He made his appearance in the field of Mars, he tamed the fury of the oxen,
he ploughed the earth, and he sowed the teeth of the dragon. Immediately a
band of armed men arose and rushed towards Jason: nothing daunted, the hero
threw a stone amongst them, and they fell one upon the other till they were
entirely destroyed. He lulled to sleep the watchfulness of the dragon, by
the power of herbs, and grasped in triumph the golden fleece which was the
the object of his expedition.
"Impatient for the wonders of the day,
Aurora drives the loitering stars away.
Now Mars's mount the pressing people fill,
The crowd below, the nobles crown the hill:
The king himself, high throned above the rest,
With ivory sceptre, and in purple drest.
Forthwith the brass hoofed bulls are set at large,
Whose furious nostrils sulphurous flames discharge,
The blasted herbage by their breath expires,
As forges rumble with excessive fires,
And furnaces with fiercer fury glow,
When water in the panting mass ye throw,
With such a noise from their convulsive breast,
Through bellowing throats the struggling vapour pressed.
Yet Jason marches up without concern,
While on the adventurous youth the monsters turn
Their glaring eyes, and eager to engage,
Brandish their steel-tipt horns in threatening rage:
With brazen hoofs they beat the ground, and choke
The ambient air, with clouds of dust and smoke.
Each gazing Grecian for his champion shakes,
While bold advances he securely makes
Through singeing blasts: such wonders magic art
Can work, when love conspires and plays his part.
The passive savages like statues stand,
While he their dewlap strokes with soothing hand;
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To unknown yokes their brawny necks they yield,
And like tame oxen, plough the wondering field.
The Colchians state, the Grecians shout, and raise
Their champion's courage with inspiring praise.
Emboldened now, in fresh attempts he goes,
With serpent's teeth the fertile furrows sows;
The glebe, fermenting with enchanted juice,
Makes the snakes' teeth a human crop produce,
And from the labouring earth, no single birth
But a whole troop of lusty youths rush forth,
And what's more strange, with martial fury warmed,
And for encounter all completely armed;
In rank and file, as they were sowed, they stand
Impatient for the signal of command,
No foe, but the Aemonian youth appears,
As there they level their steep pointed spears.
Wonders ensue, among his gazing foes
The fragment of a massy rock he throws,
This charm in civil war engaged them all,
By mutual wounds these earth-born brothers fall.
One labour more remains, and, though the last,
In danger far surmounting all the past;
That enterprize by fate in store was kept
To make the dragon sleep, that never slept,
Whose crest shoots dreadful lustre; from his jaws
A triple tier of forked stings he draws,
With fangs and wings of a prodigious size;
Such was the guardian of the golden prize.
Yet him besprinkled with Lethean dew
The fair enchantress into slumber threw;
While the soft guest his drowsy eyelids seals,
Th' unguarded golden fleece the stranger steals;
Proud to possess the purchase of his toil,
Proud of his royal bride, the richer spoil,
To sea both prize and patroness he bore,
And lands triumphant on his native shore."