Jason and the Argonauts
Page 14
where he would daily cast with blasts of fire
ingenious miracles of metalwork.
55So, left alone again, the goddess Cypris
was lounging on a couch inlaid with bronze.
Her mane of hair let down and dangling over
either spotless shoulder, she was using
a golden comb to work the tangles out
60 (47)before she wove the tresses into braids.
Soon as she saw the goddesses before her,
she paused and bade them enter. Then she rose,
sat them on couches, sat herself back down,
and tied her hair above her head because
65there still was brushing to be done. All smiles,
she greeted them with pointed deference:
“Dear ladies, welcome! Why, what pressing purpose
could bring such reverend matrons to my home?
What has come over you? Before today
70you never over-often deigned to pay me
such honor, since you move in higher spheres.”
Hera retorted then: “You mock us, dear.
But, seriously now, we face a matter
of life or death. Already Aeson’s son
75 (58)and all who follow questing for the fleece
at anchor ride beside the banks of Phasis.
Now that the crucial moment is at hand,
we’re worried to distraction for them all,
but most for Jason. Though he chart a course
80far off to Hades’ palace to release
Ixion from his bondage, all my strength,
so long as strength remains, shall go to guard him.
Nor shall I suffer Pelias to shirk
a well-earned death and live to laugh at me.
85Rash fool! To fail to pay my shrines their due!
But it was well before that king’s neglect
that Jason proved his worth and won my favor:
when the Anauros crested, chest-high, over
the ford, he strode up glistening from the hunt,
90 (69)and I was out inspecting men’s behavior.
Snowy, the mountain summits shone; runoff
through channel and ravine rolled rushing, swirling,
tumbling down. He pitied at the crossing
the weathered flesh I wore as a disguise.
95Once I was muscled up onto his back,
he shouldered me across the heaving rapids—
hence my unquenchable esteem for him.
But Pelias will not be forced to pay
for his atrocities unless you, dear,
100contrive safe passage for the son of Aeson.”
The queen had spoken. Cypris for a time
sat dumbstruck at the sight of Hera begging.
When she replied, she spoke in humbler guise:
“Queen, nothing would be more depraved than I,
105 (80)if I make light of your appeal, denying
helpful suggestion or whatever labor
impotent hands could work on your behalf.
Nor do I ask a favor in return.”
So Cypris spoke, and Hera in her turn
110uttered a calculated repartee:
“We’ve not come for your brawn or broadsword, dear.
All you must do is tell your son to spark
passion for Jason in Aeëtes’ daughter.
For if she takes an interest in the man,
115she cherishes his cause and, when she does,
our hero will with trifling labor seize
the golden fleece and coast back home to Iolcus—
trust me, that girl was simply made for guile.”
So Hera spoke her mind, and Cypris voiced
120 (90)the following reply to both of them:
“But ladies, listen, little Eros sooner
would heed your will than mine. Brash as he is,
his eyes might show some glimmer of respect
before such stately figures as yourselves.
125My discipline means nothing to him. Always
willful and wild, he cackles when I chide him.
Why, sick of all his antics, I once threatened,
in view of all the gods, to snap in half
his dismal-whizzing darts and short bow, too.
130Only wound up the more, the little monster
menaced me thus: If you don’t keep your mitts
far from my darts and let me get my way,
you might regret, Mommy, what you have done.”
So she lamented. Hera and Athena
135 (101)smiled and bandied glances back and forth,
so she exclaimed again in agitation:
“Yes, yes, the whole world titters at my troubles.
I shouldn’t publish them to all and sundry.
My private misery already more than
140suffices. All the same, because you both
have taken such an interest in the matter,
I shall sound him out, speak sweetly to him,
and never take his back talk for an answer.”
So Cypris promised them, and Hera squeezed
145her slender hand and spoke the final word:
“Accomplish now, forthwith, what we require
just as we said and just as you have promised.
And, dear, don’t pout so, squabbling with your boy—
he will be all grown up before you know it.”
150 (111)She rose and, with Athena at her heels,
paraded back up to her husband’s palace.
Cypris in turn wound around Mount Olympus,
searching the valleys for her wayward son.
The garden was blooming, and she found him there,
155but not alone; there, too, was Ganymede
whose bloom had moved the king of gods to make
a home for him in heaven among the immortals.
Cozy as neighbor boys, they played at dice
(there even dice are golden). Little Eros
160stood clutching greedily against his breast
fists full of winnings. An impassioned flush
seethed on his cheeks. His playmate, though, sat silent
and grimaced as he sent his two last dice
tumbling, one by one, into the dirt.
165 (124)Ganymede frowned, Love cackled, and indeed
the last were lost as quickly as the rest.
The loser stalked off, cleaned out, empty-fisted,
failing to notice Cypris on the path.
She strode across the playground, chucked her son
170under the chin and gently scolded him:
“Mischievous little imp, why are you smirking?
Have you been bad and tricked a toddler? Well,
if you are good and do what Mommy says,
she has a treat for you. A nice bright ball!
175All striped and shiny! Once upon a time
Zeus was a baby in a cave on Ida
and liked to play, so Adrasteia, his nanny,
made him this pretty toy. Handy Hephaestus
himself could not devise a finer plaything:
180 (137)Golden circlets hold the whole together.
Parallel hoops are sewn slantwise around them
to cinch them tight, and blue streaks round these hoops
in spirals wind and wander, hiding all
the seams and stitches. Toss it up, a train
185trails after, glittering like a comet’s tail—
this will be your reward, but not before
you shoot Medea full of love for Jason.
Now go and do the deed; don’
t drag your feet,
for Mommy’s kindness, later, may be less.”
190So spoke she, and the words fell welcome on
his eager ears. Scattering dice before him,
he ran to hang upon his mother’s skirts
with clenched fists and demanded his reward:
Now, Mommy, no, right now! To soothe the fit,
195 (150)she pinched his cheeks and kissed him, hugged him close,
and, smirking, promised:
“Let your head and mine
attest the bargain: I shall not deceive you.
There—I have sworn. Now, if you want the toy,
go sink a shaft deep in Aeëtes’ daughter.”
200So spoke she, and the god snatched up the dice,
reckoned the sum, and stuffed his mother’s pockets
full of them. Then he ran and grabbed his quiver
from where it leaned, ready, against a tree,
slung it about him with a strap of gold,
205and gathered up his crooked little bow.
Brilliant around him bloomed the garden of Zeus,
the groves and orchards, but the boy rushed on,
flew through the gates of high Olympus.
Thence
opens the downward path; there double peaks
210 (162)like pillars of the earth vault ever upward
to keep the sky from falling; there the sun,
first upon rising in the morning, ruddies
the summits with extended beam. As Eros
was coasting unobstructed through the air,
215plump tilth and bustling towns and nymph-abounding
waterways passed into his view and then
strange ridges and a rounded swatch of sea.
The heroes, though, remained apart, concealed
among the river rushes, strategizing.
220Jason was speaking, and the men were seated
in order bench by bench, in silence, listening:
“Comrades, the plan I now shall lay before you
strikes me as wisest. Yours will be the task
of bringing it to pass. Our need is shared,
225 (174)and counsel, too, is shared among us all.
The man who locks his thoughts and wisdom up
in reticence should know that he alone
is keeping all of us from heading home.
While you remain at ease but under arms
230here on the Argo, I shall make my way
to King Aeëtes’ palace—I myself,
the sons of Phrixus, and two other men.
Once I am granted audience, I shall test him
with words to find out whether he is willing
235to give the golden fleece up out of friendship
or whether he will balk, trust in his strength,
and block our quest. Thus we can sound the depth
of our distress and next consider whether
the implements of war will serve us better
240 (185)or double-dealing, if we rule out war.
We shouldn’t simply take the man’s possession
until we have at least assessed his mind.
Surely it’s wiser to approach him first
and try to win him over with entreaties.
245In rough spots words have often smoothed the way
and won what valor only could have won
with toil and sweat.
Consider this: Aeëtes
once welcomed worthy Phrixus when the latter
was running from his stepmother’s deceit
250and slaughter at his father’s hands. All men,
even the most contemptuous of them,
dread and revere the covenants of Zeus
the God of Guest and Host.”
So Jason spoke,
and all the heroes rushed to voice approval.
255 (195)No one proposed a different course, so Jason
bade Telamon, Augeas, and the sons
of Phrixus join him in his embassy
and took the staff of Hermes in his hand.
They wasted no time disembarking over
260the rushes where the upward sloping bank
afforded solid ground. This tract is known
as Circe’s Plain, and tamarisks and willows
grow there in rows, and corpses wrapped in cables
dangle earthward from the overstory.
265Down to this very day it is taboo
among the Colchians to cremate males
upon their death. Nor does their faith allow them
to lay the bodies in the earth and heap
barrows above them. Rather, they are shrouded
270 (207)in uncured hide and dangled from the treetops
outside the city. Still, the earth receives
as many corpses as the air because
their females’ bodies are, in fact, interred.
Such are the equitable customs there.
275Hera helped the heroes travel safely
by casting thick mist down around the city
so that they would escape the notice of
the multitudinous throngs of Colchians.
Soon as the heroes passed out of the plain
280into the town and palace, Hera scattered
the cloud away. They stood there in the entry
marveling at the royal court—the wide
gateways, the columns standing, rank on rank,
along the walls, and, higher up, the bronze
285 (218)capitals holding up a marble cornice.
They softly crossed the threshold. All around them
high-climbing vines, prolific strands of leaves,
had broken into bloom. Beneath them bubbled
four ever-flowing springs for which Hephaestus
290himself had dug the channels. One was flowing
with milk, and one with wine, a third contained
a stream of fragrant oil, and the fourth
was limpid water that, they say, ran hot
after the setting of the Pleiades
295but at their rising jetted chill as crystal
out of the hollow rock. Such were the wonders
Hephaestus fashioned for Aeëtes’ palace
at Cyta.
He had forged for him as well
bronze-footed bulls with brazen mouths that breathed
300 (231)shocking, abominable blasts of flame.
What’s more, he made an indestructible plow
out of a single block of adamant
to pay a favor back to Helius
who had picked up Hephaestus in his war car
305when he was faint from waging war at Phlegra.
A central iron door was built there, too.
Beyond it many sturdy double doors
and living chambers ran in both directions.
Along each side a fine arcade extended,
310and crosswise to them in the wings loftier
apartments stood. In one of them, the highest,
Aeëtes slept beside his wife. Absyrtus,
his son, inhabited another of them.
Asterodeia, a Caucasian nymph,
315 (243)bore him before Aeëtes wed Eidyia,
Tethys’ and Ocean’s youngest daughter.
The Colchians, however, took to calling
Absyrtus “Phaëthon” (the Shining One)
since he outshone the other boys his age.
320In other lower rooms, Aeëtes’ daughters
Medea and Chalciope resided,
along with all their maids.
It was Medea
when they were wandering from room to room
325to find Chalciope. Hera had made
Medea stay at home that day on purpose.
The girl, you see, was rarely at the palace
but usually working all day long
as priestess at the shrine of Hecate.
330 (253)Soon as the maiden saw that men were coming,
she shrieked. Chalciope could not but hear it,
and when her handmaids dropped their wool and spindles
and rushed out all together in a crowd,
she went as well and, when she saw her sons,
335flung out her hands for joy. Her sons as well
flung out their hands for joy at seeing her
and hugged her warmly. Sobbing, she exclaimed:
“So, you were not, in fact, about to leave me
so thoughtlessly and travel far away.
340Fate has returned you. How distraught I was!
A wild and senseless lust to sail to Greece
had taken hold of you, a dire delusion,
all at your father Phrixus’ behest.
His dying proclamation to you tortured
345 (265)my heart with netherworldly afflictions.
Why risk a voyage to the place they call
Orchomenus, whatever that might be,
to claim some King Athamas’ estate?
Why leave me here to bear my grief alone?”
350So she lamented. Last of all, Aeëtes
emerged from his apartment with the queen,
Eidyia, when they heard Chalciope.
A bustle filled the court, the sounds of servants—
some of them readying a massive bull
355for slaughter, some with brazen axes splitting
wood for the fire, and others boiling water
for baths before the feast. Not one of them
was stinting in his service to the king.
And Eros was descending all the while,
360 (276)descending through the lustrous air, unseen
but as rambunctious as the stinging fly
that oxherds call the “goad,” the kind that nettles
heifers. In an instant he was there,
bracing his back against the antechamber’s
365doorpost. He deftly strung his little bow
and from the quiver chose a virgin arrow
laden with future groans. His speedy feet
whisked him across the threshold, he himself
unnoticed as he keenly scanned the scene.
370Then, crouching low beneath the son of Aeson,
he nocked the arrow midway up the string,
and, parting bow and string with both hands, shot