If thou then art minded to yoke the bulls of Aiêtes the king,
O hero Aison’s son, and thine heart is good for the thing,
Up then, and keep thy promise, and gird up thy loins for the toil.
But if aught thine heart mistrusteth her manhood, and feareth the foil,
Neither goad thyself on, nor yet for another of these look round
As thou sitt’st in their midst: for one that shall nowise flinch hath been found,
Even I; for the bitterest pang is but death, to which all men are bound.”
So spake Aiakus’ son; and Telamon’s spirit was stirred,
And swiftly in haste he uprose; and Idas uprose for the third
With heart uplifted; and rose the sons of Tyndareus then;
And rose with them Oineus’ son, who was numbered among strong men,
Albeit not yet so much as the tender down on his chin
Showed; with such hero-might was his spirit uplifted within.
But the rest unto these gave place, and were still: then spake straightway
Argus to these for the contest that longed, and thus did he say:
“Friends, haply to this may we come at the last: but ere that be,
Help for our need shall be found with my mother, it seemeth me.
Wherefore refrain you a little yet, how eager soe’er,
And abide in the ship as aforetime: for better it is to forbear,
Than reckless-hearted to choose the path to destruction’s lair.
In the halls of Aiêtes nurtured a certain maiden doth dwell
Whom Hekatê taught strange cunning in herbs of the witch-wife’s spell,
Even all that on solid land or in fleeting water grow.
And therewith she turneth to balm the fire-blast’s fervent glow,
And rivers in mid rush roaring she suddenly causeth to stand,
And constraineth the stars and the paths of the holy moon with a band.
Of her we bethought us, the while from the palace we trod the way,
If haply my mother, seeing that sisters born be they,
Could persuade this maiden, that so for the contest her help she may lend.
And if this thing appeareth good in your eyes, of a truth will I wend
To the palace-hall of Aiêtes aback this selfsame day
To try her:—a God peradventure will help when I make essay.”
He spake, and the Gods of their kindness sent forth a sign in their sight;
For a fearful dove from the might of a hawk swift-winging her flight
From on high into Jason’s bosom fell in her panic affright.
But the hawk swooped blindly, and fluttered impaled on the high stern-crest.
Then on Mopsus a spirit of prophecy came, and he cried to the rest:
“Unto you, O friends, by the will of the Gods this token is sent;
For in none other wise shall ye better interpret the sign’s intent
That we seek to the maiden, and woo her with speech of entreaty fair
With our uttermost wit; and I ween she will not reject our prayer,
If Phineus foretold that your home-return should be brought to pass
With help of the Cyprian Goddess. Her gentle bird it was
That escaped from destruction. As now mine heart doth in vision foresee
As touching this omen, O that so in the end it may be!
Friends, let us cry to the Queen of Kythera to help our need;
And straightway obey ye the counsel of Argus with diligent heed.”
He spake, and the young men praised it, calling to mind the word
Of Phineus the prophet; but Idas alone rose anger-stirred
Shouting aloud in his fierceness of wrath, and thus did he say:
“Out on it!—were women our voyaging-fellows through all that way?
We men that be calling on Kypris now for our help to arise,
And not on the War-god’s mighty strength?—and by turning your eyes
On doves and on hawks shall ye ’scape from the toil, shall ye win the prize?
Away!—let the deeds of war no more in your hearts find place,
But the cunning in pleading that winneth a weakling maiden’s grace!”
Even so hot-hearted he spake; and many of them that heard
Low murmured thereat; howbeit none of them answered a word.
Then sat he down yet scowling in wrath; and rose thereupon
Jason to stir them to deeds, and thus spake Aison’s son:
“Let Argus be sent from the ship, seeing all commend this thing;
But let us which remain from her hiding-place in the river bring
And openly moor to the shore our galley; for now gone by
Is the time for hiding as cravens that cower from the onset-cry.”
So did he speak: and he hasted the feet of Argus again
To return to the city with speed, and the hawsers drew they then
Out of the stream inboard at Aison’s son’s command;
And a little above the backwater rowed they the galley aland.
But Aiêtes assembled for council the Kolchian men in haste
Aloof from his halls, in the place where they gathered in days overpast,
Devising against the Minyans trouble and treachery grim.
And he purposed, so soon as the bulls should have torn him limb from limb—
This man who had taken upon him the heavy task to fulfil—
To hew the oak-grove down that crested the shaggy hill,
And to burn the ship and her crew, that so amid fume and flame
They might vent that insolence forth for a king’s defiance that came.
Yea, and he had not received, he said, even Aiolus’ son
In his halls in his sorest need, even Phrixus, the man who outshone
All strangers in courtesy and in fear of the Gods on high,
But that Zeus’ self sent unto him his messenger down from the sky,
Even Hermes, bidding him give to the stranger the welcoming hand.
How much less therefore, when pirate-rovers came to his land,
Should they long ’scape griefs of their own, the caitiffs whose only toil
Was to stretch forth their hands in the taking of other men’s goods for a spoil,
And to weave dark webs of guile, and on herdmen folk to fall
With soul-dismaying shouts, and to harry steading and stall?
Yea, and the sons of Phrixus should render to him therebeside
Meet penalty, they who had dared in returning thither to guide
Felons, consorting with men which were minded to drive even him
Light-hearted from honour and sceptre; as spake that prophecy grim,
The warning whereof he heard from his father
