Jason and the Argonauts (24 page)

news of Medea's love and treachery

had spread through town and reached the Colchians

255 (214)
and King Aeëtes. Armed from head to foot,

they started swarming toward the Council House

as thickly as the dead leaves tumble earthward

out of a tree with many boughs in autumn

—who could count them? So they all came swarming,

260
mad with clamor, down the riverbank.

Aeëtes was preeminent among them

because he rode upon a war car drawn

by wind-swift stallions, gifts of Helius.

His left hand waved a big round shield, his right

265
a giant pine-wood torch, while at his side

a six-foot throwing spear was pointing forward.

His son Absyrtus held the stallions' reins.

The
Argo
was already off, however,

riding the river's seaward current under

270 (228)
its oarsmen's power. Throwing up his hands

in wild frustration, King Aeëtes summoned

Zeus and Helius as witnesses

to all that he had suffered. Furthermore,

he leveled horrid threats against his people:

275
Unless they should by their own hands arrest

the maiden there on land or on the waves

of open ocean and return her to him

so that he could satisfy his rage

by punishing the girl for her misdeeds,

280
they all would learn, through summary beheadings,

what it was like to know his wrath and vengeance.

So he proclaimed, and when the Colchian sailors

dragged out their warships, loaded tackle in them,

and took to water, you would not have thought

285 (239)
so vast a gathering was an armada,

no, rather, an innumerable flock

of seabirds clamoring across the swell.

The winds were blowing strong to aid the heroes,

as Hera had devised, so that Medea

290
might leave Aea, reach Pelasgia,

and prove a bane to Pelias' house

as soon as possible. Three mornings later

they reached the coast of Paphlagonia

and tied the
Argo
's hawsers to the shore

295
right at the Halys River's mouth. Medea,

you see, insisted that they disembark

and honor Hecate with sacrifices.

Holy dread prevents me from divulging

all that she did to carry out the rites—

300 (249)
no man should know them; let my mind cease straining

to name them. But the shrine the heroes built

to honor Hecate remains today

for later generations to admire.

Jason and all the others then remembered

305
Phineus had informed them that their route

out of Aea would be different,

but what that route would be remained unknown

to all of them, so they were quick to listen

when Argus spoke his mind about their course:

310
“We four were sailing to Orchomenus

the way the faithful seer you met en route

had forecast to you. We already knew

there is another route to Greece. The priests

who serve the powers born of Triton's daughter

315 (261)
Theba recorded its discovery:

Not yet had all the stars that circle heaven

come into being, nor is any record

available, however much one searches,

about the sacred race of the Danaans.

320
Back then Arcadians alone existed,

the Apidanian Arcadians,

that is, Arcadians who, legends tell us,

lived in the mountains eating acorn mash

before the moon was born. Way back before

325
Pelasgia was under the illustrious

sons of Deucalion, the land of Egypt,

mother of all the men of old, was called

the fecund ‘Misty Land,' and River Ocean

went by the name of ever-flowing ‘Triton.'

330 (270)
This river was required to irrigate

the Misty Land because the showers of Zeus

had never graced its soil. (The annual flooding

is what brings up the ample harvests there.)

From there, they say, a certain king, relying

335
upon his soldiers' courage, might, and vigor,

pushed through all of Europe, all of Asia,

founding settlements along the way.

Some of the cities have survived, some not.

Though many ages have expired since then,

340
Aea has remained right where it was,

along with the descendants of the men

this king had settled there. The priests, you see,

preserved this ancient knowledge by inscribing

pillars with markers. You can trace around them

345 (281)
all the courses of the land and sea

from the perspective of a navigator.

The River Ocean's north-most arc is broad

and deep enough for vessels to traverse.

They label it the Ister on the pillar

350
and mark its whole course off. For quite a ways

it runs through an interminable plain

in one great rush because its sources rumble

and burst forth up in the Rhipaean mountains,

yes, up among the blasts of Boreas.

355
However, when this mighty river enters

the country of the Scythians and Thracians,

it splits in two. Half of the water drains

right there into the Eastern Sea; the rest

reaches a deep and navigable gulf,

360 (291)
a bay of the Trinacrian Sea, which borders

your homeland—that is, if the Acheloös

does
,
in fact, run seaward out of Hellas.”

So he submitted, and the goddess sent

a clear and timely portent. When they saw it,

365
the heroes voiced approval of the route

he had described—a comet had appeared

before them, and its tail delineated

the heading they should follow.

Giddy, then,

they dropped off Dascylus the son of Lycus

370
and in a hopeful mood put out to sea

with bellied sails. The Paphlagonian mountains

were what they steered by, but they never rounded

Carambis, since a gale and gleams of fire

from heaven haunted them until they reached

the Ister's mighty spate.

375 (303)
As for the Colchians,

one squadron sailed beyond the Clashing Rocks

out of the Pontus on a useless search.

Absyrtus turned the rest of the armada

upriver at the Ister through the inlet

380
known as “the Handsome Mouth.” Thus they went past

the neck of land and reached the farthest gulf

of the Ionian Sea before the heroes.

There is an island in the Ister's mouth,

a large three-sided island known as Peuca.

385
While 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

395
out 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

410
Brygian 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,

415
alone 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

425
to 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

430
once 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

440
from 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

445
all 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.

455
It 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.

460
Now, 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!

470
If 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

475
to 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

485
because 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,

490
will 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

500
because 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,

505
and 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,