Читать книгу The Tale of the Argonauts - Rhodius Apollonius - Страница 5

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First in my song shalt thou be, O Phœbus, the song that I sing

Of the heroes of old, who sped, at the hest of Pelias the king,

When down through the gorge of the Pontus-sea, through the Crags Dark-blue,

On the Quest of the Fleece of Gold the strong-ribbed Argo flew.

For an oracle came unto Pelias, how that in days to be

A terrible doom should be dealt him of him whom his eyes should see

From the field coming in, with the one foot only sandal-shod.

Nor long thereafter did Jason fulfil the word of the God:

For in wading the rush of Amaurus swollen with winter-tide rain

One sandal plucked he forth of the mire, but the one was he fain{10}

To leave in the depths, for the swirl of the waters to sweep to the main.

Straightway to the presence of Pelias he came, and his hap was to light

On a banquet, the which unto Father Poseidon the king had dight,

And the rest of the Gods, but Pelasgian Hêrê he heeded not.

And the king beheld him, and straightway laid for his life the plot,

And devised for him toil of a troublous voyage, that lost in the sea,

Or lost amid alien men his home-return might be.

Of the ship and her fashioning, bards of the olden time have told

How Argus wrought, how Athênê made him cunning-souled.

But now be it mine the lineage and names of her heroes to say,{20}

And to tell of the long sea-paths whereover they needs must stray,

And the deeds that they wrought:—may the Muses vouchsafe to inspire the lay.

Of Orpheus first will I sing, of the child that Calliopê bare,

As telleth the tale, for she loved Oeagrus, Thracia’s heir.

By the peak Pimplean was born the Song-queen’s wondrous child;

For they tell how he charmed by the voice of his song on the mountains wild

The stubborn rocks into life, made rivers their flowing refrain,

And the wildwood oaks this day be memorials of that weird strain;

For they burgeon and bloom by Zonê yet on the Thracian shore,

Ranked orderly line upon line, the selfsame trees which of yore,{30}

Spell-drawn by his lyre, from Pieria followed the minstrel on.

Such an one was the Orpheus that Aison’s son for a helper won

For his high emprise, when he followed the pointing of Cheiron’s hand,—

Orpheus, who ruled o’er the Bistonid folk in Pieria-land.

And swiftly Asterion came, whom Komêtês begat by the side

Of Apidanus, there where his seaward-swirling waters glide;

In Peiresiae he dwelt, anigh to Phyllêion’s leafy crest.

Mighty Apidanus, sacred Enipeus, have thitherward pressed

To mingle the waters, far-severed that rise from the earth’s deep breast.

Polyphemus forsook Larissa, and unto Jason he sought;{40}

Eilatus’ son: in his youth mid the Lapithan heroes he fought.

When the Lapithans armed them for fight, when the Centaur host they quelled,

Their youngest he was; but now were his limbs sore burdened with eld.

Yet even as of old his heart with the spirit of battle swelled.

Nor in Phylakê Iphiklus tarried to waste an inglorious life,

Uncle of Aison’s child, for that Aison had taken to wife

His sister the Phylakid maiden Alkimêdê: wherefore strong

Was the love of his kin to constrain him to join that hero-throng.

Neither Admêtus in Pherae, the goodly land of sheep,

In his palace would tarry beneath Chalkodon’s mountain-steep.{50}

Neither in Alopê tarried Echion and Erytus, sons

Of Hermes, wealthy in corn-land, crafty-hearted ones.

And their kinsman, the third with these, came forth, on the Quest as they hied,

Aithalides: where the streams of Amphrysus softly slide,

Him Eupolemeia the Phthian, Myrmidon’s daughter, bare,

But offspring of Antianeira the Menetid those twain were.

Came thither Korônus, forsaking Gyrton the wealthy town:

Right valiant was Kaineus’ son, yet he passed not his father’s renown.

For of Kaineus the poets have sung, how smitten of Centaurs he died.

Who could not be slain, when alone in his prowess, with none beside,{60}

He drave them before him in rout, but they rallied, and charged afresh,

Yet availed not their fury to thrust him aback, nor to pierce his flesh;

But unconquered, unflinching, down to the underworld he passed,

Battered from life by the storm of the massy pines that they cast.

And came Titaresian Mopsus withal, unto whom was given

Of Lêto’s son above all men the lore of the birds of the heaven.

And there was Eurydamas, Ktimenus’ son, which dwelt in the land

Of Dolopian folk: by the Xynian mere did his palace stand.

And from Opus Menoitius fared at Aktor his father’s behest

To the end he might go with the chieftains of men on the glorious Quest.{70}

And Eurytion hath followed with these; Eribôtes the mighty is gone,

This, Teleon’s scion, and that, of Irus, Aktor’s son;

For in sooth it was Teleon begat Eribôtes the glory-crowned,

And Irus, Eurytion. With these was a third, Oïleus, found,

Peerless in manhood, exceeding cunning to follow the flight

Of the foe, when the reeling battalions were shattered before his might.

Came the son of Kanêthus the scion of Abas; with eager speed

Came Kanthus forth of Eubœa: it was not fate-decreed

That again he should turn and behold Kerinthus, for doomed was he,

Even he and Mopsus withal, the wise in augury,{80}

To perish in Libya, lost in the waste of a wide sand-sea.

Sooth, never was mischief removed too far to be found of the doomed;

Forasmuch as in Libya’s desert were even these entombed,

As far from the Kolchian land as the space outstretched between

The sun’s uprising, and where the setting thereof is seen.

And Klytius and Iphitus gathered to that great mustering,

Oichalia’s warders, children of Eurytus, ruthless king,

Who received of Far-smiter a bow; but he had no profit thereof,

For in archery-skill with the giver’s self he wantonly strove.

And with these fared Aiakus’ sons, yet not from the selfsame place,{90}

Nor together, for far had they wandered away from the home of their race,

Aegina, what time in their folly the blood of their brother they spilt,

Even Phokus: to Salamis Telamon bare his burden of guilt:

But Peleus roved till in Phthia the halls of the outcast he built.

And with these from Kekropia Boutes, a lord of battle-fame,

Stout Teleon’s son, and Phalêrus the mighty spearman came.

It was Alkon his father that sent him forth: no sons save him

Had the ancient to cherish his age and his light of life grown dim:

Yet, albeit his only-begotten he was, and the last of his line,

He sent him, that so amidst valour of heroes his prowess should shine.{100}

But Theseus, of all the sons of Erechtheus most renowned,

At Tainarum under the earth by an unseen fetter was bound.

For he trod the Path of Fear with Peirithoüs; else that Quest

By the might of these had been lightlier compassed of all the rest.

And Tiphys, Hagnias’ son, hath forsaken the Thespians that dwell

In the city of Siphas: of all men keenest was he to foretell

The wrath of the waves on the broad sea, keen to foreknow from afar

The blasts of the storm, and to guide the galley by sun and by star.

’Twas Athênê Tritonis herself that made him eager-souled

To join that muster of heroes that longed his face to behold;{110}

For she fashioned the sea-swift ship, and Argus but wrought as she planned,

Arestor’s son, for the Goddess’s counsels guided his hand:

Therefore amongst all ships unmatched was the ship that he made,

Even all that with swinging oars the paths of the sea have essayed.

Came Phlias withal from Araithyriae to essay the Quest,

From a wealthy home, for the toil of his hands had the Wine-god blessed,

His father, where welleth Asôpus up from the green hill’s breast.

From Argos did sons of Bias, Arêius and Talaus, come,

And mighty Laodokus, fruit of Nêleus’ daughter’s womb,

Even Pero, for whose sake Aiolus’ scion Melampus bore{120}

In Iphiklus’ steading affliction of bonds exceeding sore.

Nor yet did the prowess of mighty-hearted Herakles fail

The longing of Aison’s son for his helping, as telleth the tale.

But as soon as the flying rumour of gathering heroes he heard,

He turned from the track that he trod from Arcadia Argos-ward,

On the path that he paced as he bare that boar alive from the glen

Of Lampeia, wherein he had battened, the vast Erymanthian fen.

At the entering-in of Mycenae’s market-stead he cast

From his mighty shoulders the beast, as he writhed in his bonds knit fast:

But himself of his own will, thrusting Eurystheus’ purpose aside,{130}

Hasted away; and Hylas, his henchman true and tried,

Which bare his arrows and warded his bow, with the hero hath hied.

Therewithal hath the scion of god-descended Danaus gone,

Nauplius, born unto King Klytonêus, Naubolus’ son;

And of Lernus Naubolus sprang; and Lernus, as bards have told,

Of Proitus, Nauplius’ son; and unto Poseidon of old

Amymônê, Danaus’ daughter, who couched in the God’s embrace,

Bare Nauplius, chief in the seafarer’s craft of the Earth-born race.

Last cometh Idmon the seer, of all that in Argos dwell,

Cometh knowing the doom he hath heard the birds of heaven foretell,{140}

Lest the people should haply begrudge him a hero’s glorious fame:

Yet not of the very loins of Abas the doomed seer came;

But the son of Lêto begat him to share the noble name

Of Aetolia’s sons, and in prophecy-lore he made him wise,

And in signs of the fowl of the heaven and tokens ’mid flame that rise.

Polydeukes the strong did Aetolia’s Princess Leda speed

From Sparta, and Kastor cunning to rein the fleetfoot steed.

These twain in Tyndareus’ palace, her dearly-beloved, her pride,

That lady at one birth bare; howbeit she nowise denied

Their prayer to depart, for her spirit was worthy of Zeus’ bride.{150}

Apharetus’ children, Lynkeus and Idas the arrogant-souled,

From Arênê went forth: in their prowess exceeding were these overbold,

Even both; but Lynkeus for eyes of keenest ken was renowned,

If in sooth that story be true, that, though one lay underground,

Yet lightly of Lynkeus’ eyes should the gloom-swathed corpse be found.

And with these Periklymenus Neleus’ son was enkindled to fare,

Eldest of all the sons that the Lady of Pylos bare

Unto Neleus the godlike; and might unmeasured Poseidon gave

To the prince, and a boon moreover, that whatso shape he should crave,

That, as he fought in the shock of the meeting ranks, he should have.{160}

From Arcadia Amphidamas and Kepheus came for the Quest,

Who were dwellers in Tegea-town, and the land that Apheidas possessed,

Two scions of Aleus; yea and a third followed even as they went,

Ankaius: Lykurgus his father was minded the lad to have sent,

Being elder brother to these, but himself was constrained to stay

In the city with Aleus, tending the dear head silver-grey.

Howbeit in charge to his brethren twain he gave the lad.

So he went, and the fell of a bear Maenalian for buckler he had,

And a battle-axe huge his right hand swung; for his armour of fight

Had his old grandsire in a secret chamber hidden from sight,{170}

If haply so he might cripple the wings of the eagle’s flight.

Fared thither Augeias; they named him in songs of the olden day

The Sun-god’s child, and the hero in Elis-land bare sway

In pride of his wealth: but he longed to behold the Kolchian coast,

And to look upon mighty Aiêtes the lord of the Kolchian host.

Asterius came, and Amphion, the sons that a fair queen bore,

When Pellênê’s king Hyperasius dwelt in the city of yore

By Pelles their grandsire built ’neath the cliffs of Achaia’s shore.

Euphêmus from Tainarus came to be joined to their company,

Europê’s child; and the swiftest of all men on Earth was he:{180}

For the daughter of Tityos the giant couched in Poseidon’s embrace;

And this their son would run o’er the grey sea’s weltering face,

Neither sank in the surge his fast-flying steps, but, with footsole alone

Bedewed with the spray, on his watery path was he wafted on.

Sons of Poseidon beside him withal two other came,

One leaving Miletus afar, the city of haughty fame,

Even Erginus, and one from Imbrasian Hêrê’s fane

Parthenia, Ankaius the mighty; and men of renown were the twain

In the craft of the sea, and withal in the toil of the battle-strain.

Hasting from Kalydon Oineus’ son to their muster hath hied,{190}

Meleager the stalwart; and there was Laocoön still at his side,

Brother to Oineus; but not of the selfsame womb were they,

For a handmaid bare him; and him, though flecked was his hair with grey,

For guide and for guard to his son hath Oineus the old king sent.

So it fell that a beardless lad to the valorous gathering went

Of heroes; yet no man of all that came had the deeds outdone

Of the lad, save Herakles, if that he might but have tarried on

One year mid Aetolia’s sons, till he grew to his strength, I ween.

Yea, and his mother’s brother, a javelin-hurler keen,

And a warrior tried, when foot is set against foot in the fray,{200}

Iphiklus, Thestius’ scion, trod the selfsame way.

Came Palaimonius, whose grandsire was Olenius, and his sire

Lernus in name; but in birth was he child of the Lord of Fire:

Wherefore he halted in either foot; but his bodily frame

And his prowess might no man contemn, for which cause also his name

Was found with the mighty who won for Jason deathless fame.

Came Iphitus, Ornytus’ son, from Phokis withal for the Quest,

Of Naubolus’ line: in the days overpast was Jason his guest.

What time unto Pytho he fared to inquire of the high Gods’ doom

Touching the Quest; for he welcomed him then in his mountain home.{210}

And Zetes and Kalais withal, the North-wind’s children, were there,

Whom Oreithyia, Erechtheus’ daughter, to Boreas bare

In the uttermost part of wintry Thrace; for the God swooped down,

And the Thracian North-wind snatched her away from Kekrops’ town,

Even as she whirled in the dance on the lawn by Ilissus’ flow.

And he brought her afar to the place where standeth the crag men know

For the Rock of Sarpedon, whereby doth Erginus the river glide:

And he shrouded her round with viewless clouds, and he made her his bride.

And lo, on the ankles of these did quivering pinions unfold,

Strong wings, as in air they upleapt, a marvel great to behold,{220}

Gleaming with golden scales; and about their shoulders strayed,

Down-streaming from neck and from head in the glory of youth arrayed,

Dark tresses that tossed in the rushing breezes amidst them that played.

Yea, and Akastus, his own son, had no will to abide

That day with his mighty sire in the halls of Pelias’ pride.

Nor would Argus be left, who had wrought as Athênê guided his hand;

But these twain needs must be numbered too with the glorious band.

This is the tale of the helpers with Aison’s son that were found:

These be the men whom the folk, even all which dwelt around,

Called ever the Minyan Chiefs: for of those that went on the Quest{230}

Born of the daughters of Minyas’ blood were the most and the best.

Yea, she which had borne this Jason to emprise perilous-wild,

Alkimedê, also was daughter of Klymenê, Minyas’ child.

Now when all things ready were made by the hands of many a thrall,

Even whatso the galley for sea ready-dight should be furnished withal,

When traffic lureth the shipmen afar to an alien land,

Then through the city they passed to their ship, where she lay on the strand

Which is called Magnesian Pagasae. Ever, as onward they strode,

To right and to left a mingled multitude ran: but they showed

Radiant amidst them as stars amid clouds; and some ’gan cry,{240}

As they gazed on the glorious forms that in harness of war swept by:

‘What is in Pelias’ thoughts, King Zeus, that so goodly a band

Of heroes is hurled by him forth of the Panachaian land?

In the day of their coming with ravening fire the halls shall they fill

Of Aiêtes, except he shall yield them the Fleece of his own good will.

But a long way lieth between, unaccomplished yet is the toil.’

So spake they on this side and that through the city: the women the while,

Heavenward uplifting their hands, to the Gods that abide for aye

Made vehement prayer for the heart’s delight of the home-coming day.

And one to another made answer, and moaned, as her tears fell fast:{250}

‘Hapless Alkimedê, thee too evil hath found at the last;

Nor to thee was vouchsafed amid bliss to the end of thy days to attain!

Woe’s me for Aison the ill-starred!—verily this had been gain

For him, if rolled in his shroud before this woeful day,

Deep under Earth, with the cup of affliction untasted, he lay:

And O that the darkling surge, when Hellê the maiden died,

Had whelmed down Phrixus too with the ram!—but a man’s voice cried

From the throat of the monster, the portent accurst, that so it might doom

For Alkimedê sorrow and griefs untold in the days to come.’

So ’mid the moan of the women marched the heroes along.{260}

And by this were the thralls and the handmaids gathered in one great throng.

Then fell on his neck his mother, and sharply the anguish-thorn

Pierced each soft breast, the while his father, the eld-forlorn,

Close-swathed as a corpse on his bed, lay groaning and groaning again.

But the hero essayed to hush their laments and assuage their pain

With words of cheer, and he spake, ‘Take up my war-array,’

To the thralls, and with downcast eyes did these in silence obey.

But his mother, as round her child her arms at the first she had flung,

So clave she, and wept without stint: as the motherless maiden she clung,

Whose forlorn little arms clasp fondly her grey old nurse, when the tide{270}

Cometh up of her woe:—she hath no one to love her nor comfort beside;

And a weary lot is hers ’neath a stepdame’s tyrannous sway,

Who with bitter revilings evil-entreateth her youth alway:

And her heart as she waileth is cramped as by chains in her frenzied despair,

That she cannot sob forth the anguish that struggleth for utterance there:

So stintlessly wept Alkimedê, so in her arms did she strain

Her son; and she cried from the depths of her love and her yearning pain:

‘Oh, that on that same day when I, the affliction-oppressed,

Hearkened the voice of Pelias the king, and his evil behest,

I had yielded up the ghost, and forgotten to mourn and to weep,{280}

That thyself, that thine own dear hands, in the grave might have laid me to sleep,

O my beloved!—for this was the one wish unfulfilled:

But with other thy nursing-dues long had mine heart in contentment been stilled.

And I, of Achaia’s daughters the envied in days that are gone,

Like a bondwoman now in tenantless halls shall be left alone,

Pining, a hapless mother, in yearning for thee, my pride

And exceeding delight in the days overpast, for whom I untied

For the first time and last my zone; for to me beyond others the doom

Of the stern Birth-goddess begrudged abundant fruit of the womb.

Ah me for my blindness of heart!—not once, not in dreams, might I see{290}

The vision of Phrixus’ deliverance turned to a curse for me!’

So mourned she, and ever she moaned amidst of her speech, and thereby

Stood her handmaids, and echoed her wail, an exceeding bitter cry.

But the hero with gentle words for her comfort made answer, and spake:

‘Fill me not thus overmeasure with anguish of soul for thy sake,

Mother mine, forasmuch as from evil thou shalt not redeem me so

By thy tears, but shalt add the rather woe unto weight of woe.

For the Gods mete out unto mortals afflictions unforeseen:

Wherefore be strong to endure their doom, though thine anguish be keen.

Take comfort to think that Athênê hereunto our courage hath stirred:{300}

Remember the oracles: call to remembrance how good was the word

Of Phœbus: be glad for this hero-array for mine help that is come.

Now, mother, do thou with thine handmaids in quiet abide in thine home,

Neither be as a bird ill-omened to bode my ship ill-speed;

And escort of clansmen and thralls thy son to the galley shall lead.’

So spake he, and turned him, and forth of his halls his way hath he ta’en.

And as goeth Apollo forth of his incense-bearing fane,

Through Delos the hallowed, or Klaros, or Pytho the place of his shrine,

Or Lycia the wide, where the waters of Xanthus ripple and shine,

So seemed he, as onward he pressed through the throng, and a loud acclaim{310}

Of their mingled cheering arose. And there met him an ancient dame,

Iphias, priestess of Artemis warder of tower and wall.

At his right hand caught she, and kissed it, but spake no word at all,

For she could not, how fain soe’er, so pressed the multitude on;

And she drifted away to the fringe of the crowd, and was left alone,

As the old be left by the young: and he passed on afar, and was gone.

So when he had left the streets of the city builded fair,

To the beach Pagasaean he came, and his comrades hailed him there

In a throng abiding beside the Argo ship as she lay

By the river’s mouth, and overagainst her gathered they.{320}

And they looked, and behold, Adrastus and Argus hasting amain

Thitherward from the city, and sorely they marvelled, beholding the twain

Despite the purpose of Pelias thitherward hurrying fast.

On his shoulders a bull’s hide Argus the son of Arestor had cast,

Great, dark with the fell; but the prince in a mantle fair was arrayed,

Twofold: Pelopeia his sister the gift in his hand had laid.

Howbeit Jason forbare to ask them of this or of that;

But he bade them for council sit them down where the others sat.

So there upon folded sails, and the mast as it lay along,

Row upon row were the heroes sitting all in a throng;{330}

And to these of his heart’s good will the son of Aison spake:

‘What things soever it needeth that sea-bound galleys should take,

All this ready dight for our going lieth in seemly array.

Wherefore for these things’ sake will we make no longer delay

From our sailing, so soon as the breezes but blow for the voyage begun.

But, friends—since in hope for the home-return to our land we be one,

And one in the way we must take to Aiêtes, the path of the Quest,

Therefore do ye now choose with hearts ungrudging our best

To be chief and captain, to order all our goings aright,

To take on him our quarrels with aliens, and pledge our covenant-plight.’{340}

He spake, and the youths upon valiant Herakles turned their eyes,

As he sat in their midst, and from all the heroes did one shout rise,

Crying ‘Our captain be thou!’—but not from his place he stirred;

But he stretched his right hand forth, and he answered and spake the word:

‘Let no man offer this honour to me: I will nowise consent;

And if any man else would arise, I will also withstand his intent.

The selfsame man who assembled our band, let him too lead.’

He spake in his greatness of soul, and they shouted, praising the rede

Of Herakles: then did Jason the warrior wight rejoice;

And he sprang to his feet, and he spake in their midst with eager voice:{350}

‘If indeed ye be minded on me this glorious charge to cast,

Let our voyaging tarry no more; suffice the delays overpast.

But now, even now, let us offer to Phœbus the sacrifice meet,

And prepare us a feast even here; and, while yet tarry the feet

Of my thralls, overseers of my steading, which bear in charge my command

Fitly to choose for us beasts from the herd, and to drive to the strand,

We will launch on the sea our ship, we will set up her tackling therein,

And thwart by thwart cast lots for the place each oarsman shall win.

To Apollo, the Seafarers’ Saviour, uppile we then on the beach

An altar; for whatso I needs must do hath he promised to teach,{360}

And to show us the paths of the sea, if first with sacrifice

I seek unto him, or ever I strive with the king for the prize.’

So spake he, and turned him first to the work; and, his call to obey,

The heroes arose, and their garments row upon row heaped they

On a smooth rock-shelf: the waves of the sea beat not thereon;

But the dash of the stormy brine had cleansed it long agone.

Then, giving heed to the counsels of Argus, stoutly they braced

The ship with a hawser deftly twisted that girded her waist;

For they strained it from side to side, that the beams to the bolts might hold

Fast, and withstand the might of the meeting surge on-rolled.{370}

And a trench, in compass as great as the width of the galley, they delved;

And overagainst her prow to the sea so far it shelved

As the space that the hull should run, by the might of their hands on-sped:

And deepening ever afront of her stern they scooped that bed.

And smoothly-shaven rollers they laid in the furrow arow.

Then down on the foremost rollers slowly they tilted her prow,

That adown them one after other with one smooth rush she might slide.

Thereafter above did they pass the oars from side to side;

To the tholes did they lash them, outstanding a cubit on either hand;

And to right of the ship and to left at these did they take their stand;{380}

And with chest and with hands against them they bare, and to and fro

Went Tiphys the while, to shout in the season the yo-heave-ho.

Then gave he the word with a mighty shout, and the youths forthright

Drave her with one rush down, as they thrust with their uttermost might,

From her berth in the sand, as with feet hard-straining strongly they stept

Forcing her forward, and Pelian Argo seaward swept

Full swiftly, and shouted they all, as to right and to left they leapt.

And under the massy keel’s heavy grinding groaned aloud

The rollers, and spirted about them the smoke in a dusky cloud

’Neath the crushing weight: and into the sea she slid, and her crew{390}

Back with the hawsers warped her, and stayed her as onward she flew.

Then the oars to the tholes they fitted on either side, and the mast

And the well-fashioned sails, and the tackling withal, therein they cast.

But soon as with diligent heed they had ordered all things so,

First cast they the lots for the thwarts whereat each man should row,

Allotting one unto two men still; but the midmost thwart

For Herakles chose they first, from the rest of the heroes apart;

And Ankaius the dweller in Tegea-town for his fellow they chose.

So the midmost place of the benches they left unchallenged to those,

Neither cast for them lots; and with one consent of the voices of them{400}

Unto Tiphys was given the helm of the galley of goodly stem.

Then did they heap of the stones of the shingle, and, nigh at hand

To the sea, an altar they reared to Apollo the Lord of the Strand,

Who is called the Lord of the farers a-shipboard withal, and in haste

Billets of olive-wood sapless and dry thereon they placed.

And by this were the herdmen of Aison’s son drawn nigh thereto

Bringing oxen twain from the herd; and these the young men drew

And set them beside the altar; and others stood thereby

With the water of sacrifice and the meal. And now drew nigh

Jason, and unto Apollo his fathers’ god did he cry:{410}

‘Hearken, O King, who in Pagasae dwellest, whose fair halls be

In the city Aisonian, named of my sire, who didst promise to me,

When I sought unto thee at Pytho, to point me my journey’s goal

And fulfilment; for thou, even thou, to the emprise didst kindle my soul.

Now therefore my ship with my comrades safe and sound bring thou

Thither, and back unto Hellas again: and to thee do we vow,

For as many of us as shall win safe home, on thine altar to lay

Burnt offerings so many of goodly bulls: therewithal will I pay

At Pytho thy shrine, and Ortygia, other gifts beyond price.

Come then, Far-smiter, accept at our hands this sacrifice,{420}

Which now, at our going abroad, for the sake of this our ship

We offer, our first of all: and with prosperous weird may I slip

The hawsers, by thy devising: and soft bid blow the breeze

Whereby we may fare on ever through calm of summer seas.’

With the prayer then cast he the meal: and now for the slaughtering these

Girded themselves, Ankaius the mighty, and Herakles.

And this with his club on the forehead smote the steer mid-head;

And heavily all in a heap to the earth it dropped down dead.

And Ankaius hewed with his brazen axe at the second steer

On the broad neck: clean through the sinews strong thereof did it shear;{430}

And there on the earth, with horns doubled under its chest, it lay.

And swiftly their comrades severed the throats, and the skins did they flay,

And they sundered the joints, and they carved, and the sacred thighs they cut out,

And they laid them together, and closely with fat they wrapped them about,

And burnt on the cloven wood: drink-offerings unmingled of wine

Poured Aison’s son; and Idmon rejoiced, beholding shine

The splendour that gleamed all round from the sacrifice and the smoke,

As forth for an omen of good in wavering wreaths it broke.

And the purpose of Leto’s son, nothing doubting, straightway he spoke:

‘For you ’tis ordained of the doom of the Gods and of each man’s fate{440}

Hither to win with the Fleece; but meanwhile lie in wait

Toils without number, as thither ye fare, and as backward ye hie.

But for me by the hateful doom of a God is it fated to die

Far hence, I know not where, on the Asian mainland shore.

Yea, this is my doom: by birds evil-boding I knew it before;

Yet from my fatherland went I: to sail in your galley I came,

That so to mine house might be left the renown of a hero’s name.’

He spake, and the young men, hearing the words of the prophet, were glad

For their home-return, but for Idmon’s doom were their heart made sad.

And so, at the hour when the sun from his noon-halt sinketh adown,{450}

And over the harvest-lands the long rock-shadows are thrown,

As the sun to the eventide dusk slow-slideth aslant from the sky,

Even then did the heroes all on the sands of the beach pile high

A couch of the wildwood leaves, and in front of the surf-line hoar

Row upon row lay down, and beside them was measureless store

Of meats, and of sweet strong wine which the cupbearers poured for them out

From the pitchers: thereafter they told, as each man’s turn came about,

Story and legend, as young men oft at the feast and the bowl

Will take their delight, when insatiate violence is far from their soul.

But there was Aison’s son, as a man in a nightmare dream,{460}

Struggling with deep dark thoughts, and as one distraught did he seem;

And Idas marked him askance, and he shouted in scoffing tone:

‘What thoughts to and fro in thine heart art thou turning, thou Aison’s son?

Speak out in our midst thy mind! Hath fear in thy spirit awoke

Overmastering thee—that thing which dazeth dastard folk?

Be witness my furious spear, wherewithal beyond others I win

Renown in the wars—nor is Zeus so present a helper therein,

Nor so mighty to save as my spear—that on thee no deadly bane

Shall light, nor shall any strife of thine hands be striven in vain,

While Idas attendeth thee, not though against thee a God should arise.{470}

Such a helper is this thou hast won from Arênê for thine emprise.’

He spake, and the brimming beaker with both hands lifted he up,

And the strong wine drank unmingled, and dashed with the dew of the cup

Were his lips and his swarthy cheeks: but a startled clamour broke

From all together; and openly Idmon rebuked him, and spoke:

‘Beshrew thee!—thy thoughts thus soon to thyself are deadly and fell!

Hath the strong wine caused thy reckless heart for thy ruin to swell

In thy breast, and eggeth thee on to set the Gods at nought?

Other words of comfort there be wherewithal a man might have sought

To hearten his friend; but thy words were wholly presumptuous-bold!{480}

So blustered, as telleth the tale, against the Blessèd of old

The sons of Alôeus: and thou—thou art nothing so mighty as they

In manhood: yet both did the swift shafts overmaster and slay

Of the Son of Latona, though giants they were and passing strong.’

Then Aphareus’ son brake forth into laughter loud and long,

And blinking upon him in drunken wise flung back the jeer:

‘Come now, by thy deep divination reveal unto me, thou seer,

If the Gods for me also be bringing to pass such doom as that

Which was dealt of that father of thine to the sons that Alôeus begat.

And bethink thee how thou shalt escape from mine hands alive, if we find{490}

Thee guilty of boding a prophecy vain as the idle wind!’

Wrathfuller waxed he in railing: and now had the strife run high,

But amidst of their wrangling their comrades with loud indignant cry,

With Aison’s son, restrained them:—and lo, with his lyre upheld

In his left hand, Orpheus arose, and the fountain of song upwelled.

And he sang how in the beginning the earth and the heaven and the sea

In the selfsame form were blended together in unity,

And how baleful contention each from other asunder tore;

And he sang of the goal of the course in the firmament fixed evermore

For the stars and the moon, and the printless paths of the journeying sun,{500}

And how the mountains arose, how rivers that babbling run,

They and their Nymphs, were born, and whatso moveth on Earth;

And he sang how Ophion at first, and Eurynomê, Ocean’s birth,

In lordship of all things sat on Olympus’ snow-crowned height;

And how Ophion must yield unto Kronos’ hands and his might,

And she unto Rhea, and into the Ocean’s waves plunged they.

O’er the blessed Titan-gods these twain for a space held sway,

While Zeus as yet was a child, while yet as a child he thought,

And dwelt in the cave Dictaean, while yet the time was not

When the Earth-born Cyclops the thunderbolt’s strength to his hands should give,{510}

Even thunder and lightning: by these doth Zeus his glory receive.

Low murmured the lyre, and slept, and the voice divine was still:

But moveless the heads of them all are bending forward, and thrill

Their eager-listening ears, through the hush as they strain, in thrall

To the spell; such wondrous glamour the song hath cast over all.

And a little thereafter they mingled, even as is meet and right,

The wine, and poured on the tongues where the altar-fires blazed bright.

Then turned they to sleep, and around them were folded the wings of the night.

But when radiant Dawn with her flashing eyes on the steeps looked down

Of Pelion’s crests, and, washed by the wind, the forelands that frown{520}

Over the tossing sea rose sharp and clear to view,

Then Tiphys awoke, and he hasted the Argo’s hero-crew

To hie them aboard, and to range the oars in order due.

And a weird dread cry from the haven of Pagasae rang to them; yea,

From Pelian Argo herself came a voice, bidding hasten away:

For within her a beam divine had been laid, which Athênê brought

From the oak Dodonaean, and into the midst of her stem was it wrought.

So the heroes went up to the thwarts, and twain after twain arow,

Even as fell the places by lot but a little ago,

Orderly ranged sat down, and by each was his harness of fight.{530}

On the midmost Ankaius, and next him Herakles’ giant might

Sat, and beside him he laid his club; and the keel of the ship

Under his massy tread plunged deep. And now did they slip

The hawsers, and poured on the sea the wine. Tear-dimmed that day

Were Jason’s eyes, from the fatherland-home as he turned them away.

And these—as the youths that in Pytho begin unto Phœbus the dance,

In Ortygia, or there where Ismenus’ ripples in sunlight glance,

Hand in hand to the notes of the lyre his altar around

With rhythmical fall of the feet swift-circling beat the ground,—

So smote with the oars, by the lyre of Orpheus timing the stroke,{540}

The sea’s wild water, and over the blades the surges broke.

And on this side and that with the foam the dark brine seething flashed;

Like muttered thunder it sounded by strokes of the mighty updashed.

And glanced in the sun like flame, as the ship winged onward her flight,

Their armour: the wake far-weltering ever behind gleamed white,

As an oft-trodden path through a grassy plain lieth clear in sight.

And all the Gods that day from the height of the heaven looked down

On the ship, and the might of the demigod heroes, the men of renown,

Sailing the sea; and afar on the crests of the hill-tops lone

The Maids of the Mountain, the Pelian Nymphs, in amaze looked on{550}

At the work of Athênê Itônis, the heroes’ goodly array,

As the ashen blades in their hands kept time with measured sway.

Yea, and there came one down from the mountain’s height to the shore,

Even Cheiron, Philyra’s son, and plashed the surf-wash hoar

On his feet, as his broad hand waving many a farewell sent,

And he shouted, ‘Good speed, and a sorrowless home-return!’ as they went.

And there was his wife, with Peleus’ babe in her arms held high,

Achilles, waving a greeting as sped his sire thereby.

So when they had rounded the headland, and left the haven behind

By the cunning and wisdom of Hagnias’ son the prudent of mind,—{560}

Even of Tiphys, who swayed in the master-craftsman’s grip

The helm smooth-shaven, to guide unswerving the course of the ship,—

Then set they up in the centre-block the towering mast,

And on either hand strained taut the stays, and they lashed them fast;

And the sail they unfurled therefrom, from the yard-arm spreading it wide.

And a breeze shrill-piping upsprang, and the sheets upon either side

O’er the polished pins on the deck then cast they in order meet;

And past the long Tisaian ness did they restfully fleet.

And Orpheus, in song whose rhythmical cadence kept time to the lyre,

Sang of the Saviour of Ships, the Child of the Glorious Sire,{570}

Artemis, she that hath those crags of the sea in her keeping,

The Lady that wardeth Iolkos-land. And the fishes leaping

Up from the deep sea came, and, drawn by the spell of the lay,

Both small and great followed gambolling over the watery way.

And as when in the track of a shepherd, the warder of flocks on the wold,

Follow sheep that have fed to the full of the grass, a throng untold,

And he goeth before with his shrill reed piping them home to the fold,

As sweetly he fluteth a shepherd’s strain,—so over the seas

Followed the fishes: on wafted her ever the chasing breeze.

And ere long melting in haze the Pelasgians’ land of corn{580}

Sank out of sight; and past Mount Pelion’s cliffs were they borne

Aye running onward; and sank in the offing the Sepian strand,

And sea-girt Skiathos rose, and a far-away gleam of sand,

The Peiresian beach and Magnesian, clear in the summer air

On the mainland; and lo, the barrow of Dolops: at eventide there

Beached they the ship, for against them the veering breeze had turned.

And they honoured the dead, and victims of sheep in the gloaming they burned,

While the sea-surge stormily tossed. Two days to and fro on the shore

They loitered, but ran on the third their galley asea once more;

And the broad sail spread they on high, and the keel from the strand shot away:{590}

Men call it ‘The Launching of Argo’—Aphetai—unto this day.

Onward they ran, ever onward: they left Meliboia behind;

They caught but a glimpse of the foam-flecked beach of the stormy wind:

And with dawning on Homolê looked they, and lo, it was looming anigh;

Broad-couched on the breast of the waters it lay as they passed it by.

Thereafter full soon by the outfall of Amyrus’ flood must they fly.

Eurymenê then, and the surf-tormented gorges they spied

Of Olympus’ and Ossa’s seaward face: wind-wafted they ride

By the slopes of Pallênê; beyond Kanastra’s foreland-height

They passed, running lightly before the breath of the breeze in the night.{600}

And before them at dawn on-speeding the pillar of Athos rose,

The Thracian mountain: its topmost peak’s dark shadow it throws

Far as a merchantman goodly-rigged in a day might win,

Even to Lemnos’ isle, and the city Myrinê therein.

And the wind blew all that day till the folds of the darkness fell,

Blew ever fresh, and the sail strained over the broad sea-swell.

Howbeit the wind’s breath failed them at going down of the sun:

So to Lemnos the craggy, the Sintian isle, by rowing they won.

There all the men of the nation together pitilessly

By the violent hands of the women were slain in the year gone by;{610}

Forasmuch as the hearts of the men from their lawful wives had turned,

And in love for their captive handmaids with baleful passion they burned,

Maids that themselves from the Thracian land in foray had brought

Oversea:—’twas the wrath of the Cyprian Queen that curse had wrought,

Because that for long they had left her unhonoured by sacrifice:—

Ah hapless, whose hungering jealousy craved that woeful price!

For not with the captives their husbands alone for the sin did they slay,

But every male therewithal, lest perchance in the coming day

Out of these might arise an avenger for that grim murder’s sake.

In one alone for an aged sire did compassion awake,{620}

Hypsipylê, daughter of Thoas, the king of the folk of the land.

In an ark did she send him to drift o’er the sea from the murder-strand,

If he haply might ’scape. And fisher-folk saved him and brought to the isle

Which men call Sikinus now, but Oinoë named it erewhile;

For from Sikinus folk renamed it, the child whom the Maid of the Spring,

Oinoë, bare, when she couched in love with Thoas the king.

So it came to pass that for these to tend the kine, and to wear

War-harness of brass, and to furrow the wheat-bearing land with the share,

In the eyes of them all seemed task more light than Athênê’s toil

Wherewithal were their hands aforetime busy: yet all the while{630}

Across the broad sea ever they cast and anon their eyes

With a haunting fear lest the Thracian sails in the offing should rise.

So when they beheld the Argo’s oars flashing down to their coast,

Forth from the gates of Myrinê straightway in one great host

Clad in their harness of battle down to the beach they poured

Like unto ravening Thyiads: they weened that the Thracian horde

Were come: and there was Hypsipylê clad in the war-array

Of Thoas her father: and all these speechless with wildered dismay

Streamed down,—such panic was wafted about them all that day.

But forth of the galley the while had the chieftains sent to the shore{640}

Aithalides, their herald swift, the man who bore

Charge of their messages, yea, and the wand they committed to him

Of Hermes his sire, who had given him memory never made dim

Of all things:—yea, nor forgetfulness swept even now o’er his soul