Chapter XXIII: Book THE SEVENTH: Fable I. Vii.1-158 (1)

Jason, after having met with various adventures, arrives with the
Argonauts in Colchis, and demands the Golden Fleece. Medea falls in
love with Jason, and by the power of her enchantments preserves him
from the dangers he has to encounter in obtaining it. He obtains the
prize, and carrying off Medea, returns in triumph to Thessaly.

And now the Minyæ[1] were ploughing the sea in the Pagasæan ship;[2] and Phineus prolonging a needy old age under perpetual night, had been visited, and the youthful sons of the North wind had driven the birds with the faces of virgins from {before} the mouth of the distressed old man;[3] and having suffered many things under the famous Jason, had reached at length the rapid waters of the muddy Phasis.

And while they go to the king, and ask the fleece that once belonged to Phryxus, and conditions are offered them, dreadful for the number of mighty labors; in the meantime, the daughter of Æetes[4] conceives a violent flame; and having long struggled {against it}, after she is unable to conquer her frenzy by reason, she says: “In vain, Medea, dost thou resist; some God, who, I know not, is opposing thee. It is a wonder too, if it is not this, or at least something like this, which is called ‘love.’ For why do the commands of my father appear too rigid for me? and yet too rigid they are. Why am I in dread, lest he whom I have seen {but} so lately, should perish? What is the cause of alarm so great? Banish the flames conceived in thy virgin breast, if thou canst, unhappy {creature}. If I could, I would be more rational. But a new power draws me on, against my will; and Cupid persuades one thing, reason another. I see which is the more proper {course}, and I approve of it, {while} I follow the wrong one. Why, royal maiden, art thou burning for a stranger, and why coveting the nuptial ties of a strange country? This land, too, may give thee something which thou mayst love. Whether he shall live, or whether die, is in {the disposal of} the Gods. Yet he may survive; and that I may pray for, even without love. For what {fault} has Jason committed? Whom, but one of hard heart, would not the {youthful} age of Jason affect? his descent too, and his valor? Whom, though these other points were wanting, would not his beauty move? at least, he has moved my breast. But unless I shall give him aid, he will be breathed upon by the mouths of the bulls; and will engage with his own {kindred} crops, an enemy sprung from the earth; or he will be given as a cruel prey to the ravenous dragon. If I allow this, then I will confess that I was born of a tigress; then, {too}, that I carry steel and stone in my heart. Why do I not as well behold him perish? Why not, too, profane my eyes by seeing it? Why do I not stimulate the bulls against him, and the fierce sons of the earth, and the never-sleeping dragon? May the Gods award better things. And yet these things are not to be prayed for, but must be effected by myself. Shall I {then} betray the kingdom of my father? and by my aid shall some stranger, I know not who, be saved; that being delivered by my means, he may spread his sails to the winds without me, and be the husband of another; and I, Medea, be left for punishment? If he can do this, and if he is capable of preferring another to me, let him perish in his ingratitude. But not such is his countenance, not such that nobleness of soul, that gracefulness of person, that I should fear treachery, and forgetfulness of what I deserve. Besides, he shall first pledge his faith, and I will oblige the Gods to be witnesses of our compact. What then dost thou dread, {thus} secure? Haste {then},[5] and banish {all} delay. Jason will ever be indebted to thee for his preservation; thee will he unite to himself in the rites of marriage, and throughout the Pelasgian cities[6] thou wilt be celebrated by crowds of matrons, as the preserver {of their sons}. And shall I then, borne away by the winds, leave my sister[7] and my brother,[8] and my father, and my Gods, and my native soil? My father is cruel, forsooth; my country, too, is barbarous;[9] my brother is still {but} an infant; the wishes of my sister are in my favor. The greatest of the Gods is in possession of me. I shall not be relinquishing anything great; I shall be pursuing what is great; the credit of saving the youth of Greece,[10] acquaintance with a better country, and cities, whose fame is flourishing even here, and the politeness and the arts of their inhabitants; and the son of Æson, whom I could be ready to take in exchange for {all} the things that the whole world contains; with whom for my husband I shall both be deemed dear to the Gods, and shall reach the stars with my head. Why say that I know not what mountains[11] are reported to arise in the midst of the waves, and that Charybdis, an enemy to ships, one while sucks in the sea, at another discharges it; and how that Scylla, begirt with furious dogs, is said to bark in the Sicilian deep? Yet holding him whom I love, and clinging to the bosom of Jason, I shall be borne over the wide seas; embracing him, naught will I dread; or if I fear anything, for my husband alone will I fear. And dost thou, Medea, call this a marriage, and dost thou give a plausible name to thy criminality? Do but consider how great an offence thou art meditating, and, while {still} thou mayst, fly from guilt.”

{Thus} she said, and before her eyes stood Virtue, Affection, and Modesty; and now Cupid turned his vanquished back. She was going to the ancient altars of Hecate,[12] the daughter of Perses, which a shady grove and the recesses of a wood concealed. And now she was resolved, and her passion being checked, had subsided; when she beheld the son of Æson, and the extinguished flame revived. Her cheeks were covered with blushes, and her whole face was suffused with a glow. As a spark is wont to derive nourishment from the winds, which, but small when it lay concealed beneath the ashes cast over it, {is wont} to increase, and aroused, to rise again to its original strength, so her love, now declining, which you would suppose was now growing languid, when she beheld the youth, was rekindled with the appearance of him before her eyes. And by chance, on that day, the son of Æson was more beauteous than usual. You might forgive her loving him. She gazes; and keeps her eyes fixed upon his countenance, as though but now seen for the first time; and in her frenzy she thinks she does not behold the face of a mortal; nor does she turn away from him. But when the stranger began to speak, and seized her right hand, and begged her assistance with a humble voice, and promised her marriage; she said, with tears running down, “I see what I ought to do; and it will not be ignorance of the truth, but love that beguiles me. By my agency thou shalt be saved; when saved, grant what thou hast promised.”

He swears by the rites of the Goddess of the triple form, and the Deity which is in that grove, and by the sire[13] of his future father-in-law, who beholds all things, and by his own adventures, and by dangers so great. Being believed {by her}, he immediately received some enchanted herbs, and thoroughly learned the use of them, and went away rejoicing to his abode. The next morning had {now} dispersed the twinkling stars, {when} the people repaired to the sacred field of Mavors, and ranged themselves on the hills. In the midst of the assembly sat the king himself, arrayed in purple, and distinguished by a sceptre of ivory. Behold! the brazen-footed bulls breathe forth flames[14] from their adamantine nostrils; and the grass touched by the vapors is on fire. And as the forges filled {with fire} are wont to roar, or when flints[15] dissolved in an earthen furnace receive intense heat by the sprinkling of flowing water; so do their breasts rolling forth the flames enclosed within, and their scorched throats, resound. Yet the son of Æson goes forth to meet them. The fierce {bulls} turn their terrible features, and their horns pointed with iron, towards his face as he advances, and with cloven hoofs they spurn the dusty ground, and fill the place with lowings, that send forth clouds of smoke. The Minyæ are frozen with horror. He comes up, and feels not the flames breathed forth by them, so great is the power of the incantations. He even strokes their hanging dewlaps with a bold right hand, and, subjected to the yoke, he obliges them to draw the heavy weight of a plough, and to turn up with the share the plain {till now} unused to it.[16]

The Colchians are astonished; the Minyæ fill {the air} with their shouts, and give him {fresh} courage. Then in a brazen helmet he takes the dragon’s teeth,[17] and strews them over the ploughed up fields. The ground, impregnated beforehand with a potent drug, softens the seed; and the teeth that were sown grow up, and become new bodies. And as the infant receives the human form in the womb of the mother, and is there formed in all its parts, and comes not forth into the common air until at maturity, so when the figure of man is ripened in the bowels of the pregnant earth, it arises in the fruitful plain; and, what is still more surprising, it brandishes arms produced at the same time. When the Pelasgians saw them preparing to hurl their spears with sharp points at the head of the Hæmonian youth, they lowered their countenances and their courage, {quailing} with fear. She, too, became alarmed, who had rendered him secure; and when she saw the youth, being but one, attacked by so many enemies, she turned pale, and suddenly chilled {with fear}, sat down without blood {in her cheeks}. And, lest the herbs that had been given by her, should avail him but little, she repeats an auxiliary charm, and summons {to her aid} her secret arts. He, hurling a heavy stone into the midst of his enemies, turns the warfare, now averted from himself, upon themselves. The Earth-born brothers perish by mutual wounds, and fall in civil fight. The Greeks congratulate him, and caress the conqueror, and cling to him in hearty embraces. And thou too, barbarian maiden, wouldst fain have embraced him; ’twas modesty that opposed the design; otherwise thou wouldst have embraced him; but regard for thy reputation restrained thee from doing so. What thou mayst do, {thou dost do}; thou rejoicest with a silent affection, and thou givest thanks to thy charms, and to the Gods, the authors of them.

It {still} remains to lay asleep with herbs the watchful dragon, who, distinguished by his crest and his three tongues, and terrible with his hooked teeth, is the keeper of the Golden Fleece. After he has sprinkled him with herbs of Lethæan juice,[18] and has thrice repeated words that cause placid slumbers, which {would even calm} the boisterous ocean, {and} which would stop the rapid rivers, sleep creeps upon the eyes that were strangers to it, and the hero, the son of Æson, gains the gold; and proud of the spoil and bearing with him the giver of the prize as a second spoil, he arrives victorious, with his wife, at the port of Iolcos.[19]

[Footnote 1: _The Minyæ._--Ver. 1. The Argonauts. The Minyæ were a
people of Thessaly, so called from Minyas, the son of Orchomenus.]

[Footnote 2: _Pagasæan ship._--Ver. 1. Pagasæ was a seaport of
Thessaly, at the foot of Mount Pelion, where the ship Argo was
built.]

[Footnote 3: _Distressed old man._--Ver. 4. Clarke translates
‘miseri senis ore,’ ‘from the mouth of the miserable old fellow.’]

[Footnote 4: _Daughter of Æetes._--Ver. 9. Medea was the daughter
of Æetes, the king of Colchis. Juno, favoring Jason, had persuaded
Venus to inspire Medea with love for him.]

[Footnote 5: _Haste then._--Ver. 47. Clarke translates
‘accingere,’ more literally than elegantly, ‘buckle to.’]

[Footnote 6: _Pelasgian cities._--Ver. 49. Pelasgia was properly
that part of Greece which was afterwards called Thessaly. The
province of Pelasgiotis, in Thessaly, afterwards retained its
name, which was derived from the Pelasgi, an early people of
Greece. Pliny informs us that Peloponnesus at first had the names
of ‘Apia’ and ‘Pelasgia.’ Some suppose that the Pelasgi derived
their name from Pelasgus, the son of Jupiter; while other writers
assert that they were so called from πελαργοὶ, ‘storks,’ from
their wandering habits. The name is frequently used, as in the
present instance, to signify the whole of the Greeks.]

[Footnote 7: _My sister._--Ver. 51. Her sister was Chalciope, who
had married Phryxus, after his arrival in Colchis. Her children
being found by Jason, in the isle of Dia, they came with him to
Colchis, and presented him to their mother, who afterwards
commended him to the care of Medea.]

[Footnote 8: _And my brother._--Ver. 51. Her brother was Absyrtus,
whose tragical death is afterwards mentioned.]

[Footnote 9: _Is barbarous._--Ver. 53. It was certainly ‘barbara’
in the eyes of a Greek; but the argument sounds rather oddly in
the mouth of Medea, herself a native of the country.]

[Footnote 10: _The youth of Greece._--Ver. 56. These were the
Argonauts, who were selected from the most noble youths of
Greece.]

[Footnote 11: _What mountains._--Ver. 63. These were the Cyanean
rocks, or Symplegades, at the mouth of the Euxine sea.]

[Footnote 12: _Hecate._--Ver. 74. Ancient writers seem to have
been much divided in opinion who Hecate was. Ovid here follows the
account which made her to be the daughter of Perses, who,
according to Diodorus Siculus, was the son of Phœbus, and the
brother of Æetes. Marrying her uncle Æetes, she is said to have
been the mother of Circe, Medea, and Absyrtus. By some writers she
is confounded with the Moon and with Proserpine; as identical with
the Moon, she has the epithets ‘Triceps’ and ‘Triformis,’ often
given to her by the poets, because the Moon sometimes is full,
sometimes disappears, and often shows but part of her disk.]

[Footnote 13: _And by the sire._--Ver. 96. Allusion is made to the
Sun, who was said to be the father of Æetes, the destined
father-in-law of Jason.]

[Footnote 14: _Breathe forth flames._--Ver. 104. The name of the
God of fire is here used to signify that element. Apollodorus
says, that Medea gave Jason a drug (φάρμακον) to rub over himself
and his armor.]

[Footnote 15: _Or when flints._--Ver. 107. It is difficult to
determine whether ‘silices’ here means ‘flint-stones,’ or
‘lime-stone;’ probably the latter, from the mention of water
sprinkled over them. If the meaning is ‘flint-stones,’ the passage
may refer to the manufacture of glass, with the art of making
which the ancients were perfectly acquainted.]

[Footnote 16: _Unused to it._--Ver. 119. Because, being sacred to
Mars, it was not permitted to be ploughed.]

[Footnote 17: _Dragon’s teeth._--Ver. 122. These were a portion of
the teeth of the dragon slain by Cadmus, which Mars and Minerva
had sent to Æetes.]

[Footnote 18: _Lethæan juice._--Ver. 152. Lethe was a river of the
infernal regions, whose waters were said to produce sleep and
forgetfulness.]

[Footnote 19: _Port of Iolcos._--Ver. 158. Iolcos was a city of
Thessaly, of which country Jason was a native.]

EXPLANATION.

To understand this story, one of the most famous in the early history
of Greece, we must go back to the origin of it, and examine the
fictions which the poets have mingled with the history of the
expedition of the Argonauts, one of the most remarkable events of the
fabulous ages.

Athamas, the son of Æolus, grandson of Hellen, and great-grandson of
Deucalion, having married Ino, the daughter of Cadmus, was obliged to
divorce her, on account of the madness with which she was attacked. He
afterwards married Nephele, by whom he had a son and daughter, Phryxus
and Helle; but on his taking his first wife again, she brought him two
sons, Learchus and Melicerta. Ino, hating the children of Nephele,
sought to destroy them. Phryxus being informed thereof, ordered a ship
to be privately prepared; and taking his father’s treasures, sailed
with his sister Helle, to seek a retreat in the court of Æetes, his
kinsman. Helle died on the voyage, but Phryxus arrived in Colchis,
where he dedicated the prow of his ship to Neptune, or Jupiter. He
there married Chalciope, by whom he had four sons, Argos, Phrontes,
Molas, and Cylindus. Some years after, Æetes caused him to be
assassinated; and his sons fleeing to the court of their grandfather,
Athamas, were shipwrecked on an island, where they remained until
found there by Jason, who took them back to their mother. Having
mourned them as dead, she was transported with joy on finding them,
and used every exertion to aid Jason in promoting his addresses to
Medea. Æetes having seized the treasures of Athamas on the death of
Phryxus, the Greeks prepared an expedition to recover them, and to
avenge his death. Pelias, who had driven his brother Æson from the
throne of Iolcos, desiring to procure the absence of his son Jason,
took this opportunity of engaging him in an enterprise, which promised
both glory, profit, and a large amount of personal exertion. The
uneasiness which Pelias felt was caused by the prediction of an
oracle, that he should be killed by a prince of the family of Æolus,
and which warned him to beware of a person who should have but one
shoe. Just at that period, Jason, returning from the school of Chiron,
lost one of his shoes in crossing a river. On this, his uncle was
desirous to destroy him; but not daring to do so publicly, he induced
him to embark with the Argonauts, expecting that he would perish in an
undertaking of so perilous a nature. Many young nobles of Greece
repaired to the court of Iolcos, and joined in the undertaking, when
they chose Jason for their leader, and embarked in a ship, the name of
which was Argo, and from which the adventurers received the name of
Argonauts.

Diodorus Siculus says, that the ship was so named from its swiftness;
while others say, that it was so called from Argus, the name of its
builder, or from the Argives, or Greeks, on board of it. Bochart,
however, supposes, that the name is derived from the Phœnician word
‘arco,’ which signifies ‘long,’ and suggests, that before that time
the Greeks sailed in vessels of a rounder form, Jason being the first
who sailed in a ship built in the form of a galley. After many
adventures, on arriving at the Isle of Lemnos, they found that the
women had killed their husbands in a fit of jealousy, on which the
Argonauts took wives from their number, and Jason received for his
companion Hypsipyle, the daughter of Thoas. Putting to sea again, they
were driven on the coast of Bithynia, where they delivered Phineus,
its king, from the persecution of the Harpies, who were in the habit
of snatching away the victuals from his table. These monsters, of
hideous form, with crooked beaks and talons, huge wings, and the faces
of women, the Argonauts, and especially Calais and Zethes, pursued as
far as the islands called Strophades, in the Ionian sea, where Iris
appearing to them, enjoined them to pursue the Harpies no further,
promising that Phineus should no longer be persecuted by them. To
explain this story, some suppose that the Harpies were the daughters
of Phineus, who by their dissipation and extravagance, had ruined him
in his old age, which occasioned the saying, that they snatched the
victuals out of his mouth. Le Clerc thinks, that the Harpies were vast
swarms of grasshoppers, which ravaged all Paphlagonia, and caused a
famine in the dominions of Phineus; the word ‘arbati,’ whence the term
‘Harpy’ is derived, signifying ‘a grasshopper;’ and that the North
wind blowing them into the Ionian sea, it gave rise to the saying,
that the sons of Boreas pursued them so far. Diodorus Siculus does not
mention the Harpies, though he speaks of the arrival of the Argonauts
at the court of Phineus.

After some other adventures, the Argonauts arrived at Colchis. Æetes,
or Æeta, the king, having been forewarned by an oracle, that a
stranger should deprive him of his crown and life, had established a
custom of sacrificing all strangers found in his dominions. His
daughter Medea, falling in love with Jason, promised him her
assistance in preserving them from the dangers to which they were
exposed, on the condition of his marrying her. Having engaged to do
so, she conducted him by night to the royal palace, and gave him a
false key, by means whereof he found the royal treasures, and carrying
them off, embarked with Medea and his companions. By way of explaining
the miraculous portion of the story, we may, perhaps, not err in
supposing, that the account of it was originally written in the
Phœnician language; and through not understanding it, the Greeks
invented the fiction of the Fleece, the Dragon, and the Fiery Bulls.
Bochart and Le Clerc have observed, that the Syriac word ‘gaza,’
signifies either ‘a treasure,’ or ‘a fleece.’ ‘Saur,’ which means ‘a
wall,’ also means ‘a bull;’ and in the same language the same word,
‘nachas,’ signifies both ‘brass,’ ‘iron,’ and ‘a dragon.’ Hence,
instead of the simple narrative, that Jason, by the aid of Medea,
carried away the treasures which Æetes kept within walls, with bolts,
or locks of metal, and which Phryxus had carried to Colchis in a ship
with the figure of a ram at the prow, it was published, and circulated
by the ignorant, that the Gods, to save Phryxus from his stepmother,
sent him a sheep with a golden fleece, which bore him to Colchis; that
its fleece became the object of the ambition of the leading men of
Greece; and that whoever wished to bear it away was obliged to contend
with bulls and dragons. Some historians, by way of interpreting the
story, affirm, that the keeper of the treasures was named ‘Draco,’ or
‘Dragon,’ and that the garrison of the stronghold of Æetes was brought
from the ‘Tauric’ Chersonesus. They say also, that the fleece was the
skin of the sheep which Phryxus had sacrificed to Neptune, which he
had caused to be gilt. It is not, however, very likely, that an object
so trifling could have excited the avarice of the Greeks, and caused
them to undertake an expedition accompanied with so many dangers. The
dragon’s teeth most probably bear reference to some foreign troops
which Jason, in the same way as Cadmus had done, found means to
alienate from Æetes, and to bring over to his own side. Homer makes
but very slight allusion to the adventures of the Argonauts.

FABLE II. [VII.159-349]

Jason, after his return home, requests Medea to restore his father
Æson to youth, which she performs; then, going to the court of Pelias,
she avenges the injuries which he had done to the family of Jason, by
making him the victim of the credulity of his own daughters, who, in
compliance with her pretended regard for them, stab him to death.
Medea, having executed her design, makes her escape in her chariot.

The Hæmonian mothers and aged fathers bring presents, for receiving their sons {safe home}; and frankincense dissolves, piled on the flames, and the devoted victim falls, having its horns gilded. But Æson is not among those congratulating, being now near death, and worn out with the years of old age; when thus the son of Æson {addresses Medea}: “O wife, to whom I confess that I owe my safety, although thou hast granted me everything, and the sum of thy favors exceeds {all} belief; {still}, if {thy enchantments} can effect this (and what can enchantments not effect?), take away from my own years, and, when taken, add them to {those of} my father.”

And {thus saying}, he could not check his tears. She was moved with the affection of the petitioner; and {her father}, Æetes, left behind, recurred to her mind, unlike {that of Jason}; yet she did not confess any such feelings. “What a piece of wickedness, husband,” said she, “has escaped thy affectionate lips! Can I, then, seem capable of transferring to any one a portion of thy life? May Hecate not allow of this; nor dost thou ask what is reasonable; but, Jason, I will endeavor to grant thee a favor {still} greater than that which thou art asking. By my arts we will endeavor to bring back the long years of my father-in-law, and not by means of thy years; if the Goddess of the triple form[20] do but assist, and propitiously aid {so} vast an undertaking.” Three nights were {now} wanting that the horns {of the Moon} might meet entirely, and might form a {perfect} orb. After the Moon shone in her full, and looked down upon the Earth, with her disk complete, {Medea} went forth from the house, clothed in garments flowing loose, with bare feet,[21] and having her unadorned hair hanging over her shoulders, and unattended, directed her wandering steps through the still silence of midnight. Sound sleep has {now} relaxed {the nerves of both} men, and birds, and beasts; the hedges and the motionless foliage are still, without any noise, the dewy air is still; the stars alone are twinkling; towards which, holding up her arms, three times she turns herself about, three times she besprinkles her hair with water taken from the stream; with three yells she opens her mouth, and, her knee bending upon the hard ground, she says, “O Night, most faithful to these my mysteries, and ye golden Stars, who, with the Moon, succeed the fires of the day, and thou, three-faced Hecate,[22] who comest conscious of my design, and ye charms and arts of the enchanters, and thou, too, Earth, that dost furnish the enchanters with powerful herbs; ye breezes, too, and winds, mountains, rivers, and lakes, and all ye Deities of the groves, and all ye Gods of night, attend here; through whose aid, whenever I will, the rivers run back from their astonished banks to their sources, {and} by my charms I calm the troubled sea, and rouse it when calm; I disperse the clouds, and I bring clouds {upon the Earth}; I both allay the winds, and I raise them; and I break the jaws of serpents with my words and my spells; I move, too, the solid rocks, and the oaks torn up with their own {native} earth, and the forests {as well}. I command the mountains, too, to quake, and the Earth to groan, and the ghosts to come forth from their tombs. Thee, too, O Moon, do I draw down, although the Temesæan[23] brass relieves thy pangs. By my spells, also, the chariot of my grandsire is rendered pale; Aurora, too, is pale through my enchantments. For me did ye blunt the flames of the bulls, and with the curving plough you pressed the necks that never before bore the yoke. You raised a cruel warfare for those born of the dragon among themselves, and you lulled to sleep the keeper {of the golden fleece}, that had never known sleep; and {thus}, deceiving the guardian, you sent the treasure into the Grecian cities. Now there is need of juices, by means of which, old age, being renewed, may return to the bloom {of life}, and may receive back again its early years; and {this} ye will give me; for not in vain did the stars {just now} sparkle; nor yet in vain is the chariot come, drawn by the necks of winged dragons.”

A chariot sent down from heaven was come; which, soon as she had mounted, and had stroked the harnessed necks of the dragons, and had shaken the light reins with her hands, she was borne aloft, and looked down upon Thessalian Tempe below her, and guided her dragons towards the chalky regions;[24] and observed the herbs which Ossa, and which the lofty Pelion bore, Othrys, too, and Pindus, and Olympus {still} greater than Pindus; and part she tore up by the root gently worked, part she cut down with the bend of a brazen sickle.[25] Many a herb, too, that grew on the banks of Apidanus[26] pleased her; many, too, {on the banks} of Amphrysus; nor, Enipeus, didst thou escape. The Peneian waters, and the Spercheian as well, contributed something, and the rushy shores of Bœbe.[27] She plucks, too, enlivening herbs by the Eubœan Anthedon,[28] not yet commonly known by the change of the body of Glaucus.[29] And now the ninth day,[30] and the ninth night had seen her visiting all the fields in her chariot, and upon the wings of the dragons, when she returned; nor had the dragons been fed, but with the odors {of the plants}: and yet they cast the skin of old age full of years. On her arrival she stood without the threshold and the gates, and was canopied by the heavens alone, and avoided the contact of her husband, and erected two altars of turf; on the right hand, one to Hecate, but on the left side one to Youth.[31] After she had hung them round with vervain and forest boughs, throwing up the earth from two trenches not far off, she performed the rites, and plunged a knife into the throat of a black ram, and besprinkled the wide trenches with blood. Then pouring thereon goblets[32] of flowing wine, and pouring brazen goblets of warm milk; she at the same time utters words, and calls upon the Deities of the earth, and entreats the king of the shades[33] below, together with his ravished wife, that they will not hasten to deprive the aged limbs of life. When she had rendered them propitious both by prayers and prolonged mutterings, she commanded the exhausted body of Æson to be brought out to the altars, and stretched it cast into a deep sleep by her charms, {and} resembling one dead, upon the herbs laid beneath him.

She orders the son of Æson to go far thence, and the attendants, too, to go afar; and warns them to withdraw their profane eyes from her mysteries. At her order, they retire. Medea, with dishevelled hair, goes round the blazing altars like a worshipper of Bacchus, and dips her torches, split into many parts, in the trench, black with blood, and lights them, {thus} dipt, at the two altars. And thrice does she[34] purify the aged man with flames, thrice with water, and thrice with sulphur. In the meantime the potent mixture[35] is boiling and heaving in the brazen cauldron, placed {on the flames}, and whitens with swelling froth. There she boils roots cut up in the Hæmonian valleys, and seeds and flowers and acrid juices. She adds stones fetched from the most distant East, and sand, which the ebbing tide of the ocean has washed. She adds, too, hoar-frost gathered at night by the light of the moon, and the ill-boding wings of a screech owl,[36] together with its flesh; and the entrails of an ambiguous wolf, that was wont to change its appearance of a wild beast into {that of} a man. Nor is there wanting there the thin scaly slough of the Cinyphian water-snake,[37] and the liver of the long-lived stag;[38] to which, besides, she adds the bill and head of a crow that had sustained {an existence of} nine ages. When, with these and a thousand other things without a name, the barbarian {princess} has completed the medicine prepared for the mortal {body}, with a branch of the peaceful olive long since dried up, she stirs them all up, and blends the lowest {ingredients} with the highest. Behold! the old branch, turned about in the heated cauldron, at first becomes green; and after no long time assumes foliage, and is suddenly loaded with heavy olives. Besides, wherever the fire throws the froth from out of the hollow cauldron, and the boiling drops fall upon the earth, the ground becomes green, and flowers and soft grass spring up.

Soon as Medea sees this, she opens the throat[39] of the old man with a drawn sword; and allowing the former blood to escape, replenishes {his veins} with juices. Soon as Æson has drunk them in, either received in his mouth or in his wound, his beard and his hair[40] laying aside their hoariness, assume a black hue. His leanness flies, being expelled; his paleness and squalor are gone. His hollow veins are supplied with additional blood, and his limbs become instinct with vigor. Æson is astonished, and calls to recollection that he was such four times ten years before.

Liber had beheld from on high the miraculous operations of so great a prodigy; and taught {thereby} that youthful years can be restored to his nurses,[41] he requests this present from the daughter of Æetes.[42]

And that her arts[43] may not cease, the Phasian feigns a counterfeited quarrel with her husband, and flies as a suppliant to the threshold of Pelias[44] and (as he himself is oppressed with old age) his daughters receive her; whom, after a short time, the crafty Colchian engages to herself by the appearance of a pretended friendship. And while among the greatest of her merits, she relates that the infirmities of Æson have been removed, and is dwelling upon that part {of the story}, a hope is suggested to the damsels, the daughters of Pelias, that by the like art their parent may become young again; and this they request {of her}, and repeatedly entreat her to name her own price. For a short time she is silent, and appears to be hesitating, and keeps their mind in suspense, as they ask, with an affected gravity.

Afterwards, when she has promised them, she says, “That there may be the greater confidence in this my skill, the leader of the flock among your sheep, which is the most advanced in age, shall become a lamb by this preparation.” Immediately, a fleecy {ram}, enfeebled by innumerable years, is brought, with his horns bending around his hollow temples; whose withered throat, when she has cut with the Hæmonian knife, and stained the steel with its scanty blood, the enchantress plunges the limbs of the sheep, and her potent juices together, into the hollow copper. The limbs of his body are lessened, and he puts off his horns, and his years together with his horns; and in the midst of the kettle a low bleating is heard. And without any delay, while they are wondering at the bleating, a lamb springs forth, and gambols in its course, and seeks the suckling dugs. The daughters of Pelias are amazed; and after her promises have obtained her credit, then, indeed, they urge her still more strongly. Phœbus had thrice taken the yoke off his horses sinking in the Iberian sea;[45] and upon the fourth night the radiant stars were twinkling, when the deceitful daughter of Æetes set pure water upon a blazing fire, and herbs without any virtue. And now sleep like to death, their bodies being relaxed, had seized the king, and the guards together with their king, which her charms and the influence of her enchanting tongue had caused. The daughters {of the king}, {as} ordered, had entered the threshold, together with the Colchian, and had surrounded the bed; “Why do you hesitate now, in your indolence? Unsheathe your swords,” says she, “and exhaust the ancient gore, that I may replenish his empty veins with youthful blood. The life and the age of your father is now in your power. If you have any affection and cherish not vain hopes, perform your duty to your father, and drive away old age with your weapons, and, thrusting in the steel, let out his corrupted blood.”

Upon this exhortation, as each of them is affectionate, she becomes especially undutiful, and that she may not be wicked, she commits wickedness. Yet not one is able to look upon her own blow; and they turn away their eyes, and turning away their faces, they deal chance blows with their cruel right hands. He, streaming with gore, yet raises his limbs on his elbows, and, half-mangled, attempts to rise from the couch; and in the midst of so many swords stretching forth his pale arms, he says, “What are you doing, my daughters? What arms you against the life of your parent?” Their courage and their hands fail {them}. As he is about to say more, the Colchian severs his throat, together with his words, and plunges him, {thus} mangled, in the boiling cauldron.

[Footnote 20: _Of the triple form._--Ver. 177. Hecate, the Goddess
of enchantment.]

[Footnote 21: _With bare feet._--Ver. 183. To have the feet bare
was esteemed requisite for the due performance of magic rites,
though sometimes on such occasions, and probably in the present
instance, only one foot was left unshod. In times of drought,
according to Tertullian, a procession and ceremonial, called
‘nudipedalia,’ were resorted to, with a view to propitiate the
Gods by this token of grief and humiliation.]

[Footnote 22: _Three-faced Hecate._--Ver. 194. Though Hecate and
the Moon are here mentioned as distinct, they are frequently
considered to have been the same Deity, with different attributes.
The three heads with which Hecate was represented were those of a
horse, a dog, and a pig, or sometimes, in the place of the latter,
a human head.]

[Footnote 23: _Temesæan._--Ver. 207. Temesa was a town of the
Brutii, on the coast of Etruria, famous for its copper mines. It
was also sometimes called Tempsa. There was also another Temesa,
a city of Cyprus, also famous for its copper.]

[Footnote 24: _Chalky regions._--Ver. 223. Such was the
characteristic of the mountainous country of Thessaly, where she
now alighted.]

[Footnote 25: _Brazen sickle._--Ver. 227. We learn from Macrobius
and Cælius Rhodiginus that copper was preferred to iron in cutting
herbs for the purposes of enchantment, in exorcising spirits, and
in aiding the moon in eclipses against the supposed charms of the
witches, because it was supposed to be a purer metal.]

[Footnote 26: _Apidanus._--Ver. 228. This and Amphrysus were
rivers of Thessaly.]

[Footnote 27: _Shores of Bœbe._--Ver. 231. Strabo makes mention of
lake Bœbeis, near the town of Bœbe, in Thessaly. It was not far
from the mouth of the river Peneus.]

[Footnote 28: _Anthedon._--Ver. 232. This was a town of Bœotia,
opposite to Eubœa, being situated on the Euripus, now called the
straits of Negropont.]

[Footnote 29: _Glaucus._--Ver. 233. He was a fisherman, who was
changed into a sea God, on tasting a certain herb. His story is
related at the end of the 13th Book.]

[Footnote 30: _Ninth day._--Ver. 234. The numbers three and nine
seem to have been deemed of especial virtue in incantations.]

[Footnote 31: _One to youth._--Ver. 241. This goddess was also
called Hebe, from the Greek word signifying youth. She was the
daughter of Juno, and the wife of Hercules. She was also the
cup-bearer of the Gods, until she was supplanted by Ganymede.]

[Footnote 32: _Goblets._--Ver. 246. ‘Carchesia.’ The ‘carchesium’
was a kind of drinking cup, used by the Greeks from very early
times. It was slightly contracted in the middle, and its two
handles extended from the top to the bottom. It was employed in
the worship of the Deities, and was used for libations of blood,
wine, milk, and honey. Macrobius says that it was only used by the
Greeks. Virgil makes mention of it as used to hold wine.]

[Footnote 33: _King of the shades._--Ver. 249. Pluto and
Proserpine. Clarke translates this line and the next, ‘And prays
to the king of shades with his kidnapped wife, that they would not
be too forward to deprive the limbs of the old gentleman of
life.’]

[Footnote 34: _Thrice does she._--Ver. 261. Clarke thus renders
this and the two following lines: ‘And purifies the old gentleman
three times with flame, three times with water, and three times
with sulphur. In the meantime the strong medicine boils, and
bounces about in a brazen kettle set on the fire.’]

[Footnote 35: _The potent mixture._--Ver. 262. This reminds us of
the line of Shakespeare in Macbeth, ‘Make the hell-broth thick and
slab.’]

[Footnote 36: _A screech owl._--Ver. 269. ‘Strigis.’ The ‘strix’
is supposed to have been the screech owl, and was a favorite bird
with the enchanters, who were supposed to have the power of
assuming that form. From the description given of the ‘striges’ in
the Sixth Book of the Fasti, it would almost appear that the
qualities of the vampyre bat were attributed to them.]

[Footnote 37: _Water snake._--Ver. 272. The ‘chelydrus’ was a
venomous water-snake of a powerful and offensive smell. The
Delphin Commentator seems to think that a kind of turtle is here
meant.]

[Footnote 38: _Long-lived stag._--Ver. 273. The stag was said to
live four times, and the crow nine times, as long as man.]

[Footnote 39: _Opened the throat._--Ver. 285-6. Clarke translates
the words ‘quod simul ac vidit, stricto Medea recludit Ense senis
jugulum,’ ‘which as soon as Medea saw, she opens the throat of the
old gentleman with a drawn sword.’]

[Footnote 40: _And his hair._--Ver. 288. Medea is thought by some
writers not only to have discovered a dye for giving a dark color
to grey hair, but to have found out the invigorating properties of
the warm bath.]

[Footnote 41: _To his nurses._--Ver. 295. These (in Book iii.
l. 314.) he calls by the name of Nyseïdes; but in the Fifth Book
of the Fasti they are styled Hyades, and are placed in the number
of the Constellations. A commentator on Homer, quoting from
Pherecydes, calls them ‘Dodonides.’]

[Footnote 42: _Daughter of Æetes._--Ver. 296. The reading in most
of the MSS. here is Tetheiâ, or ‘Thetide;’ but Burmann has
replaced it by Æetide, ‘the daughter of Æetes.’ It has been justly
remarked, why should Bacchus apply to Tethys to have the age of
the Nymphs, who had nursed him, renewed, when he had just beheld
Medea, and not Tethys, do it in favor of Æson?]

[Footnote 43: _That her arts._--Ver. 297. ‘Neve doli cessent’ is
translated by Clarke, ‘and that her tricks might not cease.’]

[Footnote 44: _Pelias._--Ver. 298. He was the brother of Æson, and
had dethroned him, and usurped his kingdom.]

[Footnote 45: _The Iberian sea._--Ver. 324. The Atlantic, or
Western Ocean, is thus called from Iberia, the ancient name of
Spain; which country, perhaps, was so called from the river
Iberus, or Ebro, flowing through it.]

EXPLANATION.

The authors who have endeavored to explain the true meaning and origin
of the story of the restitution of Æson to youth, are much divided in
their opinions concerning it. Some think it refers to the mystery of
reviving the decrepit and aged by the transfusion of youthful blood.
It is, however, not improbable, that Medea obtained the reputation of
being a sorceress, only because she had been taught by her mother the
virtues of various plants: and that she administered a potion to Æson,
which furnished him with new spirits and strength.

The daughters of Pelias being desirous to obtain the same favor of
Medea for their father, she, to revenge the evils which he had brought
upon her husband and his family, may possibly have mixed some venomous
herbs in his drink, which immediately killed him.

FABLE III. [VII.350-401]

Medea, after having killed Pelias, goes through several countries to
Corinth, where, finding that Jason, in her absence, has married the
daughter of king Creon, she sets fire to the palace, whereby the
princess and her father are consumed. She then murders the two
children which she had by Jason, before his face, and takes to flight.

And unless she had mounted into the air with winged dragons, she would not have been exempt from punishment; she flies aloft, over both shady Pelion, the lofty habitation[46] of the son of Phillyra, and over Othrys, and the places noted for the fate of the ancient Cerambus.[47] He, by the aid of Nymphs, being lifted on wings into the air, when the ponderous earth was covered by the sea pouring over it, not being overwhelmed, escaped the flood of Deucalion. On the left side, she leaves the Æolian Pitane,[48] and the image of the long Dragon[49] made out of stone, and the wood of Ida,[50] in which Bacchus hid a stolen bullock beneath the appearance of a fictitious stag; {the spot} too, where the father of Corythus[51] lies buried beneath a little sand, and the fields which Mæra[52] alarmed by her unusual barking.

The city, too, of Eurypylus,[53] in which the Coan matrons[54] wore horns, at the time when the herd of Hercules[55] departed {thence}; Phœbean Rhodes[56] also, and the Ialysian Telchines,[57] whose eyes[58] corrupting all things by the very looking upon them, Jupiter utterly hating, thrust beneath the waves of his brother. She passed, too, over the Cartheian walls of ancient Cea,[59] where her father Alcidamas[60] was destined to wonder that a gentle dove could arise from the body of his daughter.

After that, she beholds the lakes of Hyrie,[61] and Cycneian Tempe,[62] which the swan that had suddenly become such, frequented. For there Phyllius, at the request of the boy, had given him birds, and a fierce lion tamed; being ordered, too, to subdue a bull, he had subdued him; and being angry at his despising his love so often, he denied him, {when} begging the bull as his last reward. The other, indignant, said, “Thou shalt wish that thou hadst given it;” and {then} leaped from a high rock. All imagined he had fallen; but, transformed into a swan, he hovered in the air on snow-white wings. But his mother, Hyrie, not knowing that he was saved, dissolved in tears, and formed a lake {called} after her own name.

Adjacent to these {places} is Pleuron;[63] in which Combe,[64] the daughter of Ophis, escaped the wounds of her sons with trembling wings. After that, she sees the fields of Calaurea,[65] sacred to Latona, conscious of the transformation of their king, together with his wife, into birds. Cyllene is on the right hand, on which Menephron[66] was {one day} to lie with his mother, after the manner of savage beasts. Far hence she beholds Cephisus,[67] lamenting the fate of his grandson, changed by Apollo into a bloated sea-calf; and the house of Eumelus,[68] lamenting his son in the air.

At length, borne on the wings of her dragons, she reached the Pirenian Ephyre.[69] Here, those of ancient times promulgated that in the early ages mortal bodies were produced from mushrooms springing from rain. But after the new-made bride was consumed, through the Colchian drugs, and both seas beheld the king’s house on fire, her wicked sword was bathed in the blood of her sons; and the mother, having {thus} barbarously revenged herself, fled from the arms of Jason. Being borne hence by her Titanian dragons,[70] she entered the city of Pallas, which saw thee, most righteous Phineus,[71] and thee, aged Periphas,[72] flying together, and the granddaughter of Polypemon[73] resting upon new-formed wings.

[Footnote 46: _Lofty habitation._--Ver. 352. The mountains of
Thessaly are so called, because Chiron, the son of the Nymph
Phillyra, lived there.]

[Footnote 47: _Cerambus._--Ver. 353. Antoninus Liberalis, quoting
from Nicander, calls him Terambus, and says that he lived at the
foot of Mount Pelion; he incurred the resentment of the Nymphs,
who changed him into a scarabæus, or winged beetle. Flying to the
heights of Parnassus, at the time of the flood of Deucalion, he
thereby made his escape. Some writers say that he was changed into
a bird.]

[Footnote 48: _Pitane._--Ver. 357. This was a town of Ætolia, in
Asia Minor, near the mouth of the river Caicus.]

[Footnote 49: _The long dragon._--Ver. 358. He alludes, most
probably, to the story of the Lesbian changed into a dragon or
serpent, which is mentioned in the Eleventh book, line 58.]

[Footnote 50: _Wood of Ida._--Ver. 359. This was the grove of Ida,
in Phrygia. It is supposed that he refers to the story of
Thyoneus, the son of Bacchus, who, having stolen an ox from some
Phrygian shepherds, was pursued by them; on which Bacchus, to
screen his son, changed the ox into a stag, and invested Thyoneus
with the garb of a hunter.]

[Footnote 51: _Father of Corythus._--Ver. 361. Paris was the
father of Corythus, by Œnone. He was said to have been buried at
Cebrena, a little town of Phrygia, near Troy.]

[Footnote 52: _Mæra._--Ver. 362. This was the name of the dog of
Icarius, the father of Erigone, who discovered the murder of his
master by the shepherds of Attica, and was made a Constellation,
under the name of the Dog-star. As, however, the flight of Medea
was now far distant from Attica, it is more likely that the Poet
refers to the transformation of some female, named Mæra, into a
dog, whose story has not come down to us; indeed, Lactantius
expresses this as his opinion. Burmann thinks that it refers to
the transformation of Hecuba, mentioned in the 13th book, line
406; and that ‘Mæra’ is a corruption for some other name of
Hecuba.]

[Footnote 53: _Eurypylus._--Ver. 363. He was a former king of the
Isle of Cos, in the Ægean Sea, and was much famed for his skill as
an augur.]

[Footnote 54: _The Coan matrons._--Ver. 363. Lactantius says that
the women of Cos, extolling their own beauty as superior to that
of Venus, incurred the resentment of that Goddess, and were
changed by her into cows. Another version of the story is, that
these women, being offended at Hercules for driving the oxen of
Ægeon through their island, were very abusive, on which Juno
transformed them into cows: to this latter version reference is
made in the present passage.]

[Footnote 55: _Hercules._--Ver. 364. He besieged and took the
chief city of the island, which was also called Cos; and having
slain Eurypylus, carried off his daughter Chalciope.]

[Footnote 56: _Phœbean Rhodes._--Ver. 365. The island of Rhodes,
in the Mediterranean, off the coast of Asia Minor, was sacred to
the Sun, and was said never to be deserted by his rays.]

[Footnote 57: _Ialysian Telchines._--Ver. 365. Ialysus was one of
the three most ancient cities of Rhodes, and was said to have been
founded by Ialysus, whose parent was the Sun. The Telchines, or
Thelchines, were a race supposed to have migrated thither from
Crete. They were persons of great artistic skill, on which account
they may, possibly, have obtained the character of being
magicians; such was the belief of Strabo.]

[Footnote 58: _Whose eyes._--Ver. 366. The evil eye was supposed
by the ancients not only to have certain fascinating powers, but
to be able to destroy the beauty of any object on which it was
turned.]

[Footnote 59: _Cea._--Ver. 368. This island, now Zia, is in the
Ægean sea, near Eubœa. Carthæa was a city there, the ruins of
which are still in existence.]

[Footnote 60: _Alcidamas._--Ver. 369. Antoninus Liberalis says,
that Alcidamas lived not at Carthæa, but at Iülis, another city in
the Isle of Cea.]

[Footnote 61: _Lakes of Hyrie._--Ver. 371. Hyrie was the mother of
Cycnus; and pining away with grief on the transformation of her
son, she was changed into a lake, called by her name.]

[Footnote 62: _Cycneian Tempe._--Ver. 371. This was not Thessalian
Tempe, but a valley of Teumesia, or Teumesus, a mountain of
Bœotia.]

[Footnote 63: _Pleuron._--Ver. 382. This was a city of Ætolia,
near Mount Curius. It was far distant from Bœotia and Lake Hyrie.
Some commentators, therefore, suggest that the reading should be
Brauron, a village of Attica, near the confines of Bœotia.]

[Footnote 64: _Combe._--Ver. 383. She was the mother of the
Curetes of Ætolia, who, perhaps, received that name from Mount
Curius. There was another Combe, the daughter of Asopus, who
discovered the use of brazen arms, and was called Chalcis, from
that circumstance. She was said to have borne a hundred daughters
to her husband.]

[Footnote 65: _Calaurea._--Ver. 384. This was an island between
Crete and the Peloponnesus, in the Saronic gulf, which was sacred
to Apollo. Latona resided there, having given Delos to Neptune in
exchange for it. Demosthenes died there.]

[Footnote 66: _Menephron._--Ver. 386. Hyginus says, that he
committed incest both with his mother Blias, and with Cyllene, his
daughter.]

[Footnote 67: _Cephisus._--Ver. 388. The river Cephisus, in
Bœotia, had a daughter, Praxithea. She was the wife of Erectheus,
and bore him eight sons, the fate of one of whom is perhaps here
referred to.]

[Footnote 68: _Eumelus._--Ver. 390. He was the king of Patræ, on
the sea-coast of Achaia. Triptolemus visited him with his winged
chariot; on which, Antheas, the son of Eumelus, ascended it while
his father was sleeping, and falling from it, he was killed. He
is, probably, here referred to; and the reading should be ‘natum,’
and not ‘natam.’ Some writers, however, suppose that his daughter
was changed into a bird.]