Once you have passed them,
make landfall on the barren isle nearby,
but only after using every means
500to drive off the repugnant, homicidal
birds who nest on it in countless numbers.
Here Otrera and Antiope,
two Amazonian queens, once built a shrine
in Ares’ name when they were on campaign.
505Here from the unforgiving sea a boon
will come to you, a boon I dare not name.
Still, I exhort you with benign insistence
to harbor there. Why should I go too far
a second time with my prophetic art?
510 (391)Why tell you everything from start to finish?
Beyond this island and the facing coastline
dwell the Philyres; the Macrones next,
and next in turn the multitudinous tribes
of the Becheirieans. Next in order
515dwell the Sapeires, the Byzeri, then
the warlike Colchians themselves at last.
Still, you should travel farther on until
you reach the limit of the Pontic Sea.
Here on the mainland near the city Cyta
520the raucous Phasis, after racing down
the Amarantian mountains and across
the plain of Circe, empties liberally
into the sea.
While rowing up that river
you will discern the towers of Aeëtes
525 (403)at Cyta, and the gloomy grove of Ares
where a serpent dreadful to behold,
a monster, glares all round, forever guarding
the fleece that lies across an oak tree’s crown.
Neither day nor night does honeyed slumber
530vanquish the thing’s insatiable surveillance.”
Such was his prophecy, and terror gripped
the heroes. Long they stood there gaping, dumbstruck.
At last the son of Aeson, at a loss
before the terror of it all, spoke out:
535“Venerable man, thus far you have foretold
the ways and worries of our quest’s completion
and warned us of the omen we must heed
when passing through those dreadful Clashing Rocks
into the Pontic Sea. But I am eager
540 (414)to learn as well if we must suffer through them
a second time while sailing back to Greece.
How can I do it? How can I survive
a second endless journey through the sea?
I am an untried man, my comrades, too,
545are untried men, and Colchian Aea
lies at the limit of the Pontic Sea,
the far end of the earth!”
So Jason spoke.
The hoary prophet uttered in response:
“Once you have passed those deadly Rocks alive,
550my son, have confidence. Some god will guide you
along a different path out of Aea,
and on the way there you’ll have guides enough.
But I advise you, friends, do not dismiss
the goddess Cypris and her slippery
555 (424)assistance, since the glorious fulfillment
of your adventure lies with her. No further,
ask me no further questions on these matters.”
So prophesied the son of Agenor.
Just then the sons of Thracian Boreas
560came swooping down out of sky and brought
their feathered feet to rest upon the threshold.
All the heroes leapt out of their seats
at their return. Still panting from exertion,
Zetes informed his eager audience
565how far they drove the Harpies, how the goddess
Iris had flown in, blocked the slaughter of them,
and kindly sworn an oath, and how the Harpies
had taken refuge in a giant cave
within Mount Dicte.
Their report delighted
570 (436)everyone, but Phineus most of all,
and Jason son of Aeson, overflowing
with kindliness, addressed the aged man:
“Phineus, certainly some god has looked
warmly on your distress and brought us here
575from Hellas so that Boreas’ sons
could save you. Now, if only light could shine
again within your eyes, I’d be as happy
as if I had returned to Greece in safety.”
So he proclaimed, but Phineus glumly answered:
580“My blindness, Jason, cannot be undone,
nor is there hope it will be in the future.
My eyes are void, completely withered. No,
I wish some god would grant me death instead.
When I am dead and gone, I shall be basking
in perfect brilliance.”
585 (448)Thus the two men spoke,
and soon thereafter, while they were conversing,
Dawn the Early Riser came again,
and Phineus’ neighbors gathered round him—
the men who, in the time before the Harpies,
590came every morning, bearing him some food
out of their stores. An old man even then,
he gave his prophecies and heartfelt blessings
to all who came, even the poorest of them,
and soothed the woes of many with his art.
595That’s why the people came and cared for him.
Among them was a certain man, Paraebius,
Phineus’ most devoted friend,
and he was glad to find the strangers there
because the seer had long ago proclaimed
600 (459)a band of heroes on a voyage bound
from Hellas to Aeëtes’ citadel
would tie their cables to the Thynian land
and, with divine approval, stop the Harpies
from landing there. Once Phineus had sated
605these guests with prudent words, he sent them out
and asked Paraebius alone to stay
among the heroes. Then he sent him out
to lead the finest sheep out of the folds.
Once he had left them, Phineus explained
610gently about him to the gathered oarsmen:
“My friends, not everyone is arrogant
and heedless of a favor done to him.
This man, such as he is, once came to me
to learn about his destiny. You see,
615 (471)though he had labored much and struggled more,
an ever-growing scarcity of means
kept grinding him away. Day after day
matters were worse for him until no ease
relieved his toil.
In fact, he had been paying
620the dire wages of his father’s error.
One day his father, in the act of felling
trees in the mountains, scorned a wood nymph’s plea.
You see, she had been weeping, begging him
please not to chop her oak tree down, her age-mate.
625She had been living in its trunk and boughs
for many years. He was a young man, though,
and scornful, so he rashly cut it down.
The wood nymph fixed the fate of constant failure
on him and all his heirs as retribution.
630 (484)When Paraebius, that fellow’s son,
came to me, I discerned the curse and told him
to build an altar to that Thynian nymph
and lavish gifts upon it in atonement,
begging her, all the while, please to forgive
635his father’s malice. Ever since he slipped
that god-sent doom, he has remembered me.
In fact, whenever I excuse him for a time,
he grudgingly departs, so scrupulous
is he in standing by me in my troubles.”
640So Phineus explained, and there he was,
&n
bsp; Paraebius, at hand again, returning
with two sheep chosen from his master’s sheepfold.
Jason arose and, at the old man’s bidding,
the sons of Boreas stood up beside him.
645 (493)Then, calling on Apollo God of Prophets,
Phineus slew the victims on the hearth
just as the day was drawing to a close.
The younger men prepared a heartening feast
for their companions. When they all had eaten,
650some went to sleep among the Argo’s cables,
others in clusters all throughout the house.
That morning the Etesian Winds arose.
These are the winds that blow throughout the world
with equal strength, at the behest of Zeus.
655A maiden named Cyrene, it is said,
once tended sheep among the men of yore
along the flats of the Peneus River.
She plied this trade because virginity
was sweet to her, and an untainted bed.
660 (503)One day, while she was pasturing her flocks
along the riverbank, Apollo snatched her
up from Haemonia and set her down
among the nymphs who dwell in Libya
beside the Hill of Myrtles. There she bore
665Phoebus a child, a son named Aristaeus
(though men in barley-rich Haemonia
know him as Agreus and Nomius).
The god so loved Cyrene that he made her
an ageless huntress in her newfound land.
670He carried off the child, though, to be brought up
in Cheiron’s cave. When he was grown, the Muses
arranged his marriage and instructed him
in all the arts of prophecy and healing.
They also made him keeper of the sheep
675 (514)that grazed the Athamantian plain of Phthia
beside steep Othrys and the holy-flowing
Apidanus.
When down out of the heavens
the Dog Star Sirius was searing all
the isles of Minos, and for many days
680the locals suffered but could find no cure,
they begged assistance from the oracle
of Phoebus, who commanded them to summon
Aristaeus to expel the drought.
So, at his father’s bidding, he set forth
685from Phthia, rounded up some Parrhasians
(who are, in fact, the heirs of Lycaon),
and settled them in Ceos. There he raised
a mighty shrine to Zeus the God of Rain
and duly offered on the mountaintops
690 (524)sacrifice to the Dog Star Sirius
and Zeus the son of Cronus. That is why
Etesian winds descend from Zeus to cool
the earth for forty days, and still today
the priests in Ceos offer sacrifice
695before the Dog Star Sirius appears.
So runs the story of the winds.
The heroes
were held up there awhile and, every day
they stayed, the Thynians sent them countless presents
to thank them for relieving Phineus.
700Then, once the gales had calmed, they built an altar
in honor of the twelve immortal gods
on the opposing shore, heaped it with gifts,
boarded the Argo, and began to row.
And they did not forget to bring along
705 (536)a bashful dove—Euphemus was the one
who seized it, frightened, trembling, in his hand.
Then they unbound the cables from the land.
Nor did Athena fail to mark their heading.
All in an instant she had set her feet
710upon an airy cloudlet that provided
swift conveyance, weighty though she was,
and so she hastened to the Pontic Sea
to do the crew a favor. When a man
goes traveling outside his fatherland
715(as we long-suffering mortals often do),
no land seems out of reach, the ways and means
shine in his mind, and he can see his house
and picture traveling by path and channel
and with his swift thoughts visit now one country
720 (546)and now another in imagination,
so Zeus’ daughter leapt out of the cloud
and instantly set foot upon the hostile
Thynian shore.
Soon as the heroes reached
the narrows of the mazy strait, they found
725sharp outcrops closing in on either side
and hectic whirlpools churning up white water
around the ship. They made their way in horror.
The rumble of the Clashing Rocks already
assailed their senses, and the sea-washed headlands
echoed the noise.
730Euphemus then ascended
the prow beam, dove in hand, and all the oarsmen,
under the orders of the steersman Tiphys,
rowed at their ease to save up strength enough
to pull them through the crisis. When the heroes
735 (560)rounded the final bend, they saw the Rocks
dividing, and their spirit drained away.
Euphemus launched the dove, which on its wings
shot forth and flew between the ranks of oarsmen.
They turned their heads to watch it go, and then
740the two rock faces crashed together. Spouts
of seething spray shot upward like a mist,
the sea was far from cheerful in its roaring,
and everywhere the mighty air was trembling.
Down at the Rocks’ foundations hollow sea caves
745boomed as the brine came boiling up within them.
The white spume of the falling waves erupted
above the Rocks, and riptides spun the ship.
Still, though the twin peaks nipped her hindmost feathers,
the dove got clear—she made it through alive.
750 (573)The oarsmen raised a hearty cheer, and Tiphys
commanded them to row with all their strength
because the Rocks were opening again.
Trembling seized them as they heaved, but soon
the same wave as before propelled them forward,
755with its returning wash, between the Rocks.
Insufferable dread took hold of them:
the doom impending there on either side
seemed inescapable. Though for a moment
the level Pontus shimmered far and wide
760beyond the Rocks, a sudden wave arose
before them, vaulted like a steep cliff face.
They cocked their heads to duck because it seemed
that arching wall of froth would soon collapse
onto the deck and swamp them. Just in time, though,
765 (584)Tiphys reined the ship in as it labored
under the oars. The great wave slithered off
beneath the keel but, with its passing, lifted
the stern into the air and dragged the Argo
back outside the Clashing Rocks.
Euphemus
770walked the deck commanding his companions
to pour their strength into the oars. Groaning,
they struck the water. But whatever headway
the Argo made by rowing, it retreated
twice as far, and, as the heroes heaved,
775the oars bent under them like back-bent bows.
A sudden wave then rushed them from behind,
and Argo coasted on the crest as smoothly
as if it were a sanded wooden roller.
So they proceeded through the air until
780 (595)a whirlpool sucked them in and spun them round
between the agitated Clashing Rocks.
The hull was sea-stuck.
So Athena braced
he
r left hand on a crag for leverage
and with her right shoved Argo from the stern.
785The ship went flying like a swift-winged arrow,
and, when the Rocks came hurtling together,
they only nipped the stern post’s tip abaft.
Once they had gotten through alive, Athena
flew back to Mount Olympus, and the Rocks
790were rooted firmly in one place forever,
just as the gods had fated would occur
whenever someone saw them clash together
and still sailed through them to the other side.
The heroes caught their breath at last, shook off
795 (607)the chill of horror, then surveyed the sky
and flat sea stretching eastward out of view.
They felt as if they had escaped from Hades.
Tiphys was first to find his voice again:
“It was the ship itself, I think, that pulled us
800out of that pinch. Athena, though, deserves
the highest praise, since it was she who breathed
magical strength into the hull when Argus
was pounding dowels home into the planks.
Wrecking this ship would be like sacrilege.
805Now that a god has helped us to escape
those dreadful Clashing Rocks, no longer worry
about fulfilling Pelias’ demands.
Phineus son of Agenor predicted
that, after this, our voyage would be easy.”
810 (619)So Tiphys reassured them as he steered
the ship through open sea beside the land
of the Bithynians. But Jason answered
with subtle words and sidelong purpose:
“Tiphys,
why are you trying to console my grief?
815I’ve made a horrid and unpardonable
blunder. When Pelias proposed the challenge,
I should have turned this journey down at once,
even if death, a savage death by torture,
was waiting for me. Now I wear a shroud
820of fear and dread past bearing—loathing travel
across the frigid sea but loathing, too,
the thought of landing, since the local tribesmen
are hostile everywhere. Night after night,
since first you all assembled for my sake,
825 (631)I have been spending wretched hours obsessing
over these worries. Each of you can speak
with unencumbered ease because you fear
for your one life alone, while I, your leader,
don’t care a whit about my own but worry
Jason and the Argonauts (Penguin Classics) Page 10
