Jason and the Argonauts (26 page)

out of the chariot of Helius

into the river muck, and to this day

foul vapors rising from the smoldering wound

770
bubble out of the brackish slick. No bird

can pass on flapping wings above that fen,

no, they all catch fire and drop midflight.

Hidden in lofty poplars there, sad maidens,

the Heliades, raise sorrowful laments

775
and from their eyelids gleaming drops of amber

fall to the sand. The sunlight dries them there.

Then, when a strong wind heaves the current over

its banks, the flood tide rolls them, hardened balls

of amber, into the Eridanus.

780 (611)
The Celts, who give a variant of the story,

claim that the tears the rapids sweep along

are really those that Leto's son Apollo

shed many years before, when Zeus was angry

over the boy that beautiful Coronis

785
bore to Apollo, next to the Amyrus,

on gleaming Lacereia. Riled in turn,

Apollo spurned the sky and stayed awhile

among the holy Hyperborean tribes.

Such is the story told among the Celts.

790
The heroes felt no thirst or hunger there,

nor did their minds think happy thoughts. No, rather,

all day burdened with the noxious stench,

they tired and sickened. The Eridanus

and all its streams were boiling off the vapors

795 (623)
of Phaëthon's still smoldering corpse—

unbearable. All night the heroes heard

the Heliades lamenting his demise,

weeping and weeping, and their tears went drifting

downstream like little drops of oil.

From there

800
they crossed into the deeply flowing Rhône.

Here, where it marries the Eridanus,

enemy roars contend. The Rhône, you see,

starts at the farthest outskirts of the earth

where Night's portcullis and embankments stand.

805
Part of it flows into the River Ocean,

part empties into the Ionian Sea,

and part goes rushing out through seven mouths

into a large bay off Sardinia.

While on the Rhône, they crossed into a chain

810 (635)
of stormy lakes that pock the vast, unmeasured

plains of the Celts. They almost met with shameful

destruction there because a tributary

was trending off into the Gulf of Ocean,

and they, in ignorance, resolved to take it.

815
They never would have gotten out alive.

But Hera leapt from heaven just in time

and shrieked
turn back!
from a Hercynian peak,

and all the heroes trembled at the cry,

so ominously did the vast sky echo.

820
So, with divine assistance, they reversed

their course and found a route to take them home.

A good long slog, and they had reached at last

a beach and ocean breakers, after passing,

unchallenged, through a thousand tribes of Celts

825 (647)
and Ligyans, and all because of Hera—

she poured impenetrable mist around them

all the days they traveled on the river.

They coasted out the fourth mouth of the seven

and beached safely amid the Stoechades,

830
thanks to the sons of Zeus—this is the reason

altars and rites were founded here to honor

the two of them forever. They were not

to serve as saviors only on that voyage,

but Zeus bestowed on them the privilege

835
of saving future sailors' vessels, too.

Once past the Stoechades, the heroes reached

the island of Aethalia and there,

exhausted, scrubbed away their scum of sweat

with pebbles, and the pebbles on that beach

840 (657)
are fleshy colored to this very day.

Their discuses of stone and marvelous tackle

are still there also, and the site is named

The
Argo
's Anchorage because of them.

From there they sailed swiftly through the heaving

845
Ausonian Sea with the Tyrrhenian coast

in view beside them. After they arrived

at the illustrious harbor of Aeaea,

they tied the lines up at the nearest shore.

And there was Circe in the sea spray washing

850
her hair
because a dream had troubled her.

During the night it seemed that all the walls

and chambers of her house were dripping blood,

and flames were eating up the cache of drugs

with which she had, up to that time, bewitched

855 (668)
whoever came to visit. She herself

had quenched the flames with sacrificial blood

and so recovered from her horrid fright.

And that was why she rose at dawn and went

to wash her hair and clothing in the surf.

860
And there were beasts around her that resembled

neither carnivorous animals nor humans

in any normal way but
some mélange

of limbs from each. These creatures followed Circe,

as flocks of sheep in countless numbers follow

their shepherd from the fold.

865
Long, long ago,

before dry weather had solidified

the soil, before, as well, it had received

moisture enough beneath the arid sun,

Earth made this sort of thing all on her own,

870 (680)
a kind with mixed-up limbs, out of the slime.

And Time, then, sorted out and reassembled

the animals at long last into species.

Crossed like those ancient creatures, the amorphous

monsters of Circe followed in her train.

875
Boundless amazement overcame the heroes,

and when they gazed on Circe's skin and eyes,

they knew at once she was Aeëtes' sister.

When she had cleansed the terror of her nightmares,

she turned homeward and bade the heroes follow

880
by slyly stroking them as she went by.

The crew, however, at a nod from Jason,

remained behind,
and he alone escorted

the Colchian maiden, and the two of them

followed the path until they reached the palace.

885 (692)
Though Circe was disturbed by their arrival,

she bade them rest at ease on polished chairs.

They sprinted to the hearth, though, without speaking

and sat there, in accordance with the customs

that rule the rueful rites of supplication.

890
Medea hid her beauty in her hands,

and Jason plunged straight down into the floor

the sword with which he killed Aeëtes' son,

and they did not lift up their eyes and look

upon the goddess. Thus she knew, straight off,

895
their lot was exile and their crime kin-murder.

So, in accordance with the rites of Zeus

the God of Suppliants who, on the one hand,

mightily despises murderers

and, on the other, mightily defends them,

900 (702)
she made the sacrifice required to cleanse

the suppliants sitting, tainted, at her hearth:

First,
to expunge the deed's contamination,

Circe picked out and held above their heads

the offspring of a swollen-uddered sow.

905
Then, opening the piglet's throat, she lathered

Jason's and Medea's hands with blood.

A second time with different libations

she made an offering to Zeus Purgation,

the last defense of suppliant homicides.

910
The Naiad slaves who served her every need

then whisked the toxic stuff out of the palace.

Circe herself beside the hearth fire offered

wineless libations and devotional cakes

as gifts to soothe the dogged Furies' rage

915 (715)
and soften Zeus to leniency, regardless

of whether they implored his grace with hands

tainted by foreign or familial blood.

When she had finished with the expurgation,

she told them they could rise, then seated them

920
on polished chairs and took a seat before them.

She was the first to speak, inquiring all

about their quest, its purpose and the place

from which they came to seek her land and palace,

and why they had collapsed beside her hearth.

925
The troubling specifics of her nightmare

recurred to her as she assessed the couple.

What's more, she had been eager to discover

their language ever since the maiden first

lifted her gaze up from the ground. You see,

930 (727)
all of the sun god Helius' descendants

are easy to identify because

their radiant eyes emit a light like gold.

All earnestness, Aeëtes' daughter answered

each of her questions
in the Colchian tongue.

935
She told her of the heroes' quest and travels,

how they had toiled in the awful contest,

how she had erred by heeding her distracted

sister, and how, among the sons of Phrixus,

she had escaped her father's dreadful threats.

940
She left the murder of Absyrtus out

but Circe, all the same, surmised the crime,

pitied her sobbing niece and said:

“Poor wretch!

Look what a scandalous, obscene elopement

you have devised. No, I do not expect

945 (740)
you will escape Aeëtes' brutal rage

for long. He shortly will be hunting even

the citizens of Hellas to avenge

his son's assassination. It was you

who perpetrated those appalling crimes.

950
Still, since you are my niece and at my knees,

I shall refrain, now that you're here, from making

further trouble for you. Go on, now.

Please leave my home and take this stranger with you—

whoever he might be that you have taken,

955
against your father's wishes, as your own.

Don't bother sitting at my hearth again

and supplicating me for help, because

your reckless schemes and impudent elopement

are things of which I never shall approve.”

960 (749)
So Circe scolded, and insufferable

agony gripped the girl. She pulled a robe

over her eyes and poured forth liquid grief

until the hero took her by the hand

and led her, quivering, across the threshold.

965
And so they made their way from Circe's palace.

Cronian Zeus' wife had not been left

unbriefed of their departure.
Iris saw them

leave the palace and informed her mistress,

Hera, who had commanded her to note

970
when they departed for the ship, and Hera

gave Iris fresh instructions:

“Iris darling,

if ever in the past you have performed

my bidding, set out on your rapid wings

and summon Thetis up out of the sea

975 (759)
to join me here. I have a need of her.

Next, travel to the shores where heavy hammers

pound the big bronze anvils of Hephaestus.

Tell him to pacify his fiery forges

until the heroes' ship has passed them. Next,

980
find
Aeolus, who regulates the gales,

those naughty children of the upper air,

and give him my instructions: he must temper

all the winds of heaven so that not

the slightest breeze disturbs the sea, except

985
a kind west wind, until the heroes reach

Alcinoös' Phaeacian kingdom.”

So she commanded. Iris flew at once

down from Olympus on extended wings,

tapered and glided into the Aegean

990 (772)
just over Nereus' deep-sea palace.

To execute the first of her three tasks

she swam in search of Thetis and delivered

the message, just as Hera had instructed,

to call the sea nymph up to talk with her.

995
Next, Iris paid a visit to Hephaestus

and told him to desist forthwith from swinging

his iron hammer. Then at last she reached

Aeolus, famous son of Hippotas.

While she was giving him the news and resting

1000
her swift knees from her travels, Thetis left

Nereus and her sisters, swam, then flew

up to Olympus and the goddess Hera,

and Hera offered her a seat and said:

“Hear, goddess Thetis, what I want to tell you.

1005 (784)
You know how highly Jason and his comrades

rate in my love. You know I pushed them safely

through the Clashing Rocks, when forks of fire

were violently thundering above them

and waves were boiling round the jagged headlands.

1010
Now their journey leads them past imposing

Cape
Scylla and Charybdis' eruptions.

But listen. Ever since you were an infant,

I myself have nursed and cherished you

more than the other ocean goddesses

1015
because you never dared to go to bed

with Zeus, though he was sorely yearning for it—

yes, he has always had his love affairs

with mortals and immortals, too. But you

were fearful in your thoughts because you so . . .

esteemed me.

1020 (798)
Though he swore a mighty oath:

Never would you be called the wife of god,