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The Heroes-Part7_Charles Kingsley(1819-1875)_Academic Readings-第2页

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Then all the heroes cried together, 'I will go!' 'and I!'

'and I!' And Idas the rash grew mad with envy; for he longed



to be foremost in all things. But Medeia calmed them, and

said, 'Orpheus shall go with Jason, and bring his magic harp;



for I hear of him that he is the king of all minstrels, and

can charm all things on earth.'



And Orpheus laughed for joy, and clapped his hands, because

the choice had fallen on him; for in those days poets and



singers were as bold warriors as the best.

So at midnight they went up the bank, and found Medeia; and



beside came Absyrtus her young brother, leading a yearling

lamb.



Then Medeia brought them to a thicket beside the War-god's

gate; and there she bade Jason dig a ditch, and kill the



lamb, and leave it there, and strew on it magic herbs and

honey from the honeycomb.



Then sprang up through the earth, with the red fire flashing

before her, Brimo the wild witch-huntress, while her mad



hounds howled around. She had one head like a horse's, and

another like a ravening hound's, and another like a hissing



snake's, and a sword in either hand. And she leapt into the

ditch with her hounds, and they ate and drank their fill,



while Jason and Orpheus trembled, and Medeia hid her eyes.

And at last the witch-queen vanished, and fled with her



hounds into the woods; and the bars of the gates fell down,

and the brazen doors flew wide, and Medeia and the heroes ran



forward and hurried through the poison wood, among the dark

stems of the mighty beeches, guided by the gleam of the



golden fleece, until they saw it hanging on one vast tree in

the midst. And Jason would have sprung to seize it; but



Medeia held him back, and pointed, shuddering, to the tree-

foot, where the mightyserpent lay, coiled in and out among



the roots, with a body like a mountain pine. His coils

stretched many a fathom, spangled with bronze and gold; and



half of him they could see, but no more, for the rest lay in

the darkness far beyond.



And when he saw them coming he lifted up his head, and

watched them with his small bright eyes, and flashed his



forked tongue, and roared like the fire among the woodlands,

till the forest tossed and groaned. For his cries shook the



trees from leaf to root, and swept over the long reaches of

the river, and over Aietes' hall, and woke the sleepers in



the city, till mothers clasped their children in their fear.

But Medeia called gently to him, and he stretched out his



long spotted neck, and licked her hand, and looked up in her

face, as if to ask for food. Then she made a sign to



Orpheus, and he began his magic song.

And as he sung, the forest grew calm again, and the leaves on



every tree hung still; and the serpent's head sank down, and

his brazen coils grew limp, and his glittering eyes closed



lazily, till he breathed as gently as a child, while Orpheus

called to pleasant Slumber, who gives peace to men, and



beasts, and waves.

Then Jason leapt forward warily, and stept across that mighty



snake, and tore the fleece from off the tree-trunk; and the

four rushed down the garden, to the bank where the ARGO lay.



There was a silence for a moment, while Jason held the golden

fleece on high. Then he cried, 'Go now, good ARGO, swift and



steady, if ever you would see Pelion more.'

And she went, as the heroes drove her, grim and silent all,



with muffled oars, till the pine-wood bent like willow in

their hands, and stout ARGO groaned beneath their strokes.



On and on, beneath the dewy darkness, they fled swiftly down

the swirling stream; underneath black walls, and temples, and



the castles of the princes of the East; past sluice-mouths,

and fragrant gardens, and groves of all strange fruits; past



marshes where fat kine lay sleeping, and long beds of

whispering reeds; till they heard the merry music of the



surge upon the bar, as it tumbled in the moonlight all alone.

Into the surge they rushed, and ARGO leapt the breakers like



a horse; for she knew the time was come to show her mettle,

and win honour for the heroes and herself.



Into the surge they rushed, and ARGO leapt the breakers like

a horse, till the heroes stopped all panting, each man upon



his oar, as she slid into the still broad sea.

Then Orpheus took his harp and sang a paean, till the heroes'



hearts rose high again; and they rowed on stoutly and

steadfastly, away into the darkness of the West.



PART V - HOW THE ARGONAUTS WERE DRIVEN INTO THE UNKNOWN SEA

SO they fled away in haste to the westward; but Aietes manned



his fleet and followed them. And Lynceus the quick-eyed saw

him coming, while he was still many a mile away, and cried,



'I see a hundred ships, like a flock of white swans, far in

the east.' And at that they rowed hard, like heroes; but the



ships came nearer every hour.

Then Medeia, the dark witch-maiden, laid a cruel and a



cunning plot; for she killed Absyrtus her young brother, and

cast him into the sea, and said, 'Ere my father can take up



his corpse and bury it, he must wait long, and be left far

behind.'



And all the heroes shuddered, and looked one at the other for

shame; yet they did not punish that dark witch-woman, because



she had won for them the golden fleece.

And when Aietes came to the place he saw the floating corpse;



and he stopped a long while, and bewailed his son, and took

him up, and went home. But he sent on his sailors toward the



westward, and bound them by a mighty curse - 'Bring back to

me that dark witch-woman, that she may die a dreadful death.



But if you return without her, you shall die by the same

death yourselves.'



So the Argonauts escaped for that time: but Father Zeus saw

that foul crime; and out of the heavens he sent a storm, and



swept the ship far from her course. Day after day the storm

drove her, amid foam and blinding mist, till they knew no



longer where they were, for the sun was blotted from the

skies. And at last the ship struck on a shoal, amid low



isles of mud and sand, and the waves rolled over her and

through her, and the heroes lost all hope of life.



Then Jason cried to Hera, 'Fair queen, who hast befriended us

till now, why hast thou left us in our misery, to die here



among unknown seas? It is hard to lose the honour which we

have won with such toil and danger, and hard never to see



Hellas again, and the pleasant bay of Pagasai.'

Then out and spoke the magic bough which stood upon the



ARGO'S beak, 'Because Father Zeus is angry, all this has

fallen on you; for a cruel crime has been done on board, and



the sacred ship is foul with blood.'

At that some of the heroes cried, 'Medeia is the murderess.



Let the witch-woman bear her sin, and die!' And they seized

Medeia, to hurl her into the sea, and atone for the young



boy's death; but the magic bough spoke again, 'Let her live

till her crimes are full. Vengeance waits for her, slow and



sure; but she must live, for you need her still. She must

show you the way to her sister Circe, who lives among the



islands of the West. To her you must sail, a weary way, and

she shall cleanse you from your guilt.'



Then all the heroes wept aloud when they heard the sentence

of the oak; for they knew that a dark journey lay before



them, and years of bitter toil. And some upbraided the dark

witch-woman, and some said, 'Nay, we are her debtors still;



without her we should never have won the fleece.' But most

of them bit their lips in silence, for they feared the



witch's spells.

And now the sea grew calmer, and the sun shone out once more,



and the heroes thrust the ship off the sand-bank, and rowed

forward on their weary course under the guiding of the dark



witch-maiden, into the wastes of the unknown sea.

Whither they went I cannot tell, nor how they came to Circe's



isle. Some say that they went to the westward, and up the

Ister (2) stream, and so came into the Adriatic, dragging



their ship over the snowy Alps. And others say that they

went southward, into the Red Indian Sea, and past the sunny



lands where spices grow, round AEthiopia toward the West; and

that at last they came to Libya, and dragged their ship



across the burning sands, and over the hills into the Syrtes,

where the flats and quicksands spread for many a mile,



between rich Cyrene and the Lotus-eaters' shore. But all

these are but dreams and fables, and dim hints of unknown



lands.

But all say that they came to a place where they had to drag



their ship across the land nine days with ropes and rollers,

till they came into an unknown sea. And the best of all the



old songs tells us how they went away toward the North, till

they came to the slope of Caucasus, where it sinks into the



sea; and to the narrow Cimmerian Bosphorus, (3) where the

Titan swam across upon the bull; and thence into the lazy



waters of the still Maeotid lake. (4) And thence they went

northward ever, up the Tanais, which we call Don, past the



Geloni and Sauromatai, and many a wandering shepherd-tribe,

and the one-eyed Arimaspi, of whom old Greek poets tell, who



steal the gold from the Griffins, in the cold Riphaian hills.

(5)



And they passed the Scythian archers, and the Tauri who eat

men, and the wandering Hyperboreai, who feed their flocks



beneath the pole-star, until they came into the northern

ocean, the dull dead Cronian Sea. (6) And there ARGO would



move on no longer; and each man clasped his elbow, and leaned

his head upon his hand, heart-broken with toil and hunger,






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