The Argonautica
for long they had no device, but all the day were borne on aimlessly.
And as a serpent goes writhing along his crooked path when the sun’s
fiercest rays scorch him; and with a hiss he turns his head to this
side and that, and in his fury his eyes glow like sparks of fire, until
he creeps to his lair through a cleft in the rock; so Argo seeking an
outlet from the lake, a fairway for ships, wandered for a long time.
Then straightway Orpheus bade them bring forth from the ship Apollo’s
massy tripod and offer it to the gods of the land as propitiation for
their return. So they went forth and set Apollo’s gift on the shore;
then before them stood, in the form of a youth, farswaying Triton, and
he lifted a clod from the earth and offered it as a stranger’s gift,
and thus spake:
“Take it, friends, for no stranger’s gift of great worth have I here by
me now to place in the hands of those who beseech me. But if ye are
searching for a passage through this sea, as often is the need of men
passing through a strange land, I will declare it. For my sire Poseidon
has made me to be well versed in this sea. And I rule the shore if
haply in your distant land you have ever heard of Eurypylus, born in
Libya, the home of wild beasts.”
Thus he spake, and readily Euphemus held out his hands towards the
clod, and thus addressed him in reply:
“If haply, hero, thou knowest aught of Apis[38] and the sea of Minos,
tell us truly, who ask it of you. For not of our will have we come
hither, but by the stress of heavy storms have we touched the borders
of this land, and have borne our ship aloft on our shoulders to the
waters of this lake over the mainland, grievously burdened; and we know
not where a passage shows itself for our course to the land of Pelops.”
So he spake; and Triton stretched out his hand and showed afar the sea
and the lake’s deep mouth, and then addressed them: “That is the outlet
to the sea, where the deep water lies unmoved and dark; on each side
roll white breakers with shining crests; and the way between for your
passage out is narrow. And that sea stretches away in mist to the
divine land of Pelops beyond Crete; but hold to the right, when ye have
entered the swell of the sea from the lake, and steer your course
hugging the land, as long as it trends to the north; but when the coast
bends, falling away in the other direction, then your course is safely
laid for you if ye go straight forward from the projecting cape. But go
in joy, and as for labour let there be no grieving that limbs in
youthful vigour should still toil.”
He spake with kindly counsel; and they at once went aboard, intent to
come forth from the lake by the use of oars. And eagerly they sped on;
meanwhile Triton took up the mighty tripod, and they saw him enter the
lake; but thereafter did no one mark how he vanished so near them along
with the tripod. But their hearts were cheered, for that one of the
blessed had met them in friendly guise. And they bade Aeson’s son offer
to him the choicest of the sheep and when he had slain it chant the
hymn of praise. And straightway he chose in haste and raising the
victim slew it over the stern, and prayed with these words:
“Thou god, who hast manifested thyself on the borders of this land,
whether the daughters born of the sea call thee Triton, the great
sea-marvel, or Phoreys, or Nereus, be gracious, and grant the return
home dear to our hearts.”
He spake, and cut the victim’s throat over the water and cast it from
the stern. And the god rose up from the depths in form such as he
really was. And as when a man trains a swift steed for the broad
race-course, and runs along, grasping the bushy mane, while the steed
follows obeying his master, and rears his neck aloft in his pride, and
the gleaming bit rings loud as he champs it in his jaws from side to
side; so the god, seizing hollow Argo’s keel, guided her onward to the
sea. And his body, from the crown of his head, round his back and waist
as far as the belly, was wondrously like that of the blessed ones in
form; but below his sides the tail of a sea monster lengthened far,
forking to this side and that; and he smote the surface of the waves
with the spines, which below parted into curving fins, like the horns
of the new moon. And he guided Argo on until he sped her into the sea
on her course; and quickly he plunged into the vast abyss; and the
heroes shouted when they gazed with their eyes on that dread portent.
There is the harbour of Argo and there are the signs of her stay, and
altars to Poseidon and Triton; for during that day they tarried. But at
dawn with sails outspread they sped on before the breath of the west
wind, keeping the desert land on their right. And on the next morn they
saw the headland and the recess of the sea, bending inward beyond the
jutting headland. And straightway the west wind ceased, and there came
the breeze of the clear south wind; and their hearts rejoiced at the
sound it made. But when the sun sank and the star returned that bids
the shepherd fold, which brings rest to wearied ploughmen, at that time
the wind died down in the dark night; so they furled the sails and
lowered the tall mast and vigorously plied their polished oars all
night and through the day, and again when the next night came on. And
rugged Carpathus far away welcomed them; and thence they were to cross
to Crete, which rises in the sea above other islands.
And Talos, the man of bronze, as he broke off rocks from the hard
cliff, stayed them from fastening hawsers to the shore, when they came
to the roadstead of Dicte’s haven. He was of the stock of bronze, of
the men sprung from ash-trees, the last left among the sons of the
gods; and the son of Cronos gave him to Europa to be the warder of
Crete and to stride round the island thrice a day with his feet of
bronze. Now in all the rest of his body and limbs was he fashioned of
bronze and invulnerable; but beneath the sinew by his ankle was a
blood-red vein; and this, with its issues of life and death, was
covered by a thin skin. So the heroes, though outworn with toil,
quickly backed their ship from the land in sore dismay. And now far
from Crete would they have been borne in wretched plight, distressed
both by thirst and pain, had not Medea addressed them as they turned
away:
“Hearken to me. For I deem that I alone can subdue for you that man,
whoever he be, even though his frame be of bronze throughout, unless
his life too is everlasting. But be ready to keep your ship here beyond
the cast of his stones, till he yield the victory to me.”
Thus she spake; and they drew the ship out of range, resting on their
oars, waiting to see what plan unlooked for she would bring to pass;
and she, holding the fold of her purple robe over her cheeks on each
side, mounted on the deck; and Aeson’s son took her hand in his and
guided her way along the thwarts. And with songs did she propitiate and
invoke the Death-spirits, devourers of life, the swift hounds of Hades,
who, hovering through all the air, swoop down on the living. Kneeling
in supplication, thrice she called on them with songs, and thrice with
prayers; and, shaping her soul to mischief, with her hostile glance she
bewitched the eyes of Talos, the man of bronze; and her teeth gnashed
bitter wrath against him, and she sent forth baneful phantoms in the
frenzy of her rage.
Father Zeus, surely great wonder rises in my mind, seeing that dire
destruction meets us not from disease and wounds alone, but lo! even
from afar, may be, it tortures us! So Talos, for all his frame of
bronze, yielded the victory to the might of Medea the sorceress. And as
he was heaving massy rocks to stay them from reaching the haven, he
grazed his ankle on a pointed crag; and the ichor gushed forth like
melted lead; and not long thereafter did he stand towering on the
jutting cliff. But even as some huge pine, high up on the mountains,
which woodmen have left half hewn through by their sharp axes when they
returned from the forest—at first it shivers in the wind by night, then
at last snaps at the stump and crashes down; so Talos for a while stood
on his tireless feet, swaying to and fro, when at last, all
strengthless, fell with a mighty thud. For that night there in Crete
the heroes lay; then, just as dawn was growing bright, they built a
shrine to Minoan Athena, and drew water and went aboard, so that first
of all they might by rowing pass beyond Salmone’s height.
But straightway as they sped over the wide Cretan sea night scared
them, that night which they name the Pall of Darkness; the stars
pierced not that fatal night nor the beams of the moon, but black chaos
descended from heaven, or haply some other darkness came, rising from
the nethermost depths. And the heroes, whether they drifted in Hades or
on the waters, knew not one whit; but they committed their return to
the sea in helpless doubt whither it was bearing them. But Jason raised
his hands and cried to Phoebus with mighty voice, calling on him to
save them; and the tears ran down in his distress; and often did he
promise to bring countless offerings to Pytho, to Amyclae, and to
Ortygia. And quickly, O son of Leto, swift to hear, didst thou come
down from heaven to the Melantian rocks, which lie there in the sea.
Then darting upon one of the twin peaks, thou raisedst aloft in thy
right hand thy golden bow; and the bow flashed a dazzling gleam all
round. And to their sight appeared a small island of the Sporades, over
against the tiny isle Hippuris, and there they cast anchor and stayed;
and straightway dawn arose and gave them light; and they made for
Apollo a glorious abode in a shady wood, and a shady altar, calling on
Phoebus the “Gleamer”, because of the gleam far-seen; and that bare
island they called Anaphe,[39] for that Phoebus had revealed it to men
sore bewildered. And they sacrificed all that men could provide for
sacrifice on a desolate strand; wherefore when Medea’s Phaeacian
handmaids saw them pouring water for libations on the burning brands,
they could no longer restrain laughter within their bosoms, for that
ever they had seen oxen in plenty slain in the halls of Alcinous. And
the heroes delighted in the jest and attacked them with taunting words;
and merry railing and contention flung to and fro were kindled among
them. And from that sport of the heroes such scoffs do the women fling
at the men in that island whenever they propitiate with sacrifices
Apollo the gleaming god, the warder of Anaphe.
But when they had loosed the hawsers thence in fair weather, then
Euphemus bethought him of a dream of the night, reverencing the
glorious son of Maia. For it seemed to him that the god-given clod of
earth held in his palm close to his breast was being suckled by white
streams of milk, and that from it, little though it was, grew a woman
like a virgin; and he, overcome by strong desire, lay with her in
love’s embrace; and united with her he pitied her, as though she were a
maiden whom he was feeding with his own milk; but she comforted him
with gentle words:
“Daughter of Triton am I, dear friend, and nurse of thy children, no
maiden; Triton and Libya are my parents. But restore me to the
daughters of Nereus to dwell in the sea near Anaphe; I shall return
again to the light of the sun, to prepare a home for thy descendants.”
Of this he stored in his heart the memory, and declared it to Aeson’s
son; and Jason pondered a prophecy of the Far-Darter and lifted up his
voice and said:
“My friend, great and glorious renown has fallen to thy lot. For of
this clod when thou hast cast it into the sea, the gods will make an
island, where thy children’s children shall dwell; for Triton gave this
to thee as a stranger’s gift from the Libyan mainland. None other of