Jason and the Argonauts
Page 25
murmured delightful hymns to ease his watch.
1795But, by the time the heroes reached the spot,
Heracles had already shot the serpent.
There beneath the apple tree it sprawled.
Only its tapered tip was still in motion—
everything from the coils to the head
1800 (1405)lay lifeless. Flies had melted round the wounds
because the arrows had injected poison,
the acid taint of the Lernaean Hydra,
into its innards. The Hesperides
were nearby, with their silver hands held up
1805before their golden faces, wildly keening
over the carcass.
When the heroes gathered
around the nymphs, they withered in an instant
and turned to dust. Orpheus recognized
the sacred sign and for his comrades’ sake
1810tried to appease the nymphs with winning words:
“Beautiful, gracious queens, divinities—
whether you rate among the goddesses
who live in heaven, dwell beneath the earth,
or bear the name of solitary nymphs,
1815 (1414)be kind to us and come, O powers, appear
before our longing eyes and point us, please,
either to where a spring escapes from rock
or where some freshet rises from the ground.
Please, please show us something to relieve
1820the fiery torture of our thirst. I vow
that, if we ever make it home to Greece,
we shall reward you there as we reward
the foremost goddesses, with countless gifts,
feasts, and libations.”
So he prayed to them,
1825using a plaintive and beseeching voice.
They stood nearby invisibly and pitied
the heroes. First of all they made some grass
sprout from the sand and then, above the grass,
tall stalks arose and saplings soon enough
1830 (1427)stood where there had been dunes: Hespera turned
into a poplar, Erytheis an elm,
Aegla a venerable willow’s trunk.
Then they emerged out of the trees and looked
just as they had before—prodigious wonders!
1835Aegla addressed the men with gentle words
in answer to their looks of desperation:
“A mighty boon to you in your afflictions
already passed through here—a most rude man,
who soon deprived our guardian snake of life,
1840picked all the goddess’ pure-golden apples,
and went and left us here in grief and horror.
Yes, a man came yesterday, a man
most murderous in arrogance and bulk.
Eyes glowering beneath a savage brow,
1845 (1437)he was a brute without a trace of pity.
He wore around his bulk the raw, untreated
hide of a lion, held a sturdy bow
of olive wood and used it to dispatch
this creature here.
The fellow had arrived
1850on foot and, like the other guests we’ve seen,
ablaze with thirst. He dashed about at random
in search of water, which, to tell the truth,
he wouldn’t have discovered in the dunes . . .
save for that bedrock outcrop over there
1855beside Lake Triton. Either on his own
or at some god’s suggestion, he decided
to kick its base, and water gushed, full force,
out of the rupture. Leaning on his hands,
with chest pressed to the ground, he swilled colossal
1860 (1448)volumes out of the riven rock until,
bent forward like a grazing beast afield,
he had appeased his superhuman belly.”
Such was the tale she told them, and they all
burst into joy and ran like mad until
1865they reached the place where she had pointed out
the spring. Imagine ants, earth excavators,
a dense gathering of them, how they swarm
around a narrow crack, or flies perhaps,
how they collect en masse around a sweet
1870droplet of honey with voracious lust—
that’s how the heroes pushed in tight around
the spring they found there gushing from a rock.
Without a doubt someone among them, lips
dribbling, shouted joyously:
“Amazing!
1875 (1459)Even from far off, Heracles has saved
his friends when they were withering with thirst.
If only we could chance upon his footprints
while we are traveling across this land.”
So they were saying, and the men best suited
1880to find their absent comrade rose in answer
and headed off in separate directions
because the nighttime winds had stirred the sand
and wiped out Heracles’ deep impressions.
Calaïs, Zetes—Boreas’ sons—
1885took to their wings and sought him from the air.
Euphemus sprinted off on speed-blurred feet.
Lynceus set out fourth—he had the gift
of long-range sight. As for the fifth man, Canthus,
bravery and the gods’ commandments urged him
1890 (1469)to learn, firsthand, where Heracles had last seen
Polyphemus offspring of Eilatus.
Yes, Canthus burned to ask what happened to him,
but Polyphemus had already founded
a glorious town among the Mysians
1895and later, longing for his home return,
set out across the continent to find
the Argo. When he reached the Chalybes
who live beside the sea, fate beat him down.
A monument was raised for him beneath
1900a tall white poplar, very near the sea.
The day the heroes searched for Heracles
Lynceus thought that he had maybe caught
sight of him, all alone and far away
on that interminable continent.
1905 (1479)Lynceus glimpsed him in the way one sees
(or thinks he sees) the moon behind the clouds.
So, once he had returned to his companions,
he broke the news that no one any longer
could hope of overtaking Heracles.
1910The others came back, too—swift-foot Euphemus
and both the sons of Thracian Boreas.
The hunt had come to nothing.
Then, O Canthus!,
the doom of death took hold of you in Libya.
After you stumbled on a flock at pasture,
1915the shepherd who was tending it could only
fight to defend the sheep you tried to steal
for your emaciated comrades. Yes,
he struck you with a stone and knocked you dead.
At least the man was not a slave but noble
1920 (1490)Caphaurus, grandson of Lycorian Phoebus
and the respected maiden Acacallis.
Minos packed this maiden off to Libya,
his own daughter though she was, because
she had conceived a child by Apollo.
1925Their splendid offspring, known as Amphithemis
and also Garamas, then bedded down
with a Tritonian nymph, who bore him sons:
Nasamon and intractable Caphaurus
who beat down Can
thus to protect his flock.
1930Soon as the heroes found the corpse, Caphaurus
did not escape harsh vengeance at their hands.
Then they took up their fallen comrade’s body,
trundled it back, and laid it in the earth
with sighs and tears. They also took the sheep.
1935 (1502)Then on the selfsame day relentless fate
claimed Mopsus, too, the scion of Ampycus.
No, he could not evade harsh destiny
for all of his prophetic prescience.
A person’s death is fixed and unavoidable.
1940There it was, lying in a sand dune, shunning
the midday heat—the lethal sort of asp.
Too sluggish on its own to sink its fangs
in accidental passersby, this breed
would never launch itself against a person
1945who spotted it in time and backed away.
However, once it has injected black
poison into any of the breathing
creatures the life-supporting earth sustains,
the path to Hades is a cubit long.
1950 (1512)Yes, even if Apollo plied his drugs—
and may it not be sacrilege to say it—
death would still be certain once those fangs
had pumped their venom. When the godlike Perseus
(known to his mother as Eurymedon)
1955flew over Libya to bring a king
the Gorgon’s freshly severed head, the drops
of red-black blood that fell onto the ground
sprouted into this noxious breed of snake.
And Mopsus, well—he set his left foot down
1960firmly upon the taper of its tail,
and it coiled up around his calf and shin
and tore some skin out of him when it bit.
Medea and her handmaids scampered off
in fear, but he, a hero, bravely stroked
1965 (1523)the open wound—the bite did not distress him
much at all, poor man. Already, though,
Slumber the Loosener of Limbs was spreading
beneath his skin. Deep darkness doused his vision.
Soon he had strewn his heavy arms and legs
1970along the ground and grown cold helplessly.
Jason and his companions gathered round
and stood there gaping at his grim demise.
Not even for a short time after death
could he be left out in the sun because
1975the toxin right away had started rotting
the flesh within him, and the hair all over
his body thawed and dribbled off the skin.
They hurried with their bronze-wrought spades to dig
a deep grave for the corpse, and everyone,
1980 (1534)females and males alike, tore out their hair
and mourned the man, the sorry way he died.
Then, after they had marched three times around
the body, and it had received full honors,
they raised a funerary mound above it.
1985They boarded ship again and, with a wind
out of the south blowing across the sea,
sailed off to find a path out of the lake.
Hour after hour they lacked a course and drifted
idly the whole day through. As when a serpent
1990wriggles, hissing, on its crooked way
to slip from under a ferocious noon
and squints all round, its slits aglint with flickers
like little streaks of fire, until it finds
a crack and glides into a burrow—so
1995 (1546)the Argo wandered for a long time seeking
a navigable outlet from the lake.
Orpheus then suggested they should lug
the tripod of Apollo off the ship
and set it on the shore, to leave a gift
2000for any local power that might guide
their homeward journey. So they beached the ship
and placed Apollo’s tripod on the sand,
and Triton, god of the unbounded ocean,
walked over, masquerading as a youth.
2005He scooped a bit of mud up, formed a ball,
and gave it to them as a guest-gift, saying:
“Take this, my friends, since I don’t have on hand
any appropriate gift to offer you.
Now, if you happen to be seeking outlets
2010 (1557)into the sea (as sailors often are
when traveling in lakes), I can direct you.
Poseidon is my father, and he schooled me
thoroughly in the pathways of the sea,
and I am regent of the beaches. Maybe,
2015even in your own country far away,
you’ve heard about Eurypylus, a man
brought up in Libya, home of wild beasts.”
Such was his greeting, and Euphemus held
his hands out gratefully and gave this answer:
2020“If you, friend hero, are acquainted somewhat
with Apis and the Sea of Minos, please
help us by giving us an honest answer.
We wound up here by chance. After the northern
storm winds marooned us on this desert coast,
2025 (1568)we picked our vessel up, a heavy burden,
and lugged it overland until we reached
this giant lake, and we have no idea
where there is passage to the sea, so that
we may sail homeward round the land of Pelops.”
2030So he explained, and Triton stretched his hand out,
pointed toward a deep-blue estuary,
an outlet from the lake, and gave directions:
“There where the lake is calm and dark with depth,
a passage leads out to the sea. White breakers
2035are churning there on one side and the other,
and there’s a narrow channel set between them.
The effervescent sea beyond it stretches
past Crete to the exalted land of Pelops.
When you emerge among the open rollers,
2040 (1580)cleave to port and skirt the coast so long
as it is trending to the north. As soon as
the coast retreats and slopes the other way,
cut seaward, and your journey will be safe.
Proceed in joy. As for the work involved,
2045there should be no complaints when limbs endowed
with youthfulness are toiling at a task.”
So, in a friendly way, he gave directions,
and they embarked at once, giddy to row
out of the lake at last. As they were speeding
2050eagerly onward, Triton seized the tripod
and seemed to disappear into the lake,
so swiftly did he vanish with the gift.
Their hearts exulted at the hopeful omen—
a blessed god had stopped to aid their journey.
2055 (1593)So all the men urged Jason to select
the finest of the flock and sacrifice it
and thus propitiate the god. He picked out
a sheep at once, held it above the stern,
and slaughtered it, proclaiming:
“Helpful god,
2060whichever power it was that has appeared
upon this shorefront, whether holy Triton
Soothsayer of the Sea or Nereus
or Phorcys (as your ocean-dwelling daughters
address you), please be favorable and grant us
2065a heartwarming conclusion to our journey.”
the victim from the stern into the lake.
Triton in answer surfaced, undisguised
and in his sacred person, from the depths.
2070 (1604)As when a trainer who has led a stallion
onto the broad arena of the games
takes bushy mane in hand and jogs beside him,
and the horse obeys his master, head
upreared with mettle, and the foam-flecked bit
2075clinks as he champs it side to side, so Triton
took hold of hollow Argo’s sturdy stern post
and pushed her toward the sea.
His upper parts—
head, back, and torso—perfectly resembled
the gorgeous bodies of the blessed gods,
2080but from the abdomen on down extended
the forking tail of an aquatic creature.
He slapped the surface of the lake with fins
that, farther out, divided into spines
curved like the tapers of a crescent moon.
2085 (1617)He pushed the ship a good long ways, launched her
across the surface, then abruptly plunged
into the depths. As they beheld, up close,
this awesome miracle, the heroes broke
into a cheer.
There is a stretch of coast
2090known as the Argo’s Harbor to this day.
Signs of the ship are there, as well as shrines
set up to honor Triton and Poseidon
because the heroes rested there that day.
At dawn, a healthy Zephyr in their sails,
2095they cruised along, keeping the desert coastline
off to their right. Next morning they discerned
a jutting headland and the gulf that stretches
beyond it. All at once the Zephyr died.
A stiff south wind had risen, and their hearts
2100 (1628)rallied before it. Once the sun had set
and Hesperus the herdsman’s star had risen
(the one that brings tired plowmen home from work),
then, when the evening breezes died away,
they furled the sails, stepped the tall mast down,
2105and heaved upon the sanded oars all night
and through the day and still were rowing, rowing
when daylight came around again.
From there
the distant, rugged island of Carpathus
received them and from there they had intended
2110to cross to Crete, which is of greater size
than all the other islands in the sea.
Talus, however, stood there on the shore—
a giant wholly made of bronze. He broke
sharp rocks from jagged cliffs and held them up