From their galley: and there by the purpose of Zeus, compassionate
Of our plight, were they kept from departing, or bound peradventure by fate.
Straightway to our need with food and with raiment they ministered,
So soon as the name of Phrixus the far-renowned they heard,
Yea, and thine own: for unto thy town be they voyaging.
And if thou wouldst know their need, I will hide not from thee the thing.
A certain king being fain with exceeding vehement spite
From his land and possessions to drive this man, forasmuch as in might
Of his hands he was peerless amongst the heroes of Aiolus’ seed,
Sendeth him hither on desperate venture. For fate had decreed
That Aiolus’ line shall escape not the soul-afflicting ire
Of implacable Zeus, and his wrath, and the curse unendurably dire,
And the vengeance for Phrixus, till cometh to Hellas the Fleece of Gold.
And his ship did Pallas Athênê fashion: not such is her mould
As the fashioning is of the ships that be found ’mid the Kolchian folk—
Whereof our hap was the vilest, for even at a touch it broke
Of the raging surge and the wind;—but this ship holdeth fast,
Gripped by her bolts, through the buffeting fury of every blast.
And swiftly alike she runneth before the wind, and when
She is sped by the oars unresting in hands of stalwart men.
He hath gathered within her whatso mightiest heroes there are
In Achaia-land, and hath come to thy city from wandering far
By cities, by dread sea-gulfs, if thou haply wouldst grant his request,
That the thing he desireth may be: for nowise he cometh to wrest
Aught from thine hands by force: he is minded to pay unto thee
Fair quittance for this thy gift. Of the bitter enmity
Of the Sauromatai hath he heard; he will quell them to bow to thy sway.
And their name and their lineage, if fain thou wouldst hear them, as thou dost say,
What men they be, I will tell to thee all in order due.
This man, for whose helping assembled from Hellas a hero-crew,
Jason they call him, the son of Aison, Krêtheus’ seed.
Now, if this man of Krêtheus’ lineage cometh in very deed,
Of a truth by the father’s blood shall he be of kin unto us,
For that Krêtheus and Athamas both were the children of Aiolus,
And Phrixus moreover was child of Athamas, Aiolus’ son.
And, if aught thou know’st of the Sun-god’s seed, lo, here is one,
Augeias; and Telamon this, the son of the mighty in fame
Aiakus; yea, and of Zeus’s loins great Aiakus came.
And in like wise all the rest, which have hither companioned his way,
The sons and the grandsons they are of the Gods which abide for aye.”
So Argus spake: but the wrath of the king waxed hot as he heard,
And his soul like a stormy sea with a tempest of fury was stirred.
Fuming he spake—with the sons of his daughter above the rest
Was he wroth, for he weened that of these had Jason been moved to the Quest:
And the light of his anger leapt from his eyes as levin-flame:
“And will ye not straightway be gone from my sight, ye felons of shame,
And depart from the land afar with the guile of your treachery,
Ere a bitter Fleece and a bitter Phrixus here ye see,
With your friends back faring to Hellas? Not for the Fleece come ye!
Nay, but my sceptre and kingly honour ye come to take!
Now, if ye had broken not bread at my table or ever ye spake,
Your tongues had I surely cut out, and had hewn from the wrist each hand,
And had sent you forth with naught but your feet to fare through the land:
So should ye refrain you thereafter from coming on suchlike quest!—
Lo, and the lies ye have spoken concerning the Gods ever-blest!”
So passioned the king: but even to its depths the spirit burned
Of Aiakus’ son, and hotly his soul within him yearned
To fling back a deadly defiance. But Jason, or ever he spake,
Stayed him, and gently speaking an answer of peace did he make:
“Bear with me, Aiêtes, as touching this Quest: no such wild dream
To thy city and halls hath brought us as thou peradventure dost deem.
Nought such do we covet:—what man of his will, from an alien to wrest
His possessions, would fare over such wide seas? By the ruthless behest
Of a tyrannous king was I hitherward sent, and the doom of a God.
Show favour to this our entreaty; and so will I publish abroad
Thy name and thy glory all Hellas through. Yea, ready we are
To render for this unto thee requital of service in war,
Whether it be that ye fain would bow the Sauromatans’ pride
Under your sceptred sway, or whatso nation beside.”
Then ceased he, with gentle utterance proffering love: but the king
A twofold purpose the while in his soul was pondering,
Whether to make assault on them then and there, and to slay,
Or to put their might to the test. And he counted the better way,
Thus as he pondered, the second, and answered in subtlety:
“Stranger, what hast thou to do to tell all this unto me?
For if ye be seed of the Gods in truth, or if ye which have hied
To the aliens’ land be peers of Aiêtes in aught beside,
I will give thee to bear away, if thou wilt, the Fleece of Gold,
When first I have tried thee. Nought I begrudge to the hero-souled,
Even as ye tell me of him that in Hellas beareth sway.
And the test of your valour and prowess shall be a certain essay,
Which mine own hands compass, fraught though it be with deadly bane.
Two brazen-footed bulls have I: on the War-god’s plain
They pasture: the breath from their mouths in flames of fire doth stream.
These yoke I, and drive through the War-god’s stubborn glebe that team,
Four ploughgates; and even to the end my ploughshare cleaveth it fast.
No seed of the Lady of Corn in the furrows thereof do I cast,
But the teeth of a terrible serpent; and up from the earth they grow
In fashion of armèd men; but straightway I lay them low
With the thrusts of my spear, as around me they throng, a battle-ring.
With the dawning I
