THE FAMILY OF ÆOLUS
=163. Descendants of Deucalion.= Athamas, brother of Sisyphus, was
descended from Æolus, whose father, Hellen, was the son of Deucalion
of Thessaly. Athamas had by his wife Nephele two children, Phrixus and
Helle. After a time, growing indifferent to his wife, Athamas put her
away and took Ino, the daughter of Cadmus. The unfortunate sequel of
this second marriage we have already seen.[233]
Nephele, apprehending danger to her children from the influence of
their stepmother, took measures to put them out of her reach. Mercury
gave her a ram with a golden fleece, on which she set the two children.
Vaulting into the air, the animal took his course to the east; but
when he was crossing the strait that divides Europe and Asia, the girl
Helle fell from his back into the sea, which from her was afterward
called the Hellespont--now the Dardanelles. The ram safely landed the
boy Phrixus in Colchis, where he was hospitably received by Æetes, the
king of that country. Phrixus sacrificed the ram to Jupiter, but the
fleece he gave to Æetes, who placed it in a consecrated grove under the
care of a sleepless dragon.[234]
=164. The Quest of the Golden Fleece.=[235] Another realm in Thessaly,
near to that of Athamas, was ruled over by his nephew Æson. Æson,
although he had a son Jason, surrendered the crown to a half brother,
Pelias,[236] on condition that he should hold it only during the
minority of the lad. This young Jason was, by the way, a second cousin
of Bellerophon and of the Atalanta who ran against Hippomenes, and a
first cousin of Admetus, the husband of Alcestis.[237] When, however,
Jason, being grown up, came to demand the crown, his uncle Pelias
with wily intent suggested to him the glorious quest of the golden
fleece. Jason, pleased with the thought, forthwith made preparations
for the expedition. At that time the only species of navigation known
to the Greeks consisted of small boats or canoes hollowed out from
trunks of trees; when, accordingly, Jason employed Argus to build a
vessel capable of containing fifty men, it was considered a gigantic
undertaking. The vessel was named _Argo_, probably after its builder.
Jason soon found himself at the head of a bold band of comrades, many
of whom afterward were renowned among the heroes and demigods of Greece.
From every region of Ægea's shore
The brave assembled; those illustrious twins
Castor and Pollux; Orpheus, tuneful bard;
Zetes and Calaïs, as the wind in speed;
Strong Hercules and many a chief renowned.
On deep Iolcos' sandy shore they thronged,
Gleaming in armor, ardent of exploits,--
And soon, the laurel cord and the huge stone
Uplifting to the deck, unmoored the bark;
Whose keel of wondrous length the skillful hand
Of Argus fashioned for the proud attempt;
And in the extended keel a lofty mast
Upraised, and sails full swelling; to the chiefs
Unwonted objects. Now first, now they learned
Their bolder steerage over ocean wave,
Led by the golden stars, as Chiron's art
Had marked the sphere celestial.[238]
Theseus, Meleager, Peleus, and Nestor were also among these Argonauts,
or sailors of the _Argo_. The ship with her crew of heroes left
the shores of Thessaly, and touching at the island of Lemnos,
thence crossed to Mysia and thence to Thrace. Here they found the
sage Phineus, who instructed the Argonauts how they might pass the
Symplegades, or Clashing Islands, at the entrance of the Euxine Sea.
When they reached these islands they, accordingly, let go a dove, which
took her way between the rocks and passed in safety, only losing some
feathers of her tail. Jason and his men, seizing the favorable moment
of the rebound, plied their oars with vigor and passed safe through,
though the islands closed behind them and actually grazed the stern of
the vessel. They then rowed along the shore till they arrived at the
eastern end of the sea, and so landed in the kingdom of Colchis.
[Illustration: FIG. 131. JASON CONQUERS THE BULLS AND STEALS THE FLEECE]
Jason made known his message to the Colchian king, Æetes, who consented
to give up the golden fleece on certain conditions, namely, that Jason
should yoke to the plow two fire-breathing bulls with brazen feet,
and that he then should sow the teeth of the dragon that Cadmus had
slain. Jason, although it was well known that a crop of armed men
would spring up from the teeth, destined to turn their weapons against
their producer, accepted the conditions, and a time was set for the
undertaking. The hero, however, wisely spent the interval in wooing
Medea, the daughter of Æetes; and with such success that they plighted
troth before the altar of Hecate. The princess then furnished her hero
with a charm which should aid him in the contest to come.
Accordingly, when the momentous day was arrived, Jason with calmness
encountered the fire-breathing monsters and speedily yoked them to the
plow. The Colchians stood in amazement; the Greeks shouted for joy.
Next, the hero proceeded to sow the dragon's teeth and plow them in.
Up sprang, according to prediction, the crop of armed men, brandished
aloft their weapons, and rushed upon Jason. The Greeks trembled for
their hero. Medea herself grew pale with fear. The hero himself for a
time, with sword and shield, kept his assailants at bay; but he surely
would have been overwhelmed by the numbers, had he not resorted to
a charm which Medea had taught him: seizing a stone, he threw it in
the midst of his foes. Immediately they turned their arms against one
another, and soon there was not one of the dragon's brood alive.
It remained only to lull to sleep the dragon that guarded the fleece.
This was done by scattering over him a few drops of a preparation
which, again, Medea had supplied. Jason then seized the fleece, and,
with his friends and his sweetheart accompanying, hastened to the
vessel. It is said that, in order to delay the pursuit of her father
Æetes, Medea tore to pieces her young brother Absyrtus and strewed
fragments of him along the line of their flight. The ruse succeeded.
=165. The Return of the Argonauts.= On their way home the Argonauts
beat a devious course, sailing after other dangers had been overcome,
by the island that the Sirens infested. And here the heroes would
have hung their halsers and remained, had not Orpheus vanquished the
seductive strains of the sea-muses with his own more melodious and
persuasive song.[239]
Oh, happy seafarers are ye
And surely all your ills are past,
And toil upon the land and sea,
Since ye are brought to us at last;
chanted the Sirens, promising long rest and the kingdoms of sleep.
But now, but now, when ye have lain
Asleep with us a little while
Beneath the washing of the main,
How calm shall be your waking smile!
Then Orpheus replied, encouraging his men:
A little more, a little more,
O carriers of the Golden Fleece!
A little labor with the oar,
Before we reach the land of Greece.
E'en now, perchance, faint rumors reach
Men's ears of this our victory,
And draw them down upon the beach
To gaze across the empty sea.
Again the Sirens:
Alas! and will ye stop your ears,
In vain desire to do aught,
And wish to live 'mid cares and fears,
Until the last fear makes you nought?
But Orpheus, reminding the rowers of home and love and joy:
Is not the May-time now on earth,
When close against the city wall
The folks are singing in their mirth,
While on their heads the May flowers fall?
carried them past triumphant.
The Argonauts arrived safe in Thessaly. Jason delivered the fleece to
Pelias, and dedicated the _Argo_ to Neptune.
=166. Medea and Æson.=[240] Medea's career as a sorceress was, by no
means, completed. At Jason's request she undertook next to restore his
aged father Æson to the vigor of youth. To the full moon she addressed
her incantations, to the stars, to Hecate, to Tellus, the goddess of
the earth. In a chariot borne aloft by dragons she traversed the fields
of air to regions where flourished potent plants, which only she knew
how to select. Nine nights she employed in her search, and during that
period shunned all intercourse with mortals.
[Illustration: FIG. 132. MEDEA]
Next she erected two altars, the one to Hecate, the other to Hebe,
and sacrificed a black sheep,--pouring libations of milk and wine.
She implored Pluto and his stolen bride to spare the old man's life.
Then she directed that Æson be led forth; and throwing him into a deep
sleep, she laid him on a bed of herbs, like one dead. No eye profane
looked upon her mysteries. With streaming hair thrice she moved round
the altars, dipped flaming twigs in the blood, and laid them thereon
to burn. Meanwhile, the caldron with its contents was preparing. In
it she put magic herbs, with seeds and flowers of acrid juice, stones
from the distant East, and sand from the shore of all-surrounding
ocean, hoar-frost gathered by moonlight, a screech owl's head and
wings, and the entrails of a wolf. She added fragments of the shells
of tortoises and the liver of stags--animals tenacious of life--and
the head and beak of a crow, which outlives nine generations of men.
These, with many other things "without a name," she boiled together for
her purposed work, stirring them with a dry olive branch. The branch,
when taken out, instantly was green and erelong was covered with leaves
and a plentiful growth of young olives; and as the liquor boiled and
bubbled and sometimes bubbled over, the grass wherever the sprinklings
fell leaped into verdure like that of spring.
Seeing that all was ready, Medea cut the throat of the old man, let
out his blood, and poured into his mouth and his wound the juices of
her caldron. As soon as he had completely imbibed them, his hair and
beard lost their whiteness and assumed the color of youth; his paleness
and emaciation were gone; his veins were full of blood, his limbs of
vigor and robustness; and Æson, on awakening, found himself forty years
younger.
[Illustration: FIG. 133. MEDEA AND DAUGHTERS OF PELIAS]
=167. Pelias.=[241] In another instance, Medea made her arts the
instrument of revenge. Pelias, the usurping uncle of Jason, still kept
him out of his heritage. But the daughters of Pelias wished Medea
to restore their father also to youth. Medea simulated consent, but
prepared her caldron for him in a new and singular way. She put in only
water and a few simple herbs. In the night she persuaded the daughters
of Pelias to kill him. They at first hesitated to strike, but Medea
chiding their irresolution, they turned away their faces and, giving
random blows, smote him with their weapons. Starting from his sleep,
the old man cried out, "My daughters, would you kill your father?"
Whereat their hearts failed them, and the weapons fell from their
hands. Medea, however, struck the fatal blow.
They placed him in the caldron, but, as might be expected, with no
success. Medea herself had taken care to escape before they discovered
the treachery. She had, however, little profit of the fruits of her
crime. Jason, for whom she had sacrificed so much, put her away, for he
wished to marry Creüsa, princess of Corinth. Whereupon Medea, enraged
at his ingratitude, called on the gods for vengeance; then, sending a
poisoned robe as a gift to the bride, killing her own children, and
setting fire to the palace, she mounted her serpent-drawn chariot and
fled to Athens. There she married King Ægeus, the father of Theseus;
and we shall meet her again when we come to the adventures of that
hero.[242]
The incantation of Medea readily suggests that of the witches in
Macbeth:
Round about the caldron go;
In the poison'd entrails throw.--
Toad, that under cold stone
Days and nights has thirty-one
Swelter'd venom sleeping got,
Boil thou first i' the charmèd pot....
Fillet of a fenny snake
In the caldron boil and bake;
Eye of newt and toe of frog,
Wool of bat and tongue of dog,
Adder's fork and blind-worm's sting,
Lizard's leg and howlet's wing,--
For a charm of powerful trouble
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble....
Scale of dragon, tooth of wolf,
Witches' mummy, maw and gulf
Of the ravin'd salt-sea shark,
Root of hemlock digged i' the dark....
Make the gruel thick and slab.[243]
FOOTNOTES:
[233] § 144.
[234] Apollodorus, 1, 9, § 1; Apollonius Rhodius, 1, 927.
[235] Ovid, Metam. 6, 667; 7, 143. The Argonautica of Apollonius of
Rhodes.
[236] See § 120.
[237] See Table G, Commentary, § 103.
[238] Dyer, The Fleece.
[239] William Morris, Life and Death of Jason.
[240] Ovid, Metam. 7, 143-293.
[241] Ovid, Metam. 7, 297-353.
[242] § 176.
[243] Macbeth, IV, i. Consult.