Epode 4
And no man knew him; but awestruck they gazed, and one spake word:
“Of a surety is this not Apollo, nor Aphrodite’s lord
Of the chariot of brass! And Otus, and Ephialtes thou
The dauntless, in gleaming Naxos perished long ere now,
Ye sons of Iphimedeia; nor Tityos could outrun
The arrow as lightning leaping the heart of the quarry that won,
Which Artemis out of her quiver invincible sped, that man
Might be warned to grasp not at dalliance beyond our mortal span.”
Strophe 5
So spake they each unto other, questioning, answering thus.
But now Cometh Pelias speeding with haste impetuous
His mules and his polished chariot—suddenly stayed he and stared
In amaze at the one foot sandalled of the man with the left foot bared,
The unmistakable token! Howbeit he hid in his heart
His dread, and he spake: “Thou stranger, say of what land thou art,
And what is thy fatherland tell me! What womb gave thee birth?
What giantess was thy mother of the ancient children of Earth?
Speak out! Of thy lineage tell us; and see that thou do not defile
Thy lips with words of feigning, with falsehoods loathsome-vile!”
Antistrophe 5
But unafraid that stranger answering spake to the king
With unangry words: “The wisdom of Cheiron hither I bring:
From Chariklo and Philyra’s presence, from the cave of the shadows I come
Whom the Centaur’s stainless daughters reared in their mountain-home.
Years twice ten there I accomplished, and never deed or word
In truth or in honesty lacking in me have they seen or heard.
And hither I come returning to this the home of my race
To win me back the honour that in unforgotten days
Was my sire’s, which a godless usurper out of his hands hath torn,
The honour to Aiolus granted of Zeus, by his sons to be borne.
Epode 5
“For I hear how the lawless-hearted, one Pelias, lured astray
By the lusts of his envy, by violence snatched the sceptre away
From my father and mother, to whom it pertained by ancestral right,
These, dreading the tyrant’s outrage, so soon as I looked on the light,
As though for a new-dead dear one, made dusky-garbed lament,
And amid wild wailing of women the babe from the home they sent
Swaddled in purple swathings, by paths Night knew alone;
And to Cheiron they gave me to foster, to the Centaur, Kronos’ son.
Strophe 6
“Now therefore of this my story the sum and the substance ye know;
And I pray you, O kindly burghers, to me do ye plainly show
The dwelling wherein my fathers, lords of white steeds, abode;
For the feet of a son of Aison shall surely not have trode
Upon alien soil in the homeland, the land I claim for mine!
Jason my name is: the Centaur named me with lips divine.”
Then his father’s eyes, as he entered the old home, knew him again,
And gushed from his aged eyelids the tears like summer rain;
For his spirit rejoiced within him when he beheld that son,
The chief est among ten thousand, the goodliest-moulded one.
Antistrophe 6
And the brethren twain of the father came thither the son to greet,
So soon as they heard the tidings of his home-returning feet.
Not from afar came Pheres from Hypereia’s spring:
From Messene fared Amythaon: Admetus hastening
Thitherward came with Melampus, and greeted lovingly
Their kinsman. And while they feasted, with gracious courtesy
Did Jason commune with them ever, and he made them abundant cheer,
And he lengthened out all joyance of the hearts that held him dear:
For five long nights together, five days, did the hero abide
Still plucking the consecrated flowers of the festal tide.
Epode 6
But with earnest speech on the sixth day at last did Jason begin
To set forth from the beginning the whole tale unto his kin.
And these to his counsel consented: from the banqueting-couch straightway
With these he uprose; to the palace of Pelias on passed they.
And they hasted and stood there; and hearing them, came to meet the men
That son of Tyro the lovely-haired. Spake Jason then,
And of wise speech laid the foundation, with words of unangry tone
Soft-flowing: “Son of Poseidon the Cleaver of crag-piled stone,
Strophe 7
“The spirits of men run swiftly, too swiftly they run on the path
Of the wages of treachery, rather than guerdons that justice hath;
Yet their lives glide on to the reckoning stern that for all doth remain.
But thee and me it behoveth by law our passions to rein,
And for days to come to be weaving the web of our well-being so.
One mother had our forefathers—this I would say dost thou know—
Rash-hearted Salmoneus and Kretheus; and we who in these days see
Helios’ majesty golden, of the third generation are we.
Now if there arise black hatred ’twixt mortals by blood akin.
Far off stand the Destiny-weavers, to see not the shame and the sin.
Antistrophe 7
“Us twain it beseemeth in no wise with spear or with bronze-forged sword
To apportion the goodly honour of our fathers’ treasure-hoard;
Nor needeth it—lo, all sheep-flocks and tawny herds of kine
I yield unto thee, and the pastures and tilth-lands, still to be thine,
Whereof thou hast spoiled my parents, and ever art swelling thy store.
O yea, and it nowise vexeth my soul that of these evermore
Thou increasest thine house’s riches:—but the kingly sceptre and throne
Whereon the son of Kretheus sat in the days bygone,
And over a nation of horsemen ruled in equity,
Even these without malice between us yield unto him and to me,
Epode 7
“Lest out of it some new mischief should spring up.” Thus he spake.
And with words that peaceably sounded did Pelias answer make:
“I will be as thou wilt: but already is old age compassing
Mine head; but thy life is waxing in the fiower-tide of thy spring;
And strength is thine for appeasing the Powers of the world below;
For unto the halls of Aietes Phrixus biddeth us go
To lead homeward his spirit, and hither the fell thick-fleeced to bear
Of the Ram from the sea that saved him, from his stepdame’s impious snare.
Strophe 8
“Such was the strange hest spoken by a voice in a dream that came.
And to Kastaly’s oracle also have I sent to enquire of the same,
Whether truly the quest should be ventured;
