'Sing to us, then, noble stranger,' said Alcinous; 'and we

will give you precious gifts.'
So Orpheus took his magic harp, and sang to them a stirring

song of their voyage from Iolcos, and their dangers, and how
they won the golden fleece; and of Medeia's love, and how she

helped them, and went with them over land and sea; and of all
their fearful dangers, from monsters, and rocks, and storms,

till the heart of Arete was softened, and all the women wept.
And the merchant kings rose up, each man from off his golden

throne, and clapped their hands, and shouted, 'Hail to the
noble Argonauts, who sailed the unknown sea!'

Then he went on, and told their journey over the sluggish
northern main, and through the shoreless outer ocean, to the

fairy island of the west; and of the Sirens, and Scylla, and
Charybdis, and all the wonders they had seen, till midnight

passed and the day dawned; but the kings never thought of
sleep. Each man sat still and listened, with his chin upon

his hand.
And at last, when Orpheus had ended, they all went thoughtful

out, and the heroes lay down to sleep, beneath the sounding
porch outside, where Arete had strewn them rugs and carpets,

in the sweet still summer night.
But Arete pleaded hard with her husband for Medeia, for her

heart was softened. And she said, 'The Gods will punish her,
not we. After all, she is our guest and my suppliant, and

prayers are the daughters of Zeus. And who, too, dare part
man and wife, after all they have endured together?'

And Alcinous smiled. 'The minstrel's song has charmed you:
but I must remember what is right, for songs cannot alter

justice; and I must be faithful to my name. Alcinous I am
called, the man of sturdy sense; and Alcinous I will be.'

But for all that Arete besought him, until she won him round.
So next morning he sent a herald, and called the kings into

the square, and said, 'This is a puzzling matter: remember
but one thing. These Minuai live close by us, and we may

meet them often on the seas; but Aietes lives afar off, and
we have only heard his name. Which, then, of the two is it

safer to offend - the men near us, or the men far off?'
The princes laughed, and praised his wisdom; and Alcinous

called the heroes to the square, and the Colchi also; and
they came and stood opposite each other, but Medeia stayed in

the palace. Then Alcinous spoke, 'Heroes of the Colchi, what
is your errand about this lady?'

'To carry her home with us, that she may die a shameful
death; but if we return without her, we must die the death

she should have died.'
'What say you to this, Jason the AEolid?' said Alcinous,

turning to the Minuai.
'I say,' said the cunning Jason, 'that they are come here on

a bootless errand. Do you think that you can make her follow
you, heroes of the Colchi - her, who knows all spells and

charms? She will cast away your ships on quicksands, or call
down on you Brimo the wild huntress; or the chains will fall

from off her wrists, and she will escape in her dragon-car;
or if not thus, some other way, for she has a thousand plans

and wiles. And why return home at all, brave heroes, and
face the long seas again, and the Bosphorus, and the stormy

Euxine, and double all your toil? There is many a fair land
round these coasts, which waits for gallant men like you.

Better to settle there, and build a city, and let Aietes and
Colchis help themselves.'

Then a murmur rose among the Colchi, and some cried 'He has
spoken well;' and some, 'We have had enough of roving, we

will sail the seas no more!' And the chief said at last, 'Be
it so, then; a plague she has been to us, and a plague to the

house of her father, and a plague she will be to you. Take
her, since you are no wiser; and we will sail away toward the

north.'
Then Alcinous gave them food, and water, and garments, and

rich presents of all sorts; and he gave the same to the
Minuai, and sent them all away in peace.

So Jason kept the dark witch-maiden to breed him woe and
shame; and the Colchi went northward into the Adriatic, and

settled, and built towns along the shore.
Then the heroes rowed away to the eastward, to reach Hellas,

their beloved land; but a storm came down upon them, and
swept them far away toward the south. And they rowed till

they were spent with struggling, through the darkness and the
blinding rain; but where they were they could not tell, and

they gave up all hope of life. And at last touched the
ground, and when daylight came waded to the shore; and saw

nothing round but sand and desolate salt pools, for they had
come to the quicksands of the Syrtis, and the dreary treeless

flats which lie between Numidia and Cyrene, on the burning
shore of Africa. And there they wandered starving for many a

weary day, ere they could launch their ship again, and gain
the open sea. And there Canthus was killed, while he was

trying to drive off sheep, by a stone which a herdsman threw.
And there too Mopsus died, the seer who knew the voices of

all birds; but he could not foretell his own end, for he was
bitten in the foot by a snake, one of those which sprang from

the Gorgon's head when Perseus carried it across the sands.
At last they rowed away toward the northward, for many a

weary day, till their water was spent, and their food eaten;
and they were worn out with hunger and thirst. But at last

they saw a long steep island, and a blue peak high among the
clouds; and they knew it for the peak of Ida, and the famous

land of Crete. And they said, 'We will land in Crete, and
see Minos the just king, and all his glory and his wealth; at

least he will treat us hospitably, and let us fill our water-
casks upon the shore.'

But when they came nearer to the island they saw a wondrous
sight upon the cliffs. For on a cape to the westward stood a

giant, taller than any mountain pine, who glittered aloft
against the sky like a tower of burnished brass. He turned

and looked on all sides round him, till he saw the ARGO and
her crew; and when he saw them he came toward them, more

swiftly than the swiftest horse, leaping across the glens at
a bound, and striding at one step from down to down. And

when he came abreast of them he brandished his arms up and
down, as a ship hoists and lowers her yards, and shouted with

his brazenthroat like a trumpet from off the hills, 'You are
pirates, you are robbers! If you dare land here, you die.'

Then the heroes cried, 'We are no pirates. We are all good
men and true, and all we ask is food and water;' but the

giant cried the more -
'You are robbers, you are pirates all; I know you; and if you

land, you shall die the death.'
Then he waved his arms again as a signal, and they saw the

people flying inland, driving their flocks before them, while
a great flame arose among the hills. Then the giant ran up a

valley and vanished, and the heroes lay on their oars in
fear.

But Medeia stood watching all from under her steep black
brows, with a cunning smile upon her lips, and a cunning plot

within her heart. At last she spoke, 'I know this giant. I
heard of him in the East. Hephaistos the Fire King made him

in his forge in AEtna beneath the earth, and called him
Talus, and gave him to Minos for a servant, to guard the

coast of Crete. Thrice a day he walks round the island, and
never stops to sleep; and if strangers land he leaps into his

furnace, which flames there among the hills; and when he is
red-hot he rushes on them, and burns them in his brazen

hands.'
Then all the heroes cried, 'What shall we do, wise Medeia?

We must have water, or we die of thirst. Flesh and blood we
can face fairly; but who can face this red-hot brass?'

'I can face red-hot brass, if the tale I hear be true. For
they say that he has but one vein in all his body, filled

with liquid fire; and that this vein is closed with a nail:
but I know not where that nail is placed. But if I can get

it once into these hands, you shall water your ship here in
peace.'

Then she bade them put her on shore, and row off again, and
wait what would befall.

And the heroes obeyed her unwillingly, for they were ashamed
to leave her so alone; but Jason said, 'She is dearer to me

than to any of you, yet I will trust her freely on shore; she
has more plots than we can dream of in the windings of that

fair and cunning head.'
So they left the witch-maiden on the shore; and she stood

there in her beauty all alone, till the giant strode back
red-hot from head to heel, while the grass hissed and smoked

beneath his tread.
And when he saw the maiden alone, he stopped; and she looked

boldly up into his face without moving, and began her magic
song:-

'Life is short, though life is sweet; and even men of brass
and fire must die. The brass must rust, the fire must cool,

for time gnaws all things in their turn. Life is short,
though life is sweet: but sweeter to live for ever; sweeter

to live ever youthful like the Gods, who have ichor in their
veins - ichor which gives life, and youth, and joy, and a

bounding heart.'
Then Talus said, 'Who are you, strange maiden, and where is

this ichor of youth?'
Then Medeia held up a flask of crystal, and said, 'Here is

the ichor of youth. I am Medeia the enchantress; my sister
Circe gave me this, and said, "Go and reward Talus, the

faithful servant, for his fame is gone out into all lands."
So come, and I will pour this into your veins, that you may

live for ever young.'
And he listened to her false words, that simple Talus, and

came near; and Medeia said, 'Dip yourself in the sea first,
and cool yourself, lest you burn my tender hands; then show

me where the nail in your vein is, that I may pour the ichor
in.'

Then that simple Talus dipped himself in the sea, till it
hissed, and roared, and smoked; and came and knelt before

Medeia, and showed her the secret nail.
And she drew the nail out gently, but she poured no ichor in;

and instead the liquid fire spouted forth, like a stream of
red-hot iron. And Talus tried to leap up, crying, 'You have

betrayed me, false witch-maiden!' But she lifted up her
hands before him, and sang, till he sank beneath her spell.

And as he sank, his brazen limbs clanked heavily, and the
earth groaned beneath his weight; and the liquid fire ran

from his heel, like a stream of lava, to the sea; and Medeia
laughed, and called to the heroes, 'Come ashore, and water

your ship in peace.'
So they came, and found the giant lying dead; and they fell

down, and kissed Medeia's feet; and watered their ship, and
took sheep and oxen, and so left that inhospitable shore.

At last, after many more adventures, they came to the Cape of
Malea, at the south-west point of the Peloponnese. And there

they offered sacrifices, and Orpheus purged them from their
guilt. Then they rode away again to the northward, past the

Laconian shore, and came all worn and tired by Sunium, and up
the long Euboean Strait, until they saw once more Pelion, and

Aphetai, and Iolcos by the sea.
And they ran the ship ashore; but they had no strength left

to haul her up the beach; and they crawled out on the
pebbles, and sat down, and wept till they could weep no more.

For the houses and the trees were all altered; and all the
faces which they saw were strange; and their joy was

swallowed up in sorrow, while they thought of their youth,
and all their labour, and the gallant comrades they had lost.

And the people crowded round, and asked them 'Who are you,
that you sit weeping here?'

'We are the sons of your princes, who sailed out many a year
ago. We went to fetch the golden fleece, and we have brought

it, and grief therewith. Give us news of our fathers and our
mothers, if any of them be left alive on earth.'

Then there was shouting, and laughing, and weeping; and all
the kings came to the shore, and they led away the heroes to

their homes, and bewailed the valiant dead.
Then Jason went up with Medeia to the palace of his uncle

Pelias. And when he came in Pelias sat by the hearth,
crippled and blind with age; while opposite him sat AEson,

Jason's father, crippled and blind likewise; and the two old
men's heads shook together as they tried to warm themselves

before the fire.
And Jason fell down at his father's knees, and wept, and

called him by his name. And the old man stretched his hands
out, and felt him, and said, 'Do not mock me, young hero. My

son Jason is dead long ago at sea.'
'I am your own son Jason, whom you trusted to the Centaur