Jason and the Argonauts (Penguin Classics)

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by Apollonius Of Rhodes


  Hyllaea and went speeding on their way.

  Soon they had left all the Liburnian islands,

  725one by one, behind them in their wake,

  Issa, Dysceladus, fair Pityeia—

  islands that lately had been full of Colchians.

  Then they passed Corcyra where Poseidon

  settled the fair-haired daughter of Asopus,

  730Corcyra, far, far from the land of Phlius

  from which the god had snatched her up in love.

  Sailors who see it from the sea, all wooded

  and somber, call it Dark Corcyra.

  Next,

  cheered by a balmy breeze, they passed Melita,

  735 (573)sheer Cerossus, then, much farther on,

  Nymphaea where the queen Calypso lived,

  Atlas’ daughter. They would soon have seen

  the misty mountains of Ceraunia,

  but Hera turned her thoughts toward Zeus’ verdict

  740and heavy penalty. To force the heroes

  onto the necessary course, she roused

  storm winds, which fastened on the ship and pushed it

  back to the rocky island of Electris.

  Next thing they knew, as they were dashing backward,

  745one of the Argo’s beams, the one Athena

  had chopped out of an oak tree in Dodona

  and fitted as the Argo’s keel, emitted

  a human voice, a warning. Holy dread

  possessed them when they heard the voice proclaiming

  750 (585)Zeus’ terms—to wit, that they would never

  survive the long sea paths and fierce sea squalls

  unless the goddess Circe washed away

  their cruel assassination of Absyrtus.

  What’s more, it told the brothers Polydeuces

  755and Castor to beseech the gods to grant

  safe passage into the Ausonian Sea

  where they must stop and visit Circe, daughter

  of Helius and Persa. So the Argo

  cried through the night. Tyndareus’ sons

  760arose and raised their hands to the immortals,

  praying, Please, may all this come to pass,

  though grief had gripped the other Minyan heroes.

  The ship dashed onward under sail and reached

  the halfway point on the Eridanus

  765 (598)where Phaëthon, chest smitten by a flashing

  lightning bolt, fell, half-incinerated,

  out of the chariot of Helius

  into the river muck, and to this day

  foul vapors rising from the smoldering wound

  770bubble out of the brackish slick. No bird

  can pass on flapping wings above that fen,

  no, they all catch fire and drop midflight.

  Hidden in lofty poplars there, sad maidens,

  the Heliades, raise sorrowful laments

  775and from their eyelids gleaming drops of amber

  fall to the sand. The sunlight dries them there.

  Then, when a strong wind heaves the current over

  its banks, the flood tide rolls them, hardened balls

  of amber, into the Eridanus.

  780 (611)The Celts, who give a variant of the story,

  claim that the tears the rapids sweep along

  are really those that Leto’s son Apollo

  shed many years before, when Zeus was angry

  over the boy that beautiful Coronis

  785bore to Apollo, next to the Amyrus,

  on gleaming Lacereia. Riled in turn,

  Apollo spurned the sky and stayed awhile

  among the holy Hyperborean tribes.

  Such is the story told among the Celts.

  790The heroes felt no thirst or hunger there,

  nor did their minds think happy thoughts. No, rather,

  all day burdened with the noxious stench,

  they tired and sickened. The Eridanus

  and all its streams were boiling off the vapors

  795 (623)of Phaëthon’s still smoldering corpse—

  unbearable. All night the heroes heard

  the Heliades lamenting his demise,

  weeping and weeping, and their tears went drifting

  downstream like little drops of oil.

  From there

  800they crossed into the deeply flowing Rhône.

  Here, where it marries the Eridanus,

  enemy roars contend. The Rhône, you see,

  starts at the farthest outskirts of the earth

  where Night’s portcullis and embankments stand.

  805Part of it flows into the River Ocean,

  part empties into the Ionian Sea,

  and part goes rushing out through seven mouths

  into a large bay off Sardinia.

  While on the Rhône, they crossed into a chain

  810 (635)of stormy lakes that pock the vast, unmeasured

  plains of the Celts. They almost met with shameful

  destruction there because a tributary

  was trending off into the Gulf of Ocean,

  and they, in ignorance, resolved to take it.

  815They never would have gotten out alive.

  But Hera leapt from heaven just in time

  and shrieked turn back! from a Hercynian peak,

  and all the heroes trembled at the cry,

  so ominously did the vast sky echo.

  820So, with divine assistance, they reversed

  their course and found a route to take them home.

  A good long slog, and they had reached at last

  a beach and ocean breakers, after passing,

  unchallenged, through a thousand tribes of Celts

  825 (647)and Ligyans, and all because of Hera—

  she poured impenetrable mist around them

  all the days they traveled on the river.

  They coasted out the fourth mouth of the seven

  and beached safely amid the Stoechades,

  830thanks to the sons of Zeus—this is the reason

  altars and rites were founded here to honor

  the two of them forever. They were not

  to serve as saviors only on that voyage,

  but Zeus bestowed on them the privilege

  835of saving future sailors’ vessels, too.

  Once past the Stoechades, the heroes reached

  the island of Aethalia and there,

  exhausted, scrubbed away their scum of sweat

  with pebbles, and the pebbles on that beach

  840 (657)are fleshy colored to this very day.

  Their discuses of stone and marvelous tackle

  are still there also, and the site is named

  The Argo’s Anchorage because of them.

  From there they sailed swiftly through the heaving

  845Ausonian Sea with the Tyrrhenian coast

  in view beside them. After they arrived

  at the illustrious harbor of Aeaea,

  they tied the lines up at the nearest shore.

  And there was Circe in the sea spray washing

  850her hair because a dream had troubled her.

  During the night it seemed that all the walls

  and chambers of her house were dripping blood,

  and flames were eating up the cache of drugs

  with which she had, up to that time, bewitched

  855 (668)whoever came to visit. She herself

  had quenched the flames with sacrificial blood

  and so recovered from her horrid fright.

  And that was why she rose at dawn and went

  to wash her hair and clothing in the surf.

  860And there were beasts around her that resembled

  neither carnivorous animals nor humans

  in any normal way but some mélange

  of limbs from each. These creatures followed Circe,

  as flocks of sheep in countless numbers follow

  their shepherd from the fold.

  8
65Long, long ago,

  before dry weather had solidified

  the soil, before, as well, it had received

  moisture enough beneath the arid sun,

  Earth made this sort of thing all on her own,

  870 (680)a kind with mixed-up limbs, out of the slime.

  And Time, then, sorted out and reassembled

  the animals at long last into species.

  Crossed like those ancient creatures, the amorphous

  monsters of Circe followed in her train.

  875Boundless amazement overcame the heroes,

  and when they gazed on Circe’s skin and eyes,

  they knew at once she was Aeëtes’ sister.

  When she had cleansed the terror of her nightmares,

  she turned homeward and bade the heroes follow

  880by slyly stroking them as she went by.

  The crew, however, at a nod from Jason,

  remained behind, and he alone escorted

  the Colchian maiden, and the two of them

  followed the path until they reached the palace.

  885 (692)Though Circe was disturbed by their arrival,

  she bade them rest at ease on polished chairs.

  They sprinted to the hearth, though, without speaking

  and sat there, in accordance with the customs

  that rule the rueful rites of supplication.

  890Medea hid her beauty in her hands,

  and Jason plunged straight down into the floor

  the sword with which he killed Aeëtes’ son,

  and they did not lift up their eyes and look

  upon the goddess. Thus she knew, straight off,

  895their lot was exile and their crime kin-murder.

  So, in accordance with the rites of Zeus

  the God of Suppliants who, on the one hand,

  mightily despises murderers

  and, on the other, mightily defends them,

  900 (702)she made the sacrifice required to cleanse

  the suppliants sitting, tainted, at her hearth:

  First, to expunge the deed’s contamination,

  Circe picked out and held above their heads

  the offspring of a swollen-uddered sow.

  905Then, opening the piglet’s throat, she lathered

  Jason’s and Medea’s hands with blood.

  A second time with different libations

  she made an offering to Zeus Purgation,

  the last defense of suppliant homicides.

  910The Naiad slaves who served her every need

  then whisked the toxic stuff out of the palace.

  Circe herself beside the hearth fire offered

  wineless libations and devotional cakes

  as gifts to soothe the dogged Furies’ rage

  915 (715)and soften Zeus to leniency, regardless

  of whether they implored his grace with hands

  tainted by foreign or familial blood.

  When she had finished with the expurgation,

  she told them they could rise, then seated them

  920on polished chairs and took a seat before them.

  She was the first to speak, inquiring all

  about their quest, its purpose and the place

  from which they came to seek her land and palace,

  and why they had collapsed beside her hearth.

  925The troubling specifics of her nightmare

  recurred to her as she assessed the couple.

  What’s more, she had been eager to discover

  their language ever since the maiden first

  lifted her gaze up from the ground. You see,

  930 (727)all of the sun god Helius’ descendants

  are easy to identify because

  their radiant eyes emit a light like gold.

  All earnestness, Aeëtes’ daughter answered

  each of her questions in the Colchian tongue.

  935She told her of the heroes’ quest and travels,

  how they had toiled in the awful contest,

  how she had erred by heeding her distracted

  sister, and how, among the sons of Phrixus,

  she had escaped her father’s dreadful threats.

  940She left the murder of Absyrtus out

  but Circe, all the same, surmised the crime,

  pitied her sobbing niece and said:

  “Poor wretch!

  Look what a scandalous, obscene elopement

  you have devised. No, I do not expect

  945 (740)you will escape Aeëtes’ brutal rage

  for long. He shortly will be hunting even

  the citizens of Hellas to avenge

  his son’s assassination. It was you

  who perpetrated those appalling crimes.

  950Still, since you are my niece and at my knees,

  I shall refrain, now that you’re here, from making

  further trouble for you. Go on, now.

  Please leave my home and take this stranger with you—

  whoever he might be that you have taken,

  955against your father’s wishes, as your own.

  Don’t bother sitting at my hearth again

  and supplicating me for help, because

  your reckless schemes and impudent elopement

  are things of which I never shall approve.”

  960 (749)So Circe scolded, and insufferable

  agony gripped the girl. She pulled a robe

  over her eyes and poured forth liquid grief

  until the hero took her by the hand

  and led her, quivering, across the threshold.

  965And so they made their way from Circe’s palace.

  Cronian Zeus’ wife had not been left

  unbriefed of their departure. Iris saw them

  leave the palace and informed her mistress,

  Hera, who had commanded her to note

  970when they departed for the ship, and Hera

  gave Iris fresh instructions:

  “Iris darling,

  if ever in the past you have performed

  my bidding, set out on your rapid wings

  and summon Thetis up out of the sea

  975 (759)to join me here. I have a need of her.

  Next, travel to the shores where heavy hammers

  pound the big bronze anvils of Hephaestus.

  Tell him to pacify his fiery forges

  until the heroes’ ship has passed them. Next,

  980find Aeolus, who regulates the gales,

  those naughty children of the upper air,

  and give him my instructions: he must temper

  all the winds of heaven so that not

  the slightest breeze disturbs the sea, except

  985a kind west wind, until the heroes reach

  Alcinoös’ Phaeacian kingdom.”

  So she commanded. Iris flew at once

  down from Olympus on extended wings,

  tapered and glided into the Aegean

  990 (772)just over Nereus’ deep-sea palace.

  To execute the first of her three tasks

  she swam in search of Thetis and delivered

  the message, just as Hera had instructed,

  to call the sea nymph up to talk with her.

  995Next, Iris paid a visit to Hephaestus

  and told him to desist forthwith from swinging

  his iron hammer. Then at last she reached

  Aeolus, famous son of Hippotas.

  While she was giving him the news and resting

  1000her swift knees from her travels, Thetis left

  Nereus and her sisters, swam, then flew

  up to Olympus and the goddess Hera,

  and Hera offered her a seat and said:

  “Hear, goddess Thetis, what I want to tell you.

  1005 (784)You know how highly Jason and his comrades

  rate in my love. You know I pushed them safely

  through the Clashing Rocks, when forks of fire

  were violen
tly thundering above them

  and waves were boiling round the jagged headlands.

  1010Now their journey leads them past imposing

  Cape Scylla and Charybdis’ eruptions.

  But listen. Ever since you were an infant,

  I myself have nursed and cherished you

  more than the other ocean goddesses

  1015because you never dared to go to bed

  with Zeus, though he was sorely yearning for it—

  yes, he has always had his love affairs

  with mortals and immortals, too. But you

  were fearful in your thoughts because you so . . .

  esteemed me.

  1020 (798)Though he swore a mighty oath:

  Never would you be called the wife of god,

  he never did abstain from leering at you—

  against your will, of course—no, not until

  venerable Themis told him what would happen,

  1025how it was fated you would bear a son

  mightier than his father. So at last

  he gave you up, for all of his desire,

  so that no one would be his match and rule

  the gods in lieu of him, but he would keep

  his empery forever.

  1030So I gave you

  the finest of the mortals for a husband

  so that you might enjoy a heartfelt wedding

  and bear a child. I summoned all the gods

  down for the wedding feast, and I myself

  1035 (809)held up the bridal torch in my own hands

  to pay you for the kind esteem you gave me.

  Now let me tell the truth about the future:

  your son—the one the Naiads now are nursing

  in Centaur Cheiron’s cave, the one who wants

  1040his mother’s milk—that very son of yours

  will come one day to the Elysian Fields,

  and it is fated that he wed Medea,

  Aeëtes’ daughter, there. Mother-in-law,

  therefore, protect your son’s betrothed-to-be,

  1045along with Peleus. Why do you hold

  so fixed a grudge against him? He was foolish,

  but folly sometimes blinds immortals, too.

  I am quite confident that on my orders

  Hephaestus will desist awhile from stoking

  1050 (820)his forges to a rage, and Aeolus

  the son of Hippotas will check the gusts

  of rushing winds, that is, except for Zephyr,

  until they reach the Phaeacian harbor.

  You must guarantee the men safe passage.

  1055My worst fears are the rocks and toppling waves,

  but you can foil them with your sisters’ help.

  Prevent my friends from plunging, through ineptness,

 

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