Rhodius Apollonius

“ Artemis, she that hath those crags of the sea in her keeping,
The Lady that wardeth Iolkos-land. And the fishes leaping
Up from the deep sea came, and, drawn by the spell of the lay,
Both small and great followed gambolling over the watery way.
And as when in the track of a shepherd, the warder of flocks on the wold,
Follow sheep that have fed to the full of the grass, a throng untold,
And he goeth before with his shrill reed piping them home to the fold,
As sweetly he fluteth a shepherd’s strain,—so over the seas
Followed the fishes: on wafted her ever the chasing breeze. ”

“ But unto them Aison’s son in heaviness spake the word:
‘O friends, the heart of Aiêtes the ruthless is wholly stirred
With anger against us: of all those things whereof ye inquire
Nor for me nor for you appeareth the goal of our desire.
Two brazen-footed bulls on the War-god’s plain, he saith,
Pasture; in flames of fire from the mouths of them streameth the breath:
And with these must I plough him ploughgates four of a fallow field;
And seed of a serpent’s jaws will he give, and for crop shall it yield
Earth-born warriors in harness of brass. In the selfsame day
These must I slay. ”

“ Ceased with the dawn: and they met full soon, those companies twain.
Then Argus first found voice, and to Argo’s crew spake he:
‘We beseech you by All-beholder Zeus, whosoever ye be
Of men, to have mercy and succour us now in our helplessness;
For buffeted long have we been on the sea by the rough winds’ stress,
Till sundered and shattered the beams of our crazy galley were.
By your knees we entreat you then, if ye haply will hearken our prayer,
To cover our nakedness now, and to take us whither ye go:
As youths taking pity on youths, compassionate ye our woe! ”

“ In the city Aisonian, named of my sire, who didst promise to me,
When I sought unto thee at Pytho, to point me my journey’s goal
And fulfilment; for thou, even thou, to the emprise didst kindle my soul.
Now therefore my ship with my comrades safe and sound bring thou
Thither, and back unto Hellas again: and to thee do we vow,
For as many of us as shall win safe home, on thine altar to lay
Burnt offerings so many of goodly bulls: therewithal will I pay
At Pytho thy shrine, and Ortygia, other gifts beyond price. ”

“ Unto Jason, Arêtê the Queen’s fair-omened message to bring,
And Alkinoüs’ counsel, the word of the god-revering king.
And the heroes he found by the ship in their war-gear abiding awake
In the haven of Hyllus, anigh to the city; and out he spake
The Queen’s whole message, and each man’s spirit was gladness-stirred,
Forasmuch as he spake in their ears an exceeding welcome word.
Straightway they mingled the bowl to the Gods that abide for aye;
And with reverent hands to the altar the victim-sheep drew they. ”

“ Cried Jason with mighty voice, and to Phœbus his hands did he raise,
Calling on him to save them, the while the tears ran down his face
In his trouble. To Pytho and Amyklae promised he once and again
Offerings unnumbered to bear, and gifts to Ortygia’s fane.
And thou, O Lêto’s son, wast swift to hear: from on high
Unto Melas’ rocks thou descendedst, amidst of the sea which lie.
Twin peaks hath the isle: upon one thereof didst thou dart, and stand
Uplifting on high thy golden bow in a God’s right hand.
Flashed round thee on every side the bow’s bright splendour-sheen. ”

“ Cloven apart by the might of the bulls and the ploughman strong.
And terribly crashed and groaned, the ploughshare’s furrows along,
The clods uprent, of a man’s load each, and with sturdy stride
Trampling the path the hero followed, and aye flung wide
The teeth of the serpent over the clods upheaved by the share,
Ever heedfully turning his head, lest haply, or e’er he was ware,
The harvest fell of the Earth-born against him should rise: and with strain
Of brazen hoofs on laboured the while that fearsome twain. ”

“ But Idas, Aphareus’ son—for with wrath was the heart of him black—
With his great sword hewed at the shaft by the butt; but the blade leapt back
As hammer from anvil, jarred by the shock; and a mighty shout
From the heroes rejoicing in hope of the trial’s end rang out.
Thereafter his own limbs Jason sprinkled; and lo, he was filled
With terrible prowess, unspeakable, aweless; the hands of him thrilled
Tingling with strength, as waxed their sinews with gathering might. ”

“ But grip ye the oars in your hands, and put forth your uttermost might
Cleaving the gorge of the sea, for that safety’s deliverance-light
Shall not be in prayer so much as the strength of your hands and the strain.
Wherefore let all else be, and toil ye with might and main
Boldly: but ere then pray as ye list; I say not nay.
But and if the death-trap clutch in the midst the dove, and slay,
Then sail ye aback; for better by far it is that ye
Should yield to the Deathless. The evil fate should ye nowise flee
Of the Rocks—no, not though fashioned of iron your Argo should be. ”

“ And Haimonia’s rock, and Geraistus’ town that the forests enfold,
Even so was Aiêtes, lord of the Kolchian folk, to behold.
But Jason the while, obeying the rede from Medea that came,
In water hath steeped that drug; and he sprinkled his shield with the same,
And his sturdy spear and his sword; and his comrades with might and main
Made proof of his harness, thronging around: yet essayed they in vain
To bend that spear, though it were but a little; but evermore
Unyielding and stark it abode in their strong hands, even as before. ”

“ The people that dwell from Titanian Aia far away
In the Kolchian land by the outfall of Lykus heard, even they—
Of Lykus, which parteth his flow from Araxes’ rattle and roar,
And blendeth with Phasis his sacred stream, and these twain pour
Their mingled waters in one to the dark Caucasian sea.
Young mothers in terror awoke, and their hands in agony
Cast they around their babes new-born, in their arms which slept,
As the tiny limbs with the horror of that hiss thrilled and leapt. ”

“ Yet shorn away was the tip of the galley’s arching stern
By the rocks in their clash never-resting. Then did Athênê return
Far up to Olympus soaring, when now their peril was past.
But the Crags in the selfsame place that moment were rooted fast
Each hard against other for ever, as fated they were to remain
By the Blest, when a man in his ship should have passed therethrough unslain. ”

“ Son of the Land of the Beasts of Ravin, from Libya came.’
He spake, and Euphêmus outstretched his hands right joyfully
That gift of the clod to receive, and answering thus spake he:
‘If thou peradventure of Atthis and Minos’ sea dost know,
O hero, to us who inquire the truth unfailing show.
For not of our will have we hitherward come, but the tempests’ might
Hath hurled us afar, on the borders of this your land to light:
And our galley, shoulder-uplifted, a weary burden, I wis,
Through the desert we bare to the waves of thy mere. ”

“ Maiden will murmur to man, while strangers be loitering near!
Avaunt, vile prophet and witless!—on thee not the Cyprian Queen,
On thee not the gentle Loves of their kindness are breathing, I ween!’
So ceased the voice of her chiding, and Mopsus smiled to hear
The heaven-sent cry of the bird, and spake to the heroes the seer:
‘Now pass thou on to the Goddess’s temple: therein shalt thou find
The maiden, O Aison’s son: thou shalt prove her passing kind {940}
By the promptings of Kypris, who also thine helper shall be in thy toil,
Even as prophesied Phineus, Agênor’s son, erewhile. ”

“ Forasmuch as the hearts of the men from their lawful wives had turned,
And in love for their captive handmaids with baleful passion they burned,
Maids that themselves from the Thracian land in foray had brought
Oversea:—’twas the wrath of the Cyprian Queen that curse had wrought,
Because that for long they had left her unhonoured by sacrifice:—
Ah hapless, whose hungering jealousy craved that woeful price! ”

“ But their friend to the galley in death-throes gasping his comrades bore
Sore grieved: but he died in their arms or ever they reached the shore.
Then from their voyaging stayed they, they cared not now to depart:
To their dead friend’s burial turned they in heaviness of heart.
For three whole days they wailed, and their dead, when the fourth day broke,
Did they bury as one of the princes; and Lykus and all his folk
Had part in the woeful rites; and victims of sheep not a few,
As meet and right for the dead it is, by his grave they slew. ”

“ In the hour when men from their eyes the fetters of slumber cast,
Even huntsmen, which put their trust in their hounds, nor ever waste {110}
In slumber the end of the night, but the light of the sun they prevent,
Lest, ere they be forth, he efface the track of the beasts, and the scent
Of the quarry, with stainless-gleaming shafts down-smiting thereon;
Even then with the maid from the galley forth stepped Aison’s son
On a grassy sward. The Couch of the Ram men call that spot,
For that there he rested first his knees with toil overwrought,
As he bare on his back the Minyan scion of Athamas. ”

“ Howbeit a better wish than this frame thou for me;
Forasmuch as by Pelias’ grace it sufficeth me still to live
In the home-land—only the Gods from my toils deliverance give!
But and if to return to the land of Hellas be not my doom,
Afar as I sail, and a fair manchild be the fruit of thy womb,
To Pelasgian Iolkos send him, when boyhood and manhood be met,
To my father and mother, to solace their grief,—if living yet
Haply he find them,—that so, in the stead of the prince their son,
They may win in their halls a dear one, to brighten the hearth left lone.’
He spake, and was gone ”

“ So soon as the mighty bulls thou hast yoked, and by manifold toil
And by strength of thine hands hast sped the share through the stubborn soil,
And adown the furrows the bristling harvest of giants shall stand,
Where fell on the dusky clods the serpent’s teeth from thine hand,
Even as thou mark’st them in throngs through the fallows upbursting to day,
Cast thou in their midst unawares a massy stone: and they,
As ravening hounds o’er a gobbet of flesh that wrangle, shall slay
Each one his fellow: thou also in battle-fury shalt fall
On the rout. ”