But it fell, in the hour when the dawn glad-eyed from the heaven doth beam,
From the east uprising, and all the earth-ways clearer gleam,
And the dewy wolds are a-sparkle beneath her flashing sheen,
Then were they ware of those that forsaken unwares had been.
Then mighty contention arose, and an indignation-burst
Most vehement-fierce, that any should go, and forsake the first
Of their comrades in prowess. But Aison’s son distraught with amaze
Spake never a word or bad or good in their evil case;
But devouring his soul he sat ’neath wilderment’s heavy load.
Then Telamon’s wrath waxed hot, and thus with the prince he chode:
“Ha! sit thou there at thine ease!—good sooth, for thy profit was this,
That Herakles thus should be left; thou givest no counsel, I wis,
Lest haply his glory in Hellas should overshadow thee,
If the Gods peradventure vouchsafe us the home-return to see!—
What pleasure in words?—I will go, I only, with none of these
Thy comrades, who plotted with thee this treason to Herakles.”
He spake, and on Tiphys Hagnias’ son he rushed, and his ire
Gleamed through his eyes as the leaping flame of the ravening fire.
And now to the land of the Mysian men had they won back again
In despite of the driving surge, and the head-wind’s ceaseless strain;
But the two winged sons of Thracian Boreas rose thereupon,
And with fierce stern words from his purpose withheld they Aiakus’ son.
Unhappy they!—grim vengeance thereafter did Herakles wreak
Upon these who withheld the rest which were fain for the lost to seek.
For when from the games over Pelias dead they were wending again
Homeward, in Tenos the sea-girt he slew them; and heaped o’er the slain
The earth, and above that grave-mound reared he pillars twain,
The one whereof, a marvel exceeding for men to behold,
Sways to and fro in the blast when the North-wind whistleth cold.
Ay, so in the after-time these things were ordained to be.
But now did Glaukus appear unto them from the depths of the sea,
The servant of Nereus divine, the far-discerning seer.
High out of the waves his shaggy head and his breast did he rear
Even to the waist, and his brawny hand did the God stretch out
To the keel of the ship, and unto her eager crew did he shout:
“Wherefore be ye thus purposed against great Zeus’ decrees
Unto Aiêtes’ city to bring bold Herakles?
Lo, this is his weird—in the land of Argos labouring
To accomplish toils full twelve for Eurystheus the tyrannous king,
And to dwell with the Deathless Ones, if he bring to fulfilment yet
A few more toils: grieve ye not therefore with vain regret.
Polyphemus’ weird likewise is to rear, where Kios doth fall
Into the sea, ’mid the Mysians a glorious city’s wall,
And to find in the Chalybes’ land the doom that endeth all.
But Hylas a Goddess-nymph of her love for her spouse hath taken,
For whose sake wandered away those twain unawares forsaken.”
Then downward he plunged, and he wrapped him about with the waves white-wreathing,
And around him the darkling water foamed in eddies seething.
And he loosed from his hand the hollow ship through the brine to flee;
And the heroes were glad: then rose up Telamon hastily,
And Aiakus’ son unto Jason strode, and his hand did he take
In the compassing grasp of his own, and embraced him, and thus he spake:
“Be nowise wroth with me, Aison’s son, if folly-distraught
I have sinned in mine ignorance: anguish exceeding upon me hath wrought
To utter an arrogant word which I could not refrain: let us cast
To the winds my transgression, and knit be our hearts as in days overpast.”
Answered him Aison’s son, and in courteous wise spake he:
“Ah, friend, of a truth ’twas a bitter word that thou spakest to me,
When thou saidst in the midst of us all that a traitor I was unto him
Who to me was a friend!—yet I will not nurse wrath brooding grim,
Though vexed was my soul at the first; since not as for flocks of sheep
Didst thou chafe and wast wroth, nor for hoarded wealth of a treasure-heap,
But all for a comrade’s sake. I were fain thou wouldst champion so
Even me, if need should be ever, against another foe.”
He spake, and they sat them down, as in days overpast made one.
But their lost—by the counsel of Zeus, Polyphemus Eilatus’ son
Was doomed mid the Mysian men to build a city, to bear
The name of the river thereby: but aback must Herakles fare
At Eurystheus’ labours to toil. But he threatened in anger hot
To waste the Mysian land, if her folk for him found not
What doom upon Hylas had lighted, if dead or alive he were.
And pledges they gave for the lost, in that sons most noble and fair
Of their people they chose, and for hostages gave, and an oath they swore
That they would not refrain from the toil of the search for evermore.
Wherefore for tidings of Hylas the Kians unto this day,
For Theiodamas’ son, of the stranger inquire: the warders aye
Guard Trêchis the fair-built; for there did the hero cause to abide
The sons that they sent for their ransom to turn his fury aside.
And the wind all day bare onward the galley and all night through
With a fresh strong blast: but when dawning arose, the breath of it blew
No whit any more; and they spied jutting forth from a curve of the land
A foreland, and broad to behold that dark height swelled from the strand.
So they bent to the oars, and at sunrise the keel up-furrowed the sand.
Book II
There were there steadings of cattle, and Amykus’ farms were there,
Proud king of Bebrykian men, whom erst a wood-nymph bare;
For Bithynian Meliê couched with Poseidon the Lord of Birth.
Overweening was this their son above all the children of Earth,
Who even on wayfaring strangers his tyrannous ordinance laid
That they should not depart from his land till that trial of prowess were made
Against him with the fist: and neighbours full many he smote that they died.
And now to the galley he came; but he scorned in the height of his pride
To inquire of them wherefore they voyaged, or ask what
