in his own embraced him
with these words:
"Son of Aeson, do not be angry with me, if in my folly I have
erred, for grief wrought on me to utter a word arrogant and
intolerable. But let me give my fault to the winds and let our
hearts be joined as before."
Him the son of Aeson with prudence addressed: "Good friend,
assuredly with an evil word did you revile me, saying before
them all that I was the wronger of a kindly man. But not for
long will I nurse bitter wrath, though indeed before I was
grieved. For it was not for flocks of sheep, no, nor for
possessions that you were angered to fury, but for a man, your
comrade. And I were fain you would even champion me against
another man if a like thing should ever befall me."
He spoke, and they sat down, united as of old. But of those
two, by the counsel of Zeus, one, Polyphemus son of Eilatus, was
destined to found and build a city among the Mysians bearing the
river's name, and the other, Heracles, to return and toil at the
labours of Eurystheus. And he threatened to lay waste the Mysian
land at once, should they not discover for him the doom of Hylas,
whether living or dead. And for him they gave pledges choosing
out the noblest sons of the people and took an oath that they
would never cease from their labour of search. Therefore to this
day the people of Cius enquire for Hylas the son of Theiodamas,
and take thought for the well-built Trachis. For there did
Heracles settle the youths whom they sent from Cius as pledges.
And all day long and all night the wind bore the ship on,
blowing fresh and strong; but when dawn rose there was not even
a breath of air. And they marked a beach jutting forth from a
bend of the coast, very broad to behold, and by dint of rowing
came to land at sunrise.
ENDNOTES:
(1) i.e. God of embarcation.
(2) Or, reading EKTOTHEN, "they strongly girded the ship
outside with a well-twisted rope." In either case there is
probably no allusion to YPOZOMATA (ropes for undergirding) which
were carried loose and only used in stormy weather.
(3) i.e. God of the shore.
(4) i.e. The Starting.
(5) Samothrace.
(6) i.e. god of disembarcation.
(7) Cleite means illustrious.
(8) i.e. to avoid grinding it at home.
(9) Rhea.

Jason and Medea
Gustave Moreau
Book 2
HERE WERE the oxstalls and farm of Amycus, the haughty king of
the Bebrycians, whom once a nymph, Bithynian Melie, united to
Poseidon Genethlius, bare the most arrogant of men; for even for
strangers he laid down an insulting ordinance, that none should
depart till they had made trial of him in boxing; and he had
slain many of the neighbours. And at that time too he went down
to the ship and in his insolence scorned to ask them the
occasion of their voyage, and who they were, but at once spoke
out among them all:
"Listen, you wanderers by sea, to what it befits you to know.
It is the rule that no stranger who comes to the Bebrycians
should depart till he has raised his hands in battle against
mine. Wherefore select your bravest warrior from the host and
set him here on the spot to contend with me in boxing. But if
you pay no heed and trample my decrees under foot, assuredly to
your sorrow will stern necessity come on you.
Thus he spoke in his pride, but fierce anger seized them when
they heard it, and the challenge smote Polydeuces most of all.
And quickly he stood forth his comrades' champion, and cried:
"Hold now, and display not to us your brutal violence,
whoever you art; for we will obey your rules, as you sayest.
Willingly now do I myself undertake to meet you."
Thus he spoke outright; but the other with rolling eyes
glared on him, like to a lion struck by a javelin when hunters
in the mountains are hemming him round, and, though pressed by
the throng, he reeks no more of them, but keeps his eyes fixed,
singling out that man only who struck him first and slew him
not. Hereupon the son of Tyndareus laid aside his mantle,
closely-woven, delicately-wrought, which one of the Lemnian
maidens had given him as a pledge of hospitality; and the king
threw down his dark cloak of double fold with its clasps and the
knotted crook of mountain olive which he carried. Then
straightway they looked and chose close by a spot that pleased
them and bade their comrades sit on the sand in two lines; nor
were they alike to behold in form or in stature. The one seemed
to be a monstrous son of baleful Typhoeus or of Earth herself,
such as she brought forth aforetime, in her wrath against Zeus;
but the other, the son of Tyndareus, was like a star of heaven,
whose beams are fairest as it shines through the nightly sky at
eventide. Such was the son of Zeus, the bloom of the first down
still on his cheeks, still with the look of gladness in his
eyes. But his might and fury waxed like a wild beast's; and he
poised his hands to see if they were pliant as before and were
not altogether numbed by toil and rowing. But Amycus on his side
made no trial; but standing apart in silence he kept his eyes on
his foe, and his spirit surged within him all eager to dash the
life-blood from his breast. And between them Lyeoreus, the
henchman of Amycus, placed at their feet on each side two pairs
of gauntlets made of raw hide, dry, exceeding tough. And the
king addressed the hero with arrogant words:
"Whichever of these you will, without casting lots, I grant
you freely, that you may not blame me hereafter. Bind them about
your hands; you shall learn and tell another how skilled I am to
carve the dry oxhides and to spatter men's cheeks with blood."
Thus he spoke; but the other gave back no taunt in answer,
but with a light smile readily took up the gauntlets that lay at
his feet; and to him came Castor and mighty Talaus, son of Bias,
and they quickly bound the gauntlets about his hands, often
bidding him be of good courage. And to Amycus came Aretus and
Ornytus, but little they knew, poor fools, that they had bound
them for the last time on their champion, a victim of evil fate.
Now when they stood apart and were ready with their
gauntlets, straightway in front of their faces they raised their
heavy hands and matched their might in deadly strife. Hereupon
the Bebrycian king even as a fierce wave of the sea rises in a
crest against a swift ship, but she by the skill of the crafty
pilot just escapes the shock when the billow is eager to break
over the bulwark — so he followed up the son of Tyndareus,
trying to daunt him, and gave him no respite. But the hero, ever
unwounded, by his skill baffled the rush of his foe, and he
quickly noted the brutal play of his fists to see where he was
invincible in strength, and where inferior, and stood
unceasingly and returned blow for blow. And as when shipwrights
with their hammers smite ships' timbers to meet the sharp
clamps, fixing layer on layer; and the blows resound one after
another; so cheeks and jaws crashed on both sides, and a huge
clattering of teeth arose, nor did they cease ever from striking
their blows till laboured gasping overcame both. And standing a
little apart they wiped from their foreheads sweat in abundance,
wearily panting for breath. Then back they rushed together
again, as two bulls fight in furious rivalry for a grazing
heifer. Next Amycus rising on tiptoe, like one who slays an ox,
sprung to his full height and swung his heavy hand down on his
rival; but the hero swerved aside from the rush, turning his
head, and just received the arm on his shoulder; and coming near
and slipping his knee past the king's, with a rush he struck him
above the ear, and broke the bones inside, and the king in agony
fell on his knees; and the Minyan heroes shouted for joy; and
his life was poured forth all at once.
Nor were the Bebrycians reckless of their king; but all
together took up rough clubs and spears and rushed straight on
Polydeuces. But in front of him stood his comrades, their keen
swords drawn from the sheath. First Castor struck on the head a
man as he rushed at him: and it was cleft in twain and fell on
each side on his shoulders. And Polydeuces slew huge Itymoneus
and Mimas. The one, with a sudden leap, he smote beneath the
breast with his swift foot and threw him in the dust; and as the
other drew near he struck him with his right hand above the left
eyebrow, and tore away his eyelid and the eyeball was left bare.
But Oreides, insolent henchman of Amycus, wounded Talaus son of
Bias in the side, but did not slay him, but only grazing the
skin the bronze sped under his belt and touched not the flesh.
Likewise Aretus with well-seasoned club smote Iphitus, the
steadfast son of Eurytus, not yet destined to an evil death;
assuredly soon was he himself to be slain by the sword of
Clytius. Then Ancaeus, the dauntless son of Lycurgus, quickly
seized his huge axe, and in his left hand holding a bear's dark
hide, plunged into the midst of the Bebrycians with furious
onset; and with him charged the sons of Aeacus, and with them
started warlike Jason. And as when amid the folds grey wolves
rush down on a winter's day and scare countless sheep, unmarked
by the keen-scented dogs and the shepherds too, and they seek
what first to attack and carry off; often glaring around, but
the sheep are just huddled together and trample on one another;
so the heroes grievously scared the arrogant Bebrycians. And as
shepherds or beekeepers smoke out a huge swarm of bees in a
rock, and they meanwhile, pent up in their hive, murmur with
droning hum, till, stupefied by the murky smoke, they fly forth
far from the rock; so they stayed steadfast no longer, but
scattered themselves inland through Bebrycia, proclaiming the
death of Amycus; fools, not to perceive that another woe all
unforeseen was hard on them. For at that hour their vineyards
and villages were being ravaged by the hostile spear of Lycus
and the Mariandyni, now that their king was gone. For they were
ever at strife about the ironbearing land. And now the foe was
destroying their steadings and farms, and now the heroes from
all sides were driving off their countless sheep, and one spoke
among his fellows thus:
"Bethink you what they would have done in their cowardice if
haply some god had brought Heracles here. Assuredly, if he had
been here, no trial would there have been of fists, I ween, but
when the king drew near to proclaim his rules, the club would
have made him forget his pride and the rules to boot. Yea, we
left him uncared for on the strand and we sailed oversea; and
full well each one of us shall know our baneful folly, now that
he is far away."
Thus he spoke, but all these things had been wrought by the
counsels of Zeus. Then they remained there through the night and
tended the hurts of the wounded men, and offered sacrifice to
the immortals, and made ready a mighty meal; and sleep fell on
no man beside the bowl and the blazing sacrifice. They wreathed
their fair brows with the bay that grew by the shore, whereto
their hawsers were bound, and chanted a song to the lyre of
Orpheus in sweet harmony; and the windless shore was charmed by
their song; and they celebrated the Therapnaean son of Zeus. (1)
But when the sun rising from far lands lighted up the dewy
hills and wakened the shepherds, then they loosed their hawsers
from the stem of the baytree and put on board all the spoil they
had need to take; and with a favouring wind they steered through
the eddying Bosporus. Hereupon a wave like a steep mountain rose
aloft in front as though rushing on them, ever upheaved above
the clouds; nor would you say that they could escape grim death,
for in its fury it hangs over the middle of the ship, like a
cloud, yet it sinks away into calm if it meets with a skilful
helmsman. So they by the steering-craft of Tiphys escaped,
unhurt but sore dismayed. And on the next day they fastened the
hawsers to the coast opposite the Bithynian land.
There Phineus, son of Agenor, had his home by the sea,
Phineus who above all men endured most bitter woes because of
the gift of prophecy which Leto's son had granted him aforetime.
And he reverenced not a whit even Zeus himself, for he foretold
unerringly to men his sacred will. Wherefore Zeus sent on him a
lingering old age, and took from his eyes the pleasant light,
and suffered him not to have joy of the dainties untold that the
dwellers around ever brought to his house, when they came to
enquire the will of heaven. But on a sudden, swooping through
the clouds, the Harpies with their crooked beaks incessantly
snatched the food away from his mouth and hands. And at times
not a morsel of food was left, at others but a little, in order
that he might live and be tormented. And they poured forth over
all a loathsome stench; and no one dared not merely to carry
food to his mouth but even to stand at a distance; so foully
reeked the remnants of the meal. But straightway when he heard
the voice and the tramp of the band he knew that they were the
men passing by, at whose coming Zeus' oracle had declared to him
that he should have joy of his food. And he rose from his couch,
like a lifeless dream, bowed over his staff, and crept to the
door on his withered feet, feeling the walls; and as he moved,
his limbs trembled for weakness and age; and his parched skin
was caked with dirt, and naught but the skill held his bones
together. And he came forth from the hall with wearied knees and
sat on the threshold of the courtyard; and a dark stupor covered
him, and it seemed that the earth reeled round beneath his feet,
and he lay in a strengthless trance, speechless. But when they
saw him they gathered round and marvelled. And he at last drew
laboured breath from the depths of his chest and spoke among
them with prophetic utterance:
"Listen, bravest of all the Hellenes, if it be truly you,
whom by a king's ruthless command Jason is leading on the ship
Argo in quest of the fleece. It is you truly. Even yet my soul
by its divination knows everything. Thanks I render to you,
king, son of Leto, plunged in bitter affliction though I be. I
beseech you by Zeus the god of suppliants, the sternest foe to
sinful men, and for the sake of Phoebus and Hera herself, under
whose especial care you have come here, help me, save an
ill-fated man from misery, and depart not uncaring and leaving
me thus as you see. For not only has the Fury set her foot on my
eyes and I drag on to the end a weary old age; but besides my
other woes a woe hangs over me the bitterest of all. The
Harpies, swooping down from some unseen den of destruction, ever
snatch the food from my mouth. And I have no device to aid me.
But it were easier, when I long for a meal, to escape my own
thoughts than them, so swiftly do they fly through the air. But
if haply they do leave me a morsel of food it reeks of decay and
the stench is unendurable, nor could any mortal bear to draw
near even for a moment, no, not if his heart were wrought of
adamant. But necessity, bitter and insatiate, compels me to
abide and abiding to put food in my cursed belly. These pests,
the oracle declares, the sons of Boreas shall restrain. And no
strangers are they that shall ward them off if indeed I am
Phineus who was once renowned among men for wealth and the gift
of prophecy, and if I am the son of my father Agenor; and, when
I ruled among the Thracians, by my bridal gifts I brought home
their sister Cleopatra to be my wife."
So spoke Agenor's son; and deep sorrow seized each of the
heroes, and especially the two sons of Boreas. And brushing away
a tear they drew nigh, and Zetes spoke as follows, taking in his
own the hand of the grief-worn sire:
"Unhappy one, none other of men is more wretched than you, it
seems to me. Why is the burden of so many sorrows laid on you?
Have you with baneful folly sinned against the gods through your
skill in prophecy? For this are they greatly angry with you? Yet
our spirit is dismayed within us for all our desire to aid you,
if indeed the god has granted this privilege to us two. For the
reproofs of the immortals are plain to discern to men of earth.
And we will never check the Harpies when they come, for all our
desire, till you have sworn that for this we shall not lose the
favour of heaven."
Thus he spoke; and towards him the aged sire opened his
sightless eyes, and lifted them up and replied with these words:
"Be silent, do not store up such thoughts in your heart, my
child. Let the son of Leto be my witness, he who of his gracious
will taught me the lore of prophecy, and be witness the
ill-starred doom which possesses me and this dark cloud on my
eyes, and the gods of the underworld — and may their curse be on
me if I die perjured thus — no wrath from heaven will fall on
you two for your help to me."
Then were those two eager to help him because of the oath.
And quickly the younger heroes prepared a feast for the aged
man, a last prey for the Harpies; and both stood near him, to
smite with the sword those pests when they swooped down.
Scarcely had the aged man touched the food when they forthwith,
like bitter blasts or flashes of lightning, suddenly darted from
the clouds, and swooped down with a yell, fiercely craving for
food; and the heroes saw them and shouted in the midst of their
onrush; but they at the cry devoured everything and sped away
over the sea after; and an intolerable stench remained. And
behind them the two sons of Boreas raising their swords rushed
in pursuit. For Zeus imparted to them tireless strength; but
without Zeus they could not have followed, for the Harpies used
ever to outstrip the blasts of the west wind when they came to
Phineus and when they left him. And as when, on the
mountainside, hounds, cunning in the chase, run in the track of
horned goats or deer, and as they strain a little behind gnash
their teeth on the edge of their jaws in vain; so Zetes and
Calais rushing very near just grazed the Harpies in vain with
their finger-tips. And assuredly they would have torn them to
pieces, despite heaven's will, when they had overtaken them far
off at the Floating Islands, had not swift Iris seen them and
leapt down from the sky from heaven above, and cheeked them with
these words:
"It is not lawful, sons of Boreas, to strike with your swords
the Harpies, the hounds of mighty Zeus; but I myself will give
you a pledge, that hereafter they shall not draw near to Phineus."
With these words she took an oath by the waters of Styx,
which to all the gods is most dread and most awful, that the
Harpies would never thereafter again approach the home of
Phineus, son of Agenor, for so it was fated. And the heroes
yielding to the oath, turned back their flight to the ship. And
on account of this men call them the Islands of Turning though
aforetime they called them the Floating Islands. And the Harpies
and Iris parted. They entered their den in Minoan Crete; but she
sped up to Olympus, soaring aloft on her swift wings.
Meanwhile the chiefs carefully cleansed the old man's squalid
skin and with due selection sacrificed sheep which they had
borne away from the spoil of Amycus. And when they had laid a
huge supper in the hall, they sat down and feasted, and with
them feasted Phineus ravenously, delighting his soul, as in a
dream. And there, when they had taken their fill of food and
drink, they kept awake all night waiting for the sons of Boreas.
And the aged sire himself sat in the midst, near the hearth,
telling of the end of their voyage and the completion of their
journey:
"Listen then. Not everything is it lawful for you to know
clearly; but whatever is heaven's will, I will not hide. I was
infatuated aforetime, when in my folly I declared the will of
Zeus in order and to the end. For he himself wishes to deliver
to men the utterances of the prophetic art incomplete, in order
that they may still have some need to know the will of heaven.
"First of all, after leaving me, you will see the twin
Cyanean rocks where the two seas meet. No one, I ween, has won
his escape between them. For they are not firmly fixed with
roots beneath, but constantly clash against one another to one
point, and above a huge mass of salt water rises in a crest,
boiling up, and loudly dashes on the hard beach. Wherefore now
obey my counsel, if indeed with prudent mind and reverencing the
blessed gods you pursue your way; and perish not foolishly by a
self-sought death, or rush on following the guidance of youth.
First entrust the attempt to a dove when you have sent her forth
from the ship. And if she escapes safe with her wings between
the rocks to the open sea, then no more do you refrain from the
path, but grip your oars well in your hands and cleave the sea's
narrow strait, for the light of safety will be not so much in
prayer as in strength of hands. Wherefore let all else go and
labour boldly with might and main, but before then implore the
gods as you will, I forbid you not. But if she flies onward and
perishes midway, then do you turn back; for it is better to
yield to the immortals. For you could not escape an evil doom
from the rocks, not even if Argo were of iron.
"O hapless ones, dare not to transgress my divine warning,
even though you think that I am thrice as much hated by the sons
of heaven as I am, and even more than thrice; dare not to sail
further with your ship in despite of the omen. And as these
things will fall, so shall they fall. But if you shun the
clashing rocks and come scatheless inside Pontus, straightway
keep the land of the Bithynians on your right and sail on, and
beware of the breakers, till you round the swift river Rhebas
and the black beach, and reach the harbour of the Isle of
Thynias. Thence you must turn back a little space through the
sea and beach your ship on the land of the Mariandyni lying
opposite. Here is a downward path to the abode of Hades, and the
headland of Acherusia stretches aloft, and eddying Acheron
cleaves its way at the bottom, even through the headland, and
sends its waters forth from a huge ravine. And near it you will
sail past many hills of the Paphlagonians, over whom at the
first Eneteian Pelops reigned, and of his blood they boast
themselves to be.
"Now there is a headland opposite Helice the Bear, steep on
all sides, and they call it Carambis, about whose crests the
blasts of the north wind are sundered. So high in the air does
it rise turned towards the sea. And when you have rounded it
broad Aegialus stretches before you; and at the end of broad
Aegialus, at a jutting point of coast, the waters of the river
Halys pour forth with a terrible roar; and after it his flowing
near, but smaller in stream, rolls into the sea with white
eddies. Onward from thence the bend of a huge and towering cape
reaches out from the land, next Thermodon at its mouth flows
into a quiet bay at the Themiscyreian headland, after wandering
through a broad continent. And here is the plain of Doeas, and
near are the three cities of the Amazons, and after them the
Chalybes, most wretched of men, possess a soil rugged and
unyielding sons of toil, they busy themselves with working iron.
And near them dwell the Tibareni, rich in sheep, beyond the
Genetaean headland of Zeus, lord of hospitality. And bordering
on it the Mossynoeci next in order inhabit the well-wooded
mainland and the parts beneath the mountains, who have built in
towers made from trees their wooden homes and well-fitted
chambers, which they call Mossynes, and the people themselves
take their name from them. After passing them you must beach
your ship on a smooth island, when you have driven away with all
manner of skill the ravening birds, which in countless numbers
haunt the desert island. In it the Queens of the Amazons, Otrere
and Antiope, built a stone temple of Ares what time they went
forth to war. Now here an unspeakable help will come to you from
the bitter sea; wherefore with kindly intent I bid you stay. But
what need is there that I should sin yet again declaring
everything to the end by my prophetic art? And beyond the island
and opposite mainland dwell the Philyres: and above the Philyres
are the Macrones, and after them the vast tribes of the Becheiri.
And next in order to them dwell the Sapeires, and the Byzeres
have the lands adjoining to them, and beyond them at last live
the warlike Colchians themselves. But speed on in your ship,
till you touch the inmost bourne of the sea. And here at the
Cytaean mainland and from the Amarantine mountains far away and
the Circaean plain, eddying Phasis rolls his broad stream to the
sea. Guide your ship to the mouth of that river and you shall
behold the towers of Cytaean Aeetes and the shady grove of Ares,
where a dragon, a monster terrible to behold, ever glares
around, keeping watch over the fleece that is spread on the top
of an oak; neither by day nor by night does sweet sleep subdue
his restless eyes."
Thus he spoke, and straightway fear seized them as they
heard. And for a long while they were struck with silence; till
at last the hero, son of Aeson, spoke, sore dismayed at their
evil plight:
"O aged sire, now have you come to the end of the toils of
our sea-journeying and have told us the token, trusting to which
we shall make our way to Pontus through the hateful rocks; but
whether, when we have escaped them, we shall have a return back
again to Hellas, this too would we gladly learn from you. What
shall I do, how shall I go over again such a long path through
the sea, unskilled as I am, with unskilled comrades? And
Colchian Aea lies at the edge of Pontus and of the world."
Thus he spoke, and him the aged sire addressed in reply: "O
son, when once you have escaped through the deadly rocks, fear
not; for a deity will be the guide from Aea by another track;
and to Aea there will be guides enough. But, my friends, take
thought of the artful aid of the Cyprian goddess. For on her
depends the glorious issue of your venture. And further than
this ask me not."
Thus spoke Agenor's son, and close at hand the twin sons of
Thracian Boreas came darting from the sky and set their swift
feet on the threshold; and the heroes rose up from their seats
when they saw them present. And Zetes, still drawing hard breath
after his toil, spoke among the eager listeners, telling them
how far they had driven the Harpies and how his prevented their
slaying them, and how the goddess of her grace gave them
pledges, and how those others in fear plunged into the vast cave
of the Dictaean cliff. Then in the mansion all their comrades
were joyful at the tidings and so was Phineus himself. And
quickly Aeson's son, with good will exceeding, addressed him:
Assuredly there was then, Phineus, some god who cared for
your bitter woe, and brought us here from afar, that the sons of
Boreas might aid you; and if too he should bring sight to thine
eyes, verily I should rejoice, it seems to me, as much as if I
were on my homeward way."
Thus he spoke, but Phineus replied to him with downcast look:
"Son of Aeson, that is past recall, nor is there any remedy
hereafter, for blasted are my sightless eyes. But instead of
that, may the god grant me death at once, and after death I
shall take my share in perfect bliss."
Then they two returned answering speech, each to other, and
soon in the midst of their converse early dawn appeared; and
round Phineus were gathered the neighbours who used to come
there aforetime day by day and constantly bring a portion of
their food. To all alike, however poor he was that came, the
aged man gave his oracles with good will, and freed many from
their woes by his prophetic art; wherefore they visited and
tended him. And with them came Paraebius, who was dearest to
him, and gladly did he perceive these strangers in the house.
For long before now the seer himself had said that a band of
chieftains, faring from Hellas to the city of Aceres, would make
fast their hawsers to the Thynian land, and by Zeus' will would
check tho approach of the Harpies. The rest the old man pleased
with words of wisdom and let them go; Paraebius only he bade
remain there with the chiefs; and straightway he sent him and
bade him bring back the choicest of his sheep. And when he had
left the hall Phineus spoke gently amid the throng of oarsmen:
"O my friends, not all men are arrogant, it seems, nor
unmindful of benefits. Even as this man, loyal as he is, came
here to learn his fate. For when he laboured the most and toiled
the most, then the needs of life, ever growing more and more,
would waste him, and day after day ever dawned more wretched,
nor was there any respite to his toil. But he was paying the sad
penalty of his father's sin. For he when alone on the mountains,
felling trees, once slighted the prayers of a Hamadryad, who
wept and sought to soften him with plaintive words, not to cut
down the stump of an oak tree coeval with herself, wherein for a
long time she had lived continually; but he in the arrogance of
youth recklessly cut it down. So to him the nymph thereafter
made her death a curse, to him and to his children. I indeed
knew of the sin when he came; and I bid him build an altar to
the Thynian nymph, and offer on it an atoning sacrifice, with
prayer to escape his father's fate. Here, ever since he escaped
the god-sent doom, never has he forgotten or neglected me; but
sorely and against his will do I send him from my doors, so
eager is he to remain with me in my affliction."
Thus spoke Agenor's son; and his friend straightway came near
leading two sheep from the flock. And up rose Jason and up rose
the sons of Boreas at the bidding of the aged sire . And quickly
they called on Apollo, lord of prophecy, and offered sacrifice
on the health as the day was just sinking. And the younger
comrades made ready a feast to their hearts' desire. Thereupon
having well feasted they turned themselves to rest, some near
the ship's hawsers, others in groups throughout the mansion. And
at dawn the Etesian winds blew strongly, which by the command of
Zeus blow over every land equally.
Cyrene, the tale goes, once tended sheep along the
marsh-meadow of Peneus among men of old time; for dear to her
were maidenhood and a couch unstained. But, as she guarded her
flock by the river, Apollo carried her off far from Haemonia and
placed her among the nymphs of the land, who dwelt in Libya near
the Myrtosian height. And here to Phoebus she bore Aristaeus
whom the Haemonians, rich in corn-land, call "Hunter" and
"Shepherd". Her, of his love, the god made a nymph there, of
long life and a huntress, and his son he brought while still an
infant to be nurtured in the cave of Cheiron. And to him when he
grew to manhood the Muses gave a bride, and taught him the arts
of healing and of prophecy; and they made him the keeper of
their sheep, of all that grazed on the Athamantian plain of
Phthia and round steep Othrys and the sacred stream of the river
Apidanus. But when from heaven Sirius scorched the Minoan Isles,
and for long there was no respite for the inhabitants, then by
the injunction of the Far-Darter they summoned Aristaeus to ward
off the pestilence. And by his father's command he left Phthia
and made his home in Ceos, and gathered together the Parrhasian
people who are of the lineage of Lycaon, and he built a great
altar to Zeus Icmaeus, and duly offered sacrifices on the
mountains to that star Sirius, and to Zeus son of Cronos
himself. And on this account it is that Etesian winds from Zeus
cool the land for forty days, and in Ceos even now the priests
offer sacrifices before the rising of the Dog-star.
So the tale is told, but the chieftains stayed there by
constraint, and every day the Thynians, doing pleasure to
Phineus, sent them gifts beyond measure. And afterwards they
raised an altar to the blessed twelve on the sea-beach opposite
and laid offerings thereon and then entered their swift ship to
row, nor did they forget to bear with them a trembling dove; but
Euphemus seized her and brought her all quivering with fear, and
they loosed the twin hawsers from the land.
Nor did they start unmarked by Athena, but straightway
swiftly she set her feel on a light cloud, which would waft her
on, mighty though she was, and she swept on to the sea with
friendly thoughts to the oarsmen. And as when one roves far from
his native land, as we men often wander with enduring heart, nor
is any land too distant but all ways are clear to his view, and
he sees in mind his own home, and at once the way over sea and
land seems slain, and swiftly thinking, now this way, now that,
he strains with eager eyes; so swiftly the daughter of Zeus
darted down and set her foot on the cheerless shore of Thynia.
Now when they reached the narrow strait of the winding
passage, hemmed in on both sides by rugged cliffs, while an
eddying current from below was washing against the ship as she
moved on, they went forward sorely in dread; and now the thud of
the crashing rocks ceaselessly struck their ears, and the
sea-washed shores resounded, and then Euphemus grasped the dove
in his hand and started to mount the prow; and they, at the
bidding of Tiphys, son of Hagnias, rowed with good will to drive
Argo between the rocks, trusting to their strength. And as they
rounded a bend they saw the rocks opening for the last time of
all. Their spirit melted within them; and Euphemus sent forth
the dove to dart forward in flight; and they all together raised
their heads to look; but she flew between them, and the rocks
again rushed together and crashed as they met face to face. And
the foam leapt up in a mass like a cloud; awful was the thunder
of the sea; and all round them the mighty welkin roared.
The hollow caves beneath the rugged cliffs rumbled as the sea
came surging in; and the white foam of the dashing wave spurted
high above the cliff. Next the current whirled the ship round.
And the rocks shore away the end of the dove's tail-feathers;
but away she flew unscathed. And the rowers gave a loud cry; and
Tiphys himself called to them to row with might and main. For
the rocks were again parting asunder. But as they rowed they
trembled, till the tide returning drove them back within the
rocks. Then most awful fear seized on all; for over their head
was destruction without escape. And now to right and left broad
Pontus was seen, when suddenly a huge wave rose up before them,
arched, like a steep rock; and at the sight they bowed with
bended heads. For it seemed about to leap down on the ship's
whole length and to overwhelm them. But Tiphys was quick to ease
the ship as she laboured with the oars; and in all its mass the
wave rolled away beneath the keel, and at the stern it raised
Argo herself and drew her far away from the rocks; and high in
air was she borne. But Euphemus strode among all his comrades
and cried to them to bend to their oars with all their might;
and they with a shout smote the water. And as far as the ship
yielded to the rowers, twice as far did she leap back, and the
oar, were bent like curved bows as the heroes used their
strength.
Then a vaulted billow rushed on them, and the ship like a
cylinder ran on the furious wave plunging through the hollow
sea. And the eddying current held her between the clashing
rocks; and on each side they shook and thundered; and the ship's
timbers were held fast. Then Athena with her left hand thrust
back one mighty rock and with her right pushed the ship through;
and she, like a winged arrow, sped through the air. Nevertheless
the rocks, ceaselessly clashing, shore off as she passed the
extreme end of the stern-ornament. But Athena soared up to
Olympus, when they had escaped unscathed. And the rocks in one
spot at that moment were rooted fast for ever to each other,
which thing had been destined by the blessed gods, when a man in
his ship should have passed between them alive. And the heroes
breathed again after their chilling fear, beholding at the same
time the sky and the expanse of sea spreading far and wide. For
they deemed that they were saved from Hades; and Tiphys first of
all began to speak:
"It is my hope that we have safely escaped this peril — we,
and the ship; and none other is the cause so much as Athena, who
breathed into Argo divine strength when Argus knitted her
together with bolts; and she may not be caught. Son of Aeson, no
longer fear you so much the hest of your king, since a god has
granted us escape between the rocks; for Phineus, Agenor's son,
said that our toils hereafter would be lightly accomplished."
He spoke, and at once he sped the ship onward through the
midst of the sea past the Bithynian coast. But Jason with gentle
words addressed him in reply: "Tiphys, why do you comfort thus
my grieving heart? I have erred and am distraught in wretched
and helpless ruin. For I ought, when Pelias gave the command, to
have straightway refused this quest to his face, yea, though I
were doomed to die pitilessly, torn limb from limb, but now I am
wrapped in excessive fear and cares unbearable, dreading to sail
through the chilling paths of the sea, and dreading when we
shall set foot on the mainland. For on every side are unkindly
men. And ever when day is done I pass a night of groans from the
time when you first gathered together for my sake, while I take
thought for all things; but you talk at thine ease, eating only
for thine own life; while for myself I am dismayed not a whit;
but I fear for this man and for that equally, and for you, and
for my other comrades, if I shall not bring you back safe to the
land of Hellas."
Thus he spoke, making trial of the chiefs; but they shouted
loud with cheerful words. And his heart was warmed within him at
their cry and again he spoke outright among them:
"My friends, in your valour my courage is quickened.
Wherefore now, even though I should take my way through the
gulfs of Hades, no more shall I let fear seize on me, since you
are steadfast amid cruel terrors. But now that we have sailed
out from the striking rocks, I trow that never hereafter will
there be another such fearful thing, if indeed we go on our way
following the counsel of Phineus."
Thus he spoke, and straightway they ceased from such words
and gave unwearying labour to the oar; and quickly they passed
by the swiftly flowing river Rhebas and the peak of Colone, and
soon thereafter the black headland, and near it the mouth of the
river Phyllis, where aforetime Dipsaeus received in his home the
son of Athamas, when with his ram he was flying from the city of
Orchomenus; and Dipsacus was the son of a meadow-nymph, nor was
insolence his delight, but contented by his father's stream he
dwelt with his mother, pasturing his flocks by the shore. And
quickly they sighted and sailed past his shrine and the broad
banks of the river and the plain, and deep-flowing Calpe, and
all the windless night and the day they bent to their tireless
oars. And even as ploughing oxen toil as they cleave the moist
earth, and sweat streams in abundance from flank and neck; and
from beneath the yoke their eyes roll askance, while the breath
ever rushes from their mouths in hot gasps; and all day long
they toil, planting their hoofs deep in the ground; like them
the heroes kept dragging their oars through the sea.
Now when divine light has not yet come nor is it utter
darkness, but a faint glimmer has spread over the night, the
time when men wake and call it twilight, at that hour they ran
into the harbour of the desert island Thynias and, spent by
weary toil, mounted the shore. And to them the son of Leto, as
he passed from Lycia far away to the countless folk of the
Hyperboreans, appeared; and about his cheeks on both sides his
golden locks flowed in clusters as he moved; in his left hand he
held a silver bow, and on his back was slung a quiver hanging
from his shoulders; and beneath his feet all the island quaked,
and the waves surged high on the beach. Helpless amazement
seized them as they looked; and no one dared to gaze face to
face into the fair eyes of the god. And they stood with heads
bowed to the ground; but he, far off, passed on to the sea
through the air; and at length Orpheus spoke as follows,
addressing the chiefs:
"Come, let us call this island the sacred isle of Apollo of
the Dawn since he has appeared to all, passing by at dawn; and
we will offer such sacrifices as we can, building an altar on
the shore; and if hereafter he shall grant us a safe return to
the Haemonian land, then will we lay on his altar the thighs of
horned goats. And now I bid you propitiate him with the steam of
sacrifice and libations. Be gracious, king, be gracious in your
appearing."
Thus he spoke, and they straightway built up an altar with
shingle; and over the island they wandered, seeking if haply
they could get a glimpse of a fawn or a wild goat, that often
seek their pasture in the deep wood. And for them Leto's son
provided a quarry; and with pious rites they wrapped in fat the
thigh bones of them all and burnt them on the sacred altar,
celebrating Apollo, Lord of Dawn. And round the burning
sacrifice they set up a broad dancing-ring, singing, "All hail
fair god of healing, Phoebus, all hail," and with them Oeagrus'
goodly son began a clear lay on his Bistonian lyre; how once
beneath the rocky ridge of Parnassus he slew with his bow the
monster Delphyne, he, still young and beardless, still rejoicing
in his long tresses. May you be gracious! Ever, king, be your
locks unshorn, ever unravaged; for so is it right. And none but
Leto, daughter of Coeus, strokes them with her dear hands. And
often the Corycian nymphs, daughters of Pleistus, took up the
cheering strain crying "Healer"; hence arose this lovely refrain
of the hymn to Phoebus.
Now when they had celebrated him with dance and song they
took an oath with holy libations, that they would ever help each
other with concord of heart, touching the sacrifice as they
swore; and even now there stands there a temple to gracious
Concord, which the heroes themselves reared, paying honour at
that time to the glorious goddess.
Now when the third morning came, with a fresh west wind they
left the lofty island. Next, on the opposite side they saw and
passed the mouth of the river Sangarius and the fertile land of
the Mariandyni, and the stream of Lycus and the Anthemoeisian
lake; and beneath the breeze the ropes and all the tackling
quivered as they sped onward. During the night the wind ceased
and at dawn they gladly reached the haven of the Acherusian
headland. It rises aloft with steep cliffs, looking towards the
Bithynian sea; and beneath it smooth rocks, ever washed by the
sea, stand rooted firm; and round them the wave rolls and
thunders loud, but above, wide-spreading plane trees grow on the
topmost point. And from it towards the land a hollow glen slopes
gradually away, where there is a cave of Hades overarched by
wood and rocks. From here an icy breath, unceasingly issuing
from the chill recess, ever forms a glistening rime which melts
again beneath the midday sun. And never does silence hold that
grim headland, but there is a continual murmur from the sounding
sea and the leaves that quiver in the winds from the cave. And
here is the outfall of the river Acheron which bursts its way
through the headland and falls into the Eastern sea, and a
hollow ravine brings it down from above. In after times the
Nisaean Megarians named it Soonautes (2) when they were about to
settle in the land of the Mariandyni. For indeed the river saved
them with their ships when they were caught in a violent
tempest. By this way the heroes took the ship through (3) the
Acherusian headland and came to land over against it as the wind
had just ceased.
Not long had they come unmarked by Lycus, the lord of that
land, and the Mariandyni — they, the slayers of Amycus,
according to the report which the people heard before; but for
that very deed they even made a league with the heroes. And
Polydeuces himself they welcomed as a god, flocking from every
side, since for a long time had they been warring against the
arrogant Bebrycians. And so they went up all together into the
city, and all that day with friendly feelings made ready a feast
within the palace of Lycus and gladdened their souls with
converse. Aeson's son told him the lineage and name of each of
his comrades and the behests of Pelias, and how they were
welcomed by the Lemnian women, and all that they did at
Dolionian Cyzieus; and how they reached the Mysian land and Cius,
where, sore against their will, they left behind the hero
Heracles, and he told the saying of Glaucus, and how they slew
the Bebrycians and Amycus, and he told of the prophecies and
affliction of Phineus, and how they escaped the Cyanean rocks,
and how they met with Leto's son at the island. And as he told
all, Lycus was charmed in soul with listening; and he grieved
for Heracles left behind, and spoke as follows among them all:
"O friends, what a man he was from whose help you have fallen
away, as you cleave your long path to Aeetes; for well do I know
that I saw him here in the halls of Dascylus my father, when he
came here on foot through the land of Asia bringing the girdle
of warlike Hippolyte; and me he found with the down just growing
on my cheeks. And here, when my brother Priolas was slain by the
Mysians — my brother, whom ever since the people lament with
most piteous dirges — he entered the lists with Titias in boxing
and slew him, mighty Titias, who surpassed all the youths in
beauty and strength; and he dashed his teeth to the ground.
Together with the Mysians he subdued beneath my father's sway
the Phrygians also, who inhabit the lands next to us, and he
made his own the tribes of the Bithynians and their land, as far
as the mouth of Rhebas and the peak of Colone; and besides them
the Paphlagonians of Pelops yielded just as they were, even all
those round whom the dark water of Billaeus breaks. But now the
Bebrycians and the insolence of Amycus have robbed me, since
Heracles dwells far away, for they have long been cutting off
huge pieces of my land till they have set their bounds at the
meadows of deep-flowing Hypius. Nevertheless, by your hands have
they paid the penalty; and it was not without the will of
heaven, I trow, that he brought war on the Bebrycians this day —
he, the son of Tyndareus, when he slew that champion. Wherefore
whatever requital I am now able to pay, gladly will I pay it,
for that is the rule for weaker men when the stronger begin to
help them. So with you all, and in your company, I bid Dascylus
my son follow; and if he goes, you will find all men friendly
that you meet on your way through the sea even to the mouth of
the river Thermodon. And besides that, to the sons of Tyndareus
will I raise a lofty temple on the Acherusian height, which all
sailors shall mark far across the sea and shall reverence; and
hereafter for them will I set apart outside the city, as for
gods, some fertile fields of the well-tilled plain."
Thus all day long they revelled at the banquet. But at dawn
they hied down to the ship in haste; and with them went Lycus
himself, when he had given them countless gifts to bear away;
and with them he sent forth his son from his home.
And here his destined fate smote Idmon, son of Abas, skilled
in soothsaying; but not at all did his soothsaying save him, for
necessity drew him on to death. For in the mead of the reedy
river there lay, cooling his flanks and huge belly in the mud, a
white-tusked boar, a deadly monster, whom even the nymphs of the
marsh dreaded, and no man knew it; but all alone he was feeding
in the wide fell. But the son of Abas was passing along the
raised banks of the muddy river, and the boar from some unseen
lair leapt out of the reed-bed, and charging gashed his thigh
and severed in twain the sinews and the bone. And with a sharp
cry the hero fell to the ground; and as he was struck his
comrades flocked together with answering cry. And quickly Peleus
with his hunting spear aimed at the murderous boar as he fled
back into the fen; and again he turned and charged; but Idas
wounded him, and with a roar he fell impaled on the sharp spear.
And the boar they left on the ground just as he had fallen
there; but Idmon, now at the last gasp, his comrades bore to the
ship in sorrow of heart, and he died in his comrades' arms.
And here they stayed from taking thought for their voyaging
and abode in grief for the burial of their dead friend. And for
three whole days they lamented; and on the next they buried him
with full honours, and the people and King Lycus himself took
part in the funeral rites; and, as is the due of the departed,
they slaughtered countless sheep at his tomb. And so a barrow to
this hero was raised in that land, and there stands a token for
men of later days to see, the trunk of a wild olive tree, such
as ships are built of; and it flourishes with its green leaves a
little below the Acherusian headland. And if at the bidding of
the Muses I must tell this tale outright, Phoebus strictly
commanded the Boeotians and Nisaeans to worship him as guardian
of their city, and to build their city round the trunk of the
ancient wild olive; but they, instead of the god-fearing Aeolid
Idmon, at this day honour Agamestor.
Who was the next that died? For then a second time the heroes
heaped up a barrow for a comrade dead. For still are to be seen
two monuments of those heroes. The tale goes that Tiphys son of
Hagnias died; nor was it his destiny thereafter to sail any
further. But him there on the spot a short sickness laid to rest
far from his native land, when the company had paid due honours
to the dead son of Abas. And at the cruel woe they were seized
with unbearable grief. For when with due honours they had buried
him also hard by the seer, they cast themselves down in
helplessness on the sea-shore silently, closely wrapped up, and
took no thought for meat or drink; and their spirit drooped in
grief, for all hope of return was gone. And in their sorrow they
would have stayed from going further had not Hera kindled
exceeding courage in Ancaeus, whom near the waters of Imbrasus
Astypalaea bore to Poseidon; for especially was he skilled in
steering and eagerly did he address Peleus:
"Son of Aeacus, is it well for us to give up our toils and
linger on in a strange land? Not so much for my prowess in war
did Jason take me with him in quest of the fleece, far from
Parthenia, as for my knowledge of ships. Wherefore, I pray, let
there be no fear for the ship. And so there are here other men
of skill, of whom none will harm our voyaging, whomever we set
at the helm. But quickly tell forth all this and boldly urge
them to call to mind their task."
Thus he spoke; and Peleus' soul was stirred with gladness,
and straightway he spoke in the midst of all: "My friends, why
do we thus cherish a bootless grief like this? For those two
have perished by the fate they have met with; but among our host
are steersmen yet, and many a one. Wherefore let us not delay
our attempt, but rouse yourselves to the work and cast away your
griefs."
And him in reply Aeson's son addressed with helpless words:
"Son of Aeacus, where are these steersmen of yours? For those
whom we once deemed to be men of skill, they even more than I
are bowed with vexation of heart. Wherefore I forebode an evil
doom for us even as for the dead, if it shall be our lot neither
to reach the city of fell Aeetes, nor ever again to pass beyond
the rocks to the land of Hellas, but a wretched fate will
enshroud us here ingloriously till we grow old for naught."
Thus he spoke, but Ancaeus quickly undertook to guide the
swift ship; for he was stirred by the impulse of the goddess.
And after him Erginus and Nauplius and Euphemus started up,
eager to steer. But the others held them back, and many of his
comrades granted it to Ancaeus.
So on the twelfth day they went aboard at dawn, for a strong
breeze of westerly wind was blowing. And quickly with the oars
they passed out through the river Acheron and, trusting to the
wind, shook out their sails, and with canvas spread far and wide
they were cleaving their passage through the waves in fair
weather. And soon they passed the outfall of the river
Callichorus, where, as the tale goes, the Nysean son of Zeus,
when he had left the tribes of the Indians and came to dwell at
Thebes, held revels and arrayed dances in front of a cave,
wherein he passed unsmiling sacred nights, from which time the
neighbours call the river by the name of Callichorus (4) and the
cave Aulion.(5)
Next they saw the barrow of Sthenelus, Actor's son, who on
his way back from the valorous war against the Amazons — for he
had been the comrade of Heracles — was struck by an arrow and
died there on the sea-beach. And for a time they went no
further, for Persephone herself sent forth the spirit of Actor's
son which craved with many tears to behold men like himself,
even for a moment. And mounting on the edge of the barrow he
gazed on the ship, such as he was when he went to war; and round
his head a fair helm with four peaks gleamed with its blood-red
crest. And again he entered the vast gloom; and they looked and
marvelled; and Mopsus, son of Ampycus, with word of prophecy
urged them to land and propitiate him with libations. Quickly
they drew in sail and threw out hawsers, and on the strand paid
honour to the tomb of Sthenelus, and poured out drink offerings
to him and sacrificed sheep as victims. And besides the drink
offerings they built an altar to Apollo, saviour of ships, and
burnt thigh bones; and Orpheus dedicated his lyre; whence the
place has the name of Lyra.
And straightway they went aboard as the wind blew strong; and
they drew the sail down, and made it taut to both sheets; then
Argo was borne over the sea swiftly, even as a hawk soaring high
through the air commits to the breeze its outspread wings and is
borne on swiftly, nor swerves in its flight, poising in the
clear sky with quiet pinions. And lo, they passed by the stream
of Parthenius as it flows into the sea, a most gentle river,
where the maid, daughter of Leto, when she mounts to heaven
after the chase, cools her limbs in its much-desired waters.
Then they sped onward in the night without ceasing, and passed
Sesamus and lofty Erythini, Crobialus, Cromna and woody Cytorus.
Next they swept round Carambis at the rising of the sun, and
plied the oars past long Aegialus, all day and on through the
night.
And straightway they landed on the Assyrian shore where Zeus
himself gave a home to Sinope, daughter of Asopus, and granted
her virginity, beguiled by his own promises. For he longed for
her love, and he promised to grant her whatever her hearts
desire might be. And she in her craftiness asked of him
virginity. And in like manner she deceived Apollo too who longed
to wed her, and besides them the river Halys, and no man ever
subdued her in love's embrace. And there the sons of noble
Deimachus of Tricca were still dwelling, Deileon, Autolycus and
Phlogius, since the day when they wandered far away from
Heracles; and they, when they marked the array of chieftains,
went to meet them and declared in truth who they were; and they
wished to remain there no longer, but as soon as Argestes (6)
blew went on ship-board. And so with them, borne along by the
swift breeze, the heroes left behind the river Halys, and left
behind his that flows hard by, and the delta-land of Assyria;
and on the same day they rounded the distant headland of the
Amazons that guards their harbour.
Here once when Melanippe, daughter of Ares, had, gone forth,
the hero Heracles caught her by ambuscade and Hippolyte gave him
her glistening girdle as her sister's ransom, and he sent away
his captive unharmed. In the bay of this headland, at the
outfall of Thermodon, they ran ashore, for the sea was rough for
their voyage. No river is like this, and none sends forth from
itself such mighty streams over the land. If a man should count
every one he would lack but four of a hundred, but the real
spring is only one. This flows down to the plain from lofty
mountains, which, men say, are called the Amazonian mountains.
Thence it spreads inland over a hilly country straight forward;
wherefrom its streams go winding on, and they roll on, this way
and that ever more, wherever best they can reach the lower
ground, one at a distance and another near at hand; and many
streams are swallowed up in the sand and are without a name;
but, mingled with a few, the main stream openly bursts with its
arching crest of foam into the inhospitable Pontus. And they
would have tarried there and have closed in battle with the
Amazons, and would have fought not without bloodshed for the
Amazons were not gentle foes and regarded not justice, those
dwellers on the Doeantian plain; but grievous insolence and the
works of Ares were all their care; for by race they were the
daughters of Ares and the nymph Harmonia, who bare to Ares
war-loving maids, wedded to him in the glens of the Acmonian
wood had not the breezes of Argestes come again from Zeus; and
with the wind they left the rounded beach, where the
Themiscyreian Amazons were arming for war. For they dwelt not
gathered together in one city, but scattered over the land,
parted into three tribes. In one part dwelt the Themiscyreians,
over whom at that time Hippolyte reigned, in another the
Lycastians, and in another the dart-throwing Chadesians. And the
next day they sped on and at nightfall they reached the land of
the Chalybes.
That folk have no care for ploughing with oxen or for any
planting of honey-sweet fruit; nor yet do they pasture flocks in
the dewy meadow. But they cleave the hard iron-bearing land and
exchange their wages for daily sustenance; never does the morn
rise for them without toil, but amid bleak sooty flames and
smoke they endure heavy labour.
And straightway thereafter they rounded the headland of
Genetaean Zeus and sped safely past the land of the Tibareni.
Here when wives bring forth children to their husbands, the men
lie in bed and groan with their heads close bound; but the women
tend them with food, and prepare child-birth baths for them.
Next they reached the sacred mount and the land where the
Mossynoeci dwell amid high mountains in wooden huts, (7) from
which that people take their name. And strange are their customs
and laws. Whatever it is right to do openly before the people or
in the market place, all this they do in their homes, but
whatever acts we perform at home, these they perform out of
doors in the midst of the streets, without blame. And among them
is no reverence for the marriage-bed, but, like swine that feed
in herds, no whit abashed in others' presence, on the earth they
lie with the women. Their king sits in the loftiest hut and
dispenses upright judgments to the multitude, poor wretch! For
if haply he err at all in his decrees, for that day they keep
him shut up in starvation.
They passed them by and cleft their way with oars over
against the island of Ares all day long; for at dusk the light
breeze left them. At last they spied above them, hurtling
through the air, one of the birds of Ares which haunt that isle.
It shook its wings down over the ship as she sped on and sent
against her a keen feather, and it fell on the left shoulder of
goodly Oileus, and he dropped his oar from his hands at the
sudden blow, and his comrades marvelled at the sight of the
winged bolt. And Eribotes from his seat hard by drew out the
feather, and bound up the wound when he had loosed the strap
hanging from his own sword-sheath; and besides the first,
another bird appeared swooping down; but the hero Clytius, son
of Eurytus — for he bent his curved bow, and sped a swift arrow
against the bird — struck it, and it whirled round and fell
close to the ship. And to them spoke Amphidamas, son of Aleus:
"The island of Ares is near us; you know it yourselves now
that you have seen these birds. But little will arrows avail us,
I trow, for landing. But let us contrive some other device to
help us, if you intend to land, bearing in mind the injunction
of Phineus. For not even could Heracles, when he came to
Arcadia, drive away with bow and arrow the birds that swam on
the Stymphalian lake. I saw it myself. But he shook in his hand
a rattle of bronze and made a loud clatter as he stood on a
lofty peak, and the birds fled far off, screeching in bewildered
fear. Wherefore now too let us contrive some such device, and I
myself will speak, having pondered the matter beforehand. Set on
your heads your helmets of lofty crest, then half row by turns,
and half fence the ship about with polished spears and shields.
Then all together raise a mighty shout so that the birds may be
scared by the unwonted din, the nodding crests, and the uplifted
spears on high. And if we reach the island itself, then make
mighty noise with the clashing of shields."
Thus he spoke, and the helpful device pleased all. And on
their heads they placed helmets of bronze, gleaming terribly,
and the blood-red crests were tossing. And half of them rowed in
turn, and the rest covered the ship with spears and shields. And
as when a man roofs over a house with tiles, to be an ornament
of his home and a defence against rain, and one the fits firmly
into another, each after each; so they roofed over the ship with
their shields, locking them together. And as a din arises from a
warrior-host of men sweeping on, when lines of battle meet, such
a shout rose upward from the ship into the air. Now they saw
none of the birds yet, but when they touched the island and
clashed on their shields, then the birds in countless numbers
rose in flight here and there. And as when the son of Cronos
sends from the clouds a dense hailstorm on city and houses, and
the people who dwell beneath hear the din above the roof and sit
quietly, since the stormy season has not come on them unawares,
but they have first made strong their roofs; so the birds sent
against the heroes a thick shower of feather-shafts as they
darted over the sea to the mountains of the land opposite.
What then was the purpose of Phineus in bidding the divine
band of heroes land there? Or what kind of help was about to
meet their desire?
The sons of Phrixus were faring towards the city of
Orchomenus from Aea, coming from Cytaean Aeetes, on board a
Colchian ship, to win the boundless wealth of their father; for
he, when dying, had enjoined this journey on them. And lo, on
that day they were very near that island. But Zeus had impelled
the north wind's might to blow, marking by rain the moist path
of Arcturus; and all day long he was stirring the leaves on the
mountains, breathing gently on the topmost sprays; but at night
he rushed on the sea with monstrous force, and with his
shrieking blasts uplifted the surge; and a dark mist covered the
heavens, nor did the bright stars anywhere appear from among the
clouds, but a murky gloom brooded all around. And so the sons of
Phrixus, drenched and trembling in fear of a horrible doom, were
borne along by the waves helplessly. And the force of the wind
had snatched away their sails and shattered in twain the hull,
tossed as it was by the breakers. And hereupon by heaven's
prompting those four clutched a huge beam, one of many that were
scattered about, held together by sharp bolts, when the ship
broke to pieces. And on to the island the waves and the blasts
of wind bore the men in their distress, within a little of
death. And straightway a mighty rain burst forth, and rained on
the sea and the island, and all the country opposite the island,
where the arrogant Mossynoeci dwelt. And the sweep of the waves
hurled the sons of Phrixus, together with their massy beam, on
the beach of the island, in the murky night; and the floods of
rain from Zeus ceased at sunrise, and soon the two bands drew
near and met each other, and Argus spoke first:
"We beseech you, by Zeus the Beholder, whoever you are, to be
kindly and to help us in our need. For fierce tempests, falling
on the sea, have shattered all the timbers of the crazy ship in
which we were cleaving our path on business bent. Wherefore we
entreat you, if haply you will listen, to grant us just a
covering for our bodies, and to pity and succour men in
misfortune, your equals in age. Oh, reverence suppliants and
strangers for Zeus' sake, the god of strangers and suppliants.
To Zeus belong both suppliants and strangers; and his eye, it
seems to me, beholdseven us."
And in reply the son of Aeson prudently questioned him,
deeming that the prophecies of Phineus were being fulfilled:
"All these things will we straightway grant you with right good
will. But come tell me truly in what country you dwell and what
business bids you sail across the sea, and tell me your own
glorious names and lineage."
And him Argus, helpless in his evil plight, addressed: "That
one Phrixus an Aeolid reached Aea from Hellas you yourselves
have clearly heard before this, I trow; Phrixus, who came to the
city of Aeetes, bestriding a ram, which Hermes had made all
gold; and the fleece you may see even now. The ram, at its own
prompting, he then sacrificed to Zeus, son of Cronos, above all,
the god of fugitives. And him did Aeetes receive in his palace,
and with gladness of heart gave him his daughter Chalciope in
marriage without gifts of wooing. (8) From those two are we
sprung. But Phrixus died at last, an aged man, in the home of
Aeetes; and we, giving heed to our father's behests, are
journeying to Orehomenus to take the possessions of Athamas. And
if you do desire to learn our names, this is Cytissorus, this
Phrontis, and this Melas, and me you may. call Argus."
Thus he spoke, and the chieftains rejoiced at the meeting,
and tended them, much marvelling. And Jason again in turn
replied, as was fitting, with these words:
"Surely you are our kinsmen on my father's side, and you pray
that with kindly hearts we succour your evil plight. For
Cretheus and Athamas were brothers. I am the grandson of
Cretheus, and with these comrades here I am journeying from that
same Hellas to the city of Aeetes. But of these things we will
converse hereafter. And do you first put clothing on you. By
heaven's devising, I ween, have you come to my hands in your
sore need."
He spoke, and out of the ship gave them raiment to put on.
Then all together they went to the temple of Ares to offer
sacrifice of sheep; and in haste they stood round the altar,
which was outside the roofless temple, an altar built of
pebbles; within a black stone stood fixed, a sacred thing, to
which of yore the Amazons all used to pray. Nor was it lawful
for them, when they came from the opposite coast, to burn on
this altar offerings of sheep and oxen, but they used to slay
horses which they kept in great herds. Now when they had
sacrificed and eaten the feast prepared, then Aeson's son spoke
among them and thus began:
"Zeus' self, I ween, beholds everything; nor do we men escape
his eye, we that be god-fearing and just, for as he rescued your
father from the hands of a murderous step-dame and gave him
measureless wealth besides; even so has he saved you harmless
from the baleful storm. And on board this ship you may sail here
and there, where you will, whether to Aea or to the wealthy city
of divine Orthomenus. For our ship Athena built and with axe of
bronze cut her timbers near the crest of Pelion, and with the
goddess wrought Argus. But yours the fierce surge has shattered,
before you came nigh to the rocks which all day long clash
together in the straits of the sea. But come, be yourselves our
helpers, for we are eager to bring to Hellas the golden fleece,
and guide us on our voyage, for I go to atone for the intended
sacrifice of Phrixus, the cause of Zeus' wrath against the sons
of Aeolus."
He spoke with soothing words; but horror seized them when
they heard. For they deemed that they would not find Aeetes
friendly if they desired to take away the ram's fleece. And
Argus spoke as follows, vexed that they should busy themselves
with such a quest:
"My friends, our strength, so far as it avails, shall never
cease to help you, not one whit, when need shall come. But
Aeetes is terribly armed with deadly ruthlessness; wherefore
exceedingly do I dread this voyage. And he boasts himself to be
the son of Helios; and all round dwell countless tribes of
Colchians; and he might match himself with Ares in his dread
war-cry and giant strength. Nay, to seize the fleece in spite of
Aeetes is no easy task; so huge a serpent keeps guard round and
about it, deathless and sleepless, which Earth herself brought
forth on the sides of Caucasus, by the rock of Typhaon, where
Typhaon, they say, smitten by the bolt of Zeus, son of Cronos,
when he lifted against the god his sturdy hands, dropped from
his head hot gore; and in such plight he reached the mountains
and plain of Nysa, where to this day he lies whelmed beneath the
waters of the Serbonian lake."
Thus he spoke, and straightway many a cheek grew pale when
they heard of so mighty an adventure. But quickly Peleus
answered with cheering words, and thus spoke:
"Do not be so fearful in spirit, my good friend. For we are
not so lacking in prowess as to be no match for Aeetes to try
his strength with arms; but I deem that we too are cunning in
war, we that go there, near akin to the blood of the blessed
gods. Wherefore if he will not grant us the fleece of gold for
friendship's sake, the tribes of the Colchians will not avail
him, I ween."
Thus they addressed each other in turn, till again, satisfied
with their feast, they turned to rest. And when they rose at
dawn a gentle breeze was blowing; and they raised the sails,
which strained to the rush of the wind, and quickly they left
behind the island of Ares.
And at nightfall they came to the island of Philyra, where
Cronos, son of Uranus, what time in Olympus he reigned over the
Titans, and Zeus was yet being nurtured in a Cretan cave by the
Curetes of Ida, lay beside Philyra, when he had deceived Rhea;
and the goddess found them in the midst of their dalliance; and
Cronos leapt up from the couch with a rush in the form of a
steed with flowing mane, but Ocean's daughter, Philyra, in shame
left the spot and those haunts, and came to the long Pelasgian
ridges, where by her union with the transfigured deity she
brought forth huge Cheiron, half like a horse, half like a god.
Thence they sailed on, past the Macrones and the
far-stretching land of the Becheiri and the overweening Sapeires,
and after them the Byzeres; for ever forward they clave their
way, quickly borne by the gentle breeze. And lo, as they sped
on, a deep gulf of the sea was opened, and lo, the steep crags
of the Caucasian mountains rose up, where, with his limbs bound
on the hard rocks by galling fetters of bronze, Prometheus fed
with his liver an eagle that ever rushed back to its prey. High
above the ship at even they saw it flying with a loud whirr,
near the clouds; and yet it shook all the sails with the fanning
of those huge wings. For it had not the form of a bird of the
air but kept poising its long wing-feathers like polished oars.
And not long after they heard the bitter cry of Prometheus as
his liver was being torn away; and the air rang with his screams
till they marked the ravening eagle rushing back from the
mountain on the self-same track. And at night, by the skill of
Argus, they reached broad-flowing Phasis, and the utmost bourne
of the sea.
And straightway they let down the sails and the yard-arm and
stowed them inside the hollow mast-crutch, and at once they
lowered the mast itself till it lay along; and quickly with oars
they entered the mighty stream of the river; and round the prow
the water surged as it gave them way. And on their left hand
they had lofty Caucasus and the Cytaean city of Aea, and on the
other side the plain of Ares and the sacred grove of that god,
where the serpent was keeping watch and ward over the fleece as
it hung on the leafy branches of an oak. And Aeson's son himself
from a golden goblet poured into the river libations of honey
and pure wine to Earth and to the gods of the country, and to
the souls of dead heroes; and he besought them of their grace to
give kindly aid, and to welcome their ship's hawsers with
favourable omen. And straightway Ancaeus spoke these words:
"We have reached the Colchian land and the stream of Phasis;
and it is time for us to take counsel whether we shall make
trial of Aeetes with soft words, or an attempt of another kind
shall be fitting."
Thus he spoke, and by the advice of Argus Jason bade them
enter a shaded backwater and let the ship ride at anchor off
shore; and it was near at hand in their course and there they
passed the night. And soon the dawn appeared to their expectant
eyes.
ENDNOTES:
(1) i.e. Polydeuces.
(2) i.e. Saviour of Sailors.
(3) i.e. through the ravine that divides the headland.
(4) i.e. river of fair dances.
(5) i.e. the bedchamber.
(6) The north-west wind.
(7) Called "Mossynes".
(8) i.e. without exacting gifts from the bridegroom. So in
the "Iliad" (ix. 146) Agamemnon offers Achilles any of his three
daughters ANAEONOS.

Jason and Medea
John William Waterhouse
Book 3
COME NOW, Erato, stand by my side, and say next how Jason
brought back the fleece to Iolcus aided by the love of Medea.
For you share the power of Cypris, and by your love-cares charm
unwedded maidens; wherefore to you too is attached a name that
tells of love.
Thus the heroes, unobserved, were waiting in ambush amid the
thick reed-beds; but Hera and Athena took note of them, and,
apart from Zeus and the other immortals, entered a chamber and
took counsel together; and Hera first made trial of Athena:
"Do you now first, daughter of Zeus, give advice. What must
be done? Will you devise some scheme whereby they may seize the
golden fleece of Aeetes and bear it to Hellas, or can they
deceive the king with soft words and so work persuasion? Of a
truth he is terribly overweening. Still it is right to shrink
from no endeavour."
Thus she spoke, and at once Athena addressed her: "I too was
pondering such thoughts in my heart, Hera, when you did ask me
outright. But not yet do I think that I have conceived a scheme
to aid the courage of the heroes, though I have balanced many
plans."
She ended, and the goddesses fixed their eyes on the ground
at their feet, brooding apart; and straightway Hera was the
first to speak her thought: "Come, let us go to Cypris; let both
of us accost her and urge her to bid her son (if only he will
obey) speed his shaft at the daughter of Aeetes, the
enchantress, and charm her with love for Jason. And I deem that
by her device he will bring back the fleece to Hellas."
Thus she spoke, and the prudent plan pleased Athena, and she
addressed her in reply with gentle words:
"Hera, my father begat me to be a stranger to the darts of
love, nor do I know any charm to work desire. But if the word
pleases you, surely I will follow; but you must speak when we
meet her."
So she said, and starting forth they came to the mighty
palace of Cypris, which her husband, the halt-footed god, had
built for her when first he brought her from Zeus to be his
wife. And entering the court they stood beneath the gallery of
the chamber where the goddess prepared the couch of Hephaestus.
But he had gone early to his forge and anvils to a broad cavern
in a floating island where with the blast of flame he wrought
all manner of curious work; and she all alone was sitting
within, on an inlaid seat facing the door. And her white
shoulders on each side were covered with the mantle of her hair
and she was parting it with a golden comb and about to braid up
the long tresses; but when she saw the goddesses before her, she
stayed and called them within, and rose from her seat and placed
them on couches. Then she herself sat down, and with her hands
gathered up the locks still uncombed. And smiling she addressed
them with crafty words:
"Good friends, what intent, what occasion brings you here
after so long? Why have you come, not too frequent visitors
before, chief among goddesses that you are?"
And to her Hera replied: "You mock us, but our hearts are
stirred with calamity. For already on the river Phasis the son
of Aeson moors his ship, he and his comrades in quest of the
fleece. For all their sakes we fear terribly (for the task is
nigh at hand) but most for Aeson's son. Him will I deliver,
though he sail even to Hades to free Ixion below from his brazen
chains, as far as strength lies in my limbs, so that Pelias may
not mock at having escaped an evil doom — Pelias who left me
unhonoured with sacrifice. Moreover Jason was greatly loved by
me before, ever since at the mouth of Anaurus in flood, as I was
making trial of men's righteousness, he met me on his return
from the chase; and all the mountains and long ridged peaks were
sprinkled with snow, and from them the torrents rolling down
were rushing with a roar. And he took pity on me in the likeness
of an old crone, and raising me on his shoulders himself bore me
through the headlong tide. So he is honoured by me unceasingly;
nor will Pelias pay the penalty of his outrage, unless you will
grant Jason his return."
Thus she spoke, and speechlessness seized Cypris. And
beholding Hera supplicating her she felt awe, and then addressed
her with friendly words: "Dread goddess, may no viler thing than
Cypris ever be found, if I disregard your eager desire in word
or deed, whatever my weak arms can effect; and let there be no
favour in return."
She spoke, and Hera again addressed her with prudence: "It is
not in need of might or of strength that we have come. But just
quietly bid your boy charm Aeetes' daughter with love for Jason.
For if she will aid him with her kindly counsel, easily do I
think he will win the fleece of gold and return to Iolcus, for
she is full of wiles."
Thus she spoke, and Cypris addressed them both: "Hera and
Athena, he will obey you rather than me. For unabashed though he
is, there will be some slight shame in his eyes before you; but
he has no respect for me, but ever slights me in contentious
mood. And, overborne by his naughtiness, I purpose to break his
ill-sounding arrows and his bow in his very sight. For in his
anger he has threatened that if I shall not keep my hands off
him while he still masters his temper, I shall have cause to
blame myself thereafter."
So she spoke, and the goddesses smiled and looked at each
other. But Cypris again spoke, vexed at heart: "To others my
sorrows are a jest; nor ought I to tell them to all; I know them
too well myself. But now, since this pleases you both, I will
make the attempt and coax him, and he will not say me nay."
Thus she spoke, and Hera took her slender hand and gently
smiling, replied: "Perform this task, Cytherea, straightway, as
you sayest; and do not be angry or contend with your boy; he
will cease hereafter to vex you."
She spoke, and left her seat, and Athena accompanied her and
they went forth both hastening back. And Cypris went on her way
through the glens of Olympus to find her boy. And she found him
apart, in the blooming orchard of Zeus, not alone, but with him
Ganymedes, whom once Zeus had set to dwell among the immortal
gods, being enamoured of his beauty. And they were playing for
golden dice, as boys in one house are wont to do. And already
greedy Eros was holding the palm of his left hand quite full of
them under his breast, standing upright; and on the bloom of his
cheeks a sweet blush was glowing. But the other sat crouching
hard by, silent and downcast, and he had two dice left which he
threw one after the other, and was angered by the loud laughter
of Eros. And lo, losing them straightway with the former, he
went off empty handed, helpless, and noticed not the approach of
Cypris. And she stood before her boy, and laying her hand on his
lips, addressed him:
"Why do you smile in triumph, unutterable rogue? Have you
cheated him thus, and unjustly overcome the innocent child?
Come, be ready to perform for me the task I will tell you of,
and I will give you Zeus' all-beauteous plaything — the one
which his dear nurse Adrasteia made for him, while he still
lived a child, with childish ways, in the Idaean cave — a
well-rounded ball; no better toy will you get from the hands of
Hephaestus. All of gold are its zones, and round each double
seams run in a circle; but the stitches are hidden, and a dark
blue spiral overlays them all. But if you should cast it with
your hands, lo, like a star, it sends a flaming track through
the sky. This I will give you; and do you strike with your shaft
and charm the daughter of Aeetes with love for Jason; and let
there be no loitering. For then my thanks would be the
slighter."
Thus she spoke, and welcome were her words to the listening
boy. And he threw down all his toys, and eagerly seizing her
robe on this side and on that, clung to the goddess. And he
implored her to bestow the gift at once; but she, facing him
with kindly words, touched his cheeks, kissed him and drew him
to her, and replied with a smile:
"Be witness now your dear head and mine, that surely I will
give you the gift and deceive you not, if you will strike with
your shaft Aeetes' daughter."
She spoke, and he gathered up his dice, and having well
counted them all threw them into his mother's gleaming lap. And
straightway with golden baldric he slung round him his quiver
from where it leant against a tree-trunk, and took up his curved
bow. And he fared forth through the fruitful orchard of the
palace of Zeus. Then he passed through the gates of Olympus high
in air; hence is a downward path from heaven; and the twin poles
rear aloft steep mountain tops the highest crests of earth,
where the risen sun grows ruddy with his first beams. And
beneath him there appeared now the life-giving earth and cities
of men and sacred streams of rivers, and now in turn mountain
peaks and the ocean all around, as he swept through the vast
expanse of air.
Now the heroes apart in ambush, in a back-water of the river,
were met in council, sitting on the benches of their ship. And
Aeson's son himself was speaking among them; and they were
listening silently in their places sitting row on row: "My
friends, what pleases myself that will I say out; it is for you
to bring about its fulfilment. For in common is our task, and
common to all alike is the right of speech; and he who in
silence withholds his thought and his counsel, let him know that
it is he alone that bereaves this band of its home-return. Do
you others rest here in the ship quietly with your arms; but I
will go to the palace of Aeetes, taking with me the sons of
Phrixus and two comrades as well. And when I meet him I will
first make trial with words to see if he will be willing to give
up the golden fleece for friendship's sake or not, but trusting
to his might will set at nought our quest. For so, learning his
frowardness first from himself, we will consider whether we
shall meet him in battle, or some other plan shall avail us, if
we refrain from the war-cry. And let us not merely by force,
before putting words to the test, deprive him of his own
possession. But first it is better to go to him and win his
favour by speech. Oftentimes, I ween, does speech accomplish at
need what prowess could hardly catty through, smoothing the path
in manner befitting. And he once welcomed noble Phrixus, a
fugitive from his stepmother's wiles and the sacrifice prepared
by his father. For all men everywhere, even the most shameless,
reverence the ordinance of Zeus, god of strangers, and regard
it."
Thus he spoke, and the youths approved the words of Aeson's
son with one accord, nor was there one to counsel otherwise. And
then he summoned to go with him the sons of Phrixus, and Telamon
and Augeias; and himself took Hermes' wand; and at once they
passed forth from the ship beyond the reeds and the water to dry
land, towards the rising ground of the plain. The plain, I wis,
is called Circe's; and here in line grow many willows and
osiers, on whose topmost branches hang corpses bound with cords.
For even now it is an abomination with the Colchians to burn
dead men with fire; nor is it lawful to place them in the earth
and raise a mound above, but to wrap them in untanned oxhides
and suspend them from trees far from the city. And so earth has
an equal portion with air, seeing that they bury the women; for
that is the custom of their land.
And as they went Hera with friendly thought spread a thick
mist through the city, that they might fare to the palace of
Aeetes unseen by the countless hosts of the Colchians. But soon
when from the plain they came to the city and Aeetes' palace,
then again Hera dispersed the mist. And they stood at the
entrance, marvelling at the king's courts and the wide gates and
columns which rose in ordered lines round the walls; and high up
on the palace a coping of stone rested on brazen triglyphs. And
silently they crossed the threshold. And close by garden vines
covered with green foliage were in full bloom, lifted high in
air. And beneath them ran four fountains, ever-flowing, which
Hephaestus had delved out. One was gushing with milk, one with
wine, while the third flowed with fragrant oil; and the fourth
ran with water, which grew warm at the setting of the Pleiads,
and in turn at their rising bubbled forth from the hollow rock,
cold as crystal. Such then were the wondrous works that the
craftsman-god Hephaestus had fashioned in the palace of Cytaean
Aeetes. And he wrought for him bulls with feet of bronze, and
their mouths were of bronze, and from them they breathed out a
terrible flame of fire; moreover he forged a plough of unbending
adamant, all in one piece, in payment of thanks to Helios, who
had taken the god up in his chariot when faint from the
Phlegraean fight. (1) And here an inner-court was built, and
round it were many well-fitted doors and chambers here and
there, and all along on each side was a richly-wrought gallery.
And on both sides loftier buildings stood obliquely. In one,
which was the loftiest, lordly Aeetes dwelt with his queen; and
in another dwelt Apsyrtus, son of Aeetes, whom a Caucasian
nymph, Asterodeia, bare before he made Eidyia his wedded wife,
the youngest daughter of Tethys and Oceanus. And the sons of the
Colchians called him by the new name of Phaethon, (2) because he
outshone all the youths. The other buildings the handmaidens
had, and the two daughters of Aeetes, Chalciope and Medea. Medea
then [they found] going from chamber to chamber in search of her
sister, for Hera detained her within that day; but beforetime
she was not wont to haunt the palace, but all day long was
busied in Hecate's temple, since she herself was the priestess
of the goddess. And when she saw them she cried aloud, and
quickly Chalciope caught the sound; and her maids, throwing down
at their feet their yarn and their thread, rushed forth all in a
throng. And she, beholding her sons among them, raised her hands
aloft through joy; and so they likewise greeted their mother,
and when they saw her embraced her in their gladness; and she
with many sobs spoke thus:
"After all then, you were not destined to leave me in your
heedlessness and to wander far; but fate has turned you back.
Poor wretch that I am! What a yearning for Hellas from some
woeful madness seized you at the behest of your father Phrixus.
Bitter sorrows for my heart did he ordain when dying. And why
should you go to the city of Orchomenus, whoever this Orchomenus
is, for the sake of Athamas' wealth, leaving your mother alone
to bear her grief?"
Such were her words; and Aeetes came forth last of all and
Eidyia herself came, the queen of Aeetes, on hearing the voice
of Chalciope; and straightway all the court was filled with a
throng. Some of the thralls were busied with a mighty bull,
others with the axe were cleaving dry billets, and others
heating with fire water for the baths; nor was there one who
relaxed his toil, serving the king.
Meantime Eros passed unseen through the grey mist, causing
confusion, as when against grazing heifers rises the gadfly,
which oxherds call the breese. And quickly beneath the lintel in
the porch he strung his bow and took from the quiver an arrow
unshot before, messenger of pain. And with swift feet unmarked
he passed the threshold and keenly glanced around; and gliding
close by Aeson's son he laid the arrow-notch on the cord in the
centre, and drawing wide apart with both hands he shot at Medea;
and speechless amazement seized her soul. But the god himself
flashed back again from the high-roofed hall, laughing loud; and
the bolt burnt deep down in the maiden's heart like a flame; and
ever she kept darting bright glances straight up at Aeson's son,
and within her breast her heart panted fast through anguish, all
remembrance left her, and her soul melted with the sweet pain.
And as a poor woman heaps dry twigs round a blazing brand — a
daughter of toil, whose task is the spinning of wool, that she
may kindle a blaze at night beneath her roof, when she has waked
very early — and the flame waxing wondrous great from the small
brand consumes all the twigs together; so, coiling round her
heart, burnt secretly Love the destroyer; and the hue of her
soft cheeks went and came, now pale, now red, in her soul's
distraction.
Now when the thralls had laid a banquet ready before them,
and they had refreshed themselves with warm baths, gladly did
they please their souls with meat and drink. And thereafter
Aeetes questioned the sons of his daughter, addressing them with
these words:
"Sons of my daughter and of Phrixus, whom beyond all
strangers I honoured in my halls, how have you come returning
back to Aea? Did some calamity cut short your escape in the
midst? You did not listen when I set before you the boundless
length of the way. For I marked it once, whirled along in the
chariot of my father Helios, when he was bringing my sister
Circe to the western land and we came to the shore of the
Tyrrhenian mainland, where even now she abides, exceeding far
from Colchis. But what pleasure is there in words? Do you tell
me plainly what has been your fortune, and who these men are,
your companions, and where from your hollow ship you came
ashore."
Such were his questions, and Argus, before all his brethren,
being fearful for the mission of Aeson's son, gently replied,
for he was the elder-born:
"Aeetes, that ship forthwith stormy blasts tore asunder, and
ourselves, crouching on the beams, a wave drove on to the beach
of the isle of Enyalius (3) in the murky night; and some god
preserved us. For even the birds of Ares that haunted the desert
isle beforetime, not even them did we find. But these men had
driven them off, having landed from their ship on the day
before; and the will of Zeus taking pity on us, or some fate,
detained them there, since they straightway gave us both food
and clothing in abundance, when they heard the illustrious name
of Phrixus and thine own; for to your city are they faring. And
if you wish to know their errand, I will not hide it from time.
A certain king, vehemently longing to drive this man far from
his fatherland and possessions, because in might he outshone all
the sons of Aeolus, sends him to voyage here on a bootless
venture; and asserts that the stock of Aeolus will not escape
the heart-grieving wrath and rage of implacable Zeus, nor the
unbearable curse and vengeance due for Phrixus, till the fleece
comes back to Hellas. And their ship was fashioned by Pallas
Athena, not such a one as are the ships among the Colchians, on
the vilest of which we chanced. For the fierce waves and wind
broke her utterly to pieces; but the other holds firm with her
bolts, even though all the blasts should buffet her. And with
equal swiftness she speedsbefore the wind and when the crew ply
the oar with unresting hands. And he has gathered in her the
mightiest heroes of all Achaea, and has come to your city from
wandering far through cities and gulfs of the dread ocean, in
the hope that you will grant him the fleece. But as you please,
so shall it be, for he comesnot to use force, but is eager to
pay you a recompense for the gift. He has heard from me of your
bitter foes the Sauromatae, and he will subdue them to your
sway. And if you desirest to know their names and lineage I will
tell you all. This man on whose account the rest were gathered
from Hellas, they call Jason, son of Aeson, whom Cretheus begat.
And if in truth he is of the stock of Cretheus himself, thus he
would be our kinsman on the father's side. For Cretheus and
Athamas were both sons of Aeolus; and Phrixus was the son of
Athamas, son of Aeolus. And here, if you have heard at all of
the seed of Helios, you see Augeias; and this is Telamon sprung
from famous Aeacus; and Zeus himself begat Aeacus. And so all
the rest, all the comrades that follow him, are the sons or
grandsons of the immortals."
Such was the tale of Argus; but the king at his words was
filled with rage as he heard; and his heart was lifted high in
wrath. And he spoke in heavy displeasure; and was angered most
of all with the son of Chalciope; for he deemed that on their
account the strangers had come; and in his fury his eyes flashed
forth beneath his brows:
"Begone from my sight, felons, straightway, you and your
tricks, from the land, before someone see a fleece and a Phrixus
to his sorrow. Banded together with your friends from Hellas,
not for the fleece, but to seize my sceptre and royal power have
you come here. Had you not first tasted of my table, surely
would I have cut out your tongues and hewn off both hands and
sent you forth with your feet alone, so that you might be stayed
from starting hereafter. And what lies have you uttered against
the blessed gods!"
Thus he spoke in his wrath; and mightily from its depths
swelled the heart of Aeacus' son, and his soul within longed to
speak a deadly word in defiance, but Aeson's son checked him,
for he himself first made gentle answer:
"Aeetes, bear with this armed band, I pray. For not in the
way you deem have we come to your city and palace, no, nor yet
with such desires. For who would of his own will dare to cross
so wide a sea for the goods of a stranger? But fate and the
ruthless command of a presumptuous king urged me. Grant a favour
to your suppliants, and to all Hellas will I publish a glorious
fame of you; yea, we are ready now to pay you a swift recompense
in war, whether it be the Sauromatae or some other people that
you are eager to subdue to your sway."
He spoke, flattering him with gentle utterance; but the
king's soul brooded a twofold purpose within him, whether he
should attack and slay them on the spot or should make trial of
their might. And this, as he pondered, seemed the better way,
and he addressed Jason in answer:
"Stranger, why need you go through your tale to the end? For
if you are in truth of heavenly race, or have come in no wise
inferior to me, to win the goods of strangers, I will give you
the fleece to bear away, if you wish, when I have tried you. For
against brave men I bear no grudge, such as you yourselves tell
me of him who bears sway in Hellas. And the trial of your
courage and might shall be a contest which I myself can compass
with my hands, deadly though it be. Two bulls with feet of
bronze I have that pasture on the plain of Ares, breathing forth
flame from their jaws; them do I yoke and drive over the
stubborn field of Ares, four plough-gates; and quickly cleaving
it with the share up to the headland, I cast into the furrows
the seed, not the corn of Demeter, but the teeth of a dread
serpent that grow up into the fashion of armed men; them I slay
at once, cutting them down beneath my spear as they rise against
me on all sides. In the morning do I yoke the oxen, and at
eventide I cease from the harvesting. And you, if you will
accomplish such deeds as these, on that very day shall carry off
the fleece to the king's palace; before that time comes I will
not give it, expect it not. For indeed it is unseemly that a
brave man should yield to a coward."
Thus he spoke; and Jason, fixing his eyes on the ground, sat
just as he was, speechless, helpless in his evil plight. For a
long time he turned the matter this way and that, and could in
no way take on him the task with courage, for a mighty task it
seemed; and at last he made reply with crafty words:
"With your plea of right, Aeetes, you shut me in overmuch.
Wherefore also I will dare that contest, monstrous as it is,
though it be my doom to die. For nothing will fall on men more
dread than dire necessity, which indeed constrained me to come
here at a king's command."
Thus he spoke, smitten by his helpless plight; and the king
with grim words addressed him, sore troubled as he was: "Go
forth now to the gathering, since you are eager for the toil;
but if you should fear to lift the yoke on the oxen or shrink
from the deadly harvesting, then all this shall be my care, so
that another too may shudder to come to a man that is better
than he."
He spoke outright; and Jason rose from his seat, and Augeias
and Telamon at once; and Argus followed alone, for he signed to
his brothers to stay there on the spot meantime; and so they
went forth from the hall. And wonderfully among them all shone
the son of Aeson for beauty and grace; and the maiden looked at
him with stealthy glance, holding her bright veil aside, her
heart smouldering with pain; and her soul creeping like a dream
flitted in his track as he went. So they passed forth from the
palace sorely troubled. And Chalciope, shielding herself from
the wrath of Aeetes, had gone quickly to her chamber with her
sons. And Medea likewise followed, and much she brooded in her
soul all the cares that the Loves awaken. And before her eyes
the vision still appeared — himself what like he was, with what
vesture he was clad, what things he spoke, how he sat on his
seat, how he moved forth to the door — and as she pondered she
deemed there never was such another man; and ever in her ears
rung his voice and the honey-sweet words which he uttered. And
she feared for him, lest the oxen or Aeetes with his own hand
should slay him; and she mourned him as though already slain
outright, and in her affliction a round tear through very
grievous pity coursed down her cheek; and gently weeping she
lifted up her voice aloud:
Why does this grief come on me, poor wretch? Whether he be
the best of heroes now about to perish, or the worst, let him go
to his doom. Yet I would that he had escaped unharmed; yea, may
this be so, revered goddess, daughter of Perses, may he avoid
death and return home; but if it be his lot to be o'ermastered
by the oxen, may he first learn this, that I at least do not
rejoice in his cruel calamity."
Thus then was the maiden's heart racked by love-cares. But
when the others had gone forth from the people and the city,
along the path by which at the first they had come from the
plain, then Argus addressed Jason with these words:
"Son of Aeson, you will despise the counsel which I will tell
you, but, though in evil plight, it is not fitting to forbear
from the trial. Before now you have heard me tell of a maiden
that uses sorcery under the guidance of Hecate, Perses'
daughter. If we could win her aid there will be no dread, it
seems to me, of your defeat in the contest; but terribly do I
fear that my mother will not take this task on her. Nevertheless
I will go back again to entreat her, for a common destruction
overhangs us all."
He spoke with goodwill, and Jason answered with these words:
"Good friend, if this is good in your sight, I say not nay. Go
and move your mother, beseeching her aid with prudent words;
pitiful indeed is our hope when we have put our return in the
keeping of women." So he spoke, and quickly they reached the
back-water. And their comrades joyfully questioned them, when
they saw them close at hand; and to them spoke Aeson's son
grieved at heart:
"My friends, the heart of ruthless Aeetes is utterly filled
with wrath against us, for not at all can the goal be reached
either by me or by you who question me. He said that two bulls
with feet of bronze pasture on the plain of Ares, breathing
forth flame from their jaws. And with these he bade me plough
the field, four plough-gates; and said that he would give me
from a serpent's jaws seed which will raise up earthborn men in
armour of bronze; and on the same day I must slay them. This
task — for there was nothing better to devise — I took on myself
outright."
Thus he spoke; and to all the contest seemed one that none
could accomplish, and long, quiet and silent, they looked at one
another, bowed down with the calamity and their despair; but at
last Peleus spoke with courageous words among all the chiefs:
"It is time to be counselling what we shall do. Yet there is not
so much profit, I trow, in counsel as in the might of our hands.
If you then, hero son of Aeson, are minded to yoke Aeetes' oxen,
and are eager for the toil, surely you will keep your promise
and make yourself ready. But if your soul trusts not her prowess
utterly, then neither bestir yourself nor sit still and look
round for some one else of these men. For it is not I who will
flinch, since the bitterest pain will be but death."
So spoke the son of Aeacus; and Telamon's soul was stirred,
and quickly he started up in eagerness; and Idas rose up the
third in his pride; and the twin sons of Tyndareus; and with
them Oeneus' son who was numbered among strong men, though even
the soft down on his cheek showed not yet; with such courage was
his soul uplifted. But the others gave way to these in silence.
And straightway Argus spoke these words to those that longed for
the contest:
"My friends, this indeed is left us at the last. But I deem
that there will come to you some timely aid from my mother.
Wherefore, eager though you be, refrain and abide in your ship a
little longer as before, for it is better to forbear than
recklessly to choose an evil fate. There is a maiden, nurtured
in the halls of Aeetes, whom the goddess Hecate taught to handle
magic herbs with exceeding skill all that the land and flowing
waters produce. With them is quenched the blast of unwearied
flame, and at once she stays the course of rivers as they rush
roaring on, and checks the stars and the paths of the sacred
moon. Of her we bethought us as we came here along the path from
the palace, if haply my mother, her own sister, might persuade
her to aid us in the venture. And if this is pleasing to you as
well, surely on this very day will I return to the palace of
Aeetes to make trial; and perchance with some god's help shall I
make the trial."
Thus he spoke, and the gods in their goodwill gave them a
sign. A trembling dove in her flight from a mighty hawk fell
from on high, terrified, into the lap of Aeson's son, and the
hawk fell impaled on the stern-ornament. And quickly Mopsus with
prophetic words spoke among them all:
"For you, friends, this sign has been wrought by the will of
heaven; in no other way is it possible to interpret its meaning
better, than to seek out the maiden and entreat her with
manifold skill. And I think she will not reject our prayer, if
in truth Phineus said that our return should be with the help of
the Cyprian goddess. It was her gentle bird that escaped death;
and as my heart within me foresees according to this omen, so
may it prove! But, my friends, let us call on Cytherea to aid
us, and now at once obey the counsels of Argus."
He spoke, and the warriors approved, remembering the
injunctions of Phineus; but all alone leapt up Apharcian Idas
and shouted loudly in terrible wrath: "Shame on us, have we come
here fellow voyagers with women, calling on Cypris for help and
not on the mighty strength of Enyalius? And do you look to doves
and hawks to save yourselves from contests? Away with you, take
thought not for deeds of war, but by supplication to beguile
weakling girls."
Such were his eager words; and of his comrades many murmured
low, but none uttered a word of answer back. And he sat down in
wrath; and at once Jason roused them and uttered his own
thought: "Let Argus set forth from the ship, since this pleases
all; but we will now move from the river and openly fasten our
hawsers to the shore. For surely it is not fitting for us to
hide any longer cowering from the battle-cry."
So he spoke, and straightway sent Argus to return in haste to
the city; and they drew the anchors on board at the command of
Aeson's son, and rowed the ship close to the shore, a little
away from the back-water.
But straightway Aeetes held an assembly of the Colchians far
aloof from his palace at a spot where they sat in times before,
to devise against the Minyae grim treachery and troubles. And he
threatened that when first the oxen should have torn in pieces
the man who had taken on him to perform the heavy task, he would
hew down the oak grove above the wooded hill, and burn the ship
and her crew, that so they might vent forth in ruin their
grievous insolence, for all their haughty schemes. For never
would he have welcomed the Aeolid Phrixus as a guest in his
halls, in spite of his sore need, Phrixus, who surpassed all
strangers in gentleness and fear of the gods, had not Zeus
himself sent Hermes his messenger down from heaven, so that he
might meet with a friendly host; much less would pirates coming
to his land be let go scatheless for long, men whose care it was
to lift their hands and seize the goods of others, and to weave
secret webs of guile, and harry the steadings of herdsmen with
ill-sounding forays. And he said that besides all that the sons
of Phrixus should pay a fitting penalty to himself for returning
in consort with evildoers, that they might recklessly drive him
from his honour and his throne; for once he had heard a baleful
prophecy from his father Helios, that he must avoid the secret
treachery and schemes of his own offspring and their crafty
mischief. Wherefore he was sending them, as they desired, to the
Achaean land at the bidding of their father — a long journey.
Nor had he ever so slight a fear of his daughters, that they
would form some hateful scheme, nor of his son Apsyrtus; but
this curse was being fulfilled in the children of Chalciope. And
he proclaimed terrible things in his rage against the strangers,
and loudly threatened to keep watch over the ship and its crew,
so that no one might escape calamity.
Meantime Argus, going to Aeetes' palace, with manifold
pleading besought his mother to pray Medea's aid; and Chalciope
herself already had the same thoughts, but fear checked her soul
lest haply either fate should withstand and she should entreat
her in vain, all distraught as she would be at her father's
deadly wrath, or, if Medea yielded to her prayers, her deeds
should be laid bare and open to view.
Now a deep slumber had relieved the maiden from her
love-pains as she lay on her couch. But straightway fearful
dreams, deceitful, such as trouble one in grief, assailed her.
And she thought that the stranger had taken on him the contest,
not because he longed to win the ram's fleece, and that he had
not come on that account to Aeetes' city, but to lead her away,
his wedded wife, to his own home; and she dreamed that herself
contended with the oxen and wrought the task with exceeding
ease; and that her own parents set at naught their promise, for
it was not the maiden they had challenged to yoke the oxen but
the stranger himself; from that arose a contention of doubtful
issue between her father and the strangers; and both laid the
decision on her, to be as she should direct in her mind. But she
suddenly, neglecting her parents, chose the stranger. And
measureless anguish seized them and they shouted out in their
wrath; and with the cry sleep released its hold on her.
Quivering with fear she started up, and stared round the walls
of her chamber, and with difficulty did she gather her spirit
within her as before, and lifted her voice aloud:
"Poor wretch, how have gloomy dreams affrighted me! I fear
that this voyage of the heroes will bring some great evil. My
heart is trembling for the stranger. Let him woo some Achaean
girl far away among his own folk; let maidenhood be mine and the
home of my parents. Yet, taking to myself a reckless heart, I
will no more keep aloof but will make trial of my sister to see
if she will entreat me to aid in the contest, through grief for
her own sons; this would quench the bitter pain in my heart."
She spoke, and rising from her bed opened the door of her
chamber, bare-footed, clad in one robe; and verily she desired
to go to her sister, and crossed the threshold. And for long she
stayed there at the entrance of her chamber, held back by shame;
and she turned back once more; and again she came forth from
within, and again stole back; and idly did her feet bear her
this way and that; yea, as oft as she went straight on, shame
held her within the chamber, and though held back by shame, bold
desire kept urging her on. Thrice she made the attempt and
thrice she checked herself, the fourth time she fell on her bed
face downward, writhing in pain. And as when a bride in her
chamber bewails her youthful husband, to whom her brothers and
parents have given her, nor yet does she hold converse with all
her attendants for shame and for thinking of him; but she sits
apart in her grief; and some doom has destroyed him, before they
have had pleasure of each other's charms; and she with heart on
fire silently weeps, beholding her widowed couch, in fear lest
the women should mock and revile her; like to her did Medea
lament. And suddenly as she was in the midst of her tears, one
of the handmaids came forth and noticed her, one who was her
youthful attendant; and straightway she told Chalciope, who sat
in the midst of her sons devising how to win over her sister.
And when Chalciope heard the strange tale from the handmaid, not
even so did she disregard it. And she rushed in dismay from her
chamber right on to the chamber where the maiden lay in her
anguish, having torn her cheeks on each side; and when Chalciope
saw her eyes all dimmed with tears, she thus addressed her:
"Ah me, Medea, why do you weep so? What has befallen you?
What terrible grief has entered your heart? Has some heaven-sent
disease enwrapt your frame, or have you heard from our father
some deadly threat concerning me and my sons? Would that I did
not behold this home of my parents, or the city, but dwelt at
the ends of the earth, where not even the name of Colchians is
known!"
Thus she spoke, and her sister's cheeks flushed; and though
she was eager to reply, long did maiden shame restrain her. At
one moment the word rose on the end of her tongue, at another it
fluttered back deep within her breast. And often through her
lovely lips it strove for utterance; but no sound came forth;
till at last she spoke with guileful words; for the bold Loves
were pressing her hard:
"Chalciope, my heart is all trembling for your sons, lest my
father forthwith destroy them together with the strangers.
Slumbering just now in a short-lived sleep such a ghastly dream
did I see — may some god forbid its fulfilment and may you never
win for yourself bitter care on your sons' account."
She spoke, making trial of her sister to see if she first
would entreat help for her sons. And utterly unbearable grief
surged over Chalciope's soul for fear at what she heard; and
then she replied: "Yea, I myself too have come to you in eager
furtherance of this purpose, if you would haply devise with me
and prepare some help. But swear by Earth and Heaven that you
will keep secret in your heart what I shall tell you, and be
fellow-worker with me. I implore you by the blessed gods, by
yourself and by your parents, not to see them destroyed by an
evil doom piteously; or else may I die with my dear sons and
come back hereafter from Hades an avenging Fury to haunt you."
Thus she spoke, and straightway a torrent of tears gushed
forth and low down she clasped her sister's knees with both
hands and let her head sink on to her breast. Then they both
made piteous lamentation over each other, and through the halls
rose the faint sound of women weeping in anguish. Medea, sore
troubled, first addressed her sister:
"God help you, what healing can I bring you for what you
speak of, horrible curses and Furies? Would that it were firmly
in my power to save your sons! Be witness that mighty oath of
the Colchians by which you urgest me to swear, the great Heaven,
and Earth beneath, mother of the gods, that as far as strength
lies in me, never shall you fail of help, if only your prayers
can be accomplished."
She spoke, and Chalciope thus replied: "Could you not then,
for the stranger — who himself craves your aid — devise some
trick or some wise thought to win the contest, for the sake of
my sons? And from him has come Argus urging me to try to win
your help; I left him in the palace meantime while I came here."
Thus she spoke, and Medea's heart bounded with joy within
her, and at once her fair cheeks flushed, and a mist swam before
her melting eyes, and she spoke as follows: "Chalciope, as is
dear and delightful to you and your sons, even so will I do.
Never may the dawn appear again to my eyes, may you never see me
living any longer, if I should take thought for anything before
your life or your sons' lives, for they are my brothers, my dear
kinsmen and youthful companions. So do I declare myself to be
your sister, and your daughter too, for you did lift me to your
breast when an infant equally with them, as I ever heard from my
mother in past days. But go, bury my kindness in silence, so
that I may carry out my promise unknown to my parents; and at
dawn I will bring to Hecate's temple charms to cast a spell on
the bulls."
Thus Chalciope went back from the chamber, and made known to
her sons the help given by her sister. And again did shame and
hateful fear seize Medea thus left alone, that she should devise
such deeds for a man in her father's despite.
Then did night draw darkness over the earth; and on the sea
sailors from their ships looked towards the Bear and the stars
of Orion; and now the wayfarer and the warder longed for sleep,
and the pall of slumber wrapped round the mother whose children
were dead; nor was there any more the barking of dogs through
the city, nor sound of men's voices; but silence held the
blackening gloom. But not indeed on Medea came sweet sleep. For
in her love for Aeson's son many cares kept her wakeful, and she
dreaded the mighty strength of the bulls, beneath whose fury he
was like to perish by an unseemly fate in the field of Ares. And
fast did her heart throb within her breast, as a sunbeam quivers
on the walls of a house when flung up from water, which is just
poured forth in a caldron or a pail may be; and here and there
on the swift eddy does it dart and dance along; even so the
maiden's heart quivered in her breast. And the tear of pity
flowed from her eyes, and ever within anguish tortured her, a
smouldering fire through her frame, and about her fine nerves
and deep down beneath the nape of the neck where the pain enters
keenest, whenever the unwearied Loves direct against the heart
their shafts of agony. And she thought now that she would give
him the charms to cast a spell on the bulls, now that she would
not, and that she herself would perish; and again that she would
not perish and would not give the charms, but just as she was
would endure her fate in silence. Then sitting down she wavered
in mind and said:
"Poor wretch, must I toss here and there in woe? On every
side my heart is in despair; nor is there any help for my pain;
but it burnsever thus. Would that I had been slain by the swift
shafts of Artemis before I had set eyes on him, before
Chalciope's sons reached the Achaean land. Some god or some Fury
brought them here for our grief, a cause of many tears. Let him
perish in the contest if it be his lot to die in the field. For
how could I prepare the charms without my parents' knowledge?
What story call I tell them? What trick, what cunning device for
aid can I find? If I see him alone, apart from his comrades,
shall I greet him? Ill-starred that I am! I cannot hope that I
should rest from my sorrows even though he perished; then will
evil come to me when he is bereft of life. Perish all shame,
perish all glow; may he, saved by my effort, go scatheless
wherever his heart desires. But as for me, on the day when he
bides the contest in triumph, may I die either straining my neck
in the noose from the roof-tree or tasting drugs destructive of
life. But even so, when I am dead, they will fling out taunts
against me; and every city far away will ring with my doom, and
the Colchian women, tossing my name on their lips here and
there, will revile me with unseemly mocking — the maid who cared
so much for a stranger that she died, the maid who disgraced her
home and her parents, yielding to a mad passion. And what
disgrace will not be mine? Alas for my infatuation! Far better
would it be for me to forsake life this very night in my chamber
by some mysterious fate, escaping all slanderous reproach,
before I complete such nameless dishonour."
She spoke, and brought a casket wherein lay many drugs, some
for healing, others for killing, and placing it on her knees she
wept. And she drenched her bosom with ceaseless tears, which
flowed in torrents as she sat, bitterly bewailing her own fate.
And she longed to choose a murderous drug to taste it, and now
she was loosening the bands of the casket eager to take it
forth, unhappy maid! But suddenly a deadly fear of hateful Hades
came on her heart. And long she held back in speechless horror,
and all around her thronged visions of the pleasing cares of
life. She thought of all the delightful things that are among
the living, she thought of her joyous playmates, as a maiden
will; and the sun grew sweeter than ever to behold, seeing that
in truth her soul yearned for all. And she put the casket again
from off her knees, all changed by the prompting of Hera, and no
more did she waver in purpose; but longed for the rising dawn to
appear quickly, that she might give him the charms to work the
spell as she had promised, and meet him face to face. And often
did she loosen the bolts of her door, to watch for the faint
gleam: and welcome to her did the dayspring shed its light, and
folk began to stir throughout the city.
Then Argus bade his brothers remain there to learn the
maiden's mind and plans, but himself turned back and went to the
ship.
Now soon as ever the maiden saw the light of dawn, with her
hands she gathered up her golden tresses which were floating
round her shoulders in careless disarray, and bathed her
tear-stained cheeks, and made her skin shine with ointment sweet
as nectar; and she donned a beautiful robe, fitted with
well-bent clasps, and above on her head, divinely fair, she
threw a veil gleaming like silver. And there, moving to and fro
in the palace, she trod the ground forgetful of the heaven-sent
woes thronging round her and of others that were destined to
follow. And she called to her maids. Twelve they were, who lay
during the night in the vestibule of her fragrant chamber, young
as herself, not yet sharing the bridal couch, and she bade them
hastily yoke the mules to the chariot to bear her to the
beauteous shrine of Hecate. Thereupon the handmaids were making
ready the chariot; and Medea meanwhile took from the hollow
casket a charm which men say is called the charm of Prometheus.
If a man should anoint his body therewithal, having first
appeased the Maiden, the only-begotten, with sacrifice by night,
surely that man could not be wounded by the stroke of bronze nor
would he flinch from blazing fire; but for that day he would
prove superior both in prowess and in might. It shot up
firstborn when the ravening eagle on the rugged flanks of
Caucasus let drip to the earth the blood-like ichor of tortured
Prometheus. And its flower appeared a cubit above ground in
colour like the Corycian crocus, rising on twin stalks; but in
the earth the root was like newly-cut flesh. The dark juice of
it, like the sap of a mountain-oak, she had gathered in a
Caspian shell to make the charm withal, when she had first
bathed in seven ever-flowing streams, and had called seven times
on Brimo, nurse of youth, night-wandering Brimo, of the
underworld, queen among the dead, — in the gloom of night, clad
in dusky garments. And beneath, the dark earth shook and
bellowed when the Titanian root was cut; and the son of Iapetus
himself groaned, his soul distraught with pain. And she brought
the charm forth and placed it in the fragrant band which
engirdled her, just beneath her bosom, divinely fair. And going
forth she mounted the swift chariot, and with her went two
handmaidens on each side. And she herself took the reins and in
her right hand the well-fashioned whip, and drove through the
city; and the rest, the handmaids, laid their hands on the
chariot behind and ran along the broad highway; and they kilted
up their light robes above their white knees. And even as by the
mild waters of Parthenius, or after bathing in the river Amnisus,
Leto's daughter stands on her golden chariot and courses over
the hills with her swift-footed roes, to greet from afar some
richly-steaming hecatomb; and with her come the nymphs in
attendance, gathering, some at the spring of Amnisus itself,
others by the glens and many-fountained peaks; and round her
whine and fawn the beasts cowering as she moves along: thus they
sped through the city; and on both sides the people gave way,
shunning the eyes of the royal maiden. But when she had left the
city's well paved streets, and was approaching the shrine as she
drove over the plains, then she alighted eagerly from the
smooth-running chariot and spoke as follows among her maidens:
"Friends, verily have I sinned greatly and took no heed not
to go among the stranger-folk 1 who roam over our land. The
whole city is smitten with dismay; wherefore no one of the women
who formerly gathered here day by day has now come here. But
since we have come and no one else draws near, come, let us
satisfy our souls without stint with soothing song, and when we
have plucked the fair flowers amid the tender grass, that very
hour will we return. And with many a gift shall you reach home
this very day, if you will gladden me with this desire of mine.
For Argus pleads with me, also Chalciope herself; but this that
you hear from me keep silently in your hearts, lest the tale
reach my father's ears. As for yon stranger who took on him the
task with the oxen, they bid me receive his gifts and rescue him
from the deadly contest. And I approved their counsel, and I
have summoned him to come to my presence apart from his
comrades, so that we may divide the gifts among ourselves if he
bring them in his hands, and in return may give him a baleful
charm. But when he comes, do you stand aloof."
So she spoke, and the crafty counsel pleased them all. And
straightway Argus drew Aeson's son apart from his comrades as
soon as he heard from his brothers that Medea had gone at
daybreak to the holy shrine of Hecate, and led him over the
plain; and with them went Mopsus, son of Ampycus, skilled to
utter oracles from the appearance of birds, and skilled to give
good counsel to those who set out on a journey.
Never yet had there been such a man in the days of old,
neither of all the heroes of the lineage of Zeus himself, nor of
those who sprung from the blood of the other gods, as on that
day the bride of Zeus made Jason, both to look on and to hold
converse with. Even his comrades wondered as they gazed on him,
radiant with manifold graces; and the son of Ampycus rejoiced in
their journey, already foreboding how all would end.
Now by the path along the plain there stands near the shrine
a poplar with its crown of countless leaves, whereon often
chattering crows would roost. One of them meantime as she
clapped her wings aloft in the branches uttered the counsels of
Hera:
"What a pitiful seer is this, that has not the wit to
conceive even what children know, how that no maiden will say a
word of sweetness or love to a youth when strangers be near.
Begone, sorry prophet, witless one; on you neither Cypris nor
the gentle Loves breathe in their kindness."
She spoke chiding, and Mopsus smiled to hear the god-sent
voice of the bird, and thus addressed them: "Do you, son of
Aeson, pass on to the temple, where you will find the maiden;
and very kind will her greeting be to you through the prompting
of Cypris, who will be your helpmate in the contest, even as
Phineus, Agenor's son, foretold. But we two, Argus and I, will
await your return, apart in this very spot; do you all alone be
a suppliant and win her over with prudent words."
He spoke wisely, and both at once gave approval. Nor was
Medea's heart turned to other thoughts, for all her singing, and
never a song that she essayed pleased her long in her sport. But
in confusion she ever faltered, nor did she keep her eyes
resting quietly on the throng of her handmaids; but to the paths
far off she strained her gaze, turning her face aside. Oft did
her heart sink fainting within her bosom whenever she fancied
she heard passing by the sound of a footfall or of the wind. But
soon he appeared to her longing eyes, striding along loftily,
like Sirius coming from ocean, which rises fair and clear to
see, but brings unspeakable mischief to flocks; thus then did
Aeson's son come to her, fair to see, but the sight of him
brought love-sick care. Her heart fell from out her bosom, and a
dark mist came over her eyes, and a hot blush covered her
cheeks. And she had no strength to lift her knees backwards or
forwards, but her feet beneath were rooted to the ground; and
meantime all her handmaidens had drawn aside. So they two stood
face to face without a word, without a sound, like oaks or lofty
pines, which stand quietly side by side on the mountains when
the wind is still; then again, when stirred by the breath of the
wind, they murmur ceaselessly; so they two were destined to tell
out all their tale, stirred by the breath of Love. And Aeson's
son saw that she had fallen into some heaven-sent calamity, and
with soothing words thus addressed her:
"Why, pray, maiden, do you fear me so much, all alone as I
am? Never was I one of these idle boasters such as other men are
— not even aforetime, when I dwelt in my own country. Wherefore,
maiden, do not be too much abashed before me, either to enquire
whatever you will or to speak your mind. But since we have met
one another with friendly hearts, in a hallowed spot, where it
is wrong to sin, speak openly and ask questions, and beguile me
not with pleasing words, for at the first you did promise your
sister to give me the charms my heart desires. I implore you by
Hecate herself, by your parents, and by Zeus who holds his
guardian hand over strangers and suppliants; I come here to you
both a suppliant and a stranger, bending the knee in my sore
need. For without you and your sister never shall I prevail in
the grievous contest. And to you will I render thanks hereafter
for your aid, as is right and fitting for men who dwell far oft,
making glorious your name and fame; and the rest of the heroes,
returning to Hellas, will spread your renown and so will the
heroes' wives and mothers, who now perhaps are sitting on the
shore and making moan for us; their painful affliction you might
scatter to the winds. In days past the maiden Ariadne, daughter
of Minos, with kindly intent rescued Theseus from grim contests
— the maiden whom Pasiphae daughter of Helios bare. But she,
when Minos had lulled his wrath to rest, went aboard the ship
with him and left her fatherland; and her even the immortal gods
loved, and, as a sign in mid-sky, a crown of stars, which men
call Ariadne's crown, rolls along all night among the heavenly
constellations. So to you too shall be thanks from the gods, if
you will save so mighty an array of chieftains. For surely from
your lovely form you are like to excel in gentle courtest."
Thus he spoke, honouring her; and she cast her eyes down with
a smile divinely sweet; and her soul melted within her, uplifted
by his praise, and she gazed on him face to face; nor did she
know what word to utter first, but was eager to pour out
everything at once. And forth from her fragrant girdle
ungrudgingly she brought out the charm; and he at once received
it in his hands with joy. And she would even have drawn out all
her soul from her breast and given it to him, exulting in his
desire; so wonderfully did love flash forth a sweet flame from
the golden head of Aeson's son; and he captivated her gleaming
eyes; and her heart within grew warm, melting away as the dew
melts away round roses when warmed by the morning's light. And
now both were fixing their eyes on the ground abashed, and again
were throwing glances at each other, smiling with the light of
love beneath their radiant brows. And at last and scarcely then
did the maiden greet him:
"Take heed now, that I may devise help for you. When at your
coming my father has given you the deadly teeth from the
dragon's jaws for sowing, then watch for the time when the night
is parted in twain, then bathe in the stream of the tireless
river, and alone, apart from others, clad in dusky raiment, dig
a rounded pit; and therein slay a ewe, and sacrifice it whole,
heaping high the pyre on the very edge of the pit. And
propitiate only-begotten Hecate, daughter of Perses, pouring
from a goblet the hive-stored labour of bees. And then, when you
have heedfully sought the grace of the goddess, retreat from the
pyre; and let neither the sound of feet drive you to turn back,
nor the baying of hounds, lest haply you should maim all the
rites and yourself fail to return duly to your comrades. And at
dawn steep this charm in water, strip, and anoint your body
therewith as with oil; and in it there will be boundless prowess
and mighty strength, and you will deem yourself a match not for
men but for the immortal gods. And besides, let your spear and
shield and sword be sprinkled. Thereupon the spear-heads of the
earthborn men shall not pierce you, nor the flame of the deadly
bulls as it rushes forth resistless. But such you shall not be
for long, but for that one day; still never flinch from the
contest. And I will tell you besides of yet another help. As
soon as you have yoked the strong oxen, and with your might and
your prowess have ploughed all the stubborn fallow, and now
along the furrows the Giants are springing up, when the
serpent's teeth are sown on the dusky clods, if you mark them
uprising in throngs from the fallow, cast unseen among them a
massy stone; and they over it, like ravening hounds over their
food, will slay one another; and do you yourself hasten to rush
to the battle-strife, and the fleece thereupon you shall bear
far away from Aea; nevertheless, depart wherever you will, or
your pleasure takes you, when you have gone hence."
Thus she spoke, and cast her eyes to her feet in silence, and
her cheek, divinely fair, was wet with warm tears as she
sorrowed for that he was about to wander far from her side over
the wide sea: and once again she addressed him face to face with
mournful words, and took his right hand; for now shame had left
her eyes:
"Remember, if haply you return to your home, Medea's name;
and so will I remember thine, though you be far away. And of
your kindness tell me this, where is your home, where will you
sail hence in your ship over the sea; will you come near wealthy
Orchomenus, or near the Aeaean isle? And tell me of the maiden,
whoever she be that you have named, the far-renowned daughter of
Pasiphae, who is kinswoman to my father."
Thus she spoke; and over him too, at the tears of the maiden,
stole Love the destroyer, and he thus answered her:
"All too surely do I deem that never by night and never by
day will I forget you if I escape death and indeed make my way
in safety to the Achaean land, and Aeetes set not before us some
other contest worse than this. And if it pleases you to know
about my fatherland, I will tell it out; for indeed my own heart
bids me do that. There is a land encircled by lofty mountains,
rich in sheep and in pasture, where Prometheus, son of Iapetus,
begat goodly Deucalion, who first founded cities and reared
temples to the immortal gods, and first ruled over men. This
land the neighbours who dwell around call Haemonia. And in it
stands Ioleus, my city, and in it many others, where they have
not so much as heard the name of the Aeaean isle; yet there is a
story that Minyas starting thence, Minyas son of Aeolus, built
long ago the city of Orchomenus that borders on the Cadmeians.
But why do I tell you all this vain talk, of our home and of
Minos' daughter, far-famed Ariadne, by which glorious name they
called that lovely maiden of whom you ask me? Would that, as
Minos then was well inclined to Theseus for her sake, so may
your father be joined to us in friendship!"
Thus he spoke, soothing her with gentle converse. But pangs
most bitter stirred her heart and in grief did she address him
with vehement words:
"In Hellas, I ween, this is fair to pay heed to covenants;
but Aeetes is not such a man among men as you say was Pasiphae's
husband, Minos; nor can I liken myself to Ariadne; wherefore
speak not of guest-love. But only do you, when you have reached
Iolcus, remember me, and you even in my parents' despite, will I
remember. And from far off may a rumour come to me or some
messenger-bird, when you forget me; or me, even me, may swift
blasts catch up and bear over the sea hence to Iolcus, that so I
may cast reproaches in your face and remind you that it was by
my good will you did escape. May I then be seated in your halls,
an unexpected guest!"
Thus she spoke with piteous tears falling down her cheeks,
and to her Jason replied: "Let the empty blasts wander at will,
lady, and the messenger-bird, for vain is your talk. But if you
come to those abodes and to the land of Hellas, honoured and
reverenced shall you be by women and men; and they shall worship
you even as a goddess, for that by your counsel their sons came
home again, their brothers and kinsmen and stalwart husbands
were saved from calamity. And in our bridal chamber shall you
prepare our couch; and nothing shall come between our love till
the doom of death fold us round."
Thus he spoke; and her soul melted within her to hear his
words; nevertheless she shuddered to behold the deeds of
destruction to come. Poor wretch! Not long was she destined to
refuse a home in Hellas. For thus Hera devised it, that Aeaean
Medea might come to Ioleus for a bane to Pelias, forsaking her
native land.
And now her handmaids, glancing at them from a distance, were
grieving in silence; and the time of day required that the
maiden should return home to her mother's side. But she thought
not yet of departing, for her soul delighted both in his beauty
and in his winsome words, but Aeson's son took heed, and spoke
at last, though late: "It is time to depart, lest the sunlight
sink before we know it, and some stranger notice all; but again
will we come and meet here."
So did they two make trial of one another thus far with
gentle words; and thereafter parted. Jason hastened to return in
joyous mood to his comrades and the ship, she to her handmaids;
and they all together came near to meet her, but she marked them
not at all as they thronged around. For her soul had soared
aloft amid the clouds. And her feet of their own accord mounted
the swift chariot, and with one hand she took the reins, and
with the other the whip of cunning workmanship, to drive the
mules; and they rushed hasting to the city and the palace. And
when she was come Chalciope in grief for her sons questioned
her; but Medea, distraught by swiftly-changing thoughts, neither
heard her words nor was eager to speak in answer to her
questions. But she sat on a low stool at the foot of her couch,
bending down, her cheek leaning on her left hand, and her eyes
were wet with tears as she pondered what an evil deed she had
taken part in by her counsels.
Now when Aeson's son had joined his comrades again in the
spot where he had left them when he departed, he set out to go
with them, telling them all the story, to the gathering of the
heroes; and together they approached the ship. And when they saw
Jason they embraced him and questioned him. And he told to all
the counsels of the maiden and showed the dread charm; but Idas
alone of his comrades sat apart biting down his wrath; and the
rest joyous in heart, at the hour when the darkness of night
stayed them, peacefully took thought for themselves. But at
daybreak they sent two men to go to Aeetes and ask for the seed,
first Telamon himself, dear to Ares, and with him Aethalides,
Hermes' famous son. So they went and made no vain journey; but
when they came, lordly Aeetes gave them for the contest the fell
teeth of the Aonian dragon which Cadmus found in Ogygian Thebes
when he came seeking for Europa and there slew the — warder of
the spring of Ares. There he settled by the guidance of the
heifer whom Apollo by his prophetic word granted him to lead him
on his way. But the teeth the Tritonian goddess tore away from
the dragon's jaws and bestowed as a gift on Aeetes and the
slayer. And Agenor's son, Cadmus, sowed them on the Aonian
plains and founded an earthborn people of all who were left from
the spear when Ares did the reaping; and the teeth Aeetes then
readily gave to be borne to the ship, for he deemed not that
Jason would bring the contest to an end, even though he should
cast the yoke on the oxen.
Far away in the west the sun was sailing beneath the dark
earth, beyond the furthest hills of the Aethiopians; and Night
was laying the yoke on her steeds; and the heroes were preparing
their beds by the hawsers. But Jason, as soon as the stars of
Heliee, the bright-gleaming bear, had set, and the air had all
grown still under heaven, went to a desert spot, like some
stealthy thief, with all that was needful; for beforehand in the
daytime had he taken thought for everything; and Argus came
bringing a ewe and milk from the flock; and them he took from
the ship. But when the hero saw a place which was far away from
the tread of men, in a clear meadow beneath the open sky, there
first of all he bathed his tender body reverently in the sacred
river; and round him he placed a dark robe, which Hypsipyle of
Lemnos had given him aforetime, a memorial of many a loving
embrace. Then he dug a pit in the ground of a cubit's depth and
heaped up billets of wood, and over it he cut the throat of the
sheep, and duly placed the carcase above; and he kindled the
logs placing fire beneath, and poured over them mingled
libations, calling on Hecate Brimo to aid him in the contests.
And when he had called on her he drew back; and she heard him,
the dread goddess, from the uttermost depths and came to the
sacrifice of Aeson's son; and round her horrible serpents twined
themselves among the oak boughs; and there was a gleam of
countless torches; and sharply howled around her the hounds of
hell. All the meadows trembled at her step; and the nymphs that
haunt the marsh and the river shrieked, all who dance round that
mead of Amarantian Phasis. And fear seized Aeson's son, but not
even so did he turn round as his feet bore him forth, till he
came back to his comrades; and now early dawn arose and shed her
light above snowy Caucasus.
Then Aeetes arrayed his breast in the stiff corslet which
Ares gave him when he had slain Phlegraean Mimas with his own
hands; and on his head he placed a golden helmet with four
plumes, gleaming like the sun's round light when he first rises
from Ocean. And he wielded his shield of many hides, and his
spear, terrible, resistless; none of the heroes could have
withstood its shock now that they had left behind Heracles far
away, who alone could have met it in battle. For the king his
well-fashioned chariot of swift steeds was held near at hand by
Phaethon, for him to mount; and he mounted, and held the reins
in his hands. Then from the city he drove along the broad
highway, that he might be present at the contest; and with him a
countless multitude rushed forth. And as Poseidon rides, mounted
in his chariot, to the Isthmian contest or to Taenarus, or to
Lerna's water, or through the grove of Hyantian Onchestus, and
thereafter passes even to Calaureia with his steeds, and the
Haemonian rock, or well-wooded Geraestus; even so was Aeetes,
lord of the Colchians, to behold.
Meanwhile, prompted by Medea, Jason steeped the charm in
water and sprinkled with it his shield and sturdy spear, and
sword; and his comrades round him made proof of his weapons with
might and main, but could not bend that spear even a little, but
it remained firm in their stalwart hands unbroken as before. But
in furious rage with them Idas, Aphareus' son, with his great
sword hewed at the spear near the butt, and the edge leapt back
repelled by the shock, like a hammer from the anvil; and the
heroes shouted with joy for their hope in the contest. And then
he sprinkled his body, and terrible prowess entered into him,
unspeakable, dauntless; and his hands on both sides thrilled
vigorously as they swelled with strength. And as when a warlike
steed eager for the fight neighs and beats the ground with his
hoof, while rejoicing he lifts his neck on high with ears erect;
in such wise did Aeson's son rejoice in the strength of his
limbs. And often here and there did he leap high in air tossing
in his hands his shield of bronze and ashen spear. You would say
that wintry lightning flashing from the gloomy sky kept on
darting forth from the clouds what time they bring with them
their blackest rainstorm. Not long after that were the heroes to
hold back from the contests; but sitting in rows on their
benches they sped swiftly on to the plain of Ares. And it lay in
front of them on the opposite side of the city, as far off as is
the turning-post that a chariot must reach from the
starting-point, when the kinsmen of a dead king appoint funeral
games for footmen and horsemen. And they found Aeetes and the
tribes of the Colchians; these were stationed on the Caucasian
heights, but the king by the winding brink of the river.
Now Aeson's son, as soon as his comrades had made the hawsers
fast, leapt from the ship, and with spear and shield came forth
to the contest; and at the same time he took the gleaming helmet
of bronze filled with sharp teeth, and his sword girt round his
shoulders, his body stripped, in somewise resembling Ares and in
somewise Apollo of the golden sword. And gazing over the field
he saw the bulls' yoke of bronze and near it the plough, all of
one piece, of stubborn adamant. Then he came near, and fixed his
sturdy spear upright on its butt, and taking his helmet, off
leant it against the spear. And he went forward with shield
alone to examine the countless tracks of the bulls, and they
from some unseen lair beneath the earth, where was their strong
steading, wrapt in murky smoke, both rushed out together,
breathing forth flaming fire. And sore afraid were the heroes at
the sight. But Jason, setting wide his feet, withstood their
onset, as in the sea a rocky reef withstands the waves tossed by
the countless blasts. Then in front of him he held his shield;
and both the bulls with loud bellowing attacked him with their
mighty horns; nor did they stir him a jot by their onset. And as
when through the holes of the furnace the armourers' bellows
anon gleam brightly, kindling the ravening flame, and anon cease
from blowing, and a terrible roar rises from the fire when it
darts up from below; so the bulls roared, breathing forth swift
flame from their mouths, while the consuming heat played round
him, smiting like lightning; but the maiden's charms protected
him. Then grasping the tip of the horn of the right-hand bull,
he dragged it mightily with all his strength to bring it near
the yoke of bronze, and forced it down on to its knees, suddenly
striking with his foot the foot of bronze. So also he threw the
other bull on to its knees as it rushed on him, and smote it
down with one blow. And throwing to the ground his broad shield,
he held them both down where they had fallen on their
fore-knees, as he strode from side to side, now here, now there,
and rushed swiftly through the flame. But Aeetes marvelled at
the hero's might. And meantime the sons of Tyndareus for long
since had it been thus ordained for them — near at hand gave him
the yoke from the ground to cast round them. Then tightly did he
bind their necks; and lifting the pole of bronze between them,
he fastened it to the yoke by its golden tip. So the twin heroes
started back from the fire to the ship. But Jason took up again
his shield and cast it on his back behind him, and grasped the
strong helmet filled with sharp teeth, and his resistless spear,
wherewith, like some ploughman with a Pelasgian goad, he pricked
the bulls beneath, striking their flanks; and very firmly did he
guide the well fitted plough handle, fashioned of adamant.
The bulls meantime raged exceedingly, breathing forth furious
flame of fire; and their breath rose up like the roar of
blustering winds, in fear of which above all seafaring men furl
their large sail. But not long after that they moved on at the
bidding of the spear; and behind them the rugged fallow was
broken up, cloven by the might of the bulls and the sturdy
ploughman. Then terribly groaned the clods withal along the
furrows of the plough as they were rent, each a man's burden;
and Jason followed, pressing down the cornfield with firm foot;
and far from him he ever sowed the teeth along the clods as each
was ploughed, turning his head back for fear lest the deadly
crop of earthborn men should rise against him first; and the
bulls toiled onwards treading with their hoofs of bronze.
But when the third part of the day was still left as it wanes
from dawn, and wearied labourers call for the sweet hour of
unyoking to come to them straightway, then the fallow was
ploughed by the tireless ploughman, four plough-gates though it
was; and he loosed the plough from the oxen. Them he scared in
flight towards the plain; but he went back again to the ship,
while he still saw the furrows free of the earthborn men. And
all round his comrades heartened him with their shouts. And in
the helmet he drew from the river's stream and quenched his
thirst with the water. Then he bent his knees till they grew
supple, and filled his mighty heart with courage, raging like a
boar, when it sharpens its teeth against the hunters, while from
its wrathful mouth plenteous foam drips to the ground. By now
the earthborn men were springing up over all the field; and the
plot of Ares, the death-dealer, bristled with sturdy shields and
double-pointed spears and shining helmets; and the gleam reached
Olympus from beneath, flashing through the air. And as when
abundant snow has fallen on the earth and the storm blasts have
dispersed the wintry clouds under the murky night, and all the
hosts of the stars appear shining through the gloom; so did
those warriors shine springing up above the earth. But Jason
bethought him of the counsels of Medea full of craft, and seized
from the plain a huge round boulder, a terrible quoit of Ares
Enyalius; four stalware youths could not have raised it from the
ground even a little. Taking it in his hands he threw it with a
rush far away into their midst; and himself crouched unseen
behind his shield, with full confidence. And the Colchians gave
a loud cry, like the roar of the sea when it beats on sharp
crags; and speechless amazement seized Aeetes at the rush of the
sturdy quoit. And the Earthborn, like fleet-footed hounds,
leaped on one another and slew with loud yells; and on earth
their mother they fell beneath their own spears, likes pines or
oaks, which storms of wind beat down. And even as a fiery star
leaps from heaven, trailing a furrow of light, a portent to men,
whoever see it darting with a gleam through the dusky sky; in
such wise did Aeson's son rush on the earthborn men, and he drew
from the sheath his bare sword, and smote here and there, mowing
them down, many on the belly and side, half risen to the air —
and some that had risen as far as the shoulders — and some just
standing upright, and others even now rushing to battle. And as
when a fight is stirred up concerning boundaries, and a
husbandman, in fear lest they should ravage his fields, seizes
in his hand a curved sickle, newly sharpened, and hastily cuts
the unripe crop, and waits not for it to be parched in due
season by the beams of the sun; so at that time did Jason cut
down the crop of the Earthborn; and the furrows were filled with
blood, as the channels of a spring with water. And they fell,
some on their faces biting the rough clod of earth with their
teeth, some on their backs, and others on their hands and sides,
like to sea-monsters to behold. And many, smitten before raising
their feet from the earth, bowed down as far to the ground as
they had risen to the air, and rested there with the damp of
death on their brows. Even so, I ween, when Zeus has sent a
measureless rain, new planted orchard-shoots droop to the
ground, cut off by the root the toil of gardening men; but
heaviness of heart and deadly anguish come to the owner of the
farm, who planted them; so at that time did bitter grief come on
the heart of King Aeetes. And he went back to the city among the
Colchians, pondering how he might most quickly oppose the
heroes. And the day died, and Jason's contest was ended.
ENDNOTES:
(1) i.e. the fight between the gods and the giants.
(2) i.e. the Shining One.
(3) A name of Ares.
(4) i.e. the liquid that flows in the veins of gods.
(5) Or, reading MENIM, "took no heed of the cause of wrath
with the stranger-folk."

Argonautenschiff
Lorenzo Costa
Book 4
NOW DO you yourself, goddess Muse, daughter of Zeus, tell
of the labour and wiles of the Colchian maiden. Surely my soul
within me wavers with speechless amazement as I ponder whether I
should call it the lovesick grief of mad passion or a panic
flight, through which she left the Colchian folk.
Aeetes all night long with the bravest captains of his people
was devising in his halls sheer treachery against the heroes,
with fierce wrath in his heart at the issue of the hateful
contest; nor did he deem at all that these things were being
accomplished without the knowledge of his daughters.
But into Medea's heart Hera cast most grievous fear; and she
trembled like a nimble fawn whom the baying of hounds has
terrified amid the thicket of a deep copse. For at once she
truly forboded that the aid she had given was not hidden from
her father, and that quickly she would fill up the cup of woe.
And she dreaded the guilty knowledge of her handmaids; her eyes
were filled with fire and her ears rung with a terrible cry.
Often did she clutch at her throat, and often did she drag out
her hair by the roots and groan in wretched despair. There on
that very day the maiden would have tasted the drugs and
perished and so have made void the purposes of Hera, had not the
goddess driven her, all bewildered, to flee with the sons of
Phrixus; and her fluttering soul within her was comforted; and
then she poured from her bosom all the drugs back again into the
casket. Then she kissed her bed, and the folding-doors on both
sides, and stroked the walls, and tearing away in her hands a
long tress of hair, she left it in the chamber for her mother, a
memorial of her maidenhood, and thus lamented with passionate
voice:
"I go, leaving this long tress here in my stead, mother mine;
take this farewell from me as I go far hence; farewell Chalciope,
and all my home. Would that the sea, stranger, had dashed you to
pieces, before you came to the Colchian land!"
Thus she spoke, and from her eyes shed copious tears. And as
a bondmaid steals away from a wealthy house, whom fate has
lately severed from her native land, nor yet has she made trial
of grievous toil, but still unschooled to misery and shrinking
in terror from slavish tasks, goes about beneath the cruel hands
of a mistress; even so the lovely maiden rushed forth from her
home. But to her the bolts of the doors gave way self-moved,
leaping backwards at the swift strains of her magic song. And
with bare feet she sped along the narrow paths, with her left
hand holding her robe over her brow to veil her face and fair
cheeks, and with her right lifting up the hem of her tunic.
Quickly along the dark track, outside the towers of the spacious
city, did she come in fear; nor did any of the warders note her,
but she sped on unseen by them. Thence she was minded to go to
the temple; for well she knew the way, having often aforetime
wandered there in quest of corpses and noxious roots of the
earth, as a sorceress is wont to do; and her soul fluttered with
quivering fear. And the Titanian goddess, the moon, rising from
a far land, saw her as she fled distraught, and fiercely exulted
over her, and thus spoke to her own heart:
"Not I alone then stray to the Latinian cave, nor do I alone
burn with love for fair Endymion; oft times with thoughts of
love have I been driven away by your crafty spells, in order
that in the darkness of night you might work your sorcery at
ease, even the deeds dear to you. And now you yourself too have
part in a like mad passion; and some god of affection has given
you Jason to be your grievous woe. Well, go on, and steel your
heart, wise though you be, to take up your burden of pain,
fraught with many sighs."
Thus spoke the goddess; but swiftly the maiden's feet bore
her, hasting on. And gladly did she gain the high-bank of the
river and saw on the opposite side the gleam of fire, which all
night long the heroes were kindling in joy at the contest's
issue. Then through the gloom, with clear-pealing voice from
across the stream, she called on Phrontis, the youngest of
Phrixus' sons, and he with his brothers and Aeson's son
recognised the maiden's voice; and in silence his comrades
wondered when they knew that it was so in truth. Thrice she
called, and thrice at the bidding of the company Phrontis called
out in reply; and meantime the heroes were rowing with
swift-moving oars in search of her. Not yet were they casting
the ship's hawsers on the opposite bank, when Jason with light
feet leapt to land from the deck above, and after him Phrontis
and Argus, sons of Phrixus, leapt to the ground; and she,
clasping their knees with both hands, thus addressed them:
"Save me, the hapless one, my friends, from Aeetes, and
yourselves too, for all is brought to light, nor doth any remedy
come. But let us flee on the ship, before the king mounts his
swift chariot. And I will lull to sleep the guardian serpent and
give you the fleece of gold; but do you, stranger, amid your
comrades make the gods witness of the vows you have taken on
yourself for my sake; and now that I have fled far from my
country, make me not a mark for blame and dishonour for want of
kinsmen."
She spoke in anguish; but greatly did the heart of Aeson's
son rejoice, and at once, as she fell at his knees, he raised
her gently and embraced her, and spoke words of comfort: "Lady,
let Zeus of Olympus himself be witness to my oath, and Hera,
queen of marriage, bride of Zeus, that I will set you in my
halls my own wedded wife, when we have reached the land of
Hellas on our return."
Thus he spoke, and straightway clasped her right hand in his;
and she bade them row the swift ship to the sacred grove near at
hand, in order that, while it was still night, they might seize
and carry off the fleece against the will of Aeetes. Word and
deed were one to the eager crew. For they took her on board, and
straightway thrust the ship from shore; and loud was the din as
the chieftains strained at their oars, but she, starting back,
held out her hands in despair towards the shore. But Jason spoke
cheering words and restrained her grief.
Now at the hour when men have cast sleep from their
eyes~huntsmen, who, trusting to their bounds, never slumber away
the end of night, but avoid the light of dawn lest, smiting with
its white beams, it efface the track and scent of the quarry —
then did Aeson's son and the maiden step forth from the ship
over a grassy spot, the "Ram's couch" as men call it, where it
first bent its wearied knees in rest, bearing on its back the
Minyan son of Athamas. And close by, all smirched with soot, was
the base of the altar, which the Aeolid Phrixus once set up to
Zeus, the alder of fugitives, when he sacrificed the golden
wonder at the bidding of Hermes who graciously met him on the
way. There by the counsels of Argus the chieftains put them
ashore.
And they two by the pathway came to the sacred grove, seeking
the huge oak tree on which was hung the fleece, like to a cloud
that blushes red with the fiery beams of the rising sun. But
right in front the serpent with his keen sleepless eyes saw them
coming, and stretched out his long neck and hissed in awful
wise; and all round the long banks of the river echoed and the
boundless grove. Those heard it who dwelt in the Colchian land
very far from Titanian Aea, near the outfall of Lycus, the river
which parts from loud-roaring Araxes and blends his sacred
stream with Phasis, and they twain flow on together in one and
pour their waters into the Caucasian Sea. And through fear young
mothers awoke, and round their new-born babes, who were sleeping
in their arms, threw their hands in agony, for the small limbs
started at that hiss. And as when above a pile of smouldering
wood countless eddies of smoke roll up mingled with soot, and
one ever springs up quickly after another, rising aloft from
beneath in wavering wreaths; so at that time did that monster
roll his countless coils covered with hard dry scales. And as he
writhed, the maiden came before his eyes, with sweet voice
calling to her aid sleep, highest of gods, to charm the monster;
and she cried to the queen of the underworld, the
night-wanderer, to be propitious to her enterprise. And Aeson's
son followed in fear, but the serpent, already charmed by her
song, was relaxing the long ridge of his giant spine, and
lengthening out his myriad coils, like a dark wave, dumb and
noiseless, rolling over a sluggish sea; but still he raised
aloft his grisly head, eager to enclose them both in his
murderous jaws. But she with a newly cut spray of juniper,
dipping and drawing untempered charms from her mystic brew,
sprinkled his eyes, while she chanted her song; and all around
the potent scent of the charm cast sleep; and on the very spot
he let his jaw sink down; and far behind through the wood with
its many trees were those countless coils stretched out.
Hereupon Jason snatched the golden fleece from the oak, at
the maiden bidding; and she, standing firm, smeared with the
charm the monster's head, till Jason himself bade her turn back
towards their ship, and she left the grove of Ares, dusky with
shade. And as a maiden catches on her finely wrought robe the
gleam of the moon at the full, as it rises above her high-roofed
chamber; and her heart rejoices as she beholds the fair ray; so
at that time did Jason uplift the mighty fleece in his hands;
and from the shimmering of the flocks of wool there settled on
his fair cheeks and brow a red flush like a flame. And great as
is the hide of a yearling ox or stag, which huntsmen call a
brocket, so great in extent was the fleece all golden above.
Heavy it was, thickly clustered with flocks; and as he moved
along, even beneath his feet the sheen rose up from the earth.
And he strode on now with the fleece covering his left shoulder
from the height of his neck to his feet, and now again he
gathered it up in his hands; for he feared exceedingly, lest
some god or man should meet him and deprive him thereof.
Dawn was spreading over the earth when they reached the
throng of heroes; and the youths marvelled to behold the mighty
fleece, which gleamed like the lightning of Zeus. And each one
started up eager to touch it and clasp it in his hands. But the
son of Aeson restrained them all, and threw over it a mantle
newly-woven; and he led the maiden to the stern and seated her
there, and spoke to them all as follows:
"No longer now, my friends, forbear to return to your
fatherland. For now the task for which we dared this grievous
voyage, toiling with bitter sorrow of heart, has been lightly
fulfilled by the maiden's counsels. Her — for such is her will —
I will bring home to be my wedded wife; do you preserve her, the
glorious saviour of all Achaea and of yourselves. For of a
surety, I ween, will Aeetes come with his host to bar our
passage from the river into the sea. But do some of you toil at
the oars in turn, sitting man by man; and half of you raise your
shields of oxhide, a ready defence against the darts of the
enemy, and guard our return. And now in our hands we hold the
fate of our children and dear country and of our aged parents;
and on our venture all Hellas depends, to reap either the shame
of failure or great renown."
Thus he spoke, and donned his armour of war; and they cried
aloud, wondrously eager. And he drew his sword from the sheath
and cut the hawsers at the stern. And near the maiden he took
his stand ready armed by the steersman Aneaeus, and with their
rowing the ship sped on as they strained desperately to drive
her clear of the river.
By this time Medea's love and deeds had become known to
haughty Aeetes and to all the Colchians. And they thronged to
the assembly in arms; and countless as the waves of the stormy
sea when they rise crested by the wind, or as the leaves that
fall to the ground from the wood with its myriad branches in the
month when the leaves fall — who could reckon their tale? — so
they in countless number poured along the banks of the river
shouting in frenzy; and in his shapely chariot Aeetes shone
forth above all with his steeds, the gift of Helios, swift as
the blasts of the wind. In his left hand he raised his curved
shield, and in his right a huge pine-torch, and near him in
front stood up his mighty spear. And Apsyrtus held in his hands
the reins of the steeds. But already the ship was cleaving the
sea before her, urged on by stalwart oarsmen, and the stream of
the mighty river rushing down. But the king in grievous anguish
lifted his hands and called on Helios and Zeus to bear witness
to their evil deeds; and terrible threats he uttered against all
his people, that unless they should with their own hands seize
the maiden, either on the land or still finding the ship on the
swell of the open sea, and bring her back, that so he might
satisfy his eager soul with vengeance for all those deeds, at
the cost of their own lives they should learn and abide all his
rage and revenge.
Thus spoke Aeetes; and on that same day the Colchians
launched their ships and cast the tackle on board, and on that
same day sailed forth on the sea; you would not say so mighty a
host was a fleet of ships, but that a countless flight of birds,
swarm on swarm, was clamouring over the sea.
Swiftly the wind blew, as the goddess Hera planned, so that
most quickly Aeaean Medea might reach the Pelasgian land, a bane
to the house of Pelias, and on the third morn they bound the
ship's stern cables to the shores of the Paphlagonians, at the
mouth of the river Halys. For Medea bade them land and
propitiate Hecate with sacrifice. Now all that the maiden
prepared for offering the sacrifice may no man know, and may my
soul not urge me to sing thereof. Awe restrains my lips, yet
from that time the altar which the heroes raised on the beach to
the goddess remains till now, a sight to men of a later day.
And straightway Aeson's son and the rest of the heroes
bethought them of Phineus, how that he had said that their
course from Aea should be different, but to all alike his
meaning was dim. Then Argus spoke, and they eagerly hearkened:
"We go to Orchomenus, where that unerring seer, whom you met
aforetime, foretold your voyage. For there is another course,
signified by those priests of the immortal gods, who have sprung
from Tritonian Thebes. As yet all the stars that wheel in the
heaven were not, nor yet, though one should inquire, could aught
be heard of the sacred race of the Danai. Apidanean Arcadians
alone existed, Arcadians who lived even before the moon, it is
said, eating acorns on the hills; nor at that time was the
Pelasgian land ruled by the glorious sons of Deucalion, in the
days when Egypt, mother of men of an older time, was called the
fertile Morning-land, and the river fair-flowing Triton, by
which all the Morning-land is watered; and never does the rain
from Zeus moisten the earth; but from the flooding of the river
abundant crops spring up. From this land, it is said, a king (1)
made his way all round through the whole of Europe and Asia,
trusting in the might and strength and courage of his people;
and countless cities did he found wherever he came, whereof some
are still inhabited and some not; many an age has passed since
then. But Aea abides unshaken even now and the sons of those men
whom that king settled to dwell in Aea. They preserve the
writings of their fathers, graven on pillars, whereon are marked
all the ways and the limits of sea and land as you journey on
all sides round. There is a river, the uttermost horn of Ocean,
broad and exceeding deep, that a merchant ship may traverse;
they call it Ister and have marked it far off; and for a while
it cleaves the boundless tilth alone in one stream; for beyond
the blasts of the north wind, far off in the Rhipaean mountains,
its springs burst forth with a roar. But when it enters the
boundaries of the Thracians and Scythians, here, dividing its
stream into two, it sends its waters partly into the Ionian sea,
(2) and partly to the south into a deep gulf that bends upwards
from the Trinaerian sea, that sea which lies along your land, if
indeed Achelous flows forth from your land."
Thus he spoke, and to them the goddess granted a happy
portent, and all at the sight shouted approval, that this was
their appointed path. For before them appeared a trail of
heavenly light, a sign where they might pass. And gladly they
left behind there the son of Lyeus and with canvas outspread
sailed over the sea, with their eyes on the Paphlagonian
mountains. But they did not round Carambis, for the winds and
the gleam of the heavenly fire stayed with them till they
reached Ister's mighty stream.
Now some of the Colchians, in a vain search, passed out from
Pontus through the Cyanean rocks; but the rest went to the
river, and them Apsyrtus led, and, turning aside, he entered the
mouth called Fair. Wherefore he outstripped the heroes by
crossing a neck of land into the furthest gulf of the Ionian
sea. For a certain island is enclosed by Ister, by name Peuee,
three-cornered, its base stretching along the coast, and with a
sharp angle towards the river; and round it the outfall is cleft
in two. One mouth they call the mouth of Narex, and the other,
at the lower end, the Fair mouth. And through this Apsyrtus and
his Colchians rushed with all speed; but the heroes went upwards
far away towards the highest part of the island. And in the
meadows the country shepherds left their countless flocks for
dread of the ships, for they deemed that they were beasts coming
forth from the monster-teeming sea. For never yet before had
they seen seafaring ships, neither the Scythians mingled with
the Thracians, nor the Sigynni, nor yet the Graucenii, nor the
Sindi that now inhabit the vast desert plain of Laurium. But
when they had passed near the mount Angurum, and the cliff of
Cauliacus, far from the mount Angurum, round which Ister,
dividing his stream, falls into the sea on this side and on
that, and the Laurian plain, then indeed the Colchians went
forth into the Cronian sea and cut off all the ways, to prevent
their foes' escape. And the heroes came down the river behind
and reached the two Brygean isles of Artemis near at hand. Now
in one of them was a sacred temple; and on the other they
landed, avoiding the host of Apsyrtus; for the Colchians had
left these islands out of many within the river, just as they
were, through reverence for the daughter of Zeus; but the rest,
thronged by the Colchians, barred the ways to the sea. And so on
other islands too, close by, Apsyrtus left his host as far as
the river Salangon and the Nestian land.
There the Minyae would at that time have yielded in grim
fight, a few to many; but before then they made a covenant,
shunning a dire quarrel; as to the golden fleece, that since
Aeetes himself had so promised them if they should fulfill the
contests, they should keep it as justly won, whether they
carried it off by craft or even openly in the king's despite;
but as to Medea — for that was the cause of strife — that they
should give her in ward to Leto's daughter apart from the
throng, till some one of the kings that dispense justice should
utter his doom, whether she must return to her father's home or
follow the chieftains to the land of Hellas.
Now when the maiden had mused on all this, sharp anguish
shook her heart unceasingly; and quickly she called forth Jason
alone apart from his comrades, and led him aside till they were
far away, and before his face uttered her speech all broken with
sobs:
"What is this purpose that you are now devising about me, son
of Aeson? Has your triumph utterly cast forgetfulness on you,
and do you reek nothing of all that you spoke when held fast by
necessity? Where are fled the oaths by Zeus the suppliants' god,
where are fled your honied promises? For which in no seemly
wise, with shameless will, I have left my country, the glories
of my home and even my parents — things that were dearest to me;
and far away all alone I am borne over the sea with the
plaintive kingfishers because of your trouble, in order that I
might save your life in fulfilling the contests with the oxen
and the earthborn men. Last of all the fleece — when the matter
became known, it was by my folly you did win it; and a foul
reproach have I poured on womankind. Wherefore I say that as
your child, your bride and your sister, I follow you to the land
of Hellas. Be ready to stand by me to the end, abandon me not
left forlorn of you when you visit the kings. But only save me;
let justice and right, to which we have both agreed, stand firm;
or else do you at once shear through this neck with the sword,
that I may gain the guerdon due to my mad passion. Poor wretch!
if the king, to whom you both commit your cruel covenant, doom
me to belong to my brother. How shall I come to my father's
sight? Will it be with a good name? What revenge, what heavy
calamity shall I not endure in agony for the terrible deeds I
have done? And will you win the return that your heart desires?
Never may Zeus' bride, the queen of all, in whom you glory,
bring that to pass. May you some time remember me when you are
racked with anguish; may the fleece like a dream vanish into the
nether darkness on the wings of the wind! And may my avenging
Furies forthwith drive you from your country, for all that I
have suffered through your cruelty! These curses will not be
allowed to fall unaccomplished to the ground. A mighty oath have
you transgressed, ruthless one; but not long shall you and your
comrades sit at ease casting eyes of mockery on me, for all your
covenants."
Thus she spoke, seething with fierce wrath; and she longed to
set fire to the ship and to hew it utterly in pieces, and
herself to fall into the raging flame. But Jason, half afraid,
thus addressed her with gentle words:
"Forbear, lady; me too this pleases not. But we seek some
respite from battle, for such a cloud of hostile men, like to a
fire, surrounds us, on your account. For all that inhabit this
land are eager to aid Apsyrtus, that they may lead you back home
to your father, like some captured maid. And all of us would
perish in hateful destruction, if we closed with them in fight;
and bitterer still will be the pain, if we are slain and leave
you to be their prey. But this covenant will weave a web of
guile to lead him to ruin. Nor will the people of the land for
your sake oppose us, to favour the Colchians, when their prince
is no longer with them, who is your champion and your brother;
nor will I shrink from matching myself in fight with the
Colchians, if they bar my way homeward."
Thus he spoke soothing her; and she uttered a deadly speech:
"Take heed now. For when sorry deeds are done we must needs
devise sorry counsel, since at first I was distraught by my
error, and by heaven's will it was I wrought the accomplishment
of evil desires. Do you in the turmoil shield me from the
Colchians' spears; and I will beguile Apsyrtus to come into your
hands — do you greet him with splendid gifts — if only I could
persuade the heralds on their departure to bring him alone to
hearken to my words. Thereupon if this deed pleases you, slay
him and raise a conflict with the Colchians, I care not.
So they two agreed and prepared a great web of guile for
Apsyrtus, and provided many gifts such as are due to guests, and
among them gave a sacred robe of Hypsipyle, of crimson hue. The
Graces with their own hands had wrought it for Dionysus in
sea-girt Dia, and he gave it to his son Thoas thereafter, and
Thoas left it to Hypsipyle, and she gave that fair-wrought
guest-gift with many another marvel to Aeson's son to wear.
Never could you satisfy your sweet desire by touching it or
gazing on it. And from it a divine fragrance breathed from the
time when the king of Nysa himself lay to rest thereon, flushed
with wine and nectar as he clasped the beauteous breast of the
maiden-daughter of Minos, whom once Theseus forsook in the
island of Dia, when she had followed him from Cnossus. And when
she had worked on the heralds to induce her brother to come, as
soon as she reached the temple of the goddess, according to the
agreement, and the darkness of night surrounded them, that so
she might devise with him a cunning plan for her to take the
mighty fleece of gold and return to the home of Aeetes, for, she
said, the sons of Phrixus had given her by force to the
strangers to carry off; with such beguiling words she scattered
to the air and the breezes her witching charms, which even from
afar would have drawn down the savage beast from the steep
mountain-height.
Ruthless Love, great bane, great curse to mankind, from you
come deadly strifes and lamentations and groans, and countless
pains as well have their stormy birth from you. Arise, you god,
and arm yourself against the sons of our foes in such guise as
when you did fill Medea's heart with accursed madness. How then
by evil doom did she slay Apsyrtus when he came to meet her? For
that must our song tell next.
When the heroes had left the maiden on the island of Artemis,
according to the covenant, both sides ran their ships to land
separately. And Jason went to the ambush to lie in wait for
Apsyrtus and then for his comrades. But he, beguiled by these
dire promises, swiftly crossed the swell of the sea in his ship,
and in dark night set foot on the sacred island; and faring all
alone to meet her he made trial in speech of his sister, as a
tender child tries a wintry torrent which not even strong men
can pass through, to see if she would devise some guile against
the strangers. And so they two agreed together on everything;
and straightway Aeson's son leapt forth from the thick ambush,
lifting his bare sword in his hand; and quickly the maiden
turned her eyes aside and covered them with her veil that she
might not see the blood of her brother when he was smitten. And
Jason marked him and struck him down, as a butcher strikes down
a mighty strong-horned bull, hard by the temple which the Brygi
on the mainland opposite had once built for Artemis. In its
vestibule he fell on his knees; and at last the hero breathing
out his life caught up in both hands the dark blood as it welled
from the wound; and he dyed with red his sister's silvery veil
and robe as she shrank away. And with swift side-glance the
irresistible pitiless Fury saw the deadly deed they had done.
And the hero, Aeson's son, cut off the extremities of the dead
man, and thrice licked up some blood and thrice spat the
pollution from his teeth, as it is right for the slayer to do,
to atone for a treacherous murder. And the clammy corpse he hid
in the ground where even now those bones lie among the
Apsyrtians.
Now as soon as the heroes saw the blaze of a torch, which the
maiden raised for them as a sign to pursue, they laid their own
ship near the Colchian ship, and they slaughtered the Colchian
host, as kites slay the tribes of wood-pigeons, or as lions of
the wold, when they have leapt amid the steading, drive a great
flock of sheep huddled together. Nor did one of them escape
death, but the heroes rushed on the whole crew, destroying them
like a flame; and at last Jason met them, and was eager to give
aid where none was needed; but already they were taking thought
for him too. Thereupon they sat to devise some) prudent counsel
for their voyage, and the maiden came on them as they pondered,
but Peleus spoke his word first:
"I now bid you embark while it is still night, and take with
your oars the passage opposite to that which the enemy guards,
for at dawn when they see their plight I deem that no word
urging to further pursuit of us will prevail with them; but as
people bereft of their king, they will be scattered in grievous
dissension. And easy, when the people are scattered, will this
path be for us on our return."
Thus he spoke; and the youths assented to the words of Aeacus'
son. And quickly they entered the ship, and toiled at their oars
unceasingly till they reached the sacred isle of Electra, the
highest of them all, near the river Eridanus.
But when the Colchians learnt the death of their prince,
verily they were eager to pursue Argo and the Minyans through
all the Cronian sea. But Hera restrained them by terrible
lightnings from the sky. And at last they loathed their own
homes in the Cytaean land, quailing before Aeetes' fierce wrath;
so they landed and made abiding homes there, scattered far and
wide. Some set foot on those very islands where the heroes had
stayed, and they still dwell there, bearing a name derived from
Apsyrtus; and others built a fenced city by the dark deep
Illyrian river, where is the tomb of Harmonia and Cadmus,
dwelling among the Encheleans; and others live amid the
mountains which are called the Thunderers, from the day when the
thunders of Zeus, son of Cronos, prevented them from crossing
over to the island opposite.
Now the heroes, when their return seemed safe for them, fared
onward and made their hawsers fast to the land of the Hylleans.
For the islands lay thick in the river and made the path
dangerous for those who sailed thereby. Nor, as aforetime, did
the Hylleans devise their hurt, but of their own accord
furthered their passage, winning as guerdon a mighty tripod of
Apollo. For tripods twain had Phoebus given to Aeson's son to
carry afar in the voyage he had to make, at the time when he
went to sacred Pytho to enquire about this very voyage; and it
was ordained by fate that in whatever land they should be
placed, that land should never be ravaged by the attacks of
foemen. Therefore even now this tripod is hidden in that land
near the pleasant city of Hyllus, far beneath the earth, that it
may ever be unseen by mortals. Yet they found not King Hyllus
still alive in the land, whom fair Melite bare to Heracles in
the land of the Phaeacians. For he came to the abode of
Nausithous and to Macris, the nurse of Dionysus, to cleanse
himself from the deadly murder of his children; here he loved
and overcame the water nymph Melite, the daughter of the river
Aegaeus, and she bare mighty Hyllus. But when he had grown up he
desired not to dwell in that island under the rule of Nausithous
the king; but he collected a host of native Phaeacians and came
to the Cronian sea; for the hero King Nausithous aided his
journey, and there he settled, and the Mentores slew him as he
was fighting for the oxen of his field.
Now, goddesses, say how it is that beyond this sea, near the
land of Ausonia and the Ligystian isles, which are called
Stoechades, the mighty tracks of the ship Argo are clearly sung
of? What great constraint and need brought the heroes so far?
What breezes wafted them?
When Apsyrtus had fallen in mighty overthrow Zeus himself,
king of gods, was seized with wrath at what they had done. And
he ordained that by the counsels of Aeaean Circe they should
cleanse themselves from the terrible stain of blood and suffer
countless woes before their return. Yet none of the chieftains
knew this; but far onward they sped starting from the Hyllean
land, and they left behind all the islands that were beforetime
thronged by the Colchians — the Liburnian isles, isle after
isle, Issa, Dysceladus, and lovely Pityeia. Next after them they
came to Corcyra, where Poseidon settled the daughter of Asopus,
fair-haired Corcyra, far from the land of Phlius, whence he had
carried her off through love; and sailors beholding it from the
sea, all black with its sombre woods, call it Corcyra the Black.
And next they passed Melite, rejoicing in the soft-blowing
breeze, and steep Cerossus, and Nymphaea at a distance, where
lady Calypso, daughter of Atlas, dwelt; and they deemed they saw
the misty mountains of Thunder. And then Hera bethought her of
the counsels and wrath of Zeus concerning them. And she devised
an ending of their voyage and stirred up storm-winds before
them, by which they were caught and borne back to the rocky isle
of Electra. And straightway on a sudden there called to them in
the midst of their course, speaking with a human voice, the beam
of the hollow ship, which Athena had set in the centre of the
stem, made of Dodonian oak. And deadly fear seized them as they
heard the voice that told of the grievous wrath of Zeus. For it
proclaimed that they should not escape the paths of an endless
sea nor grievous tempests, unless Circe should purge away the
guilt of the ruthless murder of Apsyrtus; and it bade Polydeuces
and Castor pray to the immortal gods first to grant a path
through the Ausonian sea where they should find Circe, daughter
of Perse and Helios.
Thus Argo cried through the darkness; and the sons of
Tyndareus uprose, and lifted their hands to the immortals
praying for each boon: but dejection held the rest of the Minyan
heroes. And far on sped Argo under sail, and entered deep into
the stream of Eridanus; where once, smitten on the breast by the
blazing bolt, Phaethon half-consumed fell from the chariot of
Helios into the opening of that deep lake; and even now it
belchesup heavy steam clouds from the smouldering wound. And no
bird spreading its light wings can cross that water; but in
mid-course it plunges into the flame, fluttering. And all around
the maidens, the daughters of Helios, enclosed in tall poplars,
wretchedly wail a piteous plaint; and from their eyes they shed
on the ground bright drops of amber. These are dried by the sun
on the sand; but whenever the waters of the dark lake flow over
the strand before the blast of the wailing wind, then they roll
on in a mass into Eridanus with swelling tide. But the Celts
have attached this story to them, that these are the tears of
Leto's son, Apollo, that are borne along by the eddies, the
countless tears that he shed aforetime when he came to the
sacred race of the Hyperboreans and left shining heaven at the
chiding of his father, being in wrath concerning his son whom
divine Coronis bare in bright Lacereia at the mouth of Amyrus.
And such is the story told among these men. But no desire for
food or drink seized the heroes nor were their thoughts turned
to joy. But they were sorely afflicted all day, heavy and faint
at heart, with the noisome stench, hard to endure, which the
streams of Eridanus sent forth from Phaethon still burning; and
at night they heard the piercing lament of the daughters of
Helios, wailing with shrill voice; and, as they lamented, their
tears were borne on the water like drops of oil.
Thence they entered the deep stream of Rhodanus which flows
into Eridanus; and where they meet there is a roar of mingling
waters. Now that river, rising from the ends of the earth, where
are the portals and mansions of Night, on one side bursts forth
on the beach of Ocean, at another pours into the Ionian sea, and
on the third through seven mouths sends its stream to the
Sardinian sea and its limitless bay. (3) And from Rhodanus they
entered stormy lakes, which spread throughout the Celtic
mainland of wondrous size; and there they would have met with an
inglorious calamity; for a certain branch of the river was
bearing them towards a gulf of Ocean which in ignorance they
were about to enter, and never would they have returned from
there in safety. But Hera leaping forth from heaven pealed her
cry from the Hercynian rock; and all together were shaken with
fear of her cry; for terribly crashed the mighty firmament. And
backward they turned by reason of the goddess, and noted the
path by which their return was ordained. And after a long while
they came to the beach of the surging sea by the devising of
Hera, passing unharmed through countless tribes of the Celts and
Ligyans. For round them the goddess poured a dread mist day by
day as they fared on. And so, sailing through the midmost mouth,
they reached the Stoechades islands in safety by the aid of the
sons of Zeus; wherefore altars and sacred rites are established
in their honour for ever; and not that sea-faring alone did they
attend to succour; but Zeus granted to them the ships of future
sailors too. Then leaving the Stoechades they passed on to the
island Aethalia, where after their toil they wiped away with
pebbles sweat in abundance; and pebbles like skin in colour are
strewn on the beach; (4) and there are their quoits and their
wondrous armour; and there is the Argoan harbour called after
them.
And quickly from there they passed through the sea, beholding
the Tyrrhenian shores of Ausonia; and they came to the famous
harbour of Aeaea, and from the ship they cast hawsers to the
shore near at hand. And here they found Circe bathing her head
in the salt sea-spray, for sorely had she been scared by visions
of the night. With blood her chambers and all the walls of her
palace seemed to be running, and flame was devouring all the
magic herbs with which she used to bewitch strangers whoever
came; and she herself with murderous blood quenched the glowing
flame, drawing it up in her hands; and she ceased from deadly
fear. Wherefore when morning came she rose, and with sea-spray
was bathing her hair and her garments. And beasts, not
resembling the beasts of the wild, nor yet like men in body, but
with a medley of limbs, went in a throng, as sheep from the fold
in multitudes follow the shepherd. Such creatures, compacted of
various limbs, did each herself produce from the primeval slime
when she had not yet grown solid beneath a rainless sky nor yet
had received a drop of moisture from the rays of the scorching
sun; but time combined these forms and marshalled them in their
ranks; in such wise these monsters shapeless of form followed
her. And exceeding wonder seized the heroes, and at once, as
each gazed on the form and face of Circe, they readily guessed
that she was the sister of Aeetes.
Now when she had dismissed the fears of her nightly visions,
straightway she fared backwards, and in her subtlety she bade
the heroes follow, charming them on with her hand. Thereupon the
host remained stedfast at the bidding of Aeson's son, but Jason
drew with him the Colchian maid. And both followed the selfsame
path till they reached the hall of Circe, and she in amaze at
their coming bade them sit on brightly burnished seats. And
they, quiet and silent, sped to the hearth and sat there, as is
the wont of wretched suppliants. Medea hid her face in both her
hands, but Jason fixed in the ground the mighty hilted sword
with which he had slain Aeetes' son; nor did they raise their
eyes to meet her look. And straightway Circe became aware of the
doom of a suppliant and the guilt of murder. Wherefore in
reverence for the ordinance of Zeus, the god of suppliants, who
is a god of wrath yet mightily aids slayers of men, she began to
offer the sacrifice with which ruthless suppliants are cleansed
from guilt when they approach the altar. First, to atone for the
murder still unexpiated, she held above their heads the young of
a sow whose dugs yet swelled from the fruit of the womb, and,
severing its neck, sprinkled their hands with the blood; and
again she made propitiation with other drink offerings, calling
on Zeus the Cleanser, the protector of murder-stained
suppliants. And all the defilements in a mass her attendants
bore forth from the palace — the Naiad nymphs who ministered all
things to her. And within, Circe, standing by the hearth, kept
burning atonement-cakes without wine, praying the while that she
might stay from their wrath the terrible Furies, and that Zeus
himself might be propitious and gentle to them both, whether
with hands stained by the blood of a stranger or, as kinsfolk,
by the blood of a kinsman, they should implore his grace.
But when she had wrought all her task, then she raised them
up and seated them on well polished seats, and herself sat near,
face to face with them. And at once she asked them clearly of
their business and their voyaging, and whence they had come to
her land and palace, and had thus seated themselves as
suppliants at her hearth. For in truth the hideous remembrance
of her dreams entered her mind as she pondered; and she longed
to hear the voice of the maiden, her kinswoman, as soon as she
saw that she had raised her eyes from the ground. For all those
of the race of Helios were plain to discern, since by the far
flashing of their eyes they shot in front of them a gleam as of
gold. So Medea told her all she asked — the daughter of Aeetes
of the gloomy heart, speaking gently in the Colchian tongue,
both of the quest and the journeyings of the heroes, and of
their toils in the swift contests, and how she had sinned
through the counsels of her much-sorrowing sister, and how with
the sons of Phrixus she had fled afar from the tyrannous horrors
of her father; but she shrank from telling of the murder of
Apsyrtus. Yet she escaped not Circe's ken; nevertheless, in
spite of all, she pitied the weeping maiden, and spoke thus:
"Poor wretch, an evil and shameful return have you planned.
Not for long, I ween, will you escape the heavy wrath of Aeetes;
but soon will he go even to the dwellings of Hellas to avenge
the blood of his son, for intolerable are the deeds you have
done. But since you are my suppliant and my kinswoman, no
further ill shall I devise against you at your coming; but
begone from my halls, companioning the stranger, whoever he be,
this unknown one that you have taken in your father's despite;
and kneel not to me at my hearth, for never will I approve your
counsels and your shameful flight."
Thus she spoke, and measureless anguish seized the maid; and
over her eyes she cast her robe and poured forth a lamentation,
till the hero took her by the hand and led her forth from the
hall quivering with fear. So they left the home of Circe.
But they were not unmarked by the spouse of Zeus, son of
Cronos; but Iris told her when she saw them faring from the
hall. For Hera had bidden her watch what time they should come
to the ship; so again she urged her and spoke:
"Dear Iris, now come, if ever you have fulfilled my bidding,
hie you away on light pinions, and bid Thetis arise from the sea
and come here. For need of her is come on me. Then go to the
sea-beaches where the bronze anvils of Hephaestus are smitten by
sturdy hammers, and tell him to still the blasts of fire till
Argo pass by them. Then go to Aeolus too, Aeolus who rules the
winds, children of the clear sky; and to him also tell my
purpose so that he may make all winds cease under heaven and no
breeze may ruffle the sea; yet let the breath of the west wind
blow till the heroes have reached the Phaeacian isle of Alcinous."
So she spoke, and straightway Iris leapt down from Olympus
and cleft her way, with light wings outspread. And she plunged
into the Aegean Sea, where is the dwelling of Nereus. And she
came to Thetis first and, by the promptings of Hera, told her
tale and roused her to go to the goddess. Next she came to
Hephaestus, and quickly made him cease from the clang of his
iron hammers; and the smoke-grimed bellows were stayed from
their blast. And thirdly she came to Aeolus, the famous son of
Hippotas. And when she had given her message to him also and
rested her swift knees from her course, then Thetis leaving
Nereus and her sisters had come from the sea to Olympus to the
goddess Hera; and the goddess made her sit by her side and
uttered her word:
"Hearken now, lady Thetis, to what I am eager to tell you.
You know how honoured in my heart is the hero, Aeson's son, and
the others that have helped him in the contest, and how I saved
them when they passed between the Wandering rocks, (5) where
roar terrible storms of fire and the waves foam round the rugged
reefs. And now past the mighty rock of Scylla and Charybdis
horribly belching, a course awaits them. But you indeed from
your infancy did I tend with my own hands and love beyond all
others that dwell in the salt sea because you did refuse to
share the couch of Zeus, for all his desire. For to him such
deeds are ever dear, to embrace either goddesses or mortal
women. But in reverence for me and with fear in your heare you
did shrink from his love; and he then swore a mighty oath that
you should never be called the bride of an immortal god. Yet he
ceased not from spying you against your will, till reverend
Themis declared to him the whole truth, how that it was your
fate to bear a son mightier than his sire; wherefore he gave you
up, for all his desire, fearing lest another should be his match
and rule the immortals, and in order that he might ever hold his
own dominion. But I gave you the best of the sons of earth to be
your husband, that you might find a marriage dear to your heart
and bear children; and I summoned to the feast the gods, one and
all. And with my own hand I raised the bridal torch, in return
for the kindly honour you did pay me. But come, let me tell a
tale that errsnot. When your son shall come to the Elysian
plain, he whom now in the home of Cheiron the Centaur
water-nymphs are tending, though he still craves your mother
milk, it is fated that he be the husband of Medea, Aeetes'
daughter; do you aid your daughter-in-law as a mother-in-law
should, and aid Peleus himself. Why is your wrath so steadfast?
He was blinded by folly. For blindness comes even on the gods.
Surely at my behest I deem that Hephaestus will cease from
kindling the fury of his flame, and that Aeolus, son of Hippotas,
will check his swift rushing winds, all but the steady west
wind, till they reach the havens of the Phaeacians; do you
devise a return without bane. The rocks and the tyrannous waves
are my fear, they alone, and them you can foil with your
sisters' aid. And let them not fall in their helplessness into
Charybdis lest she swallow them at one gulp, or approach the
hideous lair of Scylla, Ausonian Scylla the deadly, whom
night-wandering Hecate, who is called Crataeis, (6) bare to
Phoreys, lest swooping on them with her horrible jaws she
destroy the chiefest of the heroes. But guide their ship in the
course where there shall be still a hair's breadth escape from
destruction."
Thus she spoke, and Thetis answered with these words: "If the
fury of the ravening flame and the stormy winds cease in very
deed, surely will I promise boldly to save the ship, even though
the waves bar the way, if only the west wind blows fresh and
clear. But it is time to fare on a long and measureless path, in
quest of my sisters who will aid me, and to the spot where the
ship's hawsers are fastened, that at early dawn the heroes may
take thought to win their home-return."
She spoke, and darting down from the sky fell amid the eddies
of the dark blue sea; and she called to aid her the rest of the
Nereids, her own sisters; and they heard her and gathered
together; and Thetis declared to them Hera's behests, and
quickly sped them all on their way to the Ausonian sea. And
herself, swifter than the flash of an eye or the shafts of the
sun, when it rises upwards from a far-distant land, hastened
swiftly through the sea, till she reached the Aeaean beach of
the Tyrrhenian mainland. And the heroes she found by the ship
taking their pastime with quoits and shooting of arrows; and she
drew near and just touched the hand of Aeaeus' son Peleus, for
he was her husband; nor could anyone see her clearly, but she
appeared to his eyes alone, and thus addressed him:
"No longer now must you stay sitting on the Tyrrhenian beach,
but at dawn loosen the hawsers of your swift ship, in obedience
to Hera, your helper. For at her behest the maiden daughters of
Nereus have met together to draw your ship through the midst of
the rocks which are called Planctae, (7) for that is your
destined path. But do you show my person to no one, when you see
us come to meet time, but keep it secret in your mind, lest you
anger me still more than you did anger me before so recklessly."
She spoke, and vanished into the depths of the sea; but sharp
pain smote Peleus, for never before had he seen her come, since
first she left her bridal chamber and bed in anger, on account
of noble Achilles, then a babe. For she ever encompassed the
child's mortal flesh in the night with the flame of fire; and
day by day she anointed with ambrosia his tender frame, so that
he might become immortal and that she might keep off from his
body loathsome old age. But Peleus leapt up from his bed and saw
his dear son gasping in the flame; and at the sight he uttered a
terrible cry, fool that he was; and she heard it, and catching
up the child threw him screaming to the ground, and herself like
a breath of wind passed swiftly from the hall as a dream and
leapt into the sea, exceeding wroth, and thereafter returned not
again. Wherefore blank amazement fettered his soul; nevertheless
he declared to his comrades all the bidding of Thetis. And they
broke off in the midst and hurriedly ceased their contests, and
prepared their meal and earth-strewn beds, whereon after supper
they slept through the night as aforetime.
Now when dawn the light-bringer was touching the edge of
heaven, then at the coming of the swift west wind they went to
their thwarts from the land; and gladly did they draw up the
anchors from the deep and made the tackling ready in due order;
and above spread the sail, stretching it taut with the sheets
from the yard-arm. And a fresh breeze wafted the ship on. And
soon they saw a fair island, Anthemoessa, where the clear-voiced
Sirens, daughters of Achelous, used to beguile with their sweet
songs whoever cast anchor there, and then destroy him. Them
lovely Terpsichore, one of the Muses, bare, united with Achelous;
and once they tended Demeter's noble daughter still unwed, and
sang to her in chorus; and at that time they were fashioned in
part like birds and in part like maidens to behold. And ever on
the watch from their place of prospect with its fair haven,
often from many had they taken away their sweet return,
consuming them with wasting desire; and suddenly to the heroes,
too, they sent forth from their lips a lily-like voice. And they
were already about to cast from the ship the hawsers to the
shore, had not Thracian Orpheus, son of Oeagrus, stringing in
his hands his Bistonian lyre, rung forth the hasty snatch of a
rippling melody so that their ears might be filled with the
sound of his twanging; and the lyre overcame the maidens' voice.
And the west wind and the sounding wave rushing astern bore the
ship on; and the Sirens kept uttering their ceaseless song. But
even so the goodly son of Teleon alone of the comrades leapt
before them all from the polished bench into the sea, even Butes,
his soul melted by the clear ringing voice of the Sirens; and he
swam through the dark surge to mount the beach, poor wretch.
Quickly would they have robbed him of his return then and there,
but the goddess that rules Eryx, Cypris, in pity snatched him
away, while yet in the eddies, and graciously meeting him saved
him to dwell on the Lilybean height. And the heroes, seized by
anguish, left the Sirens, but other perils still worse,
destructive to ships, awaited them in the meeting-place of the
seas.
For on one side appeared the smooth rock of Scylla; on the
other Charybdis ceaselessly spouted and roared; in another part
the Wandering rocks were booming beneath the mighty surge, where
before the burning flame spurted forth from the top of the
crags, above the rock glowing with fire, and the air was misty
with smoke, nor could you have seen the sun's light. Then,
though Hephaestus had ceased from his toils, the sea was still
sending up a warm vapour. Hereupon on this side and on that the
daughters of Nereus met them; and behind, lady Thetis set her
hand to the rudder-blade, to guide them amid the Wandering
rocks. And as when in fair weather herds of dolphins come up
from the depths and sport in circles round a ship as it speeds
along, now seen in front, now behind, now again at the side and
delight comes to the sailors; so the Nereids darted upward and
circled in their ranks round the ship Argo, while Thetis guided
its course. And when they were about to touch the Wandering
rocks, straightway they raised the edge of their garments over
their snow-white knees, and aloft, on the very rocks and where
the waves broke, they hurried along on this side and on that
apart from one another. And the ship was raised aloft as the
current smote her, and all around the furious wave mounting up
broke over the rocks, which at one time touched the sky like
towering crags, at another, down in the depths, were fixed fast
at the bottom of the sea and the fierce waves poured over them
in floods. And the Nereids, even as maidens near some sandy
beach roll their garments up to their waists out of their way
and sport with a shapely-rounded ball; then they catch it one
from another and send it high into the air; and it never touches
the ground; so they in turn one from another sent the ship
through the air over the waves, as it sped on ever away from the
rocks; and round them the water spouted and foamed. And lord
Hephaestus himself standing on the summit of a smooth rock and
resting his massy shoulder on the handle of his hammer, saw
them, and the spouse of Zeus saw them as she stood above the
gleaming heaven; and she threw her arms round Athena, such fear
seized her as she gazed. And as long as the space of a day is
lengthened out in springtime, so long a time did they toil,
heaving the ship between the loud-echoing rocks; then again the
heroes caught the wind and sped onward; and swiftly they passed
the mead of Thrinacia, where the kine of Helios fed. There the
nymphs, like sea-mews, plunged beneath the depths, when they had
fulfilled the behests of the spouse of Zeus. And at the same
time the bleating of sheep came to the heroes through the mist
and the lowing of kine, near at hand, smote their ears. And over
the dewy leas Phaethusa, the youngest of the daughters of
Helios, tended the sheep, bearing in her hand a silver crook;
while Lampetia, herding the kine, wielded a staff of glowing
orichalcum (8) as she followed. These kine the heroes saw
feeding by the river's stream, over the plain and the
water-meadow; not one of them was dark in hue but all were white
as milk and glorying in their horns of gold. So they passed them
by in the day-time, and when night came on they were cleaving a
great sea-gulf, rejoicing, till again early rising dawn threw
light on their course.
Fronting the Ionian gulf there lies an island in the
Ceraunian sea, rich in soil, with a harbour on both sides,
beneath which lies the sickle, as legend saith — grant me grace,
Muses, not willingly do I tell this tale of olden days —
wherewith Cronos pitilessly mutilated his father; but others
call it the reaping-hook of Demeter, goddess of the nether
world. For Demeter once dwelt in that island, and taught the
Titans to reap the ears of corn, all for the love of Macris.
Whence it is called Drepane, (9) the sacred nurse of the
Phaeacians; and thus the Phaeacians themselves are by birth of
the blood of Uranus. To them came Argo, held fast by many toils,
borne by the breezes from the Thrinacian sea; and Alcinous and
his people with kindly sacrifice gladly welcomed their coming;
and over them all the city made merry; you would say they were
rejoicing over their own sons. And the heroes themselves strode
in gladness through the throng, even as though they had set foot
in the heart of Haemonia; but soon were they to arm and raise
the battle-cry; so near to them appeared a boundless host of
Colchians, who had passed through the mouth of Pontus and
between the Cyanean rocks in search of the chieftains. They
desired forthwith to carry off Medea to her father's house apart
from the rest, or else they threatened with fierce cruelty to
raise the dread war-cry both then and thereafter on the coming
of Aeetes. But lordly Alcinous checked them amid their eagerness
for war. For he longed to allay the lawless strife between both
sides without the clash of battle. And the maiden in deadly fear
often implored the comrades of Aeson's son, and often with her
hands touched the knees of Arete, the bride of Aleinous:
"I beseech you, queen, be gracious and deliver me not to the
Colchians to be borne to my father, if you yourself too are one
of the race of mortals, whose heart rushes swiftly to ruin from
light transgressions. For my firm sense forsook me — it was not
for wantonness. Be witness the sacred light of Helios, be
witness the rites of the maiden that wanders by night, daughter
of Perses. Not willingly did I haste from my home with men of an
alien race; but a horrible fear wrought on me to bethink me of
flight when I sinned; other device was there none. Still my
maiden's girdle remains, as in the halls of my father,
unstained, untouched. Pity me, lady, and turn your lord to
mercy; and may the immortals grant you a perfect life, and joy,
and children, and the glory of a city unravaged!"
Thus did she implore Arete, shedding tears, and thus each of
the chieftains in turn:
"On your account, you men of peerless might, and on account
of my toils in your ventures am I sorely afflicted; even I, by
whose help you yoked the bulls, and reaped the deadly harvest of
the earthborn men; even I, through whom on your homeward path
you shall bear to Haemonia the golden fleece. Lo, here am I, who
have lost my country and my parents, who have lost my home and
all the delights of life; to you have I restored your country
and your homes; with eyes of gladness you will see again your
parents; but from me a heavy-handed god has raft all joy; and
with strangers I wander, an accursed thing. Fear your covenant
and your oaths, fear the Fury that avenges suppliants and the
retribution of heaven, if I fall into Aeetes' hands and am slain
with grievous outrage. To no shrines, no tower of defence, no
other refuge do I pay heed, but only to you. Hard and pitiless
in your cruelty! No reverence have you for me in your heart
though you see me helpless, stretching my hands towards the
knees of a stranger queen; yet, when you longed to seize the
fleece, you would have met all the Colchians face to you and
haughty Aeetes himself; but now you have forgotten your courage,
now that they are all alone and cut off."
Thus she spoke, beseeching; and to whomever she bowed in
prayer, that man tried to give her heart and to check her
anguish. And in their hands they shook their sharp pointed
spears, and drew the swords from their sheaths; and they swore
they would not hold back from giving succour, if she should meet
with an unrighteous judgement. And the host were all wearied and
Night came on them, Night that puts to rest the works of men,
and lulled all the earth to sleep; but to the maid no sleep
brought rest, but in her bosom her heart was wrung with anguish.
Even as when a toiling woman turns her spindle through the
night, and round her moan her orphan children, for she is a
widow, and down her cheeks fall the tears, as she bethinks her
how dreary a lot has seized her; so Medea's cheeks were wet; and
her heart within her was in agony, pierced with sharp pain.
Now within the palace in the city, as aforetime, lay lordly
Alcinous and Arete, the revered wife of Alcinous, and on their
couch through the night they were devising plans about the
maiden; and him, as her wedded husband, the wife addressed with
loving words:
"Yea, my friend, come, save the woe-stricken maid from the
Colchians and show grace to the Minyae. Argos is near our isle
and the men of Haemonia; but Aeetes dwells not near, nor do we
know of Aeetes one whit: we hear but his name; but this maiden
of dread suffering has broken my heart by her prayers. King,
give her not up to the Colchians to be borne back to her
father's home. She was distraught when first she gave him the
drugs to charm the oxen; and next, to cure one ill by another,
as in our sinning we do often, she fled from her haughty sire's
heavy wrath. But Jason, as I hear, is bound to her by mighty
oaths that he will make her his wedded wife within his halls.
Wherefore, my friend, make not, of your will, Aeson's son to be
forsworn, nor let the father, if you can help, work with angry
heart some intolerable mischief on his child. For fathers are
all too jealous against their children; what wrong did Nycteus
devise against Antiope, fair of face! What woes did Danae endure
on the wide sea through her sire's mad rage! Of late, and not
far away, Echetus in wanton cruelty thrust spikes of bronze in
his daughter's eyes; and by a grievous fate is she wasting away,
grinding grains of bronze in a dungeon's gloom."
Thus she spoke, beseeching; and by his wife's words his heart
was softened, and thus he spoke:
"Arete, with arms I could drive forth the Colchians, showing
grace to the heroes for the maiden's sake. But I fear to set at
nought the righteous judgment of Zeus. Nor is it well to take no
thought of Aeetes, as you sayest: for none is more lordly than
Aeetes. And, if he willed, he might bring war on Hellas, though
he dwell afar. Wherefore it is right for me to deliver the
judgement that in all men's eyes shall be best; and I will not
hide it from you. If she be yet a maid I decree that they carry
her back to her father; but if she shares a husband's bed, I
will not separate her from her lord; nor, if she bear a child
beneath her breast, will I give it up to an enemy."
Thus he spoke, and at once sleep laid him to rest. And she
stored up in her heart the word of wisdom, and straightway rose
from her couch and went through the palace; and her handmaids
came hasting together, eagerly tending their mistress. But
quietly she summoned her herald and addressed him, in her
prudence urging Aeson's son to wed the maiden, and not to
implore Alcinous; for he himself, she said, will decree to the
Colchians that if she is still a maid he will deliver her up to
be borne to her father's house, but that if she shares a
husband's bed he will not sever her from wedded love.
Thus she spoke, and quickly from the hall his feet bore him,
that he might declare to Jason the fair-omened speech of Arete
and the counsel of godfearing Alcinous. And he found the heroes
watching in full armour in the haven of Hyllus, near the city;
and out he spoke the whole message; and each hero's heart
rejoiced; for the word that he spoke was welcome.
And straightway they mingled a bowl to the blessed ones, as
is right, and reverently led sheep to the altar, and for that
very night prepared for the maiden the bridal couch in the
sacred cave, where once dwelt Macris, the daughter of Aristaeus,
lord of honey, who discovered the works of bees and the fatness
of the olive, the fruit of labour. She it was that first
received in her bosom the Nysean son of Zeus in Abantian Euboea,
and with honey moistened his parched lips when Hermes bore him
out of the flame. And Hera saw it, and in wrath drove her from
the whole island. And she accordingly came to dwell far off, in
the sacred cave of the Phaeacians, and granted boundless wealth
to the inhabitants. There at that time did they spread a mighty
couch; and thereon they laid the glittering fleece of gold, that
so the marriage might be made honoured and the theme of song.
And for them nymphs gathered flowers of varied hue and bore them
there in their white bosoms; and a splendour as of flame played
round them all, such a light gleamed from the golden tufts. And
in their eyes it kindled a sweet longing; yet for all her
desire, awe withheld each one from laying her hand thereon. Some
were called daughters of the river Aegaeus; others dwelt round
the crests of the Meliteian mount; and others were woodland
nymphs from the plains. For Hera herself, the spouse of Zeus,
had sent them to do honour to Jason. That cave is to this day
called the sacred cave of Medea, where they spread the fine and
fragrant linen and brought these two together. And the heroes in
their hands wielded their spears for war, lest first a host of
foes should burst on them for battle unawares, and, their heads
enwreathed with leafy sprays, all in harmony, while Orpheus'
harp rang clear, sang the marriage song at the entrance to the
bridal chamber. Yet not in the house of Alcinous was the hero,
Aeson's son, minded to complete his marriage, but in his
father's hall when he had returned home to Ioleus; and such was
the mind of Medea herself; but necessity led them to wed at this
time. For never in truth do we tribes of woe-stricken mortals
tread the path of delight with sure foot; but still some bitter
affliction keeps pace with our joy. Wherefore they too, though
their souls were melted with sweet love, were held by fear,
whether the sentence of Alcinous would be fulfilled.
Now dawn returning with her beams divine scattered the gloomy
night through the sky; and the island beaches laughed out and
the paths over the plains far off, drenched with dew, and there
was a din in the streets; the people were astir throughout the
city, and far away the Colchians were astir at the bounds of the
isle of Macris. And straightway to them went Alcinous, by reason
of his covenant, to declare his purpose concerning the maiden,
and in his hand he held a golden staff, his staff of justice,
whereby the people had righteous judgments meted out to them
throughout the city. And with him in order due and arrayed in
their harness of war went marching, band by band, the chiefs of
the Phaeacians. And from the towers came forth the women in
crowds to gaze on the heroes; and the country folk came to meet
them when they heard the news, for Hera had sent forth a true
report. And one led the chosen ram of his flock, and another a
heifer that had never toiled; and others set hard by jars of
wine for mixing; and the smoke of sacrifice leapt up far away.
And women bore fine linen, the fruit of much toil, as women
will, and gifts of gold and varied ornaments as well, such as
are brought to newly-wedded brides; and they marvelled when they
saw the shapely forms and beauty of the gallant heroes, and
among them the son of Oeagrus, oft beating the ground with
gleaming sandal, to the time of his loud-ringing lyre and song.
And all the nymphs together, whenever he recalled the marriage,
uplifted the lovely bridal-chant; and at times again they sang
alone as they circled in the dance, Hera, in your honour; for it
was you that did put it into the heart of Arete to proclaim the
wise word of Alcinous. And as soon as he had uttered the decree
of his righteous judgement, and the completion of the marriage
had been proclaimed, he took care that thus it should abide
fixed; and no deadly fear touched him nor Aeetes' grievous
wrath, but he kept his judgement fast bound by unbroken oaths.
So when the Colchians learnt that they were beseeching in vain
and he bade them either observe his judgements or hold their
ships away from his harbours and land, then they began to dread
the threats of their own king and besought Alcinous to receive
them as comrades; and there in the island long time they dwelt
with the Phaeacians, till in the course of years, the Bacchiadae,
a race sprung from Ephyra, (10) settled among them; and the
Colchians passed to an island opposite; and thence they were
destined to reach the Ceraunian hills of the Abantes, and the
Nestaeans and Oricum; but all this was fulfilled after long ages
had passed. And still the altars which Medea built on the spot
sacred to Apollo, god of shepherds, receive yearly sacrifices in
honour of the Fates and the Nymphs. And when the Minyae departed
many gifts of friendship did Alcinous bestow, and many Arete;
moreover she gave Medea twelve Phaeacian handmaids from the
palace, to bear her company. And on the seventh day they left
Drepane; and at dawn came a fresh breeze from Zeus. And onward
they sped borne along by the wind's breath. Howbeit not yet was
it ordained for the heroes to set foot on Achaea, till they had
toiled even in the furthest bounds of Libya.
Now had they left behind the gulf named after the Ambracians,
now with sails wide spread the land of the Curetes, and next in
order the narrow islands with the Echinades, and the land of
Pelops was just descried; even then a baleful blast of the north
wind seized them in mid-course and swept them towards the Libyan
sea nine nights and as many days, till they came far within
Syrtis, wherefrom is no return for ships, when they are once
forced into that gulf. For on every hand are shoals, on every
hand masses of seaweed from the depths; and over them the light
foam of the wave washes without noise; and there is a stretch of
sand to the dim horizon; and there movesnothing that creeps or
flies. Here accordingly the flood-tide — for this tide often
retreats from the land and bursts back again over the beach
coming on with a rush and roar — thrust them suddenly on to the
innermost shore, and but little of the keel was left in the
water. And they leapt forth from the ship, and sorrow seized
them when they gazed on the mist and the levels of vast land
stretching far like a mist and continuous into the distance; no
spot for water, no path, no steading of herdsmen did they descry
afar off, but all the scene was possessed by a dead calm. And
thus did one hero, vexed in spirit, ask another:
"What land is this? Where has the tempest hurled us? Would
that, reckless of deadly fear, we had dared to rush on by that
same path between the clashing rocks! Better were it to have
overleapt the will of Zeus and perished in venturing some mighty
deed. But now what should we do, held back by the winds to stay
here, if ever so short a time? How desolate looms before us the
edge of the limitless land!"
Thus one spoke; and among them Ancaeus the helmsman, in
despair at their evil case, spoke with grieving heart: "Verily
we are undone by a terrible doom; there is no escape from ruin;
we must suffer the cruellest woes, having fallen on this
desolation, even though breezes should blow from the land; for,
as I gaze far around, on every side do I behold a sea of shoals,
and masses of water, fretted line on line, run over the hoary
sand. And miserably long ago would our sacred ship have been
shattered far from the shore; but the tide itself bore her high
on to the land from the deep sea. But now the tide rushes back
to the sea, and only the foam, whereon no ship can sail, rolls
round us, just covering the land. Wherefore I deem that all hope
of our voyage and of our return is cut off. Let someone else
show his skill; let him sit at the helm the man that is eager
for our deliverance. But Zeus has no will to fulfil our day of
return after all our toils."
Thus he spoke with tears, and all of them that had knowledge
of ships agreed thereto; but the hearts of all grew numb, and
pallor overspread their cheeks. And as, like lifeless spectres,
men roam through a city awaiting the issue of war or of
pestilence, or some mighty storm which overwhelms the countless
labours of oxen, when the images of their own accord sweat and
run down with blood, and bellowings are heard in temples, or
when at mid-day the sun draws on night from heaven, and the
stars shine clear through the mist; so at that time along the
endless strand the chieftains wandered, groping their way. Then
straightway dark evening came on them; and piteously did they
embrace each other and say farewell with tears, that they might,
each one apart from his fellow, fall on the sand and die. And
this way and that they went further to choose a resting-place;
and they wrapped their heads in their cloaks and, fasting and
unfed, lay down all that night and the day, awaiting a piteous
death. But apart the maidens huddled together lamented beside
the daughter of Aeetes. And as when, forsaken by their mother,
unfledged birds that have fallen from a cleft in the rock chirp
shrilly; or when by the banks of fair-flowing Pactolus, swans
raise their song, and all around the dewy meadow echoes and the
river's fair stream; so these maidens, laying in the dust their
golden hair, all through the night wailed their piteous lament.
And there all would have parted from life without a name and
unknown to mortal men, those bravest of heroes, with their task
unfulfilled; but as they pined in despair, the heroine-nymphs,
warders of Libya, had pity on them, they who once found Athena,
what time she leapt in gleaming armour from her father's head,
and bathed her by Trito's waters. It was noon-tide and the
fiercest rays of the sun were scorching Libya; they stood near
Aeson's son, and lightly drew the cloak from his head. And the
hero cast down his eyes and looked aside, in reverence for the
goddesses, and as he lay bewildered all alone they addressed him
openly with gentle words:
"Ill-starred one, why are you so smitten with despair? We
know how you went in quest of the golden fleece; we know each
toil of yours, all the mighty deeds you wrought in your
wanderings over land and sea. We are the solitary ones,
goddesses of the land, speaking with human voice, the heroines,
Libya's warders and daughters. Up then; do not be thus afflicted
in your misery, and rouse your comrades. And when Amphitrite has
straightway loosed Poseidon's swift-wheeled car, then do you pay
to your mother a recompense for all her travail when she bare
you so long in her womb; and so you may return to the divine
land of Achaea."
Thus they spoke, and with the voice vanished at once, where
they stood. But Jason sat on the earth as he gazed around, and
thus cried:
"Be gracious, noble goddesses of the desert, yet the saying
about our return I understand not clearly. Surely I will gather
together my comrades and tell them, if haply we can find some
token of our escape, for the counsel of many is better."
He spoke, and leapt to his feet, and shouted afar to his
comrades, all squalid with dust, like a lion when he roars
through the woodland seeking his mate; and far off in the
mountains the glens tremble at the thunder of his voice; and the
oxen of the field and the herdsmen shudder with fear; yet to
them Jason's voice was no whit terrible the voice of a comrade
calling to his friends. And with looks downcast they gathered
near, and hard by where the ship lay he made them sit down in
their grief and the women with them, and addressed them and told
them everything:
"Listen, friends; as I lay in my grief, three goddesses
girded with goat-skins from the neck downwards round the back
and waist, like maidens, stood over my head nigh at hand; and
they uncovered me, drawing my cloak away with light hand, and
they bade me rise up myself and go and rouse you, and pay to our
mother a bounteous recompense for all her travail when she bare
us so long in her womb, when Amphitrite shall have loosed
Poseidon's swift-wheeled car. But I cannot fully understand
concerning this divine message. They said indeed that they were
heroines, Libya's warders and daughters; and all the toils that
we endured aforetime by land and sea, all these they declared
that they knew full well. Then I saw them no more in their
place, but a mist or cloud came between and hid them from my
sight."
Thus he spoke, and all marvelled as they heard. Then was
wrought for the Minyae the strangest of portents. From the sea
to the land leapt forth a monstrous horse, of vast size, with
golden mane tossing round his neck; and quickly from his limbs
he shook off abundant spray and started on his course, with feet
like the wind. And at once Peleus rejoiced and spoke among the
throng of his comrades:
"I deem that Poseidon's ear has even now been loosed by the
hands of his dear wife, and I divine that our mother is none
else than our ship herself; for surely she bare us in her womb
and groans unceasingly with grievous travailing. But with
unshaken strength and untiring shoulders will we lift her up and
bear her within this country of sandy wastes, where yon
swift-footed steed has sped before. For he will not plunge
beneath the earth; and his hoof-prints, I ween, will point us to
some bay above the sea."
Thus he spoke, and the fit counsel pleased all. This is the
tale the Muses told; and I sing obedient to the Pierides, and
this report have I heard most truly; that you, mightiest far of
the sons of kings, by your might and your valour over the desert
sands of Libya raised high aloft on your shoulders the ship and
all that you brought therein, and bare her twelve days and
nights alike. Yet who could tell the pain and grief which they
endured in that toil? Surely they were of the blood of the
immortals, such a task did they take on them, constrained by
necessity. How forward and how far they bore her gladly to the
waters of the Tritonian lake! How they strode in and set her
down from their stalwart shoulders!
Then, like raging hounds, they rushed to search for a spring;
for besides their suffering and anguish, a parching thirst lay
on them, and not in vain did they wander; but they came to the
sacred plain where Ladon, the serpent of the land, till
yesterday kept watch over the golden apples in the garden of
Atlas; and all around the nymphs, the Hesperides, were busied,
chanting their lovely song. But at that time, stricken by
Heracles, he lay fallen by the trunk of the apple-tree; only the
tip of his tail was still writhing; but from his head down his
dark spine he lay lifeless; and where the arrows had left in his
blood the bitter gall of the Lernaean hydra, flies withered and
died over the festering wounds. And close at hand the Hesperides,
their white arms flung over their golden heads, lamented
shrilly; and the heroes drew near suddenly; but the maidens, at
their quick approach, at once became dust and earth where they
stood. Orpheus marked the divine portent, and for his comrades
addressed them in prayer: "O divine ones, fair and kind, be
gracious, queens, whether you be numbered among the heavenly
goddesses, or those beneath the earth, or be called the Solitary
nymphs; come, nymphs, sacred race of Oceanus, appear manifest to
our longing eyes and show us some spring of water from the rock
or some sacred flow gushing from the earth, goddesses, wherewith
we may quench the thirst that burns us unceasingly. And if ever
again we return in our voyaging to the Achaean land, then to you
among the first of goddesses with willing hearts will we bring
countless gifts, libations and banquets."
So he spoke, beseeching them with plaintive voice; and they
from their station near pitied their pain; and lo! First of all
they caused grass to spring from the earth; and above the grass
rose up tall shoots, and then flourishing saplings grew standing
upright far above the earth. Hespere became a poplar and
Eretheis an elm, and Aegle a willow's sacred trunk. And forth
from these trees their forms looked out, as clear as they were
before, a marvel exceeding great, and Aegle spoke with gentle
words answering their longing looks:
"Surely there has come here a mighty succour to your toils,
that most accursed man, who robbed our guardian serpent of life
and plucked the golden apples of the goddesses and is gone; and
has left bitter grief for us. For yesterday came a man most fell
in wanton violence, most grim in form; and his eyes flashed
beneath his scowling brow; a ruthless wretch; and he was clad in
the skin of a monstrous lion of raw hide, untanned; and he bare
a sturdy bow of olive, and a bow, wherewith he shot and killed
this monster here. So he too came, as one traversing the land on
foot, parched with thirst; and he rushed wildly through this
spot, searching for water, but nowhere was he like to see it.
Now here stood a rock near the Tritonian lake; and of his own
device, or by the prompting of some god, he smote it below with
his foot; and the water gushed out in full flow. And he, leaning
both his hands and chest on the ground, drank a huge draught
from the rifted rock, till, stooping like a beast of the field,
he had satisfied his mighty maw."
Thus she spoke; and they gladly with joyful steps ran to the
spot where Aegle had pointed out to them the spring, till they
reached it. And as when earth-burrowing ants gather in swarms
round a narrow cleft, or when flies lighting on a tiny drop of
sweet honey cluster round with insatiate eagerness; so at that
time, huddled together, the Minyae thronged about the spring
from the rock. And thus with wet lips one cried to another in
his delight:
"Strange! In very truth Heracles, though far away, has saved
his comrades, fordone with thirst. Would that we might find him
on his way as we pass through the mainland!"
So they spoke, and those who were ready for this work
answered, and they separated this way and that, each starting to
search. For by the night winds the footsteps had been effaced
where the sand was stirred. The two sons of Boreas started up,
trusting in their wings; and Euphemus, relying on his swift
feet, and Lynceus to cast far his piercing eyes; and with them
darted off Canthus, the fifth. He was urged on by the doom of
the gods and his own courage, that he might learn for certain
from Heracles where he had left Polyphemus, son of Eilatus; for
he was minded to question him on every point concerning his
comrade. But that hero had founded a glorious city among the
Mysians, and, yearning for his home-return, had passed far over
the mainland in search of Argo; and in time he reached the land
of the Chalybes, who dwell near the sea; there it was that his
fate subdued him. And to him a monument stands under a tall
poplar, just facing the sea. But that day Lynceus thought he saw
Heracles all alone, far off, over measureless land, as a man at
the month's beginning sees, or thinks he sees, the moon through
a bank of cloud. And he returned and told his comrades that no
other searcher would find Heracles on his way, and they also
came back, and swift-footed Euphemus and the twin sons of
Thracian Boreas, after a vain toil.
But you, Canthus, the fates of death seized in Libya. On
pasturing flocks did you light; and there followed a shepherd
who, in defence of his own sheep, while you weft leading them
off (11) to your comrades in their need, slew you by the cast of
a stone; for he was no weakling, Caphaurus, the grandson of
Lycoreian Phoebus and the chaste maiden Acacallis, whom once
Minos drove from home to dwell in Libya, his own daughter, when
she was bearing the gods' heavy load; and she bare to Phoebus a
glorious son, whom they call Amphithemis and Garamas. And
Amphithemis wedded a Tritonian nymph; and she bare to him
Nasamon and strong Caphaurus, who on that day in defending his
sheep slew Canthus. But he escaped not the chieftains' avenging
hands, when they learned the deed he had done. And the Minyae,
when they knew it, afterwards took up the corpse and buried it
in the earth, mourning; and the sheep they took with them.
Thereupon on the same day a pitiless fate seized Mopsus too,
son of Ampycus; and he escaped not a bitter doom by his
prophesying; for there is no averting of death. Now there lay in
the sand, avoiding the midday heat, a dread serpent, too
sluggish of his own will to strike at an unwilling foe, nor yet
would he dart full face at one that would shrink back. But into
whatever of all living beings that life-giving earth sustains
that serpent once injects his black venom, his path to Hades
becomes not so much as a cubit's length, not even if Paeeon, if
it is right for me to say this openly, should tend him, when its
teeth have only grazed the skin. For when over Libya flew
godlike Perseus Eurymedon for by that name his mother called him
— bearing to the king the Gorgon's head newly severed, all the
drops of dark blood that fell to the earth, produced a brood of
those serpents. Now Mopsus stepped on the end of its spine,
setting thereon the sole of his left foot; and it writhed round
in pain and bit and tore the flesh between the shin and the
muscles. And Medea and her handmaids fled in terror; but Canthus
bravely felt the bleeding wound; for no excessive pain harassed
him. Poor wretch! Already a numbness that loosed his limbs was
stealing beneath his skin, and a thick mist was spreading over
his eyes. Straightway his heavy limbs sank helplessly to the
ground and he grew cold; and his comrades and the hero, Aeson's
son, gathered round, marvelling at the close-coming doom. Nor
yet though dead might he lie beneath the sun even for a little
space. For at once the poison began to rot his flesh within, and
the hair decayed and fell from the skin. And quickly and in
haste they dug a deep grave with mattocks of bronze; and they
tore their hair, the heroes and the maidens, bewailing the dead
man's piteous suffering; and when he had received due burial
rites, thrice they marched round the tomb in full armour, and
heaped above him a mound of earth.
But when they had gone aboard, as the south wind blew over
the sea, and they were searching for a passage to go forth from
the Tritonian lake, for long they had no device, but all the day
were borne on aimlessly. And as a serpent goes writhing along
his crooked path when the sun's fiercest rays scorch him; and
with a hiss he turns his head to this side and that, and in his
fury his eyes glow like sparks of fire, till he creeps to his
lair through a cleft in the rock; so Argo seeking an outlet from
the lake, a fairway for ships, wandered for a long time. Then
straightway Orpheus bade them bring forth from the ship Apollo's
massy tripod and offer it to the gods of the land as
propitiation for their return. So they went forth and set
Apollo's gift on the shore; then before them stood, in the form
of a youth, farswaying Triton, and he lifted a clod from the
earth and offered it as a stranger's gift, and thus spoke:
"Take it, friends, for no stranger's gift of great worth have
I here by me now to place in the hands of those who beseech me.
But if you are searching for a passage through this sea, as
often is the need of men passing through a strange land, I will
declare it. For my sire Poseidon has made me to be well versed
in this sea. And I rule the shore if haply in your distant land
you have ever heard of Eurypylus, born in Libya, the home of
wild beasts."
Thus he spoke, and readily Euphemus held out his hands
towards the clod, and thus addressed him in reply:
"If haply, hero, you know aught of Apis (12) and the sea of
Minos, tell us truly, who ask it of you. For not of our will
have we come here, but by the stress of heavy storms have we
touched the borders of this land, and have borne our ship aloft
on our shoulders to the waters of this lake over the mainland,
grievously burdened; and we know not where a passage shows
itself for our course to the land of Pelops."
So he spoke; and Triton stretched out his hand and showed
afar the sea and the lake's deep mouth, and then addressed them:
"That is the outlet to the sea, where the deep water lies
unmoved and dark; on each side roll white breakers with shining
crests; and the way between for your passage out is narrow. And
that sea stretches away in mist to the divine land of Pelops
beyond Crete; but hold to the right, when you have entered the
swell of the sea from the lake, and steer your course hugging
the land, as long as it trends to the north; but when the coast
bends, falling away in the other direction, then your course is
safely laid for you if you go straight forward from the
projecting cape. But go in joy, and as for labour let there be
no grieving that limbs in youthful vigour should still toil."
He spoke with kindly counsel; and they at once went aboard,
intent to come forth from the lake by the use of oars. And
eagerly they sped on; meanwhile Triton took up the mighty
tripod, and they saw him enter the lake; but thereafter did no
one mark how he vanished so near them along with the tripod. But
their hearts were cheered, for that one of the blessed had met
them in friendly guise. And they bade Aeson's son offer to him
the choicest of the sheep and when he had slain it chant the
hymn of praise. And straightway he chose in haste and raising
the victim slew it over the stern, and prayed with these words:
"You god, who have manifested yourself on the borders of this
land, whether the daughters born of the sea call you Triton, the
great sea-marvel, or Phoreys, or Nereus, be gracious, and grant
the return home dear to our hearts."
He spoke, and cut the victim's throat over the water and cast
it from the stern. And the god rose up from the depths in form
such as he really was. And as when a man trains a swift steed
for the broad race-course, and runs along, grasping the bushy
mane, while the steed follows obeying his master, and rears his
neck aloft in his pride, and the gleaming bit rings loud as he
champs it in his jaws from side to side; so the god, seizing
hollow Argo's keel, guided her onward to the sea. And his body,
from the crown of his head, round his back and waist as far as
the belly, was wondrously like that of the blessed ones in form;
but below his sides the tail of a sea monster lengthened far,
forking to this side and that; and he smote the surface of the
waves with the spines, which below parted into curving fins,
like the horns of the new moon. And he guided Argo on till he
sped her into the sea on her course; and quickly he plunged into
the vast abyss; and the heroes shouted when they gazed with
their eyes on that dread portent. There is the harbour of Argo
and there are the signs of her stay, and altars to Poseidon and
Triton; for during that day they tarried. But at dawn with sails
outspread they sped on before the breath of the west wind,
keeping the desert land on their right. And on the next morn
they saw the headland and the recess of the sea, bending inward
beyond the jutting headland. And straightway the west wind
ceased, and there came the breeze of the clear south wind; and
their hearts rejoiced at the sound it made. But when the sun
sank and the star returned that bids the shepherd fold, which
brings rest to wearied ploughmen, at that time the wind died
down in the dark night; so they furled the sails and lowered the
tall mast and vigorously plied their polished oars all night and
through the day, and again when the next night came on. And
rugged Carpathus far away welcomed them; and thence they were to
cross to Crete, which rises in the sea above other islands.
And Talos, the man of bronze, as he broke off rocks from the
hard cliff, stayed them from fastening hawsers to the shore,
when they came to the roadstead of Dicte's haven. He was of the
stock of bronze, of the men sprung from ash-trees, the last left
among the sons of the gods; and the son of Cronos gave him to
Europa to be the warder of Crete and to stride round the island
thrice a day with his feet of bronze. Now in all the rest of his
body and limbs was he fashioned of bronze and invulnerable; but
beneath the sinew by his ankle was a blood-red vein; and this,
with its issues of life and death, was covered by a thin skin.
So the heroes, though outworn with toil, quickly backed their
ship from the land in sore dismay. And now far from Crete would
they have been borne in wretched plight, distressed both by
thirst and pain, had not Medea addressed them as they turned
away:
"Hearken to me. For I deem that I alone can subdue for you
that man, whoever he be, even though his frame be of bronze
throughout, unless his life too is everlasting. But be ready to
keep your ship here beyond the cast of his stones, till he yield
the victory to me."
Thus she spoke; and they drew the ship out of range, resting
on their oars, waiting to see what plan unlooked for she would
bring to pass; and she, holding the fold of her purple robe over
her cheeks on each side, mounted on the deck; and Aeson's son
took her hand in his and guided her way along the thwarts. And
with songs did she propitiate and invoke the Death-spirits,
devourers of life, the swift hounds of Hades, who, hovering
through all the air, swoop down on the living. Kneeling in
supplication, thrice she called on them with songs, and thrice
with prayers; and, shaping her soul to mischief, with her
hostile glance she bewitched the eyes of Talos, the man of
bronze; and her teeth gnashed bitter wrath against him, and she
sent forth baneful phantoms in the frenzy of her rage.
Father Zeus, surely great wonder rises in my mind, seeing
that dire destruction meets us not from disease and wounds
alone, but lo! even from afar, may be, it tortures us! So Talos,
for all his frame of bronze, yielded the victory to the might of
Medea the sorceress. And as he was heaving massy rocks to stay
them from reaching the haven, he grazed his ankle on a pointed
crag; and the ichor gushed forth like melted lead; and not long
thereafter did he stand towering on the jutting cliff. But even
as some huge pine, high up on the mountains, which woodmen have
left half hewn through by their sharp axes when they returned
from the forest — at first it shivers in the wind by night, then
at last snaps at the stump and crashes down; so Talos for a
while stood on his tireless feet, swaying to and fro, when at
last, all strengthless, fell with a mighty thud. For that night
there in Crete the heroes lay; then, just as dawn was growing
bright, they built a shrine to Minoan Athena, and drew water and
went aboard, so that first of all they might by rowing pass
beyond Salmone's height.
But straightway as they sped over the wide Cretan sea night
scared them, that night which they name the Pall of Darkness;
the stars pierced not that fatal night nor the beams of the
moon, but black chaos descended from heaven, or haply some other
darkness came, rising from the nethermost depths. And the
heroes, whether they drifted in Hades or on the waters, knew not
one whit; but they committed their return to the sea in helpless
doubt where it was bearing them. But Jason raised his hands and
cried to Phoebus with mighty voice, calling on him to save them;
and the tears ran down in his distress; and often did he promise
to bring countless offerings to Pytho, to Amyclae, and to
Ortygia. And quickly, son of Leto, swift to hear, did you come
down from heaven to the Melantian rocks, which lie there in the
sea. Then darting on one of the twin peaks, you raisedst aloft
in your right hand your golden bow; and the bow flashed a
dazzling gleam all round. And to their sight appeared a small
island of the Sporades, over against the tiny isle Hippuris, and
there they cast anchor and stayed; and straightway dawn arose
and gave them light; and they made for Apollo a glorious abode
in a shady wood, and a shady altar, calling on Phoebus the
"Gleamer", because of the gleam far-seen; and that bare island
they called Anaphe, (13) for that Phoebus had revealed it to men
sore bewildered. And they sacrificed all that men could provide
for sacrifice on a desolate strand; wherefore when Medea's
Phaeacian handmaids saw them pouring water for libations on the
burning brands, they could no longer restrain laughter within
their bosoms, for that ever they had seen oxen in plenty slain
in the halls of Alcinous. And the heroes delighted in the jest
and attacked them with taunting words; and merry railing and
contention flung to and fro were kindled among them. And from
that sport of the heroes such scoffs do the women fling at the
men in that island whenever they propitiate with sacrifices
Apollo the gleaming god, the warder of Anaphe.
But when they had loosed the hawsers thence in fair weather,
then Euphemus bethought him of a dream of the night, reverencing
the glorious son of Maia. For it seemed to him that the
god-given clod of earth held in his palm close to his breast was
being suckled by white streams of milk, and that from it, little
though it was, grew a woman like a virgin; and he, overcome by
strong desire, lay with her in love's embrace; and united with
her he pitied her, as though she were a maiden whom he was
feeding with his own milk; but she comforted him with gentle
words:
"Daughter of Triton am I, dear friend, and nurse of your
children, no maiden; Triton and Libya are my parents. But
restore me to the daughters of Nereus to dwell in the sea near
Anaphe; I shall return again to the light of the sun, to prepare
a home for your descendants."
Of this he stored in his heart the memory, and declared it to
Aeson's son; and Jason pondered a prophecy of the Far-Darter and
lifted up his voice and said:
"My friend, great and glorious renown has fallen to your lot.
For of this clod when you have cast it into the sea, the gods
will make an island, where your children's children shall dwell;
for Triton gave this to you as a stranger's gift from the Libyan
mainland. None other of the immortals it was than he that gave
you this when he met you."
Thus he spoke; and Euphemus made not vain the answer of
Aeson's son; but, cheered by the prophecy, he cast the clod into
the depths. Therefrom rose up an island, Calliste, sacred nurse
of the sons of Euphemus, who in former days dwelt in Sintian
Lemnos, and from Lemnos were driven forth by Tyrrhenians and
came to Sparta as suppliants; and when they left Sparta, Theras,
the goodly son of Autesion, brought them to the island Calliste,
and from himself he gave it the name of Thera. But this befell
after the days of Euphemus.
And thence they steadily left behind long leagues of sea and
stayed on the beach of Aegina; and at once they contended in
innocent strife about the fetching of water, who first should
draw it and reach the ship. For both their need and the
ceaseless breeze urged them on. There even to this day do the
youths of the Myrmidons take up on their shoulders full-brimming
jars, and with swift feet strive for victory in the race.
Be gracious, race of blessed chieftains! And may these songs
year after year be sweeter to sing among men. For now have I
come to the glorious end of your toils; for no adventure befell
you as you came home from Aegina, and no tempest of winds
opposed you; but quietly did you skirt the Cecropian land and
Aulis inside of Euboea and the Opuntian cities of the Locrians,
and gladly did you step forth on the beach of Pagasae. [End of "Argonautica"]
ENDNOTES
(1) The allusion is to Sesotris. See Herodotus ii. 102 foll.
(2) Or, reading EMETEREN, "into our sea". The Euxine is meant
in any case and the word Ionian is therefore wrong.
(3) Apollonius seems to have thought that the Po, the Rhone,
and the Rhine are all connected together.
(4) i.e. like the scrapings from skin, APOSTLEGGISMATA; see
Strabo p. 224 for this adventure.
(5) The "Symplegades" are referred to, where help was given
by Athena, not by Hera. It is strange that no mention is made of
the "Planctae", properly so called, past which they are soon to
be helped. Perhaps some lines have fallen out.
(6) i.e. the Mighty One.
(7) i.e. the Wanderers.
(8) A fabulous metal, resembling gold in appearance.
(9) i.e. the Sickle-island.
(10) The old name of Corinth.
(11) This seems to be the only possible translation, but the
optative is quite anomalous. We should expect EKOMIZES.
(12) An old name of the Peloponnesus.
(13) i.e. the isle of Revealing.