of the rock where he lay, and went leaping, faster and faster as it
fell, till it dropped with a splash into the pool below. Then the three
maidens heard it, and were frightened, thinking some one was near. So
they rushed out of the pool to the grassy bank where their clothes lay,
lovely soft clothes, white and gray, and rosy-coloured, all shining with
pearl drops, and diamonds like dew.
In a moment they had dressed, and then it was as if they had wings, for
they rose gently from the ground, and floated softly up and up the
windings of the brook. Here and there among the green tops of the
mountain-ash trees the king could just see the white robes shining and
disappearing, and shining again, till they rose far off like a mist, and
so up and up into the sky, and at last he only followed them with his
eyes, as they floated like clouds among the other clouds across the
blue. All day he watched them, and at sunset he saw them sink, golden
and rose-coloured and purple, and go down into the dark with the setting
sun.
The king went home to his palace, but he was very unhappy, and nothing
gave him any pleasure. All day he roamed about among the hills, and
looked for the beautiful girls, but he never found them, and all night
he dreamed about them, till he grew thin and pale and was like to die.
Now, the way with sick men then was that they made a pilgrimage to the
temple of a god, and in the temple they offered sacrifices. Then they
hoped that the god would appear to them in a dream, or send them a true
dream at least, and tell them how they might be made well again. So the
king drove in his chariot a long way, to the town where this temple was.
When he reached it, he found it a strange place. The priests were
dressed in dogs' skins, with the heads of the dogs drawn down over
their faces, and there were live dogs running all about the shrines, for
they were the favourite beasts of the god, whose name was Asclepius.
There was an image of him, with a dog crouched at his feet, and in his
hand he held a serpent, and fed it from a bowl.
The king sacrificed before the god, and when night fell he was taken
into the temple, and there were many beds strewn on the floor and many
people lying on them, both rich and poor, hoping that the god would
appear to them in a dream, and tell them how they might be healed. There
the king lay, like the rest, and for long he could not close his eyes.
At length he slept, and he dreamed a dream. But it was not the god of
the temple that he saw in his dream; he saw a beautiful lady, she seemed
to float above him in a chariot drawn by doves, and all about her was a
crowd of chattering sparrows, and he knew that she was Aphrodite, the
Queen of Love. She was more beautiful than any woman in the world, and
she smiled as she looked at the king, and said, 'Oh, King Athamas, you
are sick for love! Now this you must do: go home and on the first night
of the new moon, climb the hills to that place where you saw the Three
Maidens. In the dawn they will come again to the river, and bathe in the
pool. Then do you creep out of the wood, and steal the clothes of her
you love, and she will not be able to fly away with the rest, and she
will be your wife.'
Then she smiled again, and her doves bore her away, and the king woke,
and remembered the dream, and thanked the lady in his heart, for he knew
that she was a goddess, the Queen of Love.
[Illustration: KING ATHAMAS STEALS NEPHELE'S CLOTHES SO THAT SHE CANNOT
FLOAT AWAY WITH HER SISTERS.]
Then he drove home, and did all that he had been told to do. On the
first night of the new moon, when she shines like a thin gold thread in
the sky, he left his palace, and climbed up through the hills, and hid
in the wood by the edge of the pool. When the dawn began to shine
silvery, he heard voices, and saw the three girls come floating through
the trees, and alight on the river bank, and undress, and run into the
water. There they bathed, and splashed each other with the water,
laughing in their play. Then he stole to the grassy bank, and seized the
clothes of the most beautiful of the three; and they heard him move, and
rushed out to their clothes. Two of them were clad in a moment, and
floated away up the glen, but the third crouched sobbing and weeping
under the thick cloak of her yellow hair. Then she prayed the king to
give her back her soft gray and rose-coloured raiment, but he would not
till she had promised to be his wife. And he told her how long he had
loved her, and how the goddess had sent him to be her husband, and at
last she promised, and took his hand, and in her shining robes went down
the hill with him to the palace. But he felt as if he walked on the air,
and she scarcely seemed to touch the ground with her feet. She told him
that her name was Nephele, which meant 'a cloud,' in their language, and
that she was one of the Cloud Fairies who bring the rain, and live on
the hilltops, and in the high lakes, and water springs, and in the sky.
So they were married, and lived very happily, and had two children, a
boy called Phrixus, and a daughter named Helle. The two children had a
beautiful pet, a Ram with a fleece all of gold, which was given them by
the young god called Hermes, a beautiful god, with wings on his
shoon,--for these were the very Shoon of Swiftness, that he lent
afterwards to the boy, Perseus, who slew the Gorgon, and took her head.
This Ram the children used to play with, and they would ride on his
back, and roll about with him on the flowery meadows.
They would all have been happy, but for one thing. When there were
clouds in the sky, and when there was rain, then their mother, Nephele,
was always with them; but when the summer days were hot and cloudless,
then she went away, they did not know where. The long dry days made her
grow pale and thin, and, at last, she would vanish altogether, and never
come again, till the sky grew soft and gray with rain.
King Athamas grew weary of this, for often his wife would be long away.
Besides there was a very beautiful girl called Ino, a dark girl, who had
come in a ship of Phoenician merchantmen, and had stayed in the city
of the king when her friends sailed from Greece. The king saw her, and
often she would be at the palace, playing with the children when their
mother had disappeared with the Clouds, her sisters.
This Ino was a witch, and one day she put a drug into the king's wine,
and when he had drunk it, he quite forgot Nephele, his wife, and fell in
love with Ino. At last he married her, and they had two children, a boy
and a girl, and Ino wore the crown, and was queen, and gave orders that
Nephele should never be allowed to enter the palace any more. So Phrixus
and Helle never saw their mother, and they were dressed in ragged old
skins of deer, and were ill fed, and were set to do hard work in the
house, while the children of Ino wore gold crowns in their hair, and
were dressed in fine raiment, and had the best of everything.
One day when Phrixus and Helle were in the field, herding the sheep (for
now they were treated like peasant children, and had to work for their
bread), they met an old woman, all wrinkled, and poorly clothed, and
they took pity on her, and brought her home with them. Queen Ino saw
her, and as she wanted a nurse for her own children, she took her in to
be the nurse, and the old woman had charge of the children, and lived in
the house, and she was kind to Phrixus and Helle. But neither of them
knew that she was their own mother, Nephele, who had disguised herself
as an old woman and a servant, that she might be with her children.
Phrixus and Helle grew strong and tall, and more beautiful than Ino's
children, so she hated them, and determined, at last, to kill them. They
all slept at night in one room, but Ino's children had gold crowns in
their hair, and beautiful coverlets on their beds. One night, Phrixus
was half awake, and he heard the old nurse come, in the dark, and put
something on his head, and on his sister's, and change their coverlets.
But he was so drowsy that he half thought it was a dream, and he lay and
fell asleep. In the dead of night, the wicked stepmother, Ino, crept
into the room with a dagger in her hand, and she stole up to the bed of
Phrixus, and felt his hair, and his coverlet. Then she went softly to
the bed of Helle, and felt her coverlet, and her hair with the gold
crown on it. So she supposed these to be her own children, and she
kissed them in the dark, and went to the beds of the other two children.
She felt their heads, and they had no crowns on, so she killed them,
supposing that they were Phrixus and Helle. Then she crept downstairs
and went back to bed.
In the morning, there lay the stepmother Ino's children cold and dead,
and nobody knew who had killed them. Only the wicked queen knew, and
she, of course, would not tell of herself, but if she hated Phrixus and
Helle before, now she hated them a hundred times worse than ever. But
the old nurse was gone; nobody ever saw her there again, and everybody
but the queen thought that _she_ had killed the two children. Everywhere
the king sought for her, to burn her alive, but he never found her, for
she had gone back to her sisters, the Clouds.
And the Clouds were gone, too! For six long months, from winter to
harvest time, the rain never fell. The country was burned up, the trees
grew black and dry, there was no water in the streams, the corn turned
yellow and died before it was come into the ear. The people were
starving, the cattle and sheep were perishing, for there was no grass.
And every day the sun rose hot and red, and went blazing through the sky
without a cloud.
Here the wicked stepmother, Ino, saw her chance. The king sent
messengers to Pytho, to consult the prophetess, and to find out what
should be done to bring back the clouds and the rain. Then Ino took the
messengers, before they set out on their journey, and gave them gold,
and threatened also to kill them, if they did not bring the message she
wished from the prophetess. Now this message was that Phrixus and Helle
must be burned as a sacrifice to the gods.
So the messengers went, and came back dressed in mourning. And when they
were brought before the king, at first they would tell him nothing. But
he commanded them to speak, and then they told him, not the real message
from the prophetess, but what Ino had bidden them to say: that Phrixus
and Helle must be offered as a sacrifice to appease the gods.
The king was very sorrowful at this news, but he could not disobey the
gods. So poor Phrixus and Helle were wreathed with flowers, as sheep
used to be when they were led to be sacrificed, and they were taken to
the altar, all the people following and weeping, and the Golden Ram went
between them, as they walked to the temple. Then they came within sight
of the sea, which lay beneath the cliff where the temple stood, all
glittering in the sun, and the happy white sea-birds flying over it.
Here the Ram stopped, and suddenly he spoke to Phrixus, for the god gave
him utterance, and said: 'Lay hold of my horn, and get on my back, and
let Helle climb up behind you, and I will carry you far away.'
Then Phrixus took hold of the Ram's horn, and Helle mounted behind him,
and grasped the golden fleece, and suddenly the Ram rose in the air, and
flew above the people's heads, far away over the sea.
Far away to the eastward he flew, and deep below them they saw the sea,
and the islands, and the white towers and temples, and the fields, and
ships. Eastward always he went, toward the sun-rising, and Helle grew
dizzy and weary. At last a deep sleep came over her, and she let go her
hold of the Fleece, and fell from the Ram's back, down and down, into
the narrow seas, that run between Europe and Asia, and there she was
drowned. And that strait is called Helle's Ford, or Hellespont, to this
day.
But Phrixus and the Ram flew on up the narrow seas, and over the great
sea which the Greeks called the Euxine and we call the Black Sea, till
they reached a country named Colchis. There the Ram alighted, so tired
and weary that he died, and Phrixus had his beautiful Golden Fleece
stripped off, and hung on an oak tree in a dark wood. And there it was
guarded by a monstrous Dragon, so that nobody dared to go near it. And
Phrixus married the king's daughter, and lived long, till he died also,
and a king called Aetes, the brother of the enchantress, Circe, ruled
that country. Of all the things he had, the rarest was the Golden
Fleece, and it became a proverb that nobody could take that Fleece away,
nor deceive the Dragon who guarded it.
II
THE SEARCH FOR THE FLEECE
Some years after the Golden Ram died in Colchis, far across the sea, a
certain king reigned in Iolcos in Greece, and his name was Pelias. He
was not the rightful king, for he had turned his stepbrother, King Aeson,
from the throne, and taken it for himself. Now, Aeson had a son, a boy
called Jason, and he sent him far away from Pelias, up into the
mountains. In these hills there was a great cave, and in that cave lived
Chiron the Wise, who, the story says, was half a horse. He had the head
and breast of a man, but a horse's body and legs. He was famed for
knowing more about everything than anyone else in all Greece. He knew
about the stars, and the plants of earth, which were good for medicine
and which were poisonous. He was the best archer with the bow, and the
best player of the harp; he could sing songs and tell stories of old
times, for he was the last of a people, half horse and half man, who had
dwelt in ancient days on the hills. Therefore the kings in Greece sent
their sons to him to be taught shooting, singing, and telling the truth,
and that was all the teaching they had then, except that they learned to
hunt, fish, and fight, and throw spears, and toss the hammer and the
stone. There Jason lived with Chiron and the boys in the cave, and many
of the boys became famous.
There was Orpheus who played the harp so sweetly that wild beasts
followed his minstrelsy, and even the trees danced after him, and
settled where he stopped playing. There was Mopsus who could understand
what the birds say to each other; and there was Butes, the handsomest of
men; and Tiphys, the best steersman of a ship; and Castor, with his
brother Polydeuces, the boxer. Heracles, too, the strongest man in the
whole world, was there; and Lynceus, whom they called Keen-eye, because
he could see so far, and could see even the dead men in their graves
under the earth. There was Ephemus, so swift and light-footed that he
could run upon the gray sea and never wet his feet; and there were
Calais and Zetes, the two sons of the North Wind, with golden wings upon
their feet. There also was Peleus, who later married Thetis of the
silver feet, goddess of the sea foam, and was the father of Achilles.
Many others were there whose names it would take too long to tell. They
all grew up together in the hills good friends, healthy, and brave, and
strong. And they all went out to their own homes at last; but Jason had
no home to go to, for his uncle, Pelias, had taken it, and his father
was a wanderer.
So at last he wearied of being alone, and he said good-bye to his
teacher, and went down through the hills toward Iolcos, his father's old
home, where his wicked uncle Pelias was reigning. As he went, he came to
a great, flooded river, running red from bank to bank, rolling the round
boulders along. And there on the bank was an old woman sitting.
'Cannot you cross, mother?' said Jason; and she said she could not, but
must wait until the flood fell, for there was no bridge.
'I'll carry you across,' said Jason, 'if you will let me carry you.'
So she thanked him, and said it was a kind deed, for she was longing to
reach the cottage where her little grandson lay sick.
Then he knelt down, and she climbed upon his back, and he used his spear
for a staff, and stepped into the river. It was deeper than he thought,
and stronger, but at last he staggered out on the farther bank, far
below where he went in. And then he set the old woman down.
'Bless you, my lad, for a strong man and a brave!' she said, 'and my
blessing go with you to the world's end.'
Then he looked and she was gone he did not know where, for she was the
greatest of the goddesses, Hera, the wife of Zeus, who had taken the
shape of an old woman, to try Jason, whether he was kind and strong, or
rude and churlish. From this day her grace went with him, and she helped
him in all dangers.
Then Jason went down limping to the city, for he had lost one shoe in
the flood. And when he reached the town he went straight up to the
palace, and through the court, and into the open door, and up the hall,
where the king was sitting at his table among his men. There Jason
stood, leaning on his spear.
When the king saw him he turned white with terror. For he had been told
by the prophetess of Pytho that a man with only one shoe would come some
day and take away his kingdom. And here was the half-shod man of whom
the prophecy had spoken.
But Pelias still remembered to be courteous, and he bade his men lead
the stranger to the baths, and there the attendants bathed him, pouring
hot water over him. And they anointed his head with oil, and clothed him
in new raiment, and brought him back to the hall, and set him down at a
table beside the king, and gave him meat and drink.
When he had eaten and was refreshed, the king said: 'Now it is time to
ask the stranger who he is, and who his parents are, and whence he comes
to Iolcos?'
And Jason answered, 'I am Jason, son of the rightful king, Aeson, and I
am come to take back my kingdom.'
The king grew pale again, but he was cunning, and he leaped up and
embraced the lad, and made much of him, and caused a gold circlet to be
twisted in his hair. Then he said he was old, and weary of judging the
people. 'And weary work it is,' he said, 'and no joy therewith shall any
king have. For there is a curse on the country, that shall not be taken
away till the Fleece of Gold is brought home, from the land of the
world's end. The ghost of Phrixus stands by my bedside every night,
wailing and will not be comforted, till the Fleece is brought home
again.'
When Jason heard that he cried, 'I shall take the curse away, for by the
splendour of Lady Hera's brow, I shall bring the Fleece of Gold from the
land of the world's end before I sit on the throne of my father.'
Now this was the very thing that the king wished, for he thought that if
once Jason went after the Fleece, certainly he would never come back
living to Iolcos. So he said that it could never be done, for the land
was far away across the sea, so far that the birds could not come and go
in one year, so great a sea was that and perilous. Also, there was a
dragon that guarded the Fleece of Gold, and no man could face it and
live.
But the idea of fighting a dragon was itself a temptation to Jason, and
he made a great vow by the water of Styx, an oath the very gods feared
to break, that certainly he would bring home that Fleece to Iolcos. And
he sent out messengers all over Greece, to all his old friends, who were
with him in the Centaur's cave, and bade them come and help him, for
that there was a dragon to kill, and that there would be fighting. And
they all came, driving in their chariots down dales and across hills:
Heracles, the strong man, with the bow that none other could bend; and
Orpheus with his harp, and Castor and Polydeuces, and Zetes and Calais
of the golden wings, and Tiphys, the steersman, and young Hylas, still a
boy, and as fair as a girl, who always went with Heracles the strong.
These came, and many more, and they set shipbuilders to work, and oaks
were felled for beams, and ashes for oars, and spears were made, and
arrows feathered, and swords sharpened. But in the prow of the ship they
placed a bough of an oak tree from the forest of Zeus in Dodona where
the trees can speak, and that bough spoke, and prophesied things to
come. They called the ship 'Argo,' and they launched her, and put bread,
and meat, and wine on board, and hung their shields outside the
bulwarks. Then they said good-bye to their friends, went aboard, sat
down at the oars, set sail, and so away eastward to Colchis, in the land
of the world's end.
All day they rowed, and at night they beached the ship, as was then the
custom, for they did not sail at night, and they went on shore, and took
supper, and slept, and next day to the sea again. And old Chiron, the
man-horse, saw the swift ship from his mountain heights, and ran down
to the beach; there he stood with the waves of the gray sea breaking
over his feet, waving with his mighty hands, and wishing his boys a safe
return. And his wife stood beside him, holding in her arms the little
son of one of the ship's company, Achilles, the son of Peleus of the
Spear, and of Thetis the goddess of the Sea Foam.
So they rowed ever eastward, and ere long they came to a strange isle
where dwelt men with six hands apiece, unruly giants. And these giants
lay in wait for them on cliffs above the river's mouth where the ship
was moored, and before the dawn they rolled down great rocks on the
crew. But Heracles drew his huge bow, the bow for which he slew Eurytus,
king of Oechalia, and wherever a giant showed hand or shoulder above the
cliff, he pinned him through with an arrow, till all were slain. After
that they still held eastward, passing many islands, and towns of men,
till they reached Mysia, and the Asian shore. Here they landed, with bad
luck. For while they were cutting reeds and grass to strew their beds on
the sands, young Hylas, beautiful Hylas, went off with a pitcher in his
hand to draw water. He came to a beautiful spring, a deep, clear, green
pool, and there the water-fairies lived, whom men called Nereids. There
were Eunis, and Nycheia with her April eyes, and when they saw the
beautiful Hylas, they longed to have him always with them, to live in
the crystal caves beneath the water, for they had never seen anyone so
beautiful. As he stooped with his pitcher and dipped it into the stream,
they caught him softly in their arms, and drew him down below, and no
man ever saw him any more, but he dwelt with the water-fairies.
But Heracles the strong, who loved him like a younger brother, wandered
all over the country crying '_Hylas! Hylas!_' and the boy's voice
answered so faintly from below the stream that Heracles never heard him.
So he roamed alone in the forests, and the rest of the crew thought he
was lost.
Then the sons of the North Wind were angry, and bade them set sail
without him, and sail they did, leaving the strong man behind. Long
afterward, when the Fleece was won, Heracles met the sons of the North
Wind, and slew them with his arrows. And he buried them, and set a great
stone on each grave, and one of these is ever stirred, and shakes when
the North Wind blows. There they lie, and their golden wings are at
rest.
Still they sped on, with a west wind blowing, and they came to a country
whose king was strong, and thought himself the best boxer then living,
so he came down to the ship and challenged anyone of that crew; and
Polydeuces, the boxer, took up the challenge. All the rest, and the
people of the country, made a ring, and Polydeuces and huge King Amycus
stepped into the midst, and put up their hands. First they moved round
each other cautiously, watching for a chance, and then, as the sun shone
forth in the Giant's face, Polydeuces leaped in and struck him between
the eyes with his left hand, and, strong as he was, the Giant staggered
and fell. Then his friends picked him up, and sponged his face with
water, and all the crew of 'Argo' shouted with joy. He was soon on his
feet again, and rushed at Polydeuces, hitting out so hard that he would
have killed him if the blow had gone home. But Polydeuces just moved his
head a little on one side, and the blow went by, and, as the Giant
slipped, Polydeuces planted one in his mouth and another beneath his
ear, and was away before the Giant could recover.
There they stood, breathing heavily, and glaring at each other, till the
Giant made another rush, but Polydeuces avoided him, and struck him
several blows quickly in the eyes, and now the Giant was almost blind.
Then Polydeuces at once ended the combat by a right-hand blow on the
temple. The Giant fell, and lay as if he were dead. When he came to
himself again, he had no heart to go on, for his knees shook, and he
could hardly see. So Polydeuces made him swear never to challenge
strangers again as long as he lived, and then the crew of 'Argo' crowned
Polydeuces with a wreath of poplar leaves, and they took supper, and
Orpheus sang to them, and they slept, and next day they came to the
country of the unhappiest of kings.