Chapter XXVII: The Quest of the Argonauts

1. _The Golden Fleece._

There was once a king in the land of Greece called Athamas, and he had a wife and two children, whose names were Phrixus and Helle. But the king loved another woman better than his wife, and he thrust away his wife and made the other woman queen. The children had now a step-mother, who at first was very kind to them, but afterwards when she had children of her own it was a different thing, and Phrixus and Helle had a bad time of it. Their own mother remained in the city living on a dole that she received from the king, but she was not allowed to enter the palace; sometimes, however, she used to come secretly after dark, and then she kissed the children and gave them little presents, which made them very happy. The step-mother was always trying to find some means of getting rid of the children, and at last she thought of a plan which she hoped would be successful. When the time for sowing the corn came round, she ordered all the women in the country to roast the seed secretly, so that though the corn was sown as usual it did not spring up, for the seeds were dead because they had been cooked. Then there was great distress all over the country, and the {149} king sent messengers to Delphi to ask the Oracle how the land could be made fruitful again. But the wicked queen took the messengers aside and bribed them by the promise of a great reward to deceive the king. They did not go to Delphi at all, but hid themselves outside the city until there would have been time to go and come back again, and then they sprinkled their clothes with dust as if they had taken a long journey, and went to the king and took him the message that the queen had put into their mouths,--which was that he must sacrifice his son Phrixus to the gods, or else the fields would never be fruitful again. The king was very unwilling to do this, but the people pressed him until he consented to the sacrifice, for they were afraid they would all die of hunger.

The true mother was very sad, and she wept all day and all night because her son was going to be killed. And the gods had pity on her, and sent Hermes, the messenger, to take her a ram covered all over with golden wool that shone like the beautiful sun, and tell her that the ram should carry away her children to a place of safety. Then the mother was comforted, and after dark she fetched the children from the palace by stealth and placed them both on the ram's back. Phrixus sat in front and held on fast by the horns, and Helle was behind with her arms round her brother. When they had taken leave of their mother, the Golden Ram set out on his journey; first he flew up as high as the clouds, and then he trotted along the path of the birds, mid-way between heaven and earth, and it seemed to the children, as they looked down, as if the houses and trees were all running away from them. {150} They journeyed on all night in the bright star-light, and when the sun rose they were already far from home, and found themselves above the sea which lies between Europe and Asia. Helle wanted to take a last look at the beautiful land of Greece and turned round that she might see it better, but in her eagerness she let go of her brother and fell far down into the sea, and even before she touched the water she was dead from the effect of the great fall. Phrixus was very, very sorry, and he shed so many tears that the fishermen below thought it was beginning to rain. Ever since that time the Greeks have called that sea the Hellespont, which means the sea of Helle.

The Golden Ram flew on and on till he had passed over the Black Sea and reached the city of Colchis, which was a very long way from the kingdom of Athamas. Phrixus sacrificed the ram to the gods, and he presented its golden fleece to Aeëtes the king of the country, who hung it on a tree in a forest near the city and placed beside it a powerful dragon that never went to sleep. Phrixus was kindly treated by the king; he lived in his palace and sat at his table, and when he grew up, Aeëtes gave him his daughter for a wife.

After this, a great misfortune befell King Athamas and the wicked step-mother. He had incurred the anger of Hera,[1] and she afflicted him with madness. One day as he was returning from hunting, he saw his two young children playing in front of the palace, but they seemed to him to be two young deer, and he took his bow and shot the eldest boy right through the heart. He was just going to shoot the other child, but {151} the mother, who was close by, saw that the king was mad, and she took it up in her arms and ran away as fast as she could. Athamas pursued her with his arrow on the string, until the queen finding that she could not escape, threw herself into the sea with her child, and they were both drowned. Athamas was overcome with grief when his reason returned to him, and he left the kingdom and went to the Oracle to ask what he should do. The answer he received was that he was to settle in a land where he would be the guest of wild beasts. Athamas did not know how this could be, but after wandering about for a long time he came to an almost uninhabited country, where he one day saw two or three wolves devouring a sheep which they had killed. When Athamas came near them they ran away, and as he had eaten nothing for several days and was almost starving, he cut off a piece of the raw sheep and eat it hastily, and then it occurred to him that he had eaten the wolves' dinner, and was therefore their guest. So he wandered no longer, but settled down in that place, and when others came to live in the same neighbourhood, Athamas became their king, and ruled over them until his death some years later.

[1] See page 63.

2. _The Journey to Colchis._

Some time had passed away and Phrixus was already dead, when it happened that the king of Iolcus, in Greece, whose name was Pelias, sent one day to the Oracle at Delphi to ask what would befall him in the future, and the Oracle in reply told him to beware of the One-sandalled man: the Greeks did not wear shoes {152} like ours, but sandals, which were soles of leather, tied on to the feet with straps. Many years passed by, and the king never saw a man with only one sandal on, and had almost forgotten the warning of the Oracle. But one day when he was going to offer a great sacrifice to Poseidon, he invited all his friends to the banquet, and amongst others, Jason his brother's son, who lived at some little distance from the city. On his way to Iolcus, Jason had to pass through a brook which had become swollen by heavy rain, and one of his sandals got loose in the water and remained sticking in the marshy soil. He could not get it again because the water was too deep, and was obliged to walk half bare-foot into the city. As soon as Pelias saw him, he was put in mind of the Oracle, and he said to him, 'What should you do to get rid of a man if you had been told that he was likely to kill you.' Jason laughed and answered, 'I should send him to fetch the Golden Fleece.' For it was a dangerous journey to Colchis, and the powerful King Aeëtes would have parted with one of his eyes rather than with the Golden Fleece, so there was every chance that anyone who ventured on such an undertaking as that, would perish. Then Pelias said, 'The Oracle has warned me to beware of you; choose your companions and set out in search of it.'

Jason was a brave and fearless hero, and was quite ready for the expedition. He sent messengers to summon all the noblest heroes to come with him, and fifty were found willing to undertake the journey, besides the strong Heracles, who also said that he would go with them. There was a man in Iolcus, named Argus, {153} who was skilled in shipbuilding, and he fashioned for them a great vessel with places for fifty rowers. The goddess Athene sent a beam for it, made of sacred oak, which could speak, and it was inserted in the front part of the ship. She was a noble vessel, and all who saw her were filled with wonder and delight. They called her the Argo, after the name of the builder, and the heroes who sailed in her were called Argonauts. When she was ready they pushed her out to sea, and each man took his oar in his hand. Besides the rowers there was a hero who sat at the helm, and Jason the leader, who had no special place assigned to him in the ship. Many people came down to the shore to watch them sail away, and wish them a prosperous journey. The ship went as fast as a bird can fly, the helmsman steered, the rowers rowed, and the Sacred Beam warned the heroes of the rocks below the water, so that they might steer the ship clear of them.

After sailing for some days, they came to the beautiful island of Lemnos, and as they were tired of rowing and wanted to rest, they went on shore. There was not a single man in the island, only women. Some time before this, the men had purposed to thrust away their wives and take others, and so the women had killed them all, not even excepting the old men and boys, and they determined to be a nation of women only, like the Amazons. The only man left alive in the whole island was the father of the Queen, Hypsipele, whom she loved very dearly and resolved to save at any cost. There was a secret room in the palace in which she hid him, and every day she took him food by stealth, for if the other women had discovered what {154} she had done they would perhaps have killed her.[1] The Argonauts were very much astonished at seeing women do all the things that are usually undertaken by men, such as ploughing fields, felling trees in the wood, and practising with weapons of war. The heroes asked where the men were, and they told them why they had killed them. They did not however refuse to receive the strange heroes, but entertained them hospitably, and the Argonauts enjoyed themselves very much on the island. Many of them found it much more agreeable than sitting at their oars in the ship, but after some time had passed, Jason called them together, and they went back to the Argo and continued their journey. They did not stop again till they had reached the country of the Doliones, and then they knew that they had left Europe behind them.

The Doliones always kept watchmen near the sea to give notice of any ships that were coming, for there were a great many pirates cruising about that sea who fell upon honest folk and robbed them, and the Doliones had lately suffered much at their hands. When the Argo came near their land, a number of the Doliones assembled on the shore and asked the heroes what they wanted. Jason said, 'We are going to Colchis to fetch the Golden Fleece, and we should like to rest here.' On hearing this the Doliones received them kindly, and their king came down to the shore and sent for several cattle and great skins of wine to be brought. Fires were lighted, the cattle were killed and roasted, and the Doliones feasted till the evening with the heroes, who then sailed away. But a great storm came on, and it was so dark that they could not even see the mast of {155} the ship. They were unable to make head against the high waves, so they pulled in the oars and let the ship dance to the whistling of the wind, but in this way they lost their reckoning, and no longer knew either the direction from which they had come, or that in which they desired to go. At last the storm subsided, and they made for some land which they could just distinguish not far from where they were, but when they tried to land, the inhabitants came with weapons to drive them away, for they thought they were pirates. The Argonauts killed many enemies, but when the day dawned they discovered that they were the Doliones,--neither party had recognised the other in the darkness. Then there was great weeping for the dead, especially for the king who had entertained the heroes so royally the day before, and had been slain by them in the night. The Argonauts remained three days longer in that country and celebrated magnificent games in honour of the king,--running races, wrestling with one another, and measuring their skill in shooting with the bow and in throwing the lance,--and whoever did the best obtained the prize.

Then for the second time they sailed away from the land of the Doliones. They were now not far from the Black Sea, and were coasting along by the country of Mysia, when it happened that some of the oars broke, and they had to stop and go into a forest to get some new ones. Heracles went far into the forest to look for the best trees, taking with him a boy named Hylas who served him and whom he loved as his own son. Heracles was thirsty after his work, and he told the boy to go to the nearest stream and draw him some {156} water in a pitcher. Hylas found a clear transparent pool fringed with lovely flowers, and stooped down to draw the water, but the nymphs to whom it belonged saw him and were so struck by his great beauty, for he was the most beautiful boy in all Greece, that they came up from the bottom to draw him down into the pool; and they seized him, one by the hand and another by the foot, and said, 'Come down to our house, beautiful boy, and we will play with you.' Hylas did not want to go, and he screamed and struggled with all his might, but the nymphs were stronger than he, and dragged him down. When Heracles heard his cry, he thought the boy must have been carried off by robbers, so he took his oar and ran down to the brook, and not finding him there, he rushed frantically through the forest in search of him, saying that he would not go back to the ship without Hylas. Meanwhile evening had come on, the other heroes had all returned to the ship, and they sailed away, unmindful of Heracles. The next morning they saw indeed that he was not there, but they could not sail all the way back again, and they trusted that they would be able to bring home the Golden Fleece without him. So Heracles returned to Greece, where he accomplished his twelve great Labours.

Some days afterwards the heroes landed again, and this time it was in a country where the king compelled every stranger who came into his dominions to measure his strength with him in boxing, and he was so practised a boxer that he had overcome and killed all who had contended with him. When he heard that a ship with many heroes in it had come to his land, he said {157} that if there was any brave man among them, he was prepared to fight with him. Now there were two heroes on board the Argo named Castor and Pollux, who were twin brothers. Castor was skilled in managing untamed horses, and Pollux excelled in boxing. Pollux resolved to punish the haughty king, so he accepted his offer of boxing with him and very soon dealt him a fatal blow. A great many of his followers had come to watch the fight, expecting to see their king fell the stranger to the ground, and when they saw that he was dead, they tried to kill Pollux in order to avenge him; but the Argonauts seized their weapons, and soon a number of their enemies were dead and the rest had taken to flight.

Farther on, the Argonauts came to a country where there lived a seer named Phineus, who would gladly however have parted with his power of reading the future if that would have delivered him from his misery. He had once revealed the future contrary to the will of the gods, and as a punishment they made him blind, and prevented him from having anything to eat. Whenever a meal was spread before him, there came from heaven two monstrous beings with faces and bodies like maidens, but whose feet and wings were those of ravens. They were called Harpies, and their names were Storm-foot and Swift-wing. They snatched away the best part of the food and gobbled it up, and what they left smelt so badly that Phineus could not eat it for loathing. The old man was wasted away with hunger, and there was nothing left of him but skin and bones. The Argonauts begged him to give them good advice about their journey, and he promised to do so if {158} they would rid him of the Harpies. It happened that among them were two sons of Boreas, the god of the north wind; they had wings on their shoulders and could fly like birds, but it had been decreed by fate that if ever they failed to catch what they set out in pursuit of, they must die immediately. They were quite willing to attack the Harpies, and next time they came to snatch away the food from Phineus, the heroes drew their swords, spread their wings, and set out in chase of them. The Harpies flew backwards and forwards in all directions over both sea and land, but at last Storm-foot was obliged to give in, and her pursuer was just going to seize her when her wings failed altogether, and she fell down into a river below, where she was drowned. Swift-wing was still able to flutter a little, but presently she also gave in, and fell among some soft grass. Her pursuer came after her and pierced her through with his sword, and then the heroes returned, the sword of one of them being still wet with the blood of Swift-wing. From that time Phineus could eat his meals in peace which was a great comfort to him. He told the Argonauts that they would soon come to two wonderful rocks, and instructed them what to do when they reached them, and he said that if they passed these in safety they would arrive at Colchis without further danger.

After rowing for half a day, the heroes came to the rocks of which Phineus had told them, and never in their lives had they seen anything so wonderful. They were two huge rocks, not fastened to the bottom of the sea, but sailing about separately, and every now and then they clashed together and great waves broke over them, and there was a noise as if the rocks were going {159} to break in pieces, but as they were made of the hardest stone, they remained quite sound. They darted about so quickly, and clashed against each other so constantly, that no ship had ever been able to pass them; every vessel that had attempted it had been crushed to atoms, with every soul on board. But the Argo was very swift, being rowed by fifty heroes, and Phineus had told them to send out a dove in front of them, and that if the dove passed through the rocks safely, they also might venture; but if it were crushed, they would have to turn back, for the speed of the Argo was just equal to that of a dove. So when the rocks separated from one another, they sent out the dove, and it arrived happily at the other side, with only a few of its tail-feathers torn out. Next time the rocks opened a pathway, they also steered through them, rowing with all their might. The ship shot through like an arrow, and just the same thing happened to the Argo as to the dove, for the decoration of the hinder-part of the vessel was torn off, just as the bird's feathers had been. And when the heroes looked back, they saw the rocks standing still: they had played their game for the last time, for it had been decreed by fate that if ever they allowed a ship to pass them, they would become rooted to the ground. So that ever since that time, ships have been able to sail past these rocks, as fast or as slowly as they please.

[1] For what afterwards happened to Hypsipele, see pages 215-17.

3. _The Fight for the Golden Fleece._

Some days after this, the heroes reached Colchis. Many people came together to look at them, for never before had a ship reached their country from Greece, {160} and besides this, the Argo was a noble vessel, unlike anything the Colchians had ever seen, and she had a number of brave heroes on board. The Argonauts had fastened ropes to the ship with great stones at the end, and these they threw into the sea to serve as anchors. Then Jason said that some one must take him to the king, and a number of people accompanied him as far as the palace. Jason was a noble-looking man, and for a mantle he wore the skin of a spotted panther that he had killed himself. When he saw king Aeëtes, he said that he had come from the home of Phrixus, and that King Pelias had sent him to fetch the Golden Fleece. Now Aeëtes prized the Golden Fleece more than all his other treasures, and had no intention of parting with it; but as he was a crafty man, he said that he would give it to Jason if he would be willing to give a proof of his real desire for it, by ploughing a piece of land with two wild bulls and sowing it with dragon's teeth. The king thought that if Jason ventured to undertake this he would certainly perish, for the bulls had brazen feet, and out of their mouths issued a stream of fire which burnt up everything that came near them; besides this, he knew that when the dragon's teeth were sown, armed men would rise up from them and kill Jason, so that even if he succeeded in managing the wild bulls, it would not be of much avail. But Aeëtes did not tell Jason all this; and though Jason felt sure that the task which the king assigned to him would be no easy one, he accepted it without hesitation and agreed to meet him the next day in a field near the city in order to accomplish it. When Jason went back to the ship, the heroes asked him what the king had said, and he told {161} them. Then as night was coming on, they lay down on the shore, wrapped themselves up in their cloaks, and went to sleep.

King Aeëtes had a daughter called Medea who was a powerful enchantress, and knew the properties of all kinds of herbs and how to make use of them for good or evil. She used to go to the mountains at night when the moon was shining to pluck herbs, and prepared all manner of magic drinks from them; she also understood other kinds of witchcraft. When she saw Jason standing in her father's palace, she thought he looked like a true hero, and she felt a great love for him and longed to help him. So in the night she left the palace and came to the shore where the heroes were asleep. She at once recognised Jason and awoke him, and he rubbed his eyes in astonishment at seeing the maiden standing beside him in the moonlight, tall and beautiful, with her long white veil thrown back. She said to him, 'My father, the king, intends to kill you, but if you will swear to be my friend, I will help you.' She told him all about the bulls and the dragon's teeth, and said that it would not be possible for him to overcome them without her help. The beautiful princess pleased Jason well, and he promised that if he obtained the Golden Fleece through her assistance, he would take her home with him to be his wife. Then Medea gave him a box containing ointment which protected any one who used it from being burnt by fire or wounded by steel for the space of one whole day. She told him to anoint his shield, his spear and his body with it the next morning, and then the bulls and the armed men would not be able to do him any harm; she also taught him a trick {162} which she said he would find useful as a means of defence against the armed men. When they had talked for some time longer, Medea wrapped her veil round her and went home; the people in the palace were not surprised, for they thought she had been wandering about on the mountain as usual, collecting herbs.

At day-break the king betook himself to the field with all his courtiers and many other people, and Medea went also, attended by her women. Near the field was a sacred forest in which the two bulls were feeding; and in this same forest hung the Golden Fleece, from which bright rays of light might be seen streaming as the trees were swayed backwards and forwards by the wind. The plough was standing ready in the field, and one of the king's servants held in his hand a helmet which contained the dragon's teeth. Soon afterwards Jason arrived with the Argonauts looking in such good spirits that the king and his followers were astonished, for they did not know about the ointment that had made him proof against fire and steel,--the Argonauts knew about it, however, for Jason had told them. The king commanded Jason to fetch the bulls, and he went into the forest and soon found them. They came towards him bellowing loudly, with the bright fire streaming from their mouths and nostrils, meaning to kick him to death with their hoofs. But their fiery breath had no effect on Jason, and their brazen hoofs could not do him any harm. He seized them by the horns and dragged them along, and he was so strong that although they struggled with all their might and tried to pull first to the right and {163} then to the left, they were obliged to follow him. It was a strange sight to see him coming out of the forest with the fire streaming over his face and body, and the bulls kicking him with their brazen hoofs, yet notwithstanding this, whole and unscathed. He dragged the bulls to the plough and laid the yoke upon their necks, then he drove them through the field making furrows as he went along, and when they were stubborn and refused to go on, he pricked them with a goad that he had in his hand. He went up and down three times, until the king said it was enough, and then he unharnessed the bulls and let them go back into the forest. The king was very much astonished at his having performed the first part of his task so successfully, but when he gave him the helmet with the dragon's teeth in it, he felt sure that the armed men would at all events make an end of him. Jason walked up and down the furrows, and every here and there he threw in a tooth and stamped down a clod over it with his foot. When he had finished he looked round,--the armed men were already rising out of the ground, and in a little while the whole fifty had sprung up; they were completely covered with brazen armour, and had very angry faces. Then Jason remembered the trick that Medea had taught him, and he took up stones from the ground and threw them among the band of warriors without letting the king see what he was doing. Every time one of the armed men felt a stone strike him, he began to fight with his neighbour because he thought it was he who had thrown it. So in a short time there was a fierce battle raging amongst the armed men, and Jason found his task an easy one: he {164} took his shield and spear, and killed the warriors in the confusion, till at last they all lay dead on the ground, and the earth was quite red with their blood.

All the people were full of admiration of the brave hero, and when Jason took off his helmet and wiped his forehead, they thronged round him, praising his great achievement. But the king was angry, and went away with his courtiers without speaking a word to Jason. He was still determined not to part with the Golden Fleece, and made up his mind to kill the hero who had come to ask for it. When he reached the palace, he chose out the strongest of his soldiers and told them that he would himself lead them to the shore early the next morning while the Argonauts were still asleep, and that they would kill the heroes and burn the ship. Aeëtes expected to take the Argonauts by surprise, but Medea went again that evening to Jason and told him what her father intended. She also said that she would get the Golden Fleece for him, and that they must flee away that night. So they went together into the forest in which the Fleece hung;--high up among the branches shone the golden light, and at the foot of the tree was the dragon that never slept. Jason waited at a little distance while Medea went alone to the dragon, for she was accustomed to take him his food every day, and he knew her and allowed her to stroke him. Medea spoke kindly to the dragon, and gave him some bread that she had brought with her. But the bread had been soaked in a sweet juice which throws every one who tastes it into the deepest sleep, so when the dragon had swallowed it, his eyes closed for the first time in his life and he fell asleep and snored so loudly {165} that all the birds in the wood awoke and flew away. Then Jason came forward and climbed up the tall oak and fetched down the Fleece, and when he had done this, they went back to the shore. Jason had thrown the Fleece over his arm, and the Argonauts, who were on the look-out for him, could see him coming towards them with his shining prize while he was still a long way off, and they pulled up the great stones which had been used as anchors, and made everything ready for their departure. But Medea went back once more to her father's palace, and creeping quietly upstairs, she took her little brother Absyrtus gently out of his bed, and then set out on her flight. She took him with her, not because she loved her brother, but because she thought he might be found useful in case her father should pursue them. You will soon hear what happened to him.

4. _The Journey Home._

When they were all in the ship, the heroes pushed off and sailed away. As it was midnight the helmsman had to steer by the stars, but he knew how to guide the ship towards the setting sun which was the direction in which Greece lay, and by daybreak they were already far from the land. King Aeëtes came down to the shore with his followers, who took with them weapons to fight with, and also torches for burning the ship. But when they reached it, they stood rubbing their eyes, for they could see neither the ship nor the heroes, and when they looked towards the forest, there was the dragon in a deep sleep, and the Golden Fleece {166} was gone. Soon the king heard that Medea had fled and had taken with her the little Absyrtus, and then he knew who it was that had helped the Argonauts, and he was more angry than he had ever been in his life. He made his men get ready the swiftest ship they had, and promised to reward them nobly if they succeeded in overtaking the Argo.

They rowed with all their might, and towards evening they came in sight of the Argo. Medea knew that all on board would be killed if they fell into the hands of her father, and when his ship had almost overtaken the Argo, she took a long knife and stabbed her brother Absyrtus to death, and cut him in pieces before the eyes of Aeëtes and flung the pieces into the sea. The king who had been so angry, now tore his hair for grief; he no longer cared about the Golden Fleece, and his only desire was to obtain the corpse of his son in order to bury it, for at that time it was believed that those whose bodies were not buried had no rest in the Lower World, and the king would not for the world have let his child's body be eaten by the fishes. He commanded his men to stop and look for the pieces, and by the time they had collected them all, the Argo was far out of sight, and they were obliged to turn back. The king grieved bitterly for his dead son, and when he came home he buried him with great magnificence. When that was done, the wish nearest his heart was to catch the Argo, and he manned three ships with sailors, and told them to go in search of her and never to return till they had found her. They sailed about in all directions, but could not find a trace of the ship anywhere, so as they were afraid to go back to the king {167} without her, they moored on a strange island, where they settled down and built houses and remained for the rest of their lives. Aeëtes was meanwhile spending all his days in watching for their return.

A violent storm now overtook the Argo. The sea was stirred up and refused to carry peacefully on her bosom the ship in which the sister had murdered her brother, and the waves rose as high as mountains, so that those who were on board the ship had to hold on to the sides and mast in order to avoid falling into the sea. At last the Sacred Beam which was planted in the fore part of the vessel, spoke, and said that the storm would not cease, nor would they have any prosperity in their voyage, until Medea and Jason had been purged from the stain of blood, and that they had better go to the enchantress Circe and beg her to do this for them. So they sailed to the island where Circe lived, and Medea and Jason left the others in the ship and went ashore to the palace of the enchantress and placed themselves on the hearth, which was the place sacred to those who came to sue for help. Circe asked what their request was, and Medea told her all that had happened and begged her to atone for their crimes. At first she refused to do this, for King Aeëtes was her brother, and it was her nephew that they had murdered; but at last she was persuaded, and purified them with sacrifices and baths. When this had been done, they went back to the ship and continued their voyage, and they had now such lovely weather that the fishes came up from the bottom of the sea and played merrily in the sunshine.

After some time the Argonauts came to the wicked {168} Sirens, who were treacherous nymphs that lived in the sea. Their faces were marvellously beautiful, and they sang so enchantingly that every one who heard them was bewitched and could not help going to them. But under the water they had great ugly claws instead of hands, and their bodies ended in a hideous fish-tail. They clutched those who came to them with their claws and ate them up, and all the reef where they lived was strewn with the bones of the men they had eaten. But even those who knew how cruel and treacherous they were, could no longer believe it when they heard them sing, and could never resist jumping into the sea and swimming towards them. When the Sirens saw the ship approaching, full of noble heroes, they thought they were going to have a grand feast and began to sing their sweetest songs. They would have enticed even the Argonauts, and all the witchcraft of Medea would have been powerless to save them, if there had not been a hero on board, named Orpheus, who was famous all over Greece for his singing and playing, and who had such marvellous power over the hearts of men that no one who heard him could refrain from weeping, however cruel and hard he might be. So the moment the Sirens began, Orpheus took his lyre and sang in opposition to them, and he sang so gloriously that the heroes listened to him rather than to the Sirens, and the dolphins, who are very fond of music, came and followed the ship till the song was ended.

The Argonauts next came to the Wandering Rocks, which swam about in the sea and were shrouded in thick smoke, through which flames of fire could be seen coming out of crevices in their sides. It seemed as if {169} it were a sort of amusement to them to give chase to ships and destroy them, and when they had dashed them to pieces, there was the fire ready at hand to burn them up. No ship had ever yet reached home in safety after passing them. But the goddess Hera was unwilling to see the brave heroes on board the Argo perish miserably, so she commanded the nymphs who lived at the bottom of the sea to protect the vessel; these were not wicked nymphs like the Sirens, but kind and friendly to brave heroes. A great splashing was heard in the water, and ever so many nymphs came up from the bottom of the sea, each one more beautiful than the last. They swam round the ship, and when one of the rocks came towards her from the right, meaning to crush her, they pushed her away to the left, and when a rock came from the left, they pushed the ship to the right, and they did it so fast that the rocks could not overtake her. This amused them very much, and they laughed out merrily whenever the rocks shot past them. Soon the Argonauts were again out in the open sea, and they thanked the nymphs many times for their help. Then the nymphs went back to their homes at the bottom of the sea.

After rowing for a long time, the heroes came to the island of Crete. They would have liked to go on shore, but there was an iron watchman who refused to allow any one to land without the king's express permission. His name was Talos, and he had been made out of iron by the blacksmith-god Hephaestus, who gave him to Minos the king of Crete. Minos used him as a watchman, and made him run round the {170} whole island three times every day and drive away any strangers who might approach it. He was all iron, excepting a single vein that ran from his head right down to his feet, and was fastened underneath with iron nails which held in the life blood that ran through the vein and kept him alive. When Talos saw the ship full of heroes coming, he stood still and threw great stones at her. It would have been of no use for the Argonauts to shoot spears and arrows at him in return, for he could not be wounded; so Medea called out to him over the water, 'Talos, if you will be kind to us and let us land, I will show you how you may become immortal.' Talos was pleased at this, and he began to make friendly grimaces, and shouted back his answer in a voice that came out of his iron body like the sound of a great trumpet. He said, 'First tell me how I may become immortal, and then I will let you land.' But Medea answered him deceitfully, and she called back, 'Draw out the nail that is in your foot, and all that is mortal in you will flow out.' Talos believed her, and he sat down on the shore and drew out the nail with some difficulty, for it had been well hammered in. Then the red blood flowed out, and Talos was glad, for he thought it was his mortality which was leaving him; but he became weaker and weaker, and when the last drop of blood had flowed out of his body, he was dead, and there was nothing left but a cold lump of iron. The Argonauts could now sail to the land without hindrance, and they clambered down out of the ship and hunted some wild animals, which they cooked and made a feast of, on the shore.

The Argonauts sailed from Crete to Greece without {171} stopping, for the gods gave them favourable winds, and when at last they came in sight of the Grecian coast, they all rejoiced greatly at seeing their beloved country again. They landed at that part of it which is called the Isthmus, and is the road between the peninsula of Peloponnesus and the rest of Greece, and there they drew the Argo up on to the shore. The brave ship had been beaten against many a rock, and had been so long in deep water that she was covered with green slime. The Argonauts said that she should never be used for any other journey, and they dedicated her to the sea-god Poseidon as a thank-offering to him for having brought them home in safety. She remained for a very long time standing on the Isthmus, and every one who went by, looked at her and thought of the many dangers and difficulties that the Argonauts had passed through. At last however, the Sacred Beam died, and soon afterwards the Argo herself fell to pieces, for the boards of which she was made had become quite rotten.

5. _Medea's Revenge._

When the heroes arrived in Greece, they separated and returned to their own homes, and Jason and Medea went to Iolcus where king Pelias lived. Pelias had thought that it would be quite impossible for Jason ever to return, because of all the dangers he would meet with in going to fetch the Golden Fleece, and he had killed his brother, Jason's father, for fear he should in some way avenge the death of his son,--so that when the young hero walked into the palace with the Golden Fleece hanging over his arm, the king turned red and pale by {172} turns. Jason did not know as yet of the injury that Pelias had done him; but when he went to his father's house he found it empty, and the people told him that his father had been killed by order of the king. Jason was very sad at hearing this, and could no longer take any pleasure in the thought of all the great deeds he had done; but Medea told him not to grieve, for she would avenge the wrong he had suffered. She thought, too, that if Pelias were dead, Jason would be the king of Iolcus and she the queen, and she advised Jason to dissemble, and behave as if he had forgiven the king, whilst she herself went every day to the palace and made friends with his daughters. One day she told them that if they had spirit enough to venture on it, they could make their old father young again, though his hair was already white and his face was covered with wrinkles. The princesses would not believe Medea, but she said she would prove it, and she took an old ram and slew him, and cut him up into several pieces, and laid the pieces in a great caldron of boiling water, and when she had poured a magic juice over them, a young lamb jumped out of the caldron, and no trace of the ram could be seen. Then the girls believed Medea, and begged her to give them the magic juice with which to make their old father young again; but Medea gave them instead, a liquid, which looked just like it, but which had no power whatever. The king's daughters did not delay a single day, but the next time their father was asleep, they went to him and killed him, and one struck off his head, while the others cut the rest of his body into pieces. They had a huge caldron standing ready on the fire, into which they threw the pieces, {173} and then they poured over them the liquid that Medea had given them, expecting to see their father come out a young man. But Pelias was dead, and dead he remained. The princesses watched the caldron for a long time, but at last they were obliged to give up all hope, and then they broke out into bitter wailing and rushed about the streets with dishevelled hair, crying out that Medea had deceived them and made them kill their father without knowing what they were doing. The people had not cared for Pelias because he had been a cruel and severe man, but they would not sanction the treachery by which he had come to his end, and instead of choosing Jason for their new king, they chose the son of Pelias, so that things turned out very differently from Medea's expectations, and she and Jason had to leave the country.

They went to the city of Corinth, where King Creon ruled. He received them with open arms, for he had heard of Jason's brave deeds and was glad that he had come to live in his country, and he gave him a beautiful house with meadows and vineyards and orchards all round it. Jason and Medea lived there in peace for ten years, and the gods sent them two children whom Medea loved dearly; they were the first human beings she had ever really cared for. But the king had a daughter named Glauce, who was only a child when Jason first went to Corinth but had now grown up to be a very beautiful maiden, and Creon was anxious that she should marry a noble hero, for she was his only child, and her husband would be king of Corinth after his death and would inherit all his riches. And as Jason pleased him well, he said to him that if he would {174} get rid of Medea, he would give him his daughter Glauce for his wife. Jason no longer cared for Medea as he had once done, because she was of a gloomy, discontented nature, and he thought that if he were rich, he could make up to her for the wrong he would do her by taking another wife. So he told the king that he would agree to his proposal, and he said to Medea that he would give her a great deal of gold and silver, and the most beautiful dresses that could be made, and that she should never want for anything, but live just as if she were the richest queen in the world. He also told her that he was making this new marriage for the sake of his children, in order that they might have a king for their father. Medea was very angry about it in her heart, but she pretended to agree, and when the day came on which the marriage was to be celebrated, she gave Jason a magnificent robe and begged him to take it to Glauce as a present from herself. Jason took it without any suspicion, and Glauce was very much pleased with it and went into her bedchamber to put it on for the wedding. But the robe had been dipped in a poisonous juice, and as soon as it became warm it burst out into flames. Glauce could not tear it off, and she screamed for help; her father and Jason came running to try and put out the fire, but nothing they could do was of any use, and Glauce perished miserably. Creon threw himself upon the dead body of his daughter and tore his hair and wept bitterly, but Jason drew his sword and rushed home to kill Medea. But as he came near the house, he looked up at the sky and saw a chariot drawn by two winged dragons, in which Medea was driving away. Medea had purposed to kill her two {175} children before she went, because of the pain which she knew this would cause Jason; but when she had taken up the dagger, the children, who did not know what was in her mind, stood looking at her with their pretty blue eyes, and she had not the heart to carry out her intention, but caught them up in her arms and covered them with kisses, and then fled away in the enchanted chariot.

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