courtiers and many other people, and Medea went also, attended by her
women. Near the field was a sacred forest in which the two bulls
were feeding; and in this same forest hung the Golden Fleece, from
which bright rays of light might be seen streaming as the trees were
swayed backwards and forwards by the wind. The plough was standing
ready in the field, and one of the king's servants held in his hand a
helmet which contained the dragon's teeth. Soon afterwards Jason
arrived with the Argonauts looking in such good spirits that the king
and his followers were astonished, for they did not know about the
ointment that had made him proof against fire and steel,--the
Argonauts knew about it, however, for Jason had told them. The king
commanded Jason to fetch the bulls, and he went into the forest and
soon found them. They came towards him bellowing loudly, with the
bright fire streaming from their mouths and nostrils, meaning to kick
him to death with their hoofs. But their fiery breath had no effect
on Jason, and their brazen hoofs could not do him any harm. He
seized them by the horns and dragged them along, and he was so strong
that although they struggled with all their might and tried to pull
first to the right and {163} then to the left, they were obliged to
follow him. It was a strange sight to see him coming out of the
forest with the fire streaming over his face and body, and the bulls
kicking him with their brazen hoofs, yet notwithstanding this, whole
and unscathed. He dragged the bulls to the plough and laid the yoke
upon their necks, then he drove them through the field making furrows
as he went along, and when they were stubborn and refused to go on,
he pricked them with a goad that he had in his hand. He went up and
down three times, until the king said it was enough, and then he
unharnessed the bulls and let them go back into the forest. The king
was very much astonished at his having performed the first part of
his task so successfully, but when he gave him the helmet with the
dragon's teeth in it, he felt sure that the armed men would at all
events make an end of him. Jason walked up and down the furrows, and
every here and there he threw in a tooth and stamped down a clod over
it with his foot. When he had finished he looked round,--the armed
men were already rising out of the ground, and in a little while the
whole fifty had sprung up; they were completely covered with brazen
armour, and had very angry faces. Then Jason remembered the trick
that Medea had taught him, and he took up stones from the ground and
threw them among the band of warriors without letting the king see
what he was doing. Every time one of the armed men felt a stone
strike him, he began to fight with his neighbour because he thought
it was he who had thrown it. So in a short time there was a fierce
battle raging amongst the armed men, and Jason found his task an easy
one: he {164} took his shield and spear, and killed the warriors in
the confusion, till at last they all lay dead on the ground, and the
earth was quite red with their blood.
All the people were full of admiration of the brave hero, and when
Jason took off his helmet and wiped his forehead, they thronged round
him, praising his great achievement. But the king was angry, and
went away with his courtiers without speaking a word to Jason. He
was still determined not to part with the Golden Fleece, and made up
his mind to kill the hero who had come to ask for it. When he
reached the palace, he chose out the strongest of his soldiers and
told them that he would himself lead them to the shore early the next
morning while the Argonauts were still asleep, and that they would
kill the heroes and burn the ship. Aeëtes expected to take the
Argonauts by surprise, but Medea went again that evening to Jason and
told him what her father intended. She also said that she would get
the Golden Fleece for him, and that they must flee away that night.
So they went together into the forest in which the Fleece hung;--high
up among the branches shone the golden light, and at the foot of the
tree was the dragon that never slept. Jason waited at a little
distance while Medea went alone to the dragon, for she was accustomed
to take him his food every day, and he knew her and allowed her to
stroke him. Medea spoke kindly to the dragon, and gave him some
bread that she had brought with her. But the bread had been soaked
in a sweet juice which throws every one who tastes it into the
deepest sleep, so when the dragon had swallowed it, his eyes closed
for the first time in his life and he fell asleep and snored so
loudly {165} that all the birds in the wood awoke and flew away.
Then Jason came forward and climbed up the tall oak and fetched down
the Fleece, and when he had done this, they went back to the shore.
Jason had thrown the Fleece over his arm, and the Argonauts, who were
on the look-out for him, could see him coming towards them with his
shining prize while he was still a long way off, and they pulled up
the great stones which had been used as anchors, and made everything
ready for their departure. But Medea went back once more to her
father's palace, and creeping quietly upstairs, she took her little
brother Absyrtus gently out of his bed, and then set out on her
flight. She took him with her, not because she loved her brother,
but because she thought he might be found useful in case her father
should pursue them. You will soon hear what happened to him.
4. _The Journey Home._
When they were all in the ship, the heroes pushed off and sailed
away. As it was midnight the helmsman had to steer by the stars, but
he knew how to guide the ship towards the setting sun which was the
direction in which Greece lay, and by daybreak they were already far
from the land. King Aeëtes came down to the shore with his
followers, who took with them weapons to fight with, and also torches
for burning the ship. But when they reached it, they stood rubbing
their eyes, for they could see neither the ship nor the heroes, and
when they looked towards the forest, there was the dragon in a deep
sleep, and the Golden Fleece {166} was gone. Soon the king heard
that Medea had fled and had taken with her the little Absyrtus, and
then he knew who it was that had helped the Argonauts, and he was
more angry than he had ever been in his life. He made his men get
ready the swiftest ship they had, and promised to reward them nobly
if they succeeded in overtaking the Argo.
They rowed with all their might, and towards evening they came in
sight of the Argo. Medea knew that all on board would be killed if
they fell into the hands of her father, and when his ship had almost
overtaken the Argo, she took a long knife and stabbed her brother
Absyrtus to death, and cut him in pieces before the eyes of Aeëtes
and flung the pieces into the sea. The king who had been so angry,
now tore his hair for grief; he no longer cared about the Golden
Fleece, and his only desire was to obtain the corpse of his son in
order to bury it, for at that time it was believed that those whose
bodies were not buried had no rest in the Lower World, and the king
would not for the world have let his child's body be eaten by the
fishes. He commanded his men to stop and look for the pieces, and by
the time they had collected them all, the Argo was far out of sight,
and they were obliged to turn back. The king grieved bitterly for
his dead son, and when he came home he buried him with great
magnificence. When that was done, the wish nearest his heart was to
catch the Argo, and he manned three ships with sailors, and told them
to go in search of her and never to return till they had found her.
They sailed about in all directions, but could not find a trace of
the ship anywhere, so as they were afraid to go back to the king
{167} without her, they moored on a strange island, where they
settled down and built houses and remained for the rest of their
lives. Aeëtes was meanwhile spending all his days in watching for
their return.
A violent storm now overtook the Argo. The sea was stirred up and
refused to carry peacefully on her bosom the ship in which the sister
had murdered her brother, and the waves rose as high as mountains, so
that those who were on board the ship had to hold on to the sides and
mast in order to avoid falling into the sea. At last the Sacred Beam
which was planted in the fore part of the vessel, spoke, and said
that the storm would not cease, nor would they have any prosperity in
their voyage, until Medea and Jason had been purged from the stain of
blood, and that they had better go to the enchantress Circe and beg
her to do this for them. So they sailed to the island where Circe
lived, and Medea and Jason left the others in the ship and went
ashore to the palace of the enchantress and placed themselves on the
hearth, which was the place sacred to those who came to sue for help.
Circe asked what their request was, and Medea told her all that had
happened and begged her to atone for their crimes. At first she
refused to do this, for King Aeëtes was her brother, and it was her
nephew that they had murdered; but at last she was persuaded, and
purified them with sacrifices and baths. When this had been done,
they went back to the ship and continued their voyage, and they had
now such lovely weather that the fishes came up from the bottom of
the sea and played merrily in the sunshine.
After some time the Argonauts came to the wicked {168} Sirens, who
were treacherous nymphs that lived in the sea. Their faces were
marvellously beautiful, and they sang so enchantingly that every one
who heard them was bewitched and could not help going to them. But
under the water they had great ugly claws instead of hands, and their
bodies ended in a hideous fish-tail. They clutched those who came to
them with their claws and ate them up, and all the reef where they
lived was strewn with the bones of the men they had eaten. But even
those who knew how cruel and treacherous they were, could no longer
believe it when they heard them sing, and could never resist jumping
into the sea and swimming towards them. When the Sirens saw the ship
approaching, full of noble heroes, they thought they were going to
have a grand feast and began to sing their sweetest songs. They
would have enticed even the Argonauts, and all the witchcraft of
Medea would have been powerless to save them, if there had not been a
hero on board, named Orpheus, who was famous all over Greece for his
singing and playing, and who had such marvellous power over the
hearts of men that no one who heard him could refrain from weeping,
however cruel and hard he might be. So the moment the Sirens began,
Orpheus took his lyre and sang in opposition to them, and he sang so
gloriously that the heroes listened to him rather than to the Sirens,
and the dolphins, who are very fond of music, came and followed the
ship till the song was ended.
The Argonauts next came to the Wandering Rocks, which swam about in
the sea and were shrouded in thick smoke, through which flames of
fire could be seen coming out of crevices in their sides. It seemed
as if {169} it were a sort of amusement to them to give chase to
ships and destroy them, and when they had dashed them to pieces,
there was the fire ready at hand to burn them up. No ship had ever
yet reached home in safety after passing them. But the goddess Hera
was unwilling to see the brave heroes on board the Argo perish
miserably, so she commanded the nymphs who lived at the bottom of the
sea to protect the vessel; these were not wicked nymphs like the
Sirens, but kind and friendly to brave heroes. A great splashing was
heard in the water, and ever so many nymphs came up from the bottom
of the sea, each one more beautiful than the last. They swam round
the ship, and when one of the rocks came towards her from the right,
meaning to crush her, they pushed her away to the left, and when a
rock came from the left, they pushed the ship to the right, and they
did it so fast that the rocks could not overtake her. This amused
them very much, and they laughed out merrily whenever the rocks shot
past them. Soon the Argonauts were again out in the open sea, and
they thanked the nymphs many times for their help. Then the nymphs
went back to their homes at the bottom of the sea.
After rowing for a long time, the heroes came to the island of Crete.
They would have liked to go on shore, but there was an iron watchman
who refused to allow any one to land without the king's express
permission. His name was Talos, and he had been made out of iron by
the blacksmith-god Hephaestus, who gave him to Minos the king of
Crete. Minos used him as a watchman, and made him run round the
{170} whole island three times every day and drive away any strangers
who might approach it. He was all iron, excepting a single vein that
ran from his head right down to his feet, and was fastened underneath
with iron nails which held in the life blood that ran through the
vein and kept him alive. When Talos saw the ship full of heroes
coming, he stood still and threw great stones at her. It would have
been of no use for the Argonauts to shoot spears and arrows at him in
return, for he could not be wounded; so Medea called out to him over
the water, 'Talos, if you will be kind to us and let us land, I will
show you how you may become immortal.' Talos was pleased at this,
and he began to make friendly grimaces, and shouted back his answer
in a voice that came out of his iron body like the sound of a great
trumpet. He said, 'First tell me how I may become immortal, and then
I will let you land.' But Medea answered him deceitfully, and she
called back, 'Draw out the nail that is in your foot, and all that is
mortal in you will flow out.' Talos believed her, and he sat down on
the shore and drew out the nail with some difficulty, for it had been
well hammered in. Then the red blood flowed out, and Talos was glad,
for he thought it was his mortality which was leaving him; but he
became weaker and weaker, and when the last drop of blood had flowed
out of his body, he was dead, and there was nothing left but a cold
lump of iron. The Argonauts could now sail to the land without
hindrance, and they clambered down out of the ship and hunted some
wild animals, which they cooked and made a feast of, on the shore.
The Argonauts sailed from Crete to Greece without {171} stopping, for
the gods gave them favourable winds, and when at last they came in
sight of the Grecian coast, they all rejoiced greatly at seeing their
beloved country again. They landed at that part of it which is
called the Isthmus, and is the road between the peninsula of
Peloponnesus and the rest of Greece, and there they drew the Argo up
on to the shore. The brave ship had been beaten against many a rock,
and had been so long in deep water that she was covered with green
slime. The Argonauts said that she should never be used for any
other journey, and they dedicated her to the sea-god Poseidon as a
thank-offering to him for having brought them home in safety. She
remained for a very long time standing on the Isthmus, and every one
who went by, looked at her and thought of the many dangers and
difficulties that the Argonauts had passed through. At last however,
the Sacred Beam died, and soon afterwards the Argo herself fell to
pieces, for the boards of which she was made had become quite rotten.
5. _Medea's Revenge._
When the heroes arrived in Greece, they separated and returned to
their own homes, and Jason and Medea went to Iolcus where king Pelias
lived. Pelias had thought that it would be quite impossible for
Jason ever to return, because of all the dangers he would meet with
in going to fetch the Golden Fleece, and he had killed his brother,
Jason's father, for fear he should in some way avenge the death of
his son,--so that when the young hero walked into the palace with the
Golden Fleece hanging over his arm, the king turned red and pale by
{172} turns. Jason did not know as yet of the injury that Pelias had
done him; but when he went to his father's house he found it empty,
and the people told him that his father had been killed by order of
the king. Jason was very sad at hearing this, and could no longer
take any pleasure in the thought of all the great deeds he had done;
but Medea told him not to grieve, for she would avenge the wrong he
had suffered. She thought, too, that if Pelias were dead, Jason
would be the king of Iolcus and she the queen, and she advised Jason
to dissemble, and behave as if he had forgiven the king, whilst she
herself went every day to the palace and made friends with his
daughters. One day she told them that if they had spirit enough to
venture on it, they could make their old father young again, though
his hair was already white and his face was covered with wrinkles.
The princesses would not believe Medea, but she said she would prove
it, and she took an old ram and slew him, and cut him up into several
pieces, and laid the pieces in a great caldron of boiling water, and
when she had poured a magic juice over them, a young lamb jumped out
of the caldron, and no trace of the ram could be seen. Then the
girls believed Medea, and begged her to give them the magic juice
with which to make their old father young again; but Medea gave them
instead, a liquid, which looked just like it, but which had no power
whatever. The king's daughters did not delay a single day, but the
next time their father was asleep, they went to him and killed him,
and one struck off his head, while the others cut the rest of his
body into pieces. They had a huge caldron standing ready on the
fire, into which they threw the pieces, {173} and then they poured
over them the liquid that Medea had given them, expecting to see
their father come out a young man. But Pelias was dead, and dead he
remained. The princesses watched the caldron for a long time, but at
last they were obliged to give up all hope, and then they broke out
into bitter wailing and rushed about the streets with dishevelled
hair, crying out that Medea had deceived them and made them kill
their father without knowing what they were doing. The people had
not cared for Pelias because he had been a cruel and severe man, but
they would not sanction the treachery by which he had come to his
end, and instead of choosing Jason for their new king, they chose the
son of Pelias, so that things turned out very differently from
Medea's expectations, and she and Jason had to leave the country.
They went to the city of Corinth, where King Creon ruled. He
received them with open arms, for he had heard of Jason's brave deeds
and was glad that he had come to live in his country, and he gave him
a beautiful house with meadows and vineyards and orchards all round
it. Jason and Medea lived there in peace for ten years, and the gods
sent them two children whom Medea loved dearly; they were the first
human beings she had ever really cared for. But the king had a
daughter named Glauce, who was only a child when Jason first went to
Corinth but had now grown up to be a very beautiful maiden, and Creon
was anxious that she should marry a noble hero, for she was his only
child, and her husband would be king of Corinth after his death and
would inherit all his riches. And as Jason pleased him well, he said
to him that if he would {174} get rid of Medea, he would give him his
daughter Glauce for his wife. Jason no longer cared for Medea as he
had once done, because she was of a gloomy, discontented nature, and
he thought that if he were rich, he could make up to her for the
wrong he would do her by taking another wife. So he told the king
that he would agree to his proposal, and he said to Medea that he
would give her a great deal of gold and silver, and the most
beautiful dresses that could be made, and that she should never want
for anything, but live just as if she were the richest queen in the
world. He also told her that he was making this new marriage for the
sake of his children, in order that they might have a king for their
father. Medea was very angry about it in her heart, but she
pretended to agree, and when the day came on which the marriage was
to be celebrated, she gave Jason a magnificent robe and begged him to
take it to Glauce as a present from herself. Jason took it without
any suspicion, and Glauce was very much pleased with it and went into
her bedchamber to put it on for the wedding. But the robe had been
dipped in a poisonous juice, and as soon as it became warm it burst
out into flames. Glauce could not tear it off, and she screamed for
help; her father and Jason came running to try and put out the fire,
but nothing they could do was of any use, and Glauce perished
miserably. Creon threw himself upon the dead body of his daughter
and tore his hair and wept bitterly, but Jason drew his sword and
rushed home to kill Medea. But as he came near the house, he looked
up at the sky and saw a chariot drawn by two winged dragons, in which
Medea was driving away. Medea had purposed to kill her two {175}
children before she went, because of the pain which she knew this
would cause Jason; but when she had taken up the dagger, the
children, who did not know what was in her mind, stood looking at her
with their pretty blue eyes, and she had not the heart to carry out
her intention, but caught them up in her arms and covered them with
kisses, and then fled away in the enchanted chariot.
{176}
XXVIII.
THESEUS
There was a great and famous city in Greece called Athens, about
which, when it was first built, there arose a strife between the
sea-god Poseidon and the wise goddess Athene, as to which of them
should be its protector, for the Greek cities were each under the
special care and guardianship of some god or goddess. As they could
not agree about it, the other gods said that they must each bring a
present to the city, and that it should belong to whichever of them
gave it the best present. The gods assembled one day in the
fortress, which had been built on a hill in the middle of the
city.[1] Poseidon struck the ground with his trident and out sprang
a noble animal which was the first horse that had ever been seen, and
the gods admired the beautiful creature very much. Then it was the
turn of Athene, and she brought forth the olive tree, which bears the
olives from which oil is made, and explained how the fruit could be
made use of. After this the gods gave their judgment, and they
said:--'This is such a stony land that the citizens would find the
noble horse of little service, for the horse cannot go well {177}
over uneven ground, but the olive-tree would flourish, and would be
useful to the citizens in many ways.' So the city was placed under
the guardianship of Athene and was named after her, and the citizens
planted olive-trees all over the country and found in these their
chief wealth. They took great care of the tree in the fortress from
which all the others had sprung, and it outlived its children and its
grandchildren. But after many years had passed, the country was
invaded by some enemies who laid waste all the beautiful houses and
temples and even burnt the sacred olive-tree itself down to the
roots. On the next day, however, when all round it there was nothing
to be seen but smoking ruins, behold! a new olive-tree had sprung
from the ashes of the old one, which grew, and became in time a large
tree.
The city of Athens was at one time ruled over by a king named Aegeus,
who had a wife but no children. This was a great sorrow to him, but
his brother Pallas was very glad of it, for he had fifty sons, and he
thought that if Aegeus died without children his sons would inherit
the kingdom. After a time however the wife of Aegeus died, and soon
afterwards he went to stay with a king who lived in the city of
Troezen, which was several days' journey from Athens; there he was
secretly married to the king's beautiful daughter Aethra, and his
great wish was fulfilled, for Aethra had a young son. Aegeus would
not however take him back to Athens with him, for he feared that his
brother's sons, the wild Pallantidae, would try to kill him. So he
resolved to leave the child to be brought up by his mother in
Troezen, and before he set out on {178} his journey home he buried
his sword and his sandals underneath a huge stone, and told Aethra
that when the child was strong enough to heave up the stone and take
the sword and sandals from under it, he must leave her and come to
him at Athens. After this he went back to his kingdom without
telling any one that the gods had given him a son. Aethra loved her
son very dearly; she named him Theseus, and brought him up with great
care, and he grew handsome and strong, and delighted above everything
in listening to his mother whilst she told him stories about all the
old heroes, and especially about the strong Heracles, who had killed
so many monsters and driven away all the robbers out of the land.
Theseus did not know who his father was, but when he had become a
young man and the down was beginning to grow upon his chin, Aethra
thought he would be strong enough to lift the stone, and she took him
to the place where it lay, and told him that underneath it were the
sword and sandals of his father who was Aegeus, the king of Athens.
Without much difficulty Theseus heaved up the huge stone, though it
had become deeply embedded in the earth; and then Aethra told him
that his father was still alive, and that he was to take the sword
and sandals and go to him at Athens; and Theseus rejoiced at hearing
this, and prepared to set off at once. It was a very dangerous
journey from Troezen to Athens for there were many robbers on the
way, and the old king wanted to give Theseus a ship, so that he might
go by sea with much less risk. His mother also was anxious that he
should take the easier journey, but Theseus was a brave {179} hero,
and instead of being afraid of the robbers, he was only eager to meet
with them. So they were obliged to let him have his own way, and
comforted themselves by praying to the gods to protect him.
Theseus accordingly set out on his journey, and he had not long left
Troezen when he came to a savage robber who lurked by the roadside,
and who was called the Club-carrier. He had a very ugly face, and
was lame, but very strong; and he used to lie on the grass among the
trees, and whenever a traveller passed by, he sprang out and struck
him down with a heavy iron club which he wielded quite easily, and
then he robbed him of his goods. When Theseus came along the road,
the robber sprang out to kill him; but Theseus avoided the blow, so
that the heavy club struck the earth beside him, and then he wrestled
with the robber. He at last succeeded in wrenching the club out of
his hand, and then he battered his head with it, so that the
Club-carrier died by the same weapon with which he had killed others.
This was the first heroic deed that Theseus had performed, and he
took the iron club away with him to serve both for a weapon and a
trophy.