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.