Argo

“ Thus Argo cried through the darkness; and the sons of Tyndareus uprose, and lifted their hands to the immortals praying for each boon: but dejection held the rest of the Minyan heroes. And far on sped Argo under sail, and entered deep into the stream of Eridanus; where once, smitten on the breast by the blazing bolt, Phaethon half-consumed fell from the chariot of Helios into the opening of that deep lake; and even now it belcheth up heavy steam clouds from the smouldering wound. And no bird spreading its light wings can cross that water ”

“ However, the myths of the Argo were developed in the greatest completeness on the Pagasean gulf, in the seats of the Minyi; and they are the first with whom a perceptible movement of the Pelasgian tribes beyond the sea--in other words, a Greek history in Europe--begins. ”

“ And there Argo would move on no longer; and each man clasped his elbow, and leaned his head upon his hand, heart-broken with toil and hunger, and gave himself up to death. But brave Ancaios the helmsman cheered up their hearts once more, and bade them leap on land, and haul the ship with ropes and rollers for many a weary day, whether over land, or mud, or ice, I know not, for the song is mixed and broken like a dream. ”

“ Now for all the women to tend kine, to don armour of bronze, and to cleave with the plough-share the wheat-bearing fields, was easier than the works of Athena, with which they were busied aforetime. Yet for all that did they often gaze over the broad sea, in grievous fear against the Thracians' coming. So when they saw Argo being rowed near the island, straightway crowding in multitude from the gates of Myrine and clad in their harness of war, they poured forth to the beach like ravening Thyiades ”

“ The story of the voyage of the Argo is a story that will never die.
Despite their wanderings and their adventures, the Quest of the Golden Fleece remained the goal of the Argonauts. After months—or it may have been years—Jason and the heroes reached the land they sought. There they presented themselves before Æetes and demanded the Golden Fleece. ”

“ Then Orpheus took his harp, and began his magic song: "How sweet it is to ride upon the surges, and to leap from wave to wave, while the wind sings cheerful in the cordage, and the oars flash fast among the foam! How sweet it is to roam across the ocean, and see new towns and wondrous lands, and to come home laden with treasure, and to win undying fame!"
And the good ship Argo heard him, and longed to be away and out at sea; till she stirred in every timber, and heaved from stem to stern, and leapt up from the sand upon the rollers, and plunged onward like a gallant horse ”

“ G. Grote, History of Greece, volume 1, part 1, chapter 13. "In the rich cluster of myths which surround the captain of the Argo and his fellows are preserved to us the whole life and doings of the Greek maritime tribes, which gradually united all the coasts with one another, and attracted Hellenes dwelling in the most different seats into the sphere of their activity. ... The Argo was said to have weighed anchor from a variety of ports--from Iplcus in Thessaly, from Anthedon and Siphæ in Bœotia: the home of Jason himself was on Mount Pelion by the sea, and again on Lemnos and in Corinth ”

“ Picture to yourselves the storm-tossed Argo flying over the seas, and great eagles swooping and wheeling overhead, by which Jason, the captain, knew that they approached the island of Mars, where those winged messengers of the gods were wont to attack any who dared effect a landing. But by his command the heroes armed themselves, and the oarsmen were protected by the shields of their comrades from the feathered darts rained down upon them by the furious birds. ”

“ He enlisted fifty men, and employed a person named Argus to build him a ship, which from him was called Argo, the adventurers being named Argonauts. The Argo is described as a pentecontoros,—that is, a vessel with fifty oars. The number of the Argonauts is usually stated at fifty, though one authority asserts that they numbered one hundred. They started from Iolcos in Thessaly, and with a south wind sailed east by north. The narrative of the expedition is full of wonders. They landed at the island of Lemnos, where they found that the women had just murdered their husbands and fathers. ”

“ ORACLE FOR SEAMEN.
[It is a fable of heathen mythology, that the ship Argo was built of oaks from the sacred groves of Dodonia, which were endowed with the gift of prophecy; so that the masts and timbers gave oracular advice to the Argonautic adventurers, and saved them from many threatening calamities.]
Dodonian Oaks were those, ye say
That warn'd the sailor on his way,
When in old time, with peril fraught.
The Argonautic fleece he saught. ”

“ And some said, "Never was such a gathering of the heroes since the Hellens conquered the land." But the women sighed over them, and whispered, "Alas! they are all going to their death!"
Then they felled the pines on Pelion, and shaped them with the axe, and Argus taught them to build a galley, the first long ship which ever sailed the seas. They pierced her for fifty oars—an oar for each hero of the crew—and pitched her with coal-black pitch, and painted her bows with vermilion; and they named her Argo after Argus, and worked at her all day long. ”

“ And the heroes beheld him, and round about in a throng they pressed
And marvelled; until at the last the man from the depth of his breast
Drew laboured and difficult breath, and uttered his prophecy:
‘Hearken, ye noblest of Hellas’ sons, if ye verily be
The self-same heroes that Jason leadeth forth on the Quest {210}
Of the Golden Fleece in Argo the ship at a King’s grim hest.
Of a surety ye be: my soul hath knowledge of everything
By her divination yet. Thanks therefore to thee, O King,
O Son of Lêto, I render from depths of affliction and woe! ”

“ ARGO (The Ship) . The Pilgrims safe at Home.
This is the celebrated ship of the Argonauts, which Homer sung nearly ten centuries before Christ. Sir Isaac Newton puts the expedition of the Argonauts shortly after the death of Solomon (about 975 b.c.) . While Dr. Blair's chronology puts it 1236 b.c.
Whatever fables have gathered round the story there can be no doubt as to its great antiquity. Some think that the story had its origin in name, as well as in fact, from the Ark of Noah and its mysterious journey. ”

“ Having had a fair wind, says the master, on the 9th, on the 10th we were taken aback with fresh winds from the northward, accompanied with rain and thick weather. It was doubtless by such a rebuff as this, that the Argo in ancient days, or the wretched craft of the modern Turks, would have been thrown upon those terrors of antiquity the Cyanean [6] rocks, or Symplegades, in spite of all the aid they might invoke from Jupiter Urius, the god of fair winds, whose temple stood upon the Asiatic Cape. ”

“ In the oldest (Pindar) the “Argo” sailed along the river Phasis into the eastern Oceanus, round Asia to the south coast of Libya, thence to the mythical lake Tritonis, after being carried twelve days over land through Libya, and thence again to Iolcus. ”

“ As the old be left by the young: and he passed on afar, and was gone.
So when he had left the streets of the city builded fair,
To the beach Pagasaean he came, and his comrades hailed him there
In a throng abiding beside the Argo ship as she lay
By the river’s mouth, and overagainst her gathered they. {320}
And they looked, and behold, Adrastus and Argus hasting amain
Thitherward from the city, and sorely they marvelled, beholding the twain
Despite the purpose of Pelias thitherward hurrying fast.
On his shoulders a bull’s hide Argus the son of Arestor had cast,
Great, dark with the fell ”

“ The tourists had all vanished. Now he overlooked the sea, where the "Golden Fleece" had dwindled to a small, black boat, riding at anchor in the Nauplian Bay; nearer was the town, with the vague menace of its Venetian fortress; but, crowding out these trivial incursions, was the great plain that rolled in from the coast-line to the spurs of the bare hills where he was perched. Argos rose from its bosom like an island—a strong place, steep and armed; far away was prehistoric Tiryns; and here beneath him, Mycenae, where Agamemnon and the Argive kings had ruled. ”

“ Tiphys was the builder and the pilot of the Argo, ibid. 3, 318; he was instructed by Minerva, patron goddess of the arts and crafts, ibid. 3, 365; the Argo had its keel made of wood from the talking oak of Dodona, ibid. 349; the sailing of the new ship described, ibid. *318; how it escaped the Symplegades, ibid. *341; the roll of the Argonautic heroes, "the bulwark of the Greeks, the offspring of the gods," ibid. *227; nearly all came to a violent death, ibid. ”

“ You shall see many wonders of smallness in this world of Argola, which I desire in especial to show you, since it is the orb with which we who study the Art are most familiar, of all the worlds that the vulgar have not known. ”

“ THE ARGONAUTIC LEGEND
he legend of the Argonauts relates to the story of a band of heroes who sailed from Thessaly to Æa, the region of the Sun-god on the remotest shore of the Black Sea, in quest of a Golden Fleece. The ship Argo bore the heroes, under the command of Jason, to whom the task had been assigned by his uncle Pelias. Pelias was the usurper of his nephew's throne; and for Jason, on his coming to man's estate, he devised the perilous adventure of fetching the golden fleece of the Speaking Ram which many years before had carried Phrixus to Æa, or Colchis. ”

“ O'er Argos, is dispelled -- Agenor, give
This gentle youth his freedom, who hath brought
Sweet tidings that I shall not die in vain!
And Medon! cherish him as thou hast one
Who, dying, blesses thee; my own Clemanthe!
Let this console thee also -- Argos lives! ”

“ ARGOS. ARGOLIS. ARGIVES. "No district of Greece contains so dense a succession of powerful citadels in a narrow space as Argolis [the eastern peninsular projection of the Peloponnesus] . Lofty Larissa, apparently designed by nature as the centre of the district, is succeeded by Mycenæ, deep in the recess of the land; at the foot of the mountain lies Midea, at the brink of the sea-coast Tiryns; and lastly, at a farther distance of half an hour's march, Nauplia, with its harbour. ”

“ The whole Argeian population—men and women, free and slave—set about the work with the utmost ardor: while Alkibiadês brought assistance from Athens, [147] especially skilled masons and carpenters, of whom they stood in much need. The step may probably have been suggested by himself, as it was the same which, two years before, he had urged upon the inhabitants of Patræ. But the construction of walls adequate for defence, along the line of four miles and a half between Argos and the sea, [148] required a long time. ”

“ Pertaining to Argolis, a district in the Peloponnesus.
Ar¶gon (?) , n. [Gr. ? inactive.] (Chem.) A substance regarded as an element, contained in the atmosphere and remarkable for its chemical inertness.
Rayleigh and Ramsay.
Ar¶goÏnaut (?) , n. [L. Argonauta, Gr. ?; ? + ? sailor, ? ship. See Argo.] 1. Any one of the legendary Greek heroes who sailed with Jason, in the Argo, in quest of the Golden Fleece.
2.ÿ (Zo”l.) A cephalopod of the genus Argonauta.
Ø Ar·goÏnau¶ta (?) , n. (Zo”l.) A genus of Cephalopoda. The shell is called paper nautilus or paper sailor. ”

“ About three miles from Argos we quit the highway and strike westward towards the hills through a beautiful avenue of fine silver poplars, plane-trees, and oleanders. It soon brings us to the springs.
The spot is very picturesque. A rugged mountain here descends in precipices of yellowish limestone to the plain, and at its foot a body of clear sparkling water comes rushing impetuously in several streams from the rocks, partly issuing from a low cavern, partly welling up from the ground. Under the rocks the water forms a pellucid but shallow pool, where water-plants of a vivid green grow thickly ”

“ If you remember the ship we saw once when the sea went high upon the coast of Argos, so went the beast. But he, as if centaur-like he had been one piece with the horse, was no more moved than one with the going of his own legs, and in effect so did he command him as his own limbs; for tho’ he had both spurs and wand, they seemed rather marks of sovereignty than instruments of punishment, his hand and leg, with most pleasing grace, commanding without threatening, and rather remembering than chastising ”

“ Argos is a rather large place, but decidedly unattractive save for its many little gardens. Nearly every house had them, and from our high seats in the respectable but superannuated depot carriage we were able to look into the depths of many such, to marvel at their riot of roses and greenery. As for the houses, they were little and not over-clean. The populace, however, was exceeding friendly, sitting en masse along the highway, the young women blithely saluting and the children bombarding us with nosegays in the hope of leptà. ”

“ The plain of Argos, and the sea at that side, are hidden by the mountains. But without going into detail, this much may be said, that if a man wants to realize the features of these coasts, which he has long studied on maps, half an hour's walk about the top of this rock will give him a geographical insight which no years of study could attain. ”

“ The “golden fleece,” for which the Argonauts went in search, tells of a treasure that had been lost. “Jason,” the great captain, tells of Him who recovered it from the Serpent, which guarded it with ever-watchful eye, when none else was able to approach it. And thus, through the fables and myths of the Greeks, we can see the light primeval shine; and this light, once seen, lights up this Sign and its constellations, so that their teaching cannot be misunderstood.
Aratus sings of Argo:—
“Stern-foremost hauled ”