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When Jason arrived at Colchis, he sent to King AEetes, and asked of him
the Golden Fleece. To this AEetes replied that he might have it,
provided he could yoke the two brazen-footed bulls with flaming breath,
which had been a present from Vulcan, and with them plough a piece of
land, and sow it with the dragon's teeth. Pallas had given AEetes half
the teeth of the dragon of Thebes, which had been slain by Cadmus.
The task seemed beyond his reach, till Medea, the wicked witch, daughter
of AEetes, promised to help him, on condition that he would marry her,
and take her to Greece. When Jason had sworn to do so, Medea gave him an
ointment with which to rub himself, also his shield and spear. For a
whole day afterwards neither sword nor fire should hurt him, and he would
thus be able to master the bulls. So he found it; he made them draw the
plough, and then he sowed the teeth, which came up, like those sown by
Cadmus, as armed men, who began to attack him; but, as Medea had bidden
him, he threw a stone among them, and they began to fight with one
another, so that he could easily kill the few who spared each other.
Still AEetes refused to give him the fleece, and was about to set fire to
the Argo, and kill the crew; but Medea warned Jason in time, and led him
to the spot where it was nailed against a tree. Orpheus lulled the
guardian dragon to sleep with his lyre, while Jason took down the fleece;
and Medea joined them, carrying in her arms her little brother, whom she
had snatched from his bed with a cruel purpose, for when her father took
alarm and gave chase, she cut the poor child to pieces, and strewed his
limbs on the stream of the Phasis, so that, while her father waited to
collect them, the Argo had time to sail away.
[Picture: The Argo] It did not return by the same route, but went to the
north, and came to the isle of the goddess Circe, who purified Jason and
Medea from the blood of the poor boy. Then they came to the isle of the
Sirens, creatures like fair maidens, who stood on the shore singing so
sweetly that no sailor could resist the charm; but the moment any man
reached the shore, they strangled him and sucked his blood. Warned by
Medea, Orpheus played and sang so grandly as to drown their fatal song,
and the Argo came out into the Mediterranean somewhere near Trinacria,
the three-cornered island now called Sicily, where they had to pass
between two lofty cliffs. In a cave under one of these lived a monster
called Scylla, with twelve limbs and six long necks, with a dog's head to
each, ready each to seize a man out of every ship that passed; but it was
safer to keep on her side than to go to the other cliff, for there a
water-witch named Charybdis lived in a whirlpool, and was sure to suck
the whole ship in, and swallow it up. However, for her husband Peleus'
sake, Thetis and her sister Nereids came and guided the Argo safely
through.
When the crew returned to Iolcus, they had only been absent four months;
and Jason gave the fleece to his uncle Pelias, and dedicated the Argo to
Neptune. He found his father AEson grown very old, but Medea undertook
to restore him to youth. She went forth by moonlight, gathered a number
of herbs, and then, putting them in a caldron, she cut old AEson into
pieces, threw them in, and boiled them all night. In the morning AEson
appeared as a lively black-haired young man, no older than his son.
Pelias' daughters came and begged her to teach them the same spell. She
feigned to do so, but she did not tell them the true herbs, and thus the
poor maidens only slew their father, and did not bring him to life again.
The son of Pelias drove the treacherous Medea and her husband from
Iolcus, and they went to Corinth, where they lived ten years, until Jason
grew weary of Medea, and put her away, in order to marry Creusa, the
king's daughter. In her rage, Medea sent the bride the fatal gift of a
poisoned robe, then she killed her own children, and flew away, in a
chariot drawn by winged serpents, to the east, where she became the
mother of a son named Medus, from whom the nation of Medes was descended.
As to Jason, he had fallen asleep at noon one hot day under the shade of
the Argo, where it was drawn up on the sand by Neptune's temple, when a
bit of wood broke off from the prow, fell on his head, and killed him.
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Of the other Argonauts, Orpheus went to Thessaly, and there taught and
softened the people much by his music. He married a fair maiden named
Eurydice, with whom he lived happily and peacefully, till she was bitten
by a venomous serpent and died. Orpheus was so wretched that he set
forth to try to bring her back from Tartarus. He went with nothing but
his lyre, and his music was so sweet that Cerberus stood listening, and
let him pass, and all the torments of the Danaids, Sisyphus and all the
rest, ceased while he was playing. His song even brought tears into
Pluto's eyes, and Proserpine, who guarded the female dead, gave him leave
to take back Eurydice to the light of day, provided he did not once look
back as he led her out of Tartarus.
Orpheus had to walk first, and, as he went up the long, dark cavern, with
Eurydice behind him, he carefully obeyed, till, just as he was reaching
the upper air, he unhappily forgot, and turned his head to see whether
she were following. He just saw her stretch out her hands to him, and
then she was drawn back, and vanished from his sight. The gates were
closed, and he had lost her again. After this he wandered sadly about,
all his songs turned to woe, until at last the Bacchanal women, in fury
at his despising the foul rites of their god, tore him limb from limb.
The Muses collected his remains, and gave them funeral rites, and Jupiter
placed his lyre in the skies, where you may know it by one of the
brightest of all our stars.
Hercules also made another visit to the realms below. Admetus, one of
the AEolian kings, had obtained from Apollo that, when the time came for
him to die, his life should be prolonged if anyone would submit to death
in his turn. The call came while Admetus was still young, and he
besought his old father, and then his mother, to die in his stead; but
they would not, and it was his fair young wife Alcestis who gave her life
for his. Just as she was laid in the tomb, Hercules came to visit
Admetus, and, on hearing what had happened, he went down to the kingdom
of Pluto and brought her back. Or some say he sat by her tomb, and
wrestled with Death when he came to seize her.
But, strong as he was, Hercules had in time to meet death himself. He
had married a nymph named Deianira, and was taking her home, when he came
to a river where a Centaur named Nessus lived, and gained his bread by
carrying travellers over on his back. Hercules paid him the price for
carrying Deianira over, while he himself crossed on foot; but as soon as
the river was between them, the faithless Centaur began to gallop away
with the lady. Hercules sent an arrow after him, which brought him to
the ground, and as he was dying he prepared his revenge, by telling
Deianira that his blood was enchanted with love for her, and that if ever
she found her husband's affection failing her, she had only to make him
put on a garment anointed with it, and his heart would return to her: he
knew full well that his blood was full of the poison of the Hydra, but
poor Deianira believed him, and had saved some of the blood before
Hercules came up.
Several years after, Hercules made prisoner a maiden named Iole, in
Lydia, after gaining a great victory. Landing in the island of Euboea,
he was going to make a great sacrifice to Jupiter, and sent home to
Deianira for a festal garment to wear at it. She was afraid he was
falling in love with Iole, and steeped the garment in the preparation she
had made from Nessus' blood. No sooner did Hercules put it on, than his
veins were filled with agony, which nothing could assuage. He tried to
tear off the robe, but the skin and flesh came with it, and his blood was
poisoned beyond relief. He sailed home, and when Deianira saw the state
he was in she hung herself for grief, while he charged Hylas, his eldest
son, to take care of Iole, and marry her as soon as he grew up. Then,
unable to bear the pain any longer, and knowing that by his twelve tasks
he had earned the prize of endless life, he went to Mount OEta, crying
aloud with the pain, so that the rocks rang again with the sound. He
gave his quiver of arrows to his friend Philoctetes, charging him to
collect his ashes and bury them, but never to make known the spot; and
then he tore up, with his mighty strength, trees by the roots enough to
form a funeral pile, lay down on it, and called on his friend to set fire
to it; but no one could bear to do so, till a shepherd consented to
thrust in a torch. Then thunder was heard, a cloud came down, and he was
borne away to Olympus, while Philoctetes collected and buried the ashes.
His young sons were banished by Eurystheus, and were taken by his old
friend Iolaus to seek shelter in various cities, but only the Athenians
were brave enough to let them remain. Theseus had been driven away and
banished from Athens; but the citizens sheltered the sons of the hero,
and, when Eurystheus pursued them, a battle was fought on the isthmus of
Corinth, in which the old enemy of Hercules was killed by Iolaus, with
all his sons. Then the Heraclieds (sons of Hercules) were going to fight
their way back to Argos, but an army met them at the isthmus, and was
going to give them battle, when Hylas proposed that he should fight with
a single champion chosen on the other side. If he gained, he was to be
restored to the kingdom of Perseus; if not, there was to be a truce for a
hundred years. Hylas had not the strength of his father; he was slain,
and his brothers had to retreat and bide their time.
Argos came into the power of Agamemnon, who had married Clytemnestra, the
sister of Castor and Pollux, while his brother Menelaus married the
beautiful Helen. All the Greek heroes had been suitors for Helen, the
fairest woman living, and they all swore to one another that, choose she
whom she might, they would all stand by him, and punish anyone who might
try to steal her from him. Her choice fell on Menelaus, and soon after
her wedding her brother Castor was slain, and though Pollux was immortal,
he could not bear to live without his brother, and prayed to share his
death; upon which Jupiter made them both stars, the bright ones called
Gemini, or the Twins, and Menelaus reigned with Helen at Sparta, as
Agamemnon did at Mycenae.
These two were sons of Atreus, and were descended from Tantalus, once a
favourite of the gods, who used to come down and feast with him, until
once he took his son Pelops and dressed him for their meal. Jupiter
found it out, collected the limbs, and restored the boy to life; but
Ceres had been so distracted with grief about her daughter, that she had
eaten one shoulder, and Jupiter gave him an ivory one instead. Tantalus
was sent to Tartarus, where his punishment was to pine with hunger and
thirst, with a feast before him, where he neither could touch the food
nor the drink, because there was a rock hung over his head threatening to
crush him. Pelops was a wonderful charioteer, and won his bride in the
chariot race, having bribed the charioteer of his rival to leave out the
linchpins of his wheels. Afterwards, when the charioteer asked a reward,
Pelops threw him into the sea; and this was the second crime that brought
a doom on the race. Pelops gave his name to the whole peninsula now
called the Morea, or mulberry-leaf, but which was all through ancient
times known as the Peloponnesus, or Isle of Pelops. He reigned at Elis,
and after his death his sons Atreus and Thyestes struggled for the rule,
but both were horribly wicked men, and Atreus was said to have killed two
sons of Thyestes, and served them up to him at a feast. There was,
therefore, a heavy curse on the whole family, both on AEgisthus, son of
Thyestes, and on his cousins Agamemnon and Menelaus, the Atridae, or sons
of Atreus.
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