{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_677/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_677","id":"gutenberg_677","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/677","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Children & Young Adult Reading","Category: Mythology, Legends & Folklore","Children's Myths, Fairy Tales, etc.","Mythology, Greek -- Juvenile literature"],"text":"Transcribed from the 1889 Macmillan and Co. edition by David Price, email\nccx074@pglaf.org\n\n\n\n\n\n                               THE HEROES,\n                                    OR\n                            GREEK FAIRY TALES\n\n\n                             FOR MY CHILDREN\n\n                                * * * * *\n\n                                    BY\n                             CHARLES KINGSLEY\n\n                                * * * * *\n\n                              _ILLUSTRATED_\n\n                                * * * * *\n\n                                 LONDON:\n                            MACMILLAN AND CO.\n                               AND NEW YORK\n                                   1889\n\n                  _The right of translation if reserved_\n\n                                * * * * *\n\n                 _Printed by_ R. & R. CLARK, _Edinburgh_.\n\n                                * * * * *\n\n                                    TO\n                               MY CHILDREN\n\n                         ROSE, MAURICE, AND MARY\n\n                             A LITTLE PRESENT\n                         OF OLD GREEK FAIRY TALES\n\n\n\n\nPREFACE\n\n\nMY DEAR CHILDREN,\n\nSome of you have heard already of the old Greeks; and all of you, as you\ngrow up, will hear more and more of them.  Those of you who are boys\nwill, perhaps, spend a great deal of time in reading Greek books; and the\ngirls, though they may not learn Greek, will be sure to come across a\ngreat many stories taken from Greek history, and to see, I may say every\nday, things which we should not have had if it had not been for these old\nGreeks.  You can hardly find a well-written book which has not in it\nGreek names, and words, and proverbs; you cannot walk through a great\ntown without passing Greek buildings; you cannot go into a well-furnished\nroom without seeing Greek statues and ornaments, even Greek patterns of\nfurniture and paper; so strangely have these old Greeks left their mark\nbehind them upon this modern world in which we now live.  And as you grow\nup, and read more and more, you will find that we owe to these old Greeks\nthe beginners of all our mathematics and geometry\u2014that is, the science\nand knowledge of numbers, and of the shapes of things, and of the forces\nwhich make things move and stand at rest; and the beginnings of our\ngeography and astronomy; and of our laws, and freedom, and politics\u2014that\nis, the science of how to rule a country, and make it peaceful and\nstrong.  And we owe to them, too, the beginning of our logic\u2014that is, the\nstudy of words and of reasoning; and of our metaphysics\u2014that is, the\nstudy of our own thoughts and souls.  And last of all, they made their\nlanguage so beautiful that foreigners used to take to it instead of their\nown; and at last Greek became the common language of educated people all\nover the old world, from Persia and Egypt even to Spain and Britain.  And\ntherefore it was that the New Testament was written in Greek, that it\nmight be read and understood by all the nations of the Roman empire; so\nthat, next to the Jews, and the Bible which the Jews handed down to us,\nwe owe more to these old Greeks than to any people upon earth.\n\nNow you must remember one thing\u2014that \u2018Greeks\u2019 was not their real name.\nThey called themselves always \u2018Hellens,\u2019 but the Romans miscalled them\nGreeks; and we have taken that wrong name from the Romans\u2014it would take a\nlong time to tell you why.  They were made up of many tribes and many\nsmall separate states; and when you hear in this book of Minuai, and\nAthenians, and other such names, you must remember that they were all\ndifferent tribes and peoples of the one great Hellen race, who lived in\nwhat we now call Greece, in the islands of the Archipelago, and along the\ncoast of Asia Minor (Ionia, as they call it), from the Hellespont to\nRhodes, and had afterwards colonies and cities in Sicily, and South Italy\n(which was called Great Greece), and along the shores of the Black Sea at\nSinope, and Kertch, and at Sevastopol.  And after that, again, they\nspread under Alexander the Great, and conquered Egypt, and Syria, and\nPersia, and the whole East.  But that was many hundred years after my\nstories; for then there were no Greeks on the Black Sea shores, nor in\nSicily, or Italy, or anywhere but in Greece and in Ionia.  And if you are\npuzzled by the names of places in this book, you must take the maps and\nfind them out.  It will be a pleasanter way of learning geography than\nout of a dull lesson-book.\n\nNow, I love these old Hellens heartily; and I should be very ungrateful\nto them if I did not, considering all that they have taught me; and they\nseem to me like brothers, though they have all been dead and gone many\nhundred years ago.  So as you must learn about them, whether you choose\nor not, I wish to be the first to introduce you to them, and to say,\n\u2018Come hither, children, at this blessed Christmas time, when all God\u2019s\ncreatures should rejoice together, and bless Him who redeemed them all.\nCome and see old friends of mine, whom I knew long ere you were born.\nThey are come to visit us at Christmas, out of the world where all live\nto God; and to tell you some of their old fairy tales, which they loved\nwhen they were young like you.\u2019\n\nFor nations begin at first by being children like you, though they are\nmade up of grown men.  They are children at first like you\u2014men and women\nwith children\u2019s hearts; frank, and affectionate, and full of trust, and\nteachable, and loving to see and learn all the wonders round them; and\ngreedy also, too often, and passionate and silly, as children are.\n\nThus these old Greeks were teachable, and learnt from all the nations\nround.  From the Phoenicians they learnt shipbuilding, and some say\nletters beside; and from the Assyrians they learnt painting, and carving,\nand building in wood and stone; and from the Egyptians they learnt\nastronomy, and many things which you would not understand.  In this they\nwere like our own forefathers the Northmen, of whom you love to hear,\nwho, though they were wild and rough themselves, were humble, and glad to\nlearn from every one.  Therefore God rewarded these Greeks, as He\nrewarded our forefathers, and made them wiser than the people who taught\nthem in everything they learnt; for He loves to see men and children\nopen-hearted, and willing to be taught; and to him who uses what he has\ngot, He gives more and more day by day.  So these Greeks grew wise and\npowerful, and wrote poems which will live till the world\u2019s end, which you\nmust read for yourselves some day, in English at least, if not in Greek.\nAnd they learnt to carve statues, and build temples, which are still\namong the wonders of the world; and many another wondrous thing God\ntaught them, for which we are the wiser this day.\n\nFor you must not fancy, children, that because these old Greeks were\nheathens, therefore God did not care for them, and taught them nothing.\n\nThe Bible tells us that it was not so, but that God\u2019s mercy is over all\nHis works, and that He understands the hearts of all people, and fashions\nall their works.  And St. Paul told these old Greeks in after times, when\nthey had grown wicked and fallen low, that they ought to have known\nbetter, because they were God\u2019s offspring, as their own poets had said;\nand that the good God had put them where they were, to seek the Lord, and\nfeel after Him, and find Him, though He was not far from any one of them.\nAnd Clement of Alexandria, a great Father of the Church, who was as wise\nas he was good, said that God had sent down Philosophy to the Greeks from\nheaven, as He sent down the Gospel to the Jews.\n\nFor Jesus Christ, remember, is the Light who lights every man who comes\ninto the world.  And no one can think a right thought, or feel a right\nfeeling, or understand the real truth of anything in earth and heaven,\nunless the good Lord Jesus teaches him by His Spirit, which gives man\nunderstanding.\n\nBut these Greeks, as St. Paul told them, forgot what God had taught them,\nand, though they were God\u2019s offspring, worshipped idols of wood and\nstone, and fell at last into sin and shame, and then, of course, into\ncowardice and slavery, till they perished out of that beautiful land\nwhich God had given them for so many years.\n\nFor, like all nations who have left anything behind them, beside mere\nmounds of earth, they believed at first in the One True God who made all\nheaven and earth. But after a while, like all other nations, they began\nto worship other gods, or rather angels and spirits, who (so they\nfancied) lived about their land.  Zeus, the Father of gods and men (who\nwas some dim remembrance of the blessed true God), and Hera his wife, and\nPhoebus Apollo the Sun-god, and Pallas Athen\u00e9 who taught men wisdom and\nuseful arts, and Aphrodite the Queen of Beauty, and Poseidon the Ruler of\nthe Sea, and Hephaistos the King of the Fire, who taught men to work in\nmetals.  And they honoured the Gods of the Rivers, and the Nymph-maids,\nwho they fancied lived in the caves, and the fountains, and the glens of\nthe forest, and all beautiful wild places.  And they honoured the\nErinnues, the dreadful sisters, who, they thought, haunted guilty men\nuntil their sins were purged away.  And many other dreams they had, which\nparted the One God into many; and they said, too, that these gods did\nthings which would be a shame and sin for any man to do.  And when their\nphilosophers arose, and told them that God was One, they would not\nlisten, but loved their idols, and their wicked idol feasts, till they\nall came to ruin.  But we will talk of such sad things no more.\n\nBut, at the time of which this little book speaks, they had not fallen as\nlow as that.  They worshipped no idols, as far as I can find; and they\nstill believed in the last six of the ten commandments, and knew well\nwhat was right and what was wrong.  And they believed (and that was what\ngave them courage) that the gods loved men, and taught them, and that\nwithout the gods men were sure to come to ruin.  And in that they were\nright enough, as we know\u2014more right even than they thought; for without\nGod we can do nothing, and all wisdom comes from Him.\n\nNow, you must not think of them in this book as learned men, living in\ngreat cities, such as they were afterwards, when they wrought all their\nbeautiful works, but as country people, living in farms and walled\nvillages, in a simple, hard-working way; so that the greatest kings and\nheroes cooked their own meals, and thought it no shame, and made their\nown ships and weapons, and fed and harnessed their own horses; and the\nqueens worked with their maid-servants, and did all the business of the\nhouse, and spun, and wove, and embroidered, and made their husbands\u2019\nclothes and their own.  So that a man was honoured among them, not\nbecause he happened to be rich, but according to his skill, and his\nstrength, and courage, and the number of things which he could do.  For\nthey were but grown-up children, though they were right noble children\ntoo; and it was with them as it is now at school\u2014the strongest and\ncleverest boy, though he be poor, leads all the rest.\n\nNow, while they were young and simple they loved fairy tales, as you do\nnow.  All nations do so when they are young: our old forefathers did, and\ncalled their stories \u2018Sagas.\u2019  I will read you some of them some day\u2014some\nof the Eddas, and the Volusp\u00e0, and Beowulf, and the noble old Romances.\nThe old Arabs, again, had their tales, which we now call the \u2018Arabian\nNights.\u2019  The old Romans had theirs, and they called them \u2018Fabul\u00e6,\u2019 from\nwhich our word \u2018fable\u2019 comes; but the old Hellens called theirs \u2018Muthoi,\u2019\nfrom which our new word \u2018myth\u2019 is taken.  But next to those old Romances,\nwhich were written in the Christian middle age, there are no fairy tales\nlike these old Greek ones, for beauty, and wisdom, and truth, and for\nmaking children love noble deeds, and trust in God to help them through.\n\nNow, why have I called this book \u2018The Heroes\u2019?  Because that was the name\nwhich the Hellens gave to men who were brave and skilful, and dare do\nmore than other men.  At first, I think, that was all it meant: but after\na time it came to mean something more; it came to mean men who helped\ntheir country; men in those old times, when the country was half-wild,\nwho killed fierce beasts and evil men, and drained swamps, and founded\ntowns, and therefore after they were dead, were honoured, because they\nhad left their country better than they found it.  And we call such a man\na hero in English to this day, and call it a \u2018heroic\u2019 thing to suffer\npain and grief, that we may do good to our fellow-men.  We may all do\nthat, my children, boys and girls alike; and we ought to do it, for it is\neasier now than ever, and safer, and the path more clear.  But you shall\nhear how the Hellens said their heroes worked, three thousand years ago.\nThe stories are not all true, of course, nor half of them; you are not\nsimple enough to fancy that; but the meaning of them is true, and true\nfor ever, and that is\u2014Do right, and God will help you.\u2019\n\nFARLEY COURT,\n   _Advent_, 1855.\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\n                           STORY I.\u2014PERSEUS\n                                                                  PAGE\n     PART I.  HOW PERSEUS AND HIS MOTHER CAME TO SERIPHOS            1\n         II.  HOW PERSEUS VOWED A RASH VOW                           8\n        III.  HOW PERSEUS SLEW THE GORGON                           23\n         IV.  HOW PERSEUS CAME TO THE \u00c6THIOPS                       36\n          V.  HOW PERSEUS CAME HOME AGAIN                           53\n                       STORY II.\u2014THE ARGONAUTS\n     PART I.  HOW THE CENTAUR TRAINED THE HEROES ON PELION          60\n         II.  HOW JASON LOST HIS SANDAL IN ANAUROS                  73\n        III.  HOW THEY BUILT THE SHIP \u2018ARGO\u2019 IN IOLCOS              87\n        III.  HOW THE ARGONAUTS SAILED TO COLCHIS                   93\n         IV.  HOW THE ARGONAUTS WERE DRIVEN INTO THE               127\n              UNKNOWN SEA\n          V.  WHAT WAS THE END OF THE HEROES                       161\n                          STORY III.\u2014THESEUS\n     PART I.  HOW THESEUS LIFTED THE STONE                         165\n         II.  HOW THESEUS SLEW THE DEVOURERS OF MEN                172\n        III.  HOW THESEUS SLEW THE MINOTAUR                        206\n         IV.  HOW THESEUS FELL BY HIS PRIDE                        214\n\n                                * * * * *\n\n[I owe an apology to the few scholars who may happen to read this hasty\n_jeu d\u2019esprit_, for the inconsistent method in which I have spelt Greek\nnames.  The rule which I have tried to follow has been this: when the\nword has been hopelessly Latinised, as \u2018Ph\u0153bus\u2019 has been, I have left it\nas it usually stands; but in other cases I have tried to keep the plain\nGreek spelling, except when it would have seemed pedantic, or when, as in\nthe word \u2018Tiphus,\u2019 I should have given an altogether wrong notion of the\nsound of the word.  It has been a choice of difficulties, which has been\nforced on me by our strange habit of introducing boys to the Greek myths,\nnot in their original shape, but in a Roman disguise.]\n\n\n\n\nSTORY I.\u2014PERSEUS\n\n\nPART I\nHOW PERSEUS AND HIS MOTHER CAME TO SERIPHOS\n\n\nOnce upon a time there were two princes who were twins.  Their names were\nAcrisius and Pr\u0153tus, and they lived in the pleasant vale of Argos, far\naway in Hellas.  They had fruitful meadows and vineyards, sheep and oxen,\ngreat herds of horses feeding down in Lerna Fen, and all that men could\nneed to make them blest: and yet they were wretched, because they were\njealous of each other.  From the moment they were born they began to\nquarrel; and when they grew up each tried to take away the other\u2019s share\nof the kingdom, and keep all for himself.  So first Acrisius drove out\nPr\u0153tus; and he went across the seas, and brought home a foreign princess\nfor his wife, and foreign warriors to help him, who were called Cyclopes;\nand drove out Acrisius in his turn; and then they fought a long while up\nand down the land, till the quarrel was settled, and Acrisius took Argos\nand one half the land, and Pr\u0153tus took Tiryns and the other half.  And\nPr\u0153tus and his Cyclopes built around Tiryns great walls of unhewn stone,\nwhich are standing to this day.\n\nBut there came a prophet to that hard-hearted Acrisius and prophesied\nagainst him, and said, \u2018Because you have risen up against your own blood,\nyour own blood shall rise up against you; because you have sinned against\nyour kindred, by your kindred you shall be punished.  Your daughter Danae\nshall bear a son, and by that son\u2019s hands you shall die.  So the Gods\nhave ordained, and it will surely come to pass.\u2019\n\nAnd at that Acrisius was very much afraid; but he did not mend his ways.\nHe had been cruel to his own family, and, instead of repenting and being\nkind to them, he went on to be more cruel than ever: for he shut up his\nfair daughter Danae in a cavern underground, lined with brass, that no\none might come near her.  So he fancied himself more cunning than the\nGods: but you will see presently whether he was able to escape them.\n\nNow it came to pass that in time Danae bore a son; so beautiful a babe\nthat any but King Acrisius would have had pity on it.  But he had no\npity; for he took Danae and her babe down to the seashore, and put them\ninto a great chest and thrust them out to sea, for the winds and the\nwaves to carry them whithersoever they would.\n\nThe north-west wind blew freshly out of the blue mountains, and down the\npleasant vale of Argos, and away and out to sea.  And away and out to sea\nbefore it floated the mother and her babe, while all who watched them\nwept, save that cruel father, King Acrisius.\n\nSo they floated on and on, and the chest danced up and down upon the\nbillows, and the baby slept upon its mother\u2019s breast: but the poor mother\ncould not sleep, but watched and wept, and she sang to her baby as they\nfloated; and the song which she sang you shall learn yourselves some day.\n\nAnd now they are past the last blue headland, and in the open sea; and\nthere is nothing round them but the waves, and the sky, and the wind.\nBut the waves are gentle, and the sky is clear, and the breeze is tender\nand low; for these are the days when Halcyone and Ceyx build their nests,\nand no storms ever ruffle the pleasant summer sea.\n\n                      [Picture: Danae and her babe]\n\nAnd who were Halcyone and Ceyx?  You shall hear while the chest floats\non.  Halcyone was a fairy maiden, the daughter of the beach and of the\nwind.  And she loved a sailor-boy, and married him; and none on earth\nwere so happy as they.  But at last Ceyx was wrecked; and before he could\nswim to the shore the billows swallowed him up.  And Halcyone saw him\ndrowning, and leapt into the sea to him; but in vain.  Then the Immortals\ntook pity on them both, and changed them into two fair sea-birds; and now\nthey build a floating nest every year, and sail up and down happily for\never upon the pleasant seas of Greece.\n\nSo a night passed, and a day, and a long day it was for Danae; and\nanother night and day beside, till Danae was faint with hunger and\nweeping, and yet no land appeared.  And all the while the babe slept\nquietly; and at last poor Danae drooped her head and fell asleep likewise\nwith her cheek against the babe\u2019s.\n\nAfter a while she was awakened suddenly; for the chest was jarring and\ngrinding, and the air was full of sound.  She looked up, and over her\nhead were mighty cliffs, all red in the setting sun, and around her rocks\nand breakers, and flying flakes of foam.  She clasped her hands together,\nand shrieked aloud for help.  And when she cried, help met her: for now\nthere came over the rocks a tall and stately man, and looked down\nwondering upon poor Danae tossing about in the chest among the waves.\n\nHe wore a rough cloak of frieze, and on his head a broad hat to shade his\nface; in his hand he carried a trident for spearing fish, and over his\nshoulder was a casting-net; but Danae could see that he was no common man\nby his stature, and his walk, and his flowing golden hair and beard; and\nby the two servants who came behind him, carrying baskets for his fish.\nBut she had hardly time to look at him, before he had laid aside his\ntrident and leapt down the rocks, and thrown his casting-net so surely\nover Danae and the chest, that he drew it, and her, and the baby, safe\nupon a ledge of rock.\n\nThen the fisherman took Danae by the hand, and lifted her out of the\nchest, and said\u2014\n\n\u2018O beautiful damsel, what strange chance has brought you to this island\nin so flail a ship?  Who are you, and whence?  Surely you are some king\u2019s\ndaughter; and this boy has somewhat more than mortal.\u2019\n\nAnd as he spoke he pointed to the babe; for its face shone like the\nmorning star.\n\nBut Danae only held down her head, and sobbed out\u2014\n\n\u2018Tell me to what land I have come, unhappy that I am; and among what men\nI have fallen!\u2019\n\nAnd he said, \u2018This isle is called Seriphos, and I am a Hellen, and dwell\nin it.  I am the brother of Polydectes the king; and men call me Dictys\nthe netter, because I catch the fish of the shore.\u2019\n\nThen Danae fell down at his feet, and embraced his knees, and cried\u2014\n\n\u2018Oh, sir, have pity upon a stranger, whom a cruel doom has driven to your\nland; and let me live in your house as a servant; but treat me\nhonourably, for I was once a king\u2019s daughter, and this my boy (as you\nhave truly said) is of no common race.  I will not be a charge to you, or\neat the bread of idleness; for I am more skilful in weaving and\nembroidery than all the maidens of my land.\u2019\n\nAnd she was going on; but Dictys stopped her, and raised her up, and\nsaid\u2014\n\n\u2018My daughter, I am old, and my hairs are growing gray; while I have no\nchildren to make my home cheerful.  Come with me then, and you shall be a\ndaughter to me and to my wife, and this babe shall be our grandchild.\nFor I fear the Gods, and show hospitality to all strangers; knowing that\ngood deeds, like evil ones, always return to those who do them.\u2019\n\nSo Danae was comforted, and went home with Dictys the good fisherman, and\nwas a daughter to him and to his wife, till fifteen years were past.\n\n\n\nPART II\nHOW PERSEUS VOWED A RASH VOW\n\n\nFifteen years were past and gone, and the babe was now grown to be a tall\nlad and a sailor, and went many voyages after merchandise to the islands\nround.  His mother called him Perseus; but all the people in Seriphos\nsaid that he was not the son of mortal man, and called him the son of\nZeus, the king of the Immortals.  For though he was but fifteen, he was\ntaller by a head than any man in the island; and he was the most skilful\nof all in running and wrestling and boxing, and in throwing the quoit and\nthe javelin, and in rowing with the oar, and in playing on the harp, and\nin all which befits a man.  And he was brave and truthful, gentle and\ncourteous, for good old Dictys had trained him well; and well it was for\nPerseus that he had done so.  For now Danae and her son fell into great\ndanger, and Perseus had need of all his wit to defend his mother and\nhimself.\n\nI said that Dictys\u2019 brother was Polydectes, king of the island.  He was\nnot a righteous man, like Dictys; but greedy, and cunning, and cruel.\nAnd when he saw fair Danae, he wanted to marry her.  But she would not;\nfor she did not love him, and cared for no one but her boy, and her boy\u2019s\nfather, whom she never hoped to see again.  At last Polydectes became\nfurious; and while Perseus was away at sea he took poor Danae away from\nDictys, saying, \u2018If you will not be my wife, you shall be my slave.\u2019  So\nDanae was made a slave, and had to fetch water from the well, and grind\nin the mill, and perhaps was beaten, and wore a heavy chain, because she\nwould not marry that cruel king.  But Perseus was far away over the seas\nin the isle of Samos, little thinking how his mother was languishing in\ngrief.\n\nNow one day at Samos, while the ship was lading, Perseus wandered into a\npleasant wood to get out of the sun, and sat down on the turf and fell\nasleep.  And as he slept a strange dream came to him\u2014the strangest dream\nwhich he had ever had in his life.\n\nThere came a lady to him through the wood, taller than he, or any mortal\nman; but beautiful exceedingly, with great gray eyes, clear and piercing,\nbut strangely soft and mild.  On her head was a helmet, and in her hand a\nspear.  And over her shoulder, above her long blue robes, hung a\ngoat-skin, which bore up a mighty shield of brass, polished like a\nmirror.  She stood and looked at him with her clear gray eyes; and\nPerseus saw that her eye-lids never moved, nor her eyeballs, but looked\nstraight through and through him, and into his very heart, as if she\ncould see all the secrets of his soul, and knew all that he had ever\nthought or longed for since the day that he was born.  And Perseus\ndropped his eyes, trembling and blushing, as the wonderful lady spoke.\n\n\u2018Perseus, you must do an errand for me.\u2019\n\n\u2018Who are you, lady?  And how do you know my name?\u2019\n\n\u2018I am Pallas Athen\u00e9; and I know the thoughts of all men\u2019s hearts, and\ndiscern their manhood or their baseness.  And from the souls of clay I\nturn away, and they are blest, but not by me.  They fatten at ease, like\nsheep in the pasture, and eat what they did not sow, like oxen in the\nstall.  They grow and spread, like the gourd along the ground; but, like\nthe gourd, they give no shade to the traveller, and when they are ripe\ndeath gathers them, and they go down unloved into hell, and their name\nvanishes out of the land.\n\n\u2018But to the souls of fire I give more fire, and to those who are manful I\ngive a might more than man\u2019s.  These are the heroes, the sons of the\nImmortals, who are blest, but not like the souls of clay.  For I drive\nthem forth by strange paths, Perseus, that they may fight the Titans and\nthe monsters, the enemies of Gods and men.  Through doubt and need,\ndanger and battle, I drive them; and some of them are slain in the flower\nof youth, no man knows when or where; and some of them win noble names,\nand a fair and green old age; but what will be their latter end I know\nnot, and none, save Zeus, the father of Gods and men.  Tell me now,\nPerseus, which of these two sorts of men seem to you more blest?\u2019\n\nThen Perseus answered boldly: \u2018Better to die in the flower of youth, on\nthe chance of winning a noble name, than to live at ease like the sheep,\nand die unloved and unrenowned.\u2019\n\nThen that strange lady laughed, and held up her brazen shield, and cried:\n\u2018See here, Perseus; dare you face such a monster as this, and slay it,\nthat I may place its head upon this shield?\u2019\n\nAnd in the mirror of the shield there appeared a face, and as Perseus\nlooked on it his blood ran cold.  It was the face of a beautiful woman;\nbut her cheeks were pale as death, and her brows were knit with\neverlasting pain, and her lips were thin and bitter like a snake\u2019s; and\ninstead of hair, vipers wreathed about her temples, and shot out their\nforked tongues; while round her head were folded wings like an eagle\u2019s,\nand upon her bosom claws of brass.\n\nAnd Perseus looked awhile, and then said: \u2018If there is anything so fierce\nand foul on earth, it were a noble deed to kill it.  Where can I find the\nmonster?\u2019\n\nThen the strange lady smiled again, and said: \u2018Not yet; you are too\nyoung, and too unskilled; for this is Medusa the Gorgon, the mother of a\nmonstrous brood.  Return to your home, and do the work which waits there\nfor you.  You must play the man in that before I can think you worthy to\ngo in search of the Gorgon.\u2019\n\nThen Perseus would have spoken, but the strange lady vanished, and he\nawoke; and behold, it was a dream.  But day and night Perseus saw before\nhim the face of that dreadful woman, with the vipers writhing round her\nhead.\n\nSo he returned home; and when he came to Seriphos, the first thing which\nhe heard was that his mother was a slave in the house of Polydectes.\n\nGrinding his teeth with rage, he went out, and away to the king\u2019s palace,\nand through the men\u2019s rooms, and the women\u2019s rooms, and so through all\nthe house (for no one dared stop him, so terrible and fair was he), till\nhe found his mother sitting on the floor, turning the stone hand-mill,\nand weeping as she turned it.  And he lifted her up, and kissed her, and\nbade her follow him forth.  But before they could pass out of the room\nPolydectes came in, raging.  And when Perseus saw him, he flew upon him\nas the mastiff flies on the boar.  \u2018Villain and tyrant!\u2019 he cried; \u2018is\nthis your respect for the Gods, and thy mercy to strangers and widows?\nYou shall die!\u2019  And because he had no sword he caught up the stone\nhand-mill, and lifted it to dash out Polydectes\u2019 brains.\n\nBut his mother clung to him, shrieking, \u2018Oh, my son, we are strangers and\nhelpless in the land; and if you kill the king, all the people will fall\non us, and we shall both die.\u2019\n\nGood Dictys, too, who had come in, entreated him.  \u2018Remember that he is\nmy brother.  Remember how I have brought you up, and trained you as my\nown son, and spare him for my sake.\u2019\n\nThen Perseus lowered his hand; and Polydectes, who had been trembling all\nthis while like a coward, because he knew that he was in the wrong, let\nPerseus and his mother pass.\n\nPerseus took his mother to the temple of Athen\u00e9, and there the priestess\nmade her one of the temple-sweepers; for there they knew she would be\nsafe, and not even Polydectes would dare to drag her away from the altar.\nAnd there Perseus, and the good Dictys, and his wife, came to visit her\nevery day; while Polydectes, not being able to get what he wanted by\nforce, cast about in his wicked heart how he might get it by cunning.\n\nNow he was sure that he could never get back Danae as long as Perseus was\nin the island; so he made a plot to rid himself of him.  And first he\npretended to have forgiven Perseus, and to have forgotten Danae; so that,\nfor a while, all went as smoothly as ever.\n\nNext he proclaimed a great feast, and invited to it all the chiefs, and\nlandowners, and the young men of the island, and among them Perseus, that\nthey might all do him homage as their king, and eat of his banquet in his\nhall.\n\nOn the appointed day they all came; and as the custom was then, each\nguest brought his present with him to the king: one a horse, another a\nshawl, or a ring, or a sword; and those who had nothing better brought a\nbasket of grapes, or of game; but Perseus brought nothing, for he had\nnothing to bring, being but a poor sailor-lad.\n\nHe was ashamed, however, to go into the king\u2019s presence without his gift;\nand he was too proud to ask Dictys to lend him one.  So he stood at the\ndoor sorrowfully, watching the rich men go in; and his face grew very red\nas they pointed at him, and smiled, and whispered, \u2018What has that\nfoundling to give?\u2019\n\nNow this was what Polydectes wanted; and as soon as he heard that Perseus\nstood without, he bade them bring him in, and asked him scornfully before\nthem all, \u2018Am I not your king, Perseus, and have I not invited you to my\nfeast?  Where is your present, then?\u2019\n\nPerseus blushed and stammered, while all the proud men round laughed, and\nsome of them began jeering him openly.  \u2018This fellow was thrown ashore\nhere like a piece of weed or drift-wood, and yet he is too proud to bring\na gift to the king.\u2019\n\n\u2018And though he does not know who his father is, he is vain enough to let\nthe old women call him the son of Zeus.\u2019\n\nAnd so forth, till poor Perseus grew mad with shame, and hardly knowing\nwhat he said, cried out,\u2014\u2018A present! who are you who talk of presents?\nSee if I do not bring a nobler one than all of yours together!\u2019\n\nSo he said boasting; and yet he felt in his heart that he was braver than\nall those scoffers, and more able to do some glorious deed.\n\n\u2018Hear him!  Hear the boaster!  What is it to be?\u2019 cried they all,\nlaughing louder than ever.\n\nThen his dream at Samos came into his mind, and he cried aloud, \u2018The head\nof the Gorgon.\u2019\n\nHe was half afraid after he had said the words for all laughed louder\nthan ever, and Polydectes loudest of all.\n\n\u2018You have promised to bring me the Gorgon\u2019s head?  Then never appear\nagain in this island without it.  Go!\u2019\n\nPerseus ground his teeth with rage, for he saw that he had fallen into a\ntrap; but his promise lay upon him, and he went out without a word.\n\nDown to the cliffs he went, and looked across the broad blue sea; and he\nwondered if his dream were true, and prayed in the bitterness of his\nsoul.\n\n\u2018Pallas Athen\u00e9, was my dream true? and shall I slay the Gorgon?  If thou\ndidst really show me her face, let me not come to shame as a liar and\nboastful.  Rashly and angrily I promised; but cunningly and patiently\nwill I perform.\u2019\n\nBut there was no answer, nor sign; neither thunder nor any appearance;\nnot even a cloud in the sky.\n\nAnd three times Perseus called weeping, \u2018Rashly and angrily I promised;\nbut cunningly and patiently will I perform.\u2019\n\nThen he saw afar off above the sea a small white cloud, as bright as\nsilver.  And it came on, nearer and nearer, till its brightness dazzled\nhis eyes.\n\nPerseus wondered at that strange cloud, for there was no other cloud all\nround the sky; and he trembled as it touched the cliff below.  And as it\ntouched, it broke, and parted, and within it appeared Pallas Athen\u00e9, as\nhe had seen her at Samos in his dream, and beside her a young man more\nlight-limbed than the stag, whose eyes were like sparks of fire.  By his\nside was a scimitar of diamond, all of one clear precious stone, and on\nhis feet were golden sandals, from the heels of which grew living wings.\n\nThey looked upon Perseus keenly, and yet they never moved their eyes; and\nthey came up the cliffs towards him more swiftly than the sea-gull, and\nyet they never moved their feet, nor did the breeze stir the robes about\ntheir limbs; only the wings of the youth\u2019s sandals quivered, like a\nhawk\u2019s when he hangs above the cliff.  And Perseus fell down and\nworshipped, for he knew that they were more than man.\n\nBut Athen\u00e9 stood before him and spoke gently, and bid him have no fear.\nThen\u2014\n\n\u2018Perseus,\u2019 she said, \u2018he who overcomes in one trial merits thereby a\nsharper trial still.  You have braved Polydectes, and done manfully.\nDare you brave Medusa the Gorgon?\u2019\n\nAnd Perseus said, \u2018Try me; for since you spoke to me in Samos a new soul\nhas come into my breast, and I should be ashamed not to dare anything\nwhich I can do.  Show me, then, how I can do this!\u2019\n\n\u2018Perseus,\u2019 said Athen\u00e9, \u2018think well before you attempt; for this deed\nrequires a seven years\u2019 journey, in which you cannot repent or turn back\nnor escape; but if your heart fails you, you must die in the Unshapen\nLand, where no man will ever find your bones.\u2019\n\n\u2018Better so than live here, useless and despised,\u2019 said Perseus.  \u2018Tell\nme, then, oh tell me, fair and wise Goddess, of your great kindness and\ncondescension, how I can do but this one thing, and then, if need be,\ndie!\u2019\n\nThen Athen\u00e9 smiled and said\u2014\n\n\u2018Be patient, and listen; for if you forget my words, you will indeed die.\nYou must go northward to the country of the Hyperboreans, who live beyond\nthe pole, at the sources of the cold north wind, till you find the three\nGray Sisters, who have but one eye and one tooth between them.  You must\nask them the way to the Nymphs, the daughters of the Evening Star, who\ndance about the golden tree, in the Atlantic island of the west.  They\nwill tell you the way to the Gorgon, that you may slay her, my enemy, the\nmother of monstrous beasts.  Once she was a maiden as beautiful as morn,\ntill in her pride she sinned a sin at which the sun hid his face; and\nfrom that day her hair was turned to vipers, and her hands to eagle\u2019s\nclaws; and her heart was filled with shame and rage, and her lips with\nbitter venom; and her eyes became so terrible that whosoever looks on\nthem is turned to stone; and her children are the winged horse and the\ngiant of the golden sword; and her grandchildren are Echidna the\nwitch-adder, and Geryon the three-headed tyrant, who feeds his herds\nbeside the herds of hell.  So she became the sister of the Gorgons,\nStheino and Euryte the abhorred, the daughters of the Queen of the Sea.\nTouch them not, for they are immortal; but bring me only Medusa\u2019s head.\u2019\n\n\u2018And I will bring it!\u2019 said Perseus; \u2018but how am I to escape her eyes?\nWill she not freeze me too into stone?\u2019\n\n\u2018You shall take this polished shield,\u2019 said Athen\u00e9, \u2018and when you come\nnear her look not at her herself, but at her image in the brass; so you\nmay strike her safely.  And when you have struck off her head, wrap it,\nwith your face turned away, in the folds of the goat-skin on which the\nshield hangs, the hide of Amalthei\u00e9, the nurse of the \u00c6gis-holder.  So\nyou will bring it safely back to me, and win to yourself renown, and a\nplace among the heroes who feast with the Immortals upon the peak where\nno winds blow.\u2019\n\nThen Perseus said, \u2018I will go, though I die in going.  But how shall I\ncross the seas without a ship?  And who will show me my way?  And when I\nfind her, how shall I slay her, if her scales be iron and brass?\u2019\n\nThen the young man spoke: \u2018These sandals of mine will bear you across the\nseas, and over hill and dale like a bird, as they bear me all day long;\nfor I am Hermes, the far-famed Argus-slayer, the messenger of the\nImmortals who dwell on Olympus.\u2019\n\nThen Perseus fell down and worshipped, while the young man spoke again:\n\n\u2018The sandals themselves will guide you on the road, for they are divine\nand cannot stray; and this sword itself, the Argus-slayer, will kill her,\nfor it is divine, and needs no second stroke.  Arise, and gird them on,\nand go forth.\u2019\n\nSo Perseus arose, and girded on the sandals and the sword.\n\nAnd Athen\u00e9 cried, \u2018Now leap from the cliff and be gone.\u2019\n\nBut Perseus lingered.\n\n\u2018May I not bid farewell to my mother and to Dictys?  And may I not offer\nburnt-offerings to you, and to Hermes the far-famed Argus-slayer, and to\nFather Zeus above?\u2019\n\n\u2018You shall not bid farewell to your mother, lest your heart relent at her\nweeping.  I will comfort her and Dictys until you return in peace.  Nor\nshall you offer burnt-offerings to the Olympians; for your offering shall\nbe Medusa\u2019s head.  Leap, and trust in the armour of the Immortals.\u2019\n\nThen Perseus looked down the cliff and shuddered; but he was ashamed to\nshow his dread.  Then he thought of Medusa and the renown before him, and\nhe leaped into the empty air.\n\nAnd behold, instead of falling he floated, and stood, and ran along the\nsky.  He looked back, but Athen\u00e9 had vanished, and Hermes; and the\nsandals led him on northward ever, like a crane who follows the spring\ntoward the Ister fens.\n\n\n\nPART III\nHOW PERSEUS SLEW THE GORGON\n\n\nSo Perseus started on his journey, going dry-shod over land and sea; and\nhis heart was high and joyful, for the winged sandals bore him each day a\nseven days\u2019 journey.\n\nAnd he went by Cythnus, and by Ceos, and the pleasant Cyclades to Attica;\nand past Athens and Thebes, and the Copaic lake, and up the vale of\nCephissus, and past the peaks of \u0152ta and Pindus, and over the rich\nThessalian plains, till the sunny hills of Greece were behind him, and\nbefore him were the wilds of the north.  Then he passed the Thracian\nmountains, and many a barbarous tribe, P\u00e6ons and Dardans and Triballi,\ntill he came to the Ister stream, and the dreary Scythian plains.  And he\nwalked across the Ister dry-shod, and away through the moors and fens,\nday and night toward the bleak north-west, turning neither to the right\nhand nor the left, till he came to the Unshapen Land, and the place which\nhas no name.\n\nAnd seven days he walked through it, on a path which few can tell; for\nthose who have trodden it like least to speak of it, and those who go\nthere again in dreams are glad enough when they awake; till he came to\nthe edge of the everlasting night, where the air was full of feathers,\nand the soil was hard with ice; and there at last he found the three Gray\nSisters, by the shore of the freezing sea, nodding upon a white log of\ndrift-wood, beneath the cold white winter moon; and they chaunted a low\nsong together, \u2018Why the old times were better than the new.\u2019\n\nThere was no living thing around them, not a fly, not a moss upon the\nrocks.  Neither seal nor sea-gull dare come near, lest the ice should\nclutch them in its claws.  The surge broke up in foam, but it fell again\nin flakes of snow; and it frosted the hair of the three Gray Sisters, and\nthe bones in the ice-cliff above their heads.  They passed the eye from\none to the other, but for all that they could not see; and they passed\nthe tooth from one to the other, but for all that they could not eat; and\nthey sat in the full glare of the moon, but they were none the warmer for\nher beams.  And Perseus pitied the three Gray Sisters; but they did not\npity themselves.\n\nSo he said, \u2018Oh, venerable mothers, wisdom is the daughter of old age.\nYou therefore should know many things.  Tell me, if you can, the path to\nthe Gorgon.\u2019\n\nThen one cried, \u2018Who is this who reproaches us with old age?\u2019  And\nanother, \u2018This is the voice of one of the children of men.\u2019\n\nAnd he, \u2018I do not reproach, but honour your old age, and I am one of the\nsons of men and of the heroes.  The rulers of Olympus have sent me to you\nto ask the way to the Gorgon.\u2019\n\nThen one, \u2018There are new rulers in Olympus, and all new things are bad.\u2019\nAnd another, \u2018We hate your rulers, and the heroes, and all the children\nof men.  We are the kindred of the Titans, and the Giants, and the\nGorgons, and the ancient monsters of the deep.\u2019  And another, \u2018Who is\nthis rash and insolent man who pushes unbidden into our world?\u2019  And the\nfirst, \u2018There never was such a world as ours, nor will be; if we let him\nsee it, he will spoil it all.\u2019\n\nThen one cried, \u2018Give me the eye, that I may see him;\u2019 and another, \u2018Give\nme the tooth, that I may bite him.\u2019  But Perseus, when he saw that they\nwere foolish and proud, and did not love the children of men, left off\npitying them, and said to himself, \u2018Hungry men must needs be hasty; if I\nstay making many words here, I shall be starved.\u2019  Then he stepped close\nto them, and watched till they passed the eye from hand to hand.  And as\nthey groped about between themselves, he held out his own hand gently,\ntill one of them put the eye into it, fancying that it was the hand of\nher sister.  Then he sprang back, and laughed, and cried\u2014\n\n\u2018Cruel and proud old women, I have your eye; and I will throw it into the\nsea, unless you tell me the path to the Gorgon, and swear to me that you\ntell me right.\u2019\n\nThen they wept, and chattered, and scolded; but in vain.  They were\nforced to tell the truth, though, when they told it, Perseus could hardly\nmake out the road.\n\n\u2018You must go,\u2019 they said, \u2018foolish boy, to the southward, into the ugly\nglare of the sun, till you come to Atlas the Giant, who holds the heaven\nand the earth apart.  And you must ask his daughters, the Hesperides, who\nare young and foolish like yourself.  And now give us back our eye, for\nwe have forgotten all the rest.\u2019\n\nSo Perseus gave them back their eye; but instead of using it, they nodded\nand fell fast asleep, and were turned into blocks of ice, till the tide\ncame up and washed them all away.  And now they float up and down like\nicebergs for ever, weeping whenever they meet the sunshine, and the\nfruitful summer and the warm south wind, which fill young hearts with\njoy.\n\nBut Perseus leaped away to the southward, leaving the snow and the ice\nbehind: past the isle of the Hyperboreans, and the tin isles, and the\nlong Iberian shore, while the sun rose higher day by day upon a bright\nblue summer sea.  And the terns and the sea-gulls swept laughing round\nhis head, and called to him to stop and play, and the dolphins gambolled\nup as he passed, and offered to carry him on their backs.  And all night\nlong the sea-nymphs sang sweetly, and the Tritons blew upon their conchs,\nas they played round Galat\u00e6a their queen, in her car of pearled shells.\nDay by day the sun rose higher, and leaped more swiftly into the sea at\nnight, and more swiftly out of the sea at dawn; while Perseus skimmed\nover the billows like a sea-gull, and his feet were never wetted; and\nleapt on from wave to wave, and his limbs were never weary, till he saw\nfar away a mighty mountain, all rose-red in the setting sun.  Its feet\nwere wrapped in forests, and its head in wreaths of cloud; and Perseus\nknew that it was Atlas, who holds the heavens and the earth apart.\n\nHe came to the mountain, and leapt on shore, and wandered upward, among\npleasant valleys and waterfalls, and tall trees and strange ferns and\nflowers; but there was no smoke rising from any glen, nor house, nor sign\nof man.\n\nAt last he heard sweet voices singing; and he guessed that he was come to\nthe garden of the Nymphs, the daughters of the Evening Star.\n\nThey sang like nightingales among the thickets, and Perseus stopped to\nhear their song; but the words which they spoke he could not understand;\nno, nor no man after him for many a hundred years.  So he stepped forward\nand saw them dancing, hand in hand around the charmed tree, which bent\nunder its golden fruit; and round the tree-foot was coiled the dragon,\nold Ladon the sleepless snake, who lies there for ever, listening to the\nsong of the maidens, blinking and watching with dry bright eyes.\n\nThen Perseus stopped, not because he feared the dragon, but because he\nwas bashful before those fair maids; but when they saw him, they too\nstopped, and called to him with trembling voices\u2014\n\n\u2018Who are you?  Are you Heracles the mighty, who will come to rob our\ngarden, and carry off our golden fruit?\u2019  And he answered\u2014\n\n\u2018I am not Heracles the mighty, and I want none of your golden fruit.\nTell me, fair Nymphs, the way which leads to the Gorgon, that I may go on\nmy way and slay her.\u2019\n\n\u2018Not yet, not yet, fair boy; come dance with us around the tree in the\ngarden which knows no winter, the home of the south wind and the sun.\nCome hither and play with us awhile; we have danced alone here for a\nthousand years, and our hearts are weary with longing for a playfellow.\nSo come, come, come!\u2019\n\n\u2018I cannot dance with you, fair maidens; for I must do the errand of the\nImmortals.  So tell me the way to the Gorgon, lest I wander and perish in\nthe waves.\u2019\n\nThen they sighed and wept; and answered\u2014\u2018The Gorgon! she will freeze you\ninto stone.\u2019\n\n\u2018It is better to die like a hero than to live like an ox in a stall.  The\nImmortals have lent me weapons, and they will give me wit to use them.\u2019\n\nThen they sighed again and answered, \u2018Fair boy, if you are bent on your\nown ruin, be it so.  We know not the way to the Gorgon; but we will ask\nthe giant Atlas, above upon the mountain peak, the brother of our father,\nthe silver Evening Star.  He sits aloft and sees across the ocean, and\nfar away into the Unshapen Land.\u2019\n\nSo they went up the mountain to Atlas their uncle, and Perseus went up\nwith them.  And they found the giant kneeling, as he held the heavens and\nthe earth apart.\n\nThey asked him, and he answered mildly, pointing to the sea-board with\nhis mighty hand, \u2018I can see the Gorgons lying on an island far away, but\nthis youth can never come near them, unless he has the hat of darkness,\nwhich whosoever wears cannot be seen.\u2019\n\nThen cried Perseus, \u2018Where is that hat, that I may find it?\u2019\n\nBut the giant smiled.  \u2018No living mortal can find that hat, for it lies\nin the depths of Hades, in the regions of the dead.  But my nieces are\nimmortal, and they shall fetch it for you, if you will promise me one\nthing and keep your faith.\u2019\n\nThen Perseus promised; and the giant said, \u2018When you come back with the\nhead of Medusa, you shall show me the beautiful horror, that I may lose\nmy feeling and my breathing, and become a stone for ever; for it is weary\nlabour for me to hold the heavens and the earth apart.\u2019\n\nThen Perseus promised, and the eldest of the Nymphs went down, and into a\ndark cavern among the cliffs, out of which came smoke and thunder, for it\nwas one of the mouths of Hell.\n\nAnd Perseus and the Nymphs sat down seven days, and waited trembling,\ntill the Nymph came up again; and her face was pale, and her eyes dazzled\nwith the light, for she had been long in the dreary darkness; but in her\nhand was the magic hat.\n\nThen all the Nymphs kissed Perseus, and wept over him a long while; but\nhe was only impatient to be gone.  And at last they put the hat upon his\nhead, and he vanished out of their sight.\n\nBut Perseus went on boldly, past many an ugly sight, far away into the\nheart of the Unshapen Land, beyond the streams of Ocean, to the isles\nwhere no ship cruises, where is neither night nor day, where nothing is\nin its right place, and nothing has a name; till he heard the rustle of\nthe Gorgons\u2019 wings and saw the glitter of their brazen talons; and then\nhe knew that it was time to halt, lest Medusa should freeze him into\nstone.\n\nHe thought awhile with himself, and remembered Athen\u00e9\u2019s words.  He rose\naloft into the air, and held the mirror of the shield above his head, and\nlooked up into it that he might see all that was below him.\n\nAnd he saw the three Gorgons sleeping as huge as elephants.  He knew that\nthey could not see him, because the hat of darkness hid him; and yet he\ntrembled as he sank down near them, so terrible were those brazen claws.\n\nTwo of the Gorgons were foul as swine, and lay sleeping heavily, as swine\nsleep, with their mighty wings outspread; but Medusa tossed to and fro\nrestlessly, and as she tossed Perseus pitied her, she looked so fair and\nsad.  Her plumage was like the rainbow, and her face was like the face of\na nymph, only her eyebrows were knit, and her lips clenched, with\neverlasting care and pain; and her long neck gleamed so white in the\nmirror that Perseus had not the heart to strike, and said, \u2018Ah, that it\nhad been either of her sisters!\u2019\n\nBut as he looked, from among her tresses the vipers\u2019 heads awoke, and\npeeped up with their bright dry eyes, and showed their fangs, and hissed;\nand Medusa, as she tossed, threw back her wings and showed her brazen\nclaws; and Perseus saw that, for all her beauty, she was as foul and\nvenomous as the rest.\n\nThen he came down and stepped to her boldly, and looked steadfastly on\nhis mirror, and struck with Herp\u00e9 stoutly once; and he did not need to\nstrike again.\n\nThen he wrapped the head in the goat-skin, turning away his eyes, and\nsprang into the air aloft, faster than he ever sprang before.\n\nFor Medusa\u2019s wings and talons rattled as she sank dead upon the rocks;\nand her two foul sisters woke, and saw her lying dead.\n\nInto the air they sprang yelling and looked for him who had done the\ndeed.  Thrice they swung round and round, like hawks who beat for a\npartridge; and thrice they snuffed round and round, like hounds who draw\nupon a deer.  At last they struck upon the scent of the blood, and they\nchecked for a moment to make sure; and then on they rushed with a fearful\nhowl, while the wind rattled hoarse in their wings.\n\nOn they rushed, sweeping and flapping, like eagles after a hare; and\nPerseus\u2019 blood ran cold, for all his courage, as he saw them come howling\non his track; and he cried, \u2018Bear me well now, brave sandals, for the\nhounds of Death are at my heels!\u2019\n\nAnd well the brave sandals bore him, aloft through cloud and sunshine,\nacross the shoreless sea; and fast followed the hounds of Death, as the\nroar of their wings came down the wind.  But the roar came down fainter\nand fainter, and the howl of their voices died away; for the sandals were\ntoo swift, even for Gorgons, and by nightfall they were far behind, two\nblack specks in the southern sky, till the sun sank and he saw them no\nmore.\n\nThen he came again to Atlas, and the garden of the Nymphs; and when the\ngiant heard him coming he groaned, and said, \u2018Fulfil thy promise to me.\u2019\nThen Perseus held up to him the Gorgon\u2019s head, and he had rest from all\nhis toil; for he became a crag of stone, which sleeps for ever far above\nthe clouds.\n\nThen he thanked the Nymphs, and asked them, \u2018By what road shall I go\nhomeward again, for I wandered far round in coming hither?\u2019\n\nAnd they wept and cried, \u2018Go home no more, but stay and play with us, the\nlonely maidens, who dwell for ever far away from Gods and men.\u2019\n\nBut he refused, and they told him his road, and said, \u2018Take with you this\nmagic fruit, which, if you eat once, you will not hunger for seven days.\nFor you must go eastward and eastward ever, over the doleful Lybian\nshore, which Poseidon gave to Father Zeus, when he burst open the\nBosphorus and the Hellespont, and drowned the fair Lectonian land.  And\nZeus took that land in exchange, a fair bargain, much bad ground for a\nlittle good, and to this day it lies waste and desert with shingle, and\nrock, and sand.\u2019\n\nThen they kissed Perseus, and wept over him, and he leapt down the\nmountain, and went on, lessening and lessening like a sea-gull, away and\nout to sea.\n\n\n\nPART IV\nHOW PERSEUS CAME TO THE \u00c6THIOPS\n\n\nSo Perseus flitted onward to the north-east, over many a league of sea,\ntill he came to the rolling sand-hills and the dreary Lybian shore.\n\nAnd he flitted on across the desert: over rock-ledges, and banks of\nshingle, and level wastes of sand, and shell-drifts bleaching in the\nsunshine, and the skeletons of great sea-monsters, and dead bones of\nancient giants, strewn up and down upon the old sea-floor.  And as he\nwent the blood-drops fell to the earth from the Gorgon\u2019s head, and became\npoisonous asps and adders, which breed in the desert to this day.\n\nOver the sands he went,\u2014he never knew how far or how long, feeding on the\nfruit which the Nymphs had given him, till he saw the hills of the\nPsylli, and the Dwarfs who fought with cranes.  Their spears were of\nreeds and rushes, and their houses of the egg-shells of the cranes; and\nPerseus laughed, and went his way to the north-east, hoping all day long\nto see the blue Mediterranean sparkling, that he might fly across it to\nhis home.\n\nBut now came down a mighty wind, and swept him back southward toward the\ndesert.  All day long he strove against it; but even the winged sandals\ncould not prevail.  So he was forced to float down the wind all night;\nand when the morning dawned there was nothing to be seen, save the same\nold hateful waste of sand.\n\nAnd out of the north the sandstorms rushed upon him, blood-red pillars\nand wreaths, blotting out the noonday sun; and Perseus fled before them,\nlest he should be choked by the burning dust.  At last the gale fell\ncalm, and he tried to go northward again; but again came down the\nsandstorms, and swept him back into the waste, and then all was calm and\ncloudless as before.  Seven days he strove against the storms, and seven\ndays he was driven back, till he was spent with thirst and hunger, and\nhis tongue clove to the roof of his mouth.  Here and there he fancied\nthat he saw a fair lake, and the sunbeams shining on the water; but when\nhe came to it it vanished at his feet, and there was nought but burning\nsand.  And if he had not been of the race of the Immortals, he would have\nperished in the waste; but his life was strong within him, because it was\nmore than man\u2019s.\n\nThen he cried to Athen\u00e9, and said\u2014\n\n\u2018Oh, fair and pure, if thou hearest me, wilt thou leave me here to die of\ndrought?  I have brought thee the Gorgon\u2019s head at thy bidding, and\nhitherto thou hast prospered my journey; dost thou desert me at the last?\nElse why will not these immortal sandals prevail, even against the desert\nstorms?  Shall I never see my mother more, and the blue ripple round\nSeriphos, and the sunny hills of Hellas?\u2019\n\nSo he prayed; and after he had prayed there was a great silence.\n\nThe heaven was still above his head, and the sand was still beneath his\nfeet; and Perseus looked up, but there was nothing but the blinding sun\nin the blinding blue; and round him, but there was nothing but the\nblinding sand.\n\nAnd Perseus stood still a while, and waited, and said, \u2018Surely I am not\nhere without the will of the Immortals, for Athen\u00e9 will not lie.  Were\nnot these sandals to lead me in the right road?  Then the road in which I\nhave tried to go must be a wrong road.\u2019\n\nThen suddenly his ears were opened, and he heard the sound of running\nwater.\n\nAnd at that his heart was lifted up, though he scarcely dare believe his\nears; and weary as he was, he hurried forward, though he could scarcely\nstand upright; and within a bowshot of him was a glen in the sand, and\nmarble rocks, and date-trees, and a lawn of gay green grass.  And through\nthe lawn a streamlet sparkled and wandered out beyond the trees, and\nvanished in the sand.\n\nThe water trickled among the rocks, and a pleasant breeze rustled in the\ndry date-branches and Perseus laughed for joy, and leapt down the cliff,\nand drank of the cool water, and ate of the dates, and slept upon the\nturf, and leapt up and went forward again: but not toward the north this\ntime; for he said, \u2018Surely Athen\u00e9 hath sent me hither, and will not have\nme go homeward yet.  What if there be another noble deed to be done,\nbefore I see the sunny hills of Hellas?\u2019\n\nSo he went east, and east for ever, by fresh oases and fountains,\ndate-palms, and lawns of grass, till he saw before him a mighty\nmountain-wall, all rose-red in the setting sun.\n\nThen he towered in the air like an eagle, for his limbs were strong\nagain; and he flew all night across the mountain till the day began to\ndawn, and rosy-fingered Eos came blushing up the sky.  And then, behold,\nbeneath him was the long green garden of Egypt and the shining stream of\nNile.\n\nAnd he saw cities walled up to heaven, and temples, and obelisks, and\npyramids, and giant Gods of stone.  And he came down amid fields of\nbarley, and flax, and millet, and clambering gourds; and saw the people\ncoming out of the gates of a great city, and setting to work, each in his\nplace, among the water-courses, parting the streams among the plants\ncunningly with their feet, according to the wisdom of the Egyptians.  But\nwhen they saw him they all stopped their work, and gathered round him,\nand cried\u2014\n\n\u2018Who art thou, fair youth? and what bearest thou beneath thy goat-skin\nthere?  Surely thou art one of the Immortals; for thy skin is white like\nivory, and ours is red like clay.  Thy hair is like threads of gold, and\nours is black and curled.  Surely thou art one of the Immortals;\u2019 and\nthey would have worshipped him then and there; but Perseus said\u2014\n\n\u2018I am not one of the Immortals; but I am a hero of the Hellens.  And I\nhave slain the Gorgon in the wilderness, and bear her head with me.  Give\nme food, therefore, that I may go forward and finish my work.\u2019\n\nThen they gave him food, and fruit, and wine; but they would not let him\ngo.  And when the news came into the city that the Gorgon was slain, the\npriests came out to meet him, and the maidens, with songs and dances, and\ntimbrels and harps; and they would have brought him to their temple and\nto their king; but Perseus put on the hat of darkness, and vanished away\nout of their sight.\n\nTherefore the Egyptians looked long for his return, but in vain, and\nworshipped him as a hero, and made a statue of him in Chemmis, which\nstood for many a hundred years; and they said that he appeared to them at\ntimes, with sandals a cubit long; and that whenever he appeared the\nseason was fruitful, and the Nile rose high that year.\n\nThen Perseus went to the eastward, along the Red Sea shore; and then,\nbecause he was afraid to go into the Arabian deserts, he turned northward\nonce more, and this time no storm hindered him.\n\nHe went past the Isthmus, and Mount Casius, and the vast Serbonian bog,\nand up the shore of Palestine, where the dark-faced \u00c6thiops dwelt.\n\nHe flew on past pleasant hills and valleys, like Argos itself, or\nLaced\u00e6mon, or the fair Vale of Tempe.  But the lowlands were all drowned\nby floods, and the highlands blasted by fire, and the hills heaved like a\nbabbling cauldron, before the wrath of King Poseidon, the shaker of the\nearth.\n\nAnd Perseus feared to go inland, but flew along the shore above the sea;\nand he went on all the day, and the sky was black with smoke; and he went\non all the night, and the sky was red with flame.\n\nAnd at the dawn of day he looked toward the cliffs; and at the water\u2019s\nedge, under a black rock, he saw a white image stand.\n\n\u2018This,\u2019 thought he, \u2018must surely be the statue of some sea-God; I will go\nnear and see what kind of Gods these barbarians worship.\u2019\n\nSo he came near; but when he came, it was no statue, but a maiden of\nflesh and blood; for he could see her tresses streaming in the breeze;\nand as he came closer still, he could see how she shrank and shivered\nwhen the waves sprinkled her with cold salt spray.  Her arms were spread\nabove her head, and fastened to the rock with chains of brass; and her\nhead drooped on her bosom, either with sleep, or weariness, or grief.\nBut now and then she looked up and wailed, and called her mother; yet she\ndid not see Perseus, for the cap of darkness was on his head.\n\n                     [Picture: Perseus and the maid]\n\nFull of pity and indignation, Perseus drew near and looked upon the maid.\nHer cheeks were darker than his were, and her hair was blue-black like a\nhyacinth; but Perseus thought, \u2018I have never seen so beautiful a maiden;\nno, not in all our isles.  Surely she is a king\u2019s daughter.  Do\nbarbarians treat their kings\u2019 daughters thus?  She is too fair, at least,\nto have done any wrong I will speak to her.\u2019\n\nAnd, lifting the hat from his head, he flashed into her sight.  She\nshrieked with terror, and tried to hide her face with her hair, for she\ncould not with her hands; but Perseus cried\u2014\n\n\u2018Do not fear me, fair one; I am a Hellen, and no barbarian.  What cruel\nmen have bound you?  But first I will set you free.\u2019\n\nAnd he tore at the fetters, but they were too strong for him; while the\nmaiden cried\u2014\n\n\u2018Touch me not; I am accursed, devoted as a victim to the sea-Gods.  They\nwill slay you, if you dare to set me free.\u2019\n\n\u2018Let them try,\u2019 said Perseus; and drawing, Herp\u00e9 from his thigh, he cut\nthrough the brass as if it had been flax.\n\n\u2018Now,\u2019 he said, \u2018you belong to me, and not to these sea-Gods, whosoever\nthey may be!\u2019  But she only called the more on her mother.\n\n\u2018Why call on your mother?  She can be no mother to have left you here.\nIf a bird is dropped out of the nest, it belongs to the man who picks it\nup.  If a jewel is cast by the wayside, it is his who dare win it and\nwear it, as I will win you and will wear you.  I know now why Pallas\nAthen\u00e9 sent me hither.  She sent me to gain a prize worth all my toil and\nmore.\u2019\n\nAnd he clasped her in his arms, and cried, \u2018Where are these sea-Gods,\ncruel and unjust, who doom fair maids to death?  I carry the weapons of\nImmortals.  Let them measure their strength against mine!  But tell me,\nmaiden, who you are, and what dark fate brought you here.\u2019\n\nAnd she answered, weeping\u2014\n\n\u2018I am the daughter of Cepheus, King of Iopa, and my mother is Cassiopoeia\nof the beautiful tresses, and they called me Andromeda, as long as life\nwas mine.  And I stand bound here, hapless that I am, for the\nsea-monster\u2019s food, to atone for my mother\u2019s sin.  For she boasted of me\nonce that I was fairer than Atergatis, Queen of the Fishes; so she in her\nwrath sent the sea-floods, and her brother the Fire King sent the\nearthquakes, and wasted all the land, and after the floods a monster bred\nof the slime, who devours all living things.  And now he must devour me,\nguiltless though I am\u2014me who never harmed a living thing, nor saw a fish\nupon the shore but I gave it life, and threw it back into the sea; for in\nour land we eat no fish, for fear of Atergatis their queen.  Yet the\npriests say that nothing but my blood can atone for a sin which I never\ncommitted.\u2019\n\nBut Perseus laughed, and said, \u2018A sea-monster?  I have fought with worse\nthan him: I would have faced Immortals for your sake; how much more a\nbeast of the sea?\u2019\n\nThen Andromeda looked up at him, and new hope was kindled in her breast,\nso proud and fair did he stand, with one hand round her, and in the other\nthe glittering sword.  But she only sighed, and wept the more, and cried\u2014\n\n\u2018Why will you die, young as you are?  Is there not death and sorrow\nenough in the world already?  It is noble for me to die, that I may save\nthe lives of a whole people; but you, better than them all, why should I\nslay you too?  Go you your way; I must go mine.\u2019\n\nBut Perseus cried, \u2018Not so; for the Lords of Olympus, whom I serve, are\nthe friends of the heroes, and help them on to noble deeds.  Led by them,\nI slew the Gorgon, the beautiful horror; and not without them do I come\nhither, to slay this monster with that same Gorgon\u2019s head.  Yet hide your\neyes when I leave you, lest the sight of it freeze you too to stone.\u2019\n\nBut the maiden answered nothing, for she could not believe his words.\nAnd then, suddenly looking up, she pointed to the sea, and shrieked\u2014\n\n\u2018There he comes, with the sunrise, as they promised.  I must die now.\nHow shall I endure it?  Oh, go!  Is it not dreadful enough to be torn\npiecemeal, without having you to look on?\u2019  And she tried to thrust him\naway.\n\nBut he said, \u2018I go; yet promise me one thing ere I go: that if I slay\nthis beast you will be my wife, and come back with me to my kingdom in\nfruitful Argos, for I am a king\u2019s heir.  Promise me, and seal it with a\nkiss.\u2019\n\nThen she lifted up her face, and kissed him; and Perseus laughed for joy,\nand flew upward, while Andromeda crouched trembling on the rock, waiting\nfor what might befall.\n\nOn came the great sea-monster, coasting along like a huge black galley,\nlazily breasting the ripple, and stopping at times by creek or headland\nto watch for the laughter of girls at their bleaching, or cattle pawing\non the sand-hills, or boys bathing on the beach.  His great sides were\nfringed with clustering shells and sea-weeds, and the water gurgled in\nand out of his wide jaws, as he rolled along, dripping and glistening in\nthe beams of the morning sun.\n\nAt last he saw Andromeda, and shot forward to take his prey, while the\nwaves foamed white behind him, and before him the fish fled leaping.\n\nThen down from the height of the air fell Perseus like a shooting star;\ndown to the crests of the waves, while Andromeda hid her face as he\nshouted; and then there was silence for a while.\n\nAt last she looked up trembling, and saw Perseus springing toward her;\nand instead of the monster a long black rock, with the sea rippling\nquietly round it.\n\nWho then so proud as Perseus, as he leapt back to the rock, and lifted\nhis fair Andromeda in his arms, and flew with her to the cliff-top, as a\nfalcon carries a dove?\n\nWho so proud as Perseus, and who so joyful as all the \u00c6thiop people?  For\nthey had stood watching the monster from the cliffs, wailing for the\nmaiden\u2019s fate.  And already a messenger had gone to Cepheus and\nCassiopoeia, where they sat in sackcloth and ashes on the ground, in the\ninnermost palace chambers, awaiting their daughter\u2019s end.  And they came,\nand all the city with them, to see the wonder, with songs and with\ndances, with cymbals and harps, and received their daughter back again,\nas one alive from the dead.\n\nThen Cepheus said, \u2018Hero of the Hellens, stay here with me and be my\nson-in-law, and I will give you the half of my kingdom.\u2019\n\n\u2018I will be your son-in-law,\u2019 said Perseus, \u2018but of your kingdom I will\nhave none, for I long after the pleasant land of Greece, and my mother\nwho waits for me at home.\u2019\n\nThen Cepheus said, \u2018You must not take my daughter away at once, for she\nis to us like one alive from the dead.  Stay with us here a year, and\nafter that you shall return with honour.\u2019  And Perseus consented; but\nbefore he went to the palace he bade the people bring stones and wood,\nand built three altars, one to Athen\u00e9, and one to Hermes, and one to\nFather Zeus, and offered bullocks and rams.\n\nAnd some said, \u2018This is a pious man;\u2019 yet the priests said, \u2018The Sea\nQueen will be yet more fierce against us, because her monster is slain.\u2019\nBut they were afraid to speak aloud, for they feared the Gorgon\u2019s head.\nSo they went up to the palace; and when they came in, there stood in the\nhall Phineus, the brother of Cepheus, chafing like a bear robbed of her\nwhelps, and with him his sons, and his servants, and many an armed man;\nand he cried to Cepheus\u2014\n\n\u2018You shall not marry your daughter to this stranger, of whom no one knows\neven the name.  Was not Andromeda betrothed to my son?  And now she is\nsafe again, has he not a right to claim her?\u2019\n\nBut Perseus laughed, and answered, \u2018If your son is in want of a bride,\nlet him save a maiden for himself.  As yet he seems but a helpless\nbride-groom.  He left this one to die, and dead she is to him.  I saved\nher alive, and alive she is to me, but to no one else.  Ungrateful man!\nhave I not saved your land, and the lives of your sons and daughters, and\nwill you requite me thus?  Go, or it will be worse for you.\u2019  But all the\nmen-at-arms drew their swords, and rushed on him like wild beasts.\n\nThen he unveiled the Gorgon\u2019s head, and said, \u2018This has delivered my\nbride from one wild beast: it shall deliver her from many.\u2019  And as he\nspoke Phineus and all his men-at-arms stopped short, and stiffened each\nman as he stood; and before Perseus had drawn the goat-skin over the face\nagain, they were all turned into stone.\n\nThen Perseuss bade the people bring levers and roll them out; and what was\ndone with them after that I cannot tell.\n\nSo they made a great wedding-feast, which lasted seven whole days, and\nwho so happy as Perseus and Andromeda?\n\nBut on the eighth night Perseus dreamed a dream; and he saw standing\nbeside him Pallas Athen\u00e9, as he had seen her in Seriphos, seven long\nyears before; and she stood and called him by name, and said\u2014\n\n\u2018Perseus, you have played the man, and see, you have your reward.  Know\nnow that the Gods are just, and help him who helps himself.  Now give me\nhere Herp\u00e9 the sword, and the sandals, and the hat of darkness, that I\nmay give them back to their owners; but the Gorgon\u2019s head you shall keep\na while, for you will need it in your land of Greece.  Then you shall lay\nit up in my temple at Seriphos, that I may wear it on my shield for ever,\na terror to the Titans and the monsters, and the foes of Gods and men.\nAnd as for this land, I have appeased the sea and the fire, and there\nshall be no more floods nor earthquakes.  But let the people build altars\nto Father Zeus, and to me, and worship the Immortals, the Lords of heaven\nand earth.\u2019\n\nAnd Perseus rose to give her the sword, and the cap, and the sandals; but\nhe woke, and his dream vanished away.  And yet it was not altogether a\ndream; for the goat-skin with the head was in its place; but the sword,\nand the cap, and the sandals were gone, and Perseus never saw them more.\n\nThen a great awe fell on Perseus; and he went out in the morning to the\npeople, and told his dream, and bade them build altars to Zeus, the\nFather of Gods and men, and to Athen\u00e9, who gives wisdom to heroes; and\nfear no more the earthquakes and the floods, but sow and build in peace.\nAnd they did so for a while, and prospered; but after Perseus was gone\nthey forgot Zeus and Athen\u00e9, and worshipped again Atergatis the queen,\nand the undying fish of the sacred lake, where Deucalion\u2019s deluge was\nswallowed up, and they burnt their children before the Fire King, till\nZeus was angry with that foolish people, and brought a strange nation\nagainst them out of Egypt, who fought against them and wasted them\nutterly, and dwelt in their cities for many a hundred years.\n\n\n\nPART V\nHOW PERSEUS CAME HOME AGAIN\n\n\nAnd when a year was ended Perseus hired Phoenicians from Tyre, and cut\ndown cedars, and built himself a noble galley; and painted its cheeks\nwith vermilion, and pitched its sides with pitch; and in it he put\nAndromeda, and all her dowry of jewels, and rich shawls, and spices from\nthe East; and great was the weeping when they rowed away.  But the\nremembrance of his brave deed was left behind; and Andromeda\u2019s rock was\nshown at Iopa in Palestine till more than a thousand years were past.\n\nSo Perseus and the Phoenicians rowed to the westward, across the sea of\nCrete, till they came to the blue \u00c6gean and the pleasant Isles of Hellas,\nand Seriphos, his ancient home.\n\nThen he left his galley on the beach, and went up as of old; and he\nembraced his mother, and Dictys his good foster-father, and they wept\nover each other a long while, for it was seven years and more since they\nhad met.\n\nThen Perseus went out, and up to the hall of Polydectes; and underneath\nthe goat-skin he bore the Gorgon\u2019s head.\n\nAnd when he came into the hall, Polydectes sat at the table-head, and all\nhis nobles and landowners on either side, each according to his rank,\nfeasting on the fish and the goat\u2019s flesh, and drinking the blood-red\nwine.  The harpers harped, and the revellers shouted, and the wine-cups\nrang merrily as they passed from hand to hand, and great was the noise in\nthe hall of Polydectes.\n\nThen Perseus stood upon the threshold, and called to the king by name.\nBut none of the guests knew Perseus, for he was changed by his long\njourney.  He had gone out a boy, and he was come home a hero; his eye\nshone like an eagle\u2019s, and his beard was like a lion\u2019s beard, and he\nstood up like a wild bull in his pride.\n\nBut Polydectes the wicked knew him, and hardened his heart still more;\nand scornfully he called\u2014\n\n\u2018Ah, foundling! have you found it more easy to promise than to fulfil?\u2019\n\n\u2018Those whom the Gods help fulfil their promises; and those who despise\nthem, reap as they have sown.  Behold the Gorgon\u2019s head!\u2019\n\nThen Perseus drew back the goat-skin, and held aloft the Gorgon\u2019s head.\n\nPale grew Polydectes and his guests as they looked upon that dreadful\nface.  They tried to rise up from their seats: but from their seats they\nnever rose, but stiffened, each man where he sat, into a ring of cold\ngray stones.\n\nThen Perseus turned and left them, and went down to his galley in the\nbay; and he gave the kingdom to good Dictys, and sailed away with his\nmother and his bride.\n\nAnd Polydectes and his guests sat still, with the wine-cups before them\non the board, till the rafters crumbled down above their heads, and the\nwalls behind their backs, and the table crumbled down between them, and\nthe grass sprung up about their feet: but Polydectes and his guests sit\non the hillside, a ring of gray stones until this day.\n\nBut Perseus rowed westward toward Argos, and landed, and went up to the\ntown.  And when he came, he found that Acrisius his grandfather had fled.\nFor Proetus his wicked brother had made war against him afresh; and had\ncome across the river from Tiryns, and conquered Argos, and Acrisius had\nfled to Larissa, in the country of the wild Pelasgi.\n\nThen Perseus called the Argives together, and told them who he was, and\nall the noble deeds which he had done.  And all the nobles and the yeomen\nmade him king, for they saw that he had a royal heart; and they fought\nwith him against Argos, and took it, and killed Proetus, and made the\nCyclopes serve them, and build them walls round Argos, like the walls\nwhich they had built at Tiryns; and there were great rejoicings in the\nvale of Argos, because they had got a king from Father Zeus.\n\nBut Perseus\u2019 heart yearned after his grandfather, and he said, \u2018Surely he\nis my flesh and blood, and he will love me now that I am come home with\nhonour: I will go and find him, and bring him home, and we will reign\ntogether in peace.\u2019\n\nSo Perseus sailed away with his Phoenicians, round Hydrea and Sunium,\npast Marathon and the Attic shore, and through Euripus, and up the long\nEuboean sea, till he came to the town of Larissa, where the wild Pelasgi\ndwelt.\n\nAnd when he came there, all the people were in the fields, and there was\nfeasting, and all kinds of games; for Teutamenes their king wished to\nhonour Acrisius, because he was the king of a mighty land.\n\nSo Perseus did not tell his name, but went up to the games unknown; for\nhe said, \u2018If I carry away the prize in the games, my grandfather\u2019s heart\nwill be softened toward me.\u2019\n\nSo he threw off his helmet, and his cuirass, and all his clothes, and\nstood among the youths of Larissa, while all wondered at him, and said,\n\u2018Who is this young stranger, who stands like a wild bull in his pride?\nSurely he is one of the heroes, the sons of the Immortals, from Olympus.\u2019\n\nAnd when the games began, they wondered yet more; for Perseus was the\nbest man of all at running, and leaping, and wrestling and throwing the\njavelin; and he won four crowns, and took them, and then he said to\nhimself, \u2018There is a fifth crown yet to be won: I will win that, and lay\nthem all upon the knees of my grandfather.\u2019\n\nAnd as he spoke, he saw where Acrisius sat, by the side of Teutamenes the\nking, with his white beard flowing down upon his knees, and his royal\nstaff in his hand; and Perseus wept when he looked at him, for his heart\nyearned after his kin; and he said, \u2018Surely he is a kingly old man, yet\nhe need not be ashamed of his grandson.\u2019\n\nThen he took the quoits, and hurled them, five fathoms beyond all the\nrest; and the people shouted, \u2018Further yet, brave stranger!  There has\nnever been such a hurler in this land.\u2019\n\nThen Perseus put out all his strength, and hurled.  But a gust of wind\ncame from the sea, and carried the quoit aside, and far beyond all the\nrest; and it fell on the foot of Acrisius, and he swooned away with the\npain.\n\nPerseus shrieked, and ran up to him; but when they lifted the old man up\nhe was dead, for his life was slow and feeble.\n\nThen Perseus rent his clothes, and cast dust upon his head, and wept a\nlong while for his grandfather.  At last he rose, and called to all the\npeople aloud, and said\u2014\n\n\u2018The Gods are true, and what they have ordained must be.  I am Perseus,\nthe grandson of this dead man, the far-famed slayer of the Gorgon.\u2019\n\nThen he told them how the prophecy had declared that he should kill his\ngrandfather, and all the story of his life.\n\nSo they made a great mourning for Acrisius, and burnt him on a right rich\npile; and Perseus went to the temple, and was purified from the guilt of\nthe death, because he had done it unknowingly.\n\nThen he went home to Argos, and reigned there well with fair Andromeda;\nand they had four sons and three daughters, and died in a good old age.\n\nAnd when they died, the ancients say, Athen\u00e9 took them up into the sky,\nwith Cepheus and Cassiopoeia.  And there on starlight nights you may see\nthem shining still; Cepheus with his kingly crown, and Cassiopoeia in her\nivory chair, plaiting her star-spangled tresses, and Perseus with the\nGorgon\u2019s head, and fair Andromeda beside him, spreading her long white\narms across the heaven, as she stood when chained to the stone for the\nmonster.\n\nAll night long, they shine, for a beacon to wandering sailors; but all\nday they feast with the Gods, on the still blue peaks of Olympus.\n\n\n\n\nSTORY II.\u2014THE ARGONAUTS\n\n\nPART I\nHOW THE CENTAUR TRAINED THE HEROES ON PELION\n\n\nI have told you of a hero who fought with wild beasts and with wild men;\nbut now I have a tale of heroes who sailed away into a distant land, to\nwin themselves renown for ever, in the adventure of the Golden Fleece.\n\nWhither they sailed, my children, I cannot clearly tell.  It all happened\nlong ago; so long that it has all grown dim, like a dream which you\ndreamt last year.  And why they went I cannot tell: some say that it was\nto win gold.  It may be so; but the noblest deeds which have been done on\nearth have not been done for gold.  It was not for the sake of gold that\nthe Lord came down and died, and the Apostles went out to preach the good\nnews in all lands.  The Spartans looked for no reward in money when they\nfought and died at Thermopyl\u00e6; and Socrates the wise asked no pay from\nhis countrymen, but lived poor and barefoot all his days, only caring to\nmake men good.  And there are heroes in our days also, who do noble\ndeeds, but not for gold.  Our discoverers did not go to make themselves\nrich when they sailed out one after another into the dreary frozen seas;\nnor did the ladies who went out last year to drudge in the hospitals of\nthe East, making themselves poor, that they might be rich in noble works.\nAnd young men, too, whom you know, children, and some of them of your own\nkin, did they say to themselves, \u2018How much money shall I earn?\u2019 when they\nwent out to the war, leaving wealth, and comfort, and a pleasant home,\nand all that money can give, to face hunger and thirst, and wounds and\ndeath, that they might fight for their country and their Queen?  No,\nchildren, there is a better thing on earth than wealth, a better thing\nthan life itself; and that is, to have done something before you die, for\nwhich good men may honour you, and God your Father smile upon your work.\n\nTherefore we will believe\u2014why should we not?\u2014of these same Argonauts of\nold, that they too were noble men, who planned and did a noble deed; and\nthat therefore their fame has lived, and been told in story and in song,\nmixed up, no doubt, with dreams and fables, and yet true and right at\nheart.  So we will honour these old Argonauts, and listen to their story\nas it stands; and we will try to be like them, each of us in our place;\nfor each of us has a Golden Fleece to seek, and a wild sea to sail over\nere we reach it, and dragons to fight ere it be ours.\n\n                                * * * * *\n\nAnd what was that first Golden Fleece?  I do not know, nor care.  The old\nHellens said that it hung in Colchis, which we call the Circassian coast,\nnailed to a beech-tree in the war-God\u2019s wood; and that it was the fleece\nof the wondrous ram who bore Phrixus and Helle across the Euxine sea.\nFor Phrixus and Helle were the children of the cloud-nymph, and of\nAthamas the Minuan king.  And when a famine came upon the land, their\ncruel step-mother Ino wished to kill them, that her own children might\nreign, and said that they must be sacrificed on an altar, to turn away\nthe anger of the Gods.  So the poor children were brought to the altar,\nand the priest stood ready with his knife, when out of the clouds came\nthe Golden Ram, and took them on his back, and vanished.  Then madness\ncame upon that foolish king, Athamas, and ruin upon Ino and her children.\nFor Athamas killed one of them in his fury, and Ino fled from him with\nthe other in her arms, and leaped from a cliff into the sea, and was\nchanged into a dolphin, such as you have seen, which wanders over the\nwaves for ever sighing, with its little one clasped to its breast.\n\nBut the people drove out King Athamas, because he had killed his child;\nand he roamed about in his misery, till he came to the Oracle in Delphi.\nAnd the Oracle told him that he must wander for his sin, till the wild\nbeasts should feast him as their guest.  So he went on in hunger and\nsorrow for many a weary day, till he saw a pack of wolves.  The wolves\nwere tearing a sheep; but when they saw Athamas they fled, and left the\nsheep for him, and he ate of it; and then he knew that the oracle was\nfulfilled at last.  So he wandered no more; but settled, and built a\ntown, and became a king again.\n\nBut the ram carried the two children far away over land and sea, till he\ncame to the Thracian Chersonese, and there Helle fell into the sea.  So\nthose narrow straits are called \u2018Hellespont,\u2019 after her; and they bear\nthat name until this day.\n\nThen the ram flew on with Phrixus to the north-east across the sea which\nwe call the Black Sea now; but the Hellens call it Euxine.  And at last,\nthey say, he stopped at Colchis, on the steep Circassian coast; and there\nPhrixus married Chalciope, the daughter of Aietes the king; and offered\nthe ram in sacrifice; and Aietes nailed the ram\u2019s fleece to a beech, in\nthe grove of Ares the war-God.\n\nAnd after awhile Phrixus died, and was buried, but his spirit had no\nrest; for he was buried far from his native land, and the pleasant hills\nof Hellas.  So he came in dreams to the heroes of the Minuai, and called\nsadly by their beds, \u2018Come and set my spirit free, that I may go home to\nmy fathers and to my kinsfolk, and the pleasant Minuan land.\u2019\n\nAnd they asked, \u2018How shall we set your spirit free?\u2019\n\n\u2018You must sail over the sea to Colchis, and bring home the golden fleece;\nand then my spirit will come back with it, and I shall sleep with my\nfathers and have rest.\u2019\n\nHe came thus, and called to them often; but when they woke they looked at\neach other, and said, \u2018Who dare sail to Colchis, or bring home the golden\nfleece?\u2019  And in all the country none was brave enough to try it; for the\nman and the time were not come.\n\nPhrixus had a cousin called \u00c6son, who was king in Iolcos by the sea.\nThere he ruled over the rich Minuan heroes, as Athamas his uncle ruled in\nBoeotia; and, like Athamas, he was an unhappy man.  For he had a\nstep-brother named Pelias, of whom some said that he was a nymph\u2019s son,\nand there were dark and sad tales about his birth.  When he was a babe he\nwas cast out on the mountains, and a wild mare came by and kicked him.\nBut a shepherd passing found the baby, with its face all blackened by the\nblow; and took him home, and called him Pelias, because his face was\nbruised and black.  And he grew up fierce and lawless, and did many a\nfearful deed; and at last he drove out \u00c6son his step-brother, and then\nhis own brother Neleus, and took the kingdom to himself, and ruled over\nthe rich Minuan heroes, in Iolcos by the sea.\n\nAnd \u00c6son, when he was driven out, went sadly away out of the town,\nleading his little son by the hand; and he said to himself, \u2018I must hide\nthe child in the mountains; or Pelias will surely kill him, because he is\nthe heir.\u2019\n\nSo he went up from the sea across the valley, through the vineyards and\nthe olive groves, and across the torrent of Anauros, toward Pelion the\nancient mountain, whose brows are white with snow.\n\nHe went up and up into the mountain, over marsh, and crag, and down, till\nthe boy was tired and footsore, and \u00c6son had to bear him in his arms,\ntill he came to the mouth of a lonely cave, at the foot of a mighty\ncliff.\n\nAbove the cliff the snow-wreaths hung, dripping and cracking in the sun;\nbut at its foot around the cave\u2019s mouth grew all fair flowers and herbs,\nas if in a garden, ranged in order, each sort by itself.  There they grew\ngaily in the sunshine, and the spray of the torrent from above; while\nfrom the cave came the sound of music, and a man\u2019s voice singing to the\nharp.\n\nThen \u00c6son put down the lad, and whispered\u2014\n\n\u2018Fear not, but go in, and whomsoever you shall find, lay your hands upon\nhis knees, and say, \u201cIn the name of Zeus, the father of Gods and men, I\nam your guest from this day forth.\u201d\u2019\n\nThen the lad went in without trembling, for he too was a hero\u2019s son; but\nwhen he was within, he stopped in wonder to listen to that magic song.\n\nAnd there he saw the singer lying upon bear-skins and fragrant boughs:\nCheiron, the ancient centaur, the wisest of all things beneath the sky.\nDown to the waist he was a man, but below he was a noble horse; his white\nhair rolled down over his broad shoulders, and his white beard over his\nbroad brown chest; and his eyes were wise and mild, and his forehead like\na mountain-wall.\n\nAnd in his hands he held a harp of gold, and struck it with a golden key;\nand as he struck, he sang till his eyes glittered, and filled all the\ncave with light.\n\nAnd he sang of the birth of Time, and of the heavens and the dancing\nstars; and of the ocean, and the ether, and the fire, and the shaping of\nthe wondrous earth.  And he sang of the treasures of the hills, and the\nhidden jewels of the mine, and the veins of fire and metal, and the\nvirtues of all healing herbs, and of the speech of birds, and of\nprophecy, and of hidden things to come.\n\nThen he sang of health, and strength, and manhood, and a valiant heart;\nand of music, and hunting, and wrestling, and all the games which heroes\nlove: and of travel, and wars, and sieges, and a noble death in fight;\nand then he sang of peace and plenty, and of equal justice in the land;\nand as he sang the boy listened wide-eyed, and forgot his errand in the\nsong.\n\nAnd at the last old Cheiron was silent, and called the lad with a soft\nvoice.\n\nAnd the lad ran trembling to him, and would have laid his hands upon his\nknees; but Cheiron smiled, and said, \u2018Call hither your father \u00c6son, for I\nknow you, and all that has befallen, and saw you both afar in the valley,\neven before you left the town.\u2019\n\nThen \u00c6son came in sadly, and Cheiron asked him, \u2018Why camest you not\nyourself to me, \u00c6son the \u00c6olid?\u2019\n\nAnd \u00c6son said\u2014\n\n\u2018I thought, Cheiron will pity the lad if he sees him come alone; and I\nwished to try whether he was fearless, and dare venture like a hero\u2019s\nson.  But now I entreat you by Father Zeus, let the boy be your guest\ntill better times, and train him among the sons of the heroes, that he\nmay avenge his father\u2019s house.\u2019\n\nThen Cheiron smiled, and drew the lad to him, and laid his hand upon his\ngolden locks, and said, \u2018Are you afraid of my horse\u2019s hoofs, fair boy, or\nwill you be my pupil from this day?\u2019\n\n\u2018I would gladly have horse\u2019s hoofs like you, if I could sing such songs\nas yours.\u2019\n\nAnd Cheiron laughed, and said, \u2018Sit here by me till sundown, when your\nplayfellows will come home, and you shall learn like them to be a king,\nworthy to rule over gallant men.\u2019\n\nThen he turned to \u00c6son, and said, \u2018Go back in peace, and bend before the\nstorm like a prudent man.  This boy shall not cross the Anauros again,\ntill he has become a glory to you and to the house of \u00c6olus.\u2019\n\nAnd \u00c6son wept over his son and went away; but the boy did not weep, so\nfull was his fancy of that strange cave, and the centaur, and his song,\nand the playfellows whom he was to see.\n\nThen Cheiron put the lyre into his hands, and taught him how to play it,\ntill the sun sank low behind the cliff, and a shout was heard outside.\n\nAnd then in came the sons of the heroes, \u00c6neas, and Heracles, and Peleus,\nand many another mighty name.\n\nAnd great Cheiron leapt up joyfully, and his hoofs made the cave resound,\nas they shouted, \u2018Come out, Father Cheiron; come out and see our game.\u2019\nAnd one cried, \u2018I have killed two deer;\u2019 and another, \u2018I took a wild cat\namong the crags;\u2019 and Heracles dragged a wild goat after him by its\nhorns, for he was as huge as a mountain crag; and Coeneus carried a\nbear-cub under each arm, and laughed when they scratched and bit, for\nneither tooth nor steel could wound him.\n\nAnd Cheiron praised them all, each according to his deserts.\n\n                            [Picture: Cheiron]\n\nOnly one walked apart and silent, Asclepius, the too-wise child, with his\nbosom full of herbs and flowers, and round his wrist a spotted snake; he\ncame with downcast eyes to Cheiron, and whispered how he had watched the\nsnake cast its old skin, and grow young again before his eyes, and how he\nhad gone down into a village in the vale, and cured a dying man with a\nherb which he had seen a sick goat eat.\n\nAnd Cheiron smiled, and said, \u2018To each Athen\u00e9 and Apollo give some gift,\nand each is worthy in his place; but to this child they have given an\nhonour beyond all honours, to cure while others kill.\u2019\n\nThen the lads brought in wood, and split it, and lighted a blazing fire;\nand others skinned the deer and quartered them, and set them to roast\nbefore the fire; and while the venison was cooking they bathed in the\nsnow-torrent, and washed away the dust and sweat.\n\nAnd then all ate till they could eat no more (for they had tasted nothing\nsince the dawn), and drank of the clear spring water, for wine is not fit\nfor growing lads.  And when the remnants were put away, they all lay down\nupon the skins and leaves about the fire, and each took the lyre in turn,\nand sang and played with all his heart.\n\nAnd after a while they all went out to a plot of grass at the cave\u2019s\nmouth, and there they boxed, and ran, and wrestled, and laughed till the\nstones fell from the cliffs.\n\nThen Cheiron took his lyre, and all the lads joined hands; and as be\nplayed, they danced to his measure, in and out, and round and round.\nThere they danced hand in hand, till the night fell over land and sea,\nwhile the black glen shone with their broad white limbs and the gleam of\ntheir golden hair.\n\nAnd the lad danced with them, delighted, and then slept a wholesome\nsleep, upon fragrant leaves of bay, and myrtle, and marjoram, and flowers\nof thyme; and rose at the dawn, and bathed in the torrent, and became a\nschoolfellow to the heroes\u2019 sons, and forgot Iolcos, and his father, and\nall his former life.  But he grew strong, and brave and cunning, upon the\npleasant downs of Pelion, in the keen hungry mountain air.  And he learnt\nto wrestle, and to box, and to hunt, and to play upon the harp; and next\nhe learnt to ride, for old Cheiron used to mount him on his back; and he\nlearnt the virtues of all herbs and how to cure all wounds; and Cheiron\ncalled him Jason the healer, and that is his name until this day.\n\n\n\nPART II\nHOW JASON LOST HIS SANDAL IN ANAUROS\n\n\nAnd ten years came and went, and Jason was grown to be a mighty man.\nSome of his fellows were gone, and some were growing up by his side.\nAsclepius was gone into Peloponnese to work his wondrous cures on men;\nand some say he used to raise the dead to life.  And Heracles was gone to\nThebes to fulfil those famous labours which have become a proverb among\nmen.  And Peleus had married a sea-nymph, and his wedding is famous to\nthis day.  And \u00c6neas was gone home to Troy, and many a noble tale you\nwill read of him, and of all the other gallant heroes, the scholars of\nCheiron the just.  And it happened on a day that Jason stood on the\nmountain, and looked north and south and east and west; and Cheiron stood\nby him and watched him, for he knew that the time was come.\n\nAnd Jason looked and saw the plains of Thessaly, where the Lapithai breed\ntheir horses; and the lake of Boib\u00e9, and the stream which runs northward\nto Peneus and Tempe; and he looked north, and saw the mountain wall which\nguards the Magnesian shore; Olympus, the seat of the Immortals, and Ossa,\nand Pelion, where he stood. Then he looked east and saw the bright blue\nsea, which stretched away for ever toward the dawn.  Then he looked\nsouth, and saw a pleasant land, with white-walled towns and farms,\nnestling along the shore of a land-locked bay, while the smoke rose blue\namong the trees; and he knew it for the bay of Pagasai, and the rich\nlowlands of H\u00e6monia, and Iolcos by the sea.\n\nThen he sighed, and asked, \u2018Is it true what the heroes tell me\u2014that I am\nheir of that fair land?\u2019\n\n\u2018And what good would it be to you, Jason, if you were heir of that fair\nland?\u2019\n\n\u2018I would take it and keep it.\u2019\n\n\u2018A strong man has taken it and kept it long.  Are you stronger than\nPelias the terrible?\u2019\n\n\u2018I can try my strength with his,\u2019 said Jason; but Cheiron sighed, and\nsaid\u2014\n\n\u2018You have many a danger to go through before you rule in Iolcos by the\nsea: many a danger and many a woe; and strange troubles in strange lands,\nsuch as man never saw before.\u2019\n\n\u2018The happier I,\u2019 said Jason, \u2018to see what man never saw before.\u2019\n\nAnd Cheiron sighed again, and said, \u2018The eaglet must leave the nest when\nit is fledged.  Will you go to Iolcos by the sea?  Then promise me two\nthings before you go.\u2019\n\nJason promised, and Cheiron answered, \u2018Speak harshly to no soul whom you\nmay meet, and stand by the word which you shall speak.\u2019\n\nJason wondered why Cheiron asked this of him; but he knew that the\nCentaur was a prophet, and saw things long before they came.  So he\npromised, and leapt down the mountain, to take his fortune like a man.\n\nHe went down through the arbutus thickets, and across the downs of thyme,\ntill he came to the vineyard walls, and the pomegranates and the olives\nin the glen; and among the olives roared Anauros, all foaming with a\nsummer flood.\n\nAnd on the bank of Anauros sat a woman, all wrinkled, gray, and old; her\nhead shook palsied on her breast, and her hands shook palsied on her\nknees; and when she saw Jason, she spoke whining, \u2018Who will carry me\nacross the flood?\u2019\n\nJason was bold and hasty, and was just going to leap into the flood: and\nyet he thought twice before he leapt, so loud roared the torrent down,\nall brown from the mountain rains, and silver-veined with melting snow;\nwhile underneath he could hear the boulders rumbling like the tramp of\nhorsemen or the roll of wheels, as they ground along the narrow channel,\nand shook the rocks on which he stood.\n\nBut the old woman whined all the more, \u2018I am weak and old, fair youth.\nFor Hera\u2019s sake, carry me over the torrent.\u2019\n\nAnd Jason was going to answer her scornfully, when Cheiron\u2019s words came\nto his mind.\n\nSo he said, \u2018For Hera\u2019s sake, the Queen of the Immortals on Olympus, I\nwill carry you over the torrent, unless we both are drowned midway.\u2019\n\nThen the old dame leapt upon his back, as nimbly as a goat; and Jason\nstaggered in, wondering; and the first step was up to his knees.\n\nThe first step was up to his knees, and the second step was up to his\nwaist; and the stones rolled about his feet, and his feet slipped about\nthe stones; so he went on staggering, and panting, while the old woman\ncried from off his back\u2014\n\n\u2018Fool, you have wet my mantle!  Do you make game of poor old souls like\nme?\u2019\n\nJason had half a mind to drop her, and let her get through the torrent by\nherself; but Cheiron\u2019s words were in his mind, and he said only,\n\u2018Patience, mother; the best horse may stumble some day.\u2019\n\nAt last he staggered to the shore, and set her down upon the bank; and a\nstrong man he needed to have been, or that wild water he never would have\ncrossed.\n\nHe lay panting awhile upon the bank, and then leapt up to go upon his\njourney; but he cast one look at the old woman, for he thought, \u2018She\nshould thank me once at least.\u2019\n\nAnd as he looked, she grew fairer than all women, and taller than all men\non earth; and her garments shone like the summer sea, and her jewels like\nthe stars of heaven; and over her forehead was a veil woven of the golden\nclouds of sunset; and through the veil she looked down on him, with great\nsoft heifer\u2019s eyes; with great eyes, mild and awful, which filled all the\nglen with light.\n\nAnd Jason fell upon his knees, and hid his face between his hands.\n\nAnd she spoke, \u2018I am the Queen of Olympus, Hera the wife of Zeus.  As\nthou hast done to me, so will I do to thee.  Call on me in the hour of\nneed, and try if the Immortals can forget.\u2019\n\n                        [Picture: Jason and Hera]\n\nAnd when Jason looked up, she rose from off the earth, like a pillar of\ntall white cloud, and floated away across the mountain peaks, toward\nOlympus the holy hill.\n\nThen a great fear fell on Jason: but after a while he grew light of\nheart; and he blessed old Cheiron, and said, \u2018Surely the Centaur is a\nprophet, and guessed what would come to pass, when he bade me speak\nharshly to no soul whom I might meet.\u2019\n\nThen he went down toward Iolcos; and as he walked he found that he had\nlost one of his sandals in the flood.\n\nAnd as he went through the streets, the people came out to look at him,\nso tall and fair was he; but some of the elders whispered together; and\nat last one of them stopped Jason, and called to him, \u2018Fair lad, who are\nyou, and whence come you; and what is your errand in the town?\u2019\n\n\u2018My name, good father, is Jason, and I come from Pelion up above; and my\nerrand is to Pelias your king; tell me then where his palace is.\u2019\n\nBut the old man started, and grew pale, and said, \u2018Do you not know the\noracle, my son, that you go so boldly through the town with but one\nsandal on?\u2019\n\n\u2018I am a stranger here, and know of no oracle; but what of my one sandal?\nI lost the other in Anauros, while I was struggling with the flood.\u2019\n\nThen the old man looked back to his companions; and one sighed, and\nanother smiled; at last he said, \u2018I will tell you, lest you rush upon\nyour ruin unawares.  The oracle in Delphi has said that a man wearing one\nsandal should take the kingdom from Pelias, and keep it for himself.\nTherefore beware how you go up to his palace, for he is the fiercest and\nmost cunning of all kings.\u2019\n\nThen Jason laughed a great laugh, like a war-horse in his pride.  \u2018Good\nnews, good father, both for you and me.  For that very end I came into\nthe town.\u2019\n\nThen he strode on toward the palace of Pelias, while all the people\nwondered at his bearing.\n\nAnd he stood in the doorway and cried, \u2018Come out, come out, Pelias the\nvaliant, and fight for your kingdom like a man.\u2019\n\nPelias came out wondering, and \u2018Who are you, bold youth?\u2019 he cried.\n\n\u2018I am Jason, the son of \u00c6son, the heir of all this land.\u2019\n\nThen Pelias lifted up his hands and eyes, and wept, or seemed to weep;\nand blessed the heavens which had brought his nephew to him, never to\nleave him more.  \u2018For,\u2019 said he, \u2018I have but three daughters, and no son\nto be my heir.  You shall be my heir then, and rule the kingdom after me,\nand marry whichsoever of my daughters you shall choose; though a sad\nkingdom you will find it, and whosoever rules it a miserable man.  But\ncome in, come in, and feast.\u2019\n\nSo he drew Jason in, whether he would or not, and spoke to him so\nlovingly and feasted him so well, that Jason\u2019s anger passed; and after\nsupper his three cousins came into the hall, and Jason thought that he\nshould like well enough to have one of them for his wife.\n\nBut at last he said to Pelias, \u2018Why do you look so sad, my uncle?  And\nwhat did you mean just now when you said that this was a doleful kingdom,\nand its ruler a miserable man?\u2019\n\nThen Pelias sighed heavily again and again and again, like a man who had\nto tell some dreadful story, and was afraid to begin; but at last\u2014\n\n\u2018For seven long years and more have I never known a quiet night; and no\nmore will he who comes after me, till the golden fleece be brought home.\u2019\n\nThen he told Jason the story of Phrixus, and of the golden fleece; and\ntold him, too, which was a lie, that Phrixus\u2019 spirit tormented him,\ncalling to him day and night.  And his daughters came, and told the same\ntale (for their father had taught them their parts), and wept, and said,\n\u2018Oh who will bring home the golden fleece, that our uncle\u2019s spirit may\nrest; and that we may have rest also, whom he never lets sleep in peace?\u2019\n\nJason sat awhile, sad and silent; for he had often heard of that golden\nfleece; but he looked on it as a thing hopeless and impossible for any\nmortal man to win it.\n\nBut when Pelias saw him silent, he began to talk of other things, and\ncourted Jason more and more, speaking to him as if he was certain to be\nhis heir, and asking his advice about the kingdom; till Jason, who was\nyoung and simple, could not help saying to himself, \u2018Surely he is not the\ndark man whom people call him.  Yet why did he drive my father out?\u2019  And\nhe asked Pelias boldly, \u2018Men say that you are terrible, and a man of\nblood; but I find you a kind and hospitable man; and as you are to me, so\nwill I be to you.  Yet why did you drive my father out?\u2019\n\nPelias smiled, and sighed.  \u2018Men have slandered me in that, as in all\nthings.  Your father was growing old and weary, and he gave the kingdom\nup to me of his own will.  You shall see him to-morrow, and ask him; and\nhe will tell you the same.\u2019\n\nJason\u2019s heart leapt in him when he heard that he was to see his father;\nand he believed all that Pelias said, forgetting that his father might\nnot dare to tell the truth.\n\n\u2018One thing more there is,\u2019 said Pelias, \u2018on which I need your advice;\nfor, though you are young, I see in you a wisdom beyond your years.\nThere is one neighbour of mine, whom I dread more than all men on earth.\nI am stronger than he now, and can command him; but I know that if he\nstay among us, he will work my ruin in the end.  Can you give me a plan,\nJason, by which I can rid myself of that man?\u2019\n\nAfter awhile Jason answered, half laughing, \u2018Were I you, I would send him\nto fetch that same golden fleece; for if he once set forth after it you\nwould never be troubled with him more.\u2019\n\nAnd at that a bitter smile came across Pelias\u2019 lips, and a flash of\nwicked joy into his eyes; and Jason saw it, and started; and over his\nmind came the warning of the old man, and his own one sandal, and the\noracle, and he saw that he was taken in a trap.\n\nBut Pelias only answered gently, \u2018My son, he shall be sent forthwith.\u2019\n\n\u2018You mean me?\u2019 cried Jason, starting up, \u2018because I came here with one\nsandal?\u2019  And he lifted his fist angrily, while Pelias stood up to him\nlike a wolf at bay; and whether of the two was the stronger and the\nfiercer it would be hard to tell.\n\nBut after a moment Pelias spoke gently, \u2018Why then so rash, my son?  You,\nand not I, have said what is said; why blame me for what I have not done?\nHad you bid me love the man of whom I spoke, and make him my son-in-law\nand heir, I would have obeyed you; and what if I obey you now, and send\nthe man to win himself immortal fame?  I have not harmed you, or him.\nOne thing at least I know, that he will go, and that gladly; for he has a\nhero\u2019s heart within him, loving glory, and scorning to break the word\nwhich he has given.\u2019\n\nJason saw that he was entrapped; but his second promise to Cheiron came\ninto his mind, and he thought, \u2018What if the Centaur were a prophet in\nthat also, and meant that I should win the fleece!\u2019  Then he cried aloud\u2014\n\n\u2018You have well spoken, cunning uncle of mine!  I love glory, and I dare\nkeep to my word.  I will go and fetch this golden fleece.  Promise me but\nthis in return, and keep your word as I keep mine.  Treat my father\nlovingly while I am gone, for the sake of the all-seeing Zeus; and give\nme up the kingdom for my own on the day that I bring back the golden\nfleece.\u2019\n\nThen Pelias looked at him and almost loved him, in the midst of all his\nhate; and said, \u2018I promise, and I will perform.  It will be no shame to\ngive up my kingdom to the man who wins that fleece.\u2019  Then they swore a\ngreat oath between them; and afterwards both went in, and lay down to\nsleep.\n\nBut Jason could not sleep for thinking of his mighty oath, and how he was\nto fulfil it, all alone, and without wealth or friends.  So he tossed a\nlong time upon his bed, and thought of this plan and of that; and\nsometimes Phrixus seemed to call him, in a thin voice, faint and low, as\nif it came from far across the sea, \u2018Let me come home to my fathers and\nhave rest.\u2019  And sometimes he seemed to see the eyes of Hera, and to hear\nher words again\u2014\u2018Call on me in the hour of need, and see if the Immortals\ncan forget.\u2019\n\nAnd on the morrow he went to Pelias, and said, \u2018Give me a victim, that I\nmay sacrifice to Hera.\u2019  So he went up, and offered his sacrifice; and as\nhe stood by the altar Hera sent a thought into his mind; and he went back\nto Pelias, and said\u2014\n\n\u2018If you are indeed in earnest, give me two heralds, that they may go\nround to all the princes of the Minuai, who were pupils of the Centaur\nwith me, that we may fit out a ship together, and take what shall\nbefall.\u2019\n\nAt that Pelias praised his wisdom, and hastened to send the heralds out;\nfor he said in his heart, \u2018Let all the princes go with him, and, like\nhim, never return; for so I shall be lord of all the Minuai, and the\ngreatest king in Hellas.\u2019\n\n\n\nPART III\nHOW THEY BUILT THE SHIP \u2018ARGO\u2019 IN IOLCOS\n\n\nSo the heralds went out, and cried to all the heroes of the Minuai, \u2018Who\ndare come to the adventure of the golden fleece?\u2019\n\nAnd Hera stirred the hearts of all the princes, and they came from all\ntheir valleys to the yellow sands of Pagasai.  And first came Heracles\nthe mighty, with his lion\u2019s skin and club, and behind him Hylas his young\nsquire, who bore his arrows and his bow; and Tiphys, the skilful\nsteersman; and Butes, the fairest of all men; and Castor and Polydeuces\nthe twins, the sons of the magic swan; and C\u00e6neus, the strongest of\nmortals, whom the Centaurs tried in vain to kill, and overwhelmed him\nwith trunks of pine-trees, but even so he would not die; and thither came\nZetes and Calais, the winged sons of the north wind; and Peleus, the\nfather of Achilles, whose bride was silver-footed Thetis, the goddess of\nthe sea.  And thither came Telamon and Oileus, the fathers of the two\nAiantes, who fought upon the plains of Troy; and Mopsus, the wise\nsoothsayer, who knew the speech of birds; and Idmon, to whom Phoebus gave\na tongue to prophesy of things to come; and Ancaios, who could read the\nstars, and knew all the circles of the heavens; and Argus, the famed\nshipbuilder, and many a hero more, in helmets of brass and gold with tall\ndyed horse-hair crests, and embroidered shirts of linen beneath their\ncoats of mail, and greaves of polished tin to guard their knees in fight;\nwith each man his shield upon his shoulder, of many a fold of tough\nbull\u2019s hide, and his sword of tempered bronze in his silver-studded belt;\nand in his right hand a pair of lances, of the heavy white ash-staves.\n\nSo they came down to Iolcos, and all the city came out to meet them, and\nwere never tired with looking at their height, and their beauty, and\ntheir gallant bearing and the glitter of their inlaid arms.  And some\nsaid, \u2018Never was such a gathering of the heroes since the Hellens\nconquered the land.\u2019  But the women sighed over them, and whispered,\n\u2018Alas! they are all going to their death!\u2019\n\nThen they felled the pines on Pelion, and shaped them with the axe, and\nArgus taught them to build a galley, the first long ship which ever\nsailed the seas.  They pierced her for fifty oars\u2014an oar for each hero of\nthe crew\u2014and pitched her with coal-black pitch, and painted her bows with\nvermilion; and they named her _Argo_ after Argus, and worked at her all\nday long.  And at night Pelias feasted them like a king, and they slept\nin his palace-porch.\n\nBut Jason went away to the northward, and into the land of Thrace, till\nhe found Orpheus, the prince of minstrels, where he dwelt in his cave\nunder Rhodope, among the savage Cicon tribes.  And he asked him, \u2018Will\nyou leave your mountains, Orpheus, my fellow-scholar in old times, and\ncross Strymon once more with me, to sail with the heroes of the Minuai,\nand bring home the golden fleece, and charm for us all men and all\nmonsters with your magic harp and song?\u2019\n\nThen Orpheus sighed, \u2018Have I not had enough of toil and of weary\nwandering, far and wide since I lived in Cheiron\u2019s cave, above Iolcos by\nthe sea?  In vain is the skill and the voice which my goddess mother gave\nme; in vain have I sung and laboured; in vain I went down to the dead,\nand charmed all the kings of Hades, to win back Eurydice my bride.  For I\nwon her, my beloved, and lost her again the same day, and wandered away\nin my madness, even to Egypt and the Libyan sands, and the isles of all\nthe seas, driven on by the terrible gadfly, while I charmed in vain the\nhearts of men, and the savage forest beasts, and the trees, and the\nlifeless stones, with my magic harp and song, giving rest, but finding\nnone.  But at last Calliope my mother delivered me, and brought me home\nin peace; and I dwell here in the cave alone, among the savage Cicon\ntribes, softening their wild hearts with music and the gentle laws of\nZeus.  And now I must go out again, to the ends of all the earth, far\naway into the misty darkness, to the last wave of the Eastern Sea.  But\nwhat is doomed must be, and a friend\u2019s demand obeyed; for prayers are the\ndaughters of Zeus, and who honours them honours him.\u2019\n\nThen Orpheus rose up sighing, and took his harp, and went over Strymon.\nAnd he led Jason to the south-west, up the banks of Haliacmon and over\nthe spurs of Pindus, to Dodona the town of Zeus, where it stood by the\nside of the sacred lake, and the fountain which breathed out fire, in the\ndarkness of the ancient oakwood, beneath the mountain of the hundred\nsprings.  And he led him to the holy oak, where the black dove settled in\nold times, and was changed into the priestess of Zeus, and gave oracles\nto all nations round.  And he bade him cut down a bough, and sacrifice to\nHera and to Zeus; and they took the bough and came to Iolcos, and nailed\nit to the beak-head of the ship.\n\nAnd at last the ship was finished, and they tried to launch her down the\nbeach; but she was too heavy for them to move her, and her keel sank deep\ninto the sand.  Then all the heroes looked at each other blushing; but\nJason spoke, and said, \u2018Let us ask the magic bough; perhaps it can help\nus in our need.\u2019\n\nThen a voice came from the bough, and Jason heard the words it said, and\nbade Orpheus play upon the harp, while the heroes waited round, holding\nthe pine-trunk rollers, to help her toward the sea.\n\nThen Orpheus took his harp, and began his magic song\u2014\u2018How sweet it is to\nride upon the surges, and to leap from wave to wave, while the wind sings\ncheerful in the cordage, and the oars flash fast among the foam!  How\nsweet it is to roam across the ocean, and see new towns and wondrous\nlands, and to come home laden with treasure, and to win undying fame!\u2019\n\nAnd the good ship _Argo_ heard him, and longed to be away and out at sea;\ntill she stirred in every timber, and heaved from stem to stern, and\nleapt up from the sand upon the rollers, and plunged onward like a\ngallant horse; and the heroes fed her path with pine-trunks, till she\nrushed into the whispering sea.\n\nThen they stored her well with food and water, and pulled the ladder up\non board, and settled themselves each man to his oar, and kept time to\nOrpheus\u2019 harp; and away across the bay they rowed southward, while the\npeople lined the cliffs; and the women wept, while the men shouted, at\nthe starting of that gallant crew.\n\n\n\nPART IV\nHOW THE ARGONAUTS SAILED TO COLCHIS\n\n\nAnd what happened next, my children, whether it be true or not, stands\nwritten in ancient songs, which you shall read for yourselves some day.\nAnd grand old songs they are, written in grand old rolling verse; and\nthey call them the Songs of Orpheus, or the Orphics, to this day.  And\nthey tell how the heroes came to Aphetai, across the bay, and waited for\nthe south-west wind, and chose themselves a captain from their crew: and\nhow all called for Heracles, because he was the strongest and most huge;\nbut Heracles refused, and called for Jason, because he was the wisest of\nthem all.  So Jason was chosen captain; and Orpheus heaped a pile of\nwood, and slew a bull, and offered it to Hera, and called all the heroes\nto stand round, each man\u2019s head crowned with olive, and to strike their\nswords into the bull.  Then he filled a golden goblet with the bull\u2019s\nblood, and with wheaten flour, and honey, and wine, and the bitter\nsalt-sea water, and bade the heroes taste.  So each tasted the goblet,\nand passed it round, and vowed an awful vow: and they vowed before the\nsun, and the night, and the blue-haired sea who shakes the land, to stand\nby Jason faithfully in the adventure of the golden fleece; and whosoever\nshrank back, or disobeyed, or turned traitor to his vow, then justice\nshould minister against him, and the Erinnues who track guilty men.\n\nThen Jason lighted the pile, and burnt the carcase of the bull; and they\nwent to their ship and sailed eastward, like men who have a work to do;\nand the place from which they went was called Aphetai, the sailing-place,\nfrom that day forth.  Three thousand years and more they sailed away,\ninto the unknown Eastern seas; and great nations have come and gone since\nthen, and many a storm has swept the earth; and many a mighty armament,\nto which _Argo_ would be but one small boat; English and French, Turkish\nand Russian, have sailed those waters since; yet the fame of that small\n_Argo_ lives for ever, and her name is become a proverb among men.\n\nSo they sailed past the Isle of Sciathos, with the Cape of Sepius on\ntheir left, and turned to the northward toward Pelion, up the long\nMagnesian shore.  On their right hand was the open sea, and on their left\nold Pelion rose, while the clouds crawled round his dark pine-forests,\nand his caps of summer snow.  And their hearts yearned for the dear old\nmountain, as they thought of pleasant days gone by, and of the sports of\ntheir boyhood, and their hunting, and their schooling in the cave beneath\nthe cliff.  And at last Peleus spoke, \u2018Let us land here, friends, and\nclimb the dear old hill once more.  We are going on a fearful journey;\nwho knows if we shall see Pelion again?  Let us go up to Cheiron our\nmaster, and ask his blessing ere we start.  And I have a boy, too, with\nhim, whom he trains as he trained me once\u2014the son whom Thetis brought me,\nthe silver-footed lady of the sea, whom I caught in the cave, and tamed\nher, though she changed her shape seven times.  For she changed, as I\nheld her, into water, and to vapour, and to burning flame, and to a rock,\nand to a black-maned lion, and to a tall and stately tree.  But I held\nher and held her ever, till she took her own shape again, and led her to\nmy father\u2019s house, and won her for my bride.  And all the rulers of\nOlympus came to our wedding, and the heavens and the earth rejoiced\ntogether, when an Immortal wedded mortal man.  And now let me see my son;\nfor it is not often I shall see him upon earth: famous he will be, but\nshort-lived, and die in the flower of youth.\u2019\n\nSo Tiphys the helmsman steered them to the shore under the crags of\nPelion; and they went up through the dark pine-forests towards the\nCentaur\u2019s cave.\n\nAnd they came into the misty hall, beneath the snow-crowned crag; and saw\nthe great Centaur lying, with his huge limbs spread upon the rock; and\nbeside him stood Achilles, the child whom no steel could wound, and\nplayed upon his harp right sweetly, while Cheiron watched and smiled.\n\nThen Cheiron leapt up and welcomed them, and kissed them every one, and\nset a feast before them of swine\u2019s flesh, and venison, and good wine; and\nyoung Achilles served them, and carried the golden goblet round.  And\nafter supper all the heroes clapped their hands, and called on Orpheus to\nsing; but he refused, and said, \u2018How can I, who am the younger, sing\nbefore our ancient host?\u2019  So they called on Cheiron to sing, and\nAchilles brought him his harp; and he began a wondrous song; a famous\nstory of old time, of the fight between the Centaurs and the Lapithai,\nwhich you may still see carved in stone. {96}  He sang how his brothers\ncame to ruin by their folly, when they were mad with wine; and how they\nand the heroes fought, with fists, and teeth, and the goblets from which\nthey drank; and how they tore up the pine-trees in their fury, and hurled\ngreat crags of stone, while the mountains thundered with the battle, and\nthe land was wasted far and wide; till the Lapithai drove them from their\nhome in the rich Thessalian plains to the lonely glens of Pindus, leaving\nCheiron all alone.  And the heroes praised his song right heartily; for\nsome of them had helped in that great fight.\n\nThen Orpheus took the lyre, and sang of Chaos, and the making of the\nwondrous World, and how all things sprang from Love, who could not live\nalone in the Abyss.  And as he sang, his voice rose from the cave, above\nthe crags, and through the tree-tops, and the glens of oak and pine.  And\nthe trees bowed their heads when they heard it, and the gray rocks\ncracked and rang, and the forest beasts crept near to listen, and the\nbirds forsook their nests and hovered round.  And old Cheiron claps his\nhands together, and beat his hoofs upon the ground, for wonder at that\nmagic song.\n\nThen Peleus kissed his boy, and wept over him, and they went down to the\nship; and Cheiron came down with them, weeping, and kissed them one by\none, and blest them, and promised to them great renown.  And the heroes\nwept when they left him, till their great hearts could weep no more; for\nhe was kind and just and pious, and wiser than all beasts and men.  Then\nhe went up to a cliff, and prayed for them, that they might come home\nsafe and well; while the heroes rowed away, and watched him standing on\nhis cliff above the sea, with his great hands raised toward heaven, and\nhis white locks waving in the wind; and they strained their eyes to watch\nhim to the last, for they felt that they should look on him no more.\n\nSo they rowed on over the long swell of the sea, past Olympus, the seat\nof the Immortals, and past the wooded bays of Athos, and Samothrace the\nsacred isle; and they came past Lemnos to the Hellespont, and through the\nnarrow strait of Abydos, and so on into the Propontis, which we call\nMarmora now.  And there they met with Cyzicus, ruling in Asia over the\nDolions, who, the songs say, was the son of \u00c6neas, of whom you will hear\nmany a tale some day.  For Homer tells us how he fought at Troy, and\nVirgil how he sailed away and founded Rome; and men believed until late\nyears that from him sprang our old British kings.  Now Cyzicus, the songs\nsay, welcomed the heroes, for his father had been one of Cheiron\u2019s\nscholars; so he welcomed them, and feasted them, and stored their ship\nwith corn and wine, and cloaks and rugs, the songs say, and shirts, of\nwhich no doubt they stood in need.\n\nBut at night, while they lay sleeping, came down on them terrible men,\nwho lived with the bears in the mountains, like Titans or giants in\nshape; for each of them had six arms, and they fought with young firs and\npines.  But Heracles killed them all before morn with his deadly poisoned\narrows; but among them, in the darkness, he slew Cyzicus the kindly\nprince.\n\nThen they got to their ship and to their oars, and Tiphys bade them cast\noff the hawsers and go to sea.  But as he spoke a whirlwind came, and\nspun the _Argo_ round, and twisted the hawsers together, so that no man\ncould loose them.  Then Tiphys dropped the rudder from his hand, and\ncried, \u2018This comes from the Gods above.\u2019  But Jason went forward, and\nasked counsel of the magic bough.\n\nThen the magic bough spoke, and answered, \u2018This is because you have slain\nCyzicus your friend.  You must appease his soul, or you will never leave\nthis shore.\u2019\n\nJason went back sadly, and told the heroes what he had heard.  And they\nleapt on shore, and searched till dawn; and at dawn they found the body,\nall rolled in dust and blood, among the corpses of those monstrous\nbeasts.  And they wept over their kind host, and laid him on a fair bed,\nand heaped a huge mound over him, and offered black sheep at his tomb,\nand Orpheus sang a magic song to him, that his spirit might have rest.\nAnd then they held games at the tomb, after the custom of those times,\nand Jason gave prizes to each winner.  To Anc\u00e6us he gave a golden cup,\nfor he wrestled best of all; and to Heracles a silver one, for he was the\nstrongest of all; and to Castor, who rode best, a golden crest; and\nPolydeuces the boxer had a rich carpet, and to Orpheus for his song a\nsandal with golden wings.  But Jason himself was the best of all the\narchers, and the Minuai crowned him with an olive crown; and so, the\nsongs say, the soul of good Cyzicus was appeased and the heroes went on\ntheir way in peace.\n\nBut when Cyzicus\u2019 wife heard that he was dead she died likewise of grief;\nand her tears became a fountain of clear water, which flows the whole\nyear round.\n\nThen they rowed away, the songs say, along the Mysian shore, and past the\nmouth of Rhindacus, till they found a pleasant bay, sheltered by the long\nridges of Arganthus, and by high walls of basalt rock.  And there they\nran the ship ashore upon the yellow sand, and furled the sail, and took\nthe mast down, and lashed it in its crutch.  And next they let down the\nladder, and went ashore to sport and rest.\n\nAnd there Heracles went away into the woods, bow in hand, to hunt wild\ndeer; and Hylas the fair boy slipt away after him, and followed him by\nstealth, until he lost himself among the glens, and sat down weary to\nrest himself by the side of a lake; and there the water nymphs came up to\nlook at him, and loved him, and carried him down under the lake to be\ntheir playfellow, for ever happy and young.  And Heracles sought for him\nin vain, shouting his name till all the mountains rang; but Hylas never\nheard him, far down under the sparkling lake.  So while Heracles wandered\nsearching for him, a fair breeze sprang up, and Heracles was nowhere to\nbe found; and the _Argo_ sailed away, and Heracles was left behind, and\nnever saw the noble Phasian stream.\n\nThen the Minuai came to a doleful land, where Amycus the giant ruled, and\ncared nothing for the laws of Zeus, but challenged all strangers to box\nwith him, and those whom he conquered he slew.  But Polydeuces the boxer\nstruck him a harder blow than he ever felt before, and slew him; and the\nMinuai went on up the Bosphorus, till they came to the city of Phineus,\nthe fierce Bithynian king; for Zetes and Calais bade Jason land there,\nbecause they had a work to do.\n\nAnd they went up from the shore toward the city, through forests white\nwith snow; and Phineus came out to meet them with a lean and woful face,\nand said, \u2018Welcome, gallant heroes, to the land of bitter blasts, the\nland of cold and misery; yet I will feast you as best I can.\u2019  And he led\nthem in, and set meat before them; but before they could put their hands\nto their mouths, down came two fearful monsters, the like of whom man\nnever saw; for they had the faces and the hair of fair maidens, but the\nwings and claws of hawks; and they snatched the meat from off the table,\nand flew shrieking out above the roofs.\n\nThen Phineus beat his breast and cried, \u2018These are the Harpies, whose\nnames are the Whirlwind and the Swift, the daughters of Wonder and of the\nAmber-nymph, and they rob us night and day.  They carried off the\ndaughters of Pandareus, whom all the Gods had blest; for Aphrodite fed\nthem on Olympus with honey and milk and wine; and Hera gave them beauty\nand wisdom, and Athen\u00e9 skill in all the arts; but when they came to their\nwedding, the Harpies snatched them both away, and gave them to be slaves\nto the Erinnues, and live in horror all their days.  And now they haunt\nme, and my people, and the Bosphorus, with fearful storms; and sweep away\nour food from off our tables, so that we starve in spite of all our\nwealth.\u2019\n\nThen up rose Zetes and Calais, the winged sons of the North-wind, and\nsaid, \u2018Do you not know us, Phineus, and these wings which grow upon our\nbacks?\u2019  And Phineus hid his face in terror; but he answered not a word.\n\n\u2018Because you have been a traitor, Phineus, the Harpies haunt you night\nand day.  Where is Cleopatra our sister, your wife, whom you keep in\nprison? and where are her two children, whom you blinded in your rage, at\nthe bidding of an evil woman, and cast them out upon the rocks?  Swear to\nus that you will right our sister, and cast out that wicked woman; and\nthen we will free you from your plague, and drive the whirlwind maidens\nto the south; but if not, we will put out your eyes, as you put out the\neyes of your own sons.\u2019\n\nThen Phineus swore an oath to them, and drove out the wicked woman; and\nJason took those two poor children, and cured their eyes with magic\nherbs.\n\nBut Zetes and Calais rose up sadly and said, \u2018Farewell now, heroes all;\nfarewell, our dear companions, with whom we played on Pelion in old\ntimes; for a fate is laid upon us, and our day is come at last, in which\nwe must hunt the whirlwinds over land and sea for ever; and if we catch\nthem they die, and if not, we die ourselves.\u2019\n\nAt that all the heroes wept; but the two young men sprang up, and aloft\ninto the air after the Harpies, and the battle of the winds began.\n\nThe heroes trembled in silence as they heard the shrieking of the blasts;\nwhile the palace rocked and all the city, and great stones were torn from\nthe crags, and the forest pines were hurled earthward, north and south\nand east and west, and the Bosphorus boiled white with foam, and the\nclouds were dashed against the cliffs.\n\nBut at last the battle ended, and the Harpies fled screaming toward the\nsouth, and the sons of the North-wind rushed after them, and brought\nclear sunshine where they passed.  For many a league they followed them,\nover all the isles of the Cyclades, and away to the south-west across\nHellas, till they came to the Ionian Sea, and there they fell upon the\nEchinades, at the mouth of the Achelous; and those isles were called the\nWhirlwind Isles for many a hundred years.  But what became of Zetes and\nCalais I know not, for the heroes never saw them again: and some say that\nHeracles met them, and quarrelled with them, and slew them with his\narrows; and some say that they fell down from weariness and the heat of\nthe summer sun, and that the Sun-god buried them among the Cyclades, in\nthe pleasant Isle of Tenos; and for many hundred years their grave was\nshown there, and over it a pillar, which turned to every wind.  But those\ndark storms and whirlwinds haunt the Bosphorus until this day.\n\nBut the Argonauts went eastward, and out into the open sea, which we now\ncall the Black Sea, but it was called the Euxine then.  No Hellen had\never crossed it, and all feared that dreadful sea, and its rocks, and\nshoals, and fogs, and bitter freezing storms; and they told strange\nstories of it, some false and some half-true, how it stretched northward\nto the ends of the earth, and the sluggish Putrid Sea, and the\neverlasting night, and the regions of the dead.  So the heroes trembled,\nfor all their courage, as they came into that wild Black Sea, and saw it\nstretching out before them, without a shore, as far as eye could see.\n\nAnd first Orpheus spoke, and warned them, \u2018We shall come now to the\nwandering blue rocks; my mother warned me of them, Calliope, the immortal\nmuse.\u2019\n\nAnd soon they saw the blue rocks shining like spires and castles of gray\nglass, while an ice-cold wind blew from them and chilled all the heroes\u2019\nhearts.  And as they neared they could see them heaving, as they rolled\nupon the long sea-waves, crashing and grinding together, till the roar\nwent up to heaven.  The sea sprang up in spouts between them, and swept\nround them in white sheets of foam; but their heads swung nodding high in\nair, while the wind whistled shrill among the crags.\n\nThe heroes\u2019 hearts sank within them, and they lay upon their oars in\nfear; but Orpheus called to Tiphys the helmsman, \u2018Between them we must\npass; so look ahead for an opening, and be brave, for Hera is with us.\u2019\nBut Tiphys the cunning helmsman stood silent, clenching his teeth, till\nhe saw a heron come flying mast-high toward the rocks, and hover awhile\nbefore them, as if looking for a passage through.  Then he cried, \u2018Hera\nhas sent us a pilot; let us follow the cunning bird.\u2019\n\nThen the heron flapped to and fro a moment, till he saw a hidden gap, and\ninto it he rushed like an arrow, while the heroes watched what would\nbefall.\n\nAnd the blue rocks clashed together as the bird fled swiftly through; but\nthey struck but a feather from his tail, and then rebounded apart at the\nshock.\n\nThen Tiphys cheered the heroes, and they shouted; and the oars bent like\nwithes beneath their strokes as they rushed between those toppling\nice-crags and the cold blue lips of death.  And ere the rocks could meet\nagain they had passed them, and were safe out in the open sea.\n\nAnd after that they sailed on wearily along the Asian coast, by the Black\nCape and Thyneis, where the hot stream of Thymbris falls into the sea,\nand Sangarius, whose waters float on the Euxine, till they came to Wolf\nthe river, and to Wolf the kindly king.  And there died two brave heroes,\nIdmon and Tiphys the wise helmsman: one died of an evil sickness, and one\na wild boar slew.  So the heroes heaped a mound above them, and set upon\nit an oar on high, and left them there to sleep together, on the far-off\nLycian shore.  But Idas killed the boar, and avenged Tiphys; and Ancaios\ntook the rudder and was helmsman, and steered them on toward the east.\n\nAnd they went on past Sinope, and many a mighty river\u2019s mouth, and past\nmany a barbarous tribe, and the cities of the Amazons, the warlike women\nof the East, till all night they heard the clank of anvils and the roar\nof furnace-blasts, and the forge-fires shone like sparks through the\ndarkness in the mountain glens aloft; for they were come to the shores of\nthe Chalybes, the smiths who never tire, but serve Ares the cruel\nWar-god, forging weapons day and night.\n\nAnd at day-dawn they looked eastward, and midway between the sea and the\nsky they saw white snow-peaks hanging, glittering sharp and bright above\nthe clouds.  And they knew that they were come to Caucasus, at the end of\nall the earth: Caucasus the highest of all mountains, the father of the\nrivers of the East.  On his peak lies chained the Titan, while a vulture\ntears his heart; and at his feet are piled dark forests round the magic\nColchian land.\n\nAnd they rowed three days to the eastward, while Caucasus rose higher\nhour by hour, till they saw the dark stream of Phasis rushing headlong to\nthe sea, and, shining above the tree-tops, the golden roofs of King\nAietes, the child of the Sun.\n\nThen out spoke Ancaios the helmsman, \u2018We are come to our goal at last,\nfor there are the roofs of Aietes, and the woods where all poisons grow;\nbut who can tell us where among them is hid the golden fleece?  Many a\ntoil must we bear ere we find it, and bring it home to Greece.\u2019\n\nBut Jason cheered the heroes, for his heart was high and bold; and he\nsaid, \u2018I will go alone up to Aietes, though he be the child of the Sun,\nand win him with soft words.  Better so than to go altogether, and to\ncome to blows at once.\u2019  But the Minuai would not stay behind, so they\nrowed boldly up the stream.\n\nAnd a dream came to Aietes, and filled his heart with fear.  He thought\nhe saw a shining star, which fell into his daughter\u2019s lap; and that\nMedeia his daughter took it gladly, and carried it to the river-side, and\ncast it in, and there the whirling river bore it down, and out into the\nEuxine Sea.\n\nThen he leapt up in fear, and bade his servants bring his chariot, that\nhe might go down to the river-side and appease the nymphs, and the heroes\nwhose spirits haunt the bank.  So he went down in his golden chariot, and\nhis daughters by his side, Medeia the fair witch-maiden, and Chalciope,\nwho had been Phrixus\u2019 wife, and behind him a crowd of servants and\nsoldiers, for he was a rich and mighty prince.\n\nAnd as he drove down by the reedy river he saw _Argo_ sliding up beneath\nthe bank, and many a hero in her, like Immortals for beauty and for\nstrength, as their weapons glittered round them in the level morning\nsunlight, through the white mist of the stream.  But Jason was the\nnoblest of all; for Hera, who loved him, gave him beauty and tallness and\nterrible manhood.\n\nAnd when they came near together and looked into each other\u2019s eyes the\nheroes were awed before Aietes as he shone in his chariot, like his\nfather the glorious Sun; for his robes were of rich gold tissue, and the\nrays of his diadem flashed fire; and in his hand he bore a jewelled\nsceptre, which glittered like the stars; and sternly he looked at them\nunder his brows, and sternly he spoke and loud\u2014\n\n\u2018Who are you, and what want you here, that you come to the shore of\nCutaia?  Do you take no account of my rule, nor of my people the\nColchians who serve me, who never tired yet in the battle, and know well\nhow to face an invader?\u2019\n\nAnd the heroes sat silent awhile before the face of that ancient king.\nBut Hera the awful goddess put courage into Jason\u2019s heart, and he rose\nand shouted loudly in answer, \u2018We are no pirates nor lawless men.  We\ncome not to plunder and to ravage, or carry away slaves from your land;\nbut my uncle, the son of Poseidon, Pelias the Minuan king, he it is who\nhas set me on a quest to bring home the golden fleece.  And these too, my\nbold comrades, they are no nameless men; for some are the sons of\nImmortals, and some of heroes far renowned.  And we too never tire in\nbattle, and know well how to give blows and to take: yet we wish to be\nguests at your table: it will be better so for both.\u2019\n\nThen Aietes\u2019 race rushed up like a whirlwind, and his eyes flashed fire\nas he heard; but he crushed his anger down in his breast, and spoke\nmildly a cunning speech\u2014\n\n\u2018If you will fight for the fleece with my Colchians, then many a man must\ndie.  But do you indeed expect to win from me the fleece in fight?  So\nfew you are that if you be worsted I can load your ship with your\ncorpses.  But if you will be ruled by me, you will find it better far to\nchoose the best man among you, and let him fulfil the labours which I\ndemand.  Then I will give him the golden fleece for a prize and a glory\nto you all.\u2019\n\nSo saying, he turned his horses and drove back in silence to the town.\nAnd the Minuai sat silent with sorrow, and longed for Heracles and his\nstrength; for there was no facing the thousands of the Colchians and the\nfearful chance of war.\n\nBut Chalciope, Phrixus\u2019 widow, went weeping to the town; for she\nremembered her Minuan husband, and all the pleasures of her youth, while\nshe watched the fair faces of his kinsmen, and their long locks of golden\nhair.  And she whispered to Medeia her sister, \u2018Why should all these\nbrave men die? why does not my father give them up the fleece, that my\nhusband\u2019s spirit may have rest?\u2019\n\nAnd Medeia\u2019s heart pitied the heroes, and Jason most of all; and she\nanswered, \u2018Our father is stern and terrible, and who can win the golden\nfleece?\u2019  But Chalciope said, \u2018These men are not like our men; there is\nnothing which they cannot dare nor do.\u2019\n\nAnd Medeia thought of Jason and his brave countenance, and said, \u2018If\nthere was one among them who knew no fear, I could show him how to win\nthe fleece.\u2019\n\nSo in the dusk of evening they went down to the river-side, Chalciope and\nMedeia the witch-maiden, and Argus, Phrixus\u2019 son.  And Argus the boy\ncrept forward, among the beds of reeds, till he came where the heroes\nwere sleeping, on the thwarts of the ship, beneath the bank, while Jason\nkept ward on shore, and leant upon his lance full of thought.  And the\nboy came to Jason, and said\u2014\n\n\u2018I am the son of Phrixus, your Cousin; and Chalciope my mother waits for\nyou, to talk about the golden fleece.\u2019\n\nThen Jason went boldly with the boy, and found the two princesses\nstanding; and when Chalciope saw him she wept, and took his hands, and\ncried\u2014\u2018O cousin of my beloved, go home before you die!\u2019\n\n\u2018It would be base to go home now, fair princess, and to have sailed all\nthese seas in vain.\u2019  Then both the princesses besought him; but Jason\nsaid, \u2018It is too late.\u2019\n\n\u2018But you know not,\u2019 said Medeia, \u2018what he must do who would win the\nfleece.  He must tame the two brazen-footed bulls, who breathe devouring\nflame; and with them he must plough ere nightfall four acres in the field\nof Ares; and he must sow them with serpents\u2019 teeth, of which each tooth\nsprings up into an armed man.  Then he must fight with all those\nwarriors; and little will it profit him to conquer them, for the fleece\nis guarded by a serpent, more huge than any mountain pine; and over his\nbody you must step if you would reach the golden fleece.\u2019\n\nThen Jason laughed bitterly.  \u2018Unjustly is that fleece kept here, and by\nan unjust and lawless king; and unjustly shall I die in my youth, for I\nwill attempt it ere another sun be set.\u2019\n\nThen Medeia trembled, and said, \u2018No mortal man can reach that fleece\nunless I guide him through.  For round it, beyond the river, is a wall\nfull nine ells high, with lofty towers and buttresses, and mighty gates\nof threefold brass; and over the gates the wall is arched, with golden\nbattlements above.  And over the gateway sits Brimo, the wild\nwitch-huntress of the woods, brandishing a pine-torch in her hands, while\nher mad hounds howl around.  No man dare meet her or look on her, but\nonly I her priestess, and she watches far and wide lest any stranger\nshould come near.\u2019\n\n\u2018No wall so high but it may be climbed at last, and no wood so thick but\nit may be crawled through; no serpent so wary but he may be charmed, or\nwitch-queen so fierce but spells may soothe her; and I may yet win the\ngolden fleece, if a wise maiden help bold men.\u2019\n\nAnd he looked at Medeia cunningly, and held her with his glittering eye,\ntill she blushed and trembled, and said\u2014\n\n\u2018Who can face the fire of the bulls\u2019 breath, and fight ten thousand armed\nmen?\u2019\n\n\u2018He whom you help,\u2019 said Jason, flattering her, \u2018for your fame is spread\nover all the earth.  Are you not the queen of all enchantresses, wiser\neven than your sister Circe, in her fairy island in the West?\u2019\n\n\u2018Would that I were with my sister Circe in her fairy island in the West,\nfar away from sore temptation and thoughts which tear the heart!  But if\nit must be so\u2014for why should you die?\u2014I have an ointment here; I made it\nfrom the magic ice-flower which sprang from Prometheus\u2019 wound, above the\nclouds on Caucasus, in the dreary fields of snow.  Anoint yourself with\nthat, and you shall have in you seven men\u2019s strength; and anoint your\nshield with it, and neither fire nor sword can harm you.  But what you\nbegin you must end before sunset, for its virtue lasts only one day.  And\nanoint your helmet with it before you sow the serpents\u2019 teeth; and when\nthe sons of earth spring up, cast your helmet among their ranks, and the\ndeadly crop of the War-god\u2019s field will mow itself, and perish.\u2019\n\nThen Jason fell on his knees before her, and thanked her and kissed her\nhands; and she gave him the vase of ointment, and fled trembling through\nthe reeds.  And Jason told his comrades what had happened, and showed\nthem the box of ointment; and all rejoiced but Idas, and he grew mad with\nenvy.\n\nAnd at sunrise Jason went and bathed, and anointed himself from head to\nfoot, and his shield, and his helmet, and his weapons, and bade his\ncomrades try the spell.  So they tried to bend his lance, but it stood\nlike an iron bar; and Idas in spite hewed at it with his sword, but the\nblade flew to splinters in his face.  Then they hurled their lances at\nhis shield, but the spear-points turned like lead; and Caineus tried to\nthrow him, but he never stirred a foot; and Polydeuces struck him with\nhis fist a blow which would have killed an ox, but Jason only smiled, and\nthe heroes danced about him with delight; and he leapt, and ran, and\nshouted in the joy of that enormous strength, till the sun rose, and it\nwas time to go and to claim Aietes\u2019 promise.\n\nSo he sent up Telamon and Aithalides to tell Aietes that he was ready for\nthe fight; and they went up among the marble walls, and beneath the roofs\nof gold, and stood in Aietes\u2019 hall, while he grew pale with rage.\n\n\u2018Fulfil your promise to us, child of the blazing Sun.  Give us the\nserpents\u2019 teeth, and let loose the fiery bulls; for we have found a\nchampion among us who can win the golden fleece.\u2019\n\nAnd Aietes bit his lips, for he fancied that they had fled away by night:\nbut he could not go back from his promise; so he gave them the serpents\u2019\nteeth.\n\nThen he called for his chariot and his horses, and sent heralds through\nall the town; and all the people went out with him to the dreadful\nWar-god\u2019s field.\n\nAnd there Aietes sat upon his throne, with his warriors on each hand,\nthousands and tens of thousands, clothed from head to foot in steel\nchain-mail.  And the people and the women crowded to every window and\nbank and wall; while the Minuai stood together, a mere handful in the\nmidst of that great host.\n\nAnd Chalciope was there and Argus, trembling, and Medeia, wrapped closely\nin her veil; but Aietes did not know that she was muttering cunning\nspells between her lips.\n\nThen Jason cried, \u2018Fulfil your promise, and let your fiery bulls come\nforth.\u2019\n\nThen Aietes bade open the gates, and the magic bulls leapt out.  Their\nbrazen hoofs rang upon the ground, and their nostrils sent out sheets of\nflame, as they rushed with lowered heads upon Jason; but he never\nflinched a step.  The flame of their breath swept round him, but it\nsinged not a hair of his head; and the bulls stopped short and trembled\nwhen Medeia began her spell.\n\nThen Jason sprang upon the nearest and seized him by the horn; and up and\ndown they wrestled, till the bull fell grovelling on his knees; for the\nheart of the brute died within him, and his mighty limbs were loosed,\nbeneath the steadfast eye of that dark witch-maiden and the magic whisper\nof her lips.\n\nSo both the bulls were tamed and yoked; and Jason bound them to the\nplough, and goaded them onward with his lance till he had ploughed the\nsacred field.\n\nAnd all the Minuai shouted; but Aietes bit his lips with rage, for the\nhalf of Jason\u2019s work was over, and the sun was yet high in heaven.\n\nThen he took the serpents\u2019 teeth and sowed them, and waited what would\nbefall.  But Medeia looked at him and at his helmet, lest he should\nforget the lesson she had taught.\n\nAnd every furrow heaved and bubbled, and out of every clod arose a man.\nOut of the earth they rose by thousands, each clad from head to foot in\nsteel, and drew their swords and rushed on Jason, where he stood in the\nmidst alone.\n\nThen the Minuai grew pale with fear for him; but Aietes laughed a bitter\nlaugh.  \u2018See! if I had not warriors enough already round me, I could call\nthem out of the bosom of the earth.\u2019\n\nBut Jason snatched off his helmet, and hurled it into the thickest of the\nthrong.  And blind madness came upon them, suspicion, hate, and fear; and\none cried to his fellow, \u2018Thou didst strike me!\u2019 and another, \u2018Thou art\nJason; thou shalt die!\u2019  So fury seized those earth-born phantoms, and\neach turned his hand against the rest; and they fought and were never\nweary, till they all lay dead upon the ground.  Then the magic furrows\nopened, and the kind earth took them home into her breast and the grass\ngrew up all green again above them, and Jason\u2019s work was done.\n\nThen the Minuai rose and shouted, till Prometheus heard them from his\ncrag.  And Jason cried, \u2018Lead me to the fleece this moment, before the\nsun goes down.\u2019\n\nBut Aietes thought, \u2018He has conquered the bulls, and sown and reaped the\ndeadly crop.  Who is this who is proof against all magic?  He may kill\nthe serpent yet.\u2019  So he delayed, and sat taking counsel with his princes\ntill the sun went down and all was dark.  Then he bade a herald cry,\n\u2018Every man to his home for to-night.  To-morrow we will meet these\nheroes, and speak about the golden fleece.\u2019\n\nThen he turned and looked at Medeia.  \u2018This is your doing, false\nwitch-maid!  You have helped these yellow-haired strangers, and brought\nshame upon your father and yourself!\u2019\n\nMedeia shrank and trembled, and her face grew pale with fear; and Aietes\nknew that she was guilty, and whispered, \u2018If they win the fleece, you\ndie!\u2019\n\nBut the Minuai marched toward their ship, growling like lions cheated of\ntheir prey; for they saw that Aietes meant to mock them, and to cheat\nthem out of all their toil.  And Oileus said, \u2018Let us go to the grove\ntogether, and take the fleece by force.\u2019\n\nAnd Idas the rash cried, \u2018Let us draw lots who shall go in first; for,\nwhile the dragon is devouring one, the rest can slay him and carry off\nthe fleece in peace.\u2019  But Jason held them back, though he praised them;\nfor he hoped for Medeia\u2019s help.\n\nAnd after awhile Medeia came trembling, and wept a long while before she\nspoke.  And at last\u2014\n\n\u2018My end is come, and I must die; for my father has found out that I have\nhelped you.  You he would kill if he dared; but he will not harm you,\nbecause you have been his guests.  Go then, go, and remember poor Medeia\nwhen you are far away across the sea.\u2019  But all the heroes cried\u2014\n\n\u2018If you die, we die with you; for without you we cannot win the fleece,\nand home we will not go without it, but fall here fighting to the last\nman.\u2019\n\n\u2018You need not die,\u2019 said Jason.  \u2018Flee home with us across the sea.  Show\nus first how to win the fleece; for you can do it.  Why else are you the\npriestess of the grove?  Show us but how to win the fleece, and come with\nus, and you shall be my queen, and rule over the rich princes of the\nMinuai, in Iolcos by the sea.\u2019\n\nAnd all the heroes pressed round, and vowed to her that she should be\ntheir queen.\n\nMedeia wept, and shuddered, and hid her face in her hands; for her heart\nyearned after her sisters and her playfellows, and the home where she was\nbrought up as a child.  But at last she looked up at Jason, and spoke\nbetween her sobs\u2014\n\n\u2018Must I leave my home and my people, to wander with strangers across the\nsea?  The lot is cast, and I must endure it.  I will show you how to win\nthe golden fleece.  Bring up your ship to the wood-side, and moor her\nthere against the bank; and let Jason come up at midnight, and one brave\ncomrade with him, and meet me beneath the wall.\u2019\n\nThen all the heroes cried together, \u2018I will go!\u2019 \u2018and I!\u2019 \u2018and I!\u2019  And\nIdas the rash grew mad with envy; for he longed to be foremost in all\nthings.  But Medeia calmed them, and said, \u2018Orpheus shall go with Jason,\nand bring his magic harp; for I hear of him that he is the king of all\nminstrels, and can charm all things on earth.\u2019\n\nAnd Orpheus laughed for joy, and clapped his hands, because the choice\nhad fallen on him; for in those days poets and singers were as bold\nwarriors as the best.\n\nSo at midnight they went up the bank, and found Medeia; and beside came\nAbsyrtus her young brother, leading a yearling lamb.\n\nThen Medeia brought them to a thicket beside the War-god\u2019s gate; and\nthere she bade Jason dig a ditch, and kill the lamb, and leave it there,\nand strew on it magic herbs and honey from the honeycomb.\n\nThen sprang up through the earth, with the red fire flashing before her,\nBrimo the wild witch-huntress, while her mad hounds howled around.  She\nhad one head like a horse\u2019s, and another like a ravening hound\u2019s, and\nanother like a hissing snake\u2019s, and a sword in either hand.  And she\nleapt into the ditch with her hounds, and they ate and drank their fill,\nwhile Jason and Orpheus trembled, and Medeia hid her eyes.  And at last\nthe witch-queen vanished, and fled with her hounds into the woods; and\nthe bars of the gates fell down, and the brazen doors flew wide, and\nMedeia and the heroes ran forward and hurried through the poison wood,\namong the dark stems of the mighty beeches, guided by the gleam of the\ngolden fleece, until they saw it hanging on one vast tree in the midst.\nAnd Jason would have sprung to seize it; but Medeia held him back, and\npointed, shuddering, to the tree-foot, where the mighty serpent lay,\ncoiled in and out among the roots, with a body like a mountain pine.  His\ncoils stretched many a fathom, spangled with bronze and gold; and half of\nhim they could see, but no more, for the rest lay in the darkness far\nbeyond.\n\nAnd when he saw them coming he lifted up his head, and watched them with\nhis small bright eyes, and flashed his forked tongue, and roared like the\nfire among the woodlands, till the forest tossed and groaned.  For his\ncries shook the trees from leaf to root, and swept over the long reaches\nof the river, and over Aietes\u2019 hall, and woke the sleepers in the city,\ntill mothers clasped their children in their fear.\n\nBut Medeia called gently to him, and he stretched out his long spotted\nneck, and licked her hand, and looked up in her face, as if to ask for\nfood.  Then she made a sign to Orpheus, and he began his magic song.\n\nAnd as he sung, the forest grew calm again, and the leaves on every tree\nhung still; and the serpent\u2019s head sank down, and his brazen coils grew\nlimp, and his glittering eyes closed lazily, till he breathed as gently\nas a child, while Orpheus called to pleasant Slumber, who gives peace to\nmen, and beasts, and waves.\n\n                    [Picture: Jason takes the fleece]\n\nThen Jason leapt forward warily, and stept across that mighty snake, and\ntore the fleece from off the tree-trunk; and the four rushed down the\ngarden, to the bank where the _Argo_ lay.\n\nThere was a silence for a moment, while Jason held the golden fleece on\nhigh.  Then he cried, \u2018Go now, good _Argo_, swift and steady, if ever you\nwould see Pelion more.\u2019\n\nAnd she went, as the heroes drove her, grim and silent all, with muffled\noars, till the pine-wood bent like willow in their hands, and stout\n_Argo_ groaned beneath their strokes.\n\nOn and on, beneath the dewy darkness, they fled swiftly down the swirling\nstream; underneath black walls, and temples, and the castles of the\nprinces of the East; past sluice-mouths, and fragrant gardens, and groves\nof all strange fruits; past marshes where fat kine lay sleeping, and long\nbeds of whispering reeds; till they heard the merry music of the surge\nupon the bar, as it tumbled in the moonlight all alone.\n\nInto the surge they rushed, and _Argo_ leapt the breakers like a horse;\nfor she knew the time was come to show her mettle, and win honour for the\nheroes and herself.\n\nInto the surge they rushed, and _Argo_ leapt the breakers like a horse,\ntill the heroes stopped all panting, each man upon his oar, as she slid\ninto the still broad sea.\n\nThen Orpheus took his harp and sang a p\u00e6an, till the heroes\u2019 hearts rose\nhigh again; and they rowed on stoutly and steadfastly, away into the\ndarkness of the West.\n\n\n\nPART V\nHOW THE ARGONAUTS WERE DRIVEN INTO THE UNKNOWN SEA\n\n\nSo they fled away in haste to the westward; but Aietes manned his fleet\nand followed them.  And Lynceus the quick-eyed saw him coming, while he\nwas still many a mile away, and cried, \u2018I see a hundred ships, like a\nflock of white swans, far in the east.\u2019  And at that they rowed hard,\nlike heroes; but the ships came nearer every hour.\n\nThen Medeia, the dark witch-maiden, laid a cruel and a cunning plot; for\nshe killed Absyrtus her young brother, and cast him into the sea, and\nsaid, \u2018Ere my father can take up his corpse and bury it, he must wait\nlong, and be left far behind.\u2019\n\nAnd all the heroes shuddered, and looked one at the other for shame; yet\nthey did not punish that dark witch-woman, because she had won for them\nthe golden fleece.\n\nAnd when Aietes came to the place he saw the floating corpse; and he\nstopped a long while, and bewailed his son, and took him up, and went\nhome.  But he sent on his sailors toward the westward, and bound them by\na mighty curse\u2014\u2018Bring back to me that dark witch-woman, that she may die\na dreadful death.  But if you return without her, you shall die by the\nsame death yourselves.\u2019\n\nSo the Argonauts escaped for that time: but Father Zeus saw that foul\ncrime; and out of the heavens he sent a storm, and swept the ship far\nfrom her course.  Day after day the storm drove her, amid foam and\nblinding mist, till they knew no longer where they were, for the sun was\nblotted from the skies.  And at last the ship struck on a shoal, amid low\nisles of mud and sand, and the waves rolled over her and through her, and\nthe heroes lost all hope of life.\n\nThen Jason cried to Hera, \u2018Fair queen, who hast befriended us till now,\nwhy hast thou left us in our misery, to die here among unknown seas?  It\nis hard to lose the honour which we have won with such toil and danger,\nand hard never to see Hellas again, and the pleasant bay of Pagasai.\u2019\n\nThen out and spoke the magic bough which stood upon the _Argo\u2019s_ beak,\n\u2018Because Father Zeus is angry, all this has fallen on you; for a cruel\ncrime has been done on board, and the sacred ship is foul with blood.\u2019\n\nAt that some of the heroes cried, \u2018Medeia is the murderess.  Let the\nwitch-woman bear her sin, and die!\u2019  And they seized Medeia, to hurl her\ninto the sea, and atone for the young boy\u2019s death; but the magic bough\nspoke again, \u2018Let her live till her crimes are full.  Vengeance waits for\nher, slow and sure; but she must live, for you need her still.  She must\nshow you the way to her sister Circe, who lives among the islands of the\nWest.  To her you must sail, a weary way, and she shall cleanse you from\nyour guilt.\u2019\n\nThen all the heroes wept aloud when they heard the sentence of the oak;\nfor they knew that a dark journey lay before them, and years of bitter\ntoil.  And some upbraided the dark witch-woman, and some said, \u2018Nay, we\nare her debtors still; without her we should never have won the fleece.\u2019\nBut most of them bit their lips in silence, for they feared the witch\u2019s\nspells.\n\nAnd now the sea grew calmer, and the sun shone out once more, and the\nheroes thrust the ship off the sand-bank, and rowed forward on their\nweary course under the guiding of the dark witch-maiden, into the wastes\nof the unknown sea.\n\nWhither they went I cannot tell, nor how they came to Circe\u2019s isle.  Some\nsay that they went to the westward, and up the Ister {130a} stream, and\nso came into the Adriatic, dragging their ship over the snowy Alps.  And\nothers say that they went southward, into the Red Indian Sea, and past\nthe sunny lands where spices grow, round \u00c6thiopia toward the West; and\nthat at last they came to Libya, and dragged their ship across the\nburning sands, and over the hills into the Syrtes, where the flats and\nquicksands spread for many a mile, between rich Cyrene and the\nLotus-eaters\u2019 shore.  But all these are but dreams and fables, and dim\nhints of unknown lands.\n\nBut all say that they came to a place where they had to drag their ship\nacross the land nine days with ropes and rollers, till they came into an\nunknown sea.  And the best of all the old songs tells us how they went\naway toward the North, till they came to the slope of Caucasus, where it\nsinks into the sea; and to the narrow Cimmerian Bosphorus, {130b} where\nthe Titan swam across upon the bull; and thence into the lazy waters of\nthe still M\u00e6otid lake. {130c}  And thence they went northward ever, up\nthe Tanais, which we call Don, past the Geloni and Sauromatai, and many a\nwandering shepherd-tribe, and the one-eyed Arimaspi, of whom old Greek\npoets tell, who steal the gold from the Griffins, in the cold Riphaian\nhills. {131a}\n\nAnd they passed the Scythian archers, and the Tauri who eat men, and the\nwandering Hyperboreai, who feed their flocks beneath the pole-star, until\nthey came into the northern ocean, the dull dead Cronian Sea. {131b}  And\nthere _Argo_ would move on no longer; and each man clasped his elbow, and\nleaned his head upon his hand, heart-broken with toil and hunger, and\ngave himself up to death.  But brave Ancaios the helmsman cheered up\ntheir hearts once more, and bade them leap on land, and haul the ship\nwith ropes and rollers for many a weary day, whether over land, or mud,\nor ice, I know not, for the song is mixed and broken like a dream.  And\nit says next, how they came to the rich nation of the famous long-lived\nmen; and to the coast of the Cimmerians, who never saw the sun, buried\ndeep in the glens of the snow mountains; and to the fair land of\nHermione, where dwelt the most righteous of all nations; and to the gates\nof the world below, and to the dwelling-place of dreams.\n\nAnd at last Ancaios shouted, \u2018Endure a little while, brave friends, the\nworst is surely past; for I can see the pure west wind ruffle the water,\nand hear the roar of ocean on the sands.  So raise up the mast, and set\nthe sail, and face what comes like men.\u2019\n\nThen out spoke the magic bough, \u2018Ah, would that I had perished long ago,\nand been whelmed by the dread blue rocks, beneath the fierce swell of the\nEuxine!  Better so, than to wander for ever, disgraced by the guilt of my\nprinces; for the blood of Absyrtus still tracks me, and woe follows hard\nupon woe.  And now some dark horror will clutch me, if I come near the\nIsle of Ierne. {132}  Unless you will cling to the land, and sail\nsouthward and southward for ever, I shall wander beyond the Atlantic, to\nthe ocean which has no shore.\u2019\n\nThen they blest the magic bough, and sailed southward along the land.\nBut ere they could pass Ierne, the land of mists and storms, the wild\nwind came down, dark and roaring, and caught the sail, and strained the\nropes.  And away they drove twelve nights, on the wide wild western sea,\nthrough the foam, and over the rollers, while they saw neither sun nor\nstars.  And they cried again, \u2018We shall perish, for we know not where we\nare.  We are lost in the dreary damp darkness, and cannot tell north from\nsouth.\u2019\n\nBut Lynceus the long-sighted called gaily from the bows, \u2018Take heart\nagain, brave sailors; for I see a pine-clad isle, and the halls of the\nkind Earth-mother, with a crown of clouds around them.\u2019\n\nBut Orpheus said, \u2018Turn from them, for no living man can land there:\nthere is no harbour on the coast, but steep-walled cliffs all round.\u2019\n\nSo Ancaios turned the ship away; and for three days more they sailed on,\ntill they came to Aiaia, Circe\u2019s home, and the fairy island of the West.\n{133}\n\nAnd there Jason bid them land, and seek about for any sign of living man.\nAnd as they went inland Circe met them, coming down toward the ship; and\nthey trembled when they saw her, for her hair, and face, and robes shone\nlike flame.\n\nAnd she came and looked at Medeia; and Medeia hid her face beneath her\nveil.\n\nAnd Circe cried, \u2018Ah, wretched girl, have you forgotten all your sins,\nthat you come hither to my island, where the flowers bloom all the year\nround?  Where is your aged father, and the brother whom you killed?\nLittle do I expect you to return in safety with these strangers whom you\nlove.  I will send you food and wine: but your ship must not stay here,\nfor it is foul with sin, and foul with sin its crew.\u2019\n\nAnd the heroes prayed her, but in vain, and cried, \u2018Cleanse us from our\nguilt!\u2019 But she sent them away, and said, \u2018Go on to Malea, and there you\nmay be cleansed, and return home.\u2019\n\nThen a fair wind rose, and they sailed eastward by Tartessus on the\nIberian shore, till they came to the Pillars of Hercules, and the\nMediterranean Sea.  And thence they sailed on through the deeps of\nSardinia, and past the Ausonian islands, and the capes of the Tyrrhenian\nshore, till they came to a flowery island, upon a still bright summer\u2019s\neve.  And as they neared it, slowly and wearily, they heard sweet songs\nupon the shore.  But when Medeia heard it, she started, and cried,\n\u2018Beware, all heroes, for these are the rocks of the Sirens.  You must\npass close by them, for there is no other channel; but those who listen\nto that song are lost.\u2019\n\nThen Orpheus spoke, the king of all minstrels, \u2018Let them match their song\nagainst mine.  I have charmed stones, and trees, and dragons, how much\nmore the hearts of men!\u2019  So he caught up his lyre, and stood upon the\npoop, and began his magic song.\n\nAnd now they could see the Sirens on Anthemousa, the flowery isle; three\nfair maidens sitting on the beach, beneath a red rock in the setting sun,\namong beds of crimson poppies and golden asphodel.  Slowly they sung and\nsleepily, with silver voices, mild and clear, which stole over the golden\nwaters, and into the hearts of all the heroes, in spite of Orpheus\u2019 song.\n\nAnd all things stayed around and listened; the gulls sat in white lines\nalong the rocks; on the beach great seals lay basking, and kept time with\nlazy heads; while silver shoals of fish came up to hearken, and whispered\nas they broke the shining calm.  The Wind overhead hushed his whistling,\nas he shepherded his clouds toward the west; and the clouds stood in mid\nblue, and listened dreaming, like a flock of golden sheep.\n\nAnd as the heroes listened, the oars fell from their hands, and their\nheads drooped on their breasts, and they closed their heavy eyes; and\nthey dreamed of bright still gardens, and of slumbers under murmuring\npines, till all their toil seemed foolishness, and they thought of their\nrenown no more.\n\nThen one lifted his head suddenly, and cried, \u2018What use in wandering for\never?  Let us stay here and rest awhile.\u2019  And another, \u2018Let us row to\nthe shore, and hear the words they sing.\u2019  And another, \u2018I care not for\nthe words, but for the music.  They shall sing me to sleep, that I may\nrest.\u2019\n\nAnd Butes, the son of Pandion, the fairest of all mortal men, leapt out\nand swam toward the shore, crying, \u2018I come, I come, fair maidens, to live\nand die here, listening to your song.\u2019\n\nThen Medeia clapped her hands together, and cried, \u2018Sing louder, Orpheus,\nsing a bolder strain; wake up these hapless sluggards, or none of them\nwill see the land of Hellas more.\u2019\n\nThen Orpheus lifted his harp, and crashed his cunning hand across the\nstrings; and his music and his voice rose like a trumpet through the\nstill evening air; into the air it rushed like thunder, till the rocks\nrang and the sea; and into their souls it rushed like wine, till all\nhearts beat fast within their breasts.\n\nAnd he sung the song of Perseus, how the Gods led him over land and sea,\nand how he slew the loathly Gorgon, and won himself a peerless bride; and\nhow he sits now with the Gods upon Olympus, a shining star in the sky,\nimmortal with his immortal bride, and honoured by all men below.\n\nSo Orpheus sang, and the Sirens, answering each other across the golden\nsea, till Orpheus\u2019 voice drowned the Sirens\u2019, and the heroes caught their\noars again.\n\nAnd they cried, \u2018We will be men like Perseus, and we will dare and suffer\nto the last.  Sing us his song again, brave Orpheus, that we may forget\nthe Sirens and their spell.\u2019\n\nAnd as Orpheus sang, they dashed their oars into the sea, and kept time\nto his music, as they fled fast away; and the Sirens\u2019 voices died behind\nthem, in the hissing of the foam along their wake.\n\nBut Butes swam to the shore, and knelt down before the Sirens, and cried,\n\u2018Sing on! sing on!\u2019  But he could say no more, for a charmed sleep came\nover him, and a pleasant humming in his ears; and he sank all along upon\nthe pebbles, and forgot all heaven and earth, and never looked at that\nsad beach around him, all strewn with the bones of men.\n\nThen slowly rose up those three fair sisters, with a cruel smile upon\ntheir lips; and slowly they crept down towards him, like leopards who\ncreep upon their prey; and their hands were like the talons of eagles as\nthey stept across the bones of their victims to enjoy their cruel feast.\n\nBut fairest Aphrodite saw him from the highest Idalian peak, and she\npitied his youth and his beauty, and leapt up from her golden throne; and\nlike a falling star she cleft the sky, and left a trail of glittering\nlight, till she stooped to the Isle of the Sirens, and snatched their\nprey from their claws.  And she lifted Butes as he lay sleeping, and\nwrapt him in golden mist; and she bore him to the peak of Lilyb\u00e6um, and\nhe slept there many a pleasant year.\n\nBut when the Sirens saw that they were conquered, they shrieked for envy\nand rage, and leapt from the beach into the sea, and were changed into\nrocks until this day.\n\nThen they came to the straits by Lilyb\u00e6um, and saw Sicily, the\nthree-cornered island, under which Enceladus the giant lies groaning day\nand night, and when he turns the earth quakes, and his breath bursts out\nin roaring flames from the highest cone of \u00c6tna, above the chestnut\nwoods.  And there Charybdis caught them in its fearful coils of wave, and\nrolled mast-high about them, and spun them round and round; and they\ncould go neither back nor forward, while the whirlpool sucked them in.\n\nAnd while they struggled they saw near them, on the other side the\nstrait, a rock stand in the water, with its peak wrapt round in clouds\u2014a\nrock which no man could climb, though he had twenty hands and feet, for\nthe stone was smooth and slippery, as if polished by man\u2019s hand; and\nhalfway up a misty cave looked out toward the west.\n\nAnd when Orpheus saw it he groaned, and struck his hands together.  And\n\u2018Little will it help us,\u2019 he cried, \u2018to escape the jaws of the whirlpool;\nfor in that cave lives Scylla, the sea-hag with a young whelp\u2019s voice; my\nmother warned me of her ere we sailed away from Hellas; she has six\nheads, and six long necks, and hides in that dark cleft.  And from her\ncave she fishes for all things which pass by\u2014for sharks, and seals, and\ndolphins, and all the herds of Amphitrite.  And never ship\u2019s crew boasted\nthat they came safe by her rock, for she bends her long necks down to\nthem, and every mouth takes up a man.  And who will help us now?  For\nHera and Zeus hate us, and our ship is foul with guilt; so we must die,\nwhatever befalls.\u2019\n\nThen out of the depths came Thetis, Peleus\u2019 silver-footed bride, for love\nof her gallant husband, and all her nymphs around her; and they played\nlike snow-white dolphins, diving on from wave to wave, before the ship,\nand in her wake, and beside her, as dolphins play.  And they caught the\nship, and guided her, and passed her on from hand to hand, and tossed her\nthrough the billows, as maidens toss the ball.  And when Scylla stooped\nto seize her, they struck back her ravening heads, and foul Scylla\nwhined, as a whelp whines, at the touch of their gentle hands.  But she\nshrank into her cave affrighted\u2014for all bad things shrink from good\u2014and\n_Argo_ leapt safe past her, while a fair breeze rose behind.  Then Thetis\nand her nymphs sank down to their coral caves beneath the sea, and their\ngardens of green and purple, where live flowers bloom all the year round;\nwhile the heroes went on rejoicing, yet dreading what might come next.\n\nAfter that they rowed on steadily for many a weary day, till they saw a\nlong high island, and beyond it a mountain land.  And they searched till\nthey found a harbour, and there rowed boldly in.  But after awhile they\nstopped, and wondered, for there stood a great city on the shore, and\ntemples and walls and gardens, and castles high in air upon the cliffs.\nAnd on either side they saw a harbour, with a narrow mouth, but wide\nwithin; and black ships without number, high and dry upon the shore.\n\nThen Ancaios, the wise helmsman, spoke, \u2018What new wonder is this?  I know\nall isles, and harbours, and the windings of all seas; and this should be\nCorcyra, where a few wild goat-herds dwell.  But whence come these new\nharbours and vast works of polished stone?\u2019\n\nBut Jason said, \u2018They can be no savage people.  We will go in and take\nour chance.\u2019\n\nSo they rowed into the harbour, among a thousand black-beaked ships, each\nlarger far than _Argo_, toward a quay of polished stone.  And they\nwondered at that mighty city, with its roofs of burnished brass, and long\nand lofty walls of marble, with strong palisades above.  And the quays\nwere full of people, merchants, and mariners, and slaves, going to and\nfro with merchandise among the crowd of ships.  And the heroes\u2019 hearts\nwere humbled, and they looked at each other and said, \u2018We thought\nourselves a gallant crew when we sailed from Iolcos by the sea; but how\nsmall we look before this city, like an ant before a hive of bees.\u2019\n\nThen the sailors hailed them roughly from the quay, \u2018What men are you?\u2014we\nwant no strangers here, nor pirates.  We keep our business to ourselves.\u2019\n\nBut Jason answered gently, with many a flattering word, and praised their\ncity and their harbour, and their fleet of gallant ships.  \u2018Surely you\nare the children of Poseidon, and the masters of the sea; and we are but\npoor wandering mariners, worn out with thirst and toil.  Give us but food\nand water, and we will go on our voyage in peace.\u2019\n\nThen the sailors laughed, and answered, \u2018Stranger, you are no fool; you\ntalk like an honest man, and you shall find us honest too.  We are the\nchildren of Poseidon, and the masters of the sea; but come ashore to us,\nand you shall have the best that we can give.\u2019\n\nSo they limped ashore, all stiff and weary, with long ragged beards and\nsunburnt cheeks, and garments torn and weather-stained, and weapons\nrusted with the spray, while the sailors laughed at them (for they were\nrough-tongued, though their hearts were frank and kind).  And one said,\n\u2018These fellows are but raw sailors; they look as if they had been\nsea-sick all the day.\u2019  And another, \u2018Their legs have grown crooked with\nmuch rowing, till they waddle in their walk like ducks.\u2019\n\nAt that Idas the rash would have struck them; but Jason held him back,\ntill one of the merchant kings spoke to them, a tall and stately man.\n\n\u2018Do not be angry, strangers; the sailor boys must have their jest.  But\nwe will treat you justly and kindly, for strangers and poor men come from\nGod; and you seem no common sailors by your strength, and height, and\nweapons.  Come up with me to the palace of Alcinous, the rich sea-going\nking, and we will feast you well and heartily; and after that you shall\ntell us your name.\u2019\n\nBut Medeia hung back, and trembled, and whispered in Jason\u2019s ear, \u2018We are\nbetrayed, and are going to our ruin, for I see my countrymen among the\ncrowd; dark-eyed Colchi in steel mail-shirts, such as they wear in my\nfather\u2019s land.\u2019\n\n\u2018It is too late to turn,\u2019 said Jason.  And he spoke to the merchant king,\n\u2018What country is this, good sir; and what is this new-built town?\u2019\n\n\u2018This is the land of the Ph\u00e6aces, beloved by all the Immortals; for they\ncome hither and feast like friends with us, and sit by our side in the\nhall.  Hither we came from Liburnia to escape the unrighteous Cyclopes;\nfor they robbed us, peaceful merchants, of our hard-earned wares and\nwealth.  So Nausithous, the son of Poseidon, brought us hither, and died\nin peace; and now his son Alcinous rules us, and Arete the wisest of\nqueens.\u2019\n\nSo they went up across the square, and wondered still more as they went;\nfor along the quays lay in order great cables, and yards, and masts,\nbefore the fair temple of Poseidon, the blue-haired king of the seas.\nAnd round the square worked the ship-wrights, as many in number as ants,\ntwining ropes, and hewing timber, and smoothing long yards and oars.  And\nthe Minuai went on in silence through clean white marble streets, till\nthey came to the hall of Alcinous, and they wondered then still more.\nFor the lofty palace shone aloft in the sun, with walls of plated brass,\nfrom the threshold to the innermost chamber, and the doors were of silver\nand gold.  And on each side of the doorway sat living dogs of gold, who\nnever grew old or died, so well Hephaistos had made them in his forges in\nsmoking Lemnos, and gave them to Alcinous to guard his gates by night.\nAnd within, against the walls, stood thrones on either side, down the\nwhole length of the hall, strewn with rich glossy shawls; and on them the\nmerchant kings of those crafty sea-roving Ph\u00e6aces sat eating and drinking\nin pride, and feasting there all the year round.  And boys of molten gold\nstood each on a polished altar, and held torches in their hands, to give\nlight all night to the guests.  And round the house sat fifty\nmaid-servants, some grinding the meal in the mill, some turning the\nspindle, some weaving at the loom, while their hands twinkled as they\npassed the shuttle, like quivering aspen leaves.\n\nAnd outside before the palace a great garden was walled round, filled\nfull of stately fruit-trees, gray olives and sweet figs, and\npomegranates, pears, and apples, which bore the whole year round.  For\nthe rich south-west wind fed them, till pear grew ripe on pear, fig on\nfig, and grape on grape, all the winter and the spring.  And at the\nfarther end gay flower-beds bloomed through all seasons of the year; and\ntwo fair fountains rose, and ran, one through the garden grounds, and one\nbeneath the palace gate, to water all the town.  Such noble gifts the\nheavens had given to Alcinous the wise.\n\nSo they went in, and saw him sitting, like Poseidon, on his throne, with\nhis golden sceptre by him, in garments stiff with gold, and in his hand a\nsculptured goblet, as he pledged the merchant kings; and beside him stood\nArete, his wise and lovely queen, and leaned against a pillar as she spun\nher golden threads.\n\nThen Alcinous rose, and welcomed them, and bade them sit and eat; and the\nservants brought them tables, and bread, and meat, and wine.\n\nBut Medeia went on trembling toward Arete the fair queen, and fell at her\nknees, and clasped them, and cried, weeping, as she knelt\u2014\n\n\u2018I am your guest, fair queen, and I entreat you by Zeus, from whom\nprayers come.  Do not send me back to my father to die some dreadful\ndeath; but let me go my way, and bear my burden.  Have I not had enough\nof punishment and shame?\u2019\n\n\u2018Who are you, strange maiden? and what is the meaning of your prayer?\u2019\n\n\u2018I am Medeia, daughter of Aietes, and I saw my countrymen here to-day;\nand I know that they are come to find me, and take me home to die some\ndreadful death.\u2019\n\nThen Arete frowned, and said, \u2018Lead this girl in, my maidens; and let the\nkings decide, not I.\u2019\n\nAnd Alcinous leapt up from his throne, and cried, \u2018Speak, strangers, who\nare you?  And who is this maiden?\u2019\n\n\u2018We are the heroes of the Minuai,\u2019 said Jason; \u2018and this maiden has\nspoken truth.  We are the men who took the golden fleece, the men whose\nfame has run round every shore.  We came hither out of the ocean, after\nsorrows such as man never saw before.  We went out many, and come back\nfew, for many a noble comrade have we lost.  So let us go, as you should\nlet your guests go, in peace; that the world may say, \u201cAlcinous is a just\nking.\u201d\u2019\n\nBut Alcinous frowned, and stood deep in thought; and at last he spoke\u2014\n\n\u2018Had not the deed been done which is done, I should have said this day to\nmyself, \u201cIt is an honour to Alcinous, and to his children after him, that\nthe far-famed Argonauts are his guests.\u201d  But these Colchi are my guests,\nas you are; and for this month they have waited here with all their\nfleet, for they have hunted all the seas of Hellas, and could not find\nyou, and dared neither go farther, nor go home.\u2019\n\n\u2018Let them choose out their champions, and we will fight them, man for\nman.\u2019\n\n\u2018No guests of ours shall fight upon our island, and if you go outside\nthey will outnumber you.  I will do justice between you, for I know and\ndo what is right.\u2019\n\nThen he turned to his kings, and said, \u2018This may stand over till\nto-morrow.  To-night we will feast our guests, and hear the story of all\ntheir wanderings, and how they came hither out of the ocean.\u2019\n\nSo Alcinous bade the servants take the heroes in, and bathe them, and\ngive them clothes.  And they were glad when they saw the warm water, for\nit was long since they had bathed.  And they washed off the sea-salt from\ntheir limbs, and anointed themselves from head to foot with oil, and\ncombed out their golden hair.  Then they came back again into the hall,\nwhile the merchant kings rose up to do them honour.  And each man said to\nhis neighbour, \u2018No wonder that these men won fame.  How they stand now\nlike Giants, or Titans, or Immortals come down from Olympus, though many\na winter has worn them, and many a fearful storm.  What must they have\nbeen when they sailed from Iolcos, in the bloom of their youth, long\nago?\u2019\n\nThen they went out to the garden; and the merchant princes said, \u2018Heroes,\nrun races with us.  Let us see whose feet are nimblest.\u2019\n\n\u2018We cannot race against you, for our limbs are stiff from sea; and we\nhave lost our two swift comrades, the sons of the north wind.  But do not\nthink us cowards: if you wish to try our strength, we will shoot, and\nbox, and wrestle, against any men on earth.\u2019\n\nAnd Alcinous smiled, and answered, \u2018I believe you, gallant guests; with\nyour long limbs and broad shoulders, we could never match you here.  For\nwe care nothing here for boxing, or for shooting with the bow; but for\nfeasts, and songs, and harping, and dancing, and running races, to\nstretch our limbs on shore.\u2019\n\nSo they danced there and ran races, the jolly merchant kings, till the\nnight fell, and all went in.\n\nAnd then they ate and drank, and comforted their weary souls, till\nAlcinous called a herald, and bade him go and fetch the harper.\n\nThe herald went out, and fetched the harper, and led him in by the hand;\nand Alcinous cut him a piece of meat, from the fattest of the haunch, and\nsent it to him, and said, \u2018Sing to us, noble harper, and rejoice the\nheroes\u2019 hearts.\u2019\n\nSo the harper played and sang, while the dancers danced strange figures;\nand after that the tumblers showed their tricks, till the heroes laughed\nagain.\n\nThen, \u2018Tell me, heroes,\u2019 asked Alcinous, \u2018you who have sailed the ocean\nround, and seen the manners of all nations, have you seen such dancers as\nours here, or heard such music and such singing?  We hold ours to be the\nbest on earth.\u2019\n\n\u2018Such dancing we have never seen,\u2019 said Orpheus; \u2018and your singer is a\nhappy man, for Phoebus himself must have taught him, or else he is the\nson of a Muse, as I am also, and have sung once or twice, though not so\nwell as he.\u2019\n\n\u2018Sing to us, then, noble stranger,\u2019 said Alcinous; \u2018and we will give you\nprecious gifts.\u2019\n\nSo Orpheus took his magic harp, and sang to them a stirring song of their\nvoyage from Iolcos, and their dangers, and how they won the golden\nfleece; and of Medeia\u2019s love, and how she helped them, and went with them\nover land and sea; and of all their fearful dangers, from monsters, and\nrocks, and storms, till the heart of Arete was softened, and all the\nwomen wept.  And the merchant kings rose up, each man from off his golden\nthrone, and clapped their hands, and shouted, \u2018Hail to the noble\nArgonauts, who sailed the unknown sea!\u2019\n\nThen he went on, and told their journey over the sluggish northern main,\nand through the shoreless outer ocean, to the fairy island of the west;\nand of the Sirens, and Scylla, and Charybdis, and all the wonders they\nhad seen, till midnight passed and the day dawned; but the kings never\nthought of sleep.  Each man sat still and listened, with his chin upon\nhis hand.\n\nAnd at last, when Orpheus had ended, they all went thoughtful out, and\nthe heroes lay down to sleep, beneath the sounding porch outside, where\nArete had strewn them rugs and carpets, in the sweet still summer night.\n\nBut Arete pleaded hard with her husband for Medeia, for her heart was\nsoftened.  And she said, \u2018The Gods will punish her, not we.  After all,\nshe is our guest and my suppliant, and prayers are the daughters of Zeus.\nAnd who, too, dare part man and wife, after all they have endured\ntogether?\u2019\n\nAnd Alcinous smiled.  \u2018The minstrel\u2019s song has charmed you: but I must\nremember what is right, for songs cannot alter justice; and I must be\nfaithful to my name.  Alcinous I am called, the man of sturdy sense; and\nAlcinous I will be.\u2019  But for all that Arete besought him, until she won\nhim round.\n\nSo next morning he sent a herald, and called the kings into the square,\nand said, \u2018This is a puzzling matter: remember but one thing.  These\nMinuai live close by us, and we may meet them often on the seas; but\nAietes lives afar off, and we have only heard his name.  Which, then, of\nthe two is it safer to offend\u2014the men near us, or the men far off?\u2019\n\nThe princes laughed, and praised his wisdom; and Alcinous called the\nheroes to the square, and the Colchi also; and they came and stood\nopposite each other, but Medeia stayed in the palace.  Then Alcinous\nspoke, \u2018Heroes of the Colchi, what is your errand about this lady?\u2019\n\n\u2018To carry her home with us, that she may die a shameful death; but if we\nreturn without her, we must die the death she should have died.\u2019\n\n\u2018What say you to this, Jason the \u00c6olid?\u2019 said Alcinous, turning to the\nMinuai.\n\n\u2018I say,\u2019 said the cunning Jason, \u2018that they are come here on a bootless\nerrand.  Do you think that you can make her follow you, heroes of the\nColchi\u2014her, who knows all spells and charms?  She will cast away your\nships on quicksands, or call down on you Brimo the wild huntress; or the\nchains will fall from off her wrists, and she will escape in her\ndragon-car; or if not thus, some other way, for she has a thousand plans\nand wiles.  And why return home at all, brave heroes, and face the long\nseas again, and the Bosphorus, and the stormy Euxine, and double all your\ntoil?  There is many a fair land round these coasts, which waits for\ngallant men like you.  Better to settle there, and build a city, and let\nAietes and Colchis help themselves.\u2019\n\nThen a murmur rose among the Colchi, and some cried \u2018He has spoken well;\u2019\nand some, \u2018We have had enough of roving, we will sail the seas no more!\u2019\nAnd the chief said at last, \u2018Be it so, then; a plague she has been to us,\nand a plague to the house of her father, and a plague she will be to you.\nTake her, since you are no wiser; and we will sail away toward the\nnorth.\u2019\n\nThen Alcinous gave them food, and water, and garments, and rich presents\nof all sorts; and he gave the same to the Minuai, and sent them all away\nin peace.\n\nSo Jason kept the dark witch-maiden to breed him woe and shame; and the\nColchi went northward into the Adriatic, and settled, and built towns\nalong the shore.\n\nThen the heroes rowed away to the eastward, to reach Hellas, their\nbeloved land; but a storm came down upon them, and swept them far away\ntoward the south.  And they rowed till they were spent with struggling,\nthrough the darkness and the blinding rain; but where they were they\ncould not tell, and they gave up all hope of life.  And at last touched\nthe ground, and when daylight came waded to the shore; and saw nothing\nround but sand and desolate salt pools, for they had come to the\nquicksands of the Syrtis, and the dreary treeless flats which lie between\nNumidia and Cyrene, on the burning shore of Africa.  And there they\nwandered starving for many a weary day, ere they could launch their ship\nagain, and gain the open sea.  And there Canthus was killed, while he was\ntrying to drive off sheep, by a stone which a herdsman threw.\n\nAnd there too Mopsus died, the seer who knew the voices of all birds; but\nhe could not foretell his own end, for he was bitten in the foot by a\nsnake, one of those which sprang from the Gorgon\u2019s head when Perseus\ncarried it across the sands.\n\nAt last they rowed away toward the northward, for many a weary day, till\ntheir water was spent, and their food eaten; and they were worn out with\nhunger and thirst.  But at last they saw a long steep island, and a blue\npeak high among the clouds; and they knew it for the peak of Ida, and the\nfamous land of Crete.  And they said, \u2018We will land in Crete, and see\nMinos the just king, and all his glory and his wealth; at least he will\ntreat us hospitably, and let us fill our water-casks upon the shore.\u2019\n\nBut when they came nearer to the island they saw a wondrous sight upon\nthe cliffs.  For on a cape to the westward stood a giant, taller than any\nmountain pine, who glittered aloft against the sky like a tower of\nburnished brass.  He turned and looked on all sides round him, till he\nsaw the _Argo_ and her crew; and when he saw them he came toward them,\nmore swiftly than the swiftest horse, leaping across the glens at a\nbound, and striding at one step from down to down.  And when he came\nabreast of them he brandished his arms up and down, as a ship hoists and\nlowers her yards, and shouted with his brazen throat like a trumpet from\noff the hills, \u2018You are pirates, you are robbers!  If you dare land here,\nyou die.\u2019\n\nThen the heroes cried, \u2018We are no pirates.  We are all good men and true,\nand all we ask is food and water;\u2019 but the giant cried the more\u2014\n\n\u2018You are robbers, you are pirates all; I know you; and if you land, you\nshall die the death.\u2019\n\nThen he waved his arms again as a signal, and they saw the people flying\ninland, driving their flocks before them, while a great flame arose among\nthe hills.  Then the giant ran up a valley and vanished, and the heroes\nlay on their oars in fear.\n\nBut Medeia stood watching all from under her steep black brows, with a\ncunning smile upon her lips, and a cunning plot within her heart.  At\nlast she spoke, \u2018I know this giant.  I heard of him in the East.\nHephaistos the Fire King made him in his forge in \u00c6tna beneath the earth,\nand called him Talus, and gave him to Minos for a servant, to guard the\ncoast of Crete.  Thrice a day he walks round the island, and never stops\nto sleep; and if strangers land he leaps into his furnace, which flames\nthere among the hills; and when he is red-hot he rushes on them, and\nburns them in his brazen hands.\u2019\n\nThen all the heroes cried, \u2018What shall we do, wise Medeia?  We must have\nwater, or we die of thirst.  Flesh and blood we can face fairly; but who\ncan face this red-hot brass?\u2019\n\n\u2018I can face red-hot brass, if the tale I hear be true.  For they say that\nhe has but one vein in all his body, filled with liquid fire; and that\nthis vein is closed with a nail: but I know not where that nail is\nplaced.  But if I can get it once into these hands, you shall water your\nship here in peace.\u2019\n\nThen she bade them put her on shore, and row off again, and wait what\nwould befall.\n\nAnd the heroes obeyed her unwillingly, for they were ashamed to leave her\nso alone; but Jason said, \u2018She is dearer to me than to any of you, yet I\nwill trust her freely on shore; she has more plots than we can dream of\nin the windings of that fair and cunning head.\u2019\n\nSo they left the witch-maiden on the shore; and she stood there in her\nbeauty all alone, till the giant strode back red-hot from head to heel,\nwhile the grass hissed and smoked beneath his tread.\n\nAnd when he saw the maiden alone, he stopped; and she looked boldly up\ninto his face without moving, and began her magic song:\u2014\n\n\u2018Life is short, though life is sweet; and even men of brass and fire must\ndie.  The brass must rust, the fire must cool, for time gnaws all things\nin their turn.  Life is short, though life is sweet: but sweeter to live\nfor ever; sweeter to live ever youthful like the Gods, who have ichor in\ntheir veins\u2014ichor which gives life, and youth, and joy, and a bounding\nheart.\u2019\n\nThen Talus said, \u2018Who are you, strange maiden, and where is this ichor of\nyouth?\u2019\n\nThen Medeia held up a flask of crystal, and said, \u2018Here is the ichor of\nyouth.  I am Medeia the enchantress; my sister Circe gave me this, and\nsaid, \u201cGo and reward Talus, the faithful servant, for his fame is gone\nout into all lands.\u201d  So come, and I will pour this into your veins, that\nyou may live for ever young.\u2019\n\nAnd he listened to her false words, that simple Talus, and came near; and\nMedeia said, \u2018Dip yourself in the sea first, and cool yourself, lest you\nburn my tender hands; then show me where the nail in your vein is, that I\nmay pour the ichor in.\u2019\n\nThen that simple Talus dipped himself in the sea, till it hissed, and\nroared, and smoked; and came and knelt before Medeia, and showed her the\nsecret nail.\n\nAnd she drew the nail out gently, but she poured no ichor in; and instead\nthe liquid fire spouted forth, like a stream of red-hot iron.  And Talus\ntried to leap up, crying, \u2018You have betrayed me, false witch-maiden!\u2019\nBut she lifted up her hands before him, and sang, till he sank beneath\nher spell.  And as he sank, his brazen limbs clanked heavily, and the\nearth groaned beneath his weight; and the liquid fire ran from his heel,\nlike a stream of lava, to the sea; and Medeia laughed, and called to the\nheroes, \u2018Come ashore, and water your ship in peace.\u2019\n\nSo they came, and found the giant lying dead; and they fell down, and\nkissed Medeia\u2019s feet; and watered their ship, and took sheep and oxen,\nand so left that inhospitable shore.\n\nAt last, after many more adventures, they came to the Cape of Malea, at\nthe south-west point of the Peloponnese.  And there they offered\nsacrifices, and Orpheus purged them from their guilt.  Then they rode\naway again to the northward, past the Laconian shore, and came all worn\nand tired by Sunium, and up the long Euboean Strait, until they saw once\nmore Pelion, and Aphetai, and Iolcos by the sea.\n\nAnd they ran the ship ashore; but they had no strength left to haul her\nup the beach; and they crawled out on the pebbles, and sat down, and wept\ntill they could weep no more.  For the houses and the trees were all\naltered; and all the faces which they saw were strange; and their joy was\nswallowed up in sorrow, while they thought of their youth, and all their\nlabour, and the gallant comrades they had lost.\n\nAnd the people crowded round, and asked them \u2018Who are you, that you sit\nweeping here?\u2019\n\n\u2018We are the sons of your princes, who sailed out many a year ago.  We\nwent to fetch the golden fleece, and we have brought it, and grief\ntherewith.  Give us news of our fathers and our mothers, if any of them\nbe left alive on earth.\u2019\n\nThen there was shouting, and laughing, and weeping; and all the kings\ncame to the shore, and they led away the heroes to their homes, and\nbewailed the valiant dead.\n\nThen Jason went up with Medeia to the palace of his uncle Pelias.  And\nwhen he came in Pelias sat by the hearth, crippled and blind with age;\nwhile opposite him sat \u00c6son, Jason\u2019s father, crippled and blind likewise;\nand the two old men\u2019s heads shook together as they tried to warm\nthemselves before the fire.\n\nAnd Jason fell down at his father\u2019s knees, and wept, and called him by\nhis name.  And the old man stretched his hands out, and felt him, and\nsaid, \u2018Do not mock me, young hero.  My son Jason is dead long ago at\nsea.\u2019\n\n\u2018I am your own son Jason, whom you trusted to the Centaur upon Pelion;\nand I have brought home the golden fleece, and a princess of the Sun\u2019s\nrace for my bride.  So now give me up the kingdom, Pelias my uncle, and\nfulfil your promise as I have fulfilled mine.\u2019\n\nThen his father clung to him like a child, and wept, and would not let\nhim go; and cried, \u2018Now I shall not go down lonely to my grave.  Promise\nme never to leave me till I die.\u2019\n\n\n\nPART VI\nWHAT WAS THE END OF THE HEROES\n\n\nAnd now I wish that I could end my story pleasantly; but it is no fault\nof mine that I cannot.  The old songs end it sadly, and I believe that\nthey are right and wise; for though the heroes were purified at Malea,\nyet sacrifices cannot make bad hearts good, and Jason had taken a wicked\nwife, and he had to bear his burden to the last.\n\nAnd first she laid a cunning plot to punish that poor old Pelias, instead\nof letting him die in peace.\n\nFor she told his daughters, \u2018I can make old things young again; I will\nshow you how easy it is to do.\u2019  So she took an old ram and killed him,\nand put him in a cauldron with magic herbs; and whispered her spells over\nhim, and he leapt out again a young lamb.  So that \u2018Medeia\u2019s cauldron\u2019 is\na proverb still, by which we mean times of war and change, when the world\nhas become old and feeble, and grows young again through bitter pains.\n\nThen she said to Pelias\u2019 daughters, \u2018Do to your father as I did to this\nram, and he will grow young and strong again.\u2019  But she only told them\nhalf the spell; so they failed, while Medeia mocked them; and poor old\nPelias died, and his daughters came to misery.  But the songs say she\ncured \u00c6son, Jason\u2019s father, and he became young, and strong again.\n\nBut Jason could not love her, after all her cruel deeds.  So he was\nungrateful to her, and wronged her; and she revenged herself on him.  And\na terrible revenge she took\u2014too terrible to speak of here.  But you will\nhear of it yourselves when you grow up, for it has been sung in noble\npoetry and music; and whether it be true or not, it stands for ever as a\nwarning to us not to seek for help from evil persons, or to gain good\nends by evil means.  For if we use an adder even against our enemies, it\nwill turn again and sting us.\n\nBut of all the other heroes there is many a brave tale left, which I have\nno space to tell you, so you must read them for yourselves;\u2014of the\nhunting of the boar in Calydon, which Meleager killed; and of Heracles\u2019\ntwelve famous labours; and of the seven who fought at Thebes; and of the\nnoble love of Castor and Polydeuces, the twin Dioscouroi\u2014how when one\ndied the other would not live without him, so they shared their\nimmortality between them; and Zeus changed them into the two twin stars\nwhich never rise both at once.\n\nAnd what became of Cheiron, the good immortal beast?  That, too, is a sad\nstory; for the heroes never saw him more.  He was wounded by a poisoned\narrow, at Pholoe among the hills, when Heracles opened the fatal\nwine-jar, which Cheiron had warned him not to touch.  And the Centaurs\nsmelt the wine, and flocked to it, and fought for it with Heracles; but\nhe killed them all with his poisoned arrows, and Cheiron was left alone.\nThen Cheiron took up one of the arrows, and dropped it by chance upon his\nfoot; and the poison ran like fire along his veins, and he lay down and\nlonged to die; and cried, \u2018Through wine I perish, the bane of all my\nrace.  Why should I live for ever in this agony?  Who will take my\nimmortality, that I may die?\u2019\n\nThen Prometheus answered, the good Titan, whom Heracles had set free from\nCaucasus, \u2018I will take your immortality and live for ever, that I may\nhelp poor mortal men.\u2019  So Cheiron gave him his immortality, and died,\nand had rest from pain.  And Heracles and Prometheus wept over him, and\nwent to bury him on Pelion; but Zeus took him up among the stars, to live\nfor ever, grand and mild, low down in the far southern sky.\n\nAnd in time the heroes died, all but Nestor, the silver-tongued old man;\nand left behind them valiant sons, but not so great as they had been.\nYet their fame, too, lives till this day, for they fought at the ten\nyears\u2019 siege of Troy: and their story is in the book which we call Homer,\nin two of the noblest songs on earth\u2014the \u2018Iliad,\u2019 which tells us of the\nsiege of Troy, and Achilles\u2019 quarrel with the kings; and the \u2018Odyssey,\u2019\nwhich tells the wanderings of Odysseus, through many lands for many\nyears, and how Alcinous sent him home at last, safe to Ithaca his beloved\nisland, and to Penelope his faithful wife, and Telemachus his son, and\nEuphorbus the noble swineherd, and the old dog who licked his hand and\ndied.  We will read that sweet story, children, by the fire some winter\nnight.  And now I will end my tale, and begin another and a more cheerful\none, of a hero who became a worthy king, and won his people\u2019s love.\n\n\n\n\nSTORY III.\u2014THESEUS\n\n\nPART I\nHOW THESEUS LIFTED THE STONE\n\n\nOnce upon a time there was a princess in Tr\u0153zene, Aithra, the daughter of\nPittheus the king.  She had one fair son, named Theseus, the bravest lad\nin all the land; and Aithra never smiled but when she looked at him, for\nher husband had forgotten her, and lived far away.  And she used to go up\nto the mountain above Troezene, to the temple of Poseidon and sit there\nall day looking out across the bay, over Methana, to the purple peaks of\n\u00c6gina and the Attic shore beyond.  And when Theseus was full fifteen\nyears old she took him up with her to the temple, and into the thickets\nof the grove which grew in the temple-yard.  And she led him to a tall\nplane-tree, beneath whose shade grew arbutus, and lentisk, and purple\nheather-bushes.  And there she sighed, and said, \u2018Theseus, my son, go\ninto that thicket and you will find at the plane-tree foot a great flat\nstone; lift it, and bring me what lies underneath.\u2019\n\nThen Theseus pushed his way in through the thick bushes, and saw that\nthey had not been moved for many a year.  And searching among their roots\nhe found a great flat stone, all overgrown with ivy, and acanthus, and\nmoss.  He tried to lift it, but he could not.  And he tried till the\nsweat ran down his brow from heat, and the tears from his eyes for shame;\nbut all was of no avail.  And at last he came back to his mother, and\nsaid, \u2018I have found the stone, but I cannot lift it; nor do I think that\nany man could in all Troezene.\u2019\n\nThen she sighed, and said, \u2018The Gods wait long; but they are just at\nlast.  Let it be for another year.  The day may come when you will be a\nstronger man than lives in all Troezene.\u2019\n\nThen she took him by the hand, and went into the temple and prayed, and\ncame down again with Theseus to her home.\n\nAnd when a full year was past she led Theseus up again to the temple, and\nbade him lift the stone; but he could not.\n\nThen she sighed, and said the same words again, and went down, and came\nagain the next year; but Theseus could not lift the stone then, nor the\nyear after; and he longed to ask his mother the meaning of that stone,\nand what might lie underneath it; but her face was so sad that he had not\nthe heart to ask.\n\nSo he said to himself, \u2018The day shall surely come when I will lift that\nstone, though no man in Troezene can.\u2019  And in order to grow strong he\nspent all his days in wrestling, and boxing, and hurling, and taming\nhorses, and hunting the boar and the bull, and coursing goats and deer\namong the rocks; till upon all the mountains there was no hunter so swift\nas Theseus; and he killed Phaia the wild sow of Crommyon, which wasted\nall the land; till all the people said, \u2018Surely the Gods are with the\nlad.\u2019\n\nAnd when his eighteenth year was past, Aithra led him up again to the\ntemple, and said, \u2018Theseus, lift the stone this day, or never know who\nyou are.\u2019  And Theseus went into the thicket, and stood over the stone,\nand tugged at it; and it moved.  Then his spirit swelled within him, and\nhe said, \u2018If I break my heart in my body, it shall up.\u2019  And he tugged at\nit once more, and lifted it, and rolled it over with a shout.\n\nAnd when he looked beneath it, on the ground lay a sword of bronze, with\na hilt of glittering gold, and by it a pair of golden sandals; and he\ncaught them up, and burst through the bushes like a wild boar, and leapt\nto his mother, holding them high above his head.\n\nBut when she saw them she wept long in silence, hiding her fair face in\nher shawl; and Theseus stood by her wondering, and wept also, he knew not\nwhy.  And when she was tired of weeping, she lifted up her head, and laid\nher finger on her lips, and said, \u2018Hide them in your bosom, Theseus my\nson, and come with me where we can look down upon the sea.\u2019\n\nThen they went outside the sacred wall, and looked down over the bright\nblue sea; and Aithra said\u2014\n\n\u2018Do you see this land at our feet?\u2019\n\nAnd he said, \u2018Yes; this is Troezene, where I was born and bred.\u2019\n\nAnd she said, \u2018It is but a little land, barren and rocky, and looks\ntowards the bleak north-east.  Do you see that land beyond?\u2019\n\n\u2018Yes; that is Attica, where the Athenian people dwell.\u2019\n\n                      [Picture: Theseus and Aithra]\n\n\u2018That is a fair land and large, Theseus my son; and it looks toward the\nsunny south; a land of olive-oil and honey, the joy of Gods and men.  For\nthe Gods have girdled it with mountains, whose veins are of pure silver,\nand their bones of marble white as snow; and there the hills are sweet\nwith thyme and basil, and the meadows with violet and asphodel, and the\nnightingales sing all day in the thickets, by the side of ever-flowing\nstreams.  There are twelve towns well peopled, the homes of an ancient\nrace, the children of Kekrops the serpent king, the son of Mother Earth,\nwho wear gold cicalas among the tresses of their golden hair; for like\nthe cicalas they sprang from the earth, and like the cicalas they sing\nall day, rejoicing in the genial sun.  What would you do, son Theseus, if\nyou were king of such a land?\u2019\n\nThen Theseus stood astonished, as he looked across the broad bright sea,\nand saw the fair Attic shore, from Sunium to Hymettus and Pentelicus, and\nall the mountain peaks which girdle Athens round.  But Athens itself he\ncould not see, for purple \u00c6gina stood before it, midway across the sea.\n\nThen his heart grew great within him, and he said, \u2018If I were king of\nsuch a land I would rule it wisely and well in wisdom and in might, that\nwhen I died all men might weep over my tomb, and cry, \u201cAlas for the\nshepherd of his people!\u201d\u2019\n\nAnd Aithra smiled, and said, \u2018Take, then, the sword and the sandals, and\ngo to \u00c6geus, king of Athens, who lives on Pallas\u2019 hill; and say to him,\n\u201cThe stone is lifted, but whose is the pledge beneath it?\u201d  Then show him\nthe sword and the sandals, and take what the Gods shall send.\u2019\n\nBut Theseus wept, \u2018Shall I leave you, O my mother?\u2019\n\nBut she answered, \u2018Weep not for me.  That which is fated must be; and\ngrief is easy to those who do nought but grieve.  Full of sorrow was my\nyouth, and full of sorrow my womanhood.  Full of sorrow was my youth for\nBellerophon, the slayer of the Chim\u00e6ra, whom my father drove away by\ntreason; and full of sorrow my womanhood, for thy treacherous father and\nfor thee; and full of sorrow my old age will be (for I see my fate in\ndreams), when the sons of the Swan shall carry me captive to the hollow\nvale of Eurotas, till I sail across the seas a slave, the handmaid of the\npest of Greece.  Yet shall I be avenged, when the golden-haired heroes\nsail against Troy, and sack the palaces of Ilium; then my son shall set\nme free from thraldom, and I shall hear the tale of Theseus\u2019 fame.  Yet\nbeyond that I see new sorrows; but I can bear them as I have borne the\npast.\u2019\n\nThen she kissed Theseus, and wept over him; and went into the temple, and\nTheseus saw her no more.\n\n\n\nPART II\nHOW THESEUS SLEW THE DEVOURERS OF MEN\n\n\nSo Theseus stood there alone, with his mind full of many hopes.  And\nfirst he thought of going down to the harbour and hiring a swift ship,\nand sailing across the bay to Athens; but even that seemed too slow for\nhim, and he longed for wings to fly across the sea, and find his father.\nBut after a while his heart began to fail him; and he sighed, and said\nwithin himself\u2014\n\n\u2018What if my father have other sons about him whom he loves?  What if he\nwill not receive me?  And what have I done that he should receive me?  He\nhas forgotten me ever since I was born: why should he welcome me now?\u2019\n\nThen he thought a long while sadly; and at the last he cried aloud, \u2018Yes!\nI will make him love me; for I will prove myself worthy of his love.  I\nwill win honour and renown, and do such deeds that \u00c6geus shall be proud\nof me, though he had fifty other sons!  Did not Heracles win himself\nhonour, though he was opprest, and the slave of Eurystheus?  Did he not\nkill all robbers and evil beasts, and drain great lakes and marshes,\nbreaking the hills through with his club?  Therefore it was that all men\nhonoured him, because he rid them of their miseries, and made life\npleasant to them and their children after them.  Where can I go, to do as\nHeracles has done?  Where can I find strange adventures, robbers, and\nmonsters, and the children of hell, the enemies of men?  I will go by\nland, and into the mountains, and round by the way of the Isthmus.\nPerhaps there I may hear of brave adventures, and do something which\nshall win my father\u2019s love.\u2019\n\nSo he went by land, and away into the mountains, with his father\u2019s sword\nupon his thigh, till he came to the Spider mountains, which hang over\nEpidaurus and the sea, where the glens run downward from one peak in the\nmidst, as the rays spread in the spider\u2019s web.\n\nAnd he went up into the gloomy glens, between the furrowed marble walls,\ntill the lowland grew blue beneath his feet and the clouds drove damp\nabout his head.\n\nBut he went up and up for ever, through the spider\u2019s web of glens, till\nhe could see the narrow gulfs spread below him, north and south, and east\nand west; black cracks half-choked with mists, and above all a dreary\ndown.\n\nBut over that down he must go, for there was no road right or left; so he\ntoiled on through bog and brake, till he came to a pile of stones.\n\nAnd on the stones a man was sitting, wrapt in a bearskin cloak.  The head\nof the bear served him for a cap, and its teeth grinned white around his\nbrows; and the feet were tied about his throat, and their claws shone\nwhite upon his chest.  And when he saw Theseus he rose, and laughed till\nthe glens rattled.\n\n\u2018And who art thou, fair fly, who hast walked into the spider\u2019s web?\u2019  But\nTheseus walked on steadily, and made no answer; but he thought, \u2018Is this\nsome robber? and has an adventure come already to me?\u2019  But the strange\nman laughed louder than ever, and said\u2014\n\n\u2018Bold fly, know you not that these glens are the web from which no fly\never finds his way out again, and this down the spider\u2019s house, and I the\nspider who sucks the flies?  Come hither, and let me feast upon you; for\nit is of no use to run away, so cunning a web has my father Hephaistos\nspread for me when he made these clefts in the mountains, through which\nno man finds his way home.\u2019\n\nBut Theseus came on steadily, and asked\u2014\n\n\u2018And what is your name among men, bold spider? and where are your\nspider\u2019s fangs?\u2019\n\nThen the strange man laughed again\u2014\n\n\u2018My name is Periphetes, the son of Hephaistos and Anticleia the mountain\nnymph.  But men call me Corynetes the club-bearer; and here is my\nspider\u2019s fang.\u2019\n\nAnd he lifted from off the stones at his side a mighty club of bronze.\n\n\u2018This my father gave me, and forged it himself in the roots of the\nmountain; and with it I pound all proud flies till they give out their\nfatness and their sweetness.  So give me up that gay sword of yours, and\nyour mantle, and your golden sandals, lest I pound you, and by ill-luck\nyou die.\u2019\n\nBut Theseus wrapt his mantle round his left arm quickly, in hard folds,\nfrom his shoulder to his hand, and drew his sword, and rushed upon the\nclub-bearer, and the club-bearer rushed on him.\n\nThrice he struck at Theseus, and made him bend under the blows like a\nsapling; but Theseus guarded his head with his left arm, and the mantle\nwhich was wrapt around it.\n\nAnd thrice Theseus sprang upright after the blow, like a sapling when the\nstorm is past; and he stabbed at the club-bearer with his sword, but the\nloose folds of the bearskin saved him.\n\nThen Theseus grew mad, and closed with him, and caught him by the throat,\nand they fell and rolled over together; but when Theseus rose up from the\nground the club-bearer lay still at his feet.\n\nThen Theseus took his club and his bearskin, and left him to the kites\nand crows, and went upon his journey down the glens on the farther slope,\ntill he came to a broad green valley, and saw flocks and herds sleeping\nbeneath the trees.\n\nAnd by the side of a pleasant fountain, under the shade of rocks and\ntrees, were nymphs and shepherds dancing; but no one piped to them while\nthey danced.\n\nAnd when they saw Theseus they shrieked; and the shepherds ran off, and\ndrove away their flocks, while the nymphs dived into the fountain like\ncoots, and vanished.\n\nTheseus wondered and laughed: \u2018What strange fancies have folks here who\nrun away from strangers, and have no music when they dance!\u2019  But he was\ntired, and dusty, and thirsty; so he thought no more of them, but drank\nand bathed in the clear pool, and then lay down in the shade under a\nplane-tree, while the water sang him to sleep, as it tinkled down from\nstone to stone.\n\nAnd when he woke he heard a whispering, and saw the nymphs peeping at him\nacross the fountain from the dark mouth of a cave, where they sat on\ngreen cushions of moss.  And one said, \u2018Surely he is not Periphetes;\u2019 and\nanother, \u2018He looks like no robber, but a fair and gentle youth.\u2019\n\nThen Theseus smiled, and called them, \u2018Fair nymphs, I am not Periphetes.\nHe sleeps among the kites and crows; but I have brought away his bearskin\nand his club.\u2019\n\nThen they leapt across the pool, and came to him, and called the\nshepherds back.  And he told them how he had slain the club-bearer: and\nthe shepherds kissed his feet and sang, \u2018Now we shall feed our flocks in\npeace, and not be afraid to have music when we dance; for the cruel\nclub-bearer has met his match, and he will listen for our pipes no more.\u2019\nThen they brought him kid\u2019s flesh and wine, and the nymphs brought him\nhoney from the rocks, and he ate, and drank, and slept again, while the\nnymphs and shepherds danced and sang.  And when he woke, they begged him\nto stay; but he would not.  \u2018I have a great work to do,\u2019 he said; \u2018I must\nbe away toward the Isthmus, that I may go to Athens.\u2019\n\nBut the shepherds said, \u2018Will you go alone toward Athens?  None travel\nthat way now, except in armed troops.\u2019\n\n\u2018As for arms, I have enough, as you see.  And as for troops, an honest\nman is good enough company for himself.  Why should I not go alone toward\nAthens?\u2019\n\n\u2018If you do, you must look warily about you on the Isthmus, lest you meet\nSinis the robber, whom men call Pituocamptes the pine-bender; for he\nbends down two pine-trees, and binds all travellers hand and foot between\nthem, and when he lets the trees go again their bodies are torn in\nsunder.\u2019\n\n\u2018And after that,\u2019 said another, \u2018you must go inland, and not dare to pass\nover the cliffs of Sciron; for on the left hand are the mountains, and on\nthe right the sea, so that you have no escape, but must needs meet Sciron\nthe robber, who will make you wash his feet; and while you are washing\nthem he will kick you over the cliff, to the tortoise who lives below,\nand feeds upon the bodies of the dead.\u2019\n\nAnd before Theseus could answer, another cried, \u2018And after that is a\nworse danger still, unless you go inland always, and leave Eleusis far on\nyour right.  For in Eleusis rules Kerkuon the cruel king, the terror of\nall mortals, who killed his own daughter Alope in prison.  But she was\nchanged into a fair fountain; and her child he cast out upon the\nmountains, but the wild mares gave it milk.  And now he challenges all\ncomers to wrestle with him, for he is the best wrestler in all Attica,\nand overthrows all who come; and those whom he overthrows he murders\nmiserably, and his palace-court is full of their bones.\u2019\n\nThen Theseus frowned, and said, \u2018This seems indeed an ill-ruled land, and\nadventures enough in it to be tried.  But if I am the heir of it, I will\nrule it and right it, and here is my royal sceptre.\u2019\n\nAnd he shook his club of bronze, while the nymphs and shepherds clung\nround him, and entreated him not to go.\n\nBut on he went nevertheless, till he could see both the seas and the\ncitadel of Corinth towering high above all the land.  And he past swiftly\nalong the Isthmus, for his heart burned to meet that cruel Sinis; and in\na pine-wood at last he met him, where the Isthmus was narrowest and the\nroad ran between high rocks.  There he sat upon a stone by the wayside,\nwith a young fir-tree for a club across his knees, and a cord laid ready\nby his side; and over his head, upon the fir-tops, hung the bones of\nmurdered men.\n\nThen Theseus shouted to him, \u2018Holla, thou valiant pine-bender, hast thou\ntwo fir-trees left for me?\u2019\n\nAnd Sinis leapt to his feet, and answered, pointing to the bones above\nhis head, \u2018My larder has grown empty lately, so I have two fir-trees\nready for thee.\u2019  And he rushed on Theseus, lifting his club, and Theseus\nrushed upon him.\n\nThen they hammered together till the greenwoods rang; but the metal was\ntougher than the pine, and Sinis\u2019 club broke right across, as the bronze\ncame down upon it.  Then Theseus heaved up another mighty stroke, and\nsmote Sinis down upon his face; and knelt upon his back, and bound him\nwith his own cord, and said, \u2018As thou hast done to others, so shall it be\ndone to thee.\u2019  Then he bent down two young fir-trees, and bound Sinis\nbetween them for all his struggling and his prayers; and let them go, and\nended Sinis, and went on, leaving him to the hawks and crows.\n\nThen he went over the hills toward Megara, keeping close along the\nSaronic Sea, till he came to the cliffs of Sciron, and the narrow path\nbetween the mountain and the sea.\n\nAnd there he saw Sciron sitting by a fountain, at the edge of the cliff.\nOn his knees was a mighty club; and he had barred the path with stones,\nso that every one must stop who came up.\n\nThen Theseus shouted to him, and said, \u2018Holla, thou tortoise-feeder, do\nthy feet need washing to-day?\u2019\n\nAnd Sciron leapt to his feet, and answered\u2014\u2018My tortoise is empty and\nhungry, and my feet need washing to-day.\u2019  And he stood before his\nbarrier, and lifted up his club in both hands.\n\nThen Theseus rushed upon him; and sore was the battle upon the cliff, for\nwhen Sciron felt the weight of the bronze club, he dropt his own, and\nclosed with Theseus, and tried to hurl him by main force over the cliff.\nBut Theseus was a wary wrestler, and dropt his own club, and caught him\nby the throat and by the knee, and forced him back against the wall of\nstones, and crushed him up against them, till his breath was almost gone.\nAnd Sciron cried panting, \u2018Loose me, and I will let thee pass.\u2019  But\nTheseus answered, \u2018I must not pass till I have made the rough way\nsmooth;\u2019 and he forced him back against the wall till it fell, and Sciron\nrolled head over heels.\n\nThen Theseus lifted him up all bruised, and said, \u2018Come hither and wash\nmy feet.\u2019  And he drew his sword, and sat down by the well, and said,\n\u2018Wash my feet, or I cut you piecemeal.\u2019\n\nAnd Sciron washed his feet trembling; and when it was done, Theseus rose,\nand cried, \u2018As thou hast done to others, so shall it be done to thee.  Go\nfeed thy tortoise thyself;\u2019 and he kicked him over the cliff into the\nsea.\n\nAnd whether the tortoise ate him, I know not; for some say that earth and\nsea both disdained to take his body, so foul it was with sin.  So the sea\ncast it out upon the shore, and the shore cast it back into the sea, and\nat last the waves hurled it high into the air in anger; and it hung there\nlong without a grave, till it was changed into a desolate rock, which\nstands there in the surge until this day.\n\nThis at least is true, which Pausanias tells, that in the royal porch at\nAthens he saw the figure of Theseus modelled in clay, and by him Sciron\nthe robber falling headlong into the sea.\n\nThen he went a long day\u2019s journey, past Megara, into the Attic land, and\nhigh before him rose the snow-peaks of Cith\u00e6ron, all cold above the black\npine-woods, where haunt the Furies, and the raving Bacch\u00e6, and the Nymphs\nwho drive men wild, far aloft upon the dreary mountains, where the storms\nhowl all day long.  And on his right hand was the sea always, and\nSalamis, with its island cliffs, and the sacred strait of the sea-fight,\nwhere afterwards the Persians fled before the Greeks.  So he went all day\nuntil the evening, till he saw the Thriasian plain, and the sacred city\nof Eleusis, where the Earth-mother\u2019s temple stands.  For there she met\nTriptolemus, when all the land lay waste, Demeter the kind Earth-mother,\nand in her hands a sheaf of corn.  And she taught him to plough the\nfallows, and to yoke the lazy kine; and she taught him to sow the\nseed-fields, and to reap the golden grain; and sent him forth to teach\nall nations, and give corn to labouring men.  So at Eleusis all men\nhonour her, whosoever tills the land; her and Triptolemus her beloved,\nwho gave corn to labouring men.\n\nAnd he went along the plain into Eleusis, and stood in the market-place,\nand cried\u2014\n\n\u2018Where is Kerkuon, the king of the city?  I must wrestle a fall with him\nto-day.\u2019\n\nThen all the people crowded round him, and cried, \u2018Fair youth, why will\nyou die?  Hasten out of the city, before the cruel king hears that a\nstranger is here.\u2019\n\nBut Theseus went up through the town, while the people wept and prayed,\nand through the gates of the palace-yard, and through the piles of bones\nand skulls, till he came to the door of Kerkuon\u2019s hall, the terror of all\nmortal men.\n\nAnd there he saw Kerkuon sitting at the table in the hall alone; and\nbefore him was a whole sheep roasted, and beside him a whole jar of wine.\nAnd Theseus stood and called him, \u2018Holla, thou valiant wrestler, wilt\nthou wrestle a fall to-day?\u2019\n\nAnd Kerkuon looked up and laughed, and answered, \u2018I will wrestle a fall\nto-day; but come in, for I am lonely and thou weary, and eat and drink\nbefore thou die.\u2019\n\nThen Theseus went up boldly, and sat down before Kerkuon at the board;\nand he ate his fill of the sheep\u2019s flesh, and drank his fill of the wine;\nand Theseus ate enough for three men, but Kerkuon ate enough for seven.\n\nBut neither spoke a word to the other, though they looked across the\ntable by stealth; and each said in his heart, \u2018He has broad shoulders;\nbut I trust mine are as broad as his.\u2019\n\nAt last, when the sheep was eaten and the jar of wine drained dry, King\nKerkuon rose, and cried, \u2018Let us wrestle a fall before we sleep.\u2019\n\nSo they tossed off all their garments, and went forth in the palace-yard;\nand Kerkuon bade strew fresh sand in an open space between the bones.\n\nAnd there the heroes stood face to face, while their eyes glared like\nwild bulls\u2019; and all the people crowded at the gates to see what would\nbefall.\n\nAnd there they stood and wrestled, till the stars shone out above their\nheads; up and down and round, till the sand was stamped hard beneath\ntheir feet.  And their eyes flashed like stars in the darkness, and their\nbreath went up like smoke in the night air; but neither took nor gave a\nfootstep, and the people watched silent at the gates.\n\nBut at last Kerkuon grew angry, and caught Theseus round the neck, and\nshook him as a mastiff shakes a rat; but he could not shake him off his\nfeet.\n\nBut Theseus was quick and wary, and clasped Kerkuon round the waist, and\nslipped his loin quickly underneath him, while he caught him by the\nwrist; and then he hove a mighty heave, a heave which would have stirred\nan oak, and lifted Kerkuon, and pitched him right over his shoulder on\nthe ground.\n\nThen he leapt on him, and called, \u2018Yield, or I kill thee!\u2019 but Kerkuon\nsaid no word; for his heart was burst within him with the fall, and the\nmeat, and the wine.\n\nThen Theseus opened the gates, and called in all the people; and they\ncried, \u2018You have slain our evil king; be you now our king, and rule us\nwell.\u2019\n\n\u2018I will be your king in Eleusis, and I will rule you right and well; for\nthis cause I have slain all evil-doers\u2014Sinis, and Sciron, and this man\nlast of all.\u2019\n\nThen an aged man stepped forth, and said, \u2018Young hero, hast thou slain\nSinis?  Beware then of \u00c6geus, king of Athens, to whom thou goest, for he\nis near of kin to Sinis.\u2019\n\n\u2018Then I have slain my own kinsman,\u2019 said Theseus, \u2018though well he\ndeserved to die.  Who will purge me from his death, for rightfully I slew\nhim, unrighteous and accursed as he was?\u2019\n\nAnd the old man answered\u2014\n\n\u2018That will the heroes do, the sons of Phytalus, who dwell beneath the\nelm-tree in Aphidnai, by the bank of silver Cephisus; for they know the\nmysteries of the Gods.  Thither you shall go and be purified, and after\nyou shall be our king.\u2019\n\nSo he took an oath of the people of Eleusis, that they would serve him as\ntheir king, and went away next morning across the Thriasian plain, and\nover the hills toward Aphidnai, that he might find the sons of Phytalus.\n\nAnd as he was skirting the Vale of Cephisus, along the foot of lofty\nParnes, a very tall and strong man came down to meet him, dressed in rich\ngarments.  On his arms were golden bracelets, and round his neck a collar\nof jewels; and he came forward, bowing courteously, and held out both his\nhands, and spoke\u2014\n\n\u2018Welcome, fair youth, to these mountains; happy am I to have met you!\nFor what greater pleasure to a good man, than to entertain strangers?\nBut I see that you are weary.  Come up to my castle, and rest yourself\nawhile.\u2019\n\n\u2018I give you thanks,\u2019 said Theseus: \u2018but I am in haste to go up the\nvalley, and to reach Aphidnai in the Vale of Cephisus.\u2019\n\n\u2018Alas! you have wandered far from the right way, and you cannot reach\nAphidnai to-night, for there are many miles of mountain between you and\nit, and steep passes, and cliffs dangerous after nightfall.  It is well\nfor you that I met you, for my whole joy is to find strangers, and to\nfeast them at my castle, and hear tales from them of foreign lands.  Come\nup with me, and eat the best of venison, and drink the rich red wine, and\nsleep upon my famous bed, of which all travellers say that they never saw\nthe like.  For whatsoever the stature of my guest, however tall or short,\nthat bed fits him to a hair, and he sleeps on it as he never slept\nbefore.\u2019  And he laid hold on Theseus\u2019 hands, and would not let him go.\n\nTheseus wished to go forwards: but he was ashamed to seem churlish to so\nhospitable a man; and he was curious to see that wondrous bed; and\nbeside, he was hungry and weary: yet he shrank from the man, he knew not\nwhy; for, though his voice was gentle and fawning, it was dry and husky\nlike a toad\u2019s; and though his eyes were gentle, they were dull and cold\nlike stones.  But he consented, and went with the man up a glen which led\nfrom the road toward the peaks of Parnes, under the dark shadow of the\ncliffs.\n\nAnd as they went up, the glen grew narrower, and the cliffs higher and\ndarker, and beneath them a torrent roared, half seen between bare\nlimestone crags.  And around there was neither tree nor bush, while from\nthe white peaks of Parnes the snow-blasts swept down the glen, cutting\nand chilling till a horror fell on Theseus as he looked round at that\ndoleful place.  And he asked at last, \u2018Your castle stands, it seems, in a\ndreary region.\u2019\n\n\u2018Yes; but once within it, hospitality makes all things cheerful.  But who\nare these?\u2019 and he looked back, and Theseus also; and far below, along\nthe road which they had left, came a string of laden asses, and merchants\nwalking by them, watching their ware.\n\n\u2018Ah, poor souls!\u2019 said the stranger.  \u2018Well for them that I looked back\nand saw them!  And well for me too, for I shall have the more guests at\nmy feast.  Wait awhile till I go down and call them, and we will eat and\ndrink together the livelong night.  Happy am I, to whom Heaven sends so\nmany guests at once!\u2019\n\nAnd he ran back down the hill, waving his hand and shouting, to the\nmerchants, while Theseus went slowly up the steep pass.\n\nBut as he went up he met an aged man, who had been gathering drift-wood\nin the torrent-bed.  He had laid down his faggot in the road, and was\ntrying to lift it again to his shoulder.  And when he saw Theseus, he\ncalled to him, and said\u2014\n\n\u2018O fair youth, help me up with my burden, for my limbs are stiff and weak\nwith years.\u2019\n\nThen Theseus lifted the burden on his back.  And the old man blest him,\nand then looked earnestly upon him, and said\u2014\n\n\u2018Who are you, fair youth, and wherefore travel you this doleful road?\u2019\n\n\u2018Who I am my parents know; but I travel this doleful road because I have\nbeen invited by a hospitable man, who promises to feast me, and to make\nme sleep upon I know not what wondrous bed.\u2019\n\nThen the old man clapped his hands together and cried\u2014\n\n\u2018O house of Hades, man-devouring! will thy maw never be full?  Know, fair\nyouth, that you are going to torment and to death, for he who met you (I\nwill requite your kindness by another) is a robber and a murderer of men.\nWhatsoever stranger he meets he entices him hither to death; and as for\nthis bed of which he speaks, truly it fits all comers, yet none ever rose\nalive off it save me.\u2019\n\n\u2018Why?\u2019 asked Theseus, astonished.\n\n\u2018Because, if a man be too tall for it, he lops his limbs till they be\nshort enough, and if he be too short, he stretches his limbs till they be\nlong enough: but me only he spared, seven weary years agone; for I alone\nof all fitted his bed exactly, so he spared me, and made me his slave.\nAnd once I was a wealthy merchant, and dwelt in brazen-gated Thebes; but\nnow I hew wood and draw water for him, the torment of all mortal men.\u2019\n\nThen Theseus said nothing; but he ground his teeth together.\n\n\u2018Escape, then,\u2019 said the old man, \u2018for he will have no pity on thy youth.\nBut yesterday he brought up hither a young man and a maiden, and fitted\nthem upon his bed; and the young man\u2019s hands and feet he cut off, but the\nmaiden\u2019s limbs he stretched until she died, and so both perished\nmiserably\u2014but I am tired of weeping over the slain.  And therefore he is\ncalled Procrustes the stretcher, though his father called him Damastes.\nFlee from him: yet whither will you flee?  The cliffs are steep, and who\ncan climb them? and there is no other road.\u2019\n\nBut Theseus laid his hand upon the old man\u2019s month, and said, \u2018There is\nno need to flee;\u2019 and he turned to go down the pass.\n\n\u2018Do not tell him that I have warned you, or he will kill me by some evil\ndeath;\u2019 and the old man screamed after him down the glen; but Theseus\nstrode on in his wrath.\n\nAnd he said to himself, \u2018This is an ill-ruled land; when shall I have\ndone ridding it of monsters?\u2019  And as he spoke, Procrustes came up the\nhill, and all the merchants with him, smiling and talking gaily.  And\nwhen he saw Theseus, he cried, \u2018Ah, fair young guest, have I kept you too\nlong waiting?\u2019\n\nBut Theseus answered, \u2018The man who stretches his guests upon a bed and\nhews off their hands and feet, what shall be done to him, when right is\ndone throughout the land?\u2019\n\nThen Procrustes\u2019 countenance changed, and his cheeks grew as green as a\nlizard, and he felt for his sword in haste; but Theseus leapt on him, and\ncried\u2014\n\n\u2018Is this true, my host, or is it false?\u2019 and he clasped Procrustes round\nwaist and elbow, so that he could not draw his sword.\n\n\u2018Is this true, my host, or is it false?\u2019  But Procrustes answered never a\nword.\n\nThen Theseus flung him from him, and lifted up his dreadful club; and\nbefore Procrustes could strike him he had struck, and felled him to the\nground.\n\nAnd once again he struck him; and his evil soul fled forth, and went down\nto Hades squeaking, like a bat into the darkness of a cave.\n\nThen Theseus stript him of his gold ornaments, and went up to his house,\nand found there great wealth and treasure, which he had stolen from the\npassers-by.  And he called the people of the country, whom Procrustes had\nspoiled a long time, and parted the spoil among them, and went down the\nmountains, and away.\n\nAnd he went down the glens of Parnes, through mist, and cloud, and rain,\ndown the slopes of oak, and lentisk, and arbutus, and fragrant bay, till\nhe came to the Vale of Cephisus, and the pleasant town of Aphidnai, and\nthe home of the Phytalid heroes, where they dwelt beneath a mighty elm.\n\nAnd there they built an altar, and bade him bathe in Cephisus, and offer\na yearling ram, and purified him from the blood of Sinis, and sent him\naway in peace.\n\nAnd he went down the valley by Acharnai, and by the silver-swirling\nstream, while all the people blessed him, for the fame of his prowess had\nspread wide, till he saw the plain of Athens, and the hill where Athen\u00e9\ndwells.\n\nSo Theseus went up through Athens, and all the people ran out to see him;\nfor his fame had gone before him and every one knew of his mighty deeds.\nAnd all cried, \u2018Here comes the hero who slew Sinis, and Phaia the wild\nsow of Crommyon, and conquered Kerkuon in wrestling, and slew Procrustes\nthe pitiless.\u2019  But Theseus went on sadly and steadfastly, for his heart\nyearned after his father; and he said, \u2018How shall I deliver him from\nthese leeches who suck his blood?\u2019\n\nSo he went up the holy stairs, and into the Acropolis, where \u00c6geus\u2019\npalace stood; and he went straight into \u00c6geus\u2019 hall, and stood upon the\nthreshold, and looked round.\n\nAnd there he saw his cousins sitting about the table at the wine: many a\nson of Pallas, but no \u00c6geus among them.  There they sat and feasted, and\nlaughed, and passed the wine-cup round; while harpers harped, and\nslave-girls sang, and the tumblers showed their tricks.\n\nLoud laughed the sons of Pallas, and fast went the wine-cup round; but\nTheseus frowned, and said under his breath, \u2018No wonder that the land is\nfull of robbers, while such as these bear rule.\u2019\n\nThen the Pallantids saw him, and called to him, half-drunk with wine,\n\u2018Holla, tall stranger at the door, what is your will to-day?\u2019\n\n\u2018I come hither to ask for hospitality.\u2019\n\n\u2018Then take it, and welcome.  You look like a hero and a bold warrior; and\nwe like such to drink with us.\u2019\n\n\u2018I ask no hospitality of you; I ask it of \u00c6geus the king, the master of\nthis house.\u2019\n\nAt that some growled, and some laughed, and shouted, \u2018Heyday! we are all\nmasters here.\u2019\n\n\u2018Then I am master as much as the rest of you,\u2019 said Theseus, and he\nstrode past the table up the hall, and looked around for \u00c6geus; but he\nwas nowhere to be seen.\n\nThe Pallantids looked at him, and then at each other, and each whispered\nto the man next him, \u2018This is a forward fellow; he ought to be thrust out\nat the door.\u2019  But each man\u2019s neighbour whispered in return, \u2018His\nshoulders are broad; will you rise and put him out?\u2019  So they all sat\nstill where they were.\n\nThen Theseus called to the servants, and said, \u2018Go tell King \u00c6geus, your\nmaster, that Theseus of Troezene is here, and asks to be his guest\nawhile.\u2019\n\nA servant ran and told \u00c6geus, where he sat in his chamber within, by\nMedeia the dark witch-woman, watching her eye and hand.  And when \u00c6geus\nheard of Troezene he turned pale and red again, and rose from his seat\ntrembling, while Medeia watched him like a snake.\n\n\u2018What is Troezene to you?\u2019 she asked.  But he said hastily, \u2018Do you not\nknow who this Theseus is?  The hero who has cleared the country from all\nmonsters; but that he came from Troezene, I never heard before.  I must\ngo out and welcome him.\u2019\n\nSo \u00c6geus came out into the hall; and when Theseus saw him, his heart\nleapt into his mouth, and he longed to fall on his neck and welcome him;\nbut he controlled himself, and said, \u2018My father may not wish for me,\nafter all.  I will try him before I discover myself;\u2019 and he bowed low\nbefore \u00c6geus, and said, \u2018I have delivered the king\u2019s realm from many\nmonsters; therefore I am come to ask a reward of the king.\u2019\n\nAnd old \u00c6geus looked on him, and loved him, as what fond heart would not\nhave done?  But he only sighed, and said\u2014\n\n\u2018It is little that I can give you, noble lad, and nothing that is worthy\nof you; for surely you are no mortal man, or at least no mortal\u2019s son.\u2019\n\n\u2018All I ask,\u2019 said Theseus, \u2018is to eat and drink at your table.\u2019\n\n\u2018That I can give you,\u2019 said \u00c6geus, \u2018if at least I am master in my own\nhall.\u2019\n\nThen he bade them put a seat for Theseus, and set before him the best of\nthe feast; and Theseus sat and ate so much, that all the company wondered\nat him: but always he kept his club by his side.\n\nBut Medeia the dark witch-woman had been watching him all the while.  She\nsaw how \u00c6geus turned red and pale when the lad said that he came from\nTroezene.  She saw, too, how his heart was opened toward Theseus; and how\nTheseus bore himself before all the sons of Pallas, like a lion among a\npack of curs.  And she said to herself, \u2018This youth will be master here;\nperhaps he is nearer to \u00c6geus already than mere fancy.  At least the\nPallantilds will have no chance by the side of such as he.\u2019\n\nThen she went back into her chamber modestly, while Theseus ate and\ndrank; and all the servants whispered, \u2018This, then, is the man who killed\nthe monsters!  How noble are his looks, and how huge his size!  Ah, would\nthat he were our master\u2019s son!\u2019\n\nBut presently Medeia came forth, decked in all her jewels, and her rich\nEastern robes, and looking more beautiful than the day, so that all the\nguests could look at nothing else.  And in her right hand she held a\ngolden cup, and in her left a flask of gold; and she came up to Theseus,\nand spoke in a sweet, soft, winning voice\u2014\n\n\u2018Hail to the hero, the conqueror, the unconquered, the destroyer of all\nevil things!  Drink, hero, of my charmed cup, which gives rest after\nevery toil, which heals all wounds, and pours new life into the veins.\nDrink of my cup, for in it sparkles the wine of the East, and Nepenthe,\nthe comfort of the Immortals.\u2019\n\nAnd as she spoke, she poured the flask into the cup; and the fragrance of\nthe wine spread through the hall, like the scent of thyme and roses.\n\nAnd Theseus looked up in her fair face and into her deep dark eyes.  And\nas he looked, he shrank and shuddered; for they were dry like the eyes of\na snake.  And he rose, and said, \u2018The wine is rich and fragrant, and the\nwine-bearer as fair as the Immortals; but let her pledge me first herself\nin the cup, that the wine may be the sweeter from her lips.\u2019\n\nThen Medeia turned pale, and stammered, \u2018Forgive me, fair hero; but I am\nill, and dare drink no wine.\u2019\n\nAnd Theseus looked again into her eyes, and cried, \u2018Thou shalt pledge me\nin that cup, or die.\u2019  And he lifted up his brazen club, while all the\nguests looked on aghast.\n\nMedeia shrieked a fearful shriek, and dashed the cup to the ground, and\nfled; and where the wine flowed over the marble pavement, the stone\nbubbled, and crumbled, and hissed, under the fierce venom of the draught.\n\nBut Medeia called her dragon chariot, and sprang into it and fled aloft,\naway over land and sea, and no man saw her more.\n\nAnd \u00c6geus cried, \u2018What hast thou done?\u2019  But Theseus pointed to the\nstone, \u2018I have rid the land of an enchantment: now I will rid it of one\nmore.\u2019\n\nAnd he came close to \u00c6geus, and drew from his bosom the sword and the\nsandals, and said the words which his mother bade him.\n\nAnd \u00c6geus stepped back a pace, and looked at the lad till his eyes grew\ndim; and then he cast himself on his neck and wept, and Theseus wept on\nhis neck, till they had no strength left to weep more.\n\nThen \u00c6geus turned to all the people, and cried, \u2018Behold my son, children\nof Cecrops, a better man than his father was before him.\u2019\n\nWho, then, were mad but the Pallantids, though they had been mad enough\nbefore?  And one shouted, \u2018Shall we make room for an upstart, a\npretender, who comes from we know not where?\u2019  And another, \u2018If he be\none, we are more than one; and the stronger can hold his own.\u2019  And one\nshouted one thing, and one another; for they were hot and wild with wine:\nbut all caught swords and lances off the wall, where the weapons hung\naround, and sprang forward to Theseus, and Theseus sprang forward to\nthem.\n\nAnd he cried, \u2018Go in peace, if you will, my cousins; but if not, your\nblood be on your own heads.\u2019  But they rushed at him; and then stopped\nshort and railed him, as curs stop and bark when they rouse a lion from\nhis lair.\n\nBut one hurled a lance from the rear rank, which past close by Theseus\u2019\nhead; and at that Theseus rushed forward, and the fight began indeed.\nTwenty against one they fought, and yet Theseus beat them all; and those\nwho were left fled down into the town, where the people set on them, and\ndrove them out, till Theseus was left alone in the palace, with \u00c6geus his\nnew-found father.  But before nightfall all the town came up, with\nvictims, and dances, and songs; and they offered sacrifices to Athen\u00e9,\nand rejoiced all the night long, because their king had found a noble\nson, and an heir to his royal house.\n\nSo Theseus stayed with his father all the winter: and when the spring\nequinox drew near, all the Athenians grew sad and silent, and Theseus saw\nit, and asked the reason; but no one would answer him a word.\n\nThen he went to his father, and asked him: but \u00c6geus turned away his face\nand wept.\n\n\u2018Do not ask, my son, beforehand, about evils which must happen: it is\nenough to have to face them when they come.\u2019\n\nAnd when the spring equinox came, a herald came to Athens, and stood in\nthe market, and cried, \u2018O people and King of Athens, where is your yearly\ntribute?\u2019  Then a great lamentation arose throughout the city.  But\nTheseus stood up to the herald, and cried\u2014\n\n\u2018And who are you, dog-faced, who dare demand tribute here?  If I did not\nreverence your herald\u2019s staff, I would brain you with this club.\u2019\n\nAnd the herald answered proudly, for he was a grave and ancient man\u2014\n\n\u2018Fair youth, I am not dog-faced or shameless; but I do my master\u2019s\nbidding, Minos, the King of hundred-citied Crete, the wisest of all kings\non earth.  And you must be surely a stranger here, or you would know why\nI come, and that I come by right.\u2019\n\n\u2018I am a stranger here.  Tell me, then, why you come.\u2019\n\n\u2018To fetch the tribute which King \u00c6geus promised to Minos, and confirmed\nhis promise with an oath.  For Minos conquered all this land, and Megara\nwhich lies to the east, when he came hither with a great fleet of ships,\nenraged about the murder of his son.  For his son Androgeos came hither\nto the Panathenaic games, and overcame all the Greeks in the sports, so\nthat the people honoured him as a hero.  But when \u00c6geus saw his valour,\nhe envied him, and feared lest he should join the sons of Pallas, and\ntake away the sceptre from him.  So he plotted against his life, and slew\nhim basely, no man knows how or where.  Some say that he waylaid him by\nOinoe, on the road which goes to Thebes; and some that he sent him\nagainst the bull of Marathon, that the beast might kill him.  But \u00c6geus\nsays that the young men killed him from envy, because he had conquered\nthem in the games.  So Minos came hither and avenged him, and would not\ndepart till this land had promised him tribute\u2014seven youths and seven\nmaidens every year, who go with me in a black-sailed ship, till they come\nto hundred-citied Crete.\u2019\n\nAnd Theseus ground his teeth together, and said, \u2018Wert thou not a herald\nI would kill thee for saying such things of my father; but I will go to\nhim, and know the truth.\u2019  So he went to his father, and asked him; but\nhe turned away his head and wept, and said, \u2018Blood was shed in the land\nunjustly, and by blood it is avenged.  Break not my heart by questions;\nit is enough to endure in silence.\u2019\n\nThen Theseus groaned inwardly, and said, \u2018I will go myself with these\nyouths and maidens, and kill Minos upon his royal throne.\u2019\n\nAnd \u00c6geus shrieked, and cried, \u2018You shall not go, my son, the light of my\nold age, to whom alone I look to rule this people after I am dead and\ngone.  You shall not go, to die horribly, as those youths and maidens\ndie; for Minos thrusts them into a labyrinth, which Daidalos made for him\namong the rocks,\u2014Daidalos the renegade, the accursed, the pest of this\nhis native land.  From that labyrinth no one can escape, entangled in its\nwinding ways, before they meet the Minotaur, the monster who feeds upon\nthe flesh of men.  There he devours them horribly, and they never see\nthis land again.\u2019\n\nThen Theseus grew red, and his ears tingled, and his heart beat loud in\nhis bosom.  And he stood awhile like a tall stone pillar on the cliffs\nabove some hero\u2019s grave; and at last he spoke\u2014\n\n\u2018Therefore all the more I will go with them, and slay the accursed beast.\nHave I not slain all evil-doers and monsters, that I might free this\nland?  Where are Periphetes, and Sinis, and Kerkuon, and Phaia the wild\nsow?  Where are the fifty sons of Pallas?  And this Minotaur shall go the\nroad which they have gone, and Minos himself, if he dare stay me.\u2019\n\n\u2018But how will you slay him, my son?  For you must leave your club and\nyour armour behind, and be cast to the monster, defenceless and naked\nlike the rest.\u2019\n\nAnd Theseus said, \u2018Are there no stones in that labyrinth; and have I not\nfists and teeth?  Did I need my club to kill Kerkuon, the terror of all\nmortal men?\u2019\n\nThen \u00c6geus clung to his knees; but he would not hear; and at last he let\nhim go, weeping bitterly, and said only this one word\u2014\n\n\u2018Promise me but this, if you return in peace, though that may hardly be:\ntake down the black sail of the ship (for I shall watch for it all day\nupon the cliffs), and hoist instead a white sail, that I may know afar\noff that you are safe.\u2019\n\nAnd Theseus promised, and went out, and to the market-place where the\nherald stood, while they drew lots for the youths and maidens, who were\nto sail in that doleful crew.  And the people stood wailing and weeping,\nas the lot fell on this one and on that; but Theseus strode into the\nmidst, and cried\u2014\u2018Here is a youth who needs no lot.  I myself will be one\nof the seven.\u2019\n\nAnd the herald asked in wonder, \u2018Fair youth, know you whither you are\ngoing?\u2019\n\nAnd Theseus said, \u2018I know.  Let us go down to the black-sailed ship.\u2019\n\nSo they went down to the black-sailed ship, seven maidens, and seven\nyouths, and Theseus before them all, and the people following them\nlamenting.  But Theseus whispered to his companions, \u2018Have hope, for the\nmonster is not immortal.  Where are Periphetes, and Sinis, and Sciron,\nand all whom I have slain?\u2019  Then their hearts were comforted a little;\nbut they wept as they went on board, and the cliffs of Sunium rang, and\nall the isles of the \u00c6gean Sea, with the voice of their lamentation, as\nthey sailed on toward their deaths in Crete.\n\n\n\nPART III\nHOW THESEUS SLEW THE MINOTAUR\n\n\nAnd at last they came to Crete, and to Cnossus, beneath the peaks of Ida,\nand to the palace of Minos the great king, to whom Zeus himself taught\nlaws.  So he was the wisest of all mortal kings, and conquered all the\n\u00c6gean isles; and his ships were as many as the sea-gulls, and his palace\nlike a marble hill.  And he sat among the pillars of the hall, upon his\nthrone of beaten gold, and around him stood the speaking statues which\nDaidalos had made by his skill.  For Daidalos was the most cunning of all\nAthenians, and he first invented the plumb-line, and the auger, and glue,\nand many a tool with which wood is wrought.  And he first set up masts in\nships, and yards, and his son made sails for them: but Perdix his nephew\nexcelled him; for he first invented the saw and its teeth, copying it\nfrom the back-bone of a fish; and invented, too, the chisel, and the\ncompasses, and the potter\u2019s wheel which moulds the clay.  Therefore\nDaidalos envied him, and hurled him headlong from the temple of Athen\u00e9;\nbut the Goddess pitied him (for she loves the wise), and changed him into\na partridge, which flits for ever about the hills.  And Daidalos fled to\nCrete, to Minos, and worked for him many a year, till he did a shameful\ndeed, at which the sun hid his face on high.\n\nThen he fled from the anger of Minos, he and Icaros his son having made\nthemselves wings of feathers, and fixed the feathers with wax.  So they\nflew over the sea toward Sicily; but Icaros flew too near the sun; and\nthe wax of his wings was melted, and he fell into the Icarian Sea.  But\nDaidalos came safe to Sicily, and there wrought many a wondrous work; for\nhe made for King Cocalos a reservoir, from which a great river watered\nall the land, and a castle and a treasury on a mountain, which the giants\nthemselves could not have stormed; and in Selinos he took the steam which\ncomes up from the fires of \u00c6tna, and made of it a warm bath of vapour, to\ncure the pains of mortal men; and he made a honeycomb of gold, in which\nthe bees came and stored their honey, and in Egypt he made the forecourt\nof the temple of Hephaistos in Memphis, and a statue of himself within\nit, and many another wondrous work.  And for Minos he made statues which\nspoke and moved, and the temple of Britomartis, and the dancing-hall of\nAriadne, which he carved of fair white stone.  And in Sardinia he worked\nfor I\u00f6laos, and in many a land beside, wandering up and down for ever\nwith his cunning, unlovely and accursed by men.\n\nBut Theseus stood before Minos, and they looked each other in the face.\nAnd Minos bade take them to prison, and cast them to the monster one by\none, that the death of Androgeos might be avenged.  Then Theseus cried\u2014\n\n\u2018A boon, O Minos!  Let me be thrown first to the beast.  For I came\nhither for that very purpose, of my own will, and not by lot.\u2019\n\n\u2018Who art thou, then, brave youth?\u2019\n\n\u2018I am the son of him whom of all men thou hatest most, \u00c6geus the king of\nAthens, and I am come here to end this matter.\u2019\n\nAnd Minos pondered awhile, looking steadfastly at him, and he thought,\n\u2018The lad means to atone by his own death for his father\u2019s sin;\u2019 and he\nanswered at last mildly\u2014\n\n\u2018Go back in peace, my son.  It is a pity that one so brave should die.\u2019\n\nBut Theseus said, \u2018I have sworn that I will not go back till I have seen\nthe monster face to face.\u2019\n\nAnd at that Minos frowned, and said, \u2018Then thou shalt see him; take the\nmadman away.\u2019\n\nAnd they led Theseus away into the prison, with the other youths and\nmaids.\n\nBut Ariadne, Minos\u2019 daughter, saw him, as she came out of her white stone\nhall; and she loved him for his courage and his majesty, and said, \u2018Shame\nthat such a youth should die!\u2019  And by night she went down to the prison,\nand told him all her heart; and said\u2014\n\n\u2018Flee down to your ship at once, for I have bribed the guards before the\ndoor.  Flee, you and all your friends, and go back in peace to Greece;\nand take me, take me with you! for I dare not stay after you are gone;\nfor my father will kill me miserably, if he knows what I have done.\u2019\n\nAnd Theseus stood silent awhile; for he was astonished and confounded by\nher beauty: but at last he said, \u2018I cannot go home in peace, till I have\nseen and slain this Minotaur, and avenged the deaths of the youths and\nmaidens, and put an end to the terrors of my land.\u2019\n\n\u2018And will you kill the Minotaur?  How, then?\u2019\n\n\u2018I know not, nor do I care: but he must be strong if he be too strong for\nme.\u2019\n\nThen she loved him all the more, and said, \u2018But when you have killed him,\nhow will you find your way out of the labyrinth?\u2019\n\n\u2018I know not, neither do I care: but it must be a strange road, if I do\nnot find it out before I have eaten up the monster\u2019s carcase.\u2019\n\nThen she loved him all the more, and said\u2014\u2018Fair youth, you are too bold;\nbut I can help you, weak as I am.  I will give you a sword, and with that\nperhaps you may slay the beast; and a clue of thread, and by that,\nperhaps, you may find your way out again.  Only promise me that if you\nescape safe you will take me home with you to Greece; for my father will\nsurely kill me, if he knows what I have done.\u2019\n\nThen Theseus laughed, and said, \u2018Am I not safe enough now?\u2019  And he hid\nthe sword in his bosom, and rolled up the clue in his hand; and then he\nswore to Ariadne, and fell down before her, and kissed her hands and her\nfeet; and she wept over him a long while, and then went away; and Theseus\nlay down and slept sweetly.\n\nAnd when the evening came, the guards came in and led him away to the\nlabyrinth.\n\nAnd he went down into that doleful gulf, through winding paths among the\nrocks, under caverns, and arches, and galleries, and over heaps of fallen\nstone.  And he turned on the left hand, and on the right hand, and went\nup and down, till his head was dizzy; but all the while he held his clue.\nFor when he went in he had fastened it to a stone, and left it to unroll\nout of his hand as he went on; and it lasted him till he met the\nMinotaur, in a narrow chasm between black cliffs.\n\nAnd when he saw him he stopped awhile, for he had never seen so strange a\nbeast.  His body was a man\u2019s: but his head was the head of a bull; and\nhis teeth were the teeth of a lion, and with them he tore his prey.  And\nwhen he saw Theseus he roared, and put his head down, and rushed right at\nhim.\n\nBut Theseus stept aside nimbly, and as he passed by, cut him in the knee;\nand ere he could turn in the narrow path, he followed him, and stabbed\nhim again and again from behind, till the monster fled bellowing wildly;\nfor he never before had felt a wound.  And Theseus followed him at full\nspeed, holding the clue of thread in his left hand.\n\nThen on, through cavern after cavern, under dark ribs of sounding stone,\nand up rough glens and torrent-beds, among the sunless roots of Ida, and\nto the edge of the eternal snow, went they, the hunter and the hunted,\nwhile the hills bellowed to the monster\u2019s bellow.\n\n                     [Picture: Theseus and Minotaur]\n\nAnd at last Theseus came up with him, where he lay panting on a slab\namong the snow, and caught him by the horns, and forced his head back,\nand drove the keen sword through his throat.\n\nThen he turned, and went back limping and weary, feeling his way down by\nthe clue of thread, till he came to the mouth of that doleful place and\nsaw waiting for him, whom but Ariadne!\n\nAnd he whispered \u2018It is done!\u2019 and showed her the sword; and she laid her\nfinger on her lips, and led him to the prison, and opened the doors, and\nset all the prisoners free, while the guards lay sleeping heavily; for\nshe had silenced them with wine.\n\nThen they fled to their ship together, and leapt on board, and hoisted up\nthe sail; and the night lay dark around them, so that they passed through\nMinos\u2019 ships, and escaped all safe to Naxos; and there Ariadne became\nTheseus\u2019 wife.\n\n\n\nPART IV\nHOW THESEUS FELL BY HIS PRIDE\n\n\nBut that fair Ariadne never came to Athens with her husband.  Some say\nthat Theseus left her sleeping on Naxos among the Cyclades; and that\nDionusos the wine-king found her, and took her up into the sky, as you\nshall see some day in a painting of old Titian\u2019s\u2014one of the most glorious\npictures upon earth.  And some say that Dionusos drove away Theseus, and\ntook Ariadne from him by force: but however that may be, in his haste or\nin his grief, Theseus forgot to put up the white sail.  Now \u00c6geus his\nfather sat and watched on Sunium day after day, and strained his old eyes\nacross the sea to see the ship afar.  And when he saw the black sail, and\nnot the white one, he gave up Theseus for dead, and in his grief he fell\ninto the sea, and died; so it is called the \u00c6gean to this day.\n\nAnd now Theseus was king of Athens, and he guarded it and ruled it well.\n\nFor he killed the bull of Marathon, which had killed Androgeos, Minos\u2019\nson; and he drove back the famous Amazons, the warlike women of the East,\nwhen they came from Asia, and conquered all Hellas, and broke into Athens\nitself.  But Theseus stopped them there, and conquered them, and took\nHippolute their queen to be his wife.  Then he went out to fight against\nthe Lapithai, and Peirithoos their famous king: but when the two heroes\ncame face to face they loved each other, and embraced, and became noble\nfriends; so that the friendship of Theseus and Peirithoos is a proverb\neven now.  And he gathered (so the Athenians say) all the boroughs of the\nland together, and knit them into one strong people, while before they\nwere all parted and weak: and many another wise thing he did, so that his\npeople honoured him after he was dead, for many a hundred years, as the\nfather of their freedom and their laws.  And six hundred years after his\ndeath, in the famous fight at Marathon, men said that they saw the ghost\nof Theseus, with his mighty brazen club, fighting in the van of battle\nagainst the invading Persians, for the country which he loved.  And\ntwenty years after Marathon his bones (they say) were found in Scuros, an\nisle beyond the sea; and they were bigger than the bones of mortal man.\nSo the Athenians brought them home in triumph; and all the people came\nout to welcome them; and they built over them a noble temple, and adorned\nit with sculptures and paintings in which we are told all the noble deeds\nof Theseus, and the Centaurs, and the Lapithai, and the Amazons; and the\nruins of it are standing still.\n\nBut why did they find his bones in Scuros?  Why did he not die in peace\nat Athens, and sleep by his father\u2019s side?  Because after his triumph he\ngrew proud, and broke the laws of God and man.  And one thing worst of\nall he did, which brought him to his grave with sorrow.  For he went down\n(they say beneath the earth) with that bold Peirithoos his friend to help\nhim to carry off Persephone, the queen of the world below.  But\nPeirithoos was killed miserably, in the dark fire-kingdoms under ground;\nand Theseus was chained to a rock in everlasting pain.  And there he sat\nfor years, till Heracles the mighty came down to bring up the\nthree-headed dog who sits at Pluto\u2019s gate.  So Heracles loosed him from\nhis chain, and brought him up to the light once more.\n\nBut when he came back his people had forgotten him, and Castor and\nPolydeuces, the sons of the wondrous Swan, had invaded his land, and\ncarried off his mother Aithra for a slave, in revenge for a grievous\nwrong.\n\n                       [Picture: Warriors fighting]\n\nSo the fair land of Athens was wasted, and another king ruled it, who\ndrove out Theseus shamefully, and he fled across the sea to Scuros.  And\nthere he lived in sadness, in the house of Lucomedes the king, till\nLucomedes killed him by treachery, and there was an end of all his\nlabours.\n\nSo it is still, my children, and so it will be to the end.  In those old\nGreeks, and in us also, all strength and virtue come from God.  But if\nmen grow proud and self-willed, and misuse God\u2019s fair gifts, He lets them\ngo their own ways, and fall pitifully, that the glory may be His alone.\nGod help us all, and give us wisdom, and courage to do noble deeds! but\nGod keep pride from us when we have done them, lest we fall, and come to\nshame!\n\n                                * * * * *\n\n                                 THE END\n\n                                * * * * *\n\n                 _Printed by_ R. & R. CLARK, _Edinburgh_.\n\n                                * * * * *\n\n\n\n\nFootnotes\n\n\n{96}  In the Elgin Marbles.\n\n{130a}  The Danube.\n\n{130b}  Between the Crim\u00e6a and Circassia.\n\n{130c}  The Sea of Azov.\n\n{131a}  The Ural Mountains?\n\n{131b}  The Baltic?\n\n{132}  Britain?\n\n{133}  The Azores?","title":"The Heroes; Or, Greek Fairy Tales for My Children","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":48028}