385While its base looks outward toward the coastline,
its apex points upriver and divides
the outflow into two. The upper entrance
is called the Narex and the lower one
the Handsome Mouth. Whereas Absyrtus sailed
390 (314)his Colchian sailors swiftly through the latter,
the heroes had already sailed around
the former.
All along the river flats
shepherds abandoned their abundant flocks
because they saw the ships as sea beasts rising
395out of the monster-generating depths.
None of these peoples ever had observed
seagoing vessels—not the Scythians
(who breed with Thracian tribes), not the Sigynni,
not even the Graucenni or the Sindi
400(who at the time inhabited the vast
Laurian flatlands).
Once the Colchians
had skirted Mount Angurum and, beyond it,
Mount Cauliacus where the Ister splits
and drains into the sea from two directions,
405 (326)they passed, at last, the Laurian flatlands, sailed
into the Gulf of Cronus, and blockaded
the exits everywhere so that their foes
by no means ever could escape them. Meanwhile
the heroes moved downstream and reached the two
410Brygian Isles of Artemis nearby.
One of them hosts a temple sacred to her,
but the heroes landed on the other
and thus escaped the soldiers of Absyrtus.
The Colchians, you see, had left those islands,
415alone of all the islands there, untouched
because they venerated Zeus’ daughter.
But they had occupied the other ones
and blocked all access to the sea. What’s more,
Absyrtus had dispatched a host of soldiers
420 (336)to posts along the neighboring coasts as far
as the Salangon River and Nesteia.
Outnumbered as they were, the Minyans
would have been worsted in an ugly battle
right then and there and so they cut a treaty
425to put off all-out war. The treaty stated
the heroes could retain the golden fleece,
whether they had acquired it by guile
or simply stole it in the king’s despite,
since he himself had promised it to them
430once they had proved their mettle in the contest.
Medea, though, because her case was pending,
would be released to Leto’s daughter’s temple
and kept apart, until one of the local
scepter-bearing kings decided whether
435 (348)she should return to King Aeëtes’ palace
or travel with the Minyans to Greece.
Now, when the maiden learned about the treaty,
a wave of anguish rumbled through her body.
She rushed to Aeson’s son, pulled him away
440from his companions to a private spot,
and voiced her grievance to him, face-to-face:
“Jason, what is this plot you have conceived
concerning me? Have your successes launched you
into forgetfulness, so that you take back
445all you said when you were gripped by need?
Where are the honeyed vows you made to me
with Zeus Savior of Suppliants as witness?
I ran off in contempt of all convention,
yes, with appalling urgency I left
450 (361)the country of my birth, a glorious palace,
even my parents—all that I held dear—
and now alone, alone at sea, I travel
among the miserable kingfishers,
and all because of you and your concerns.
455It was because of me that you survived
the trial of the bulls and earthborn men,
and then, when our misdeeds were widely known,
I foolishly procured the fleece for you
and called down horrid shame upon my sex.
460Now, since I am your daughter, wife, and sister,
I say that I shall sail with you to Greece.
Kindly protect me, then, in every way.
Stand at my side, no matter what transpires,
and, when you meet the magistrates, do not
465 (372)desert me, but be faithful to my cause.
Either let Justice and the Vow we sealed
between us stick steadfast within your breast
or draw your sword and slit my throat to pay me
fit retribution for my lust.
You wretch!
470If the authority to whom you handed
this stony-hearted arbitration rules
I am my brother’s chattel, how can I
endure my father’s glare? Ah, reputation.
What rancor, what harsh blows will I endure
475to pay for all the awful things I’ve done?
And all the while will you be off somewhere
winning your heart-delighting passage home?
Never may Zeus’ wife, the mighty queen
of whom you boast, allow you to complete it.
480 (383)Remember me someday when agony
is squeezing you, and may the fleece then flutter,
dreamlike, into the depths of Erebus
and yield no good to you. Yes, may the Furies
drive you upon arrival from your homeland
485because of all I suffered through your cruelty.
Themis will not allow my execrations
to tumble unfulfilled onto the earth—
because you swore an oath to me and broke it,
you traitor-hearted man. Not long, however,
490will you and your companions sit at ease
and laugh at me, no, not for all your treaties.”
So she threatened, and her bitter rage
boiled over—how she longed to torch the ship,
ignite the whole wide world, and hurl her body
495 (394)into the blaze! Dreading what she might do,
Jason appeased her fears with honeyed words:
“Calm down, strange maiden. I don’t like this, either,
but we are seeking means to stave off war.
A thunderhead of foes is flashing round us
500because of you. The men who hold this land
are keen to help Absyrtus bring you home
because they think that you were kidnapped. Now,
if we engaged them hand to hand, we all
would suffer most abominable deaths,
505and still more bitter, then, would be your grief
if we, by dying, left you as their prize.
This parley, though, is just an artful pretext
to draw Absyrtus out to his destruction.
Once their lord, your guardian and brother,
510 (405)is dead, the locals will be far less keen
to take his side in this dispute about you.
Then I, for one, would hardly shrink from fighting
the Colchians, if they obstruct our passage.”
So Jason said in an attempt to calm her,
515but her reply was still more devastating:
“You listen now. Our shameless actions drive us
to still more shameless actions. It was I
who took the first false step. Once I was duped
by my obsession, higher powers forced me
520to execute the evil scheme I plotted.
Tonight your comrades’ part will be to fend off
Colchian spears in battle. Mine will be
to place Absyrtus safely in your hands.
I see, yes, you must welcome him to parley
525 (417)with splendid gifts, so that I can persuade
the heralds heading back to him to make him
com
e all alone to listen to my plan.
Then, if the deed is pleasing to you, kill him
and start a battle with the Colchian soldiers.
I don’t care.”
530So they together wove
a mighty web of ruin for Absyrtus.
They sent him many friendship-gifts, including
the sacred raiment of Hypsipyle,
a crimson gown. The Graces had themselves
535made it by their own hands for Dionysus
on Dia. He bestowed it on his son,
Thoas, and he in turn upon his daughter,
Hypsipyle, who offered it to Jason
to take away, a finely woven guest-gift,
540 (428)along with many other treasures. Neither
by ogling nor fondling this garment
could you fulfill your sweet desire for it.
The fabric still exhaled ambrosia essence
from the night when the Nysaean king,
545tipsy with wine and nectar, lay upon it
to fondle Ariadne’s gorgeous breasts—
this is the girl whom Theseus abandoned
on seagirt Dia after she eloped
from Knossos with him.
Once the plan was set,
550Medea issued orders to the heralds—
they were to tell Absyrtus to arrive
after she reached the temple of the goddess
in keeping with the treaty and as soon as
the deepest darkness of the night had come,
555 (438)so that they could devise a scheme by which
she would retrieve the mighty golden fleece
and bring it home to King Aeëtes’ palace
(she had alleged it was the sons of Phrixus
who dragged her off and gave her to the strangers
560as spoils of war). Making such false excuses,
she scattered on the airy breezes drugs
potent enough to lure a savage creature
down a precipitous cliff, even a creature
that happened to be very far away.
565Wretched Eros, great abomination,
great bane of humankind, from you arise
murderous feuds and groans and lamentations
and countless other miseries besides.
Great god, may you arise and shoot your arrows
570 (448)against the offspring of my enemies
just as you shot Medea’s insides full
of cursed spite. How cruelly did she slaughter
Absyrtus, her own brother, when he came
to meet her? That’s the next part of my song.
575After the heroes put the girl ashore,
according to the treaty, on the Isle
of Artemis, the parties separated
and beached their vessels on opposing shores,
and Jason chose an ambush to await
580Absyrtus first and his companions later.
The fatal promises deceived Absyrtus,
and he went sailing right away across the river
and landed in the darkest hour of night
upon the sacred isle. He started forth,
585 (459)without a guard, to learn his sister’s mind
through conversation, as a little boy
dares sailing on a runoff-swollen torrent
not even adults would attempt. He hoped
that she would plot with him against the strangers.
590As they were settling the details, Jason
vaulted out of the leafy ambuscade,
a naked sword-blade hefted in his hand.
The girl was quick to turn her eyes away
and veil them, so that she would not behold
595the coming deathblow and her brother’s blood.
Think of a butcher slaughtering a bull,
a giant, big-horned bull—yes, that’s the way
that Jason struck the man. He had been lurking
beside the temple that the Brygians
600 (470)who live upon the mainland opposite
had built for Artemis. Knees buckling,
Absyrtus crumpled in the temple’s forecourt.
A hero gasping out his life, he caught,
in both his hands, the crimson geyser streaming
605out of the wound and smeared his sister’s mantle
and silver veil as she recoiled from him.
A dauntless Fury watched it all, sidelong
and without sympathy—a putrid deed.
The son of Aeson, then, the hero, hacked off
610the corpse’s limbs, three times imbibed its blood
and spat the taint out through his teeth three times,
as is the proper way for murderers
to purge perfidious assassination.
He stashed the sagging carcass in the earth,
615 (481)and to this day the bones are lying there
among a people known as the “Absyrtians.”
As soon as his companions saw before them
the glimmer of the torch the girl had raised
to signal them to come, they rowed the Argo
620up alongside the Colchian ship and started
massacring all the men aboard it
as hawks descend upon a flock of doves,
or savage lions, when they reach the fold,
pounce on a teeming flock of huddled sheep.
625They overwhelmed them like a conflagration,
slaughtered them—none of them escaped destruction.
Jason returned at last to join the battle,
but his companions needed no assistance;
rather, they had been worrying for him.
630 (492)When they were done, they all sat down to form
some prudent plan about their journey home.
Medea joined in the deliberations,
but Peleus was first to speak his mind:
“I say that right now while the night remains
635we climb aboard and row in the direction
opposite to the one that they are watching.
At dawn, when they discover what has happened,
I doubt that anyone among them urging
further pursuit of us will win support.
640Like any people orphaned of a leader,
they will be rent by nasty factions. Then,
after their forces are divided, we shall find
safe passage when we come back later on.”
So he proposed, and all the young men cheered
645 (503)the words of Peleus. They leapt aboard
without delay and labored at the oars
relentlessly until they reached the farthest
island in the chain, divine Electris,
right next to the Eridanus’ mouth.
650Soon as the Colchians saw their leader dead,
they swore to hunt the Argo and the Minyans
across the whole wide Cronian Sea. But Hera
checked them with horrifying lightning flashes.
Finally, then, since they had come to loathe
655their homes in the Cytaean land and dread
Aeëtes’ savage temper, they divided
and sailed to settlements by separate routes.
Some landed on the very islands where
the heroes had been beached. They live there yet
660 (515)under the name they took from Prince Absyrtus.
Others settled near the deep and brackish
Illyrian River, where Harmonia
and old King Cadmus share a common tomb.
(Thus they were neighbors to the Encheleians.)
665Still others settled in the mountain chain
known as “Ceraunian” (or “Thundering”),
because the thunderbolts of Cronian Zeus
frightened them from the island opposite.
Once their homeward journey seemed secure,
670the heroes coasted back and bound the hawsers
to the Hyllaean land. The islands here
are packed in tight and jut so from the mainland
that it is hard for helmsmen to avoid them.
The local tribesmen, though, were kind. They helped
675 (528)the heroes navigate the strait and earned
a tripod of Apollo in return.
You see, when Jason went to holy Pytho
to ask about the quest, Apollo gave him
two tripods to be kept aboard the ship
680throughout the journey he would undergo.
According to the oracle, no hostile
forces would ever occupy a land
that kept one of these sacred tripods in it.
Thus, even to this day, the tripod stands
685close to the friendly citadel of Hyllus,
but underground, so that it will remain
forever out of sight.
The heroes, though,
did not find Hyllus still among the living—
Hyllus, whom shapely Melita had borne
690 (539)to Heracles among the Phaeacians.
Heracles, you see, had come to visit
Nausithoös’ court and Macris, nurse
of Dionysus, to expunge the ghastly
murder of his own children from his hands.
695And there it was he coveted and conquered
the daughter of the river god Aegaeus,
the water spirit Melita, who bore
Hyllus the Strong.
When Hyllus came of age,
he chafed beneath Nausithoös’ rule
700and wished no longer to reside beneath it.
So, after gathering from among the natives
a crew of Phaeacian journeymen,
he sailed into the Cronian Sea. (In fact,
the hero-king Nausithoös had helped him
705 (550)outfit the voyage.) Hyllus settled here,
and the Mentores killed him as he fought
to keep a grazing herd of cattle from them.
Come, tell me, goddesses, how is it that,
beyond the Adriatic Sea, off near
710Ausonia and the Ligystian islands
known as the Stoechades, such mighty
proof of the Argo’s route can still be found?
What great necessity, what wants and needs,
drove them so far abroad? What winds conveyed them?
715After the brutal slaughter of Absyrtus,
Zeus himself, the King of the Immortals,
succumbed to wrath against the perpetrators.
He ruled that they must purge themselves of bloodguilt
under the guidance of Aeaean Circe
720 (561)and then endure ten thousand miseries
before returning home. None of the heroes
knew of this verdict, no, they simply left
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