When Jason, the son of the dethroned King of Iolchos, was a little
boy, he was sent away from his parents, and placed under the queerest
schoolmaster that ever you heard of. This learned person was one of the
people, or quadrupeds, called Centaurs. He lived in a cavern, and had
the body and legs of a white horse, with the head and shoulders of a
man. His name was Chiron; and, in spite of his odd appearance, he was a
very excellent teacher, and had several scholars, who afterwards did him
credit by making a great figure in the world. The famous Hercules was
one, and so was Achilles, and Philoctetes likewise, and Aesculapius, who
acquired immense repute as a doctor. The good Chiron taught his pupils
how to play upon the harp, and how to cure diseases, and how to use the
sword and shield, together with various other branches of education, in
which the lads of those days used to be instructed, instead of writing
and arithmetic.
I have sometimes suspected that Master Chiron was not really very
different from other people, but that, being a kind-hearted and merry
old fellow, he was in the habit of making believe that he was a horse,
and scrambling about the schoolroom on all fours, and letting the little
boys ride upon his back. And so, when his scholars had grown up, and
grown old, and were trotting their grandchildren on their knees, they
told them about the sports of their school days; and these young folks
took the idea that their grandfathers had been taught their letters by
a Centaur, half man and half horse. Little children, not quite
understanding what is said to them, often get such absurd notions into
their heads, you know.
Be that as it may, it has always been told for a fact (and always will
be told, as long as the world lasts), that Chiron, with the head of a
schoolmaster, had the body and legs of a horse. Just imagine the grave
old gentleman clattering and stamping into the schoolroom on his four
hoofs, perhaps treading on some little fellow's toes, flourishing his
switch tail instead of a rod, and, now and then, trotting out of doors
to eat a mouthful of grass! I wonder what the blacksmith charged him for
a set of iron shoes?
So Jason dwelt in the cave, with this four-footed Chiron, from the time
that he was an infant, only a few months old, until he had grown to
the full height of a man. He became a very good harper, I suppose, and
skilful in the use of weapons, and tolerably acquainted with herbs and
other doctor's stuff, and, above all, an admirable horseman; for, in
teaching young people to ride, the good Chiron must have been without
a rival among schoolmasters. At length, being now a tall and athletic
youth, Jason resolved to seek his fortune in the world, without asking
Chiron's advice, or telling him anything about the matter. This was very
unwise, to be sure; and I hope none of you, my little hearers, will ever
follow Jason's example.
But, you are to understand, he had heard how that he himself was a
prince royal, and how his father, King Jason, had been deprived of
the kingdom of Iolchos by a certain Pelias, who would also have killed
Jason, had he not been hidden in the Centaur's cave. And, being come
to the strength of a man, Jason determined to set all this business to
rights, and to punish the wicked Pelias for wronging his dear father,
and to cast him down from the throne, and seat himself there instead.
With this intention, he took a spear in each hand, and threw a leopard's
skin over his shoulders, to keep off the rain, and set forth on his
travels, with his long yellow ringlets waving in the wind. The part of
his dress on which he most prided himself was a pair of sandals, that
had been his father's. They were handsomely embroidered, and were tied
upon his feet with strings of gold. But his whole attire was such as
people did not very often see; and as he passed along, the women and
children ran to the doors and windows, wondering whither this beautiful
youth was journeying, with his leopard's skin and his golden-tied
sandals, and what heroic deeds he meant to perform, with a spear in his
right hand and another in his left.
I know not how far Jason had traveled, when he came to a turbulent
river, which rushed right across his pathway, with specks of white
foam among its black eddies, hurrying tumultuously onward, and roaring
angrily as it went. Though not a very broad river in the dry seasons of
the year, it was now swollen by heavy rains and by the melting of the
snow on the sides of Mount Olympus; and it thundered so loudly, and
looked so wild and dangerous, that Jason, bold as he was, thought it
prudent to pause upon the brink. The bed of the stream seemed to be
strewn with sharp and rugged rocks, some of which thrust themselves
above the water. By and by, an uprooted tree, with shattered branches,
came drifting along the current, and got entangled among the rocks. Now
and then, a drowned sheep, and once the carcass of a cow, floated past.
In short, the swollen river had already done a great deal of mischief.
It was evidently too deep for Jason to wade, and too boisterous for him
to swim; he could see no bridge; and as for a boat, had there been any,
the rocks would have broken it to pieces in an instant.
"See the poor lad," said a cracked voice close to his side. "He must
have had but a poor education, since he does not know how to cross
a little stream like this. Or is he afraid of wetting his fine
golden-stringed sandals? It is a pity his four-footed schoolmaster is
not here to carry him safely across on his back!"
Jason looked round greatly surprised, for he did not know that anybody
was near. But beside him stood an old woman, with a ragged mantle over
her head, leaning on a staff, the top of which was carved into the shape
of a cuckoo. She looked very aged, and wrinkled, and infirm; and yet her
eyes, which were as brown as those of an ox, were so extremely large
and beautiful, that, when they were fixed on Jason's eyes, he could
see nothing else but them. The old woman had a pomegranate in her hand,
although the fruit was then quite out of season.
"Whither are you going, Jason?" she now asked.
She seemed to know his name, you will observe; and, indeed, those great
brown eyes looked as if they had a knowledge of everything, whether past
or to come. While Jason was gazing at her, a peacock strutted forward,
and took his stand at the old woman's side.
"I am going to Iolchos," answered the young man, "to bid the wicked
King Pelias come down from my father's throne, and let me reign in his
stead."
"Ah, well, then," said the old woman, still with the same cracked voice,
"if that is all your business, you need not be in a very great hurry.
Just take me on your back, there's a good youth, and carry me across the
river. I and my peacock have something to do on the other side, as well
as yourself."
"Good mother," replied Jason, "your business can hardly be so important
as the pulling down a king from his throne. Besides, as you may see
for yourself, the river is very boisterous; and if I should chance to
stumble, it would sweep both of us away more easily than it has carried
off yonder uprooted tree. I would gladly help you if I could; but I
doubt whether I am strong enough to carry you across."
"Then," said she, very scornfully, "neither are you strong enough to
pull King Pelias off his throne. And, Jason, unless you will help an old
woman at her need, you ought not to be a king. What are kings made for,
save to succor the feeble and distressed? But do as you please. Either
take me on your back, or with my poor old limbs I shall try my best to
struggle across the stream."
Saying this, the old woman poked with her staff in the river, as if to
find the safest place in its rocky bed where she might make the first
step. But Jason, by this time, had grown ashamed of his reluctance to
help her. He felt that he could never forgive himself, if this poor
feeble creature should come to any harm in attempting to wrestle against
the headlong current. The good Chiron, whether half horse or no, had
taught him that the noblest use of his strength was to assist the weak;
and also that he must treat every young woman as if she were his sister,
and every old one like a mother. Remembering these maxims, the vigorous
and beautiful young man knelt down, and requested the good dame to mount
upon his back.
"The passage seems to me not very safe," he remarked. "But as your
business is so urgent, I will try to carry you across. If the river
sweeps you away, it shall take me too."
"That, no doubt, will be a great comfort to both of us," quoth the old
woman. "But never fear. We shall get safely across."
So she threw her arms around Jason's neck; and lifting her from the
ground, he stepped boldly into the raging and foaming current, and began
to stagger away from the shore. As for the peacock, it alighted on the
old dame's shoulder. Jason's two spears, one in each hand, kept him
from stumbling, and enabled him to feel his way among the hidden rocks;
although every instant, he expected that his companion and himself would
go down the stream, together with the driftwood of shattered trees, and
the carcasses of the sheep and cow. Down came the cold, snowy torrent
from the steep side of Olympus, raging and thundering as if it had a
real spite against Jason, or, at all events, were determined to snatch
off his living burden from his shoulders. When he was half way across,
the uprooted tree (which I have already told you about) broke loose
from among the rocks, and bore down upon him, with all its splintered
branches sticking out like the hundred arms of the giant Briareus. It
rushed past, however, without touching him. But the next moment his
foot was caught in a crevice between two rocks, and stuck there so fast,
that, in the effort to get free, he lost one of his golden-stringed
sandals.
At this accident Jason could not help uttering a cry of vexation.
"What is the matter, Jason?" asked the old woman.
"Matter enough," said the young man. "I have lost a sandal here among
the rocks. And what sort of a figure shall I cut, at the court of King
Pelias, with a golden-stringed sandal on one foot, and the other foot
bare!"
"Do not take it to heart," answered his companion cheerily. "You never
met with better fortune than in losing that sandal. It satisfies me that
you are the very person whom the Speaking Oak has been talking about."
There was no time, just then, to inquire what the Speaking Oak had said.
But the briskness of her tone encouraged the young man; and, besides, he
had never in his life felt so vigorous and mighty as since taking this
old woman on his back. Instead of being exhausted, he gathered strength
as he went on; and, struggling up against the torrent, he at last gained
the opposite shore, clambered up the bank, and set down the old dame and
her peacock safely on the grass. As soon as this was done, however, he
could not help looking rather despondently at his bare foot, with only a
remnant of the golden string of the sandal clinging round his ankle.
"You will get a handsomer pair of sandals by and by," said the old
woman, with a kindly look out of her beautiful brown eyes. "Only let
King Pelias get a glimpse of that bare foot, and you shall see him turn
as pale as ashes, I promise you. There is your path. Go along, my good
Jason, and my blessing go with you. And when you sit on your throne
remember the old woman whom you helped over the river."
With these words, she hobbled away, giving him a smile over her shoulder
as she departed.
Whether the light of her beautiful brown eyes threw a glory round
about her, or whatever the cause might be, Jason fancied that there was
something very noble and majestic in her figure, after all, and that,
though her gait seemed to be a rheumatic hobble, yet she moved with as
much grace and dignity as any queen on earth. Her peacock, which had now
fluttered down from her shoulder, strutted behind her in a prodigious
pomp, and spread out its magnificent tail on purpose for Jason to admire
it.
When the old dame and her peacock were out of sight, Jason set forward
on his journey. After traveling a pretty long distance, he came to a
town situated at the foot of a mountain, and not a great way from the
shore of the sea. On the outside of the town there was an immense crowd
of people, not only men and women, but children too, all in their
best clothes, and evidently enjoying a holiday. The crowd was thickest
towards the sea-shore; and in that direction, over the people's heads,
Jason saw a wreath of smoke curling upward to the blue sky. He inquired
of one of the multitude what town it was near by, and why so many
persons were here assembled together.
"This is the kingdom of Iolchos," answered the man, "and we are the
subjects of King Pelias. Our monarch has summoned us together, that we
may see him sacrifice a black bull to Neptune, who, they say, is his
majesty's father. Yonder is the king, where you see the smoke going up
from the altar."
While the man spoke he eyed Jason with great curiosity; for his garb
was quite unlike that of the Iolchians, and it looked very odd to see a
youth with a leopard's skin over his shoulders, and each hand grasping
a spear. Jason perceived, too, that the man stared particularly at
his feet, one of which, you remember, was bare, while the other was
decorated with his father's golden-stringed sandal.
"Look at him! only look at him!" said the man to his next neighbor. "Do
you see? He wears but one sandal!"
Upon this, first one person, and then another, began to stare at Jason,
and everybody seemed to be greatly struck with something in his aspect;
though they turned their eyes much oftener towards his feet than to any
other part of his figure. Besides, he could hear them whispering to one
another.
"One sandal! One sandal!" they kept saying. "The man with one sandal!
Here he is at last! Whence has he come? What does he mean to do? What
will the king say to the one-sandaled man?"
Poor Jason was greatly abashed, and made up his mind that the people
of Iolchos were exceedingly ill-bred, to take such public notice of an
accidental deficiency in his dress. Meanwhile, whether it were that they
hustled him forward, or that Jason, of his own accord, thrust a passage
through the crowd, it so happened that he soon found himself close to
the smoking altar, where King Pelias was sacrificing the black bull. The
murmur and hum of the multitude, in their surprise at the spectacle
of Jason with his one bare foot, grew so loud that it disturbed the
ceremonies; and the king, holding the great knife with which he was just
going to cut the bull's throat, turned angrily about, and fixed his
eyes on Jason. The people had now withdrawn from around him, so that
the youth stood in an open space, near the smoking altar, front to front
with the angry King Pelias.
"Who are you?" cried the king, with a terrible frown. "And how dare you
make this disturbance, while I am sacrificing a black bull to my father
Neptune?"
"It is no fault of mine," answered Jason. "Your majesty must blame the
rudeness of your subjects, who have raised all this tumult because one
of my feet happens to be bare."
When Jason said this, the king gave a quick startled glance down at his
feet.
"Ha!" muttered he, "here is the one-sandaled fellow, sure enough! What
can I do with him?"
And he clutched more closely the great knife in his hand, as if he were
half a mind to slay Jason, instead of the black bull. The people round
about caught up the king's words, indistinctly as they were uttered; and
first there was a murmur amongst them, and then a loud shout.
"The one-sandaled man has come! The prophecy must be fulfilled!"
For you are to know, that, many years before, King Pelias had been told
by the Speaking Oak of Dodona, that a man with one sandal should cast
him down from his throne. On this account, he had given strict orders
that nobody should ever come into his presence, unless both sandals were
securely tied upon his feet; and he kept an officer in his palace, whose
sole business it was to examine people's sandals, and to supply them
with a new pair, at the expense of the royal treasury, as soon as the
old ones began to wear out. In the whole course of the king's reign,
he had never been thrown into such a fright and agitation as by the
spectacle of poor Jason's bare foot. But, as he was naturally a bold and
hard-hearted man, he soon took courage, and began to consider in what
way he might rid himself of this terrible one-sandaled stranger.
"My good young man," said King Pelias, taking the softest tone
imaginable, in order to throw Jason off his guard, "you are excessively
welcome to my kingdom. Judging by your dress, you must have traveled a
long distance, for it is not the fashion to wear leopard skins in this
part of the world. Pray what may I call your name? and where did you
receive your education?"
"My name is Jason," answered the young stranger. "Ever since my infancy,
I have dwelt in the cave of Chiron the Centaur. He was my instructor,
and taught me music, and horsemanship, and how to cure wounds, and
likewise how to inflict wounds with my weapons!"
"I have heard of Chiron the schoolmaster," replied King Pelias, "and
how that there is an immense deal of learning and wisdom in his head,
although it happens to be set on a horse's body. It gives me great
delight to see one of his scholars at my court. But to test how much you
have profited under so excellent a teacher, will you allow me to ask you
a single question?"
"I do not pretend to be very wise," said Jason. "But ask me what you
please, and I will answer to the best of my ability."
Now King Pelias meant cunningly to entrap the young man, and to make him
say something that should be the cause of mischief and distraction to
himself. So, with a crafty and evil smile upon his face, he spoke as
follows:
"What would you do, brave Jason," asked he, "if there were a man in
the world, by whom, as you had reason to believe, you were doomed to
be ruined and slain--what would you do, I say, if that man stood before
you, and in your power?"
When Jason saw the malice and wickedness which King Pelias could not
prevent from gleaming out of his eyes, he probably guessed that the king
had discovered what he came for, and that he intended to turn his own
words against himself. Still he scorned to tell a falsehood. Like an
upright and honorable prince as he was, he determined to speak out the
real truth. Since the king had chosen to ask him the question, and since
Jason had promised him an answer, there was no right way save to tell
him precisely what would be the most prudent thing to do, if he had his
worst enemy in his power.
Therefore, after a moment's consideration, he spoke up, with a firm and
manly voice.
"I would send such a man," said he, "in quest of the Golden Fleece!"
This enterprise, you will understand, was, of all others, the most
difficult and dangerous in the world. In the first place it would be
necessary to make a long voyage through unknown seas. There was hardly
a hope, or a possibility, that any young man who should undertake this
voyage would either succeed in obtaining the Golden Fleece, or would
survive to return home, and tell of the perils he had run. The eyes of
King Pelias sparkled with joy, therefore, when he heard Jason's reply.
"Well said, wise man with the one sandal!" cried he. "Go, then, and at
the peril of your life, bring me back the Golden Fleece."
"I go," answered Jason, composedly. "If I fail, you need not fear that
I will ever come back to trouble you again. But if I return to Iolchos
with the prize, then, King Pelias, you must hasten down from your lofty
throne, and give me your crown and sceptre."
"That I will," said the king, with a sneer. "Meantime, I will keep them
very safely for you."
The first thing that Jason thought of doing, after he left the king's
presence, was to go to Dodona, and inquire of the Talking Oak what
course it was best to pursue. This wonderful tree stood in the center of
an ancient wood. Its stately trunk rose up a hundred feet into the air,
and threw a broad and dense shadow over more than an acre of ground.
Standing beneath it, Jason looked up among the knotted branches and
green leaves, and into the mysterious heart of the old tree, and spoke
aloud, as if he were addressing some person who was hidden in the depths
of the foliage.
"What shall I do," said he, "in order to win the Golden Fleece?"
At first there was a deep silence, not only within the shadow of the
Talking Oak, but all through the solitary wood. In a moment or two,
however, the leaves of the oak began to stir and rustle, as if a gentle
breeze were wandering amongst them, although the other trees of the wood
were perfectly still. The sound grew louder, and became like the roar of
a high wind. By and by, Jason imagined that he could distinguish words,
but very confusedly, because each separate leaf of the tree seemed to be
a tongue, and the whole myriad of tongues were babbling at once. But the
noise waxed broader and deeper, until it resembled a tornado sweeping
through the oak, and making one great utterance out of the thousand and
thousand of little murmurs which each leafy tongue had caused by its
rustling. And now, though it still had the tone of a mighty wind roaring
among the branches, it was also like a deep bass voice, speaking as
distinctly as a tree could be expected to speak, the following words:
"Go to Argus, the shipbuilder, and bid him build a galley with fifty
oars."
Then the voice melted again into the indistinct murmur of the rustling
leaves, and died gradually away. When it was quite gone, Jason felt
inclined to doubt whether he had actually heard the words, or whether
his fancy had not shaped them out of the ordinary sound made by a
breeze, while passing through the thick foliage of the tree.
But on inquiry among the people of Iolchos, he found that there was
really a man in the city, by the name of Argus, who was a very skilful
builder of vessels. This showed some intelligence in the oak; else how
should it have known that any such person existed? At Jason's request,
Argus readily consented to build him a galley so big that it should
require fifty strong men to row it; although no vessel of such a size
and burden had heretofore been seen in the world. So the head carpenter
and all his journeymen and apprentices began their work; and for a
good while afterwards, there they were, busily employed, hewing out the
timbers, and making a great clatter with their hammers; until the new
ship, which was called the Argo, seemed to be quite ready for sea. And,
as the Talking Oak had already given him such good advice, Jason thought
that it would not be amiss to ask for a little more. He visited it
again, therefore, and standing beside its huge, rough trunk, inquired
what he should do next.
This time, there was no such universal quivering of the leaves,
throughout the whole tree, as there had been before. But after a while,
Jason observed that the foliage of a great branch which stretched above
his head had begun to rustle, as if the wind were stirring that one
bough, while all the other boughs of the oak were at rest.
"Cut me off!" said the branch, as soon as it could speak distinctly;
"cut me off! cut me off! and carve me into a figure-head for your
galley."
Accordingly, Jason took the branch at its word, and lopped it off the
tree. A carver in the neighborhood engaged to make the figurehead.
He was a tolerably good workman, and had already carved several
figure-heads, in what he intended for feminine shapes, and looking
pretty much like those which we see nowadays stuck up under a vessel's
bowsprit, with great staring eyes, that never wink at the dash of the
spray. But (what was very strange) the carver found that his hand was
guided by some unseen power, and by a skill beyond his own, and that his
tools shaped out an image which he had never dreamed of. When the work
was finished, it turned out to be the figure of a beautiful woman, with
a helmet on her head, from beneath which the long ringlets fell down
upon her shoulders. On the left arm was a shield, and in its center
appeared a lifelike representation of the head of Medusa with the snaky
locks. The right arm was extended, as if pointing onward. The face of
this wonderful statue, though not angry or forbidding, was so grave and
majestic, that perhaps you might call it severe; and as for the mouth,
it seemed just ready to unclose its lips, and utter words of the deepest
wisdom.
Jason was delighted with the oaken image, and gave the carver no rest
until it was completed, and set up where a figure-head has always stood,
from that time to this, in the vessel's prow.
"And now," cried he, as he stood gazing at the calm, majestic face of
the statue, "I must go to the Talking Oak and inquire what next to do."
"There is no need of that, Jason," said a voice which, though it was
far lower, reminded him of the mighty tones of the great oak. "When you
desire good advice, you can seek it of me."
Jason had been looking straight into the face of the image when these
words were spoken. But he could hardly believe either his ears or his
eyes. The truth was, however, that the oaken lips had moved, and, to all
appearance, the voice had proceeded from the statue's mouth. Recovering
a little from his surprise, Jason bethought himself that the image had
been carved out of the wood of the Talking Oak, and that, therefore, it
was really no great wonder, but on the contrary, the most natural thing
in the world, that it should possess the faculty of speech. It would
have been very odd, indeed, if it had not. But certainly it was a great
piece of good fortune that he should be able to carry so wise a block of
wood along with him in his perilous voyage.
"Tell me, wondrous image," exclaimed Jason,--"since you inherit the
wisdom of the Speaking Oak of Dodona, whose daughter you are,--tell me,
where shall I find fifty bold youths, who will take each of them an oar
of my galley? They must have sturdy arms to row, and brave hearts to
encounter perils, or we shall never win the Golden Fleece."
"Go," replied the oaken image, "go, summon all the heroes of Greece."
And, in fact, considering what a great deed was to be done, could any
advice be wiser than this which Jason received from the figure-head of
his vessel? He lost no time in sending messengers to all the cities, and
making known to the whole people of Greece, that Prince Jason, the son
of King Jason, was going in quest of the Fleece of Gold, and that he
desired the help of forty-nine of the bravest and strongest young men
alive, to row his vessel and share his dangers. And Jason himself would
be the fiftieth.
At this news, the adventurous youths, all over the country, began to
bestir themselves. Some of them had already fought with giants, and
slain dragons; and the younger ones, who had not yet met with such
good fortune, thought it a shame to have lived so long without getting
astride of a flying serpent, or sticking their spears into a Chimaera,
or, at least, thrusting their right arms down a monstrous lion's throat.
There was a fair prospect that they would meet with plenty of such
adventures before finding the Golden Fleece. As soon as they could
furbish up their helmets and shields, therefore, and gird on their
trusty swords, they came thronging to Iolchos, and clambered on board
the new galley. Shaking hands with Jason, they assured him that they
did not care a pin for their lives, but would help row the vessel to
the remotest edge of the world, and as much farther as he might think it
best to go.
Many of these brave fellows had been educated by Chiron, the four-footed
pedagogue, and were therefore old schoolmates of Jason, and knew him
to be a lad of spirit. The mighty Hercules, whose shoulders afterwards
upheld the sky, was one of them. And there were Castor and Pollux, the
twin brothers, who were never accused of being chicken-hearted, although
they had been hatched out of an egg; and Theseus, who was so renowned
for killing the Minotaur, and Lynceus, with his wonderfully sharp eyes,
which could see through a millstone, or look right down into the depths
of the earth, and discover the treasures that were there; and Orpheus,
the very best of harpers, who sang and played upon his lyre so sweetly,
that the brute beasts stood upon their hind legs, and capered merrily
to the music. Yes, and at some of his more moving tunes, the rocks
bestirred their moss-grown bulk out of the ground, and a grove of forest
trees uprooted themselves, and, nodding their tops to one another,
performed a country dance.
One of the rowers was a beautiful young woman, named Atalanta, who had
been nursed among the mountains by a bear. So light of foot was this
fair damsel, that she could step from one foamy crest of a wave to
the foamy crest of another, without wetting more than the sole of her
sandal. She had grown up in a very wild way, and talked much about the
rights of women, and loved hunting and war far better than her needle.
But in my opinion, the most remarkable of this famous company were two
sons of the North Wind (airy youngsters, and of rather a blustering
disposition) who had wings on their shoulders, and, in case of a calm,
could puff out their cheeks, and blow almost as fresh a breeze as their
father. I ought not to forget the prophets and conjurors, of whom there
were several in the crew, and who could foretell what would happen
to-morrow or the next day, or a hundred years hence, but were generally
quite unconscious of what was passing at the moment.
Jason appointed Tiphys to be helmsman because he was a star-gazer, and
knew the points of the compass. Lynceus, on account of his sharp sight,
was stationed as a look-out in the prow, where he saw a whole day's sail
ahead, but was rather apt to overlook things that lay directly under his
nose. If the sea only happened to be deep enough, however, Lynceus could
tell you exactly what kind of rocks or sands were at the bottom of it;
and he often cried out to his companions, that they were sailing
over heaps of sunken treasure, which yet he was none the richer for
beholding. To confess the truth, few people believed him when he said
it.
Well! But when the Argonauts, as these fifty brave adventurers were
called, had prepared everything for the voyage, an unforeseen difficulty
threatened to end it before it was begun. The vessel, you must
understand, was so long, and broad, and ponderous, that the united force
of all the fifty was insufficient to shove her into the water. Hercules,
I suppose, had not grown to his full strength, else he might have set
her afloat as easily as a little boy launches his boat upon a puddle.
But here were these fifty heroes, pushing, and straining, and growing
red in the face, without making the Argo start an inch. At last,
quite wearied out, they sat themselves down on the shore exceedingly
disconsolate, and thinking that the vessel must be left to rot and fall
in pieces, and that they must either swim across the sea or lose the
Golden Fleece.
All at once, Jason bethought himself of the galley's miraculous
figure-head.
"O, daughter of the Talking Oak," cried he, "how shall we set to work to
get our vessel into the water?"
"Seat yourselves," answered the image (for it had known what had ought
to be done from the very first, and was only waiting for the question to
be put),--"seat yourselves, and handle your oars, and let Orpheus play
upon his harp."
Immediately the fifty heroes got on board, and seizing their oars, held
them perpendicularly in the air, while Orpheus (who liked such a task
far better than rowing) swept his fingers across the harp. At the first
ringing note of the music, they felt the vessel stir. Orpheus thrummed
away briskly, and the galley slid at once into the sea, dipping her prow
so deeply that the figure-head drank the wave with its marvelous lips,
and rising again as buoyant as a swan. The rowers plied their fifty
oars; the white foam boiled up before the prow; the water gurgled and
bubbled in their wake; while Orpheus continued to play so lively a
strain of music, that the vessel seemed to dance over the billows by way
of keeping time to it. Thus triumphantly did the Argo sail out of the
harbor, amidst the huzzas and good wishes of everybody except the wicked
old Pelias, who stood on a promontory, scowling at her, and wishing
that he could blow out of his lungs the tempest of wrath that was in his
heart, and so sink the galley with all on board. When they had sailed
above fifty miles over the sea, Lynceus happened to cast his sharp eyes
behind, and said that there was this bad-hearted king, still perched
upon the promontory, and scowling so gloomily that it looked like a
black thunder-cloud in that quarter of the horizon.
In order to make the time pass away more pleasantly during the voyage,
the heroes talked about the Golden Fleece. It originally belonged, it
appears, to a Boeotian ram, who had taken on his back two children, when
in danger of their lives, and fled with them over land and sea as far
as Colchis. One of the children, whose name was Helle, fell into the sea
and was drowned. But the other (a little boy, named Phrixus) was brought
safe ashore by the faithful ram, who, however, was so exhausted that
he immediately lay down and died. In memory of this good deed, and as
a token of his true heart, the fleece of the poor dead ram was
miraculously changed to gold, and became one of the most beautiful
objects ever seen on earth. It was hung upon a tree in a sacred grove,
where it had now been kept I know not how many years, and was the envy
of mighty kings, who had nothing so magnificent in any of their palaces.
If I were to tell you all the adventures of the Argonauts, it would take
me till nightfall, and perhaps a great deal longer. There was no lack of
wonderful events, as you may judge from what you have already heard.
At a certain island, they were hospitably received by King Cyzicus, its
sovereign, who made a feast for them, and treated them like brothers.
But the Argonauts saw that this good king looked downcast and very much
troubled, and they therefore inquired of him what was the matter. King
Cyzicus hereupon informed them that he and his subjects were greatly
abused and incommoded by the inhabitants of a neighboring mountain, who
made war upon them, and killed many people, and ravaged the country. And
while they were talking about it, Cyzicus pointed to the mountain, and
asked Jason and his companions what they saw there.
"I see some very tall objects," answered Jason; "but they are at such a
distance that I cannot distinctly make out what they are. To tell your
majesty the truth, they look so very strangely that I am inclined to
think them clouds, which have chanced to take something like human
shapes."
"I see them very plainly," remarked Lynceus, whose eyes, you know, were
as far-sighted as a telescope. "They are a band of enormous giants, all
of whom have six arms apiece, and a club, a sword, or some other weapon
in each of their hands."
"You have excellent eyes," said King Cyzicus. "Yes; they are six-armed
giants, as you say, and these are the enemies whom I and my subjects
have to contend with."
The next day, when the Argonauts were about setting sail, down came
these terrible giants, stepping a hundred yards at a stride, brandishing
their six arms apiece, and looking formidable, so far aloft in the air.
Each of these monsters was able to carry on a whole war by himself,
for with one arm he could fling immense stones, and wield a club with
another, and a sword with a third, while the fourth was poking a long
spear at the enemy, and the fifth and sixth were shooting him with a bow
and arrow. But, luckily, though the giants were so huge, and had so many
arms, they had each but one heart, and that no bigger nor braver
than the heart of an ordinary man. Besides, if they had been like the
hundred-armed Briareus, the brave Argonauts would have given them their
hands full of fight. Jason and his friends went boldly to meet them,
slew a great many, and made the rest take to their heels, so that if the
giants had had six legs apiece instead of six arms, it would have served
them better to run away with.
Another strange adventure happened when the voyagers came to Thrace,
where they found a poor blind king, named Phineus, deserted by his
subjects, and living in a very sorrowful way, all by himself. On Jason's
inquiring whether they could do him any service, the king answered
that he was terribly tormented by three great winged creatures, called
Harpies, which had the faces of women, and the wings, bodies, and claws
of vultures. These ugly wretches were in the habit of snatching away
his dinner, and allowed him no peace of his life. Upon hearing this, the
Argonauts spread a plentiful feast on the sea-shore, well knowing, from
what the blind king said of their greediness, that the Harpies would
snuff up the scent of the victuals, and quickly come to steal them away.
And so it turned out; for, hardly was the table set, before the three
hideous vulture women came flapping their wings, seized the food in
their talons, and flew off as fast as they could. But the two sons of
the North Wind drew their swords, spread their pinions, and set off
through the air in pursuit of the thieves, whom they at last overtook
among some islands, after a chase of hundreds of miles. The two winged
youths blustered terribly at the Harpies (for they had the rough temper
of their father), and so frightened them with their drawn swords, that
they solemnly promised never to trouble King Phineus again.
Then the Argonauts sailed onward and met with many other marvelous
incidents, any one of which would make a story by itself. At one time
they landed on an island, and were reposing on the grass, when
they suddenly found themselves assailed by what seemed a shower of
steel-headed arrows. Some of them stuck in the ground, while others hit
against their shields, and several penetrated their flesh. The fifty
heroes started up, and looked about them for the hidden enemy, but could
find none, nor see any spot, on the whole island, where even a single
archer could lie concealed. Still, however, the steel-headed arrows came
whizzing among them; and, at last, happening to look upward, they beheld
a large flock of birds, hovering and wheeling aloft, and shooting their
feathers down upon the Argonauts. These feathers were the steel-headed
arrows that had so tormented them. There was no possibility of making
any resistance; and the fifty heroic Argonauts might all have been
killed or wounded by a flock of troublesome birds, without ever setting
eyes on the Golden Fleece, if Jason had not thought of asking the advice
of the oaken image.
So he ran to the galley as fast as his legs would carry him.
"O, daughter of the Speaking Oak," cried he, all out of breath, "we need
your wisdom more than ever before! We are in great peril from a flock of
birds, who are shooting us with their steel-pointed feathers. What can
we do to drive them away?"
"Make a clatter on your shields," said the image.
On receiving this excellent counsel, Jason hurried back to his
companions (who were far more dismayed than when they fought with the
six-armed giants), and bade them strike with their swords upon their
brazen shields. Forthwith the fifty heroes set heartily to work, banging
with might and main, and raised such a terrible clatter, that the birds
made what haste they could to get away; and though they had shot half
the feathers out of their wings, they were soon seen skimming among the
clouds, a long distance off, and looking like a flock of wild geese.
Orpheus celebrated this victory by playing a triumphant anthem on his
harp, and sang so melodiously that Jason begged him to desist, lest, as
the steel-feathered birds had been driven away by an ugly sound, they
might be enticed back again by a sweet one.
While the Argonauts remained on this island, they saw a small vessel
approaching the shore, in which were two young men of princely demeanor,
and exceedingly handsome, as young princes generally were, in those
days. Now, who do you imagine these two voyagers turned out to be? Why,
if you will believe me, they were the sons of that very Phrixus, who,
in his childhood, had been carried to Colchis on the back of the
golden-fleeced ram. Since that time, Phrixus had married the king's
daughter; and the two young princes had been born and brought up at
Colchis, and had spent their play-days in the outskirts of the grove, in
the center of which the Golden Fleece was hanging upon a tree. They were
now on their way to Greece, in hopes of getting back a kingdom that had
been wrongfully taken from their father.
When the princes understood whither the Argonauts were going, they
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 Aetes, 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 Aetes. "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 to give me his crown and
sceptre, 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 Aetes, eyeing Jason very sternly, "what are
the conditions which you must fulfill 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 Aetes, who was determined
to scare Jason if possible, "you must yoke them to a plow, and must plow
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 Aetes 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 plow."
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."
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."
"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 to 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 plow, 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 plowing 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 plow. 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
plowed 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 plowed 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 blood-thirsty 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 to 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 offense 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 Aetes 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 Aetes. 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 plowed;
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 Aetes 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 Aetes, 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."
At the appointed hour you might again have seen Prince Jason and the
Princess Medea, side by side, stealing through the streets of Colchis,
on their way to the sacred grove, in the center of which the Golden
Fleece was suspended to a tree. While they were crossing the pasture
ground, the brazen bulls came towards Jason, lowing, nodding their
heads, and thrusting forth their snouts, which, as other cattle do,
they loved to have rubbed and caressed by a friendly hand. Their
fierce nature was thoroughly tamed; and, with their fierceness, the two
furnaces in their stomachs had likewise been extinguished, insomuch that
they probably enjoyed far more comfort in grazing and chewing their cuds
than ever before. Indeed, it had heretofore been a great inconvenience
to these poor animals, that, whenever they wished to eat a mouthful of
grass, the fire out of their nostrils had shriveled it up, before they
could manage to crop it. How they contrived to keep themselves alive is
more than I can imagine. But now, instead of emitting jets of flame
and streams of sulphurous vapor, they breathed the very sweetest of cow
breath.
After kindly patting the bulls, Jason followed Medea's guidance into
the Grove of Mars, where the great oak trees, that had been growing for
centuries, threw so thick a shade that the moonbeams struggled vainly to
find their way through it. Only here and there a glimmer fell upon the
leaf-strewn earth, or now and then a breeze stirred the boughs aside,
and gave Jason a glimpse of the sky, lest, in that deep obscurity, he
might forget that there was one, overhead. At length, when they had
gone farther and farther into the heart of the duskiness, Medea squeezed
Jason's hand.
"Look yonder," she whispered. "Do you see it?"
Gleaming among the venerable oaks, there was a radiance, not like the
moonbeams, but rather resembling the golden glory of the setting sun.
It proceeded from an object, which appeared to be suspended at about a
man's height from the ground, a little farther within the wood.
"What is it?" asked Jason.
"Have you come so far to seek it," exclaimed Medea, "and do you not
recognize the meed of all your toils and perils, when it glitters before
your eyes? It is the Golden Fleece."
Jason went onward a few steps farther, and then stopped to gaze. O, how
beautiful it looked, shining with a marvelous light of its own, that
inestimable prize which so many heroes had longed to behold, but had
perished in the quest of it, either by the perils of their voyage, or by
the fiery breath of the brazen-lunged bulls.
"How gloriously it shines!" cried Jason, in a rapture. "It has surely
been dipped in the richest gold of sunset. Let me hasten onward, and
take it to my bosom."
"Stay," said Medea, holding him back. "Have you forgotten what guards
it?"
To say the truth, in the joy of beholding the object of his desires, the
terrible dragon had quite slipped out of Jason's memory. Soon, however,
something came to pass, that reminded him what perils were still to be
encountered. An antelope, that probably mistook the yellow radiance
for sunrise, came bounding fleetly through the grove. He was rushing
straight towards the Golden Fleece, when suddenly there was a frightful
hiss, and the immense head and half the scaly body of the dragon was
thrust forth (for he was twisted round the trunk of the tree on which
the Fleece hung), and seizing the poor antelope, swallowed him with one
snap of his jaws.
After this feat, the dragon seemed sensible that some other living
creature was within reach, on which he felt inclined to finish his meal.
In various directions he kept poking his ugly snout among the trees,
stretching out his neck a terrible long way, now here, now there, and
now close to the spot where Jason and the princess were hiding behind
an oak. Upon my word, as the head came waving and undulating through the
air, and reaching almost within arm's length of Prince Jason, it was a
very hideous and uncomfortable sight. The gape of his enormous jaws was
nearly as wide as the gateway of the king's palace.
"Well, Jason," whispered Medea (for she was ill natured, as all
enchantresses are, and wanted to make the bold youth tremble), "what do
you think now of your prospect of winning the Golden Fleece?"
Jason answered only by drawing his sword, and making a step forward.
"Stay, foolish youth," said Medea, grasping his arm. "Do not you see you
are lost, without me as your good angel? In this gold box I have a magic
potion, which will do the dragon's business far more effectually than
your sword."
The dragon had probably heard the voices; for swift as lightning, his
black head and forked tongue came hissing among the trees again,
darting full forty feet at a stretch. As it approached, Medea tossed
the contents of the gold box right down the monster's wide-open throat.
Immediately, with an outrageous hiss and a tremendous wriggle--flinging
his tail up to the tip-top of the tallest tree, and shattering all
its branches as it crashed heavily down again--the dragon fell at full
length upon the ground, and lay quite motionless.
"It is only a sleeping potion," said the enchantress to Prince Jason.
"One always finds a use for these mischievous creatures, sooner or
later; so I did not wish to kill him outright. Quick! Snatch the prize,
and let us begone. You have won the Golden Fleece."
Jason caught the fleece from the tree, and hurried through the grove,
the deep shadows of which were illuminated as he passed by the golden
glory of the precious object that he bore along. A little way before
him, he beheld the old woman whom he had helped over the stream, with
her peacock beside her. She clapped her hands for joy, and beckoning him
to make haste, disappeared among the duskiness of the trees. Espying the
two winged sons of the North Wind (who were disporting themselves in the
moonlight, a few hundred feet aloft), Jason bade them tell the rest of
the Argonauts to embark as speedily as possible. But Lynceus, with his
sharp eyes, had already caught a glimpse of him, bringing the Golden
Fleece, although several stone walls, a hill, and the black shadows of
the Grove of Mars, intervened between. By his advice, the heroes had
seated themselves on the benches of the galley, with their oars held
perpendicularly, ready to let fall into the water.
As Jason drew near, he heard the Talking Image calling to him with more
than ordinary eagerness, in its grave, sweet voice:
"Make haste, Prince Jason! For your life, make haste!"
With one bound, he leaped aboard. At sight of the glorious radiance of
the Golden Fleece, the nine and forty heroes gave a mighty shout, and
Orpheus, striking his harp, sang a song of triumph, to the cadence of
which the galley flew over the water, homeward bound, as if careering
along with wings!