LP0032 Fables of the Argonauts

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Legendary Passages episode 0032 Fables of the Argonauts Last time we heard the story of the Argonauts, from Iolcus all the way to the Clashing Rocks of the Symplegades. Next they encounter the sons of Phrixus; their father had ridden the golden ram to Colchis, where Aeetes rules as king. There, Jason is given several impossible tasks in order to get the Golden Fleece, but Aeetes' daughter Medea helps him. The Argonauts flee and take refuge with King Alcinous, who weds Jason and Medea. They return to Iolcus, and Medea tricks King Pelias' daughters into killing him. Jason and Medea go to Corinth, where Creon wants to marry his own daughter to Jason. Understandably upset, Medea uses her witchcraft, and many people die. She goes to Athens and marries Aegeus and conceives a son named Medus, but gets exiled again, and flies home to Colchis with her dragon. Fables of the Argonauts a Legendary Passage from The FABLES of HYGINUS TRANSLATED BY MARY GRANT When the Argonauts started for Colchis, they wanted to have Hercules as leader. He declined, saying that Jason, at whose instigation they all were going, should be the leader. Jason, therefore, directed them. Argus, son of Danaus, was shipbuilder; Tiphys was pilot. After his death Ancaeus, son of Neptune, steered. Lynceus, son of Aphareus, who ahd keen sight, was the lookout man at the prow; helmsmen were Zetes and Calais, sons of Aquilo, who had wings on head and feet. At prow and oars sat Peleus and Telamon; at the centre [?] Hercules and Idas. The rest kept their positions. Orpheus, son of Oeagrus, gave the calls. Later, when Hercules left his place, Peleus, son of Aeacus, sat there. This is the ship Argo, which Minerva had put in the circle of stars because she built it. When first he ship was launched into the sea, it appeared among the stars from rudder to sail. Cicero in his Phaenomenna described its appearance and beauty in the following verses: ”Moving slowly near the tail of the Dog, the Argo glides along, bearing her stern first, with its light; not as other ships are wont to move their prows on the deep cleaving the Neptunian meadows with their beaks, but she bears herself backward through the turning[?] spaces of the sky just as when sailors approach safe harbors, they turn their ship with its great burden and drag the stern backward to the longed-for shore; so old Argo glides beyond[?] the turning heavens, and her rudder, hanging from the moving stern, touches the rear foot-tracks of the shining Dog. ”This ship ahs four stars on her stern; on the right of the rudder, five; on the left, four – all alive; in all, thirteen. XV. WOMEN OF LEMNOS On the island of Lemnos the women for several years did not make offerings to Venus, and because of her anger their husbands married Thracian wives and scorned their former ones. But the Lemnian women (all except Hypsipyle), instigated by the same Venus, conspired to kill the whole tribe of men who were there. Hypsipyle secretly put her father Thoas on board a ship which a storm carried to the island Taurica. In the meantime, the Argonauts, sailing along, came to Lemnos. When Iphinoe, guardian of the harbour, saw them, she announced their coming to Hypsipyle the queen, to whom Polyxo, by virtue of her middle age, gave advice that she should put them under obligation to the gods of hospitality and invite them to a friendly reception. Hypsipyle bore sons to Jason, Euneus and Deipylus. Delayed many days there, they were chided by Hercules, and departed. Now when the Lemnian women learned that Hypsipyle ahd saved her father, they tried to kill her. She fled, but pirates captured her, took her to Thebes, and sold her as a slave to King Lycus. The Lemnian women gave the names of the Argonauts to the children they had conceived by them. XVI. CYZICUS Cyzicus, son of Eusorus, king in an island of the Propontis, received the Argonauts with generous hospitality, but when they had left him, and had sailed a whole day, by a storm that arose in the night they were brought unaware to the same island. Cyzicus, thinking they were Pelasgican enemies attacked them on the shore at night, and was slain by Jason. On the next day, when he had come near the shore and saw that he had killed the king, he gave him burial and handed over the kingdom to his sons. XVII. AMYCUS Amycus, son of Neptune and Melie, king of Bebrycia, compelled whoever came to his kingdom to contend with him in boxing, and slew the vanquished. When he had challenged the Argonauts to a boxing match, Pollux fought with him and killed him. XVIII. LYCUS Lycus, king of an island of the Propontis, received the Argonauts hospitably, grateful because they had killed Amycus, who had often attacked[?] him. While the Argonauts were staying with Lycus, and had gone out to gather straw, Idmon, son of Apollo, was wounded by a wild boar and died. XIX. PHINEUS Phineus, a Thracian, son of Agenor, had two sons by Cleopatra. Because of their stepmother’s charges, these two were blinded by their father. Now to this Phineus, Apollo is said to have given the gift of prophecy. But he, since he revealed the deliberations of the gods, was blinded by Jove, and Jove set over him the Harpies, who are called the hounds of Jove, to take the food from his lips. When the Argonauts came there and asked him to show them the way, he said he would show them if they would free him from the punishment. Then Zetes and Calais, sons of the North Wind and Orithyia, who are said to have had wings on head and feet, drove the Harpies to the Strophades Islands, and freed Phineus from the punishment. He showed them how to pass the Symplegades by sending out a dove; when the rocks rushed together, in their rebound . . . [they would pass through if the dove went through, and they exerted all their strength in rowing. But if she perished,] they should turn back. By the help of Phienus the Argonauts passed the Symplegades. XX. STYMPHALIDES When the Argonauts had come to the island of Dia, and the birds were wounding them, using their feathers as arrows, they were not able to cope with the great numbers of birds. Following Phineus’ advice they seized shields and spears, and dispersed them by the noise, after the manner of the Curetes. XXI. SONS OF PHRIXUS When the Argonauts had entered the sea called Euxine through the Cyanean Cliffs, which are called Rocks of the Symplegades, and were wandering there, by the will of Juno they were borne to the island of Dia. There they found shipwrecked men, naked and helpless – the sons of Phrixus and Chalciope – Argus, Phrontides, Melas, and Cylindrus. These told their misfortunes to Jason, how they had suffered shipwreck and been cast there when they were hastening to go to their grandfather Athamas, and Jason welcomed and aided them. They led Jason to Colchis, bade the Argonauts conceal the ship. They themselves went to their mother Chalciope, Medea’s sister, and made known the kindness of Jason, and why the had come. Then Chalciope told about Medea, and brought her with her sons to Jason. When she saw him, she recognized him as the one whom in dreams she had loved deeply by Juno’s urging, and promised him everything. They brought him to the temple. XXII. AEETES An oracle told Aeetes, son of Sol, that he would keep his kingdom as long as the fleece which Phrixus had dedicated should remain the shrine of Mars. And so Aeetes appointed this task for Jason, if he wished to take away the golden fleece – to yoke with yoke of adamant the bronze-footed bulls which breathed flames from their nostrils, and plow, and sow from a helmet the dragon’s teeth, from which a tribe of armed men should arise and slay each other. Juno, however, whished to save Jason, because once when she had come to a river and wished to test the minds of men, she assumed an old woman’s form, and asked to be carried across. He had carried her across when others who had passed over despised her. And so since she knew that Jason could not perform the commands without help of Medea, she asked Venus to inspire Medea with love. At Venus’ instigation, Jason was loved by Medea. By her aid he as freed from all danger, for when he had plowed with the bulls, and the armed men had been born, by Medea’s advice he threw a stone among them. They then fought among themselves and slew each other. When the dragon was lulled to sleep with drugs he took the fleece from the shrine, and set off for his country with Medea. XXIII. ABSYRTUS When Aeetes knew that Medea had fled with Jason, he made ready a ship and sent Absyrtus, his son, with armed guards after her. When he had caught up with her in the Adriatic Sea in Histria at King Alcinous’ court, and would fight for her, Alcinous intervened to prevent their fighting. They took him as arbiter, and he put them off till the next day. When he seemed depressed and Arete, his wife, asked him the cause of his sadness, he said he had been made arbiter by two different states, to judge between Colchians and Argives. When Arete asked him what judgment he would give, Alcinous replied that if Medea were a virgin, he would give her to her father, but if not, to her husband. When Arete heard this from her husband, she sent word to Jason, and he lay with Medea by night in a cave. Then next day when they came to court, and Medea was found to be a wife she was given to her husband. Nevertheless, when they had left, Absyrtus, fearing his father’s commands, pursued them to the island of Minerva. When Jason was sacrificing there to Minerva, and Absyruts came upon him, he was killed by Jason. Medea gave him burial, and they departed. The Colchians who had come with Absyrtus, fearing Aeetes, remained there and founded a town which from Absyrtus’ name they called Absoros. Now this island is located in Histria, opposite Pola, joined[?] to the island [corrupt]. XXIV. JASON. DAUGHTERS OF PELIAS Since Jason has faced so many perils at the command of his uncle Pelias, he began to think how he might kill him without suspicion. This Medea proposed to do. And so, when they were now far from Colchis, she bade the ship be hidden in a secret place, and she herself in the guise of a priestess of Diana came to the daughters of Pelias. She promised to make their father Pelias a youth again instead of an old man, but this the eldest daughter Alcestis said could not be done. In order more easily to bend her to her will, Medea cast mist before them, and by means of drugs formed many strange things which seemed to be like reality, putting an old ram in a brazen vessel, from which a very fine young lamb seemed to spring. So in the same way the daughters of Pelias – namely, Alcestis, Pelopia, Medusa, Pisidice, and Hippothoe – at Medea’s instigation slew their father and cooked him in a brazen caldron. When they realized they had been deceived, they fled from the country. But Jason, at a given signal of Medea, made himself the master of the palace, and handed over the rule to Acastus, son of Pelias, brother of the Peliades, because he had gone with him to Colchis. He himself with Medea departed for Corinth. XXV. MEDEA When Medea, daughter of Aeetes and Idyia, had already borne to Jason sons – Mermerus and Pheres – and they were living in great harmony, it was cast in his teeth that a man so brave and handsome and noble should have as wife a foreigner and sorceress. To him, Creon, son of Menoecus, King of Corinth, gave his younger daughter Glauce as wife. When Medea saw that she, who had been Jason’s benefactress, was treated with scorn, with the help of poisonous drugs she made a golden crown, and she bade her sons give it as a gift to their stepmother. Creusa took the gift, and was burned to death along with Jason and Creon. When Medea saw that the palace was on fire, she slew Mermerus and Pheres, her sons by Jason, and fled from Corinth. XXVI. MEDEA IN EXILE Medea, an exile from Corinth, came to Athens to the hospitality of Aegeus, son of Pandion, and married him; to him Medus was born. Later the priestess of Diana began to censure Medea, and tell the king that she could not perform sacrifices piously because there was a woman in that state who was a sorceress and criminal. She was exiled then for the second time. Medea, however, with her yoked dragons, returned to Colchis from Athens. On the way she came to Absoros where her brother Absyrtus was buried. There the people of Absoros could not cope with a great number of snakes. At their entreaties Medea gathered them up and put them in her brother’s tomb. They still remain there, and if any goes outside the tomb, it pays the debt to nature. XXVII. MEDUS An oracle told Perses, son of Sol, Aeetes’ brother, that he should beware of death from Aeetes’ descendants. Medus, following his mother, was brought to him by a storm, and guards seized him and brought him to King Perses. When Medus, son of Aegeus and Medea, saw that he had come into the power of his enemy, he falsely asserted he was Hippotes, son of Creon. The king carefully investigated, and ordered him cast into prison. There sterility and scarcity of crops are said to have occurred. When Medea had come there in her chariot with the yoked dragons, she falsely claimed before the king to be a priestess of Diana. She said she could make atonement for the sterility, and when she heard from the king that Hippotes, son of Creon, was held in custody, thinking he had come to avenge the injury to his father . . . there, unknowingly, she betrayed her son. For she persuaded the king that he was not Hippotes, but Medus, son of Aegeus, sent by his father to dispatch the king, and begged that he be handed over to her to kill, convinced that he was Hippotes. And so when Medus was brought out to pay for his deceit by death, when she saw that things were otherwise than she had thought, she said she wished to talk with him, and gave him a sword, and bade him avenge the wrongs of his grandfather. Medus, at this news, killed Perses, and gained his grandfather’s kingdom; from his name he called the country Media.

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