and others wood nymphs from the tablelands.
Hera herself, the wedded wife of Zeus,
had summoned them to pay respects to Jason,
1475and to this day the grotto where the nymphs
laid out the sweetly fragrant sheets and married
Jason and Medea bears the name
Medea’s Cave.
Meanwhile the heroes took
their spears in hand in case some gang of foemen
1480dashed upon them unforeseen. They also
garlanded their heads with leafy sprigs
and to the thrum of Orpheus’ lyre
melodiously sang the wedding hymn
outside the entrance to the bridal chamber.
1485 (1161)Alcinoös’ realm was not the place
where Jason son of Aeson had desired
to consummate the marriage, no, he rather
had hoped to do it in his father’s palace
once he returned. The girl had hoped so, too.
1490Necessity, however, had compelled them
to make love then and there.
The truth is, we
the members of the woe-struck tribes of mortals
never tread the pathways to delight
with confidence. Some bitter anguish always
1495shambles along beside our happiness.
Thus, after Jason and Medea’s souls
dissolved in sweet lovemaking, terror gripped them:
Would King Alcinoös, in fact, deliver
the verdict Queen Arete had described?
1500 (1170)Dawn had returned, and her ambrosial beams
scattered the dusky darkness from the sky.
The island beaches laughed, the dew-drenched pathways
laughed as they ran in from the distant plains,
and there was movement in the streets, the townsfolk
1505were stirring, and the Colchians were stirring
out on the farthest spit of Macris Island.
Alcinoös, in keeping with his promise,
went out to them at once to speak his mind
about Medea. In his hand he held
1510a golden staff, the staff of law, with which
he rendered rightful judgments to the people
throughout the city. Phaeacian nobles
marched behind him in their battle armor,
and women swarmed out of the city gate
1515 (1183)to see the heroes. Country folk as well
came in to hear Alcinoös because
Hera had made sure news was sent abroad.
One of them picked the best ram in his flock
and drove him there; another led a heifer
1520that had not yet been broken to the yoke;
still others set up mixing bowls for wine,
and the aroma wafted far and wide.
Women presented garments they had woven,
as women will, along with gifts of gold
1525and every sort of splendor customary
for newlyweds. They stood awhile admiring
the builds and faces of the famous heroes
and there among them Orpheus, tapping out
a merry tempo with a purple sandal
1530 (1195)while strumming something gorgeous on his lyre.
And when the heroes sang the wedding hymn
the Naiads sang as well, sometimes in answer,
sometimes a wholly separate part, while dancing
a cyclic dance, and in your honor, Hera,
1535because you were the one who put the thought
into Arete’s mind to warn the couple
about Alcinoös’ wise decision.
Once he had given his momentous verdict,
Alcinoös upheld it to the letter.
1540By then the consummation of the marriage
was widely known, but neither King Aeëtes’
grudging anger nor the fear of battle
swayed his mind, since he had bound both parties
by steadfast oaths to reverence his ruling.
1545 (1206)So, when the Colchians perceived appeals
were useless, and Alcinoös insisted
they either heed his word or keep their ships
far from his harbors, they were all so frightened
of King Aeëtes’ threats that they entreated
1550Alcinoös to welcome them as allies.
They lived awhile among the Phaeacians
until some tribesmen from Ephyra called
among them. So the Colchian soldiers picked up
1555and settled on the island opposite.
From there they moved, at destiny’s behest,
to the Ceraunian hills of the Abantes
and then to Oricum and the Nesteians,
but all this happened many ages later.
1560 (1217)The shrines Medea founded in the precinct
of Nomian Apollo still receive
annual sacrifices to the Moirae
and nymphs. Alcinoös bestowed rich gifts
upon the Minyans at their departure,
1565and Queen Arete did the same. What’s more,
she gave the girl twelve Phaeacian handmaids
out of the palace store to wait upon her.
They left Drepana on the seventh day.
A stiff, favorable wind arose from Zeus
1570that morning, and the ship was speeding onward
before the gale. Still, it was not their fate
to rest their feet upon Achaean land,
no, not until they suffered further, farther
away in distant Libya. Soon the heroes
1575 (1228)had left astern the Ambracian Gulf,
soon they had skirted, with their sails spread wide,
the Curetes’ dominion and a string
of islands, the Echinades among them.
But, at the very moment when the land
1580of Pelops had arisen into view,
a dismal gust of wind out of the north
seized them midcourse and carried them away
across the Libyan Sea for nine whole nights
and nine whole days until they coasted deep
1585into the Syrtes. Any ship that hits them
never can sail back out to sea again.
Shallows are everywhere, and everywhere
tangles of bracken washed out of the depths.
The sea scurf passes over them in silence.
1590 (1240)The sand extends to the horizon. Nothing
that walks or flies is ever stirring there.
Over and over flood tides leave the mainland
and then come rushing back to drag salt water
across the sand. One of these tides abruptly
1595dropped the Argo so far up the beach
that little of the keel was still in water.
So all the heroes jumped out of the ship,
and sorrow struck them when they saw the sky
and the expanse of endless land extending,
1600just like the sky, into the endless distance.
No path, no herdsman’s shelter, no oasis
appeared. A dead calm haunted everything.
They said to one another in despair:
“Where have the storm winds landed us? Where are we?
1605 (1251)If only we had laughed at deadly fear
and risked retreating back out through the Rocks
the way we came. It surely had been better
if we had gone against the will of Zeus
and died attempting somethin
g glorious.
1610Now if the winds compel us to remain here
even a short time, what are we to do?
The coast of this vast land is too, too barren.”
So each of them exclaimed. Ancaeus even,
their helmsman, helpless to relieve their troubles,
1615addressed them bleakly as they sat there grieving:
“I’m sorry—we must die a shameful death.
There’s no escaping this catastrophe.
Even if gale winds blow in from the land,
we’ve foundered on a desert. All the worst
1620 (1264)a mortal can endure is now before us.
However far I stare into the distance,
I see more ocean shallows, brackish water
ceaselessly washing over dull gray sand.
This holy vessel would have roughly foundered
1625far from the beach, except the surf itself
swept it at high tide inland from the bay.
Now that the tide has drained back out again,
only a surf too thin for sailing laps
about us, lightly covering the sand.
1630That’s why I say all hope of sailing home
is severed from us. Let some other man
display his skill. He’s welcome to sit down
and take the tiller if he wants to save us,
but Zeus, it seems, has no desire whatever
1635 (1276)to land us at our port of embarkation
in Hellas, even after all our efforts.”
So Ancaeus spoke and broke down weeping.
The men with nautical experience
agreed with his despair. All hearts were ice,
1640all cheeks surrendering to sallowness.
Just as when people wander through a city
like breathless ghosts, awaiting their destruction
by war or plague or some relentless flood
that will erase the oxen’s work afield,
1645and all because odd omens have been witnessed—
statues spontaneously sweating blood,
roars sounding, mouthless, from the holy groves—
and high noon only means more night in heaven,
and stars do not stop shining all day long,
1650 (1288)so did the heroes wander without purpose
along the endless shore.
A somber dusk
too soon came over them and, sadly, then,
they wrapped their arms around each other, wept,
and said good-bye, so that they each could then
1655go off alone, fall in the sand, and die.
They staggered off, each farther than the last,
to pick their final resting places. Heads
shrouded by their cloaks, they lay unnourished,
weakening, all night long, all day, awaiting
1660the most horrendous death imaginable.
The handmaids shuffled to a place apart
and clustered, wailing, round Aeëtes’ daughter.
As unfledged nestlings chirrup desperately
when they have tumbled from a cliff-side nest,
1665 (1301)or swans release their dying proclamations
from banks along the gorgeous Pactolus,
and dew-drenched glades are echoing around them,
and, echoing, the river’s handsome current,
so did the maidens loose their long blond hair,
1670drape it along the dust, and wail all night
a pitiful lament.
And now these men,
these heroes, would have left their lives behind
and no names, no renown for later men
to study, and their mission would have failed.
1675But, as they withered there in helplessness,
the local nymphs, the guardians of Libya,
took pity on them. Once upon a time,
these goddesses had come to tend Athena
after she leapt out of her father’s head
1680 (1311)sublimely armed. These were the goddesses
who bathed her in the tide of Triton Lake.
The hour was noon. The sun’s most cruel rays
were scorching Libya. These powers gathered
around the son of Aeson, and their fingers
1685gently tugged the mantle from his head.
He dropped his gaze out of respect for them,
but they were bright before him and addressed him,
terrified as he was, with soothing words:
“Unlucky fellow, why has feebleness
1690afflicted you? We know about your journey,
how you were questing for the golden fleece.
We know your labors, too, the mighty deeds
you have performed while wandering across
the land and sea. We are the Lonely Ones,
1695 (1323)daughters and guardians of Libya,
fluent in human utterance. Stand up now.
Stop grumbling and carrying on like this.
Go rouse your men. As soon as Amphitrite
unyokes Poseidon’s smooth-wheeled chariot,
1700you and your comrades must repay your mother
for all the pain she suffered bearing you
so long inside her womb, and you may yet
come to the holy country of Achaea.”
So they spoke and vanished in a flash
1705from where they had been standing, and their voices
faded away. But Jason started upright,
looked everywhere around him, and implored:
“Be kind, you noble powers of the dunes,
though I confess the meaning of your words
1710 (1334)about our journey home eluded me.
Still, I shall rouse my friends and tell them all
you told me in the hope that we can find
some sign to guide us out of this morass.
In counsel many men outdistance one.”
1715So he implored and leapt up, cloaked in dust
from head to foot. He shouted to his comrades
far into the distance, as a lion
wandering through a forest roars to summon
his mate, and even distant mountain valleys
1720tremble at the sound, and all the herdsmen
and oxen shake with fear. (But Jason’s cry
was not at all upsetting to his men
because it was the bellow of a friend
calling to friends.) The heroes gathered round him,
1725 (1345)their heads all hanging. Still, despite their sorrow,
he got the crew to sit beside the ship,
the women, too. He spoke among them, then,
telling them all that he had witnessed:
“Listen,
my friends: as I was lying in despair,
1730three goddesses appeared to me, like maidens,
but clad in wild goatskin from neck to waist.
They gathered round my head, pulled off my cloak
with no unfriendly tug, and bade me rise
all on my own and wake you up to pay
1735due recompense for all our mother suffered
while bearing us inside her womb so long.
This should be done whenever Amphitrite
unyokes Poseidon’s smooth-wheeled chariot.
I don’t quite grasp the holy mandate’s meaning.
1740 (1358)They said they were, in fact, divinities,
daughters and guardians of Libya.
What’s more, they claimed they had a thorough
knowledge
of what we have endured by land and se
a.
Suddenly I could see them there no longer—
1745some mist or cloud, it seemed, had hidden them
right in the middle of their apparition.”
So he explained, and they were all amazed.
Suddenly an extraordinary omen
appeared before the Minyans—a stallion,
1750gigantic, monstrous, leapt from sea to land,
the mane golden and blowing round his neck.
After he shook the sea spray from his flanks,
he galloped off, his hoofbeats like the wind,
and Peleus exulted in the vision
1755 (1369)and cried into the crowd of his companions:
“I hereby do proclaim Poseidon’s wife
has just now loosed his chariot with her hands.
What’s more, our mother is the ship herself
because, indeed, she bears us in her womb
1760and constantly endures the pains of labor.
Come, let us lift her with a hearty heave,
place her upon our unrelenting shoulders,
and lug her inland through the sand-choked waste
along the course the sprinting horse has shown us.
1765For surely he will not go plunging under
the earth. No, rather, I suspect his hoofprints
will point us toward a gulf that feeds the sea.”
So he proposed and everyone agreed
to heed his plan.
The Muses own this story.
1770 (1382)I sing at the Pierides’ command
and now shall tell precisely what they told me—
that you, by far the mightiest sons of kings,
with strength and courage heaved the Argo up
onto your shoulders, also everything
1775the ship had in it, and you lugged that burden
over the arid dunes of Libya
for twelve whole days and twelve whole nights. But who
could narrate all the pain and misery
they suffered at their task? Let no one doubt
1780they were descended from immortal gods,
so weighty was the chore they undertook
out of necessity. They felt as much joy
lugging that tonnage down the salty bank
to Triton Lake as they did reaching brine
1785 (1392)and easing Argo from their sturdy shoulders.
Then like wild dogs they all ran off
scavenging for a spring. Persistent thirst
weighed on them, many aches and sufferings.
Nor was their search in vain. They soon discovered
1790a sacred plain where only yesterday
the earthborn serpent Ladon had been guarding
pure-golden apples in the realm of Atlas
while the Hesperides, the local nymphs,