Jason and his company, he seemed more like the ghost of a beggar than a
crowned king. For he was blind, and very old, and he wandered like a
dream, leaning on a staff, and feeling the wall with his hand. His limbs
all trembled, he was but a thing of skin and bone, and foul and filthy
to see. At last he reached the doorway of the house where Jason was, and
sat down, with his purple cloak fallen round him, and he held up his
skinny hands, and welcomed Jason, for, being a prophet, he knew that now
he should be delivered from his wretchedness.
He lived, or rather lingered, in all this misery because he had offended
the gods, and had told men what things were to happen in the future
beyond what the gods desired that men should know. So they blinded him,
and they sent against him hideous monsters with wings and crooked claws,
called Harpies, which fell upon him at his meat, and carried it away
before he could put it to his mouth. Sometimes they flew off with all
the meat; sometimes they left a little, that he might not quite starve,
and die, and be at peace, but might live in misery. Yet what they left
was made so foul, and of such evil savour, that even a starving man
could scarcely take it within his lips. Thus this king was the most
miserable of all men living.
He welcomed the heroes, and, above all, Zetes and Calais, the sons of
the North Wind, for they, he knew, would help him. And they all went
into his wretched, naked hall, and sat down at the tables, and the
servants brought meat and drink and placed it before them, the latest
and last supper of the Harpies. Then down on the meat swooped the
Harpies, like lightning or wind, with clanging brazen wings, and iron
claws, and the smell of a battlefield where men lie dead; down they
swooped, and flew shrieking away with the food. But the two sons of the
North Wind drew their short swords, and rose in the air on their golden
wings, and followed where the Harpies fled, over many a sea and many a
land, till they came to a distant isle, and there they slew the Harpies
with their swords. And that isle was called 'Turn Again,' for there the
sons of the North Wind turned, and it was late in the night when they
came back to the hall of Phineus, and to their companions.
Here Phineus was telling Jason and his company how they might win their
way to Colchis and the world's end, and the wood of the Fleece of Gold.
'First,' he said, 'you shall come in your ship to the Rocks Wandering,
for these rocks wander like living things in the sea, and no ship has
ever sailed between them. They open, like a great mouth, to let ships
pass, and when she is between their lips they clash again, and crush her
in their iron jaws. By this way even winged things may never pass; nay,
not even the doves that bear ambrosia to Father Zeus, the lord of
Olympus, but the rocks ever catch one even of these. So, when you come
near them, you must let loose a dove from the ship, and let her go
before you to try the way. And if she flies safely between the rocks
from one sea to the other sea, then row with all your might when the
rocks open again. But if the rocks close on the bird, then return, and
do not try the adventure. But, if you win safely through, then hold
right on to the mouth of the River Phasis, and there you shall see the
towers of Aetes, the king, and the grove of the Fleece of Gold. And then
do as well as you may.'
So they thanked him, and the next morning they set sail, till they came
to a place where the Rocks Wandering wallowed in the water, and all was
foam; but when the Rocks leaped apart the stream ran swift, and the
waves roared beneath the rocks, and the wet cliffs bellowed. Then
Euphemus took the dove in his hands, and set her free, and she flew
straight at the pass where the rocks met, and sped right through, and
the rocks gnashed like gnashing teeth, but they caught only a feather
from her tail.
Then slowly the rocks opened again, like a wild beast's mouth that
opens, and Tiphys, the helmsman, shouted, 'Row on, hard all!' and he
held the ship straight for the pass. Then the oars bent like bows in the
hands of men, and the good ship leaped at the stroke. Three strokes they
pulled, and at each the ship leaped, and now they were within the black
jaws of the rocks, the water boiling round them, and so dark it was that
overhead they could see the stars, but the oarsmen could not see the
daylight behind them, and the steersman could not see the daylight in
front. Then the great tide rushed in between the rocks like a rushing
river, and lifted the ship as if it were lifted by a hand, and through
the strait she passed like a bird, and the rocks clashed, and only broke
the carved wood of the ship's stern. And the ship reeled into the
seething sea beyond, and all the men of Jason bowed their heads over
their oars, half dead with the fierce rowing.
Then they set all sail, and the ship sped merrily on, past the shores of
the inner sea, past bays and towns, and river mouths, and round green
hills, the tombs of men slain long ago. And, behold, on the top of one
mound stood a tall man, clad in rusty armour, and with a broken sword in
his hand, and on his head a helmet with a blood-red crest. Thrice he
waved his hand, and thrice he shouted aloud, and was no more seen, for
this was the ghost of Sthenelus, Actaeon's son, whom an arrow had slain
there long since, and he had come forth from his tomb to see men of his
own blood, and to greet Jason and his company. So they anchored there,
and slew sheep in sacrifice, and poured blood and wine on the grave of
Sthenelus. There Orpheus left a harp, placing it in the bough of a tree,
that the wind might sing in the chords, and make music to Sthenelus
below the earth.
Then they sailed on, and at evening they saw above their heads the snowy
crests of Mount Caucasus, flushed in the sunset; and high in the air
they saw, as it were, a black speck that grew greater and greater, and
fluttered black wings, and then fell sheer down like a stone. Then they
heard a dreadful cry from a valley of the mountain, for there Prometheus
was fastened to the rock, and the eagles fed upon him, because he stole
fire from the gods, and gave it to men. All the heroes shuddered when
they heard his cry; but not long after Heracles came that way, and he
slew the eagle with his bow, and set Prometheus free.
But at nightfall they came into the wide mouth of the River Phasis, that
flows through the land of the world's end, and they saw the lights
burning in the palace of Aetes the king. So now they were come to the
last stage of their journey, and there they slept, and dreamed of the
Fleece of Gold.
III
THE WINNING OF THE FLEECE
Next morning the heroes awoke, and left the ship moored in the river's
mouth, hidden by tall reeds, for they took down the mast, lest it should
be seen. Then they walked toward the city of Colchis, and they passed
through a strange and horrible wood. Dead men, bound together with
cords, were hanging from the branches, for the Colchis people buried
women, but hung dead men from the branches of trees. Then they came to
the palace, where King Aetes lived, with his young son Absyrtus, and his
daughter Chalciope, who had been the wife of Phrixus, and his younger
daughter, Medea, who was a witch, and the priestess of Brimo, a dreadful
goddess. Now Chalciope came out and welcomed Jason, for she knew the
heroes were of her dear husband's country. And beautiful Medea, the dark
witch-girl, came forth and saw Jason, and as soon as she saw him she
loved him more than her father and her brother and all her father's
house. For his bearing was gallant, and his armour golden, and long
yellow hair fell over his shoulders, and over the leopard skin that he
wore above his armour. Medea turned white and then red, and cast down
her eyes, but Chalciope took the heroes to the baths, and gave them
food, and they were brought to Aetes, who asked them why they came, and
they told him that they desired the Fleece of Gold, and he was very
angry, and told them that only to a better man than himself would he
give up that Fleece. If any wished to prove himself worthy of it he must
tame two bulls which breathed flame from their nostrils, and must plough
four acres with these bulls, and next he must sow the field with the
teeth of a dragon, and these teeth when sown would immediately grow up
into armed men. Jason said that, as it must be, he would try this
adventure, but he went sadly enough back to the ship and did not notice
how kindly Medea was looking after him as he went.
Now, in the dead of night, Medea could not sleep, because she was so
sorry for the stranger, and she knew that she could help him by her
magic. But she remembered how her father would burn her for a witch if
she helped Jason, and a great shame, too, came on her that she should
prefer a stranger to her own people. So she arose in the dark, and stole
just as she was to her sister's room, a white figure roaming like a
ghost in the palace. At her sister's door she turned back in shame,
saying, 'No, I will never do it,' and she went back again to her
chamber, and came again, and knew not what to do; but at last she
returned to her own bower, and threw herself on her bed, and wept. Her
sister heard her weeping, and came to her and they cried together, but
softly, that no one might hear them. For Chalciope was as eager to help
the Greeks for love of Phrixus, her dead husband, as Medea was for the
love of Jason.
At last Medea promised to carry to the temple of the goddess of whom she
was a priestess, a drug that would tame the bulls which dwelt in the
field of that temple. But still she wept and wished that she were dead,
and had a mind to slay herself; yet, all the time, she was longing for
the dawn, that she might go and see Jason, and give him the drug, and
see his face once more, if she was never to see him again. So, at dawn
she bound up her hair, and bathed her face, and took the drug, which was
pressed from a flower. That flower first blossomed when the eagle shed
the blood of Prometheus on the earth. The virtue of the juice of the
flower was this, that if a man anointed himself with it, he could not
that day be wounded by swords, and fire could not burn him. So she
placed it in a vial beneath her girdle, and she went with other girls,
her friends, to the temple of the goddess. Now Jason had been warned by
Chalciope to meet her there, and he was coming with Mopsus who knew the
speech of birds. But Mopsus heard a crow that sat on a poplar tree
speaking to another crow, saying:
'Here comes a silly prophet, and sillier than a goose. He is walking
with a young man to meet a maid, and does not know that, while he is
there to hear, the maid will not say a word that is in her heart. Go
away, foolish prophet; it is not you she cares for.'
Then Mopsus smiled, and stopped where he was; but Jason went on, where
Medea was pretending to play with the girls, her companions. When she
saw Jason she felt as if she could neither go forward, nor go back, and
she was very pale. But Jason told her not to be afraid, and asked her to
help him, but for long she could not answer him; however, at the last,
she gave him the drug, and taught him how to use it. 'So shall you carry
the fleece to Iolcos, far away, but what is it to me where you go when
you have gone from here? Still remember the name of me, Medea, as I
shall remember you. And may there come to me some voice, or some bird
bearing the message, whenever you have quite forgotten me.'
But Jason answered, 'Lady, let the winds blow what voice they will, and
what that bird will, let him bring. But no wind or bird shall ever bear
the news that I have forgotten you, if you will cross the sea with me,
and be my wife.'
Then she was glad, and yet she was afraid, at the thought of that dark
voyage, with a stranger, from her father's home and her own. So they
parted, Jason to the ship, and Medea to the palace. But in the morning
Jason anointed himself and his armour with the drug, and all the heroes
struck at him with spears and swords, but the swords would not bite on
him nor on his armour. He felt so strong and light that he leaped in the
air with joy, and the sun shone on his glittering shield. Now they all
went up together to the field where the bulls were breathing flame.
There already was Aetes, with Medea, and all the Colchians had come to
see Jason die. A plough had been brought to which he was to harness the
bulls. Then he walked up to them, and they blew fire at him that flamed
all round him, but the magic drug protected him. He took a horn of one
bull in his right hand, and a horn of the other in his left, and dashed
their heads together so mightily that they fell.
When they rose, all trembling, he yoked them to the plough, and drove
them with his spear, till all the field was ploughed in straight ridges
and furrows. Then he dipped his helmet in the river, and drank water,
for he was weary; and next he sowed the dragon's teeth on the right and
left. Then you might see spear points, and sword points, and crests of
helmets break up from the soil like shoots of corn, and presently the
earth was shaken like sea waves, as armed men leaped out of the furrows,
all furious for battle, and all rushed to slay Jason. But he, as Medea
had told him to do, caught up a great rock, and threw it among them, and
he who was struck by the rock said to his neighbour, 'You struck me;
take that!' and ran his spear through that man's breast, but before he
could draw it out another man had cleft his helmet with a stroke, and so
it went: an hour of striking and shouting, while the sparks of fire
sprang up from helmet and breastplate and shield. The furrows ran red
with blood, and wounded men crawled on hands and knees to strike or stab
those that were yet standing and fighting. So axes and sword and spear
flashed and fell, till now all the men were down but one, taller and
stronger than the rest. Round him he looked, and saw only Jason standing
there, and he staggered toward him, bleeding, and lifting his great axe
above his head. But Jason only stepped aside from the blow which would
have cloven him to the waist, the last blow of the Men of the Dragon's
Teeth, for he who struck fell, and there he lay and died.
Then Jason went to the king, where he sat looking darkly on, and said,
'O King, the field is ploughed, the seed is sown, the harvest is reaped.
Give me now the Fleece of Gold, and let me be gone.' But the king said,
'Enough is done. To-morrow is a new day. To-morrow shall you win the
Fleece.'
Then he looked sidewise at Medea, and she knew that he suspected her,
and she was afraid.
Aetes went and sat brooding over his wine with the captains of his
people; and his mood was bitter, both for loss of the Fleece, and
because Jason had won it not by his own prowess, but by the magic aid
of Medea. As for Medea herself, it was the king's purpose to put her to
a cruel death, and this she needed not her witchery to know, and a fire
was in her eyes, and terrible sounds were ringing in her ears, and it
seemed she had but two choices: to drink poison and die, or to flee with
the heroes in the ship 'Argo.' But at last flight seemed better than
death. So she hid all her engines of witchcraft in the folds of her
gown, and she kissed her bed where she would never sleep again, and the
posts of the door, and she caressed the very walls with her hand in that
last farewell. And she cut a long lock of her yellow hair, and left it
in the room, a keepsake to her mother dear, in memory of her maiden
days. 'Good-bye, my mother,' she said, 'this long lock I leave thee in
place of me; good-bye, a long good-bye, to me who am going on a long
journey; good-bye, my sister Chalciope, good-bye! dear house, good-bye!'
Then she stole from the house, and the bolted doors leaped open at their
own accord at the swift spell Medea murmured. With her bare feet she ran
down the grassy paths, and the daisies looked black against the white
feet of Medea. So she sped to the temple of the goddess, and the moon
overhead looked down on her. Many a time had she darkened the moon's
face with her magic song, and now the Lady Moon gazed white upon her,
and said, 'I am not, then, the only one that wanders in the night for
love, as I love Endymion the sleeper, who sleeps on the crest of the
Latmian hill, and beholds me in his dreams. Many a time hast thou
darkened my face with thy songs, and made night black with thy
sorceries, and now thou too art in love! So go thy way, and bid thy
heart endure, for a sore fate is before thee!'
But Medea hastened on till she came to the high river bank, and saw the
heroes, merry at their wine in the light of a blazing fire. Thrice she
called aloud, and they heard her, and came to her, and she said, 'Save
me, my friends, for all is known, and my death is sure. And I will give
you the Fleece of Gold for the price of my life.'
Then Jason swore that she should be his wife, and more dear to him than
all the world. So she went aboard their boat, and swiftly they rowed up
stream to the dark wood where the dragon who never sleeps lay guarding
the Fleece of Gold. There she landed, and Jason, and Orpheus with his
harp, and through the wood they went, but that old serpent saw them
coming, and hissed so loud that women wakened in Colchis town, and
children cried to their mothers. But Orpheus struck softly on his harp,
and he sang a hymn to Sleep, bidding him come and cast a slumber on the
dragon's wakeful eyes. This was the song he sang:
Sleep! King of Gods and men!
Come to my call again,
Swift over field and fen,
Mountain and deep;
Come, bid the waves be still;
Sleep, streams on height and hill;
Beasts, birds, and snakes, thy will
Conquereth, Sleep!
Come on thy golden wings,
Come ere the swallow sings,
Lulling all living things,
Fly they or creep!
Come with thy leaden wand,
Come with thy kindly hand,
Soothing on sea or land
Mortals that weep.
Come from the cloudy west,
Soft over brain and breast,
Bidding the Dragon rest,
Come to me, Sleep!
This was Orpheus's song, and he sang so sweetly that the bright, small
eyes of the dragon closed, and all his hard coils softened and uncurled.
Then Jason set his foot on the dragon's neck and hewed off his head, and
lifted down the Golden Fleece from the sacred oak tree, and it shone
like a golden cloud at dawn. He waited not to wonder at it, but he and
Medea and Orpheus hurried through the wet wood-paths to the ship, and
threw it on board, cast a cloak over it, and bade the heroes sit down to
the oars, half of them, but the others to take their shields and stand
each beside the oarsmen, to guard them from the arrows of the Colchians.
Then he cut the stern cables with his sword, and softly they rowed,
under the bank, down the dark river to the sea. But the hissing of the
dragon had already awakened the Colchians, and lights were flitting by
the palace windows, and Aetes was driving in his chariot with all his
men down to the banks of the river. Then their arrows fell like hail
about the ship, but they rebounded from the shields of the heroes, and
the swift ship sped over the bar, and leaped as she felt the first waves
of the salt sea.
[Illustration: HOW THE SERPENT THAT GUARDED THE GOLDEN FLEECE WAS
SLAIN.]
And now the Fleece was won. But it was weary work bringing it home to
Greece, and Medea and Jason did a deed which angered the gods. They slew
her brother Absyrtus, who followed after them with a fleet, and cut him
limb from limb, and when Aetes came with his ships, and saw the dead
limbs, he stopped, and went home, for his heart was broken. The gods
would not let the Greeks return by the way they had come, but by strange
ways where never another ship has sailed. Up the Ister (the Danube)
they rowed, through countries of savage men, till the 'Argo' could go no
farther, by reason of the narrowness of the stream. Then they hauled her
overland, where no man knows, but they launched her on the Elbe at last,
and out into a sea where never sail had been seen. Then they were driven
wandering out into Ocean, and to a fairy, far-off isle where Lady Circe
dwelt. Circe was the sister of King Aetes, both were children of the Sun
God, and Medea hoped that Circe would be kind to her, as she could not
have heard of the slaying of Absyrtus. Medea and Jason went up through
the woods of the isle to the house of Circe, and had no fear of the
lions and wolves and bears that guarded the house. These knew that Medea
was an enchantress, and they fawned on her and Jason and let them pass.
But in the house they found Circe clad in dark mourning raiment, and all
her long black hair fell wet and dripping to her feet, for she had seen
visions of terror and sin, and therefore she had purified herself in
salt water of the sea. The walls of her chamber, in the night, had shone
as with fire, and dripped as with blood, and a voice of wailing had
broken forth, and the spirit of dead Absyrtus had cried in her ears.
When Medea and Jason entered her hall, Circe bade them sit down, and
called her bower maidens, fairies of woods and waters, to strew a table
with a cloth of gold, and set on it food and wine. But Jason and Medea
ran to the hearth, the sacred place of the house to which men that have
done murder flee, and there they are safe, when they come in their
flight to the house of a stranger. They cast ashes from the hearth on
their heads, and Circe knew that they had slain Absyrtus. Yet she was of
Medea's near kindred, and she respected the law of the hearth.
Therefore she did the rite of purification, as was the custom, cleansing
blood with blood, and she burned in the fire a cake of honey, and meal,
and oil, to appease the Furies who revenge the deaths of kinsmen by the
hands of kinsmen.
When all was done, Jason and Medea rose from their knees, and sat down
on chairs in the hall, and Medea told Circe all her tale, except the
slaying of Absyrtus.
'More and worse than you tell me you have done,' said Circe, 'but you
are my brother's daughter.'
Then she advised them of all the dangers of their way home to Greece,
how they must shun the Sirens, and Scylla and Charybdis, and she sent a
messenger, Iris, the goddess of the Rainbow, to bid Thetis help them
through the perils of the sea, and bring them safe to Phaeacia, where the
Phaeacians would send them home.
'But you shall never be happy, nor know one good year in all your
lives,' said Circe, and she bade them farewell.
They went by the way that Ulysses went on a later day; they passed
through many perils, and came to Iolcos, where Pelias was old, and made
Jason reign in his stead.
But Jason and Medea loved each other no longer, and many stories, all
different from each other, are told concerning evil deeds that they
wrought, and certainly they left each other, and Jason took another
wife, and Medea went to Athens. Here she lived in the palace of Aegeus,
an unhappy king who had been untrue to his own true love, and therefore
the gods took from him courage and strength. But about Medea at Athens
the story is told in the next tale, the tale of Theseus, Aegeus's son.
THESEUS
I
THE WEDDING OF AETHRA
Long before Ulysses was born, there lived in Athens a young king,
strong, brave, and beautiful, named Aegeus. Athens, which later became
so great and famous, was then but a little town, perched on the top of a
cliff which rises out of the plain, two or three miles from the sea. No
doubt the place was chosen so as to be safe against pirates, who then
used to roam all about the seas, plundering merchant ships, robbing
cities, and carrying away men, women, and children, to sell as slaves.
The Athenians had then no fleet with which to put the pirates down, and
possessed not so much land as would make a large estate in England:
other little free towns held the rest of the surrounding country.