offered to turn back, and guide them to Colchis. At the same time,
however, they spoke as if it were very doubtful whether Jason would
succeed in getting the Golden Fleece. According to their account, the
tree on which it hung was guarded by a terrible dragon, who never
failed to devour, at one mouthful, every person who might venture
within his reach.
"There are other difficulties in the way," continued the young princes.
"But is not this enough? Ah, brave Jason, turn back before it is too
late. It would grieve us to the heart, if you and your nine and forty
brave companions should be eaten up, at fifty mouthfuls, by this
execrable dragon."
"My young friends," quietly replied Jason, "I do not wonder that you
think the dragon very terrible. You have grown up from infancy in the
fear of this monster, and therefore still regard him with the awe
that children feel for the bugbears and hobgoblins which their nurses
have talked to them about. But, in my view of the matter, the dragon
is merely a pretty large serpent, who is not half so likely to snap
me up at one mouthful as I am to cut off his ugly head, and strip the
skin from his body. At all events, turn back who may, I will never see
Greece again, unless I carry with me the Golden Fleece."
"We will none of us turn back!" cried his nine and forty brave
comrades. "Let us get on board the galley this instant; and if the
dragon is to make a breakfast of us, much good may it do him."
And Orpheus (whose custom it was to set everything to music) began to
harp and sing most gloriously, and made every mother's son of them feel
as if nothing in this world were so delectable as to fight dragons, and
nothing so truly honorable as to be eaten up at one mouthful, in case
of the worst.
After this, (being now under the guidance of the two princes, who
were well acquainted with the way,) they quickly sailed to Colchis.
When the king of the country, whose name was Æetes, heard of their
arrival, he instantly summoned Jason to court. The king was a stern and
cruel-looking potentate; and though he put on as polite and hospitable
an expression as he could, Jason did not like his face a whit better
than that of the wicked King Pelias, who dethroned his father.
"You are welcome, brave Jason," said King Æetes. "Pray, are you on
a pleasure voyage?--or do you meditate the discovery of unknown
islands?--or what other cause has procured me the happiness of seeing
you at my court?"
"Great sir," replied Jason, with an obeisance,--for Chiron had taught
him how to behave with propriety, whether to kings or beggars,--"I have
come hither with a purpose which I now beg your majesty's permission to
execute. King Pelias, who sits on my father's throne, (to which he has
no more right than to the one on which your excellent majesty is now
seated,) has engaged to come down from it, and give me his crown and
scepter, provided I bring him the Golden Fleece. This, as your majesty
is aware, is now hanging on a tree here at Colchis; and I humbly
solicit your gracious leave to take it away."
In spite of himself, the king's face twisted itself into an angry
frown; for, above all things else in the world, he prized the Golden
Fleece and was even suspected of having done a very wicked act, in
order to get it into his own possession. It put him into the worst
possible humor, therefore, to hear that the gallant Prince Jason, and
forty-nine of the bravest young warriors of Greece, had come to Colchis
with the sole purpose of taking away his chief treasure.
"Do you know," asked King Æetes, eyeing Jason very sternly, "what are
the conditions which you must fulfil before getting possession of the
Golden Fleece?"
"I have heard," rejoined the youth, "that a dragon lies beneath the
tree on which the prize hangs, and that whoever approaches him runs the
risk of being devoured at a mouthful."
"True," said the king, with a smile that did not look particularly
good-natured. "Very true, young man. But there are other things as
hard, or perhaps a little harder, to be done, before you can even have
the privilege of being devoured by the dragon. For example, you must
first tame my two brazen-footed and brazen-lunged bulls, which Vulcan,
the wonderful blacksmith, made for me. There is a furnace in each of
their stomachs; and they breathe such hot fire out of their mouths
and nostrils, that nobody has hitherto gone nigh them without being
instantly burned to a small, black cinder. What do you think of this,
my brave Jason?"
"I must encounter the peril," answered Jason, composedly, "since it
stands in the way of my purpose."
"After taming the fiery bulls," continued King Æetes, who was
determined to scare Jason if possible, "you must yoke them to a plough,
and must plough the sacred earth in the grove of Mars, and sow some of
the same dragon's teeth from which Cadmus raised a crop of armed men.
They are an unruly set of reprobates, those sons of the dragon's teeth;
and unless you treat them suitably, they will fall upon you sword in
hand. You and your nine and forty Argonauts, my bold Jason, are hardly
numerous or strong enough to fight with such a host as will spring up."
"My master Chiron," replied Jason, "taught me, long ago, the story of
Cadmus. Perhaps I can manage the quarrelsome sons of the dragon's teeth
as well as Cadmus did."
"I wish the dragon had him," muttered King Æetes to himself, "and
the four-footed pedant, his schoolmaster, into the bargain. Why,
what a foolhardy, self-conceited coxcomb he is! We'll see what
my fire-breathing bulls will do for him. Well, Prince Jason," he
continued, aloud, and as complaisantly as he could, "make yourself
comfortable for to-day, and to-morrow morning, since you insist upon
it, you shall try your skill at the plough."
While the king talked with Jason, a beautiful young woman was standing
behind the throne. She fixed her eyes earnestly upon the youthful
stranger, and listened attentively to every word that was spoken; and
when Jason withdrew from the king's presence, this young woman followed
him out of the room.
"I am the king's daughter," she said to him, "and my name is Medea. I
know a great deal of which other young princesses are ignorant, and can
do many things which they would be afraid so much as to dream of. If
you will trust to me, I can instruct you how to tame the fiery bulls,
and sow the dragon's teeth, and get the Golden Fleece."
"Indeed, beautiful princess," answered Jason, "if you will do me this
service, I promise to be grateful to you my whole life long."
[Illustration: "I am the king's daughter."]
Gazing at Medea, he beheld a wonderful intelligence in her face. She
was one of those persons whose eyes are full of mystery; so that,
while looking into them, you seem to see a very great way, as into a
deep well, yet can never be certain whether you see into the farthest
depths, or whether there be not something else hidden at the bottom. If
Jason had been capable of fearing anything, he would have been afraid
of making this young princess his enemy; for, beautiful as she now
looked, she might, the very next instant, become as terrible as the
dragon that kept watch over the Golden Fleece.
"Princess," he exclaimed, "you seem indeed very wise and very powerful.
But how can you help me to do the things of which you speak? Are you an
enchantress?"
"Yes, Prince Jason," answered Medea, with a smile, "you have hit upon
the truth. I am an enchantress. Circe, my father's sister, taught me to
be one, and I could tell you, if I pleased, who was the old woman with
the peacock, the pomegranate, and the cuckoo staff, whom you carried
over the river; and, likewise, who it is that speaks through the lips
of the oaken image, that stands in the prow of your galley. I am
acquainted with some of your secrets, you perceive. It is well for you
that I am favorably inclined; for, otherwise, you would hardly escape
being snapped, up by the dragon."
"I should not so much care for the dragon," replied Jason, "if I only
knew how to manage the brazen-footed and fiery-lunged bulls."
"If you are as brave as I think you, and as you have need to be," said
Medea, "your own bold heart will teach you that there is but one way
of dealing with a mad bull. What it is I leave you to find out in the
moment of peril. As for the fiery breath of these animals, I have a
charmed ointment here, which will prevent you from being burned up, and
cure you if you chance to be a little scorched."
So she put a golden box into his hand, and directed him how to apply
the perfumed unguent which it contained, and where to meet her at
midnight.
"Only be brave," added she, "and before daybreak the brazen bulls shall
be tamed."
The young man assured her that his heart would not fail him. He then
rejoined his comrades, and told them what had passed between the
princess and himself, and warned them to be in readiness in case there
might be need of their help.
At the appointed hour he met the beautiful Medea on the marble steps of
the king's palace. She gave him a basket, in which were the dragon's
teeth, just as they had been pulled out of the monster's jaws by
Cadmus, long ago. Medea then led Jason down the palace steps, and
through the silent streets of the city, and into the royal pasture
ground, where the two brazen-footed bulls were kept. It was a starry
night, with a bright gleam along the eastern edge of the sky, where the
moon was soon going to show herself. After entering the pasture, the
princess paused and looked around.
"There they are," said she, "reposing themselves and chewing their
fiery cuds in that farthest corner of the field. It will be excellent
sport, I assure you, when they catch a glimpse of your figure. My
father and all his court delight in nothing so much as to see a
stranger trying to yoke them, in order to come at the Golden Fleece. It
makes a holiday in Colchis whenever such a thing happens. For my part,
I enjoy it immensely. You cannot imagine in what a mere twinkling of an
eye their hot breath shrivels a young man into a black cinder."
[Illustration: AT THE APPOINTED HOUR HE MET THE BEAUTIFUL MEDEA]
"Are you sure, beautiful Medea," asked Jason, "quite sure, that the
unguent in the gold box will prove a remedy against those terrible
burns?"
"If you doubt, if you are in the least afraid," said the princess,
looking him in the face by the dim starlight, "you had better never
have been born than go a step nigher to the bulls."
But Jason had set his heart steadfastly on getting the Golden Fleece;
and I positively doubt whether he would have gone back without it, even
had he been certain of finding himself turned into a red-hot cinder,
or a handful of white ashes, the instant he made a step farther.
He therefore let go Medea's hand, and walked boldly forward in the
direction whither she had pointed. At some distance before him he
perceived four streams of fiery vapor, regularly appearing, and again
vanishing, after dimly lighting up the surrounding obscurity. These,
you will understand, were caused by the breath of the brazen bulls,
which was quietly stealing out of their four nostrils, as they lay
chewing their cuds.
At the first two or three steps which Jason made, the four fiery
streams appeared to gush out somewhat more plentifully; for the two
brazen bulls had heard his foot tramp, and were lifting up their hot
noses to snuff the air. He went a little farther, and by the way in
which the red vapor now spouted forth, he judged that the creatures had
got upon their feet. Now he could see glowing sparks, and vivid jets
of flame. At the next step, each of the bulls made the pasture echo
with a terrible roar, while the burning breath, which they thus belched
forth, lit up the whole field with a momentary flash. One other stride
did bold Jason make, and, suddenly, as a streak of lightning, on came
these fiery animals, roaring like thunder, and sending out sheets of
white flame, which so kindled up the scene that the young man could
discern every object more distinctly than by daylight. Most distinctly
of all he saw the two horrible creatures galloping right down upon him,
their brazen hoofs rattling and ringing over the ground, and their
tails sticking up stiffly into the air, as has always been the fashion
with angry bulls. Their breath scorched the herbage before them. So
intensely hot it was, indeed, that it caught a dry tree, under which
Jason was now standing, and set it all in a light blaze. But as for
Jason himself, (thanks to Medea's enchanted ointment,) the white flame
curled around his body, without injuring him a jot more than if he had
been made of asbestos.
Greatly encouraged at finding himself not yet turned into a cinder,
the young man awaited the attack of the bulls. Just as the brazen
brutes fancied themselves sure of tossing him into the air, he caught
one of them by the horn, and the other by his screwed-up tail, and
held them in a gripe like that of an iron vice, one with his right
hand, the other with his left. Well, he must have been wonderfully
strong in his arms, to be sure. But the secret of the matter was,
that the brazen bulls were enchanted creatures, and that Jason had
broken the spell of their fiery fierceness by his bold way of handling
them. And, ever since that time, it has been the favorite method of
brave men, when danger assails them, to do what they call "taking the
bull by the horns;" and to gripe him by the tail is pretty much the
same thing--that is, to throw aside fear, and overcome the peril by
despising it.
It was now easy to yoke the bulls, and to harness them to the plough,
which had lain rusting on the ground for a great many years gone by;
so long was it before anybody could be found capable of ploughing that
piece of land. Jason, I suppose, had been taught how to draw a furrow
by the good old Chiron, who, perhaps, used to allow himself to be
harnessed to the plough. At any rate, our hero succeeded perfectly well
in breaking up the greensward; and, by the time that the moon was a
quarter of her journey up the sky, the ploughed field lay before him, a
large tract of black earth, ready to be sown with the dragon's teeth.
So Jason scattered them broadcast, and harrowed them into the soil with
a brush-harrow, and took his stand on the edge of the field, anxious to
see what would happen next.
"Must we wait long for harvest time?" he inquired of Medea, who was now
standing by his side.
"Whether sooner or later, it will be sure to come," answered the
princess. "A crop of armed men never fails to spring up, when the
dragon's teeth have been sown."
The moon was now high aloft in the heavens, and threw its bright beams
over the ploughed field, where as yet there was nothing to be seen.
Any farmer, on viewing it, would have said that Jason must wait weeks
before the green blades would peep from among the clods, and whole
months before the yellow grain would be ripened for the sickle. But
by and by, all over the field, there was something that glistened
in the moonbeams, like sparkling drops of dew. These bright objects
sprouted higher, and proved to be the steel heads of spears. Then there
was a dazzling gleam from a vast number of polished brass helmets,
beneath which, as they grew farther out of the soil, appeared the dark
and bearded visages of warriors, struggling to free themselves from
the imprisoning earth. The first look that they gave at the upper
world was a glare of wrath and defiance. Next were seen their bright
breastplates; in every right hand there was a sword or a spear, and on
each left arm a shield; and when this strange crop of warriors had but
half grown out of the earth, they struggled,--such was their impatience
of restraint,--and, as it were, tore themselves up by the roots.
Wherever a dragon's tooth had fallen, there stood a man armed for
battle. They made a clangor with their swords against their shields and
eyed one another fiercely; for they had come into this beautiful world,
and into the peaceful moonlight, full of rage and stormy passions, and
ready to take the life of every human brother, in recompense of the
boon of their own existence.
There have been many other armies in the world that seemed to possess
the same fierce nature with the one which had now sprouted from
the dragon's teeth; but these, in the moonlit field, were the more
excusable, because they never had women for their mothers. And how it
would have rejoiced any great captain, who was bent on conquering the
world, like Alexander or Napoleon, to raise a crop of armed soldiers as
easily as Jason did!
For a while, the warriors stood flourishing their weapons, clashing
their swords against their shields, and boiling over with the red-hot
thirst for battle. Then they began to shout--"Show us the enemy! Lead
us to the charge! Death or victory! Come on, brave comrades! Conquer or
die!" and a hundred other outcries, such as men always bellow forth on
a battle field, and which these dragon people seemed to have at their
tongues' ends. At last, the front rank caught sight of Jason, who,
beholding the flash of so many weapons in the moonlight, had thought it
best to draw his sword. In a moment all the sons of the dragon's teeth
appeared to take Jason for an enemy; and crying with one voice, "Guard
the Golden Fleece!" they ran at him with uplifted swords and protruded
spears. Jason knew that it would be impossible to withstand this
bloodthirsty battalion with his single arm, but determined, since there
was nothing better to be done, to die as valiantly as if he himself had
sprung from a dragon's tooth.
Medea, however, bade him snatch up a stone from the ground.
"Throw it among them quickly!" cried she. "It is the only way to save
yourself."
The armed men were now so nigh that Jason could discern the fire
flashing out of their enraged eyes, when he let fly the stone, and saw
it strike the helmet of a tall warrior, who was rushing upon him with
his blade aloft. The stone glanced from this man's helmet to the shield
of his nearest comrade, and thence flew right into the angry face of
another, hitting him smartly between the eyes. Each of the three who
had been struck by the stone took it for granted that his next neighbor
had given him a blow; and instead of running any farther towards Jason,
they began a fight among themselves. The confusion spread through the
host, so that it seemed scarcely a moment before they were all hacking,
hewing, and stabbing at one another, lopping off arms, heads, and legs,
and doing such memorable deeds that Jason was filled with immense
admiration; although, at the same time, he could not help laughing to
behold these mighty men punishing each other for an offence which he
himself had committed. In an incredibly short space of time, (almost
as short, indeed, as it had taken them to grow up,) all but one of the
heroes of the dragon's teeth were stretched lifeless on the field. The
last survivor, the bravest and strongest of the whole, had just force
enough to wave his crimson sword over his head, and give a shout of
exultation, crying, "Victory! Victory! Immortal fame!" when he himself
fell down, and lay quietly among his slain brethren. And there was the
end of the army that had sprouted from the dragon's teeth. That fierce
and feverish fight was the only enjoyment which they had tasted on this
beautiful earth.
"Let them sleep in the bed of honor," said the Princess Medea, with a
sly smile at Jason. "The world will always have simpletons enough, just
like them, fighting and dying for they know not what, and fancying that
posterity will take the trouble to put laurel wreaths on their rusty
and battered helmets. Could you help smiling, Prince Jason, to see the
self-conceit of that last fellow, just as he tumbled down?"
"It made me very sad," answered Jason gravely. "And, to tell you the
truth, princess, the Golden Fleece does not appear so well worth the
winning, after what I have here beheld."
"You will think differently in the morning," said Medea. "True, the
Golden Fleece may not be so valuable as you have thought it; but then
there is nothing better in the world; and one must needs have an
object, you know. Come! Your night's work has been well performed;
and to-morrow you can inform King Æetes that the first part of your
allotted task is fulfilled."
Agreeably to Medea's advice, Jason went betimes in the morning to the
palace of King Æetes. Entering the presence chamber, he stood at the
foot of the throne, and made a low obeisance.
"Your eyes look heavy, Prince Jason," observed the king; "you appear
to have spent a sleepless night. I hope you have been considering the
matter a little more wisely, and have concluded not to get yourself
scorched to a cinder, in attempting to tame my brazen-lunged bulls."
"That is already accomplished, may it please your majesty," replied
Jason. "The bulls have been tamed and yoked; the field has been
ploughed; the dragon's teeth have been sown broadcast, and harrowed
into the soil; the crop of armed warriors have sprung up, and they have
slain one another, to the last man. And now I solicit your majesty's
permission to encounter the dragon, that I may take down the Golden
Fleece from the tree, and depart, with my nine and forty comrades."
King Æetes scowled, and looked very angry and excessively disturbed;
for he knew that, in accordance with his kingly promise, he ought now
to permit Jason to win the fleece, if his courage and skill should
enable him to do so. But, since the young man had met with such good
luck in the matter of the brazen bulls and the dragon's teeth, the
king feared that he would be equally successful in slaying the dragon.
And therefore, though he would gladly have seen Jason snapped up at a
mouthful, he was resolved (and it was a very wrong thing of this wicked
potentate) not to run any further risk of losing his beloved fleece.
"You never would have succeeded in this business, young man," said
he, "if my undutiful daughter Medea had not helped you with her
enchantments. Had you acted fairly, you would have been, at this
instant, a black cinder, or a handful of white ashes. I forbid you, on
pain of death, to make any more attempts to get the Golden Fleece. To
speak my mind plainly, you shall never set eyes on so much as one of
its glistening locks."
Jason left the king's presence in great sorrow and anger. He could
think of nothing better to be done than to summon together his
forty-nine brave Argonauts, march at once to the grove of Mars, slay
the dragon, take possession of the Golden Fleece, get on board the
_Argo_, and spread all sail for Iolchos. The success of this scheme
depended, it is true, on the doubtful point whether all the fifty
heroes might not be snapped up, at so many mouthfuls, by the dragon.
But, as Jason was hastening down the palace steps, the Princess Medea
called after him, and beckoned him to return. Her black eyes shone
upon him with such a keen intelligence, that he felt as if there were
a serpent peeping out of them; and, although she had done him so much
service only the night before, he was by no means very certain that
she would not do him an equally great mischief before sunset. These
enchantresses, you must know, are never to be depended upon.
"What says King Æetes, my royal and upright father?" inquired Medea,
slightly smiling. "Will he give you the Golden Fleece, without any
further risk or trouble?"
"On the contrary," answered Jason, "he is very angry with me for taming
the brazen bulls and sowing the dragon's teeth. And he forbids me to
make any more attempts, and positively refuses to give up the Golden
Fleece, whether I slay the dragon or no."
"Yes, Jason," said the princess, "and I can tell you more. Unless you
set sail from Colchis before to-morrow's sunrise, the king means to
burn your fifty oared galley, and put yourself and your forty-nine
brave comrades to the sword. But be of good courage. The Golden Fleece
you shall have, if it lies within the power of my enchantments to get
it for you. Wait for me here an hour before midnight."