Even such were the marvellous works that Hephaistus the craftwise God
Fashioned within Kytaian Aiêtes’ palace-abode.
And he wrought for him brazen-footed bulls, and their mouths were of brass,
And the terrible splendour of blazing flame the breath of them was.
Moreover a plough of unbending adamant, all in one,
Did he forge for him, making therein his requital of thanks to the Sun,
Who had taken him up in his chariot, faint from the Phlegra fight.
There also was builded the inner court, and around it were pight
Many chambers on either hand with two-leaved doors fair-dight;
And without them a rich-wrought corridor ran to left and to right;
And athwart them the loftiest buildings rose upon either side,
Whereof one over its fellows uplifted its crest of pride:
Therein with his queen Aiêtes abode, the lord of the land;
And thereby did the mansion fair of his son Absyrtus stand,
Whom a Nymph Caucasian, Asterodeia, bare to his bed
Or ever he led Eiduia home, his wife true-wed,
Daughter of Tethys and Ocean, even their youngest one:
But the sons of the Kolchians gave him a new name, Phaëthon,
“The Shining,” for all the youths were in beauty by him outshone.
In the rest did the handmaid-train and Aiêtes’ daughters abide,
Chalkiopê and Medea. And now had Medea hied
From her chamber forth to her sister’s; for Hêrê restrained her that day
That she went not abroad: but little she wont theretofore to stay
In the palace, but all day long in the temple of Hekatê
Her conversation she had, for the Goddess’s priestess was she.
And she saw them, and cried aloud; and suddenly heard was her call
Of Chalkiopê: and her handmaids down at their feet let fall
Their yarn and their threads, and forth of the chamber ran they all
In a throng, and amidst them the mother: and there beholding her sons
She cast up her hands in her gladness; and those re-given ones
Greeted their mother, and lovingly gazed on her, folding her round
With their arms, till her words mid sobbings broken utterance found:
“So then ye were not to leave me in lonely childless pain,
And to wander afar; and fate hath turned you backward again.
O hapless I!—what yearning for Hellas awoke in your breasts,
By some strange woeful madness, at Phrixus your father’s behests?
Bitter affliction did he ordain, when dying he lay,
For mine heart!—O why to Orchomenus’ city far away—
Whosoe’er this Orchomenus be—for Athamas’ wealth should ye go,
Leaving your mother alone to bear her burden of woe?”
So spake she, and last came forth Aiêtes hastening,
And came Eiduia herself, the wife of Aiêtes the king,
When the outcry of Chalkiopê she heard. And the court straightway
Was filled with a noisy throng; for some of the thralls ’gan flay
A huge ox, some with the brass ’gan cleave the billets dry,
And some with the fire ’gan heat the baths. There was none thereby
That lagged in his task, as they toiled beneath that stern king’s eye.
But Eros the while through the mist-grey air passed all unseen
Troubling them, even as heifers that hear the piping keen
Of the gadfly—“the breese” do the herders of oxen name the thing.
In the forecourt beneath the lintel swiftly his bow did he string:
From his quiver took he a shaft sigh-laden, unshot before:
With swift feet all unmarked hath he passed the threshold o’er,
Keen-glancing around: he hath glided close by Aison’s son:
He hath grasped the string in the midst, and the arrow-notch laid thereon.
Straightway he strained it with both hands sundered wide apart,
And he shot at Medea; and speechless amazement filled her heart.
And the God himself from the high-roofed hall forth-flashing returned
Laughing aloud. Deep down in the maiden’s bosom burned
His arrow like unto flame; and at Aison’s son she cast
Side-glances of love evermore; and panted hard and fast
’Neath its burden the heart in her breast, nor did any remembrance remain
Of aught beside, but her soul was melted with rapturous pain.
And as some poor daughter of toil, who hath distaff ever in hand,
Heapeth the slivers of wood about a blazing brand
To lighten her darkness with splendour her rafters beneath, when her eyes
Have prevented the dawn; and the flame, upleaping in wondrous wise
From the one little torch, ever waxing consumeth all that heap;
So, burning in secret, about her heart did he coil and creep,
Love the destroyer: her soft cheeks’ colour went and came,
Pale now, and anon, through her soul’s confusion, with crimson aflame.
Now when ready-dight was the banquet by labour of handmaid and thrall,
And by steaming baths’ refreshment their faces were lightened withal,
Gladly they feasted and drank till their souls were satisfied.
Thereafter unto the sons of his daughter Aiêtes cried:
And this was the word of his mouth, as inquisition he made:
“Ye sons of my daughter and Phrixus, the man unto whom I paid
Honour above all men that have stood mine halls within,
How came ye to Aia returning?—did some dark curse of sin
Break short in the midst your escape? Ye would not hear nor obey
Me, when I set before you the endless length of the way.
For I marked it, when once I was whirled in my father the Sun-god’s car,
In the day wherein he wafted my sister Kirkê afar
Unto Hesperia-land, till the chariot at last made stay
On the Tyrrhene mainland-shore, where even unto this day
She abideth, exceeding far from the land where the Kolchians dwell.
What profit or pleasure in words? Speak out and plainly tell
What happed in the midst of your journey, and say who these men be
That have come with you hither. And where from your galley ashore came ye?”
So did he question; and answered him Argus before the rest—
But his heart misgave him concerning the son of Aison’s quest;—
With soft words spake he, seeing that he was the elder-born:
“Aiêtes, that our ship full quickly asunder was torn
By stormy blasts, and we, unto beams of the wreck as we clung,
On the beach of the War-god’s Isle by the sweep of the surges were flung
In the murky night. Some God from destruction redeemed us, I trow;
For even the birds of Arês, that wont to haunt ere now
That desolate isle of the sea, even these we found no more;
But these men drave them away when they landed the day
