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+The Argonautica by Apollonius Rhodius 
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+February, 1997  [Etext #830]
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+Project Gutenberg Etext of The Argonautica by Apollonius Rhodius
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+
+The Argonautica by Apollonius Rhodius (fl. 3rd Century B.C.)
+
+Originally written in Ancient Greek sometime in the 3rd Century
+B.C. by the Alexandrian poet Apollonius Rhodius ("Apollonius the
+Rhodian").  Translation by R.C. Seaton, 1912.
+
+
+This electronic edition was edited, proofed, and prepared by
+Douglas B. Killings (DeTroyes@EnterAct.COM), January 1997.
+
+PREPARER'S NOTE:
+Words in CAPITALS are Greek words transliterated into modern
+characters.
+
+*****************************************************************
+SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY:
+
+ORIGINAL TEXT --
+
+Seaton, R.C. (Ed. & Trans.): "Apollonius Rhodius: Argonautica"
+(Harvard University Press, Cambridge MA, 1912).  Original Greek
+text with side-by-side English translation.
+
+
+OTHER TRANSLATIONS --
+
+Rieu, E.V. (Trans.): "Apollonius of Rhodes: The Voyage of the
+Argo" (Penguin Classics, London, 1959, 1971).
+
+
+RECOMMENDED READING --
+
+Euripides: "Medea", "Hecabe", "Electra", and "Heracles",
+translated
+by Philip Vellacott (Penguin Classics, London, 1963).  Contains
+four plays by Euripides, two of which concern characters from
+"The Argonautica".
+
+*****************************************************************
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+Much has been written about the chronology of Alexandrian
+literature and the famous Library, founded by Ptolemy Soter, but
+the dates of the chief writers are still matters of conjecture.
+The birth of Apollonius Rhodius is placed by scholars at
+various times between 296 and 260 B.C., while the year of his
+death is equally uncertain.  In fact, we have very little
+information on the subject.  There are two "lives" of Apollonius
+in the Scholia, both derived from an earlier one which is lost.
+From these we learn that he was of Alexandria by birth, (1) that
+he lived in the time of the Ptolemies, and was a pupil of
+Callimachus; that while still a youth he composed and recited in
+public his "Argonautica", and that the poem was condemned, in
+consequence of which he retired to Rhodes; that there he revised
+his poem, recited it with great applause, and hence called
+himself a Rhodian.  The second "life" adds: "Some say that he
+returned to Alexandria and again recited his poem with the utmost
+success, so that he was honoured with the libraries of the Museum
+and was buried with Callimachus."  The last sentence may be
+interpreted by the notice of Suidas, who informs us that
+Apollonius was a contemporary of Eratosthenes, Euphorion and
+Timarchus, in the time of Ptolemy Euergetes, and that he
+succeeded Eratosthenes in the headship of the Alexandrian
+Library.  Suidas also informs us elsewhere that Aristophanes at
+the age of sixty-two succeeded Apollonius in this office.  Many
+modern scholars deny the "bibliothecariate" of Apollonius for
+chronological reasons, and there is considerable difficulty about
+it.  The date of Callimachus' "Hymn to Apollo", which closes with
+some lines (105-113) that are admittedly an allusion to
+Apollonius, may be put with much probability at 248 or 247 B.C.
+Apollonius must at that date have been at least twenty years old.
+Eratosthenes died 196-193 B.C.  This would make Apollonius
+seventy-two to seventy-five when he succeeded Eratosthenes.  This
+is not impossible, it is true, but it is difficult.  But the
+difficulty is taken away if we assume with Ritschl that
+Eratosthenes resigned his office some years before his death,
+which allows us to put the birth of Apollonius at about 280, and
+would solve other difficulties.  For instance, if the Librarians
+were buried within the precincts, it would account for the burial
+of Apollonius next to Callimachus--Eratosthenes being still
+alive.  However that may be, it is rather arbitrary to take away
+the "bibliothecariate" of Apollonius, which is clearly asserted
+by Suidas, on account of chronological calculations which are
+themselves uncertain.  Moreover, it is more probable that the
+words following "some say" in the second "life" are a remnant of
+the original life than a conjectural addition, because the first
+"life" is evidently incomplete, nothing being said about the end
+of Apollonius' career.
+
+The principal event in his life, so far as we know, was the
+quarrel with his master Callimachus, which was most probably the
+cause of his condemnation at Alexandria and departure to Rhodes.
+This quarrel appears to have arisen from differences of literary
+aims and taste, but, as literary differences often do,
+degenerated into the bitterest personal strife.  There are
+references to the quarrel in the writings of both.  Callimachus
+attacks Apollonius in the passage at the end of the "Hymn to
+Apollo", already mentioned, also probably in some epigrams, but
+most of all in his "Ibis", of which we have an imitation, or
+perhaps nearly a translation, in Ovid's poem of the same name. 
+On the part of Apollonius there is a passage in the third book of
+the "Argonautica" (11. 927-947) which is of a polemical nature
+and stands out from the context, and the well-known savage
+epigram upon Callimachus. (2)  Various combinations have been
+attempted by scholars, notably by Couat, in his "Poesie
+Alexandrine", to give a connected account of the quarrel, but we
+have not data sufficient to determine the order of the attacks,
+and replies, and counter-attacks.  The "Ibis" has been thought to
+mark the termination of the feud on the curious ground that it
+was impossible for abuse to go further.  It was an age when
+literary men were more inclined to comment on writings of the
+past than to produce original work.  Literature was engaged in
+taking stock of itself.  Homer was, of course, professedly
+admired by all, but more admired than imitated.  Epic poetry was
+out of fashion and we find many epigrams of this period--some
+by Callimachus--directed against the "cyclic" poets, by whom
+were meant at that time those who were always dragging in
+conventional and commonplace epithets and phrases peculiar to
+epic poetry.  Callimachus was in accordance with the spirit of
+the age when he proclaimed "a great book" to be "a great evil",
+and sought to confine poetical activity within the narrowest
+limits both of subject and space.  Theocritus agreed with him,
+both in principle and practice.  The chief characteristics of
+Alexandrianism are well summarized by Professor Robinson Ellis as
+follows: "Precision in form and metre, refinement in diction, a
+learning often degenerating into pedantry and obscurity, a
+resolute avoidance of everything commonplace in subject,
+sentiment or allusion."  These traits are more prominent in
+Callimachus than in Apollonius, but they are certainly to be seen
+in the latter.  He seems to have written the "Argonautica" out of
+bravado, to show that he could write an epic poem.  But the
+influence of the age was too strong.  Instead of the unity of an
+Epic we have merely a series of episodes, and it is the great
+beauty and power of one of these episodes that gives the poem its
+permanent value--the episode of the love of Jason and Medea.
+This occupies the greater part of the third book.  The first and
+second books are taken up with the history of the voyage to
+Colchis, while the fourth book describes the return voyage. 
+These portions constitute a metrical guide book, filled no doubt
+with many pleasing episodes, such as the rape of Hylas, the
+boxing match between Pollux and Amyeus, the account of Cyzicus,
+the account of the Amazons, the legend of Talos, but there is no
+unity running through the poem beyond that of the voyage itself.
+
+The Tale of the Argonauts had been told often before in verse and
+prose, and many authors' names are given in the Scholia to
+Apollonius, but their works have perished.  The best known
+earlier account that we have is that in Pindar's fourth Pythian
+ode, from which Apollonius has taken many details.  The subject
+was one for an epic poem, for its unity might have been found in
+the working out of the expiation due for the crime of Athamas;
+but this motive is barely mentioned by our author.
+
+As we have it, the motive of the voyage is the command of Pelias
+to bring back the golden fleece, and this command is based on
+Pelias' desire to destroy Jason, while the divine aid given to
+Jason results from the intention of Hera to punish Pelias for his
+neglect of the honour due to her.  The learning of Apollonius is
+not deep but it is curious; his general sentiments are not
+according to the Alexandrian standard, for they are simple and
+obvious.  In the mass of material from which he had to choose the
+difficulty was to know what to omit, and much skill is shown in
+fusing into a tolerably harmonious whole conflicting mythological
+and historical details.  He interweaves with his narrative local
+legends and the founding of cities, accounts of strange customs,
+descriptions of works of art, such as that of Ganymede and Eros
+playing with knucklebones, (3) but prosaically calls himself back
+to the point from these pleasing digressions by such an
+expression as "but this would take me too far from my song."  His
+business is the straightforward tale and nothing else.  The
+astonishing geography of the fourth book reminds us of the
+interest of the age in that subject, stimulated no doubt by the
+researches of Eratosthenes and others.
+
+The language is that of the conventional epic.  Apollonius seems
+to have carefully studied Homeric glosses, and gives many
+examples of isolated uses, but his choice of words is by no means
+limited to Homer.  He freely avails himself of Alexandrian words
+and late uses of Homeric words.  Among his contemporaries
+Apollonius suffers from a comparison with Theocritus, who was a
+little his senior, but he was much admired by Roman writers who
+derived inspiration from the great classical writers of Greece by
+way of Alexandria.  In fact Alexandria was a useful bridge
+between Athens and Rome.  The "Argonautica" was translated by
+Varro Atacinus, copied by Ovid and Virgil, and minutely studied
+by Valerius Flaccus in his poem of the same name.  Some of his
+finest passages have been appropriated and improved upon by
+Virgil by the divine right of superior genius. (4)  The subject
+of love had been treated in the romantic spirit before the time
+of Apollonius in writings that have perished, for instance, in
+those of Antimachus of Colophon, but the "Argonautica" is perhaps
+the first poem still extant in which the expression of this
+spirit is developed with elaboration.  The Medea of Apollonius is
+the direct precursor of the Dido of Virgil, and it is the pathos
+and passion of the fourth book of the "Aeneid" that keep alive
+many a passage of Apollonius.
+
+
+ENDNOTES:
+(1)  "Or of Naucratis", according to Aelian and Athenaeus.
+(2)  Anth. Pal. xl. 275.
+(3)  iii. 117-124.
+(4)  e.g. compare "Aen." iv. 305 foll. with Ap. Rh. iv. 355
+     foll.; "Aen." iv. 327-330 with Ap. Rh. I. 897, 898; "Aen."
+     iv. 522 foll., with Ap. Rh. iii. 744 foll.
+
+
+
+THE ARGONAUTICA
+
+BOOK I
+
+(ll. 1-4)  Beginning with thee, O 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.
+
+(ll. 5-17)  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 which 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.
+
+(ll. 18-22)  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!
+
+(ll. 23-34)  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 upon 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.
+
+(ll. 35-39)  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.
+
+(ll. 40-44)  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.
+
+(ll. 45-48)  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.
+
+(ll. 49-50)  Nor did Admetus, the lord of Pherae rich in sheep,
+stay behind beneath the peak of the Chalcodonian mount.
+
+(ll. 51-56)  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.
+
+(ll. 57-64)  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.
+
+(ll. 65-68)  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.
+
+(ll. 69-70)  Moreover Actor sent his son Menoetius from Opus that
+he might accompany the chiefs.
+
+(ll. 71-76)  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.
+
+(ll. 77-85)  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.
+
+(ll. 86-89)  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.
+
+(ll. 90-94)  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.
+
+(ll. 95-104)  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.
+
+(ll. 105-114)  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.
+
+(ll. 115-117)  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.
+
+(ll. 118-121)  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.
+
+(ll. 122-132)  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.
+
+(ll. 133-138)  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.
+
+(ll. 139-145)  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.
+
+(ll. 146-150)  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.
+
+(ll. 151-155)  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.
+
+(ll. 156-160)  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.
+
+(ll. 161-171)  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.
+
+(ll. 172-175)  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.
+
+(ll. 176-178)  Asterius and Amphion, sons of Hyperasius, came
+from Achaean Pellene, which once Pelles their grandsire founded
+on the brows of Aegialus.
+
+(ll. 179-184)  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
+wetted not his swift feet, but just dipping the tips of his toes
+was borne on the watery path.
+
+(ll. 185-189)  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.
+
+(ll. 190-201)  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.
+
+(ll. 202-206)  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.
+
+(ll. 207-210)  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.
+
+(ll. 211-223)  Next came Zetes and Calais, sons of Boreas, whom
+once Oreithyia, daughter of Erechtheus, bare to Boreas on the
+verge of wintry Thrace; thither 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 upon 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, hither and thither, their dark tresses were
+being shaken by the wind.
+
+(ll. 224-227)  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.
+
+(ll. 228-233)  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.
+
+(ll. 234-241)  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:
+
+(ll. 242-246)  "King Zeus, what is the purpose of Pelias? 
+Whither 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, should he 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."
+
+(ll. 247-250)  Thus they spake 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:
+
+(ll. 251-260)  "Wretched Alcimede, evil has come to thee at last
+though late, thou hast 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."
+
+(ll. 261-277)  Thus the women spake 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 spake as follows:
+
+(ll. 278-291)  "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 thou
+thyself, my son, with thine own hands, mightest have buried me;
+for that was the only wish left me still to be fulfilled by time,
+all the other rewards for thy 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 thee, thee 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 nay dreams did I forebode this, that the flight
+of Phrixus would bring me woe."
+
+(ll. 292-294)  Thus with moaning she wept, and her handmaidens,
+standing by, lamented; but Jason spake gently to her with
+comforting words:
+
+(ll. 295-305)  "Do not, I pray thee, mother, store up bitter
+sorrows overmuch, for thou wilt not redeem me from evil by tears,
+but wilt still add grief to grief.  For unseen are the woes that
+the gods mete out to mortals; be strong to endure thy share of
+them though with grief in thy 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 do thou remain here, quiet among thy
+handmaids, and be not a bird of ill omen to the ship; and thither
+my clansmen and thralls will follow me."
+
+(ll. 306-316)  He spake, 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.
+
+(ll. 317-331)  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 upon 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, upon the folded sails and the mast as it
+lay on the ground, they all took their seats in order.  And among
+them with goodwill spake Aeson's son:
+
+(ll. 332-340)  "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 upon him our quarrels and covenants with
+strangers."
+
+(ll. 341-344)  Thus he spake; and the young heroes turned their
+eyes towards bold Heracles sitting in their midst, and with one
+shout they all enjoined upon him to be their leader; but he, from
+the place where he sat, stretched forth his right hand and said:
+
+(ll. 345-347)  "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."
+
+(ll. 348-350)  Thus he spake with high thoughts, and they
+assented, as Heracles bade; and warlike Jason himself rose up,
+glad at heart, and thus addressed the eager throng:
+
+(ll. 351-362)  "If ye 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
+until my thralls come, the overseers of my steading, whose care
+it is to choose out oxen from the herd and drive them hither, we
+will drag down the ship to the sea, and do ye place all the
+tackling within, and draw lots for the benches for rowing.
+Meantime let us build upon 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."
+
+(ll. 363-393)  He spake, and was the first to turn to the work,
+and they stood up in obedience to him; and they heaped their
+garments, one upon 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 upon 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.
+
+(ll. 394-401)  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.
+
+(ll. 402-410)  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:
+
+(ll. 411-424)  "Hear, O King, that dwellest in Pagasae and the
+city Aesonis, the city called by my father's name, thou who didst
+promise me, when I sought thy oracle at Pytho, to show the
+fulfilment and goal of my journey, for thou thyself hast been the
+cause of my venture; now do thou thyself guide the ship with my
+comrades safe and sound, thither and back again to Hellas.  Then
+in thy honour hereafter we will lay again on thy 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 thee for this ship on our embarcation; and
+grant, O King, that with a prosperous weird I may loose the
+hawsers, relying on thy counsel, and may the breeze blow softly
+with which we shall sail over the sea in fair weather."
+
+(ll. 425-439)  He spake, 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 upon
+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 spake outright the
+will of Leto's son:
+
+(ll. 440-447)  "For you it is the will of heaven and destiny that
+ye 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."
+
+(ll. 448-462)  Thus he spake; 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 upon 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:
+
+(ll. 463-471)  "Son of Aeson, what is this plan thou art turning
+over in mind.  Speak out thy thought in the midst.  Does fear
+come on and master thee, 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 thee.  Such a
+helpmeet am I that thou bringest from Arene."
+
+(ll. 472-475)  He spake, 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:
+
+(ll. 480-484)  "Vain wretch, thou art devising destruction for
+thyself before the time.  Does the pure wine cause thy bold heart
+to swell in thy breast to thy ruin, and has it set thee on to
+dishonour the gods?  Other words of comfort there are with which
+a man might encourage his comrade; but thou hast spoken with
+utter recklessness.  Such taunts, the tale goes, did the sons of
+Aloeus once blurt out against the blessed gods, and thou dost no
+wise equal them in valour; nevertheless they were both slain by
+the swift arrows of Leto's son, mighty though they were."
+
+(ll. 485-486)  Thus he spake, and Aphareian Iclas laughed out,
+loud and long, and eyeing him askance replied with biting words:
+
+(ll. 487-491)  "Come now, tell me this by thy prophetic art,
+whether for me too the gods will bring to pass such doom as thy
+father promised for the sons of Aloeus.  And bethink thee how
+thou wilt escape from my hands alive, if thou art caught making a
+prophecy vain as the idle wind."
+
+(ll. 492-495)  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.
+
+(ll. 496-511)  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.
+
+(ll. 512-518)  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 upon the burning tongues,
+and bethought them of sleep in the darkness.
+
+(ll. 519-558)  Now when gleaming dawn with bright eyes beheld 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 upon 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 beheld 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.
+
+(ll. 559-579)  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 upon 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 hath 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.
+
+(ll. 580-591)  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.
+
+(ll. 592-608)  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 beheld Eurymenae and the seawashed
+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.
+
+(ll. 609-639)  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
+upon them, because for a long time they had grudged her the
+honours due.  O 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.
+
+(ll. 640-652)  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.
+
+(ll. 653-656)  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 spake among them with stirring words:
+
+(ll. 657-666)  "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
+hither."
+
+(ll. 667-674)  Thus she spake and sat upon her father's seat of
+stone, and then rose up her dear nurse Polyxo, for very age
+halting upon 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 spake thus:
+
+(ll. 675-696)  "Gifts, as Hypsipyle herself wishes, let us send
+to the strangers, for it is better to give them.  But for you
+what device have ye to get profit of your life if the Thracian
+host fall upon 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
+ye younger ones, without children, reach hateful old age.  How
+then will ye 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 at your feet a way of escape lies open, if ye trust to the
+strangers the care of your homes and all your stock and your
+glorious city."
+
+(ll. 697-699) Thus she spake, and the assembly was filled with
+clamour.  For the word pleased them.  And after her straightway
+Hypsipyle rose up again, and thus spake in reply.
+
+(ll. 700-701)  "If this purpose please you all, now will I even
+send a messenger to the ship."
+
+(ll. 702-707)  She spake and addressed Iphinoe close at hand:
+"Go, Iphinoe, and beg yonder man, 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."
+
+(ll. 708-711)  She spake, 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:
+
+(ll. 712-716) "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 ye wish it, straightway enter
+the land and the city with friendly intent."
+
+(ll. 717-720)  Thus she spake 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.
+
+(ll. 721-729)  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 wouldst thou cast thy eyes upon 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.
+
+(ll. 730-734)  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.
+
+(ll. 735-741)  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.
+
+(ll. 742-746)  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.
+
+(ll. 747-751)  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.
+
+(ll. 752-758)  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.
+
+(ll. 759-762)  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.
+
+(ll. 763-767)  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 thou wouldst be silent and wouldst
+cheat thy soul with the hope of hearing some wise speech from
+them, and long wouldst thou gaze with that hope.
+
+(ll. 768-773)  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.
+
+(ll. 774-792)  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
+upon 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:
+
+(ll. 793-833)  "Stranger, why stay ye 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 ye
+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 hither measureless booty and
+maidens too.  But the counsel of the baneful goddess Cypris was
+working out its accomplishment, who brought upon 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;
+until 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
+ye therefore stay and settle with us; and shouldst thou desire to
+dwell here, and this finds favour with thee, assuredly thou shalt
+have the prerogative of my father Thoas; and I deem that thou
+wilt not scorn our land at all; for it is deepsoiled beyond all
+other islands that lie in the Aegaean sea.  But come now, return
+to the ship and relate my words to thy comrades, and stay not
+outside our city."
+
+(ll. 834-835)  She spoke, glozing over the murder that had been
+wrought upon the men; and Jason addressed her in answer:
+
+(ll. 836-841)  "Hypsipyle, very dear to our hearts is the help we
+shall meet with, which thou grantest to us who need thee.  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."
+
+(ll. 842-852)  He spake, 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.
+
+(ll. 853-864)  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:
+
+(ll. 865-874)  "Wretched men, does the murder of kindred keep us
+from our native land?  Or is it in want of marriage that we have
+come hither 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 ye to rest all day long in the embrace of Hypsipyle
+until he has peopled Lemnos with men-children, and so there come
+to him great glory."
+
+(ll. 875-887)  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:
+
+(ll. 888-898)  "Go, and may heaven bring thee back again with thy
+comrades unharmed, bearing to the king the golden fleece, even as
+thou wilt and thy heart desireth; and this island and my father's
+sceptre will be awaiting thee, if on thy return hereafter thou
+shouldst choose to come hither again; and easily couldst thou
+gather a countless host of men from other cities. But thou wilt
+not have this desire, nor do I myself forbode that so it will be. 
+Still remember Hypsipyle when thou art far away and when thou
+hast returned; and leave me some word of bidding, which I will
+gladly accomplish, if haply heaven shall grant me to be a
+mother."
+
+(ll. 899-909)  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 thou 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 thou shouldst 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."
+
+(ll. 910-921) He spake, 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.
+
+(ll. 922-935)  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.
+
+(ll. 936-960)  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.  Thither 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.
+
+(ll. 961-988)  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.
+
+(ll. 989-1011)  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
+until they slew them all as they rushed fiercely to battle.  And
+as when woodcutters cast in rows upon 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.
+
+(ll. 1012-1076)  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 upon 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
+upon 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, upon
+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 upon
+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)
+
+(ll. 1079-1091)  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 upon 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 spake:
+
+(ll. 1092-1102)  "Son of Aeson, thou 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 thee in thy 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."
+
+(ll. 1103-1152)  Thus he spake, 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 upon 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.
+
+(ll. 1153-1171)  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.
+
+(ll. 1172-1186)  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.
+
+(ll. 1187-1206)  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.
+
+(ll. 1207-1239)  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 upon 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.
+
+(ll. 1240-1256)  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 until 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.
+
+(ll. 1257-1260)  "My poor friend, I shall be the first to bring
+thee 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."
+
+(ll. 1261-1272)  Thus he spake; 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 whither 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.
+
+(ll. 1273-1289)  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 upon 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 spake:
+
+(ll. 1290-1295)  "Sit there at thy ease, for it was fitting for
+thee to leave Heracles behind; from thee the project arose, so
+that his glory throughout Hellas should not overshadow thee, 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 thy
+comrades, who have helped thee to plan this treachery."
+
+(ll. 1296-1314)  He spake, and rushed upon 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 upon 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:
+
+(ll. 1315-1325)  "Why against the counsel of mighty Zeus do ye
+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."
+
+(ll. 1326-1331)  He spake, 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:
+
+(ll. 1332-1335)  "Son of Aeson, be not wroth with me, if in my
+folly I have erred, for grief wrought upon 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."
+
+(ll. 1336-1343)  Him the son of Aeson with prudence addressed:
+"Good friend, assuredly with an evil word didst thou 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 thou wast angered to fury, but for a man, thy
+comrade.  And I were fain thou wouldst even champion me against
+another man if a like thing should ever befall me."
+
+(ll. 1344-1357)  He spake, 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.
+
+(ll. 1358-1362)  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.
+
+
+
+BOOK II 
+
+(ll. 1-10)  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 spake out among them all:
+
+(ll. 11-18)  "Listen, ye 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 ye pay no heed and trample my decrees under foot,
+assuredly to your sorrow will stern necessity come upon you.
+
+(ll. 19-21)  Thus he spake 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:
+
+(ll. 22-24)  "Hold now, and display not to us thy brutal
+violence, whoever thou art; for we will obey thy rules, as thou
+sayest.  Willingly now do I myself undertake to meet thee."
+
+(ll. 25-54)  Thus he spake 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 upon 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
+upon 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:
+
+(ll. 55-59)  "Whichever of these thou wilt, without casting lots,
+I grant thee freely, that thou mayst not blame me hereafter. 
+Bind them about thy hands; thou shalt learn and tell another how
+skilled I am to carve the dry oxhides and to spatter men's cheeks
+with blood."
+
+(ll. 60-66)  Thus he spake; 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.
+
+(ll. 67-97)  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 upon 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
+until 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 upon 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 upon his
+knees; and the Minyan heroes shouted for joy; and his life was
+poured forth all at once.
+
+(ll. 98-144)  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 upon the
+head a man as he rushed at him: and it was cleft in twain and
+fell on each side upon 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 upon 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 spake among
+his fellows thus:
+
+(ll. 145-153)  "Bethink ye what they would have done in their
+cowardice if haply some god had brought Heracles hither.
+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."
+
+(ll. 154-163)  Thus he spake, 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 upon 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)
+
+(ll. 164-177)  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 upon 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.
+
+(ll. 178-208)  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 upon 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:
+
+(ll. 209-239)  "Listen, bravest of all the Hellenes, if it be
+truly ye, whom by a king's ruthless command Jason is leading on
+the ship Argo in quest of the fleece.  It is ye truly.  Even yet
+my soul by its divination knows everything.  Thanks I render to
+thee, O 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 ye have come hither, help me, save an
+ill-fated man from misery, and depart not uncaring and leaving me
+thus as ye 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."
+
+(ll. 240-243)  So spake 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 spake as follows,
+taking in his own the hand of the grief-worn sire:
+
+(ll. 244-253)  "Unhappy one, none other of men is more wretched
+than thou, methinks.  Why upon thee is laid the burden of so many
+sorrows?  Hast thou with baneful folly sinned against the gods
+through thy skill in prophecy?  For this are they greatly wroth
+with thee?  Yet our spirit is dismayed within us for all our
+desire to aid thee, if indeed the god has granted this privilege
+to us two.  For plain to discern to men of earth are the reproofs
+of the immortals.  And we will never check the Harpies when they
+come, for all our desire, until thou hast sworn that for this we
+shall not lose the favour of heaven."
+
+(ll. 254-255)  Thus he spake; and towards him the aged sire
+opened his sightless eyes, and lifted them up and replied with
+these words:
+
+(ll. 256-261)  "Be silent, store not up such thoughts in thy
+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 upon
+my eyes, and the gods of the underworld--and may their curse be
+upon me if I die perjured thus--no wrath from heaven will fall
+upon you two for your help to me."
+
+(ll. 262-287)  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 beheld 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, upon the mountain-
+side, hounds, cunning in the chase, run in the track of horned
+goats or deer, and as they strain a little behind gnash their
+teeth upon 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:
+
+(ll. 288-290)  "It is not lawful, O 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."
+
+(ll. 291-300)  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.
+
+(ll. 301-310)  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:
+
+(ll. 311-315)  "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.
+
+(ll. 316-340)  "First of all, after leaving me, ye 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 upon the hard beach.  Wherefore now
+obey my counsel, if indeed with prudent mind and reverencing the
+blessed gods ye 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 ye 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 ye 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 ere then implore the gods
+as ye will, I forbid you not.  But if she flies onward and
+perishes midway, then do ye turn back; for it is better to yield
+to the immortals.  For ye could not escape an evil doom from the
+rocks, not even if Argo were of iron.
+
+(ll. 341-359)  "O hapless ones, dare not to transgress my divine
+warning, even though ye 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 ye 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, until ye round the swift river Rhebas and
+the black beach, and reach the harbour of the Isle of Thynias.
+Thence ye 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 ye 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.
+
+(ll. 360-406)  "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 ye 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 ye must beach your
+ship upon a smooth island, when ye 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 ye 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 ye 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 upon the top of an
+oak; neither by day nor by night does sweet sleep subdue his
+restless eyes."
+
+(ll. 408-410)  Thus he spake, 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, spake, sore dismayed at
+their evil plight:
+
+(ll. 411-418)  "O aged sire, now hast thou come to the end of the
+toils of our sea-journeying and hast 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
+thee.  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."
+
+(ll. 419-425)  Thus he spake, and him the aged sire addressed in
+reply: "O son, when once thou hast 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."
+
+(ll. 426-437)  Thus spake Agenor's son, and close at hand the
+twin sons of Thracian Boreas came darting from the sky and set
+their swift feet upon the threshold; and the heroes rose up from
+their seats when they saw them present.  And Zetes, still drawing
+hard breath after his toil, spake 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:
+
+(ll. 438-442)  Assuredly there was then, Phineus, some god who
+cared for thy bitter woe, and brought us hither from afar, that
+the sons of Boreas might aid thee; and if too he should bring
+sight to thine eyes, verily I should rejoice, methinks, as much
+as if I were on my homeward way."
+
+(ll. 443-447)  Thus he spake, 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."
+
+(ll. 448-467)  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 thither 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 ere 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 spake gently amid the throng of oarsmen:
+
+(ll. 468-489)  "O my friends, not all men are arrogant, it seems,
+nor unmindful of benefits.  Even as this man, loyal as he is,
+came hither 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."
+
+(ll. 490-499)  Thus spake 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 upon Apollo, lord of
+prophecy, and offered sacrifice upon 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.
+
+(ll. 500-527)  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 upon 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.
+
+(ll. 528-536)  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.
+
+(ll. 537-548)  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
+roveth 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.
+
+(ll. 549-567)  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.
+
+(ll. 568-592)  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, until the tide returning drove them back
+within the rocks.  Then most awful fear seized upon 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 upon
+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.
+
+(ll. 593-610) Then a vaulted billow rushed upon 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:
+
+(ll. 611-618) "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 thou so much the hest of thy king, since a
+god hath granted us escape between the rocks; for Phineus,
+Agenor's son, said that our toils hereafter would be lightly
+accomplished."
+
+(ll. 619-637)  He spake, 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 dost thou
+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 ye first gathered together for my sake, while
+I take thought for all things; but thou talkest 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
+thee, and for my other comrades, if I shall not bring you back
+safe to the land of Hellas."
+
+(ll. 638-640)  Thus he spake, 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 spake outright among them:
+
+(ll. 641-647)  "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 upon
+me, since ye 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."
+
+(ll. 648-668)  Thus he spake, 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.
+
+(ll. 669-685)  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 spake as follows, addressing the
+chiefs:
+
+(ll. 686-693)  "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, O king, be
+gracious in thy appearing."
+
+(ll. 694-713)  Thus he spake, 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.  Mayst thou be gracious!  Ever, O king, be
+thy 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.
+
+(ll. 714-719)  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.
+
+(ll. 720-751)  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.
+
+(ll. 752-773)  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 spake as follows among them all:
+
+(ll. 774-810)  "O friends, what a man he was from whose help ye
+have fallen away, as ye 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 hither 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 until 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 ye 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."
+
+(ll. 811-814)  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.
+
+(ll. 815-834)  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 upon 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.
+
+(ll. 835-850)  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.
+
+(ll. 851-868)  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:
+
+(ll. 869-877)  "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,
+whomsoever we set at the helm.  But quickly tell forth all this
+and boldly urge them to call to mind their task."
+
+(ll. 878-884)  Thus he spake; and Peleus' soul was stirred with
+gladness, and straightway he spake 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."
+
+(ll. 885-893)  And him in reply Aeson's son addressed with
+helpless words: "Son of Aeacus, where are these steersmen of
+thine?  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."
+
+(ll. 894-898)  Thus he spake, 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.
+
+(ll. 899-910)  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)
+
+(ll. 911-929)  Next they beheld 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 upon 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 upon 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.
+
+(ll. 930-945)  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.
+
+(ll. 946-965)  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.
+
+(ll. 966-1001)  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.
+
+(ll. 1002-1008)  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.
+
+(ll. 1009-1014)  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.
+
+(ll. 1015-1029)  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.
+
+(ll. 1030-1046)  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 spake Amphidamas, son of Aleus:
+
+(ll. 1047-1067)  "The island of Ares is near us; you know it
+yourselves now that ye 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 ye 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
+upon 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."
+
+(ll. 1068-1089)  Thus he spake, 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 upon their shields, then the birds in
+countless numbers rose in flight hither and thither.  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
+upon 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.
+
+(ll. 1090-1092)  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?
+
+(ll. 1093-1122)  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 upon 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 upon the
+mountains, breathing gently upon the topmost sprays; but at night
+he rushed upon 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 upon 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, upon
+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:
+
+(ll. 1123-1133)  "We beseech you, by Zeus the Beholder, whoever
+ye 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 ye 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, methinks, beholdeth even us."
+
+(ll. 1134-1139)  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 ye dwell
+and what business bids you sail across the sea, and tell me your
+own glorious names and lineage."
+
+(ll. 1140-1156)  And him Argus, helpless in his evil plight,
+addressed: "That one Phrixus an Aeolid reached Aea from Hellas
+you yourselves have clearly heard ere this, I trow; Phrixus, who
+came to the city of Aeetes, bestriding a ram, which Hermes had
+made all gold; and the fleece ye 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 thou dost desire to learn our names, this is
+Cytissorus, this Phrontis, and this Melas, and me ye may. call
+Argus."
+
+(ll. 1157-1159)  Thus he spake, and the chieftains rejoiced at
+the meeting, and tended them, much marvelling.  And Jason again
+in turn replied, as was fitting, with these words:
+
+(ll. 1160-1178)  "Surely ye are our kinsmen on my father's side,
+and ye 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 ye first put clothing upon you.  By
+heaven's devising, I ween, have ye come to my hands in your sore
+need."
+
+(ll. 1168-1178)  He spake, 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 spake among them and
+thus began:
+
+(ll. 1179-1195)  "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 hath he saved you
+harmless from the baleful storm.  And on board this ship ye may
+sail hither and thither, where ye 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 hath
+shattered, before ye 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."
+
+(ll. 1196-1199)  He spake 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 spake as follows, vexed that they should busy
+themselves with such a quest:
+
+(ll. 1200-1215)  "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."
+
+(ll. 1216-1218) Thus he spake, and straightway many a cheek grew
+pale when they heard of so mighty an adventure.  But quickly
+Peleus answered with cheering words, and thus spake:
+
+(ll. 1219-1225)  "Be not 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 thither, 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."
+
+(ll. 1226-1230)  Thus they addressed each other in turn, until
+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.
+
+(ll. 1231-1241)  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.
+
+(ll. 1242-1261)  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 upon
+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 until 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.
+
+(ll. 1262-1276)  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 spake these words:
+
+(ll. 1277-1280)  "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."
+
+(ll. 1281-1285)  Thus he spake, 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.
+
+
+
+BOOK III 
+
+(ll. 1-5)  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 thou sharest the power of Cypris, and by thy
+love-cares dost charm unwedded maidens; wherefore to thee too is
+attached a name that tells of love.
+
+(ll. 6-10)  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:
+
+(ll. 11-16)  "Do thou now first, daughter of Zeus, give advice.
+What must be done?  Wilt thou 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."
+
+(ll. 17-21)  Thus she spake, and at once Athena addressed her: "I
+too was pondering such thoughts in my heart, Hera, when thou
+didst 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."
+
+(ll. 22-29)  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."
+
+(ll. 30-31)  Thus she spake, and the prudent plan pleased Athena,
+and she addressed her in reply with gentle words:
+
+(ll. 32-35)  "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 thee, surely I will follow; but thou must speak
+when we meet her."
+
+(ll. 36-51)  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:
+
+(ll. 52-54)  "Good friends, what intent, what occasion brings you
+here after so long?  Why have ye come, not too frequent visitors
+before, chief among goddesses that ye are?"
+
+(ll. 55-75)  And to her Hera replied: "Thou dost 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 thou wilt grant Jason his return."
+
+(ll. 76-82)  Thus she spake, 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 thy eager desire
+in word or deed, whatever my weak arms can effect; and let there
+be no favour in return."
+
+(ll. 83-89)  She spake, 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 thy 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."
+
+(ll. 90-99)  Thus she spake, 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."
+
+(ll. 100-105)  So she spake, 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."
+
+(ll. 106-110)  Thus she spake, and Hera took her slender hand and
+gently smiling, replied: "Perform this task, Cytherea,
+straightway, as thou sayest; and be not angry or contend with thy
+boy; he will cease hereafter to vex thee."
+
+(ll. 111-128)  She spake, 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:
+
+(ll. 129-144)  "Why dost thou smile in triumph, unutterable
+rogue?  Hast thou cheated him thus, and unjustly overcome the
+innocent child?  Come, be ready to perform for me the task I will
+tell thee of, and I will give thee 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 wilt thou 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 thou shouldst cast it with
+thy hands, lo, like a star, it sends a flaming track through the
+sky.  This I will give thee; and do thou strike with thy 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."
+
+(ll. 145-150)  Thus she spake, 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:
+
+(ll. 151-153)  "Be witness now thy dear head and mine, that
+surely I will give thee the gift and deceive thee not, if thou
+wilt strike with thy shaft Aeetes' daughter."
+
+(ll. 154-166)  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.
+
+(ll. 167-193)  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 upon 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 ye 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."
+
+(ll. 194-209)  Thus he spake, 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.
+
+(ll. 210-259)  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:
+
+(ll. 260-267)  "After all then, ye 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 ye go to the city of Orchomenus, whoever this
+Orchomenus is, for the sake of Athamas' wealth, leaving your
+mother alone to bear her grief?"
+
+(ll. 268-274)  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.
+
+(ll. 275-298)  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.
+
+(ll. 299-303)  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:
+
+(ll. 304-316)  "Sons of my daughter and of Phrixus, whom beyond
+all strangers I honoured in my halls, how have ye come returning
+back to Aea?  Did some calamity cut short your escape in the
+midst?  Ye 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 ye tell me plainly what
+has been your fortune, and who these men are, your companions,
+and where from your hollow ship ye came ashore."
+
+(ll. 317-319)  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:
+
+(ll. 320-366)  "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 thy city are they faring.  And if
+thou dost 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 hither 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, until 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 speedeth before the wind and when the crew
+ply the oar with unresting hands.  And he hath gathered in her
+the mightiest heroes of all Achaea, and hath come to thy city
+from wandering far through cities and gulfs of the dread ocean,
+in the hope that thou wilt grant him the fleece.  But as thou
+dost please, so shall it be, for he cometh not to use force, but
+is eager to pay thee a recompense for the gift.  He has heard
+from me of thy bitter foes the Sauromatae, and he will subdue
+them to thy sway.  And if thou desirest to know their names and
+lineage I will tell thee 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 thou hast heard
+at all of the seed of Helios, thou dost behold 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."
+
+(ll. 367-371)  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 spake 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:
+
+(ll. 372-381)  "Begone from my sight, felons, straightway, ye and
+your tricks, from the land, ere 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 ye come hither.  Had ye 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 ye might be
+stayed from starting hereafter.  And what lies have ye uttered
+against the blessed gods!"
+
+(ll. 382-385)  Thus he spake 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:
+
+(ll. 386-395)  "Aeetes, bear with this armed band, I pray.  For
+not in the way thou deemest have we come to thy 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 thy suppliants, and to all Hellas will I
+publish a glorious fame of thee; yea, we are ready now to pay
+thee a swift recompense in war, whether it be the Sauromatae or
+some other people that thou art eager to subdue to thy sway."
+
+(ll. 396-400)  He spake, 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:
+
+(ll. 401-421)  "Stranger, why needest thou go through thy tale to
+the end?  For if ye are in truth of heavenly race, or have come
+in no wise inferior to me, to win the goods of strangers, I will
+give thee the fleece to bear away, if thou dost wish, when I have
+tried thee.  For against brave men I bear no grudge, such as ye
+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 thou, if thou wilt
+accomplish such deeds as these, on that very day shalt carry off
+the fleece to the king's palace; ere 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."
+
+(ll. 422-426)  Thus he spake; 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:
+
+(ll. 427-431)  "With thy plea of right, Aeetes, thou dost 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 upon
+men more dread than dire necessity, which indeed constrained me
+to come hither at a king's command."
+
+(ll. 432-438)  Thus he spake, 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 thou art eager for the
+toil; but if thou shouldst fear to lift the yoke upon 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."
+
+(ll. 439-463)  He spake 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 spake, 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:
+
+(ll. 464-470)  Why does this grief come upon 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."
+
+(ll. 471-474)  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:
+
+(ll. 475-483)  "Son of Aeson, thou wilt despise the counsel which
+I will tell thee, but, though in evil plight, it is not fitting
+to forbear from the trial.  Ere now thou hast 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,
+methinks, of thy defeat in the contest; but terribly do I fear
+that my mother will not take this task upon her.  Nevertheless I
+will go back again to entreat her, for a common destruction
+overhangs us all."
+
+(ll. 383-491)  He spake with goodwill, and Jason answered with
+these words: "Good friend, if this is good in thy sight, I say
+not nay.  Go and move thy 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 spake, 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:
+
+(ll. 492-501)  "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."
+
+(ll. 502-514)  Thus he spake; 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 spake 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 thou then, hero son of Aeson, art minded to
+yoke Aeetes' oxen, and art eager for the toil, surely thou wilt
+keep thy promise and make thyself ready.  But if thy soul trusts
+not her prowess utterly, then neither bestir thyself 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."
+
+(ll. 515-522)  So spake 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 spake these words to those that longed for
+the contest:
+
+(ll. 523-539)  "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 ye 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 hither 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."
+
+(ll. 540-544)  Thus he spake, 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 spake among them all:
+
+(ll. 545-554)  "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."
+
+(ll. 555-563)  He spake, 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 ye 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."
+
+(ll. 564-571)  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."
+
+(ll. 572-575)  So he spake, 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.
+
+(ll. 576-608)  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 upon 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.
+
+(ll. 609-615)  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.
+
+(ll. 616-635)  Now a deep slumber had relieved the maiden from
+her love-pains as she lay upon 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 upon 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 upon
+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:
+
+(ll. 636-644)  "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."
+
+(ll. 645-673)  She spake, 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:
+
+(ll. 674-680)  "Ah me, Medea, why dost thou weep so?  What hath
+befallen thee?  What terrible grief has entered thy heart?  Has
+some heaven-sent disease enwrapt thy frame, or hast thou 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!"
+
+(ll. 681-687)  Thus she spake, 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:
+
+(ll. 688-692)  "Chalciope, my heart is all trembling for thy
+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
+never mayst thou win for thyself bitter care on thy sons'
+account."
+
+(ll. 693-704)  She spake, 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
+thee in eager furtherance of this purpose, if thou wouldst haply
+devise with me and prepare some help.  But swear by Earth and
+Heaven that thou wilt keep secret in thy heart what I shall tell
+thee, and be fellow-worker with me.  I implore thee by the
+blessed gods, by thyself and by thy 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 thee."
+
+(ll. 705-710)  Thus she spake, 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:
+
+(ll. 711-717)  "God help thee, what healing can I bring thee for
+what thou speakest of, horrible curses and Furies?  Would that it
+were firmly in my power to save thy sons!  Be witness that mighty
+oath of the Colchians by which thou urgest me to swear, the great
+Heaven, and Earth beneath, mother of the gods, that as far as
+strength lies in me, never shalt thou fail of help, if only thy
+prayers can be accomplished."
+
+(ll. 718-723)  She spake, and Chalciope thus replied: "Couldst
+thou not then, for the stranger--who himself craves thy 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 thy help; I left him in the palace meantime while I
+came hither."
+
+(ll. 724-739)  Thus she spake, 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 spake as follows: "Chalciope, as
+is dear and delightful to thee and thy sons, even so will I do.
+Never may the dawn appear again to my eyes, never mayst thou see
+me living any longer, if I should take thought for anything
+before thy life or thy sons' lives, for they are my brothers, my
+dear kinsmen and youthful companions.  So do I declare myself to
+be thy sister, and thy daughter too, for thou didst lift me to
+thy 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 upon
+the bulls."
+
+(ll. 740-743)  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.
+
+(ll. 744-771)  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 upon 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 upon the walls of a house when flung up from water, which
+is just poured forth in a caldron or a pail may be; and hither
+and thither 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:
+
+(ll. 772-801)  "Poor wretch, must I toss hither and thither in
+woe?  On every side my heart is in despair; nor is there any help
+for my pain; but it burneth ever 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 hither 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 hither and thither, 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."
+
+(ll. 802-824)  She spake, and brought a casket wherein lay many
+drugs, some for healing, others for killing, and placing it upon
+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 upon 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.
+
+(ll. 825-827)  Then Argus bade his brothers remain there to learn
+the maiden's mind and plans, but himself turned back and went to
+the ship.
+
+(ll. 828-890)  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 first-
+born 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 upon 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 spake as follows among her maidens:
+
+(ll. 891-911)  "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 hither.
+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 ye reach home
+this very day, if ye will gladden me with this desire of mine.
+For Argus pleads with me, also Chalciope herself; but this that
+ye 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 ye stand aloof."
+
+(ll. 912-918)  So she spake, 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.
+
+(ll. 919-926)  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 upon and to
+hold converse with.  Even his comrades wondered as they gazed
+upon him, radiant with manifold graces; and the son of Ampycus
+rejoiced in their journey, already foreboding how all would end.
+
+(ll. 927-931)  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:
+
+(ll. 932-937)  "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 thee neither Cypris nor
+the gentle Loves breathe in their kindness."
+
+(ll. 938-946)  She spake chiding, and Mopsus smiled to hear the
+god-sent voice of the bird, and thus addressed them: "Do thou,
+son of Aeson, pass on to the temple, where thou wilt find the
+maiden; and very kind will her greeting be to thee through the
+prompting of Cypris, who will be thy helpmate in the contest,
+even as Phineus, Agenor's son, foretold.  But we two, Argus and
+I, will await thy return, apart in this very spot; do thou all
+alone be a suppliant and win her over with prudent words."
+
+(ll. 947-974)  He spake 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 upon 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:
+
+(ll. 975-1007)  "Why, pray, maiden, dost thou 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, be not too much abashed before me,
+either to enquire whatever thou wilt or to speak thy 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 thou
+didst promise thy sister to give me the charms my heart desires.
+I implore thee by Hecate herself, by thy parents, and by Zeus who
+holds his guardian hand over strangers and suppliants; I come
+here to thee both a suppliant and a stranger, bending the knee in
+my sore need.  For without thee and thy sister never shall I
+prevail in the grievous contest.  And to thee will I render
+thanks hereafter for thy aid, as is right and fitting for men who
+dwell far oft, making glorious thy name and fame; and the rest of
+the heroes, returning to Hellas, will spread thy 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
+thou mightest 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 thee too shall be
+thanks from the gods, if thou wilt save so mighty an array of
+chieftains.  For surely from thy lovely form thou art like to
+excel in gentle courtest."
+
+(ll. 1008-1025)  Thus he spake, 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 upon 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:
+
+(ll. 1026-1062)  "Take heed now, that I may devise help for thee.
+When at thy coming my father has given thee 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 thou
+hast heedfully sought the grace of the goddess, retreat from the
+pyre; and let neither the sound of feet drive thee to turn back,
+nor the baying of hounds, lest haply thou shouldst maim all the
+rites and thyself fail to return duly to thy comrades.  And at
+dawn steep this charm in water, strip, and anoint thy body
+therewith as with oil; and in it there will be boundless prowess
+and mighty strength, and thou wilt deem thyself a match not for
+men but for the immortal gods.  And besides, let thy spear and
+shield and sword be sprinkled.  Thereupon the spear-heads of the
+earthborn men shall not pierce thee, nor the flame of the deadly
+bulls as it rushes forth resistless.  But such thou shalt be not
+for long, but for that one day; still never flinch from the
+contest.  And I will tell thee besides of yet another help.  As
+soon as thou hast yoked the strong oxen, and with thy might and
+thy prowess hast 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 thou markest 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 thou thyself hasten to rush to the battle-
+strife, and the fleece thereupon thou shalt bear far away from
+Aea; nevertheless, depart wherever thou wilt, or thy pleasure
+takes thee, when thou hast gone hence."
+
+(ll. 1063-1068)  Thus she spake, 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:
+
+(ll. 1069-1076)  "Remember, if haply thou returnest to thy home,
+Medea's name; and so will I remember thine, though thou be far
+away.  And of thy kindness tell me this, where is thy home,
+whither wilt thou sail hence in thy ship over the sea; wilt thou
+come near wealthy Orchomenus, or near the Aeaean isle?  And tell
+me of the maiden, whosoever she be that thou hast named, the
+far-renowned daughter of Pasiphae, who is kinswoman to my
+father."
+
+(ll. 1077-1078)  Thus she spake; and over him too, at the tears
+of the maiden, stole Love the destroyer, and he thus answered
+her:
+
+(ll. 1079-1101)  "All too surely do I deem that never by night
+and never by day will I forget thee 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
+thee 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 thee 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 thou askest me?  Would that, as
+Minos then was well inclined to Theseus for her sake, so may thy
+father be joined to us in friendship!"
+
+(ll. 1102-1104)  Thus he spake, soothing her with gentle
+converse.  But pangs most bitter stirred her heart and in grief
+did she address him with vehement words:
+
+(ll. 1105-1117)  "In Hellas, I ween, this is fair to pay heed to
+covenants; but Aeetes is not such a man among men as thou sayest
+was Pasiphae's husband, Minos; nor can I liken myself to Ariadne;
+wherefore speak not of guest-love.  But only do thou, when thou
+hast reached Iolcus, remember me, and thee even in my parents'
+despite, will I remember.  And from far off may a rumour come to
+me or some messenger-bird, when thou forgettest 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 thy face and remind thee
+that it was by my good will thou didst escape.  May I then be
+seated in thy halls, an unexpected guest!"
+
+(ll. 1118-1130)  Thus she spake 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 thy
+talk.  But if thou comest to those abodes and to the land of
+Hellas, honoured and reverenced shalt thou be by women and men;
+and they shall worship thee even as a goddess, for that by thy
+counsel their sons came home again, their brothers and kinsmen
+and stalwart husbands were saved from calamity.  And in our
+bridal chamber shalt thou prepare our couch; and nothing shall
+come between our love till the doom of death fold us round."
+
+(ll. 1131-1136)  Thus he spake; 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.
+
+(ll. 1137-1145)  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
+spake 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."
+
+(ll. 1146-1162)  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 upon 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.
+
+(ll. 1163-1190)  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 upon 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 upon the oxen.
+
+(ll. 1191-1224)  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 upon 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.
+
+(ll. 1225-1245)  Then Aeetes arrayed his breast in the stiff
+corslet which Ares gave him when he had slain Phlegraean Mimas
+with his own hands; and upon 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.
+
+(ll. 1246-1277)  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 hither and thither did he leap high in air
+tossing in his hands his shield of bronze and ashen spear.  Thou
+wouldst 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.
+
+(ll. 1278-1325)  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 upon 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.
+
+(ll. 1326-1339)  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.
+
+(ll. 1340-1407)  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 stalwart 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 upon sharp crags; and
+speechless amazement seized Aeetes at the rush of the sturdy
+quoit.  And the Earthborn, like fleet-footed hounds, leaped upon
+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 upon 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 upon 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."
+
+
+
+BOOK IV
+
+(ll. 1-5)  Now do thou thyself, 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.
+
+(ll. 6-10)  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.
+
+(ll. 11-29)  But into Medea's heart Hera cast most grievous fear;
+and she trembled like a nimble fawn whom the baying of hounds
+hath 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:
+
+(ll. 30-33)  "I go, leaving this long tress here in my stead, O
+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 thee to pieces, ere thou camest to the
+Colchian land!"
+
+(ll. 34-56)  Thus she spake, 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, beheld her as she fled distraught, and fiercely
+exulted over her, and thus spake to her own heart:
+
+(ll. 57-65)  "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 thy crafty spells, in order
+that in the darkness of night thou mightest work thy sorcery at
+ease, even the deeds dear to thee.  And now thou thyself too hast
+part in a like mad passion; and some god of affection has given
+thee Jason to be thy grievous woe.  Well, go on, and steel thy
+heart, wise though thou be, to take up thy burden of pain,
+fraught with many sighs."
+
+(ll. 66-82)  Thus spake the goddess; but swiftly the maiden's
+feet bore her, hasting on.  And gladly did she gain the high-bank
+of the river and beheld 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 upon 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:
+
+(ll. 83-91)  "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 upon 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 thou, stranger,
+amid thy comrades make the gods witness of the vows thou hast
+taken on thyself 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."
+
+(ll. 92-98)  She spake 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 spake 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 thee in
+my halls my own wedded wife, when we have reached the land of
+Hellas on our return."
+
+(ll. 99-108)  Thus he spake, 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.
+
+(ll. 109-122)  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.
+
+(ll. 123-161)  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.
+
+(ll. 183-189)  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 spake to them all as follows:
+
+(ll. 190-205)  "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 ye
+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."
+
+(ll. 206-211)  Thus he spake, 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.
+
+(ll. 212-235)  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.
+
+(ll. 236-240)  Thus spake 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; thou wouldst 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.
+
+(ll. 241-252)  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.
+
+(ll. 253-256)  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 spake, and they eagerly hearkened:
+
+(ll. 257-293)  "We go to Orchomenus, whither that unerring seer,
+whom ye 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 hath
+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
+ye 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."
+
+(ll. 204-302)  Thus he spake, 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.
+
+(ll. 303-337)  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.
+
+(ll. 338-349)  There the Minyae would at that time have yielded
+in grim fight, a few to many; but ere 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, until
+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.
+
+(ll. 350-354)  Now when the maiden had mused upon all this, sharp
+anguish shook her heart unceasingly; and quickly she called forth
+Jason alone apart from his comrades, and led him aside until they
+were far away, and before his face uttered her speech all broken
+with sobs:
+
+(ll. 355-390)  "What is this purpose that ye are now devising
+about me, O son of Aeson?  Has thy triumph utterly cast
+forgetfulness upon thee, and reekest thou nothing of all that
+thou spakest when held fast by necessity?  Whither are fled the
+oaths by Zeus the suppliants' god, whither are fled thy 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 thy
+trouble, in order that I might save thy 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 thou
+didst win it; and a foul reproach have I poured on womankind.
+Wherefore I say that as thy child, thy bride and thy sister, I
+follow thee to the land of Hellas.  Be ready to stand by me to
+the end, abandon me not left forlorn of thee when thou dost visit
+the kings.  But only save me; let justice and right, to which we
+have both agreed, stand firm; or else do thou 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 wilt thou win the return
+that thy heart desires?  Never may Zeus' bride, the queen of all,
+in whom thou dost glory, bring that to pass.  Mayst thou some
+time remember me when thou art 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 thee
+from thy country, for all that I have suffered through thy
+cruelty!  These curses will not be allowed to fall unaccomplished
+to the ground.  A mighty oath hast thou transgressed, ruthless
+one; but not long shalt thou and thy comrades sit at ease casting
+eyes of mockery upon me, for all your covenants."
+
+(ll. 391-394)  Thus she spake, 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:
+
+(ll. 395-409)  "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 thy account.  For all that
+inhabit this land are eager to aid Apsyrtus, that they may lead
+thee back home to thy 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 thee 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 thy sake oppose us, to favour the Colchians, when their
+prince is no longer with them, who is thy champion and thy
+brother; nor will I shrink from matching myself in fight with the
+Colchians, if they bar my way homeward."
+
+(ll. 410-420)  Thus he spake 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 thou in the turmoil shield me
+from the Colchians' spears; and I will beguile Apsyrtus to come
+into thy hands--do thou 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
+thee, slay him and raise a conflict with the Colchians, I care
+not.
+
+(ll. 421-422)  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 couldst thou satisfy thy 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 upon 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.
+
+(ll. 445-451)  Ruthless Love, great bane, great curse to mankind,
+from thee come deadly strifes and lamentations and groans, and
+countless pains as well have their stormy birth from thee. 
+Arise, thou god, and arm thyself against the sons of our foes in
+such guise as when thou didst 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.
+
+(ll. 452-481)  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 beheld 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.
+
+(ll. 481-494)  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 upon 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 upon them
+as they pondered, but Peleus spake his word first:
+
+(ll. 495-502)  "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."
+
+(ll. 503-506)  Thus he spake; and the youths assented to the
+words of Aeacus' son.  And quickly they entered the ship, and
+toiled at their oars unceasingly until they reached the sacred
+isle of Electra, the highest of them all, near the river
+Eridanus.
+
+(ll. 507-521)  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.
+
+(ll. 522-551)  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.
+
+(ll. 552-556)  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?
+
+(ll. 557-591)  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.
+
+(ll. 592-626)  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
+belcheth up 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
+upon 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.
+
+(ll. 627-658)  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 upon 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.
+
+(ll. 659-684)  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.
+
+(ll. 685-717)  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.
+
+(ll. 718-738)  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 spake thus:
+
+(ll. 739-748)  "Poor wretch, an evil and shameful return hast
+thou planned.  Not for long, I ween, wilt thou 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 thou hast done.  But since thou art my suppliant and my
+kinswoman, no further ill shall I devise against thee at thy
+coming; but begone from my halls, companioning the stranger,
+whosoever he be, this unknown one that thou hast taken in thy
+father's despite; and kneel not to me at my hearth, for never
+will I approve thy counsels and thy shameful flight."
+
+(ll. 749-752)  Thus she spake, and measureless anguish seized the
+maid; and over her eyes she cast her robe and poured forth a
+lamentation, until the hero took her by the hand and led her
+forth from the hall quivering with fear.  So they left the home
+of Circe.
+
+(ll. 753-756)  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 spake:
+
+(ll. 757-769)  "Dear Iris, now come, if ever thou hast fulfilled
+my bidding, hie thee away on light pinions, and bid Thetis arise
+from the sea and come hither.  For need of her is come upon 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 until 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 until the heroes have reached the Phaeacian isle of
+Alcinous."
+
+(ll. 770-782)  So she spake, 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:
+
+(ll. 783-832)  "Hearken now, lady Thetis, to what I am eager to
+tell thee.  Thou knowest 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 thee
+indeed from thy infancy did I tend with my own hands and love
+beyond all others that dwell in the salt sea because thou didst
+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 thy heart
+thou didst shrink from his love; and he then swore a mighty oath
+that thou shouldst never be called the bride of an immortal god.
+Yet he ceased not from spying thee against thy will, until
+reverend Themis declared to him the whole truth, how that it was
+thy fate to bear a son mightier than his sire; wherefore he gave
+thee 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 thee the best of the sons of
+earth to be thy husband, that thou mightest find a marriage dear
+to thy 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 thou didst pay me.  But
+come, let me tell a tale that erreth not.  When thy 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 thy
+mother milk, it is fated that he be the husband of Medea, Aeetes'
+daughter; do thou aid thy daughter-in-law as a mother-in-law
+should, and aid Peleus himself.  Why is thy wrath so steadfast?
+He was blinded by folly.  For blindness comes even upon 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,
+until they reach the havens of the Phaeacians; do thou devise a
+return without bane.  The rocks and the tyrannous waves are my
+fear, they alone, and them thou canst foil with thy 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 upon
+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."
+
+(ll. 833-841)  Thus she spake, 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."
+
+(ll. 842-855)  She spake, 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, until 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:
+
+(ll. 856-864)  "No longer now must ye 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 thou show my person to no
+one, when thou seest us come to meet time, but keep it secret in
+thy mind, lest thou anger me still more than thou didst anger me
+before so recklessly."
+
+(ll. 865-884)  She spake, 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.
+
+(ll. 885-921)  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.
+
+(ll. 922-981)  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, beheld them, and the spouse
+of Zeus beheld 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,
+until again early rising dawn threw light upon their course.
+
+(ll. 982-1013)  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,
+O 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; thou wouldst 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:
+
+(ll. 1014-1028)  "I beseech thee, O queen, be gracious and
+deliver me not to the Colchians to be borne to my father, if thou
+thyself too art 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 thy lord
+to mercy; and may the immortals grant thee a perfect life, and
+joy, and children, and the glory of a city unravaged!"
+
+(ll. 1029-1030)  Thus did she implore Arete, shedding tears, and
+thus each of the chieftains in turn:
+
+(ll. 1031-1052)  "On your account, ye men of peerless might, and
+on account of my toils in your ventures am I sorely afflicted;
+even I, by whose help ye yoked the bulls, and reaped the deadly
+harvest of the earthborn men; even I, through whom on your
+homeward path ye 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 ye 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 ye for me in
+your heart though ye see me helpless, stretching my hands towards
+the knees of a stranger queen; yet, when ye longed to seize the
+fleece, ye would have met all the Colchians face to thee and
+haughty Aeetes himself; but now ye have forgotten your courage,
+now that they are all alone and cut off."
+
+(ll. 1053-1067)  Thus she spake, beseeching; and to whomsoever
+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 hath seized her; so Medea's cheeks were wet; and
+her heart within her was in agony, pierced with sharp pain.
+
+(ll. 1068-1072)  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:
+
+(ll. 1073-1095)  "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 hath broken my heart by her
+prayers.  O 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 thy will, Aeson's
+son to be forsworn, nor let the father, if thou canst 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."
+
+(ll. 1096-1097)  Thus she spake, beseeching; and by his wife's
+words his heart was softened, and thus he spake:
+
+(ll. 1098-1109)  "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 thou sayest: for none
+is more lordly than Aeetes.  And, if he willed, he might bring
+war upon 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 thee.  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."
+
+(ll. 1110-1120)  Thus he spake, 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.
+
+(ll. 1121-1127)  Thus she spake, 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 spake the whole message; and each
+hero's heart rejoiced; for the word that he spake was welcome.
+
+(ll. 1128-1169)  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 beheld 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 thither 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 upon 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.
+
+(ll. 1170-1227)  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 upon 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 thy honour; for it
+was thou that didst 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, until 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,
+until they had toiled even in the furthest bounds of Libya.
+
+(ll. 1228-1250)  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, until 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 moveth nothing
+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:
+
+(ll. 1251-1258)  "What land is this?  Whither 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!"
+
+(ll. 1259-1276)  Thus one spake; 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 upon 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."
+
+(ll. 1277-1317)  Thus he spake 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 upon 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:
+
+(ll. 1318-1329)  "Ill-starred one, why art thou so smitten with
+despair?  We know how ye went in quest of the golden fleece; we
+know each toil of yours, all the mighty deeds ye 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; be not thus afflicted in
+thy misery, and rouse thy comrades.  And when Amphitrite has
+straightway loosed Poseidon's swift-wheeled car, then do ye pay
+to your mother a recompense for all her travail when she bare you
+so long in her womb; and so ye may return to the divine land of
+Achaea."
+
+(ll. 1330-1332)  Thus they spake, and with the voice vanished at
+once, where they stood.  But Jason sat upon the earth as he gazed
+around, and thus cried:
+
+(ll. 1333-1336)  "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."
+
+(ll. 1337-1346)  He spake, 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:
+
+(ll. 1347-1362)  "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."
+
+(ll. 1363-1369)  Thus he spake, 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 spake among
+the throng of his comrades:
+
+(ll. 1370-1379)  "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."
+
+(ll. 1380-1392)  Thus he spake, 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 ye, O
+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 ye 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!
+
+(ll. 1393-1421)  Then, like raging hounds, they rushed to search
+for a spring; for besides their suffering and anguish, a parching
+thirst lay upon 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, O queens, whether ye be numbered among the heavenly
+goddesses, or those beneath the earth, or be called the Solitary
+nymphs; come, O 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."
+
+(ll. 1422-1431)  So he spake, 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
+spake with gentle words answering their longing looks:
+
+(ll. 1432-1449)  "Surely there has come hither 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 upon the ground, drank a
+huge draught from the rifted rock, until, stooping like a beast
+of the field, he had satisfied his mighty maw."
+
+(ll. 1450-1457)  Thus she spake; and they gladly with joyful
+steps ran to the spot where Aegle had pointed out to them the
+spring, until they reached it.  And as when earth-burrowing ants
+gather in swarms round a narrow cleft, or when flies lighting
+upon 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:
+
+(ll. 1458-1460)  "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!"
+
+(ll. 1461-1484)  So they spake, 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.
+
+(ll. 1485-1501)  But thee, Canthus, the fates of death seized in
+Libya.  On pasturing flocks didst thou light; and there followed
+a shepherd who, in defence of his own sheep, while thou weft
+leading them off (11) to thy comrades in their need, slew thee 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.
+
+(ll. 1502-1536)  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.
+
+(ll. 1537-1553)  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, until 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 spake:
+
+(ll. 1554-1561)  "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 ye 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."
+
+(ll. 1562-1563)  Thus he spake, and readily Euphemus held out his
+hands towards the clod, and thus addressed him in reply:
+
+(ll. 1564-1570)  "If haply, hero, thou knowest 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 hither, 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."
+
+(ll. 1571-1585)  So he spake; 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 ye 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 ye 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."
+
+(ll. 1586-1596)  He spake 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:
+
+(ll. 1597-1600)  "Thou god, who hast manifested thyself on the
+borders of this land, whether the daughters born of the sea call
+thee Triton, the great sea-marvel, or Phoreys, or Nereus, be
+gracious, and grant the return home dear to our hearts."
+
+(ll. 1601-1637)  He spake, 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 until 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.
+
+(ll. 1638-1653)  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:
+
+(ll. 1654-1658)  "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."
+
+(ll. 1659-1672)  Thus she spake; 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.
+
+(ll. 1673-1693)  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.
+
+(ll. 1694-1730)  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 whither 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, O son of Leto, swift to hear, didst thou
+come down from heaven to the Melantian rocks, which lie there in
+the sea.  Then darting upon one of the twin peaks, thou raisedst
+aloft in thy right hand thy 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.
+
+(ll. 1731-1740)  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:
+
+(ll. 1741-1745)  "Daughter of Triton am I, dear friend, and nurse
+of thy 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 thy descendants."
+
+(ll. 1746-1748)  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:
+
+(ll. 1749-1754)  "My friend, great and glorious renown has fallen
+to thy lot.  For of this clod when thou hast cast it into the
+sea, the gods will make an island, where thy children's children
+shall dwell; for Triton gave this to thee as a stranger's gift
+from the Libyan mainland.  None other of the immortals it was
+than he that gave thee this when he met thee."
+
+(ll. 1755-1764)  Thus he spake; 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.
+
+(ll. 1765-1772)  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.
+
+(ll. 1773-1781)  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 ye came home from Aegina, and no tempest
+of winds opposed you; but quietly did ye skirt the Cecropian land
+and Aulis inside of Euboea and the Opuntian cities of the
+Locrians, and gladly did ye step forth upon the beach of Pagasae.
+
+
+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.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg Etext of The Argonautica by Apollonius Rhodius
+
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