Book 4

4. Now do you yourself, goddess, tell of the toil and the cunning of the Colchian maiden, Muse, child of Zeus. For truly within me my mind whirls in speechlessness as I ponder whether to call it the love-stricken affliction of madness, or to name it unseemly flight, by which she left the people of the Colchians.

Truly Aeetes, among the men of his people, all the noblest, all night long was devising a sheer treachery against them in his halls, his heart angered without ceasing at the hateful contest; nor did he at all suppose that these things had been accomplished apart from his own daughters.

But Hera cast a most grievous fear into Medea's heart; and she trembled, as a swift fawn, which the baying of hounds has terrified in the thickets of a deep wood. For at once she divined unerringly that she had not hidden her aid, and would soon fulfil all calamity. And she feared her handmaids who were privy to it; and her eyes were filled with fire, and dreadfully her ears rang round. Often she clutched at her throat, and often by the hair she dragged at her locks, moaning in grievous anguish. And there and then the maiden would have perished beyond her doom, swallowing the drugs, and frustrated Hera's purposes, had not the goddess stirred her to flee, dismayed, with the sons of Phrixus; and her fluttering spirit within her grew warm; and turning back she poured out all at once from her bosom all the drugs together into the casket. And she kissed her bed and the folding doors on either side, the door-posts, and she touched the walls; and tearing off a long lock with her hands, she left in the chamber memorials of her maidenhood for her mother, and with a sorrowful voice she lamented: "This long lock I leave you in my stead, as I go, my mother; farewell, even though I go far away; farewell, Chalciope, and all the house. Would that the sea, stranger, had broken you in pieces, before you reached the Colchian land."

So she spoke; and from her eyelids she shed a flood of tears. And as a captive girl, stolen away from a wealthy house, whom newly fate has parted from her country, and who has not yet made trial of grievous toil, but still unused to misery and slavish labours goes dismayed beneath the harsh hands of a mistress; such was the lovely maiden as she rushed from the house. And of themselves the bolts of the doors gave way before her, leaping back at the swift strains of her chant. And with bare feet she ran along the narrow ways, with her left hand drawing her robe over her brow about her forehead and her fair cheeks, and with her right lifting up the hem of her tunic on high. And quickly along the dim path, outside the towers of the spacious city, she came in her fear; nor did any of the watchmen know her; she escaped them as she set out. From there she well purposed to go to the temple; for she was not ignorant of the ways, having often before wandered about the corpses, and about the baneful roots of the earth, as do women who deal in drugs; and her heart throbbed with trembling fear. And the Titanian goddess, the Moon, newly risen from the horizon, seeing her wandering, rejoiced over her greedily, and spoke thus within her mind: "So I am not the only one, then, that steals away to the Latmian cave, nor am I alone aflame for fair Endymion; truly many a time, mindful of my love, I have been driven aside by your crafty chants, that in the dark night you might work your charms at ease, the deeds dear to you. And now you yourself have a share, it seems, in a like madness; some cruel god has given you Jason to be a grievous affliction. Go then, and endure nonetheless, wise though you are, to bear a load of much groaning anguish."

So she spoke; but her feet swiftly bore the hurrying maiden. And gladly she came up onto the banks of the river, gazing across at the gleam of fire which all night long the heroes were kindling in their joy at the contest's end. Then with a sharp clear voice through the gloom from across the water she called the youngest of the sons of Phrixus, Phrontis; and he with his brothers recognized the maiden's voice and that of Aeson's son himself; and in silence the comrades marvelled, when they understood what indeed was the truth. Three times she called; three times, at the urging of the company, Phrontis answered in turn; and meanwhile the heroes rowed toward her with swift oars. Not yet were they casting the ship's cables onto the opposite shore, when Jason set his swift feet on the dry land from on high upon the deck; and after him Phrontis and Argus, the two sons of Phrixus, leaped to the ground; and she, clasping them with both arms about their knees, addressed them: "Save me, friends, wretched as I am, from ruin, and save yourselves likewise from Aeetes; for all is now made plain and open, nor is there any remedy. But let us flee in the ship, before he mounts his swift horses. And I will give the golden fleece, when I have lulled the guardian serpent to sleep; but you, stranger, before your comrades make the gods witnesses of the words you pledged to me; nor, when I have set out far from here, through lack of kinsfolk make me contemptible and shamed."

So she spoke in her distress; and greatly the heart of Aeson's son rejoiced; and at once, as she lay fallen about his knees, he gently raised her up and embraced her, and heartened her: "Strange one, let Zeus himself of Olympus be my witness, and Hera the goddess of marriage, the consort of Zeus, that truly I will set you up as my wedded wife in my halls, when we come back to the land of Hellas."

So he spoke, and at once he joined her right hand with his hand; and she bade them drive the swift ship into the sacred grove at once, that while it was still night they might take and bear away the fleece against the will of Aeetes. And there word and deed were one with their haste. For they put her aboard, and at once thrust the ship from the land; and a great din arose as the chieftains pressed hard at the oars; and she, darting back, stretched out her hands helplessly toward the land. But Jason heartened her with words, and held her in her distress.

At the hour when men cast sleep from their eyes, hunters who, trusting in their dogs, never sleep through the night near to dawn, shunning the light of day, lest it blot out the track of beasts and the scent of the quarry, striking it with its white rays; at that hour Aeson's son and the maiden stepped from the ship upon a grassy spot, which men call the Ram's couch, where it first bent its weary knees, bearing on its back the Minyan son of Athamas. And nearby were the sooty foundations of an altar, which once the Aeolid Phrixus set up to Zeus the protector of fugitives, sacrificing that wholly golden marvel, as Hermes had bidden him, meeting him graciously. There then by the counsels of Argus the chieftains set them down. And the two went along the path into the sacred grove, seeking the huge oak, on which the fleece was cast, like a cloud which at the rising of the sun grows red with his fiery rays. But straight in front the serpent stretched out his long neck, keen-eyed, and seeing them approach with sleepless eyes, and he hissed monstrously; and round about the long banks of the river and the boundless grove resounded. They heard it who, far from Titanian Aea, dwelt in the Colchian land beside the outpourings of Lycus, which, branching off from the loud-roaring river Araxes, joins its sacred stream with Phasis; and the two together, driven into one, pour into the Caucasian sea. And women newly delivered woke in terror, and about their infant children, who were sleeping in their arms, quivering at the hiss, they cast their hands in distress. And as when over smouldering wood the sooty whirls of smoke roll up endlessly, and one ever rises swiftly after another, ever upward from below, soaring aloft in coils; so then that monster writhed his countless spirals, covered with dry scales. And as he writhed, the maiden came before his eyes, calling on Sleep, the helper, highest of the gods, with sweet voice, to charm the monster; and she called upon the queen, the night-wanderer of the underworld, to grant a kindly aid. And Aeson's son followed in fear; but the serpent now, charmed by her song, was relaxing the long ridge of his earthborn coil, and lengthening out his countless circles, as when over the gently rolling deep there rolls a black wave, mute and noiseless; yet even so, lifting his dread head on high, he was eager to enfold them both in his deadly jaws. But she, dipping with a freshly cut sprig of juniper into the brew her pure charms with chants, sprinkled them over his eyes; and all about him the boundless scent of the drug cast sleep; and on the very spot he set down his jaw, resting it; and far behind, the endless coils were stretched out through the deep-rooted wood.

Then Jason took the golden fleece from the oak, at the maiden's bidding; and she, standing firm, smeared the beast's head with the drug, until at last Jason himself bade her turn back to the ship, and he left the shadowy grove of Ares. And as a maiden catches on her fine robe the gleam of the full moon as it rises on high above her chamber-roof; and her heart within rejoices as she gazes on the fair radiance; so then Jason, glad of heart, lifted up the great fleece in his hands; and upon his fair cheeks and his brow there settled, from the shimmering of the wool, a flush like fire. And as great as the hide of a yearling ox or of a stag, which hunters call a brocket, so great was the golden fleece, all over above. It was heavy, thick-covered with wool; and even the ground ever beneath his feet gleamed before him as he went. And he went now with it cast over his left shoulder, hanging from his neck to his feet, and now again he gathered it up and stroked it; for greatly he feared lest some one, of men or gods, should rob him of it by meeting him.

Dawn was spreading over the earth; and they came to the company; and the young men marvelled to see the great fleece gleaming like the lightning of Zeus. And each one rose eager to touch it and to take it in his hands. But Aeson's son restrained the rest, and over it cast a robe newly made; and he set the maiden in the stern, lifting her up, and spoke this word among them all: "No longer now, friends, hold back from returning to our country. For already the task, for the sake of which we endured this grievous voyage, toiling in misery, has been lightly accomplished by the maiden's counsels. Her, willing as she is, I will bring home to be my wedded wife; but do you preserve her, who has been a noble helper to all Achaea and to your own selves. For surely, I think, Aeetes will come with a host to bar our way from the river to the sea. But, half of you, sitting man at oar in turn, row through the ship; and the other half, holding up oxhide shields, a swift defence against the enemy's shafts, guard our homeward way. Now in our hands we hold our children, our dear country, and our aged parents; and on our venture rests Hellas, to win either disgrace or great glory."

So he spoke, and put on his warlike arms; and they shouted with a great cry in their eagerness. And he, drawing his sword from the sheath, cut the stern-cables of the ship. And armed, close to the maiden, beside the steersman Ancaeus, he took his stand; and the ship was urged on by the rowing of the men as they strove eagerly to drive it at once out of the river.

And already to overweening Aeetes and to all the Colchians the love of Medea and her deeds were well known. And they gathered in assembly with their arms; and as many as are the waves of the wintry sea raised up by the wind, or as many leaves fall to the ground from the leafy wood in the month of leaf-fall—who could reckon them? so countless were they that streamed along the banks of the river, shouting in their fury. And Aeetes in his well-wrought chariot shone with his horses, which Helios had given him, swift as the gusts of the wind, lifting in his left hand his rounded shield, and in the other a huge pine-torch; and beside him his spear, mighty, was set straight out before him. And the reins of the horses Apsyrtus held in his hands. But out ahead the ship was already cleaving the sea, urged on by the strong rowers, and by the great river's down-rushing stream.

But the king, lifting his hands in his grievous calamity, called on Helios and Zeus to witness the evil deeds; and dreadfully he cried aloud to all his people, that if they did not bring him his daughter into his own hands, either on the land or finding the ship still afloat on the swell of the sea, and so satisfy his spirit, raging to avenge all these things, they would learn upon their own heads all his wrath, taking upon themselves all his ruin.

So spoke Aeetes; and on that same day the Colchians drew down their ships, and put the tackle aboard them, and on that same day went out upon the sea; nor would you say that this was a fleet of so many ships, but that an endless swarm of birds flocked clamouring over the waters.

And they, with the wind blowing swift by the will of the goddess Hera, that with all speed an evil to the house of Pelias, Aeaean Medea, might reach the Pelasgian land, on the third dawn made fast the ship's cables on the shores of the Paphlagonians, before the river Halys. For she bade them go ashore and propitiate Hecate with sacrifice. And as for all that the maiden made ready in preparing the offering, let no one know of it, nor may my spirit urge me to sing of it. I shrink to tell. Yet the shrine still remains, from that time, which the heroes built to the goddess on the shore, for later-born men to see even to this day.

And at once Aeson's son remembered, and the other heroes too, Phineus, who had said that another voyage would lie before them from Aea; but it was unknown to all alike. And Argus spoke to their longing: "We are going to Orchomenus, which that unerring seer, with whom you met before, charged you to make for. For there is another voyage, which the priests of the immortals pointed out, those who are sprung from Tritonian Thebes. Not yet were all the constellations that wheel in heaven, nor was anything of the sacred race of the Danaans yet to be heard of by inquirers; the Arcadian Apidanians alone existed, the Arcadians, who, men say, lived even before the moon, eating acorns in the hills. Nor was the Pelasgian land then ruled by the glorious Deucalidae, at the time when Eeria, rich in corn, was famed, mother Egypt of the men born in earlier days, and the fair-flowing river Triton, by which all Eeria is watered; for never does rain from Zeus moisten it; but from its outpourings the fields spring up with grain. From there they say a certain man journeyed round through all Europe and Asia, trusting in the might and strength of his peoples and in his own courage; and countless cities he founded as he went, some of which men inhabit perhaps even now, and some not; for much time enough has passed over them. But Aea indeed still remains firm even now, and the descendants of those men whom he settled to dwell in Aea, who indeed keep the writings of their fathers, tablets, on which are all the ways and the bounds of sea and land for those who journey round about. And there is a certain river, the uttermost horn of Ocean, broad and very deep, navigable for a merchant ship; they marked it out far off and named it Ister; which indeed for a while cleaves a boundless plain, flowing alone; for its springs murmur far away beyond the blast of the north wind, in the Rhipaean mountains. But when it reaches the borders of the Thracians and Scythians, there it divides, and one part casts its water here into the eastern sea, and the other part behind flows through a deep gulf, splitting off where it rises up into the Trinacrian sea, which lies along your land, if indeed Achelous truly springs from your land."

So he spoke; and the goddess granted them an auspicious sign, at which all, seeing it, gave a shout of approval to set out on that path. For there appeared before them a trail of heavenly light, where the way was passable. And glad, leaving there the son of Lycus, with sails spread they voyaged over the sea, gazing at the mountains of the Paphlagonians. Nor did they round Carambis, since the breezes and the gleam of the heavenly fire held, until they reached the great stream of Ister.

And of the Colchians some, searching in vain, passed out through the Cyanean rocks of the Pontus; and others again went to the river, those whom Apsyrtus ruled, and turning aside he cut through the Fair Mouth. And so he outstripped them, casting himself over the neck of land into the innermost gulf of the Ionian sea. For there is an island enclosed by Ister, named Peuce, three-cornered, broad toward the shores, but turning a narrow elbow to the stream; and about it the outflow divides in two. One they call Narex; the other, at the lower end, the Fair Mouth. Through this Apsyrtus and the Colchians swiftly set out; but the heroes were sailing high up beyond the topmost end of the island, far away. And in the meadows the shepherds of the field left their countless flocks for fear of the ships, as though they saw beasts coming up out of the monster-teeming sea. For never yet had they seen ships of the sea, neither the Scythians mingled with the Thracians, nor the Sigynni, nor the Graucenii, nor the Sindi who already dwell on the great desolate plain about Laurium. But when they had passed Mount Angurus, and far from Mount Angurus the crag by Cauliacus, about which Ister, splitting his stream this way and that, casts into the sea, and the Laurian plain, then indeed the Colchians, sailing out into the Cronian sea, cut off the ways on every side, lest the heroes escape them. And these came down behind by the river, and passed out near the two Brygean islands of Artemis. In one of these was a sacred shrine; but on the other they landed, avoiding the host of Apsyrtus; for the Colchians had left those islands, out of many, untouched, in reverence for the daughter of Zeus; but the others, thronged with Colchians, blocked the passages of the sea. And likewise he left a host upon the shores near the islands as far as the river Salangon and the Nestian land. There then the Minyae, fewer in number, would have yielded in dread battle to the more numerous; but first they made a covenant, avoiding a great quarrel: the golden fleece, since Aeetes himself had promised it to them, if they should accomplish the contests, that they should hold it justly and in good right, whether by guile or even openly they had taken it from him against his will; but as for Medea—for this was the matter in dispute— to entrust her to the daughter of Leto apart from the company, until some one of the law-bearing kings should decide whether it was right for her to go back to her father's house, or to follow the chieftains to the land of Hellas.

Then, when the maiden had reckoned up each thing in her mind, sharp anguish stirred her heart unceasingly; and at once, drawing Jason alone apart from his comrades, she led him aside, until they had withdrawn far off; and to his face she uttered a sorrowful word: "Aeson's son, what is this plan you have devised together concerning me? Has your good fortune cast you wholly into forgetfulness, and do you give no heed to all that you spoke when you were held fast by need? Where are the oaths of Zeus the suppliants' god, where have your honeyed promises gone? For their sake I, with no fitting modesty, in shameless will, left my country and the glory of my house and my very parents, which were dearest to me; and far away, alone, over the sea, with the doleful halcyons I am borne, for the sake of your labours, that, safe, you might accomplish the contests of the bulls and the earthborn men. And at the last the fleece too, when the matter was made known, you won by my folly; and a baneful shame I poured over womankind. Therefore I declare myself to be your child and wife and sister, as I follow you to the land of Hellas. Now stand by me everywhere with a ready heart, nor leave me alone apart from you, when you go to the kings. But just so defend me; let your justice be firm, and the right, which we both agreed upon; or else strike at once with the sword through the middle of my throat, that I may win the fitting reward for my folly. Wretch that I am, if this king should adjudge me to be my brother's, to whom you are entrusting these grievous covenants—both of them! How shall I come before my father's eyes? With a good name indeed? What vengeance, or what heavy ruin, shall I not endure most bitterly, for the dreadful things I have done? And will you win a homecoming to your heart's content? May the all-queen, the consort of Zeus, in whom you glory, never accomplish that for you. And may you one day remember me, when you are wasted with toils; and may the fleece, like a dream, go off into nothingness, into the dark. And from your country may my own Furies at once drive you out; for such things I myself have suffered by your hardness. These it is not lawful that they should fall to the ground unfulfilled. For you have broken a great oath, pitiless one; but not for long, I tell you, mocking me hereafter, shall you sit at ease, for all your covenants."

So she spoke, seething with heavy wrath; and she longed to set the ship aflame, and to break it all in pieces, and to fall herself into the consuming fire. And Jason in fear addressed her with soothing words: "Hold, strange one; these things please not me either. But we seek some respite from battle, so great a cloud of hostile men blazes round us for your sake. For all who dwell in this land are eager to aid Apsyrtus, that they may bring you back to your father, as though you had been carried off, home again. And we ourselves should all perish in a hateful destruction, joining hands in battle; and that would be a colder grief for you, if, dying, we should leave you as a prey to them. But this covenant will work a trick, by which we shall lead him to ruin. Nor will the neighbouring peoples, to win favour with the Colchians, oppose us for your sake against the king, when he, your helper and your brother, is gone; nor will I shrink from fighting the Colchians face to face, if they do not let me pass through."

So he spoke, fawning; and she uttered a deadly word: "Mark now. For amid unseemly deeds there is need to devise this too, since at the first I erred in my transgression, and by heaven's will I accomplished evil desires. Do you in the battle ward off the spears of the Colchians; but I will coax him to come into your hands; and you, welcome him with bright gifts. If somehow I could persuade the heralds, when they depart, to bring him alone to confer with my words, there, if this deed pleases you, I do not grudge it: slay him, and raise up battle against the Colchians."

So the two, agreeing, devised a great trick for Apsyrtus, and provided many gifts of hospitality, among which they gave him the sacred robe of Hypsipyle, of purple. This the divine Graces themselves had made for Dionysus in sea-girt Dia; and he gave it to his son Thoas after; and he in turn left it to Hypsipyle; and she gave it to Aeson's son, among many other fair-wrought treasures, to bear away as a guest-gift. Neither by touching it nor by gazing on it could you have your fill of sweet longing. And from it there came an ambrosial fragrance ever since that time, since the Nysean lord himself lay down upon it, flushed with wine and nectar, clasping the fair breast of the Minoan maiden, whom once Theseus left on the island of Dia when she followed him from Cnossus. And when she had agreed with the heralds upon her words, to charm him, when first he should come to the temple of the goddess by the covenant, and the black gloom of night should enfold them, to come, that she might devise with him a trick, by which, taking the great golden fleece, she might go back again to the house of Aeetes; for the sons of Phrixus had given her under compulsion to the strangers to be led away; beguiling him with such words, she scattered the enchanting drugs into the air and on the breezes, which even from afar could have drawn a wild beast down from a high mountain.

Pitiless Love, great affliction, great loathing to men, from you come deadly quarrels and groans and laments, and other countless pains heaped upon these. Arm yourself, god, and rise against the sons of my foes, even as you cast hateful madness into Medea's mind. For how did she destroy Apsyrtus by an evil death when he came? For that is the next part of my song.

When they had left her on the island of Artemis by the covenant, those then beached their ships apart, separated each on their own; but Jason went to ambush, awaiting Apsyrtus and those who again were his comrades. But he, beguiled by the most dreadful promises, swiftly in his ship crossing the swell of the sea, in the murky night set foot on the sacred island; and alone, going to meet her face to face, he made trial with words of his sister—as a tender child does with a winter torrent, which not even grown men can cross— whether she might be contriving a trick against the strangers. And so the two agreed with each other on each thing; and straightway Aeson's son leapt out from the thick ambush, raising his naked sword in his hand; and at once the maiden turned her eyes away, covering them with her veil, that she might not behold the slaughter of her brother as he was struck. And he, like a butcher at a great strong-horned bull, struck him, marking him near the temple, which once the Brygi, dwelling on the opposite shore, had built to Artemis. In its porch he sank upon his knees; and at the last the hero, breathing out his spirit, in both his hands caught the dark blood at the wound; and the white veil and the robe of her, as she shrank away, he stained with red. And keen, with a sidelong eye, the all-subduer beheld the deadly deed they had done, the pitiless Fury. And the hero Aeson's son cut off the dead man's extremities, and three times he licked up some of the blood, three times he spat the pollution from his teeth, as is the rite for slayers to atone for treacherous murder. And the limp corpse he hid in the earth, where even now those bones lie among the Apsyrtian men.

And they, when together they saw before them the gleam of the beacon, the sign which the maiden raised for them as they came, beside the Colchian ship the heroes brought their own ship; and they slew the Colchian host, as hawks the tribes of doves, or as lions of the wild rout a great flock, leaping among the steadings. Nor did any of them escape death, but over the whole throng they rushed like fire, ravaging them; and at last Jason came up, eager to help, though they had no great need of his aid; for now they were taking thought even for him. And then they sat down to take counsel deeply about the voyage; and the maiden came up to them as they pondered; and Peleus first spoke his word: "Now I bid you, while it is still night, embark upon the ship and row the passage opposite to that on which the enemy keep watch; for at dawn, when they have observed each thing, I do not think there is one voice that will urge them to drive us further on, that they could persuade them; but as men bereft of their lord, they will be scattered in grievous discord. And easy for us, when the people are divided, might be the way thereafter as we come down."

So he spoke; and the young men approved the word of Aeacus' son. And quickly embarking on the ship they laboured at the oars unceasingly, until they reached the sacred island of Electris, highest of them all, near the river Eridanus.

But the Colchians, when they learned of the death of their lord, indeed were eager to search through all the Cronian sea for Argo and the Minyae. But Hera held them back with dread lightnings down from the air. And at last they themselves loathed the abodes of the Cytaean land, in dread of the savage wrath of Aeetes, and they settled firmly in their dwellings, scattered here and there. Some went onto those very islands where the heroes had landed, and they dwell there, named after Apsyrtus; and others on the dark deep Illyrian river, where is the tomb of Harmonia and Cadmus, built a tower, dwelling among the Encheleian men; and others in the mountains dwell, which are called the Ceraunian, from that time, ever since the thunderbolts of Zeus son of Cronos turned them aside from setting out to the island opposite.

And the heroes, when their homecoming seemed safe to them, then going forward made fast their cables on the land of the Hylleans. For thickly the islands jutted out before them, making a grievous passage for those who sailed between. Nor, as before, did the Hylleans devise hostility against them; but they themselves contrived a way for them, receiving as their reward a great tripod of Apollo. For two tripods Phoebus had given Aeson's son to carry far away on his voyage in his need, when to holy Pytho he had gone to inquire about this very voyage; and it was fated, where they should be set up in the earth, that that land should never be laid waste by enemy invaders. Therefore even now this one is hidden in that land near the gracious city of Hyllus, far beneath the ground, that it may ever be unseen by mortals. But they did not find king Hyllus still living there, whom fair Melite bore to Heracles in the land of the Phaeacians. For he had come to the house of Nausithous and to Macris, the nurse of Dionysus, to cleanse himself of the deadly slaughter of his children; there he wooed and won the daughter of the river Aegaeus, falling in love, the naiad Melite; and she bore strong Hyllus. But he, when he was grown, did not desire to dwell in that same island, beneath the brows of the ruling Nausithous; but he went to the Cronian sea, gathering a native people of the Phaeacians; for the lord, the hero Nausithous, helped to provide his way; and there he settled, and the Mentores slew him, defending himself about his country oxen.

But, goddesses, how is it that beyond this sea, and about the Ausonian land and the Ligystian islands, which are called the Stoechades, the countless tokens of the ship Argo are spoken of unerringly? What great necessity and need brought them so far off? What breezes carried them? Surely Zeus, the king of the gods, was seized with wrath at Apsyrtus mightily fallen, for the deed they did. And he decreed that, washing off the deadly stain by the counsels of Aeaean Circe, and after suffering countless woes, they should return. But of the chieftains no one knew this; they sped on, far rising out of the Hyllean land, afar; and they left behind all the Liburnian islands that before were thronged with Colchians in the sea, in a row, Issa and Dyscelados and lovely Pityeia. Then after these they came near Cercyra, where Poseidon settled the daughter of Asopus, fair-haired Cercyra, far from the Phliasian land, having snatched her away in love; and seeing it dark from the sea, all about with dark woods, the sailors call it Black Cercyra. And after this Melite, glad in the warm breeze, and steep Cerossus, and Nymphaea, lying far beyond, they passed, where queenly Calypso, daughter of Atlas, dwelt; and the misty mountains, the Ceraunian, they thought they saw. And then the plans and the great wrath of Zeus concerning them Hera considered. And devising an end to that voyage, she stirred up storms against them, by which once more they were swept back to the rugged island of Electris. And suddenly, in the midst of their course, the speaking beam of the hollow ship cried out with a human voice, the beam which Athena had fitted in the very middle of the keel, from the oak of Dodona. And deadly fear seized them as they heard the voice and the heavy wrath of Zeus. For it declared they should not escape either the ways of the long sea or the grievous storms, unless Circe should wash away the pitiless murder of Apsyrtus; and it bade Polydeuces and Castor pray to the immortal gods to grant a way through the Ausonian sea, where they would find Circe, the daughter of Perses and of Helios. So Argo cried out through the gloom; and the sons of Tyndareus sprang up, and raised their hands to the immortals, praying for each thing; but dejection held the other Minyan heroes. And she sped far ahead under sail, and they entered the inmost stream of Eridanus, where once, struck in the breast by the blazing thunderbolt, half-burned, Phaethon fell from the chariot of Helios into the mouth of a very deep lake; and even now it sends up a heavy steam from the smouldering wound. Nor can any bird, spreading its light wings, fly across that water; but midway it falls flaming as it flies. And about it the daughters of Helios, enclosed in tall poplars, mourn piteously a shrill lament; and from their eyelids they shed to the ground bright drops of amber. Some of these dry in the sun upon the sands; but when the waters of the dark lake wash over the shores at the blast of the much-echoing wind, then all of them at once roll forward into Eridanus on the surging stream. But the Celts have a tale, that these are the tears of Apollo, son of Leto, carried in the eddies, which he shed in countless numbers before, when he came to the sacred race of the Hyperboreans, having left the radiant heaven at his father's rebuke, in anger for his son, whom in shining Lacereia divine Coronis bore at the outpourings of Amyrus. And so this tale is told among those men. But upon them no desire of food took hold, nor of drink, nor was their mind turned to gladness. But indeed by day they were worn out and oppressed by the grievous stench, which the streams of Eridanus, smouldering with Phaethon, sent up unbearably; and at night again they heard the shrill lament of the daughters of Helios, wailing piercingly; and as they wept, their tears were borne upon the waters like drops of oil.

From there they entered the deep stream of Rhodanus, which flows into Eridanus; and where they join, the water roars, churned up in confusion. But it, rising from the innermost earth, where are the gates and the abodes of Night, springing from there, on one side belches forth on the shores of Ocean, and on another casts into the Ionian sea, and on another sends its stream through seven mouths into the Sardinian sea and the boundless gulf. And from it they drove into stormy lakes, which through the Celts' mainland spread out immeasurably; and there they would have come to an unseemly ruin. For a certain branch was bearing them into a gulf of Ocean, into which, not knowing, they were about to enter, from which they would never have come back safe. But Hera, leaping from heaven, cried out from the Hercynian crag; and with fear at her cry they were shaken all alike; for the great air thundered terribly about them. And back they turned by the goddess's will, and they perceived the path, by which indeed their homeward way lay as they went. And after a long time they came to the sea-washed shores by the counsels of Hera, passing through countless tribes of the Celts and Ligyans, unharmed. For about them a dread mist the goddess shed all the days as they journeyed. And driving the ship through the middlemost mouth, they came to the Stoechades islands, safe by the help of the sons of Zeus; therefore altars and shrines are set up to them firmly; nor was it only that voyage they aided; Zeus granted them the care of the ships of later men too. Leaving the Stoechades then, they crossed to the island of Aethalia, where they wiped off with pebbles their abundant sweat after their toil; and like in colour to skin they lie scattered along the shore; and there are their quoits and their marvellous arms; and there a harbour is named after Argo. And quickly from there over the swell of the sea they voyaged, gazing on the Tyrrhenian shores of Ausonia; and they came to the famous harbour of Aeaea; and from the ship they cast the cables onto the beach nearby. And there they found Circe cleansing her head with the brine of the sea; for she had been frightened by visions in her nightly dreams. She thought her chambers and all the walls of her house ran with blood; and flame was devouring all the drugs with which before she had bewitched the strangers, whoever came; and she herself quenched it, glowing, with murderous blood, drawing the blood up with her hands; and so she ceased from her deadly fear. Therefore, at the coming of dawn, waking, she was cleansing her hair and her garments with the brine of the sea. And beasts, not like beasts of prey that eat raw flesh, nor yet like men in body, but with limbs joined each from another in confusion, came in a throng, as sheep follow in droves from their pens after the shepherd. Such creatures the earth herself once brought forth from the primeval slime, fitted together with mingled limbs, not yet hardened beneath the parching air, nor yet drawing up moisture beneath the rays of the burning sun; but time, sorting them out, brought them into their kinds; so these, of nameless shape, followed her. And boundless amazement seized the heroes; and at once each one, gazing on the shape and the eyes of Circe, readily said she was the sister of Aeetes. And she, when she had dispelled the terrors of her nightly dreams, straightway went back again; and she bade them follow, stroking them with her hand, in her guile. There then the throng waited at the bidding of Aeson's son, holding fast; but he drew along the Colchian maiden. And the two followed the same path, until they came to the hall of Circe; and she bade them in their helplessness, not knowing why they had come, to sit on shining chairs. But the two, speechless and without voice, darted to the hearth and sat down, as is the way for wretched suppliants: she set both her hands upon her forehead, while he fixed in the ground his great hilted sword, with which he had slain the son of Aeetes; nor ever did they lift their eyes straight up beneath their eyelids. And at once Circe knew the lot of a fugitive and the guilt of murder. Therefore, in reverence for the law of Zeus the suppliants' god, who greatly is wroth, yet greatly aids the slayers of men, she performed the sacrifice with which pitiless suppliants are cleansed, when they come to the hearth. First, to atone for the unforgiven murder, she held above them the offspring of a sow, whose teats still swelled from the litter in her womb, and with its blood she wet their hands, cutting its throat; and then again with other libations she purified them, calling on Zeus the cleanser, the avenger of murderous suppliants. And all the defilements together her naiad attendants bore out of the house, those who made ready each thing for her. And within, at the hearth, she burned cakes and sober offerings with prayers, that she might stay the dread Furies of his wrath, and that himself might be gracious and gentle to them both, whether their hands were defiled with the blood of a stranger, or whether they came as kinsmen in kindred bloodshed. But when she had wrought all this, then at last she set them up and seated them on polished chairs, and she herself sat down near them, facing them. And at once with speech she questioned them carefully of their need and their voyage, and from where, coming to her land and house, they had so seated themselves at her hearth. For indeed the memory of her hateful dreams stole into her mind as she pondered; and she longed to hear the kindred speech of the maiden, as soon as she saw her lift her eyes from the ground. For all the race of Helios was clear to behold, since from afar by the gleaming of their eyes they cast a golden radiance like a beam. And she, then, told her all that she asked, uttering Colchian speech, the daughter of deep-minded Aeetes, gently, both the expedition and the journeys of the heroes, all that they toiled in their swift contests, and how she sinned through the counsels of her grief-stricken sister, and how she fled far away from the overweening terrors of her father with the sons of Phrixus; but she shrank from telling the slaying of Apsyrtus. Yet it did not escape Circe's mind; but even so she pitied her weeping, and spoke this word: "Wretched one, truly you have devised an evil and shameful homecoming. I think you will not for long escape the heavy wrath of Aeetes; and soon he will go to the abodes of Hellas to avenge the murder of his son, since you have done unbearable deeds. But since you are a suppliant and my kin, no further evil will I devise against you now that you have come; but go out of my halls, you who are companion to the stranger, whoever this is, this unknown man you have taken, without your father's leave; nor kneel to me at my hearth, for I will not approve your counsels and your shameful flight."

So she spoke; and unbearable grief seized the maiden; and casting her robe over her eyes she poured out a lament, until the hero, taking her by the hand, led her out of the halls and through the door, trembling with fear; and they left the house of Circe.

Nor did they escape the notice of the consort of Zeus son of Cronos; but Iris told her, when she saw them going from the hall. For Hera herself had bidden her watch, until the time when they should go to their ship; and again, urging her, she said: "Dear Iris, now, if ever you accomplished my commands, come, going forth on your swift wings, bid Thetis come to me, rising up out of the sea. For I have need of her. And then go to the shores where the bronze anvils of Hephaestus are beaten with mighty hammers; and tell him to put to rest his fiery bellows, until Argo shall pass them by. And go also to Aeolus, Aeolus, who rules the winds born of the bright air; and tell him too my mind, that he may make all the winds cease beneath the air, nor let any breeze roughen the sea; only let a fair west wind blow, until they reach the Phaeacian island of Alcinous."

So she spoke; and at once Iris, leaping from Olympus, cleft her way, spreading her light wings. And she plunged into the sea Aegaean, where are the halls of Nereus. And first she came to Thetis, and told the message by the counsels of Hera, and urged her to go to the goddess. Secondly she went to Hephaestus; and quickly she stayed him from his iron hammers; and the sooty bellows-blasts held back from their breath. And thirdly she came to Aeolus, the renowned son of Hippotes. And while to him also she told the message and stayed her swift knees from the road, meanwhile Thetis, leaving Nereus and her sisters, went up from the sea to Olympus to the goddess Hera; and she set her near herself, and disclosed her word: "Hear now, divine Thetis, what I long to tell you. You know how greatly in my heart the hero Aeson's son is honoured, and the others, the helpers in the contest, how I saved them as they passed through the Wandering rocks, where dread storms roar and the waves seethe about the hard reefs. And now a way past the great crag of Scylla and Charybdis, belching terribly, awaits them. But indeed I myself, from your very childhood, reared and loved you above all others who dwell in the sea, because you did not endure to share the bed of Zeus when he desired it. For ever such deeds are his care, to lie either with immortals or with mortal women. But out of reverence for me, and fearing in your heart, you avoided him; and he then swore a mighty oath, that you should never be called the bride of an immortal god. Yet he did not cease to watch you against your will, until reverend Themis told him all, how it was fated that you should bear a son better than his father; therefore, longing for you, he let you go, in fear lest another, his equal, should reign among the immortals, but that he might ever guard his own power. But I gave you the best of earthly men to be your husband, that you might attain a marriage to your heart's content, and beget children; and I called the gods to the feast, all alike; and I myself held aloft the bridal torch with my hands, for the sake of that kindly honour you did me. But come, I will tell you also an unerring word. When your son comes to the Elysian plain, he whom now in the abode of Chiron the Centaur the naiads tend, longing for your milk, he must be the husband of Medea, daughter of Aeetes; so do you, his mother-in-law, aid your daughter-in-law, and Peleus himself. Why is your anger fixed fast? He was blinded. For madness comes upon the gods too. Yes, at my commands I think Hephaestus will cease from kindling his fiery might, and Aeolus son of Hippotes will restrain the swift onsets of the winds, save the steady west wind, until they reach the harbours of the Phaeacians; so do you devise a homecoming free of care. The only danger for them is the rocks and the overweening waves, which you may turn aside together with your other sisters. And do not let them in their helplessness fall either into Charybdis, lest she swallow them all up and bear them away, or pass by the hateful den of Scylla, Ausonian Scylla of the deadly mind, whom Phorcys bore to night-wandering Hecate, whom they call Crataeis, lest somehow, darting with her dread jaws, she destroy the chosen of the heroes. But hold the ship toward that place where there shall be even a slight escape from ruin."

So she spoke; and Thetis answered with this word: "If indeed the might of the raging fire and the violent storms shall truly cease, then I will boldly say that I will save the ship even against the opposing wave, while the west wind blows clear. But it is time to journey a long and boundless way, that I may go to my sisters, who will be my helpers, and to where the ship's stern-cables are made fast, that at dawn they may be mindful to win their homecoming."

She spoke, and darting down through the air she plunged into the eddies of the dark blue sea; and she called to aid her the others, her own sisters, the Nereids; and they, hearing, gathered to one another; and Thetis told them the commands of Hera; and at once she sent them all to the Ausonian sea. And she herself, swifter than the flashing or the rays of the sun, when it rises above a far-off land, sped swiftly through the water, until she reached the Aeaean shore of the Tyrrhenian mainland. And she found them beside the ship, taking their pleasure with the quoit and the casting of arrows; and she came near and touched the hand-tip of Aeacus' son Peleus; for he was her husband; nor could any other see her surely, but to him alone she appeared before his eyes, and she spoke: "No longer now sit waiting on the Tyrrhenian shores, but at dawn loose the stern-cables of your swift ship, obeying Hera your helper. For at her command the daughters of Nereus all together come to save your ship through the rocks which are called the Wandering. For that is the appointed way for you. But do not show my form to anyone, when you see me coming with them; keep it in mind, lest you anger me yet more than before, when you grievously angered me."

She spoke, and then unseen she sank into the depths of the sea; and bitter grief smote him, since he had not seen her come before, since first she left her chamber and her bed in anger over noble Achilles while he was still a babe. For she ever, by night, would burn the mortal flesh of the child through the midmost night in the flame of fire; but by day again she would anoint his tender body with ambrosia, that he might become immortal, and that she might ward off hateful old age from his flesh. But he, springing up from his bed, beheld his dear son writhing through the flame; and he cried out when he saw it, dread fool; and she, hearing, snatched up the screaming child and cast him to the ground, and herself, like a breath in form, like a dream, went swiftly from the hall, and leaped into the sea in anger; nor did she ever come back again. Therefore helplessness bound his mind; yet even so he told his comrades all the command of Thetis. And they broke off and ceased from their contests in haste, and busied themselves with their meal and their beds, in which, having dined, they passed the night, as before.

When light-bringing Dawn touched the edge of heaven, then at the descent of the swift west wind they went to their benches from the land; and from the depths they drew up the anchor-stones gladly, and all the other tackle they hauled up duly; and on high the sail they spread, stretching it taut on the ropes of the yard-arm. And a fresh wind bore the ship on. And quickly a fair island they sighted, Anthemoessa, where the clear-voiced Sirens, daughters of Achelous, used to destroy with the enchantment of their sweet songs whoever cast anchor there. These fair Terpsichore, one of the Muses, bore, lying with Achelous; and once they tended the strong daughter of Demeter, still unwed, singing in chorus together; and then in part like birds, in part like maidens they were to behold. And ever watching from a fair lookout over the harbour, often indeed they robbed many of their honey-sweet homecoming, wasting them with consumption; and pitilessly to these men too they sent forth from their mouths a lily-clear voice. And the heroes from the ship were now about to cast the cables onto the shores, had not Orpheus, son of Oeagrus, the Thracian, stretching in his hands his Bistonian lyre, sounded the swift melody of a rapid song, so that their ears might ring at once with the noise of his playing; and the lyre overpowered the maidens' voice. And the ship together the west wind and the resounding wave, rising from the stern, bore on; and the Sirens sent forth a vague voice. But even so the noble son of Teleon, alone of his comrades, outstripping them, leaped from the polished bench into the sea, Butes, his heart warmed by the clear voice of the Sirens; and he swam through the dark swell, that he might land, poor wretch. Truly they would soon have robbed him of his homecoming there, but the goddess who rules over Eryx took pity on him, Cypris, and snatched him up while still in the eddies, and saved him, graciously meeting him, to dwell on the Lilybaean headland. And they, seized with grief, left the Sirens, but other worse perils awaited them, destroyers of ships, in the meeting-place of the sea. For on one side appeared the smooth rock of Scylla; on the other Charybdis roared incessantly, spouting up; and elsewhere the Wandering rocks beneath a great wave crashed, where before the blazing flame spurted up from the topmost crags, above the fire-heated rock, and the air was dark with smoke, nor could you have seen the rays of the sun. And then again, though Hephaestus had ceased from his works, the sea still belched up a hot breath. There the daughters of Nereus from different sides met them; and behind, divine Thetis touched the blade of the steering-oar, to draw the ship through the Wandering reefs. And as when dolphins in calm weather rise up out of the sea and circle in shoals about a speeding ship, now seen before it, now behind, now alongside, and to the sailors it is a joy; so they, darting out ahead, circled in throngs about the Argo, and Thetis guided the way. And when they were about to draw near the Wandering rocks, at once, lifting up their robes over their white knees, on high upon the very reefs and the breaking of the wave they sped this way and that, standing apart from one another. And the current struck the ship broadside; and about it the wave rising fierce broke roaring over the rocks, which now, like crags, reached up into the air, and now again, deep down beneath the lowest floor of the sea, were fixed fast, while high above the wild surge towered. And they, as maidens upon a sandy beach, who, with their robes tucked up about their waists on either side, play with a rounded ball; and one then catches it from another and sends it into the air on high, and it never touches the ground; so they, as the ship ran, in turn from different sides sent it up through the air over the waves, ever away from the rocks; and about them the seething water boiled. And the lord himself, on the topmost peak of a smooth crag, upright, leaning his heavy shoulder on the handle of his hammer, Hephaestus, watched them; and above the gleaming heaven stood the consort of Zeus; and about Athena she threw her arms, such fear held her as she gazed. And as long as is the span of a spring day, so long did they toil, heaving the ship through the much-echoing rocks; and they, catching the wind again, sped on ahead; and swiftly they passed the meadow of Thrinacia, the pasture of the cattle of Helios. There the Nereids, like sea-gulls, dived down into the deep, when they had fulfilled the commands of Zeus's consort. And to them at once came through the air the bleating of sheep and the lowing of cattle struck upon their ears. And over the dewy thickets the younger of the daughters of Helios, Phaethousa, was tending the flocks, holding in her hand a staff of silver; and Lampetie, following the cattle, brandished a crook of shining mountain-copper. And these too they saw grazing beside the waters of the river over the plain and the watery meadow; nor was there any dark in body among them, but all were like milk, and gloried in their golden horns. And these they passed by day; and as the night came on they crossed the great gulf of the sea, glad, until again the early-born Dawn shed light on them as they went.

There is a certain island, fertile and broad, in the Ceraunian sea, in front of the Ionian strait, beneath which—be gracious, Muses, unwillingly do I tell the tale of old—is said to lie the sickle with which Cronos pitilessly cut off his father's parts; but others call it the earth-goddess Demeter's corn-reaping sickle. For Demeter once dwelt in that land, and taught the Titans to reap the nourishing corn, out of love for Macris. From this it is called Drepane by name, the sacred nurse of the Phaeacians; and so the Phaeacians themselves are of the blood of Uranus by descent. To these Argo, held fast by many toils, came from the sea on the breezes of Thrinacia; and with gentle sacrifices Alcinous and his people gladly welcomed them as they came; and over them the whole city rejoiced; you would say they were glad over their own children. And the heroes themselves rejoiced among the throng, as though they had set foot in the very heart of Haemonia; but they were soon to arm for battle; so near at hand appeared a countless host of Colchians, who had passed through the mouth of the Pontus and through the Cyanean rocks in search of the chieftains. And they were eager to bear off Medea outright to her father's house, without parley, or else to wield grievous war threatening with harsh implacability, both then and afterward, with the host of Aeetes. But king Alcinous restrained them in their eagerness for war. For he longed to settle the violent quarrel of both without bloodshed. And the maiden in deadly fear besought many times the comrades of Aeson's son, and many times with her hands she touched the knees of Arete, the wife of Alcinous: "I implore you, queen; be gracious to me, nor give me up to the Colchians to be brought to my father, if you yourself too are of the race of mortals, whose mind runs swiftly into ruin by light transgressions. So my own shrewd wits failed me, yet not for wantonness. Let the sacred light of Helios be my witness, let the rites of the night-wandering daughter of Perses be my witness, that not willingly with foreign men did I set out from there; but a hateful dread persuaded me to think of this flight, when I had sinned; nor was there any other plan. My girdle still remains, as in my father's house, undefiled and unstained. But have pity, lady, and soften your husband; and may the immortals grant you a fulfilling life and splendour and children and the glory of an unsacked city."

Such things, weeping, she besought of Arete; and such things to each man of the chieftains in turn: "For you, O greatly mightiest of men, and for the contests which I toiled for, for your sake, I am dismayed; by my will you yoked the bulls, and cut down the deadly crop of earthborn men; for my sake you will lead back to Haemonia the golden fleece at once when you return. Here am I, who have lost my country and my parents, my home, and all the joy of life; but for you I have made it possible to dwell again in your country and your homes; and with glad eyes you will yet see your parents; but from me a heavy fate has taken away all splendour; and hateful I wander with strangers. Fear your covenants and your oaths, fear the Fury of the suppliant, and the wrath of the gods, if I come into the hands of Aeetes to be ravaged with grievous outrage. No temples, no defending tower, no other refuge do I look to, but to you yourselves alone. Hard and pitiless ones! Nor in your hearts do you feel shame, seeing me stretch out my helpless hands to the knees of a foreign queen; yet for all, eager to win the fleece, you would have crossed spears with the Colchians and with overweening Aeetes himself; but now you have forgotten your valour, when they are alone and cut off."

So she spoke in entreaty; and whomever of them she besought, he heartened her, restraining her in her grief. And they brandished their sharp spears in their hands, and their swords from the sheaths. Nor would they hold back their aid, they declared, if she should meet with unjust judgment. And as they wearied, there came upon the throng the bringer of rest, night, that brings men rest from their toils, and lulled all the earth alike; but her sleep lulled not even a little, for her heart was wrapped in griefs within her breast. As when a hard-working woman turns her spindle through the night, and about her her orphan children wail in their widowhood of a husband; and the tear trickles down her cheeks as she remembers what wretched fate has seized her; so her cheeks were wet; and her heart within was twisted, pierced about with sharp pains.

And the two within the house, in the city, as before, the lord Alcinous and the much-honoured wife of Alcinous, Arete, were taking counsel about the maiden upon their bed through the gloom; and as a wedded wife clings to her husband with fond words: "Yes, dear, come, rescue for me the much-suffering maiden from the Colchians, doing the Minyae a favour. For near our island is Argos and the Haemonian men; but Aeetes does not dwell near, nor do we at all know Aeetes, but only hear of him; and this maiden, suffering terribly, has broken my heart with her entreaties. Do not, O king, give her up to the Colchians to be carried to her father. She was blinded, when first she gave him the charms to subdue the bulls; and then, healing one evil with another, as we often do in our errors, she escaped the heavy wrath of her overweening father. But Jason, as I hear, is bound by great oaths to her, to set her up in his halls as his wedded wife. Therefore, dear, do not by your will make Aeson's son forsworn, nor let a father in his angry heart work unbearable harm upon his child for your sake. For parents are too jealous of their children; such things as Nycteus devised against fair Antiope; and such woes as Danae endured in the sea through her father's recklessness; and lately, not far off, insolent Echetus drove bronze spikes into the eyes of his own daughter; and in grievous misery she wastes away, grinding bronze in a gloomy cell."

So she spoke in entreaty; and his heart was softened by the words of his wife, and he spoke this word: "Arete, even with arms I would drive out the Colchians, doing the heroes a favour, for the maiden's sake. But I fear to slight the straight justice of Zeus. Nor is it better, as you say, to make light of Aeetes; for no one is more kingly than Aeetes. And if he wished, though far off, he could bring war upon Hellas. Therefore it befits me to give such judgment as shall be best among all men; nor will I hide it from you. If she is a maiden, I purpose to send her back to her father; but if she shares the bed of a man, I will not part her from her husband; nor, if she bears any offspring beneath her heart, will I give it to the enemy."

So he spoke; and at once sleep lulled him to rest. But she laid up the shrewd word in her heart; and at once she rose from her bed and went through the house; and the women hastened together, her handmaids, busying themselves about their mistress. And silently she called her herald and addressed him, in her wisdom urging him to bid Aeson's son unite with the maiden, and not to entreat king Alcinous; for he himself, going to the Colchians, would give judgment, that if she was a maiden, he would give her back to the house of her father, but if she shared the bed of a man, he would no longer part her from her wedded love.

So she spoke; and at once his feet bore him from the hall, that he might tell Jason the timely word, and the counsels of Arete and god-fearing Alcinous. And he found them by the ship, awake with their arms, in the Hyllic harbour, near the city; and he told them all the message; and the heart of each of the heroes rejoiced; for he spoke a word very pleasing to them. And at once mixing a bowl to the blessed gods, as is right, and reverently dragging sheep to the altar, that very night they made ready the bridal bed for the maiden in a sacred cave, where once Macris dwelt, the daughter of honey-minded Aristaeus, who discovered the works of the bees and the fat of the much-laboured olive. She it was who first received the Nysean son of Zeus in her bosom within Euboean Abantis, and moistened his dry lips with honey, when Hermes bore him out of the fire; but Hera saw, and in anger drove her out of all the island. And she dwelt in the sacred cave of the Phaeacians far away, and gave boundless wealth to the inhabitants. There then they spread a great bed; and over it they cast the gleaming golden fleece, that the marriage might be honoured and a theme for song. And flowers for them the nymphs, gathering them, in their white bosoms, of many hues, bore in; and a gleam as of fire played about them all; such a light flashed from the golden tassels. And in their eyes it kindled sweet desire; yet shame held back each one, eager though she was, from laying her hand upon it. Some were called the daughters of the river Aegaeus; others haunted the peaks of the Meliteian mountain; and others were grove-nymphs from the plains. For Hera herself, the consort of Zeus, had stirred them up, glorifying Jason. That sacred cave even now is called the cave of Medea, where they joined them together, spreading the fragrant robes. And they in their hands wielded warlike spears, lest before they were ready a destructive throng of foemen should burst upon them in attack, and crowned with leafy boughs about their heads, in tune, while Orpheus played clearly on his lyre, they sang the bridal hymn at the entrance of the chamber. Not in the house of Alcinous did the hero Aeson's son desire to accomplish the marriage, but in the halls of his own father, returning home to Iolcus; and so too Medea herself was minded; but then need led them to be joined. But never do the tribes of grief-suffering men set foot wholly upon delight; ever some bitter anguish walks beside our joys. Therefore them too, though warmed with sweet love, fear held, whether the judgment of Alcinous would be fulfilled.

Dawn, rising with her ambrosial light, dissolved the dark night through the air; and the shores of the island laughed, and the dewy paths of the plains far off; and there was a din in the streets. The townsfolk stirred throughout the city, and far off the Colchians at the bounds of the Macrian peninsula. And at once Alcinous went forth, by the covenants, to declare his mind concerning the maiden; and in his hand he held a staff of gold, his sceptre of judgment, by which the people in the city had their straight justice settled. And after him in order, having put on their warlike arms, the noblest of the Phaeacians marched in throngs. And the women in crowds went outside the towers to look upon the heroes; and the country men came to meet them, hearing the news, since Hera had sent forth an unerring report. And one led a ram chosen out from the flock, another a calf that had not yet laboured; and others set jars of wine nearby to be mixed; and far off the smoke of sacrifice rose. And the women bore the much-laboured robes, as women do, and trinkets of gold, and besides these other adornment, such as newly-wedded brides array themselves with; and they marvelled, gazing on the forms and shapes of the noble heroes, and among them the son of Oeagrus to the clear-struck lyre and to his song ever beating the shining ground with his glittering sandal. And all the nymphs together, whenever marriage was mentioned, raised the lovely bridal hymn; and at other times again alone they sang, wheeling about in a circle, Hera, for your sake; for you put it into the mind of Arete to declare the shrewd word of Alcinous. And he, when first he had spoken the terms of his straight judgment, and the consummation of the marriage was now known, abided by it firmly throughout; nor did deadly fear move him, nor the heavy wrath of Aeetes come upon him, but he held them bound by unbreakable oaths. Therefore, when the Colchians learned that they pleaded in vain, and he bade them either abide by his judgment, or hold their ships far from his harbours and his land, then, trembling at the threats of their own king, they coaxed him to receive them as allies; and there in the island for a very long time they dwelt among the Phaeacian men, until the Bacchiadae, men of the race of Ephyra, settled among them after a time; and these to the island opposite went over; and from there they were to come to the Ceraunian mountains of the Abantes, and to the Nestaeans and Oricum; but these things happened in the full passing of time. And there to the Fates yearly sacrifices are still received, and the altars of the Nymphs of Nomius, at the shrine of Apollo, which Medea set up. And many gifts of hospitality Alcinous gave to the Minyae as they went, and many gave Arete; and besides she gave Medea twelve Phaeacian handmaids from her hall to follow her. And on the seventh day they left Drepane; and a fresh breeze came at dawn from Zeus; and they, urged on by the wind's blast, sped onward. But it was not yet fated that the heroes should set foot in Achaea, until they had toiled even at the bounds of Libya.

Already had they left behind the gulf named after the Ambracians, already the Curetian land, with sails spread wide, and the narrow Echinades islands one after another; and the land of Pelops had just come into view; and then a deadly storm of the north wind, snatching them up, into the midst of the Libyan sea for nine whole nights and as many days bore them, until they came right inside the Syrtis, from where there is no longer any return for ships, when one is forced into that gulf. For everywhere is shoal, everywhere the mossy thickets of the deep; and silently the foam of the water washes over them; and the misty sand stretches alongside; nor there does any creeping thing or winged thing rise up. There then the high tide— for indeed this water ebbs away from the mainland often, and again belches forth onto the shores, rushing fiercely as it comes—drove them swiftly into the innermost shore, and little of the keel was left in the water. And they leaped from the ship, and grief seized them as they beheld the air and the great expanse of land like the air, stretching far away unbroken; and no watering-place, no path, no steading of herdsmen did they descry afar, but all was held in a still calm. And one in his distress questioned another: "What land does this claim to be? Where have the storms driven us? Would that we had dared, heedless of deadly fear, to set out straight on through the way of the rocks. Surely, even going against the will of Zeus, it had been better to perish in some great enterprise. But now what could we do, held back by the winds to remain here even a little while? So desolate the edge of the boundless mainland stretches out."

So he spoke; and among them the steersman Ancaeus himself, in his helplessness at their plight, grieving, declared: "We are lost by a most dreadful doom, nor is there any escape from ruin; we must suffer the worst of evils, fallen upon this desolate place, even if the breezes should blow from the land; for I see the shoaly sea, looking far around on every side; and faintly the water combed up runs over the grey sands. And miserably long ago would this sacred ship have been broken far up on the dry land; but the high tide itself out of the sea carried it inland. But now the tide has rushed back to the deep, and only the brine, unnavigable, swirls, scarce covering the ground. Therefore I declare that all hope is cut off of voyage and of homecoming. Let some other show his skill; he may sit at the steering-oars, eager for our return. But Zeus is not willing to accomplish for us a day of homecoming after our toils."

So he spoke, weeping; and with him in his distress agreed all who had skill of ships; and in all their hearts were chilled, and pallor poured over their cheeks. And as men like to lifeless phantoms wander through a city, awaiting the end either of war or of pestilence, or some boundless rain that has washed away the countless works of oxen, or when of themselves the images stream with sweat, flowing with blood, and lowings are heard in the shrines, or when the sun at midday brings on night from heaven, and the bright stars shine through the air; so then the chieftains along the long beach wandered, crawling. And straightway dark evening came on. And piteously embracing one another they bade farewell with tears, that apart each one might breathe out his life, fallen upon the sands. And they went off this way and that, each to find a resting-place farther away; and wrapping their heads in their own robes, fasting and without food they lay all the night and the day, awaiting a most piteous death. And apart the maidens all together mourned over the daughter of Aeetes. And as forlorn unfledged nestlings, fallen outside a cleft of the rock from their hollow, cry shrilly; or as on the brows of fair-flowing Pactolus swans raise their song, and round about the dewy meadow and the fair streams of the river resound; so they, laying their golden hair in the dust, all night long lamented a piteous dirge. And there and then all would have departed from life, nameless and unknown to the men of the earth, the noblest of the heroes, with their task unaccomplished; but as they wasted in helplessness, they were pitied by the heroines, the guardians of Libya, who once, when Athena sprang all-gleaming from her father's head, met her and bathed her in the waters of Triton. It was midday, and the keenest rays of the sun scorched Libya; and they stood near to Aeson's son, and gently drew the robe from his head with their hands. But he turned his eyes back to the other side, in reverence for the divinities; and to him alone, openly, as he stood dismayed, with gentle words they spoke: "Ill-fated one, why are you so smitten with helplessness? We know that you went after the golden fleece; we know each thing of your toils, all that on the land, and all that on the wet sea, in your wanderings, you wrought, mighty deeds. We are the solitary earth-goddesses with human voice, the heroines, guardians and daughters of Libya. But rise; nor grieve so any longer in your misery; and rouse your comrades. And when Amphitrite shall at once loose the well-wheeled chariot of Poseidon, then repay to your mother a recompense for what she toiled, long bearing you in her belly; and so you may yet return to sacred Achaea."

So they spoke, and where they stood they vanished, even there, becoming all at once a voice nearby. But Jason, looking about, sat up upon the ground, and spoke thus: "Be gracious, glorious goddesses of the wilderness; but concerning our homecoming I do not at all understand the saying clearly. Truly I will gather my comrades into one and tell them, if perhaps some token of our return we may find; for the counsel of many is better."

He spoke, and springing up he called aloud to his comrades, grimy with dust, like a lion, which through the wood calls, seeking its mate; and at the deep voice the far-off glens tremble in the mountains; and in fear the field-oxen greatly shudder and the herdsmen of the oxen; but to these the voice was no terror, the voice of a comrade calling to his friends. And they gathered near, downcast; and he set them down, grieving as they were, near the mooring, mingled with the women, and spoke, telling them each thing: "Hear, friends. For as I grieved, three goddesses, girt with goatskins from the topmost neck about the back and the loins, like maidens, stood close above my head; and they uncovered me, drawing aside my robe with light hand, and bade me myself to rise, and rise and stir you to go; and to repay to your mother a fitting recompense for what she toiled long bearing us in her belly, whenever Amphitrite shall loose the well-wheeled chariot of Poseidon. But I cannot wholly understand this prophecy. They declared they were heroines, guardians and daughters of Libya; and all that we ourselves before, on the land and on the wet sea, endured, they vowed they knew, each thing. Nor did I see them any longer in that place, but some mist or cloud midway hid them as they shone."

So he spoke; and they all marvelled as they heard. Then the greatest of marvels befell the Minyae. Out of the sea onto the land a huge horse leaped, of monstrous size, tossing its golden mane upon its neck; and quickly shaking the streaming brine from its limbs it set off to run, swift as the wind in its feet. And at once Peleus, rejoicing, spoke among his gathered comrades: "The chariot of Poseidon, I declare, has now been loosed by the hands of his dear consort. And the mother I think to be none other than the ship herself; for surely, bearing us in her belly, she ever toils with grievous labours. But with unyielding strength and untiring shoulders let us lift her on high and carry her within the sandy land, where the swift-footed horse has gone on before. For he will not sink beneath the dry land; and his tracks, I think, will point us to some inlet above the level of the sea."

So he spoke; and the apt counsel pleased them all. This is the tale of the Muses; and I sing in obedience to the Pierides, and this report I have heard most truly, that you, O greatly mightiest sons of kings, by your might and valour, over the desolate sands of Libya, the ship and all that within the ship you carried, lifting them on your shoulders, bore them twelve whole days and nights together. But the misery and toil that they endured in their labour, who could tell? Surely they were of the blood of the immortals, such a task did they take up, constrained by necessity. But forward gladly, far away, to the waters of the Tritonian lake they bore her, and as they came they set her down from their stout shoulders.

Then, like raging dogs, they darted about in search of a spring; for upon them lay parching thirst with their misery and pains; nor did they fail in their wandering; they came to the sacred plain, where Ladon, the earthborn serpent, until but yesterday guarded the all-golden apples in the land of Atlas; and about him the nymphs, the Hesperides, busied themselves, singing a lovely song. But then by now, struck down by Heracles, he lay cast against the trunk of the apple-tree; only the very tip of his tail still quivered; but from his head down the dark length to his spine he lay lifeless; and from the leaving of the Lernaean hydra's bitter gall in the arrows the flies withered upon his rotting wounds. And near at hand the Hesperides, with their hands on their heads, their silvery arms on their golden hair, wailed shrilly; and the heroes drew near suddenly together; but they at once became dust and earth, as the men came up in haste, on the very spot. And Orpheus marked the divine portent, and with prayers he addressed them: "O divinities, fair and kindly, be gracious, queens, whether you are numbered among the heavenly goddesses, or the goddesses below, or are called solitary nymphs; come, O nymphs, sacred race of Ocean, appear face to face to us who long for you, and show us either some rocky outpouring of water, or some sacred stream of the earth, goddesses, gushing forth, with which we may quench our unceasing burning thirst. And if ever again we come back to the Achaean land in our voyaging, then countless gifts among the foremost of goddesses, libations and feasts, will we offer you in good will."

So he spoke in entreaty with a piteous voice; and they took pity on them as they grieved nearby; and indeed first of all they made grass spring up from the earth; and above the grass tall shoots sprang up; and then flourishing trees grew up far above the ground, standing upright. Hespere became a poplar, and Erytheis an elm; and Aegle a sacred willow-trunk. And from those trees, just as they had been, even so again unchanged they appeared, a wondrous marvel; and Aegle spoke with gentle words, answering their need: "Truly a great help to your toils has come hither, that most shameless one, who, robbing of life the guardian serpent, took up the all-golden apples of the goddesses, and is gone; and bitter grief is left to us. For yesterday there came a man most baneful in violence and in body; and his eyes flashed beneath his grim brow; pitiless; and about him was the hide of a monstrous lion, raw, untanned; and he carried a stout staff of olive and a bow, with which, shooting, he slew this monster. And he came, like one travelling the land on foot, parched with thirst; and he darted about this place, seeking water, which he was nowhere likely to see. But there is a certain rock near the Tritonian lake; this, marking it out, whether of his own thought or by some god's prompting, he struck below with his foot; and water gushed out in a flood. And he, leaning both hands and his breast on the ground, drank a vast draught from the cleft rock, until, like a beast at pasture falling upon it, he satisfied his deep belly."

So she spoke; and they ran gladly to the place where Aegle pointed them the spring, until they reached it. And as when about a narrow hole the earth-burrowing ants swarm in a throng, or as flies, settling about a small drop of sweet honey, cluster insatiably thick upon thick; so then in a body the Minyae crowded round the rocky spring. And one with moist lips said, rejoicing: "Strange! Even though absent, Heracles has saved his comrades worn out with thirst. Would that we might find him somehow as he goes through the mainland on his way." He spoke; and answering, those who were fit for this task were chosen, and darted off, each apart, to search. For the footprints had been blurred by the night winds that stirred the sand. The two sons of Boreas set out, trusting in their wings; and Euphemus, trusting in his light feet, and Lynceus, to cast his keen eyes far off; and fifth among them Canthus sped. Him the doom of the gods and his own valour stirred to that road, that he might learn unerringly from Heracles where he had left Polyphemus son of Eilatus; for he cared to inquire of each thing concerning his own comrade. But he indeed, having founded a famous city among the Mysians, went in his concern for the homeward voyage, seeking Argo far away through the mainland; and at length he came to the land of the sea-bordering Chalybes; and there Fate subdued him. And under a tall white poplar a tomb is set up for him, a little in front of the sea. But then Lynceus alone thought he saw Heracles far off over the boundless land, seeing him as one on the first day of the month sees the moon, or thinks he sees it through cloud. And going back to his comrades he told them that no other searcher going forth would overtake him; and they too came back, both swift-footed Euphemus and the two sons of Thracian Boreas, having toiled in vain.

But you, Canthus, the deadly Fates took in Libya. You met flocks at pasture; and there followed a man, their shepherd, who, while you would bring them to your comrades in their need, defending his own sheep, slew you, striking you with a stone; for he was no weakling, the grandson of Phoebus Lycoreius, Caphaurus, and of modest Acacallis, whom once Minos sent away to Libya, bearing the heavy seed of the god, his own daughter; and she bore a splendid son to Phoebus, whom they call Amphithemis and Garamas. And Amphithemis then lay with a Tritonian nymph; and she bore him Nasamon and strong Caphaurus, who then slew Canthus over his sheep. Nor did he escape the harsh hands of the chieftains, when they learned what he had done. And the corpse afterward they took up, the Minyae, when they had learned, and buried it in the earth, mourning; and the flocks they brought back with them.

There too on the same day a pitiless doom seized the son of Ampycus, Mopsus; nor did he escape his bitter fate by his prophecies; for there is no turning aside of death. There lay upon the sands, shunning the midday heat, a dread serpent, sluggish indeed to harm one who is unwilling, nor would it dart at one who shrank back in fear. But into whomever, of all the living things that the life-giving earth nourishes with breath, it first should send its black venom, the road to Hades was not so much as a cubit; no, not if Paean—if it is right for me to say it openly— should heal him, if only it had grazed him with its teeth. For when godlike Perseus flew over Libya, Eurymedon—for by that name too his mother called him— bearing to the king the freshly severed head of the Gorgon, all the drops of dark blood that fell to the ground sprang up into a brood of those serpents. On the tip of its spine Mopsus set his left foot, putting it forward; and it, twisting in agony, bit and tore the muscle and the flesh of the middle of his shin. And Medea and the other handmaids fled in terror; but he stroked the bloody wound boldly, for no overwhelming pain yet tormented him. Wretched one! Already beneath his skin there crept a deadly limb-loosening torpor, and a great mist poured over his eyes. And straightway sinking down on the ground, his limbs grown heavy, he grew cold in helplessness; and his comrades gathered round him, and the hero Aeson's son, amazed at the bitter calamity. Nor even for a little while, though dead, was he to lie beneath the sun. For the venom at once made his flesh rot within, and the hair, dissolving, fell from his skin. And quickly with bronze mattocks they dug a deep grave in haste; and they tore their hair, themselves and the maidens, mourning piteously for the dead man who had suffered so; and three times marching round him with their arms, having duly given him funeral rites, they laid him beneath a heaped mound of earth.

But when they had embarked upon the ship, as the south wind blew over the sea, and they sought out the passages to come out of the Tritonian lake, having no plan for a long while, but heedlessly all the day they were borne about. And as a serpent goes its winding way, when the keenest blaze of the sun warms it, and with a hiss it turns its head this way and that, and its eyes flash like sparks of fire as it rages, until it slips into its hole through a cleft; so Argo, seeking the navigable mouth of the lake, wandered about for a long time. And at once Orpheus bade them set Apollo's great tripod outside the ship to the native gods, as an offering for their homecoming. And they set down the treasure of Phoebus, stepping onto the land; and to them, in the likeness of a youth, there appeared broad-mighty Triton, and lifting up a clod of earth he held it out as a guest-gift to the chieftains, and spoke: "Take it, friends; since I have here no surpassing guest-gift to give you now as you meet me. But if you seek the passages of this sea, such things as men often need when they journey in a foreign land, I will tell you. For my father Poseidon has made me to be knowing of this sea. And I rule the coast, if you have heard, dwelling far off, of Eurypylus, born in Libya, the nurse of wild beasts."

So he spoke; and Euphemus readily held out his hands for the clod, and spoke thus in answer: "If you know aught, hero, of Apis and the Minoan sea, tell us truly as we ask. For not willingly do we come hither, but driven by heavy storms onto the bounds of this land, we carried our ship aloft into this stream of the lake across the mainland, weighed down; nor do we at all know where the voyage leads out to reach the land of Pelops."

So he spoke; and Triton stretched out his hand, and pointed afar, speaking, to the sea and the deep mouth of the lake: "That is the outlet of the sea, where most the unmoving deep grows dark; on either side white breakers bristle, gleaming; and between the breakers a narrow path lies to drive out. And that sea, stretching up misty, into the sacred land of Pelops extends, beyond Crete; but, keeping to your right hand, when from the lake you cast into the swell of the sea, hold your course close along the shore, as long as it stretches upward; but where the land, sloping round, bends to the other side, then your voyage is safe as you go straight from the jutting headland. But go gladly, and let no weariness be your grief, that your limbs, in the flower of youth, must toil."

He spoke kindly; and they at once went aboard the ship, eager to come out of the lake by rowing. And they sped on eagerly; but meanwhile Triton, taking up the great tripod, was seen to go down into the lake; and afterward no one saw him, so suddenly he vanished, with the tripod, close at hand. And their hearts were warmed, that one of the blessed gods had met them auspiciously. And they bade Aeson's son slay the best of the sheep of all the others and pray, when he had taken it. And quickly he chose one in haste, and lifting it up he slew it over the stern, and spoke with prayers: "Divinity, whoever you are who appeared on the bounds of this lake, whether men call you Triton, the sea-marvel, or Phorcys, or the daughters of Nereus, the brides of the sea, be gracious, and grant a sweet end to our homecoming."

He spoke, and with his prayers, cutting its throat, into the water he cast it from the stern; and the god rose up from the deep, such as in truth he was to behold. And as when a man sends a swift horse into the broad ring of the contest, grasping its shaggy and obedient mane, and runs along beside it, while it, lifting its neck proudly, follows, and the bright bits in its mouth clatter, champed on either side as it bites them; so he, grasping the keel of the hollow Argo, led it on to the sea. And his body, from the topmost head, about his back and his loins down to the belly, was utterly like the blessed gods in its wondrous form; but below his flanks the forked tail of a sea-monster stretched out on this side and that; and he beat the surface of the water with its spines, which below divided into curving forks like the horns of the moon. And he led her on, until he sent her on her way into the sea; and quickly he sank into the great depth; and the heroes shouted, beholding the dread marvel with their eyes.

There is the Argoan harbour, and the tokens of the ship, and the altars of Poseidon and of Triton; for that day they tarried. But at dawn, with sails spread, keeping the desolate land on their right, they sped on with the blast of the west wind. And next at dawn they saw both the headland and the inmost sea lying beyond the jutting cape. And at once the west wind ceased, and there came the breeze of the clear south wind; and they rejoiced in their hearts at its voice. And when the sun set, and there rose the star of the fold, which gives rest to the wretched ploughmen, then, as the wind dropped in the dark night, they loosed the sails and lowered the tall mast, and laboured at the well-polished oars all night long and through the day, and on the next day again through another oncoming night. And far off rugged Carpathos received them; and from there they were to cross over to Crete, which rose above the other islands in the sea. But Talos of bronze, breaking off rocks from the stout crag, kept them from making fast their cables to the land, as they came down to the Dictaean roadstead of the harbour. He was of the bronze race of the men sprung from ash-trees, the last left among the demigod men, whom the son of Cronos gave to Europa to be the guardian of the island, to circle Crete three times a day on his bronze feet. Now all the rest of his body and his limbs were wrought of bronze and unbreakable; but beneath the tendon at his ankle was a blood-red duct; and this, with its thin membrane, held the bounds of life and death. And they, though sorely wearied with toil, at once from the land drew back the ship in fear, backing water with their oars. And miserably would they have been carried far from Crete, toiling both with thirst and with their pains, had not Medea spoken to them as they drew away: "Hear me. For I alone, I think, can subdue for you that man, whoever he is, even though he holds a body all of bronze, unless his life be unwearied. But keep the ship here, willingly, out of range of the rocks, until he yields to be subdued by me."

So she spoke; and they drew the ship back out of range of his missiles on their oars, awaiting what plan she would work unlooked-for; and she, holding a fold of her purple robe before her cheeks on either side, stepped onto the deck; and clasping her hand with his, Aeson's son led her as she went along the benches. There with songs she sought to please, and chanted to the Fates, the devourers of the soul, the swift hounds of Hades, who through all the air, wheeling about, fall upon the living. Kneeling, three times she called on them in songs, three times in prayers; and setting an evil purpose, with hostile eyes she bewitched the eyes of Talos of bronze; and against him she gnashed her baleful wrath, and sent forth destroying phantoms, raging with fury.

Father Zeus, truly great wonder rises in my mind, if indeed not only by diseases and wounds does ruin come upon us, but someone even from afar can do us harm. So he, though of bronze, yielded to be subdued by the might of much-drugged Medea. And as he lifted heavy stones to keep them from reaching the harbour, he grazed his ankle on a pointed rock; and the ichor flowed from him like molten lead; nor long did he stand, leaning upon the jutting crag. But as some huge pine high in the mountains, which woodmen, leaving it half-cut by their sharp axes, have come down from the forest; and it in the night first is shaken by gusts, and afterward breaks off at the base and falls; so he upon his tireless feet for a while stood swaying upright, and then again, strengthless, fell with an immense crash.

So that night the heroes lodged there in Crete; and after, as the dawn was newly shining, they set up a shrine to Minoan Athena, and drew water and went aboard, that they might first of all ply their oars beyond the headland of Salmone. But at once, as they sped over the great Cretan gulf, night frightened them, that which they call the shroud of darkness; no stars pierced that deadly night, nor the gleams of the moon; but from heaven was black chaos, or some other darkness rose up out of the innermost abysses. And they themselves knew not at all whether they were borne in Hades or on the waters; and they entrusted to the sea their homecoming in helplessness, not knowing where it would carry them. But Jason, lifting up his hands, with a great voice cried to Phoebus, calling on him to save them; and tears streamed down in his distress; and he promised many gifts to Pytho, many to Amyclae, many beyond measure to bring to Ortygia. Son of Leto, swiftly you came down from heaven to the Melantian rocks, which lie in the sea, keen to hear; and leaping upon one of the two, you held aloft in your right hand your golden bow; and the bow flashed a gleaming radiance all about. And to them then a small island of the Sporades appeared to see, opposite the little isle of Hippuris, where they cast anchor and stayed; and at once Dawn shone, rising; and they made for Apollo a splendid precinct in a shady grove, and a shadowy altar, calling on Phoebus the Gleamer for the sake of the watchful gleam; and they named the smooth island Anaphe, since Phoebus had revealed it to them in their dismay. And they offered all that men can make ready to offer on a desolate shore; and so, when with brands they saw them pouring water as libations on the blazing offerings, the Phaeacian handmaids of Medea could no longer hold back the laughter in their breasts, since they had often seen the slaughter of oxen in the house of Alcinous. And the heroes pelted them with shameful words in mockery, glad; and a sweet wrangling kindled among them, and gibing strife. And from that song of the heroes on the island even now in like manner the women contend with the men, whenever with sacrifices they propitiate Apollo the Gleamer, the guardian of Anaphe.

But when from there too they loosed the cables in fair weather, then Euphemus remembered a dream of the night, in reverence for the glorious son of Maia. For it seemed to him that the divine clod, held at his breast in the crook of his arm, was being watered with white drops of milk, and that from the clod, small though it was, there came a woman like a maiden; and joined with her in love he was, in unbearable desire; and he lamented as though he had wedded a girl whom he himself had reared on his own milk; but she comforted him with gentle words: "I am of the race of Triton, the nurse, dear friend, of your children, not a girl; for Triton and Libya are my parents. But set me with the daughters of Nereus, to dwell in the sea near Anaphe; and I will come back to the rays of the sun hereafter, ready for your descendants."

This his heart laid up in memory, and he told it to Aeson's son; and he then, pondering in his mind the prophecies of the Far-darter, lifted up his voice and spoke: "Good friend, truly a great and splendid glory has fallen to you. For the gods will make of this clod, when you cast it into the sea, an island, where the children of your children shall dwell; for Triton gave it you as a guest-gift, this portion of the Libyan mainland. No other of the immortals than he, who met you, gave it."

So he spoke; nor did Euphemus make void the answer of Aeson's son; but, gladdened by the prophecies, he cast the clod into the deep. And from it rose an island, Calliste, the sacred nurse of the children of Euphemus, who before once dwelt in Sintian Lemnos, and being driven out of Lemnos by Tyrrhenian men came to Sparta as guests; and from Sparta, when they left it, the goodly son of Autesion, Theras, led them to the fair island, and it changed its name to Thera from him. But these things happened after the time of Euphemus.

From there, leaving behind countless swell of the sea, they stayed upon the shores of Aegina; and at once they contended in a blameless strife for the drawing of water, who, having filled, should first reach the ship. For both need and the boundless breeze urged them on. There even now the youths of the Myrmidons, lifting brimming jars upon their shoulders, with light feet contend in a contest for victory.

Be gracious, race of the chieftains, the blessed; and may these songs from year to year be sweeter to sing to men. For now I come to the glorious end of your toils; since no contest befell you any longer as you returned again from Aegina, nor did blasts of winds withstand you; but at your ease, having measured the Cecropian land and Aulis within Euboea, and the Opuntian cities of the Locrians, gladly you stepped upon the Pagasaean shores.