Part 4 (2/2)

Hylas

There Hylas stayed. But although the nymphs kissed him and sang to him, and showed him lovely things, Hylas was not content to be there.

Where the Argonauts were the fires burned, the moon arose, and still Hylas did not return. Then they began to fear lest a wild beast had destroyed the boy. One went to Heracles and told him that young Hylas had not come back, and that they were fearful for him. Heracles flung down the pine tree that he was fas.h.i.+oning into an oar, and he dashed along the way that Hylas had gone as if a gadfly were stinging him. ”Hylas, Hylas,” he cried. But Hylas, in the cold and glimmering cave that the nymphs had drawn him into, did not hear the call of his friend Heracles.

All the Argonauts went searching, calling as they went through the island, ”Hylas, Hylas, Hylas!” But only their own calls came back to them.

The morning star came up, and Tiphys, the steersman, called to them from the _Argo_. And when they came to the s.h.i.+p Tiphys told them that they would have to go aboard and make ready to sail from that place.

They called to Heracles, and Heracles at last came down to the s.h.i.+p.

They spoke to him, saying that they would have to sail away. Heracles would not go on board. ”I will not leave this island,” he said, ”until I find young Hylas or learn what has happened to him.”

Then Jason arose to give the command to depart. But before the words were said Telamon stood up and faced him. ”Jason,” he said angrily, ”you do not bid Heracles come on board, and you would have the _Argo_ leave without him. You would leave Heracles here so that he may not be with us on the quest where his glory might overshadow your glory, Jason.”

Jason said no word, but he sat back on his bench with head bowed. And then, even as Telamon said these angry words, a strange figure rose up out of the waves of the sea.

It was the figure of a man, wrinkled and old, with seaweed in his beard and his hair. There was a majesty about him, and the Argonauts all knew that this was one of the immortals-he was Nereus, the ancient one of the sea.

”To Heracles, and to you, the rest of the Argonauts, I have a thing to say,” said the ancient one, Nereus. ”Know, first, that Hylas has been taken by the nymphs who love him and who think to win his love, and that he will stay forever with them in their cold and glimmering cave. For Hylas seek no more. And to you, Heracles, I will say this: Go aboard the _Argo_ again; the s.h.i.+p will take you to where a great labor awaits you, and which, in accomplis.h.i.+ng, you will work out the will of Zeus. You will know what this labor is when a spirit seizes on you.” So the ancient one of the sea said, and he sank back beneath the waves.

Heracles went aboard the _Argo_ once more, and he took his place on the bench, the new oar in his hand. Sad he was to think that young Hylas who used to sit at his knee would never be there again. The breeze filled the sail, the Argonauts pulled at the oars, and in sadness they watched the island where young Hylas had been lost to them recede from their view.

VII. King Phineus

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_S_AID Tiphys, the steersman: ”If we could enter the Sea of Pontus, we could make our way across that sea to Colchis in a short time. But the pa.s.sage into the Sea of Pontus is most perilous, and few mortals dare even to make approach to it.”

Said Jason, the chieftain of the host: ”The dangers of the pa.s.sage, Tiphys, we have spoken of, and it may be that we shall have to carry _Argo_ overland to the Sea of Pontus. But you, Tiphys, have spoken of a wise king who is hereabouts, and who might help us to make the dangerous pa.s.sage. Speak again to us, and tell us what the dangers of the pa.s.sage are, and who the king is who may be able to help us to make these dangers less.”

Then said Tiphys, the steersman of the _Argo_: ”No s.h.i.+p sailed by mortals has as yet gone through the pa.s.sage that brings this sea into the Sea of Pontus. In the way are the rocks that mariners call The Clashers.

These rocks are not fixed as rocks should be, but they rush one against the other, das.h.i.+ng up the sea, and crus.h.i.+ng whatever may be between. Yea, if _Argo_ were of iron, and if she were between these rocks when they met, she would be crushed to bits. I have sailed as far as that pa.s.sage, but seeing The Clashers strike together I turned back my s.h.i.+p, and journeyed as far as the Sea of Pontus overland.

”But I have been told of one who knows how a s.h.i.+p may be taken through the pa.s.sage that The Clashers make so perilous. He who knows is a king hereabouts, Phineus, who has made himself as wise as the G.o.ds. To no one has Phineus told how the pa.s.sage may be made, but knowing what high favor has been shown to us, the Argonauts, it may be that he will tell us.”

So Tiphys said, and Jason commanded him to steer the _Argo_ toward the city where ruled Phineus, the wise king.

To Salmydessus, then, where Phineus ruled, Tiphys steered the _Argo_.

They left Heracles with Tiphys aboard to guard the s.h.i.+p, and, with the rest of the heroes, Jason went through the streets of the city. They met many men, but when they asked any of them how they might come to the palace of King Phineus the men turned fearfully away.

They found their way to the king's palace. Jason spoke to the servants and bade them tell the king of their coming. The servants, too, seemed fearful, and as Jason and his comrades were wondering what there was about him that made men fearful at his name, Phineus, the king, came amongst them.

Were it not that he had a purple border to his robe no one would have known him for the king, so miserable did this man seem. He crept along, touching the walls, for the eyes in his head were blind and withered. His body was shrunken, and when he stood before them leaning on his staff he was like to a lifeless thing. He turned his blinded eyes upon them, looking from one to the other as if he were searching for a face.

Then his sightless eyes rested upon Zetes and Calais, the sons of Boreas, the North Wind. A change came into his face as it turned upon them. One would think that he saw the wonder that these two were endowed with-the wings that grew upon their ankles. It was a while before he turned his face from them; then he spoke to Jason and said:

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