The Argonautica
thee, if on thy return hereafter thou shouldst choose to come hither
again; and easily couldst thou gather a countless host of men from
other cities. But thou wilt not have this desire, nor do I myself
forbode that so it will be. Still remember Hypsipyle when thou art far
away and when thou hast returned; and leave me some word of bidding,
which I will gladly accomplish, if haply heaven shall grant me to be a
mother.”
And Aeson’s son in admiration thus replied: “Hypsipyle, so may all
these things prove propitious by the favour of the blessed gods. But do
thou hold a nobler thought of me, since by the grace of Pelias it is
enough for me to dwell in my native land; may the gods only release me
from my toils. But if it is not my destiny to sail afar and return to
the land of Hellas, and if thou shouldst bear a male child, send him
when grown up to Pelasgian Iolcus, to heal the grief of my father and
mother if so be that he find them still living, in order that, far away
from the king, they may be cared for by their own hearth in their
home.”
He spake, and mounted the ship first of all; and so the rest of the
chiefs followed, and, sitting in order, seized the oars; and Argus
loosed for them the hawsers from under the sea-beaten rock. Whereupon
they mightily smote the water with their long oars, and in the evening
by the injunctions of Orpheus they touched at the island of Electra,[9]
daughter of Atlas, in order that by gentle initiation they might learn
the rites that may not be uttered, and so with greater safety sail over
the chilling sea. Of these I will make no further mention; but I bid
farewell to the island itself and the indwelling deities, to whom
belong those mysteries, which it is not lawful for me to sing.
Thence did they row with eagerness over the depths of the black Sea,
having on the one side the land of the Thracians, on the other Imbros
on the south; and as the sun was just setting they reached the foreland
of the Chersonesus. There a strong south wind blew for them; and
raising the sails to the breeze they entered the swift stream of the
maiden daughter of Athamas; and at dawn the sea to the north was left
behind and at night they were coasting inside the Rhoeteian shore, with
the land of Ida on their right. And leaving Dardania they directed
their course to Abydus, and after it they sailed past Percote and the
sandy beach of Abarnis and divine Pityeia. And in that night, as the
ship sped on by sail and oar, they passed right through the Hellespont
dark-gleaming with eddies.
There is a lofty island inside the Propontis, a short distance from the
Phrygian mainland with its rich cornfields, sloping to the sea, where
an isthmus in front of the mainland is flooded by the waves, so low
does it lie. And the isthmus has double shores, and they lie beyond the
river Aesepus, and the inhabitants round about call the island the
Mount of Bears. And insolent and fierce men dwell there, Earthborn, a
great marvel to the neighbours to behold; for each one has six mighty
hands to lift up, two from his sturdy shoulders, and four below,
fitting close to his terrible sides. And about the isthmus and the
plain the Doliones had their dwelling, and over them Cyzicus son of
Aeneus was king, whom Aenete the daughter of goodly Eusorus bare. But
these men the Earthborn monsters, fearful though they were, in nowise
harried, owing to the protection of Poseidon; for from him had the
Doliones first sprung. Thither Argo pressed on, driven by the winds of
Thrace, and the Fair haven received her as she sped. There they cast
away their small anchorstone by the advice of Tiphys and left it
beneath a fountain, the fountain of Artaeie; and they took another meet
for their purpose, a heavy one; but the first, according to the oracle
of the Far-Darter, the Ionians, sons of Neleus, in after days laid to
be a sacred stone, as was right, in the temple of Jasonian Athena.
Now the Doliones and Cyzicus himself all came together to meet them
with friendliness, and when they knew of the quest and their lineage
welcomed them with hospitality, and persuaded them to row further and
to fasten their ship’s hawsers at the city harbour. Here they built an
altar to Ecbasian Apollo[10] and set it up on the beach, and gave heed
to sacrifices. And the king of his own bounty gave them sweet wine and
sheep in their need; for he had heard a report that whenever a godlike
band of heroes should come, straightway he should meet it with gentle
words and should have no thought of war. As with Jason, the soft down
was just blooming on his chin, nor yet had it been his lot to rejoice
in children, but still in his palace his wife was untouched by the
pangs of child-birth, the daughter of Percosian Merops, fair-haired
Cleite, whom lately by priceless gifts he had brought from her father’s
home from the mainland opposite. But even so he left his chamber and
bridal bed and prepared a banquet among the strangers, casting all
fears from his heart. And they questioned one another in turn. Of them
would he learn the end of their voyage and the injunctions of Pelias;
while they enquired about the cities of the people round and all the
gulf of the wide Propontis; but further he could not tell them for all
their desire to learn. In the morning they climbed mighty Dindymum that
they might themselves behold the various paths of that sea; and they
brought their ship from its former anchorage to the harbour, Chytus;
and the path they trod is named the path of Jason.
But the Earthborn men on the other side rushed down from the mountain
and with crags below blocked up the mouth of vast Chytus towards the
sea, like men lying in wait for a wild beast within. But there Heracles
had been left behind with the younger heroes and he quickly bent his
back-springing bow against the monsters and brought them to earth one
after another; and they in their turn raised huge ragged rocks and
hurled them. For these dread monsters too, I ween, the goddess Hera,
bride of Zeus, had nurtured to be a trial for Heracles. And therewithal
came the rest of the martial heroes returning to meet the foe before
they reached the height of outlook, and they fell to the slaughter of
the Earthborn, receiving them with arrows and spears until they slew
them all as they rushed fiercely to battle. And as when woodcutters
cast in rows upon the beach long trees just hewn down by their axes, in
order that, once sodden with brine, they may receive the strong bolts;
so these monsters at the entrance of the foam-fringed harbour lay
stretched one after another, some in heaps bending their heads and
breasts into the salt waves with their limbs spread out above on the
land; others again were resting their heads on the sand of the shore
and their feet in the deep water, both alike a prey to birds and fishes
at once.
But the heroes, when the contest was ended without fear, loosed the
ship’s hawsers to the breath of the wind and pressed on through the
sea-swell. And the ship sped on under sail all day; but when night came
the rushing wind did not hold steadfast, but contrary blasts caught
them and held them back till they again approached the hospitable
Doliones. And they stepped ashore that same night; and the rock is
still called the Sacred Rock round which they threw the ship’s hawsers
in their haste. Nor did anyone note with care that it was the same
island; nor in the night did the Doliones clearly perceive that the
heroes were returning; but they deemed that Pelasgian war-men of the
Macrians had landed. Therefore they donned their armour and raised
their hands against them. And with clashing of ashen spears and shields
they fell on each other, like the swift rush of fire which falls on dry
brushwood and rears its crest; and the din of battle, terrible and
furious, fell upon the people of the Doliones. Nor was the king to
escape his fate and return home from battle to his bridal chamber and
bed. But Aeson’s son leapt upon him as he turned to face him, and smote
him in the middle of the breast, and the bone was shattered round the
spear; he rolled forward in the sand and filled up the measure of his
fate. For that no mortal may escape; but on every side a wide snare
encompasses us. And so, when he thought that he had escaped bitter
death from the chiefs, fate entangled him that very night in her toils
while battling with them; and many champions withal were slain;
Heracles killed Telecles and Megabrontes, and Acastus slew Sphodris;
and Peleus slew Zelus and Gephyrus swift in war. Telamon of the strong
spear slew Basileus. And Idas slew Promeus, and Clytius Hyacinthus, and
the two sons of Tyndareus slew Megalossaces and Phlogius. And after
them the son of Oeneus slew bold Itomeneus, and Artaceus, leader of
men; all of whom the inhabitants still honour with the worship due to
heroes. And the rest gave way and fled in terror just as doves fly in
terror before swift-winged hawks. And with a din they rustled in a body
to the gates; and quickly the city was filled with loud cries at the
turning of the dolorous fight. But at dawn both sides perceived the
fatal and cureless error; and bitter grief seized the Minyan heroes
when they saw before them Cyzicus son of Aeneus fallen in the midst of
dust and blood. And for three whole days they lamented and rent their
hair, they and the Dollones. Then three times round his tomb they paced
in armour of bronze and performed funeral rites and celebrated games,
as was meet, upon the meadow-plain, where even now rises the mound of
his grave to be seen by men of a later day. No, nor was his bride
Cleite left behind her dead husband, but to crown the ill she wrought
an ill yet more awful, when she clasped a noose round her neck. Her
death even the nymphs of the grove bewailed; and of all the tears for
her that they shed to earth from their eyes the goddesses made a
fountain, which they call Cleite,[11] the illustrious name of the
hapless maid. Most terrible came that day from Zeus upon the Doliones,
women and men; for no one of them dared even to taste food, nor for a
long time by reason of grief did they take thought for the toil of the
cornmill, but they dragged on their lives eating their food as it was,
untouched by fire. Here even now, when the Ionians that dwell in
Cyzicus pour their yearly libations for the dead, they ever grind the
meal for the sacrificial cakes at the common mill.[12]
After this, fierce tempests arose for twelve days and nights together
and kept them there from sailing. But in the next night the rest of the
chieftains, overcome by sleep, were resting during the latest period of
the night, while Acastus and Mopsus the son of Ampyeus kept guard over
their deep slumbers. And above the golden head of Aeson’s son there
hovered a halcyon prophesying with shrill voice the ceasing of the
stormy winds; and Mopsus heard and understood the cry of the bird of
the shore, fraught with good omen. And some god made it turn aside, and
flying aloft it settled upon the stern-ornament of the ship. And the
seer touched Jason as he lay wrapped in soft sheepskins and woke him at
once, and thus spake:
“Son of Aeson, thou must climb to this temple on rugged Dindymum and
propitiate the mother[13] of all the blessed gods on her fair throne,
and the stormy blasts shall cease. For such was the voice I heard but
now from the halcyon, bird of the sea, which, as it flew above thee in
thy slumber, told me all. For by her power the winds and the sea and
all the earth below and the snowy seat of Olympus are complete; and to
her, when from the mountains she ascends the mighty heaven, Zeus
himself, the son of Cronos, gives place. In like manner the rest of the
immortal blessed ones reverence the dread goddess.”