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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Golden Fleece and The Heroes Who Lived
+Before Achilles by Padraic Colum
+
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no
+restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under
+the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or
+online at http://www.gutenberg.org/license
+
+
+
+Title: The Golden Fleece and The Heroes Who Lived Before Achilles
+
+Author: Padraic Colum
+
+Release Date: October 29, 2011 [Ebook #37881]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF‐8
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GOLDEN FLEECE AND THE HEROES WHO LIVED BEFORE ACHILLES***
+
+
+
+
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+                             Jason and Medea
+
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+                            The Golden Fleece
+                            and the Heroes Who
+                          Lived before Achilles
+
+
+                             By Padraig Colum
+                      Illustrations by Willy Pogany
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                                   1921
+                     The Macmillan Company, New York
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                                    to
+                             the children of
+                        Susan and Llewellyn Jones
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+Part I. The Voyage to Colchis
+   I. The Youth Jason
+   II. King Pelias
+   III. The Golden Fleece
+   IV. The Assembling of the Heroes and the Building of the Ship
+   V. The _Argo_
+      The Beginning of Things
+   VI. Polydeuces’ Victory and Heracles’ Loss
+   VII. King Phineus
+   VIII. King Phineus’s Counsel; The Landing in Lemnos
+   IX. The Lemnian Maidens
+      Demeter and Persephone
+      Atalanta’s Race
+   X. The Departure from Lemnos
+      The Golden Maid
+   XI. The Passage of the Symplegades
+   XII. The Mountain Caucasus
+      Prometheus
+Part II. The Return to Greece
+   I. King Æetes
+   II. Medea the Sorceress
+   III. The Winning of the Golden Fleece
+   IV. The Slaying of Apsyrtus
+   V. Medea Comes to Circe
+   VI. In the Land of the Phæacians
+   VII. They Come to the Desert Land
+   VIII. The Carrying of the Argo
+      The Story of Perseus
+   IX. Near to Iolcus Again
+Part III. The Heroes of the Quest
+   I. Atalanta the Huntress
+   II. Peleus and His Bride from the Sea
+   III. Theseus and the Minotaur
+   IV. The Life and Labors of Heracles
+      The Battle of the Frogs and Mice
+   V. Admetus
+   VI. How Orpheus the Minstrel Went Down to the World of the Dead
+   VII. Jason and Medea
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+Jason and Medea
+the _Argo_
+Hylas
+Persephone and Aidoneus
+Atalanta’s Last Race
+Prometheus
+The Field of the Dragon’s Teeth
+Perseus and Andromeda
+
+
+
+
+
+
+PART I. THE VOYAGE TO COLCHIS
+
+
+
+
+I. The Youth Jason
+
+
+
+[Decorative first letter]
+_A_ MAN in the garb of a slave went up the side of that mountain that is
+all covered with forest, the Mountain Pelion. He carried in his arms a
+little child.
+
+  When it was full noon the slave came into a clearing of the forest so
+silent that it seemed empty of all life. He laid the child down on the
+soft moss, and then, trembling with the fear of what might come before
+him, he raised a horn to his lips and blew three blasts upon it.
+
+  Then he waited. The blue sky was above him, the great trees stood away
+from him, and the little child lay at his feet. He waited, and then he
+heard the thud-thud of great hooves. And then from between the trees he
+saw coming toward him the strangest of all beings, one who was half man
+and half horse; this was Chiron the centaur.
+
+  Chiron came toward the trembling slave. Greater than any horse was
+Chiron, taller than any man. The hair of his head flowed back into his
+horse’s mane, his great beard flowed over his horse’s chest; in his man’s
+hand he held a great spear.
+
+  Not swiftly he came, but the slave could see that in those great limbs
+of his there was speed like to the wind’s. The slave fell upon his knees.
+And with eyes that were full of majesty and wisdom and limbs that were
+full of strength and speed, the king-centaur stood above him. “O my lord,”
+the slave said, “I have come before thee sent by Æson, my master, who told
+me where to come and what blasts to blow upon the horn. And Æson, once
+King of Iolcus, bade me say to thee that if thou dost remember his ancient
+friendship with thee thou wilt, perchance, take this child and guard and
+foster him, and, as he grows, instruct him with thy wisdom.”
+
+  “For Æson’s sake I will rear and foster this child,” said Chiron the
+king-centaur in a deep voice.
+
+  The child lying on the moss had been looking up at the four-footed and
+two-handed centaur. Now the slave lifted him up and placed him in the
+centaur’s arms. He said:
+
+  “Æson bade me tell thee that the child’s name is Jason. He bade me give
+thee this ring with the great ruby in it that thou mayst give it to the
+child when he is grown. By this ring with its ruby and the images engraved
+on it Æson may know his son when they meet after many years and many
+changes. And another thing Æson bade me say to thee, O my lord Chiron: not
+presumptuous is he, but he knows that this child has the regard of the
+immortal Goddess Hera, the wife of Zeus.”
+
+  Chiron held Æson’s son in his arms, and the little child put hands into
+his great beard. Then the centaur said, “Let Æson know that his son will
+be reared and fostered by me, and that, when they meet again, there will
+be ways by which they will be known to each other.”
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+  Saying this Chiron the centaur, holding the child in his arms, went
+swiftly toward the forest arches; then the slave took up the horn and went
+down the side of the Mountain Pelion. He came to where a horse was hidden,
+and he mounted and rode, first to a city, and then to a village that was
+beyond the city.
+
+
+
+  All this was before the famous walls of Troy were built; before King
+Priam had come to the throne of his father and while he was still known,
+not as Priam, but as Podarces. And the beginning of all these happenings
+was in Iolcus, a city in Thessaly.
+
+  Cretheus founded the city and had ruled over it in days before King
+Priam was born. He left two sons, Æson and Pelias. Æson succeeded his
+father. And because he was a mild and gentle man the men of war did not
+love Æson; they wanted a hard king who would lead them to conquests.
+
+  Pelias, the brother of Æson, was ever with the men of war; he knew what
+mind they had toward Æson and he plotted with them to overthrow his
+brother. This they did, and they brought Pelias to reign as king in
+Iolcus.
+
+  The people loved Æson and they feared Pelias. And because the people
+loved him and would be maddened by his slaying, Pelias and the men of war
+left him living. With his wife, Alcimide, and his infant son, Æson went
+from the city, and in a village that was at a distance from Iolcus he
+found a hidden house and went to dwell in it.
+
+  Æson would have lived content there were it not that he was fearful for
+Jason, his infant son. Jason, he knew, would grow into a strong and a bold
+youth, and Pelias, the king, would be made uneasy on his account. Pelias
+would slay the son, and perhaps would slay the father for the son’s sake
+when his memory would come to be less loved by the people. Æson thought of
+such things in his hidden house, and he pondered on ways to have his son
+reared away from Iolcus and the dread and the power of King Pelias.
+
+  He had for a friend one who was the wisest of all creatures—Chiron the
+centaur; Chiron who was half man and half horse; Chiron who had lived and
+was yet to live measureless years. Chiron had fostered Heracles, and it
+might be that he would not refuse to foster Jason, Æson’s child.
+
+  Away in the fastnesses of Mount Pelion Chiron dwelt; once Æson had been
+with him and had seen the centaur hunt with his great bow and his great
+spears. And Æson knew a way that one might come to him; Chiron himself had
+told him of the way.
+
+  Now there was a slave in his house who had been a huntsman and who knew
+all the ways of the Mountain Pelion. Æson talked with this slave one day,
+and after he had talked with him he sat for a long time over the cradle of
+his sleeping infant. And then he spoke to Alcimide, his wife, telling her
+of a parting that made her weep. That evening the slave came in and Æson
+took the child from the arms of the mournful-eyed mother and put him in
+the slave’s arms. Also he gave him a horn and a ring with a great ruby in
+it and mystic images engraved on its gold. Then when the ways were dark
+the slave mounted a horse, and, with the child in his arms, rode through
+the city that King Pelias ruled over. In the morning he came to that
+mountain that is all covered with forest, the Mountain Pelion. And that
+evening he came back to the village and to Æson’s hidden house, and he
+told his master how he had prospered.
+
+  Æson was content thereafter although he was lonely and although his wife
+was lonely in their childlessness. But the time came when they rejoiced
+that their child had been sent into an unreachable place. For messengers
+from King Pelias came inquiring about the boy. They told the king’s
+messengers that the child had strayed off from his nurse, and that whether
+he had been slain by a wild beast or had been drowned in the swift River
+Anaurus they did not know.
+
+  The years went by and Pelias felt secure upon the throne he had taken
+from his brother. Once he sent to the oracle of the gods to ask of it
+whether he should be fearful of anything. What the oracle answered was
+this: that King Pelias had but one thing to dread—the coming of a
+half-shod man.
+
+  The centaur nourished the child Jason on roots and fruits and honey; for
+shelter they had a great cave that Chiron had lived in for numberless
+years. When he had grown big enough to leave the cave Chiron would let
+Jason mount on his back; with the child holding on to his great mane he
+would trot gently through the ways of the forest.
+
+  Jason began to know the creatures of the forest and their haunts.
+Sometimes Chiron would bring his great bow with him; then Jason, on his
+back, would hold the quiver and would hand him the arrows. The centaur
+would let the boy see him kill with a single arrow the bear, the boar, or
+the deer. And soon Jason, running beside him, hunted too.
+
+  No heroes were ever better trained than those whose childhood and youth
+had been spent with Chiron the king-centaur. He made them more swift of
+foot than any other of the children of men. He made them stronger and more
+ready with the spear and bow. Jason was trained by Chiron as Heracles just
+before him had been trained, and as Achilles was to be trained afterward.
+
+  Moreover, Chiron taught him the knowledge of the stars and the wisdom
+that had to do with the ways of the gods.
+
+  Once, when they were hunting together, Jason saw a form at the end of an
+alley of trees—the form of a woman it was—of a woman who had on her head a
+shining crown. Never had Jason dreamt of seeing a form so wondrous. Not
+very near did he come, but he thought he knew that the woman smiled upon
+him. She was seen no more, and Jason knew that he had looked upon one of
+the immortal goddesses.
+
+  All day Jason was filled with thought of her whom he had seen. At night,
+when the stars were out, and when they were seated outside the cave,
+Chiron and Jason talked together, and Chiron told the youth that she whom
+he had seen was none other than Hera, the wife of Zeus, who had for his
+father Æson and for himself an especial friendliness.
+
+  So Jason grew up upon the mountain and in the forest fastnesses. When he
+had reached his full height and had shown himself swift in the hunt and
+strong with the spear and bow, Chiron told him that the time had come when
+he should go back to the world of men and make his name famous by the
+doing of great deeds.
+
+  And when Chiron told him about his father Æson—about how he had been
+thrust out of the kingship by Pelias, his uncle—a great longing came upon
+Jason to see his father and a fierce anger grew up in his heart against
+Pelias.
+
+  Then the time came when he bade good-by to Chiron his great instructor;
+the time came when he went from the centaur’s cave for the last time, and
+went through the wooded ways and down the side of the Mountain Pelion. He
+came to the river, to the swift Anaurus, and he found it high in flood.
+The stones by which one might cross were almost all washed over; far apart
+did they seem in the flood.
+
+  Now as he stood there pondering on what he might do there came up to him
+an old woman who had on her back a load of brushwood. “Wouldst thou
+cross?” asked the old woman. “Wouldst thou cross and get thee to the city
+of Iolcus, Jason, where so many things await thee?”
+
+  Greatly was the youth astonished to hear his name spoken by this old
+woman, and to hear her give the name of the city he was bound for.
+“Wouldst thou cross the Anaurus?” she asked again. “Then mount upon my
+back, holding on to the wood I carry, and I will bear thee over the
+river.”
+
+  Jason smiled. How foolish this old woman was to think that she could
+bear him across the flooded river! She came near him and she took him in
+her arms and lifted him up on her shoulders. Then, before he knew what she
+was about to do, she had stepped into the water.
+
+  From stone to stepping-stone she went, Jason holding on to the wood that
+she had drawn to her shoulders. She left him down upon the bank. As she
+was lifting him down one of his feet touched the water; the swift current
+swept away a sandal.
+
+  He stood on the bank knowing that she who had carried him across the
+flooded river had strength from the gods. He looked upon her, and behold!
+she was transformed. Instead of an old woman there stood before him one
+who had on a golden robe and a shining crown. Around her was a wondrous
+light—the light of the sun when it is most golden. Then Jason knew that
+she who had carried him across the broad Anaurus was the goddess whom he
+had seen in the ways of the forest—Hera, great Zeus’s wife.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+  “Go into Iolcus, Jason,” said great Hera to him, “go into Iolcus, and in
+whatever chance doth befall thee act as one who has the eyes of the
+immortals upon him.”
+
+  She spoke and she was seen no more. Then Jason went on his way to the
+city that Cretheus, his grandfather, had founded and that his father Æson
+had once ruled over. He came into that city, a tall, great-limbed, unknown
+youth, dressed in a strange fashion, and having but one sandal on.
+
+
+
+
+II. King Pelias
+
+
+
+[Decorative first letter]
+_T_HAT day King Pelias, walking through the streets of his city, saw
+coming toward him a youth who was half shod. He remembered the words of
+the oracle that bade him beware of a half-shod man, and straightway he
+gave orders to his guards to lay hands upon the youth.
+
+  But the guards wavered when they went toward him, for there was
+something about the youth that put them in awe of him. He came with the
+guards, however, and he stood before the king’s judgment seat.
+
+  Fearfully did Pelias look upon him. But not fearfully did the youth look
+upon the king. With head lifted high he cried out, “Thou art Pelias, but I
+do not salute thee as king. Know that I am Jason, the son of Æson from
+whom thou hast taken the throne and scepter that were rightfully his.”
+
+  King Pelias looked to his guards. He would have given them a sign to
+destroy the youth’s life with their spears, but behind his guards he saw a
+threatening multitude—the dwellers of the city of Iolcus; they gathered
+around, and Pelias knew that he had become more and more hated by them.
+And from the multitude a cry went up, “Æson, Æson! May Æson come back to
+us! Jason, son of Æson! May nothing evil befall thee, brave youth!”
+
+  Then Pelias knew that the youth might not be slain. He bent his head
+while he plotted against him in his heart. Then he raised his eyes, and
+looking upon Jason he said, “O goodly youth, it well may be that thou art
+the son of Æson, my brother. I am well pleased to see thee here. I have
+had hopes that I might be friends with Æson, and thy coming here may be
+the means to the renewal of our friendship. We two brothers may come
+together again. I will send for thy father now, and he will be brought to
+meet thee in my royal palace. Go with my guards and with this rejoicing
+people, and in a little while thou and I and thy father Æson will sit at a
+feast of friends.”
+
+  So Pelias said, and Jason went with the guards and the crowd of people,
+and he came to the palace of the king and he was brought within. The maids
+led him to the bath and gave him new robes to wear. Dressed in these Jason
+looked a prince indeed.
+
+  But all that while King Pelias remained on his judgment seat with his
+crowned head bent down. When he raised his head his dark brows were
+gathered together and his thin lips were very close. He looked to the
+swords and spears of his guards, and he made a sign to the men to stand
+close to him. Then he left the judgment seat and he went to the palace.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+III. The Golden Fleece
+
+
+
+[Decorative first letter]
+_T_HEY brought Jason into a hall where Æson, his father, waited. Very
+strange did this old and grave-looking man appear to him. But when Æson
+spoke, Jason remembered the tone of his father’s voice and he clasped him
+to him. And his father knew him even without the sight of the ruby ring
+which Jason had upon his finger.
+
+  Then the young man began to tell of the centaur and of his life upon the
+Mountain Pelion. As they were speaking together Pelias came to where they
+stood, Pelias in the purple robe of a king and with the crown upon his
+head. Æson tightly clasped Jason as if he had become fearful for his son.
+Pelias smilingly took the hand of the young man and the hand of his
+brother, and he bade them both welcome to his palace.
+
+  Then, walking between them, the king brought the two into the feasting
+hall. The youth who had known only the forest and the mountainside had to
+wonder at the beauty and the magnificence of all he saw around him. On the
+walls were bright pictures; the tables were of polished wood, and they had
+vessels of gold and dishes of silver set upon them; along the walls were
+vases of lovely shapes and colors, and everywhere there were baskets
+heaped with roses white and red.
+
+  The king’s guests were already in the hall, young men and elders, and
+maidens went amongst them carrying roses which they strung into wreaths
+for the guests to put upon their heads. A soft-handed maiden gave Jason a
+wreath of roses and he put it on his head as he sat down at the king’s
+table. When he looked at all the rich and lovely things in that hall, and
+when he saw the guests looking at him with friendly eyes, Jason felt that
+he was indeed far away from the dim spaces of the mountain forest and from
+the darkness of the centaur’s cave.
+
+  Rich food and wine such as he had never dreamt of tasting were brought
+to the tables. He ate and drank, and his eyes followed the fair maidens
+who went through the hall. He thought how glorious it was to be a king. He
+heard Pelias speak to Æson, his father, telling him that he was old and
+that he was weary of ruling; that he longed to make friends, and that he
+would let no enmity now be between him and his brother. And he heard the
+king say that he, Jason, was young and courageous, and that he would call
+upon him to help to rule the land, and that, in a while, Jason would bear
+full sway over the kingdom that Cretheus had founded.
+
+  So Pelias spoke to Æson as they both sat together at the king’s high
+table. But Jason, looking on them both, saw that the eyes that his father
+turned on him were full of warnings and mistrust.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+  After they had eaten King Pelias made a sign, and a cup-bearer bringing
+a richly wrought cup came and stood before the king. The king stood up,
+holding the cup in his hands, and all in the hall waited silently. Then
+Pelias put the cup into Jason’s hands and he cried out in a voice that was
+heard all through the hall, “Drink from this cup, O nephew Jason! Drink
+from this cup, O man who will soon come to rule over the kingdom that
+Cretheus founded!”
+
+  All in the hall stood up and shouted with delight at that speech. But
+the king was not delighted with their delight, Jason saw. He took the cup
+and he drank the rich wine; pride grew in him; he looked down the hall and
+he saw faces all friendly to him; he felt as a king might feel, secure and
+triumphant. And then he heard King Pelias speaking once more.
+
+  “This is my nephew Jason, reared and fostered in the centaur’s cave. He
+will tell you of his life in the forest and the mountains—his life that
+was like to the life of the half gods.”
+
+  Then Jason spoke to them, telling them of his life on the Mountain
+Pelion. When he had spoken, Pelias said:
+
+  “I was bidden by the oracle to beware of the man whom I should see
+coming toward me half shod. But, as you all see, I have brought the
+half-shod man to my palace and my feasting hall, so little do I dread the
+anger of the gods.
+
+  “And I dread it little because I am blameless. This youth, the son of my
+brother, is strong and courageous, and I rejoice in his strength and
+courage, for I would have him take my place and reign over you. Ah, that I
+were as young as he is now! Ah, that I had been reared and fostered as he
+was reared and fostered by the wise centaur and under the eyes of the
+immortals! Then would I do that which in my youth I often dreamed of
+doing! Then would I perform a deed that would make my name and the name of
+my city famous throughout all Greece! Then would I bring from far Colchis
+the famous Fleece of Gold that King Æetes keeps guard over!”
+
+  He finished speaking, and all in the hall shouted out, “The Golden
+Fleece, the Golden Fleece from Colchis!” Jason stood up, and his father’s
+hand gripped him. But he did not heed the hold of his father’s hand, for
+“The Golden Fleece, the Golden Fleece!” rang in his ears, and before his
+eyes were the faces of those who were all eager for the sight of the
+wonder that King Æetes kept guard over.
+
+  Then said Jason, “Thou hast spoken well, O King Pelias! Know, and know
+all here assembled, that I have heard of the Golden Fleece and of the
+dangers that await on any one who should strive to win it from King
+Æetes’s care. But know, too, that I would strive to win the Fleece and
+bring it to Iolcus, winning fame both for myself and for the city.”
+
+  When he had spoken he saw his father’s stricken eyes; they were fixed
+upon him. But he looked from them to the shining eyes of the young men who
+were even then pressing around where he stood. “Jason, Jason!” they
+shouted. “The Golden Fleece for Iolcus!”
+
+  “King Pelias knows that the winning of the Golden Fleece is a feat most
+difficult,” said Jason. “But if he will have built for me a ship that can
+make the voyage to far Colchis, and if he will send throughout all Greece
+the word of my adventuring so that all the heroes who would win fame might
+come with me, and if ye, young heroes of Iolcus, will come with me, I will
+peril my life to win the wonder that King Æetes keeps guard over.”
+
+  He spoke and those in the hall shouted again and made clamor around him.
+But still his father sat gazing at him with stricken eyes.
+
+  King Pelias stood up in the hall and holding up his scepter he said, “O
+my nephew Jason, and O friends assembled here, I promise that I will have
+built for the voyage the best ship that ever sailed from a harbor in
+Greece. And I promise that I will send throughout all Greece a word
+telling of Jason’s voyage so that all heroes desirous of winning fame may
+come to help him and to help all of you who may go with him to win from
+the keeping of King Æetes the famous Fleece of Gold.”
+
+  So King Pelias said, but Jason, looking to the king from his father’s
+stricken eyes, saw that he had been led by the king into the acceptance of
+the voyage so that he might fare far from Iolcus, and perhaps lose his
+life in striving to gain the wonder that King Æetes kept guarded. By the
+glitter in Pelias’s eyes he knew the truth. Nevertheless Jason would not
+take back one word that he had spoken; his heart was strong within him,
+and he thought that with the help of the bright-eyed youths around and
+with the help of those who would come to him at the word of the voyage, he
+would bring the Golden Fleece to Iolcus and make famous for all time his
+own name.
+
+
+
+
+IV. The Assembling of the Heroes and the Building of the Ship
+
+
+
+[Decorative first letter]
+_F_IRST there came the youths CASTOR and POLYDEUCES. They came riding on
+white horses, two noble-looking brothers. From Sparta they came, and their
+mother was Leda, who, after the twin brothers, had another child born to
+her—Helen, for whose sake the sons of many of Jason’s friends were to wage
+war against the great city of Troy. These were the first heroes who came
+to Iolcus after the word had gone forth through Greece of Jason’s
+adventuring in quest of the Golden Fleece.
+
+  And then there came one who had both welcome and reverence from Jason;
+this one came without spear or bow, bearing in his hands a lyre only. He
+was ORPHEUS, and he knew all the ways of the gods and all the stories of
+the gods; when he sang to his lyre the trees would listen and the beasts
+would follow him. It was Chiron who had counseled Orpheus to go with
+Jason; Chiron the centaur had met him as he was wandering through the
+forests on the Mountain Pelion and had sent him down into Iolcus.
+
+  Then there came two men well skilled in the handling of ships—TIPHYS and
+NAUPLIUS. Tiphys knew all about the sun and winds and stars, and all about
+the signs by which a ship might be steered, and Nauplius had the love of
+Poseidon, the god of the sea.
+
+  Afterward there came, one after the other, two who were famous for their
+hunting. No two could be more different than these two were. The first was
+ARCAS. He was dressed in the skin of a bear; he had red hair and
+savage-looking eyes, and for arms he carried a mighty bow with
+bronze-tipped arrows. The folk were watching an eagle as he came into the
+city—an eagle that was winging its way far, far up in the sky. Arcas drew
+his bow, and with one arrow he brought the eagle down.
+
+  The other hunter was a girl, ATALANTA. Tall and bright-haired was
+Atalanta, swift and good with the bow. She had dedicated herself to
+Artemis, the guardian of the wild things, and she had vowed that she would
+remain unwedded. All the heroes welcomed Atalanta as a comrade, and the
+maiden did all the things that the young men did.
+
+  There came a hero who was less youthful than Castor or Polydeuces; he
+was a man good in council named NESTOR. Afterward Nestor went to the war
+against Troy, and then he was the oldest of the heroes in the camp of
+Agamemnon.
+
+  Two brothers came who were to be special friends of Jason’s—PELEUS and
+TELAMON. Both were still youthful and neither had yet achieved any notable
+deed. Afterward they were to be famous, but their sons were to be even
+more famous, for the son of Telamon was strong Aias, and the son of Peleus
+was great Achilles.
+
+  Another who came was ADMETUS; afterward he became a famous king. The God
+Apollo once made himself a shepherd and he kept the flocks of King
+Admetus.
+
+  And there came two brothers, twins, who were a wonder to all who beheld
+them. ZETES and CALAIS they were named; their mother was Oreithyia, the
+daughter of Erechtheus, King of Athens, and their father was Boreas, the
+North Wind. These two brothers had on their ankles wings that gleamed with
+golden scales; their black hair was thick upon their shoulders, and it was
+always being shaken by the wind.
+
+  With Zetes and Calais there came a youth armed with a great sword whose
+name was THESEUS. Theseus’s father was an unknown king; he had bidden the
+mother show their son where his sword was hidden. Under a great stone the
+king had hidden it before Theseus was born. Before he had grown out of his
+boyhood Theseus had been able to raise the stone and draw forth his
+father’s sword. As yet he had done no great deed, but he was resolved to
+win fame and to find his unknown father.
+
+
+
+  On the day that the messengers had set out to bring through Greece the
+word of Jason’s going forth in quest of the Golden Fleece the woodcutters
+made their way up into the forests of Mount Pelion; they began to fell
+trees for the timbers of the ship that was to make the voyage to far
+Colchis.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+  Great timbers were cut and brought down to Pagasæ, the harbor of Iolcus.
+On the night of the day he had helped to bring them down Jason had a
+dream. He dreamt that She whom he had seen in the forest ways and
+afterward by the River Anaurus appeared to him. And in his dream the
+goddess bade him rise early in the morning and welcome a man whom he would
+meet at the city’s gate—a tall and gray-haired man who would have on his
+shoulders tools for the building of a ship.
+
+  He went to the city’s gate and he met such a man. ARGUS was his name. He
+told Jason that a dream had sent him to the city of Iolcus. Jason welcomed
+him and lodged him in the king’s palace, and that day the word went
+through the city that the building of the great ship would soon be begun.
+
+  But not with the timbers brought from Mount Pelion did Argus begin.
+Walking through the palace with Jason he noted a great beam in the roof.
+That beam, he said, had been shown him in his dream; it was from an oak
+tree in Dodona, the grove of Zeus. A sacred power was in the beam, and
+from it the prow of the ship should be fashioned. Jason had them take the
+beam from the roof of the palace; it was brought to where the timbers
+were, and that day the building of the great ship was begun.
+
+  Then all along the waterside came the noise of hammering; in the street
+where the metalworkers were came the noise of beating upon metals as the
+smiths fashioned out of bronze armor for the heroes and swords and spears.
+Every day, under the eyes of Argus the master, the ship that had in it the
+beam from Zeus’s grove was built higher and wider. And those who were
+building the ship often felt going through it tremors as of a living
+creature.
+
+
+
+  When the ship was built and made ready for the voyage a name was given
+to it—the ARGO it was called. And naming themselves from the ship the
+heroes called themselves the ARGONAUTS. All was ready for the voyage, and
+now Jason went with his friends to view the ship before she was brought
+into the water.
+
+  Argus the master was on the ship, seeing to it that the last things were
+being done before _Argo_ was launched. Very grave and wise looked
+Argus—Argus the builder of the ship. And wonderful to the heroes the ship
+looked now that Argus, for their viewing, had set up the mast with the
+sails and had even put the oars in their places. Wonderful to the heroes
+_Argo_ looked with her long oars and her high sails, with her timbers
+painted red and gold and blue, and with a marvelous figure carved upon her
+prow. All over the ship Jason’s eyes went. He saw a figure standing by the
+mast; for a moment he looked on it, and then the figure became shadowy.
+But Jason knew that he had looked upon the goddess whom he had seen in the
+ways of the forest and had seen afterward by the rough Anaurus.
+
+  Then mast and sails were taken down and the oars were left in the ship,
+and the _Argo_ was launched into the water. The heroes went back to the
+palace of King Pelias to feast with the king’s guests before they took
+their places on the ship, setting out on the voyage to far Colchis.
+
+  When they came into the palace they saw that another hero had arrived.
+His shield was hung in the hall; the heroes all gathered around, amazed at
+the size and the beauty of it. The shield shone all over with gold. In its
+center was the figure of Fear—of Fear that stared backward with eyes
+burning as with fire. The mouth was open and the teeth were shown. And
+other figures were wrought around the figure of Fear—Strife and Pursuit
+and Flight; Tumult and Panic and Slaughter. The figure of Fate was there
+dragging a dead man by the feet; on her shoulders Fate had a garment that
+was red with the blood of men.
+
+  Around these figures were heads of snakes, heads with black jaws and
+glittering eyes, twelve heads such as might affright any man. And on other
+parts of the shield were shown the horses of Ares, the grim god of war.
+The figure of Ares himself was shown also. He held a spear in his hand,
+and he was urging the warriors on.
+
+  Around the inner rim of the shield the sea was shown, wrought in white
+metal. Dolphins swam in the sea, fishing for little fishes that were shown
+there in bronze. Around the rim chariots were racing along with wheels
+running close together; there were men fighting and women watching from
+high towers. The awful figure of the Darkness of Death was shown there,
+too, with mournful eyes and the dust of battles upon her shoulders. The
+outer rim of the shield showed the Stream of Ocean, the stream that
+encircles the world; swans were soaring above and swimming on its surface.
+
+  All in wonder the heroes gazed on the great shield, telling each other
+that only one man in all the world could carry it—Heracles the son of
+Zeus. Could it be that Heracles had come amongst them? They went into the
+feasting hall and they saw one there who was tall as a pine tree, with
+unshorn tresses of hair upon his head. Heracles indeed it was! He turned
+to them a smiling face with smiling eyes. Heracles! They all gathered
+around the strongest hero in the world, and he took the hand of each in
+his mighty hand.
+
+
+
+
+V. The _Argo_
+
+
+
+[Decorative first letter]
+_T_HE heroes went the next day through the streets of Iolcus down to where
+the ship lay. The ways they went through were crowded; the heroes were
+splendid in their appearance, and Jason amongst them shone like a star.
+
+  The people praised him, and one told the other that it would not be long
+until they would win back to Iolcus, for this band of heroes was strong
+enough, they said, to take King Æetes’s city and force him to give up to
+them the famous Fleece of Gold. Many of the bright-eyed youths of Iolcus
+went with the heroes who had come from the different parts of Greece.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+                                the _Argo_
+
+
+  As they marched past a temple a priestess came forth to speak to Jason;
+Iphias was her name. She had a prophecy to utter about the voyage. But
+Iphias was very old, and she stammered in her speech to Jason. What she
+said was not heard by him. The heroes went on, and ancient Iphias was left
+standing there as the old are left by the young.
+
+  The heroes went aboard the _Argo_. They took their seats as at an
+assembly. Then Jason faced them and spoke to them all.
+
+  “Heroes of the quest,” said Jason, “we have come aboard the great ship
+that Argus has built, and all that a ship needs is in its place or is
+ready to our hands. All that we wait for now is the coming of the
+morning’s breeze that will set us on our way for far Colchis.
+
+  “One thing we have first to do—that is, to choose a leader who will
+direct us all, one who will settle disputes amongst ourselves and who will
+make treaties between us and the strangers that we come amongst. We must
+choose such a leader now.”
+
+  Jason spoke, and some looked to him and some looked to Heracles. But
+Heracles stood up, and, stretching out his hand, said:
+
+  “Argonauts! Let no one amongst you offer the leadership to me. I will
+not take it. The hero who brought us together and made all things ready
+for our going—it is he and no one else who should be our leader in this
+voyage.”
+
+  So Heracles said, and the Argonauts all stood up and raised a cry for
+Jason. Then Jason stepped forward, and he took the hand of each Argonaut
+in his hand, and he swore that he would lead them with all the mind and
+all the courage that he possessed. And he prayed the gods that it would be
+given to him to lead them back safely with the Golden Fleece glittering on
+the mast of the _Argo_.
+
+  They drew lots for the benches they would sit at; they took the places
+that for the length of the voyage they would have on the ship. They made
+sacrifice to the gods and they waited for the breeze of the morning that
+would help them away from Iolcus.
+
+
+
+  And while they waited Æson, the father of Jason, sat at his own hearth,
+bowed and silent in his grief. Alcimide, his wife, sat near him, but she
+was not silent; she lamented to the women of Iolcus who were gathered
+around her. “I did not go down to the ship,” she said, “for with my grief
+I would not be a bird of ill omen for the voyage. By this hearth my son
+took farewell of me—the only son I ever bore. From the doorway I watched
+him go down the street of the city, and I heard the people shout as he
+went amongst them, they glorying in my son’s splendid appearance. Ah, that
+I might live to see his return and to hear the shout that will go up when
+the people look on Jason again! But I know that my life will not be spared
+so long; I will not look on my son when he comes back from the dangers he
+will run in the quest of the Golden Fleece.”
+
+  Then the women of Iolcus asked her to tell them of the Golden Fleece,
+and Alcimide told them of it and of the sorrows that were upon the race of
+Æolus.
+
+  Cretheus, the father of Æson and Pelias, was of the race of Æolus, and
+of the race of Æolus, too, was Athamas, the king who ruled in Thebes at
+the same time that Cretheus ruled in Iolcus. And the first children of
+Athamas were Phrixus and Helle.
+
+  “Ah, Phrixus and ah, Helle,” Alcimide lamented, “what griefs you have
+brought on the race of Æolus! And what griefs you yourselves suffered! The
+evil that Athamas, your father, did you lives to be a curse to the line of
+Æolus!
+
+  “Athamas was wedded first to Nephele, the mother of Phrixus and Helle,
+the youth and maiden. But Athamas married again while the mother of these
+children was still living, and Ino, the new queen, drove Nephele and her
+children out of the king’s palace.
+
+  “And now was Nephele most unhappy. She had to live as a servant, and her
+children were servants to the servants of the palace. They were clad in
+rags and had little to eat, and they were beaten often by the servants who
+wished to win the favor of the new queen.
+
+  “But although they wore rags and had menial tasks to do, Phrixus and
+Helle looked the children of a queen. The boy was tall, and in his eyes
+there often came the flash of power, and the girl looked as if she would
+grow into a lovely maiden. And when Athamas, their father, would meet them
+by chance he would sigh, and Queen Ino would know by that sigh that he had
+still some love for them in his heart. Afterward she would have to use all
+the power she possessed to win the king back from thinking upon his
+children.
+
+  “And now Queen Ino had children of her own. She knew that the people
+reverenced the children of Nephele and cared nothing for her children. And
+because she knew this she feared that when Athamas died Phrixus and Helle,
+the children of Nephele, would be brought to rule in Thebes. Then she and
+her children would be made to change places with them.
+
+  “This made Queen Ino think on ways by which she could make Phrixus and
+Helle lose their lives. She thought long upon this, and at last a
+desperate plan came into her mind.
+
+  “When it was winter she went amongst the women of the countryside, and
+she gave them jewels and clothes for presents. Then she asked them to do
+secretly an unheard-of thing. She asked the women to roast over their
+fires the grains that had been left for seed. This the women did. Then
+spring came on, and the men sowed in the fields the grain that had been
+roasted over the fires. No shoots grew up as the spring went by. In summer
+there was no waving greenness in the fields. Autumn came, and there was no
+grain for the reaping. Then the men, not knowing what had happened, went
+to King Athamas and told him that there would be famine in the land.
+
+  “The king sent to the temple of Artemis to ask how the people might be
+saved from the famine. And the guardians of the temple, having taken gold
+from Queen Ino, told them that there would be worse and worse famine and
+that all the people of Thebes would die of hunger unless the king was
+willing to make a great sacrifice.
+
+  “When the king asked what sacrifice he should make he was told by the
+guardians of the temple that he must sacrifice to the goddess his two
+children, Phrixus and Helle. Those who were around the king, to save
+themselves from famine after famine, clamored to have the children
+sacrificed. Athamas, to save his people, consented to the sacrifice.
+
+  “They went toward the king’s palace. They found Helle by the bank of the
+river washing clothes. They took her and bound her. They found Phrixus,
+half naked, digging in a field, and they took him, too, and bound him.
+That night they left brother and sister in the same prison. Helle wept
+over Phrixus, and Phrixus wept to think that he was not able to do
+anything to save his sister.
+
+  “The servants of the palace went to Nephele, and they mocked at her,
+telling her that her children would be sacrificed on the morrow. Nephele
+nearly went wild in her grief. And then, suddenly, there came into her
+mind the thought of a creature that might be a helper to her and to her
+children.
+
+  “This creature was a ram that had wings and a wonderful fleece of gold.
+The god of the sea, Poseidon, had sent this wonderful ram to Athamas and
+Nephele as a marriage gift. And the ram had since been kept in a special
+fold.
+
+  “To that fold Nephele went. She spent the night beside the ram praying
+for its help. The morning came and the children were taken from their
+prison and dressed in white, and wreaths were put upon their heads to mark
+them as things for sacrifice. They were led in a procession to the temple
+of Artemis. Behind that procession King Athamas walked, his head bowed in
+shame.
+
+  “But Queen Ino’s head was not bowed; rather she carried it high, for her
+thought was all upon her triumph. Soon Phrixus and Helle would be dead,
+and then, whatever happened, her own children would reign after Athamas in
+Thebes.
+
+  “Phrixus and Helle, thinking they were taking their last look at the
+sun, went on. And even then Nephele, holding the horns of the golden ram,
+was making her last prayer. The sun rose and as it did the ram spread out
+its great wings and flew through the air. It flew to the temple of
+Artemis. Down beside the altar came the golden ram, and it stood with its
+horns threatening those who came. All stopped in surprise. Still the ram
+stood with threatening head and great golden wings spread out. Then
+Phrixus ran from those who were holding him and laid his hands upon the
+ram. He called to Helle and she, too, came to the golden creature. Phrixus
+mounted on the ram and he pulled Helle up beside him. Then the golden ram
+flew upward. Up, up, it went, and with the children upon its back it
+became like a star in the day-lit sky.
+
+  “Then Queen Ino, seeing the children saved by the golden ram, shrieked
+and fled away from that place. Athamas ran after her. As she ran and as he
+followed hatred for her grew up within him. Ino ran on and on until she
+came to the cliffs that rose over the sea. Fearing Athamas who came behind
+her she plunged down. But as she fell she was changed by Poseidon, the god
+of the sea. She became a seagull. Athamas, who followed her, was changed
+also; he became the sea eagle that, with beak and talons ever ready to
+strike, flies above the sea.
+
+  “And the golden ram with wings outspread flew on and on. Over the sea it
+flew while the wind whistled around the children. On and on they went, and
+the children saw only the blue sea beneath them. Then poor Helle, looking
+downward, grew dizzy. She fell off the golden ram before her brother could
+take hold of her. Down she fell, and still the ram flew on and on. She was
+drowned in that sea. The people afterward named it in memory of her,
+calling it ‘Hellespont’—‘Helle’s Sea.’
+
+  “On and on the ram flew. Over a wild and barren country it flew and
+toward a river. Upon that river a white city was built. Down the ram flew,
+and alighting on the ground, stood before the gate of that city. It was
+the city of Aea, in the land of Colchis.
+
+  “The king was in the street of the city, and he joined with the crowd
+that gathered around the strange golden creature that had a youth upon its
+back. The ram folded its wings and then the youth stood beside it. He
+spoke to the people, and then the king—Æetes was his name—spoke to him,
+asking him from what place he had come, and what was the strange creature
+upon whose back he had flown.
+
+  “To the king and to the people Phrixus told his story, weeping to tell
+of Helle and her fall. Then King Æetes brought him into the city, and he
+gave him a place in the palace, and for the golden ram he had a special
+fold made.
+
+  “Soon after the ram died, and then King Æetes took its golden fleece and
+hung it upon an oak tree that was in a place dedicated to Ares, the god of
+war. Phrixus wed one of the daughters of the king, and men say that
+afterward he went back to Thebes, his own land.
+
+  “And as for the Golden Fleece it became the greatest of King Æetes’s
+treasures. Well indeed does he guard it, and not with armed men only, but
+with magic powers. Very strong and very cunning is King Æetes, and a
+terrible task awaits those who would take away from him that Fleece of
+Gold.”
+
+
+
+  So Alcimide spoke, sorrowfully telling to the women the story of the
+Golden Fleece that her son Jason was going in quest of. So she spoke, and
+the night waned, and the morning of the sailing of the _Argo_ came on.
+
+  And when the Argonauts beheld the dawn upon the high peaks of Pelion
+they arose and poured out wine in offering to Zeus, the highest of the
+gods. Then _Argo_ herself gave forth a strange cry, for the beam from
+Dodona that had been formed into her prow had endued her with life. She
+uttered a strange cry, and as she did the heroes took their places at the
+benches, one after the other, as had been arranged by lot, and Tiphys, the
+helmsman, went to the steering place. To the sound of Orpheus’s lyre they
+smote with oars the rushing sea water, and the surge broke over the oar
+blades. The sails were let out and the breeze came into them, piping
+shrilly, and the fishes came darting through the green sea, great and
+small, and followed them, gamboling along the watery paths. And Chiron,
+the king-centaur, came down from the Mountain Pelion, and standing with
+his feet in the foam cried out, “Good speed, O Argonauts, good speed, and
+a sorrowless return.”
+
+
+
+The Beginning of Things
+
+
+  Orpheus sang to his lyre, Orpheus the minstrel, who knew the ways and
+the stories of the gods; out in the open sea on the first morning of the
+voyage Orpheus sang to them of the beginning of things.
+
+  He sang how at first Earth and Heaven and Sea were all mixed and mingled
+together. There was neither Light nor Darkness then, but only a Dimness.
+This was Chaos. And from Chaos came forth Night and Erebus. From Night was
+born Æther, the Upper Air, and from Night and Erebus wedded there was born
+Day.
+
+  And out of Chaos came Earth, and out of Earth came the starry Heaven.
+And from Heaven and Earth wedded there were born the Titan gods and
+goddesses—Oceanus, Cœus, Crius, Hyperion, Iapetus; Theia, Rhea, Themis,
+Mnemosyne, gold-crowned Phœbe, and lovely Tethys. And then Heaven and
+Earth had for their child Cronos, the most cunning of all.
+
+  Cronos wedded Rhea, and from Cronos and Rhea were born the gods who were
+different from the Titan gods.
+
+  But Heaven and Earth had other children—Cottus, Briareus, and Gyes.
+These were giants, each with fifty heads and a hundred arms. And Heaven
+grew fearful when he looked on these giant children, and he hid them away
+in the deep places of the Earth.
+
+  Cronos hated Heaven, his father. He drove Heaven, his father, and Earth,
+his mother, far apart. And far apart they stay, for they have never been
+able to come near each other since. And Cronos married to Rhea had for
+children Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Aidoneus, and Poseidon, and these all
+belonged to the company of the deathless gods. Cronos was fearful that one
+of his sons would treat him as he had treated Heaven, his father. So when
+another child was born to him and his wife Rhea he commanded that the
+child be given to him so that he might swallow him. But Rhea wrapped a
+great stone in swaddling clothes and gave the stone to Cronos. And Cronos
+swallowed the stone, thinking to swallow his latest-born child.
+
+  That child was Zeus. Earth took Zeus and hid him in a deep cave and
+those who minded and nursed the child beat upon drums so that his cries
+might not be heard. His nurse was Adrastia; when he was able to play she
+gave him a ball to play with. All of gold was the ball, with a dark-blue
+spiral around it. When the boy Zeus would play with this ball it would
+make a track across the sky, flaming like a star.
+
+  Hyperion the Titan god wed Theia the Titan goddess, and their children
+were Helios, the bright Sun, and Selene, the clear Moon. And Cœus wed
+Phœbe, and their children were Leto, who is kind to gods and men, and
+Asteria of happy name, and Hecate, whom Zeus honored above all. Now the
+gods who were the children of Cronos and Rhea went up unto the Mountain
+Olympus, and there they built their shining palaces. But the Titan gods
+who were born of Heaven and Earth went up to the Mountain Othrys, and
+there they had their thrones.
+
+  Between the Olympians and the Titan gods of Othrys a war began. Neither
+side might prevail against the other. But now Zeus, grown up to be a
+youth, thought of how he might help the Olympians to overthrow the Titan
+gods.
+
+  He went down into the deep parts of the Earth where the giants Cottus,
+Briareus, and Gyes had been hidden by their father. Cronos had bound them,
+weighing them down with chains. But now Zeus loosed them and the
+hundred-armed giants in their gratitude gave him the lightning and showed
+him how to use the thunderbolt.
+
+  Zeus would have the giants fight against the Titan gods. But although
+they had mighty strength Cottus, Briareus, and Gyes had no fire of courage
+in their hearts. Zeus thought of a way to give them this courage; he
+brought the food and drink of the gods to them, ambrosia and nectar, and
+when they had eaten and drunk their spirits grew within the giants, and
+they were ready to make war upon the Titan gods.
+
+  “Sons of Earth and Heaven,” said Zeus to the hundred-armed giants, “a
+long time now have the Dwellers on Olympus been striving with the Titan
+gods. Do you lend your unconquerable might to the gods and help them to
+overthrow the Titans.”
+
+  Cottus, the eldest of the giants, answered, “Divine One, through your
+devising we are come back again from the murky gloom of the mid Earth and
+we have escaped from the hard bonds that Cronus laid upon us. Our minds
+are fixed to aid you in the war against the Titan gods.”
+
+  So the hundred-armed giants said, and thereupon Zeus went and he
+gathered around him all who were born of Cronos and Rhea. Cronos himself
+hid from Zeus. Then the giants, with their fifty heads growing from their
+shoulders and their hundred hands, went forth against the Titan gods. The
+boundless sea rang terribly and the earth crashed loudly; wide Heaven was
+shaken and groaned, and high Olympus reeled from its foundation. Holding
+huge rocks in their hands the giants attacked the Titan gods.
+
+  Then Zeus entered the war. He hurled the lightning; the bolts flew thick
+and fast from his strong hand, with thunder and lightning and flame. The
+earth crashed around in burning, the forests crackled with fire, the ocean
+seethed. And hot flames wrapped the earth-born Titans all around. Three
+hundred rocks, one upon another, did Cottus, Briareus, and Gyes hurl upon
+the Titans. And when their ranks were broken the giants seized upon them
+and held them for Zeus.
+
+  But some of the Titan gods, seeing that the strife for them was vain,
+went over to the side of Zeus. These Zeus became friendly with. But the
+other Titans he bound in chains and he hurled them down to Tartarus.
+
+  As far as Earth is from Heaven so is Tartarus from Earth. A brazen anvil
+falling down from Heaven to Earth nine days and nine nights would reach
+the earth upon the tenth day. And again, a brazen anvil falling from Earth
+nine nights and nine days would reach Tartarus upon the tenth night.
+Around Tartarus runs a fence of bronze and Night spreads in a triple line
+all about it, as a necklace circles the neck. There Zeus imprisoned the
+Titan gods who had fought against him; they are hidden in the misty gloom,
+in a dank place, at the ends of the Earth. And they may not go out, for
+Poseidon fixed gates of bronze upon their prison, and a wall runs all
+round it. There Cottus, Briareus, and Gyes stay, guarding them.
+
+  And there, too, is the home of Night. Night and Day meet each other at
+that place, as they pass a threshold of bronze. They draw near and they
+greet one another, but the house never holds them both together, for while
+one is about to go down into the house, the other is leaving through the
+door. One holds Light in her hand and the other holds in her arms Sleep.
+
+  There the children of dark Night have their dwellings—Sleep, and Death,
+his brother. The sun never shines upon these two. Sleep may roam over the
+wide earth, and come upon the sea, and he is kindly to men. But Death is
+not kindly, and whoever he seizes upon, him he holds fast.
+
+  There, too, stands the hall of the lord of the Underworld, Aidoneus, the
+brother of Zeus. Zeus gave him the Underworld to be his dominion when he
+shared amongst the Olympians the world that Cronos had ruled over. A
+fearful hound guards the hall of Aidoneus: Cerberus he is called; he has
+three heads. On those who go within that hall Cerberus fawns, but on those
+who would come out of it he springs and would devour them.
+
+  Not all the Titans did Zeus send down to Tartarus. Those of them who had
+wisdom joined him, and by their wisdom Zeus was able to overcome Cronos.
+Then Cronos went to live with the friendly Titan gods, while Zeus reigned
+over Olympus, becoming the ruler of gods and men.
+
+
+
+  So Orpheus sang, Orpheus who knew the ways and the histories of the
+gods.
+
+
+
+
+VI. Polydeuces’ Victory and Heracles’ Loss
+
+
+
+[Decorative first letter]
+_A_LL the places that the Argonauts came nigh to and went past need not be
+told—Melibœa, where they escaped a stormy beach; Homole, from where they
+were able to look on Ossa and holy Olympus; Lemnos, the island that they
+were to return to; the unnamed country where the Earth-born Men abide,
+each having six arms, two growing from his shoulders, and four fitting
+close to his terrible sides; and then the Mountain of the Bears, where
+they climbed, to make sacrifice there to Rhea, the mighty mother of the
+gods.
+
+  Afterward, for a whole day, no wind blew and the sail of the _Argo_ hung
+slack. But the heroes swore to each other that they would make their ship
+go as swiftly as if the storm-footed steeds of Poseidon were racing to
+overtake her. Mightily they labored at the oars, and no one would be first
+to leave his rower’s bench.
+
+  And then, just as the breeze of the evening came up, and just as the
+rest of the heroes were leaning back, spent with their labor, the oar that
+Heracles still pulled at broke, and half of it was carried away by the
+waves. Heracles sat there in ill humor, for he did not know what to do
+with his unlaboring hands.
+
+  All through the night they went on with a good breeze filling their
+sails, and next day they came to the mouth of the River Cius. There they
+landed so that Heracles might get himself an oar. No sooner did they set
+their feet upon the shore than the hero went off into the forest, to pull
+up a tree that he might shape into an oar.
+
+  Where they had landed was near to the country of the Bebrycians, a rude
+people whose king was named Amycus. Now while Heracles was away from them
+this king came with his followers—huge, rude men, all armed with clubs,
+down to where the Argonauts were lighting their fires on the beach.
+
+  He did not greet them courteously, asking them what manner of men they
+were and whither they were bound, nor did he offer them hospitality.
+Instead, he shouted at them insolently:
+
+  “Listen to something that you rovers had better know. I am Amycus, and
+any stranger that comes to this land has to get into a boxing bout with
+me. That’s the law that I have laid down. Unless you have one amongst you
+who can stand up to me you won’t be let go back to your ship. If you don’t
+heed my law, look out, for something’s going to happen to you.”
+
+  So he shouted, that insolent king, and his followers raised their clubs
+and growled approval of what their master said. But the Argonauts were not
+dismayed at the words of Amycus. One of them stepped toward the
+Bebrycians. He was Polydeuces, good at boxing.
+
+  “Offer us no violence, king,” said Polydeuces. “We are ready to obey the
+law that you have laid down. Willingly do I take up your challenge, and I
+will box a bout with you.”
+
+  The Argonauts cheered when they saw Polydeuces, the good boxer, step
+forward, and when they heard what he had to say. Amycus turned and shouted
+to his followers, and one of them brought up two pairs of boxing
+gauntlets—of rough cowhide they were. The Argonauts feared that
+Polydeuces’ hands might have been made numb with pulling at the oar, and
+some of them went to him, and took his hands and rubbed them to make them
+supple; others took from off his shoulders his beautifully colored mantle.
+
+  Amycus straightway put on his gauntlets and threw off his mantle; he
+stood there amongst his followers with his great arms crossed, glowering
+at the Argonauts as a wild beast might glower. And when the two faced each
+other Amycus seemed like one of the Earth-born Men, dark and hugely
+shaped, while Helen’s brother stood there light and beautiful. Polydeuces
+was like that star whose beams are lovely at evening-tide.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+  Like the wave that breaks over a ship and gives the sailors no respite
+Amycus came on at Polydeuces. He pushed in upon him, thinking to bear him
+down and overwhelm him. But as the skillful steersman keeps the ship from
+being overwhelmed by the monstrous wave, so Polydeuces, all skill and
+lightness, baffled the rushes of Amycus. At last Amycus, standing on the
+tips of his toes and rising high above him, tried to bring down his great
+fist upon the head of Polydeuces. The hero swung aside and took the blow
+on his shoulder. Then he struck his blow. It was a strong one, and under
+it the king of the Bebrycians staggered and fell down. “You see,” said
+Polydeuces, “that we keep your law.”
+
+  The Argonauts shouted, but the rude Bebrycians raised their clubs to
+rush upon them. Then would the heroes have been hard pressed, and forced,
+perhaps, to get back to the _Argo_. But suddenly Heracles appeared amongst
+them, coming up from the forest.
+
+  He carried a pine tree in his hands with all its branches still upon it,
+and seeing this mighty-statured man appear with the great tree in his
+hands, the Bebrycians hurried off, carrying their fallen king with them.
+Then the Argonauts gathered around Polydeuces, saluted him as their
+champion, and put a crown of victory upon his head. Heracles, meanwhile,
+lopped off the branches of the pine tree and began to fashion it into an
+oar.
+
+  The fires were lighted upon the shore, and the thoughts of all were
+turned to supper. Then young Hylas, who used to sit by Heracles and keep
+bright the hero’s arms and armor, took a bronze vessel and went to fetch
+water.
+
+  Never was there a boy so beautiful as young Hylas. He had golden curls
+that tumbled over his brow. He had deep blue eyes and a face that smiled
+at every glance that was given him, at every word that was said to him.
+Now as he walked through the flowering grasses, with his knees bare, and
+with the bright vessel swinging in his hand, he looked most lovely.
+Heracles had brought the boy with him from the country of the Dryopians;
+he would have him sit beside him on the bench of the _Argo_, and the ill
+humors that often came upon him would go at the words and the smile of
+Hylas.
+
+  Now the spring that Hylas was going toward was called Pegæ, and it was
+haunted by the nymphs. They were dancing around it when they heard Hylas
+singing. They stole softly off to watch him. Hidden behind trees the
+nymphs saw the boy come near, and they felt such love for him that they
+thought they could never let him go from their sight.
+
+  They stole back to their spring, and they sank down below its clear
+surface. Then came Hylas singing a song that he had heard from his mother.
+He bent down to the spring, and the brimming water flowed into the
+sounding bronze of the pitcher. Then hands came out of the water. One of
+the nymphs caught Hylas by the elbow; another put her arms around his
+neck, another took the hand that held the vessel of bronze. The pitcher
+sank down to the depths of the spring. The hands of the nymphs clasped
+Hylas tighter, tighter; the water bubbled around him as they drew him
+down. Down, down they drew him, and into the cold and glimmering cave
+where they live.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+                                  Hylas
+
+
+  There Hylas stayed. But although the nymphs kissed him and sang to him,
+and showed him lovely things, Hylas was not content to be there.
+
+  Where the Argonauts were the fires burned, the moon arose, and still
+Hylas did not return. Then they began to fear lest a wild beast had
+destroyed the boy. One went to Heracles and told him that young Hylas had
+not come back, and that they were fearful for him. Heracles flung down the
+pine tree that he was fashioning into an oar, and he dashed along the way
+that Hylas had gone as if a gadfly were stinging him. “Hylas, Hylas,” he
+cried. But Hylas, in the cold and glimmering cave that the nymphs had
+drawn him into, did not hear the call of his friend Heracles.
+
+  All the Argonauts went searching, calling as they went through the
+island, “Hylas, Hylas, Hylas!” But only their own calls came back to them.
+The morning star came up, and Tiphys, the steersman, called to them from
+the _Argo_. And when they came to the ship Tiphys told them that they
+would have to go aboard and make ready to sail from that place.
+
+  They called to Heracles, and Heracles at last came down to the ship.
+They spoke to him, saying that they would have to sail away. Heracles
+would not go on board. “I will not leave this island,” he said, “until I
+find young Hylas or learn what has happened to him.”
+
+  Then Jason arose to give the command to depart. But before the words
+were said Telamon stood up and faced him. “Jason,” he said angrily, “you
+do not bid Heracles come on board, and you would have the _Argo_ leave
+without him. You would leave Heracles here so that he may not be with us
+on the quest where his glory might overshadow your glory, Jason.”
+
+  Jason said no word, but he sat back on his bench with head bowed. And
+then, even as Telamon said these angry words, a strange figure rose up out
+of the waves of the sea.
+
+  It was the figure of a man, wrinkled and old, with seaweed in his beard
+and his hair. There was a majesty about him, and the Argonauts all knew
+that this was one of the immortals—he was Nereus, the ancient one of the
+sea.
+
+  “To Heracles, and to you, the rest of the Argonauts, I have a thing to
+say,” said the ancient one, Nereus. “Know, first, that Hylas has been
+taken by the nymphs who love him and who think to win his love, and that
+he will stay forever with them in their cold and glimmering cave. For
+Hylas seek no more. And to you, Heracles, I will say this: Go aboard the
+_Argo_ again; the ship will take you to where a great labor awaits you,
+and which, in accomplishing, you will work out the will of Zeus. You will
+know what this labor is when a spirit seizes on you.” So the ancient one
+of the sea said, and he sank back beneath the waves.
+
+  Heracles went aboard the _Argo_ once more, and he took his place on the
+bench, the new oar in his hand. Sad he was to think that young Hylas who
+used to sit at his knee would never be there again. The breeze filled the
+sail, the Argonauts pulled at the oars, and in sadness they watched the
+island where young Hylas had been lost to them recede from their view.
+
+
+
+
+VII. King Phineus
+
+
+
+[Decorative first letter]
+_S_AID Tiphys, the steersman: “If we could enter the Sea of Pontus, we
+could make our way across that sea to Colchis in a short time. But the
+passage into the Sea of Pontus is most perilous, and few mortals dare even
+to make approach to it.”
+
+  Said Jason, the chieftain of the host: “The dangers of the passage,
+Tiphys, we have spoken of, and it may be that we shall have to carry
+_Argo_ overland to the Sea of Pontus. But you, Tiphys, have spoken of a
+wise king who is hereabouts, and who might help us to make the dangerous
+passage. Speak again to us, and tell us what the dangers of the passage
+are, and who the king is who may be able to help us to make these dangers
+less.”
+
+  Then said Tiphys, the steersman of the _Argo_: “No ship sailed by
+mortals has as yet gone through the passage that brings this sea into the
+Sea of Pontus. In the way are the rocks that mariners call The Clashers.
+These rocks are not fixed as rocks should be, but they rush one against
+the other, dashing up the sea, and crushing whatever may be between. Yea,
+if _Argo_ were of iron, and if she were between these rocks when they met,
+she would be crushed to bits. I have sailed as far as that passage, but
+seeing The Clashers strike together I turned back my ship, and journeyed
+as far as the Sea of Pontus overland.
+
+  “But I have been told of one who knows how a ship may be taken through
+the passage that The Clashers make so perilous. He who knows is a king
+hereabouts, Phineus, who has made himself as wise as the gods. To no one
+has Phineus told how the passage may be made, but knowing what high favor
+has been shown to us, the Argonauts, it may be that he will tell us.”
+
+  So Tiphys said, and Jason commanded him to steer the _Argo_ toward the
+city where ruled Phineus, the wise king.
+
+
+
+  To Salmydessus, then, where Phineus ruled, Tiphys steered the _Argo_.
+They left Heracles with Tiphys aboard to guard the ship, and, with the
+rest of the heroes, Jason went through the streets of the city. They met
+many men, but when they asked any of them how they might come to the
+palace of King Phineus the men turned fearfully away.
+
+  They found their way to the king’s palace. Jason spoke to the servants
+and bade them tell the king of their coming. The servants, too, seemed
+fearful, and as Jason and his comrades were wondering what there was about
+him that made men fearful at his name, Phineus, the king, came amongst
+them.
+
+  Were it not that he had a purple border to his robe no one would have
+known him for the king, so miserable did this man seem. He crept along,
+touching the walls, for the eyes in his head were blind and withered. His
+body was shrunken, and when he stood before them leaning on his staff he
+was like to a lifeless thing. He turned his blinded eyes upon them,
+looking from one to the other as if he were searching for a face.
+
+  Then his sightless eyes rested upon Zetes and Calais, the sons of
+Boreas, the North Wind. A change came into his face as it turned upon
+them. One would think that he saw the wonder that these two were endowed
+with—the wings that grew upon their ankles. It was a while before he
+turned his face from them; then he spoke to Jason and said:
+
+  “You have come to have counsel with one who has the wisdom of the gods.
+Others before you have come for such counsel, but seeing the misery that
+is visible upon me they went without asking for counsel. I would strive to
+hold you here for a while. Stay, and have sight of the misery the gods
+visit upon those who would be as wise as they. And when you have seen the
+thing that is wont to befall me, it may be that help will come from you
+for me.”
+
+  Then Phineus, the blind king, left them, and after a while the heroes
+were brought into a great hall, and they were invited to rest themselves
+there while a banquet was being prepared for them.
+
+  The hall was richly adorned, but it looked to the heroes as if it had
+known strange happenings; rich hangings were strewn upon the ground, an
+ivory chair was overturned, and the dais where the king sat had stains
+upon it. The servants who went through the hall making ready the banquet
+were white-faced and fearful.
+
+  The feast was laid on a great table, and the heroes were invited to sit
+down to it. The king did not come into the hall before they sat down, but
+a table with food was set before the dais. When the heroes had feasted,
+the king came into the hall. He sat at the table, blind, white-faced, and
+shrunken, and the Argonauts all turned their faces to him.
+
+  Said Phineus, the blind king: “You see, O heroes, how much my wisdom
+avails me. You see me blind and shrunken, who tried to make myself in
+wisdom equal to the gods. And yet you have not seen all. Watch now and see
+what feasts Phineus, the wise king, has to delight him.”
+
+  He made a sign, and the white-faced and trembling servants brought food
+and set it upon the table that was before him. The king bent forward as if
+to eat, and they saw that his face was covered with the damp of fear. He
+took food from the dish and raised it to his mouth. As he did, the doors
+of the hall were flung open as if by a storm. Strange shapes flew into the
+hall and set themselves beside the king. And when the Argonauts looked
+upon them they saw that these were terrible and unsightly shapes.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+  They were things that had the wings and claws of birds and the heads of
+women. Black hair and gray feathers were mixed upon them; they had red
+eyes, and streaks of blood were upon their breasts and wings. And as the
+king raised the food to his mouth they flew at him and buffeted his head
+with their wings, and snatched the food from his hands. Then they devoured
+or scattered what was upon the table, and all the time they screamed and
+laughed and mocked.
+
+  “Ah, now ye see,” Phineus panted, “what it is to have wisdom equal to
+the wisdom of the gods. Now ye all see my misery. Never do I strive to put
+food to my lips but these foul things, the Harpies, the Snatchers, swoop
+down and scatter or devour what I would eat. Crumbs they leave me that my
+life may not altogether go from me, but these crumbs they make foul to my
+taste and my smell.”
+
+  And one of the Harpies perched herself on the back of the king’s throne
+and looked upon the heroes with red eyes. “Hah,” she screamed, “you bring
+armed men into your feasting hall, thinking to scare us away. Never,
+Phineus, can you scare us from you! Always you will have us, the
+Snatchers, beside you when you would still your ache of hunger. What can
+these men do against us who are winged and who can travel through the ways
+of the air?”
+
+  So said the unsightly Harpy, and the heroes drew together, made fearful
+by these awful shapes. All drew back except Zetes and Calais, the sons of
+the North Wind. They laid their hands upon their swords. The wings on
+their shoulders spread out and the wings at their heels trembled. Phineus,
+the king, leaned forward and panted: “By the wisdom I have I know that
+there are two amongst you who can save me. O make haste to help me, ye who
+can help me, and I will give the counsel that you Argonauts have come to
+me for, and besides I will load down your ship with treasure and costly
+stuffs. Oh, make haste, ye who can help me!”
+
+  Hearing the king speak like this, the Harpies gathered together and
+gnashed with their teeth, and chattered to one another. Then, seeing Zetes
+and Calais with their hands upon their swords, they rose up on their wings
+and flew through the wide doors of the hall. The king cried out to Zetes
+and Calais. But the sons of the North Wind had already risen with their
+wings, and they were after the Harpies, their bright swords in their
+hands.
+
+  On flew the Harpies, screeching and gnashing their teeth in anger and
+dismay, for now they felt that they might be driven from Salmydessus,
+where they had had such royal feasts. They rose high in the air and flew
+out toward the sea. But high as the Harpies rose, the sons of the North
+Wind rose higher. The Harpies cried pitiful cries as they flew on, but
+Zetes and Calais felt no pity for them, for they knew that these dread
+Snatchers, with the stains of blood upon their breasts and wings, had
+shown pity neither to Phineus nor to any other.
+
+  On they flew until they came to the island that is called the Floating
+Island. There the Harpies sank down with wearied wings. Zetes and Calais
+were upon them now, and they would have cut them to pieces with their
+bright swords, if the messenger of Zeus, Iris, with the golden wings, had
+not come between.
+
+  “Forbear to slay the Harpies, sons of Boreas,” cried Iris warningly,
+“forbear to slay the Harpies that are the hounds of Zeus. Let them cower
+here and hide themselves, and I, who come from Zeus, will swear the oath
+that the gods most dread, that they will never again come to Salmydessus
+to trouble Phineus, the king.”
+
+  The heroes yielded to the words of Iris. She took the oath that the gods
+most dread—the oath by the Water of Styx—that never again would the
+Harpies show themselves to Phineus. Then Zetes and Calais turned back
+toward the city of Salmydessus. The island that they drove the Harpies to
+had been called the Floating Island, but thereafter it was called the
+Island of Turning. It was evening when they turned back, and all night
+long the Argonauts and King Phineus sat in the hall of the palace and
+awaited the return of Zetes and Calais, the sons of the North Wind.
+
+
+
+
+VIII. King Phineus’s Counsel; The Landing in Lemnos
+
+
+
+[Decorative first letter]
+_T_HEY came into King Phineus’s hall, their bright swords in their hands.
+The Argonauts crowded around them and King Phineus raised his head and
+stretched out his thin hands to them. And Zetes and Calais told their
+comrades and told the king how they had driven the Harpies down to the
+Floating Island, and how Iris, the messenger of Zeus, had sworn the great
+oath that was by the Water of Styx that never again would the Snatchers
+show themselves in the palace.
+
+  Then a great golden cup brimming with wine was brought to the king. He
+stood holding it in his trembling hands, fearful even then that the
+Harpies would tear the cup out of his hands. He drank—long and deeply he
+drank—and the dread shapes of the Snatchers did not appear. Down amongst
+the heroes he came and he took into his the hands of Zetes and Calais, the
+sons of the North Wind.
+
+  “O heroes greater than any kings,” he said, “ye have delivered me from
+the terrible curse that the gods had sent upon me. I thank ye, and I thank
+ye all, heroes of the quest. And the thanks of Phineus will much avail you
+all.”
+
+  Clasping the hands of Zetes and Calais he led the heroes through hall
+after hall of his palace and down into his treasure chamber. There he
+bestowed upon the banishers of the Harpies crowns and arm rings of gold
+and richly colored garments and brazen chests in which to store the
+treasure that he gave. And to Jason he gave an ivory-hilted and
+gold-encased sword, and on each of the voyagers he bestowed a rich gift,
+not forgetting the heroes who had remained on the _Argo_, Heracles and
+Tiphys.
+
+  They went back to the great hall, and a feast was spread for the king
+and for the Argonauts. They ate from rich dishes and they drank from
+flowing wine cups. Phineus ate and drank as the heroes did, and no dread
+shapes came before him to snatch from him nor to buffet him. But as Jason
+looked upon the man who had striven to equal the gods in wisdom, and noted
+his blinded eyes and shrunken face, he resolved never to harbor in his
+heart such presumption as Phineus had harbored.
+
+  When the feast was finished the king spoke to Jason, telling him how the
+_Argo_ might be guided through the Symplegades, the dread passage into the
+Sea of Pontus. He told them to bring their ship near to the Clashing
+Rocks. And one who had the keenest sight amongst them was to stand at the
+prow of the ship holding a pigeon in his hands. As the rocks came together
+he was to loose the pigeon. If it found a space to fly through they would
+know that the _Argo_ could make the passage, and they were to steer
+straight toward where the pigeon had flown. But if it fluttered down to
+the sea, or flew back to them, or became lost in the clouds of spray, they
+were to know that the _Argo_ might not make that passage. Then the heroes
+would have to take their ship overland to where they might reach the Sea
+of Pontus.
+
+  That day they bade farewell to Phineus, and with the treasures he had
+bestowed upon them they went down to the _Argo_. To Heracles and Tiphys
+they gave the presents that the king had sent them. In the morning they
+drew the _Argo_ out of the harbor of Salmydessus, and set sail again.
+
+
+
+  But not until long afterward did they come to the Symplegades, the
+passage that was to be their great trial. For they landed first in a
+country that was full of woods, where they were welcomed by a king who had
+heard of the voyagers and of their quest. There they stayed and hunted for
+many days in the woods. And there a great loss befell the Argonauts, for
+Tiphys, as he went through the woods, was bitten by a snake and died. He
+who had braved so many seas and so many storms lost his life away from the
+ship. The Argonauts made a tomb for him on the shore of that land—a great
+pile of stones, in which they fixed upright his steering oar. Then they
+set sail again, and Nauplius was made the steersman of the ship.
+
+  The course was not so clear to Nauplius as it had been to Tiphys. The
+steersman did not find his bearings, and for many days and nights the
+_Argo_ was driven on a backward course. They came to an island that they
+knew to be that Island of Lemnos that they had passed on the first days of
+the voyage, and they resolved to rest there for a while, and then to press
+on for the passage into the Sea of Pontus.
+
+  They brought the _Argo_ near the shore. They blew trumpets and set the
+loudest voiced of the heroes to call out to those upon the island. But no
+answer came to them, and all day the _Argo_ lay close to the island.
+
+
+
+  There were hidden people watching them, people with bows in their hands
+and arrows laid along the bowstrings. And the people who thus threatened
+the unknowing Argonauts were women and young girls.
+
+  There were no men upon the Island of Lemnos. Years before a curse had
+fallen upon the people of that island, putting strife between the men and
+the women. And the women had mastered the men and had driven them away
+from Lemnos. Since then some of the women had grown old, and the girls who
+were children when their fathers and brothers had been banished were now
+of an age with Atalanta, the maiden who went with the Argonauts.
+
+  They chased the wild beasts of the island, and they tilled the fields,
+and they kept in good repair the houses that were built before the
+banishing of the men. The older women served those who were younger, and
+they had a queen, a girl whose name was Hypsipyle.
+
+  The women who watched with bows in their hands would have shot their
+arrows at the Argonauts if Hypsipyle’s nurse, Polyxo, had not stayed them.
+She forbade them to shoot at the strangers until she had brought to them
+the queen’s commands.
+
+  She hastened to the palace and she found the young queen weaving at a
+loom. She told her about the ship and the strangers on board the ship, and
+she asked the queen what word she should bring to the guardian maidens.
+
+  “Before you give a command, Hypsipyle,” said Polyxo, the nurse,
+“consider these words of mine. We, the elder women, are becoming ancient
+now; in a few years we will not be able to serve you, the younger women,
+and in a few years more we will have gone into the grave and our places
+will know us no more. And you, the younger women, will be becoming
+strengthless, and no more will be you able to hunt in the woods nor to
+till the fields, and a hard old age will be before you.
+
+  “The ship that is beside our shore may have come at a good time. Those
+on board are goodly heroes. Let them land in Lemnos, and stay if they
+will. Let them wed with the younger women so that there may be husbands
+and wives, helpers and helpmeets, again in Lemnos.”
+
+  Hypsipyle, the queen, let the shuttle fall from her hands and stayed for
+a while looking full into Polyxo’s face. Had her nurse heard her say
+something like this out of her dreams, she wondered? She bade the nurse
+tell the guardian maidens to let the heroes land in safety, and that she
+herself would put the crown of King Thoas, her father, upon her head, and
+go down to the shore to welcome them.
+
+  And now the Argonauts saw people along the shore and they caught sight
+of women’s dresses. The loudest voiced amongst them shouted again, and
+they heard an answer given in a woman’s voice. They drew up the _Argo_
+upon the shore, and they set foot upon the land of Lemnos.
+
+  Jason stepped forth at the head of his comrades, and he was met by
+Hypsipyle, her father’s crown upon her head, at the head of her maidens.
+They greeted each other, and Hypsipyle bade the heroes come with them to
+their town that was called Myrine and to the palace that was there.
+
+  Wonderingly the Argonauts went, looking on women’s forms and faces and
+seeing no men. They came to the palace and went within. Hypsipyle mounted
+the stone throne that was King Thoas’s and the four maidens who were her
+guards stood each side of her. She spoke to the heroes in greeting and
+bade them stay in peace for as long as they would. She told them of the
+curse that had fallen upon the people of Lemnos, and of how the menfolk
+had been banished. Jason, then, told the queen what voyage he and his
+companions were upon and what quest they were making. Then in friendship
+the Argonauts and the women of Lemnos stayed together—all the Argonauts
+except Heracles, and he, grieving still for Hylas, stayed aboard the
+_Argo_.
+
+
+
+
+IX. The Lemnian Maidens
+
+
+
+[Decorative first letter]
+_A_ND now the Argonauts were no longer on a ship that was being dashed on
+by the sea and beaten upon by the winds. They had houses to live in; they
+had honey-tasting things to eat, and when they went through the island
+each man might have with him one of the maidens of Lemnos. It was a change
+that was welcome to the wearied voyagers.
+
+  They helped the women in the work of the fields; they hunted the beasts
+with them, and over and over again they were surprised at how skillfully
+the women had ordered all affairs. Everything in Lemnos was strange to the
+Argonauts, and they stayed day after day, thinking each day a fresh
+adventure.
+
+  Sometimes they would leave the fields and the chase, and this hero or
+that hero, with her who was his friend amongst the Lemnian maidens, would
+go far into that strange land and look upon lakes that were all covered
+with golden and silver water lilies, or would gather the blue flowers from
+creepers that grew around dark trees, or would hide themselves so that
+they might listen to the quick-moving birds that sang in the thickets.
+Perhaps on their way homeward they would see the _Argo_ in the harbor, and
+they would think of Heracles who was aboard, and they would call to him.
+But the ship and the voyage they had been on now seemed far away to them,
+and the Quest of the Golden Fleece seemed to them a story they had heard
+and that they had thought of, but that they could never think on again
+with all that fervor.
+
+
+
+  When Jason looked on Hypsipyle he saw one who seemed to him to be only
+childlike in size. Greatly was he amazed at the words that poured forth
+from her as she stood at the stone throne of King Thoas—he was amazed as
+one is amazed at the rush of rich notes that comes from the throat of a
+little bird; all that she said was made lightninglike by her eyes—her eyes
+that were not clear and quiet like the eyes of the maidens he had seen in
+Iolcus, but that were dark and burning. Her mouth was heavy and this heavy
+mouth gave a shadow to her face that but for it was all bright and lovely.
+
+  Hypsipyle spoke two languages—one, the language of the mothers of the
+women of Lemnos, which was rough and harsh, a speech to be flung out to
+slaves, and the other the language of Greece, which their fathers had
+spoken, and which Hypsipyle spoke in a way that made it sound like strange
+music. She spoke and walked and did all things in a queenlike way, and
+Jason could see that, for all her youth and childlike size, Hypsipyle was
+one who was a ruler.
+
+  From the moment she took his hand it seemed that she could not bear to
+be away from him. Where he walked, she walked too; where he sat she sat
+before him, looking at him with her great eyes while she laughed or sang.
+
+  Like the perfume of strange flowers, like the savor of strange fruit was
+Hypsipyle to Jason. Hours and hours he would spend sitting beside her or
+watching her while she arrayed herself in white or in brightly colored
+garments. Not to the chase and not into the fields did Jason go, nor did
+he ever go with the others into the Lemnian land; all day he sat in the
+palace with her, watching her, or listening to her singing, or to the
+long, fierce speeches that she used to make to her nurse or to the four
+maidens who attended her.
+
+  In the evening they would gather in the hall of the palace, the
+Argonauts and the Lemnian maidens who were their comrades. There were
+dances, and always Jason and Hypsipyle danced together. All the Lemnian
+maidens sang beautifully, but none of them had any stories to tell.
+
+  And when the Argonauts would have stories told the Lemnian maidens would
+forbid any tale that was about a god or a hero; only stories that were
+about the goddesses or about some maiden would they let be told.
+
+  Orpheus, who knew the histories of the gods, would have told them many
+stories, but the only story of his that they would come from the dance to
+listen to was a story of the goddesses, of Demeter and her daughter
+Persephone.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+
+Demeter and Persephone
+
+
+I
+
+  Once when Demeter was going through the world, giving men grain to be
+sown in their fields, she heard a cry that came to her from across high
+mountains and that mounted up to her from the sea. Demeter’s heart shook
+when she heard that cry, for she knew that it came to her from her
+daughter, from her only child, young Persephone.
+
+  She stayed not to bless the fields in which the grain was being sown,
+but she hurried, hurried away, to Sicily and to the fields of Enna, where
+she had left Persephone. All Enna she searched, and all Sicily, but she
+found no trace of Persephone, nor of the maidens whom Persephone had been
+playing with. From all whom she met she begged for tidings, but although
+some had seen maidens gathering flowers and playing together, no one could
+tell Demeter why her child had cried out nor where she had since gone to.
+
+  There were some who could have told her. One was Cyane, a water nymph.
+But Cyane, before Demeter came to her, had been changed into a spring of
+water. And now, not being able to speak and tell Demeter where her child
+had gone to and who had carried her away, she showed in the water the
+girdle of Persephone that she had caught in her hands. And Demeter,
+finding the girdle of her child in the spring, knew that she had been
+carried off by violence. She lighted a torch at Ætna’s burning mountain,
+and for nine days and nine nights she went searching for her through the
+darkened places of the earth.
+
+  Then, upon a high and a dark hill, the Goddess Demeter came face to face
+with Hecate, the Moon. Hecate, too, had heard the cry of Persephone; she
+had sorrow for Demeter’s sorrow: she spoke to her as the two stood upon
+that dark, high hill, and told her that she should go to Helios for
+tidings—to bright Helios, the watcher for the gods, and beg Helios to tell
+her who it was who had carried off by violence her child Persephone.
+
+  Demeter came to Helios. He was standing before his shining steeds,
+before the impatient steeds that draw the sun through the course of the
+heavens. Demeter stood in the way of those impatient steeds; she begged of
+Helios who sees all things upon the earth to tell her who it was had
+carried off by violence Persephone, her child.
+
+  And Helios, who may make no concealment, said: “Queenly Demeter, know
+that the king of the Underworld, dark Aidoneus, has carried off Persephone
+to make her his queen in the realm that I never shine upon.” He spoke, and
+as he did, his horses shook their manes and breathed out fire, impatient
+to be gone. Helios sprang into his chariot and went flashing away.
+
+  Demeter, knowing that one of the gods had carried off Persephone against
+her will, and knowing that what was done had been done by the will of
+Zeus, would go no more into the assemblies of the gods. She quenched the
+torch that she had held in her hands for nine days and nine nights; she
+put off her robe of goddess, and she went wandering over the earth,
+uncomforted for the loss of her child. And no longer did she appear as a
+gracious goddess to men; no longer did she give them grain; no longer did
+she bless their fields. None of the things that it had pleased her once to
+do would Demeter do any longer.
+
+
+
+II
+
+  Persephone had been playing with the nymphs who are the daughters of
+Ocean—Phæno, Ianthe, Melita, Ianeira, Acaste—in the lovely fields of Enna.
+They went to gather flowers—irises and crocuses, lilies, narcissus,
+hyacinths and rose-blooms—that grow in those fields. As they went,
+gathering flowers in their baskets, they had sight of Pergus, the pool
+that the white swans come to sing in.
+
+  Beside a deep chasm that had been made in the earth a wonder flower was
+growing—in color it was like the crocus, but it sent forth a perfume that
+was like the perfume of a hundred flowers. And Persephone thought as she
+went toward it that having gathered that flower she would have something
+much more wonderful than her companions had.
+
+  She did not know that Aidoneus, the lord of the Underworld, had caused
+that flower to grow there so that she might be drawn by it to the chasm
+that he had made.
+
+  As Persephone stooped to pluck the wonder flower, Aidoneus, in his
+chariot of iron, dashed up through the chasm, and grasping the maiden by
+the waist, set her beside him. Only Cyane, the nymph, tried to save
+Persephone, and it was then that she caught the girdle in her hands.
+
+  The maiden cried out, first because her flowers had been spilled, and
+then because she was being reft away. She cried out to her mother, and her
+cry went over high mountains and sounded up from the sea. The daughters of
+Ocean, affrighted, fled and sank down into the depths of the sea.
+
+  In his great chariot of iron that was drawn by black steeds Aidoneus
+rushed down through the chasm he had made. Into the Underworld he went,
+and he dashed across the River Styx, and he brought his chariot up beside
+his throne. And on his dark throne he seated Persephone, the fainting
+daughter of Demeter.
+
+
+
+III
+
+  No more did the Goddess Demeter give grain to men; no more did she bless
+their fields: weeds grew where grain had been growing, and men feared that
+in a while they would famish for lack of bread.
+
+  She wandered through the world, her thought all upon her child,
+Persephone, who had been taken from her. Once she sat by a well by a
+wayside, thinking upon the child that she might not come to and who might
+not come to her.
+
+  She saw four maidens come near; their grace and their youth reminded her
+of her child. They stepped lightly along, carrying bronze pitchers in
+their hands, for they were coming to the Well of the Maiden beside which
+Demeter sat.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+                         Persephone and Aidoneus
+
+
+  The maidens thought when they looked upon her that the goddess was some
+ancient woman who had a sorrow in her heart. Seeing that she was so noble
+and so sorrowful looking, the maidens, as they drew the clear water into
+their pitchers, spoke kindly to her.
+
+  “Why do you stay away from the town, old mother?” one of the maidens
+said. “Why do you not come to the houses? We think that you look as if you
+were shelterless and alone, and we should like to tell you that there are
+many houses in the town where you would be welcomed.”
+
+  Demeter’s heart went out to the maidens, because they looked so young
+and fair and simple and spoke out of such kind hearts. She said to them:
+“Where can I go, dear children? My people are far away, and there are none
+in all the world who would care to be near me.”
+
+  Said one of the maidens: “There are princes in the land who would
+welcome you in their houses if you would consent to nurse one of their
+young children. But why do I speak of other princes beside Celeus, our
+father? In his house you would indeed have a welcome. But lately a baby
+has been born to our mother, Metaneira, and she would greatly rejoice to
+have one as wise as you mind little Demophoön.”
+
+  All the time that she watched them and listened to their voices Demeter
+felt that the grace and youth of the maidens made them like Persephone.
+She thought that it would ease her heart to be in the house where these
+maidens were, and she was not loath to have them go and ask of their
+mother to have her come to nurse the infant child.
+
+  Swiftly they ran back to their home, their hair streaming behind them
+like crocus flowers; kind and lovely girls whose names are well
+remembered—Callidice and Cleisidice, Demo and Callithoë. They went to
+their mother and they told her of the stranger-woman whose name was Doso.
+She would make a wise and a kind nurse for little Demophoön, they said.
+Their mother, Metaneira, rose up from the couch she was sitting on to
+welcome the stranger. But when she saw her at the doorway, awe came over
+her, so majestic she seemed.
+
+  Metaneira would have her seat herself on the couch but the goddess took
+the lowliest stool, saying in greeting: “May the gods give you all good,
+lady.”
+
+  “Sorrow has set you wandering from your good home,” said Metaneira to
+the goddess, “but now that you have come to this place you shall have all
+that this house can bestow if you will rear up to youth the infant
+Demophoön, child of many hopes and prayers.”
+
+  The child was put into the arms of Demeter; she clasped him to her
+breast, and little Demophoön looked up into her face and smiled. Then
+Demeter’s heart went out to the child and to all who were in the
+household.
+
+   He grew in strength and beauty in her charge. And little Demophoön was
+not nourished as other children are nourished, but even as the gods in
+their childhood were nourished. Demeter fed him on ambrosia, breathing on
+him with her divine breath the while. And at night she laid him on the
+hearth, amongst the embers, with the fire all around him. This she did
+that she might make him immortal, and like to the gods.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+  But one night Metaneira looked out from the chamber where she lay, and
+she saw the nurse take little Demophoön and lay him in a place on the
+hearth with the burning brands all around him. Then Metaneira started up,
+and she sprang to the hearth, and she snatched the child from beside the
+burning brands. “Demophoõn, my son,” she cried, “what would this
+stranger-woman do to you, bringing bitter grief to me that ever I let her
+take you in her arms?”
+
+  Then said Demeter: “Foolish indeed are you mortals, and not able to
+foresee what is to come to you of good or of evil! Foolish indeed are you,
+Metaneira, for in your heedlessness you have cut off this child from an
+immortality like to the immortality of the gods themselves. For he had
+lain in my bosom and had become dear to me and I would have bestowed upon
+him the greatest gift that the Divine Ones can bestow, for I would have
+made him deathless and unaging. All this, now, has gone by. Honor he shall
+have indeed, but Demophoõn will know age and death.”
+
+  The seeming old age that was upon her had fallen from Demeter; beauty
+and stature were hers, and from her robe there came a heavenly fragrance.
+There came such light from her body that the chamber shone. Metaneira
+remained trembling and speechless, unmindful even to take up the child
+that had been laid upon the ground.
+
+  It was then that his sisters heard Demophoön wail; one ran from her
+chamber and took the child in her arms; another kindled again the fire
+upon the hearth, and the others made ready to bathe and care for the
+infant. All night they cared for him, holding him in their arms and at
+their breasts, but the child would not be comforted, because the nurses
+who handled him now were less skillful than was the goddess-nurse.
+
+  And as for Demeter, she left the house of Celeus and went upon her way,
+lonely in her heart, and unappeased. And in the world that she wandered
+through, the plow went in vain through the ground; the furrow was sown
+without any avail, and the race of men saw themselves near perishing for
+lack of bread.
+
+  But again Demeter came near the Well of the Maiden. She thought of the
+daughters of Celeus as they came toward the well that day, the bronze
+pitchers in their hands, and with kind looks for the stranger—she thought
+of them as she sat by the well again. And then she thought of little
+Demophoön, the child she had held at her breast. No stir of living was in
+the land near their home, and only weeds grew in their fields. As she sat
+there and looked around her there came into Demeter’s heart a pity for the
+people in whose house she had dwelt.
+
+   She rose up and she went to the house of Celeus. She found him beside
+his house measuring out a little grain. The goddess went to him and she
+told him that because of the love she bore his household she would bless
+his fields so that the seed he had sown in them would come to growth.
+Celeus rejoiced, and he called all the people together, and they raised a
+temple to Demeter. She went through the fields and blessed them, and the
+seed that they had sown began to grow. And the goddess for a while dwelt
+amongst that people, in her temple at Eleusis.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+
+IV
+
+  But still she kept away from the assemblies of the gods. Zeus sent a
+messenger to her, Iris with the golden wings, bidding her to Olympus.
+Demeter would not join the Olympians. Then, one after the other, the gods
+and goddesses of Olympus came to her; none were able to make her cease
+from grieving for Persephone, or to go again into the company of the
+immortal gods.
+
+  And so it came about that Zeus was compelled to send a messenger down to
+the Underworld to bring Persephone back to the mother who grieved so much
+for the loss of her. Hermes was the messenger whom Zeus sent. Through the
+darkened places of the earth Hermes went, and he came to that dark throne
+where the lord Aidoneus sat, with Persephone beside him. Then Hermes spoke
+to the lord of the Underworld, saying that Zeus commanded that Persephone
+should come forth from the Underworld that her mother might look upon her.
+
+  Then Persephone, hearing the words of Zeus that might not be gainsaid,
+uttered the only cry that had left her lips since she had sent out that
+cry that had reached her mother’s heart. And Aidoneus, hearing the command
+of Zeus that might not be denied, bowed his dark, majestic head.
+
+  She might go to the Upperworld and rest herself in the arms of her
+mother, he said. And then he cried out: “Ah, Persephone, strive to feel
+kindliness in your heart toward me who carried you off by violence and
+against your will. I can give to you one of the great kingdoms that the
+Olympians rule over. And I, who am brother to Zeus, am no unfitting
+husband for you, Demeter’s child.”
+
+  So Aidoneus, the dark lord of the Underworld said, and he made ready the
+iron chariot with its deathless horses that Persephone might go up from
+his kingdom.
+
+  Beside the single tree in his domain Aidoneus stayed the chariot. A
+single fruit grew on that tree, a bright pomegranate fruit. Persephone
+stood up in the chariot and plucked the fruit from the tree. Then did
+Aidoneus prevail upon her to divide the fruit, and, having divided it,
+Persephone ate seven of the pomegranate seeds.
+
+  It was Hermes who took the whip and the reins of the chariot. He drove
+on, and neither the sea nor the water-courses, nor the glens nor the
+mountain peaks stayed the deathless horses of Aidoneus, and soon the
+chariot was brought near to where Demeter awaited the coming of her
+daughter.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+  And when, from a hilltop, Demeter saw the chariot approaching, she flew
+like a wild bird to clasp her child. Persephone, when she saw her mother’s
+dear eyes, sprang out of the chariot and fell upon her neck and embraced
+her. Long and long Demeter held her dear child in her arms, gazing, gazing
+upon her. Suddenly her mind misgave her. With a great fear at her heart
+she cried out: “Dearest, has any food passed your lips in all the time you
+have been in the Underworld?”
+
+  She had not tasted food in all the time she was there, Persephone said.
+And then, suddenly, she remembered the pomegranate that Aidoneus had asked
+her to divide. When she told that she had eaten seven seeds from it
+Demeter wept, and her tears fell upon Persephone’s face.
+
+  “Ah, my dearest,” she cried, “if you had not eaten the pomegranate seeds
+you could have stayed with me, and always we should have been together.
+But now that you have eaten food in it, the Underworld has a claim upon
+you. You may not stay always with me here. Again you will have to go back
+and dwell in the dark places under the earth and sit upon Aidoneus’s
+throne. But not always you will be there. When the flowers bloom upon the
+earth you shall come up from the realm of darkness, and in great joy we
+shall go through the world together, Demeter and Persephone.”
+
+  And so it has been since Persephone came back to her mother after having
+eaten of the pomegranate seeds. For two seasons of the year she stays with
+Demeter, and for one season she stays in the Underworld with her dark
+lord. While she is with her mother there is springtime upon the earth.
+Demeter blesses the furrows, her heart being glad because her daughter is
+with her once more. The furrows become heavy with grain, and soon the
+whole wide earth has grain and fruit, leaves and flowers. When the furrows
+are reaped, when the grain has been gathered, when the dark season comes,
+Persephone goes from her mother, and going down into the dark places, she
+sits beside her mighty lord Aidoneus and upon his throne. Not sorrowful is
+she there; she sits with head unbowed, for she knows herself to be a
+mighty queen. She has joy, too, knowing of the seasons when she may walk
+with Demeter, her mother, on the wide places of the earth, through fields
+of flowers and fruit and ripening grain.
+
+
+
+  Such was the story that Orpheus told—Orpheus who knew the histories of
+the gods.
+
+  A day came when the heroes, on their way back from a journey they had
+made with the Lemnian maidens, called out to Heracles upon the _Argo_.
+Then Heracles, standing on the prow of the ship, shouted angrily to them.
+Terrible did he seem to the Lemnian maidens, and they ran off, drawing the
+heroes with them. Heracles shouted to his comrades again, saying that if
+they did not come aboard the _Argo_ and make ready for the voyage to
+Colchis, he would go ashore and carry them to the ship, and force them
+again to take the oars in their hands. Not all of what Heracles said did
+the Argonauts hear.
+
+  That evening the men were silent in Hypsipyle’s hall, and it was
+Atalanta, the maiden, who told the evening’s story.
+
+
+
+Atalanta’s Race
+
+
+  There are two Atalantas, she said; she herself, the Huntress, and
+another who is noted for her speed of foot and her delight in the race—the
+daughter of Schœneus, King of Bœotia, Atalanta of the Swift Foot.
+
+  So proud was she of her swiftness that she made a vow to the gods that
+none would be her husband except the youth who won past her in the race.
+Youth after youth came and raced against her, but Atalanta, who grew
+fleeter and fleeter of foot, left each one of them far behind her. The
+youths who came to the race were so many and the clamor they made after
+defeat was so great, that her father made a law that, as he thought, would
+lessen their number. The law that he made was that the youth who came to
+race against Atalanta and who lost the race should lose his life into the
+bargain. After that the youths who had care for their lives stayed away
+from Bœotia.
+
+  Once there came a youth from a far part of Greece into the country that
+Atalanta’s father ruled over. Hippomenes was his name. He did not know of
+the race, but having come into the city and seeing the crowd of people, he
+went with them to the course. He looked upon the youths who were girded
+for the race, and he heard the folk say amongst themselves, “Poor youths,
+as mighty and as high-spirited as they look, by sunset the life will be
+out of each of them, for Atalanta will run past them as she ran past the
+others.” Then Hippomenes spoke to the folk in wonder, and they told him of
+Atalanta’s race and of what would befall the youths who were defeated in
+it. “Unlucky youths,” cried Hippomenes, “how foolish they are to try to
+win a bride at the price of their lives.”
+
+  Then, with pity in his heart, he watched the youths prepare for the
+race. Atalanta had not yet taken her place, and he was fearful of looking
+upon her. “She is a witch,” he said to himself, “she must be a witch to
+draw so many youths to their deaths, and she, no doubt, will show in her
+face and figure the witch’s spirit.”
+
+  But even as he said this, Hippomenes saw Atalanta. She stood with the
+youths before they crouched for the first dart in the race. He saw that
+she was a girl of a light and a lovely form. Then they crouched for the
+race; then the trumpets rang out, and the youths and the maiden darted
+like swallows over the sand of the course.
+
+  On came Atalanta, far, far ahead of the youths who had started with her.
+Over her bare shoulders her hair streamed, blown backward by the wind that
+met her flight. Her fair neck shone, and her little feet were like flying
+doves. It seemed to Hippomenes as he watched her that there was fire in
+her lovely body. On and on she went as swift as the arrow that the
+Scythian shoots from his bow. And as he watched the race he was not sorry
+that the youths were being left behind. Rather would he have been enraged
+if one came near overtaking her, for now his heart was set upon winning
+her for his bride, and he cursed himself for not having entered the race.
+
+  She passed the last goal mark and she was given the victor’s wreath of
+flowers. Hippomenes stood and watched her and he did not see the youths
+who had started with her—they had thrown themselves on the ground in their
+despair.
+
+  Then wild, as though he were one of the doomed youths, Hippomenes made
+his way through the throng and came before the black-bearded King of
+Bœtia. The king’s brows were knit, for even then he was pronouncing doom
+upon the youths who had been left behind in the race. He looked upon
+Hippomenes, another youth who would make the trial, and the frown became
+heavier upon his face.
+
+  But Hippomenes saw only Atalanta. She came beside her father; the wreath
+was upon her head of gold, and her eyes were wide and tender. She turned
+her face to him, and then she knew by the wildness that was in his look
+that he had come to enter the race with her. Then the flush that was on
+her face died away, and she shook her head as if she were imploring him to
+go from that place.
+
+  The dark-bearded king bent his brows upon him and said, “Speak, O youth,
+speak and tell us what brings you here.”
+
+  Then cried Hippomenes as if his whole life were bursting out with his
+words: “Why does this maiden, your daughter, seek an easy renown by
+conquering weakly youths in the race? She has not striven yet. Here stand
+I, one of the blood of Poseidon, the god of the sea. Should I be defeated
+by her in the race, then, indeed, might Atalanta have something to boast
+of.”
+
+  Atalanta stepped forward and said: “Do not speak of it, youth. Indeed I
+think that it is some god, envious of your beauty and your strength, who
+sent you here to strive with me and to meet your doom. Ah, think of the
+youths who have striven with me even now! Think of the hard doom that is
+about to fall upon them! You venture your life in the race, but indeed I
+am not worthy of the price. Go hence, O stranger youth, go hence and live
+happily, for indeed I think that there is some maiden who loves you well.”
+
+  “Nay, maiden,” said Hippomenes, “I will enter the race and I will
+venture my life on the chance of winning you for my bride. What good will
+my life and my spirit be to me if they cannot win this race for me?”
+
+  She drew away from him then and looked upon him no more, but bent down
+to fasten the sandals upon her feet. And the black-bearded king looked
+upon Hippomenes and said, “Face, then, this race to-morrow. You will be
+the only one who will enter it. But bethink thee of the doom that awaits
+thee at the end of it.” The king said no more, and Hippomenes went from
+him and from Atalanta, and he came again to the place where the race had
+been run.
+
+  He looked across the sandy course with its goal marks, and in his mind
+he saw again Atalanta’s swift race. He would not meet doom at the hands of
+the king’s soldiers, he knew, for his spirit would leave him with the
+greatness of the effort he would make to reach the goal before her. And he
+thought it would be well to die in that effort and on that sandy place
+that was so far from his own land.
+
+  Even as he looked across the sandy course now deserted by the throng, he
+saw one move across it, coming toward him with feet that did not seem to
+touch the ground. She was a woman of wonderful presence. As Hippomenes
+looked upon her he knew that she was Aphrodite, the goddess of beauty and
+of love.
+
+  “Hippomenes,” said the immortal goddess, “the gods are mindful of you
+who are sprung from one of the gods, and I am mindful of you because of
+your own worth. I have come to help you in your race with Atalanta, for I
+would not have you slain, nor would I have that maiden go unwed. Give your
+greatest strength and your greatest swiftness to the race, and behold!
+here are wonders that will prevent the fleet-footed Atalanta from putting
+all her spirit into the race.”
+
+  And then the immortal goddess held out to Hippomenes a branch that had
+upon it three apples of shining gold.
+
+  “In Cyprus,” said the goddess, “where I have come from, there is a tree
+on which these golden apples grow. Only I may pluck them. I have brought
+them to you, Hippomenes. Keep them in your girdle, and in the race you
+will find out what to do with them, I think.”
+
+  So Aphrodite said, and then she vanished, leaving a fragrance in the air
+and the three shining apples in the hands of Hippomenes. Long he looked
+upon their brightness. They were beside him that night, and when he arose
+in the dawn he put them in his girdle. Then, before the throng, he went to
+the place of the race.
+
+  When he showed himself beside Atalanta all around the course were
+silent, for they all admired Hippomenes for his beauty and for the spirit
+that was in his face; they were silent out of compassion, for they knew
+the doom that befell the youths who raced with Atalanta.
+
+  And now Schœneus, the black-bearded king, stood up, and he spoke to the
+throng, saying, “Hear me all, both young and old: this youth, Hippomenes,
+seeks to win the race from my daughter, winning her for his bride. Now, if
+he be victorious and escape death I will give him my dear child, Atalanta,
+and many fleet horses besides as gifts from me, and in honor he shall go
+back to his native land. But if he fail in the race, then he will have to
+share the doom that has been meted out to the other youths who raced with
+Atalanta hoping to win her for a bride.”
+
+  Then Hippomenes and Atalanta crouched for the start. The trumpets were
+sounded and they darted off.
+
+  Side by side with Atalanta Hippomenes went. Her flying hair touched his
+breast, and it seemed to him that they were skimming the sandy course as
+if they were swallows. But then Atalanta began to draw away from him. He
+saw her ahead of him, and then he began to hear the words of cheer that
+came from the throng—“Bend to the race, Hippomenes! Go on, go on! Use your
+strength to the utmost.” He bent himself to the race, but further and
+further from him Atalanta drew.
+
+  Then it seemed to him that she checked her swiftness a little to look
+back at him. He gained on her a little. And then his hand touched the
+apples that were in his girdle. As it touched them it came into his mind
+what to do with the apples.
+
+  He was not far from her now, but already her swiftness was drawing her
+further and further away. He took one of the apples into his hand and
+tossed it into the air so that it fell on the track before her.
+
+  Atalanta saw the shining apple. She checked her speed and stooped in the
+race to pick it up. And as she stooped Hippomenes darted past her, and
+went flying toward the goal that now was within his sight.
+
+  But soon she was beside him again. He looked, and he saw that the goal
+marks were far, far ahead of him. Atalanta with the flying hair passed
+him, and drew away and away from him. He had not speed to gain upon her
+now, he thought, so he put his strength into his hand and he flung the
+second of the shining apples. The apple rolled before her and rolled off
+the course. Atalanta turned off the course, stooped and picked up the
+apple.
+
+  Then did Hippomenes draw all his spirit into his breast as he raced on.
+He was now nearer to the goal than she was. But he knew that she was
+behind him, going lightly where he went heavily. And then she was beside
+him, and then she went past him. She paused in her speed for a moment and
+she looked back on him.
+
+  As he raced on, his chest seemed weighted down and his throat was
+crackling dry. The goal marks were far away still, but Atalanta was
+nearing them. He took the last of the golden apples into his hand. Perhaps
+she was now so far that the strength of his throw would not be great
+enough to bring the apple before her.
+
+  But with all the strength he could put into his hand he flung the apple.
+It struck the course before her feet and then went bounding wide. Atalanta
+swerved in her race and followed where the apple went. Hippomenes marveled
+that he had been able to fling it so far. He saw Atalanta stoop to pick up
+the apple, and he bounded on. And then, although his strength was failing,
+he saw the goal marks near him. He set his feet between them and then fell
+down on the ground.
+
+  The attendants raised him up and put the victor’s wreath upon his head.
+The concourse of people shouted with joy to see him victor. But he looked
+around for Atalanta and he saw her standing there with the golden apples
+in her hands. “He has won,” he heard her say, “and I have not to hate
+myself for bringing a doom upon him. Gladly, gladly do I give up the race,
+and glad am I that it is this youth who has won the victory from me.”
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+                           Atalanta’s Last Race
+
+
+  She took his hand and brought him before the king. Then Schœneus, in the
+sight of all the rejoicing people, gave Atalanta to Hippomenes for his
+bride, and he bestowed upon him also a great gift of horses. With his dear
+and hard-won bride, Hippomenes went to his own country, and the apples
+that she brought with her, the golden apples of Aphrodite, were reverenced
+by the people.
+
+
+
+
+X. The Departure from Lemnos
+
+
+
+[Decorative first letter]
+_A_ DAY came when Heracles left the _Argo_ and went on the Lemnian land.
+He gathered the heroes about him, and they, seeing Heracles come amongst
+them, clamored to go to hunt the wild bulls that were inland from the sea.
+
+  So, for once, the heroes left the Lemnian maidens who were their
+friends. Jason, too, left Hypsipyle in the palace and went with Heracles.
+And as they went, Heracles spoke to each of the heroes, saying that they
+were forgetting the Fleece of Gold that they had sailed to gain. Jason
+blushed to think that he had almost let go out of his mind the quest that
+had brought him from Iolcus. And then he thought upon Hypsipyle and of how
+her little hand would stay in his, and his own hand became loose upon the
+spear so that it nearly fell from him. How could he, he thought, leave
+Hypsipyle and this land of Lemnos behind?
+
+  He heard the clear voice of Atalanta as she, too, spoke to the
+Argonauts. What Heracles said was brave and wise, said Atalanta.
+Forgetfulness would cover their names if they stayed longer in
+Lemnos—forgetfulness and shame, and they would come to despise themselves.
+Leave Lemnos, she cried, and draw _Argo_ into the sea, and depart for
+Colchis.
+
+  All day the Argonauts stayed by themselves, hunting the bulls. On their
+way back from the chase they were met by Lemnian maidens who carried
+wreaths of flowers for them. Very silent were the heroes as the maidens
+greeted them. Heracles went with Jason to the palace, and Hypsipyle,
+seeing the mighty stranger coming, seated herself, not on the couch where
+she was wont to sit looking into the face of Jason, but on the stone
+throne of King Thoas, her father. And seated on that throne she spoke to
+Jason and to Heracles as a queen might speak.
+
+  In the hall that night the heroes and the Lemnian maidens who were with
+them were quiet. A story was told; Castor began it and Polydeuces ended
+it. And the story that Helen’s brothers told was:
+
+
+
+The Golden Maid
+
+
+  Epimetheus the Titan had a brother who was the wisest of all
+beings—Prometheus called the Foreseer. But Epimetheus himself was
+slow-witted and scatter-brained. His wise brother once sent him a message
+bidding him beware of the gifts that Zeus might send him. Epimetheus
+heard, but he did not heed the warning, and thereby he brought upon the
+race of men troubles and cares.
+
+  Prometheus, the wise Titan, had saved men from a great trouble that Zeus
+would have brought upon them. Also he had given them the gift of fire.
+Zeus was the more wroth with men now because fire, stolen from him, had
+been given them; he was wroth with the race of Titans, too, and he
+pondered in his heart how he might injure men, and how he might use
+Epimetheus, the mindless Titan, to further his plan.
+
+  While he pondered there was a hush on high Olympus, the mountain of the
+gods. Then Zeus called upon the artisan of the gods, lame Hephæstus, and
+he commanded him to make a being out of clay that would have the likeness
+of a lovely maiden. With joy and pride Hephæstus worked at the task that
+had been given him, and he fashioned a being that had the likeness of a
+lovely maiden, and he brought the thing of his making before the gods and
+the goddesses.
+
+  All strove to add a grace or a beauty to the work of Hephæstus. Zeus
+granted that the maiden should see and feel. Athene dressed her in
+garments that were as lovely as flowers. Aphrodite, the goddess of love,
+put a charm on her lips and in her eyes. The Graces put necklaces around
+her neck and set a golden crown upon her head. The Hours brought her a
+girdle of spring flowers. Then the herald of the gods gave her speech that
+was sweet and flowing. All the gods and goddesses had given gifts to her,
+and for that reason the maiden of Hephæstus’s making was called Pandora,
+the All-endowed.
+
+  She was lovely, the gods knew; not beautiful as they themselves are, who
+have a beauty that awakens reverence rather than love, but lovely, as
+flowers and bright waters and earthly maidens are lovely. Zeus smiled to
+himself when he looked upon her, and he called to Hermes who knew all the
+ways of the earth, and he put her into the charge of Hermes. Also he gave
+Hermes a great jar to take along; this jar was Pandora’s dower.
+
+
+
+  Epimetheus lived in a deep-down valley. Now one day, as he was sitting
+on a fallen pillar in the ruined place that was now forsaken by the rest
+of the Titans, he saw a pair coming toward him. One had wings, and he knew
+him to be Hermes, the messenger of the gods. The other was a maiden.
+Epimetheus marveled at the crown upon her head and at her lovely garments.
+There was a glint of gold all around her. He rose from where he sat upon
+the broken pillar and he stood to watch the pair. Hermes, he saw, was
+carrying by its handle a great jar.
+
+   In wonder and delight he looked upon the maiden. Epimetheus had seen no
+lovely thing for ages. Wonderful indeed was this Golden Maid, and as she
+came nearer the charm that was on her lips and in her eyes came to the
+Earth-born One, and he smiled with more and more delight.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+  Hermes came and stood before him. He also smiled, but his smile had
+something baleful in it. He put the hands of the Golden Maid into the
+great soft hand of the Titan, and he said, “O Epimetheus, Father Zeus
+would be reconciled with thee, and as a sign of his good will he sends
+thee this lovely goddess to be thy companion.”
+
+  Oh, very foolish was Epimetheus the Earth-born One! As he looked upon
+the Golden Maid who was sent by Zeus he lost memory of the wars that Zeus
+had made upon the Titans and the Elder Gods; he lost memory of his brother
+chained by Zeus to the rock; he lost memory of the warning that his
+brother, the wisest of all beings, had sent him. He took the hands of
+Pandora, and he thought of nothing at all in all the world but her. Very
+far away seemed the voice of Hermes saying, “This jar, too, is from
+Olympus; it has in it Pandora’s dower.”
+
+  The jar stood forgotten for long, and green plants grew over it while
+Epimetheus walked in the garden with the Golden Maid, or watched her while
+she gazed on herself in the stream, or searched in the untended places for
+the fruits that the Elder Gods would eat, when they feasted with the
+Titans in the old days, before Zeus had come to his power. And lost to
+Epimetheus was the memory of his brother now suffering upon the rock
+because of the gift he had given to men.
+
+  And Pandora, knowing nothing except the brightness of the sunshine and
+the lovely shapes and colors of things and the sweet taste of the fruits
+that Epimetheus brought to her, could have stayed forever in that garden.
+
+  But every day Epimetheus would think that the men and women of the world
+should be able to talk to him about this maiden with the wonderful
+radiance of gold, and with the lovely garments, and the marvelous crown.
+And one day he took Pandora by the hand, and he brought her out of that
+deep-lying valley, and toward the homes of men. He did not forget the jar
+that Hermes had left with her. All things that belonged to the Golden Maid
+were precious, and Epimetheus took the jar along.
+
+
+
+  The race of men at the time were simple and content. Their days were
+passed in toil, but now, since Prometheus had given them fire, they had
+good fruits of their toil. They had well-shaped tools to dig the earth and
+to build houses. Their homes were warmed with fire, and fire burned upon
+the altars that were upon their ways.
+
+  Greatly they reverenced Prometheus; who had given them fire, and greatly
+they reverenced the race of the Titans. So when Epimetheus came amongst
+them, tall as a man walking with stilts, they welcomed him and brought him
+and the Golden Maid to their hearths. And Epimetheus showed Pandora the
+wonderful element that his brother had given to men, and she rejoiced to
+see the fire, clapping her hands with delight. The jar that Epimetheus
+brought he left in an open place.
+
+  In carrying it up the rough ways out of the valley Epimetheus may have
+knocked the jar about, for the lid that had been tight upon it now fitted
+very loosely. But no one gave heed to the jar as it stood in the open
+space where Epimetheus had left it.
+
+  At first the men and women looked upon the beauty of Pandora, upon her
+lovely dresses, and her golden crown and her girdle of flowers, with
+wonder and delight. Epimetheus would have every one admire and praise her.
+The men would leave off working in the fields, or hammering on iron, or
+building houses, and the women would leave off spinning or weaving, and
+come at his call, and stand about and admire the Golden Maid. But as time
+went by a change came upon the women: one woman would weep, and another
+would look angry, and a third would go back sullenly to her work when
+Pandora was admired or praised.
+
+  Once the women were gathered together, and one who was the wisest
+amongst them said: “Once we did not think about ourselves, and we were
+content. But now we think about ourselves, and we say to ourselves that we
+are harsh and ill-favored indeed compared to the Golden Maid that the
+Titan is so enchanted with. And we hate to see our own men praise and
+admire her, and often, in our hearts, we would destroy her if we could.”
+
+  “That is true,” the women said. And then a young woman cried out in a
+most yearnful voice, “O tell us, you who are wise, how can we make
+ourselves as beautiful as Pandora!”
+
+  Then said that woman who was thought to be wise, “This Golden Maid is
+lovely to look upon because she has lovely apparel and all the means of
+keeping herself lovely. The gods have given her the ways, and so her skin
+remains fair, and her hair keeps its gold, and her lips are ever red and
+her eyes shining. And I think that the means that she has of keeping
+lovely are all in that jar that Epimetheus brought with her.”
+
+  When the woman who was thought to be wise said this, those around her
+were silent for a while. But then one arose and another arose, and they
+stood and whispered together, one saying to the other that they should go
+to the place where the jar had been left by Epimetheus, and that they
+should take out of it the salves and the charms and the washes that would
+leave them as beautiful as Pandora.
+
+  So the women went to that place. On their way they stopped at a pool and
+they bent over to see themselves mirrored in it, and they saw themselves
+with dusty and unkempt hair, with large and knotted hands, with troubled
+eyes, and with anxious mouths. They frowned as they looked upon their
+images, and they said in harsh voices that in a while they would have ways
+of making themselves as lovely as the Golden Maid.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+  And as they went on they saw Pandora. She was playing in a flowering
+field, while Epimetheus, high as a man upon stilts, went gathering the
+blossoms of the bushes for her. They went on, and they came at last to the
+place where Epimetheus had left the jar that held Pandora’s dower.
+
+  A great stone jar it was; there was no bird, nor flower, nor branch
+painted upon it. It stood high as a woman’s shoulder. And as the women
+looked on it they thought that there were things enough in it to keep them
+beautiful for all the days of their lives. But each one thought that she
+should not be the last to get her hands into it.
+
+  Once the lid had been fixed tightly down on the jar. But the lid was
+shifted a little now. As the hands of the women grasped it to take off the
+lid the jar was cast down, and the things that were inside spilled
+themselves forth.
+
+  They were black and gray and red; they were crawling and flying things.
+And, as the women looked, the things spread themselves abroad or fastened
+themselves upon them.
+
+  The jar, like Pandora herself, had been made and filled out of the ill
+will of Zeus. And it had been filled, not with salves and charms and
+washes, as the women had thought, but with Cares and Troubles. Before the
+women came to it one Trouble had already come forth from the
+jar—Self-thought that was upon the top of the heap. It was Self-thought
+that had afflicted the women, making them troubled about their own looks,
+and envious of the graces of the Golden Maid.
+
+  And now the others spread themselves out—Sickness and War and Strife
+between friends. They spread themselves abroad and entered the houses,
+while Epimetheus, the mindless Titan, gathered flowers for Pandora, the
+Golden Maid.
+
+  Lest she should weary of her play he called to her. He would take her
+into the houses of men. As they drew near to the houses they saw a woman
+seated on the ground, weeping; her husband had suddenly become hard to her
+and had shut the door on her face. They came upon a child crying because
+of a pain that he could not understand. And then they found two men
+struggling, their strife being on account of a possession that they had
+both held peaceably before.
+
+  In every house they went to Epimetheus would say, “I am the brother of
+Prometheus, who gave you the gift of fire.” But instead of giving them a
+welcome the men would say, “We know nothing about your relation to
+Prometheus. We see you as a foolish man upon stilts.”
+
+  Epimetheus was troubled by the hard looks and the cold words of the men
+who once had reverenced him. He turned from the houses and went away. In a
+quiet place he sat down, and for a while he lost sight of Pandora. And
+then it seemed to him that he heard the voice of his wise and suffering
+brother saying, “Do not accept any gift that Zeus may send you.”
+
+  He rose up and he hurried away from that place, leaving Pandora playing
+by herself. There came into his scattered mind Regret and Fear. As he went
+on he stumbled. He fell from the edge of a cliff, and the sea washed away
+the body of the mindless brother of Prometheus.
+
+  Not everything had been spilled out of the jar that had been brought
+with Pandora into the world of men. A beautiful, living thing was in that
+jar also. This was Hope. And this beautiful, living thing had got caught
+under the rim of the jar and had not come forth with the others. One day a
+weeping woman found Hope under the rim of Pandora’s jar and brought this
+living thing into the house of men. And now because of Hope they could see
+an end to their troubles. And the men and women roused themselves in the
+midst of their afflictions and they looked toward gladness. Hope, that had
+been caught under the rim of the jar, stayed behind the thresholds of
+their houses.
+
+  As for Pandora, the Golden Maid, she played on, knowing only the
+brightness of the sunshine and the lovely shapes of things. Beautiful
+would she have seemed to any being who saw her, but now she had strayed
+away from the houses of men and Epimetheus was not there to look upon her.
+Then Hephæstus, the lame artisan of the gods, left down his tools and went
+to seek her. He found Pandora, and he took her back to Olympus. And in his
+brazen house she stays, though sometimes at the will of Zeus she goes down
+into the world of men.
+
+
+
+  When Polydeuces had ended the story that Castor had begun, Heracles
+cried out: “For the Argonauts, too, there has been a Golden Maid—nay, not
+one, but a Golden Maid for each. Out of the jar that has been with her ye
+have taken forgetfulness of your honor. As for me, I go back to the _Argo_
+lest one of these Golden Maids should hold me back from the labors that
+make great a man.”
+
+  So Heracles said, and he went from Hypsipyle’s hall. The heroes looked
+at each other, and they stood up, and shame that they had stayed so long
+away from the quest came over each of them. The maidens took their hands;
+the heroes unloosed those soft hands and turned away from them.
+
+  Hypsipyle left the throne of King Thoas and stood before Jason. There
+was a storm in all her body; her mouth was shaken, and a whole life’s
+trouble was in her great eyes. Before she spoke Jason cried out: “What
+Heracles said is true, O Argonauts! On the Quest of the Golden Fleece our
+lives and our honors depend. To Colchis—to Colchis must we go!”
+
+  He stood upright in the hall, and his comrades gathered around him. The
+Lemnian maidens would have held out their arms and would have made their
+partings long delayed, but that a strange cry came to them through the
+night. Well did the Argonauts know that cry—it was the cry of the ship, of
+_Argo_ herself. They knew that they must go to her now or stay from the
+voyage for ever. And the maidens knew that there was something in the cry
+of the ship that might not be gainsaid, and they put their hands before
+their faces, and they said no other word.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+  Then said Hypsipyle, the queen, “I, too, am a ruler, Jason, and I know
+that there are great commands that we have to obey. Go, then, to the
+_Argo_. Ah, neither I nor the women of Lemnos will stay your going now.
+But to-morrow speak to us from the deck of the ship and bid us farewell.
+Do not go from us in the night, Jason.”
+
+  Jason and the Argonauts went from Hypsipyle’s hall. The maidens who were
+left behind wept together. All but Hypsipyle. She sat on the throne of
+King Thoas and she had Polyxo, her nurse, tell her of the ways of Jason’s
+voyage as he had told of them, and of all that he would have to pass
+through. When the other Lemnian women slept she put her head upon her
+nurse’s knees and wept; bitterly Hypsipyle wept, but softly, for she would
+not have the others hear her weeping.
+
+
+
+  By the coming of the morning’s light the Argonauts had made all ready
+for their sailing. They were standing on the deck when the light came, and
+they saw the Lemnian women come to the shore. Each looked at her friend
+aboard the _Argo_, and spoke, and went away. And last, Hypsipyle, the
+queen, came. “Farewell, Hypsipyle,” Jason said to her, and she, in her
+strange way of speaking, said:
+
+  “What you told us I have remembered—how you will come to the dangerous
+passage that leads into the Sea of Pontus, and how by the flight of a
+pigeon you will know whether or not you may go that way. O Jason, let the
+dove you fly when you come to that dangerous place be Hypsipyle’s.”
+
+  She showed a pigeon held in her hands. She loosed it, and the pigeon
+alighted on the ship, and stayed there on pink feet, a white-feathered
+pigeon. Jason took up the pigeon and held it in his hands, and the _Argo_
+drew swiftly away from the Lemnian land.
+
+
+
+
+XI. The Passage of the Symplegades
+
+
+
+[Decorative first letter]
+_T_HEY came near Salmydessus, where Phineus, the wise king, ruled, and
+they sailed past it; they sighted the pile of stones, with the oar upright
+upon it that they had raised on the seashore over the body of Tiphys, the
+skillful steersman whom they had lost; they sailed on until they heard a
+sound that grew more and more thunderous, and then the heroes said to each
+other, “Now we come to the Symplegades and the dread passage into the Sea
+of Pontus.”
+
+  It was then that Jason cried out: “Ah, when Pelias spoke of this quest
+to me, why did I not turn my head away and refuse to be drawn into it?
+Since we came near the dread passage that is before us I have passed every
+night in groans. As for you who have come with me, you may take your ease,
+for you need care only for your own lives. But I have to care for you all,
+and to strive to win for you all a safe return to Greece. Ah, greatly am I
+afflicted now, knowing to what a great peril I have brought you!”
+
+  So Jason said, thinking to make trial of the heroes. They, on their
+part, were not dismayed, but shouted back cheerful words to him. Then he
+said: “O friends of mine, by your spirit my spirit is quickened. Now if I
+knew that I was being borne down into the black gulfs of Hades, I should
+fear nothing, knowing that you are constant and faithful of heart.”
+
+  As he said this they came into water that seethed all around the ship.
+Then into the hands of Euphemus, a youth of Iolcus, who was the
+keenest-eyed amongst the Argonauts, Jason put the pigeon that Hypsipyle
+had given him. He bade him stand by the prow of the _Argo_, ready to loose
+the pigeon as the ship came nigh that dreadful gate of rock.
+
+  They saw the spray being dashed around in showers; they saw the sea
+spread itself out in foam; they saw the high, black rocks rush together,
+sounding thunderously as they met. The caves in the high rocks rumbled as
+the sea surged into them, and the foam of the dashing waves spurted high
+up the rocks.
+
+  Jason shouted to each man to grip hard on the oars. The _Argo_ dashed on
+as the rocks rushed toward each other again. Then there was such noise
+that no man’s voice could be heard above it.
+
+  As the rocks met, Euphemus loosed the pigeon. With his keen eyes he
+watched her fly through the spray. Would she, not finding an opening to
+fly through, turn back? He watched, and meanwhile the Argonauts gripped
+hard on the oars to save the ship from being dashed on the rocks. The
+pigeon fluttered as though she would sink down and let the spray drown
+her. And then Euphemus saw her raise herself and fly forward. Toward the
+place where she had flown he pointed. The rowers gave a loud cry, and
+Jason called upon them to pull with might and main.
+
+  The rocks were parting asunder, and to the right and left broad Pontus
+was seen by the heroes. Then suddenly a huge wave rose before them, and at
+the sight of it they all uttered a cry and bent their heads. It seemed to
+them that it would dash down on the whole ship’s length and overwhelm them
+all. But Nauplius was quick to ease the ship, and the wave rolled away
+beneath the keel, and at the stern it raised the _Argo_ and dashed her
+away from the rocks.
+
+  They felt the sun as it streamed upon them through the sundered rocks.
+They strained at the oars until the oars bent like bows in their hands.
+The ship sprang forward. Surely they were now in the wide Sea of Pontus!
+
+  The Argonauts shouted. They saw the rocks behind them with the sea fowl
+screaming upon them. Surely they were in the Sea of Pontus—the sea that
+had never been entered before through the Rocks Wandering. The rocks no
+longer dashed together; each remained fixed in its place, for it was the
+will of the gods that these rocks should no more clash together after a
+mortal’s ship had passed between them.
+
+  They were now in the Sea of Pontus, the sea into which flowed the river
+that Colchis was upon—the River Phasis. And now above Jason’s head the
+bird of peaceful days, the Halcyon, fluttered, and the Argonauts knew that
+this was a sign from the gods that the voyage would not any more be
+troublous.
+
+
+
+
+XII. The Mountain Caucasus
+
+
+
+[Decorative first letter]
+_T_HEY rested in the harbor of Thynias, the desert island, and sailing
+from there they came to the land of the Mariandyni, a people who were
+constantly at war with the Bebrycians; there the hero Polydeuces was
+welcomed as a god. Twelve days afterward they passed the mouth of the
+River Callichorus; then they came to the mouth of that river that flows
+through the land of the Amazons, the River Thermodon. Fourteen days from
+that place brought them to the island that is filled with the birds of
+Ares, the god of war. These birds dropped upon the heroes heavy, pointed
+feathers that would have pierced them as arrows if they had not covered
+themselves with their shields; then by shouting, and by striking their
+shields with their spears, they raised such a clamor as drove the birds
+away.
+
+  They sailed on, borne by a gentle breeze, until a gulf of the sea opened
+before them, and lo! a mountain that they knew bore some mighty name.
+Orpheus, looking on its peak and its crags, said, “Lo, now! We, the
+Argonauts, are looking upon the mountain that is named Caucasus!”
+
+  When he declared the name the heroes all stood up and looked on the
+mountain with awe. And in awe they cried out a name, and that name was
+“Prometheus!”
+
+  For upon that mountain the Titan god was held, his limbs bound upon the
+hard rocks by fetters of bronze. Even as the Argonauts looked toward the
+mountain a great shadow fell upon their ship, and looking up they saw a
+monstrous bird flying. The beat of the bird’s wings filled out the sail
+and drove the _Argo_ swiftly onward. “It is the bird sent by Zeus,”
+Orpheus said. “It is the vulture that every day devours the liver of the
+Titan god.” They cowered down on the ship as they heard that word—all the
+Argonauts save Heracles; he stood upright and looked out toward where the
+bird was flying. Then, as the bird came near to the mountain, the
+Argonauts heard a great cry of anguish go up from the rocks.
+
+  “It is Prometheus crying out as the bird of Zeus flies down upon him,”
+they said to one another. Again they cowered down on the ship, all save
+Heracles, who stayed looking toward where the great vulture had flown.
+
+  The night came and the Argonauts sailed on in silence, thinking in awe
+of the Titan god and of the doom that Zeus had inflicted upon him. Then,
+as they sailed on under the stars, Orpheus told them of Prometheus, of his
+gift to men, and of the fearful punishment that had been meted out to him
+by Zeus.
+
+
+
+Prometheus
+
+
+  The gods more than once made a race of men: the first was a Golden Race.
+Very close to the gods who dwell on Olympus was this Golden Race; they
+lived justly although there were no laws to compel them. In the time of
+the Golden Race the earth knew only one season, and that season was
+everlasting Spring. The men and women of the Golden Race lived through a
+span of life that was far beyond that of the men and women of our day, and
+when they died it was as though sleep had become everlasting with them.
+They had all good things, and that without labor, for the earth without
+any forcing bestowed fruits and crops upon them. They had peace all
+through their lives, this Golden Race, and after they had passed away
+their spirits remained above the earth, inspiring the men of the race that
+came after them to do great and gracious things and to act justly and
+kindly to one another.
+
+  After the Golden Race had passed away, the gods made for the earth a
+second race—a Silver Race. Less noble in spirit and in body was this
+Silver Race, and the seasons that visited them were less gracious. In the
+time of the Silver Race the gods made the seasons—Summer and Spring, and
+Autumn and Winter. They knew parching heat, and the bitter winds of
+winter, and snow and rain and hail. It was the men of the Silver Race who
+first built houses for shelter. They lived through a span of life that was
+longer than our span, but it was not long enough to give wisdom to them.
+Children were brought up at their mothers’ sides for a hundred years,
+playing at childish things. And when they came to years beyond a hundred
+they quarreled with one another, and wronged one another, and did not know
+enough to give reverence to the immortal gods. Then, by the will of Zeus,
+the Silver Race passed away as the Golden Race had passed away. Their
+spirits stay in the Underworld, and they are called by men the blessed
+spirits of the Underworld.
+
+  And then there was made the third race—the Race of Bronze. They were a
+race great of stature, terrible and strong. Their armor was of bronze,
+their swords were of bronze, their implements were of bronze, and of
+bronze, too, they made their houses. No great span of life was theirs, for
+with the weapons that they took in their terrible hands they slew one
+another. Thus they passed away, and went down under the earth to Hades,
+leaving no name that men might know them by.
+
+  Then the gods created a fourth race—our own: a Race of Iron. We have not
+the justice that was amongst the men of the Golden Race, nor the
+simpleness that was amongst the men of the Silver Race, nor the stature
+nor the great strength that the men of the Bronze Race possessed. We are
+of iron that we may endure. It is our doom that we must never cease from
+labor and that we must very quickly grow old.
+
+  But miserable as we are to-day, there was a time when the lot of men was
+more miserable. With poor implements they had to labor on a hard ground.
+There was less justice and kindliness amongst men in those days than there
+is now.
+
+  Once it came into the mind of Zeus that he would destroy the fourth race
+and leave the earth to the nymphs and the satyrs. He would destroy it by a
+great flood. But Prometheus, the Titan god who had given aid to Zeus
+against the other Titans—Prometheus, who was called the Foreseer—could not
+consent to the race of men being destroyed utterly, and he considered a
+way of saving some of them. To a man and a woman, Deucalion and Pyrrha,
+just and gentle people, he brought word of the plan of Zeus, and he showed
+them how to make a ship that would bear them through what was about to be
+sent upon the earth.
+
+  Then Zeus shut up in their cave all the winds but the wind that brings
+rain and clouds. He bade this wind, the South Wind, sweep over the earth,
+flooding it with rain. He called upon Poseidon and bade him to let the sea
+pour in upon the land. And Poseidon commanded the rivers to put forth all
+their strength, and sweep dykes away, and overflow their banks.
+
+  The clouds and the sea and the rivers poured upon the earth. The flood
+rose higher and higher, and in the places where the pretty lambs had
+played the ugly sea calves now gambolled; men in their boats drew fishes
+out of the tops of elm trees, and the water nymphs were amazed to come on
+men’s cities under the waves.
+
+  Soon even the men and women who had boats were overwhelmed by the rise
+of water—all perished then except Deucalion and Pyrrha, his wife; them the
+waves had not overwhelmed, for they were in a ship that Prometheus had
+shown them how to build. The flood went down at last, and Deucalion and
+Pyrrha climbed up to a high and a dry ground. Zeus saw that two of the
+race of men had been left alive. But he saw that these two were just and
+kindly, and had a right reverence for the gods. He spared them, and he saw
+their children again peopling the earth.
+
+  Prometheus, who had saved them, looked on the men and women of the earth
+with compassion. Their labor was hard, and they wrought much to gain
+little. They were chilled at night in their houses, and the winds that
+blew in the daytime made the old men and women bend double like a wheel.
+Prometheus thought to himself that if men and women had the element that
+only the gods knew of—the element of fire—they could make for themselves
+implements for labor; they could build houses that would keep out the
+chilling winds, and they could warm themselves at the blaze.
+
+  But the gods had not willed that men should have fire, and to go against
+the will of the gods would be impious. Prometheus went against the will of
+the gods. He stole fire from the altar of Zeus, and he hid it in a hollow
+fennel stalk, and he brought it to men.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+                                Prometheus
+
+
+  Then men were able to hammer iron into tools, and cut down forests with
+axes, and sow grain where the forests had been. Then were they able to
+make houses that the storms could not overthrow, and they were able to
+warm themselves at hearth fires. They had rest from their labor at times.
+They built cities; they became beings who no longer had heads and backs
+bent but were able to raise their faces even to the gods.
+
+  And Zeus spared the race of men who had now the sacred element of fire.
+But he knew that Prometheus had stolen this fire even from his own altar
+and had given it to men. And he thought on how he might punish the great
+Titan god for his impiety.
+
+  He brought back from the Underworld the giants that he had put there to
+guard the Titans that had been hurled down to Tartarus. He brought back
+Gyes, Cottus, and Briareus, and he commanded them to lay hands upon
+Prometheus and to fasten him with fetters to the highest, blackest crag
+upon Caucasus. And Briareus, Cottus, and Gyes seized upon the Titan god,
+and carried him to Caucasus, and fettered him with fetters of bronze to
+the highest, blackest crag—with fetters of bronze that may not be broken.
+There they have left the Titan stretched, under the sky, with the cold
+winds blowing upon him, and with the sun streaming down on him. And that
+his punishment might exceed all other punishments Zeus had sent a vulture
+to prey upon him—a vulture that tears at his liver each day.
+
+  And yet Prometheus does not cry out that he has repented of his gift to
+man; although the winds blow upon him, and the sun streams upon him, and
+the vulture tears at his liver, Prometheus will not cry out his repentance
+to heaven. And Zeus may not utterly destroy him. For Prometheus the
+Foreseer knows a secret that Zeus would fain have him disclose. He knows
+that even as Zeus overthrew his father and made himself the ruler in his
+stead, so, too, another will overthrow Zeus. And one day Zeus will have to
+have the fetters broken from around the limbs of Prometheus, and will have
+to bring from the rock and the vulture, and into the Council of the
+Olympians, the unyielding Titan god.
+
+
+
+  When the light of the morning came the _Argo_ was very near to the
+Mountain Caucasus. The voyagers looked in awe upon its black crags. They
+saw the great vulture circling over a high rock, and from beneath where
+the vulture circled they heard a weary cry. Then Heracles, who all night
+had stood by the mast, cried out to the Argonauts to bring the ship near
+to a landing place.
+
+  But Jason would not have them go near; fear of the wrath of Zeus was
+strong upon him; rather, he bade the Argonauts put all their strength into
+their rowing, and draw far off from that forbidden mountain. Heracles, not
+heeding what Jason ordered, declared that it was his purpose to make his
+way up to the black crag, and, with his shield and his sword in his hands,
+slay the vulture that preyed upon the liver of Prometheus.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+  Then Orpheus in a clear voice spoke to the Argonauts. “Surely some
+spirit possesses Heracles,” he said. “Despite all we do or say he will
+make his way to where Prometheus is fettered to the rock. Do not gainsay
+him in this! Remember what Nereus, the ancient one of the sea, declared!
+Did Nereus not say that a great labor awaited Heracles, and that in the
+doing of it he should work out the will of Zeus? Stay him not! How just it
+would be if he who is the son of Zeus freed from his torments the
+much-enduring Titan god!”
+
+  So Orpheus said in his clear, commanding voice. They drew near to the
+Mountain Caucasus. Then Heracles, gripping the sword and shield that were
+the gifts of the gods, sprang out on the landing place. The Argonauts
+shouted farewell to him. But he, filled as he was with an overmastering
+spirit, did not heed their words.
+
+  A strong breeze drove them onward; darkness came down, and the _Argo_
+went on through the night. With the morning light those who were sleeping
+were awakened by the cry of Nauplius—“Lo! The Phasis, and the utmost
+bourne of the sea!” They sprang up, and looked with many strange feelings
+upon the broad river they had come to.
+
+  Here was the Phasis emptying itself into the Sea of Pontus! Up that
+river was Colchis and the city of King Æetes, the end of their voyage, the
+place where was kept the Golden Fleece! Quickly they let down the sail;
+they lowered the mast and they laid it along the deck; strongly they
+grasped the oars; they swung the _Argo_ around, and they entered the broad
+stream of the Phasis.
+
+  Up the river they went with the Mountain Caucasus on their left hand,
+and on their right the groves and gardens of Aea, King Æetes’s city. As
+they went up the stream, Jason poured from a golden cup an offering to the
+gods. And to the dead heroes of that country the Argonauts prayed for good
+fortune to their enterprise.
+
+  It was Jason’s counsel that they should not at once appear before King
+Æetes, but visit him after they had seen the strength of his city. They
+drew their ship into a shaded backwater, and there they stayed while day
+grew and faded around them.
+
+  Night came, and the heroes slept upon the deck of _Argo_. Many things
+came back to them in their dreams or through their half-sleep: they
+thought of the Lemnian maidens they had parted from; of the Clashing Rocks
+they had passed between; of the look in the eyes of Heracles as he raised
+his face to the high, black peak of Caucasus. They slept, and they thought
+they saw before them THE GOLDEN FLEECE; darkness surrounded it; it seemed
+to the dreaming Argonauts that the darkness was the magic power that King
+Æetes possessed.
+
+
+
+
+
+PART II. THE RETURN TO GREECE
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+I. King Æetes
+
+
+
+[Decorative first letter]
+_T_HEY had come into a country that was the strangest of all countries,
+and amongst a people that were the strangest of all peoples. They were in
+the land, this people said, before the moon had come into the sky. And it
+is true that when the great king of Egypt had come so far, finding in all
+other places men living on the high hills and eating the acorns that grew
+on the oaks there, he found in Colchis the city of Aea with a wall around
+it and with pillars on which writings were graven. That was when Egypt was
+called the Morning Land.
+
+  And many of the magicians of Egypt who had come with King Sesostris
+stayed in that city of Aea, and they taught people spells that could stay
+the moon in her going and coming, in her rising and setting. Priests of
+the Moon ruled the city of Aea until King Æetes came.
+
+  Æetes had no need of their magic, for Helios, the bright Sun, was his
+father, as he thought. Also, Hephæstus, the artisan of the gods, was his
+friend, and Hephæstus made for him many wonderful things to be his
+protection. Medea, too, his wise daughter, knew the secrets taught by
+those who could sway the moon.
+
+  But Æetes once was made afraid by a dream that he had: he dreamt that a
+ship had come up the Phasis, and then, sailing on a mist, had rammed his
+palace that was standing there in all its strength and beauty until it had
+fallen down. On the morning of the night that he had had this dream Æetes
+called Medea, his wise daughter, and he bade her go to the temple of
+Hecate, the Moon, and search out spells that might destroy those who came
+against his city.
+
+
+
+  That morning the Argonauts, who had passed the night in the backwater of
+the river, had two youths come to them. They were in a broken ship, and
+they had one oar only. When Jason, after giving them food and fresh
+garments, questioned them, he found out that these youths were of the city
+of Aea, and that they were none others than the sons of Phrixus—of Phrixus
+who had come there with the Golden Ram.
+
+  And the youths, Phrontis and Melas, were as amazed as was Jason when
+they found out whose ship they had come aboard. For Jason was the grandson
+of Cretheus, and Cretheus was the brother of Athamas, their grandfather.
+They had ventured from Aea, where they had been reared, thinking to reach
+the country of Athamas and lay claim to his possessions. But they had been
+wrecked at a place not far from the mouth of the Phasis, and with great
+pain and struggle they had made their way back.
+
+  They were fearful of Aea and of their uncle King Æetes, and they would
+gladly go with Jason and the Argonauts back to Greece. They would help
+Jason, they said, to persuade Æetes to give the Golden Fleece peaceably to
+them. Their mother was the daughter of Æetes—Chalciope, whom the king had
+given in marriage to Phrixus, his guest.
+
+  A council of the Argonauts was held, and it was agreed that Jason should
+go with two comrades to King Æetes, Phrontis and Melas going also. They
+were to ask the king to give them the Golden Fleece and to offer him a
+recompense. Jason took Peleus and Telamon with him.
+
+  As they came to the city a mist fell, and Jason and his comrades with
+the sons of Phrixus went through the city without being seen. They came
+before the palace of King Æetes. Then Phrontis and Melas were some way
+behind. The mist lifted, and before the heroes was the wonder of the
+palace in the bright light of the morning.
+
+  Vines with broad leaves and heavy clusters of fruit grew from column to
+column, the columns holding a gallery up. And under the vines were the
+four fountains that Hephæstus had made for King Æetes. They gushed out
+into golden, silver, bronze, and iron basins. And one fountain gushed out
+clear water, and another gushed out milk; another gushed out wine; and
+another oil. On each side of the courtyard were the palace buildings; in
+one King Æetes lived with Apsyrtus, his son, and in the other Chalciope
+and Medea lived with their handmaidens.
+
+  Medea was passing from her father’s house. The mist lifted suddenly and
+she saw three strangers in the palace courtyard. One had a crimson mantle
+on; his shoulders were such as to make him seem a man that a whole world
+could not overthrow, and his eyes had all the sun’s light in them.
+
+  Amazed, Medea stood looking upon Jason, wondering at his bright hair and
+gleaming eyes and at the lightness and strength of the hand that he had
+raised. And then a dove flew toward her: it was being chased by a hawk,
+and Medea saw the hawk’s eyes and beak. As the dove lighted upon her
+shoulder she threw her veil around it, and the hawk dashed itself against
+a column. And as Medea, trembling, leaned against the column she heard a
+cry from her sister, who was within.
+
+  For now Phrontis and Melas had come up, and Chalciope who was spinning
+by the door saw them and cried out. All the servants rushed out. Seeing
+Chalciope’s sons there they, too, uttered loud cries, and made such
+commotion that Apsyrtus and then King Æetes came out of the palace.
+
+  Jason saw King Æetes. He was old and white, but he had great green eyes,
+and the strength of a leopard was in all he did. And Jason looked upon
+Apsyrtus too; the son of Æetes looked like a Phænician merchant, black of
+beard and with rings in his ears, with a hooked nose and a gleam of copper
+in his face.
+
+  Phrontis and Melas went from their mother’s embrace and made reverence
+to King Æetes. Then they spoke of the heroes who were with them, of Jason
+and his two comrades. Æetes bade all enter the palace; baths were made
+ready for them, and a banquet was prepared.
+
+  After the banquet, when they all sat together, Æetes, addressing the
+eldest of Chalciope’s sons, said:
+
+  “Sons of Phrixus, of that man whom I honored above all men who came to
+my halls, speak now and tell me how it is that you have come back to Aea
+so soon, and who they are, these men who come with you?”
+
+  Æetes, as he spoke, looked sharply upon Phrontis and Melas, for he
+suspected them of having returned to Aea, bringing these armed men with
+them, with an evil intent. Phrontis looked at the King, and said:
+
+  “Æetes, our ship was driven upon the Island of Ares, where it was almost
+broken upon the rocks. That was on a murky night, and in the morning the
+birds of Ares shot their sharp feathers upon us. We pulled away from that
+place, and thereafter we were driven by the winds back to the mouth of the
+Phasis. There we met with these heroes who were friendly to us. Who they
+are, what they have come to your city for, I shall now tell you.
+
+  “A certain king, longing to drive one of these heroes from his land, and
+hoping that the race of Cretheus might perish utterly, led him to enter a
+most perilous adventure. He came here upon a ship that was made by the
+command of Hera, the wife of Zeus, a ship more wonderful than mortals ever
+sailed in before. With him there came the mightiest of the heroes of
+Greece. He is Jason, the grandson of Cretheus, and he has come to beg that
+you will grant him freely the famous Fleece of Gold that Phrixus brought
+to Aea.
+
+  “But not without recompense to you would he take the Fleece. Already he
+has heard of your bitter foes, the Sauromatæ. He with his comrades would
+subdue them for you. And if you would ask of the names and the lineage of
+the heroes who are with Jason I shall tell you. This is Peleus and this is
+Telamon; they are brothers, and they are sons of Æacus, who was of the
+seed of Zeus. And all the other heroes who have come with them are of the
+seed of the gods.”
+
+  So Phrontis said, but the King was not placated by what he said. He
+thought that the sons of Chalciope had returned to Aea bringing these
+warriors with them so that they might wrest the kingship from him, or,
+failing that, plunder the city. Æetes’s heart was filled with wrath as he
+looked upon them, and his eyes shone as a leopard’s eyes.
+
+  “Begone from my sight,” he cried, “robbers that ye are! Tricksters! If
+you had not eaten at my table, assuredly I should have had your tongues
+cut out for speaking falsehoods about the blessed gods, saying that this
+one and that of your companions was of their divine race.”
+
+  Telamon and Peleus strode forward with angry hearts; they would have
+laid their hands upon King Æetes only Jason held them back. And then
+speaking to the king in a quiet voice, Jason said:
+
+  “Bear with us, King Æetes, I pray you. We have not come with such evil
+intent as you think. Ah, it was the evil command of an evil king that sent
+me forth with these companions of mine across dangerous gulfs of the sea,
+and to face your wrath and the armed men you can bring against us. We are
+ready to make great recompense for the friendliness you may show to us. We
+will subdue for you the Sauromatæ, or any other people that you would lord
+it over.”
+
+  But Æetes was not made friendly by Jason’s words. His heart was divided
+as to whether he should summon his armed men and have them slain upon the
+spot, or whether he should put them into danger by the trial he would make
+of them. At last he thought that it would be better to put them to the
+trial that he had in mind, slaying them afterward if need be. And then he
+spoke to Jason, saying:
+
+  “Strangers to Colchis, it may be true what my nephews have said. It may
+be that ye are truly of the seed of the immortals. And it may be that I
+shall give you the Golden Fleece to bear away after I have made trial of
+you.”
+
+  As he spoke Medea, brought there by his messenger so that she might
+observe the strangers, came into the chamber. She entered softly and she
+stood away from her father and the four who were speaking with him. Jason
+looked upon her, and even although his mind was filled with the thought of
+bending King Æetes to his will, he saw what manner of maiden she was, and
+what beauty and what strength was hers.
+
+  She had a dark face that was made very strange by her crown of golden
+hair. Her eyes, like her father’s, were wide and full of light, and her
+lips were so full and red that they made her mouth like an opening rose.
+But her brows were always knit as if there was some secret anger within
+her.
+
+  “With brave men I have no quarrel,” said Æetes. “I will make a trial of
+your bravery, and if your bravery wins through the trial, be very sure
+that you will have the Golden Fleece to bring back in triumph to Iolcus.
+
+  “But the trial that I would make of you is hard for a great hero even.
+Know that on the plain of Ares yonder I have two fire-breathing bulls with
+feet of brass. These bulls were once conquered by me; I yoked them to a
+plow of adamant, and with them I plowed the field of Ares for four
+plow-gates. Then I sowed the furrows, not with the seed that Demeter
+gives, but with teeth of a dragon. And from the dragon’s teeth that I
+sowed in the field of Ares armed men sprang up. I slew them with my spear
+as they rose around me to slay me. If you can accomplish this that I
+accomplished in days gone by I shall submit to you and give you the Golden
+Fleece. But if you cannot accomplish what I once accomplished you shall go
+from my city empty-handed, for it is not right that a brave man should
+yield aught to one who cannot show himself as brave.”
+
+  So Æetes said. Then Jason, utterly confounded, cast his eyes upon the
+ground. He raised them to speak to the king, and as he did he found the
+strange eyes of Medea upon him. With all the courage that was in him he
+spoke:
+
+  “I will dare this contest, monstrous as it is. I will face this doom. I
+have come far, and there is nothing else for me to do but to yoke your
+fire-breathing bulls to the plow of adamant, and plow the furrows in the
+field of Ares, and struggle with the Earth-born Men.” As he said this he
+saw the eyes of Medea grow wide as with fear.
+
+  Then Æetes said, “Go back to your ship and make ready for the trial.”
+Jason, with Peleus and Telamon, left the chamber, and the king smiled
+grimly as he saw them go. Phrontis and Melas went to where their mother
+was. But Medea stayed, and Æetes looked upon her with his great leopard’s
+eyes. “My daughter, my wise Medea,” he said, “go, put spells upon the
+Moon, that Hecate may weaken that man in his hour of trial.” Medea turned
+away from her father’s eyes, and went to her chamber.
+
+
+
+
+II. Medea the Sorceress
+
+
+
+[Decorative first letter]
+_S_HE turned away from her father’s eyes and she went into her own
+chamber. For a long time she stood there with her hands clasped together.
+She heard the voice of Chalciope lamenting because Æetes had taken a
+hatred to her sons and might strive to destroy them. She heard the voice
+of her sister lamenting, but Medea thought that the cause that her sister
+had for grieving was small compared with the cause that she herself had.
+
+  She thought on the moment when she had seen Jason for the first time—in
+the courtyard as the mist lifted and the dove flew to her; she thought of
+him as he lifted those bright eyes of his; then she thought of his voice
+as he spoke after her father had imposed the dreadful trial upon him. She
+would have liked then to have cried out to him, “O youth, if others
+rejoice at the doom that you go to, I do not rejoice.”
+
+  Still her sister lamented. But how great was her own grief compared to
+her sister’s! For Chalciope could try to help her sons and could lament
+for the danger they were in and no one would blame her. But she might not
+strive to help Jason nor might she lament for the danger he was in. How
+terrible it would be for a maiden to help a stranger against her father’s
+design! How terrible it would be for a woman of Colchis to help a stranger
+against the will of the king! How terrible it would be for a daughter to
+plot against King Æetes in his own palace!
+
+  And then Medea hated Aea, her city. She hated the furious people who
+came together in the assembly, and she hated the brazen bulls that
+Hephæstus had given her father. And then she thought that there was
+nothing in Aea except the furious people and the fire-breathing bulls. O
+how pitiful it was that the strange hero and his friends should have come
+to such a place for the sake of the Golden Fleece that was watched over by
+the sleepless serpent in the grove of Ares!
+
+  Still Chalciope lamented. Would Chalciope come to her and ask her,
+Medea, to help her sons? If she should come she might speak of the
+strangers, too, and of the danger they were in. Medea went to her couch
+and lay down upon it. She longed for her sister to come to her or to call
+to her.
+
+  But Chalciope stayed in her own chamber. Medea, lying upon her couch,
+listened to her sister’s laments. At last she went near where Chalciope
+was. Then shame that she should think so much about the stranger came over
+her. She stood there without moving; she turned to go back to the couch,
+and then trembled so much that she could not stir. As she stood between
+her couch and her sister’s chamber she heard the voice of Chalciope
+calling to her.
+
+  She went into the chamber where her sister stood. Chalciope flung her
+arms around her. “Swear,” said she to Medea, “swear by Hecate, the Moon,
+that you will never speak of something I am going to ask you.” Medea swore
+that she would never speak of it.
+
+  Chalciope spoke of the danger her sons were in. She asked Medea to
+devise a way by which they could escape with the stranger from Aea. “In
+Aea and in Colchis,” she said, “there will be no safety for my sons
+henceforth.” And to save Phrontis and Melas, she said, Medea would have to
+save the strangers also. Surely she knew of a charm that would save the
+stranger from the brazen bulls in the contest on the morrow!
+
+  So Chalciope came to the very thing that was in Medea’s mind. Her heart
+bounded with joy and she embraced her. “Chalciope,” she said, “I declare
+that I am your sister, indeed—aye, and your daughter, too, for did you not
+care for me when I was an infant? I will strive to save your sons. I will
+strive to save the strangers who came with your sons. Send one to the
+strangers—send him to the leader of the strangers, and tell him that I
+would see him at daybreak in the temple of Hecate.”
+
+  When Medea said this Chalciope embraced her again. She was amazed to see
+how Medea’s tears were flowing. “Chalciope,” she said, “no one will know
+the dangers that I shall go through to save them.”
+
+  Swiftly then Chalciope went from the chamber. But Medea stayed there
+with her head bowed and the blush of shame on her face. She thought that
+already she had deceived her sister, making her think that it was Phrontis
+and Melas and not Jason that was in her mind to save. And she thought on
+how she would have to plot against her father and against her own people,
+and all for the sake of a stranger who would sail away without thought of
+her, without the image of her in his mind.
+
+
+
+  Jason, with Peleus and Telamon, went back to the _Argo_. His comrades
+asked how he had fared, and when he spoke to them of the fire-breathing
+bulls with feet of brass, of the dragon’s teeth that had to be sown, and
+of the Earth-born Men that had to be overcome, the Argonauts were greatly
+cast down, for this task, they thought, was one that could not be
+accomplished. He who stood before the fire-breathing bulls would perish on
+the moment. But they knew that one amongst them must strive to accomplish
+the task. And if Jason held back, Peleus, Telamon, Theseus, Castor,
+Polydeuces, or any one of the others would undertake it.
+
+  But Jason would not hold back. On the morrow, he said, he would strive
+to yoke the fire-breathing, brazen-footed bulls to the plow of adamant. If
+he perished the Argonauts should then do what they thought was best—make
+other trials to gain the Golden Fleece, or turn their ship and sail back
+to Greece.
+
+  While they were speaking, Phrontis, Chalciope’s son, came to the ship.
+The Argonauts welcomed him, and in a while he began to speak of his
+mother’s sister and of the help she could give. They grew eager as he
+spoke of her, all except rough Arcas, who stood wrapped in his bear’s
+skin. “Shame on us,” rough Arcas cried, “shame on us if we have come here
+to crave the help of girls! Speak no more of this! Let us, the Argonauts,
+go with swords into the city of Aea, and slay this king, and carry off the
+Fleece of Gold.”
+
+  Some of the Argonauts murmured approval of what Arcas said. But Orpheus
+silenced him and them, for in his prophetic mind Orpheus saw something of
+the help that Medea would give them. It would be well, Orpheus said, to
+take help from this wise maiden; Jason should go to her in the temple of
+Hecate. The Argonauts agreed to this; they listened to what Phrontis told
+them about the brazen bulls, and the night wore on.
+
+
+
+  When darkness came upon the earth; when, at sea, sailors looked to the
+Bear and the stars of Orion; when, in the city, there was no longer the
+sound of barking dogs nor of men’s voices, Medea went from the palace. She
+came to a path; she followed it until it brought her into the part of the
+grove that was all black with the shadow that oak trees made.
+
+  She raised up her hands and she called upon Hecate, the Moon. As she
+did, there was a blaze as from torches all around, and she saw horrible
+serpents stretching themselves toward her from the branches of the trees.
+Medea shrank back in fear. But again she called upon Hecate. And now there
+was a howling as from the hounds of Hades all around her. Fearful, indeed,
+Medea grew as the howling came near her; almost she turned to flee. But
+she raised her hands again and called upon Hecate. Then the nymphs who
+haunted the marsh and the river shrieked, and at those shrieks Medea
+crouched down in fear.
+
+  She called upon Hecate, the Moon, again. She saw the moon rise above the
+treetops, and then the hissing and shrieking and howling died away.
+Holding up a goblet in her hand Medea poured out a libation of honey to
+Hecate, the Moon.
+
+  And then she went to where the moon made a brightness upon the ground.
+There she saw a flower that rose above the other flowers—a flower that
+grew from two joined stalks, and that was of the color of a crocus. Medea
+cut the stalks with a brazen knife, and as she did there came a deep groan
+out of the earth.
+
+  This was the Promethean flower. It had come out of the earth first when
+the vulture that tore at Prometheus’s liver had let fall to earth a drop
+of his blood. With a Caspian shell that she had brought with her Medea
+gathered the dark juice of this flower—the juice that went to make her
+most potent charm. All night she went through the grove gathering the
+juice of secret herbs; then she mingled them in a phial that she put away
+in her girdle.
+
+  She went from that grove and along the river. When the sun shed its
+first rays upon snowy Caucasus she stood outside the temple of Hecate. She
+waited, but she had not long to wait, for, like the bright star Sirius
+rising out of Ocean, soon she saw Jason coming toward her. She made a sign
+to him, and he came and stood beside her in the portals of the temple.
+
+  They would have stood face to face if Medea did not have her head bent.
+A blush had come upon her face, and Jason seeing it, and seeing how her
+head was bent, knew how grievous it was to her to meet and speak to a
+stranger in this way. He took her hand and he spoke to her reverently, as
+one would speak to a priestess.
+
+  “Lady,” he said, “I implore you by Hecate and by Zeus who helps all
+strangers and suppliants to be kind to me and to the men who have come to
+your country with me. Without your help I cannot hope to prevail in the
+grievous trial that has been laid upon me. If you will help us, Medea,
+your name will be renowned throughout all Greece. And I have hopes that
+you will help us, for your face and form show you to be one who can be
+kind and gracious.”
+
+  The blush of shame had gone from Medea’s face and a softer blush came
+over her as Jason spoke. She looked upon him and she knew that she could
+hardly live if the breath of the brazen bulls withered his life or if the
+Earth-born Men slew him. She took the charm from out her girdle;
+ungrudgingly she put it into Jason’s hands. And as she gave him the charm
+that she had gained with such danger, the fear and trouble that was around
+her heart melted as the dew melts from around the rose when it is warmed
+by the first light of the morning.
+
+  Then they spoke standing close together in the portal of the temple. She
+told him how he should anoint his body all over with the charm; it would
+give him, she said, boundless and untiring strength, and make him so that
+the breath of the bulls could not wither him nor the horns of the bulls
+pierce him. She told him also to sprinkle his shield and his sword with
+the charm.
+
+  And then they spoke of the dragon’s teeth and of the Earth-born Men who
+would spring from them. Medea told Jason that when they arose out of the
+earth he was to cast a great stone amongst them. The Earth-born Men would
+struggle about the stone, and they would slay each other in the contest.
+
+  Her dark and delicate face was beautiful. Jason looked upon her, and it
+came into his mind that in Colchis there was something else of worth
+besides the Golden Fleece. And he thought that after he had won the Fleece
+there would be peace between the Argonauts and King Æetes, and that he and
+Medea might sit together in the king’s hall. But when he spoke of being
+joined in friendship with her father, Medea cried:
+
+  “Think not of treaties nor of covenants. In Greece such are regarded,
+but not here. Ah, do not think that the king, my father, will keep any
+peace with you! When you have won the Fleece you must hasten away. You
+must not tarry in Aea.”
+
+  She said this and her cheeks were wet with tears to think that he should
+go so soon, that he would go so far, and that she would never look upon
+him again. She bent her head again and she said: “Tell me about your own
+land; about the place of your father, the place where you will live when
+you win back from Colchis.”
+
+  Then Jason told her of Iolcus; he told her how it was circled by
+mountains not so lofty as her Caucasus; he told her of the pasture lands
+of Iolcus with their flocks of sheep; he told her of the Mountain Pelion
+where he had been reared by Chiron, the ancient centaur; he told her of
+his father who lingered out his life in waiting for his return.
+
+  Medea said: “When you go back to Iolcus do not forget me, Medea. I shall
+remember you, Jason, even in my father’s despite. And it will be my hope
+that some rumor of you will come to me like some messenger-bird. If you
+forget me may some blast of wind sweep me away to Iolcus, and may I sit in
+your hall an unknown and an unexpected guest!”
+
+  Then they parted; Medea went swiftly back to the palace, and Jason,
+turning to the river, went to where the _Argo_ was moored.
+
+  The heroes embraced and questioned him; he told them of Medea’s counsel
+and he showed them the charm she had given him. That savage man Arcas
+scoffed at Medea’s counsel and Medea’s charm, saying that the Argonauts
+had become poor-spirited indeed when they had to depend upon a girl’s
+help.
+
+  Jason bathed in the river; then he anointed himself with the charm; he
+sprinkled his spear and shield and sword with it. He came to Arcas who sat
+upon his bench, still nursing his anger, and he held the spear toward him.
+
+  Arcas took up his heavy sword and he hewed at the butt of the spear. The
+edge of the sword turned. The blade leaped back in his hand as if it had
+been struck against an anvil. And Jason, feeling within him a boundless
+and tireless strength, laughed aloud.
+
+
+
+
+III. The Winning of the Golden Fleece
+
+
+
+[Decorative first letter]
+_T_HEY took the ship out of the backwater and they brought her to a wharf
+in the city. At a place that was called “The Ram’s Couch” they fastened
+the _Argo_. Then they marched to the field of Ares, where the king and the
+Colchian people were.
+
+  Jason, carrying his shield and spear, went before the king. From the
+king’s hand he took the gleaming helmet that held the dragon’s teeth. This
+he put into the hands of Theseus, who went with him. Then with the spear
+and shield in his hands, with his sword girt across his shoulders, and
+with his mantle stripped off, Jason looked across the field of Ares.
+
+  He saw the plow that he was to yoke to the bulls; he saw the yoke of
+bronze near it; he saw the tracks of the bulls’ hooves. He followed the
+tracks until he came to the lair of the fire-breathing bulls. Out of that
+lair, which was underground, smoke and fire belched.
+
+  He set his feet firmly upon the ground and he held his shield before
+him. He awaited the onset of the bulls. They came clanging up with loud
+bellowing, breathing out fire. They lowered their heads, and with mighty,
+iron-tipped horns they came to gore and trample him.
+
+  Medea’s charm had made him strong; Medea’s charm had made his shield
+impregnable. The rush of the bulls did not overthrow him. His comrades
+shouted to see him standing firmly there, and in wonder the Colchians
+gazed upon him. All round him, as from a furnace, there came smoke and
+fire.
+
+  The bulls roared mightily. Grasping the horns of the bull that was upon
+his right hand, Jason dragged him until he had brought him beside the yoke
+of bronze. Striking the brazen knees of the bull suddenly with his foot he
+forced him down. Then he smote the other bull as it rushed upon him, and
+it too he forced down upon its knees.
+
+  Castor and Polydeuces held the yoke to him. Jason bound it upon the
+necks of the bulls. He fastened the plow to the yoke. Then he took his
+shield and set it upon his back, and grasping the handles of the plow he
+started to make the furrow.
+
+  With his long spear he drove the bulls before him as with a goad.
+Terribly they raged, furiously they breathed out fire. Beside Jason
+Theseus went holding the helmet that held the dragon’s teeth. The hard
+ground was torn up by the plow of adamant, and the clods groaned as they
+were cast up. Jason flung the teeth between the open sods, often turning
+his head in fear that the deadly crop of the Earth-born Men were rising
+behind him.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+                     The Field of the Dragon’s Teeth
+
+
+  By the time that a third of the day was finished the field of Ares had
+been plowed and sown. As yet the furrows were free of the Earth-born Men.
+Jason went down to the river and filled his helmet full of water and drank
+deeply. And his knees that were stiffened with the plowing he bent until
+they were made supple again.
+
+  He saw the field rising into mounds. It seemed that there were graves
+all over the field of Ares. Then he saw spears and shields and helmets
+rising up out of the earth. Then armed warriors sprang up, a fierce battle
+cry upon their lips.
+
+  Jason remembered the counsel of Medea. He raised a boulder that four men
+could hardly raise and with arms hardened by the plowing he cast it. The
+Colchians shouted to see such a stone cast by the hands of one man. Right
+into the middle of the Earth-born Men the stone came. They leaped upon it
+like hounds, striking at one another as they came together. Shield crashed
+on shield, spear rang upon spear as they struck at each other. The
+Earth-born Men, as fast as they arose, went down before the weapons in the
+hands of their brethren.
+
+  Jason rushed upon them, his sword in his hand. He slew some that had
+risen out of the earth only as far as the shoulders; he slew others whose
+feet were still in the earth; he slew others who were ready to spring upon
+him. Soon all the Earth-born Men were slain, and the furrows ran with
+their dark blood as channels run with water in springtime.
+
+  The Argonauts shouted loudly for Jason’s victory. King Æetes rose from
+his seat that was beside the river and he went back to the city. The
+Colchians followed him. Day faded, and Jason’s contest was ended.
+
+
+
+  But it was not the will of Æetes that the strangers should be let depart
+peaceably with the Golden Fleece that Jason had won. In the assembly
+place, with his son Apsyrtus beside him, and with the furious Colchians
+all around him, the king stood: on his breast was the gleaming corselet
+that Ares had given him, and on his head was that golden helmet with its
+four plumes that made him look as if he were truly the son of Helios, the
+Sun. Lightnings flashed from his great eyes; he spoke fiercely to the
+Colchians, holding in his hand his bronze-topped spear.
+
+  He would have them attack the strangers and burn the _Argo_. He would
+have the sons of Phrixus slain for bringing them to Aea. There was a
+prophecy, he declared, that would have him be watchful of the treachery of
+his own offspring: this prophecy was being fulfilled by the children of
+Chalciope; he feared, too, that his daughter, Medea, had aided the
+strangers. So the king spoke, and the Colchians, hating all strangers,
+shouted around him.
+
+  Word of what her father had said was brought to Medea. She knew that she
+would have to go to the Argonauts and bid them flee hastily from Aea. They
+would not go, she knew, without the Golden Fleece; then she, Medea, would
+have to show them how to gain the Fleece.
+
+  Then she could never again go back to her father’s palace, she could
+never again sit in this chamber and talk to her handmaidens, and be with
+Chalciope, her sister. Forever afterward she would be dependent on the
+kindness of strangers. Medea wept when she thought of all this. And then
+she cut off a tress of her hair and she left it in her chamber as a
+farewell from one who was going afar. Into the chamber where Chalciope was
+she whispered farewell.
+
+  The palace doors were all heavily bolted, but Medea did not have to pull
+back the bolts. As she chanted her Magic Song the bolts softly drew back,
+the doors softly opened. Swiftly she went along the ways that led to the
+river. She came to where fires were blazing and she knew that the
+Argonauts were there.
+
+  She called to them, and Phrontis, Chalciope’s son, heard the cry and
+knew the voice. To Jason he spoke, and Jason quickly went to where Medea
+stood.
+
+  She clasped Jason’s hand and she drew him with her. “The Golden Fleece,”
+she said, “the time has come when you must pluck the Golden Fleece off the
+oak in the grove of Ares.” When she said these words all Jason’s being
+became taut like the string of a bow.
+
+  It was then the hour when huntsmen cast sleep from their eyes—huntsmen
+who never sleep away the end of the night, but who are ever ready to be up
+and away with their hounds before the beams of the sun efface the track
+and the scent of the quarry. Along a path that went from the river Medea
+drew Jason. They entered a grove. Then Jason saw something that was like a
+cloud filled with the light of the rising sun. It hung from a great oak
+tree. In awe he stood and looked upon it, knowing that at last he looked
+upon THE GOLDEN FLEECE.
+
+  His hand let slip Medea’s hand and he went to seize the Fleece. As he
+did he heard a dreadful hiss. And then he saw the guardian of the Golden
+Fleece. Coiled all around the tree, with outstretched neck and keen and
+sleepless eyes, was a deadly serpent. Its hiss ran all through the grove
+and the birds that were wakening up squawked in terror.
+
+  Like rings of smoke that rise one above the other, the coils of the
+serpent went around the tree—coils covered by hard and gleaming scales. It
+uncoiled, stretched itself, and lifted its head to strike. Then Medea
+dropped on her knees before it, and began to chant her Magic Song.
+
+  As she sang, the coils around the tree grew slack. Like a dark,
+noiseless wave the serpent sank down on the ground. But still its jaws
+were open, and those dreadful jaws threatened Jason. Medea, with a newly
+cut spray of juniper dipped in a mystic brew, touched its deadly eyes. And
+still she chanted her Magic Song. The serpent’s jaws closed; its eyes
+became deadened; far through the grove its length was stretched out.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+  Then Jason took the Golden Fleece. As he raised his hands to it, its
+brightness was such as to make a flame on his face. Medea called to him.
+He strove to gather it all up in his arms; Medea was beside him, and they
+went swiftly on.
+
+  They came to the river and down to the place where the _Argo_ was
+moored. The heroes who were aboard started up, astonished to see the
+Fleece that shone as with the lightning of Zeus. Over Medea Jason cast it,
+and he lifted her aboard the _Argo_.
+
+  “O friends,” he cried, “the quest on which we dared the gulfs of the sea
+and the wrath of kings is accomplished, thanks to the help of this maiden.
+Now may we return to Greece; now have we the hope of looking upon our
+fathers and our friends once more. And in all honor will we bring this
+maiden with us, Medea, the daughter of King Æetes.”
+
+  Then he drew his sword and cut the hawsers of the ship, calling upon the
+heroes to drive the _Argo_ on. There was a din and a strain and a splash
+of oars, and away from Aea the _Argo_ dashed. Beside the mast Medea stood;
+the Golden Fleece had fallen at her feet, and her head and face were
+covered by her silver veil.
+
+
+
+
+IV. The Slaying of Apsyrtus
+
+
+
+[Decorative first letter]
+_T_HAT silver veil was to be splashed with a brother’s blood, and the
+Argonauts, because of that calamity, were for a long time to be held back
+from a return to their native land.
+
+  Now as they went down the river they saw that dangers were coming
+swiftly upon them. The chariots of the Colchians were upon the banks.
+Jason saw King Æetes in his chariot, a blazing torch lighting his corselet
+and his helmet. Swiftly the _Argo_ went, but there were ships behind her,
+and they went swiftly too.
+
+  They came into the Sea of Pontus, and Phrontis, the son of Phrixus, gave
+counsel to them. “Do not strive to make the passage of the Symplegades,”
+he said. “All who live around the Sea of Pontus are friendly to King
+Æetes; they will be warned by him, and they will be ready to slay us and
+take the _Argo_. Let us journey up the River Ister, and by that way we can
+come to the Thrinacian Sea that is close to your land.”
+
+  The Argonauts thought well of what Phrontis said; into the waters of the
+Ister the ship was brought. Many of the Colchian ships passed by the mouth
+of the river, and went seeking the _Argo_ toward the passage of the
+Symplegades.
+
+  But the Argonauts were on a way that was dangerous for them. For
+Apsyrtus had not gone toward the Symplegades seeking the _Argo_. He had
+led his soldiers overland to the River Ister at a place that was at a
+distance above its mouth. There were islands in the river at that place,
+and the soldiers of Apsyrtus landed on the islands, while Apsyrtus went to
+the kings of the people around and claimed their support.
+
+  The _Argo_ came and the heroes found themselves cut off. They could not
+make their way between the islands that were filled with the Colchian
+soldiers, nor along the banks that were lined with men friendly to King
+Æetes. _Argo_ was stayed. Apsyrtus sent for the chiefs; he had men enough
+to overwhelm them, but he shrank from a fight with the heroes, and he
+thought that he might gain all he wanted from them without a struggle.
+
+  Theseus and Peleus went to him. Apsyrtus would have them give up the
+Golden Fleece; he would have them give up Medea and the sons of Phrixus
+also.
+
+  Theseus and Peleus appealed to the judgment of the kings who supported
+Apsyrtus. Æetes, they said, had no more claim on the Golden Fleece. He had
+promised it to Jason as a reward for tasks that he had imposed. The tasks
+had been accomplished and the Fleece, no matter in what way it was taken
+from the grove of Ares, was theirs. So Theseus and Peleus said, and the
+kings who supported Apsyrtus gave judgment for the Argonauts.
+
+  But Medea would have to be given to her brother. If that were done the
+_Argo_ would be let go on her course, Apsyrtus said, and the Golden Fleece
+would be left with them. Apsyrtus said, too, that he would not take Medea
+back to the wrath of her father; if the Argonauts gave her up she would be
+let stay on the island of Artemis and under the guardianship of the
+goddess.
+
+  The chiefs brought Apsyrtus’s words back. There was a council of the
+Argonauts, and they agreed that they should leave Medea on the island of
+Artemis.
+
+  But grief and wrath took hold of Medea when she heard of this resolve.
+Almost she would burn the _Argo_. She went to where Jason stood, and she
+spoke again of all she had done to save his life and win the Golden Fleece
+for the Argonauts. Jason made her look on the ships and the soldiers that
+were around them; he showed her how these could overwhelm the Argonauts
+and slay them all. With all the heroes slain, he said, Medea would come
+into the hands of Apsyrtus, who then could leave her on the island of
+Artemis or take her back to the wrath of her father.
+
+  But Medea would not consent to go nor could Jason’s heart consent to let
+her go. Then these two made a plot to deceive Apsyrtus.
+
+  “I have not been of the council that agreed to give you up to him,”
+Jason said. “After you have been left there I will take you off the island
+of Artemis secretly. The Colchians and the kings who support them, not
+knowing that you have been taken off and hidden on the _Argo_, will let us
+pass.” This Medea and Jason planned to do, and it was an ill thing, for it
+was breaking the covenant that the chiefs had entered with Apsyrtus.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+  Medea then was left by the Argonauts on the island of Artemis. Now
+Apsyrtus had been commanded by his father to bring her back to Aea; he
+thought that when she had been left by the Argonauts he could force her to
+come with him. So he went over to the island. Jason, secretly leaving his
+companions, went to the island from the other side.
+
+  Before the temple of Artemis Jason and Apsyrtus came face to face. Both
+men, thinking they had been betrayed to their deaths, drew their swords.
+Then, before the vestibule of the temple and under the eyes of Medea,
+Jason and Apsyrtus fought. Jason’s sword pierced the son of Æetes; as he
+fell Apsyrtus cried out bitter words against Medea, saying that it was on
+her account that he had come on his death. And as he fell the blood of her
+brother splashed Medea’s silver veil.
+
+  Jason lifted Medea up and carried her to the _Argo_. They hid the maiden
+under the Fleece of Gold and they sailed past the ships of the Colchians.
+When darkness came they were far from the island of Artemis. It was then
+that they heard a loud wailing, and they knew that the Colchians had
+discovered that their prince had been slain.
+
+  The Colchians did not pursue them. Fearing the wrath of Æetes they made
+settlements in the lands of the kings who had supported Apsyrtus; they
+never went back to Aea; they called themselves Apsyrtians henceforward,
+naming themselves after the prince they had come with.
+
+  They had escaped the danger that had hemmed them in, but the Argonauts,
+as they sailed on, were not content; covenants had been broken, and blood
+had been shed in a bad cause. And as they went on through the darkness the
+voice of the ship was heard; at the sound of that voice fear and sorrow
+came upon the voyagers, for they felt that it had a prophecy of doom.
+
+  Castor and Polydeuces went to the front of the ship; holding up their
+hands, they prayed. Then they heard the words that the voice uttered: in
+the night as they went on the voice proclaimed the wrath of Zeus on
+account of the slaying of Apsyrtus.
+
+  What was their doom to be? It was that the Argonauts would have to
+wander forever over the gulfs of the sea unless Medea had herself cleansed
+of her brother’s blood. There was one who could cleanse Medea—Circe, the
+daughter of Helios and Perse. The voice urged the heroes to pray to the
+immortal gods that the way to the island of Circe be shown to them.
+
+
+
+
+V. Medea Comes to Circe
+
+
+
+[Decorative first letter]
+_T_HEY sailed up the River Ister until they came to the Eridanus, that
+river across which no bird can fly. Leaving the Eridanus they entered the
+Rhodanus, a river that rises in the extreme north, where Night herself has
+her habitation. And voyaging up this river they came to the Stormy Lakes.
+A mist lay upon the lakes night and day; voyaging through them the
+Argonauts at last brought out their ship upon the Sea of Ausonia.
+
+  It was Zetes and Calais, the sons of the North Wind, who brought the
+_Argo_ safely along this dangerous course. And to Zetes and Calais Iris,
+the messenger of the gods, appeared and revealed to them where Circe’s
+island lay.
+
+  Deep blue water was all around that island, and on its height a marble
+house was to be seen. But a strange haze covered everything as with a
+veil. As the Argonauts came near they saw what looked to them like great
+dragonflies; they came down to the shore, and then the heroes saw that
+they were maidens in gleaming dresses.
+
+  The maidens waved their hands to the voyagers, calling them to come on
+the island. Strange beasts came up to where the maidens were and made
+whimpering cries.
+
+  The Argonauts would have drawn the ship close and would have sprung upon
+the island only that Medea cried out to them. She showed them the beasts
+that whimpered around the maidens, and then, as the Argonauts looked upon
+them, they saw that these were not beasts of the wild. There was something
+strange and fearful about them; the heroes gazed upon them with troubled
+eyes. They brought the ship near, but they stayed upon their benches,
+holding the oars in their hands.
+
+  Medea sprang to the island; she spoke to the maidens so that they shrank
+away; then the beasts came and whimpered around her. “Forbear to land
+here, O Argonauts,” Medea cried, “for this is the island where men are
+changed into beasts.” She called to Jason to come; only Jason would she
+have come upon the island.
+
+  They went swiftly toward the marble house, and the beasts followed them,
+looking up at Jason and Medea with pitiful human eyes. They went into the
+marble house of Circe, and as suppliants they seated themselves at the
+hearth.
+
+  Circe stood at her loom, weaving her many-colored threads. Swiftly she
+turned to the suppliants; she looked for something strange in them, for
+just before they came the walls of her house dripped with blood and the
+flame ran over and into her pot, burning up all the magic herbs she was
+brewing. She went toward where they sat, Medea with her face hidden by her
+hands, and Jason, with his head bent, holding with its point in the ground
+the sword with which he had slain the son of Æetes.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+  When Medea took her hands away from before her face, Circe knew that,
+like herself, this maiden was of the race of Helios. Medea spoke to her,
+telling her first of the voyage of the heroes and of their toils; telling
+her then of how she had given help to Jason against the will of Æetes, her
+father; telling her then, fearfully, of the slaying of Apsyrtus. She
+covered her face with her robe as she spoke of it. And then she told Circe
+she had come, warned by the judgment of Zeus, to ask of Circe, the
+daughter of Helios, to purify her from the stain of her brother’s blood.
+
+  Like all the children of Helios, Circe had eyes that were wide and full
+of life, but she had stony lips—lips that were heavy and moveless. Bright
+golden hair hung smoothly along each of her sides. First she held a cup to
+them that was filled with pure water, and Jason and Medea drank from that
+cup.
+
+  Then Circe stayed by the hearth; she burnt cakes in the flame, and all
+the while she prayed to Zeus to be gentle with these suppliants. She
+brought both to the seashore. There she washed Medea’s body and her
+garments with the spray of the sea.
+
+  Medea pleaded with Circe to tell her of the life she foresaw for her,
+but Circe would not speak of it. She told Medea that one day she would
+meet a woman who knew nothing about enchantments but who had much human
+wisdom. She was to ask of her what she was to do in her life or what she
+was to leave undone. And whatever this woman out of her wisdom told her,
+that Medea was to regard. Once more Circe offered them the cup filled with
+clear water, and when they had drunken of it she left them upon the
+seashore. As she went toward her marble house the strange beasts followed
+Circe, whimpering as they went. Jason and Medea went aboard the _Argo_,
+and the heroes drew away from Circe’s island.
+
+
+
+
+VI. In the Land of the Phæacians
+
+
+
+[Decorative first letter]
+_W_EARIED were the heroes now. They would have fain gone upon the island
+of Circe to rest there away from the oars and the sound of the sea. But
+the wisest of them, looking upon the beasts that were men transformed,
+held the _Argo_ far off the shore. Then Jason and Medea came aboard, and
+with heavy hearts and wearied arms they turned to the open sea again.
+
+  No longer had they such high hearts as when they drove the _Argo_
+between the Clashers and into the Sea of Pontus. Now their heads drooped
+as they went on, and they sang such songs as slaves sing in their hopeless
+labor. Orpheus grew fearful for them now.
+
+  For Orpheus knew that they were drawing toward a danger. There was no
+other way for them, he knew, but past the Island Anthemœssa in the
+Tyrrhenian Sea where the Sirens were. Once they had been nymphs and had
+tended Persephone before she was carried off by Aidoneus to be his queen
+in the Underworld. Kind they had been, but now they were changed, and they
+cared only for the destruction of men.
+
+  All set around with rocks was the island where they were. As the _Argo_
+came near, the Sirens, ever on the watch to draw mariners to their
+destruction, saw them and came to the rocks and sang to them, holding each
+other’s hands.
+
+  They sang all together their lulling song. That song made the wearied
+voyagers long to let their oars go with the waves, and drift, drift to
+where the Sirens were. Bending down to them the Sirens, with soft hands
+and white arms, would lift them to soft resting places. Then each of the
+Sirens sang a clear, piercing song that called to each of the voyagers.
+Each man thought that his own name was in that song. “O how well it is
+that you have come near,” each one sang, “how well it is that you have
+come near where I have awaited you, having all delight prepared for you!”
+
+  Orpheus took up his lyre as the Sirens began to sing. He sang to the
+heroes of their own toils. He sang of them, how, gaunt and weary as they
+were, they were yet men, men who were the strength of Greece, men who had
+been fostered by the love and hope of their country. They were the winners
+of the Golden Fleece and their story would be told forever. And for the
+fame that they had won men would forego all rest and all delight. Why
+should they not toil, they who were born for great labors and to face
+dangers that other men might not face? Soon hands would be stretched out
+to them—the welcoming hands of the men and women of their own land.
+
+  So Orpheus sang, and his voice and the music of his lyre prevailed above
+the Sirens’ voices. Men dropped their oars, but other men remained at
+their benches, and pulled steadily, if wearily, on. Only one of the
+Argonauts, Butes, a youth of Iolcus, threw himself into the water and swam
+toward the rocks from which the Sirens sang.
+
+  But an anguish that nearly parted their spirits from their bodies was
+upon them as they went wearily on. Toward the end of the day they beheld
+another island—an island that seemed very fair; they longed to land and
+rest themselves there and eat the fruits of the island. But Orpheus would
+not have them land. The island, he said, was Thrinacia. Upon that island
+the Cattle of the Sun pastured, and if one of the cattle perished through
+them their return home might not be won. They heard the lowing of the
+cattle through the mist, and a deep longing for the sight of their own
+fields, with a white house near, and flocks and herds at pasture, came
+over the heroes. They came near the Island of Thrinacia, and they saw the
+Cattle of the Sun feeding by the meadow streams; not one of them was
+black; all were white as milk, and the horns upon their heads were golden.
+They saw the two nymphs who herded the kine—Phæthusa and Lampetia, one
+with a staff of silver and the other with a staff of gold.
+
+  Driven by the breeze that came over the Thrinacian Sea the Argonauts
+came to the land of the Phæacians. It was a good land as they saw when
+they drew near; a land of orchards and fresh pastures, with a white and
+sun-lit city upon the height. Their spirits came back to them as they drew
+into the harbor; they made fast the hawsers, and they went upon the ways
+of the city.
+
+  And then they saw everywhere around them the dark faces of Colchian
+soldiers. These were the men of King Æetes, and they had come overland to
+the Phæacian city, hoping to cut off the Argonauts. Jason, when he saw the
+soldiers, shouted to those who had been left on the _Argo_, and they drew
+out of the harbor, fearful lest the Colchians should grapple with the ship
+and wrest from them the Fleece of Gold. Then Jason made an encampment upon
+the shore, and the captain of the Colchians went here and there, gathering
+together his men.
+
+  Medea left Jason’s side and hastened through the city. To the palace of
+Alcinous, king of the Phæacians, she went. Within the palace she found
+Arete, the queen. And Arete was sitting by her hearth, spinning golden and
+silver threads.
+
+  Arete was young at that time, as young as Medea, and as yet no child had
+been born to her. But she had the clear eyes of one who understands, and
+who knows how to order things well. Stately, too, was Arete, for she had
+been reared in the house of a great king. Medea came to her, and fell upon
+her knees before her, and told her how she had fled from the house of her
+father, King Æetes.
+
+  She told Arete, too, how she had helped Jason to win the Golden Fleece,
+and she told her how through her her brother had been led to his death. As
+she told this part of her story she wept and prayed at the knees of the
+queen.
+
+  Arete was greatly moved by Medea’s tears and prayers. She went to
+Alcinous in his garden, and she begged of him to save the Argonauts from
+the great force of the Colchians that had come to cut them off. “The
+Golden Fleece,” said Arete, “has been won by the tasks that Jason
+performed. If the Colchians should take Medea, it would be to bring her
+back to Aea and to a bitter doom. And the maiden,” said the queen, “has
+broken my heart by her prayers and tears.”
+
+  King Alcinous said: “Æetes is strong, and although his kingdom is far
+from ours, he can bring war upon us.” But still Arete pleaded with him to
+protect Medea from the Colchians. Alcinous went within; he raised up Medea
+from where she crouched on the floor of the palace, and he promised her
+that the Argonauts would be protected in his city.
+
+  Then the king mounted his chariot; Medea went with him, and they came
+down to the seashore where the heroes had made their encampment. The
+Argonauts and the Colchians were drawn up against each other, and the
+Colchians far outnumbered the wearied heroes.
+
+  Alcinous drove his chariot between the two armies. The Colchians prayed
+him to have the strangers make surrender to them. But the king drove his
+chariot to where the heroes stood, and he took the hand of each, and
+received them as his guests. Then the Colchians knew that they might not
+make war upon the heroes. They drew off. The next day they marched away.
+
+
+
+  It was a rich land that they had come to. Once Aristæus dwelt there, the
+king who discovered how to make bees store up their honey for men and how
+to make the good olive grow. Macris, his daughter, tended Dionysus, the
+son of Zeus, when Hermes brought him of the flame, and moistened his lips
+with honey. She tended him in a cave in the Phæacian land, and ever
+afterward the Phæacians were blessed with all good things.
+
+  Now as the heroes marched to the palace of King Alcinous the people came
+to meet them, bringing them sheep and calves and jars of wine and honey.
+The women brought them fresh garments; to Medea they gave fine linen and
+golden ornaments.
+
+  Amongst the Phæacians who loved music and games and the telling of
+stories the heroes stayed for long. There were dances, and to the
+Phæacians who honored him as a god, Orpheus played upon his lyre. And
+every day, for the seven days that they stayed amongst them, the Phæacians
+brought rich presents to the heroes.
+
+  And Medea, looking into the clear eyes of Queen Arete, knew that she was
+the woman of whom Circe had prophesied, the woman who knew nothing of
+enchantments, but who had much human wisdom. She was to ask of her what
+she was to do in her life and what she was to leave undone. And what this
+woman told her Medea was to regard. Arete told her that she was to forget
+all the witcheries and enchantments that she knew, and that she was never
+to practice against the life of any one. This she told Medea upon the
+shore, before Jason lifted her aboard the _Argo_.
+
+
+
+
+VII. They Come to the Desert Land
+
+
+
+[Decorative first letter]
+_A_ND now with sail spread wide the _Argo_ went on, and the heroes rested
+at the oars. The wind grew stronger. It became a great blast, and for nine
+days and nine nights the ship was driven fearfully along.
+
+  The blast drove them into the Gulf of Libya, from whence there is no
+return for ships. On each side of the gulf there are rocks and shoals, and
+the sea runs toward the limitless sand. On the top of a mighty tide the
+_Argo_ was lifted, and she was flung high up on the desert sands.
+
+  A flood tide such as might not come again for long left the Argonauts on
+the empty Libyan land. And when they came forth and saw that vast level of
+sand stretching like a mist away into the distance, a deadly fear came
+over each of them. No spring of water could they descry; no path; no
+herdsman’s cabin; over all that vast land there was silence and dead calm.
+And one said to the other: “What land is this? Whither have we come? Would
+that the tempest had overwhelmed us, or would that we had lost the ship
+and our lives between the Clashing Rocks at the time when we were making
+our way into the Sea of Pontus.”
+
+  And the helmsman, looking before him, said with a breaking heart: “Out
+of this we may not come, even should the breeze blow from the land, for
+all around us are shoals and sharp rocks—rocks that we can see fretting
+the water, line upon line. Our ship would have been shattered far from the
+shore if the tide had not borne her far up on the sand. But now the tide
+rushes back toward the sea, leaving only foam on which no ship can sail to
+cover the sand. And so all hope of our return is cut off.”
+
+  He spoke with tears flowing upon his cheeks, and all who had knowledge
+of ships agreed with what the helmsman had said. No dangers that they had
+been through were as terrible as this. Hopelessly, like lifeless specters,
+the heroes strayed about the endless strand.
+
+  They embraced each other and they said farewell as they laid down upon
+the sand that might blow upon them and overwhelm them in the night. They
+wrapped their heads in their cloaks, and, fasting, they laid themselves
+down.
+
+  Jason crouched beside the ship, so troubled that his life nearly went
+from him. He saw Medea huddled against a rock and with her hair streaming
+on the sand. He saw the men who, with all the bravery of their lives, had
+come with him, stretched on the desert sand, weary and without hope. He
+thought that they, the best of men, might die in this desert with their
+deeds all unknown; he thought that he might never win home with Medea, to
+make her his queen in Iolcus.
+
+  He lay against the side of the ship, his cloak wrapped around his head.
+And there death would have come to him and to the others if the nymphs of
+the desert had been unmindful of these brave men. They came to Jason. It
+was midday then, and the fierce rays of the sun were scorching all Libya.
+They drew off the cloak that wrapped his head; they stood near him, three
+nymphs girded around with goatskins.
+
+  “Why art thou so smitten with despair?” the nymphs said to Jason. “Why
+art thou smitten with despair, thou who hast wrought so much and hast won
+so much? Up! Arouse thy comrades! We are the solitary nymphs, the warders
+of the land of Libya, and we have come to show a way of escape to you, the
+Argonauts.
+
+  “Look around and watch for the time when Poseidon’s great horse shall be
+unloosed. Then make ready to pay recompense to the mother that bore you
+all. What she did for you all, that you all must do for her; by doing it
+you will win back to the land of Greece.” Jason heard them say these words
+and then he saw them no more; the nymphs vanished amongst the desert
+mounds.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+  Then Jason rose up. He did not know what to make out of what had been
+told him, but there was courage now and hope in his heart. He shouted; his
+voice was like the roar of a lion calling to his mate. At his shout his
+comrades roused themselves; all squalid with the dust of the desert the
+Argonauts stood around him.
+
+  “Listen, comrades, to me,” Jason said, “while I speak of a strange thing
+that has befallen me. While I lay by the side of our ship three nymphs
+came before me. With light hands they drew away the cloak that wrapped my
+head. They declared themselves to be the solitary nymphs, the warders, of
+Libya. Very strange were the words they said to me. When Poseidon’s great
+horse shall be unloosed, they said, we were to make the mother of us all a
+recompense, doing for her what she had done for us all. This the nymphs
+told me to say, but I cannot understand the meaning of their words.”
+
+  There were some there who would not have given heed to Jason’s words,
+deeming them words without meaning. But even as he spoke a wonder came
+before their eyes. Out of the far-off sea a great horse leaped. Vast he
+was of size and he had a golden mane. He shook the spray of the sea off
+his sides and mane. Past them he trampled and away toward the horizon,
+leaving great tracks in the sand.
+
+  Then Nestor spoke rejoicingly. “Behold the great horse! It is the horse
+that the desert nymphs spoke of, Poseidon’s horse. Even now has the horse
+been unloosed, and now is the time to do what the nymphs bade us do.
+
+  “Who but _Argo_ is the mother of us all? She has carried us. Now we must
+make her a recompense and carry her even as she carried us. With untiring
+shoulders we must bear _Argo_ across this great desert.
+
+  “And whither shall we bear her? Whither but along the tracks that
+Poseidon’s horse has left in the sand! Poseidon’s horse will not go under
+the earth—once again he will plunge into the sea!”
+
+  So Nestor said and the Argonauts saw truth in his saying. Hope came to
+them again—the hope of leaving that desert and coming to the sea. Surely
+when they came to the sea again, and spread the sail and held the oars in
+their hands, their sacred ship would make swift course to their native
+land!
+
+
+
+
+VIII. The Carrying of the Argo
+
+
+
+[Decorative first letter]
+_W_ITH the terrible weight of the ship upon their shoulders the Argonauts
+made their way across the desert, following the tracks of Poseidon’s
+golden-maned horse. Like a wounded serpent that drags with pain its length
+along, they went day after day across that limitless land.
+
+  A day came when they saw the great tracks of the horse no more. A wind
+had come up and had covered them with sand. With the mighty weight of the
+ship upon their shoulders, with the sun beating upon their heads, and with
+no marks on the desert to guide them, the heroes stood there, and it
+seemed to them that the blood must gush up and out of their hearts.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+  Then Zetes and Calais, sons of the North Wind, rose up upon their wings
+to strive to get sight of the sea. Up, up, they soared. And then as a man
+sees, or thinks he sees, at the month’s beginning, the moon through a bank
+of clouds, Zetes and Calais, looking over the measureless land, saw the
+gleam of water. They shouted to the Argonauts; they marked the way for
+them, and wearily, but with good hearts, the heroes went upon the way.
+
+  They came at last to the shore of what seemed to be a wide inland sea.
+They set _Argo_ down from off their over-wearied shoulders and they let
+her keel take water once more.
+
+  All salt and brackish was that water; they dipped their hands into and
+tasted the salt. Orpheus was able to name the water they had come to; it
+was that lake that was called after Triton, the son of Nereus, the ancient
+one of the sea. They set up an altar and they made sacrifices in
+thanksgiving to the gods.
+
+  They had come to water at last, but now they had to seek for other
+water—for the sweet water that they could drink. All around them they
+looked, but they saw no sign of a spring. And then they felt a wind blow
+upon them—a wind that had in it not the dust of the desert but the
+fragrance of growing things. Toward where that wind blew from they went.
+
+  As they went on they saw a great shape against the sky; they saw
+mountainous shoulders bowed. Orpheus bade them halt and turn their faces
+with reverence toward that great shape: for this was Atlas the Titan, the
+brother of Prometheus, who stood there to hold up the sky on his
+shoulders.
+
+  Then they were near the place that the fragrance had blown from: there
+was a garden there; the only fence that ran around it was a lattice of
+silver. “Surely there are springs in the garden,” the Argonauts said. “We
+will enter this fair garden now and slake our thirst.”
+
+  Orpheus bade them walk reverently, for all around them, he said, was
+sacred ground. This garden was the Garden of the Hesperides that was
+watched over by the Daughters of the Evening Land. The Argonauts looked
+through the silver lattice; they saw trees with lovely fruit, and they saw
+three maidens moving through the garden with watchful eyes. In this garden
+grew the tree that had the golden apples that Zeus gave to Hera as a
+wedding gift.
+
+  They saw the tree on which the golden apples grew. The maidens went to
+it and then looked watchfully all around them. They saw the faces of the
+Argonauts looking through the silver lattice and they cried out, one to
+the other, and they joined their hands around the tree.
+
+  But Orpheus called to them, and the maidens understood the divine speech
+of Orpheus. He made the Daughters of the Evening Land know that they who
+stood before the lattice were men who reverenced the gods, who would not
+strive to enter the forbidden garden. The maidens came toward them.
+Beautiful as the singing of Orpheus was their utterance, but what they
+said was a complaint and a lament.
+
+  Their lament was for the dragon Ladon, that dragon with a hundred heads
+that guarded sleeplessly the tree that had the golden apples. Now that
+dragon was slain. With arrows that had been dipped in the poison of the
+Hydra’s blood their dragon, Ladon, had been slain.
+
+  The Daughters of the Evening Land sang of how a mortal had come into the
+garden that they watched over. He had a great bow, and with his arrow he
+slew the dragon that guarded the golden apples. The golden apples he had
+taken away; they had come back to the tree they had been plucked from, for
+no mortal might keep them in his possession. So the maidens sang—Hespere,
+Eretheis, and Ægle—and they complained that now, unhelped by the
+hundred-headed dragon, they had to keep guard over the tree.
+
+  The Argonauts knew of whom they told the tale—Heracles, their comrade.
+Would that Heracles were with them now!
+
+  The Hesperides told them of Heracles—of how the springs in the garden
+dried up because of his plucking the golden apples. He came out of the
+garden thirsting. Nowhere could he find a spring of water. To yonder great
+rock he went. He smote it with his foot and water came out in full flow.
+Then he, leaning on his hands and with his chest upon the ground, drank
+and drank from the water that flowed from the rifted rock.
+
+  The Argonauts looked to where the rock stood. They caught the sound of
+water. They carried Medea over. And then, company after company, all
+huddled together, they stooped down and drank their fill of the clear good
+water. With lips wet with the water they cried to each other, “Heracles!
+Although he is not with us, in very truth Heracles has saved his comrades
+from deadly thirst!”
+
+  They saw his footsteps printed upon the rocks, and they followed them
+until they led to the sand where no footsteps stay. Heracles! How glad his
+comrades would have been if they could have had sight of him then! But it
+was long ago—before he had sailed with them—that Heracles had been here.
+
+  Still hearing their complaint they turned back to the lattice, to where
+the Daughters of the Evening Land stood. The Daughters of the Evening Land
+bent their heads to listen to what the Argonauts told one another, and,
+seeing them bent to listen, Orpheus told a story about one who had gone
+across the Libyan desert, about one who was a hero like unto Heracles.
+
+
+
+The Story of Perseus
+
+
+  Beyond where Atlas stands there is a cave where the strange women, the
+ancient daughters of Phorcys, live. They have been gray from their birth.
+They have but one eye and one tooth between them, and they pass the eye
+and the tooth, one to the other, when they would see or eat. They are
+called the Graiai, these two sisters.
+
+  Up to the cave where they lived a youth once came. He was beardless, and
+the garb he wore was torn and travel-stained, but he had shapeliness and
+beauty. In his leathern belt there was an exceedingly bright sword; this
+sword was not straight like the swords we carry, but it was hooked like a
+sickle. The strange youth with the bright, strange sword came very quickly
+and very silently up to the cave where the Graiai lived and looked over a
+high boulder into it.
+
+  One was sitting munching acorns with the single tooth. The other had the
+eye in her hand. She was holding it to her forehead and looking into the
+back of the cave. These two ancient women, with their gray hair falling
+over them like thick fleeces, and with faces that were only forehead and
+cheeks and nose and mouth, were strange creatures truly. Very silently the
+youth stood looking at them.
+
+  “Sister, sister,” cried the one who was munching acorns, “sister, turn
+your eye this way. I heard the stir of something.”
+
+  The other turned, and with the eye placed against her forehead looked
+out to the opening of the cave. The youth drew back behind the boulder.
+“Sister, sister, there is nothing there,” said the one with the eye.
+
+  Then she said: “Sister, give me the tooth for I would eat my acorns.
+Take the eye and keep watch.”
+
+  The one who was eating held out the tooth, and the one who was watching
+held out the eye. The youth darted into the cave. Standing between the
+eyeless sisters, he took with one hand the tooth and with the other the
+eye.
+
+  “Sister, sister, have you taken the eye?”
+
+  “I have not taken the eye. Have you taken the tooth?”
+
+  “I have not taken the tooth.”
+
+  “Some one has taken the eye, and some one has taken the tooth.”
+
+  They stood together, and the youth watched their blinking faces as they
+tried to discover who had come into the cave, and who had taken the eye
+and the tooth.
+
+  Then they said, screaming together: “Who ever has taken the eye and the
+tooth from the Graiai, the ancient daughters of Phorcys, may Mother Night
+smother him.”
+
+  The youth spoke. “Ancient daughters of Phorcys,” he said, “Graiai, I
+would not rob from you. I have come to your cave only to ask the way to a
+place.”
+
+  “Ah, it is a mortal, a mortal,” screamed the sisters. “Well, mortal,
+what would you have from the Graiai?”
+
+  “Ancient Graiai,” said the youth, “I would have you tell me, for you
+alone know, where the nymphs dwell who guard the three magic treasures—the
+cap of darkness, the shoes of flight, and the magic pouch.”
+
+  “We will not tell you, we will not tell you that,” screamed the two
+ancient sisters.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+  “I will keep the eye and the tooth,” said the youth, “and I will give
+them to one who will help me.”
+
+  “Give me the eye and I will tell you,” said one. “Give me the tooth and
+I will tell you,” said the other. The youth put the eye in the hand of one
+and the tooth in the hand of the other, but he held their skinny hands in
+his strong hands until they should tell him where the nymphs dwelt who
+guarded the magic treasures. The Gray Ones told him. Then the youth with
+the bright sword left the cave. As he went out he saw on the ground a
+shield of bronze, and he took it with him.
+
+  To the other side of where Atlas stands he went. There he came upon the
+nymphs in their valley. They had long dwelt there, hidden from gods and
+men, and they were startled to see a stranger youth come into their hidden
+valley. They fled away. Then the youth sat on the ground, his head bent
+like a man who is very sorrowful.
+
+  The youngest and the fairest of the nymphs came to him at last. “Why
+have you come, and why do you sit here in such great trouble, youth?” said
+she. And then she said: “What is this strange sickle-sword that you wear?
+Who told you the way to our dwelling place? What name have you?”
+
+  “I have come here,” said the youth, and he took the bronze shield upon
+his knees and began to polish it, “I have come here because I want you,
+the nymphs who guard them, to give to me the cap of darkness and the shoes
+of flight and the magic pouch. I must gain these things; without them I
+must go to my death. Why I must gain them you will know from my story.”
+
+  When he said that he had come for the three magic treasures that they
+guarded, the kind nymph was more startled than she and her sisters had
+been startled by the appearance of the strange youth in their hidden
+valley. She turned away from him. But she looked again and she saw that he
+was beautiful and brave looking. He had spoken of his death. The nymph
+stood looking at him pitifully, and the youth, with the bronze shield laid
+beside his knees and the strange hooked sword lying across it, told her
+his story.
+
+
+
+  “I am Perseus,” he said, “and my grandfather, men say, is king in Argos.
+His name is Acrisius. Before I was born a prophecy was made to him that
+the son of Danaë, his daughter, would slay him. Acrisius was frightened by
+the prophecy, and when I was born he put my mother and myself into a
+chest, and he sent us adrift upon the waves of the sea.
+
+  “I did not know what a terrible peril I was in, for I was an infant
+newly born. My mother was so hopeless that she came near to death. But the
+wind and the waves did not destroy us: they brought us to a shore; a
+shepherd found the chest, and he opened it and brought my mother and
+myself out of it alive. The land we had come to was Seriphus. The shepherd
+who found the chest and who rescued my mother and myself was the brother
+of the king. His name was Dictys.
+
+  “In the shepherd’s wattled house my mother stayed with me, a little
+infant, and in that house I grew from babyhood to childhood, and from
+childhood to boyhood. He was a kind man, this shepherd Dictys. His brother
+Polydectes had put him away from the palace, but Dictys did not grieve for
+that, for he was happy minding his sheep upon the hillside, and he was
+happy in his little hut of wattles and clay.
+
+  “Polydectes, the king, was seldom spoken to about his brother, and it
+was years before he knew of the mother and child who had been brought to
+live in Dictys’s hut. But at last he heard of us, for strange things began
+to be said about my mother—how she was beautiful, and how she looked like
+one who had been favored by the gods. Then one day when he was hunting,
+Polydectes the king came to the hut of Dictys the shepherd.
+
+  “He saw Danaë, my mother, there. By her looks he knew that she was a
+king’s daughter and one who had been favored by the gods. He wanted her
+for his wife. But my mother hated this harsh and overbearing king, and she
+would not wed with him. Often he came storming around the shepherd’s hut,
+and at last my mother had to take refuge from him in a temple. There she
+became the priestess of the goddess.
+
+  “I was taken to the palace of Polydectes, and there I was brought up.
+The king still stormed around where my mother was, more and more bent on
+making her marry him. If she had not been in the temple where she was
+under the protection of the goddess he would have wed her against her
+will.
+
+  “But I was growing up now, and I was able to give some protection to my
+mother. My arm was a strong one, and Polydectes knew that if he wronged my
+mother in any way, I had the will and the power to be deadly to him. One
+day I heard him say before his princes and his lords that he would wed,
+and would wed one who was not Danaë. I was overjoyed to hear him say this.
+He asked the lords and the princes to come to the wedding feast; they
+declared they would, and they told him of the presents they would bring.
+
+  “Then King Polydectes turned to me and he asked me to come to the
+wedding feast. I said I would come. And then, because I was young and full
+of the boast of youth, and because the king was now ceasing to be a terror
+to me, I said that I would bring to his wedding feast the head of the
+Gorgon.
+
+  “The king smiled when he heard me say this, but he smiled not as a good
+man smiles when he hears the boast of youth. He smiled, and he turned to
+the princes and lords, and he said: ‘Perseus will come, and he will bring
+a greater gift than any of you, for he will bring the head of her whose
+gaze turns living creatures into stone.’
+
+  “When I heard the king speak so grimly about my boast the fearfulness of
+the thing I had spoken of doing came over me. I thought for an instant
+that the Gorgon’s head appeared before me, and that I was then and there
+turned into stone.
+
+  “The day of the wedding feast came. I came and I brought no gift. I
+stood with my head hanging for shame. Then the princes and the lords came
+forward, and they showed the great gifts of horses that they had brought.
+I thought that the king would forget about me and about my boast. And then
+I heard him call my name. ‘Perseus,’ he said, ‘Perseus, bring before us
+now the Gorgon’s head that, as you told us, you would bring for the
+wedding gift.’
+
+  “The princes and lords and people looked toward me, and I was filled
+with a deeper shame. I had to say that I had failed to bring a present.
+Then that harsh and overbearing king shouted at me. ‘Go forth,’ he said,
+‘go forth and fetch the present that you spoke of. If you do not bring it
+remain forever out of my country, for in Seriphus we will have no empty
+boasters.’ The lords and the princes applauded what the king said; the
+people were sad for me and sad for my mother, but they might not do
+anything to help me, so just and so due to me did the words of the king
+seem. There was no help for it, and I had to go from the country of
+Seriphus, leaving my mother at the mercy of Polydectes.
+
+  “I bade good-by to my sorrowful mother and I went from Seriphus—from
+that land that I might not return to without the Gorgon’s head. I traveled
+far from that country. One day I sat down in a lonely place and prayed to
+the gods that my strength might be equal to the will that now moved in
+me—the will to take the Gorgon’s head, and take from my name the shame of
+a broken promise, and win back to Seriphus to save my mother from the
+harshness of the king.
+
+  “When I looked up I saw one standing before me. He was a youth, too, but
+I knew by the way he moved, and I knew by the brightness of his face and
+eyes, that he was of the immortals. I raised my hands in homage to him,
+and he came near me. ‘Perseus,’ he said, ‘if you have the courage to
+strive, the way to win the Gorgon’s head will be shown you.’ I said that I
+had the courage to strive, and he knew that I was making no boast.
+
+  “He gave me this bright sickle-sword that I carry. He told me by what
+ways I might come near enough to the Gorgons without being turned into
+stone by their gaze. He told me how I might slay the one of the three
+Gorgons who was not immortal, and how, having slain her, I might take her
+head and flee without being torn to pieces by her sister Gorgons.
+
+  “Then I knew that I should have to come on the Gorgons from the air. I
+knew that having slain the one that could be slain I should have to fly
+with the speed of the wind. And I knew that that speed even would not save
+me—I should have to be hidden in my flight. To win the head and save
+myself I would need three magic things—the shoes of flight and the magic
+pouch, and the dogskin cap of Hades that makes its wearer invisible.
+
+  “The youth said: ‘The magic pouch and the shoes of flight and the
+dogskin cap of Hades are in the keeping of the nymphs whose dwelling place
+no mortal knows. I may not tell you where their dwelling place is. But
+from the Gray Ones, from the ancient daughters of Phorcys who live in a
+cave near where Atlas stands, you may learn where their dwelling place
+is.’
+
+  “Thereupon he told me how I might come to the Graiai, and how I might
+get them to tell me where you, the nymphs, had your dwelling. The one who
+spoke to me was Hermes, whose dwelling is on Olympus. By this sickle-sword
+that he gave me you will know that I speak the truth.”
+
+
+
+  Perseus ceased speaking, and she who was the youngest and fairest of the
+nymphs came nearer to him. She knew that he spoke truthfully, and besides
+she had pity for the youth. “But we are the keepers of the magic
+treasures,” she said, “and some one whose need is greater even than yours
+may some time require them from us. But will you swear that you will bring
+the magic treasures back to us when you have slain the Gorgon and have
+taken her head?”
+
+  Perseus declared that he would bring the magic treasures back to the
+nymphs and leave them once more in their keeping. Then the nymph who had
+compassion for him called to the others. They spoke together while Perseus
+stayed far away from them, polishing his shield of bronze. At last the
+nymph who had listened to him came back, the others following her. They
+brought to Perseus and they put into his hands the things they had
+guarded—the cap made from dogskin that had been brought up out of Hades, a
+pair of winged shoes, and a long pouch that he could hang across his
+shoulder.
+
+
+
+  And so with the shoes of flight and the cap of darkness and the magic
+pouch, Perseus went to seek the Gorgons. The sickle-sword that Hermes gave
+him was at his side, and on his arm he held the bronze shield that was now
+well polished.
+
+  He went through the air, taking a way that the nymphs had shown him. He
+came to Oceanus that was the rim around the world. He saw forms that were
+of living creatures all in stone, and he knew that he was near the place
+where the Gorgons had their lair.
+
+  Then, looking upon the surface of his polished shield, he saw the
+Gorgons below him. Two were covered with hard serpent scales; they had
+tusks that were long and were like the tusks of boars, and they had hands
+of gleaming brass and wings of shining gold. Still looking upon the
+shining surface of his shield Perseus went down and down. He saw the third
+sister—she who was not immortal. She had a woman’s face and form, and her
+countenance was beautiful, although there was something deadly in its
+fairness. The two scaled and winged sisters were asleep, but the third,
+Medusa, was awake, and she was tearing with her hands a lizard that had
+come near her.
+
+  Upon her head was a tangle of serpents all with heads raised as though
+they were hissing. Still looking into the mirror of his shield Perseus
+came down and over Medusa. He turned his head away from her. Then, with a
+sweep of the sickle-sword he took her head off. There was no scream from
+the Gorgon, but the serpents upon her head hissed loudly.
+
+  Still with his face turned from it he lifted up the head by its tangle
+of serpents. He put it into the magic pouch. He rose up in the air. But
+now the Gorgon sisters were awake. They had heard the hiss of Medusa’s
+serpents, and now they looked upon her headless body. They rose up on
+their golden wings, and their brazen hands were stretched out to tear the
+one who had slain Medusa. As they flew after him they screamed aloud.
+
+  Although he flew like the wind the Gorgon sisters would have overtaken
+him if he had been plain to their eyes. But the dogskin cap of Hades saved
+him, for the Gorgon sisters did not know whether he was above or below
+them, behind or before them. On Perseus went, flying toward where Atlas
+stood. He flew over this place, over Libya. Drops of blood from Medusa’s
+head fell down upon the desert. They were changed and became the deadly
+serpents that are on these sands and around these rocks. On and on Perseus
+flew toward Atlas and toward the hidden valley where the nymphs who were
+again to guard the magic treasures had their dwelling place. But before he
+came to the nymphs Perseus had another adventure.
+
+
+
+  In Ethopia, which is at the other side of Libya, there ruled a king
+whose name was Cepheus. This king had permitted his queen to boast that
+she was more beautiful than the nymphs of the sea. In punishment for the
+queen’s impiety and for the king’s folly Poseidon sent a monster out of
+the sea to waste that country. Every year the monster came, destroying
+more and more of the country of Ethopia. Then the king asked of an oracle
+what he should do to save his land and his people. The oracle spoke of a
+dreadful thing that he would have to do—he would have to sacrifice his
+daughter, the beautiful Princess Andromeda.
+
+  The king was forced by his savage people to take the maiden Andromeda
+and chain her to a rock on the seashore, leaving her there for the monster
+to devour her, satisfying himself with that prey.
+
+  Perseus, flying near, heard the maiden’s laments. He saw her lovely body
+bound with chains to the rock. He came near her, taking the cap of
+darkness off his head. She saw him, and she bent her head in shame, for
+she thought that he would think that it was for some dreadful fault of her
+own that she had been left chained in that place.
+
+  Her father had stayed near. Perseus saw him, and called to him, and bade
+him tell why the maiden was chained to the rock. The king told Perseus of
+the sacrifice that he had been forced to make. Then Perseus came near the
+maiden, and he saw how she looked at him with pleading eyes.
+
+  Then Perseus made her father promise that he would give Andromeda to him
+for his wife if he should slay the sea monster. Gladly Cepheus promised
+this. Then Perseus once again drew his sickle-sword; by the rock to which
+Andromeda was still chained he waited for sight of the sea monster.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+                          Perseus and Andromeda
+
+
+  It came rolling in from the open sea, a shapeless and unsightly thing.
+With the shoes of flight upon his feet Perseus rose above it. The monster
+saw his shadow upon the water, and savagely it went to attack the shadow.
+Perseus swooped down as an eagle swoops down; with his sickle-sword he
+attacked it, and he struck the hook through the monster’s shoulder.
+Terribly it reared up from the sea. Perseus rose over it, escaping its
+wide-opened mouth with its treble rows of fangs. Again he swooped and
+struck at it. Its hide was covered all over with hard scales and with the
+shells of sea things, but Perseus’s sword struck through it. It reared up
+again, spouting water mixed with blood. On a rock near the rock that
+Andromeda was chained to Perseus alighted. The monster, seeing him,
+bellowed and rushed swiftly through the water to overwhelm him. As it
+reared up he plunged the sword again and again into its body. Down into
+the water the monster sank, and water mixed with blood was spouted up from
+the depths into which it sank.
+
+  Then was Andromeda loosed from her chains. Perseus, the conqueror,
+lifted up the fainting maiden and carried her back to the king’s palace.
+And Cepheus there renewed his promise to give her in marriage to her
+deliverer.
+
+  Perseus went on his way. He came to the hidden valley where the nymphs
+had their dwelling place, and he restored to them the three magic
+treasures that they had given him—the cap of darkness, the shoes of
+flight, and the magic pouch. And these treasures are still there, and the
+hero who can win his way to the nymphs may have them as Perseus had them.
+
+  Again he returned to the place where he had found Andromeda chained.
+With face averted he drew forth the Gorgon’s head from where he had hidden
+it between the rocks. He made a bag for it out of the horny skin of the
+monster he had slain. Then, carrying his tremendous trophy, he went to the
+palace of King Cepheus to claim his bride.
+
+
+
+  Now before her father had thought of sacrificing her to the sea monster
+he had offered Andromeda in marriage to a prince of Ethopia—to a prince
+whose name was Phineus. Phineus did not strive to save Andromeda. But,
+hearing that she had been delivered from the monster, he came to take her
+for his wife; he came to Cepheus’s palace, and he brought with him a
+thousand armed men.
+
+  The palace of Cepheus was filled with armed men when Perseus entered it.
+He saw Andromeda on a raised place in the hall. She was pale as when she
+was chained to the rock, and when she saw him in the palace she uttered a
+cry of gladness.
+
+  Cepheus, the craven king, would have let him who had come with the armed
+bands take the maiden. Perseus came beside Andromeda and he made his
+claim. Phineus spoke insolently to him, and then he urged one of his
+captains to strike Perseus down. Many sprang forward to attack him. Out of
+the bag Perseus drew Medusa’s head. He held it before those who were
+bringing strife into the hall. They were turned to stone. One of Cepheus’s
+men wished to defend Perseus: he struck at the captain who had come near;
+his sword made a clanging sound as it struck this one who had looked upon
+Medusa’s head.
+
+  Perseus went from the land of Ethopia taking fair Andromeda with him.
+They went into Greece, for he had thought of going to Argos, to the
+country that his grandfather ruled over. At this very time Acrisius got
+tidings of Danaë and her son, and he knew that they had not perished on
+the waves of the sea. Fearful of the prophecy that told he would be slain
+by his grandson and fearing that he would come to Argos to seek him,
+Acrisius fled out of his country.
+
+  He came into Thessaly. Perseus and Andromeda were there. Now, one day
+the old king was brought to games that were being celebrated in honor of a
+dead hero. He was leaning on his staff, watching a youth throw a metal
+disk, when something in that youth’s appearance made him want to watch him
+more closely. About him there was something of a being of the upper air;
+it made Acrisius think of a brazen tower and of a daughter whom he had
+shut up there.
+
+  He moved so that he might come nearer to the disk-thrower. But as he
+left where he had been standing he came into the line of the thrown disk.
+It struck the old man on the temple. He fell down dead, and as he fell the
+people cried out his name—“Acrisius, King Acrisius!” Then Perseus knew
+whom the disk, thrown by his hand, had slain.
+
+  And because he had slain the king by chance Perseus would not go to
+Argos, nor take over the kingdom that his grandfather had reigned over.
+With Andromeda he went to Seriphus where his mother was. And in Seriphus
+there still reigned Polydectes, who had put upon him the terrible task of
+winning the Gorgon’s head.
+
+  He came to Seriphus and he left Andromeda in the hut of Dictys the
+shepherd. No one knew him; he heard his name spoken of as that of a youth
+who had gone on a foolish quest and who would never again be heard of. To
+the temple where his mother was a priestess he came. Guards were placed
+all around it. He heard his mother’s voice and it was raised in lament:
+“Walled up here and given over to hunger I shall be made go to
+Polydectes’s house and become his wife. O ye gods, have ye no pity for
+Danaë, the mother of Perseus?”
+
+  Perseus cried aloud, and his mother heard his voice and her moans
+ceased. He turned around and he went to the palace of Polydectes, the
+king.
+
+  The king received him with mockeries. “I will let you stay in Seriphus
+for a day,” he said, “because I would have you at a marriage feast. I have
+vowed that Danaë, taken from the temple where she sulks, will be my wife
+by to-morrow’s sunset.”
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+  So Polydectes said, and the lords and princes who were around him mocked
+at Perseus and flattered the king. Perseus went from them then. The next
+day he came back to the palace. But in his hands now there was a dread
+thing—the bag made from the hide of the sea monster that had in it the
+Gorgon’s head.
+
+  He saw his mother. She was brought in white and fainting, thinking that
+she would now have to wed the harsh and overbearing king. Then she saw her
+son, and hope came into her face.
+
+  The king seeing Perseus, said: “Step forward, O youngling, and see your
+mother wed to a mighty man. Step forward to witness a marriage, and then
+depart, for it is not right that a youth that makes promises and does not
+keep them should stay in a land that I rule over. Step forward now, you
+with the empty hands.”
+
+  But not with empty hands did Perseus step forward. He shouted out: “I
+have brought something to you at last, O king—a present to you and your
+mocking friends. But you, O my mother, and you, O my friends, avert your
+faces from what I have brought.” Saying this Perseus drew out the Gorgon’s
+head. Holding it by the snaky locks he stood before the company. His
+mother and his friends averted their faces. But Polydectes and his
+insolent friends looked full upon what Perseus showed. “This youth would
+strive to frighten us with some conjuror’s trick,” they said. They said no
+more, for they became as stones, and as stone images they still stand in
+that hall in Seriphus.
+
+  He went to the shepherd’s hut, and he brought Dictys from it with
+Andromeda. Dictys he made king in Polydectes’s stead. Then with Danaë and
+Andromeda, his mother and his wife, he went from Seriphus.
+
+  He did not go to Argos, the country that his grandfather had ruled over,
+although the people there wanted Perseus to come to them, and be king over
+them. He took the kingdom of Tiryns in exchange for that of Argos, and
+there he lived with Andromeda, his lovely wife out of Ethopia. They had a
+son named Perses who became the parent of the Persian people.
+
+  The sickle-sword that had slain the Gorgon went back to Hermes, and
+Hermes took Medusa’s head also. That head Hermes’s divine sister set upon
+her shield—Medusa’s head upon the shield of Pallas Athene. O may Pallas
+Athene guard us all, and bring us out of this land of sands and stone
+where are the deadly serpents that have come from the drops of blood that
+fell from the Gorgon’s head!
+
+  They turned away from the Garden of the Daughters of the Evening Land.
+The Argonauts turned from where the giant shape of Atlas stood against the
+sky and they went toward the Tritonian Lake. But not all of them reached
+the _Argo_. On his way back to the ship, Nauplius, the helmsman, met his
+death.
+
+  A sluggish serpent was in his way—it was not a serpent that would strike
+at one who turned from it. Nauplius trod upon it, and the serpent lifted
+its head up and bit his foot. They raised him on their shoulders and they
+hurried back with him. But his limbs became numb, and when they laid him
+down on the shore of the lake he stayed moveless. Soon he grew cold. They
+dug a grave for Nauplius beside the lake, and in that desert land they set
+up his helmsman’s oar in the middle of his tomb of heaped stones.
+
+
+
+  And now like a snake that goes writhing this way and that way and that
+cannot find the cleft in the rock that leads to its lair, the _Argo_ went
+hither and thither striving to find an outlet from that lake. No outlet
+could they find and the way of their homegoing seemed lost to them again.
+Then Orpheus prayed to the son of Nereus, to Triton, whose name was on
+that lake, to aid them.
+
+  Then Triton appeared. He stretched out his hand and showed them the
+outlet to the sea. And Triton spoke in friendly wise to the heroes,
+bidding them go upon their way in joy. “And as for labor,” he said, “let
+there be no grieving because of that, for limbs that have youthful vigor
+should still toil.”
+
+  They took up the oars and they pulled toward the sea, and Triton, the
+friendly immortal, helped them on. He laid hold upon _Argo’s_ keel and he
+guided her through the water. The Argonauts saw him beneath the water; his
+body, from his head down to his waist, was fair and great and like to the
+body of one of the other immortals. But below his body was like a great
+fish’s, forking this way and that. He moved with fins that were like the
+horns of the new moon. Triton helped _Argo_ along until they came into the
+open sea. Then he plunged down into the abyss. The heroes shouted their
+thanks to him. Then they looked at each other and embraced each other with
+joy, for the sea that touched upon the land of Greece was open before
+them.
+
+
+
+
+IX. Near to Iolcus Again
+
+
+
+[Decorative first letter]
+_T_HE sun sank; then that star came that bids the shepherd bring his flock
+to the fold, that brings the wearied plowman to his rest. But no rest did
+that star bring to the Argonauts. The breeze that filled the sail died
+down; they furled the sail and lowered the mast; then, once again, they
+pulled at the oars. All night they rowed, and all day, and again when the
+next day came on. Then they saw the island that is halfway to Greece—the
+great and fair island of Crete.
+
+  It was Theseus who first saw Crete—Theseus who was to come to Crete upon
+another ship. They drew the _Argo_ near the great island; they wanted
+water, and they were fain to rest there.
+
+  Minos, the great king, ruled over Crete. He left the guarding of the
+island to one of the race of bronze, to Talos, who had lived on after the
+rest of the bronze men had been destroyed. Thrice a day would Talos stride
+around the island; his brazen feet were tireless.
+
+  Now Talos saw the _Argo_ drawing near. He took up great rocks and he
+hurled them at the heroes, and very quickly they had to draw their ship
+out of range.
+
+  They were wearied and their thirst was consuming them. But still that
+bronze man stood there ready to sink their ship with the great rocks that
+he took up in his hands. Medea stood forward upon the ship, ready to use
+her spells against the man of bronze.
+
+  In body and limbs he was made of bronze and in these he was
+invulnerable. But beneath a sinew in his ankle there was a vein that ran
+up to his neck and that was covered by a thin skin. If that vein were
+broken Talos would perish.
+
+  Medea did not know about this vein when she stood forward upon the ship
+to use her spells against him. Upon a cliff of Crete, all gleaming, stood
+that huge man of bronze. Then, as she was ready to fling her spells
+against him, Medea thought upon the words that Arete, the wise queen, had
+given her—that she was not to use spells and not to practice against the
+life of any one.
+
+  But she knew that there was no impiety in using spells and practicing
+against Talos, for Zeus had already doomed all his race. She stood upon
+the ship, and with her Magic Song she enchanted him. He whirled round and
+round. He struck his ankle against a jutting stone. The vein broke, and
+that which was the blood of the bronze man flowed out of him like molten
+lead. He stood towering upon the cliff. Like a pine upon a mountaintop
+that the woodman had left half hewn through and that a mighty wind pitches
+against, Talos stood upon his tireless feet, swaying to and fro. Then,
+emptied of all his strength, Minos’s man of bronze fell into the Cretan
+Sea.
+
+  The heroes landed. That night they lay upon the land of Crete and rested
+and refreshed themselves. When dawn came they drew water from a spring,
+and once more they went on board the _Argo_.
+
+
+
+  A day came when the helmsman said, “To-morrow we shall see the shore of
+Thessaly, and by sunset we shall be in the harbor of Pagasæ. Soon, O
+voyagers, we shall be back in the city from which we went to gain the
+Golden Fleece.”
+
+  Then Jason brought Medea to the front of the ship so that they might
+watch together for Thessaly, the homeland. The Mountain Pelion came into
+sight. Jason exulted as he looked upon that mountain; again he told Medea
+about Chiron, the ancient centaur, and about the days of his youth in the
+forests of Pelion.
+
+  The _Argo_ went on; the sun sank, and darkness came on. Never was there
+darkness such as there was on that night. They called that night afterward
+the Pall of Darkness. To the heroes upon the _Argo_ it seemed as if black
+chaos had come over the world again; they knew not whether they were
+adrift upon the sea or upon the River of Hades. No star pierced the
+darkness nor no beam from the moon.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+  After a night that seemed many nights the dawn came. In the sunrise they
+saw the land of Thessaly with its mountain, its forests, and its fields.
+They hailed each other as if they had met after a long parting. They
+raised the mast and unfurled the sail.
+
+  But not toward Pagasæ did they go. For now the voice of _Argo_ came to
+them, shaking their hearts: Jason and Orpheus, Castor and Polydeuces,
+Zetes and Calais, Peleus and Telamon, Theseus, Admetus, Nestor, and
+Atalanta, heard the cry of their ship. And the voice of _Argo_ warned them
+not to go into the harbor of Pagasæ.
+
+  As they stood upon the ship, looking toward Iolcus, sorrow came over all
+the heroes, such sorrow as made their hearts nearly break. For long they
+stood there in utter numbness.
+
+  Then Admetus spoke—Admetus who was the happiest of all those who went in
+quest of the Golden Fleece. “Although we may not go into the harbor of
+Pagasæ, nor into the city of Iolcus,” Admetus said, “still we have come to
+the land of Greece. There are other harbors and other cities that we may
+go into. And in all the places that we go to we will be honored, for we
+have gone through toils and dangers, and we have brought to Greece the
+famous Fleece of Gold.”
+
+  So Admetus said, and their spirits came back again to the heroes—came
+back to all of them save Jason. The rest had other cities to go to, and
+fathers and mothers and friends to greet them in other places, but for
+Jason there was only Iolcus.
+
+  Medea took his hand, and sorrow for him overcame her. For Medea could
+divine what had happened in Iolcus and why it was that the heroes might
+not go there.
+
+
+
+  It was to Corinth that the _Argo_ went. Creon, the king of Corinth,
+welcomed them and gave great honor to the heroes who had faced such labors
+and such dangers to bring the world’s wonder to Greece.
+
+  The Argonauts stayed together until they went to Calydon, to hunt the
+boar that ravaged Prince Meleagrus’s country. After that they separated,
+each one going to his own land. Jason came back to Corinth where Medea
+stayed. And in Corinth he had tidings of the happenings in Iolcus.
+
+  King Pelias now ruled more fearfully in Iolcus, having brought down from
+the mountains more and fiercer soldiers. And Æson, Jason’s father, and
+Alcimide, his mother, were now dead, having been slain by King Pelias.
+
+  This Jason heard from men who came into Corinth from Thessaly. And
+because of the great army that Pelias had gathered there, Jason might not
+yet go into Iolcus, either to exact a vengeance, or to show the people THE
+GOLDEN FLEECE that he had gone so far to gain.
+
+
+
+
+
+PART III. THE HEROES OF THE QUEST
+
+
+
+
+I. Atalanta the Huntress
+
+
+I
+
+
+[Decorative first letter]
+_T_HEY came once more together, the heroes of the quest, to hunt a boar in
+Calydon—Jason and Peleus came, Telamon, Theseus, and rough Arcas, Nestor
+and Helen’s brothers Polydeuces and Castor. And, most noted of all, there
+came the Arcadian huntress maid, Atalanta.
+
+  Beautiful they all thought her when they knew her aboard the _Argo_. But
+even more beautiful Atalanta seemed to the heroes when she came amongst
+them in her hunting gear. Her lovely hair hung in two bands across her
+shoulders, and over her breast hung an ivory quiver filled with arrows.
+They said that her face with its wide and steady eyes was maidenly for a
+boy’s, and boyish for a maiden’s face. Swiftly she moved with her head
+held high, and there was not one amongst the heroes who did not say, “Oh,
+happy would that man be whom Atalanta the unwedded would take for her
+husband!”
+
+  All the heroes said it, but the one who said it most feelingly was the
+prince of Calydon, young Meleagrus. He more than the other heroes felt the
+wonder of Atalanta’s beauty.
+
+  Now the boar they had come to hunt was a monster boar. It had come into
+Calydon and it was laying waste the fields and orchards and destroying the
+people’s cattle and horses. That boar had been sent into Calydon by an
+angry divinity. For when Œneus, the king of the country, was making
+sacrifice to the gods in thanksgiving for a bounteous harvest, he had
+neglected to make sacrifice to the goddess of the wild things, Artemis. In
+her anger Artemis had sent the monster boar to lay waste Œneus’s realm.
+
+  It was a monster boar indeed—one as huge as a bull, with tusks as great
+as an elephant’s; the bristles on its back stood up like spear points, and
+the hot breath of the creature withered the growth on the ground. The boar
+tore up the corn in the fields and trampled down the vines with their
+clusters and heavy bunches of grapes; also it rushed against the cattle
+and destroyed them in the fields. And no hounds the huntsmen were able to
+bring could stand before it. And so it came to pass that men had to leave
+their farms and take refuge behind the walls of the city because of the
+ravages of the boar. It was then that the rulers of Calydon sent for the
+heroes of the quest to join with them in hunting the monster.
+
+  Calydon itself sent Prince Meleagrus and his two uncles, Plexippus and
+Toxeus. They were brothers to Meleagrus’s mother, Althæa. Now Althæa was a
+woman who had sight to see mysterious things, but who had also a wayward
+and passionate heart. Once, after her son Meleagrus was born, she saw the
+three Fates sitting by her hearth. They were spinning the threads of her
+son’s life, and as they spun they sang to each other, “An equal span of
+life we give to the newborn child, and to the billet of wood that now
+rests above the blaze of the fire.” Hearing what the Fates sang and
+understanding it Althæa had sprung up from her bed, had seized the billet
+of wood, and had taken it out of the fire before the flames had burnt into
+it.
+
+  That billet of wood lay in her chest, hidden away. And Meleagrus nor any
+one else save Althæa knew of it, nor knew that the prince’s life would
+last only for the space it would be kept from the burning. On the day of
+the hunting he appeared as the strongest and bravest of the youths of
+Calydon. And he knew not, poor Meleagrus, that the love for Atalanta that
+had sprung into his heart was to bring to the fire the billet of wood on
+which his life depended.
+
+
+
+II
+
+  As Atalanta went, the bow in her hands, Prince Meleagrus pressed behind
+her. Then came Jason and Peleus, Telamon, Theseus and Nestor. Behind them
+came Meleagrus’s dark-browed uncles, Plexippus and Toxeus. They came to a
+forest that covered the side of a mountain. Huntsmen had assembled here
+with hounds held in leashes and with nets to hold the rushing quarry. And
+when they had all gathered together they went through the forest on the
+track of the monster boar.
+
+  It was easy to track the boar, for it had left a broad trail through the
+forest. The heroes and the huntsmen pressed on. They came to a marshy
+covert where the boar had its lair. There was a thickness of osiers and
+willows and tall bullrushes, making a place that it was hard for the
+hunters to go through.
+
+  They roused the boar with the blare of horns and it came rushing out.
+Foam was on its tusks, and its eyes had in them the blaze of fire. On the
+boar came, breaking down the thicket in its rush. But the heroes stood
+steadily with the points of their spears toward the monster.
+
+  The hounds were loosed from their leashes and they dashed toward the
+boar. The boar slashed them with its tusks and trampled them into the
+ground. Jason flung his spear. The spear went wide of the mark. Another,
+Arcas, cast his, but the wood, not the point of the spear, struck the
+boar, rousing it further. Then its eyes flamed, and like a great stone
+shot from a catapult the boar rushed on the huntsmen who were stationed to
+the right. In that rush it flung two youths prone upon the ground.
+
+  Then might Nestor have missed his going to Troy and his part in that
+story, for the boar swerved around and was upon him in an instant. Using
+his spear as a leaping pole he vaulted upward and caught the branches of a
+tree as the monster dashed the spear down in its rush. In rage the beast
+tore at the trunk of the tree. The heroes might have been scattered at
+this moment, for Telamon had fallen, tripped by the roots of a tree, and
+Peleus had had to throw himself upon him to pull him out of the way of
+danger, if Polydeuces and Castor had not dashed up to their aid. They came
+riding upon high white horses, spears in their hands. The brothers cast
+their spears, but neither spear struck the monster boar.
+
+  Then the boar turned and was for drawing back into the thicket. They
+might have lost it then, for its retreat was impenetrable. But before it
+got clear away Atalanta put an arrow to the string, drew the bow to her
+shoulder, and let the arrow fly. It struck the boar, and a patch of blood
+was seen upon its bristles. Prince Meleagrus shouted out, “O first to
+strike the monster! Honor indeed shall you receive for this, Arcadian
+maid.”
+
+  His uncles were made wroth by this speech, as was another, the Arcadian,
+rough Arcas. Arcas dashed forward, holding in his hands a two-headed axe.
+“Heroes and huntsmen,” he cried, “you shall see how a man’s strokes
+surpass a girl’s.” He faced the boar, standing on tiptoe with his axe
+raised for the stroke. Meleagrus’s uncles shouted to encourage him. But
+the boar’s tusks tore him before Arcas’s axe fell, and the Arcadian was
+trampled upon the ground.
+
+  The boar, roused again by Atalanta’s arrow, turned on the hunters. Jason
+hurled a spear again. It swerved and struck a hound and pinned it to the
+ground. Then, speaking the name of Atalanta, Meleagrus sprang before the
+heroes and the huntsmen.
+
+  He had two spears in his hands. The first missed and stuck quivering in
+the ground. But the second went right through the back of the monster
+boar. It whirled round and round, spouting out blood and foam. Meleagrus
+pressed on, and drove his hunting knife through the shoulders of the
+monster.
+
+  His uncles, Plexippus and Toxeus, were the first to come to where the
+monster boar was lying outstretched. “It is well, the deed you have done,
+boy,” said one; “it is well that none of the strangers to our country slew
+the boar. Now will the head and tusks of the monster adorn our hall, and
+men will know that the arms of our house can well protect this land.”
+
+  But one word only did Meleagrus say, and that word was the name,
+“Atalanta.” The maiden came and Meleagrus, his spear upon the head, said,
+“Take, O fair Arcadian, the spoil of the chase. All know that it was you
+who inflicted the first wound upon the boar.”
+
+  Plexippus and Toxeus tried to push him away, as if Meleagrus was still a
+boy under their tutoring. He shouted to them to stand off, and then he
+hacked out the terrible tusks and held them toward Atalanta.
+
+  She would have taken them, for she, who had never looked lovingly upon a
+youth, was moved by the beauty and the generosity of Prince Meleagrus. She
+would have taken from him the spoil of the chase. But as she held out her
+arms Meleagrus’s uncles struck them with the poles of their spears. Heavy
+marks were made on the maiden’s white arms. Madness then possessed
+Meleagrus, and he took up his spear and thrust it, first into the body of
+Plexippus and then into the body of Toxeus. His thrusts were terrible, for
+he was filled with the fierceness of the hunt, and his uncles fell down in
+death.
+
+  Then a great horror came over all the heroes. They raised up the bodies
+of Plexippus and Toxeus and carried them on their spears away from the
+place of the hunting and toward the temple of the gods. Meleagrus crouched
+down upon the ground in horror of what he had done. Atalanta stood beside
+him, her hand upon his head.
+
+
+
+III
+
+  Althæa was in the temple making sacrifice to the gods. She saw men come
+in carrying across their spears the bodies of two men. She looked and she
+saw that the dead men were her two brothers, Plexippus and Toxeus.
+
+  Then she beat her breast and she filled the temple with the cries of her
+lamentation. “Who has slain my brothers? Who has slain my brothers?” she
+kept crying out.
+
+  Then she was told that her son Meleagrus had slain her brothers. She had
+no tears to shed then, and in a hard voice she asked, “Why did my son slay
+Plexippus and Toxeus, his uncles?”
+
+  The one who was wroth with Atalanta, Arcas the Arcadian, came to her and
+told her that her brothers had been slain because of a quarrel about the
+girl Atalanta.
+
+  “My brothers have been slain because a girl bewitched my son; then
+accursed be that son of mine,” Althæa cried. She took off the gold-fringed
+robe of a priestess, and she put on a black robe of mourning.
+
+  Her brothers, the only sons of her father, had been slain, and for the
+sake of a girl. The image of Atalanta came before her, and she felt she
+could punish dreadfully her son. But her son was not there to punish; he
+was far away, and the girl for whose sake he had killed Plexippus and
+Toxeus was with him.
+
+  The rage she had went back into her heart and made her truly mad. “I
+gave Meleagrus life when I might have let it go from him with the burning
+billet of wood,” she cried, “and now he has taken the lives of my
+brothers.” And then her thought went to the billet of wood that was hidden
+in the chest.
+
+  Back to her house she went, and when she went within she saw a fire of
+pine knots burning upon the hearth. As she looked upon their burning a
+scorching pain went through her. But she went from the hearth,
+nevertheless, and into the inner room. There stood the chest that she had
+not opened for years. She opened it now, and out of it she took the billet
+of wood that had on it the mark of the burning.
+
+  She brought it to the hearth fire. Four times she went to throw it into
+the fire, and four times she stayed her hand. The fire was before her, but
+it was in her too. She saw the images of her brothers lying dead, and,
+saying that he who had slain them should lose his life, she threw the
+billet of wood into the fire of pine knots.
+
+  Straightway it caught fire and began to burn. And Althæa cried, “Let him
+die, my son, and let naught remain; let all perish with my brothers, even
+the kingdom that Œneus, my husband, founded.”
+
+  Then she turned away and remained stiffly standing by the hearth, the
+life withered up within her. Her daughters came and tried to draw her
+away, but they could not—her two daughters, Gorge and Deianira.
+
+  Meleagrus was crouching upon the ground with Atalanta watching beside
+him. Now he stood up, and taking her hand he said, “Let me go with you to
+the temple of the gods where I shall strive to make atonement for the deed
+I have done to-day.”
+
+  She went with him. But even as they came to the street of the city a
+sharp and a burning pain seized upon Meleagrus. More and more burning it
+grew, and weaker and weaker he became. He could not have moved further if
+it had not been for the aid of Atalanta. Jason and Peleus lifted him
+across the threshold and carried him into the temple of the gods.
+
+  They laid him down with his head upon Atalanta’s lap. The pain within
+him grew fiercer and fiercer, but at last it died down as the burning
+billet of wood sank down into the ashes. The heroes of the quest stood
+around, all overcome with woe. In the street they heard the lamentations
+for Plexippus and Toxeus, for Prince Meleagrus, and for the passing of the
+kingdom founded by Œneus. Atalanta left the temple, and attended by the
+two brothers on the white horses, Polydeuces and Castor, she went back to
+Arcady.
+
+
+
+
+II. Peleus and His Bride from the Sea
+
+
+I
+
+
+[Decorative first letter]
+_P_RINCE PELEUS came on his ship to a bay on the coast of Thessaly. His
+painted ship lay between two great rocks, and from its poop he saw a sight
+that enchanted him. Out from the sea, riding on a dolphin, came a lovely
+maiden. And by the radiance of her face and limbs Peleus knew her for one
+of the immortal goddesses.
+
+  Now Peleus had borne himself so nobly in all things that he had won the
+favor of the gods themselves. Zeus, who is highest amongst the gods, had
+made this promise to Peleus: he would honor him as no one amongst the sons
+of men had been honored before, for he would give him an immortal goddess
+to be his bride.
+
+  She who came out of the sea went into a cave that was overgrown with
+vines and roses. Peleus looked into the cave and he saw her sleeping upon
+skins of the beasts of the sea. His heart was enchanted by the sight, and
+he knew that his life would be broken if he did not see this goddess day
+after day. So he went back to his ship and he prayed: “O Zeus, now I claim
+the promise that you once made to me. Let it be that this goddess come
+with me, or else plunge my ship and me beneath the waves of the sea.”
+
+  And when Peleus said this he looked over the land and the water for a
+sign from Zeus.
+
+  Even then the goddess sleeping in the cave had dreams such as had never
+before entered that peaceful resting place of hers. She dreamt that she
+was drawn away from the deep and the wide sea. She dreamt that she was
+brought to a place that was strange and unfree to her. And as she lay in
+the cave, sleeping, tears that might never come into the eyes of an
+immortal lay around her heart.
+
+  But Peleus, standing on his painted ship, saw a rainbow touch upon the
+sea. He knew by that sign that Iris, the messenger of Zeus, had come down
+through the air. Then a strange sight came before his eyes. Out of the sea
+rose the head of a man; wrinkled and bearded it was, and the eyes were
+very old. Peleus knew that he who was there before him was Nereus, the
+ancient one of the sea.
+
+  Said old Nereus: “Thou hast prayed to Zeus, and I am here to speak an
+answer to thy prayer. She whom you have looked upon is Thetis, the goddess
+of the sea. Very loath will she be to take Zeus’s command and wed with
+thee. It is her desire to remain in the sea, unwedded, and she has refused
+marriage even with one of the immortal gods.”
+
+  Then said Peleus, “Zeus promised me an immortal bride. If Thetis may not
+be mine I cannot wed any other, goddess or mortal maiden.”
+
+  “Then thou thyself wilt have to master Thetis,” said Nereus, the wise
+one of the sea. “If she is mastered by thee, she cannot go back to the
+sea. She will strive with all her strength and all her wit to escape from
+thee; but thou must hold her no matter what she does, and no matter how
+she shows herself. When thou hast seen her again as thou didst see her at
+first, thou wilt know that thou hast mastered her.” And when he had said
+this to Peleus, Nereus, the ancient one of the sea, went under the waves.
+
+
+
+II
+
+  With his hero’s heart beating more than ever it had beaten yet, Peleus
+went into the cave. Kneeling beside her he looked down upon the goddess.
+The dress she wore was like green and silver mail. Her face and limbs were
+pearly, but through them came the radiance that belongs to the immortals.
+
+  He touched the hair of the goddess of the sea, the yellow hair that was
+so long that it might cover her all over. As he touched her hair she
+started up, wakening suddenly out of her sleep. His hands touched her
+hands and held them. Now he knew that if he should loose his hold upon her
+she would escape from him into the depths of the sea, and that thereafter
+no command from the immortals would bring her to him.
+
+  She changed into a white bird that strove to bear itself away. Peleus
+held to its wings and struggled with the bird. She changed and became a
+tree. Around the trunk of the tree Peleus clung. She changed once more,
+and this time her form became terrible: a spotted leopard she was now,
+with burning eyes; but Peleus held to the neck of the fierce-appearing
+leopard and was not affrighted by the burning eyes. Then she changed and
+became as he had seen her first—a lovely maiden, with the brow of a
+goddess, and with long yellow hair.
+
+  But now there was no radiance in her face or in her limbs. She looked
+past Peleus, who held her, and out to the wide sea. “Who is he,” she
+cried, “who has been given this mastery over me?”
+
+  Then said the hero: “I am Peleus, and Zeus has given me the mastery over
+thee. Wilt thou come with me, Thetis? Thou art my bride, given me by him
+who is highest amongst the gods, and if thou wilt come with me, thou wilt
+always be loved and reverenced by me.”
+
+  “Unwillingly I leave the sea,” she cried, “unwillingly I go with thee,
+Peleus.”
+
+  But life in the sea was not for her any more now that she was mastered.
+She went to Peleus’s ship and she went to Phthia, his country. And when
+the hero and the sea goddess were wedded the immortal gods and goddesses
+came to their hall and brought the bride and the bridegroom wondrous
+gifts. The three sisters who are called the Fates came also. These wise
+and ancient women said that the son born of the marriage of Peleus and
+Thetis would be a man greater than Peleus himself.
+
+
+
+III
+
+  Now although a son was born to her, and although this son had something
+of the radiance of the immortals about him, Thetis remained forlorn and
+estranged. Nothing that her husband did was pleasing to her. Prince Peleus
+was in fear that the wildness of the sea would break out in her, and that
+some great harm would be wrought in his house.
+
+  One night he wakened suddenly. He saw the fire upon his hearth and he
+saw a figure standing by the fire. It was Thetis, his wife. The fire was
+blazing around something that she held in her hands. And while she stood
+there she was singing to herself a strange-sounding song.
+
+  And then he saw what Thetis held in her hands and what the fire was
+blazing around; it was the child, Achilles.
+
+  Prince Peleus sprang from the bed and caught Thetis around the waist and
+lifted her and the child away from the blazing fire. He put them both upon
+the bed, and he took from her the child that she held by the heel. His
+heart was wild within him, for the thought that wildness had come over his
+wife, and that she was bent upon destroying their child. But Thetis looked
+on him from under those goddess brows of hers and she said to him: “By the
+divine power that I still possess I would have made the child
+invulnerable; but the heel by which I held him has not been endued by the
+fire and in that place some day he may be stricken. All that the fire
+covered is invulnerable, and no weapon that strikes there can destroy his
+life. His heel I cannot now make invulnerable, for now the divine power is
+gone out of me.”
+
+  When she said this Thetis looked full upon her husband, and never had
+she seemed so unforgiving as she was then. All the divine radiance that
+had remained with her was gone from her now, and she seemed a white-faced
+and bitter-thinking woman. And when Peleus saw that such a great
+bitterness faced him he fled from his house.
+
+  He traveled far from his own land, and first he went to the help of
+Heracles, who was then in the midst of his mighty labors. Heracles was
+building a wall around a city. Peleus labored, helping him to raise the
+wall for King Laomedon. Then, one night, as he walked by the wall he had
+helped to build, he heard voices speaking out of the earth. And one voice
+said: “Why has Peleus striven so hard to raise a wall that his son shall
+fight hard to overthrow?” No voice replied. The wall was built, and Peleus
+departed. The city around which the wall was built was the great city of
+Troy.
+
+  In whatever place he went Peleus was followed by the hatred of the
+people of the sea, and above all by the hatred of the nymph who is called
+Psamathe. Far, far from his own country he went, and at last he came to a
+country of bright valleys that was ruled over by a kindly king—by Ceyx,
+who was called the Son of the Morning Star.
+
+  Bright of face and kindly and peaceable in all his ways was this king,
+and kindly and peaceable was the land that he ruled over. And when Prince
+Peleus went to him to beg for his protection, and to beg for unfurrowed
+fields where he might graze his cattle, Ceyx raised him up from where he
+knelt. “Peaceable and plentiful is the land,” he said, “and all who come
+here may have peace and a chance to earn their food. Live where you will,
+O stranger, and take the unfurrowed fields by the seashore for pasture for
+your cattle.”
+
+  Peace came into Peleus’s heart as he looked into the untroubled face of
+Ceyx, and as he looked over the bright valleys of the land he had come
+into. He brought his cattle to the unfurrowed fields by the seashore and
+he left herdsmen there to tend them. And as he walked along these bright
+valleys he thought upon his wife and upon his son Achilles, and there were
+gentle feelings in his breast. But then he thought upon the enmity of
+Psamathe, the woman of the sea, and great trouble came over him again. He
+felt he could not stay in the palace of the kindly king. He went where his
+herdsmen camped and he lived with them. But the sea was very near and its
+sound tormented him, and as the days went by, Peleus, wild looking and
+shaggy, became more and more unlike the hero whom once the gods themselves
+had honored.
+
+  One day as he was standing near the palace having speech with the king,
+a herdsman ran to him and cried out: “Peleus, Peleus, a dread thing has
+happened in the unfurrowed fields.” And when he had got his breath the
+herdsman told of the thing that had happened.
+
+  They had brought the herd down to the sea. Suddenly, from the marshes
+where the sea and land came together, a monstrous beast rushed out upon
+the herd; like a wolf this beast was, but with mouth and jaws that were
+more terrible than a wolf’s even. The beast seized upon the cattle. Yet it
+was not hunger that made it fierce, for the beasts that it killed it tore,
+but did not devour. It rushed on and on, killing and tearing more and more
+of the herd. “Soon,” said the herdsman, “it will have destroyed all in the
+herd, and then it will not spare to destroy the other flocks and herds
+that are in the land.”
+
+  Peleus was stricken to hear that his herd was being destroyed, but more
+stricken to know that the land of a friendly king would be ravaged, and
+ravaged on his account. For he knew that the terrible beast that had come
+from where the sea and the land joined had been sent by Psamathe. He went
+up on the tower that stood near the king’s palace. He was able to look out
+on the sea and able to look over all the land. And looking across the
+bright valleys he saw the dread beast. He saw it rush through his own
+mangled cattle and fall upon the herds of the kindly king.
+
+  He looked toward the sea and he prayed to Psamathe to spare the land
+that he had come to. But, even as he prayed, he knew that Psamathe would
+not harken to him. Then he made a prayer to Thetis, to his wife who had
+seemed so unforgiving. He prayed her to deal with Psamathe so that the
+land of Ceyx would not be altogether destroyed.
+
+  As he looked from the tower he saw the king come forth with arms in his
+hands for the slaying of the terrible beast. Peleus felt fear for the life
+of the kindly king. Down from the tower he came, and taking up his spear
+he went with Ceyx.
+
+  Soon, in one of the brightest of the valleys, they came upon the beast;
+they came between it and a herd of silken-coated cattle. Seeing the men it
+rushed toward them with blood and foam upon its jaws. Then Peleus knew
+that the spears they carried would be of little use against the raging
+beast. His only thought was to struggle with it so that the king might be
+able to save himself.
+
+  Again he lifted up his hands and prayed to Thetis to draw away
+Psamathe’s enmity. The beast rushed toward them; but suddenly it stopped.
+The bristles upon its body seemed to stiffen. The gaping jaws became
+fixed. The hounds that were with them dashed upon the beast, but then fell
+back with yelps of disappointment. And when Peleus and Ceyx came to where
+it stood they found that the monstrous beast had been turned into stone.
+
+  And a stone it remains in that bright valley, a wonder to all the men of
+Ceyx’s land. The country was spared the ravages of the beast. And the
+heart of Peleus was uplifted to think that Thetis had harkened to his
+prayer and had prevailed upon Psamathe to forego her enmity. Not
+altogether unforgiving was his wife to him.
+
+  That day he went from the land of the bright valleys, from the land
+ruled over by the kindly Ceyx, and he came back to rugged Phthia, his own
+country. When he came near his hall he saw two at the doorway awaiting
+him. Thetis stood there, and the child Achilles was by her side. The
+radiance of the immortals was in her face no longer, but there was a glow
+there, a glow of welcome for the hero Peleus. And thus Peleus, long
+tormented by the enmity of the sea-born ones, came back to the wife he had
+won from the sea.
+
+
+
+
+III. Theseus and the Minotaur
+
+
+I
+
+
+[Decorative first letter]
+_T_HEREAFTER Theseus made up his mind to go in search of his father, the
+unknown king, and Medea, the wise woman, counseled him to go to Athens.
+After the hunt in Calydon he set forth. On his way he fought with and slew
+two robbers who harassed countries and treated people unjustly.
+
+  The first was Sinnias. He was a robber who slew men cruelly by tying
+them to strong branches of trees and letting the branches fly apart. On
+him Theseus had no mercy. The second was a robber also, Procrustes: he had
+a great iron bed on which he made his captives lie; if they were too long
+for that bed he chopped pieces off them, and if they were too short he
+stretched out their bodies with terrible racks. On him, likewise, Theseus
+had no mercy; he slew Procrustes and gave liberty to his captives.
+
+  The King of Athens at the time was named Ægeus. He was father of
+Theseus, but neither Theseus nor he knew that this was so. Æthra was his
+mother, and she was the daughter of the King of Trœzen. Before Theseus was
+born his father left a great sword under a stone, telling Æthra that the
+boy was to have the sword when he was able to move that stone away.
+
+  King Ægeus was old and fearful now: there were wars and troubles in the
+city; besides, there was in his palace an evil woman, a witch, to whom the
+king listened. This woman heard that a proud and fearless young man had
+come into Athens, and she at once thought to destroy him.
+
+  So the witch spoke to the fearful king, and she made him believe that
+this stranger had come into Athens to make league with his enemies and
+destroy him. Such was her power over Ægeus that she was able to persuade
+him to invite the stranger youth to a feast in the palace, and to give him
+a cup that would have poison in it.
+
+  Theseus came to the palace. He sat down to the banquet with the king.
+But before the cup was brought something moved him to stand up and draw
+forth the sword that he carried. Fearfully the king looked upon the sword.
+Then he saw the heavy ivory hilt with the curious carving on it, and he
+knew that this was the sword that he had once laid under the stone near
+the palace of the King of Trœzen. He questioned Theseus as to how he had
+come by the sword, and Theseus told him how Æthra, his mother, had shown
+him where it was hidden, and how he had been able to take it from under
+the stone before he was grown a youth. More and more Ægeus questioned him,
+and he came to know that the youth before him was his son indeed. He
+dashed down the cup that had been brought to the table, and he shook all
+over with the thought of how near he had been to a terrible crime. The
+witchwoman watched all that passed; mounting on a car drawn by dragons she
+made flight from Athens.
+
+  And now the people of the city, knowing that it was he who had slain the
+robbers Sinnias and Procrustes, rejoiced to have Theseus amongst them.
+When he appeared as their prince they rejoiced still more. Soon he was
+able to bring to an end the wars in the city and the troubles that
+afflicted Athens.
+
+
+
+II
+
+  The greatest king in the world at that time was Minos, King of Crete.
+Minos had sent his son to Athens to make peace and friendship between his
+kingdom and the kingdom of King Ægeus. But the people of Athens slew the
+son of King Minos, and because Ægeus had not given him the protection that
+a king should have given a stranger come upon such an errand he was deemed
+to have some part in the guilt of his slaying.
+
+  Minos, the great king, was wroth, and he made war on Athens, wreaking
+great destruction upon the country and the people. Moreover, the gods
+themselves were wroth with Athens; they punished the people with famine,
+making even the rivers dry up. The Athenians went to the oracle and asked
+Apollo what they should do to have their guilt taken away. Apollo made
+answer that they should make peace with Minos and fulfill all his demands.
+
+  All this Theseus now heard, learning for the first time that behind the
+wars and troubles in Athens there was a deed of evil that Ægeus, his
+father, had some guilt in.
+
+  The demands that King Minos made upon Athens were terrible. He demanded
+that the Athenians should send into Crete every year seven youths and
+seven maidens as a price for the life of his son. And these youths and
+maidens were not to meet death merely, nor were they to be reared in
+slavery—they were to be sent that a monster called the Minotaur might
+devour them.
+
+  Youths and maidens had been sent, and for the third time the messengers
+of King Minos were coming to Athens. The tribute for the Minotaur was to
+be chosen by lot. The fathers and mothers were in fear and trembling, for
+each man and woman thought that his or her son or daughter would be taken
+for a prey for the Minotaur.
+
+  They came together, the people of Athens, and they drew the lots
+fearfully. And on the throne above them all sat their pale-faced king,
+Ægeus, the father of Theseus.
+
+  Before the first lot was drawn Theseus turned to all of them and said,
+“People of Athens, it is not right that your children should go and that
+I, who am the son of King Ægeus, should remain behind. Surely, if any of
+the youths of Athens should face the dread monster of Crete, I should face
+it. There is one lot that you may leave undrawn. I will go to Crete.”
+
+  His father, on hearing the speech of Theseus, came down from his throne
+and pleaded with him, begging him not to go. But the will of Theseus was
+set; he would go with the others and face the Minotaur. And he reminded
+his father of how the people had complained, saying that if Ægeus had done
+the duty of a king, Minos’s son would not have been slain and the tribute
+to the Minotaur would have not been demanded. It was the passing about of
+such complaints that had led to the war and troubles that Theseus found on
+his coming to Athens.
+
+  Also Theseus told his father and told the people that he had hope in his
+hands—that the hands that were strong enough to slay Sinnias and
+Procrustes, the giant robbers, would be strong enough to slay the dread
+monster of Crete. His father at last consented to his going. And Theseus
+was able to make the people willing to believe that he would be able to
+overcome the Minotaur, and so put an end to the terrible tribute that was
+being exacted from them.
+
+  With six other youths and seven maidens Theseus went on board of the
+ship that every year brought to Crete the grievous tribute. This ship
+always sailed with black sails. But before it sailed this time King Ægeus
+gave to Nausitheus, the master of the ship, a white sail to take with him.
+And he begged Theseus, that in case he should be able to overcome the
+monster, to hoist the white sail he had given. Theseus promised he would
+do this. His father would watch for the return of the ship, and if the
+sail were black he would know that the Minotaur had dealt with his son as
+it had dealt with the other youths who had gone from Athens. And if the
+sail were white Ægeus would have indeed cause to rejoice.
+
+
+
+III
+
+  And now the black-sailed ship had come to Crete, and the youths and
+maidens of Athens looked from its deck on Knossos, the marvelous city that
+Dædalus the builder had built for King Minos. And they saw the palace of
+the king, the red and black palace in which was the labyrinth, made also
+by Dædalus, where the dread Minotaur was hidden.
+
+  In fear they looked upon the city and the palace. But not in fear did
+Theseus look, but in wonder at the magnificence of it all—the harbor with
+its great steps leading up into the city, the far-spreading palace all red
+and black, and the crowds of ships with their white and red sails. They
+were brought through the city of Knossos to the palace of the king. And
+there Theseus looked upon Minos. In a great red chamber on which was
+painted the sign of the axe, King Minos sat.
+
+  On a low throne he sat, holding in his hand a scepter on which a bird
+was perched. Not in fear, but steadily, did Theseus look upon the king.
+And he saw that Minos had the face of one who has thought long upon
+troublesome things, and that his eyes were strangely dark and deep. The
+king noted that the eyes of Theseus were upon him, and he made a sign with
+his head to an attendant and the attendant laid his hand upon him and
+brought Theseus to stand beside the king. Minos questioned him as to who
+he was and what lands he had been in, and when he learned that Theseus was
+the son of Ægeus, the King of Athens, he said the name of his son who had
+been slain, “Androgeus, Androgeus,” over and over again, and then spoke no
+more.
+
+  While he stood there beside the king there came into the chamber three
+maidens; one of them, Theseus knew, was the daughter of Minos. Not like
+the maidens of Greece were the princess and her two attendants: instead of
+having on flowing garments and sandals and wearing their hair bound, they
+had on dresses of gleaming material that were tight at the waists and
+bell-shaped; the hair that streamed on their shoulders was made wavy; they
+had on high shoes of a substance that shone like glass. Never had Theseus
+looked upon maidens who were so strange.
+
+  They spoke to the king in the strange Cretan language; then Minos’s
+daughter made reverence to her father, and they went from the chamber.
+Theseus watched them as they went through a long passage, walking slowly
+on their high-heeled shoes.
+
+  Through the same passage the youths and maidens of Athens were afterward
+brought. They came into a great hall. The walls were red and on them were
+paintings in black—pictures of great bulls with girls and slender youths
+struggling with them. It was a place for games and shows, and Theseus
+stood with the youths and maidens of Athens and with the people of the
+palace and watched what was happening.
+
+  They saw women charming snakes; then they saw a boxing match, and
+afterward they all looked on a bout of wrestling. Theseus looked past the
+wrestlers and he saw, at the other end of the hall, the daughter of King
+Minos and her two attendant maidens.
+
+  One broad-shouldered and bearded man overthrew all the wrestlers who
+came to grips with him. He stood there boastfully, and Theseus was made
+angry by the man’s arrogance. Then, when no other wrestler would come
+against him, he turned to leave the arena.
+
+  But Theseus stood in his way and pushed him back. The boastful man laid
+hands upon him and pulled him into the arena. He strove to throw Theseus
+as he had thrown the others; but he soon found that the youth from Greece
+was a wrestler, too, and that he would have to strive hard to overthrow
+him.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+  More eagerly than they had watched anything else the people of the
+palace and the youths and maidens of Athens watched the bout between
+Theseus and the lordly wrestler. Those from Athens who looked upon him now
+thought that they had never seen Theseus look so tall and so conquering
+before; beside the slender, dark-haired people of Crete he looked like a
+statue of one of the gods.
+
+  Very adroit was the Cretan wrestler, and Theseus had to use all his
+strength to keep upon his feet; but soon he mastered the tricks that the
+wrestler was using against him. Then the Cretan left aside his tricks and
+began to use all his strength to throw Theseus.
+
+  Steadily Theseus stood and the Cretan wrestler was spent and gasping in
+the effort to throw him. Then Theseus made him feel his grip. He bent him
+backward, and then, using all his strength suddenly, forced him to the
+ground. All were filled with wonder at the strength and power of this
+youth from overseas.
+
+  Food and wine were given the youths and maidens of Athens, and they with
+Theseus were let wander through the grounds of the palace. But they could
+make no escape, for guards followed them and the way to the ships was
+filled with strangers who would not let them pass. They talked to each
+other about the Minotaur, and there was fear in every word they said. But
+Theseus went from one to the other, telling them that perhaps there was a
+way by which he could come to the monster and destroy it. And the youths
+and maidens, remembering how he had overthrown the lordly wrestler, were
+comforted a little, thinking that Theseus might indeed be able to destroy
+the Minotaur and so save all of them.
+
+
+
+IV
+
+  Theseus was awakened by some one touching him. He arose and he saw a
+dark-faced servant, who beckoned to him. He left the little chamber where
+he had been sleeping, and then he saw outside one who wore the strange
+dress of the Cretans.
+
+  When Theseus looked full upon her he saw that she was none other than
+the daughter of King Minos. “I am Ariadne,” she said, “and, O youth from
+Greece, I have come to save you from the dread Minotaur.”
+
+  He looked upon Ariadne’s strange face with its long, dark eyes, and he
+wondered how this girl could think that she could save him and save the
+youths and maidens of Athens from the Minotaur. Her hand rested upon his
+arm, and she led him into the chamber where Minos had sat. It was lighted
+now by many little lamps.
+
+  “I will show the way of escape to you,” said Ariadne.
+
+  Then Theseus looked around, and he saw that none of the other youths and
+maidens were near them, and he looked on Ariadne again, and he saw that
+the strange princess had been won to help him, and to help him only.
+
+  “Who will show the way of escape to the others?” asked Theseus.
+
+  “Ah,” said the Princess Ariadne, “for the others there is no way of
+escape.”
+
+  “Then,” said Theseus, “I will not leave the youths and maidens of Athens
+who came with me to Crete to be devoured by the Minotaur.”
+
+  “Ah, Theseus,” said Ariadne, “they cannot escape the Minotaur. One only
+may escape, and I want you to be that one. I saw you when you wrestled
+with Deucalion, our great wrestler, and since then I have longed to save
+you.”
+
+  “I have come to slay the Minotaur,” said Theseus, “and I cannot hold my
+life as my own until I have slain it.”
+
+  Said Ariadne, “If you could see the Minotaur, Theseus, and if you could
+measure its power, you would know that you are not the one to slay it. I
+think that only Talos, that giant who was all of bronze, could have slain
+the Minotaur.”
+
+  “Princess,” said Theseus, “can you help me to come to the Minotaur and
+look upon it so that I can know for certainty whether this hand of mine
+can slay the monster?”
+
+  “I can help you to come to the Minotaur and look upon it,” said Ariadne.
+
+  “Then help me, princess,” cried Theseus; “help me to come to the
+Minotaur and look upon it, and help me, too, to get back the sword that I
+brought with me to Crete.”
+
+  “Your sword will not avail you against the Minotaur,” said Ariadne;
+“when you look upon the monster you will know that it is not for your hand
+to slay.”
+
+  “Oh, but bring me my sword, princess,” cried Theseus, and his hands went
+out to her in supplication.
+
+  “I will bring you your sword,” said she.
+
+  She took up a little lamp and went through a doorway, leaving Theseus
+standing by the low throne in the chamber of Minos. Then after a little
+while she came back, bringing with her Theseus’s great ivory-hilted sword.
+
+  “It is a great sword,” she said; “I marked it before because it is your
+sword, Theseus. But even this great sword will not avail against the
+Minotaur.”
+
+  “Show me the way to come to the Minotaur, O Ariadne,” cried Theseus.
+
+  He knew that she did not think that he would deem himself able to strive
+with the Minotaur, and that when he looked upon the dread monster he would
+return to her and then take the way of his escape.
+
+  She took his hand and led him from the chamber of Minos. She was not
+tall, but she stood straight and walked steadily, and Theseus saw in her
+something of the strange majesty that he had seen in Minos the king.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+  They came to high bronze gates that opened into a vault. “Here,” said
+Ariadne, “the labyrinth begins. Very devious is the labyrinth, built by
+Dædalus, in which the Minotaur is hidden, and without the clue none could
+find a way through the passages. But I will give you the clue so that you
+may look upon the Minotaur and then come back to me. Theseus, now I put
+into your hand the thread that will guide you through all the windings of
+the labyrinth. And outside the place where the Minotaur is you will find
+another thread to guide you back.”
+
+  A cone was on the ground and it had a thread fastened to it. Ariadne
+gave Theseus the thread and the cone to wind it around. The thread as he
+held it and wound it around the cone would bring him through all the
+windings and turnings of the labyrinth.
+
+  She left him, and Theseus went on. Winding the thread around the cone he
+went along a wide passage in the vault. He turned and came into a passage
+that was very long. He came to a place in this passage where a door seemed
+to be, but within the frame of the doorway there was only a blank wall.
+But below that doorway there was a flight of six steps, and down these
+steps the thread led him. On he went, and he crossed the marks that he
+himself had made in the dust, and he thought he must have come back to the
+place where he had parted from Ariadne. He went on, and he saw before him
+a flight of steps. The thread did not lead up the steps; it led into the
+most winding of passages. So sudden were the turnings in it that one could
+not see three steps before one. He was dazed by the turnings of this
+passage, but still he went on. He went up winding steps and then along a
+narrow wall. The wall overhung a broad flight of steps, and Theseus had to
+jump to them. Down the steps he went and into a wide, empty hall that had
+doorways to the right hand and to the left hand. Here the thread had its
+end. It was fastened to a cone that lay on the ground, and beside this
+cone was another—the clue that was to bring him back.
+
+  Now Theseus, knowing he was in the very center of the labyrinth, looked
+all around for sight of the Minotaur. There was no sight of the monster
+here. He went to all the doors and pushed at them, and some opened and
+some remained fast. The middle door opened. As it did Theseus felt around
+him a chilling draft of air.
+
+  That chilling draft was from the breathing of the monster. Theseus then
+saw the Minotaur. It lay on the ground, a strange, bull-faced thing.
+
+  When the thought came to Theseus that he would have to fight that
+monster alone and in that hidden and empty place all delight left him; he
+grew like a stone; he groaned, and it seemed to him that he heard the
+voice of Ariadne calling him back. He could find his way back through the
+labyrinth and come to her. He stepped back, and the door closed on the
+Minotaur, the dread monster of Crete.
+
+  In an instant Theseus pushed the door again. He stood within the hall
+where the Minotaur was, and the heavy door shut behind him. He looked
+again on that dark, bull-faced thing. It reared up as a horse rears and
+Theseus saw that it would crash down on him and tear him with its dragon
+claws. With a great bound he went far away from where the monster crashed
+down. Then Theseus faced it: he saw its thick lips and its slobbering
+mouth; he saw that its skin was thick and hard.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+  He drew near the monster, his sword in his hand. He struck at its eyes,
+and his sword made a great dint. But no blood came, for the Minotaur was a
+bloodless monster. From its mouth and nostrils came a draft that covered
+him with a chilling slime.
+
+  Then it rushed upon him and overthrew him, and Theseus felt its terrible
+weight upon him. But he thrust his sword upward, and it reared up again,
+screaming with pain. Theseus drew himself away, and then he saw it
+searching around and around, and he knew he had made it sightless. Then it
+faced him; all the more fearful it was because from its wounds no blood
+came.
+
+  Anger flowed into Theseus when he saw the monster standing frightfully
+before him; he thought of all the youths and maidens that this bloodless
+thing had destroyed, and all the youths and maidens that it would destroy
+if he did not slay it now. Angrily he rushed upon it with his great sword.
+It clawed and tore him, and it opened wide its most evil mouth as if to
+draw him into it. But again he sprang at it; he thrust his great sword
+through its neck, and he left his sword there.
+
+  With the last of his strength he pulled open the heavy door and he went
+out from the hall where the Minotaur was. He picked up the thread and he
+began to wind it as he had wound the other thread on his way down. On he
+went, through passage after passage, through chamber after chamber. His
+mind was dizzy, and he had little thought for the way he was going. His
+wounds and the chill that the monster had breathed into him and his horror
+of the fearful and bloodless thing made his mind almost forsake him. He
+kept the thread in his hand and he wound it as he went on through the
+labyrinth. He stumbled and the thread broke. He went on for a few steps
+and then he went back to find the thread that had fallen out of his hands.
+In an instant he was in a part of the labyrinth that he had not been in
+before.
+
+  He walked a long way, and then he came on his own footmarks as they
+crossed themselves in the dust. He pushed open a door and came into the
+air. He was now by the outside wall of the palace, and he saw birds flying
+by him. He leant against the wall of the palace, thinking that he would
+strive no more to find his way through the labyrinth.
+
+
+
+V
+
+  That day the youths and maidens of Athens were brought through the
+labyrinth and to the hall where the Minotaur was. They went through the
+passages weeping and lamenting. Some cried out for Theseus, and some said
+that Theseus had deserted them. The heavy door was opened. Then those who
+were with the youths and maidens saw the Minotaur lying stark and stiff
+with Theseus’s sword through its neck. They shouted and blew trumpets and
+the noise of their trumpets filled the labyrinth. Then they turned back,
+bringing the youths and maidens with them, and a whisper went through the
+whole palace that the Minotaur had been slain. The youths and maidens were
+lodged in the chamber where Minos gave his judgments.
+
+
+
+VI
+
+  Theseus, wearied and overcome, fell into a deep sleep by the wall of the
+palace. He awakened with a feeling that the claw of the Minotaur was upon
+him. There were stars in the sky above the high palace wall, and he saw a
+dark-robed and ancient man standing beside him. Theseus knew that this was
+Dædalus, the builder of the palace and the labyrinth. Dædalus called and a
+slim youth came—Icarus, the son of Dædalus. Minos had set father and son
+apart from the rest of the palace, and Theseus had come near the place
+where they were confined. Icarus came and brought him to a winding
+stairway and showed him a way to go.
+
+  A dark-faced servant met and looked him full in the face. Then, as if he
+knew that Theseus was the one whom he had been searching for, he led him
+into a little chamber where there were three maidens. One started up and
+came to him quickly, and Theseus again saw Ariadne.
+
+  She hid him in the chamber of the palace where her singing birds were,
+and she would come and sit beside him, asking about his own country and
+telling him that she would go with him there. “I showed you how you might
+come to the Minotaur,” she said, “and you went there and you slew the
+monster, and now I may not stay in my father’s palace.”
+
+  And Theseus thought all the time of his return, and of how he might
+bring the youths and maidens of Athens back to their own people. For
+Ariadne, that strange princess, was not dear to him as Medea was dear to
+Jason, or Atalanta the Huntress to young Meleagrus.
+
+  One sunset she led him to a roof of the palace and she showed him the
+harbor with the ships, and she showed him the ship with the black sail
+that had brought him to Knossos. She told him she would take him aboard
+that ship, and that the youths and maidens of Athens could go with them.
+She would bring to the master of the ship the seal of King Minos, and the
+master, seeing it, would set sail for whatever place Theseus desired to
+go.
+
+  Then did she become dear to Theseus because of her great kindness, and
+he kissed her eyes and swore that he would not go from the palace unless
+she would come with him to his own country. The strange princess smiled
+and wept as if she doubted what he said. Nevertheless, she led him from
+the roof and down into one of the palace gardens. He waited there, and the
+youths and maidens of Athens were led into the garden, all wearing cloaks
+that hid their forms and faces. Young Icarus led them from the grounds of
+the palace and down to the ships. And Ariadne went with them, bringing
+with her the seal of her father, King Minos.
+
+  And when they came on board of the black-sailed ship they showed the
+seal to the master, Nausitheus, and the master of the ship let the sail
+take the breeze of the evening, and so Theseus went away from Crete.
+
+
+
+VII
+
+  To the Island of Naxos they sailed. And when they reached that place the
+master of the ship, thinking that what had been done was not in accordance
+with the will of King Minos, stayed the ship there. He waited until other
+ships came from Knossos. And when they came they brought word that Minos
+would not slay nor demand back Theseus nor the youths and maidens of
+Athens. His daughter, Ariadne, he would have back, to reign with him over
+Crete.
+
+  Then Ariadne left the black-sailed ship, and went back to Crete from
+Naxos. Theseus let the princess go, although he might have struggled to
+hold her. But more strange than dear did Ariadne remain to Theseus.
+
+  And all this time his father, Ægeus, stayed on the tower of his palace,
+watching for the return of the ship that had sailed for Knossos. The life
+of the king wasted since the departure of Theseus, and now it was but a
+thread. Every day he watched for the return of the ship, hoping against
+hope that Theseus would return alive to him. Then a ship came into the
+harbor. It had black sails. Ægeus did not know that Theseus was aboard of
+it, and that Theseus in the hurry of his flight and in the sadness of his
+parting from Ariadne had not thought of taking out the white sail that his
+father had given to Nausitheus.
+
+  Joyously Theseus sailed into the harbor, having slain the Minotaur and
+lifted for ever the tribute put upon Athens. Joyously he sailed into the
+harbor, bringing back to their parents the youths and maidens of Athens.
+But the king, his father, saw the black sails on his ship, and straightway
+the thread of his life broke, and he died on the roof of the tower which
+he had built to look out on the sea.
+
+  Theseus landed on the shore of his own country. He had the ship drawn up
+on the beach and he made sacrifices of thanksgiving to the gods. Then he
+sent messengers to the city to announce his return. They went toward the
+city, these joyful messengers, but when they came to the gate they heard
+the sounds of mourning and lamentation. The mourning and the lamentation
+were for the death of the king, Theseus’s father. They hurried back and
+they came to Theseus where he stood on the beach. They brought a wreath of
+victory for him, but as they put it into his hand they told him of the
+death of his father. Then Theseus left the wreath on the ground, and he
+wept for the death of Ægeus—of Ægeus, the hero, who had left the sword
+under the stone for him before he was born.
+
+  The men and women who came to the beach wept and laughed as they clasped
+in their arms the children brought back to them. And Theseus stood there,
+silent and bowed; the memory of his last moments with his father, of his
+fight with the Minotaur, of his parting with Ariadne—all flowed back upon
+him. He stood there with head bowed, the man who might not put upon his
+brows the wreath of victory that had been brought to him.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+  There had come into the city a youth of great valor whose name was
+Peirithous: from a far country he had come, filled with a desire of
+meeting Theseus, whose fame had come to him. The youth was in Athens at
+the time Theseus returned. He went down to the beach with the townsfolk,
+and he saw Theseus standing alone with his head bowed down. He went to him
+and he spoke, and Theseus lifted his head and he saw before him a young
+man of strength and beauty. He looked upon him, and the thought of high
+deeds came into his mind again. He wanted this young man to be his comrade
+in dangers and upon quests. And Peirithous looked upon Theseus, and he
+felt that he was greater and nobler than he had thought. They became
+friends and sworn brothers, and together they went into far countries.
+
+  Now there was in Epirus a savage king who had a very fair daughter. He
+had named this daughter Persephone, naming her thus to show that she was
+held as fast by him as that other Persephone was held who ruled in the
+Underworld. No man might see her, and no man might wed her. But Peirithous
+had seen the daughter of this king, and he desired above all things to
+take her from her father and make her his wife. He begged Theseus to help
+him enter that king’s palace and carry off the maiden.
+
+  So they came to Epirus, Theseus and Peirithous, and they entered the
+king’s palace, and they heard the bay of the dread hound that was there to
+let no one out who had once come within the walls. Suddenly the guards of
+the savage king came upon them, and they took Theseus and Peirithous and
+they dragged them down into dark dungeons.
+
+  Two great chairs of stone were there, and Theseus and Peirithous were
+left seated in them. And the magic powers that were in the chairs of stone
+were such that the heroes could not lift themselves out of them. There
+they stayed, held in the great stone chairs in the dungeons of that savage
+king.
+
+  Then it so happened that Heracles came into the palace of the king. The
+harsh king feasted Heracles and abated his savagery before him. But he
+could not forbear boasting of how he had trapped the heroes who had come
+to carry off Persephone. And he told how they could not get out of the
+stone chairs and how they were held captive in his dark dungeon. Heracles
+listened, his heart full of pity for the heroes from Greece who had met
+with such a harsh fate. And when the king mentioned that one of the heroes
+was Theseus, Heracles would feast no more with him until he had promised
+that the one who had been his comrade on the _Argo_ would be let go.
+
+  The king said he would give Theseus his liberty if Heracles would carry
+the stone chair on which he was seated out of the dungeon and into the
+outer world. Then Heracles went down into the dungeon. He found the two
+heroes in the great chairs of stone. But one of them, Peirithous, no
+longer breathed. Heracles took the great chair of stone that Theseus was
+seated in, and he carried it up, up, from the dungeon and out into the
+world. It was a heavy task even for Heracles. He broke the chair in
+pieces, and Theseus stood up, released.
+
+  Thereafter the world was before Theseus. He went with Heracles, and in
+the deeds that Heracles was afterward to accomplish Theseus shared.
+
+
+
+
+IV. The Life and Labors of Heracles
+
+
+I
+
+
+[Decorative first letter]
+_H_ERACLES was the son of Zeus, but he was born into the family of a
+mortal king. When he was still a youth, being overwhelmed by a madness
+sent upon him by one of the goddesses, he slew the children of his brother
+Iphicles. Then, coming to know what he had done, sleep and rest went from
+him: he went to Delphi, to the shrine of Apollo, to be purified of his
+crime.
+
+  At Delphi, at the shrine of Apollo, the priestess purified him, and when
+she had purified him she uttered this prophecy: “From this day forth thy
+name shall be, not Alcides, but Heracles. Thou shalt go to Eurystheus, thy
+cousin, in Mycenæ, and serve him in all things. When the labors he shall
+lay upon thee are accomplished, and when the rest of thy life is lived
+out, thou shalt become one of the immortals.” Heracles, on hearing these
+words, set out for Mycenæ.
+
+  He stood before his cousin who hated him; he, a towering man, stood
+before a king who sat there weak and trembling. And Heracles said, “I have
+come to take up the labors that you will lay upon me; speak now,
+Eurystheus, and tell me what you would have me do.”
+
+  Eurystheus, that weak king, looking on the young man who stood as tall
+and as firm as one of the immortals, had a heart that was filled with
+hatred. He lifted up his head and he said with a frown:
+
+  “There is a lion in Nemea that is stronger and more fierce than any lion
+known before. Kill that lion, and bring the lion’s skin to me that I may
+know that you have truly performed your task.” So Eurystheus said, and
+Heracles, with neither shield nor arms, went forth from the king’s palace
+to seek and to combat the dread lion of Nemea.
+
+  He went on until he came into a country where the fences were overthrown
+and the fields wasted and the houses empty and fallen. He went on until he
+came to the waste around that land: there he came on the trail of the
+lion; it led up the side of a mountain, and Heracles, without shield or
+arms, followed the trail.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+  He heard the roar of the lion. Looking up he saw the beast standing at
+the mouth of a cavern, huge and dark against the sunset. The lion roared
+three times, and then it went within the cavern.
+
+  Around the mouth were strewn the bones of creatures it had killed and
+carried there. Heracles looked upon them when he came to the cavern. He
+went within. Far into the cavern he went, and then he came to where he saw
+the lion. It was sleeping.
+
+  Heracles viewed the terrible bulk of the lion, and then he looked upon
+his own knotted hands and arms. He remembered that it was told of him
+that, while still a child of eight months, he had strangled a great
+serpent that had come to his cradle to devour him. He had grown and his
+strength had grown too.
+
+  So he stood, measuring his strength and the size of the lion. The breath
+from its mouth and nostrils came heavily to him as the beast slept, gorged
+with its prey. Then the lion yawned. Heracles sprang on it and put his
+great hands upon its throat. No growl came out of its mouth, but the great
+eyes blazed while the terrible paws tore at Heracles. Against the rock
+Heracles held the beast; strongly he held it, choking it through the skin
+that was almost impenetrable. Terribly the lion struggled; but the strong
+hands of the hero held around its throat until it struggled no more.
+
+  Then Heracles stripped off that impenetrable skin from the lion’s body;
+he put it upon himself for a cloak. Then, as he went through the forest,
+he pulled up a young oak tree and trimmed it and made a club for himself.
+With the lion’s skin over him—that skin that no spear or arrow could
+pierce—and carrying the club in his hand he journeyed on until he came to
+the palace of King Eurystheus.
+
+  The king, seeing coming toward him a towering man all covered with the
+hide of a monstrous lion, ran and hid himself in a great jar. He lifted
+the lid up to ask the servants what was the meaning of this terrible
+appearance. And the servants told him that it was Heracles come back with
+the skin of the lion of Nemea. On hearing this Eurystheus hid himself
+again.
+
+  He would not speak with Heracles nor have him come near him, so fearful
+was he. But Heracles was content to be left alone. He sat down in the
+palace and feasted himself.
+
+  The servants came to the king; Eurystheus lifted the lid of the jar and
+they told him how Heracles was feasting and devouring all the goods in the
+palace. The king flew into a rage, but still he was fearful of having the
+hero before him. He issued commands through his heralds ordering Heracles
+to go forth at once and perform the second of his tasks.
+
+  It was to slay the great water snake that made its lair in the swamps of
+Lerna. Heracles stayed to feast another day, and then, with the lion’s
+skin across his shoulders and the great club in his hands, he started off.
+But this time he did not go alone; the boy Iolaus went with him.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+
+  Heracles and Iolaus went on until they came to the vast swamp of Lerna.
+Right in the middle of the swamp was the water snake that was called the
+Hydra. Nine heads it had, and it raised them up out of the water as the
+hero and his companion came near. They could not cross the swamp to come
+to the monster, for man or beast would sink and be lost in it.
+
+  The Hydra remained in the middle of the swamp belching mud at the hero
+and his companion. Then Heracles took up his bow and he shot flaming
+arrows at its heads. It grew into such a rage that it came through the
+swamp to attack him. Heracles swung his club. As the Hydra came near he
+knocked head after head off its body.
+
+  But for every head knocked off two grew upon the Hydra. And as he
+struggled with the monster a huge crab came out of the swamp, and gripping
+Heracles by the foot tried to draw him in. Then Heracles cried out. The
+boy Iolaus came; he killed the crab that had come to the Hydra’s aid.
+
+  Then Heracles laid hands upon the Hydra and drew it out of the swamp.
+With his club he knocked off a head and he had Iolaus put fire to where it
+had been, so that two heads might not grow in that place. The life of the
+Hydra was in its middle head; that head he had not been able to knock off
+with his club. Now, with his hands he tore it off, and he placed this head
+under a great stone so that it could not rise into life again. The Hydra’s
+life was now destroyed. Heracles dipped his arrows into the gall of the
+monster, making his arrows deadly; no thing that was struck by these
+arrows afterward could keep its life.
+
+  Again he came to Eurystheus’s palace, and Eurystheus, seeing him, ran
+again and hid himself in the jar. Heracles ordered the servants to tell
+the king that he had returned and that the second labor was accomplished.
+
+  Eurystheus, hearing from the servants that Heracles was mild in his
+ways, came out of the jar. Insolently he spoke. “Twelve labors you have to
+accomplish for me,” said he to Heracles, “and eleven yet remain to be
+accomplished.”
+
+  “How?” said Heracles. “Have I not performed two of the labors? Have I
+not slain the lion of Nemea and the great water snake of Lerna?”
+
+  “In the killing of the water snake you were helped by Iolaus,” said the
+king, snapping out his words and looking at Heracles with shifting eyes.
+“That labor cannot be allowed you.”
+
+  Heracles would have struck him to the ground. But then he remembered
+that the crime that he had committed in his madness would have to be
+expiated by labors performed at the order of this man. He looked full upon
+Eurystheus and he said, “Tell me of the other labors, and I will go forth
+from Mycenæ and accomplish them.”
+
+  Then Eurystheus bade him go and make clean the stables of King Augeias.
+Heracles came into that king’s country. The smell from the stables was
+felt for miles around. Countless herds of cattle and goats had been in the
+stables for years, and because of the uncleanness and the smell that came
+from it the crops were withered all around. Heracles told the king that he
+would clean the stables if he were given one tenth of the cattle and the
+goats for a reward.
+
+  The king agreed to this reward. Then Heracles drove the cattle and the
+goats out of the stables; he broke through the foundations and he made
+channels for the two rivers Alpheus and Peneius. The waters flowed through
+the stables, and in a day all the uncleanness was washed away. Then
+Heracles turned the rivers back into their own courses.
+
+  He was not given the reward he had bargained for, however.
+
+  He went back to Mycenæ with the tale of how he had cleaned the stables.
+“Ten labors remain for me to do now,” he said.
+
+  “Eleven,” said Eurystheus. “How can I allow the cleaning of King
+Augeias’s stables to you when you bargained for a reward for doing it?”
+
+  Then while Heracles stood still, holding himself back from striking him,
+Eurystheus ran away and hid himself in the jar. Through his heralds he
+sent word to Heracles, telling him what the other labors would be.
+
+  He was to clear the marshes of Stymphalus of the man-eating birds that
+gathered there; he was to capture and bring to the king the golden-horned
+deer of Coryneia; he was also to capture and bring alive to Mycenæ the
+boar of Erymanthus.
+
+  Heracles came to the marshes of Stymphalus. The growth of jungle was so
+dense that he could not cut his way through to where the man-eating birds
+were; they sat upon low bushes within the jungle, gorging themselves upon
+the flesh they had carried there.
+
+  For days Heracles tried to hack his way through. He could not get to
+where the birds were. Then, thinking he might not be able to accomplish
+this labor, he sat upon the ground in despair.
+
+  It was then that one of the immortals appeared to him; for the first and
+only time he was given help from the gods.
+
+  It was Athena who came to him. She stood apart from Heracles, holding in
+her hands brazen cymbals. These she clashed together. At the sound of this
+clashing the Stymphalean birds rose up from the low bushes behind the
+jungle. Heracles shot at them with those unerring arrows of his. The
+man-eating birds fell, one after the other, into the marsh.
+
+  Then Heracles went north to where the Coryneian deer took her pasture.
+So swift of foot was she that no hound nor hunter had ever been able to
+overtake her. For the whole of a year Heracles kept Golden Horns in chase,
+and at last, on the side of the Mountain Artemision, he caught her.
+Artemis, the goddess of the wild things, would have punished Heracles for
+capturing the deer, but the hero pleaded with her, and she relented and
+agreed to let him bring the deer to Mycenæ and show her to King
+Eurystheus. And Artemis took charge of Golden Horns while Heracles went
+off to capture the Erymanthean boar.
+
+  He came to the city of Psophis, the inhabitants of which were in deadly
+fear because of the ravages of the boar. Heracles made his way up the
+mountain to hunt it. Now on this mountain a band of centaurs lived, and
+they, knowing him since the time he had been fostered by Chiron, welcomed
+Heracles. One of them, Pholus, took Heracles to the great house where the
+centaurs had their wine stored.
+
+  Seldom did the centaurs drink wine; a draft of it made them wild, and so
+they stored it away, leaving it in the charge of one of their band.
+Heracles begged Pholus to give him a draft of wine; after he had begged
+again and again the centaur opened one of his great jars.
+
+  Heracles drank wine and spilled it. Then the centaurs that were without
+smelt the wine and came hammering at the door, demanding the drafts that
+would make them wild. Heracles came forth to drive them away. They
+attacked him. Then he shot at them with his unerring arrows and he drove
+them away. Up the mountain and away to far rivers the centaurs raced,
+pursued by Heracles with his bow.
+
+  One was slain, Pholus, the centaur who had entertained him. By accident
+Heracles dropped a poisoned arrow on his foot. He took the body of Pholus
+up to the top of the mountain and buried the centaur there. Afterward, on
+the snows of Erymanthus, he set a snare for the boar and caught him there.
+
+  Upon his shoulders he carried the boar to Mycenæ and he led the deer by
+her golden horns. When Eurystheus had looked upon them the boar was slain,
+but the deer was loosed and she fled back to the Mountain Artemision.
+
+  King Eurystheus sat hidden in the great jar, and he thought of more
+terrible labors he would make Heracles engage in. Now he would send him
+oversea and make him strive with fierce tribes and more dread monsters.
+When he had it all thought out he had Heracles brought before him and he
+told him of these other labors.
+
+  He was to go to savage Thrace and there destroy the man-eating horses of
+King Diomedes; afterward he was to go amongst the dread women, the
+Amazons, daughters of Ares, the god of war, and take from their queen,
+Hippolyte, the girdle that Ares had given her; then he was to go to Crete
+and take from the keeping of King Minos the beautiful bull that Poseidon
+had given him; afterward he was to go to the Island of Erytheia and take
+away from Geryoneus, the monster that had three bodies instead of one, the
+herd of red cattle that the two-headed hound Orthus kept guard over; then
+he was to go to the Garden of the Hesperides, and from that garden he was
+to take the golden apples that Zeus had given to Hera for a marriage
+gift—where the Garden of the Hesperides was no mortal knew.
+
+  So Heracles set out on a long and perilous quest. First he went to
+Thrace, that savage land that was ruled over by Diomedes, son of Ares, the
+war god. Heracles broke into the stable where the horses were; he caught
+three of them by their heads, and although they kicked and bit and
+trampled he forced them out of the stable and down to the seashore, where
+his companion, Abderus, waited for him. The screams of the fierce horses
+were heard by the men of Thrace, and they, with their king, came after
+Heracles. He left the horses in charge of Abderus while he fought the
+Thracians and their savage king. Heracles shot his deadly arrows amongst
+them, and then he fought with their king. He drove them from the seashore,
+and then he came back to where he had left Abderus with the fierce horses.
+
+  They had thrown Abderus upon the ground, and they were trampling upon
+him. Heracles drew his bow and he shot the horses with the unerring arrows
+that were dipped with the gall of the Hydra he had slain. Screaming, the
+horses of King Diomedes raced toward the sea, but one fell and another
+fell, and then, as it came to the line of the foam, the third of the
+fierce horses fell. They were all slain with the unerring arrows.
+
+  Then Heracles took up the body of his companion and he buried it with
+proper rights, and over it he raised a column. Afterward, around that
+column a city that bore the name of Heracles’s friend was built.
+
+  Then toward the Euxine Sea he went. There, where the River Themiscyra
+flows into the sea he saw the abodes of the Amazons. And upon the rocks
+and the steep place he saw the warrior women standing with drawn bows in
+their hands. Most dangerous did they seem to Heracles. He did not know how
+to approach them; he might shoot at them with his unerring arrows, but
+when his arrows were all shot away, the Amazons, from their steep places,
+might be able to kill him with the arrows from their bows.
+
+  While he stood at a distance, wondering what he might do, a horn was
+sounded and an Amazon mounted upon a white stallion rode toward him. When
+the warrior-woman came near she cried out, “Heracles, the Queen Hippolyte
+permits you to come amongst the Amazons. Enter her tent and declare to the
+queen what has brought you amongst the never-conquered Amazons.”
+
+  Heracles came to the tent of the queen. There stood tall Hippolyte with
+an iron crown upon her head and with a beautiful girdle of bronze and
+iridescent glass around her waist. Proud and fierce as a mountain eagle
+looked the queen of the Amazons: Heracles did not know in what way he
+might conquer her. Outside the tent the Amazons stood; they struck their
+shields with their spears, keeping up a continuous savage din.
+
+  “For what has Heracles come to the country of the Amazons?” Queen
+Hippolyte asked.
+
+  “For the girdle you wear,” said Heracles, and he held his hands ready
+for the struggle.
+
+  “Is it for the girdle given me by Ares, the god of war, that you have
+come, braving the Amazons, Heracles?” asked the queen.
+
+  “For that,” said Heracles.
+
+  “I would not have you enter into strife with the Amazons,” said Queen
+Hippolyte. And so saying she drew off the girdle of bronze and iridescent
+glass, and she gave it into his hands.
+
+  Heracles took the beautiful girdle into his hands. Fearful he was that
+some piece of guile was being played upon him, but then he looked into the
+open eyes of the queen and he saw that she meant no guile. He took the
+girdle and he put it around his great brows; then he thanked Hippolyte and
+he went from the tent. He saw the Amazons standing on the rocks and the
+steep places with bows bent; unchallenged he went on, and he came to his
+ship and he sailed away from that country with one more labor
+accomplished.
+
+  The labor that followed was not dangerous. He sailed over sea and he
+came to Crete, to the land that King Minos ruled over. And there he found,
+grazing in a special pasture, the bull that Poseidon had given King Minos.
+He laid his hands upon the bull’s horns and he struggled with him and he
+overthrew him. Then he drove the bull down to the seashore.
+
+  His next labor was to take away the herd of red cattle that was owned by
+the monster Geryoneus. In the Island of Erytheia, in the middle of the
+Stream of Ocean, lived the monster, his herd guarded by the two-headed
+hound Orthus—that hound was the brother of Cerberus, the three-headed
+hound that kept guard in the Underworld.
+
+  Mounted upon the bull given Minos by Poseidon, Heracles fared across the
+sea. He came even to the straits that divide Europe from Africa, and there
+he set up two pillars as a memorial of his journey—the Pillars of Heracles
+that stand to this day. He and the bull rested there. Beyond him stretched
+the Stream of Ocean; the Island of Erytheia was there, but Heracles
+thought that the bull would not be able to bear him so far.
+
+  And there the sun beat upon him, and drew all strength away from him,
+and he was dazed and dazzled by the rays of the sun. He shouted out
+against the sun, and in his anger he wanted to strive against the sun.
+Then he drew his bow and shot arrows upward. Far, far out of sight the
+arrows of Heracles went. And the sun god, Helios, was filled with
+admiration for Heracles, the man who would attempt the impossible by
+shooting arrows at him; then did Helios fling down to Heracles his great
+golden cup.
+
+  Down, and into the Stream of Ocean fell the great golden cup of Helios.
+It floated there wide enough to hold all the men who might be in a ship.
+Heracles put the bull of Minos into the cup of Helios, and the cup bore
+them away, toward the west, and across the Stream of Ocean.
+
+  Thus Heracles came to the Island of Erytheia. All over the island
+straggled the red cattle of Geryoneus, grazing upon the rich pastures.
+Heracles, leaving the bull of Minos in the cup, went upon the island; he
+made a club for himself out of a tree and he went toward the cattle.
+
+  The hound Orthus bayed and ran toward him; the two-headed hound that was
+the brother of Cerberus sprang at Heracles with poisonous foam upon his
+jaws. Heracles swung his club and struck the two heads off the hound. And
+where the foam of the hound’s jaws dropped down a poisonous plant sprang
+up. Heracles took up the body of the hound, and swung it around and flung
+it far out into the Ocean.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+  Then the monster Geryoneus came upon him. Three bodies he had instead of
+one; he attacked Heracles by hurling great stones at him. Heracles was
+hurt by the stones. And then the monster beheld the cup of Helios, and he
+began to hurl stones at the golden thing, and it seemed that he might sink
+it in the sea, and leave Heracles without a way of getting from the
+island. Heracles took up his bow and he shot arrow after arrow at the
+monster, and he left him dead in the deep grass of the pastures.
+
+  Then he rounded up the red cattle, the bulls and the cows, and he drove
+them down to the shore and into the golden cup of Helios where the bull of
+Minos stayed. Then back across the Stream of Ocean the cup floated, and
+the bull of Crete and the cattle of Geryoneus were brought past Sicily and
+through the straits called the Hellespont. To Thrace, that savage land,
+they came. Then Heracles took the cattle out, and the cup of Helios sank
+in the sea. Through the wild lands of Thrace he drove the herd of
+Geryoneus and the bull of Minos, and he came into Mycenæ once more.
+
+  But he did not stay to speak with Eurystheus. He started off to find the
+Garden of the Hesperides, the Daughters of the Evening Land. Long did he
+search, but he found no one who could tell him where the garden was. And
+at last he went to Chiron on the Mountain Pelion, and Chiron told Heracles
+what journey he would have to make to come to the Hesperides, the
+Daughters of the Evening Land.
+
+  Far did Heracles journey; weary he was when he came to where Atlas
+stood, bearing the sky upon his weary shoulders. As he came near he felt
+an undreamt-of perfume being wafted toward him. So weary was he with his
+journey and all his toils that he would fain sink down and dream away in
+that evening land. But he roused himself, and he journeyed on toward where
+the perfume came from. Over that place a star seemed always about to rise.
+
+  He came to where a silver lattice fenced a garden that was full of the
+quiet of evening. Golden bees hummed through the air, and there was the
+sound of quiet waters. How wild and laborious was the world he had come
+from, Heracles thought! He felt that it would be hard for him to return to
+that world.
+
+  He saw three maidens. They stood with wreaths upon their heads and
+blossoming branches in their hands. When the maidens saw him they came
+toward him crying out: “O man who has come into the Garden of the
+Hesperides, go not near the tree that the sleepless dragon guards!” Then
+they went and stood by a tree as if to keep guard over it. All around were
+trees that bore flowers and fruit, but this tree had golden apples amongst
+its bright green leaves.
+
+  Then he saw the guardian of the tree. Beside its trunk a dragon lay, and
+as Heracles came near the dragon showed its glittering scales and its
+deadly claws.
+
+  The apples were within reach, but the dragon, with its glittering scales
+and claws, stood in the way. Heracles shot an arrow; then a tremor went
+through Ladon, the sleepless dragon; it screamed and then lay stark. The
+maidens cried in their grief; Heracles went to the tree, and he plucked
+the golden apples and he put them into the pouch he carried. Down on the
+ground sank the Hesperides, the Daughters of the Evening Land, and he
+heard their laments as he went from the enchanted garden they had guarded.
+
+  Back from the ends of the earth came Heracles, back from the place where
+Atlas stood holding the sky upon his weary shoulders. He went back through
+Asia and Libya and Egypt, and he came again to Mycenæ and to the palace of
+Eurystheus.
+
+  He brought to the king the herd of Geryoneus; he brought to the king the
+bull of Minos; he brought to the king the girdle of Hippolyte; he brought
+to the king the golden apples of the Hesperides. And King Eurystheus, with
+his thin white face, sat upon his royal throne and he looked over all the
+wonderful things that the hero had brought him. Not pleased was
+Eurystheus; rather was he angry that one he hated could win such wonderful
+things.
+
+  He took into his hands the golden apples of the Hesperides. But this
+fruit was not for such as he. An eagle snatched the branch from his hand,
+and the eagle flew and flew until it came to where the Daughters of the
+Evening Land wept in their garden. There the eagle let fall the branch
+with the golden apples, and the maidens set it back upon the tree, and
+behold! it grew as it had been growing before Heracles plucked it.
+
+  The next day the heralds of Eurystheus came to Heracles and they told
+him of the last labor that he would have to set out to accomplish—this
+time he would have to go down into the Underworld, and bring up from King
+Aidoneus’s realm Cerberus, the three-headed hound.
+
+  Heracles put upon him the impenetrable lion’s skin and set forth once
+more. This might indeed be the last of his life’s labors: Cerberus was not
+an earthly monster, and he who would struggle with Cerberus in the
+Underworld would have the gods of the dead against him.
+
+  But Heracles went on. He journeyed to the cave Tainaron, which was an
+entrance to the Underworld. Far into that dismal cave he went, and then
+down, down, until he came to Acheron, that dim river that has beyond it
+only the people of the dead. Cerberus bayed at him from the place where
+the dead cross the river. Knowing that he was no shade, the hound sprang
+at Heracles, but he could neither bite nor tear through that impenetrable
+lion’s skin. Heracles held him by the neck of his middle head so that
+Cerberus was neither able to bite nor tear nor bellow.
+
+  Then to the brink of Acheron came Persephone, queen of the Underworld.
+She declared to Heracles that the gods of the dead would not strive
+against him if he promised to bring Cerberus back to the Underworld,
+carrying the hound downward again as he carried him upward.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+  This Heracles promised. He turned around and he carried Cerberus, his
+hands around the monster’s neck while foam dripped from his jaws. He
+carried him on and upward toward the world of men. Out through a cave that
+was in the land of Trœzen Heracles came, still carrying Cerberus by the
+neck of his middle head.
+
+  From Trœzen to Mycenæ the hero went and men fled before him at the sight
+of the monster that he carried. On he went toward the king’s palace.
+Eurystheus was seated outside his palace that day, looking at the great
+jar that he had often hidden in, and thinking to himself that Heracles
+would never appear to affright him again. Then Heracles appeared. He
+called to Eurystheus, and when the king looked up he held the hound toward
+him. The three heads grinned at Eurystheus; he gave a cry and scrambled
+into the jar. But before his feet touched the bottom of it Eurystheus was
+dead of fear. The jar rolled over, and Heracles looked upon the body that
+was all twisted with fright. Then he turned around and made his way back
+to the Underworld. On the brink of Acheron he loosed Cerberus, and the
+bellow of the three-headed hound was heard again.
+
+
+
+II
+
+  It was then that Heracles was given arms by the gods—the sword of
+Hermes, the bow of Apollo, the shield made by Hephæstus; it was then that
+Heracles joined the Argonauts and journeyed with them to the edge of the
+Caucasus, where, slaying the vulture that preyed upon Prometheus’s liver,
+he, at the will of Zeus, liberated the Titan. Thereafter Zeus and
+Prometheus were reconciled, and Zeus, that neither might forget how much
+the enmity between them had cost gods and men, had a ring made for
+Prometheus to wear; that ring was made out of the fetter that had been
+upon him, and in it was set a fragment of the rock that the Titan had been
+bound to.
+
+  The Argonauts had now won back to Greece. But before he saw any of them
+he had been in Oichalia, and had seen the maiden Iole.
+
+  The king of Oichalia had offered his daughter Iole in marriage to the
+hero who could excel himself and his sons in shooting with arrows.
+Heracles saw Iole, the blue-eyed and childlike maiden, and he longed to
+take her with him to some place near the Garden of the Hesperides. And
+Iole looked on him, and he knew that she wondered to see him so tall and
+so strongly knit even as he wondered to see her so childlike and delicate.
+
+  Then the contest began. The king and his sons shot wonderfully well, and
+none of the heroes who stood before Heracles had a chance of winning. Then
+Heracles shot his arrows. No matter how far away they moved the mark,
+Heracles struck it and struck the very center of it. The people wondered
+who this great archer might be. And then a name was guessed at and went
+around—Heracles!
+
+  When the king heard the name of Heracles he would not let him strive in
+the contest any more. For the maiden Iole would not be given as a prize to
+one who had been mad and whose madness might afflict him again. So the
+king said, speaking in judgment in the market place.
+
+  Rage came on Heracles when he heard this judgment given. He would not
+let his rage master him lest the madness that was spoken of should come
+with his rage. So he left the city of Oichalia declaring to the king and
+the people that he would return.
+
+  It was then that, wandering down to Crete, he heard of the Argonauts
+being near. And afterward he heard of them being in Calydon, hunting the
+boar that ravaged Œneus’s country. To Calydon Heracles went. The heroes
+had departed when he came into the country, and all the city was in grief
+for the deaths of Prince Meleagrus and his two uncles.
+
+  On the steps of the temple where Meleagrus and his uncles had been
+brought Heracles saw Deianira, Meleagrus’s sister. She was pale with her
+grief, this tall woman of the mountains; she looked like a priestess, but
+also like a woman who could cheer camps of men with her counsel, her
+bravery, and her good companionship; her hair was very dark and she had
+dark eyes.
+
+  Straightway she became friends with Heracles; and when they saw each
+other for a while they loved each other. And Heracles forgot Iole, the
+childlike maiden whom he had seen in Oichalia.
+
+  He made himself a suitor for Deianira, and those who protected her were
+glad of Heracles’s suit, and they told him they would give him the maiden
+to marry as soon as the mourning for Prince Meleagrus and his uncles was
+over. Heracles stayed in Calydon, happy with Deianira, who had so much
+beauty, wisdom, and bravery.
+
+  But then a dreadful thing happened in Calydon; by an accident, while
+using his strength unthinkingly, Heracles killed a lad who was related to
+Deianira. He might not marry her now until he had taken punishment for
+slaying one who was close to her in blood.
+
+  As a punishment for the slaying it was judged that Heracles should be
+sold into slavery for three years. At the end of his three years’ slavery
+he could come back to Calydon and wed Deianira.
+
+  And so Heracles and Deianira were parted. He was sold as a slave in
+Lydia; the one who bought him was a woman, a widow named Omphale. To her
+house Heracles went, carrying his armor and wearing his lion’s skin. And
+Omphale laughed to see this tall man dressed in a lion’s skin coming to
+her house to do a servant’s tasks for her.
+
+  She and all in her house kept up fun with Heracles. They would set him
+to do housework, to carry water, and set vessels on the tables, and clear
+the vessels away. Omphale set him to spin with a spindle as the women did.
+And often she would put on Heracles’s lion skin and go about dragging his
+club, while he, dressed in woman’s garb, washed dishes and emptied pots.
+
+  But he would lose patience with these servant’s tasks, and then Omphale
+would let him go away and perform some great exploit. Often he went on
+long journeys and stayed away for long times. It was while he was in
+slavery to Omphale that he liberated Theseus from the dungeon in which he
+was held with Peirithous, and it was while he still was in slavery that he
+made his journey to Troy.
+
+  At Troy he helped to repair for King Laomedon the great walls that years
+before Apollo and Poseidon had built around the city. As a reward for this
+labor he was offered the Princess Hesione in marriage; she was the
+daughter of King Laomedon, and the sister of Priam, who was then called,
+not Priam but Podarces. He helped to repair the wall, and two of the
+Argonauts were there to aid him: one was Peleus and the other was Telamon.
+Peleus did not stay for long: Telamon stayed, and to reward Telamon
+Heracles withdrew his own claim for the hand of the Princess Hesione. It
+was not hard on Heracles to do this, for his thoughts were ever upon
+Deianira.
+
+  But Telamon rejoiced, for he loved Hesione greatly. On the day they
+married Heracles showed the two an eagle in the sky. He said it was sent
+as an omen to them—an omen for their marriage. And in memory of that omen
+Telamon named his son “Aias”; that is, “Eagle.”
+
+  Then the walls of Troy were repaired and Heracles turned toward Lydia,
+Omphale’s home. Not long would he have to serve Omphale now, for his three
+years’ slavery was nearly over. Soon he would go back to Calydon and wed
+Deianira.
+
+  As he went along the road to Lydia he thought of all the pleasantries
+that had been made in Omphale’s house and he laughed at the memory of
+them. Lydia was a friendly country, and even though he had been in slavery
+Heracles had had his good times there.
+
+  He was tired with the journey and made sleepy with the heat of the sun,
+and when he came within sight of Omphale’s house he lay down by the side
+of the road, first taking off his armor, and laying aside his bow, his
+quiver, and his shield. He wakened up to see two men looking down upon
+him; he knew that these were the Cercopes, robbers who waylaid travelers
+upon this road. They were laughing as they looked down on him, and
+Heracles saw that they held his arms and his armor in their hands.
+
+  They thought that this man, for all his tallness, would yield to them
+when he saw that they had his arms and his armor. But Heracles sprang up,
+and he caught one by the waist and the other by the neck, and he turned
+them upside down and tied them together by the heels. Now he held them
+securely and he would take them to the town and give them over to those
+whom they had waylaid and robbed. He hung them by their heels across his
+shoulders and marched on.
+
+  But the robbers, as they were being bumped along, began to relate
+pleasantries and mirthful tales to each other, and Heracles, listening,
+had to laugh. And one said to the other, “O my brother, we are in the
+position of the frogs when the mice fell upon them with such fury.” And
+the other said, “Indeed nothing can save us if Zeus does not send an ally
+to us as he sent an ally to the frogs.” And the first robber said, “Who
+began that conflict, the frogs or the mice?” And thereupon the second
+robber, his head reaching down to Heracles’s waist, began:
+
+
+
+The Battle of the Frogs and Mice
+
+
+  A warlike mouse came down to the brink of a pond for no other reason
+than to take a drink of water. Up to him hopped a frog. Speaking in the
+voice of one who had rule and authority, the frog said:
+
+  “Stranger to our shore, you may not know it, but I am Puff Jaw, king of
+the frogs. I do not speak to common mice, but you, as I judge, belong to
+the noble and kingly sort. Tell me your race. If I know it to be a noble
+one I shall show you my kingly friendship.”
+
+  The mouse, speaking haughtily, said: “I am Crumb Snatcher, and my race
+is a famous one. My father is the heroic Bread Nibbler, and he married
+Quern Licker, the lovely daughter of a king. Like all my race I am a
+warrior who has never been wont to flinch in battle. Moreover, I have been
+brought up as a mouse of high degree, and figs and nuts, cheese and
+honey-cakes is the provender that I have been fed on.”
+
+  Now this reply of Crumb Snatcher pleased the kingly frog greatly. “Come
+with me to my abode, illustrious Crumb Snatcher,” said he, “and I shall
+show you such entertainment as may be found in the house of a king.”
+
+  But the mouse looked sharply at him. “How may I get to your house?” he
+asked. “We live in different elements, you and I. We mice want to be in
+the driest of dry places, while you frogs have your abodes in the water.”
+
+  “Ah,” answered Puff Jaw, “you do not know how favored the frogs are
+above all other creatures. To us alone the gods have given the power to
+live both in the water and on the land. I shall take you to my land palace
+that is the other side of the pond.”
+
+  “How may I go there with you?” asked Crumb Snatcher the mouse,
+doubtfully.
+
+  “Upon my back,” said the frog. “Up now, noble Crumb Snatcher. And as we
+go I will show you the wonders of the deep.”
+
+  He offered his back and Crumb Snatcher bravely mounted. The mouse put
+his forepaws around the frog’s neck. Then Puff Jaw swam out. Crumb
+Snatcher at first was pleased to feel himself moving through the water.
+But as the dark waves began to rise his mighty heart began to quail. He
+longed to be back upon the land. He groaned aloud.
+
+  “How quickly we get on,” cried Puff Jaw; “soon we shall be at my land
+palace.”
+
+  Heartened by this speech, Crumb Snatcher put his tail into the water and
+worked it as a steering oar. On and on they went, and Crumb Snatcher
+gained heart for the adventure. What a wonderful tale he would have to
+tell to the clans of the mice!
+
+  But suddenly, out of the depths of the pond, a water snake raised his
+horrid head. Fearsome did that head seem to both mouse and frog. And
+forgetful of the guest that he carried upon his back, Puff Jaw dived down
+into the water. He reached the bottom of the pond and lay on the mud in
+safety.
+
+  But far from safety was Crumb Snatcher the mouse. He sank and rose, and
+sank again. His wet fur weighed him down. But before he sank for the last
+time he lifted up his voice and cried out and his cry was heard at the
+brink of the pond:
+
+  “Ah, Puff Jaw, treacherous frog! An evil thing you have done, leaving me
+to drown in the middle of the pond. Had you faced me on the land I should
+have shown you which of us two was the better warrior. Now I must lose my
+life in the water. But I tell you my death shall not go unavenged—the
+cowardly frogs will be punished for the ill they have done to me who am
+the son of the king of the mice.”
+
+  Then Crumb Snatcher sank for the last time. But Lick Platter, who was at
+the brink of the pond, had heard his words. Straightway this mouse rushed
+to the hole of Bread Nibbler and told him of the death of his princely
+son.
+
+  Bread Nibbler called out the clans of the mice. The warrior mice armed
+themselves, and this was the grand way of their arming:
+
+  First, the mice put on greaves that covered their forelegs. These they
+made out of bean shells broken in two. For shield, each had a lamp’s
+centerpiece. For spears they had the long bronze needles that they had
+carried out of the houses of men. So armed and so accoutered they were
+ready to war upon the frogs. And Bread Nibbler, their king, shouted to
+them: “Fall upon the cowardly frogs, and leave not one alive upon the bank
+of the pond. Henceforth that bank is ours, and ours only. Forward!”
+
+  And, on the other side, Puff Jaw was urging the frogs to battle. “Let us
+take our places on the edge of the pond,” he said, “and when the mice come
+amongst us, let each catch hold of one and throw him into the pond. Thus
+we will get rid of these dry bobs, the mice.”
+
+  The frogs applauded the speech of their king, and straightway they went
+to their armor and their weapons. Their legs they covered with the leaves
+of mallow. For breastplates they had the leaves of beets. Cabbage leaves,
+well cut, made their strong shields. They took their spears from the pond
+side—deadly pointed rushes they were, and they placed upon their heads
+helmets that were empty snail shells. So armed and so accoutered they were
+ready to meet the grand attack of the mice.
+
+
+
+  When the robber came to this part of the story Heracles halted his
+march, for he was shaking with laughter. The robber stopped in his story.
+Heracles slapped him on the leg and said: “What more of the heroic
+exploits of the mice?” The second robber said, “I know no more, but
+perhaps my brother at the other side of you can tell you of the mighty
+combat between them and the frogs.” Then Heracles shifted the first robber
+from his back to his front, and the first robber said: “I will tell you
+what I know about the heroical combat between the frogs and the mice.” And
+thereupon he began:
+
+
+
+  The gnats blew their trumpets. This was the dread signal for war.
+
+  Bread Nibbler struck the first blow. He fell upon Loud Crier the frog,
+and overthrew him. At this Loud Crier’s friend, Reedy, threw down spear
+and shield and dived into the water. This seemed to presage victory for
+the mice. But then Water Larker, the most warlike of the frogs, took up a
+great pebble and flung it at Ham Nibbler who was then pursuing Reedy. Down
+fell Ham Nibbler, and there was dismay in the ranks of the mice.
+
+  Then Cabbage Climber, a great-hearted frog, took up a clod of mud and
+flung it full at a mouse that was coming furiously upon him. That mouse’s
+helmet was knocked off and his forehead was plastered with the clod of
+mud, so that he was well-nigh blinded.
+
+  It was then that victory inclined to the frogs. Bread Nibbler again came
+into the fray. He rushed furiously upon Puff Jaw the king.
+
+  Leeky, the trusted friend of Puff Jaw, opposed Bread Nibbler’s
+onslaught. Mightily he drove his spear at the king of the mice. But the
+point of the spear broke upon Bread Nibbler’s shield, and then Leeky was
+overthrown.
+
+  Bread Nibbler came upon Puff Jaw, and the two great kings faced each
+other. The frogs and the mice drew aside, and there was a pause in the
+combat. Bread Nibbler the mouse struck Puff Jaw the frog terribly upon the
+toes.
+
+  Puff Jaw drew out of the battle. Now all would have been lost for the
+frogs had not Zeus, the father of the gods, looked down upon the battle.
+
+  “Dear, dear,” said Zeus, “what can be done to save the frogs? They will
+surely be annihilated if the charge of yonder mouse is not halted.”
+
+  For the father of the gods, looking down, saw a warrior mouse coming on
+in the most dreadful onslaught of the whole battle. Slice Snatcher was the
+name of this warrior. He had come late into the field. He waited to split
+a chestnut in two and to put the halves upon his paws. Then, furiously
+dashing amongst the frogs, he cried out that he would not leave the ground
+until he had destroyed the race, leaving the bank of the pond a playground
+for the mice and for the mice alone.
+
+  To stop the charge of Slice Snatcher there was nothing for Zeus to do
+but to hurl the thunderbolt that is the terror of gods and men.
+
+  Frogs and mice were awed by the thunder and the flame. But still the
+mice, urged on by Slice Snatcher, did not hold back from their onslaught
+upon the frogs.
+
+  Now would the frogs have been utterly destroyed; but, as they dashed on,
+the mice encountered a new and a dreadful army. The warriors in these
+ranks had mailed backs and curving claws. They had bandy legs and
+long-stretching arms. They had eyes that looked behind them. They came on
+sideways. These were the crabs, creatures until now unknown to the mice.
+And the crabs had been sent by Zeus to save the race of the frogs from
+utter destruction.
+
+  Coming upon the mice they nipped their paws. The mice turned around and
+they nipped their tails. In vain the boldest of the mice struck at the
+crabs with their sharpened spears. Not upon the hard shells on the backs
+of the crabs did the spears of the mice make any dint. On and on, on their
+queer feet and with their terrible nippers, the crabs went. Bread Nibbler
+could not rally them any more, and Slice Snatcher ceased to speak of the
+monument of victory that the mice would erect upon the bank of the pond.
+
+  With their heads out of the water they had retreated to, the frogs
+watched the finish of the battle. The mice threw down their spears and
+shields and fled from the battleground. On went the crabs as if they cared
+nothing for their victory, and the frogs came out of the water and sat
+upon the bank and watched them in awe.
+
+
+
+  Heracles had laughed at the diverting tale that the robbers had told
+him; he could not bring them then to a place where they would meet with
+captivity or death. He let them loose upon the highway, and the robbers
+thanked him with high-flowing speeches, and they declared that if they
+should ever find him sleeping by the roadway again they would let him lie.
+Saying this they went away, and Heracles, laughing as he thought upon the
+great exploits of the frogs and mice, went on to Omphale’s house.
+
+  Omphale, the widow, received him mirthfully, and then set him to do
+tasks in the kitchen while she sat and talked to him about Troy and the
+affairs of King Laomedon. And afterward she put on his lion’s skin, and
+went about in the courtyard dragging the heavy club after her. Mirthfully
+and pleasantly she made the rest of his time in Lydia pass for Heracles,
+and the last day of his slavery soon came, and he bade good-by to Omphale,
+that pleasant widow, and to Lydia, and he started off for Calydon to claim
+his bride Deianira.
+
+  Beautiful indeed Deianira looked now that she had ceased to mourn for
+her brother, for the laughter that had been under her grief always now
+flashed out even while she looked priestesslike and of good counsel; her
+dark eyes shone like stars, and her being had the spirit of one who
+wanders from camp to camp, always greeting friends and leaving friends
+behind her. Heracles and Deianira wed, and they set out for Tiryns, where
+a king had left a kingdom to Heracles.
+
+  They came to the River Evenus. Heracles could have crossed the river by
+himself, but he could not cross it at the part he came to, carrying
+Deianira. He and she went along the river, seeking a ferry that might take
+them across. They wandered along the side of the river, happy with each
+other, and they came to a place where they had sight of a centaur.
+
+  Heracles knew this centaur. He was Nessus, one of the centaurs whom he
+had chased up the mountain the time when he went to hunt the Erymanthean
+boar. The centaurs knew him, and Nessus spoke to Heracles as if he had
+friendship for him. He would, he said, carry Heracles’s bride across the
+river.
+
+  Then Heracles crossed the river, and he waited on the other side for
+Nessus and Deianira. Nessus went to another part of the river to make his
+crossing. Then Heracles, upon the other bank, heard screams—the screams of
+his wife, Deianira. He saw that the centaur was savagely attacking her.
+
+  Then Heracles leveled his bow and he shot at Nessus. Arrow after arrow
+he shot into the centaur’s body. Nessus loosed his hold on Deianira, and
+he lay down on the bank of the river, his lifeblood streaming from him.
+
+  Then Nessus, dying, but with his rage against Heracles unabated, thought
+of a way by which the hero might be made to suffer for the death he had
+brought upon him. He called to Deianira, and she, seeing he could do her
+no more hurt, came close to him. He told her that in repentance for his
+attack upon her he would bestow a great gift upon her. She was to gather
+up some of the blood that flowed from him; his blood, the centaur said,
+would be a love philter, and if ever her husband’s love for her waned it
+would grow fresh again if she gave to him something from her hands that
+would have this blood upon it.
+
+  Deianira, who had heard from Heracles of the wisdom of the centaurs,
+believed what Nessus told her. She took a phial and let the blood pour
+into it. Then Nessus plunged into the river and died there as Heracles
+came up to where Deianira stood.
+
+  She did not speak to him about the centaur’s words to her, nor did she
+tell him that she had hidden away the phial that had Nessus’s blood in it.
+They crossed the river at another point and they came after a time to
+Tiryns and to the kingdom that had been left to Heracles.
+
+  There Heracles and Deianira lived, and a son who was named Hyllos was
+born to them. And after a time Heracles was led into a war with
+Eurytus—Eurytus who was king of Oichalia.
+
+  Word came to Deianira that Oichalia was taken by Heracles, and that the
+king and his daughter Iole were held captive. Deianira knew that Heracles
+had once tried to win this maiden for his wife, and she feared that the
+sight of Iole would bring his old longing back to him.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+  She thought upon the words that Nessus had said to her, and even as she
+thought upon them messengers came from Heracles to ask her to send him a
+robe—a beautifully woven robe that she had—that he might wear it while
+making a sacrifice. Deianira took down the robe; through this robe, she
+thought, the blood of the centaur could touch Heracles and his love for
+her would revive. Thinking this she poured Nessus’s blood over the robe.
+
+  Heracles was in Oichalia when the messengers returned to him. He took
+the robe that Deianira sent, and he went to a mountain that overlooked the
+sea that he might make the sacrifice there. Iole went with him. Then he
+put on the robe that Deianira had sent. When it touched his flesh the robe
+burst into flame. Heracles tried to tear it off, but deeper and deeper
+into his flesh the flames went. They burned and burned and none could
+quench them.
+
+  Then Heracles knew that his end was near. He would die by fire, and
+knowing that he piled up a great heap of wood and he climbed upon it.
+There he stayed with the flaming robe burning into him, and he begged of
+those who passed to fire the pile that his end might come more quickly.
+
+  None would fire the pile. But at last there came that way a young
+warrior named Philoctetes, and Heracles begged of him to fire the pile.
+Philoctetes, knowing that it was the will of the gods that Heracles should
+die that way, lighted the pile. For that Heracles bestowed upon him his
+great bow and his unerring arrows. And it was this bow and these arrows,
+brought from Philoctetes, that afterward helped to take Priam’s city.
+
+  The pile that Heracles stood upon was fired. High up, above the sea, the
+pile burned. All who were near that burning fled—all except Iole, that
+childlike maiden. She stayed and watched the flames mount up and up. They
+wrapped the sky, and the voice of Heracles was heard calling upon Zeus.
+Then a great chariot came and Heracles was borne away to Olympus. Thus,
+after many labors, Heracles passed away, a mortal passing into an immortal
+being in a great burning high above the sea.
+
+
+
+
+V. Admetus
+
+
+I
+
+
+[Decorative first letter]
+_I_T happened once that Zeus would punish Apollo, his son. Then he
+banished him from Olympus, and he made him put off his divinity and appear
+as a mortal man. And as a mortal Apollo sought to earn his bread amongst
+men. He came to the house of King Admetus and took service with him as his
+herdsman.
+
+  For a year Apollo served the young king, minding his herds of black
+cattle. Admetus did not know that it was one of the immortal gods who was
+in his house and in his fields. But he treated him in friendly wise, and
+Apollo was happy whilst serving Admetus.
+
+  Afterward people wondered at Admetus’s ever-smiling face and
+ever-radiant being. It was the god’s kindly thought of him that gave him
+such happiness. And when Apollo was leaving his house and his fields he
+revealed himself to Admetus, and he made a promise to him that when the
+god of the Underworld sent Death for him he would have one more chance of
+baffling Death than any mortal man.
+
+  That was before Admetus sailed on the _Argo_ with Jason and the
+companions of the quest. The companionship of Admetus brought happiness to
+many on the voyage, but the hero to whom it gave the most happiness was
+Heracles. And often Heracles would have Admetus beside him to tell him
+about the radiant god Apollo, whose bow and arrows Heracles had been
+given.
+
+  After that voyage and after the hunt in Calydon Admetus went back to his
+own land. There he wed that fair and loving woman, Alcestis. He might not
+wed her until he had yoked lions and leopards to the chariot that drew
+her. This was a feat that no hero had been able to accomplish. With
+Apollo’s aid he accomplished it. Thereafter Admetus, having the love of
+Alcestis, was even more happy than he had been before.
+
+  One day as he walked by fold and through pasture field he saw a figure
+standing beside his herd of black cattle. A radiant figure it was, and
+Admetus knew that this was Apollo come to him again. He went toward the
+god and he made reverence and began to speak to him. But Apollo turned to
+Admetus a face that was without joy.
+
+  “What years of happiness have been mine, O Apollo, through your
+friendship for me,” said Admetus. “Ah, as I walked my pasture land to-day
+it came into my mind how much I loved this green earth and the blue sky!
+And all that I know of love and happiness has come to me through you.”
+
+  But still Apollo stood before him with a face that was without joy. He
+spoke and his voice was not that clear and vibrant voice that he had once
+in speaking to Admetus. “Admetus, Admetus,” he said, “it is for me to tell
+you that you may no more look on the blue sky nor walk upon the green
+earth. It is for me to tell you that the god of the Underworld will have
+you come to him. Admetus, Admetus, know that even now the god of the
+Underworld is sending Death for you.”
+
+  Then the light of the world went out for Admetus, and he heard himself
+speaking to Apollo in a shaking voice: “O Apollo, Apollo, thou art a god,
+and surely thou canst save me! Save me now from this Death that the god of
+the Underworld is sending for me!”
+
+  But Apollo said, “Long ago, Admetus, I made a bargain with the god of
+the Underworld on thy behalf. Thou hast been given a chance more than any
+mortal man. If one will go willingly in thy place with Death, thou canst
+still live on. Go, Admetus. Thou art well loved, and it may be that thou
+wilt find one to take thy place.”
+
+  Then Apollo went up unto the mountaintop and Admetus stayed for a while
+beside the cattle. It seemed to him that a little of the darkness had
+lifted from the world. He would go to his palace. There were aged men and
+women there, servants and slaves, and one of them would surely be willing
+to take the king’s place and go with Death down to the Underworld.
+
+  So Admetus thought as he went toward the palace. And then he came upon
+an ancient woman who sat upon stones in the courtyard, grinding corn
+between two stones. Long had she been doing that wearisome labor. Admetus
+had known her from the first time he had come into that courtyard as a
+little child, and he had never seen aught in her face but a heavy misery.
+There she was sitting as he had first known her, with her eyes bleared and
+her knees shaking, and with the dust of the courtyard and the husks of the
+corn in her matted hair. He went to her and spoke to her, and he asked her
+to take the place of the king and go with Death.
+
+  But when she heard the name of Death horror came into the face of the
+ancient woman, and she cried out that she would not let Death come near
+her. Then Admetus left her, and he came upon another, upon a sightless man
+who held out a shriveled hand for the food that the servants of the palace
+might bestow upon him. Admetus took the man’s shriveled hand, and he asked
+him if he would not take the king’s place and go with Death that was
+coming for him. The sightless man, with howls and shrieks, said he would
+not go.
+
+  Then Admetus went into the palace and into the chamber where his bed
+was, and he lay down upon the bed and he lamented that he would have to go
+with Death that was coming for him from the god of the Underworld, and he
+lamented that none of the wretched ones around the palace would take his
+place.
+
+  A hand was laid upon him. He looked up and he saw his tall and
+grave-eyed wife, Alcestis, beside him. Alcestis spoke to him slowly and
+gravely. “I have heard what you have said, O my husband,” said she. “One
+should go in your place, for you are the king and have many great affairs
+to attend to. And if none other will go, I, Alcestis, will go in your
+place, Admetus.”
+
+  It had seemed to Admetus that ever since he had heard the words of
+Apollo that heavy footsteps were coming toward him. Now the footsteps
+seemed to stop. It was not so terrible for him as before. He sprang up,
+and he took the hands of Alcestis and he said, “You, then, will take my
+place?”
+
+  “I will go with Death in your place, Admetus,” Alcestis said.
+
+  Then, even as Admetus looked into her face, he saw a pallor come upon
+her; her body weakened and she sank down upon the bed. Then, watching over
+her, he knew that not he but Alcestis would go with Death. And the words
+he had spoken he would have taken back—the words that had brought her
+consent to go with Death in his place.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+  Paler and weaker Alcestis grew. Death would soon be here for her. No,
+not here, for he would not have Death come into the palace. He lifted
+Alcestis from the bed and he carried her from the palace. He carried her
+to the temple of the gods. He laid her there upon the bier and waited
+there beside her. No more speech came from her. He went back to the palace
+where all was silent—the servants moved about with heads bowed, lamenting
+silently for their mistress.
+
+
+
+II
+
+  As Admetus was coming back from the temple he heard a great shout; he
+looked up and saw one standing at the palace doorway. He knew him by his
+lion’s skin and his great height. This was Heracles—Heracles come to visit
+him, but come at a sad hour. He could not now rejoice in the company of
+Heracles. And yet Heracles might be on his way from the accomplishment of
+some great labor, and it would not be right to say a word that might turn
+him away from his doorway; he might have much need of rest and
+refreshment.
+
+  Thinking this Admetus went up to Heracles and took his hand and welcomed
+him into his house. “How is it with you, friend Admetus?” Heracles asked.
+Admetus would only say that nothing was happening in his house and that
+Heracles, his hero-companion, was welcome there. His mind was upon a great
+sacrifice, he said, and so he would not be able to feast with him.
+
+  The servants brought Heracles to the bath, and then showed him where a
+feast was laid for him. And as for Admetus, he went within the chamber,
+and knelt beside the bed on which Alcestis had lain, and thought of his
+terrible loss.
+
+  Heracles, after the bath, put on the brightly colored tunic that the
+servants of Admetus brought him. He put a wreath upon his head and sat
+down to the feast. It was a pity, he thought, that Admetus was not
+feasting with him. But this was only the first of many feasts. And
+thinking of what companionship he would have with Admetus, Heracles left
+the feasting hall and came to where the servants were standing about in
+silence.
+
+  “Why is the house of Admetus so hushed to-day?” Heracles asked.
+
+  “It is because of what is befalling,” said one of the servants.
+
+  “Ah, the sacrifice that the king is making,” said Heracles. “To what god
+is that sacrifice due?”
+
+  “To the god of the Underworld,” said the servant. “Death is coming to
+Alcestis the queen where she lies on a bier in the temple of the gods.”
+
+  Then the servant told Heracles the story of how Alcestis had taken her
+husband’s place, going in his stead with Death. Heracles thought upon the
+sorrow of his friend, and of the great sacrifice that his wife was making
+for him. How noble it was of Admetus to bring him into his house and give
+entertainment to him while such sorrow was upon him. And then Heracles
+felt that another labor was before him.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+  “I have dragged up from the Underworld,” he thought, “the hound that
+guards those whom Death brings down into the realm of the god of the
+Underworld. Why should I not strive with Death? And what a noble thing it
+would be to bring back this faithful woman to her house and to her
+husband! This is a labor that has not been laid upon me, and it is a labor
+I will undertake.” So Heracles said to himself.
+
+  He left the palace of Admetus and he went to the temple of the gods. He
+stood inside the temple and he saw the bier on which Alcestis was laid. He
+looked upon the queen. Death had not touched her yet, although she lay so
+still and so silent. Heracles would watch beside her and strive with Death
+for her.
+
+  Heracles watched and Death came. When Death entered the temple Heracles
+laid hands upon him. Death had never been gripped by mortal hands and he
+strode on as if that grip meant nothing to him. But then he had to grip
+Heracles. In Death’s grip there was a strength beyond strength. And upon
+Heracles a dreadful sense of loss came as Death laid hands upon him—a
+sense of the loss of light and the loss of breath and the loss of
+movement. But Heracles struggled with Death although his breath went and
+his strength seemed to go from him. He held that stony body to him, and
+the cold of that body went through him, and its stoniness seemed to turn
+his bones to stone, but still Heracles strove with him, and at last he
+overthrew him and he held Death down upon the ground.
+
+  “Now you are held by me, Death,” cried Heracles. “You are held by me,
+and the god of the Underworld will be made angry because you cannot go
+about his business—either this business or any other business. You are
+held by me, Death, and you will not be let go unless you promise to go
+forth from this temple without bringing one with you.” And Death, knowing
+that Heracles could hold him there, and that the business of the god of
+the Underworld would be left undone if he were held, promised that he
+would leave the temple without bringing one with him. Then Heracles took
+his grip off Death, and that stony shape went from the temple.
+
+  Soon a flush came into the face of Alcestis as Heracles watched over
+her. Soon she arose from the bier on which she had been laid. She called
+out to Admetus, and Heracles went to her and spoke to her, telling her
+that he would bring her back to her husband’s house.
+
+
+
+III
+
+  Admetus left the chamber where his wife had lain and stood before the
+door of his palace. Dawn was coming, and as he looked toward the temple he
+saw Heracles coming to the palace. A woman came with him. She was veiled,
+and Admetus could not see her features.
+
+  “Admetus,” Heracles said, when he came before him, “Admetus, there is
+something I would have you do for me. Here is a woman whom I am bringing
+back to her husband. I won her from an enemy. Will you not take her into
+your house while I am away on a journey?”
+
+  “You cannot ask me to do this, Heracles,” said Admetus. “No woman may
+come into the house where Alcestis, only yesterday, had her life.”
+
+  “For my sake take her into your house,” said Heracles. “Come now,
+Admetus, take this woman by the hand.”
+
+  A pang came to Admetus as he looked at the woman who stood beside
+Heracles and saw that she was the same stature as his lost wife. He
+thought that he could not bear to take her hand. But Heracles pleaded with
+him, and he took her by the hand.
+
+  “Now take her across your threshold, Admetus,” said Heracles.
+
+  Hardly could Admetus bear to do this—hardly could he bear to think of a
+strange woman being in his house and his own wife gone with Death. But
+Heracles pleaded with him, and by the hand he held he drew the woman
+across his threshold.
+
+  “Now raise her veil, Admetus,” said Heracles.
+
+  “This I cannot do,” said Admetus. “I have had pangs enough. How can I
+look upon a woman’s face and remind myself that I cannot look upon
+Alcestis’s face ever again?”
+
+  “Raise her veil, Admetus,” said Heracles.
+
+  Then Admetus raised the veil of the woman he had taken across the
+threshold of his house. He saw the face of Alcestis. He looked again upon
+his wife brought back from the grip of Death by Heracles, the son of Zeus.
+And then a deeper joy than he had ever known came to Admetus. Once more
+his wife was with him, and Admetus the friend of Apollo and the friend of
+Heracles had all that he cared to have.
+
+
+
+
+VI. How Orpheus the Minstrel Went Down to the World of the Dead
+
+
+
+[Decorative first letter]
+_M_ANY were the minstrels who, in the early days, went through the world,
+telling to men the stories of the gods, telling of their wars and their
+births. Of all these minstrels none was so famous as Orpheus who had gone
+with the Argonauts; none could tell truer things about the gods, for he
+himself was half divine.
+
+  But a great grief came to Orpheus, a grief that stopped his singing and
+his playing upon the lyre. His young wife Eurydice was taken from him. One
+day, walking in the garden, she was bitten on the heel by a serpent, and
+straightway she went down to the world of the dead.
+
+  Then everything in this world was dark and bitter for the minstrel
+Orpheus; sleep would not come to him, and for him food had no taste. Then
+Orpheus said: “I will do that which no mortal has ever done before; I will
+do that which even the immortals might shrink from doing: I will go down
+into the world of the dead, and I will bring back to the living and to the
+light my bride Eurydice.”
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+  Then Orpheus went on his way to the valley of Acherusia which goes down,
+down into the world of the dead. He would never have found his way to that
+valley if the trees had not shown him the way. For as he went along
+Orpheus played upon his lyre and sang, and the trees heard his song and
+they were moved by his grief, and with their arms and their heads they
+showed him the way to the deep, deep valley of Acherusia.
+
+  Down, down by winding paths through that deepest and most shadowy of all
+valleys Orpheus went. He came at last to the great gate that opens upon
+the world of the dead. And the silent guards who keep watch there for the
+rulers of the dead were affrighted when they saw a living being, and they
+would not let Orpheus approach the gate.
+
+  But the minstrel, knowing the reason for their fear, said: “I am not
+Heracles come again to drag up from the world of the dead your
+three-headed dog Cerberus. I am Orpheus, and all that my hands can do is
+to make music upon my lyre.”
+
+  And then he took the lyre in his hands and played upon it. As he played,
+the silent watchers gathered around him, leaving the gate unguarded. And
+as he played the rulers of the dead came forth, Aidoneus and Persephone,
+and listened to the words of the living man.
+
+  “The cause of my coming through the dark and fearful ways,” sang
+Orpheus, “is to strive to gain a fairer fate for Eurydice, my bride. All
+that is above must come down to you at last, O rulers of the most lasting
+world. But before her time has Eurydice been brought here. I have desired
+strength to endure her loss, but I cannot endure it. And I come before
+you, Aidoneus and Persephone, brought here by Love.”
+
+  When Orpheus said the name of Love, Persephone, the queen of the dead,
+bowed her young head, and bearded Aidoneus, the king, bowed his head also.
+Persephone remembered how Demeter, her mother, had sought her all through
+the world, and she remembered the touch of her mother’s tears upon her
+face. And Aidoneus remembered how his love for Persephone had led him to
+carry her away from the valley in the upper world where she had been
+gathering flowers. He and Persephone bowed their heads and stood aside,
+and Orpheus went through the gate and came amongst the dead.
+
+  Still upon his lyre he played. Tantalus—who, for his crimes, had been
+condemned to stand up to his neck in water and yet never be able to
+assuage his thirst—Tantalus heard, and for a while did not strive to put
+his lips toward the water that ever flowed away from him; Sisyphus—who had
+been condemned to roll up a hill a stone that ever rolled back—Sisyphus
+heard the music that Orpheus played, and for a while he sat still upon his
+stone. And even those dread ones who bring to the dead the memories of all
+their crimes and all their faults, even the Eumenides had their cheeks wet
+with tears.
+
+  In the throng of the newly come dead Orpheus saw Eurydice. She looked
+upon her husband, but she had not the power to come near him. But slowly
+she came when Aidoneus called her. Then with joy Orpheus took her hands.
+
+  It would be granted them—no mortal ever gained such privilege before—to
+leave, both together, the world of the dead, and to abide for another
+space in the world of the living. One condition there would be—that on
+their way up through the valley of Acherusia neither Orpheus nor Eurydice
+should look back.
+
+  They went through the gate and came amongst the watchers that are around
+the portals. These showed them the path that went up through the valley of
+Acherusia. That way they went, Orpheus and Eurydice, he going before her.
+
+  Up and up through the darkened ways they went, Orpheus knowing that
+Eurydice was behind him, but never looking back upon her. But as he went,
+his heart was filled with things to tell—how the trees were blossoming in
+the garden she had left; how the water was sparkling in the fountain; how
+the doors of the house stood open, and how they, sitting together, would
+watch the sunlight on the laurel bushes. All these things were in his
+heart to tell her, to tell her who came behind him, silent and unseen.
+
+  And now they were nearing the place where the valley of Acherusia opened
+on the world of the living. Orpheus looked on the blue of the sky. A
+white-winged bird flew by. Orpheus turned around and cried, “O Eurydice,
+look upon the world that I have won you back to!”
+
+  He turned to say this to her. He saw her with her long dark hair and
+pale face. He held out his arms to clasp her. But in that instant she
+slipped back into the depths of the valley. And all he heard spoken was a
+single word, “Farewell!” Long, long had it taken Eurydice to climb so far,
+but in the moment of his turning around she had fallen back to her place
+amongst the dead.
+
+  Down through the valley of Acherusia Orpheus went again. Again he came
+before the watchers of the gate. But now he was not looked at nor listened
+to, and, hopeless, he had to return to the world of the living.
+
+  The birds were his friends now, and the trees and the stones. The birds
+flew around him and mourned with him; the trees and stones often followed
+him, moved by the music of his lyre. But a savage band slew Orpheus and
+threw his severed head and his lyre into the River Hebrus. It is said by
+the poets that while they floated in midstream the lyre gave out some
+mournful notes and the head of Orpheus answered the notes with song.
+
+  And now that he was no longer to be counted with the living, Orpheus
+went down to the world of the dead, not going now by that steep descent
+through the valley of Acherusia, but going down straightway. The silent
+watchers let him pass, and he went amongst the dead and saw his Eurydice
+in the throng. Again they were together, Orpheus and Eurydice, and as they
+went through the place that King Aidoneus ruled over, they had no fear of
+looking back, one upon the other.
+
+
+
+
+VII. Jason and Medea
+
+
+
+[Decorative first letter]
+_J_ASON and Medea, unable to win to Iolcus, stayed at Corinth, at the
+court of King Creon. Creon was proud to have Jason in his city, but of
+Medea the king was fearful, for he had heard how she had brought about the
+death of Apsyrtus, her brother.
+
+  Medea wearied of this long waiting in the palace of King Creon. A
+longing came upon her to exercise her powers of enchantment. She did not
+forget what Queen Arete had said to her—that if she wished to appease the
+wrath of the gods she should have no more to do with enchantments. She did
+not forget this, but still there grew in her a longing to use all her
+powers of enchantment.
+
+  And Jason, at the court of King Creon, had his longings, too. He longed
+to enter Iolcus and to show the people the Golden Fleece that he had won;
+he longed to destroy Pelias, the murderer of his mother and father; above
+all he longed to be a king, and to rule in the kingdom that Cretheus had
+founded.
+
+  Once Jason spoke to Medea of his longing. “O Jason,” Medea said, “I have
+done many things for thee and this thing also I will do. I will go into
+Iolcus, and by my enchantments I will make clear the way for the return of
+the _Argo_ and for thy return with thy comrades—yea, and for thy coming to
+the kingship, O Jason.”
+
+  He should have remembered then the words of Queen Arete to Medea, but
+the longing that he had for his triumph and his revenge was in the way of
+his remembering. He said, “O Medea, help me in this with all thine
+enchantments and thou wilt be more dear to me than ever before thou wert.”
+
+  Medea then went forth from the palace of King Creon and she made more
+terrible spells than ever she had made in Colchis. All night she stayed in
+a tangled place weaving her spells. Dawn came, and she knew that the
+spells she had woven had not been in vain, for beside her there stood a
+car that was drawn by dragons.
+
+  Medea the Enchantress had never looked on these dragon shapes before.
+When she looked upon them now she was fearful of them. But then she said
+to herself, “I am Medea, and I would be a greater enchantress and a more
+cunning woman than I have been, and what I have thought of, that will I
+carry out.” She mounted the car drawn by the dragons, and in the first
+light of the day she went from Corinth.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+  To the places where grew the herbs of magic Medea journeyed in her
+dragon-drawn car—to the Mountains Ossa, Pelion, Œthrys, Pindus, and
+Olympus; then to the rivers Apidanus, Enipeus, and Peneus. She gathered
+herbs on the mountains and grasses on the rivers’ banks; some she plucked
+up by the roots and some she cut with the curved blade of a knife. When
+she had gathered these herbs and grasses she went back to Corinth on her
+dragon-drawn car.
+
+  Then Jason saw her; pale and drawn was her face, and her eyes were
+strange and gleaming. He saw her standing by the car drawn by the dragons,
+and a terror of Medea came into his mind. He went toward her, but in a
+harsh voice she bade him not come near to disturb the brewing that she was
+going to begin. Jason turned away. As he went toward the palace he saw
+Glauce, King Creon’s daughter; the maiden was coming from the well and she
+carried a pitcher of water. He thought how fair Glauce looked in the light
+of the morning, how the wind played with her hair and her garments, and
+how far away she was from witcheries and enchantments.
+
+  As for Medea, she placed in a heap beside her the magic herbs and
+grasses she had gathered. Then she put them in a bronze pot and boiled
+them in water from the stream. Soon froth came on the boiling, and Medea
+stirred the pot with a withered branch of an apple tree. The branch was
+withered—it was indeed no more than a dry stick, but as she stirred the
+herbs and grasses with it, first leaves, then flowers, and lastly, bright
+gleaming apples came on it. And when the pot boiled over and drops from it
+fell upon the ground, there grew up out of the dry earth soft grasses and
+flowers. Such was the power of renewal that was in the magical brew that
+Medea had made.
+
+  She filled a phial with the liquid she had brewed, and she scattered the
+rest in the wild places of the garden. Then, taking the phial and the
+apples that had grown on the withered branch, she mounted the car drawn by
+the dragons, and she went once more from Corinth.
+
+  On she journeyed in her dragon-drawn car until she came to a place that
+was near to Iolcus. There the dragons descended. They had come to a dark
+pool. Medea, making herself naked, stood in that dark pool. For a while
+she looked down upon herself, seeing in the dark water her white body and
+her lovely hair. Then she bathed herself in the water. Soon a dread change
+came over her: she saw her hair become scant and gray, and she saw her
+body become bent and withered. She stepped out of the pool a withered and
+witchlike woman; when she dressed herself the rich clothes that she had
+worn before hung loosely upon her, and she looked the more forbidding
+because of them. She bade the dragons go, and they flew through the air
+with the empty car. Then she hid in her dress the phial with the liquid
+she had brewed and the apples that had grown upon the withered branch. She
+picked up a stick to lean upon, and with the gait of an ancient woman she
+went hobbling upon the road to Iolcus.
+
+  On the streets of the city the fierce fighting men that Pelias had
+brought down from the mountains showed themselves; few of the men or women
+of the city showed themselves even in the daytime. Medea went through the
+city and to the palace of King Pelias. But no one might enter there, and
+the guards laid hands upon her and held her.
+
+  Medea did not struggle with them. She drew from the folds of her dress
+one of the gleaming apples that she carried and she gave it to one of the
+guards. “It is for King Pelias,” she said. “Give the apple to him and then
+do with me as the king would have you do.”
+
+  The guards brought the gleaming apple to the king. When he had taken it
+into his hand and had smelled its fragrance, old trembling Pelias asked
+where the apple had come from. The guards told him it had been brought by
+an ancient woman who was now outside seated on a stone in the courtyard.
+
+  He looked on the shining apple and he felt its fragrance and he could
+not help thinking, old trembling Pelias, that this apple might be the
+means of bringing him back to the fullness of health and courage that he
+had had before. He sent for the ancient woman who had brought it that she
+might tell him where it had come from and who it was that had sent it to
+him. Then the guards brought Medea before him.
+
+  She saw an old man, white-faced and trembling, with shaking hands and
+eyes that looked on her fearfully. “Who are you,” he asked, “and from
+whence came the apple that you had them bring me?”
+
+  Medea, standing before him, looked a withered and shrunken beldame, a
+woman bent with years, but yet with eyes that were bright and living. She
+came near him and she said: “The apple, O King, came from the garden that
+is watched over by the Daughters of the Evening Land. He who eats it has a
+little of the weight of old age taken from him. But things more wonderful
+even than the shining apples grow in that far garden. There are plants
+there the juices of which make youthful again all aged and failing things.
+The apple would bring you a little way toward the vigor of your prime. But
+the juices I have can bring you to a time more wonderful—back even to the
+strength and the glory of your youth.”
+
+  When the king heard her say this a light came into his heavy eyes, and
+his hands caught Medea and drew her to him. “Who are you?” he cried, “who
+speak of the garden watched over by the Daughters of the Evening Land? Who
+are you who speak of juices that can bring back one to the strength and
+glory of his youth?”
+
+  Medea answered: “I am a woman who has known many and great griefs, O
+king. My griefs have brought me through the world. Many have searched for
+the garden watched over by the Daughters of the Evening Land, but I came
+to it unthinkingly, and without wanting them I gathered the gleaming
+apples and took from the plants there the juices that can bring youth
+back.”
+
+  Pelias said: “If you have been able to come by those juices, how is it
+that you remain in woeful age and decrepitude?”
+
+  She said: “Because of my many griefs, king, I would not renew my life. I
+would be ever nearer death and the end of all things. But you are a king
+and have all things you desire at your hand—beauty and state and power.
+Surely if any one would desire it, you would desire to have youth back to
+you.”
+
+  Pelias, when he heard her say this, knew that besides youth there was
+nothing that he desired. After crimes that had gone through the whole of
+his manhood he had secured for himself the kingdom that Cretheus had
+founded. But old age had come on him, and the weakness of old age, and the
+power he had won was falling from his hands. He would be overthrown in his
+weakness, or else he would soon come to die, and there would be an end
+then to his name and to his kingship.
+
+  How fortunate above all kings he would be, he thought, if it could be
+that some one should come to him with juices that would renew his youth!
+He looked longingly into the eyes of the ancient-seeming woman before him,
+and he said: “How is it that you show no gains from the juices that you
+speak of? You are old and in woeful decrepitude. Even if you would not win
+back to youth you could have got riches and state for that which you say
+you possess.”
+
+  Then Medea said: “I have lost so much and have suffered so much that I
+would not have youth back at the price of facing the years. I would sink
+down to the quiet of the grave. But I hope for some ease before I die—for
+the ease that is in king’s houses, with good food to eat, and rest, and
+servants to wait upon one’s aged body. These are the things I desire, O
+Pelias, even as you desire youth. You can give me such things, and I have
+come to you who desire youth eagerly rather than to kings who have a less
+eager desire for it. To you I will give the juices that bring one back to
+the strength and the glory of youth.”
+
+  Pelias said: “I have only your word for it that you possess these
+juices. Many there are who come and say deceiving things to a king.”
+
+  Said Medea: “Let there be no more words between us, O king. To-morrow I
+will show you the virtue of the juices I have brought with me. Have a
+great vat prepared—a vat that a man could lay himself in with the water
+covering him. Have this vat filled with water, and bring to it the oldest
+creature you can get—a ram or a goat that is the oldest of their flock. Do
+this, O king, and you will be shown a thing to wonder at and to be hopeful
+over.”
+
+  So Medea said, and then she turned around and left the king’s presence.
+Pelias called to his guards and he bade them take the woman into their
+charge and treat her considerately. The guards took Medea away. Then all
+day the king mused on what had been told him and a wild hope kept beating
+about his heart. He had the servants prepare a great vat in the lower
+chambers, and he had his shepherd bring him a ram that was the oldest in
+the flock.
+
+  Only Medea was permitted to come into that chamber with the king; the
+ways to it were guarded, and all that took place in it was secret. Medea
+was brought to the closed door by her guard. She opened it and she saw the
+king there and the vat already prepared; she saw a ram tethered near the
+vat.
+
+  Medea looked upon the king. In the light of the torches his face was
+white and fierce and his mouth moved gaspingly. She spoke to him quietly,
+and said: “There is no need for you to hear me speak. You will watch a
+great miracle, for behold! the ram which is the oldest and feeblest in the
+flock will become young and invigorated when it comes forth from this
+vat.”
+
+  She untethered the ram, and with the help of Pelias drew it to the vat.
+This was not hard to do, for the beast was very feeble; its feet could
+hardly bear it upright, its wool was yellow and stayed only in patches on
+its shrunken body. Easily the beast was forced into the vat. Then Medea
+drew the phial out of her bosom and poured into the water some of the brew
+she had made in Creon’s garden in Corinth. The water in the vat took on a
+strange bubbling, and the ram sank down.
+
+  Then Medea, standing beside the vat, sang an incantation.
+
+  “O Earth,” she sang, “O Earth who dost provide wise men with potent
+herbs, O Earth help me now. I am she who can drive the clouds; I am she
+who can dispel the winds; I am she who can break the jaws of serpents with
+my incantations; I am she who can uproot living trees and rocks; who can
+make the mountains shake; who can bring the ghosts from their tombs. O
+Earth, help me now.” At this strange incantation the mixture in the vat
+boiled and bubbled more and more. Then the boiling and bubbling ceased. Up
+to the surface came the ram. Medea helped it to struggle out of the vat,
+and then it turned and smote the vat with its head.
+
+  Pelias took down a torch and stood before the beast. Vigorous indeed was
+the ram, and its wool was white and grew evenly upon it. They could not
+tether it again, and when the servants were brought into the chamber it
+took two of them to drag away the ram.
+
+  The king was most eager to enter the vat and have Medea put in the brew
+and speak the incantation over it. But Medea bade him wait until the
+morrow. All night the king lay awake, thinking of how he might regain his
+youth and his strength and be secure and triumphant thereafter.
+
+  At the first light he sent for Medea and he told her that he would have
+the vat made ready and that he would go into it that night. Medea looked
+upon him, and the helplessness that he showed made her want to work a
+greater evil upon him, or, if not upon him, upon his house. How soon it
+would have reached its end, all her plot for the destruction of this king!
+But she would leave in the king’s house a misery that would not have an
+end so soon.
+
+  So she said to the king: “I would say the incantation over a beast of
+the field, but over a king I could not say it. Let those of your own blood
+be with you when you enter the vat that will bring such change to you.
+Have your daughters there. I will give them the juice to mix in the vat,
+and I will teach them the incantation that has to be said.”
+
+  So she said, and she made Pelias consent to having his daughters and not
+Medea in the chamber of the vat. They were sent for and they came before
+Medea, the daughters of King Pelias.
+
+  They were women who had been borne down by the tyranny of their father;
+they stood before him now, two dim-eyed creatures, very feeble and
+fearful. To them Medea gave the phial that had in it the liquid to mix in
+the vat; also she taught them the words of the incantation, but she taught
+them to use these words wrongly.
+
+  The vat was prepared in the lower chambers; Pelias and his daughters
+went there, and the chamber was guarded, and what happened there was in
+secret. Pelias went into the vat; the brew was thrown into it, and the vat
+boiled and bubbled as before. Pelias sank down in it. Over him then his
+daughters said the magic words as Medea had taught them.
+
+  Pelias sank down, but he did not rise again. The hours went past and the
+morning came, and the daughters of King Pelias raised frightened laments.
+Over the sides of the vat the mixture boiled and bubbled, and Pelias was
+to be seen at the bottom with his limbs stiffened in death.
+
+  Then the guards came, and they took King Pelias out of the vat and left
+him in his royal chamber. The word went through the palace that the king
+was dead. There was a hush in the palace then, but not the hush of grief.
+One by one servants and servitors stole away from the palace that was
+hated by all. Then there was clatter in the streets as the fierce fighting
+men from the mountains galloped away with what plunder they could seize.
+And through all this the daughters of King Pelias sat crouching in fear
+above the body of their father.
+
+  And Medea, still an ancient woman seemingly, went through the crowds
+that now came on the streets of the city. She told those she went amongst
+that the son of Æson was alive and would soon be in their midst. Hearing
+this the men of the city formed a council of elders to rule the people
+until Jason’s coming. In such way Medea brought about the end of King
+Pelias’s reign.
+
+  In triumph she went through the city. But as she was passing the temple
+her dress was caught and held, and turning around she faced the ancient
+priestess of Artemis, Iphias. “Thou art Æetes’s daughter,” Iphias said,
+“who in deceit didst come into Iolcus. Woe to thee and woe to Jason for
+what thou hast done this day! Not for the slaying of Pelias art thou
+blameworthy, but for the misery that thou hast brought upon his daughters
+by bringing them into the guilt of the slaying. Go from the city, daughter
+of King Æetes; never, never wilt thou come back into it.”
+
+  But little heed did Medea pay to the ancient priestess, Iphias. Still in
+the guise of an old woman she went through the streets of the city, and
+out through the gate and along the highway that led from Iolcus. To that
+dark pool she came where she had bathed herself before. But now she did
+not step into the pool nor pour its water over her shrinking flesh;
+instead she built up two altars of green sods—an altar to Youth and an
+altar to Hecate, queen of the witches; she wreathed them with green boughs
+from the forest, and she prayed before each. Then she made herself naked,
+and she anointed herself with the brew she had made from the magical herbs
+and grasses. All marks of age and decrepitude left her, and when she stood
+over the dark pool and looked down on herself she saw that her body was
+white and shapely as before, and that her hair was soft and lovely.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+  She stayed all night between the tangled wood and the dark pool, and
+with the first light the car drawn by the scaly dragons came to her. She
+mounted the car, and she journeyed back to Corinth.
+
+
+
+  Into Jason’s mind a fear of Medea had come since the hour when he had
+seen her mount the car drawn by the scaly dragons. He could not think of
+her any more as the one who had been his companion on the _Argo_. He
+thought of her as one who could help him and do wonderful things for him,
+but not as one whom he could talk softly and lovingly to. Ah, but if Jason
+had thought less of his kingdom and less of his triumphing with the Fleece
+of Gold, Medea would not have had the dragons come to her.
+
+  And now that his love for Medea had altered, Jason noted the loveliness
+of another—of Glauce, the daughter of Creon, the King of Corinth. And
+Glauce, who had red lips and the eyes of a child, saw in Jason who had
+brought the Golden Fleece out of Colchis the image of every hero she had
+heard about in stories. Creon, the king, often brought Jason and Glauce
+together, for his hope was that the hero would wed his daughter and stay
+in Corinth and strengthen his kingdom. He thought that Medea, that strange
+woman, could not keep a companionship with Jason.
+
+  Two were walking in the king’s garden, and they were Jason and Glauce. A
+shadow fell between them, and when Jason looked up he saw Medea’s dragon
+car. Down flew the dragons, and Medea came from the car and stood between
+Jason and the princess. Angrily she spoke to him. “I have made the kingdom
+ready for your return,” she said, “but if you would go there you must
+first let me deal in my own way with this pretty maiden.” And so fiercely
+did Medea look upon her that Glauce shrank back and clung to Jason for
+protection. “O, Jason,” she cried, “thou didst say that I am such a one as
+thou didst dream of when in the forest with Chiron, before the adventure
+of the Golden Fleece drew thee away from the Grecian lands. Oh, save me
+now from the power of her who comes in the dragon car.” And Jason said: “I
+said all that thou hast said, and I will protect thee, O Glauce.”
+
+  And then Medea thought of the king’s house she had left for Jason, and
+of the brother whom she had let be slain, and of the plot she had carried
+out to bring Jason back to Iolcus, and a great fury came over her. In her
+hand she took foam from the jaws of the dragons, and she cast the foam
+upon Glauce, and the princess fell back into the arms of Jason with the
+dragon foam burning into her.
+
+  Then, seeing in his eyes that he had forgotten all that he owed to
+her—the winning of the Golden Fleece, and the safety of _Argo_, and the
+destruction of the power of King Pelias—seeing in his eyes that Jason had
+forgotten all this, Medea went into her dragon-borne car and spoke the
+words that made the scaly dragons bear her aloft. She flew from Corinth,
+leaving Jason in King Creon’s garden with Glauce dying in his arms. He
+lifted her up and laid her upon a bed, but even as her friends came around
+her the daughter of King Creon died.
+
+
+
+
+[Decorative first letter]
+_A_ND Jason? For long he stayed in Corinth, a famous man indeed, but one
+sorrowful and alone. But again there grew in him the desire to rule and to
+have possessions. He called around him again the men whose home was in
+Iolcus—those who had followed him as bright-eyed youths when he first
+proclaimed his purpose of winning the Fleece of Gold. He called them
+around him, and he led them on board the _Argo_. Once more they lifted
+sails, and once more they took the _Argo_ into the open sea.
+
+  Toward Iolcus they sailed; their passage was fortunate, and in a short
+time they brought the _Argo_ safely into the harbor of Pagasæ. Oh, happy
+were the crowds that came thronging to see the ship that had the famous
+Fleece of Gold upon her masthead, and green and sweet smelling were the
+garlands that the people brought to wreathe the heads of Jason and his
+companions! Jason looked upon the throngs, and he thought that much had
+gone from him, but he thought that whatever else had gone something
+remained to him—to be a king and a great ruler over a people.
+
+  And so Jason came back to Iolcus. The _Argo_ he made a blazing pile of
+in sacrifice to Poseidon, the god of the sea. The Golden Fleece he hung in
+the temple of the gods. Then he took up the rule of the kingdom that
+Cretheus had founded, and he became the greatest of the kings of Greece.
+
+  And to Iolcus there came, year after year, young men who would look upon
+the gleaming thing that was hung there in the temple of the gods. And as
+they looked upon it, young man after young man, the thought would come to
+each that he would make himself strong enough and heroic enough to win for
+his country something as precious as Jason’s GOLDEN FLEECE. And for all
+their lives they kept in mind the words that Jason had inscribed upon a
+pillar that was placed beside the Fleece of Gold—the words that Triton
+spoke to the Argonauts when they were fain to win their way out of the
+inland sea:—
+
+
+    THAT IS THE OUTLET TO THE SEA, WHERE THE DEEP WATER LIES UNMOVED
+    AND DARK; ON EACH SIDE ROLL WHITE BREAKERS WITH SHINING CRESTS;
+    AND THE WAY BETWEEN FOR YOUR PASSAGE OUT IS NARROW. BUT GO IN JOY,
+    AND AS FOR LABOR LET THERE BE NO GRIEVING THAT LIMBS IN YOUTHFUL
+    VIGOR SHOULD STILL TOIL.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE
+
+
+  The book received a Newbery Honor Award (1922).
+
+  Illustrations in the original appear on separate, unnumbered pages. In
+this transcription, wherever an illustration would break a paragraph, it
+was moved after the paragraph.
+
+  Obvious typographical errors were silently corrected.
+
+
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GOLDEN FLEECE AND THE HEROES WHO LIVED BEFORE ACHILLES***
+
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Golden Fleece and The Heroes Who Lived
+Before Achilles by Padraic Colum
+
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no
+restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under
+the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or
+online at http://www.gutenberg.org/license
+
+
+
+Title: The Golden Fleece and The Heroes Who Lived Before Achilles
+
+Author: Padraic Colum
+
+Release Date: October 29, 2011 [Ebook #37881]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO 8859-1
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GOLDEN FLEECE AND THE HEROES WHO LIVED BEFORE ACHILLES***
+
+
+
+
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+                             Jason and Medea
+
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+                            The Golden Fleece
+                            and the Heroes Who
+                          Lived before Achilles
+
+
+                             By Padraig Colum
+                      Illustrations by Willy Pogany
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                                   1921
+                     The Macmillan Company, New York
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                                    to
+                             the children of
+                        Susan and Llewellyn Jones
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+Part I. The Voyage to Colchis
+   I. The Youth Jason
+   II. King Pelias
+   III. The Golden Fleece
+   IV. The Assembling of the Heroes and the Building of the Ship
+   V. The _Argo_
+      The Beginning of Things
+   VI. Polydeuces' Victory and Heracles' Loss
+   VII. King Phineus
+   VIII. King Phineus's Counsel; The Landing in Lemnos
+   IX. The Lemnian Maidens
+      Demeter and Persephone
+      Atalanta's Race
+   X. The Departure from Lemnos
+      The Golden Maid
+   XI. The Passage of the Symplegades
+   XII. The Mountain Caucasus
+      Prometheus
+Part II. The Return to Greece
+   I. King �etes
+   II. Medea the Sorceress
+   III. The Winning of the Golden Fleece
+   IV. The Slaying of Apsyrtus
+   V. Medea Comes to Circe
+   VI. In the Land of the Ph�acians
+   VII. They Come to the Desert Land
+   VIII. The Carrying of the Argo
+      The Story of Perseus
+   IX. Near to Iolcus Again
+Part III. The Heroes of the Quest
+   I. Atalanta the Huntress
+   II. Peleus and His Bride from the Sea
+   III. Theseus and the Minotaur
+   IV. The Life and Labors of Heracles
+      The Battle of the Frogs and Mice
+   V. Admetus
+   VI. How Orpheus the Minstrel Went Down to the World of the Dead
+   VII. Jason and Medea
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+Jason and Medea
+the _Argo_
+Hylas
+Persephone and Aidoneus
+Atalanta's Last Race
+Prometheus
+The Field of the Dragon's Teeth
+Perseus and Andromeda
+
+
+
+
+
+
+PART I. THE VOYAGE TO COLCHIS
+
+
+
+
+I. The Youth Jason
+
+
+
+[Decorative first letter]
+_A_ MAN in the garb of a slave went up the side of that mountain that is
+all covered with forest, the Mountain Pelion. He carried in his arms a
+little child.
+
+  When it was full noon the slave came into a clearing of the forest so
+silent that it seemed empty of all life. He laid the child down on the
+soft moss, and then, trembling with the fear of what might come before
+him, he raised a horn to his lips and blew three blasts upon it.
+
+  Then he waited. The blue sky was above him, the great trees stood away
+from him, and the little child lay at his feet. He waited, and then he
+heard the thud-thud of great hooves. And then from between the trees he
+saw coming toward him the strangest of all beings, one who was half man
+and half horse; this was Chiron the centaur.
+
+  Chiron came toward the trembling slave. Greater than any horse was
+Chiron, taller than any man. The hair of his head flowed back into his
+horse's mane, his great beard flowed over his horse's chest; in his man's
+hand he held a great spear.
+
+  Not swiftly he came, but the slave could see that in those great limbs
+of his there was speed like to the wind's. The slave fell upon his knees.
+And with eyes that were full of majesty and wisdom and limbs that were
+full of strength and speed, the king-centaur stood above him. "O my lord,"
+the slave said, "I have come before thee sent by �son, my master, who told
+me where to come and what blasts to blow upon the horn. And �son, once
+King of Iolcus, bade me say to thee that if thou dost remember his ancient
+friendship with thee thou wilt, perchance, take this child and guard and
+foster him, and, as he grows, instruct him with thy wisdom."
+
+  "For �son's sake I will rear and foster this child," said Chiron the
+king-centaur in a deep voice.
+
+  The child lying on the moss had been looking up at the four-footed and
+two-handed centaur. Now the slave lifted him up and placed him in the
+centaur's arms. He said:
+
+  "�son bade me tell thee that the child's name is Jason. He bade me give
+thee this ring with the great ruby in it that thou mayst give it to the
+child when he is grown. By this ring with its ruby and the images engraved
+on it �son may know his son when they meet after many years and many
+changes. And another thing �son bade me say to thee, O my lord Chiron: not
+presumptuous is he, but he knows that this child has the regard of the
+immortal Goddess Hera, the wife of Zeus."
+
+  Chiron held �son's son in his arms, and the little child put hands into
+his great beard. Then the centaur said, "Let �son know that his son will
+be reared and fostered by me, and that, when they meet again, there will
+be ways by which they will be known to each other."
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+  Saying this Chiron the centaur, holding the child in his arms, went
+swiftly toward the forest arches; then the slave took up the horn and went
+down the side of the Mountain Pelion. He came to where a horse was hidden,
+and he mounted and rode, first to a city, and then to a village that was
+beyond the city.
+
+
+
+  All this was before the famous walls of Troy were built; before King
+Priam had come to the throne of his father and while he was still known,
+not as Priam, but as Podarces. And the beginning of all these happenings
+was in Iolcus, a city in Thessaly.
+
+  Cretheus founded the city and had ruled over it in days before King
+Priam was born. He left two sons, �son and Pelias. �son succeeded his
+father. And because he was a mild and gentle man the men of war did not
+love �son; they wanted a hard king who would lead them to conquests.
+
+  Pelias, the brother of �son, was ever with the men of war; he knew what
+mind they had toward �son and he plotted with them to overthrow his
+brother. This they did, and they brought Pelias to reign as king in
+Iolcus.
+
+  The people loved �son and they feared Pelias. And because the people
+loved him and would be maddened by his slaying, Pelias and the men of war
+left him living. With his wife, Alcimide, and his infant son, �son went
+from the city, and in a village that was at a distance from Iolcus he
+found a hidden house and went to dwell in it.
+
+  �son would have lived content there were it not that he was fearful for
+Jason, his infant son. Jason, he knew, would grow into a strong and a bold
+youth, and Pelias, the king, would be made uneasy on his account. Pelias
+would slay the son, and perhaps would slay the father for the son's sake
+when his memory would come to be less loved by the people. �son thought of
+such things in his hidden house, and he pondered on ways to have his son
+reared away from Iolcus and the dread and the power of King Pelias.
+
+  He had for a friend one who was the wisest of all creatures--Chiron the
+centaur; Chiron who was half man and half horse; Chiron who had lived and
+was yet to live measureless years. Chiron had fostered Heracles, and it
+might be that he would not refuse to foster Jason, �son's child.
+
+  Away in the fastnesses of Mount Pelion Chiron dwelt; once �son had been
+with him and had seen the centaur hunt with his great bow and his great
+spears. And �son knew a way that one might come to him; Chiron himself had
+told him of the way.
+
+  Now there was a slave in his house who had been a huntsman and who knew
+all the ways of the Mountain Pelion. �son talked with this slave one day,
+and after he had talked with him he sat for a long time over the cradle of
+his sleeping infant. And then he spoke to Alcimide, his wife, telling her
+of a parting that made her weep. That evening the slave came in and �son
+took the child from the arms of the mournful-eyed mother and put him in
+the slave's arms. Also he gave him a horn and a ring with a great ruby in
+it and mystic images engraved on its gold. Then when the ways were dark
+the slave mounted a horse, and, with the child in his arms, rode through
+the city that King Pelias ruled over. In the morning he came to that
+mountain that is all covered with forest, the Mountain Pelion. And that
+evening he came back to the village and to �son's hidden house, and he
+told his master how he had prospered.
+
+  �son was content thereafter although he was lonely and although his wife
+was lonely in their childlessness. But the time came when they rejoiced
+that their child had been sent into an unreachable place. For messengers
+from King Pelias came inquiring about the boy. They told the king's
+messengers that the child had strayed off from his nurse, and that whether
+he had been slain by a wild beast or had been drowned in the swift River
+Anaurus they did not know.
+
+  The years went by and Pelias felt secure upon the throne he had taken
+from his brother. Once he sent to the oracle of the gods to ask of it
+whether he should be fearful of anything. What the oracle answered was
+this: that King Pelias had but one thing to dread--the coming of a
+half-shod man.
+
+  The centaur nourished the child Jason on roots and fruits and honey; for
+shelter they had a great cave that Chiron had lived in for numberless
+years. When he had grown big enough to leave the cave Chiron would let
+Jason mount on his back; with the child holding on to his great mane he
+would trot gently through the ways of the forest.
+
+  Jason began to know the creatures of the forest and their haunts.
+Sometimes Chiron would bring his great bow with him; then Jason, on his
+back, would hold the quiver and would hand him the arrows. The centaur
+would let the boy see him kill with a single arrow the bear, the boar, or
+the deer. And soon Jason, running beside him, hunted too.
+
+  No heroes were ever better trained than those whose childhood and youth
+had been spent with Chiron the king-centaur. He made them more swift of
+foot than any other of the children of men. He made them stronger and more
+ready with the spear and bow. Jason was trained by Chiron as Heracles just
+before him had been trained, and as Achilles was to be trained afterward.
+
+  Moreover, Chiron taught him the knowledge of the stars and the wisdom
+that had to do with the ways of the gods.
+
+  Once, when they were hunting together, Jason saw a form at the end of an
+alley of trees--the form of a woman it was--of a woman who had on her head a
+shining crown. Never had Jason dreamt of seeing a form so wondrous. Not
+very near did he come, but he thought he knew that the woman smiled upon
+him. She was seen no more, and Jason knew that he had looked upon one of
+the immortal goddesses.
+
+  All day Jason was filled with thought of her whom he had seen. At night,
+when the stars were out, and when they were seated outside the cave,
+Chiron and Jason talked together, and Chiron told the youth that she whom
+he had seen was none other than Hera, the wife of Zeus, who had for his
+father �son and for himself an especial friendliness.
+
+  So Jason grew up upon the mountain and in the forest fastnesses. When he
+had reached his full height and had shown himself swift in the hunt and
+strong with the spear and bow, Chiron told him that the time had come when
+he should go back to the world of men and make his name famous by the
+doing of great deeds.
+
+  And when Chiron told him about his father �son--about how he had been
+thrust out of the kingship by Pelias, his uncle--a great longing came upon
+Jason to see his father and a fierce anger grew up in his heart against
+Pelias.
+
+  Then the time came when he bade good-by to Chiron his great instructor;
+the time came when he went from the centaur's cave for the last time, and
+went through the wooded ways and down the side of the Mountain Pelion. He
+came to the river, to the swift Anaurus, and he found it high in flood.
+The stones by which one might cross were almost all washed over; far apart
+did they seem in the flood.
+
+  Now as he stood there pondering on what he might do there came up to him
+an old woman who had on her back a load of brushwood. "Wouldst thou
+cross?" asked the old woman. "Wouldst thou cross and get thee to the city
+of Iolcus, Jason, where so many things await thee?"
+
+  Greatly was the youth astonished to hear his name spoken by this old
+woman, and to hear her give the name of the city he was bound for.
+"Wouldst thou cross the Anaurus?" she asked again. "Then mount upon my
+back, holding on to the wood I carry, and I will bear thee over the
+river."
+
+  Jason smiled. How foolish this old woman was to think that she could
+bear him across the flooded river! She came near him and she took him in
+her arms and lifted him up on her shoulders. Then, before he knew what she
+was about to do, she had stepped into the water.
+
+  From stone to stepping-stone she went, Jason holding on to the wood that
+she had drawn to her shoulders. She left him down upon the bank. As she
+was lifting him down one of his feet touched the water; the swift current
+swept away a sandal.
+
+  He stood on the bank knowing that she who had carried him across the
+flooded river had strength from the gods. He looked upon her, and behold!
+she was transformed. Instead of an old woman there stood before him one
+who had on a golden robe and a shining crown. Around her was a wondrous
+light--the light of the sun when it is most golden. Then Jason knew that
+she who had carried him across the broad Anaurus was the goddess whom he
+had seen in the ways of the forest--Hera, great Zeus's wife.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+  "Go into Iolcus, Jason," said great Hera to him, "go into Iolcus, and in
+whatever chance doth befall thee act as one who has the eyes of the
+immortals upon him."
+
+  She spoke and she was seen no more. Then Jason went on his way to the
+city that Cretheus, his grandfather, had founded and that his father �son
+had once ruled over. He came into that city, a tall, great-limbed, unknown
+youth, dressed in a strange fashion, and having but one sandal on.
+
+
+
+
+II. King Pelias
+
+
+
+[Decorative first letter]
+_T_HAT day King Pelias, walking through the streets of his city, saw
+coming toward him a youth who was half shod. He remembered the words of
+the oracle that bade him beware of a half-shod man, and straightway he
+gave orders to his guards to lay hands upon the youth.
+
+  But the guards wavered when they went toward him, for there was
+something about the youth that put them in awe of him. He came with the
+guards, however, and he stood before the king's judgment seat.
+
+  Fearfully did Pelias look upon him. But not fearfully did the youth look
+upon the king. With head lifted high he cried out, "Thou art Pelias, but I
+do not salute thee as king. Know that I am Jason, the son of �son from
+whom thou hast taken the throne and scepter that were rightfully his."
+
+  King Pelias looked to his guards. He would have given them a sign to
+destroy the youth's life with their spears, but behind his guards he saw a
+threatening multitude--the dwellers of the city of Iolcus; they gathered
+around, and Pelias knew that he had become more and more hated by them.
+And from the multitude a cry went up, "�son, �son! May �son come back to
+us! Jason, son of �son! May nothing evil befall thee, brave youth!"
+
+  Then Pelias knew that the youth might not be slain. He bent his head
+while he plotted against him in his heart. Then he raised his eyes, and
+looking upon Jason he said, "O goodly youth, it well may be that thou art
+the son of �son, my brother. I am well pleased to see thee here. I have
+had hopes that I might be friends with �son, and thy coming here may be
+the means to the renewal of our friendship. We two brothers may come
+together again. I will send for thy father now, and he will be brought to
+meet thee in my royal palace. Go with my guards and with this rejoicing
+people, and in a little while thou and I and thy father �son will sit at a
+feast of friends."
+
+  So Pelias said, and Jason went with the guards and the crowd of people,
+and he came to the palace of the king and he was brought within. The maids
+led him to the bath and gave him new robes to wear. Dressed in these Jason
+looked a prince indeed.
+
+  But all that while King Pelias remained on his judgment seat with his
+crowned head bent down. When he raised his head his dark brows were
+gathered together and his thin lips were very close. He looked to the
+swords and spears of his guards, and he made a sign to the men to stand
+close to him. Then he left the judgment seat and he went to the palace.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+III. The Golden Fleece
+
+
+
+[Decorative first letter]
+_T_HEY brought Jason into a hall where �son, his father, waited. Very
+strange did this old and grave-looking man appear to him. But when �son
+spoke, Jason remembered the tone of his father's voice and he clasped him
+to him. And his father knew him even without the sight of the ruby ring
+which Jason had upon his finger.
+
+  Then the young man began to tell of the centaur and of his life upon the
+Mountain Pelion. As they were speaking together Pelias came to where they
+stood, Pelias in the purple robe of a king and with the crown upon his
+head. �son tightly clasped Jason as if he had become fearful for his son.
+Pelias smilingly took the hand of the young man and the hand of his
+brother, and he bade them both welcome to his palace.
+
+  Then, walking between them, the king brought the two into the feasting
+hall. The youth who had known only the forest and the mountainside had to
+wonder at the beauty and the magnificence of all he saw around him. On the
+walls were bright pictures; the tables were of polished wood, and they had
+vessels of gold and dishes of silver set upon them; along the walls were
+vases of lovely shapes and colors, and everywhere there were baskets
+heaped with roses white and red.
+
+  The king's guests were already in the hall, young men and elders, and
+maidens went amongst them carrying roses which they strung into wreaths
+for the guests to put upon their heads. A soft-handed maiden gave Jason a
+wreath of roses and he put it on his head as he sat down at the king's
+table. When he looked at all the rich and lovely things in that hall, and
+when he saw the guests looking at him with friendly eyes, Jason felt that
+he was indeed far away from the dim spaces of the mountain forest and from
+the darkness of the centaur's cave.
+
+  Rich food and wine such as he had never dreamt of tasting were brought
+to the tables. He ate and drank, and his eyes followed the fair maidens
+who went through the hall. He thought how glorious it was to be a king. He
+heard Pelias speak to �son, his father, telling him that he was old and
+that he was weary of ruling; that he longed to make friends, and that he
+would let no enmity now be between him and his brother. And he heard the
+king say that he, Jason, was young and courageous, and that he would call
+upon him to help to rule the land, and that, in a while, Jason would bear
+full sway over the kingdom that Cretheus had founded.
+
+  So Pelias spoke to �son as they both sat together at the king's high
+table. But Jason, looking on them both, saw that the eyes that his father
+turned on him were full of warnings and mistrust.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+  After they had eaten King Pelias made a sign, and a cup-bearer bringing
+a richly wrought cup came and stood before the king. The king stood up,
+holding the cup in his hands, and all in the hall waited silently. Then
+Pelias put the cup into Jason's hands and he cried out in a voice that was
+heard all through the hall, "Drink from this cup, O nephew Jason! Drink
+from this cup, O man who will soon come to rule over the kingdom that
+Cretheus founded!"
+
+  All in the hall stood up and shouted with delight at that speech. But
+the king was not delighted with their delight, Jason saw. He took the cup
+and he drank the rich wine; pride grew in him; he looked down the hall and
+he saw faces all friendly to him; he felt as a king might feel, secure and
+triumphant. And then he heard King Pelias speaking once more.
+
+  "This is my nephew Jason, reared and fostered in the centaur's cave. He
+will tell you of his life in the forest and the mountains--his life that
+was like to the life of the half gods."
+
+  Then Jason spoke to them, telling them of his life on the Mountain
+Pelion. When he had spoken, Pelias said:
+
+  "I was bidden by the oracle to beware of the man whom I should see
+coming toward me half shod. But, as you all see, I have brought the
+half-shod man to my palace and my feasting hall, so little do I dread the
+anger of the gods.
+
+  "And I dread it little because I am blameless. This youth, the son of my
+brother, is strong and courageous, and I rejoice in his strength and
+courage, for I would have him take my place and reign over you. Ah, that I
+were as young as he is now! Ah, that I had been reared and fostered as he
+was reared and fostered by the wise centaur and under the eyes of the
+immortals! Then would I do that which in my youth I often dreamed of
+doing! Then would I perform a deed that would make my name and the name of
+my city famous throughout all Greece! Then would I bring from far Colchis
+the famous Fleece of Gold that King �etes keeps guard over!"
+
+  He finished speaking, and all in the hall shouted out, "The Golden
+Fleece, the Golden Fleece from Colchis!" Jason stood up, and his father's
+hand gripped him. But he did not heed the hold of his father's hand, for
+"The Golden Fleece, the Golden Fleece!" rang in his ears, and before his
+eyes were the faces of those who were all eager for the sight of the
+wonder that King �etes kept guard over.
+
+  Then said Jason, "Thou hast spoken well, O King Pelias! Know, and know
+all here assembled, that I have heard of the Golden Fleece and of the
+dangers that await on any one who should strive to win it from King
+�etes's care. But know, too, that I would strive to win the Fleece and
+bring it to Iolcus, winning fame both for myself and for the city."
+
+  When he had spoken he saw his father's stricken eyes; they were fixed
+upon him. But he looked from them to the shining eyes of the young men who
+were even then pressing around where he stood. "Jason, Jason!" they
+shouted. "The Golden Fleece for Iolcus!"
+
+  "King Pelias knows that the winning of the Golden Fleece is a feat most
+difficult," said Jason. "But if he will have built for me a ship that can
+make the voyage to far Colchis, and if he will send throughout all Greece
+the word of my adventuring so that all the heroes who would win fame might
+come with me, and if ye, young heroes of Iolcus, will come with me, I will
+peril my life to win the wonder that King �etes keeps guard over."
+
+  He spoke and those in the hall shouted again and made clamor around him.
+But still his father sat gazing at him with stricken eyes.
+
+  King Pelias stood up in the hall and holding up his scepter he said, "O
+my nephew Jason, and O friends assembled here, I promise that I will have
+built for the voyage the best ship that ever sailed from a harbor in
+Greece. And I promise that I will send throughout all Greece a word
+telling of Jason's voyage so that all heroes desirous of winning fame may
+come to help him and to help all of you who may go with him to win from
+the keeping of King �etes the famous Fleece of Gold."
+
+  So King Pelias said, but Jason, looking to the king from his father's
+stricken eyes, saw that he had been led by the king into the acceptance of
+the voyage so that he might fare far from Iolcus, and perhaps lose his
+life in striving to gain the wonder that King �etes kept guarded. By the
+glitter in Pelias's eyes he knew the truth. Nevertheless Jason would not
+take back one word that he had spoken; his heart was strong within him,
+and he thought that with the help of the bright-eyed youths around and
+with the help of those who would come to him at the word of the voyage, he
+would bring the Golden Fleece to Iolcus and make famous for all time his
+own name.
+
+
+
+
+IV. The Assembling of the Heroes and the Building of the Ship
+
+
+
+[Decorative first letter]
+_F_IRST there came the youths CASTOR and POLYDEUCES. They came riding on
+white horses, two noble-looking brothers. From Sparta they came, and their
+mother was Leda, who, after the twin brothers, had another child born to
+her--Helen, for whose sake the sons of many of Jason's friends were to wage
+war against the great city of Troy. These were the first heroes who came
+to Iolcus after the word had gone forth through Greece of Jason's
+adventuring in quest of the Golden Fleece.
+
+  And then there came one who had both welcome and reverence from Jason;
+this one came without spear or bow, bearing in his hands a lyre only. He
+was ORPHEUS, and he knew all the ways of the gods and all the stories of
+the gods; when he sang to his lyre the trees would listen and the beasts
+would follow him. It was Chiron who had counseled Orpheus to go with
+Jason; Chiron the centaur had met him as he was wandering through the
+forests on the Mountain Pelion and had sent him down into Iolcus.
+
+  Then there came two men well skilled in the handling of ships--TIPHYS and
+NAUPLIUS. Tiphys knew all about the sun and winds and stars, and all about
+the signs by which a ship might be steered, and Nauplius had the love of
+Poseidon, the god of the sea.
+
+  Afterward there came, one after the other, two who were famous for their
+hunting. No two could be more different than these two were. The first was
+ARCAS. He was dressed in the skin of a bear; he had red hair and
+savage-looking eyes, and for arms he carried a mighty bow with
+bronze-tipped arrows. The folk were watching an eagle as he came into the
+city--an eagle that was winging its way far, far up in the sky. Arcas drew
+his bow, and with one arrow he brought the eagle down.
+
+  The other hunter was a girl, ATALANTA. Tall and bright-haired was
+Atalanta, swift and good with the bow. She had dedicated herself to
+Artemis, the guardian of the wild things, and she had vowed that she would
+remain unwedded. All the heroes welcomed Atalanta as a comrade, and the
+maiden did all the things that the young men did.
+
+  There came a hero who was less youthful than Castor or Polydeuces; he
+was a man good in council named NESTOR. Afterward Nestor went to the war
+against Troy, and then he was the oldest of the heroes in the camp of
+Agamemnon.
+
+  Two brothers came who were to be special friends of Jason's--PELEUS and
+TELAMON. Both were still youthful and neither had yet achieved any notable
+deed. Afterward they were to be famous, but their sons were to be even
+more famous, for the son of Telamon was strong Aias, and the son of Peleus
+was great Achilles.
+
+  Another who came was ADMETUS; afterward he became a famous king. The God
+Apollo once made himself a shepherd and he kept the flocks of King
+Admetus.
+
+  And there came two brothers, twins, who were a wonder to all who beheld
+them. ZETES and CALAIS they were named; their mother was Oreithyia, the
+daughter of Erechtheus, King of Athens, and their father was Boreas, the
+North Wind. These two brothers had on their ankles wings that gleamed with
+golden scales; their black hair was thick upon their shoulders, and it was
+always being shaken by the wind.
+
+  With Zetes and Calais there came a youth armed with a great sword whose
+name was THESEUS. Theseus's father was an unknown king; he had bidden the
+mother show their son where his sword was hidden. Under a great stone the
+king had hidden it before Theseus was born. Before he had grown out of his
+boyhood Theseus had been able to raise the stone and draw forth his
+father's sword. As yet he had done no great deed, but he was resolved to
+win fame and to find his unknown father.
+
+
+
+  On the day that the messengers had set out to bring through Greece the
+word of Jason's going forth in quest of the Golden Fleece the woodcutters
+made their way up into the forests of Mount Pelion; they began to fell
+trees for the timbers of the ship that was to make the voyage to far
+Colchis.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+  Great timbers were cut and brought down to Pagas�, the harbor of Iolcus.
+On the night of the day he had helped to bring them down Jason had a
+dream. He dreamt that She whom he had seen in the forest ways and
+afterward by the River Anaurus appeared to him. And in his dream the
+goddess bade him rise early in the morning and welcome a man whom he would
+meet at the city's gate--a tall and gray-haired man who would have on his
+shoulders tools for the building of a ship.
+
+  He went to the city's gate and he met such a man. ARGUS was his name. He
+told Jason that a dream had sent him to the city of Iolcus. Jason welcomed
+him and lodged him in the king's palace, and that day the word went
+through the city that the building of the great ship would soon be begun.
+
+  But not with the timbers brought from Mount Pelion did Argus begin.
+Walking through the palace with Jason he noted a great beam in the roof.
+That beam, he said, had been shown him in his dream; it was from an oak
+tree in Dodona, the grove of Zeus. A sacred power was in the beam, and
+from it the prow of the ship should be fashioned. Jason had them take the
+beam from the roof of the palace; it was brought to where the timbers
+were, and that day the building of the great ship was begun.
+
+  Then all along the waterside came the noise of hammering; in the street
+where the metalworkers were came the noise of beating upon metals as the
+smiths fashioned out of bronze armor for the heroes and swords and spears.
+Every day, under the eyes of Argus the master, the ship that had in it the
+beam from Zeus's grove was built higher and wider. And those who were
+building the ship often felt going through it tremors as of a living
+creature.
+
+
+
+  When the ship was built and made ready for the voyage a name was given
+to it--the ARGO it was called. And naming themselves from the ship the
+heroes called themselves the ARGONAUTS. All was ready for the voyage, and
+now Jason went with his friends to view the ship before she was brought
+into the water.
+
+  Argus the master was on the ship, seeing to it that the last things were
+being done before _Argo_ was launched. Very grave and wise looked
+Argus--Argus the builder of the ship. And wonderful to the heroes the ship
+looked now that Argus, for their viewing, had set up the mast with the
+sails and had even put the oars in their places. Wonderful to the heroes
+_Argo_ looked with her long oars and her high sails, with her timbers
+painted red and gold and blue, and with a marvelous figure carved upon her
+prow. All over the ship Jason's eyes went. He saw a figure standing by the
+mast; for a moment he looked on it, and then the figure became shadowy.
+But Jason knew that he had looked upon the goddess whom he had seen in the
+ways of the forest and had seen afterward by the rough Anaurus.
+
+  Then mast and sails were taken down and the oars were left in the ship,
+and the _Argo_ was launched into the water. The heroes went back to the
+palace of King Pelias to feast with the king's guests before they took
+their places on the ship, setting out on the voyage to far Colchis.
+
+  When they came into the palace they saw that another hero had arrived.
+His shield was hung in the hall; the heroes all gathered around, amazed at
+the size and the beauty of it. The shield shone all over with gold. In its
+center was the figure of Fear--of Fear that stared backward with eyes
+burning as with fire. The mouth was open and the teeth were shown. And
+other figures were wrought around the figure of Fear--Strife and Pursuit
+and Flight; Tumult and Panic and Slaughter. The figure of Fate was there
+dragging a dead man by the feet; on her shoulders Fate had a garment that
+was red with the blood of men.
+
+  Around these figures were heads of snakes, heads with black jaws and
+glittering eyes, twelve heads such as might affright any man. And on other
+parts of the shield were shown the horses of Ares, the grim god of war.
+The figure of Ares himself was shown also. He held a spear in his hand,
+and he was urging the warriors on.
+
+  Around the inner rim of the shield the sea was shown, wrought in white
+metal. Dolphins swam in the sea, fishing for little fishes that were shown
+there in bronze. Around the rim chariots were racing along with wheels
+running close together; there were men fighting and women watching from
+high towers. The awful figure of the Darkness of Death was shown there,
+too, with mournful eyes and the dust of battles upon her shoulders. The
+outer rim of the shield showed the Stream of Ocean, the stream that
+encircles the world; swans were soaring above and swimming on its surface.
+
+  All in wonder the heroes gazed on the great shield, telling each other
+that only one man in all the world could carry it--Heracles the son of
+Zeus. Could it be that Heracles had come amongst them? They went into the
+feasting hall and they saw one there who was tall as a pine tree, with
+unshorn tresses of hair upon his head. Heracles indeed it was! He turned
+to them a smiling face with smiling eyes. Heracles! They all gathered
+around the strongest hero in the world, and he took the hand of each in
+his mighty hand.
+
+
+
+
+V. The _Argo_
+
+
+
+[Decorative first letter]
+_T_HE heroes went the next day through the streets of Iolcus down to where
+the ship lay. The ways they went through were crowded; the heroes were
+splendid in their appearance, and Jason amongst them shone like a star.
+
+  The people praised him, and one told the other that it would not be long
+until they would win back to Iolcus, for this band of heroes was strong
+enough, they said, to take King �etes's city and force him to give up to
+them the famous Fleece of Gold. Many of the bright-eyed youths of Iolcus
+went with the heroes who had come from the different parts of Greece.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+                                the _Argo_
+
+
+  As they marched past a temple a priestess came forth to speak to Jason;
+Iphias was her name. She had a prophecy to utter about the voyage. But
+Iphias was very old, and she stammered in her speech to Jason. What she
+said was not heard by him. The heroes went on, and ancient Iphias was left
+standing there as the old are left by the young.
+
+  The heroes went aboard the _Argo_. They took their seats as at an
+assembly. Then Jason faced them and spoke to them all.
+
+  "Heroes of the quest," said Jason, "we have come aboard the great ship
+that Argus has built, and all that a ship needs is in its place or is
+ready to our hands. All that we wait for now is the coming of the
+morning's breeze that will set us on our way for far Colchis.
+
+  "One thing we have first to do--that is, to choose a leader who will
+direct us all, one who will settle disputes amongst ourselves and who will
+make treaties between us and the strangers that we come amongst. We must
+choose such a leader now."
+
+  Jason spoke, and some looked to him and some looked to Heracles. But
+Heracles stood up, and, stretching out his hand, said:
+
+  "Argonauts! Let no one amongst you offer the leadership to me. I will
+not take it. The hero who brought us together and made all things ready
+for our going--it is he and no one else who should be our leader in this
+voyage."
+
+  So Heracles said, and the Argonauts all stood up and raised a cry for
+Jason. Then Jason stepped forward, and he took the hand of each Argonaut
+in his hand, and he swore that he would lead them with all the mind and
+all the courage that he possessed. And he prayed the gods that it would be
+given to him to lead them back safely with the Golden Fleece glittering on
+the mast of the _Argo_.
+
+  They drew lots for the benches they would sit at; they took the places
+that for the length of the voyage they would have on the ship. They made
+sacrifice to the gods and they waited for the breeze of the morning that
+would help them away from Iolcus.
+
+
+
+  And while they waited �son, the father of Jason, sat at his own hearth,
+bowed and silent in his grief. Alcimide, his wife, sat near him, but she
+was not silent; she lamented to the women of Iolcus who were gathered
+around her. "I did not go down to the ship," she said, "for with my grief
+I would not be a bird of ill omen for the voyage. By this hearth my son
+took farewell of me--the only son I ever bore. From the doorway I watched
+him go down the street of the city, and I heard the people shout as he
+went amongst them, they glorying in my son's splendid appearance. Ah, that
+I might live to see his return and to hear the shout that will go up when
+the people look on Jason again! But I know that my life will not be spared
+so long; I will not look on my son when he comes back from the dangers he
+will run in the quest of the Golden Fleece."
+
+  Then the women of Iolcus asked her to tell them of the Golden Fleece,
+and Alcimide told them of it and of the sorrows that were upon the race of
+�olus.
+
+  Cretheus, the father of �son and Pelias, was of the race of �olus, and
+of the race of �olus, too, was Athamas, the king who ruled in Thebes at
+the same time that Cretheus ruled in Iolcus. And the first children of
+Athamas were Phrixus and Helle.
+
+  "Ah, Phrixus and ah, Helle," Alcimide lamented, "what griefs you have
+brought on the race of �olus! And what griefs you yourselves suffered! The
+evil that Athamas, your father, did you lives to be a curse to the line of
+�olus!
+
+  "Athamas was wedded first to Nephele, the mother of Phrixus and Helle,
+the youth and maiden. But Athamas married again while the mother of these
+children was still living, and Ino, the new queen, drove Nephele and her
+children out of the king's palace.
+
+  "And now was Nephele most unhappy. She had to live as a servant, and her
+children were servants to the servants of the palace. They were clad in
+rags and had little to eat, and they were beaten often by the servants who
+wished to win the favor of the new queen.
+
+  "But although they wore rags and had menial tasks to do, Phrixus and
+Helle looked the children of a queen. The boy was tall, and in his eyes
+there often came the flash of power, and the girl looked as if she would
+grow into a lovely maiden. And when Athamas, their father, would meet them
+by chance he would sigh, and Queen Ino would know by that sigh that he had
+still some love for them in his heart. Afterward she would have to use all
+the power she possessed to win the king back from thinking upon his
+children.
+
+  "And now Queen Ino had children of her own. She knew that the people
+reverenced the children of Nephele and cared nothing for her children. And
+because she knew this she feared that when Athamas died Phrixus and Helle,
+the children of Nephele, would be brought to rule in Thebes. Then she and
+her children would be made to change places with them.
+
+  "This made Queen Ino think on ways by which she could make Phrixus and
+Helle lose their lives. She thought long upon this, and at last a
+desperate plan came into her mind.
+
+  "When it was winter she went amongst the women of the countryside, and
+she gave them jewels and clothes for presents. Then she asked them to do
+secretly an unheard-of thing. She asked the women to roast over their
+fires the grains that had been left for seed. This the women did. Then
+spring came on, and the men sowed in the fields the grain that had been
+roasted over the fires. No shoots grew up as the spring went by. In summer
+there was no waving greenness in the fields. Autumn came, and there was no
+grain for the reaping. Then the men, not knowing what had happened, went
+to King Athamas and told him that there would be famine in the land.
+
+  "The king sent to the temple of Artemis to ask how the people might be
+saved from the famine. And the guardians of the temple, having taken gold
+from Queen Ino, told them that there would be worse and worse famine and
+that all the people of Thebes would die of hunger unless the king was
+willing to make a great sacrifice.
+
+  "When the king asked what sacrifice he should make he was told by the
+guardians of the temple that he must sacrifice to the goddess his two
+children, Phrixus and Helle. Those who were around the king, to save
+themselves from famine after famine, clamored to have the children
+sacrificed. Athamas, to save his people, consented to the sacrifice.
+
+  "They went toward the king's palace. They found Helle by the bank of the
+river washing clothes. They took her and bound her. They found Phrixus,
+half naked, digging in a field, and they took him, too, and bound him.
+That night they left brother and sister in the same prison. Helle wept
+over Phrixus, and Phrixus wept to think that he was not able to do
+anything to save his sister.
+
+  "The servants of the palace went to Nephele, and they mocked at her,
+telling her that her children would be sacrificed on the morrow. Nephele
+nearly went wild in her grief. And then, suddenly, there came into her
+mind the thought of a creature that might be a helper to her and to her
+children.
+
+  "This creature was a ram that had wings and a wonderful fleece of gold.
+The god of the sea, Poseidon, had sent this wonderful ram to Athamas and
+Nephele as a marriage gift. And the ram had since been kept in a special
+fold.
+
+  "To that fold Nephele went. She spent the night beside the ram praying
+for its help. The morning came and the children were taken from their
+prison and dressed in white, and wreaths were put upon their heads to mark
+them as things for sacrifice. They were led in a procession to the temple
+of Artemis. Behind that procession King Athamas walked, his head bowed in
+shame.
+
+  "But Queen Ino's head was not bowed; rather she carried it high, for her
+thought was all upon her triumph. Soon Phrixus and Helle would be dead,
+and then, whatever happened, her own children would reign after Athamas in
+Thebes.
+
+  "Phrixus and Helle, thinking they were taking their last look at the
+sun, went on. And even then Nephele, holding the horns of the golden ram,
+was making her last prayer. The sun rose and as it did the ram spread out
+its great wings and flew through the air. It flew to the temple of
+Artemis. Down beside the altar came the golden ram, and it stood with its
+horns threatening those who came. All stopped in surprise. Still the ram
+stood with threatening head and great golden wings spread out. Then
+Phrixus ran from those who were holding him and laid his hands upon the
+ram. He called to Helle and she, too, came to the golden creature. Phrixus
+mounted on the ram and he pulled Helle up beside him. Then the golden ram
+flew upward. Up, up, it went, and with the children upon its back it
+became like a star in the day-lit sky.
+
+  "Then Queen Ino, seeing the children saved by the golden ram, shrieked
+and fled away from that place. Athamas ran after her. As she ran and as he
+followed hatred for her grew up within him. Ino ran on and on until she
+came to the cliffs that rose over the sea. Fearing Athamas who came behind
+her she plunged down. But as she fell she was changed by Poseidon, the god
+of the sea. She became a seagull. Athamas, who followed her, was changed
+also; he became the sea eagle that, with beak and talons ever ready to
+strike, flies above the sea.
+
+  "And the golden ram with wings outspread flew on and on. Over the sea it
+flew while the wind whistled around the children. On and on they went, and
+the children saw only the blue sea beneath them. Then poor Helle, looking
+downward, grew dizzy. She fell off the golden ram before her brother could
+take hold of her. Down she fell, and still the ram flew on and on. She was
+drowned in that sea. The people afterward named it in memory of her,
+calling it 'Hellespont'--'Helle's Sea.'
+
+  "On and on the ram flew. Over a wild and barren country it flew and
+toward a river. Upon that river a white city was built. Down the ram flew,
+and alighting on the ground, stood before the gate of that city. It was
+the city of Aea, in the land of Colchis.
+
+  "The king was in the street of the city, and he joined with the crowd
+that gathered around the strange golden creature that had a youth upon its
+back. The ram folded its wings and then the youth stood beside it. He
+spoke to the people, and then the king--�etes was his name--spoke to him,
+asking him from what place he had come, and what was the strange creature
+upon whose back he had flown.
+
+  "To the king and to the people Phrixus told his story, weeping to tell
+of Helle and her fall. Then King �etes brought him into the city, and he
+gave him a place in the palace, and for the golden ram he had a special
+fold made.
+
+  "Soon after the ram died, and then King �etes took its golden fleece and
+hung it upon an oak tree that was in a place dedicated to Ares, the god of
+war. Phrixus wed one of the daughters of the king, and men say that
+afterward he went back to Thebes, his own land.
+
+  "And as for the Golden Fleece it became the greatest of King �etes's
+treasures. Well indeed does he guard it, and not with armed men only, but
+with magic powers. Very strong and very cunning is King �etes, and a
+terrible task awaits those who would take away from him that Fleece of
+Gold."
+
+
+
+  So Alcimide spoke, sorrowfully telling to the women the story of the
+Golden Fleece that her son Jason was going in quest of. So she spoke, and
+the night waned, and the morning of the sailing of the _Argo_ came on.
+
+  And when the Argonauts beheld the dawn upon the high peaks of Pelion
+they arose and poured out wine in offering to Zeus, the highest of the
+gods. Then _Argo_ herself gave forth a strange cry, for the beam from
+Dodona that had been formed into her prow had endued her with life. She
+uttered a strange cry, and as she did the heroes took their places at the
+benches, one after the other, as had been arranged by lot, and Tiphys, the
+helmsman, went to the steering place. To the sound of Orpheus's lyre they
+smote with oars the rushing sea water, and the surge broke over the oar
+blades. The sails were let out and the breeze came into them, piping
+shrilly, and the fishes came darting through the green sea, great and
+small, and followed them, gamboling along the watery paths. And Chiron,
+the king-centaur, came down from the Mountain Pelion, and standing with
+his feet in the foam cried out, "Good speed, O Argonauts, good speed, and
+a sorrowless return."
+
+
+
+The Beginning of Things
+
+
+  Orpheus sang to his lyre, Orpheus the minstrel, who knew the ways and
+the stories of the gods; out in the open sea on the first morning of the
+voyage Orpheus sang to them of the beginning of things.
+
+  He sang how at first Earth and Heaven and Sea were all mixed and mingled
+together. There was neither Light nor Darkness then, but only a Dimness.
+This was Chaos. And from Chaos came forth Night and Erebus. From Night was
+born �ther, the Upper Air, and from Night and Erebus wedded there was born
+Day.
+
+  And out of Chaos came Earth, and out of Earth came the starry Heaven.
+And from Heaven and Earth wedded there were born the Titan gods and
+goddesses--Oceanus, Coeus, Crius, Hyperion, Iapetus; Theia, Rhea, Themis,
+Mnemosyne, gold-crowned Phoebe, and lovely Tethys. And then Heaven and
+Earth had for their child Cronos, the most cunning of all.
+
+  Cronos wedded Rhea, and from Cronos and Rhea were born the gods who were
+different from the Titan gods.
+
+  But Heaven and Earth had other children--Cottus, Briareus, and Gyes.
+These were giants, each with fifty heads and a hundred arms. And Heaven
+grew fearful when he looked on these giant children, and he hid them away
+in the deep places of the Earth.
+
+  Cronos hated Heaven, his father. He drove Heaven, his father, and Earth,
+his mother, far apart. And far apart they stay, for they have never been
+able to come near each other since. And Cronos married to Rhea had for
+children Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Aidoneus, and Poseidon, and these all
+belonged to the company of the deathless gods. Cronos was fearful that one
+of his sons would treat him as he had treated Heaven, his father. So when
+another child was born to him and his wife Rhea he commanded that the
+child be given to him so that he might swallow him. But Rhea wrapped a
+great stone in swaddling clothes and gave the stone to Cronos. And Cronos
+swallowed the stone, thinking to swallow his latest-born child.
+
+  That child was Zeus. Earth took Zeus and hid him in a deep cave and
+those who minded and nursed the child beat upon drums so that his cries
+might not be heard. His nurse was Adrastia; when he was able to play she
+gave him a ball to play with. All of gold was the ball, with a dark-blue
+spiral around it. When the boy Zeus would play with this ball it would
+make a track across the sky, flaming like a star.
+
+  Hyperion the Titan god wed Theia the Titan goddess, and their children
+were Helios, the bright Sun, and Selene, the clear Moon. And Coeus wed
+Phoebe, and their children were Leto, who is kind to gods and men, and
+Asteria of happy name, and Hecate, whom Zeus honored above all. Now the
+gods who were the children of Cronos and Rhea went up unto the Mountain
+Olympus, and there they built their shining palaces. But the Titan gods
+who were born of Heaven and Earth went up to the Mountain Othrys, and
+there they had their thrones.
+
+  Between the Olympians and the Titan gods of Othrys a war began. Neither
+side might prevail against the other. But now Zeus, grown up to be a
+youth, thought of how he might help the Olympians to overthrow the Titan
+gods.
+
+  He went down into the deep parts of the Earth where the giants Cottus,
+Briareus, and Gyes had been hidden by their father. Cronos had bound them,
+weighing them down with chains. But now Zeus loosed them and the
+hundred-armed giants in their gratitude gave him the lightning and showed
+him how to use the thunderbolt.
+
+  Zeus would have the giants fight against the Titan gods. But although
+they had mighty strength Cottus, Briareus, and Gyes had no fire of courage
+in their hearts. Zeus thought of a way to give them this courage; he
+brought the food and drink of the gods to them, ambrosia and nectar, and
+when they had eaten and drunk their spirits grew within the giants, and
+they were ready to make war upon the Titan gods.
+
+  "Sons of Earth and Heaven," said Zeus to the hundred-armed giants, "a
+long time now have the Dwellers on Olympus been striving with the Titan
+gods. Do you lend your unconquerable might to the gods and help them to
+overthrow the Titans."
+
+  Cottus, the eldest of the giants, answered, "Divine One, through your
+devising we are come back again from the murky gloom of the mid Earth and
+we have escaped from the hard bonds that Cronus laid upon us. Our minds
+are fixed to aid you in the war against the Titan gods."
+
+  So the hundred-armed giants said, and thereupon Zeus went and he
+gathered around him all who were born of Cronos and Rhea. Cronos himself
+hid from Zeus. Then the giants, with their fifty heads growing from their
+shoulders and their hundred hands, went forth against the Titan gods. The
+boundless sea rang terribly and the earth crashed loudly; wide Heaven was
+shaken and groaned, and high Olympus reeled from its foundation. Holding
+huge rocks in their hands the giants attacked the Titan gods.
+
+  Then Zeus entered the war. He hurled the lightning; the bolts flew thick
+and fast from his strong hand, with thunder and lightning and flame. The
+earth crashed around in burning, the forests crackled with fire, the ocean
+seethed. And hot flames wrapped the earth-born Titans all around. Three
+hundred rocks, one upon another, did Cottus, Briareus, and Gyes hurl upon
+the Titans. And when their ranks were broken the giants seized upon them
+and held them for Zeus.
+
+  But some of the Titan gods, seeing that the strife for them was vain,
+went over to the side of Zeus. These Zeus became friendly with. But the
+other Titans he bound in chains and he hurled them down to Tartarus.
+
+  As far as Earth is from Heaven so is Tartarus from Earth. A brazen anvil
+falling down from Heaven to Earth nine days and nine nights would reach
+the earth upon the tenth day. And again, a brazen anvil falling from Earth
+nine nights and nine days would reach Tartarus upon the tenth night.
+Around Tartarus runs a fence of bronze and Night spreads in a triple line
+all about it, as a necklace circles the neck. There Zeus imprisoned the
+Titan gods who had fought against him; they are hidden in the misty gloom,
+in a dank place, at the ends of the Earth. And they may not go out, for
+Poseidon fixed gates of bronze upon their prison, and a wall runs all
+round it. There Cottus, Briareus, and Gyes stay, guarding them.
+
+  And there, too, is the home of Night. Night and Day meet each other at
+that place, as they pass a threshold of bronze. They draw near and they
+greet one another, but the house never holds them both together, for while
+one is about to go down into the house, the other is leaving through the
+door. One holds Light in her hand and the other holds in her arms Sleep.
+
+  There the children of dark Night have their dwellings--Sleep, and Death,
+his brother. The sun never shines upon these two. Sleep may roam over the
+wide earth, and come upon the sea, and he is kindly to men. But Death is
+not kindly, and whoever he seizes upon, him he holds fast.
+
+  There, too, stands the hall of the lord of the Underworld, Aidoneus, the
+brother of Zeus. Zeus gave him the Underworld to be his dominion when he
+shared amongst the Olympians the world that Cronos had ruled over. A
+fearful hound guards the hall of Aidoneus: Cerberus he is called; he has
+three heads. On those who go within that hall Cerberus fawns, but on those
+who would come out of it he springs and would devour them.
+
+  Not all the Titans did Zeus send down to Tartarus. Those of them who had
+wisdom joined him, and by their wisdom Zeus was able to overcome Cronos.
+Then Cronos went to live with the friendly Titan gods, while Zeus reigned
+over Olympus, becoming the ruler of gods and men.
+
+
+
+  So Orpheus sang, Orpheus who knew the ways and the histories of the
+gods.
+
+
+
+
+VI. Polydeuces' Victory and Heracles' Loss
+
+
+
+[Decorative first letter]
+_A_LL the places that the Argonauts came nigh to and went past need not be
+told--Meliboea, where they escaped a stormy beach; Homole, from where they
+were able to look on Ossa and holy Olympus; Lemnos, the island that they
+were to return to; the unnamed country where the Earth-born Men abide,
+each having six arms, two growing from his shoulders, and four fitting
+close to his terrible sides; and then the Mountain of the Bears, where
+they climbed, to make sacrifice there to Rhea, the mighty mother of the
+gods.
+
+  Afterward, for a whole day, no wind blew and the sail of the _Argo_ hung
+slack. But the heroes swore to each other that they would make their ship
+go as swiftly as if the storm-footed steeds of Poseidon were racing to
+overtake her. Mightily they labored at the oars, and no one would be first
+to leave his rower's bench.
+
+  And then, just as the breeze of the evening came up, and just as the
+rest of the heroes were leaning back, spent with their labor, the oar that
+Heracles still pulled at broke, and half of it was carried away by the
+waves. Heracles sat there in ill humor, for he did not know what to do
+with his unlaboring hands.
+
+  All through the night they went on with a good breeze filling their
+sails, and next day they came to the mouth of the River Cius. There they
+landed so that Heracles might get himself an oar. No sooner did they set
+their feet upon the shore than the hero went off into the forest, to pull
+up a tree that he might shape into an oar.
+
+  Where they had landed was near to the country of the Bebrycians, a rude
+people whose king was named Amycus. Now while Heracles was away from them
+this king came with his followers--huge, rude men, all armed with clubs,
+down to where the Argonauts were lighting their fires on the beach.
+
+  He did not greet them courteously, asking them what manner of men they
+were and whither they were bound, nor did he offer them hospitality.
+Instead, he shouted at them insolently:
+
+  "Listen to something that you rovers had better know. I am Amycus, and
+any stranger that comes to this land has to get into a boxing bout with
+me. That's the law that I have laid down. Unless you have one amongst you
+who can stand up to me you won't be let go back to your ship. If you don't
+heed my law, look out, for something's going to happen to you."
+
+  So he shouted, that insolent king, and his followers raised their clubs
+and growled approval of what their master said. But the Argonauts were not
+dismayed at the words of Amycus. One of them stepped toward the
+Bebrycians. He was Polydeuces, good at boxing.
+
+  "Offer us no violence, king," said Polydeuces. "We are ready to obey the
+law that you have laid down. Willingly do I take up your challenge, and I
+will box a bout with you."
+
+  The Argonauts cheered when they saw Polydeuces, the good boxer, step
+forward, and when they heard what he had to say. Amycus turned and shouted
+to his followers, and one of them brought up two pairs of boxing
+gauntlets--of rough cowhide they were. The Argonauts feared that
+Polydeuces' hands might have been made numb with pulling at the oar, and
+some of them went to him, and took his hands and rubbed them to make them
+supple; others took from off his shoulders his beautifully colored mantle.
+
+  Amycus straightway put on his gauntlets and threw off his mantle; he
+stood there amongst his followers with his great arms crossed, glowering
+at the Argonauts as a wild beast might glower. And when the two faced each
+other Amycus seemed like one of the Earth-born Men, dark and hugely
+shaped, while Helen's brother stood there light and beautiful. Polydeuces
+was like that star whose beams are lovely at evening-tide.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+  Like the wave that breaks over a ship and gives the sailors no respite
+Amycus came on at Polydeuces. He pushed in upon him, thinking to bear him
+down and overwhelm him. But as the skillful steersman keeps the ship from
+being overwhelmed by the monstrous wave, so Polydeuces, all skill and
+lightness, baffled the rushes of Amycus. At last Amycus, standing on the
+tips of his toes and rising high above him, tried to bring down his great
+fist upon the head of Polydeuces. The hero swung aside and took the blow
+on his shoulder. Then he struck his blow. It was a strong one, and under
+it the king of the Bebrycians staggered and fell down. "You see," said
+Polydeuces, "that we keep your law."
+
+  The Argonauts shouted, but the rude Bebrycians raised their clubs to
+rush upon them. Then would the heroes have been hard pressed, and forced,
+perhaps, to get back to the _Argo_. But suddenly Heracles appeared amongst
+them, coming up from the forest.
+
+  He carried a pine tree in his hands with all its branches still upon it,
+and seeing this mighty-statured man appear with the great tree in his
+hands, the Bebrycians hurried off, carrying their fallen king with them.
+Then the Argonauts gathered around Polydeuces, saluted him as their
+champion, and put a crown of victory upon his head. Heracles, meanwhile,
+lopped off the branches of the pine tree and began to fashion it into an
+oar.
+
+  The fires were lighted upon the shore, and the thoughts of all were
+turned to supper. Then young Hylas, who used to sit by Heracles and keep
+bright the hero's arms and armor, took a bronze vessel and went to fetch
+water.
+
+  Never was there a boy so beautiful as young Hylas. He had golden curls
+that tumbled over his brow. He had deep blue eyes and a face that smiled
+at every glance that was given him, at every word that was said to him.
+Now as he walked through the flowering grasses, with his knees bare, and
+with the bright vessel swinging in his hand, he looked most lovely.
+Heracles had brought the boy with him from the country of the Dryopians;
+he would have him sit beside him on the bench of the _Argo_, and the ill
+humors that often came upon him would go at the words and the smile of
+Hylas.
+
+  Now the spring that Hylas was going toward was called Peg�, and it was
+haunted by the nymphs. They were dancing around it when they heard Hylas
+singing. They stole softly off to watch him. Hidden behind trees the
+nymphs saw the boy come near, and they felt such love for him that they
+thought they could never let him go from their sight.
+
+  They stole back to their spring, and they sank down below its clear
+surface. Then came Hylas singing a song that he had heard from his mother.
+He bent down to the spring, and the brimming water flowed into the
+sounding bronze of the pitcher. Then hands came out of the water. One of
+the nymphs caught Hylas by the elbow; another put her arms around his
+neck, another took the hand that held the vessel of bronze. The pitcher
+sank down to the depths of the spring. The hands of the nymphs clasped
+Hylas tighter, tighter; the water bubbled around him as they drew him
+down. Down, down they drew him, and into the cold and glimmering cave
+where they live.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+                                  Hylas
+
+
+  There Hylas stayed. But although the nymphs kissed him and sang to him,
+and showed him lovely things, Hylas was not content to be there.
+
+  Where the Argonauts were the fires burned, the moon arose, and still
+Hylas did not return. Then they began to fear lest a wild beast had
+destroyed the boy. One went to Heracles and told him that young Hylas had
+not come back, and that they were fearful for him. Heracles flung down the
+pine tree that he was fashioning into an oar, and he dashed along the way
+that Hylas had gone as if a gadfly were stinging him. "Hylas, Hylas," he
+cried. But Hylas, in the cold and glimmering cave that the nymphs had
+drawn him into, did not hear the call of his friend Heracles.
+
+  All the Argonauts went searching, calling as they went through the
+island, "Hylas, Hylas, Hylas!" But only their own calls came back to them.
+The morning star came up, and Tiphys, the steersman, called to them from
+the _Argo_. And when they came to the ship Tiphys told them that they
+would have to go aboard and make ready to sail from that place.
+
+  They called to Heracles, and Heracles at last came down to the ship.
+They spoke to him, saying that they would have to sail away. Heracles
+would not go on board. "I will not leave this island," he said, "until I
+find young Hylas or learn what has happened to him."
+
+  Then Jason arose to give the command to depart. But before the words
+were said Telamon stood up and faced him. "Jason," he said angrily, "you
+do not bid Heracles come on board, and you would have the _Argo_ leave
+without him. You would leave Heracles here so that he may not be with us
+on the quest where his glory might overshadow your glory, Jason."
+
+  Jason said no word, but he sat back on his bench with head bowed. And
+then, even as Telamon said these angry words, a strange figure rose up out
+of the waves of the sea.
+
+  It was the figure of a man, wrinkled and old, with seaweed in his beard
+and his hair. There was a majesty about him, and the Argonauts all knew
+that this was one of the immortals--he was Nereus, the ancient one of the
+sea.
+
+  "To Heracles, and to you, the rest of the Argonauts, I have a thing to
+say," said the ancient one, Nereus. "Know, first, that Hylas has been
+taken by the nymphs who love him and who think to win his love, and that
+he will stay forever with them in their cold and glimmering cave. For
+Hylas seek no more. And to you, Heracles, I will say this: Go aboard the
+_Argo_ again; the ship will take you to where a great labor awaits you,
+and which, in accomplishing, you will work out the will of Zeus. You will
+know what this labor is when a spirit seizes on you." So the ancient one
+of the sea said, and he sank back beneath the waves.
+
+  Heracles went aboard the _Argo_ once more, and he took his place on the
+bench, the new oar in his hand. Sad he was to think that young Hylas who
+used to sit at his knee would never be there again. The breeze filled the
+sail, the Argonauts pulled at the oars, and in sadness they watched the
+island where young Hylas had been lost to them recede from their view.
+
+
+
+
+VII. King Phineus
+
+
+
+[Decorative first letter]
+_S_AID Tiphys, the steersman: "If we could enter the Sea of Pontus, we
+could make our way across that sea to Colchis in a short time. But the
+passage into the Sea of Pontus is most perilous, and few mortals dare even
+to make approach to it."
+
+  Said Jason, the chieftain of the host: "The dangers of the passage,
+Tiphys, we have spoken of, and it may be that we shall have to carry
+_Argo_ overland to the Sea of Pontus. But you, Tiphys, have spoken of a
+wise king who is hereabouts, and who might help us to make the dangerous
+passage. Speak again to us, and tell us what the dangers of the passage
+are, and who the king is who may be able to help us to make these dangers
+less."
+
+  Then said Tiphys, the steersman of the _Argo_: "No ship sailed by
+mortals has as yet gone through the passage that brings this sea into the
+Sea of Pontus. In the way are the rocks that mariners call The Clashers.
+These rocks are not fixed as rocks should be, but they rush one against
+the other, dashing up the sea, and crushing whatever may be between. Yea,
+if _Argo_ were of iron, and if she were between these rocks when they met,
+she would be crushed to bits. I have sailed as far as that passage, but
+seeing The Clashers strike together I turned back my ship, and journeyed
+as far as the Sea of Pontus overland.
+
+  "But I have been told of one who knows how a ship may be taken through
+the passage that The Clashers make so perilous. He who knows is a king
+hereabouts, Phineus, who has made himself as wise as the gods. To no one
+has Phineus told how the passage may be made, but knowing what high favor
+has been shown to us, the Argonauts, it may be that he will tell us."
+
+  So Tiphys said, and Jason commanded him to steer the _Argo_ toward the
+city where ruled Phineus, the wise king.
+
+
+
+  To Salmydessus, then, where Phineus ruled, Tiphys steered the _Argo_.
+They left Heracles with Tiphys aboard to guard the ship, and, with the
+rest of the heroes, Jason went through the streets of the city. They met
+many men, but when they asked any of them how they might come to the
+palace of King Phineus the men turned fearfully away.
+
+  They found their way to the king's palace. Jason spoke to the servants
+and bade them tell the king of their coming. The servants, too, seemed
+fearful, and as Jason and his comrades were wondering what there was about
+him that made men fearful at his name, Phineus, the king, came amongst
+them.
+
+  Were it not that he had a purple border to his robe no one would have
+known him for the king, so miserable did this man seem. He crept along,
+touching the walls, for the eyes in his head were blind and withered. His
+body was shrunken, and when he stood before them leaning on his staff he
+was like to a lifeless thing. He turned his blinded eyes upon them,
+looking from one to the other as if he were searching for a face.
+
+  Then his sightless eyes rested upon Zetes and Calais, the sons of
+Boreas, the North Wind. A change came into his face as it turned upon
+them. One would think that he saw the wonder that these two were endowed
+with--the wings that grew upon their ankles. It was a while before he
+turned his face from them; then he spoke to Jason and said:
+
+  "You have come to have counsel with one who has the wisdom of the gods.
+Others before you have come for such counsel, but seeing the misery that
+is visible upon me they went without asking for counsel. I would strive to
+hold you here for a while. Stay, and have sight of the misery the gods
+visit upon those who would be as wise as they. And when you have seen the
+thing that is wont to befall me, it may be that help will come from you
+for me."
+
+  Then Phineus, the blind king, left them, and after a while the heroes
+were brought into a great hall, and they were invited to rest themselves
+there while a banquet was being prepared for them.
+
+  The hall was richly adorned, but it looked to the heroes as if it had
+known strange happenings; rich hangings were strewn upon the ground, an
+ivory chair was overturned, and the dais where the king sat had stains
+upon it. The servants who went through the hall making ready the banquet
+were white-faced and fearful.
+
+  The feast was laid on a great table, and the heroes were invited to sit
+down to it. The king did not come into the hall before they sat down, but
+a table with food was set before the dais. When the heroes had feasted,
+the king came into the hall. He sat at the table, blind, white-faced, and
+shrunken, and the Argonauts all turned their faces to him.
+
+  Said Phineus, the blind king: "You see, O heroes, how much my wisdom
+avails me. You see me blind and shrunken, who tried to make myself in
+wisdom equal to the gods. And yet you have not seen all. Watch now and see
+what feasts Phineus, the wise king, has to delight him."
+
+  He made a sign, and the white-faced and trembling servants brought food
+and set it upon the table that was before him. The king bent forward as if
+to eat, and they saw that his face was covered with the damp of fear. He
+took food from the dish and raised it to his mouth. As he did, the doors
+of the hall were flung open as if by a storm. Strange shapes flew into the
+hall and set themselves beside the king. And when the Argonauts looked
+upon them they saw that these were terrible and unsightly shapes.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+  They were things that had the wings and claws of birds and the heads of
+women. Black hair and gray feathers were mixed upon them; they had red
+eyes, and streaks of blood were upon their breasts and wings. And as the
+king raised the food to his mouth they flew at him and buffeted his head
+with their wings, and snatched the food from his hands. Then they devoured
+or scattered what was upon the table, and all the time they screamed and
+laughed and mocked.
+
+  "Ah, now ye see," Phineus panted, "what it is to have wisdom equal to
+the wisdom of the gods. Now ye all see my misery. Never do I strive to put
+food to my lips but these foul things, the Harpies, the Snatchers, swoop
+down and scatter or devour what I would eat. Crumbs they leave me that my
+life may not altogether go from me, but these crumbs they make foul to my
+taste and my smell."
+
+  And one of the Harpies perched herself on the back of the king's throne
+and looked upon the heroes with red eyes. "Hah," she screamed, "you bring
+armed men into your feasting hall, thinking to scare us away. Never,
+Phineus, can you scare us from you! Always you will have us, the
+Snatchers, beside you when you would still your ache of hunger. What can
+these men do against us who are winged and who can travel through the ways
+of the air?"
+
+  So said the unsightly Harpy, and the heroes drew together, made fearful
+by these awful shapes. All drew back except Zetes and Calais, the sons of
+the North Wind. They laid their hands upon their swords. The wings on
+their shoulders spread out and the wings at their heels trembled. Phineus,
+the king, leaned forward and panted: "By the wisdom I have I know that
+there are two amongst you who can save me. O make haste to help me, ye who
+can help me, and I will give the counsel that you Argonauts have come to
+me for, and besides I will load down your ship with treasure and costly
+stuffs. Oh, make haste, ye who can help me!"
+
+  Hearing the king speak like this, the Harpies gathered together and
+gnashed with their teeth, and chattered to one another. Then, seeing Zetes
+and Calais with their hands upon their swords, they rose up on their wings
+and flew through the wide doors of the hall. The king cried out to Zetes
+and Calais. But the sons of the North Wind had already risen with their
+wings, and they were after the Harpies, their bright swords in their
+hands.
+
+  On flew the Harpies, screeching and gnashing their teeth in anger and
+dismay, for now they felt that they might be driven from Salmydessus,
+where they had had such royal feasts. They rose high in the air and flew
+out toward the sea. But high as the Harpies rose, the sons of the North
+Wind rose higher. The Harpies cried pitiful cries as they flew on, but
+Zetes and Calais felt no pity for them, for they knew that these dread
+Snatchers, with the stains of blood upon their breasts and wings, had
+shown pity neither to Phineus nor to any other.
+
+  On they flew until they came to the island that is called the Floating
+Island. There the Harpies sank down with wearied wings. Zetes and Calais
+were upon them now, and they would have cut them to pieces with their
+bright swords, if the messenger of Zeus, Iris, with the golden wings, had
+not come between.
+
+  "Forbear to slay the Harpies, sons of Boreas," cried Iris warningly,
+"forbear to slay the Harpies that are the hounds of Zeus. Let them cower
+here and hide themselves, and I, who come from Zeus, will swear the oath
+that the gods most dread, that they will never again come to Salmydessus
+to trouble Phineus, the king."
+
+  The heroes yielded to the words of Iris. She took the oath that the gods
+most dread--the oath by the Water of Styx--that never again would the
+Harpies show themselves to Phineus. Then Zetes and Calais turned back
+toward the city of Salmydessus. The island that they drove the Harpies to
+had been called the Floating Island, but thereafter it was called the
+Island of Turning. It was evening when they turned back, and all night
+long the Argonauts and King Phineus sat in the hall of the palace and
+awaited the return of Zetes and Calais, the sons of the North Wind.
+
+
+
+
+VIII. King Phineus's Counsel; The Landing in Lemnos
+
+
+
+[Decorative first letter]
+_T_HEY came into King Phineus's hall, their bright swords in their hands.
+The Argonauts crowded around them and King Phineus raised his head and
+stretched out his thin hands to them. And Zetes and Calais told their
+comrades and told the king how they had driven the Harpies down to the
+Floating Island, and how Iris, the messenger of Zeus, had sworn the great
+oath that was by the Water of Styx that never again would the Snatchers
+show themselves in the palace.
+
+  Then a great golden cup brimming with wine was brought to the king. He
+stood holding it in his trembling hands, fearful even then that the
+Harpies would tear the cup out of his hands. He drank--long and deeply he
+drank--and the dread shapes of the Snatchers did not appear. Down amongst
+the heroes he came and he took into his the hands of Zetes and Calais, the
+sons of the North Wind.
+
+  "O heroes greater than any kings," he said, "ye have delivered me from
+the terrible curse that the gods had sent upon me. I thank ye, and I thank
+ye all, heroes of the quest. And the thanks of Phineus will much avail you
+all."
+
+  Clasping the hands of Zetes and Calais he led the heroes through hall
+after hall of his palace and down into his treasure chamber. There he
+bestowed upon the banishers of the Harpies crowns and arm rings of gold
+and richly colored garments and brazen chests in which to store the
+treasure that he gave. And to Jason he gave an ivory-hilted and
+gold-encased sword, and on each of the voyagers he bestowed a rich gift,
+not forgetting the heroes who had remained on the _Argo_, Heracles and
+Tiphys.
+
+  They went back to the great hall, and a feast was spread for the king
+and for the Argonauts. They ate from rich dishes and they drank from
+flowing wine cups. Phineus ate and drank as the heroes did, and no dread
+shapes came before him to snatch from him nor to buffet him. But as Jason
+looked upon the man who had striven to equal the gods in wisdom, and noted
+his blinded eyes and shrunken face, he resolved never to harbor in his
+heart such presumption as Phineus had harbored.
+
+  When the feast was finished the king spoke to Jason, telling him how the
+_Argo_ might be guided through the Symplegades, the dread passage into the
+Sea of Pontus. He told them to bring their ship near to the Clashing
+Rocks. And one who had the keenest sight amongst them was to stand at the
+prow of the ship holding a pigeon in his hands. As the rocks came together
+he was to loose the pigeon. If it found a space to fly through they would
+know that the _Argo_ could make the passage, and they were to steer
+straight toward where the pigeon had flown. But if it fluttered down to
+the sea, or flew back to them, or became lost in the clouds of spray, they
+were to know that the _Argo_ might not make that passage. Then the heroes
+would have to take their ship overland to where they might reach the Sea
+of Pontus.
+
+  That day they bade farewell to Phineus, and with the treasures he had
+bestowed upon them they went down to the _Argo_. To Heracles and Tiphys
+they gave the presents that the king had sent them. In the morning they
+drew the _Argo_ out of the harbor of Salmydessus, and set sail again.
+
+
+
+  But not until long afterward did they come to the Symplegades, the
+passage that was to be their great trial. For they landed first in a
+country that was full of woods, where they were welcomed by a king who had
+heard of the voyagers and of their quest. There they stayed and hunted for
+many days in the woods. And there a great loss befell the Argonauts, for
+Tiphys, as he went through the woods, was bitten by a snake and died. He
+who had braved so many seas and so many storms lost his life away from the
+ship. The Argonauts made a tomb for him on the shore of that land--a great
+pile of stones, in which they fixed upright his steering oar. Then they
+set sail again, and Nauplius was made the steersman of the ship.
+
+  The course was not so clear to Nauplius as it had been to Tiphys. The
+steersman did not find his bearings, and for many days and nights the
+_Argo_ was driven on a backward course. They came to an island that they
+knew to be that Island of Lemnos that they had passed on the first days of
+the voyage, and they resolved to rest there for a while, and then to press
+on for the passage into the Sea of Pontus.
+
+  They brought the _Argo_ near the shore. They blew trumpets and set the
+loudest voiced of the heroes to call out to those upon the island. But no
+answer came to them, and all day the _Argo_ lay close to the island.
+
+
+
+  There were hidden people watching them, people with bows in their hands
+and arrows laid along the bowstrings. And the people who thus threatened
+the unknowing Argonauts were women and young girls.
+
+  There were no men upon the Island of Lemnos. Years before a curse had
+fallen upon the people of that island, putting strife between the men and
+the women. And the women had mastered the men and had driven them away
+from Lemnos. Since then some of the women had grown old, and the girls who
+were children when their fathers and brothers had been banished were now
+of an age with Atalanta, the maiden who went with the Argonauts.
+
+  They chased the wild beasts of the island, and they tilled the fields,
+and they kept in good repair the houses that were built before the
+banishing of the men. The older women served those who were younger, and
+they had a queen, a girl whose name was Hypsipyle.
+
+  The women who watched with bows in their hands would have shot their
+arrows at the Argonauts if Hypsipyle's nurse, Polyxo, had not stayed them.
+She forbade them to shoot at the strangers until she had brought to them
+the queen's commands.
+
+  She hastened to the palace and she found the young queen weaving at a
+loom. She told her about the ship and the strangers on board the ship, and
+she asked the queen what word she should bring to the guardian maidens.
+
+  "Before you give a command, Hypsipyle," said Polyxo, the nurse,
+"consider these words of mine. We, the elder women, are becoming ancient
+now; in a few years we will not be able to serve you, the younger women,
+and in a few years more we will have gone into the grave and our places
+will know us no more. And you, the younger women, will be becoming
+strengthless, and no more will be you able to hunt in the woods nor to
+till the fields, and a hard old age will be before you.
+
+  "The ship that is beside our shore may have come at a good time. Those
+on board are goodly heroes. Let them land in Lemnos, and stay if they
+will. Let them wed with the younger women so that there may be husbands
+and wives, helpers and helpmeets, again in Lemnos."
+
+  Hypsipyle, the queen, let the shuttle fall from her hands and stayed for
+a while looking full into Polyxo's face. Had her nurse heard her say
+something like this out of her dreams, she wondered? She bade the nurse
+tell the guardian maidens to let the heroes land in safety, and that she
+herself would put the crown of King Thoas, her father, upon her head, and
+go down to the shore to welcome them.
+
+  And now the Argonauts saw people along the shore and they caught sight
+of women's dresses. The loudest voiced amongst them shouted again, and
+they heard an answer given in a woman's voice. They drew up the _Argo_
+upon the shore, and they set foot upon the land of Lemnos.
+
+  Jason stepped forth at the head of his comrades, and he was met by
+Hypsipyle, her father's crown upon her head, at the head of her maidens.
+They greeted each other, and Hypsipyle bade the heroes come with them to
+their town that was called Myrine and to the palace that was there.
+
+  Wonderingly the Argonauts went, looking on women's forms and faces and
+seeing no men. They came to the palace and went within. Hypsipyle mounted
+the stone throne that was King Thoas's and the four maidens who were her
+guards stood each side of her. She spoke to the heroes in greeting and
+bade them stay in peace for as long as they would. She told them of the
+curse that had fallen upon the people of Lemnos, and of how the menfolk
+had been banished. Jason, then, told the queen what voyage he and his
+companions were upon and what quest they were making. Then in friendship
+the Argonauts and the women of Lemnos stayed together--all the Argonauts
+except Heracles, and he, grieving still for Hylas, stayed aboard the
+_Argo_.
+
+
+
+
+IX. The Lemnian Maidens
+
+
+
+[Decorative first letter]
+_A_ND now the Argonauts were no longer on a ship that was being dashed on
+by the sea and beaten upon by the winds. They had houses to live in; they
+had honey-tasting things to eat, and when they went through the island
+each man might have with him one of the maidens of Lemnos. It was a change
+that was welcome to the wearied voyagers.
+
+  They helped the women in the work of the fields; they hunted the beasts
+with them, and over and over again they were surprised at how skillfully
+the women had ordered all affairs. Everything in Lemnos was strange to the
+Argonauts, and they stayed day after day, thinking each day a fresh
+adventure.
+
+  Sometimes they would leave the fields and the chase, and this hero or
+that hero, with her who was his friend amongst the Lemnian maidens, would
+go far into that strange land and look upon lakes that were all covered
+with golden and silver water lilies, or would gather the blue flowers from
+creepers that grew around dark trees, or would hide themselves so that
+they might listen to the quick-moving birds that sang in the thickets.
+Perhaps on their way homeward they would see the _Argo_ in the harbor, and
+they would think of Heracles who was aboard, and they would call to him.
+But the ship and the voyage they had been on now seemed far away to them,
+and the Quest of the Golden Fleece seemed to them a story they had heard
+and that they had thought of, but that they could never think on again
+with all that fervor.
+
+
+
+  When Jason looked on Hypsipyle he saw one who seemed to him to be only
+childlike in size. Greatly was he amazed at the words that poured forth
+from her as she stood at the stone throne of King Thoas--he was amazed as
+one is amazed at the rush of rich notes that comes from the throat of a
+little bird; all that she said was made lightninglike by her eyes--her eyes
+that were not clear and quiet like the eyes of the maidens he had seen in
+Iolcus, but that were dark and burning. Her mouth was heavy and this heavy
+mouth gave a shadow to her face that but for it was all bright and lovely.
+
+  Hypsipyle spoke two languages--one, the language of the mothers of the
+women of Lemnos, which was rough and harsh, a speech to be flung out to
+slaves, and the other the language of Greece, which their fathers had
+spoken, and which Hypsipyle spoke in a way that made it sound like strange
+music. She spoke and walked and did all things in a queenlike way, and
+Jason could see that, for all her youth and childlike size, Hypsipyle was
+one who was a ruler.
+
+  From the moment she took his hand it seemed that she could not bear to
+be away from him. Where he walked, she walked too; where he sat she sat
+before him, looking at him with her great eyes while she laughed or sang.
+
+  Like the perfume of strange flowers, like the savor of strange fruit was
+Hypsipyle to Jason. Hours and hours he would spend sitting beside her or
+watching her while she arrayed herself in white or in brightly colored
+garments. Not to the chase and not into the fields did Jason go, nor did
+he ever go with the others into the Lemnian land; all day he sat in the
+palace with her, watching her, or listening to her singing, or to the
+long, fierce speeches that she used to make to her nurse or to the four
+maidens who attended her.
+
+  In the evening they would gather in the hall of the palace, the
+Argonauts and the Lemnian maidens who were their comrades. There were
+dances, and always Jason and Hypsipyle danced together. All the Lemnian
+maidens sang beautifully, but none of them had any stories to tell.
+
+  And when the Argonauts would have stories told the Lemnian maidens would
+forbid any tale that was about a god or a hero; only stories that were
+about the goddesses or about some maiden would they let be told.
+
+  Orpheus, who knew the histories of the gods, would have told them many
+stories, but the only story of his that they would come from the dance to
+listen to was a story of the goddesses, of Demeter and her daughter
+Persephone.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+
+Demeter and Persephone
+
+
+I
+
+  Once when Demeter was going through the world, giving men grain to be
+sown in their fields, she heard a cry that came to her from across high
+mountains and that mounted up to her from the sea. Demeter's heart shook
+when she heard that cry, for she knew that it came to her from her
+daughter, from her only child, young Persephone.
+
+  She stayed not to bless the fields in which the grain was being sown,
+but she hurried, hurried away, to Sicily and to the fields of Enna, where
+she had left Persephone. All Enna she searched, and all Sicily, but she
+found no trace of Persephone, nor of the maidens whom Persephone had been
+playing with. From all whom she met she begged for tidings, but although
+some had seen maidens gathering flowers and playing together, no one could
+tell Demeter why her child had cried out nor where she had since gone to.
+
+  There were some who could have told her. One was Cyane, a water nymph.
+But Cyane, before Demeter came to her, had been changed into a spring of
+water. And now, not being able to speak and tell Demeter where her child
+had gone to and who had carried her away, she showed in the water the
+girdle of Persephone that she had caught in her hands. And Demeter,
+finding the girdle of her child in the spring, knew that she had been
+carried off by violence. She lighted a torch at �tna's burning mountain,
+and for nine days and nine nights she went searching for her through the
+darkened places of the earth.
+
+  Then, upon a high and a dark hill, the Goddess Demeter came face to face
+with Hecate, the Moon. Hecate, too, had heard the cry of Persephone; she
+had sorrow for Demeter's sorrow: she spoke to her as the two stood upon
+that dark, high hill, and told her that she should go to Helios for
+tidings--to bright Helios, the watcher for the gods, and beg Helios to tell
+her who it was who had carried off by violence her child Persephone.
+
+  Demeter came to Helios. He was standing before his shining steeds,
+before the impatient steeds that draw the sun through the course of the
+heavens. Demeter stood in the way of those impatient steeds; she begged of
+Helios who sees all things upon the earth to tell her who it was had
+carried off by violence Persephone, her child.
+
+  And Helios, who may make no concealment, said: "Queenly Demeter, know
+that the king of the Underworld, dark Aidoneus, has carried off Persephone
+to make her his queen in the realm that I never shine upon." He spoke, and
+as he did, his horses shook their manes and breathed out fire, impatient
+to be gone. Helios sprang into his chariot and went flashing away.
+
+  Demeter, knowing that one of the gods had carried off Persephone against
+her will, and knowing that what was done had been done by the will of
+Zeus, would go no more into the assemblies of the gods. She quenched the
+torch that she had held in her hands for nine days and nine nights; she
+put off her robe of goddess, and she went wandering over the earth,
+uncomforted for the loss of her child. And no longer did she appear as a
+gracious goddess to men; no longer did she give them grain; no longer did
+she bless their fields. None of the things that it had pleased her once to
+do would Demeter do any longer.
+
+
+
+II
+
+  Persephone had been playing with the nymphs who are the daughters of
+Ocean--Ph�no, Ianthe, Melita, Ianeira, Acaste--in the lovely fields of Enna.
+They went to gather flowers--irises and crocuses, lilies, narcissus,
+hyacinths and rose-blooms--that grow in those fields. As they went,
+gathering flowers in their baskets, they had sight of Pergus, the pool
+that the white swans come to sing in.
+
+  Beside a deep chasm that had been made in the earth a wonder flower was
+growing--in color it was like the crocus, but it sent forth a perfume that
+was like the perfume of a hundred flowers. And Persephone thought as she
+went toward it that having gathered that flower she would have something
+much more wonderful than her companions had.
+
+  She did not know that Aidoneus, the lord of the Underworld, had caused
+that flower to grow there so that she might be drawn by it to the chasm
+that he had made.
+
+  As Persephone stooped to pluck the wonder flower, Aidoneus, in his
+chariot of iron, dashed up through the chasm, and grasping the maiden by
+the waist, set her beside him. Only Cyane, the nymph, tried to save
+Persephone, and it was then that she caught the girdle in her hands.
+
+  The maiden cried out, first because her flowers had been spilled, and
+then because she was being reft away. She cried out to her mother, and her
+cry went over high mountains and sounded up from the sea. The daughters of
+Ocean, affrighted, fled and sank down into the depths of the sea.
+
+  In his great chariot of iron that was drawn by black steeds Aidoneus
+rushed down through the chasm he had made. Into the Underworld he went,
+and he dashed across the River Styx, and he brought his chariot up beside
+his throne. And on his dark throne he seated Persephone, the fainting
+daughter of Demeter.
+
+
+
+III
+
+  No more did the Goddess Demeter give grain to men; no more did she bless
+their fields: weeds grew where grain had been growing, and men feared that
+in a while they would famish for lack of bread.
+
+  She wandered through the world, her thought all upon her child,
+Persephone, who had been taken from her. Once she sat by a well by a
+wayside, thinking upon the child that she might not come to and who might
+not come to her.
+
+  She saw four maidens come near; their grace and their youth reminded her
+of her child. They stepped lightly along, carrying bronze pitchers in
+their hands, for they were coming to the Well of the Maiden beside which
+Demeter sat.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+                         Persephone and Aidoneus
+
+
+  The maidens thought when they looked upon her that the goddess was some
+ancient woman who had a sorrow in her heart. Seeing that she was so noble
+and so sorrowful looking, the maidens, as they drew the clear water into
+their pitchers, spoke kindly to her.
+
+  "Why do you stay away from the town, old mother?" one of the maidens
+said. "Why do you not come to the houses? We think that you look as if you
+were shelterless and alone, and we should like to tell you that there are
+many houses in the town where you would be welcomed."
+
+  Demeter's heart went out to the maidens, because they looked so young
+and fair and simple and spoke out of such kind hearts. She said to them:
+"Where can I go, dear children? My people are far away, and there are none
+in all the world who would care to be near me."
+
+  Said one of the maidens: "There are princes in the land who would
+welcome you in their houses if you would consent to nurse one of their
+young children. But why do I speak of other princes beside Celeus, our
+father? In his house you would indeed have a welcome. But lately a baby
+has been born to our mother, Metaneira, and she would greatly rejoice to
+have one as wise as you mind little Demopho�n."
+
+  All the time that she watched them and listened to their voices Demeter
+felt that the grace and youth of the maidens made them like Persephone.
+She thought that it would ease her heart to be in the house where these
+maidens were, and she was not loath to have them go and ask of their
+mother to have her come to nurse the infant child.
+
+  Swiftly they ran back to their home, their hair streaming behind them
+like crocus flowers; kind and lovely girls whose names are well
+remembered--Callidice and Cleisidice, Demo and Callitho�. They went to
+their mother and they told her of the stranger-woman whose name was Doso.
+She would make a wise and a kind nurse for little Demopho�n, they said.
+Their mother, Metaneira, rose up from the couch she was sitting on to
+welcome the stranger. But when she saw her at the doorway, awe came over
+her, so majestic she seemed.
+
+  Metaneira would have her seat herself on the couch but the goddess took
+the lowliest stool, saying in greeting: "May the gods give you all good,
+lady."
+
+  "Sorrow has set you wandering from your good home," said Metaneira to
+the goddess, "but now that you have come to this place you shall have all
+that this house can bestow if you will rear up to youth the infant
+Demopho�n, child of many hopes and prayers."
+
+  The child was put into the arms of Demeter; she clasped him to her
+breast, and little Demopho�n looked up into her face and smiled. Then
+Demeter's heart went out to the child and to all who were in the
+household.
+
+   He grew in strength and beauty in her charge. And little Demopho�n was
+not nourished as other children are nourished, but even as the gods in
+their childhood were nourished. Demeter fed him on ambrosia, breathing on
+him with her divine breath the while. And at night she laid him on the
+hearth, amongst the embers, with the fire all around him. This she did
+that she might make him immortal, and like to the gods.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+  But one night Metaneira looked out from the chamber where she lay, and
+she saw the nurse take little Demopho�n and lay him in a place on the
+hearth with the burning brands all around him. Then Metaneira started up,
+and she sprang to the hearth, and she snatched the child from beside the
+burning brands. "Demopho�n, my son," she cried, "what would this
+stranger-woman do to you, bringing bitter grief to me that ever I let her
+take you in her arms?"
+
+  Then said Demeter: "Foolish indeed are you mortals, and not able to
+foresee what is to come to you of good or of evil! Foolish indeed are you,
+Metaneira, for in your heedlessness you have cut off this child from an
+immortality like to the immortality of the gods themselves. For he had
+lain in my bosom and had become dear to me and I would have bestowed upon
+him the greatest gift that the Divine Ones can bestow, for I would have
+made him deathless and unaging. All this, now, has gone by. Honor he shall
+have indeed, but Demopho�n will know age and death."
+
+  The seeming old age that was upon her had fallen from Demeter; beauty
+and stature were hers, and from her robe there came a heavenly fragrance.
+There came such light from her body that the chamber shone. Metaneira
+remained trembling and speechless, unmindful even to take up the child
+that had been laid upon the ground.
+
+  It was then that his sisters heard Demopho�n wail; one ran from her
+chamber and took the child in her arms; another kindled again the fire
+upon the hearth, and the others made ready to bathe and care for the
+infant. All night they cared for him, holding him in their arms and at
+their breasts, but the child would not be comforted, because the nurses
+who handled him now were less skillful than was the goddess-nurse.
+
+  And as for Demeter, she left the house of Celeus and went upon her way,
+lonely in her heart, and unappeased. And in the world that she wandered
+through, the plow went in vain through the ground; the furrow was sown
+without any avail, and the race of men saw themselves near perishing for
+lack of bread.
+
+  But again Demeter came near the Well of the Maiden. She thought of the
+daughters of Celeus as they came toward the well that day, the bronze
+pitchers in their hands, and with kind looks for the stranger--she thought
+of them as she sat by the well again. And then she thought of little
+Demopho�n, the child she had held at her breast. No stir of living was in
+the land near their home, and only weeds grew in their fields. As she sat
+there and looked around her there came into Demeter's heart a pity for the
+people in whose house she had dwelt.
+
+   She rose up and she went to the house of Celeus. She found him beside
+his house measuring out a little grain. The goddess went to him and she
+told him that because of the love she bore his household she would bless
+his fields so that the seed he had sown in them would come to growth.
+Celeus rejoiced, and he called all the people together, and they raised a
+temple to Demeter. She went through the fields and blessed them, and the
+seed that they had sown began to grow. And the goddess for a while dwelt
+amongst that people, in her temple at Eleusis.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+
+IV
+
+  But still she kept away from the assemblies of the gods. Zeus sent a
+messenger to her, Iris with the golden wings, bidding her to Olympus.
+Demeter would not join the Olympians. Then, one after the other, the gods
+and goddesses of Olympus came to her; none were able to make her cease
+from grieving for Persephone, or to go again into the company of the
+immortal gods.
+
+  And so it came about that Zeus was compelled to send a messenger down to
+the Underworld to bring Persephone back to the mother who grieved so much
+for the loss of her. Hermes was the messenger whom Zeus sent. Through the
+darkened places of the earth Hermes went, and he came to that dark throne
+where the lord Aidoneus sat, with Persephone beside him. Then Hermes spoke
+to the lord of the Underworld, saying that Zeus commanded that Persephone
+should come forth from the Underworld that her mother might look upon her.
+
+  Then Persephone, hearing the words of Zeus that might not be gainsaid,
+uttered the only cry that had left her lips since she had sent out that
+cry that had reached her mother's heart. And Aidoneus, hearing the command
+of Zeus that might not be denied, bowed his dark, majestic head.
+
+  She might go to the Upperworld and rest herself in the arms of her
+mother, he said. And then he cried out: "Ah, Persephone, strive to feel
+kindliness in your heart toward me who carried you off by violence and
+against your will. I can give to you one of the great kingdoms that the
+Olympians rule over. And I, who am brother to Zeus, am no unfitting
+husband for you, Demeter's child."
+
+  So Aidoneus, the dark lord of the Underworld said, and he made ready the
+iron chariot with its deathless horses that Persephone might go up from
+his kingdom.
+
+  Beside the single tree in his domain Aidoneus stayed the chariot. A
+single fruit grew on that tree, a bright pomegranate fruit. Persephone
+stood up in the chariot and plucked the fruit from the tree. Then did
+Aidoneus prevail upon her to divide the fruit, and, having divided it,
+Persephone ate seven of the pomegranate seeds.
+
+  It was Hermes who took the whip and the reins of the chariot. He drove
+on, and neither the sea nor the water-courses, nor the glens nor the
+mountain peaks stayed the deathless horses of Aidoneus, and soon the
+chariot was brought near to where Demeter awaited the coming of her
+daughter.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+  And when, from a hilltop, Demeter saw the chariot approaching, she flew
+like a wild bird to clasp her child. Persephone, when she saw her mother's
+dear eyes, sprang out of the chariot and fell upon her neck and embraced
+her. Long and long Demeter held her dear child in her arms, gazing, gazing
+upon her. Suddenly her mind misgave her. With a great fear at her heart
+she cried out: "Dearest, has any food passed your lips in all the time you
+have been in the Underworld?"
+
+  She had not tasted food in all the time she was there, Persephone said.
+And then, suddenly, she remembered the pomegranate that Aidoneus had asked
+her to divide. When she told that she had eaten seven seeds from it
+Demeter wept, and her tears fell upon Persephone's face.
+
+  "Ah, my dearest," she cried, "if you had not eaten the pomegranate seeds
+you could have stayed with me, and always we should have been together.
+But now that you have eaten food in it, the Underworld has a claim upon
+you. You may not stay always with me here. Again you will have to go back
+and dwell in the dark places under the earth and sit upon Aidoneus's
+throne. But not always you will be there. When the flowers bloom upon the
+earth you shall come up from the realm of darkness, and in great joy we
+shall go through the world together, Demeter and Persephone."
+
+  And so it has been since Persephone came back to her mother after having
+eaten of the pomegranate seeds. For two seasons of the year she stays with
+Demeter, and for one season she stays in the Underworld with her dark
+lord. While she is with her mother there is springtime upon the earth.
+Demeter blesses the furrows, her heart being glad because her daughter is
+with her once more. The furrows become heavy with grain, and soon the
+whole wide earth has grain and fruit, leaves and flowers. When the furrows
+are reaped, when the grain has been gathered, when the dark season comes,
+Persephone goes from her mother, and going down into the dark places, she
+sits beside her mighty lord Aidoneus and upon his throne. Not sorrowful is
+she there; she sits with head unbowed, for she knows herself to be a
+mighty queen. She has joy, too, knowing of the seasons when she may walk
+with Demeter, her mother, on the wide places of the earth, through fields
+of flowers and fruit and ripening grain.
+
+
+
+  Such was the story that Orpheus told--Orpheus who knew the histories of
+the gods.
+
+  A day came when the heroes, on their way back from a journey they had
+made with the Lemnian maidens, called out to Heracles upon the _Argo_.
+Then Heracles, standing on the prow of the ship, shouted angrily to them.
+Terrible did he seem to the Lemnian maidens, and they ran off, drawing the
+heroes with them. Heracles shouted to his comrades again, saying that if
+they did not come aboard the _Argo_ and make ready for the voyage to
+Colchis, he would go ashore and carry them to the ship, and force them
+again to take the oars in their hands. Not all of what Heracles said did
+the Argonauts hear.
+
+  That evening the men were silent in Hypsipyle's hall, and it was
+Atalanta, the maiden, who told the evening's story.
+
+
+
+Atalanta's Race
+
+
+  There are two Atalantas, she said; she herself, the Huntress, and
+another who is noted for her speed of foot and her delight in the race--the
+daughter of Schoeneus, King of Boeotia, Atalanta of the Swift Foot.
+
+  So proud was she of her swiftness that she made a vow to the gods that
+none would be her husband except the youth who won past her in the race.
+Youth after youth came and raced against her, but Atalanta, who grew
+fleeter and fleeter of foot, left each one of them far behind her. The
+youths who came to the race were so many and the clamor they made after
+defeat was so great, that her father made a law that, as he thought, would
+lessen their number. The law that he made was that the youth who came to
+race against Atalanta and who lost the race should lose his life into the
+bargain. After that the youths who had care for their lives stayed away
+from Boeotia.
+
+  Once there came a youth from a far part of Greece into the country that
+Atalanta's father ruled over. Hippomenes was his name. He did not know of
+the race, but having come into the city and seeing the crowd of people, he
+went with them to the course. He looked upon the youths who were girded
+for the race, and he heard the folk say amongst themselves, "Poor youths,
+as mighty and as high-spirited as they look, by sunset the life will be
+out of each of them, for Atalanta will run past them as she ran past the
+others." Then Hippomenes spoke to the folk in wonder, and they told him of
+Atalanta's race and of what would befall the youths who were defeated in
+it. "Unlucky youths," cried Hippomenes, "how foolish they are to try to
+win a bride at the price of their lives."
+
+  Then, with pity in his heart, he watched the youths prepare for the
+race. Atalanta had not yet taken her place, and he was fearful of looking
+upon her. "She is a witch," he said to himself, "she must be a witch to
+draw so many youths to their deaths, and she, no doubt, will show in her
+face and figure the witch's spirit."
+
+  But even as he said this, Hippomenes saw Atalanta. She stood with the
+youths before they crouched for the first dart in the race. He saw that
+she was a girl of a light and a lovely form. Then they crouched for the
+race; then the trumpets rang out, and the youths and the maiden darted
+like swallows over the sand of the course.
+
+  On came Atalanta, far, far ahead of the youths who had started with her.
+Over her bare shoulders her hair streamed, blown backward by the wind that
+met her flight. Her fair neck shone, and her little feet were like flying
+doves. It seemed to Hippomenes as he watched her that there was fire in
+her lovely body. On and on she went as swift as the arrow that the
+Scythian shoots from his bow. And as he watched the race he was not sorry
+that the youths were being left behind. Rather would he have been enraged
+if one came near overtaking her, for now his heart was set upon winning
+her for his bride, and he cursed himself for not having entered the race.
+
+  She passed the last goal mark and she was given the victor's wreath of
+flowers. Hippomenes stood and watched her and he did not see the youths
+who had started with her--they had thrown themselves on the ground in their
+despair.
+
+  Then wild, as though he were one of the doomed youths, Hippomenes made
+his way through the throng and came before the black-bearded King of
+Boetia. The king's brows were knit, for even then he was pronouncing doom
+upon the youths who had been left behind in the race. He looked upon
+Hippomenes, another youth who would make the trial, and the frown became
+heavier upon his face.
+
+  But Hippomenes saw only Atalanta. She came beside her father; the wreath
+was upon her head of gold, and her eyes were wide and tender. She turned
+her face to him, and then she knew by the wildness that was in his look
+that he had come to enter the race with her. Then the flush that was on
+her face died away, and she shook her head as if she were imploring him to
+go from that place.
+
+  The dark-bearded king bent his brows upon him and said, "Speak, O youth,
+speak and tell us what brings you here."
+
+  Then cried Hippomenes as if his whole life were bursting out with his
+words: "Why does this maiden, your daughter, seek an easy renown by
+conquering weakly youths in the race? She has not striven yet. Here stand
+I, one of the blood of Poseidon, the god of the sea. Should I be defeated
+by her in the race, then, indeed, might Atalanta have something to boast
+of."
+
+  Atalanta stepped forward and said: "Do not speak of it, youth. Indeed I
+think that it is some god, envious of your beauty and your strength, who
+sent you here to strive with me and to meet your doom. Ah, think of the
+youths who have striven with me even now! Think of the hard doom that is
+about to fall upon them! You venture your life in the race, but indeed I
+am not worthy of the price. Go hence, O stranger youth, go hence and live
+happily, for indeed I think that there is some maiden who loves you well."
+
+  "Nay, maiden," said Hippomenes, "I will enter the race and I will
+venture my life on the chance of winning you for my bride. What good will
+my life and my spirit be to me if they cannot win this race for me?"
+
+  She drew away from him then and looked upon him no more, but bent down
+to fasten the sandals upon her feet. And the black-bearded king looked
+upon Hippomenes and said, "Face, then, this race to-morrow. You will be
+the only one who will enter it. But bethink thee of the doom that awaits
+thee at the end of it." The king said no more, and Hippomenes went from
+him and from Atalanta, and he came again to the place where the race had
+been run.
+
+  He looked across the sandy course with its goal marks, and in his mind
+he saw again Atalanta's swift race. He would not meet doom at the hands of
+the king's soldiers, he knew, for his spirit would leave him with the
+greatness of the effort he would make to reach the goal before her. And he
+thought it would be well to die in that effort and on that sandy place
+that was so far from his own land.
+
+  Even as he looked across the sandy course now deserted by the throng, he
+saw one move across it, coming toward him with feet that did not seem to
+touch the ground. She was a woman of wonderful presence. As Hippomenes
+looked upon her he knew that she was Aphrodite, the goddess of beauty and
+of love.
+
+  "Hippomenes," said the immortal goddess, "the gods are mindful of you
+who are sprung from one of the gods, and I am mindful of you because of
+your own worth. I have come to help you in your race with Atalanta, for I
+would not have you slain, nor would I have that maiden go unwed. Give your
+greatest strength and your greatest swiftness to the race, and behold!
+here are wonders that will prevent the fleet-footed Atalanta from putting
+all her spirit into the race."
+
+  And then the immortal goddess held out to Hippomenes a branch that had
+upon it three apples of shining gold.
+
+  "In Cyprus," said the goddess, "where I have come from, there is a tree
+on which these golden apples grow. Only I may pluck them. I have brought
+them to you, Hippomenes. Keep them in your girdle, and in the race you
+will find out what to do with them, I think."
+
+  So Aphrodite said, and then she vanished, leaving a fragrance in the air
+and the three shining apples in the hands of Hippomenes. Long he looked
+upon their brightness. They were beside him that night, and when he arose
+in the dawn he put them in his girdle. Then, before the throng, he went to
+the place of the race.
+
+  When he showed himself beside Atalanta all around the course were
+silent, for they all admired Hippomenes for his beauty and for the spirit
+that was in his face; they were silent out of compassion, for they knew
+the doom that befell the youths who raced with Atalanta.
+
+  And now Schoeneus, the black-bearded king, stood up, and he spoke to the
+throng, saying, "Hear me all, both young and old: this youth, Hippomenes,
+seeks to win the race from my daughter, winning her for his bride. Now, if
+he be victorious and escape death I will give him my dear child, Atalanta,
+and many fleet horses besides as gifts from me, and in honor he shall go
+back to his native land. But if he fail in the race, then he will have to
+share the doom that has been meted out to the other youths who raced with
+Atalanta hoping to win her for a bride."
+
+  Then Hippomenes and Atalanta crouched for the start. The trumpets were
+sounded and they darted off.
+
+  Side by side with Atalanta Hippomenes went. Her flying hair touched his
+breast, and it seemed to him that they were skimming the sandy course as
+if they were swallows. But then Atalanta began to draw away from him. He
+saw her ahead of him, and then he began to hear the words of cheer that
+came from the throng--"Bend to the race, Hippomenes! Go on, go on! Use your
+strength to the utmost." He bent himself to the race, but further and
+further from him Atalanta drew.
+
+  Then it seemed to him that she checked her swiftness a little to look
+back at him. He gained on her a little. And then his hand touched the
+apples that were in his girdle. As it touched them it came into his mind
+what to do with the apples.
+
+  He was not far from her now, but already her swiftness was drawing her
+further and further away. He took one of the apples into his hand and
+tossed it into the air so that it fell on the track before her.
+
+  Atalanta saw the shining apple. She checked her speed and stooped in the
+race to pick it up. And as she stooped Hippomenes darted past her, and
+went flying toward the goal that now was within his sight.
+
+  But soon she was beside him again. He looked, and he saw that the goal
+marks were far, far ahead of him. Atalanta with the flying hair passed
+him, and drew away and away from him. He had not speed to gain upon her
+now, he thought, so he put his strength into his hand and he flung the
+second of the shining apples. The apple rolled before her and rolled off
+the course. Atalanta turned off the course, stooped and picked up the
+apple.
+
+  Then did Hippomenes draw all his spirit into his breast as he raced on.
+He was now nearer to the goal than she was. But he knew that she was
+behind him, going lightly where he went heavily. And then she was beside
+him, and then she went past him. She paused in her speed for a moment and
+she looked back on him.
+
+  As he raced on, his chest seemed weighted down and his throat was
+crackling dry. The goal marks were far away still, but Atalanta was
+nearing them. He took the last of the golden apples into his hand. Perhaps
+she was now so far that the strength of his throw would not be great
+enough to bring the apple before her.
+
+  But with all the strength he could put into his hand he flung the apple.
+It struck the course before her feet and then went bounding wide. Atalanta
+swerved in her race and followed where the apple went. Hippomenes marveled
+that he had been able to fling it so far. He saw Atalanta stoop to pick up
+the apple, and he bounded on. And then, although his strength was failing,
+he saw the goal marks near him. He set his feet between them and then fell
+down on the ground.
+
+  The attendants raised him up and put the victor's wreath upon his head.
+The concourse of people shouted with joy to see him victor. But he looked
+around for Atalanta and he saw her standing there with the golden apples
+in her hands. "He has won," he heard her say, "and I have not to hate
+myself for bringing a doom upon him. Gladly, gladly do I give up the race,
+and glad am I that it is this youth who has won the victory from me."
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+                           Atalanta's Last Race
+
+
+  She took his hand and brought him before the king. Then Schoeneus, in the
+sight of all the rejoicing people, gave Atalanta to Hippomenes for his
+bride, and he bestowed upon him also a great gift of horses. With his dear
+and hard-won bride, Hippomenes went to his own country, and the apples
+that she brought with her, the golden apples of Aphrodite, were reverenced
+by the people.
+
+
+
+
+X. The Departure from Lemnos
+
+
+
+[Decorative first letter]
+_A_ DAY came when Heracles left the _Argo_ and went on the Lemnian land.
+He gathered the heroes about him, and they, seeing Heracles come amongst
+them, clamored to go to hunt the wild bulls that were inland from the sea.
+
+  So, for once, the heroes left the Lemnian maidens who were their
+friends. Jason, too, left Hypsipyle in the palace and went with Heracles.
+And as they went, Heracles spoke to each of the heroes, saying that they
+were forgetting the Fleece of Gold that they had sailed to gain. Jason
+blushed to think that he had almost let go out of his mind the quest that
+had brought him from Iolcus. And then he thought upon Hypsipyle and of how
+her little hand would stay in his, and his own hand became loose upon the
+spear so that it nearly fell from him. How could he, he thought, leave
+Hypsipyle and this land of Lemnos behind?
+
+  He heard the clear voice of Atalanta as she, too, spoke to the
+Argonauts. What Heracles said was brave and wise, said Atalanta.
+Forgetfulness would cover their names if they stayed longer in
+Lemnos--forgetfulness and shame, and they would come to despise themselves.
+Leave Lemnos, she cried, and draw _Argo_ into the sea, and depart for
+Colchis.
+
+  All day the Argonauts stayed by themselves, hunting the bulls. On their
+way back from the chase they were met by Lemnian maidens who carried
+wreaths of flowers for them. Very silent were the heroes as the maidens
+greeted them. Heracles went with Jason to the palace, and Hypsipyle,
+seeing the mighty stranger coming, seated herself, not on the couch where
+she was wont to sit looking into the face of Jason, but on the stone
+throne of King Thoas, her father. And seated on that throne she spoke to
+Jason and to Heracles as a queen might speak.
+
+  In the hall that night the heroes and the Lemnian maidens who were with
+them were quiet. A story was told; Castor began it and Polydeuces ended
+it. And the story that Helen's brothers told was:
+
+
+
+The Golden Maid
+
+
+  Epimetheus the Titan had a brother who was the wisest of all
+beings--Prometheus called the Foreseer. But Epimetheus himself was
+slow-witted and scatter-brained. His wise brother once sent him a message
+bidding him beware of the gifts that Zeus might send him. Epimetheus
+heard, but he did not heed the warning, and thereby he brought upon the
+race of men troubles and cares.
+
+  Prometheus, the wise Titan, had saved men from a great trouble that Zeus
+would have brought upon them. Also he had given them the gift of fire.
+Zeus was the more wroth with men now because fire, stolen from him, had
+been given them; he was wroth with the race of Titans, too, and he
+pondered in his heart how he might injure men, and how he might use
+Epimetheus, the mindless Titan, to further his plan.
+
+  While he pondered there was a hush on high Olympus, the mountain of the
+gods. Then Zeus called upon the artisan of the gods, lame Heph�stus, and
+he commanded him to make a being out of clay that would have the likeness
+of a lovely maiden. With joy and pride Heph�stus worked at the task that
+had been given him, and he fashioned a being that had the likeness of a
+lovely maiden, and he brought the thing of his making before the gods and
+the goddesses.
+
+  All strove to add a grace or a beauty to the work of Heph�stus. Zeus
+granted that the maiden should see and feel. Athene dressed her in
+garments that were as lovely as flowers. Aphrodite, the goddess of love,
+put a charm on her lips and in her eyes. The Graces put necklaces around
+her neck and set a golden crown upon her head. The Hours brought her a
+girdle of spring flowers. Then the herald of the gods gave her speech that
+was sweet and flowing. All the gods and goddesses had given gifts to her,
+and for that reason the maiden of Heph�stus's making was called Pandora,
+the All-endowed.
+
+  She was lovely, the gods knew; not beautiful as they themselves are, who
+have a beauty that awakens reverence rather than love, but lovely, as
+flowers and bright waters and earthly maidens are lovely. Zeus smiled to
+himself when he looked upon her, and he called to Hermes who knew all the
+ways of the earth, and he put her into the charge of Hermes. Also he gave
+Hermes a great jar to take along; this jar was Pandora's dower.
+
+
+
+  Epimetheus lived in a deep-down valley. Now one day, as he was sitting
+on a fallen pillar in the ruined place that was now forsaken by the rest
+of the Titans, he saw a pair coming toward him. One had wings, and he knew
+him to be Hermes, the messenger of the gods. The other was a maiden.
+Epimetheus marveled at the crown upon her head and at her lovely garments.
+There was a glint of gold all around her. He rose from where he sat upon
+the broken pillar and he stood to watch the pair. Hermes, he saw, was
+carrying by its handle a great jar.
+
+   In wonder and delight he looked upon the maiden. Epimetheus had seen no
+lovely thing for ages. Wonderful indeed was this Golden Maid, and as she
+came nearer the charm that was on her lips and in her eyes came to the
+Earth-born One, and he smiled with more and more delight.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+  Hermes came and stood before him. He also smiled, but his smile had
+something baleful in it. He put the hands of the Golden Maid into the
+great soft hand of the Titan, and he said, "O Epimetheus, Father Zeus
+would be reconciled with thee, and as a sign of his good will he sends
+thee this lovely goddess to be thy companion."
+
+  Oh, very foolish was Epimetheus the Earth-born One! As he looked upon
+the Golden Maid who was sent by Zeus he lost memory of the wars that Zeus
+had made upon the Titans and the Elder Gods; he lost memory of his brother
+chained by Zeus to the rock; he lost memory of the warning that his
+brother, the wisest of all beings, had sent him. He took the hands of
+Pandora, and he thought of nothing at all in all the world but her. Very
+far away seemed the voice of Hermes saying, "This jar, too, is from
+Olympus; it has in it Pandora's dower."
+
+  The jar stood forgotten for long, and green plants grew over it while
+Epimetheus walked in the garden with the Golden Maid, or watched her while
+she gazed on herself in the stream, or searched in the untended places for
+the fruits that the Elder Gods would eat, when they feasted with the
+Titans in the old days, before Zeus had come to his power. And lost to
+Epimetheus was the memory of his brother now suffering upon the rock
+because of the gift he had given to men.
+
+  And Pandora, knowing nothing except the brightness of the sunshine and
+the lovely shapes and colors of things and the sweet taste of the fruits
+that Epimetheus brought to her, could have stayed forever in that garden.
+
+  But every day Epimetheus would think that the men and women of the world
+should be able to talk to him about this maiden with the wonderful
+radiance of gold, and with the lovely garments, and the marvelous crown.
+And one day he took Pandora by the hand, and he brought her out of that
+deep-lying valley, and toward the homes of men. He did not forget the jar
+that Hermes had left with her. All things that belonged to the Golden Maid
+were precious, and Epimetheus took the jar along.
+
+
+
+  The race of men at the time were simple and content. Their days were
+passed in toil, but now, since Prometheus had given them fire, they had
+good fruits of their toil. They had well-shaped tools to dig the earth and
+to build houses. Their homes were warmed with fire, and fire burned upon
+the altars that were upon their ways.
+
+  Greatly they reverenced Prometheus; who had given them fire, and greatly
+they reverenced the race of the Titans. So when Epimetheus came amongst
+them, tall as a man walking with stilts, they welcomed him and brought him
+and the Golden Maid to their hearths. And Epimetheus showed Pandora the
+wonderful element that his brother had given to men, and she rejoiced to
+see the fire, clapping her hands with delight. The jar that Epimetheus
+brought he left in an open place.
+
+  In carrying it up the rough ways out of the valley Epimetheus may have
+knocked the jar about, for the lid that had been tight upon it now fitted
+very loosely. But no one gave heed to the jar as it stood in the open
+space where Epimetheus had left it.
+
+  At first the men and women looked upon the beauty of Pandora, upon her
+lovely dresses, and her golden crown and her girdle of flowers, with
+wonder and delight. Epimetheus would have every one admire and praise her.
+The men would leave off working in the fields, or hammering on iron, or
+building houses, and the women would leave off spinning or weaving, and
+come at his call, and stand about and admire the Golden Maid. But as time
+went by a change came upon the women: one woman would weep, and another
+would look angry, and a third would go back sullenly to her work when
+Pandora was admired or praised.
+
+  Once the women were gathered together, and one who was the wisest
+amongst them said: "Once we did not think about ourselves, and we were
+content. But now we think about ourselves, and we say to ourselves that we
+are harsh and ill-favored indeed compared to the Golden Maid that the
+Titan is so enchanted with. And we hate to see our own men praise and
+admire her, and often, in our hearts, we would destroy her if we could."
+
+  "That is true," the women said. And then a young woman cried out in a
+most yearnful voice, "O tell us, you who are wise, how can we make
+ourselves as beautiful as Pandora!"
+
+  Then said that woman who was thought to be wise, "This Golden Maid is
+lovely to look upon because she has lovely apparel and all the means of
+keeping herself lovely. The gods have given her the ways, and so her skin
+remains fair, and her hair keeps its gold, and her lips are ever red and
+her eyes shining. And I think that the means that she has of keeping
+lovely are all in that jar that Epimetheus brought with her."
+
+  When the woman who was thought to be wise said this, those around her
+were silent for a while. But then one arose and another arose, and they
+stood and whispered together, one saying to the other that they should go
+to the place where the jar had been left by Epimetheus, and that they
+should take out of it the salves and the charms and the washes that would
+leave them as beautiful as Pandora.
+
+  So the women went to that place. On their way they stopped at a pool and
+they bent over to see themselves mirrored in it, and they saw themselves
+with dusty and unkempt hair, with large and knotted hands, with troubled
+eyes, and with anxious mouths. They frowned as they looked upon their
+images, and they said in harsh voices that in a while they would have ways
+of making themselves as lovely as the Golden Maid.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+  And as they went on they saw Pandora. She was playing in a flowering
+field, while Epimetheus, high as a man upon stilts, went gathering the
+blossoms of the bushes for her. They went on, and they came at last to the
+place where Epimetheus had left the jar that held Pandora's dower.
+
+  A great stone jar it was; there was no bird, nor flower, nor branch
+painted upon it. It stood high as a woman's shoulder. And as the women
+looked on it they thought that there were things enough in it to keep them
+beautiful for all the days of their lives. But each one thought that she
+should not be the last to get her hands into it.
+
+  Once the lid had been fixed tightly down on the jar. But the lid was
+shifted a little now. As the hands of the women grasped it to take off the
+lid the jar was cast down, and the things that were inside spilled
+themselves forth.
+
+  They were black and gray and red; they were crawling and flying things.
+And, as the women looked, the things spread themselves abroad or fastened
+themselves upon them.
+
+  The jar, like Pandora herself, had been made and filled out of the ill
+will of Zeus. And it had been filled, not with salves and charms and
+washes, as the women had thought, but with Cares and Troubles. Before the
+women came to it one Trouble had already come forth from the
+jar--Self-thought that was upon the top of the heap. It was Self-thought
+that had afflicted the women, making them troubled about their own looks,
+and envious of the graces of the Golden Maid.
+
+  And now the others spread themselves out--Sickness and War and Strife
+between friends. They spread themselves abroad and entered the houses,
+while Epimetheus, the mindless Titan, gathered flowers for Pandora, the
+Golden Maid.
+
+  Lest she should weary of her play he called to her. He would take her
+into the houses of men. As they drew near to the houses they saw a woman
+seated on the ground, weeping; her husband had suddenly become hard to her
+and had shut the door on her face. They came upon a child crying because
+of a pain that he could not understand. And then they found two men
+struggling, their strife being on account of a possession that they had
+both held peaceably before.
+
+  In every house they went to Epimetheus would say, "I am the brother of
+Prometheus, who gave you the gift of fire." But instead of giving them a
+welcome the men would say, "We know nothing about your relation to
+Prometheus. We see you as a foolish man upon stilts."
+
+  Epimetheus was troubled by the hard looks and the cold words of the men
+who once had reverenced him. He turned from the houses and went away. In a
+quiet place he sat down, and for a while he lost sight of Pandora. And
+then it seemed to him that he heard the voice of his wise and suffering
+brother saying, "Do not accept any gift that Zeus may send you."
+
+  He rose up and he hurried away from that place, leaving Pandora playing
+by herself. There came into his scattered mind Regret and Fear. As he went
+on he stumbled. He fell from the edge of a cliff, and the sea washed away
+the body of the mindless brother of Prometheus.
+
+  Not everything had been spilled out of the jar that had been brought
+with Pandora into the world of men. A beautiful, living thing was in that
+jar also. This was Hope. And this beautiful, living thing had got caught
+under the rim of the jar and had not come forth with the others. One day a
+weeping woman found Hope under the rim of Pandora's jar and brought this
+living thing into the house of men. And now because of Hope they could see
+an end to their troubles. And the men and women roused themselves in the
+midst of their afflictions and they looked toward gladness. Hope, that had
+been caught under the rim of the jar, stayed behind the thresholds of
+their houses.
+
+  As for Pandora, the Golden Maid, she played on, knowing only the
+brightness of the sunshine and the lovely shapes of things. Beautiful
+would she have seemed to any being who saw her, but now she had strayed
+away from the houses of men and Epimetheus was not there to look upon her.
+Then Heph�stus, the lame artisan of the gods, left down his tools and went
+to seek her. He found Pandora, and he took her back to Olympus. And in his
+brazen house she stays, though sometimes at the will of Zeus she goes down
+into the world of men.
+
+
+
+  When Polydeuces had ended the story that Castor had begun, Heracles
+cried out: "For the Argonauts, too, there has been a Golden Maid--nay, not
+one, but a Golden Maid for each. Out of the jar that has been with her ye
+have taken forgetfulness of your honor. As for me, I go back to the _Argo_
+lest one of these Golden Maids should hold me back from the labors that
+make great a man."
+
+  So Heracles said, and he went from Hypsipyle's hall. The heroes looked
+at each other, and they stood up, and shame that they had stayed so long
+away from the quest came over each of them. The maidens took their hands;
+the heroes unloosed those soft hands and turned away from them.
+
+  Hypsipyle left the throne of King Thoas and stood before Jason. There
+was a storm in all her body; her mouth was shaken, and a whole life's
+trouble was in her great eyes. Before she spoke Jason cried out: "What
+Heracles said is true, O Argonauts! On the Quest of the Golden Fleece our
+lives and our honors depend. To Colchis--to Colchis must we go!"
+
+  He stood upright in the hall, and his comrades gathered around him. The
+Lemnian maidens would have held out their arms and would have made their
+partings long delayed, but that a strange cry came to them through the
+night. Well did the Argonauts know that cry--it was the cry of the ship, of
+_Argo_ herself. They knew that they must go to her now or stay from the
+voyage for ever. And the maidens knew that there was something in the cry
+of the ship that might not be gainsaid, and they put their hands before
+their faces, and they said no other word.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+  Then said Hypsipyle, the queen, "I, too, am a ruler, Jason, and I know
+that there are great commands that we have to obey. Go, then, to the
+_Argo_. Ah, neither I nor the women of Lemnos will stay your going now.
+But to-morrow speak to us from the deck of the ship and bid us farewell.
+Do not go from us in the night, Jason."
+
+  Jason and the Argonauts went from Hypsipyle's hall. The maidens who were
+left behind wept together. All but Hypsipyle. She sat on the throne of
+King Thoas and she had Polyxo, her nurse, tell her of the ways of Jason's
+voyage as he had told of them, and of all that he would have to pass
+through. When the other Lemnian women slept she put her head upon her
+nurse's knees and wept; bitterly Hypsipyle wept, but softly, for she would
+not have the others hear her weeping.
+
+
+
+  By the coming of the morning's light the Argonauts had made all ready
+for their sailing. They were standing on the deck when the light came, and
+they saw the Lemnian women come to the shore. Each looked at her friend
+aboard the _Argo_, and spoke, and went away. And last, Hypsipyle, the
+queen, came. "Farewell, Hypsipyle," Jason said to her, and she, in her
+strange way of speaking, said:
+
+  "What you told us I have remembered--how you will come to the dangerous
+passage that leads into the Sea of Pontus, and how by the flight of a
+pigeon you will know whether or not you may go that way. O Jason, let the
+dove you fly when you come to that dangerous place be Hypsipyle's."
+
+  She showed a pigeon held in her hands. She loosed it, and the pigeon
+alighted on the ship, and stayed there on pink feet, a white-feathered
+pigeon. Jason took up the pigeon and held it in his hands, and the _Argo_
+drew swiftly away from the Lemnian land.
+
+
+
+
+XI. The Passage of the Symplegades
+
+
+
+[Decorative first letter]
+_T_HEY came near Salmydessus, where Phineus, the wise king, ruled, and
+they sailed past it; they sighted the pile of stones, with the oar upright
+upon it that they had raised on the seashore over the body of Tiphys, the
+skillful steersman whom they had lost; they sailed on until they heard a
+sound that grew more and more thunderous, and then the heroes said to each
+other, "Now we come to the Symplegades and the dread passage into the Sea
+of Pontus."
+
+  It was then that Jason cried out: "Ah, when Pelias spoke of this quest
+to me, why did I not turn my head away and refuse to be drawn into it?
+Since we came near the dread passage that is before us I have passed every
+night in groans. As for you who have come with me, you may take your ease,
+for you need care only for your own lives. But I have to care for you all,
+and to strive to win for you all a safe return to Greece. Ah, greatly am I
+afflicted now, knowing to what a great peril I have brought you!"
+
+  So Jason said, thinking to make trial of the heroes. They, on their
+part, were not dismayed, but shouted back cheerful words to him. Then he
+said: "O friends of mine, by your spirit my spirit is quickened. Now if I
+knew that I was being borne down into the black gulfs of Hades, I should
+fear nothing, knowing that you are constant and faithful of heart."
+
+  As he said this they came into water that seethed all around the ship.
+Then into the hands of Euphemus, a youth of Iolcus, who was the
+keenest-eyed amongst the Argonauts, Jason put the pigeon that Hypsipyle
+had given him. He bade him stand by the prow of the _Argo_, ready to loose
+the pigeon as the ship came nigh that dreadful gate of rock.
+
+  They saw the spray being dashed around in showers; they saw the sea
+spread itself out in foam; they saw the high, black rocks rush together,
+sounding thunderously as they met. The caves in the high rocks rumbled as
+the sea surged into them, and the foam of the dashing waves spurted high
+up the rocks.
+
+  Jason shouted to each man to grip hard on the oars. The _Argo_ dashed on
+as the rocks rushed toward each other again. Then there was such noise
+that no man's voice could be heard above it.
+
+  As the rocks met, Euphemus loosed the pigeon. With his keen eyes he
+watched her fly through the spray. Would she, not finding an opening to
+fly through, turn back? He watched, and meanwhile the Argonauts gripped
+hard on the oars to save the ship from being dashed on the rocks. The
+pigeon fluttered as though she would sink down and let the spray drown
+her. And then Euphemus saw her raise herself and fly forward. Toward the
+place where she had flown he pointed. The rowers gave a loud cry, and
+Jason called upon them to pull with might and main.
+
+  The rocks were parting asunder, and to the right and left broad Pontus
+was seen by the heroes. Then suddenly a huge wave rose before them, and at
+the sight of it they all uttered a cry and bent their heads. It seemed to
+them that it would dash down on the whole ship's length and overwhelm them
+all. But Nauplius was quick to ease the ship, and the wave rolled away
+beneath the keel, and at the stern it raised the _Argo_ and dashed her
+away from the rocks.
+
+  They felt the sun as it streamed upon them through the sundered rocks.
+They strained at the oars until the oars bent like bows in their hands.
+The ship sprang forward. Surely they were now in the wide Sea of Pontus!
+
+  The Argonauts shouted. They saw the rocks behind them with the sea fowl
+screaming upon them. Surely they were in the Sea of Pontus--the sea that
+had never been entered before through the Rocks Wandering. The rocks no
+longer dashed together; each remained fixed in its place, for it was the
+will of the gods that these rocks should no more clash together after a
+mortal's ship had passed between them.
+
+  They were now in the Sea of Pontus, the sea into which flowed the river
+that Colchis was upon--the River Phasis. And now above Jason's head the
+bird of peaceful days, the Halcyon, fluttered, and the Argonauts knew that
+this was a sign from the gods that the voyage would not any more be
+troublous.
+
+
+
+
+XII. The Mountain Caucasus
+
+
+
+[Decorative first letter]
+_T_HEY rested in the harbor of Thynias, the desert island, and sailing
+from there they came to the land of the Mariandyni, a people who were
+constantly at war with the Bebrycians; there the hero Polydeuces was
+welcomed as a god. Twelve days afterward they passed the mouth of the
+River Callichorus; then they came to the mouth of that river that flows
+through the land of the Amazons, the River Thermodon. Fourteen days from
+that place brought them to the island that is filled with the birds of
+Ares, the god of war. These birds dropped upon the heroes heavy, pointed
+feathers that would have pierced them as arrows if they had not covered
+themselves with their shields; then by shouting, and by striking their
+shields with their spears, they raised such a clamor as drove the birds
+away.
+
+  They sailed on, borne by a gentle breeze, until a gulf of the sea opened
+before them, and lo! a mountain that they knew bore some mighty name.
+Orpheus, looking on its peak and its crags, said, "Lo, now! We, the
+Argonauts, are looking upon the mountain that is named Caucasus!"
+
+  When he declared the name the heroes all stood up and looked on the
+mountain with awe. And in awe they cried out a name, and that name was
+"Prometheus!"
+
+  For upon that mountain the Titan god was held, his limbs bound upon the
+hard rocks by fetters of bronze. Even as the Argonauts looked toward the
+mountain a great shadow fell upon their ship, and looking up they saw a
+monstrous bird flying. The beat of the bird's wings filled out the sail
+and drove the _Argo_ swiftly onward. "It is the bird sent by Zeus,"
+Orpheus said. "It is the vulture that every day devours the liver of the
+Titan god." They cowered down on the ship as they heard that word--all the
+Argonauts save Heracles; he stood upright and looked out toward where the
+bird was flying. Then, as the bird came near to the mountain, the
+Argonauts heard a great cry of anguish go up from the rocks.
+
+  "It is Prometheus crying out as the bird of Zeus flies down upon him,"
+they said to one another. Again they cowered down on the ship, all save
+Heracles, who stayed looking toward where the great vulture had flown.
+
+  The night came and the Argonauts sailed on in silence, thinking in awe
+of the Titan god and of the doom that Zeus had inflicted upon him. Then,
+as they sailed on under the stars, Orpheus told them of Prometheus, of his
+gift to men, and of the fearful punishment that had been meted out to him
+by Zeus.
+
+
+
+Prometheus
+
+
+  The gods more than once made a race of men: the first was a Golden Race.
+Very close to the gods who dwell on Olympus was this Golden Race; they
+lived justly although there were no laws to compel them. In the time of
+the Golden Race the earth knew only one season, and that season was
+everlasting Spring. The men and women of the Golden Race lived through a
+span of life that was far beyond that of the men and women of our day, and
+when they died it was as though sleep had become everlasting with them.
+They had all good things, and that without labor, for the earth without
+any forcing bestowed fruits and crops upon them. They had peace all
+through their lives, this Golden Race, and after they had passed away
+their spirits remained above the earth, inspiring the men of the race that
+came after them to do great and gracious things and to act justly and
+kindly to one another.
+
+  After the Golden Race had passed away, the gods made for the earth a
+second race--a Silver Race. Less noble in spirit and in body was this
+Silver Race, and the seasons that visited them were less gracious. In the
+time of the Silver Race the gods made the seasons--Summer and Spring, and
+Autumn and Winter. They knew parching heat, and the bitter winds of
+winter, and snow and rain and hail. It was the men of the Silver Race who
+first built houses for shelter. They lived through a span of life that was
+longer than our span, but it was not long enough to give wisdom to them.
+Children were brought up at their mothers' sides for a hundred years,
+playing at childish things. And when they came to years beyond a hundred
+they quarreled with one another, and wronged one another, and did not know
+enough to give reverence to the immortal gods. Then, by the will of Zeus,
+the Silver Race passed away as the Golden Race had passed away. Their
+spirits stay in the Underworld, and they are called by men the blessed
+spirits of the Underworld.
+
+  And then there was made the third race--the Race of Bronze. They were a
+race great of stature, terrible and strong. Their armor was of bronze,
+their swords were of bronze, their implements were of bronze, and of
+bronze, too, they made their houses. No great span of life was theirs, for
+with the weapons that they took in their terrible hands they slew one
+another. Thus they passed away, and went down under the earth to Hades,
+leaving no name that men might know them by.
+
+  Then the gods created a fourth race--our own: a Race of Iron. We have not
+the justice that was amongst the men of the Golden Race, nor the
+simpleness that was amongst the men of the Silver Race, nor the stature
+nor the great strength that the men of the Bronze Race possessed. We are
+of iron that we may endure. It is our doom that we must never cease from
+labor and that we must very quickly grow old.
+
+  But miserable as we are to-day, there was a time when the lot of men was
+more miserable. With poor implements they had to labor on a hard ground.
+There was less justice and kindliness amongst men in those days than there
+is now.
+
+  Once it came into the mind of Zeus that he would destroy the fourth race
+and leave the earth to the nymphs and the satyrs. He would destroy it by a
+great flood. But Prometheus, the Titan god who had given aid to Zeus
+against the other Titans--Prometheus, who was called the Foreseer--could not
+consent to the race of men being destroyed utterly, and he considered a
+way of saving some of them. To a man and a woman, Deucalion and Pyrrha,
+just and gentle people, he brought word of the plan of Zeus, and he showed
+them how to make a ship that would bear them through what was about to be
+sent upon the earth.
+
+  Then Zeus shut up in their cave all the winds but the wind that brings
+rain and clouds. He bade this wind, the South Wind, sweep over the earth,
+flooding it with rain. He called upon Poseidon and bade him to let the sea
+pour in upon the land. And Poseidon commanded the rivers to put forth all
+their strength, and sweep dykes away, and overflow their banks.
+
+  The clouds and the sea and the rivers poured upon the earth. The flood
+rose higher and higher, and in the places where the pretty lambs had
+played the ugly sea calves now gambolled; men in their boats drew fishes
+out of the tops of elm trees, and the water nymphs were amazed to come on
+men's cities under the waves.
+
+  Soon even the men and women who had boats were overwhelmed by the rise
+of water--all perished then except Deucalion and Pyrrha, his wife; them the
+waves had not overwhelmed, for they were in a ship that Prometheus had
+shown them how to build. The flood went down at last, and Deucalion and
+Pyrrha climbed up to a high and a dry ground. Zeus saw that two of the
+race of men had been left alive. But he saw that these two were just and
+kindly, and had a right reverence for the gods. He spared them, and he saw
+their children again peopling the earth.
+
+  Prometheus, who had saved them, looked on the men and women of the earth
+with compassion. Their labor was hard, and they wrought much to gain
+little. They were chilled at night in their houses, and the winds that
+blew in the daytime made the old men and women bend double like a wheel.
+Prometheus thought to himself that if men and women had the element that
+only the gods knew of--the element of fire--they could make for themselves
+implements for labor; they could build houses that would keep out the
+chilling winds, and they could warm themselves at the blaze.
+
+  But the gods had not willed that men should have fire, and to go against
+the will of the gods would be impious. Prometheus went against the will of
+the gods. He stole fire from the altar of Zeus, and he hid it in a hollow
+fennel stalk, and he brought it to men.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+                                Prometheus
+
+
+  Then men were able to hammer iron into tools, and cut down forests with
+axes, and sow grain where the forests had been. Then were they able to
+make houses that the storms could not overthrow, and they were able to
+warm themselves at hearth fires. They had rest from their labor at times.
+They built cities; they became beings who no longer had heads and backs
+bent but were able to raise their faces even to the gods.
+
+  And Zeus spared the race of men who had now the sacred element of fire.
+But he knew that Prometheus had stolen this fire even from his own altar
+and had given it to men. And he thought on how he might punish the great
+Titan god for his impiety.
+
+  He brought back from the Underworld the giants that he had put there to
+guard the Titans that had been hurled down to Tartarus. He brought back
+Gyes, Cottus, and Briareus, and he commanded them to lay hands upon
+Prometheus and to fasten him with fetters to the highest, blackest crag
+upon Caucasus. And Briareus, Cottus, and Gyes seized upon the Titan god,
+and carried him to Caucasus, and fettered him with fetters of bronze to
+the highest, blackest crag--with fetters of bronze that may not be broken.
+There they have left the Titan stretched, under the sky, with the cold
+winds blowing upon him, and with the sun streaming down on him. And that
+his punishment might exceed all other punishments Zeus had sent a vulture
+to prey upon him--a vulture that tears at his liver each day.
+
+  And yet Prometheus does not cry out that he has repented of his gift to
+man; although the winds blow upon him, and the sun streams upon him, and
+the vulture tears at his liver, Prometheus will not cry out his repentance
+to heaven. And Zeus may not utterly destroy him. For Prometheus the
+Foreseer knows a secret that Zeus would fain have him disclose. He knows
+that even as Zeus overthrew his father and made himself the ruler in his
+stead, so, too, another will overthrow Zeus. And one day Zeus will have to
+have the fetters broken from around the limbs of Prometheus, and will have
+to bring from the rock and the vulture, and into the Council of the
+Olympians, the unyielding Titan god.
+
+
+
+  When the light of the morning came the _Argo_ was very near to the
+Mountain Caucasus. The voyagers looked in awe upon its black crags. They
+saw the great vulture circling over a high rock, and from beneath where
+the vulture circled they heard a weary cry. Then Heracles, who all night
+had stood by the mast, cried out to the Argonauts to bring the ship near
+to a landing place.
+
+  But Jason would not have them go near; fear of the wrath of Zeus was
+strong upon him; rather, he bade the Argonauts put all their strength into
+their rowing, and draw far off from that forbidden mountain. Heracles, not
+heeding what Jason ordered, declared that it was his purpose to make his
+way up to the black crag, and, with his shield and his sword in his hands,
+slay the vulture that preyed upon the liver of Prometheus.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+  Then Orpheus in a clear voice spoke to the Argonauts. "Surely some
+spirit possesses Heracles," he said. "Despite all we do or say he will
+make his way to where Prometheus is fettered to the rock. Do not gainsay
+him in this! Remember what Nereus, the ancient one of the sea, declared!
+Did Nereus not say that a great labor awaited Heracles, and that in the
+doing of it he should work out the will of Zeus? Stay him not! How just it
+would be if he who is the son of Zeus freed from his torments the
+much-enduring Titan god!"
+
+  So Orpheus said in his clear, commanding voice. They drew near to the
+Mountain Caucasus. Then Heracles, gripping the sword and shield that were
+the gifts of the gods, sprang out on the landing place. The Argonauts
+shouted farewell to him. But he, filled as he was with an overmastering
+spirit, did not heed their words.
+
+  A strong breeze drove them onward; darkness came down, and the _Argo_
+went on through the night. With the morning light those who were sleeping
+were awakened by the cry of Nauplius--"Lo! The Phasis, and the utmost
+bourne of the sea!" They sprang up, and looked with many strange feelings
+upon the broad river they had come to.
+
+  Here was the Phasis emptying itself into the Sea of Pontus! Up that
+river was Colchis and the city of King �etes, the end of their voyage, the
+place where was kept the Golden Fleece! Quickly they let down the sail;
+they lowered the mast and they laid it along the deck; strongly they
+grasped the oars; they swung the _Argo_ around, and they entered the broad
+stream of the Phasis.
+
+  Up the river they went with the Mountain Caucasus on their left hand,
+and on their right the groves and gardens of Aea, King �etes's city. As
+they went up the stream, Jason poured from a golden cup an offering to the
+gods. And to the dead heroes of that country the Argonauts prayed for good
+fortune to their enterprise.
+
+  It was Jason's counsel that they should not at once appear before King
+�etes, but visit him after they had seen the strength of his city. They
+drew their ship into a shaded backwater, and there they stayed while day
+grew and faded around them.
+
+  Night came, and the heroes slept upon the deck of _Argo_. Many things
+came back to them in their dreams or through their half-sleep: they
+thought of the Lemnian maidens they had parted from; of the Clashing Rocks
+they had passed between; of the look in the eyes of Heracles as he raised
+his face to the high, black peak of Caucasus. They slept, and they thought
+they saw before them THE GOLDEN FLEECE; darkness surrounded it; it seemed
+to the dreaming Argonauts that the darkness was the magic power that King
+�etes possessed.
+
+
+
+
+
+PART II. THE RETURN TO GREECE
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+I. King �etes
+
+
+
+[Decorative first letter]
+_T_HEY had come into a country that was the strangest of all countries,
+and amongst a people that were the strangest of all peoples. They were in
+the land, this people said, before the moon had come into the sky. And it
+is true that when the great king of Egypt had come so far, finding in all
+other places men living on the high hills and eating the acorns that grew
+on the oaks there, he found in Colchis the city of Aea with a wall around
+it and with pillars on which writings were graven. That was when Egypt was
+called the Morning Land.
+
+  And many of the magicians of Egypt who had come with King Sesostris
+stayed in that city of Aea, and they taught people spells that could stay
+the moon in her going and coming, in her rising and setting. Priests of
+the Moon ruled the city of Aea until King �etes came.
+
+  �etes had no need of their magic, for Helios, the bright Sun, was his
+father, as he thought. Also, Heph�stus, the artisan of the gods, was his
+friend, and Heph�stus made for him many wonderful things to be his
+protection. Medea, too, his wise daughter, knew the secrets taught by
+those who could sway the moon.
+
+  But �etes once was made afraid by a dream that he had: he dreamt that a
+ship had come up the Phasis, and then, sailing on a mist, had rammed his
+palace that was standing there in all its strength and beauty until it had
+fallen down. On the morning of the night that he had had this dream �etes
+called Medea, his wise daughter, and he bade her go to the temple of
+Hecate, the Moon, and search out spells that might destroy those who came
+against his city.
+
+
+
+  That morning the Argonauts, who had passed the night in the backwater of
+the river, had two youths come to them. They were in a broken ship, and
+they had one oar only. When Jason, after giving them food and fresh
+garments, questioned them, he found out that these youths were of the city
+of Aea, and that they were none others than the sons of Phrixus--of Phrixus
+who had come there with the Golden Ram.
+
+  And the youths, Phrontis and Melas, were as amazed as was Jason when
+they found out whose ship they had come aboard. For Jason was the grandson
+of Cretheus, and Cretheus was the brother of Athamas, their grandfather.
+They had ventured from Aea, where they had been reared, thinking to reach
+the country of Athamas and lay claim to his possessions. But they had been
+wrecked at a place not far from the mouth of the Phasis, and with great
+pain and struggle they had made their way back.
+
+  They were fearful of Aea and of their uncle King �etes, and they would
+gladly go with Jason and the Argonauts back to Greece. They would help
+Jason, they said, to persuade �etes to give the Golden Fleece peaceably to
+them. Their mother was the daughter of �etes--Chalciope, whom the king had
+given in marriage to Phrixus, his guest.
+
+  A council of the Argonauts was held, and it was agreed that Jason should
+go with two comrades to King �etes, Phrontis and Melas going also. They
+were to ask the king to give them the Golden Fleece and to offer him a
+recompense. Jason took Peleus and Telamon with him.
+
+  As they came to the city a mist fell, and Jason and his comrades with
+the sons of Phrixus went through the city without being seen. They came
+before the palace of King �etes. Then Phrontis and Melas were some way
+behind. The mist lifted, and before the heroes was the wonder of the
+palace in the bright light of the morning.
+
+  Vines with broad leaves and heavy clusters of fruit grew from column to
+column, the columns holding a gallery up. And under the vines were the
+four fountains that Heph�stus had made for King �etes. They gushed out
+into golden, silver, bronze, and iron basins. And one fountain gushed out
+clear water, and another gushed out milk; another gushed out wine; and
+another oil. On each side of the courtyard were the palace buildings; in
+one King �etes lived with Apsyrtus, his son, and in the other Chalciope
+and Medea lived with their handmaidens.
+
+  Medea was passing from her father's house. The mist lifted suddenly and
+she saw three strangers in the palace courtyard. One had a crimson mantle
+on; his shoulders were such as to make him seem a man that a whole world
+could not overthrow, and his eyes had all the sun's light in them.
+
+  Amazed, Medea stood looking upon Jason, wondering at his bright hair and
+gleaming eyes and at the lightness and strength of the hand that he had
+raised. And then a dove flew toward her: it was being chased by a hawk,
+and Medea saw the hawk's eyes and beak. As the dove lighted upon her
+shoulder she threw her veil around it, and the hawk dashed itself against
+a column. And as Medea, trembling, leaned against the column she heard a
+cry from her sister, who was within.
+
+  For now Phrontis and Melas had come up, and Chalciope who was spinning
+by the door saw them and cried out. All the servants rushed out. Seeing
+Chalciope's sons there they, too, uttered loud cries, and made such
+commotion that Apsyrtus and then King �etes came out of the palace.
+
+  Jason saw King �etes. He was old and white, but he had great green eyes,
+and the strength of a leopard was in all he did. And Jason looked upon
+Apsyrtus too; the son of �etes looked like a Ph�nician merchant, black of
+beard and with rings in his ears, with a hooked nose and a gleam of copper
+in his face.
+
+  Phrontis and Melas went from their mother's embrace and made reverence
+to King �etes. Then they spoke of the heroes who were with them, of Jason
+and his two comrades. �etes bade all enter the palace; baths were made
+ready for them, and a banquet was prepared.
+
+  After the banquet, when they all sat together, �etes, addressing the
+eldest of Chalciope's sons, said:
+
+  "Sons of Phrixus, of that man whom I honored above all men who came to
+my halls, speak now and tell me how it is that you have come back to Aea
+so soon, and who they are, these men who come with you?"
+
+  �etes, as he spoke, looked sharply upon Phrontis and Melas, for he
+suspected them of having returned to Aea, bringing these armed men with
+them, with an evil intent. Phrontis looked at the King, and said:
+
+  "�etes, our ship was driven upon the Island of Ares, where it was almost
+broken upon the rocks. That was on a murky night, and in the morning the
+birds of Ares shot their sharp feathers upon us. We pulled away from that
+place, and thereafter we were driven by the winds back to the mouth of the
+Phasis. There we met with these heroes who were friendly to us. Who they
+are, what they have come to your city for, I shall now tell you.
+
+  "A certain king, longing to drive one of these heroes from his land, and
+hoping that the race of Cretheus might perish utterly, led him to enter a
+most perilous adventure. He came here upon a ship that was made by the
+command of Hera, the wife of Zeus, a ship more wonderful than mortals ever
+sailed in before. With him there came the mightiest of the heroes of
+Greece. He is Jason, the grandson of Cretheus, and he has come to beg that
+you will grant him freely the famous Fleece of Gold that Phrixus brought
+to Aea.
+
+  "But not without recompense to you would he take the Fleece. Already he
+has heard of your bitter foes, the Sauromat�. He with his comrades would
+subdue them for you. And if you would ask of the names and the lineage of
+the heroes who are with Jason I shall tell you. This is Peleus and this is
+Telamon; they are brothers, and they are sons of �acus, who was of the
+seed of Zeus. And all the other heroes who have come with them are of the
+seed of the gods."
+
+  So Phrontis said, but the King was not placated by what he said. He
+thought that the sons of Chalciope had returned to Aea bringing these
+warriors with them so that they might wrest the kingship from him, or,
+failing that, plunder the city. �etes's heart was filled with wrath as he
+looked upon them, and his eyes shone as a leopard's eyes.
+
+  "Begone from my sight," he cried, "robbers that ye are! Tricksters! If
+you had not eaten at my table, assuredly I should have had your tongues
+cut out for speaking falsehoods about the blessed gods, saying that this
+one and that of your companions was of their divine race."
+
+  Telamon and Peleus strode forward with angry hearts; they would have
+laid their hands upon King �etes only Jason held them back. And then
+speaking to the king in a quiet voice, Jason said:
+
+  "Bear with us, King �etes, I pray you. We have not come with such evil
+intent as you think. Ah, it was the evil command of an evil king that sent
+me forth with these companions of mine across dangerous gulfs of the sea,
+and to face your wrath and the armed men you can bring against us. We are
+ready to make great recompense for the friendliness you may show to us. We
+will subdue for you the Sauromat�, or any other people that you would lord
+it over."
+
+  But �etes was not made friendly by Jason's words. His heart was divided
+as to whether he should summon his armed men and have them slain upon the
+spot, or whether he should put them into danger by the trial he would make
+of them. At last he thought that it would be better to put them to the
+trial that he had in mind, slaying them afterward if need be. And then he
+spoke to Jason, saying:
+
+  "Strangers to Colchis, it may be true what my nephews have said. It may
+be that ye are truly of the seed of the immortals. And it may be that I
+shall give you the Golden Fleece to bear away after I have made trial of
+you."
+
+  As he spoke Medea, brought there by his messenger so that she might
+observe the strangers, came into the chamber. She entered softly and she
+stood away from her father and the four who were speaking with him. Jason
+looked upon her, and even although his mind was filled with the thought of
+bending King �etes to his will, he saw what manner of maiden she was, and
+what beauty and what strength was hers.
+
+  She had a dark face that was made very strange by her crown of golden
+hair. Her eyes, like her father's, were wide and full of light, and her
+lips were so full and red that they made her mouth like an opening rose.
+But her brows were always knit as if there was some secret anger within
+her.
+
+  "With brave men I have no quarrel," said �etes. "I will make a trial of
+your bravery, and if your bravery wins through the trial, be very sure
+that you will have the Golden Fleece to bring back in triumph to Iolcus.
+
+  "But the trial that I would make of you is hard for a great hero even.
+Know that on the plain of Ares yonder I have two fire-breathing bulls with
+feet of brass. These bulls were once conquered by me; I yoked them to a
+plow of adamant, and with them I plowed the field of Ares for four
+plow-gates. Then I sowed the furrows, not with the seed that Demeter
+gives, but with teeth of a dragon. And from the dragon's teeth that I
+sowed in the field of Ares armed men sprang up. I slew them with my spear
+as they rose around me to slay me. If you can accomplish this that I
+accomplished in days gone by I shall submit to you and give you the Golden
+Fleece. But if you cannot accomplish what I once accomplished you shall go
+from my city empty-handed, for it is not right that a brave man should
+yield aught to one who cannot show himself as brave."
+
+  So �etes said. Then Jason, utterly confounded, cast his eyes upon the
+ground. He raised them to speak to the king, and as he did he found the
+strange eyes of Medea upon him. With all the courage that was in him he
+spoke:
+
+  "I will dare this contest, monstrous as it is. I will face this doom. I
+have come far, and there is nothing else for me to do but to yoke your
+fire-breathing bulls to the plow of adamant, and plow the furrows in the
+field of Ares, and struggle with the Earth-born Men." As he said this he
+saw the eyes of Medea grow wide as with fear.
+
+  Then �etes said, "Go back to your ship and make ready for the trial."
+Jason, with Peleus and Telamon, left the chamber, and the king smiled
+grimly as he saw them go. Phrontis and Melas went to where their mother
+was. But Medea stayed, and �etes looked upon her with his great leopard's
+eyes. "My daughter, my wise Medea," he said, "go, put spells upon the
+Moon, that Hecate may weaken that man in his hour of trial." Medea turned
+away from her father's eyes, and went to her chamber.
+
+
+
+
+II. Medea the Sorceress
+
+
+
+[Decorative first letter]
+_S_HE turned away from her father's eyes and she went into her own
+chamber. For a long time she stood there with her hands clasped together.
+She heard the voice of Chalciope lamenting because �etes had taken a
+hatred to her sons and might strive to destroy them. She heard the voice
+of her sister lamenting, but Medea thought that the cause that her sister
+had for grieving was small compared with the cause that she herself had.
+
+  She thought on the moment when she had seen Jason for the first time--in
+the courtyard as the mist lifted and the dove flew to her; she thought of
+him as he lifted those bright eyes of his; then she thought of his voice
+as he spoke after her father had imposed the dreadful trial upon him. She
+would have liked then to have cried out to him, "O youth, if others
+rejoice at the doom that you go to, I do not rejoice."
+
+  Still her sister lamented. But how great was her own grief compared to
+her sister's! For Chalciope could try to help her sons and could lament
+for the danger they were in and no one would blame her. But she might not
+strive to help Jason nor might she lament for the danger he was in. How
+terrible it would be for a maiden to help a stranger against her father's
+design! How terrible it would be for a woman of Colchis to help a stranger
+against the will of the king! How terrible it would be for a daughter to
+plot against King �etes in his own palace!
+
+  And then Medea hated Aea, her city. She hated the furious people who
+came together in the assembly, and she hated the brazen bulls that
+Heph�stus had given her father. And then she thought that there was
+nothing in Aea except the furious people and the fire-breathing bulls. O
+how pitiful it was that the strange hero and his friends should have come
+to such a place for the sake of the Golden Fleece that was watched over by
+the sleepless serpent in the grove of Ares!
+
+  Still Chalciope lamented. Would Chalciope come to her and ask her,
+Medea, to help her sons? If she should come she might speak of the
+strangers, too, and of the danger they were in. Medea went to her couch
+and lay down upon it. She longed for her sister to come to her or to call
+to her.
+
+  But Chalciope stayed in her own chamber. Medea, lying upon her couch,
+listened to her sister's laments. At last she went near where Chalciope
+was. Then shame that she should think so much about the stranger came over
+her. She stood there without moving; she turned to go back to the couch,
+and then trembled so much that she could not stir. As she stood between
+her couch and her sister's chamber she heard the voice of Chalciope
+calling to her.
+
+  She went into the chamber where her sister stood. Chalciope flung her
+arms around her. "Swear," said she to Medea, "swear by Hecate, the Moon,
+that you will never speak of something I am going to ask you." Medea swore
+that she would never speak of it.
+
+  Chalciope spoke of the danger her sons were in. She asked Medea to
+devise a way by which they could escape with the stranger from Aea. "In
+Aea and in Colchis," she said, "there will be no safety for my sons
+henceforth." And to save Phrontis and Melas, she said, Medea would have to
+save the strangers also. Surely she knew of a charm that would save the
+stranger from the brazen bulls in the contest on the morrow!
+
+  So Chalciope came to the very thing that was in Medea's mind. Her heart
+bounded with joy and she embraced her. "Chalciope," she said, "I declare
+that I am your sister, indeed--aye, and your daughter, too, for did you not
+care for me when I was an infant? I will strive to save your sons. I will
+strive to save the strangers who came with your sons. Send one to the
+strangers--send him to the leader of the strangers, and tell him that I
+would see him at daybreak in the temple of Hecate."
+
+  When Medea said this Chalciope embraced her again. She was amazed to see
+how Medea's tears were flowing. "Chalciope," she said, "no one will know
+the dangers that I shall go through to save them."
+
+  Swiftly then Chalciope went from the chamber. But Medea stayed there
+with her head bowed and the blush of shame on her face. She thought that
+already she had deceived her sister, making her think that it was Phrontis
+and Melas and not Jason that was in her mind to save. And she thought on
+how she would have to plot against her father and against her own people,
+and all for the sake of a stranger who would sail away without thought of
+her, without the image of her in his mind.
+
+
+
+  Jason, with Peleus and Telamon, went back to the _Argo_. His comrades
+asked how he had fared, and when he spoke to them of the fire-breathing
+bulls with feet of brass, of the dragon's teeth that had to be sown, and
+of the Earth-born Men that had to be overcome, the Argonauts were greatly
+cast down, for this task, they thought, was one that could not be
+accomplished. He who stood before the fire-breathing bulls would perish on
+the moment. But they knew that one amongst them must strive to accomplish
+the task. And if Jason held back, Peleus, Telamon, Theseus, Castor,
+Polydeuces, or any one of the others would undertake it.
+
+  But Jason would not hold back. On the morrow, he said, he would strive
+to yoke the fire-breathing, brazen-footed bulls to the plow of adamant. If
+he perished the Argonauts should then do what they thought was best--make
+other trials to gain the Golden Fleece, or turn their ship and sail back
+to Greece.
+
+  While they were speaking, Phrontis, Chalciope's son, came to the ship.
+The Argonauts welcomed him, and in a while he began to speak of his
+mother's sister and of the help she could give. They grew eager as he
+spoke of her, all except rough Arcas, who stood wrapped in his bear's
+skin. "Shame on us," rough Arcas cried, "shame on us if we have come here
+to crave the help of girls! Speak no more of this! Let us, the Argonauts,
+go with swords into the city of Aea, and slay this king, and carry off the
+Fleece of Gold."
+
+  Some of the Argonauts murmured approval of what Arcas said. But Orpheus
+silenced him and them, for in his prophetic mind Orpheus saw something of
+the help that Medea would give them. It would be well, Orpheus said, to
+take help from this wise maiden; Jason should go to her in the temple of
+Hecate. The Argonauts agreed to this; they listened to what Phrontis told
+them about the brazen bulls, and the night wore on.
+
+
+
+  When darkness came upon the earth; when, at sea, sailors looked to the
+Bear and the stars of Orion; when, in the city, there was no longer the
+sound of barking dogs nor of men's voices, Medea went from the palace. She
+came to a path; she followed it until it brought her into the part of the
+grove that was all black with the shadow that oak trees made.
+
+  She raised up her hands and she called upon Hecate, the Moon. As she
+did, there was a blaze as from torches all around, and she saw horrible
+serpents stretching themselves toward her from the branches of the trees.
+Medea shrank back in fear. But again she called upon Hecate. And now there
+was a howling as from the hounds of Hades all around her. Fearful, indeed,
+Medea grew as the howling came near her; almost she turned to flee. But
+she raised her hands again and called upon Hecate. Then the nymphs who
+haunted the marsh and the river shrieked, and at those shrieks Medea
+crouched down in fear.
+
+  She called upon Hecate, the Moon, again. She saw the moon rise above the
+treetops, and then the hissing and shrieking and howling died away.
+Holding up a goblet in her hand Medea poured out a libation of honey to
+Hecate, the Moon.
+
+  And then she went to where the moon made a brightness upon the ground.
+There she saw a flower that rose above the other flowers--a flower that
+grew from two joined stalks, and that was of the color of a crocus. Medea
+cut the stalks with a brazen knife, and as she did there came a deep groan
+out of the earth.
+
+  This was the Promethean flower. It had come out of the earth first when
+the vulture that tore at Prometheus's liver had let fall to earth a drop
+of his blood. With a Caspian shell that she had brought with her Medea
+gathered the dark juice of this flower--the juice that went to make her
+most potent charm. All night she went through the grove gathering the
+juice of secret herbs; then she mingled them in a phial that she put away
+in her girdle.
+
+  She went from that grove and along the river. When the sun shed its
+first rays upon snowy Caucasus she stood outside the temple of Hecate. She
+waited, but she had not long to wait, for, like the bright star Sirius
+rising out of Ocean, soon she saw Jason coming toward her. She made a sign
+to him, and he came and stood beside her in the portals of the temple.
+
+  They would have stood face to face if Medea did not have her head bent.
+A blush had come upon her face, and Jason seeing it, and seeing how her
+head was bent, knew how grievous it was to her to meet and speak to a
+stranger in this way. He took her hand and he spoke to her reverently, as
+one would speak to a priestess.
+
+  "Lady," he said, "I implore you by Hecate and by Zeus who helps all
+strangers and suppliants to be kind to me and to the men who have come to
+your country with me. Without your help I cannot hope to prevail in the
+grievous trial that has been laid upon me. If you will help us, Medea,
+your name will be renowned throughout all Greece. And I have hopes that
+you will help us, for your face and form show you to be one who can be
+kind and gracious."
+
+  The blush of shame had gone from Medea's face and a softer blush came
+over her as Jason spoke. She looked upon him and she knew that she could
+hardly live if the breath of the brazen bulls withered his life or if the
+Earth-born Men slew him. She took the charm from out her girdle;
+ungrudgingly she put it into Jason's hands. And as she gave him the charm
+that she had gained with such danger, the fear and trouble that was around
+her heart melted as the dew melts from around the rose when it is warmed
+by the first light of the morning.
+
+  Then they spoke standing close together in the portal of the temple. She
+told him how he should anoint his body all over with the charm; it would
+give him, she said, boundless and untiring strength, and make him so that
+the breath of the bulls could not wither him nor the horns of the bulls
+pierce him. She told him also to sprinkle his shield and his sword with
+the charm.
+
+  And then they spoke of the dragon's teeth and of the Earth-born Men who
+would spring from them. Medea told Jason that when they arose out of the
+earth he was to cast a great stone amongst them. The Earth-born Men would
+struggle about the stone, and they would slay each other in the contest.
+
+  Her dark and delicate face was beautiful. Jason looked upon her, and it
+came into his mind that in Colchis there was something else of worth
+besides the Golden Fleece. And he thought that after he had won the Fleece
+there would be peace between the Argonauts and King �etes, and that he and
+Medea might sit together in the king's hall. But when he spoke of being
+joined in friendship with her father, Medea cried:
+
+  "Think not of treaties nor of covenants. In Greece such are regarded,
+but not here. Ah, do not think that the king, my father, will keep any
+peace with you! When you have won the Fleece you must hasten away. You
+must not tarry in Aea."
+
+  She said this and her cheeks were wet with tears to think that he should
+go so soon, that he would go so far, and that she would never look upon
+him again. She bent her head again and she said: "Tell me about your own
+land; about the place of your father, the place where you will live when
+you win back from Colchis."
+
+  Then Jason told her of Iolcus; he told her how it was circled by
+mountains not so lofty as her Caucasus; he told her of the pasture lands
+of Iolcus with their flocks of sheep; he told her of the Mountain Pelion
+where he had been reared by Chiron, the ancient centaur; he told her of
+his father who lingered out his life in waiting for his return.
+
+  Medea said: "When you go back to Iolcus do not forget me, Medea. I shall
+remember you, Jason, even in my father's despite. And it will be my hope
+that some rumor of you will come to me like some messenger-bird. If you
+forget me may some blast of wind sweep me away to Iolcus, and may I sit in
+your hall an unknown and an unexpected guest!"
+
+  Then they parted; Medea went swiftly back to the palace, and Jason,
+turning to the river, went to where the _Argo_ was moored.
+
+  The heroes embraced and questioned him; he told them of Medea's counsel
+and he showed them the charm she had given him. That savage man Arcas
+scoffed at Medea's counsel and Medea's charm, saying that the Argonauts
+had become poor-spirited indeed when they had to depend upon a girl's
+help.
+
+  Jason bathed in the river; then he anointed himself with the charm; he
+sprinkled his spear and shield and sword with it. He came to Arcas who sat
+upon his bench, still nursing his anger, and he held the spear toward him.
+
+  Arcas took up his heavy sword and he hewed at the butt of the spear. The
+edge of the sword turned. The blade leaped back in his hand as if it had
+been struck against an anvil. And Jason, feeling within him a boundless
+and tireless strength, laughed aloud.
+
+
+
+
+III. The Winning of the Golden Fleece
+
+
+
+[Decorative first letter]
+_T_HEY took the ship out of the backwater and they brought her to a wharf
+in the city. At a place that was called "The Ram's Couch" they fastened
+the _Argo_. Then they marched to the field of Ares, where the king and the
+Colchian people were.
+
+  Jason, carrying his shield and spear, went before the king. From the
+king's hand he took the gleaming helmet that held the dragon's teeth. This
+he put into the hands of Theseus, who went with him. Then with the spear
+and shield in his hands, with his sword girt across his shoulders, and
+with his mantle stripped off, Jason looked across the field of Ares.
+
+  He saw the plow that he was to yoke to the bulls; he saw the yoke of
+bronze near it; he saw the tracks of the bulls' hooves. He followed the
+tracks until he came to the lair of the fire-breathing bulls. Out of that
+lair, which was underground, smoke and fire belched.
+
+  He set his feet firmly upon the ground and he held his shield before
+him. He awaited the onset of the bulls. They came clanging up with loud
+bellowing, breathing out fire. They lowered their heads, and with mighty,
+iron-tipped horns they came to gore and trample him.
+
+  Medea's charm had made him strong; Medea's charm had made his shield
+impregnable. The rush of the bulls did not overthrow him. His comrades
+shouted to see him standing firmly there, and in wonder the Colchians
+gazed upon him. All round him, as from a furnace, there came smoke and
+fire.
+
+  The bulls roared mightily. Grasping the horns of the bull that was upon
+his right hand, Jason dragged him until he had brought him beside the yoke
+of bronze. Striking the brazen knees of the bull suddenly with his foot he
+forced him down. Then he smote the other bull as it rushed upon him, and
+it too he forced down upon its knees.
+
+  Castor and Polydeuces held the yoke to him. Jason bound it upon the
+necks of the bulls. He fastened the plow to the yoke. Then he took his
+shield and set it upon his back, and grasping the handles of the plow he
+started to make the furrow.
+
+  With his long spear he drove the bulls before him as with a goad.
+Terribly they raged, furiously they breathed out fire. Beside Jason
+Theseus went holding the helmet that held the dragon's teeth. The hard
+ground was torn up by the plow of adamant, and the clods groaned as they
+were cast up. Jason flung the teeth between the open sods, often turning
+his head in fear that the deadly crop of the Earth-born Men were rising
+behind him.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+                     The Field of the Dragon's Teeth
+
+
+  By the time that a third of the day was finished the field of Ares had
+been plowed and sown. As yet the furrows were free of the Earth-born Men.
+Jason went down to the river and filled his helmet full of water and drank
+deeply. And his knees that were stiffened with the plowing he bent until
+they were made supple again.
+
+  He saw the field rising into mounds. It seemed that there were graves
+all over the field of Ares. Then he saw spears and shields and helmets
+rising up out of the earth. Then armed warriors sprang up, a fierce battle
+cry upon their lips.
+
+  Jason remembered the counsel of Medea. He raised a boulder that four men
+could hardly raise and with arms hardened by the plowing he cast it. The
+Colchians shouted to see such a stone cast by the hands of one man. Right
+into the middle of the Earth-born Men the stone came. They leaped upon it
+like hounds, striking at one another as they came together. Shield crashed
+on shield, spear rang upon spear as they struck at each other. The
+Earth-born Men, as fast as they arose, went down before the weapons in the
+hands of their brethren.
+
+  Jason rushed upon them, his sword in his hand. He slew some that had
+risen out of the earth only as far as the shoulders; he slew others whose
+feet were still in the earth; he slew others who were ready to spring upon
+him. Soon all the Earth-born Men were slain, and the furrows ran with
+their dark blood as channels run with water in springtime.
+
+  The Argonauts shouted loudly for Jason's victory. King �etes rose from
+his seat that was beside the river and he went back to the city. The
+Colchians followed him. Day faded, and Jason's contest was ended.
+
+
+
+  But it was not the will of �etes that the strangers should be let depart
+peaceably with the Golden Fleece that Jason had won. In the assembly
+place, with his son Apsyrtus beside him, and with the furious Colchians
+all around him, the king stood: on his breast was the gleaming corselet
+that Ares had given him, and on his head was that golden helmet with its
+four plumes that made him look as if he were truly the son of Helios, the
+Sun. Lightnings flashed from his great eyes; he spoke fiercely to the
+Colchians, holding in his hand his bronze-topped spear.
+
+  He would have them attack the strangers and burn the _Argo_. He would
+have the sons of Phrixus slain for bringing them to Aea. There was a
+prophecy, he declared, that would have him be watchful of the treachery of
+his own offspring: this prophecy was being fulfilled by the children of
+Chalciope; he feared, too, that his daughter, Medea, had aided the
+strangers. So the king spoke, and the Colchians, hating all strangers,
+shouted around him.
+
+  Word of what her father had said was brought to Medea. She knew that she
+would have to go to the Argonauts and bid them flee hastily from Aea. They
+would not go, she knew, without the Golden Fleece; then she, Medea, would
+have to show them how to gain the Fleece.
+
+  Then she could never again go back to her father's palace, she could
+never again sit in this chamber and talk to her handmaidens, and be with
+Chalciope, her sister. Forever afterward she would be dependent on the
+kindness of strangers. Medea wept when she thought of all this. And then
+she cut off a tress of her hair and she left it in her chamber as a
+farewell from one who was going afar. Into the chamber where Chalciope was
+she whispered farewell.
+
+  The palace doors were all heavily bolted, but Medea did not have to pull
+back the bolts. As she chanted her Magic Song the bolts softly drew back,
+the doors softly opened. Swiftly she went along the ways that led to the
+river. She came to where fires were blazing and she knew that the
+Argonauts were there.
+
+  She called to them, and Phrontis, Chalciope's son, heard the cry and
+knew the voice. To Jason he spoke, and Jason quickly went to where Medea
+stood.
+
+  She clasped Jason's hand and she drew him with her. "The Golden Fleece,"
+she said, "the time has come when you must pluck the Golden Fleece off the
+oak in the grove of Ares." When she said these words all Jason's being
+became taut like the string of a bow.
+
+  It was then the hour when huntsmen cast sleep from their eyes--huntsmen
+who never sleep away the end of the night, but who are ever ready to be up
+and away with their hounds before the beams of the sun efface the track
+and the scent of the quarry. Along a path that went from the river Medea
+drew Jason. They entered a grove. Then Jason saw something that was like a
+cloud filled with the light of the rising sun. It hung from a great oak
+tree. In awe he stood and looked upon it, knowing that at last he looked
+upon THE GOLDEN FLEECE.
+
+  His hand let slip Medea's hand and he went to seize the Fleece. As he
+did he heard a dreadful hiss. And then he saw the guardian of the Golden
+Fleece. Coiled all around the tree, with outstretched neck and keen and
+sleepless eyes, was a deadly serpent. Its hiss ran all through the grove
+and the birds that were wakening up squawked in terror.
+
+  Like rings of smoke that rise one above the other, the coils of the
+serpent went around the tree--coils covered by hard and gleaming scales. It
+uncoiled, stretched itself, and lifted its head to strike. Then Medea
+dropped on her knees before it, and began to chant her Magic Song.
+
+  As she sang, the coils around the tree grew slack. Like a dark,
+noiseless wave the serpent sank down on the ground. But still its jaws
+were open, and those dreadful jaws threatened Jason. Medea, with a newly
+cut spray of juniper dipped in a mystic brew, touched its deadly eyes. And
+still she chanted her Magic Song. The serpent's jaws closed; its eyes
+became deadened; far through the grove its length was stretched out.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+  Then Jason took the Golden Fleece. As he raised his hands to it, its
+brightness was such as to make a flame on his face. Medea called to him.
+He strove to gather it all up in his arms; Medea was beside him, and they
+went swiftly on.
+
+  They came to the river and down to the place where the _Argo_ was
+moored. The heroes who were aboard started up, astonished to see the
+Fleece that shone as with the lightning of Zeus. Over Medea Jason cast it,
+and he lifted her aboard the _Argo_.
+
+  "O friends," he cried, "the quest on which we dared the gulfs of the sea
+and the wrath of kings is accomplished, thanks to the help of this maiden.
+Now may we return to Greece; now have we the hope of looking upon our
+fathers and our friends once more. And in all honor will we bring this
+maiden with us, Medea, the daughter of King �etes."
+
+  Then he drew his sword and cut the hawsers of the ship, calling upon the
+heroes to drive the _Argo_ on. There was a din and a strain and a splash
+of oars, and away from Aea the _Argo_ dashed. Beside the mast Medea stood;
+the Golden Fleece had fallen at her feet, and her head and face were
+covered by her silver veil.
+
+
+
+
+IV. The Slaying of Apsyrtus
+
+
+
+[Decorative first letter]
+_T_HAT silver veil was to be splashed with a brother's blood, and the
+Argonauts, because of that calamity, were for a long time to be held back
+from a return to their native land.
+
+  Now as they went down the river they saw that dangers were coming
+swiftly upon them. The chariots of the Colchians were upon the banks.
+Jason saw King �etes in his chariot, a blazing torch lighting his corselet
+and his helmet. Swiftly the _Argo_ went, but there were ships behind her,
+and they went swiftly too.
+
+  They came into the Sea of Pontus, and Phrontis, the son of Phrixus, gave
+counsel to them. "Do not strive to make the passage of the Symplegades,"
+he said. "All who live around the Sea of Pontus are friendly to King
+�etes; they will be warned by him, and they will be ready to slay us and
+take the _Argo_. Let us journey up the River Ister, and by that way we can
+come to the Thrinacian Sea that is close to your land."
+
+  The Argonauts thought well of what Phrontis said; into the waters of the
+Ister the ship was brought. Many of the Colchian ships passed by the mouth
+of the river, and went seeking the _Argo_ toward the passage of the
+Symplegades.
+
+  But the Argonauts were on a way that was dangerous for them. For
+Apsyrtus had not gone toward the Symplegades seeking the _Argo_. He had
+led his soldiers overland to the River Ister at a place that was at a
+distance above its mouth. There were islands in the river at that place,
+and the soldiers of Apsyrtus landed on the islands, while Apsyrtus went to
+the kings of the people around and claimed their support.
+
+  The _Argo_ came and the heroes found themselves cut off. They could not
+make their way between the islands that were filled with the Colchian
+soldiers, nor along the banks that were lined with men friendly to King
+�etes. _Argo_ was stayed. Apsyrtus sent for the chiefs; he had men enough
+to overwhelm them, but he shrank from a fight with the heroes, and he
+thought that he might gain all he wanted from them without a struggle.
+
+  Theseus and Peleus went to him. Apsyrtus would have them give up the
+Golden Fleece; he would have them give up Medea and the sons of Phrixus
+also.
+
+  Theseus and Peleus appealed to the judgment of the kings who supported
+Apsyrtus. �etes, they said, had no more claim on the Golden Fleece. He had
+promised it to Jason as a reward for tasks that he had imposed. The tasks
+had been accomplished and the Fleece, no matter in what way it was taken
+from the grove of Ares, was theirs. So Theseus and Peleus said, and the
+kings who supported Apsyrtus gave judgment for the Argonauts.
+
+  But Medea would have to be given to her brother. If that were done the
+_Argo_ would be let go on her course, Apsyrtus said, and the Golden Fleece
+would be left with them. Apsyrtus said, too, that he would not take Medea
+back to the wrath of her father; if the Argonauts gave her up she would be
+let stay on the island of Artemis and under the guardianship of the
+goddess.
+
+  The chiefs brought Apsyrtus's words back. There was a council of the
+Argonauts, and they agreed that they should leave Medea on the island of
+Artemis.
+
+  But grief and wrath took hold of Medea when she heard of this resolve.
+Almost she would burn the _Argo_. She went to where Jason stood, and she
+spoke again of all she had done to save his life and win the Golden Fleece
+for the Argonauts. Jason made her look on the ships and the soldiers that
+were around them; he showed her how these could overwhelm the Argonauts
+and slay them all. With all the heroes slain, he said, Medea would come
+into the hands of Apsyrtus, who then could leave her on the island of
+Artemis or take her back to the wrath of her father.
+
+  But Medea would not consent to go nor could Jason's heart consent to let
+her go. Then these two made a plot to deceive Apsyrtus.
+
+  "I have not been of the council that agreed to give you up to him,"
+Jason said. "After you have been left there I will take you off the island
+of Artemis secretly. The Colchians and the kings who support them, not
+knowing that you have been taken off and hidden on the _Argo_, will let us
+pass." This Medea and Jason planned to do, and it was an ill thing, for it
+was breaking the covenant that the chiefs had entered with Apsyrtus.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+  Medea then was left by the Argonauts on the island of Artemis. Now
+Apsyrtus had been commanded by his father to bring her back to Aea; he
+thought that when she had been left by the Argonauts he could force her to
+come with him. So he went over to the island. Jason, secretly leaving his
+companions, went to the island from the other side.
+
+  Before the temple of Artemis Jason and Apsyrtus came face to face. Both
+men, thinking they had been betrayed to their deaths, drew their swords.
+Then, before the vestibule of the temple and under the eyes of Medea,
+Jason and Apsyrtus fought. Jason's sword pierced the son of �etes; as he
+fell Apsyrtus cried out bitter words against Medea, saying that it was on
+her account that he had come on his death. And as he fell the blood of her
+brother splashed Medea's silver veil.
+
+  Jason lifted Medea up and carried her to the _Argo_. They hid the maiden
+under the Fleece of Gold and they sailed past the ships of the Colchians.
+When darkness came they were far from the island of Artemis. It was then
+that they heard a loud wailing, and they knew that the Colchians had
+discovered that their prince had been slain.
+
+  The Colchians did not pursue them. Fearing the wrath of �etes they made
+settlements in the lands of the kings who had supported Apsyrtus; they
+never went back to Aea; they called themselves Apsyrtians henceforward,
+naming themselves after the prince they had come with.
+
+  They had escaped the danger that had hemmed them in, but the Argonauts,
+as they sailed on, were not content; covenants had been broken, and blood
+had been shed in a bad cause. And as they went on through the darkness the
+voice of the ship was heard; at the sound of that voice fear and sorrow
+came upon the voyagers, for they felt that it had a prophecy of doom.
+
+  Castor and Polydeuces went to the front of the ship; holding up their
+hands, they prayed. Then they heard the words that the voice uttered: in
+the night as they went on the voice proclaimed the wrath of Zeus on
+account of the slaying of Apsyrtus.
+
+  What was their doom to be? It was that the Argonauts would have to
+wander forever over the gulfs of the sea unless Medea had herself cleansed
+of her brother's blood. There was one who could cleanse Medea--Circe, the
+daughter of Helios and Perse. The voice urged the heroes to pray to the
+immortal gods that the way to the island of Circe be shown to them.
+
+
+
+
+V. Medea Comes to Circe
+
+
+
+[Decorative first letter]
+_T_HEY sailed up the River Ister until they came to the Eridanus, that
+river across which no bird can fly. Leaving the Eridanus they entered the
+Rhodanus, a river that rises in the extreme north, where Night herself has
+her habitation. And voyaging up this river they came to the Stormy Lakes.
+A mist lay upon the lakes night and day; voyaging through them the
+Argonauts at last brought out their ship upon the Sea of Ausonia.
+
+  It was Zetes and Calais, the sons of the North Wind, who brought the
+_Argo_ safely along this dangerous course. And to Zetes and Calais Iris,
+the messenger of the gods, appeared and revealed to them where Circe's
+island lay.
+
+  Deep blue water was all around that island, and on its height a marble
+house was to be seen. But a strange haze covered everything as with a
+veil. As the Argonauts came near they saw what looked to them like great
+dragonflies; they came down to the shore, and then the heroes saw that
+they were maidens in gleaming dresses.
+
+  The maidens waved their hands to the voyagers, calling them to come on
+the island. Strange beasts came up to where the maidens were and made
+whimpering cries.
+
+  The Argonauts would have drawn the ship close and would have sprung upon
+the island only that Medea cried out to them. She showed them the beasts
+that whimpered around the maidens, and then, as the Argonauts looked upon
+them, they saw that these were not beasts of the wild. There was something
+strange and fearful about them; the heroes gazed upon them with troubled
+eyes. They brought the ship near, but they stayed upon their benches,
+holding the oars in their hands.
+
+  Medea sprang to the island; she spoke to the maidens so that they shrank
+away; then the beasts came and whimpered around her. "Forbear to land
+here, O Argonauts," Medea cried, "for this is the island where men are
+changed into beasts." She called to Jason to come; only Jason would she
+have come upon the island.
+
+  They went swiftly toward the marble house, and the beasts followed them,
+looking up at Jason and Medea with pitiful human eyes. They went into the
+marble house of Circe, and as suppliants they seated themselves at the
+hearth.
+
+  Circe stood at her loom, weaving her many-colored threads. Swiftly she
+turned to the suppliants; she looked for something strange in them, for
+just before they came the walls of her house dripped with blood and the
+flame ran over and into her pot, burning up all the magic herbs she was
+brewing. She went toward where they sat, Medea with her face hidden by her
+hands, and Jason, with his head bent, holding with its point in the ground
+the sword with which he had slain the son of �etes.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+  When Medea took her hands away from before her face, Circe knew that,
+like herself, this maiden was of the race of Helios. Medea spoke to her,
+telling her first of the voyage of the heroes and of their toils; telling
+her then of how she had given help to Jason against the will of �etes, her
+father; telling her then, fearfully, of the slaying of Apsyrtus. She
+covered her face with her robe as she spoke of it. And then she told Circe
+she had come, warned by the judgment of Zeus, to ask of Circe, the
+daughter of Helios, to purify her from the stain of her brother's blood.
+
+  Like all the children of Helios, Circe had eyes that were wide and full
+of life, but she had stony lips--lips that were heavy and moveless. Bright
+golden hair hung smoothly along each of her sides. First she held a cup to
+them that was filled with pure water, and Jason and Medea drank from that
+cup.
+
+  Then Circe stayed by the hearth; she burnt cakes in the flame, and all
+the while she prayed to Zeus to be gentle with these suppliants. She
+brought both to the seashore. There she washed Medea's body and her
+garments with the spray of the sea.
+
+  Medea pleaded with Circe to tell her of the life she foresaw for her,
+but Circe would not speak of it. She told Medea that one day she would
+meet a woman who knew nothing about enchantments but who had much human
+wisdom. She was to ask of her what she was to do in her life or what she
+was to leave undone. And whatever this woman out of her wisdom told her,
+that Medea was to regard. Once more Circe offered them the cup filled with
+clear water, and when they had drunken of it she left them upon the
+seashore. As she went toward her marble house the strange beasts followed
+Circe, whimpering as they went. Jason and Medea went aboard the _Argo_,
+and the heroes drew away from Circe's island.
+
+
+
+
+VI. In the Land of the Ph�acians
+
+
+
+[Decorative first letter]
+_W_EARIED were the heroes now. They would have fain gone upon the island
+of Circe to rest there away from the oars and the sound of the sea. But
+the wisest of them, looking upon the beasts that were men transformed,
+held the _Argo_ far off the shore. Then Jason and Medea came aboard, and
+with heavy hearts and wearied arms they turned to the open sea again.
+
+  No longer had they such high hearts as when they drove the _Argo_
+between the Clashers and into the Sea of Pontus. Now their heads drooped
+as they went on, and they sang such songs as slaves sing in their hopeless
+labor. Orpheus grew fearful for them now.
+
+  For Orpheus knew that they were drawing toward a danger. There was no
+other way for them, he knew, but past the Island Anthemoessa in the
+Tyrrhenian Sea where the Sirens were. Once they had been nymphs and had
+tended Persephone before she was carried off by Aidoneus to be his queen
+in the Underworld. Kind they had been, but now they were changed, and they
+cared only for the destruction of men.
+
+  All set around with rocks was the island where they were. As the _Argo_
+came near, the Sirens, ever on the watch to draw mariners to their
+destruction, saw them and came to the rocks and sang to them, holding each
+other's hands.
+
+  They sang all together their lulling song. That song made the wearied
+voyagers long to let their oars go with the waves, and drift, drift to
+where the Sirens were. Bending down to them the Sirens, with soft hands
+and white arms, would lift them to soft resting places. Then each of the
+Sirens sang a clear, piercing song that called to each of the voyagers.
+Each man thought that his own name was in that song. "O how well it is
+that you have come near," each one sang, "how well it is that you have
+come near where I have awaited you, having all delight prepared for you!"
+
+  Orpheus took up his lyre as the Sirens began to sing. He sang to the
+heroes of their own toils. He sang of them, how, gaunt and weary as they
+were, they were yet men, men who were the strength of Greece, men who had
+been fostered by the love and hope of their country. They were the winners
+of the Golden Fleece and their story would be told forever. And for the
+fame that they had won men would forego all rest and all delight. Why
+should they not toil, they who were born for great labors and to face
+dangers that other men might not face? Soon hands would be stretched out
+to them--the welcoming hands of the men and women of their own land.
+
+  So Orpheus sang, and his voice and the music of his lyre prevailed above
+the Sirens' voices. Men dropped their oars, but other men remained at
+their benches, and pulled steadily, if wearily, on. Only one of the
+Argonauts, Butes, a youth of Iolcus, threw himself into the water and swam
+toward the rocks from which the Sirens sang.
+
+  But an anguish that nearly parted their spirits from their bodies was
+upon them as they went wearily on. Toward the end of the day they beheld
+another island--an island that seemed very fair; they longed to land and
+rest themselves there and eat the fruits of the island. But Orpheus would
+not have them land. The island, he said, was Thrinacia. Upon that island
+the Cattle of the Sun pastured, and if one of the cattle perished through
+them their return home might not be won. They heard the lowing of the
+cattle through the mist, and a deep longing for the sight of their own
+fields, with a white house near, and flocks and herds at pasture, came
+over the heroes. They came near the Island of Thrinacia, and they saw the
+Cattle of the Sun feeding by the meadow streams; not one of them was
+black; all were white as milk, and the horns upon their heads were golden.
+They saw the two nymphs who herded the kine--Ph�thusa and Lampetia, one
+with a staff of silver and the other with a staff of gold.
+
+  Driven by the breeze that came over the Thrinacian Sea the Argonauts
+came to the land of the Ph�acians. It was a good land as they saw when
+they drew near; a land of orchards and fresh pastures, with a white and
+sun-lit city upon the height. Their spirits came back to them as they drew
+into the harbor; they made fast the hawsers, and they went upon the ways
+of the city.
+
+  And then they saw everywhere around them the dark faces of Colchian
+soldiers. These were the men of King �etes, and they had come overland to
+the Ph�acian city, hoping to cut off the Argonauts. Jason, when he saw the
+soldiers, shouted to those who had been left on the _Argo_, and they drew
+out of the harbor, fearful lest the Colchians should grapple with the ship
+and wrest from them the Fleece of Gold. Then Jason made an encampment upon
+the shore, and the captain of the Colchians went here and there, gathering
+together his men.
+
+  Medea left Jason's side and hastened through the city. To the palace of
+Alcinous, king of the Ph�acians, she went. Within the palace she found
+Arete, the queen. And Arete was sitting by her hearth, spinning golden and
+silver threads.
+
+  Arete was young at that time, as young as Medea, and as yet no child had
+been born to her. But she had the clear eyes of one who understands, and
+who knows how to order things well. Stately, too, was Arete, for she had
+been reared in the house of a great king. Medea came to her, and fell upon
+her knees before her, and told her how she had fled from the house of her
+father, King �etes.
+
+  She told Arete, too, how she had helped Jason to win the Golden Fleece,
+and she told her how through her her brother had been led to his death. As
+she told this part of her story she wept and prayed at the knees of the
+queen.
+
+  Arete was greatly moved by Medea's tears and prayers. She went to
+Alcinous in his garden, and she begged of him to save the Argonauts from
+the great force of the Colchians that had come to cut them off. "The
+Golden Fleece," said Arete, "has been won by the tasks that Jason
+performed. If the Colchians should take Medea, it would be to bring her
+back to Aea and to a bitter doom. And the maiden," said the queen, "has
+broken my heart by her prayers and tears."
+
+  King Alcinous said: "�etes is strong, and although his kingdom is far
+from ours, he can bring war upon us." But still Arete pleaded with him to
+protect Medea from the Colchians. Alcinous went within; he raised up Medea
+from where she crouched on the floor of the palace, and he promised her
+that the Argonauts would be protected in his city.
+
+  Then the king mounted his chariot; Medea went with him, and they came
+down to the seashore where the heroes had made their encampment. The
+Argonauts and the Colchians were drawn up against each other, and the
+Colchians far outnumbered the wearied heroes.
+
+  Alcinous drove his chariot between the two armies. The Colchians prayed
+him to have the strangers make surrender to them. But the king drove his
+chariot to where the heroes stood, and he took the hand of each, and
+received them as his guests. Then the Colchians knew that they might not
+make war upon the heroes. They drew off. The next day they marched away.
+
+
+
+  It was a rich land that they had come to. Once Arist�us dwelt there, the
+king who discovered how to make bees store up their honey for men and how
+to make the good olive grow. Macris, his daughter, tended Dionysus, the
+son of Zeus, when Hermes brought him of the flame, and moistened his lips
+with honey. She tended him in a cave in the Ph�acian land, and ever
+afterward the Ph�acians were blessed with all good things.
+
+  Now as the heroes marched to the palace of King Alcinous the people came
+to meet them, bringing them sheep and calves and jars of wine and honey.
+The women brought them fresh garments; to Medea they gave fine linen and
+golden ornaments.
+
+  Amongst the Ph�acians who loved music and games and the telling of
+stories the heroes stayed for long. There were dances, and to the
+Ph�acians who honored him as a god, Orpheus played upon his lyre. And
+every day, for the seven days that they stayed amongst them, the Ph�acians
+brought rich presents to the heroes.
+
+  And Medea, looking into the clear eyes of Queen Arete, knew that she was
+the woman of whom Circe had prophesied, the woman who knew nothing of
+enchantments, but who had much human wisdom. She was to ask of her what
+she was to do in her life and what she was to leave undone. And what this
+woman told her Medea was to regard. Arete told her that she was to forget
+all the witcheries and enchantments that she knew, and that she was never
+to practice against the life of any one. This she told Medea upon the
+shore, before Jason lifted her aboard the _Argo_.
+
+
+
+
+VII. They Come to the Desert Land
+
+
+
+[Decorative first letter]
+_A_ND now with sail spread wide the _Argo_ went on, and the heroes rested
+at the oars. The wind grew stronger. It became a great blast, and for nine
+days and nine nights the ship was driven fearfully along.
+
+  The blast drove them into the Gulf of Libya, from whence there is no
+return for ships. On each side of the gulf there are rocks and shoals, and
+the sea runs toward the limitless sand. On the top of a mighty tide the
+_Argo_ was lifted, and she was flung high up on the desert sands.
+
+  A flood tide such as might not come again for long left the Argonauts on
+the empty Libyan land. And when they came forth and saw that vast level of
+sand stretching like a mist away into the distance, a deadly fear came
+over each of them. No spring of water could they descry; no path; no
+herdsman's cabin; over all that vast land there was silence and dead calm.
+And one said to the other: "What land is this? Whither have we come? Would
+that the tempest had overwhelmed us, or would that we had lost the ship
+and our lives between the Clashing Rocks at the time when we were making
+our way into the Sea of Pontus."
+
+  And the helmsman, looking before him, said with a breaking heart: "Out
+of this we may not come, even should the breeze blow from the land, for
+all around us are shoals and sharp rocks--rocks that we can see fretting
+the water, line upon line. Our ship would have been shattered far from the
+shore if the tide had not borne her far up on the sand. But now the tide
+rushes back toward the sea, leaving only foam on which no ship can sail to
+cover the sand. And so all hope of our return is cut off."
+
+  He spoke with tears flowing upon his cheeks, and all who had knowledge
+of ships agreed with what the helmsman had said. No dangers that they had
+been through were as terrible as this. Hopelessly, like lifeless specters,
+the heroes strayed about the endless strand.
+
+  They embraced each other and they said farewell as they laid down upon
+the sand that might blow upon them and overwhelm them in the night. They
+wrapped their heads in their cloaks, and, fasting, they laid themselves
+down.
+
+  Jason crouched beside the ship, so troubled that his life nearly went
+from him. He saw Medea huddled against a rock and with her hair streaming
+on the sand. He saw the men who, with all the bravery of their lives, had
+come with him, stretched on the desert sand, weary and without hope. He
+thought that they, the best of men, might die in this desert with their
+deeds all unknown; he thought that he might never win home with Medea, to
+make her his queen in Iolcus.
+
+  He lay against the side of the ship, his cloak wrapped around his head.
+And there death would have come to him and to the others if the nymphs of
+the desert had been unmindful of these brave men. They came to Jason. It
+was midday then, and the fierce rays of the sun were scorching all Libya.
+They drew off the cloak that wrapped his head; they stood near him, three
+nymphs girded around with goatskins.
+
+  "Why art thou so smitten with despair?" the nymphs said to Jason. "Why
+art thou smitten with despair, thou who hast wrought so much and hast won
+so much? Up! Arouse thy comrades! We are the solitary nymphs, the warders
+of the land of Libya, and we have come to show a way of escape to you, the
+Argonauts.
+
+  "Look around and watch for the time when Poseidon's great horse shall be
+unloosed. Then make ready to pay recompense to the mother that bore you
+all. What she did for you all, that you all must do for her; by doing it
+you will win back to the land of Greece." Jason heard them say these words
+and then he saw them no more; the nymphs vanished amongst the desert
+mounds.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+  Then Jason rose up. He did not know what to make out of what had been
+told him, but there was courage now and hope in his heart. He shouted; his
+voice was like the roar of a lion calling to his mate. At his shout his
+comrades roused themselves; all squalid with the dust of the desert the
+Argonauts stood around him.
+
+  "Listen, comrades, to me," Jason said, "while I speak of a strange thing
+that has befallen me. While I lay by the side of our ship three nymphs
+came before me. With light hands they drew away the cloak that wrapped my
+head. They declared themselves to be the solitary nymphs, the warders, of
+Libya. Very strange were the words they said to me. When Poseidon's great
+horse shall be unloosed, they said, we were to make the mother of us all a
+recompense, doing for her what she had done for us all. This the nymphs
+told me to say, but I cannot understand the meaning of their words."
+
+  There were some there who would not have given heed to Jason's words,
+deeming them words without meaning. But even as he spoke a wonder came
+before their eyes. Out of the far-off sea a great horse leaped. Vast he
+was of size and he had a golden mane. He shook the spray of the sea off
+his sides and mane. Past them he trampled and away toward the horizon,
+leaving great tracks in the sand.
+
+  Then Nestor spoke rejoicingly. "Behold the great horse! It is the horse
+that the desert nymphs spoke of, Poseidon's horse. Even now has the horse
+been unloosed, and now is the time to do what the nymphs bade us do.
+
+  "Who but _Argo_ is the mother of us all? She has carried us. Now we must
+make her a recompense and carry her even as she carried us. With untiring
+shoulders we must bear _Argo_ across this great desert.
+
+  "And whither shall we bear her? Whither but along the tracks that
+Poseidon's horse has left in the sand! Poseidon's horse will not go under
+the earth--once again he will plunge into the sea!"
+
+  So Nestor said and the Argonauts saw truth in his saying. Hope came to
+them again--the hope of leaving that desert and coming to the sea. Surely
+when they came to the sea again, and spread the sail and held the oars in
+their hands, their sacred ship would make swift course to their native
+land!
+
+
+
+
+VIII. The Carrying of the Argo
+
+
+
+[Decorative first letter]
+_W_ITH the terrible weight of the ship upon their shoulders the Argonauts
+made their way across the desert, following the tracks of Poseidon's
+golden-maned horse. Like a wounded serpent that drags with pain its length
+along, they went day after day across that limitless land.
+
+  A day came when they saw the great tracks of the horse no more. A wind
+had come up and had covered them with sand. With the mighty weight of the
+ship upon their shoulders, with the sun beating upon their heads, and with
+no marks on the desert to guide them, the heroes stood there, and it
+seemed to them that the blood must gush up and out of their hearts.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+  Then Zetes and Calais, sons of the North Wind, rose up upon their wings
+to strive to get sight of the sea. Up, up, they soared. And then as a man
+sees, or thinks he sees, at the month's beginning, the moon through a bank
+of clouds, Zetes and Calais, looking over the measureless land, saw the
+gleam of water. They shouted to the Argonauts; they marked the way for
+them, and wearily, but with good hearts, the heroes went upon the way.
+
+  They came at last to the shore of what seemed to be a wide inland sea.
+They set _Argo_ down from off their over-wearied shoulders and they let
+her keel take water once more.
+
+  All salt and brackish was that water; they dipped their hands into and
+tasted the salt. Orpheus was able to name the water they had come to; it
+was that lake that was called after Triton, the son of Nereus, the ancient
+one of the sea. They set up an altar and they made sacrifices in
+thanksgiving to the gods.
+
+  They had come to water at last, but now they had to seek for other
+water--for the sweet water that they could drink. All around them they
+looked, but they saw no sign of a spring. And then they felt a wind blow
+upon them--a wind that had in it not the dust of the desert but the
+fragrance of growing things. Toward where that wind blew from they went.
+
+  As they went on they saw a great shape against the sky; they saw
+mountainous shoulders bowed. Orpheus bade them halt and turn their faces
+with reverence toward that great shape: for this was Atlas the Titan, the
+brother of Prometheus, who stood there to hold up the sky on his
+shoulders.
+
+  Then they were near the place that the fragrance had blown from: there
+was a garden there; the only fence that ran around it was a lattice of
+silver. "Surely there are springs in the garden," the Argonauts said. "We
+will enter this fair garden now and slake our thirst."
+
+  Orpheus bade them walk reverently, for all around them, he said, was
+sacred ground. This garden was the Garden of the Hesperides that was
+watched over by the Daughters of the Evening Land. The Argonauts looked
+through the silver lattice; they saw trees with lovely fruit, and they saw
+three maidens moving through the garden with watchful eyes. In this garden
+grew the tree that had the golden apples that Zeus gave to Hera as a
+wedding gift.
+
+  They saw the tree on which the golden apples grew. The maidens went to
+it and then looked watchfully all around them. They saw the faces of the
+Argonauts looking through the silver lattice and they cried out, one to
+the other, and they joined their hands around the tree.
+
+  But Orpheus called to them, and the maidens understood the divine speech
+of Orpheus. He made the Daughters of the Evening Land know that they who
+stood before the lattice were men who reverenced the gods, who would not
+strive to enter the forbidden garden. The maidens came toward them.
+Beautiful as the singing of Orpheus was their utterance, but what they
+said was a complaint and a lament.
+
+  Their lament was for the dragon Ladon, that dragon with a hundred heads
+that guarded sleeplessly the tree that had the golden apples. Now that
+dragon was slain. With arrows that had been dipped in the poison of the
+Hydra's blood their dragon, Ladon, had been slain.
+
+  The Daughters of the Evening Land sang of how a mortal had come into the
+garden that they watched over. He had a great bow, and with his arrow he
+slew the dragon that guarded the golden apples. The golden apples he had
+taken away; they had come back to the tree they had been plucked from, for
+no mortal might keep them in his possession. So the maidens sang--Hespere,
+Eretheis, and �gle--and they complained that now, unhelped by the
+hundred-headed dragon, they had to keep guard over the tree.
+
+  The Argonauts knew of whom they told the tale--Heracles, their comrade.
+Would that Heracles were with them now!
+
+  The Hesperides told them of Heracles--of how the springs in the garden
+dried up because of his plucking the golden apples. He came out of the
+garden thirsting. Nowhere could he find a spring of water. To yonder great
+rock he went. He smote it with his foot and water came out in full flow.
+Then he, leaning on his hands and with his chest upon the ground, drank
+and drank from the water that flowed from the rifted rock.
+
+  The Argonauts looked to where the rock stood. They caught the sound of
+water. They carried Medea over. And then, company after company, all
+huddled together, they stooped down and drank their fill of the clear good
+water. With lips wet with the water they cried to each other, "Heracles!
+Although he is not with us, in very truth Heracles has saved his comrades
+from deadly thirst!"
+
+  They saw his footsteps printed upon the rocks, and they followed them
+until they led to the sand where no footsteps stay. Heracles! How glad his
+comrades would have been if they could have had sight of him then! But it
+was long ago--before he had sailed with them--that Heracles had been here.
+
+  Still hearing their complaint they turned back to the lattice, to where
+the Daughters of the Evening Land stood. The Daughters of the Evening Land
+bent their heads to listen to what the Argonauts told one another, and,
+seeing them bent to listen, Orpheus told a story about one who had gone
+across the Libyan desert, about one who was a hero like unto Heracles.
+
+
+
+The Story of Perseus
+
+
+  Beyond where Atlas stands there is a cave where the strange women, the
+ancient daughters of Phorcys, live. They have been gray from their birth.
+They have but one eye and one tooth between them, and they pass the eye
+and the tooth, one to the other, when they would see or eat. They are
+called the Graiai, these two sisters.
+
+  Up to the cave where they lived a youth once came. He was beardless, and
+the garb he wore was torn and travel-stained, but he had shapeliness and
+beauty. In his leathern belt there was an exceedingly bright sword; this
+sword was not straight like the swords we carry, but it was hooked like a
+sickle. The strange youth with the bright, strange sword came very quickly
+and very silently up to the cave where the Graiai lived and looked over a
+high boulder into it.
+
+  One was sitting munching acorns with the single tooth. The other had the
+eye in her hand. She was holding it to her forehead and looking into the
+back of the cave. These two ancient women, with their gray hair falling
+over them like thick fleeces, and with faces that were only forehead and
+cheeks and nose and mouth, were strange creatures truly. Very silently the
+youth stood looking at them.
+
+  "Sister, sister," cried the one who was munching acorns, "sister, turn
+your eye this way. I heard the stir of something."
+
+  The other turned, and with the eye placed against her forehead looked
+out to the opening of the cave. The youth drew back behind the boulder.
+"Sister, sister, there is nothing there," said the one with the eye.
+
+  Then she said: "Sister, give me the tooth for I would eat my acorns.
+Take the eye and keep watch."
+
+  The one who was eating held out the tooth, and the one who was watching
+held out the eye. The youth darted into the cave. Standing between the
+eyeless sisters, he took with one hand the tooth and with the other the
+eye.
+
+  "Sister, sister, have you taken the eye?"
+
+  "I have not taken the eye. Have you taken the tooth?"
+
+  "I have not taken the tooth."
+
+  "Some one has taken the eye, and some one has taken the tooth."
+
+  They stood together, and the youth watched their blinking faces as they
+tried to discover who had come into the cave, and who had taken the eye
+and the tooth.
+
+  Then they said, screaming together: "Who ever has taken the eye and the
+tooth from the Graiai, the ancient daughters of Phorcys, may Mother Night
+smother him."
+
+  The youth spoke. "Ancient daughters of Phorcys," he said, "Graiai, I
+would not rob from you. I have come to your cave only to ask the way to a
+place."
+
+  "Ah, it is a mortal, a mortal," screamed the sisters. "Well, mortal,
+what would you have from the Graiai?"
+
+  "Ancient Graiai," said the youth, "I would have you tell me, for you
+alone know, where the nymphs dwell who guard the three magic treasures--the
+cap of darkness, the shoes of flight, and the magic pouch."
+
+  "We will not tell you, we will not tell you that," screamed the two
+ancient sisters.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+  "I will keep the eye and the tooth," said the youth, "and I will give
+them to one who will help me."
+
+  "Give me the eye and I will tell you," said one. "Give me the tooth and
+I will tell you," said the other. The youth put the eye in the hand of one
+and the tooth in the hand of the other, but he held their skinny hands in
+his strong hands until they should tell him where the nymphs dwelt who
+guarded the magic treasures. The Gray Ones told him. Then the youth with
+the bright sword left the cave. As he went out he saw on the ground a
+shield of bronze, and he took it with him.
+
+  To the other side of where Atlas stands he went. There he came upon the
+nymphs in their valley. They had long dwelt there, hidden from gods and
+men, and they were startled to see a stranger youth come into their hidden
+valley. They fled away. Then the youth sat on the ground, his head bent
+like a man who is very sorrowful.
+
+  The youngest and the fairest of the nymphs came to him at last. "Why
+have you come, and why do you sit here in such great trouble, youth?" said
+she. And then she said: "What is this strange sickle-sword that you wear?
+Who told you the way to our dwelling place? What name have you?"
+
+  "I have come here," said the youth, and he took the bronze shield upon
+his knees and began to polish it, "I have come here because I want you,
+the nymphs who guard them, to give to me the cap of darkness and the shoes
+of flight and the magic pouch. I must gain these things; without them I
+must go to my death. Why I must gain them you will know from my story."
+
+  When he said that he had come for the three magic treasures that they
+guarded, the kind nymph was more startled than she and her sisters had
+been startled by the appearance of the strange youth in their hidden
+valley. She turned away from him. But she looked again and she saw that he
+was beautiful and brave looking. He had spoken of his death. The nymph
+stood looking at him pitifully, and the youth, with the bronze shield laid
+beside his knees and the strange hooked sword lying across it, told her
+his story.
+
+
+
+  "I am Perseus," he said, "and my grandfather, men say, is king in Argos.
+His name is Acrisius. Before I was born a prophecy was made to him that
+the son of Dana�, his daughter, would slay him. Acrisius was frightened by
+the prophecy, and when I was born he put my mother and myself into a
+chest, and he sent us adrift upon the waves of the sea.
+
+  "I did not know what a terrible peril I was in, for I was an infant
+newly born. My mother was so hopeless that she came near to death. But the
+wind and the waves did not destroy us: they brought us to a shore; a
+shepherd found the chest, and he opened it and brought my mother and
+myself out of it alive. The land we had come to was Seriphus. The shepherd
+who found the chest and who rescued my mother and myself was the brother
+of the king. His name was Dictys.
+
+  "In the shepherd's wattled house my mother stayed with me, a little
+infant, and in that house I grew from babyhood to childhood, and from
+childhood to boyhood. He was a kind man, this shepherd Dictys. His brother
+Polydectes had put him away from the palace, but Dictys did not grieve for
+that, for he was happy minding his sheep upon the hillside, and he was
+happy in his little hut of wattles and clay.
+
+  "Polydectes, the king, was seldom spoken to about his brother, and it
+was years before he knew of the mother and child who had been brought to
+live in Dictys's hut. But at last he heard of us, for strange things began
+to be said about my mother--how she was beautiful, and how she looked like
+one who had been favored by the gods. Then one day when he was hunting,
+Polydectes the king came to the hut of Dictys the shepherd.
+
+  "He saw Dana�, my mother, there. By her looks he knew that she was a
+king's daughter and one who had been favored by the gods. He wanted her
+for his wife. But my mother hated this harsh and overbearing king, and she
+would not wed with him. Often he came storming around the shepherd's hut,
+and at last my mother had to take refuge from him in a temple. There she
+became the priestess of the goddess.
+
+  "I was taken to the palace of Polydectes, and there I was brought up.
+The king still stormed around where my mother was, more and more bent on
+making her marry him. If she had not been in the temple where she was
+under the protection of the goddess he would have wed her against her
+will.
+
+  "But I was growing up now, and I was able to give some protection to my
+mother. My arm was a strong one, and Polydectes knew that if he wronged my
+mother in any way, I had the will and the power to be deadly to him. One
+day I heard him say before his princes and his lords that he would wed,
+and would wed one who was not Dana�. I was overjoyed to hear him say this.
+He asked the lords and the princes to come to the wedding feast; they
+declared they would, and they told him of the presents they would bring.
+
+  "Then King Polydectes turned to me and he asked me to come to the
+wedding feast. I said I would come. And then, because I was young and full
+of the boast of youth, and because the king was now ceasing to be a terror
+to me, I said that I would bring to his wedding feast the head of the
+Gorgon.
+
+  "The king smiled when he heard me say this, but he smiled not as a good
+man smiles when he hears the boast of youth. He smiled, and he turned to
+the princes and lords, and he said: 'Perseus will come, and he will bring
+a greater gift than any of you, for he will bring the head of her whose
+gaze turns living creatures into stone.'
+
+  "When I heard the king speak so grimly about my boast the fearfulness of
+the thing I had spoken of doing came over me. I thought for an instant
+that the Gorgon's head appeared before me, and that I was then and there
+turned into stone.
+
+  "The day of the wedding feast came. I came and I brought no gift. I
+stood with my head hanging for shame. Then the princes and the lords came
+forward, and they showed the great gifts of horses that they had brought.
+I thought that the king would forget about me and about my boast. And then
+I heard him call my name. 'Perseus,' he said, 'Perseus, bring before us
+now the Gorgon's head that, as you told us, you would bring for the
+wedding gift.'
+
+  "The princes and lords and people looked toward me, and I was filled
+with a deeper shame. I had to say that I had failed to bring a present.
+Then that harsh and overbearing king shouted at me. 'Go forth,' he said,
+'go forth and fetch the present that you spoke of. If you do not bring it
+remain forever out of my country, for in Seriphus we will have no empty
+boasters.' The lords and the princes applauded what the king said; the
+people were sad for me and sad for my mother, but they might not do
+anything to help me, so just and so due to me did the words of the king
+seem. There was no help for it, and I had to go from the country of
+Seriphus, leaving my mother at the mercy of Polydectes.
+
+  "I bade good-by to my sorrowful mother and I went from Seriphus--from
+that land that I might not return to without the Gorgon's head. I traveled
+far from that country. One day I sat down in a lonely place and prayed to
+the gods that my strength might be equal to the will that now moved in
+me--the will to take the Gorgon's head, and take from my name the shame of
+a broken promise, and win back to Seriphus to save my mother from the
+harshness of the king.
+
+  "When I looked up I saw one standing before me. He was a youth, too, but
+I knew by the way he moved, and I knew by the brightness of his face and
+eyes, that he was of the immortals. I raised my hands in homage to him,
+and he came near me. 'Perseus,' he said, 'if you have the courage to
+strive, the way to win the Gorgon's head will be shown you.' I said that I
+had the courage to strive, and he knew that I was making no boast.
+
+  "He gave me this bright sickle-sword that I carry. He told me by what
+ways I might come near enough to the Gorgons without being turned into
+stone by their gaze. He told me how I might slay the one of the three
+Gorgons who was not immortal, and how, having slain her, I might take her
+head and flee without being torn to pieces by her sister Gorgons.
+
+  "Then I knew that I should have to come on the Gorgons from the air. I
+knew that having slain the one that could be slain I should have to fly
+with the speed of the wind. And I knew that that speed even would not save
+me--I should have to be hidden in my flight. To win the head and save
+myself I would need three magic things--the shoes of flight and the magic
+pouch, and the dogskin cap of Hades that makes its wearer invisible.
+
+  "The youth said: 'The magic pouch and the shoes of flight and the
+dogskin cap of Hades are in the keeping of the nymphs whose dwelling place
+no mortal knows. I may not tell you where their dwelling place is. But
+from the Gray Ones, from the ancient daughters of Phorcys who live in a
+cave near where Atlas stands, you may learn where their dwelling place
+is.'
+
+  "Thereupon he told me how I might come to the Graiai, and how I might
+get them to tell me where you, the nymphs, had your dwelling. The one who
+spoke to me was Hermes, whose dwelling is on Olympus. By this sickle-sword
+that he gave me you will know that I speak the truth."
+
+
+
+  Perseus ceased speaking, and she who was the youngest and fairest of the
+nymphs came nearer to him. She knew that he spoke truthfully, and besides
+she had pity for the youth. "But we are the keepers of the magic
+treasures," she said, "and some one whose need is greater even than yours
+may some time require them from us. But will you swear that you will bring
+the magic treasures back to us when you have slain the Gorgon and have
+taken her head?"
+
+  Perseus declared that he would bring the magic treasures back to the
+nymphs and leave them once more in their keeping. Then the nymph who had
+compassion for him called to the others. They spoke together while Perseus
+stayed far away from them, polishing his shield of bronze. At last the
+nymph who had listened to him came back, the others following her. They
+brought to Perseus and they put into his hands the things they had
+guarded--the cap made from dogskin that had been brought up out of Hades, a
+pair of winged shoes, and a long pouch that he could hang across his
+shoulder.
+
+
+
+  And so with the shoes of flight and the cap of darkness and the magic
+pouch, Perseus went to seek the Gorgons. The sickle-sword that Hermes gave
+him was at his side, and on his arm he held the bronze shield that was now
+well polished.
+
+  He went through the air, taking a way that the nymphs had shown him. He
+came to Oceanus that was the rim around the world. He saw forms that were
+of living creatures all in stone, and he knew that he was near the place
+where the Gorgons had their lair.
+
+  Then, looking upon the surface of his polished shield, he saw the
+Gorgons below him. Two were covered with hard serpent scales; they had
+tusks that were long and were like the tusks of boars, and they had hands
+of gleaming brass and wings of shining gold. Still looking upon the
+shining surface of his shield Perseus went down and down. He saw the third
+sister--she who was not immortal. She had a woman's face and form, and her
+countenance was beautiful, although there was something deadly in its
+fairness. The two scaled and winged sisters were asleep, but the third,
+Medusa, was awake, and she was tearing with her hands a lizard that had
+come near her.
+
+  Upon her head was a tangle of serpents all with heads raised as though
+they were hissing. Still looking into the mirror of his shield Perseus
+came down and over Medusa. He turned his head away from her. Then, with a
+sweep of the sickle-sword he took her head off. There was no scream from
+the Gorgon, but the serpents upon her head hissed loudly.
+
+  Still with his face turned from it he lifted up the head by its tangle
+of serpents. He put it into the magic pouch. He rose up in the air. But
+now the Gorgon sisters were awake. They had heard the hiss of Medusa's
+serpents, and now they looked upon her headless body. They rose up on
+their golden wings, and their brazen hands were stretched out to tear the
+one who had slain Medusa. As they flew after him they screamed aloud.
+
+  Although he flew like the wind the Gorgon sisters would have overtaken
+him if he had been plain to their eyes. But the dogskin cap of Hades saved
+him, for the Gorgon sisters did not know whether he was above or below
+them, behind or before them. On Perseus went, flying toward where Atlas
+stood. He flew over this place, over Libya. Drops of blood from Medusa's
+head fell down upon the desert. They were changed and became the deadly
+serpents that are on these sands and around these rocks. On and on Perseus
+flew toward Atlas and toward the hidden valley where the nymphs who were
+again to guard the magic treasures had their dwelling place. But before he
+came to the nymphs Perseus had another adventure.
+
+
+
+  In Ethopia, which is at the other side of Libya, there ruled a king
+whose name was Cepheus. This king had permitted his queen to boast that
+she was more beautiful than the nymphs of the sea. In punishment for the
+queen's impiety and for the king's folly Poseidon sent a monster out of
+the sea to waste that country. Every year the monster came, destroying
+more and more of the country of Ethopia. Then the king asked of an oracle
+what he should do to save his land and his people. The oracle spoke of a
+dreadful thing that he would have to do--he would have to sacrifice his
+daughter, the beautiful Princess Andromeda.
+
+  The king was forced by his savage people to take the maiden Andromeda
+and chain her to a rock on the seashore, leaving her there for the monster
+to devour her, satisfying himself with that prey.
+
+  Perseus, flying near, heard the maiden's laments. He saw her lovely body
+bound with chains to the rock. He came near her, taking the cap of
+darkness off his head. She saw him, and she bent her head in shame, for
+she thought that he would think that it was for some dreadful fault of her
+own that she had been left chained in that place.
+
+  Her father had stayed near. Perseus saw him, and called to him, and bade
+him tell why the maiden was chained to the rock. The king told Perseus of
+the sacrifice that he had been forced to make. Then Perseus came near the
+maiden, and he saw how she looked at him with pleading eyes.
+
+  Then Perseus made her father promise that he would give Andromeda to him
+for his wife if he should slay the sea monster. Gladly Cepheus promised
+this. Then Perseus once again drew his sickle-sword; by the rock to which
+Andromeda was still chained he waited for sight of the sea monster.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+                          Perseus and Andromeda
+
+
+  It came rolling in from the open sea, a shapeless and unsightly thing.
+With the shoes of flight upon his feet Perseus rose above it. The monster
+saw his shadow upon the water, and savagely it went to attack the shadow.
+Perseus swooped down as an eagle swoops down; with his sickle-sword he
+attacked it, and he struck the hook through the monster's shoulder.
+Terribly it reared up from the sea. Perseus rose over it, escaping its
+wide-opened mouth with its treble rows of fangs. Again he swooped and
+struck at it. Its hide was covered all over with hard scales and with the
+shells of sea things, but Perseus's sword struck through it. It reared up
+again, spouting water mixed with blood. On a rock near the rock that
+Andromeda was chained to Perseus alighted. The monster, seeing him,
+bellowed and rushed swiftly through the water to overwhelm him. As it
+reared up he plunged the sword again and again into its body. Down into
+the water the monster sank, and water mixed with blood was spouted up from
+the depths into which it sank.
+
+  Then was Andromeda loosed from her chains. Perseus, the conqueror,
+lifted up the fainting maiden and carried her back to the king's palace.
+And Cepheus there renewed his promise to give her in marriage to her
+deliverer.
+
+  Perseus went on his way. He came to the hidden valley where the nymphs
+had their dwelling place, and he restored to them the three magic
+treasures that they had given him--the cap of darkness, the shoes of
+flight, and the magic pouch. And these treasures are still there, and the
+hero who can win his way to the nymphs may have them as Perseus had them.
+
+  Again he returned to the place where he had found Andromeda chained.
+With face averted he drew forth the Gorgon's head from where he had hidden
+it between the rocks. He made a bag for it out of the horny skin of the
+monster he had slain. Then, carrying his tremendous trophy, he went to the
+palace of King Cepheus to claim his bride.
+
+
+
+  Now before her father had thought of sacrificing her to the sea monster
+he had offered Andromeda in marriage to a prince of Ethopia--to a prince
+whose name was Phineus. Phineus did not strive to save Andromeda. But,
+hearing that she had been delivered from the monster, he came to take her
+for his wife; he came to Cepheus's palace, and he brought with him a
+thousand armed men.
+
+  The palace of Cepheus was filled with armed men when Perseus entered it.
+He saw Andromeda on a raised place in the hall. She was pale as when she
+was chained to the rock, and when she saw him in the palace she uttered a
+cry of gladness.
+
+  Cepheus, the craven king, would have let him who had come with the armed
+bands take the maiden. Perseus came beside Andromeda and he made his
+claim. Phineus spoke insolently to him, and then he urged one of his
+captains to strike Perseus down. Many sprang forward to attack him. Out of
+the bag Perseus drew Medusa's head. He held it before those who were
+bringing strife into the hall. They were turned to stone. One of Cepheus's
+men wished to defend Perseus: he struck at the captain who had come near;
+his sword made a clanging sound as it struck this one who had looked upon
+Medusa's head.
+
+  Perseus went from the land of Ethopia taking fair Andromeda with him.
+They went into Greece, for he had thought of going to Argos, to the
+country that his grandfather ruled over. At this very time Acrisius got
+tidings of Dana� and her son, and he knew that they had not perished on
+the waves of the sea. Fearful of the prophecy that told he would be slain
+by his grandson and fearing that he would come to Argos to seek him,
+Acrisius fled out of his country.
+
+  He came into Thessaly. Perseus and Andromeda were there. Now, one day
+the old king was brought to games that were being celebrated in honor of a
+dead hero. He was leaning on his staff, watching a youth throw a metal
+disk, when something in that youth's appearance made him want to watch him
+more closely. About him there was something of a being of the upper air;
+it made Acrisius think of a brazen tower and of a daughter whom he had
+shut up there.
+
+  He moved so that he might come nearer to the disk-thrower. But as he
+left where he had been standing he came into the line of the thrown disk.
+It struck the old man on the temple. He fell down dead, and as he fell the
+people cried out his name--"Acrisius, King Acrisius!" Then Perseus knew
+whom the disk, thrown by his hand, had slain.
+
+  And because he had slain the king by chance Perseus would not go to
+Argos, nor take over the kingdom that his grandfather had reigned over.
+With Andromeda he went to Seriphus where his mother was. And in Seriphus
+there still reigned Polydectes, who had put upon him the terrible task of
+winning the Gorgon's head.
+
+  He came to Seriphus and he left Andromeda in the hut of Dictys the
+shepherd. No one knew him; he heard his name spoken of as that of a youth
+who had gone on a foolish quest and who would never again be heard of. To
+the temple where his mother was a priestess he came. Guards were placed
+all around it. He heard his mother's voice and it was raised in lament:
+"Walled up here and given over to hunger I shall be made go to
+Polydectes's house and become his wife. O ye gods, have ye no pity for
+Dana�, the mother of Perseus?"
+
+  Perseus cried aloud, and his mother heard his voice and her moans
+ceased. He turned around and he went to the palace of Polydectes, the
+king.
+
+  The king received him with mockeries. "I will let you stay in Seriphus
+for a day," he said, "because I would have you at a marriage feast. I have
+vowed that Dana�, taken from the temple where she sulks, will be my wife
+by to-morrow's sunset."
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+  So Polydectes said, and the lords and princes who were around him mocked
+at Perseus and flattered the king. Perseus went from them then. The next
+day he came back to the palace. But in his hands now there was a dread
+thing--the bag made from the hide of the sea monster that had in it the
+Gorgon's head.
+
+  He saw his mother. She was brought in white and fainting, thinking that
+she would now have to wed the harsh and overbearing king. Then she saw her
+son, and hope came into her face.
+
+  The king seeing Perseus, said: "Step forward, O youngling, and see your
+mother wed to a mighty man. Step forward to witness a marriage, and then
+depart, for it is not right that a youth that makes promises and does not
+keep them should stay in a land that I rule over. Step forward now, you
+with the empty hands."
+
+  But not with empty hands did Perseus step forward. He shouted out: "I
+have brought something to you at last, O king--a present to you and your
+mocking friends. But you, O my mother, and you, O my friends, avert your
+faces from what I have brought." Saying this Perseus drew out the Gorgon's
+head. Holding it by the snaky locks he stood before the company. His
+mother and his friends averted their faces. But Polydectes and his
+insolent friends looked full upon what Perseus showed. "This youth would
+strive to frighten us with some conjuror's trick," they said. They said no
+more, for they became as stones, and as stone images they still stand in
+that hall in Seriphus.
+
+  He went to the shepherd's hut, and he brought Dictys from it with
+Andromeda. Dictys he made king in Polydectes's stead. Then with Dana� and
+Andromeda, his mother and his wife, he went from Seriphus.
+
+  He did not go to Argos, the country that his grandfather had ruled over,
+although the people there wanted Perseus to come to them, and be king over
+them. He took the kingdom of Tiryns in exchange for that of Argos, and
+there he lived with Andromeda, his lovely wife out of Ethopia. They had a
+son named Perses who became the parent of the Persian people.
+
+  The sickle-sword that had slain the Gorgon went back to Hermes, and
+Hermes took Medusa's head also. That head Hermes's divine sister set upon
+her shield--Medusa's head upon the shield of Pallas Athene. O may Pallas
+Athene guard us all, and bring us out of this land of sands and stone
+where are the deadly serpents that have come from the drops of blood that
+fell from the Gorgon's head!
+
+  They turned away from the Garden of the Daughters of the Evening Land.
+The Argonauts turned from where the giant shape of Atlas stood against the
+sky and they went toward the Tritonian Lake. But not all of them reached
+the _Argo_. On his way back to the ship, Nauplius, the helmsman, met his
+death.
+
+  A sluggish serpent was in his way--it was not a serpent that would strike
+at one who turned from it. Nauplius trod upon it, and the serpent lifted
+its head up and bit his foot. They raised him on their shoulders and they
+hurried back with him. But his limbs became numb, and when they laid him
+down on the shore of the lake he stayed moveless. Soon he grew cold. They
+dug a grave for Nauplius beside the lake, and in that desert land they set
+up his helmsman's oar in the middle of his tomb of heaped stones.
+
+
+
+  And now like a snake that goes writhing this way and that way and that
+cannot find the cleft in the rock that leads to its lair, the _Argo_ went
+hither and thither striving to find an outlet from that lake. No outlet
+could they find and the way of their homegoing seemed lost to them again.
+Then Orpheus prayed to the son of Nereus, to Triton, whose name was on
+that lake, to aid them.
+
+  Then Triton appeared. He stretched out his hand and showed them the
+outlet to the sea. And Triton spoke in friendly wise to the heroes,
+bidding them go upon their way in joy. "And as for labor," he said, "let
+there be no grieving because of that, for limbs that have youthful vigor
+should still toil."
+
+  They took up the oars and they pulled toward the sea, and Triton, the
+friendly immortal, helped them on. He laid hold upon _Argo's_ keel and he
+guided her through the water. The Argonauts saw him beneath the water; his
+body, from his head down to his waist, was fair and great and like to the
+body of one of the other immortals. But below his body was like a great
+fish's, forking this way and that. He moved with fins that were like the
+horns of the new moon. Triton helped _Argo_ along until they came into the
+open sea. Then he plunged down into the abyss. The heroes shouted their
+thanks to him. Then they looked at each other and embraced each other with
+joy, for the sea that touched upon the land of Greece was open before
+them.
+
+
+
+
+IX. Near to Iolcus Again
+
+
+
+[Decorative first letter]
+_T_HE sun sank; then that star came that bids the shepherd bring his flock
+to the fold, that brings the wearied plowman to his rest. But no rest did
+that star bring to the Argonauts. The breeze that filled the sail died
+down; they furled the sail and lowered the mast; then, once again, they
+pulled at the oars. All night they rowed, and all day, and again when the
+next day came on. Then they saw the island that is halfway to Greece--the
+great and fair island of Crete.
+
+  It was Theseus who first saw Crete--Theseus who was to come to Crete upon
+another ship. They drew the _Argo_ near the great island; they wanted
+water, and they were fain to rest there.
+
+  Minos, the great king, ruled over Crete. He left the guarding of the
+island to one of the race of bronze, to Talos, who had lived on after the
+rest of the bronze men had been destroyed. Thrice a day would Talos stride
+around the island; his brazen feet were tireless.
+
+  Now Talos saw the _Argo_ drawing near. He took up great rocks and he
+hurled them at the heroes, and very quickly they had to draw their ship
+out of range.
+
+  They were wearied and their thirst was consuming them. But still that
+bronze man stood there ready to sink their ship with the great rocks that
+he took up in his hands. Medea stood forward upon the ship, ready to use
+her spells against the man of bronze.
+
+  In body and limbs he was made of bronze and in these he was
+invulnerable. But beneath a sinew in his ankle there was a vein that ran
+up to his neck and that was covered by a thin skin. If that vein were
+broken Talos would perish.
+
+  Medea did not know about this vein when she stood forward upon the ship
+to use her spells against him. Upon a cliff of Crete, all gleaming, stood
+that huge man of bronze. Then, as she was ready to fling her spells
+against him, Medea thought upon the words that Arete, the wise queen, had
+given her--that she was not to use spells and not to practice against the
+life of any one.
+
+  But she knew that there was no impiety in using spells and practicing
+against Talos, for Zeus had already doomed all his race. She stood upon
+the ship, and with her Magic Song she enchanted him. He whirled round and
+round. He struck his ankle against a jutting stone. The vein broke, and
+that which was the blood of the bronze man flowed out of him like molten
+lead. He stood towering upon the cliff. Like a pine upon a mountaintop
+that the woodman had left half hewn through and that a mighty wind pitches
+against, Talos stood upon his tireless feet, swaying to and fro. Then,
+emptied of all his strength, Minos's man of bronze fell into the Cretan
+Sea.
+
+  The heroes landed. That night they lay upon the land of Crete and rested
+and refreshed themselves. When dawn came they drew water from a spring,
+and once more they went on board the _Argo_.
+
+
+
+  A day came when the helmsman said, "To-morrow we shall see the shore of
+Thessaly, and by sunset we shall be in the harbor of Pagas�. Soon, O
+voyagers, we shall be back in the city from which we went to gain the
+Golden Fleece."
+
+  Then Jason brought Medea to the front of the ship so that they might
+watch together for Thessaly, the homeland. The Mountain Pelion came into
+sight. Jason exulted as he looked upon that mountain; again he told Medea
+about Chiron, the ancient centaur, and about the days of his youth in the
+forests of Pelion.
+
+  The _Argo_ went on; the sun sank, and darkness came on. Never was there
+darkness such as there was on that night. They called that night afterward
+the Pall of Darkness. To the heroes upon the _Argo_ it seemed as if black
+chaos had come over the world again; they knew not whether they were
+adrift upon the sea or upon the River of Hades. No star pierced the
+darkness nor no beam from the moon.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+  After a night that seemed many nights the dawn came. In the sunrise they
+saw the land of Thessaly with its mountain, its forests, and its fields.
+They hailed each other as if they had met after a long parting. They
+raised the mast and unfurled the sail.
+
+  But not toward Pagas� did they go. For now the voice of _Argo_ came to
+them, shaking their hearts: Jason and Orpheus, Castor and Polydeuces,
+Zetes and Calais, Peleus and Telamon, Theseus, Admetus, Nestor, and
+Atalanta, heard the cry of their ship. And the voice of _Argo_ warned them
+not to go into the harbor of Pagas�.
+
+  As they stood upon the ship, looking toward Iolcus, sorrow came over all
+the heroes, such sorrow as made their hearts nearly break. For long they
+stood there in utter numbness.
+
+  Then Admetus spoke--Admetus who was the happiest of all those who went in
+quest of the Golden Fleece. "Although we may not go into the harbor of
+Pagas�, nor into the city of Iolcus," Admetus said, "still we have come to
+the land of Greece. There are other harbors and other cities that we may
+go into. And in all the places that we go to we will be honored, for we
+have gone through toils and dangers, and we have brought to Greece the
+famous Fleece of Gold."
+
+  So Admetus said, and their spirits came back again to the heroes--came
+back to all of them save Jason. The rest had other cities to go to, and
+fathers and mothers and friends to greet them in other places, but for
+Jason there was only Iolcus.
+
+  Medea took his hand, and sorrow for him overcame her. For Medea could
+divine what had happened in Iolcus and why it was that the heroes might
+not go there.
+
+
+
+  It was to Corinth that the _Argo_ went. Creon, the king of Corinth,
+welcomed them and gave great honor to the heroes who had faced such labors
+and such dangers to bring the world's wonder to Greece.
+
+  The Argonauts stayed together until they went to Calydon, to hunt the
+boar that ravaged Prince Meleagrus's country. After that they separated,
+each one going to his own land. Jason came back to Corinth where Medea
+stayed. And in Corinth he had tidings of the happenings in Iolcus.
+
+  King Pelias now ruled more fearfully in Iolcus, having brought down from
+the mountains more and fiercer soldiers. And �son, Jason's father, and
+Alcimide, his mother, were now dead, having been slain by King Pelias.
+
+  This Jason heard from men who came into Corinth from Thessaly. And
+because of the great army that Pelias had gathered there, Jason might not
+yet go into Iolcus, either to exact a vengeance, or to show the people THE
+GOLDEN FLEECE that he had gone so far to gain.
+
+
+
+
+
+PART III. THE HEROES OF THE QUEST
+
+
+
+
+I. Atalanta the Huntress
+
+
+I
+
+
+[Decorative first letter]
+_T_HEY came once more together, the heroes of the quest, to hunt a boar in
+Calydon--Jason and Peleus came, Telamon, Theseus, and rough Arcas, Nestor
+and Helen's brothers Polydeuces and Castor. And, most noted of all, there
+came the Arcadian huntress maid, Atalanta.
+
+  Beautiful they all thought her when they knew her aboard the _Argo_. But
+even more beautiful Atalanta seemed to the heroes when she came amongst
+them in her hunting gear. Her lovely hair hung in two bands across her
+shoulders, and over her breast hung an ivory quiver filled with arrows.
+They said that her face with its wide and steady eyes was maidenly for a
+boy's, and boyish for a maiden's face. Swiftly she moved with her head
+held high, and there was not one amongst the heroes who did not say, "Oh,
+happy would that man be whom Atalanta the unwedded would take for her
+husband!"
+
+  All the heroes said it, but the one who said it most feelingly was the
+prince of Calydon, young Meleagrus. He more than the other heroes felt the
+wonder of Atalanta's beauty.
+
+  Now the boar they had come to hunt was a monster boar. It had come into
+Calydon and it was laying waste the fields and orchards and destroying the
+people's cattle and horses. That boar had been sent into Calydon by an
+angry divinity. For when OEneus, the king of the country, was making
+sacrifice to the gods in thanksgiving for a bounteous harvest, he had
+neglected to make sacrifice to the goddess of the wild things, Artemis. In
+her anger Artemis had sent the monster boar to lay waste OEneus's realm.
+
+  It was a monster boar indeed--one as huge as a bull, with tusks as great
+as an elephant's; the bristles on its back stood up like spear points, and
+the hot breath of the creature withered the growth on the ground. The boar
+tore up the corn in the fields and trampled down the vines with their
+clusters and heavy bunches of grapes; also it rushed against the cattle
+and destroyed them in the fields. And no hounds the huntsmen were able to
+bring could stand before it. And so it came to pass that men had to leave
+their farms and take refuge behind the walls of the city because of the
+ravages of the boar. It was then that the rulers of Calydon sent for the
+heroes of the quest to join with them in hunting the monster.
+
+  Calydon itself sent Prince Meleagrus and his two uncles, Plexippus and
+Toxeus. They were brothers to Meleagrus's mother, Alth�a. Now Alth�a was a
+woman who had sight to see mysterious things, but who had also a wayward
+and passionate heart. Once, after her son Meleagrus was born, she saw the
+three Fates sitting by her hearth. They were spinning the threads of her
+son's life, and as they spun they sang to each other, "An equal span of
+life we give to the newborn child, and to the billet of wood that now
+rests above the blaze of the fire." Hearing what the Fates sang and
+understanding it Alth�a had sprung up from her bed, had seized the billet
+of wood, and had taken it out of the fire before the flames had burnt into
+it.
+
+  That billet of wood lay in her chest, hidden away. And Meleagrus nor any
+one else save Alth�a knew of it, nor knew that the prince's life would
+last only for the space it would be kept from the burning. On the day of
+the hunting he appeared as the strongest and bravest of the youths of
+Calydon. And he knew not, poor Meleagrus, that the love for Atalanta that
+had sprung into his heart was to bring to the fire the billet of wood on
+which his life depended.
+
+
+
+II
+
+  As Atalanta went, the bow in her hands, Prince Meleagrus pressed behind
+her. Then came Jason and Peleus, Telamon, Theseus and Nestor. Behind them
+came Meleagrus's dark-browed uncles, Plexippus and Toxeus. They came to a
+forest that covered the side of a mountain. Huntsmen had assembled here
+with hounds held in leashes and with nets to hold the rushing quarry. And
+when they had all gathered together they went through the forest on the
+track of the monster boar.
+
+  It was easy to track the boar, for it had left a broad trail through the
+forest. The heroes and the huntsmen pressed on. They came to a marshy
+covert where the boar had its lair. There was a thickness of osiers and
+willows and tall bullrushes, making a place that it was hard for the
+hunters to go through.
+
+  They roused the boar with the blare of horns and it came rushing out.
+Foam was on its tusks, and its eyes had in them the blaze of fire. On the
+boar came, breaking down the thicket in its rush. But the heroes stood
+steadily with the points of their spears toward the monster.
+
+  The hounds were loosed from their leashes and they dashed toward the
+boar. The boar slashed them with its tusks and trampled them into the
+ground. Jason flung his spear. The spear went wide of the mark. Another,
+Arcas, cast his, but the wood, not the point of the spear, struck the
+boar, rousing it further. Then its eyes flamed, and like a great stone
+shot from a catapult the boar rushed on the huntsmen who were stationed to
+the right. In that rush it flung two youths prone upon the ground.
+
+  Then might Nestor have missed his going to Troy and his part in that
+story, for the boar swerved around and was upon him in an instant. Using
+his spear as a leaping pole he vaulted upward and caught the branches of a
+tree as the monster dashed the spear down in its rush. In rage the beast
+tore at the trunk of the tree. The heroes might have been scattered at
+this moment, for Telamon had fallen, tripped by the roots of a tree, and
+Peleus had had to throw himself upon him to pull him out of the way of
+danger, if Polydeuces and Castor had not dashed up to their aid. They came
+riding upon high white horses, spears in their hands. The brothers cast
+their spears, but neither spear struck the monster boar.
+
+  Then the boar turned and was for drawing back into the thicket. They
+might have lost it then, for its retreat was impenetrable. But before it
+got clear away Atalanta put an arrow to the string, drew the bow to her
+shoulder, and let the arrow fly. It struck the boar, and a patch of blood
+was seen upon its bristles. Prince Meleagrus shouted out, "O first to
+strike the monster! Honor indeed shall you receive for this, Arcadian
+maid."
+
+  His uncles were made wroth by this speech, as was another, the Arcadian,
+rough Arcas. Arcas dashed forward, holding in his hands a two-headed axe.
+"Heroes and huntsmen," he cried, "you shall see how a man's strokes
+surpass a girl's." He faced the boar, standing on tiptoe with his axe
+raised for the stroke. Meleagrus's uncles shouted to encourage him. But
+the boar's tusks tore him before Arcas's axe fell, and the Arcadian was
+trampled upon the ground.
+
+  The boar, roused again by Atalanta's arrow, turned on the hunters. Jason
+hurled a spear again. It swerved and struck a hound and pinned it to the
+ground. Then, speaking the name of Atalanta, Meleagrus sprang before the
+heroes and the huntsmen.
+
+  He had two spears in his hands. The first missed and stuck quivering in
+the ground. But the second went right through the back of the monster
+boar. It whirled round and round, spouting out blood and foam. Meleagrus
+pressed on, and drove his hunting knife through the shoulders of the
+monster.
+
+  His uncles, Plexippus and Toxeus, were the first to come to where the
+monster boar was lying outstretched. "It is well, the deed you have done,
+boy," said one; "it is well that none of the strangers to our country slew
+the boar. Now will the head and tusks of the monster adorn our hall, and
+men will know that the arms of our house can well protect this land."
+
+  But one word only did Meleagrus say, and that word was the name,
+"Atalanta." The maiden came and Meleagrus, his spear upon the head, said,
+"Take, O fair Arcadian, the spoil of the chase. All know that it was you
+who inflicted the first wound upon the boar."
+
+  Plexippus and Toxeus tried to push him away, as if Meleagrus was still a
+boy under their tutoring. He shouted to them to stand off, and then he
+hacked out the terrible tusks and held them toward Atalanta.
+
+  She would have taken them, for she, who had never looked lovingly upon a
+youth, was moved by the beauty and the generosity of Prince Meleagrus. She
+would have taken from him the spoil of the chase. But as she held out her
+arms Meleagrus's uncles struck them with the poles of their spears. Heavy
+marks were made on the maiden's white arms. Madness then possessed
+Meleagrus, and he took up his spear and thrust it, first into the body of
+Plexippus and then into the body of Toxeus. His thrusts were terrible, for
+he was filled with the fierceness of the hunt, and his uncles fell down in
+death.
+
+  Then a great horror came over all the heroes. They raised up the bodies
+of Plexippus and Toxeus and carried them on their spears away from the
+place of the hunting and toward the temple of the gods. Meleagrus crouched
+down upon the ground in horror of what he had done. Atalanta stood beside
+him, her hand upon his head.
+
+
+
+III
+
+  Alth�a was in the temple making sacrifice to the gods. She saw men come
+in carrying across their spears the bodies of two men. She looked and she
+saw that the dead men were her two brothers, Plexippus and Toxeus.
+
+  Then she beat her breast and she filled the temple with the cries of her
+lamentation. "Who has slain my brothers? Who has slain my brothers?" she
+kept crying out.
+
+  Then she was told that her son Meleagrus had slain her brothers. She had
+no tears to shed then, and in a hard voice she asked, "Why did my son slay
+Plexippus and Toxeus, his uncles?"
+
+  The one who was wroth with Atalanta, Arcas the Arcadian, came to her and
+told her that her brothers had been slain because of a quarrel about the
+girl Atalanta.
+
+  "My brothers have been slain because a girl bewitched my son; then
+accursed be that son of mine," Alth�a cried. She took off the gold-fringed
+robe of a priestess, and she put on a black robe of mourning.
+
+  Her brothers, the only sons of her father, had been slain, and for the
+sake of a girl. The image of Atalanta came before her, and she felt she
+could punish dreadfully her son. But her son was not there to punish; he
+was far away, and the girl for whose sake he had killed Plexippus and
+Toxeus was with him.
+
+  The rage she had went back into her heart and made her truly mad. "I
+gave Meleagrus life when I might have let it go from him with the burning
+billet of wood," she cried, "and now he has taken the lives of my
+brothers." And then her thought went to the billet of wood that was hidden
+in the chest.
+
+  Back to her house she went, and when she went within she saw a fire of
+pine knots burning upon the hearth. As she looked upon their burning a
+scorching pain went through her. But she went from the hearth,
+nevertheless, and into the inner room. There stood the chest that she had
+not opened for years. She opened it now, and out of it she took the billet
+of wood that had on it the mark of the burning.
+
+  She brought it to the hearth fire. Four times she went to throw it into
+the fire, and four times she stayed her hand. The fire was before her, but
+it was in her too. She saw the images of her brothers lying dead, and,
+saying that he who had slain them should lose his life, she threw the
+billet of wood into the fire of pine knots.
+
+  Straightway it caught fire and began to burn. And Alth�a cried, "Let him
+die, my son, and let naught remain; let all perish with my brothers, even
+the kingdom that OEneus, my husband, founded."
+
+  Then she turned away and remained stiffly standing by the hearth, the
+life withered up within her. Her daughters came and tried to draw her
+away, but they could not--her two daughters, Gorge and Deianira.
+
+  Meleagrus was crouching upon the ground with Atalanta watching beside
+him. Now he stood up, and taking her hand he said, "Let me go with you to
+the temple of the gods where I shall strive to make atonement for the deed
+I have done to-day."
+
+  She went with him. But even as they came to the street of the city a
+sharp and a burning pain seized upon Meleagrus. More and more burning it
+grew, and weaker and weaker he became. He could not have moved further if
+it had not been for the aid of Atalanta. Jason and Peleus lifted him
+across the threshold and carried him into the temple of the gods.
+
+  They laid him down with his head upon Atalanta's lap. The pain within
+him grew fiercer and fiercer, but at last it died down as the burning
+billet of wood sank down into the ashes. The heroes of the quest stood
+around, all overcome with woe. In the street they heard the lamentations
+for Plexippus and Toxeus, for Prince Meleagrus, and for the passing of the
+kingdom founded by OEneus. Atalanta left the temple, and attended by the
+two brothers on the white horses, Polydeuces and Castor, she went back to
+Arcady.
+
+
+
+
+II. Peleus and His Bride from the Sea
+
+
+I
+
+
+[Decorative first letter]
+_P_RINCE PELEUS came on his ship to a bay on the coast of Thessaly. His
+painted ship lay between two great rocks, and from its poop he saw a sight
+that enchanted him. Out from the sea, riding on a dolphin, came a lovely
+maiden. And by the radiance of her face and limbs Peleus knew her for one
+of the immortal goddesses.
+
+  Now Peleus had borne himself so nobly in all things that he had won the
+favor of the gods themselves. Zeus, who is highest amongst the gods, had
+made this promise to Peleus: he would honor him as no one amongst the sons
+of men had been honored before, for he would give him an immortal goddess
+to be his bride.
+
+  She who came out of the sea went into a cave that was overgrown with
+vines and roses. Peleus looked into the cave and he saw her sleeping upon
+skins of the beasts of the sea. His heart was enchanted by the sight, and
+he knew that his life would be broken if he did not see this goddess day
+after day. So he went back to his ship and he prayed: "O Zeus, now I claim
+the promise that you once made to me. Let it be that this goddess come
+with me, or else plunge my ship and me beneath the waves of the sea."
+
+  And when Peleus said this he looked over the land and the water for a
+sign from Zeus.
+
+  Even then the goddess sleeping in the cave had dreams such as had never
+before entered that peaceful resting place of hers. She dreamt that she
+was drawn away from the deep and the wide sea. She dreamt that she was
+brought to a place that was strange and unfree to her. And as she lay in
+the cave, sleeping, tears that might never come into the eyes of an
+immortal lay around her heart.
+
+  But Peleus, standing on his painted ship, saw a rainbow touch upon the
+sea. He knew by that sign that Iris, the messenger of Zeus, had come down
+through the air. Then a strange sight came before his eyes. Out of the sea
+rose the head of a man; wrinkled and bearded it was, and the eyes were
+very old. Peleus knew that he who was there before him was Nereus, the
+ancient one of the sea.
+
+  Said old Nereus: "Thou hast prayed to Zeus, and I am here to speak an
+answer to thy prayer. She whom you have looked upon is Thetis, the goddess
+of the sea. Very loath will she be to take Zeus's command and wed with
+thee. It is her desire to remain in the sea, unwedded, and she has refused
+marriage even with one of the immortal gods."
+
+  Then said Peleus, "Zeus promised me an immortal bride. If Thetis may not
+be mine I cannot wed any other, goddess or mortal maiden."
+
+  "Then thou thyself wilt have to master Thetis," said Nereus, the wise
+one of the sea. "If she is mastered by thee, she cannot go back to the
+sea. She will strive with all her strength and all her wit to escape from
+thee; but thou must hold her no matter what she does, and no matter how
+she shows herself. When thou hast seen her again as thou didst see her at
+first, thou wilt know that thou hast mastered her." And when he had said
+this to Peleus, Nereus, the ancient one of the sea, went under the waves.
+
+
+
+II
+
+  With his hero's heart beating more than ever it had beaten yet, Peleus
+went into the cave. Kneeling beside her he looked down upon the goddess.
+The dress she wore was like green and silver mail. Her face and limbs were
+pearly, but through them came the radiance that belongs to the immortals.
+
+  He touched the hair of the goddess of the sea, the yellow hair that was
+so long that it might cover her all over. As he touched her hair she
+started up, wakening suddenly out of her sleep. His hands touched her
+hands and held them. Now he knew that if he should loose his hold upon her
+she would escape from him into the depths of the sea, and that thereafter
+no command from the immortals would bring her to him.
+
+  She changed into a white bird that strove to bear itself away. Peleus
+held to its wings and struggled with the bird. She changed and became a
+tree. Around the trunk of the tree Peleus clung. She changed once more,
+and this time her form became terrible: a spotted leopard she was now,
+with burning eyes; but Peleus held to the neck of the fierce-appearing
+leopard and was not affrighted by the burning eyes. Then she changed and
+became as he had seen her first--a lovely maiden, with the brow of a
+goddess, and with long yellow hair.
+
+  But now there was no radiance in her face or in her limbs. She looked
+past Peleus, who held her, and out to the wide sea. "Who is he," she
+cried, "who has been given this mastery over me?"
+
+  Then said the hero: "I am Peleus, and Zeus has given me the mastery over
+thee. Wilt thou come with me, Thetis? Thou art my bride, given me by him
+who is highest amongst the gods, and if thou wilt come with me, thou wilt
+always be loved and reverenced by me."
+
+  "Unwillingly I leave the sea," she cried, "unwillingly I go with thee,
+Peleus."
+
+  But life in the sea was not for her any more now that she was mastered.
+She went to Peleus's ship and she went to Phthia, his country. And when
+the hero and the sea goddess were wedded the immortal gods and goddesses
+came to their hall and brought the bride and the bridegroom wondrous
+gifts. The three sisters who are called the Fates came also. These wise
+and ancient women said that the son born of the marriage of Peleus and
+Thetis would be a man greater than Peleus himself.
+
+
+
+III
+
+  Now although a son was born to her, and although this son had something
+of the radiance of the immortals about him, Thetis remained forlorn and
+estranged. Nothing that her husband did was pleasing to her. Prince Peleus
+was in fear that the wildness of the sea would break out in her, and that
+some great harm would be wrought in his house.
+
+  One night he wakened suddenly. He saw the fire upon his hearth and he
+saw a figure standing by the fire. It was Thetis, his wife. The fire was
+blazing around something that she held in her hands. And while she stood
+there she was singing to herself a strange-sounding song.
+
+  And then he saw what Thetis held in her hands and what the fire was
+blazing around; it was the child, Achilles.
+
+  Prince Peleus sprang from the bed and caught Thetis around the waist and
+lifted her and the child away from the blazing fire. He put them both upon
+the bed, and he took from her the child that she held by the heel. His
+heart was wild within him, for the thought that wildness had come over his
+wife, and that she was bent upon destroying their child. But Thetis looked
+on him from under those goddess brows of hers and she said to him: "By the
+divine power that I still possess I would have made the child
+invulnerable; but the heel by which I held him has not been endued by the
+fire and in that place some day he may be stricken. All that the fire
+covered is invulnerable, and no weapon that strikes there can destroy his
+life. His heel I cannot now make invulnerable, for now the divine power is
+gone out of me."
+
+  When she said this Thetis looked full upon her husband, and never had
+she seemed so unforgiving as she was then. All the divine radiance that
+had remained with her was gone from her now, and she seemed a white-faced
+and bitter-thinking woman. And when Peleus saw that such a great
+bitterness faced him he fled from his house.
+
+  He traveled far from his own land, and first he went to the help of
+Heracles, who was then in the midst of his mighty labors. Heracles was
+building a wall around a city. Peleus labored, helping him to raise the
+wall for King Laomedon. Then, one night, as he walked by the wall he had
+helped to build, he heard voices speaking out of the earth. And one voice
+said: "Why has Peleus striven so hard to raise a wall that his son shall
+fight hard to overthrow?" No voice replied. The wall was built, and Peleus
+departed. The city around which the wall was built was the great city of
+Troy.
+
+  In whatever place he went Peleus was followed by the hatred of the
+people of the sea, and above all by the hatred of the nymph who is called
+Psamathe. Far, far from his own country he went, and at last he came to a
+country of bright valleys that was ruled over by a kindly king--by Ceyx,
+who was called the Son of the Morning Star.
+
+  Bright of face and kindly and peaceable in all his ways was this king,
+and kindly and peaceable was the land that he ruled over. And when Prince
+Peleus went to him to beg for his protection, and to beg for unfurrowed
+fields where he might graze his cattle, Ceyx raised him up from where he
+knelt. "Peaceable and plentiful is the land," he said, "and all who come
+here may have peace and a chance to earn their food. Live where you will,
+O stranger, and take the unfurrowed fields by the seashore for pasture for
+your cattle."
+
+  Peace came into Peleus's heart as he looked into the untroubled face of
+Ceyx, and as he looked over the bright valleys of the land he had come
+into. He brought his cattle to the unfurrowed fields by the seashore and
+he left herdsmen there to tend them. And as he walked along these bright
+valleys he thought upon his wife and upon his son Achilles, and there were
+gentle feelings in his breast. But then he thought upon the enmity of
+Psamathe, the woman of the sea, and great trouble came over him again. He
+felt he could not stay in the palace of the kindly king. He went where his
+herdsmen camped and he lived with them. But the sea was very near and its
+sound tormented him, and as the days went by, Peleus, wild looking and
+shaggy, became more and more unlike the hero whom once the gods themselves
+had honored.
+
+  One day as he was standing near the palace having speech with the king,
+a herdsman ran to him and cried out: "Peleus, Peleus, a dread thing has
+happened in the unfurrowed fields." And when he had got his breath the
+herdsman told of the thing that had happened.
+
+  They had brought the herd down to the sea. Suddenly, from the marshes
+where the sea and land came together, a monstrous beast rushed out upon
+the herd; like a wolf this beast was, but with mouth and jaws that were
+more terrible than a wolf's even. The beast seized upon the cattle. Yet it
+was not hunger that made it fierce, for the beasts that it killed it tore,
+but did not devour. It rushed on and on, killing and tearing more and more
+of the herd. "Soon," said the herdsman, "it will have destroyed all in the
+herd, and then it will not spare to destroy the other flocks and herds
+that are in the land."
+
+  Peleus was stricken to hear that his herd was being destroyed, but more
+stricken to know that the land of a friendly king would be ravaged, and
+ravaged on his account. For he knew that the terrible beast that had come
+from where the sea and the land joined had been sent by Psamathe. He went
+up on the tower that stood near the king's palace. He was able to look out
+on the sea and able to look over all the land. And looking across the
+bright valleys he saw the dread beast. He saw it rush through his own
+mangled cattle and fall upon the herds of the kindly king.
+
+  He looked toward the sea and he prayed to Psamathe to spare the land
+that he had come to. But, even as he prayed, he knew that Psamathe would
+not harken to him. Then he made a prayer to Thetis, to his wife who had
+seemed so unforgiving. He prayed her to deal with Psamathe so that the
+land of Ceyx would not be altogether destroyed.
+
+  As he looked from the tower he saw the king come forth with arms in his
+hands for the slaying of the terrible beast. Peleus felt fear for the life
+of the kindly king. Down from the tower he came, and taking up his spear
+he went with Ceyx.
+
+  Soon, in one of the brightest of the valleys, they came upon the beast;
+they came between it and a herd of silken-coated cattle. Seeing the men it
+rushed toward them with blood and foam upon its jaws. Then Peleus knew
+that the spears they carried would be of little use against the raging
+beast. His only thought was to struggle with it so that the king might be
+able to save himself.
+
+  Again he lifted up his hands and prayed to Thetis to draw away
+Psamathe's enmity. The beast rushed toward them; but suddenly it stopped.
+The bristles upon its body seemed to stiffen. The gaping jaws became
+fixed. The hounds that were with them dashed upon the beast, but then fell
+back with yelps of disappointment. And when Peleus and Ceyx came to where
+it stood they found that the monstrous beast had been turned into stone.
+
+  And a stone it remains in that bright valley, a wonder to all the men of
+Ceyx's land. The country was spared the ravages of the beast. And the
+heart of Peleus was uplifted to think that Thetis had harkened to his
+prayer and had prevailed upon Psamathe to forego her enmity. Not
+altogether unforgiving was his wife to him.
+
+  That day he went from the land of the bright valleys, from the land
+ruled over by the kindly Ceyx, and he came back to rugged Phthia, his own
+country. When he came near his hall he saw two at the doorway awaiting
+him. Thetis stood there, and the child Achilles was by her side. The
+radiance of the immortals was in her face no longer, but there was a glow
+there, a glow of welcome for the hero Peleus. And thus Peleus, long
+tormented by the enmity of the sea-born ones, came back to the wife he had
+won from the sea.
+
+
+
+
+III. Theseus and the Minotaur
+
+
+I
+
+
+[Decorative first letter]
+_T_HEREAFTER Theseus made up his mind to go in search of his father, the
+unknown king, and Medea, the wise woman, counseled him to go to Athens.
+After the hunt in Calydon he set forth. On his way he fought with and slew
+two robbers who harassed countries and treated people unjustly.
+
+  The first was Sinnias. He was a robber who slew men cruelly by tying
+them to strong branches of trees and letting the branches fly apart. On
+him Theseus had no mercy. The second was a robber also, Procrustes: he had
+a great iron bed on which he made his captives lie; if they were too long
+for that bed he chopped pieces off them, and if they were too short he
+stretched out their bodies with terrible racks. On him, likewise, Theseus
+had no mercy; he slew Procrustes and gave liberty to his captives.
+
+  The King of Athens at the time was named �geus. He was father of
+Theseus, but neither Theseus nor he knew that this was so. �thra was his
+mother, and she was the daughter of the King of Troezen. Before Theseus was
+born his father left a great sword under a stone, telling �thra that the
+boy was to have the sword when he was able to move that stone away.
+
+  King �geus was old and fearful now: there were wars and troubles in the
+city; besides, there was in his palace an evil woman, a witch, to whom the
+king listened. This woman heard that a proud and fearless young man had
+come into Athens, and she at once thought to destroy him.
+
+  So the witch spoke to the fearful king, and she made him believe that
+this stranger had come into Athens to make league with his enemies and
+destroy him. Such was her power over �geus that she was able to persuade
+him to invite the stranger youth to a feast in the palace, and to give him
+a cup that would have poison in it.
+
+  Theseus came to the palace. He sat down to the banquet with the king.
+But before the cup was brought something moved him to stand up and draw
+forth the sword that he carried. Fearfully the king looked upon the sword.
+Then he saw the heavy ivory hilt with the curious carving on it, and he
+knew that this was the sword that he had once laid under the stone near
+the palace of the King of Troezen. He questioned Theseus as to how he had
+come by the sword, and Theseus told him how �thra, his mother, had shown
+him where it was hidden, and how he had been able to take it from under
+the stone before he was grown a youth. More and more �geus questioned him,
+and he came to know that the youth before him was his son indeed. He
+dashed down the cup that had been brought to the table, and he shook all
+over with the thought of how near he had been to a terrible crime. The
+witchwoman watched all that passed; mounting on a car drawn by dragons she
+made flight from Athens.
+
+  And now the people of the city, knowing that it was he who had slain the
+robbers Sinnias and Procrustes, rejoiced to have Theseus amongst them.
+When he appeared as their prince they rejoiced still more. Soon he was
+able to bring to an end the wars in the city and the troubles that
+afflicted Athens.
+
+
+
+II
+
+  The greatest king in the world at that time was Minos, King of Crete.
+Minos had sent his son to Athens to make peace and friendship between his
+kingdom and the kingdom of King �geus. But the people of Athens slew the
+son of King Minos, and because �geus had not given him the protection that
+a king should have given a stranger come upon such an errand he was deemed
+to have some part in the guilt of his slaying.
+
+  Minos, the great king, was wroth, and he made war on Athens, wreaking
+great destruction upon the country and the people. Moreover, the gods
+themselves were wroth with Athens; they punished the people with famine,
+making even the rivers dry up. The Athenians went to the oracle and asked
+Apollo what they should do to have their guilt taken away. Apollo made
+answer that they should make peace with Minos and fulfill all his demands.
+
+  All this Theseus now heard, learning for the first time that behind the
+wars and troubles in Athens there was a deed of evil that �geus, his
+father, had some guilt in.
+
+  The demands that King Minos made upon Athens were terrible. He demanded
+that the Athenians should send into Crete every year seven youths and
+seven maidens as a price for the life of his son. And these youths and
+maidens were not to meet death merely, nor were they to be reared in
+slavery--they were to be sent that a monster called the Minotaur might
+devour them.
+
+  Youths and maidens had been sent, and for the third time the messengers
+of King Minos were coming to Athens. The tribute for the Minotaur was to
+be chosen by lot. The fathers and mothers were in fear and trembling, for
+each man and woman thought that his or her son or daughter would be taken
+for a prey for the Minotaur.
+
+  They came together, the people of Athens, and they drew the lots
+fearfully. And on the throne above them all sat their pale-faced king,
+�geus, the father of Theseus.
+
+  Before the first lot was drawn Theseus turned to all of them and said,
+"People of Athens, it is not right that your children should go and that
+I, who am the son of King �geus, should remain behind. Surely, if any of
+the youths of Athens should face the dread monster of Crete, I should face
+it. There is one lot that you may leave undrawn. I will go to Crete."
+
+  His father, on hearing the speech of Theseus, came down from his throne
+and pleaded with him, begging him not to go. But the will of Theseus was
+set; he would go with the others and face the Minotaur. And he reminded
+his father of how the people had complained, saying that if �geus had done
+the duty of a king, Minos's son would not have been slain and the tribute
+to the Minotaur would have not been demanded. It was the passing about of
+such complaints that had led to the war and troubles that Theseus found on
+his coming to Athens.
+
+  Also Theseus told his father and told the people that he had hope in his
+hands--that the hands that were strong enough to slay Sinnias and
+Procrustes, the giant robbers, would be strong enough to slay the dread
+monster of Crete. His father at last consented to his going. And Theseus
+was able to make the people willing to believe that he would be able to
+overcome the Minotaur, and so put an end to the terrible tribute that was
+being exacted from them.
+
+  With six other youths and seven maidens Theseus went on board of the
+ship that every year brought to Crete the grievous tribute. This ship
+always sailed with black sails. But before it sailed this time King �geus
+gave to Nausitheus, the master of the ship, a white sail to take with him.
+And he begged Theseus, that in case he should be able to overcome the
+monster, to hoist the white sail he had given. Theseus promised he would
+do this. His father would watch for the return of the ship, and if the
+sail were black he would know that the Minotaur had dealt with his son as
+it had dealt with the other youths who had gone from Athens. And if the
+sail were white �geus would have indeed cause to rejoice.
+
+
+
+III
+
+  And now the black-sailed ship had come to Crete, and the youths and
+maidens of Athens looked from its deck on Knossos, the marvelous city that
+D�dalus the builder had built for King Minos. And they saw the palace of
+the king, the red and black palace in which was the labyrinth, made also
+by D�dalus, where the dread Minotaur was hidden.
+
+  In fear they looked upon the city and the palace. But not in fear did
+Theseus look, but in wonder at the magnificence of it all--the harbor with
+its great steps leading up into the city, the far-spreading palace all red
+and black, and the crowds of ships with their white and red sails. They
+were brought through the city of Knossos to the palace of the king. And
+there Theseus looked upon Minos. In a great red chamber on which was
+painted the sign of the axe, King Minos sat.
+
+  On a low throne he sat, holding in his hand a scepter on which a bird
+was perched. Not in fear, but steadily, did Theseus look upon the king.
+And he saw that Minos had the face of one who has thought long upon
+troublesome things, and that his eyes were strangely dark and deep. The
+king noted that the eyes of Theseus were upon him, and he made a sign with
+his head to an attendant and the attendant laid his hand upon him and
+brought Theseus to stand beside the king. Minos questioned him as to who
+he was and what lands he had been in, and when he learned that Theseus was
+the son of �geus, the King of Athens, he said the name of his son who had
+been slain, "Androgeus, Androgeus," over and over again, and then spoke no
+more.
+
+  While he stood there beside the king there came into the chamber three
+maidens; one of them, Theseus knew, was the daughter of Minos. Not like
+the maidens of Greece were the princess and her two attendants: instead of
+having on flowing garments and sandals and wearing their hair bound, they
+had on dresses of gleaming material that were tight at the waists and
+bell-shaped; the hair that streamed on their shoulders was made wavy; they
+had on high shoes of a substance that shone like glass. Never had Theseus
+looked upon maidens who were so strange.
+
+  They spoke to the king in the strange Cretan language; then Minos's
+daughter made reverence to her father, and they went from the chamber.
+Theseus watched them as they went through a long passage, walking slowly
+on their high-heeled shoes.
+
+  Through the same passage the youths and maidens of Athens were afterward
+brought. They came into a great hall. The walls were red and on them were
+paintings in black--pictures of great bulls with girls and slender youths
+struggling with them. It was a place for games and shows, and Theseus
+stood with the youths and maidens of Athens and with the people of the
+palace and watched what was happening.
+
+  They saw women charming snakes; then they saw a boxing match, and
+afterward they all looked on a bout of wrestling. Theseus looked past the
+wrestlers and he saw, at the other end of the hall, the daughter of King
+Minos and her two attendant maidens.
+
+  One broad-shouldered and bearded man overthrew all the wrestlers who
+came to grips with him. He stood there boastfully, and Theseus was made
+angry by the man's arrogance. Then, when no other wrestler would come
+against him, he turned to leave the arena.
+
+  But Theseus stood in his way and pushed him back. The boastful man laid
+hands upon him and pulled him into the arena. He strove to throw Theseus
+as he had thrown the others; but he soon found that the youth from Greece
+was a wrestler, too, and that he would have to strive hard to overthrow
+him.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+  More eagerly than they had watched anything else the people of the
+palace and the youths and maidens of Athens watched the bout between
+Theseus and the lordly wrestler. Those from Athens who looked upon him now
+thought that they had never seen Theseus look so tall and so conquering
+before; beside the slender, dark-haired people of Crete he looked like a
+statue of one of the gods.
+
+  Very adroit was the Cretan wrestler, and Theseus had to use all his
+strength to keep upon his feet; but soon he mastered the tricks that the
+wrestler was using against him. Then the Cretan left aside his tricks and
+began to use all his strength to throw Theseus.
+
+  Steadily Theseus stood and the Cretan wrestler was spent and gasping in
+the effort to throw him. Then Theseus made him feel his grip. He bent him
+backward, and then, using all his strength suddenly, forced him to the
+ground. All were filled with wonder at the strength and power of this
+youth from overseas.
+
+  Food and wine were given the youths and maidens of Athens, and they with
+Theseus were let wander through the grounds of the palace. But they could
+make no escape, for guards followed them and the way to the ships was
+filled with strangers who would not let them pass. They talked to each
+other about the Minotaur, and there was fear in every word they said. But
+Theseus went from one to the other, telling them that perhaps there was a
+way by which he could come to the monster and destroy it. And the youths
+and maidens, remembering how he had overthrown the lordly wrestler, were
+comforted a little, thinking that Theseus might indeed be able to destroy
+the Minotaur and so save all of them.
+
+
+
+IV
+
+  Theseus was awakened by some one touching him. He arose and he saw a
+dark-faced servant, who beckoned to him. He left the little chamber where
+he had been sleeping, and then he saw outside one who wore the strange
+dress of the Cretans.
+
+  When Theseus looked full upon her he saw that she was none other than
+the daughter of King Minos. "I am Ariadne," she said, "and, O youth from
+Greece, I have come to save you from the dread Minotaur."
+
+  He looked upon Ariadne's strange face with its long, dark eyes, and he
+wondered how this girl could think that she could save him and save the
+youths and maidens of Athens from the Minotaur. Her hand rested upon his
+arm, and she led him into the chamber where Minos had sat. It was lighted
+now by many little lamps.
+
+  "I will show the way of escape to you," said Ariadne.
+
+  Then Theseus looked around, and he saw that none of the other youths and
+maidens were near them, and he looked on Ariadne again, and he saw that
+the strange princess had been won to help him, and to help him only.
+
+  "Who will show the way of escape to the others?" asked Theseus.
+
+  "Ah," said the Princess Ariadne, "for the others there is no way of
+escape."
+
+  "Then," said Theseus, "I will not leave the youths and maidens of Athens
+who came with me to Crete to be devoured by the Minotaur."
+
+  "Ah, Theseus," said Ariadne, "they cannot escape the Minotaur. One only
+may escape, and I want you to be that one. I saw you when you wrestled
+with Deucalion, our great wrestler, and since then I have longed to save
+you."
+
+  "I have come to slay the Minotaur," said Theseus, "and I cannot hold my
+life as my own until I have slain it."
+
+  Said Ariadne, "If you could see the Minotaur, Theseus, and if you could
+measure its power, you would know that you are not the one to slay it. I
+think that only Talos, that giant who was all of bronze, could have slain
+the Minotaur."
+
+  "Princess," said Theseus, "can you help me to come to the Minotaur and
+look upon it so that I can know for certainty whether this hand of mine
+can slay the monster?"
+
+  "I can help you to come to the Minotaur and look upon it," said Ariadne.
+
+  "Then help me, princess," cried Theseus; "help me to come to the
+Minotaur and look upon it, and help me, too, to get back the sword that I
+brought with me to Crete."
+
+  "Your sword will not avail you against the Minotaur," said Ariadne;
+"when you look upon the monster you will know that it is not for your hand
+to slay."
+
+  "Oh, but bring me my sword, princess," cried Theseus, and his hands went
+out to her in supplication.
+
+  "I will bring you your sword," said she.
+
+  She took up a little lamp and went through a doorway, leaving Theseus
+standing by the low throne in the chamber of Minos. Then after a little
+while she came back, bringing with her Theseus's great ivory-hilted sword.
+
+  "It is a great sword," she said; "I marked it before because it is your
+sword, Theseus. But even this great sword will not avail against the
+Minotaur."
+
+  "Show me the way to come to the Minotaur, O Ariadne," cried Theseus.
+
+  He knew that she did not think that he would deem himself able to strive
+with the Minotaur, and that when he looked upon the dread monster he would
+return to her and then take the way of his escape.
+
+  She took his hand and led him from the chamber of Minos. She was not
+tall, but she stood straight and walked steadily, and Theseus saw in her
+something of the strange majesty that he had seen in Minos the king.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+  They came to high bronze gates that opened into a vault. "Here," said
+Ariadne, "the labyrinth begins. Very devious is the labyrinth, built by
+D�dalus, in which the Minotaur is hidden, and without the clue none could
+find a way through the passages. But I will give you the clue so that you
+may look upon the Minotaur and then come back to me. Theseus, now I put
+into your hand the thread that will guide you through all the windings of
+the labyrinth. And outside the place where the Minotaur is you will find
+another thread to guide you back."
+
+  A cone was on the ground and it had a thread fastened to it. Ariadne
+gave Theseus the thread and the cone to wind it around. The thread as he
+held it and wound it around the cone would bring him through all the
+windings and turnings of the labyrinth.
+
+  She left him, and Theseus went on. Winding the thread around the cone he
+went along a wide passage in the vault. He turned and came into a passage
+that was very long. He came to a place in this passage where a door seemed
+to be, but within the frame of the doorway there was only a blank wall.
+But below that doorway there was a flight of six steps, and down these
+steps the thread led him. On he went, and he crossed the marks that he
+himself had made in the dust, and he thought he must have come back to the
+place where he had parted from Ariadne. He went on, and he saw before him
+a flight of steps. The thread did not lead up the steps; it led into the
+most winding of passages. So sudden were the turnings in it that one could
+not see three steps before one. He was dazed by the turnings of this
+passage, but still he went on. He went up winding steps and then along a
+narrow wall. The wall overhung a broad flight of steps, and Theseus had to
+jump to them. Down the steps he went and into a wide, empty hall that had
+doorways to the right hand and to the left hand. Here the thread had its
+end. It was fastened to a cone that lay on the ground, and beside this
+cone was another--the clue that was to bring him back.
+
+  Now Theseus, knowing he was in the very center of the labyrinth, looked
+all around for sight of the Minotaur. There was no sight of the monster
+here. He went to all the doors and pushed at them, and some opened and
+some remained fast. The middle door opened. As it did Theseus felt around
+him a chilling draft of air.
+
+  That chilling draft was from the breathing of the monster. Theseus then
+saw the Minotaur. It lay on the ground, a strange, bull-faced thing.
+
+  When the thought came to Theseus that he would have to fight that
+monster alone and in that hidden and empty place all delight left him; he
+grew like a stone; he groaned, and it seemed to him that he heard the
+voice of Ariadne calling him back. He could find his way back through the
+labyrinth and come to her. He stepped back, and the door closed on the
+Minotaur, the dread monster of Crete.
+
+  In an instant Theseus pushed the door again. He stood within the hall
+where the Minotaur was, and the heavy door shut behind him. He looked
+again on that dark, bull-faced thing. It reared up as a horse rears and
+Theseus saw that it would crash down on him and tear him with its dragon
+claws. With a great bound he went far away from where the monster crashed
+down. Then Theseus faced it: he saw its thick lips and its slobbering
+mouth; he saw that its skin was thick and hard.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+  He drew near the monster, his sword in his hand. He struck at its eyes,
+and his sword made a great dint. But no blood came, for the Minotaur was a
+bloodless monster. From its mouth and nostrils came a draft that covered
+him with a chilling slime.
+
+  Then it rushed upon him and overthrew him, and Theseus felt its terrible
+weight upon him. But he thrust his sword upward, and it reared up again,
+screaming with pain. Theseus drew himself away, and then he saw it
+searching around and around, and he knew he had made it sightless. Then it
+faced him; all the more fearful it was because from its wounds no blood
+came.
+
+  Anger flowed into Theseus when he saw the monster standing frightfully
+before him; he thought of all the youths and maidens that this bloodless
+thing had destroyed, and all the youths and maidens that it would destroy
+if he did not slay it now. Angrily he rushed upon it with his great sword.
+It clawed and tore him, and it opened wide its most evil mouth as if to
+draw him into it. But again he sprang at it; he thrust his great sword
+through its neck, and he left his sword there.
+
+  With the last of his strength he pulled open the heavy door and he went
+out from the hall where the Minotaur was. He picked up the thread and he
+began to wind it as he had wound the other thread on his way down. On he
+went, through passage after passage, through chamber after chamber. His
+mind was dizzy, and he had little thought for the way he was going. His
+wounds and the chill that the monster had breathed into him and his horror
+of the fearful and bloodless thing made his mind almost forsake him. He
+kept the thread in his hand and he wound it as he went on through the
+labyrinth. He stumbled and the thread broke. He went on for a few steps
+and then he went back to find the thread that had fallen out of his hands.
+In an instant he was in a part of the labyrinth that he had not been in
+before.
+
+  He walked a long way, and then he came on his own footmarks as they
+crossed themselves in the dust. He pushed open a door and came into the
+air. He was now by the outside wall of the palace, and he saw birds flying
+by him. He leant against the wall of the palace, thinking that he would
+strive no more to find his way through the labyrinth.
+
+
+
+V
+
+  That day the youths and maidens of Athens were brought through the
+labyrinth and to the hall where the Minotaur was. They went through the
+passages weeping and lamenting. Some cried out for Theseus, and some said
+that Theseus had deserted them. The heavy door was opened. Then those who
+were with the youths and maidens saw the Minotaur lying stark and stiff
+with Theseus's sword through its neck. They shouted and blew trumpets and
+the noise of their trumpets filled the labyrinth. Then they turned back,
+bringing the youths and maidens with them, and a whisper went through the
+whole palace that the Minotaur had been slain. The youths and maidens were
+lodged in the chamber where Minos gave his judgments.
+
+
+
+VI
+
+  Theseus, wearied and overcome, fell into a deep sleep by the wall of the
+palace. He awakened with a feeling that the claw of the Minotaur was upon
+him. There were stars in the sky above the high palace wall, and he saw a
+dark-robed and ancient man standing beside him. Theseus knew that this was
+D�dalus, the builder of the palace and the labyrinth. D�dalus called and a
+slim youth came--Icarus, the son of D�dalus. Minos had set father and son
+apart from the rest of the palace, and Theseus had come near the place
+where they were confined. Icarus came and brought him to a winding
+stairway and showed him a way to go.
+
+  A dark-faced servant met and looked him full in the face. Then, as if he
+knew that Theseus was the one whom he had been searching for, he led him
+into a little chamber where there were three maidens. One started up and
+came to him quickly, and Theseus again saw Ariadne.
+
+  She hid him in the chamber of the palace where her singing birds were,
+and she would come and sit beside him, asking about his own country and
+telling him that she would go with him there. "I showed you how you might
+come to the Minotaur," she said, "and you went there and you slew the
+monster, and now I may not stay in my father's palace."
+
+  And Theseus thought all the time of his return, and of how he might
+bring the youths and maidens of Athens back to their own people. For
+Ariadne, that strange princess, was not dear to him as Medea was dear to
+Jason, or Atalanta the Huntress to young Meleagrus.
+
+  One sunset she led him to a roof of the palace and she showed him the
+harbor with the ships, and she showed him the ship with the black sail
+that had brought him to Knossos. She told him she would take him aboard
+that ship, and that the youths and maidens of Athens could go with them.
+She would bring to the master of the ship the seal of King Minos, and the
+master, seeing it, would set sail for whatever place Theseus desired to
+go.
+
+  Then did she become dear to Theseus because of her great kindness, and
+he kissed her eyes and swore that he would not go from the palace unless
+she would come with him to his own country. The strange princess smiled
+and wept as if she doubted what he said. Nevertheless, she led him from
+the roof and down into one of the palace gardens. He waited there, and the
+youths and maidens of Athens were led into the garden, all wearing cloaks
+that hid their forms and faces. Young Icarus led them from the grounds of
+the palace and down to the ships. And Ariadne went with them, bringing
+with her the seal of her father, King Minos.
+
+  And when they came on board of the black-sailed ship they showed the
+seal to the master, Nausitheus, and the master of the ship let the sail
+take the breeze of the evening, and so Theseus went away from Crete.
+
+
+
+VII
+
+  To the Island of Naxos they sailed. And when they reached that place the
+master of the ship, thinking that what had been done was not in accordance
+with the will of King Minos, stayed the ship there. He waited until other
+ships came from Knossos. And when they came they brought word that Minos
+would not slay nor demand back Theseus nor the youths and maidens of
+Athens. His daughter, Ariadne, he would have back, to reign with him over
+Crete.
+
+  Then Ariadne left the black-sailed ship, and went back to Crete from
+Naxos. Theseus let the princess go, although he might have struggled to
+hold her. But more strange than dear did Ariadne remain to Theseus.
+
+  And all this time his father, �geus, stayed on the tower of his palace,
+watching for the return of the ship that had sailed for Knossos. The life
+of the king wasted since the departure of Theseus, and now it was but a
+thread. Every day he watched for the return of the ship, hoping against
+hope that Theseus would return alive to him. Then a ship came into the
+harbor. It had black sails. �geus did not know that Theseus was aboard of
+it, and that Theseus in the hurry of his flight and in the sadness of his
+parting from Ariadne had not thought of taking out the white sail that his
+father had given to Nausitheus.
+
+  Joyously Theseus sailed into the harbor, having slain the Minotaur and
+lifted for ever the tribute put upon Athens. Joyously he sailed into the
+harbor, bringing back to their parents the youths and maidens of Athens.
+But the king, his father, saw the black sails on his ship, and straightway
+the thread of his life broke, and he died on the roof of the tower which
+he had built to look out on the sea.
+
+  Theseus landed on the shore of his own country. He had the ship drawn up
+on the beach and he made sacrifices of thanksgiving to the gods. Then he
+sent messengers to the city to announce his return. They went toward the
+city, these joyful messengers, but when they came to the gate they heard
+the sounds of mourning and lamentation. The mourning and the lamentation
+were for the death of the king, Theseus's father. They hurried back and
+they came to Theseus where he stood on the beach. They brought a wreath of
+victory for him, but as they put it into his hand they told him of the
+death of his father. Then Theseus left the wreath on the ground, and he
+wept for the death of �geus--of �geus, the hero, who had left the sword
+under the stone for him before he was born.
+
+  The men and women who came to the beach wept and laughed as they clasped
+in their arms the children brought back to them. And Theseus stood there,
+silent and bowed; the memory of his last moments with his father, of his
+fight with the Minotaur, of his parting with Ariadne--all flowed back upon
+him. He stood there with head bowed, the man who might not put upon his
+brows the wreath of victory that had been brought to him.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+  There had come into the city a youth of great valor whose name was
+Peirithous: from a far country he had come, filled with a desire of
+meeting Theseus, whose fame had come to him. The youth was in Athens at
+the time Theseus returned. He went down to the beach with the townsfolk,
+and he saw Theseus standing alone with his head bowed down. He went to him
+and he spoke, and Theseus lifted his head and he saw before him a young
+man of strength and beauty. He looked upon him, and the thought of high
+deeds came into his mind again. He wanted this young man to be his comrade
+in dangers and upon quests. And Peirithous looked upon Theseus, and he
+felt that he was greater and nobler than he had thought. They became
+friends and sworn brothers, and together they went into far countries.
+
+  Now there was in Epirus a savage king who had a very fair daughter. He
+had named this daughter Persephone, naming her thus to show that she was
+held as fast by him as that other Persephone was held who ruled in the
+Underworld. No man might see her, and no man might wed her. But Peirithous
+had seen the daughter of this king, and he desired above all things to
+take her from her father and make her his wife. He begged Theseus to help
+him enter that king's palace and carry off the maiden.
+
+  So they came to Epirus, Theseus and Peirithous, and they entered the
+king's palace, and they heard the bay of the dread hound that was there to
+let no one out who had once come within the walls. Suddenly the guards of
+the savage king came upon them, and they took Theseus and Peirithous and
+they dragged them down into dark dungeons.
+
+  Two great chairs of stone were there, and Theseus and Peirithous were
+left seated in them. And the magic powers that were in the chairs of stone
+were such that the heroes could not lift themselves out of them. There
+they stayed, held in the great stone chairs in the dungeons of that savage
+king.
+
+  Then it so happened that Heracles came into the palace of the king. The
+harsh king feasted Heracles and abated his savagery before him. But he
+could not forbear boasting of how he had trapped the heroes who had come
+to carry off Persephone. And he told how they could not get out of the
+stone chairs and how they were held captive in his dark dungeon. Heracles
+listened, his heart full of pity for the heroes from Greece who had met
+with such a harsh fate. And when the king mentioned that one of the heroes
+was Theseus, Heracles would feast no more with him until he had promised
+that the one who had been his comrade on the _Argo_ would be let go.
+
+  The king said he would give Theseus his liberty if Heracles would carry
+the stone chair on which he was seated out of the dungeon and into the
+outer world. Then Heracles went down into the dungeon. He found the two
+heroes in the great chairs of stone. But one of them, Peirithous, no
+longer breathed. Heracles took the great chair of stone that Theseus was
+seated in, and he carried it up, up, from the dungeon and out into the
+world. It was a heavy task even for Heracles. He broke the chair in
+pieces, and Theseus stood up, released.
+
+  Thereafter the world was before Theseus. He went with Heracles, and in
+the deeds that Heracles was afterward to accomplish Theseus shared.
+
+
+
+
+IV. The Life and Labors of Heracles
+
+
+I
+
+
+[Decorative first letter]
+_H_ERACLES was the son of Zeus, but he was born into the family of a
+mortal king. When he was still a youth, being overwhelmed by a madness
+sent upon him by one of the goddesses, he slew the children of his brother
+Iphicles. Then, coming to know what he had done, sleep and rest went from
+him: he went to Delphi, to the shrine of Apollo, to be purified of his
+crime.
+
+  At Delphi, at the shrine of Apollo, the priestess purified him, and when
+she had purified him she uttered this prophecy: "From this day forth thy
+name shall be, not Alcides, but Heracles. Thou shalt go to Eurystheus, thy
+cousin, in Mycen�, and serve him in all things. When the labors he shall
+lay upon thee are accomplished, and when the rest of thy life is lived
+out, thou shalt become one of the immortals." Heracles, on hearing these
+words, set out for Mycen�.
+
+  He stood before his cousin who hated him; he, a towering man, stood
+before a king who sat there weak and trembling. And Heracles said, "I have
+come to take up the labors that you will lay upon me; speak now,
+Eurystheus, and tell me what you would have me do."
+
+  Eurystheus, that weak king, looking on the young man who stood as tall
+and as firm as one of the immortals, had a heart that was filled with
+hatred. He lifted up his head and he said with a frown:
+
+  "There is a lion in Nemea that is stronger and more fierce than any lion
+known before. Kill that lion, and bring the lion's skin to me that I may
+know that you have truly performed your task." So Eurystheus said, and
+Heracles, with neither shield nor arms, went forth from the king's palace
+to seek and to combat the dread lion of Nemea.
+
+  He went on until he came into a country where the fences were overthrown
+and the fields wasted and the houses empty and fallen. He went on until he
+came to the waste around that land: there he came on the trail of the
+lion; it led up the side of a mountain, and Heracles, without shield or
+arms, followed the trail.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+  He heard the roar of the lion. Looking up he saw the beast standing at
+the mouth of a cavern, huge and dark against the sunset. The lion roared
+three times, and then it went within the cavern.
+
+  Around the mouth were strewn the bones of creatures it had killed and
+carried there. Heracles looked upon them when he came to the cavern. He
+went within. Far into the cavern he went, and then he came to where he saw
+the lion. It was sleeping.
+
+  Heracles viewed the terrible bulk of the lion, and then he looked upon
+his own knotted hands and arms. He remembered that it was told of him
+that, while still a child of eight months, he had strangled a great
+serpent that had come to his cradle to devour him. He had grown and his
+strength had grown too.
+
+  So he stood, measuring his strength and the size of the lion. The breath
+from its mouth and nostrils came heavily to him as the beast slept, gorged
+with its prey. Then the lion yawned. Heracles sprang on it and put his
+great hands upon its throat. No growl came out of its mouth, but the great
+eyes blazed while the terrible paws tore at Heracles. Against the rock
+Heracles held the beast; strongly he held it, choking it through the skin
+that was almost impenetrable. Terribly the lion struggled; but the strong
+hands of the hero held around its throat until it struggled no more.
+
+  Then Heracles stripped off that impenetrable skin from the lion's body;
+he put it upon himself for a cloak. Then, as he went through the forest,
+he pulled up a young oak tree and trimmed it and made a club for himself.
+With the lion's skin over him--that skin that no spear or arrow could
+pierce--and carrying the club in his hand he journeyed on until he came to
+the palace of King Eurystheus.
+
+  The king, seeing coming toward him a towering man all covered with the
+hide of a monstrous lion, ran and hid himself in a great jar. He lifted
+the lid up to ask the servants what was the meaning of this terrible
+appearance. And the servants told him that it was Heracles come back with
+the skin of the lion of Nemea. On hearing this Eurystheus hid himself
+again.
+
+  He would not speak with Heracles nor have him come near him, so fearful
+was he. But Heracles was content to be left alone. He sat down in the
+palace and feasted himself.
+
+  The servants came to the king; Eurystheus lifted the lid of the jar and
+they told him how Heracles was feasting and devouring all the goods in the
+palace. The king flew into a rage, but still he was fearful of having the
+hero before him. He issued commands through his heralds ordering Heracles
+to go forth at once and perform the second of his tasks.
+
+  It was to slay the great water snake that made its lair in the swamps of
+Lerna. Heracles stayed to feast another day, and then, with the lion's
+skin across his shoulders and the great club in his hands, he started off.
+But this time he did not go alone; the boy Iolaus went with him.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+
+  Heracles and Iolaus went on until they came to the vast swamp of Lerna.
+Right in the middle of the swamp was the water snake that was called the
+Hydra. Nine heads it had, and it raised them up out of the water as the
+hero and his companion came near. They could not cross the swamp to come
+to the monster, for man or beast would sink and be lost in it.
+
+  The Hydra remained in the middle of the swamp belching mud at the hero
+and his companion. Then Heracles took up his bow and he shot flaming
+arrows at its heads. It grew into such a rage that it came through the
+swamp to attack him. Heracles swung his club. As the Hydra came near he
+knocked head after head off its body.
+
+  But for every head knocked off two grew upon the Hydra. And as he
+struggled with the monster a huge crab came out of the swamp, and gripping
+Heracles by the foot tried to draw him in. Then Heracles cried out. The
+boy Iolaus came; he killed the crab that had come to the Hydra's aid.
+
+  Then Heracles laid hands upon the Hydra and drew it out of the swamp.
+With his club he knocked off a head and he had Iolaus put fire to where it
+had been, so that two heads might not grow in that place. The life of the
+Hydra was in its middle head; that head he had not been able to knock off
+with his club. Now, with his hands he tore it off, and he placed this head
+under a great stone so that it could not rise into life again. The Hydra's
+life was now destroyed. Heracles dipped his arrows into the gall of the
+monster, making his arrows deadly; no thing that was struck by these
+arrows afterward could keep its life.
+
+  Again he came to Eurystheus's palace, and Eurystheus, seeing him, ran
+again and hid himself in the jar. Heracles ordered the servants to tell
+the king that he had returned and that the second labor was accomplished.
+
+  Eurystheus, hearing from the servants that Heracles was mild in his
+ways, came out of the jar. Insolently he spoke. "Twelve labors you have to
+accomplish for me," said he to Heracles, "and eleven yet remain to be
+accomplished."
+
+  "How?" said Heracles. "Have I not performed two of the labors? Have I
+not slain the lion of Nemea and the great water snake of Lerna?"
+
+  "In the killing of the water snake you were helped by Iolaus," said the
+king, snapping out his words and looking at Heracles with shifting eyes.
+"That labor cannot be allowed you."
+
+  Heracles would have struck him to the ground. But then he remembered
+that the crime that he had committed in his madness would have to be
+expiated by labors performed at the order of this man. He looked full upon
+Eurystheus and he said, "Tell me of the other labors, and I will go forth
+from Mycen� and accomplish them."
+
+  Then Eurystheus bade him go and make clean the stables of King Augeias.
+Heracles came into that king's country. The smell from the stables was
+felt for miles around. Countless herds of cattle and goats had been in the
+stables for years, and because of the uncleanness and the smell that came
+from it the crops were withered all around. Heracles told the king that he
+would clean the stables if he were given one tenth of the cattle and the
+goats for a reward.
+
+  The king agreed to this reward. Then Heracles drove the cattle and the
+goats out of the stables; he broke through the foundations and he made
+channels for the two rivers Alpheus and Peneius. The waters flowed through
+the stables, and in a day all the uncleanness was washed away. Then
+Heracles turned the rivers back into their own courses.
+
+  He was not given the reward he had bargained for, however.
+
+  He went back to Mycen� with the tale of how he had cleaned the stables.
+"Ten labors remain for me to do now," he said.
+
+  "Eleven," said Eurystheus. "How can I allow the cleaning of King
+Augeias's stables to you when you bargained for a reward for doing it?"
+
+  Then while Heracles stood still, holding himself back from striking him,
+Eurystheus ran away and hid himself in the jar. Through his heralds he
+sent word to Heracles, telling him what the other labors would be.
+
+  He was to clear the marshes of Stymphalus of the man-eating birds that
+gathered there; he was to capture and bring to the king the golden-horned
+deer of Coryneia; he was also to capture and bring alive to Mycen� the
+boar of Erymanthus.
+
+  Heracles came to the marshes of Stymphalus. The growth of jungle was so
+dense that he could not cut his way through to where the man-eating birds
+were; they sat upon low bushes within the jungle, gorging themselves upon
+the flesh they had carried there.
+
+  For days Heracles tried to hack his way through. He could not get to
+where the birds were. Then, thinking he might not be able to accomplish
+this labor, he sat upon the ground in despair.
+
+  It was then that one of the immortals appeared to him; for the first and
+only time he was given help from the gods.
+
+  It was Athena who came to him. She stood apart from Heracles, holding in
+her hands brazen cymbals. These she clashed together. At the sound of this
+clashing the Stymphalean birds rose up from the low bushes behind the
+jungle. Heracles shot at them with those unerring arrows of his. The
+man-eating birds fell, one after the other, into the marsh.
+
+  Then Heracles went north to where the Coryneian deer took her pasture.
+So swift of foot was she that no hound nor hunter had ever been able to
+overtake her. For the whole of a year Heracles kept Golden Horns in chase,
+and at last, on the side of the Mountain Artemision, he caught her.
+Artemis, the goddess of the wild things, would have punished Heracles for
+capturing the deer, but the hero pleaded with her, and she relented and
+agreed to let him bring the deer to Mycen� and show her to King
+Eurystheus. And Artemis took charge of Golden Horns while Heracles went
+off to capture the Erymanthean boar.
+
+  He came to the city of Psophis, the inhabitants of which were in deadly
+fear because of the ravages of the boar. Heracles made his way up the
+mountain to hunt it. Now on this mountain a band of centaurs lived, and
+they, knowing him since the time he had been fostered by Chiron, welcomed
+Heracles. One of them, Pholus, took Heracles to the great house where the
+centaurs had their wine stored.
+
+  Seldom did the centaurs drink wine; a draft of it made them wild, and so
+they stored it away, leaving it in the charge of one of their band.
+Heracles begged Pholus to give him a draft of wine; after he had begged
+again and again the centaur opened one of his great jars.
+
+  Heracles drank wine and spilled it. Then the centaurs that were without
+smelt the wine and came hammering at the door, demanding the drafts that
+would make them wild. Heracles came forth to drive them away. They
+attacked him. Then he shot at them with his unerring arrows and he drove
+them away. Up the mountain and away to far rivers the centaurs raced,
+pursued by Heracles with his bow.
+
+  One was slain, Pholus, the centaur who had entertained him. By accident
+Heracles dropped a poisoned arrow on his foot. He took the body of Pholus
+up to the top of the mountain and buried the centaur there. Afterward, on
+the snows of Erymanthus, he set a snare for the boar and caught him there.
+
+  Upon his shoulders he carried the boar to Mycen� and he led the deer by
+her golden horns. When Eurystheus had looked upon them the boar was slain,
+but the deer was loosed and she fled back to the Mountain Artemision.
+
+  King Eurystheus sat hidden in the great jar, and he thought of more
+terrible labors he would make Heracles engage in. Now he would send him
+oversea and make him strive with fierce tribes and more dread monsters.
+When he had it all thought out he had Heracles brought before him and he
+told him of these other labors.
+
+  He was to go to savage Thrace and there destroy the man-eating horses of
+King Diomedes; afterward he was to go amongst the dread women, the
+Amazons, daughters of Ares, the god of war, and take from their queen,
+Hippolyte, the girdle that Ares had given her; then he was to go to Crete
+and take from the keeping of King Minos the beautiful bull that Poseidon
+had given him; afterward he was to go to the Island of Erytheia and take
+away from Geryoneus, the monster that had three bodies instead of one, the
+herd of red cattle that the two-headed hound Orthus kept guard over; then
+he was to go to the Garden of the Hesperides, and from that garden he was
+to take the golden apples that Zeus had given to Hera for a marriage
+gift--where the Garden of the Hesperides was no mortal knew.
+
+  So Heracles set out on a long and perilous quest. First he went to
+Thrace, that savage land that was ruled over by Diomedes, son of Ares, the
+war god. Heracles broke into the stable where the horses were; he caught
+three of them by their heads, and although they kicked and bit and
+trampled he forced them out of the stable and down to the seashore, where
+his companion, Abderus, waited for him. The screams of the fierce horses
+were heard by the men of Thrace, and they, with their king, came after
+Heracles. He left the horses in charge of Abderus while he fought the
+Thracians and their savage king. Heracles shot his deadly arrows amongst
+them, and then he fought with their king. He drove them from the seashore,
+and then he came back to where he had left Abderus with the fierce horses.
+
+  They had thrown Abderus upon the ground, and they were trampling upon
+him. Heracles drew his bow and he shot the horses with the unerring arrows
+that were dipped with the gall of the Hydra he had slain. Screaming, the
+horses of King Diomedes raced toward the sea, but one fell and another
+fell, and then, as it came to the line of the foam, the third of the
+fierce horses fell. They were all slain with the unerring arrows.
+
+  Then Heracles took up the body of his companion and he buried it with
+proper rights, and over it he raised a column. Afterward, around that
+column a city that bore the name of Heracles's friend was built.
+
+  Then toward the Euxine Sea he went. There, where the River Themiscyra
+flows into the sea he saw the abodes of the Amazons. And upon the rocks
+and the steep place he saw the warrior women standing with drawn bows in
+their hands. Most dangerous did they seem to Heracles. He did not know how
+to approach them; he might shoot at them with his unerring arrows, but
+when his arrows were all shot away, the Amazons, from their steep places,
+might be able to kill him with the arrows from their bows.
+
+  While he stood at a distance, wondering what he might do, a horn was
+sounded and an Amazon mounted upon a white stallion rode toward him. When
+the warrior-woman came near she cried out, "Heracles, the Queen Hippolyte
+permits you to come amongst the Amazons. Enter her tent and declare to the
+queen what has brought you amongst the never-conquered Amazons."
+
+  Heracles came to the tent of the queen. There stood tall Hippolyte with
+an iron crown upon her head and with a beautiful girdle of bronze and
+iridescent glass around her waist. Proud and fierce as a mountain eagle
+looked the queen of the Amazons: Heracles did not know in what way he
+might conquer her. Outside the tent the Amazons stood; they struck their
+shields with their spears, keeping up a continuous savage din.
+
+  "For what has Heracles come to the country of the Amazons?" Queen
+Hippolyte asked.
+
+  "For the girdle you wear," said Heracles, and he held his hands ready
+for the struggle.
+
+  "Is it for the girdle given me by Ares, the god of war, that you have
+come, braving the Amazons, Heracles?" asked the queen.
+
+  "For that," said Heracles.
+
+  "I would not have you enter into strife with the Amazons," said Queen
+Hippolyte. And so saying she drew off the girdle of bronze and iridescent
+glass, and she gave it into his hands.
+
+  Heracles took the beautiful girdle into his hands. Fearful he was that
+some piece of guile was being played upon him, but then he looked into the
+open eyes of the queen and he saw that she meant no guile. He took the
+girdle and he put it around his great brows; then he thanked Hippolyte and
+he went from the tent. He saw the Amazons standing on the rocks and the
+steep places with bows bent; unchallenged he went on, and he came to his
+ship and he sailed away from that country with one more labor
+accomplished.
+
+  The labor that followed was not dangerous. He sailed over sea and he
+came to Crete, to the land that King Minos ruled over. And there he found,
+grazing in a special pasture, the bull that Poseidon had given King Minos.
+He laid his hands upon the bull's horns and he struggled with him and he
+overthrew him. Then he drove the bull down to the seashore.
+
+  His next labor was to take away the herd of red cattle that was owned by
+the monster Geryoneus. In the Island of Erytheia, in the middle of the
+Stream of Ocean, lived the monster, his herd guarded by the two-headed
+hound Orthus--that hound was the brother of Cerberus, the three-headed
+hound that kept guard in the Underworld.
+
+  Mounted upon the bull given Minos by Poseidon, Heracles fared across the
+sea. He came even to the straits that divide Europe from Africa, and there
+he set up two pillars as a memorial of his journey--the Pillars of Heracles
+that stand to this day. He and the bull rested there. Beyond him stretched
+the Stream of Ocean; the Island of Erytheia was there, but Heracles
+thought that the bull would not be able to bear him so far.
+
+  And there the sun beat upon him, and drew all strength away from him,
+and he was dazed and dazzled by the rays of the sun. He shouted out
+against the sun, and in his anger he wanted to strive against the sun.
+Then he drew his bow and shot arrows upward. Far, far out of sight the
+arrows of Heracles went. And the sun god, Helios, was filled with
+admiration for Heracles, the man who would attempt the impossible by
+shooting arrows at him; then did Helios fling down to Heracles his great
+golden cup.
+
+  Down, and into the Stream of Ocean fell the great golden cup of Helios.
+It floated there wide enough to hold all the men who might be in a ship.
+Heracles put the bull of Minos into the cup of Helios, and the cup bore
+them away, toward the west, and across the Stream of Ocean.
+
+  Thus Heracles came to the Island of Erytheia. All over the island
+straggled the red cattle of Geryoneus, grazing upon the rich pastures.
+Heracles, leaving the bull of Minos in the cup, went upon the island; he
+made a club for himself out of a tree and he went toward the cattle.
+
+  The hound Orthus bayed and ran toward him; the two-headed hound that was
+the brother of Cerberus sprang at Heracles with poisonous foam upon his
+jaws. Heracles swung his club and struck the two heads off the hound. And
+where the foam of the hound's jaws dropped down a poisonous plant sprang
+up. Heracles took up the body of the hound, and swung it around and flung
+it far out into the Ocean.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+  Then the monster Geryoneus came upon him. Three bodies he had instead of
+one; he attacked Heracles by hurling great stones at him. Heracles was
+hurt by the stones. And then the monster beheld the cup of Helios, and he
+began to hurl stones at the golden thing, and it seemed that he might sink
+it in the sea, and leave Heracles without a way of getting from the
+island. Heracles took up his bow and he shot arrow after arrow at the
+monster, and he left him dead in the deep grass of the pastures.
+
+  Then he rounded up the red cattle, the bulls and the cows, and he drove
+them down to the shore and into the golden cup of Helios where the bull of
+Minos stayed. Then back across the Stream of Ocean the cup floated, and
+the bull of Crete and the cattle of Geryoneus were brought past Sicily and
+through the straits called the Hellespont. To Thrace, that savage land,
+they came. Then Heracles took the cattle out, and the cup of Helios sank
+in the sea. Through the wild lands of Thrace he drove the herd of
+Geryoneus and the bull of Minos, and he came into Mycen� once more.
+
+  But he did not stay to speak with Eurystheus. He started off to find the
+Garden of the Hesperides, the Daughters of the Evening Land. Long did he
+search, but he found no one who could tell him where the garden was. And
+at last he went to Chiron on the Mountain Pelion, and Chiron told Heracles
+what journey he would have to make to come to the Hesperides, the
+Daughters of the Evening Land.
+
+  Far did Heracles journey; weary he was when he came to where Atlas
+stood, bearing the sky upon his weary shoulders. As he came near he felt
+an undreamt-of perfume being wafted toward him. So weary was he with his
+journey and all his toils that he would fain sink down and dream away in
+that evening land. But he roused himself, and he journeyed on toward where
+the perfume came from. Over that place a star seemed always about to rise.
+
+  He came to where a silver lattice fenced a garden that was full of the
+quiet of evening. Golden bees hummed through the air, and there was the
+sound of quiet waters. How wild and laborious was the world he had come
+from, Heracles thought! He felt that it would be hard for him to return to
+that world.
+
+  He saw three maidens. They stood with wreaths upon their heads and
+blossoming branches in their hands. When the maidens saw him they came
+toward him crying out: "O man who has come into the Garden of the
+Hesperides, go not near the tree that the sleepless dragon guards!" Then
+they went and stood by a tree as if to keep guard over it. All around were
+trees that bore flowers and fruit, but this tree had golden apples amongst
+its bright green leaves.
+
+  Then he saw the guardian of the tree. Beside its trunk a dragon lay, and
+as Heracles came near the dragon showed its glittering scales and its
+deadly claws.
+
+  The apples were within reach, but the dragon, with its glittering scales
+and claws, stood in the way. Heracles shot an arrow; then a tremor went
+through Ladon, the sleepless dragon; it screamed and then lay stark. The
+maidens cried in their grief; Heracles went to the tree, and he plucked
+the golden apples and he put them into the pouch he carried. Down on the
+ground sank the Hesperides, the Daughters of the Evening Land, and he
+heard their laments as he went from the enchanted garden they had guarded.
+
+  Back from the ends of the earth came Heracles, back from the place where
+Atlas stood holding the sky upon his weary shoulders. He went back through
+Asia and Libya and Egypt, and he came again to Mycen� and to the palace of
+Eurystheus.
+
+  He brought to the king the herd of Geryoneus; he brought to the king the
+bull of Minos; he brought to the king the girdle of Hippolyte; he brought
+to the king the golden apples of the Hesperides. And King Eurystheus, with
+his thin white face, sat upon his royal throne and he looked over all the
+wonderful things that the hero had brought him. Not pleased was
+Eurystheus; rather was he angry that one he hated could win such wonderful
+things.
+
+  He took into his hands the golden apples of the Hesperides. But this
+fruit was not for such as he. An eagle snatched the branch from his hand,
+and the eagle flew and flew until it came to where the Daughters of the
+Evening Land wept in their garden. There the eagle let fall the branch
+with the golden apples, and the maidens set it back upon the tree, and
+behold! it grew as it had been growing before Heracles plucked it.
+
+  The next day the heralds of Eurystheus came to Heracles and they told
+him of the last labor that he would have to set out to accomplish--this
+time he would have to go down into the Underworld, and bring up from King
+Aidoneus's realm Cerberus, the three-headed hound.
+
+  Heracles put upon him the impenetrable lion's skin and set forth once
+more. This might indeed be the last of his life's labors: Cerberus was not
+an earthly monster, and he who would struggle with Cerberus in the
+Underworld would have the gods of the dead against him.
+
+  But Heracles went on. He journeyed to the cave Tainaron, which was an
+entrance to the Underworld. Far into that dismal cave he went, and then
+down, down, until he came to Acheron, that dim river that has beyond it
+only the people of the dead. Cerberus bayed at him from the place where
+the dead cross the river. Knowing that he was no shade, the hound sprang
+at Heracles, but he could neither bite nor tear through that impenetrable
+lion's skin. Heracles held him by the neck of his middle head so that
+Cerberus was neither able to bite nor tear nor bellow.
+
+  Then to the brink of Acheron came Persephone, queen of the Underworld.
+She declared to Heracles that the gods of the dead would not strive
+against him if he promised to bring Cerberus back to the Underworld,
+carrying the hound downward again as he carried him upward.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+  This Heracles promised. He turned around and he carried Cerberus, his
+hands around the monster's neck while foam dripped from his jaws. He
+carried him on and upward toward the world of men. Out through a cave that
+was in the land of Troezen Heracles came, still carrying Cerberus by the
+neck of his middle head.
+
+  From Troezen to Mycen� the hero went and men fled before him at the sight
+of the monster that he carried. On he went toward the king's palace.
+Eurystheus was seated outside his palace that day, looking at the great
+jar that he had often hidden in, and thinking to himself that Heracles
+would never appear to affright him again. Then Heracles appeared. He
+called to Eurystheus, and when the king looked up he held the hound toward
+him. The three heads grinned at Eurystheus; he gave a cry and scrambled
+into the jar. But before his feet touched the bottom of it Eurystheus was
+dead of fear. The jar rolled over, and Heracles looked upon the body that
+was all twisted with fright. Then he turned around and made his way back
+to the Underworld. On the brink of Acheron he loosed Cerberus, and the
+bellow of the three-headed hound was heard again.
+
+
+
+II
+
+  It was then that Heracles was given arms by the gods--the sword of
+Hermes, the bow of Apollo, the shield made by Heph�stus; it was then that
+Heracles joined the Argonauts and journeyed with them to the edge of the
+Caucasus, where, slaying the vulture that preyed upon Prometheus's liver,
+he, at the will of Zeus, liberated the Titan. Thereafter Zeus and
+Prometheus were reconciled, and Zeus, that neither might forget how much
+the enmity between them had cost gods and men, had a ring made for
+Prometheus to wear; that ring was made out of the fetter that had been
+upon him, and in it was set a fragment of the rock that the Titan had been
+bound to.
+
+  The Argonauts had now won back to Greece. But before he saw any of them
+he had been in Oichalia, and had seen the maiden Iole.
+
+  The king of Oichalia had offered his daughter Iole in marriage to the
+hero who could excel himself and his sons in shooting with arrows.
+Heracles saw Iole, the blue-eyed and childlike maiden, and he longed to
+take her with him to some place near the Garden of the Hesperides. And
+Iole looked on him, and he knew that she wondered to see him so tall and
+so strongly knit even as he wondered to see her so childlike and delicate.
+
+  Then the contest began. The king and his sons shot wonderfully well, and
+none of the heroes who stood before Heracles had a chance of winning. Then
+Heracles shot his arrows. No matter how far away they moved the mark,
+Heracles struck it and struck the very center of it. The people wondered
+who this great archer might be. And then a name was guessed at and went
+around--Heracles!
+
+  When the king heard the name of Heracles he would not let him strive in
+the contest any more. For the maiden Iole would not be given as a prize to
+one who had been mad and whose madness might afflict him again. So the
+king said, speaking in judgment in the market place.
+
+  Rage came on Heracles when he heard this judgment given. He would not
+let his rage master him lest the madness that was spoken of should come
+with his rage. So he left the city of Oichalia declaring to the king and
+the people that he would return.
+
+  It was then that, wandering down to Crete, he heard of the Argonauts
+being near. And afterward he heard of them being in Calydon, hunting the
+boar that ravaged OEneus's country. To Calydon Heracles went. The heroes
+had departed when he came into the country, and all the city was in grief
+for the deaths of Prince Meleagrus and his two uncles.
+
+  On the steps of the temple where Meleagrus and his uncles had been
+brought Heracles saw Deianira, Meleagrus's sister. She was pale with her
+grief, this tall woman of the mountains; she looked like a priestess, but
+also like a woman who could cheer camps of men with her counsel, her
+bravery, and her good companionship; her hair was very dark and she had
+dark eyes.
+
+  Straightway she became friends with Heracles; and when they saw each
+other for a while they loved each other. And Heracles forgot Iole, the
+childlike maiden whom he had seen in Oichalia.
+
+  He made himself a suitor for Deianira, and those who protected her were
+glad of Heracles's suit, and they told him they would give him the maiden
+to marry as soon as the mourning for Prince Meleagrus and his uncles was
+over. Heracles stayed in Calydon, happy with Deianira, who had so much
+beauty, wisdom, and bravery.
+
+  But then a dreadful thing happened in Calydon; by an accident, while
+using his strength unthinkingly, Heracles killed a lad who was related to
+Deianira. He might not marry her now until he had taken punishment for
+slaying one who was close to her in blood.
+
+  As a punishment for the slaying it was judged that Heracles should be
+sold into slavery for three years. At the end of his three years' slavery
+he could come back to Calydon and wed Deianira.
+
+  And so Heracles and Deianira were parted. He was sold as a slave in
+Lydia; the one who bought him was a woman, a widow named Omphale. To her
+house Heracles went, carrying his armor and wearing his lion's skin. And
+Omphale laughed to see this tall man dressed in a lion's skin coming to
+her house to do a servant's tasks for her.
+
+  She and all in her house kept up fun with Heracles. They would set him
+to do housework, to carry water, and set vessels on the tables, and clear
+the vessels away. Omphale set him to spin with a spindle as the women did.
+And often she would put on Heracles's lion skin and go about dragging his
+club, while he, dressed in woman's garb, washed dishes and emptied pots.
+
+  But he would lose patience with these servant's tasks, and then Omphale
+would let him go away and perform some great exploit. Often he went on
+long journeys and stayed away for long times. It was while he was in
+slavery to Omphale that he liberated Theseus from the dungeon in which he
+was held with Peirithous, and it was while he still was in slavery that he
+made his journey to Troy.
+
+  At Troy he helped to repair for King Laomedon the great walls that years
+before Apollo and Poseidon had built around the city. As a reward for this
+labor he was offered the Princess Hesione in marriage; she was the
+daughter of King Laomedon, and the sister of Priam, who was then called,
+not Priam but Podarces. He helped to repair the wall, and two of the
+Argonauts were there to aid him: one was Peleus and the other was Telamon.
+Peleus did not stay for long: Telamon stayed, and to reward Telamon
+Heracles withdrew his own claim for the hand of the Princess Hesione. It
+was not hard on Heracles to do this, for his thoughts were ever upon
+Deianira.
+
+  But Telamon rejoiced, for he loved Hesione greatly. On the day they
+married Heracles showed the two an eagle in the sky. He said it was sent
+as an omen to them--an omen for their marriage. And in memory of that omen
+Telamon named his son "Aias"; that is, "Eagle."
+
+  Then the walls of Troy were repaired and Heracles turned toward Lydia,
+Omphale's home. Not long would he have to serve Omphale now, for his three
+years' slavery was nearly over. Soon he would go back to Calydon and wed
+Deianira.
+
+  As he went along the road to Lydia he thought of all the pleasantries
+that had been made in Omphale's house and he laughed at the memory of
+them. Lydia was a friendly country, and even though he had been in slavery
+Heracles had had his good times there.
+
+  He was tired with the journey and made sleepy with the heat of the sun,
+and when he came within sight of Omphale's house he lay down by the side
+of the road, first taking off his armor, and laying aside his bow, his
+quiver, and his shield. He wakened up to see two men looking down upon
+him; he knew that these were the Cercopes, robbers who waylaid travelers
+upon this road. They were laughing as they looked down on him, and
+Heracles saw that they held his arms and his armor in their hands.
+
+  They thought that this man, for all his tallness, would yield to them
+when he saw that they had his arms and his armor. But Heracles sprang up,
+and he caught one by the waist and the other by the neck, and he turned
+them upside down and tied them together by the heels. Now he held them
+securely and he would take them to the town and give them over to those
+whom they had waylaid and robbed. He hung them by their heels across his
+shoulders and marched on.
+
+  But the robbers, as they were being bumped along, began to relate
+pleasantries and mirthful tales to each other, and Heracles, listening,
+had to laugh. And one said to the other, "O my brother, we are in the
+position of the frogs when the mice fell upon them with such fury." And
+the other said, "Indeed nothing can save us if Zeus does not send an ally
+to us as he sent an ally to the frogs." And the first robber said, "Who
+began that conflict, the frogs or the mice?" And thereupon the second
+robber, his head reaching down to Heracles's waist, began:
+
+
+
+The Battle of the Frogs and Mice
+
+
+  A warlike mouse came down to the brink of a pond for no other reason
+than to take a drink of water. Up to him hopped a frog. Speaking in the
+voice of one who had rule and authority, the frog said:
+
+  "Stranger to our shore, you may not know it, but I am Puff Jaw, king of
+the frogs. I do not speak to common mice, but you, as I judge, belong to
+the noble and kingly sort. Tell me your race. If I know it to be a noble
+one I shall show you my kingly friendship."
+
+  The mouse, speaking haughtily, said: "I am Crumb Snatcher, and my race
+is a famous one. My father is the heroic Bread Nibbler, and he married
+Quern Licker, the lovely daughter of a king. Like all my race I am a
+warrior who has never been wont to flinch in battle. Moreover, I have been
+brought up as a mouse of high degree, and figs and nuts, cheese and
+honey-cakes is the provender that I have been fed on."
+
+  Now this reply of Crumb Snatcher pleased the kingly frog greatly. "Come
+with me to my abode, illustrious Crumb Snatcher," said he, "and I shall
+show you such entertainment as may be found in the house of a king."
+
+  But the mouse looked sharply at him. "How may I get to your house?" he
+asked. "We live in different elements, you and I. We mice want to be in
+the driest of dry places, while you frogs have your abodes in the water."
+
+  "Ah," answered Puff Jaw, "you do not know how favored the frogs are
+above all other creatures. To us alone the gods have given the power to
+live both in the water and on the land. I shall take you to my land palace
+that is the other side of the pond."
+
+  "How may I go there with you?" asked Crumb Snatcher the mouse,
+doubtfully.
+
+  "Upon my back," said the frog. "Up now, noble Crumb Snatcher. And as we
+go I will show you the wonders of the deep."
+
+  He offered his back and Crumb Snatcher bravely mounted. The mouse put
+his forepaws around the frog's neck. Then Puff Jaw swam out. Crumb
+Snatcher at first was pleased to feel himself moving through the water.
+But as the dark waves began to rise his mighty heart began to quail. He
+longed to be back upon the land. He groaned aloud.
+
+  "How quickly we get on," cried Puff Jaw; "soon we shall be at my land
+palace."
+
+  Heartened by this speech, Crumb Snatcher put his tail into the water and
+worked it as a steering oar. On and on they went, and Crumb Snatcher
+gained heart for the adventure. What a wonderful tale he would have to
+tell to the clans of the mice!
+
+  But suddenly, out of the depths of the pond, a water snake raised his
+horrid head. Fearsome did that head seem to both mouse and frog. And
+forgetful of the guest that he carried upon his back, Puff Jaw dived down
+into the water. He reached the bottom of the pond and lay on the mud in
+safety.
+
+  But far from safety was Crumb Snatcher the mouse. He sank and rose, and
+sank again. His wet fur weighed him down. But before he sank for the last
+time he lifted up his voice and cried out and his cry was heard at the
+brink of the pond:
+
+  "Ah, Puff Jaw, treacherous frog! An evil thing you have done, leaving me
+to drown in the middle of the pond. Had you faced me on the land I should
+have shown you which of us two was the better warrior. Now I must lose my
+life in the water. But I tell you my death shall not go unavenged--the
+cowardly frogs will be punished for the ill they have done to me who am
+the son of the king of the mice."
+
+  Then Crumb Snatcher sank for the last time. But Lick Platter, who was at
+the brink of the pond, had heard his words. Straightway this mouse rushed
+to the hole of Bread Nibbler and told him of the death of his princely
+son.
+
+  Bread Nibbler called out the clans of the mice. The warrior mice armed
+themselves, and this was the grand way of their arming:
+
+  First, the mice put on greaves that covered their forelegs. These they
+made out of bean shells broken in two. For shield, each had a lamp's
+centerpiece. For spears they had the long bronze needles that they had
+carried out of the houses of men. So armed and so accoutered they were
+ready to war upon the frogs. And Bread Nibbler, their king, shouted to
+them: "Fall upon the cowardly frogs, and leave not one alive upon the bank
+of the pond. Henceforth that bank is ours, and ours only. Forward!"
+
+  And, on the other side, Puff Jaw was urging the frogs to battle. "Let us
+take our places on the edge of the pond," he said, "and when the mice come
+amongst us, let each catch hold of one and throw him into the pond. Thus
+we will get rid of these dry bobs, the mice."
+
+  The frogs applauded the speech of their king, and straightway they went
+to their armor and their weapons. Their legs they covered with the leaves
+of mallow. For breastplates they had the leaves of beets. Cabbage leaves,
+well cut, made their strong shields. They took their spears from the pond
+side--deadly pointed rushes they were, and they placed upon their heads
+helmets that were empty snail shells. So armed and so accoutered they were
+ready to meet the grand attack of the mice.
+
+
+
+  When the robber came to this part of the story Heracles halted his
+march, for he was shaking with laughter. The robber stopped in his story.
+Heracles slapped him on the leg and said: "What more of the heroic
+exploits of the mice?" The second robber said, "I know no more, but
+perhaps my brother at the other side of you can tell you of the mighty
+combat between them and the frogs." Then Heracles shifted the first robber
+from his back to his front, and the first robber said: "I will tell you
+what I know about the heroical combat between the frogs and the mice." And
+thereupon he began:
+
+
+
+  The gnats blew their trumpets. This was the dread signal for war.
+
+  Bread Nibbler struck the first blow. He fell upon Loud Crier the frog,
+and overthrew him. At this Loud Crier's friend, Reedy, threw down spear
+and shield and dived into the water. This seemed to presage victory for
+the mice. But then Water Larker, the most warlike of the frogs, took up a
+great pebble and flung it at Ham Nibbler who was then pursuing Reedy. Down
+fell Ham Nibbler, and there was dismay in the ranks of the mice.
+
+  Then Cabbage Climber, a great-hearted frog, took up a clod of mud and
+flung it full at a mouse that was coming furiously upon him. That mouse's
+helmet was knocked off and his forehead was plastered with the clod of
+mud, so that he was well-nigh blinded.
+
+  It was then that victory inclined to the frogs. Bread Nibbler again came
+into the fray. He rushed furiously upon Puff Jaw the king.
+
+  Leeky, the trusted friend of Puff Jaw, opposed Bread Nibbler's
+onslaught. Mightily he drove his spear at the king of the mice. But the
+point of the spear broke upon Bread Nibbler's shield, and then Leeky was
+overthrown.
+
+  Bread Nibbler came upon Puff Jaw, and the two great kings faced each
+other. The frogs and the mice drew aside, and there was a pause in the
+combat. Bread Nibbler the mouse struck Puff Jaw the frog terribly upon the
+toes.
+
+  Puff Jaw drew out of the battle. Now all would have been lost for the
+frogs had not Zeus, the father of the gods, looked down upon the battle.
+
+  "Dear, dear," said Zeus, "what can be done to save the frogs? They will
+surely be annihilated if the charge of yonder mouse is not halted."
+
+  For the father of the gods, looking down, saw a warrior mouse coming on
+in the most dreadful onslaught of the whole battle. Slice Snatcher was the
+name of this warrior. He had come late into the field. He waited to split
+a chestnut in two and to put the halves upon his paws. Then, furiously
+dashing amongst the frogs, he cried out that he would not leave the ground
+until he had destroyed the race, leaving the bank of the pond a playground
+for the mice and for the mice alone.
+
+  To stop the charge of Slice Snatcher there was nothing for Zeus to do
+but to hurl the thunderbolt that is the terror of gods and men.
+
+  Frogs and mice were awed by the thunder and the flame. But still the
+mice, urged on by Slice Snatcher, did not hold back from their onslaught
+upon the frogs.
+
+  Now would the frogs have been utterly destroyed; but, as they dashed on,
+the mice encountered a new and a dreadful army. The warriors in these
+ranks had mailed backs and curving claws. They had bandy legs and
+long-stretching arms. They had eyes that looked behind them. They came on
+sideways. These were the crabs, creatures until now unknown to the mice.
+And the crabs had been sent by Zeus to save the race of the frogs from
+utter destruction.
+
+  Coming upon the mice they nipped their paws. The mice turned around and
+they nipped their tails. In vain the boldest of the mice struck at the
+crabs with their sharpened spears. Not upon the hard shells on the backs
+of the crabs did the spears of the mice make any dint. On and on, on their
+queer feet and with their terrible nippers, the crabs went. Bread Nibbler
+could not rally them any more, and Slice Snatcher ceased to speak of the
+monument of victory that the mice would erect upon the bank of the pond.
+
+  With their heads out of the water they had retreated to, the frogs
+watched the finish of the battle. The mice threw down their spears and
+shields and fled from the battleground. On went the crabs as if they cared
+nothing for their victory, and the frogs came out of the water and sat
+upon the bank and watched them in awe.
+
+
+
+  Heracles had laughed at the diverting tale that the robbers had told
+him; he could not bring them then to a place where they would meet with
+captivity or death. He let them loose upon the highway, and the robbers
+thanked him with high-flowing speeches, and they declared that if they
+should ever find him sleeping by the roadway again they would let him lie.
+Saying this they went away, and Heracles, laughing as he thought upon the
+great exploits of the frogs and mice, went on to Omphale's house.
+
+  Omphale, the widow, received him mirthfully, and then set him to do
+tasks in the kitchen while she sat and talked to him about Troy and the
+affairs of King Laomedon. And afterward she put on his lion's skin, and
+went about in the courtyard dragging the heavy club after her. Mirthfully
+and pleasantly she made the rest of his time in Lydia pass for Heracles,
+and the last day of his slavery soon came, and he bade good-by to Omphale,
+that pleasant widow, and to Lydia, and he started off for Calydon to claim
+his bride Deianira.
+
+  Beautiful indeed Deianira looked now that she had ceased to mourn for
+her brother, for the laughter that had been under her grief always now
+flashed out even while she looked priestesslike and of good counsel; her
+dark eyes shone like stars, and her being had the spirit of one who
+wanders from camp to camp, always greeting friends and leaving friends
+behind her. Heracles and Deianira wed, and they set out for Tiryns, where
+a king had left a kingdom to Heracles.
+
+  They came to the River Evenus. Heracles could have crossed the river by
+himself, but he could not cross it at the part he came to, carrying
+Deianira. He and she went along the river, seeking a ferry that might take
+them across. They wandered along the side of the river, happy with each
+other, and they came to a place where they had sight of a centaur.
+
+  Heracles knew this centaur. He was Nessus, one of the centaurs whom he
+had chased up the mountain the time when he went to hunt the Erymanthean
+boar. The centaurs knew him, and Nessus spoke to Heracles as if he had
+friendship for him. He would, he said, carry Heracles's bride across the
+river.
+
+  Then Heracles crossed the river, and he waited on the other side for
+Nessus and Deianira. Nessus went to another part of the river to make his
+crossing. Then Heracles, upon the other bank, heard screams--the screams of
+his wife, Deianira. He saw that the centaur was savagely attacking her.
+
+  Then Heracles leveled his bow and he shot at Nessus. Arrow after arrow
+he shot into the centaur's body. Nessus loosed his hold on Deianira, and
+he lay down on the bank of the river, his lifeblood streaming from him.
+
+  Then Nessus, dying, but with his rage against Heracles unabated, thought
+of a way by which the hero might be made to suffer for the death he had
+brought upon him. He called to Deianira, and she, seeing he could do her
+no more hurt, came close to him. He told her that in repentance for his
+attack upon her he would bestow a great gift upon her. She was to gather
+up some of the blood that flowed from him; his blood, the centaur said,
+would be a love philter, and if ever her husband's love for her waned it
+would grow fresh again if she gave to him something from her hands that
+would have this blood upon it.
+
+  Deianira, who had heard from Heracles of the wisdom of the centaurs,
+believed what Nessus told her. She took a phial and let the blood pour
+into it. Then Nessus plunged into the river and died there as Heracles
+came up to where Deianira stood.
+
+  She did not speak to him about the centaur's words to her, nor did she
+tell him that she had hidden away the phial that had Nessus's blood in it.
+They crossed the river at another point and they came after a time to
+Tiryns and to the kingdom that had been left to Heracles.
+
+  There Heracles and Deianira lived, and a son who was named Hyllos was
+born to them. And after a time Heracles was led into a war with
+Eurytus--Eurytus who was king of Oichalia.
+
+  Word came to Deianira that Oichalia was taken by Heracles, and that the
+king and his daughter Iole were held captive. Deianira knew that Heracles
+had once tried to win this maiden for his wife, and she feared that the
+sight of Iole would bring his old longing back to him.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+  She thought upon the words that Nessus had said to her, and even as she
+thought upon them messengers came from Heracles to ask her to send him a
+robe--a beautifully woven robe that she had--that he might wear it while
+making a sacrifice. Deianira took down the robe; through this robe, she
+thought, the blood of the centaur could touch Heracles and his love for
+her would revive. Thinking this she poured Nessus's blood over the robe.
+
+  Heracles was in Oichalia when the messengers returned to him. He took
+the robe that Deianira sent, and he went to a mountain that overlooked the
+sea that he might make the sacrifice there. Iole went with him. Then he
+put on the robe that Deianira had sent. When it touched his flesh the robe
+burst into flame. Heracles tried to tear it off, but deeper and deeper
+into his flesh the flames went. They burned and burned and none could
+quench them.
+
+  Then Heracles knew that his end was near. He would die by fire, and
+knowing that he piled up a great heap of wood and he climbed upon it.
+There he stayed with the flaming robe burning into him, and he begged of
+those who passed to fire the pile that his end might come more quickly.
+
+  None would fire the pile. But at last there came that way a young
+warrior named Philoctetes, and Heracles begged of him to fire the pile.
+Philoctetes, knowing that it was the will of the gods that Heracles should
+die that way, lighted the pile. For that Heracles bestowed upon him his
+great bow and his unerring arrows. And it was this bow and these arrows,
+brought from Philoctetes, that afterward helped to take Priam's city.
+
+  The pile that Heracles stood upon was fired. High up, above the sea, the
+pile burned. All who were near that burning fled--all except Iole, that
+childlike maiden. She stayed and watched the flames mount up and up. They
+wrapped the sky, and the voice of Heracles was heard calling upon Zeus.
+Then a great chariot came and Heracles was borne away to Olympus. Thus,
+after many labors, Heracles passed away, a mortal passing into an immortal
+being in a great burning high above the sea.
+
+
+
+
+V. Admetus
+
+
+I
+
+
+[Decorative first letter]
+_I_T happened once that Zeus would punish Apollo, his son. Then he
+banished him from Olympus, and he made him put off his divinity and appear
+as a mortal man. And as a mortal Apollo sought to earn his bread amongst
+men. He came to the house of King Admetus and took service with him as his
+herdsman.
+
+  For a year Apollo served the young king, minding his herds of black
+cattle. Admetus did not know that it was one of the immortal gods who was
+in his house and in his fields. But he treated him in friendly wise, and
+Apollo was happy whilst serving Admetus.
+
+  Afterward people wondered at Admetus's ever-smiling face and
+ever-radiant being. It was the god's kindly thought of him that gave him
+such happiness. And when Apollo was leaving his house and his fields he
+revealed himself to Admetus, and he made a promise to him that when the
+god of the Underworld sent Death for him he would have one more chance of
+baffling Death than any mortal man.
+
+  That was before Admetus sailed on the _Argo_ with Jason and the
+companions of the quest. The companionship of Admetus brought happiness to
+many on the voyage, but the hero to whom it gave the most happiness was
+Heracles. And often Heracles would have Admetus beside him to tell him
+about the radiant god Apollo, whose bow and arrows Heracles had been
+given.
+
+  After that voyage and after the hunt in Calydon Admetus went back to his
+own land. There he wed that fair and loving woman, Alcestis. He might not
+wed her until he had yoked lions and leopards to the chariot that drew
+her. This was a feat that no hero had been able to accomplish. With
+Apollo's aid he accomplished it. Thereafter Admetus, having the love of
+Alcestis, was even more happy than he had been before.
+
+  One day as he walked by fold and through pasture field he saw a figure
+standing beside his herd of black cattle. A radiant figure it was, and
+Admetus knew that this was Apollo come to him again. He went toward the
+god and he made reverence and began to speak to him. But Apollo turned to
+Admetus a face that was without joy.
+
+  "What years of happiness have been mine, O Apollo, through your
+friendship for me," said Admetus. "Ah, as I walked my pasture land to-day
+it came into my mind how much I loved this green earth and the blue sky!
+And all that I know of love and happiness has come to me through you."
+
+  But still Apollo stood before him with a face that was without joy. He
+spoke and his voice was not that clear and vibrant voice that he had once
+in speaking to Admetus. "Admetus, Admetus," he said, "it is for me to tell
+you that you may no more look on the blue sky nor walk upon the green
+earth. It is for me to tell you that the god of the Underworld will have
+you come to him. Admetus, Admetus, know that even now the god of the
+Underworld is sending Death for you."
+
+  Then the light of the world went out for Admetus, and he heard himself
+speaking to Apollo in a shaking voice: "O Apollo, Apollo, thou art a god,
+and surely thou canst save me! Save me now from this Death that the god of
+the Underworld is sending for me!"
+
+  But Apollo said, "Long ago, Admetus, I made a bargain with the god of
+the Underworld on thy behalf. Thou hast been given a chance more than any
+mortal man. If one will go willingly in thy place with Death, thou canst
+still live on. Go, Admetus. Thou art well loved, and it may be that thou
+wilt find one to take thy place."
+
+  Then Apollo went up unto the mountaintop and Admetus stayed for a while
+beside the cattle. It seemed to him that a little of the darkness had
+lifted from the world. He would go to his palace. There were aged men and
+women there, servants and slaves, and one of them would surely be willing
+to take the king's place and go with Death down to the Underworld.
+
+  So Admetus thought as he went toward the palace. And then he came upon
+an ancient woman who sat upon stones in the courtyard, grinding corn
+between two stones. Long had she been doing that wearisome labor. Admetus
+had known her from the first time he had come into that courtyard as a
+little child, and he had never seen aught in her face but a heavy misery.
+There she was sitting as he had first known her, with her eyes bleared and
+her knees shaking, and with the dust of the courtyard and the husks of the
+corn in her matted hair. He went to her and spoke to her, and he asked her
+to take the place of the king and go with Death.
+
+  But when she heard the name of Death horror came into the face of the
+ancient woman, and she cried out that she would not let Death come near
+her. Then Admetus left her, and he came upon another, upon a sightless man
+who held out a shriveled hand for the food that the servants of the palace
+might bestow upon him. Admetus took the man's shriveled hand, and he asked
+him if he would not take the king's place and go with Death that was
+coming for him. The sightless man, with howls and shrieks, said he would
+not go.
+
+  Then Admetus went into the palace and into the chamber where his bed
+was, and he lay down upon the bed and he lamented that he would have to go
+with Death that was coming for him from the god of the Underworld, and he
+lamented that none of the wretched ones around the palace would take his
+place.
+
+  A hand was laid upon him. He looked up and he saw his tall and
+grave-eyed wife, Alcestis, beside him. Alcestis spoke to him slowly and
+gravely. "I have heard what you have said, O my husband," said she. "One
+should go in your place, for you are the king and have many great affairs
+to attend to. And if none other will go, I, Alcestis, will go in your
+place, Admetus."
+
+  It had seemed to Admetus that ever since he had heard the words of
+Apollo that heavy footsteps were coming toward him. Now the footsteps
+seemed to stop. It was not so terrible for him as before. He sprang up,
+and he took the hands of Alcestis and he said, "You, then, will take my
+place?"
+
+  "I will go with Death in your place, Admetus," Alcestis said.
+
+  Then, even as Admetus looked into her face, he saw a pallor come upon
+her; her body weakened and she sank down upon the bed. Then, watching over
+her, he knew that not he but Alcestis would go with Death. And the words
+he had spoken he would have taken back--the words that had brought her
+consent to go with Death in his place.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+  Paler and weaker Alcestis grew. Death would soon be here for her. No,
+not here, for he would not have Death come into the palace. He lifted
+Alcestis from the bed and he carried her from the palace. He carried her
+to the temple of the gods. He laid her there upon the bier and waited
+there beside her. No more speech came from her. He went back to the palace
+where all was silent--the servants moved about with heads bowed, lamenting
+silently for their mistress.
+
+
+
+II
+
+  As Admetus was coming back from the temple he heard a great shout; he
+looked up and saw one standing at the palace doorway. He knew him by his
+lion's skin and his great height. This was Heracles--Heracles come to visit
+him, but come at a sad hour. He could not now rejoice in the company of
+Heracles. And yet Heracles might be on his way from the accomplishment of
+some great labor, and it would not be right to say a word that might turn
+him away from his doorway; he might have much need of rest and
+refreshment.
+
+  Thinking this Admetus went up to Heracles and took his hand and welcomed
+him into his house. "How is it with you, friend Admetus?" Heracles asked.
+Admetus would only say that nothing was happening in his house and that
+Heracles, his hero-companion, was welcome there. His mind was upon a great
+sacrifice, he said, and so he would not be able to feast with him.
+
+  The servants brought Heracles to the bath, and then showed him where a
+feast was laid for him. And as for Admetus, he went within the chamber,
+and knelt beside the bed on which Alcestis had lain, and thought of his
+terrible loss.
+
+  Heracles, after the bath, put on the brightly colored tunic that the
+servants of Admetus brought him. He put a wreath upon his head and sat
+down to the feast. It was a pity, he thought, that Admetus was not
+feasting with him. But this was only the first of many feasts. And
+thinking of what companionship he would have with Admetus, Heracles left
+the feasting hall and came to where the servants were standing about in
+silence.
+
+  "Why is the house of Admetus so hushed to-day?" Heracles asked.
+
+  "It is because of what is befalling," said one of the servants.
+
+  "Ah, the sacrifice that the king is making," said Heracles. "To what god
+is that sacrifice due?"
+
+  "To the god of the Underworld," said the servant. "Death is coming to
+Alcestis the queen where she lies on a bier in the temple of the gods."
+
+  Then the servant told Heracles the story of how Alcestis had taken her
+husband's place, going in his stead with Death. Heracles thought upon the
+sorrow of his friend, and of the great sacrifice that his wife was making
+for him. How noble it was of Admetus to bring him into his house and give
+entertainment to him while such sorrow was upon him. And then Heracles
+felt that another labor was before him.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+  "I have dragged up from the Underworld," he thought, "the hound that
+guards those whom Death brings down into the realm of the god of the
+Underworld. Why should I not strive with Death? And what a noble thing it
+would be to bring back this faithful woman to her house and to her
+husband! This is a labor that has not been laid upon me, and it is a labor
+I will undertake." So Heracles said to himself.
+
+  He left the palace of Admetus and he went to the temple of the gods. He
+stood inside the temple and he saw the bier on which Alcestis was laid. He
+looked upon the queen. Death had not touched her yet, although she lay so
+still and so silent. Heracles would watch beside her and strive with Death
+for her.
+
+  Heracles watched and Death came. When Death entered the temple Heracles
+laid hands upon him. Death had never been gripped by mortal hands and he
+strode on as if that grip meant nothing to him. But then he had to grip
+Heracles. In Death's grip there was a strength beyond strength. And upon
+Heracles a dreadful sense of loss came as Death laid hands upon him--a
+sense of the loss of light and the loss of breath and the loss of
+movement. But Heracles struggled with Death although his breath went and
+his strength seemed to go from him. He held that stony body to him, and
+the cold of that body went through him, and its stoniness seemed to turn
+his bones to stone, but still Heracles strove with him, and at last he
+overthrew him and he held Death down upon the ground.
+
+  "Now you are held by me, Death," cried Heracles. "You are held by me,
+and the god of the Underworld will be made angry because you cannot go
+about his business--either this business or any other business. You are
+held by me, Death, and you will not be let go unless you promise to go
+forth from this temple without bringing one with you." And Death, knowing
+that Heracles could hold him there, and that the business of the god of
+the Underworld would be left undone if he were held, promised that he
+would leave the temple without bringing one with him. Then Heracles took
+his grip off Death, and that stony shape went from the temple.
+
+  Soon a flush came into the face of Alcestis as Heracles watched over
+her. Soon she arose from the bier on which she had been laid. She called
+out to Admetus, and Heracles went to her and spoke to her, telling her
+that he would bring her back to her husband's house.
+
+
+
+III
+
+  Admetus left the chamber where his wife had lain and stood before the
+door of his palace. Dawn was coming, and as he looked toward the temple he
+saw Heracles coming to the palace. A woman came with him. She was veiled,
+and Admetus could not see her features.
+
+  "Admetus," Heracles said, when he came before him, "Admetus, there is
+something I would have you do for me. Here is a woman whom I am bringing
+back to her husband. I won her from an enemy. Will you not take her into
+your house while I am away on a journey?"
+
+  "You cannot ask me to do this, Heracles," said Admetus. "No woman may
+come into the house where Alcestis, only yesterday, had her life."
+
+  "For my sake take her into your house," said Heracles. "Come now,
+Admetus, take this woman by the hand."
+
+  A pang came to Admetus as he looked at the woman who stood beside
+Heracles and saw that she was the same stature as his lost wife. He
+thought that he could not bear to take her hand. But Heracles pleaded with
+him, and he took her by the hand.
+
+  "Now take her across your threshold, Admetus," said Heracles.
+
+  Hardly could Admetus bear to do this--hardly could he bear to think of a
+strange woman being in his house and his own wife gone with Death. But
+Heracles pleaded with him, and by the hand he held he drew the woman
+across his threshold.
+
+  "Now raise her veil, Admetus," said Heracles.
+
+  "This I cannot do," said Admetus. "I have had pangs enough. How can I
+look upon a woman's face and remind myself that I cannot look upon
+Alcestis's face ever again?"
+
+  "Raise her veil, Admetus," said Heracles.
+
+  Then Admetus raised the veil of the woman he had taken across the
+threshold of his house. He saw the face of Alcestis. He looked again upon
+his wife brought back from the grip of Death by Heracles, the son of Zeus.
+And then a deeper joy than he had ever known came to Admetus. Once more
+his wife was with him, and Admetus the friend of Apollo and the friend of
+Heracles had all that he cared to have.
+
+
+
+
+VI. How Orpheus the Minstrel Went Down to the World of the Dead
+
+
+
+[Decorative first letter]
+_M_ANY were the minstrels who, in the early days, went through the world,
+telling to men the stories of the gods, telling of their wars and their
+births. Of all these minstrels none was so famous as Orpheus who had gone
+with the Argonauts; none could tell truer things about the gods, for he
+himself was half divine.
+
+  But a great grief came to Orpheus, a grief that stopped his singing and
+his playing upon the lyre. His young wife Eurydice was taken from him. One
+day, walking in the garden, she was bitten on the heel by a serpent, and
+straightway she went down to the world of the dead.
+
+  Then everything in this world was dark and bitter for the minstrel
+Orpheus; sleep would not come to him, and for him food had no taste. Then
+Orpheus said: "I will do that which no mortal has ever done before; I will
+do that which even the immortals might shrink from doing: I will go down
+into the world of the dead, and I will bring back to the living and to the
+light my bride Eurydice."
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+  Then Orpheus went on his way to the valley of Acherusia which goes down,
+down into the world of the dead. He would never have found his way to that
+valley if the trees had not shown him the way. For as he went along
+Orpheus played upon his lyre and sang, and the trees heard his song and
+they were moved by his grief, and with their arms and their heads they
+showed him the way to the deep, deep valley of Acherusia.
+
+  Down, down by winding paths through that deepest and most shadowy of all
+valleys Orpheus went. He came at last to the great gate that opens upon
+the world of the dead. And the silent guards who keep watch there for the
+rulers of the dead were affrighted when they saw a living being, and they
+would not let Orpheus approach the gate.
+
+  But the minstrel, knowing the reason for their fear, said: "I am not
+Heracles come again to drag up from the world of the dead your
+three-headed dog Cerberus. I am Orpheus, and all that my hands can do is
+to make music upon my lyre."
+
+  And then he took the lyre in his hands and played upon it. As he played,
+the silent watchers gathered around him, leaving the gate unguarded. And
+as he played the rulers of the dead came forth, Aidoneus and Persephone,
+and listened to the words of the living man.
+
+  "The cause of my coming through the dark and fearful ways," sang
+Orpheus, "is to strive to gain a fairer fate for Eurydice, my bride. All
+that is above must come down to you at last, O rulers of the most lasting
+world. But before her time has Eurydice been brought here. I have desired
+strength to endure her loss, but I cannot endure it. And I come before
+you, Aidoneus and Persephone, brought here by Love."
+
+  When Orpheus said the name of Love, Persephone, the queen of the dead,
+bowed her young head, and bearded Aidoneus, the king, bowed his head also.
+Persephone remembered how Demeter, her mother, had sought her all through
+the world, and she remembered the touch of her mother's tears upon her
+face. And Aidoneus remembered how his love for Persephone had led him to
+carry her away from the valley in the upper world where she had been
+gathering flowers. He and Persephone bowed their heads and stood aside,
+and Orpheus went through the gate and came amongst the dead.
+
+  Still upon his lyre he played. Tantalus--who, for his crimes, had been
+condemned to stand up to his neck in water and yet never be able to
+assuage his thirst--Tantalus heard, and for a while did not strive to put
+his lips toward the water that ever flowed away from him; Sisyphus--who had
+been condemned to roll up a hill a stone that ever rolled back--Sisyphus
+heard the music that Orpheus played, and for a while he sat still upon his
+stone. And even those dread ones who bring to the dead the memories of all
+their crimes and all their faults, even the Eumenides had their cheeks wet
+with tears.
+
+  In the throng of the newly come dead Orpheus saw Eurydice. She looked
+upon her husband, but she had not the power to come near him. But slowly
+she came when Aidoneus called her. Then with joy Orpheus took her hands.
+
+  It would be granted them--no mortal ever gained such privilege before--to
+leave, both together, the world of the dead, and to abide for another
+space in the world of the living. One condition there would be--that on
+their way up through the valley of Acherusia neither Orpheus nor Eurydice
+should look back.
+
+  They went through the gate and came amongst the watchers that are around
+the portals. These showed them the path that went up through the valley of
+Acherusia. That way they went, Orpheus and Eurydice, he going before her.
+
+  Up and up through the darkened ways they went, Orpheus knowing that
+Eurydice was behind him, but never looking back upon her. But as he went,
+his heart was filled with things to tell--how the trees were blossoming in
+the garden she had left; how the water was sparkling in the fountain; how
+the doors of the house stood open, and how they, sitting together, would
+watch the sunlight on the laurel bushes. All these things were in his
+heart to tell her, to tell her who came behind him, silent and unseen.
+
+  And now they were nearing the place where the valley of Acherusia opened
+on the world of the living. Orpheus looked on the blue of the sky. A
+white-winged bird flew by. Orpheus turned around and cried, "O Eurydice,
+look upon the world that I have won you back to!"
+
+  He turned to say this to her. He saw her with her long dark hair and
+pale face. He held out his arms to clasp her. But in that instant she
+slipped back into the depths of the valley. And all he heard spoken was a
+single word, "Farewell!" Long, long had it taken Eurydice to climb so far,
+but in the moment of his turning around she had fallen back to her place
+amongst the dead.
+
+  Down through the valley of Acherusia Orpheus went again. Again he came
+before the watchers of the gate. But now he was not looked at nor listened
+to, and, hopeless, he had to return to the world of the living.
+
+  The birds were his friends now, and the trees and the stones. The birds
+flew around him and mourned with him; the trees and stones often followed
+him, moved by the music of his lyre. But a savage band slew Orpheus and
+threw his severed head and his lyre into the River Hebrus. It is said by
+the poets that while they floated in midstream the lyre gave out some
+mournful notes and the head of Orpheus answered the notes with song.
+
+  And now that he was no longer to be counted with the living, Orpheus
+went down to the world of the dead, not going now by that steep descent
+through the valley of Acherusia, but going down straightway. The silent
+watchers let him pass, and he went amongst the dead and saw his Eurydice
+in the throng. Again they were together, Orpheus and Eurydice, and as they
+went through the place that King Aidoneus ruled over, they had no fear of
+looking back, one upon the other.
+
+
+
+
+VII. Jason and Medea
+
+
+
+[Decorative first letter]
+_J_ASON and Medea, unable to win to Iolcus, stayed at Corinth, at the
+court of King Creon. Creon was proud to have Jason in his city, but of
+Medea the king was fearful, for he had heard how she had brought about the
+death of Apsyrtus, her brother.
+
+  Medea wearied of this long waiting in the palace of King Creon. A
+longing came upon her to exercise her powers of enchantment. She did not
+forget what Queen Arete had said to her--that if she wished to appease the
+wrath of the gods she should have no more to do with enchantments. She did
+not forget this, but still there grew in her a longing to use all her
+powers of enchantment.
+
+  And Jason, at the court of King Creon, had his longings, too. He longed
+to enter Iolcus and to show the people the Golden Fleece that he had won;
+he longed to destroy Pelias, the murderer of his mother and father; above
+all he longed to be a king, and to rule in the kingdom that Cretheus had
+founded.
+
+  Once Jason spoke to Medea of his longing. "O Jason," Medea said, "I have
+done many things for thee and this thing also I will do. I will go into
+Iolcus, and by my enchantments I will make clear the way for the return of
+the _Argo_ and for thy return with thy comrades--yea, and for thy coming to
+the kingship, O Jason."
+
+  He should have remembered then the words of Queen Arete to Medea, but
+the longing that he had for his triumph and his revenge was in the way of
+his remembering. He said, "O Medea, help me in this with all thine
+enchantments and thou wilt be more dear to me than ever before thou wert."
+
+  Medea then went forth from the palace of King Creon and she made more
+terrible spells than ever she had made in Colchis. All night she stayed in
+a tangled place weaving her spells. Dawn came, and she knew that the
+spells she had woven had not been in vain, for beside her there stood a
+car that was drawn by dragons.
+
+  Medea the Enchantress had never looked on these dragon shapes before.
+When she looked upon them now she was fearful of them. But then she said
+to herself, "I am Medea, and I would be a greater enchantress and a more
+cunning woman than I have been, and what I have thought of, that will I
+carry out." She mounted the car drawn by the dragons, and in the first
+light of the day she went from Corinth.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+  To the places where grew the herbs of magic Medea journeyed in her
+dragon-drawn car--to the Mountains Ossa, Pelion, OEthrys, Pindus, and
+Olympus; then to the rivers Apidanus, Enipeus, and Peneus. She gathered
+herbs on the mountains and grasses on the rivers' banks; some she plucked
+up by the roots and some she cut with the curved blade of a knife. When
+she had gathered these herbs and grasses she went back to Corinth on her
+dragon-drawn car.
+
+  Then Jason saw her; pale and drawn was her face, and her eyes were
+strange and gleaming. He saw her standing by the car drawn by the dragons,
+and a terror of Medea came into his mind. He went toward her, but in a
+harsh voice she bade him not come near to disturb the brewing that she was
+going to begin. Jason turned away. As he went toward the palace he saw
+Glauce, King Creon's daughter; the maiden was coming from the well and she
+carried a pitcher of water. He thought how fair Glauce looked in the light
+of the morning, how the wind played with her hair and her garments, and
+how far away she was from witcheries and enchantments.
+
+  As for Medea, she placed in a heap beside her the magic herbs and
+grasses she had gathered. Then she put them in a bronze pot and boiled
+them in water from the stream. Soon froth came on the boiling, and Medea
+stirred the pot with a withered branch of an apple tree. The branch was
+withered--it was indeed no more than a dry stick, but as she stirred the
+herbs and grasses with it, first leaves, then flowers, and lastly, bright
+gleaming apples came on it. And when the pot boiled over and drops from it
+fell upon the ground, there grew up out of the dry earth soft grasses and
+flowers. Such was the power of renewal that was in the magical brew that
+Medea had made.
+
+  She filled a phial with the liquid she had brewed, and she scattered the
+rest in the wild places of the garden. Then, taking the phial and the
+apples that had grown on the withered branch, she mounted the car drawn by
+the dragons, and she went once more from Corinth.
+
+  On she journeyed in her dragon-drawn car until she came to a place that
+was near to Iolcus. There the dragons descended. They had come to a dark
+pool. Medea, making herself naked, stood in that dark pool. For a while
+she looked down upon herself, seeing in the dark water her white body and
+her lovely hair. Then she bathed herself in the water. Soon a dread change
+came over her: she saw her hair become scant and gray, and she saw her
+body become bent and withered. She stepped out of the pool a withered and
+witchlike woman; when she dressed herself the rich clothes that she had
+worn before hung loosely upon her, and she looked the more forbidding
+because of them. She bade the dragons go, and they flew through the air
+with the empty car. Then she hid in her dress the phial with the liquid
+she had brewed and the apples that had grown upon the withered branch. She
+picked up a stick to lean upon, and with the gait of an ancient woman she
+went hobbling upon the road to Iolcus.
+
+  On the streets of the city the fierce fighting men that Pelias had
+brought down from the mountains showed themselves; few of the men or women
+of the city showed themselves even in the daytime. Medea went through the
+city and to the palace of King Pelias. But no one might enter there, and
+the guards laid hands upon her and held her.
+
+  Medea did not struggle with them. She drew from the folds of her dress
+one of the gleaming apples that she carried and she gave it to one of the
+guards. "It is for King Pelias," she said. "Give the apple to him and then
+do with me as the king would have you do."
+
+  The guards brought the gleaming apple to the king. When he had taken it
+into his hand and had smelled its fragrance, old trembling Pelias asked
+where the apple had come from. The guards told him it had been brought by
+an ancient woman who was now outside seated on a stone in the courtyard.
+
+  He looked on the shining apple and he felt its fragrance and he could
+not help thinking, old trembling Pelias, that this apple might be the
+means of bringing him back to the fullness of health and courage that he
+had had before. He sent for the ancient woman who had brought it that she
+might tell him where it had come from and who it was that had sent it to
+him. Then the guards brought Medea before him.
+
+  She saw an old man, white-faced and trembling, with shaking hands and
+eyes that looked on her fearfully. "Who are you," he asked, "and from
+whence came the apple that you had them bring me?"
+
+  Medea, standing before him, looked a withered and shrunken beldame, a
+woman bent with years, but yet with eyes that were bright and living. She
+came near him and she said: "The apple, O King, came from the garden that
+is watched over by the Daughters of the Evening Land. He who eats it has a
+little of the weight of old age taken from him. But things more wonderful
+even than the shining apples grow in that far garden. There are plants
+there the juices of which make youthful again all aged and failing things.
+The apple would bring you a little way toward the vigor of your prime. But
+the juices I have can bring you to a time more wonderful--back even to the
+strength and the glory of your youth."
+
+  When the king heard her say this a light came into his heavy eyes, and
+his hands caught Medea and drew her to him. "Who are you?" he cried, "who
+speak of the garden watched over by the Daughters of the Evening Land? Who
+are you who speak of juices that can bring back one to the strength and
+glory of his youth?"
+
+  Medea answered: "I am a woman who has known many and great griefs, O
+king. My griefs have brought me through the world. Many have searched for
+the garden watched over by the Daughters of the Evening Land, but I came
+to it unthinkingly, and without wanting them I gathered the gleaming
+apples and took from the plants there the juices that can bring youth
+back."
+
+  Pelias said: "If you have been able to come by those juices, how is it
+that you remain in woeful age and decrepitude?"
+
+  She said: "Because of my many griefs, king, I would not renew my life. I
+would be ever nearer death and the end of all things. But you are a king
+and have all things you desire at your hand--beauty and state and power.
+Surely if any one would desire it, you would desire to have youth back to
+you."
+
+  Pelias, when he heard her say this, knew that besides youth there was
+nothing that he desired. After crimes that had gone through the whole of
+his manhood he had secured for himself the kingdom that Cretheus had
+founded. But old age had come on him, and the weakness of old age, and the
+power he had won was falling from his hands. He would be overthrown in his
+weakness, or else he would soon come to die, and there would be an end
+then to his name and to his kingship.
+
+  How fortunate above all kings he would be, he thought, if it could be
+that some one should come to him with juices that would renew his youth!
+He looked longingly into the eyes of the ancient-seeming woman before him,
+and he said: "How is it that you show no gains from the juices that you
+speak of? You are old and in woeful decrepitude. Even if you would not win
+back to youth you could have got riches and state for that which you say
+you possess."
+
+  Then Medea said: "I have lost so much and have suffered so much that I
+would not have youth back at the price of facing the years. I would sink
+down to the quiet of the grave. But I hope for some ease before I die--for
+the ease that is in king's houses, with good food to eat, and rest, and
+servants to wait upon one's aged body. These are the things I desire, O
+Pelias, even as you desire youth. You can give me such things, and I have
+come to you who desire youth eagerly rather than to kings who have a less
+eager desire for it. To you I will give the juices that bring one back to
+the strength and the glory of youth."
+
+  Pelias said: "I have only your word for it that you possess these
+juices. Many there are who come and say deceiving things to a king."
+
+  Said Medea: "Let there be no more words between us, O king. To-morrow I
+will show you the virtue of the juices I have brought with me. Have a
+great vat prepared--a vat that a man could lay himself in with the water
+covering him. Have this vat filled with water, and bring to it the oldest
+creature you can get--a ram or a goat that is the oldest of their flock. Do
+this, O king, and you will be shown a thing to wonder at and to be hopeful
+over."
+
+  So Medea said, and then she turned around and left the king's presence.
+Pelias called to his guards and he bade them take the woman into their
+charge and treat her considerately. The guards took Medea away. Then all
+day the king mused on what had been told him and a wild hope kept beating
+about his heart. He had the servants prepare a great vat in the lower
+chambers, and he had his shepherd bring him a ram that was the oldest in
+the flock.
+
+  Only Medea was permitted to come into that chamber with the king; the
+ways to it were guarded, and all that took place in it was secret. Medea
+was brought to the closed door by her guard. She opened it and she saw the
+king there and the vat already prepared; she saw a ram tethered near the
+vat.
+
+  Medea looked upon the king. In the light of the torches his face was
+white and fierce and his mouth moved gaspingly. She spoke to him quietly,
+and said: "There is no need for you to hear me speak. You will watch a
+great miracle, for behold! the ram which is the oldest and feeblest in the
+flock will become young and invigorated when it comes forth from this
+vat."
+
+  She untethered the ram, and with the help of Pelias drew it to the vat.
+This was not hard to do, for the beast was very feeble; its feet could
+hardly bear it upright, its wool was yellow and stayed only in patches on
+its shrunken body. Easily the beast was forced into the vat. Then Medea
+drew the phial out of her bosom and poured into the water some of the brew
+she had made in Creon's garden in Corinth. The water in the vat took on a
+strange bubbling, and the ram sank down.
+
+  Then Medea, standing beside the vat, sang an incantation.
+
+  "O Earth," she sang, "O Earth who dost provide wise men with potent
+herbs, O Earth help me now. I am she who can drive the clouds; I am she
+who can dispel the winds; I am she who can break the jaws of serpents with
+my incantations; I am she who can uproot living trees and rocks; who can
+make the mountains shake; who can bring the ghosts from their tombs. O
+Earth, help me now." At this strange incantation the mixture in the vat
+boiled and bubbled more and more. Then the boiling and bubbling ceased. Up
+to the surface came the ram. Medea helped it to struggle out of the vat,
+and then it turned and smote the vat with its head.
+
+  Pelias took down a torch and stood before the beast. Vigorous indeed was
+the ram, and its wool was white and grew evenly upon it. They could not
+tether it again, and when the servants were brought into the chamber it
+took two of them to drag away the ram.
+
+  The king was most eager to enter the vat and have Medea put in the brew
+and speak the incantation over it. But Medea bade him wait until the
+morrow. All night the king lay awake, thinking of how he might regain his
+youth and his strength and be secure and triumphant thereafter.
+
+  At the first light he sent for Medea and he told her that he would have
+the vat made ready and that he would go into it that night. Medea looked
+upon him, and the helplessness that he showed made her want to work a
+greater evil upon him, or, if not upon him, upon his house. How soon it
+would have reached its end, all her plot for the destruction of this king!
+But she would leave in the king's house a misery that would not have an
+end so soon.
+
+  So she said to the king: "I would say the incantation over a beast of
+the field, but over a king I could not say it. Let those of your own blood
+be with you when you enter the vat that will bring such change to you.
+Have your daughters there. I will give them the juice to mix in the vat,
+and I will teach them the incantation that has to be said."
+
+  So she said, and she made Pelias consent to having his daughters and not
+Medea in the chamber of the vat. They were sent for and they came before
+Medea, the daughters of King Pelias.
+
+  They were women who had been borne down by the tyranny of their father;
+they stood before him now, two dim-eyed creatures, very feeble and
+fearful. To them Medea gave the phial that had in it the liquid to mix in
+the vat; also she taught them the words of the incantation, but she taught
+them to use these words wrongly.
+
+  The vat was prepared in the lower chambers; Pelias and his daughters
+went there, and the chamber was guarded, and what happened there was in
+secret. Pelias went into the vat; the brew was thrown into it, and the vat
+boiled and bubbled as before. Pelias sank down in it. Over him then his
+daughters said the magic words as Medea had taught them.
+
+  Pelias sank down, but he did not rise again. The hours went past and the
+morning came, and the daughters of King Pelias raised frightened laments.
+Over the sides of the vat the mixture boiled and bubbled, and Pelias was
+to be seen at the bottom with his limbs stiffened in death.
+
+  Then the guards came, and they took King Pelias out of the vat and left
+him in his royal chamber. The word went through the palace that the king
+was dead. There was a hush in the palace then, but not the hush of grief.
+One by one servants and servitors stole away from the palace that was
+hated by all. Then there was clatter in the streets as the fierce fighting
+men from the mountains galloped away with what plunder they could seize.
+And through all this the daughters of King Pelias sat crouching in fear
+above the body of their father.
+
+  And Medea, still an ancient woman seemingly, went through the crowds
+that now came on the streets of the city. She told those she went amongst
+that the son of �son was alive and would soon be in their midst. Hearing
+this the men of the city formed a council of elders to rule the people
+until Jason's coming. In such way Medea brought about the end of King
+Pelias's reign.
+
+  In triumph she went through the city. But as she was passing the temple
+her dress was caught and held, and turning around she faced the ancient
+priestess of Artemis, Iphias. "Thou art �etes's daughter," Iphias said,
+"who in deceit didst come into Iolcus. Woe to thee and woe to Jason for
+what thou hast done this day! Not for the slaying of Pelias art thou
+blameworthy, but for the misery that thou hast brought upon his daughters
+by bringing them into the guilt of the slaying. Go from the city, daughter
+of King �etes; never, never wilt thou come back into it."
+
+  But little heed did Medea pay to the ancient priestess, Iphias. Still in
+the guise of an old woman she went through the streets of the city, and
+out through the gate and along the highway that led from Iolcus. To that
+dark pool she came where she had bathed herself before. But now she did
+not step into the pool nor pour its water over her shrinking flesh;
+instead she built up two altars of green sods--an altar to Youth and an
+altar to Hecate, queen of the witches; she wreathed them with green boughs
+from the forest, and she prayed before each. Then she made herself naked,
+and she anointed herself with the brew she had made from the magical herbs
+and grasses. All marks of age and decrepitude left her, and when she stood
+over the dark pool and looked down on herself she saw that her body was
+white and shapely as before, and that her hair was soft and lovely.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+  She stayed all night between the tangled wood and the dark pool, and
+with the first light the car drawn by the scaly dragons came to her. She
+mounted the car, and she journeyed back to Corinth.
+
+
+
+  Into Jason's mind a fear of Medea had come since the hour when he had
+seen her mount the car drawn by the scaly dragons. He could not think of
+her any more as the one who had been his companion on the _Argo_. He
+thought of her as one who could help him and do wonderful things for him,
+but not as one whom he could talk softly and lovingly to. Ah, but if Jason
+had thought less of his kingdom and less of his triumphing with the Fleece
+of Gold, Medea would not have had the dragons come to her.
+
+  And now that his love for Medea had altered, Jason noted the loveliness
+of another--of Glauce, the daughter of Creon, the King of Corinth. And
+Glauce, who had red lips and the eyes of a child, saw in Jason who had
+brought the Golden Fleece out of Colchis the image of every hero she had
+heard about in stories. Creon, the king, often brought Jason and Glauce
+together, for his hope was that the hero would wed his daughter and stay
+in Corinth and strengthen his kingdom. He thought that Medea, that strange
+woman, could not keep a companionship with Jason.
+
+  Two were walking in the king's garden, and they were Jason and Glauce. A
+shadow fell between them, and when Jason looked up he saw Medea's dragon
+car. Down flew the dragons, and Medea came from the car and stood between
+Jason and the princess. Angrily she spoke to him. "I have made the kingdom
+ready for your return," she said, "but if you would go there you must
+first let me deal in my own way with this pretty maiden." And so fiercely
+did Medea look upon her that Glauce shrank back and clung to Jason for
+protection. "O, Jason," she cried, "thou didst say that I am such a one as
+thou didst dream of when in the forest with Chiron, before the adventure
+of the Golden Fleece drew thee away from the Grecian lands. Oh, save me
+now from the power of her who comes in the dragon car." And Jason said: "I
+said all that thou hast said, and I will protect thee, O Glauce."
+
+  And then Medea thought of the king's house she had left for Jason, and
+of the brother whom she had let be slain, and of the plot she had carried
+out to bring Jason back to Iolcus, and a great fury came over her. In her
+hand she took foam from the jaws of the dragons, and she cast the foam
+upon Glauce, and the princess fell back into the arms of Jason with the
+dragon foam burning into her.
+
+  Then, seeing in his eyes that he had forgotten all that he owed to
+her--the winning of the Golden Fleece, and the safety of _Argo_, and the
+destruction of the power of King Pelias--seeing in his eyes that Jason had
+forgotten all this, Medea went into her dragon-borne car and spoke the
+words that made the scaly dragons bear her aloft. She flew from Corinth,
+leaving Jason in King Creon's garden with Glauce dying in his arms. He
+lifted her up and laid her upon a bed, but even as her friends came around
+her the daughter of King Creon died.
+
+
+
+
+[Decorative first letter]
+_A_ND Jason? For long he stayed in Corinth, a famous man indeed, but one
+sorrowful and alone. But again there grew in him the desire to rule and to
+have possessions. He called around him again the men whose home was in
+Iolcus--those who had followed him as bright-eyed youths when he first
+proclaimed his purpose of winning the Fleece of Gold. He called them
+around him, and he led them on board the _Argo_. Once more they lifted
+sails, and once more they took the _Argo_ into the open sea.
+
+  Toward Iolcus they sailed; their passage was fortunate, and in a short
+time they brought the _Argo_ safely into the harbor of Pagas�. Oh, happy
+were the crowds that came thronging to see the ship that had the famous
+Fleece of Gold upon her masthead, and green and sweet smelling were the
+garlands that the people brought to wreathe the heads of Jason and his
+companions! Jason looked upon the throngs, and he thought that much had
+gone from him, but he thought that whatever else had gone something
+remained to him--to be a king and a great ruler over a people.
+
+  And so Jason came back to Iolcus. The _Argo_ he made a blazing pile of
+in sacrifice to Poseidon, the god of the sea. The Golden Fleece he hung in
+the temple of the gods. Then he took up the rule of the kingdom that
+Cretheus had founded, and he became the greatest of the kings of Greece.
+
+  And to Iolcus there came, year after year, young men who would look upon
+the gleaming thing that was hung there in the temple of the gods. And as
+they looked upon it, young man after young man, the thought would come to
+each that he would make himself strong enough and heroic enough to win for
+his country something as precious as Jason's GOLDEN FLEECE. And for all
+their lives they kept in mind the words that Jason had inscribed upon a
+pillar that was placed beside the Fleece of Gold--the words that Triton
+spoke to the Argonauts when they were fain to win their way out of the
+inland sea:--
+
+
+    THAT IS THE OUTLET TO THE SEA, WHERE THE DEEP WATER LIES UNMOVED
+    AND DARK; ON EACH SIDE ROLL WHITE BREAKERS WITH SHINING CRESTS;
+    AND THE WAY BETWEEN FOR YOUR PASSAGE OUT IS NARROW. BUT GO IN JOY,
+    AND AS FOR LABOR LET THERE BE NO GRIEVING THAT LIMBS IN YOUTHFUL
+    VIGOR SHOULD STILL TOIL.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE
+
+
+  The book received a Newbery Honor Award (1922).
+
+  Illustrations in the original appear on separate, unnumbered pages. In
+this transcription, wherever an illustration would break a paragraph, it
+was moved after the paragraph.
+
+  Obvious typographical errors were silently corrected.
+
+
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GOLDEN FLEECE AND THE HEROES WHO LIVED BEFORE ACHILLES***
+
+
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+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 2.00em">The Project
+            Gutenberg EBook of The Golden Fleece and The Heroes Who Lived
+            Before Achilles by Padraic Colum</p>
+          </div>
+
+          <div class="tei tei-div" style=
+          "margin-bottom: 3.00em; margin-top: 3.00em">
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+          <pre class="pre tei tei-div" style=
+          "margin-bottom: 3.00em; margin-top: 3.00em">
+Title: The Golden Fleece and The Heroes Who Lived Before Achilles
+
+Author: Padraic Colum
+
+Release Date: October 29, 2011 [Ebook #37881]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GOLDEN FLEECE AND THE HEROES WHO LIVED BEFORE ACHILLES***
+</pre>
+        </div>
+      </div>
+
+      <div class="tei tei-div" style=
+      "margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em"></div>
+      <hr class="page" />
+
+      <div class="tei tei-div" style=
+      "margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style=
+        "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em"><a name="cover.png" id=
+        "cover.png" class="tei tei-anchor" style=
+        "text-align: center"></a><a name="fig1" id="fig1"></a></p>
+
+        <div class="tei tei-figure" style="width: 100%; text-align: center">
+          <img src="images/cover.png" alt="Illustration" title="" />
+
+          <div class="tei tei-head" style=
+          "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em">
+          </div>
+        </div>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style=
+        "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em"><a name="halftitle.png"
+        id="halftitle.png" class="tei tei-anchor" style=
+        "text-align: center"></a><a name="fig2" id="fig2"></a></p>
+
+        <div class="tei tei-figure" style="width: 100%; text-align: center">
+          <img src="images/halftitle.png" alt="Illustration" title="" />
+
+          <div class="tei tei-head" style=
+          "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em">
+          </div>
+        </div>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style=
+        "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em"><a name="frontis.png" id=
+        "frontis.png" class="tei tei-anchor" style=
+        "text-align: center"></a><a name="fig3" id="fig3"></a></p>
+
+        <div class="tei tei-figure" style="width: 100%; text-align: center">
+          <img src="images/frontis.png" alt="Illustration" title=
+          "Jason and Medea" />
+
+          <div class="tei tei-head" style=
+          "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em">
+            Jason and Medea
+          </div>
+        </div>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style=
+        "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em"><a name="title.png" id=
+        "title.png" class="tei tei-anchor" style=
+        "text-align: center"></a><a name="fig4" id="fig4"></a></p>
+
+        <div class="tei tei-figure" style="width: 100%; text-align: center">
+          <img src="images/title.png" alt="Illustration" title="" />
+
+          <div class="tei tei-head" style=
+          "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em">
+          </div>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: center">
+          <span style="font-size: 173%">The Golden Fleece</span>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: center">
+          <span style="font-size: 173%">and the Heroes Who</span>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: center">
+          <span style="font-size: 173%">Lived before Achilles</span>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="tei tei-l" style=
+        "text-align: center; margin-top: 1.44em">
+          <span style="font-size: 144%">By Padraig Colum</span>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: center">
+          <span style="font-size: 144%">Illustrations by Willy Pogany</span>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="tei tei-l" style=
+        "text-align: center; margin-top: 3.00em">
+          1921
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: center">
+          The Macmillan Company, New York
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="tei tei-l" style=
+        "text-align: center; margin-top: 5.00em">
+          to
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: center">
+          the children of
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: center">
+          Susan and Llewellyn Jones
+        </div>
+      </div>
+      <hr class="doublepage" />
+
+      <div class="tei tei-div" style=
+      "margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+        <div class="tei tei-figure" style="width: 100%">
+          <img src="images/contents.png" alt="Illustration" title="" />
+
+          <div class="tei tei-head" style=
+          "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em">
+          </div>
+        </div>
+
+        <h1 class="tei tei-head" style=
+        "text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em">
+        <span style="font-size: 173%">Contents</span></h1>
+
+        <ul class="tei tei-index tei-index-toc">
+          <li><a href="#toc5">Part I. The Voyage to Colchis</a></li>
+
+          <li style="margin-left: 2em"><a href="#toc7">I. The Youth
+          Jason</a></li>
+
+          <li style="margin-left: 2em"><a href="#toc11">II. King
+          Pelias</a></li>
+
+          <li style="margin-left: 2em"><a href="#toc14">III. The Golden
+          Fleece</a></li>
+
+          <li style="margin-left: 2em"><a href="#toc17">IV. The Assembling of
+          the Heroes and the Building of the Ship</a></li>
+
+          <li style="margin-left: 2em"><a href="#toc20">V. The <span style=
+          "font-style: italic">Argo</span></a></li>
+
+          <li style="margin-left: 4em"><a href="#toc23">The Beginning of
+          Things</a></li>
+
+          <li style="margin-left: 2em"><a href="#toc25">VI. Polydeuces’
+          Victory and Heracles’ Loss</a></li>
+
+          <li style="margin-left: 2em"><a href="#toc29">VII. King
+          Phineus</a></li>
+
+          <li style="margin-left: 2em"><a href="#toc32">VIII. King Phineus’s
+          Counsel; The Landing in Lemnos</a></li>
+
+          <li style="margin-left: 2em"><a href="#toc34">IX. The Lemnian
+          Maidens</a></li>
+
+          <li style="margin-left: 4em"><a href="#toc37">Demeter and
+          Persephone</a></li>
+
+          <li style="margin-left: 4em"><a href="#toc43">Atalanta’s
+          Race</a></li>
+
+          <li style="margin-left: 2em"><a href="#toc46">X. The Departure from
+          Lemnos</a></li>
+
+          <li style="margin-left: 4em"><a href="#toc48">The Golden
+          Maid</a></li>
+
+          <li style="margin-left: 2em"><a href="#toc53">XI. The Passage of
+          the Symplegades</a></li>
+
+          <li style="margin-left: 2em"><a href="#toc55">XII. The Mountain
+          Caucasus</a></li>
+
+          <li style="margin-left: 4em"><a href="#toc57">Prometheus</a></li>
+
+          <li><a href="#toc61">Part II. The Return to Greece</a></li>
+
+          <li style="margin-left: 2em"><a href="#toc63">I. King
+          Æetes</a></li>
+
+          <li style="margin-left: 2em"><a href="#toc65">II. Medea the
+          Sorceress</a></li>
+
+          <li style="margin-left: 2em"><a href="#toc67">III. The Winning of
+          the Golden Fleece</a></li>
+
+          <li style="margin-left: 2em"><a href="#toc71">IV. The Slaying of
+          Apsyrtus</a></li>
+
+          <li style="margin-left: 2em"><a href="#toc74">V. Medea Comes to
+          Circe</a></li>
+
+          <li style="margin-left: 2em"><a href="#toc77">VI. In the Land of
+          the Phæacians</a></li>
+
+          <li style="margin-left: 2em"><a href="#toc79">VII. They Come to the
+          Desert Land</a></li>
+
+          <li style="margin-left: 2em"><a href="#toc82">VIII. The Carrying of
+          the Argo</a></li>
+
+          <li style="margin-left: 4em"><a href="#toc85">The Story of
+          Perseus</a></li>
+
+          <li style="margin-left: 2em"><a href="#toc90">IX. Near to Iolcus
+          Again</a></li>
+
+          <li><a href="#toc93">Part III. The Heroes of the Quest</a></li>
+
+          <li style="margin-left: 2em"><a href="#toc95">I. Atalanta the
+          Huntress</a></li>
+
+          <li style="margin-left: 2em"><a href="#toc97">II. Peleus and His
+          Bride from the Sea</a></li>
+
+          <li style="margin-left: 2em"><a href="#toc99">III. Theseus and the
+          Minotaur</a></li>
+
+          <li style="margin-left: 2em"><a href="#toc105">IV. The Life and
+          Labors of Heracles</a></li>
+
+          <li style="margin-left: 4em"><a href="#toc111">The Battle of the
+          Frogs and Mice</a></li>
+
+          <li style="margin-left: 2em"><a href="#toc114">V. Admetus</a></li>
+
+          <li style="margin-left: 2em"><a href="#toc118">VI. How Orpheus the
+          Minstrel Went Down to the World of the Dead</a></li>
+
+          <li style="margin-left: 2em"><a href="#toc121">VII. Jason and
+          Medea</a></li>
+        </ul>
+      </div>
+      <hr class="doublepage" />
+
+      <div class="tei tei-div" style=
+      "margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+        <div class="tei tei-figure" style="width: 100%">
+          <img src="images/illustrations.png" alt="Illustration" title="" />
+
+          <div class="tei tei-head" style=
+          "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em">
+          </div>
+        </div>
+
+        <h1 class="tei tei-head" style=
+        "text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em">
+        <span style="font-size: 173%">Illustrations</span></h1>
+
+        <ul class="tei tei-index tei-index-fig">
+          <li><a href="#fig1"></a></li>
+
+          <li><a href="#fig2"></a></li>
+
+          <li><a href="#fig3">Jason and Medea</a></li>
+
+          <li><a href="#fig4"></a></li>
+
+          <li><a href="#fig9"></a></li>
+
+          <li><a href="#fig10"></a></li>
+
+          <li><a href="#fig13"></a></li>
+
+          <li><a href="#fig16"></a></li>
+
+          <li><a href="#fig19"></a></li>
+
+          <li><a href="#fig22">the <span style=
+          "font-style: italic">Argo</span></a></li>
+
+          <li><a href="#fig27"></a></li>
+
+          <li><a href="#fig28">Hylas</a></li>
+
+          <li><a href="#fig31"></a></li>
+
+          <li><a href="#fig36"></a></li>
+
+          <li><a href="#fig39">Persephone and Aidoneus</a></li>
+
+          <li><a href="#fig40"></a></li>
+
+          <li><a href="#fig41"></a></li>
+
+          <li><a href="#fig42"></a></li>
+
+          <li><a href="#fig45">Atalanta’s Last Race</a></li>
+
+          <li><a href="#fig50"></a></li>
+
+          <li><a href="#fig51"></a></li>
+
+          <li><a href="#fig52"></a></li>
+
+          <li><a href="#fig59">Prometheus</a></li>
+
+          <li><a href="#fig60"></a></li>
+
+          <li><a href="#fig69">The Field of the Dragon’s Teeth</a></li>
+
+          <li><a href="#fig70"></a></li>
+
+          <li><a href="#fig73"></a></li>
+
+          <li><a href="#fig76"></a></li>
+
+          <li><a href="#fig81"></a></li>
+
+          <li><a href="#fig84"></a></li>
+
+          <li><a href="#fig87"></a></li>
+
+          <li><a href="#fig88">Perseus and Andromeda</a></li>
+
+          <li><a href="#fig89"></a></li>
+
+          <li><a href="#fig92"></a></li>
+
+          <li><a href="#fig101"></a></li>
+
+          <li><a href="#fig102"></a></li>
+
+          <li><a href="#fig103"></a></li>
+
+          <li><a href="#fig104"></a></li>
+
+          <li><a href="#fig107"></a></li>
+
+          <li><a href="#fig108"></a></li>
+
+          <li><a href="#fig109"></a></li>
+
+          <li><a href="#fig110"></a></li>
+
+          <li><a href="#fig113"></a></li>
+
+          <li><a href="#fig116"></a></li>
+
+          <li><a href="#fig117"></a></li>
+
+          <li><a href="#fig120"></a></li>
+
+          <li><a href="#fig123"></a></li>
+
+          <li><a href="#fig124"></a></li>
+        </ul>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+
+    <div class="tei tei-body" style=
+    "margin-bottom: 6.00em; margin-top: 6.00em">
+      <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page1">[pg 1]</span>
+
+      <div class="tei tei-div" style=
+      "margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+        <a name="toc5" id="toc5"></a><a name="pdf6" id="pdf6"></a>
+
+        <h1 class="tei tei-head" style=
+        "text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em">
+        <span style="font-size: 173%">Part I. The Voyage to
+        Colchis</span></h1><span class="tei tei-pb" id="page3">[pg 3]</span>
+
+        <div class="tei tei-div" style=
+        "margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em">
+          <a name="toc7" id="toc7"></a><a name="pdf8" id="pdf8"></a>
+
+          <h2 class="tei tei-head" style=
+          "text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em">
+          <span style="font-size: 144%">I. The Youth Jason</span></h2>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> </p>
+
+          <div class="deco-letter floatleft tei tei-figure" style=
+          "margin-bottom: 0.00em; margin-top: 0.00em"><img src=
+          "images/capA1.png" alt="Decorative first letter" /></div>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"><span class=
+          "tei tei-hi" style="margin-left: -1.00em"><span style=
+          "color: white; font-variant: small-caps">A</span></span> MAN in the
+          garb of a slave went up the side of that mountain that is all
+          covered with forest, the Mountain Pelion. He carried in his arms a
+          little child.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> When it was
+          full noon the slave came into a clearing of the forest so silent
+          that it seemed empty of all life. He laid the child down on the
+          soft moss, and then, trembling with the fear of what might come
+          before him, he raised a horn to his lips and blew three blasts upon
+          it.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Then he waited.
+          The blue sky was above him, the great trees stood away from him,
+          and the little child lay at his feet. He waited, and then he heard
+          the thud-thud of great hooves. And then from between the trees he
+          saw coming toward him the strangest of all beings, one who was half
+          man and half horse; this was Chiron the centaur.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Chiron came
+          toward the trembling slave. Greater than any horse was Chiron,
+          taller than any man. The hair of his head flowed back into his
+          horse’s mane, his great beard flowed over his horse’s chest; in his
+          man’s hand he held a great spear.</p><span class="tei tei-pb" id=
+          "page4">[pg 4]</span>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Not swiftly he
+          came, but the slave could see that in those great limbs of his
+          there was speed like to the wind’s. The slave fell upon his knees.
+          And with eyes that were full of majesty and wisdom and limbs that
+          were full of strength and speed, the king-centaur stood above him.
+          <span class="tei tei-q">“O my lord,”</span> the slave said,
+          <span class="tei tei-q">“I have come before thee sent by Æson, my
+          master, who told me where to come and what blasts to blow upon the
+          horn. And Æson, once King of Iolcus, bade me say to thee that if
+          thou dost remember his ancient friendship with thee thou wilt,
+          perchance, take this child and guard and foster him, and, as he
+          grows, instruct him with thy wisdom.”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“For Æson’s sake I will rear and foster this
+          child,”</span> said Chiron the king-centaur in a deep voice.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> The child lying
+          on the moss had been looking up at the four-footed and two-handed
+          centaur. Now the slave lifted him up and placed him in the
+          centaur’s arms. He said:</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“Æson bade me tell thee that the child’s name is Jason.
+          He bade me give thee this ring with the great ruby in it that thou
+          mayst give it to the child when he is grown. By this ring with its
+          ruby and the images engraved on it Æson may know his son when they
+          meet after many years and many changes. And another thing Æson bade
+          me say to thee, O my lord Chiron: not presumptuous is he, but he
+          knows that this child has the regard of the immortal Goddess Hera,
+          the wife of Zeus.”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Chiron held
+          Æson’s son in his arms, and the little child put hands into his
+          great beard. Then the centaur said, <span class="tei tei-q">“Let
+          Æson <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page5">[pg 5]</span> know that
+          his son will be reared and fostered by me, and that, when they meet
+          again, there will be ways by which they will be known to each
+          other.”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style=
+          "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em"><a name="i001.png" id=
+          "i001.png" class="tei tei-anchor" style=
+          "text-align: center"></a><a name="fig9" id="fig9"></a></p>
+
+          <div class="tei tei-figure" style=
+          "width: 100%; text-align: center">
+            <img src="images/i001.png" alt="Illustration" title="" />
+
+            <div class="tei tei-head" style=
+            "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em">
+            </div>
+          </div>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Saying this
+          Chiron the centaur, holding the child in his arms, went swiftly
+          toward the forest arches; then the slave took up the horn and went
+          down the side of the Mountain Pelion. He came to where a horse was
+          hidden, and he mounted and rode, first to a city, and then to a
+          village that was beyond the city.</p>
+
+          <div class="tei tei-tb">
+            &nbsp;
+          </div>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> All this was
+          before the famous walls of Troy were built; before King Priam had
+          come to the throne of his father and while he was still known, not
+          as Priam, but as Podarces. And the beginning of all these
+          happenings was in Iolcus, a city in Thessaly.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Cretheus
+          founded the city and had ruled over it in days before King Priam
+          was born. He left two sons, Æson and Pelias. Æson succeeded his
+          father. And because he was a mild and gentle man the men of war did
+          not love Æson; they wanted a hard king who would lead them to
+          conquests.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Pelias, the
+          brother of Æson, was ever with the men of war; he knew what mind
+          they had toward Æson and he plotted with them to overthrow his
+          brother. This they did, and they brought Pelias to reign as king in
+          Iolcus.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> The people
+          loved Æson and they feared Pelias. And because the people loved him
+          and would be maddened by his slaying, <span class="tei tei-pb" id=
+          "page6">[pg 6]</span> Pelias and the men of war left him living.
+          With his wife, Alcimide, and his infant son, Æson went from the
+          city, and in a village that was at a distance from Iolcus he found
+          a hidden house and went to dwell in it.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Æson would have
+          lived content there were it not that he was fearful for Jason, his
+          infant son. Jason, he knew, would grow into a strong and a bold
+          youth, and Pelias, the king, would be made uneasy on his account.
+          Pelias would slay the son, and perhaps would slay the father for
+          the son’s sake when his memory would come to be less loved by the
+          people. Æson thought of such things in his hidden house, and he
+          pondered on ways to have his son reared away from Iolcus and the
+          dread and the power of King Pelias.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> He had for a
+          friend one who was the wisest of all creatures—Chiron the centaur;
+          Chiron who was half man and half horse; Chiron who had lived and
+          was yet to live measureless years. Chiron had fostered Heracles,
+          and it might be that he would not refuse to foster Jason, Æson’s
+          child.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Away in the
+          fastnesses of Mount Pelion Chiron dwelt; once Æson had been with
+          him and had seen the centaur hunt with his great bow and his great
+          spears. And Æson knew a way that one might come to him; Chiron
+          himself had told him of the way.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Now there was a
+          slave in his house who had been a huntsman and who knew all the
+          ways of the Mountain Pelion. Æson talked with this slave one day,
+          and after he had talked with <span class="tei tei-pb" id=
+          "page7">[pg 7]</span> him he sat for a long time over the cradle of
+          his sleeping infant. And then he spoke to Alcimide, his wife,
+          telling her of a parting that made her weep. That evening the slave
+          came in and Æson took the child from the arms of the mournful-eyed
+          mother and put him in the slave’s arms. Also he gave him a horn and
+          a ring with a great ruby in it and mystic images engraved on its
+          gold. Then when the ways were dark the slave mounted a horse, and,
+          with the child in his arms, rode through the city that King Pelias
+          ruled over. In the morning he came to that mountain that is all
+          covered with forest, the Mountain Pelion. And that evening he came
+          back to the village and to Æson’s hidden house, and he told his
+          master how he had prospered.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Æson was
+          content thereafter although he was lonely and although his wife was
+          lonely in their childlessness. But the time came when they rejoiced
+          that their child had been sent into an unreachable place. For
+          messengers from King Pelias came inquiring about the boy. They told
+          the king’s messengers that the child had strayed off from his
+          nurse, and that whether he had been slain by a wild beast or had
+          been drowned in the swift River Anaurus they did not know.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> The years went
+          by and Pelias felt secure upon the throne he had taken from his
+          brother. Once he sent to the oracle of the gods to ask of it
+          whether he should be fearful of anything. What the oracle answered
+          was this: that King Pelias had but one thing to dread—the coming of
+          a half-shod man.</p><span class="tei tei-pb" id="page8">[pg
+          8]</span>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> The centaur
+          nourished the child Jason on roots and fruits and honey; for
+          shelter they had a great cave that Chiron had lived in for
+          numberless years. When he had grown big enough to leave the cave
+          Chiron would let Jason mount on his back; with the child holding on
+          to his great mane he would trot gently through the ways of the
+          forest.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Jason began to
+          know the creatures of the forest and their haunts. Sometimes Chiron
+          would bring his great bow with him; then Jason, on his back, would
+          hold the quiver and would hand him the arrows. The centaur would
+          let the boy see him kill with a single arrow the bear, the boar, or
+          the deer. And soon Jason, running beside him, hunted too.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> No heroes were
+          ever better trained than those whose childhood and youth had been
+          spent with Chiron the king-centaur. He made them more swift of foot
+          than any other of the children of men. He made them stronger and
+          more ready with the spear and bow. Jason was trained by Chiron as
+          Heracles just before him had been trained, and as Achilles was to
+          be trained afterward.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Moreover,
+          Chiron taught him the knowledge of the stars and the wisdom that
+          had to do with the ways of the gods.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Once, when they
+          were hunting together, Jason saw a form at the end of an alley of
+          trees—the form of a woman it was—of a woman who had on her head a
+          shining crown. Never had Jason dreamt of seeing a form so wondrous.
+          Not very near did he come, but he thought he knew that the woman
+          smiled upon <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page9">[pg 9]</span> him.
+          She was seen no more, and Jason knew that he had looked upon one of
+          the immortal goddesses.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> All day Jason
+          was filled with thought of her whom he had seen. At night, when the
+          stars were out, and when they were seated outside the cave, Chiron
+          and Jason talked together, and Chiron told the youth that she whom
+          he had seen was none other than Hera, the wife of Zeus, who had for
+          his father Æson and for himself an especial friendliness.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> So Jason grew
+          up upon the mountain and in the forest fastnesses. When he had
+          reached his full height and had shown himself swift in the hunt and
+          strong with the spear and bow, Chiron told him that the time had
+          come when he should go back to the world of men and make his name
+          famous by the doing of great deeds.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> And when Chiron
+          told him about his father Æson—about how he had been thrust out of
+          the kingship by Pelias, his uncle—a great longing came upon Jason
+          to see his father and a fierce anger grew up in his heart against
+          Pelias.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Then the time
+          came when he bade good-by to Chiron his great instructor; the time
+          came when he went from the centaur’s cave for the last time, and
+          went through the wooded ways and down the side of the Mountain
+          Pelion. He came to the river, to the swift Anaurus, and he found it
+          high in flood. The stones by which one might cross were almost all
+          washed over; far apart did they seem in the flood.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Now as he stood
+          there pondering on what he might do there <span class="tei tei-pb"
+          id="page10">[pg 10]</span> came up to him an old woman who had on
+          her back a load of brushwood. <span class="tei tei-q">“Wouldst thou
+          cross?”</span> asked the old woman. <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“Wouldst thou cross and get thee to the city of Iolcus,
+          Jason, where so many things await thee?”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Greatly was the
+          youth astonished to hear his name spoken by this old woman, and to
+          hear her give the name of the city he was bound for. <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“Wouldst thou cross the Anaurus?”</span> she asked
+          again. <span class="tei tei-q">“Then mount upon my back, holding on
+          to the wood I carry, and I will bear thee over the
+          river.”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Jason smiled.
+          How foolish this old woman was to think that she could bear him
+          across the flooded river! She came near him and she took him in her
+          arms and lifted him up on her shoulders. Then, before he knew what
+          she was about to do, she had stepped into the water.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> From stone to
+          stepping-stone she went, Jason holding on to the wood that she had
+          drawn to her shoulders. She left him down upon the bank. As she was
+          lifting him down one of his feet touched the water; the swift
+          current swept away a sandal.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> He stood on the
+          bank knowing that she who had carried him across the flooded river
+          had strength from the gods. He looked upon her, and behold! she was
+          transformed. Instead of an old woman there stood before him one who
+          had on a golden robe and a shining crown. Around her was a wondrous
+          light—the light of the sun when it is most golden. Then Jason knew
+          that she who had carried him across the broad Anaurus was the
+          goddess <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page11">[pg 11]</span> whom he
+          had seen in the ways of the forest—Hera, great Zeus’s wife.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style=
+          "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em"><a name="i002.png" id=
+          "i002.png" class="tei tei-anchor" style=
+          "text-align: center"></a><a name="fig10" id="fig10"></a></p>
+
+          <div class="tei tei-figure" style=
+          "width: 100%; text-align: center">
+            <img src="images/i002.png" alt="Illustration" title="" />
+
+            <div class="tei tei-head" style=
+            "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em">
+            </div>
+          </div>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“Go into Iolcus, Jason,”</span> said great Hera to him,
+          <span class="tei tei-q">“go into Iolcus, and in whatever chance
+          doth befall thee act as one who has the eyes of the immortals upon
+          him.”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> She spoke and
+          she was seen no more. Then Jason went on his way to the city that
+          Cretheus, his grandfather, had founded and that his father Æson had
+          once ruled over. He came into that city, a tall, great-limbed,
+          unknown youth, dressed in a strange fashion, and having but one
+          sandal on.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="tei tei-div" style=
+        "margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em">
+          <a name="toc11" id="toc11"></a><a name="pdf12" id="pdf12"></a>
+
+          <h2 class="tei tei-head" style=
+          "text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em">
+          <span style="font-size: 144%">II. King Pelias</span></h2>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> </p>
+
+          <div class="deco-letter floatleft tei tei-figure" style=
+          "margin-bottom: 0.00em; margin-top: 0.00em"><img src=
+          "images/capT.png" alt="Decorative first letter" /></div>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"><span class=
+          "tei tei-hi" style="margin-left: -1.00em"><span style=
+          "color: white; font-variant: small-caps">T</span></span>HAT day
+          King Pelias, walking through the streets of his city, saw coming
+          toward him a youth who was half shod. He remembered the words of
+          the oracle that bade him beware of a half-shod man, and straightway
+          he gave orders to his guards to lay hands upon the youth.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> But the guards
+          wavered when they went toward him, for there was something about
+          the youth that put them in awe of him. He came with the guards,
+          however, and he stood before the king’s judgment seat.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Fearfully did
+          Pelias look upon him. But not fearfully did the youth look upon the
+          king. With head lifted high he cried out, <span class="tei tei-pb"
+          id="page12">[pg 12]</span> <span class="tei tei-q">“Thou art
+          Pelias, but I do not salute thee as king. Know that I am Jason, the
+          son of Æson from whom thou hast taken the throne and scepter that
+          were rightfully his.”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> King Pelias
+          looked to his guards. He would have given them a sign to destroy
+          the youth’s life with their spears, but behind his guards he saw a
+          threatening multitude—the dwellers of the city of Iolcus; they
+          gathered around, and Pelias knew that he had become more and more
+          hated by them. And from the multitude a cry went up, <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“Æson, Æson! May Æson come back to us! Jason, son of
+          Æson! May nothing evil befall thee, brave youth!”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Then Pelias
+          knew that the youth might not be slain. He bent his head while he
+          plotted against him in his heart. Then he raised his eyes, and
+          looking upon Jason he said, <span class="tei tei-q">“O goodly
+          youth, it well may be that thou art the son of Æson, my brother. I
+          am well pleased to see thee here. I have had hopes that I might be
+          friends with Æson, and thy coming here may be the means to the
+          renewal of our friendship. We two brothers may come together again.
+          I will send for thy father now, and he will be brought to meet thee
+          in my royal palace. Go with my guards and with this rejoicing
+          people, and in a little while thou and I and thy father Æson will
+          sit at a feast of friends.”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> So Pelias said,
+          and Jason went with the guards and the crowd of people, and he came
+          to the palace of the king and he was brought within. The maids led
+          him to the bath and gave him new robes to wear. Dressed in these
+          Jason looked a prince indeed.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> But all that
+          while King Pelias remained on his judgment seat <span class=
+          "tei tei-pb" id="page13">[pg 13]</span> with his crowned head bent
+          down. When he raised his head his dark brows were gathered together
+          and his thin lips were very close. He looked to the swords and
+          spears of his guards, and he made a sign to the men to stand close
+          to him. Then he left the judgment seat and he went to the
+          palace.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style=
+          "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em"><a name="i003.png" id=
+          "i003.png" class="tei tei-anchor" style=
+          "text-align: center"></a><a name="fig13" id="fig13"></a></p>
+
+          <div class="tei tei-figure" style=
+          "width: 100%; text-align: center">
+            <img src="images/i003.png" alt="Illustration" title="" />
+
+            <div class="tei tei-head" style=
+            "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em">
+            </div>
+          </div>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="tei tei-div" style=
+        "margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em">
+          <a name="toc14" id="toc14"></a><a name="pdf15" id="pdf15"></a>
+
+          <h2 class="tei tei-head" style=
+          "text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em">
+          <span style="font-size: 144%">III. The Golden Fleece</span></h2>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> </p>
+
+          <div class="deco-letter floatleft tei tei-figure" style=
+          "margin-bottom: 0.00em; margin-top: 0.00em"><img src=
+          "images/capT.png" alt="Decorative first letter" /></div>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"><span class=
+          "tei tei-hi" style="margin-left: -1.00em"><span style=
+          "color: white; font-variant: small-caps">T</span></span>HEY brought
+          Jason into a hall where Æson, his father, waited. Very strange did
+          this old and grave-looking man appear to him. But when Æson spoke,
+          Jason remembered the tone of his father’s voice and he clasped him
+          to him. And his father knew him even without the sight of the ruby
+          ring which Jason had upon his finger.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Then the young
+          man began to tell of the centaur and of his life upon the Mountain
+          Pelion. As they were speaking together Pelias came to where they
+          stood, Pelias in the purple robe of a king and with the crown upon
+          his head. Æson tightly clasped Jason as if he had become fearful
+          for his son. Pelias smilingly took the hand of the young man and
+          the hand of his brother, and he bade them both welcome to his
+          palace.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Then, walking
+          between them, the king brought the two into the feasting hall. The
+          youth who had known only the forest and the mountainside had to
+          wonder at the beauty and the magnificence <span class="tei tei-pb"
+          id="page14">[pg 14]</span> of all he saw around him. On the walls
+          were bright pictures; the tables were of polished wood, and they
+          had vessels of gold and dishes of silver set upon them; along the
+          walls were vases of lovely shapes and colors, and everywhere there
+          were baskets heaped with roses white and red.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> The king’s
+          guests were already in the hall, young men and elders, and maidens
+          went amongst them carrying roses which they strung into wreaths for
+          the guests to put upon their heads. A soft-handed maiden gave Jason
+          a wreath of roses and he put it on his head as he sat down at the
+          king’s table. When he looked at all the rich and lovely things in
+          that hall, and when he saw the guests looking at him with friendly
+          eyes, Jason felt that he was indeed far away from the dim spaces of
+          the mountain forest and from the darkness of the centaur’s
+          cave.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Rich food and
+          wine such as he had never dreamt of tasting were brought to the
+          tables. He ate and drank, and his eyes followed the fair maidens
+          who went through the hall. He thought how glorious it was to be a
+          king. He heard Pelias speak to Æson, his father, telling him that
+          he was old and that he was weary of ruling; that he longed to make
+          friends, and that he would let no enmity now be between him and his
+          brother. And he heard the king say that he, Jason, was young and
+          courageous, and that he would call upon him to help to rule the
+          land, and that, in a while, Jason would bear full sway over the
+          kingdom that Cretheus had founded.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> So Pelias spoke
+          to Æson as they both sat together at the king’s <span class=
+          "tei tei-pb" id="page15">[pg 15]</span> high table. But Jason,
+          looking on them both, saw that the eyes that his father turned on
+          him were full of warnings and mistrust.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style=
+          "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em"><a name="i004.png" id=
+          "i004.png" class="tei tei-anchor" style=
+          "text-align: center"></a><a name="fig16" id="fig16"></a></p>
+
+          <div class="tei tei-figure" style=
+          "width: 100%; text-align: center">
+            <img src="images/i004.png" alt="Illustration" title="" />
+
+            <div class="tei tei-head" style=
+            "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em">
+            </div>
+          </div>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> After they had
+          eaten King Pelias made a sign, and a cup-bearer bringing a richly
+          wrought cup came and stood before the king. The king stood up,
+          holding the cup in his hands, and all in the hall waited silently.
+          Then Pelias put the cup into Jason’s hands and he cried out in a
+          voice that was heard all through the hall, <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“Drink from this cup, O nephew Jason! Drink from this
+          cup, O man who will soon come to rule over the kingdom that
+          Cretheus founded!”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> All in the hall
+          stood up and shouted with delight at that speech. But the king was
+          not delighted with their delight, Jason saw. He took the cup and he
+          drank the rich wine; pride grew in him; he looked down the hall and
+          he saw faces all friendly to him; he felt as a king might feel,
+          secure and triumphant. And then he heard King Pelias speaking once
+          more.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“This is my nephew Jason, reared and fostered in the
+          centaur’s cave. He will tell you of his life in the forest and the
+          mountains—his life that was like to the life of the half
+          gods.”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Then Jason
+          spoke to them, telling them of his life on the Mountain Pelion.
+          When he had spoken, Pelias said:</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“I was bidden by the oracle to beware of the man whom I
+          should see coming toward me half shod. But, as you all see, I have
+          brought the half-shod man to my palace and my feasting hall, so
+          little do I dread the anger of the gods.</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“And I dread it little because I am blameless. This
+          youth, the <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page16">[pg 16]</span> son
+          of my brother, is strong and courageous, and I rejoice in his
+          strength and courage, for I would have him take my place and reign
+          over you. Ah, that I were as young as he is now! Ah, that I had
+          been reared and fostered as he was reared and fostered by the wise
+          centaur and under the eyes of the immortals! Then would I do that
+          which in my youth I often dreamed of doing! Then would I perform a
+          deed that would make my name and the name of my city famous
+          throughout all Greece! Then would I bring from far Colchis the
+          famous Fleece of Gold that King Æetes keeps guard over!”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> He finished
+          speaking, and all in the hall shouted out, <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“The Golden Fleece, the Golden Fleece from
+          Colchis!”</span> Jason stood up, and his father’s hand gripped him.
+          But he did not heed the hold of his father’s hand, for <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“The Golden Fleece, the Golden Fleece!”</span> rang in
+          his ears, and before his eyes were the faces of those who were all
+          eager for the sight of the wonder that King Æetes kept guard
+          over.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Then said
+          Jason, <span class="tei tei-q">“Thou hast spoken well, O King
+          Pelias! Know, and know all here assembled, that I have heard of the
+          Golden Fleece and of the dangers that await on any one who should
+          strive to win it from King Æetes’s care. But know, too, that I
+          would strive to win the Fleece and bring it to Iolcus, winning fame
+          both for myself and for the city.”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> When he had
+          spoken he saw his father’s stricken eyes; they were fixed upon him.
+          But he looked from them to the shining eyes of the young men who
+          were even then pressing around <span class="tei tei-pb" id=
+          "page17">[pg 17]</span> where he stood. <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“Jason, Jason!”</span> they shouted. <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“The Golden Fleece for Iolcus!”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“King Pelias knows that the winning of the Golden
+          Fleece is a feat most difficult,”</span> said Jason. <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“But if he will have built for me a ship that can make
+          the voyage to far Colchis, and if he will send throughout all
+          Greece the word of my adventuring so that all the heroes who would
+          win fame might come with me, and if ye, young heroes of Iolcus,
+          will come with me, I will peril my life to win the wonder that King
+          Æetes keeps guard over.”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> He spoke and
+          those in the hall shouted again and made clamor around him. But
+          still his father sat gazing at him with stricken eyes.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> King Pelias
+          stood up in the hall and holding up his scepter he said,
+          <span class="tei tei-q">“O my nephew Jason, and O friends assembled
+          here, I promise that I will have built for the voyage the best ship
+          that ever sailed from a harbor in Greece. And I promise that I will
+          send throughout all Greece a word telling of Jason’s voyage so that
+          all heroes desirous of winning fame may come to help him and to
+          help all of you who may go with him to win from the keeping of King
+          Æetes the famous Fleece of Gold.”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> So King Pelias
+          said, but Jason, looking to the king from his father’s stricken
+          eyes, saw that he had been led by the king into the acceptance of
+          the voyage so that he might fare far from Iolcus, and perhaps lose
+          his life in striving to gain the wonder that King Æetes kept
+          guarded. By the glitter in Pelias’s eyes he knew the truth.
+          Nevertheless Jason would not take back one <span class="tei tei-pb"
+          id="page18">[pg 18]</span> word that he had spoken; his heart was
+          strong within him, and he thought that with the help of the
+          bright-eyed youths around and with the help of those who would come
+          to him at the word of the voyage, he would bring the Golden Fleece
+          to Iolcus and make famous for all time his own name.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="tei tei-div" style=
+        "margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em">
+          <a name="toc17" id="toc17"></a><a name="pdf18" id="pdf18"></a>
+
+          <h2 class="tei tei-head" style=
+          "text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em">
+          <span style="font-size: 144%">IV. The Assembling of the Heroes and
+          the Building of the Ship</span></h2>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> </p>
+
+          <div class="deco-letter floatleft tei tei-figure" style=
+          "margin-bottom: 0.00em; margin-top: 0.00em"><img src=
+          "images/capF.png" alt="Decorative first letter" /></div>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"><span class=
+          "tei tei-hi" style="margin-left: -1.00em"><span style=
+          "color: white; font-variant: small-caps">F</span></span>IRST there
+          came the youths <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style=
+          "font-variant: small-caps">Castor</span></span> and <span class=
+          "tei tei-hi"><span style=
+          "font-variant: small-caps">Polydeuces</span></span>. They came
+          riding on white horses, two noble-looking brothers. From Sparta
+          they came, and their mother was Leda, who, after the twin brothers,
+          had another child born to her—Helen, for whose sake the sons of
+          many of Jason’s friends were to wage war against the great city of
+          Troy. These were the first heroes who came to Iolcus after the word
+          had gone forth through Greece of Jason’s adventuring in quest of
+          the Golden Fleece.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> And then there
+          came one who had both welcome and reverence from Jason; this one
+          came without spear or bow, bearing in his hands a lyre only. He was
+          <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style=
+          "font-variant: small-caps">Orpheus</span></span>, and he knew all
+          the ways of the gods and all the stories of the gods; when he sang
+          to his lyre the trees would listen and the beasts would follow him.
+          It was Chiron who had counseled Orpheus to go with Jason; Chiron
+          <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page19">[pg 19]</span> the centaur had
+          met him as he was wandering through the forests on the Mountain
+          Pelion and had sent him down into Iolcus.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Then there came
+          two men well skilled in the handling of ships—<span class=
+          "tei tei-hi"><span style=
+          "font-variant: small-caps">Tiphys</span></span> and <span class=
+          "tei tei-hi"><span style=
+          "font-variant: small-caps">Nauplius</span></span>. Tiphys knew all
+          about the sun and winds and stars, and all about the signs by which
+          a ship might be steered, and Nauplius had the love of Poseidon, the
+          god of the sea.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Afterward there
+          came, one after the other, two who were famous for their hunting.
+          No two could be more different than these two were. The first was
+          <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style=
+          "font-variant: small-caps">Arcas</span></span>. He was dressed in
+          the skin of a bear; he had red hair and savage-looking eyes, and
+          for arms he carried a mighty bow with bronze-tipped arrows. The
+          folk were watching an eagle as he came into the city—an eagle that
+          was winging its way far, far up in the sky. Arcas drew his bow, and
+          with one arrow he brought the eagle down.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> The other
+          hunter was a girl, <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style=
+          "font-variant: small-caps">Atalanta</span></span>. Tall and
+          bright-haired was Atalanta, swift and good with the bow. She had
+          dedicated herself to Artemis, the guardian of the wild things, and
+          she had vowed that she would remain unwedded. All the heroes
+          welcomed Atalanta as a comrade, and the maiden did all the things
+          that the young men did.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> There came a
+          hero who was less youthful than Castor or Polydeuces; he was a man
+          good in council named <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style=
+          "font-variant: small-caps">Nestor</span></span>. Afterward Nestor
+          went to the war against Troy, and then he was the oldest of the
+          heroes in the camp of Agamemnon.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Two brothers
+          came who were to be special friends of Jason’s—<span class=
+          "tei tei-hi"><span style=
+          "font-variant: small-caps">Peleus</span></span> <span class=
+          "tei tei-pb" id="page20">[pg 20]</span> and <span class=
+          "tei tei-hi"><span style=
+          "font-variant: small-caps">Telamon</span></span>. Both were still
+          youthful and neither had yet achieved any notable deed. Afterward
+          they were to be famous, but their sons were to be even more famous,
+          for the son of Telamon was strong Aias, and the son of Peleus was
+          great Achilles.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Another who
+          came was <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style=
+          "font-variant: small-caps">Admetus</span></span>; afterward he
+          became a famous king. The God Apollo once made himself a shepherd
+          and he kept the flocks of King Admetus.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> And there came
+          two brothers, twins, who were a wonder to all who beheld them.
+          <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style=
+          "font-variant: small-caps">Zetes</span></span> and <span class=
+          "tei tei-hi"><span style=
+          "font-variant: small-caps">Calais</span></span> they were named;
+          their mother was Oreithyia, the daughter of Erechtheus, King of
+          Athens, and their father was Boreas, the North Wind. These two
+          brothers had on their ankles wings that gleamed with golden scales;
+          their black hair was thick upon their shoulders, and it was always
+          being shaken by the wind.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> With Zetes and
+          Calais there came a youth armed with a great sword whose name was
+          <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style=
+          "font-variant: small-caps">Theseus</span></span>. Theseus’s father
+          was an unknown king; he had bidden the mother show their son where
+          his sword was hidden. Under a great stone the king had hidden it
+          before Theseus was born. Before he had grown out of his boyhood
+          Theseus had been able to raise the stone and draw forth his
+          father’s sword. As yet he had done no great deed, but he was
+          resolved to win fame and to find his unknown father.</p>
+
+          <div class="tei tei-tb">
+            &nbsp;
+          </div>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> On the day that
+          the messengers had set out to bring through Greece the word of
+          Jason’s going forth in quest of the Golden <span class="tei tei-pb"
+          id="page21">[pg 21]</span> Fleece the woodcutters made their way up
+          into the forests of Mount Pelion; they began to fell trees for the
+          timbers of the ship that was to make the voyage to far Colchis.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style=
+          "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em"><a name="i005.png" id=
+          "i005.png" class="tei tei-anchor" style=
+          "text-align: center"></a><a name="fig19" id="fig19"></a></p>
+
+          <div class="tei tei-figure" style=
+          "width: 100%; text-align: center">
+            <img src="images/i005.png" alt="Illustration" title="" />
+
+            <div class="tei tei-head" style=
+            "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em">
+            </div>
+          </div>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Great timbers
+          were cut and brought down to Pagasæ, the harbor of Iolcus. On the
+          night of the day he had helped to bring them down Jason had a
+          dream. He dreamt that She whom he had seen in the forest ways and
+          afterward by the River Anaurus appeared to him. And in his dream
+          the goddess bade him rise early in the morning and welcome a man
+          whom he would meet at the city’s gate—a tall and gray-haired man
+          who would have on his shoulders tools for the building of a
+          ship.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> He went to the
+          city’s gate and he met such a man. <span class=
+          "tei tei-hi"><span style=
+          "font-variant: small-caps">Argus</span></span> was his name. He
+          told Jason that a dream had sent him to the city of Iolcus. Jason
+          welcomed him and lodged him in the king’s palace, and that day the
+          word went through the city that the building of the great ship
+          would soon be begun.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> But not with
+          the timbers brought from Mount Pelion did Argus begin. Walking
+          through the palace with Jason he noted a great beam in the roof.
+          That beam, he said, had been shown him in his dream; it was from an
+          oak tree in Dodona, the grove of Zeus. A sacred power was in the
+          beam, and from it the prow of the ship should be fashioned. Jason
+          had them take the beam from the roof of the palace; it was brought
+          to where the timbers were, and that day the building of the great
+          ship was begun.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Then all along
+          the waterside came the noise of hammering; in the street where the
+          metalworkers were came the noise of beating <span class=
+          "tei tei-pb" id="page22">[pg 22]</span> upon metals as the smiths
+          fashioned out of bronze armor for the heroes and swords and spears.
+          Every day, under the eyes of Argus the master, the ship that had in
+          it the beam from Zeus’s grove was built higher and wider. And those
+          who were building the ship often felt going through it tremors as
+          of a living creature.</p>
+
+          <div class="tei tei-tb">
+            &nbsp;
+          </div>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> When the ship
+          was built and made ready for the voyage a name was given to it—the
+          <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style=
+          "font-variant: small-caps">Argo</span></span> it was called. And
+          naming themselves from the ship the heroes called themselves the
+          <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style=
+          "font-variant: small-caps">Argonauts</span></span>. All was ready
+          for the voyage, and now Jason went with his friends to view the
+          ship before she was brought into the water.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Argus the
+          master was on the ship, seeing to it that the last things were
+          being done before <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style=
+          "font-style: italic">Argo</span></em> was launched. Very grave and
+          wise looked Argus—Argus the builder of the ship. And wonderful to
+          the heroes the ship looked now that Argus, for their viewing, had
+          set up the mast with the sails and had even put the oars in their
+          places. Wonderful to the heroes <em class=
+          "tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">Argo</span></em>
+          looked with her long oars and her high sails, with her timbers
+          painted red and gold and blue, and with a marvelous figure carved
+          upon her prow. All over the ship Jason’s eyes went. He saw a figure
+          standing by the mast; for a moment he looked on it, and then the
+          figure became shadowy. But Jason knew that he had looked upon the
+          goddess whom he had seen in the ways of the forest and had seen
+          afterward by the rough Anaurus.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Then mast and
+          sails were taken down and the oars were left in <span class=
+          "tei tei-pb" id="page23">[pg 23]</span> the ship, and the
+          <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style=
+          "font-style: italic">Argo</span></em> was launched into the water.
+          The heroes went back to the palace of King Pelias to feast with the
+          king’s guests before they took their places on the ship, setting
+          out on the voyage to far Colchis.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> When they came
+          into the palace they saw that another hero had arrived. His shield
+          was hung in the hall; the heroes all gathered around, amazed at the
+          size and the beauty of it. The shield shone all over with gold. In
+          its center was the figure of Fear—of Fear that stared backward with
+          eyes burning as with fire. The mouth was open and the teeth were
+          shown. And other figures were wrought around the figure of
+          Fear—Strife and Pursuit and Flight; Tumult and Panic and Slaughter.
+          The figure of Fate was there dragging a dead man by the feet; on
+          her shoulders Fate had a garment that was red with the blood of
+          men.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Around these
+          figures were heads of snakes, heads with black jaws and glittering
+          eyes, twelve heads such as might affright any man. And on other
+          parts of the shield were shown the horses of Ares, the grim god of
+          war. The figure of Ares himself was shown also. He held a spear in
+          his hand, and he was urging the warriors on.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Around the
+          inner rim of the shield the sea was shown, wrought in white metal.
+          Dolphins swam in the sea, fishing for little fishes that were shown
+          there in bronze. Around the rim chariots were racing along with
+          wheels running close together; there were men fighting and women
+          watching from high towers. The awful figure of the Darkness of
+          Death was shown there, too, with mournful <span class="tei tei-pb"
+          id="page24">[pg 24]</span> eyes and the dust of battles upon her
+          shoulders. The outer rim of the shield showed the Stream of Ocean,
+          the stream that encircles the world; swans were soaring above and
+          swimming on its surface.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> All in wonder
+          the heroes gazed on the great shield, telling each other that only
+          one man in all the world could carry it—Heracles the son of Zeus.
+          Could it be that Heracles had come amongst them? They went into the
+          feasting hall and they saw one there who was tall as a pine tree,
+          with unshorn tresses of hair upon his head. Heracles indeed it was!
+          He turned to them a smiling face with smiling eyes. Heracles! They
+          all gathered around the strongest hero in the world, and he took
+          the hand of each in his mighty hand.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="tei tei-div" style=
+        "margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em">
+          <a name="toc20" id="toc20"></a><a name="pdf21" id="pdf21"></a>
+
+          <h2 class="tei tei-head" style=
+          "text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em">
+          <span style="font-size: 144%">V. The</span> <em class=
+          "tei tei-emph" style="text-align: left"><span style=
+          "font-size: 144%; font-style: italic">Argo</span></em></h2>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> </p>
+
+          <div class="deco-letter floatleft tei tei-figure" style=
+          "margin-bottom: 0.00em; margin-top: 0.00em"><img src=
+          "images/capT.png" alt="Decorative first letter" /></div>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"><span class=
+          "tei tei-hi" style="margin-left: -1.00em"><span style=
+          "color: white; font-variant: small-caps">T</span></span>HE heroes
+          went the next day through the streets of Iolcus down to where the
+          ship lay. The ways they went through were crowded; the heroes were
+          splendid in their appearance, and Jason amongst them shone like a
+          star.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> The people
+          praised him, and one told the other that it would not be long until
+          they would win back to Iolcus, for this band of heroes was strong
+          enough, they said, to take King Æetes’s city and force him to give
+          up to them the famous Fleece of Gold. Many of the bright-eyed
+          youths of Iolcus <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page25">[pg
+          25]</span> went with the heroes who had come from the different
+          parts of Greece.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style=
+          "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em"><a name="i006.png" id=
+          "i006.png" class="tei tei-anchor" style=
+          "text-align: center"></a><a name="fig22" id="fig22"></a></p>
+
+          <div class="tei tei-figure" style=
+          "width: 100%; text-align: center">
+            <img src="images/i006.png" alt="Illustration" title="the Argo" />
+
+            <div class="tei tei-head" style=
+            "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em">
+              the <em class="tei tei-emph" style=
+              "text-align: center"><span style=
+              "font-style: italic">Argo</span></em>
+            </div>
+          </div>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> As they marched
+          past a temple a priestess came forth to speak to Jason; Iphias was
+          her name. She had a prophecy to utter about the voyage. But Iphias
+          was very old, and she stammered in her speech to Jason. What she
+          said was not heard by him. The heroes went on, and ancient Iphias
+          was left standing there as the old are left by the young.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> The heroes went
+          aboard the <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style=
+          "font-style: italic">Argo</span></em>. They took their seats as at
+          an assembly. Then Jason faced them and spoke to them all.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“Heroes of the quest,”</span> said Jason, <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“we have come aboard the great ship that Argus has
+          built, and all that a ship needs is in its place or is ready to our
+          hands. All that we wait for now is the coming of the morning’s
+          breeze that will set us on our way for far Colchis.</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“One thing we have first to do—that is, to choose a
+          leader who will direct us all, one who will settle disputes amongst
+          ourselves and who will make treaties between us and the strangers
+          that we come amongst. We must choose such a leader now.”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Jason spoke,
+          and some looked to him and some looked to Heracles. But Heracles
+          stood up, and, stretching out his hand, said:</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“Argonauts! Let no one amongst you offer the leadership
+          to me. I will not take it. The hero who brought us together and
+          made all things ready for our going—it is he and no one else who
+          should be our leader in this voyage.”</span></p><span class=
+          "tei tei-pb" id="page26">[pg 26]</span>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> So Heracles
+          said, and the Argonauts all stood up and raised a cry for Jason.
+          Then Jason stepped forward, and he took the hand of each Argonaut
+          in his hand, and he swore that he would lead them with all the mind
+          and all the courage that he possessed. And he prayed the gods that
+          it would be given to him to lead them back safely with the Golden
+          Fleece glittering on the mast of the <em class=
+          "tei tei-emph"><span style=
+          "font-style: italic">Argo</span></em>.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> They drew lots
+          for the benches they would sit at; they took the places that for
+          the length of the voyage they would have on the ship. They made
+          sacrifice to the gods and they waited for the breeze of the morning
+          that would help them away from Iolcus.</p>
+
+          <div class="tei tei-tb">
+            &nbsp;
+          </div>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> And while they
+          waited Æson, the father of Jason, sat at his own hearth, bowed and
+          silent in his grief. Alcimide, his wife, sat near him, but she was
+          not silent; she lamented to the women of Iolcus who were gathered
+          around her. <span class="tei tei-q">“I did not go down to the
+          ship,”</span> she said, <span class="tei tei-q">“for with my grief
+          I would not be a bird of ill omen for the voyage. By this hearth my
+          son took farewell of me—the only son I ever bore. From the doorway
+          I watched him go down the street of the city, and I heard the
+          people shout as he went amongst them, they glorying in my son’s
+          splendid appearance. Ah, that I might live to see his return and to
+          hear the shout that will go up when the people look on Jason again!
+          But I know that my life will not be spared so long; I will not look
+          on my son when he comes back from the dangers he will run in the
+          quest of the Golden Fleece.”</span></p><span class="tei tei-pb" id=
+          "page27">[pg 27]</span>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Then the women
+          of Iolcus asked her to tell them of the Golden Fleece, and Alcimide
+          told them of it and of the sorrows that were upon the race of
+          Æolus.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Cretheus, the
+          father of Æson and Pelias, was of the race of Æolus, and of the
+          race of Æolus, too, was Athamas, the king who ruled in Thebes at
+          the same time that Cretheus ruled in Iolcus. And the first children
+          of Athamas were Phrixus and Helle.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“Ah, Phrixus and ah, Helle,”</span> Alcimide lamented,
+          <span class="tei tei-q">“what griefs you have brought on the race
+          of Æolus! And what griefs you yourselves suffered! The evil that
+          Athamas, your father, did you lives to be a curse to the line of
+          Æolus!</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“Athamas was wedded first to Nephele, the mother of
+          Phrixus and Helle, the youth and maiden. But Athamas married again
+          while the mother of these children was still living, and Ino, the
+          new queen, drove Nephele and her children out of the king’s
+          palace.</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“And now was Nephele most unhappy. She had to live as a
+          servant, and her children were servants to the servants of the
+          palace. They were clad in rags and had little to eat, and they were
+          beaten often by the servants who wished to win the favor of the new
+          queen.</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“But although they wore rags and had menial tasks to
+          do, Phrixus and Helle looked the children of a queen. The boy was
+          tall, and in his eyes there often came the flash of power, and the
+          girl looked as if she would grow into a lovely maiden. And when
+          Athamas, their father, would meet them by chance he would sigh,
+          <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page28">[pg 28]</span> and Queen Ino
+          would know by that sigh that he had still some love for them in his
+          heart. Afterward she would have to use all the power she possessed
+          to win the king back from thinking upon his children.</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“And now Queen Ino had children of her own. She knew
+          that the people reverenced the children of Nephele and cared
+          nothing for her children. And because she knew this she feared that
+          when Athamas died Phrixus and Helle, the children of Nephele, would
+          be brought to rule in Thebes. Then she and her children would be
+          made to change places with them.</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“This made Queen Ino think on ways by which she could
+          make Phrixus and Helle lose their lives. She thought long upon
+          this, and at last a desperate plan came into her mind.</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“When it was winter she went amongst the women of the
+          countryside, and she gave them jewels and clothes for presents.
+          Then she asked them to do secretly an unheard-of thing. She asked
+          the women to roast over their fires the grains that had been left
+          for seed. This the women did. Then spring came on, and the men
+          sowed in the fields the grain that had been roasted over the fires.
+          No shoots grew up as the spring went by. In summer there was no
+          waving greenness in the fields. Autumn came, and there was no grain
+          for the reaping. Then the men, not knowing what had happened, went
+          to King Athamas and told him that there would be famine in the
+          land.</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“The king sent to the temple of Artemis to ask how the
+          people might be saved from the famine. And the guardians of the
+          temple, <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page29">[pg 29]</span> having
+          taken gold from Queen Ino, told them that there would be worse and
+          worse famine and that all the people of Thebes would die of hunger
+          unless the king was willing to make a great sacrifice.</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“When the king asked what sacrifice he should make he
+          was told by the guardians of the temple that he must sacrifice to
+          the goddess his two children, Phrixus and Helle. Those who were
+          around the king, to save themselves from famine after famine,
+          clamored to have the children sacrificed. Athamas, to save his
+          people, consented to the sacrifice.</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“They went toward the king’s palace. They found Helle
+          by the bank of the river washing clothes. They took her and bound
+          her. They found Phrixus, half naked, digging in a field, and they
+          took him, too, and bound him. That night they left brother and
+          sister in the same prison. Helle wept over Phrixus, and Phrixus
+          wept to think that he was not able to do anything to save his
+          sister.</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“The servants of the palace went to Nephele, and they
+          mocked at her, telling her that her children would be sacrificed on
+          the morrow. Nephele nearly went wild in her grief. And then,
+          suddenly, there came into her mind the thought of a creature that
+          might be a helper to her and to her children.</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“This creature was a ram that had wings and a wonderful
+          fleece of gold. The god of the sea, Poseidon, had sent this
+          wonderful ram to Athamas and Nephele as a marriage gift. And the
+          ram had since been kept in a special fold.</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“To that fold Nephele went. She spent the night beside
+          the <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page30">[pg 30]</span> ram praying
+          for its help. The morning came and the children were taken from
+          their prison and dressed in white, and wreaths were put upon their
+          heads to mark them as things for sacrifice. They were led in a
+          procession to the temple of Artemis. Behind that procession King
+          Athamas walked, his head bowed in shame.</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“But Queen Ino’s head was not bowed; rather she carried
+          it high, for her thought was all upon her triumph. Soon Phrixus and
+          Helle would be dead, and then, whatever happened, her own children
+          would reign after Athamas in Thebes.</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“Phrixus and Helle, thinking they were taking their
+          last look at the sun, went on. And even then Nephele, holding the
+          horns of the golden ram, was making her last prayer. The sun rose
+          and as it did the ram spread out its great wings and flew through
+          the air. It flew to the temple of Artemis. Down beside the altar
+          came the golden ram, and it stood with its horns threatening those
+          who came. All stopped in surprise. Still the ram stood with
+          threatening head and great golden wings spread out. Then Phrixus
+          ran from those who were holding him and laid his hands upon the
+          ram. He called to Helle and she, too, came to the golden creature.
+          Phrixus mounted on the ram and he pulled Helle up beside him. Then
+          the golden ram flew upward. Up, up, it went, and with the children
+          upon its back it became like a star in the day-lit sky.</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“Then Queen Ino, seeing the children saved by the
+          golden ram, shrieked and fled away from that place. Athamas ran
+          after her. As she ran and as he followed hatred for her grew up
+          within him. Ino ran on and on until she came to the cliffs that
+          rose over the <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page31">[pg 31]</span>
+          sea. Fearing Athamas who came behind her she plunged down. But as
+          she fell she was changed by Poseidon, the god of the sea. She
+          became a seagull. Athamas, who followed her, was changed also; he
+          became the sea eagle that, with beak and talons ever ready to
+          strike, flies above the sea.</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“And the golden ram with wings outspread flew on and
+          on. Over the sea it flew while the wind whistled around the
+          children. On and on they went, and the children saw only the blue
+          sea beneath them. Then poor Helle, looking downward, grew dizzy.
+          She fell off the golden ram before her brother could take hold of
+          her. Down she fell, and still the ram flew on and on. She was
+          drowned in that sea. The people afterward named it in memory of
+          her, calling it <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">‘Hellespont’</span>—<span class="tei tei-q">‘Helle’s
+          Sea.’</span></span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“On and on the ram flew. Over a wild and barren country
+          it flew and toward a river. Upon that river a white city was built.
+          Down the ram flew, and alighting on the ground, stood before the
+          gate of that city. It was the city of Aea, in the land of
+          Colchis.</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“The king was in the street of the city, and he joined
+          with the crowd that gathered around the strange golden creature
+          that had a youth upon its back. The ram folded its wings and then
+          the youth stood beside it. He spoke to the people, and then the
+          king—Æetes was his name—spoke to him, asking him from what place he
+          had come, and what was the strange creature upon whose back he had
+          flown.</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“To the king and to the people Phrixus told his story,
+          weeping <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page32">[pg 32]</span> to tell
+          of Helle and her fall. Then King Æetes brought him into the city,
+          and he gave him a place in the palace, and for the golden ram he
+          had a special fold made.</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“Soon after the ram died, and then King Æetes took its
+          golden fleece and hung it upon an oak tree that was in a place
+          dedicated to Ares, the god of war. Phrixus wed one of the daughters
+          of the king, and men say that afterward he went back to Thebes, his
+          own land.</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“And as for the Golden Fleece it became the greatest of
+          King Æetes’s treasures. Well indeed does he guard it, and not with
+          armed men only, but with magic powers. Very strong and very cunning
+          is King Æetes, and a terrible task awaits those who would take away
+          from him that Fleece of Gold.”</span></p>
+
+          <div class="tei tei-tb">
+            &nbsp;
+          </div>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> So Alcimide
+          spoke, sorrowfully telling to the women the story of the Golden
+          Fleece that her son Jason was going in quest of. So she spoke, and
+          the night waned, and the morning of the sailing of the <em class=
+          "tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">Argo</span></em>
+          came on.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> And when the
+          Argonauts beheld the dawn upon the high peaks of Pelion they arose
+          and poured out wine in offering to Zeus, the highest of the gods.
+          Then <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style=
+          "font-style: italic">Argo</span></em> herself gave forth a strange
+          cry, for the beam from Dodona that had been formed into her prow
+          had endued her with life. She uttered a strange cry, and as she did
+          the heroes took their places at the benches, one after the other,
+          as had been arranged by lot, and Tiphys, the helmsman, went to the
+          steering place. To the sound of Orpheus’s lyre they <span class=
+          "tei tei-pb" id="page33">[pg 33]</span> smote with oars the rushing
+          sea water, and the surge broke over the oar blades. The sails were
+          let out and the breeze came into them, piping shrilly, and the
+          fishes came darting through the green sea, great and small, and
+          followed them, gamboling along the watery paths. And Chiron, the
+          king-centaur, came down from the Mountain Pelion, and standing with
+          his feet in the foam cried out, <span class="tei tei-q">“Good
+          speed, O Argonauts, good speed, and a sorrowless
+          return.”</span></p>
+
+          <div class="tei tei-div" style=
+          "margin-bottom: 3.00em; margin-top: 3.00em">
+            <a name="toc23" id="toc23"></a><a name="pdf24" id="pdf24"></a>
+
+            <h3 class="tei tei-head" style=
+            "text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.40em; margin-top: 2.40em">
+            <span style="font-size: 120%">The Beginning of Things</span></h3>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Orpheus sang
+            to his lyre, Orpheus the minstrel, who knew the ways and the
+            stories of the gods; out in the open sea on the first morning of
+            the voyage Orpheus sang to them of the beginning of things.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> He sang how
+            at first Earth and Heaven and Sea were all mixed and mingled
+            together. There was neither Light nor Darkness then, but only a
+            Dimness. This was Chaos. And from Chaos came forth Night and
+            Erebus. From Night was born Æther, the Upper Air, and from Night
+            and Erebus wedded there was born Day.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> And out of
+            Chaos came Earth, and out of Earth came the starry Heaven. And
+            from Heaven and Earth wedded there were born the Titan gods and
+            goddesses—Oceanus, Cœus, Crius, Hyperion, Iapetus; Theia, Rhea,
+            Themis, Mnemosyne, gold-crowned Phœbe, and lovely Tethys. And
+            then Heaven and Earth had for their child Cronos, the most
+            cunning of all.</p><span class="tei tei-pb" id="page34">[pg
+            34]</span>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Cronos wedded
+            Rhea, and from Cronos and Rhea were born the gods who were
+            different from the Titan gods.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> But Heaven
+            and Earth had other children—Cottus, Briareus, and Gyes. These
+            were giants, each with fifty heads and a hundred arms. And Heaven
+            grew fearful when he looked on these giant children, and he hid
+            them away in the deep places of the Earth.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Cronos hated
+            Heaven, his father. He drove Heaven, his father, and Earth, his
+            mother, far apart. And far apart they stay, for they have never
+            been able to come near each other since. And Cronos married to
+            Rhea had for children Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Aidoneus, and
+            Poseidon, and these all belonged to the company of the deathless
+            gods. Cronos was fearful that one of his sons would treat him as
+            he had treated Heaven, his father. So when another child was born
+            to him and his wife Rhea he commanded that the child be given to
+            him so that he might swallow him. But Rhea wrapped a great stone
+            in swaddling clothes and gave the stone to Cronos. And Cronos
+            swallowed the stone, thinking to swallow his latest-born
+            child.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> That child
+            was Zeus. Earth took Zeus and hid him in a deep cave and those
+            who minded and nursed the child beat upon drums so that his cries
+            might not be heard. His nurse was Adrastia; when he was able to
+            play she gave him a ball to play with. All of gold was the ball,
+            with a dark-blue spiral around it. When the boy Zeus would play
+            with this ball it would make a track across the sky, flaming like
+            a star.</p><span class="tei tei-pb" id="page35">[pg 35]</span>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Hyperion the
+            Titan god wed Theia the Titan goddess, and their children were
+            Helios, the bright Sun, and Selene, the clear Moon. And Cœus wed
+            Phœbe, and their children were Leto, who is kind to gods and men,
+            and Asteria of happy name, and Hecate, whom Zeus honored above
+            all. Now the gods who were the children of Cronos and Rhea went
+            up unto the Mountain Olympus, and there they built their shining
+            palaces. But the Titan gods who were born of Heaven and Earth
+            went up to the Mountain Othrys, and there they had their
+            thrones.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Between the
+            Olympians and the Titan gods of Othrys a war began. Neither side
+            might prevail against the other. But now Zeus, grown up to be a
+            youth, thought of how he might help the Olympians to overthrow
+            the Titan gods.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> He went down
+            into the deep parts of the Earth where the giants Cottus,
+            Briareus, and Gyes had been hidden by their father. Cronos had
+            bound them, weighing them down with chains. But now Zeus loosed
+            them and the hundred-armed giants in their gratitude gave him the
+            lightning and showed him how to use the thunderbolt.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Zeus would
+            have the giants fight against the Titan gods. But although they
+            had mighty strength Cottus, Briareus, and Gyes had no fire of
+            courage in their hearts. Zeus thought of a way to give them this
+            courage; he brought the food and drink of the gods to them,
+            ambrosia and nectar, and when they had eaten and drunk their
+            spirits grew within the giants, and they were ready to make war
+            upon the Titan gods.</p><span class="tei tei-pb" id="page36">[pg
+            36]</span>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+            "tei tei-q">“Sons of Earth and Heaven,”</span> said Zeus to the
+            hundred-armed giants, <span class="tei tei-q">“a long time now
+            have the Dwellers on Olympus been striving with the Titan gods.
+            Do you lend your unconquerable might to the gods and help them to
+            overthrow the Titans.”</span></p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Cottus, the
+            eldest of the giants, answered, <span class="tei tei-q">“Divine
+            One, through your devising we are come back again from the murky
+            gloom of the mid Earth and we have escaped from the hard bonds
+            that Cronus laid upon us. Our minds are fixed to aid you in the
+            war against the Titan gods.”</span></p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> So the
+            hundred-armed giants said, and thereupon Zeus went and he
+            gathered around him all who were born of Cronos and Rhea. Cronos
+            himself hid from Zeus. Then the giants, with their fifty heads
+            growing from their shoulders and their hundred hands, went forth
+            against the Titan gods. The boundless sea rang terribly and the
+            earth crashed loudly; wide Heaven was shaken and groaned, and
+            high Olympus reeled from its foundation. Holding huge rocks in
+            their hands the giants attacked the Titan gods.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Then Zeus
+            entered the war. He hurled the lightning; the bolts flew thick
+            and fast from his strong hand, with thunder and lightning and
+            flame. The earth crashed around in burning, the forests crackled
+            with fire, the ocean seethed. And hot flames wrapped the
+            earth-born Titans all around. Three hundred rocks, one upon
+            another, did Cottus, Briareus, and Gyes hurl upon the Titans. And
+            when their ranks were broken the giants seized upon them and held
+            them for Zeus.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> But some of
+            the Titan gods, seeing that the strife for them <span class=
+            "tei tei-pb" id="page37">[pg 37]</span> was vain, went over to
+            the side of Zeus. These Zeus became friendly with. But the other
+            Titans he bound in chains and he hurled them down to
+            Tartarus.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> As far as
+            Earth is from Heaven so is Tartarus from Earth. A brazen anvil
+            falling down from Heaven to Earth nine days and nine nights would
+            reach the earth upon the tenth day. And again, a brazen anvil
+            falling from Earth nine nights and nine days would reach Tartarus
+            upon the tenth night. Around Tartarus runs a fence of bronze and
+            Night spreads in a triple line all about it, as a necklace
+            circles the neck. There Zeus imprisoned the Titan gods who had
+            fought against him; they are hidden in the misty gloom, in a dank
+            place, at the ends of the Earth. And they may not go out, for
+            Poseidon fixed gates of bronze upon their prison, and a wall runs
+            all round it. There Cottus, Briareus, and Gyes stay, guarding
+            them.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> And there,
+            too, is the home of Night. Night and Day meet each other at that
+            place, as they pass a threshold of bronze. They draw near and
+            they greet one another, but the house never holds them both
+            together, for while one is about to go down into the house, the
+            other is leaving through the door. One holds Light in her hand
+            and the other holds in her arms Sleep.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> There the
+            children of dark Night have their dwellings—Sleep, and Death, his
+            brother. The sun never shines upon these two. Sleep may roam over
+            the wide earth, and come upon the sea, and he is kindly to men.
+            But Death is not kindly, and whoever he seizes upon, him he holds
+            fast.</p><span class="tei tei-pb" id="page38">[pg 38]</span>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> There, too,
+            stands the hall of the lord of the Underworld, Aidoneus, the
+            brother of Zeus. Zeus gave him the Underworld to be his dominion
+            when he shared amongst the Olympians the world that Cronos had
+            ruled over. A fearful hound guards the hall of Aidoneus: Cerberus
+            he is called; he has three heads. On those who go within that
+            hall Cerberus fawns, but on those who would come out of it he
+            springs and would devour them.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Not all the
+            Titans did Zeus send down to Tartarus. Those of them who had
+            wisdom joined him, and by their wisdom Zeus was able to overcome
+            Cronos. Then Cronos went to live with the friendly Titan gods,
+            while Zeus reigned over Olympus, becoming the ruler of gods and
+            men.</p>
+
+            <div class="tei tei-tb">
+              &nbsp;
+            </div>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> So Orpheus
+            sang, Orpheus who knew the ways and the histories of the
+            gods.</p>
+          </div>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="tei tei-div" style=
+        "margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em">
+          <a name="toc25" id="toc25"></a><a name="pdf26" id="pdf26"></a>
+
+          <h2 class="tei tei-head" style=
+          "text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em">
+          <span style="font-size: 144%">VI. Polydeuces’ Victory and Heracles’
+          Loss</span></h2>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> </p>
+
+          <div class="deco-letter floatleft tei tei-figure" style=
+          "margin-bottom: 0.00em; margin-top: 0.00em"><img src=
+          "images/capA1.png" alt="Decorative first letter" /></div>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"><span class=
+          "tei tei-hi" style="margin-left: -1.00em"><span style=
+          "color: white; font-variant: small-caps">A</span></span>LL the
+          places that the Argonauts came nigh to and went past need not be
+          told—Melibœa, where they escaped a stormy beach; Homole, from where
+          they were able to look on Ossa and holy Olympus; Lemnos, the island
+          that they were to return to; the unnamed country where the
+          Earth-born Men abide, each having six arms, two growing
+          <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page39">[pg 39]</span> from his
+          shoulders, and four fitting close to his terrible sides; and then
+          the Mountain of the Bears, where they climbed, to make sacrifice
+          there to Rhea, the mighty mother of the gods.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Afterward, for
+          a whole day, no wind blew and the sail of the <em class=
+          "tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">Argo</span></em>
+          hung slack. But the heroes swore to each other that they would make
+          their ship go as swiftly as if the storm-footed steeds of Poseidon
+          were racing to overtake her. Mightily they labored at the oars, and
+          no one would be first to leave his rower’s bench.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> And then, just
+          as the breeze of the evening came up, and just as the rest of the
+          heroes were leaning back, spent with their labor, the oar that
+          Heracles still pulled at broke, and half of it was carried away by
+          the waves. Heracles sat there in ill humor, for he did not know
+          what to do with his unlaboring hands.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> All through the
+          night they went on with a good breeze filling their sails, and next
+          day they came to the mouth of the River Cius. There they landed so
+          that Heracles might get himself an oar. No sooner did they set
+          their feet upon the shore than the hero went off into the forest,
+          to pull up a tree that he might shape into an oar.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Where they had
+          landed was near to the country of the Bebrycians, a rude people
+          whose king was named Amycus. Now while Heracles was away from them
+          this king came with his followers—huge, rude men, all armed with
+          clubs, down to where the Argonauts were lighting their fires on the
+          beach.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> He did not
+          greet them courteously, asking them what manner <span class=
+          "tei tei-pb" id="page40">[pg 40]</span> of men they were and
+          whither they were bound, nor did he offer them hospitality.
+          Instead, he shouted at them insolently:</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“Listen to something that you rovers had better know. I
+          am Amycus, and any stranger that comes to this land has to get into
+          a boxing bout with me. That’s the law that I have laid down. Unless
+          you have one amongst you who can stand up to me you won’t be let go
+          back to your ship. If you don’t heed my law, look out, for
+          something’s going to happen to you.”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> So he shouted,
+          that insolent king, and his followers raised their clubs and
+          growled approval of what their master said. But the Argonauts were
+          not dismayed at the words of Amycus. One of them stepped toward the
+          Bebrycians. He was Polydeuces, good at boxing.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“Offer us no violence, king,”</span> said Polydeuces.
+          <span class="tei tei-q">“We are ready to obey the law that you have
+          laid down. Willingly do I take up your challenge, and I will box a
+          bout with you.”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> The Argonauts
+          cheered when they saw Polydeuces, the good boxer, step forward, and
+          when they heard what he had to say. Amycus turned and shouted to
+          his followers, and one of them brought up two pairs of boxing
+          gauntlets—of rough cowhide they were. The Argonauts feared that
+          Polydeuces’ hands might have been made numb with pulling at the
+          oar, and some of them went to him, and took his hands and rubbed
+          them to make them supple; others took from off his shoulders his
+          beautifully colored mantle.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Amycus
+          straightway put on his gauntlets and threw off his <span class=
+          "tei tei-pb" id="page41">[pg 41]</span> mantle; he stood there
+          amongst his followers with his great arms crossed, glowering at the
+          Argonauts as a wild beast might glower. And when the two faced each
+          other Amycus seemed like one of the Earth-born Men, dark and hugely
+          shaped, while Helen’s brother stood there light and beautiful.
+          Polydeuces was like that star whose beams are lovely at
+          evening-tide.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style=
+          "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em"><a name="i007.png" id=
+          "i007.png" class="tei tei-anchor" style=
+          "text-align: center"></a><a name="fig27" id="fig27"></a></p>
+
+          <div class="tei tei-figure" style=
+          "width: 100%; text-align: center">
+            <img src="images/i007.png" alt="Illustration" title="" />
+
+            <div class="tei tei-head" style=
+            "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em">
+            </div>
+          </div>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Like the wave
+          that breaks over a ship and gives the sailors no respite Amycus
+          came on at Polydeuces. He pushed in upon him, thinking to bear him
+          down and overwhelm him. But as the skillful steersman keeps the
+          ship from being overwhelmed by the monstrous wave, so Polydeuces,
+          all skill and lightness, baffled the rushes of Amycus. At last
+          Amycus, standing on the tips of his toes and rising high above him,
+          tried to bring down his great fist upon the head of Polydeuces. The
+          hero swung aside and took the blow on his shoulder. Then he struck
+          his blow. It was a strong one, and under it the king of the
+          Bebrycians staggered and fell down. <span class="tei tei-q">“You
+          see,”</span> said Polydeuces, <span class="tei tei-q">“that we keep
+          your law.”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> The Argonauts
+          shouted, but the rude Bebrycians raised their clubs to rush upon
+          them. Then would the heroes have been hard pressed, and forced,
+          perhaps, to get back to the <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style=
+          "font-style: italic">Argo</span></em>. But suddenly Heracles
+          appeared amongst them, coming up from the forest.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> He carried a
+          pine tree in his hands with all its branches still upon it, and
+          seeing this mighty-statured man appear with the great tree in his
+          hands, the Bebrycians hurried off, carrying their fallen
+          <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page42">[pg 42]</span> king with them.
+          Then the Argonauts gathered around Polydeuces, saluted him as their
+          champion, and put a crown of victory upon his head. Heracles,
+          meanwhile, lopped off the branches of the pine tree and began to
+          fashion it into an oar.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> The fires were
+          lighted upon the shore, and the thoughts of all were turned to
+          supper. Then young Hylas, who used to sit by Heracles and keep
+          bright the hero’s arms and armor, took a bronze vessel and went to
+          fetch water.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Never was there
+          a boy so beautiful as young Hylas. He had golden curls that tumbled
+          over his brow. He had deep blue eyes and a face that smiled at
+          every glance that was given him, at every word that was said to
+          him. Now as he walked through the flowering grasses, with his knees
+          bare, and with the bright vessel swinging in his hand, he looked
+          most lovely. Heracles had brought the boy with him from the country
+          of the Dryopians; he would have him sit beside him on the bench of
+          the <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style=
+          "font-style: italic">Argo</span></em>, and the ill humors that
+          often came upon him would go at the words and the smile of
+          Hylas.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Now the spring
+          that Hylas was going toward was called Pegæ, and it was haunted by
+          the nymphs. They were dancing around it when they heard Hylas
+          singing. They stole softly off to watch him. Hidden behind trees
+          the nymphs saw the boy come near, and they felt such love for him
+          that they thought they could never let him go from their sight.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> They stole back
+          to their spring, and they sank down below its clear surface. Then
+          came Hylas singing a song that he had <span class="tei tei-pb" id=
+          "page43">[pg 43]</span> heard from his mother. He bent down to the
+          spring, and the brimming water flowed into the sounding bronze of
+          the pitcher. Then hands came out of the water. One of the nymphs
+          caught Hylas by the elbow; another put her arms around his neck,
+          another took the hand that held the vessel of bronze. The pitcher
+          sank down to the depths of the spring. The hands of the nymphs
+          clasped Hylas tighter, tighter; the water bubbled around him as
+          they drew him down. Down, down they drew him, and into the cold and
+          glimmering cave where they live.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style=
+          "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em"><a name="i008.png" id=
+          "i008.png" class="tei tei-anchor" style=
+          "text-align: center"></a><a name="fig28" id="fig28"></a></p>
+
+          <div class="tei tei-figure" style=
+          "width: 100%; text-align: center">
+            <img src="images/i008.png" alt="Illustration" title="Hylas" />
+
+            <div class="tei tei-head" style=
+            "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em">
+              Hylas
+            </div>
+          </div>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> There Hylas
+          stayed. But although the nymphs kissed him and sang to him, and
+          showed him lovely things, Hylas was not content to be there.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Where the
+          Argonauts were the fires burned, the moon arose, and still Hylas
+          did not return. Then they began to fear lest a wild beast had
+          destroyed the boy. One went to Heracles and told him that young
+          Hylas had not come back, and that they were fearful for him.
+          Heracles flung down the pine tree that he was fashioning into an
+          oar, and he dashed along the way that Hylas had gone as if a gadfly
+          were stinging him. <span class="tei tei-q">“Hylas, Hylas,”</span>
+          he cried. But Hylas, in the cold and glimmering cave that the
+          nymphs had drawn him into, did not hear the call of his friend
+          Heracles.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> All the
+          Argonauts went searching, calling as they went through the island,
+          <span class="tei tei-q">“Hylas, Hylas, Hylas!”</span> But only
+          their own calls came back to them. The morning star came up, and
+          Tiphys, the steersman, called to them from the <em class=
+          "tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">Argo</span></em>.
+          And when they <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page44">[pg 44]</span>
+          came to the ship Tiphys told them that they would have to go aboard
+          and make ready to sail from that place.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> They called to
+          Heracles, and Heracles at last came down to the ship. They spoke to
+          him, saying that they would have to sail away. Heracles would not
+          go on board. <span class="tei tei-q">“I will not leave this
+          island,”</span> he said, <span class="tei tei-q">“until I find
+          young Hylas or learn what has happened to him.”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Then Jason
+          arose to give the command to depart. But before the words were said
+          Telamon stood up and faced him. <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“Jason,”</span> he said angrily, <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“you do not bid Heracles come on board, and you would
+          have the <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style=
+          "font-style: italic">Argo</span></em> leave without him. You would
+          leave Heracles here so that he may not be with us on the quest
+          where his glory might overshadow your glory, Jason.”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Jason said no
+          word, but he sat back on his bench with head bowed. And then, even
+          as Telamon said these angry words, a strange figure rose up out of
+          the waves of the sea.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> It was the
+          figure of a man, wrinkled and old, with seaweed in his beard and
+          his hair. There was a majesty about him, and the Argonauts all knew
+          that this was one of the immortals—he was Nereus, the ancient one
+          of the sea.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“To Heracles, and to you, the rest of the Argonauts, I
+          have a thing to say,”</span> said the ancient one, Nereus.
+          <span class="tei tei-q">“Know, first, that Hylas has been taken by
+          the nymphs who love him and who think to win his love, and that he
+          will stay forever with them in their cold and glimmering cave. For
+          Hylas seek no more. And to you, Heracles, I will say this: Go
+          aboard the <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style=
+          "font-style: italic">Argo</span></em> again; the <span class=
+          "tei tei-pb" id="page45">[pg 45]</span> ship will take you to where
+          a great labor awaits you, and which, in accomplishing, you will
+          work out the will of Zeus. You will know what this labor is when a
+          spirit seizes on you.”</span> So the ancient one of the sea said,
+          and he sank back beneath the waves.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Heracles went
+          aboard the <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style=
+          "font-style: italic">Argo</span></em> once more, and he took his
+          place on the bench, the new oar in his hand. Sad he was to think
+          that young Hylas who used to sit at his knee would never be there
+          again. The breeze filled the sail, the Argonauts pulled at the
+          oars, and in sadness they watched the island where young Hylas had
+          been lost to them recede from their view.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="tei tei-div" style=
+        "margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em">
+          <a name="toc29" id="toc29"></a><a name="pdf30" id="pdf30"></a>
+
+          <h2 class="tei tei-head" style=
+          "text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em">
+          <span style="font-size: 144%">VII. King Phineus</span></h2>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> </p>
+
+          <div class="deco-letter floatleft tei tei-figure" style=
+          "margin-bottom: 0.00em; margin-top: 0.00em"><img src=
+          "images/capS.png" alt="Decorative first letter" /></div>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"><span class=
+          "tei tei-hi" style="margin-left: -1.00em"><span style=
+          "color: white; font-variant: small-caps">S</span></span>AID Tiphys,
+          the steersman: <span class="tei tei-q">“If we could enter the Sea
+          of Pontus, we could make our way across that sea to Colchis in a
+          short time. But the passage into the Sea of Pontus is most
+          perilous, and few mortals dare even to make approach to
+          it.”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Said Jason, the
+          chieftain of the host: <span class="tei tei-q">“The dangers of the
+          passage, Tiphys, we have spoken of, and it may be that we shall
+          have to carry <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style=
+          "font-style: italic">Argo</span></em> overland to the Sea of
+          Pontus. But you, Tiphys, have spoken of a wise king who is
+          hereabouts, and who might help us to make the dangerous passage.
+          Speak again to us, and tell us what the dangers of the passage are,
+          and who the <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page46">[pg 46]</span>
+          king is who may be able to help us to make these dangers
+          less.”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Then said
+          Tiphys, the steersman of the <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style=
+          "font-style: italic">Argo</span></em>: <span class="tei tei-q">“No
+          ship sailed by mortals has as yet gone through the passage that
+          brings this sea into the Sea of Pontus. In the way are the rocks
+          that mariners call The Clashers. These rocks are not fixed as rocks
+          should be, but they rush one against the other, dashing up the sea,
+          and crushing whatever may be between. Yea, if <em class=
+          "tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">Argo</span></em>
+          were of iron, and if she were between these rocks when they met,
+          she would be crushed to bits. I have sailed as far as that passage,
+          but seeing The Clashers strike together I turned back my ship, and
+          journeyed as far as the Sea of Pontus overland.</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“But I have been told of one who knows how a ship may
+          be taken through the passage that The Clashers make so perilous. He
+          who knows is a king hereabouts, Phineus, who has made himself as
+          wise as the gods. To no one has Phineus told how the passage may be
+          made, but knowing what high favor has been shown to us, the
+          Argonauts, it may be that he will tell us.”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> So Tiphys said,
+          and Jason commanded him to steer the <em class=
+          "tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">Argo</span></em>
+          toward the city where ruled Phineus, the wise king.</p>
+
+          <div class="tei tei-tb">
+            &nbsp;
+          </div>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> To Salmydessus,
+          then, where Phineus ruled, Tiphys steered the <em class=
+          "tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">Argo</span></em>.
+          They left Heracles with Tiphys aboard to guard the ship, and, with
+          the rest of the heroes, Jason went through the streets of the city.
+          They met many men, but when they asked <span class="tei tei-pb" id=
+          "page47">[pg 47]</span> any of them how they might come to the
+          palace of King Phineus the men turned fearfully away.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> They found
+          their way to the king’s palace. Jason spoke to the servants and
+          bade them tell the king of their coming. The servants, too, seemed
+          fearful, and as Jason and his comrades were wondering what there
+          was about him that made men fearful at his name, Phineus, the king,
+          came amongst them.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Were it not
+          that he had a purple border to his robe no one would have known him
+          for the king, so miserable did this man seem. He crept along,
+          touching the walls, for the eyes in his head were blind and
+          withered. His body was shrunken, and when he stood before them
+          leaning on his staff he was like to a lifeless thing. He turned his
+          blinded eyes upon them, looking from one to the other as if he were
+          searching for a face.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Then his
+          sightless eyes rested upon Zetes and Calais, the sons of Boreas,
+          the North Wind. A change came into his face as it turned upon them.
+          One would think that he saw the wonder that these two were endowed
+          with—the wings that grew upon their ankles. It was a while before
+          he turned his face from them; then he spoke to Jason and said:</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“You have come to have counsel with one who has the
+          wisdom of the gods. Others before you have come for such counsel,
+          but seeing the misery that is visible upon me they went without
+          asking for counsel. I would strive to hold you here for a while.
+          Stay, and have sight of the misery the gods visit upon those who
+          would be as wise as they. And when you have seen the thing
+          <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page48">[pg 48]</span> that is wont to
+          befall me, it may be that help will come from you for
+          me.”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Then Phineus,
+          the blind king, left them, and after a while the heroes were
+          brought into a great hall, and they were invited to rest themselves
+          there while a banquet was being prepared for them.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> The hall was
+          richly adorned, but it looked to the heroes as if it had known
+          strange happenings; rich hangings were strewn upon the ground, an
+          ivory chair was overturned, and the dais where the king sat had
+          stains upon it. The servants who went through the hall making ready
+          the banquet were white-faced and fearful.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> The feast was
+          laid on a great table, and the heroes were invited to sit down to
+          it. The king did not come into the hall before they sat down, but a
+          table with food was set before the dais. When the heroes had
+          feasted, the king came into the hall. He sat at the table, blind,
+          white-faced, and shrunken, and the Argonauts all turned their faces
+          to him.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Said Phineus,
+          the blind king: <span class="tei tei-q">“You see, O heroes, how
+          much my wisdom avails me. You see me blind and shrunken, who tried
+          to make myself in wisdom equal to the gods. And yet you have not
+          seen all. Watch now and see what feasts Phineus, the wise king, has
+          to delight him.”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> He made a sign,
+          and the white-faced and trembling servants brought food and set it
+          upon the table that was before him. The king bent forward as if to
+          eat, and they saw that his face was <span class="tei tei-pb" id=
+          "page49">[pg 49]</span> covered with the damp of fear. He took food
+          from the dish and raised it to his mouth. As he did, the doors of
+          the hall were flung open as if by a storm. Strange shapes flew into
+          the hall and set themselves beside the king. And when the Argonauts
+          looked upon them they saw that these were terrible and unsightly
+          shapes.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style=
+          "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em"><a name="i009.png" id=
+          "i009.png" class="tei tei-anchor" style=
+          "text-align: center"></a><a name="fig31" id="fig31"></a></p>
+
+          <div class="tei tei-figure" style=
+          "width: 100%; text-align: center">
+            <img src="images/i009.png" alt="Illustration" title="" />
+
+            <div class="tei tei-head" style=
+            "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em">
+            </div>
+          </div>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> They were
+          things that had the wings and claws of birds and the heads of
+          women. Black hair and gray feathers were mixed upon them; they had
+          red eyes, and streaks of blood were upon their breasts and wings.
+          And as the king raised the food to his mouth they flew at him and
+          buffeted his head with their wings, and snatched the food from his
+          hands. Then they devoured or scattered what was upon the table, and
+          all the time they screamed and laughed and mocked.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“Ah, now ye see,”</span> Phineus panted, <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“what it is to have wisdom equal to the wisdom of the
+          gods. Now ye all see my misery. Never do I strive to put food to my
+          lips but these foul things, the Harpies, the Snatchers, swoop down
+          and scatter or devour what I would eat. Crumbs they leave me that
+          my life may not altogether go from me, but these crumbs they make
+          foul to my taste and my smell.”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> And one of the
+          Harpies perched herself on the back of the king’s throne and looked
+          upon the heroes with red eyes. <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“Hah,”</span> she screamed, <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“you bring armed men into your feasting hall, thinking
+          to scare us away. Never, Phineus, can you scare us from you! Always
+          you will have us, the Snatchers, beside you <span class=
+          "tei tei-pb" id="page50">[pg 50]</span> when you would still your
+          ache of hunger. What can these men do against us who are winged and
+          who can travel through the ways of the air?”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> So said the
+          unsightly Harpy, and the heroes drew together, made fearful by
+          these awful shapes. All drew back except Zetes and Calais, the sons
+          of the North Wind. They laid their hands upon their swords. The
+          wings on their shoulders spread out and the wings at their heels
+          trembled. Phineus, the king, leaned forward and panted:
+          <span class="tei tei-q">“By the wisdom I have I know that there are
+          two amongst you who can save me. O make haste to help me, ye who
+          can help me, and I will give the counsel that you Argonauts have
+          come to me for, and besides I will load down your ship with
+          treasure and costly stuffs. Oh, make haste, ye who can help
+          me!”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Hearing the
+          king speak like this, the Harpies gathered together and gnashed
+          with their teeth, and chattered to one another. Then, seeing Zetes
+          and Calais with their hands upon their swords, they rose up on
+          their wings and flew through the wide doors of the hall. The king
+          cried out to Zetes and Calais. But the sons of the North Wind had
+          already risen with their wings, and they were after the Harpies,
+          their bright swords in their hands.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> On flew the
+          Harpies, screeching and gnashing their teeth in anger and dismay,
+          for now they felt that they might be driven from Salmydessus, where
+          they had had such royal feasts. They rose high in the air and flew
+          out toward the sea. But high as the Harpies rose, the sons of the
+          North Wind rose higher. The <span class="tei tei-pb" id=
+          "page51">[pg 51]</span> Harpies cried pitiful cries as they flew
+          on, but Zetes and Calais felt no pity for them, for they knew that
+          these dread Snatchers, with the stains of blood upon their breasts
+          and wings, had shown pity neither to Phineus nor to any other.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> On they flew
+          until they came to the island that is called the Floating Island.
+          There the Harpies sank down with wearied wings. Zetes and Calais
+          were upon them now, and they would have cut them to pieces with
+          their bright swords, if the messenger of Zeus, Iris, with the
+          golden wings, had not come between.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“Forbear to slay the Harpies, sons of Boreas,”</span>
+          cried Iris warningly, <span class="tei tei-q">“forbear to slay the
+          Harpies that are the hounds of Zeus. Let them cower here and hide
+          themselves, and I, who come from Zeus, will swear the oath that the
+          gods most dread, that they will never again come to Salmydessus to
+          trouble Phineus, the king.”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> The heroes
+          yielded to the words of Iris. She took the oath that the gods most
+          dread—the oath by the Water of Styx—that never again would the
+          Harpies show themselves to Phineus. Then Zetes and Calais turned
+          back toward the city of Salmydessus. The island that they drove the
+          Harpies to had been called the Floating Island, but thereafter it
+          was called the Island of Turning. It was evening when they turned
+          back, and all night long the Argonauts and King Phineus sat in the
+          hall of the palace and awaited the return of Zetes and Calais, the
+          sons of the North Wind.</p><span class="tei tei-pb" id="page52">[pg
+          52]</span>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="tei tei-div" style=
+        "margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em">
+          <a name="toc32" id="toc32"></a><a name="pdf33" id="pdf33"></a>
+
+          <h2 class="tei tei-head" style=
+          "text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em">
+          <span style="font-size: 144%">VIII. King Phineus’s Counsel; The
+          Landing in Lemnos</span></h2>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> </p>
+
+          <div class="deco-letter floatleft tei tei-figure" style=
+          "margin-bottom: 0.00em; margin-top: 0.00em"><img src=
+          "images/capT.png" alt="Decorative first letter" /></div>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"><span class=
+          "tei tei-hi" style="margin-left: -1.00em"><span style=
+          "color: white; font-variant: small-caps">T</span></span>HEY came
+          into King Phineus’s hall, their bright swords in their hands. The
+          Argonauts crowded around them and King Phineus raised his head and
+          stretched out his thin hands to them. And Zetes and Calais told
+          their comrades and told the king how they had driven the Harpies
+          down to the Floating Island, and how Iris, the messenger of Zeus,
+          had sworn the great oath that was by the Water of Styx that never
+          again would the Snatchers show themselves in the palace.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Then a great
+          golden cup brimming with wine was brought to the king. He stood
+          holding it in his trembling hands, fearful even then that the
+          Harpies would tear the cup out of his hands. He drank—long and
+          deeply he drank—and the dread shapes of the Snatchers did not
+          appear. Down amongst the heroes he came and he took into his the
+          hands of Zetes and Calais, the sons of the North Wind.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“O heroes greater than any kings,”</span> he said,
+          <span class="tei tei-q">“ye have delivered me from the terrible
+          curse that the gods had sent upon me. I thank ye, and I thank ye
+          all, heroes of the quest. And the thanks of Phineus will much avail
+          you all.”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Clasping the
+          hands of Zetes and Calais he led the heroes through <span class=
+          "tei tei-pb" id="page53">[pg 53]</span> hall after hall of his
+          palace and down into his treasure chamber. There he bestowed upon
+          the banishers of the Harpies crowns and arm rings of gold and
+          richly colored garments and brazen chests in which to store the
+          treasure that he gave. And to Jason he gave an ivory-hilted and
+          gold-encased sword, and on each of the voyagers he bestowed a rich
+          gift, not forgetting the heroes who had remained on the <em class=
+          "tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">Argo</span></em>,
+          Heracles and Tiphys.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> They went back
+          to the great hall, and a feast was spread for the king and for the
+          Argonauts. They ate from rich dishes and they drank from flowing
+          wine cups. Phineus ate and drank as the heroes did, and no dread
+          shapes came before him to snatch from him nor to buffet him. But as
+          Jason looked upon the man who had striven to equal the gods in
+          wisdom, and noted his blinded eyes and shrunken face, he resolved
+          never to harbor in his heart such presumption as Phineus had
+          harbored.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> When the feast
+          was finished the king spoke to Jason, telling him how the
+          <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style=
+          "font-style: italic">Argo</span></em> might be guided through the
+          Symplegades, the dread passage into the Sea of Pontus. He told them
+          to bring their ship near to the Clashing Rocks. And one who had the
+          keenest sight amongst them was to stand at the prow of the ship
+          holding a pigeon in his hands. As the rocks came together he was to
+          loose the pigeon. If it found a space to fly through they would
+          know that the <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style=
+          "font-style: italic">Argo</span></em> could make the passage, and
+          they were to steer straight toward where the pigeon had flown. But
+          if it fluttered down to the sea, or flew back to them, or became
+          lost in the clouds of spray, they were to know that the <em class=
+          "tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">Argo</span></em>
+          might not make <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page54">[pg 54]</span>
+          that passage. Then the heroes would have to take their ship
+          overland to where they might reach the Sea of Pontus.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> That day they
+          bade farewell to Phineus, and with the treasures he had bestowed
+          upon them they went down to the <em class=
+          "tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">Argo</span></em>.
+          To Heracles and Tiphys they gave the presents that the king had
+          sent them. In the morning they drew the <em class=
+          "tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">Argo</span></em>
+          out of the harbor of Salmydessus, and set sail again.</p>
+
+          <div class="tei tei-tb">
+            &nbsp;
+          </div>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> But not until
+          long afterward did they come to the Symplegades, the passage that
+          was to be their great trial. For they landed first in a country
+          that was full of woods, where they were welcomed by a king who had
+          heard of the voyagers and of their quest. There they stayed and
+          hunted for many days in the woods. And there a great loss befell
+          the Argonauts, for Tiphys, as he went through the woods, was bitten
+          by a snake and died. He who had braved so many seas and so many
+          storms lost his life away from the ship. The Argonauts made a tomb
+          for him on the shore of that land—a great pile of stones, in which
+          they fixed upright his steering oar. Then they set sail again, and
+          Nauplius was made the steersman of the ship.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> The course was
+          not so clear to Nauplius as it had been to Tiphys. The steersman
+          did not find his bearings, and for many days and nights the
+          <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style=
+          "font-style: italic">Argo</span></em> was driven on a backward
+          course. They came to an island that they knew to be that Island of
+          Lemnos that they had passed on the first days of the voyage, and
+          they resolved to <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page55">[pg
+          55]</span> rest there for a while, and then to press on for the
+          passage into the Sea of Pontus.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> They brought
+          the <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style=
+          "font-style: italic">Argo</span></em> near the shore. They blew
+          trumpets and set the loudest voiced of the heroes to call out to
+          those upon the island. But no answer came to them, and all day the
+          <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style=
+          "font-style: italic">Argo</span></em> lay close to the island.</p>
+
+          <div class="tei tei-tb">
+            &nbsp;
+          </div>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> There were
+          hidden people watching them, people with bows in their hands and
+          arrows laid along the bowstrings. And the people who thus
+          threatened the unknowing Argonauts were women and young girls.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> There were no
+          men upon the Island of Lemnos. Years before a curse had fallen upon
+          the people of that island, putting strife between the men and the
+          women. And the women had mastered the men and had driven them away
+          from Lemnos. Since then some of the women had grown old, and the
+          girls who were children when their fathers and brothers had been
+          banished were now of an age with Atalanta, the maiden who went with
+          the Argonauts.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> They chased the
+          wild beasts of the island, and they tilled the fields, and they
+          kept in good repair the houses that were built before the banishing
+          of the men. The older women served those who were younger, and they
+          had a queen, a girl whose name was Hypsipyle.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> The women who
+          watched with bows in their hands would have shot their arrows at
+          the Argonauts if Hypsipyle’s nurse, Polyxo, <span class=
+          "tei tei-pb" id="page56">[pg 56]</span> had not stayed them. She
+          forbade them to shoot at the strangers until she had brought to
+          them the queen’s commands.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> She hastened to
+          the palace and she found the young queen weaving at a loom. She
+          told her about the ship and the strangers on board the ship, and
+          she asked the queen what word she should bring to the guardian
+          maidens.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“Before you give a command, Hypsipyle,”</span> said
+          Polyxo, the nurse, <span class="tei tei-q">“consider these words of
+          mine. We, the elder women, are becoming ancient now; in a few years
+          we will not be able to serve you, the younger women, and in a few
+          years more we will have gone into the grave and our places will
+          know us no more. And you, the younger women, will be becoming
+          strengthless, and no more will be you able to hunt in the woods nor
+          to till the fields, and a hard old age will be before
+          you.</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“The ship that is beside our shore may have come at a
+          good time. Those on board are goodly heroes. Let them land in
+          Lemnos, and stay if they will. Let them wed with the younger women
+          so that there may be husbands and wives, helpers and helpmeets,
+          again in Lemnos.”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Hypsipyle, the
+          queen, let the shuttle fall from her hands and stayed for a while
+          looking full into Polyxo’s face. Had her nurse heard her say
+          something like this out of her dreams, she wondered? She bade the
+          nurse tell the guardian maidens to let the heroes land in safety,
+          and that she herself would put the crown of King Thoas, her father,
+          upon her head, and go down to the shore to welcome
+          them.</p><span class="tei tei-pb" id="page57">[pg 57]</span>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> And now the
+          Argonauts saw people along the shore and they caught sight of
+          women’s dresses. The loudest voiced amongst them shouted again, and
+          they heard an answer given in a woman’s voice. They drew up the
+          <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style=
+          "font-style: italic">Argo</span></em> upon the shore, and they set
+          foot upon the land of Lemnos.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Jason stepped
+          forth at the head of his comrades, and he was met by Hypsipyle, her
+          father’s crown upon her head, at the head of her maidens. They
+          greeted each other, and Hypsipyle bade the heroes come with them to
+          their town that was called Myrine and to the palace that was
+          there.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Wonderingly the
+          Argonauts went, looking on women’s forms and faces and seeing no
+          men. They came to the palace and went within. Hypsipyle mounted the
+          stone throne that was King Thoas’s and the four maidens who were
+          her guards stood each side of her. She spoke to the heroes in
+          greeting and bade them stay in peace for as long as they would. She
+          told them of the curse that had fallen upon the people of Lemnos,
+          and of how the menfolk had been banished. Jason, then, told the
+          queen what voyage he and his companions were upon and what quest
+          they were making. Then in friendship the Argonauts and the women of
+          Lemnos stayed together—all the Argonauts except Heracles, and he,
+          grieving still for Hylas, stayed aboard the <em class=
+          "tei tei-emph"><span style=
+          "font-style: italic">Argo</span></em>.</p><span class="tei tei-pb"
+          id="page58">[pg 58]</span>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="tei tei-div" style=
+        "margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em">
+          <a name="toc34" id="toc34"></a><a name="pdf35" id="pdf35"></a>
+
+          <h2 class="tei tei-head" style=
+          "text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em">
+          <span style="font-size: 144%">IX. The Lemnian Maidens</span></h2>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> </p>
+
+          <div class="deco-letter floatleft tei tei-figure" style=
+          "margin-bottom: 0.00em; margin-top: 0.00em"><img src=
+          "images/capA1.png" alt="Decorative first letter" /></div>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"><span class=
+          "tei tei-hi" style="margin-left: -1.00em"><span style=
+          "color: white; font-variant: small-caps">A</span></span>ND now the
+          Argonauts were no longer on a ship that was being dashed on by the
+          sea and beaten upon by the winds. They had houses to live in; they
+          had honey-tasting things to eat, and when they went through the
+          island each man might have with him one of the maidens of Lemnos.
+          It was a change that was welcome to the wearied voyagers.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> They helped the
+          women in the work of the fields; they hunted the beasts with them,
+          and over and over again they were surprised at how skillfully the
+          women had ordered all affairs. Everything in Lemnos was strange to
+          the Argonauts, and they stayed day after day, thinking each day a
+          fresh adventure.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Sometimes they
+          would leave the fields and the chase, and this hero or that hero,
+          with her who was his friend amongst the Lemnian maidens, would go
+          far into that strange land and look upon lakes that were all
+          covered with golden and silver water lilies, or would gather the
+          blue flowers from creepers that grew around dark trees, or would
+          hide themselves so that they might listen to the quick-moving birds
+          that sang in the thickets. Perhaps on their way homeward they would
+          see the <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style=
+          "font-style: italic">Argo</span></em> in the harbor, and they would
+          think of Heracles who was aboard, and they would call to him. But
+          the ship and the voyage they had been on now seemed far away to
+          them, and the Quest of the Golden Fleece <span class="tei tei-pb"
+          id="page59">[pg 59]</span> seemed to them a story they had heard
+          and that they had thought of, but that they could never think on
+          again with all that fervor.</p>
+
+          <div class="tei tei-tb">
+            &nbsp;
+          </div>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> When Jason
+          looked on Hypsipyle he saw one who seemed to him to be only
+          childlike in size. Greatly was he amazed at the words that poured
+          forth from her as she stood at the stone throne of King Thoas—he
+          was amazed as one is amazed at the rush of rich notes that comes
+          from the throat of a little bird; all that she said was made
+          lightninglike by her eyes—her eyes that were not clear and quiet
+          like the eyes of the maidens he had seen in Iolcus, but that were
+          dark and burning. Her mouth was heavy and this heavy mouth gave a
+          shadow to her face that but for it was all bright and lovely.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Hypsipyle spoke
+          two languages—one, the language of the mothers of the women of
+          Lemnos, which was rough and harsh, a speech to be flung out to
+          slaves, and the other the language of Greece, which their fathers
+          had spoken, and which Hypsipyle spoke in a way that made it sound
+          like strange music. She spoke and walked and did all things in a
+          queenlike way, and Jason could see that, for all her youth and
+          childlike size, Hypsipyle was one who was a ruler.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> From the moment
+          she took his hand it seemed that she could not bear to be away from
+          him. Where he walked, she walked too; where he sat she sat before
+          him, looking at him with her great eyes while she laughed or
+          sang.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Like the
+          perfume of strange flowers, like the savor of strange <span class=
+          "tei tei-pb" id="page60">[pg 60]</span> fruit was Hypsipyle to
+          Jason. Hours and hours he would spend sitting beside her or
+          watching her while she arrayed herself in white or in brightly
+          colored garments. Not to the chase and not into the fields did
+          Jason go, nor did he ever go with the others into the Lemnian land;
+          all day he sat in the palace with her, watching her, or listening
+          to her singing, or to the long, fierce speeches that she used to
+          make to her nurse or to the four maidens who attended her.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> In the evening
+          they would gather in the hall of the palace, the Argonauts and the
+          Lemnian maidens who were their comrades. There were dances, and
+          always Jason and Hypsipyle danced together. All the Lemnian maidens
+          sang beautifully, but none of them had any stories to tell.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> And when the
+          Argonauts would have stories told the Lemnian maidens would forbid
+          any tale that was about a god or a hero; only stories that were
+          about the goddesses or about some maiden would they let be
+          told.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Orpheus, who
+          knew the histories of the gods, would have told them many stories,
+          but the only story of his that they would come from the dance to
+          listen to was a story of the goddesses, of Demeter and her daughter
+          Persephone.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style=
+          "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em"><a name="i010.png" id=
+          "i010.png" class="tei tei-anchor" style=
+          "text-align: center"></a><a name="fig36" id="fig36"></a></p>
+
+          <div class="tei tei-figure" style=
+          "width: 100%; text-align: center">
+            <img src="images/i010.png" alt="Illustration" title="" />
+
+            <div class="tei tei-head" style=
+            "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em">
+            </div>
+          </div><span class="tei tei-pb" id="page61">[pg 61]</span>
+
+          <div class="tei tei-div" style=
+          "margin-bottom: 3.00em; margin-top: 3.00em">
+            <a name="toc37" id="toc37"></a><a name="pdf38" id="pdf38"></a>
+
+            <h3 class="tei tei-head" style=
+            "text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.40em; margin-top: 2.40em">
+            <span style="font-size: 120%">Demeter and Persephone</span></h3>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.20em"><span style=
+            "font-size: 120%">I</span></p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Once when
+            Demeter was going through the world, giving men grain to be sown
+            in their fields, she heard a cry that came to her from across
+            high mountains and that mounted up to her from the sea. Demeter’s
+            heart shook when she heard that cry, for she knew that it came to
+            her from her daughter, from her only child, young Persephone.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> She stayed
+            not to bless the fields in which the grain was being sown, but
+            she hurried, hurried away, to Sicily and to the fields of Enna,
+            where she had left Persephone. All Enna she searched, and all
+            Sicily, but she found no trace of Persephone, nor of the maidens
+            whom Persephone had been playing with. From all whom she met she
+            begged for tidings, but although some had seen maidens gathering
+            flowers and playing together, no one could tell Demeter why her
+            child had cried out nor where she had since gone to.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> There were
+            some who could have told her. One was Cyane, a water nymph. But
+            Cyane, before Demeter came to her, had been changed into a spring
+            of water. And now, not being able to speak and tell Demeter where
+            her child had gone to and who had carried her away, she showed in
+            the water the girdle of Persephone that she had caught in her
+            hands. And Demeter, finding the girdle of her child in the
+            spring, knew that she had <span class="tei tei-pb" id=
+            "page62">[pg 62]</span> been carried off by violence. She lighted
+            a torch at Ætna’s burning mountain, and for nine days and nine
+            nights she went searching for her through the darkened places of
+            the earth.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Then, upon a
+            high and a dark hill, the Goddess Demeter came face to face with
+            Hecate, the Moon. Hecate, too, had heard the cry of Persephone;
+            she had sorrow for Demeter’s sorrow: she spoke to her as the two
+            stood upon that dark, high hill, and told her that she should go
+            to Helios for tidings—to bright Helios, the watcher for the gods,
+            and beg Helios to tell her who it was who had carried off by
+            violence her child Persephone.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Demeter came
+            to Helios. He was standing before his shining steeds, before the
+            impatient steeds that draw the sun through the course of the
+            heavens. Demeter stood in the way of those impatient steeds; she
+            begged of Helios who sees all things upon the earth to tell her
+            who it was had carried off by violence Persephone, her child.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> And Helios,
+            who may make no concealment, said: <span class=
+            "tei tei-q">“Queenly Demeter, know that the king of the
+            Underworld, dark Aidoneus, has carried off Persephone to make her
+            his queen in the realm that I never shine upon.”</span> He spoke,
+            and as he did, his horses shook their manes and breathed out
+            fire, impatient to be gone. Helios sprang into his chariot and
+            went flashing away.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Demeter,
+            knowing that one of the gods had carried off Persephone against
+            her will, and knowing that what was done had been done by the
+            will of Zeus, would go no more into the assemblies <span class=
+            "tei tei-pb" id="page63">[pg 63]</span> of the gods. She quenched
+            the torch that she had held in her hands for nine days and nine
+            nights; she put off her robe of goddess, and she went wandering
+            over the earth, uncomforted for the loss of her child. And no
+            longer did she appear as a gracious goddess to men; no longer did
+            she give them grain; no longer did she bless their fields. None
+            of the things that it had pleased her once to do would Demeter do
+            any longer.</p>
+
+            <div class="tei tei-tb">
+              &nbsp;
+            </div>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.20em"><span style=
+            "font-size: 120%">II</span></p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Persephone
+            had been playing with the nymphs who are the daughters of
+            Ocean—Phæno, Ianthe, Melita, Ianeira, Acaste—in the lovely fields
+            of Enna. They went to gather flowers—irises and crocuses, lilies,
+            narcissus, hyacinths and rose-blooms—that grow in those fields.
+            As they went, gathering flowers in their baskets, they had sight
+            of Pergus, the pool that the white swans come to sing in.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Beside a deep
+            chasm that had been made in the earth a wonder flower was
+            growing—in color it was like the crocus, but it sent forth a
+            perfume that was like the perfume of a hundred flowers. And
+            Persephone thought as she went toward it that having gathered
+            that flower she would have something much more wonderful than her
+            companions had.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> She did not
+            know that Aidoneus, the lord of the Underworld, had caused that
+            flower to grow there so that she might be drawn by it to the
+            chasm that he had made.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> As Persephone
+            stooped to pluck the wonder flower, Aidoneus, <span class=
+            "tei tei-pb" id="page64">[pg 64]</span> in his chariot of iron,
+            dashed up through the chasm, and grasping the maiden by the
+            waist, set her beside him. Only Cyane, the nymph, tried to save
+            Persephone, and it was then that she caught the girdle in her
+            hands.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> The maiden
+            cried out, first because her flowers had been spilled, and then
+            because she was being reft away. She cried out to her mother, and
+            her cry went over high mountains and sounded up from the sea. The
+            daughters of Ocean, affrighted, fled and sank down into the
+            depths of the sea.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> In his great
+            chariot of iron that was drawn by black steeds Aidoneus rushed
+            down through the chasm he had made. Into the Underworld he went,
+            and he dashed across the River Styx, and he brought his chariot
+            up beside his throne. And on his dark throne he seated
+            Persephone, the fainting daughter of Demeter.</p>
+
+            <div class="tei tei-tb">
+              &nbsp;
+            </div>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.20em"><span style=
+            "font-size: 120%">III</span></p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> No more did
+            the Goddess Demeter give grain to men; no more did she bless
+            their fields: weeds grew where grain had been growing, and men
+            feared that in a while they would famish for lack of bread.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> She wandered
+            through the world, her thought all upon her child, Persephone,
+            who had been taken from her. Once she sat by a well by a wayside,
+            thinking upon the child that she might not come to and who might
+            not come to her.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> She saw four
+            maidens come near; their grace and their youth <span class=
+            "tei tei-pb" id="page65">[pg 65]</span> reminded her of her
+            child. They stepped lightly along, carrying bronze pitchers in
+            their hands, for they were coming to the Well of the Maiden
+            beside which Demeter sat.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style=
+            "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em"><a name="i011.png"
+            id="i011.png" class="tei tei-anchor" style=
+            "text-align: center"></a><a name="fig39" id="fig39"></a></p>
+
+            <div class="tei tei-figure" style=
+            "width: 100%; text-align: center">
+              <img src="images/i011.png" alt="Illustration" title=
+              "Persephone and Aidoneus" />
+
+              <div class="tei tei-head" style=
+              "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em">
+              Persephone and Aidoneus
+              </div>
+            </div>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> The maidens
+            thought when they looked upon her that the goddess was some
+            ancient woman who had a sorrow in her heart. Seeing that she was
+            so noble and so sorrowful looking, the maidens, as they drew the
+            clear water into their pitchers, spoke kindly to her.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+            "tei tei-q">“Why do you stay away from the town, old
+            mother?”</span> one of the maidens said. <span class=
+            "tei tei-q">“Why do you not come to the houses? We think that you
+            look as if you were shelterless and alone, and we should like to
+            tell you that there are many houses in the town where you would
+            be welcomed.”</span></p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Demeter’s
+            heart went out to the maidens, because they looked so young and
+            fair and simple and spoke out of such kind hearts. She said to
+            them: <span class="tei tei-q">“Where can I go, dear children? My
+            people are far away, and there are none in all the world who
+            would care to be near me.”</span></p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Said one of
+            the maidens: <span class="tei tei-q">“There are princes in the
+            land who would welcome you in their houses if you would consent
+            to nurse one of their young children. But why do I speak of other
+            princes beside Celeus, our father? In his house you would indeed
+            have a welcome. But lately a baby has been born to our mother,
+            Metaneira, and she would greatly rejoice to have one as wise as
+            you mind little Demophoön.”</span></p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> All the time
+            that she watched them and listened to their <span class=
+            "tei tei-pb" id="page66">[pg 66]</span> voices Demeter felt that
+            the grace and youth of the maidens made them like Persephone. She
+            thought that it would ease her heart to be in the house where
+            these maidens were, and she was not loath to have them go and ask
+            of their mother to have her come to nurse the infant child.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Swiftly they
+            ran back to their home, their hair streaming behind them like
+            crocus flowers; kind and lovely girls whose names are well
+            remembered—Callidice and Cleisidice, Demo and Callithoë. They
+            went to their mother and they told her of the stranger-woman
+            whose name was Doso. She would make a wise and a kind nurse for
+            little Demophoön, they said. Their mother, Metaneira, rose up
+            from the couch she was sitting on to welcome the stranger. But
+            when she saw her at the doorway, awe came over her, so majestic
+            she seemed.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Metaneira
+            would have her seat herself on the couch but the goddess took the
+            lowliest stool, saying in greeting: <span class="tei tei-q">“May
+            the gods give you all good, lady.”</span></p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+            "tei tei-q">“Sorrow has set you wandering from your good
+            home,”</span> said Metaneira to the goddess, <span class=
+            "tei tei-q">“but now that you have come to this place you shall
+            have all that this house can bestow if you will rear up to youth
+            the infant Demophoön, child of many hopes and
+            prayers.”</span></p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> The child was
+            put into the arms of Demeter; she clasped him to her breast, and
+            little Demophoön looked up into her face and smiled. Then
+            Demeter’s heart went out to the child and to all who were in the
+            household.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em">  <span class=
+            "tei tei-pb" id="page67">[pg 67]</span> He grew in strength and
+            beauty in her charge. And little Demophoön was not nourished as
+            other children are nourished, but even as the gods in their
+            childhood were nourished. Demeter fed him on ambrosia, breathing
+            on him with her divine breath the while. And at night she laid
+            him on the hearth, amongst the embers, with the fire all around
+            him. This she did that she might make him immortal, and like to
+            the gods.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style=
+            "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em"><a name="i012.png"
+            id="i012.png" class="tei tei-anchor" style=
+            "text-align: center"></a><a name="fig40" id="fig40"></a></p>
+
+            <div class="tei tei-figure" style=
+            "width: 100%; text-align: center">
+              <img src="images/i012.png" alt="Illustration" title="" />
+
+              <div class="tei tei-head" style=
+              "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em">
+              </div>
+            </div>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> But one night
+            Metaneira looked out from the chamber where she lay, and she saw
+            the nurse take little Demophoön and lay him in a place on the
+            hearth with the burning brands all around him. Then Metaneira
+            started up, and she sprang to the hearth, and she snatched the
+            child from beside the burning brands. <span class=
+            "tei tei-q">“Demophoõn, my son,”</span> she cried, <span class=
+            "tei tei-q">“what would this stranger-woman do to you, bringing
+            bitter grief to me that ever I let her take you in her
+            arms?”</span></p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Then said
+            Demeter: <span class="tei tei-q">“Foolish indeed are you mortals,
+            and not able to foresee what is to come to you of good or of
+            evil! Foolish indeed are you, Metaneira, for in your heedlessness
+            you have cut off this child from an immortality like to the
+            immortality of the gods themselves. For he had lain in my bosom
+            and had become dear to me and I would have bestowed upon him the
+            greatest gift that the Divine Ones can bestow, for I would have
+            made him deathless and unaging. All this, now, has gone by. Honor
+            he shall have indeed, but Demophoõn will know age and
+            death.”</span></p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> The seeming
+            old age that was upon her had fallen from <span class=
+            "tei tei-pb" id="page68">[pg 68]</span> Demeter; beauty and
+            stature were hers, and from her robe there came a heavenly
+            fragrance. There came such light from her body that the chamber
+            shone. Metaneira remained trembling and speechless, unmindful
+            even to take up the child that had been laid upon the ground.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> It was then
+            that his sisters heard Demophoön wail; one ran from her chamber
+            and took the child in her arms; another kindled again the fire
+            upon the hearth, and the others made ready to bathe and care for
+            the infant. All night they cared for him, holding him in their
+            arms and at their breasts, but the child would not be comforted,
+            because the nurses who handled him now were less skillful than
+            was the goddess-nurse.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> And as for
+            Demeter, she left the house of Celeus and went upon her way,
+            lonely in her heart, and unappeased. And in the world that she
+            wandered through, the plow went in vain through the ground; the
+            furrow was sown without any avail, and the race of men saw
+            themselves near perishing for lack of bread.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> But again
+            Demeter came near the Well of the Maiden. She thought of the
+            daughters of Celeus as they came toward the well that day, the
+            bronze pitchers in their hands, and with kind looks for the
+            stranger—she thought of them as she sat by the well again. And
+            then she thought of little Demophoön, the child she had held at
+            her breast. No stir of living was in the land near their home,
+            and only weeds grew in their fields. As she sat there and looked
+            around her there came into Demeter’s heart a pity for the people
+            in whose house she had dwelt.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em">  <span class=
+            "tei tei-pb" id="page69">[pg 69]</span> She rose up and she went
+            to the house of Celeus. She found him beside his house measuring
+            out a little grain. The goddess went to him and she told him that
+            because of the love she bore his household she would bless his
+            fields so that the seed he had sown in them would come to growth.
+            Celeus rejoiced, and he called all the people together, and they
+            raised a temple to Demeter. She went through the fields and
+            blessed them, and the seed that they had sown began to grow. And
+            the goddess for a while dwelt amongst that people, in her temple
+            at Eleusis.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style=
+            "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em"><a name="i013.png"
+            id="i013.png" class="tei tei-anchor" style=
+            "text-align: center"></a><a name="fig41" id="fig41"></a></p>
+
+            <div class="tei tei-figure" style=
+            "width: 100%; text-align: center">
+              <img src="images/i013.png" alt="Illustration" title="" />
+
+              <div class="tei tei-head" style=
+              "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em">
+              </div>
+            </div>
+
+            <div class="tei tei-tb">
+              &nbsp;
+            </div>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.20em"><span style=
+            "font-size: 120%">IV</span></p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> But still she
+            kept away from the assemblies of the gods. Zeus sent a messenger
+            to her, Iris with the golden wings, bidding her to Olympus.
+            Demeter would not join the Olympians. Then, one after the other,
+            the gods and goddesses of Olympus came to her; none were able to
+            make her cease from grieving for Persephone, or to go again into
+            the company of the immortal gods.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> And so it
+            came about that Zeus was compelled to send a messenger down to
+            the Underworld to bring Persephone back to the mother who grieved
+            so much for the loss of her. Hermes was the messenger whom Zeus
+            sent. Through the darkened places of the earth Hermes went, and
+            he came to that dark throne where the lord Aidoneus sat, with
+            Persephone beside him. Then Hermes spoke to the lord of the
+            Underworld, saying <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page70">[pg
+            70]</span> that Zeus commanded that Persephone should come forth
+            from the Underworld that her mother might look upon her.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Then
+            Persephone, hearing the words of Zeus that might not be gainsaid,
+            uttered the only cry that had left her lips since she had sent
+            out that cry that had reached her mother’s heart. And Aidoneus,
+            hearing the command of Zeus that might not be denied, bowed his
+            dark, majestic head.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> She might go
+            to the Upperworld and rest herself in the arms of her mother, he
+            said. And then he cried out: <span class="tei tei-q">“Ah,
+            Persephone, strive to feel kindliness in your heart toward me who
+            carried you off by violence and against your will. I can give to
+            you one of the great kingdoms that the Olympians rule over. And
+            I, who am brother to Zeus, am no unfitting husband for you,
+            Demeter’s child.”</span></p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> So Aidoneus,
+            the dark lord of the Underworld said, and he made ready the iron
+            chariot with its deathless horses that Persephone might go up
+            from his kingdom.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Beside the
+            single tree in his domain Aidoneus stayed the chariot. A single
+            fruit grew on that tree, a bright pomegranate fruit. Persephone
+            stood up in the chariot and plucked the fruit from the tree. Then
+            did Aidoneus prevail upon her to divide the fruit, and, having
+            divided it, Persephone ate seven of the pomegranate seeds.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> It was Hermes
+            who took the whip and the reins of the chariot. He drove on, and
+            neither the sea nor the water-courses, nor the glens nor the
+            mountain peaks stayed the deathless horses of <span class=
+            "tei tei-pb" id="page71">[pg 71]</span> Aidoneus, and soon the
+            chariot was brought near to where Demeter awaited the coming of
+            her daughter.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style=
+            "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em"><a name="i014.png"
+            id="i014.png" class="tei tei-anchor" style=
+            "text-align: center"></a><a name="fig42" id="fig42"></a></p>
+
+            <div class="tei tei-figure" style=
+            "width: 100%; text-align: center">
+              <img src="images/i014.png" alt="Illustration" title="" />
+
+              <div class="tei tei-head" style=
+              "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em">
+              </div>
+            </div>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> And when,
+            from a hilltop, Demeter saw the chariot approaching, she flew
+            like a wild bird to clasp her child. Persephone, when she saw her
+            mother’s dear eyes, sprang out of the chariot and fell upon her
+            neck and embraced her. Long and long Demeter held her dear child
+            in her arms, gazing, gazing upon her. Suddenly her mind misgave
+            her. With a great fear at her heart she cried out: <span class=
+            "tei tei-q">“Dearest, has any food passed your lips in all the
+            time you have been in the Underworld?”</span></p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> She had not
+            tasted food in all the time she was there, Persephone said. And
+            then, suddenly, she remembered the pomegranate that Aidoneus had
+            asked her to divide. When she told that she had eaten seven seeds
+            from it Demeter wept, and her tears fell upon Persephone’s
+            face.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+            "tei tei-q">“Ah, my dearest,”</span> she cried, <span class=
+            "tei tei-q">“if you had not eaten the pomegranate seeds you could
+            have stayed with me, and always we should have been together. But
+            now that you have eaten food in it, the Underworld has a claim
+            upon you. You may not stay always with me here. Again you will
+            have to go back and dwell in the dark places under the earth and
+            sit upon Aidoneus’s throne. But not always you will be there.
+            When the flowers bloom upon the earth you shall come up from the
+            realm of darkness, and in great joy we shall go through the world
+            together, Demeter and Persephone.”</span></p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> And so it has
+            been since Persephone came back to her mother <span class=
+            "tei tei-pb" id="page72">[pg 72]</span> after having eaten of the
+            pomegranate seeds. For two seasons of the year she stays with
+            Demeter, and for one season she stays in the Underworld with her
+            dark lord. While she is with her mother there is springtime upon
+            the earth. Demeter blesses the furrows, her heart being glad
+            because her daughter is with her once more. The furrows become
+            heavy with grain, and soon the whole wide earth has grain and
+            fruit, leaves and flowers. When the furrows are reaped, when the
+            grain has been gathered, when the dark season comes, Persephone
+            goes from her mother, and going down into the dark places, she
+            sits beside her mighty lord Aidoneus and upon his throne. Not
+            sorrowful is she there; she sits with head unbowed, for she knows
+            herself to be a mighty queen. She has joy, too, knowing of the
+            seasons when she may walk with Demeter, her mother, on the wide
+            places of the earth, through fields of flowers and fruit and
+            ripening grain.</p>
+
+            <div class="tei tei-tb">
+              &nbsp;
+            </div>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Such was the
+            story that Orpheus told—Orpheus who knew the histories of the
+            gods.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> A day came
+            when the heroes, on their way back from a journey they had made
+            with the Lemnian maidens, called out to Heracles upon the
+            <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style=
+            "font-style: italic">Argo</span></em>. Then Heracles, standing on
+            the prow of the ship, shouted angrily to them. Terrible did he
+            seem to the Lemnian maidens, and they ran off, drawing the heroes
+            with them. Heracles shouted to his comrades again, saying that if
+            they did not come aboard the <em class=
+            "tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">Argo</span></em>
+            and make ready <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page73">[pg
+            73]</span> for the voyage to Colchis, he would go ashore and
+            carry them to the ship, and force them again to take the oars in
+            their hands. Not all of what Heracles said did the Argonauts
+            hear.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> That evening
+            the men were silent in Hypsipyle’s hall, and it was Atalanta, the
+            maiden, who told the evening’s story.</p>
+          </div>
+
+          <div class="tei tei-div" style=
+          "margin-bottom: 3.00em; margin-top: 3.00em">
+            <a name="toc43" id="toc43"></a><a name="pdf44" id="pdf44"></a>
+
+            <h3 class="tei tei-head" style=
+            "text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.40em; margin-top: 2.40em">
+            <span style="font-size: 120%">Atalanta’s Race</span></h3>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> There are two
+            Atalantas, she said; she herself, the Huntress, and another who
+            is noted for her speed of foot and her delight in the race—the
+            daughter of Schœneus, King of Bœotia, Atalanta of the Swift
+            Foot.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> So proud was
+            she of her swiftness that she made a vow to the gods that none
+            would be her husband except the youth who won past her in the
+            race. Youth after youth came and raced against her, but Atalanta,
+            who grew fleeter and fleeter of foot, left each one of them far
+            behind her. The youths who came to the race were so many and the
+            clamor they made after defeat was so great, that her father made
+            a law that, as he thought, would lessen their number. The law
+            that he made was that the youth who came to race against Atalanta
+            and who lost the race should lose his life into the bargain.
+            After that the youths who had care for their lives stayed away
+            from Bœotia.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Once there
+            came a youth from a far part of Greece into the country that
+            Atalanta’s father ruled over. Hippomenes was his name. He did not
+            know of the race, but having come into <span class="tei tei-pb"
+            id="page74">[pg 74]</span> the city and seeing the crowd of
+            people, he went with them to the course. He looked upon the
+            youths who were girded for the race, and he heard the folk say
+            amongst themselves, <span class="tei tei-q">“Poor youths, as
+            mighty and as high-spirited as they look, by sunset the life will
+            be out of each of them, for Atalanta will run past them as she
+            ran past the others.”</span> Then Hippomenes spoke to the folk in
+            wonder, and they told him of Atalanta’s race and of what would
+            befall the youths who were defeated in it. <span class=
+            "tei tei-q">“Unlucky youths,”</span> cried Hippomenes,
+            <span class="tei tei-q">“how foolish they are to try to win a
+            bride at the price of their lives.”</span></p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Then, with
+            pity in his heart, he watched the youths prepare for the race.
+            Atalanta had not yet taken her place, and he was fearful of
+            looking upon her. <span class="tei tei-q">“She is a
+            witch,”</span> he said to himself, <span class="tei tei-q">“she
+            must be a witch to draw so many youths to their deaths, and she,
+            no doubt, will show in her face and figure the witch’s
+            spirit.”</span></p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> But even as
+            he said this, Hippomenes saw Atalanta. She stood with the youths
+            before they crouched for the first dart in the race. He saw that
+            she was a girl of a light and a lovely form. Then they crouched
+            for the race; then the trumpets rang out, and the youths and the
+            maiden darted like swallows over the sand of the course.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> On came
+            Atalanta, far, far ahead of the youths who had started with her.
+            Over her bare shoulders her hair streamed, blown backward by the
+            wind that met her flight. Her fair neck shone, and her little
+            feet were like flying doves. It seemed to Hippomenes as he
+            watched her that there was fire in her <span class="tei tei-pb"
+            id="page75">[pg 75]</span> lovely body. On and on she went as
+            swift as the arrow that the Scythian shoots from his bow. And as
+            he watched the race he was not sorry that the youths were being
+            left behind. Rather would he have been enraged if one came near
+            overtaking her, for now his heart was set upon winning her for
+            his bride, and he cursed himself for not having entered the
+            race.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> She passed
+            the last goal mark and she was given the victor’s wreath of
+            flowers. Hippomenes stood and watched her and he did not see the
+            youths who had started with her—they had thrown themselves on the
+            ground in their despair.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Then wild, as
+            though he were one of the doomed youths, Hippomenes made his way
+            through the throng and came before the black-bearded King of
+            Bœtia. The king’s brows were knit, for even then he was
+            pronouncing doom upon the youths who had been left behind in the
+            race. He looked upon Hippomenes, another youth who would make the
+            trial, and the frown became heavier upon his face.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> But
+            Hippomenes saw only Atalanta. She came beside her father; the
+            wreath was upon her head of gold, and her eyes were wide and
+            tender. She turned her face to him, and then she knew by the
+            wildness that was in his look that he had come to enter the race
+            with her. Then the flush that was on her face died away, and she
+            shook her head as if she were imploring him to go from that
+            place.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> The
+            dark-bearded king bent his brows upon him and said, <span class=
+            "tei tei-q">“Speak, O youth, speak and tell us what brings you
+            here.”</span> <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page76">[pg
+            76]</span></p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Then cried
+            Hippomenes as if his whole life were bursting out with his words:
+            <span class="tei tei-q">“Why does this maiden, your daughter,
+            seek an easy renown by conquering weakly youths in the race? She
+            has not striven yet. Here stand I, one of the blood of Poseidon,
+            the god of the sea. Should I be defeated by her in the race,
+            then, indeed, might Atalanta have something to boast
+            of.”</span></p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Atalanta
+            stepped forward and said: <span class="tei tei-q">“Do not speak
+            of it, youth. Indeed I think that it is some god, envious of your
+            beauty and your strength, who sent you here to strive with me and
+            to meet your doom. Ah, think of the youths who have striven with
+            me even now! Think of the hard doom that is about to fall upon
+            them! You venture your life in the race, but indeed I am not
+            worthy of the price. Go hence, O stranger youth, go hence and
+            live happily, for indeed I think that there is some maiden who
+            loves you well.”</span></p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+            "tei tei-q">“Nay, maiden,”</span> said Hippomenes, <span class=
+            "tei tei-q">“I will enter the race and I will venture my life on
+            the chance of winning you for my bride. What good will my life
+            and my spirit be to me if they cannot win this race for
+            me?”</span></p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> She drew away
+            from him then and looked upon him no more, but bent down to
+            fasten the sandals upon her feet. And the black-bearded king
+            looked upon Hippomenes and said, <span class="tei tei-q">“Face,
+            then, this race to-morrow. You will be the only one who will
+            enter it. But bethink thee of the doom that awaits thee at the
+            end of it.”</span> The king said no more, and Hippomenes went
+            <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page77">[pg 77]</span> from him and
+            from Atalanta, and he came again to the place where the race had
+            been run.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> He looked
+            across the sandy course with its goal marks, and in his mind he
+            saw again Atalanta’s swift race. He would not meet doom at the
+            hands of the king’s soldiers, he knew, for his spirit would leave
+            him with the greatness of the effort he would make to reach the
+            goal before her. And he thought it would be well to die in that
+            effort and on that sandy place that was so far from his own
+            land.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Even as he
+            looked across the sandy course now deserted by the throng, he saw
+            one move across it, coming toward him with feet that did not seem
+            to touch the ground. She was a woman of wonderful presence. As
+            Hippomenes looked upon her he knew that she was Aphrodite, the
+            goddess of beauty and of love.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+            "tei tei-q">“Hippomenes,”</span> said the immortal goddess,
+            <span class="tei tei-q">“the gods are mindful of you who are
+            sprung from one of the gods, and I am mindful of you because of
+            your own worth. I have come to help you in your race with
+            Atalanta, for I would not have you slain, nor would I have that
+            maiden go unwed. Give your greatest strength and your greatest
+            swiftness to the race, and behold! here are wonders that will
+            prevent the fleet-footed Atalanta from putting all her spirit
+            into the race.”</span></p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> And then the
+            immortal goddess held out to Hippomenes a branch that had upon it
+            three apples of shining gold.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+            "tei tei-q">“In Cyprus,”</span> said the goddess, <span class=
+            "tei tei-q">“where I have come from, there is a tree on which
+            these golden apples grow. Only I <span class="tei tei-pb" id=
+            "page78">[pg 78]</span> may pluck them. I have brought them to
+            you, Hippomenes. Keep them in your girdle, and in the race you
+            will find out what to do with them, I think.”</span></p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> So Aphrodite
+            said, and then she vanished, leaving a fragrance in the air and
+            the three shining apples in the hands of Hippomenes. Long he
+            looked upon their brightness. They were beside him that night,
+            and when he arose in the dawn he put them in his girdle. Then,
+            before the throng, he went to the place of the race.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> When he
+            showed himself beside Atalanta all around the course were silent,
+            for they all admired Hippomenes for his beauty and for the spirit
+            that was in his face; they were silent out of compassion, for
+            they knew the doom that befell the youths who raced with
+            Atalanta.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> And now
+            Schœneus, the black-bearded king, stood up, and he spoke to the
+            throng, saying, <span class="tei tei-q">“Hear me all, both young
+            and old: this youth, Hippomenes, seeks to win the race from my
+            daughter, winning her for his bride. Now, if he be victorious and
+            escape death I will give him my dear child, Atalanta, and many
+            fleet horses besides as gifts from me, and in honor he shall go
+            back to his native land. But if he fail in the race, then he will
+            have to share the doom that has been meted out to the other
+            youths who raced with Atalanta hoping to win her for a
+            bride.”</span></p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Then
+            Hippomenes and Atalanta crouched for the start. The trumpets were
+            sounded and they darted off. <span class="tei tei-pb" id=
+            "page79">[pg 79]</span></p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Side by side
+            with Atalanta Hippomenes went. Her flying hair touched his
+            breast, and it seemed to him that they were skimming the sandy
+            course as if they were swallows. But then Atalanta began to draw
+            away from him. He saw her ahead of him, and then he began to hear
+            the words of cheer that came from the throng—<span class=
+            "tei tei-q">“Bend to the race, Hippomenes! Go on, go on! Use your
+            strength to the utmost.”</span> He bent himself to the race, but
+            further and further from him Atalanta drew.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Then it
+            seemed to him that she checked her swiftness a little to look
+            back at him. He gained on her a little. And then his hand touched
+            the apples that were in his girdle. As it touched them it came
+            into his mind what to do with the apples.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> He was not
+            far from her now, but already her swiftness was drawing her
+            further and further away. He took one of the apples into his hand
+            and tossed it into the air so that it fell on the track before
+            her.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Atalanta saw
+            the shining apple. She checked her speed and stooped in the race
+            to pick it up. And as she stooped Hippomenes darted past her, and
+            went flying toward the goal that now was within his sight.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> But soon she
+            was beside him again. He looked, and he saw that the goal marks
+            were far, far ahead of him. Atalanta with the flying hair passed
+            him, and drew away and away from him. He had not speed to gain
+            upon her now, he thought, so he put his strength into his hand
+            and he flung the second of the shining <span class="tei tei-pb"
+            id="page80">[pg 80]</span> apples. The apple rolled before her
+            and rolled off the course. Atalanta turned off the course,
+            stooped and picked up the apple.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Then did
+            Hippomenes draw all his spirit into his breast as he raced on. He
+            was now nearer to the goal than she was. But he knew that she was
+            behind him, going lightly where he went heavily. And then she was
+            beside him, and then she went past him. She paused in her speed
+            for a moment and she looked back on him.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> As he raced
+            on, his chest seemed weighted down and his throat was crackling
+            dry. The goal marks were far away still, but Atalanta was nearing
+            them. He took the last of the golden apples into his hand.
+            Perhaps she was now so far that the strength of his throw would
+            not be great enough to bring the apple before her.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> But with all
+            the strength he could put into his hand he flung the apple. It
+            struck the course before her feet and then went bounding wide.
+            Atalanta swerved in her race and followed where the apple went.
+            Hippomenes marveled that he had been able to fling it so far. He
+            saw Atalanta stoop to pick up the apple, and he bounded on. And
+            then, although his strength was failing, he saw the goal marks
+            near him. He set his feet between them and then fell down on the
+            ground.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> The
+            attendants raised him up and put the victor’s wreath upon his
+            head. The concourse of people shouted with joy to see him victor.
+            But he looked around for Atalanta and he <span class="tei tei-pb"
+            id="page81">[pg 81]</span> saw her standing there with the golden
+            apples in her hands. <span class="tei tei-q">“He has won,”</span>
+            he heard her say, <span class="tei tei-q">“and I have not to hate
+            myself for bringing a doom upon him. Gladly, gladly do I give up
+            the race, and glad am I that it is this youth who has won the
+            victory from me.”</span></p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style=
+            "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em"><a name="i015.png"
+            id="i015.png" class="tei tei-anchor" style=
+            "text-align: center"></a><a name="fig45" id="fig45"></a></p>
+
+            <div class="tei tei-figure" style=
+            "width: 100%; text-align: center">
+              <img src="images/i015.png" alt="Illustration" title=
+              "Atalanta’s Last Race" />
+
+              <div class="tei tei-head" style=
+              "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em">
+              Atalanta’s Last Race
+              </div>
+            </div>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> She took his
+            hand and brought him before the king. Then Schœneus, in the sight
+            of all the rejoicing people, gave Atalanta to Hippomenes for his
+            bride, and he bestowed upon him also a great gift of horses. With
+            his dear and hard-won bride, Hippomenes went to his own country,
+            and the apples that she brought with her, the golden apples of
+            Aphrodite, were reverenced by the people.</p>
+          </div>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="tei tei-div" style=
+        "margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em">
+          <a name="toc46" id="toc46"></a><a name="pdf47" id="pdf47"></a>
+
+          <h2 class="tei tei-head" style=
+          "text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em">
+          <span style="font-size: 144%">X. The Departure from
+          Lemnos</span></h2>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> </p>
+
+          <div class="deco-letter floatleft tei tei-figure" style=
+          "margin-bottom: 0.00em; margin-top: 0.00em"><img src=
+          "images/capA1.png" alt="Decorative first letter" /></div>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"><span class=
+          "tei tei-hi" style="margin-left: -1.00em"><span style=
+          "color: white; font-variant: small-caps">A</span></span> DAY came
+          when Heracles left the <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style=
+          "font-style: italic">Argo</span></em> and went on the Lemnian land.
+          He gathered the heroes about him, and they, seeing Heracles come
+          amongst them, clamored to go to hunt the wild bulls that were
+          inland from the sea.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> So, for once,
+          the heroes left the Lemnian maidens who were their friends. Jason,
+          too, left Hypsipyle in the palace and went with Heracles. And as
+          they went, Heracles spoke to each of the heroes, saying that they
+          were forgetting the Fleece of Gold that they had sailed to gain.
+          <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page82">[pg 82]</span> Jason blushed
+          to think that he had almost let go out of his mind the quest that
+          had brought him from Iolcus. And then he thought upon Hypsipyle and
+          of how her little hand would stay in his, and his own hand became
+          loose upon the spear so that it nearly fell from him. How could he,
+          he thought, leave Hypsipyle and this land of Lemnos behind?</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> He heard the
+          clear voice of Atalanta as she, too, spoke to the Argonauts. What
+          Heracles said was brave and wise, said Atalanta. Forgetfulness
+          would cover their names if they stayed longer in
+          Lemnos—forgetfulness and shame, and they would come to despise
+          themselves. Leave Lemnos, she cried, and draw <em class=
+          "tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">Argo</span></em>
+          into the sea, and depart for Colchis.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> All day the
+          Argonauts stayed by themselves, hunting the bulls. On their way
+          back from the chase they were met by Lemnian maidens who carried
+          wreaths of flowers for them. Very silent were the heroes as the
+          maidens greeted them. Heracles went with Jason to the palace, and
+          Hypsipyle, seeing the mighty stranger coming, seated herself, not
+          on the couch where she was wont to sit looking into the face of
+          Jason, but on the stone throne of King Thoas, her father. And
+          seated on that throne she spoke to Jason and to Heracles as a queen
+          might speak.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> In the hall
+          that night the heroes and the Lemnian maidens who were with them
+          were quiet. A story was told; Castor began it and Polydeuces ended
+          it. And the story that Helen’s brothers told was:</p><span class=
+          "tei tei-pb" id="page83">[pg 83]</span>
+
+          <div class="tei tei-div" style=
+          "margin-bottom: 3.00em; margin-top: 3.00em">
+            <a name="toc48" id="toc48"></a><a name="pdf49" id="pdf49"></a>
+
+            <h3 class="tei tei-head" style=
+            "text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.40em; margin-top: 2.40em">
+            <span style="font-size: 120%">The Golden Maid</span></h3>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Epimetheus
+            the Titan had a brother who was the wisest of all
+            beings—Prometheus called the Foreseer. But Epimetheus himself was
+            slow-witted and scatter-brained. His wise brother once sent him a
+            message bidding him beware of the gifts that Zeus might send him.
+            Epimetheus heard, but he did not heed the warning, and thereby he
+            brought upon the race of men troubles and cares.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Prometheus,
+            the wise Titan, had saved men from a great trouble that Zeus
+            would have brought upon them. Also he had given them the gift of
+            fire. Zeus was the more wroth with men now because fire, stolen
+            from him, had been given them; he was wroth with the race of
+            Titans, too, and he pondered in his heart how he might injure
+            men, and how he might use Epimetheus, the mindless Titan, to
+            further his plan.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> While he
+            pondered there was a hush on high Olympus, the mountain of the
+            gods. Then Zeus called upon the artisan of the gods, lame
+            Hephæstus, and he commanded him to make a being out of clay that
+            would have the likeness of a lovely maiden. With joy and pride
+            Hephæstus worked at the task that had been given him, and he
+            fashioned a being that had the likeness of a lovely maiden, and
+            he brought the thing of his making before the gods and the
+            goddesses.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> All strove to
+            add a grace or a beauty to the work of Hephæstus. Zeus granted
+            that the maiden should see and feel. <span class="tei tei-pb" id=
+            "page84">[pg 84]</span> Athene dressed her in garments that were
+            as lovely as flowers. Aphrodite, the goddess of love, put a charm
+            on her lips and in her eyes. The Graces put necklaces around her
+            neck and set a golden crown upon her head. The Hours brought her
+            a girdle of spring flowers. Then the herald of the gods gave her
+            speech that was sweet and flowing. All the gods and goddesses had
+            given gifts to her, and for that reason the maiden of Hephæstus’s
+            making was called Pandora, the All-endowed.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> She was
+            lovely, the gods knew; not beautiful as they themselves are, who
+            have a beauty that awakens reverence rather than love, but
+            lovely, as flowers and bright waters and earthly maidens are
+            lovely. Zeus smiled to himself when he looked upon her, and he
+            called to Hermes who knew all the ways of the earth, and he put
+            her into the charge of Hermes. Also he gave Hermes a great jar to
+            take along; this jar was Pandora’s dower.</p>
+
+            <div class="tei tei-tb">
+              &nbsp;
+            </div>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Epimetheus
+            lived in a deep-down valley. Now one day, as he was sitting on a
+            fallen pillar in the ruined place that was now forsaken by the
+            rest of the Titans, he saw a pair coming toward him. One had
+            wings, and he knew him to be Hermes, the messenger of the gods.
+            The other was a maiden. Epimetheus marveled at the crown upon her
+            head and at her lovely garments. There was a glint of gold all
+            around her. He rose from where he sat upon the broken pillar and
+            he stood to watch the pair. Hermes, he saw, was carrying by its
+            handle a great jar.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em">  <span class=
+            "tei tei-pb" id="page85">[pg 85]</span> In wonder and delight he
+            looked upon the maiden. Epimetheus had seen no lovely thing for
+            ages. Wonderful indeed was this Golden Maid, and as she came
+            nearer the charm that was on her lips and in her eyes came to the
+            Earth-born One, and he smiled with more and more delight.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style=
+            "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em"><a name="i016.png"
+            id="i016.png" class="tei tei-anchor" style=
+            "text-align: center"></a><a name="fig50" id="fig50"></a></p>
+
+            <div class="tei tei-figure" style=
+            "width: 100%; text-align: center">
+              <img src="images/i016.png" alt="Illustration" title="" />
+
+              <div class="tei tei-head" style=
+              "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em">
+              </div>
+            </div>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Hermes came
+            and stood before him. He also smiled, but his smile had something
+            baleful in it. He put the hands of the Golden Maid into the great
+            soft hand of the Titan, and he said, <span class="tei tei-q">“O
+            Epimetheus, Father Zeus would be reconciled with thee, and as a
+            sign of his good will he sends thee this lovely goddess to be thy
+            companion.”</span></p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Oh, very
+            foolish was Epimetheus the Earth-born One! As he looked upon the
+            Golden Maid who was sent by Zeus he lost memory of the wars that
+            Zeus had made upon the Titans and the Elder Gods; he lost memory
+            of his brother chained by Zeus to the rock; he lost memory of the
+            warning that his brother, the wisest of all beings, had sent him.
+            He took the hands of Pandora, and he thought of nothing at all in
+            all the world but her. Very far away seemed the voice of Hermes
+            saying, <span class="tei tei-q">“This jar, too, is from Olympus;
+            it has in it Pandora’s dower.”</span></p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> The jar stood
+            forgotten for long, and green plants grew over it while
+            Epimetheus walked in the garden with the Golden Maid, or watched
+            her while she gazed on herself in the stream, or searched in the
+            untended places for the fruits that the Elder Gods would eat,
+            when they feasted with the Titans in the old days, before Zeus
+            had come to his power. And lost to Epimetheus <span class=
+            "tei tei-pb" id="page86">[pg 86]</span> was the memory of his
+            brother now suffering upon the rock because of the gift he had
+            given to men.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> And Pandora,
+            knowing nothing except the brightness of the sunshine and the
+            lovely shapes and colors of things and the sweet taste of the
+            fruits that Epimetheus brought to her, could have stayed forever
+            in that garden.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> But every day
+            Epimetheus would think that the men and women of the world should
+            be able to talk to him about this maiden with the wonderful
+            radiance of gold, and with the lovely garments, and the marvelous
+            crown. And one day he took Pandora by the hand, and he brought
+            her out of that deep-lying valley, and toward the homes of men.
+            He did not forget the jar that Hermes had left with her. All
+            things that belonged to the Golden Maid were precious, and
+            Epimetheus took the jar along.</p>
+
+            <div class="tei tei-tb">
+              &nbsp;
+            </div>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> The race of
+            men at the time were simple and content. Their days were passed
+            in toil, but now, since Prometheus had given them fire, they had
+            good fruits of their toil. They had well-shaped tools to dig the
+            earth and to build houses. Their homes were warmed with fire, and
+            fire burned upon the altars that were upon their ways.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Greatly they
+            reverenced Prometheus; who had given them fire, and greatly they
+            reverenced the race of the Titans. So when Epimetheus came
+            amongst them, tall as a man walking with stilts, they welcomed
+            him and brought him and the Golden <span class="tei tei-pb" id=
+            "page87">[pg 87]</span> Maid to their hearths. And Epimetheus
+            showed Pandora the wonderful element that his brother had given
+            to men, and she rejoiced to see the fire, clapping her hands with
+            delight. The jar that Epimetheus brought he left in an open
+            place.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> In carrying
+            it up the rough ways out of the valley Epimetheus may have
+            knocked the jar about, for the lid that had been tight upon it
+            now fitted very loosely. But no one gave heed to the jar as it
+            stood in the open space where Epimetheus had left it.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> At first the
+            men and women looked upon the beauty of Pandora, upon her lovely
+            dresses, and her golden crown and her girdle of flowers, with
+            wonder and delight. Epimetheus would have every one admire and
+            praise her. The men would leave off working in the fields, or
+            hammering on iron, or building houses, and the women would leave
+            off spinning or weaving, and come at his call, and stand about
+            and admire the Golden Maid. But as time went by a change came
+            upon the women: one woman would weep, and another would look
+            angry, and a third would go back sullenly to her work when
+            Pandora was admired or praised.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Once the
+            women were gathered together, and one who was the wisest amongst
+            them said: <span class="tei tei-q">“Once we did not think about
+            ourselves, and we were content. But now we think about ourselves,
+            and we say to ourselves that we are harsh and ill-favored indeed
+            compared to the Golden Maid that the Titan is so enchanted with.
+            And we hate to see our own men praise and <span class=
+            "tei tei-pb" id="page88">[pg 88]</span> admire her, and often, in
+            our hearts, we would destroy her if we could.”</span></p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+            "tei tei-q">“That is true,”</span> the women said. And then a
+            young woman cried out in a most yearnful voice, <span class=
+            "tei tei-q">“O tell us, you who are wise, how can we make
+            ourselves as beautiful as Pandora!”</span></p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Then said
+            that woman who was thought to be wise, <span class=
+            "tei tei-q">“This Golden Maid is lovely to look upon because she
+            has lovely apparel and all the means of keeping herself lovely.
+            The gods have given her the ways, and so her skin remains fair,
+            and her hair keeps its gold, and her lips are ever red and her
+            eyes shining. And I think that the means that she has of keeping
+            lovely are all in that jar that Epimetheus brought with
+            her.”</span></p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> When the
+            woman who was thought to be wise said this, those around her were
+            silent for a while. But then one arose and another arose, and
+            they stood and whispered together, one saying to the other that
+            they should go to the place where the jar had been left by
+            Epimetheus, and that they should take out of it the salves and
+            the charms and the washes that would leave them as beautiful as
+            Pandora.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> So the women
+            went to that place. On their way they stopped at a pool and they
+            bent over to see themselves mirrored in it, and they saw
+            themselves with dusty and unkempt hair, with large and knotted
+            hands, with troubled eyes, and with anxious mouths. They frowned
+            as they looked upon their images, and they said in harsh voices
+            that in a while they would have ways of making themselves as
+            lovely as the Golden Maid. <span class="tei tei-pb" id=
+            "page89">[pg 89]</span></p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style=
+            "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em"><a name="i017.png"
+            id="i017.png" class="tei tei-anchor" style=
+            "text-align: center"></a><a name="fig51" id="fig51"></a></p>
+
+            <div class="tei tei-figure" style=
+            "width: 100%; text-align: center">
+              <img src="images/i017.png" alt="Illustration" title="" />
+
+              <div class="tei tei-head" style=
+              "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em">
+              </div>
+            </div>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> And as they
+            went on they saw Pandora. She was playing in a flowering field,
+            while Epimetheus, high as a man upon stilts, went gathering the
+            blossoms of the bushes for her. They went on, and they came at
+            last to the place where Epimetheus had left the jar that held
+            Pandora’s dower.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> A great stone
+            jar it was; there was no bird, nor flower, nor branch painted
+            upon it. It stood high as a woman’s shoulder. And as the women
+            looked on it they thought that there were things enough in it to
+            keep them beautiful for all the days of their lives. But each one
+            thought that she should not be the last to get her hands into
+            it.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Once the lid
+            had been fixed tightly down on the jar. But the lid was shifted a
+            little now. As the hands of the women grasped it to take off the
+            lid the jar was cast down, and the things that were inside
+            spilled themselves forth.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> They were
+            black and gray and red; they were crawling and flying things.
+            And, as the women looked, the things spread themselves abroad or
+            fastened themselves upon them.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> The jar, like
+            Pandora herself, had been made and filled out of the ill will of
+            Zeus. And it had been filled, not with salves and charms and
+            washes, as the women had thought, but with Cares and Troubles.
+            Before the women came to it one Trouble had already come forth
+            from the jar—Self-thought that was upon the top of the heap. It
+            was Self-thought that had afflicted the women, making them
+            troubled about their own looks, and envious of the graces of the
+            Golden Maid. <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page90">[pg
+            90]</span></p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> And now the
+            others spread themselves out—Sickness and War and Strife between
+            friends. They spread themselves abroad and entered the houses,
+            while Epimetheus, the mindless Titan, gathered flowers for
+            Pandora, the Golden Maid.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Lest she
+            should weary of her play he called to her. He would take her into
+            the houses of men. As they drew near to the houses they saw a
+            woman seated on the ground, weeping; her husband had suddenly
+            become hard to her and had shut the door on her face. They came
+            upon a child crying because of a pain that he could not
+            understand. And then they found two men struggling, their strife
+            being on account of a possession that they had both held
+            peaceably before.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> In every
+            house they went to Epimetheus would say, <span class=
+            "tei tei-q">“I am the brother of Prometheus, who gave you the
+            gift of fire.”</span> But instead of giving them a welcome the
+            men would say, <span class="tei tei-q">“We know nothing about
+            your relation to Prometheus. We see you as a foolish man upon
+            stilts.”</span></p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Epimetheus
+            was troubled by the hard looks and the cold words of the men who
+            once had reverenced him. He turned from the houses and went away.
+            In a quiet place he sat down, and for a while he lost sight of
+            Pandora. And then it seemed to him that he heard the voice of his
+            wise and suffering brother saying, <span class="tei tei-q">“Do
+            not accept any gift that Zeus may send you.”</span></p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> He rose up
+            and he hurried away from that place, leaving Pandora playing by
+            herself. There came into his scattered mind Regret and Fear. As
+            he went on he stumbled. He fell <span class="tei tei-pb" id=
+            "page91">[pg 91]</span> from the edge of a cliff, and the sea
+            washed away the body of the mindless brother of Prometheus.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Not
+            everything had been spilled out of the jar that had been brought
+            with Pandora into the world of men. A beautiful, living thing was
+            in that jar also. This was Hope. And this beautiful, living thing
+            had got caught under the rim of the jar and had not come forth
+            with the others. One day a weeping woman found Hope under the rim
+            of Pandora’s jar and brought this living thing into the house of
+            men. And now because of Hope they could see an end to their
+            troubles. And the men and women roused themselves in the midst of
+            their afflictions and they looked toward gladness. Hope, that had
+            been caught under the rim of the jar, stayed behind the
+            thresholds of their houses.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> As for
+            Pandora, the Golden Maid, she played on, knowing only the
+            brightness of the sunshine and the lovely shapes of things.
+            Beautiful would she have seemed to any being who saw her, but now
+            she had strayed away from the houses of men and Epimetheus was
+            not there to look upon her. Then Hephæstus, the lame artisan of
+            the gods, left down his tools and went to seek her. He found
+            Pandora, and he took her back to Olympus. And in his brazen house
+            she stays, though sometimes at the will of Zeus she goes down
+            into the world of men.</p>
+
+            <div class="tei tei-tb">
+              &nbsp;
+            </div>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> When
+            Polydeuces had ended the story that Castor had begun, Heracles
+            cried out: <span class="tei tei-q">“For the Argonauts, too, there
+            has been <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page92">[pg 92]</span> a
+            Golden Maid—nay, not one, but a Golden Maid for each. Out of the
+            jar that has been with her ye have taken forgetfulness of your
+            honor. As for me, I go back to the <em class=
+            "tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">Argo</span></em>
+            lest one of these Golden Maids should hold me back from the
+            labors that make great a man.”</span></p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> So Heracles
+            said, and he went from Hypsipyle’s hall. The heroes looked at
+            each other, and they stood up, and shame that they had stayed so
+            long away from the quest came over each of them. The maidens took
+            their hands; the heroes unloosed those soft hands and turned away
+            from them.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Hypsipyle
+            left the throne of King Thoas and stood before Jason. There was a
+            storm in all her body; her mouth was shaken, and a whole life’s
+            trouble was in her great eyes. Before she spoke Jason cried out:
+            <span class="tei tei-q">“What Heracles said is true, O Argonauts!
+            On the Quest of the Golden Fleece our lives and our honors
+            depend. To Colchis—to Colchis must we go!”</span></p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> He stood
+            upright in the hall, and his comrades gathered around him. The
+            Lemnian maidens would have held out their arms and would have
+            made their partings long delayed, but that a strange cry came to
+            them through the night. Well did the Argonauts know that cry—it
+            was the cry of the ship, of <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style=
+            "font-style: italic">Argo</span></em> herself. They knew that
+            they must go to her now or stay from the voyage for ever. And the
+            maidens knew that there was something in the cry of the ship that
+            might not be gainsaid, and they put their hands before their
+            faces, and they said no other word. <span class="tei tei-pb" id=
+            "page93">[pg 93]</span></p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style=
+            "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em"><a name="i018.png"
+            id="i018.png" class="tei tei-anchor" style=
+            "text-align: center"></a><a name="fig52" id="fig52"></a></p>
+
+            <div class="tei tei-figure" style=
+            "width: 100%; text-align: center">
+              <img src="images/i018.png" alt="Illustration" title="" />
+
+              <div class="tei tei-head" style=
+              "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em">
+              </div>
+            </div>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Then said
+            Hypsipyle, the queen, <span class="tei tei-q">“I, too, am a
+            ruler, Jason, and I know that there are great commands that we
+            have to obey. Go, then, to the <em class=
+            "tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">Argo</span></em>.
+            Ah, neither I nor the women of Lemnos will stay your going now.
+            But to-morrow speak to us from the deck of the ship and bid us
+            farewell. Do not go from us in the night, Jason.”</span></p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Jason and the
+            Argonauts went from Hypsipyle’s hall. The maidens who were left
+            behind wept together. All but Hypsipyle. She sat on the throne of
+            King Thoas and she had Polyxo, her nurse, tell her of the ways of
+            Jason’s voyage as he had told of them, and of all that he would
+            have to pass through. When the other Lemnian women slept she put
+            her head upon her nurse’s knees and wept; bitterly Hypsipyle
+            wept, but softly, for she would not have the others hear her
+            weeping.</p>
+
+            <div class="tei tei-tb">
+              &nbsp;
+            </div>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> By the coming
+            of the morning’s light the Argonauts had made all ready for their
+            sailing. They were standing on the deck when the light came, and
+            they saw the Lemnian women come to the shore. Each looked at her
+            friend aboard the <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style=
+            "font-style: italic">Argo</span></em>, and spoke, and went away.
+            And last, Hypsipyle, the queen, came. <span class=
+            "tei tei-q">“Farewell, Hypsipyle,”</span> Jason said to her, and
+            she, in her strange way of speaking, said:</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+            "tei tei-q">“What you told us I have remembered—how you will come
+            to the dangerous passage that leads into the Sea of Pontus, and
+            how by the flight of a pigeon you will know whether or not you
+            may go that way. O Jason, let the <span class="tei tei-pb" id=
+            "page94">[pg 94]</span> dove you fly when you come to that
+            dangerous place be Hypsipyle’s.”</span></p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> She showed a
+            pigeon held in her hands. She loosed it, and the pigeon alighted
+            on the ship, and stayed there on pink feet, a white-feathered
+            pigeon. Jason took up the pigeon and held it in his hands, and
+            the <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style=
+            "font-style: italic">Argo</span></em> drew swiftly away from the
+            Lemnian land.</p>
+          </div>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="tei tei-div" style=
+        "margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em">
+          <a name="toc53" id="toc53"></a><a name="pdf54" id="pdf54"></a>
+
+          <h2 class="tei tei-head" style=
+          "text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em">
+          <span style="font-size: 144%">XI. The Passage of the
+          Symplegades</span></h2>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> </p>
+
+          <div class="deco-letter floatleft tei tei-figure" style=
+          "margin-bottom: 0.00em; margin-top: 0.00em"><img src=
+          "images/capT.png" alt="Decorative first letter" /></div>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"><span class=
+          "tei tei-hi" style="margin-left: -1.00em"><span style=
+          "color: white; font-variant: small-caps">T</span></span>HEY came
+          near Salmydessus, where Phineus, the wise king, ruled, and they
+          sailed past it; they sighted the pile of stones, with the oar
+          upright upon it that they had raised on the seashore over the body
+          of Tiphys, the skillful steersman whom they had lost; they sailed
+          on until they heard a sound that grew more and more thunderous, and
+          then the heroes said to each other, <span class="tei tei-q">“Now we
+          come to the Symplegades and the dread passage into the Sea of
+          Pontus.”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> It was then
+          that Jason cried out: <span class="tei tei-q">“Ah, when Pelias
+          spoke of this quest to me, why did I not turn my head away and
+          refuse to be drawn into it? Since we came near the dread passage
+          that is before us I have passed every night in groans. As for you
+          who have come with me, you may take your ease, <span class=
+          "tei tei-pb" id="page95">[pg 95]</span> for you need care only for
+          your own lives. But I have to care for you all, and to strive to
+          win for you all a safe return to Greece. Ah, greatly am I afflicted
+          now, knowing to what a great peril I have brought you!”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> So Jason said,
+          thinking to make trial of the heroes. They, on their part, were not
+          dismayed, but shouted back cheerful words to him. Then he said:
+          <span class="tei tei-q">“O friends of mine, by your spirit my
+          spirit is quickened. Now if I knew that I was being borne down into
+          the black gulfs of Hades, I should fear nothing, knowing that you
+          are constant and faithful of heart.”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> As he said this
+          they came into water that seethed all around the ship. Then into
+          the hands of Euphemus, a youth of Iolcus, who was the keenest-eyed
+          amongst the Argonauts, Jason put the pigeon that Hypsipyle had
+          given him. He bade him stand by the prow of the <em class=
+          "tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">Argo</span></em>,
+          ready to loose the pigeon as the ship came nigh that dreadful gate
+          of rock.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> They saw the
+          spray being dashed around in showers; they saw the sea spread
+          itself out in foam; they saw the high, black rocks rush together,
+          sounding thunderously as they met. The caves in the high rocks
+          rumbled as the sea surged into them, and the foam of the dashing
+          waves spurted high up the rocks.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Jason shouted
+          to each man to grip hard on the oars. The <em class=
+          "tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">Argo</span></em>
+          dashed on as the rocks rushed toward each other again. Then there
+          was such noise that no man’s voice could be heard above it.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> As the rocks
+          met, Euphemus loosed the pigeon. With his <span class="tei tei-pb"
+          id="page96">[pg 96]</span> keen eyes he watched her fly through the
+          spray. Would she, not finding an opening to fly through, turn back?
+          He watched, and meanwhile the Argonauts gripped hard on the oars to
+          save the ship from being dashed on the rocks. The pigeon fluttered
+          as though she would sink down and let the spray drown her. And then
+          Euphemus saw her raise herself and fly forward. Toward the place
+          where she had flown he pointed. The rowers gave a loud cry, and
+          Jason called upon them to pull with might and main.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> The rocks were
+          parting asunder, and to the right and left broad Pontus was seen by
+          the heroes. Then suddenly a huge wave rose before them, and at the
+          sight of it they all uttered a cry and bent their heads. It seemed
+          to them that it would dash down on the whole ship’s length and
+          overwhelm them all. But Nauplius was quick to ease the ship, and
+          the wave rolled away beneath the keel, and at the stern it raised
+          the <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style=
+          "font-style: italic">Argo</span></em> and dashed her away from the
+          rocks.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> They felt the
+          sun as it streamed upon them through the sundered rocks. They
+          strained at the oars until the oars bent like bows in their hands.
+          The ship sprang forward. Surely they were now in the wide Sea of
+          Pontus!</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> The Argonauts
+          shouted. They saw the rocks behind them with the sea fowl screaming
+          upon them. Surely they were in the Sea of Pontus—the sea that had
+          never been entered before through the Rocks Wandering. The rocks no
+          longer dashed together; each remained fixed in its place, for it
+          was the will of <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page97">[pg 97]</span>
+          the gods that these rocks should no more clash together after a
+          mortal’s ship had passed between them.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> They were now
+          in the Sea of Pontus, the sea into which flowed the river that
+          Colchis was upon—the River Phasis. And now above Jason’s head the
+          bird of peaceful days, the Halcyon, fluttered, and the Argonauts
+          knew that this was a sign from the gods that the voyage would not
+          any more be troublous.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="tei tei-div" style=
+        "margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em">
+          <a name="toc55" id="toc55"></a><a name="pdf56" id="pdf56"></a>
+
+          <h2 class="tei tei-head" style=
+          "text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em">
+          <span style="font-size: 144%">XII. The Mountain
+          Caucasus</span></h2>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> </p>
+
+          <div class="deco-letter floatleft tei tei-figure" style=
+          "margin-bottom: 0.00em; margin-top: 0.00em"><img src=
+          "images/capT.png" alt="Decorative first letter" /></div>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"><span class=
+          "tei tei-hi" style="margin-left: -1.00em"><span style=
+          "color: white; font-variant: small-caps">T</span></span>HEY rested
+          in the harbor of Thynias, the desert island, and sailing from there
+          they came to the land of the Mariandyni, a people who were
+          constantly at war with the Bebrycians; there the hero Polydeuces
+          was welcomed as a god. Twelve days afterward they passed the mouth
+          of the River Callichorus; then they came to the mouth of that river
+          that flows through the land of the Amazons, the River Thermodon.
+          Fourteen days from that place brought them to the island that is
+          filled with the birds of Ares, the god of war. These birds dropped
+          upon the heroes heavy, pointed feathers that would have pierced
+          them as arrows if they had not covered themselves with their
+          shields; then by shouting, and by striking their shields with their
+          spears, they raised such a clamor as drove the birds away.
+          <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page98">[pg 98]</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> They sailed on,
+          borne by a gentle breeze, until a gulf of the sea opened before
+          them, and lo! a mountain that they knew bore some mighty name.
+          Orpheus, looking on its peak and its crags, said, <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“Lo, now! We, the Argonauts, are looking upon the
+          mountain that is named Caucasus!”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> When he
+          declared the name the heroes all stood up and looked on the
+          mountain with awe. And in awe they cried out a name, and that name
+          was <span class="tei tei-q">“Prometheus!”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> For upon that
+          mountain the Titan god was held, his limbs bound upon the hard
+          rocks by fetters of bronze. Even as the Argonauts looked toward the
+          mountain a great shadow fell upon their ship, and looking up they
+          saw a monstrous bird flying. The beat of the bird’s wings filled
+          out the sail and drove the <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style=
+          "font-style: italic">Argo</span></em> swiftly onward. <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“It is the bird sent by Zeus,”</span> Orpheus said.
+          <span class="tei tei-q">“It is the vulture that every day devours
+          the liver of the Titan god.”</span> They cowered down on the ship
+          as they heard that word—all the Argonauts save Heracles; he stood
+          upright and looked out toward where the bird was flying. Then, as
+          the bird came near to the mountain, the Argonauts heard a great cry
+          of anguish go up from the rocks.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“It is Prometheus crying out as the bird of Zeus flies
+          down upon him,”</span> they said to one another. Again they cowered
+          down on the ship, all save Heracles, who stayed looking toward
+          where the great vulture had flown.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> The night came
+          and the Argonauts sailed on in silence, thinking in awe of the
+          Titan god and of the doom that Zeus had <span class="tei tei-pb"
+          id="page99">[pg 99]</span> inflicted upon him. Then, as they sailed
+          on under the stars, Orpheus told them of Prometheus, of his gift to
+          men, and of the fearful punishment that had been meted out to him
+          by Zeus.</p>
+
+          <div class="tei tei-div" style=
+          "margin-bottom: 3.00em; margin-top: 3.00em">
+            <a name="toc57" id="toc57"></a><a name="pdf58" id="pdf58"></a>
+
+            <h3 class="tei tei-head" style=
+            "text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.40em; margin-top: 2.40em">
+            <span style="font-size: 120%">Prometheus</span></h3>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> The gods more
+            than once made a race of men: the first was a Golden Race. Very
+            close to the gods who dwell on Olympus was this Golden Race; they
+            lived justly although there were no laws to compel them. In the
+            time of the Golden Race the earth knew only one season, and that
+            season was everlasting Spring. The men and women of the Golden
+            Race lived through a span of life that was far beyond that of the
+            men and women of our day, and when they died it was as though
+            sleep had become everlasting with them. They had all good things,
+            and that without labor, for the earth without any forcing
+            bestowed fruits and crops upon them. They had peace all through
+            their lives, this Golden Race, and after they had passed away
+            their spirits remained above the earth, inspiring the men of the
+            race that came after them to do great and gracious things and to
+            act justly and kindly to one another.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> After the
+            Golden Race had passed away, the gods made for the earth a second
+            race—a Silver Race. Less noble in spirit and in body was this
+            Silver Race, and the seasons that visited them were less
+            gracious. In the time of the Silver Race the gods made the
+            seasons—Summer and Spring, and Autumn <span class="tei tei-pb"
+            id="page100">[pg 100]</span> and Winter. They knew parching heat,
+            and the bitter winds of winter, and snow and rain and hail. It
+            was the men of the Silver Race who first built houses for
+            shelter. They lived through a span of life that was longer than
+            our span, but it was not long enough to give wisdom to them.
+            Children were brought up at their mothers’ sides for a hundred
+            years, playing at childish things. And when they came to years
+            beyond a hundred they quarreled with one another, and wronged one
+            another, and did not know enough to give reverence to the
+            immortal gods. Then, by the will of Zeus, the Silver Race passed
+            away as the Golden Race had passed away. Their spirits stay in
+            the Underworld, and they are called by men the blessed spirits of
+            the Underworld.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> And then
+            there was made the third race—the Race of Bronze. They were a
+            race great of stature, terrible and strong. Their armor was of
+            bronze, their swords were of bronze, their implements were of
+            bronze, and of bronze, too, they made their houses. No great span
+            of life was theirs, for with the weapons that they took in their
+            terrible hands they slew one another. Thus they passed away, and
+            went down under the earth to Hades, leaving no name that men
+            might know them by.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Then the gods
+            created a fourth race—our own: a Race of Iron. We have not the
+            justice that was amongst the men of the Golden Race, nor the
+            simpleness that was amongst the men of the Silver Race, nor the
+            stature nor the great strength that the men of the Bronze Race
+            possessed. We are of iron that we <span class="tei tei-pb" id=
+            "page101">[pg 101]</span> may endure. It is our doom that we must
+            never cease from labor and that we must very quickly grow
+            old.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> But miserable
+            as we are to-day, there was a time when the lot of men was more
+            miserable. With poor implements they had to labor on a hard
+            ground. There was less justice and kindliness amongst men in
+            those days than there is now.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Once it came
+            into the mind of Zeus that he would destroy the fourth race and
+            leave the earth to the nymphs and the satyrs. He would destroy it
+            by a great flood. But Prometheus, the Titan god who had given aid
+            to Zeus against the other Titans—Prometheus, who was called the
+            Foreseer—could not consent to the race of men being destroyed
+            utterly, and he considered a way of saving some of them. To a man
+            and a woman, Deucalion and Pyrrha, just and gentle people, he
+            brought word of the plan of Zeus, and he showed them how to make
+            a ship that would bear them through what was about to be sent
+            upon the earth.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Then Zeus
+            shut up in their cave all the winds but the wind that brings rain
+            and clouds. He bade this wind, the South Wind, sweep over the
+            earth, flooding it with rain. He called upon Poseidon and bade
+            him to let the sea pour in upon the land. And Poseidon commanded
+            the rivers to put forth all their strength, and sweep dykes away,
+            and overflow their banks.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> The clouds
+            and the sea and the rivers poured upon the earth. The flood rose
+            higher and higher, and in the places where the pretty lambs had
+            played the ugly sea calves now gambolled; <span class=
+            "tei tei-pb" id="page102">[pg 102]</span> men in their boats drew
+            fishes out of the tops of elm trees, and the water nymphs were
+            amazed to come on men’s cities under the waves.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Soon even the
+            men and women who had boats were overwhelmed by the rise of
+            water—all perished then except Deucalion and Pyrrha, his wife;
+            them the waves had not overwhelmed, for they were in a ship that
+            Prometheus had shown them how to build. The flood went down at
+            last, and Deucalion and Pyrrha climbed up to a high and a dry
+            ground. Zeus saw that two of the race of men had been left alive.
+            But he saw that these two were just and kindly, and had a right
+            reverence for the gods. He spared them, and he saw their children
+            again peopling the earth.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Prometheus,
+            who had saved them, looked on the men and women of the earth with
+            compassion. Their labor was hard, and they wrought much to gain
+            little. They were chilled at night in their houses, and the winds
+            that blew in the daytime made the old men and women bend double
+            like a wheel. Prometheus thought to himself that if men and women
+            had the element that only the gods knew of—the element of
+            fire—they could make for themselves implements for labor; they
+            could build houses that would keep out the chilling winds, and
+            they could warm themselves at the blaze.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> But the gods
+            had not willed that men should have fire, and to go against the
+            will of the gods would be impious. Prometheus went against the
+            will of the gods. He stole fire from the <span class="tei tei-pb"
+            id="page103">[pg 103]</span> altar of Zeus, and he hid it in a
+            hollow fennel stalk, and he brought it to men.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style=
+            "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em"><a name="i019.png"
+            id="i019.png" class="tei tei-anchor" style=
+            "text-align: center"></a><a name="fig59" id="fig59"></a></p>
+
+            <div class="tei tei-figure" style=
+            "width: 100%; text-align: center">
+              <img src="images/i019.png" alt="Illustration" title=
+              "Prometheus" />
+
+              <div class="tei tei-head" style=
+              "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em">
+              Prometheus
+              </div>
+            </div>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Then men were
+            able to hammer iron into tools, and cut down forests with axes,
+            and sow grain where the forests had been. Then were they able to
+            make houses that the storms could not overthrow, and they were
+            able to warm themselves at hearth fires. They had rest from their
+            labor at times. They built cities; they became beings who no
+            longer had heads and backs bent but were able to raise their
+            faces even to the gods.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> And Zeus
+            spared the race of men who had now the sacred element of fire.
+            But he knew that Prometheus had stolen this fire even from his
+            own altar and had given it to men. And he thought on how he might
+            punish the great Titan god for his impiety.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> He brought
+            back from the Underworld the giants that he had put there to
+            guard the Titans that had been hurled down to Tartarus. He
+            brought back Gyes, Cottus, and Briareus, and he commanded them to
+            lay hands upon Prometheus and to fasten him with fetters to the
+            highest, blackest crag upon Caucasus. And Briareus, Cottus, and
+            Gyes seized upon the Titan god, and carried him to Caucasus, and
+            fettered him with fetters of bronze to the highest, blackest
+            crag—with fetters of bronze that may not be broken. There they
+            have left the Titan stretched, under the sky, with the cold winds
+            blowing upon him, and with the sun streaming down on him. And
+            that his punishment might exceed all other punishments Zeus had
+            sent <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page104">[pg 104]</span> a
+            vulture to prey upon him—a vulture that tears at his liver each
+            day.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> And yet
+            Prometheus does not cry out that he has repented of his gift to
+            man; although the winds blow upon him, and the sun streams upon
+            him, and the vulture tears at his liver, Prometheus will not cry
+            out his repentance to heaven. And Zeus may not utterly destroy
+            him. For Prometheus the Foreseer knows a secret that Zeus would
+            fain have him disclose. He knows that even as Zeus overthrew his
+            father and made himself the ruler in his stead, so, too, another
+            will overthrow Zeus. And one day Zeus will have to have the
+            fetters broken from around the limbs of Prometheus, and will have
+            to bring from the rock and the vulture, and into the Council of
+            the Olympians, the unyielding Titan god.</p>
+
+            <div class="tei tei-tb">
+              &nbsp;
+            </div>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> When the
+            light of the morning came the <em class=
+            "tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">Argo</span></em>
+            was very near to the Mountain Caucasus. The voyagers looked in
+            awe upon its black crags. They saw the great vulture circling
+            over a high rock, and from beneath where the vulture circled they
+            heard a weary cry. Then Heracles, who all night had stood by the
+            mast, cried out to the Argonauts to bring the ship near to a
+            landing place.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> But Jason
+            would not have them go near; fear of the wrath of Zeus was strong
+            upon him; rather, he bade the Argonauts put all their strength
+            into their rowing, and draw far off from that forbidden mountain.
+            Heracles, not heeding what Jason <span class="tei tei-pb" id=
+            "page105">[pg 105]</span> ordered, declared that it was his
+            purpose to make his way up to the black crag, and, with his
+            shield and his sword in his hands, slay the vulture that preyed
+            upon the liver of Prometheus.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style=
+            "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em"><a name="i020.png"
+            id="i020.png" class="tei tei-anchor" style=
+            "text-align: center"></a><a name="fig60" id="fig60"></a></p>
+
+            <div class="tei tei-figure" style=
+            "width: 100%; text-align: center">
+              <img src="images/i020.png" alt="Illustration" title="" />
+
+              <div class="tei tei-head" style=
+              "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em">
+              </div>
+            </div>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Then Orpheus
+            in a clear voice spoke to the Argonauts. <span class=
+            "tei tei-q">“Surely some spirit possesses Heracles,”</span> he
+            said. <span class="tei tei-q">“Despite all we do or say he will
+            make his way to where Prometheus is fettered to the rock. Do not
+            gainsay him in this! Remember what Nereus, the ancient one of the
+            sea, declared! Did Nereus not say that a great labor awaited
+            Heracles, and that in the doing of it he should work out the will
+            of Zeus? Stay him not! How just it would be if he who is the son
+            of Zeus freed from his torments the much-enduring Titan
+            god!”</span></p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> So Orpheus
+            said in his clear, commanding voice. They drew near to the
+            Mountain Caucasus. Then Heracles, gripping the sword and shield
+            that were the gifts of the gods, sprang out on the landing place.
+            The Argonauts shouted farewell to him. But he, filled as he was
+            with an overmastering spirit, did not heed their words.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> A strong
+            breeze drove them onward; darkness came down, and the <em class=
+            "tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">Argo</span></em>
+            went on through the night. With the morning light those who were
+            sleeping were awakened by the cry of Nauplius—<span class=
+            "tei tei-q">“Lo! The Phasis, and the utmost bourne of the
+            sea!”</span> They sprang up, and looked with many strange
+            feelings upon the broad river they had come to.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Here was the
+            Phasis emptying itself into the Sea of Pontus! Up that river was
+            Colchis and the city of King Æetes, the <span class="tei tei-pb"
+            id="page106">[pg 106]</span> end of their voyage, the place where
+            was kept the Golden Fleece! Quickly they let down the sail; they
+            lowered the mast and they laid it along the deck; strongly they
+            grasped the oars; they swung the <em class=
+            "tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">Argo</span></em>
+            around, and they entered the broad stream of the Phasis.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Up the river
+            they went with the Mountain Caucasus on their left hand, and on
+            their right the groves and gardens of Aea, King Æetes’s city. As
+            they went up the stream, Jason poured from a golden cup an
+            offering to the gods. And to the dead heroes of that country the
+            Argonauts prayed for good fortune to their enterprise.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> It was
+            Jason’s counsel that they should not at once appear before King
+            Æetes, but visit him after they had seen the strength of his
+            city. They drew their ship into a shaded backwater, and there
+            they stayed while day grew and faded around them.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Night came,
+            and the heroes slept upon the deck of <em class=
+            "tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">Argo</span></em>.
+            Many things came back to them in their dreams or through their
+            half-sleep: they thought of the Lemnian maidens they had parted
+            from; of the Clashing Rocks they had passed between; of the look
+            in the eyes of Heracles as he raised his face to the high, black
+            peak of Caucasus. They slept, and they thought they saw before
+            them <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style=
+            "font-variant: small-caps">The Golden Fleece</span></span>;
+            darkness surrounded it; it seemed to the dreaming Argonauts that
+            the darkness was the magic power that King Æetes
+            possessed.</p><span class="tei tei-pb" id="page107">[pg
+            107]</span>
+          </div>
+        </div>
+      </div>
+
+      <div class="tei tei-div" style=
+      "margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+        <a name="toc61" id="toc61"></a><a name="pdf62" id="pdf62"></a>
+
+        <h1 class="tei tei-head" style=
+        "text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em">
+        <span style="font-size: 173%">Part II. The Return to
+        Greece</span></h1>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> </p><span class=
+        "tei tei-pb" id="page109">[pg 109]</span>
+
+        <div class="tei tei-div" style=
+        "margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em">
+          <a name="toc63" id="toc63"></a><a name="pdf64" id="pdf64"></a>
+
+          <h2 class="tei tei-head" style=
+          "text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em">
+          <span style="font-size: 144%">I. King Æetes</span></h2>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> </p>
+
+          <div class="deco-letter floatleft tei tei-figure" style=
+          "margin-bottom: 0.00em; margin-top: 0.00em"><img src=
+          "images/capT.png" alt="Decorative first letter" /></div>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"><span class=
+          "tei tei-hi" style="margin-left: -1.00em"><span style=
+          "color: white; font-variant: small-caps">T</span></span>HEY had
+          come into a country that was the strangest of all countries, and
+          amongst a people that were the strangest of all peoples. They were
+          in the land, this people said, before the moon had come into the
+          sky. And it is true that when the great king of Egypt had come so
+          far, finding in all other places men living on the high hills and
+          eating the acorns that grew on the oaks there, he found in Colchis
+          the city of Aea with a wall around it and with pillars on which
+          writings were graven. That was when Egypt was called the Morning
+          Land.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> And many of the
+          magicians of Egypt who had come with King Sesostris stayed in that
+          city of Aea, and they taught people spells that could stay the moon
+          in her going and coming, in her rising and setting. Priests of the
+          Moon ruled the city of Aea until King Æetes came.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Æetes had no
+          need of their magic, for Helios, the bright Sun, was his father, as
+          he thought. Also, Hephæstus, the artisan of the gods, was his
+          friend, and Hephæstus made for him <span class="tei tei-pb" id=
+          "page110">[pg 110]</span> many wonderful things to be his
+          protection. Medea, too, his wise daughter, knew the secrets taught
+          by those who could sway the moon.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> But Æetes once
+          was made afraid by a dream that he had: he dreamt that a ship had
+          come up the Phasis, and then, sailing on a mist, had rammed his
+          palace that was standing there in all its strength and beauty until
+          it had fallen down. On the morning of the night that he had had
+          this dream Æetes called Medea, his wise daughter, and he bade her
+          go to the temple of Hecate, the Moon, and search out spells that
+          might destroy those who came against his city.</p>
+
+          <div class="tei tei-tb">
+            &nbsp;
+          </div>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> That morning
+          the Argonauts, who had passed the night in the backwater of the
+          river, had two youths come to them. They were in a broken ship, and
+          they had one oar only. When Jason, after giving them food and fresh
+          garments, questioned them, he found out that these youths were of
+          the city of Aea, and that they were none others than the sons of
+          Phrixus—of Phrixus who had come there with the Golden Ram.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> And the youths,
+          Phrontis and Melas, were as amazed as was Jason when they found out
+          whose ship they had come aboard. For Jason was the grandson of
+          Cretheus, and Cretheus was the brother of Athamas, their
+          grandfather. They had ventured from Aea, where they had been
+          reared, thinking to reach the country of Athamas and lay claim to
+          his possessions. But they had been wrecked at a place not far from
+          the mouth of the <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page111">[pg
+          111]</span> Phasis, and with great pain and struggle they had made
+          their way back.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> They were
+          fearful of Aea and of their uncle King Æetes, and they would gladly
+          go with Jason and the Argonauts back to Greece. They would help
+          Jason, they said, to persuade Æetes to give the Golden Fleece
+          peaceably to them. Their mother was the daughter of
+          Æetes—Chalciope, whom the king had given in marriage to Phrixus,
+          his guest.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> A council of
+          the Argonauts was held, and it was agreed that Jason should go with
+          two comrades to King Æetes, Phrontis and Melas going also. They
+          were to ask the king to give them the Golden Fleece and to offer
+          him a recompense. Jason took Peleus and Telamon with him.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> As they came to
+          the city a mist fell, and Jason and his comrades with the sons of
+          Phrixus went through the city without being seen. They came before
+          the palace of King Æetes. Then Phrontis and Melas were some way
+          behind. The mist lifted, and before the heroes was the wonder of
+          the palace in the bright light of the morning.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Vines with
+          broad leaves and heavy clusters of fruit grew from column to
+          column, the columns holding a gallery up. And under the vines were
+          the four fountains that Hephæstus had made for King Æetes. They
+          gushed out into golden, silver, bronze, and iron basins. And one
+          fountain gushed out clear water, and another gushed out milk;
+          another gushed out wine; and another oil. On each side of the
+          courtyard were the palace <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page112">[pg
+          112]</span> buildings; in one King Æetes lived with Apsyrtus, his
+          son, and in the other Chalciope and Medea lived with their
+          handmaidens.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Medea was
+          passing from her father’s house. The mist lifted suddenly and she
+          saw three strangers in the palace courtyard. One had a crimson
+          mantle on; his shoulders were such as to make him seem a man that a
+          whole world could not overthrow, and his eyes had all the sun’s
+          light in them.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Amazed, Medea
+          stood looking upon Jason, wondering at his bright hair and gleaming
+          eyes and at the lightness and strength of the hand that he had
+          raised. And then a dove flew toward her: it was being chased by a
+          hawk, and Medea saw the hawk’s eyes and beak. As the dove lighted
+          upon her shoulder she threw her veil around it, and the hawk dashed
+          itself against a column. And as Medea, trembling, leaned against
+          the column she heard a cry from her sister, who was within.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> For now
+          Phrontis and Melas had come up, and Chalciope who was spinning by
+          the door saw them and cried out. All the servants rushed out.
+          Seeing Chalciope’s sons there they, too, uttered loud cries, and
+          made such commotion that Apsyrtus and then King Æetes came out of
+          the palace.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Jason saw King
+          Æetes. He was old and white, but he had great green eyes, and the
+          strength of a leopard was in all he did. And Jason looked upon
+          Apsyrtus too; the son of Æetes looked like a Phænician merchant,
+          black of beard and with rings in his ears, with a hooked nose and a
+          gleam of copper in his face.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Phrontis and
+          Melas went from their mother’s embrace and <span class="tei tei-pb"
+          id="page113">[pg 113]</span> made reverence to King Æetes. Then
+          they spoke of the heroes who were with them, of Jason and his two
+          comrades. Æetes bade all enter the palace; baths were made ready
+          for them, and a banquet was prepared.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> After the
+          banquet, when they all sat together, Æetes, addressing the eldest
+          of Chalciope’s sons, said:</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“Sons of Phrixus, of that man whom I honored above all
+          men who came to my halls, speak now and tell me how it is that you
+          have come back to Aea so soon, and who they are, these men who come
+          with you?”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Æetes, as he
+          spoke, looked sharply upon Phrontis and Melas, for he suspected
+          them of having returned to Aea, bringing these armed men with them,
+          with an evil intent. Phrontis looked at the King, and said:</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“Æetes, our ship was driven upon the Island of Ares,
+          where it was almost broken upon the rocks. That was on a murky
+          night, and in the morning the birds of Ares shot their sharp
+          feathers upon us. We pulled away from that place, and thereafter we
+          were driven by the winds back to the mouth of the Phasis. There we
+          met with these heroes who were friendly to us. Who they are, what
+          they have come to your city for, I shall now tell you.</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“A certain king, longing to drive one of these heroes
+          from his land, and hoping that the race of Cretheus might perish
+          utterly, led him to enter a most perilous adventure. He came here
+          upon a ship that was made by the command of Hera, the wife of
+          <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page114">[pg 114]</span> Zeus, a ship
+          more wonderful than mortals ever sailed in before. With him there
+          came the mightiest of the heroes of Greece. He is Jason, the
+          grandson of Cretheus, and he has come to beg that you will grant
+          him freely the famous Fleece of Gold that Phrixus brought to
+          Aea.</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“But not without recompense to you would he take the
+          Fleece. Already he has heard of your bitter foes, the Sauromatæ. He
+          with his comrades would subdue them for you. And if you would ask
+          of the names and the lineage of the heroes who are with Jason I
+          shall tell you. This is Peleus and this is Telamon; they are
+          brothers, and they are sons of Æacus, who was of the seed of Zeus.
+          And all the other heroes who have come with them are of the seed of
+          the gods.”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> So Phrontis
+          said, but the King was not placated by what he said. He thought
+          that the sons of Chalciope had returned to Aea bringing these
+          warriors with them so that they might wrest the kingship from him,
+          or, failing that, plunder the city. Æetes’s heart was filled with
+          wrath as he looked upon them, and his eyes shone as a leopard’s
+          eyes.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“Begone from my sight,”</span> he cried, <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“robbers that ye are! Tricksters! If you had not eaten
+          at my table, assuredly I should have had your tongues cut out for
+          speaking falsehoods about the blessed gods, saying that this one
+          and that of your companions was of their divine race.”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Telamon and
+          Peleus strode forward with angry hearts; they would have laid their
+          hands upon King Æetes only Jason held <span class="tei tei-pb" id=
+          "page115">[pg 115]</span> them back. And then speaking to the king
+          in a quiet voice, Jason said:</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“Bear with us, King Æetes, I pray you. We have not come
+          with such evil intent as you think. Ah, it was the evil command of
+          an evil king that sent me forth with these companions of mine
+          across dangerous gulfs of the sea, and to face your wrath and the
+          armed men you can bring against us. We are ready to make great
+          recompense for the friendliness you may show to us. We will subdue
+          for you the Sauromatæ, or any other people that you would lord it
+          over.”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> But Æetes was
+          not made friendly by Jason’s words. His heart was divided as to
+          whether he should summon his armed men and have them slain upon the
+          spot, or whether he should put them into danger by the trial he
+          would make of them. At last he thought that it would be better to
+          put them to the trial that he had in mind, slaying them afterward
+          if need be. And then he spoke to Jason, saying:</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“Strangers to Colchis, it may be true what my nephews
+          have said. It may be that ye are truly of the seed of the
+          immortals. And it may be that I shall give you the Golden Fleece to
+          bear away after I have made trial of you.”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> As he spoke
+          Medea, brought there by his messenger so that she might observe the
+          strangers, came into the chamber. She entered softly and she stood
+          away from her father and the four who were speaking with him. Jason
+          looked upon her, and even although his mind was filled with the
+          thought of bending King <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page116">[pg
+          116]</span> Æetes to his will, he saw what manner of maiden she
+          was, and what beauty and what strength was hers.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> She had a dark
+          face that was made very strange by her crown of golden hair. Her
+          eyes, like her father’s, were wide and full of light, and her lips
+          were so full and red that they made her mouth like an opening rose.
+          But her brows were always knit as if there was some secret anger
+          within her.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“With brave men I have no quarrel,”</span> said Æetes.
+          <span class="tei tei-q">“I will make a trial of your bravery, and
+          if your bravery wins through the trial, be very sure that you will
+          have the Golden Fleece to bring back in triumph to
+          Iolcus.</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“But the trial that I would make of you is hard for a
+          great hero even. Know that on the plain of Ares yonder I have two
+          fire-breathing bulls with feet of brass. These bulls were once
+          conquered by me; I yoked them to a plow of adamant, and with them I
+          plowed the field of Ares for four plow-gates. Then I sowed the
+          furrows, not with the seed that Demeter gives, but with teeth of a
+          dragon. And from the dragon’s teeth that I sowed in the field of
+          Ares armed men sprang up. I slew them with my spear as they rose
+          around me to slay me. If you can accomplish this that I
+          accomplished in days gone by I shall submit to you and give you the
+          Golden Fleece. But if you cannot accomplish what I once
+          accomplished you shall go from my city empty-handed, for it is not
+          right that a brave man should yield aught to one who cannot show
+          himself as brave.”</span> <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page117">[pg
+          117]</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> So Æetes said.
+          Then Jason, utterly confounded, cast his eyes upon the ground. He
+          raised them to speak to the king, and as he did he found the
+          strange eyes of Medea upon him. With all the courage that was in
+          him he spoke:</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“I will dare this contest, monstrous as it is. I will
+          face this doom. I have come far, and there is nothing else for me
+          to do but to yoke your fire-breathing bulls to the plow of adamant,
+          and plow the furrows in the field of Ares, and struggle with the
+          Earth-born Men.”</span> As he said this he saw the eyes of Medea
+          grow wide as with fear.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Then Æetes
+          said, <span class="tei tei-q">“Go back to your ship and make ready
+          for the trial.”</span> Jason, with Peleus and Telamon, left the
+          chamber, and the king smiled grimly as he saw them go. Phrontis and
+          Melas went to where their mother was. But Medea stayed, and Æetes
+          looked upon her with his great leopard’s eyes. <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“My daughter, my wise Medea,”</span> he said,
+          <span class="tei tei-q">“go, put spells upon the Moon, that Hecate
+          may weaken that man in his hour of trial.”</span> Medea turned away
+          from her father’s eyes, and went to her chamber.</p><span class=
+          "tei tei-pb" id="page118">[pg 118]</span>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="tei tei-div" style=
+        "margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em">
+          <a name="toc65" id="toc65"></a><a name="pdf66" id="pdf66"></a>
+
+          <h2 class="tei tei-head" style=
+          "text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em">
+          <span style="font-size: 144%">II. Medea the Sorceress</span></h2>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> </p>
+
+          <div class="deco-letter floatleft tei tei-figure" style=
+          "margin-bottom: 0.00em; margin-top: 0.00em"><img src=
+          "images/capS.png" alt="Decorative first letter" /></div>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"><span class=
+          "tei tei-hi" style="margin-left: -1.00em"><span style=
+          "color: white; font-variant: small-caps">S</span></span>HE turned
+          away from her father’s eyes and she went into her own chamber. For
+          a long time she stood there with her hands clasped together. She
+          heard the voice of Chalciope lamenting because Æetes had taken a
+          hatred to her sons and might strive to destroy them. She heard the
+          voice of her sister lamenting, but Medea thought that the cause
+          that her sister had for grieving was small compared with the cause
+          that she herself had.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> She thought on
+          the moment when she had seen Jason for the first time—in the
+          courtyard as the mist lifted and the dove flew to her; she thought
+          of him as he lifted those bright eyes of his; then she thought of
+          his voice as he spoke after her father had imposed the dreadful
+          trial upon him. She would have liked then to have cried out to him,
+          <span class="tei tei-q">“O youth, if others rejoice at the doom
+          that you go to, I do not rejoice.”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Still her
+          sister lamented. But how great was her own grief compared to her
+          sister’s! For Chalciope could try to help her sons and could lament
+          for the danger they were in and no one would blame her. But she
+          might not strive to help Jason nor might she lament for the danger
+          he was in. How terrible it would be for a maiden to help a stranger
+          against her father’s design! How terrible it would be for a woman
+          of Colchis to <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page119">[pg 119]</span>
+          help a stranger against the will of the king! How terrible it would
+          be for a daughter to plot against King Æetes in his own palace!</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> And then Medea
+          hated Aea, her city. She hated the furious people who came together
+          in the assembly, and she hated the brazen bulls that Hephæstus had
+          given her father. And then she thought that there was nothing in
+          Aea except the furious people and the fire-breathing bulls. O how
+          pitiful it was that the strange hero and his friends should have
+          come to such a place for the sake of the Golden Fleece that was
+          watched over by the sleepless serpent in the grove of Ares!</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Still Chalciope
+          lamented. Would Chalciope come to her and ask her, Medea, to help
+          her sons? If she should come she might speak of the strangers, too,
+          and of the danger they were in. Medea went to her couch and lay
+          down upon it. She longed for her sister to come to her or to call
+          to her.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> But Chalciope
+          stayed in her own chamber. Medea, lying upon her couch, listened to
+          her sister’s laments. At last she went near where Chalciope was.
+          Then shame that she should think so much about the stranger came
+          over her. She stood there without moving; she turned to go back to
+          the couch, and then trembled so much that she could not stir. As
+          she stood between her couch and her sister’s chamber she heard the
+          voice of Chalciope calling to her.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> She went into
+          the chamber where her sister stood. Chalciope flung her arms around
+          her. <span class="tei tei-q">“Swear,”</span> said she to Medea,
+          <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page120">[pg 120]</span> <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“swear by Hecate, the Moon, that you will never speak
+          of something I am going to ask you.”</span> Medea swore that she
+          would never speak of it.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Chalciope spoke
+          of the danger her sons were in. She asked Medea to devise a way by
+          which they could escape with the stranger from Aea. <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“In Aea and in Colchis,”</span> she said, <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“there will be no safety for my sons
+          henceforth.”</span> And to save Phrontis and Melas, she said, Medea
+          would have to save the strangers also. Surely she knew of a charm
+          that would save the stranger from the brazen bulls in the contest
+          on the morrow!</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> So Chalciope
+          came to the very thing that was in Medea’s mind. Her heart bounded
+          with joy and she embraced her. <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“Chalciope,”</span> she said, <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“I declare that I am your sister, indeed—aye, and your
+          daughter, too, for did you not care for me when I was an infant? I
+          will strive to save your sons. I will strive to save the strangers
+          who came with your sons. Send one to the strangers—send him to the
+          leader of the strangers, and tell him that I would see him at
+          daybreak in the temple of Hecate.”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> When Medea said
+          this Chalciope embraced her again. She was amazed to see how
+          Medea’s tears were flowing. <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“Chalciope,”</span> she said, <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“no one will know the dangers that I shall go through
+          to save them.”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Swiftly then
+          Chalciope went from the chamber. But Medea stayed there with her
+          head bowed and the blush of shame on her face. She thought that
+          already she had deceived her sister, <span class="tei tei-pb" id=
+          "page121">[pg 121]</span> making her think that it was Phrontis and
+          Melas and not Jason that was in her mind to save. And she thought
+          on how she would have to plot against her father and against her
+          own people, and all for the sake of a stranger who would sail away
+          without thought of her, without the image of her in his mind.</p>
+
+          <div class="tei tei-tb">
+            &nbsp;
+          </div>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Jason, with
+          Peleus and Telamon, went back to the <em class=
+          "tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">Argo</span></em>.
+          His comrades asked how he had fared, and when he spoke to them of
+          the fire-breathing bulls with feet of brass, of the dragon’s teeth
+          that had to be sown, and of the Earth-born Men that had to be
+          overcome, the Argonauts were greatly cast down, for this task, they
+          thought, was one that could not be accomplished. He who stood
+          before the fire-breathing bulls would perish on the moment. But
+          they knew that one amongst them must strive to accomplish the task.
+          And if Jason held back, Peleus, Telamon, Theseus, Castor,
+          Polydeuces, or any one of the others would undertake it.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> But Jason would
+          not hold back. On the morrow, he said, he would strive to yoke the
+          fire-breathing, brazen-footed bulls to the plow of adamant. If he
+          perished the Argonauts should then do what they thought was
+          best—make other trials to gain the Golden Fleece, or turn their
+          ship and sail back to Greece.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> While they were
+          speaking, Phrontis, Chalciope’s son, came to the ship. The
+          Argonauts welcomed him, and in a while he began to speak of his
+          mother’s sister and of the help she could give. They grew eager as
+          he spoke of her, all except rough <span class="tei tei-pb" id=
+          "page122">[pg 122]</span> Arcas, who stood wrapped in his bear’s
+          skin. <span class="tei tei-q">“Shame on us,”</span> rough Arcas
+          cried, <span class="tei tei-q">“shame on us if we have come here to
+          crave the help of girls! Speak no more of this! Let us, the
+          Argonauts, go with swords into the city of Aea, and slay this king,
+          and carry off the Fleece of Gold.”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Some of the
+          Argonauts murmured approval of what Arcas said. But Orpheus
+          silenced him and them, for in his prophetic mind Orpheus saw
+          something of the help that Medea would give them. It would be well,
+          Orpheus said, to take help from this wise maiden; Jason should go
+          to her in the temple of Hecate. The Argonauts agreed to this; they
+          listened to what Phrontis told them about the brazen bulls, and the
+          night wore on.</p>
+
+          <div class="tei tei-tb">
+            &nbsp;
+          </div>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> When darkness
+          came upon the earth; when, at sea, sailors looked to the Bear and
+          the stars of Orion; when, in the city, there was no longer the
+          sound of barking dogs nor of men’s voices, Medea went from the
+          palace. She came to a path; she followed it until it brought her
+          into the part of the grove that was all black with the shadow that
+          oak trees made.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> She raised up
+          her hands and she called upon Hecate, the Moon. As she did, there
+          was a blaze as from torches all around, and she saw horrible
+          serpents stretching themselves toward her from the branches of the
+          trees. Medea shrank back in fear. But again she called upon Hecate.
+          And now there was a howling as from the hounds of Hades all around
+          her. Fearful, indeed, Medea grew as the howling came near her;
+          almost she turned <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page123">[pg
+          123]</span> to flee. But she raised her hands again and called upon
+          Hecate. Then the nymphs who haunted the marsh and the river
+          shrieked, and at those shrieks Medea crouched down in fear.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> She called upon
+          Hecate, the Moon, again. She saw the moon rise above the treetops,
+          and then the hissing and shrieking and howling died away. Holding
+          up a goblet in her hand Medea poured out a libation of honey to
+          Hecate, the Moon.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> And then she
+          went to where the moon made a brightness upon the ground. There she
+          saw a flower that rose above the other flowers—a flower that grew
+          from two joined stalks, and that was of the color of a crocus.
+          Medea cut the stalks with a brazen knife, and as she did there came
+          a deep groan out of the earth.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> This was the
+          Promethean flower. It had come out of the earth first when the
+          vulture that tore at Prometheus’s liver had let fall to earth a
+          drop of his blood. With a Caspian shell that she had brought with
+          her Medea gathered the dark juice of this flower—the juice that
+          went to make her most potent charm. All night she went through the
+          grove gathering the juice of secret herbs; then she mingled them in
+          a phial that she put away in her girdle.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> She went from
+          that grove and along the river. When the sun shed its first rays
+          upon snowy Caucasus she stood outside the temple of Hecate. She
+          waited, but she had not long to wait, for, like the bright star
+          Sirius rising out of Ocean, soon she saw Jason coming toward her.
+          She made a sign to him, <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page124">[pg
+          124]</span> and he came and stood beside her in the portals of the
+          temple.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> They would have
+          stood face to face if Medea did not have her head bent. A blush had
+          come upon her face, and Jason seeing it, and seeing how her head
+          was bent, knew how grievous it was to her to meet and speak to a
+          stranger in this way. He took her hand and he spoke to her
+          reverently, as one would speak to a priestess.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“Lady,”</span> he said, <span class="tei tei-q">“I
+          implore you by Hecate and by Zeus who helps all strangers and
+          suppliants to be kind to me and to the men who have come to your
+          country with me. Without your help I cannot hope to prevail in the
+          grievous trial that has been laid upon me. If you will help us,
+          Medea, your name will be renowned throughout all Greece. And I have
+          hopes that you will help us, for your face and form show you to be
+          one who can be kind and gracious.”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> The blush of
+          shame had gone from Medea’s face and a softer blush came over her
+          as Jason spoke. She looked upon him and she knew that she could
+          hardly live if the breath of the brazen bulls withered his life or
+          if the Earth-born Men slew him. She took the charm from out her
+          girdle; ungrudgingly she put it into Jason’s hands. And as she gave
+          him the charm that she had gained with such danger, the fear and
+          trouble that was around her heart melted as the dew melts from
+          around the rose when it is warmed by the first light of the
+          morning.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Then they spoke
+          standing close together in the portal of the <span class=
+          "tei tei-pb" id="page125">[pg 125]</span> temple. She told him how
+          he should anoint his body all over with the charm; it would give
+          him, she said, boundless and untiring strength, and make him so
+          that the breath of the bulls could not wither him nor the horns of
+          the bulls pierce him. She told him also to sprinkle his shield and
+          his sword with the charm.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> And then they
+          spoke of the dragon’s teeth and of the Earth-born Men who would
+          spring from them. Medea told Jason that when they arose out of the
+          earth he was to cast a great stone amongst them. The Earth-born Men
+          would struggle about the stone, and they would slay each other in
+          the contest.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Her dark and
+          delicate face was beautiful. Jason looked upon her, and it came
+          into his mind that in Colchis there was something else of worth
+          besides the Golden Fleece. And he thought that after he had won the
+          Fleece there would be peace between the Argonauts and King Æetes,
+          and that he and Medea might sit together in the king’s hall. But
+          when he spoke of being joined in friendship with her father, Medea
+          cried:</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“Think not of treaties nor of covenants. In Greece such
+          are regarded, but not here. Ah, do not think that the king, my
+          father, will keep any peace with you! When you have won the Fleece
+          you must hasten away. You must not tarry in Aea.”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> She said this
+          and her cheeks were wet with tears to think that he should go so
+          soon, that he would go so far, and that she would never look upon
+          him again. She bent her head again and she said: <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“Tell me about your own land; about the place
+          <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page126">[pg 126]</span> of your
+          father, the place where you will live when you win back from
+          Colchis.”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Then Jason told
+          her of Iolcus; he told her how it was circled by mountains not so
+          lofty as her Caucasus; he told her of the pasture lands of Iolcus
+          with their flocks of sheep; he told her of the Mountain Pelion
+          where he had been reared by Chiron, the ancient centaur; he told
+          her of his father who lingered out his life in waiting for his
+          return.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Medea said:
+          <span class="tei tei-q">“When you go back to Iolcus do not forget
+          me, Medea. I shall remember you, Jason, even in my father’s
+          despite. And it will be my hope that some rumor of you will come to
+          me like some messenger-bird. If you forget me may some blast of
+          wind sweep me away to Iolcus, and may I sit in your hall an unknown
+          and an unexpected guest!”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Then they
+          parted; Medea went swiftly back to the palace, and Jason, turning
+          to the river, went to where the <em class=
+          "tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">Argo</span></em>
+          was moored.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> The heroes
+          embraced and questioned him; he told them of Medea’s counsel and he
+          showed them the charm she had given him. That savage man Arcas
+          scoffed at Medea’s counsel and Medea’s charm, saying that the
+          Argonauts had become poor-spirited indeed when they had to depend
+          upon a girl’s help.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Jason bathed in
+          the river; then he anointed himself with the charm; he sprinkled
+          his spear and shield and sword with it. He came to Arcas who sat
+          upon his bench, still nursing his anger, and he held the spear
+          toward him. <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page127">[pg
+          127]</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Arcas took up
+          his heavy sword and he hewed at the butt of the spear. The edge of
+          the sword turned. The blade leaped back in his hand as if it had
+          been struck against an anvil. And Jason, feeling within him a
+          boundless and tireless strength, laughed aloud.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="tei tei-div" style=
+        "margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em">
+          <a name="toc67" id="toc67"></a><a name="pdf68" id="pdf68"></a>
+
+          <h2 class="tei tei-head" style=
+          "text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em">
+          <span style="font-size: 144%">III. The Winning of the Golden
+          Fleece</span></h2>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> </p>
+
+          <div class="deco-letter floatleft tei tei-figure" style=
+          "margin-bottom: 0.00em; margin-top: 0.00em"><img src=
+          "images/capT.png" alt="Decorative first letter" /></div>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"><span class=
+          "tei tei-hi" style="margin-left: -1.00em"><span style=
+          "color: white; font-variant: small-caps">T</span></span>HEY took
+          the ship out of the backwater and they brought her to a wharf in
+          the city. At a place that was called <span class="tei tei-q">“The
+          Ram’s Couch”</span> they fastened the <em class=
+          "tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">Argo</span></em>.
+          Then they marched to the field of Ares, where the king and the
+          Colchian people were.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Jason, carrying
+          his shield and spear, went before the king. From the king’s hand he
+          took the gleaming helmet that held the dragon’s teeth. This he put
+          into the hands of Theseus, who went with him. Then with the spear
+          and shield in his hands, with his sword girt across his shoulders,
+          and with his mantle stripped off, Jason looked across the field of
+          Ares.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> He saw the plow
+          that he was to yoke to the bulls; he saw the yoke of bronze near
+          it; he saw the tracks of the bulls’ hooves. He followed the tracks
+          until he came to the lair of the fire-breathing bulls. Out of that
+          lair, which was underground, smoke and fire belched. <span class=
+          "tei tei-pb" id="page128">[pg 128]</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> He set his feet
+          firmly upon the ground and he held his shield before him. He
+          awaited the onset of the bulls. They came clanging up with loud
+          bellowing, breathing out fire. They lowered their heads, and with
+          mighty, iron-tipped horns they came to gore and trample him.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Medea’s charm
+          had made him strong; Medea’s charm had made his shield impregnable.
+          The rush of the bulls did not overthrow him. His comrades shouted
+          to see him standing firmly there, and in wonder the Colchians gazed
+          upon him. All round him, as from a furnace, there came smoke and
+          fire.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> The bulls
+          roared mightily. Grasping the horns of the bull that was upon his
+          right hand, Jason dragged him until he had brought him beside the
+          yoke of bronze. Striking the brazen knees of the bull suddenly with
+          his foot he forced him down. Then he smote the other bull as it
+          rushed upon him, and it too he forced down upon its knees.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Castor and
+          Polydeuces held the yoke to him. Jason bound it upon the necks of
+          the bulls. He fastened the plow to the yoke. Then he took his
+          shield and set it upon his back, and grasping the handles of the
+          plow he started to make the furrow.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> With his long
+          spear he drove the bulls before him as with a goad. Terribly they
+          raged, furiously they breathed out fire. Beside Jason Theseus went
+          holding the helmet that held the dragon’s teeth. The hard ground
+          was torn up by the plow of adamant, and the clods groaned as they
+          were cast up. Jason <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page129">[pg
+          129]</span> flung the teeth between the open sods, often turning
+          his head in fear that the deadly crop of the Earth-born Men were
+          rising behind him.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style=
+          "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em"><a name="i021.png" id=
+          "i021.png" class="tei tei-anchor" style=
+          "text-align: center"></a><a name="fig69" id="fig69"></a></p>
+
+          <div class="tei tei-figure" style=
+          "width: 100%; text-align: center">
+            <img src="images/i021.png" alt="Illustration" title=
+            "The Field of the Dragon’s Teeth" />
+
+            <div class="tei tei-head" style=
+            "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em">
+              The Field of the Dragon’s Teeth
+            </div>
+          </div>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> By the time
+          that a third of the day was finished the field of Ares had been
+          plowed and sown. As yet the furrows were free of the Earth-born
+          Men. Jason went down to the river and filled his helmet full of
+          water and drank deeply. And his knees that were stiffened with the
+          plowing he bent until they were made supple again.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> He saw the
+          field rising into mounds. It seemed that there were graves all over
+          the field of Ares. Then he saw spears and shields and helmets
+          rising up out of the earth. Then armed warriors sprang up, a fierce
+          battle cry upon their lips.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Jason
+          remembered the counsel of Medea. He raised a boulder that four men
+          could hardly raise and with arms hardened by the plowing he cast
+          it. The Colchians shouted to see such a stone cast by the hands of
+          one man. Right into the middle of the Earth-born Men the stone
+          came. They leaped upon it like hounds, striking at one another as
+          they came together. Shield crashed on shield, spear rang upon spear
+          as they struck at each other. The Earth-born Men, as fast as they
+          arose, went down before the weapons in the hands of their
+          brethren.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Jason rushed
+          upon them, his sword in his hand. He slew some that had risen out
+          of the earth only as far as the shoulders; he slew others whose
+          feet were still in the earth; he slew others who were ready to
+          spring upon him. Soon all the Earth-born <span class="tei tei-pb"
+          id="page130">[pg 130]</span> Men were slain, and the furrows ran
+          with their dark blood as channels run with water in springtime.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> The Argonauts
+          shouted loudly for Jason’s victory. King Æetes rose from his seat
+          that was beside the river and he went back to the city. The
+          Colchians followed him. Day faded, and Jason’s contest was
+          ended.</p>
+
+          <div class="tei tei-tb">
+            &nbsp;
+          </div>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> But it was not
+          the will of Æetes that the strangers should be let depart peaceably
+          with the Golden Fleece that Jason had won. In the assembly place,
+          with his son Apsyrtus beside him, and with the furious Colchians
+          all around him, the king stood: on his breast was the gleaming
+          corselet that Ares had given him, and on his head was that golden
+          helmet with its four plumes that made him look as if he were truly
+          the son of Helios, the Sun. Lightnings flashed from his great eyes;
+          he spoke fiercely to the Colchians, holding in his hand his
+          bronze-topped spear.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> He would have
+          them attack the strangers and burn the <em class=
+          "tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">Argo</span></em>.
+          He would have the sons of Phrixus slain for bringing them to Aea.
+          There was a prophecy, he declared, that would have him be watchful
+          of the treachery of his own offspring: this prophecy was being
+          fulfilled by the children of Chalciope; he feared, too, that his
+          daughter, Medea, had aided the strangers. So the king spoke, and
+          the Colchians, hating all strangers, shouted around him.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Word of what
+          her father had said was brought to Medea. <span class="tei tei-pb"
+          id="page131">[pg 131]</span> She knew that she would have to go to
+          the Argonauts and bid them flee hastily from Aea. They would not
+          go, she knew, without the Golden Fleece; then she, Medea, would
+          have to show them how to gain the Fleece.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Then she could
+          never again go back to her father’s palace, she could never again
+          sit in this chamber and talk to her handmaidens, and be with
+          Chalciope, her sister. Forever afterward she would be dependent on
+          the kindness of strangers. Medea wept when she thought of all this.
+          And then she cut off a tress of her hair and she left it in her
+          chamber as a farewell from one who was going afar. Into the chamber
+          where Chalciope was she whispered farewell.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> The palace
+          doors were all heavily bolted, but Medea did not have to pull back
+          the bolts. As she chanted her Magic Song the bolts softly drew
+          back, the doors softly opened. Swiftly she went along the ways that
+          led to the river. She came to where fires were blazing and she knew
+          that the Argonauts were there.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> She called to
+          them, and Phrontis, Chalciope’s son, heard the cry and knew the
+          voice. To Jason he spoke, and Jason quickly went to where Medea
+          stood.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> She clasped
+          Jason’s hand and she drew him with her. <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“The Golden Fleece,”</span> she said, <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“the time has come when you must pluck the Golden
+          Fleece off the oak in the grove of Ares.”</span> When she said
+          these words all Jason’s being became taut like the string of a bow.
+          <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page132">[pg 132]</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> It was then the
+          hour when huntsmen cast sleep from their eyes—huntsmen who never
+          sleep away the end of the night, but who are ever ready to be up
+          and away with their hounds before the beams of the sun efface the
+          track and the scent of the quarry. Along a path that went from the
+          river Medea drew Jason. They entered a grove. Then Jason saw
+          something that was like a cloud filled with the light of the rising
+          sun. It hung from a great oak tree. In awe he stood and looked upon
+          it, knowing that at last he looked upon <span class=
+          "tei tei-hi"><span style="font-variant: small-caps">The Golden
+          Fleece</span></span>.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> His hand let
+          slip Medea’s hand and he went to seize the Fleece. As he did he
+          heard a dreadful hiss. And then he saw the guardian of the Golden
+          Fleece. Coiled all around the tree, with outstretched neck and keen
+          and sleepless eyes, was a deadly serpent. Its hiss ran all through
+          the grove and the birds that were wakening up squawked in
+          terror.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Like rings of
+          smoke that rise one above the other, the coils of the serpent went
+          around the tree—coils covered by hard and gleaming scales. It
+          uncoiled, stretched itself, and lifted its head to strike. Then
+          Medea dropped on her knees before it, and began to chant her Magic
+          Song.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> As she sang,
+          the coils around the tree grew slack. Like a dark, noiseless wave
+          the serpent sank down on the ground. But still its jaws were open,
+          and those dreadful jaws threatened Jason. Medea, with a newly cut
+          spray of juniper dipped in a mystic brew, touched its deadly eyes.
+          And still she chanted <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page133">[pg
+          133]</span> her Magic Song. The serpent’s jaws closed; its eyes
+          became deadened; far through the grove its length was stretched
+          out.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style=
+          "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em"><a name="i022.png" id=
+          "i022.png" class="tei tei-anchor" style=
+          "text-align: center"></a><a name="fig70" id="fig70"></a></p>
+
+          <div class="tei tei-figure" style=
+          "width: 100%; text-align: center">
+            <img src="images/i022.png" alt="Illustration" title="" />
+
+            <div class="tei tei-head" style=
+            "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em">
+            </div>
+          </div>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Then Jason took
+          the Golden Fleece. As he raised his hands to it, its brightness was
+          such as to make a flame on his face. Medea called to him. He strove
+          to gather it all up in his arms; Medea was beside him, and they
+          went swiftly on.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> They came to
+          the river and down to the place where the <em class=
+          "tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">Argo</span></em>
+          was moored. The heroes who were aboard started up, astonished to
+          see the Fleece that shone as with the lightning of Zeus. Over Medea
+          Jason cast it, and he lifted her aboard the <em class=
+          "tei tei-emph"><span style=
+          "font-style: italic">Argo</span></em>.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“O friends,”</span> he cried, <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“the quest on which we dared the gulfs of the sea and
+          the wrath of kings is accomplished, thanks to the help of this
+          maiden. Now may we return to Greece; now have we the hope of
+          looking upon our fathers and our friends once more. And in all
+          honor will we bring this maiden with us, Medea, the daughter of
+          King Æetes.”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Then he drew
+          his sword and cut the hawsers of the ship, calling upon the heroes
+          to drive the <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style=
+          "font-style: italic">Argo</span></em> on. There was a din and a
+          strain and a splash of oars, and away from Aea the <em class=
+          "tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">Argo</span></em>
+          dashed. Beside the mast Medea stood; the Golden Fleece had fallen
+          at her feet, and her head and face were covered by her silver
+          veil.</p><span class="tei tei-pb" id="page134">[pg 134]</span>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="tei tei-div" style=
+        "margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em">
+          <a name="toc71" id="toc71"></a><a name="pdf72" id="pdf72"></a>
+
+          <h2 class="tei tei-head" style=
+          "text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em">
+          <span style="font-size: 144%">IV. The Slaying of
+          Apsyrtus</span></h2>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> </p>
+
+          <div class="deco-letter floatleft tei tei-figure" style=
+          "margin-bottom: 0.00em; margin-top: 0.00em"><img src=
+          "images/capT.png" alt="Decorative first letter" /></div>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"><span class=
+          "tei tei-hi" style="margin-left: -1.00em"><span style=
+          "color: white; font-variant: small-caps">T</span></span>HAT silver
+          veil was to be splashed with a brother’s blood, and the Argonauts,
+          because of that calamity, were for a long time to be held back from
+          a return to their native land.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Now as they
+          went down the river they saw that dangers were coming swiftly upon
+          them. The chariots of the Colchians were upon the banks. Jason saw
+          King Æetes in his chariot, a blazing torch lighting his corselet
+          and his helmet. Swiftly the <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style=
+          "font-style: italic">Argo</span></em> went, but there were ships
+          behind her, and they went swiftly too.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> They came into
+          the Sea of Pontus, and Phrontis, the son of Phrixus, gave counsel
+          to them. <span class="tei tei-q">“Do not strive to make the passage
+          of the Symplegades,”</span> he said. <span class="tei tei-q">“All
+          who live around the Sea of Pontus are friendly to King Æetes; they
+          will be warned by him, and they will be ready to slay us and take
+          the <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style=
+          "font-style: italic">Argo</span></em>. Let us journey up the River
+          Ister, and by that way we can come to the Thrinacian Sea that is
+          close to your land.”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> The Argonauts
+          thought well of what Phrontis said; into the waters of the Ister
+          the ship was brought. Many of the Colchian ships passed by the
+          mouth of the river, and went seeking the <em class=
+          "tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">Argo</span></em>
+          toward the passage of the Symplegades.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> But the
+          Argonauts were on a way that was dangerous for them. For Apsyrtus
+          had not gone toward the Symplegades <span class="tei tei-pb" id=
+          "page135">[pg 135]</span> seeking the <em class=
+          "tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">Argo</span></em>.
+          He had led his soldiers overland to the River Ister at a place that
+          was at a distance above its mouth. There were islands in the river
+          at that place, and the soldiers of Apsyrtus landed on the islands,
+          while Apsyrtus went to the kings of the people around and claimed
+          their support.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> The <em class=
+          "tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">Argo</span></em>
+          came and the heroes found themselves cut off. They could not make
+          their way between the islands that were filled with the Colchian
+          soldiers, nor along the banks that were lined with men friendly to
+          King Æetes. <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style=
+          "font-style: italic">Argo</span></em> was stayed. Apsyrtus sent for
+          the chiefs; he had men enough to overwhelm them, but he shrank from
+          a fight with the heroes, and he thought that he might gain all he
+          wanted from them without a struggle.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Theseus and
+          Peleus went to him. Apsyrtus would have them give up the Golden
+          Fleece; he would have them give up Medea and the sons of Phrixus
+          also.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Theseus and
+          Peleus appealed to the judgment of the kings who supported
+          Apsyrtus. Æetes, they said, had no more claim on the Golden Fleece.
+          He had promised it to Jason as a reward for tasks that he had
+          imposed. The tasks had been accomplished and the Fleece, no matter
+          in what way it was taken from the grove of Ares, was theirs. So
+          Theseus and Peleus said, and the kings who supported Apsyrtus gave
+          judgment for the Argonauts.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> But Medea would
+          have to be given to her brother. If that were done the <em class=
+          "tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">Argo</span></em>
+          would be let go on her course, Apsyrtus said, and the Golden Fleece
+          would be left with them. Apsyrtus said, <span class="tei tei-pb"
+          id="page136">[pg 136]</span> too, that he would not take Medea back
+          to the wrath of her father; if the Argonauts gave her up she would
+          be let stay on the island of Artemis and under the guardianship of
+          the goddess.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> The chiefs
+          brought Apsyrtus’s words back. There was a council of the
+          Argonauts, and they agreed that they should leave Medea on the
+          island of Artemis.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> But grief and
+          wrath took hold of Medea when she heard of this resolve. Almost she
+          would burn the <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style=
+          "font-style: italic">Argo</span></em>. She went to where Jason
+          stood, and she spoke again of all she had done to save his life and
+          win the Golden Fleece for the Argonauts. Jason made her look on the
+          ships and the soldiers that were around them; he showed her how
+          these could overwhelm the Argonauts and slay them all. With all the
+          heroes slain, he said, Medea would come into the hands of Apsyrtus,
+          who then could leave her on the island of Artemis or take her back
+          to the wrath of her father.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> But Medea would
+          not consent to go nor could Jason’s heart consent to let her go.
+          Then these two made a plot to deceive Apsyrtus.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“I have not been of the council that agreed to give you
+          up to him,”</span> Jason said. <span class="tei tei-q">“After you
+          have been left there I will take you off the island of Artemis
+          secretly. The Colchians and the kings who support them, not knowing
+          that you have been taken off and hidden on the <em class=
+          "tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">Argo</span></em>,
+          will let us pass.”</span> This Medea and Jason planned to do, and
+          it was an ill thing, for it <span class="tei tei-pb" id=
+          "page137">[pg 137]</span> was breaking the covenant that the chiefs
+          had entered with Apsyrtus.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style=
+          "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em"><a name="i023.png" id=
+          "i023.png" class="tei tei-anchor" style=
+          "text-align: center"></a><a name="fig73" id="fig73"></a></p>
+
+          <div class="tei tei-figure" style=
+          "width: 100%; text-align: center">
+            <img src="images/i023.png" alt="Illustration" title="" />
+
+            <div class="tei tei-head" style=
+            "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em">
+            </div>
+          </div>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Medea then was
+          left by the Argonauts on the island of Artemis. Now Apsyrtus had
+          been commanded by his father to bring her back to Aea; he thought
+          that when she had been left by the Argonauts he could force her to
+          come with him. So he went over to the island. Jason, secretly
+          leaving his companions, went to the island from the other side.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Before the
+          temple of Artemis Jason and Apsyrtus came face to face. Both men,
+          thinking they had been betrayed to their deaths, drew their swords.
+          Then, before the vestibule of the temple and under the eyes of
+          Medea, Jason and Apsyrtus fought. Jason’s sword pierced the son of
+          Æetes; as he fell Apsyrtus cried out bitter words against Medea,
+          saying that it was on her account that he had come on his death.
+          And as he fell the blood of her brother splashed Medea’s silver
+          veil.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Jason lifted
+          Medea up and carried her to the <em class=
+          "tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">Argo</span></em>.
+          They hid the maiden under the Fleece of Gold and they sailed past
+          the ships of the Colchians. When darkness came they were far from
+          the island of Artemis. It was then that they heard a loud wailing,
+          and they knew that the Colchians had discovered that their prince
+          had been slain.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> The Colchians
+          did not pursue them. Fearing the wrath of Æetes they made
+          settlements in the lands of the kings who had supported Apsyrtus;
+          they never went back to Aea; they <span class="tei tei-pb" id=
+          "page138">[pg 138]</span> called themselves Apsyrtians
+          henceforward, naming themselves after the prince they had come
+          with.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> They had
+          escaped the danger that had hemmed them in, but the Argonauts, as
+          they sailed on, were not content; covenants had been broken, and
+          blood had been shed in a bad cause. And as they went on through the
+          darkness the voice of the ship was heard; at the sound of that
+          voice fear and sorrow came upon the voyagers, for they felt that it
+          had a prophecy of doom.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Castor and
+          Polydeuces went to the front of the ship; holding up their hands,
+          they prayed. Then they heard the words that the voice uttered: in
+          the night as they went on the voice proclaimed the wrath of Zeus on
+          account of the slaying of Apsyrtus.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> What was their
+          doom to be? It was that the Argonauts would have to wander forever
+          over the gulfs of the sea unless Medea had herself cleansed of her
+          brother’s blood. There was one who could cleanse Medea—Circe, the
+          daughter of Helios and Perse. The voice urged the heroes to pray to
+          the immortal gods that the way to the island of Circe be shown to
+          them.</p><span class="tei tei-pb" id="page139">[pg 139]</span>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="tei tei-div" style=
+        "margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em">
+          <a name="toc74" id="toc74"></a><a name="pdf75" id="pdf75"></a>
+
+          <h2 class="tei tei-head" style=
+          "text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em">
+          <span style="font-size: 144%">V. Medea Comes to Circe</span></h2>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> </p>
+
+          <div class="deco-letter floatleft tei tei-figure" style=
+          "margin-bottom: 0.00em; margin-top: 0.00em"><img src=
+          "images/capT.png" alt="Decorative first letter" /></div>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"><span class=
+          "tei tei-hi" style="margin-left: -1.00em"><span style=
+          "color: white; font-variant: small-caps">T</span></span>HEY sailed
+          up the River Ister until they came to the Eridanus, that river
+          across which no bird can fly. Leaving the Eridanus they entered the
+          Rhodanus, a river that rises in the extreme north, where Night
+          herself has her habitation. And voyaging up this river they came to
+          the Stormy Lakes. A mist lay upon the lakes night and day; voyaging
+          through them the Argonauts at last brought out their ship upon the
+          Sea of Ausonia.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> It was Zetes
+          and Calais, the sons of the North Wind, who brought the <em class=
+          "tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">Argo</span></em>
+          safely along this dangerous course. And to Zetes and Calais Iris,
+          the messenger of the gods, appeared and revealed to them where
+          Circe’s island lay.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Deep blue water
+          was all around that island, and on its height a marble house was to
+          be seen. But a strange haze covered everything as with a veil. As
+          the Argonauts came near they saw what looked to them like great
+          dragonflies; they came down to the shore, and then the heroes saw
+          that they were maidens in gleaming dresses.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> The maidens
+          waved their hands to the voyagers, calling them to come on the
+          island. Strange beasts came up to where the maidens were and made
+          whimpering cries.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> The Argonauts
+          would have drawn the ship close and would <span class="tei tei-pb"
+          id="page140">[pg 140]</span> have sprung upon the island only that
+          Medea cried out to them. She showed them the beasts that whimpered
+          around the maidens, and then, as the Argonauts looked upon them,
+          they saw that these were not beasts of the wild. There was
+          something strange and fearful about them; the heroes gazed upon
+          them with troubled eyes. They brought the ship near, but they
+          stayed upon their benches, holding the oars in their hands.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Medea sprang to
+          the island; she spoke to the maidens so that they shrank away; then
+          the beasts came and whimpered around her. <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“Forbear to land here, O Argonauts,”</span> Medea
+          cried, <span class="tei tei-q">“for this is the island where men
+          are changed into beasts.”</span> She called to Jason to come; only
+          Jason would she have come upon the island.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> They went
+          swiftly toward the marble house, and the beasts followed them,
+          looking up at Jason and Medea with pitiful human eyes. They went
+          into the marble house of Circe, and as suppliants they seated
+          themselves at the hearth.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Circe stood at
+          her loom, weaving her many-colored threads. Swiftly she turned to
+          the suppliants; she looked for something strange in them, for just
+          before they came the walls of her house dripped with blood and the
+          flame ran over and into her pot, burning up all the magic herbs she
+          was brewing. She went toward where they sat, Medea with her face
+          hidden by her hands, and Jason, with his head bent, holding with
+          its point in the ground the sword with which he had slain the son
+          of Æetes. <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page141">[pg 141]</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style=
+          "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em"><a name="i024.png" id=
+          "i024.png" class="tei tei-anchor" style=
+          "text-align: center"></a><a name="fig76" id="fig76"></a></p>
+
+          <div class="tei tei-figure" style=
+          "width: 100%; text-align: center">
+            <img src="images/i024.png" alt="Illustration" title="" />
+
+            <div class="tei tei-head" style=
+            "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em">
+            </div>
+          </div>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> When Medea took
+          her hands away from before her face, Circe knew that, like herself,
+          this maiden was of the race of Helios. Medea spoke to her, telling
+          her first of the voyage of the heroes and of their toils; telling
+          her then of how she had given help to Jason against the will of
+          Æetes, her father; telling her then, fearfully, of the slaying of
+          Apsyrtus. She covered her face with her robe as she spoke of it.
+          And then she told Circe she had come, warned by the judgment of
+          Zeus, to ask of Circe, the daughter of Helios, to purify her from
+          the stain of her brother’s blood.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Like all the
+          children of Helios, Circe had eyes that were wide and full of life,
+          but she had stony lips—lips that were heavy and moveless. Bright
+          golden hair hung smoothly along each of her sides. First she held a
+          cup to them that was filled with pure water, and Jason and Medea
+          drank from that cup.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Then Circe
+          stayed by the hearth; she burnt cakes in the flame, and all the
+          while she prayed to Zeus to be gentle with these suppliants. She
+          brought both to the seashore. There she washed Medea’s body and her
+          garments with the spray of the sea.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Medea pleaded
+          with Circe to tell her of the life she foresaw for her, but Circe
+          would not speak of it. She told Medea that one day she would meet a
+          woman who knew nothing about enchantments but who had much human
+          wisdom. She was to ask of her what she was to do in her life or
+          what she was to leave undone. And whatever this woman out of her
+          <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page142">[pg 142]</span> wisdom told
+          her, that Medea was to regard. Once more Circe offered them the cup
+          filled with clear water, and when they had drunken of it she left
+          them upon the seashore. As she went toward her marble house the
+          strange beasts followed Circe, whimpering as they went. Jason and
+          Medea went aboard the <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style=
+          "font-style: italic">Argo</span></em>, and the heroes drew away
+          from Circe’s island.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="tei tei-div" style=
+        "margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em">
+          <a name="toc77" id="toc77"></a><a name="pdf78" id="pdf78"></a>
+
+          <h2 class="tei tei-head" style=
+          "text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em">
+          <span style="font-size: 144%">VI. In the Land of the
+          Phæacians</span></h2>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> </p>
+
+          <div class="deco-letter floatleft tei tei-figure" style=
+          "margin-bottom: 0.00em; margin-top: 0.00em"><img src=
+          "images/capW.png" alt="Decorative first letter" /></div>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"><span class=
+          "tei tei-hi" style="margin-left: -1.00em"><span style=
+          "color: white; font-variant: small-caps">W</span></span>EARIED were
+          the heroes now. They would have fain gone upon the island of Circe
+          to rest there away from the oars and the sound of the sea. But the
+          wisest of them, looking upon the beasts that were men transformed,
+          held the <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style=
+          "font-style: italic">Argo</span></em> far off the shore. Then Jason
+          and Medea came aboard, and with heavy hearts and wearied arms they
+          turned to the open sea again.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> No longer had
+          they such high hearts as when they drove the <em class=
+          "tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">Argo</span></em>
+          between the Clashers and into the Sea of Pontus. Now their heads
+          drooped as they went on, and they sang such songs as slaves sing in
+          their hopeless labor. Orpheus grew fearful for them now.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> For Orpheus
+          knew that they were drawing toward a danger. There was no other way
+          for them, he knew, but past the Island Anthemœssa in the Tyrrhenian
+          Sea where the Sirens were. <span class="tei tei-pb" id=
+          "page143">[pg 143]</span> Once they had been nymphs and had tended
+          Persephone before she was carried off by Aidoneus to be his queen
+          in the Underworld. Kind they had been, but now they were changed,
+          and they cared only for the destruction of men.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> All set around
+          with rocks was the island where they were. As the <em class=
+          "tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">Argo</span></em>
+          came near, the Sirens, ever on the watch to draw mariners to their
+          destruction, saw them and came to the rocks and sang to them,
+          holding each other’s hands.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> They sang all
+          together their lulling song. That song made the wearied voyagers
+          long to let their oars go with the waves, and drift, drift to where
+          the Sirens were. Bending down to them the Sirens, with soft hands
+          and white arms, would lift them to soft resting places. Then each
+          of the Sirens sang a clear, piercing song that called to each of
+          the voyagers. Each man thought that his own name was in that song.
+          <span class="tei tei-q">“O how well it is that you have come
+          near,”</span> each one sang, <span class="tei tei-q">“how well it
+          is that you have come near where I have awaited you, having all
+          delight prepared for you!”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Orpheus took up
+          his lyre as the Sirens began to sing. He sang to the heroes of
+          their own toils. He sang of them, how, gaunt and weary as they
+          were, they were yet men, men who were the strength of Greece, men
+          who had been fostered by the love and hope of their country. They
+          were the winners of the Golden Fleece and their story would be told
+          forever. And for the fame that they had won men would forego all
+          rest and all delight. Why should they not toil, they who were born
+          <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page144">[pg 144]</span> for great
+          labors and to face dangers that other men might not face? Soon
+          hands would be stretched out to them—the welcoming hands of the men
+          and women of their own land.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> So Orpheus
+          sang, and his voice and the music of his lyre prevailed above the
+          Sirens’ voices. Men dropped their oars, but other men remained at
+          their benches, and pulled steadily, if wearily, on. Only one of the
+          Argonauts, Butes, a youth of Iolcus, threw himself into the water
+          and swam toward the rocks from which the Sirens sang.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> But an anguish
+          that nearly parted their spirits from their bodies was upon them as
+          they went wearily on. Toward the end of the day they beheld another
+          island—an island that seemed very fair; they longed to land and
+          rest themselves there and eat the fruits of the island. But Orpheus
+          would not have them land. The island, he said, was Thrinacia. Upon
+          that island the Cattle of the Sun pastured, and if one of the
+          cattle perished through them their return home might not be won.
+          They heard the lowing of the cattle through the mist, and a deep
+          longing for the sight of their own fields, with a white house near,
+          and flocks and herds at pasture, came over the heroes. They came
+          near the Island of Thrinacia, and they saw the Cattle of the Sun
+          feeding by the meadow streams; not one of them was black; all were
+          white as milk, and the horns upon their heads were golden. They saw
+          the two nymphs who herded the kine—Phæthusa and Lampetia, one with
+          a staff of silver and the other with a staff of gold. <span class=
+          "tei tei-pb" id="page145">[pg 145]</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Driven by the
+          breeze that came over the Thrinacian Sea the Argonauts came to the
+          land of the Phæacians. It was a good land as they saw when they
+          drew near; a land of orchards and fresh pastures, with a white and
+          sun-lit city upon the height. Their spirits came back to them as
+          they drew into the harbor; they made fast the hawsers, and they
+          went upon the ways of the city.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> And then they
+          saw everywhere around them the dark faces of Colchian soldiers.
+          These were the men of King Æetes, and they had come overland to the
+          Phæacian city, hoping to cut off the Argonauts. Jason, when he saw
+          the soldiers, shouted to those who had been left on the <em class=
+          "tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">Argo</span></em>,
+          and they drew out of the harbor, fearful lest the Colchians should
+          grapple with the ship and wrest from them the Fleece of Gold. Then
+          Jason made an encampment upon the shore, and the captain of the
+          Colchians went here and there, gathering together his men.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Medea left
+          Jason’s side and hastened through the city. To the palace of
+          Alcinous, king of the Phæacians, she went. Within the palace she
+          found Arete, the queen. And Arete was sitting by her hearth,
+          spinning golden and silver threads.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Arete was young
+          at that time, as young as Medea, and as yet no child had been born
+          to her. But she had the clear eyes of one who understands, and who
+          knows how to order things well. Stately, too, was Arete, for she
+          had been reared in the house of a great king. Medea came to her,
+          and fell upon <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page146">[pg 146]</span>
+          her knees before her, and told her how she had fled from the house
+          of her father, King Æetes.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> She told Arete,
+          too, how she had helped Jason to win the Golden Fleece, and she
+          told her how through her her brother had been led to his death. As
+          she told this part of her story she wept and prayed at the knees of
+          the queen.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Arete was
+          greatly moved by Medea’s tears and prayers. She went to Alcinous in
+          his garden, and she begged of him to save the Argonauts from the
+          great force of the Colchians that had come to cut them off.
+          <span class="tei tei-q">“The Golden Fleece,”</span> said Arete,
+          <span class="tei tei-q">“has been won by the tasks that Jason
+          performed. If the Colchians should take Medea, it would be to bring
+          her back to Aea and to a bitter doom. And the maiden,”</span> said
+          the queen, <span class="tei tei-q">“has broken my heart by her
+          prayers and tears.”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> King Alcinous
+          said: <span class="tei tei-q">“Æetes is strong, and although his
+          kingdom is far from ours, he can bring war upon us.”</span> But
+          still Arete pleaded with him to protect Medea from the Colchians.
+          Alcinous went within; he raised up Medea from where she crouched on
+          the floor of the palace, and he promised her that the Argonauts
+          would be protected in his city.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Then the king
+          mounted his chariot; Medea went with him, and they came down to the
+          seashore where the heroes had made their encampment. The Argonauts
+          and the Colchians were drawn up against each other, and the
+          Colchians far outnumbered the wearied heroes.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Alcinous drove
+          his chariot between the two armies. The <span class="tei tei-pb"
+          id="page147">[pg 147]</span> Colchians prayed him to have the
+          strangers make surrender to them. But the king drove his chariot to
+          where the heroes stood, and he took the hand of each, and received
+          them as his guests. Then the Colchians knew that they might not
+          make war upon the heroes. They drew off. The next day they marched
+          away.</p>
+
+          <div class="tei tei-tb">
+            &nbsp;
+          </div>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> It was a rich
+          land that they had come to. Once Aristæus dwelt there, the king who
+          discovered how to make bees store up their honey for men and how to
+          make the good olive grow. Macris, his daughter, tended Dionysus,
+          the son of Zeus, when Hermes brought him of the flame, and
+          moistened his lips with honey. She tended him in a cave in the
+          Phæacian land, and ever afterward the Phæacians were blessed with
+          all good things.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Now as the
+          heroes marched to the palace of King Alcinous the people came to
+          meet them, bringing them sheep and calves and jars of wine and
+          honey. The women brought them fresh garments; to Medea they gave
+          fine linen and golden ornaments.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Amongst the
+          Phæacians who loved music and games and the telling of stories the
+          heroes stayed for long. There were dances, and to the Phæacians who
+          honored him as a god, Orpheus played upon his lyre. And every day,
+          for the seven days that they stayed amongst them, the Phæacians
+          brought rich presents to the heroes.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> And Medea,
+          looking into the clear eyes of Queen Arete, knew <span class=
+          "tei tei-pb" id="page148">[pg 148]</span> that she was the woman of
+          whom Circe had prophesied, the woman who knew nothing of
+          enchantments, but who had much human wisdom. She was to ask of her
+          what she was to do in her life and what she was to leave undone.
+          And what this woman told her Medea was to regard. Arete told her
+          that she was to forget all the witcheries and enchantments that she
+          knew, and that she was never to practice against the life of any
+          one. This she told Medea upon the shore, before Jason lifted her
+          aboard the <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style=
+          "font-style: italic">Argo</span></em>.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="tei tei-div" style=
+        "margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em">
+          <a name="toc79" id="toc79"></a><a name="pdf80" id="pdf80"></a>
+
+          <h2 class="tei tei-head" style=
+          "text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em">
+          <span style="font-size: 144%">VII. They Come to the Desert
+          Land</span></h2>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> </p>
+
+          <div class="deco-letter floatleft tei tei-figure" style=
+          "margin-bottom: 0.00em; margin-top: 0.00em"><img src=
+          "images/capA1.png" alt="Decorative first letter" /></div>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"><span class=
+          "tei tei-hi" style="margin-left: -1.00em"><span style=
+          "color: white; font-variant: small-caps">A</span></span>ND now with
+          sail spread wide the <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style=
+          "font-style: italic">Argo</span></em> went on, and the heroes
+          rested at the oars. The wind grew stronger. It became a great
+          blast, and for nine days and nine nights the ship was driven
+          fearfully along.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> The blast drove
+          them into the Gulf of Libya, from whence there is no return for
+          ships. On each side of the gulf there are rocks and shoals, and the
+          sea runs toward the limitless sand. On the top of a mighty tide the
+          <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style=
+          "font-style: italic">Argo</span></em> was lifted, and she was flung
+          high up on the desert sands.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> A flood tide
+          such as might not come again for long left the Argonauts on the
+          empty Libyan land. And when they came forth and saw that vast level
+          of sand stretching like a mist <span class="tei tei-pb" id=
+          "page149">[pg 149]</span> away into the distance, a deadly fear
+          came over each of them. No spring of water could they descry; no
+          path; no herdsman’s cabin; over all that vast land there was
+          silence and dead calm. And one said to the other: <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“What land is this? Whither have we come? Would that
+          the tempest had overwhelmed us, or would that we had lost the ship
+          and our lives between the Clashing Rocks at the time when we were
+          making our way into the Sea of Pontus.”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> And the
+          helmsman, looking before him, said with a breaking heart:
+          <span class="tei tei-q">“Out of this we may not come, even should
+          the breeze blow from the land, for all around us are shoals and
+          sharp rocks—rocks that we can see fretting the water, line upon
+          line. Our ship would have been shattered far from the shore if the
+          tide had not borne her far up on the sand. But now the tide rushes
+          back toward the sea, leaving only foam on which no ship can sail to
+          cover the sand. And so all hope of our return is cut
+          off.”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> He spoke with
+          tears flowing upon his cheeks, and all who had knowledge of ships
+          agreed with what the helmsman had said. No dangers that they had
+          been through were as terrible as this. Hopelessly, like lifeless
+          specters, the heroes strayed about the endless strand.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> They embraced
+          each other and they said farewell as they laid down upon the sand
+          that might blow upon them and overwhelm them in the night. They
+          wrapped their heads in their cloaks, and, fasting, they laid
+          themselves down. <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page150">[pg
+          150]</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Jason crouched
+          beside the ship, so troubled that his life nearly went from him. He
+          saw Medea huddled against a rock and with her hair streaming on the
+          sand. He saw the men who, with all the bravery of their lives, had
+          come with him, stretched on the desert sand, weary and without
+          hope. He thought that they, the best of men, might die in this
+          desert with their deeds all unknown; he thought that he might never
+          win home with Medea, to make her his queen in Iolcus.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> He lay against
+          the side of the ship, his cloak wrapped around his head. And there
+          death would have come to him and to the others if the nymphs of the
+          desert had been unmindful of these brave men. They came to Jason.
+          It was midday then, and the fierce rays of the sun were scorching
+          all Libya. They drew off the cloak that wrapped his head; they
+          stood near him, three nymphs girded around with goatskins.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“Why art thou so smitten with despair?”</span> the
+          nymphs said to Jason. <span class="tei tei-q">“Why art thou smitten
+          with despair, thou who hast wrought so much and hast won so much?
+          Up! Arouse thy comrades! We are the solitary nymphs, the warders of
+          the land of Libya, and we have come to show a way of escape to you,
+          the Argonauts.</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“Look around and watch for the time when Poseidon’s
+          great horse shall be unloosed. Then make ready to pay recompense to
+          the mother that bore you all. What she did for you all, that you
+          all must do for her; by doing it you will win back to the land of
+          Greece.”</span> Jason heard them say these words and <span class=
+          "tei tei-pb" id="page151">[pg 151]</span> then he saw them no more;
+          the nymphs vanished amongst the desert mounds.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style=
+          "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em"><a name="i025.png" id=
+          "i025.png" class="tei tei-anchor" style=
+          "text-align: center"></a><a name="fig81" id="fig81"></a></p>
+
+          <div class="tei tei-figure" style=
+          "width: 100%; text-align: center">
+            <img src="images/i025.png" alt="Illustration" title="" />
+
+            <div class="tei tei-head" style=
+            "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em">
+            </div>
+          </div>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Then Jason rose
+          up. He did not know what to make out of what had been told him, but
+          there was courage now and hope in his heart. He shouted; his voice
+          was like the roar of a lion calling to his mate. At his shout his
+          comrades roused themselves; all squalid with the dust of the desert
+          the Argonauts stood around him.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“Listen, comrades, to me,”</span> Jason said,
+          <span class="tei tei-q">“while I speak of a strange thing that has
+          befallen me. While I lay by the side of our ship three nymphs came
+          before me. With light hands they drew away the cloak that wrapped
+          my head. They declared themselves to be the solitary nymphs, the
+          warders, of Libya. Very strange were the words they said to me.
+          When Poseidon’s great horse shall be unloosed, they said, we were
+          to make the mother of us all a recompense, doing for her what she
+          had done for us all. This the nymphs told me to say, but I cannot
+          understand the meaning of their words.”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> There were some
+          there who would not have given heed to Jason’s words, deeming them
+          words without meaning. But even as he spoke a wonder came before
+          their eyes. Out of the far-off sea a great horse leaped. Vast he
+          was of size and he had a golden mane. He shook the spray of the sea
+          off his sides and mane. Past them he trampled and away toward the
+          horizon, leaving great tracks in the sand.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Then Nestor
+          spoke rejoicingly. <span class="tei tei-q">“Behold the great horse!
+          <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page152">[pg 152]</span> It is the
+          horse that the desert nymphs spoke of, Poseidon’s horse. Even now
+          has the horse been unloosed, and now is the time to do what the
+          nymphs bade us do.</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“Who but <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style=
+          "font-style: italic">Argo</span></em> is the mother of us all? She
+          has carried us. Now we must make her a recompense and carry her
+          even as she carried us. With untiring shoulders we must bear
+          <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style=
+          "font-style: italic">Argo</span></em> across this great
+          desert.</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“And whither shall we bear her? Whither but along the
+          tracks that Poseidon’s horse has left in the sand! Poseidon’s horse
+          will not go under the earth—once again he will plunge into the
+          sea!”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> So Nestor said
+          and the Argonauts saw truth in his saying. Hope came to them
+          again—the hope of leaving that desert and coming to the sea. Surely
+          when they came to the sea again, and spread the sail and held the
+          oars in their hands, their sacred ship would make swift course to
+          their native land!</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="tei tei-div" style=
+        "margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em">
+          <a name="toc82" id="toc82"></a><a name="pdf83" id="pdf83"></a>
+
+          <h2 class="tei tei-head" style=
+          "text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em">
+          <span style="font-size: 144%">VIII. The Carrying of the
+          Argo</span></h2>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> </p>
+
+          <div class="deco-letter floatleft tei tei-figure" style=
+          "margin-bottom: 0.00em; margin-top: 0.00em"><img src=
+          "images/capW.png" alt="Decorative first letter" /></div>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"><span class=
+          "tei tei-hi" style="margin-left: -1.00em"><span style=
+          "color: white; font-variant: small-caps">W</span></span>ITH the
+          terrible weight of the ship upon their shoulders the Argonauts made
+          their way across the desert, following the tracks of Poseidon’s
+          golden-maned horse. Like a wounded serpent that drags with pain its
+          length along, they went day after day across that limitless
+          land.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> A day came when
+          they saw the great tracks of the horse <span class="tei tei-pb" id=
+          "page153">[pg 153]</span> no more. A wind had come up and had
+          covered them with sand. With the mighty weight of the ship upon
+          their shoulders, with the sun beating upon their heads, and with no
+          marks on the desert to guide them, the heroes stood there, and it
+          seemed to them that the blood must gush up and out of their
+          hearts.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style=
+          "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em"><a name="i026.png" id=
+          "i026.png" class="tei tei-anchor" style=
+          "text-align: center"></a><a name="fig84" id="fig84"></a></p>
+
+          <div class="tei tei-figure" style=
+          "width: 100%; text-align: center">
+            <img src="images/i026.png" alt="Illustration" title="" />
+
+            <div class="tei tei-head" style=
+            "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em">
+            </div>
+          </div>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Then Zetes and
+          Calais, sons of the North Wind, rose up upon their wings to strive
+          to get sight of the sea. Up, up, they soared. And then as a man
+          sees, or thinks he sees, at the month’s beginning, the moon through
+          a bank of clouds, Zetes and Calais, looking over the measureless
+          land, saw the gleam of water. They shouted to the Argonauts; they
+          marked the way for them, and wearily, but with good hearts, the
+          heroes went upon the way.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> They came at
+          last to the shore of what seemed to be a wide inland sea. They set
+          <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style=
+          "font-style: italic">Argo</span></em> down from off their
+          over-wearied shoulders and they let her keel take water once
+          more.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> All salt and
+          brackish was that water; they dipped their hands into and tasted
+          the salt. Orpheus was able to name the water they had come to; it
+          was that lake that was called after Triton, the son of Nereus, the
+          ancient one of the sea. They set up an altar and they made
+          sacrifices in thanksgiving to the gods.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> They had come
+          to water at last, but now they had to seek for other water—for the
+          sweet water that they could drink. All around them they looked, but
+          they saw no sign of a spring. And then they felt a wind blow upon
+          them—a wind that had in it not the dust of the desert but the
+          fragrance of growing things. Toward where that wind blew from they
+          went. <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page154">[pg 154]</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> As they went on
+          they saw a great shape against the sky; they saw mountainous
+          shoulders bowed. Orpheus bade them halt and turn their faces with
+          reverence toward that great shape: for this was Atlas the Titan,
+          the brother of Prometheus, who stood there to hold up the sky on
+          his shoulders.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Then they were
+          near the place that the fragrance had blown from: there was a
+          garden there; the only fence that ran around it was a lattice of
+          silver. <span class="tei tei-q">“Surely there are springs in the
+          garden,”</span> the Argonauts said. <span class="tei tei-q">“We
+          will enter this fair garden now and slake our thirst.”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Orpheus bade
+          them walk reverently, for all around them, he said, was sacred
+          ground. This garden was the Garden of the Hesperides that was
+          watched over by the Daughters of the Evening Land. The Argonauts
+          looked through the silver lattice; they saw trees with lovely
+          fruit, and they saw three maidens moving through the garden with
+          watchful eyes. In this garden grew the tree that had the golden
+          apples that Zeus gave to Hera as a wedding gift.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> They saw the
+          tree on which the golden apples grew. The maidens went to it and
+          then looked watchfully all around them. They saw the faces of the
+          Argonauts looking through the silver lattice and they cried out,
+          one to the other, and they joined their hands around the tree.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> But Orpheus
+          called to them, and the maidens understood the divine speech of
+          Orpheus. He made the Daughters of the Evening Land know that they
+          who stood before the lattice were <span class="tei tei-pb" id=
+          "page155">[pg 155]</span> men who reverenced the gods, who would
+          not strive to enter the forbidden garden. The maidens came toward
+          them. Beautiful as the singing of Orpheus was their utterance, but
+          what they said was a complaint and a lament.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Their lament
+          was for the dragon Ladon, that dragon with a hundred heads that
+          guarded sleeplessly the tree that had the golden apples. Now that
+          dragon was slain. With arrows that had been dipped in the poison of
+          the Hydra’s blood their dragon, Ladon, had been slain.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> The Daughters
+          of the Evening Land sang of how a mortal had come into the garden
+          that they watched over. He had a great bow, and with his arrow he
+          slew the dragon that guarded the golden apples. The golden apples
+          he had taken away; they had come back to the tree they had been
+          plucked from, for no mortal might keep them in his possession. So
+          the maidens sang—Hespere, Eretheis, and Ægle—and they complained
+          that now, unhelped by the hundred-headed dragon, they had to keep
+          guard over the tree.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> The Argonauts
+          knew of whom they told the tale—Heracles, their comrade. Would that
+          Heracles were with them now!</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> The Hesperides
+          told them of Heracles—of how the springs in the garden dried up
+          because of his plucking the golden apples. He came out of the
+          garden thirsting. Nowhere could he find a spring of water. To
+          yonder great rock he went. He smote it with his foot and water came
+          out in full flow. Then he, leaning on his hands and with his chest
+          upon the ground, <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page156">[pg
+          156]</span> drank and drank from the water that flowed from the
+          rifted rock.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> The Argonauts
+          looked to where the rock stood. They caught the sound of water.
+          They carried Medea over. And then, company after company, all
+          huddled together, they stooped down and drank their fill of the
+          clear good water. With lips wet with the water they cried to each
+          other, <span class="tei tei-q">“Heracles! Although he is not with
+          us, in very truth Heracles has saved his comrades from deadly
+          thirst!”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> They saw his
+          footsteps printed upon the rocks, and they followed them until they
+          led to the sand where no footsteps stay. Heracles! How glad his
+          comrades would have been if they could have had sight of him then!
+          But it was long ago—before he had sailed with them—that Heracles
+          had been here.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Still hearing
+          their complaint they turned back to the lattice, to where the
+          Daughters of the Evening Land stood. The Daughters of the Evening
+          Land bent their heads to listen to what the Argonauts told one
+          another, and, seeing them bent to listen, Orpheus told a story
+          about one who had gone across the Libyan desert, about one who was
+          a hero like unto Heracles.</p>
+
+          <div class="tei tei-div" style=
+          "margin-bottom: 3.00em; margin-top: 3.00em">
+            <a name="toc85" id="toc85"></a><a name="pdf86" id="pdf86"></a>
+
+            <h3 class="tei tei-head" style=
+            "text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.40em; margin-top: 2.40em">
+            <span style="font-size: 120%">The Story of Perseus</span></h3>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Beyond where
+            Atlas stands there is a cave where the strange women, the ancient
+            daughters of Phorcys, live. They have been gray from their birth.
+            They have but one eye and one <span class="tei tei-pb" id=
+            "page157">[pg 157]</span> tooth between them, and they pass the
+            eye and the tooth, one to the other, when they would see or eat.
+            They are called the Graiai, these two sisters.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Up to the
+            cave where they lived a youth once came. He was beardless, and
+            the garb he wore was torn and travel-stained, but he had
+            shapeliness and beauty. In his leathern belt there was an
+            exceedingly bright sword; this sword was not straight like the
+            swords we carry, but it was hooked like a sickle. The strange
+            youth with the bright, strange sword came very quickly and very
+            silently up to the cave where the Graiai lived and looked over a
+            high boulder into it.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> One was
+            sitting munching acorns with the single tooth. The other had the
+            eye in her hand. She was holding it to her forehead and looking
+            into the back of the cave. These two ancient women, with their
+            gray hair falling over them like thick fleeces, and with faces
+            that were only forehead and cheeks and nose and mouth, were
+            strange creatures truly. Very silently the youth stood looking at
+            them.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+            "tei tei-q">“Sister, sister,”</span> cried the one who was
+            munching acorns, <span class="tei tei-q">“sister, turn your eye
+            this way. I heard the stir of something.”</span></p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> The other
+            turned, and with the eye placed against her forehead looked out
+            to the opening of the cave. The youth drew back behind the
+            boulder. <span class="tei tei-q">“Sister, sister, there is
+            nothing there,”</span> said the one with the eye.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Then she
+            said: <span class="tei tei-q">“Sister, give me the tooth for I
+            would eat my acorns. Take the eye and keep watch.”</span>
+            <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page158">[pg 158]</span></p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> The one who
+            was eating held out the tooth, and the one who was watching held
+            out the eye. The youth darted into the cave. Standing between the
+            eyeless sisters, he took with one hand the tooth and with the
+            other the eye.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+            "tei tei-q">“Sister, sister, have you taken the eye?”</span></p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+            "tei tei-q">“I have not taken the eye. Have you taken the
+            tooth?”</span></p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+            "tei tei-q">“I have not taken the tooth.”</span></p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+            "tei tei-q">“Some one has taken the eye, and some one has taken
+            the tooth.”</span></p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> They stood
+            together, and the youth watched their blinking faces as they
+            tried to discover who had come into the cave, and who had taken
+            the eye and the tooth.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Then they
+            said, screaming together: <span class="tei tei-q">“Who ever has
+            taken the eye and the tooth from the Graiai, the ancient
+            daughters of Phorcys, may Mother Night smother him.”</span></p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> The youth
+            spoke. <span class="tei tei-q">“Ancient daughters of
+            Phorcys,”</span> he said, <span class="tei tei-q">“Graiai, I
+            would not rob from you. I have come to your cave only to ask the
+            way to a place.”</span></p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+            "tei tei-q">“Ah, it is a mortal, a mortal,”</span> screamed the
+            sisters. <span class="tei tei-q">“Well, mortal, what would you
+            have from the Graiai?”</span></p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+            "tei tei-q">“Ancient Graiai,”</span> said the youth, <span class=
+            "tei tei-q">“I would have you tell me, for you alone know, where
+            the nymphs dwell who guard the three magic treasures—the cap of
+            darkness, the shoes of flight, and the magic pouch.”</span></p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+            "tei tei-q">“We will not tell you, we will not tell you
+            that,”</span> screamed the two ancient sisters. <span class=
+            "tei tei-pb" id="page159">[pg 159]</span></p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style=
+            "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em"><a name="i027.png"
+            id="i027.png" class="tei tei-anchor" style=
+            "text-align: center"></a><a name="fig87" id="fig87"></a></p>
+
+            <div class="tei tei-figure" style=
+            "width: 100%; text-align: center">
+              <img src="images/i027.png" alt="Illustration" title="" />
+
+              <div class="tei tei-head" style=
+              "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em">
+              </div>
+            </div>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+            "tei tei-q">“I will keep the eye and the tooth,”</span> said the
+            youth, <span class="tei tei-q">“and I will give them to one who
+            will help me.”</span></p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+            "tei tei-q">“Give me the eye and I will tell you,”</span> said
+            one. <span class="tei tei-q">“Give me the tooth and I will tell
+            you,”</span> said the other. The youth put the eye in the hand of
+            one and the tooth in the hand of the other, but he held their
+            skinny hands in his strong hands until they should tell him where
+            the nymphs dwelt who guarded the magic treasures. The Gray Ones
+            told him. Then the youth with the bright sword left the cave. As
+            he went out he saw on the ground a shield of bronze, and he took
+            it with him.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> To the other
+            side of where Atlas stands he went. There he came upon the nymphs
+            in their valley. They had long dwelt there, hidden from gods and
+            men, and they were startled to see a stranger youth come into
+            their hidden valley. They fled away. Then the youth sat on the
+            ground, his head bent like a man who is very sorrowful.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> The youngest
+            and the fairest of the nymphs came to him at last. <span class=
+            "tei tei-q">“Why have you come, and why do you sit here in such
+            great trouble, youth?”</span> said she. And then she said:
+            <span class="tei tei-q">“What is this strange sickle-sword that
+            you wear? Who told you the way to our dwelling place? What name
+            have you?”</span></p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+            "tei tei-q">“I have come here,”</span> said the youth, and he
+            took the bronze shield upon his knees and began to polish it,
+            <span class="tei tei-q">“I have come here because I want you, the
+            nymphs who guard them, to give to me the cap of darkness and the
+            shoes of flight and the magic pouch. I must gain these things;
+            without them I must go to <span class="tei tei-pb" id=
+            "page160">[pg 160]</span> my death. Why I must gain them you will
+            know from my story.”</span></p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> When he said
+            that he had come for the three magic treasures that they guarded,
+            the kind nymph was more startled than she and her sisters had
+            been startled by the appearance of the strange youth in their
+            hidden valley. She turned away from him. But she looked again and
+            she saw that he was beautiful and brave looking. He had spoken of
+            his death. The nymph stood looking at him pitifully, and the
+            youth, with the bronze shield laid beside his knees and the
+            strange hooked sword lying across it, told her his story.</p>
+
+            <div class="tei tei-tb">
+              &nbsp;
+            </div>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+            "tei tei-q">“I am Perseus,”</span> he said, <span class=
+            "tei tei-q">“and my grandfather, men say, is king in Argos. His
+            name is Acrisius. Before I was born a prophecy was made to him
+            that the son of Danaë, his daughter, would slay him. Acrisius was
+            frightened by the prophecy, and when I was born he put my mother
+            and myself into a chest, and he sent us adrift upon the waves of
+            the sea.</span></p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+            "tei tei-q">“I did not know what a terrible peril I was in, for I
+            was an infant newly born. My mother was so hopeless that she came
+            near to death. But the wind and the waves did not destroy us:
+            they brought us to a shore; a shepherd found the chest, and he
+            opened it and brought my mother and myself out of it alive. The
+            land we had come to was Seriphus. The shepherd who found the
+            chest and who rescued my mother and myself was the brother of the
+            king. His name was Dictys. <span class="tei tei-pb" id=
+            "page161">[pg 161]</span></span></p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+            "tei tei-q">“In the shepherd’s wattled house my mother stayed
+            with me, a little infant, and in that house I grew from babyhood
+            to childhood, and from childhood to boyhood. He was a kind man,
+            this shepherd Dictys. His brother Polydectes had put him away
+            from the palace, but Dictys did not grieve for that, for he was
+            happy minding his sheep upon the hillside, and he was happy in
+            his little hut of wattles and clay.</span></p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+            "tei tei-q">“Polydectes, the king, was seldom spoken to about his
+            brother, and it was years before he knew of the mother and child
+            who had been brought to live in Dictys’s hut. But at last he
+            heard of us, for strange things began to be said about my
+            mother—how she was beautiful, and how she looked like one who had
+            been favored by the gods. Then one day when he was hunting,
+            Polydectes the king came to the hut of Dictys the
+            shepherd.</span></p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+            "tei tei-q">“He saw Danaë, my mother, there. By her looks he knew
+            that she was a king’s daughter and one who had been favored by
+            the gods. He wanted her for his wife. But my mother hated this
+            harsh and overbearing king, and she would not wed with him. Often
+            he came storming around the shepherd’s hut, and at last my mother
+            had to take refuge from him in a temple. There she became the
+            priestess of the goddess.</span></p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+            "tei tei-q">“I was taken to the palace of Polydectes, and there I
+            was brought up. The king still stormed around where my mother
+            was, more and more bent on making her marry him. If she had not
+            been in the temple where she was under the protection
+            <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page162">[pg 162]</span> of the
+            goddess he would have wed her against her will.</span></p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+            "tei tei-q">“But I was growing up now, and I was able to give
+            some protection to my mother. My arm was a strong one, and
+            Polydectes knew that if he wronged my mother in any way, I had
+            the will and the power to be deadly to him. One day I heard him
+            say before his princes and his lords that he would wed, and would
+            wed one who was not Danaë. I was overjoyed to hear him say this.
+            He asked the lords and the princes to come to the wedding feast;
+            they declared they would, and they told him of the presents they
+            would bring.</span></p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+            "tei tei-q">“Then King Polydectes turned to me and he asked me to
+            come to the wedding feast. I said I would come. And then, because
+            I was young and full of the boast of youth, and because the king
+            was now ceasing to be a terror to me, I said that I would bring
+            to his wedding feast the head of the Gorgon.</span></p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+            "tei tei-q">“The king smiled when he heard me say this, but he
+            smiled not as a good man smiles when he hears the boast of youth.
+            He smiled, and he turned to the princes and lords, and he said:
+            <span class="tei tei-q">‘Perseus will come, and he will bring a
+            greater gift than any of you, for he will bring the head of her
+            whose gaze turns living creatures into stone.’</span></span></p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+            "tei tei-q">“When I heard the king speak so grimly about my boast
+            the fearfulness of the thing I had spoken of doing came over me.
+            I thought for an instant that the Gorgon’s head appeared before
+            me, and that I was then and there turned into stone. <span class=
+            "tei tei-pb" id="page163">[pg 163]</span></span></p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+            "tei tei-q">“The day of the wedding feast came. I came and I
+            brought no gift. I stood with my head hanging for shame. Then the
+            princes and the lords came forward, and they showed the great
+            gifts of horses that they had brought. I thought that the king
+            would forget about me and about my boast. And then I heard him
+            call my name. <span class="tei tei-q">‘Perseus,’</span> he said,
+            <span class="tei tei-q">‘Perseus, bring before us now the
+            Gorgon’s head that, as you told us, you would bring for the
+            wedding gift.’</span></span></p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+            "tei tei-q">“The princes and lords and people looked toward me,
+            and I was filled with a deeper shame. I had to say that I had
+            failed to bring a present. Then that harsh and overbearing king
+            shouted at me. <span class="tei tei-q">‘Go forth,’</span> he
+            said, <span class="tei tei-q">‘go forth and fetch the present
+            that you spoke of. If you do not bring it remain forever out of
+            my country, for in Seriphus we will have no empty
+            boasters.’</span> The lords and the princes applauded what the
+            king said; the people were sad for me and sad for my mother, but
+            they might not do anything to help me, so just and so due to me
+            did the words of the king seem. There was no help for it, and I
+            had to go from the country of Seriphus, leaving my mother at the
+            mercy of Polydectes.</span></p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+            "tei tei-q">“I bade good-by to my sorrowful mother and I went
+            from Seriphus—from that land that I might not return to without
+            the Gorgon’s head. I traveled far from that country. One day I
+            sat down in a lonely place and prayed to the gods that my
+            strength might be equal to the will that now moved in me—the will
+            to take the Gorgon’s head, and take from my name <span class=
+            "tei tei-pb" id="page164">[pg 164]</span> the shame of a broken
+            promise, and win back to Seriphus to save my mother from the
+            harshness of the king.</span></p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+            "tei tei-q">“When I looked up I saw one standing before me. He
+            was a youth, too, but I knew by the way he moved, and I knew by
+            the brightness of his face and eyes, that he was of the
+            immortals. I raised my hands in homage to him, and he came near
+            me. <span class="tei tei-q">‘Perseus,’</span> he said,
+            <span class="tei tei-q">‘if you have the courage to strive, the
+            way to win the Gorgon’s head will be shown you.’</span> I said
+            that I had the courage to strive, and he knew that I was making
+            no boast.</span></p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+            "tei tei-q">“He gave me this bright sickle-sword that I carry. He
+            told me by what ways I might come near enough to the Gorgons
+            without being turned into stone by their gaze. He told me how I
+            might slay the one of the three Gorgons who was not immortal, and
+            how, having slain her, I might take her head and flee without
+            being torn to pieces by her sister Gorgons.</span></p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+            "tei tei-q">“Then I knew that I should have to come on the
+            Gorgons from the air. I knew that having slain the one that could
+            be slain I should have to fly with the speed of the wind. And I
+            knew that that speed even would not save me—I should have to be
+            hidden in my flight. To win the head and save myself I would need
+            three magic things—the shoes of flight and the magic pouch, and
+            the dogskin cap of Hades that makes its wearer
+            invisible.</span></p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+            "tei tei-q">“The youth said: <span class="tei tei-q">‘The magic
+            pouch and the shoes of flight and the dogskin cap of Hades are in
+            the keeping of the nymphs <span class="tei tei-pb" id=
+            "page165">[pg 165]</span> whose dwelling place no mortal knows. I
+            may not tell you where their dwelling place is. But from the Gray
+            Ones, from the ancient daughters of Phorcys who live in a cave
+            near where Atlas stands, you may learn where their dwelling place
+            is.’</span></span></p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+            "tei tei-q">“Thereupon he told me how I might come to the Graiai,
+            and how I might get them to tell me where you, the nymphs, had
+            your dwelling. The one who spoke to me was Hermes, whose dwelling
+            is on Olympus. By this sickle-sword that he gave me you will know
+            that I speak the truth.”</span></p>
+
+            <div class="tei tei-tb">
+              &nbsp;
+            </div>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Perseus
+            ceased speaking, and she who was the youngest and fairest of the
+            nymphs came nearer to him. She knew that he spoke truthfully, and
+            besides she had pity for the youth. <span class="tei tei-q">“But
+            we are the keepers of the magic treasures,”</span> she said,
+            <span class="tei tei-q">“and some one whose need is greater even
+            than yours may some time require them from us. But will you swear
+            that you will bring the magic treasures back to us when you have
+            slain the Gorgon and have taken her head?”</span></p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Perseus
+            declared that he would bring the magic treasures back to the
+            nymphs and leave them once more in their keeping. Then the nymph
+            who had compassion for him called to the others. They spoke
+            together while Perseus stayed far away from them, polishing his
+            shield of bronze. At last the nymph who had listened to him came
+            back, the others following her. They brought to Perseus and they
+            put into his hands the <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page166">[pg
+            166]</span> things they had guarded—the cap made from dogskin
+            that had been brought up out of Hades, a pair of winged shoes,
+            and a long pouch that he could hang across his shoulder.</p>
+
+            <div class="tei tei-tb">
+              &nbsp;
+            </div>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> And so with
+            the shoes of flight and the cap of darkness and the magic pouch,
+            Perseus went to seek the Gorgons. The sickle-sword that Hermes
+            gave him was at his side, and on his arm he held the bronze
+            shield that was now well polished.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> He went
+            through the air, taking a way that the nymphs had shown him. He
+            came to Oceanus that was the rim around the world. He saw forms
+            that were of living creatures all in stone, and he knew that he
+            was near the place where the Gorgons had their lair.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Then, looking
+            upon the surface of his polished shield, he saw the Gorgons below
+            him. Two were covered with hard serpent scales; they had tusks
+            that were long and were like the tusks of boars, and they had
+            hands of gleaming brass and wings of shining gold. Still looking
+            upon the shining surface of his shield Perseus went down and
+            down. He saw the third sister—she who was not immortal. She had a
+            woman’s face and form, and her countenance was beautiful,
+            although there was something deadly in its fairness. The two
+            scaled and winged sisters were asleep, but the third, Medusa, was
+            awake, and she was tearing with her hands a lizard that had come
+            near her.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Upon her head
+            was a tangle of serpents all with heads raised as though they
+            were hissing. Still looking into the mirror of <span class=
+            "tei tei-pb" id="page167">[pg 167]</span> his shield Perseus came
+            down and over Medusa. He turned his head away from her. Then,
+            with a sweep of the sickle-sword he took her head off. There was
+            no scream from the Gorgon, but the serpents upon her head hissed
+            loudly.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Still with
+            his face turned from it he lifted up the head by its tangle of
+            serpents. He put it into the magic pouch. He rose up in the air.
+            But now the Gorgon sisters were awake. They had heard the hiss of
+            Medusa’s serpents, and now they looked upon her headless body.
+            They rose up on their golden wings, and their brazen hands were
+            stretched out to tear the one who had slain Medusa. As they flew
+            after him they screamed aloud.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Although he
+            flew like the wind the Gorgon sisters would have overtaken him if
+            he had been plain to their eyes. But the dogskin cap of Hades
+            saved him, for the Gorgon sisters did not know whether he was
+            above or below them, behind or before them. On Perseus went,
+            flying toward where Atlas stood. He flew over this place, over
+            Libya. Drops of blood from Medusa’s head fell down upon the
+            desert. They were changed and became the deadly serpents that are
+            on these sands and around these rocks. On and on Perseus flew
+            toward Atlas and toward the hidden valley where the nymphs who
+            were again to guard the magic treasures had their dwelling place.
+            But before he came to the nymphs Perseus had another
+            adventure.</p>
+
+            <div class="tei tei-tb">
+              &nbsp;
+            </div>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> In Ethopia,
+            which is at the other side of Libya, there ruled a <span class=
+            "tei tei-pb" id="page168">[pg 168]</span> king whose name was
+            Cepheus. This king had permitted his queen to boast that she was
+            more beautiful than the nymphs of the sea. In punishment for the
+            queen’s impiety and for the king’s folly Poseidon sent a monster
+            out of the sea to waste that country. Every year the monster
+            came, destroying more and more of the country of Ethopia. Then
+            the king asked of an oracle what he should do to save his land
+            and his people. The oracle spoke of a dreadful thing that he
+            would have to do—he would have to sacrifice his daughter, the
+            beautiful Princess Andromeda.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> The king was
+            forced by his savage people to take the maiden Andromeda and
+            chain her to a rock on the seashore, leaving her there for the
+            monster to devour her, satisfying himself with that prey.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Perseus,
+            flying near, heard the maiden’s laments. He saw her lovely body
+            bound with chains to the rock. He came near her, taking the cap
+            of darkness off his head. She saw him, and she bent her head in
+            shame, for she thought that he would think that it was for some
+            dreadful fault of her own that she had been left chained in that
+            place.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Her father
+            had stayed near. Perseus saw him, and called to him, and bade him
+            tell why the maiden was chained to the rock. The king told
+            Perseus of the sacrifice that he had been forced to make. Then
+            Perseus came near the maiden, and he saw how she looked at him
+            with pleading eyes.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Then Perseus
+            made her father promise that he would give <span class=
+            "tei tei-pb" id="page169">[pg 169]</span> Andromeda to him for
+            his wife if he should slay the sea monster. Gladly Cepheus
+            promised this. Then Perseus once again drew his sickle-sword; by
+            the rock to which Andromeda was still chained he waited for sight
+            of the sea monster.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style=
+            "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em"><a name="i028.png"
+            id="i028.png" class="tei tei-anchor" style=
+            "text-align: center"></a><a name="fig88" id="fig88"></a></p>
+
+            <div class="tei tei-figure" style=
+            "width: 100%; text-align: center">
+              <img src="images/i028.png" alt="Illustration" title=
+              "Perseus and Andromeda" />
+
+              <div class="tei tei-head" style=
+              "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em">
+              Perseus and Andromeda
+              </div>
+            </div>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> It came
+            rolling in from the open sea, a shapeless and unsightly thing.
+            With the shoes of flight upon his feet Perseus rose above it. The
+            monster saw his shadow upon the water, and savagely it went to
+            attack the shadow. Perseus swooped down as an eagle swoops down;
+            with his sickle-sword he attacked it, and he struck the hook
+            through the monster’s shoulder. Terribly it reared up from the
+            sea. Perseus rose over it, escaping its wide-opened mouth with
+            its treble rows of fangs. Again he swooped and struck at it. Its
+            hide was covered all over with hard scales and with the shells of
+            sea things, but Perseus’s sword struck through it. It reared up
+            again, spouting water mixed with blood. On a rock near the rock
+            that Andromeda was chained to Perseus alighted. The monster,
+            seeing him, bellowed and rushed swiftly through the water to
+            overwhelm him. As it reared up he plunged the sword again and
+            again into its body. Down into the water the monster sank, and
+            water mixed with blood was spouted up from the depths into which
+            it sank.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Then was
+            Andromeda loosed from her chains. Perseus, the conqueror, lifted
+            up the fainting maiden and carried her back to the king’s palace.
+            And Cepheus there renewed his promise to give her in marriage to
+            her deliverer.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Perseus went
+            on his way. He came to the hidden valley <span class="tei tei-pb"
+            id="page170">[pg 170]</span> where the nymphs had their dwelling
+            place, and he restored to them the three magic treasures that
+            they had given him—the cap of darkness, the shoes of flight, and
+            the magic pouch. And these treasures are still there, and the
+            hero who can win his way to the nymphs may have them as Perseus
+            had them.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Again he
+            returned to the place where he had found Andromeda chained. With
+            face averted he drew forth the Gorgon’s head from where he had
+            hidden it between the rocks. He made a bag for it out of the
+            horny skin of the monster he had slain. Then, carrying his
+            tremendous trophy, he went to the palace of King Cepheus to claim
+            his bride.</p>
+
+            <div class="tei tei-tb">
+              &nbsp;
+            </div>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Now before
+            her father had thought of sacrificing her to the sea monster he
+            had offered Andromeda in marriage to a prince of Ethopia—to a
+            prince whose name was Phineus. Phineus did not strive to save
+            Andromeda. But, hearing that she had been delivered from the
+            monster, he came to take her for his wife; he came to Cepheus’s
+            palace, and he brought with him a thousand armed men.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> The palace of
+            Cepheus was filled with armed men when Perseus entered it. He saw
+            Andromeda on a raised place in the hall. She was pale as when she
+            was chained to the rock, and when she saw him in the palace she
+            uttered a cry of gladness.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Cepheus, the
+            craven king, would have let him who had come with the armed bands
+            take the maiden. Perseus came beside <span class="tei tei-pb" id=
+            "page171">[pg 171]</span> Andromeda and he made his claim.
+            Phineus spoke insolently to him, and then he urged one of his
+            captains to strike Perseus down. Many sprang forward to attack
+            him. Out of the bag Perseus drew Medusa’s head. He held it before
+            those who were bringing strife into the hall. They were turned to
+            stone. One of Cepheus’s men wished to defend Perseus: he struck
+            at the captain who had come near; his sword made a clanging sound
+            as it struck this one who had looked upon Medusa’s head.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Perseus went
+            from the land of Ethopia taking fair Andromeda with him. They
+            went into Greece, for he had thought of going to Argos, to the
+            country that his grandfather ruled over. At this very time
+            Acrisius got tidings of Danaë and her son, and he knew that they
+            had not perished on the waves of the sea. Fearful of the prophecy
+            that told he would be slain by his grandson and fearing that he
+            would come to Argos to seek him, Acrisius fled out of his
+            country.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> He came into
+            Thessaly. Perseus and Andromeda were there. Now, one day the old
+            king was brought to games that were being celebrated in honor of
+            a dead hero. He was leaning on his staff, watching a youth throw
+            a metal disk, when something in that youth’s appearance made him
+            want to watch him more closely. About him there was something of
+            a being of the upper air; it made Acrisius think of a brazen
+            tower and of a daughter whom he had shut up there.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> He moved so
+            that he might come nearer to the disk-thrower. But as he left
+            where he had been standing he came into the <span class=
+            "tei tei-pb" id="page172">[pg 172]</span> line of the thrown
+            disk. It struck the old man on the temple. He fell down dead, and
+            as he fell the people cried out his name—<span class=
+            "tei tei-q">“Acrisius, King Acrisius!”</span> Then Perseus knew
+            whom the disk, thrown by his hand, had slain.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> And because
+            he had slain the king by chance Perseus would not go to Argos,
+            nor take over the kingdom that his grandfather had reigned over.
+            With Andromeda he went to Seriphus where his mother was. And in
+            Seriphus there still reigned Polydectes, who had put upon him the
+            terrible task of winning the Gorgon’s head.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> He came to
+            Seriphus and he left Andromeda in the hut of Dictys the shepherd.
+            No one knew him; he heard his name spoken of as that of a youth
+            who had gone on a foolish quest and who would never again be
+            heard of. To the temple where his mother was a priestess he came.
+            Guards were placed all around it. He heard his mother’s voice and
+            it was raised in lament: <span class="tei tei-q">“Walled up here
+            and given over to hunger I shall be made go to Polydectes’s house
+            and become his wife. O ye gods, have ye no pity for Danaë, the
+            mother of Perseus?”</span></p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Perseus cried
+            aloud, and his mother heard his voice and her moans ceased. He
+            turned around and he went to the palace of Polydectes, the
+            king.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> The king
+            received him with mockeries. <span class="tei tei-q">“I will let
+            you stay in Seriphus for a day,”</span> he said, <span class=
+            "tei tei-q">“because I would have you at a marriage feast. I have
+            vowed that Danaë, taken from the temple where she sulks, will be
+            my wife by to-morrow’s sunset.”</span> <span class="tei tei-pb"
+            id="page173">[pg 173]</span></p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style=
+            "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em"><a name="i029.png"
+            id="i029.png" class="tei tei-anchor" style=
+            "text-align: center"></a><a name="fig89" id="fig89"></a></p>
+
+            <div class="tei tei-figure" style=
+            "width: 100%; text-align: center">
+              <img src="images/i029.png" alt="Illustration" title="" />
+
+              <div class="tei tei-head" style=
+              "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em">
+              </div>
+            </div>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> So Polydectes
+            said, and the lords and princes who were around him mocked at
+            Perseus and flattered the king. Perseus went from them then. The
+            next day he came back to the palace. But in his hands now there
+            was a dread thing—the bag made from the hide of the sea monster
+            that had in it the Gorgon’s head.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> He saw his
+            mother. She was brought in white and fainting, thinking that she
+            would now have to wed the harsh and overbearing king. Then she
+            saw her son, and hope came into her face.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> The king
+            seeing Perseus, said: <span class="tei tei-q">“Step forward, O
+            youngling, and see your mother wed to a mighty man. Step forward
+            to witness a marriage, and then depart, for it is not right that
+            a youth that makes promises and does not keep them should stay in
+            a land that I rule over. Step forward now, you with the empty
+            hands.”</span></p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> But not with
+            empty hands did Perseus step forward. He shouted out:
+            <span class="tei tei-q">“I have brought something to you at last,
+            O king—a present to you and your mocking friends. But you, O my
+            mother, and you, O my friends, avert your faces from what I have
+            brought.”</span> Saying this Perseus drew out the Gorgon’s head.
+            Holding it by the snaky locks he stood before the company. His
+            mother and his friends averted their faces. But Polydectes and
+            his insolent friends looked full upon what Perseus showed.
+            <span class="tei tei-q">“This youth would strive to frighten us
+            with some conjuror’s trick,”</span> they said. They said no more,
+            for they <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page174">[pg 174]</span>
+            became as stones, and as stone images they still stand in that
+            hall in Seriphus.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> He went to
+            the shepherd’s hut, and he brought Dictys from it with Andromeda.
+            Dictys he made king in Polydectes’s stead. Then with Danaë and
+            Andromeda, his mother and his wife, he went from Seriphus.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> He did not go
+            to Argos, the country that his grandfather had ruled over,
+            although the people there wanted Perseus to come to them, and be
+            king over them. He took the kingdom of Tiryns in exchange for
+            that of Argos, and there he lived with Andromeda, his lovely wife
+            out of Ethopia. They had a son named Perses who became the parent
+            of the Persian people.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> The
+            sickle-sword that had slain the Gorgon went back to Hermes, and
+            Hermes took Medusa’s head also. That head Hermes’s divine sister
+            set upon her shield—Medusa’s head upon the shield of Pallas
+            Athene. O may Pallas Athene guard us all, and bring us out of
+            this land of sands and stone where are the deadly serpents that
+            have come from the drops of blood that fell from the Gorgon’s
+            head!</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> They turned
+            away from the Garden of the Daughters of the Evening Land. The
+            Argonauts turned from where the giant shape of Atlas stood
+            against the sky and they went toward the Tritonian Lake. But not
+            all of them reached the <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style=
+            "font-style: italic">Argo</span></em>. On his way back to the
+            ship, Nauplius, the helmsman, met his death.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> A sluggish
+            serpent was in his way—it was not a serpent that <span class=
+            "tei tei-pb" id="page175">[pg 175]</span> would strike at one who
+            turned from it. Nauplius trod upon it, and the serpent lifted its
+            head up and bit his foot. They raised him on their shoulders and
+            they hurried back with him. But his limbs became numb, and when
+            they laid him down on the shore of the lake he stayed moveless.
+            Soon he grew cold. They dug a grave for Nauplius beside the lake,
+            and in that desert land they set up his helmsman’s oar in the
+            middle of his tomb of heaped stones.</p>
+
+            <div class="tei tei-tb">
+              &nbsp;
+            </div>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> And now like
+            a snake that goes writhing this way and that way and that cannot
+            find the cleft in the rock that leads to its lair, the <em class=
+            "tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">Argo</span></em>
+            went hither and thither striving to find an outlet from that
+            lake. No outlet could they find and the way of their homegoing
+            seemed lost to them again. Then Orpheus prayed to the son of
+            Nereus, to Triton, whose name was on that lake, to aid them.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Then Triton
+            appeared. He stretched out his hand and showed them the outlet to
+            the sea. And Triton spoke in friendly wise to the heroes, bidding
+            them go upon their way in joy. <span class="tei tei-q">“And as
+            for labor,”</span> he said, <span class="tei tei-q">“let there be
+            no grieving because of that, for limbs that have youthful vigor
+            should still toil.”</span></p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> They took up
+            the oars and they pulled toward the sea, and Triton, the friendly
+            immortal, helped them on. He laid hold upon <em class=
+            "tei tei-emph"><span style=
+            "font-style: italic">Argo’s</span></em> keel and he guided her
+            through the water. The Argonauts saw him beneath the water; his
+            body, from his <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page176">[pg
+            176]</span> head down to his waist, was fair and great and like
+            to the body of one of the other immortals. But below his body was
+            like a great fish’s, forking this way and that. He moved with
+            fins that were like the horns of the new moon. Triton helped
+            <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style=
+            "font-style: italic">Argo</span></em> along until they came into
+            the open sea. Then he plunged down into the abyss. The heroes
+            shouted their thanks to him. Then they looked at each other and
+            embraced each other with joy, for the sea that touched upon the
+            land of Greece was open before them.</p>
+          </div>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="tei tei-div" style=
+        "margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em">
+          <a name="toc90" id="toc90"></a><a name="pdf91" id="pdf91"></a>
+
+          <h2 class="tei tei-head" style=
+          "text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em">
+          <span style="font-size: 144%">IX. Near to Iolcus Again</span></h2>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> </p>
+
+          <div class="deco-letter floatleft tei tei-figure" style=
+          "margin-bottom: 0.00em; margin-top: 0.00em"><img src=
+          "images/capT.png" alt="Decorative first letter" /></div>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"><span class=
+          "tei tei-hi" style="margin-left: -1.00em"><span style=
+          "color: white; font-variant: small-caps">T</span></span>HE sun
+          sank; then that star came that bids the shepherd bring his flock to
+          the fold, that brings the wearied plowman to his rest. But no rest
+          did that star bring to the Argonauts. The breeze that filled the
+          sail died down; they furled the sail and lowered the mast; then,
+          once again, they pulled at the oars. All night they rowed, and all
+          day, and again when the next day came on. Then they saw the island
+          that is halfway to Greece—the great and fair island of Crete.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> It was Theseus
+          who first saw Crete—Theseus who was to come to Crete upon another
+          ship. They drew the <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style=
+          "font-style: italic">Argo</span></em> near the great island; they
+          wanted water, and they were fain to rest there. <span class=
+          "tei tei-pb" id="page177">[pg 177]</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Minos, the
+          great king, ruled over Crete. He left the guarding of the island to
+          one of the race of bronze, to Talos, who had lived on after the
+          rest of the bronze men had been destroyed. Thrice a day would Talos
+          stride around the island; his brazen feet were tireless.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Now Talos saw
+          the <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style=
+          "font-style: italic">Argo</span></em> drawing near. He took up
+          great rocks and he hurled them at the heroes, and very quickly they
+          had to draw their ship out of range.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> They were
+          wearied and their thirst was consuming them. But still that bronze
+          man stood there ready to sink their ship with the great rocks that
+          he took up in his hands. Medea stood forward upon the ship, ready
+          to use her spells against the man of bronze.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> In body and
+          limbs he was made of bronze and in these he was invulnerable. But
+          beneath a sinew in his ankle there was a vein that ran up to his
+          neck and that was covered by a thin skin. If that vein were broken
+          Talos would perish.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Medea did not
+          know about this vein when she stood forward upon the ship to use
+          her spells against him. Upon a cliff of Crete, all gleaming, stood
+          that huge man of bronze. Then, as she was ready to fling her spells
+          against him, Medea thought upon the words that Arete, the wise
+          queen, had given her—that she was not to use spells and not to
+          practice against the life of any one.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> But she knew
+          that there was no impiety in using spells and practicing against
+          Talos, for Zeus had already doomed all his <span class="tei tei-pb"
+          id="page178">[pg 178]</span> race. She stood upon the ship, and
+          with her Magic Song she enchanted him. He whirled round and round.
+          He struck his ankle against a jutting stone. The vein broke, and
+          that which was the blood of the bronze man flowed out of him like
+          molten lead. He stood towering upon the cliff. Like a pine upon a
+          mountaintop that the woodman had left half hewn through and that a
+          mighty wind pitches against, Talos stood upon his tireless feet,
+          swaying to and fro. Then, emptied of all his strength, Minos’s man
+          of bronze fell into the Cretan Sea.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> The heroes
+          landed. That night they lay upon the land of Crete and rested and
+          refreshed themselves. When dawn came they drew water from a spring,
+          and once more they went on board the <em class=
+          "tei tei-emph"><span style=
+          "font-style: italic">Argo</span></em>.</p>
+
+          <div class="tei tei-tb">
+            &nbsp;
+          </div>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> A day came when
+          the helmsman said, <span class="tei tei-q">“To-morrow we shall see
+          the shore of Thessaly, and by sunset we shall be in the harbor of
+          Pagasæ. Soon, O voyagers, we shall be back in the city from which
+          we went to gain the Golden Fleece.”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Then Jason
+          brought Medea to the front of the ship so that they might watch
+          together for Thessaly, the homeland. The Mountain Pelion came into
+          sight. Jason exulted as he looked upon that mountain; again he told
+          Medea about Chiron, the ancient centaur, and about the days of his
+          youth in the forests of Pelion.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> The <em class=
+          "tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">Argo</span></em>
+          went on; the sun sank, and darkness came on. Never was there
+          darkness such as there was on that night. <span class="tei tei-pb"
+          id="page179">[pg 179]</span> They called that night afterward the
+          Pall of Darkness. To the heroes upon the <em class=
+          "tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">Argo</span></em> it
+          seemed as if black chaos had come over the world again; they knew
+          not whether they were adrift upon the sea or upon the River of
+          Hades. No star pierced the darkness nor no beam from the moon.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style=
+          "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em"><a name="i030.png" id=
+          "i030.png" class="tei tei-anchor" style=
+          "text-align: center"></a><a name="fig92" id="fig92"></a></p>
+
+          <div class="tei tei-figure" style=
+          "width: 100%; text-align: center">
+            <img src="images/i030.png" alt="Illustration" title="" />
+
+            <div class="tei tei-head" style=
+            "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em">
+            </div>
+          </div>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> After a night
+          that seemed many nights the dawn came. In the sunrise they saw the
+          land of Thessaly with its mountain, its forests, and its fields.
+          They hailed each other as if they had met after a long parting.
+          They raised the mast and unfurled the sail.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> But not toward
+          Pagasæ did they go. For now the voice of <em class=
+          "tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">Argo</span></em>
+          came to them, shaking their hearts: Jason and Orpheus, Castor and
+          Polydeuces, Zetes and Calais, Peleus and Telamon, Theseus, Admetus,
+          Nestor, and Atalanta, heard the cry of their ship. And the voice of
+          <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style=
+          "font-style: italic">Argo</span></em> warned them not to go into
+          the harbor of Pagasæ.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> As they stood
+          upon the ship, looking toward Iolcus, sorrow came over all the
+          heroes, such sorrow as made their hearts nearly break. For long
+          they stood there in utter numbness.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Then Admetus
+          spoke—Admetus who was the happiest of all those who went in quest
+          of the Golden Fleece. <span class="tei tei-q">“Although we may not
+          go into the harbor of Pagasæ, nor into the city of Iolcus,”</span>
+          Admetus said, <span class="tei tei-q">“still we have come to the
+          land of Greece. There are other harbors and other cities that we
+          may go into. And in all the places that we go to we will be
+          honored, for we have gone through toils and dangers, and we have
+          brought to Greece the famous Fleece of Gold.”</span> <span class=
+          "tei tei-pb" id="page180">[pg 180]</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> So Admetus
+          said, and their spirits came back again to the heroes—came back to
+          all of them save Jason. The rest had other cities to go to, and
+          fathers and mothers and friends to greet them in other places, but
+          for Jason there was only Iolcus.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Medea took his
+          hand, and sorrow for him overcame her. For Medea could divine what
+          had happened in Iolcus and why it was that the heroes might not go
+          there.</p>
+
+          <div class="tei tei-tb">
+            &nbsp;
+          </div>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> It was to
+          Corinth that the <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style=
+          "font-style: italic">Argo</span></em> went. Creon, the king of
+          Corinth, welcomed them and gave great honor to the heroes who had
+          faced such labors and such dangers to bring the world’s wonder to
+          Greece.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> The Argonauts
+          stayed together until they went to Calydon, to hunt the boar that
+          ravaged Prince Meleagrus’s country. After that they separated, each
+          one going to his own land. Jason came back to Corinth where Medea
+          stayed. And in Corinth he had tidings of the happenings in
+          Iolcus.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> King Pelias now
+          ruled more fearfully in Iolcus, having brought down from the
+          mountains more and fiercer soldiers. And Æson, Jason’s father, and
+          Alcimide, his mother, were now dead, having been slain by King
+          Pelias.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> This Jason
+          heard from men who came into Corinth from Thessaly. And because of
+          the great army that Pelias had gathered there, Jason might not yet
+          go into Iolcus, either to exact a vengeance, or to show the people
+          <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-variant: small-caps">The
+          Golden Fleece</span></span> that he had gone so far to
+          gain.</p><span class="tei tei-pb" id="page181">[pg 181]</span>
+        </div>
+      </div>
+
+      <div class="tei tei-div" style=
+      "margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+        <a name="toc93" id="toc93"></a><a name="pdf94" id="pdf94"></a>
+
+        <h1 class="tei tei-head" style=
+        "text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em">
+        <span style="font-size: 173%">Part III. The Heroes of the
+        Quest</span></h1><span class="tei tei-pb" id="page183">[pg
+        183]</span>
+
+        <div class="tei tei-div" style=
+        "margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em">
+          <a name="toc95" id="toc95"></a><a name="pdf96" id="pdf96"></a>
+
+          <h2 class="tei tei-head" style=
+          "text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em">
+          <span style="font-size: 144%">I. Atalanta the Huntress</span></h2>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.20em"><span style=
+          "font-size: 120%">I</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> </p>
+
+          <div class="deco-letter floatleft tei tei-figure" style=
+          "margin-bottom: 0.00em; margin-top: 0.00em"><img src=
+          "images/capT.png" alt="Decorative first letter" /></div>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"><span class=
+          "tei tei-hi" style="margin-left: -1.00em"><span style=
+          "color: white; font-variant: small-caps">T</span></span>HEY came
+          once more together, the heroes of the quest, to hunt a boar in
+          Calydon—Jason and Peleus came, Telamon, Theseus, and rough Arcas,
+          Nestor and Helen’s brothers Polydeuces and Castor. And, most noted
+          of all, there came the Arcadian huntress maid, Atalanta.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Beautiful they
+          all thought her when they knew her aboard the <em class=
+          "tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">Argo</span></em>.
+          But even more beautiful Atalanta seemed to the heroes when she came
+          amongst them in her hunting gear. Her lovely hair hung in two bands
+          across her shoulders, and over her breast hung an ivory quiver
+          filled with arrows. They said that her face with its wide and
+          steady eyes was maidenly for a boy’s, and boyish for a maiden’s
+          face. Swiftly she moved with her head held high, and there was not
+          one amongst the heroes who did not say, <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“Oh, happy would that man be whom Atalanta the unwedded
+          would take for her husband!”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> All the heroes
+          said it, but the one who said it most feelingly was the prince of
+          Calydon, young Meleagrus. He more than the other heroes felt the
+          wonder of Atalanta’s beauty. <span class="tei tei-pb" id=
+          "page184">[pg 184]</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Now the boar
+          they had come to hunt was a monster boar. It had come into Calydon
+          and it was laying waste the fields and orchards and destroying the
+          people’s cattle and horses. That boar had been sent into Calydon by
+          an angry divinity. For when Œneus, the king of the country, was
+          making sacrifice to the gods in thanksgiving for a bounteous
+          harvest, he had neglected to make sacrifice to the goddess of the
+          wild things, Artemis. In her anger Artemis had sent the monster
+          boar to lay waste Œneus’s realm.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> It was a
+          monster boar indeed—one as huge as a bull, with tusks as great as
+          an elephant’s; the bristles on its back stood up like spear points,
+          and the hot breath of the creature withered the growth on the
+          ground. The boar tore up the corn in the fields and trampled down
+          the vines with their clusters and heavy bunches of grapes; also it
+          rushed against the cattle and destroyed them in the fields. And no
+          hounds the huntsmen were able to bring could stand before it. And
+          so it came to pass that men had to leave their farms and take
+          refuge behind the walls of the city because of the ravages of the
+          boar. It was then that the rulers of Calydon sent for the heroes of
+          the quest to join with them in hunting the monster.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Calydon itself
+          sent Prince Meleagrus and his two uncles, Plexippus and Toxeus.
+          They were brothers to Meleagrus’s mother, Althæa. Now Althæa was a
+          woman who had sight to see mysterious things, but who had also a
+          wayward and passionate heart. Once, after her son Meleagrus was
+          born, she <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page185">[pg 185]</span> saw
+          the three Fates sitting by her hearth. They were spinning the
+          threads of her son’s life, and as they spun they sang to each
+          other, <span class="tei tei-q">“An equal span of life we give to
+          the newborn child, and to the billet of wood that now rests above
+          the blaze of the fire.”</span> Hearing what the Fates sang and
+          understanding it Althæa had sprung up from her bed, had seized the
+          billet of wood, and had taken it out of the fire before the flames
+          had burnt into it.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> That billet of
+          wood lay in her chest, hidden away. And Meleagrus nor any one else
+          save Althæa knew of it, nor knew that the prince’s life would last
+          only for the space it would be kept from the burning. On the day of
+          the hunting he appeared as the strongest and bravest of the youths
+          of Calydon. And he knew not, poor Meleagrus, that the love for
+          Atalanta that had sprung into his heart was to bring to the fire
+          the billet of wood on which his life depended.</p>
+
+          <div class="tei tei-tb">
+            &nbsp;
+          </div>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.20em"><span style=
+          "font-size: 120%">II</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> As Atalanta
+          went, the bow in her hands, Prince Meleagrus pressed behind her.
+          Then came Jason and Peleus, Telamon, Theseus and Nestor. Behind
+          them came Meleagrus’s dark-browed uncles, Plexippus and Toxeus.
+          They came to a forest that covered the side of a mountain. Huntsmen
+          had assembled here with hounds held in leashes and with nets to
+          hold the rushing quarry. And when they had all gathered together
+          they went through the forest on the track of the monster boar.
+          <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page186">[pg 186]</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> It was easy to
+          track the boar, for it had left a broad trail through the forest.
+          The heroes and the huntsmen pressed on. They came to a marshy
+          covert where the boar had its lair. There was a thickness of osiers
+          and willows and tall bullrushes, making a place that it was hard
+          for the hunters to go through.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> They roused the
+          boar with the blare of horns and it came rushing out. Foam was on
+          its tusks, and its eyes had in them the blaze of fire. On the boar
+          came, breaking down the thicket in its rush. But the heroes stood
+          steadily with the points of their spears toward the monster.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> The hounds were
+          loosed from their leashes and they dashed toward the boar. The boar
+          slashed them with its tusks and trampled them into the ground.
+          Jason flung his spear. The spear went wide of the mark. Another,
+          Arcas, cast his, but the wood, not the point of the spear, struck
+          the boar, rousing it further. Then its eyes flamed, and like a
+          great stone shot from a catapult the boar rushed on the huntsmen
+          who were stationed to the right. In that rush it flung two youths
+          prone upon the ground.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Then might
+          Nestor have missed his going to Troy and his part in that story,
+          for the boar swerved around and was upon him in an instant. Using
+          his spear as a leaping pole he vaulted upward and caught the
+          branches of a tree as the monster dashed the spear down in its
+          rush. In rage the beast tore at the trunk of the tree. The heroes
+          might have been scattered at this moment, for Telamon had fallen,
+          tripped by the roots of a tree, <span class="tei tei-pb" id=
+          "page187">[pg 187]</span> and Peleus had had to throw himself upon
+          him to pull him out of the way of danger, if Polydeuces and Castor
+          had not dashed up to their aid. They came riding upon high white
+          horses, spears in their hands. The brothers cast their spears, but
+          neither spear struck the monster boar.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Then the boar
+          turned and was for drawing back into the thicket. They might have
+          lost it then, for its retreat was impenetrable. But before it got
+          clear away Atalanta put an arrow to the string, drew the bow to her
+          shoulder, and let the arrow fly. It struck the boar, and a patch of
+          blood was seen upon its bristles. Prince Meleagrus shouted out,
+          <span class="tei tei-q">“O first to strike the monster! Honor
+          indeed shall you receive for this, Arcadian maid.”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> His uncles were
+          made wroth by this speech, as was another, the Arcadian, rough
+          Arcas. Arcas dashed forward, holding in his hands a two-headed axe.
+          <span class="tei tei-q">“Heroes and huntsmen,”</span> he cried,
+          <span class="tei tei-q">“you shall see how a man’s strokes surpass
+          a girl’s.”</span> He faced the boar, standing on tiptoe with his
+          axe raised for the stroke. Meleagrus’s uncles shouted to encourage
+          him. But the boar’s tusks tore him before Arcas’s axe fell, and the
+          Arcadian was trampled upon the ground.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> The boar,
+          roused again by Atalanta’s arrow, turned on the hunters. Jason
+          hurled a spear again. It swerved and struck a hound and pinned it
+          to the ground. Then, speaking the name of Atalanta, Meleagrus
+          sprang before the heroes and the huntsmen. <span class="tei tei-pb"
+          id="page188">[pg 188]</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> He had two
+          spears in his hands. The first missed and stuck quivering in the
+          ground. But the second went right through the back of the monster
+          boar. It whirled round and round, spouting out blood and foam.
+          Meleagrus pressed on, and drove his hunting knife through the
+          shoulders of the monster.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> His uncles,
+          Plexippus and Toxeus, were the first to come to where the monster
+          boar was lying outstretched. <span class="tei tei-q">“It is well,
+          the deed you have done, boy,”</span> said one; <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“it is well that none of the strangers to our country
+          slew the boar. Now will the head and tusks of the monster adorn our
+          hall, and men will know that the arms of our house can well protect
+          this land.”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> But one word
+          only did Meleagrus say, and that word was the name, <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“Atalanta.”</span> The maiden came and Meleagrus, his
+          spear upon the head, said, <span class="tei tei-q">“Take, O fair
+          Arcadian, the spoil of the chase. All know that it was you who
+          inflicted the first wound upon the boar.”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Plexippus and
+          Toxeus tried to push him away, as if Meleagrus was still a boy
+          under their tutoring. He shouted to them to stand off, and then he
+          hacked out the terrible tusks and held them toward Atalanta.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> She would have
+          taken them, for she, who had never looked lovingly upon a youth,
+          was moved by the beauty and the generosity of Prince Meleagrus. She
+          would have taken from him the spoil of the chase. But as she held
+          out her arms Meleagrus’s uncles struck them with the poles of their
+          spears. Heavy <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page189">[pg 189]</span>
+          marks were made on the maiden’s white arms. Madness then possessed
+          Meleagrus, and he took up his spear and thrust it, first into the
+          body of Plexippus and then into the body of Toxeus. His thrusts
+          were terrible, for he was filled with the fierceness of the hunt,
+          and his uncles fell down in death.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Then a great
+          horror came over all the heroes. They raised up the bodies of
+          Plexippus and Toxeus and carried them on their spears away from the
+          place of the hunting and toward the temple of the gods. Meleagrus
+          crouched down upon the ground in horror of what he had done.
+          Atalanta stood beside him, her hand upon his head.</p>
+
+          <div class="tei tei-tb">
+            &nbsp;
+          </div>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.20em"><span style=
+          "font-size: 120%">III</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Althæa was in
+          the temple making sacrifice to the gods. She saw men come in
+          carrying across their spears the bodies of two men. She looked and
+          she saw that the dead men were her two brothers, Plexippus and
+          Toxeus.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Then she beat
+          her breast and she filled the temple with the cries of her
+          lamentation. <span class="tei tei-q">“Who has slain my brothers?
+          Who has slain my brothers?”</span> she kept crying out.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Then she was
+          told that her son Meleagrus had slain her brothers. She had no
+          tears to shed then, and in a hard voice she asked, <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“Why did my son slay Plexippus and Toxeus, his
+          uncles?”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> The one who was
+          wroth with Atalanta, Arcas the Arcadian, <span class="tei tei-pb"
+          id="page190">[pg 190]</span> came to her and told her that her
+          brothers had been slain because of a quarrel about the girl
+          Atalanta.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“My brothers have been slain because a girl bewitched
+          my son; then accursed be that son of mine,”</span> Althæa cried.
+          She took off the gold-fringed robe of a priestess, and she put on a
+          black robe of mourning.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Her brothers,
+          the only sons of her father, had been slain, and for the sake of a
+          girl. The image of Atalanta came before her, and she felt she could
+          punish dreadfully her son. But her son was not there to punish; he
+          was far away, and the girl for whose sake he had killed Plexippus
+          and Toxeus was with him.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> The rage she
+          had went back into her heart and made her truly mad. <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“I gave Meleagrus life when I might have let it go from
+          him with the burning billet of wood,”</span> she cried,
+          <span class="tei tei-q">“and now he has taken the lives of my
+          brothers.”</span> And then her thought went to the billet of wood
+          that was hidden in the chest.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Back to her
+          house she went, and when she went within she saw a fire of pine
+          knots burning upon the hearth. As she looked upon their burning a
+          scorching pain went through her. But she went from the hearth,
+          nevertheless, and into the inner room. There stood the chest that
+          she had not opened for years. She opened it now, and out of it she
+          took the billet of wood that had on it the mark of the burning.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> She brought it
+          to the hearth fire. Four times she went to throw it into the fire,
+          and four times she stayed her hand. The <span class="tei tei-pb"
+          id="page191">[pg 191]</span> fire was before her, but it was in her
+          too. She saw the images of her brothers lying dead, and, saying
+          that he who had slain them should lose his life, she threw the
+          billet of wood into the fire of pine knots.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Straightway it
+          caught fire and began to burn. And Althæa cried, <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“Let him die, my son, and let naught remain; let all
+          perish with my brothers, even the kingdom that Œneus, my husband,
+          founded.”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Then she turned
+          away and remained stiffly standing by the hearth, the life withered
+          up within her. Her daughters came and tried to draw her away, but
+          they could not—her two daughters, Gorge and Deianira.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Meleagrus was
+          crouching upon the ground with Atalanta watching beside him. Now he
+          stood up, and taking her hand he said, <span class="tei tei-q">“Let
+          me go with you to the temple of the gods where I shall strive to
+          make atonement for the deed I have done to-day.”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> She went with
+          him. But even as they came to the street of the city a sharp and a
+          burning pain seized upon Meleagrus. More and more burning it grew,
+          and weaker and weaker he became. He could not have moved further if
+          it had not been for the aid of Atalanta. Jason and Peleus lifted
+          him across the threshold and carried him into the temple of the
+          gods.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> They laid him
+          down with his head upon Atalanta’s lap. The pain within him grew
+          fiercer and fiercer, but at last it died down as the burning billet
+          of wood sank down into the ashes. The heroes of the quest stood
+          around, all overcome with woe. In <span class="tei tei-pb" id=
+          "page192">[pg 192]</span> the street they heard the lamentations
+          for Plexippus and Toxeus, for Prince Meleagrus, and for the passing
+          of the kingdom founded by Œneus. Atalanta left the temple, and
+          attended by the two brothers on the white horses, Polydeuces and
+          Castor, she went back to Arcady.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="tei tei-div" style=
+        "margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em">
+          <a name="toc97" id="toc97"></a><a name="pdf98" id="pdf98"></a>
+
+          <h2 class="tei tei-head" style=
+          "text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em">
+          <span style="font-size: 144%">II. Peleus and His Bride from the
+          Sea</span></h2>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.20em"><span style=
+          "font-size: 120%">I</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> </p>
+
+          <div class="deco-letter floatleft tei tei-figure" style=
+          "margin-bottom: 0.00em; margin-top: 0.00em"><img src=
+          "images/capP.png" alt="Decorative first letter" /></div>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"><span class=
+          "tei tei-hi" style="margin-left: -1.00em"><span style=
+          "color: white; font-variant: small-caps">P</span></span>RINCE
+          PELEUS came on his ship to a bay on the coast of Thessaly. His
+          painted ship lay between two great rocks, and from its poop he saw
+          a sight that enchanted him. Out from the sea, riding on a dolphin,
+          came a lovely maiden. And by the radiance of her face and limbs
+          Peleus knew her for one of the immortal goddesses.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Now Peleus had
+          borne himself so nobly in all things that he had won the favor of
+          the gods themselves. Zeus, who is highest amongst the gods, had
+          made this promise to Peleus: he would honor him as no one amongst
+          the sons of men had been honored before, for he would give him an
+          immortal goddess to be his bride.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> She who came
+          out of the sea went into a cave that was overgrown with vines and
+          roses. Peleus looked into the cave and <span class="tei tei-pb" id=
+          "page193">[pg 193]</span> he saw her sleeping upon skins of the
+          beasts of the sea. His heart was enchanted by the sight, and he
+          knew that his life would be broken if he did not see this goddess
+          day after day. So he went back to his ship and he prayed:
+          <span class="tei tei-q">“O Zeus, now I claim the promise that you
+          once made to me. Let it be that this goddess come with me, or else
+          plunge my ship and me beneath the waves of the sea.”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> And when Peleus
+          said this he looked over the land and the water for a sign from
+          Zeus.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Even then the
+          goddess sleeping in the cave had dreams such as had never before
+          entered that peaceful resting place of hers. She dreamt that she
+          was drawn away from the deep and the wide sea. She dreamt that she
+          was brought to a place that was strange and unfree to her. And as
+          she lay in the cave, sleeping, tears that might never come into the
+          eyes of an immortal lay around her heart.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> But Peleus,
+          standing on his painted ship, saw a rainbow touch upon the sea. He
+          knew by that sign that Iris, the messenger of Zeus, had come down
+          through the air. Then a strange sight came before his eyes. Out of
+          the sea rose the head of a man; wrinkled and bearded it was, and
+          the eyes were very old. Peleus knew that he who was there before
+          him was Nereus, the ancient one of the sea.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Said old
+          Nereus: <span class="tei tei-q">“Thou hast prayed to Zeus, and I am
+          here to speak an answer to thy prayer. She whom you have looked
+          upon is Thetis, the goddess of the sea. Very loath will she be
+          <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page194">[pg 194]</span> to take
+          Zeus’s command and wed with thee. It is her desire to remain in the
+          sea, unwedded, and she has refused marriage even with one of the
+          immortal gods.”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Then said
+          Peleus, <span class="tei tei-q">“Zeus promised me an immortal
+          bride. If Thetis may not be mine I cannot wed any other, goddess or
+          mortal maiden.”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“Then thou thyself wilt have to master Thetis,”</span>
+          said Nereus, the wise one of the sea. <span class="tei tei-q">“If
+          she is mastered by thee, she cannot go back to the sea. She will
+          strive with all her strength and all her wit to escape from thee;
+          but thou must hold her no matter what she does, and no matter how
+          she shows herself. When thou hast seen her again as thou didst see
+          her at first, thou wilt know that thou hast mastered her.”</span>
+          And when he had said this to Peleus, Nereus, the ancient one of the
+          sea, went under the waves.</p>
+
+          <div class="tei tei-tb">
+            &nbsp;
+          </div>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.20em"><span style=
+          "font-size: 120%">II</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> With his hero’s
+          heart beating more than ever it had beaten yet, Peleus went into
+          the cave. Kneeling beside her he looked down upon the goddess. The
+          dress she wore was like green and silver mail. Her face and limbs
+          were pearly, but through them came the radiance that belongs to the
+          immortals.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> He touched the
+          hair of the goddess of the sea, the yellow hair that was so long
+          that it might cover her all over. As he touched her hair she
+          started up, wakening suddenly out of her sleep. His hands touched
+          her hands and held them. Now he <span class="tei tei-pb" id=
+          "page195">[pg 195]</span> knew that if he should loose his hold
+          upon her she would escape from him into the depths of the sea, and
+          that thereafter no command from the immortals would bring her to
+          him.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> She changed
+          into a white bird that strove to bear itself away. Peleus held to
+          its wings and struggled with the bird. She changed and became a
+          tree. Around the trunk of the tree Peleus clung. She changed once
+          more, and this time her form became terrible: a spotted leopard she
+          was now, with burning eyes; but Peleus held to the neck of the
+          fierce-appearing leopard and was not affrighted by the burning
+          eyes. Then she changed and became as he had seen her first—a lovely
+          maiden, with the brow of a goddess, and with long yellow hair.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> But now there
+          was no radiance in her face or in her limbs. She looked past
+          Peleus, who held her, and out to the wide sea. <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“Who is he,”</span> she cried, <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“who has been given this mastery over me?”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Then said the
+          hero: <span class="tei tei-q">“I am Peleus, and Zeus has given me
+          the mastery over thee. Wilt thou come with me, Thetis? Thou art my
+          bride, given me by him who is highest amongst the gods, and if thou
+          wilt come with me, thou wilt always be loved and reverenced by
+          me.”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“Unwillingly I leave the sea,”</span> she cried,
+          <span class="tei tei-q">“unwillingly I go with thee,
+          Peleus.”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> But life in the
+          sea was not for her any more now that she was mastered. She went to
+          Peleus’s ship and she went to Phthia, his country. And when the
+          hero and the sea goddess were <span class="tei tei-pb" id=
+          "page196">[pg 196]</span> wedded the immortal gods and goddesses
+          came to their hall and brought the bride and the bridegroom
+          wondrous gifts. The three sisters who are called the Fates came
+          also. These wise and ancient women said that the son born of the
+          marriage of Peleus and Thetis would be a man greater than Peleus
+          himself.</p>
+
+          <div class="tei tei-tb">
+            &nbsp;
+          </div>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.20em"><span style=
+          "font-size: 120%">III</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Now although a
+          son was born to her, and although this son had something of the
+          radiance of the immortals about him, Thetis remained forlorn and
+          estranged. Nothing that her husband did was pleasing to her. Prince
+          Peleus was in fear that the wildness of the sea would break out in
+          her, and that some great harm would be wrought in his house.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> One night he
+          wakened suddenly. He saw the fire upon his hearth and he saw a
+          figure standing by the fire. It was Thetis, his wife. The fire was
+          blazing around something that she held in her hands. And while she
+          stood there she was singing to herself a strange-sounding song.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> And then he saw
+          what Thetis held in her hands and what the fire was blazing around;
+          it was the child, Achilles.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Prince Peleus
+          sprang from the bed and caught Thetis around the waist and lifted
+          her and the child away from the blazing fire. He put them both upon
+          the bed, and he took from her the child that she held by the heel.
+          His heart was wild within him, for the thought that wildness had
+          come over his wife, and <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page197">[pg
+          197]</span> that she was bent upon destroying their child. But
+          Thetis looked on him from under those goddess brows of hers and she
+          said to him: <span class="tei tei-q">“By the divine power that I
+          still possess I would have made the child invulnerable; but the
+          heel by which I held him has not been endued by the fire and in
+          that place some day he may be stricken. All that the fire covered
+          is invulnerable, and no weapon that strikes there can destroy his
+          life. His heel I cannot now make invulnerable, for now the divine
+          power is gone out of me.”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> When she said
+          this Thetis looked full upon her husband, and never had she seemed
+          so unforgiving as she was then. All the divine radiance that had
+          remained with her was gone from her now, and she seemed a
+          white-faced and bitter-thinking woman. And when Peleus saw that
+          such a great bitterness faced him he fled from his house.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> He traveled far
+          from his own land, and first he went to the help of Heracles, who
+          was then in the midst of his mighty labors. Heracles was building a
+          wall around a city. Peleus labored, helping him to raise the wall
+          for King Laomedon. Then, one night, as he walked by the wall he had
+          helped to build, he heard voices speaking out of the earth. And one
+          voice said: <span class="tei tei-q">“Why has Peleus striven so hard
+          to raise a wall that his son shall fight hard to overthrow?”</span>
+          No voice replied. The wall was built, and Peleus departed. The city
+          around which the wall was built was the great city of Troy.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> In whatever
+          place he went Peleus was followed by the hatred <span class=
+          "tei tei-pb" id="page198">[pg 198]</span> of the people of the sea,
+          and above all by the hatred of the nymph who is called Psamathe.
+          Far, far from his own country he went, and at last he came to a
+          country of bright valleys that was ruled over by a kindly king—by
+          Ceyx, who was called the Son of the Morning Star.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Bright of face
+          and kindly and peaceable in all his ways was this king, and kindly
+          and peaceable was the land that he ruled over. And when Prince
+          Peleus went to him to beg for his protection, and to beg for
+          unfurrowed fields where he might graze his cattle, Ceyx raised him
+          up from where he knelt. <span class="tei tei-q">“Peaceable and
+          plentiful is the land,”</span> he said, <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“and all who come here may have peace and a chance to
+          earn their food. Live where you will, O stranger, and take the
+          unfurrowed fields by the seashore for pasture for your
+          cattle.”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Peace came into
+          Peleus’s heart as he looked into the untroubled face of Ceyx, and
+          as he looked over the bright valleys of the land he had come into.
+          He brought his cattle to the unfurrowed fields by the seashore and
+          he left herdsmen there to tend them. And as he walked along these
+          bright valleys he thought upon his wife and upon his son Achilles,
+          and there were gentle feelings in his breast. But then he thought
+          upon the enmity of Psamathe, the woman of the sea, and great
+          trouble came over him again. He felt he could not stay in the
+          palace of the kindly king. He went where his herdsmen camped and he
+          lived with them. But the sea was very near and its sound tormented
+          him, and as the days went by, Peleus, wild looking <span class=
+          "tei tei-pb" id="page199">[pg 199]</span> and shaggy, became more
+          and more unlike the hero whom once the gods themselves had
+          honored.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> One day as he
+          was standing near the palace having speech with the king, a
+          herdsman ran to him and cried out: <span class="tei tei-q">“Peleus,
+          Peleus, a dread thing has happened in the unfurrowed
+          fields.”</span> And when he had got his breath the herdsman told of
+          the thing that had happened.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> They had
+          brought the herd down to the sea. Suddenly, from the marshes where
+          the sea and land came together, a monstrous beast rushed out upon
+          the herd; like a wolf this beast was, but with mouth and jaws that
+          were more terrible than a wolf’s even. The beast seized upon the
+          cattle. Yet it was not hunger that made it fierce, for the beasts
+          that it killed it tore, but did not devour. It rushed on and on,
+          killing and tearing more and more of the herd. <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“Soon,”</span> said the herdsman, <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“it will have destroyed all in the herd, and then it
+          will not spare to destroy the other flocks and herds that are in
+          the land.”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Peleus was
+          stricken to hear that his herd was being destroyed, but more
+          stricken to know that the land of a friendly king would be ravaged,
+          and ravaged on his account. For he knew that the terrible beast
+          that had come from where the sea and the land joined had been sent
+          by Psamathe. He went up on the tower that stood near the king’s
+          palace. He was able to look out on the sea and able to look over
+          all the land. And looking across the bright valleys he saw the
+          dread beast. He saw it rush through his own mangled cattle and fall
+          upon the herds of the kindly king. <span class="tei tei-pb" id=
+          "page200">[pg 200]</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> He looked
+          toward the sea and he prayed to Psamathe to spare the land that he
+          had come to. But, even as he prayed, he knew that Psamathe would
+          not harken to him. Then he made a prayer to Thetis, to his wife who
+          had seemed so unforgiving. He prayed her to deal with Psamathe so
+          that the land of Ceyx would not be altogether destroyed.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> As he looked
+          from the tower he saw the king come forth with arms in his hands
+          for the slaying of the terrible beast. Peleus felt fear for the
+          life of the kindly king. Down from the tower he came, and taking up
+          his spear he went with Ceyx.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Soon, in one of
+          the brightest of the valleys, they came upon the beast; they came
+          between it and a herd of silken-coated cattle. Seeing the men it
+          rushed toward them with blood and foam upon its jaws. Then Peleus
+          knew that the spears they carried would be of little use against
+          the raging beast. His only thought was to struggle with it so that
+          the king might be able to save himself.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Again he lifted
+          up his hands and prayed to Thetis to draw away Psamathe’s enmity.
+          The beast rushed toward them; but suddenly it stopped. The bristles
+          upon its body seemed to stiffen. The gaping jaws became fixed. The
+          hounds that were with them dashed upon the beast, but then fell
+          back with yelps of disappointment. And when Peleus and Ceyx came to
+          where it stood they found that the monstrous beast had been turned
+          into stone.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> And a stone it
+          remains in that bright valley, a wonder to all <span class=
+          "tei tei-pb" id="page201">[pg 201]</span> the men of Ceyx’s land.
+          The country was spared the ravages of the beast. And the heart of
+          Peleus was uplifted to think that Thetis had harkened to his prayer
+          and had prevailed upon Psamathe to forego her enmity. Not
+          altogether unforgiving was his wife to him.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> That day he
+          went from the land of the bright valleys, from the land ruled over
+          by the kindly Ceyx, and he came back to rugged Phthia, his own
+          country. When he came near his hall he saw two at the doorway
+          awaiting him. Thetis stood there, and the child Achilles was by her
+          side. The radiance of the immortals was in her face no longer, but
+          there was a glow there, a glow of welcome for the hero Peleus. And
+          thus Peleus, long tormented by the enmity of the sea-born ones,
+          came back to the wife he had won from the sea.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="tei tei-div" style=
+        "margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em">
+          <a name="toc99" id="toc99"></a><a name="pdf100" id="pdf100"></a>
+
+          <h2 class="tei tei-head" style=
+          "text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em">
+          <span style="font-size: 144%">III. Theseus and the
+          Minotaur</span></h2>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.20em"><span style=
+          "font-size: 120%">I</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> </p>
+
+          <div class="deco-letter floatleft tei tei-figure" style=
+          "margin-bottom: 0.00em; margin-top: 0.00em"><img src=
+          "images/capT.png" alt="Decorative first letter" /></div>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"><span class=
+          "tei tei-hi" style="margin-left: -1.00em"><span style=
+          "color: white; font-variant: small-caps">T</span></span>HEREAFTER
+          Theseus made up his mind to go in search of his father, the unknown
+          king, and Medea, the wise woman, counseled him to go to Athens.
+          After the hunt in Calydon he set forth. On his way he fought with
+          and slew two robbers who harassed countries and treated people
+          unjustly. <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page202">[pg 202]</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> The first was
+          Sinnias. He was a robber who slew men cruelly by tying them to
+          strong branches of trees and letting the branches fly apart. On him
+          Theseus had no mercy. The second was a robber also, Procrustes: he
+          had a great iron bed on which he made his captives lie; if they
+          were too long for that bed he chopped pieces off them, and if they
+          were too short he stretched out their bodies with terrible racks.
+          On him, likewise, Theseus had no mercy; he slew Procrustes and gave
+          liberty to his captives.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> The King of
+          Athens at the time was named Ægeus. He was father of Theseus, but
+          neither Theseus nor he knew that this was so. Æthra was his mother,
+          and she was the daughter of the King of Trœzen. Before Theseus was
+          born his father left a great sword under a stone, telling Æthra
+          that the boy was to have the sword when he was able to move that
+          stone away.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> King Ægeus was
+          old and fearful now: there were wars and troubles in the city;
+          besides, there was in his palace an evil woman, a witch, to whom
+          the king listened. This woman heard that a proud and fearless young
+          man had come into Athens, and she at once thought to destroy
+          him.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> So the witch
+          spoke to the fearful king, and she made him believe that this
+          stranger had come into Athens to make league with his enemies and
+          destroy him. Such was her power over Ægeus that she was able to
+          persuade him to invite the stranger youth to a feast in the palace,
+          and to give him a cup that would have poison in it.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Theseus came to
+          the palace. He sat down to the banquet <span class="tei tei-pb" id=
+          "page203">[pg 203]</span> with the king. But before the cup was
+          brought something moved him to stand up and draw forth the sword
+          that he carried. Fearfully the king looked upon the sword. Then he
+          saw the heavy ivory hilt with the curious carving on it, and he
+          knew that this was the sword that he had once laid under the stone
+          near the palace of the King of Trœzen. He questioned Theseus as to
+          how he had come by the sword, and Theseus told him how Æthra, his
+          mother, had shown him where it was hidden, and how he had been able
+          to take it from under the stone before he was grown a youth. More
+          and more Ægeus questioned him, and he came to know that the youth
+          before him was his son indeed. He dashed down the cup that had been
+          brought to the table, and he shook all over with the thought of how
+          near he had been to a terrible crime. The witchwoman watched all
+          that passed; mounting on a car drawn by dragons she made flight
+          from Athens.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> And now the
+          people of the city, knowing that it was he who had slain the
+          robbers Sinnias and Procrustes, rejoiced to have Theseus amongst
+          them. When he appeared as their prince they rejoiced still more.
+          Soon he was able to bring to an end the wars in the city and the
+          troubles that afflicted Athens.</p>
+
+          <div class="tei tei-tb">
+            &nbsp;
+          </div>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.20em"><span style=
+          "font-size: 120%">II</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> The greatest
+          king in the world at that time was Minos, King of Crete. Minos had
+          sent his son to Athens to make peace and <span class="tei tei-pb"
+          id="page204">[pg 204]</span> friendship between his kingdom and the
+          kingdom of King Ægeus. But the people of Athens slew the son of
+          King Minos, and because Ægeus had not given him the protection that
+          a king should have given a stranger come upon such an errand he was
+          deemed to have some part in the guilt of his slaying.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Minos, the
+          great king, was wroth, and he made war on Athens, wreaking great
+          destruction upon the country and the people. Moreover, the gods
+          themselves were wroth with Athens; they punished the people with
+          famine, making even the rivers dry up. The Athenians went to the
+          oracle and asked Apollo what they should do to have their guilt
+          taken away. Apollo made answer that they should make peace with
+          Minos and fulfill all his demands.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> All this
+          Theseus now heard, learning for the first time that behind the wars
+          and troubles in Athens there was a deed of evil that Ægeus, his
+          father, had some guilt in.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> The demands
+          that King Minos made upon Athens were terrible. He demanded that
+          the Athenians should send into Crete every year seven youths and
+          seven maidens as a price for the life of his son. And these youths
+          and maidens were not to meet death merely, nor were they to be
+          reared in slavery—they were to be sent that a monster called the
+          Minotaur might devour them.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Youths and
+          maidens had been sent, and for the third time the messengers of
+          King Minos were coming to Athens. The tribute for the Minotaur was
+          to be chosen by lot. The fathers <span class="tei tei-pb" id=
+          "page205">[pg 205]</span> and mothers were in fear and trembling,
+          for each man and woman thought that his or her son or daughter
+          would be taken for a prey for the Minotaur.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> They came
+          together, the people of Athens, and they drew the lots fearfully.
+          And on the throne above them all sat their pale-faced king, Ægeus,
+          the father of Theseus.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Before the
+          first lot was drawn Theseus turned to all of them and said,
+          <span class="tei tei-q">“People of Athens, it is not right that
+          your children should go and that I, who am the son of King Ægeus,
+          should remain behind. Surely, if any of the youths of Athens should
+          face the dread monster of Crete, I should face it. There is one lot
+          that you may leave undrawn. I will go to Crete.”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> His father, on
+          hearing the speech of Theseus, came down from his throne and
+          pleaded with him, begging him not to go. But the will of Theseus
+          was set; he would go with the others and face the Minotaur. And he
+          reminded his father of how the people had complained, saying that
+          if Ægeus had done the duty of a king, Minos’s son would not have
+          been slain and the tribute to the Minotaur would have not been
+          demanded. It was the passing about of such complaints that had led
+          to the war and troubles that Theseus found on his coming to
+          Athens.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Also Theseus
+          told his father and told the people that he had hope in his
+          hands—that the hands that were strong enough to slay Sinnias and
+          Procrustes, the giant robbers, would be strong enough to slay the
+          dread monster of Crete. His father at last consented to his going.
+          And Theseus was able to make the <span class="tei tei-pb" id=
+          "page206">[pg 206]</span> people willing to believe that he would
+          be able to overcome the Minotaur, and so put an end to the terrible
+          tribute that was being exacted from them.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> With six other
+          youths and seven maidens Theseus went on board of the ship that
+          every year brought to Crete the grievous tribute. This ship always
+          sailed with black sails. But before it sailed this time King Ægeus
+          gave to Nausitheus, the master of the ship, a white sail to take
+          with him. And he begged Theseus, that in case he should be able to
+          overcome the monster, to hoist the white sail he had given. Theseus
+          promised he would do this. His father would watch for the return of
+          the ship, and if the sail were black he would know that the
+          Minotaur had dealt with his son as it had dealt with the other
+          youths who had gone from Athens. And if the sail were white Ægeus
+          would have indeed cause to rejoice.</p>
+
+          <div class="tei tei-tb">
+            &nbsp;
+          </div>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.20em"><span style=
+          "font-size: 120%">III</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> And now the
+          black-sailed ship had come to Crete, and the youths and maidens of
+          Athens looked from its deck on Knossos, the marvelous city that
+          Dædalus the builder had built for King Minos. And they saw the
+          palace of the king, the red and black palace in which was the
+          labyrinth, made also by Dædalus, where the dread Minotaur was
+          hidden.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> In fear they
+          looked upon the city and the palace. But not in fear did Theseus
+          look, but in wonder at the magnificence of <span class="tei tei-pb"
+          id="page207">[pg 207]</span> it all—the harbor with its great steps
+          leading up into the city, the far-spreading palace all red and
+          black, and the crowds of ships with their white and red sails. They
+          were brought through the city of Knossos to the palace of the king.
+          And there Theseus looked upon Minos. In a great red chamber on
+          which was painted the sign of the axe, King Minos sat.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> On a low throne
+          he sat, holding in his hand a scepter on which a bird was perched.
+          Not in fear, but steadily, did Theseus look upon the king. And he
+          saw that Minos had the face of one who has thought long upon
+          troublesome things, and that his eyes were strangely dark and deep.
+          The king noted that the eyes of Theseus were upon him, and he made
+          a sign with his head to an attendant and the attendant laid his
+          hand upon him and brought Theseus to stand beside the king. Minos
+          questioned him as to who he was and what lands he had been in, and
+          when he learned that Theseus was the son of Ægeus, the King of
+          Athens, he said the name of his son who had been slain,
+          <span class="tei tei-q">“Androgeus, Androgeus,”</span> over and
+          over again, and then spoke no more.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> While he stood
+          there beside the king there came into the chamber three maidens;
+          one of them, Theseus knew, was the daughter of Minos. Not like the
+          maidens of Greece were the princess and her two attendants: instead
+          of having on flowing garments and sandals and wearing their hair
+          bound, they had on dresses of gleaming material that were tight at
+          the waists and bell-shaped; the hair that streamed on their
+          shoulders was <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page208">[pg 208]</span>
+          made wavy; they had on high shoes of a substance that shone like
+          glass. Never had Theseus looked upon maidens who were so
+          strange.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> They spoke to
+          the king in the strange Cretan language; then Minos’s daughter made
+          reverence to her father, and they went from the chamber. Theseus
+          watched them as they went through a long passage, walking slowly on
+          their high-heeled shoes.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Through the
+          same passage the youths and maidens of Athens were afterward
+          brought. They came into a great hall. The walls were red and on
+          them were paintings in black—pictures of great bulls with girls and
+          slender youths struggling with them. It was a place for games and
+          shows, and Theseus stood with the youths and maidens of Athens and
+          with the people of the palace and watched what was happening.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> They saw women
+          charming snakes; then they saw a boxing match, and afterward they
+          all looked on a bout of wrestling. Theseus looked past the
+          wrestlers and he saw, at the other end of the hall, the daughter of
+          King Minos and her two attendant maidens.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> One
+          broad-shouldered and bearded man overthrew all the wrestlers who
+          came to grips with him. He stood there boastfully, and Theseus was
+          made angry by the man’s arrogance. Then, when no other wrestler
+          would come against him, he turned to leave the arena.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> But Theseus
+          stood in his way and pushed him back. The <span class="tei tei-pb"
+          id="page209">[pg 209]</span> boastful man laid hands upon him and
+          pulled him into the arena. He strove to throw Theseus as he had
+          thrown the others; but he soon found that the youth from Greece was
+          a wrestler, too, and that he would have to strive hard to overthrow
+          him.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style=
+          "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em"><a name="i031.png" id=
+          "i031.png" class="tei tei-anchor" style=
+          "text-align: center"></a><a name="fig101" id="fig101"></a></p>
+
+          <div class="tei tei-figure" style=
+          "width: 100%; text-align: center">
+            <img src="images/i031.png" alt="Illustration" title="" />
+
+            <div class="tei tei-head" style=
+            "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em">
+            </div>
+          </div>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> More eagerly
+          than they had watched anything else the people of the palace and
+          the youths and maidens of Athens watched the bout between Theseus
+          and the lordly wrestler. Those from Athens who looked upon him now
+          thought that they had never seen Theseus look so tall and so
+          conquering before; beside the slender, dark-haired people of Crete
+          he looked like a statue of one of the gods.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Very adroit was
+          the Cretan wrestler, and Theseus had to use all his strength to
+          keep upon his feet; but soon he mastered the tricks that the
+          wrestler was using against him. Then the Cretan left aside his
+          tricks and began to use all his strength to throw Theseus.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Steadily
+          Theseus stood and the Cretan wrestler was spent and gasping in the
+          effort to throw him. Then Theseus made him feel his grip. He bent
+          him backward, and then, using all his strength suddenly, forced him
+          to the ground. All were filled with wonder at the strength and
+          power of this youth from overseas.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Food and wine
+          were given the youths and maidens of Athens, and they with Theseus
+          were let wander through the grounds of the palace. But they could
+          make no escape, for guards followed them and the way to the ships
+          was filled with strangers <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page210">[pg
+          210]</span> who would not let them pass. They talked to each other
+          about the Minotaur, and there was fear in every word they said. But
+          Theseus went from one to the other, telling them that perhaps there
+          was a way by which he could come to the monster and destroy it. And
+          the youths and maidens, remembering how he had overthrown the
+          lordly wrestler, were comforted a little, thinking that Theseus
+          might indeed be able to destroy the Minotaur and so save all of
+          them.</p>
+
+          <div class="tei tei-tb">
+            &nbsp;
+          </div>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.20em"><span style=
+          "font-size: 120%">IV</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Theseus was
+          awakened by some one touching him. He arose and he saw a dark-faced
+          servant, who beckoned to him. He left the little chamber where he
+          had been sleeping, and then he saw outside one who wore the strange
+          dress of the Cretans.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> When Theseus
+          looked full upon her he saw that she was none other than the
+          daughter of King Minos. <span class="tei tei-q">“I am
+          Ariadne,”</span> she said, <span class="tei tei-q">“and, O youth
+          from Greece, I have come to save you from the dread
+          Minotaur.”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> He looked upon
+          Ariadne’s strange face with its long, dark eyes, and he wondered
+          how this girl could think that she could save him and save the
+          youths and maidens of Athens from the Minotaur. Her hand rested
+          upon his arm, and she led him into the chamber where Minos had sat.
+          It was lighted now by many little lamps.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“I will show the way of escape to you,”</span> said
+          Ariadne. <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page211">[pg 211]</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Then Theseus
+          looked around, and he saw that none of the other youths and maidens
+          were near them, and he looked on Ariadne again, and he saw that the
+          strange princess had been won to help him, and to help him
+          only.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“Who will show the way of escape to the others?”</span>
+          asked Theseus.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“Ah,”</span> said the Princess Ariadne, <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“for the others there is no way of escape.”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“Then,”</span> said Theseus, <span class="tei tei-q">“I
+          will not leave the youths and maidens of Athens who came with me to
+          Crete to be devoured by the Minotaur.”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“Ah, Theseus,”</span> said Ariadne, <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“they cannot escape the Minotaur. One only may escape,
+          and I want you to be that one. I saw you when you wrestled with
+          Deucalion, our great wrestler, and since then I have longed to save
+          you.”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“I have come to slay the Minotaur,”</span> said
+          Theseus, <span class="tei tei-q">“and I cannot hold my life as my
+          own until I have slain it.”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Said Ariadne,
+          <span class="tei tei-q">“If you could see the Minotaur, Theseus,
+          and if you could measure its power, you would know that you are not
+          the one to slay it. I think that only Talos, that giant who was all
+          of bronze, could have slain the Minotaur.”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“Princess,”</span> said Theseus, <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“can you help me to come to the Minotaur and look upon
+          it so that I can know for certainty whether this hand of mine can
+          slay the monster?”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“I can help you to come to the Minotaur and look upon
+          it,”</span> said Ariadne. <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page212">[pg
+          212]</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“Then help me, princess,”</span> cried Theseus;
+          <span class="tei tei-q">“help me to come to the Minotaur and look
+          upon it, and help me, too, to get back the sword that I brought
+          with me to Crete.”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“Your sword will not avail you against the
+          Minotaur,”</span> said Ariadne; <span class="tei tei-q">“when you
+          look upon the monster you will know that it is not for your hand to
+          slay.”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“Oh, but bring me my sword, princess,”</span> cried
+          Theseus, and his hands went out to her in supplication.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“I will bring you your sword,”</span> said she.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> She took up a
+          little lamp and went through a doorway, leaving Theseus standing by
+          the low throne in the chamber of Minos. Then after a little while
+          she came back, bringing with her Theseus’s great ivory-hilted
+          sword.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“It is a great sword,”</span> she said; <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“I marked it before because it is your sword, Theseus.
+          But even this great sword will not avail against the
+          Minotaur.”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“Show me the way to come to the Minotaur, O
+          Ariadne,”</span> cried Theseus.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> He knew that
+          she did not think that he would deem himself able to strive with
+          the Minotaur, and that when he looked upon the dread monster he
+          would return to her and then take the way of his escape.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> She took his
+          hand and led him from the chamber of Minos. She was not tall, but
+          she stood straight and walked steadily, and Theseus saw in her
+          something of the strange majesty that he had seen in Minos the
+          king. <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page213">[pg 213]</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style=
+          "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em"><a name="i032.png" id=
+          "i032.png" class="tei tei-anchor" style=
+          "text-align: center"></a><a name="fig102" id="fig102"></a></p>
+
+          <div class="tei tei-figure" style=
+          "width: 100%; text-align: center">
+            <img src="images/i032.png" alt="Illustration" title="" />
+
+            <div class="tei tei-head" style=
+            "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em">
+            </div>
+          </div>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> They came to
+          high bronze gates that opened into a vault. <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“Here,”</span> said Ariadne, <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“the labyrinth begins. Very devious is the labyrinth,
+          built by Dædalus, in which the Minotaur is hidden, and without the
+          clue none could find a way through the passages. But I will give
+          you the clue so that you may look upon the Minotaur and then come
+          back to me. Theseus, now I put into your hand the thread that will
+          guide you through all the windings of the labyrinth. And outside
+          the place where the Minotaur is you will find another thread to
+          guide you back.”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> A cone was on
+          the ground and it had a thread fastened to it. Ariadne gave Theseus
+          the thread and the cone to wind it around. The thread as he held it
+          and wound it around the cone would bring him through all the
+          windings and turnings of the labyrinth.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> She left him,
+          and Theseus went on. Winding the thread around the cone he went
+          along a wide passage in the vault. He turned and came into a
+          passage that was very long. He came to a place in this passage
+          where a door seemed to be, but within the frame of the doorway
+          there was only a blank wall. But below that doorway there was a
+          flight of six steps, and down these steps the thread led him. On he
+          went, and he crossed the marks that he himself had made in the
+          dust, and he thought he must have come back to the place where he
+          had parted from Ariadne. He went on, and he saw before him a flight
+          of steps. The thread did not lead up the steps; it led into the
+          most winding of passages. So sudden were the turnings in it that
+          one could not see three steps before one. He was <span class=
+          "tei tei-pb" id="page214">[pg 214]</span> dazed by the turnings of
+          this passage, but still he went on. He went up winding steps and
+          then along a narrow wall. The wall overhung a broad flight of
+          steps, and Theseus had to jump to them. Down the steps he went and
+          into a wide, empty hall that had doorways to the right hand and to
+          the left hand. Here the thread had its end. It was fastened to a
+          cone that lay on the ground, and beside this cone was another—the
+          clue that was to bring him back.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Now Theseus,
+          knowing he was in the very center of the labyrinth, looked all
+          around for sight of the Minotaur. There was no sight of the monster
+          here. He went to all the doors and pushed at them, and some opened
+          and some remained fast. The middle door opened. As it did Theseus
+          felt around him a chilling draft of air.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> That chilling
+          draft was from the breathing of the monster. Theseus then saw the
+          Minotaur. It lay on the ground, a strange, bull-faced thing.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> When the
+          thought came to Theseus that he would have to fight that monster
+          alone and in that hidden and empty place all delight left him; he
+          grew like a stone; he groaned, and it seemed to him that he heard
+          the voice of Ariadne calling him back. He could find his way back
+          through the labyrinth and come to her. He stepped back, and the
+          door closed on the Minotaur, the dread monster of Crete.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> In an instant
+          Theseus pushed the door again. He stood within the hall where the
+          Minotaur was, and the heavy door <span class="tei tei-pb" id=
+          "page215">[pg 215]</span> shut behind him. He looked again on that
+          dark, bull-faced thing. It reared up as a horse rears and Theseus
+          saw that it would crash down on him and tear him with its dragon
+          claws. With a great bound he went far away from where the monster
+          crashed down. Then Theseus faced it: he saw its thick lips and its
+          slobbering mouth; he saw that its skin was thick and hard.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style=
+          "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em"><a name="i033.png" id=
+          "i033.png" class="tei tei-anchor" style=
+          "text-align: center"></a><a name="fig103" id="fig103"></a></p>
+
+          <div class="tei tei-figure" style=
+          "width: 100%; text-align: center">
+            <img src="images/i033.png" alt="Illustration" title="" />
+
+            <div class="tei tei-head" style=
+            "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em">
+            </div>
+          </div>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> He drew near
+          the monster, his sword in his hand. He struck at its eyes, and his
+          sword made a great dint. But no blood came, for the Minotaur was a
+          bloodless monster. From its mouth and nostrils came a draft that
+          covered him with a chilling slime.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Then it rushed
+          upon him and overthrew him, and Theseus felt its terrible weight
+          upon him. But he thrust his sword upward, and it reared up again,
+          screaming with pain. Theseus drew himself away, and then he saw it
+          searching around and around, and he knew he had made it sightless.
+          Then it faced him; all the more fearful it was because from its
+          wounds no blood came.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Anger flowed
+          into Theseus when he saw the monster standing frightfully before
+          him; he thought of all the youths and maidens that this bloodless
+          thing had destroyed, and all the youths and maidens that it would
+          destroy if he did not slay it now. Angrily he rushed upon it with
+          his great sword. It clawed and tore him, and it opened wide its
+          most evil mouth as if to draw him into it. But again he sprang at
+          it; he thrust his great sword through its neck, and he left his
+          sword there. <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page216">[pg
+          216]</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> With the last
+          of his strength he pulled open the heavy door and he went out from
+          the hall where the Minotaur was. He picked up the thread and he
+          began to wind it as he had wound the other thread on his way down.
+          On he went, through passage after passage, through chamber after
+          chamber. His mind was dizzy, and he had little thought for the way
+          he was going. His wounds and the chill that the monster had
+          breathed into him and his horror of the fearful and bloodless thing
+          made his mind almost forsake him. He kept the thread in his hand
+          and he wound it as he went on through the labyrinth. He stumbled
+          and the thread broke. He went on for a few steps and then he went
+          back to find the thread that had fallen out of his hands. In an
+          instant he was in a part of the labyrinth that he had not been in
+          before.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> He walked a
+          long way, and then he came on his own footmarks as they crossed
+          themselves in the dust. He pushed open a door and came into the
+          air. He was now by the outside wall of the palace, and he saw birds
+          flying by him. He leant against the wall of the palace, thinking
+          that he would strive no more to find his way through the
+          labyrinth.</p>
+
+          <div class="tei tei-tb">
+            &nbsp;
+          </div>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.20em"><span style=
+          "font-size: 120%">V</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> That day the
+          youths and maidens of Athens were brought through the labyrinth and
+          to the hall where the Minotaur was. They went through the passages
+          weeping and lamenting. Some cried out for Theseus, and some said
+          that Theseus had deserted <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page217">[pg
+          217]</span> them. The heavy door was opened. Then those who were
+          with the youths and maidens saw the Minotaur lying stark and stiff
+          with Theseus’s sword through its neck. They shouted and blew
+          trumpets and the noise of their trumpets filled the labyrinth. Then
+          they turned back, bringing the youths and maidens with them, and a
+          whisper went through the whole palace that the Minotaur had been
+          slain. The youths and maidens were lodged in the chamber where
+          Minos gave his judgments.</p>
+
+          <div class="tei tei-tb">
+            &nbsp;
+          </div>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.20em"><span style=
+          "font-size: 120%">VI</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Theseus,
+          wearied and overcome, fell into a deep sleep by the wall of the
+          palace. He awakened with a feeling that the claw of the Minotaur
+          was upon him. There were stars in the sky above the high palace
+          wall, and he saw a dark-robed and ancient man standing beside him.
+          Theseus knew that this was Dædalus, the builder of the palace and
+          the labyrinth. Dædalus called and a slim youth came—Icarus, the son
+          of Dædalus. Minos had set father and son apart from the rest of the
+          palace, and Theseus had come near the place where they were
+          confined. Icarus came and brought him to a winding stairway and
+          showed him a way to go.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> A dark-faced
+          servant met and looked him full in the face. Then, as if he knew
+          that Theseus was the one whom he had been searching for, he led him
+          into a little chamber where there were three maidens. One started
+          up and came to him quickly, and Theseus again saw Ariadne.
+          <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page218">[pg 218]</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> She hid him in
+          the chamber of the palace where her singing birds were, and she
+          would come and sit beside him, asking about his own country and
+          telling him that she would go with him there. <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“I showed you how you might come to the
+          Minotaur,”</span> she said, <span class="tei tei-q">“and you went
+          there and you slew the monster, and now I may not stay in my
+          father’s palace.”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> And Theseus
+          thought all the time of his return, and of how he might bring the
+          youths and maidens of Athens back to their own people. For Ariadne,
+          that strange princess, was not dear to him as Medea was dear to
+          Jason, or Atalanta the Huntress to young Meleagrus.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> One sunset she
+          led him to a roof of the palace and she showed him the harbor with
+          the ships, and she showed him the ship with the black sail that had
+          brought him to Knossos. She told him she would take him aboard that
+          ship, and that the youths and maidens of Athens could go with them.
+          She would bring to the master of the ship the seal of King Minos,
+          and the master, seeing it, would set sail for whatever place
+          Theseus desired to go.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Then did she
+          become dear to Theseus because of her great kindness, and he kissed
+          her eyes and swore that he would not go from the palace unless she
+          would come with him to his own country. The strange princess smiled
+          and wept as if she doubted what he said. Nevertheless, she led him
+          from the roof and down into one of the palace gardens. He waited
+          there, and the youths and maidens of Athens were led into the
+          garden, all wearing cloaks that hid their forms and faces. Young
+          Icarus <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page219">[pg 219]</span> led
+          them from the grounds of the palace and down to the ships. And
+          Ariadne went with them, bringing with her the seal of her father,
+          King Minos.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> And when they
+          came on board of the black-sailed ship they showed the seal to the
+          master, Nausitheus, and the master of the ship let the sail take
+          the breeze of the evening, and so Theseus went away from Crete.</p>
+
+          <div class="tei tei-tb">
+            &nbsp;
+          </div>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.20em"><span style=
+          "font-size: 120%">VII</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> To the Island
+          of Naxos they sailed. And when they reached that place the master
+          of the ship, thinking that what had been done was not in accordance
+          with the will of King Minos, stayed the ship there. He waited until
+          other ships came from Knossos. And when they came they brought word
+          that Minos would not slay nor demand back Theseus nor the youths
+          and maidens of Athens. His daughter, Ariadne, he would have back,
+          to reign with him over Crete.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Then Ariadne
+          left the black-sailed ship, and went back to Crete from Naxos.
+          Theseus let the princess go, although he might have struggled to
+          hold her. But more strange than dear did Ariadne remain to
+          Theseus.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> And all this
+          time his father, Ægeus, stayed on the tower of his palace, watching
+          for the return of the ship that had sailed for Knossos. The life of
+          the king wasted since the departure of Theseus, and now it was but
+          a thread. Every day he watched for the return of the ship, hoping
+          against hope that Theseus <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page220">[pg
+          220]</span> would return alive to him. Then a ship came into the
+          harbor. It had black sails. Ægeus did not know that Theseus was
+          aboard of it, and that Theseus in the hurry of his flight and in
+          the sadness of his parting from Ariadne had not thought of taking
+          out the white sail that his father had given to Nausitheus.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Joyously
+          Theseus sailed into the harbor, having slain the Minotaur and
+          lifted for ever the tribute put upon Athens. Joyously he sailed
+          into the harbor, bringing back to their parents the youths and
+          maidens of Athens. But the king, his father, saw the black sails on
+          his ship, and straightway the thread of his life broke, and he died
+          on the roof of the tower which he had built to look out on the
+          sea.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Theseus landed
+          on the shore of his own country. He had the ship drawn up on the
+          beach and he made sacrifices of thanksgiving to the gods. Then he
+          sent messengers to the city to announce his return. They went
+          toward the city, these joyful messengers, but when they came to the
+          gate they heard the sounds of mourning and lamentation. The
+          mourning and the lamentation were for the death of the king,
+          Theseus’s father. They hurried back and they came to Theseus where
+          he stood on the beach. They brought a wreath of victory for him,
+          but as they put it into his hand they told him of the death of his
+          father. Then Theseus left the wreath on the ground, and he wept for
+          the death of Ægeus—of Ægeus, the hero, who had left the sword under
+          the stone for him before he was born.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> The men and
+          women who came to the beach wept and laughed <span class=
+          "tei tei-pb" id="page221">[pg 221]</span> as they clasped in their
+          arms the children brought back to them. And Theseus stood there,
+          silent and bowed; the memory of his last moments with his father,
+          of his fight with the Minotaur, of his parting with Ariadne—all
+          flowed back upon him. He stood there with head bowed, the man who
+          might not put upon his brows the wreath of victory that had been
+          brought to him.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style=
+          "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em"><a name="i034.png" id=
+          "i034.png" class="tei tei-anchor" style=
+          "text-align: center"></a><a name="fig104" id="fig104"></a></p>
+
+          <div class="tei tei-figure" style=
+          "width: 100%; text-align: center">
+            <img src="images/i034.png" alt="Illustration" title="" />
+
+            <div class="tei tei-head" style=
+            "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em">
+            </div>
+          </div>
+
+          <div class="tei tei-tb">
+            &nbsp;
+          </div>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.20em"><span style=
+          "font-size: 120%">VIII</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> There had come
+          into the city a youth of great valor whose name was Peirithous:
+          from a far country he had come, filled with a desire of meeting
+          Theseus, whose fame had come to him. The youth was in Athens at the
+          time Theseus returned. He went down to the beach with the
+          townsfolk, and he saw Theseus standing alone with his head bowed
+          down. He went to him and he spoke, and Theseus lifted his head and
+          he saw before him a young man of strength and beauty. He looked
+          upon him, and the thought of high deeds came into his mind again.
+          He wanted this young man to be his comrade in dangers and upon
+          quests. And Peirithous looked upon Theseus, and he felt that he was
+          greater and nobler than he had thought. They became friends and
+          sworn brothers, and together they went into far countries.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Now there was
+          in Epirus a savage king who had a very fair daughter. He had named
+          this daughter Persephone, naming her thus to show that she was held
+          as fast by him as that other Persephone was held who ruled in the
+          Underworld. No man might <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page222">[pg
+          222]</span> see her, and no man might wed her. But Peirithous had
+          seen the daughter of this king, and he desired above all things to
+          take her from her father and make her his wife. He begged Theseus
+          to help him enter that king’s palace and carry off the maiden.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> So they came to
+          Epirus, Theseus and Peirithous, and they entered the king’s palace,
+          and they heard the bay of the dread hound that was there to let no
+          one out who had once come within the walls. Suddenly the guards of
+          the savage king came upon them, and they took Theseus and
+          Peirithous and they dragged them down into dark dungeons.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Two great
+          chairs of stone were there, and Theseus and Peirithous were left
+          seated in them. And the magic powers that were in the chairs of
+          stone were such that the heroes could not lift themselves out of
+          them. There they stayed, held in the great stone chairs in the
+          dungeons of that savage king.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Then it so
+          happened that Heracles came into the palace of the king. The harsh
+          king feasted Heracles and abated his savagery before him. But he
+          could not forbear boasting of how he had trapped the heroes who had
+          come to carry off Persephone. And he told how they could not get
+          out of the stone chairs and how they were held captive in his dark
+          dungeon. Heracles listened, his heart full of pity for the heroes
+          from Greece who had met with such a harsh fate. And when the king
+          mentioned that one of the heroes was Theseus, Heracles would feast
+          no more with him until he had promised that the one who had been
+          his comrade on the <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style=
+          "font-style: italic">Argo</span></em> would be let go. <span class=
+          "tei tei-pb" id="page223">[pg 223]</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> The king said
+          he would give Theseus his liberty if Heracles would carry the stone
+          chair on which he was seated out of the dungeon and into the outer
+          world. Then Heracles went down into the dungeon. He found the two
+          heroes in the great chairs of stone. But one of them, Peirithous,
+          no longer breathed. Heracles took the great chair of stone that
+          Theseus was seated in, and he carried it up, up, from the dungeon
+          and out into the world. It was a heavy task even for Heracles. He
+          broke the chair in pieces, and Theseus stood up, released.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Thereafter the
+          world was before Theseus. He went with Heracles, and in the deeds
+          that Heracles was afterward to accomplish Theseus shared.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="tei tei-div" style=
+        "margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em">
+          <a name="toc105" id="toc105"></a><a name="pdf106" id="pdf106"></a>
+
+          <h2 class="tei tei-head" style=
+          "text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em">
+          <span style="font-size: 144%">IV. The Life and Labors of
+          Heracles</span></h2>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.20em"><span style=
+          "font-size: 120%">I</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> </p>
+
+          <div class="deco-letter floatleft tei tei-figure" style=
+          "margin-bottom: 0.00em; margin-top: 0.00em"><img src=
+          "images/capH.png" alt="Decorative first letter" /></div>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"><span class=
+          "tei tei-hi" style="margin-left: -1.00em"><span style=
+          "color: white; font-variant: small-caps">H</span></span>ERACLES was
+          the son of Zeus, but he was born into the family of a mortal king.
+          When he was still a youth, being overwhelmed by a madness sent upon
+          him by one of the goddesses, he slew the children of his brother
+          Iphicles. Then, coming to know what he had done, sleep and rest
+          went from him: he went to Delphi, to the shrine of Apollo, to be
+          purified of his crime.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> At Delphi, at
+          the shrine of Apollo, the priestess purified him, <span class=
+          "tei tei-pb" id="page224">[pg 224]</span> and when she had purified
+          him she uttered this prophecy: <span class="tei tei-q">“From this
+          day forth thy name shall be, not Alcides, but Heracles. Thou shalt
+          go to Eurystheus, thy cousin, in Mycenæ, and serve him in all
+          things. When the labors he shall lay upon thee are accomplished,
+          and when the rest of thy life is lived out, thou shalt become one
+          of the immortals.”</span> Heracles, on hearing these words, set out
+          for Mycenæ.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> He stood before
+          his cousin who hated him; he, a towering man, stood before a king
+          who sat there weak and trembling. And Heracles said, <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“I have come to take up the labors that you will lay
+          upon me; speak now, Eurystheus, and tell me what you would have me
+          do.”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Eurystheus,
+          that weak king, looking on the young man who stood as tall and as
+          firm as one of the immortals, had a heart that was filled with
+          hatred. He lifted up his head and he said with a frown:</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“There is a lion in Nemea that is stronger and more
+          fierce than any lion known before. Kill that lion, and bring the
+          lion’s skin to me that I may know that you have truly performed
+          your task.”</span> So Eurystheus said, and Heracles, with neither
+          shield nor arms, went forth from the king’s palace to seek and to
+          combat the dread lion of Nemea.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> He went on
+          until he came into a country where the fences were overthrown and
+          the fields wasted and the houses empty and fallen. He went on until
+          he came to the waste around that land: there he came on the trail
+          of the lion; it led up the side <span class="tei tei-pb" id=
+          "page225">[pg 225]</span> of a mountain, and Heracles, without
+          shield or arms, followed the trail.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style=
+          "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em"><a name="i035.png" id=
+          "i035.png" class="tei tei-anchor" style=
+          "text-align: center"></a><a name="fig107" id="fig107"></a></p>
+
+          <div class="tei tei-figure" style=
+          "width: 100%; text-align: center">
+            <img src="images/i035.png" alt="Illustration" title="" />
+
+            <div class="tei tei-head" style=
+            "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em">
+            </div>
+          </div>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> He heard the
+          roar of the lion. Looking up he saw the beast standing at the mouth
+          of a cavern, huge and dark against the sunset. The lion roared
+          three times, and then it went within the cavern.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Around the
+          mouth were strewn the bones of creatures it had killed and carried
+          there. Heracles looked upon them when he came to the cavern. He
+          went within. Far into the cavern he went, and then he came to where
+          he saw the lion. It was sleeping.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Heracles viewed
+          the terrible bulk of the lion, and then he looked upon his own
+          knotted hands and arms. He remembered that it was told of him that,
+          while still a child of eight months, he had strangled a great
+          serpent that had come to his cradle to devour him. He had grown and
+          his strength had grown too.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> So he stood,
+          measuring his strength and the size of the lion. The breath from
+          its mouth and nostrils came heavily to him as the beast slept,
+          gorged with its prey. Then the lion yawned. Heracles sprang on it
+          and put his great hands upon its throat. No growl came out of its
+          mouth, but the great eyes blazed while the terrible paws tore at
+          Heracles. Against the rock Heracles held the beast; strongly he
+          held it, choking it through the skin that was almost impenetrable.
+          Terribly the lion struggled; but the strong hands of the hero held
+          around its throat until it struggled no more. <span class=
+          "tei tei-pb" id="page226">[pg 226]</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Then Heracles
+          stripped off that impenetrable skin from the lion’s body; he put it
+          upon himself for a cloak. Then, as he went through the forest, he
+          pulled up a young oak tree and trimmed it and made a club for
+          himself. With the lion’s skin over him—that skin that no spear or
+          arrow could pierce—and carrying the club in his hand he journeyed
+          on until he came to the palace of King Eurystheus.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> The king,
+          seeing coming toward him a towering man all covered with the hide
+          of a monstrous lion, ran and hid himself in a great jar. He lifted
+          the lid up to ask the servants what was the meaning of this
+          terrible appearance. And the servants told him that it was Heracles
+          come back with the skin of the lion of Nemea. On hearing this
+          Eurystheus hid himself again.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> He would not
+          speak with Heracles nor have him come near him, so fearful was he.
+          But Heracles was content to be left alone. He sat down in the
+          palace and feasted himself.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> The servants
+          came to the king; Eurystheus lifted the lid of the jar and they
+          told him how Heracles was feasting and devouring all the goods in
+          the palace. The king flew into a rage, but still he was fearful of
+          having the hero before him. He issued commands through his heralds
+          ordering Heracles to go forth at once and perform the second of his
+          tasks.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> It was to slay
+          the great water snake that made its lair in the swamps of Lerna.
+          Heracles stayed to feast another day, and then, with the lion’s
+          skin across his shoulders and the great <span class="tei tei-pb"
+          id="page227">[pg 227]</span> club in his hands, he started off. But
+          this time he did not go alone; the boy Iolaus went with him.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style=
+          "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em"><a name="i036.png" id=
+          "i036.png" class="tei tei-anchor" style=
+          "text-align: center"></a><a name="fig108" id="fig108"></a></p>
+
+          <div class="tei tei-figure" style=
+          "width: 100%; text-align: center">
+            <img src="images/i036.png" alt="Illustration" title="" />
+
+            <div class="tei tei-head" style=
+            "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em">
+            </div>
+          </div>
+
+          <div class="tei tei-tb">
+            &nbsp;
+          </div>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Heracles and
+          Iolaus went on until they came to the vast swamp of Lerna. Right in
+          the middle of the swamp was the water snake that was called the
+          Hydra. Nine heads it had, and it raised them up out of the water as
+          the hero and his companion came near. They could not cross the
+          swamp to come to the monster, for man or beast would sink and be
+          lost in it.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> The Hydra
+          remained in the middle of the swamp belching mud at the hero and
+          his companion. Then Heracles took up his bow and he shot flaming
+          arrows at its heads. It grew into such a rage that it came through
+          the swamp to attack him. Heracles swung his club. As the Hydra came
+          near he knocked head after head off its body.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> But for every
+          head knocked off two grew upon the Hydra. And as he struggled with
+          the monster a huge crab came out of the swamp, and gripping
+          Heracles by the foot tried to draw him in. Then Heracles cried out.
+          The boy Iolaus came; he killed the crab that had come to the
+          Hydra’s aid.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Then Heracles
+          laid hands upon the Hydra and drew it out of the swamp. With his
+          club he knocked off a head and he had Iolaus put fire to where it
+          had been, so that two heads might not grow in that place. The life
+          of the Hydra was in its middle head; that head he had not been able
+          to knock off with his club. Now, with his hands he tore it off, and
+          he placed <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page228">[pg 228]</span>
+          this head under a great stone so that it could not rise into life
+          again. The Hydra’s life was now destroyed. Heracles dipped his
+          arrows into the gall of the monster, making his arrows deadly; no
+          thing that was struck by these arrows afterward could keep its
+          life.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Again he came
+          to Eurystheus’s palace, and Eurystheus, seeing him, ran again and
+          hid himself in the jar. Heracles ordered the servants to tell the
+          king that he had returned and that the second labor was
+          accomplished.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Eurystheus,
+          hearing from the servants that Heracles was mild in his ways, came
+          out of the jar. Insolently he spoke. <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“Twelve labors you have to accomplish for me,”</span>
+          said he to Heracles, <span class="tei tei-q">“and eleven yet remain
+          to be accomplished.”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“How?”</span> said Heracles. <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“Have I not performed two of the labors? Have I not
+          slain the lion of Nemea and the great water snake of
+          Lerna?”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“In the killing of the water snake you were helped by
+          Iolaus,”</span> said the king, snapping out his words and looking
+          at Heracles with shifting eyes. <span class="tei tei-q">“That labor
+          cannot be allowed you.”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Heracles would
+          have struck him to the ground. But then he remembered that the
+          crime that he had committed in his madness would have to be
+          expiated by labors performed at the order of this man. He looked
+          full upon Eurystheus and he said, <span class="tei tei-q">“Tell me
+          of the other labors, and I will go forth from Mycenæ and accomplish
+          them.”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Then Eurystheus
+          bade him go and make clean the stables of <span class="tei tei-pb"
+          id="page229">[pg 229]</span> King Augeias. Heracles came into that
+          king’s country. The smell from the stables was felt for miles
+          around. Countless herds of cattle and goats had been in the stables
+          for years, and because of the uncleanness and the smell that came
+          from it the crops were withered all around. Heracles told the king
+          that he would clean the stables if he were given one tenth of the
+          cattle and the goats for a reward.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> The king agreed
+          to this reward. Then Heracles drove the cattle and the goats out of
+          the stables; he broke through the foundations and he made channels
+          for the two rivers Alpheus and Peneius. The waters flowed through
+          the stables, and in a day all the uncleanness was washed away. Then
+          Heracles turned the rivers back into their own courses.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> He was not
+          given the reward he had bargained for, however.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> He went back to
+          Mycenæ with the tale of how he had cleaned the stables.
+          <span class="tei tei-q">“Ten labors remain for me to do
+          now,”</span> he said.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“Eleven,”</span> said Eurystheus. <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“How can I allow the cleaning of King Augeias’s stables
+          to you when you bargained for a reward for doing it?”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Then while
+          Heracles stood still, holding himself back from striking him,
+          Eurystheus ran away and hid himself in the jar. Through his heralds
+          he sent word to Heracles, telling him what the other labors would
+          be.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> He was to clear
+          the marshes of Stymphalus of the man-eating birds that gathered
+          there; he was to capture and bring <span class="tei tei-pb" id=
+          "page230">[pg 230]</span> to the king the golden-horned deer of
+          Coryneia; he was also to capture and bring alive to Mycenæ the boar
+          of Erymanthus.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Heracles came
+          to the marshes of Stymphalus. The growth of jungle was so dense
+          that he could not cut his way through to where the man-eating birds
+          were; they sat upon low bushes within the jungle, gorging
+          themselves upon the flesh they had carried there.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> For days
+          Heracles tried to hack his way through. He could not get to where
+          the birds were. Then, thinking he might not be able to accomplish
+          this labor, he sat upon the ground in despair.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> It was then
+          that one of the immortals appeared to him; for the first and only
+          time he was given help from the gods.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> It was Athena
+          who came to him. She stood apart from Heracles, holding in her
+          hands brazen cymbals. These she clashed together. At the sound of
+          this clashing the Stymphalean birds rose up from the low bushes
+          behind the jungle. Heracles shot at them with those unerring arrows
+          of his. The man-eating birds fell, one after the other, into the
+          marsh.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Then Heracles
+          went north to where the Coryneian deer took her pasture. So swift
+          of foot was she that no hound nor hunter had ever been able to
+          overtake her. For the whole of a year Heracles kept Golden Horns in
+          chase, and at last, on the side of the Mountain Artemision, he
+          caught her. Artemis, the goddess of the wild things, would have
+          punished Heracles for capturing the deer, but the hero pleaded with
+          her, and she relented and agreed to let him bring the deer to
+          Mycenæ and show her <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page231">[pg
+          231]</span> to King Eurystheus. And Artemis took charge of Golden
+          Horns while Heracles went off to capture the Erymanthean boar.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> He came to the
+          city of Psophis, the inhabitants of which were in deadly fear
+          because of the ravages of the boar. Heracles made his way up the
+          mountain to hunt it. Now on this mountain a band of centaurs lived,
+          and they, knowing him since the time he had been fostered by
+          Chiron, welcomed Heracles. One of them, Pholus, took Heracles to
+          the great house where the centaurs had their wine stored.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Seldom did the
+          centaurs drink wine; a draft of it made them wild, and so they
+          stored it away, leaving it in the charge of one of their band.
+          Heracles begged Pholus to give him a draft of wine; after he had
+          begged again and again the centaur opened one of his great
+          jars.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Heracles drank
+          wine and spilled it. Then the centaurs that were without smelt the
+          wine and came hammering at the door, demanding the drafts that
+          would make them wild. Heracles came forth to drive them away. They
+          attacked him. Then he shot at them with his unerring arrows and he
+          drove them away. Up the mountain and away to far rivers the
+          centaurs raced, pursued by Heracles with his bow.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> One was slain,
+          Pholus, the centaur who had entertained him. By accident Heracles
+          dropped a poisoned arrow on his foot. He took the body of Pholus up
+          to the top of the mountain and buried the centaur there. Afterward,
+          on the snows of Erymanthus, he set a snare for the boar and caught
+          him there. <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page232">[pg
+          232]</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Upon his
+          shoulders he carried the boar to Mycenæ and he led the deer by her
+          golden horns. When Eurystheus had looked upon them the boar was
+          slain, but the deer was loosed and she fled back to the Mountain
+          Artemision.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> King Eurystheus
+          sat hidden in the great jar, and he thought of more terrible labors
+          he would make Heracles engage in. Now he would send him oversea and
+          make him strive with fierce tribes and more dread monsters. When he
+          had it all thought out he had Heracles brought before him and he
+          told him of these other labors.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> He was to go to
+          savage Thrace and there destroy the man-eating horses of King
+          Diomedes; afterward he was to go amongst the dread women, the
+          Amazons, daughters of Ares, the god of war, and take from their
+          queen, Hippolyte, the girdle that Ares had given her; then he was
+          to go to Crete and take from the keeping of King Minos the
+          beautiful bull that Poseidon had given him; afterward he was to go
+          to the Island of Erytheia and take away from Geryoneus, the monster
+          that had three bodies instead of one, the herd of red cattle that
+          the two-headed hound Orthus kept guard over; then he was to go to
+          the Garden of the Hesperides, and from that garden he was to take
+          the golden apples that Zeus had given to Hera for a marriage
+          gift—where the Garden of the Hesperides was no mortal knew.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> So Heracles set
+          out on a long and perilous quest. First he went to Thrace, that
+          savage land that was ruled over by Diomedes, son of Ares, the war
+          god. Heracles broke into the <span class="tei tei-pb" id=
+          "page233">[pg 233]</span> stable where the horses were; he caught
+          three of them by their heads, and although they kicked and bit and
+          trampled he forced them out of the stable and down to the seashore,
+          where his companion, Abderus, waited for him. The screams of the
+          fierce horses were heard by the men of Thrace, and they, with their
+          king, came after Heracles. He left the horses in charge of Abderus
+          while he fought the Thracians and their savage king. Heracles shot
+          his deadly arrows amongst them, and then he fought with their king.
+          He drove them from the seashore, and then he came back to where he
+          had left Abderus with the fierce horses.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> They had thrown
+          Abderus upon the ground, and they were trampling upon him. Heracles
+          drew his bow and he shot the horses with the unerring arrows that
+          were dipped with the gall of the Hydra he had slain. Screaming, the
+          horses of King Diomedes raced toward the sea, but one fell and
+          another fell, and then, as it came to the line of the foam, the
+          third of the fierce horses fell. They were all slain with the
+          unerring arrows.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Then Heracles
+          took up the body of his companion and he buried it with proper
+          rights, and over it he raised a column. Afterward, around that
+          column a city that bore the name of Heracles’s friend was
+          built.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Then toward the
+          Euxine Sea he went. There, where the River Themiscyra flows into
+          the sea he saw the abodes of the Amazons. And upon the rocks and
+          the steep place he saw the warrior women standing with drawn bows
+          in their hands. Most dangerous <span class="tei tei-pb" id=
+          "page234">[pg 234]</span> did they seem to Heracles. He did not
+          know how to approach them; he might shoot at them with his unerring
+          arrows, but when his arrows were all shot away, the Amazons, from
+          their steep places, might be able to kill him with the arrows from
+          their bows.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> While he stood
+          at a distance, wondering what he might do, a horn was sounded and
+          an Amazon mounted upon a white stallion rode toward him. When the
+          warrior-woman came near she cried out, <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“Heracles, the Queen Hippolyte permits you to come
+          amongst the Amazons. Enter her tent and declare to the queen what
+          has brought you amongst the never-conquered Amazons.”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Heracles came
+          to the tent of the queen. There stood tall Hippolyte with an iron
+          crown upon her head and with a beautiful girdle of bronze and
+          iridescent glass around her waist. Proud and fierce as a mountain
+          eagle looked the queen of the Amazons: Heracles did not know in
+          what way he might conquer her. Outside the tent the Amazons stood;
+          they struck their shields with their spears, keeping up a
+          continuous savage din.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“For what has Heracles come to the country of the
+          Amazons?”</span> Queen Hippolyte asked.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“For the girdle you wear,”</span> said Heracles, and he
+          held his hands ready for the struggle.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“Is it for the girdle given me by Ares, the god of war,
+          that you have come, braving the Amazons, Heracles?”</span> asked
+          the queen. <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page235">[pg
+          235]</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“For that,”</span> said Heracles.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“I would not have you enter into strife with the
+          Amazons,”</span> said Queen Hippolyte. And so saying she drew off
+          the girdle of bronze and iridescent glass, and she gave it into his
+          hands.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Heracles took
+          the beautiful girdle into his hands. Fearful he was that some piece
+          of guile was being played upon him, but then he looked into the
+          open eyes of the queen and he saw that she meant no guile. He took
+          the girdle and he put it around his great brows; then he thanked
+          Hippolyte and he went from the tent. He saw the Amazons standing on
+          the rocks and the steep places with bows bent; unchallenged he went
+          on, and he came to his ship and he sailed away from that country
+          with one more labor accomplished.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> The labor that
+          followed was not dangerous. He sailed over sea and he came to
+          Crete, to the land that King Minos ruled over. And there he found,
+          grazing in a special pasture, the bull that Poseidon had given King
+          Minos. He laid his hands upon the bull’s horns and he struggled
+          with him and he overthrew him. Then he drove the bull down to the
+          seashore.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> His next labor
+          was to take away the herd of red cattle that was owned by the
+          monster Geryoneus. In the Island of Erytheia, in the middle of the
+          Stream of Ocean, lived the monster, his herd guarded by the
+          two-headed hound Orthus—that hound was the brother of Cerberus, the
+          three-headed hound that kept guard in the Underworld.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Mounted upon
+          the bull given Minos by Poseidon, Heracles <span class="tei tei-pb"
+          id="page236">[pg 236]</span> fared across the sea. He came even to
+          the straits that divide Europe from Africa, and there he set up two
+          pillars as a memorial of his journey—the Pillars of Heracles that
+          stand to this day. He and the bull rested there. Beyond him
+          stretched the Stream of Ocean; the Island of Erytheia was there,
+          but Heracles thought that the bull would not be able to bear him so
+          far.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> And there the
+          sun beat upon him, and drew all strength away from him, and he was
+          dazed and dazzled by the rays of the sun. He shouted out against
+          the sun, and in his anger he wanted to strive against the sun. Then
+          he drew his bow and shot arrows upward. Far, far out of sight the
+          arrows of Heracles went. And the sun god, Helios, was filled with
+          admiration for Heracles, the man who would attempt the impossible
+          by shooting arrows at him; then did Helios fling down to Heracles
+          his great golden cup.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Down, and into
+          the Stream of Ocean fell the great golden cup of Helios. It floated
+          there wide enough to hold all the men who might be in a ship.
+          Heracles put the bull of Minos into the cup of Helios, and the cup
+          bore them away, toward the west, and across the Stream of
+          Ocean.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Thus Heracles
+          came to the Island of Erytheia. All over the island straggled the
+          red cattle of Geryoneus, grazing upon the rich pastures. Heracles,
+          leaving the bull of Minos in the cup, went upon the island; he made
+          a club for himself out of a tree and he went toward the cattle.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> The hound
+          Orthus bayed and ran toward him; the two-headed <span class=
+          "tei tei-pb" id="page237">[pg 237]</span> hound that was the
+          brother of Cerberus sprang at Heracles with poisonous foam upon his
+          jaws. Heracles swung his club and struck the two heads off the
+          hound. And where the foam of the hound’s jaws dropped down a
+          poisonous plant sprang up. Heracles took up the body of the hound,
+          and swung it around and flung it far out into the Ocean.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style=
+          "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em"><a name="i037.png" id=
+          "i037.png" class="tei tei-anchor" style=
+          "text-align: center"></a><a name="fig109" id="fig109"></a></p>
+
+          <div class="tei tei-figure" style=
+          "width: 100%; text-align: center">
+            <img src="images/i037.png" alt="Illustration" title="" />
+
+            <div class="tei tei-head" style=
+            "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em">
+            </div>
+          </div>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Then the
+          monster Geryoneus came upon him. Three bodies he had instead of
+          one; he attacked Heracles by hurling great stones at him. Heracles
+          was hurt by the stones. And then the monster beheld the cup of
+          Helios, and he began to hurl stones at the golden thing, and it
+          seemed that he might sink it in the sea, and leave Heracles without
+          a way of getting from the island. Heracles took up his bow and he
+          shot arrow after arrow at the monster, and he left him dead in the
+          deep grass of the pastures.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Then he rounded
+          up the red cattle, the bulls and the cows, and he drove them down
+          to the shore and into the golden cup of Helios where the bull of
+          Minos stayed. Then back across the Stream of Ocean the cup floated,
+          and the bull of Crete and the cattle of Geryoneus were brought past
+          Sicily and through the straits called the Hellespont. To Thrace,
+          that savage land, they came. Then Heracles took the cattle out, and
+          the cup of Helios sank in the sea. Through the wild lands of Thrace
+          he drove the herd of Geryoneus and the bull of Minos, and he came
+          into Mycenæ once more.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> But he did not
+          stay to speak with Eurystheus. He started off to find the Garden of
+          the Hesperides, the Daughters of the <span class="tei tei-pb" id=
+          "page238">[pg 238]</span> Evening Land. Long did he search, but he
+          found no one who could tell him where the garden was. And at last
+          he went to Chiron on the Mountain Pelion, and Chiron told Heracles
+          what journey he would have to make to come to the Hesperides, the
+          Daughters of the Evening Land.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Far did
+          Heracles journey; weary he was when he came to where Atlas stood,
+          bearing the sky upon his weary shoulders. As he came near he felt
+          an undreamt-of perfume being wafted toward him. So weary was he
+          with his journey and all his toils that he would fain sink down and
+          dream away in that evening land. But he roused himself, and he
+          journeyed on toward where the perfume came from. Over that place a
+          star seemed always about to rise.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> He came to
+          where a silver lattice fenced a garden that was full of the quiet
+          of evening. Golden bees hummed through the air, and there was the
+          sound of quiet waters. How wild and laborious was the world he had
+          come from, Heracles thought! He felt that it would be hard for him
+          to return to that world.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> He saw three
+          maidens. They stood with wreaths upon their heads and blossoming
+          branches in their hands. When the maidens saw him they came toward
+          him crying out: <span class="tei tei-q">“O man who has come into
+          the Garden of the Hesperides, go not near the tree that the
+          sleepless dragon guards!”</span> Then they went and stood by a tree
+          as if to keep guard over it. All around were trees that bore
+          flowers and fruit, but this tree had golden apples amongst its
+          bright green leaves. <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page239">[pg
+          239]</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Then he saw the
+          guardian of the tree. Beside its trunk a dragon lay, and as
+          Heracles came near the dragon showed its glittering scales and its
+          deadly claws.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> The apples were
+          within reach, but the dragon, with its glittering scales and claws,
+          stood in the way. Heracles shot an arrow; then a tremor went
+          through Ladon, the sleepless dragon; it screamed and then lay
+          stark. The maidens cried in their grief; Heracles went to the tree,
+          and he plucked the golden apples and he put them into the pouch he
+          carried. Down on the ground sank the Hesperides, the Daughters of
+          the Evening Land, and he heard their laments as he went from the
+          enchanted garden they had guarded.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Back from the
+          ends of the earth came Heracles, back from the place where Atlas
+          stood holding the sky upon his weary shoulders. He went back
+          through Asia and Libya and Egypt, and he came again to Mycenæ and
+          to the palace of Eurystheus.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> He brought to
+          the king the herd of Geryoneus; he brought to the king the bull of
+          Minos; he brought to the king the girdle of Hippolyte; he brought
+          to the king the golden apples of the Hesperides. And King
+          Eurystheus, with his thin white face, sat upon his royal throne and
+          he looked over all the wonderful things that the hero had brought
+          him. Not pleased was Eurystheus; rather was he angry that one he
+          hated could win such wonderful things.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> He took into
+          his hands the golden apples of the Hesperides. But this fruit was
+          not for such as he. An eagle snatched the <span class="tei tei-pb"
+          id="page240">[pg 240]</span> branch from his hand, and the eagle
+          flew and flew until it came to where the Daughters of the Evening
+          Land wept in their garden. There the eagle let fall the branch with
+          the golden apples, and the maidens set it back upon the tree, and
+          behold! it grew as it had been growing before Heracles plucked
+          it.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> The next day
+          the heralds of Eurystheus came to Heracles and they told him of the
+          last labor that he would have to set out to accomplish—this time he
+          would have to go down into the Underworld, and bring up from King
+          Aidoneus’s realm Cerberus, the three-headed hound.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Heracles put
+          upon him the impenetrable lion’s skin and set forth once more. This
+          might indeed be the last of his life’s labors: Cerberus was not an
+          earthly monster, and he who would struggle with Cerberus in the
+          Underworld would have the gods of the dead against him.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> But Heracles
+          went on. He journeyed to the cave Tainaron, which was an entrance
+          to the Underworld. Far into that dismal cave he went, and then
+          down, down, until he came to Acheron, that dim river that has
+          beyond it only the people of the dead. Cerberus bayed at him from
+          the place where the dead cross the river. Knowing that he was no
+          shade, the hound sprang at Heracles, but he could neither bite nor
+          tear through that impenetrable lion’s skin. Heracles held him by
+          the neck of his middle head so that Cerberus was neither able to
+          bite nor tear nor bellow.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Then to the
+          brink of Acheron came Persephone, queen of the <span class=
+          "tei tei-pb" id="page241">[pg 241]</span> Underworld. She declared
+          to Heracles that the gods of the dead would not strive against him
+          if he promised to bring Cerberus back to the Underworld, carrying
+          the hound downward again as he carried him upward.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style=
+          "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em"><a name="i038.png" id=
+          "i038.png" class="tei tei-anchor" style=
+          "text-align: center"></a><a name="fig110" id="fig110"></a></p>
+
+          <div class="tei tei-figure" style=
+          "width: 100%; text-align: center">
+            <img src="images/i038.png" alt="Illustration" title="" />
+
+            <div class="tei tei-head" style=
+            "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em">
+            </div>
+          </div>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> This Heracles
+          promised. He turned around and he carried Cerberus, his hands
+          around the monster’s neck while foam dripped from his jaws. He
+          carried him on and upward toward the world of men. Out through a
+          cave that was in the land of Trœzen Heracles came, still carrying
+          Cerberus by the neck of his middle head.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> From Trœzen to
+          Mycenæ the hero went and men fled before him at the sight of the
+          monster that he carried. On he went toward the king’s palace.
+          Eurystheus was seated outside his palace that day, looking at the
+          great jar that he had often hidden in, and thinking to himself that
+          Heracles would never appear to affright him again. Then Heracles
+          appeared. He called to Eurystheus, and when the king looked up he
+          held the hound toward him. The three heads grinned at Eurystheus;
+          he gave a cry and scrambled into the jar. But before his feet
+          touched the bottom of it Eurystheus was dead of fear. The jar
+          rolled over, and Heracles looked upon the body that was all twisted
+          with fright. Then he turned around and made his way back to the
+          Underworld. On the brink of Acheron he loosed Cerberus, and the
+          bellow of the three-headed hound was heard again.</p><span class=
+          "tei tei-pb" id="page242">[pg 242]</span>
+
+          <div class="tei tei-tb">
+            &nbsp;
+          </div>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.20em"><span style=
+          "font-size: 120%">II</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> It was then
+          that Heracles was given arms by the gods—the sword of Hermes, the
+          bow of Apollo, the shield made by Hephæstus; it was then that
+          Heracles joined the Argonauts and journeyed with them to the edge
+          of the Caucasus, where, slaying the vulture that preyed upon
+          Prometheus’s liver, he, at the will of Zeus, liberated the Titan.
+          Thereafter Zeus and Prometheus were reconciled, and Zeus, that
+          neither might forget how much the enmity between them had cost gods
+          and men, had a ring made for Prometheus to wear; that ring was made
+          out of the fetter that had been upon him, and in it was set a
+          fragment of the rock that the Titan had been bound to.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> The Argonauts
+          had now won back to Greece. But before he saw any of them he had
+          been in Oichalia, and had seen the maiden Iole.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> The king of
+          Oichalia had offered his daughter Iole in marriage to the hero who
+          could excel himself and his sons in shooting with arrows. Heracles
+          saw Iole, the blue-eyed and childlike maiden, and he longed to take
+          her with him to some place near the Garden of the Hesperides. And
+          Iole looked on him, and he knew that she wondered to see him so
+          tall and so strongly knit even as he wondered to see her so
+          childlike and delicate.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Then the
+          contest began. The king and his sons shot wonderfully well, and
+          none of the heroes who stood before Heracles had a chance of
+          winning. Then Heracles shot his arrows. <span class="tei tei-pb"
+          id="page243">[pg 243]</span> No matter how far away they moved the
+          mark, Heracles struck it and struck the very center of it. The
+          people wondered who this great archer might be. And then a name was
+          guessed at and went around—Heracles!</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> When the king
+          heard the name of Heracles he would not let him strive in the
+          contest any more. For the maiden Iole would not be given as a prize
+          to one who had been mad and whose madness might afflict him again.
+          So the king said, speaking in judgment in the market place.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Rage came on
+          Heracles when he heard this judgment given. He would not let his
+          rage master him lest the madness that was spoken of should come
+          with his rage. So he left the city of Oichalia declaring to the
+          king and the people that he would return.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> It was then
+          that, wandering down to Crete, he heard of the Argonauts being
+          near. And afterward he heard of them being in Calydon, hunting the
+          boar that ravaged Œneus’s country. To Calydon Heracles went. The
+          heroes had departed when he came into the country, and all the city
+          was in grief for the deaths of Prince Meleagrus and his two
+          uncles.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> On the steps of
+          the temple where Meleagrus and his uncles had been brought Heracles
+          saw Deianira, Meleagrus’s sister. She was pale with her grief, this
+          tall woman of the mountains; she looked like a priestess, but also
+          like a woman who could cheer camps of men with her counsel, her
+          bravery, and her good companionship; her hair was very dark and she
+          had dark eyes. <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page244">[pg
+          244]</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Straightway she
+          became friends with Heracles; and when they saw each other for a
+          while they loved each other. And Heracles forgot Iole, the
+          childlike maiden whom he had seen in Oichalia.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> He made himself
+          a suitor for Deianira, and those who protected her were glad of
+          Heracles’s suit, and they told him they would give him the maiden
+          to marry as soon as the mourning for Prince Meleagrus and his
+          uncles was over. Heracles stayed in Calydon, happy with Deianira,
+          who had so much beauty, wisdom, and bravery.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> But then a
+          dreadful thing happened in Calydon; by an accident, while using his
+          strength unthinkingly, Heracles killed a lad who was related to
+          Deianira. He might not marry her now until he had taken punishment
+          for slaying one who was close to her in blood.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> As a punishment
+          for the slaying it was judged that Heracles should be sold into
+          slavery for three years. At the end of his three years’ slavery he
+          could come back to Calydon and wed Deianira.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> And so Heracles
+          and Deianira were parted. He was sold as a slave in Lydia; the one
+          who bought him was a woman, a widow named Omphale. To her house
+          Heracles went, carrying his armor and wearing his lion’s skin. And
+          Omphale laughed to see this tall man dressed in a lion’s skin
+          coming to her house to do a servant’s tasks for her.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> She and all in
+          her house kept up fun with Heracles. They <span class="tei tei-pb"
+          id="page245">[pg 245]</span> would set him to do housework, to
+          carry water, and set vessels on the tables, and clear the vessels
+          away. Omphale set him to spin with a spindle as the women did. And
+          often she would put on Heracles’s lion skin and go about dragging
+          his club, while he, dressed in woman’s garb, washed dishes and
+          emptied pots.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> But he would
+          lose patience with these servant’s tasks, and then Omphale would
+          let him go away and perform some great exploit. Often he went on
+          long journeys and stayed away for long times. It was while he was
+          in slavery to Omphale that he liberated Theseus from the dungeon in
+          which he was held with Peirithous, and it was while he still was in
+          slavery that he made his journey to Troy.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> At Troy he
+          helped to repair for King Laomedon the great walls that years
+          before Apollo and Poseidon had built around the city. As a reward
+          for this labor he was offered the Princess Hesione in marriage; she
+          was the daughter of King Laomedon, and the sister of Priam, who was
+          then called, not Priam but Podarces. He helped to repair the wall,
+          and two of the Argonauts were there to aid him: one was Peleus and
+          the other was Telamon. Peleus did not stay for long: Telamon
+          stayed, and to reward Telamon Heracles withdrew his own claim for
+          the hand of the Princess Hesione. It was not hard on Heracles to do
+          this, for his thoughts were ever upon Deianira.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> But Telamon
+          rejoiced, for he loved Hesione greatly. On the day they married
+          Heracles showed the two an eagle in the sky. <span class=
+          "tei tei-pb" id="page246">[pg 246]</span> He said it was sent as an
+          omen to them—an omen for their marriage. And in memory of that omen
+          Telamon named his son <span class="tei tei-q">“Aias”</span>; that
+          is, <span class="tei tei-q">“Eagle.”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Then the walls
+          of Troy were repaired and Heracles turned toward Lydia, Omphale’s
+          home. Not long would he have to serve Omphale now, for his three
+          years’ slavery was nearly over. Soon he would go back to Calydon
+          and wed Deianira.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> As he went
+          along the road to Lydia he thought of all the pleasantries that had
+          been made in Omphale’s house and he laughed at the memory of them.
+          Lydia was a friendly country, and even though he had been in
+          slavery Heracles had had his good times there.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> He was tired
+          with the journey and made sleepy with the heat of the sun, and when
+          he came within sight of Omphale’s house he lay down by the side of
+          the road, first taking off his armor, and laying aside his bow, his
+          quiver, and his shield. He wakened up to see two men looking down
+          upon him; he knew that these were the Cercopes, robbers who waylaid
+          travelers upon this road. They were laughing as they looked down on
+          him, and Heracles saw that they held his arms and his armor in
+          their hands.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> They thought
+          that this man, for all his tallness, would yield to them when he
+          saw that they had his arms and his armor. But Heracles sprang up,
+          and he caught one by the waist and the other by the neck, and he
+          turned them upside down and tied them together by the heels. Now he
+          held them securely <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page247">[pg
+          247]</span> and he would take them to the town and give them over
+          to those whom they had waylaid and robbed. He hung them by their
+          heels across his shoulders and marched on.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> But the
+          robbers, as they were being bumped along, began to relate
+          pleasantries and mirthful tales to each other, and Heracles,
+          listening, had to laugh. And one said to the other, <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“O my brother, we are in the position of the frogs when
+          the mice fell upon them with such fury.”</span> And the other said,
+          <span class="tei tei-q">“Indeed nothing can save us if Zeus does
+          not send an ally to us as he sent an ally to the frogs.”</span> And
+          the first robber said, <span class="tei tei-q">“Who began that
+          conflict, the frogs or the mice?”</span> And thereupon the second
+          robber, his head reaching down to Heracles’s waist, began:</p>
+
+          <div class="tei tei-div" style=
+          "margin-bottom: 3.00em; margin-top: 3.00em">
+            <a name="toc111" id="toc111"></a><a name="pdf112" id=
+            "pdf112"></a>
+
+            <h3 class="tei tei-head" style=
+            "text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.40em; margin-top: 2.40em">
+            <span style="font-size: 120%">The Battle of the Frogs and
+            Mice</span></h3>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> A warlike
+            mouse came down to the brink of a pond for no other reason than
+            to take a drink of water. Up to him hopped a frog. Speaking in
+            the voice of one who had rule and authority, the frog said:</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+            "tei tei-q">“Stranger to our shore, you may not know it, but I am
+            Puff Jaw, king of the frogs. I do not speak to common mice, but
+            you, as I judge, belong to the noble and kingly sort. Tell me
+            your race. If I know it to be a noble one I shall show you my
+            kingly friendship.”</span></p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> The mouse,
+            speaking haughtily, said: <span class="tei tei-q">“I am Crumb
+            Snatcher, and my race is a famous one. My father is the heroic
+            Bread <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page248">[pg 248]</span>
+            Nibbler, and he married Quern Licker, the lovely daughter of a
+            king. Like all my race I am a warrior who has never been wont to
+            flinch in battle. Moreover, I have been brought up as a mouse of
+            high degree, and figs and nuts, cheese and honey-cakes is the
+            provender that I have been fed on.”</span></p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Now this
+            reply of Crumb Snatcher pleased the kingly frog greatly.
+            <span class="tei tei-q">“Come with me to my abode, illustrious
+            Crumb Snatcher,”</span> said he, <span class="tei tei-q">“and I
+            shall show you such entertainment as may be found in the house of
+            a king.”</span></p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> But the mouse
+            looked sharply at him. <span class="tei tei-q">“How may I get to
+            your house?”</span> he asked. <span class="tei tei-q">“We live in
+            different elements, you and I. We mice want to be in the driest
+            of dry places, while you frogs have your abodes in the
+            water.”</span></p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+            "tei tei-q">“Ah,”</span> answered Puff Jaw, <span class=
+            "tei tei-q">“you do not know how favored the frogs are above all
+            other creatures. To us alone the gods have given the power to
+            live both in the water and on the land. I shall take you to my
+            land palace that is the other side of the pond.”</span></p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+            "tei tei-q">“How may I go there with you?”</span> asked Crumb
+            Snatcher the mouse, doubtfully.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+            "tei tei-q">“Upon my back,”</span> said the frog. <span class=
+            "tei tei-q">“Up now, noble Crumb Snatcher. And as we go I will
+            show you the wonders of the deep.”</span></p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> He offered
+            his back and Crumb Snatcher bravely mounted. The mouse put his
+            forepaws around the frog’s neck. Then Puff Jaw swam out. Crumb
+            Snatcher at first was pleased to <span class="tei tei-pb" id=
+            "page249">[pg 249]</span> feel himself moving through the water.
+            But as the dark waves began to rise his mighty heart began to
+            quail. He longed to be back upon the land. He groaned aloud.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+            "tei tei-q">“How quickly we get on,”</span> cried Puff Jaw;
+            <span class="tei tei-q">“soon we shall be at my land
+            palace.”</span></p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Heartened by
+            this speech, Crumb Snatcher put his tail into the water and
+            worked it as a steering oar. On and on they went, and Crumb
+            Snatcher gained heart for the adventure. What a wonderful tale he
+            would have to tell to the clans of the mice!</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> But suddenly,
+            out of the depths of the pond, a water snake raised his horrid
+            head. Fearsome did that head seem to both mouse and frog. And
+            forgetful of the guest that he carried upon his back, Puff Jaw
+            dived down into the water. He reached the bottom of the pond and
+            lay on the mud in safety.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> But far from
+            safety was Crumb Snatcher the mouse. He sank and rose, and sank
+            again. His wet fur weighed him down. But before he sank for the
+            last time he lifted up his voice and cried out and his cry was
+            heard at the brink of the pond:</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+            "tei tei-q">“Ah, Puff Jaw, treacherous frog! An evil thing you
+            have done, leaving me to drown in the middle of the pond. Had you
+            faced me on the land I should have shown you which of us two was
+            the better warrior. Now I must lose my life in the water. But I
+            tell you my death shall not go unavenged—the cowardly frogs will
+            be punished for the ill they have done to me who am the son of
+            the king of the mice.”</span> <span class="tei tei-pb" id=
+            "page250">[pg 250]</span></p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Then Crumb
+            Snatcher sank for the last time. But Lick Platter, who was at the
+            brink of the pond, had heard his words. Straightway this mouse
+            rushed to the hole of Bread Nibbler and told him of the death of
+            his princely son.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Bread Nibbler
+            called out the clans of the mice. The warrior mice armed
+            themselves, and this was the grand way of their arming:</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> First, the
+            mice put on greaves that covered their forelegs. These they made
+            out of bean shells broken in two. For shield, each had a lamp’s
+            centerpiece. For spears they had the long bronze needles that
+            they had carried out of the houses of men. So armed and so
+            accoutered they were ready to war upon the frogs. And Bread
+            Nibbler, their king, shouted to them: <span class=
+            "tei tei-q">“Fall upon the cowardly frogs, and leave not one
+            alive upon the bank of the pond. Henceforth that bank is ours,
+            and ours only. Forward!”</span></p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> And, on the
+            other side, Puff Jaw was urging the frogs to battle. <span class=
+            "tei tei-q">“Let us take our places on the edge of the
+            pond,”</span> he said, <span class="tei tei-q">“and when the mice
+            come amongst us, let each catch hold of one and throw him into
+            the pond. Thus we will get rid of these dry bobs, the
+            mice.”</span></p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> The frogs
+            applauded the speech of their king, and straightway they went to
+            their armor and their weapons. Their legs they covered with the
+            leaves of mallow. For breastplates they had the leaves of beets.
+            Cabbage leaves, well cut, made their strong shields. They took
+            their spears from the pond side—deadly <span class="tei tei-pb"
+            id="page251">[pg 251]</span> pointed rushes they were, and they
+            placed upon their heads helmets that were empty snail shells. So
+            armed and so accoutered they were ready to meet the grand attack
+            of the mice.</p>
+
+            <div class="tei tei-tb">
+              &nbsp;
+            </div>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> When the
+            robber came to this part of the story Heracles halted his march,
+            for he was shaking with laughter. The robber stopped in his
+            story. Heracles slapped him on the leg and said: <span class=
+            "tei tei-q">“What more of the heroic exploits of the
+            mice?”</span> The second robber said, <span class="tei tei-q">“I
+            know no more, but perhaps my brother at the other side of you can
+            tell you of the mighty combat between them and the frogs.”</span>
+            Then Heracles shifted the first robber from his back to his
+            front, and the first robber said: <span class="tei tei-q">“I will
+            tell you what I know about the heroical combat between the frogs
+            and the mice.”</span> And thereupon he began:</p>
+
+            <div class="tei tei-tb">
+              &nbsp;
+            </div>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> The gnats
+            blew their trumpets. This was the dread signal for war.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Bread Nibbler
+            struck the first blow. He fell upon Loud Crier the frog, and
+            overthrew him. At this Loud Crier’s friend, Reedy, threw down
+            spear and shield and dived into the water. This seemed to presage
+            victory for the mice. But then Water Larker, the most warlike of
+            the frogs, took up a great pebble and flung it at Ham Nibbler who
+            was then pursuing Reedy. Down fell Ham Nibbler, and there was
+            dismay in the ranks of the mice.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Then Cabbage
+            Climber, a great-hearted frog, took up a clod <span class=
+            "tei tei-pb" id="page252">[pg 252]</span> of mud and flung it
+            full at a mouse that was coming furiously upon him. That mouse’s
+            helmet was knocked off and his forehead was plastered with the
+            clod of mud, so that he was well-nigh blinded.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> It was then
+            that victory inclined to the frogs. Bread Nibbler again came into
+            the fray. He rushed furiously upon Puff Jaw the king.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Leeky, the
+            trusted friend of Puff Jaw, opposed Bread Nibbler’s onslaught.
+            Mightily he drove his spear at the king of the mice. But the
+            point of the spear broke upon Bread Nibbler’s shield, and then
+            Leeky was overthrown.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Bread Nibbler
+            came upon Puff Jaw, and the two great kings faced each other. The
+            frogs and the mice drew aside, and there was a pause in the
+            combat. Bread Nibbler the mouse struck Puff Jaw the frog terribly
+            upon the toes.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Puff Jaw drew
+            out of the battle. Now all would have been lost for the frogs had
+            not Zeus, the father of the gods, looked down upon the
+            battle.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+            "tei tei-q">“Dear, dear,”</span> said Zeus, <span class=
+            "tei tei-q">“what can be done to save the frogs? They will surely
+            be annihilated if the charge of yonder mouse is not
+            halted.”</span></p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> For the
+            father of the gods, looking down, saw a warrior mouse coming on
+            in the most dreadful onslaught of the whole battle. Slice
+            Snatcher was the name of this warrior. He had come late into the
+            field. He waited to split a chestnut in two and to put the halves
+            upon his paws. Then, furiously dashing amongst <span class=
+            "tei tei-pb" id="page253">[pg 253]</span> the frogs, he cried out
+            that he would not leave the ground until he had destroyed the
+            race, leaving the bank of the pond a playground for the mice and
+            for the mice alone.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> To stop the
+            charge of Slice Snatcher there was nothing for Zeus to do but to
+            hurl the thunderbolt that is the terror of gods and men.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Frogs and
+            mice were awed by the thunder and the flame. But still the mice,
+            urged on by Slice Snatcher, did not hold back from their
+            onslaught upon the frogs.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Now would the
+            frogs have been utterly destroyed; but, as they dashed on, the
+            mice encountered a new and a dreadful army. The warriors in these
+            ranks had mailed backs and curving claws. They had bandy legs and
+            long-stretching arms. They had eyes that looked behind them. They
+            came on sideways. These were the crabs, creatures until now
+            unknown to the mice. And the crabs had been sent by Zeus to save
+            the race of the frogs from utter destruction.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Coming upon
+            the mice they nipped their paws. The mice turned around and they
+            nipped their tails. In vain the boldest of the mice struck at the
+            crabs with their sharpened spears. Not upon the hard shells on
+            the backs of the crabs did the spears of the mice make any dint.
+            On and on, on their queer feet and with their terrible nippers,
+            the crabs went. Bread Nibbler could not rally them any more, and
+            Slice Snatcher ceased to speak of the monument of victory that
+            the mice would erect upon the bank of the pond. <span class=
+            "tei tei-pb" id="page254">[pg 254]</span></p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> With their
+            heads out of the water they had retreated to, the frogs watched
+            the finish of the battle. The mice threw down their spears and
+            shields and fled from the battleground. On went the crabs as if
+            they cared nothing for their victory, and the frogs came out of
+            the water and sat upon the bank and watched them in awe.</p>
+
+            <div class="tei tei-tb">
+              &nbsp;
+            </div>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Heracles had
+            laughed at the diverting tale that the robbers had told him; he
+            could not bring them then to a place where they would meet with
+            captivity or death. He let them loose upon the highway, and the
+            robbers thanked him with high-flowing speeches, and they declared
+            that if they should ever find him sleeping by the roadway again
+            they would let him lie. Saying this they went away, and Heracles,
+            laughing as he thought upon the great exploits of the frogs and
+            mice, went on to Omphale’s house.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Omphale, the
+            widow, received him mirthfully, and then set him to do tasks in
+            the kitchen while she sat and talked to him about Troy and the
+            affairs of King Laomedon. And afterward she put on his lion’s
+            skin, and went about in the courtyard dragging the heavy club
+            after her. Mirthfully and pleasantly she made the rest of his
+            time in Lydia pass for Heracles, and the last day of his slavery
+            soon came, and he bade good-by to Omphale, that pleasant widow,
+            and to Lydia, and he started off for Calydon to claim his bride
+            Deianira.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Beautiful
+            indeed Deianira looked now that she had ceased to <span class=
+            "tei tei-pb" id="page255">[pg 255]</span> mourn for her brother,
+            for the laughter that had been under her grief always now flashed
+            out even while she looked priestesslike and of good counsel; her
+            dark eyes shone like stars, and her being had the spirit of one
+            who wanders from camp to camp, always greeting friends and
+            leaving friends behind her. Heracles and Deianira wed, and they
+            set out for Tiryns, where a king had left a kingdom to
+            Heracles.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> They came to
+            the River Evenus. Heracles could have crossed the river by
+            himself, but he could not cross it at the part he came to,
+            carrying Deianira. He and she went along the river, seeking a
+            ferry that might take them across. They wandered along the side
+            of the river, happy with each other, and they came to a place
+            where they had sight of a centaur.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Heracles knew
+            this centaur. He was Nessus, one of the centaurs whom he had
+            chased up the mountain the time when he went to hunt the
+            Erymanthean boar. The centaurs knew him, and Nessus spoke to
+            Heracles as if he had friendship for him. He would, he said,
+            carry Heracles’s bride across the river.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Then Heracles
+            crossed the river, and he waited on the other side for Nessus and
+            Deianira. Nessus went to another part of the river to make his
+            crossing. Then Heracles, upon the other bank, heard screams—the
+            screams of his wife, Deianira. He saw that the centaur was
+            savagely attacking her.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Then Heracles
+            leveled his bow and he shot at Nessus. Arrow after arrow he shot
+            into the centaur’s body. Nessus loosed his <span class=
+            "tei tei-pb" id="page256">[pg 256]</span> hold on Deianira, and
+            he lay down on the bank of the river, his lifeblood streaming
+            from him.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Then Nessus,
+            dying, but with his rage against Heracles unabated, thought of a
+            way by which the hero might be made to suffer for the death he
+            had brought upon him. He called to Deianira, and she, seeing he
+            could do her no more hurt, came close to him. He told her that in
+            repentance for his attack upon her he would bestow a great gift
+            upon her. She was to gather up some of the blood that flowed from
+            him; his blood, the centaur said, would be a love philter, and if
+            ever her husband’s love for her waned it would grow fresh again
+            if she gave to him something from her hands that would have this
+            blood upon it.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Deianira, who
+            had heard from Heracles of the wisdom of the centaurs, believed
+            what Nessus told her. She took a phial and let the blood pour
+            into it. Then Nessus plunged into the river and died there as
+            Heracles came up to where Deianira stood.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> She did not
+            speak to him about the centaur’s words to her, nor did she tell
+            him that she had hidden away the phial that had Nessus’s blood in
+            it. They crossed the river at another point and they came after a
+            time to Tiryns and to the kingdom that had been left to
+            Heracles.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> There
+            Heracles and Deianira lived, and a son who was named Hyllos was
+            born to them. And after a time Heracles was led into a war with
+            Eurytus—Eurytus who was king of Oichalia.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Word came to
+            Deianira that Oichalia was taken by Heracles, and that the king
+            and his daughter Iole were held captive. <span class="tei tei-pb"
+            id="page257">[pg 257]</span> Deianira knew that Heracles had once
+            tried to win this maiden for his wife, and she feared that the
+            sight of Iole would bring his old longing back to him.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style=
+            "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em"><a name="i039.png"
+            id="i039.png" class="tei tei-anchor" style=
+            "text-align: center"></a><a name="fig113" id="fig113"></a></p>
+
+            <div class="tei tei-figure" style=
+            "width: 100%; text-align: center">
+              <img src="images/i039.png" alt="Illustration" title="" />
+
+              <div class="tei tei-head" style=
+              "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em">
+              </div>
+            </div>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> She thought
+            upon the words that Nessus had said to her, and even as she
+            thought upon them messengers came from Heracles to ask her to
+            send him a robe—a beautifully woven robe that she had—that he
+            might wear it while making a sacrifice. Deianira took down the
+            robe; through this robe, she thought, the blood of the centaur
+            could touch Heracles and his love for her would revive. Thinking
+            this she poured Nessus’s blood over the robe.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Heracles was
+            in Oichalia when the messengers returned to him. He took the robe
+            that Deianira sent, and he went to a mountain that overlooked the
+            sea that he might make the sacrifice there. Iole went with him.
+            Then he put on the robe that Deianira had sent. When it touched
+            his flesh the robe burst into flame. Heracles tried to tear it
+            off, but deeper and deeper into his flesh the flames went. They
+            burned and burned and none could quench them.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Then Heracles
+            knew that his end was near. He would die by fire, and knowing
+            that he piled up a great heap of wood and he climbed upon it.
+            There he stayed with the flaming robe burning into him, and he
+            begged of those who passed to fire the pile that his end might
+            come more quickly.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> None would
+            fire the pile. But at last there came that way a young warrior
+            named Philoctetes, and Heracles begged of him to fire the pile.
+            Philoctetes, knowing that it was the will of <span class=
+            "tei tei-pb" id="page258">[pg 258]</span> the gods that Heracles
+            should die that way, lighted the pile. For that Heracles bestowed
+            upon him his great bow and his unerring arrows. And it was this
+            bow and these arrows, brought from Philoctetes, that afterward
+            helped to take Priam’s city.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> The pile that
+            Heracles stood upon was fired. High up, above the sea, the pile
+            burned. All who were near that burning fled—all except Iole, that
+            childlike maiden. She stayed and watched the flames mount up and
+            up. They wrapped the sky, and the voice of Heracles was heard
+            calling upon Zeus. Then a great chariot came and Heracles was
+            borne away to Olympus. Thus, after many labors, Heracles passed
+            away, a mortal passing into an immortal being in a great burning
+            high above the sea.</p>
+          </div>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="tei tei-div" style=
+        "margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em">
+          <a name="toc114" id="toc114"></a><a name="pdf115" id="pdf115"></a>
+
+          <h2 class="tei tei-head" style=
+          "text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em">
+          <span style="font-size: 144%">V. Admetus</span></h2>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.20em"><span style=
+          "font-size: 120%">I</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> </p>
+
+          <div class="deco-letter floatleft tei tei-figure" style=
+          "margin-bottom: 0.00em; margin-top: 0.00em"><img src=
+          "images/capI.png" alt="Decorative first letter" /></div>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"><span class=
+          "tei tei-hi" style="margin-left: -1.00em"><span style=
+          "color: white; font-variant: small-caps">I</span></span>T happened
+          once that Zeus would punish Apollo, his son. Then he banished him
+          from Olympus, and he made him put off his divinity and appear as a
+          mortal man. And as a mortal Apollo sought to earn his bread amongst
+          men. He came to the house of King Admetus and took service with him
+          as his herdsman.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> For a year
+          Apollo served the young king, minding his herds <span class=
+          "tei tei-pb" id="page259">[pg 259]</span> of black cattle. Admetus
+          did not know that it was one of the immortal gods who was in his
+          house and in his fields. But he treated him in friendly wise, and
+          Apollo was happy whilst serving Admetus.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Afterward
+          people wondered at Admetus’s ever-smiling face and ever-radiant
+          being. It was the god’s kindly thought of him that gave him such
+          happiness. And when Apollo was leaving his house and his fields he
+          revealed himself to Admetus, and he made a promise to him that when
+          the god of the Underworld sent Death for him he would have one more
+          chance of baffling Death than any mortal man.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> That was before
+          Admetus sailed on the <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style=
+          "font-style: italic">Argo</span></em> with Jason and the companions
+          of the quest. The companionship of Admetus brought happiness to
+          many on the voyage, but the hero to whom it gave the most happiness
+          was Heracles. And often Heracles would have Admetus beside him to
+          tell him about the radiant god Apollo, whose bow and arrows
+          Heracles had been given.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> After that
+          voyage and after the hunt in Calydon Admetus went back to his own
+          land. There he wed that fair and loving woman, Alcestis. He might
+          not wed her until he had yoked lions and leopards to the chariot
+          that drew her. This was a feat that no hero had been able to
+          accomplish. With Apollo’s aid he accomplished it. Thereafter
+          Admetus, having the love of Alcestis, was even more happy than he
+          had been before. <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page260">[pg
+          260]</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> One day as he
+          walked by fold and through pasture field he saw a figure standing
+          beside his herd of black cattle. A radiant figure it was, and
+          Admetus knew that this was Apollo come to him again. He went toward
+          the god and he made reverence and began to speak to him. But Apollo
+          turned to Admetus a face that was without joy.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“What years of happiness have been mine, O Apollo,
+          through your friendship for me,”</span> said Admetus. <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“Ah, as I walked my pasture land to-day it came into my
+          mind how much I loved this green earth and the blue sky! And all
+          that I know of love and happiness has come to me through
+          you.”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> But still
+          Apollo stood before him with a face that was without joy. He spoke
+          and his voice was not that clear and vibrant voice that he had once
+          in speaking to Admetus. <span class="tei tei-q">“Admetus,
+          Admetus,”</span> he said, <span class="tei tei-q">“it is for me to
+          tell you that you may no more look on the blue sky nor walk upon
+          the green earth. It is for me to tell you that the god of the
+          Underworld will have you come to him. Admetus, Admetus, know that
+          even now the god of the Underworld is sending Death for
+          you.”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Then the light
+          of the world went out for Admetus, and he heard himself speaking to
+          Apollo in a shaking voice: <span class="tei tei-q">“O Apollo,
+          Apollo, thou art a god, and surely thou canst save me! Save me now
+          from this Death that the god of the Underworld is sending for
+          me!”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> But Apollo
+          said, <span class="tei tei-q">“Long ago, Admetus, I made a bargain
+          with the god of the Underworld on thy behalf. Thou hast been
+          <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page261">[pg 261]</span> given a
+          chance more than any mortal man. If one will go willingly in thy
+          place with Death, thou canst still live on. Go, Admetus. Thou art
+          well loved, and it may be that thou wilt find one to take thy
+          place.”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Then Apollo
+          went up unto the mountaintop and Admetus stayed for a while beside
+          the cattle. It seemed to him that a little of the darkness had
+          lifted from the world. He would go to his palace. There were aged
+          men and women there, servants and slaves, and one of them would
+          surely be willing to take the king’s place and go with Death down
+          to the Underworld.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> So Admetus
+          thought as he went toward the palace. And then he came upon an
+          ancient woman who sat upon stones in the courtyard, grinding corn
+          between two stones. Long had she been doing that wearisome labor.
+          Admetus had known her from the first time he had come into that
+          courtyard as a little child, and he had never seen aught in her
+          face but a heavy misery. There she was sitting as he had first
+          known her, with her eyes bleared and her knees shaking, and with
+          the dust of the courtyard and the husks of the corn in her matted
+          hair. He went to her and spoke to her, and he asked her to take the
+          place of the king and go with Death.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> But when she
+          heard the name of Death horror came into the face of the ancient
+          woman, and she cried out that she would not let Death come near
+          her. Then Admetus left her, and he came upon another, upon a
+          sightless man who held out a shriveled hand for the food that the
+          servants of the palace might <span class="tei tei-pb" id=
+          "page262">[pg 262]</span> bestow upon him. Admetus took the man’s
+          shriveled hand, and he asked him if he would not take the king’s
+          place and go with Death that was coming for him. The sightless man,
+          with howls and shrieks, said he would not go.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Then Admetus
+          went into the palace and into the chamber where his bed was, and he
+          lay down upon the bed and he lamented that he would have to go with
+          Death that was coming for him from the god of the Underworld, and
+          he lamented that none of the wretched ones around the palace would
+          take his place.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> A hand was laid
+          upon him. He looked up and he saw his tall and grave-eyed wife,
+          Alcestis, beside him. Alcestis spoke to him slowly and gravely.
+          <span class="tei tei-q">“I have heard what you have said, O my
+          husband,”</span> said she. <span class="tei tei-q">“One should go
+          in your place, for you are the king and have many great affairs to
+          attend to. And if none other will go, I, Alcestis, will go in your
+          place, Admetus.”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> It had seemed
+          to Admetus that ever since he had heard the words of Apollo that
+          heavy footsteps were coming toward him. Now the footsteps seemed to
+          stop. It was not so terrible for him as before. He sprang up, and
+          he took the hands of Alcestis and he said, <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“You, then, will take my place?”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“I will go with Death in your place, Admetus,”</span>
+          Alcestis said.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Then, even as
+          Admetus looked into her face, he saw a pallor come upon her; her
+          body weakened and she sank down upon the bed. Then, watching over
+          her, he knew that not he but <span class="tei tei-pb" id=
+          "page263">[pg 263]</span> Alcestis would go with Death. And the
+          words he had spoken he would have taken back—the words that had
+          brought her consent to go with Death in his place.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style=
+          "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em"><a name="i040.png" id=
+          "i040.png" class="tei tei-anchor" style=
+          "text-align: center"></a><a name="fig116" id="fig116"></a></p>
+
+          <div class="tei tei-figure" style=
+          "width: 100%; text-align: center">
+            <img src="images/i040.png" alt="Illustration" title="" />
+
+            <div class="tei tei-head" style=
+            "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em">
+            </div>
+          </div>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Paler and
+          weaker Alcestis grew. Death would soon be here for her. No, not
+          here, for he would not have Death come into the palace. He lifted
+          Alcestis from the bed and he carried her from the palace. He
+          carried her to the temple of the gods. He laid her there upon the
+          bier and waited there beside her. No more speech came from her. He
+          went back to the palace where all was silent—the servants moved
+          about with heads bowed, lamenting silently for their mistress.</p>
+
+          <div class="tei tei-tb">
+            &nbsp;
+          </div>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.20em"><span style=
+          "font-size: 120%">II</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> As Admetus was
+          coming back from the temple he heard a great shout; he looked up
+          and saw one standing at the palace doorway. He knew him by his
+          lion’s skin and his great height. This was Heracles—Heracles come
+          to visit him, but come at a sad hour. He could not now rejoice in
+          the company of Heracles. And yet Heracles might be on his way from
+          the accomplishment of some great labor, and it would not be right
+          to say a word that might turn him away from his doorway; he might
+          have much need of rest and refreshment.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Thinking this
+          Admetus went up to Heracles and took his hand and welcomed him into
+          his house. <span class="tei tei-q">“How is it with you, friend
+          Admetus?”</span> Heracles asked. Admetus would only say
+          <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page264">[pg 264]</span> that nothing
+          was happening in his house and that Heracles, his hero-companion,
+          was welcome there. His mind was upon a great sacrifice, he said,
+          and so he would not be able to feast with him.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> The servants
+          brought Heracles to the bath, and then showed him where a feast was
+          laid for him. And as for Admetus, he went within the chamber, and
+          knelt beside the bed on which Alcestis had lain, and thought of his
+          terrible loss.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Heracles, after
+          the bath, put on the brightly colored tunic that the servants of
+          Admetus brought him. He put a wreath upon his head and sat down to
+          the feast. It was a pity, he thought, that Admetus was not feasting
+          with him. But this was only the first of many feasts. And thinking
+          of what companionship he would have with Admetus, Heracles left the
+          feasting hall and came to where the servants were standing about in
+          silence.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“Why is the house of Admetus so hushed to-day?”</span>
+          Heracles asked.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“It is because of what is befalling,”</span> said one
+          of the servants.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“Ah, the sacrifice that the king is making,”</span>
+          said Heracles. <span class="tei tei-q">“To what god is that
+          sacrifice due?”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“To the god of the Underworld,”</span> said the
+          servant. <span class="tei tei-q">“Death is coming to Alcestis the
+          queen where she lies on a bier in the temple of the
+          gods.”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Then the
+          servant told Heracles the story of how Alcestis had taken her
+          husband’s place, going in his stead with Death. Heracles thought
+          upon the sorrow of his friend, and of the great <span class=
+          "tei tei-pb" id="page265">[pg 265]</span> sacrifice that his wife
+          was making for him. How noble it was of Admetus to bring him into
+          his house and give entertainment to him while such sorrow was upon
+          him. And then Heracles felt that another labor was before him.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style=
+          "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em"><a name="i041.png" id=
+          "i041.png" class="tei tei-anchor" style=
+          "text-align: center"></a><a name="fig117" id="fig117"></a></p>
+
+          <div class="tei tei-figure" style=
+          "width: 100%; text-align: center">
+            <img src="images/i041.png" alt="Illustration" title="" />
+
+            <div class="tei tei-head" style=
+            "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em">
+            </div>
+          </div>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“I have dragged up from the Underworld,”</span> he
+          thought, <span class="tei tei-q">“the hound that guards those whom
+          Death brings down into the realm of the god of the Underworld. Why
+          should I not strive with Death? And what a noble thing it would be
+          to bring back this faithful woman to her house and to her husband!
+          This is a labor that has not been laid upon me, and it is a labor I
+          will undertake.”</span> So Heracles said to himself.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> He left the
+          palace of Admetus and he went to the temple of the gods. He stood
+          inside the temple and he saw the bier on which Alcestis was laid.
+          He looked upon the queen. Death had not touched her yet, although
+          she lay so still and so silent. Heracles would watch beside her and
+          strive with Death for her.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Heracles
+          watched and Death came. When Death entered the temple Heracles laid
+          hands upon him. Death had never been gripped by mortal hands and he
+          strode on as if that grip meant nothing to him. But then he had to
+          grip Heracles. In Death’s grip there was a strength beyond
+          strength. And upon Heracles a dreadful sense of loss came as Death
+          laid hands upon him—a sense of the loss of light and the loss of
+          breath and the loss of movement. But Heracles struggled with Death
+          although his breath went and his strength seemed to go from him. He
+          held that stony body to him, and the cold of that body went through
+          <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page266">[pg 266]</span> him, and its
+          stoniness seemed to turn his bones to stone, but still Heracles
+          strove with him, and at last he overthrew him and he held Death
+          down upon the ground.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“Now you are held by me, Death,”</span> cried Heracles.
+          <span class="tei tei-q">“You are held by me, and the god of the
+          Underworld will be made angry because you cannot go about his
+          business—either this business or any other business. You are held
+          by me, Death, and you will not be let go unless you promise to go
+          forth from this temple without bringing one with you.”</span> And
+          Death, knowing that Heracles could hold him there, and that the
+          business of the god of the Underworld would be left undone if he
+          were held, promised that he would leave the temple without bringing
+          one with him. Then Heracles took his grip off Death, and that stony
+          shape went from the temple.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Soon a flush
+          came into the face of Alcestis as Heracles watched over her. Soon
+          she arose from the bier on which she had been laid. She called out
+          to Admetus, and Heracles went to her and spoke to her, telling her
+          that he would bring her back to her husband’s house.</p>
+
+          <div class="tei tei-tb">
+            &nbsp;
+          </div>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.20em"><span style=
+          "font-size: 120%">III</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Admetus left
+          the chamber where his wife had lain and stood before the door of
+          his palace. Dawn was coming, and as he looked toward the temple he
+          saw Heracles coming to the palace. A woman came with him. She was
+          veiled, and Admetus could not see her features. <span class=
+          "tei tei-pb" id="page267">[pg 267]</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“Admetus,”</span> Heracles said, when he came before
+          him, <span class="tei tei-q">“Admetus, there is something I would
+          have you do for me. Here is a woman whom I am bringing back to her
+          husband. I won her from an enemy. Will you not take her into your
+          house while I am away on a journey?”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“You cannot ask me to do this, Heracles,”</span> said
+          Admetus. <span class="tei tei-q">“No woman may come into the house
+          where Alcestis, only yesterday, had her life.”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“For my sake take her into your house,”</span> said
+          Heracles. <span class="tei tei-q">“Come now, Admetus, take this
+          woman by the hand.”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> A pang came to
+          Admetus as he looked at the woman who stood beside Heracles and saw
+          that she was the same stature as his lost wife. He thought that he
+          could not bear to take her hand. But Heracles pleaded with him, and
+          he took her by the hand.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“Now take her across your threshold, Admetus,”</span>
+          said Heracles.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Hardly could
+          Admetus bear to do this—hardly could he bear to think of a strange
+          woman being in his house and his own wife gone with Death. But
+          Heracles pleaded with him, and by the hand he held he drew the
+          woman across his threshold.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“Now raise her veil, Admetus,”</span> said
+          Heracles.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“This I cannot do,”</span> said Admetus. <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“I have had pangs enough. How can I look upon a woman’s
+          face and remind myself that I cannot look upon Alcestis’s face ever
+          again?”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“Raise her veil, Admetus,”</span> said Heracles.
+          <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page268">[pg 268]</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Then Admetus
+          raised the veil of the woman he had taken across the threshold of
+          his house. He saw the face of Alcestis. He looked again upon his
+          wife brought back from the grip of Death by Heracles, the son of
+          Zeus. And then a deeper joy than he had ever known came to Admetus.
+          Once more his wife was with him, and Admetus the friend of Apollo
+          and the friend of Heracles had all that he cared to have.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="tei tei-div" style=
+        "margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em">
+          <a name="toc118" id="toc118"></a><a name="pdf119" id="pdf119"></a>
+
+          <h2 class="tei tei-head" style=
+          "text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em">
+          <span style="font-size: 144%">VI. How Orpheus the Minstrel Went
+          Down to the World of the Dead</span></h2>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> </p>
+
+          <div class="deco-letter floatleft tei tei-figure" style=
+          "margin-bottom: 0.00em; margin-top: 0.00em"><img src=
+          "images/capM.png" alt="Decorative first letter" /></div>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"><span class=
+          "tei tei-hi" style="margin-left: -1.00em"><span style=
+          "color: white; font-variant: small-caps">M</span></span>ANY were
+          the minstrels who, in the early days, went through the world,
+          telling to men the stories of the gods, telling of their wars and
+          their births. Of all these minstrels none was so famous as Orpheus
+          who had gone with the Argonauts; none could tell truer things about
+          the gods, for he himself was half divine.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> But a great
+          grief came to Orpheus, a grief that stopped his singing and his
+          playing upon the lyre. His young wife Eurydice was taken from him.
+          One day, walking in the garden, she was bitten on the heel by a
+          serpent, and straightway she went down to the world of the
+          dead.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Then everything
+          in this world was dark and bitter for the <span class="tei tei-pb"
+          id="page269">[pg 269]</span> minstrel Orpheus; sleep would not come
+          to him, and for him food had no taste. Then Orpheus said:
+          <span class="tei tei-q">“I will do that which no mortal has ever
+          done before; I will do that which even the immortals might shrink
+          from doing: I will go down into the world of the dead, and I will
+          bring back to the living and to the light my bride
+          Eurydice.”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style=
+          "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em"><a name="i042.png" id=
+          "i042.png" class="tei tei-anchor" style=
+          "text-align: center"></a><a name="fig120" id="fig120"></a></p>
+
+          <div class="tei tei-figure" style=
+          "width: 100%; text-align: center">
+            <img src="images/i042.png" alt="Illustration" title="" />
+
+            <div class="tei tei-head" style=
+            "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em">
+            </div>
+          </div>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Then Orpheus
+          went on his way to the valley of Acherusia which goes down, down
+          into the world of the dead. He would never have found his way to
+          that valley if the trees had not shown him the way. For as he went
+          along Orpheus played upon his lyre and sang, and the trees heard
+          his song and they were moved by his grief, and with their arms and
+          their heads they showed him the way to the deep, deep valley of
+          Acherusia.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Down, down by
+          winding paths through that deepest and most shadowy of all valleys
+          Orpheus went. He came at last to the great gate that opens upon the
+          world of the dead. And the silent guards who keep watch there for
+          the rulers of the dead were affrighted when they saw a living
+          being, and they would not let Orpheus approach the gate.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> But the
+          minstrel, knowing the reason for their fear, said: <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“I am not Heracles come again to drag up from the world
+          of the dead your three-headed dog Cerberus. I am Orpheus, and all
+          that my hands can do is to make music upon my lyre.”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> And then he
+          took the lyre in his hands and played upon it. As he played, the
+          silent watchers gathered around him, leaving the gate unguarded.
+          And as he played the rulers of the dead <span class="tei tei-pb"
+          id="page270">[pg 270]</span> came forth, Aidoneus and Persephone,
+          and listened to the words of the living man.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“The cause of my coming through the dark and fearful
+          ways,”</span> sang Orpheus, <span class="tei tei-q">“is to strive
+          to gain a fairer fate for Eurydice, my bride. All that is above
+          must come down to you at last, O rulers of the most lasting world.
+          But before her time has Eurydice been brought here. I have desired
+          strength to endure her loss, but I cannot endure it. And I come
+          before you, Aidoneus and Persephone, brought here by
+          Love.”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> When Orpheus
+          said the name of Love, Persephone, the queen of the dead, bowed her
+          young head, and bearded Aidoneus, the king, bowed his head also.
+          Persephone remembered how Demeter, her mother, had sought her all
+          through the world, and she remembered the touch of her mother’s
+          tears upon her face. And Aidoneus remembered how his love for
+          Persephone had led him to carry her away from the valley in the
+          upper world where she had been gathering flowers. He and Persephone
+          bowed their heads and stood aside, and Orpheus went through the
+          gate and came amongst the dead.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Still upon his
+          lyre he played. Tantalus—who, for his crimes, had been condemned to
+          stand up to his neck in water and yet never be able to assuage his
+          thirst—Tantalus heard, and for a while did not strive to put his
+          lips toward the water that ever flowed away from him; Sisyphus—who
+          had been condemned to roll up a hill a stone that ever rolled
+          back—Sisyphus heard the music that Orpheus played, and for a while
+          he sat still <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page271">[pg 271]</span>
+          upon his stone. And even those dread ones who bring to the dead the
+          memories of all their crimes and all their faults, even the
+          Eumenides had their cheeks wet with tears.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> In the throng
+          of the newly come dead Orpheus saw Eurydice. She looked upon her
+          husband, but she had not the power to come near him. But slowly she
+          came when Aidoneus called her. Then with joy Orpheus took her
+          hands.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> It would be
+          granted them—no mortal ever gained such privilege before—to leave,
+          both together, the world of the dead, and to abide for another
+          space in the world of the living. One condition there would be—that
+          on their way up through the valley of Acherusia neither Orpheus nor
+          Eurydice should look back.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> They went
+          through the gate and came amongst the watchers that are around the
+          portals. These showed them the path that went up through the valley
+          of Acherusia. That way they went, Orpheus and Eurydice, he going
+          before her.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Up and up
+          through the darkened ways they went, Orpheus knowing that Eurydice
+          was behind him, but never looking back upon her. But as he went,
+          his heart was filled with things to tell—how the trees were
+          blossoming in the garden she had left; how the water was sparkling
+          in the fountain; how the doors of the house stood open, and how
+          they, sitting together, would watch the sunlight on the laurel
+          bushes. All these things were in his heart to tell her, to tell her
+          who came behind him, silent and unseen. <span class="tei tei-pb"
+          id="page272">[pg 272]</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> And now they
+          were nearing the place where the valley of Acherusia opened on the
+          world of the living. Orpheus looked on the blue of the sky. A
+          white-winged bird flew by. Orpheus turned around and cried,
+          <span class="tei tei-q">“O Eurydice, look upon the world that I
+          have won you back to!”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> He turned to
+          say this to her. He saw her with her long dark hair and pale face.
+          He held out his arms to clasp her. But in that instant she slipped
+          back into the depths of the valley. And all he heard spoken was a
+          single word, <span class="tei tei-q">“Farewell!”</span> Long, long
+          had it taken Eurydice to climb so far, but in the moment of his
+          turning around she had fallen back to her place amongst the
+          dead.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Down through
+          the valley of Acherusia Orpheus went again. Again he came before
+          the watchers of the gate. But now he was not looked at nor listened
+          to, and, hopeless, he had to return to the world of the living.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> The birds were
+          his friends now, and the trees and the stones. The birds flew
+          around him and mourned with him; the trees and stones often
+          followed him, moved by the music of his lyre. But a savage band
+          slew Orpheus and threw his severed head and his lyre into the River
+          Hebrus. It is said by the poets that while they floated in
+          midstream the lyre gave out some mournful notes and the head of
+          Orpheus answered the notes with song.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> And now that he
+          was no longer to be counted with the living, Orpheus went down to
+          the world of the dead, not going now by that steep descent through
+          the valley of Acherusia, but going <span class="tei tei-pb" id=
+          "page273">[pg 273]</span> down straightway. The silent watchers let
+          him pass, and he went amongst the dead and saw his Eurydice in the
+          throng. Again they were together, Orpheus and Eurydice, and as they
+          went through the place that King Aidoneus ruled over, they had no
+          fear of looking back, one upon the other.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="tei tei-div" style=
+        "margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em">
+          <a name="toc121" id="toc121"></a><a name="pdf122" id="pdf122"></a>
+
+          <h2 class="tei tei-head" style=
+          "text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em">
+          <span style="font-size: 144%">VII. Jason and Medea</span></h2>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> </p>
+
+          <div class="deco-letter floatleft tei tei-figure" style=
+          "margin-bottom: 0.00em; margin-top: 0.00em"><img src=
+          "images/capJ.png" alt="Decorative first letter" /></div>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"><span class=
+          "tei tei-hi" style="margin-left: -1.00em"><span style=
+          "color: white; font-variant: small-caps">J</span></span>ASON and
+          Medea, unable to win to Iolcus, stayed at Corinth, at the court of
+          King Creon. Creon was proud to have Jason in his city, but of Medea
+          the king was fearful, for he had heard how she had brought about
+          the death of Apsyrtus, her brother.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Medea wearied
+          of this long waiting in the palace of King Creon. A longing came
+          upon her to exercise her powers of enchantment. She did not forget
+          what Queen Arete had said to her—that if she wished to appease the
+          wrath of the gods she should have no more to do with enchantments.
+          She did not forget this, but still there grew in her a longing to
+          use all her powers of enchantment.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> And Jason, at
+          the court of King Creon, had his longings, too. He longed to enter
+          Iolcus and to show the people the Golden Fleece that he had won; he
+          longed to destroy Pelias, the murderer <span class="tei tei-pb" id=
+          "page274">[pg 274]</span> of his mother and father; above all he
+          longed to be a king, and to rule in the kingdom that Cretheus had
+          founded.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Once Jason
+          spoke to Medea of his longing. <span class="tei tei-q">“O
+          Jason,”</span> Medea said, <span class="tei tei-q">“I have done
+          many things for thee and this thing also I will do. I will go into
+          Iolcus, and by my enchantments I will make clear the way for the
+          return of the <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style=
+          "font-style: italic">Argo</span></em> and for thy return with thy
+          comrades—yea, and for thy coming to the kingship, O
+          Jason.”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> He should have
+          remembered then the words of Queen Arete to Medea, but the longing
+          that he had for his triumph and his revenge was in the way of his
+          remembering. He said, <span class="tei tei-q">“O Medea, help me in
+          this with all thine enchantments and thou wilt be more dear to me
+          than ever before thou wert.”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Medea then went
+          forth from the palace of King Creon and she made more terrible
+          spells than ever she had made in Colchis. All night she stayed in a
+          tangled place weaving her spells. Dawn came, and she knew that the
+          spells she had woven had not been in vain, for beside her there
+          stood a car that was drawn by dragons.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Medea the
+          Enchantress had never looked on these dragon shapes before. When
+          she looked upon them now she was fearful of them. But then she said
+          to herself, <span class="tei tei-q">“I am Medea, and I would be a
+          greater enchantress and a more cunning woman than I have been, and
+          what I have thought of, that will I carry out.”</span> She mounted
+          the car drawn by the dragons, and in the first light of the day she
+          went from Corinth. <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page275">[pg
+          275]</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style=
+          "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em"><a name="i043.png" id=
+          "i043.png" class="tei tei-anchor" style=
+          "text-align: center"></a><a name="fig123" id="fig123"></a></p>
+
+          <div class="tei tei-figure" style=
+          "width: 100%; text-align: center">
+            <img src="images/i043.png" alt="Illustration" title="" />
+
+            <div class="tei tei-head" style=
+            "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em">
+            </div>
+          </div>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> To the places
+          where grew the herbs of magic Medea journeyed in her dragon-drawn
+          car—to the Mountains Ossa, Pelion, Œthrys, Pindus, and Olympus;
+          then to the rivers Apidanus, Enipeus, and Peneus. She gathered
+          herbs on the mountains and grasses on the rivers’ banks; some she
+          plucked up by the roots and some she cut with the curved blade of a
+          knife. When she had gathered these herbs and grasses she went back
+          to Corinth on her dragon-drawn car.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Then Jason saw
+          her; pale and drawn was her face, and her eyes were strange and
+          gleaming. He saw her standing by the car drawn by the dragons, and
+          a terror of Medea came into his mind. He went toward her, but in a
+          harsh voice she bade him not come near to disturb the brewing that
+          she was going to begin. Jason turned away. As he went toward the
+          palace he saw Glauce, King Creon’s daughter; the maiden was coming
+          from the well and she carried a pitcher of water. He thought how
+          fair Glauce looked in the light of the morning, how the wind played
+          with her hair and her garments, and how far away she was from
+          witcheries and enchantments.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> As for Medea,
+          she placed in a heap beside her the magic herbs and grasses she had
+          gathered. Then she put them in a bronze pot and boiled them in
+          water from the stream. Soon froth came on the boiling, and Medea
+          stirred the pot with a withered branch of an apple tree. The branch
+          was withered—it was indeed no more than a dry stick, but as she
+          stirred the herbs and grasses with it, first leaves, then flowers,
+          and lastly, <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page276">[pg 276]</span>
+          bright gleaming apples came on it. And when the pot boiled over and
+          drops from it fell upon the ground, there grew up out of the dry
+          earth soft grasses and flowers. Such was the power of renewal that
+          was in the magical brew that Medea had made.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> She filled a
+          phial with the liquid she had brewed, and she scattered the rest in
+          the wild places of the garden. Then, taking the phial and the
+          apples that had grown on the withered branch, she mounted the car
+          drawn by the dragons, and she went once more from Corinth.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> On she
+          journeyed in her dragon-drawn car until she came to a place that
+          was near to Iolcus. There the dragons descended. They had come to a
+          dark pool. Medea, making herself naked, stood in that dark pool.
+          For a while she looked down upon herself, seeing in the dark water
+          her white body and her lovely hair. Then she bathed herself in the
+          water. Soon a dread change came over her: she saw her hair become
+          scant and gray, and she saw her body become bent and withered. She
+          stepped out of the pool a withered and witchlike woman; when she
+          dressed herself the rich clothes that she had worn before hung
+          loosely upon her, and she looked the more forbidding because of
+          them. She bade the dragons go, and they flew through the air with
+          the empty car. Then she hid in her dress the phial with the liquid
+          she had brewed and the apples that had grown upon the withered
+          branch. She picked up a stick to lean upon, and with the gait of an
+          ancient woman she went hobbling upon the road to Iolcus.
+          <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page277">[pg 277]</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> On the streets
+          of the city the fierce fighting men that Pelias had brought down
+          from the mountains showed themselves; few of the men or women of
+          the city showed themselves even in the daytime. Medea went through
+          the city and to the palace of King Pelias. But no one might enter
+          there, and the guards laid hands upon her and held her.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Medea did not
+          struggle with them. She drew from the folds of her dress one of the
+          gleaming apples that she carried and she gave it to one of the
+          guards. <span class="tei tei-q">“It is for King Pelias,”</span> she
+          said. <span class="tei tei-q">“Give the apple to him and then do
+          with me as the king would have you do.”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> The guards
+          brought the gleaming apple to the king. When he had taken it into
+          his hand and had smelled its fragrance, old trembling Pelias asked
+          where the apple had come from. The guards told him it had been
+          brought by an ancient woman who was now outside seated on a stone
+          in the courtyard.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> He looked on
+          the shining apple and he felt its fragrance and he could not help
+          thinking, old trembling Pelias, that this apple might be the means
+          of bringing him back to the fullness of health and courage that he
+          had had before. He sent for the ancient woman who had brought it
+          that she might tell him where it had come from and who it was that
+          had sent it to him. Then the guards brought Medea before him.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> She saw an old
+          man, white-faced and trembling, with shaking hands and eyes that
+          looked on her fearfully. <span class="tei tei-q">“Who are
+          you,”</span> <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page278">[pg 278]</span>
+          he asked, <span class="tei tei-q">“and from whence came the apple
+          that you had them bring me?”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Medea, standing
+          before him, looked a withered and shrunken beldame, a woman bent
+          with years, but yet with eyes that were bright and living. She came
+          near him and she said: <span class="tei tei-q">“The apple, O King,
+          came from the garden that is watched over by the Daughters of the
+          Evening Land. He who eats it has a little of the weight of old age
+          taken from him. But things more wonderful even than the shining
+          apples grow in that far garden. There are plants there the juices
+          of which make youthful again all aged and failing things. The apple
+          would bring you a little way toward the vigor of your prime. But
+          the juices I have can bring you to a time more wonderful—back even
+          to the strength and the glory of your youth.”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> When the king
+          heard her say this a light came into his heavy eyes, and his hands
+          caught Medea and drew her to him. <span class="tei tei-q">“Who are
+          you?”</span> he cried, <span class="tei tei-q">“who speak of the
+          garden watched over by the Daughters of the Evening Land? Who are
+          you who speak of juices that can bring back one to the strength and
+          glory of his youth?”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Medea answered:
+          <span class="tei tei-q">“I am a woman who has known many and great
+          griefs, O king. My griefs have brought me through the world. Many
+          have searched for the garden watched over by the Daughters of the
+          Evening Land, but I came to it unthinkingly, and without wanting
+          them I gathered the gleaming apples and took from the plants there
+          the juices that can bring youth back.”</span> <span class=
+          "tei tei-pb" id="page279">[pg 279]</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Pelias said:
+          <span class="tei tei-q">“If you have been able to come by those
+          juices, how is it that you remain in woeful age and
+          decrepitude?”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> She said:
+          <span class="tei tei-q">“Because of my many griefs, king, I would
+          not renew my life. I would be ever nearer death and the end of all
+          things. But you are a king and have all things you desire at your
+          hand—beauty and state and power. Surely if any one would desire it,
+          you would desire to have youth back to you.”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Pelias, when he
+          heard her say this, knew that besides youth there was nothing that
+          he desired. After crimes that had gone through the whole of his
+          manhood he had secured for himself the kingdom that Cretheus had
+          founded. But old age had come on him, and the weakness of old age,
+          and the power he had won was falling from his hands. He would be
+          overthrown in his weakness, or else he would soon come to die, and
+          there would be an end then to his name and to his kingship.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> How fortunate
+          above all kings he would be, he thought, if it could be that some
+          one should come to him with juices that would renew his youth! He
+          looked longingly into the eyes of the ancient-seeming woman before
+          him, and he said: <span class="tei tei-q">“How is it that you show
+          no gains from the juices that you speak of? You are old and in
+          woeful decrepitude. Even if you would not win back to youth you
+          could have got riches and state for that which you say you
+          possess.”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Then Medea
+          said: <span class="tei tei-q">“I have lost so much and have
+          suffered so much that I would not have youth back at the price of
+          facing the years. I would sink down to the quiet of the grave. But
+          <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page280">[pg 280]</span> I hope for
+          some ease before I die—for the ease that is in king’s houses, with
+          good food to eat, and rest, and servants to wait upon one’s aged
+          body. These are the things I desire, O Pelias, even as you desire
+          youth. You can give me such things, and I have come to you who
+          desire youth eagerly rather than to kings who have a less eager
+          desire for it. To you I will give the juices that bring one back to
+          the strength and the glory of youth.”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Pelias said:
+          <span class="tei tei-q">“I have only your word for it that you
+          possess these juices. Many there are who come and say deceiving
+          things to a king.”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Said Medea:
+          <span class="tei tei-q">“Let there be no more words between us, O
+          king. To-morrow I will show you the virtue of the juices I have
+          brought with me. Have a great vat prepared—a vat that a man could
+          lay himself in with the water covering him. Have this vat filled
+          with water, and bring to it the oldest creature you can get—a ram
+          or a goat that is the oldest of their flock. Do this, O king, and
+          you will be shown a thing to wonder at and to be hopeful
+          over.”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> So Medea said,
+          and then she turned around and left the king’s presence. Pelias
+          called to his guards and he bade them take the woman into their
+          charge and treat her considerately. The guards took Medea away.
+          Then all day the king mused on what had been told him and a wild
+          hope kept beating about his heart. He had the servants prepare a
+          great vat in the lower chambers, and he had his shepherd bring him
+          a ram that was the oldest in the flock. <span class="tei tei-pb"
+          id="page281">[pg 281]</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Only Medea was
+          permitted to come into that chamber with the king; the ways to it
+          were guarded, and all that took place in it was secret. Medea was
+          brought to the closed door by her guard. She opened it and she saw
+          the king there and the vat already prepared; she saw a ram tethered
+          near the vat.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Medea looked
+          upon the king. In the light of the torches his face was white and
+          fierce and his mouth moved gaspingly. She spoke to him quietly, and
+          said: <span class="tei tei-q">“There is no need for you to hear me
+          speak. You will watch a great miracle, for behold! the ram which is
+          the oldest and feeblest in the flock will become young and
+          invigorated when it comes forth from this vat.”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> She untethered
+          the ram, and with the help of Pelias drew it to the vat. This was
+          not hard to do, for the beast was very feeble; its feet could
+          hardly bear it upright, its wool was yellow and stayed only in
+          patches on its shrunken body. Easily the beast was forced into the
+          vat. Then Medea drew the phial out of her bosom and poured into the
+          water some of the brew she had made in Creon’s garden in Corinth.
+          The water in the vat took on a strange bubbling, and the ram sank
+          down.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Then Medea,
+          standing beside the vat, sang an incantation.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“O Earth,”</span> she sang, <span class="tei tei-q">“O
+          Earth who dost provide wise men with potent herbs, O Earth help me
+          now. I am she who can drive the clouds; I am she who can dispel the
+          winds; I am she who can break the jaws of serpents with my
+          incantations; I am she who can uproot living trees and rocks; who
+          can make the mountains shake; who can bring the ghosts from their
+          <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page282">[pg 282]</span> tombs. O
+          Earth, help me now.”</span> At this strange incantation the mixture
+          in the vat boiled and bubbled more and more. Then the boiling and
+          bubbling ceased. Up to the surface came the ram. Medea helped it to
+          struggle out of the vat, and then it turned and smote the vat with
+          its head.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Pelias took
+          down a torch and stood before the beast. Vigorous indeed was the
+          ram, and its wool was white and grew evenly upon it. They could not
+          tether it again, and when the servants were brought into the
+          chamber it took two of them to drag away the ram.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> The king was
+          most eager to enter the vat and have Medea put in the brew and
+          speak the incantation over it. But Medea bade him wait until the
+          morrow. All night the king lay awake, thinking of how he might
+          regain his youth and his strength and be secure and triumphant
+          thereafter.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> At the first
+          light he sent for Medea and he told her that he would have the vat
+          made ready and that he would go into it that night. Medea looked
+          upon him, and the helplessness that he showed made her want to work
+          a greater evil upon him, or, if not upon him, upon his house. How
+          soon it would have reached its end, all her plot for the
+          destruction of this king! But she would leave in the king’s house a
+          misery that would not have an end so soon.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> So she said to
+          the king: <span class="tei tei-q">“I would say the incantation over
+          a beast of the field, but over a king I could not say it. Let those
+          of your own blood be with you when you enter the vat that
+          <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page283">[pg 283]</span> will bring
+          such change to you. Have your daughters there. I will give them the
+          juice to mix in the vat, and I will teach them the incantation that
+          has to be said.”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> So she said,
+          and she made Pelias consent to having his daughters and not Medea
+          in the chamber of the vat. They were sent for and they came before
+          Medea, the daughters of King Pelias.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> They were women
+          who had been borne down by the tyranny of their father; they stood
+          before him now, two dim-eyed creatures, very feeble and fearful. To
+          them Medea gave the phial that had in it the liquid to mix in the
+          vat; also she taught them the words of the incantation, but she
+          taught them to use these words wrongly.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> The vat was
+          prepared in the lower chambers; Pelias and his daughters went
+          there, and the chamber was guarded, and what happened there was in
+          secret. Pelias went into the vat; the brew was thrown into it, and
+          the vat boiled and bubbled as before. Pelias sank down in it. Over
+          him then his daughters said the magic words as Medea had taught
+          them.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Pelias sank
+          down, but he did not rise again. The hours went past and the
+          morning came, and the daughters of King Pelias raised frightened
+          laments. Over the sides of the vat the mixture boiled and bubbled,
+          and Pelias was to be seen at the bottom with his limbs stiffened in
+          death.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Then the guards
+          came, and they took King Pelias out of the vat and left him in his
+          royal chamber. The word went through the palace that the king was
+          dead. There was a hush in the <span class="tei tei-pb" id=
+          "page284">[pg 284]</span> palace then, but not the hush of grief.
+          One by one servants and servitors stole away from the palace that
+          was hated by all. Then there was clatter in the streets as the
+          fierce fighting men from the mountains galloped away with what
+          plunder they could seize. And through all this the daughters of
+          King Pelias sat crouching in fear above the body of their
+          father.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> And Medea,
+          still an ancient woman seemingly, went through the crowds that now
+          came on the streets of the city. She told those she went amongst
+          that the son of Æson was alive and would soon be in their midst.
+          Hearing this the men of the city formed a council of elders to rule
+          the people until Jason’s coming. In such way Medea brought about
+          the end of King Pelias’s reign.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> In triumph she
+          went through the city. But as she was passing the temple her dress
+          was caught and held, and turning around she faced the ancient
+          priestess of Artemis, Iphias. <span class="tei tei-q">“Thou art
+          Æetes’s daughter,”</span> Iphias said, <span class="tei tei-q">“who
+          in deceit didst come into Iolcus. Woe to thee and woe to Jason for
+          what thou hast done this day! Not for the slaying of Pelias art
+          thou blameworthy, but for the misery that thou hast brought upon
+          his daughters by bringing them into the guilt of the slaying. Go
+          from the city, daughter of King Æetes; never, never wilt thou come
+          back into it.”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> But little heed
+          did Medea pay to the ancient priestess, Iphias. Still in the guise
+          of an old woman she went through the streets of the city, and out
+          through the gate and along the highway <span class="tei tei-pb" id=
+          "page285">[pg 285]</span> that led from Iolcus. To that dark pool
+          she came where she had bathed herself before. But now she did not
+          step into the pool nor pour its water over her shrinking flesh;
+          instead she built up two altars of green sods—an altar to Youth and
+          an altar to Hecate, queen of the witches; she wreathed them with
+          green boughs from the forest, and she prayed before each. Then she
+          made herself naked, and she anointed herself with the brew she had
+          made from the magical herbs and grasses. All marks of age and
+          decrepitude left her, and when she stood over the dark pool and
+          looked down on herself she saw that her body was white and shapely
+          as before, and that her hair was soft and lovely.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style=
+          "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em"><a name="i044.png" id=
+          "i044.png" class="tei tei-anchor" style=
+          "text-align: center"></a><a name="fig124" id="fig124"></a></p>
+
+          <div class="tei tei-figure" style=
+          "width: 100%; text-align: center">
+            <img src="images/i044.png" alt="Illustration" title="" />
+
+            <div class="tei tei-head" style=
+            "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em">
+            </div>
+          </div>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> She stayed all
+          night between the tangled wood and the dark pool, and with the
+          first light the car drawn by the scaly dragons came to her. She
+          mounted the car, and she journeyed back to Corinth.</p>
+
+          <div class="tei tei-tb">
+            &nbsp;
+          </div>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Into Jason’s
+          mind a fear of Medea had come since the hour when he had seen her
+          mount the car drawn by the scaly dragons. He could not think of her
+          any more as the one who had been his companion on the <em class=
+          "tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">Argo</span></em>.
+          He thought of her as one who could help him and do wonderful things
+          for him, but not as one whom he could talk softly and lovingly to.
+          Ah, but if Jason had thought less of his kingdom and less of his
+          triumphing with the Fleece of Gold, Medea would not have had the
+          dragons come to her.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> And now that
+          his love for Medea had altered, Jason noted the loveliness of
+          another—of Glauce, the daughter of Creon, the <span class=
+          "tei tei-pb" id="page286">[pg 286]</span> King of Corinth. And
+          Glauce, who had red lips and the eyes of a child, saw in Jason who
+          had brought the Golden Fleece out of Colchis the image of every
+          hero she had heard about in stories. Creon, the king, often brought
+          Jason and Glauce together, for his hope was that the hero would wed
+          his daughter and stay in Corinth and strengthen his kingdom. He
+          thought that Medea, that strange woman, could not keep a
+          companionship with Jason.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Two were
+          walking in the king’s garden, and they were Jason and Glauce. A
+          shadow fell between them, and when Jason looked up he saw Medea’s
+          dragon car. Down flew the dragons, and Medea came from the car and
+          stood between Jason and the princess. Angrily she spoke to him.
+          <span class="tei tei-q">“I have made the kingdom ready for your
+          return,”</span> she said, <span class="tei tei-q">“but if you would
+          go there you must first let me deal in my own way with this pretty
+          maiden.”</span> And so fiercely did Medea look upon her that Glauce
+          shrank back and clung to Jason for protection. <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“O, Jason,”</span> she cried, <span class=
+          "tei tei-q">“thou didst say that I am such a one as thou didst
+          dream of when in the forest with Chiron, before the adventure of
+          the Golden Fleece drew thee away from the Grecian lands. Oh, save
+          me now from the power of her who comes in the dragon car.”</span>
+          And Jason said: <span class="tei tei-q">“I said all that thou hast
+          said, and I will protect thee, O Glauce.”</span></p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> And then Medea
+          thought of the king’s house she had left for Jason, and of the
+          brother whom she had let be slain, and of the plot she had carried
+          out to bring Jason back to Iolcus, and a <span class="tei tei-pb"
+          id="page287">[pg 287]</span> great fury came over her. In her hand
+          she took foam from the jaws of the dragons, and she cast the foam
+          upon Glauce, and the princess fell back into the arms of Jason with
+          the dragon foam burning into her.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Then, seeing in
+          his eyes that he had forgotten all that he owed to her—the winning
+          of the Golden Fleece, and the safety of <em class=
+          "tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">Argo</span></em>,
+          and the destruction of the power of King Pelias—seeing in his eyes
+          that Jason had forgotten all this, Medea went into her dragon-borne
+          car and spoke the words that made the scaly dragons bear her aloft.
+          She flew from Corinth, leaving Jason in King Creon’s garden with
+          Glauce dying in his arms. He lifted her up and laid her upon a bed,
+          but even as her friends came around her the daughter of King Creon
+          died. <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page288">[pg 288]</span></p>
+
+          <div class="tei tei-tb">
+            &nbsp;
+          </div>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> </p>
+
+          <div class="deco-letter floatleft tei tei-figure" style=
+          "margin-bottom: 0.00em; margin-top: 0.00em"><img src=
+          "images/capA2.png" alt="Decorative first letter" /></div>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"><span class=
+          "tei tei-hi" style="margin-left: -1.00em"><span style=
+          "color: white; font-variant: small-caps">A</span></span>ND Jason?
+          For long he stayed in Corinth, a famous man indeed, but one
+          sorrowful and alone. But again there grew in him the desire to rule
+          and to have possessions. He called around him again the men whose
+          home was in Iolcus—those who had followed him as bright-eyed youths
+          when he first proclaimed his purpose of winning the Fleece of Gold.
+          He called them around him, and he led them on board the <em class=
+          "tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">Argo</span></em>.
+          Once more they lifted sails, and once more they took the <em class=
+          "tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">Argo</span></em>
+          into the open sea.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Toward Iolcus
+          they sailed; their passage was fortunate, and in a short time they
+          brought the <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style=
+          "font-style: italic">Argo</span></em> safely into the harbor of
+          Pagasæ. Oh, happy were the crowds that came thronging to see the
+          ship that had the famous Fleece of Gold upon her masthead, and
+          green and sweet smelling were the garlands that the people brought
+          to wreathe the heads of Jason and his companions! Jason looked upon
+          the throngs, and he thought that much had gone from him, but he
+          thought that whatever else had gone something remained to him—to be
+          a king and a great ruler over a people.</p>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> And so Jason
+          came back to Iolcus. The <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style=
+          "font-style: italic">Argo</span></em> he made a blazing pile of in
+          sacrifice to Poseidon, the god of the sea. The Golden Fleece he
+          hung in the temple of the gods. Then he took up the rule of the
+          kingdom that Cretheus had founded, and he became the greatest of
+          the kings of Greece.</p><span class="tei tei-pb" id="page289">[pg
+          289]</span>
+
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> And to Iolcus
+          there came, year after year, young men who would look upon the
+          gleaming thing that was hung there in the temple of the gods. And
+          as they looked upon it, young man after young man, the thought
+          would come to each that he would make himself strong enough and
+          heroic enough to win for his country something as precious as
+          Jason’s <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style=
+          "font-variant: small-caps">Golden Fleece</span></span>. And for all
+          their lives they kept in mind the words that Jason had inscribed
+          upon a pillar that was placed beside the Fleece of Gold—the words
+          that Triton spoke to the Argonauts when they were fain to win their
+          way out of the inland sea:—</p>
+
+          <div class="block tei tei-q" style=
+          "margin-bottom: 1.80em; margin-left: 3.60em; margin-top: 1.80em; margin-right: 3.60em">
+          <span style="font-size: 90%">THAT IS THE OUTLET TO THE SEA, WHERE
+          THE DEEP WATER LIES UNMOVED AND DARK; ON EACH SIDE ROLL WHITE
+          BREAKERS WITH SHINING CRESTS; AND THE WAY BETWEEN FOR YOUR PASSAGE
+          OUT IS NARROW. BUT GO IN JOY, AND AS FOR LABOR LET THERE BE NO
+          GRIEVING THAT LIMBS IN YOUTHFUL VIGOR SHOULD STILL TOIL.</span>
+          </div>
+        </div>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+
+    <div class="tei tei-back" style=
+    "margin-bottom: 2.00em; margin-top: 6.00em">
+      <hr class="doublepage" />
+
+      <div class="boxed tei tei-div" style=
+      "margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+        <h1 class="tei tei-head" style=
+        "text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em">
+        <span style="font-size: 173%">Transcriber’s Note</span></h1>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> The book received
+        a Newbery Honor Award (1922).</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Illustrations in
+        the original appear on separate, unnumbered pages. In this
+        transcription, wherever an illustration would break a paragraph, it
+        was moved after the paragraph.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.00em"> Obvious
+        typographical errors were silently corrected.</p>
+      </div>
+      <hr class="doublepage" />
+
+      <div class="tei tei-div" style=
+      "margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+        <div id="pgfooter" class="tei tei-div" style=
+        "margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em">
+          <pre class="pre tei tei-div" style=
+          "margin-bottom: 3.00em; margin-top: 3.00em">
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GOLDEN FLEECE AND THE HEROES WHO LIVED BEFORE ACHILLES***
+</pre>
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@@ -0,0 +1,7726 @@
+<?xml version="1.0"?>
+<!DOCTYPE TEI.2 SYSTEM "http://www.gutenberg.org/tei/marcello/0.4/dtd/pgtei.dtd">
+<TEI.2 lang="en">
+
+
+    <teiHeader>
+        <fileDesc>
+            <titleStmt>
+                <title>The Golden Fleece and The Heroes Who Lived Before Achilles</title>
+                <author><name reg="Colum, Padraic">Padraic Colum</name></author>
+            </titleStmt>
+            <publicationStmt>
+                <publisher>Project Gutenberg</publisher>
+                <date>October 29, 2011</date>
+                <idno type="etext-no">37881</idno>
+                <availability>
+                  <p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere
+                  at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever.
+                  You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under
+                  the terms of the Project Gutenberg License online at
+                  www.gutenberg.org/license</p>
+                </availability>
+            </publicationStmt>
+            <sourceDesc>
+              <bibl>
+                Created electronically.
+              </bibl>
+            </sourceDesc>
+        </fileDesc>
+        <encodingDesc>
+            <editorialDecl>
+            <p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> The book received a Newbery Honor Award (1922).</p>
+            <p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> See transcriber's note in the back.</p>
+            </editorialDecl>
+        </encodingDesc>
+        <profileDesc>
+          <langUsage>
+            <language id="en"/>
+          </langUsage>
+        </profileDesc>
+        <revisionDesc>
+          <change>
+            <date value="October 29, 2011"></date>
+            <respStmt>
+                <resp>Produced by <name>David Edwards</name>, <name>Daniel Mahu</name>,
+                and the <name>Online Distributed Proofreading Team</name> at
+                &lt;http://www.pgdp.net/c&gt; (This file was produced from images generously
+                made available by The Internet Archive).
+                </resp>
+            </respStmt>
+            <item>Project Gutenberg TEI edition 1</item>
+          </change>
+        </revisionDesc>
+    </teiHeader>
+
+
+
+<text lang="en"><front><div><divGen type="pgheader"/></div><div><divGen type="encodingDesc"/></div><div rend="page-break-before: always">
+<p rend="text-align: center"><figure rend="width: 100%" url="images/cover.png"><anchor id="cover.png"/><index index="fig"/><head/><figDesc>Illustration</figDesc></figure></p>
+
+<p rend="text-align: center"><figure rend="width: 100%" url="images/halftitle.png"><anchor id="halftitle.png"/><index index="fig"/><head/><figDesc>Illustration</figDesc></figure></p>
+
+<p rend="text-align: center"><figure rend="width: 100%" url="images/frontis.png"><anchor id="frontis.png"/><index index="fig"/><head>Jason and Medea</head><figDesc>Illustration</figDesc></figure></p>
+
+<p rend="text-align: center"><figure rend="width: 100%" url="images/title.png"><anchor id="title.png"/><index index="fig"/><head/><figDesc>Illustration</figDesc></figure></p>
+<l rend="font-size: xx-large; text-align: center;">The Golden Fleece</l><l rend="font-size: xx-large; text-align: center;">and the Heroes Who</l><l rend="font-size: xx-large; text-align: center;">Lived before Achilles</l><l rend="font-size: x-large; text-align: center; margin-top: 1em;">By Padraig Colum</l><l rend="font-size: x-large; text-align: center">Illustrations by Willy Pogany</l><l rend="text-align: center; margin-top: 3em;">1921</l><l rend="text-align: center;">The Macmillan Company, New York</l><l rend="text-align: center; margin-top: 5em;">to</l><l rend="text-align: center;">the children of</l><l rend="text-align: center;">Susan and Llewellyn Jones</l></div><div rend="page-break-before: right"><figure rend="width: 100%" url="images/contents.png"><head/><figDesc>Illustration</figDesc></figure><head>Contents</head><divGen type="toc"/></div><div rend="page-break-before: right"><figure rend="width: 100%" url="images/illustrations.png"><head/><figDesc>Illustration</figDesc></figure><head>Illustrations</head><divGen type="fig"/></div></front><body><pb n="1"/><div><index index="toc"/><index index='pdf'/><head>Part I. The Voyage to Colchis</head><pb n="3"/><div><index index="toc"/><index index='pdf'/><head>I. The Youth Jason</head><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <figure rend="float: left; margin-top: 0em; margin-bottom: 0em; x-class: deco-letter;" url="images/capA1.png"><figDesc>Decorative first letter</figDesc></figure><hi rend="font-variant: small-caps; color:white; margin-left: -1em">A</hi> MAN in the garb of a slave went up the
+side of that mountain that is all covered
+with forest, the Mountain Pelion. He
+carried in his arms a little child.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> When it was full noon the slave came
+into a clearing of the forest so silent that
+it seemed empty of all life. He laid the
+child down on the soft moss, and then, trembling with the fear
+of what might come before him, he raised a horn to his lips and
+blew three blasts upon it.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Then he waited. The blue sky was above him, the great trees
+stood away from him, and the little child lay at his feet. He
+waited, and then he heard the thud-thud of great hooves. And
+then from between the trees he saw coming toward him the
+strangest of all beings, one who was half man and half horse;
+this was Chiron the centaur.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Chiron came toward the trembling slave. Greater than any
+horse was Chiron, taller than any man. The hair of his head
+flowed back into his horse’s mane, his great beard flowed over
+his horse’s chest; in his man’s hand he held a great spear.
+</p><pb n="4"/><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Not swiftly he came, but the slave could see that in those
+great limbs of his there was speed like to the wind’s. The slave
+fell upon his knees. And with eyes that were full of majesty
+and wisdom and limbs that were full of strength and speed, the
+king-centaur stood above him. <q>O my lord,</q> the slave said,
+<q>I have come before thee sent by Æson, my master, who told
+me where to come and what blasts to blow upon the horn. And
+Æson, once King of Iolcus, bade me say to thee that if thou
+dost remember his ancient friendship with thee thou wilt, perchance,
+take this child and guard and foster him, and, as he
+grows, instruct him with thy wisdom.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q>For Æson’s sake I will rear and foster this child,</q> said
+Chiron the king-centaur in a deep voice.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> The child lying on the moss had been looking up at the four-footed
+and two-handed centaur. Now the slave lifted him up
+and placed him in the centaur’s arms. He said:
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q>Æson bade me tell thee that the child’s name is Jason. He
+bade me give thee this ring with the great ruby in it that thou
+mayst give it to the child when he is grown. By this ring with
+its ruby and the images engraved on it Æson may know his son
+when they meet after many years and many changes. And another
+thing Æson bade me say to thee, O my lord Chiron: not
+presumptuous is he, but he knows that this child has the regard
+of the immortal Goddess Hera, the wife of Zeus.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Chiron held Æson’s son in his arms, and the little child put
+hands into his great beard. Then the centaur said, <q>Let Æson
+
+
+
+<pb n="5"/>
+know that his son will be reared and fostered by me, and that,
+when they meet again, there will be ways by which they will be
+known to each other.</q>
+</p>
+<p rend="text-align: center"><figure rend="width: 100%" url="images/i001.png"><anchor id="i001.png"/><index index="fig"/><head/><figDesc>Illustration</figDesc></figure></p>
+<p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Saying this Chiron the centaur, holding the child in his arms,
+went swiftly toward the forest arches; then the slave took up
+the horn and went down the side of the Mountain Pelion.
+He came to where a horse was hidden, and he mounted and
+rode, first to a city, and then to a village that was beyond the
+city.
+</p><milestone unit="tb"/><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> All this was before the famous walls of Troy were built; before
+King Priam had come to the throne of his father and while
+he was still known, not as Priam, but as Podarces. And the
+beginning of all these happenings was in Iolcus, a city in
+Thessaly.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Cretheus founded the city and had ruled over it in days before
+King Priam was born. He left two sons, Æson and Pelias.
+Æson succeeded his father. And because he was a mild and
+gentle man the men of war did not love Æson; they wanted a
+hard king who would lead them to conquests.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Pelias, the brother of Æson, was ever with the men of war;
+he knew what mind they had toward Æson and he plotted
+with them to overthrow his brother. This they did, and they
+brought Pelias to reign as king in Iolcus.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> The people loved Æson and they feared Pelias. And because
+the people loved him and would be maddened by his slaying,
+
+<pb n="6"/>
+
+Pelias and the men of war left him living. With his wife, Alcimide,
+and his infant son, Æson went from the city, and in a
+village that was at a distance from Iolcus he found a hidden
+house and went to dwell in it.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Æson would have lived content there were it not that he was
+fearful for Jason, his infant son. Jason, he knew, would grow
+into a strong and a bold youth, and Pelias, the king, would be
+made uneasy on his account. Pelias would slay the son, and
+perhaps would slay the father for the son’s sake when his memory
+would come to be less loved by the people. Æson thought
+of such things in his hidden house, and he pondered on ways to
+have his son reared away from Iolcus and the dread and the
+power of King Pelias.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> He had for a friend one who was the wisest of all creatures—Chiron
+the centaur; Chiron who was half man and half horse;
+Chiron who had lived and was yet to live measureless years.
+Chiron had fostered Heracles, and it might be that he would
+not refuse to foster Jason, Æson’s child.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Away in the fastnesses of Mount Pelion Chiron dwelt; once
+Æson had been with him and had seen the centaur hunt with
+his great bow and his great spears. And Æson knew a way
+that one might come to him; Chiron himself had told him of the
+way.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Now there was a slave in his house who had been a huntsman
+and who knew all the ways of the Mountain Pelion. Æson
+talked with this slave one day, and after he had talked with
+
+<pb n="7"/>
+
+him he sat for a long time over the cradle of his sleeping infant.
+And then he spoke to Alcimide, his wife, telling her of a parting
+that made her weep. That evening the slave came in and
+Æson took the child from the arms of the mournful-eyed
+mother and put him in the slave’s arms. Also he gave him a
+horn and a ring with a great ruby in it and mystic images engraved
+on its gold. Then when the ways were dark the slave
+mounted a horse, and, with the child in his arms, rode through
+the city that King Pelias ruled over. In the morning he came
+to that mountain that is all covered with forest, the Mountain
+Pelion. And that evening he came back to the village and
+to Æson’s hidden house, and he told his master how he had
+prospered.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Æson was content thereafter although he was lonely and although
+his wife was lonely in their childlessness. But the time
+came when they rejoiced that their child had been sent into an
+unreachable place. For messengers from King Pelias came inquiring
+about the boy. They told the king’s messengers that
+the child had strayed off from his nurse, and that whether he
+had been slain by a wild beast or had been drowned in the swift
+River Anaurus they did not know.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> The years went by and Pelias felt secure upon the throne he
+had taken from his brother. Once he sent to the oracle of the
+gods to ask of it whether he should be fearful of anything.
+What the oracle answered was this: that King Pelias had but
+one thing to dread—the coming of a half-shod man.
+</p><pb n="8"/><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> The centaur nourished the child Jason on roots and fruits
+and honey; for shelter they had a great cave that Chiron had
+lived in for numberless years. When he had grown big enough
+to leave the cave Chiron would let Jason mount on his back;
+with the child holding on to his great mane he would trot gently
+through the ways of the forest.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Jason began to know the creatures of the forest and their
+haunts. Sometimes Chiron would bring his great bow with him;
+then Jason, on his back, would hold the quiver and would hand
+him the arrows. The centaur would let the boy see him kill
+with a single arrow the bear, the boar, or the deer. And soon
+Jason, running beside him, hunted too.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> No heroes were ever better trained than those whose childhood
+and youth had been spent with Chiron the king-centaur.
+He made them more swift of foot than any other of the children
+of men. He made them stronger and more ready with the
+spear and bow. Jason was trained by Chiron as Heracles just
+before him had been trained, and as Achilles was to be trained
+afterward.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Moreover, Chiron taught him the knowledge of the stars and
+the wisdom that had to do with the ways of the gods.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Once, when they were hunting together, Jason saw a form at
+the end of an alley of trees—the form of a woman it was—of
+a woman who had on her head a shining crown. Never had
+Jason dreamt of seeing a form so wondrous. Not very near did
+he come, but he thought he knew that the woman smiled upon
+
+<pb n="9"/>
+
+him. She was seen no more, and Jason knew that he had looked
+upon one of the immortal goddesses.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> All day Jason was filled with thought of her whom he had seen.
+At night, when the stars were out, and when they were seated outside
+the cave, Chiron and Jason talked together, and Chiron told
+the youth that she whom he had seen was none other than Hera,
+the wife of Zeus, who had for his father Æson and for himself
+an especial friendliness.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> So Jason grew up upon the mountain and in the forest fastnesses.
+When he had reached his full height and had shown himself
+swift in the hunt and strong with the spear and bow, Chiron
+told him that the time had come when he should go back to the
+world of men and make his name famous by the doing of great
+deeds.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> And when Chiron told him about his father Æson—about
+how he had been thrust out of the kingship by Pelias, his uncle—a
+great longing came upon Jason to see his father and a fierce
+anger grew up in his heart against Pelias.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Then the time came when he bade good-by to Chiron his
+great instructor; the time came when he went from the centaur’s
+cave for the last time, and went through the wooded ways and
+down the side of the Mountain Pelion. He came to the river,
+to the swift Anaurus, and he found it high in flood. The stones
+by which one might cross were almost all washed over; far apart
+did they seem in the flood.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Now as he stood there pondering on what he might do there
+
+<pb n="10"/>
+
+came up to him an old woman who had on her back a load of
+brushwood. <q>Wouldst thou cross?</q> asked the old woman.
+<q>Wouldst thou cross and get thee to the city of Iolcus, Jason,
+where so many things await thee?</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Greatly was the youth astonished to hear his name spoken by
+this old woman, and to hear her give the name of the city he was
+bound for. <q>Wouldst thou cross the Anaurus?</q> she asked again.
+<q>Then mount upon my back, holding on to the wood I carry, and
+I will bear thee over the river.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Jason smiled. How foolish this old woman was to think that
+she could bear him across the flooded river! She came near him
+and she took him in her arms and lifted him up on her shoulders.
+Then, before he knew what she was about to do, she had stepped
+into the water.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> From stone to stepping-stone she went, Jason holding on to
+the wood that she had drawn to her shoulders. She left him
+down upon the bank. As she was lifting him down one of
+his feet touched the water; the swift current swept away a
+sandal.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> He stood on the bank knowing that she who had carried him
+across the flooded river had strength from the gods. He looked
+upon her, and behold! she was transformed. Instead of an old
+woman there stood before him one who had on a golden robe and
+a shining crown. Around her was a wondrous light—the light
+of the sun when it is most golden. Then Jason knew that she
+who had carried him across the broad Anaurus was the goddess
+
+
+
+
+
+<pb n="11"/>
+
+whom he had seen in the ways of the forest—Hera, great Zeus’s
+wife.
+</p>
+<p rend="text-align: center"><figure rend="width: 100%" url="images/i002.png"><anchor id="i002.png"/><index index="fig"/><head/><figDesc>Illustration</figDesc></figure></p>
+<p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q>Go into Iolcus, Jason,</q> said great Hera to him, <q>go into
+Iolcus, and in whatever chance doth befall thee act as one who
+has the eyes of the immortals upon him.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> She spoke and she was seen no more. Then Jason went on his
+way to the city that Cretheus, his grandfather, had founded and
+that his father Æson had once ruled over. He came into that
+city, a tall, great-limbed, unknown youth, dressed in a strange
+fashion, and having but one sandal on.
+</p></div><div><index index="toc"/><index index='pdf'/><head>II. King Pelias</head><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <figure rend="float: left; margin-top: 0em; margin-bottom: 0em; x-class: deco-letter;" url="images/capT.png"><figDesc>Decorative first letter</figDesc></figure><hi rend="font-variant: small-caps; color:white; margin-left: -1em">T</hi>HAT day King Pelias, walking through
+the streets of his city, saw coming toward
+him a youth who was half shod. He remembered
+the words of the oracle that
+bade him beware of a half-shod man, and
+straightway he gave orders to his guards to
+lay hands upon the youth.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> But the guards wavered when they went toward him, for there
+was something about the youth that put them in awe of him.
+He came with the guards, however, and he stood before the king’s
+judgment seat.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Fearfully did Pelias look upon him. But not fearfully did the
+youth look upon the king. With head lifted high he cried out,
+
+<pb n="12"/>
+
+<q>Thou art Pelias, but I do not salute thee as king. Know that
+I am Jason, the son of Æson from whom thou hast taken the
+throne and scepter that were rightfully his.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> King Pelias looked to his guards. He would have given them
+a sign to destroy the youth’s life with their spears, but behind his
+guards he saw a threatening multitude—the dwellers of the city
+of Iolcus; they gathered around, and Pelias knew that he had
+become more and more hated by them. And from the multitude
+a cry went up, <q>Æson, Æson! May Æson come back to us!
+Jason, son of Æson! May nothing evil befall thee, brave youth!</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Then Pelias knew that the youth might not be slain. He bent
+his head while he plotted against him in his heart. Then he raised
+his eyes, and looking upon Jason he said, <q>O goodly youth, it well
+may be that thou art the son of Æson, my brother. I am well
+pleased to see thee here. I have had hopes that I might be
+friends with Æson, and thy coming here may be the means to the
+renewal of our friendship. We two brothers may come together
+again. I will send for thy father now, and he will be brought to
+meet thee in my royal palace. Go with my guards and with this
+rejoicing people, and in a little while thou and I and thy father
+Æson will sit at a feast of friends.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> So Pelias said, and Jason went with the guards and the crowd
+of people, and he came to the palace of the king and he was
+brought within. The maids led him to the bath and gave him
+new robes to wear. Dressed in these Jason looked a prince indeed.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> But all that while King Pelias remained on his judgment seat
+
+
+
+
+<pb n="13"/>
+
+with his crowned head bent down. When he raised his head
+his dark brows were gathered together and his thin lips were
+very close. He looked to the swords and spears of his guards,
+and he made a sign to the men to stand close to him. Then he
+left the judgment seat and he went to the palace.
+</p>
+<p rend="text-align: center"><figure rend="width: 100%" url="images/i003.png"><anchor id="i003.png"/><index index="fig"/><head/><figDesc>Illustration</figDesc></figure></p>
+</div><div><index index="toc"/><index index='pdf'/><head>III. The Golden Fleece</head><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <figure rend="float: left; margin-top: 0em; margin-bottom: 0em; x-class: deco-letter;" url="images/capT.png"><figDesc>Decorative first letter</figDesc></figure><hi rend="font-variant: small-caps; color:white; margin-left: -1em">T</hi>HEY brought Jason into a hall where Æson,
+his father, waited. Very strange did this
+old and grave-looking man appear to him.
+But when Æson spoke, Jason remembered
+the tone of his father’s voice and he clasped
+him to him. And his father knew him
+even without the sight of the ruby ring
+which Jason had upon his finger.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Then the young man began to tell of the centaur and of his life
+upon the Mountain Pelion. As they were speaking together
+Pelias came to where they stood, Pelias in the purple robe of a
+king and with the crown upon his head. Æson tightly clasped
+Jason as if he had become fearful for his son. Pelias smilingly
+took the hand of the young man and the hand of his brother,
+and he bade them both welcome to his palace.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Then, walking between them, the king brought the two into
+the feasting hall. The youth who had known only the forest and
+the mountainside had to wonder at the beauty and the magnificence
+
+<pb n="14"/>
+
+of all he saw around him. On the walls were bright
+pictures; the tables were of polished wood, and they had vessels
+of gold and dishes of silver set upon them; along the walls were
+vases of lovely shapes and colors, and everywhere there were
+baskets heaped with roses white and red.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> The king’s guests were already in the hall, young men and
+elders, and maidens went amongst them carrying roses which they
+strung into wreaths for the guests to put upon their heads. A
+soft-handed maiden gave Jason a wreath of roses and he put it on
+his head as he sat down at the king’s table. When he looked
+at all the rich and lovely things in that hall, and when he saw the
+guests looking at him with friendly eyes, Jason felt that he was
+indeed far away from the dim spaces of the mountain forest and
+from the darkness of the centaur’s cave.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Rich food and wine such as he had never dreamt of tasting
+were brought to the tables. He ate and drank, and his eyes followed
+the fair maidens who went through the hall. He thought
+how glorious it was to be a king. He heard Pelias speak to Æson,
+his father, telling him that he was old and that he was weary of
+ruling; that he longed to make friends, and that he would let no
+enmity now be between him and his brother. And he heard the
+king say that he, Jason, was young and courageous, and that he
+would call upon him to help to rule the land, and that, in a while,
+Jason would bear full sway over the kingdom that Cretheus had
+founded.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> So Pelias spoke to Æson as they both sat together at the king’s
+
+
+
+
+<pb n="15"/>
+
+high table. But Jason, looking on them both, saw that the eyes
+that his father turned on him were full of warnings and mistrust.
+</p>
+<p rend="text-align: center"><figure rend="width: 100%" url="images/i004.png"><anchor id="i004.png"/><index index="fig"/><head/><figDesc>Illustration</figDesc></figure></p>
+<p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> After they had eaten King Pelias made a sign, and a cup-bearer
+bringing a richly wrought cup came and stood before the
+king. The king stood up, holding the cup in his hands, and all
+in the hall waited silently. Then Pelias put the cup into Jason’s
+hands and he cried out in a voice that was heard all through the
+hall, <q>Drink from this cup, O nephew Jason! Drink from this
+cup, O man who will soon come to rule over the kingdom that
+Cretheus founded!</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> All in the hall stood up and shouted with delight at that speech.
+But the king was not delighted with their delight, Jason saw. He
+took the cup and he drank the rich wine; pride grew in him;
+he looked down the hall and he saw faces all friendly to him; he
+felt as a king might feel, secure and triumphant. And then he
+heard King Pelias speaking once more.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q>This is my nephew Jason, reared and fostered in the centaur’s
+cave. He will tell you of his life in the forest and the mountains—his
+life that was like to the life of the half gods.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Then Jason spoke to them, telling them of his life on the
+Mountain Pelion. When he had spoken, Pelias said:
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q rend="post: none">I was bidden by the oracle to beware of the man whom I
+should see coming toward me half shod. But, as you all see, I
+have brought the half-shod man to my palace and my feasting
+hall, so little do I dread the anger of the gods.
+</q></p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q>And I dread it little because I am blameless. This youth, the
+
+<pb n="16"/>
+
+son of my brother, is strong and courageous, and I rejoice in
+his strength and courage, for I would have him take my place and
+reign over you. Ah, that I were as young as he is now! Ah, that
+I had been reared and fostered as he was reared and fostered by
+the wise centaur and under the eyes of the immortals! Then
+would I do that which in my youth I often dreamed of doing!
+Then would I perform a deed that would make my name and the
+name of my city famous throughout all Greece! Then would I
+bring from far Colchis the famous Fleece of Gold that King
+Æetes keeps guard over!</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> He finished speaking, and all in the hall shouted out, <q>The
+Golden Fleece, the Golden Fleece from Colchis!</q> Jason stood
+up, and his father’s hand gripped him. But he did not heed the
+hold of his father’s hand, for <q>The Golden Fleece, the Golden
+Fleece!</q> rang in his ears, and before his eyes were the faces of
+those who were all eager for the sight of the wonder that King
+Æetes kept guard over.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Then said Jason, <q>Thou hast spoken well, O King Pelias!
+Know, and know all here assembled, that I have heard of the
+Golden Fleece and of the dangers that await on any one who
+should strive to win it from King Æetes’s care. But know, too,
+that I would strive to win the Fleece and bring it to Iolcus, winning
+fame both for myself and for the city.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> When he had spoken he saw his father’s stricken eyes; they
+were fixed upon him. But he looked from them to the shining
+eyes of the young men who were even then pressing around
+
+<pb n="17"/>
+
+where he stood. <q>Jason, Jason!</q> they shouted. <q>The Golden
+Fleece for Iolcus!</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q>King Pelias knows that the winning of the Golden Fleece is
+a feat most difficult,</q> said Jason. <q>But if he will have built for
+me a ship that can make the voyage to far Colchis, and if he will
+send throughout all Greece the word of my adventuring so that
+all the heroes who would win fame might come with me, and if
+ye, young heroes of Iolcus, will come with me, I will peril my life
+to win the wonder that King Æetes keeps guard over.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> He spoke and those in the hall shouted again and made clamor
+around him. But still his father sat gazing at him with stricken
+eyes.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> King Pelias stood up in the hall and holding up his scepter he
+said, <q>O my nephew Jason, and O friends assembled here, I
+promise that I will have built for the voyage the best ship that
+ever sailed from a harbor in Greece. And I promise that I will
+send throughout all Greece a word telling of Jason’s voyage so
+that all heroes desirous of winning fame may come to help him
+and to help all of you who may go with him to win from the
+keeping of King Æetes the famous Fleece of Gold.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> So King Pelias said, but Jason, looking to the king from his
+father’s stricken eyes, saw that he had been led by the king into
+the acceptance of the voyage so that he might fare far from
+Iolcus, and perhaps lose his life in striving to gain the wonder
+that King Æetes kept guarded. By the glitter in Pelias’s eyes he
+knew the truth. Nevertheless Jason would not take back one
+
+<pb n="18"/>
+
+word that he had spoken; his heart was strong within him, and
+he thought that with the help of the bright-eyed youths around
+and with the help of those who would come to him at the word
+of the voyage, he would bring the Golden Fleece to Iolcus and
+make famous for all time his own name.
+</p></div><div><index index="toc"/><index index='pdf'/><head>IV. The Assembling of the Heroes and the Building of the Ship</head><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <figure rend="float: left; margin-top: 0em; margin-bottom: 0em; x-class: deco-letter;" url="images/capF.png"><figDesc>Decorative first letter</figDesc></figure><hi rend="font-variant: small-caps; color:white; margin-left: -1em">F</hi>IRST there came the youths <hi rend="font-variant: small-caps">Castor</hi> and
+<hi rend="font-variant: small-caps">Polydeuces</hi>. They came riding on white
+horses, two noble-looking brothers. From
+Sparta they came, and their mother was
+Leda, who, after the twin brothers, had
+another child born to her—Helen, for
+whose sake the sons of many of Jason’s
+friends were to wage war against the great city of Troy. These
+were the first heroes who came to Iolcus after the word had gone
+forth through Greece of Jason’s adventuring in quest of the
+Golden Fleece.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> And then there came one who had both welcome and reverence
+from Jason; this one came without spear or bow, bearing in his
+hands a lyre only. He was <hi rend="font-variant: small-caps">Orpheus</hi>, and he knew all the ways
+of the gods and all the stories of the gods; when he sang to his
+lyre the trees would listen and the beasts would follow him. It
+was Chiron who had counseled Orpheus to go with Jason; Chiron
+
+<pb n="19"/>
+
+the centaur had met him as he was wandering through the forests
+on the Mountain Pelion and had sent him down into Iolcus.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Then there came two men well skilled in the handling of ships—<hi rend="font-variant: small-caps">Tiphys</hi>
+and <hi rend="font-variant: small-caps">Nauplius</hi>. Tiphys knew all about the sun and
+winds and stars, and all about the signs by which a ship might
+be steered, and Nauplius had the love of Poseidon, the god of the
+sea.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Afterward there came, one after the other, two who were
+famous for their hunting. No two could be more different than
+these two were. The first was <hi rend="font-variant: small-caps">Arcas</hi>. He was dressed in the
+skin of a bear; he had red hair and savage-looking eyes, and for
+arms he carried a mighty bow with bronze-tipped arrows. The
+folk were watching an eagle as he came into the city—an eagle
+that was winging its way far, far up in the sky. Arcas drew his
+bow, and with one arrow he brought the eagle down.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> The other hunter was a girl, <hi rend="font-variant: small-caps">Atalanta</hi>. Tall and bright-haired
+was Atalanta, swift and good with the bow. She had
+dedicated herself to Artemis, the guardian of the wild things, and
+she had vowed that she would remain unwedded. All the heroes
+welcomed Atalanta as a comrade, and the maiden did all the
+things that the young men did.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> There came a hero who was less youthful than Castor or Polydeuces;
+he was a man good in council named <hi rend="font-variant: small-caps">Nestor</hi>. Afterward
+Nestor went to the war against Troy, and then he was the oldest
+of the heroes in the camp of Agamemnon.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Two brothers came who were to be special friends of Jason’s—<hi rend="font-variant: small-caps">Peleus</hi> 
+
+<pb n="20"/>
+
+and <hi rend="font-variant: small-caps">Telamon</hi>. Both were still youthful and neither had
+yet achieved any notable deed. Afterward they were to be
+famous, but their sons were to be even more famous, for the son
+of Telamon was strong Aias, and the son of Peleus was great
+Achilles.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Another who came was <hi rend="font-variant: small-caps">Admetus</hi>; afterward he became a
+famous king. The God Apollo once made himself a shepherd
+and he kept the flocks of King Admetus.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> And there came two brothers, twins, who were a wonder to
+all who beheld them. <hi rend="font-variant: small-caps">Zetes</hi> and <hi rend="font-variant: small-caps">Calais</hi> they were named; their
+mother was Oreithyia, the daughter of Erechtheus, King of
+Athens, and their father was Boreas, the North Wind. These
+two brothers had on their ankles wings that gleamed with golden
+scales; their black hair was thick upon their shoulders, and it was
+always being shaken by the wind.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> With Zetes and Calais there came a youth armed with a great
+sword whose name was <hi rend="font-variant: small-caps">Theseus</hi>. Theseus’s father was an unknown
+king; he had bidden the mother show their son where his
+sword was hidden. Under a great stone the king had hidden it
+before Theseus was born. Before he had grown out of his boyhood
+Theseus had been able to raise the stone and draw forth
+his father’s sword. As yet he had done no great deed, but he
+was resolved to win fame and to find his unknown father.
+</p><milestone unit="tb"/><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> On the day that the messengers had set out to bring through
+Greece the word of Jason’s going forth in quest of the Golden
+
+
+
+
+<pb n="21"/>
+
+Fleece the woodcutters made their way up into the forests of
+Mount Pelion; they began to fell trees for the timbers of the ship
+that was to make the voyage to far Colchis.
+</p>
+<p rend="text-align: center"><figure rend="width: 100%" url="images/i005.png"><anchor id="i005.png"/><index index="fig"/><head/><figDesc>Illustration</figDesc></figure></p>
+<p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Great timbers were cut and brought down to Pagasæ, the
+harbor of Iolcus. On the night of the day he had helped to bring
+them down Jason had a dream. He dreamt that She whom he
+had seen in the forest ways and afterward by the River Anaurus
+appeared to him. And in his dream the goddess bade him rise
+early in the morning and welcome a man whom he would meet
+at the city’s gate—a tall and gray-haired man who would have
+on his shoulders tools for the building of a ship.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> He went to the city’s gate and he met such a man. <hi rend="font-variant: small-caps">Argus</hi> was
+his name. He told Jason that a dream had sent him to the city
+of Iolcus. Jason welcomed him and lodged him in the king’s
+palace, and that day the word went through the city that the
+building of the great ship would soon be begun.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> But not with the timbers brought from Mount Pelion did
+Argus begin. Walking through the palace with Jason he noted a
+great beam in the roof. That beam, he said, had been shown him
+in his dream; it was from an oak tree in Dodona, the grove of
+Zeus. A sacred power was in the beam, and from it the prow of
+the ship should be fashioned. Jason had them take the beam
+from the roof of the palace; it was brought to where the timbers
+were, and that day the building of the great ship was begun.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Then all along the waterside came the noise of hammering; in
+the street where the metalworkers were came the noise of beating
+
+<pb n="22"/>
+
+upon metals as the smiths fashioned out of bronze armor for the
+heroes and swords and spears. Every day, under the eyes of
+Argus the master, the ship that had in it the beam from Zeus’s
+grove was built higher and wider. And those who were building
+the ship often felt going through it tremors as of a living
+creature.
+</p><milestone unit="tb"/><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> When the ship was built and made ready for the voyage a name
+was given to it—the <hi rend="font-variant: small-caps">Argo</hi> it was called. And naming themselves
+from the ship the heroes called themselves the <hi rend="font-variant: small-caps">Argonauts</hi>.
+All was ready for the voyage, and now Jason went with his
+friends to view the ship before she was brought into the water.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Argus the master was on the ship, seeing to it that the last
+things were being done before <emph>Argo</emph> was launched. Very grave
+and wise looked Argus—Argus the builder of the ship. And
+wonderful to the heroes the ship looked now that Argus, for their
+viewing, had set up the mast with the sails and had even put the
+oars in their places. Wonderful to the heroes <emph>Argo</emph> looked with
+her long oars and her high sails, with her timbers painted red
+and gold and blue, and with a marvelous figure carved upon her
+prow. All over the ship Jason’s eyes went. He saw a figure
+standing by the mast; for a moment he looked on it, and then
+the figure became shadowy. But Jason knew that he had looked
+upon the goddess whom he had seen in the ways of the forest and
+had seen afterward by the rough Anaurus.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Then mast and sails were taken down and the oars were left in
+
+<pb n="23"/>
+
+the ship, and the <emph>Argo</emph> was launched into the water. The heroes
+went back to the palace of King Pelias to feast with the king’s
+guests before they took their places on the ship, setting out on
+the voyage to far Colchis.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> When they came into the palace they saw that another hero
+had arrived. His shield was hung in the hall; the heroes all
+gathered around, amazed at the size and the beauty of it. The
+shield shone all over with gold. In its center was the figure of
+Fear—of Fear that stared backward with eyes burning as with
+fire. The mouth was open and the teeth were shown. And other
+figures were wrought around the figure of Fear—Strife and Pursuit
+and Flight; Tumult and Panic and Slaughter. The figure
+of Fate was there dragging a dead man by the feet; on her
+shoulders Fate had a garment that was red with the blood of men.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Around these figures were heads of snakes, heads with black
+jaws and glittering eyes, twelve heads such as might affright any
+man. And on other parts of the shield were shown the horses of
+Ares, the grim god of war. The figure of Ares himself was
+shown also. He held a spear in his hand, and he was urging the
+warriors on.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Around the inner rim of the shield the sea was shown, wrought
+in white metal. Dolphins swam in the sea, fishing for little fishes
+that were shown there in bronze. Around the rim chariots were
+racing along with wheels running close together; there were men
+fighting and women watching from high towers. The awful figure
+of the Darkness of Death was shown there, too, with mournful
+
+<pb n="24"/>
+
+eyes and the dust of battles upon her shoulders. The outer rim
+of the shield showed the Stream of Ocean, the stream that encircles
+the world; swans were soaring above and swimming on
+its surface.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> All in wonder the heroes gazed on the great shield, telling each
+other that only one man in all the world could carry it—Heracles
+the son of Zeus. Could it be that Heracles had come amongst
+them? They went into the feasting hall and they saw one there
+who was tall as a pine tree, with unshorn tresses of hair upon his
+head. Heracles indeed it was! He turned to them a smiling face
+with smiling eyes. Heracles! They all gathered around the
+strongest hero in the world, and he took the hand of each in his
+mighty hand.
+</p></div><div><index index="toc"/><index index='pdf'/><head>V. The <emph>Argo</emph></head><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <figure rend="float: left; margin-top: 0em; margin-bottom: 0em; x-class: deco-letter;" url="images/capT.png"><figDesc>Decorative first letter</figDesc></figure><hi rend="font-variant: small-caps; color:white; margin-left: -1em">T</hi>HE heroes went the next day through the
+streets of Iolcus down to where the ship
+lay. The ways they went through were
+crowded; the heroes were splendid in
+their appearance, and Jason amongst
+them shone like a star.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> The people praised him, and one told
+the other that it would not be long until they would win back to
+Iolcus, for this band of heroes was strong enough, they said, to
+take King Æetes’s city and force him to give up to them the
+famous Fleece of Gold. Many of the bright-eyed youths of Iolcus
+
+
+
+
+<pb n="25"/>
+
+went with the heroes who had come from the different parts of
+Greece.
+</p>
+<p rend="text-align: center"><figure rend="width: 100%" url="images/i006.png"><anchor id="i006.png"/><index index="fig"/><head>the <emph>Argo</emph></head><figDesc>Illustration</figDesc></figure></p>
+<p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> As they marched past a temple a priestess came forth to speak
+to Jason; Iphias was her name. She had a prophecy to utter
+about the voyage. But Iphias was very old, and she stammered
+in her speech to Jason. What she said was not heard by him.
+The heroes went on, and ancient Iphias was left standing there
+as the old are left by the young.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> The heroes went aboard the <emph>Argo</emph>. They took their seats as at
+an assembly. Then Jason faced them and spoke to them all.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q>Heroes of the quest,</q> said Jason, <q rend="post: none">we have come aboard
+the great ship that Argus has built, and all that a ship needs is
+in its place or is ready to our hands. All that we wait for now is
+the coming of the morning’s breeze that will set us on our way
+for far Colchis.
+</q></p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q>One thing we have first to do—that is, to choose a leader
+who will direct us all, one who will settle disputes amongst ourselves
+and who will make treaties between us and the strangers
+that we come amongst. We must choose such a leader now.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Jason spoke, and some looked to him and some looked to
+Heracles. But Heracles stood up, and, stretching out his hand,
+said:
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q>Argonauts! Let no one amongst you offer the leadership to
+me. I will not take it. The hero who brought us together and
+made all things ready for our going—it is he and no one else who
+should be our leader in this voyage.</q>
+</p><pb n="26"/><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> So Heracles said, and the Argonauts all stood up and raised a
+cry for Jason. Then Jason stepped forward, and he took the hand
+of each Argonaut in his hand, and he swore that he would lead
+them with all the mind and all the courage that he possessed.
+And he prayed the gods that it would be given to him to lead
+them back safely with the Golden Fleece glittering on the mast
+of the <emph>Argo</emph>.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> They drew lots for the benches they would sit at; they took
+the places that for the length of the voyage they would have on
+the ship. They made sacrifice to the gods and they waited for
+the breeze of the morning that would help them away from Iolcus.
+</p><milestone unit="tb"/><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> And while they waited Æson, the father of Jason, sat at his
+own hearth, bowed and silent in his grief. Alcimide, his wife,
+sat near him, but she was not silent; she lamented to the women
+of Iolcus who were gathered around her. <q>I did not go down to
+the ship,</q> she said, <q>for with my grief I would not be a bird of
+ill omen for the voyage. By this hearth my son took farewell of
+me—the only son I ever bore. From the doorway I watched
+him go down the street of the city, and I heard the people shout
+as he went amongst them, they glorying in my son’s splendid appearance.
+Ah, that I might live to see his return and to hear the
+shout that will go up when the people look on Jason again! But
+I know that my life will not be spared so long; I will not look on
+my son when he comes back from the dangers he will run in the
+quest of the Golden Fleece.</q>
+</p><pb n="27"/><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Then the women of Iolcus asked her to tell them of the Golden
+Fleece, and Alcimide told them of it and of the sorrows that
+were upon the race of Æolus.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Cretheus, the father of Æson and Pelias, was of the race of
+Æolus, and of the race of Æolus, too, was Athamas, the king who
+ruled in Thebes at the same time that Cretheus ruled in Iolcus.
+And the first children of Athamas were Phrixus and Helle.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q>Ah, Phrixus and ah, Helle,</q> Alcimide lamented, <q rend="post: none">what
+griefs you have brought on the race of Æolus! And what griefs
+you yourselves suffered! The evil that Athamas, your father,
+did you lives to be a curse to the line of Æolus!
+</q></p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q rend="post: none">Athamas was wedded first to Nephele, the mother of Phrixus
+and Helle, the youth and maiden. But Athamas married again
+while the mother of these children was still living, and Ino, the
+new queen, drove Nephele and her children out of the king’s
+palace.
+</q></p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q rend="post: none">And now was Nephele most unhappy. She had to live as a
+servant, and her children were servants to the servants of the
+palace. They were clad in rags and had little to eat, and they
+were beaten often by the servants who wished to win the favor
+of the new queen.
+</q></p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q rend="post: none">But although they wore rags and had menial tasks to do,
+Phrixus and Helle looked the children of a queen. The boy was
+tall, and in his eyes there often came the flash of power, and the
+girl looked as if she would grow into a lovely maiden. And when
+Athamas, their father, would meet them by chance he would sigh,
+
+<pb n="28"/>
+
+and Queen Ino would know by that sigh that he had still some
+love for them in his heart. Afterward she would have to use all
+the power she possessed to win the king back from thinking upon
+his children.
+</q></p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q rend="post: none">And now Queen Ino had children of her own. She knew that
+the people reverenced the children of Nephele and cared nothing
+for her children. And because she knew this she feared that when
+Athamas died Phrixus and Helle, the children of Nephele, would
+be brought to rule in Thebes. Then she and her children would
+be made to change places with them.
+</q></p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q rend="post: none">This made Queen Ino think on ways by which she could make
+Phrixus and Helle lose their lives. She thought long upon this,
+and at last a desperate plan came into her mind.
+</q></p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q rend="post: none">When it was winter she went amongst the women of the
+countryside, and she gave them jewels and clothes for presents.
+Then she asked them to do secretly an unheard-of thing. She
+asked the women to roast over their fires the grains that had
+been left for seed. This the women did. Then spring came on,
+and the men sowed in the fields the grain that had been roasted
+over the fires. No shoots grew up as the spring went by. In
+summer there was no waving greenness in the fields. Autumn
+came, and there was no grain for the reaping. Then the men, not
+knowing what had happened, went to King Athamas and told
+him that there would be famine in the land.
+</q></p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q rend="post: none">The king sent to the temple of Artemis to ask how the people
+might be saved from the famine. And the guardians of the temple,
+
+<pb n="29"/>
+
+having taken gold from Queen Ino, told them that there would be
+worse and worse famine and that all the people of Thebes would
+die of hunger unless the king was willing to make a great sacrifice.
+</q></p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q rend="post: none">When the king asked what sacrifice he should make he was
+told by the guardians of the temple that he must sacrifice to the
+goddess his two children, Phrixus and Helle. Those who were
+around the king, to save themselves from famine after famine,
+clamored to have the children sacrificed. Athamas, to save his
+people, consented to the sacrifice.
+</q></p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q rend="post: none">They went toward the king’s palace. They found Helle by
+the bank of the river washing clothes. They took her and bound
+her. They found Phrixus, half naked, digging in a field, and they
+took him, too, and bound him. That night they left brother and
+sister in the same prison. Helle wept over Phrixus, and Phrixus
+wept to think that he was not able to do anything to save his
+sister.
+</q></p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q rend="post: none">The servants of the palace went to Nephele, and they mocked
+at her, telling her that her children would be sacrificed on the
+morrow. Nephele nearly went wild in her grief. And then,
+suddenly, there came into her mind the thought of a creature that
+might be a helper to her and to her children.
+</q></p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q rend="post: none">This creature was a ram that had wings and a wonderful
+fleece of gold. The god of the sea, Poseidon, had sent this
+wonderful ram to Athamas and Nephele as a marriage gift. And
+the ram had since been kept in a special fold.
+</q></p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q rend="post: none">To that fold Nephele went. She spent the night beside the
+
+<pb n="30"/>
+
+ram praying for its help. The morning came and the children
+were taken from their prison and dressed in white, and wreaths
+were put upon their heads to mark them as things for sacrifice.
+They were led in a procession to the temple of Artemis. Behind
+that procession King Athamas walked, his head bowed in shame.
+</q></p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q rend="post: none">But Queen Ino’s head was not bowed; rather she carried it
+high, for her thought was all upon her triumph. Soon Phrixus
+and Helle would be dead, and then, whatever happened, her own
+children would reign after Athamas in Thebes.
+</q></p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q rend="post: none">Phrixus and Helle, thinking they were taking their last look
+at the sun, went on. And even then Nephele, holding the horns
+of the golden ram, was making her last prayer. The sun rose and
+as it did the ram spread out its great wings and flew through the
+air. It flew to the temple of Artemis. Down beside the altar came
+the golden ram, and it stood with its horns threatening those who
+came. All stopped in surprise. Still the ram stood with threatening
+head and great golden wings spread out. Then Phrixus ran
+from those who were holding him and laid his hands upon the
+ram. He called to Helle and she, too, came to the golden creature.
+Phrixus mounted on the ram and he pulled Helle up beside him.
+Then the golden ram flew upward. Up, up, it went, and with the
+children upon its back it became like a star in the day-lit sky.
+</q></p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q rend="post: none">Then Queen Ino, seeing the children saved by the golden ram,
+shrieked and fled away from that place. Athamas ran after her.
+As she ran and as he followed hatred for her grew up within him.
+Ino ran on and on until she came to the cliffs that rose over the
+
+<pb n="31"/>
+
+sea. Fearing Athamas who came behind her she plunged down.
+But as she fell she was changed by Poseidon, the god of the sea.
+She became a seagull. Athamas, who followed her, was changed
+also; he became the sea eagle that, with beak and talons ever
+ready to strike, flies above the sea.
+</q></p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q rend="post: none">And the golden ram with wings outspread flew on and on.
+Over the sea it flew while the wind whistled around the children.
+On and on they went, and the children saw only the blue sea
+beneath them. Then poor Helle, looking downward, grew dizzy.
+She fell off the golden ram before her brother could take hold of
+her. Down she fell, and still the ram flew on and on. She was
+drowned in that sea. The people afterward named it in memory
+of her, calling it <q>Hellespont</q>—<q>Helle’s Sea.</q>
+</q></p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q rend="post: none">On and on the ram flew. Over a wild and barren country it
+flew and toward a river. Upon that river a white city was built.
+Down the ram flew, and alighting on the ground, stood before
+the gate of that city. It was the city of Aea, in the land of
+Colchis.
+</q></p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q rend="post: none">The king was in the street of the city, and he joined with the
+crowd that gathered around the strange golden creature that had
+a youth upon its back. The ram folded its wings and then the
+youth stood beside it. He spoke to the people, and then the
+king—Æetes was his name—spoke to him, asking him from
+what place he had come, and what was the strange creature upon
+whose back he had flown.
+</q></p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q rend="post: none">To the king and to the people Phrixus told his story, weeping
+
+<pb n="32"/>
+
+to tell of Helle and her fall. Then King Æetes brought him into
+the city, and he gave him a place in the palace, and for the golden
+ram he had a special fold made.
+</q></p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q rend="post: none">Soon after the ram died, and then King Æetes took its golden
+fleece and hung it upon an oak tree that was in a place dedicated
+to Ares, the god of war. Phrixus wed one of the daughters of
+the king, and men say that afterward he went back to Thebes,
+his own land.
+</q></p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q>And as for the Golden Fleece it became the greatest of
+King Æetes’s treasures. Well indeed does he guard it, and not
+with armed men only, but with magic powers. Very strong and
+very cunning is King Æetes, and a terrible task awaits those who
+would take away from him that Fleece of Gold.</q>
+</p><milestone unit="tb"/><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> So Alcimide spoke, sorrowfully telling to the women the story
+of the Golden Fleece that her son Jason was going in quest of.
+So she spoke, and the night waned, and the morning of the sailing
+of the <emph>Argo</emph> came on.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> And when the Argonauts beheld the dawn upon the high peaks
+of Pelion they arose and poured out wine in offering to Zeus, the
+highest of the gods. Then <emph>Argo</emph> herself gave forth a strange
+cry, for the beam from Dodona that had been formed into her prow
+had endued her with life. She uttered a strange cry, and as she
+did the heroes took their places at the benches, one after the
+other, as had been arranged by lot, and Tiphys, the helmsman,
+went to the steering place. To the sound of Orpheus’s lyre they
+
+<pb n="33"/>
+
+smote with oars the rushing sea water, and the surge broke over
+the oar blades. The sails were let out and the breeze came into
+them, piping shrilly, and the fishes came darting through the
+green sea, great and small, and followed them, gamboling along
+the watery paths. And Chiron, the king-centaur, came down
+from the Mountain Pelion, and standing with his feet in the foam
+cried out, <q>Good speed, O Argonauts, good speed, and a sorrowless
+return.</q>
+</p><div><index index="toc"/><index index='pdf'/><head>The Beginning of Things</head><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Orpheus sang to his lyre, Orpheus the minstrel, who knew the
+ways and the stories of the gods; out in the open sea on the first
+morning of the voyage Orpheus sang to them of the beginning of
+things.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> He sang how at first Earth and Heaven and Sea were all mixed
+and mingled together. There was neither Light nor Darkness
+then, but only a Dimness. This was Chaos. And from Chaos
+came forth Night and Erebus. From Night was born Æther, the
+Upper Air, and from Night and Erebus wedded there was born
+Day.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> And out of Chaos came Earth, and out of Earth came the
+starry Heaven. And from Heaven and Earth wedded there were
+born the Titan gods and goddesses—Oceanus, Cœus, Crius,
+Hyperion, Iapetus; Theia, Rhea, Themis, Mnemosyne, gold-crowned
+Phœbe, and lovely Tethys. And then Heaven and Earth
+had for their child Cronos, the most cunning of all.
+</p><pb n="34"/><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Cronos wedded Rhea, and from Cronos and Rhea were born the
+gods who were different from the Titan gods.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> But Heaven and Earth had other children—Cottus, Briareus,
+and Gyes. These were giants, each with fifty heads and a
+hundred arms. And Heaven grew fearful when he looked on
+these giant children, and he hid them away in the deep places of
+the Earth.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Cronos hated Heaven, his father. He drove Heaven, his
+father, and Earth, his mother, far apart. And far apart they
+stay, for they have never been able to come near each other since.
+And Cronos married to Rhea had for children Hestia, Demeter,
+Hera, Aidoneus, and Poseidon, and these all belonged to the
+company of the deathless gods. Cronos was fearful that one of
+his sons would treat him as he had treated Heaven, his father.
+So when another child was born to him and his wife Rhea he
+commanded that the child be given to him so that he might
+swallow him. But Rhea wrapped a great stone in swaddling
+clothes and gave the stone to Cronos. And Cronos swallowed
+the stone, thinking to swallow his latest-born child.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> That child was Zeus. Earth took Zeus and hid him in a deep
+cave and those who minded and nursed the child beat upon
+drums so that his cries might not be heard. His nurse was
+Adrastia; when he was able to play she gave him a ball to play
+with. All of gold was the ball, with a dark-blue spiral around it.
+When the boy Zeus would play with this ball it would make a
+track across the sky, flaming like a star.
+</p><pb n="35"/><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Hyperion the Titan god wed Theia the Titan goddess, and
+their children were Helios, the bright Sun, and Selene, the clear
+Moon. And Cœus wed Phœbe, and their children were Leto,
+who is kind to gods and men, and Asteria of happy name, and
+Hecate, whom Zeus honored above all. Now the gods who were
+the children of Cronos and Rhea went up unto the Mountain
+Olympus, and there they built their shining palaces. But the
+Titan gods who were born of Heaven and Earth went up to the
+Mountain Othrys, and there they had their thrones.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Between the Olympians and the Titan gods of Othrys a war
+began. Neither side might prevail against the other. But
+now Zeus, grown up to be a youth, thought of how he might
+help the Olympians to overthrow the Titan gods.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> He went down into the deep parts of the Earth where the
+giants Cottus, Briareus, and Gyes had been hidden by their
+father. Cronos had bound them, weighing them down with
+chains. But now Zeus loosed them and the hundred-armed
+giants in their gratitude gave him the lightning and showed him
+how to use the thunderbolt.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Zeus would have the giants fight against the Titan gods. But
+although they had mighty strength Cottus, Briareus, and Gyes
+had no fire of courage in their hearts. Zeus thought of a way to
+give them this courage; he brought the food and drink of the
+gods to them, ambrosia and nectar, and when they had eaten and
+drunk their spirits grew within the giants, and they were ready to
+make war upon the Titan gods.
+</p><pb n="36"/><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q>Sons of Earth and Heaven,</q> said Zeus to the hundred-armed
+giants, <q>a long time now have the Dwellers on Olympus been
+striving with the Titan gods. Do you lend your unconquerable
+might to the gods and help them to overthrow the Titans.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Cottus, the eldest of the giants, answered, <q>Divine One,
+through your devising we are come back again from the murky
+gloom of the mid Earth and we have escaped from the hard bonds
+that Cronus laid upon us. Our minds are fixed to aid you in the
+war against the Titan gods.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> So the hundred-armed giants said, and thereupon Zeus went and
+he gathered around him all who were born of Cronos and Rhea.
+Cronos himself hid from Zeus. Then the giants, with their fifty
+heads growing from their shoulders and their hundred hands, went
+forth against the Titan gods. The boundless sea rang terribly
+and the earth crashed loudly; wide Heaven was shaken and
+groaned, and high Olympus reeled from its foundation. Holding
+huge rocks in their hands the giants attacked the Titan gods.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Then Zeus entered the war. He hurled the lightning; the
+bolts flew thick and fast from his strong hand, with thunder and
+lightning and flame. The earth crashed around in burning, the
+forests crackled with fire, the ocean seethed. And hot flames
+wrapped the earth-born Titans all around. Three hundred rocks,
+one upon another, did Cottus, Briareus, and Gyes hurl upon the
+Titans. And when their ranks were broken the giants seized
+upon them and held them for Zeus.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> But some of the Titan gods, seeing that the strife for them
+
+<pb n="37"/>
+
+was vain, went over to the side of Zeus. These Zeus became
+friendly with. But the other Titans he bound in chains and he
+hurled them down to Tartarus.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> As far as Earth is from Heaven so is Tartarus from Earth. A
+brazen anvil falling down from Heaven to Earth nine days and
+nine nights would reach the earth upon the tenth day. And
+again, a brazen anvil falling from Earth nine nights and nine days
+would reach Tartarus upon the tenth night. Around Tartarus
+runs a fence of bronze and Night spreads in a triple line all about
+it, as a necklace circles the neck. There Zeus imprisoned the
+Titan gods who had fought against him; they are hidden in the
+misty gloom, in a dank place, at the ends of the Earth. And they
+may not go out, for Poseidon fixed gates of bronze upon their
+prison, and a wall runs all round it. There Cottus, Briareus, and
+Gyes stay, guarding them.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> And there, too, is the home of Night. Night and Day meet
+each other at that place, as they pass a threshold of bronze. They
+draw near and they greet one another, but the house never holds
+them both together, for while one is about to go down into the
+house, the other is leaving through the door. One holds Light
+in her hand and the other holds in her arms Sleep.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> There the children of dark Night have their dwellings—Sleep,
+and Death, his brother. The sun never shines upon these two.
+Sleep may roam over the wide earth, and come upon the sea, and
+he is kindly to men. But Death is not kindly, and whoever he
+seizes upon, him he holds fast.
+</p><pb n="38"/><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> There, too, stands the hall of the lord of the Underworld,
+Aidoneus, the brother of Zeus. Zeus gave him the Underworld to
+be his dominion when he shared amongst the Olympians the
+world that Cronos had ruled over. A fearful hound guards the
+hall of Aidoneus: Cerberus he is called; he has three heads. On
+those who go within that hall Cerberus fawns, but on those who
+would come out of it he springs and would devour them.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Not all the Titans did Zeus send down to Tartarus. Those of
+them who had wisdom joined him, and by their wisdom Zeus was
+able to overcome Cronos. Then Cronos went to live with the
+friendly Titan gods, while Zeus reigned over Olympus, becoming
+the ruler of gods and men.
+</p><milestone unit="tb"/><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> So Orpheus sang, Orpheus who knew the ways and the histories
+of the gods.
+</p></div></div><div><index index="toc"/><index index='pdf'/><head>VI. Polydeuces’ Victory and Heracles’ Loss</head><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <figure rend="float: left; margin-top: 0em; margin-bottom: 0em; x-class: deco-letter;" url="images/capA1.png"><figDesc>Decorative first letter</figDesc></figure><hi rend="font-variant: small-caps; color:white; margin-left: -1em">A</hi>LL the places that the Argonauts came
+nigh to and went past need not be told—Melibœa,
+where they escaped a stormy
+beach; Homole, from where they were
+able to look on Ossa and holy Olympus;
+Lemnos, the island that they were to
+return to; the unnamed country where
+the Earth-born Men abide, each having six arms, two growing
+
+<pb n="39"/>
+
+from his shoulders, and four fitting close to his terrible sides;
+and then the Mountain of the Bears, where they climbed, to
+make sacrifice there to Rhea, the mighty mother of the gods.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Afterward, for a whole day, no wind blew and the sail of the
+<emph>Argo</emph> hung slack. But the heroes swore to each other that they
+would make their ship go as swiftly as if the storm-footed steeds
+of Poseidon were racing to overtake her. Mightily they labored
+at the oars, and no one would be first to leave his rower’s
+bench.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> And then, just as the breeze of the evening came up, and just
+as the rest of the heroes were leaning back, spent with their
+labor, the oar that Heracles still pulled at broke, and half of it
+was carried away by the waves. Heracles sat there in ill humor,
+for he did not know what to do with his unlaboring hands.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> All through the night they went on with a good breeze filling
+their sails, and next day they came to the mouth of the River
+Cius. There they landed so that Heracles might get himself an
+oar. No sooner did they set their feet upon the shore than the
+hero went off into the forest, to pull up a tree that he might shape
+into an oar.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Where they had landed was near to the country of the Bebrycians,
+a rude people whose king was named Amycus. Now while
+Heracles was away from them this king came with his followers—huge,
+rude men, all armed with clubs, down to where the Argonauts
+were lighting their fires on the beach.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> He did not greet them courteously, asking them what manner
+
+<pb n="40"/>
+
+of men they were and whither they were bound, nor did he offer
+them hospitality. Instead, he shouted at them insolently:
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q>Listen to something that you rovers had better know. I am
+Amycus, and any stranger that comes to this land has to get into
+a boxing bout with me. That’s the law that I have laid down.
+Unless you have one amongst you who can stand up to me you
+won’t be let go back to your ship. If you don’t heed my law, look
+out, for something’s going to happen to you.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> So he shouted, that insolent king, and his followers raised their
+clubs and growled approval of what their master said. But the
+Argonauts were not dismayed at the words of Amycus. One of
+them stepped toward the Bebrycians. He was Polydeuces, good
+at boxing.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q>Offer us no violence, king,</q> said Polydeuces. <q>We are
+ready to obey the law that you have laid down. Willingly do I
+take up your challenge, and I will box a bout with you.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> The Argonauts cheered when they saw Polydeuces, the good
+boxer, step forward, and when they heard what he had to say.
+Amycus turned and shouted to his followers, and one of them
+brought up two pairs of boxing gauntlets—of rough cowhide
+they were. The Argonauts feared that Polydeuces’ hands might
+have been made numb with pulling at the oar, and some of them
+went to him, and took his hands and rubbed them to make them
+supple; others took from off his shoulders his beautifully colored
+mantle.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Amycus straightway put on his gauntlets and threw off his
+
+
+
+
+<pb n="41"/>
+mantle; he stood there amongst his followers with his great arms
+crossed, glowering at the Argonauts as a wild beast might glower.
+And when the two faced each other Amycus seemed like one of the
+Earth-born Men, dark and hugely shaped, while Helen’s brother
+stood there light and beautiful. Polydeuces was like that star
+whose beams are lovely at evening-tide.
+</p>
+<p rend="text-align: center"><figure rend="width: 100%" url="images/i007.png"><anchor id="i007.png"/><index index="fig"/><head/><figDesc>Illustration</figDesc></figure></p>
+<p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Like the wave that breaks over a ship and gives the sailors no
+respite Amycus came on at Polydeuces. He pushed in upon him,
+thinking to bear him down and overwhelm him. But as the skillful
+steersman keeps the ship from being overwhelmed by the
+monstrous wave, so Polydeuces, all skill and lightness, baffled the
+rushes of Amycus. At last Amycus, standing on the tips of his
+toes and rising high above him, tried to bring down his great fist
+upon the head of Polydeuces. The hero swung aside and took the
+blow on his shoulder. Then he struck his blow. It was a strong
+one, and under it the king of the Bebrycians staggered and fell
+down. <q>You see,</q> said Polydeuces, <q>that we keep your
+law.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> The Argonauts shouted, but the rude Bebrycians raised their
+clubs to rush upon them. Then would the heroes have been hard
+pressed, and forced, perhaps, to get back to the <emph>Argo</emph>. But suddenly
+Heracles appeared amongst them, coming up from the
+forest.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> He carried a pine tree in his hands with all its branches still
+upon it, and seeing this mighty-statured man appear with the great
+tree in his hands, the Bebrycians hurried off, carrying their fallen
+<pb n="42"/>
+king with them. Then the Argonauts gathered around Polydeuces,
+saluted him as their champion, and put a crown of victory
+upon his head. Heracles, meanwhile, lopped off the
+branches of the pine tree and began to fashion it into an oar.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> The fires were lighted upon the shore, and the thoughts of all
+were turned to supper. Then young Hylas, who used to sit by
+Heracles and keep bright the hero’s arms and armor, took a
+bronze vessel and went to fetch water.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Never was there a boy so beautiful as young Hylas. He had
+golden curls that tumbled over his brow. He had deep blue
+eyes and a face that smiled at every glance that was given him, at
+every word that was said to him. Now as he walked through the
+flowering grasses, with his knees bare, and with the bright vessel
+swinging in his hand, he looked most lovely. Heracles had
+brought the boy with him from the country of the Dryopians;
+he would have him sit beside him on the bench of the <emph>Argo</emph>, and
+the ill humors that often came upon him would go at the words
+and the smile of Hylas.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Now the spring that Hylas was going toward was called Pegæ,
+and it was haunted by the nymphs. They were dancing around
+it when they heard Hylas singing. They stole softly off to watch
+him. Hidden behind trees the nymphs saw the boy come near,
+and they felt such love for him that they thought they could
+never let him go from their sight.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> They stole back to their spring, and they sank down below
+its clear surface. Then came Hylas singing a song that he had
+
+
+
+<pb n="43"/>
+heard from his mother. He bent down to the spring, and the
+brimming water flowed into the sounding bronze of the pitcher.
+Then hands came out of the water. One of the nymphs caught
+Hylas by the elbow; another put her arms around his neck, another
+took the hand that held the vessel of bronze. The pitcher
+sank down to the depths of the spring. The hands of the nymphs
+clasped Hylas tighter, tighter; the water bubbled around him
+as they drew him down. Down, down they drew him, and into
+the cold and glimmering cave where they live.
+</p>
+<p rend="text-align: center"><figure rend="width: 100%" url="images/i008.png"><anchor id="i008.png"/><index index="fig"/><head>Hylas</head><figDesc>Illustration</figDesc></figure></p>
+<p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> There Hylas stayed. But although the nymphs kissed him and
+sang to him, and showed him lovely things, Hylas was not
+content to be there.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Where the Argonauts were the fires burned, the moon arose,
+and still Hylas did not return. Then they began to fear lest a
+wild beast had destroyed the boy. One went to Heracles and
+told him that young Hylas had not come back, and that they
+were fearful for him. Heracles flung down the pine tree that he
+was fashioning into an oar, and he dashed along the way that
+Hylas had gone as if a gadfly were stinging him. <q>Hylas, Hylas,</q>
+he cried. But Hylas, in the cold and glimmering cave that the
+nymphs had drawn him into, did not hear the call of his friend
+Heracles.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> All the Argonauts went searching, calling as they went through
+the island, <q>Hylas, Hylas, Hylas!</q> But only their own calls
+came back to them. The morning star came up, and Tiphys,
+the steersman, called to them from the <emph>Argo</emph>. And when they
+<pb n="44"/>
+came to the ship Tiphys told them that they would have to go
+aboard and make ready to sail from that place.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> They called to Heracles, and Heracles at last came down to
+the ship. They spoke to him, saying that they would have to sail
+away. Heracles would not go on board. <q>I will not leave this
+island,</q> he said, <q>until I find young Hylas or learn what has
+happened to him.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Then Jason arose to give the command to depart. But before
+the words were said Telamon stood up and faced him. <q>Jason,</q>
+he said angrily, <q>you do not bid Heracles come on board, and
+you would have the <emph>Argo</emph> leave without him. You would leave
+Heracles here so that he may not be with us on the quest where
+his glory might overshadow your glory, Jason.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Jason said no word, but he sat back on his bench with head
+bowed. And then, even as Telamon said these angry words, a
+strange figure rose up out of the waves of the sea.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> It was the figure of a man, wrinkled and old, with seaweed in
+his beard and his hair. There was a majesty about him, and the
+Argonauts all knew that this was one of the immortals—he was
+Nereus, the ancient one of the sea.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q>To Heracles, and to you, the rest of the Argonauts, I have a
+thing to say,</q> said the ancient one, Nereus. <q>Know, first, that
+Hylas has been taken by the nymphs who love him and who
+think to win his love, and that he will stay forever with them in
+their cold and glimmering cave. For Hylas seek no more. And
+to you, Heracles, I will say this: Go aboard the <emph>Argo</emph> again; the
+<pb n="45"/>
+ship will take you to where a great labor awaits you, and which,
+in accomplishing, you will work out the will of Zeus. You will
+know what this labor is when a spirit seizes on you.</q> So the
+ancient one of the sea said, and he sank back beneath the waves.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Heracles went aboard the <emph>Argo</emph> once more, and he took his place
+on the bench, the new oar in his hand. Sad he was to think that
+young Hylas who used to sit at his knee would never be there
+again. The breeze filled the sail, the Argonauts pulled at the oars,
+and in sadness they watched the island where young Hylas
+had been lost to them recede from their view.
+</p></div><div><index index="toc"/><index index='pdf'/><head>VII. King Phineus</head><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <figure rend="float: left; margin-top: 0em; margin-bottom: 0em; x-class: deco-letter;" url="images/capS.png"><figDesc>Decorative first letter</figDesc></figure><hi rend="font-variant: small-caps; color:white; margin-left: -1em">S</hi>AID Tiphys, the steersman: <q>If we could
+enter the Sea of Pontus, we could
+make our way across that sea to Colchis in
+a short time. But the passage into the
+Sea of Pontus is most perilous, and few
+mortals dare even to make approach to
+it.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Said Jason, the chieftain of the host: <q>The dangers of the
+passage, Tiphys, we have spoken of, and it may be that we shall
+have to carry <emph>Argo</emph> overland to the Sea of Pontus. But you,
+Tiphys, have spoken of a wise king who is hereabouts, and who
+might help us to make the dangerous passage. Speak again to
+us, and tell us what the dangers of the passage are, and who the
+<pb n="46"/>
+king is who may be able to help us to make these dangers
+less.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Then said Tiphys, the steersman of the <emph>Argo</emph>: <q rend="post: none">No ship sailed
+by mortals has as yet gone through the passage that brings this
+sea into the Sea of Pontus. In the way are the rocks that mariners
+call The Clashers. These rocks are not fixed as rocks should
+be, but they rush one against the other, dashing up the sea, and
+crushing whatever may be between. Yea, if <emph>Argo</emph> were of iron,
+and if she were between these rocks when they met, she would be
+crushed to bits. I have sailed as far as that passage, but seeing
+The Clashers strike together I turned back my ship, and journeyed
+as far as the Sea of Pontus overland.
+</q></p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q>But I have been told of one who knows how a ship may be
+taken through the passage that The Clashers make so perilous.
+He who knows is a king hereabouts, Phineus, who has made himself
+as wise as the gods. To no one has Phineus told how
+the passage may be made, but knowing what high favor has
+been shown to us, the Argonauts, it may be that he will
+tell us.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> So Tiphys said, and Jason commanded him to steer the <emph>Argo</emph>
+toward the city where ruled Phineus, the wise king.
+</p><milestone unit="tb"/><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> To Salmydessus, then, where Phineus ruled, Tiphys steered
+the <emph>Argo</emph>. They left Heracles with Tiphys aboard to guard the
+ship, and, with the rest of the heroes, Jason went through the
+streets of the city. They met many men, but when they asked
+<pb n="47"/>
+any of them how they might come to the palace of King Phineus
+the men turned fearfully away.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> They found their way to the king’s palace. Jason spoke to the
+servants and bade them tell the king of their coming. The servants,
+too, seemed fearful, and as Jason and his comrades were
+wondering what there was about him that made men fearful at
+his name, Phineus, the king, came amongst them.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Were it not that he had a purple border to his robe no one
+would have known him for the king, so miserable did this man
+seem. He crept along, touching the walls, for the eyes in his head
+were blind and withered. His body was shrunken, and when he
+stood before them leaning on his staff he was like to a lifeless
+thing. He turned his blinded eyes upon them, looking from one
+to the other as if he were searching for a face.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Then his sightless eyes rested upon Zetes and Calais, the sons
+of Boreas, the North Wind. A change came into his face as it
+turned upon them. One would think that he saw the wonder
+that these two were endowed with—the wings that grew upon
+their ankles. It was a while before he turned his face from them;
+then he spoke to Jason and said:
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q>You have come to have counsel with one who has the wisdom
+of the gods. Others before you have come for such counsel, but
+seeing the misery that is visible upon me they went without asking
+for counsel. I would strive to hold you here for a while.
+Stay, and have sight of the misery the gods visit upon those who
+would be as wise as they. And when you have seen the thing
+<pb n="48"/>
+that is wont to befall me, it may be that help will come from
+you for me.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Then Phineus, the blind king, left them, and after a while the
+heroes were brought into a great hall, and they were invited to
+rest themselves there while a banquet was being prepared for
+them.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> The hall was richly adorned, but it looked to the heroes as if
+it had known strange happenings; rich hangings were strewn
+upon the ground, an ivory chair was overturned, and the dais
+where the king sat had stains upon it. The servants who went
+through the hall making ready the banquet were white-faced and
+fearful.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> The feast was laid on a great table, and the heroes were invited
+to sit down to it. The king did not come into the hall before they
+sat down, but a table with food was set before the dais. When
+the heroes had feasted, the king came into the hall. He sat at
+the table, blind, white-faced, and shrunken, and the Argonauts
+all turned their faces to him.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Said Phineus, the blind king: <q>You see, O heroes, how much
+my wisdom avails me. You see me blind and shrunken, who
+tried to make myself in wisdom equal to the gods. And yet you
+have not seen all. Watch now and see what feasts Phineus, the
+wise king, has to delight him.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> He made a sign, and the white-faced and trembling servants
+brought food and set it upon the table that was before him. The
+king bent forward as if to eat, and they saw that his face was
+
+
+
+<pb n="49"/>
+covered with the damp of fear. He took food from the dish and
+raised it to his mouth. As he did, the doors of the hall were flung
+open as if by a storm. Strange shapes flew into the hall and set
+themselves beside the king. And when the Argonauts looked
+upon them they saw that these were terrible and unsightly
+shapes.
+</p>
+<p rend="text-align: center"><figure rend="width: 100%" url="images/i009.png"><anchor id="i009.png"/><index index="fig"/><head/><figDesc>Illustration</figDesc></figure></p>
+<p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> They were things that had the wings and claws of birds and the
+heads of women. Black hair and gray feathers were mixed upon
+them; they had red eyes, and streaks of blood were upon their
+breasts and wings. And as the king raised the food to his mouth
+they flew at him and buffeted his head with their wings, and
+snatched the food from his hands. Then they devoured or
+scattered what was upon the table, and all the time they screamed
+and laughed and mocked.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q>Ah, now ye see,</q> Phineus panted, <q>what it is to have
+wisdom equal to the wisdom of the gods. Now ye all see my
+misery. Never do I strive to put food to my lips but these foul
+things, the Harpies, the Snatchers, swoop down and scatter or
+devour what I would eat. Crumbs they leave me that my life
+may not altogether go from me, but these crumbs they make foul
+to my taste and my smell.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> And one of the Harpies perched herself on the back of the
+king’s throne and looked upon the heroes with red eyes. <q>Hah,</q>
+she screamed, <q>you bring armed men into your feasting hall,
+thinking to scare us away. Never, Phineus, can you scare us
+from you! Always you will have us, the Snatchers, beside you
+<pb n="50"/>
+when you would still your ache of hunger. What can these men
+do against us who are winged and who can travel through the
+ways of the air?</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> So said the unsightly Harpy, and the heroes drew together,
+made fearful by these awful shapes. All drew back except Zetes
+and Calais, the sons of the North Wind. They laid their hands
+upon their swords. The wings on their shoulders spread out
+and the wings at their heels trembled. Phineus, the king, leaned
+forward and panted: <q>By the wisdom I have I know that there
+are two amongst you who can save me. O make haste to help me,
+ye who can help me, and I will give the counsel that you Argonauts
+have come to me for, and besides I will load down your
+ship with treasure and costly stuffs. Oh, make haste, ye who
+can help me!</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Hearing the king speak like this, the Harpies gathered together
+and gnashed with their teeth, and chattered to one another.
+Then, seeing Zetes and Calais with their hands upon their swords,
+they rose up on their wings and flew through the wide doors of
+the hall. The king cried out to Zetes and Calais. But the sons
+of the North Wind had already risen with their wings, and they
+were after the Harpies, their bright swords in their hands.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> On flew the Harpies, screeching and gnashing their teeth in
+anger and dismay, for now they felt that they might be driven
+from Salmydessus, where they had had such royal feasts. They
+rose high in the air and flew out toward the sea. But high as the
+Harpies rose, the sons of the North Wind rose higher. The
+<pb n="51"/>
+Harpies cried pitiful cries as they flew on, but Zetes and Calais
+felt no pity for them, for they knew that these dread Snatchers,
+with the stains of blood upon their breasts and wings, had
+shown pity neither to Phineus nor to any other.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> On they flew until they came to the island that is called the
+Floating Island. There the Harpies sank down with wearied
+wings. Zetes and Calais were upon them now, and they would
+have cut them to pieces with their bright swords, if the messenger
+of Zeus, Iris, with the golden wings, had not come between.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q>Forbear to slay the Harpies, sons of Boreas,</q> cried Iris warningly,
+<q>forbear to slay the Harpies that are the hounds of Zeus.
+Let them cower here and hide themselves, and I, who come from
+Zeus, will swear the oath that the gods most dread, that they will
+never again come to Salmydessus to trouble Phineus, the king.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> The heroes yielded to the words of Iris. She took the oath that
+the gods most dread—the oath by the Water of Styx—that
+never again would the Harpies show themselves to Phineus.
+Then Zetes and Calais turned back toward the city of Salmydessus.
+The island that they drove the Harpies to had been
+called the Floating Island, but thereafter it was called the Island
+of Turning. It was evening when they turned back, and all night
+long the Argonauts and King Phineus sat in the hall of the palace
+and awaited the return of Zetes and Calais, the sons of the North
+Wind.
+</p><pb n="52"/></div><div><index index="toc"/><index index='pdf'/><head>VIII. King Phineus’s Counsel; The Landing
+in Lemnos</head><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <figure rend="float: left; margin-top: 0em; margin-bottom: 0em; x-class: deco-letter;" url="images/capT.png"><figDesc>Decorative first letter</figDesc></figure><hi rend="font-variant: small-caps; color:white; margin-left: -1em">T</hi>HEY came into King Phineus’s hall, their
+bright swords in their hands. The Argonauts
+crowded around them and King
+Phineus raised his head and stretched out
+his thin hands to them. And Zetes and
+Calais told their comrades and told the
+king how they had driven the Harpies
+down to the Floating Island, and how Iris, the messenger of
+Zeus, had sworn the great oath that was by the Water of Styx
+that never again would the Snatchers show themselves in the
+palace.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Then a great golden cup brimming with wine was brought to
+the king. He stood holding it in his trembling hands, fearful even
+then that the Harpies would tear the cup out of his hands. He
+drank—long and deeply he drank—and the dread shapes of
+the Snatchers did not appear. Down amongst the heroes he came
+and he took into his the hands of Zetes and Calais, the sons of
+the North Wind.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q>O heroes greater than any kings,</q> he said, <q>ye have delivered
+me from the terrible curse that the gods had sent upon me. I
+thank ye, and I thank ye all, heroes of the quest. And the
+thanks of Phineus will much avail you all.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Clasping the hands of Zetes and Calais he led the heroes through
+<pb n="53"/>
+hall after hall of his palace and down into his treasure chamber.
+There he bestowed upon the banishers of the Harpies crowns and
+arm rings of gold and richly colored garments and brazen chests
+in which to store the treasure that he gave. And to Jason he gave
+an ivory-hilted and gold-encased sword, and on each of the
+voyagers he bestowed a rich gift, not forgetting the heroes who
+had remained on the <emph>Argo</emph>, Heracles and Tiphys.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> They went back to the great hall, and a feast was spread for
+the king and for the Argonauts. They ate from rich dishes and
+they drank from flowing wine cups. Phineus ate and drank as the
+heroes did, and no dread shapes came before him to snatch from
+him nor to buffet him. But as Jason looked upon the man who
+had striven to equal the gods in wisdom, and noted his blinded
+eyes and shrunken face, he resolved never to harbor in his heart
+such presumption as Phineus had harbored.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> When the feast was finished the king spoke to Jason, telling
+him how the <emph>Argo</emph> might be guided through the Symplegades, the
+dread passage into the Sea of Pontus. He told them to bring
+their ship near to the Clashing Rocks. And one who had the keenest
+sight amongst them was to stand at the prow of the ship holding
+a pigeon in his hands. As the rocks came together he was to
+loose the pigeon. If it found a space to fly through they would
+know that the <emph>Argo</emph> could make the passage, and they were to
+steer straight toward where the pigeon had flown. But if it fluttered
+down to the sea, or flew back to them, or became lost in the
+clouds of spray, they were to know that the <emph>Argo</emph> might not make
+<pb n="54"/>
+that passage. Then the heroes would have to take their ship
+overland to where they might reach the Sea of Pontus.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> That day they bade farewell to Phineus, and with the treasures
+he had bestowed upon them they went down to the <emph>Argo</emph>. To
+Heracles and Tiphys they gave the presents that the king had
+sent them. In the morning they drew the <emph>Argo</emph> out of the harbor
+of Salmydessus, and set sail again.
+</p><milestone unit="tb"/><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> But not until long afterward did they come to the Symplegades,
+the passage that was to be their great trial. For they landed
+first in a country that was full of woods, where they were welcomed
+by a king who had heard of the voyagers and of their quest.
+There they stayed and hunted for many days in the woods. And
+there a great loss befell the Argonauts, for Tiphys, as he went
+through the woods, was bitten by a snake and died. He who
+had braved so many seas and so many storms lost his life away
+from the ship. The Argonauts made a tomb for him on the shore
+of that land—a great pile of stones, in which they fixed upright
+his steering oar. Then they set sail again, and Nauplius was
+made the steersman of the ship.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> The course was not so clear to Nauplius as it had been to Tiphys.
+The steersman did not find his bearings, and for many days and
+nights the <emph>Argo</emph> was driven on a backward course. They came
+to an island that they knew to be that Island of Lemnos that they
+had passed on the first days of the voyage, and they resolved to
+<pb n="55"/>
+rest there for a while, and then to press on for the passage into the
+Sea of Pontus.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> They brought the <emph>Argo</emph> near the shore. They blew trumpets
+and set the loudest voiced of the heroes to call out to those upon
+the island. But no answer came to them, and all day the <emph>Argo</emph>
+lay close to the island.
+</p><milestone unit="tb"/><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> There were hidden people watching them, people with bows
+in their hands and arrows laid along the bowstrings. And the
+people who thus threatened the unknowing Argonauts were women
+and young girls.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> There were no men upon the Island of Lemnos. Years before
+a curse had fallen upon the people of that island, putting strife
+between the men and the women. And the women had mastered
+the men and had driven them away from Lemnos. Since then
+some of the women had grown old, and the girls who were
+children when their fathers and brothers had been banished were
+now of an age with Atalanta, the maiden who went with the
+Argonauts.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> They chased the wild beasts of the island, and they tilled the
+fields, and they kept in good repair the houses that were built before
+the banishing of the men. The older women served those
+who were younger, and they had a queen, a girl whose name was
+Hypsipyle.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> The women who watched with bows in their hands would have
+shot their arrows at the Argonauts if Hypsipyle’s nurse, Polyxo,
+<pb n="56"/>
+had not stayed them. She forbade them to shoot at the strangers
+until she had brought to them the queen’s commands.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> She hastened to the palace and she found the young queen
+weaving at a loom. She told her about the ship and the strangers
+on board the ship, and she asked the queen what word she should
+bring to the guardian maidens.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q>Before you give a command, Hypsipyle,</q> said Polyxo, the
+nurse, <q rend="post: none">consider these words of mine. We, the elder women, are
+becoming ancient now; in a few years we will not be able to serve
+you, the younger women, and in a few years more we will have
+gone into the grave and our places will know us no more. And
+you, the younger women, will be becoming strengthless, and no
+more will be you able to hunt in the woods nor to till the fields,
+and a hard old age will be before you.
+</q></p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q>The ship that is beside our shore may have come at a good
+time. Those on board are goodly heroes. Let them land in Lemnos,
+and stay if they will. Let them wed with the younger women
+so that there may be husbands and wives, helpers and helpmeets,
+again in Lemnos.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Hypsipyle, the queen, let the shuttle fall from her hands and
+stayed for a while looking full into Polyxo’s face. Had her nurse
+heard her say something like this out of her dreams, she wondered?
+She bade the nurse tell the guardian maidens to let the
+heroes land in safety, and that she herself would put the crown
+of King Thoas, her father, upon her head, and go down to the
+shore to welcome them.
+</p><pb n="57"/><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> And now the Argonauts saw people along the shore and they
+caught sight of women’s dresses. The loudest voiced amongst
+them shouted again, and they heard an answer given in a woman’s
+voice. They drew up the <emph>Argo</emph> upon the shore, and they set foot
+upon the land of Lemnos.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Jason stepped forth at the head of his comrades, and he was
+met by Hypsipyle, her father’s crown upon her head, at the head
+of her maidens. They greeted each other, and Hypsipyle bade
+the heroes come with them to their town that was called Myrine
+and to the palace that was there.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Wonderingly the Argonauts went, looking on women’s forms
+and faces and seeing no men. They came to the palace and went
+within. Hypsipyle mounted the stone throne that was King
+Thoas’s and the four maidens who were her guards stood each
+side of her. She spoke to the heroes in greeting and bade them
+stay in peace for as long as they would. She told them of the
+curse that had fallen upon the people of Lemnos, and of how the
+menfolk had been banished. Jason, then, told the queen what
+voyage he and his companions were upon and what quest they
+were making. Then in friendship the Argonauts and the women
+of Lemnos stayed together—all the Argonauts except Heracles,
+and he, grieving still for Hylas, stayed aboard the <emph>Argo</emph>.
+</p><pb n="58"/></div><div><index index="toc"/><index index='pdf'/><head>IX. The Lemnian Maidens</head><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <figure rend="float: left; margin-top: 0em; margin-bottom: 0em; x-class: deco-letter;" url="images/capA1.png"><figDesc>Decorative first letter</figDesc></figure><hi rend="font-variant: small-caps; color:white; margin-left: -1em">A</hi>ND now the Argonauts were no longer on
+a ship that was being dashed on by the
+sea and beaten upon by the winds. They
+had houses to live in; they had honey-tasting
+things to eat, and when they went
+through the island each man might have
+with him one of the maidens of Lemnos.
+It was a change that was welcome to the wearied voyagers.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> They helped the women in the work of the fields; they hunted
+the beasts with them, and over and over again they were surprised
+at how skillfully the women had ordered all affairs.
+Everything in Lemnos was strange to the Argonauts, and they
+stayed day after day, thinking each day a fresh adventure.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Sometimes they would leave the fields and the chase, and this
+hero or that hero, with her who was his friend amongst the Lemnian
+maidens, would go far into that strange land and look upon
+lakes that were all covered with golden and silver water lilies,
+or would gather the blue flowers from creepers that grew around
+dark trees, or would hide themselves so that they might listen to
+the quick-moving birds that sang in the thickets. Perhaps on
+their way homeward they would see the <emph>Argo</emph> in the harbor, and
+they would think of Heracles who was aboard, and they would
+call to him. But the ship and the voyage they had been on now
+seemed far away to them, and the Quest of the Golden Fleece
+<pb n="59"/>
+seemed to them a story they had heard and that they had thought
+of, but that they could never think on again with all that fervor.
+</p><milestone unit="tb"/><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> When Jason looked on Hypsipyle he saw one who seemed to
+him to be only childlike in size. Greatly was he amazed at the
+words that poured forth from her as she stood at the stone throne
+of King Thoas—he was amazed as one is amazed at the rush of
+rich notes that comes from the throat of a little bird; all that she
+said was made lightninglike by her eyes—her eyes that were
+not clear and quiet like the eyes of the maidens he had seen
+in Iolcus, but that were dark and burning. Her mouth was heavy
+and this heavy mouth gave a shadow to her face that but for it
+was all bright and lovely.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Hypsipyle spoke two languages—one, the language of the
+mothers of the women of Lemnos, which was rough and harsh,
+a speech to be flung out to slaves, and the other the language of
+Greece, which their fathers had spoken, and which Hypsipyle
+spoke in a way that made it sound like strange music. She spoke
+and walked and did all things in a queenlike way, and Jason
+could see that, for all her youth and childlike size, Hypsipyle
+was one who was a ruler.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> From the moment she took his hand it seemed that she could
+not bear to be away from him. Where he walked, she walked
+too; where he sat she sat before him, looking at him with her
+great eyes while she laughed or sang.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Like the perfume of strange flowers, like the savor of strange
+<pb n="60"/>
+fruit was Hypsipyle to Jason. Hours and hours he would spend
+sitting beside her or watching her while she arrayed herself in
+white or in brightly colored garments. Not to the chase and not
+into the fields did Jason go, nor did he ever go with the others
+into the Lemnian land; all day he sat in the palace with her,
+watching her, or listening to her singing, or to the long, fierce
+speeches that she used to make to her nurse or to the four
+maidens who attended her.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> In the evening they would gather in the hall of the palace, the
+Argonauts and the Lemnian maidens who were their comrades.
+There were dances, and always Jason and Hypsipyle danced together.
+All the Lemnian maidens sang beautifully, but none of
+them had any stories to tell.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> And when the Argonauts would have stories told the Lemnian
+maidens would forbid any tale that was about a god or a hero;
+only stories that were about the goddesses or about some maiden
+would they let be told.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Orpheus, who knew the histories of the gods, would have told
+them many stories, but the only story of his that they would
+come from the dance to listen to was a story of the goddesses, of
+Demeter and her daughter Persephone.
+
+<!-- FIXME: paragraph should end before page break -->
+
+</p>
+<p rend="text-align: center"><figure rend="width: 100%" url="images/i010.png"><anchor id="i010.png"/><index index="fig"/><head/><figDesc>Illustration</figDesc></figure></p>
+<pb n="61"/><div><index index="toc"/><index index='pdf'/><head>Demeter and Persephone</head><p rend="font-size: 120%">I</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Once when Demeter was going through the world, giving men
+grain to be sown in their fields, she heard a cry that came to her
+from across high mountains and that mounted up to her from
+the sea. Demeter’s heart shook when she heard that cry, for
+she knew that it came to her from her daughter, from her only
+child, young Persephone.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> She stayed not to bless the fields in which the grain was
+being sown, but she hurried, hurried away, to Sicily and to the
+fields of Enna, where she had left Persephone. All Enna she
+searched, and all Sicily, but she found no trace of Persephone,
+nor of the maidens whom Persephone had been playing with.
+From all whom she met she begged for tidings, but although
+some had seen maidens gathering flowers and playing together,
+no one could tell Demeter why her child had cried out nor where
+she had since gone to.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> There were some who could have told her. One was Cyane,
+a water nymph. But Cyane, before Demeter came to her, had
+been changed into a spring of water. And now, not being able
+to speak and tell Demeter where her child had gone to and who
+had carried her away, she showed in the water the girdle of
+Persephone that she had caught in her hands. And Demeter,
+finding the girdle of her child in the spring, knew that she had
+<pb n="62"/>
+been carried off by violence. She lighted a torch at Ætna’s
+burning mountain, and for nine days and nine nights she went
+searching for her through the darkened places of the earth.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Then, upon a high and a dark hill, the Goddess Demeter came
+face to face with Hecate, the Moon. Hecate, too, had heard
+the cry of Persephone; she had sorrow for Demeter’s sorrow:
+she spoke to her as the two stood upon that dark, high hill,
+and told her that she should go to Helios for tidings—to bright
+Helios, the watcher for the gods, and beg Helios to tell her who
+it was who had carried off by violence her child Persephone.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Demeter came to Helios. He was standing before his shining
+steeds, before the impatient steeds that draw the sun through
+the course of the heavens. Demeter stood in the way of those
+impatient steeds; she begged of Helios who sees all things upon
+the earth to tell her who it was had carried off by violence
+Persephone, her child.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> And Helios, who may make no concealment, said: <q>Queenly
+Demeter, know that the king of the Underworld, dark Aidoneus,
+has carried off Persephone to make her his queen in the
+realm that I never shine upon.</q> He spoke, and as he did, his
+horses shook their manes and breathed out fire, impatient to
+be gone. Helios sprang into his chariot and went flashing
+away.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Demeter, knowing that one of the gods had carried off Persephone
+against her will, and knowing that what was done had
+been done by the will of Zeus, would go no more into the assemblies
+<pb n="63"/>
+of the gods. She quenched the torch that she had held in
+her hands for nine days and nine nights; she put off her robe
+of goddess, and she went wandering over the earth, uncomforted
+for the loss of her child. And no longer did she appear
+as a gracious goddess to men; no longer did she give them
+grain; no longer did she bless their fields. None of the things
+that it had pleased her once to do would Demeter do any longer.
+</p><milestone unit="tb"/><p rend="font-size: 120%">II</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Persephone had been playing with the nymphs who are the
+daughters of Ocean—Phæno, Ianthe, Melita, Ianeira, Acaste—in
+the lovely fields of Enna. They went to gather flowers—irises
+and crocuses, lilies, narcissus, hyacinths and rose-blooms—that
+grow in those fields. As they went, gathering
+flowers in their baskets, they had sight of Pergus, the pool
+that the white swans come to sing in.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Beside a deep chasm that had been made in the earth a
+wonder flower was growing—in color it was like the crocus,
+but it sent forth a perfume that was like the perfume of a
+hundred flowers. And Persephone thought as she went toward
+it that having gathered that flower she would have something
+much more wonderful than her companions had.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> She did not know that Aidoneus, the lord of the Underworld,
+had caused that flower to grow there so that she might be
+drawn by it to the chasm that he had made.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> As Persephone stooped to pluck the wonder flower, Aidoneus,
+<pb n="64"/>
+in his chariot of iron, dashed up through the chasm, and grasping
+the maiden by the waist, set her beside him. Only Cyane,
+the nymph, tried to save Persephone, and it was then that she
+caught the girdle in her hands.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> The maiden cried out, first because her flowers had been
+spilled, and then because she was being reft away. She cried
+out to her mother, and her cry went over high mountains and
+sounded up from the sea. The daughters of Ocean, affrighted,
+fled and sank down into the depths of the sea.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> In his great chariot of iron that was drawn by black steeds
+Aidoneus rushed down through the chasm he had made. Into
+the Underworld he went, and he dashed across the River
+Styx, and he brought his chariot up beside his throne. And on
+his dark throne he seated Persephone, the fainting daughter of
+Demeter.
+</p><milestone unit="tb"/><p rend="font-size: 120%">III</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> No more did the Goddess Demeter give grain to men; no
+more did she bless their fields: weeds grew where grain had been
+growing, and men feared that in a while they would famish for
+lack of bread.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> She wandered through the world, her thought all upon her
+child, Persephone, who had been taken from her. Once she sat
+by a well by a wayside, thinking upon the child that she might
+not come to and who might not come to her.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> She saw four maidens come near; their grace and their youth
+
+
+
+<pb n="65"/>
+reminded her of her child. They stepped lightly along, carrying
+bronze pitchers in their hands, for they were coming to the
+Well of the Maiden beside which Demeter sat.
+</p>
+<p rend="text-align: center"><figure rend="width: 100%" url="images/i011.png"><anchor id="i011.png"/><index index="fig"/><head>Persephone and Aidoneus</head><figDesc>Illustration</figDesc></figure></p>
+<p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> The maidens thought when they looked upon her that the
+goddess was some ancient woman who had a sorrow in her
+heart. Seeing that she was so noble and so sorrowful looking,
+the maidens, as they drew the clear water into their pitchers,
+spoke kindly to her.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q>Why do you stay away from the town, old mother?</q> one
+of the maidens said. <q>Why do you not come to the houses?
+We think that you look as if you were shelterless and alone,
+and we should like to tell you that there are many houses in
+the town where you would be welcomed.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Demeter’s heart went out to the maidens, because they
+looked so young and fair and simple and spoke out of such kind
+hearts. She said to them: <q>Where can I go, dear children?
+My people are far away, and there are none in all the world
+who would care to be near me.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Said one of the maidens: <q>There are princes in the land who
+would welcome you in their houses if you would consent to
+nurse one of their young children. But why do I speak of
+other princes beside Celeus, our father? In his house you would
+indeed have a welcome. But lately a baby has been born to
+our mother, Metaneira, and she would greatly rejoice to have
+one as wise as you mind little Demophoön.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> All the time that she watched them and listened to their
+<pb n="66"/>
+voices Demeter felt that the grace and youth of the maidens
+made them like Persephone. She thought that it would ease
+her heart to be in the house where these maidens were, and she
+was not loath to have them go and ask of their mother to have
+her come to nurse the infant child.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Swiftly they ran back to their home, their hair streaming
+behind them like crocus flowers; kind and lovely girls whose
+names are well remembered—Callidice and Cleisidice, Demo
+and Callithoë. They went to their mother and they told her
+of the stranger-woman whose name was Doso. She would make
+a wise and a kind nurse for little Demophoön, they said. Their
+mother, Metaneira, rose up from the couch she was sitting on
+to welcome the stranger. But when she saw her at the doorway,
+awe came over her, so majestic she seemed.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Metaneira would have her seat herself on the couch but the
+goddess took the lowliest stool, saying in greeting: <q>May the
+gods give you all good, lady.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q>Sorrow has set you wandering from your good home,</q> said
+Metaneira to the goddess, <q>but now that you have come to this
+place you shall have all that this house can bestow if you will
+rear up to youth the infant Demophoön, child of many hopes
+and prayers.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> The child was put into the arms of Demeter; she clasped
+him to her breast, and little Demophoön looked up into her face
+and smiled. Then Demeter’s heart went out to the child and
+to all who were in the household.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <!-- FIXME: why doesn’t this illustration show when the paragraph starts after it?! -->
+
+<pb n="67"/>
+He grew in strength and beauty in her charge. And little
+Demophoön was not nourished as other children are nourished,
+but even as the gods in their childhood were nourished. Demeter
+fed him on ambrosia, breathing on him with her divine
+breath the while. And at night she laid him on the hearth,
+amongst the embers, with the fire all around him. This she
+did that she might make him immortal, and like to the gods.
+</p>
+<p rend="text-align: center"><figure rend="width: 100%" url="images/i012.png"><anchor id="i012.png"/><index index="fig"/><head/><figDesc>Illustration</figDesc></figure></p>
+<p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> But one night Metaneira looked out from the chamber where
+she lay, and she saw the nurse take little Demophoön and lay
+him in a place on the hearth with the burning brands all around
+him. Then Metaneira started up, and she sprang to the hearth,
+and she snatched the child from beside the burning brands.
+<q>Demophoõn, my son,</q> she cried, <q>what would this stranger-woman
+do to you, bringing bitter grief to me that ever I let
+her take you in her arms?</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Then said Demeter: <q>Foolish indeed are you mortals, and
+not able to foresee what is to come to you of good or of evil!
+Foolish indeed are you, Metaneira, for in your heedlessness you
+have cut off this child from an immortality like to the immortality
+of the gods themselves. For he had lain in my bosom
+and had become dear to me and I would have bestowed upon
+him the greatest gift that the Divine Ones can bestow, for I
+would have made him deathless and unaging. All this, now,
+has gone by. Honor he shall have indeed, but Demophoõn
+will know age and death.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> The seeming old age that was upon her had fallen from
+<pb n="68"/>
+Demeter; beauty and stature were hers, and from her robe
+there came a heavenly fragrance. There came such light from
+her body that the chamber shone. Metaneira remained trembling
+and speechless, unmindful even to take up the child that
+had been laid upon the ground.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> It was then that his sisters heard Demophoön wail; one ran
+from her chamber and took the child in her arms; another
+kindled again the fire upon the hearth, and the others made
+ready to bathe and care for the infant. All night they cared
+for him, holding him in their arms and at their breasts, but
+the child would not be comforted, because the nurses who
+handled him now were less skillful than was the goddess-nurse.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> And as for Demeter, she left the house of Celeus and went
+upon her way, lonely in her heart, and unappeased. And in
+the world that she wandered through, the plow went in vain
+through the ground; the furrow was sown without any avail, and
+the race of men saw themselves near perishing for lack of bread.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> But again Demeter came near the Well of the Maiden. She
+thought of the daughters of Celeus as they came toward the well
+that day, the bronze pitchers in their hands, and with kind looks
+for the stranger—she thought of them as she sat by the well
+again. And then she thought of little Demophoön, the child
+she had held at her breast. No stir of living was in the land
+near their home, and only weeds grew in their fields. As she
+sat there and looked around her there came into Demeter’s
+heart a pity for the people in whose house she had dwelt.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> 
+
+<!-- FIXME: p after illustration -->
+
+<pb n="69"/>
+
+<!-- CUT HERE -->
+
+She rose up and she went to the house of Celeus. She
+found him beside his house measuring out a little grain. The
+goddess went to him and she told him that because of the love
+she bore his household she would bless his fields so that the
+seed he had sown in them would come to growth. Celeus rejoiced,
+and he called all the people together, and they raised a
+temple to Demeter. She went through the fields and blessed
+them, and the seed that they had sown began to grow. And
+the goddess for a while dwelt amongst that people, in her temple
+at Eleusis.
+</p>
+<p rend="text-align: center"><figure rend="width: 100%" url="images/i013.png"><anchor id="i013.png"/><index index="fig"/><head/><figDesc>Illustration</figDesc></figure></p>
+<milestone unit="tb"/><p rend="font-size: 120%">IV</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> But still she kept away from the assemblies of the gods.
+Zeus sent a messenger to her, Iris with the golden wings, bidding
+her to Olympus. Demeter would not join the Olympians.
+Then, one after the other, the gods and goddesses of Olympus
+came to her; none were able to make her cease from grieving
+for Persephone, or to go again into the company of the immortal
+gods.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> And so it came about that Zeus was compelled to send a
+messenger down to the Underworld to bring Persephone back
+to the mother who grieved so much for the loss of her. Hermes
+was the messenger whom Zeus sent. Through the darkened
+places of the earth Hermes went, and he came to that dark
+throne where the lord Aidoneus sat, with Persephone beside him.
+Then Hermes spoke to the lord of the Underworld, saying
+<pb n="70"/>
+that Zeus commanded that Persephone should come forth from
+the Underworld that her mother might look upon her.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Then Persephone, hearing the words of Zeus that might not
+be gainsaid, uttered the only cry that had left her lips since
+she had sent out that cry that had reached her mother’s heart.
+And Aidoneus, hearing the command of Zeus that might not
+be denied, bowed his dark, majestic head.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> She might go to the Upperworld and rest herself in the arms
+of her mother, he said. And then he cried out: <q>Ah, Persephone,
+strive to feel kindliness in your heart toward me who carried
+you off by violence and against your will. I can give to you one
+of the great kingdoms that the Olympians rule over. And I,
+who am brother to Zeus, am no unfitting husband for you,
+Demeter’s child.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> So Aidoneus, the dark lord of the Underworld said, and he
+made ready the iron chariot with its deathless horses that Persephone
+might go up from his kingdom.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Beside the single tree in his domain Aidoneus stayed the
+chariot. A single fruit grew on that tree, a bright pomegranate
+fruit. Persephone stood up in the chariot and plucked the
+fruit from the tree. Then did Aidoneus prevail upon her to
+divide the fruit, and, having divided it, Persephone ate seven
+of the pomegranate seeds.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> It was Hermes who took the whip and the reins of the chariot.
+He drove on, and neither the sea nor the water-courses, nor
+the glens nor the mountain peaks stayed the deathless horses of
+
+
+
+<pb n="71"/>
+Aidoneus, and soon the chariot was brought near to where
+Demeter awaited the coming of her daughter.
+</p>
+<p rend="text-align: center"><figure rend="width: 100%" url="images/i014.png"><anchor id="i014.png"/><index index="fig"/><head/><figDesc>Illustration</figDesc></figure></p>
+<p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> And when, from a hilltop, Demeter saw the chariot approaching,
+she flew like a wild bird to clasp her child. Persephone,
+when she saw her mother’s dear eyes, sprang out of the chariot
+and fell upon her neck and embraced her. Long and long
+Demeter held her dear child in her arms, gazing, gazing upon
+her. Suddenly her mind misgave her. With a great fear at
+her heart she cried out: <q>Dearest, has any food passed your
+lips in all the time you have been in the Underworld?</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> She had not tasted food in all the time she was there, Persephone
+said. And then, suddenly, she remembered the pomegranate
+that Aidoneus had asked her to divide. When she told
+that she had eaten seven seeds from it Demeter wept, and her
+tears fell upon Persephone’s face.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q>Ah, my dearest,</q> she cried, <q>if you had not eaten the
+pomegranate seeds you could have stayed with me, and always
+we should have been together. But now that you have eaten
+food in it, the Underworld has a claim upon you. You may
+not stay always with me here. Again you will have to go back
+and dwell in the dark places under the earth and sit upon Aidoneus’s
+throne. But not always you will be there. When the
+flowers bloom upon the earth you shall come up from the realm
+of darkness, and in great joy we shall go through the world
+together, Demeter and Persephone.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> And so it has been since Persephone came back to her mother
+<pb n="72"/>
+after having eaten of the pomegranate seeds. For two seasons
+of the year she stays with Demeter, and for one season she
+stays in the Underworld with her dark lord. While she is
+with her mother there is springtime upon the earth. Demeter
+blesses the furrows, her heart being glad because her daughter
+is with her once more. The furrows become heavy with grain,
+and soon the whole wide earth has grain and fruit, leaves and
+flowers. When the furrows are reaped, when the grain has
+been gathered, when the dark season comes, Persephone goes
+from her mother, and going down into the dark places, she sits
+beside her mighty lord Aidoneus and upon his throne. Not sorrowful
+is she there; she sits with head unbowed, for she knows
+herself to be a mighty queen. She has joy, too, knowing of
+the seasons when she may walk with Demeter, her mother, on
+the wide places of the earth, through fields of flowers and fruit
+and ripening grain.
+</p><milestone unit="tb"/><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Such was the story that Orpheus told—Orpheus who knew
+the histories of the gods.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> A day came when the heroes, on their way back from a journey
+they had made with the Lemnian maidens, called out to Heracles
+upon the <emph>Argo</emph>. Then Heracles, standing on the prow of
+the ship, shouted angrily to them. Terrible did he seem to
+the Lemnian maidens, and they ran off, drawing the heroes
+with them. Heracles shouted to his comrades again, saying
+that if they did not come aboard the <emph>Argo</emph> and make ready
+<pb n="73"/>
+for the voyage to Colchis, he would go ashore and carry them
+to the ship, and force them again to take the oars in their hands.
+Not all of what Heracles said did the Argonauts hear.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> That evening the men were silent in Hypsipyle’s hall, and it
+was Atalanta, the maiden, who told the evening’s story.
+</p></div><div><index index="toc"/><index index='pdf'/><head>Atalanta’s Race</head><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> There are two Atalantas, she said; she herself, the Huntress,
+and another who is noted for her speed of foot and her delight
+in the race—the daughter of Schœneus, King of Bœotia, Atalanta
+of the Swift Foot.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> So proud was she of her swiftness that she made a vow to the
+gods that none would be her husband except the youth who
+won past her in the race. Youth after youth came and raced
+against her, but Atalanta, who grew fleeter and fleeter of foot,
+left each one of them far behind her. The youths who came to
+the race were so many and the clamor they made after defeat
+was so great, that her father made a law that, as he thought,
+would lessen their number. The law that he made was that
+the youth who came to race against Atalanta and who lost the
+race should lose his life into the bargain. After that the youths
+who had care for their lives stayed away from Bœotia.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Once there came a youth from a far part of Greece into the
+country that Atalanta’s father ruled over. Hippomenes was
+his name. He did not know of the race, but having come into
+<pb n="74"/>
+the city and seeing the crowd of people, he went with them to
+the course. He looked upon the youths who were girded for
+the race, and he heard the folk say amongst themselves, <q>Poor
+youths, as mighty and as high-spirited as they look, by sunset
+the life will be out of each of them, for Atalanta will run past
+them as she ran past the others.</q> Then Hippomenes spoke to
+the folk in wonder, and they told him of Atalanta’s race and of
+what would befall the youths who were defeated in it. <q>Unlucky
+youths,</q> cried Hippomenes, <q>how foolish they are to
+try to win a bride at the price of their lives.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Then, with pity in his heart, he watched the youths prepare
+for the race. Atalanta had not yet taken her place, and he was
+fearful of looking upon her. <q>She is a witch,</q> he said to himself,
+<q>she must be a witch to draw so many youths to their deaths, and
+she, no doubt, will show in her face and figure the witch’s spirit.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> But even as he said this, Hippomenes saw Atalanta. She
+stood with the youths before they crouched for the first dart
+in the race. He saw that she was a girl of a light and a lovely
+form. Then they crouched for the race; then the trumpets
+rang out, and the youths and the maiden darted like swallows
+over the sand of the course.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> On came Atalanta, far, far ahead of the youths who had
+started with her. Over her bare shoulders her hair streamed,
+blown backward by the wind that met her flight. Her fair
+neck shone, and her little feet were like flying doves. It seemed
+to Hippomenes as he watched her that there was fire in her
+<pb n="75"/>
+lovely body. On and on she went as swift as the arrow that the
+Scythian shoots from his bow. And as he watched the race
+he was not sorry that the youths were being left behind. Rather
+would he have been enraged if one came near overtaking her,
+for now his heart was set upon winning her for his bride, and
+he cursed himself for not having entered the race.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> She passed the last goal mark and she was given the victor’s
+wreath of flowers. Hippomenes stood and watched her and he
+did not see the youths who had started with her—they had
+thrown themselves on the ground in their despair.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Then wild, as though he were one of the doomed youths,
+Hippomenes made his way through the throng and came before
+the black-bearded King of Bœtia. The king’s brows were
+knit, for even then he was pronouncing doom upon the youths
+who had been left behind in the race. He looked upon Hippomenes,
+another youth who would make the trial, and the
+frown became heavier upon his face.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> But Hippomenes saw only Atalanta. She came beside her
+father; the wreath was upon her head of gold, and her eyes
+were wide and tender. She turned her face to him, and then
+she knew by the wildness that was in his look that he had
+come to enter the race with her. Then the flush that was on
+her face died away, and she shook her head as if she were imploring
+him to go from that place.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> The dark-bearded king bent his brows upon him and said,
+<q>Speak, O youth, speak and tell us what brings you here.</q>
+<pb n="76"/>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Then cried Hippomenes as if his whole life were bursting out
+with his words: <q>Why does this maiden, your daughter, seek
+an easy renown by conquering weakly youths in the race?
+She has not striven yet. Here stand I, one of the blood of
+Poseidon, the god of the sea. Should I be defeated by her
+in the race, then, indeed, might Atalanta have something to
+boast of.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Atalanta stepped forward and said: <q>Do not speak of it,
+youth. Indeed I think that it is some god, envious of your
+beauty and your strength, who sent you here to strive with
+me and to meet your doom. Ah, think of the youths who have
+striven with me even now! Think of the hard doom that is
+about to fall upon them! You venture your life in the race,
+but indeed I am not worthy of the price. Go hence, O stranger
+youth, go hence and live happily, for indeed I think that there
+is some maiden who loves you well.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q>Nay, maiden,</q> said Hippomenes, <q>I will enter the race and
+I will venture my life on the chance of winning you for my
+bride. What good will my life and my spirit be to me if they
+cannot win this race for me?</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> She drew away from him then and looked upon him no more,
+but bent down to fasten the sandals upon her feet. And the
+black-bearded king looked upon Hippomenes and said, <q>Face,
+then, this race to-morrow. You will be the only one who will
+enter it. But bethink thee of the doom that awaits thee at the
+end of it.</q> The king said no more, and Hippomenes went
+<pb n="77"/>
+from him and from Atalanta, and he came again to the place
+where the race had been run.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> He looked across the sandy course with its goal marks, and
+in his mind he saw again Atalanta’s swift race. He would not
+meet doom at the hands of the king’s soldiers, he knew, for his
+spirit would leave him with the greatness of the effort he would
+make to reach the goal before her. And he thought it would
+be well to die in that effort and on that sandy place that was
+so far from his own land.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Even as he looked across the sandy course now deserted by
+the throng, he saw one move across it, coming toward him with
+feet that did not seem to touch the ground. She was a woman
+of wonderful presence. As Hippomenes looked upon her he
+knew that she was Aphrodite, the goddess of beauty and of love.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q>Hippomenes,</q> said the immortal goddess, <q>the gods are
+mindful of you who are sprung from one of the gods, and I
+am mindful of you because of your own worth. I have come
+to help you in your race with Atalanta, for I would not have
+you slain, nor would I have that maiden go unwed. Give your
+greatest strength and your greatest swiftness to the race, and
+behold! here are wonders that will prevent the fleet-footed
+Atalanta from putting all her spirit into the race.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> And then the immortal goddess held out to Hippomenes
+a branch that had upon it three apples of shining gold.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q>In Cyprus,</q> said the goddess, <q>where I have come from,
+there is a tree on which these golden apples grow. Only I
+<pb n="78"/>
+may pluck them. I have brought them to you, Hippomenes.
+Keep them in your girdle, and in the race you will find out
+what to do with them, I think.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> So Aphrodite said, and then she vanished, leaving a fragrance
+in the air and the three shining apples in the hands of Hippomenes.
+Long he looked upon their brightness. They were
+beside him that night, and when he arose in the dawn he put
+them in his girdle. Then, before the throng, he went to the
+place of the race.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> When he showed himself beside Atalanta all around the
+course were silent, for they all admired Hippomenes for his
+beauty and for the spirit that was in his face; they were silent
+out of compassion, for they knew the doom that befell the
+youths who raced with Atalanta.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> And now Schœneus, the black-bearded king, stood up, and
+he spoke to the throng, saying, <q>Hear me all, both young and
+old: this youth, Hippomenes, seeks to win the race from my
+daughter, winning her for his bride. Now, if he be victorious
+and escape death I will give him my dear child, Atalanta, and
+many fleet horses besides as gifts from me, and in honor he
+shall go back to his native land. But if he fail in the race,
+then he will have to share the doom that has been meted out
+to the other youths who raced with Atalanta hoping to win
+her for a bride.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Then Hippomenes and Atalanta crouched for the start.
+The trumpets were sounded and they darted off.
+<pb n="79"/>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Side by side with Atalanta Hippomenes went. Her flying
+hair touched his breast, and it seemed to him that they were
+skimming the sandy course as if they were swallows. But
+then Atalanta began to draw away from him. He saw her
+ahead of him, and then he began to hear the words of cheer
+that came from the throng—<q>Bend to the race, Hippomenes!
+Go on, go on! Use your strength to the utmost.</q> He bent
+himself to the race, but further and further from him Atalanta
+drew.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Then it seemed to him that she checked her swiftness a little
+to look back at him. He gained on her a little. And then his
+hand touched the apples that were in his girdle. As it touched
+them it came into his mind what to do with the apples.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> He was not far from her now, but already her swiftness was
+drawing her further and further away. He took one of the
+apples into his hand and tossed it into the air so that it fell
+on the track before her.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Atalanta saw the shining apple. She checked her speed and
+stooped in the race to pick it up. And as she stooped Hippomenes
+darted past her, and went flying toward the goal that
+now was within his sight.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> But soon she was beside him again. He looked, and he saw
+that the goal marks were far, far ahead of him. Atalanta with
+the flying hair passed him, and drew away and away from him.
+He had not speed to gain upon her now, he thought, so he put
+his strength into his hand and he flung the second of the shining
+<pb n="80"/>
+apples. The apple rolled before her and rolled off the
+course. Atalanta turned off the course, stooped and picked up
+the apple.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Then did Hippomenes draw all his spirit into his breast as he
+raced on. He was now nearer to the goal than she was. But
+he knew that she was behind him, going lightly where he went
+heavily. And then she was beside him, and then she went
+past him. She paused in her speed for a moment and she
+looked back on him.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> As he raced on, his chest seemed weighted down and his
+throat was crackling dry. The goal marks were far away
+still, but Atalanta was nearing them. He took the last of the
+golden apples into his hand. Perhaps she was now so far that
+the strength of his throw would not be great enough to bring
+the apple before her.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> But with all the strength he could put into his hand he flung
+the apple. It struck the course before her feet and then went
+bounding wide. Atalanta swerved in her race and followed
+where the apple went. Hippomenes marveled that he had been
+able to fling it so far. He saw Atalanta stoop to pick up the
+apple, and he bounded on. And then, although his strength
+was failing, he saw the goal marks near him. He set his feet
+between them and then fell down on the ground.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> The attendants raised him up and put the victor’s wreath
+upon his head. The concourse of people shouted with joy to
+see him victor. But he looked around for Atalanta and he
+
+
+
+<pb n="81"/>
+saw her standing there with the golden apples in her hands.
+<q>He has won,</q> he heard her say, <q>and I have not to hate
+myself for bringing a doom upon him. Gladly, gladly do I
+give up the race, and glad am I that it is this youth who has
+won the victory from me.</q>
+</p>
+<p rend="text-align: center"><figure rend="width: 100%" url="images/i015.png"><anchor id="i015.png"/><index index="fig"/><head>Atalanta’s Last Race</head><figDesc>Illustration</figDesc></figure></p>
+<p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> She took his hand and brought him before the king. Then
+Schœneus, in the sight of all the rejoicing people, gave Atalanta
+to Hippomenes for his bride, and he bestowed upon him also
+a great gift of horses. With his dear and hard-won bride,
+Hippomenes went to his own country, and the apples that she
+brought with her, the golden apples of Aphrodite, were reverenced
+by the people.
+</p></div></div><div><index index="toc"/><index index='pdf'/><head>X. The Departure from Lemnos</head><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <figure rend="float: left; margin-top: 0em; margin-bottom: 0em; x-class: deco-letter;" url="images/capA1.png"><figDesc>Decorative first letter</figDesc></figure><hi rend="font-variant: small-caps; color:white; margin-left: -1em">A</hi> DAY came when Heracles left the <emph>Argo</emph>
+and went on the Lemnian land. He
+gathered the heroes about him, and
+they, seeing Heracles come amongst them,
+clamored to go to hunt the wild bulls
+that were inland from the sea.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> So, for once, the heroes left the Lemnian
+maidens who were their friends. Jason, too, left Hypsipyle
+in the palace and went with Heracles. And as they
+went, Heracles spoke to each of the heroes, saying that they
+were forgetting the Fleece of Gold that they had sailed to gain.
+<pb n="82"/>
+Jason blushed to think that he had almost let go out of his
+mind the quest that had brought him from Iolcus. And then
+he thought upon Hypsipyle and of how her little hand would
+stay in his, and his own hand became loose upon the spear
+so that it nearly fell from him. How could he, he thought,
+leave Hypsipyle and this land of Lemnos behind?
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> He heard the clear voice of Atalanta as she, too, spoke to
+the Argonauts. What Heracles said was brave and wise, said
+Atalanta. Forgetfulness would cover their names if they stayed
+longer in Lemnos—forgetfulness and shame, and they would
+come to despise themselves. Leave Lemnos, she cried, and
+draw <emph>Argo</emph> into the sea, and depart for Colchis.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> All day the Argonauts stayed by themselves, hunting the
+bulls. On their way back from the chase they were met by
+Lemnian maidens who carried wreaths of flowers for them.
+Very silent were the heroes as the maidens greeted them. Heracles
+went with Jason to the palace, and Hypsipyle, seeing
+the mighty stranger coming, seated herself, not on the couch
+where she was wont to sit looking into the face of Jason, but
+on the stone throne of King Thoas, her father. And seated on
+that throne she spoke to Jason and to Heracles as a queen
+might speak.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> In the hall that night the heroes and the Lemnian maidens
+who were with them were quiet. A story was told; Castor
+began it and Polydeuces ended it. And the story that Helen’s
+brothers told was:
+</p><pb n="83"/><div><index index="toc"/><index index='pdf'/><head>The Golden Maid</head><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Epimetheus the Titan had a brother who was the wisest of
+all beings—Prometheus called the Foreseer. But Epimetheus
+himself was slow-witted and scatter-brained. His wise brother
+once sent him a message bidding him beware of the gifts that
+Zeus might send him. Epimetheus heard, but he did not heed
+the warning, and thereby he brought upon the race of men
+troubles and cares.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Prometheus, the wise Titan, had saved men from a great
+trouble that Zeus would have brought upon them. Also he
+had given them the gift of fire. Zeus was the more wroth with
+men now because fire, stolen from him, had been given them;
+he was wroth with the race of Titans, too, and he pondered in
+his heart how he might injure men, and how he might use
+Epimetheus, the mindless Titan, to further his plan.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> While he pondered there was a hush on high Olympus, the
+mountain of the gods. Then Zeus called upon the artisan of
+the gods, lame Hephæstus, and he commanded him to make
+a being out of clay that would have the likeness of a lovely
+maiden. With joy and pride Hephæstus worked at the task
+that had been given him, and he fashioned a being that had the
+likeness of a lovely maiden, and he brought the thing of his
+making before the gods and the goddesses.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> All strove to add a grace or a beauty to the work of Hephæstus.
+Zeus granted that the maiden should see and feel.
+<pb n="84"/>
+Athene dressed her in garments that were as lovely as flowers.
+Aphrodite, the goddess of love, put a charm on her lips and
+in her eyes. The Graces put necklaces around her neck and
+set a golden crown upon her head. The Hours brought her a
+girdle of spring flowers. Then the herald of the gods gave her
+speech that was sweet and flowing. All the gods and goddesses
+had given gifts to her, and for that reason the maiden of Hephæstus’s
+making was called Pandora, the All-endowed.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> She was lovely, the gods knew; not beautiful as they themselves
+are, who have a beauty that awakens reverence rather
+than love, but lovely, as flowers and bright waters and earthly
+maidens are lovely. Zeus smiled to himself when he looked
+upon her, and he called to Hermes who knew all the ways of
+the earth, and he put her into the charge of Hermes. Also he
+gave Hermes a great jar to take along; this jar was Pandora’s
+dower.
+</p><milestone unit="tb"/><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Epimetheus lived in a deep-down valley. Now one day, as
+he was sitting on a fallen pillar in the ruined place that was
+now forsaken by the rest of the Titans, he saw a pair coming
+toward him. One had wings, and he knew him to be Hermes,
+the messenger of the gods. The other was a maiden. Epimetheus
+marveled at the crown upon her head and at her lovely
+garments. There was a glint of gold all around her. He rose
+from where he sat upon the broken pillar and he stood to watch
+the pair. Hermes, he saw, was carrying by its handle a great jar.
+
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> 
+
+<pb n="85"/>
+In wonder and delight he looked upon the maiden. Epimetheus
+had seen no lovely thing for ages. Wonderful indeed was
+this Golden Maid, and as she came nearer the charm that was
+on her lips and in her eyes came to the Earth-born One, and
+he smiled with more and more delight.
+</p>
+<p rend="text-align: center"><figure rend="width: 100%" url="images/i016.png"><anchor id="i016.png"/><index index="fig"/><head/><figDesc>Illustration</figDesc></figure></p>
+<p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Hermes came and stood before him. He also smiled, but his
+smile had something baleful in it. He put the hands of the
+Golden Maid into the great soft hand of the Titan, and he
+said, <q>O Epimetheus, Father Zeus would be reconciled with
+thee, and as a sign of his good will he sends thee this lovely
+goddess to be thy companion.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Oh, very foolish was Epimetheus the Earth-born One! As
+he looked upon the Golden Maid who was sent by Zeus he lost
+memory of the wars that Zeus had made upon the Titans and
+the Elder Gods; he lost memory of his brother chained by
+Zeus to the rock; he lost memory of the warning that his brother,
+the wisest of all beings, had sent him. He took the hands of
+Pandora, and he thought of nothing at all in all the world
+but her. Very far away seemed the voice of Hermes saying,
+<q>This jar, too, is from Olympus; it has in it Pandora’s dower.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> The jar stood forgotten for long, and green plants grew over
+it while Epimetheus walked in the garden with the Golden Maid,
+or watched her while she gazed on herself in the stream, or
+searched in the untended places for the fruits that the Elder
+Gods would eat, when they feasted with the Titans in the old
+days, before Zeus had come to his power. And lost to Epimetheus
+<pb n="86"/>
+was the memory of his brother now suffering upon the
+rock because of the gift he had given to men.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> And Pandora, knowing nothing except the brightness of the
+sunshine and the lovely shapes and colors of things and the
+sweet taste of the fruits that Epimetheus brought to her, could
+have stayed forever in that garden.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> But every day Epimetheus would think that the men and
+women of the world should be able to talk to him about this
+maiden with the wonderful radiance of gold, and with the
+lovely garments, and the marvelous crown. And one day he
+took Pandora by the hand, and he brought her out of that
+deep-lying valley, and toward the homes of men. He did
+not forget the jar that Hermes had left with her. All things
+that belonged to the Golden Maid were precious, and Epimetheus
+took the jar along.
+</p><milestone unit="tb"/><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> The race of men at the time were simple and content. Their
+days were passed in toil, but now, since Prometheus had given
+them fire, they had good fruits of their toil. They had well-shaped
+tools to dig the earth and to build houses. Their homes
+were warmed with fire, and fire burned upon the altars that were
+upon their ways.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Greatly they reverenced Prometheus; who had given them
+fire, and greatly they reverenced the race of the Titans. So
+when Epimetheus came amongst them, tall as a man walking
+with stilts, they welcomed him and brought him and the Golden
+<pb n="87"/>
+Maid to their hearths. And Epimetheus showed Pandora the
+wonderful element that his brother had given to men, and she
+rejoiced to see the fire, clapping her hands with delight. The
+jar that Epimetheus brought he left in an open place.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> In carrying it up the rough ways out of the valley Epimetheus
+may have knocked the jar about, for the lid that had
+been tight upon it now fitted very loosely. But no one gave
+heed to the jar as it stood in the open space where Epimetheus
+had left it.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> At first the men and women looked upon the beauty of Pandora,
+upon her lovely dresses, and her golden crown and her
+girdle of flowers, with wonder and delight. Epimetheus would
+have every one admire and praise her. The men would leave
+off working in the fields, or hammering on iron, or building
+houses, and the women would leave off spinning or weaving,
+and come at his call, and stand about and admire the Golden
+Maid. But as time went by a change came upon the women:
+one woman would weep, and another would look angry, and
+a third would go back sullenly to her work when Pandora was
+admired or praised.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Once the women were gathered together, and one who was
+the wisest amongst them said: <q>Once we did not think about
+ourselves, and we were content. But now we think about ourselves,
+and we say to ourselves that we are harsh and ill-favored
+indeed compared to the Golden Maid that the Titan is so enchanted
+with. And we hate to see our own men praise and
+<pb n="88"/>
+admire her, and often, in our hearts, we would destroy her if we
+could.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q>That is true,</q> the women said. And then a young woman
+cried out in a most yearnful voice, <q>O tell us, you who are
+wise, how can we make ourselves as beautiful as Pandora!</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Then said that woman who was thought to be wise, <q>This
+Golden Maid is lovely to look upon because she has lovely
+apparel and all the means of keeping herself lovely. The gods
+have given her the ways, and so her skin remains fair, and her
+hair keeps its gold, and her lips are ever red and her eyes shining.
+And I think that the means that she has of keeping lovely are
+all in that jar that Epimetheus brought with her.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> When the woman who was thought to be wise said this,
+those around her were silent for a while. But then one arose
+and another arose, and they stood and whispered together, one
+saying to the other that they should go to the place where the
+jar had been left by Epimetheus, and that they should take
+out of it the salves and the charms and the washes that would
+leave them as beautiful as Pandora.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> So the women went to that place. On their way they stopped
+at a pool and they bent over to see themselves mirrored in it,
+and they saw themselves with dusty and unkempt hair, with
+large and knotted hands, with troubled eyes, and with anxious
+mouths. They frowned as they looked upon their images, and
+they said in harsh voices that in a while they would have ways
+of making themselves as lovely as the Golden Maid.
+
+
+
+<pb n="89"/>
+</p>
+<p rend="text-align: center"><figure rend="width: 100%" url="images/i017.png"><anchor id="i017.png"/><index index="fig"/><head/><figDesc>Illustration</figDesc></figure></p>
+<p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> And as they went on they saw Pandora. She was playing
+in a flowering field, while Epimetheus, high as a man upon stilts,
+went gathering the blossoms of the bushes for her. They went
+on, and they came at last to the place where Epimetheus had
+left the jar that held Pandora’s dower.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> A great stone jar it was; there was no bird, nor flower, nor
+branch painted upon it. It stood high as a woman’s shoulder.
+And as the women looked on it they thought that there were
+things enough in it to keep them beautiful for all the days of
+their lives. But each one thought that she should not be the
+last to get her hands into it.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Once the lid had been fixed tightly down on the jar. But
+the lid was shifted a little now. As the hands of the women
+grasped it to take off the lid the jar was cast down, and the
+things that were inside spilled themselves forth.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> They were black and gray and red; they were crawling and
+flying things. And, as the women looked, the things spread
+themselves abroad or fastened themselves upon them.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> The jar, like Pandora herself, had been made and filled out
+of the ill will of Zeus. And it had been filled, not with salves
+and charms and washes, as the women had thought, but with
+Cares and Troubles. Before the women came to it one Trouble
+had already come forth from the jar—Self-thought that was
+upon the top of the heap. It was Self-thought that had afflicted
+the women, making them troubled about their own looks, and
+envious of the graces of the Golden Maid.
+<pb n="90"/>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> And now the others spread themselves out—Sickness and
+War and Strife between friends. They spread themselves
+abroad and entered the houses, while Epimetheus, the mindless
+Titan, gathered flowers for Pandora, the Golden Maid.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Lest she should weary of her play he called to her. He
+would take her into the houses of men. As they drew near to
+the houses they saw a woman seated on the ground, weeping;
+her husband had suddenly become hard to her and had shut
+the door on her face. They came upon a child crying because
+of a pain that he could not understand. And then they found
+two men struggling, their strife being on account of a possession
+that they had both held peaceably before.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> In every house they went to Epimetheus would say, <q>I am
+the brother of Prometheus, who gave you the gift of fire.</q> But
+instead of giving them a welcome the men would say, <q>We
+know nothing about your relation to Prometheus. We see you
+as a foolish man upon stilts.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Epimetheus was troubled by the hard looks and the cold
+words of the men who once had reverenced him. He turned
+from the houses and went away. In a quiet place he sat down,
+and for a while he lost sight of Pandora. And then it seemed
+to him that he heard the voice of his wise and suffering brother
+saying, <q>Do not accept any gift that Zeus may send you.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> He rose up and he hurried away from that place, leaving
+Pandora playing by herself. There came into his scattered
+mind Regret and Fear. As he went on he stumbled. He fell
+<pb n="91"/>
+from the edge of a cliff, and the sea washed away the body
+of the mindless brother of Prometheus.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Not everything had been spilled out of the jar that had been
+brought with Pandora into the world of men. A beautiful, living
+thing was in that jar also. This was Hope. And this beautiful,
+living thing had got caught under the rim of the jar and
+had not come forth with the others. One day a weeping woman
+found Hope under the rim of Pandora’s jar and brought this
+living thing into the house of men. And now because of Hope
+they could see an end to their troubles. And the men and
+women roused themselves in the midst of their afflictions and
+they looked toward gladness. Hope, that had been caught under
+the rim of the jar, stayed behind the thresholds of their houses.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> As for Pandora, the Golden Maid, she played on, knowing
+only the brightness of the sunshine and the lovely shapes of
+things. Beautiful would she have seemed to any being who
+saw her, but now she had strayed away from the houses of
+men and Epimetheus was not there to look upon her. Then
+Hephæstus, the lame artisan of the gods, left down his tools
+and went to seek her. He found Pandora, and he took her
+back to Olympus. And in his brazen house she stays, though
+sometimes at the will of Zeus she goes down into the world
+of men.
+</p><milestone unit="tb"/><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> When Polydeuces had ended the story that Castor had begun,
+Heracles cried out: <q>For the Argonauts, too, there has been
+<pb n="92"/>
+a Golden Maid—nay, not one, but a Golden Maid for each.
+Out of the jar that has been with her ye have taken forgetfulness
+of your honor. As for me, I go back to the <emph>Argo</emph> lest
+one of these Golden Maids should hold me back from the labors
+that make great a man.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> So Heracles said, and he went from Hypsipyle’s hall. The
+heroes looked at each other, and they stood up, and shame
+that they had stayed so long away from the quest came over
+each of them. The maidens took their hands; the heroes
+unloosed those soft hands and turned away from them.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Hypsipyle left the throne of King Thoas and stood before
+Jason. There was a storm in all her body; her mouth was
+shaken, and a whole life’s trouble was in her great eyes. Before
+she spoke Jason cried out: <q>What Heracles said is true, O
+Argonauts! On the Quest of the Golden Fleece our lives and
+our honors depend. To Colchis—to Colchis must we go!</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> He stood upright in the hall, and his comrades gathered
+around him. The Lemnian maidens would have held out their
+arms and would have made their partings long delayed, but
+that a strange cry came to them through the night. Well did
+the Argonauts know that cry—it was the cry of the ship, of
+<emph>Argo</emph> herself. They knew that they must go to her now or
+stay from the voyage for ever. And the maidens knew that
+there was something in the cry of the ship that might not be
+gainsaid, and they put their hands before their faces, and they
+said no other word.
+
+
+
+<pb n="93"/>
+</p>
+<p rend="text-align: center"><figure rend="width: 100%" url="images/i018.png"><anchor id="i018.png"/><index index="fig"/><head/><figDesc>Illustration</figDesc></figure></p>
+<p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Then said Hypsipyle, the queen, <q>I, too, am a ruler, Jason,
+and I know that there are great commands that we have to
+obey. Go, then, to the <emph>Argo</emph>. Ah, neither I nor the women of
+Lemnos will stay your going now. But to-morrow speak to
+us from the deck of the ship and bid us farewell. Do not go
+from us in the night, Jason.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Jason and the Argonauts went from Hypsipyle’s hall. The
+maidens who were left behind wept together. All but Hypsipyle.
+She sat on the throne of King Thoas and she had
+Polyxo, her nurse, tell her of the ways of Jason’s voyage as
+he had told of them, and of all that he would have to pass
+through. When the other Lemnian women slept she put her
+head upon her nurse’s knees and wept; bitterly Hypsipyle wept,
+but softly, for she would not have the others hear her weeping.
+</p><milestone unit="tb"/><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> By the coming of the morning’s light the Argonauts had
+made all ready for their sailing. They were standing on the
+deck when the light came, and they saw the Lemnian women
+come to the shore. Each looked at her friend aboard the
+<emph>Argo</emph>, and spoke, and went away. And last, Hypsipyle, the
+queen, came. <q>Farewell, Hypsipyle,</q> Jason said to her, and
+she, in her strange way of speaking, said:
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q>What you told us I have remembered—how you will
+come to the dangerous passage that leads into the Sea of
+Pontus, and how by the flight of a pigeon you will know
+whether or not you may go that way. O Jason, let the
+<pb n="94"/>
+dove you fly when you come to that dangerous place be
+Hypsipyle’s.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> She showed a pigeon held in her hands. She loosed it, and
+the pigeon alighted on the ship, and stayed there on pink feet,
+a white-feathered pigeon. Jason took up the pigeon and held
+it in his hands, and the <emph>Argo</emph> drew swiftly away from the Lemnian
+land.
+</p></div></div><div><index index="toc"/><index index='pdf'/><head>XI. The Passage of the Symplegades</head><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <figure rend="float: left; margin-top: 0em; margin-bottom: 0em; x-class: deco-letter;" url="images/capT.png"><figDesc>Decorative first letter</figDesc></figure><hi rend="font-variant: small-caps; color:white; margin-left: -1em">T</hi>HEY came near Salmydessus, where
+Phineus, the wise king, ruled, and they
+sailed past it; they sighted the pile of
+stones, with the oar upright upon it
+that they had raised on the seashore
+over the body of Tiphys, the skillful
+steersman whom they had lost; they
+sailed on until they heard a sound that grew more and more
+thunderous, and then the heroes said to each other, <q>Now
+we come to the Symplegades and the dread passage into the
+Sea of Pontus.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> It was then that Jason cried out: <q>Ah, when Pelias spoke
+of this quest to me, why did I not turn my head away and
+refuse to be drawn into it? Since we came near the dread
+passage that is before us I have passed every night in groans.
+As for you who have come with me, you may take your ease,
+<pb n="95"/>
+for you need care only for your own lives. But I have to care
+for you all, and to strive to win for you all a safe return to
+Greece. Ah, greatly am I afflicted now, knowing to what a great
+peril I have brought you!</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> So Jason said, thinking to make trial of the heroes. They,
+on their part, were not dismayed, but shouted back cheerful
+words to him. Then he said: <q>O friends of mine, by your
+spirit my spirit is quickened. Now if I knew that I was being
+borne down into the black gulfs of Hades, I should fear nothing,
+knowing that you are constant and faithful of heart.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> As he said this they came into water that seethed all around
+the ship. Then into the hands of Euphemus, a youth of Iolcus,
+who was the keenest-eyed amongst the Argonauts, Jason put
+the pigeon that Hypsipyle had given him. He bade him stand
+by the prow of the <emph>Argo</emph>, ready to loose the pigeon as the ship
+came nigh that dreadful gate of rock.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> They saw the spray being dashed around in showers; they
+saw the sea spread itself out in foam; they saw the high, black
+rocks rush together, sounding thunderously as they met. The
+caves in the high rocks rumbled as the sea surged into them,
+and the foam of the dashing waves spurted high up the rocks.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Jason shouted to each man to grip hard on the oars. The
+<emph>Argo</emph> dashed on as the rocks rushed toward each other again.
+Then there was such noise that no man’s voice could be heard
+above it.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> As the rocks met, Euphemus loosed the pigeon. With his
+<pb n="96"/>
+keen eyes he watched her fly through the spray. Would she,
+not finding an opening to fly through, turn back? He watched,
+and meanwhile the Argonauts gripped hard on the oars to
+save the ship from being dashed on the rocks. The pigeon
+fluttered as though she would sink down and let the spray
+drown her. And then Euphemus saw her raise herself and fly
+forward. Toward the place where she had flown he pointed.
+The rowers gave a loud cry, and Jason called upon them to
+pull with might and main.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> The rocks were parting asunder, and to the right and left
+broad Pontus was seen by the heroes. Then suddenly a huge
+wave rose before them, and at the sight of it they all uttered
+a cry and bent their heads. It seemed to them that it would
+dash down on the whole ship’s length and overwhelm them all.
+But Nauplius was quick to ease the ship, and the wave rolled
+away beneath the keel, and at the stern it raised the <emph>Argo</emph>
+and dashed her away from the rocks.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> They felt the sun as it streamed upon them through the sundered
+rocks. They strained at the oars until the oars bent like
+bows in their hands. The ship sprang forward. Surely they
+were now in the wide Sea of Pontus!
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> The Argonauts shouted. They saw the rocks behind them
+with the sea fowl screaming upon them. Surely they were in
+the Sea of Pontus—the sea that had never been entered before
+through the Rocks Wandering. The rocks no longer dashed
+together; each remained fixed in its place, for it was the will of
+<pb n="97"/>
+the gods that these rocks should no more clash together after
+a mortal’s ship had passed between them.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> They were now in the Sea of Pontus, the sea into which flowed
+the river that Colchis was upon—the River Phasis. And now
+above Jason’s head the bird of peaceful days, the Halcyon,
+fluttered, and the Argonauts knew that this was a sign from
+the gods that the voyage would not any more be troublous.
+</p></div><div><index index="toc"/><index index='pdf'/><head>XII. The Mountain Caucasus</head><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <figure rend="float: left; margin-top: 0em; margin-bottom: 0em; x-class: deco-letter;" url="images/capT.png"><figDesc>Decorative first letter</figDesc></figure><hi rend="font-variant: small-caps; color:white; margin-left: -1em">T</hi>HEY rested in the harbor of Thynias,
+the desert island, and sailing from there
+they came to the land of the Mariandyni,
+a people who were constantly at
+war with the Bebrycians; there the hero
+Polydeuces was welcomed as a god.
+Twelve days afterward they passed the
+mouth of the River Callichorus; then they came to the mouth
+of that river that flows through the land of the Amazons, the
+River Thermodon. Fourteen days from that place brought
+them to the island that is filled with the birds of Ares, the god
+of war. These birds dropped upon the heroes heavy, pointed
+feathers that would have pierced them as arrows if they had
+not covered themselves with their shields; then by shouting,
+and by striking their shields with their spears, they raised such
+a clamor as drove the birds away.
+<pb n="98"/>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> They sailed on, borne by a gentle breeze, until a gulf of the
+sea opened before them, and lo! a mountain that they knew
+bore some mighty name. Orpheus, looking on its peak and its
+crags, said, <q>Lo, now! We, the Argonauts, are looking upon
+the mountain that is named Caucasus!</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> When he declared the name the heroes all stood up and
+looked on the mountain with awe. And in awe they cried out
+a name, and that name was <q>Prometheus!</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> For upon that mountain the Titan god was held, his limbs
+bound upon the hard rocks by fetters of bronze. Even as the
+Argonauts looked toward the mountain a great shadow fell
+upon their ship, and looking up they saw a monstrous bird
+flying. The beat of the bird’s wings filled out the sail and
+drove the <emph>Argo</emph> swiftly onward. <q>It is the bird sent by Zeus,</q>
+Orpheus said. <q>It is the vulture that every day devours the
+liver of the Titan god.</q> They cowered down on the ship as
+they heard that word—all the Argonauts save Heracles; he
+stood upright and looked out toward where the bird was flying.
+Then, as the bird came near to the mountain, the Argonauts
+heard a great cry of anguish go up from the rocks.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q>It is Prometheus crying out as the bird of Zeus flies down
+upon him,</q> they said to one another. Again they cowered
+down on the ship, all save Heracles, who stayed looking toward
+where the great vulture had flown.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> The night came and the Argonauts sailed on in silence, thinking
+in awe of the Titan god and of the doom that Zeus had
+<pb n="99"/>
+inflicted upon him. Then, as they sailed on under the stars,
+Orpheus told them of Prometheus, of his gift to men, and of
+the fearful punishment that had been meted out to him by Zeus.
+</p><div><index index="toc"/><index index='pdf'/><head>Prometheus</head><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> The gods more than once made a race of men: the first was
+a Golden Race. Very close to the gods who dwell on Olympus
+was this Golden Race; they lived justly although there were no
+laws to compel them. In the time of the Golden Race the earth
+knew only one season, and that season was everlasting Spring.
+The men and women of the Golden Race lived through a span
+of life that was far beyond that of the men and women of our
+day, and when they died it was as though sleep had become
+everlasting with them. They had all good things, and that
+without labor, for the earth without any forcing bestowed fruits
+and crops upon them. They had peace all through their lives,
+this Golden Race, and after they had passed away their spirits
+remained above the earth, inspiring the men of the race that
+came after them to do great and gracious things and to act justly
+and kindly to one another.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> After the Golden Race had passed away, the gods made for
+the earth a second race—a Silver Race. Less noble in spirit
+and in body was this Silver Race, and the seasons that visited
+them were less gracious. In the time of the Silver Race the
+gods made the seasons—Summer and Spring, and Autumn
+<pb n="100"/>
+and Winter. They knew parching heat, and the bitter winds
+of winter, and snow and rain and hail. It was the men of the
+Silver Race who first built houses for shelter. They lived through
+a span of life that was longer than our span, but it was not
+long enough to give wisdom to them. Children were brought
+up at their mothers’ sides for a hundred years, playing at childish
+things. And when they came to years beyond a hundred
+they quarreled with one another, and wronged one another,
+and did not know enough to give reverence to the immortal
+gods. Then, by the will of Zeus, the Silver Race passed away
+as the Golden Race had passed away. Their spirits stay in the
+Underworld, and they are called by men the blessed spirits of
+the Underworld.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> And then there was made the third race—the Race of Bronze.
+They were a race great of stature, terrible and strong. Their
+armor was of bronze, their swords were of bronze, their implements
+were of bronze, and of bronze, too, they made their
+houses. No great span of life was theirs, for with the weapons
+that they took in their terrible hands they slew one another.
+Thus they passed away, and went down under the earth to
+Hades, leaving no name that men might know them by.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Then the gods created a fourth race—our own: a Race of
+Iron. We have not the justice that was amongst the men of
+the Golden Race, nor the simpleness that was amongst the men
+of the Silver Race, nor the stature nor the great strength that
+the men of the Bronze Race possessed. We are of iron that we
+<pb n="101"/>
+may endure. It is our doom that we must never cease from
+labor and that we must very quickly grow old.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> But miserable as we are to-day, there was a time when the
+lot of men was more miserable. With poor implements they
+had to labor on a hard ground. There was less justice and
+kindliness amongst men in those days than there is now.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Once it came into the mind of Zeus that he would destroy
+the fourth race and leave the earth to the nymphs and the
+satyrs. He would destroy it by a great flood. But Prometheus,
+the Titan god who had given aid to Zeus against the
+other Titans—Prometheus, who was called the Foreseer—could
+not consent to the race of men being destroyed utterly,
+and he considered a way of saving some of them. To a man
+and a woman, Deucalion and Pyrrha, just and gentle people,
+he brought word of the plan of Zeus, and he showed them how
+to make a ship that would bear them through what was about
+to be sent upon the earth.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Then Zeus shut up in their cave all the winds but the wind
+that brings rain and clouds. He bade this wind, the South
+Wind, sweep over the earth, flooding it with rain. He called
+upon Poseidon and bade him to let the sea pour in upon the
+land. And Poseidon commanded the rivers to put forth all
+their strength, and sweep dykes away, and overflow their banks.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> The clouds and the sea and the rivers poured upon the
+earth. The flood rose higher and higher, and in the places where
+the pretty lambs had played the ugly sea calves now gambolled;
+<pb n="102"/>
+men in their boats drew fishes out of the tops of elm
+trees, and the water nymphs were amazed to come on men’s
+cities under the waves.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Soon even the men and women who had boats were overwhelmed
+by the rise of water—all perished then except
+Deucalion and Pyrrha, his wife; them the waves had not overwhelmed,
+for they were in a ship that Prometheus had shown
+them how to build. The flood went down at last, and Deucalion
+and Pyrrha climbed up to a high and a dry ground. Zeus saw
+that two of the race of men had been left alive. But he saw
+that these two were just and kindly, and had a right reverence
+for the gods. He spared them, and he saw their children
+again peopling the earth.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Prometheus, who had saved them, looked on the men and
+women of the earth with compassion. Their labor was hard,
+and they wrought much to gain little. They were chilled at
+night in their houses, and the winds that blew in the daytime
+made the old men and women bend double like a wheel. Prometheus
+thought to himself that if men and women had the element
+that only the gods knew of—the element of fire—they
+could make for themselves implements for labor; they could
+build houses that would keep out the chilling winds, and they
+could warm themselves at the blaze.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> But the gods had not willed that men should have fire,
+and to go against the will of the gods would be impious. Prometheus
+went against the will of the gods. He stole fire from the
+
+
+
+<pb n="103"/>
+altar of Zeus, and he hid it in a hollow fennel stalk, and he
+brought it to men.
+</p>
+<p rend="text-align: center"><figure rend="width: 100%" url="images/i019.png"><anchor id="i019.png"/><index index="fig"/><head>Prometheus</head><figDesc>Illustration</figDesc></figure></p>
+<p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Then men were able to hammer iron into tools, and cut down
+forests with axes, and sow grain where the forests had been.
+Then were they able to make houses that the storms could
+not overthrow, and they were able to warm themselves at hearth
+fires. They had rest from their labor at times. They built
+cities; they became beings who no longer had heads and backs
+bent but were able to raise their faces even to the gods.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> And Zeus spared the race of men who had now the sacred
+element of fire. But he knew that Prometheus had stolen this
+fire even from his own altar and had given it to men. And he
+thought on how he might punish the great Titan god for his
+impiety.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> He brought back from the Underworld the giants that he
+had put there to guard the Titans that had been hurled down to
+Tartarus. He brought back Gyes, Cottus, and Briareus, and
+he commanded them to lay hands upon Prometheus and to fasten
+him with fetters to the highest, blackest crag upon Caucasus.
+And Briareus, Cottus, and Gyes seized upon the Titan god,
+and carried him to Caucasus, and fettered him with fetters of
+bronze to the highest, blackest crag—with fetters of bronze
+that may not be broken. There they have left the Titan
+stretched, under the sky, with the cold winds blowing upon
+him, and with the sun streaming down on him. And that his
+punishment might exceed all other punishments Zeus had sent
+<pb n="104"/>
+a vulture to prey upon him—a vulture that tears at his liver
+each day.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> And yet Prometheus does not cry out that he has repented
+of his gift to man; although the winds blow upon him, and the
+sun streams upon him, and the vulture tears at his liver, Prometheus
+will not cry out his repentance to heaven. And Zeus
+may not utterly destroy him. For Prometheus the Foreseer
+knows a secret that Zeus would fain have him disclose. He
+knows that even as Zeus overthrew his father and made himself
+the ruler in his stead, so, too, another will overthrow Zeus.
+And one day Zeus will have to have the fetters broken from
+around the limbs of Prometheus, and will have to bring from
+the rock and the vulture, and into the Council of the Olympians,
+the unyielding Titan god.
+</p><milestone unit="tb"/><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> When the light of the morning came the <emph>Argo</emph> was very near
+to the Mountain Caucasus. The voyagers looked in awe upon
+its black crags. They saw the great vulture circling over a
+high rock, and from beneath where the vulture circled they
+heard a weary cry. Then Heracles, who all night had stood
+by the mast, cried out to the Argonauts to bring the ship near
+to a landing place.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> But Jason would not have them go near; fear of the wrath
+of Zeus was strong upon him; rather, he bade the Argonauts
+put all their strength into their rowing, and draw far off from
+that forbidden mountain. Heracles, not heeding what Jason
+
+
+
+<pb n="105"/>
+ordered, declared that it was his purpose to make his way up
+to the black crag, and, with his shield and his sword in his
+hands, slay the vulture that preyed upon the liver of Prometheus.
+</p>
+<p rend="text-align: center"><figure rend="width: 100%" url="images/i020.png"><anchor id="i020.png"/><index index="fig"/><head/><figDesc>Illustration</figDesc></figure></p>
+<p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Then Orpheus in a clear voice spoke to the Argonauts.
+<q>Surely some spirit possesses Heracles,</q> he said. <q>Despite
+all we do or say he will make his way to where Prometheus
+is fettered to the rock. Do not gainsay him in this! Remember
+what Nereus, the ancient one of the sea, declared! Did Nereus
+not say that a great labor awaited Heracles, and that in the
+doing of it he should work out the will of Zeus? Stay him not!
+How just it would be if he who is the son of Zeus freed from
+his torments the much-enduring Titan god!</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> So Orpheus said in his clear, commanding voice. They drew
+near to the Mountain Caucasus. Then Heracles, gripping the
+sword and shield that were the gifts of the gods, sprang out on
+the landing place. The Argonauts shouted farewell to him.
+But he, filled as he was with an overmastering spirit, did not
+heed their words.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> A strong breeze drove them onward; darkness came down,
+and the <emph>Argo</emph> went on through the night. With the morning
+light those who were sleeping were awakened by the cry of
+Nauplius—<q>Lo! The Phasis, and the utmost bourne of the
+sea!</q> They sprang up, and looked with many strange feelings
+upon the broad river they had come to.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Here was the Phasis emptying itself into the Sea of Pontus!
+Up that river was Colchis and the city of King Æetes, the
+<pb n="106"/>
+end of their voyage, the place where was kept the Golden
+Fleece! Quickly they let down the sail; they lowered the mast
+and they laid it along the deck; strongly they grasped the oars;
+they swung the <emph>Argo</emph> around, and they entered the broad stream
+of the Phasis.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Up the river they went with the Mountain Caucasus on
+their left hand, and on their right the groves and gardens of
+Aea, King Æetes’s city. As they went up the stream, Jason
+poured from a golden cup an offering to the gods. And to the
+dead heroes of that country the Argonauts prayed for good
+fortune to their enterprise.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> It was Jason’s counsel that they should not at once appear
+before King Æetes, but visit him after they had seen the
+strength of his city. They drew their ship into a shaded backwater,
+and there they stayed while day grew and faded around
+them.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Night came, and the heroes slept upon the deck of <emph>Argo</emph>.
+Many things came back to them in their dreams or through
+their half-sleep: they thought of the Lemnian maidens they had
+parted from; of the Clashing Rocks they had passed between;
+of the look in the eyes of Heracles as he raised his face to the
+high, black peak of Caucasus. They slept, and they thought
+they saw before them <hi rend="font-variant: small-caps">The Golden Fleece</hi>; darkness surrounded
+it; it seemed to the dreaming Argonauts that the
+darkness was the magic power that King Æetes possessed.
+</p><pb n="107"/></div></div></div><div><index index="toc"/><index index='pdf'/><head>Part II. The Return to Greece</head><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> </p><pb n="109"/><div><index index="toc"/><index index='pdf'/><head>I. King Æetes</head><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <figure rend="float: left; margin-top: 0em; margin-bottom: 0em; x-class: deco-letter;" url="images/capT.png"><figDesc>Decorative first letter</figDesc></figure><hi rend="font-variant: small-caps; color:white; margin-left: -1em">T</hi>HEY had come into a country that was
+the strangest of all countries, and
+amongst a people that were the strangest
+of all peoples. They were in the
+land, this people said, before the moon
+had come into the sky. And it is true
+that when the great king of Egypt had
+come so far, finding in all other places men living on the high
+hills and eating the acorns that grew on the oaks there, he found
+in Colchis the city of Aea with a wall around it and with pillars
+on which writings were graven. That was when Egypt was
+called the Morning Land.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> And many of the magicians of Egypt who had come with
+King Sesostris stayed in that city of Aea, and they taught
+people spells that could stay the moon in her going and coming,
+in her rising and setting. Priests of the Moon ruled the city
+of Aea until King Æetes came.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Æetes had no need of their magic, for Helios, the bright
+Sun, was his father, as he thought. Also, Hephæstus, the artisan
+of the gods, was his friend, and Hephæstus made for him
+<pb n="110"/>
+many wonderful things to be his protection. Medea, too, his
+wise daughter, knew the secrets taught by those who could
+sway the moon.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> But Æetes once was made afraid by a dream that he had:
+he dreamt that a ship had come up the Phasis, and then, sailing
+on a mist, had rammed his palace that was standing there
+in all its strength and beauty until it had fallen down. On the
+morning of the night that he had had this dream Æetes called
+Medea, his wise daughter, and he bade her go to the temple
+of Hecate, the Moon, and search out spells that might destroy
+those who came against his city.
+</p><milestone unit="tb"/><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> That morning the Argonauts, who had passed the night in
+the backwater of the river, had two youths come to them. They
+were in a broken ship, and they had one oar only. When
+Jason, after giving them food and fresh garments, questioned
+them, he found out that these youths were of the city of Aea,
+and that they were none others than the sons of Phrixus—of
+Phrixus who had come there with the Golden Ram.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> And the youths, Phrontis and Melas, were as amazed as was
+Jason when they found out whose ship they had come aboard.
+For Jason was the grandson of Cretheus, and Cretheus was the
+brother of Athamas, their grandfather. They had ventured
+from Aea, where they had been reared, thinking to reach the
+country of Athamas and lay claim to his possessions. But they
+had been wrecked at a place not far from the mouth of the
+<pb n="111"/>
+Phasis, and with great pain and struggle they had made their
+way back.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> They were fearful of Aea and of their uncle King Æetes, and
+they would gladly go with Jason and the Argonauts back to
+Greece. They would help Jason, they said, to persuade Æetes
+to give the Golden Fleece peaceably to them. Their mother
+was the daughter of Æetes—Chalciope, whom the king had
+given in marriage to Phrixus, his guest.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> A council of the Argonauts was held, and it was agreed that
+Jason should go with two comrades to King Æetes, Phrontis
+and Melas going also. They were to ask the king to give
+them the Golden Fleece and to offer him a recompense. Jason
+took Peleus and Telamon with him.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> As they came to the city a mist fell, and Jason and his
+comrades with the sons of Phrixus went through the city without
+being seen. They came before the palace of King Æetes.
+Then Phrontis and Melas were some way behind. The mist
+lifted, and before the heroes was the wonder of the palace in
+the bright light of the morning.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Vines with broad leaves and heavy clusters of fruit grew
+from column to column, the columns holding a gallery up.
+And under the vines were the four fountains that Hephæstus
+had made for King Æetes. They gushed out into golden, silver,
+bronze, and iron basins. And one fountain gushed out clear
+water, and another gushed out milk; another gushed out wine;
+and another oil. On each side of the courtyard were the palace
+<pb n="112"/>
+buildings; in one King Æetes lived with Apsyrtus, his son, and
+in the other Chalciope and Medea lived with their handmaidens.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Medea was passing from her father’s house. The mist lifted
+suddenly and she saw three strangers in the palace courtyard.
+One had a crimson mantle on; his shoulders were such as to
+make him seem a man that a whole world could not overthrow,
+and his eyes had all the sun’s light in them.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Amazed, Medea stood looking upon Jason, wondering at his
+bright hair and gleaming eyes and at the lightness and strength
+of the hand that he had raised. And then a dove flew toward
+her: it was being chased by a hawk, and Medea saw the hawk’s
+eyes and beak. As the dove lighted upon her shoulder she threw
+her veil around it, and the hawk dashed itself against a column.
+And as Medea, trembling, leaned against the column she heard
+a cry from her sister, who was within.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> For now Phrontis and Melas had come up, and Chalciope
+who was spinning by the door saw them and cried out. All
+the servants rushed out. Seeing Chalciope’s sons there they,
+too, uttered loud cries, and made such commotion that Apsyrtus
+and then King Æetes came out of the palace.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Jason saw King Æetes. He was old and white, but he had
+great green eyes, and the strength of a leopard was in all he did.
+And Jason looked upon Apsyrtus too; the son of Æetes looked
+like a Phænician merchant, black of beard and with rings in
+his ears, with a hooked nose and a gleam of copper in his face.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Phrontis and Melas went from their mother’s embrace and
+<pb n="113"/>
+made reverence to King Æetes. Then they spoke of the heroes
+who were with them, of Jason and his two comrades. Æetes
+bade all enter the palace; baths were made ready for them,
+and a banquet was prepared.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> After the banquet, when they all sat together, Æetes, addressing
+the eldest of Chalciope’s sons, said:
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q>Sons of Phrixus, of that man whom I honored above all
+men who came to my halls, speak now and tell me how it is
+that you have come back to Aea so soon, and who they are,
+these men who come with you?</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Æetes, as he spoke, looked sharply upon Phrontis and Melas,
+for he suspected them of having returned to Aea, bringing these
+armed men with them, with an evil intent. Phrontis looked
+at the King, and said:
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q rend="post: none">Æetes, our ship was driven upon the Island of Ares, where
+it was almost broken upon the rocks. That was on a murky
+night, and in the morning the birds of Ares shot their sharp
+feathers upon us. We pulled away from that place, and thereafter
+we were driven by the winds back to the mouth of the
+Phasis. There we met with these heroes who were friendly to us.
+Who they are, what they have come to your city for, I shall
+now tell you.
+</q></p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q rend="post: none">A certain king, longing to drive one of these heroes from his
+land, and hoping that the race of Cretheus might perish utterly,
+led him to enter a most perilous adventure. He came here upon
+a ship that was made by the command of Hera, the wife of
+<pb n="114"/>
+Zeus, a ship more wonderful than mortals ever sailed in before.
+With him there came the mightiest of the heroes of Greece.
+He is Jason, the grandson of Cretheus, and he has come to beg
+that you will grant him freely the famous Fleece of Gold that
+Phrixus brought to Aea.
+</q></p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q>But not without recompense to you would he take the
+Fleece. Already he has heard of your bitter foes, the Sauromatæ.
+He with his comrades would subdue them for you.
+And if you would ask of the names and the lineage of the heroes
+who are with Jason I shall tell you. This is Peleus and this
+is Telamon; they are brothers, and they are sons of Æacus,
+who was of the seed of Zeus. And all the other heroes who have
+come with them are of the seed of the gods.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> So Phrontis said, but the King was not placated by what he
+said. He thought that the sons of Chalciope had returned to
+Aea bringing these warriors with them so that they might wrest
+the kingship from him, or, failing that, plunder the city. Æetes’s
+heart was filled with wrath as he looked upon them, and his
+eyes shone as a leopard’s eyes.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q>Begone from my sight,</q> he cried, <q>robbers that ye are!
+Tricksters! If you had not eaten at my table, assuredly I
+should have had your tongues cut out for speaking falsehoods
+about the blessed gods, saying that this one and that of your
+companions was of their divine race.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Telamon and Peleus strode forward with angry hearts; they
+would have laid their hands upon King Æetes only Jason held
+<pb n="115"/>
+them back. And then speaking to the king in a quiet voice,
+Jason said:
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q>Bear with us, King Æetes, I pray you. We have not come
+with such evil intent as you think. Ah, it was the evil command
+of an evil king that sent me forth with these companions
+of mine across dangerous gulfs of the sea, and to face your
+wrath and the armed men you can bring against us. We are
+ready to make great recompense for the friendliness you may
+show to us. We will subdue for you the Sauromatæ, or any
+other people that you would lord it over.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> But Æetes was not made friendly by Jason’s words. His
+heart was divided as to whether he should summon his armed
+men and have them slain upon the spot, or whether he should
+put them into danger by the trial he would make of them.
+At last he thought that it would be better to put them to the
+trial that he had in mind, slaying them afterward if need be.
+And then he spoke to Jason, saying:
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q>Strangers to Colchis, it may be true what my nephews have
+said. It may be that ye are truly of the seed of the immortals.
+And it may be that I shall give you the Golden Fleece to bear
+away after I have made trial of you.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> As he spoke Medea, brought there by his messenger so that
+she might observe the strangers, came into the chamber. She
+entered softly and she stood away from her father and the four
+who were speaking with him. Jason looked upon her, and even
+although his mind was filled with the thought of bending King
+<pb n="116"/>
+Æetes to his will, he saw what manner of maiden she was, and
+what beauty and what strength was hers.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> She had a dark face that was made very strange by her crown
+of golden hair. Her eyes, like her father’s, were wide and full
+of light, and her lips were so full and red that they made her
+mouth like an opening rose. But her brows were always knit
+as if there was some secret anger within her.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q>With brave men I have no quarrel,</q> said Æetes. <q rend="post: none">I will
+make a trial of your bravery, and if your bravery wins through
+the trial, be very sure that you will have the Golden Fleece to
+bring back in triumph to Iolcus.
+</q></p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q>But the trial that I would make of you is hard for a great
+hero even. Know that on the plain of Ares yonder I have two
+fire-breathing bulls with feet of brass. These bulls were once
+conquered by me; I yoked them to a plow of adamant, and
+with them I plowed the field of Ares for four plow-gates.
+Then I sowed the furrows, not with the seed that Demeter
+gives, but with teeth of a dragon. And from the dragon’s teeth
+that I sowed in the field of Ares armed men sprang up. I slew
+them with my spear as they rose around me to slay me. If you
+can accomplish this that I accomplished in days gone by I shall
+submit to you and give you the Golden Fleece. But if you
+cannot accomplish what I once accomplished you shall go from
+my city empty-handed, for it is not right that a brave man
+should yield aught to one who cannot show himself as
+brave.</q>
+<pb n="117"/>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> So Æetes said. Then Jason, utterly confounded, cast his
+eyes upon the ground. He raised them to speak to the king,
+and as he did he found the strange eyes of Medea upon him.
+With all the courage that was in him he spoke:
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q>I will dare this contest, monstrous as it is. I will face this
+doom. I have come far, and there is nothing else for me to do
+but to yoke your fire-breathing bulls to the plow of adamant,
+and plow the furrows in the field of Ares, and struggle with
+the Earth-born Men.</q> As he said this he saw the eyes of
+Medea grow wide as with fear.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Then Æetes said, <q>Go back to your ship and make ready for
+the trial.</q> Jason, with Peleus and Telamon, left the chamber,
+and the king smiled grimly as he saw them go. Phrontis and
+Melas went to where their mother was. But Medea stayed,
+and Æetes looked upon her with his great leopard’s eyes. <q>My
+daughter, my wise Medea,</q> he said, <q>go, put spells upon the
+Moon, that Hecate may weaken that man in his hour of trial.</q>
+Medea turned away from her father’s eyes, and went to her
+chamber.
+</p><pb n="118"/></div><div><index index="toc"/><index index='pdf'/><head>II. Medea the Sorceress</head><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <figure rend="float: left; margin-top: 0em; margin-bottom: 0em; x-class: deco-letter;" url="images/capS.png"><figDesc>Decorative first letter</figDesc></figure><hi rend="font-variant: small-caps; color:white; margin-left: -1em">S</hi>HE turned away from her father’s eyes
+and she went into her own chamber.
+For a long time she stood there with
+her hands clasped together. She heard
+the voice of Chalciope lamenting because
+Æetes had taken a hatred to her sons
+and might strive to destroy them. She
+heard the voice of her sister lamenting, but Medea thought that
+the cause that her sister had for grieving was small compared
+with the cause that she herself had.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> She thought on the moment when she had seen Jason for the
+first time—in the courtyard as the mist lifted and the dove
+flew to her; she thought of him as he lifted those bright eyes
+of his; then she thought of his voice as he spoke after her father
+had imposed the dreadful trial upon him. She would have liked
+then to have cried out to him, <q>O youth, if others rejoice at
+the doom that you go to, I do not rejoice.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Still her sister lamented. But how great was her own grief
+compared to her sister’s! For Chalciope could try to help her
+sons and could lament for the danger they were in and no one
+would blame her. But she might not strive to help Jason nor
+might she lament for the danger he was in. How terrible it
+would be for a maiden to help a stranger against her father’s
+design! How terrible it would be for a woman of Colchis to
+<pb n="119"/>
+help a stranger against the will of the king! How terrible it
+would be for a daughter to plot against King Æetes in his own
+palace!
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> And then Medea hated Aea, her city. She hated the furious
+people who came together in the assembly, and she hated the
+brazen bulls that Hephæstus had given her father. And then
+she thought that there was nothing in Aea except the furious
+people and the fire-breathing bulls. O how pitiful it was that
+the strange hero and his friends should have come to such a
+place for the sake of the Golden Fleece that was watched over
+by the sleepless serpent in the grove of Ares!
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Still Chalciope lamented. Would Chalciope come to her and
+ask her, Medea, to help her sons? If she should come she
+might speak of the strangers, too, and of the danger they were in.
+Medea went to her couch and lay down upon it. She longed
+for her sister to come to her or to call to her.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> But Chalciope stayed in her own chamber. Medea, lying upon
+her couch, listened to her sister’s laments. At last she went
+near where Chalciope was. Then shame that she should think
+so much about the stranger came over her. She stood there
+without moving; she turned to go back to the couch, and then
+trembled so much that she could not stir. As she stood between
+her couch and her sister’s chamber she heard the voice of Chalciope
+calling to her.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> She went into the chamber where her sister stood. Chalciope
+flung her arms around her. <q>Swear,</q> said she to Medea,
+<pb n="120"/>
+<q>swear by Hecate, the Moon, that you will never speak of
+something I am going to ask you.</q> Medea swore that she
+would never speak of it.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Chalciope spoke of the danger her sons were in. She asked
+Medea to devise a way by which they could escape with the
+stranger from Aea. <q>In Aea and in Colchis,</q> she said, <q>there
+will be no safety for my sons henceforth.</q> And to save Phrontis
+and Melas, she said, Medea would have to save the strangers
+also. Surely she knew of a charm that would save the stranger
+from the brazen bulls in the contest on the morrow!
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> So Chalciope came to the very thing that was in Medea’s
+mind. Her heart bounded with joy and she embraced her.
+<q>Chalciope,</q> she said, <q>I declare that I am your sister, indeed—aye,
+and your daughter, too, for did you not care for me when
+I was an infant? I will strive to save your sons. I will strive
+to save the strangers who came with your sons. Send one to
+the strangers—send him to the leader of the strangers, and
+tell him that I would see him at daybreak in the temple of
+Hecate.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> When Medea said this Chalciope embraced her again. She
+was amazed to see how Medea’s tears were flowing. <q>Chalciope,</q>
+she said, <q>no one will know the dangers that I shall go
+through to save them.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Swiftly then Chalciope went from the chamber. But Medea
+stayed there with her head bowed and the blush of shame on
+her face. She thought that already she had deceived her sister,
+<pb n="121"/>
+making her think that it was Phrontis and Melas and not Jason
+that was in her mind to save. And she thought on how she
+would have to plot against her father and against her own people,
+and all for the sake of a stranger who would sail away without
+thought of her, without the image of her in his mind.
+</p><milestone unit="tb"/><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Jason, with Peleus and Telamon, went back to the <emph>Argo</emph>. His
+comrades asked how he had fared, and when he spoke to them
+of the fire-breathing bulls with feet of brass, of the dragon’s
+teeth that had to be sown, and of the Earth-born Men that had
+to be overcome, the Argonauts were greatly cast down, for this
+task, they thought, was one that could not be accomplished.
+He who stood before the fire-breathing bulls would perish on
+the moment. But they knew that one amongst them must
+strive to accomplish the task. And if Jason held back, Peleus,
+Telamon, Theseus, Castor, Polydeuces, or any one of the others
+would undertake it.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> But Jason would not hold back. On the morrow, he said, he
+would strive to yoke the fire-breathing, brazen-footed bulls to
+the plow of adamant. If he perished the Argonauts should
+then do what they thought was best—make other trials to
+gain the Golden Fleece, or turn their ship and sail back to Greece.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> While they were speaking, Phrontis, Chalciope’s son, came
+to the ship. The Argonauts welcomed him, and in a while he
+began to speak of his mother’s sister and of the help she could
+give. They grew eager as he spoke of her, all except rough
+<pb n="122"/>
+Arcas, who stood wrapped in his bear’s skin. <q>Shame on us,</q>
+rough Arcas cried, <q>shame on us if we have come here to crave
+the help of girls! Speak no more of this! Let us, the Argonauts,
+go with swords into the city of Aea, and slay this king,
+and carry off the Fleece of Gold.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Some of the Argonauts murmured approval of what Arcas
+said. But Orpheus silenced him and them, for in his prophetic
+mind Orpheus saw something of the help that Medea would
+give them. It would be well, Orpheus said, to take help from
+this wise maiden; Jason should go to her in the temple of
+Hecate. The Argonauts agreed to this; they listened to what
+Phrontis told them about the brazen bulls, and the night wore on.
+</p><milestone unit="tb"/><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> When darkness came upon the earth; when, at sea, sailors
+looked to the Bear and the stars of Orion; when, in the city,
+there was no longer the sound of barking dogs nor of men’s
+voices, Medea went from the palace. She came to a path;
+she followed it until it brought her into the part of the grove
+that was all black with the shadow that oak trees made.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> She raised up her hands and she called upon Hecate, the
+Moon. As she did, there was a blaze as from torches all around,
+and she saw horrible serpents stretching themselves toward her
+from the branches of the trees. Medea shrank back in fear.
+But again she called upon Hecate. And now there was a howling
+as from the hounds of Hades all around her. Fearful, indeed,
+Medea grew as the howling came near her; almost she turned
+<pb n="123"/>
+to flee. But she raised her hands again and called upon Hecate.
+Then the nymphs who haunted the marsh and the river shrieked,
+and at those shrieks Medea crouched down in fear.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> She called upon Hecate, the Moon, again. She saw the moon
+rise above the treetops, and then the hissing and shrieking and
+howling died away. Holding up a goblet in her hand Medea
+poured out a libation of honey to Hecate, the Moon.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> And then she went to where the moon made a brightness
+upon the ground. There she saw a flower that rose above the
+other flowers—a flower that grew from two joined stalks, and
+that was of the color of a crocus. Medea cut the stalks with a
+brazen knife, and as she did there came a deep groan out of
+the earth.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> This was the Promethean flower. It had come out of the
+earth first when the vulture that tore at Prometheus’s liver had
+let fall to earth a drop of his blood. With a Caspian shell that
+she had brought with her Medea gathered the dark juice of this
+flower—the juice that went to make her most potent charm.
+All night she went through the grove gathering the juice of
+secret herbs; then she mingled them in a phial that she put away
+in her girdle.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> She went from that grove and along the river. When the
+sun shed its first rays upon snowy Caucasus she stood outside
+the temple of Hecate. She waited, but she had not long to
+wait, for, like the bright star Sirius rising out of Ocean, soon
+she saw Jason coming toward her. She made a sign to him,
+<pb n="124"/>
+and he came and stood beside her in the portals of the
+temple.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> They would have stood face to face if Medea did not have
+her head bent. A blush had come upon her face, and Jason
+seeing it, and seeing how her head was bent, knew how grievous
+it was to her to meet and speak to a stranger in this way. He
+took her hand and he spoke to her reverently, as one would
+speak to a priestess.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q>Lady,</q> he said, <q>I implore you by Hecate and by Zeus who
+helps all strangers and suppliants to be kind to me and to the
+men who have come to your country with me. Without your
+help I cannot hope to prevail in the grievous trial that has
+been laid upon me. If you will help us, Medea, your name will
+be renowned throughout all Greece. And I have hopes that
+you will help us, for your face and form show you to be one who
+can be kind and gracious.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> The blush of shame had gone from Medea’s face and a softer
+blush came over her as Jason spoke. She looked upon him
+and she knew that she could hardly live if the breath of the
+brazen bulls withered his life or if the Earth-born Men slew him.
+She took the charm from out her girdle; ungrudgingly she put
+it into Jason’s hands. And as she gave him the charm that
+she had gained with such danger, the fear and trouble that was
+around her heart melted as the dew melts from around the rose
+when it is warmed by the first light of the morning.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Then they spoke standing close together in the portal of the
+<pb n="125"/>
+temple. She told him how he should anoint his body all over
+with the charm; it would give him, she said, boundless and
+untiring strength, and make him so that the breath of the
+bulls could not wither him nor the horns of the bulls pierce
+him. She told him also to sprinkle his shield and his sword
+with the charm.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> And then they spoke of the dragon’s teeth and of the Earth-born
+Men who would spring from them. Medea told Jason
+that when they arose out of the earth he was to cast a great
+stone amongst them. The Earth-born Men would struggle about
+the stone, and they would slay each other in the contest.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Her dark and delicate face was beautiful. Jason looked upon
+her, and it came into his mind that in Colchis there was something
+else of worth besides the Golden Fleece. And he thought
+that after he had won the Fleece there would be peace between
+the Argonauts and King Æetes, and that he and Medea might
+sit together in the king’s hall. But when he spoke of being
+joined in friendship with her father, Medea cried:
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q>Think not of treaties nor of covenants. In Greece such are
+regarded, but not here. Ah, do not think that the king, my
+father, will keep any peace with you! When you have won the
+Fleece you must hasten away. You must not tarry in Aea.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> She said this and her cheeks were wet with tears to think
+that he should go so soon, that he would go so far, and that
+she would never look upon him again. She bent her head again
+and she said: <q>Tell me about your own land; about the place
+<pb n="126"/>
+of your father, the place where you will live when you win back
+from Colchis.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Then Jason told her of Iolcus; he told her how it was circled
+by mountains not so lofty as her Caucasus; he told her of the
+pasture lands of Iolcus with their flocks of sheep; he told her
+of the Mountain Pelion where he had been reared by Chiron,
+the ancient centaur; he told her of his father who lingered out
+his life in waiting for his return.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Medea said: <q>When you go back to Iolcus do not forget me,
+Medea. I shall remember you, Jason, even in my father’s
+despite. And it will be my hope that some rumor of you will
+come to me like some messenger-bird. If you forget me may
+some blast of wind sweep me away to Iolcus, and may I sit in
+your hall an unknown and an unexpected guest!</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Then they parted; Medea went swiftly back to the palace,
+and Jason, turning to the river, went to where the <emph>Argo</emph> was
+moored.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> The heroes embraced and questioned him; he told them of
+Medea’s counsel and he showed them the charm she had given
+him. That savage man Arcas scoffed at Medea’s counsel and
+Medea’s charm, saying that the Argonauts had become poor-spirited
+indeed when they had to depend upon a girl’s help.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Jason bathed in the river; then he anointed himself with the
+charm; he sprinkled his spear and shield and sword with it.
+He came to Arcas who sat upon his bench, still nursing his
+anger, and he held the spear toward him.
+<pb n="127"/>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Arcas took up his heavy sword and he hewed at the butt
+of the spear. The edge of the sword turned. The blade leaped
+back in his hand as if it had been struck against an anvil. And
+Jason, feeling within him a boundless and tireless strength,
+laughed aloud.
+</p></div><div><index index="toc"/><index index='pdf'/><head>III. The Winning of the Golden Fleece</head><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <figure rend="float: left; margin-top: 0em; margin-bottom: 0em; x-class: deco-letter;" url="images/capT.png"><figDesc>Decorative first letter</figDesc></figure><hi rend="font-variant: small-caps; color:white; margin-left: -1em">T</hi>HEY took the ship out of the backwater
+and they brought her to a wharf in the
+city. At a place that was called <q>The
+Ram’s Couch</q> they fastened the <emph>Argo</emph>.
+Then they marched to the field of Ares,
+where the king and the Colchian people
+were.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Jason, carrying his shield and spear, went before the king.
+From the king’s hand he took the gleaming helmet that held
+the dragon’s teeth. This he put into the hands of Theseus, who
+went with him. Then with the spear and shield in his hands,
+with his sword girt across his shoulders, and with his mantle
+stripped off, Jason looked across the field of Ares.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> He saw the plow that he was to yoke to the bulls; he saw
+the yoke of bronze near it; he saw the tracks of the bulls’ hooves.
+He followed the tracks until he came to the lair of the fire-breathing
+bulls. Out of that lair, which was underground, smoke
+and fire belched.
+<pb n="128"/>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> He set his feet firmly upon the ground and he held his shield
+before him. He awaited the onset of the bulls. They came
+clanging up with loud bellowing, breathing out fire. They lowered
+their heads, and with mighty, iron-tipped horns they came
+to gore and trample him.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Medea’s charm had made him strong; Medea’s charm had
+made his shield impregnable. The rush of the bulls did not
+overthrow him. His comrades shouted to see him standing
+firmly there, and in wonder the Colchians gazed upon him.
+All round him, as from a furnace, there came smoke and fire.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> The bulls roared mightily. Grasping the horns of the bull
+that was upon his right hand, Jason dragged him until he had
+brought him beside the yoke of bronze. Striking the brazen
+knees of the bull suddenly with his foot he forced him down.
+Then he smote the other bull as it rushed upon him, and it too
+he forced down upon its knees.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Castor and Polydeuces held the yoke to him. Jason bound
+it upon the necks of the bulls. He fastened the plow to the
+yoke. Then he took his shield and set it upon his back, and
+grasping the handles of the plow he started to make the
+furrow.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> With his long spear he drove the bulls before him as with a
+goad. Terribly they raged, furiously they breathed out fire.
+Beside Jason Theseus went holding the helmet that held the
+dragon’s teeth. The hard ground was torn up by the plow
+of adamant, and the clods groaned as they were cast up. Jason
+
+
+
+<pb n="129"/>
+flung the teeth between the open sods, often turning his head in
+fear that the deadly crop of the Earth-born Men were rising
+behind him.
+</p>
+<p rend="text-align: center"><figure rend="width: 100%" url="images/i021.png"><anchor id="i021.png"/><index index="fig"/><head>The Field of the Dragon’s Teeth</head><figDesc>Illustration</figDesc></figure></p>
+<p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> By the time that a third of the day was finished the field
+of Ares had been plowed and sown. As yet the furrows were
+free of the Earth-born Men. Jason went down to the river
+and filled his helmet full of water and drank deeply. And his
+knees that were stiffened with the plowing he bent until they
+were made supple again.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> He saw the field rising into mounds. It seemed that there
+were graves all over the field of Ares. Then he saw spears and
+shields and helmets rising up out of the earth. Then armed
+warriors sprang up, a fierce battle cry upon their lips.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Jason remembered the counsel of Medea. He raised a boulder
+that four men could hardly raise and with arms hardened by the
+plowing he cast it. The Colchians shouted to see such a
+stone cast by the hands of one man. Right into the middle
+of the Earth-born Men the stone came. They leaped upon it
+like hounds, striking at one another as they came together.
+Shield crashed on shield, spear rang upon spear as they struck
+at each other. The Earth-born Men, as fast as they arose, went
+down before the weapons in the hands of their brethren.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Jason rushed upon them, his sword in his hand. He slew
+some that had risen out of the earth only as far as the shoulders;
+he slew others whose feet were still in the earth; he slew others
+who were ready to spring upon him. Soon all the Earth-born
+<pb n="130"/>
+Men were slain, and the furrows ran with their dark blood as
+channels run with water in springtime.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> The Argonauts shouted loudly for Jason’s victory. King
+Æetes rose from his seat that was beside the river and he went
+back to the city. The Colchians followed him. Day faded,
+and Jason’s contest was ended.
+</p><milestone unit="tb"/><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> But it was not the will of Æetes that the strangers should be
+let depart peaceably with the Golden Fleece that Jason had won.
+In the assembly place, with his son Apsyrtus beside him, and
+with the furious Colchians all around him, the king stood: on
+his breast was the gleaming corselet that Ares had given him,
+and on his head was that golden helmet with its four plumes
+that made him look as if he were truly the son of Helios, the
+Sun. Lightnings flashed from his great eyes; he spoke fiercely
+to the Colchians, holding in his hand his bronze-topped
+spear.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> He would have them attack the strangers and burn the <emph>Argo</emph>.
+He would have the sons of Phrixus slain for bringing them
+to Aea. There was a prophecy, he declared, that would have
+him be watchful of the treachery of his own offspring: this
+prophecy was being fulfilled by the children of Chalciope; he
+feared, too, that his daughter, Medea, had aided the strangers.
+So the king spoke, and the Colchians, hating all strangers,
+shouted around him.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Word of what her father had said was brought to Medea.
+<pb n="131"/>
+She knew that she would have to go to the Argonauts and
+bid them flee hastily from Aea. They would not go, she knew,
+without the Golden Fleece; then she, Medea, would have to
+show them how to gain the Fleece.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Then she could never again go back to her father’s palace,
+she could never again sit in this chamber and talk to her handmaidens,
+and be with Chalciope, her sister. Forever afterward
+she would be dependent on the kindness of strangers.
+Medea wept when she thought of all this. And then she cut
+off a tress of her hair and she left it in her chamber as a
+farewell from one who was going afar. Into the chamber where
+Chalciope was she whispered farewell.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> The palace doors were all heavily bolted, but Medea did not
+have to pull back the bolts. As she chanted her Magic Song
+the bolts softly drew back, the doors softly opened. Swiftly
+she went along the ways that led to the river. She came to
+where fires were blazing and she knew that the Argonauts were
+there.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> She called to them, and Phrontis, Chalciope’s son, heard the
+cry and knew the voice. To Jason he spoke, and Jason quickly
+went to where Medea stood.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> She clasped Jason’s hand and she drew him with her. <q>The
+Golden Fleece,</q> she said, <q>the time has come when you must
+pluck the Golden Fleece off the oak in the grove of Ares.</q>
+When she said these words all Jason’s being became taut like
+the string of a bow.
+<pb n="132"/>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> It was then the hour when huntsmen cast sleep from their
+eyes—huntsmen who never sleep away the end of the night,
+but who are ever ready to be up and away with their hounds
+before the beams of the sun efface the track and the scent of
+the quarry. Along a path that went from the river Medea
+drew Jason. They entered a grove. Then Jason saw something
+that was like a cloud filled with the light of the rising
+sun. It hung from a great oak tree. In awe he stood and
+looked upon it, knowing that at last he looked upon <hi rend="font-variant: small-caps">The
+Golden Fleece</hi>.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> His hand let slip Medea’s hand and he went to seize the
+Fleece. As he did he heard a dreadful hiss. And then he saw
+the guardian of the Golden Fleece. Coiled all around the tree,
+with outstretched neck and keen and sleepless eyes, was a deadly
+serpent. Its hiss ran all through the grove and the birds that
+were wakening up squawked in terror.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Like rings of smoke that rise one above the other, the coils
+of the serpent went around the tree—coils covered by hard
+and gleaming scales. It uncoiled, stretched itself, and lifted
+its head to strike. Then Medea dropped on her knees before
+it, and began to chant her Magic Song.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> As she sang, the coils around the tree grew slack. Like a
+dark, noiseless wave the serpent sank down on the ground.
+But still its jaws were open, and those dreadful jaws threatened
+Jason. Medea, with a newly cut spray of juniper dipped in a
+mystic brew, touched its deadly eyes. And still she chanted
+
+
+
+<pb n="133"/>
+her Magic Song. The serpent’s jaws closed; its eyes became
+deadened; far through the grove its length was stretched out.
+</p>
+<p rend="text-align: center"><figure rend="width: 100%" url="images/i022.png"><anchor id="i022.png"/><index index="fig"/><head/><figDesc>Illustration</figDesc></figure></p>
+<p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Then Jason took the Golden Fleece. As he raised his hands
+to it, its brightness was such as to make a flame on his face.
+Medea called to him. He strove to gather it all up in his arms;
+Medea was beside him, and they went swiftly on.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> They came to the river and down to the place where the
+<emph>Argo</emph> was moored. The heroes who were aboard started up,
+astonished to see the Fleece that shone as with the lightning
+of Zeus. Over Medea Jason cast it, and he lifted her aboard
+the <emph>Argo</emph>.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q>O friends,</q> he cried, <q>the quest on which we dared the
+gulfs of the sea and the wrath of kings is accomplished, thanks
+to the help of this maiden. Now may we return to Greece;
+now have we the hope of looking upon our fathers and our
+friends once more. And in all honor will we bring this maiden
+with us, Medea, the daughter of King Æetes.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Then he drew his sword and cut the hawsers of the ship,
+calling upon the heroes to drive the <emph>Argo</emph> on. There was a din
+and a strain and a splash of oars, and away from Aea the <emph>Argo</emph>
+dashed. Beside the mast Medea stood; the Golden Fleece had
+fallen at her feet, and her head and face were covered by her
+silver veil.
+</p><pb n="134"/></div><div><index index="toc"/><index index='pdf'/><head>IV. The Slaying of Apsyrtus</head><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <figure rend="float: left; margin-top: 0em; margin-bottom: 0em; x-class: deco-letter;" url="images/capT.png"><figDesc>Decorative first letter</figDesc></figure><hi rend="font-variant: small-caps; color:white; margin-left: -1em">T</hi>HAT silver veil was to be splashed with
+a brother’s blood, and the Argonauts,
+because of that calamity, were for a long
+time to be held back from a return to
+their native land.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Now as they went down the river they
+saw that dangers were coming swiftly
+upon them. The chariots of the Colchians were upon the
+banks. Jason saw King Æetes in his chariot, a blazing torch
+lighting his corselet and his helmet. Swiftly the <emph>Argo</emph> went, but
+there were ships behind her, and they went swiftly too.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> They came into the Sea of Pontus, and Phrontis, the son of
+Phrixus, gave counsel to them. <q>Do not strive to make the
+passage of the Symplegades,</q> he said. <q>All who live around
+the Sea of Pontus are friendly to King Æetes; they will be
+warned by him, and they will be ready to slay us and take the
+<emph>Argo</emph>. Let us journey up the River Ister, and by that way we
+can come to the Thrinacian Sea that is close to your land.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> The Argonauts thought well of what Phrontis said; into the
+waters of the Ister the ship was brought. Many of the Colchian
+ships passed by the mouth of the river, and went seeking
+the <emph>Argo</emph> toward the passage of the Symplegades.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> But the Argonauts were on a way that was dangerous for
+them. For Apsyrtus had not gone toward the Symplegades
+<pb n="135"/>
+seeking the <emph>Argo</emph>. He had led his soldiers overland to the River
+Ister at a place that was at a distance above its mouth. There
+were islands in the river at that place, and the soldiers of Apsyrtus
+landed on the islands, while Apsyrtus went to the kings of
+the people around and claimed their support.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> The <emph>Argo</emph> came and the heroes found themselves cut off.
+They could not make their way between the islands that were
+filled with the Colchian soldiers, nor along the banks that were
+lined with men friendly to King Æetes. <emph>Argo</emph> was stayed.
+Apsyrtus sent for the chiefs; he had men enough to overwhelm
+them, but he shrank from a fight with the heroes, and he thought
+that he might gain all he wanted from them without a struggle.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Theseus and Peleus went to him. Apsyrtus would have them
+give up the Golden Fleece; he would have them give up Medea
+and the sons of Phrixus also.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Theseus and Peleus appealed to the judgment of the kings
+who supported Apsyrtus. Æetes, they said, had no more claim
+on the Golden Fleece. He had promised it to Jason as a reward
+for tasks that he had imposed. The tasks had been accomplished
+and the Fleece, no matter in what way it was taken
+from the grove of Ares, was theirs. So Theseus and Peleus
+said, and the kings who supported Apsyrtus gave judgment for
+the Argonauts.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> But Medea would have to be given to her brother. If that
+were done the <emph>Argo</emph> would be let go on her course, Apsyrtus said,
+and the Golden Fleece would be left with them. Apsyrtus said,
+<pb n="136"/>
+too, that he would not take Medea back to the wrath of her
+father; if the Argonauts gave her up she would be let stay
+on the island of Artemis and under the guardianship of the
+goddess.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> The chiefs brought Apsyrtus’s words back. There was a
+council of the Argonauts, and they agreed that they should
+leave Medea on the island of Artemis.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> But grief and wrath took hold of Medea when she heard of
+this resolve. Almost she would burn the <emph>Argo</emph>. She went to
+where Jason stood, and she spoke again of all she had done
+to save his life and win the Golden Fleece for the Argonauts.
+Jason made her look on the ships and the soldiers that were
+around them; he showed her how these could overwhelm the
+Argonauts and slay them all. With all the heroes slain, he
+said, Medea would come into the hands of Apsyrtus, who then
+could leave her on the island of Artemis or take her back to the
+wrath of her father.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> But Medea would not consent to go nor could Jason’s heart
+consent to let her go. Then these two made a plot to deceive
+Apsyrtus.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q>I have not been of the council that agreed to give you up
+to him,</q> Jason said. <q>After you have been left there I will
+take you off the island of Artemis secretly. The Colchians
+and the kings who support them, not knowing that you have
+been taken off and hidden on the <emph>Argo</emph>, will let us pass.</q> This
+Medea and Jason planned to do, and it was an ill thing, for it
+
+
+
+<pb n="137"/>
+was breaking the covenant that the chiefs had entered with
+Apsyrtus.
+</p>
+<p rend="text-align: center"><figure rend="width: 100%" url="images/i023.png"><anchor id="i023.png"/><index index="fig"/><head/><figDesc>Illustration</figDesc></figure></p>
+<p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Medea then was left by the Argonauts on the island of Artemis.
+Now Apsyrtus had been commanded by his father to
+bring her back to Aea; he thought that when she had been
+left by the Argonauts he could force her to come with him.
+So he went over to the island. Jason, secretly leaving his
+companions, went to the island from the other side.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Before the temple of Artemis Jason and Apsyrtus came face
+to face. Both men, thinking they had been betrayed to their
+deaths, drew their swords. Then, before the vestibule of the
+temple and under the eyes of Medea, Jason and Apsyrtus
+fought. Jason’s sword pierced the son of Æetes; as he fell
+Apsyrtus cried out bitter words against Medea, saying that
+it was on her account that he had come on his death. And
+as he fell the blood of her brother splashed Medea’s silver
+veil.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Jason lifted Medea up and carried her to the <emph>Argo</emph>. They hid
+the maiden under the Fleece of Gold and they sailed past the
+ships of the Colchians. When darkness came they were far
+from the island of Artemis. It was then that they heard a loud
+wailing, and they knew that the Colchians had discovered that
+their prince had been slain.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> The Colchians did not pursue them. Fearing the wrath of
+Æetes they made settlements in the lands of the kings who
+had supported Apsyrtus; they never went back to Aea; they
+<pb n="138"/>
+called themselves Apsyrtians henceforward, naming themselves
+after the prince they had come with.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> They had escaped the danger that had hemmed them in,
+but the Argonauts, as they sailed on, were not content; covenants
+had been broken, and blood had been shed in a bad cause.
+And as they went on through the darkness the voice of the
+ship was heard; at the sound of that voice fear and sorrow
+came upon the voyagers, for they felt that it had a prophecy
+of doom.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Castor and Polydeuces went to the front of the ship; holding
+up their hands, they prayed. Then they heard the words
+that the voice uttered: in the night as they went on the voice
+proclaimed the wrath of Zeus on account of the slaying of
+Apsyrtus.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> What was their doom to be? It was that the Argonauts
+would have to wander forever over the gulfs of the sea unless
+Medea had herself cleansed of her brother’s blood. There was
+one who could cleanse Medea—Circe, the daughter of Helios
+and Perse. The voice urged the heroes to pray to the immortal
+gods that the way to the island of Circe be shown to
+them.
+</p><pb n="139"/></div><div><index index="toc"/><index index='pdf'/><head>V. Medea Comes to Circe</head><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <figure rend="float: left; margin-top: 0em; margin-bottom: 0em; x-class: deco-letter;" url="images/capT.png"><figDesc>Decorative first letter</figDesc></figure><hi rend="font-variant: small-caps; color:white; margin-left: -1em">T</hi>HEY sailed up the River Ister until they
+came to the Eridanus, that river across
+which no bird can fly. Leaving the Eridanus
+they entered the Rhodanus, a river
+that rises in the extreme north, where
+Night herself has her habitation. And
+voyaging up this river they came to the
+Stormy Lakes. A mist lay upon the lakes night and day;
+voyaging through them the Argonauts at last brought out their
+ship upon the Sea of Ausonia.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> It was Zetes and Calais, the sons of the North Wind, who
+brought the <emph>Argo</emph> safely along this dangerous course. And to
+Zetes and Calais Iris, the messenger of the gods, appeared and
+revealed to them where Circe’s island lay.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Deep blue water was all around that island, and on its height
+a marble house was to be seen. But a strange haze covered
+everything as with a veil. As the Argonauts came near they
+saw what looked to them like great dragonflies; they came down
+to the shore, and then the heroes saw that they were maidens
+in gleaming dresses.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> The maidens waved their hands to the voyagers, calling
+them to come on the island. Strange beasts came up to where
+the maidens were and made whimpering cries.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> The Argonauts would have drawn the ship close and would
+<pb n="140"/>
+have sprung upon the island only that Medea cried out to
+them. She showed them the beasts that whimpered around
+the maidens, and then, as the Argonauts looked upon them,
+they saw that these were not beasts of the wild. There was
+something strange and fearful about them; the heroes gazed
+upon them with troubled eyes. They brought the ship near,
+but they stayed upon their benches, holding the oars in their
+hands.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Medea sprang to the island; she spoke to the maidens so
+that they shrank away; then the beasts came and whimpered
+around her. <q>Forbear to land here, O Argonauts,</q> Medea
+cried, <q>for this is the island where men are changed into beasts.</q>
+She called to Jason to come; only Jason would she have come
+upon the island.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> They went swiftly toward the marble house, and the beasts
+followed them, looking up at Jason and Medea with pitiful
+human eyes. They went into the marble house of Circe, and
+as suppliants they seated themselves at the hearth.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Circe stood at her loom, weaving her many-colored threads.
+Swiftly she turned to the suppliants; she looked for something
+strange in them, for just before they came the walls of her
+house dripped with blood and the flame ran over and into her
+pot, burning up all the magic herbs she was brewing. She went
+toward where they sat, Medea with her face hidden by her
+hands, and Jason, with his head bent, holding with its point in
+the ground the sword with which he had slain the son of Æetes.
+
+
+
+<pb n="141"/>
+</p>
+<p rend="text-align: center"><figure rend="width: 100%" url="images/i024.png"><anchor id="i024.png"/><index index="fig"/><head/><figDesc>Illustration</figDesc></figure></p>
+<p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> When Medea took her hands away from before her face,
+Circe knew that, like herself, this maiden was of the race of
+Helios. Medea spoke to her, telling her first of the voyage of
+the heroes and of their toils; telling her then of how she had
+given help to Jason against the will of Æetes, her father; telling
+her then, fearfully, of the slaying of Apsyrtus. She covered her
+face with her robe as she spoke of it. And then she told Circe
+she had come, warned by the judgment of Zeus, to ask of
+Circe, the daughter of Helios, to purify her from the stain of
+her brother’s blood.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Like all the children of Helios, Circe had eyes that were
+wide and full of life, but she had stony lips—lips that were
+heavy and moveless. Bright golden hair hung smoothly along
+each of her sides. First she held a cup to them that was filled
+with pure water, and Jason and Medea drank from that cup.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Then Circe stayed by the hearth; she burnt cakes in the
+flame, and all the while she prayed to Zeus to be gentle with
+these suppliants. She brought both to the seashore. There
+she washed Medea’s body and her garments with the spray of
+the sea.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Medea pleaded with Circe to tell her of the life she foresaw
+for her, but Circe would not speak of it. She told Medea that
+one day she would meet a woman who knew nothing about
+enchantments but who had much human wisdom. She was to
+ask of her what she was to do in her life or what she
+was to leave undone. And whatever this woman out of her
+<pb n="142"/>
+wisdom told her, that Medea was to regard. Once more Circe
+offered them the cup filled with clear water, and when they
+had drunken of it she left them upon the seashore. As she
+went toward her marble house the strange beasts followed
+Circe, whimpering as they went. Jason and Medea went
+aboard the <emph>Argo</emph>, and the heroes drew away from Circe’s island.
+</p></div><div><index index="toc"/><index index='pdf'/><head>VI. In the Land of the Phæacians</head><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <figure rend="float: left; margin-top: 0em; margin-bottom: 0em; x-class: deco-letter;" url="images/capW.png"><figDesc>Decorative first letter</figDesc></figure><hi rend="font-variant: small-caps; color:white; margin-left: -1em">W</hi>EARIED were the heroes now. They
+would have fain gone upon the island of
+Circe to rest there away from the oars
+and the sound of the sea. But the wisest
+of them, looking upon the beasts that
+were men transformed, held the <emph>Argo</emph> far
+off the shore. Then Jason and Medea
+came aboard, and with heavy hearts and wearied arms they
+turned to the open sea again.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> No longer had they such high hearts as when they drove the
+<emph>Argo</emph> between the Clashers and into the Sea of Pontus. Now
+their heads drooped as they went on, and they sang such songs
+as slaves sing in their hopeless labor. Orpheus grew fearful
+for them now.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> For Orpheus knew that they were drawing toward a danger.
+There was no other way for them, he knew, but past the Island
+Anthemœssa in the Tyrrhenian Sea where the Sirens were.
+<pb n="143"/>
+Once they had been nymphs and had tended Persephone before
+she was carried off by Aidoneus to be his queen in the Underworld.
+Kind they had been, but now they were changed, and
+they cared only for the destruction of men.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> All set around with rocks was the island where they were.
+As the <emph>Argo</emph> came near, the Sirens, ever on the watch to draw
+mariners to their destruction, saw them and came to the rocks
+and sang to them, holding each other’s hands.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> They sang all together their lulling song. That song made
+the wearied voyagers long to let their oars go with the waves,
+and drift, drift to where the Sirens were. Bending down to
+them the Sirens, with soft hands and white arms, would lift
+them to soft resting places. Then each of the Sirens sang a
+clear, piercing song that called to each of the voyagers. Each
+man thought that his own name was in that song. <q>O how
+well it is that you have come near,</q> each one sang, <q>how well
+it is that you have come near where I have awaited you, having
+all delight prepared for you!</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Orpheus took up his lyre as the Sirens began to sing. He
+sang to the heroes of their own toils. He sang of them, how,
+gaunt and weary as they were, they were yet men, men who
+were the strength of Greece, men who had been fostered by
+the love and hope of their country. They were the winners of
+the Golden Fleece and their story would be told forever. And
+for the fame that they had won men would forego all rest and
+all delight. Why should they not toil, they who were born
+<pb n="144"/>
+for great labors and to face dangers that other men might not
+face? Soon hands would be stretched out to them—the welcoming
+hands of the men and women of their own land.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> So Orpheus sang, and his voice and the music of his lyre prevailed
+above the Sirens’ voices. Men dropped their oars, but
+other men remained at their benches, and pulled steadily, if
+wearily, on. Only one of the Argonauts, Butes, a youth of
+Iolcus, threw himself into the water and swam toward the
+rocks from which the Sirens sang.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> But an anguish that nearly parted their spirits from their
+bodies was upon them as they went wearily on. Toward the end
+of the day they beheld another island—an island that seemed
+very fair; they longed to land and rest themselves there and eat
+the fruits of the island. But Orpheus would not have them land.
+The island, he said, was Thrinacia. Upon that island the
+Cattle of the Sun pastured, and if one of the cattle perished
+through them their return home might not be won. They
+heard the lowing of the cattle through the mist, and a deep
+longing for the sight of their own fields, with a white house
+near, and flocks and herds at pasture, came over the heroes.
+They came near the Island of Thrinacia, and they saw the
+Cattle of the Sun feeding by the meadow streams; not one of
+them was black; all were white as milk, and the horns upon
+their heads were golden. They saw the two nymphs who
+herded the kine—Phæthusa and Lampetia, one with a staff
+of silver and the other with a staff of gold.
+<pb n="145"/>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Driven by the breeze that came over the Thrinacian Sea
+the Argonauts came to the land of the Phæacians. It was a
+good land as they saw when they drew near; a land of orchards
+and fresh pastures, with a white and sun-lit city upon the
+height. Their spirits came back to them as they drew into
+the harbor; they made fast the hawsers, and they went upon
+the ways of the city.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> And then they saw everywhere around them the dark faces
+of Colchian soldiers. These were the men of King Æetes, and
+they had come overland to the Phæacian city, hoping to cut
+off the Argonauts. Jason, when he saw the soldiers, shouted
+to those who had been left on the <emph>Argo</emph>, and they drew out
+of the harbor, fearful lest the Colchians should grapple with
+the ship and wrest from them the Fleece of Gold. Then
+Jason made an encampment upon the shore, and the captain
+of the Colchians went here and there, gathering together his
+men.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Medea left Jason’s side and hastened through the city. To
+the palace of Alcinous, king of the Phæacians, she went.
+Within the palace she found Arete, the queen. And Arete was
+sitting by her hearth, spinning golden and silver threads.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Arete was young at that time, as young as Medea, and as
+yet no child had been born to her. But she had the clear
+eyes of one who understands, and who knows how to order
+things well. Stately, too, was Arete, for she had been reared
+in the house of a great king. Medea came to her, and fell upon
+<pb n="146"/>
+her knees before her, and told her how she had fled from the
+house of her father, King Æetes.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> She told Arete, too, how she had helped Jason to win the
+Golden Fleece, and she told her how through her her brother
+had been led to his death. As she told this part of her story
+she wept and prayed at the knees of the queen.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Arete was greatly moved by Medea’s tears and prayers. She
+went to Alcinous in his garden, and she begged of him to save
+the Argonauts from the great force of the Colchians that had
+come to cut them off. <q>The Golden Fleece,</q> said Arete, <q>has
+been won by the tasks that Jason performed. If the Colchians
+should take Medea, it would be to bring her back to Aea and to
+a bitter doom. And the maiden,</q> said the queen, <q>has broken
+my heart by her prayers and tears.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> King Alcinous said: <q>Æetes is strong, and although his kingdom
+is far from ours, he can bring war upon us.</q> But still
+Arete pleaded with him to protect Medea from the Colchians.
+Alcinous went within; he raised up Medea from where she
+crouched on the floor of the palace, and he promised her that
+the Argonauts would be protected in his city.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Then the king mounted his chariot; Medea went with him,
+and they came down to the seashore where the heroes had
+made their encampment. The Argonauts and the Colchians
+were drawn up against each other, and the Colchians far outnumbered
+the wearied heroes.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Alcinous drove his chariot between the two armies. The
+<pb n="147"/>
+Colchians prayed him to have the strangers make surrender
+to them. But the king drove his chariot to where the heroes
+stood, and he took the hand of each, and received them as his
+guests. Then the Colchians knew that they might not make
+war upon the heroes. They drew off. The next day they
+marched away.
+</p><milestone unit="tb"/><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> It was a rich land that they had come to. Once Aristæus
+dwelt there, the king who discovered how to make bees store
+up their honey for men and how to make the good olive grow.
+Macris, his daughter, tended Dionysus, the son of Zeus, when
+Hermes brought him of the flame, and moistened his lips
+with honey. She tended him in a cave in the Phæacian land,
+and ever afterward the Phæacians were blessed with all good
+things.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Now as the heroes marched to the palace of King Alcinous
+the people came to meet them, bringing them sheep and calves
+and jars of wine and honey. The women brought them fresh
+garments; to Medea they gave fine linen and golden ornaments.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Amongst the Phæacians who loved music and games and the
+telling of stories the heroes stayed for long. There were dances,
+and to the Phæacians who honored him as a god, Orpheus played
+upon his lyre. And every day, for the seven days that they
+stayed amongst them, the Phæacians brought rich presents to
+the heroes.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> And Medea, looking into the clear eyes of Queen Arete, knew
+<pb n="148"/>
+that she was the woman of whom Circe had prophesied, the
+woman who knew nothing of enchantments, but who had much
+human wisdom. She was to ask of her what she was to do in
+her life and what she was to leave undone. And what this
+woman told her Medea was to regard. Arete told her that
+she was to forget all the witcheries and enchantments that she
+knew, and that she was never to practice against the life of any
+one. This she told Medea upon the shore, before Jason lifted
+her aboard the <emph>Argo</emph>.
+</p></div><div><index index="toc"/><index index='pdf'/><head>VII. They Come to the Desert Land</head><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <figure rend="float: left; margin-top: 0em; margin-bottom: 0em; x-class: deco-letter;" url="images/capA1.png"><figDesc>Decorative first letter</figDesc></figure><hi rend="font-variant: small-caps; color:white; margin-left: -1em">A</hi>ND now with sail spread wide the <emph>Argo</emph>
+went on, and the heroes rested at the
+oars. The wind grew stronger. It became
+a great blast, and for nine days and
+nine nights the ship was driven fearfully
+along.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> The blast drove them into the Gulf of
+Libya, from whence there is no return for ships. On each side of
+the gulf there are rocks and shoals, and the sea runs toward
+the limitless sand. On the top of a mighty tide the <emph>Argo</emph> was
+lifted, and she was flung high up on the desert sands.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> A flood tide such as might not come again for long left the
+Argonauts on the empty Libyan land. And when they came
+forth and saw that vast level of sand stretching like a mist
+<pb n="149"/>
+away into the distance, a deadly fear came over each of them.
+No spring of water could they descry; no path; no herdsman’s
+cabin; over all that vast land there was silence and dead calm.
+And one said to the other: <q>What land is this? Whither have
+we come? Would that the tempest had overwhelmed us, or
+would that we had lost the ship and our lives between the
+Clashing Rocks at the time when we were making our way
+into the Sea of Pontus.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> And the helmsman, looking before him, said with a breaking
+heart: <q>Out of this we may not come, even should the breeze
+blow from the land, for all around us are shoals and sharp
+rocks—rocks that we can see fretting the water, line upon line.
+Our ship would have been shattered far from the shore if the
+tide had not borne her far up on the sand. But now the tide
+rushes back toward the sea, leaving only foam on which no
+ship can sail to cover the sand. And so all hope of our return
+is cut off.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> He spoke with tears flowing upon his cheeks, and all who had
+knowledge of ships agreed with what the helmsman had said.
+No dangers that they had been through were as terrible as this.
+Hopelessly, like lifeless specters, the heroes strayed about the
+endless strand.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> They embraced each other and they said farewell as they
+laid down upon the sand that might blow upon them and overwhelm
+them in the night. They wrapped their heads in their
+cloaks, and, fasting, they laid themselves down.
+<pb n="150"/>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Jason crouched beside the ship, so troubled that his life nearly
+went from him. He saw Medea huddled against a rock and
+with her hair streaming on the sand. He saw the men who,
+with all the bravery of their lives, had come with him, stretched
+on the desert sand, weary and without hope. He thought that
+they, the best of men, might die in this desert with their deeds
+all unknown; he thought that he might never win home with
+Medea, to make her his queen in Iolcus.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> He lay against the side of the ship, his cloak wrapped around
+his head. And there death would have come to him and to the
+others if the nymphs of the desert had been unmindful of these
+brave men. They came to Jason. It was midday then, and
+the fierce rays of the sun were scorching all Libya. They drew
+off the cloak that wrapped his head; they stood near him,
+three nymphs girded around with goatskins.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q>Why art thou so smitten with despair?</q> the nymphs
+said to Jason. <q rend="post: none">Why art thou smitten with despair, thou who
+hast wrought so much and hast won so much? Up! Arouse
+thy comrades! We are the solitary nymphs, the warders of
+the land of Libya, and we have come to show a way of escape
+to you, the Argonauts.
+</q></p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q>Look around and watch for the time when Poseidon’s great
+horse shall be unloosed. Then make ready to pay recompense
+to the mother that bore you all. What she did for you all,
+that you all must do for her; by doing it you will win back to
+the land of Greece.</q> Jason heard them say these words and
+
+
+
+<pb n="151"/>
+then he saw them no more; the nymphs vanished amongst the
+desert mounds.
+</p>
+<p rend="text-align: center"><figure rend="width: 100%" url="images/i025.png"><anchor id="i025.png"/><index index="fig"/><head/><figDesc>Illustration</figDesc></figure></p>
+<p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Then Jason rose up. He did not know what to make out
+of what had been told him, but there was courage now and
+hope in his heart. He shouted; his voice was like the roar of
+a lion calling to his mate. At his shout his comrades roused
+themselves; all squalid with the dust of the desert the Argonauts
+stood around him.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q>Listen, comrades, to me,</q> Jason said, <q>while I speak of a
+strange thing that has befallen me. While I lay by the side
+of our ship three nymphs came before me. With light hands
+they drew away the cloak that wrapped my head. They declared
+themselves to be the solitary nymphs, the warders, of
+Libya. Very strange were the words they said to me. When
+Poseidon’s great horse shall be unloosed, they said, we were
+to make the mother of us all a recompense, doing for her what
+she had done for us all. This the nymphs told me to say, but
+I cannot understand the meaning of their words.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> There were some there who would not have given heed to
+Jason’s words, deeming them words without meaning. But
+even as he spoke a wonder came before their eyes. Out of the
+far-off sea a great horse leaped. Vast he was of size and he
+had a golden mane. He shook the spray of the sea off his sides
+and mane. Past them he trampled and away toward the
+horizon, leaving great tracks in the sand.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Then Nestor spoke rejoicingly. <q rend="post: none">Behold the great horse!
+<pb n="152"/>
+It is the horse that the desert nymphs spoke of, Poseidon’s
+horse. Even now has the horse been unloosed, and now is the
+time to do what the nymphs bade us do.
+</q></p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q rend="post: none">Who but <emph>Argo</emph> is the mother of us all? She has carried us.
+Now we must make her a recompense and carry her even as
+she carried us. With untiring shoulders we must bear <emph>Argo</emph>
+across this great desert.
+</q></p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q>And whither shall we bear her? Whither but along the tracks
+that Poseidon’s horse has left in the sand! Poseidon’s horse will
+not go under the earth—once again he will plunge into the sea!</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> So Nestor said and the Argonauts saw truth in his saying.
+Hope came to them again—the hope of leaving that desert
+and coming to the sea. Surely when they came to the sea
+again, and spread the sail and held the oars in their hands,
+their sacred ship would make swift course to their native land!
+</p></div><div><index index="toc"/><index index='pdf'/><head>VIII. The Carrying of the Argo</head><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <figure rend="float: left; margin-top: 0em; margin-bottom: 0em; x-class: deco-letter;" url="images/capW.png"><figDesc>Decorative first letter</figDesc></figure><hi rend="font-variant: small-caps; color:white; margin-left: -1em">W</hi>ITH the terrible weight of the ship upon
+their shoulders the Argonauts made their
+way across the desert, following the tracks
+of Poseidon’s golden-maned horse. Like
+a wounded serpent that drags with pain
+its length along, they went day after day
+across that limitless land.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> A day came when they saw the great tracks of the horse
+
+
+
+<pb n="153"/>
+no more. A wind had come up and had covered them with
+sand. With the mighty weight of the ship upon their shoulders,
+with the sun beating upon their heads, and with no marks on
+the desert to guide them, the heroes stood there, and it seemed
+to them that the blood must gush up and out of their hearts.
+</p>
+<p rend="text-align: center"><figure rend="width: 100%" url="images/i026.png"><anchor id="i026.png"/><index index="fig"/><head/><figDesc>Illustration</figDesc></figure></p>
+<p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Then Zetes and Calais, sons of the North Wind, rose up upon
+their wings to strive to get sight of the sea. Up, up, they soared.
+And then as a man sees, or thinks he sees, at the month’s beginning,
+the moon through a bank of clouds, Zetes and Calais, looking
+over the measureless land, saw the gleam of water. They
+shouted to the Argonauts; they marked the way for them, and
+wearily, but with good hearts, the heroes went upon the way.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> They came at last to the shore of what seemed to be a wide
+inland sea. They set <emph>Argo</emph> down from off their over-wearied
+shoulders and they let her keel take water once more.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> All salt and brackish was that water; they dipped their hands
+into and tasted the salt. Orpheus was able to name the water
+they had come to; it was that lake that was called after Triton,
+the son of Nereus, the ancient one of the sea. They set up an
+altar and they made sacrifices in thanksgiving to the gods.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> They had come to water at last, but now they had to seek
+for other water—for the sweet water that they could drink.
+All around them they looked, but they saw no sign of a spring.
+And then they felt a wind blow upon them—a wind that had
+in it not the dust of the desert but the fragrance of growing
+things. Toward where that wind blew from they went.
+<pb n="154"/>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> As they went on they saw a great shape against the sky;
+they saw mountainous shoulders bowed. Orpheus bade them
+halt and turn their faces with reverence toward that great
+shape: for this was Atlas the Titan, the brother of Prometheus,
+who stood there to hold up the sky on his shoulders.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Then they were near the place that the fragrance had blown
+from: there was a garden there; the only fence that ran around
+it was a lattice of silver. <q>Surely there are springs in the
+garden,</q> the Argonauts said. <q>We will enter this fair garden
+now and slake our thirst.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Orpheus bade them walk reverently, for all around them, he
+said, was sacred ground. This garden was the Garden of the
+Hesperides that was watched over by the Daughters of the
+Evening Land. The Argonauts looked through the silver lattice;
+they saw trees with lovely fruit, and they saw three maidens
+moving through the garden with watchful eyes. In this garden
+grew the tree that had the golden apples that Zeus gave to
+Hera as a wedding gift.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> They saw the tree on which the golden apples grew. The
+maidens went to it and then looked watchfully all around them.
+They saw the faces of the Argonauts looking through the silver
+lattice and they cried out, one to the other, and they joined
+their hands around the tree.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> But Orpheus called to them, and the maidens understood
+the divine speech of Orpheus. He made the Daughters of the
+Evening Land know that they who stood before the lattice were
+<pb n="155"/>
+men who reverenced the gods, who would not strive to enter
+the forbidden garden. The maidens came toward them.
+Beautiful as the singing of Orpheus was their utterance, but
+what they said was a complaint and a lament.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Their lament was for the dragon Ladon, that dragon with a
+hundred heads that guarded sleeplessly the tree that had the
+golden apples. Now that dragon was slain. With arrows that
+had been dipped in the poison of the Hydra’s blood their dragon,
+Ladon, had been slain.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> The Daughters of the Evening Land sang of how a mortal had
+come into the garden that they watched over. He had a great
+bow, and with his arrow he slew the dragon that guarded the
+golden apples. The golden apples he had taken away; they had
+come back to the tree they had been plucked from, for no mortal
+might keep them in his possession. So the maidens sang—Hespere,
+Eretheis, and Ægle—and they complained that now,
+unhelped by the hundred-headed dragon, they had to keep
+guard over the tree.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> The Argonauts knew of whom they told the tale—Heracles,
+their comrade. Would that Heracles were with them now!
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> The Hesperides told them of Heracles—of how the springs
+in the garden dried up because of his plucking the golden apples.
+He came out of the garden thirsting. Nowhere could he find
+a spring of water. To yonder great rock he went. He smote
+it with his foot and water came out in full flow. Then he,
+leaning on his hands and with his chest upon the ground,
+<pb n="156"/>
+drank and drank from the water that flowed from the rifted
+rock.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> The Argonauts looked to where the rock stood. They caught
+the sound of water. They carried Medea over. And then,
+company after company, all huddled together, they stooped
+down and drank their fill of the clear good water. With lips
+wet with the water they cried to each other, <q>Heracles! Although
+he is not with us, in very truth Heracles has saved his
+comrades from deadly thirst!</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> They saw his footsteps printed upon the rocks, and they followed
+them until they led to the sand where no footsteps stay.
+Heracles! How glad his comrades would have been if they
+could have had sight of him then! But it was long ago—before
+he had sailed with them—that Heracles had been here.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Still hearing their complaint they turned back to the lattice,
+to where the Daughters of the Evening Land stood. The
+Daughters of the Evening Land bent their heads to listen to
+what the Argonauts told one another, and, seeing them bent
+to listen, Orpheus told a story about one who had gone across
+the Libyan desert, about one who was a hero like unto
+Heracles.
+</p><div><index index="toc"/><index index='pdf'/><head>The Story of Perseus</head><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Beyond where Atlas stands there is a cave where the strange
+women, the ancient daughters of Phorcys, live. They have
+been gray from their birth. They have but one eye and one
+<pb n="157"/>
+tooth between them, and they pass the eye and the tooth, one
+to the other, when they would see or eat. They are called the
+Graiai, these two sisters.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Up to the cave where they lived a youth once came. He
+was beardless, and the garb he wore was torn and travel-stained,
+but he had shapeliness and beauty. In his leathern belt there
+was an exceedingly bright sword; this sword was not straight
+like the swords we carry, but it was hooked like a sickle. The
+strange youth with the bright, strange sword came very quickly
+and very silently up to the cave where the Graiai lived and
+looked over a high boulder into it.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> One was sitting munching acorns with the single tooth. The
+other had the eye in her hand. She was holding it to her forehead
+and looking into the back of the cave. These two ancient
+women, with their gray hair falling over them like thick fleeces,
+and with faces that were only forehead and cheeks and nose
+and mouth, were strange creatures truly. Very silently the
+youth stood looking at them.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q>Sister, sister,</q> cried the one who was munching acorns,
+<q>sister, turn your eye this way. I heard the stir of something.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> The other turned, and with the eye placed against her forehead
+looked out to the opening of the cave. The youth drew
+back behind the boulder. <q>Sister, sister, there is nothing there,</q>
+said the one with the eye.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Then she said: <q>Sister, give me the tooth for I would eat
+my acorns. Take the eye and keep watch.</q>
+<pb n="158"/>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> The one who was eating held out the tooth, and the one who
+was watching held out the eye. The youth darted into the
+cave. Standing between the eyeless sisters, he took with one
+hand the tooth and with the other the eye.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q>Sister, sister, have you taken the eye?</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q>I have not taken the eye. Have you taken the tooth?</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q>I have not taken the tooth.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q>Some one has taken the eye, and some one has taken the
+tooth.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> They stood together, and the youth watched their blinking
+faces as they tried to discover who had come into the cave, and
+who had taken the eye and the tooth.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Then they said, screaming together: <q>Who ever has taken
+the eye and the tooth from the Graiai, the ancient daughters
+of Phorcys, may Mother Night smother him.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> The youth spoke. <q>Ancient daughters of Phorcys,</q> he said,
+<q>Graiai, I would not rob from you. I have come to your cave
+only to ask the way to a place.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q>Ah, it is a mortal, a mortal,</q> screamed the sisters. <q>Well,
+mortal, what would you have from the Graiai?</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q>Ancient Graiai,</q> said the youth, <q>I would have you tell
+me, for you alone know, where the nymphs dwell who guard
+the three magic treasures—the cap of darkness, the shoes of
+flight, and the magic pouch.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q>We will not tell you, we will not tell you that,</q> screamed
+the two ancient sisters.
+
+
+
+<pb n="159"/>
+</p>
+<p rend="text-align: center"><figure rend="width: 100%" url="images/i027.png"><anchor id="i027.png"/><index index="fig"/><head/><figDesc>Illustration</figDesc></figure></p>
+<p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q>I will keep the eye and the tooth,</q> said the youth, <q>and
+I will give them to one who will help me.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q>Give me the eye and I will tell you,</q> said one. <q>Give me
+the tooth and I will tell you,</q> said the other. The youth put
+the eye in the hand of one and the tooth in the hand of the
+other, but he held their skinny hands in his strong hands until
+they should tell him where the nymphs dwelt who guarded the
+magic treasures. The Gray Ones told him. Then the youth
+with the bright sword left the cave. As he went out he saw
+on the ground a shield of bronze, and he took it with him.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> To the other side of where Atlas stands he went. There he
+came upon the nymphs in their valley. They had long dwelt
+there, hidden from gods and men, and they were startled to see a
+stranger youth come into their hidden valley. They fled away.
+Then the youth sat on the ground, his head bent like a man
+who is very sorrowful.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> The youngest and the fairest of the nymphs came to him at
+last. <q>Why have you come, and why do you sit here in such
+great trouble, youth?</q> said she. And then she said: <q>What
+is this strange sickle-sword that you wear? Who told you the
+way to our dwelling place? What name have you?</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q>I have come here,</q> said the youth, and he took the bronze
+shield upon his knees and began to polish it, <q>I have come here
+because I want you, the nymphs who guard them, to give to
+me the cap of darkness and the shoes of flight and the magic
+pouch. I must gain these things; without them I must go to
+<pb n="160"/>
+my death. Why I must gain them you will know from my
+story.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> When he said that he had come for the three magic treasures
+that they guarded, the kind nymph was more startled than she
+and her sisters had been startled by the appearance of the
+strange youth in their hidden valley. She turned away from
+him. But she looked again and she saw that he was beautiful
+and brave looking. He had spoken of his death. The nymph
+stood looking at him pitifully, and the youth, with the bronze
+shield laid beside his knees and the strange hooked sword lying
+across it, told her his story.
+</p><milestone unit="tb"/><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q>I am Perseus,</q> he said, <q rend="post: none">and my grandfather, men say, is
+king in Argos. His name is Acrisius. Before I was born a
+prophecy was made to him that the son of Danaë, his daughter,
+would slay him. Acrisius was frightened by the prophecy, and
+when I was born he put my mother and myself into a chest,
+and he sent us adrift upon the waves of the sea.
+</q></p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q rend="post: none">I did not know what a terrible peril I was in, for I was an
+infant newly born. My mother was so hopeless that she came
+near to death. But the wind and the waves did not destroy us:
+they brought us to a shore; a shepherd found the chest, and he
+opened it and brought my mother and myself out of it alive.
+The land we had come to was Seriphus. The shepherd who
+found the chest and who rescued my mother and myself was
+the brother of the king. His name was Dictys.
+<pb n="161"/>
+</q></p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q rend="post: none">In the shepherd’s wattled house my mother stayed with me,
+a little infant, and in that house I grew from babyhood to childhood,
+and from childhood to boyhood. He was a kind man,
+this shepherd Dictys. His brother Polydectes had put him
+away from the palace, but Dictys did not grieve for that, for
+he was happy minding his sheep upon the hillside, and he was
+happy in his little hut of wattles and clay.
+</q></p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q rend="post: none">Polydectes, the king, was seldom spoken to about his
+brother, and it was years before he knew of the mother and
+child who had been brought to live in Dictys’s hut. But at
+last he heard of us, for strange things began to be said about
+my mother—how she was beautiful, and how she looked like
+one who had been favored by the gods. Then one day when
+he was hunting, Polydectes the king came to the hut of Dictys
+the shepherd.
+</q></p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q rend="post: none">He saw Danaë, my mother, there. By her looks he knew
+that she was a king’s daughter and one who had been favored
+by the gods. He wanted her for his wife. But my mother
+hated this harsh and overbearing king, and she would not wed
+with him. Often he came storming around the shepherd’s hut,
+and at last my mother had to take refuge from him in a temple.
+There she became the priestess of the goddess.
+</q></p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q rend="post: none">I was taken to the palace of Polydectes, and there I was
+brought up. The king still stormed around where my mother
+was, more and more bent on making her marry him. If she
+had not been in the temple where she was under the protection
+<pb n="162"/>
+of the goddess he would have wed her against her
+will.
+</q></p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q rend="post: none">But I was growing up now, and I was able to give some
+protection to my mother. My arm was a strong one, and Polydectes
+knew that if he wronged my mother in any way, I had
+the will and the power to be deadly to him. One day I heard
+him say before his princes and his lords that he would wed,
+and would wed one who was not Danaë. I was overjoyed to
+hear him say this. He asked the lords and the princes to come
+to the wedding feast; they declared they would, and they told
+him of the presents they would bring.
+</q></p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q rend="post: none">Then King Polydectes turned to me and he asked me to
+come to the wedding feast. I said I would come. And then,
+because I was young and full of the boast of youth, and because
+the king was now ceasing to be a terror to me, I said that I
+would bring to his wedding feast the head of the Gorgon.
+</q></p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q rend="post: none">The king smiled when he heard me say this, but he smiled
+not as a good man smiles when he hears the boast of youth.
+He smiled, and he turned to the princes and lords, and he said:
+<q>Perseus will come, and he will bring a greater gift than any
+of you, for he will bring the head of her whose gaze turns living
+creatures into stone.</q>
+</q></p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q rend="post: none">When I heard the king speak so grimly about my boast the
+fearfulness of the thing I had spoken of doing came over me.
+I thought for an instant that the Gorgon’s head appeared before
+me, and that I was then and there turned into stone.
+<pb n="163"/>
+</q></p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q rend="post: none">The day of the wedding feast came. I came and I brought
+no gift. I stood with my head hanging for shame. Then the
+princes and the lords came forward, and they showed the great
+gifts of horses that they had brought. I thought that the king
+would forget about me and about my boast. And then I heard
+him call my name. <q>Perseus,</q> he said, <q>Perseus, bring before
+us now the Gorgon’s head that, as you told us, you would bring
+for the wedding gift.</q>
+</q></p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q rend="post: none">The princes and lords and people looked toward me, and
+I was filled with a deeper shame. I had to say that I had failed
+to bring a present. Then that harsh and overbearing king
+shouted at me. <q>Go forth,</q> he said, <q>go forth and fetch the
+present that you spoke of. If you do not bring it remain forever
+out of my country, for in Seriphus we will have no empty
+boasters.</q> The lords and the princes applauded what the king
+said; the people were sad for me and sad for my mother, but
+they might not do anything to help me, so just and so due to
+me did the words of the king seem. There was no help for it,
+and I had to go from the country of Seriphus, leaving my mother
+at the mercy of Polydectes.
+</q></p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q rend="post: none">I bade good-by to my sorrowful mother and I went from
+Seriphus—from that land that I might not return to without
+the Gorgon’s head. I traveled far from that country. One
+day I sat down in a lonely place and prayed to the gods that
+my strength might be equal to the will that now moved in me—the
+will to take the Gorgon’s head, and take from my name
+<pb n="164"/>
+the shame of a broken promise, and win back to Seriphus to
+save my mother from the harshness of the king.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q rend="post: none">When I looked up I saw one standing before me. He was
+a youth, too, but I knew by the way he moved, and I knew by
+the brightness of his face and eyes, that he was of the immortals.
+I raised my hands in homage to him, and he came near
+me. <q>Perseus,</q> he said, <q>if you have the courage to strive, the
+way to win the Gorgon’s head will be shown you.</q> I said that
+I had the courage to strive, and he knew that I was making
+no boast.
+</q></p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q rend="post: none">He gave me this bright sickle-sword that I carry. He told
+me by what ways I might come near enough to the Gorgons
+without being turned into stone by their gaze. He told me
+how I might slay the one of the three Gorgons who was not
+immortal, and how, having slain her, I might take her head
+and flee without being torn to pieces by her sister Gorgons.
+</q></p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q rend="post: none">Then I knew that I should have to come on the Gorgons
+from the air. I knew that having slain the one that could be
+slain I should have to fly with the speed of the wind. And I
+knew that that speed even would not save me—I should have
+to be hidden in my flight. To win the head and save myself
+I would need three magic things—the shoes of flight and the
+magic pouch, and the dogskin cap of Hades that makes its
+wearer invisible.
+</q></p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q rend="post: none">The youth said: <q>The magic pouch and the shoes of flight
+and the dogskin cap of Hades are in the keeping of the nymphs
+<pb n="165"/>
+whose dwelling place no mortal knows. I may not tell
+you where their dwelling place is. But from the Gray Ones,
+from the ancient daughters of Phorcys who live in a cave
+near where Atlas stands, you may learn where their dwelling
+place is.</q>
+</q></p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q>Thereupon he told me how I might come to the Graiai, and
+how I might get them to tell me where you, the nymphs, had
+your dwelling. The one who spoke to me was Hermes, whose
+dwelling is on Olympus. By this sickle-sword that he gave
+me you will know that I speak the truth.</q>
+</p><milestone unit="tb"/><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Perseus ceased speaking, and she who was the youngest and
+fairest of the nymphs came nearer to him. She knew that he
+spoke truthfully, and besides she had pity for the youth. <q>But we
+are the keepers of the magic treasures,</q> she said, <q>and some
+one whose need is greater even than yours may some time require
+them from us. But will you swear that you will bring the magic
+treasures back to us when you have slain the Gorgon and have
+taken her head?</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Perseus declared that he would bring the magic treasures
+back to the nymphs and leave them once more in their keeping.
+Then the nymph who had compassion for him called to
+the others. They spoke together while Perseus stayed far
+away from them, polishing his shield of bronze. At last the
+nymph who had listened to him came back, the others following
+her. They brought to Perseus and they put into his hands the
+<pb n="166"/>
+things they had guarded—the cap made from dogskin that had
+been brought up out of Hades, a pair of winged shoes, and a long
+pouch that he could hang across his shoulder.
+</p><milestone unit="tb"/><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> And so with the shoes of flight and the cap of darkness and
+the magic pouch, Perseus went to seek the Gorgons. The
+sickle-sword that Hermes gave him was at his side, and on his
+arm he held the bronze shield that was now well polished.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> He went through the air, taking a way that the nymphs had
+shown him. He came to Oceanus that was the rim around the
+world. He saw forms that were of living creatures all in stone,
+and he knew that he was near the place where the Gorgons had
+their lair.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Then, looking upon the surface of his polished shield, he saw
+the Gorgons below him. Two were covered with hard serpent
+scales; they had tusks that were long and were like the tusks
+of boars, and they had hands of gleaming brass and wings of
+shining gold. Still looking upon the shining surface of his shield
+Perseus went down and down. He saw the third sister—she
+who was not immortal. She had a woman’s face and form, and
+her countenance was beautiful, although there was something
+deadly in its fairness. The two scaled and winged sisters
+were asleep, but the third, Medusa, was awake, and she was
+tearing with her hands a lizard that had come near her.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Upon her head was a tangle of serpents all with heads raised
+as though they were hissing. Still looking into the mirror of
+<pb n="167"/>
+his shield Perseus came down and over Medusa. He turned
+his head away from her. Then, with a sweep of the sickle-sword
+he took her head off. There was no scream from the
+Gorgon, but the serpents upon her head hissed loudly.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Still with his face turned from it he lifted up the head by its
+tangle of serpents. He put it into the magic pouch. He rose
+up in the air. But now the Gorgon sisters were awake. They
+had heard the hiss of Medusa’s serpents, and now they looked
+upon her headless body. They rose up on their golden wings,
+and their brazen hands were stretched out to tear the one who
+had slain Medusa. As they flew after him they screamed aloud.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Although he flew like the wind the Gorgon sisters would have
+overtaken him if he had been plain to their eyes. But the dogskin
+cap of Hades saved him, for the Gorgon sisters did not
+know whether he was above or below them, behind or before
+them. On Perseus went, flying toward where Atlas stood.
+He flew over this place, over Libya. Drops of blood from
+Medusa’s head fell down upon the desert. They were changed
+and became the deadly serpents that are on these sands and
+around these rocks. On and on Perseus flew toward Atlas
+and toward the hidden valley where the nymphs who were
+again to guard the magic treasures had their dwelling place.
+But before he came to the nymphs Perseus had another adventure.
+</p><milestone unit="tb"/><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> In Ethopia, which is at the other side of Libya, there ruled a
+<pb n="168"/>
+king whose name was Cepheus. This king had permitted his
+queen to boast that she was more beautiful than the nymphs
+of the sea. In punishment for the queen’s impiety and for the
+king’s folly Poseidon sent a monster out of the sea to waste
+that country. Every year the monster came, destroying more
+and more of the country of Ethopia. Then the king asked of
+an oracle what he should do to save his land and his people.
+The oracle spoke of a dreadful thing that he would have to do—he
+would have to sacrifice his daughter, the beautiful Princess
+Andromeda.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> The king was forced by his savage people to take the maiden
+Andromeda and chain her to a rock on the seashore, leaving
+her there for the monster to devour her, satisfying himself with
+that prey.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Perseus, flying near, heard the maiden’s laments. He saw
+her lovely body bound with chains to the rock. He came near
+her, taking the cap of darkness off his head. She saw him, and
+she bent her head in shame, for she thought that he would
+think that it was for some dreadful fault of her own that she
+had been left chained in that place.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Her father had stayed near. Perseus saw him, and called
+to him, and bade him tell why the maiden was chained to the
+rock. The king told Perseus of the sacrifice that he had been
+forced to make. Then Perseus came near the maiden, and he
+saw how she looked at him with pleading eyes.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Then Perseus made her father promise that he would give
+
+
+
+<pb n="169"/>
+Andromeda to him for his wife if he should slay the sea monster.
+Gladly Cepheus promised this. Then Perseus once again drew
+his sickle-sword; by the rock to which Andromeda was still
+chained he waited for sight of the sea monster.
+</p>
+<p rend="text-align: center"><figure rend="width: 100%" url="images/i028.png"><anchor id="i028.png"/><index index="fig"/><head>Perseus and Andromeda</head><figDesc>Illustration</figDesc></figure></p>
+<p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> It came rolling in from the open sea, a shapeless and unsightly
+thing. With the shoes of flight upon his feet Perseus rose above
+it. The monster saw his shadow upon the water, and savagely
+it went to attack the shadow. Perseus swooped down
+as an eagle swoops down; with his sickle-sword he attacked it,
+and he struck the hook through the monster’s shoulder. Terribly
+it reared up from the sea. Perseus rose over it, escaping
+its wide-opened mouth with its treble rows of fangs. Again he
+swooped and struck at it. Its hide was covered all over with
+hard scales and with the shells of sea things, but Perseus’s sword
+struck through it. It reared up again, spouting water mixed
+with blood. On a rock near the rock that Andromeda was
+chained to Perseus alighted. The monster, seeing him, bellowed
+and rushed swiftly through the water to overwhelm him. As it
+reared up he plunged the sword again and again into its body.
+Down into the water the monster sank, and water mixed with
+blood was spouted up from the depths into which it sank.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Then was Andromeda loosed from her chains. Perseus, the
+conqueror, lifted up the fainting maiden and carried her back
+to the king’s palace. And Cepheus there renewed his promise
+to give her in marriage to her deliverer.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Perseus went on his way. He came to the hidden valley
+<pb n="170"/>
+where the nymphs had their dwelling place, and he restored to
+them the three magic treasures that they had given him—the
+cap of darkness, the shoes of flight, and the magic pouch. And
+these treasures are still there, and the hero who can win his
+way to the nymphs may have them as Perseus had them.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Again he returned to the place where he had found Andromeda
+chained. With face averted he drew forth the Gorgon’s head
+from where he had hidden it between the rocks. He made a
+bag for it out of the horny skin of the monster he had slain.
+Then, carrying his tremendous trophy, he went to the palace
+of King Cepheus to claim his bride.
+</p><milestone unit="tb"/><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Now before her father had thought of sacrificing her to the
+sea monster he had offered Andromeda in marriage to a prince
+of Ethopia—to a prince whose name was Phineus. Phineus
+did not strive to save Andromeda. But, hearing that she had
+been delivered from the monster, he came to take her for his
+wife; he came to Cepheus’s palace, and he brought with him a
+thousand armed men.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> The palace of Cepheus was filled with armed men when
+Perseus entered it. He saw Andromeda on a raised place
+in the hall. She was pale as when she was chained to the rock,
+and when she saw him in the palace she uttered a cry of
+gladness.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Cepheus, the craven king, would have let him who had come
+with the armed bands take the maiden. Perseus came beside
+<pb n="171"/>
+Andromeda and he made his claim. Phineus spoke insolently
+to him, and then he urged one of his captains to strike Perseus
+down. Many sprang forward to attack him. Out of the bag
+Perseus drew Medusa’s head. He held it before those who were
+bringing strife into the hall. They were turned to stone. One
+of Cepheus’s men wished to defend Perseus: he struck at the
+captain who had come near; his sword made a clanging sound
+as it struck this one who had looked upon Medusa’s head.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Perseus went from the land of Ethopia taking fair Andromeda
+with him. They went into Greece, for he had thought of going
+to Argos, to the country that his grandfather ruled over. At
+this very time Acrisius got tidings of Danaë and her son, and
+he knew that they had not perished on the waves of the sea.
+Fearful of the prophecy that told he would be slain by his
+grandson and fearing that he would come to Argos to seek him,
+Acrisius fled out of his country.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> He came into Thessaly. Perseus and Andromeda were there.
+Now, one day the old king was brought to games that were
+being celebrated in honor of a dead hero. He was leaning on
+his staff, watching a youth throw a metal disk, when something
+in that youth’s appearance made him want to watch him more
+closely. About him there was something of a being of the
+upper air; it made Acrisius think of a brazen tower and of a
+daughter whom he had shut up there.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> He moved so that he might come nearer to the disk-thrower.
+But as he left where he had been standing he came into the
+<pb n="172"/>
+line of the thrown disk. It struck the old man on the temple.
+He fell down dead, and as he fell the people cried out his name—<q>Acrisius,
+King Acrisius!</q> Then Perseus knew whom the
+disk, thrown by his hand, had slain.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> And because he had slain the king by chance Perseus would
+not go to Argos, nor take over the kingdom that his grandfather
+had reigned over. With Andromeda he went to Seriphus
+where his mother was. And in Seriphus there still reigned Polydectes,
+who had put upon him the terrible task of winning the
+Gorgon’s head.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> He came to Seriphus and he left Andromeda in the hut of
+Dictys the shepherd. No one knew him; he heard his name
+spoken of as that of a youth who had gone on a foolish quest
+and who would never again be heard of. To the temple where
+his mother was a priestess he came. Guards were placed all
+around it. He heard his mother’s voice and it was raised in
+lament: <q>Walled up here and given over to hunger I shall be
+made go to Polydectes’s house and become his wife. O ye
+gods, have ye no pity for Danaë, the mother of Perseus?</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Perseus cried aloud, and his mother heard his voice and her
+moans ceased. He turned around and he went to the palace
+of Polydectes, the king.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> The king received him with mockeries. <q>I will let you stay
+in Seriphus for a day,</q> he said, <q>because I would have you at
+a marriage feast. I have vowed that Danaë, taken from the
+temple where she sulks, will be my wife by to-morrow’s sunset.</q>
+
+
+
+<pb n="173"/>
+</p>
+<p rend="text-align: center"><figure rend="width: 100%" url="images/i029.png"><anchor id="i029.png"/><index index="fig"/><head/><figDesc>Illustration</figDesc></figure></p>
+<p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> So Polydectes said, and the lords and princes who were around
+him mocked at Perseus and flattered the king. Perseus went
+from them then. The next day he came back to the palace.
+But in his hands now there was a dread thing—the bag made
+from the hide of the sea monster that had in it the Gorgon’s
+head.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> He saw his mother. She was brought in white and fainting,
+thinking that she would now have to wed the harsh and overbearing
+king. Then she saw her son, and hope came into her
+face.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> The king seeing Perseus, said: <q>Step forward, O youngling,
+and see your mother wed to a mighty man. Step forward to
+witness a marriage, and then depart, for it is not right that a
+youth that makes promises and does not keep them should stay
+in a land that I rule over. Step forward now, you with the
+empty hands.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> But not with empty hands did Perseus step forward. He
+shouted out: <q>I have brought something to you at last, O king—a
+present to you and your mocking friends. But you, O my
+mother, and you, O my friends, avert your faces from what I
+have brought.</q> Saying this Perseus drew out the Gorgon’s
+head. Holding it by the snaky locks he stood before the company.
+His mother and his friends averted their faces. But
+Polydectes and his insolent friends looked full upon what Perseus
+showed. <q>This youth would strive to frighten us with
+some conjuror’s trick,</q> they said. They said no more, for they
+<pb n="174"/>
+became as stones, and as stone images they still stand in that
+hall in Seriphus.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> He went to the shepherd’s hut, and he brought Dictys from
+it with Andromeda. Dictys he made king in Polydectes’s stead.
+Then with Danaë and Andromeda, his mother and his wife, he
+went from Seriphus.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> He did not go to Argos, the country that his grandfather had
+ruled over, although the people there wanted Perseus to come
+to them, and be king over them. He took the kingdom
+of Tiryns in exchange for that of Argos, and there he lived
+with Andromeda, his lovely wife out of Ethopia. They had
+a son named Perses who became the parent of the Persian
+people.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> The sickle-sword that had slain the Gorgon went back to
+Hermes, and Hermes took Medusa’s head also. That head
+Hermes’s divine sister set upon her shield—Medusa’s head
+upon the shield of Pallas Athene. O may Pallas Athene guard
+us all, and bring us out of this land of sands and stone where
+are the deadly serpents that have come from the drops of blood
+that fell from the Gorgon’s head!
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> They turned away from the Garden of the Daughters of the
+Evening Land. The Argonauts turned from where the giant
+shape of Atlas stood against the sky and they went toward the
+Tritonian Lake. But not all of them reached the <emph>Argo</emph>. On his
+way back to the ship, Nauplius, the helmsman, met his death.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> A sluggish serpent was in his way—it was not a serpent that
+<pb n="175"/>
+would strike at one who turned from it. Nauplius trod upon it,
+and the serpent lifted its head up and bit his foot. They raised
+him on their shoulders and they hurried back with him. But
+his limbs became numb, and when they laid him down on the
+shore of the lake he stayed moveless. Soon he grew cold. They
+dug a grave for Nauplius beside the lake, and in that desert
+land they set up his helmsman’s oar in the middle of his tomb
+of heaped stones.
+</p><milestone unit="tb"/><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> And now like a snake that goes writhing this way and that
+way and that cannot find the cleft in the rock that leads to its
+lair, the <emph>Argo</emph> went hither and thither striving to find an outlet
+from that lake. No outlet could they find and the way of their
+homegoing seemed lost to them again. Then Orpheus prayed
+to the son of Nereus, to Triton, whose name was on that lake,
+to aid them.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Then Triton appeared. He stretched out his hand and
+showed them the outlet to the sea. And Triton spoke in
+friendly wise to the heroes, bidding them go upon their way
+in joy. <q>And as for labor,</q> he said, <q>let there be no grieving
+because of that, for limbs that have youthful vigor should still
+toil.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> They took up the oars and they pulled toward the sea, and
+Triton, the friendly immortal, helped them on. He laid hold
+upon <emph>Argo’s</emph> keel and he guided her through the water. The
+Argonauts saw him beneath the water; his body, from his
+<pb n="176"/>
+head down to his waist, was fair and great and like to the body
+of one of the other immortals. But below his body was like
+a great fish’s, forking this way and that. He moved with fins
+that were like the horns of the new moon. Triton helped <emph>Argo</emph>
+along until they came into the open sea. Then he plunged
+down into the abyss. The heroes shouted their thanks to him.
+Then they looked at each other and embraced each other with
+joy, for the sea that touched upon the land of Greece was open
+before them.
+</p></div></div><div><index index="toc"/><index index='pdf'/><head>IX. Near to Iolcus Again</head><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <figure rend="float: left; margin-top: 0em; margin-bottom: 0em; x-class: deco-letter;" url="images/capT.png"><figDesc>Decorative first letter</figDesc></figure><hi rend="font-variant: small-caps; color:white; margin-left: -1em">T</hi>HE sun sank; then that star came that
+bids the shepherd bring his flock to the
+fold, that brings the wearied plowman
+to his rest. But no rest did that star
+bring to the Argonauts. The breeze that
+filled the sail died down; they furled the
+sail and lowered the mast; then, once
+again, they pulled at the oars. All night they rowed, and all
+day, and again when the next day came on. Then they saw
+the island that is halfway to Greece—the great and fair island
+of Crete.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> It was Theseus who first saw Crete—Theseus who was to
+come to Crete upon another ship. They drew the <emph>Argo</emph> near the
+great island; they wanted water, and they were fain to rest there.
+<pb n="177"/>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Minos, the great king, ruled over Crete. He left the guarding
+of the island to one of the race of bronze, to Talos, who
+had lived on after the rest of the bronze men had been destroyed.
+Thrice a day would Talos stride around the island; his brazen
+feet were tireless.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Now Talos saw the <emph>Argo</emph> drawing near. He took up great
+rocks and he hurled them at the heroes, and very quickly they
+had to draw their ship out of range.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> They were wearied and their thirst was consuming them.
+But still that bronze man stood there ready to sink their ship
+with the great rocks that he took up in his hands. Medea stood
+forward upon the ship, ready to use her spells against the man
+of bronze.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> In body and limbs he was made of bronze and in these he was
+invulnerable. But beneath a sinew in his ankle there was a
+vein that ran up to his neck and that was covered by a thin
+skin. If that vein were broken Talos would perish.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Medea did not know about this vein when she stood forward
+upon the ship to use her spells against him. Upon a cliff of
+Crete, all gleaming, stood that huge man of bronze. Then, as
+she was ready to fling her spells against him, Medea thought
+upon the words that Arete, the wise queen, had given her—that
+she was not to use spells and not to practice against the
+life of any one.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> But she knew that there was no impiety in using spells and
+practicing against Talos, for Zeus had already doomed all his
+<pb n="178"/>
+race. She stood upon the ship, and with her Magic Song she
+enchanted him. He whirled round and round. He struck his
+ankle against a jutting stone. The vein broke, and that which
+was the blood of the bronze man flowed out of him like molten
+lead. He stood towering upon the cliff. Like a pine
+upon a mountaintop that the woodman had left half hewn
+through and that a mighty wind pitches against, Talos stood
+upon his tireless feet, swaying to and fro. Then, emptied of
+all his strength, Minos’s man of bronze fell into the Cretan Sea.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> The heroes landed. That night they lay upon the land of
+Crete and rested and refreshed themselves. When dawn came
+they drew water from a spring, and once more they went on
+board the <emph>Argo</emph>.
+</p><milestone unit="tb"/><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> A day came when the helmsman said, <q>To-morrow we shall
+see the shore of Thessaly, and by sunset we shall be in the harbor
+of Pagasæ. Soon, O voyagers, we shall be back in the city
+from which we went to gain the Golden Fleece.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Then Jason brought Medea to the front of the ship so that
+they might watch together for Thessaly, the homeland. The
+Mountain Pelion came into sight. Jason exulted as he looked
+upon that mountain; again he told Medea about Chiron, the
+ancient centaur, and about the days of his youth in the forests
+of Pelion.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> The <emph>Argo</emph> went on; the sun sank, and darkness came on.
+Never was there darkness such as there was on that night.
+
+
+
+<pb n="179"/>
+They called that night afterward the Pall of Darkness. To
+the heroes upon the <emph>Argo</emph> it seemed as if black chaos had come
+over the world again; they knew not whether they were adrift
+upon the sea or upon the River of Hades. No star pierced the
+darkness nor no beam from the moon.
+</p>
+<p rend="text-align: center"><figure rend="width: 100%" url="images/i030.png"><anchor id="i030.png"/><index index="fig"/><head/><figDesc>Illustration</figDesc></figure></p>
+<p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> After a night that seemed many nights the dawn came. In
+the sunrise they saw the land of Thessaly with its mountain, its
+forests, and its fields. They hailed each other as if they had met
+after a long parting. They raised the mast and unfurled the sail.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> But not toward Pagasæ did they go. For now the voice
+of <emph>Argo</emph> came to them, shaking their hearts: Jason and Orpheus,
+Castor and Polydeuces, Zetes and Calais, Peleus and Telamon,
+Theseus, Admetus, Nestor, and Atalanta, heard the cry of their
+ship. And the voice of <emph>Argo</emph> warned them not to go into the
+harbor of Pagasæ.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> As they stood upon the ship, looking toward Iolcus, sorrow
+came over all the heroes, such sorrow as made their hearts
+nearly break. For long they stood there in utter numbness.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Then Admetus spoke—Admetus who was the happiest of
+all those who went in quest of the Golden Fleece. <q>Although
+we may not go into the harbor of Pagasæ, nor into the city of
+Iolcus,</q> Admetus said, <q>still we have come to the land of
+Greece. There are other harbors and other cities that we may
+go into. And in all the places that we go to we will be honored,
+for we have gone through toils and dangers, and we have brought
+to Greece the famous Fleece of Gold.</q>
+<pb n="180"/>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> So Admetus said, and their spirits came back again to the
+heroes—came back to all of them save Jason. The rest had
+other cities to go to, and fathers and mothers and friends to
+greet them in other places, but for Jason there was only Iolcus.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Medea took his hand, and sorrow for him overcame her.
+For Medea could divine what had happened in Iolcus and why
+it was that the heroes might not go there.
+</p><milestone unit="tb"/><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> It was to Corinth that the <emph>Argo</emph> went. Creon, the king of
+Corinth, welcomed them and gave great honor to the heroes
+who had faced such labors and such dangers to bring the world’s
+wonder to Greece.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> The Argonauts stayed together until they went to Calydon,
+to hunt the boar that ravaged Prince Meleagrus’s country.
+After that they separated, each one going to his own land.
+Jason came back to Corinth where Medea stayed. And in Corinth
+he had tidings of the happenings in Iolcus.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> King Pelias now ruled more fearfully in Iolcus, having brought
+down from the mountains more and fiercer soldiers. And
+Æson, Jason’s father, and Alcimide, his mother, were now
+dead, having been slain by King Pelias.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> This Jason heard from men who came into Corinth from
+Thessaly. And because of the great army that Pelias had
+gathered there, Jason might not yet go into Iolcus, either to
+exact a vengeance, or to show the people <hi rend="font-variant: small-caps">The Golden Fleece</hi>
+that he had gone so far to gain.
+</p><pb n="181"/></div></div><div><index index="toc"/><index index='pdf'/><head>Part III. The Heroes of the Quest</head><pb n="183"/><div><index index="toc"/><index index='pdf'/><head>I. Atalanta the Huntress</head><p rend="font-size: 120%">I</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <figure rend="float: left; margin-top: 0em; margin-bottom: 0em; x-class: deco-letter;" url="images/capT.png"><figDesc>Decorative first letter</figDesc></figure><hi rend="font-variant: small-caps; color:white; margin-left: -1em">T</hi>HEY came once more together, the heroes
+of the quest, to hunt a boar in Calydon—Jason
+and Peleus came, Telamon,
+Theseus, and rough Arcas, Nestor and
+Helen’s brothers Polydeuces and Castor.
+And, most noted of all, there came the
+Arcadian huntress maid, Atalanta.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Beautiful they all thought her when they knew her aboard
+the <emph>Argo</emph>. But even more beautiful Atalanta seemed to the
+heroes when she came amongst them in her hunting gear. Her
+lovely hair hung in two bands across her shoulders, and over
+her breast hung an ivory quiver filled with arrows. They said
+that her face with its wide and steady eyes was maidenly for
+a boy’s, and boyish for a maiden’s face. Swiftly she moved
+with her head held high, and there was not one amongst the
+heroes who did not say, <q>Oh, happy would that man be whom
+Atalanta the unwedded would take for her husband!</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> All the heroes said it, but the one who said it most feelingly
+was the prince of Calydon, young Meleagrus. He more than
+the other heroes felt the wonder of Atalanta’s beauty.
+<pb n="184"/>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Now the boar they had come to hunt was a monster boar.
+It had come into Calydon and it was laying waste the fields
+and orchards and destroying the people’s cattle and horses.
+That boar had been sent into Calydon by an angry divinity.
+For when Œneus, the king of the country, was making sacrifice
+to the gods in thanksgiving for a bounteous harvest, he
+had neglected to make sacrifice to the goddess of the wild things,
+Artemis. In her anger Artemis had sent the monster boar to
+lay waste Œneus’s realm.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> It was a monster boar indeed—one as huge as a bull, with
+tusks as great as an elephant’s; the bristles on its back stood up
+like spear points, and the hot breath of the creature withered
+the growth on the ground. The boar tore up the corn in the
+fields and trampled down the vines with their clusters and heavy
+bunches of grapes; also it rushed against the cattle and destroyed
+them in the fields. And no hounds the huntsmen were
+able to bring could stand before it. And so it came to pass
+that men had to leave their farms and take refuge behind the
+walls of the city because of the ravages of the boar. It was
+then that the rulers of Calydon sent for the heroes of the quest
+to join with them in hunting the monster.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Calydon itself sent Prince Meleagrus and his two uncles,
+Plexippus and Toxeus. They were brothers to Meleagrus’s
+mother, Althæa. Now Althæa was a woman who had sight
+to see mysterious things, but who had also a wayward and
+passionate heart. Once, after her son Meleagrus was born, she
+<pb n="185"/>
+saw the three Fates sitting by her hearth. They were spinning
+the threads of her son’s life, and as they spun they sang to each
+other, <q>An equal span of life we give to the newborn child,
+and to the billet of wood that now rests above the blaze of
+the fire.</q> Hearing what the Fates sang and understanding it
+Althæa had sprung up from her bed, had seized the billet of
+wood, and had taken it out of the fire before the flames had
+burnt into it.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> That billet of wood lay in her chest, hidden away. And
+Meleagrus nor any one else save Althæa knew of it, nor knew
+that the prince’s life would last only for the space it would be
+kept from the burning. On the day of the hunting he appeared
+as the strongest and bravest of the youths of Calydon. And he
+knew not, poor Meleagrus, that the love for Atalanta that had
+sprung into his heart was to bring to the fire the billet of wood
+on which his life depended.
+</p><milestone unit="tb"/><p rend="font-size: 120%">II</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> As Atalanta went, the bow in her hands, Prince Meleagrus
+pressed behind her. Then came Jason and Peleus, Telamon,
+Theseus and Nestor. Behind them came Meleagrus’s dark-browed
+uncles, Plexippus and Toxeus. They came to a forest
+that covered the side of a mountain. Huntsmen had assembled
+here with hounds held in leashes and with nets to hold the
+rushing quarry. And when they had all gathered together they
+went through the forest on the track of the monster boar.
+<pb n="186"/>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> It was easy to track the boar, for it had left a broad trail
+through the forest. The heroes and the huntsmen pressed on.
+They came to a marshy covert where the boar had its lair.
+There was a thickness of osiers and willows and tall bullrushes,
+making a place that it was hard for the hunters to go through.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> They roused the boar with the blare of horns and it came
+rushing out. Foam was on its tusks, and its eyes had in them
+the blaze of fire. On the boar came, breaking down the thicket
+in its rush. But the heroes stood steadily with the points of
+their spears toward the monster.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> The hounds were loosed from their leashes and they dashed
+toward the boar. The boar slashed them with its tusks and
+trampled them into the ground. Jason flung his spear. The
+spear went wide of the mark. Another, Arcas, cast his, but
+the wood, not the point of the spear, struck the boar, rousing
+it further. Then its eyes flamed, and like a great stone shot
+from a catapult the boar rushed on the huntsmen who were
+stationed to the right. In that rush it flung two youths prone
+upon the ground.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Then might Nestor have missed his going to Troy and his
+part in that story, for the boar swerved around and was upon
+him in an instant. Using his spear as a leaping pole he vaulted
+upward and caught the branches of a tree as the monster dashed
+the spear down in its rush. In rage the beast tore at the trunk
+of the tree. The heroes might have been scattered at this
+moment, for Telamon had fallen, tripped by the roots of a tree,
+<pb n="187"/>
+and Peleus had had to throw himself upon him to pull him out
+of the way of danger, if Polydeuces and Castor had not dashed
+up to their aid. They came riding upon high white horses,
+spears in their hands. The brothers cast their spears, but
+neither spear struck the monster boar.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Then the boar turned and was for drawing back into the thicket.
+They might have lost it then, for its retreat was impenetrable.
+But before it got clear away Atalanta put an arrow to the
+string, drew the bow to her shoulder, and let the arrow fly.
+It struck the boar, and a patch of blood was seen upon its
+bristles. Prince Meleagrus shouted out, <q>O first to strike the
+monster! Honor indeed shall you receive for this, Arcadian
+maid.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> His uncles were made wroth by this speech, as was another,
+the Arcadian, rough Arcas. Arcas dashed forward, holding
+in his hands a two-headed axe. <q>Heroes and huntsmen,</q>
+he cried, <q>you shall see how a man’s strokes surpass a girl’s.</q>
+He faced the boar, standing on tiptoe with his axe raised for the
+stroke. Meleagrus’s uncles shouted to encourage him. But
+the boar’s tusks tore him before Arcas’s axe fell, and the Arcadian
+was trampled upon the ground.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> The boar, roused again by Atalanta’s arrow, turned on the
+hunters. Jason hurled a spear again. It swerved and struck
+a hound and pinned it to the ground. Then, speaking the
+name of Atalanta, Meleagrus sprang before the heroes and the
+huntsmen.
+<pb n="188"/>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> He had two spears in his hands. The first missed and
+stuck quivering in the ground. But the second went right
+through the back of the monster boar. It whirled round and
+round, spouting out blood and foam. Meleagrus pressed on,
+and drove his hunting knife through the shoulders of the
+monster.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> His uncles, Plexippus and Toxeus, were the first to come to
+where the monster boar was lying outstretched. <q>It is well,
+the deed you have done, boy,</q> said one; <q>it is well that none
+of the strangers to our country slew the boar. Now will the
+head and tusks of the monster adorn our hall, and men will
+know that the arms of our house can well protect this land.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> But one word only did Meleagrus say, and that word was
+the name, <q>Atalanta.</q> The maiden came and Meleagrus, his
+spear upon the head, said, <q>Take, O fair Arcadian, the spoil of
+the chase. All know that it was you who inflicted the first
+wound upon the boar.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Plexippus and Toxeus tried to push him away, as if Meleagrus
+was still a boy under their tutoring. He shouted to them to
+stand off, and then he hacked out the terrible tusks and held
+them toward Atalanta.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> She would have taken them, for she, who had never looked
+lovingly upon a youth, was moved by the beauty and the generosity
+of Prince Meleagrus. She would have taken from him
+the spoil of the chase. But as she held out her arms Meleagrus’s
+uncles struck them with the poles of their spears. Heavy
+<pb n="189"/>
+marks were made on the maiden’s white arms. Madness then
+possessed Meleagrus, and he took up his spear and thrust it,
+first into the body of Plexippus and then into the body of Toxeus.
+His thrusts were terrible, for he was filled with the fierceness
+of the hunt, and his uncles fell down in death.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Then a great horror came over all the heroes. They raised
+up the bodies of Plexippus and Toxeus and carried them on
+their spears away from the place of the hunting and toward
+the temple of the gods. Meleagrus crouched down upon the
+ground in horror of what he had done. Atalanta stood beside
+him, her hand upon his head.
+</p><milestone unit="tb"/><p rend="font-size: 120%">III</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Althæa was in the temple making sacrifice to the gods. She
+saw men come in carrying across their spears the bodies of two
+men. She looked and she saw that the dead men were her two
+brothers, Plexippus and Toxeus.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Then she beat her breast and she filled the temple with the
+cries of her lamentation. <q>Who has slain my brothers? Who
+has slain my brothers?</q> she kept crying out.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Then she was told that her son Meleagrus had slain her
+brothers. She had no tears to shed then, and in a hard voice
+she asked, <q>Why did my son slay Plexippus and Toxeus, his
+uncles?</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> The one who was wroth with Atalanta, Arcas the Arcadian,
+<pb n="190"/>
+came to her and told her that her brothers had been slain because
+of a quarrel about the girl Atalanta.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q>My brothers have been slain because a girl bewitched my
+son; then accursed be that son of mine,</q> Althæa cried. She
+took off the gold-fringed robe of a priestess, and she put on a
+black robe of mourning.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Her brothers, the only sons of her father, had been slain,
+and for the sake of a girl. The image of Atalanta came before
+her, and she felt she could punish dreadfully her son. But her
+son was not there to punish; he was far away, and the girl
+for whose sake he had killed Plexippus and Toxeus was with
+him.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> The rage she had went back into her heart and made her
+truly mad. <q>I gave Meleagrus life when I might have let it
+go from him with the burning billet of wood,</q> she cried, <q>and
+now he has taken the lives of my brothers.</q> And then her
+thought went to the billet of wood that was hidden in the chest.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Back to her house she went, and when she went within she
+saw a fire of pine knots burning upon the hearth. As she looked
+upon their burning a scorching pain went through her. But
+she went from the hearth, nevertheless, and into the inner
+room. There stood the chest that she had not opened for
+years. She opened it now, and out of it she took the billet
+of wood that had on it the mark of the burning.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> She brought it to the hearth fire. Four times she went to
+throw it into the fire, and four times she stayed her hand. The
+<pb n="191"/>
+fire was before her, but it was in her too. She saw the images
+of her brothers lying dead, and, saying that he who had slain
+them should lose his life, she threw the billet of wood into the
+fire of pine knots.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Straightway it caught fire and began to burn. And Althæa
+cried, <q>Let him die, my son, and let naught remain; let all
+perish with my brothers, even the kingdom that Œneus, my
+husband, founded.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Then she turned away and remained stiffly standing by the
+hearth, the life withered up within her. Her daughters came
+and tried to draw her away, but they could not—her two
+daughters, Gorge and Deianira.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Meleagrus was crouching upon the ground with Atalanta
+watching beside him. Now he stood up, and taking her hand
+he said, <q>Let me go with you to the temple of the gods where I
+shall strive to make atonement for the deed I have done to-day.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> She went with him. But even as they came to the street of
+the city a sharp and a burning pain seized upon Meleagrus.
+More and more burning it grew, and weaker and weaker he
+became. He could not have moved further if it had not been
+for the aid of Atalanta. Jason and Peleus lifted him across
+the threshold and carried him into the temple of the gods.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> They laid him down with his head upon Atalanta’s lap. The
+pain within him grew fiercer and fiercer, but at last it died down
+as the burning billet of wood sank down into the ashes. The
+heroes of the quest stood around, all overcome with woe. In
+<pb n="192"/>
+the street they heard the lamentations for Plexippus and Toxeus,
+for Prince Meleagrus, and for the passing of the kingdom founded
+by Œneus. Atalanta left the temple, and attended by the
+two brothers on the white horses, Polydeuces and Castor, she
+went back to Arcady.
+</p></div><div><index index="toc"/><index index='pdf'/><head>II. Peleus and His Bride from the Sea</head><p rend="font-size: 120%">I</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <figure rend="float: left; margin-top: 0em; margin-bottom: 0em; x-class: deco-letter;" url="images/capP.png"><figDesc>Decorative first letter</figDesc></figure><hi rend="font-variant: small-caps; color:white; margin-left: -1em">P</hi>RINCE PELEUS came on his ship to a
+bay on the coast of Thessaly. His painted
+ship lay between two great rocks, and
+from its poop he saw a sight that enchanted
+him. Out from the sea, riding
+on a dolphin, came a lovely maiden.
+And by the radiance of her face and
+limbs Peleus knew her for one of the immortal goddesses.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Now Peleus had borne himself so nobly in all things that
+he had won the favor of the gods themselves. Zeus, who is
+highest amongst the gods, had made this promise to Peleus:
+he would honor him as no one amongst the sons of men had
+been honored before, for he would give him an immortal goddess
+to be his bride.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> She who came out of the sea went into a cave that was overgrown
+with vines and roses. Peleus looked into the cave and
+<pb n="193"/>
+he saw her sleeping upon skins of the beasts of the sea. His
+heart was enchanted by the sight, and he knew that his life
+would be broken if he did not see this goddess day after day.
+So he went back to his ship and he prayed: <q>O Zeus, now I
+claim the promise that you once made to me. Let it be that
+this goddess come with me, or else plunge my ship and me
+beneath the waves of the sea.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> And when Peleus said this he looked over the land and the
+water for a sign from Zeus.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Even then the goddess sleeping in the cave had dreams such
+as had never before entered that peaceful resting place of hers.
+She dreamt that she was drawn away from the deep and the
+wide sea. She dreamt that she was brought to a place that
+was strange and unfree to her. And as she lay in the cave,
+sleeping, tears that might never come into the eyes of an immortal
+lay around her heart.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> But Peleus, standing on his painted ship, saw a rainbow
+touch upon the sea. He knew by that sign that Iris, the messenger
+of Zeus, had come down through the air. Then a strange
+sight came before his eyes. Out of the sea rose the head of a
+man; wrinkled and bearded it was, and the eyes were very
+old. Peleus knew that he who was there before him was Nereus,
+the ancient one of the sea.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Said old Nereus: <q>Thou hast prayed to Zeus, and I am here
+to speak an answer to thy prayer. She whom you have looked
+upon is Thetis, the goddess of the sea. Very loath will she be
+<pb n="194"/>
+to take Zeus’s command and wed with thee. It is her desire
+to remain in the sea, unwedded, and she has refused marriage
+even with one of the immortal gods.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Then said Peleus, <q>Zeus promised me an immortal bride.
+If Thetis may not be mine I cannot wed any other, goddess or
+mortal maiden.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q>Then thou thyself wilt have to master Thetis,</q> said Nereus,
+the wise one of the sea. <q>If she is mastered by thee, she cannot
+go back to the sea. She will strive with all her strength
+and all her wit to escape from thee; but thou must hold her no
+matter what she does, and no matter how she shows herself.
+When thou hast seen her again as thou didst see her at first,
+thou wilt know that thou hast mastered her.</q> And when he
+had said this to Peleus, Nereus, the ancient one of the sea, went
+under the waves.
+</p><milestone unit="tb"/><p rend="font-size: 120%">II</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> With his hero’s heart beating more than ever it had beaten
+yet, Peleus went into the cave. Kneeling beside her he looked
+down upon the goddess. The dress she wore was like green
+and silver mail. Her face and limbs were pearly, but through
+them came the radiance that belongs to the immortals.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> He touched the hair of the goddess of the sea, the yellow
+hair that was so long that it might cover her all over. As he
+touched her hair she started up, wakening suddenly out of her
+sleep. His hands touched her hands and held them. Now he
+<pb n="195"/>
+knew that if he should loose his hold upon her she would escape
+from him into the depths of the sea, and that thereafter no
+command from the immortals would bring her to him.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> She changed into a white bird that strove to bear itself away.
+Peleus held to its wings and struggled with the bird. She
+changed and became a tree. Around the trunk of the tree
+Peleus clung. She changed once more, and this time her form
+became terrible: a spotted leopard she was now, with burning
+eyes; but Peleus held to the neck of the fierce-appearing leopard
+and was not affrighted by the burning eyes. Then she changed
+and became as he had seen her first—a lovely maiden, with the
+brow of a goddess, and with long yellow hair.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> But now there was no radiance in her face or in her limbs.
+She looked past Peleus, who held her, and out to the wide sea.
+<q>Who is he,</q> she cried, <q>who has been given this mastery
+over me?</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Then said the hero: <q>I am Peleus, and Zeus has given me
+the mastery over thee. Wilt thou come with me, Thetis? Thou
+art my bride, given me by him who is highest amongst the
+gods, and if thou wilt come with me, thou wilt always be loved
+and reverenced by me.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q>Unwillingly I leave the sea,</q> she cried, <q>unwillingly I go
+with thee, Peleus.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> But life in the sea was not for her any more now that she
+was mastered. She went to Peleus’s ship and she went to Phthia,
+his country. And when the hero and the sea goddess were
+<pb n="196"/>
+wedded the immortal gods and goddesses came to their hall and
+brought the bride and the bridegroom wondrous gifts. The three
+sisters who are called the Fates came also. These wise and
+ancient women said that the son born of the marriage of Peleus
+and Thetis would be a man greater than Peleus himself.
+</p><milestone unit="tb"/><p rend="font-size: 120%">III</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Now although a son was born to her, and although this son
+had something of the radiance of the immortals about him,
+Thetis remained forlorn and estranged. Nothing that her husband
+did was pleasing to her. Prince Peleus was in fear that
+the wildness of the sea would break out in her, and that some
+great harm would be wrought in his house.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> One night he wakened suddenly. He saw the fire upon his
+hearth and he saw a figure standing by the fire. It was Thetis,
+his wife. The fire was blazing around something that she held
+in her hands. And while she stood there she was singing to
+herself a strange-sounding song.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> And then he saw what Thetis held in her hands and what
+the fire was blazing around; it was the child, Achilles.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Prince Peleus sprang from the bed and caught Thetis around
+the waist and lifted her and the child away from the blazing
+fire. He put them both upon the bed, and he took from her
+the child that she held by the heel. His heart was wild within
+him, for the thought that wildness had come over his wife, and
+<pb n="197"/>
+that she was bent upon destroying their child. But Thetis
+looked on him from under those goddess brows of hers and she
+said to him: <q>By the divine power that I still possess I would
+have made the child invulnerable; but the heel by which I
+held him has not been endued by the fire and in that place
+some day he may be stricken. All that the fire covered is invulnerable,
+and no weapon that strikes there can destroy his
+life. His heel I cannot now make invulnerable, for now the
+divine power is gone out of me.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> When she said this Thetis looked full upon her husband, and
+never had she seemed so unforgiving as she was then. All the
+divine radiance that had remained with her was gone from her
+now, and she seemed a white-faced and bitter-thinking woman.
+And when Peleus saw that such a great bitterness faced him
+he fled from his house.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> He traveled far from his own land, and first he went to the
+help of Heracles, who was then in the midst of his mighty labors.
+Heracles was building a wall around a city. Peleus labored,
+helping him to raise the wall for King Laomedon. Then, one
+night, as he walked by the wall he had helped to build, he heard
+voices speaking out of the earth. And one voice said: <q>Why
+has Peleus striven so hard to raise a wall that his son shall
+fight hard to overthrow?</q> No voice replied. The wall was
+built, and Peleus departed. The city around which the wall
+was built was the great city of Troy.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> In whatever place he went Peleus was followed by the hatred
+<pb n="198"/>
+of the people of the sea, and above all by the hatred of the
+nymph who is called Psamathe. Far, far from his own country
+he went, and at last he came to a country of bright valleys
+that was ruled over by a kindly king—by Ceyx, who was
+called the Son of the Morning Star.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Bright of face and kindly and peaceable in all his ways was
+this king, and kindly and peaceable was the land that he ruled
+over. And when Prince Peleus went to him to beg for his protection,
+and to beg for unfurrowed fields where he might graze
+his cattle, Ceyx raised him up from where he knelt. <q>Peaceable
+and plentiful is the land,</q> he said, <q>and all who come here
+may have peace and a chance to earn their food. Live where
+you will, O stranger, and take the unfurrowed fields by the
+seashore for pasture for your cattle.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Peace came into Peleus’s heart as he looked into the untroubled
+face of Ceyx, and as he looked over the bright valleys
+of the land he had come into. He brought his cattle to the
+unfurrowed fields by the seashore and he left herdsmen there
+to tend them. And as he walked along these bright valleys he
+thought upon his wife and upon his son Achilles, and there
+were gentle feelings in his breast. But then he thought upon
+the enmity of Psamathe, the woman of the sea, and great trouble
+came over him again. He felt he could not stay in the palace
+of the kindly king. He went where his herdsmen camped and
+he lived with them. But the sea was very near and its sound
+tormented him, and as the days went by, Peleus, wild looking
+<pb n="199"/>
+and shaggy, became more and more unlike the hero whom once
+the gods themselves had honored.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> One day as he was standing near the palace having speech
+with the king, a herdsman ran to him and cried out: <q>Peleus,
+Peleus, a dread thing has happened in the unfurrowed fields.</q>
+And when he had got his breath the herdsman told of the thing
+that had happened.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> They had brought the herd down to the sea. Suddenly, from
+the marshes where the sea and land came together, a monstrous
+beast rushed out upon the herd; like a wolf this beast was, but
+with mouth and jaws that were more terrible than a wolf’s even.
+The beast seized upon the cattle. Yet it was not hunger that
+made it fierce, for the beasts that it killed it tore, but did
+not devour. It rushed on and on, killing and tearing more
+and more of the herd. <q>Soon,</q> said the herdsman, <q>it will have
+destroyed all in the herd, and then it will not spare to destroy
+the other flocks and herds that are in the land.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Peleus was stricken to hear that his herd was being destroyed,
+but more stricken to know that the land of a friendly king
+would be ravaged, and ravaged on his account. For he knew
+that the terrible beast that had come from where the sea and the
+land joined had been sent by Psamathe. He went up on the tower
+that stood near the king’s palace. He was able to look out on the
+sea and able to look over all the land. And looking across the
+bright valleys he saw the dread beast. He saw it rush through his
+own mangled cattle and fall upon the herds of the kindly king.
+<pb n="200"/>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> He looked toward the sea and he prayed to Psamathe to spare
+the land that he had come to. But, even as he prayed, he knew
+that Psamathe would not harken to him. Then he made a
+prayer to Thetis, to his wife who had seemed so unforgiving.
+He prayed her to deal with Psamathe so that the land of Ceyx
+would not be altogether destroyed.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> As he looked from the tower he saw the king come forth
+with arms in his hands for the slaying of the terrible beast.
+Peleus felt fear for the life of the kindly king. Down from the
+tower he came, and taking up his spear he went with Ceyx.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Soon, in one of the brightest of the valleys, they came upon
+the beast; they came between it and a herd of silken-coated
+cattle. Seeing the men it rushed toward them with blood and
+foam upon its jaws. Then Peleus knew that the spears they
+carried would be of little use against the raging beast. His
+only thought was to struggle with it so that the king might be
+able to save himself.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Again he lifted up his hands and prayed to Thetis to draw
+away Psamathe’s enmity. The beast rushed toward them;
+but suddenly it stopped. The bristles upon its body seemed
+to stiffen. The gaping jaws became fixed. The hounds that
+were with them dashed upon the beast, but then fell back with
+yelps of disappointment. And when Peleus and Ceyx came to
+where it stood they found that the monstrous beast had been
+turned into stone.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> And a stone it remains in that bright valley, a wonder to all
+<pb n="201"/>
+the men of Ceyx’s land. The country was spared the ravages
+of the beast. And the heart of Peleus was uplifted to think
+that Thetis had harkened to his prayer and had prevailed upon
+Psamathe to forego her enmity. Not altogether unforgiving
+was his wife to him.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> That day he went from the land of the bright valleys, from
+the land ruled over by the kindly Ceyx, and he came back to
+rugged Phthia, his own country. When he came near his hall
+he saw two at the doorway awaiting him. Thetis stood there,
+and the child Achilles was by her side. The radiance of the
+immortals was in her face no longer, but there was a glow there,
+a glow of welcome for the hero Peleus. And thus Peleus, long
+tormented by the enmity of the sea-born ones, came back to
+the wife he had won from the sea.
+</p></div><div><index index="toc"/><index index='pdf'/><head>III. Theseus and the Minotaur</head><p rend="font-size: 120%">I</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <figure rend="float: left; margin-top: 0em; margin-bottom: 0em; x-class: deco-letter;" url="images/capT.png"><figDesc>Decorative first letter</figDesc></figure><hi rend="font-variant: small-caps; color:white; margin-left: -1em">T</hi>HEREAFTER Theseus made up his
+mind to go in search of his father, the
+unknown king, and Medea, the wise
+woman, counseled him to go to Athens.
+After the hunt in Calydon he set
+forth. On his way he fought with and
+slew two robbers who harassed countries
+and treated people unjustly.
+<pb n="202"/>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> The first was Sinnias. He was a robber who slew men cruelly
+by tying them to strong branches of trees and letting the branches
+fly apart. On him Theseus had no mercy. The second was a
+robber also, Procrustes: he had a great iron bed on which he
+made his captives lie; if they were too long for that bed he
+chopped pieces off them, and if they were too short he stretched
+out their bodies with terrible racks. On him, likewise, Theseus
+had no mercy; he slew Procrustes and gave liberty to his captives.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> The King of Athens at the time was named Ægeus. He was
+father of Theseus, but neither Theseus nor he knew that this
+was so. Æthra was his mother, and she was the daughter of
+the King of Trœzen. Before Theseus was born his father left
+a great sword under a stone, telling Æthra that the boy was
+to have the sword when he was able to move that stone away.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> King Ægeus was old and fearful now: there were wars and
+troubles in the city; besides, there was in his palace an evil
+woman, a witch, to whom the king listened. This woman heard
+that a proud and fearless young man had come into Athens,
+and she at once thought to destroy him.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> So the witch spoke to the fearful king, and she made him
+believe that this stranger had come into Athens to make league
+with his enemies and destroy him. Such was her power over
+Ægeus that she was able to persuade him to invite the stranger
+youth to a feast in the palace, and to give him a cup that would
+have poison in it.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Theseus came to the palace. He sat down to the banquet
+<pb n="203"/>
+with the king. But before the cup was brought something
+moved him to stand up and draw forth the sword that he carried.
+Fearfully the king looked upon the sword. Then he saw the
+heavy ivory hilt with the curious carving on it, and he knew
+that this was the sword that he had once laid under the stone
+near the palace of the King of Trœzen. He questioned Theseus
+as to how he had come by the sword, and Theseus told him
+how Æthra, his mother, had shown him where it was hidden,
+and how he had been able to take it from under the stone before
+he was grown a youth. More and more Ægeus questioned him,
+and he came to know that the youth before him was his son
+indeed. He dashed down the cup that had been brought to
+the table, and he shook all over with the thought of how near
+he had been to a terrible crime. The witchwoman watched
+all that passed; mounting on a car drawn by dragons she made
+flight from Athens.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> And now the people of the city, knowing that it was he who
+had slain the robbers Sinnias and Procrustes, rejoiced to have
+Theseus amongst them. When he appeared as their prince they
+rejoiced still more. Soon he was able to bring to an end the
+wars in the city and the troubles that afflicted Athens.
+</p><milestone unit="tb"/><p rend="font-size: 120%">II</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> The greatest king in the world at that time was Minos, King
+of Crete. Minos had sent his son to Athens to make peace and
+<pb n="204"/>
+friendship between his kingdom and the kingdom of King Ægeus.
+But the people of Athens slew the son of King Minos, and because
+Ægeus had not given him the protection that a king
+should have given a stranger come upon such an errand he was
+deemed to have some part in the guilt of his slaying.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Minos, the great king, was wroth, and he made war on Athens,
+wreaking great destruction upon the country and the people.
+Moreover, the gods themselves were wroth with Athens; they
+punished the people with famine, making even the rivers dry up.
+The Athenians went to the oracle and asked Apollo what they
+should do to have their guilt taken away. Apollo made answer
+that they should make peace with Minos and fulfill all his
+demands.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> All this Theseus now heard, learning for the first time that
+behind the wars and troubles in Athens there was a deed of evil
+that Ægeus, his father, had some guilt in.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> The demands that King Minos made upon Athens were terrible.
+He demanded that the Athenians should send into Crete
+every year seven youths and seven maidens as a price for the
+life of his son. And these youths and maidens were not to
+meet death merely, nor were they to be reared in slavery—they
+were to be sent that a monster called the Minotaur might
+devour them.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Youths and maidens had been sent, and for the third time
+the messengers of King Minos were coming to Athens. The
+tribute for the Minotaur was to be chosen by lot. The fathers
+<pb n="205"/>
+and mothers were in fear and trembling, for each man and
+woman thought that his or her son or daughter would be taken
+for a prey for the Minotaur.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> They came together, the people of Athens, and they drew the
+lots fearfully. And on the throne above them all sat their
+pale-faced king, Ægeus, the father of Theseus.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Before the first lot was drawn Theseus turned to all of them
+and said, <q>People of Athens, it is not right that your children
+should go and that I, who am the son of King Ægeus, should
+remain behind. Surely, if any of the youths of Athens should
+face the dread monster of Crete, I should face it. There is one
+lot that you may leave undrawn. I will go to Crete.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> His father, on hearing the speech of Theseus, came down from
+his throne and pleaded with him, begging him not to go. But
+the will of Theseus was set; he would go with the others and
+face the Minotaur. And he reminded his father of how the
+people had complained, saying that if Ægeus had done the
+duty of a king, Minos’s son would not have been slain and the
+tribute to the Minotaur would have not been demanded. It
+was the passing about of such complaints that had led to the
+war and troubles that Theseus found on his coming to Athens.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Also Theseus told his father and told the people that he had
+hope in his hands—that the hands that were strong enough
+to slay Sinnias and Procrustes, the giant robbers, would be strong
+enough to slay the dread monster of Crete. His father at last
+consented to his going. And Theseus was able to make the
+<pb n="206"/>
+people willing to believe that he would be able to overcome
+the Minotaur, and so put an end to the terrible tribute that
+was being exacted from them.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> With six other youths and seven maidens Theseus went on
+board of the ship that every year brought to Crete the grievous
+tribute. This ship always sailed with black sails. But before
+it sailed this time King Ægeus gave to Nausitheus, the master
+of the ship, a white sail to take with him. And he begged
+Theseus, that in case he should be able to overcome the monster,
+to hoist the white sail he had given. Theseus promised
+he would do this. His father would watch for the return of
+the ship, and if the sail were black he would know that the Minotaur
+had dealt with his son as it had dealt with the other youths
+who had gone from Athens. And if the sail were white Ægeus
+would have indeed cause to rejoice.
+</p><milestone unit="tb"/><p rend="font-size: 120%">III</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> And now the black-sailed ship had come to Crete, and the
+youths and maidens of Athens looked from its deck on Knossos,
+the marvelous city that Dædalus the builder had built for
+King Minos. And they saw the palace of the king, the red and
+black palace in which was the labyrinth, made also by Dædalus,
+where the dread Minotaur was hidden.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> In fear they looked upon the city and the palace. But not
+in fear did Theseus look, but in wonder at the magnificence of
+<pb n="207"/>
+it all—the harbor with its great steps leading up into the city,
+the far-spreading palace all red and black, and the crowds of
+ships with their white and red sails. They were brought through
+the city of Knossos to the palace of the king. And there
+Theseus looked upon Minos. In a great red chamber on which
+was painted the sign of the axe, King Minos sat.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> On a low throne he sat, holding in his hand a scepter on which
+a bird was perched. Not in fear, but steadily, did Theseus look
+upon the king. And he saw that Minos had the face of one
+who has thought long upon troublesome things, and that his
+eyes were strangely dark and deep. The king noted that the
+eyes of Theseus were upon him, and he made a sign with his
+head to an attendant and the attendant laid his hand upon
+him and brought Theseus to stand beside the king. Minos
+questioned him as to who he was and what lands he had been
+in, and when he learned that Theseus was the son of Ægeus,
+the King of Athens, he said the name of his son who had been
+slain, <q>Androgeus, Androgeus,</q> over and over again, and then
+spoke no more.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> While he stood there beside the king there came into the
+chamber three maidens; one of them, Theseus knew, was the
+daughter of Minos. Not like the maidens of Greece were the
+princess and her two attendants: instead of having on flowing
+garments and sandals and wearing their hair bound, they had
+on dresses of gleaming material that were tight at the waists
+and bell-shaped; the hair that streamed on their shoulders was
+<pb n="208"/>
+made wavy; they had on high shoes of a substance that shone
+like glass. Never had Theseus looked upon maidens who were
+so strange.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> They spoke to the king in the strange Cretan language;
+then Minos’s daughter made reverence to her father, and they
+went from the chamber. Theseus watched them as they went
+through a long passage, walking slowly on their high-heeled
+shoes.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Through the same passage the youths and maidens of Athens
+were afterward brought. They came into a great hall. The
+walls were red and on them were paintings in black—pictures
+of great bulls with girls and slender youths struggling with
+them. It was a place for games and shows, and Theseus stood
+with the youths and maidens of Athens and with the people
+of the palace and watched what was happening.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> They saw women charming snakes; then they saw a boxing
+match, and afterward they all looked on a bout of wrestling.
+Theseus looked past the wrestlers and he saw, at the other end
+of the hall, the daughter of King Minos and her two attendant
+maidens.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> One broad-shouldered and bearded man overthrew all the
+wrestlers who came to grips with him. He stood there boastfully,
+and Theseus was made angry by the man’s arrogance.
+Then, when no other wrestler would come against him, he
+turned to leave the arena.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> But Theseus stood in his way and pushed him back. The
+
+
+
+<pb n="209"/>
+boastful man laid hands upon him and pulled him into the
+arena. He strove to throw Theseus as he had thrown the others;
+but he soon found that the youth from Greece was a wrestler,
+too, and that he would have to strive hard to overthrow him.
+</p>
+<p rend="text-align: center"><figure rend="width: 100%" url="images/i031.png"><anchor id="i031.png"/><index index="fig"/><head/><figDesc>Illustration</figDesc></figure></p>
+<p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> More eagerly than they had watched anything else the people
+of the palace and the youths and maidens of Athens watched
+the bout between Theseus and the lordly wrestler. Those from
+Athens who looked upon him now thought that they had never
+seen Theseus look so tall and so conquering before; beside the
+slender, dark-haired people of Crete he looked like a statue of
+one of the gods.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Very adroit was the Cretan wrestler, and Theseus had to use
+all his strength to keep upon his feet; but soon he mastered
+the tricks that the wrestler was using against him. Then the
+Cretan left aside his tricks and began to use all his strength
+to throw Theseus.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Steadily Theseus stood and the Cretan wrestler was spent
+and gasping in the effort to throw him. Then Theseus made
+him feel his grip. He bent him backward, and then, using all
+his strength suddenly, forced him to the ground. All were
+filled with wonder at the strength and power of this youth from
+overseas.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Food and wine were given the youths and maidens of Athens,
+and they with Theseus were let wander through the grounds
+of the palace. But they could make no escape, for guards followed
+them and the way to the ships was filled with strangers
+<pb n="210"/>
+who would not let them pass. They talked to each other about
+the Minotaur, and there was fear in every word they said. But
+Theseus went from one to the other, telling them that perhaps
+there was a way by which he could come to the monster and
+destroy it. And the youths and maidens, remembering how he
+had overthrown the lordly wrestler, were comforted a little,
+thinking that Theseus might indeed be able to destroy the
+Minotaur and so save all of them.
+</p><milestone unit="tb"/><p rend="font-size: 120%">IV</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Theseus was awakened by some one touching him. He arose
+and he saw a dark-faced servant, who beckoned to him. He
+left the little chamber where he had been sleeping, and then
+he saw outside one who wore the strange dress of the Cretans.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> When Theseus looked full upon her he saw that she was
+none other than the daughter of King Minos. <q>I am Ariadne,</q>
+she said, <q>and, O youth from Greece, I have come to save you
+from the dread Minotaur.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> He looked upon Ariadne’s strange face with its long, dark
+eyes, and he wondered how this girl could think that she could
+save him and save the youths and maidens of Athens from the
+Minotaur. Her hand rested upon his arm, and she led him
+into the chamber where Minos had sat. It was lighted now
+by many little lamps.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q>I will show the way of escape to you,</q> said Ariadne.
+<pb n="211"/>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Then Theseus looked around, and he saw that none of the
+other youths and maidens were near them, and he looked on
+Ariadne again, and he saw that the strange princess had been
+won to help him, and to help him only.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q>Who will show the way of escape to the others?</q> asked
+Theseus.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q>Ah,</q> said the Princess Ariadne, <q>for the others there is no
+way of escape.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q>Then,</q> said Theseus, <q>I will not leave the youths and
+maidens of Athens who came with me to Crete to be devoured
+by the Minotaur.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q>Ah, Theseus,</q> said Ariadne, <q>they cannot escape the Minotaur.
+One only may escape, and I want you to be that one.
+I saw you when you wrestled with Deucalion, our great wrestler,
+and since then I have longed to save you.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q>I have come to slay the Minotaur,</q> said Theseus, <q>and I
+cannot hold my life as my own until I have slain it.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Said Ariadne, <q>If you could see the Minotaur, Theseus, and
+if you could measure its power, you would know that you are
+not the one to slay it. I think that only Talos, that giant who
+was all of bronze, could have slain the Minotaur.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q>Princess,</q> said Theseus, <q>can you help me to come to the
+Minotaur and look upon it so that I can know for certainty
+whether this hand of mine can slay the monster?</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q>I can help you to come to the Minotaur and look upon it,</q>
+said Ariadne.
+<pb n="212"/>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q>Then help me, princess,</q> cried Theseus; <q>help me to come
+to the Minotaur and look upon it, and help me, too, to get
+back the sword that I brought with me to Crete.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q>Your sword will not avail you against the Minotaur,</q> said
+Ariadne; <q>when you look upon the monster you will know that
+it is not for your hand to slay.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q>Oh, but bring me my sword, princess,</q> cried Theseus, and
+his hands went out to her in supplication.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q>I will bring you your sword,</q> said she.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> She took up a little lamp and went through a doorway, leaving
+Theseus standing by the low throne in the chamber of
+Minos. Then after a little while she came back, bringing with
+her Theseus’s great ivory-hilted sword.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q>It is a great sword,</q> she said; <q>I marked it before because
+it is your sword, Theseus. But even this great sword will not
+avail against the Minotaur.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q>Show me the way to come to the Minotaur, O Ariadne,</q>
+cried Theseus.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> He knew that she did not think that he would deem himself
+able to strive with the Minotaur, and that when he looked
+upon the dread monster he would return to her and then take
+the way of his escape.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> She took his hand and led him from the chamber of Minos.
+She was not tall, but she stood straight and walked steadily,
+and Theseus saw in her something of the strange majesty that
+he had seen in Minos the king.
+
+
+
+<pb n="213"/>
+</p>
+<p rend="text-align: center"><figure rend="width: 100%" url="images/i032.png"><anchor id="i032.png"/><index index="fig"/><head/><figDesc>Illustration</figDesc></figure></p>
+<p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> They came to high bronze gates that opened into a vault.
+<q>Here,</q> said Ariadne, <q>the labyrinth begins. Very devious
+is the labyrinth, built by Dædalus, in which the Minotaur is
+hidden, and without the clue none could find a way through
+the passages. But I will give you the clue so that you may
+look upon the Minotaur and then come back to me. Theseus,
+now I put into your hand the thread that will guide you through
+all the windings of the labyrinth. And outside the place where
+the Minotaur is you will find another thread to guide you back.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> A cone was on the ground and it had a thread fastened to it.
+Ariadne gave Theseus the thread and the cone to wind it around.
+The thread as he held it and wound it around the cone would
+bring him through all the windings and turnings of the labyrinth.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> She left him, and Theseus went on. Winding the thread
+around the cone he went along a wide passage in the vault.
+He turned and came into a passage that was very long. He
+came to a place in this passage where a door seemed to be,
+but within the frame of the doorway there was only a blank
+wall. But below that doorway there was a flight of six steps,
+and down these steps the thread led him. On he went, and
+he crossed the marks that he himself had made in the dust,
+and he thought he must have come back to the place where he
+had parted from Ariadne. He went on, and he saw before him
+a flight of steps. The thread did not lead up the steps; it led
+into the most winding of passages. So sudden were the turnings
+in it that one could not see three steps before one. He was
+<pb n="214"/>
+dazed by the turnings of this passage, but still he went on. He
+went up winding steps and then along a narrow wall. The
+wall overhung a broad flight of steps, and Theseus had to jump
+to them. Down the steps he went and into a wide, empty
+hall that had doorways to the right hand and to the left hand.
+Here the thread had its end. It was fastened to a cone that
+lay on the ground, and beside this cone was another—the clue
+that was to bring him back.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Now Theseus, knowing he was in the very center of the
+labyrinth, looked all around for sight of the Minotaur. There
+was no sight of the monster here. He went to all the doors and
+pushed at them, and some opened and some remained fast.
+The middle door opened. As it did Theseus felt around him
+a chilling draft of air.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> That chilling draft was from the breathing of the monster.
+Theseus then saw the Minotaur. It lay on the ground, a
+strange, bull-faced thing.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> When the thought came to Theseus that he would have to
+fight that monster alone and in that hidden and empty place
+all delight left him; he grew like a stone; he groaned, and it
+seemed to him that he heard the voice of Ariadne calling him
+back. He could find his way back through the labyrinth and
+come to her. He stepped back, and the door closed on the
+Minotaur, the dread monster of Crete.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> In an instant Theseus pushed the door again. He stood
+within the hall where the Minotaur was, and the heavy door
+
+
+
+<pb n="215"/>
+shut behind him. He looked again on that dark, bull-faced
+thing. It reared up as a horse rears and Theseus saw that it
+would crash down on him and tear him with its dragon claws.
+With a great bound he went far away from where the monster
+crashed down. Then Theseus faced it: he saw its thick lips
+and its slobbering mouth; he saw that its skin was thick and
+hard.
+</p>
+<p rend="text-align: center"><figure rend="width: 100%" url="images/i033.png"><anchor id="i033.png"/><index index="fig"/><head/><figDesc>Illustration</figDesc></figure></p>
+<p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> He drew near the monster, his sword in his hand. He struck
+at its eyes, and his sword made a great dint. But no blood
+came, for the Minotaur was a bloodless monster. From its mouth
+and nostrils came a draft that covered him with a chilling slime.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Then it rushed upon him and overthrew him, and Theseus
+felt its terrible weight upon him. But he thrust his sword
+upward, and it reared up again, screaming with pain. Theseus
+drew himself away, and then he saw it searching around and
+around, and he knew he had made it sightless. Then it faced
+him; all the more fearful it was because from its wounds no
+blood came.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Anger flowed into Theseus when he saw the monster standing
+frightfully before him; he thought of all the youths and maidens
+that this bloodless thing had destroyed, and all the youths and
+maidens that it would destroy if he did not slay it now. Angrily
+he rushed upon it with his great sword. It clawed and
+tore him, and it opened wide its most evil mouth as if to draw
+him into it. But again he sprang at it; he thrust his great sword
+through its neck, and he left his sword there.
+<pb n="216"/>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> With the last of his strength he pulled open the heavy door
+and he went out from the hall where the Minotaur was. He
+picked up the thread and he began to wind it as he had wound
+the other thread on his way down. On he went, through passage
+after passage, through chamber after chamber. His mind
+was dizzy, and he had little thought for the way he was going.
+His wounds and the chill that the monster had breathed into
+him and his horror of the fearful and bloodless thing made his
+mind almost forsake him. He kept the thread in his hand and
+he wound it as he went on through the labyrinth. He stumbled
+and the thread broke. He went on for a few steps and
+then he went back to find the thread that had fallen out of his
+hands. In an instant he was in a part of the labyrinth that
+he had not been in before.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> He walked a long way, and then he came on his own footmarks
+as they crossed themselves in the dust. He pushed open
+a door and came into the air. He was now by the outside wall
+of the palace, and he saw birds flying by him. He leant against
+the wall of the palace, thinking that he would strive no more
+to find his way through the labyrinth.
+</p><milestone unit="tb"/><p rend="font-size: 120%">V</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> That day the youths and maidens of Athens were brought
+through the labyrinth and to the hall where the Minotaur was.
+They went through the passages weeping and lamenting. Some
+cried out for Theseus, and some said that Theseus had deserted
+<pb n="217"/>
+them. The heavy door was opened. Then those who were
+with the youths and maidens saw the Minotaur lying stark and
+stiff with Theseus’s sword through its neck. They shouted and
+blew trumpets and the noise of their trumpets filled the labyrinth.
+Then they turned back, bringing the youths and maidens
+with them, and a whisper went through the whole palace that
+the Minotaur had been slain. The youths and maidens were
+lodged in the chamber where Minos gave his judgments.
+</p><milestone unit="tb"/><p rend="font-size: 120%">VI</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Theseus, wearied and overcome, fell into a deep sleep by the
+wall of the palace. He awakened with a feeling that the claw
+of the Minotaur was upon him. There were stars in the sky
+above the high palace wall, and he saw a dark-robed and ancient
+man standing beside him. Theseus knew that this was
+Dædalus, the builder of the palace and the labyrinth. Dædalus
+called and a slim youth came—Icarus, the son of Dædalus.
+Minos had set father and son apart from the rest of the palace,
+and Theseus had come near the place where they were confined.
+Icarus came and brought him to a winding stairway and
+showed him a way to go.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> A dark-faced servant met and looked him full in the face.
+Then, as if he knew that Theseus was the one whom he had
+been searching for, he led him into a little chamber where there
+were three maidens. One started up and came to him quickly,
+and Theseus again saw Ariadne.
+<pb n="218"/>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> She hid him in the chamber of the palace where her singing
+birds were, and she would come and sit beside him, asking about
+his own country and telling him that she would go with him
+there. <q>I showed you how you might come to the Minotaur,</q>
+she said, <q>and you went there and you slew the monster, and
+now I may not stay in my father’s palace.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> And Theseus thought all the time of his return, and of how
+he might bring the youths and maidens of Athens back to their
+own people. For Ariadne, that strange princess, was not dear
+to him as Medea was dear to Jason, or Atalanta the Huntress to
+young Meleagrus.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> One sunset she led him to a roof of the palace and she showed
+him the harbor with the ships, and she showed him the ship
+with the black sail that had brought him to Knossos. She told
+him she would take him aboard that ship, and that the youths
+and maidens of Athens could go with them. She would bring
+to the master of the ship the seal of King Minos, and the master,
+seeing it, would set sail for whatever place Theseus desired to go.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Then did she become dear to Theseus because of her great
+kindness, and he kissed her eyes and swore that he would
+not go from the palace unless she would come with him to his
+own country. The strange princess smiled and wept as if she
+doubted what he said. Nevertheless, she led him from the roof
+and down into one of the palace gardens. He waited there,
+and the youths and maidens of Athens were led into the garden,
+all wearing cloaks that hid their forms and faces. Young Icarus
+<pb n="219"/>
+led them from the grounds of the palace and down to the ships.
+And Ariadne went with them, bringing with her the seal of her
+father, King Minos.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> And when they came on board of the black-sailed ship they
+showed the seal to the master, Nausitheus, and the master of
+the ship let the sail take the breeze of the evening, and so
+Theseus went away from Crete.
+</p><milestone unit="tb"/><p rend="font-size: 120%">VII</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> To the Island of Naxos they sailed. And when they reached
+that place the master of the ship, thinking that what had been
+done was not in accordance with the will of King Minos, stayed
+the ship there. He waited until other ships came from Knossos.
+And when they came they brought word that Minos would
+not slay nor demand back Theseus nor the youths and maidens
+of Athens. His daughter, Ariadne, he would have back, to
+reign with him over Crete.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Then Ariadne left the black-sailed ship, and went back to
+Crete from Naxos. Theseus let the princess go, although he
+might have struggled to hold her. But more strange than dear
+did Ariadne remain to Theseus.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> And all this time his father, Ægeus, stayed on the tower of
+his palace, watching for the return of the ship that had sailed
+for Knossos. The life of the king wasted since the departure
+of Theseus, and now it was but a thread. Every day he watched
+for the return of the ship, hoping against hope that Theseus
+<pb n="220"/>
+would return alive to him. Then a ship came into the harbor.
+It had black sails. Ægeus did not know that Theseus was
+aboard of it, and that Theseus in the hurry of his flight and
+in the sadness of his parting from Ariadne had not thought of
+taking out the white sail that his father had given to Nausitheus.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Joyously Theseus sailed into the harbor, having slain the
+Minotaur and lifted for ever the tribute put upon Athens.
+Joyously he sailed into the harbor, bringing back to their parents
+the youths and maidens of Athens. But the king, his father,
+saw the black sails on his ship, and straightway the thread of
+his life broke, and he died on the roof of the tower which he
+had built to look out on the sea.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Theseus landed on the shore of his own country. He had
+the ship drawn up on the beach and he made sacrifices of thanksgiving
+to the gods. Then he sent messengers to the city to announce
+his return. They went toward the city, these joyful
+messengers, but when they came to the gate they heard the
+sounds of mourning and lamentation. The mourning and the
+lamentation were for the death of the king, Theseus’s father.
+They hurried back and they came to Theseus where he stood
+on the beach. They brought a wreath of victory for him, but
+as they put it into his hand they told him of the death of his
+father. Then Theseus left the wreath on the ground, and he
+wept for the death of Ægeus—of Ægeus, the hero, who had
+left the sword under the stone for him before he was born.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> The men and women who came to the beach wept and laughed
+
+
+
+<pb n="221"/>
+as they clasped in their arms the children brought back to them.
+And Theseus stood there, silent and bowed; the memory of his
+last moments with his father, of his fight with the Minotaur,
+of his parting with Ariadne—all flowed back upon him. He
+stood there with head bowed, the man who might not put upon
+his brows the wreath of victory that had been brought to him.
+</p>
+<p rend="text-align: center"><figure rend="width: 100%" url="images/i034.png"><anchor id="i034.png"/><index index="fig"/><head/><figDesc>Illustration</figDesc></figure></p>
+<milestone unit="tb"/><p rend="font-size: 120%">VIII</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> There had come into the city a youth of great valor whose
+name was Peirithous: from a far country he had come, filled
+with a desire of meeting Theseus, whose fame had come to him.
+The youth was in Athens at the time Theseus returned. He
+went down to the beach with the townsfolk, and he saw Theseus
+standing alone with his head bowed down. He went to him and
+he spoke, and Theseus lifted his head and he saw before him
+a young man of strength and beauty. He looked upon him,
+and the thought of high deeds came into his mind again. He
+wanted this young man to be his comrade in dangers and upon
+quests. And Peirithous looked upon Theseus, and he felt that
+he was greater and nobler than he had thought. They became
+friends and sworn brothers, and together they went into far
+countries.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Now there was in Epirus a savage king who had a very fair
+daughter. He had named this daughter Persephone, naming her
+thus to show that she was held as fast by him as that other Persephone
+was held who ruled in the Underworld. No man might
+<pb n="222"/>
+see her, and no man might wed her. But Peirithous had seen the
+daughter of this king, and he desired above all things to take
+her from her father and make her his wife. He begged Theseus
+to help him enter that king’s palace and carry off the maiden.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> So they came to Epirus, Theseus and Peirithous, and they
+entered the king’s palace, and they heard the bay of the dread
+hound that was there to let no one out who had once come
+within the walls. Suddenly the guards of the savage king came
+upon them, and they took Theseus and Peirithous and they
+dragged them down into dark dungeons.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Two great chairs of stone were there, and Theseus and Peirithous
+were left seated in them. And the magic powers that
+were in the chairs of stone were such that the heroes could not
+lift themselves out of them. There they stayed, held in the
+great stone chairs in the dungeons of that savage king.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Then it so happened that Heracles came into the palace of
+the king. The harsh king feasted Heracles and abated his
+savagery before him. But he could not forbear boasting of how
+he had trapped the heroes who had come to carry off Persephone.
+And he told how they could not get out of the stone chairs and
+how they were held captive in his dark dungeon. Heracles listened,
+his heart full of pity for the heroes from Greece who
+had met with such a harsh fate. And when the king mentioned
+that one of the heroes was Theseus, Heracles would feast no
+more with him until he had promised that the one who had
+been his comrade on the <emph>Argo</emph> would be let go.
+<pb n="223"/>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> The king said he would give Theseus his liberty if Heracles
+would carry the stone chair on which he was seated out of the
+dungeon and into the outer world. Then Heracles went down
+into the dungeon. He found the two heroes in the great chairs
+of stone. But one of them, Peirithous, no longer breathed.
+Heracles took the great chair of stone that Theseus was seated
+in, and he carried it up, up, from the dungeon and out into the
+world. It was a heavy task even for Heracles. He broke the
+chair in pieces, and Theseus stood up, released.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Thereafter the world was before Theseus. He went with Heracles,
+and in the deeds that Heracles was afterward to accomplish
+Theseus shared.
+</p></div><div><index index="toc"/><index index='pdf'/><head>IV. The Life and Labors of Heracles</head><p rend="font-size: 120%">I</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <figure rend="float: left; margin-top: 0em; margin-bottom: 0em; x-class: deco-letter;" url="images/capH.png"><figDesc>Decorative first letter</figDesc></figure><hi rend="font-variant: small-caps; color:white; margin-left: -1em">H</hi>ERACLES was the son of Zeus, but he
+was born into the family of a mortal king.
+When he was still a youth, being overwhelmed
+by a madness sent upon him by
+one of the goddesses, he slew the children
+of his brother Iphicles. Then, coming to
+know what he had done, sleep and rest
+went from him: he went to Delphi, to the shrine of Apollo, to
+be purified of his crime.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> At Delphi, at the shrine of Apollo, the priestess purified him,
+<pb n="224"/>
+and when she had purified him she uttered this prophecy: <q>From
+this day forth thy name shall be, not Alcides, but Heracles.
+Thou shalt go to Eurystheus, thy cousin, in Mycenæ, and
+serve him in all things. When the labors he shall lay upon
+thee are accomplished, and when the rest of thy life is lived
+out, thou shalt become one of the immortals.</q> Heracles, on
+hearing these words, set out for Mycenæ.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> He stood before his cousin who hated him; he, a towering
+man, stood before a king who sat there weak and trembling.
+And Heracles said, <q>I have come to take up the labors that
+you will lay upon me; speak now, Eurystheus, and tell me what
+you would have me do.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Eurystheus, that weak king, looking on the young man who
+stood as tall and as firm as one of the immortals, had a heart
+that was filled with hatred. He lifted up his head and he said
+with a frown:
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q>There is a lion in Nemea that is stronger and more fierce
+than any lion known before. Kill that lion, and bring the lion’s
+skin to me that I may know that you have truly performed
+your task.</q> So Eurystheus said, and Heracles, with neither
+shield nor arms, went forth from the king’s palace to seek and
+to combat the dread lion of Nemea.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> He went on until he came into a country where the fences
+were overthrown and the fields wasted and the houses empty
+and fallen. He went on until he came to the waste around that
+land: there he came on the trail of the lion; it led up the side
+
+
+
+<pb n="225"/>
+of a mountain, and Heracles, without shield or arms, followed
+the trail.
+</p>
+<p rend="text-align: center"><figure rend="width: 100%" url="images/i035.png"><anchor id="i035.png"/><index index="fig"/><head/><figDesc>Illustration</figDesc></figure></p>
+<p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> He heard the roar of the lion. Looking up he saw the beast
+standing at the mouth of a cavern, huge and dark against the
+sunset. The lion roared three times, and then it went within
+the cavern.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Around the mouth were strewn the bones of creatures it had
+killed and carried there. Heracles looked upon them when he
+came to the cavern. He went within. Far into the cavern he
+went, and then he came to where he saw the lion. It was sleeping.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Heracles viewed the terrible bulk of the lion, and then he
+looked upon his own knotted hands and arms. He remembered
+that it was told of him that, while still a child of eight
+months, he had strangled a great serpent that had come to
+his cradle to devour him. He had grown and his strength had
+grown too.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> So he stood, measuring his strength and the size of the lion.
+The breath from its mouth and nostrils came heavily to him
+as the beast slept, gorged with its prey. Then the lion yawned.
+Heracles sprang on it and put his great hands upon its throat.
+No growl came out of its mouth, but the great eyes blazed
+while the terrible paws tore at Heracles. Against the rock Heracles
+held the beast; strongly he held it, choking it through
+the skin that was almost impenetrable. Terribly the lion struggled;
+but the strong hands of the hero held around its throat
+until it struggled no more.
+<pb n="226"/>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Then Heracles stripped off that impenetrable skin from the
+lion’s body; he put it upon himself for a cloak. Then, as he
+went through the forest, he pulled up a young oak tree and
+trimmed it and made a club for himself. With the lion’s skin
+over him—that skin that no spear or arrow could pierce—and
+carrying the club in his hand he journeyed on until he came
+to the palace of King Eurystheus.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> The king, seeing coming toward him a towering man all
+covered with the hide of a monstrous lion, ran and hid himself
+in a great jar. He lifted the lid up to ask the servants what
+was the meaning of this terrible appearance. And the servants
+told him that it was Heracles come back with the skin of
+the lion of Nemea. On hearing this Eurystheus hid himself
+again.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> He would not speak with Heracles nor have him come near
+him, so fearful was he. But Heracles was content to be left
+alone. He sat down in the palace and feasted himself.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> The servants came to the king; Eurystheus lifted the lid of
+the jar and they told him how Heracles was feasting and devouring
+all the goods in the palace. The king flew into a rage,
+but still he was fearful of having the hero before him. He issued
+commands through his heralds ordering Heracles to go
+forth at once and perform the second of his tasks.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> It was to slay the great water snake that made its lair in the
+swamps of Lerna. Heracles stayed to feast another day, and
+then, with the lion’s skin across his shoulders and the great
+
+
+
+<pb n="227"/>
+club in his hands, he started off. But this time he did not go
+alone; the boy Iolaus went with him.
+</p>
+<p rend="text-align: center"><figure rend="width: 100%" url="images/i036.png"><anchor id="i036.png"/><index index="fig"/><head/><figDesc>Illustration</figDesc></figure></p>
+<milestone unit="tb"/><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Heracles and Iolaus went on until they came to the vast
+swamp of Lerna. Right in the middle of the swamp was the
+water snake that was called the Hydra. Nine heads it had,
+and it raised them up out of the water as the hero and his companion
+came near. They could not cross the swamp to come
+to the monster, for man or beast would sink and be lost in it.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> The Hydra remained in the middle of the swamp belching
+mud at the hero and his companion. Then Heracles took up
+his bow and he shot flaming arrows at its heads. It grew into
+such a rage that it came through the swamp to attack him.
+Heracles swung his club. As the Hydra came near he knocked
+head after head off its body.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> But for every head knocked off two grew upon the Hydra.
+And as he struggled with the monster a huge crab came out of
+the swamp, and gripping Heracles by the foot tried to draw him
+in. Then Heracles cried out. The boy Iolaus came; he killed
+the crab that had come to the Hydra’s aid.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Then Heracles laid hands upon the Hydra and drew it out
+of the swamp. With his club he knocked off a head and he
+had Iolaus put fire to where it had been, so that two heads
+might not grow in that place. The life of the Hydra was in
+its middle head; that head he had not been able to knock off
+with his club. Now, with his hands he tore it off, and he placed
+<pb n="228"/>
+this head under a great stone so that it could not rise into life
+again. The Hydra’s life was now destroyed. Heracles dipped
+his arrows into the gall of the monster, making his arrows
+deadly; no thing that was struck by these arrows afterward
+could keep its life.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Again he came to Eurystheus’s palace, and Eurystheus, seeing
+him, ran again and hid himself in the jar. Heracles ordered
+the servants to tell the king that he had returned and that
+the second labor was accomplished.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Eurystheus, hearing from the servants that Heracles was
+mild in his ways, came out of the jar. Insolently he spoke.
+<q>Twelve labors you have to accomplish for me,</q> said he to Heracles,
+<q>and eleven yet remain to be accomplished.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q>How?</q> said Heracles. <q>Have I not performed two of the
+labors? Have I not slain the lion of Nemea and the great
+water snake of Lerna?</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q>In the killing of the water snake you were helped by Iolaus,</q>
+said the king, snapping out his words and looking at Heracles
+with shifting eyes. <q>That labor cannot be allowed you.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Heracles would have struck him to the ground. But then
+he remembered that the crime that he had committed in his
+madness would have to be expiated by labors performed at the
+order of this man. He looked full upon Eurystheus and he said,
+<q>Tell me of the other labors, and I will go forth from Mycenæ
+and accomplish them.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Then Eurystheus bade him go and make clean the stables of
+<pb n="229"/>
+King Augeias. Heracles came into that king’s country. The
+smell from the stables was felt for miles around. Countless
+herds of cattle and goats had been in the stables for years, and
+because of the uncleanness and the smell that came from it the
+crops were withered all around. Heracles told the king that he
+would clean the stables if he were given one tenth of the cattle
+and the goats for a reward.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> The king agreed to this reward. Then Heracles drove the
+cattle and the goats out of the stables; he broke through the
+foundations and he made channels for the two rivers Alpheus
+and Peneius. The waters flowed through the stables, and in
+a day all the uncleanness was washed away. Then Heracles
+turned the rivers back into their own courses.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> He was not given the reward he had bargained for, however.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> He went back to Mycenæ with the tale of how he had
+cleaned the stables. <q>Ten labors remain for me to do now,</q>
+he said.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q>Eleven,</q> said Eurystheus. <q>How can I allow the cleaning
+of King Augeias’s stables to you when you bargained for a
+reward for doing it?</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Then while Heracles stood still, holding himself back from
+striking him, Eurystheus ran away and hid himself in the jar.
+Through his heralds he sent word to Heracles, telling him what
+the other labors would be.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> He was to clear the marshes of Stymphalus of the man-eating
+birds that gathered there; he was to capture and bring
+<pb n="230"/>
+to the king the golden-horned deer of Coryneia; he was also
+to capture and bring alive to Mycenæ the boar of Erymanthus.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Heracles came to the marshes of Stymphalus. The growth
+of jungle was so dense that he could not cut his way through
+to where the man-eating birds were; they sat upon low bushes
+within the jungle, gorging themselves upon the flesh they had
+carried there.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> For days Heracles tried to hack his way through. He could
+not get to where the birds were. Then, thinking he might not be
+able to accomplish this labor, he sat upon the ground in despair.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> It was then that one of the immortals appeared to him; for
+the first and only time he was given help from the gods.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> It was Athena who came to him. She stood apart from
+Heracles, holding in her hands brazen cymbals. These she
+clashed together. At the sound of this clashing the Stymphalean
+birds rose up from the low bushes behind the jungle. Heracles
+shot at them with those unerring arrows of his. The man-eating
+birds fell, one after the other, into the marsh.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Then Heracles went north to where the Coryneian deer took
+her pasture. So swift of foot was she that no hound nor hunter
+had ever been able to overtake her. For the whole of a year
+Heracles kept Golden Horns in chase, and at last, on the side
+of the Mountain Artemision, he caught her. Artemis, the goddess
+of the wild things, would have punished Heracles for capturing
+the deer, but the hero pleaded with her, and she relented
+and agreed to let him bring the deer to Mycenæ and show her
+<pb n="231"/>
+to King Eurystheus. And Artemis took charge of Golden Horns
+while Heracles went off to capture the Erymanthean boar.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> He came to the city of Psophis, the inhabitants of which
+were in deadly fear because of the ravages of the boar. Heracles
+made his way up the mountain to hunt it. Now on this
+mountain a band of centaurs lived, and they, knowing him
+since the time he had been fostered by Chiron, welcomed Heracles.
+One of them, Pholus, took Heracles to the great house
+where the centaurs had their wine stored.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Seldom did the centaurs drink wine; a draft of it made them
+wild, and so they stored it away, leaving it in the charge of one
+of their band. Heracles begged Pholus to give him a draft of
+wine; after he had begged again and again the centaur opened
+one of his great jars.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Heracles drank wine and spilled it. Then the centaurs that
+were without smelt the wine and came hammering at the door,
+demanding the drafts that would make them wild. Heracles
+came forth to drive them away. They attacked him. Then he
+shot at them with his unerring arrows and he drove them away.
+Up the mountain and away to far rivers the centaurs raced,
+pursued by Heracles with his bow.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> One was slain, Pholus, the centaur who had entertained him.
+By accident Heracles dropped a poisoned arrow on his foot.
+He took the body of Pholus up to the top of the mountain and
+buried the centaur there. Afterward, on the snows of Erymanthus,
+he set a snare for the boar and caught him there.
+<pb n="232"/>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Upon his shoulders he carried the boar to Mycenæ and he
+led the deer by her golden horns. When Eurystheus had looked
+upon them the boar was slain, but the deer was loosed and she
+fled back to the Mountain Artemision.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> King Eurystheus sat hidden in the great jar, and he thought
+of more terrible labors he would make Heracles engage in. Now
+he would send him oversea and make him strive with fierce
+tribes and more dread monsters. When he had it all thought
+out he had Heracles brought before him and he told him of
+these other labors.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> He was to go to savage Thrace and there destroy the man-eating
+horses of King Diomedes; afterward he was to go amongst
+the dread women, the Amazons, daughters of Ares, the god of
+war, and take from their queen, Hippolyte, the girdle that Ares
+had given her; then he was to go to Crete and take from the
+keeping of King Minos the beautiful bull that Poseidon had
+given him; afterward he was to go to the Island of Erytheia and
+take away from Geryoneus, the monster that had three bodies
+instead of one, the herd of red cattle that the two-headed hound
+Orthus kept guard over; then he was to go to the Garden of the
+Hesperides, and from that garden he was to take the golden
+apples that Zeus had given to Hera for a marriage gift—where
+the Garden of the Hesperides was no mortal knew.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> So Heracles set out on a long and perilous quest. First
+he went to Thrace, that savage land that was ruled over by
+Diomedes, son of Ares, the war god. Heracles broke into the
+<pb n="233"/>
+stable where the horses were; he caught three of them by their
+heads, and although they kicked and bit and trampled he forced
+them out of the stable and down to the seashore, where his
+companion, Abderus, waited for him. The screams of the fierce
+horses were heard by the men of Thrace, and they, with their
+king, came after Heracles. He left the horses in charge of
+Abderus while he fought the Thracians and their savage king.
+Heracles shot his deadly arrows amongst them, and then he
+fought with their king. He drove them from the seashore, and
+then he came back to where he had left Abderus with the fierce
+horses.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> They had thrown Abderus upon the ground, and they were
+trampling upon him. Heracles drew his bow and he shot the
+horses with the unerring arrows that were dipped with the gall
+of the Hydra he had slain. Screaming, the horses of King
+Diomedes raced toward the sea, but one fell and another fell,
+and then, as it came to the line of the foam, the third of the
+fierce horses fell. They were all slain with the unerring arrows.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Then Heracles took up the body of his companion and he
+buried it with proper rights, and over it he raised a column.
+Afterward, around that column a city that bore the name of
+Heracles’s friend was built.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Then toward the Euxine Sea he went. There, where the River
+Themiscyra flows into the sea he saw the abodes of the Amazons.
+And upon the rocks and the steep place he saw the warrior
+women standing with drawn bows in their hands. Most dangerous
+<pb n="234"/>
+did they seem to Heracles. He did not know how to
+approach them; he might shoot at them with his unerring arrows,
+but when his arrows were all shot away, the Amazons,
+from their steep places, might be able to kill him with the arrows
+from their bows.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> While he stood at a distance, wondering what he might do,
+a horn was sounded and an Amazon mounted upon a white
+stallion rode toward him. When the warrior-woman came near
+she cried out, <q>Heracles, the Queen Hippolyte permits you to
+come amongst the Amazons. Enter her tent and declare to the
+queen what has brought you amongst the never-conquered
+Amazons.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Heracles came to the tent of the queen. There stood tall
+Hippolyte with an iron crown upon her head and with a beautiful
+girdle of bronze and iridescent glass around her waist.
+Proud and fierce as a mountain eagle looked the queen of the
+Amazons: Heracles did not know in what way he might conquer
+her. Outside the tent the Amazons stood; they struck
+their shields with their spears, keeping up a continuous savage din.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q>For what has Heracles come to the country of the Amazons?</q>
+Queen Hippolyte asked.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q>For the girdle you wear,</q> said Heracles, and he held his
+hands ready for the struggle.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q>Is it for the girdle given me by Ares, the god of war, that
+you have come, braving the Amazons, Heracles?</q> asked the
+queen.
+<pb n="235"/>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q>For that,</q> said Heracles.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q>I would not have you enter into strife with the Amazons,</q>
+said Queen Hippolyte. And so saying she drew off the girdle
+of bronze and iridescent glass, and she gave it into his hands.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Heracles took the beautiful girdle into his hands. Fearful
+he was that some piece of guile was being played upon him, but
+then he looked into the open eyes of the queen and he saw that
+she meant no guile. He took the girdle and he put it around
+his great brows; then he thanked Hippolyte and he went from
+the tent. He saw the Amazons standing on the rocks and the
+steep places with bows bent; unchallenged he went on, and he
+came to his ship and he sailed away from that country with
+one more labor accomplished.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> The labor that followed was not dangerous. He sailed over
+sea and he came to Crete, to the land that King Minos ruled
+over. And there he found, grazing in a special pasture, the
+bull that Poseidon had given King Minos. He laid his hands
+upon the bull’s horns and he struggled with him and he overthrew
+him. Then he drove the bull down to the seashore.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> His next labor was to take away the herd of red cattle that
+was owned by the monster Geryoneus. In the Island of Erytheia,
+in the middle of the Stream of Ocean, lived the monster,
+his herd guarded by the two-headed hound Orthus—that
+hound was the brother of Cerberus, the three-headed hound
+that kept guard in the Underworld.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Mounted upon the bull given Minos by Poseidon, Heracles
+<pb n="236"/>
+fared across the sea. He came even to the straits that divide
+Europe from Africa, and there he set up two pillars as a memorial
+of his journey—the Pillars of Heracles that stand to
+this day. He and the bull rested there. Beyond him stretched
+the Stream of Ocean; the Island of Erytheia was there, but Heracles
+thought that the bull would not be able to bear him so far.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> And there the sun beat upon him, and drew all strength away
+from him, and he was dazed and dazzled by the rays of the
+sun. He shouted out against the sun, and in his anger he
+wanted to strive against the sun. Then he drew his bow and
+shot arrows upward. Far, far out of sight the arrows of Heracles
+went. And the sun god, Helios, was filled with admiration
+for Heracles, the man who would attempt the impossible
+by shooting arrows at him; then did Helios fling down to Heracles
+his great golden cup.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Down, and into the Stream of Ocean fell the great golden
+cup of Helios. It floated there wide enough to hold all the
+men who might be in a ship. Heracles put the bull of Minos
+into the cup of Helios, and the cup bore them away, toward
+the west, and across the Stream of Ocean.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Thus Heracles came to the Island of Erytheia. All over the
+island straggled the red cattle of Geryoneus, grazing upon the
+rich pastures. Heracles, leaving the bull of Minos in the cup,
+went upon the island; he made a club for himself out of a tree
+and he went toward the cattle.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> The hound Orthus bayed and ran toward him; the two-headed
+
+
+
+<pb n="237"/>
+hound that was the brother of Cerberus sprang at Heracles
+with poisonous foam upon his jaws. Heracles swung his
+club and struck the two heads off the hound. And where the
+foam of the hound’s jaws dropped down a poisonous plant
+sprang up. Heracles took up the body of the hound, and
+swung it around and flung it far out into the Ocean.
+</p>
+<p rend="text-align: center"><figure rend="width: 100%" url="images/i037.png"><anchor id="i037.png"/><index index="fig"/><head/><figDesc>Illustration</figDesc></figure></p>
+<p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Then the monster Geryoneus came upon him. Three bodies
+he had instead of one; he attacked Heracles by hurling great
+stones at him. Heracles was hurt by the stones. And then the
+monster beheld the cup of Helios, and he began to hurl stones
+at the golden thing, and it seemed that he might sink it in the
+sea, and leave Heracles without a way of getting from the island.
+Heracles took up his bow and he shot arrow after arrow at the
+monster, and he left him dead in the deep grass of the pastures.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Then he rounded up the red cattle, the bulls and the cows,
+and he drove them down to the shore and into the golden cup
+of Helios where the bull of Minos stayed. Then back across
+the Stream of Ocean the cup floated, and the bull of Crete and
+the cattle of Geryoneus were brought past Sicily and through
+the straits called the Hellespont. To Thrace, that savage land,
+they came. Then Heracles took the cattle out, and the cup of
+Helios sank in the sea. Through the wild lands of Thrace he
+drove the herd of Geryoneus and the bull of Minos, and he
+came into Mycenæ once more.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> But he did not stay to speak with Eurystheus. He started
+off to find the Garden of the Hesperides, the Daughters of the
+<pb n="238"/>
+Evening Land. Long did he search, but he found no one who
+could tell him where the garden was. And at last he went to
+Chiron on the Mountain Pelion, and Chiron told Heracles what
+journey he would have to make to come to the Hesperides, the
+Daughters of the Evening Land.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Far did Heracles journey; weary he was when he came to
+where Atlas stood, bearing the sky upon his weary shoulders.
+As he came near he felt an undreamt-of perfume being wafted
+toward him. So weary was he with his journey and all his
+toils that he would fain sink down and dream away in that
+evening land. But he roused himself, and he journeyed on
+toward where the perfume came from. Over that place a star
+seemed always about to rise.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> He came to where a silver lattice fenced a garden that was full
+of the quiet of evening. Golden bees hummed through the air,
+and there was the sound of quiet waters. How wild and laborious
+was the world he had come from, Heracles thought! He
+felt that it would be hard for him to return to that world.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> He saw three maidens. They stood with wreaths upon their
+heads and blossoming branches in their hands. When the
+maidens saw him they came toward him crying out: <q>O man
+who has come into the Garden of the Hesperides, go not near
+the tree that the sleepless dragon guards!</q> Then they went
+and stood by a tree as if to keep guard over it. All around were
+trees that bore flowers and fruit, but this tree had golden apples
+amongst its bright green leaves.
+<pb n="239"/>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Then he saw the guardian of the tree. Beside its trunk a
+dragon lay, and as Heracles came near the dragon showed its
+glittering scales and its deadly claws.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> The apples were within reach, but the dragon, with its glittering
+scales and claws, stood in the way. Heracles shot an arrow;
+then a tremor went through Ladon, the sleepless dragon; it
+screamed and then lay stark. The maidens cried in their grief;
+Heracles went to the tree, and he plucked the golden apples
+and he put them into the pouch he carried. Down on the
+ground sank the Hesperides, the Daughters of the Evening Land,
+and he heard their laments as he went from the enchanted
+garden they had guarded.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Back from the ends of the earth came Heracles, back from
+the place where Atlas stood holding the sky upon his weary
+shoulders. He went back through Asia and Libya and Egypt,
+and he came again to Mycenæ and to the palace of Eurystheus.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> He brought to the king the herd of Geryoneus; he brought
+to the king the bull of Minos; he brought to the king the girdle
+of Hippolyte; he brought to the king the golden apples of the
+Hesperides. And King Eurystheus, with his thin white face,
+sat upon his royal throne and he looked over all the wonderful
+things that the hero had brought him. Not pleased was Eurystheus;
+rather was he angry that one he hated could win such
+wonderful things.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> He took into his hands the golden apples of the Hesperides.
+But this fruit was not for such as he. An eagle snatched the
+<pb n="240"/>
+branch from his hand, and the eagle flew and flew until it came
+to where the Daughters of the Evening Land wept in their garden.
+There the eagle let fall the branch with the golden apples, and
+the maidens set it back upon the tree, and behold! it grew as
+it had been growing before Heracles plucked it.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> The next day the heralds of Eurystheus came to Heracles
+and they told him of the last labor that he would have to set
+out to accomplish—this time he would have to go down into the
+Underworld, and bring up from King Aidoneus’s realm Cerberus,
+the three-headed hound.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Heracles put upon him the impenetrable lion’s skin and set
+forth once more. This might indeed be the last of his life’s
+labors: Cerberus was not an earthly monster, and he who would
+struggle with Cerberus in the Underworld would have the gods
+of the dead against him.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> But Heracles went on. He journeyed to the cave Tainaron,
+which was an entrance to the Underworld. Far into that
+dismal cave he went, and then down, down, until he came to
+Acheron, that dim river that has beyond it only the people of
+the dead. Cerberus bayed at him from the place where the
+dead cross the river. Knowing that he was no shade, the hound
+sprang at Heracles, but he could neither bite nor tear through
+that impenetrable lion’s skin. Heracles held him by the neck
+of his middle head so that Cerberus was neither able to bite nor
+tear nor bellow.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Then to the brink of Acheron came Persephone, queen of the
+
+
+
+<pb n="241"/>
+Underworld. She declared to Heracles that the gods of the
+dead would not strive against him if he promised to bring Cerberus
+back to the Underworld, carrying the hound downward
+again as he carried him upward.
+</p>
+<p rend="text-align: center"><figure rend="width: 100%" url="images/i038.png"><anchor id="i038.png"/><index index="fig"/><head/><figDesc>Illustration</figDesc></figure></p>
+<p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> This Heracles promised. He turned around and he carried
+Cerberus, his hands around the monster’s neck while foam
+dripped from his jaws. He carried him on and upward toward
+the world of men. Out through a cave that was in the land of
+Trœzen Heracles came, still carrying Cerberus by the neck of
+his middle head.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> From Trœzen to Mycenæ the hero went and men fled before
+him at the sight of the monster that he carried. On he went
+toward the king’s palace. Eurystheus was seated outside his
+palace that day, looking at the great jar that he had often
+hidden in, and thinking to himself that Heracles would never
+appear to affright him again. Then Heracles appeared. He
+called to Eurystheus, and when the king looked up he held
+the hound toward him. The three heads grinned at Eurystheus;
+he gave a cry and scrambled into the jar. But before
+his feet touched the bottom of it Eurystheus was dead of fear.
+The jar rolled over, and Heracles looked upon the body that
+was all twisted with fright. Then he turned around and made
+his way back to the Underworld. On the brink of Acheron
+he loosed Cerberus, and the bellow of the three-headed hound
+was heard again.
+</p><pb n="242"/><milestone unit="tb"/><p rend="font-size: 120%">II</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> It was then that Heracles was given arms by the gods—the
+sword of Hermes, the bow of Apollo, the shield made by
+Hephæstus; it was then that Heracles joined the Argonauts and
+journeyed with them to the edge of the Caucasus, where, slaying
+the vulture that preyed upon Prometheus’s liver, he, at the
+will of Zeus, liberated the Titan. Thereafter Zeus and
+Prometheus were reconciled, and Zeus, that neither might forget
+how much the enmity between them had cost gods and
+men, had a ring made for Prometheus to wear; that ring was
+made out of the fetter that had been upon him, and in it was
+set a fragment of the rock that the Titan had been bound to.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> The Argonauts had now won back to Greece. But before
+he saw any of them he had been in Oichalia, and had seen the
+maiden Iole.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> The king of Oichalia had offered his daughter Iole in marriage
+to the hero who could excel himself and his sons in shooting
+with arrows. Heracles saw Iole, the blue-eyed and childlike
+maiden, and he longed to take her with him to some place
+near the Garden of the Hesperides. And Iole looked on him,
+and he knew that she wondered to see him so tall and so strongly
+knit even as he wondered to see her so childlike and delicate.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Then the contest began. The king and his sons shot wonderfully
+well, and none of the heroes who stood before Heracles
+had a chance of winning. Then Heracles shot his arrows.
+<pb n="243"/>
+No matter how far away they moved the mark, Heracles struck
+it and struck the very center of it. The people wondered who
+this great archer might be. And then a name was guessed at
+and went around—Heracles!
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> When the king heard the name of Heracles he would not let
+him strive in the contest any more. For the maiden Iole would
+not be given as a prize to one who had been mad and whose
+madness might afflict him again. So the king said, speaking
+in judgment in the market place.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Rage came on Heracles when he heard this judgment given.
+He would not let his rage master him lest the madness that
+was spoken of should come with his rage. So he left the city
+of Oichalia declaring to the king and the people that he would
+return.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> It was then that, wandering down to Crete, he heard of the
+Argonauts being near. And afterward he heard of them being in
+Calydon, hunting the boar that ravaged Œneus’s country. To
+Calydon Heracles went. The heroes had departed when he came
+into the country, and all the city was in grief for the deaths
+of Prince Meleagrus and his two uncles.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> On the steps of the temple where Meleagrus and his uncles
+had been brought Heracles saw Deianira, Meleagrus’s sister.
+She was pale with her grief, this tall woman of the mountains;
+she looked like a priestess, but also like a woman who could
+cheer camps of men with her counsel, her bravery, and her good
+companionship; her hair was very dark and she had dark eyes.
+<pb n="244"/>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Straightway she became friends with Heracles; and when
+they saw each other for a while they loved each other. And
+Heracles forgot Iole, the childlike maiden whom he had seen
+in Oichalia.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> He made himself a suitor for Deianira, and those who protected
+her were glad of Heracles’s suit, and they told him they
+would give him the maiden to marry as soon as the mourning
+for Prince Meleagrus and his uncles was over. Heracles stayed
+in Calydon, happy with Deianira, who had so much beauty,
+wisdom, and bravery.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> But then a dreadful thing happened in Calydon; by an accident,
+while using his strength unthinkingly, Heracles killed a
+lad who was related to Deianira. He might not marry her
+now until he had taken punishment for slaying one who was
+close to her in blood.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> As a punishment for the slaying it was judged that Heracles
+should be sold into slavery for three years. At the end of his
+three years’ slavery he could come back to Calydon and wed
+Deianira.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> And so Heracles and Deianira were parted. He was sold as
+a slave in Lydia; the one who bought him was a woman, a
+widow named Omphale. To her house Heracles went, carrying
+his armor and wearing his lion’s skin. And Omphale laughed to
+see this tall man dressed in a lion’s skin coming to her house
+to do a servant’s tasks for her.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> She and all in her house kept up fun with Heracles. They
+<pb n="245"/>
+would set him to do housework, to carry water, and set vessels
+on the tables, and clear the vessels away. Omphale set him to
+spin with a spindle as the women did. And often she would
+put on Heracles’s lion skin and go about dragging his club,
+while he, dressed in woman’s garb, washed dishes and emptied
+pots.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> But he would lose patience with these servant’s tasks, and
+then Omphale would let him go away and perform some great
+exploit. Often he went on long journeys and stayed away for
+long times. It was while he was in slavery to Omphale that
+he liberated Theseus from the dungeon in which he was held
+with Peirithous, and it was while he still was in slavery that he
+made his journey to Troy.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> At Troy he helped to repair for King Laomedon the great
+walls that years before Apollo and Poseidon had built around
+the city. As a reward for this labor he was offered the Princess
+Hesione in marriage; she was the daughter of King Laomedon,
+and the sister of Priam, who was then called, not Priam but
+Podarces. He helped to repair the wall, and two of the Argonauts
+were there to aid him: one was Peleus and the other was
+Telamon. Peleus did not stay for long: Telamon stayed, and
+to reward Telamon Heracles withdrew his own claim for the
+hand of the Princess Hesione. It was not hard on Heracles to
+do this, for his thoughts were ever upon Deianira.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> But Telamon rejoiced, for he loved Hesione greatly. On the
+day they married Heracles showed the two an eagle in the sky.
+<pb n="246"/>
+He said it was sent as an omen to them—an omen for their
+marriage. And in memory of that omen Telamon named his
+son <q>Aias</q>; that is, <q>Eagle.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Then the walls of Troy were repaired and Heracles turned
+toward Lydia, Omphale’s home. Not long would he have to
+serve Omphale now, for his three years’ slavery was nearly
+over. Soon he would go back to Calydon and wed Deianira.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> As he went along the road to Lydia he thought of all the
+pleasantries that had been made in Omphale’s house and he
+laughed at the memory of them. Lydia was a friendly country,
+and even though he had been in slavery Heracles had had his
+good times there.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> He was tired with the journey and made sleepy with the heat
+of the sun, and when he came within sight of Omphale’s house
+he lay down by the side of the road, first taking off his armor,
+and laying aside his bow, his quiver, and his shield. He wakened
+up to see two men looking down upon him; he knew that
+these were the Cercopes, robbers who waylaid travelers upon
+this road. They were laughing as they looked down on him,
+and Heracles saw that they held his arms and his armor in
+their hands.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> They thought that this man, for all his tallness, would yield
+to them when he saw that they had his arms and his armor.
+But Heracles sprang up, and he caught one by the waist and
+the other by the neck, and he turned them upside down and
+tied them together by the heels. Now he held them securely
+<pb n="247"/>
+and he would take them to the town and give them over to
+those whom they had waylaid and robbed. He hung them by
+their heels across his shoulders and marched on.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> But the robbers, as they were being bumped along, began
+to relate pleasantries and mirthful tales to each other, and Heracles,
+listening, had to laugh. And one said to the other, <q>O
+my brother, we are in the position of the frogs when the mice
+fell upon them with such fury.</q> And the other said, <q>Indeed
+nothing can save us if Zeus does not send an ally to us as he
+sent an ally to the frogs.</q> And the first robber said, <q>Who
+began that conflict, the frogs or the mice?</q> And thereupon
+the second robber, his head reaching down to Heracles’s waist,
+began:
+</p><div><index index="toc"/><index index='pdf'/><head>The Battle of the Frogs and Mice</head><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> A warlike mouse came down to the brink of a pond for no
+other reason than to take a drink of water. Up to him hopped
+a frog. Speaking in the voice of one who had rule and authority,
+the frog said:
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q>Stranger to our shore, you may not know it, but I am Puff
+Jaw, king of the frogs. I do not speak to common mice, but
+you, as I judge, belong to the noble and kingly sort. Tell me
+your race. If I know it to be a noble one I shall show you my
+kingly friendship.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> The mouse, speaking haughtily, said: <q>I am Crumb Snatcher,
+and my race is a famous one. My father is the heroic Bread
+<pb n="248"/>
+Nibbler, and he married Quern Licker, the lovely daughter of a
+king. Like all my race I am a warrior who has never been
+wont to flinch in battle. Moreover, I have been brought up
+as a mouse of high degree, and figs and nuts, cheese and honey-cakes
+is the provender that I have been fed on.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Now this reply of Crumb Snatcher pleased the kingly frog
+greatly. <q>Come with me to my abode, illustrious Crumb
+Snatcher,</q> said he, <q>and I shall show you such entertainment
+as may be found in the house of a king.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> But the mouse looked sharply at him. <q>How may I get
+to your house?</q> he asked. <q>We live in different elements,
+you and I. We mice want to be in the driest of dry places,
+while you frogs have your abodes in the water.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q>Ah,</q> answered Puff Jaw, <q>you do not know how favored
+the frogs are above all other creatures. To us alone the gods
+have given the power to live both in the water and on the land.
+I shall take you to my land palace that is the other side of the
+pond.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q>How may I go there with you?</q> asked Crumb Snatcher the
+mouse, doubtfully.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q>Upon my back,</q> said the frog. <q>Up now, noble Crumb
+Snatcher. And as we go I will show you the wonders of the
+deep.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> He offered his back and Crumb Snatcher bravely mounted.
+The mouse put his forepaws around the frog’s neck. Then
+Puff Jaw swam out. Crumb Snatcher at first was pleased to
+<pb n="249"/>
+feel himself moving through the water. But as the dark waves
+began to rise his mighty heart began to quail. He longed to
+be back upon the land. He groaned aloud.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q>How quickly we get on,</q> cried Puff Jaw; <q>soon we shall be
+at my land palace.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Heartened by this speech, Crumb Snatcher put his tail into
+the water and worked it as a steering oar. On and on they
+went, and Crumb Snatcher gained heart for the adventure.
+What a wonderful tale he would have to tell to the clans of the
+mice!
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> But suddenly, out of the depths of the pond, a water snake
+raised his horrid head. Fearsome did that head seem to both
+mouse and frog. And forgetful of the guest that he carried
+upon his back, Puff Jaw dived down into the water. He reached
+the bottom of the pond and lay on the mud in safety.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> But far from safety was Crumb Snatcher the mouse. He
+sank and rose, and sank again. His wet fur weighed him down.
+But before he sank for the last time he lifted up his voice and
+cried out and his cry was heard at the brink of the pond:
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q>Ah, Puff Jaw, treacherous frog! An evil thing you have done,
+leaving me to drown in the middle of the pond. Had you faced
+me on the land I should have shown you which of us two was
+the better warrior. Now I must lose my life in the water. But
+I tell you my death shall not go unavenged—the cowardly
+frogs will be punished for the ill they have done to me who am
+the son of the king of the mice.</q>
+<pb n="250"/>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Then Crumb Snatcher sank for the last time. But Lick
+Platter, who was at the brink of the pond, had heard his words.
+Straightway this mouse rushed to the hole of Bread Nibbler
+and told him of the death of his princely son.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Bread Nibbler called out the clans of the mice. The warrior
+mice armed themselves, and this was the grand way of
+their arming:
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> First, the mice put on greaves that covered their forelegs.
+These they made out of bean shells broken in two. For shield,
+each had a lamp’s centerpiece. For spears they had the long
+bronze needles that they had carried out of the houses of men.
+So armed and so accoutered they were ready to war upon the
+frogs. And Bread Nibbler, their king, shouted to them: <q>Fall
+upon the cowardly frogs, and leave not one alive upon the bank
+of the pond. Henceforth that bank is ours, and ours only.
+Forward!</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> And, on the other side, Puff Jaw was urging the frogs to
+battle. <q>Let us take our places on the edge of the pond,</q> he
+said, <q>and when the mice come amongst us, let each catch hold
+of one and throw him into the pond. Thus we will get rid of
+these dry bobs, the mice.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> The frogs applauded the speech of their king, and straightway
+they went to their armor and their weapons. Their legs
+they covered with the leaves of mallow. For breastplates they
+had the leaves of beets. Cabbage leaves, well cut, made their
+strong shields. They took their spears from the pond side—deadly
+<pb n="251"/>
+pointed rushes they were, and they placed upon their
+heads helmets that were empty snail shells. So armed and so
+accoutered they were ready to meet the grand attack of the mice.
+</p><milestone unit="tb"/><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> When the robber came to this part of the story Heracles
+halted his march, for he was shaking with laughter. The robber
+stopped in his story. Heracles slapped him on the leg and
+said: <q>What more of the heroic exploits of the mice?</q> The
+second robber said, <q>I know no more, but perhaps my brother
+at the other side of you can tell you of the mighty combat between
+them and the frogs.</q> Then Heracles shifted the first
+robber from his back to his front, and the first robber said:
+<q>I will tell you what I know about the heroical combat between
+the frogs and the mice.</q> And thereupon he began:
+</p><milestone unit="tb"/><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> The gnats blew their trumpets. This was the dread signal
+for war.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Bread Nibbler struck the first blow. He fell upon Loud
+Crier the frog, and overthrew him. At this Loud Crier’s friend,
+Reedy, threw down spear and shield and dived into the water.
+This seemed to presage victory for the mice. But then Water
+Larker, the most warlike of the frogs, took up a great pebble and
+flung it at Ham Nibbler who was then pursuing Reedy. Down
+fell Ham Nibbler, and there was dismay in the ranks of the
+mice.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Then Cabbage Climber, a great-hearted frog, took up a clod
+<pb n="252"/>
+of mud and flung it full at a mouse that was coming furiously
+upon him. That mouse’s helmet was knocked off and his forehead
+was plastered with the clod of mud, so that he was well-nigh
+blinded.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> It was then that victory inclined to the frogs. Bread Nibbler
+again came into the fray. He rushed furiously upon Puff Jaw
+the king.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Leeky, the trusted friend of Puff Jaw, opposed Bread Nibbler’s
+onslaught. Mightily he drove his spear at the king of the mice.
+But the point of the spear broke upon Bread Nibbler’s shield,
+and then Leeky was overthrown.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Bread Nibbler came upon Puff Jaw, and the two great
+kings faced each other. The frogs and the mice drew aside,
+and there was a pause in the combat. Bread Nibbler the
+mouse struck Puff Jaw the frog terribly upon the toes.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Puff Jaw drew out of the battle. Now all would have been
+lost for the frogs had not Zeus, the father of the gods, looked
+down upon the battle.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q>Dear, dear,</q> said Zeus, <q>what can be done to save the
+frogs? They will surely be annihilated if the charge of yonder
+mouse is not halted.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> For the father of the gods, looking down, saw a warrior mouse
+coming on in the most dreadful onslaught of the whole battle.
+Slice Snatcher was the name of this warrior. He had come late
+into the field. He waited to split a chestnut in two and to put
+the halves upon his paws. Then, furiously dashing amongst
+<pb n="253"/>
+the frogs, he cried out that he would not leave the ground until
+he had destroyed the race, leaving the bank of the pond a playground
+for the mice and for the mice alone.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> To stop the charge of Slice Snatcher there was nothing for
+Zeus to do but to hurl the thunderbolt that is the terror of
+gods and men.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Frogs and mice were awed by the thunder and the flame.
+But still the mice, urged on by Slice Snatcher, did not hold
+back from their onslaught upon the frogs.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Now would the frogs have been utterly destroyed; but, as
+they dashed on, the mice encountered a new and a dreadful
+army. The warriors in these ranks had mailed backs and curving
+claws. They had bandy legs and long-stretching arms.
+They had eyes that looked behind them. They came on sideways.
+These were the crabs, creatures until now unknown to
+the mice. And the crabs had been sent by Zeus to save the
+race of the frogs from utter destruction.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Coming upon the mice they nipped their paws. The mice
+turned around and they nipped their tails. In vain the boldest
+of the mice struck at the crabs with their sharpened spears.
+Not upon the hard shells on the backs of the crabs did the
+spears of the mice make any dint. On and on, on their queer
+feet and with their terrible nippers, the crabs went. Bread
+Nibbler could not rally them any more, and Slice Snatcher
+ceased to speak of the monument of victory that the mice
+would erect upon the bank of the pond.
+<pb n="254"/>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> With their heads out of the water they had retreated to, the
+frogs watched the finish of the battle. The mice threw down
+their spears and shields and fled from the battleground. On
+went the crabs as if they cared nothing for their victory, and
+the frogs came out of the water and sat upon the bank and
+watched them in awe.
+</p><milestone unit="tb"/><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Heracles had laughed at the diverting tale that the robbers
+had told him; he could not bring them then to a place where
+they would meet with captivity or death. He let them loose
+upon the highway, and the robbers thanked him with high-flowing
+speeches, and they declared that if they should ever
+find him sleeping by the roadway again they would let him lie.
+Saying this they went away, and Heracles, laughing as he
+thought upon the great exploits of the frogs and mice, went on
+to Omphale’s house.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Omphale, the widow, received him mirthfully, and then set
+him to do tasks in the kitchen while she sat and talked to him
+about Troy and the affairs of King Laomedon. And afterward
+she put on his lion’s skin, and went about in the courtyard dragging
+the heavy club after her. Mirthfully and pleasantly she
+made the rest of his time in Lydia pass for Heracles, and the
+last day of his slavery soon came, and he bade good-by to
+Omphale, that pleasant widow, and to Lydia, and he started
+off for Calydon to claim his bride Deianira.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Beautiful indeed Deianira looked now that she had ceased to
+<pb n="255"/>
+mourn for her brother, for the laughter that had been under her
+grief always now flashed out even while she looked priestesslike
+and of good counsel; her dark eyes shone like stars, and her
+being had the spirit of one who wanders from camp to camp,
+always greeting friends and leaving friends behind her. Heracles
+and Deianira wed, and they set out for Tiryns, where a
+king had left a kingdom to Heracles.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> They came to the River Evenus. Heracles could have crossed
+the river by himself, but he could not cross it at the part he
+came to, carrying Deianira. He and she went along the river,
+seeking a ferry that might take them across. They wandered
+along the side of the river, happy with each other, and they
+came to a place where they had sight of a centaur.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Heracles knew this centaur. He was Nessus, one of the
+centaurs whom he had chased up the mountain the time when
+he went to hunt the Erymanthean boar. The centaurs knew
+him, and Nessus spoke to Heracles as if he had friendship for
+him. He would, he said, carry Heracles’s bride across the
+river.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Then Heracles crossed the river, and he waited on the other
+side for Nessus and Deianira. Nessus went to another part of
+the river to make his crossing. Then Heracles, upon the other
+bank, heard screams—the screams of his wife, Deianira. He
+saw that the centaur was savagely attacking her.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Then Heracles leveled his bow and he shot at Nessus. Arrow
+after arrow he shot into the centaur’s body. Nessus loosed his
+<pb n="256"/>
+hold on Deianira, and he lay down on the bank of the river, his
+lifeblood streaming from him.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Then Nessus, dying, but with his rage against Heracles unabated,
+thought of a way by which the hero might be made to
+suffer for the death he had brought upon him. He called to
+Deianira, and she, seeing he could do her no more hurt, came
+close to him. He told her that in repentance for his attack
+upon her he would bestow a great gift upon her. She was to
+gather up some of the blood that flowed from him; his blood, the
+centaur said, would be a love philter, and if ever her husband’s
+love for her waned it would grow fresh again if she gave to him
+something from her hands that would have this blood upon it.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Deianira, who had heard from Heracles of the wisdom of the
+centaurs, believed what Nessus told her. She took a phial and
+let the blood pour into it. Then Nessus plunged into the river
+and died there as Heracles came up to where Deianira stood.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> She did not speak to him about the centaur’s words to her,
+nor did she tell him that she had hidden away the phial that
+had Nessus’s blood in it. They crossed the river at another
+point and they came after a time to Tiryns and to the kingdom
+that had been left to Heracles.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> There Heracles and Deianira lived, and a son who was named
+Hyllos was born to them. And after a time Heracles was led
+into a war with Eurytus—Eurytus who was king of Oichalia.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Word came to Deianira that Oichalia was taken by Heracles,
+and that the king and his daughter Iole were held captive.
+
+
+
+<pb n="257"/>
+Deianira knew that Heracles had once tried to win this maiden
+for his wife, and she feared that the sight of Iole would bring
+his old longing back to him.
+</p>
+<p rend="text-align: center"><figure rend="width: 100%" url="images/i039.png"><anchor id="i039.png"/><index index="fig"/><head/><figDesc>Illustration</figDesc></figure></p>
+<p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> She thought upon the words that Nessus had said to her, and
+even as she thought upon them messengers came from Heracles to
+ask her to send him a robe—a beautifully woven robe that she
+had—that he might wear it while making a sacrifice. Deianira
+took down the robe; through this robe, she thought, the blood
+of the centaur could touch Heracles and his love for her would
+revive. Thinking this she poured Nessus’s blood over the robe.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Heracles was in Oichalia when the messengers returned to
+him. He took the robe that Deianira sent, and he went to a
+mountain that overlooked the sea that he might make the sacrifice
+there. Iole went with him. Then he put on the robe
+that Deianira had sent. When it touched his flesh the robe
+burst into flame. Heracles tried to tear it off, but deeper and
+deeper into his flesh the flames went. They burned and burned
+and none could quench them.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Then Heracles knew that his end was near. He would die
+by fire, and knowing that he piled up a great heap of wood and
+he climbed upon it. There he stayed with the flaming robe
+burning into him, and he begged of those who passed to fire
+the pile that his end might come more quickly.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> None would fire the pile. But at last there came that way
+a young warrior named Philoctetes, and Heracles begged of him
+to fire the pile. Philoctetes, knowing that it was the will of
+<pb n="258"/>
+the gods that Heracles should die that way, lighted the pile.
+For that Heracles bestowed upon him his great bow and his
+unerring arrows. And it was this bow and these arrows, brought
+from Philoctetes, that afterward helped to take Priam’s city.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> The pile that Heracles stood upon was fired. High up, above
+the sea, the pile burned. All who were near that burning fled—all
+except Iole, that childlike maiden. She stayed and
+watched the flames mount up and up. They wrapped the sky,
+and the voice of Heracles was heard calling upon Zeus. Then
+a great chariot came and Heracles was borne away to Olympus.
+Thus, after many labors, Heracles passed away, a mortal passing
+into an immortal being in a great burning high above the sea.
+</p></div></div><div><index index="toc"/><index index='pdf'/><head>V. Admetus</head><p rend="font-size: 120%">I</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <figure rend="float: left; margin-top: 0em; margin-bottom: 0em; x-class: deco-letter;" url="images/capI.png"><figDesc>Decorative first letter</figDesc></figure><hi rend="font-variant: small-caps; color:white; margin-left: -1em">I</hi>T happened once that Zeus would punish
+Apollo, his son. Then he banished him
+from Olympus, and he made him put off
+his divinity and appear as a mortal
+man. And as a mortal Apollo sought to
+earn his bread amongst men. He came
+to the house of King Admetus and took
+service with him as his herdsman.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> For a year Apollo served the young king, minding his herds
+<pb n="259"/>
+of black cattle. Admetus did not know that it was one of the
+immortal gods who was in his house and in his fields. But he
+treated him in friendly wise, and Apollo was happy whilst
+serving Admetus.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Afterward people wondered at Admetus’s ever-smiling face
+and ever-radiant being. It was the god’s kindly thought of
+him that gave him such happiness. And when Apollo was leaving
+his house and his fields he revealed himself to Admetus,
+and he made a promise to him that when the god of the Underworld
+sent Death for him he would have one more chance of
+baffling Death than any mortal man.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> That was before Admetus sailed on the <emph>Argo</emph> with Jason and
+the companions of the quest. The companionship of Admetus
+brought happiness to many on the voyage, but the hero to
+whom it gave the most happiness was Heracles. And often
+Heracles would have Admetus beside him to tell him about
+the radiant god Apollo, whose bow and arrows Heracles had
+been given.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> After that voyage and after the hunt in Calydon Admetus
+went back to his own land. There he wed that fair and loving
+woman, Alcestis. He might not wed her until he had yoked
+lions and leopards to the chariot that drew her. This was a
+feat that no hero had been able to accomplish. With Apollo’s
+aid he accomplished it. Thereafter Admetus, having the
+love of Alcestis, was even more happy than he had been
+before.
+<pb n="260"/>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> One day as he walked by fold and through pasture field he
+saw a figure standing beside his herd of black cattle. A radiant
+figure it was, and Admetus knew that this was Apollo come to
+him again. He went toward the god and he made reverence
+and began to speak to him. But Apollo turned to Admetus a
+face that was without joy.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q>What years of happiness have been mine, O Apollo, through
+your friendship for me,</q> said Admetus. <q>Ah, as I walked my
+pasture land to-day it came into my mind how much I loved
+this green earth and the blue sky! And all that I know of love
+and happiness has come to me through you.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> But still Apollo stood before him with a face that was without
+joy. He spoke and his voice was not that clear and vibrant
+voice that he had once in speaking to Admetus. <q>Admetus,
+Admetus,</q> he said, <q>it is for me to tell you that you may no
+more look on the blue sky nor walk upon the green earth. It is
+for me to tell you that the god of the Underworld will have
+you come to him. Admetus, Admetus, know that even now
+the god of the Underworld is sending Death for you.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Then the light of the world went out for Admetus, and he
+heard himself speaking to Apollo in a shaking voice: <q>O Apollo,
+Apollo, thou art a god, and surely thou canst save me! Save
+me now from this Death that the god of the Underworld is
+sending for me!</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> But Apollo said, <q>Long ago, Admetus, I made a bargain with
+the god of the Underworld on thy behalf. Thou hast been
+<pb n="261"/>
+given a chance more than any mortal man. If one will go
+willingly in thy place with Death, thou canst still live on. Go,
+Admetus. Thou art well loved, and it may be that thou wilt
+find one to take thy place.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Then Apollo went up unto the mountaintop and Admetus
+stayed for a while beside the cattle. It seemed to him that a
+little of the darkness had lifted from the world. He would go
+to his palace. There were aged men and women there, servants
+and slaves, and one of them would surely be willing to take
+the king’s place and go with Death down to the Underworld.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> So Admetus thought as he went toward the palace. And
+then he came upon an ancient woman who sat upon stones in
+the courtyard, grinding corn between two stones. Long had
+she been doing that wearisome labor. Admetus had known her
+from the first time he had come into that courtyard as a little
+child, and he had never seen aught in her face but a heavy
+misery. There she was sitting as he had first known her, with
+her eyes bleared and her knees shaking, and with the dust of the
+courtyard and the husks of the corn in her matted hair. He
+went to her and spoke to her, and he asked her to take the
+place of the king and go with Death.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> But when she heard the name of Death horror came into the
+face of the ancient woman, and she cried out that she would
+not let Death come near her. Then Admetus left her, and he
+came upon another, upon a sightless man who held out a shriveled
+hand for the food that the servants of the palace might
+<pb n="262"/>
+bestow upon him. Admetus took the man’s shriveled hand,
+and he asked him if he would not take the king’s place and
+go with Death that was coming for him. The sightless man,
+with howls and shrieks, said he would not go.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Then Admetus went into the palace and into the chamber
+where his bed was, and he lay down upon the bed and he lamented
+that he would have to go with Death that was coming
+for him from the god of the Underworld, and he lamented
+that none of the wretched ones around the palace would take
+his place.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> A hand was laid upon him. He looked up and he saw his tall
+and grave-eyed wife, Alcestis, beside him. Alcestis spoke to
+him slowly and gravely. <q>I have heard what you have said,
+O my husband,</q> said she. <q>One should go in your place, for
+you are the king and have many great affairs to attend to.
+And if none other will go, I, Alcestis, will go in your place,
+Admetus.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> It had seemed to Admetus that ever since he had heard the
+words of Apollo that heavy footsteps were coming toward him.
+Now the footsteps seemed to stop. It was not so terrible for
+him as before. He sprang up, and he took the hands of Alcestis
+and he said, <q>You, then, will take my place?</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q>I will go with Death in your place, Admetus,</q> Alcestis said.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Then, even as Admetus looked into her face, he saw a pallor
+come upon her; her body weakened and she sank down upon
+the bed. Then, watching over her, he knew that not he but
+
+
+
+<pb n="263"/>
+Alcestis would go with Death. And the words he had spoken
+he would have taken back—the words that had brought her
+consent to go with Death in his place.
+</p>
+<p rend="text-align: center"><figure rend="width: 100%" url="images/i040.png"><anchor id="i040.png"/><index index="fig"/><head/><figDesc>Illustration</figDesc></figure></p>
+<p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Paler and weaker Alcestis grew. Death would soon be here
+for her. No, not here, for he would not have Death come into
+the palace. He lifted Alcestis from the bed and he carried her
+from the palace. He carried her to the temple of the gods.
+He laid her there upon the bier and waited there beside her.
+No more speech came from her. He went back to the palace
+where all was silent—the servants moved about with heads
+bowed, lamenting silently for their mistress.
+</p><milestone unit="tb"/><p rend="font-size: 120%">II</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> As Admetus was coming back from the temple he heard a
+great shout; he looked up and saw one standing at the palace
+doorway. He knew him by his lion’s skin and his great height.
+This was Heracles—Heracles come to visit him, but come at a
+sad hour. He could not now rejoice in the company of Heracles.
+And yet Heracles might be on his way from the accomplishment
+of some great labor, and it would not be right to say a
+word that might turn him away from his doorway; he might
+have much need of rest and refreshment.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Thinking this Admetus went up to Heracles and took his
+hand and welcomed him into his house. <q>How is it with you,
+friend Admetus?</q> Heracles asked. Admetus would only say
+<pb n="264"/>
+that nothing was happening in his house and that Heracles, his
+hero-companion, was welcome there. His mind was upon a great
+sacrifice, he said, and so he would not be able to feast with him.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> The servants brought Heracles to the bath, and then showed
+him where a feast was laid for him. And as for Admetus, he
+went within the chamber, and knelt beside the bed on which
+Alcestis had lain, and thought of his terrible loss.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Heracles, after the bath, put on the brightly colored tunic
+that the servants of Admetus brought him. He put a wreath
+upon his head and sat down to the feast. It was a pity, he
+thought, that Admetus was not feasting with him. But this
+was only the first of many feasts. And thinking of what companionship
+he would have with Admetus, Heracles left the
+feasting hall and came to where the servants were standing
+about in silence.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q>Why is the house of Admetus so hushed to-day?</q> Heracles
+asked.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q>It is because of what is befalling,</q> said one of the servants.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q>Ah, the sacrifice that the king is making,</q> said Heracles.
+<q>To what god is that sacrifice due?</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q>To the god of the Underworld,</q> said the servant. <q>Death
+is coming to Alcestis the queen where she lies on a bier in the
+temple of the gods.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Then the servant told Heracles the story of how Alcestis had
+taken her husband’s place, going in his stead with Death. Heracles
+thought upon the sorrow of his friend, and of the great
+
+
+
+<pb n="265"/>
+sacrifice that his wife was making for him. How noble it was
+of Admetus to bring him into his house and give entertainment
+to him while such sorrow was upon him. And then Heracles
+felt that another labor was before him.
+</p>
+<p rend="text-align: center"><figure rend="width: 100%" url="images/i041.png"><anchor id="i041.png"/><index index="fig"/><head/><figDesc>Illustration</figDesc></figure></p>
+<p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q>I have dragged up from the Underworld,</q> he thought,
+<q>the hound that guards those whom Death brings down into
+the realm of the god of the Underworld. Why should I not
+strive with Death? And what a noble thing it would be to
+bring back this faithful woman to her house and to her husband!
+This is a labor that has not been laid upon me, and
+it is a labor I will undertake.</q> So Heracles said to himself.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> He left the palace of Admetus and he went to the temple of
+the gods. He stood inside the temple and he saw the bier on
+which Alcestis was laid. He looked upon the queen. Death
+had not touched her yet, although she lay so still and so silent.
+Heracles would watch beside her and strive with Death for her.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Heracles watched and Death came. When Death entered the
+temple Heracles laid hands upon him. Death had never been
+gripped by mortal hands and he strode on as if that grip meant
+nothing to him. But then he had to grip Heracles. In Death’s
+grip there was a strength beyond strength. And upon Heracles
+a dreadful sense of loss came as Death laid hands upon him—a
+sense of the loss of light and the loss of breath and the loss
+of movement. But Heracles struggled with Death although his
+breath went and his strength seemed to go from him. He held
+that stony body to him, and the cold of that body went through
+<pb n="266"/>
+him, and its stoniness seemed to turn his bones to stone, but
+still Heracles strove with him, and at last he overthrew him
+and he held Death down upon the ground.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q>Now you are held by me, Death,</q> cried Heracles. <q>You are
+held by me, and the god of the Underworld will be made
+angry because you cannot go about his business—either this
+business or any other business. You are held by me, Death,
+and you will not be let go unless you promise to go forth from
+this temple without bringing one with you.</q> And Death,
+knowing that Heracles could hold him there, and that the business
+of the god of the Underworld would be left undone if
+he were held, promised that he would leave the temple without
+bringing one with him. Then Heracles took his grip off Death,
+and that stony shape went from the temple.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Soon a flush came into the face of Alcestis as Heracles watched
+over her. Soon she arose from the bier on which she had been
+laid. She called out to Admetus, and Heracles went to her
+and spoke to her, telling her that he would bring her back to her
+husband’s house.
+</p><milestone unit="tb"/><p rend="font-size: 120%">III</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Admetus left the chamber where his wife had lain and stood
+before the door of his palace. Dawn was coming, and as he
+looked toward the temple he saw Heracles coming to the palace.
+A woman came with him. She was veiled, and Admetus could
+not see her features.
+<pb n="267"/>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q>Admetus,</q> Heracles said, when he came before him, <q>Admetus,
+there is something I would have you do for me. Here is
+a woman whom I am bringing back to her husband. I won
+her from an enemy. Will you not take her into your house
+while I am away on a journey?</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q>You cannot ask me to do this, Heracles,</q> said Admetus.
+<q>No woman may come into the house where Alcestis, only
+yesterday, had her life.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q>For my sake take her into your house,</q> said Heracles.
+<q>Come now, Admetus, take this woman by the hand.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> A pang came to Admetus as he looked at the woman who
+stood beside Heracles and saw that she was the same stature
+as his lost wife. He thought that he could not bear to take
+her hand. But Heracles pleaded with him, and he took her
+by the hand.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q>Now take her across your threshold, Admetus,</q> said Heracles.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Hardly could Admetus bear to do this—hardly could he
+bear to think of a strange woman being in his house and his
+own wife gone with Death. But Heracles pleaded with him,
+and by the hand he held he drew the woman across his threshold.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q>Now raise her veil, Admetus,</q> said Heracles.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q>This I cannot do,</q> said Admetus. <q>I have had pangs
+enough. How can I look upon a woman’s face and remind
+myself that I cannot look upon Alcestis’s face ever again?</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q>Raise her veil, Admetus,</q> said Heracles.
+<pb n="268"/>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Then Admetus raised the veil of the woman he had taken
+across the threshold of his house. He saw the face of Alcestis.
+He looked again upon his wife brought back from the grip of
+Death by Heracles, the son of Zeus. And then a deeper joy
+than he had ever known came to Admetus. Once more his wife
+was with him, and Admetus the friend of Apollo and the friend
+of Heracles had all that he cared to have.
+</p></div><div><index index="toc"/><index index='pdf'/><head>VI. How Orpheus the Minstrel Went Down to the World of the Dead</head><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <figure rend="float: left; margin-top: 0em; margin-bottom: 0em; x-class: deco-letter;" url="images/capM.png"><figDesc>Decorative first letter</figDesc></figure><hi rend="font-variant: small-caps; color:white; margin-left: -1em">M</hi>ANY were the minstrels who, in the early
+days, went through the world, telling to
+men the stories of the gods, telling of their
+wars and their births. Of all these minstrels
+none was so famous as Orpheus
+who had gone with the Argonauts; none
+could tell truer things about the gods, for
+he himself was half divine.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> But a great grief came to Orpheus, a grief that stopped his
+singing and his playing upon the lyre. His young wife Eurydice
+was taken from him. One day, walking in the garden, she was
+bitten on the heel by a serpent, and straightway she went down
+to the world of the dead.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Then everything in this world was dark and bitter for the
+
+
+
+<pb n="269"/>
+minstrel Orpheus; sleep would not come to him, and for him
+food had no taste. Then Orpheus said: <q>I will do that which
+no mortal has ever done before; I will do that which even the
+immortals might shrink from doing: I will go down into the
+world of the dead, and I will bring back to the living and to the
+light my bride Eurydice.</q>
+</p>
+<p rend="text-align: center"><figure rend="width: 100%" url="images/i042.png"><anchor id="i042.png"/><index index="fig"/><head/><figDesc>Illustration</figDesc></figure></p>
+<p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Then Orpheus went on his way to the valley of Acherusia which
+goes down, down into the world of the dead. He would never
+have found his way to that valley if the trees had not shown
+him the way. For as he went along Orpheus played upon his
+lyre and sang, and the trees heard his song and they were moved
+by his grief, and with their arms and their heads they showed
+him the way to the deep, deep valley of Acherusia.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Down, down by winding paths through that deepest and most
+shadowy of all valleys Orpheus went. He came at last to the
+great gate that opens upon the world of the dead. And the
+silent guards who keep watch there for the rulers of the dead
+were affrighted when they saw a living being, and they would
+not let Orpheus approach the gate.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> But the minstrel, knowing the reason for their fear, said:
+<q>I am not Heracles come again to drag up from the world of the
+dead your three-headed dog Cerberus. I am Orpheus, and all
+that my hands can do is to make music upon my lyre.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> And then he took the lyre in his hands and played upon it.
+As he played, the silent watchers gathered around him, leaving
+the gate unguarded. And as he played the rulers of the dead
+<pb n="270"/>
+came forth, Aidoneus and Persephone, and listened to the words
+of the living man.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q>The cause of my coming through the dark and fearful ways,</q>
+sang Orpheus, <q>is to strive to gain a fairer fate for Eurydice,
+my bride. All that is above must come down to you at last,
+O rulers of the most lasting world. But before her time has
+Eurydice been brought here. I have desired strength to endure
+her loss, but I cannot endure it. And I come before you,
+Aidoneus and Persephone, brought here by Love.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> When Orpheus said the name of Love, Persephone, the queen
+of the dead, bowed her young head, and bearded Aidoneus, the
+king, bowed his head also. Persephone remembered how Demeter,
+her mother, had sought her all through the world, and
+she remembered the touch of her mother’s tears upon her face.
+And Aidoneus remembered how his love for Persephone had led
+him to carry her away from the valley in the upper world where
+she had been gathering flowers. He and Persephone bowed
+their heads and stood aside, and Orpheus went through the
+gate and came amongst the dead.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Still upon his lyre he played. Tantalus—who, for his crimes,
+had been condemned to stand up to his neck in water and yet
+never be able to assuage his thirst—Tantalus heard, and for a
+while did not strive to put his lips toward the water that ever
+flowed away from him; Sisyphus—who had been condemned
+to roll up a hill a stone that ever rolled back—Sisyphus heard
+the music that Orpheus played, and for a while he sat still
+<pb n="271"/>
+upon his stone. And even those dread ones who bring to the
+dead the memories of all their crimes and all their faults, even
+the Eumenides had their cheeks wet with tears.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> In the throng of the newly come dead Orpheus saw Eurydice.
+She looked upon her husband, but she had not the power to
+come near him. But slowly she came when Aidoneus called her.
+Then with joy Orpheus took her hands.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> It would be granted them—no mortal ever gained such
+privilege before—to leave, both together, the world of the dead,
+and to abide for another space in the world of the living. One
+condition there would be—that on their way up through the
+valley of Acherusia neither Orpheus nor Eurydice should look
+back.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> They went through the gate and came amongst the watchers
+that are around the portals. These showed them the path that
+went up through the valley of Acherusia. That way they went,
+Orpheus and Eurydice, he going before her.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Up and up through the darkened ways they went, Orpheus
+knowing that Eurydice was behind him, but never looking back
+upon her. But as he went, his heart was filled with things to
+tell—how the trees were blossoming in the garden she had left;
+how the water was sparkling in the fountain; how the doors of
+the house stood open, and how they, sitting together, would
+watch the sunlight on the laurel bushes. All these things were
+in his heart to tell her, to tell her who came behind him, silent
+and unseen.
+<pb n="272"/>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> And now they were nearing the place where the valley of
+Acherusia opened on the world of the living. Orpheus looked on
+the blue of the sky. A white-winged bird flew by. Orpheus
+turned around and cried, <q>O Eurydice, look upon the world
+that I have won you back to!</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> He turned to say this to her. He saw her with her long
+dark hair and pale face. He held out his arms to clasp her.
+But in that instant she slipped back into the depths of the
+valley. And all he heard spoken was a single word, <q>Farewell!</q>
+Long, long had it taken Eurydice to climb so far, but
+in the moment of his turning around she had fallen back to her
+place amongst the dead.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Down through the valley of Acherusia Orpheus went again.
+Again he came before the watchers of the gate. But now he
+was not looked at nor listened to, and, hopeless, he had to return
+to the world of the living.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> The birds were his friends now, and the trees and the stones.
+The birds flew around him and mourned with him; the trees
+and stones often followed him, moved by the music of his lyre.
+But a savage band slew Orpheus and threw his severed head
+and his lyre into the River Hebrus. It is said by the poets that
+while they floated in midstream the lyre gave out some mournful
+notes and the head of Orpheus answered the notes with song.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> And now that he was no longer to be counted with the living,
+Orpheus went down to the world of the dead, not going now
+by that steep descent through the valley of Acherusia, but going
+<pb n="273"/>
+down straightway. The silent watchers let him pass, and he
+went amongst the dead and saw his Eurydice in the throng.
+Again they were together, Orpheus and Eurydice, and as they
+went through the place that King Aidoneus ruled over, they had
+no fear of looking back, one upon the other.
+</p></div><div><index index="toc"/><index index='pdf'/><head>VII. Jason and Medea</head><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <figure rend="float: left; margin-top: 0em; margin-bottom: 0em; x-class: deco-letter;" url="images/capJ.png"><figDesc>Decorative first letter</figDesc></figure><hi rend="font-variant: small-caps; color:white; margin-left: -1em">J</hi>ASON and Medea, unable to win to Iolcus,
+stayed at Corinth, at the court of King
+Creon. Creon was proud to have Jason in
+his city, but of Medea the king was fearful,
+for he had heard how she had brought
+about the death of Apsyrtus, her brother.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Medea wearied of this long waiting in
+the palace of King Creon. A longing came upon her to exercise
+her powers of enchantment. She did not forget what
+Queen Arete had said to her—that if she wished to appease
+the wrath of the gods she should have no more to do with
+enchantments. She did not forget this, but still there grew in
+her a longing to use all her powers of enchantment.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> And Jason, at the court of King Creon, had his longings, too.
+He longed to enter Iolcus and to show the people the Golden
+Fleece that he had won; he longed to destroy Pelias, the murderer
+<pb n="274"/>
+of his mother and father; above all he longed to be a
+king, and to rule in the kingdom that Cretheus had founded.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Once Jason spoke to Medea of his longing. <q>O Jason,</q> Medea
+said, <q>I have done many things for thee and this thing also I
+will do. I will go into Iolcus, and by my enchantments I will
+make clear the way for the return of the <emph>Argo</emph> and for thy
+return with thy comrades—yea, and for thy coming to the
+kingship, O Jason.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> He should have remembered then the words of Queen Arete
+to Medea, but the longing that he had for his triumph and his
+revenge was in the way of his remembering. He said, <q>O Medea,
+help me in this with all thine enchantments and thou wilt be
+more dear to me than ever before thou wert.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Medea then went forth from the palace of King Creon and
+she made more terrible spells than ever she had made in Colchis.
+All night she stayed in a tangled place weaving her spells.
+Dawn came, and she knew that the spells she had woven had
+not been in vain, for beside her there stood a car that was
+drawn by dragons.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Medea the Enchantress had never looked on these dragon
+shapes before. When she looked upon them now she was fearful
+of them. But then she said to herself, <q>I am Medea, and
+I would be a greater enchantress and a more cunning woman
+than I have been, and what I have thought of, that will I carry
+out.</q> She mounted the car drawn by the dragons, and in the
+first light of the day she went from Corinth.
+
+
+
+<pb n="275"/>
+</p>
+<p rend="text-align: center"><figure rend="width: 100%" url="images/i043.png"><anchor id="i043.png"/><index index="fig"/><head/><figDesc>Illustration</figDesc></figure></p>
+<p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> To the places where grew the herbs of magic Medea journeyed
+in her dragon-drawn car—to the Mountains Ossa, Pelion,
+Œthrys, Pindus, and Olympus; then to the rivers Apidanus,
+Enipeus, and Peneus. She gathered herbs on the mountains
+and grasses on the rivers’ banks; some she plucked up by the
+roots and some she cut with the curved blade of a knife.
+When she had gathered these herbs and grasses she went
+back to Corinth on her dragon-drawn car.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Then Jason saw her; pale and drawn was her face, and her
+eyes were strange and gleaming. He saw her standing by the
+car drawn by the dragons, and a terror of Medea came into his
+mind. He went toward her, but in a harsh voice she bade
+him not come near to disturb the brewing that she was going
+to begin. Jason turned away. As he went toward the palace
+he saw Glauce, King Creon’s daughter; the maiden was coming
+from the well and she carried a pitcher of water. He thought
+how fair Glauce looked in the light of the morning, how the
+wind played with her hair and her garments, and how far away
+she was from witcheries and enchantments.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> As for Medea, she placed in a heap beside her the magic
+herbs and grasses she had gathered. Then she put them in
+a bronze pot and boiled them in water from the stream. Soon
+froth came on the boiling, and Medea stirred the pot with a
+withered branch of an apple tree. The branch was withered—it
+was indeed no more than a dry stick, but as she stirred the
+herbs and grasses with it, first leaves, then flowers, and lastly,
+<pb n="276"/>
+bright gleaming apples came on it. And when the pot boiled
+over and drops from it fell upon the ground, there grew up out
+of the dry earth soft grasses and flowers. Such was the power
+of renewal that was in the magical brew that Medea had made.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> She filled a phial with the liquid she had brewed, and she
+scattered the rest in the wild places of the garden. Then,
+taking the phial and the apples that had grown on the withered
+branch, she mounted the car drawn by the dragons, and she went
+once more from Corinth.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> On she journeyed in her dragon-drawn car until she came to
+a place that was near to Iolcus. There the dragons descended.
+They had come to a dark pool. Medea, making herself naked,
+stood in that dark pool. For a while she looked down upon
+herself, seeing in the dark water her white body and her lovely
+hair. Then she bathed herself in the water. Soon a dread
+change came over her: she saw her hair become scant and
+gray, and she saw her body become bent and withered. She
+stepped out of the pool a withered and witchlike woman; when
+she dressed herself the rich clothes that she had worn before
+hung loosely upon her, and she looked the more forbidding
+because of them. She bade the dragons go, and they flew
+through the air with the empty car. Then she hid in her dress
+the phial with the liquid she had brewed and the apples that
+had grown upon the withered branch. She picked up a stick
+to lean upon, and with the gait of an ancient woman she went
+hobbling upon the road to Iolcus.
+<pb n="277"/>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> On the streets of the city the fierce fighting men that Pelias
+had brought down from the mountains showed themselves; few
+of the men or women of the city showed themselves even in the
+daytime. Medea went through the city and to the palace of
+King Pelias. But no one might enter there, and the guards
+laid hands upon her and held her.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Medea did not struggle with them. She drew from the folds
+of her dress one of the gleaming apples that she carried and
+she gave it to one of the guards. <q>It is for King Pelias,</q> she
+said. <q>Give the apple to him and then do with me as the king
+would have you do.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> The guards brought the gleaming apple to the king. When
+he had taken it into his hand and had smelled its fragrance,
+old trembling Pelias asked where the apple had come from.
+The guards told him it had been brought by an ancient
+woman who was now outside seated on a stone in the courtyard.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> He looked on the shining apple and he felt its fragrance and
+he could not help thinking, old trembling Pelias, that this apple
+might be the means of bringing him back to the fullness of health
+and courage that he had had before. He sent for the ancient
+woman who had brought it that she might tell him where it
+had come from and who it was that had sent it to him. Then
+the guards brought Medea before him.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> She saw an old man, white-faced and trembling, with shaking
+hands and eyes that looked on her fearfully. <q>Who are you,</q>
+<pb n="278"/>
+he asked, <q>and from whence came the apple that you had them
+bring me?</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Medea, standing before him, looked a withered and shrunken
+beldame, a woman bent with years, but yet with eyes that were
+bright and living. She came near him and she said: <q>The
+apple, O King, came from the garden that is watched over by
+the Daughters of the Evening Land. He who eats it has a little
+of the weight of old age taken from him. But things more wonderful
+even than the shining apples grow in that far garden.
+There are plants there the juices of which make youthful again
+all aged and failing things. The apple would bring you a little
+way toward the vigor of your prime. But the juices I have can
+bring you to a time more wonderful—back even to the strength
+and the glory of your youth.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> When the king heard her say this a light came into his heavy
+eyes, and his hands caught Medea and drew her to him. <q>Who
+are you?</q> he cried, <q>who speak of the garden watched over
+by the Daughters of the Evening Land? Who are you who speak
+of juices that can bring back one to the strength and glory of
+his youth?</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Medea answered: <q>I am a woman who has known many and
+great griefs, O king. My griefs have brought me through the
+world. Many have searched for the garden watched over by the
+Daughters of the Evening Land, but I came to it unthinkingly,
+and without wanting them I gathered the gleaming apples and
+took from the plants there the juices that can bring youth back.</q>
+<pb n="279"/>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Pelias said: <q>If you have been able to come by those juices,
+how is it that you remain in woeful age and decrepitude?</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> She said: <q>Because of my many griefs, king, I would not
+renew my life. I would be ever nearer death and the end of
+all things. But you are a king and have all things you desire
+at your hand—beauty and state and power. Surely if any one
+would desire it, you would desire to have youth back to you.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Pelias, when he heard her say this, knew that besides youth
+there was nothing that he desired. After crimes that had gone
+through the whole of his manhood he had secured for himself
+the kingdom that Cretheus had founded. But old age had
+come on him, and the weakness of old age, and the power he
+had won was falling from his hands. He would be overthrown
+in his weakness, or else he would soon come to die, and there
+would be an end then to his name and to his kingship.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> How fortunate above all kings he would be, he thought, if it
+could be that some one should come to him with juices that
+would renew his youth! He looked longingly into the eyes of
+the ancient-seeming woman before him, and he said: <q>How
+is it that you show no gains from the juices that you speak of?
+You are old and in woeful decrepitude. Even if you would
+not win back to youth you could have got riches and state for
+that which you say you possess.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Then Medea said: <q>I have lost so much and have suffered
+so much that I would not have youth back at the price of facing
+the years. I would sink down to the quiet of the grave. But
+<pb n="280"/>
+I hope for some ease before I die—for the ease that is in king’s
+houses, with good food to eat, and rest, and servants to wait
+upon one’s aged body. These are the things I desire, O Pelias,
+even as you desire youth. You can give me such things, and I
+have come to you who desire youth eagerly rather than to kings
+who have a less eager desire for it. To you I will give the juices
+that bring one back to the strength and the glory of youth.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Pelias said: <q>I have only your word for it that you possess
+these juices. Many there are who come and say deceiving
+things to a king.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Said Medea: <q>Let there be no more words between us, O
+king. To-morrow I will show you the virtue of the juices I
+have brought with me. Have a great vat prepared—a vat
+that a man could lay himself in with the water covering
+him. Have this vat filled with water, and bring to it the oldest
+creature you can get—a ram or a goat that is the oldest of
+their flock. Do this, O king, and you will be shown a thing to
+wonder at and to be hopeful over.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> So Medea said, and then she turned around and left the
+king’s presence. Pelias called to his guards and he bade them
+take the woman into their charge and treat her considerately.
+The guards took Medea away. Then all day the king mused
+on what had been told him and a wild hope kept beating about
+his heart. He had the servants prepare a great vat in the lower
+chambers, and he had his shepherd bring him a ram that was
+the oldest in the flock.
+<pb n="281"/>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Only Medea was permitted to come into that chamber with
+the king; the ways to it were guarded, and all that took place
+in it was secret. Medea was brought to the closed door by
+her guard. She opened it and she saw the king there and the
+vat already prepared; she saw a ram tethered near the vat.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Medea looked upon the king. In the light of the torches his
+face was white and fierce and his mouth moved gaspingly.
+She spoke to him quietly, and said: <q>There is no need for you
+to hear me speak. You will watch a great miracle, for behold!
+the ram which is the oldest and feeblest in the flock will become
+young and invigorated when it comes forth from this vat.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> She untethered the ram, and with the help of Pelias drew it
+to the vat. This was not hard to do, for the beast was very
+feeble; its feet could hardly bear it upright, its wool was yellow
+and stayed only in patches on its shrunken body. Easily the
+beast was forced into the vat. Then Medea drew the phial out
+of her bosom and poured into the water some of the brew she
+had made in Creon’s garden in Corinth. The water in the vat
+took on a strange bubbling, and the ram sank down.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Then Medea, standing beside the vat, sang an incantation.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <q>O Earth,</q> she sang, <q>O Earth who dost provide wise men
+with potent herbs, O Earth help me now. I am she who can
+drive the clouds; I am she who can dispel the winds; I am she
+who can break the jaws of serpents with my incantations; I
+am she who can uproot living trees and rocks; who can make
+the mountains shake; who can bring the ghosts from their
+<pb n="282"/>
+tombs. O Earth, help me now.</q> At this strange incantation
+the mixture in the vat boiled and bubbled more and more.
+Then the boiling and bubbling ceased. Up to the surface came
+the ram. Medea helped it to struggle out of the vat, and
+then it turned and smote the vat with its head.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Pelias took down a torch and stood before the beast. Vigorous
+indeed was the ram, and its wool was white and grew evenly
+upon it. They could not tether it again, and when the servants
+were brought into the chamber it took two of them to drag
+away the ram.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> The king was most eager to enter the vat and have Medea
+put in the brew and speak the incantation over it. But Medea
+bade him wait until the morrow. All night the king lay awake,
+thinking of how he might regain his youth and his strength and
+be secure and triumphant thereafter.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> At the first light he sent for Medea and he told her that he
+would have the vat made ready and that he would go into it
+that night. Medea looked upon him, and the helplessness that
+he showed made her want to work a greater evil upon him, or,
+if not upon him, upon his house. How soon it would have
+reached its end, all her plot for the destruction of this king!
+But she would leave in the king’s house a misery that would
+not have an end so soon.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> So she said to the king: <q>I would say the incantation over a
+beast of the field, but over a king I could not say it. Let those
+of your own blood be with you when you enter the vat that
+<pb n="283"/>
+will bring such change to you. Have your daughters there.
+I will give them the juice to mix in the vat, and I will teach them
+the incantation that has to be said.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> So she said, and she made Pelias consent to having his daughters
+and not Medea in the chamber of the vat. They were sent for
+and they came before Medea, the daughters of King Pelias.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> They were women who had been borne down by the tyranny
+of their father; they stood before him now, two dim-eyed creatures,
+very feeble and fearful. To them Medea gave the phial
+that had in it the liquid to mix in the vat; also she taught
+them the words of the incantation, but she taught them to use
+these words wrongly.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> The vat was prepared in the lower chambers; Pelias and his
+daughters went there, and the chamber was guarded, and what
+happened there was in secret. Pelias went into the vat; the
+brew was thrown into it, and the vat boiled and bubbled as
+before. Pelias sank down in it. Over him then his daughters
+said the magic words as Medea had taught them.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Pelias sank down, but he did not rise again. The hours went
+past and the morning came, and the daughters of King Pelias
+raised frightened laments. Over the sides of the vat the mixture
+boiled and bubbled, and Pelias was to be seen at the bottom
+with his limbs stiffened in death.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Then the guards came, and they took King Pelias out of the
+vat and left him in his royal chamber. The word went through
+the palace that the king was dead. There was a hush in the
+<pb n="284"/>
+palace then, but not the hush of grief. One by one servants
+and servitors stole away from the palace that was hated by all.
+Then there was clatter in the streets as the fierce fighting men
+from the mountains galloped away with what plunder they
+could seize. And through all this the daughters of King Pelias
+sat crouching in fear above the body of their father.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> And Medea, still an ancient woman seemingly, went through
+the crowds that now came on the streets of the city. She told
+those she went amongst that the son of Æson was alive and
+would soon be in their midst. Hearing this the men of the
+city formed a council of elders to rule the people until Jason’s
+coming. In such way Medea brought about the end of King
+Pelias’s reign.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> In triumph she went through the city. But as she was passing
+the temple her dress was caught and held, and turning
+around she faced the ancient priestess of Artemis, Iphias. <q>Thou
+art Æetes’s daughter,</q> Iphias said, <q>who in deceit didst come
+into Iolcus. Woe to thee and woe to Jason for what thou hast
+done this day! Not for the slaying of Pelias art thou blameworthy,
+but for the misery that thou hast brought upon his
+daughters by bringing them into the guilt of the slaying. Go
+from the city, daughter of King Æetes; never, never wilt thou
+come back into it.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> But little heed did Medea pay to the ancient priestess, Iphias.
+Still in the guise of an old woman she went through the streets
+of the city, and out through the gate and along the highway
+
+
+
+<pb n="285"/>
+that led from Iolcus. To that dark pool she came where she
+had bathed herself before. But now she did not step into the
+pool nor pour its water over her shrinking flesh; instead she
+built up two altars of green sods—an altar to Youth and an
+altar to Hecate, queen of the witches; she wreathed them with
+green boughs from the forest, and she prayed before each. Then
+she made herself naked, and she anointed herself with the brew
+she had made from the magical herbs and grasses. All marks
+of age and decrepitude left her, and when she stood over the dark
+pool and looked down on herself she saw that her body was white
+and shapely as before, and that her hair was soft and lovely.
+</p>
+<p rend="text-align: center"><figure rend="width: 100%" url="images/i044.png"><anchor id="i044.png"/><index index="fig"/><head/><figDesc>Illustration</figDesc></figure></p>
+<p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> She stayed all night between the tangled wood and the dark
+pool, and with the first light the car drawn by the scaly dragons
+came to her. She mounted the car, and she journeyed back to
+Corinth.
+</p><milestone unit="tb"/><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Into Jason’s mind a fear of Medea had come since the hour
+when he had seen her mount the car drawn by the scaly dragons.
+He could not think of her any more as the one who had been
+his companion on the <emph>Argo</emph>. He thought of her as one who could
+help him and do wonderful things for him, but not as one whom
+he could talk softly and lovingly to. Ah, but if Jason had thought
+less of his kingdom and less of his triumphing with the Fleece of
+Gold, Medea would not have had the dragons come to her.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> And now that his love for Medea had altered, Jason noted the
+loveliness of another—of Glauce, the daughter of Creon, the
+<pb n="286"/>
+King of Corinth. And Glauce, who had red lips and the eyes
+of a child, saw in Jason who had brought the Golden Fleece
+out of Colchis the image of every hero she had heard about in
+stories. Creon, the king, often brought Jason and Glauce together,
+for his hope was that the hero would wed his daughter
+and stay in Corinth and strengthen his kingdom. He thought
+that Medea, that strange woman, could not keep a companionship
+with Jason.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Two were walking in the king’s garden, and they were Jason
+and Glauce. A shadow fell between them, and when Jason
+looked up he saw Medea’s dragon car. Down flew the dragons,
+and Medea came from the car and stood between Jason and
+the princess. Angrily she spoke to him. <q>I have made the
+kingdom ready for your return,</q> she said, <q>but if you would
+go there you must first let me deal in my own way with this
+pretty maiden.</q> And so fiercely did Medea look upon her that
+Glauce shrank back and clung to Jason for protection. <q>O,
+Jason,</q> she cried, <q>thou didst say that I am such a one as thou
+didst dream of when in the forest with Chiron, before the adventure
+of the Golden Fleece drew thee away from the Grecian
+lands. Oh, save me now from the power of her who comes in
+the dragon car.</q> And Jason said: <q>I said all that thou hast
+said, and I will protect thee, O Glauce.</q>
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> And then Medea thought of the king’s house she had left for
+Jason, and of the brother whom she had let be slain, and of the
+plot she had carried out to bring Jason back to Iolcus, and a
+<pb n="287"/>
+great fury came over her. In her hand she took foam from the
+jaws of the dragons, and she cast the foam upon Glauce, and
+the princess fell back into the arms of Jason with the dragon
+foam burning into her.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Then, seeing in his eyes that he had forgotten all that he
+owed to her—the winning of the Golden Fleece, and the safety
+of <emph>Argo</emph>, and the destruction of the power of King Pelias—seeing
+in his eyes that Jason had forgotten all this, Medea went
+into her dragon-borne car and spoke the words that made the
+scaly dragons bear her aloft. She flew from Corinth, leaving
+Jason in King Creon’s garden with Glauce dying in his arms.
+He lifted her up and laid her upon a bed, but even as her friends
+came around her the daughter of King Creon died.
+<pb n="288"/>
+</p><milestone unit="tb"/><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> <figure rend="float: left; margin-top: 0em; margin-bottom: 0em; x-class: deco-letter;" url="images/capA2.png"><figDesc>Decorative first letter</figDesc></figure><hi rend="font-variant: small-caps; color:white; margin-left: -1em">A</hi>ND Jason? For long he stayed in
+Corinth, a famous man indeed, but one
+sorrowful and alone. But again there
+grew in him the desire to rule and to have
+possessions. He called around him again
+the men whose home was in Iolcus—those
+who had followed him as bright-eyed
+youths when he first proclaimed his purpose of winning the Fleece
+of Gold. He called them around him, and he led them on board
+the <emph>Argo</emph>. Once more they lifted sails, and once more they took
+the <emph>Argo</emph> into the open sea.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Toward Iolcus they sailed; their passage was fortunate, and
+in a short time they brought the <emph>Argo</emph> safely into the harbor
+of Pagasæ. Oh, happy were the crowds that came thronging
+to see the ship that had the famous Fleece of Gold upon her
+masthead, and green and sweet smelling were the garlands that
+the people brought to wreathe the heads of Jason and his companions!
+Jason looked upon the throngs, and he thought that
+much had gone from him, but he thought that whatever else
+had gone something remained to him—to be a king and a
+great ruler over a people.
+</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> And so Jason came back to Iolcus. The <emph>Argo</emph> he made a
+blazing pile of in sacrifice to Poseidon, the god of the sea. The
+Golden Fleece he hung in the temple of the gods. Then he took
+up the rule of the kingdom that Cretheus had founded, and he
+became the greatest of the kings of Greece.
+</p><pb n="289"/><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> And to Iolcus there came, year after year, young men who
+would look upon the gleaming thing that was hung there in
+the temple of the gods. And as they looked upon it, young
+man after young man, the thought would come to each that he
+would make himself strong enough and heroic enough to win for
+his country something as precious as Jason’s <hi rend="font-variant: small-caps">Golden Fleece</hi>.
+And for all their lives they kept in mind the words that Jason
+had inscribed upon a pillar that was placed beside the Fleece
+of Gold—the words that Triton spoke to the Argonauts when
+they were fain to win their way out of the inland sea:—
+</p><q rend="display">
+THAT IS THE OUTLET TO THE SEA, WHERE THE DEEP
+WATER LIES UNMOVED AND DARK; ON EACH SIDE ROLL
+WHITE BREAKERS WITH SHINING CRESTS; AND THE
+WAY BETWEEN FOR YOUR PASSAGE OUT IS NARROW.
+BUT GO IN JOY, AND AS FOR LABOR LET THERE BE NO
+GRIEVING THAT LIMBS IN YOUTHFUL VIGOR SHOULD
+STILL TOIL.
+</q></div></div></body><back><div rend="page-break-before: right; x-class: boxed"><head>Transcriber’s Note</head><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> The book received a Newbery Honor Award (1922).</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Illustrations in the original appear on separate, unnumbered pages. In this transcription, wherever an illustration would break a paragraph, it was moved after the paragraph.</p><p rend="margin-bottom: 0em;"> Obvious typographical errors were silently corrected.</p></div><div rend="page-break-before: right"><divGen type="pgfooter"/></div></back></text>
+
+</TEI.2>
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Golden Fleece and The Heroes Who Lived
+Before Achilles by Padraic Colum
+
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no
+restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under
+the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or
+online at http://www.gutenberg.org/license
+
+
+
+Title: The Golden Fleece and The Heroes Who Lived Before Achilles
+
+Author: Padraic Colum
+
+Release Date: October 29, 2011 [Ebook #37881]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: US-ASCII
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GOLDEN FLEECE AND THE HEROES WHO LIVED BEFORE ACHILLES***
+
+
+
+
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+                             Jason and Medea
+
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+                            The Golden Fleece
+                            and the Heroes Who
+                          Lived before Achilles
+
+
+                             By Padraig Colum
+                      Illustrations by Willy Pogany
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                                   1921
+                     The Macmillan Company, New York
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                                    to
+                             the children of
+                        Susan and Llewellyn Jones
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+Part I. The Voyage to Colchis
+   I. The Youth Jason
+   II. King Pelias
+   III. The Golden Fleece
+   IV. The Assembling of the Heroes and the Building of the Ship
+   V. The _Argo_
+      The Beginning of Things
+   VI. Polydeuces' Victory and Heracles' Loss
+   VII. King Phineus
+   VIII. King Phineus's Counsel; The Landing in Lemnos
+   IX. The Lemnian Maidens
+      Demeter and Persephone
+      Atalanta's Race
+   X. The Departure from Lemnos
+      The Golden Maid
+   XI. The Passage of the Symplegades
+   XII. The Mountain Caucasus
+      Prometheus
+Part II. The Return to Greece
+   I. King AEetes
+   II. Medea the Sorceress
+   III. The Winning of the Golden Fleece
+   IV. The Slaying of Apsyrtus
+   V. Medea Comes to Circe
+   VI. In the Land of the Phaeacians
+   VII. They Come to the Desert Land
+   VIII. The Carrying of the Argo
+      The Story of Perseus
+   IX. Near to Iolcus Again
+Part III. The Heroes of the Quest
+   I. Atalanta the Huntress
+   II. Peleus and His Bride from the Sea
+   III. Theseus and the Minotaur
+   IV. The Life and Labors of Heracles
+      The Battle of the Frogs and Mice
+   V. Admetus
+   VI. How Orpheus the Minstrel Went Down to the World of the Dead
+   VII. Jason and Medea
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+Jason and Medea
+the _Argo_
+Hylas
+Persephone and Aidoneus
+Atalanta's Last Race
+Prometheus
+The Field of the Dragon's Teeth
+Perseus and Andromeda
+
+
+
+
+
+
+PART I. THE VOYAGE TO COLCHIS
+
+
+
+
+I. The Youth Jason
+
+
+
+[Decorative first letter]
+_A_ MAN in the garb of a slave went up the side of that mountain that is
+all covered with forest, the Mountain Pelion. He carried in his arms a
+little child.
+
+  When it was full noon the slave came into a clearing of the forest so
+silent that it seemed empty of all life. He laid the child down on the
+soft moss, and then, trembling with the fear of what might come before
+him, he raised a horn to his lips and blew three blasts upon it.
+
+  Then he waited. The blue sky was above him, the great trees stood away
+from him, and the little child lay at his feet. He waited, and then he
+heard the thud-thud of great hooves. And then from between the trees he
+saw coming toward him the strangest of all beings, one who was half man
+and half horse; this was Chiron the centaur.
+
+  Chiron came toward the trembling slave. Greater than any horse was
+Chiron, taller than any man. The hair of his head flowed back into his
+horse's mane, his great beard flowed over his horse's chest; in his man's
+hand he held a great spear.
+
+  Not swiftly he came, but the slave could see that in those great limbs
+of his there was speed like to the wind's. The slave fell upon his knees.
+And with eyes that were full of majesty and wisdom and limbs that were
+full of strength and speed, the king-centaur stood above him. "O my lord,"
+the slave said, "I have come before thee sent by AEson, my master, who told
+me where to come and what blasts to blow upon the horn. And AEson, once
+King of Iolcus, bade me say to thee that if thou dost remember his ancient
+friendship with thee thou wilt, perchance, take this child and guard and
+foster him, and, as he grows, instruct him with thy wisdom."
+
+  "For AEson's sake I will rear and foster this child," said Chiron the
+king-centaur in a deep voice.
+
+  The child lying on the moss had been looking up at the four-footed and
+two-handed centaur. Now the slave lifted him up and placed him in the
+centaur's arms. He said:
+
+  "AEson bade me tell thee that the child's name is Jason. He bade me give
+thee this ring with the great ruby in it that thou mayst give it to the
+child when he is grown. By this ring with its ruby and the images engraved
+on it AEson may know his son when they meet after many years and many
+changes. And another thing AEson bade me say to thee, O my lord Chiron: not
+presumptuous is he, but he knows that this child has the regard of the
+immortal Goddess Hera, the wife of Zeus."
+
+  Chiron held AEson's son in his arms, and the little child put hands into
+his great beard. Then the centaur said, "Let AEson know that his son will
+be reared and fostered by me, and that, when they meet again, there will
+be ways by which they will be known to each other."
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+  Saying this Chiron the centaur, holding the child in his arms, went
+swiftly toward the forest arches; then the slave took up the horn and went
+down the side of the Mountain Pelion. He came to where a horse was hidden,
+and he mounted and rode, first to a city, and then to a village that was
+beyond the city.
+
+
+
+  All this was before the famous walls of Troy were built; before King
+Priam had come to the throne of his father and while he was still known,
+not as Priam, but as Podarces. And the beginning of all these happenings
+was in Iolcus, a city in Thessaly.
+
+  Cretheus founded the city and had ruled over it in days before King
+Priam was born. He left two sons, AEson and Pelias. AEson succeeded his
+father. And because he was a mild and gentle man the men of war did not
+love AEson; they wanted a hard king who would lead them to conquests.
+
+  Pelias, the brother of AEson, was ever with the men of war; he knew what
+mind they had toward AEson and he plotted with them to overthrow his
+brother. This they did, and they brought Pelias to reign as king in
+Iolcus.
+
+  The people loved AEson and they feared Pelias. And because the people
+loved him and would be maddened by his slaying, Pelias and the men of war
+left him living. With his wife, Alcimide, and his infant son, AEson went
+from the city, and in a village that was at a distance from Iolcus he
+found a hidden house and went to dwell in it.
+
+  AEson would have lived content there were it not that he was fearful for
+Jason, his infant son. Jason, he knew, would grow into a strong and a bold
+youth, and Pelias, the king, would be made uneasy on his account. Pelias
+would slay the son, and perhaps would slay the father for the son's sake
+when his memory would come to be less loved by the people. AEson thought of
+such things in his hidden house, and he pondered on ways to have his son
+reared away from Iolcus and the dread and the power of King Pelias.
+
+  He had for a friend one who was the wisest of all creatures--Chiron the
+centaur; Chiron who was half man and half horse; Chiron who had lived and
+was yet to live measureless years. Chiron had fostered Heracles, and it
+might be that he would not refuse to foster Jason, AEson's child.
+
+  Away in the fastnesses of Mount Pelion Chiron dwelt; once AEson had been
+with him and had seen the centaur hunt with his great bow and his great
+spears. And AEson knew a way that one might come to him; Chiron himself had
+told him of the way.
+
+  Now there was a slave in his house who had been a huntsman and who knew
+all the ways of the Mountain Pelion. AEson talked with this slave one day,
+and after he had talked with him he sat for a long time over the cradle of
+his sleeping infant. And then he spoke to Alcimide, his wife, telling her
+of a parting that made her weep. That evening the slave came in and AEson
+took the child from the arms of the mournful-eyed mother and put him in
+the slave's arms. Also he gave him a horn and a ring with a great ruby in
+it and mystic images engraved on its gold. Then when the ways were dark
+the slave mounted a horse, and, with the child in his arms, rode through
+the city that King Pelias ruled over. In the morning he came to that
+mountain that is all covered with forest, the Mountain Pelion. And that
+evening he came back to the village and to AEson's hidden house, and he
+told his master how he had prospered.
+
+  AEson was content thereafter although he was lonely and although his wife
+was lonely in their childlessness. But the time came when they rejoiced
+that their child had been sent into an unreachable place. For messengers
+from King Pelias came inquiring about the boy. They told the king's
+messengers that the child had strayed off from his nurse, and that whether
+he had been slain by a wild beast or had been drowned in the swift River
+Anaurus they did not know.
+
+  The years went by and Pelias felt secure upon the throne he had taken
+from his brother. Once he sent to the oracle of the gods to ask of it
+whether he should be fearful of anything. What the oracle answered was
+this: that King Pelias had but one thing to dread--the coming of a
+half-shod man.
+
+  The centaur nourished the child Jason on roots and fruits and honey; for
+shelter they had a great cave that Chiron had lived in for numberless
+years. When he had grown big enough to leave the cave Chiron would let
+Jason mount on his back; with the child holding on to his great mane he
+would trot gently through the ways of the forest.
+
+  Jason began to know the creatures of the forest and their haunts.
+Sometimes Chiron would bring his great bow with him; then Jason, on his
+back, would hold the quiver and would hand him the arrows. The centaur
+would let the boy see him kill with a single arrow the bear, the boar, or
+the deer. And soon Jason, running beside him, hunted too.
+
+  No heroes were ever better trained than those whose childhood and youth
+had been spent with Chiron the king-centaur. He made them more swift of
+foot than any other of the children of men. He made them stronger and more
+ready with the spear and bow. Jason was trained by Chiron as Heracles just
+before him had been trained, and as Achilles was to be trained afterward.
+
+  Moreover, Chiron taught him the knowledge of the stars and the wisdom
+that had to do with the ways of the gods.
+
+  Once, when they were hunting together, Jason saw a form at the end of an
+alley of trees--the form of a woman it was--of a woman who had on her head a
+shining crown. Never had Jason dreamt of seeing a form so wondrous. Not
+very near did he come, but he thought he knew that the woman smiled upon
+him. She was seen no more, and Jason knew that he had looked upon one of
+the immortal goddesses.
+
+  All day Jason was filled with thought of her whom he had seen. At night,
+when the stars were out, and when they were seated outside the cave,
+Chiron and Jason talked together, and Chiron told the youth that she whom
+he had seen was none other than Hera, the wife of Zeus, who had for his
+father AEson and for himself an especial friendliness.
+
+  So Jason grew up upon the mountain and in the forest fastnesses. When he
+had reached his full height and had shown himself swift in the hunt and
+strong with the spear and bow, Chiron told him that the time had come when
+he should go back to the world of men and make his name famous by the
+doing of great deeds.
+
+  And when Chiron told him about his father AEson--about how he had been
+thrust out of the kingship by Pelias, his uncle--a great longing came upon
+Jason to see his father and a fierce anger grew up in his heart against
+Pelias.
+
+  Then the time came when he bade good-by to Chiron his great instructor;
+the time came when he went from the centaur's cave for the last time, and
+went through the wooded ways and down the side of the Mountain Pelion. He
+came to the river, to the swift Anaurus, and he found it high in flood.
+The stones by which one might cross were almost all washed over; far apart
+did they seem in the flood.
+
+  Now as he stood there pondering on what he might do there came up to him
+an old woman who had on her back a load of brushwood. "Wouldst thou
+cross?" asked the old woman. "Wouldst thou cross and get thee to the city
+of Iolcus, Jason, where so many things await thee?"
+
+  Greatly was the youth astonished to hear his name spoken by this old
+woman, and to hear her give the name of the city he was bound for.
+"Wouldst thou cross the Anaurus?" she asked again. "Then mount upon my
+back, holding on to the wood I carry, and I will bear thee over the
+river."
+
+  Jason smiled. How foolish this old woman was to think that she could
+bear him across the flooded river! She came near him and she took him in
+her arms and lifted him up on her shoulders. Then, before he knew what she
+was about to do, she had stepped into the water.
+
+  From stone to stepping-stone she went, Jason holding on to the wood that
+she had drawn to her shoulders. She left him down upon the bank. As she
+was lifting him down one of his feet touched the water; the swift current
+swept away a sandal.
+
+  He stood on the bank knowing that she who had carried him across the
+flooded river had strength from the gods. He looked upon her, and behold!
+she was transformed. Instead of an old woman there stood before him one
+who had on a golden robe and a shining crown. Around her was a wondrous
+light--the light of the sun when it is most golden. Then Jason knew that
+she who had carried him across the broad Anaurus was the goddess whom he
+had seen in the ways of the forest--Hera, great Zeus's wife.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+  "Go into Iolcus, Jason," said great Hera to him, "go into Iolcus, and in
+whatever chance doth befall thee act as one who has the eyes of the
+immortals upon him."
+
+  She spoke and she was seen no more. Then Jason went on his way to the
+city that Cretheus, his grandfather, had founded and that his father AEson
+had once ruled over. He came into that city, a tall, great-limbed, unknown
+youth, dressed in a strange fashion, and having but one sandal on.
+
+
+
+
+II. King Pelias
+
+
+
+[Decorative first letter]
+_T_HAT day King Pelias, walking through the streets of his city, saw
+coming toward him a youth who was half shod. He remembered the words of
+the oracle that bade him beware of a half-shod man, and straightway he
+gave orders to his guards to lay hands upon the youth.
+
+  But the guards wavered when they went toward him, for there was
+something about the youth that put them in awe of him. He came with the
+guards, however, and he stood before the king's judgment seat.
+
+  Fearfully did Pelias look upon him. But not fearfully did the youth look
+upon the king. With head lifted high he cried out, "Thou art Pelias, but I
+do not salute thee as king. Know that I am Jason, the son of AEson from
+whom thou hast taken the throne and scepter that were rightfully his."
+
+  King Pelias looked to his guards. He would have given them a sign to
+destroy the youth's life with their spears, but behind his guards he saw a
+threatening multitude--the dwellers of the city of Iolcus; they gathered
+around, and Pelias knew that he had become more and more hated by them.
+And from the multitude a cry went up, "AEson, AEson! May AEson come back to
+us! Jason, son of AEson! May nothing evil befall thee, brave youth!"
+
+  Then Pelias knew that the youth might not be slain. He bent his head
+while he plotted against him in his heart. Then he raised his eyes, and
+looking upon Jason he said, "O goodly youth, it well may be that thou art
+the son of AEson, my brother. I am well pleased to see thee here. I have
+had hopes that I might be friends with AEson, and thy coming here may be
+the means to the renewal of our friendship. We two brothers may come
+together again. I will send for thy father now, and he will be brought to
+meet thee in my royal palace. Go with my guards and with this rejoicing
+people, and in a little while thou and I and thy father AEson will sit at a
+feast of friends."
+
+  So Pelias said, and Jason went with the guards and the crowd of people,
+and he came to the palace of the king and he was brought within. The maids
+led him to the bath and gave him new robes to wear. Dressed in these Jason
+looked a prince indeed.
+
+  But all that while King Pelias remained on his judgment seat with his
+crowned head bent down. When he raised his head his dark brows were
+gathered together and his thin lips were very close. He looked to the
+swords and spears of his guards, and he made a sign to the men to stand
+close to him. Then he left the judgment seat and he went to the palace.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+III. The Golden Fleece
+
+
+
+[Decorative first letter]
+_T_HEY brought Jason into a hall where AEson, his father, waited. Very
+strange did this old and grave-looking man appear to him. But when AEson
+spoke, Jason remembered the tone of his father's voice and he clasped him
+to him. And his father knew him even without the sight of the ruby ring
+which Jason had upon his finger.
+
+  Then the young man began to tell of the centaur and of his life upon the
+Mountain Pelion. As they were speaking together Pelias came to where they
+stood, Pelias in the purple robe of a king and with the crown upon his
+head. AEson tightly clasped Jason as if he had become fearful for his son.
+Pelias smilingly took the hand of the young man and the hand of his
+brother, and he bade them both welcome to his palace.
+
+  Then, walking between them, the king brought the two into the feasting
+hall. The youth who had known only the forest and the mountainside had to
+wonder at the beauty and the magnificence of all he saw around him. On the
+walls were bright pictures; the tables were of polished wood, and they had
+vessels of gold and dishes of silver set upon them; along the walls were
+vases of lovely shapes and colors, and everywhere there were baskets
+heaped with roses white and red.
+
+  The king's guests were already in the hall, young men and elders, and
+maidens went amongst them carrying roses which they strung into wreaths
+for the guests to put upon their heads. A soft-handed maiden gave Jason a
+wreath of roses and he put it on his head as he sat down at the king's
+table. When he looked at all the rich and lovely things in that hall, and
+when he saw the guests looking at him with friendly eyes, Jason felt that
+he was indeed far away from the dim spaces of the mountain forest and from
+the darkness of the centaur's cave.
+
+  Rich food and wine such as he had never dreamt of tasting were brought
+to the tables. He ate and drank, and his eyes followed the fair maidens
+who went through the hall. He thought how glorious it was to be a king. He
+heard Pelias speak to AEson, his father, telling him that he was old and
+that he was weary of ruling; that he longed to make friends, and that he
+would let no enmity now be between him and his brother. And he heard the
+king say that he, Jason, was young and courageous, and that he would call
+upon him to help to rule the land, and that, in a while, Jason would bear
+full sway over the kingdom that Cretheus had founded.
+
+  So Pelias spoke to AEson as they both sat together at the king's high
+table. But Jason, looking on them both, saw that the eyes that his father
+turned on him were full of warnings and mistrust.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+  After they had eaten King Pelias made a sign, and a cup-bearer bringing
+a richly wrought cup came and stood before the king. The king stood up,
+holding the cup in his hands, and all in the hall waited silently. Then
+Pelias put the cup into Jason's hands and he cried out in a voice that was
+heard all through the hall, "Drink from this cup, O nephew Jason! Drink
+from this cup, O man who will soon come to rule over the kingdom that
+Cretheus founded!"
+
+  All in the hall stood up and shouted with delight at that speech. But
+the king was not delighted with their delight, Jason saw. He took the cup
+and he drank the rich wine; pride grew in him; he looked down the hall and
+he saw faces all friendly to him; he felt as a king might feel, secure and
+triumphant. And then he heard King Pelias speaking once more.
+
+  "This is my nephew Jason, reared and fostered in the centaur's cave. He
+will tell you of his life in the forest and the mountains--his life that
+was like to the life of the half gods."
+
+  Then Jason spoke to them, telling them of his life on the Mountain
+Pelion. When he had spoken, Pelias said:
+
+  "I was bidden by the oracle to beware of the man whom I should see
+coming toward me half shod. But, as you all see, I have brought the
+half-shod man to my palace and my feasting hall, so little do I dread the
+anger of the gods.
+
+  "And I dread it little because I am blameless. This youth, the son of my
+brother, is strong and courageous, and I rejoice in his strength and
+courage, for I would have him take my place and reign over you. Ah, that I
+were as young as he is now! Ah, that I had been reared and fostered as he
+was reared and fostered by the wise centaur and under the eyes of the
+immortals! Then would I do that which in my youth I often dreamed of
+doing! Then would I perform a deed that would make my name and the name of
+my city famous throughout all Greece! Then would I bring from far Colchis
+the famous Fleece of Gold that King AEetes keeps guard over!"
+
+  He finished speaking, and all in the hall shouted out, "The Golden
+Fleece, the Golden Fleece from Colchis!" Jason stood up, and his father's
+hand gripped him. But he did not heed the hold of his father's hand, for
+"The Golden Fleece, the Golden Fleece!" rang in his ears, and before his
+eyes were the faces of those who were all eager for the sight of the
+wonder that King AEetes kept guard over.
+
+  Then said Jason, "Thou hast spoken well, O King Pelias! Know, and know
+all here assembled, that I have heard of the Golden Fleece and of the
+dangers that await on any one who should strive to win it from King
+AEetes's care. But know, too, that I would strive to win the Fleece and
+bring it to Iolcus, winning fame both for myself and for the city."
+
+  When he had spoken he saw his father's stricken eyes; they were fixed
+upon him. But he looked from them to the shining eyes of the young men who
+were even then pressing around where he stood. "Jason, Jason!" they
+shouted. "The Golden Fleece for Iolcus!"
+
+  "King Pelias knows that the winning of the Golden Fleece is a feat most
+difficult," said Jason. "But if he will have built for me a ship that can
+make the voyage to far Colchis, and if he will send throughout all Greece
+the word of my adventuring so that all the heroes who would win fame might
+come with me, and if ye, young heroes of Iolcus, will come with me, I will
+peril my life to win the wonder that King AEetes keeps guard over."
+
+  He spoke and those in the hall shouted again and made clamor around him.
+But still his father sat gazing at him with stricken eyes.
+
+  King Pelias stood up in the hall and holding up his scepter he said, "O
+my nephew Jason, and O friends assembled here, I promise that I will have
+built for the voyage the best ship that ever sailed from a harbor in
+Greece. And I promise that I will send throughout all Greece a word
+telling of Jason's voyage so that all heroes desirous of winning fame may
+come to help him and to help all of you who may go with him to win from
+the keeping of King AEetes the famous Fleece of Gold."
+
+  So King Pelias said, but Jason, looking to the king from his father's
+stricken eyes, saw that he had been led by the king into the acceptance of
+the voyage so that he might fare far from Iolcus, and perhaps lose his
+life in striving to gain the wonder that King AEetes kept guarded. By the
+glitter in Pelias's eyes he knew the truth. Nevertheless Jason would not
+take back one word that he had spoken; his heart was strong within him,
+and he thought that with the help of the bright-eyed youths around and
+with the help of those who would come to him at the word of the voyage, he
+would bring the Golden Fleece to Iolcus and make famous for all time his
+own name.
+
+
+
+
+IV. The Assembling of the Heroes and the Building of the Ship
+
+
+
+[Decorative first letter]
+_F_IRST there came the youths CASTOR and POLYDEUCES. They came riding on
+white horses, two noble-looking brothers. From Sparta they came, and their
+mother was Leda, who, after the twin brothers, had another child born to
+her--Helen, for whose sake the sons of many of Jason's friends were to wage
+war against the great city of Troy. These were the first heroes who came
+to Iolcus after the word had gone forth through Greece of Jason's
+adventuring in quest of the Golden Fleece.
+
+  And then there came one who had both welcome and reverence from Jason;
+this one came without spear or bow, bearing in his hands a lyre only. He
+was ORPHEUS, and he knew all the ways of the gods and all the stories of
+the gods; when he sang to his lyre the trees would listen and the beasts
+would follow him. It was Chiron who had counseled Orpheus to go with
+Jason; Chiron the centaur had met him as he was wandering through the
+forests on the Mountain Pelion and had sent him down into Iolcus.
+
+  Then there came two men well skilled in the handling of ships--TIPHYS and
+NAUPLIUS. Tiphys knew all about the sun and winds and stars, and all about
+the signs by which a ship might be steered, and Nauplius had the love of
+Poseidon, the god of the sea.
+
+  Afterward there came, one after the other, two who were famous for their
+hunting. No two could be more different than these two were. The first was
+ARCAS. He was dressed in the skin of a bear; he had red hair and
+savage-looking eyes, and for arms he carried a mighty bow with
+bronze-tipped arrows. The folk were watching an eagle as he came into the
+city--an eagle that was winging its way far, far up in the sky. Arcas drew
+his bow, and with one arrow he brought the eagle down.
+
+  The other hunter was a girl, ATALANTA. Tall and bright-haired was
+Atalanta, swift and good with the bow. She had dedicated herself to
+Artemis, the guardian of the wild things, and she had vowed that she would
+remain unwedded. All the heroes welcomed Atalanta as a comrade, and the
+maiden did all the things that the young men did.
+
+  There came a hero who was less youthful than Castor or Polydeuces; he
+was a man good in council named NESTOR. Afterward Nestor went to the war
+against Troy, and then he was the oldest of the heroes in the camp of
+Agamemnon.
+
+  Two brothers came who were to be special friends of Jason's--PELEUS and
+TELAMON. Both were still youthful and neither had yet achieved any notable
+deed. Afterward they were to be famous, but their sons were to be even
+more famous, for the son of Telamon was strong Aias, and the son of Peleus
+was great Achilles.
+
+  Another who came was ADMETUS; afterward he became a famous king. The God
+Apollo once made himself a shepherd and he kept the flocks of King
+Admetus.
+
+  And there came two brothers, twins, who were a wonder to all who beheld
+them. ZETES and CALAIS they were named; their mother was Oreithyia, the
+daughter of Erechtheus, King of Athens, and their father was Boreas, the
+North Wind. These two brothers had on their ankles wings that gleamed with
+golden scales; their black hair was thick upon their shoulders, and it was
+always being shaken by the wind.
+
+  With Zetes and Calais there came a youth armed with a great sword whose
+name was THESEUS. Theseus's father was an unknown king; he had bidden the
+mother show their son where his sword was hidden. Under a great stone the
+king had hidden it before Theseus was born. Before he had grown out of his
+boyhood Theseus had been able to raise the stone and draw forth his
+father's sword. As yet he had done no great deed, but he was resolved to
+win fame and to find his unknown father.
+
+
+
+  On the day that the messengers had set out to bring through Greece the
+word of Jason's going forth in quest of the Golden Fleece the woodcutters
+made their way up into the forests of Mount Pelion; they began to fell
+trees for the timbers of the ship that was to make the voyage to far
+Colchis.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+  Great timbers were cut and brought down to Pagasae, the harbor of Iolcus.
+On the night of the day he had helped to bring them down Jason had a
+dream. He dreamt that She whom he had seen in the forest ways and
+afterward by the River Anaurus appeared to him. And in his dream the
+goddess bade him rise early in the morning and welcome a man whom he would
+meet at the city's gate--a tall and gray-haired man who would have on his
+shoulders tools for the building of a ship.
+
+  He went to the city's gate and he met such a man. ARGUS was his name. He
+told Jason that a dream had sent him to the city of Iolcus. Jason welcomed
+him and lodged him in the king's palace, and that day the word went
+through the city that the building of the great ship would soon be begun.
+
+  But not with the timbers brought from Mount Pelion did Argus begin.
+Walking through the palace with Jason he noted a great beam in the roof.
+That beam, he said, had been shown him in his dream; it was from an oak
+tree in Dodona, the grove of Zeus. A sacred power was in the beam, and
+from it the prow of the ship should be fashioned. Jason had them take the
+beam from the roof of the palace; it was brought to where the timbers
+were, and that day the building of the great ship was begun.
+
+  Then all along the waterside came the noise of hammering; in the street
+where the metalworkers were came the noise of beating upon metals as the
+smiths fashioned out of bronze armor for the heroes and swords and spears.
+Every day, under the eyes of Argus the master, the ship that had in it the
+beam from Zeus's grove was built higher and wider. And those who were
+building the ship often felt going through it tremors as of a living
+creature.
+
+
+
+  When the ship was built and made ready for the voyage a name was given
+to it--the ARGO it was called. And naming themselves from the ship the
+heroes called themselves the ARGONAUTS. All was ready for the voyage, and
+now Jason went with his friends to view the ship before she was brought
+into the water.
+
+  Argus the master was on the ship, seeing to it that the last things were
+being done before _Argo_ was launched. Very grave and wise looked
+Argus--Argus the builder of the ship. And wonderful to the heroes the ship
+looked now that Argus, for their viewing, had set up the mast with the
+sails and had even put the oars in their places. Wonderful to the heroes
+_Argo_ looked with her long oars and her high sails, with her timbers
+painted red and gold and blue, and with a marvelous figure carved upon her
+prow. All over the ship Jason's eyes went. He saw a figure standing by the
+mast; for a moment he looked on it, and then the figure became shadowy.
+But Jason knew that he had looked upon the goddess whom he had seen in the
+ways of the forest and had seen afterward by the rough Anaurus.
+
+  Then mast and sails were taken down and the oars were left in the ship,
+and the _Argo_ was launched into the water. The heroes went back to the
+palace of King Pelias to feast with the king's guests before they took
+their places on the ship, setting out on the voyage to far Colchis.
+
+  When they came into the palace they saw that another hero had arrived.
+His shield was hung in the hall; the heroes all gathered around, amazed at
+the size and the beauty of it. The shield shone all over with gold. In its
+center was the figure of Fear--of Fear that stared backward with eyes
+burning as with fire. The mouth was open and the teeth were shown. And
+other figures were wrought around the figure of Fear--Strife and Pursuit
+and Flight; Tumult and Panic and Slaughter. The figure of Fate was there
+dragging a dead man by the feet; on her shoulders Fate had a garment that
+was red with the blood of men.
+
+  Around these figures were heads of snakes, heads with black jaws and
+glittering eyes, twelve heads such as might affright any man. And on other
+parts of the shield were shown the horses of Ares, the grim god of war.
+The figure of Ares himself was shown also. He held a spear in his hand,
+and he was urging the warriors on.
+
+  Around the inner rim of the shield the sea was shown, wrought in white
+metal. Dolphins swam in the sea, fishing for little fishes that were shown
+there in bronze. Around the rim chariots were racing along with wheels
+running close together; there were men fighting and women watching from
+high towers. The awful figure of the Darkness of Death was shown there,
+too, with mournful eyes and the dust of battles upon her shoulders. The
+outer rim of the shield showed the Stream of Ocean, the stream that
+encircles the world; swans were soaring above and swimming on its surface.
+
+  All in wonder the heroes gazed on the great shield, telling each other
+that only one man in all the world could carry it--Heracles the son of
+Zeus. Could it be that Heracles had come amongst them? They went into the
+feasting hall and they saw one there who was tall as a pine tree, with
+unshorn tresses of hair upon his head. Heracles indeed it was! He turned
+to them a smiling face with smiling eyes. Heracles! They all gathered
+around the strongest hero in the world, and he took the hand of each in
+his mighty hand.
+
+
+
+
+V. The _Argo_
+
+
+
+[Decorative first letter]
+_T_HE heroes went the next day through the streets of Iolcus down to where
+the ship lay. The ways they went through were crowded; the heroes were
+splendid in their appearance, and Jason amongst them shone like a star.
+
+  The people praised him, and one told the other that it would not be long
+until they would win back to Iolcus, for this band of heroes was strong
+enough, they said, to take King AEetes's city and force him to give up to
+them the famous Fleece of Gold. Many of the bright-eyed youths of Iolcus
+went with the heroes who had come from the different parts of Greece.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+                                the _Argo_
+
+
+  As they marched past a temple a priestess came forth to speak to Jason;
+Iphias was her name. She had a prophecy to utter about the voyage. But
+Iphias was very old, and she stammered in her speech to Jason. What she
+said was not heard by him. The heroes went on, and ancient Iphias was left
+standing there as the old are left by the young.
+
+  The heroes went aboard the _Argo_. They took their seats as at an
+assembly. Then Jason faced them and spoke to them all.
+
+  "Heroes of the quest," said Jason, "we have come aboard the great ship
+that Argus has built, and all that a ship needs is in its place or is
+ready to our hands. All that we wait for now is the coming of the
+morning's breeze that will set us on our way for far Colchis.
+
+  "One thing we have first to do--that is, to choose a leader who will
+direct us all, one who will settle disputes amongst ourselves and who will
+make treaties between us and the strangers that we come amongst. We must
+choose such a leader now."
+
+  Jason spoke, and some looked to him and some looked to Heracles. But
+Heracles stood up, and, stretching out his hand, said:
+
+  "Argonauts! Let no one amongst you offer the leadership to me. I will
+not take it. The hero who brought us together and made all things ready
+for our going--it is he and no one else who should be our leader in this
+voyage."
+
+  So Heracles said, and the Argonauts all stood up and raised a cry for
+Jason. Then Jason stepped forward, and he took the hand of each Argonaut
+in his hand, and he swore that he would lead them with all the mind and
+all the courage that he possessed. And he prayed the gods that it would be
+given to him to lead them back safely with the Golden Fleece glittering on
+the mast of the _Argo_.
+
+  They drew lots for the benches they would sit at; they took the places
+that for the length of the voyage they would have on the ship. They made
+sacrifice to the gods and they waited for the breeze of the morning that
+would help them away from Iolcus.
+
+
+
+  And while they waited AEson, the father of Jason, sat at his own hearth,
+bowed and silent in his grief. Alcimide, his wife, sat near him, but she
+was not silent; she lamented to the women of Iolcus who were gathered
+around her. "I did not go down to the ship," she said, "for with my grief
+I would not be a bird of ill omen for the voyage. By this hearth my son
+took farewell of me--the only son I ever bore. From the doorway I watched
+him go down the street of the city, and I heard the people shout as he
+went amongst them, they glorying in my son's splendid appearance. Ah, that
+I might live to see his return and to hear the shout that will go up when
+the people look on Jason again! But I know that my life will not be spared
+so long; I will not look on my son when he comes back from the dangers he
+will run in the quest of the Golden Fleece."
+
+  Then the women of Iolcus asked her to tell them of the Golden Fleece,
+and Alcimide told them of it and of the sorrows that were upon the race of
+AEolus.
+
+  Cretheus, the father of AEson and Pelias, was of the race of AEolus, and
+of the race of AEolus, too, was Athamas, the king who ruled in Thebes at
+the same time that Cretheus ruled in Iolcus. And the first children of
+Athamas were Phrixus and Helle.
+
+  "Ah, Phrixus and ah, Helle," Alcimide lamented, "what griefs you have
+brought on the race of AEolus! And what griefs you yourselves suffered! The
+evil that Athamas, your father, did you lives to be a curse to the line of
+AEolus!
+
+  "Athamas was wedded first to Nephele, the mother of Phrixus and Helle,
+the youth and maiden. But Athamas married again while the mother of these
+children was still living, and Ino, the new queen, drove Nephele and her
+children out of the king's palace.
+
+  "And now was Nephele most unhappy. She had to live as a servant, and her
+children were servants to the servants of the palace. They were clad in
+rags and had little to eat, and they were beaten often by the servants who
+wished to win the favor of the new queen.
+
+  "But although they wore rags and had menial tasks to do, Phrixus and
+Helle looked the children of a queen. The boy was tall, and in his eyes
+there often came the flash of power, and the girl looked as if she would
+grow into a lovely maiden. And when Athamas, their father, would meet them
+by chance he would sigh, and Queen Ino would know by that sigh that he had
+still some love for them in his heart. Afterward she would have to use all
+the power she possessed to win the king back from thinking upon his
+children.
+
+  "And now Queen Ino had children of her own. She knew that the people
+reverenced the children of Nephele and cared nothing for her children. And
+because she knew this she feared that when Athamas died Phrixus and Helle,
+the children of Nephele, would be brought to rule in Thebes. Then she and
+her children would be made to change places with them.
+
+  "This made Queen Ino think on ways by which she could make Phrixus and
+Helle lose their lives. She thought long upon this, and at last a
+desperate plan came into her mind.
+
+  "When it was winter she went amongst the women of the countryside, and
+she gave them jewels and clothes for presents. Then she asked them to do
+secretly an unheard-of thing. She asked the women to roast over their
+fires the grains that had been left for seed. This the women did. Then
+spring came on, and the men sowed in the fields the grain that had been
+roasted over the fires. No shoots grew up as the spring went by. In summer
+there was no waving greenness in the fields. Autumn came, and there was no
+grain for the reaping. Then the men, not knowing what had happened, went
+to King Athamas and told him that there would be famine in the land.
+
+  "The king sent to the temple of Artemis to ask how the people might be
+saved from the famine. And the guardians of the temple, having taken gold
+from Queen Ino, told them that there would be worse and worse famine and
+that all the people of Thebes would die of hunger unless the king was
+willing to make a great sacrifice.
+
+  "When the king asked what sacrifice he should make he was told by the
+guardians of the temple that he must sacrifice to the goddess his two
+children, Phrixus and Helle. Those who were around the king, to save
+themselves from famine after famine, clamored to have the children
+sacrificed. Athamas, to save his people, consented to the sacrifice.
+
+  "They went toward the king's palace. They found Helle by the bank of the
+river washing clothes. They took her and bound her. They found Phrixus,
+half naked, digging in a field, and they took him, too, and bound him.
+That night they left brother and sister in the same prison. Helle wept
+over Phrixus, and Phrixus wept to think that he was not able to do
+anything to save his sister.
+
+  "The servants of the palace went to Nephele, and they mocked at her,
+telling her that her children would be sacrificed on the morrow. Nephele
+nearly went wild in her grief. And then, suddenly, there came into her
+mind the thought of a creature that might be a helper to her and to her
+children.
+
+  "This creature was a ram that had wings and a wonderful fleece of gold.
+The god of the sea, Poseidon, had sent this wonderful ram to Athamas and
+Nephele as a marriage gift. And the ram had since been kept in a special
+fold.
+
+  "To that fold Nephele went. She spent the night beside the ram praying
+for its help. The morning came and the children were taken from their
+prison and dressed in white, and wreaths were put upon their heads to mark
+them as things for sacrifice. They were led in a procession to the temple
+of Artemis. Behind that procession King Athamas walked, his head bowed in
+shame.
+
+  "But Queen Ino's head was not bowed; rather she carried it high, for her
+thought was all upon her triumph. Soon Phrixus and Helle would be dead,
+and then, whatever happened, her own children would reign after Athamas in
+Thebes.
+
+  "Phrixus and Helle, thinking they were taking their last look at the
+sun, went on. And even then Nephele, holding the horns of the golden ram,
+was making her last prayer. The sun rose and as it did the ram spread out
+its great wings and flew through the air. It flew to the temple of
+Artemis. Down beside the altar came the golden ram, and it stood with its
+horns threatening those who came. All stopped in surprise. Still the ram
+stood with threatening head and great golden wings spread out. Then
+Phrixus ran from those who were holding him and laid his hands upon the
+ram. He called to Helle and she, too, came to the golden creature. Phrixus
+mounted on the ram and he pulled Helle up beside him. Then the golden ram
+flew upward. Up, up, it went, and with the children upon its back it
+became like a star in the day-lit sky.
+
+  "Then Queen Ino, seeing the children saved by the golden ram, shrieked
+and fled away from that place. Athamas ran after her. As she ran and as he
+followed hatred for her grew up within him. Ino ran on and on until she
+came to the cliffs that rose over the sea. Fearing Athamas who came behind
+her she plunged down. But as she fell she was changed by Poseidon, the god
+of the sea. She became a seagull. Athamas, who followed her, was changed
+also; he became the sea eagle that, with beak and talons ever ready to
+strike, flies above the sea.
+
+  "And the golden ram with wings outspread flew on and on. Over the sea it
+flew while the wind whistled around the children. On and on they went, and
+the children saw only the blue sea beneath them. Then poor Helle, looking
+downward, grew dizzy. She fell off the golden ram before her brother could
+take hold of her. Down she fell, and still the ram flew on and on. She was
+drowned in that sea. The people afterward named it in memory of her,
+calling it 'Hellespont'--'Helle's Sea.'
+
+  "On and on the ram flew. Over a wild and barren country it flew and
+toward a river. Upon that river a white city was built. Down the ram flew,
+and alighting on the ground, stood before the gate of that city. It was
+the city of Aea, in the land of Colchis.
+
+  "The king was in the street of the city, and he joined with the crowd
+that gathered around the strange golden creature that had a youth upon its
+back. The ram folded its wings and then the youth stood beside it. He
+spoke to the people, and then the king--AEetes was his name--spoke to him,
+asking him from what place he had come, and what was the strange creature
+upon whose back he had flown.
+
+  "To the king and to the people Phrixus told his story, weeping to tell
+of Helle and her fall. Then King AEetes brought him into the city, and he
+gave him a place in the palace, and for the golden ram he had a special
+fold made.
+
+  "Soon after the ram died, and then King AEetes took its golden fleece and
+hung it upon an oak tree that was in a place dedicated to Ares, the god of
+war. Phrixus wed one of the daughters of the king, and men say that
+afterward he went back to Thebes, his own land.
+
+  "And as for the Golden Fleece it became the greatest of King AEetes's
+treasures. Well indeed does he guard it, and not with armed men only, but
+with magic powers. Very strong and very cunning is King AEetes, and a
+terrible task awaits those who would take away from him that Fleece of
+Gold."
+
+
+
+  So Alcimide spoke, sorrowfully telling to the women the story of the
+Golden Fleece that her son Jason was going in quest of. So she spoke, and
+the night waned, and the morning of the sailing of the _Argo_ came on.
+
+  And when the Argonauts beheld the dawn upon the high peaks of Pelion
+they arose and poured out wine in offering to Zeus, the highest of the
+gods. Then _Argo_ herself gave forth a strange cry, for the beam from
+Dodona that had been formed into her prow had endued her with life. She
+uttered a strange cry, and as she did the heroes took their places at the
+benches, one after the other, as had been arranged by lot, and Tiphys, the
+helmsman, went to the steering place. To the sound of Orpheus's lyre they
+smote with oars the rushing sea water, and the surge broke over the oar
+blades. The sails were let out and the breeze came into them, piping
+shrilly, and the fishes came darting through the green sea, great and
+small, and followed them, gamboling along the watery paths. And Chiron,
+the king-centaur, came down from the Mountain Pelion, and standing with
+his feet in the foam cried out, "Good speed, O Argonauts, good speed, and
+a sorrowless return."
+
+
+
+The Beginning of Things
+
+
+  Orpheus sang to his lyre, Orpheus the minstrel, who knew the ways and
+the stories of the gods; out in the open sea on the first morning of the
+voyage Orpheus sang to them of the beginning of things.
+
+  He sang how at first Earth and Heaven and Sea were all mixed and mingled
+together. There was neither Light nor Darkness then, but only a Dimness.
+This was Chaos. And from Chaos came forth Night and Erebus. From Night was
+born AEther, the Upper Air, and from Night and Erebus wedded there was born
+Day.
+
+  And out of Chaos came Earth, and out of Earth came the starry Heaven.
+And from Heaven and Earth wedded there were born the Titan gods and
+goddesses--Oceanus, Coeus, Crius, Hyperion, Iapetus; Theia, Rhea, Themis,
+Mnemosyne, gold-crowned Phoebe, and lovely Tethys. And then Heaven and
+Earth had for their child Cronos, the most cunning of all.
+
+  Cronos wedded Rhea, and from Cronos and Rhea were born the gods who were
+different from the Titan gods.
+
+  But Heaven and Earth had other children--Cottus, Briareus, and Gyes.
+These were giants, each with fifty heads and a hundred arms. And Heaven
+grew fearful when he looked on these giant children, and he hid them away
+in the deep places of the Earth.
+
+  Cronos hated Heaven, his father. He drove Heaven, his father, and Earth,
+his mother, far apart. And far apart they stay, for they have never been
+able to come near each other since. And Cronos married to Rhea had for
+children Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Aidoneus, and Poseidon, and these all
+belonged to the company of the deathless gods. Cronos was fearful that one
+of his sons would treat him as he had treated Heaven, his father. So when
+another child was born to him and his wife Rhea he commanded that the
+child be given to him so that he might swallow him. But Rhea wrapped a
+great stone in swaddling clothes and gave the stone to Cronos. And Cronos
+swallowed the stone, thinking to swallow his latest-born child.
+
+  That child was Zeus. Earth took Zeus and hid him in a deep cave and
+those who minded and nursed the child beat upon drums so that his cries
+might not be heard. His nurse was Adrastia; when he was able to play she
+gave him a ball to play with. All of gold was the ball, with a dark-blue
+spiral around it. When the boy Zeus would play with this ball it would
+make a track across the sky, flaming like a star.
+
+  Hyperion the Titan god wed Theia the Titan goddess, and their children
+were Helios, the bright Sun, and Selene, the clear Moon. And Coeus wed
+Phoebe, and their children were Leto, who is kind to gods and men, and
+Asteria of happy name, and Hecate, whom Zeus honored above all. Now the
+gods who were the children of Cronos and Rhea went up unto the Mountain
+Olympus, and there they built their shining palaces. But the Titan gods
+who were born of Heaven and Earth went up to the Mountain Othrys, and
+there they had their thrones.
+
+  Between the Olympians and the Titan gods of Othrys a war began. Neither
+side might prevail against the other. But now Zeus, grown up to be a
+youth, thought of how he might help the Olympians to overthrow the Titan
+gods.
+
+  He went down into the deep parts of the Earth where the giants Cottus,
+Briareus, and Gyes had been hidden by their father. Cronos had bound them,
+weighing them down with chains. But now Zeus loosed them and the
+hundred-armed giants in their gratitude gave him the lightning and showed
+him how to use the thunderbolt.
+
+  Zeus would have the giants fight against the Titan gods. But although
+they had mighty strength Cottus, Briareus, and Gyes had no fire of courage
+in their hearts. Zeus thought of a way to give them this courage; he
+brought the food and drink of the gods to them, ambrosia and nectar, and
+when they had eaten and drunk their spirits grew within the giants, and
+they were ready to make war upon the Titan gods.
+
+  "Sons of Earth and Heaven," said Zeus to the hundred-armed giants, "a
+long time now have the Dwellers on Olympus been striving with the Titan
+gods. Do you lend your unconquerable might to the gods and help them to
+overthrow the Titans."
+
+  Cottus, the eldest of the giants, answered, "Divine One, through your
+devising we are come back again from the murky gloom of the mid Earth and
+we have escaped from the hard bonds that Cronus laid upon us. Our minds
+are fixed to aid you in the war against the Titan gods."
+
+  So the hundred-armed giants said, and thereupon Zeus went and he
+gathered around him all who were born of Cronos and Rhea. Cronos himself
+hid from Zeus. Then the giants, with their fifty heads growing from their
+shoulders and their hundred hands, went forth against the Titan gods. The
+boundless sea rang terribly and the earth crashed loudly; wide Heaven was
+shaken and groaned, and high Olympus reeled from its foundation. Holding
+huge rocks in their hands the giants attacked the Titan gods.
+
+  Then Zeus entered the war. He hurled the lightning; the bolts flew thick
+and fast from his strong hand, with thunder and lightning and flame. The
+earth crashed around in burning, the forests crackled with fire, the ocean
+seethed. And hot flames wrapped the earth-born Titans all around. Three
+hundred rocks, one upon another, did Cottus, Briareus, and Gyes hurl upon
+the Titans. And when their ranks were broken the giants seized upon them
+and held them for Zeus.
+
+  But some of the Titan gods, seeing that the strife for them was vain,
+went over to the side of Zeus. These Zeus became friendly with. But the
+other Titans he bound in chains and he hurled them down to Tartarus.
+
+  As far as Earth is from Heaven so is Tartarus from Earth. A brazen anvil
+falling down from Heaven to Earth nine days and nine nights would reach
+the earth upon the tenth day. And again, a brazen anvil falling from Earth
+nine nights and nine days would reach Tartarus upon the tenth night.
+Around Tartarus runs a fence of bronze and Night spreads in a triple line
+all about it, as a necklace circles the neck. There Zeus imprisoned the
+Titan gods who had fought against him; they are hidden in the misty gloom,
+in a dank place, at the ends of the Earth. And they may not go out, for
+Poseidon fixed gates of bronze upon their prison, and a wall runs all
+round it. There Cottus, Briareus, and Gyes stay, guarding them.
+
+  And there, too, is the home of Night. Night and Day meet each other at
+that place, as they pass a threshold of bronze. They draw near and they
+greet one another, but the house never holds them both together, for while
+one is about to go down into the house, the other is leaving through the
+door. One holds Light in her hand and the other holds in her arms Sleep.
+
+  There the children of dark Night have their dwellings--Sleep, and Death,
+his brother. The sun never shines upon these two. Sleep may roam over the
+wide earth, and come upon the sea, and he is kindly to men. But Death is
+not kindly, and whoever he seizes upon, him he holds fast.
+
+  There, too, stands the hall of the lord of the Underworld, Aidoneus, the
+brother of Zeus. Zeus gave him the Underworld to be his dominion when he
+shared amongst the Olympians the world that Cronos had ruled over. A
+fearful hound guards the hall of Aidoneus: Cerberus he is called; he has
+three heads. On those who go within that hall Cerberus fawns, but on those
+who would come out of it he springs and would devour them.
+
+  Not all the Titans did Zeus send down to Tartarus. Those of them who had
+wisdom joined him, and by their wisdom Zeus was able to overcome Cronos.
+Then Cronos went to live with the friendly Titan gods, while Zeus reigned
+over Olympus, becoming the ruler of gods and men.
+
+
+
+  So Orpheus sang, Orpheus who knew the ways and the histories of the
+gods.
+
+
+
+
+VI. Polydeuces' Victory and Heracles' Loss
+
+
+
+[Decorative first letter]
+_A_LL the places that the Argonauts came nigh to and went past need not be
+told--Meliboea, where they escaped a stormy beach; Homole, from where they
+were able to look on Ossa and holy Olympus; Lemnos, the island that they
+were to return to; the unnamed country where the Earth-born Men abide,
+each having six arms, two growing from his shoulders, and four fitting
+close to his terrible sides; and then the Mountain of the Bears, where
+they climbed, to make sacrifice there to Rhea, the mighty mother of the
+gods.
+
+  Afterward, for a whole day, no wind blew and the sail of the _Argo_ hung
+slack. But the heroes swore to each other that they would make their ship
+go as swiftly as if the storm-footed steeds of Poseidon were racing to
+overtake her. Mightily they labored at the oars, and no one would be first
+to leave his rower's bench.
+
+  And then, just as the breeze of the evening came up, and just as the
+rest of the heroes were leaning back, spent with their labor, the oar that
+Heracles still pulled at broke, and half of it was carried away by the
+waves. Heracles sat there in ill humor, for he did not know what to do
+with his unlaboring hands.
+
+  All through the night they went on with a good breeze filling their
+sails, and next day they came to the mouth of the River Cius. There they
+landed so that Heracles might get himself an oar. No sooner did they set
+their feet upon the shore than the hero went off into the forest, to pull
+up a tree that he might shape into an oar.
+
+  Where they had landed was near to the country of the Bebrycians, a rude
+people whose king was named Amycus. Now while Heracles was away from them
+this king came with his followers--huge, rude men, all armed with clubs,
+down to where the Argonauts were lighting their fires on the beach.
+
+  He did not greet them courteously, asking them what manner of men they
+were and whither they were bound, nor did he offer them hospitality.
+Instead, he shouted at them insolently:
+
+  "Listen to something that you rovers had better know. I am Amycus, and
+any stranger that comes to this land has to get into a boxing bout with
+me. That's the law that I have laid down. Unless you have one amongst you
+who can stand up to me you won't be let go back to your ship. If you don't
+heed my law, look out, for something's going to happen to you."
+
+  So he shouted, that insolent king, and his followers raised their clubs
+and growled approval of what their master said. But the Argonauts were not
+dismayed at the words of Amycus. One of them stepped toward the
+Bebrycians. He was Polydeuces, good at boxing.
+
+  "Offer us no violence, king," said Polydeuces. "We are ready to obey the
+law that you have laid down. Willingly do I take up your challenge, and I
+will box a bout with you."
+
+  The Argonauts cheered when they saw Polydeuces, the good boxer, step
+forward, and when they heard what he had to say. Amycus turned and shouted
+to his followers, and one of them brought up two pairs of boxing
+gauntlets--of rough cowhide they were. The Argonauts feared that
+Polydeuces' hands might have been made numb with pulling at the oar, and
+some of them went to him, and took his hands and rubbed them to make them
+supple; others took from off his shoulders his beautifully colored mantle.
+
+  Amycus straightway put on his gauntlets and threw off his mantle; he
+stood there amongst his followers with his great arms crossed, glowering
+at the Argonauts as a wild beast might glower. And when the two faced each
+other Amycus seemed like one of the Earth-born Men, dark and hugely
+shaped, while Helen's brother stood there light and beautiful. Polydeuces
+was like that star whose beams are lovely at evening-tide.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+  Like the wave that breaks over a ship and gives the sailors no respite
+Amycus came on at Polydeuces. He pushed in upon him, thinking to bear him
+down and overwhelm him. But as the skillful steersman keeps the ship from
+being overwhelmed by the monstrous wave, so Polydeuces, all skill and
+lightness, baffled the rushes of Amycus. At last Amycus, standing on the
+tips of his toes and rising high above him, tried to bring down his great
+fist upon the head of Polydeuces. The hero swung aside and took the blow
+on his shoulder. Then he struck his blow. It was a strong one, and under
+it the king of the Bebrycians staggered and fell down. "You see," said
+Polydeuces, "that we keep your law."
+
+  The Argonauts shouted, but the rude Bebrycians raised their clubs to
+rush upon them. Then would the heroes have been hard pressed, and forced,
+perhaps, to get back to the _Argo_. But suddenly Heracles appeared amongst
+them, coming up from the forest.
+
+  He carried a pine tree in his hands with all its branches still upon it,
+and seeing this mighty-statured man appear with the great tree in his
+hands, the Bebrycians hurried off, carrying their fallen king with them.
+Then the Argonauts gathered around Polydeuces, saluted him as their
+champion, and put a crown of victory upon his head. Heracles, meanwhile,
+lopped off the branches of the pine tree and began to fashion it into an
+oar.
+
+  The fires were lighted upon the shore, and the thoughts of all were
+turned to supper. Then young Hylas, who used to sit by Heracles and keep
+bright the hero's arms and armor, took a bronze vessel and went to fetch
+water.
+
+  Never was there a boy so beautiful as young Hylas. He had golden curls
+that tumbled over his brow. He had deep blue eyes and a face that smiled
+at every glance that was given him, at every word that was said to him.
+Now as he walked through the flowering grasses, with his knees bare, and
+with the bright vessel swinging in his hand, he looked most lovely.
+Heracles had brought the boy with him from the country of the Dryopians;
+he would have him sit beside him on the bench of the _Argo_, and the ill
+humors that often came upon him would go at the words and the smile of
+Hylas.
+
+  Now the spring that Hylas was going toward was called Pegae, and it was
+haunted by the nymphs. They were dancing around it when they heard Hylas
+singing. They stole softly off to watch him. Hidden behind trees the
+nymphs saw the boy come near, and they felt such love for him that they
+thought they could never let him go from their sight.
+
+  They stole back to their spring, and they sank down below its clear
+surface. Then came Hylas singing a song that he had heard from his mother.
+He bent down to the spring, and the brimming water flowed into the
+sounding bronze of the pitcher. Then hands came out of the water. One of
+the nymphs caught Hylas by the elbow; another put her arms around his
+neck, another took the hand that held the vessel of bronze. The pitcher
+sank down to the depths of the spring. The hands of the nymphs clasped
+Hylas tighter, tighter; the water bubbled around him as they drew him
+down. Down, down they drew him, and into the cold and glimmering cave
+where they live.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+                                  Hylas
+
+
+  There Hylas stayed. But although the nymphs kissed him and sang to him,
+and showed him lovely things, Hylas was not content to be there.
+
+  Where the Argonauts were the fires burned, the moon arose, and still
+Hylas did not return. Then they began to fear lest a wild beast had
+destroyed the boy. One went to Heracles and told him that young Hylas had
+not come back, and that they were fearful for him. Heracles flung down the
+pine tree that he was fashioning into an oar, and he dashed along the way
+that Hylas had gone as if a gadfly were stinging him. "Hylas, Hylas," he
+cried. But Hylas, in the cold and glimmering cave that the nymphs had
+drawn him into, did not hear the call of his friend Heracles.
+
+  All the Argonauts went searching, calling as they went through the
+island, "Hylas, Hylas, Hylas!" But only their own calls came back to them.
+The morning star came up, and Tiphys, the steersman, called to them from
+the _Argo_. And when they came to the ship Tiphys told them that they
+would have to go aboard and make ready to sail from that place.
+
+  They called to Heracles, and Heracles at last came down to the ship.
+They spoke to him, saying that they would have to sail away. Heracles
+would not go on board. "I will not leave this island," he said, "until I
+find young Hylas or learn what has happened to him."
+
+  Then Jason arose to give the command to depart. But before the words
+were said Telamon stood up and faced him. "Jason," he said angrily, "you
+do not bid Heracles come on board, and you would have the _Argo_ leave
+without him. You would leave Heracles here so that he may not be with us
+on the quest where his glory might overshadow your glory, Jason."
+
+  Jason said no word, but he sat back on his bench with head bowed. And
+then, even as Telamon said these angry words, a strange figure rose up out
+of the waves of the sea.
+
+  It was the figure of a man, wrinkled and old, with seaweed in his beard
+and his hair. There was a majesty about him, and the Argonauts all knew
+that this was one of the immortals--he was Nereus, the ancient one of the
+sea.
+
+  "To Heracles, and to you, the rest of the Argonauts, I have a thing to
+say," said the ancient one, Nereus. "Know, first, that Hylas has been
+taken by the nymphs who love him and who think to win his love, and that
+he will stay forever with them in their cold and glimmering cave. For
+Hylas seek no more. And to you, Heracles, I will say this: Go aboard the
+_Argo_ again; the ship will take you to where a great labor awaits you,
+and which, in accomplishing, you will work out the will of Zeus. You will
+know what this labor is when a spirit seizes on you." So the ancient one
+of the sea said, and he sank back beneath the waves.
+
+  Heracles went aboard the _Argo_ once more, and he took his place on the
+bench, the new oar in his hand. Sad he was to think that young Hylas who
+used to sit at his knee would never be there again. The breeze filled the
+sail, the Argonauts pulled at the oars, and in sadness they watched the
+island where young Hylas had been lost to them recede from their view.
+
+
+
+
+VII. King Phineus
+
+
+
+[Decorative first letter]
+_S_AID Tiphys, the steersman: "If we could enter the Sea of Pontus, we
+could make our way across that sea to Colchis in a short time. But the
+passage into the Sea of Pontus is most perilous, and few mortals dare even
+to make approach to it."
+
+  Said Jason, the chieftain of the host: "The dangers of the passage,
+Tiphys, we have spoken of, and it may be that we shall have to carry
+_Argo_ overland to the Sea of Pontus. But you, Tiphys, have spoken of a
+wise king who is hereabouts, and who might help us to make the dangerous
+passage. Speak again to us, and tell us what the dangers of the passage
+are, and who the king is who may be able to help us to make these dangers
+less."
+
+  Then said Tiphys, the steersman of the _Argo_: "No ship sailed by
+mortals has as yet gone through the passage that brings this sea into the
+Sea of Pontus. In the way are the rocks that mariners call The Clashers.
+These rocks are not fixed as rocks should be, but they rush one against
+the other, dashing up the sea, and crushing whatever may be between. Yea,
+if _Argo_ were of iron, and if she were between these rocks when they met,
+she would be crushed to bits. I have sailed as far as that passage, but
+seeing The Clashers strike together I turned back my ship, and journeyed
+as far as the Sea of Pontus overland.
+
+  "But I have been told of one who knows how a ship may be taken through
+the passage that The Clashers make so perilous. He who knows is a king
+hereabouts, Phineus, who has made himself as wise as the gods. To no one
+has Phineus told how the passage may be made, but knowing what high favor
+has been shown to us, the Argonauts, it may be that he will tell us."
+
+  So Tiphys said, and Jason commanded him to steer the _Argo_ toward the
+city where ruled Phineus, the wise king.
+
+
+
+  To Salmydessus, then, where Phineus ruled, Tiphys steered the _Argo_.
+They left Heracles with Tiphys aboard to guard the ship, and, with the
+rest of the heroes, Jason went through the streets of the city. They met
+many men, but when they asked any of them how they might come to the
+palace of King Phineus the men turned fearfully away.
+
+  They found their way to the king's palace. Jason spoke to the servants
+and bade them tell the king of their coming. The servants, too, seemed
+fearful, and as Jason and his comrades were wondering what there was about
+him that made men fearful at his name, Phineus, the king, came amongst
+them.
+
+  Were it not that he had a purple border to his robe no one would have
+known him for the king, so miserable did this man seem. He crept along,
+touching the walls, for the eyes in his head were blind and withered. His
+body was shrunken, and when he stood before them leaning on his staff he
+was like to a lifeless thing. He turned his blinded eyes upon them,
+looking from one to the other as if he were searching for a face.
+
+  Then his sightless eyes rested upon Zetes and Calais, the sons of
+Boreas, the North Wind. A change came into his face as it turned upon
+them. One would think that he saw the wonder that these two were endowed
+with--the wings that grew upon their ankles. It was a while before he
+turned his face from them; then he spoke to Jason and said:
+
+  "You have come to have counsel with one who has the wisdom of the gods.
+Others before you have come for such counsel, but seeing the misery that
+is visible upon me they went without asking for counsel. I would strive to
+hold you here for a while. Stay, and have sight of the misery the gods
+visit upon those who would be as wise as they. And when you have seen the
+thing that is wont to befall me, it may be that help will come from you
+for me."
+
+  Then Phineus, the blind king, left them, and after a while the heroes
+were brought into a great hall, and they were invited to rest themselves
+there while a banquet was being prepared for them.
+
+  The hall was richly adorned, but it looked to the heroes as if it had
+known strange happenings; rich hangings were strewn upon the ground, an
+ivory chair was overturned, and the dais where the king sat had stains
+upon it. The servants who went through the hall making ready the banquet
+were white-faced and fearful.
+
+  The feast was laid on a great table, and the heroes were invited to sit
+down to it. The king did not come into the hall before they sat down, but
+a table with food was set before the dais. When the heroes had feasted,
+the king came into the hall. He sat at the table, blind, white-faced, and
+shrunken, and the Argonauts all turned their faces to him.
+
+  Said Phineus, the blind king: "You see, O heroes, how much my wisdom
+avails me. You see me blind and shrunken, who tried to make myself in
+wisdom equal to the gods. And yet you have not seen all. Watch now and see
+what feasts Phineus, the wise king, has to delight him."
+
+  He made a sign, and the white-faced and trembling servants brought food
+and set it upon the table that was before him. The king bent forward as if
+to eat, and they saw that his face was covered with the damp of fear. He
+took food from the dish and raised it to his mouth. As he did, the doors
+of the hall were flung open as if by a storm. Strange shapes flew into the
+hall and set themselves beside the king. And when the Argonauts looked
+upon them they saw that these were terrible and unsightly shapes.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+  They were things that had the wings and claws of birds and the heads of
+women. Black hair and gray feathers were mixed upon them; they had red
+eyes, and streaks of blood were upon their breasts and wings. And as the
+king raised the food to his mouth they flew at him and buffeted his head
+with their wings, and snatched the food from his hands. Then they devoured
+or scattered what was upon the table, and all the time they screamed and
+laughed and mocked.
+
+  "Ah, now ye see," Phineus panted, "what it is to have wisdom equal to
+the wisdom of the gods. Now ye all see my misery. Never do I strive to put
+food to my lips but these foul things, the Harpies, the Snatchers, swoop
+down and scatter or devour what I would eat. Crumbs they leave me that my
+life may not altogether go from me, but these crumbs they make foul to my
+taste and my smell."
+
+  And one of the Harpies perched herself on the back of the king's throne
+and looked upon the heroes with red eyes. "Hah," she screamed, "you bring
+armed men into your feasting hall, thinking to scare us away. Never,
+Phineus, can you scare us from you! Always you will have us, the
+Snatchers, beside you when you would still your ache of hunger. What can
+these men do against us who are winged and who can travel through the ways
+of the air?"
+
+  So said the unsightly Harpy, and the heroes drew together, made fearful
+by these awful shapes. All drew back except Zetes and Calais, the sons of
+the North Wind. They laid their hands upon their swords. The wings on
+their shoulders spread out and the wings at their heels trembled. Phineus,
+the king, leaned forward and panted: "By the wisdom I have I know that
+there are two amongst you who can save me. O make haste to help me, ye who
+can help me, and I will give the counsel that you Argonauts have come to
+me for, and besides I will load down your ship with treasure and costly
+stuffs. Oh, make haste, ye who can help me!"
+
+  Hearing the king speak like this, the Harpies gathered together and
+gnashed with their teeth, and chattered to one another. Then, seeing Zetes
+and Calais with their hands upon their swords, they rose up on their wings
+and flew through the wide doors of the hall. The king cried out to Zetes
+and Calais. But the sons of the North Wind had already risen with their
+wings, and they were after the Harpies, their bright swords in their
+hands.
+
+  On flew the Harpies, screeching and gnashing their teeth in anger and
+dismay, for now they felt that they might be driven from Salmydessus,
+where they had had such royal feasts. They rose high in the air and flew
+out toward the sea. But high as the Harpies rose, the sons of the North
+Wind rose higher. The Harpies cried pitiful cries as they flew on, but
+Zetes and Calais felt no pity for them, for they knew that these dread
+Snatchers, with the stains of blood upon their breasts and wings, had
+shown pity neither to Phineus nor to any other.
+
+  On they flew until they came to the island that is called the Floating
+Island. There the Harpies sank down with wearied wings. Zetes and Calais
+were upon them now, and they would have cut them to pieces with their
+bright swords, if the messenger of Zeus, Iris, with the golden wings, had
+not come between.
+
+  "Forbear to slay the Harpies, sons of Boreas," cried Iris warningly,
+"forbear to slay the Harpies that are the hounds of Zeus. Let them cower
+here and hide themselves, and I, who come from Zeus, will swear the oath
+that the gods most dread, that they will never again come to Salmydessus
+to trouble Phineus, the king."
+
+  The heroes yielded to the words of Iris. She took the oath that the gods
+most dread--the oath by the Water of Styx--that never again would the
+Harpies show themselves to Phineus. Then Zetes and Calais turned back
+toward the city of Salmydessus. The island that they drove the Harpies to
+had been called the Floating Island, but thereafter it was called the
+Island of Turning. It was evening when they turned back, and all night
+long the Argonauts and King Phineus sat in the hall of the palace and
+awaited the return of Zetes and Calais, the sons of the North Wind.
+
+
+
+
+VIII. King Phineus's Counsel; The Landing in Lemnos
+
+
+
+[Decorative first letter]
+_T_HEY came into King Phineus's hall, their bright swords in their hands.
+The Argonauts crowded around them and King Phineus raised his head and
+stretched out his thin hands to them. And Zetes and Calais told their
+comrades and told the king how they had driven the Harpies down to the
+Floating Island, and how Iris, the messenger of Zeus, had sworn the great
+oath that was by the Water of Styx that never again would the Snatchers
+show themselves in the palace.
+
+  Then a great golden cup brimming with wine was brought to the king. He
+stood holding it in his trembling hands, fearful even then that the
+Harpies would tear the cup out of his hands. He drank--long and deeply he
+drank--and the dread shapes of the Snatchers did not appear. Down amongst
+the heroes he came and he took into his the hands of Zetes and Calais, the
+sons of the North Wind.
+
+  "O heroes greater than any kings," he said, "ye have delivered me from
+the terrible curse that the gods had sent upon me. I thank ye, and I thank
+ye all, heroes of the quest. And the thanks of Phineus will much avail you
+all."
+
+  Clasping the hands of Zetes and Calais he led the heroes through hall
+after hall of his palace and down into his treasure chamber. There he
+bestowed upon the banishers of the Harpies crowns and arm rings of gold
+and richly colored garments and brazen chests in which to store the
+treasure that he gave. And to Jason he gave an ivory-hilted and
+gold-encased sword, and on each of the voyagers he bestowed a rich gift,
+not forgetting the heroes who had remained on the _Argo_, Heracles and
+Tiphys.
+
+  They went back to the great hall, and a feast was spread for the king
+and for the Argonauts. They ate from rich dishes and they drank from
+flowing wine cups. Phineus ate and drank as the heroes did, and no dread
+shapes came before him to snatch from him nor to buffet him. But as Jason
+looked upon the man who had striven to equal the gods in wisdom, and noted
+his blinded eyes and shrunken face, he resolved never to harbor in his
+heart such presumption as Phineus had harbored.
+
+  When the feast was finished the king spoke to Jason, telling him how the
+_Argo_ might be guided through the Symplegades, the dread passage into the
+Sea of Pontus. He told them to bring their ship near to the Clashing
+Rocks. And one who had the keenest sight amongst them was to stand at the
+prow of the ship holding a pigeon in his hands. As the rocks came together
+he was to loose the pigeon. If it found a space to fly through they would
+know that the _Argo_ could make the passage, and they were to steer
+straight toward where the pigeon had flown. But if it fluttered down to
+the sea, or flew back to them, or became lost in the clouds of spray, they
+were to know that the _Argo_ might not make that passage. Then the heroes
+would have to take their ship overland to where they might reach the Sea
+of Pontus.
+
+  That day they bade farewell to Phineus, and with the treasures he had
+bestowed upon them they went down to the _Argo_. To Heracles and Tiphys
+they gave the presents that the king had sent them. In the morning they
+drew the _Argo_ out of the harbor of Salmydessus, and set sail again.
+
+
+
+  But not until long afterward did they come to the Symplegades, the
+passage that was to be their great trial. For they landed first in a
+country that was full of woods, where they were welcomed by a king who had
+heard of the voyagers and of their quest. There they stayed and hunted for
+many days in the woods. And there a great loss befell the Argonauts, for
+Tiphys, as he went through the woods, was bitten by a snake and died. He
+who had braved so many seas and so many storms lost his life away from the
+ship. The Argonauts made a tomb for him on the shore of that land--a great
+pile of stones, in which they fixed upright his steering oar. Then they
+set sail again, and Nauplius was made the steersman of the ship.
+
+  The course was not so clear to Nauplius as it had been to Tiphys. The
+steersman did not find his bearings, and for many days and nights the
+_Argo_ was driven on a backward course. They came to an island that they
+knew to be that Island of Lemnos that they had passed on the first days of
+the voyage, and they resolved to rest there for a while, and then to press
+on for the passage into the Sea of Pontus.
+
+  They brought the _Argo_ near the shore. They blew trumpets and set the
+loudest voiced of the heroes to call out to those upon the island. But no
+answer came to them, and all day the _Argo_ lay close to the island.
+
+
+
+  There were hidden people watching them, people with bows in their hands
+and arrows laid along the bowstrings. And the people who thus threatened
+the unknowing Argonauts were women and young girls.
+
+  There were no men upon the Island of Lemnos. Years before a curse had
+fallen upon the people of that island, putting strife between the men and
+the women. And the women had mastered the men and had driven them away
+from Lemnos. Since then some of the women had grown old, and the girls who
+were children when their fathers and brothers had been banished were now
+of an age with Atalanta, the maiden who went with the Argonauts.
+
+  They chased the wild beasts of the island, and they tilled the fields,
+and they kept in good repair the houses that were built before the
+banishing of the men. The older women served those who were younger, and
+they had a queen, a girl whose name was Hypsipyle.
+
+  The women who watched with bows in their hands would have shot their
+arrows at the Argonauts if Hypsipyle's nurse, Polyxo, had not stayed them.
+She forbade them to shoot at the strangers until she had brought to them
+the queen's commands.
+
+  She hastened to the palace and she found the young queen weaving at a
+loom. She told her about the ship and the strangers on board the ship, and
+she asked the queen what word she should bring to the guardian maidens.
+
+  "Before you give a command, Hypsipyle," said Polyxo, the nurse,
+"consider these words of mine. We, the elder women, are becoming ancient
+now; in a few years we will not be able to serve you, the younger women,
+and in a few years more we will have gone into the grave and our places
+will know us no more. And you, the younger women, will be becoming
+strengthless, and no more will be you able to hunt in the woods nor to
+till the fields, and a hard old age will be before you.
+
+  "The ship that is beside our shore may have come at a good time. Those
+on board are goodly heroes. Let them land in Lemnos, and stay if they
+will. Let them wed with the younger women so that there may be husbands
+and wives, helpers and helpmeets, again in Lemnos."
+
+  Hypsipyle, the queen, let the shuttle fall from her hands and stayed for
+a while looking full into Polyxo's face. Had her nurse heard her say
+something like this out of her dreams, she wondered? She bade the nurse
+tell the guardian maidens to let the heroes land in safety, and that she
+herself would put the crown of King Thoas, her father, upon her head, and
+go down to the shore to welcome them.
+
+  And now the Argonauts saw people along the shore and they caught sight
+of women's dresses. The loudest voiced amongst them shouted again, and
+they heard an answer given in a woman's voice. They drew up the _Argo_
+upon the shore, and they set foot upon the land of Lemnos.
+
+  Jason stepped forth at the head of his comrades, and he was met by
+Hypsipyle, her father's crown upon her head, at the head of her maidens.
+They greeted each other, and Hypsipyle bade the heroes come with them to
+their town that was called Myrine and to the palace that was there.
+
+  Wonderingly the Argonauts went, looking on women's forms and faces and
+seeing no men. They came to the palace and went within. Hypsipyle mounted
+the stone throne that was King Thoas's and the four maidens who were her
+guards stood each side of her. She spoke to the heroes in greeting and
+bade them stay in peace for as long as they would. She told them of the
+curse that had fallen upon the people of Lemnos, and of how the menfolk
+had been banished. Jason, then, told the queen what voyage he and his
+companions were upon and what quest they were making. Then in friendship
+the Argonauts and the women of Lemnos stayed together--all the Argonauts
+except Heracles, and he, grieving still for Hylas, stayed aboard the
+_Argo_.
+
+
+
+
+IX. The Lemnian Maidens
+
+
+
+[Decorative first letter]
+_A_ND now the Argonauts were no longer on a ship that was being dashed on
+by the sea and beaten upon by the winds. They had houses to live in; they
+had honey-tasting things to eat, and when they went through the island
+each man might have with him one of the maidens of Lemnos. It was a change
+that was welcome to the wearied voyagers.
+
+  They helped the women in the work of the fields; they hunted the beasts
+with them, and over and over again they were surprised at how skillfully
+the women had ordered all affairs. Everything in Lemnos was strange to the
+Argonauts, and they stayed day after day, thinking each day a fresh
+adventure.
+
+  Sometimes they would leave the fields and the chase, and this hero or
+that hero, with her who was his friend amongst the Lemnian maidens, would
+go far into that strange land and look upon lakes that were all covered
+with golden and silver water lilies, or would gather the blue flowers from
+creepers that grew around dark trees, or would hide themselves so that
+they might listen to the quick-moving birds that sang in the thickets.
+Perhaps on their way homeward they would see the _Argo_ in the harbor, and
+they would think of Heracles who was aboard, and they would call to him.
+But the ship and the voyage they had been on now seemed far away to them,
+and the Quest of the Golden Fleece seemed to them a story they had heard
+and that they had thought of, but that they could never think on again
+with all that fervor.
+
+
+
+  When Jason looked on Hypsipyle he saw one who seemed to him to be only
+childlike in size. Greatly was he amazed at the words that poured forth
+from her as she stood at the stone throne of King Thoas--he was amazed as
+one is amazed at the rush of rich notes that comes from the throat of a
+little bird; all that she said was made lightninglike by her eyes--her eyes
+that were not clear and quiet like the eyes of the maidens he had seen in
+Iolcus, but that were dark and burning. Her mouth was heavy and this heavy
+mouth gave a shadow to her face that but for it was all bright and lovely.
+
+  Hypsipyle spoke two languages--one, the language of the mothers of the
+women of Lemnos, which was rough and harsh, a speech to be flung out to
+slaves, and the other the language of Greece, which their fathers had
+spoken, and which Hypsipyle spoke in a way that made it sound like strange
+music. She spoke and walked and did all things in a queenlike way, and
+Jason could see that, for all her youth and childlike size, Hypsipyle was
+one who was a ruler.
+
+  From the moment she took his hand it seemed that she could not bear to
+be away from him. Where he walked, she walked too; where he sat she sat
+before him, looking at him with her great eyes while she laughed or sang.
+
+  Like the perfume of strange flowers, like the savor of strange fruit was
+Hypsipyle to Jason. Hours and hours he would spend sitting beside her or
+watching her while she arrayed herself in white or in brightly colored
+garments. Not to the chase and not into the fields did Jason go, nor did
+he ever go with the others into the Lemnian land; all day he sat in the
+palace with her, watching her, or listening to her singing, or to the
+long, fierce speeches that she used to make to her nurse or to the four
+maidens who attended her.
+
+  In the evening they would gather in the hall of the palace, the
+Argonauts and the Lemnian maidens who were their comrades. There were
+dances, and always Jason and Hypsipyle danced together. All the Lemnian
+maidens sang beautifully, but none of them had any stories to tell.
+
+  And when the Argonauts would have stories told the Lemnian maidens would
+forbid any tale that was about a god or a hero; only stories that were
+about the goddesses or about some maiden would they let be told.
+
+  Orpheus, who knew the histories of the gods, would have told them many
+stories, but the only story of his that they would come from the dance to
+listen to was a story of the goddesses, of Demeter and her daughter
+Persephone.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+
+Demeter and Persephone
+
+
+I
+
+  Once when Demeter was going through the world, giving men grain to be
+sown in their fields, she heard a cry that came to her from across high
+mountains and that mounted up to her from the sea. Demeter's heart shook
+when she heard that cry, for she knew that it came to her from her
+daughter, from her only child, young Persephone.
+
+  She stayed not to bless the fields in which the grain was being sown,
+but she hurried, hurried away, to Sicily and to the fields of Enna, where
+she had left Persephone. All Enna she searched, and all Sicily, but she
+found no trace of Persephone, nor of the maidens whom Persephone had been
+playing with. From all whom she met she begged for tidings, but although
+some had seen maidens gathering flowers and playing together, no one could
+tell Demeter why her child had cried out nor where she had since gone to.
+
+  There were some who could have told her. One was Cyane, a water nymph.
+But Cyane, before Demeter came to her, had been changed into a spring of
+water. And now, not being able to speak and tell Demeter where her child
+had gone to and who had carried her away, she showed in the water the
+girdle of Persephone that she had caught in her hands. And Demeter,
+finding the girdle of her child in the spring, knew that she had been
+carried off by violence. She lighted a torch at AEtna's burning mountain,
+and for nine days and nine nights she went searching for her through the
+darkened places of the earth.
+
+  Then, upon a high and a dark hill, the Goddess Demeter came face to face
+with Hecate, the Moon. Hecate, too, had heard the cry of Persephone; she
+had sorrow for Demeter's sorrow: she spoke to her as the two stood upon
+that dark, high hill, and told her that she should go to Helios for
+tidings--to bright Helios, the watcher for the gods, and beg Helios to tell
+her who it was who had carried off by violence her child Persephone.
+
+  Demeter came to Helios. He was standing before his shining steeds,
+before the impatient steeds that draw the sun through the course of the
+heavens. Demeter stood in the way of those impatient steeds; she begged of
+Helios who sees all things upon the earth to tell her who it was had
+carried off by violence Persephone, her child.
+
+  And Helios, who may make no concealment, said: "Queenly Demeter, know
+that the king of the Underworld, dark Aidoneus, has carried off Persephone
+to make her his queen in the realm that I never shine upon." He spoke, and
+as he did, his horses shook their manes and breathed out fire, impatient
+to be gone. Helios sprang into his chariot and went flashing away.
+
+  Demeter, knowing that one of the gods had carried off Persephone against
+her will, and knowing that what was done had been done by the will of
+Zeus, would go no more into the assemblies of the gods. She quenched the
+torch that she had held in her hands for nine days and nine nights; she
+put off her robe of goddess, and she went wandering over the earth,
+uncomforted for the loss of her child. And no longer did she appear as a
+gracious goddess to men; no longer did she give them grain; no longer did
+she bless their fields. None of the things that it had pleased her once to
+do would Demeter do any longer.
+
+
+
+II
+
+  Persephone had been playing with the nymphs who are the daughters of
+Ocean--Phaeno, Ianthe, Melita, Ianeira, Acaste--in the lovely fields of Enna.
+They went to gather flowers--irises and crocuses, lilies, narcissus,
+hyacinths and rose-blooms--that grow in those fields. As they went,
+gathering flowers in their baskets, they had sight of Pergus, the pool
+that the white swans come to sing in.
+
+  Beside a deep chasm that had been made in the earth a wonder flower was
+growing--in color it was like the crocus, but it sent forth a perfume that
+was like the perfume of a hundred flowers. And Persephone thought as she
+went toward it that having gathered that flower she would have something
+much more wonderful than her companions had.
+
+  She did not know that Aidoneus, the lord of the Underworld, had caused
+that flower to grow there so that she might be drawn by it to the chasm
+that he had made.
+
+  As Persephone stooped to pluck the wonder flower, Aidoneus, in his
+chariot of iron, dashed up through the chasm, and grasping the maiden by
+the waist, set her beside him. Only Cyane, the nymph, tried to save
+Persephone, and it was then that she caught the girdle in her hands.
+
+  The maiden cried out, first because her flowers had been spilled, and
+then because she was being reft away. She cried out to her mother, and her
+cry went over high mountains and sounded up from the sea. The daughters of
+Ocean, affrighted, fled and sank down into the depths of the sea.
+
+  In his great chariot of iron that was drawn by black steeds Aidoneus
+rushed down through the chasm he had made. Into the Underworld he went,
+and he dashed across the River Styx, and he brought his chariot up beside
+his throne. And on his dark throne he seated Persephone, the fainting
+daughter of Demeter.
+
+
+
+III
+
+  No more did the Goddess Demeter give grain to men; no more did she bless
+their fields: weeds grew where grain had been growing, and men feared that
+in a while they would famish for lack of bread.
+
+  She wandered through the world, her thought all upon her child,
+Persephone, who had been taken from her. Once she sat by a well by a
+wayside, thinking upon the child that she might not come to and who might
+not come to her.
+
+  She saw four maidens come near; their grace and their youth reminded her
+of her child. They stepped lightly along, carrying bronze pitchers in
+their hands, for they were coming to the Well of the Maiden beside which
+Demeter sat.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+                         Persephone and Aidoneus
+
+
+  The maidens thought when they looked upon her that the goddess was some
+ancient woman who had a sorrow in her heart. Seeing that she was so noble
+and so sorrowful looking, the maidens, as they drew the clear water into
+their pitchers, spoke kindly to her.
+
+  "Why do you stay away from the town, old mother?" one of the maidens
+said. "Why do you not come to the houses? We think that you look as if you
+were shelterless and alone, and we should like to tell you that there are
+many houses in the town where you would be welcomed."
+
+  Demeter's heart went out to the maidens, because they looked so young
+and fair and simple and spoke out of such kind hearts. She said to them:
+"Where can I go, dear children? My people are far away, and there are none
+in all the world who would care to be near me."
+
+  Said one of the maidens: "There are princes in the land who would
+welcome you in their houses if you would consent to nurse one of their
+young children. But why do I speak of other princes beside Celeus, our
+father? In his house you would indeed have a welcome. But lately a baby
+has been born to our mother, Metaneira, and she would greatly rejoice to
+have one as wise as you mind little Demophooen."
+
+  All the time that she watched them and listened to their voices Demeter
+felt that the grace and youth of the maidens made them like Persephone.
+She thought that it would ease her heart to be in the house where these
+maidens were, and she was not loath to have them go and ask of their
+mother to have her come to nurse the infant child.
+
+  Swiftly they ran back to their home, their hair streaming behind them
+like crocus flowers; kind and lovely girls whose names are well
+remembered--Callidice and Cleisidice, Demo and Callithoe. They went to
+their mother and they told her of the stranger-woman whose name was Doso.
+She would make a wise and a kind nurse for little Demophooen, they said.
+Their mother, Metaneira, rose up from the couch she was sitting on to
+welcome the stranger. But when she saw her at the doorway, awe came over
+her, so majestic she seemed.
+
+  Metaneira would have her seat herself on the couch but the goddess took
+the lowliest stool, saying in greeting: "May the gods give you all good,
+lady."
+
+  "Sorrow has set you wandering from your good home," said Metaneira to
+the goddess, "but now that you have come to this place you shall have all
+that this house can bestow if you will rear up to youth the infant
+Demophooen, child of many hopes and prayers."
+
+  The child was put into the arms of Demeter; she clasped him to her
+breast, and little Demophooen looked up into her face and smiled. Then
+Demeter's heart went out to the child and to all who were in the
+household.
+
+   He grew in strength and beauty in her charge. And little Demophooen was
+not nourished as other children are nourished, but even as the gods in
+their childhood were nourished. Demeter fed him on ambrosia, breathing on
+him with her divine breath the while. And at night she laid him on the
+hearth, amongst the embers, with the fire all around him. This she did
+that she might make him immortal, and like to the gods.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+  But one night Metaneira looked out from the chamber where she lay, and
+she saw the nurse take little Demophooen and lay him in a place on the
+hearth with the burning brands all around him. Then Metaneira started up,
+and she sprang to the hearth, and she snatched the child from beside the
+burning brands. "Demophoon, my son," she cried, "what would this
+stranger-woman do to you, bringing bitter grief to me that ever I let her
+take you in her arms?"
+
+  Then said Demeter: "Foolish indeed are you mortals, and not able to
+foresee what is to come to you of good or of evil! Foolish indeed are you,
+Metaneira, for in your heedlessness you have cut off this child from an
+immortality like to the immortality of the gods themselves. For he had
+lain in my bosom and had become dear to me and I would have bestowed upon
+him the greatest gift that the Divine Ones can bestow, for I would have
+made him deathless and unaging. All this, now, has gone by. Honor he shall
+have indeed, but Demophoon will know age and death."
+
+  The seeming old age that was upon her had fallen from Demeter; beauty
+and stature were hers, and from her robe there came a heavenly fragrance.
+There came such light from her body that the chamber shone. Metaneira
+remained trembling and speechless, unmindful even to take up the child
+that had been laid upon the ground.
+
+  It was then that his sisters heard Demophooen wail; one ran from her
+chamber and took the child in her arms; another kindled again the fire
+upon the hearth, and the others made ready to bathe and care for the
+infant. All night they cared for him, holding him in their arms and at
+their breasts, but the child would not be comforted, because the nurses
+who handled him now were less skillful than was the goddess-nurse.
+
+  And as for Demeter, she left the house of Celeus and went upon her way,
+lonely in her heart, and unappeased. And in the world that she wandered
+through, the plow went in vain through the ground; the furrow was sown
+without any avail, and the race of men saw themselves near perishing for
+lack of bread.
+
+  But again Demeter came near the Well of the Maiden. She thought of the
+daughters of Celeus as they came toward the well that day, the bronze
+pitchers in their hands, and with kind looks for the stranger--she thought
+of them as she sat by the well again. And then she thought of little
+Demophooen, the child she had held at her breast. No stir of living was in
+the land near their home, and only weeds grew in their fields. As she sat
+there and looked around her there came into Demeter's heart a pity for the
+people in whose house she had dwelt.
+
+   She rose up and she went to the house of Celeus. She found him beside
+his house measuring out a little grain. The goddess went to him and she
+told him that because of the love she bore his household she would bless
+his fields so that the seed he had sown in them would come to growth.
+Celeus rejoiced, and he called all the people together, and they raised a
+temple to Demeter. She went through the fields and blessed them, and the
+seed that they had sown began to grow. And the goddess for a while dwelt
+amongst that people, in her temple at Eleusis.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+
+IV
+
+  But still she kept away from the assemblies of the gods. Zeus sent a
+messenger to her, Iris with the golden wings, bidding her to Olympus.
+Demeter would not join the Olympians. Then, one after the other, the gods
+and goddesses of Olympus came to her; none were able to make her cease
+from grieving for Persephone, or to go again into the company of the
+immortal gods.
+
+  And so it came about that Zeus was compelled to send a messenger down to
+the Underworld to bring Persephone back to the mother who grieved so much
+for the loss of her. Hermes was the messenger whom Zeus sent. Through the
+darkened places of the earth Hermes went, and he came to that dark throne
+where the lord Aidoneus sat, with Persephone beside him. Then Hermes spoke
+to the lord of the Underworld, saying that Zeus commanded that Persephone
+should come forth from the Underworld that her mother might look upon her.
+
+  Then Persephone, hearing the words of Zeus that might not be gainsaid,
+uttered the only cry that had left her lips since she had sent out that
+cry that had reached her mother's heart. And Aidoneus, hearing the command
+of Zeus that might not be denied, bowed his dark, majestic head.
+
+  She might go to the Upperworld and rest herself in the arms of her
+mother, he said. And then he cried out: "Ah, Persephone, strive to feel
+kindliness in your heart toward me who carried you off by violence and
+against your will. I can give to you one of the great kingdoms that the
+Olympians rule over. And I, who am brother to Zeus, am no unfitting
+husband for you, Demeter's child."
+
+  So Aidoneus, the dark lord of the Underworld said, and he made ready the
+iron chariot with its deathless horses that Persephone might go up from
+his kingdom.
+
+  Beside the single tree in his domain Aidoneus stayed the chariot. A
+single fruit grew on that tree, a bright pomegranate fruit. Persephone
+stood up in the chariot and plucked the fruit from the tree. Then did
+Aidoneus prevail upon her to divide the fruit, and, having divided it,
+Persephone ate seven of the pomegranate seeds.
+
+  It was Hermes who took the whip and the reins of the chariot. He drove
+on, and neither the sea nor the water-courses, nor the glens nor the
+mountain peaks stayed the deathless horses of Aidoneus, and soon the
+chariot was brought near to where Demeter awaited the coming of her
+daughter.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+  And when, from a hilltop, Demeter saw the chariot approaching, she flew
+like a wild bird to clasp her child. Persephone, when she saw her mother's
+dear eyes, sprang out of the chariot and fell upon her neck and embraced
+her. Long and long Demeter held her dear child in her arms, gazing, gazing
+upon her. Suddenly her mind misgave her. With a great fear at her heart
+she cried out: "Dearest, has any food passed your lips in all the time you
+have been in the Underworld?"
+
+  She had not tasted food in all the time she was there, Persephone said.
+And then, suddenly, she remembered the pomegranate that Aidoneus had asked
+her to divide. When she told that she had eaten seven seeds from it
+Demeter wept, and her tears fell upon Persephone's face.
+
+  "Ah, my dearest," she cried, "if you had not eaten the pomegranate seeds
+you could have stayed with me, and always we should have been together.
+But now that you have eaten food in it, the Underworld has a claim upon
+you. You may not stay always with me here. Again you will have to go back
+and dwell in the dark places under the earth and sit upon Aidoneus's
+throne. But not always you will be there. When the flowers bloom upon the
+earth you shall come up from the realm of darkness, and in great joy we
+shall go through the world together, Demeter and Persephone."
+
+  And so it has been since Persephone came back to her mother after having
+eaten of the pomegranate seeds. For two seasons of the year she stays with
+Demeter, and for one season she stays in the Underworld with her dark
+lord. While she is with her mother there is springtime upon the earth.
+Demeter blesses the furrows, her heart being glad because her daughter is
+with her once more. The furrows become heavy with grain, and soon the
+whole wide earth has grain and fruit, leaves and flowers. When the furrows
+are reaped, when the grain has been gathered, when the dark season comes,
+Persephone goes from her mother, and going down into the dark places, she
+sits beside her mighty lord Aidoneus and upon his throne. Not sorrowful is
+she there; she sits with head unbowed, for she knows herself to be a
+mighty queen. She has joy, too, knowing of the seasons when she may walk
+with Demeter, her mother, on the wide places of the earth, through fields
+of flowers and fruit and ripening grain.
+
+
+
+  Such was the story that Orpheus told--Orpheus who knew the histories of
+the gods.
+
+  A day came when the heroes, on their way back from a journey they had
+made with the Lemnian maidens, called out to Heracles upon the _Argo_.
+Then Heracles, standing on the prow of the ship, shouted angrily to them.
+Terrible did he seem to the Lemnian maidens, and they ran off, drawing the
+heroes with them. Heracles shouted to his comrades again, saying that if
+they did not come aboard the _Argo_ and make ready for the voyage to
+Colchis, he would go ashore and carry them to the ship, and force them
+again to take the oars in their hands. Not all of what Heracles said did
+the Argonauts hear.
+
+  That evening the men were silent in Hypsipyle's hall, and it was
+Atalanta, the maiden, who told the evening's story.
+
+
+
+Atalanta's Race
+
+
+  There are two Atalantas, she said; she herself, the Huntress, and
+another who is noted for her speed of foot and her delight in the race--the
+daughter of Schoeneus, King of Boeotia, Atalanta of the Swift Foot.
+
+  So proud was she of her swiftness that she made a vow to the gods that
+none would be her husband except the youth who won past her in the race.
+Youth after youth came and raced against her, but Atalanta, who grew
+fleeter and fleeter of foot, left each one of them far behind her. The
+youths who came to the race were so many and the clamor they made after
+defeat was so great, that her father made a law that, as he thought, would
+lessen their number. The law that he made was that the youth who came to
+race against Atalanta and who lost the race should lose his life into the
+bargain. After that the youths who had care for their lives stayed away
+from Boeotia.
+
+  Once there came a youth from a far part of Greece into the country that
+Atalanta's father ruled over. Hippomenes was his name. He did not know of
+the race, but having come into the city and seeing the crowd of people, he
+went with them to the course. He looked upon the youths who were girded
+for the race, and he heard the folk say amongst themselves, "Poor youths,
+as mighty and as high-spirited as they look, by sunset the life will be
+out of each of them, for Atalanta will run past them as she ran past the
+others." Then Hippomenes spoke to the folk in wonder, and they told him of
+Atalanta's race and of what would befall the youths who were defeated in
+it. "Unlucky youths," cried Hippomenes, "how foolish they are to try to
+win a bride at the price of their lives."
+
+  Then, with pity in his heart, he watched the youths prepare for the
+race. Atalanta had not yet taken her place, and he was fearful of looking
+upon her. "She is a witch," he said to himself, "she must be a witch to
+draw so many youths to their deaths, and she, no doubt, will show in her
+face and figure the witch's spirit."
+
+  But even as he said this, Hippomenes saw Atalanta. She stood with the
+youths before they crouched for the first dart in the race. He saw that
+she was a girl of a light and a lovely form. Then they crouched for the
+race; then the trumpets rang out, and the youths and the maiden darted
+like swallows over the sand of the course.
+
+  On came Atalanta, far, far ahead of the youths who had started with her.
+Over her bare shoulders her hair streamed, blown backward by the wind that
+met her flight. Her fair neck shone, and her little feet were like flying
+doves. It seemed to Hippomenes as he watched her that there was fire in
+her lovely body. On and on she went as swift as the arrow that the
+Scythian shoots from his bow. And as he watched the race he was not sorry
+that the youths were being left behind. Rather would he have been enraged
+if one came near overtaking her, for now his heart was set upon winning
+her for his bride, and he cursed himself for not having entered the race.
+
+  She passed the last goal mark and she was given the victor's wreath of
+flowers. Hippomenes stood and watched her and he did not see the youths
+who had started with her--they had thrown themselves on the ground in their
+despair.
+
+  Then wild, as though he were one of the doomed youths, Hippomenes made
+his way through the throng and came before the black-bearded King of
+Boetia. The king's brows were knit, for even then he was pronouncing doom
+upon the youths who had been left behind in the race. He looked upon
+Hippomenes, another youth who would make the trial, and the frown became
+heavier upon his face.
+
+  But Hippomenes saw only Atalanta. She came beside her father; the wreath
+was upon her head of gold, and her eyes were wide and tender. She turned
+her face to him, and then she knew by the wildness that was in his look
+that he had come to enter the race with her. Then the flush that was on
+her face died away, and she shook her head as if she were imploring him to
+go from that place.
+
+  The dark-bearded king bent his brows upon him and said, "Speak, O youth,
+speak and tell us what brings you here."
+
+  Then cried Hippomenes as if his whole life were bursting out with his
+words: "Why does this maiden, your daughter, seek an easy renown by
+conquering weakly youths in the race? She has not striven yet. Here stand
+I, one of the blood of Poseidon, the god of the sea. Should I be defeated
+by her in the race, then, indeed, might Atalanta have something to boast
+of."
+
+  Atalanta stepped forward and said: "Do not speak of it, youth. Indeed I
+think that it is some god, envious of your beauty and your strength, who
+sent you here to strive with me and to meet your doom. Ah, think of the
+youths who have striven with me even now! Think of the hard doom that is
+about to fall upon them! You venture your life in the race, but indeed I
+am not worthy of the price. Go hence, O stranger youth, go hence and live
+happily, for indeed I think that there is some maiden who loves you well."
+
+  "Nay, maiden," said Hippomenes, "I will enter the race and I will
+venture my life on the chance of winning you for my bride. What good will
+my life and my spirit be to me if they cannot win this race for me?"
+
+  She drew away from him then and looked upon him no more, but bent down
+to fasten the sandals upon her feet. And the black-bearded king looked
+upon Hippomenes and said, "Face, then, this race to-morrow. You will be
+the only one who will enter it. But bethink thee of the doom that awaits
+thee at the end of it." The king said no more, and Hippomenes went from
+him and from Atalanta, and he came again to the place where the race had
+been run.
+
+  He looked across the sandy course with its goal marks, and in his mind
+he saw again Atalanta's swift race. He would not meet doom at the hands of
+the king's soldiers, he knew, for his spirit would leave him with the
+greatness of the effort he would make to reach the goal before her. And he
+thought it would be well to die in that effort and on that sandy place
+that was so far from his own land.
+
+  Even as he looked across the sandy course now deserted by the throng, he
+saw one move across it, coming toward him with feet that did not seem to
+touch the ground. She was a woman of wonderful presence. As Hippomenes
+looked upon her he knew that she was Aphrodite, the goddess of beauty and
+of love.
+
+  "Hippomenes," said the immortal goddess, "the gods are mindful of you
+who are sprung from one of the gods, and I am mindful of you because of
+your own worth. I have come to help you in your race with Atalanta, for I
+would not have you slain, nor would I have that maiden go unwed. Give your
+greatest strength and your greatest swiftness to the race, and behold!
+here are wonders that will prevent the fleet-footed Atalanta from putting
+all her spirit into the race."
+
+  And then the immortal goddess held out to Hippomenes a branch that had
+upon it three apples of shining gold.
+
+  "In Cyprus," said the goddess, "where I have come from, there is a tree
+on which these golden apples grow. Only I may pluck them. I have brought
+them to you, Hippomenes. Keep them in your girdle, and in the race you
+will find out what to do with them, I think."
+
+  So Aphrodite said, and then she vanished, leaving a fragrance in the air
+and the three shining apples in the hands of Hippomenes. Long he looked
+upon their brightness. They were beside him that night, and when he arose
+in the dawn he put them in his girdle. Then, before the throng, he went to
+the place of the race.
+
+  When he showed himself beside Atalanta all around the course were
+silent, for they all admired Hippomenes for his beauty and for the spirit
+that was in his face; they were silent out of compassion, for they knew
+the doom that befell the youths who raced with Atalanta.
+
+  And now Schoeneus, the black-bearded king, stood up, and he spoke to the
+throng, saying, "Hear me all, both young and old: this youth, Hippomenes,
+seeks to win the race from my daughter, winning her for his bride. Now, if
+he be victorious and escape death I will give him my dear child, Atalanta,
+and many fleet horses besides as gifts from me, and in honor he shall go
+back to his native land. But if he fail in the race, then he will have to
+share the doom that has been meted out to the other youths who raced with
+Atalanta hoping to win her for a bride."
+
+  Then Hippomenes and Atalanta crouched for the start. The trumpets were
+sounded and they darted off.
+
+  Side by side with Atalanta Hippomenes went. Her flying hair touched his
+breast, and it seemed to him that they were skimming the sandy course as
+if they were swallows. But then Atalanta began to draw away from him. He
+saw her ahead of him, and then he began to hear the words of cheer that
+came from the throng--"Bend to the race, Hippomenes! Go on, go on! Use your
+strength to the utmost." He bent himself to the race, but further and
+further from him Atalanta drew.
+
+  Then it seemed to him that she checked her swiftness a little to look
+back at him. He gained on her a little. And then his hand touched the
+apples that were in his girdle. As it touched them it came into his mind
+what to do with the apples.
+
+  He was not far from her now, but already her swiftness was drawing her
+further and further away. He took one of the apples into his hand and
+tossed it into the air so that it fell on the track before her.
+
+  Atalanta saw the shining apple. She checked her speed and stooped in the
+race to pick it up. And as she stooped Hippomenes darted past her, and
+went flying toward the goal that now was within his sight.
+
+  But soon she was beside him again. He looked, and he saw that the goal
+marks were far, far ahead of him. Atalanta with the flying hair passed
+him, and drew away and away from him. He had not speed to gain upon her
+now, he thought, so he put his strength into his hand and he flung the
+second of the shining apples. The apple rolled before her and rolled off
+the course. Atalanta turned off the course, stooped and picked up the
+apple.
+
+  Then did Hippomenes draw all his spirit into his breast as he raced on.
+He was now nearer to the goal than she was. But he knew that she was
+behind him, going lightly where he went heavily. And then she was beside
+him, and then she went past him. She paused in her speed for a moment and
+she looked back on him.
+
+  As he raced on, his chest seemed weighted down and his throat was
+crackling dry. The goal marks were far away still, but Atalanta was
+nearing them. He took the last of the golden apples into his hand. Perhaps
+she was now so far that the strength of his throw would not be great
+enough to bring the apple before her.
+
+  But with all the strength he could put into his hand he flung the apple.
+It struck the course before her feet and then went bounding wide. Atalanta
+swerved in her race and followed where the apple went. Hippomenes marveled
+that he had been able to fling it so far. He saw Atalanta stoop to pick up
+the apple, and he bounded on. And then, although his strength was failing,
+he saw the goal marks near him. He set his feet between them and then fell
+down on the ground.
+
+  The attendants raised him up and put the victor's wreath upon his head.
+The concourse of people shouted with joy to see him victor. But he looked
+around for Atalanta and he saw her standing there with the golden apples
+in her hands. "He has won," he heard her say, "and I have not to hate
+myself for bringing a doom upon him. Gladly, gladly do I give up the race,
+and glad am I that it is this youth who has won the victory from me."
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+                           Atalanta's Last Race
+
+
+  She took his hand and brought him before the king. Then Schoeneus, in the
+sight of all the rejoicing people, gave Atalanta to Hippomenes for his
+bride, and he bestowed upon him also a great gift of horses. With his dear
+and hard-won bride, Hippomenes went to his own country, and the apples
+that she brought with her, the golden apples of Aphrodite, were reverenced
+by the people.
+
+
+
+
+X. The Departure from Lemnos
+
+
+
+[Decorative first letter]
+_A_ DAY came when Heracles left the _Argo_ and went on the Lemnian land.
+He gathered the heroes about him, and they, seeing Heracles come amongst
+them, clamored to go to hunt the wild bulls that were inland from the sea.
+
+  So, for once, the heroes left the Lemnian maidens who were their
+friends. Jason, too, left Hypsipyle in the palace and went with Heracles.
+And as they went, Heracles spoke to each of the heroes, saying that they
+were forgetting the Fleece of Gold that they had sailed to gain. Jason
+blushed to think that he had almost let go out of his mind the quest that
+had brought him from Iolcus. And then he thought upon Hypsipyle and of how
+her little hand would stay in his, and his own hand became loose upon the
+spear so that it nearly fell from him. How could he, he thought, leave
+Hypsipyle and this land of Lemnos behind?
+
+  He heard the clear voice of Atalanta as she, too, spoke to the
+Argonauts. What Heracles said was brave and wise, said Atalanta.
+Forgetfulness would cover their names if they stayed longer in
+Lemnos--forgetfulness and shame, and they would come to despise themselves.
+Leave Lemnos, she cried, and draw _Argo_ into the sea, and depart for
+Colchis.
+
+  All day the Argonauts stayed by themselves, hunting the bulls. On their
+way back from the chase they were met by Lemnian maidens who carried
+wreaths of flowers for them. Very silent were the heroes as the maidens
+greeted them. Heracles went with Jason to the palace, and Hypsipyle,
+seeing the mighty stranger coming, seated herself, not on the couch where
+she was wont to sit looking into the face of Jason, but on the stone
+throne of King Thoas, her father. And seated on that throne she spoke to
+Jason and to Heracles as a queen might speak.
+
+  In the hall that night the heroes and the Lemnian maidens who were with
+them were quiet. A story was told; Castor began it and Polydeuces ended
+it. And the story that Helen's brothers told was:
+
+
+
+The Golden Maid
+
+
+  Epimetheus the Titan had a brother who was the wisest of all
+beings--Prometheus called the Foreseer. But Epimetheus himself was
+slow-witted and scatter-brained. His wise brother once sent him a message
+bidding him beware of the gifts that Zeus might send him. Epimetheus
+heard, but he did not heed the warning, and thereby he brought upon the
+race of men troubles and cares.
+
+  Prometheus, the wise Titan, had saved men from a great trouble that Zeus
+would have brought upon them. Also he had given them the gift of fire.
+Zeus was the more wroth with men now because fire, stolen from him, had
+been given them; he was wroth with the race of Titans, too, and he
+pondered in his heart how he might injure men, and how he might use
+Epimetheus, the mindless Titan, to further his plan.
+
+  While he pondered there was a hush on high Olympus, the mountain of the
+gods. Then Zeus called upon the artisan of the gods, lame Hephaestus, and
+he commanded him to make a being out of clay that would have the likeness
+of a lovely maiden. With joy and pride Hephaestus worked at the task that
+had been given him, and he fashioned a being that had the likeness of a
+lovely maiden, and he brought the thing of his making before the gods and
+the goddesses.
+
+  All strove to add a grace or a beauty to the work of Hephaestus. Zeus
+granted that the maiden should see and feel. Athene dressed her in
+garments that were as lovely as flowers. Aphrodite, the goddess of love,
+put a charm on her lips and in her eyes. The Graces put necklaces around
+her neck and set a golden crown upon her head. The Hours brought her a
+girdle of spring flowers. Then the herald of the gods gave her speech that
+was sweet and flowing. All the gods and goddesses had given gifts to her,
+and for that reason the maiden of Hephaestus's making was called Pandora,
+the All-endowed.
+
+  She was lovely, the gods knew; not beautiful as they themselves are, who
+have a beauty that awakens reverence rather than love, but lovely, as
+flowers and bright waters and earthly maidens are lovely. Zeus smiled to
+himself when he looked upon her, and he called to Hermes who knew all the
+ways of the earth, and he put her into the charge of Hermes. Also he gave
+Hermes a great jar to take along; this jar was Pandora's dower.
+
+
+
+  Epimetheus lived in a deep-down valley. Now one day, as he was sitting
+on a fallen pillar in the ruined place that was now forsaken by the rest
+of the Titans, he saw a pair coming toward him. One had wings, and he knew
+him to be Hermes, the messenger of the gods. The other was a maiden.
+Epimetheus marveled at the crown upon her head and at her lovely garments.
+There was a glint of gold all around her. He rose from where he sat upon
+the broken pillar and he stood to watch the pair. Hermes, he saw, was
+carrying by its handle a great jar.
+
+   In wonder and delight he looked upon the maiden. Epimetheus had seen no
+lovely thing for ages. Wonderful indeed was this Golden Maid, and as she
+came nearer the charm that was on her lips and in her eyes came to the
+Earth-born One, and he smiled with more and more delight.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+  Hermes came and stood before him. He also smiled, but his smile had
+something baleful in it. He put the hands of the Golden Maid into the
+great soft hand of the Titan, and he said, "O Epimetheus, Father Zeus
+would be reconciled with thee, and as a sign of his good will he sends
+thee this lovely goddess to be thy companion."
+
+  Oh, very foolish was Epimetheus the Earth-born One! As he looked upon
+the Golden Maid who was sent by Zeus he lost memory of the wars that Zeus
+had made upon the Titans and the Elder Gods; he lost memory of his brother
+chained by Zeus to the rock; he lost memory of the warning that his
+brother, the wisest of all beings, had sent him. He took the hands of
+Pandora, and he thought of nothing at all in all the world but her. Very
+far away seemed the voice of Hermes saying, "This jar, too, is from
+Olympus; it has in it Pandora's dower."
+
+  The jar stood forgotten for long, and green plants grew over it while
+Epimetheus walked in the garden with the Golden Maid, or watched her while
+she gazed on herself in the stream, or searched in the untended places for
+the fruits that the Elder Gods would eat, when they feasted with the
+Titans in the old days, before Zeus had come to his power. And lost to
+Epimetheus was the memory of his brother now suffering upon the rock
+because of the gift he had given to men.
+
+  And Pandora, knowing nothing except the brightness of the sunshine and
+the lovely shapes and colors of things and the sweet taste of the fruits
+that Epimetheus brought to her, could have stayed forever in that garden.
+
+  But every day Epimetheus would think that the men and women of the world
+should be able to talk to him about this maiden with the wonderful
+radiance of gold, and with the lovely garments, and the marvelous crown.
+And one day he took Pandora by the hand, and he brought her out of that
+deep-lying valley, and toward the homes of men. He did not forget the jar
+that Hermes had left with her. All things that belonged to the Golden Maid
+were precious, and Epimetheus took the jar along.
+
+
+
+  The race of men at the time were simple and content. Their days were
+passed in toil, but now, since Prometheus had given them fire, they had
+good fruits of their toil. They had well-shaped tools to dig the earth and
+to build houses. Their homes were warmed with fire, and fire burned upon
+the altars that were upon their ways.
+
+  Greatly they reverenced Prometheus; who had given them fire, and greatly
+they reverenced the race of the Titans. So when Epimetheus came amongst
+them, tall as a man walking with stilts, they welcomed him and brought him
+and the Golden Maid to their hearths. And Epimetheus showed Pandora the
+wonderful element that his brother had given to men, and she rejoiced to
+see the fire, clapping her hands with delight. The jar that Epimetheus
+brought he left in an open place.
+
+  In carrying it up the rough ways out of the valley Epimetheus may have
+knocked the jar about, for the lid that had been tight upon it now fitted
+very loosely. But no one gave heed to the jar as it stood in the open
+space where Epimetheus had left it.
+
+  At first the men and women looked upon the beauty of Pandora, upon her
+lovely dresses, and her golden crown and her girdle of flowers, with
+wonder and delight. Epimetheus would have every one admire and praise her.
+The men would leave off working in the fields, or hammering on iron, or
+building houses, and the women would leave off spinning or weaving, and
+come at his call, and stand about and admire the Golden Maid. But as time
+went by a change came upon the women: one woman would weep, and another
+would look angry, and a third would go back sullenly to her work when
+Pandora was admired or praised.
+
+  Once the women were gathered together, and one who was the wisest
+amongst them said: "Once we did not think about ourselves, and we were
+content. But now we think about ourselves, and we say to ourselves that we
+are harsh and ill-favored indeed compared to the Golden Maid that the
+Titan is so enchanted with. And we hate to see our own men praise and
+admire her, and often, in our hearts, we would destroy her if we could."
+
+  "That is true," the women said. And then a young woman cried out in a
+most yearnful voice, "O tell us, you who are wise, how can we make
+ourselves as beautiful as Pandora!"
+
+  Then said that woman who was thought to be wise, "This Golden Maid is
+lovely to look upon because she has lovely apparel and all the means of
+keeping herself lovely. The gods have given her the ways, and so her skin
+remains fair, and her hair keeps its gold, and her lips are ever red and
+her eyes shining. And I think that the means that she has of keeping
+lovely are all in that jar that Epimetheus brought with her."
+
+  When the woman who was thought to be wise said this, those around her
+were silent for a while. But then one arose and another arose, and they
+stood and whispered together, one saying to the other that they should go
+to the place where the jar had been left by Epimetheus, and that they
+should take out of it the salves and the charms and the washes that would
+leave them as beautiful as Pandora.
+
+  So the women went to that place. On their way they stopped at a pool and
+they bent over to see themselves mirrored in it, and they saw themselves
+with dusty and unkempt hair, with large and knotted hands, with troubled
+eyes, and with anxious mouths. They frowned as they looked upon their
+images, and they said in harsh voices that in a while they would have ways
+of making themselves as lovely as the Golden Maid.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+  And as they went on they saw Pandora. She was playing in a flowering
+field, while Epimetheus, high as a man upon stilts, went gathering the
+blossoms of the bushes for her. They went on, and they came at last to the
+place where Epimetheus had left the jar that held Pandora's dower.
+
+  A great stone jar it was; there was no bird, nor flower, nor branch
+painted upon it. It stood high as a woman's shoulder. And as the women
+looked on it they thought that there were things enough in it to keep them
+beautiful for all the days of their lives. But each one thought that she
+should not be the last to get her hands into it.
+
+  Once the lid had been fixed tightly down on the jar. But the lid was
+shifted a little now. As the hands of the women grasped it to take off the
+lid the jar was cast down, and the things that were inside spilled
+themselves forth.
+
+  They were black and gray and red; they were crawling and flying things.
+And, as the women looked, the things spread themselves abroad or fastened
+themselves upon them.
+
+  The jar, like Pandora herself, had been made and filled out of the ill
+will of Zeus. And it had been filled, not with salves and charms and
+washes, as the women had thought, but with Cares and Troubles. Before the
+women came to it one Trouble had already come forth from the
+jar--Self-thought that was upon the top of the heap. It was Self-thought
+that had afflicted the women, making them troubled about their own looks,
+and envious of the graces of the Golden Maid.
+
+  And now the others spread themselves out--Sickness and War and Strife
+between friends. They spread themselves abroad and entered the houses,
+while Epimetheus, the mindless Titan, gathered flowers for Pandora, the
+Golden Maid.
+
+  Lest she should weary of her play he called to her. He would take her
+into the houses of men. As they drew near to the houses they saw a woman
+seated on the ground, weeping; her husband had suddenly become hard to her
+and had shut the door on her face. They came upon a child crying because
+of a pain that he could not understand. And then they found two men
+struggling, their strife being on account of a possession that they had
+both held peaceably before.
+
+  In every house they went to Epimetheus would say, "I am the brother of
+Prometheus, who gave you the gift of fire." But instead of giving them a
+welcome the men would say, "We know nothing about your relation to
+Prometheus. We see you as a foolish man upon stilts."
+
+  Epimetheus was troubled by the hard looks and the cold words of the men
+who once had reverenced him. He turned from the houses and went away. In a
+quiet place he sat down, and for a while he lost sight of Pandora. And
+then it seemed to him that he heard the voice of his wise and suffering
+brother saying, "Do not accept any gift that Zeus may send you."
+
+  He rose up and he hurried away from that place, leaving Pandora playing
+by herself. There came into his scattered mind Regret and Fear. As he went
+on he stumbled. He fell from the edge of a cliff, and the sea washed away
+the body of the mindless brother of Prometheus.
+
+  Not everything had been spilled out of the jar that had been brought
+with Pandora into the world of men. A beautiful, living thing was in that
+jar also. This was Hope. And this beautiful, living thing had got caught
+under the rim of the jar and had not come forth with the others. One day a
+weeping woman found Hope under the rim of Pandora's jar and brought this
+living thing into the house of men. And now because of Hope they could see
+an end to their troubles. And the men and women roused themselves in the
+midst of their afflictions and they looked toward gladness. Hope, that had
+been caught under the rim of the jar, stayed behind the thresholds of
+their houses.
+
+  As for Pandora, the Golden Maid, she played on, knowing only the
+brightness of the sunshine and the lovely shapes of things. Beautiful
+would she have seemed to any being who saw her, but now she had strayed
+away from the houses of men and Epimetheus was not there to look upon her.
+Then Hephaestus, the lame artisan of the gods, left down his tools and went
+to seek her. He found Pandora, and he took her back to Olympus. And in his
+brazen house she stays, though sometimes at the will of Zeus she goes down
+into the world of men.
+
+
+
+  When Polydeuces had ended the story that Castor had begun, Heracles
+cried out: "For the Argonauts, too, there has been a Golden Maid--nay, not
+one, but a Golden Maid for each. Out of the jar that has been with her ye
+have taken forgetfulness of your honor. As for me, I go back to the _Argo_
+lest one of these Golden Maids should hold me back from the labors that
+make great a man."
+
+  So Heracles said, and he went from Hypsipyle's hall. The heroes looked
+at each other, and they stood up, and shame that they had stayed so long
+away from the quest came over each of them. The maidens took their hands;
+the heroes unloosed those soft hands and turned away from them.
+
+  Hypsipyle left the throne of King Thoas and stood before Jason. There
+was a storm in all her body; her mouth was shaken, and a whole life's
+trouble was in her great eyes. Before she spoke Jason cried out: "What
+Heracles said is true, O Argonauts! On the Quest of the Golden Fleece our
+lives and our honors depend. To Colchis--to Colchis must we go!"
+
+  He stood upright in the hall, and his comrades gathered around him. The
+Lemnian maidens would have held out their arms and would have made their
+partings long delayed, but that a strange cry came to them through the
+night. Well did the Argonauts know that cry--it was the cry of the ship, of
+_Argo_ herself. They knew that they must go to her now or stay from the
+voyage for ever. And the maidens knew that there was something in the cry
+of the ship that might not be gainsaid, and they put their hands before
+their faces, and they said no other word.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+  Then said Hypsipyle, the queen, "I, too, am a ruler, Jason, and I know
+that there are great commands that we have to obey. Go, then, to the
+_Argo_. Ah, neither I nor the women of Lemnos will stay your going now.
+But to-morrow speak to us from the deck of the ship and bid us farewell.
+Do not go from us in the night, Jason."
+
+  Jason and the Argonauts went from Hypsipyle's hall. The maidens who were
+left behind wept together. All but Hypsipyle. She sat on the throne of
+King Thoas and she had Polyxo, her nurse, tell her of the ways of Jason's
+voyage as he had told of them, and of all that he would have to pass
+through. When the other Lemnian women slept she put her head upon her
+nurse's knees and wept; bitterly Hypsipyle wept, but softly, for she would
+not have the others hear her weeping.
+
+
+
+  By the coming of the morning's light the Argonauts had made all ready
+for their sailing. They were standing on the deck when the light came, and
+they saw the Lemnian women come to the shore. Each looked at her friend
+aboard the _Argo_, and spoke, and went away. And last, Hypsipyle, the
+queen, came. "Farewell, Hypsipyle," Jason said to her, and she, in her
+strange way of speaking, said:
+
+  "What you told us I have remembered--how you will come to the dangerous
+passage that leads into the Sea of Pontus, and how by the flight of a
+pigeon you will know whether or not you may go that way. O Jason, let the
+dove you fly when you come to that dangerous place be Hypsipyle's."
+
+  She showed a pigeon held in her hands. She loosed it, and the pigeon
+alighted on the ship, and stayed there on pink feet, a white-feathered
+pigeon. Jason took up the pigeon and held it in his hands, and the _Argo_
+drew swiftly away from the Lemnian land.
+
+
+
+
+XI. The Passage of the Symplegades
+
+
+
+[Decorative first letter]
+_T_HEY came near Salmydessus, where Phineus, the wise king, ruled, and
+they sailed past it; they sighted the pile of stones, with the oar upright
+upon it that they had raised on the seashore over the body of Tiphys, the
+skillful steersman whom they had lost; they sailed on until they heard a
+sound that grew more and more thunderous, and then the heroes said to each
+other, "Now we come to the Symplegades and the dread passage into the Sea
+of Pontus."
+
+  It was then that Jason cried out: "Ah, when Pelias spoke of this quest
+to me, why did I not turn my head away and refuse to be drawn into it?
+Since we came near the dread passage that is before us I have passed every
+night in groans. As for you who have come with me, you may take your ease,
+for you need care only for your own lives. But I have to care for you all,
+and to strive to win for you all a safe return to Greece. Ah, greatly am I
+afflicted now, knowing to what a great peril I have brought you!"
+
+  So Jason said, thinking to make trial of the heroes. They, on their
+part, were not dismayed, but shouted back cheerful words to him. Then he
+said: "O friends of mine, by your spirit my spirit is quickened. Now if I
+knew that I was being borne down into the black gulfs of Hades, I should
+fear nothing, knowing that you are constant and faithful of heart."
+
+  As he said this they came into water that seethed all around the ship.
+Then into the hands of Euphemus, a youth of Iolcus, who was the
+keenest-eyed amongst the Argonauts, Jason put the pigeon that Hypsipyle
+had given him. He bade him stand by the prow of the _Argo_, ready to loose
+the pigeon as the ship came nigh that dreadful gate of rock.
+
+  They saw the spray being dashed around in showers; they saw the sea
+spread itself out in foam; they saw the high, black rocks rush together,
+sounding thunderously as they met. The caves in the high rocks rumbled as
+the sea surged into them, and the foam of the dashing waves spurted high
+up the rocks.
+
+  Jason shouted to each man to grip hard on the oars. The _Argo_ dashed on
+as the rocks rushed toward each other again. Then there was such noise
+that no man's voice could be heard above it.
+
+  As the rocks met, Euphemus loosed the pigeon. With his keen eyes he
+watched her fly through the spray. Would she, not finding an opening to
+fly through, turn back? He watched, and meanwhile the Argonauts gripped
+hard on the oars to save the ship from being dashed on the rocks. The
+pigeon fluttered as though she would sink down and let the spray drown
+her. And then Euphemus saw her raise herself and fly forward. Toward the
+place where she had flown he pointed. The rowers gave a loud cry, and
+Jason called upon them to pull with might and main.
+
+  The rocks were parting asunder, and to the right and left broad Pontus
+was seen by the heroes. Then suddenly a huge wave rose before them, and at
+the sight of it they all uttered a cry and bent their heads. It seemed to
+them that it would dash down on the whole ship's length and overwhelm them
+all. But Nauplius was quick to ease the ship, and the wave rolled away
+beneath the keel, and at the stern it raised the _Argo_ and dashed her
+away from the rocks.
+
+  They felt the sun as it streamed upon them through the sundered rocks.
+They strained at the oars until the oars bent like bows in their hands.
+The ship sprang forward. Surely they were now in the wide Sea of Pontus!
+
+  The Argonauts shouted. They saw the rocks behind them with the sea fowl
+screaming upon them. Surely they were in the Sea of Pontus--the sea that
+had never been entered before through the Rocks Wandering. The rocks no
+longer dashed together; each remained fixed in its place, for it was the
+will of the gods that these rocks should no more clash together after a
+mortal's ship had passed between them.
+
+  They were now in the Sea of Pontus, the sea into which flowed the river
+that Colchis was upon--the River Phasis. And now above Jason's head the
+bird of peaceful days, the Halcyon, fluttered, and the Argonauts knew that
+this was a sign from the gods that the voyage would not any more be
+troublous.
+
+
+
+
+XII. The Mountain Caucasus
+
+
+
+[Decorative first letter]
+_T_HEY rested in the harbor of Thynias, the desert island, and sailing
+from there they came to the land of the Mariandyni, a people who were
+constantly at war with the Bebrycians; there the hero Polydeuces was
+welcomed as a god. Twelve days afterward they passed the mouth of the
+River Callichorus; then they came to the mouth of that river that flows
+through the land of the Amazons, the River Thermodon. Fourteen days from
+that place brought them to the island that is filled with the birds of
+Ares, the god of war. These birds dropped upon the heroes heavy, pointed
+feathers that would have pierced them as arrows if they had not covered
+themselves with their shields; then by shouting, and by striking their
+shields with their spears, they raised such a clamor as drove the birds
+away.
+
+  They sailed on, borne by a gentle breeze, until a gulf of the sea opened
+before them, and lo! a mountain that they knew bore some mighty name.
+Orpheus, looking on its peak and its crags, said, "Lo, now! We, the
+Argonauts, are looking upon the mountain that is named Caucasus!"
+
+  When he declared the name the heroes all stood up and looked on the
+mountain with awe. And in awe they cried out a name, and that name was
+"Prometheus!"
+
+  For upon that mountain the Titan god was held, his limbs bound upon the
+hard rocks by fetters of bronze. Even as the Argonauts looked toward the
+mountain a great shadow fell upon their ship, and looking up they saw a
+monstrous bird flying. The beat of the bird's wings filled out the sail
+and drove the _Argo_ swiftly onward. "It is the bird sent by Zeus,"
+Orpheus said. "It is the vulture that every day devours the liver of the
+Titan god." They cowered down on the ship as they heard that word--all the
+Argonauts save Heracles; he stood upright and looked out toward where the
+bird was flying. Then, as the bird came near to the mountain, the
+Argonauts heard a great cry of anguish go up from the rocks.
+
+  "It is Prometheus crying out as the bird of Zeus flies down upon him,"
+they said to one another. Again they cowered down on the ship, all save
+Heracles, who stayed looking toward where the great vulture had flown.
+
+  The night came and the Argonauts sailed on in silence, thinking in awe
+of the Titan god and of the doom that Zeus had inflicted upon him. Then,
+as they sailed on under the stars, Orpheus told them of Prometheus, of his
+gift to men, and of the fearful punishment that had been meted out to him
+by Zeus.
+
+
+
+Prometheus
+
+
+  The gods more than once made a race of men: the first was a Golden Race.
+Very close to the gods who dwell on Olympus was this Golden Race; they
+lived justly although there were no laws to compel them. In the time of
+the Golden Race the earth knew only one season, and that season was
+everlasting Spring. The men and women of the Golden Race lived through a
+span of life that was far beyond that of the men and women of our day, and
+when they died it was as though sleep had become everlasting with them.
+They had all good things, and that without labor, for the earth without
+any forcing bestowed fruits and crops upon them. They had peace all
+through their lives, this Golden Race, and after they had passed away
+their spirits remained above the earth, inspiring the men of the race that
+came after them to do great and gracious things and to act justly and
+kindly to one another.
+
+  After the Golden Race had passed away, the gods made for the earth a
+second race--a Silver Race. Less noble in spirit and in body was this
+Silver Race, and the seasons that visited them were less gracious. In the
+time of the Silver Race the gods made the seasons--Summer and Spring, and
+Autumn and Winter. They knew parching heat, and the bitter winds of
+winter, and snow and rain and hail. It was the men of the Silver Race who
+first built houses for shelter. They lived through a span of life that was
+longer than our span, but it was not long enough to give wisdom to them.
+Children were brought up at their mothers' sides for a hundred years,
+playing at childish things. And when they came to years beyond a hundred
+they quarreled with one another, and wronged one another, and did not know
+enough to give reverence to the immortal gods. Then, by the will of Zeus,
+the Silver Race passed away as the Golden Race had passed away. Their
+spirits stay in the Underworld, and they are called by men the blessed
+spirits of the Underworld.
+
+  And then there was made the third race--the Race of Bronze. They were a
+race great of stature, terrible and strong. Their armor was of bronze,
+their swords were of bronze, their implements were of bronze, and of
+bronze, too, they made their houses. No great span of life was theirs, for
+with the weapons that they took in their terrible hands they slew one
+another. Thus they passed away, and went down under the earth to Hades,
+leaving no name that men might know them by.
+
+  Then the gods created a fourth race--our own: a Race of Iron. We have not
+the justice that was amongst the men of the Golden Race, nor the
+simpleness that was amongst the men of the Silver Race, nor the stature
+nor the great strength that the men of the Bronze Race possessed. We are
+of iron that we may endure. It is our doom that we must never cease from
+labor and that we must very quickly grow old.
+
+  But miserable as we are to-day, there was a time when the lot of men was
+more miserable. With poor implements they had to labor on a hard ground.
+There was less justice and kindliness amongst men in those days than there
+is now.
+
+  Once it came into the mind of Zeus that he would destroy the fourth race
+and leave the earth to the nymphs and the satyrs. He would destroy it by a
+great flood. But Prometheus, the Titan god who had given aid to Zeus
+against the other Titans--Prometheus, who was called the Foreseer--could not
+consent to the race of men being destroyed utterly, and he considered a
+way of saving some of them. To a man and a woman, Deucalion and Pyrrha,
+just and gentle people, he brought word of the plan of Zeus, and he showed
+them how to make a ship that would bear them through what was about to be
+sent upon the earth.
+
+  Then Zeus shut up in their cave all the winds but the wind that brings
+rain and clouds. He bade this wind, the South Wind, sweep over the earth,
+flooding it with rain. He called upon Poseidon and bade him to let the sea
+pour in upon the land. And Poseidon commanded the rivers to put forth all
+their strength, and sweep dykes away, and overflow their banks.
+
+  The clouds and the sea and the rivers poured upon the earth. The flood
+rose higher and higher, and in the places where the pretty lambs had
+played the ugly sea calves now gambolled; men in their boats drew fishes
+out of the tops of elm trees, and the water nymphs were amazed to come on
+men's cities under the waves.
+
+  Soon even the men and women who had boats were overwhelmed by the rise
+of water--all perished then except Deucalion and Pyrrha, his wife; them the
+waves had not overwhelmed, for they were in a ship that Prometheus had
+shown them how to build. The flood went down at last, and Deucalion and
+Pyrrha climbed up to a high and a dry ground. Zeus saw that two of the
+race of men had been left alive. But he saw that these two were just and
+kindly, and had a right reverence for the gods. He spared them, and he saw
+their children again peopling the earth.
+
+  Prometheus, who had saved them, looked on the men and women of the earth
+with compassion. Their labor was hard, and they wrought much to gain
+little. They were chilled at night in their houses, and the winds that
+blew in the daytime made the old men and women bend double like a wheel.
+Prometheus thought to himself that if men and women had the element that
+only the gods knew of--the element of fire--they could make for themselves
+implements for labor; they could build houses that would keep out the
+chilling winds, and they could warm themselves at the blaze.
+
+  But the gods had not willed that men should have fire, and to go against
+the will of the gods would be impious. Prometheus went against the will of
+the gods. He stole fire from the altar of Zeus, and he hid it in a hollow
+fennel stalk, and he brought it to men.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+                                Prometheus
+
+
+  Then men were able to hammer iron into tools, and cut down forests with
+axes, and sow grain where the forests had been. Then were they able to
+make houses that the storms could not overthrow, and they were able to
+warm themselves at hearth fires. They had rest from their labor at times.
+They built cities; they became beings who no longer had heads and backs
+bent but were able to raise their faces even to the gods.
+
+  And Zeus spared the race of men who had now the sacred element of fire.
+But he knew that Prometheus had stolen this fire even from his own altar
+and had given it to men. And he thought on how he might punish the great
+Titan god for his impiety.
+
+  He brought back from the Underworld the giants that he had put there to
+guard the Titans that had been hurled down to Tartarus. He brought back
+Gyes, Cottus, and Briareus, and he commanded them to lay hands upon
+Prometheus and to fasten him with fetters to the highest, blackest crag
+upon Caucasus. And Briareus, Cottus, and Gyes seized upon the Titan god,
+and carried him to Caucasus, and fettered him with fetters of bronze to
+the highest, blackest crag--with fetters of bronze that may not be broken.
+There they have left the Titan stretched, under the sky, with the cold
+winds blowing upon him, and with the sun streaming down on him. And that
+his punishment might exceed all other punishments Zeus had sent a vulture
+to prey upon him--a vulture that tears at his liver each day.
+
+  And yet Prometheus does not cry out that he has repented of his gift to
+man; although the winds blow upon him, and the sun streams upon him, and
+the vulture tears at his liver, Prometheus will not cry out his repentance
+to heaven. And Zeus may not utterly destroy him. For Prometheus the
+Foreseer knows a secret that Zeus would fain have him disclose. He knows
+that even as Zeus overthrew his father and made himself the ruler in his
+stead, so, too, another will overthrow Zeus. And one day Zeus will have to
+have the fetters broken from around the limbs of Prometheus, and will have
+to bring from the rock and the vulture, and into the Council of the
+Olympians, the unyielding Titan god.
+
+
+
+  When the light of the morning came the _Argo_ was very near to the
+Mountain Caucasus. The voyagers looked in awe upon its black crags. They
+saw the great vulture circling over a high rock, and from beneath where
+the vulture circled they heard a weary cry. Then Heracles, who all night
+had stood by the mast, cried out to the Argonauts to bring the ship near
+to a landing place.
+
+  But Jason would not have them go near; fear of the wrath of Zeus was
+strong upon him; rather, he bade the Argonauts put all their strength into
+their rowing, and draw far off from that forbidden mountain. Heracles, not
+heeding what Jason ordered, declared that it was his purpose to make his
+way up to the black crag, and, with his shield and his sword in his hands,
+slay the vulture that preyed upon the liver of Prometheus.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+  Then Orpheus in a clear voice spoke to the Argonauts. "Surely some
+spirit possesses Heracles," he said. "Despite all we do or say he will
+make his way to where Prometheus is fettered to the rock. Do not gainsay
+him in this! Remember what Nereus, the ancient one of the sea, declared!
+Did Nereus not say that a great labor awaited Heracles, and that in the
+doing of it he should work out the will of Zeus? Stay him not! How just it
+would be if he who is the son of Zeus freed from his torments the
+much-enduring Titan god!"
+
+  So Orpheus said in his clear, commanding voice. They drew near to the
+Mountain Caucasus. Then Heracles, gripping the sword and shield that were
+the gifts of the gods, sprang out on the landing place. The Argonauts
+shouted farewell to him. But he, filled as he was with an overmastering
+spirit, did not heed their words.
+
+  A strong breeze drove them onward; darkness came down, and the _Argo_
+went on through the night. With the morning light those who were sleeping
+were awakened by the cry of Nauplius--"Lo! The Phasis, and the utmost
+bourne of the sea!" They sprang up, and looked with many strange feelings
+upon the broad river they had come to.
+
+  Here was the Phasis emptying itself into the Sea of Pontus! Up that
+river was Colchis and the city of King AEetes, the end of their voyage, the
+place where was kept the Golden Fleece! Quickly they let down the sail;
+they lowered the mast and they laid it along the deck; strongly they
+grasped the oars; they swung the _Argo_ around, and they entered the broad
+stream of the Phasis.
+
+  Up the river they went with the Mountain Caucasus on their left hand,
+and on their right the groves and gardens of Aea, King AEetes's city. As
+they went up the stream, Jason poured from a golden cup an offering to the
+gods. And to the dead heroes of that country the Argonauts prayed for good
+fortune to their enterprise.
+
+  It was Jason's counsel that they should not at once appear before King
+AEetes, but visit him after they had seen the strength of his city. They
+drew their ship into a shaded backwater, and there they stayed while day
+grew and faded around them.
+
+  Night came, and the heroes slept upon the deck of _Argo_. Many things
+came back to them in their dreams or through their half-sleep: they
+thought of the Lemnian maidens they had parted from; of the Clashing Rocks
+they had passed between; of the look in the eyes of Heracles as he raised
+his face to the high, black peak of Caucasus. They slept, and they thought
+they saw before them THE GOLDEN FLEECE; darkness surrounded it; it seemed
+to the dreaming Argonauts that the darkness was the magic power that King
+AEetes possessed.
+
+
+
+
+
+PART II. THE RETURN TO GREECE
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+I. King AEetes
+
+
+
+[Decorative first letter]
+_T_HEY had come into a country that was the strangest of all countries,
+and amongst a people that were the strangest of all peoples. They were in
+the land, this people said, before the moon had come into the sky. And it
+is true that when the great king of Egypt had come so far, finding in all
+other places men living on the high hills and eating the acorns that grew
+on the oaks there, he found in Colchis the city of Aea with a wall around
+it and with pillars on which writings were graven. That was when Egypt was
+called the Morning Land.
+
+  And many of the magicians of Egypt who had come with King Sesostris
+stayed in that city of Aea, and they taught people spells that could stay
+the moon in her going and coming, in her rising and setting. Priests of
+the Moon ruled the city of Aea until King AEetes came.
+
+  AEetes had no need of their magic, for Helios, the bright Sun, was his
+father, as he thought. Also, Hephaestus, the artisan of the gods, was his
+friend, and Hephaestus made for him many wonderful things to be his
+protection. Medea, too, his wise daughter, knew the secrets taught by
+those who could sway the moon.
+
+  But AEetes once was made afraid by a dream that he had: he dreamt that a
+ship had come up the Phasis, and then, sailing on a mist, had rammed his
+palace that was standing there in all its strength and beauty until it had
+fallen down. On the morning of the night that he had had this dream AEetes
+called Medea, his wise daughter, and he bade her go to the temple of
+Hecate, the Moon, and search out spells that might destroy those who came
+against his city.
+
+
+
+  That morning the Argonauts, who had passed the night in the backwater of
+the river, had two youths come to them. They were in a broken ship, and
+they had one oar only. When Jason, after giving them food and fresh
+garments, questioned them, he found out that these youths were of the city
+of Aea, and that they were none others than the sons of Phrixus--of Phrixus
+who had come there with the Golden Ram.
+
+  And the youths, Phrontis and Melas, were as amazed as was Jason when
+they found out whose ship they had come aboard. For Jason was the grandson
+of Cretheus, and Cretheus was the brother of Athamas, their grandfather.
+They had ventured from Aea, where they had been reared, thinking to reach
+the country of Athamas and lay claim to his possessions. But they had been
+wrecked at a place not far from the mouth of the Phasis, and with great
+pain and struggle they had made their way back.
+
+  They were fearful of Aea and of their uncle King AEetes, and they would
+gladly go with Jason and the Argonauts back to Greece. They would help
+Jason, they said, to persuade AEetes to give the Golden Fleece peaceably to
+them. Their mother was the daughter of AEetes--Chalciope, whom the king had
+given in marriage to Phrixus, his guest.
+
+  A council of the Argonauts was held, and it was agreed that Jason should
+go with two comrades to King AEetes, Phrontis and Melas going also. They
+were to ask the king to give them the Golden Fleece and to offer him a
+recompense. Jason took Peleus and Telamon with him.
+
+  As they came to the city a mist fell, and Jason and his comrades with
+the sons of Phrixus went through the city without being seen. They came
+before the palace of King AEetes. Then Phrontis and Melas were some way
+behind. The mist lifted, and before the heroes was the wonder of the
+palace in the bright light of the morning.
+
+  Vines with broad leaves and heavy clusters of fruit grew from column to
+column, the columns holding a gallery up. And under the vines were the
+four fountains that Hephaestus had made for King AEetes. They gushed out
+into golden, silver, bronze, and iron basins. And one fountain gushed out
+clear water, and another gushed out milk; another gushed out wine; and
+another oil. On each side of the courtyard were the palace buildings; in
+one King AEetes lived with Apsyrtus, his son, and in the other Chalciope
+and Medea lived with their handmaidens.
+
+  Medea was passing from her father's house. The mist lifted suddenly and
+she saw three strangers in the palace courtyard. One had a crimson mantle
+on; his shoulders were such as to make him seem a man that a whole world
+could not overthrow, and his eyes had all the sun's light in them.
+
+  Amazed, Medea stood looking upon Jason, wondering at his bright hair and
+gleaming eyes and at the lightness and strength of the hand that he had
+raised. And then a dove flew toward her: it was being chased by a hawk,
+and Medea saw the hawk's eyes and beak. As the dove lighted upon her
+shoulder she threw her veil around it, and the hawk dashed itself against
+a column. And as Medea, trembling, leaned against the column she heard a
+cry from her sister, who was within.
+
+  For now Phrontis and Melas had come up, and Chalciope who was spinning
+by the door saw them and cried out. All the servants rushed out. Seeing
+Chalciope's sons there they, too, uttered loud cries, and made such
+commotion that Apsyrtus and then King AEetes came out of the palace.
+
+  Jason saw King AEetes. He was old and white, but he had great green eyes,
+and the strength of a leopard was in all he did. And Jason looked upon
+Apsyrtus too; the son of AEetes looked like a Phaenician merchant, black of
+beard and with rings in his ears, with a hooked nose and a gleam of copper
+in his face.
+
+  Phrontis and Melas went from their mother's embrace and made reverence
+to King AEetes. Then they spoke of the heroes who were with them, of Jason
+and his two comrades. AEetes bade all enter the palace; baths were made
+ready for them, and a banquet was prepared.
+
+  After the banquet, when they all sat together, AEetes, addressing the
+eldest of Chalciope's sons, said:
+
+  "Sons of Phrixus, of that man whom I honored above all men who came to
+my halls, speak now and tell me how it is that you have come back to Aea
+so soon, and who they are, these men who come with you?"
+
+  AEetes, as he spoke, looked sharply upon Phrontis and Melas, for he
+suspected them of having returned to Aea, bringing these armed men with
+them, with an evil intent. Phrontis looked at the King, and said:
+
+  "AEetes, our ship was driven upon the Island of Ares, where it was almost
+broken upon the rocks. That was on a murky night, and in the morning the
+birds of Ares shot their sharp feathers upon us. We pulled away from that
+place, and thereafter we were driven by the winds back to the mouth of the
+Phasis. There we met with these heroes who were friendly to us. Who they
+are, what they have come to your city for, I shall now tell you.
+
+  "A certain king, longing to drive one of these heroes from his land, and
+hoping that the race of Cretheus might perish utterly, led him to enter a
+most perilous adventure. He came here upon a ship that was made by the
+command of Hera, the wife of Zeus, a ship more wonderful than mortals ever
+sailed in before. With him there came the mightiest of the heroes of
+Greece. He is Jason, the grandson of Cretheus, and he has come to beg that
+you will grant him freely the famous Fleece of Gold that Phrixus brought
+to Aea.
+
+  "But not without recompense to you would he take the Fleece. Already he
+has heard of your bitter foes, the Sauromatae. He with his comrades would
+subdue them for you. And if you would ask of the names and the lineage of
+the heroes who are with Jason I shall tell you. This is Peleus and this is
+Telamon; they are brothers, and they are sons of AEacus, who was of the
+seed of Zeus. And all the other heroes who have come with them are of the
+seed of the gods."
+
+  So Phrontis said, but the King was not placated by what he said. He
+thought that the sons of Chalciope had returned to Aea bringing these
+warriors with them so that they might wrest the kingship from him, or,
+failing that, plunder the city. AEetes's heart was filled with wrath as he
+looked upon them, and his eyes shone as a leopard's eyes.
+
+  "Begone from my sight," he cried, "robbers that ye are! Tricksters! If
+you had not eaten at my table, assuredly I should have had your tongues
+cut out for speaking falsehoods about the blessed gods, saying that this
+one and that of your companions was of their divine race."
+
+  Telamon and Peleus strode forward with angry hearts; they would have
+laid their hands upon King AEetes only Jason held them back. And then
+speaking to the king in a quiet voice, Jason said:
+
+  "Bear with us, King AEetes, I pray you. We have not come with such evil
+intent as you think. Ah, it was the evil command of an evil king that sent
+me forth with these companions of mine across dangerous gulfs of the sea,
+and to face your wrath and the armed men you can bring against us. We are
+ready to make great recompense for the friendliness you may show to us. We
+will subdue for you the Sauromatae, or any other people that you would lord
+it over."
+
+  But AEetes was not made friendly by Jason's words. His heart was divided
+as to whether he should summon his armed men and have them slain upon the
+spot, or whether he should put them into danger by the trial he would make
+of them. At last he thought that it would be better to put them to the
+trial that he had in mind, slaying them afterward if need be. And then he
+spoke to Jason, saying:
+
+  "Strangers to Colchis, it may be true what my nephews have said. It may
+be that ye are truly of the seed of the immortals. And it may be that I
+shall give you the Golden Fleece to bear away after I have made trial of
+you."
+
+  As he spoke Medea, brought there by his messenger so that she might
+observe the strangers, came into the chamber. She entered softly and she
+stood away from her father and the four who were speaking with him. Jason
+looked upon her, and even although his mind was filled with the thought of
+bending King AEetes to his will, he saw what manner of maiden she was, and
+what beauty and what strength was hers.
+
+  She had a dark face that was made very strange by her crown of golden
+hair. Her eyes, like her father's, were wide and full of light, and her
+lips were so full and red that they made her mouth like an opening rose.
+But her brows were always knit as if there was some secret anger within
+her.
+
+  "With brave men I have no quarrel," said AEetes. "I will make a trial of
+your bravery, and if your bravery wins through the trial, be very sure
+that you will have the Golden Fleece to bring back in triumph to Iolcus.
+
+  "But the trial that I would make of you is hard for a great hero even.
+Know that on the plain of Ares yonder I have two fire-breathing bulls with
+feet of brass. These bulls were once conquered by me; I yoked them to a
+plow of adamant, and with them I plowed the field of Ares for four
+plow-gates. Then I sowed the furrows, not with the seed that Demeter
+gives, but with teeth of a dragon. And from the dragon's teeth that I
+sowed in the field of Ares armed men sprang up. I slew them with my spear
+as they rose around me to slay me. If you can accomplish this that I
+accomplished in days gone by I shall submit to you and give you the Golden
+Fleece. But if you cannot accomplish what I once accomplished you shall go
+from my city empty-handed, for it is not right that a brave man should
+yield aught to one who cannot show himself as brave."
+
+  So AEetes said. Then Jason, utterly confounded, cast his eyes upon the
+ground. He raised them to speak to the king, and as he did he found the
+strange eyes of Medea upon him. With all the courage that was in him he
+spoke:
+
+  "I will dare this contest, monstrous as it is. I will face this doom. I
+have come far, and there is nothing else for me to do but to yoke your
+fire-breathing bulls to the plow of adamant, and plow the furrows in the
+field of Ares, and struggle with the Earth-born Men." As he said this he
+saw the eyes of Medea grow wide as with fear.
+
+  Then AEetes said, "Go back to your ship and make ready for the trial."
+Jason, with Peleus and Telamon, left the chamber, and the king smiled
+grimly as he saw them go. Phrontis and Melas went to where their mother
+was. But Medea stayed, and AEetes looked upon her with his great leopard's
+eyes. "My daughter, my wise Medea," he said, "go, put spells upon the
+Moon, that Hecate may weaken that man in his hour of trial." Medea turned
+away from her father's eyes, and went to her chamber.
+
+
+
+
+II. Medea the Sorceress
+
+
+
+[Decorative first letter]
+_S_HE turned away from her father's eyes and she went into her own
+chamber. For a long time she stood there with her hands clasped together.
+She heard the voice of Chalciope lamenting because AEetes had taken a
+hatred to her sons and might strive to destroy them. She heard the voice
+of her sister lamenting, but Medea thought that the cause that her sister
+had for grieving was small compared with the cause that she herself had.
+
+  She thought on the moment when she had seen Jason for the first time--in
+the courtyard as the mist lifted and the dove flew to her; she thought of
+him as he lifted those bright eyes of his; then she thought of his voice
+as he spoke after her father had imposed the dreadful trial upon him. She
+would have liked then to have cried out to him, "O youth, if others
+rejoice at the doom that you go to, I do not rejoice."
+
+  Still her sister lamented. But how great was her own grief compared to
+her sister's! For Chalciope could try to help her sons and could lament
+for the danger they were in and no one would blame her. But she might not
+strive to help Jason nor might she lament for the danger he was in. How
+terrible it would be for a maiden to help a stranger against her father's
+design! How terrible it would be for a woman of Colchis to help a stranger
+against the will of the king! How terrible it would be for a daughter to
+plot against King AEetes in his own palace!
+
+  And then Medea hated Aea, her city. She hated the furious people who
+came together in the assembly, and she hated the brazen bulls that
+Hephaestus had given her father. And then she thought that there was
+nothing in Aea except the furious people and the fire-breathing bulls. O
+how pitiful it was that the strange hero and his friends should have come
+to such a place for the sake of the Golden Fleece that was watched over by
+the sleepless serpent in the grove of Ares!
+
+  Still Chalciope lamented. Would Chalciope come to her and ask her,
+Medea, to help her sons? If she should come she might speak of the
+strangers, too, and of the danger they were in. Medea went to her couch
+and lay down upon it. She longed for her sister to come to her or to call
+to her.
+
+  But Chalciope stayed in her own chamber. Medea, lying upon her couch,
+listened to her sister's laments. At last she went near where Chalciope
+was. Then shame that she should think so much about the stranger came over
+her. She stood there without moving; she turned to go back to the couch,
+and then trembled so much that she could not stir. As she stood between
+her couch and her sister's chamber she heard the voice of Chalciope
+calling to her.
+
+  She went into the chamber where her sister stood. Chalciope flung her
+arms around her. "Swear," said she to Medea, "swear by Hecate, the Moon,
+that you will never speak of something I am going to ask you." Medea swore
+that she would never speak of it.
+
+  Chalciope spoke of the danger her sons were in. She asked Medea to
+devise a way by which they could escape with the stranger from Aea. "In
+Aea and in Colchis," she said, "there will be no safety for my sons
+henceforth." And to save Phrontis and Melas, she said, Medea would have to
+save the strangers also. Surely she knew of a charm that would save the
+stranger from the brazen bulls in the contest on the morrow!
+
+  So Chalciope came to the very thing that was in Medea's mind. Her heart
+bounded with joy and she embraced her. "Chalciope," she said, "I declare
+that I am your sister, indeed--aye, and your daughter, too, for did you not
+care for me when I was an infant? I will strive to save your sons. I will
+strive to save the strangers who came with your sons. Send one to the
+strangers--send him to the leader of the strangers, and tell him that I
+would see him at daybreak in the temple of Hecate."
+
+  When Medea said this Chalciope embraced her again. She was amazed to see
+how Medea's tears were flowing. "Chalciope," she said, "no one will know
+the dangers that I shall go through to save them."
+
+  Swiftly then Chalciope went from the chamber. But Medea stayed there
+with her head bowed and the blush of shame on her face. She thought that
+already she had deceived her sister, making her think that it was Phrontis
+and Melas and not Jason that was in her mind to save. And she thought on
+how she would have to plot against her father and against her own people,
+and all for the sake of a stranger who would sail away without thought of
+her, without the image of her in his mind.
+
+
+
+  Jason, with Peleus and Telamon, went back to the _Argo_. His comrades
+asked how he had fared, and when he spoke to them of the fire-breathing
+bulls with feet of brass, of the dragon's teeth that had to be sown, and
+of the Earth-born Men that had to be overcome, the Argonauts were greatly
+cast down, for this task, they thought, was one that could not be
+accomplished. He who stood before the fire-breathing bulls would perish on
+the moment. But they knew that one amongst them must strive to accomplish
+the task. And if Jason held back, Peleus, Telamon, Theseus, Castor,
+Polydeuces, or any one of the others would undertake it.
+
+  But Jason would not hold back. On the morrow, he said, he would strive
+to yoke the fire-breathing, brazen-footed bulls to the plow of adamant. If
+he perished the Argonauts should then do what they thought was best--make
+other trials to gain the Golden Fleece, or turn their ship and sail back
+to Greece.
+
+  While they were speaking, Phrontis, Chalciope's son, came to the ship.
+The Argonauts welcomed him, and in a while he began to speak of his
+mother's sister and of the help she could give. They grew eager as he
+spoke of her, all except rough Arcas, who stood wrapped in his bear's
+skin. "Shame on us," rough Arcas cried, "shame on us if we have come here
+to crave the help of girls! Speak no more of this! Let us, the Argonauts,
+go with swords into the city of Aea, and slay this king, and carry off the
+Fleece of Gold."
+
+  Some of the Argonauts murmured approval of what Arcas said. But Orpheus
+silenced him and them, for in his prophetic mind Orpheus saw something of
+the help that Medea would give them. It would be well, Orpheus said, to
+take help from this wise maiden; Jason should go to her in the temple of
+Hecate. The Argonauts agreed to this; they listened to what Phrontis told
+them about the brazen bulls, and the night wore on.
+
+
+
+  When darkness came upon the earth; when, at sea, sailors looked to the
+Bear and the stars of Orion; when, in the city, there was no longer the
+sound of barking dogs nor of men's voices, Medea went from the palace. She
+came to a path; she followed it until it brought her into the part of the
+grove that was all black with the shadow that oak trees made.
+
+  She raised up her hands and she called upon Hecate, the Moon. As she
+did, there was a blaze as from torches all around, and she saw horrible
+serpents stretching themselves toward her from the branches of the trees.
+Medea shrank back in fear. But again she called upon Hecate. And now there
+was a howling as from the hounds of Hades all around her. Fearful, indeed,
+Medea grew as the howling came near her; almost she turned to flee. But
+she raised her hands again and called upon Hecate. Then the nymphs who
+haunted the marsh and the river shrieked, and at those shrieks Medea
+crouched down in fear.
+
+  She called upon Hecate, the Moon, again. She saw the moon rise above the
+treetops, and then the hissing and shrieking and howling died away.
+Holding up a goblet in her hand Medea poured out a libation of honey to
+Hecate, the Moon.
+
+  And then she went to where the moon made a brightness upon the ground.
+There she saw a flower that rose above the other flowers--a flower that
+grew from two joined stalks, and that was of the color of a crocus. Medea
+cut the stalks with a brazen knife, and as she did there came a deep groan
+out of the earth.
+
+  This was the Promethean flower. It had come out of the earth first when
+the vulture that tore at Prometheus's liver had let fall to earth a drop
+of his blood. With a Caspian shell that she had brought with her Medea
+gathered the dark juice of this flower--the juice that went to make her
+most potent charm. All night she went through the grove gathering the
+juice of secret herbs; then she mingled them in a phial that she put away
+in her girdle.
+
+  She went from that grove and along the river. When the sun shed its
+first rays upon snowy Caucasus she stood outside the temple of Hecate. She
+waited, but she had not long to wait, for, like the bright star Sirius
+rising out of Ocean, soon she saw Jason coming toward her. She made a sign
+to him, and he came and stood beside her in the portals of the temple.
+
+  They would have stood face to face if Medea did not have her head bent.
+A blush had come upon her face, and Jason seeing it, and seeing how her
+head was bent, knew how grievous it was to her to meet and speak to a
+stranger in this way. He took her hand and he spoke to her reverently, as
+one would speak to a priestess.
+
+  "Lady," he said, "I implore you by Hecate and by Zeus who helps all
+strangers and suppliants to be kind to me and to the men who have come to
+your country with me. Without your help I cannot hope to prevail in the
+grievous trial that has been laid upon me. If you will help us, Medea,
+your name will be renowned throughout all Greece. And I have hopes that
+you will help us, for your face and form show you to be one who can be
+kind and gracious."
+
+  The blush of shame had gone from Medea's face and a softer blush came
+over her as Jason spoke. She looked upon him and she knew that she could
+hardly live if the breath of the brazen bulls withered his life or if the
+Earth-born Men slew him. She took the charm from out her girdle;
+ungrudgingly she put it into Jason's hands. And as she gave him the charm
+that she had gained with such danger, the fear and trouble that was around
+her heart melted as the dew melts from around the rose when it is warmed
+by the first light of the morning.
+
+  Then they spoke standing close together in the portal of the temple. She
+told him how he should anoint his body all over with the charm; it would
+give him, she said, boundless and untiring strength, and make him so that
+the breath of the bulls could not wither him nor the horns of the bulls
+pierce him. She told him also to sprinkle his shield and his sword with
+the charm.
+
+  And then they spoke of the dragon's teeth and of the Earth-born Men who
+would spring from them. Medea told Jason that when they arose out of the
+earth he was to cast a great stone amongst them. The Earth-born Men would
+struggle about the stone, and they would slay each other in the contest.
+
+  Her dark and delicate face was beautiful. Jason looked upon her, and it
+came into his mind that in Colchis there was something else of worth
+besides the Golden Fleece. And he thought that after he had won the Fleece
+there would be peace between the Argonauts and King AEetes, and that he and
+Medea might sit together in the king's hall. But when he spoke of being
+joined in friendship with her father, Medea cried:
+
+  "Think not of treaties nor of covenants. In Greece such are regarded,
+but not here. Ah, do not think that the king, my father, will keep any
+peace with you! When you have won the Fleece you must hasten away. You
+must not tarry in Aea."
+
+  She said this and her cheeks were wet with tears to think that he should
+go so soon, that he would go so far, and that she would never look upon
+him again. She bent her head again and she said: "Tell me about your own
+land; about the place of your father, the place where you will live when
+you win back from Colchis."
+
+  Then Jason told her of Iolcus; he told her how it was circled by
+mountains not so lofty as her Caucasus; he told her of the pasture lands
+of Iolcus with their flocks of sheep; he told her of the Mountain Pelion
+where he had been reared by Chiron, the ancient centaur; he told her of
+his father who lingered out his life in waiting for his return.
+
+  Medea said: "When you go back to Iolcus do not forget me, Medea. I shall
+remember you, Jason, even in my father's despite. And it will be my hope
+that some rumor of you will come to me like some messenger-bird. If you
+forget me may some blast of wind sweep me away to Iolcus, and may I sit in
+your hall an unknown and an unexpected guest!"
+
+  Then they parted; Medea went swiftly back to the palace, and Jason,
+turning to the river, went to where the _Argo_ was moored.
+
+  The heroes embraced and questioned him; he told them of Medea's counsel
+and he showed them the charm she had given him. That savage man Arcas
+scoffed at Medea's counsel and Medea's charm, saying that the Argonauts
+had become poor-spirited indeed when they had to depend upon a girl's
+help.
+
+  Jason bathed in the river; then he anointed himself with the charm; he
+sprinkled his spear and shield and sword with it. He came to Arcas who sat
+upon his bench, still nursing his anger, and he held the spear toward him.
+
+  Arcas took up his heavy sword and he hewed at the butt of the spear. The
+edge of the sword turned. The blade leaped back in his hand as if it had
+been struck against an anvil. And Jason, feeling within him a boundless
+and tireless strength, laughed aloud.
+
+
+
+
+III. The Winning of the Golden Fleece
+
+
+
+[Decorative first letter]
+_T_HEY took the ship out of the backwater and they brought her to a wharf
+in the city. At a place that was called "The Ram's Couch" they fastened
+the _Argo_. Then they marched to the field of Ares, where the king and the
+Colchian people were.
+
+  Jason, carrying his shield and spear, went before the king. From the
+king's hand he took the gleaming helmet that held the dragon's teeth. This
+he put into the hands of Theseus, who went with him. Then with the spear
+and shield in his hands, with his sword girt across his shoulders, and
+with his mantle stripped off, Jason looked across the field of Ares.
+
+  He saw the plow that he was to yoke to the bulls; he saw the yoke of
+bronze near it; he saw the tracks of the bulls' hooves. He followed the
+tracks until he came to the lair of the fire-breathing bulls. Out of that
+lair, which was underground, smoke and fire belched.
+
+  He set his feet firmly upon the ground and he held his shield before
+him. He awaited the onset of the bulls. They came clanging up with loud
+bellowing, breathing out fire. They lowered their heads, and with mighty,
+iron-tipped horns they came to gore and trample him.
+
+  Medea's charm had made him strong; Medea's charm had made his shield
+impregnable. The rush of the bulls did not overthrow him. His comrades
+shouted to see him standing firmly there, and in wonder the Colchians
+gazed upon him. All round him, as from a furnace, there came smoke and
+fire.
+
+  The bulls roared mightily. Grasping the horns of the bull that was upon
+his right hand, Jason dragged him until he had brought him beside the yoke
+of bronze. Striking the brazen knees of the bull suddenly with his foot he
+forced him down. Then he smote the other bull as it rushed upon him, and
+it too he forced down upon its knees.
+
+  Castor and Polydeuces held the yoke to him. Jason bound it upon the
+necks of the bulls. He fastened the plow to the yoke. Then he took his
+shield and set it upon his back, and grasping the handles of the plow he
+started to make the furrow.
+
+  With his long spear he drove the bulls before him as with a goad.
+Terribly they raged, furiously they breathed out fire. Beside Jason
+Theseus went holding the helmet that held the dragon's teeth. The hard
+ground was torn up by the plow of adamant, and the clods groaned as they
+were cast up. Jason flung the teeth between the open sods, often turning
+his head in fear that the deadly crop of the Earth-born Men were rising
+behind him.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+                     The Field of the Dragon's Teeth
+
+
+  By the time that a third of the day was finished the field of Ares had
+been plowed and sown. As yet the furrows were free of the Earth-born Men.
+Jason went down to the river and filled his helmet full of water and drank
+deeply. And his knees that were stiffened with the plowing he bent until
+they were made supple again.
+
+  He saw the field rising into mounds. It seemed that there were graves
+all over the field of Ares. Then he saw spears and shields and helmets
+rising up out of the earth. Then armed warriors sprang up, a fierce battle
+cry upon their lips.
+
+  Jason remembered the counsel of Medea. He raised a boulder that four men
+could hardly raise and with arms hardened by the plowing he cast it. The
+Colchians shouted to see such a stone cast by the hands of one man. Right
+into the middle of the Earth-born Men the stone came. They leaped upon it
+like hounds, striking at one another as they came together. Shield crashed
+on shield, spear rang upon spear as they struck at each other. The
+Earth-born Men, as fast as they arose, went down before the weapons in the
+hands of their brethren.
+
+  Jason rushed upon them, his sword in his hand. He slew some that had
+risen out of the earth only as far as the shoulders; he slew others whose
+feet were still in the earth; he slew others who were ready to spring upon
+him. Soon all the Earth-born Men were slain, and the furrows ran with
+their dark blood as channels run with water in springtime.
+
+  The Argonauts shouted loudly for Jason's victory. King AEetes rose from
+his seat that was beside the river and he went back to the city. The
+Colchians followed him. Day faded, and Jason's contest was ended.
+
+
+
+  But it was not the will of AEetes that the strangers should be let depart
+peaceably with the Golden Fleece that Jason had won. In the assembly
+place, with his son Apsyrtus beside him, and with the furious Colchians
+all around him, the king stood: on his breast was the gleaming corselet
+that Ares had given him, and on his head was that golden helmet with its
+four plumes that made him look as if he were truly the son of Helios, the
+Sun. Lightnings flashed from his great eyes; he spoke fiercely to the
+Colchians, holding in his hand his bronze-topped spear.
+
+  He would have them attack the strangers and burn the _Argo_. He would
+have the sons of Phrixus slain for bringing them to Aea. There was a
+prophecy, he declared, that would have him be watchful of the treachery of
+his own offspring: this prophecy was being fulfilled by the children of
+Chalciope; he feared, too, that his daughter, Medea, had aided the
+strangers. So the king spoke, and the Colchians, hating all strangers,
+shouted around him.
+
+  Word of what her father had said was brought to Medea. She knew that she
+would have to go to the Argonauts and bid them flee hastily from Aea. They
+would not go, she knew, without the Golden Fleece; then she, Medea, would
+have to show them how to gain the Fleece.
+
+  Then she could never again go back to her father's palace, she could
+never again sit in this chamber and talk to her handmaidens, and be with
+Chalciope, her sister. Forever afterward she would be dependent on the
+kindness of strangers. Medea wept when she thought of all this. And then
+she cut off a tress of her hair and she left it in her chamber as a
+farewell from one who was going afar. Into the chamber where Chalciope was
+she whispered farewell.
+
+  The palace doors were all heavily bolted, but Medea did not have to pull
+back the bolts. As she chanted her Magic Song the bolts softly drew back,
+the doors softly opened. Swiftly she went along the ways that led to the
+river. She came to where fires were blazing and she knew that the
+Argonauts were there.
+
+  She called to them, and Phrontis, Chalciope's son, heard the cry and
+knew the voice. To Jason he spoke, and Jason quickly went to where Medea
+stood.
+
+  She clasped Jason's hand and she drew him with her. "The Golden Fleece,"
+she said, "the time has come when you must pluck the Golden Fleece off the
+oak in the grove of Ares." When she said these words all Jason's being
+became taut like the string of a bow.
+
+  It was then the hour when huntsmen cast sleep from their eyes--huntsmen
+who never sleep away the end of the night, but who are ever ready to be up
+and away with their hounds before the beams of the sun efface the track
+and the scent of the quarry. Along a path that went from the river Medea
+drew Jason. They entered a grove. Then Jason saw something that was like a
+cloud filled with the light of the rising sun. It hung from a great oak
+tree. In awe he stood and looked upon it, knowing that at last he looked
+upon THE GOLDEN FLEECE.
+
+  His hand let slip Medea's hand and he went to seize the Fleece. As he
+did he heard a dreadful hiss. And then he saw the guardian of the Golden
+Fleece. Coiled all around the tree, with outstretched neck and keen and
+sleepless eyes, was a deadly serpent. Its hiss ran all through the grove
+and the birds that were wakening up squawked in terror.
+
+  Like rings of smoke that rise one above the other, the coils of the
+serpent went around the tree--coils covered by hard and gleaming scales. It
+uncoiled, stretched itself, and lifted its head to strike. Then Medea
+dropped on her knees before it, and began to chant her Magic Song.
+
+  As she sang, the coils around the tree grew slack. Like a dark,
+noiseless wave the serpent sank down on the ground. But still its jaws
+were open, and those dreadful jaws threatened Jason. Medea, with a newly
+cut spray of juniper dipped in a mystic brew, touched its deadly eyes. And
+still she chanted her Magic Song. The serpent's jaws closed; its eyes
+became deadened; far through the grove its length was stretched out.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+  Then Jason took the Golden Fleece. As he raised his hands to it, its
+brightness was such as to make a flame on his face. Medea called to him.
+He strove to gather it all up in his arms; Medea was beside him, and they
+went swiftly on.
+
+  They came to the river and down to the place where the _Argo_ was
+moored. The heroes who were aboard started up, astonished to see the
+Fleece that shone as with the lightning of Zeus. Over Medea Jason cast it,
+and he lifted her aboard the _Argo_.
+
+  "O friends," he cried, "the quest on which we dared the gulfs of the sea
+and the wrath of kings is accomplished, thanks to the help of this maiden.
+Now may we return to Greece; now have we the hope of looking upon our
+fathers and our friends once more. And in all honor will we bring this
+maiden with us, Medea, the daughter of King AEetes."
+
+  Then he drew his sword and cut the hawsers of the ship, calling upon the
+heroes to drive the _Argo_ on. There was a din and a strain and a splash
+of oars, and away from Aea the _Argo_ dashed. Beside the mast Medea stood;
+the Golden Fleece had fallen at her feet, and her head and face were
+covered by her silver veil.
+
+
+
+
+IV. The Slaying of Apsyrtus
+
+
+
+[Decorative first letter]
+_T_HAT silver veil was to be splashed with a brother's blood, and the
+Argonauts, because of that calamity, were for a long time to be held back
+from a return to their native land.
+
+  Now as they went down the river they saw that dangers were coming
+swiftly upon them. The chariots of the Colchians were upon the banks.
+Jason saw King AEetes in his chariot, a blazing torch lighting his corselet
+and his helmet. Swiftly the _Argo_ went, but there were ships behind her,
+and they went swiftly too.
+
+  They came into the Sea of Pontus, and Phrontis, the son of Phrixus, gave
+counsel to them. "Do not strive to make the passage of the Symplegades,"
+he said. "All who live around the Sea of Pontus are friendly to King
+AEetes; they will be warned by him, and they will be ready to slay us and
+take the _Argo_. Let us journey up the River Ister, and by that way we can
+come to the Thrinacian Sea that is close to your land."
+
+  The Argonauts thought well of what Phrontis said; into the waters of the
+Ister the ship was brought. Many of the Colchian ships passed by the mouth
+of the river, and went seeking the _Argo_ toward the passage of the
+Symplegades.
+
+  But the Argonauts were on a way that was dangerous for them. For
+Apsyrtus had not gone toward the Symplegades seeking the _Argo_. He had
+led his soldiers overland to the River Ister at a place that was at a
+distance above its mouth. There were islands in the river at that place,
+and the soldiers of Apsyrtus landed on the islands, while Apsyrtus went to
+the kings of the people around and claimed their support.
+
+  The _Argo_ came and the heroes found themselves cut off. They could not
+make their way between the islands that were filled with the Colchian
+soldiers, nor along the banks that were lined with men friendly to King
+AEetes. _Argo_ was stayed. Apsyrtus sent for the chiefs; he had men enough
+to overwhelm them, but he shrank from a fight with the heroes, and he
+thought that he might gain all he wanted from them without a struggle.
+
+  Theseus and Peleus went to him. Apsyrtus would have them give up the
+Golden Fleece; he would have them give up Medea and the sons of Phrixus
+also.
+
+  Theseus and Peleus appealed to the judgment of the kings who supported
+Apsyrtus. AEetes, they said, had no more claim on the Golden Fleece. He had
+promised it to Jason as a reward for tasks that he had imposed. The tasks
+had been accomplished and the Fleece, no matter in what way it was taken
+from the grove of Ares, was theirs. So Theseus and Peleus said, and the
+kings who supported Apsyrtus gave judgment for the Argonauts.
+
+  But Medea would have to be given to her brother. If that were done the
+_Argo_ would be let go on her course, Apsyrtus said, and the Golden Fleece
+would be left with them. Apsyrtus said, too, that he would not take Medea
+back to the wrath of her father; if the Argonauts gave her up she would be
+let stay on the island of Artemis and under the guardianship of the
+goddess.
+
+  The chiefs brought Apsyrtus's words back. There was a council of the
+Argonauts, and they agreed that they should leave Medea on the island of
+Artemis.
+
+  But grief and wrath took hold of Medea when she heard of this resolve.
+Almost she would burn the _Argo_. She went to where Jason stood, and she
+spoke again of all she had done to save his life and win the Golden Fleece
+for the Argonauts. Jason made her look on the ships and the soldiers that
+were around them; he showed her how these could overwhelm the Argonauts
+and slay them all. With all the heroes slain, he said, Medea would come
+into the hands of Apsyrtus, who then could leave her on the island of
+Artemis or take her back to the wrath of her father.
+
+  But Medea would not consent to go nor could Jason's heart consent to let
+her go. Then these two made a plot to deceive Apsyrtus.
+
+  "I have not been of the council that agreed to give you up to him,"
+Jason said. "After you have been left there I will take you off the island
+of Artemis secretly. The Colchians and the kings who support them, not
+knowing that you have been taken off and hidden on the _Argo_, will let us
+pass." This Medea and Jason planned to do, and it was an ill thing, for it
+was breaking the covenant that the chiefs had entered with Apsyrtus.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+  Medea then was left by the Argonauts on the island of Artemis. Now
+Apsyrtus had been commanded by his father to bring her back to Aea; he
+thought that when she had been left by the Argonauts he could force her to
+come with him. So he went over to the island. Jason, secretly leaving his
+companions, went to the island from the other side.
+
+  Before the temple of Artemis Jason and Apsyrtus came face to face. Both
+men, thinking they had been betrayed to their deaths, drew their swords.
+Then, before the vestibule of the temple and under the eyes of Medea,
+Jason and Apsyrtus fought. Jason's sword pierced the son of AEetes; as he
+fell Apsyrtus cried out bitter words against Medea, saying that it was on
+her account that he had come on his death. And as he fell the blood of her
+brother splashed Medea's silver veil.
+
+  Jason lifted Medea up and carried her to the _Argo_. They hid the maiden
+under the Fleece of Gold and they sailed past the ships of the Colchians.
+When darkness came they were far from the island of Artemis. It was then
+that they heard a loud wailing, and they knew that the Colchians had
+discovered that their prince had been slain.
+
+  The Colchians did not pursue them. Fearing the wrath of AEetes they made
+settlements in the lands of the kings who had supported Apsyrtus; they
+never went back to Aea; they called themselves Apsyrtians henceforward,
+naming themselves after the prince they had come with.
+
+  They had escaped the danger that had hemmed them in, but the Argonauts,
+as they sailed on, were not content; covenants had been broken, and blood
+had been shed in a bad cause. And as they went on through the darkness the
+voice of the ship was heard; at the sound of that voice fear and sorrow
+came upon the voyagers, for they felt that it had a prophecy of doom.
+
+  Castor and Polydeuces went to the front of the ship; holding up their
+hands, they prayed. Then they heard the words that the voice uttered: in
+the night as they went on the voice proclaimed the wrath of Zeus on
+account of the slaying of Apsyrtus.
+
+  What was their doom to be? It was that the Argonauts would have to
+wander forever over the gulfs of the sea unless Medea had herself cleansed
+of her brother's blood. There was one who could cleanse Medea--Circe, the
+daughter of Helios and Perse. The voice urged the heroes to pray to the
+immortal gods that the way to the island of Circe be shown to them.
+
+
+
+
+V. Medea Comes to Circe
+
+
+
+[Decorative first letter]
+_T_HEY sailed up the River Ister until they came to the Eridanus, that
+river across which no bird can fly. Leaving the Eridanus they entered the
+Rhodanus, a river that rises in the extreme north, where Night herself has
+her habitation. And voyaging up this river they came to the Stormy Lakes.
+A mist lay upon the lakes night and day; voyaging through them the
+Argonauts at last brought out their ship upon the Sea of Ausonia.
+
+  It was Zetes and Calais, the sons of the North Wind, who brought the
+_Argo_ safely along this dangerous course. And to Zetes and Calais Iris,
+the messenger of the gods, appeared and revealed to them where Circe's
+island lay.
+
+  Deep blue water was all around that island, and on its height a marble
+house was to be seen. But a strange haze covered everything as with a
+veil. As the Argonauts came near they saw what looked to them like great
+dragonflies; they came down to the shore, and then the heroes saw that
+they were maidens in gleaming dresses.
+
+  The maidens waved their hands to the voyagers, calling them to come on
+the island. Strange beasts came up to where the maidens were and made
+whimpering cries.
+
+  The Argonauts would have drawn the ship close and would have sprung upon
+the island only that Medea cried out to them. She showed them the beasts
+that whimpered around the maidens, and then, as the Argonauts looked upon
+them, they saw that these were not beasts of the wild. There was something
+strange and fearful about them; the heroes gazed upon them with troubled
+eyes. They brought the ship near, but they stayed upon their benches,
+holding the oars in their hands.
+
+  Medea sprang to the island; she spoke to the maidens so that they shrank
+away; then the beasts came and whimpered around her. "Forbear to land
+here, O Argonauts," Medea cried, "for this is the island where men are
+changed into beasts." She called to Jason to come; only Jason would she
+have come upon the island.
+
+  They went swiftly toward the marble house, and the beasts followed them,
+looking up at Jason and Medea with pitiful human eyes. They went into the
+marble house of Circe, and as suppliants they seated themselves at the
+hearth.
+
+  Circe stood at her loom, weaving her many-colored threads. Swiftly she
+turned to the suppliants; she looked for something strange in them, for
+just before they came the walls of her house dripped with blood and the
+flame ran over and into her pot, burning up all the magic herbs she was
+brewing. She went toward where they sat, Medea with her face hidden by her
+hands, and Jason, with his head bent, holding with its point in the ground
+the sword with which he had slain the son of AEetes.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+  When Medea took her hands away from before her face, Circe knew that,
+like herself, this maiden was of the race of Helios. Medea spoke to her,
+telling her first of the voyage of the heroes and of their toils; telling
+her then of how she had given help to Jason against the will of AEetes, her
+father; telling her then, fearfully, of the slaying of Apsyrtus. She
+covered her face with her robe as she spoke of it. And then she told Circe
+she had come, warned by the judgment of Zeus, to ask of Circe, the
+daughter of Helios, to purify her from the stain of her brother's blood.
+
+  Like all the children of Helios, Circe had eyes that were wide and full
+of life, but she had stony lips--lips that were heavy and moveless. Bright
+golden hair hung smoothly along each of her sides. First she held a cup to
+them that was filled with pure water, and Jason and Medea drank from that
+cup.
+
+  Then Circe stayed by the hearth; she burnt cakes in the flame, and all
+the while she prayed to Zeus to be gentle with these suppliants. She
+brought both to the seashore. There she washed Medea's body and her
+garments with the spray of the sea.
+
+  Medea pleaded with Circe to tell her of the life she foresaw for her,
+but Circe would not speak of it. She told Medea that one day she would
+meet a woman who knew nothing about enchantments but who had much human
+wisdom. She was to ask of her what she was to do in her life or what she
+was to leave undone. And whatever this woman out of her wisdom told her,
+that Medea was to regard. Once more Circe offered them the cup filled with
+clear water, and when they had drunken of it she left them upon the
+seashore. As she went toward her marble house the strange beasts followed
+Circe, whimpering as they went. Jason and Medea went aboard the _Argo_,
+and the heroes drew away from Circe's island.
+
+
+
+
+VI. In the Land of the Phaeacians
+
+
+
+[Decorative first letter]
+_W_EARIED were the heroes now. They would have fain gone upon the island
+of Circe to rest there away from the oars and the sound of the sea. But
+the wisest of them, looking upon the beasts that were men transformed,
+held the _Argo_ far off the shore. Then Jason and Medea came aboard, and
+with heavy hearts and wearied arms they turned to the open sea again.
+
+  No longer had they such high hearts as when they drove the _Argo_
+between the Clashers and into the Sea of Pontus. Now their heads drooped
+as they went on, and they sang such songs as slaves sing in their hopeless
+labor. Orpheus grew fearful for them now.
+
+  For Orpheus knew that they were drawing toward a danger. There was no
+other way for them, he knew, but past the Island Anthemoessa in the
+Tyrrhenian Sea where the Sirens were. Once they had been nymphs and had
+tended Persephone before she was carried off by Aidoneus to be his queen
+in the Underworld. Kind they had been, but now they were changed, and they
+cared only for the destruction of men.
+
+  All set around with rocks was the island where they were. As the _Argo_
+came near, the Sirens, ever on the watch to draw mariners to their
+destruction, saw them and came to the rocks and sang to them, holding each
+other's hands.
+
+  They sang all together their lulling song. That song made the wearied
+voyagers long to let their oars go with the waves, and drift, drift to
+where the Sirens were. Bending down to them the Sirens, with soft hands
+and white arms, would lift them to soft resting places. Then each of the
+Sirens sang a clear, piercing song that called to each of the voyagers.
+Each man thought that his own name was in that song. "O how well it is
+that you have come near," each one sang, "how well it is that you have
+come near where I have awaited you, having all delight prepared for you!"
+
+  Orpheus took up his lyre as the Sirens began to sing. He sang to the
+heroes of their own toils. He sang of them, how, gaunt and weary as they
+were, they were yet men, men who were the strength of Greece, men who had
+been fostered by the love and hope of their country. They were the winners
+of the Golden Fleece and their story would be told forever. And for the
+fame that they had won men would forego all rest and all delight. Why
+should they not toil, they who were born for great labors and to face
+dangers that other men might not face? Soon hands would be stretched out
+to them--the welcoming hands of the men and women of their own land.
+
+  So Orpheus sang, and his voice and the music of his lyre prevailed above
+the Sirens' voices. Men dropped their oars, but other men remained at
+their benches, and pulled steadily, if wearily, on. Only one of the
+Argonauts, Butes, a youth of Iolcus, threw himself into the water and swam
+toward the rocks from which the Sirens sang.
+
+  But an anguish that nearly parted their spirits from their bodies was
+upon them as they went wearily on. Toward the end of the day they beheld
+another island--an island that seemed very fair; they longed to land and
+rest themselves there and eat the fruits of the island. But Orpheus would
+not have them land. The island, he said, was Thrinacia. Upon that island
+the Cattle of the Sun pastured, and if one of the cattle perished through
+them their return home might not be won. They heard the lowing of the
+cattle through the mist, and a deep longing for the sight of their own
+fields, with a white house near, and flocks and herds at pasture, came
+over the heroes. They came near the Island of Thrinacia, and they saw the
+Cattle of the Sun feeding by the meadow streams; not one of them was
+black; all were white as milk, and the horns upon their heads were golden.
+They saw the two nymphs who herded the kine--Phaethusa and Lampetia, one
+with a staff of silver and the other with a staff of gold.
+
+  Driven by the breeze that came over the Thrinacian Sea the Argonauts
+came to the land of the Phaeacians. It was a good land as they saw when
+they drew near; a land of orchards and fresh pastures, with a white and
+sun-lit city upon the height. Their spirits came back to them as they drew
+into the harbor; they made fast the hawsers, and they went upon the ways
+of the city.
+
+  And then they saw everywhere around them the dark faces of Colchian
+soldiers. These were the men of King AEetes, and they had come overland to
+the Phaeacian city, hoping to cut off the Argonauts. Jason, when he saw the
+soldiers, shouted to those who had been left on the _Argo_, and they drew
+out of the harbor, fearful lest the Colchians should grapple with the ship
+and wrest from them the Fleece of Gold. Then Jason made an encampment upon
+the shore, and the captain of the Colchians went here and there, gathering
+together his men.
+
+  Medea left Jason's side and hastened through the city. To the palace of
+Alcinous, king of the Phaeacians, she went. Within the palace she found
+Arete, the queen. And Arete was sitting by her hearth, spinning golden and
+silver threads.
+
+  Arete was young at that time, as young as Medea, and as yet no child had
+been born to her. But she had the clear eyes of one who understands, and
+who knows how to order things well. Stately, too, was Arete, for she had
+been reared in the house of a great king. Medea came to her, and fell upon
+her knees before her, and told her how she had fled from the house of her
+father, King AEetes.
+
+  She told Arete, too, how she had helped Jason to win the Golden Fleece,
+and she told her how through her her brother had been led to his death. As
+she told this part of her story she wept and prayed at the knees of the
+queen.
+
+  Arete was greatly moved by Medea's tears and prayers. She went to
+Alcinous in his garden, and she begged of him to save the Argonauts from
+the great force of the Colchians that had come to cut them off. "The
+Golden Fleece," said Arete, "has been won by the tasks that Jason
+performed. If the Colchians should take Medea, it would be to bring her
+back to Aea and to a bitter doom. And the maiden," said the queen, "has
+broken my heart by her prayers and tears."
+
+  King Alcinous said: "AEetes is strong, and although his kingdom is far
+from ours, he can bring war upon us." But still Arete pleaded with him to
+protect Medea from the Colchians. Alcinous went within; he raised up Medea
+from where she crouched on the floor of the palace, and he promised her
+that the Argonauts would be protected in his city.
+
+  Then the king mounted his chariot; Medea went with him, and they came
+down to the seashore where the heroes had made their encampment. The
+Argonauts and the Colchians were drawn up against each other, and the
+Colchians far outnumbered the wearied heroes.
+
+  Alcinous drove his chariot between the two armies. The Colchians prayed
+him to have the strangers make surrender to them. But the king drove his
+chariot to where the heroes stood, and he took the hand of each, and
+received them as his guests. Then the Colchians knew that they might not
+make war upon the heroes. They drew off. The next day they marched away.
+
+
+
+  It was a rich land that they had come to. Once Aristaeus dwelt there, the
+king who discovered how to make bees store up their honey for men and how
+to make the good olive grow. Macris, his daughter, tended Dionysus, the
+son of Zeus, when Hermes brought him of the flame, and moistened his lips
+with honey. She tended him in a cave in the Phaeacian land, and ever
+afterward the Phaeacians were blessed with all good things.
+
+  Now as the heroes marched to the palace of King Alcinous the people came
+to meet them, bringing them sheep and calves and jars of wine and honey.
+The women brought them fresh garments; to Medea they gave fine linen and
+golden ornaments.
+
+  Amongst the Phaeacians who loved music and games and the telling of
+stories the heroes stayed for long. There were dances, and to the
+Phaeacians who honored him as a god, Orpheus played upon his lyre. And
+every day, for the seven days that they stayed amongst them, the Phaeacians
+brought rich presents to the heroes.
+
+  And Medea, looking into the clear eyes of Queen Arete, knew that she was
+the woman of whom Circe had prophesied, the woman who knew nothing of
+enchantments, but who had much human wisdom. She was to ask of her what
+she was to do in her life and what she was to leave undone. And what this
+woman told her Medea was to regard. Arete told her that she was to forget
+all the witcheries and enchantments that she knew, and that she was never
+to practice against the life of any one. This she told Medea upon the
+shore, before Jason lifted her aboard the _Argo_.
+
+
+
+
+VII. They Come to the Desert Land
+
+
+
+[Decorative first letter]
+_A_ND now with sail spread wide the _Argo_ went on, and the heroes rested
+at the oars. The wind grew stronger. It became a great blast, and for nine
+days and nine nights the ship was driven fearfully along.
+
+  The blast drove them into the Gulf of Libya, from whence there is no
+return for ships. On each side of the gulf there are rocks and shoals, and
+the sea runs toward the limitless sand. On the top of a mighty tide the
+_Argo_ was lifted, and she was flung high up on the desert sands.
+
+  A flood tide such as might not come again for long left the Argonauts on
+the empty Libyan land. And when they came forth and saw that vast level of
+sand stretching like a mist away into the distance, a deadly fear came
+over each of them. No spring of water could they descry; no path; no
+herdsman's cabin; over all that vast land there was silence and dead calm.
+And one said to the other: "What land is this? Whither have we come? Would
+that the tempest had overwhelmed us, or would that we had lost the ship
+and our lives between the Clashing Rocks at the time when we were making
+our way into the Sea of Pontus."
+
+  And the helmsman, looking before him, said with a breaking heart: "Out
+of this we may not come, even should the breeze blow from the land, for
+all around us are shoals and sharp rocks--rocks that we can see fretting
+the water, line upon line. Our ship would have been shattered far from the
+shore if the tide had not borne her far up on the sand. But now the tide
+rushes back toward the sea, leaving only foam on which no ship can sail to
+cover the sand. And so all hope of our return is cut off."
+
+  He spoke with tears flowing upon his cheeks, and all who had knowledge
+of ships agreed with what the helmsman had said. No dangers that they had
+been through were as terrible as this. Hopelessly, like lifeless specters,
+the heroes strayed about the endless strand.
+
+  They embraced each other and they said farewell as they laid down upon
+the sand that might blow upon them and overwhelm them in the night. They
+wrapped their heads in their cloaks, and, fasting, they laid themselves
+down.
+
+  Jason crouched beside the ship, so troubled that his life nearly went
+from him. He saw Medea huddled against a rock and with her hair streaming
+on the sand. He saw the men who, with all the bravery of their lives, had
+come with him, stretched on the desert sand, weary and without hope. He
+thought that they, the best of men, might die in this desert with their
+deeds all unknown; he thought that he might never win home with Medea, to
+make her his queen in Iolcus.
+
+  He lay against the side of the ship, his cloak wrapped around his head.
+And there death would have come to him and to the others if the nymphs of
+the desert had been unmindful of these brave men. They came to Jason. It
+was midday then, and the fierce rays of the sun were scorching all Libya.
+They drew off the cloak that wrapped his head; they stood near him, three
+nymphs girded around with goatskins.
+
+  "Why art thou so smitten with despair?" the nymphs said to Jason. "Why
+art thou smitten with despair, thou who hast wrought so much and hast won
+so much? Up! Arouse thy comrades! We are the solitary nymphs, the warders
+of the land of Libya, and we have come to show a way of escape to you, the
+Argonauts.
+
+  "Look around and watch for the time when Poseidon's great horse shall be
+unloosed. Then make ready to pay recompense to the mother that bore you
+all. What she did for you all, that you all must do for her; by doing it
+you will win back to the land of Greece." Jason heard them say these words
+and then he saw them no more; the nymphs vanished amongst the desert
+mounds.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+  Then Jason rose up. He did not know what to make out of what had been
+told him, but there was courage now and hope in his heart. He shouted; his
+voice was like the roar of a lion calling to his mate. At his shout his
+comrades roused themselves; all squalid with the dust of the desert the
+Argonauts stood around him.
+
+  "Listen, comrades, to me," Jason said, "while I speak of a strange thing
+that has befallen me. While I lay by the side of our ship three nymphs
+came before me. With light hands they drew away the cloak that wrapped my
+head. They declared themselves to be the solitary nymphs, the warders, of
+Libya. Very strange were the words they said to me. When Poseidon's great
+horse shall be unloosed, they said, we were to make the mother of us all a
+recompense, doing for her what she had done for us all. This the nymphs
+told me to say, but I cannot understand the meaning of their words."
+
+  There were some there who would not have given heed to Jason's words,
+deeming them words without meaning. But even as he spoke a wonder came
+before their eyes. Out of the far-off sea a great horse leaped. Vast he
+was of size and he had a golden mane. He shook the spray of the sea off
+his sides and mane. Past them he trampled and away toward the horizon,
+leaving great tracks in the sand.
+
+  Then Nestor spoke rejoicingly. "Behold the great horse! It is the horse
+that the desert nymphs spoke of, Poseidon's horse. Even now has the horse
+been unloosed, and now is the time to do what the nymphs bade us do.
+
+  "Who but _Argo_ is the mother of us all? She has carried us. Now we must
+make her a recompense and carry her even as she carried us. With untiring
+shoulders we must bear _Argo_ across this great desert.
+
+  "And whither shall we bear her? Whither but along the tracks that
+Poseidon's horse has left in the sand! Poseidon's horse will not go under
+the earth--once again he will plunge into the sea!"
+
+  So Nestor said and the Argonauts saw truth in his saying. Hope came to
+them again--the hope of leaving that desert and coming to the sea. Surely
+when they came to the sea again, and spread the sail and held the oars in
+their hands, their sacred ship would make swift course to their native
+land!
+
+
+
+
+VIII. The Carrying of the Argo
+
+
+
+[Decorative first letter]
+_W_ITH the terrible weight of the ship upon their shoulders the Argonauts
+made their way across the desert, following the tracks of Poseidon's
+golden-maned horse. Like a wounded serpent that drags with pain its length
+along, they went day after day across that limitless land.
+
+  A day came when they saw the great tracks of the horse no more. A wind
+had come up and had covered them with sand. With the mighty weight of the
+ship upon their shoulders, with the sun beating upon their heads, and with
+no marks on the desert to guide them, the heroes stood there, and it
+seemed to them that the blood must gush up and out of their hearts.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+  Then Zetes and Calais, sons of the North Wind, rose up upon their wings
+to strive to get sight of the sea. Up, up, they soared. And then as a man
+sees, or thinks he sees, at the month's beginning, the moon through a bank
+of clouds, Zetes and Calais, looking over the measureless land, saw the
+gleam of water. They shouted to the Argonauts; they marked the way for
+them, and wearily, but with good hearts, the heroes went upon the way.
+
+  They came at last to the shore of what seemed to be a wide inland sea.
+They set _Argo_ down from off their over-wearied shoulders and they let
+her keel take water once more.
+
+  All salt and brackish was that water; they dipped their hands into and
+tasted the salt. Orpheus was able to name the water they had come to; it
+was that lake that was called after Triton, the son of Nereus, the ancient
+one of the sea. They set up an altar and they made sacrifices in
+thanksgiving to the gods.
+
+  They had come to water at last, but now they had to seek for other
+water--for the sweet water that they could drink. All around them they
+looked, but they saw no sign of a spring. And then they felt a wind blow
+upon them--a wind that had in it not the dust of the desert but the
+fragrance of growing things. Toward where that wind blew from they went.
+
+  As they went on they saw a great shape against the sky; they saw
+mountainous shoulders bowed. Orpheus bade them halt and turn their faces
+with reverence toward that great shape: for this was Atlas the Titan, the
+brother of Prometheus, who stood there to hold up the sky on his
+shoulders.
+
+  Then they were near the place that the fragrance had blown from: there
+was a garden there; the only fence that ran around it was a lattice of
+silver. "Surely there are springs in the garden," the Argonauts said. "We
+will enter this fair garden now and slake our thirst."
+
+  Orpheus bade them walk reverently, for all around them, he said, was
+sacred ground. This garden was the Garden of the Hesperides that was
+watched over by the Daughters of the Evening Land. The Argonauts looked
+through the silver lattice; they saw trees with lovely fruit, and they saw
+three maidens moving through the garden with watchful eyes. In this garden
+grew the tree that had the golden apples that Zeus gave to Hera as a
+wedding gift.
+
+  They saw the tree on which the golden apples grew. The maidens went to
+it and then looked watchfully all around them. They saw the faces of the
+Argonauts looking through the silver lattice and they cried out, one to
+the other, and they joined their hands around the tree.
+
+  But Orpheus called to them, and the maidens understood the divine speech
+of Orpheus. He made the Daughters of the Evening Land know that they who
+stood before the lattice were men who reverenced the gods, who would not
+strive to enter the forbidden garden. The maidens came toward them.
+Beautiful as the singing of Orpheus was their utterance, but what they
+said was a complaint and a lament.
+
+  Their lament was for the dragon Ladon, that dragon with a hundred heads
+that guarded sleeplessly the tree that had the golden apples. Now that
+dragon was slain. With arrows that had been dipped in the poison of the
+Hydra's blood their dragon, Ladon, had been slain.
+
+  The Daughters of the Evening Land sang of how a mortal had come into the
+garden that they watched over. He had a great bow, and with his arrow he
+slew the dragon that guarded the golden apples. The golden apples he had
+taken away; they had come back to the tree they had been plucked from, for
+no mortal might keep them in his possession. So the maidens sang--Hespere,
+Eretheis, and AEgle--and they complained that now, unhelped by the
+hundred-headed dragon, they had to keep guard over the tree.
+
+  The Argonauts knew of whom they told the tale--Heracles, their comrade.
+Would that Heracles were with them now!
+
+  The Hesperides told them of Heracles--of how the springs in the garden
+dried up because of his plucking the golden apples. He came out of the
+garden thirsting. Nowhere could he find a spring of water. To yonder great
+rock he went. He smote it with his foot and water came out in full flow.
+Then he, leaning on his hands and with his chest upon the ground, drank
+and drank from the water that flowed from the rifted rock.
+
+  The Argonauts looked to where the rock stood. They caught the sound of
+water. They carried Medea over. And then, company after company, all
+huddled together, they stooped down and drank their fill of the clear good
+water. With lips wet with the water they cried to each other, "Heracles!
+Although he is not with us, in very truth Heracles has saved his comrades
+from deadly thirst!"
+
+  They saw his footsteps printed upon the rocks, and they followed them
+until they led to the sand where no footsteps stay. Heracles! How glad his
+comrades would have been if they could have had sight of him then! But it
+was long ago--before he had sailed with them--that Heracles had been here.
+
+  Still hearing their complaint they turned back to the lattice, to where
+the Daughters of the Evening Land stood. The Daughters of the Evening Land
+bent their heads to listen to what the Argonauts told one another, and,
+seeing them bent to listen, Orpheus told a story about one who had gone
+across the Libyan desert, about one who was a hero like unto Heracles.
+
+
+
+The Story of Perseus
+
+
+  Beyond where Atlas stands there is a cave where the strange women, the
+ancient daughters of Phorcys, live. They have been gray from their birth.
+They have but one eye and one tooth between them, and they pass the eye
+and the tooth, one to the other, when they would see or eat. They are
+called the Graiai, these two sisters.
+
+  Up to the cave where they lived a youth once came. He was beardless, and
+the garb he wore was torn and travel-stained, but he had shapeliness and
+beauty. In his leathern belt there was an exceedingly bright sword; this
+sword was not straight like the swords we carry, but it was hooked like a
+sickle. The strange youth with the bright, strange sword came very quickly
+and very silently up to the cave where the Graiai lived and looked over a
+high boulder into it.
+
+  One was sitting munching acorns with the single tooth. The other had the
+eye in her hand. She was holding it to her forehead and looking into the
+back of the cave. These two ancient women, with their gray hair falling
+over them like thick fleeces, and with faces that were only forehead and
+cheeks and nose and mouth, were strange creatures truly. Very silently the
+youth stood looking at them.
+
+  "Sister, sister," cried the one who was munching acorns, "sister, turn
+your eye this way. I heard the stir of something."
+
+  The other turned, and with the eye placed against her forehead looked
+out to the opening of the cave. The youth drew back behind the boulder.
+"Sister, sister, there is nothing there," said the one with the eye.
+
+  Then she said: "Sister, give me the tooth for I would eat my acorns.
+Take the eye and keep watch."
+
+  The one who was eating held out the tooth, and the one who was watching
+held out the eye. The youth darted into the cave. Standing between the
+eyeless sisters, he took with one hand the tooth and with the other the
+eye.
+
+  "Sister, sister, have you taken the eye?"
+
+  "I have not taken the eye. Have you taken the tooth?"
+
+  "I have not taken the tooth."
+
+  "Some one has taken the eye, and some one has taken the tooth."
+
+  They stood together, and the youth watched their blinking faces as they
+tried to discover who had come into the cave, and who had taken the eye
+and the tooth.
+
+  Then they said, screaming together: "Who ever has taken the eye and the
+tooth from the Graiai, the ancient daughters of Phorcys, may Mother Night
+smother him."
+
+  The youth spoke. "Ancient daughters of Phorcys," he said, "Graiai, I
+would not rob from you. I have come to your cave only to ask the way to a
+place."
+
+  "Ah, it is a mortal, a mortal," screamed the sisters. "Well, mortal,
+what would you have from the Graiai?"
+
+  "Ancient Graiai," said the youth, "I would have you tell me, for you
+alone know, where the nymphs dwell who guard the three magic treasures--the
+cap of darkness, the shoes of flight, and the magic pouch."
+
+  "We will not tell you, we will not tell you that," screamed the two
+ancient sisters.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+  "I will keep the eye and the tooth," said the youth, "and I will give
+them to one who will help me."
+
+  "Give me the eye and I will tell you," said one. "Give me the tooth and
+I will tell you," said the other. The youth put the eye in the hand of one
+and the tooth in the hand of the other, but he held their skinny hands in
+his strong hands until they should tell him where the nymphs dwelt who
+guarded the magic treasures. The Gray Ones told him. Then the youth with
+the bright sword left the cave. As he went out he saw on the ground a
+shield of bronze, and he took it with him.
+
+  To the other side of where Atlas stands he went. There he came upon the
+nymphs in their valley. They had long dwelt there, hidden from gods and
+men, and they were startled to see a stranger youth come into their hidden
+valley. They fled away. Then the youth sat on the ground, his head bent
+like a man who is very sorrowful.
+
+  The youngest and the fairest of the nymphs came to him at last. "Why
+have you come, and why do you sit here in such great trouble, youth?" said
+she. And then she said: "What is this strange sickle-sword that you wear?
+Who told you the way to our dwelling place? What name have you?"
+
+  "I have come here," said the youth, and he took the bronze shield upon
+his knees and began to polish it, "I have come here because I want you,
+the nymphs who guard them, to give to me the cap of darkness and the shoes
+of flight and the magic pouch. I must gain these things; without them I
+must go to my death. Why I must gain them you will know from my story."
+
+  When he said that he had come for the three magic treasures that they
+guarded, the kind nymph was more startled than she and her sisters had
+been startled by the appearance of the strange youth in their hidden
+valley. She turned away from him. But she looked again and she saw that he
+was beautiful and brave looking. He had spoken of his death. The nymph
+stood looking at him pitifully, and the youth, with the bronze shield laid
+beside his knees and the strange hooked sword lying across it, told her
+his story.
+
+
+
+  "I am Perseus," he said, "and my grandfather, men say, is king in Argos.
+His name is Acrisius. Before I was born a prophecy was made to him that
+the son of Danae, his daughter, would slay him. Acrisius was frightened by
+the prophecy, and when I was born he put my mother and myself into a
+chest, and he sent us adrift upon the waves of the sea.
+
+  "I did not know what a terrible peril I was in, for I was an infant
+newly born. My mother was so hopeless that she came near to death. But the
+wind and the waves did not destroy us: they brought us to a shore; a
+shepherd found the chest, and he opened it and brought my mother and
+myself out of it alive. The land we had come to was Seriphus. The shepherd
+who found the chest and who rescued my mother and myself was the brother
+of the king. His name was Dictys.
+
+  "In the shepherd's wattled house my mother stayed with me, a little
+infant, and in that house I grew from babyhood to childhood, and from
+childhood to boyhood. He was a kind man, this shepherd Dictys. His brother
+Polydectes had put him away from the palace, but Dictys did not grieve for
+that, for he was happy minding his sheep upon the hillside, and he was
+happy in his little hut of wattles and clay.
+
+  "Polydectes, the king, was seldom spoken to about his brother, and it
+was years before he knew of the mother and child who had been brought to
+live in Dictys's hut. But at last he heard of us, for strange things began
+to be said about my mother--how she was beautiful, and how she looked like
+one who had been favored by the gods. Then one day when he was hunting,
+Polydectes the king came to the hut of Dictys the shepherd.
+
+  "He saw Danae, my mother, there. By her looks he knew that she was a
+king's daughter and one who had been favored by the gods. He wanted her
+for his wife. But my mother hated this harsh and overbearing king, and she
+would not wed with him. Often he came storming around the shepherd's hut,
+and at last my mother had to take refuge from him in a temple. There she
+became the priestess of the goddess.
+
+  "I was taken to the palace of Polydectes, and there I was brought up.
+The king still stormed around where my mother was, more and more bent on
+making her marry him. If she had not been in the temple where she was
+under the protection of the goddess he would have wed her against her
+will.
+
+  "But I was growing up now, and I was able to give some protection to my
+mother. My arm was a strong one, and Polydectes knew that if he wronged my
+mother in any way, I had the will and the power to be deadly to him. One
+day I heard him say before his princes and his lords that he would wed,
+and would wed one who was not Danae. I was overjoyed to hear him say this.
+He asked the lords and the princes to come to the wedding feast; they
+declared they would, and they told him of the presents they would bring.
+
+  "Then King Polydectes turned to me and he asked me to come to the
+wedding feast. I said I would come. And then, because I was young and full
+of the boast of youth, and because the king was now ceasing to be a terror
+to me, I said that I would bring to his wedding feast the head of the
+Gorgon.
+
+  "The king smiled when he heard me say this, but he smiled not as a good
+man smiles when he hears the boast of youth. He smiled, and he turned to
+the princes and lords, and he said: 'Perseus will come, and he will bring
+a greater gift than any of you, for he will bring the head of her whose
+gaze turns living creatures into stone.'
+
+  "When I heard the king speak so grimly about my boast the fearfulness of
+the thing I had spoken of doing came over me. I thought for an instant
+that the Gorgon's head appeared before me, and that I was then and there
+turned into stone.
+
+  "The day of the wedding feast came. I came and I brought no gift. I
+stood with my head hanging for shame. Then the princes and the lords came
+forward, and they showed the great gifts of horses that they had brought.
+I thought that the king would forget about me and about my boast. And then
+I heard him call my name. 'Perseus,' he said, 'Perseus, bring before us
+now the Gorgon's head that, as you told us, you would bring for the
+wedding gift.'
+
+  "The princes and lords and people looked toward me, and I was filled
+with a deeper shame. I had to say that I had failed to bring a present.
+Then that harsh and overbearing king shouted at me. 'Go forth,' he said,
+'go forth and fetch the present that you spoke of. If you do not bring it
+remain forever out of my country, for in Seriphus we will have no empty
+boasters.' The lords and the princes applauded what the king said; the
+people were sad for me and sad for my mother, but they might not do
+anything to help me, so just and so due to me did the words of the king
+seem. There was no help for it, and I had to go from the country of
+Seriphus, leaving my mother at the mercy of Polydectes.
+
+  "I bade good-by to my sorrowful mother and I went from Seriphus--from
+that land that I might not return to without the Gorgon's head. I traveled
+far from that country. One day I sat down in a lonely place and prayed to
+the gods that my strength might be equal to the will that now moved in
+me--the will to take the Gorgon's head, and take from my name the shame of
+a broken promise, and win back to Seriphus to save my mother from the
+harshness of the king.
+
+  "When I looked up I saw one standing before me. He was a youth, too, but
+I knew by the way he moved, and I knew by the brightness of his face and
+eyes, that he was of the immortals. I raised my hands in homage to him,
+and he came near me. 'Perseus,' he said, 'if you have the courage to
+strive, the way to win the Gorgon's head will be shown you.' I said that I
+had the courage to strive, and he knew that I was making no boast.
+
+  "He gave me this bright sickle-sword that I carry. He told me by what
+ways I might come near enough to the Gorgons without being turned into
+stone by their gaze. He told me how I might slay the one of the three
+Gorgons who was not immortal, and how, having slain her, I might take her
+head and flee without being torn to pieces by her sister Gorgons.
+
+  "Then I knew that I should have to come on the Gorgons from the air. I
+knew that having slain the one that could be slain I should have to fly
+with the speed of the wind. And I knew that that speed even would not save
+me--I should have to be hidden in my flight. To win the head and save
+myself I would need three magic things--the shoes of flight and the magic
+pouch, and the dogskin cap of Hades that makes its wearer invisible.
+
+  "The youth said: 'The magic pouch and the shoes of flight and the
+dogskin cap of Hades are in the keeping of the nymphs whose dwelling place
+no mortal knows. I may not tell you where their dwelling place is. But
+from the Gray Ones, from the ancient daughters of Phorcys who live in a
+cave near where Atlas stands, you may learn where their dwelling place
+is.'
+
+  "Thereupon he told me how I might come to the Graiai, and how I might
+get them to tell me where you, the nymphs, had your dwelling. The one who
+spoke to me was Hermes, whose dwelling is on Olympus. By this sickle-sword
+that he gave me you will know that I speak the truth."
+
+
+
+  Perseus ceased speaking, and she who was the youngest and fairest of the
+nymphs came nearer to him. She knew that he spoke truthfully, and besides
+she had pity for the youth. "But we are the keepers of the magic
+treasures," she said, "and some one whose need is greater even than yours
+may some time require them from us. But will you swear that you will bring
+the magic treasures back to us when you have slain the Gorgon and have
+taken her head?"
+
+  Perseus declared that he would bring the magic treasures back to the
+nymphs and leave them once more in their keeping. Then the nymph who had
+compassion for him called to the others. They spoke together while Perseus
+stayed far away from them, polishing his shield of bronze. At last the
+nymph who had listened to him came back, the others following her. They
+brought to Perseus and they put into his hands the things they had
+guarded--the cap made from dogskin that had been brought up out of Hades, a
+pair of winged shoes, and a long pouch that he could hang across his
+shoulder.
+
+
+
+  And so with the shoes of flight and the cap of darkness and the magic
+pouch, Perseus went to seek the Gorgons. The sickle-sword that Hermes gave
+him was at his side, and on his arm he held the bronze shield that was now
+well polished.
+
+  He went through the air, taking a way that the nymphs had shown him. He
+came to Oceanus that was the rim around the world. He saw forms that were
+of living creatures all in stone, and he knew that he was near the place
+where the Gorgons had their lair.
+
+  Then, looking upon the surface of his polished shield, he saw the
+Gorgons below him. Two were covered with hard serpent scales; they had
+tusks that were long and were like the tusks of boars, and they had hands
+of gleaming brass and wings of shining gold. Still looking upon the
+shining surface of his shield Perseus went down and down. He saw the third
+sister--she who was not immortal. She had a woman's face and form, and her
+countenance was beautiful, although there was something deadly in its
+fairness. The two scaled and winged sisters were asleep, but the third,
+Medusa, was awake, and she was tearing with her hands a lizard that had
+come near her.
+
+  Upon her head was a tangle of serpents all with heads raised as though
+they were hissing. Still looking into the mirror of his shield Perseus
+came down and over Medusa. He turned his head away from her. Then, with a
+sweep of the sickle-sword he took her head off. There was no scream from
+the Gorgon, but the serpents upon her head hissed loudly.
+
+  Still with his face turned from it he lifted up the head by its tangle
+of serpents. He put it into the magic pouch. He rose up in the air. But
+now the Gorgon sisters were awake. They had heard the hiss of Medusa's
+serpents, and now they looked upon her headless body. They rose up on
+their golden wings, and their brazen hands were stretched out to tear the
+one who had slain Medusa. As they flew after him they screamed aloud.
+
+  Although he flew like the wind the Gorgon sisters would have overtaken
+him if he had been plain to their eyes. But the dogskin cap of Hades saved
+him, for the Gorgon sisters did not know whether he was above or below
+them, behind or before them. On Perseus went, flying toward where Atlas
+stood. He flew over this place, over Libya. Drops of blood from Medusa's
+head fell down upon the desert. They were changed and became the deadly
+serpents that are on these sands and around these rocks. On and on Perseus
+flew toward Atlas and toward the hidden valley where the nymphs who were
+again to guard the magic treasures had their dwelling place. But before he
+came to the nymphs Perseus had another adventure.
+
+
+
+  In Ethopia, which is at the other side of Libya, there ruled a king
+whose name was Cepheus. This king had permitted his queen to boast that
+she was more beautiful than the nymphs of the sea. In punishment for the
+queen's impiety and for the king's folly Poseidon sent a monster out of
+the sea to waste that country. Every year the monster came, destroying
+more and more of the country of Ethopia. Then the king asked of an oracle
+what he should do to save his land and his people. The oracle spoke of a
+dreadful thing that he would have to do--he would have to sacrifice his
+daughter, the beautiful Princess Andromeda.
+
+  The king was forced by his savage people to take the maiden Andromeda
+and chain her to a rock on the seashore, leaving her there for the monster
+to devour her, satisfying himself with that prey.
+
+  Perseus, flying near, heard the maiden's laments. He saw her lovely body
+bound with chains to the rock. He came near her, taking the cap of
+darkness off his head. She saw him, and she bent her head in shame, for
+she thought that he would think that it was for some dreadful fault of her
+own that she had been left chained in that place.
+
+  Her father had stayed near. Perseus saw him, and called to him, and bade
+him tell why the maiden was chained to the rock. The king told Perseus of
+the sacrifice that he had been forced to make. Then Perseus came near the
+maiden, and he saw how she looked at him with pleading eyes.
+
+  Then Perseus made her father promise that he would give Andromeda to him
+for his wife if he should slay the sea monster. Gladly Cepheus promised
+this. Then Perseus once again drew his sickle-sword; by the rock to which
+Andromeda was still chained he waited for sight of the sea monster.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+                          Perseus and Andromeda
+
+
+  It came rolling in from the open sea, a shapeless and unsightly thing.
+With the shoes of flight upon his feet Perseus rose above it. The monster
+saw his shadow upon the water, and savagely it went to attack the shadow.
+Perseus swooped down as an eagle swoops down; with his sickle-sword he
+attacked it, and he struck the hook through the monster's shoulder.
+Terribly it reared up from the sea. Perseus rose over it, escaping its
+wide-opened mouth with its treble rows of fangs. Again he swooped and
+struck at it. Its hide was covered all over with hard scales and with the
+shells of sea things, but Perseus's sword struck through it. It reared up
+again, spouting water mixed with blood. On a rock near the rock that
+Andromeda was chained to Perseus alighted. The monster, seeing him,
+bellowed and rushed swiftly through the water to overwhelm him. As it
+reared up he plunged the sword again and again into its body. Down into
+the water the monster sank, and water mixed with blood was spouted up from
+the depths into which it sank.
+
+  Then was Andromeda loosed from her chains. Perseus, the conqueror,
+lifted up the fainting maiden and carried her back to the king's palace.
+And Cepheus there renewed his promise to give her in marriage to her
+deliverer.
+
+  Perseus went on his way. He came to the hidden valley where the nymphs
+had their dwelling place, and he restored to them the three magic
+treasures that they had given him--the cap of darkness, the shoes of
+flight, and the magic pouch. And these treasures are still there, and the
+hero who can win his way to the nymphs may have them as Perseus had them.
+
+  Again he returned to the place where he had found Andromeda chained.
+With face averted he drew forth the Gorgon's head from where he had hidden
+it between the rocks. He made a bag for it out of the horny skin of the
+monster he had slain. Then, carrying his tremendous trophy, he went to the
+palace of King Cepheus to claim his bride.
+
+
+
+  Now before her father had thought of sacrificing her to the sea monster
+he had offered Andromeda in marriage to a prince of Ethopia--to a prince
+whose name was Phineus. Phineus did not strive to save Andromeda. But,
+hearing that she had been delivered from the monster, he came to take her
+for his wife; he came to Cepheus's palace, and he brought with him a
+thousand armed men.
+
+  The palace of Cepheus was filled with armed men when Perseus entered it.
+He saw Andromeda on a raised place in the hall. She was pale as when she
+was chained to the rock, and when she saw him in the palace she uttered a
+cry of gladness.
+
+  Cepheus, the craven king, would have let him who had come with the armed
+bands take the maiden. Perseus came beside Andromeda and he made his
+claim. Phineus spoke insolently to him, and then he urged one of his
+captains to strike Perseus down. Many sprang forward to attack him. Out of
+the bag Perseus drew Medusa's head. He held it before those who were
+bringing strife into the hall. They were turned to stone. One of Cepheus's
+men wished to defend Perseus: he struck at the captain who had come near;
+his sword made a clanging sound as it struck this one who had looked upon
+Medusa's head.
+
+  Perseus went from the land of Ethopia taking fair Andromeda with him.
+They went into Greece, for he had thought of going to Argos, to the
+country that his grandfather ruled over. At this very time Acrisius got
+tidings of Danae and her son, and he knew that they had not perished on
+the waves of the sea. Fearful of the prophecy that told he would be slain
+by his grandson and fearing that he would come to Argos to seek him,
+Acrisius fled out of his country.
+
+  He came into Thessaly. Perseus and Andromeda were there. Now, one day
+the old king was brought to games that were being celebrated in honor of a
+dead hero. He was leaning on his staff, watching a youth throw a metal
+disk, when something in that youth's appearance made him want to watch him
+more closely. About him there was something of a being of the upper air;
+it made Acrisius think of a brazen tower and of a daughter whom he had
+shut up there.
+
+  He moved so that he might come nearer to the disk-thrower. But as he
+left where he had been standing he came into the line of the thrown disk.
+It struck the old man on the temple. He fell down dead, and as he fell the
+people cried out his name--"Acrisius, King Acrisius!" Then Perseus knew
+whom the disk, thrown by his hand, had slain.
+
+  And because he had slain the king by chance Perseus would not go to
+Argos, nor take over the kingdom that his grandfather had reigned over.
+With Andromeda he went to Seriphus where his mother was. And in Seriphus
+there still reigned Polydectes, who had put upon him the terrible task of
+winning the Gorgon's head.
+
+  He came to Seriphus and he left Andromeda in the hut of Dictys the
+shepherd. No one knew him; he heard his name spoken of as that of a youth
+who had gone on a foolish quest and who would never again be heard of. To
+the temple where his mother was a priestess he came. Guards were placed
+all around it. He heard his mother's voice and it was raised in lament:
+"Walled up here and given over to hunger I shall be made go to
+Polydectes's house and become his wife. O ye gods, have ye no pity for
+Danae, the mother of Perseus?"
+
+  Perseus cried aloud, and his mother heard his voice and her moans
+ceased. He turned around and he went to the palace of Polydectes, the
+king.
+
+  The king received him with mockeries. "I will let you stay in Seriphus
+for a day," he said, "because I would have you at a marriage feast. I have
+vowed that Danae, taken from the temple where she sulks, will be my wife
+by to-morrow's sunset."
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+  So Polydectes said, and the lords and princes who were around him mocked
+at Perseus and flattered the king. Perseus went from them then. The next
+day he came back to the palace. But in his hands now there was a dread
+thing--the bag made from the hide of the sea monster that had in it the
+Gorgon's head.
+
+  He saw his mother. She was brought in white and fainting, thinking that
+she would now have to wed the harsh and overbearing king. Then she saw her
+son, and hope came into her face.
+
+  The king seeing Perseus, said: "Step forward, O youngling, and see your
+mother wed to a mighty man. Step forward to witness a marriage, and then
+depart, for it is not right that a youth that makes promises and does not
+keep them should stay in a land that I rule over. Step forward now, you
+with the empty hands."
+
+  But not with empty hands did Perseus step forward. He shouted out: "I
+have brought something to you at last, O king--a present to you and your
+mocking friends. But you, O my mother, and you, O my friends, avert your
+faces from what I have brought." Saying this Perseus drew out the Gorgon's
+head. Holding it by the snaky locks he stood before the company. His
+mother and his friends averted their faces. But Polydectes and his
+insolent friends looked full upon what Perseus showed. "This youth would
+strive to frighten us with some conjuror's trick," they said. They said no
+more, for they became as stones, and as stone images they still stand in
+that hall in Seriphus.
+
+  He went to the shepherd's hut, and he brought Dictys from it with
+Andromeda. Dictys he made king in Polydectes's stead. Then with Danae and
+Andromeda, his mother and his wife, he went from Seriphus.
+
+  He did not go to Argos, the country that his grandfather had ruled over,
+although the people there wanted Perseus to come to them, and be king over
+them. He took the kingdom of Tiryns in exchange for that of Argos, and
+there he lived with Andromeda, his lovely wife out of Ethopia. They had a
+son named Perses who became the parent of the Persian people.
+
+  The sickle-sword that had slain the Gorgon went back to Hermes, and
+Hermes took Medusa's head also. That head Hermes's divine sister set upon
+her shield--Medusa's head upon the shield of Pallas Athene. O may Pallas
+Athene guard us all, and bring us out of this land of sands and stone
+where are the deadly serpents that have come from the drops of blood that
+fell from the Gorgon's head!
+
+  They turned away from the Garden of the Daughters of the Evening Land.
+The Argonauts turned from where the giant shape of Atlas stood against the
+sky and they went toward the Tritonian Lake. But not all of them reached
+the _Argo_. On his way back to the ship, Nauplius, the helmsman, met his
+death.
+
+  A sluggish serpent was in his way--it was not a serpent that would strike
+at one who turned from it. Nauplius trod upon it, and the serpent lifted
+its head up and bit his foot. They raised him on their shoulders and they
+hurried back with him. But his limbs became numb, and when they laid him
+down on the shore of the lake he stayed moveless. Soon he grew cold. They
+dug a grave for Nauplius beside the lake, and in that desert land they set
+up his helmsman's oar in the middle of his tomb of heaped stones.
+
+
+
+  And now like a snake that goes writhing this way and that way and that
+cannot find the cleft in the rock that leads to its lair, the _Argo_ went
+hither and thither striving to find an outlet from that lake. No outlet
+could they find and the way of their homegoing seemed lost to them again.
+Then Orpheus prayed to the son of Nereus, to Triton, whose name was on
+that lake, to aid them.
+
+  Then Triton appeared. He stretched out his hand and showed them the
+outlet to the sea. And Triton spoke in friendly wise to the heroes,
+bidding them go upon their way in joy. "And as for labor," he said, "let
+there be no grieving because of that, for limbs that have youthful vigor
+should still toil."
+
+  They took up the oars and they pulled toward the sea, and Triton, the
+friendly immortal, helped them on. He laid hold upon _Argo's_ keel and he
+guided her through the water. The Argonauts saw him beneath the water; his
+body, from his head down to his waist, was fair and great and like to the
+body of one of the other immortals. But below his body was like a great
+fish's, forking this way and that. He moved with fins that were like the
+horns of the new moon. Triton helped _Argo_ along until they came into the
+open sea. Then he plunged down into the abyss. The heroes shouted their
+thanks to him. Then they looked at each other and embraced each other with
+joy, for the sea that touched upon the land of Greece was open before
+them.
+
+
+
+
+IX. Near to Iolcus Again
+
+
+
+[Decorative first letter]
+_T_HE sun sank; then that star came that bids the shepherd bring his flock
+to the fold, that brings the wearied plowman to his rest. But no rest did
+that star bring to the Argonauts. The breeze that filled the sail died
+down; they furled the sail and lowered the mast; then, once again, they
+pulled at the oars. All night they rowed, and all day, and again when the
+next day came on. Then they saw the island that is halfway to Greece--the
+great and fair island of Crete.
+
+  It was Theseus who first saw Crete--Theseus who was to come to Crete upon
+another ship. They drew the _Argo_ near the great island; they wanted
+water, and they were fain to rest there.
+
+  Minos, the great king, ruled over Crete. He left the guarding of the
+island to one of the race of bronze, to Talos, who had lived on after the
+rest of the bronze men had been destroyed. Thrice a day would Talos stride
+around the island; his brazen feet were tireless.
+
+  Now Talos saw the _Argo_ drawing near. He took up great rocks and he
+hurled them at the heroes, and very quickly they had to draw their ship
+out of range.
+
+  They were wearied and their thirst was consuming them. But still that
+bronze man stood there ready to sink their ship with the great rocks that
+he took up in his hands. Medea stood forward upon the ship, ready to use
+her spells against the man of bronze.
+
+  In body and limbs he was made of bronze and in these he was
+invulnerable. But beneath a sinew in his ankle there was a vein that ran
+up to his neck and that was covered by a thin skin. If that vein were
+broken Talos would perish.
+
+  Medea did not know about this vein when she stood forward upon the ship
+to use her spells against him. Upon a cliff of Crete, all gleaming, stood
+that huge man of bronze. Then, as she was ready to fling her spells
+against him, Medea thought upon the words that Arete, the wise queen, had
+given her--that she was not to use spells and not to practice against the
+life of any one.
+
+  But she knew that there was no impiety in using spells and practicing
+against Talos, for Zeus had already doomed all his race. She stood upon
+the ship, and with her Magic Song she enchanted him. He whirled round and
+round. He struck his ankle against a jutting stone. The vein broke, and
+that which was the blood of the bronze man flowed out of him like molten
+lead. He stood towering upon the cliff. Like a pine upon a mountaintop
+that the woodman had left half hewn through and that a mighty wind pitches
+against, Talos stood upon his tireless feet, swaying to and fro. Then,
+emptied of all his strength, Minos's man of bronze fell into the Cretan
+Sea.
+
+  The heroes landed. That night they lay upon the land of Crete and rested
+and refreshed themselves. When dawn came they drew water from a spring,
+and once more they went on board the _Argo_.
+
+
+
+  A day came when the helmsman said, "To-morrow we shall see the shore of
+Thessaly, and by sunset we shall be in the harbor of Pagasae. Soon, O
+voyagers, we shall be back in the city from which we went to gain the
+Golden Fleece."
+
+  Then Jason brought Medea to the front of the ship so that they might
+watch together for Thessaly, the homeland. The Mountain Pelion came into
+sight. Jason exulted as he looked upon that mountain; again he told Medea
+about Chiron, the ancient centaur, and about the days of his youth in the
+forests of Pelion.
+
+  The _Argo_ went on; the sun sank, and darkness came on. Never was there
+darkness such as there was on that night. They called that night afterward
+the Pall of Darkness. To the heroes upon the _Argo_ it seemed as if black
+chaos had come over the world again; they knew not whether they were
+adrift upon the sea or upon the River of Hades. No star pierced the
+darkness nor no beam from the moon.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+  After a night that seemed many nights the dawn came. In the sunrise they
+saw the land of Thessaly with its mountain, its forests, and its fields.
+They hailed each other as if they had met after a long parting. They
+raised the mast and unfurled the sail.
+
+  But not toward Pagasae did they go. For now the voice of _Argo_ came to
+them, shaking their hearts: Jason and Orpheus, Castor and Polydeuces,
+Zetes and Calais, Peleus and Telamon, Theseus, Admetus, Nestor, and
+Atalanta, heard the cry of their ship. And the voice of _Argo_ warned them
+not to go into the harbor of Pagasae.
+
+  As they stood upon the ship, looking toward Iolcus, sorrow came over all
+the heroes, such sorrow as made their hearts nearly break. For long they
+stood there in utter numbness.
+
+  Then Admetus spoke--Admetus who was the happiest of all those who went in
+quest of the Golden Fleece. "Although we may not go into the harbor of
+Pagasae, nor into the city of Iolcus," Admetus said, "still we have come to
+the land of Greece. There are other harbors and other cities that we may
+go into. And in all the places that we go to we will be honored, for we
+have gone through toils and dangers, and we have brought to Greece the
+famous Fleece of Gold."
+
+  So Admetus said, and their spirits came back again to the heroes--came
+back to all of them save Jason. The rest had other cities to go to, and
+fathers and mothers and friends to greet them in other places, but for
+Jason there was only Iolcus.
+
+  Medea took his hand, and sorrow for him overcame her. For Medea could
+divine what had happened in Iolcus and why it was that the heroes might
+not go there.
+
+
+
+  It was to Corinth that the _Argo_ went. Creon, the king of Corinth,
+welcomed them and gave great honor to the heroes who had faced such labors
+and such dangers to bring the world's wonder to Greece.
+
+  The Argonauts stayed together until they went to Calydon, to hunt the
+boar that ravaged Prince Meleagrus's country. After that they separated,
+each one going to his own land. Jason came back to Corinth where Medea
+stayed. And in Corinth he had tidings of the happenings in Iolcus.
+
+  King Pelias now ruled more fearfully in Iolcus, having brought down from
+the mountains more and fiercer soldiers. And AEson, Jason's father, and
+Alcimide, his mother, were now dead, having been slain by King Pelias.
+
+  This Jason heard from men who came into Corinth from Thessaly. And
+because of the great army that Pelias had gathered there, Jason might not
+yet go into Iolcus, either to exact a vengeance, or to show the people THE
+GOLDEN FLEECE that he had gone so far to gain.
+
+
+
+
+
+PART III. THE HEROES OF THE QUEST
+
+
+
+
+I. Atalanta the Huntress
+
+
+I
+
+
+[Decorative first letter]
+_T_HEY came once more together, the heroes of the quest, to hunt a boar in
+Calydon--Jason and Peleus came, Telamon, Theseus, and rough Arcas, Nestor
+and Helen's brothers Polydeuces and Castor. And, most noted of all, there
+came the Arcadian huntress maid, Atalanta.
+
+  Beautiful they all thought her when they knew her aboard the _Argo_. But
+even more beautiful Atalanta seemed to the heroes when she came amongst
+them in her hunting gear. Her lovely hair hung in two bands across her
+shoulders, and over her breast hung an ivory quiver filled with arrows.
+They said that her face with its wide and steady eyes was maidenly for a
+boy's, and boyish for a maiden's face. Swiftly she moved with her head
+held high, and there was not one amongst the heroes who did not say, "Oh,
+happy would that man be whom Atalanta the unwedded would take for her
+husband!"
+
+  All the heroes said it, but the one who said it most feelingly was the
+prince of Calydon, young Meleagrus. He more than the other heroes felt the
+wonder of Atalanta's beauty.
+
+  Now the boar they had come to hunt was a monster boar. It had come into
+Calydon and it was laying waste the fields and orchards and destroying the
+people's cattle and horses. That boar had been sent into Calydon by an
+angry divinity. For when OEneus, the king of the country, was making
+sacrifice to the gods in thanksgiving for a bounteous harvest, he had
+neglected to make sacrifice to the goddess of the wild things, Artemis. In
+her anger Artemis had sent the monster boar to lay waste OEneus's realm.
+
+  It was a monster boar indeed--one as huge as a bull, with tusks as great
+as an elephant's; the bristles on its back stood up like spear points, and
+the hot breath of the creature withered the growth on the ground. The boar
+tore up the corn in the fields and trampled down the vines with their
+clusters and heavy bunches of grapes; also it rushed against the cattle
+and destroyed them in the fields. And no hounds the huntsmen were able to
+bring could stand before it. And so it came to pass that men had to leave
+their farms and take refuge behind the walls of the city because of the
+ravages of the boar. It was then that the rulers of Calydon sent for the
+heroes of the quest to join with them in hunting the monster.
+
+  Calydon itself sent Prince Meleagrus and his two uncles, Plexippus and
+Toxeus. They were brothers to Meleagrus's mother, Althaea. Now Althaea was a
+woman who had sight to see mysterious things, but who had also a wayward
+and passionate heart. Once, after her son Meleagrus was born, she saw the
+three Fates sitting by her hearth. They were spinning the threads of her
+son's life, and as they spun they sang to each other, "An equal span of
+life we give to the newborn child, and to the billet of wood that now
+rests above the blaze of the fire." Hearing what the Fates sang and
+understanding it Althaea had sprung up from her bed, had seized the billet
+of wood, and had taken it out of the fire before the flames had burnt into
+it.
+
+  That billet of wood lay in her chest, hidden away. And Meleagrus nor any
+one else save Althaea knew of it, nor knew that the prince's life would
+last only for the space it would be kept from the burning. On the day of
+the hunting he appeared as the strongest and bravest of the youths of
+Calydon. And he knew not, poor Meleagrus, that the love for Atalanta that
+had sprung into his heart was to bring to the fire the billet of wood on
+which his life depended.
+
+
+
+II
+
+  As Atalanta went, the bow in her hands, Prince Meleagrus pressed behind
+her. Then came Jason and Peleus, Telamon, Theseus and Nestor. Behind them
+came Meleagrus's dark-browed uncles, Plexippus and Toxeus. They came to a
+forest that covered the side of a mountain. Huntsmen had assembled here
+with hounds held in leashes and with nets to hold the rushing quarry. And
+when they had all gathered together they went through the forest on the
+track of the monster boar.
+
+  It was easy to track the boar, for it had left a broad trail through the
+forest. The heroes and the huntsmen pressed on. They came to a marshy
+covert where the boar had its lair. There was a thickness of osiers and
+willows and tall bullrushes, making a place that it was hard for the
+hunters to go through.
+
+  They roused the boar with the blare of horns and it came rushing out.
+Foam was on its tusks, and its eyes had in them the blaze of fire. On the
+boar came, breaking down the thicket in its rush. But the heroes stood
+steadily with the points of their spears toward the monster.
+
+  The hounds were loosed from their leashes and they dashed toward the
+boar. The boar slashed them with its tusks and trampled them into the
+ground. Jason flung his spear. The spear went wide of the mark. Another,
+Arcas, cast his, but the wood, not the point of the spear, struck the
+boar, rousing it further. Then its eyes flamed, and like a great stone
+shot from a catapult the boar rushed on the huntsmen who were stationed to
+the right. In that rush it flung two youths prone upon the ground.
+
+  Then might Nestor have missed his going to Troy and his part in that
+story, for the boar swerved around and was upon him in an instant. Using
+his spear as a leaping pole he vaulted upward and caught the branches of a
+tree as the monster dashed the spear down in its rush. In rage the beast
+tore at the trunk of the tree. The heroes might have been scattered at
+this moment, for Telamon had fallen, tripped by the roots of a tree, and
+Peleus had had to throw himself upon him to pull him out of the way of
+danger, if Polydeuces and Castor had not dashed up to their aid. They came
+riding upon high white horses, spears in their hands. The brothers cast
+their spears, but neither spear struck the monster boar.
+
+  Then the boar turned and was for drawing back into the thicket. They
+might have lost it then, for its retreat was impenetrable. But before it
+got clear away Atalanta put an arrow to the string, drew the bow to her
+shoulder, and let the arrow fly. It struck the boar, and a patch of blood
+was seen upon its bristles. Prince Meleagrus shouted out, "O first to
+strike the monster! Honor indeed shall you receive for this, Arcadian
+maid."
+
+  His uncles were made wroth by this speech, as was another, the Arcadian,
+rough Arcas. Arcas dashed forward, holding in his hands a two-headed axe.
+"Heroes and huntsmen," he cried, "you shall see how a man's strokes
+surpass a girl's." He faced the boar, standing on tiptoe with his axe
+raised for the stroke. Meleagrus's uncles shouted to encourage him. But
+the boar's tusks tore him before Arcas's axe fell, and the Arcadian was
+trampled upon the ground.
+
+  The boar, roused again by Atalanta's arrow, turned on the hunters. Jason
+hurled a spear again. It swerved and struck a hound and pinned it to the
+ground. Then, speaking the name of Atalanta, Meleagrus sprang before the
+heroes and the huntsmen.
+
+  He had two spears in his hands. The first missed and stuck quivering in
+the ground. But the second went right through the back of the monster
+boar. It whirled round and round, spouting out blood and foam. Meleagrus
+pressed on, and drove his hunting knife through the shoulders of the
+monster.
+
+  His uncles, Plexippus and Toxeus, were the first to come to where the
+monster boar was lying outstretched. "It is well, the deed you have done,
+boy," said one; "it is well that none of the strangers to our country slew
+the boar. Now will the head and tusks of the monster adorn our hall, and
+men will know that the arms of our house can well protect this land."
+
+  But one word only did Meleagrus say, and that word was the name,
+"Atalanta." The maiden came and Meleagrus, his spear upon the head, said,
+"Take, O fair Arcadian, the spoil of the chase. All know that it was you
+who inflicted the first wound upon the boar."
+
+  Plexippus and Toxeus tried to push him away, as if Meleagrus was still a
+boy under their tutoring. He shouted to them to stand off, and then he
+hacked out the terrible tusks and held them toward Atalanta.
+
+  She would have taken them, for she, who had never looked lovingly upon a
+youth, was moved by the beauty and the generosity of Prince Meleagrus. She
+would have taken from him the spoil of the chase. But as she held out her
+arms Meleagrus's uncles struck them with the poles of their spears. Heavy
+marks were made on the maiden's white arms. Madness then possessed
+Meleagrus, and he took up his spear and thrust it, first into the body of
+Plexippus and then into the body of Toxeus. His thrusts were terrible, for
+he was filled with the fierceness of the hunt, and his uncles fell down in
+death.
+
+  Then a great horror came over all the heroes. They raised up the bodies
+of Plexippus and Toxeus and carried them on their spears away from the
+place of the hunting and toward the temple of the gods. Meleagrus crouched
+down upon the ground in horror of what he had done. Atalanta stood beside
+him, her hand upon his head.
+
+
+
+III
+
+  Althaea was in the temple making sacrifice to the gods. She saw men come
+in carrying across their spears the bodies of two men. She looked and she
+saw that the dead men were her two brothers, Plexippus and Toxeus.
+
+  Then she beat her breast and she filled the temple with the cries of her
+lamentation. "Who has slain my brothers? Who has slain my brothers?" she
+kept crying out.
+
+  Then she was told that her son Meleagrus had slain her brothers. She had
+no tears to shed then, and in a hard voice she asked, "Why did my son slay
+Plexippus and Toxeus, his uncles?"
+
+  The one who was wroth with Atalanta, Arcas the Arcadian, came to her and
+told her that her brothers had been slain because of a quarrel about the
+girl Atalanta.
+
+  "My brothers have been slain because a girl bewitched my son; then
+accursed be that son of mine," Althaea cried. She took off the gold-fringed
+robe of a priestess, and she put on a black robe of mourning.
+
+  Her brothers, the only sons of her father, had been slain, and for the
+sake of a girl. The image of Atalanta came before her, and she felt she
+could punish dreadfully her son. But her son was not there to punish; he
+was far away, and the girl for whose sake he had killed Plexippus and
+Toxeus was with him.
+
+  The rage she had went back into her heart and made her truly mad. "I
+gave Meleagrus life when I might have let it go from him with the burning
+billet of wood," she cried, "and now he has taken the lives of my
+brothers." And then her thought went to the billet of wood that was hidden
+in the chest.
+
+  Back to her house she went, and when she went within she saw a fire of
+pine knots burning upon the hearth. As she looked upon their burning a
+scorching pain went through her. But she went from the hearth,
+nevertheless, and into the inner room. There stood the chest that she had
+not opened for years. She opened it now, and out of it she took the billet
+of wood that had on it the mark of the burning.
+
+  She brought it to the hearth fire. Four times she went to throw it into
+the fire, and four times she stayed her hand. The fire was before her, but
+it was in her too. She saw the images of her brothers lying dead, and,
+saying that he who had slain them should lose his life, she threw the
+billet of wood into the fire of pine knots.
+
+  Straightway it caught fire and began to burn. And Althaea cried, "Let him
+die, my son, and let naught remain; let all perish with my brothers, even
+the kingdom that OEneus, my husband, founded."
+
+  Then she turned away and remained stiffly standing by the hearth, the
+life withered up within her. Her daughters came and tried to draw her
+away, but they could not--her two daughters, Gorge and Deianira.
+
+  Meleagrus was crouching upon the ground with Atalanta watching beside
+him. Now he stood up, and taking her hand he said, "Let me go with you to
+the temple of the gods where I shall strive to make atonement for the deed
+I have done to-day."
+
+  She went with him. But even as they came to the street of the city a
+sharp and a burning pain seized upon Meleagrus. More and more burning it
+grew, and weaker and weaker he became. He could not have moved further if
+it had not been for the aid of Atalanta. Jason and Peleus lifted him
+across the threshold and carried him into the temple of the gods.
+
+  They laid him down with his head upon Atalanta's lap. The pain within
+him grew fiercer and fiercer, but at last it died down as the burning
+billet of wood sank down into the ashes. The heroes of the quest stood
+around, all overcome with woe. In the street they heard the lamentations
+for Plexippus and Toxeus, for Prince Meleagrus, and for the passing of the
+kingdom founded by OEneus. Atalanta left the temple, and attended by the
+two brothers on the white horses, Polydeuces and Castor, she went back to
+Arcady.
+
+
+
+
+II. Peleus and His Bride from the Sea
+
+
+I
+
+
+[Decorative first letter]
+_P_RINCE PELEUS came on his ship to a bay on the coast of Thessaly. His
+painted ship lay between two great rocks, and from its poop he saw a sight
+that enchanted him. Out from the sea, riding on a dolphin, came a lovely
+maiden. And by the radiance of her face and limbs Peleus knew her for one
+of the immortal goddesses.
+
+  Now Peleus had borne himself so nobly in all things that he had won the
+favor of the gods themselves. Zeus, who is highest amongst the gods, had
+made this promise to Peleus: he would honor him as no one amongst the sons
+of men had been honored before, for he would give him an immortal goddess
+to be his bride.
+
+  She who came out of the sea went into a cave that was overgrown with
+vines and roses. Peleus looked into the cave and he saw her sleeping upon
+skins of the beasts of the sea. His heart was enchanted by the sight, and
+he knew that his life would be broken if he did not see this goddess day
+after day. So he went back to his ship and he prayed: "O Zeus, now I claim
+the promise that you once made to me. Let it be that this goddess come
+with me, or else plunge my ship and me beneath the waves of the sea."
+
+  And when Peleus said this he looked over the land and the water for a
+sign from Zeus.
+
+  Even then the goddess sleeping in the cave had dreams such as had never
+before entered that peaceful resting place of hers. She dreamt that she
+was drawn away from the deep and the wide sea. She dreamt that she was
+brought to a place that was strange and unfree to her. And as she lay in
+the cave, sleeping, tears that might never come into the eyes of an
+immortal lay around her heart.
+
+  But Peleus, standing on his painted ship, saw a rainbow touch upon the
+sea. He knew by that sign that Iris, the messenger of Zeus, had come down
+through the air. Then a strange sight came before his eyes. Out of the sea
+rose the head of a man; wrinkled and bearded it was, and the eyes were
+very old. Peleus knew that he who was there before him was Nereus, the
+ancient one of the sea.
+
+  Said old Nereus: "Thou hast prayed to Zeus, and I am here to speak an
+answer to thy prayer. She whom you have looked upon is Thetis, the goddess
+of the sea. Very loath will she be to take Zeus's command and wed with
+thee. It is her desire to remain in the sea, unwedded, and she has refused
+marriage even with one of the immortal gods."
+
+  Then said Peleus, "Zeus promised me an immortal bride. If Thetis may not
+be mine I cannot wed any other, goddess or mortal maiden."
+
+  "Then thou thyself wilt have to master Thetis," said Nereus, the wise
+one of the sea. "If she is mastered by thee, she cannot go back to the
+sea. She will strive with all her strength and all her wit to escape from
+thee; but thou must hold her no matter what she does, and no matter how
+she shows herself. When thou hast seen her again as thou didst see her at
+first, thou wilt know that thou hast mastered her." And when he had said
+this to Peleus, Nereus, the ancient one of the sea, went under the waves.
+
+
+
+II
+
+  With his hero's heart beating more than ever it had beaten yet, Peleus
+went into the cave. Kneeling beside her he looked down upon the goddess.
+The dress she wore was like green and silver mail. Her face and limbs were
+pearly, but through them came the radiance that belongs to the immortals.
+
+  He touched the hair of the goddess of the sea, the yellow hair that was
+so long that it might cover her all over. As he touched her hair she
+started up, wakening suddenly out of her sleep. His hands touched her
+hands and held them. Now he knew that if he should loose his hold upon her
+she would escape from him into the depths of the sea, and that thereafter
+no command from the immortals would bring her to him.
+
+  She changed into a white bird that strove to bear itself away. Peleus
+held to its wings and struggled with the bird. She changed and became a
+tree. Around the trunk of the tree Peleus clung. She changed once more,
+and this time her form became terrible: a spotted leopard she was now,
+with burning eyes; but Peleus held to the neck of the fierce-appearing
+leopard and was not affrighted by the burning eyes. Then she changed and
+became as he had seen her first--a lovely maiden, with the brow of a
+goddess, and with long yellow hair.
+
+  But now there was no radiance in her face or in her limbs. She looked
+past Peleus, who held her, and out to the wide sea. "Who is he," she
+cried, "who has been given this mastery over me?"
+
+  Then said the hero: "I am Peleus, and Zeus has given me the mastery over
+thee. Wilt thou come with me, Thetis? Thou art my bride, given me by him
+who is highest amongst the gods, and if thou wilt come with me, thou wilt
+always be loved and reverenced by me."
+
+  "Unwillingly I leave the sea," she cried, "unwillingly I go with thee,
+Peleus."
+
+  But life in the sea was not for her any more now that she was mastered.
+She went to Peleus's ship and she went to Phthia, his country. And when
+the hero and the sea goddess were wedded the immortal gods and goddesses
+came to their hall and brought the bride and the bridegroom wondrous
+gifts. The three sisters who are called the Fates came also. These wise
+and ancient women said that the son born of the marriage of Peleus and
+Thetis would be a man greater than Peleus himself.
+
+
+
+III
+
+  Now although a son was born to her, and although this son had something
+of the radiance of the immortals about him, Thetis remained forlorn and
+estranged. Nothing that her husband did was pleasing to her. Prince Peleus
+was in fear that the wildness of the sea would break out in her, and that
+some great harm would be wrought in his house.
+
+  One night he wakened suddenly. He saw the fire upon his hearth and he
+saw a figure standing by the fire. It was Thetis, his wife. The fire was
+blazing around something that she held in her hands. And while she stood
+there she was singing to herself a strange-sounding song.
+
+  And then he saw what Thetis held in her hands and what the fire was
+blazing around; it was the child, Achilles.
+
+  Prince Peleus sprang from the bed and caught Thetis around the waist and
+lifted her and the child away from the blazing fire. He put them both upon
+the bed, and he took from her the child that she held by the heel. His
+heart was wild within him, for the thought that wildness had come over his
+wife, and that she was bent upon destroying their child. But Thetis looked
+on him from under those goddess brows of hers and she said to him: "By the
+divine power that I still possess I would have made the child
+invulnerable; but the heel by which I held him has not been endued by the
+fire and in that place some day he may be stricken. All that the fire
+covered is invulnerable, and no weapon that strikes there can destroy his
+life. His heel I cannot now make invulnerable, for now the divine power is
+gone out of me."
+
+  When she said this Thetis looked full upon her husband, and never had
+she seemed so unforgiving as she was then. All the divine radiance that
+had remained with her was gone from her now, and she seemed a white-faced
+and bitter-thinking woman. And when Peleus saw that such a great
+bitterness faced him he fled from his house.
+
+  He traveled far from his own land, and first he went to the help of
+Heracles, who was then in the midst of his mighty labors. Heracles was
+building a wall around a city. Peleus labored, helping him to raise the
+wall for King Laomedon. Then, one night, as he walked by the wall he had
+helped to build, he heard voices speaking out of the earth. And one voice
+said: "Why has Peleus striven so hard to raise a wall that his son shall
+fight hard to overthrow?" No voice replied. The wall was built, and Peleus
+departed. The city around which the wall was built was the great city of
+Troy.
+
+  In whatever place he went Peleus was followed by the hatred of the
+people of the sea, and above all by the hatred of the nymph who is called
+Psamathe. Far, far from his own country he went, and at last he came to a
+country of bright valleys that was ruled over by a kindly king--by Ceyx,
+who was called the Son of the Morning Star.
+
+  Bright of face and kindly and peaceable in all his ways was this king,
+and kindly and peaceable was the land that he ruled over. And when Prince
+Peleus went to him to beg for his protection, and to beg for unfurrowed
+fields where he might graze his cattle, Ceyx raised him up from where he
+knelt. "Peaceable and plentiful is the land," he said, "and all who come
+here may have peace and a chance to earn their food. Live where you will,
+O stranger, and take the unfurrowed fields by the seashore for pasture for
+your cattle."
+
+  Peace came into Peleus's heart as he looked into the untroubled face of
+Ceyx, and as he looked over the bright valleys of the land he had come
+into. He brought his cattle to the unfurrowed fields by the seashore and
+he left herdsmen there to tend them. And as he walked along these bright
+valleys he thought upon his wife and upon his son Achilles, and there were
+gentle feelings in his breast. But then he thought upon the enmity of
+Psamathe, the woman of the sea, and great trouble came over him again. He
+felt he could not stay in the palace of the kindly king. He went where his
+herdsmen camped and he lived with them. But the sea was very near and its
+sound tormented him, and as the days went by, Peleus, wild looking and
+shaggy, became more and more unlike the hero whom once the gods themselves
+had honored.
+
+  One day as he was standing near the palace having speech with the king,
+a herdsman ran to him and cried out: "Peleus, Peleus, a dread thing has
+happened in the unfurrowed fields." And when he had got his breath the
+herdsman told of the thing that had happened.
+
+  They had brought the herd down to the sea. Suddenly, from the marshes
+where the sea and land came together, a monstrous beast rushed out upon
+the herd; like a wolf this beast was, but with mouth and jaws that were
+more terrible than a wolf's even. The beast seized upon the cattle. Yet it
+was not hunger that made it fierce, for the beasts that it killed it tore,
+but did not devour. It rushed on and on, killing and tearing more and more
+of the herd. "Soon," said the herdsman, "it will have destroyed all in the
+herd, and then it will not spare to destroy the other flocks and herds
+that are in the land."
+
+  Peleus was stricken to hear that his herd was being destroyed, but more
+stricken to know that the land of a friendly king would be ravaged, and
+ravaged on his account. For he knew that the terrible beast that had come
+from where the sea and the land joined had been sent by Psamathe. He went
+up on the tower that stood near the king's palace. He was able to look out
+on the sea and able to look over all the land. And looking across the
+bright valleys he saw the dread beast. He saw it rush through his own
+mangled cattle and fall upon the herds of the kindly king.
+
+  He looked toward the sea and he prayed to Psamathe to spare the land
+that he had come to. But, even as he prayed, he knew that Psamathe would
+not harken to him. Then he made a prayer to Thetis, to his wife who had
+seemed so unforgiving. He prayed her to deal with Psamathe so that the
+land of Ceyx would not be altogether destroyed.
+
+  As he looked from the tower he saw the king come forth with arms in his
+hands for the slaying of the terrible beast. Peleus felt fear for the life
+of the kindly king. Down from the tower he came, and taking up his spear
+he went with Ceyx.
+
+  Soon, in one of the brightest of the valleys, they came upon the beast;
+they came between it and a herd of silken-coated cattle. Seeing the men it
+rushed toward them with blood and foam upon its jaws. Then Peleus knew
+that the spears they carried would be of little use against the raging
+beast. His only thought was to struggle with it so that the king might be
+able to save himself.
+
+  Again he lifted up his hands and prayed to Thetis to draw away
+Psamathe's enmity. The beast rushed toward them; but suddenly it stopped.
+The bristles upon its body seemed to stiffen. The gaping jaws became
+fixed. The hounds that were with them dashed upon the beast, but then fell
+back with yelps of disappointment. And when Peleus and Ceyx came to where
+it stood they found that the monstrous beast had been turned into stone.
+
+  And a stone it remains in that bright valley, a wonder to all the men of
+Ceyx's land. The country was spared the ravages of the beast. And the
+heart of Peleus was uplifted to think that Thetis had harkened to his
+prayer and had prevailed upon Psamathe to forego her enmity. Not
+altogether unforgiving was his wife to him.
+
+  That day he went from the land of the bright valleys, from the land
+ruled over by the kindly Ceyx, and he came back to rugged Phthia, his own
+country. When he came near his hall he saw two at the doorway awaiting
+him. Thetis stood there, and the child Achilles was by her side. The
+radiance of the immortals was in her face no longer, but there was a glow
+there, a glow of welcome for the hero Peleus. And thus Peleus, long
+tormented by the enmity of the sea-born ones, came back to the wife he had
+won from the sea.
+
+
+
+
+III. Theseus and the Minotaur
+
+
+I
+
+
+[Decorative first letter]
+_T_HEREAFTER Theseus made up his mind to go in search of his father, the
+unknown king, and Medea, the wise woman, counseled him to go to Athens.
+After the hunt in Calydon he set forth. On his way he fought with and slew
+two robbers who harassed countries and treated people unjustly.
+
+  The first was Sinnias. He was a robber who slew men cruelly by tying
+them to strong branches of trees and letting the branches fly apart. On
+him Theseus had no mercy. The second was a robber also, Procrustes: he had
+a great iron bed on which he made his captives lie; if they were too long
+for that bed he chopped pieces off them, and if they were too short he
+stretched out their bodies with terrible racks. On him, likewise, Theseus
+had no mercy; he slew Procrustes and gave liberty to his captives.
+
+  The King of Athens at the time was named AEgeus. He was father of
+Theseus, but neither Theseus nor he knew that this was so. AEthra was his
+mother, and she was the daughter of the King of Troezen. Before Theseus was
+born his father left a great sword under a stone, telling AEthra that the
+boy was to have the sword when he was able to move that stone away.
+
+  King AEgeus was old and fearful now: there were wars and troubles in the
+city; besides, there was in his palace an evil woman, a witch, to whom the
+king listened. This woman heard that a proud and fearless young man had
+come into Athens, and she at once thought to destroy him.
+
+  So the witch spoke to the fearful king, and she made him believe that
+this stranger had come into Athens to make league with his enemies and
+destroy him. Such was her power over AEgeus that she was able to persuade
+him to invite the stranger youth to a feast in the palace, and to give him
+a cup that would have poison in it.
+
+  Theseus came to the palace. He sat down to the banquet with the king.
+But before the cup was brought something moved him to stand up and draw
+forth the sword that he carried. Fearfully the king looked upon the sword.
+Then he saw the heavy ivory hilt with the curious carving on it, and he
+knew that this was the sword that he had once laid under the stone near
+the palace of the King of Troezen. He questioned Theseus as to how he had
+come by the sword, and Theseus told him how AEthra, his mother, had shown
+him where it was hidden, and how he had been able to take it from under
+the stone before he was grown a youth. More and more AEgeus questioned him,
+and he came to know that the youth before him was his son indeed. He
+dashed down the cup that had been brought to the table, and he shook all
+over with the thought of how near he had been to a terrible crime. The
+witchwoman watched all that passed; mounting on a car drawn by dragons she
+made flight from Athens.
+
+  And now the people of the city, knowing that it was he who had slain the
+robbers Sinnias and Procrustes, rejoiced to have Theseus amongst them.
+When he appeared as their prince they rejoiced still more. Soon he was
+able to bring to an end the wars in the city and the troubles that
+afflicted Athens.
+
+
+
+II
+
+  The greatest king in the world at that time was Minos, King of Crete.
+Minos had sent his son to Athens to make peace and friendship between his
+kingdom and the kingdom of King AEgeus. But the people of Athens slew the
+son of King Minos, and because AEgeus had not given him the protection that
+a king should have given a stranger come upon such an errand he was deemed
+to have some part in the guilt of his slaying.
+
+  Minos, the great king, was wroth, and he made war on Athens, wreaking
+great destruction upon the country and the people. Moreover, the gods
+themselves were wroth with Athens; they punished the people with famine,
+making even the rivers dry up. The Athenians went to the oracle and asked
+Apollo what they should do to have their guilt taken away. Apollo made
+answer that they should make peace with Minos and fulfill all his demands.
+
+  All this Theseus now heard, learning for the first time that behind the
+wars and troubles in Athens there was a deed of evil that AEgeus, his
+father, had some guilt in.
+
+  The demands that King Minos made upon Athens were terrible. He demanded
+that the Athenians should send into Crete every year seven youths and
+seven maidens as a price for the life of his son. And these youths and
+maidens were not to meet death merely, nor were they to be reared in
+slavery--they were to be sent that a monster called the Minotaur might
+devour them.
+
+  Youths and maidens had been sent, and for the third time the messengers
+of King Minos were coming to Athens. The tribute for the Minotaur was to
+be chosen by lot. The fathers and mothers were in fear and trembling, for
+each man and woman thought that his or her son or daughter would be taken
+for a prey for the Minotaur.
+
+  They came together, the people of Athens, and they drew the lots
+fearfully. And on the throne above them all sat their pale-faced king,
+AEgeus, the father of Theseus.
+
+  Before the first lot was drawn Theseus turned to all of them and said,
+"People of Athens, it is not right that your children should go and that
+I, who am the son of King AEgeus, should remain behind. Surely, if any of
+the youths of Athens should face the dread monster of Crete, I should face
+it. There is one lot that you may leave undrawn. I will go to Crete."
+
+  His father, on hearing the speech of Theseus, came down from his throne
+and pleaded with him, begging him not to go. But the will of Theseus was
+set; he would go with the others and face the Minotaur. And he reminded
+his father of how the people had complained, saying that if AEgeus had done
+the duty of a king, Minos's son would not have been slain and the tribute
+to the Minotaur would have not been demanded. It was the passing about of
+such complaints that had led to the war and troubles that Theseus found on
+his coming to Athens.
+
+  Also Theseus told his father and told the people that he had hope in his
+hands--that the hands that were strong enough to slay Sinnias and
+Procrustes, the giant robbers, would be strong enough to slay the dread
+monster of Crete. His father at last consented to his going. And Theseus
+was able to make the people willing to believe that he would be able to
+overcome the Minotaur, and so put an end to the terrible tribute that was
+being exacted from them.
+
+  With six other youths and seven maidens Theseus went on board of the
+ship that every year brought to Crete the grievous tribute. This ship
+always sailed with black sails. But before it sailed this time King AEgeus
+gave to Nausitheus, the master of the ship, a white sail to take with him.
+And he begged Theseus, that in case he should be able to overcome the
+monster, to hoist the white sail he had given. Theseus promised he would
+do this. His father would watch for the return of the ship, and if the
+sail were black he would know that the Minotaur had dealt with his son as
+it had dealt with the other youths who had gone from Athens. And if the
+sail were white AEgeus would have indeed cause to rejoice.
+
+
+
+III
+
+  And now the black-sailed ship had come to Crete, and the youths and
+maidens of Athens looked from its deck on Knossos, the marvelous city that
+Daedalus the builder had built for King Minos. And they saw the palace of
+the king, the red and black palace in which was the labyrinth, made also
+by Daedalus, where the dread Minotaur was hidden.
+
+  In fear they looked upon the city and the palace. But not in fear did
+Theseus look, but in wonder at the magnificence of it all--the harbor with
+its great steps leading up into the city, the far-spreading palace all red
+and black, and the crowds of ships with their white and red sails. They
+were brought through the city of Knossos to the palace of the king. And
+there Theseus looked upon Minos. In a great red chamber on which was
+painted the sign of the axe, King Minos sat.
+
+  On a low throne he sat, holding in his hand a scepter on which a bird
+was perched. Not in fear, but steadily, did Theseus look upon the king.
+And he saw that Minos had the face of one who has thought long upon
+troublesome things, and that his eyes were strangely dark and deep. The
+king noted that the eyes of Theseus were upon him, and he made a sign with
+his head to an attendant and the attendant laid his hand upon him and
+brought Theseus to stand beside the king. Minos questioned him as to who
+he was and what lands he had been in, and when he learned that Theseus was
+the son of AEgeus, the King of Athens, he said the name of his son who had
+been slain, "Androgeus, Androgeus," over and over again, and then spoke no
+more.
+
+  While he stood there beside the king there came into the chamber three
+maidens; one of them, Theseus knew, was the daughter of Minos. Not like
+the maidens of Greece were the princess and her two attendants: instead of
+having on flowing garments and sandals and wearing their hair bound, they
+had on dresses of gleaming material that were tight at the waists and
+bell-shaped; the hair that streamed on their shoulders was made wavy; they
+had on high shoes of a substance that shone like glass. Never had Theseus
+looked upon maidens who were so strange.
+
+  They spoke to the king in the strange Cretan language; then Minos's
+daughter made reverence to her father, and they went from the chamber.
+Theseus watched them as they went through a long passage, walking slowly
+on their high-heeled shoes.
+
+  Through the same passage the youths and maidens of Athens were afterward
+brought. They came into a great hall. The walls were red and on them were
+paintings in black--pictures of great bulls with girls and slender youths
+struggling with them. It was a place for games and shows, and Theseus
+stood with the youths and maidens of Athens and with the people of the
+palace and watched what was happening.
+
+  They saw women charming snakes; then they saw a boxing match, and
+afterward they all looked on a bout of wrestling. Theseus looked past the
+wrestlers and he saw, at the other end of the hall, the daughter of King
+Minos and her two attendant maidens.
+
+  One broad-shouldered and bearded man overthrew all the wrestlers who
+came to grips with him. He stood there boastfully, and Theseus was made
+angry by the man's arrogance. Then, when no other wrestler would come
+against him, he turned to leave the arena.
+
+  But Theseus stood in his way and pushed him back. The boastful man laid
+hands upon him and pulled him into the arena. He strove to throw Theseus
+as he had thrown the others; but he soon found that the youth from Greece
+was a wrestler, too, and that he would have to strive hard to overthrow
+him.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+  More eagerly than they had watched anything else the people of the
+palace and the youths and maidens of Athens watched the bout between
+Theseus and the lordly wrestler. Those from Athens who looked upon him now
+thought that they had never seen Theseus look so tall and so conquering
+before; beside the slender, dark-haired people of Crete he looked like a
+statue of one of the gods.
+
+  Very adroit was the Cretan wrestler, and Theseus had to use all his
+strength to keep upon his feet; but soon he mastered the tricks that the
+wrestler was using against him. Then the Cretan left aside his tricks and
+began to use all his strength to throw Theseus.
+
+  Steadily Theseus stood and the Cretan wrestler was spent and gasping in
+the effort to throw him. Then Theseus made him feel his grip. He bent him
+backward, and then, using all his strength suddenly, forced him to the
+ground. All were filled with wonder at the strength and power of this
+youth from overseas.
+
+  Food and wine were given the youths and maidens of Athens, and they with
+Theseus were let wander through the grounds of the palace. But they could
+make no escape, for guards followed them and the way to the ships was
+filled with strangers who would not let them pass. They talked to each
+other about the Minotaur, and there was fear in every word they said. But
+Theseus went from one to the other, telling them that perhaps there was a
+way by which he could come to the monster and destroy it. And the youths
+and maidens, remembering how he had overthrown the lordly wrestler, were
+comforted a little, thinking that Theseus might indeed be able to destroy
+the Minotaur and so save all of them.
+
+
+
+IV
+
+  Theseus was awakened by some one touching him. He arose and he saw a
+dark-faced servant, who beckoned to him. He left the little chamber where
+he had been sleeping, and then he saw outside one who wore the strange
+dress of the Cretans.
+
+  When Theseus looked full upon her he saw that she was none other than
+the daughter of King Minos. "I am Ariadne," she said, "and, O youth from
+Greece, I have come to save you from the dread Minotaur."
+
+  He looked upon Ariadne's strange face with its long, dark eyes, and he
+wondered how this girl could think that she could save him and save the
+youths and maidens of Athens from the Minotaur. Her hand rested upon his
+arm, and she led him into the chamber where Minos had sat. It was lighted
+now by many little lamps.
+
+  "I will show the way of escape to you," said Ariadne.
+
+  Then Theseus looked around, and he saw that none of the other youths and
+maidens were near them, and he looked on Ariadne again, and he saw that
+the strange princess had been won to help him, and to help him only.
+
+  "Who will show the way of escape to the others?" asked Theseus.
+
+  "Ah," said the Princess Ariadne, "for the others there is no way of
+escape."
+
+  "Then," said Theseus, "I will not leave the youths and maidens of Athens
+who came with me to Crete to be devoured by the Minotaur."
+
+  "Ah, Theseus," said Ariadne, "they cannot escape the Minotaur. One only
+may escape, and I want you to be that one. I saw you when you wrestled
+with Deucalion, our great wrestler, and since then I have longed to save
+you."
+
+  "I have come to slay the Minotaur," said Theseus, "and I cannot hold my
+life as my own until I have slain it."
+
+  Said Ariadne, "If you could see the Minotaur, Theseus, and if you could
+measure its power, you would know that you are not the one to slay it. I
+think that only Talos, that giant who was all of bronze, could have slain
+the Minotaur."
+
+  "Princess," said Theseus, "can you help me to come to the Minotaur and
+look upon it so that I can know for certainty whether this hand of mine
+can slay the monster?"
+
+  "I can help you to come to the Minotaur and look upon it," said Ariadne.
+
+  "Then help me, princess," cried Theseus; "help me to come to the
+Minotaur and look upon it, and help me, too, to get back the sword that I
+brought with me to Crete."
+
+  "Your sword will not avail you against the Minotaur," said Ariadne;
+"when you look upon the monster you will know that it is not for your hand
+to slay."
+
+  "Oh, but bring me my sword, princess," cried Theseus, and his hands went
+out to her in supplication.
+
+  "I will bring you your sword," said she.
+
+  She took up a little lamp and went through a doorway, leaving Theseus
+standing by the low throne in the chamber of Minos. Then after a little
+while she came back, bringing with her Theseus's great ivory-hilted sword.
+
+  "It is a great sword," she said; "I marked it before because it is your
+sword, Theseus. But even this great sword will not avail against the
+Minotaur."
+
+  "Show me the way to come to the Minotaur, O Ariadne," cried Theseus.
+
+  He knew that she did not think that he would deem himself able to strive
+with the Minotaur, and that when he looked upon the dread monster he would
+return to her and then take the way of his escape.
+
+  She took his hand and led him from the chamber of Minos. She was not
+tall, but she stood straight and walked steadily, and Theseus saw in her
+something of the strange majesty that he had seen in Minos the king.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+  They came to high bronze gates that opened into a vault. "Here," said
+Ariadne, "the labyrinth begins. Very devious is the labyrinth, built by
+Daedalus, in which the Minotaur is hidden, and without the clue none could
+find a way through the passages. But I will give you the clue so that you
+may look upon the Minotaur and then come back to me. Theseus, now I put
+into your hand the thread that will guide you through all the windings of
+the labyrinth. And outside the place where the Minotaur is you will find
+another thread to guide you back."
+
+  A cone was on the ground and it had a thread fastened to it. Ariadne
+gave Theseus the thread and the cone to wind it around. The thread as he
+held it and wound it around the cone would bring him through all the
+windings and turnings of the labyrinth.
+
+  She left him, and Theseus went on. Winding the thread around the cone he
+went along a wide passage in the vault. He turned and came into a passage
+that was very long. He came to a place in this passage where a door seemed
+to be, but within the frame of the doorway there was only a blank wall.
+But below that doorway there was a flight of six steps, and down these
+steps the thread led him. On he went, and he crossed the marks that he
+himself had made in the dust, and he thought he must have come back to the
+place where he had parted from Ariadne. He went on, and he saw before him
+a flight of steps. The thread did not lead up the steps; it led into the
+most winding of passages. So sudden were the turnings in it that one could
+not see three steps before one. He was dazed by the turnings of this
+passage, but still he went on. He went up winding steps and then along a
+narrow wall. The wall overhung a broad flight of steps, and Theseus had to
+jump to them. Down the steps he went and into a wide, empty hall that had
+doorways to the right hand and to the left hand. Here the thread had its
+end. It was fastened to a cone that lay on the ground, and beside this
+cone was another--the clue that was to bring him back.
+
+  Now Theseus, knowing he was in the very center of the labyrinth, looked
+all around for sight of the Minotaur. There was no sight of the monster
+here. He went to all the doors and pushed at them, and some opened and
+some remained fast. The middle door opened. As it did Theseus felt around
+him a chilling draft of air.
+
+  That chilling draft was from the breathing of the monster. Theseus then
+saw the Minotaur. It lay on the ground, a strange, bull-faced thing.
+
+  When the thought came to Theseus that he would have to fight that
+monster alone and in that hidden and empty place all delight left him; he
+grew like a stone; he groaned, and it seemed to him that he heard the
+voice of Ariadne calling him back. He could find his way back through the
+labyrinth and come to her. He stepped back, and the door closed on the
+Minotaur, the dread monster of Crete.
+
+  In an instant Theseus pushed the door again. He stood within the hall
+where the Minotaur was, and the heavy door shut behind him. He looked
+again on that dark, bull-faced thing. It reared up as a horse rears and
+Theseus saw that it would crash down on him and tear him with its dragon
+claws. With a great bound he went far away from where the monster crashed
+down. Then Theseus faced it: he saw its thick lips and its slobbering
+mouth; he saw that its skin was thick and hard.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+  He drew near the monster, his sword in his hand. He struck at its eyes,
+and his sword made a great dint. But no blood came, for the Minotaur was a
+bloodless monster. From its mouth and nostrils came a draft that covered
+him with a chilling slime.
+
+  Then it rushed upon him and overthrew him, and Theseus felt its terrible
+weight upon him. But he thrust his sword upward, and it reared up again,
+screaming with pain. Theseus drew himself away, and then he saw it
+searching around and around, and he knew he had made it sightless. Then it
+faced him; all the more fearful it was because from its wounds no blood
+came.
+
+  Anger flowed into Theseus when he saw the monster standing frightfully
+before him; he thought of all the youths and maidens that this bloodless
+thing had destroyed, and all the youths and maidens that it would destroy
+if he did not slay it now. Angrily he rushed upon it with his great sword.
+It clawed and tore him, and it opened wide its most evil mouth as if to
+draw him into it. But again he sprang at it; he thrust his great sword
+through its neck, and he left his sword there.
+
+  With the last of his strength he pulled open the heavy door and he went
+out from the hall where the Minotaur was. He picked up the thread and he
+began to wind it as he had wound the other thread on his way down. On he
+went, through passage after passage, through chamber after chamber. His
+mind was dizzy, and he had little thought for the way he was going. His
+wounds and the chill that the monster had breathed into him and his horror
+of the fearful and bloodless thing made his mind almost forsake him. He
+kept the thread in his hand and he wound it as he went on through the
+labyrinth. He stumbled and the thread broke. He went on for a few steps
+and then he went back to find the thread that had fallen out of his hands.
+In an instant he was in a part of the labyrinth that he had not been in
+before.
+
+  He walked a long way, and then he came on his own footmarks as they
+crossed themselves in the dust. He pushed open a door and came into the
+air. He was now by the outside wall of the palace, and he saw birds flying
+by him. He leant against the wall of the palace, thinking that he would
+strive no more to find his way through the labyrinth.
+
+
+
+V
+
+  That day the youths and maidens of Athens were brought through the
+labyrinth and to the hall where the Minotaur was. They went through the
+passages weeping and lamenting. Some cried out for Theseus, and some said
+that Theseus had deserted them. The heavy door was opened. Then those who
+were with the youths and maidens saw the Minotaur lying stark and stiff
+with Theseus's sword through its neck. They shouted and blew trumpets and
+the noise of their trumpets filled the labyrinth. Then they turned back,
+bringing the youths and maidens with them, and a whisper went through the
+whole palace that the Minotaur had been slain. The youths and maidens were
+lodged in the chamber where Minos gave his judgments.
+
+
+
+VI
+
+  Theseus, wearied and overcome, fell into a deep sleep by the wall of the
+palace. He awakened with a feeling that the claw of the Minotaur was upon
+him. There were stars in the sky above the high palace wall, and he saw a
+dark-robed and ancient man standing beside him. Theseus knew that this was
+Daedalus, the builder of the palace and the labyrinth. Daedalus called and a
+slim youth came--Icarus, the son of Daedalus. Minos had set father and son
+apart from the rest of the palace, and Theseus had come near the place
+where they were confined. Icarus came and brought him to a winding
+stairway and showed him a way to go.
+
+  A dark-faced servant met and looked him full in the face. Then, as if he
+knew that Theseus was the one whom he had been searching for, he led him
+into a little chamber where there were three maidens. One started up and
+came to him quickly, and Theseus again saw Ariadne.
+
+  She hid him in the chamber of the palace where her singing birds were,
+and she would come and sit beside him, asking about his own country and
+telling him that she would go with him there. "I showed you how you might
+come to the Minotaur," she said, "and you went there and you slew the
+monster, and now I may not stay in my father's palace."
+
+  And Theseus thought all the time of his return, and of how he might
+bring the youths and maidens of Athens back to their own people. For
+Ariadne, that strange princess, was not dear to him as Medea was dear to
+Jason, or Atalanta the Huntress to young Meleagrus.
+
+  One sunset she led him to a roof of the palace and she showed him the
+harbor with the ships, and she showed him the ship with the black sail
+that had brought him to Knossos. She told him she would take him aboard
+that ship, and that the youths and maidens of Athens could go with them.
+She would bring to the master of the ship the seal of King Minos, and the
+master, seeing it, would set sail for whatever place Theseus desired to
+go.
+
+  Then did she become dear to Theseus because of her great kindness, and
+he kissed her eyes and swore that he would not go from the palace unless
+she would come with him to his own country. The strange princess smiled
+and wept as if she doubted what he said. Nevertheless, she led him from
+the roof and down into one of the palace gardens. He waited there, and the
+youths and maidens of Athens were led into the garden, all wearing cloaks
+that hid their forms and faces. Young Icarus led them from the grounds of
+the palace and down to the ships. And Ariadne went with them, bringing
+with her the seal of her father, King Minos.
+
+  And when they came on board of the black-sailed ship they showed the
+seal to the master, Nausitheus, and the master of the ship let the sail
+take the breeze of the evening, and so Theseus went away from Crete.
+
+
+
+VII
+
+  To the Island of Naxos they sailed. And when they reached that place the
+master of the ship, thinking that what had been done was not in accordance
+with the will of King Minos, stayed the ship there. He waited until other
+ships came from Knossos. And when they came they brought word that Minos
+would not slay nor demand back Theseus nor the youths and maidens of
+Athens. His daughter, Ariadne, he would have back, to reign with him over
+Crete.
+
+  Then Ariadne left the black-sailed ship, and went back to Crete from
+Naxos. Theseus let the princess go, although he might have struggled to
+hold her. But more strange than dear did Ariadne remain to Theseus.
+
+  And all this time his father, AEgeus, stayed on the tower of his palace,
+watching for the return of the ship that had sailed for Knossos. The life
+of the king wasted since the departure of Theseus, and now it was but a
+thread. Every day he watched for the return of the ship, hoping against
+hope that Theseus would return alive to him. Then a ship came into the
+harbor. It had black sails. AEgeus did not know that Theseus was aboard of
+it, and that Theseus in the hurry of his flight and in the sadness of his
+parting from Ariadne had not thought of taking out the white sail that his
+father had given to Nausitheus.
+
+  Joyously Theseus sailed into the harbor, having slain the Minotaur and
+lifted for ever the tribute put upon Athens. Joyously he sailed into the
+harbor, bringing back to their parents the youths and maidens of Athens.
+But the king, his father, saw the black sails on his ship, and straightway
+the thread of his life broke, and he died on the roof of the tower which
+he had built to look out on the sea.
+
+  Theseus landed on the shore of his own country. He had the ship drawn up
+on the beach and he made sacrifices of thanksgiving to the gods. Then he
+sent messengers to the city to announce his return. They went toward the
+city, these joyful messengers, but when they came to the gate they heard
+the sounds of mourning and lamentation. The mourning and the lamentation
+were for the death of the king, Theseus's father. They hurried back and
+they came to Theseus where he stood on the beach. They brought a wreath of
+victory for him, but as they put it into his hand they told him of the
+death of his father. Then Theseus left the wreath on the ground, and he
+wept for the death of AEgeus--of AEgeus, the hero, who had left the sword
+under the stone for him before he was born.
+
+  The men and women who came to the beach wept and laughed as they clasped
+in their arms the children brought back to them. And Theseus stood there,
+silent and bowed; the memory of his last moments with his father, of his
+fight with the Minotaur, of his parting with Ariadne--all flowed back upon
+him. He stood there with head bowed, the man who might not put upon his
+brows the wreath of victory that had been brought to him.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+  There had come into the city a youth of great valor whose name was
+Peirithous: from a far country he had come, filled with a desire of
+meeting Theseus, whose fame had come to him. The youth was in Athens at
+the time Theseus returned. He went down to the beach with the townsfolk,
+and he saw Theseus standing alone with his head bowed down. He went to him
+and he spoke, and Theseus lifted his head and he saw before him a young
+man of strength and beauty. He looked upon him, and the thought of high
+deeds came into his mind again. He wanted this young man to be his comrade
+in dangers and upon quests. And Peirithous looked upon Theseus, and he
+felt that he was greater and nobler than he had thought. They became
+friends and sworn brothers, and together they went into far countries.
+
+  Now there was in Epirus a savage king who had a very fair daughter. He
+had named this daughter Persephone, naming her thus to show that she was
+held as fast by him as that other Persephone was held who ruled in the
+Underworld. No man might see her, and no man might wed her. But Peirithous
+had seen the daughter of this king, and he desired above all things to
+take her from her father and make her his wife. He begged Theseus to help
+him enter that king's palace and carry off the maiden.
+
+  So they came to Epirus, Theseus and Peirithous, and they entered the
+king's palace, and they heard the bay of the dread hound that was there to
+let no one out who had once come within the walls. Suddenly the guards of
+the savage king came upon them, and they took Theseus and Peirithous and
+they dragged them down into dark dungeons.
+
+  Two great chairs of stone were there, and Theseus and Peirithous were
+left seated in them. And the magic powers that were in the chairs of stone
+were such that the heroes could not lift themselves out of them. There
+they stayed, held in the great stone chairs in the dungeons of that savage
+king.
+
+  Then it so happened that Heracles came into the palace of the king. The
+harsh king feasted Heracles and abated his savagery before him. But he
+could not forbear boasting of how he had trapped the heroes who had come
+to carry off Persephone. And he told how they could not get out of the
+stone chairs and how they were held captive in his dark dungeon. Heracles
+listened, his heart full of pity for the heroes from Greece who had met
+with such a harsh fate. And when the king mentioned that one of the heroes
+was Theseus, Heracles would feast no more with him until he had promised
+that the one who had been his comrade on the _Argo_ would be let go.
+
+  The king said he would give Theseus his liberty if Heracles would carry
+the stone chair on which he was seated out of the dungeon and into the
+outer world. Then Heracles went down into the dungeon. He found the two
+heroes in the great chairs of stone. But one of them, Peirithous, no
+longer breathed. Heracles took the great chair of stone that Theseus was
+seated in, and he carried it up, up, from the dungeon and out into the
+world. It was a heavy task even for Heracles. He broke the chair in
+pieces, and Theseus stood up, released.
+
+  Thereafter the world was before Theseus. He went with Heracles, and in
+the deeds that Heracles was afterward to accomplish Theseus shared.
+
+
+
+
+IV. The Life and Labors of Heracles
+
+
+I
+
+
+[Decorative first letter]
+_H_ERACLES was the son of Zeus, but he was born into the family of a
+mortal king. When he was still a youth, being overwhelmed by a madness
+sent upon him by one of the goddesses, he slew the children of his brother
+Iphicles. Then, coming to know what he had done, sleep and rest went from
+him: he went to Delphi, to the shrine of Apollo, to be purified of his
+crime.
+
+  At Delphi, at the shrine of Apollo, the priestess purified him, and when
+she had purified him she uttered this prophecy: "From this day forth thy
+name shall be, not Alcides, but Heracles. Thou shalt go to Eurystheus, thy
+cousin, in Mycenae, and serve him in all things. When the labors he shall
+lay upon thee are accomplished, and when the rest of thy life is lived
+out, thou shalt become one of the immortals." Heracles, on hearing these
+words, set out for Mycenae.
+
+  He stood before his cousin who hated him; he, a towering man, stood
+before a king who sat there weak and trembling. And Heracles said, "I have
+come to take up the labors that you will lay upon me; speak now,
+Eurystheus, and tell me what you would have me do."
+
+  Eurystheus, that weak king, looking on the young man who stood as tall
+and as firm as one of the immortals, had a heart that was filled with
+hatred. He lifted up his head and he said with a frown:
+
+  "There is a lion in Nemea that is stronger and more fierce than any lion
+known before. Kill that lion, and bring the lion's skin to me that I may
+know that you have truly performed your task." So Eurystheus said, and
+Heracles, with neither shield nor arms, went forth from the king's palace
+to seek and to combat the dread lion of Nemea.
+
+  He went on until he came into a country where the fences were overthrown
+and the fields wasted and the houses empty and fallen. He went on until he
+came to the waste around that land: there he came on the trail of the
+lion; it led up the side of a mountain, and Heracles, without shield or
+arms, followed the trail.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+  He heard the roar of the lion. Looking up he saw the beast standing at
+the mouth of a cavern, huge and dark against the sunset. The lion roared
+three times, and then it went within the cavern.
+
+  Around the mouth were strewn the bones of creatures it had killed and
+carried there. Heracles looked upon them when he came to the cavern. He
+went within. Far into the cavern he went, and then he came to where he saw
+the lion. It was sleeping.
+
+  Heracles viewed the terrible bulk of the lion, and then he looked upon
+his own knotted hands and arms. He remembered that it was told of him
+that, while still a child of eight months, he had strangled a great
+serpent that had come to his cradle to devour him. He had grown and his
+strength had grown too.
+
+  So he stood, measuring his strength and the size of the lion. The breath
+from its mouth and nostrils came heavily to him as the beast slept, gorged
+with its prey. Then the lion yawned. Heracles sprang on it and put his
+great hands upon its throat. No growl came out of its mouth, but the great
+eyes blazed while the terrible paws tore at Heracles. Against the rock
+Heracles held the beast; strongly he held it, choking it through the skin
+that was almost impenetrable. Terribly the lion struggled; but the strong
+hands of the hero held around its throat until it struggled no more.
+
+  Then Heracles stripped off that impenetrable skin from the lion's body;
+he put it upon himself for a cloak. Then, as he went through the forest,
+he pulled up a young oak tree and trimmed it and made a club for himself.
+With the lion's skin over him--that skin that no spear or arrow could
+pierce--and carrying the club in his hand he journeyed on until he came to
+the palace of King Eurystheus.
+
+  The king, seeing coming toward him a towering man all covered with the
+hide of a monstrous lion, ran and hid himself in a great jar. He lifted
+the lid up to ask the servants what was the meaning of this terrible
+appearance. And the servants told him that it was Heracles come back with
+the skin of the lion of Nemea. On hearing this Eurystheus hid himself
+again.
+
+  He would not speak with Heracles nor have him come near him, so fearful
+was he. But Heracles was content to be left alone. He sat down in the
+palace and feasted himself.
+
+  The servants came to the king; Eurystheus lifted the lid of the jar and
+they told him how Heracles was feasting and devouring all the goods in the
+palace. The king flew into a rage, but still he was fearful of having the
+hero before him. He issued commands through his heralds ordering Heracles
+to go forth at once and perform the second of his tasks.
+
+  It was to slay the great water snake that made its lair in the swamps of
+Lerna. Heracles stayed to feast another day, and then, with the lion's
+skin across his shoulders and the great club in his hands, he started off.
+But this time he did not go alone; the boy Iolaus went with him.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+
+  Heracles and Iolaus went on until they came to the vast swamp of Lerna.
+Right in the middle of the swamp was the water snake that was called the
+Hydra. Nine heads it had, and it raised them up out of the water as the
+hero and his companion came near. They could not cross the swamp to come
+to the monster, for man or beast would sink and be lost in it.
+
+  The Hydra remained in the middle of the swamp belching mud at the hero
+and his companion. Then Heracles took up his bow and he shot flaming
+arrows at its heads. It grew into such a rage that it came through the
+swamp to attack him. Heracles swung his club. As the Hydra came near he
+knocked head after head off its body.
+
+  But for every head knocked off two grew upon the Hydra. And as he
+struggled with the monster a huge crab came out of the swamp, and gripping
+Heracles by the foot tried to draw him in. Then Heracles cried out. The
+boy Iolaus came; he killed the crab that had come to the Hydra's aid.
+
+  Then Heracles laid hands upon the Hydra and drew it out of the swamp.
+With his club he knocked off a head and he had Iolaus put fire to where it
+had been, so that two heads might not grow in that place. The life of the
+Hydra was in its middle head; that head he had not been able to knock off
+with his club. Now, with his hands he tore it off, and he placed this head
+under a great stone so that it could not rise into life again. The Hydra's
+life was now destroyed. Heracles dipped his arrows into the gall of the
+monster, making his arrows deadly; no thing that was struck by these
+arrows afterward could keep its life.
+
+  Again he came to Eurystheus's palace, and Eurystheus, seeing him, ran
+again and hid himself in the jar. Heracles ordered the servants to tell
+the king that he had returned and that the second labor was accomplished.
+
+  Eurystheus, hearing from the servants that Heracles was mild in his
+ways, came out of the jar. Insolently he spoke. "Twelve labors you have to
+accomplish for me," said he to Heracles, "and eleven yet remain to be
+accomplished."
+
+  "How?" said Heracles. "Have I not performed two of the labors? Have I
+not slain the lion of Nemea and the great water snake of Lerna?"
+
+  "In the killing of the water snake you were helped by Iolaus," said the
+king, snapping out his words and looking at Heracles with shifting eyes.
+"That labor cannot be allowed you."
+
+  Heracles would have struck him to the ground. But then he remembered
+that the crime that he had committed in his madness would have to be
+expiated by labors performed at the order of this man. He looked full upon
+Eurystheus and he said, "Tell me of the other labors, and I will go forth
+from Mycenae and accomplish them."
+
+  Then Eurystheus bade him go and make clean the stables of King Augeias.
+Heracles came into that king's country. The smell from the stables was
+felt for miles around. Countless herds of cattle and goats had been in the
+stables for years, and because of the uncleanness and the smell that came
+from it the crops were withered all around. Heracles told the king that he
+would clean the stables if he were given one tenth of the cattle and the
+goats for a reward.
+
+  The king agreed to this reward. Then Heracles drove the cattle and the
+goats out of the stables; he broke through the foundations and he made
+channels for the two rivers Alpheus and Peneius. The waters flowed through
+the stables, and in a day all the uncleanness was washed away. Then
+Heracles turned the rivers back into their own courses.
+
+  He was not given the reward he had bargained for, however.
+
+  He went back to Mycenae with the tale of how he had cleaned the stables.
+"Ten labors remain for me to do now," he said.
+
+  "Eleven," said Eurystheus. "How can I allow the cleaning of King
+Augeias's stables to you when you bargained for a reward for doing it?"
+
+  Then while Heracles stood still, holding himself back from striking him,
+Eurystheus ran away and hid himself in the jar. Through his heralds he
+sent word to Heracles, telling him what the other labors would be.
+
+  He was to clear the marshes of Stymphalus of the man-eating birds that
+gathered there; he was to capture and bring to the king the golden-horned
+deer of Coryneia; he was also to capture and bring alive to Mycenae the
+boar of Erymanthus.
+
+  Heracles came to the marshes of Stymphalus. The growth of jungle was so
+dense that he could not cut his way through to where the man-eating birds
+were; they sat upon low bushes within the jungle, gorging themselves upon
+the flesh they had carried there.
+
+  For days Heracles tried to hack his way through. He could not get to
+where the birds were. Then, thinking he might not be able to accomplish
+this labor, he sat upon the ground in despair.
+
+  It was then that one of the immortals appeared to him; for the first and
+only time he was given help from the gods.
+
+  It was Athena who came to him. She stood apart from Heracles, holding in
+her hands brazen cymbals. These she clashed together. At the sound of this
+clashing the Stymphalean birds rose up from the low bushes behind the
+jungle. Heracles shot at them with those unerring arrows of his. The
+man-eating birds fell, one after the other, into the marsh.
+
+  Then Heracles went north to where the Coryneian deer took her pasture.
+So swift of foot was she that no hound nor hunter had ever been able to
+overtake her. For the whole of a year Heracles kept Golden Horns in chase,
+and at last, on the side of the Mountain Artemision, he caught her.
+Artemis, the goddess of the wild things, would have punished Heracles for
+capturing the deer, but the hero pleaded with her, and she relented and
+agreed to let him bring the deer to Mycenae and show her to King
+Eurystheus. And Artemis took charge of Golden Horns while Heracles went
+off to capture the Erymanthean boar.
+
+  He came to the city of Psophis, the inhabitants of which were in deadly
+fear because of the ravages of the boar. Heracles made his way up the
+mountain to hunt it. Now on this mountain a band of centaurs lived, and
+they, knowing him since the time he had been fostered by Chiron, welcomed
+Heracles. One of them, Pholus, took Heracles to the great house where the
+centaurs had their wine stored.
+
+  Seldom did the centaurs drink wine; a draft of it made them wild, and so
+they stored it away, leaving it in the charge of one of their band.
+Heracles begged Pholus to give him a draft of wine; after he had begged
+again and again the centaur opened one of his great jars.
+
+  Heracles drank wine and spilled it. Then the centaurs that were without
+smelt the wine and came hammering at the door, demanding the drafts that
+would make them wild. Heracles came forth to drive them away. They
+attacked him. Then he shot at them with his unerring arrows and he drove
+them away. Up the mountain and away to far rivers the centaurs raced,
+pursued by Heracles with his bow.
+
+  One was slain, Pholus, the centaur who had entertained him. By accident
+Heracles dropped a poisoned arrow on his foot. He took the body of Pholus
+up to the top of the mountain and buried the centaur there. Afterward, on
+the snows of Erymanthus, he set a snare for the boar and caught him there.
+
+  Upon his shoulders he carried the boar to Mycenae and he led the deer by
+her golden horns. When Eurystheus had looked upon them the boar was slain,
+but the deer was loosed and she fled back to the Mountain Artemision.
+
+  King Eurystheus sat hidden in the great jar, and he thought of more
+terrible labors he would make Heracles engage in. Now he would send him
+oversea and make him strive with fierce tribes and more dread monsters.
+When he had it all thought out he had Heracles brought before him and he
+told him of these other labors.
+
+  He was to go to savage Thrace and there destroy the man-eating horses of
+King Diomedes; afterward he was to go amongst the dread women, the
+Amazons, daughters of Ares, the god of war, and take from their queen,
+Hippolyte, the girdle that Ares had given her; then he was to go to Crete
+and take from the keeping of King Minos the beautiful bull that Poseidon
+had given him; afterward he was to go to the Island of Erytheia and take
+away from Geryoneus, the monster that had three bodies instead of one, the
+herd of red cattle that the two-headed hound Orthus kept guard over; then
+he was to go to the Garden of the Hesperides, and from that garden he was
+to take the golden apples that Zeus had given to Hera for a marriage
+gift--where the Garden of the Hesperides was no mortal knew.
+
+  So Heracles set out on a long and perilous quest. First he went to
+Thrace, that savage land that was ruled over by Diomedes, son of Ares, the
+war god. Heracles broke into the stable where the horses were; he caught
+three of them by their heads, and although they kicked and bit and
+trampled he forced them out of the stable and down to the seashore, where
+his companion, Abderus, waited for him. The screams of the fierce horses
+were heard by the men of Thrace, and they, with their king, came after
+Heracles. He left the horses in charge of Abderus while he fought the
+Thracians and their savage king. Heracles shot his deadly arrows amongst
+them, and then he fought with their king. He drove them from the seashore,
+and then he came back to where he had left Abderus with the fierce horses.
+
+  They had thrown Abderus upon the ground, and they were trampling upon
+him. Heracles drew his bow and he shot the horses with the unerring arrows
+that were dipped with the gall of the Hydra he had slain. Screaming, the
+horses of King Diomedes raced toward the sea, but one fell and another
+fell, and then, as it came to the line of the foam, the third of the
+fierce horses fell. They were all slain with the unerring arrows.
+
+  Then Heracles took up the body of his companion and he buried it with
+proper rights, and over it he raised a column. Afterward, around that
+column a city that bore the name of Heracles's friend was built.
+
+  Then toward the Euxine Sea he went. There, where the River Themiscyra
+flows into the sea he saw the abodes of the Amazons. And upon the rocks
+and the steep place he saw the warrior women standing with drawn bows in
+their hands. Most dangerous did they seem to Heracles. He did not know how
+to approach them; he might shoot at them with his unerring arrows, but
+when his arrows were all shot away, the Amazons, from their steep places,
+might be able to kill him with the arrows from their bows.
+
+  While he stood at a distance, wondering what he might do, a horn was
+sounded and an Amazon mounted upon a white stallion rode toward him. When
+the warrior-woman came near she cried out, "Heracles, the Queen Hippolyte
+permits you to come amongst the Amazons. Enter her tent and declare to the
+queen what has brought you amongst the never-conquered Amazons."
+
+  Heracles came to the tent of the queen. There stood tall Hippolyte with
+an iron crown upon her head and with a beautiful girdle of bronze and
+iridescent glass around her waist. Proud and fierce as a mountain eagle
+looked the queen of the Amazons: Heracles did not know in what way he
+might conquer her. Outside the tent the Amazons stood; they struck their
+shields with their spears, keeping up a continuous savage din.
+
+  "For what has Heracles come to the country of the Amazons?" Queen
+Hippolyte asked.
+
+  "For the girdle you wear," said Heracles, and he held his hands ready
+for the struggle.
+
+  "Is it for the girdle given me by Ares, the god of war, that you have
+come, braving the Amazons, Heracles?" asked the queen.
+
+  "For that," said Heracles.
+
+  "I would not have you enter into strife with the Amazons," said Queen
+Hippolyte. And so saying she drew off the girdle of bronze and iridescent
+glass, and she gave it into his hands.
+
+  Heracles took the beautiful girdle into his hands. Fearful he was that
+some piece of guile was being played upon him, but then he looked into the
+open eyes of the queen and he saw that she meant no guile. He took the
+girdle and he put it around his great brows; then he thanked Hippolyte and
+he went from the tent. He saw the Amazons standing on the rocks and the
+steep places with bows bent; unchallenged he went on, and he came to his
+ship and he sailed away from that country with one more labor
+accomplished.
+
+  The labor that followed was not dangerous. He sailed over sea and he
+came to Crete, to the land that King Minos ruled over. And there he found,
+grazing in a special pasture, the bull that Poseidon had given King Minos.
+He laid his hands upon the bull's horns and he struggled with him and he
+overthrew him. Then he drove the bull down to the seashore.
+
+  His next labor was to take away the herd of red cattle that was owned by
+the monster Geryoneus. In the Island of Erytheia, in the middle of the
+Stream of Ocean, lived the monster, his herd guarded by the two-headed
+hound Orthus--that hound was the brother of Cerberus, the three-headed
+hound that kept guard in the Underworld.
+
+  Mounted upon the bull given Minos by Poseidon, Heracles fared across the
+sea. He came even to the straits that divide Europe from Africa, and there
+he set up two pillars as a memorial of his journey--the Pillars of Heracles
+that stand to this day. He and the bull rested there. Beyond him stretched
+the Stream of Ocean; the Island of Erytheia was there, but Heracles
+thought that the bull would not be able to bear him so far.
+
+  And there the sun beat upon him, and drew all strength away from him,
+and he was dazed and dazzled by the rays of the sun. He shouted out
+against the sun, and in his anger he wanted to strive against the sun.
+Then he drew his bow and shot arrows upward. Far, far out of sight the
+arrows of Heracles went. And the sun god, Helios, was filled with
+admiration for Heracles, the man who would attempt the impossible by
+shooting arrows at him; then did Helios fling down to Heracles his great
+golden cup.
+
+  Down, and into the Stream of Ocean fell the great golden cup of Helios.
+It floated there wide enough to hold all the men who might be in a ship.
+Heracles put the bull of Minos into the cup of Helios, and the cup bore
+them away, toward the west, and across the Stream of Ocean.
+
+  Thus Heracles came to the Island of Erytheia. All over the island
+straggled the red cattle of Geryoneus, grazing upon the rich pastures.
+Heracles, leaving the bull of Minos in the cup, went upon the island; he
+made a club for himself out of a tree and he went toward the cattle.
+
+  The hound Orthus bayed and ran toward him; the two-headed hound that was
+the brother of Cerberus sprang at Heracles with poisonous foam upon his
+jaws. Heracles swung his club and struck the two heads off the hound. And
+where the foam of the hound's jaws dropped down a poisonous plant sprang
+up. Heracles took up the body of the hound, and swung it around and flung
+it far out into the Ocean.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+  Then the monster Geryoneus came upon him. Three bodies he had instead of
+one; he attacked Heracles by hurling great stones at him. Heracles was
+hurt by the stones. And then the monster beheld the cup of Helios, and he
+began to hurl stones at the golden thing, and it seemed that he might sink
+it in the sea, and leave Heracles without a way of getting from the
+island. Heracles took up his bow and he shot arrow after arrow at the
+monster, and he left him dead in the deep grass of the pastures.
+
+  Then he rounded up the red cattle, the bulls and the cows, and he drove
+them down to the shore and into the golden cup of Helios where the bull of
+Minos stayed. Then back across the Stream of Ocean the cup floated, and
+the bull of Crete and the cattle of Geryoneus were brought past Sicily and
+through the straits called the Hellespont. To Thrace, that savage land,
+they came. Then Heracles took the cattle out, and the cup of Helios sank
+in the sea. Through the wild lands of Thrace he drove the herd of
+Geryoneus and the bull of Minos, and he came into Mycenae once more.
+
+  But he did not stay to speak with Eurystheus. He started off to find the
+Garden of the Hesperides, the Daughters of the Evening Land. Long did he
+search, but he found no one who could tell him where the garden was. And
+at last he went to Chiron on the Mountain Pelion, and Chiron told Heracles
+what journey he would have to make to come to the Hesperides, the
+Daughters of the Evening Land.
+
+  Far did Heracles journey; weary he was when he came to where Atlas
+stood, bearing the sky upon his weary shoulders. As he came near he felt
+an undreamt-of perfume being wafted toward him. So weary was he with his
+journey and all his toils that he would fain sink down and dream away in
+that evening land. But he roused himself, and he journeyed on toward where
+the perfume came from. Over that place a star seemed always about to rise.
+
+  He came to where a silver lattice fenced a garden that was full of the
+quiet of evening. Golden bees hummed through the air, and there was the
+sound of quiet waters. How wild and laborious was the world he had come
+from, Heracles thought! He felt that it would be hard for him to return to
+that world.
+
+  He saw three maidens. They stood with wreaths upon their heads and
+blossoming branches in their hands. When the maidens saw him they came
+toward him crying out: "O man who has come into the Garden of the
+Hesperides, go not near the tree that the sleepless dragon guards!" Then
+they went and stood by a tree as if to keep guard over it. All around were
+trees that bore flowers and fruit, but this tree had golden apples amongst
+its bright green leaves.
+
+  Then he saw the guardian of the tree. Beside its trunk a dragon lay, and
+as Heracles came near the dragon showed its glittering scales and its
+deadly claws.
+
+  The apples were within reach, but the dragon, with its glittering scales
+and claws, stood in the way. Heracles shot an arrow; then a tremor went
+through Ladon, the sleepless dragon; it screamed and then lay stark. The
+maidens cried in their grief; Heracles went to the tree, and he plucked
+the golden apples and he put them into the pouch he carried. Down on the
+ground sank the Hesperides, the Daughters of the Evening Land, and he
+heard their laments as he went from the enchanted garden they had guarded.
+
+  Back from the ends of the earth came Heracles, back from the place where
+Atlas stood holding the sky upon his weary shoulders. He went back through
+Asia and Libya and Egypt, and he came again to Mycenae and to the palace of
+Eurystheus.
+
+  He brought to the king the herd of Geryoneus; he brought to the king the
+bull of Minos; he brought to the king the girdle of Hippolyte; he brought
+to the king the golden apples of the Hesperides. And King Eurystheus, with
+his thin white face, sat upon his royal throne and he looked over all the
+wonderful things that the hero had brought him. Not pleased was
+Eurystheus; rather was he angry that one he hated could win such wonderful
+things.
+
+  He took into his hands the golden apples of the Hesperides. But this
+fruit was not for such as he. An eagle snatched the branch from his hand,
+and the eagle flew and flew until it came to where the Daughters of the
+Evening Land wept in their garden. There the eagle let fall the branch
+with the golden apples, and the maidens set it back upon the tree, and
+behold! it grew as it had been growing before Heracles plucked it.
+
+  The next day the heralds of Eurystheus came to Heracles and they told
+him of the last labor that he would have to set out to accomplish--this
+time he would have to go down into the Underworld, and bring up from King
+Aidoneus's realm Cerberus, the three-headed hound.
+
+  Heracles put upon him the impenetrable lion's skin and set forth once
+more. This might indeed be the last of his life's labors: Cerberus was not
+an earthly monster, and he who would struggle with Cerberus in the
+Underworld would have the gods of the dead against him.
+
+  But Heracles went on. He journeyed to the cave Tainaron, which was an
+entrance to the Underworld. Far into that dismal cave he went, and then
+down, down, until he came to Acheron, that dim river that has beyond it
+only the people of the dead. Cerberus bayed at him from the place where
+the dead cross the river. Knowing that he was no shade, the hound sprang
+at Heracles, but he could neither bite nor tear through that impenetrable
+lion's skin. Heracles held him by the neck of his middle head so that
+Cerberus was neither able to bite nor tear nor bellow.
+
+  Then to the brink of Acheron came Persephone, queen of the Underworld.
+She declared to Heracles that the gods of the dead would not strive
+against him if he promised to bring Cerberus back to the Underworld,
+carrying the hound downward again as he carried him upward.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+  This Heracles promised. He turned around and he carried Cerberus, his
+hands around the monster's neck while foam dripped from his jaws. He
+carried him on and upward toward the world of men. Out through a cave that
+was in the land of Troezen Heracles came, still carrying Cerberus by the
+neck of his middle head.
+
+  From Troezen to Mycenae the hero went and men fled before him at the sight
+of the monster that he carried. On he went toward the king's palace.
+Eurystheus was seated outside his palace that day, looking at the great
+jar that he had often hidden in, and thinking to himself that Heracles
+would never appear to affright him again. Then Heracles appeared. He
+called to Eurystheus, and when the king looked up he held the hound toward
+him. The three heads grinned at Eurystheus; he gave a cry and scrambled
+into the jar. But before his feet touched the bottom of it Eurystheus was
+dead of fear. The jar rolled over, and Heracles looked upon the body that
+was all twisted with fright. Then he turned around and made his way back
+to the Underworld. On the brink of Acheron he loosed Cerberus, and the
+bellow of the three-headed hound was heard again.
+
+
+
+II
+
+  It was then that Heracles was given arms by the gods--the sword of
+Hermes, the bow of Apollo, the shield made by Hephaestus; it was then that
+Heracles joined the Argonauts and journeyed with them to the edge of the
+Caucasus, where, slaying the vulture that preyed upon Prometheus's liver,
+he, at the will of Zeus, liberated the Titan. Thereafter Zeus and
+Prometheus were reconciled, and Zeus, that neither might forget how much
+the enmity between them had cost gods and men, had a ring made for
+Prometheus to wear; that ring was made out of the fetter that had been
+upon him, and in it was set a fragment of the rock that the Titan had been
+bound to.
+
+  The Argonauts had now won back to Greece. But before he saw any of them
+he had been in Oichalia, and had seen the maiden Iole.
+
+  The king of Oichalia had offered his daughter Iole in marriage to the
+hero who could excel himself and his sons in shooting with arrows.
+Heracles saw Iole, the blue-eyed and childlike maiden, and he longed to
+take her with him to some place near the Garden of the Hesperides. And
+Iole looked on him, and he knew that she wondered to see him so tall and
+so strongly knit even as he wondered to see her so childlike and delicate.
+
+  Then the contest began. The king and his sons shot wonderfully well, and
+none of the heroes who stood before Heracles had a chance of winning. Then
+Heracles shot his arrows. No matter how far away they moved the mark,
+Heracles struck it and struck the very center of it. The people wondered
+who this great archer might be. And then a name was guessed at and went
+around--Heracles!
+
+  When the king heard the name of Heracles he would not let him strive in
+the contest any more. For the maiden Iole would not be given as a prize to
+one who had been mad and whose madness might afflict him again. So the
+king said, speaking in judgment in the market place.
+
+  Rage came on Heracles when he heard this judgment given. He would not
+let his rage master him lest the madness that was spoken of should come
+with his rage. So he left the city of Oichalia declaring to the king and
+the people that he would return.
+
+  It was then that, wandering down to Crete, he heard of the Argonauts
+being near. And afterward he heard of them being in Calydon, hunting the
+boar that ravaged OEneus's country. To Calydon Heracles went. The heroes
+had departed when he came into the country, and all the city was in grief
+for the deaths of Prince Meleagrus and his two uncles.
+
+  On the steps of the temple where Meleagrus and his uncles had been
+brought Heracles saw Deianira, Meleagrus's sister. She was pale with her
+grief, this tall woman of the mountains; she looked like a priestess, but
+also like a woman who could cheer camps of men with her counsel, her
+bravery, and her good companionship; her hair was very dark and she had
+dark eyes.
+
+  Straightway she became friends with Heracles; and when they saw each
+other for a while they loved each other. And Heracles forgot Iole, the
+childlike maiden whom he had seen in Oichalia.
+
+  He made himself a suitor for Deianira, and those who protected her were
+glad of Heracles's suit, and they told him they would give him the maiden
+to marry as soon as the mourning for Prince Meleagrus and his uncles was
+over. Heracles stayed in Calydon, happy with Deianira, who had so much
+beauty, wisdom, and bravery.
+
+  But then a dreadful thing happened in Calydon; by an accident, while
+using his strength unthinkingly, Heracles killed a lad who was related to
+Deianira. He might not marry her now until he had taken punishment for
+slaying one who was close to her in blood.
+
+  As a punishment for the slaying it was judged that Heracles should be
+sold into slavery for three years. At the end of his three years' slavery
+he could come back to Calydon and wed Deianira.
+
+  And so Heracles and Deianira were parted. He was sold as a slave in
+Lydia; the one who bought him was a woman, a widow named Omphale. To her
+house Heracles went, carrying his armor and wearing his lion's skin. And
+Omphale laughed to see this tall man dressed in a lion's skin coming to
+her house to do a servant's tasks for her.
+
+  She and all in her house kept up fun with Heracles. They would set him
+to do housework, to carry water, and set vessels on the tables, and clear
+the vessels away. Omphale set him to spin with a spindle as the women did.
+And often she would put on Heracles's lion skin and go about dragging his
+club, while he, dressed in woman's garb, washed dishes and emptied pots.
+
+  But he would lose patience with these servant's tasks, and then Omphale
+would let him go away and perform some great exploit. Often he went on
+long journeys and stayed away for long times. It was while he was in
+slavery to Omphale that he liberated Theseus from the dungeon in which he
+was held with Peirithous, and it was while he still was in slavery that he
+made his journey to Troy.
+
+  At Troy he helped to repair for King Laomedon the great walls that years
+before Apollo and Poseidon had built around the city. As a reward for this
+labor he was offered the Princess Hesione in marriage; she was the
+daughter of King Laomedon, and the sister of Priam, who was then called,
+not Priam but Podarces. He helped to repair the wall, and two of the
+Argonauts were there to aid him: one was Peleus and the other was Telamon.
+Peleus did not stay for long: Telamon stayed, and to reward Telamon
+Heracles withdrew his own claim for the hand of the Princess Hesione. It
+was not hard on Heracles to do this, for his thoughts were ever upon
+Deianira.
+
+  But Telamon rejoiced, for he loved Hesione greatly. On the day they
+married Heracles showed the two an eagle in the sky. He said it was sent
+as an omen to them--an omen for their marriage. And in memory of that omen
+Telamon named his son "Aias"; that is, "Eagle."
+
+  Then the walls of Troy were repaired and Heracles turned toward Lydia,
+Omphale's home. Not long would he have to serve Omphale now, for his three
+years' slavery was nearly over. Soon he would go back to Calydon and wed
+Deianira.
+
+  As he went along the road to Lydia he thought of all the pleasantries
+that had been made in Omphale's house and he laughed at the memory of
+them. Lydia was a friendly country, and even though he had been in slavery
+Heracles had had his good times there.
+
+  He was tired with the journey and made sleepy with the heat of the sun,
+and when he came within sight of Omphale's house he lay down by the side
+of the road, first taking off his armor, and laying aside his bow, his
+quiver, and his shield. He wakened up to see two men looking down upon
+him; he knew that these were the Cercopes, robbers who waylaid travelers
+upon this road. They were laughing as they looked down on him, and
+Heracles saw that they held his arms and his armor in their hands.
+
+  They thought that this man, for all his tallness, would yield to them
+when he saw that they had his arms and his armor. But Heracles sprang up,
+and he caught one by the waist and the other by the neck, and he turned
+them upside down and tied them together by the heels. Now he held them
+securely and he would take them to the town and give them over to those
+whom they had waylaid and robbed. He hung them by their heels across his
+shoulders and marched on.
+
+  But the robbers, as they were being bumped along, began to relate
+pleasantries and mirthful tales to each other, and Heracles, listening,
+had to laugh. And one said to the other, "O my brother, we are in the
+position of the frogs when the mice fell upon them with such fury." And
+the other said, "Indeed nothing can save us if Zeus does not send an ally
+to us as he sent an ally to the frogs." And the first robber said, "Who
+began that conflict, the frogs or the mice?" And thereupon the second
+robber, his head reaching down to Heracles's waist, began:
+
+
+
+The Battle of the Frogs and Mice
+
+
+  A warlike mouse came down to the brink of a pond for no other reason
+than to take a drink of water. Up to him hopped a frog. Speaking in the
+voice of one who had rule and authority, the frog said:
+
+  "Stranger to our shore, you may not know it, but I am Puff Jaw, king of
+the frogs. I do not speak to common mice, but you, as I judge, belong to
+the noble and kingly sort. Tell me your race. If I know it to be a noble
+one I shall show you my kingly friendship."
+
+  The mouse, speaking haughtily, said: "I am Crumb Snatcher, and my race
+is a famous one. My father is the heroic Bread Nibbler, and he married
+Quern Licker, the lovely daughter of a king. Like all my race I am a
+warrior who has never been wont to flinch in battle. Moreover, I have been
+brought up as a mouse of high degree, and figs and nuts, cheese and
+honey-cakes is the provender that I have been fed on."
+
+  Now this reply of Crumb Snatcher pleased the kingly frog greatly. "Come
+with me to my abode, illustrious Crumb Snatcher," said he, "and I shall
+show you such entertainment as may be found in the house of a king."
+
+  But the mouse looked sharply at him. "How may I get to your house?" he
+asked. "We live in different elements, you and I. We mice want to be in
+the driest of dry places, while you frogs have your abodes in the water."
+
+  "Ah," answered Puff Jaw, "you do not know how favored the frogs are
+above all other creatures. To us alone the gods have given the power to
+live both in the water and on the land. I shall take you to my land palace
+that is the other side of the pond."
+
+  "How may I go there with you?" asked Crumb Snatcher the mouse,
+doubtfully.
+
+  "Upon my back," said the frog. "Up now, noble Crumb Snatcher. And as we
+go I will show you the wonders of the deep."
+
+  He offered his back and Crumb Snatcher bravely mounted. The mouse put
+his forepaws around the frog's neck. Then Puff Jaw swam out. Crumb
+Snatcher at first was pleased to feel himself moving through the water.
+But as the dark waves began to rise his mighty heart began to quail. He
+longed to be back upon the land. He groaned aloud.
+
+  "How quickly we get on," cried Puff Jaw; "soon we shall be at my land
+palace."
+
+  Heartened by this speech, Crumb Snatcher put his tail into the water and
+worked it as a steering oar. On and on they went, and Crumb Snatcher
+gained heart for the adventure. What a wonderful tale he would have to
+tell to the clans of the mice!
+
+  But suddenly, out of the depths of the pond, a water snake raised his
+horrid head. Fearsome did that head seem to both mouse and frog. And
+forgetful of the guest that he carried upon his back, Puff Jaw dived down
+into the water. He reached the bottom of the pond and lay on the mud in
+safety.
+
+  But far from safety was Crumb Snatcher the mouse. He sank and rose, and
+sank again. His wet fur weighed him down. But before he sank for the last
+time he lifted up his voice and cried out and his cry was heard at the
+brink of the pond:
+
+  "Ah, Puff Jaw, treacherous frog! An evil thing you have done, leaving me
+to drown in the middle of the pond. Had you faced me on the land I should
+have shown you which of us two was the better warrior. Now I must lose my
+life in the water. But I tell you my death shall not go unavenged--the
+cowardly frogs will be punished for the ill they have done to me who am
+the son of the king of the mice."
+
+  Then Crumb Snatcher sank for the last time. But Lick Platter, who was at
+the brink of the pond, had heard his words. Straightway this mouse rushed
+to the hole of Bread Nibbler and told him of the death of his princely
+son.
+
+  Bread Nibbler called out the clans of the mice. The warrior mice armed
+themselves, and this was the grand way of their arming:
+
+  First, the mice put on greaves that covered their forelegs. These they
+made out of bean shells broken in two. For shield, each had a lamp's
+centerpiece. For spears they had the long bronze needles that they had
+carried out of the houses of men. So armed and so accoutered they were
+ready to war upon the frogs. And Bread Nibbler, their king, shouted to
+them: "Fall upon the cowardly frogs, and leave not one alive upon the bank
+of the pond. Henceforth that bank is ours, and ours only. Forward!"
+
+  And, on the other side, Puff Jaw was urging the frogs to battle. "Let us
+take our places on the edge of the pond," he said, "and when the mice come
+amongst us, let each catch hold of one and throw him into the pond. Thus
+we will get rid of these dry bobs, the mice."
+
+  The frogs applauded the speech of their king, and straightway they went
+to their armor and their weapons. Their legs they covered with the leaves
+of mallow. For breastplates they had the leaves of beets. Cabbage leaves,
+well cut, made their strong shields. They took their spears from the pond
+side--deadly pointed rushes they were, and they placed upon their heads
+helmets that were empty snail shells. So armed and so accoutered they were
+ready to meet the grand attack of the mice.
+
+
+
+  When the robber came to this part of the story Heracles halted his
+march, for he was shaking with laughter. The robber stopped in his story.
+Heracles slapped him on the leg and said: "What more of the heroic
+exploits of the mice?" The second robber said, "I know no more, but
+perhaps my brother at the other side of you can tell you of the mighty
+combat between them and the frogs." Then Heracles shifted the first robber
+from his back to his front, and the first robber said: "I will tell you
+what I know about the heroical combat between the frogs and the mice." And
+thereupon he began:
+
+
+
+  The gnats blew their trumpets. This was the dread signal for war.
+
+  Bread Nibbler struck the first blow. He fell upon Loud Crier the frog,
+and overthrew him. At this Loud Crier's friend, Reedy, threw down spear
+and shield and dived into the water. This seemed to presage victory for
+the mice. But then Water Larker, the most warlike of the frogs, took up a
+great pebble and flung it at Ham Nibbler who was then pursuing Reedy. Down
+fell Ham Nibbler, and there was dismay in the ranks of the mice.
+
+  Then Cabbage Climber, a great-hearted frog, took up a clod of mud and
+flung it full at a mouse that was coming furiously upon him. That mouse's
+helmet was knocked off and his forehead was plastered with the clod of
+mud, so that he was well-nigh blinded.
+
+  It was then that victory inclined to the frogs. Bread Nibbler again came
+into the fray. He rushed furiously upon Puff Jaw the king.
+
+  Leeky, the trusted friend of Puff Jaw, opposed Bread Nibbler's
+onslaught. Mightily he drove his spear at the king of the mice. But the
+point of the spear broke upon Bread Nibbler's shield, and then Leeky was
+overthrown.
+
+  Bread Nibbler came upon Puff Jaw, and the two great kings faced each
+other. The frogs and the mice drew aside, and there was a pause in the
+combat. Bread Nibbler the mouse struck Puff Jaw the frog terribly upon the
+toes.
+
+  Puff Jaw drew out of the battle. Now all would have been lost for the
+frogs had not Zeus, the father of the gods, looked down upon the battle.
+
+  "Dear, dear," said Zeus, "what can be done to save the frogs? They will
+surely be annihilated if the charge of yonder mouse is not halted."
+
+  For the father of the gods, looking down, saw a warrior mouse coming on
+in the most dreadful onslaught of the whole battle. Slice Snatcher was the
+name of this warrior. He had come late into the field. He waited to split
+a chestnut in two and to put the halves upon his paws. Then, furiously
+dashing amongst the frogs, he cried out that he would not leave the ground
+until he had destroyed the race, leaving the bank of the pond a playground
+for the mice and for the mice alone.
+
+  To stop the charge of Slice Snatcher there was nothing for Zeus to do
+but to hurl the thunderbolt that is the terror of gods and men.
+
+  Frogs and mice were awed by the thunder and the flame. But still the
+mice, urged on by Slice Snatcher, did not hold back from their onslaught
+upon the frogs.
+
+  Now would the frogs have been utterly destroyed; but, as they dashed on,
+the mice encountered a new and a dreadful army. The warriors in these
+ranks had mailed backs and curving claws. They had bandy legs and
+long-stretching arms. They had eyes that looked behind them. They came on
+sideways. These were the crabs, creatures until now unknown to the mice.
+And the crabs had been sent by Zeus to save the race of the frogs from
+utter destruction.
+
+  Coming upon the mice they nipped their paws. The mice turned around and
+they nipped their tails. In vain the boldest of the mice struck at the
+crabs with their sharpened spears. Not upon the hard shells on the backs
+of the crabs did the spears of the mice make any dint. On and on, on their
+queer feet and with their terrible nippers, the crabs went. Bread Nibbler
+could not rally them any more, and Slice Snatcher ceased to speak of the
+monument of victory that the mice would erect upon the bank of the pond.
+
+  With their heads out of the water they had retreated to, the frogs
+watched the finish of the battle. The mice threw down their spears and
+shields and fled from the battleground. On went the crabs as if they cared
+nothing for their victory, and the frogs came out of the water and sat
+upon the bank and watched them in awe.
+
+
+
+  Heracles had laughed at the diverting tale that the robbers had told
+him; he could not bring them then to a place where they would meet with
+captivity or death. He let them loose upon the highway, and the robbers
+thanked him with high-flowing speeches, and they declared that if they
+should ever find him sleeping by the roadway again they would let him lie.
+Saying this they went away, and Heracles, laughing as he thought upon the
+great exploits of the frogs and mice, went on to Omphale's house.
+
+  Omphale, the widow, received him mirthfully, and then set him to do
+tasks in the kitchen while she sat and talked to him about Troy and the
+affairs of King Laomedon. And afterward she put on his lion's skin, and
+went about in the courtyard dragging the heavy club after her. Mirthfully
+and pleasantly she made the rest of his time in Lydia pass for Heracles,
+and the last day of his slavery soon came, and he bade good-by to Omphale,
+that pleasant widow, and to Lydia, and he started off for Calydon to claim
+his bride Deianira.
+
+  Beautiful indeed Deianira looked now that she had ceased to mourn for
+her brother, for the laughter that had been under her grief always now
+flashed out even while she looked priestesslike and of good counsel; her
+dark eyes shone like stars, and her being had the spirit of one who
+wanders from camp to camp, always greeting friends and leaving friends
+behind her. Heracles and Deianira wed, and they set out for Tiryns, where
+a king had left a kingdom to Heracles.
+
+  They came to the River Evenus. Heracles could have crossed the river by
+himself, but he could not cross it at the part he came to, carrying
+Deianira. He and she went along the river, seeking a ferry that might take
+them across. They wandered along the side of the river, happy with each
+other, and they came to a place where they had sight of a centaur.
+
+  Heracles knew this centaur. He was Nessus, one of the centaurs whom he
+had chased up the mountain the time when he went to hunt the Erymanthean
+boar. The centaurs knew him, and Nessus spoke to Heracles as if he had
+friendship for him. He would, he said, carry Heracles's bride across the
+river.
+
+  Then Heracles crossed the river, and he waited on the other side for
+Nessus and Deianira. Nessus went to another part of the river to make his
+crossing. Then Heracles, upon the other bank, heard screams--the screams of
+his wife, Deianira. He saw that the centaur was savagely attacking her.
+
+  Then Heracles leveled his bow and he shot at Nessus. Arrow after arrow
+he shot into the centaur's body. Nessus loosed his hold on Deianira, and
+he lay down on the bank of the river, his lifeblood streaming from him.
+
+  Then Nessus, dying, but with his rage against Heracles unabated, thought
+of a way by which the hero might be made to suffer for the death he had
+brought upon him. He called to Deianira, and she, seeing he could do her
+no more hurt, came close to him. He told her that in repentance for his
+attack upon her he would bestow a great gift upon her. She was to gather
+up some of the blood that flowed from him; his blood, the centaur said,
+would be a love philter, and if ever her husband's love for her waned it
+would grow fresh again if she gave to him something from her hands that
+would have this blood upon it.
+
+  Deianira, who had heard from Heracles of the wisdom of the centaurs,
+believed what Nessus told her. She took a phial and let the blood pour
+into it. Then Nessus plunged into the river and died there as Heracles
+came up to where Deianira stood.
+
+  She did not speak to him about the centaur's words to her, nor did she
+tell him that she had hidden away the phial that had Nessus's blood in it.
+They crossed the river at another point and they came after a time to
+Tiryns and to the kingdom that had been left to Heracles.
+
+  There Heracles and Deianira lived, and a son who was named Hyllos was
+born to them. And after a time Heracles was led into a war with
+Eurytus--Eurytus who was king of Oichalia.
+
+  Word came to Deianira that Oichalia was taken by Heracles, and that the
+king and his daughter Iole were held captive. Deianira knew that Heracles
+had once tried to win this maiden for his wife, and she feared that the
+sight of Iole would bring his old longing back to him.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+  She thought upon the words that Nessus had said to her, and even as she
+thought upon them messengers came from Heracles to ask her to send him a
+robe--a beautifully woven robe that she had--that he might wear it while
+making a sacrifice. Deianira took down the robe; through this robe, she
+thought, the blood of the centaur could touch Heracles and his love for
+her would revive. Thinking this she poured Nessus's blood over the robe.
+
+  Heracles was in Oichalia when the messengers returned to him. He took
+the robe that Deianira sent, and he went to a mountain that overlooked the
+sea that he might make the sacrifice there. Iole went with him. Then he
+put on the robe that Deianira had sent. When it touched his flesh the robe
+burst into flame. Heracles tried to tear it off, but deeper and deeper
+into his flesh the flames went. They burned and burned and none could
+quench them.
+
+  Then Heracles knew that his end was near. He would die by fire, and
+knowing that he piled up a great heap of wood and he climbed upon it.
+There he stayed with the flaming robe burning into him, and he begged of
+those who passed to fire the pile that his end might come more quickly.
+
+  None would fire the pile. But at last there came that way a young
+warrior named Philoctetes, and Heracles begged of him to fire the pile.
+Philoctetes, knowing that it was the will of the gods that Heracles should
+die that way, lighted the pile. For that Heracles bestowed upon him his
+great bow and his unerring arrows. And it was this bow and these arrows,
+brought from Philoctetes, that afterward helped to take Priam's city.
+
+  The pile that Heracles stood upon was fired. High up, above the sea, the
+pile burned. All who were near that burning fled--all except Iole, that
+childlike maiden. She stayed and watched the flames mount up and up. They
+wrapped the sky, and the voice of Heracles was heard calling upon Zeus.
+Then a great chariot came and Heracles was borne away to Olympus. Thus,
+after many labors, Heracles passed away, a mortal passing into an immortal
+being in a great burning high above the sea.
+
+
+
+
+V. Admetus
+
+
+I
+
+
+[Decorative first letter]
+_I_T happened once that Zeus would punish Apollo, his son. Then he
+banished him from Olympus, and he made him put off his divinity and appear
+as a mortal man. And as a mortal Apollo sought to earn his bread amongst
+men. He came to the house of King Admetus and took service with him as his
+herdsman.
+
+  For a year Apollo served the young king, minding his herds of black
+cattle. Admetus did not know that it was one of the immortal gods who was
+in his house and in his fields. But he treated him in friendly wise, and
+Apollo was happy whilst serving Admetus.
+
+  Afterward people wondered at Admetus's ever-smiling face and
+ever-radiant being. It was the god's kindly thought of him that gave him
+such happiness. And when Apollo was leaving his house and his fields he
+revealed himself to Admetus, and he made a promise to him that when the
+god of the Underworld sent Death for him he would have one more chance of
+baffling Death than any mortal man.
+
+  That was before Admetus sailed on the _Argo_ with Jason and the
+companions of the quest. The companionship of Admetus brought happiness to
+many on the voyage, but the hero to whom it gave the most happiness was
+Heracles. And often Heracles would have Admetus beside him to tell him
+about the radiant god Apollo, whose bow and arrows Heracles had been
+given.
+
+  After that voyage and after the hunt in Calydon Admetus went back to his
+own land. There he wed that fair and loving woman, Alcestis. He might not
+wed her until he had yoked lions and leopards to the chariot that drew
+her. This was a feat that no hero had been able to accomplish. With
+Apollo's aid he accomplished it. Thereafter Admetus, having the love of
+Alcestis, was even more happy than he had been before.
+
+  One day as he walked by fold and through pasture field he saw a figure
+standing beside his herd of black cattle. A radiant figure it was, and
+Admetus knew that this was Apollo come to him again. He went toward the
+god and he made reverence and began to speak to him. But Apollo turned to
+Admetus a face that was without joy.
+
+  "What years of happiness have been mine, O Apollo, through your
+friendship for me," said Admetus. "Ah, as I walked my pasture land to-day
+it came into my mind how much I loved this green earth and the blue sky!
+And all that I know of love and happiness has come to me through you."
+
+  But still Apollo stood before him with a face that was without joy. He
+spoke and his voice was not that clear and vibrant voice that he had once
+in speaking to Admetus. "Admetus, Admetus," he said, "it is for me to tell
+you that you may no more look on the blue sky nor walk upon the green
+earth. It is for me to tell you that the god of the Underworld will have
+you come to him. Admetus, Admetus, know that even now the god of the
+Underworld is sending Death for you."
+
+  Then the light of the world went out for Admetus, and he heard himself
+speaking to Apollo in a shaking voice: "O Apollo, Apollo, thou art a god,
+and surely thou canst save me! Save me now from this Death that the god of
+the Underworld is sending for me!"
+
+  But Apollo said, "Long ago, Admetus, I made a bargain with the god of
+the Underworld on thy behalf. Thou hast been given a chance more than any
+mortal man. If one will go willingly in thy place with Death, thou canst
+still live on. Go, Admetus. Thou art well loved, and it may be that thou
+wilt find one to take thy place."
+
+  Then Apollo went up unto the mountaintop and Admetus stayed for a while
+beside the cattle. It seemed to him that a little of the darkness had
+lifted from the world. He would go to his palace. There were aged men and
+women there, servants and slaves, and one of them would surely be willing
+to take the king's place and go with Death down to the Underworld.
+
+  So Admetus thought as he went toward the palace. And then he came upon
+an ancient woman who sat upon stones in the courtyard, grinding corn
+between two stones. Long had she been doing that wearisome labor. Admetus
+had known her from the first time he had come into that courtyard as a
+little child, and he had never seen aught in her face but a heavy misery.
+There she was sitting as he had first known her, with her eyes bleared and
+her knees shaking, and with the dust of the courtyard and the husks of the
+corn in her matted hair. He went to her and spoke to her, and he asked her
+to take the place of the king and go with Death.
+
+  But when she heard the name of Death horror came into the face of the
+ancient woman, and she cried out that she would not let Death come near
+her. Then Admetus left her, and he came upon another, upon a sightless man
+who held out a shriveled hand for the food that the servants of the palace
+might bestow upon him. Admetus took the man's shriveled hand, and he asked
+him if he would not take the king's place and go with Death that was
+coming for him. The sightless man, with howls and shrieks, said he would
+not go.
+
+  Then Admetus went into the palace and into the chamber where his bed
+was, and he lay down upon the bed and he lamented that he would have to go
+with Death that was coming for him from the god of the Underworld, and he
+lamented that none of the wretched ones around the palace would take his
+place.
+
+  A hand was laid upon him. He looked up and he saw his tall and
+grave-eyed wife, Alcestis, beside him. Alcestis spoke to him slowly and
+gravely. "I have heard what you have said, O my husband," said she. "One
+should go in your place, for you are the king and have many great affairs
+to attend to. And if none other will go, I, Alcestis, will go in your
+place, Admetus."
+
+  It had seemed to Admetus that ever since he had heard the words of
+Apollo that heavy footsteps were coming toward him. Now the footsteps
+seemed to stop. It was not so terrible for him as before. He sprang up,
+and he took the hands of Alcestis and he said, "You, then, will take my
+place?"
+
+  "I will go with Death in your place, Admetus," Alcestis said.
+
+  Then, even as Admetus looked into her face, he saw a pallor come upon
+her; her body weakened and she sank down upon the bed. Then, watching over
+her, he knew that not he but Alcestis would go with Death. And the words
+he had spoken he would have taken back--the words that had brought her
+consent to go with Death in his place.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+  Paler and weaker Alcestis grew. Death would soon be here for her. No,
+not here, for he would not have Death come into the palace. He lifted
+Alcestis from the bed and he carried her from the palace. He carried her
+to the temple of the gods. He laid her there upon the bier and waited
+there beside her. No more speech came from her. He went back to the palace
+where all was silent--the servants moved about with heads bowed, lamenting
+silently for their mistress.
+
+
+
+II
+
+  As Admetus was coming back from the temple he heard a great shout; he
+looked up and saw one standing at the palace doorway. He knew him by his
+lion's skin and his great height. This was Heracles--Heracles come to visit
+him, but come at a sad hour. He could not now rejoice in the company of
+Heracles. And yet Heracles might be on his way from the accomplishment of
+some great labor, and it would not be right to say a word that might turn
+him away from his doorway; he might have much need of rest and
+refreshment.
+
+  Thinking this Admetus went up to Heracles and took his hand and welcomed
+him into his house. "How is it with you, friend Admetus?" Heracles asked.
+Admetus would only say that nothing was happening in his house and that
+Heracles, his hero-companion, was welcome there. His mind was upon a great
+sacrifice, he said, and so he would not be able to feast with him.
+
+  The servants brought Heracles to the bath, and then showed him where a
+feast was laid for him. And as for Admetus, he went within the chamber,
+and knelt beside the bed on which Alcestis had lain, and thought of his
+terrible loss.
+
+  Heracles, after the bath, put on the brightly colored tunic that the
+servants of Admetus brought him. He put a wreath upon his head and sat
+down to the feast. It was a pity, he thought, that Admetus was not
+feasting with him. But this was only the first of many feasts. And
+thinking of what companionship he would have with Admetus, Heracles left
+the feasting hall and came to where the servants were standing about in
+silence.
+
+  "Why is the house of Admetus so hushed to-day?" Heracles asked.
+
+  "It is because of what is befalling," said one of the servants.
+
+  "Ah, the sacrifice that the king is making," said Heracles. "To what god
+is that sacrifice due?"
+
+  "To the god of the Underworld," said the servant. "Death is coming to
+Alcestis the queen where she lies on a bier in the temple of the gods."
+
+  Then the servant told Heracles the story of how Alcestis had taken her
+husband's place, going in his stead with Death. Heracles thought upon the
+sorrow of his friend, and of the great sacrifice that his wife was making
+for him. How noble it was of Admetus to bring him into his house and give
+entertainment to him while such sorrow was upon him. And then Heracles
+felt that another labor was before him.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+  "I have dragged up from the Underworld," he thought, "the hound that
+guards those whom Death brings down into the realm of the god of the
+Underworld. Why should I not strive with Death? And what a noble thing it
+would be to bring back this faithful woman to her house and to her
+husband! This is a labor that has not been laid upon me, and it is a labor
+I will undertake." So Heracles said to himself.
+
+  He left the palace of Admetus and he went to the temple of the gods. He
+stood inside the temple and he saw the bier on which Alcestis was laid. He
+looked upon the queen. Death had not touched her yet, although she lay so
+still and so silent. Heracles would watch beside her and strive with Death
+for her.
+
+  Heracles watched and Death came. When Death entered the temple Heracles
+laid hands upon him. Death had never been gripped by mortal hands and he
+strode on as if that grip meant nothing to him. But then he had to grip
+Heracles. In Death's grip there was a strength beyond strength. And upon
+Heracles a dreadful sense of loss came as Death laid hands upon him--a
+sense of the loss of light and the loss of breath and the loss of
+movement. But Heracles struggled with Death although his breath went and
+his strength seemed to go from him. He held that stony body to him, and
+the cold of that body went through him, and its stoniness seemed to turn
+his bones to stone, but still Heracles strove with him, and at last he
+overthrew him and he held Death down upon the ground.
+
+  "Now you are held by me, Death," cried Heracles. "You are held by me,
+and the god of the Underworld will be made angry because you cannot go
+about his business--either this business or any other business. You are
+held by me, Death, and you will not be let go unless you promise to go
+forth from this temple without bringing one with you." And Death, knowing
+that Heracles could hold him there, and that the business of the god of
+the Underworld would be left undone if he were held, promised that he
+would leave the temple without bringing one with him. Then Heracles took
+his grip off Death, and that stony shape went from the temple.
+
+  Soon a flush came into the face of Alcestis as Heracles watched over
+her. Soon she arose from the bier on which she had been laid. She called
+out to Admetus, and Heracles went to her and spoke to her, telling her
+that he would bring her back to her husband's house.
+
+
+
+III
+
+  Admetus left the chamber where his wife had lain and stood before the
+door of his palace. Dawn was coming, and as he looked toward the temple he
+saw Heracles coming to the palace. A woman came with him. She was veiled,
+and Admetus could not see her features.
+
+  "Admetus," Heracles said, when he came before him, "Admetus, there is
+something I would have you do for me. Here is a woman whom I am bringing
+back to her husband. I won her from an enemy. Will you not take her into
+your house while I am away on a journey?"
+
+  "You cannot ask me to do this, Heracles," said Admetus. "No woman may
+come into the house where Alcestis, only yesterday, had her life."
+
+  "For my sake take her into your house," said Heracles. "Come now,
+Admetus, take this woman by the hand."
+
+  A pang came to Admetus as he looked at the woman who stood beside
+Heracles and saw that she was the same stature as his lost wife. He
+thought that he could not bear to take her hand. But Heracles pleaded with
+him, and he took her by the hand.
+
+  "Now take her across your threshold, Admetus," said Heracles.
+
+  Hardly could Admetus bear to do this--hardly could he bear to think of a
+strange woman being in his house and his own wife gone with Death. But
+Heracles pleaded with him, and by the hand he held he drew the woman
+across his threshold.
+
+  "Now raise her veil, Admetus," said Heracles.
+
+  "This I cannot do," said Admetus. "I have had pangs enough. How can I
+look upon a woman's face and remind myself that I cannot look upon
+Alcestis's face ever again?"
+
+  "Raise her veil, Admetus," said Heracles.
+
+  Then Admetus raised the veil of the woman he had taken across the
+threshold of his house. He saw the face of Alcestis. He looked again upon
+his wife brought back from the grip of Death by Heracles, the son of Zeus.
+And then a deeper joy than he had ever known came to Admetus. Once more
+his wife was with him, and Admetus the friend of Apollo and the friend of
+Heracles had all that he cared to have.
+
+
+
+
+VI. How Orpheus the Minstrel Went Down to the World of the Dead
+
+
+
+[Decorative first letter]
+_M_ANY were the minstrels who, in the early days, went through the world,
+telling to men the stories of the gods, telling of their wars and their
+births. Of all these minstrels none was so famous as Orpheus who had gone
+with the Argonauts; none could tell truer things about the gods, for he
+himself was half divine.
+
+  But a great grief came to Orpheus, a grief that stopped his singing and
+his playing upon the lyre. His young wife Eurydice was taken from him. One
+day, walking in the garden, she was bitten on the heel by a serpent, and
+straightway she went down to the world of the dead.
+
+  Then everything in this world was dark and bitter for the minstrel
+Orpheus; sleep would not come to him, and for him food had no taste. Then
+Orpheus said: "I will do that which no mortal has ever done before; I will
+do that which even the immortals might shrink from doing: I will go down
+into the world of the dead, and I will bring back to the living and to the
+light my bride Eurydice."
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+  Then Orpheus went on his way to the valley of Acherusia which goes down,
+down into the world of the dead. He would never have found his way to that
+valley if the trees had not shown him the way. For as he went along
+Orpheus played upon his lyre and sang, and the trees heard his song and
+they were moved by his grief, and with their arms and their heads they
+showed him the way to the deep, deep valley of Acherusia.
+
+  Down, down by winding paths through that deepest and most shadowy of all
+valleys Orpheus went. He came at last to the great gate that opens upon
+the world of the dead. And the silent guards who keep watch there for the
+rulers of the dead were affrighted when they saw a living being, and they
+would not let Orpheus approach the gate.
+
+  But the minstrel, knowing the reason for their fear, said: "I am not
+Heracles come again to drag up from the world of the dead your
+three-headed dog Cerberus. I am Orpheus, and all that my hands can do is
+to make music upon my lyre."
+
+  And then he took the lyre in his hands and played upon it. As he played,
+the silent watchers gathered around him, leaving the gate unguarded. And
+as he played the rulers of the dead came forth, Aidoneus and Persephone,
+and listened to the words of the living man.
+
+  "The cause of my coming through the dark and fearful ways," sang
+Orpheus, "is to strive to gain a fairer fate for Eurydice, my bride. All
+that is above must come down to you at last, O rulers of the most lasting
+world. But before her time has Eurydice been brought here. I have desired
+strength to endure her loss, but I cannot endure it. And I come before
+you, Aidoneus and Persephone, brought here by Love."
+
+  When Orpheus said the name of Love, Persephone, the queen of the dead,
+bowed her young head, and bearded Aidoneus, the king, bowed his head also.
+Persephone remembered how Demeter, her mother, had sought her all through
+the world, and she remembered the touch of her mother's tears upon her
+face. And Aidoneus remembered how his love for Persephone had led him to
+carry her away from the valley in the upper world where she had been
+gathering flowers. He and Persephone bowed their heads and stood aside,
+and Orpheus went through the gate and came amongst the dead.
+
+  Still upon his lyre he played. Tantalus--who, for his crimes, had been
+condemned to stand up to his neck in water and yet never be able to
+assuage his thirst--Tantalus heard, and for a while did not strive to put
+his lips toward the water that ever flowed away from him; Sisyphus--who had
+been condemned to roll up a hill a stone that ever rolled back--Sisyphus
+heard the music that Orpheus played, and for a while he sat still upon his
+stone. And even those dread ones who bring to the dead the memories of all
+their crimes and all their faults, even the Eumenides had their cheeks wet
+with tears.
+
+  In the throng of the newly come dead Orpheus saw Eurydice. She looked
+upon her husband, but she had not the power to come near him. But slowly
+she came when Aidoneus called her. Then with joy Orpheus took her hands.
+
+  It would be granted them--no mortal ever gained such privilege before--to
+leave, both together, the world of the dead, and to abide for another
+space in the world of the living. One condition there would be--that on
+their way up through the valley of Acherusia neither Orpheus nor Eurydice
+should look back.
+
+  They went through the gate and came amongst the watchers that are around
+the portals. These showed them the path that went up through the valley of
+Acherusia. That way they went, Orpheus and Eurydice, he going before her.
+
+  Up and up through the darkened ways they went, Orpheus knowing that
+Eurydice was behind him, but never looking back upon her. But as he went,
+his heart was filled with things to tell--how the trees were blossoming in
+the garden she had left; how the water was sparkling in the fountain; how
+the doors of the house stood open, and how they, sitting together, would
+watch the sunlight on the laurel bushes. All these things were in his
+heart to tell her, to tell her who came behind him, silent and unseen.
+
+  And now they were nearing the place where the valley of Acherusia opened
+on the world of the living. Orpheus looked on the blue of the sky. A
+white-winged bird flew by. Orpheus turned around and cried, "O Eurydice,
+look upon the world that I have won you back to!"
+
+  He turned to say this to her. He saw her with her long dark hair and
+pale face. He held out his arms to clasp her. But in that instant she
+slipped back into the depths of the valley. And all he heard spoken was a
+single word, "Farewell!" Long, long had it taken Eurydice to climb so far,
+but in the moment of his turning around she had fallen back to her place
+amongst the dead.
+
+  Down through the valley of Acherusia Orpheus went again. Again he came
+before the watchers of the gate. But now he was not looked at nor listened
+to, and, hopeless, he had to return to the world of the living.
+
+  The birds were his friends now, and the trees and the stones. The birds
+flew around him and mourned with him; the trees and stones often followed
+him, moved by the music of his lyre. But a savage band slew Orpheus and
+threw his severed head and his lyre into the River Hebrus. It is said by
+the poets that while they floated in midstream the lyre gave out some
+mournful notes and the head of Orpheus answered the notes with song.
+
+  And now that he was no longer to be counted with the living, Orpheus
+went down to the world of the dead, not going now by that steep descent
+through the valley of Acherusia, but going down straightway. The silent
+watchers let him pass, and he went amongst the dead and saw his Eurydice
+in the throng. Again they were together, Orpheus and Eurydice, and as they
+went through the place that King Aidoneus ruled over, they had no fear of
+looking back, one upon the other.
+
+
+
+
+VII. Jason and Medea
+
+
+
+[Decorative first letter]
+_J_ASON and Medea, unable to win to Iolcus, stayed at Corinth, at the
+court of King Creon. Creon was proud to have Jason in his city, but of
+Medea the king was fearful, for he had heard how she had brought about the
+death of Apsyrtus, her brother.
+
+  Medea wearied of this long waiting in the palace of King Creon. A
+longing came upon her to exercise her powers of enchantment. She did not
+forget what Queen Arete had said to her--that if she wished to appease the
+wrath of the gods she should have no more to do with enchantments. She did
+not forget this, but still there grew in her a longing to use all her
+powers of enchantment.
+
+  And Jason, at the court of King Creon, had his longings, too. He longed
+to enter Iolcus and to show the people the Golden Fleece that he had won;
+he longed to destroy Pelias, the murderer of his mother and father; above
+all he longed to be a king, and to rule in the kingdom that Cretheus had
+founded.
+
+  Once Jason spoke to Medea of his longing. "O Jason," Medea said, "I have
+done many things for thee and this thing also I will do. I will go into
+Iolcus, and by my enchantments I will make clear the way for the return of
+the _Argo_ and for thy return with thy comrades--yea, and for thy coming to
+the kingship, O Jason."
+
+  He should have remembered then the words of Queen Arete to Medea, but
+the longing that he had for his triumph and his revenge was in the way of
+his remembering. He said, "O Medea, help me in this with all thine
+enchantments and thou wilt be more dear to me than ever before thou wert."
+
+  Medea then went forth from the palace of King Creon and she made more
+terrible spells than ever she had made in Colchis. All night she stayed in
+a tangled place weaving her spells. Dawn came, and she knew that the
+spells she had woven had not been in vain, for beside her there stood a
+car that was drawn by dragons.
+
+  Medea the Enchantress had never looked on these dragon shapes before.
+When she looked upon them now she was fearful of them. But then she said
+to herself, "I am Medea, and I would be a greater enchantress and a more
+cunning woman than I have been, and what I have thought of, that will I
+carry out." She mounted the car drawn by the dragons, and in the first
+light of the day she went from Corinth.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+  To the places where grew the herbs of magic Medea journeyed in her
+dragon-drawn car--to the Mountains Ossa, Pelion, OEthrys, Pindus, and
+Olympus; then to the rivers Apidanus, Enipeus, and Peneus. She gathered
+herbs on the mountains and grasses on the rivers' banks; some she plucked
+up by the roots and some she cut with the curved blade of a knife. When
+she had gathered these herbs and grasses she went back to Corinth on her
+dragon-drawn car.
+
+  Then Jason saw her; pale and drawn was her face, and her eyes were
+strange and gleaming. He saw her standing by the car drawn by the dragons,
+and a terror of Medea came into his mind. He went toward her, but in a
+harsh voice she bade him not come near to disturb the brewing that she was
+going to begin. Jason turned away. As he went toward the palace he saw
+Glauce, King Creon's daughter; the maiden was coming from the well and she
+carried a pitcher of water. He thought how fair Glauce looked in the light
+of the morning, how the wind played with her hair and her garments, and
+how far away she was from witcheries and enchantments.
+
+  As for Medea, she placed in a heap beside her the magic herbs and
+grasses she had gathered. Then she put them in a bronze pot and boiled
+them in water from the stream. Soon froth came on the boiling, and Medea
+stirred the pot with a withered branch of an apple tree. The branch was
+withered--it was indeed no more than a dry stick, but as she stirred the
+herbs and grasses with it, first leaves, then flowers, and lastly, bright
+gleaming apples came on it. And when the pot boiled over and drops from it
+fell upon the ground, there grew up out of the dry earth soft grasses and
+flowers. Such was the power of renewal that was in the magical brew that
+Medea had made.
+
+  She filled a phial with the liquid she had brewed, and she scattered the
+rest in the wild places of the garden. Then, taking the phial and the
+apples that had grown on the withered branch, she mounted the car drawn by
+the dragons, and she went once more from Corinth.
+
+  On she journeyed in her dragon-drawn car until she came to a place that
+was near to Iolcus. There the dragons descended. They had come to a dark
+pool. Medea, making herself naked, stood in that dark pool. For a while
+she looked down upon herself, seeing in the dark water her white body and
+her lovely hair. Then she bathed herself in the water. Soon a dread change
+came over her: she saw her hair become scant and gray, and she saw her
+body become bent and withered. She stepped out of the pool a withered and
+witchlike woman; when she dressed herself the rich clothes that she had
+worn before hung loosely upon her, and she looked the more forbidding
+because of them. She bade the dragons go, and they flew through the air
+with the empty car. Then she hid in her dress the phial with the liquid
+she had brewed and the apples that had grown upon the withered branch. She
+picked up a stick to lean upon, and with the gait of an ancient woman she
+went hobbling upon the road to Iolcus.
+
+  On the streets of the city the fierce fighting men that Pelias had
+brought down from the mountains showed themselves; few of the men or women
+of the city showed themselves even in the daytime. Medea went through the
+city and to the palace of King Pelias. But no one might enter there, and
+the guards laid hands upon her and held her.
+
+  Medea did not struggle with them. She drew from the folds of her dress
+one of the gleaming apples that she carried and she gave it to one of the
+guards. "It is for King Pelias," she said. "Give the apple to him and then
+do with me as the king would have you do."
+
+  The guards brought the gleaming apple to the king. When he had taken it
+into his hand and had smelled its fragrance, old trembling Pelias asked
+where the apple had come from. The guards told him it had been brought by
+an ancient woman who was now outside seated on a stone in the courtyard.
+
+  He looked on the shining apple and he felt its fragrance and he could
+not help thinking, old trembling Pelias, that this apple might be the
+means of bringing him back to the fullness of health and courage that he
+had had before. He sent for the ancient woman who had brought it that she
+might tell him where it had come from and who it was that had sent it to
+him. Then the guards brought Medea before him.
+
+  She saw an old man, white-faced and trembling, with shaking hands and
+eyes that looked on her fearfully. "Who are you," he asked, "and from
+whence came the apple that you had them bring me?"
+
+  Medea, standing before him, looked a withered and shrunken beldame, a
+woman bent with years, but yet with eyes that were bright and living. She
+came near him and she said: "The apple, O King, came from the garden that
+is watched over by the Daughters of the Evening Land. He who eats it has a
+little of the weight of old age taken from him. But things more wonderful
+even than the shining apples grow in that far garden. There are plants
+there the juices of which make youthful again all aged and failing things.
+The apple would bring you a little way toward the vigor of your prime. But
+the juices I have can bring you to a time more wonderful--back even to the
+strength and the glory of your youth."
+
+  When the king heard her say this a light came into his heavy eyes, and
+his hands caught Medea and drew her to him. "Who are you?" he cried, "who
+speak of the garden watched over by the Daughters of the Evening Land? Who
+are you who speak of juices that can bring back one to the strength and
+glory of his youth?"
+
+  Medea answered: "I am a woman who has known many and great griefs, O
+king. My griefs have brought me through the world. Many have searched for
+the garden watched over by the Daughters of the Evening Land, but I came
+to it unthinkingly, and without wanting them I gathered the gleaming
+apples and took from the plants there the juices that can bring youth
+back."
+
+  Pelias said: "If you have been able to come by those juices, how is it
+that you remain in woeful age and decrepitude?"
+
+  She said: "Because of my many griefs, king, I would not renew my life. I
+would be ever nearer death and the end of all things. But you are a king
+and have all things you desire at your hand--beauty and state and power.
+Surely if any one would desire it, you would desire to have youth back to
+you."
+
+  Pelias, when he heard her say this, knew that besides youth there was
+nothing that he desired. After crimes that had gone through the whole of
+his manhood he had secured for himself the kingdom that Cretheus had
+founded. But old age had come on him, and the weakness of old age, and the
+power he had won was falling from his hands. He would be overthrown in his
+weakness, or else he would soon come to die, and there would be an end
+then to his name and to his kingship.
+
+  How fortunate above all kings he would be, he thought, if it could be
+that some one should come to him with juices that would renew his youth!
+He looked longingly into the eyes of the ancient-seeming woman before him,
+and he said: "How is it that you show no gains from the juices that you
+speak of? You are old and in woeful decrepitude. Even if you would not win
+back to youth you could have got riches and state for that which you say
+you possess."
+
+  Then Medea said: "I have lost so much and have suffered so much that I
+would not have youth back at the price of facing the years. I would sink
+down to the quiet of the grave. But I hope for some ease before I die--for
+the ease that is in king's houses, with good food to eat, and rest, and
+servants to wait upon one's aged body. These are the things I desire, O
+Pelias, even as you desire youth. You can give me such things, and I have
+come to you who desire youth eagerly rather than to kings who have a less
+eager desire for it. To you I will give the juices that bring one back to
+the strength and the glory of youth."
+
+  Pelias said: "I have only your word for it that you possess these
+juices. Many there are who come and say deceiving things to a king."
+
+  Said Medea: "Let there be no more words between us, O king. To-morrow I
+will show you the virtue of the juices I have brought with me. Have a
+great vat prepared--a vat that a man could lay himself in with the water
+covering him. Have this vat filled with water, and bring to it the oldest
+creature you can get--a ram or a goat that is the oldest of their flock. Do
+this, O king, and you will be shown a thing to wonder at and to be hopeful
+over."
+
+  So Medea said, and then she turned around and left the king's presence.
+Pelias called to his guards and he bade them take the woman into their
+charge and treat her considerately. The guards took Medea away. Then all
+day the king mused on what had been told him and a wild hope kept beating
+about his heart. He had the servants prepare a great vat in the lower
+chambers, and he had his shepherd bring him a ram that was the oldest in
+the flock.
+
+  Only Medea was permitted to come into that chamber with the king; the
+ways to it were guarded, and all that took place in it was secret. Medea
+was brought to the closed door by her guard. She opened it and she saw the
+king there and the vat already prepared; she saw a ram tethered near the
+vat.
+
+  Medea looked upon the king. In the light of the torches his face was
+white and fierce and his mouth moved gaspingly. She spoke to him quietly,
+and said: "There is no need for you to hear me speak. You will watch a
+great miracle, for behold! the ram which is the oldest and feeblest in the
+flock will become young and invigorated when it comes forth from this
+vat."
+
+  She untethered the ram, and with the help of Pelias drew it to the vat.
+This was not hard to do, for the beast was very feeble; its feet could
+hardly bear it upright, its wool was yellow and stayed only in patches on
+its shrunken body. Easily the beast was forced into the vat. Then Medea
+drew the phial out of her bosom and poured into the water some of the brew
+she had made in Creon's garden in Corinth. The water in the vat took on a
+strange bubbling, and the ram sank down.
+
+  Then Medea, standing beside the vat, sang an incantation.
+
+  "O Earth," she sang, "O Earth who dost provide wise men with potent
+herbs, O Earth help me now. I am she who can drive the clouds; I am she
+who can dispel the winds; I am she who can break the jaws of serpents with
+my incantations; I am she who can uproot living trees and rocks; who can
+make the mountains shake; who can bring the ghosts from their tombs. O
+Earth, help me now." At this strange incantation the mixture in the vat
+boiled and bubbled more and more. Then the boiling and bubbling ceased. Up
+to the surface came the ram. Medea helped it to struggle out of the vat,
+and then it turned and smote the vat with its head.
+
+  Pelias took down a torch and stood before the beast. Vigorous indeed was
+the ram, and its wool was white and grew evenly upon it. They could not
+tether it again, and when the servants were brought into the chamber it
+took two of them to drag away the ram.
+
+  The king was most eager to enter the vat and have Medea put in the brew
+and speak the incantation over it. But Medea bade him wait until the
+morrow. All night the king lay awake, thinking of how he might regain his
+youth and his strength and be secure and triumphant thereafter.
+
+  At the first light he sent for Medea and he told her that he would have
+the vat made ready and that he would go into it that night. Medea looked
+upon him, and the helplessness that he showed made her want to work a
+greater evil upon him, or, if not upon him, upon his house. How soon it
+would have reached its end, all her plot for the destruction of this king!
+But she would leave in the king's house a misery that would not have an
+end so soon.
+
+  So she said to the king: "I would say the incantation over a beast of
+the field, but over a king I could not say it. Let those of your own blood
+be with you when you enter the vat that will bring such change to you.
+Have your daughters there. I will give them the juice to mix in the vat,
+and I will teach them the incantation that has to be said."
+
+  So she said, and she made Pelias consent to having his daughters and not
+Medea in the chamber of the vat. They were sent for and they came before
+Medea, the daughters of King Pelias.
+
+  They were women who had been borne down by the tyranny of their father;
+they stood before him now, two dim-eyed creatures, very feeble and
+fearful. To them Medea gave the phial that had in it the liquid to mix in
+the vat; also she taught them the words of the incantation, but she taught
+them to use these words wrongly.
+
+  The vat was prepared in the lower chambers; Pelias and his daughters
+went there, and the chamber was guarded, and what happened there was in
+secret. Pelias went into the vat; the brew was thrown into it, and the vat
+boiled and bubbled as before. Pelias sank down in it. Over him then his
+daughters said the magic words as Medea had taught them.
+
+  Pelias sank down, but he did not rise again. The hours went past and the
+morning came, and the daughters of King Pelias raised frightened laments.
+Over the sides of the vat the mixture boiled and bubbled, and Pelias was
+to be seen at the bottom with his limbs stiffened in death.
+
+  Then the guards came, and they took King Pelias out of the vat and left
+him in his royal chamber. The word went through the palace that the king
+was dead. There was a hush in the palace then, but not the hush of grief.
+One by one servants and servitors stole away from the palace that was
+hated by all. Then there was clatter in the streets as the fierce fighting
+men from the mountains galloped away with what plunder they could seize.
+And through all this the daughters of King Pelias sat crouching in fear
+above the body of their father.
+
+  And Medea, still an ancient woman seemingly, went through the crowds
+that now came on the streets of the city. She told those she went amongst
+that the son of AEson was alive and would soon be in their midst. Hearing
+this the men of the city formed a council of elders to rule the people
+until Jason's coming. In such way Medea brought about the end of King
+Pelias's reign.
+
+  In triumph she went through the city. But as she was passing the temple
+her dress was caught and held, and turning around she faced the ancient
+priestess of Artemis, Iphias. "Thou art AEetes's daughter," Iphias said,
+"who in deceit didst come into Iolcus. Woe to thee and woe to Jason for
+what thou hast done this day! Not for the slaying of Pelias art thou
+blameworthy, but for the misery that thou hast brought upon his daughters
+by bringing them into the guilt of the slaying. Go from the city, daughter
+of King AEetes; never, never wilt thou come back into it."
+
+  But little heed did Medea pay to the ancient priestess, Iphias. Still in
+the guise of an old woman she went through the streets of the city, and
+out through the gate and along the highway that led from Iolcus. To that
+dark pool she came where she had bathed herself before. But now she did
+not step into the pool nor pour its water over her shrinking flesh;
+instead she built up two altars of green sods--an altar to Youth and an
+altar to Hecate, queen of the witches; she wreathed them with green boughs
+from the forest, and she prayed before each. Then she made herself naked,
+and she anointed herself with the brew she had made from the magical herbs
+and grasses. All marks of age and decrepitude left her, and when she stood
+over the dark pool and looked down on herself she saw that her body was
+white and shapely as before, and that her hair was soft and lovely.
+
+                              [Illustration]
+
+
+  She stayed all night between the tangled wood and the dark pool, and
+with the first light the car drawn by the scaly dragons came to her. She
+mounted the car, and she journeyed back to Corinth.
+
+
+
+  Into Jason's mind a fear of Medea had come since the hour when he had
+seen her mount the car drawn by the scaly dragons. He could not think of
+her any more as the one who had been his companion on the _Argo_. He
+thought of her as one who could help him and do wonderful things for him,
+but not as one whom he could talk softly and lovingly to. Ah, but if Jason
+had thought less of his kingdom and less of his triumphing with the Fleece
+of Gold, Medea would not have had the dragons come to her.
+
+  And now that his love for Medea had altered, Jason noted the loveliness
+of another--of Glauce, the daughter of Creon, the King of Corinth. And
+Glauce, who had red lips and the eyes of a child, saw in Jason who had
+brought the Golden Fleece out of Colchis the image of every hero she had
+heard about in stories. Creon, the king, often brought Jason and Glauce
+together, for his hope was that the hero would wed his daughter and stay
+in Corinth and strengthen his kingdom. He thought that Medea, that strange
+woman, could not keep a companionship with Jason.
+
+  Two were walking in the king's garden, and they were Jason and Glauce. A
+shadow fell between them, and when Jason looked up he saw Medea's dragon
+car. Down flew the dragons, and Medea came from the car and stood between
+Jason and the princess. Angrily she spoke to him. "I have made the kingdom
+ready for your return," she said, "but if you would go there you must
+first let me deal in my own way with this pretty maiden." And so fiercely
+did Medea look upon her that Glauce shrank back and clung to Jason for
+protection. "O, Jason," she cried, "thou didst say that I am such a one as
+thou didst dream of when in the forest with Chiron, before the adventure
+of the Golden Fleece drew thee away from the Grecian lands. Oh, save me
+now from the power of her who comes in the dragon car." And Jason said: "I
+said all that thou hast said, and I will protect thee, O Glauce."
+
+  And then Medea thought of the king's house she had left for Jason, and
+of the brother whom she had let be slain, and of the plot she had carried
+out to bring Jason back to Iolcus, and a great fury came over her. In her
+hand she took foam from the jaws of the dragons, and she cast the foam
+upon Glauce, and the princess fell back into the arms of Jason with the
+dragon foam burning into her.
+
+  Then, seeing in his eyes that he had forgotten all that he owed to
+her--the winning of the Golden Fleece, and the safety of _Argo_, and the
+destruction of the power of King Pelias--seeing in his eyes that Jason had
+forgotten all this, Medea went into her dragon-borne car and spoke the
+words that made the scaly dragons bear her aloft. She flew from Corinth,
+leaving Jason in King Creon's garden with Glauce dying in his arms. He
+lifted her up and laid her upon a bed, but even as her friends came around
+her the daughter of King Creon died.
+
+
+
+
+[Decorative first letter]
+_A_ND Jason? For long he stayed in Corinth, a famous man indeed, but one
+sorrowful and alone. But again there grew in him the desire to rule and to
+have possessions. He called around him again the men whose home was in
+Iolcus--those who had followed him as bright-eyed youths when he first
+proclaimed his purpose of winning the Fleece of Gold. He called them
+around him, and he led them on board the _Argo_. Once more they lifted
+sails, and once more they took the _Argo_ into the open sea.
+
+  Toward Iolcus they sailed; their passage was fortunate, and in a short
+time they brought the _Argo_ safely into the harbor of Pagasae. Oh, happy
+were the crowds that came thronging to see the ship that had the famous
+Fleece of Gold upon her masthead, and green and sweet smelling were the
+garlands that the people brought to wreathe the heads of Jason and his
+companions! Jason looked upon the throngs, and he thought that much had
+gone from him, but he thought that whatever else had gone something
+remained to him--to be a king and a great ruler over a people.
+
+  And so Jason came back to Iolcus. The _Argo_ he made a blazing pile of
+in sacrifice to Poseidon, the god of the sea. The Golden Fleece he hung in
+the temple of the gods. Then he took up the rule of the kingdom that
+Cretheus had founded, and he became the greatest of the kings of Greece.
+
+  And to Iolcus there came, year after year, young men who would look upon
+the gleaming thing that was hung there in the temple of the gods. And as
+they looked upon it, young man after young man, the thought would come to
+each that he would make himself strong enough and heroic enough to win for
+his country something as precious as Jason's GOLDEN FLEECE. And for all
+their lives they kept in mind the words that Jason had inscribed upon a
+pillar that was placed beside the Fleece of Gold--the words that Triton
+spoke to the Argonauts when they were fain to win their way out of the
+inland sea:--
+
+
+    THAT IS THE OUTLET TO THE SEA, WHERE THE DEEP WATER LIES UNMOVED
+    AND DARK; ON EACH SIDE ROLL WHITE BREAKERS WITH SHINING CRESTS;
+    AND THE WAY BETWEEN FOR YOUR PASSAGE OUT IS NARROW. BUT GO IN JOY,
+    AND AS FOR LABOR LET THERE BE NO GRIEVING THAT LIMBS IN YOUTHFUL
+    VIGOR SHOULD STILL TOIL.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE
+
+
+  The book received a Newbery Honor Award (1922).
+
+  Illustrations in the original appear on separate, unnumbered pages. In
+this transcription, wherever an illustration would break a paragraph, it
+was moved after the paragraph.
+
+  Obvious typographical errors were silently corrected.
+
+
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GOLDEN FLEECE AND THE HEROES WHO LIVED BEFORE ACHILLES***
+
+
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