Jason and the Argonauts (Penguin Classics)

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Jason and the Argonauts (Penguin Classics) Page 24

by Apollonius Of Rhodes


  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 sea.

  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,

  murmured delightful hymns to ease his watch.

  1795But, by the time the heroes reached the spot,

  Heracles had already shot the serpent.

  There beneath the apple tree it sprawled.

  Only its tapered tip was still in motion—

  everything from the coils to the head

  1800 (1405)lay lifeless. Flies had melted round the wounds

  because the arrows had injected poison,

  the acid taint of the Lernaean Hydra,

  into its innards. The Hesperides

  were nearby, with their silver hands held up

  1805before their golden faces, wildly keening

  over the carcass.

  When the heroes gathered

  around the nymphs, they withered in an instant

  and turned to dust. Orpheus recognized

  the sacred sign and for his comrades’ sake

  1810tried to appease the nymphs with winning words:

  “Beautiful, gracious queens, divinities—

  whether you rate among the goddesses

  who live in heaven, dwell beneath the earth,

  or bear the name of solitary nymphs,

  1815 (1414)be kind to us and come, O powers, appear

  before our longing eyes and point us, please,

  either to where a spring escapes from rock

  or where some freshet rises from the ground.

  Please, please show us something to relieve

  1820the fiery torture of our thirst. I vow

  that, if we ever make it home to Greece,

  we shall reward you there as we reward

  the foremost goddesses, with countless gifts,

  feasts, and libations.”

  So he prayed to them,

  1825using a plaintive and beseeching voice.

  They stood nearby invisibly and pitied

  the heroes. First of all they made some grass

  sprout from the sand and then, above the grass,

  tall stalks arose and saplings soon enough

  1830 (1427)stood where there had been dunes: Hespera turned

  into a poplar, Erytheis an elm,

  Aegla a venerable willow’s trunk.

  Then they emerged out of the trees and looked

  just as they had before—prodigious wonders!

  1835Aegla addressed the men with gentle words

  in answer to their looks of desperation:

  “A mighty boon to you in your afflictions

  already passed through here—a most rude man,

  who soon deprived our guardian snake of life,

  1840picked all the goddess’ pure-golden apples,

  and went and left us here in grief and horror.

  Yes, a man came yesterday, a man

  most murderous in arrogance and bulk.

  Eyes glowering beneath a savage brow,

  1845 (1437)he was a brute without a trace of pity.

  He wore around his bulk the raw, untreated

  hide of a lion, held a sturdy bow

  of olive wood and used it to dispatch

  this creature here.

  The fellow had arrived

  1850on foot and, like the other guests we’ve seen,

  ablaze with thirst. He dashed about at random

  in search of water, which, to tell the truth,

  he wouldn’t have discovered in the dunes . . .

  save for that bedrock outcrop over there

  1855beside Lake Triton. Either on his own

  or at some god’s suggestion, he decided

  to kick its base, and water gushed, full force,

  out of the rupture. Leaning on his hands,

  with chest pressed to the ground, he swilled colossal

  1860 (1448)volumes out of the riven rock until,

  bent forward like a grazing beast afield,

  he had appeased his superhuman belly.”

  Such was the tale she told them, and they all

  burst into joy and ran like mad until

  1865they re
ached the place where she had pointed out

  the spring. Imagine ants, earth excavators,

  a dense gathering of them, how they swarm

  around a narrow crack, or flies perhaps,

  how they collect en masse around a sweet

  1870droplet of honey with voracious lust—

  that’s how the heroes pushed in tight around

  the spring they found there gushing from a rock.

  Without a doubt someone among them, lips

  dribbling, shouted joyously:

  “Amazing!

  1875 (1459)Even from far off, Heracles has saved

  his friends when they were withering with thirst.

  If only we could chance upon his footprints

  while we are traveling across this land.”

  So they were saying, and the men best suited

  1880to find their absent comrade rose in answer

  and headed off in separate directions

  because the nighttime winds had stirred the sand

  and wiped out Heracles’ deep impressions.

  Calaïs, Zetes—Boreas’ sons—

  1885took to their wings and sought him from the air.

  Euphemus sprinted off on speed-blurred feet.

  Lynceus set out fourth—he had the gift

  of long-range sight. As for the fifth man, Canthus,

  bravery and the gods’ commandments urged him

  1890 (1469)to learn, firsthand, where Heracles had last seen

  Polyphemus offspring of Eilatus.

  Yes, Canthus burned to ask what happened to him,

  but Polyphemus had already founded

  a glorious town among the Mysians

  1895and later, longing for his home return,

  set out across the continent to find

  the Argo. When he reached the Chalybes

  who live beside the sea, fate beat him down.

  A monument was raised for him beneath

  1900a tall white poplar, very near the sea.

  The day the heroes searched for Heracles

  Lynceus thought that he had maybe caught

  sight of him, all alone and far away

  on that interminable continent.

  1905 (1479)Lynceus glimpsed him in the way one sees

  (or thinks he sees) the moon behind the clouds.

  So, once he had returned to his companions,

  he broke the news that no one any longer

  could hope of overtaking Heracles.

  1910The others came back, too—swift-foot Euphemus

  and both the sons of Thracian Boreas.

  The hunt had come to nothing.

  Then, O Canthus!,

  the doom of death took hold of you in Libya.

  After you stumbled on a flock at pasture,

  1915the shepherd who was tending it could only

  fight to defend the sheep you tried to steal

  for your emaciated comrades. Yes,

  he struck you with a stone and knocked you dead.

  At least the man was not a slave but noble

  1920 (1490)Caphaurus, grandson of Lycorian Phoebus

  and the respected maiden Acacallis.

  Minos packed this maiden off to Libya,

  his own daughter though she was, because

  she had conceived a child by Apollo.

  1925Their splendid offspring, known as Amphithemis

  and also Garamas, then bedded down

  with a Tritonian nymph, who bore him sons:

  Nasamon and intractable Caphaurus

  who beat down Canthus to protect his flock.

  1930Soon as the heroes found the corpse, Caphaurus

  did not escape harsh vengeance at their hands.

  Then they took up their fallen comrade’s body,

  trundled it back, and laid it in the earth

  with sighs and tears. They also took the sheep.

  1935 (1502)Then on the selfsame day relentless fate

  claimed Mopsus, too, the scion of Ampycus.

  No, he could not evade harsh destiny

  for all of his prophetic prescience.

  A person’s death is fixed and unavoidable.

  1940There it was, lying in a sand dune, shunning

  the midday heat—the lethal sort of asp.

  Too sluggish on its own to sink its fangs

  in accidental passersby, this breed

  would never launch itself against a person

  1945who spotted it in time and backed away.

  However, once it has injected black

  poison into any of the breathing

  creatures the life-supporting earth sustains,

  the path to Hades is a cubit long.

  1950 (1512)Yes, even if Apollo plied his drugs—

  and may it not be sacrilege to say it—

  death would still be certain once those fangs

  had pumped their venom. When the godlike Perseus

  (known to his mother as Eurymedon)

  1955flew over Libya to bring a king

  the Gorgon’s freshly severed head, the drops

  of red-black blood that fell onto the ground

  sprouted into this noxious breed of snake.

  And Mopsus, well—he set his left foot down

  1960firmly upon the taper of its tail,

  and it coiled up around his calf and shin

  and tore some skin out of him when it bit.

  Medea and her handmaids scampered off

  in fear, but he, a hero, bravely stroked

  1965 (1523)the open wound—the bite did not distress him

  much at all, poor man. Already, though,

  Slumber the Loosener of Limbs was spreading

  beneath his skin. Deep darkness doused his vision.

  Soon he had strewn his heavy arms and legs

  1970along the ground and grown cold helplessly.

  Jason and his companions gathered round

  and stood there gaping at his grim demise.

  Not even for a short time after death

  could he be left out in the sun because

  1975the toxin right away had started rotting

  the flesh within him, and the hair all over

  his body thawed and dribbled off the skin.

  They hurried with their bronze-wrought spades to dig

  a deep grave for the corpse, and everyone,

  1980 (1534)females and males alike, tore out their hair

  and mourned the man, the sorry way he died.

  Then, after they had marched three times around

  the body, and it had received full honors,

  they raised a funerary mound above it.

  1985They boarded ship again and, with a wind

  out of the south blowing across the sea,

  sailed off to find a path out of the lake.

  Hour after hour they lacked a course and drifted

  idly the whole day through. As when a serpent

  1990wriggles, hissing, on its crooked way

  to slip from under a ferocious noon

  and squints all round, its slits aglint with flickers

  like little streaks of fire, until it finds

  a crack and glides into a burrow—so

  1995 (1546)the Argo wandered for a long time seeking

  a navigable outlet from the lake.

  Orpheus then suggested they should lug

  the tripod of Apollo off the ship

  and set it on the shore, to leave a gift

  2000for any local power that might guide

  their homeward journey. So they beached the ship

  and placed Apollo’s tripod on the sand,

  and Triton, god of the unbounded ocean,

  walked over, masquerading as a youth.

  2005He scooped a bit of mud up, formed a ball,

  and gave it to them as a guest-gift, saying:

  “Take this, my friends, since I don’t have on hand

  any appropriate gift to offer you.

&
nbsp; Now, if you happen to be seeking outlets

  2010 (1557)into the sea (as sailors often are

  when traveling in lakes), I can direct you.

  Poseidon is my father, and he schooled me

  thoroughly in the pathways of the sea,

  and I am regent of the beaches. Maybe,

  2015even in your own country far away,

  you’ve heard about Eurypylus, a man

  brought up in Libya, home of wild beasts.”

  Such was his greeting, and Euphemus held

  his hands out gratefully and gave this answer:

  2020“If you, friend hero, are acquainted somewhat

  with Apis and the Sea of Minos, please

  help us by giving us an honest answer.

  We wound up here by chance. After the northern

  storm winds marooned us on this desert coast,

  2025 (1568)we picked our vessel up, a heavy burden,

  and lugged it overland until we reached

  this giant lake, and we have no idea

  where there is passage to the sea, so that

  we may sail homeward round the land of Pelops.”

  2030So he explained, and Triton stretched his hand out,

  pointed toward a deep-blue estuary,

  an outlet from the lake, and gave directions:

  “There where the lake is calm and dark with depth,

  a passage leads out to the sea. White breakers

  2035are churning there on one side and the other,

  and there’s a narrow channel set between them.

  The effervescent sea beyond it stretches

  past Crete to the exalted land of Pelops.

  When you emerge among the open rollers,

  2040 (1580)cleave to port and skirt the coast so long

  as it is trending to the north. As soon as

  the coast retreats and slopes the other way,

  cut seaward, and your journey will be safe.

  Proceed in joy. As for the work involved,

  2045there should be no complaints when limbs endowed

  with youthfulness are toiling at a task.”

  So, in a friendly way, he gave directions,

  and they embarked at once, giddy to row

  out of the lake at last. As they were speeding

  2050eagerly onward, Triton seized the tripod

  and seemed to disappear into the lake,

  so swiftly did he vanish with the gift.

  Their hearts exulted at the hopeful omen—

  a blessed god had stopped to aid their journey.

  2055 (1593)So all the men urged Jason to select

  the finest of the flock and sacrifice it

  and thus propitiate the god. He picked out

  a sheep at once, held it above the stern,

 

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