The Golden Fleece and The Heroes Who Lived Before Achilles Part 2

Another who came was ADMETUS; afterward he became a famous king. The G.o.d Apollo once made himself a shepherd and he kept the flocks of King Admetus.

And there came two brothers, twins, who were a wonder to all who beheld them. ZETES and CALAIS they were named; their mother was Oreithyia, the daughter of Erechtheus, King of Athens, and their father was Boreas, the North Wind. These two brothers had on their ankles wings that gleamed with golden scales; their black hair was thick upon their shoulders, and it was always being shaken by the wind.

With Zetes and Calais there came a youth armed with a great sword whose name was THESEUS. Theseus's father was an unknown king; he had bidden the mother show their son where his sword was hidden. Under a great stone the king had hidden it before Theseus was born. Before he had grown out of his boyhood Theseus had been able to raise the stone and draw forth his father's sword. As yet he had done no great deed, but he was resolved to win fame and to find his unknown father.

On the day that the messengers had set out to bring through Greece the word of Jason's going forth in quest of the Golden Fleece the woodcutters made their way up into the forests of Mount Pelion; they began to fell trees for the timbers of the s.h.i.+p that was to make the voyage to far Colchis.

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Great timbers were cut and brought down to Pagasae, the harbor of Iolcus.

On the night of the day he had helped to bring them down Jason had a dream. He dreamt that She whom he had seen in the forest ways and afterward by the River Anaurus appeared to him. And in his dream the G.o.ddess bade him rise early in the morning and welcome a man whom he would meet at the city's gate-a tall and gray-haired man who would have on his shoulders tools for the building of a s.h.i.+p.

He went to the city's gate and he met such a man. ARGUS was his name. He told Jason that a dream had sent him to the city of Iolcus. Jason welcomed him and lodged him in the king's palace, and that day the word went through the city that the building of the great s.h.i.+p would soon be begun.

But not with the timbers brought from Mount Pelion did Argus begin.

Walking through the palace with Jason he noted a great beam in the roof.

That beam, he said, had been shown him in his dream; it was from an oak tree in Dodona, the grove of Zeus. A sacred power was in the beam, and from it the prow of the s.h.i.+p should be fas.h.i.+oned. Jason had them take the beam from the roof of the palace; it was brought to where the timbers were, and that day the building of the great s.h.i.+p was begun.

Then all along the waterside came the noise of hammering; in the street where the metalworkers were came the noise of beating upon metals as the smiths fas.h.i.+oned out of bronze armor for the heroes and swords and spears.

Every day, under the eyes of Argus the master, the s.h.i.+p that had in it the beam from Zeus's grove was built higher and wider. And those who were building the s.h.i.+p often felt going through it tremors as of a living creature.

When the s.h.i.+p was built and made ready for the voyage a name was given to it-the ARGO it was called. And naming themselves from the s.h.i.+p the heroes called themselves the ARGONAUTS. All was ready for the voyage, and now Jason went with his friends to view the s.h.i.+p before she was brought into the water.

Argus the master was on the s.h.i.+p, seeing to it that the last things were being done before _Argo_ was launched. Very grave and wise looked Argus-Argus the builder of the s.h.i.+p. And wonderful to the heroes the s.h.i.+p looked now that Argus, for their viewing, had set up the mast with the sails and had even put the oars in their places. Wonderful to the heroes _Argo_ looked with her long oars and her high sails, with her timbers painted red and gold and blue, and with a marvelous figure carved upon her prow. All over the s.h.i.+p Jason's eyes went. He saw a figure standing by the mast; for a moment he looked on it, and then the figure became shadowy.

But Jason knew that he had looked upon the G.o.ddess whom he had seen in the ways of the forest and had seen afterward by the rough Anaurus.

Then mast and sails were taken down and the oars were left in the s.h.i.+p, and the _Argo_ was launched into the water. The heroes went back to the palace of King Pelias to feast with the king's guests before they took their places on the s.h.i.+p, setting out on the voyage to far Colchis.

When they came into the palace they saw that another hero had arrived.

His s.h.i.+eld was hung in the hall; the heroes all gathered around, amazed at the size and the beauty of it. The s.h.i.+eld shone all over with gold. In its center was the figure of Fear-of Fear that stared backward with eyes burning as with fire. The mouth was open and the teeth were shown. And other figures were wrought around the figure of Fear-Strife and Pursuit and Flight; Tumult and Panic and Slaughter. The figure of Fate was there dragging a dead man by the feet; on her shoulders Fate had a garment that was red with the blood of men.

Around these figures were heads of snakes, heads with black jaws and glittering eyes, twelve heads such as might affright any man. And on other parts of the s.h.i.+eld were shown the horses of Ares, the grim G.o.d of war.

The figure of Ares himself was shown also. He held a spear in his hand, and he was urging the warriors on.

Around the inner rim of the s.h.i.+eld the sea was shown, wrought in white metal. Dolphins swam in the sea, fis.h.i.+ng for little fishes that were shown there in bronze. Around the rim chariots were racing along with wheels running close together; there were men fighting and women watching from high towers. The awful figure of the Darkness of Death was shown there, too, with mournful eyes and the dust of battles upon her shoulders. The outer rim of the s.h.i.+eld showed the Stream of Ocean, the stream that encircles the world; swans were soaring above and swimming on its surface.

All in wonder the heroes gazed on the great s.h.i.+eld, telling each other that only one man in all the world could carry it-Heracles the son of Zeus. Could it be that Heracles had come amongst them? They went into the feasting hall and they saw one there who was tall as a pine tree, with unshorn tresses of hair upon his head. Heracles indeed it was! He turned to them a smiling face with smiling eyes. Heracles! They all gathered around the strongest hero in the world, and he took the hand of each in his mighty hand.

V. The _Argo_

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_T_HE heroes went the next day through the streets of Iolcus down to where the s.h.i.+p lay. The ways they went through were crowded; the heroes were splendid in their appearance, and Jason amongst them shone like a star.

The people praised him, and one told the other that it would not be long until they would win back to Iolcus, for this band of heroes was strong enough, they said, to take King aeetes's city and force him to give up to them the famous Fleece of Gold. Many of the bright-eyed youths of Iolcus went with the heroes who had come from the different parts of Greece.

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the _Argo_

As they marched past a temple a priestess came forth to speak to Jason; Iphias was her name. She had a prophecy to utter about the voyage. But Iphias was very old, and she stammered in her speech to Jason. What she said was not heard by him. The heroes went on, and ancient Iphias was left standing there as the old are left by the young.

The heroes went aboard the _Argo_. They took their seats as at an a.s.sembly. Then Jason faced them and spoke to them all.

"Heroes of the quest," said Jason, "we have come aboard the great s.h.i.+p that Argus has built, and all that a s.h.i.+p needs is in its place or is ready to our hands. All that we wait for now is the coming of the morning's breeze that will set us on our way for far Colchis.

"One thing we have first to do-that is, to choose a leader who will direct us all, one who will settle disputes amongst ourselves and who will make treaties between us and the strangers that we come amongst. We must choose such a leader now."

Jason spoke, and some looked to him and some looked to Heracles. But Heracles stood up, and, stretching out his hand, said:

"Argonauts! Let no one amongst you offer the leaders.h.i.+p to me. I will not take it. The hero who brought us together and made all things ready for our going-it is he and no one else who should be our leader in this voyage."

So Heracles said, and the Argonauts all stood up and raised a cry for Jason. Then Jason stepped forward, and he took the hand of each Argonaut in his hand, and he swore that he would lead them with all the mind and all the courage that he possessed. And he prayed the G.o.ds that it would be given to him to lead them back safely with the Golden Fleece glittering on the mast of the _Argo_.

They drew lots for the benches they would sit at; they took the places that for the length of the voyage they would have on the s.h.i.+p. They made sacrifice to the G.o.ds and they waited for the breeze of the morning that would help them away from Iolcus.

And while they waited aeson, the father of Jason, sat at his own hearth, bowed and silent in his grief. Alcimide, his wife, sat near him, but she was not silent; she lamented to the women of Iolcus who were gathered around her. "I did not go down to the s.h.i.+p," she said, "for with my grief I would not be a bird of ill omen for the voyage. By this hearth my son took farewell of me-the only son I ever bore. From the doorway I watched him go down the street of the city, and I heard the people shout as he went amongst them, they glorying in my son's splendid appearance. Ah, that I might live to see his return and to hear the shout that will go up when the people look on Jason again! But I know that my life will not be spared so long; I will not look on my son when he comes back from the dangers he will run in the quest of the Golden Fleece."

Then the women of Iolcus asked her to tell them of the Golden Fleece, and Alcimide told them of it and of the sorrows that were upon the race of aeolus.

Cretheus, the father of aeson and Pelias, was of the race of aeolus, and of the race of aeolus, too, was Athamas, the king who ruled in Thebes at the same time that Cretheus ruled in Iolcus. And the first children of Athamas were Phrixus and h.e.l.le.

"Ah, Phrixus and ah, h.e.l.le," Alcimide lamented, "what griefs you have brought on the race of aeolus! And what griefs you yourselves suffered! The evil that Athamas, your father, did you lives to be a curse to the line of aeolus!

"Athamas was wedded first to Nephele, the mother of Phrixus and h.e.l.le, the youth and maiden. But Athamas married again while the mother of these children was still living, and Ino, the new queen, drove Nephele and her children out of the king's palace.

"And now was Nephele most unhappy. She had to live as a servant, and her children were servants to the servants of the palace. They were clad in rags and had little to eat, and they were beaten often by the servants who wished to win the favor of the new queen.

"But although they wore rags and had menial tasks to do, Phrixus and h.e.l.le looked the children of a queen. The boy was tall, and in his eyes there often came the flash of power, and the girl looked as if she would grow into a lovely maiden. And when Athamas, their father, would meet them by chance he would sigh, and Queen Ino would know by that sigh that he had still some love for them in his heart. Afterward she would have to use all the power she possessed to win the king back from thinking upon his children.

"And now Queen Ino had children of her own. She knew that the people reverenced the children of Nephele and cared nothing for her children. And because she knew this she feared that when Athamas died Phrixus and h.e.l.le, the children of Nephele, would be brought to rule in Thebes. Then she and her children would be made to change places with them.

"This made Queen Ino think on ways by which she could make Phrixus and h.e.l.le lose their lives. She thought long upon this, and at last a desperate plan came into her mind.

"When it was winter she went amongst the women of the countryside, and she gave them jewels and clothes for presents. Then she asked them to do secretly an unheard-of thing. She asked the women to roast over their fires the grains that had been left for seed. This the women did. Then spring came on, and the men sowed in the fields the grain that had been roasted over the fires. No shoots grew up as the spring went by. In summer there was no waving greenness in the fields. Autumn came, and there was no grain for the reaping. Then the men, not knowing what had happened, went to King Athamas and told him that there would be famine in the land.

"The king sent to the temple of Artemis to ask how the people might be saved from the famine. And the guardians of the temple, having taken gold from Queen Ino, told them that there would be worse and worse famine and that all the people of Thebes would die of hunger unless the king was willing to make a great sacrifice.