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Jason and the Argonauts

Page 24

by Apollonius Of Rhodes


  and others wood nymphs from the tablelands.

  Hera herself, the wedded wife of Zeus,

  had summoned them to pay respects to Jason,

  1475and to this day the grotto where the nymphs

  laid out the sweetly fragrant sheets and married

  Jason and Medea bears the name

  Medea’s Cave.

  Meanwhile the heroes took

  their spears in hand in case some gang of foemen

  1480dashed upon them unforeseen. They also

  garlanded their heads with leafy sprigs

  and to the thrum of Orpheus’ lyre

  melodiously sang the wedding hymn

  outside the entrance to the bridal chamber.

  1485 (1161)Alcinoös’ realm was not the place

  where Jason son of Aeson had desired

  to consummate the marriage, no, he rather

  had hoped to do it in his father’s palace

  once he returned. The girl had hoped so, too.

  1490Necessity, however, had compelled them

  to make love then and there.

  The truth is, we

  the members of the woe-struck tribes of mortals

  never tread the pathways to delight

  with confidence. Some bitter anguish always

  1495shambles along beside our happiness.

  Thus, after Jason and Medea’s souls

  dissolved in sweet lovemaking, terror gripped them:

  Would King Alcinoös, in fact, deliver

  the verdict Queen Arete had described?

  1500 (1170)Dawn had returned, and her ambrosial beams

  scattered the dusky darkness from the sky.

  The island beaches laughed, the dew-drenched pathways

  laughed as they ran in from the distant plains,

  and there was movement in the streets, the townsfolk

  1505were stirring, and the Colchians were stirring

  out on the farthest spit of Macris Island.

  Alcinoös, in keeping with his promise,

  went out to them at once to speak his mind

  about Medea. In his hand he held

  1510a golden staff, the staff of law, with which

  he rendered rightful judgments to the people

  throughout the city. Phaeacian nobles

  marched behind him in their battle armor,

  and women swarmed out of the city gate

  1515 (1183)to see the heroes. Country folk as well

  came in to hear Alcinoös because

  Hera had made sure news was sent abroad.

  One of them picked the best ram in his flock

  and drove him there; another led a heifer

  1520that had not yet been broken to the yoke;

  still others set up mixing bowls for wine,

  and the aroma wafted far and wide.

  Women presented garments they had woven,

  as women will, along with gifts of gold

  1525and every sort of splendor customary

  for newlyweds. They stood awhile admiring

  the builds and faces of the famous heroes

  and there among them Orpheus, tapping out

  a merry tempo with a purple sandal

  1530 (1195)while strumming something gorgeous on his lyre.

  And when the heroes sang the wedding hymn

  the Naiads sang as well, sometimes in answer,

  sometimes a wholly separate part, while dancing

  a cyclic dance, and in your honor, Hera,

  1535because you were the one who put the thought

  into Arete’s mind to warn the couple

  about Alcinoös’ wise decision.

  Once he had given his momentous verdict,

  Alcinoös upheld it to the letter.

  1540By then the consummation of the marriage

  was widely known, but neither King Aeëtes’

  grudging anger nor the fear of battle

  swayed his mind, since he had bound both parties

  by steadfast oaths to reverence his ruling.

  1545 (1206)So, when the Colchians perceived appeals

  were useless, and Alcinoös insisted

  they either heed his word or keep their ships

  far from his harbors, they were all so frightened

  of King Aeëtes’ threats that they entreated

  1550Alcinoös to welcome them as allies.

  They lived awhile among the Phaeacians

  until some tribesmen from Ephyra called

  the Bacchidae arrived and settled there

  among them. So the Colchian soldiers picked up

  1555and settled on the island opposite.

  From there they moved, at destiny’s behest,

  to the Ceraunian hills of the Abantes

  and then to Oricum and the Nesteians,

  but all this happened many ages later.

  1560 (1217)The shrines Medea founded in the precinct

  of Nomian Apollo still receive

  annual sacrifices to the Moirae

  and nymphs. Alcinoös bestowed rich gifts

  upon the Minyans at their departure,

  1565and Queen Arete did the same. What’s more,

  she gave the girl twelve Phaeacian handmaids

  out of the palace store to wait upon her.

  They left Drepana on the seventh day.

  A stiff, favorable wind arose from Zeus

  1570that morning, and the ship was speeding onward

  before the gale. Still, it was not their fate

  to rest their feet upon Achaean land,

  no, not until they suffered further, farther

  away in distant Libya. Soon the heroes

  1575 (1228)had left astern the Ambracian Gulf,

  soon they had skirted, with their sails spread wide,

  the Curetes’ dominion and a string

  of islands, the Echinades among them.

  But, at the very moment when the land

  1580of Pelops had arisen into view,

  a dismal gust of wind out of the north

  seized them midcourse and carried them away

  across the Libyan Sea for nine whole nights

  and nine whole days until they coasted deep

  1585into the Syrtes. Any ship that hits them

  never can sail back out to sea again.

  Shallows are everywhere, and everywhere

  tangles of bracken washed out of the depths.

  The sea scurf passes over them in silence.

  1590 (1240)The sand extends to the horizon. Nothing

  that walks or flies is ever stirring there.

  Over and over flood tides leave the mainland

  and then come rushing back to drag salt water

  across the sand. One of these tides abruptly

  1595dropped the Argo so far up the beach

  that little of the keel was still in water.

  So all the heroes jumped out of the ship,

  and sorrow struck them when they saw the sky

  and the expanse of endless land extending,

  1600just like the sky, into the endless distance.

  No path, no herdsman’s shelter, no oasis

  appeared. A dead calm haunted everything.

  They said to one another in despair:

  “Where have the storm winds landed us? Where are we?

  1605 (1251)If only we had laughed at deadly fear

  and risked retreating back out through the Rocks

  the way we came. It surely had been better

  if we had gone against the will of Zeus

  and died attempting somethin
g glorious.

  1610Now if the winds compel us to remain here

  even a short time, what are we to do?

  The coast of this vast land is too, too barren.”

  So each of them exclaimed. Ancaeus even,

  their helmsman, helpless to relieve their troubles,

  1615addressed them bleakly as they sat there grieving:

  “I’m sorry—we must die a shameful death.

  There’s no escaping this catastrophe.

  Even if gale winds blow in from the land,

  we’ve foundered on a desert. All the worst

  1620 (1264)a mortal can endure is now before us.

  However far I stare into the distance,

  I see more ocean shallows, brackish water

  ceaselessly washing over dull gray sand.

  This holy vessel would have roughly foundered

  1625far from the beach, except the surf itself

  swept it at high tide inland from the bay.

  Now that the tide has drained back out again,

  only a surf too thin for sailing laps

  about us, lightly covering the sand.

  1630That’s why I say all hope of sailing home

  is severed from us. Let some other man

  display his skill. He’s welcome to sit down

  and take the tiller if he wants to save us,

  but Zeus, it seems, has no desire whatever

  1635 (1276)to land us at our port of embarkation

  in Hellas, even after all our efforts.”

  So Ancaeus spoke and broke down weeping.

  The men with nautical experience

  agreed with his despair. All hearts were ice,

  1640all cheeks surrendering to sallowness.

  Just as when people wander through a city

  like breathless ghosts, awaiting their destruction

  by war or plague or some relentless flood

  that will erase the oxen’s work afield,

  1645and all because odd omens have been witnessed—

  statues spontaneously sweating blood,

  roars sounding, mouthless, from the holy groves—

  and high noon only means more night in heaven,

  and stars do not stop shining all day long,

  1650 (1288)so did the heroes wander without purpose

  along the endless shore.

  A somber dusk

  too soon came over them and, sadly, then,

  they wrapped their arms around each other, wept,

  and said good-bye, so that they each could then

  1655go off alone, fall in the sand, and die.

  They staggered off, each farther than the last,

  to pick their final resting places. Heads

  shrouded by their cloaks, they lay unnourished,

  weakening, all night long, all day, awaiting

  1660the most horrendous death imaginable.

  The handmaids shuffled to a place apart

  and clustered, wailing, round Aeëtes’ daughter.

  As unfledged nestlings chirrup desperately

  when they have tumbled from a cliff-side nest,

  1665 (1301)or swans release their dying proclamations

  from banks along the gorgeous Pactolus,

  and dew-drenched glades are echoing around them,

  and, echoing, the river’s handsome current,

  so did the maidens loose their long blond hair,

  1670drape it along the dust, and wail all night

  a pitiful lament.

  And now these men,

  these heroes, would have left their lives behind

  and no names, no renown for later men

  to study, and their mission would have failed.

  1675But, as they withered there in helplessness,

  the local nymphs, the guardians of Libya,

  took pity on them. Once upon a time,

  these goddesses had come to tend Athena

  after she leapt out of her father’s head

  1680 (1311)sublimely armed. These were the goddesses

  who bathed her in the tide of Triton Lake.

  The hour was noon. The sun’s most cruel rays

  were scorching Libya. These powers gathered

  around the son of Aeson, and their fingers

  1685gently tugged the mantle from his head.

  He dropped his gaze out of respect for them,

  but they were bright before him and addressed him,

  terrified as he was, with soothing words:

  “Unlucky fellow, why has feebleness

  1690afflicted you? We know about your journey,

  how you were questing for the golden fleece.

  We know your labors, too, the mighty deeds

  you have performed while wandering across

  the land and sea. We are the Lonely Ones,

  1695 (1323)daughters and guardians of Libya,

  fluent in human utterance. Stand up now.

  Stop grumbling and carrying on like this.

  Go rouse your men. As soon as Amphitrite

  unyokes Poseidon’s smooth-wheeled chariot,

  1700you and your comrades must repay your mother

  for all the pain she suffered bearing you

  so long inside her womb, and you may yet

  come to the holy country of Achaea.”

  So they spoke and vanished in a flash

  1705from where they had been standing, and their voices

  faded away. But Jason started upright,

  looked everywhere around him, and implored:

  “Be kind, you noble powers of the dunes,

  though I confess the meaning of your words

  1710 (1334)about our journey home eluded me.

  Still, I shall rouse my friends and tell them all

  you told me in the hope that we can find

  some sign to guide us out of this morass.

  In counsel many men outdistance one.”

  1715So he implored and leapt up, cloaked in dust

  from head to foot. He shouted to his comrades

  far into the distance, as a lion

  wandering through a forest roars to summon

  his mate, and even distant mountain valleys

  1720tremble at the sound, and all the herdsmen

  and oxen shake with fear. (But Jason’s cry

  was not at all upsetting to his men

  because it was the bellow of a friend

  calling to friends.) The heroes gathered round him,

  1725 (1345)their heads all hanging. Still, despite their sorrow,

  he got the crew to sit beside the ship,

  the women, too. He spoke among them, then,

  telling them all that he had witnessed:

  “Listen,

  my friends: as I was lying in despair,

  1730three goddesses appeared to me, like maidens,

  but clad in wild goatskin from neck to waist.

  They gathered round my head, pulled off my cloak

  with no unfriendly tug, and bade me rise

  all on my own and wake you up to pay

  1735due recompense for all our mother suffered

  while bearing us inside her womb so long.

  This should be done whenever Amphitrite

  unyokes Poseidon’s smooth-wheeled chariot.

  I don’t quite grasp the holy mandate’s meaning.

  1740 (1358)They said they were, in fact, divinities,

  daughters and guardians of Libya.

  What’s more, they claimed they had a thorough

  knowledge

  of what we have endured by land and se
a.

  Suddenly I could see them there no longer—

  1745some mist or cloud, it seemed, had hidden them

  right in the middle of their apparition.”

  So he explained, and they were all amazed.

  Suddenly an extraordinary omen

  appeared before the Minyans—a stallion,

  1750gigantic, monstrous, leapt from sea to land,

  the mane golden and blowing round his neck.

  After he shook the sea spray from his flanks,

  he galloped off, his hoofbeats like the wind,

  and Peleus exulted in the vision

  1755 (1369)and cried into the crowd of his companions:

  “I hereby do proclaim Poseidon’s wife

  has just now loosed his chariot with her hands.

  What’s more, our mother is the ship herself

  because, indeed, she bears us in her womb

  1760and constantly endures the pains of labor.

  Come, let us lift her with a hearty heave,

  place her upon our unrelenting shoulders,

  and lug her inland through the sand-choked waste

  along the course the sprinting horse has shown us.

  1765For surely he will not go plunging under

  the earth. No, rather, I suspect his hoofprints

  will point us toward a gulf that feeds the sea.”

  So he proposed and everyone agreed

  to heed his plan.

  The Muses own this story.

  1770 (1382)I sing at the Pierides’ command

  and now shall tell precisely what they told me—

  that you, by far the mightiest sons of kings,

  with strength and courage heaved the Argo up

  onto your shoulders, also everything

  1775the ship had in it, and you lugged that burden

  over the arid dunes of Libya

  for twelve whole days and twelve whole nights. But who

  could narrate all the pain and misery

  they suffered at their task? Let no one doubt

  1780they were descended from immortal gods,

  so weighty was the chore they undertook

  out of necessity. They felt as much joy

  lugging that tonnage down the salty bank

  to Triton Lake as they did reaching brine

  1785 (1392)and easing Argo from their sturdy shoulders.

  Then like wild dogs they all ran off

  scavenging for a spring. Persistent thirst

  weighed on them, many aches and sufferings.

  Nor was their search in vain. They soon discovered

  1790a sacred plain where only yesterday

  the earthborn serpent Ladon had been guarding

  pure-golden apples in the realm of Atlas

  while the Hesperides, the local nymphs,

 

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