Part 15 (1/2)

Arete was greatly moved by Medea's tears and prayers. She went to Alcinous in his garden, and she begged of him to save the Argonauts from the great force of the Colchians that had come to cut them off. ”The Golden Fleece,” said Arete, ”has been won by the tasks that Jason performed. If the Colchians should take Medea, it would be to bring her back to Aea and to a bitter doom. And the maiden,” said the queen, ”has broken my heart by her prayers and tears.”

King Alcinous said: ”aeetes is strong, and although his kingdom is far from ours, he can bring war upon us.” But still Arete pleaded with him to protect Medea from the Colchians. Alcinous went within; he raised up Medea from where she crouched on the floor of the palace, and he promised her that the Argonauts would be protected in his city.

Then the king mounted his chariot; Medea went with him, and they came down to the seash.o.r.e where the heroes had made their encampment. The Argonauts and the Colchians were drawn up against each other, and the Colchians far outnumbered the wearied heroes.

Alcinous drove his chariot between the two armies. The Colchians prayed him to have the strangers make surrender to them. But the king drove his chariot to where the heroes stood, and he took the hand of each, and received them as his guests. Then the Colchians knew that they might not make war upon the heroes. They drew off. The next day they marched away.

It was a rich land that they had come to. Once Aristaeus dwelt there, the king who discovered how to make bees store up their honey for men and how to make the good olive grow. Macris, his daughter, tended Dionysus, the son of Zeus, when Hermes brought him of the flame, and moistened his lips with honey. She tended him in a cave in the Phaeacian land, and ever afterward the Phaeacians were blessed with all good things.

Now as the heroes marched to the palace of King Alcinous the people came to meet them, bringing them sheep and calves and jars of wine and honey.

The women brought them fresh garments; to Medea they gave fine linen and golden ornaments.

Amongst the Phaeacians who loved music and games and the telling of stories the heroes stayed for long. There were dances, and to the Phaeacians who honored him as a G.o.d, Orpheus played upon his lyre. And every day, for the seven days that they stayed amongst them, the Phaeacians brought rich presents to the heroes.

And Medea, looking into the clear eyes of Queen Arete, knew that she was the woman of whom Circe had prophesied, the woman who knew nothing of enchantments, but who had much human wisdom. She was to ask of her what she was to do in her life and what she was to leave undone. And what this woman told her Medea was to regard. Arete told her that she was to forget all the witcheries and enchantments that she knew, and that she was never to practice against the life of any one. This she told Medea upon the sh.o.r.e, before Jason lifted her aboard the _Argo_.

VII. They Come to the Desert Land

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_A_ND now with sail spread wide the _Argo_ went on, and the heroes rested at the oars. The wind grew stronger. It became a great blast, and for nine days and nine nights the s.h.i.+p was driven fearfully along.

The blast drove them into the Gulf of Libya, from whence there is no return for s.h.i.+ps. On each side of the gulf there are rocks and shoals, and the sea runs toward the limitless sand. On the top of a mighty tide the _Argo_ was lifted, and she was flung high up on the desert sands.

A flood tide such as might not come again for long left the Argonauts on the empty Libyan land. And when they came forth and saw that vast level of sand stretching like a mist away into the distance, a deadly fear came over each of them. No spring of water could they descry; no path; no herdsman's cabin; over all that vast land there was silence and dead calm.

And one said to the other: ”What land is this? Whither have we come? Would that the tempest had overwhelmed us, or would that we had lost the s.h.i.+p and our lives between the Clas.h.i.+ng Rocks at the time when we were making our way into the Sea of Pontus.”

And the helmsman, looking before him, said with a breaking heart: ”Out of this we may not come, even should the breeze blow from the land, for all around us are shoals and sharp rocks-rocks that we can see fretting the water, line upon line. Our s.h.i.+p would have been shattered far from the sh.o.r.e if the tide had not borne her far up on the sand. But now the tide rushes back toward the sea, leaving only foam on which no s.h.i.+p can sail to cover the sand. And so all hope of our return is cut off.”

He spoke with tears flowing upon his cheeks, and all who had knowledge of s.h.i.+ps agreed with what the helmsman had said. No dangers that they had been through were as terrible as this. Hopelessly, like lifeless specters, the heroes strayed about the endless strand.

They embraced each other and they said farewell as they laid down upon the sand that might blow upon them and overwhelm them in the night. They wrapped their heads in their cloaks, and, fasting, they laid themselves down.

Jason crouched beside the s.h.i.+p, so troubled that his life nearly went from him. He saw Medea huddled against a rock and with her hair streaming on the sand. He saw the men who, with all the bravery of their lives, had come with him, stretched on the desert sand, weary and without hope. He thought that they, the best of men, might die in this desert with their deeds all unknown; he thought that he might never win home with Medea, to make her his queen in Iolcus.

He lay against the side of the s.h.i.+p, his cloak wrapped around his head.

And there death would have come to him and to the others if the nymphs of the desert had been unmindful of these brave men. They came to Jason. It was midday then, and the fierce rays of the sun were scorching all Libya.

They drew off the cloak that wrapped his head; they stood near him, three nymphs girded around with goatskins.

”Why art thou so smitten with despair?” the nymphs said to Jason. ”Why art thou smitten with despair, thou who hast wrought so much and hast won so much? Up! Arouse thy comrades! We are the solitary nymphs, the warders of the land of Libya, and we have come to show a way of escape to you, the Argonauts.

”Look around and watch for the time when Poseidon's great horse shall be unloosed. Then make ready to pay recompense to the mother that bore you all. What she did for you all, that you all must do for her; by doing it you will win back to the land of Greece.” Jason heard them say these words and then he saw them no more; the nymphs vanished amongst the desert mounds.