The Argonautica

Book I

First in my song shalt thou be, O Phoebus, the song that I sing
Of the heroes of old, who sped, at the hest of Pelias the king,
When down through the gorge of the Pontus-sea, through the Crags Dark-blue,
On the Quest of the Fleece of Gold the strong-ribbed Argo flew.

For an oracle came unto Pelias, how that in days to be
A terrible doom should be dealt him of him whom his eyes should see
From the field coming in, with the one foot only sandal-shod.
Nor long thereafter did Jason fulfil the word of the God:
For in wading the rush of Amaurus swollen with wintertide rain
One sandal plucked he forth of the mire, but the one was he fain
To leave in the depths, for the swirl of the waters to sweep to the main.
Straightway to the presence of Pelias he came, and his hap was to light
On a banquet, the which unto Father Poseidon the king had dight,
And the rest of the Gods, but Pelasgian Hêrê he heeded not.
And the king beheld him, and straightway laid for his life the plot,
And devised for him toil of a troublous voyage, that lost in the sea,
Or lost amid alien men his home-return might be.

Of the ship and her fashioning, bards of the olden time have told
How Argus wrought, how Athênê made him cunning-souled.
But now be it mine the lineage and names of her heroes to say,
And to tell of the long sea-paths whereover they needs must stray,
And the deeds that they wrought:—may the Muses vouchsafe to inspire the lay.

Of Orpheus first will I sing, of the child that Calliopê bare,
As telleth the tale, for she loved Oeagrus, Thracia’s heir.
By the peak Pimplean was born the Song-queen’s wondrous child;
For they tell how he charmed by the voice of his song on the mountains wild
The stubborn rocks into life, made rivers their flowing refrain,
And the wildwood oaks this day be memorials of that weird strain;
For they burgeon and bloom by Zonê yet on the Thracian shore,
Ranked orderly line upon line, the selfsame trees which of yore,
Spell-drawn by his lyre, from Pieria followed the minstrel on.
Such an one was the Orpheus that Aison’s son for a helper won
For his high emprise, when he followed the pointing of Cheiron’s hand—
Orpheus, who ruled o’er the Bistonid folk in Pieria-land.

And swiftly Asterion came, whom Komêtês begat by the side
Of Apidanus, there where his seaward-swirling waters glide;
In Peiresiae he dwelt, anigh to Phyllêion’s leafy crest.
Mighty Apidanus, sacred Enipeus, have thitherward pressed
To mingle the waters, far-severed that rise from the earth’s deep breast.

Polyphemus forsook Larissa, and unto Jason he sought;
Eilatus’ son: in his youth mid the Lapithan heroes he fought.
When the Lapithans armed them for fight, when the Centaur host they quelled,
Their youngest he was; but now were his limbs sore burdened with eld.
Yet even as of old his heart with the spirit of battle swelled.

Nor in Phylakê Iphiklus tarried to waste an inglorious life,
Uncle of Aison’s child, for that Aison had taken to wife
His sister the Phylakid maiden Alkimêdê: wherefore strong
Was the love of his kin to constrain him to join that hero-throng.

Neither Admêtus in Pherae, the goodly land of sheep,
In his palace would tarry beneath Chalkodon’s mountain-steep.

Neither in Alopê tarried Echion and Erytus, sons
Of Hermes, wealthy in corn-land, crafty-hearted ones.
And their kinsman, the third with these, came forth, on the Quest as they hied,
Aithalides: where the streams of Amphrysus softly slide,
Him Eupolemeia the Phthian, Myrmidon’s daughter, bare,
But offspring of Antianeira the Menetid those twain were.

Came thither Korônus, forsaking Gyrton the wealthy town:
Right valiant was Kaineus’ son, yet he passed not his father’s renown.
For of Kaineus the poets have sung, how smitten of Centaurs he died,
Who could not be slain, when alone in his prowess, with none beside,
He drave them before him in rout, but they rallied, and charged afresh,
Yet availed not their fury to thrust him aback, nor to pierce his flesh;
But unconquered, unflinching, down to the underworld he passed,
Battered from life by the storm of the massy pines that they cast.

And came Titaresian Mopsus withal, unto whom was given
Of Lêto’s son above all men the lore of the birds of the heaven.
And there was Eurydamas, Ktimenus’ son, which dwelt in the land
Of Dolopian folk: by the Xynian mere did his palace stand.

And from Opus Menoitius fared at Aktor his father’s behest
To the end he might go with the chieftains of men on the glorious Quest.

And Eurytion hath followed with these; Eribôtes the mighty is gone,
This, Teleon’s scion, and that, of Irus, Aktor’s son;
For in sooth it was Teleon begat Eribôtes the glory-crowned,
And Irus, Eurytion. With these was a third, Oïleus, found,
Peerless in manhood, exceeding cunning to follow the flight
Of the foe, when the reeling battalions were shattered before his might.

Came the son of Kanêthus the scion of Abas; with eager speed
Came Kanthus forth of Euboea: it was not fate-decreed
That again he should turn and behold Kerinthus, for doomed was he,
Even he and Mopsus withal, the wise in augury,
To perish in Libya, lost in the waste of a wide sand-sea.
Sooth, never was mischief removed too far to be found of the doomed;
Forasmuch as in Libya’s desert were even these entombed,
As far from the Kolchian land as the space outstretched between
The sun’s uprising, and where the setting thereof is seen.

And Klytius and Iphitus gathered to that great mustering,
Oichalia’s warders, children of Eurytus, ruthless king,
Who received of Far-smiter a bow; but he had no profit thereof,
For in archery-skill with the giver’s self he wantonly strove.

And with these fared Aiakus’ sons, yet not from the selfsame place,
Nor together, for far had they wandered away from the home of their race,
Aegina, what time in their folly the blood of their brother they spilt,
Even Phokus: to Salamis Telamon bare his burden of guilt:
But Peleus roved till in Phthia the halls of the outcast he built.

And with these from Kekropia Boutes, a lord of battle-fame,
Stout Teleon’s son, and Phalêrus the mighty spearman came.
It was Alkon his father that sent him forth: no sons save him
Had the ancient to cherish his age and his light of life grown dim:
Yet, albeit his only-begotten he was, and the last of his line,
He sent him, that so amidst valour of heroes his prowess should shine.
But Theseus, of all the sons of Erechtheus most renowned,
At Tainarum under the earth by an unseen fetter was bound.
For he trod the Path of Fear with Peirithoüs; else that Quest
By the might of these had been lightlier compassed of all the rest.

And Tiphys, Hagnias’ son, hath forsaken the Thespians that dwell
In the city of Siphas: of all men keenest was he to foretell
The wrath of the waves on the broad sea, keen to foreknow from afar
The blasts of the storm, and to guide the galley by sun and by star.
’Twas Athênê Tritônis herself that made him eager-souled
To join that muster of heroes that longed his face to behold;
For she fashioned the sea-swift ship, and Argus but wrought as she planned,
Arestor’s son, for the Goddess’s counsels guided his hand:
Therefore amongst all ships unmatched was the ship that he made,
Even all that with swinging oars the paths of the sea have essayed.

Came Phlias withal from Araithyriae to essay the Quest,
From a wealthy home, for the toil of his hands had the Wine-god blessed,
His father, where welleth Asôpus up from the green hill’s breast.

From Argos did sons of Bias, Arêius and Talaus, come,
And mighty Laodokus, fruit of Nêleus’ daughter’s womb,
Even Pero, for whose sake Aiolus’ scion Melampus bore
In Iphiklus’ steading affliction of bonds exceeding sore.

Nor yet did the prowess of mighty-hearted Herakles fail
The longing of Aison’s son for his helping, as telleth the tale.
But as soon as the flying rumour of gathering heroes he heard,
He turned from the track that he trod from Arcadia Argos-ward,
On the path that he paced as he bare that boar alive from the glen
Of Lampeia, wherein he had battened, the vast Erymanthian fen.
At the entering-in of Mycenae’s market-stead he cast
From his mighty shoulders the beast, as he writhed in his bonds knit fast:
But himself of his own will, thrusting Eurystheus’ purpose aside,
Hasted away; and Hylas, his henchman true and tried,
Which bare his arrows and warded his bow, with the hero hath hied.

Therewithal hath the scion of god-descended Danaus gone,
Nauplius, born unto King Klytonêus, Naubolus’ son;
And of Lernus Naubolus sprang; and Lernus, as bards have told,
Of Proitus, Nauplius’ son; and unto Poseidon of old
Amymônê, Danaus’ daughter, who couched in the God’s embrace,
Bare Nauplius, chief in the seafarer’s craft of the Earth-born race.

Last cometh Idmon the seer, of all that in Argos dwell,
Cometh knowing the doom he hath heard the birds of heaven foretell,
Lest the people should haply begrudge him a hero’s glorious fame:
Yet not of the very loins of Abas the doomed seer came;
But the son of Lêto begat him to share the noble name
Of Aetolia’s sons, and in prophecy-lore he made him wise,
And in signs of the fowl of the heaven and tokens ’mid flame that rise.

Polydeukes the strong did Aetolia’s Princess Leda speed
From Sparta, and Kastor cunning to rein the fleet-foot steed.
These twain in Tyndareus’ palace, her dearly-beloved, her pride,
That lady at one birth bare; howbeit she nowise denied
Their prayer to depart, for her spirit was worthy of Zeus’ bride.

Apharetus’ children, Lynkeus and Idas the arrogant-souled,
From Arênê went forth: in their prowess exceeding were these overbold,
Even both; but Lynkeus for eyes of keenest ken was renowned,
If in sooth that story be true, that, though one lay underground,
Yet lightly of Lynkeus’ eyes should the gloom-swathed corpse be found.

And with these Periklymenus Nêleus’ son was enkindled to fare,
Eldest of all the sons that the Lady of Pylos bare
Unto Nêleus the godlike; and might unmeasured Poseidon gave
To the prince, and a boon moreover, that whatso shape he should crave,
That, as he fought in the shock of the meeting ranks, he should have.

From Arcadia Amphidamas and Kepheus came for the Quest,
Who were dwellers in Tegea-town, and the land that Apheidas possessed,
Two scions of Aleus; yea and a third followed even as they went,
Ankaius: Lykurgus his father was minded the lad to have sent,
Being elder brother to these, but himself was constrained to stay
In the city with Aleus, tending the dear head silver-grey.
Howbeit in charge to his brethren twain he gave the lad.
So he went, and the fell of a bear Maenalian for buckler he had,
And a battle-axe huge his right hand swung; for his armour of fight
Had his old grandsire in a secret chamber hidden from sight,
If haply so he might cripple the wings of the eagle’s flight.

Fared thither Augeias; they named him in songs of the olden day
The Sun-god’s child, and the hero in Elis-land bare sway
In pride of his wealth: but he longed to behold the Kolchian coast,
And to look upon mighty Aiêtes the lord of the Kolchian host.

Asterius came, and Amphion, the sons that a fair queen bore,
When Pellênê’s king Hyperasius dwelt in the city of yore
By Pelles their grandsire built ’neath the cliffs of Achaia’s shore.

Euphêmus from Tainarus came to be joined to their company,
Europê’s child; and the swiftest of all men on Earth was he:
For the daughter of Tityos the giant couched in Poseidon’s embrace;
And this their son would run o’er the grey sea’s weltering face,
Neither sank in the surge his fast-flying steps, but, with foot-sole alone
Bedewed with the spray, on his watery path was he wafted on.

Sons of Poseidon beside him withal two other came,
One leaving Miletus afar, the city of haughty fame,
Even Erginus, and one from Imbrasian Hêrê’s fane
Parthenia, Ankaius the mighty; and men of renown were the twain
In the craft of the sea, and withal in the toil of the battle-strain.

Hasting from Kalydon Oineus’ son to their muster hath hied,
Meleager the stalwart; and there was Laocoön still at his side,
Brother to Oineus; but not of the selfsame womb were they,
For a handmaid bare him; and him, though flecked was his hair with grey,
For guide and for guard to his son hath Oineus the old king sent.
So it fell that a beardless lad to the valorous gathering went
Of heroes; yet no man of all that came had the deeds outdone
Of the lad, save Herakles, if that he might but have tarried on
One year mid Aetolia’s sons, till he grew to his strength, I ween.
Yea, and his mother’s brother, a javelin-hurler keen,
And a warrior tried, when foot is set against foot in the fray,
Iphiklus, Thestius’ scion, trod the selfsame way.