Jason and the Argonauts

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Jason and the Argonauts Page 11

by Apollonius Of Rhodes


  Down at the Rocks’ foundations hollow sea caves

  745boomed as the brine came boiling up within them.

  The white spume of the falling waves erupted

  above the Rocks, and riptides spun the ship.

  Still, though the twin peaks nipped her hindmost feathers,

  the dove got clear—she made it through alive.

  750 (573)The oarsmen raised a hearty cheer, and Tiphys

  commanded them to row with all their strength

  because the Rocks were opening again.

  Trembling seized them as they heaved, but soon

  the same wave as before propelled them forward,

  755with its returning wash, between the Rocks.

  Insufferable dread took hold of them:

  the doom impending there on either side

  seemed inescapable. Though for a moment

  the level Pontus shimmered far and wide

  760beyond the Rocks, a sudden wave arose

  before them, vaulted like a steep cliff face.

  They cocked their heads to duck because it seemed

  that arching wall of froth would soon collapse

  onto the deck and swamp them. Just in time, though,

  765 (584)Tiphys reined the ship in as it labored

  under the oars. The great wave slithered off

  beneath the keel but, with its passing, lifted

  the stern into the air and dragged the Argo

  back outside the Clashing Rocks.

  Euphemus

  770walked the deck commanding his companions

  to pour their strength into the oars. Groaning,

  they struck the water. But whatever headway

  the Argo made by rowing, it retreated

  twice as far, and, as the heroes heaved,

  775the oars bent under them like back-bent bows.

  A sudden wave then rushed them from behind,

  and Argo coasted on the crest as smoothly

  as if it were a sanded wooden roller.

  So they proceeded through the air until

  780 (595)a whirlpool sucked them in and spun them round

  between the agitated Clashing Rocks.

  The hull was sea-stuck.

  So Athena braced

  her left hand on a crag for leverage

  and with her right shoved Argo from the stern.

  785The ship went flying like a swift-winged arrow,

  and, when the Rocks came hurtling together,

  they only nipped the stern post’s tip abaft.

  Once they had gotten through alive, Athena

  flew back to Mount Olympus, and the Rocks

  790were rooted firmly in one place forever,

  just as the gods had fated would occur

  whenever someone saw them clash together

  and still sailed through them to the other side.

  The heroes caught their breath at last, shook off

  795 (607)the chill of horror, then surveyed the sky

  and flat sea stretching eastward out of view.

  They felt as if they had escaped from Hades.

  Tiphys was first to find his voice again:

  “It was the ship itself, I think, that pulled us

  800out of that pinch. Athena, though, deserves

  the highest praise, since it was she who breathed

  magical strength into the hull when Argus

  was pounding dowels home into the planks.

  Wrecking this ship would be like sacrilege.

  805Now that a god has helped us to escape

  those dreadful Clashing Rocks, no longer worry

  about fulfilling Pelias’ demands.

  Phineus son of Agenor predicted

  that, after this, our voyage would be easy.”

  810 (619)So Tiphys reassured them as he steered

  the ship through open sea beside the land

  of the Bithynians. But Jason answered

  with subtle words and sidelong purpose:

  “Tiphys,

  why are you trying to console my grief?

  815I’ve made a horrid and unpardonable

  blunder. When Pelias proposed the challenge,

  I should have turned this journey down at once,

  even if death, a savage death by torture,

  was waiting for me. Now I wear a shroud

  820of fear and dread past bearing—loathing travel

  across the frigid sea but loathing, too,

  the thought of landing, since the local tribesmen

  are hostile everywhere. Night after night,

  since first you all assembled for my sake,

  825 (631)I have been spending wretched hours obsessing

  over these worries. Each of you can speak

  with unencumbered ease because you fear

  for your one life alone, while I, your leader,

  don’t care a whit about my own but worry

  830for each and every hero on this quest:

  What if I fail to bring him back to Hellas?”

  So he proclaimed to test his comrades’ mettle.

  When they responded with enthusiastic

  bellows and whoops, the heart grew warm within him.

  835When he spoke again, he spoke with candor:

  “Dear friends, my courage thrives on your devotion.

  Even if I should now be traveling

  into the mouth of Hades, fear would never

  take hold of me, because you all have proved

  840 (644)steadfast in time of crisis. Now that we

  have sailed beyond the Clashing Rocks, I think

  no future threat will be as great, so long

  as we abide by Phineus’ instructions.”

  Thus he encouraged them, and they at once

  845gave over conversation and returned

  wholeheartedly to rowing. Soon they passed

  the rapid Rhebas and Colona’s peak,

  the Sable Promontory and at last

  the Phyllis River’s mouth where, years before,

  850Dipascus kindly welcomed to his halls

  Athamas’ son Phrixus who was fleeing

  Orchomenus, his hometown, on the ram.

  Because a meadow nymph had borne Dipascus,

  weapons and war did not appeal to him,

  855 (656)no, he preferred to settle with his mother

  beside the waters of his father’s river

  and graze his flocks along the shore.

  The heroes,

  in passing, gazed upon his monument,

  the wide banks of the Phyllis, then the plain

  860beside it and the roiling Kalpa River.

  The sun set, and they spent the windless night

  just as they had been, heaving at the oars.

  Imagine oxen laboring to furrow

  muddy acres, how a spume of sweat

  865drips from their necks and flanks: their eyes roll sideways

  under the yoke, and constant panting scours

  their arid throats and issues from their mouths.

  All day they churn the earth, digging their hooves in—

  that’s the way the heroes heaved the oars

  out of the ocean swell.

  870 (669)At just the hour

  when ambrosial dawn has not quite come

  but there is not full darkness, since a haze

  has crept into the night (that is, the hour

  that early risers call “the morning twilight”),

  875the heroes rowed up to the desert island

  of Thynias and with an insurmountable

  weariness slogge
d ashore. The son of Leto

  revealed himself there. He was leaving Lycia

  and striding far away toward the expansive

  880dominions of the Hyperboreans.

  And, as he moved, clusters of golden hair

  swung loose and swept down over either cheek.

  His left hand brandishing a silver bow,

  a quiver hanging from his shoulder down

  885 (679)across his back, he trod his course. The island

  quaked with each footstep, and the breakers washed up

  onto the beaches. As they watched him, helpless

  amazement seized them all, and no one dared

  to look directly at his dazzling eyes.

  890They stood a long time gazing at the ground,

  while he, aloof, proceeded through the air

  across the sea. Some minutes later Orpheus

  found his voice and said to his companions:

  “Come now, and let us dedicate this island

  895to Phoebus God of Dawn and name it for him

  since it was here that we have seen him passing

  before us as the sunrise. We shall build

  a seaside shrine and give what offerings

  we can procure. Afterward, if he grants us

  900 (690)a safe homecoming in Haemonia,

  we shall repay him with the burned thighbones

  of hornéd goats. Now we must satisfy him

  as best we can, with liquid offerings

  and the aroma of the roast. O god,

  905O revelation, please advance our quest.”

  So he instructed them. Some right away

  went to construct an altar out of stones

  while others scoured the island in pursuit

  of goat and deer, the sorts that commonly

  910reside in forests. Leto’s son provided

  good hunting, and they duly immolated

  two thighbones from each kill upon the altar.

  Then, as the meat was cooking, they performed

  a choral dance in honor of Apollo,

  915 (702)the little boy, the Shooter of the Arrow.

  The admirable offspring of Oeagrus

  plucked his Bistonian lyre and started singing

  how long ago Apollo on Parnassus

  felled the beast Delphina with an arrow,

  920and he did this while still a naked toddler,

  still delighting in his curly hair

  (Be gracious, lord, I beg you. Eternally

  your tresses are unshorn, eternally.

  It’s sacred law that only Leto, daughter

  925of Coeus, strokes them with her loving hands),

  and the Corycian nymphs, the seed of Pleistus,

  over and over urged the toddler on

  by shouting Hie (“Shoot”), from which derives

  the lovely ritual cry to summon Phoebus.

  930 (713)After the heroes celebrated him

  with choral song, they poured out pure libations,

  laid their hands upon the festal meat,

  and swore an oath always to aid each other

  with singleness of purpose. Still today

  935the shrine of kindly Harmony remains there,

  the very one the heroes instituted

  in honor of a venerable goddess.

  Then, when the third dawn broke, they left the steep-cliffed

  island with a strong west wind behind them.

  940That day they passed on the opposing coast

  the mouth of the Sangarius, the buxom

  Mariandynian fields, the Lycus River’s

  ecstatic spate, and Lake Anthemoesis,

  and all the halyards and the tackle strained

  945 (725)before the gale as they went sailing onward.

  The wind, though, started flagging in the night

  and they were much relieved to reach at dawn

  a bay inside the Acherousian headland,

  a steep cape facing the Bithynian Sea.

  950The surf rolls in uproariously around

  the polished boulders rooted to its base,

  and plane trees flourish all across the crest

  from which a hollow dale slopes gently inland.

  Within that dale a cave that leads to Hades

  955lurks behind rocks and shrubs, and from its depths

  a chilling vapor rises every morning

  and gathers in a glistening frost that thaws

  beneath the midday sun. Never does silence

  descend upon this gloomy cape because

  960 (741)the restless sea stirs up a constant murmur

  and subterranean breezes rouse the trees.

  A river has its mouth here—Acheron,

  which, following the valley from the crest,

  cuts through the middle of the cape and empties

  965into the Eastern Sea. Megarians

  out of Nisaea later dubbed this cape

  “The Sailors’ Savior” since it saved their ship

  from a horrendous storm when they were sailing

  to colonize the Mariandynian land.

  970Because the wind had recently died down

  the Minyans were keen to row the Argo

  inside this breakwater and moor it there.

  The Mariandynians and their leader Lycus

  were not long unaware the soldiers anchored

  975 (754)upon their shores were those who killed Amycus,

  or so they had been told, and for that reason

  they struck a truce, saluted Polyedeuces,

  and welcomed him as if he were a god.

  They had, you see, for quite some time been waging

  980war on the insolent Bebrycians.

  When the heroes came to town, they feasted

  a whole day at the court of Lycus, forged

  the bonds of friendship, and relieved their hearts

  with conversation. Jason named the names

  985and pedigrees of each of his companions,

  explained what mission Pelias had set them,

  how the Lemnian women welcomed them,

  and all that happened with the Doliones

  and Cyzicus their king. He also told him

  990 (766)how, when they came to Mysia and the Cius,

  they happened to abandon Heracles,

  what prophecies the sea god Glaucus gave them,

  and how they beat Amycus and his people.

  Next he recounted Phineus’ woes

  995and prophecies and how they had survived

  the Clashing Rocks and, only lately, spotted

  the son of Leto rising from an island.

  King Lycus took heartfelt delight in hearing

  all these adventures just as they had happened,

  1000but sorrow gripped him when he heard the news

  of the abandonment of Heracles,

  and he commiserated with the heroes:

  “Friends, you have lost a great man’s help by losing

  Heracles the hero in the midst of

  1005 (775)your lengthy voyage to Aeëtes’ palace.

  Heracles was my friend, in fact. I met him

  here in my father Dascylus’ house

  long, long ago when he was traveling

  through boundless Asia on a quest to win

  1010the belt of war-obsessed Hippolyta.

  I was a young man when we met. The down

  had only freshly sprouted on my cheeks,

  and funeral games were being held in honor

  of Priolas my brother. (Mysians killed him,

  1015and since his death the people here have sung him
/>
  heartrending dirges.) In the boxing match

  Heracles beat the dashing Titias,

  who was supreme among us younger men

  in strength and beauty. Yes, he knocked his teeth out

  onto the ground.

  1020 (786)Heracles subjugated

  the Mysians beneath my father’s rule,

  then the Mygdones who are neighbors to us,

  then some Bithynians and their land as far as

  the Rhebas River and Colona’s peak.

  1025In fact, the Paphlagonian heirs of Pelops

  (that is, those hemmed in by the dark Billaeus)

  surrendered without putting up a fight.

  Lately, with Heracles gone far away,

  haughty Amycus and his subject soldiers

  1030had started cheating me, for years now chipping

  such large tracts from my realm that they have pushed

  their kingdom’s borders to the grass that lines

  the deeply flowing Hypius River.

  Now, though,

  they have received their punishment from you,

  1035 (798)and I suspect the gods were there supporting

  Tyndareus’ son the day he beat

  Amycus and defeated all his henchman

  in battle. Therefore I shall gladly give you

  whatever help I can, since this is simply

  1040what weaker men should do when stronger men

  have done a good turn first. And I shall order

  Dascylus my son to join your quest.

  With him among you, you should find the natives

  you meet along the way hospitable

  1045as far off as the river Thermodon.

  Furthermore, I shall build a lofty temple

  atop the Acherousian heights to honor

  Tyndareus’ sons, and every sailor

  who sees their shrine, even from far away,

  1050 (809)will ask their aid. Once I have built the temple,

  I shall consecrate, outside the city,

  some fertile acres in our well-tilled plains

  to yield them honor as if they were gods.”

  All day the heroes took delight in feasting,

  1055then bustled back down to the ship. King Lycus

  gathered his train to follow them and gave them

  numberless gifts. What’s more, he sent his son

  to make the quest among them.

  It was then

  that Idmon son of Abas reached his destined

  1060demise. Though he excelled at seercraft,

  his seercraft did not protect him, no,

  necessity was pushing him toward doom.

  There was a meadow near a reedy river.

  A white-tusked boar was lounging in it, cooling

  1065 (819)its flanks and massive belly in the mud—

 

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