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Jason and the Argonauts

Page 17

by Apollonius Of Rhodes


  “Which of these woes am I to choose? My mind

  is reeling. There’s no respite from the pain.

  It burns and burns. It burns. I wish the arrows

  1020 (774)of Artemis had struck me dead before

  I saw that man, yes, long before the sons of

  Chalciope had ever left for Greece.

  Some god, some Fury shipped pains overflowing

  with grief from there to here, right here, to me.

  1025Let Jason perish in the competition,

  if he is doomed to perish. If I gave him

  the drug, how could my parents fail to learn

  what I had done? What reason could I give them?

  What lie or ploy would be of any use?

  1030If I see him alone, without his friends,

  will I acknowledge him? My lot is cruel.

  I cannot hope that, even when he dies,

  I will be free from anguish. He will be

  a curse on me when he has lost his life.

  1035 (786)So good-bye, modesty. Good-bye, fair name.

  Once I have saved him, let him go unharmed

  wherever he desires while I, the day

  that he completes the contest, leave this life

  by dangling my body from a rafter

  1040or taking drugs, the kind that kill the heart . . .

  but, when I’m dead, they all will stand there eyeing

  my ruin. The entire town will pass

  around the story of my fall, and all

  the Colchian girls will bear me on their lips

  1045everywhere, harshly savaging my name:

  She loved that foreigner so much it killed her.

  By giving way to lust, she has disgraced

  her house and home.

  What shame will not be mine?

  Ah, mad obsession! No, it would be better

  1050 (799)to take my life here in my room tonight

  and by an inexplicable demise

  escape such dreadful infamy before

  I do this shameful and outrageous deed.”

  So she resolved and went to fetch the casket

  1055in which her many drugs, some good, some baneful,

  were kept. She set it on her knees and wept.

  Her nightgown’s folds were wet so thoroughly

  with tears that streams of grief were flowing from her.

  Shrilly lamenting, keening her own death,

  1060she wanted to reach out, select, and swallow

  poison to end her life. She was already

  unfastening the hasps in her desire

  to take it out, poor girl. Soon, though, a deathly

  antipathy to baneful Hades vanquished

  1065 (811)the urge. She was a long time held there, speechless.

  The heart-delighting joys of daylight sparkled

  before her eyes, and she recalled the countless

  pleasures the living relish and recalled

  her darling playmates, as a maiden would.

  1070So long as she kept going over all

  these pleasures one by one inside her mind,

  the light of life was sweeter to behold

  than it had been before. And so she took

  the casket off her knees and set it down.

  1075Hera had redirected her intentions.

  No longer did Medea waver, no,

  she yearned for sunrise, burned to meet the stranger

  face-to-face, and offer him the drug.

  Over and over she undid the door bolt

  1080 (822)and peeped out waiting for the glow of daybreak,

  and welcome were the rays that Dawn shot forth.

  People throughout the city started stirring,

  and Argus bade his brothers stay behind

  to monitor the girl’s resolve while he

  1085slipped out and went before them to the ship.

  Soon as the maiden saw that Dawn had come,

  she tied off with her hands the golden tresses

  that had been hanging loose in disarray.

  Once she had pinched her cheeks and doused her body

  1090in fragrant oil, she put a brilliant robe on

  and pinned it with exquisite, spiral brooches.

  Last of all, she donned a veil—it shone

  like silver over her ambrosial features.

  And so she pirouetted round her chamber,

  1095 (836)oblivious to all the griefs before her

  and all those that would multiply with time.

  Twelve handmaids, each her age, and each unmarried,

  slept in the forecourt of her fragrant chamber.

  She summoned them and bade them harness mules

  1100beneath a cart to bring her to the goddess

  Hecate’s handsome temple. When her handmaids

  had gone to rig the cart, Medea opened

  the hollow casket and removed a tincture,

  a drug called Prometheon.

  If a man

  1105should first appease the Lone-Begotten Virgin

  with nighttime sacrifice and then anoint

  his body with this extract, he would be

  invulnerable against all strokes of bronze,

  unscorchable by blasts of blazing fire,

  1110 (850)and greater for a day than any mortal

  in might and bravery.

  The herb first sprouted

  after the flesh-devouring eagle dripped

  tortured Prometheus’ bloody ichor

  onto the rugged slopes of the Caucasus.

  1115Twin stalks emerged and then, atop them, flowers

  closest in hue to the Corycian crocus.

  Their taproots looked like freshly slaughtered flesh;

  their resin, like a mountain oak’s black sap.

  Before the girl had used a Caspian seashell

  1120to catch the resin and prepare the potion,

  she had bathed in ever-flowing waters

  seven times and seven times invoked

  Brimo the Youth Nurse, Brimo Dark Traverser

  and Netherworldly Queen. The night was starless,

  1125 (863)and the girl had donned a pitch-black mantle.

  When the Titanian root was severed, Earth

  shook from her depths and raised a groan because

  the son of Iapetus himself was groaning,

  his soul twisted with pain. Such was the drug

  1130she took and placed inside the fragrant band

  supporting her ambrosial breasts.

  She left

  her room and climbed aboard the swift-wheeled cart.

  When two handmaids had climbed aboard beside her,

  she took the reins and braided whip in hand

  1135and drove through town. The other handmaids gripped

  a basket at the wagon’s rear and jogged

  along the broad cart road, their gauzy skirts

  hiked as high up as their shining thighs.

  Just as when Leto’s daughter Artemis,

  1140 (877)after a bath in the Amnisus River

  or the Parthenius’ tepid shallows,

  ascends her golden car and rides through hills

  behind a team of swift-hooved bucks to visit

  steaming and fat-rich cattle sacrifices,

  1145a retinue of nymphs beside her, some

  assembled from the source of the Amnisus,

  others from groves and many-fountained summits

  and, everywhere around her as she passes,

  the wild creatures fawn and whimper—so

  1150the young girls sped through town, and all the people
r />   gave way and shunned the royal maiden’s gaze.

  Once she had left the well-built city roads

  and traveled through a plain, she reined the mules in

  before the shrine, jumped from the smooth-wheeled

  wagon,

  1155 (890)full of desire, and said to her attendants:

  “Goodness, my friends, what a mistake I made!

  I never stopped to think it wasn’t safe

  with all those strangers roaming through our kingdom.

  The whole city is wild with turmoil, so

  1160none of the women who attend the temple

  have come today. Since we are here, however,

  and no one else is coming, let’s delight

  our hearts with choral song. Once we have picked

  these gorgeous flowers from the tender grass,

  1165we shall return at our accustomed hour.

  And you will go home rich in gifts today

  if you agree to do me one small favor:

  Argus, you see, will not stop begging me to—

  Chalciope as well—oh, but be sure

  1170 (903)to keep the words I tell you to yourselves

  so that they never reach my father’s ears—

  well, it’s about the stranger who agreed

  to undertake the trial of the oxen—

  you see, they asked me to accept his gifts

  1175and keep him safe in that atrocious contest.

  Well, once the terms were set, I bade the stranger

  come here alone, apart from his companions,

  to meet me face-to-face, so that we girls

  might share among ourselves whatever gifts

  1180he brings us. We shall give him, in exchange,

  a very potent herbal tincture. Please, though,

  stand at a distance when the man arrives.”

  So she requested, and her subtle words

  persuaded all the maids.

  As soon as Argus

  1185 (913)learned from his brothers that the girl had left

  at daybreak for the shrine of Hecate,

  he led the son of Aeson out alone,

  apart from his companions, through the plain.

  And with them went the offspring of Ampycus,

  1190Mopsus, an expert at interpreting

  bird signs and guiding heroes on their quests.

  Never among the men of long ago—

  not among all those sired by Zeus himself,

  nor among those the other gods begot—

  1195had any man appeared as irresistible

  to speak with and adore as on that day

  Jason appeared. Hera the wife of Zeus

  had made him so. Even his comrades marveled

  as they admired his radiant appeal,

  1200 (925)and Mopsus swaggered as they walked because

  he knew already of the trip’s success.

  Beside the footpath through the plain there stands,

  next to the shrine of Hecate, a poplar

  that wears long hair, innumerable leaves.

  1205Crows regularly sit and chatter in it,

  and one of them was way up toward the crown

  flapping its wings as they were walking by.

  At Hera’s prompting it insulted Mopsus:

  “You are a sorry sort of seer, too stupid

  1210to recognize what even children know:

  a maiden never tells a gentleman

  sweet words of love when others are around.

  Get yourself gone, false prophet, bad adviser.

  Neither Cypris nor the gentle love gods

  1215 (937)breathe their seductive kindnesses your way.”

  So spoke the crow in insult. Mopsus, though,

  when he had heard the sacred bird’s command,

  smiled in reply and said:

  “You go on, Jason,

  go on and meet the maiden at the temple.

  1220Her welcome will be very warm indeed

  thanks to the goddess Cypris, who will help you

  complete the labor, just as Phineus

  the son of Agenor predicted to you.

  Argus and I will wait right here until

  1225you finish. You alone must state your case

  and win her over with convincing phrases.”

  So he insisted, under good advisement,

  and his companions gave assent at once.

  Medea’s heart, however much she sang,

  1230 (949)could not escape from thoughts of Jason, Jason.

  None of the tunes she tried distracted her

  for long. She broke them off in helplessness

  and failed to hold her gaze steady and constant

  upon her maids. Her head kept swiveling;

  1235she kept on staring out along the roadways.

  Time and time again the heart convulsed

  within her breast as she debated whether

  a passing sound was footsteps or the wind.

  Soon he appeared. Her longing eyes perceived him

  1240rising from the horizon, as the Dog Star,

  Sirius, rises from the River Ocean—

  mesmerizing, beautiful—to wreak

  unspeakable destruction on the flocks.

  In just such splendor did the son of Aeson

  1245 (961)rise into view, and his arrival leveled

  still greater anguish at the lovesick girl.

  Her heart dropped from her breast, her eyes were fog,

  and hectic redness chafed her cheeks. She lost

  the strength to lift her knees and move forward

  1250or back. Her soles were rooted to the earth.

  Meanwhile the handmaids had withdrawn from them.

  The two stood face-to-face, unspeaking, silent

  like oaks or lofty pines that stand unrustled

  beside each other on a windless day

  1255atop a peak, until a gust of wind

  rouses them, and they rustle ceaselessly.

  So both of them would soon have much to say

  under the impact of the gusts of Eros.

  Jason could tell the gods had sunk the girl

  in madness, so he plied her gently:

  1260 (975)“Maiden,

  why are you scared to be alone with me?

  I’m not like other men, a no-good boaster,

  not now or back when I was in my homeland.

  Therefore, though you are young, don’t act so wildly

  1265bashful before me that you shrink from saying

  what you desire, or anything at all.

  Since we have come with goodwill toward each other

  and meet on hallowed ground where harmful deeds

  are sacrilege, speak freely, ask your questions.

  1270But please don’t lead me on by saying simply

  what I would like to hear, since from the outset

  you have assured your sister you will give me

  the strength-inspiring potion.

  I beseech you

  both in your parents’ names and in the names

  1275 (986)of holy Hecate and Zeus Upholder

  of Suppliants and Strangers. I have come,

  a suppliant and stranger, to embrace

  your knees in desperation, since alone—

  that is, without your favor—I shall never

  1280return successful from this wretched contest.

  I am prepared to pay you future honor

  for your assistance, all the honor due

  between two people living far apart,

  by glorifying both your name and virtues.

 
; 1285After my comrades have returned to Greece,

  they, too, will spread your fame, as will their mothers

  and wives, who right now possibly are sitting

  and wailing on the shore. You, you could scatter

  their cruel flock of worries on the winds.

  1290 (998)Minos’ maiden daughter Ariadne

  once rescued Theseus from a deadly trial—

  yes, Helius’ daughter Pasiphae,

  the sister of your father, was her mother.

  Once Minos had recovered from his anger,

  1295the girl embarked upon the hero’s ship

  and left her fatherland. Even the gods

  adored this girl, and a memento of her,

  a garland known as Ariadne’s Crown,

  revolves among the heavenly constellations

  1300at night. The gods will give you thanks as well

  if you assist so mighty an assembly

  of heroes. Judging from your beauty, you

  should be supreme in gentle kindnesses.”

  So he addressed her, playing to her pride.

  1305 (1008)She dropped her gaze but, as she did, a smile

  as sweet as nectar spread across her face.

  Her heart had thawed beneath his flattery.

  When she looked up at him again, she failed

  to find words fit to start with, since she was

  1310so keen to tell him everything at once.

  All modesty behind her, she removed

  the vial of resin from her fragrant bodice,

  and he was quick to wrap his hands around it.

  He seemed so very pleased. She would have tugged

  1315the soul out of her breast and happily

  bestowed it on this man who needed her.

  Eros had kindled a miraculous

  and winning fire on Jason’s golden hair,

  and he was ravishing her gaze. Her eyes

  1320 (1020)were glinting, and her heart grew warm and melted

  like dew on roses in the dawn’s first light.

  Each of them awkwardly admired the ground

  at times and then at times kept firing glances

  at one another, shooting forth desire

  1325from underneath their brows. A good while later,

  under extreme duress, the girl brought out:

  “Please listen. I shall give you some instructions:

  Once my father has bestowed upon you

  the serpent’s deadly fangs to sow the field,

  1330wait for the darkest hour of the night,

  then wash your body in a rushing river,

  don an all-black mantle, and retire

  somewhere alone, apart from your companions,

  and dig a wide round hole. Once you have slit

 

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