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VIII. KING
PHINEUS’S COUNSEL; THE LANDING IN LEMNOS
Then a
great golden cup brimming with wine was brought to the king. He stood holding
it in his trembling hands, fearful even then that the Harpies would tear the
cup out of his hands. He drank — long and deeply he drank — and the dread
shapes of the Snatchers did not appear. Down amongst the heroes he came and he
took into his the hands of Zetes and Calais, the sons of the North Wind. “O heroes
greater than any kings,” he said, “ye have delivered me from the terrible curse
that the gods had sent upon me. I thank ye, and I thank ye all, heroes of the
quest. And the thanks of Phineus will much avail you all.” Clasping
the hands of Zetes and Calais he led the heroes through hall after hall of his
palace and down into his treasure chamber. There he bestowed upon the banishers
of the Harpies crowns and arm rings of gold and richly colored garments and
brazen chests in which to store the treasure that he gave. And to Jason he gave
an ivory-hilted and gold-encased sword, and on each of the voyagers he bestowed
a rich gift, not forgetting the heroes who had remained on the Argo, Heracles
and Tiphys. They went
back to the great hall, and a feast was spread for the king and for the
Argonauts. They ate from rich dishes and they drank from flowing wine cups.
Phineus ate and drank as the heroes did, and no dread shapes came before him to
snatch from him nor to buffet him. But as Jason looked upon the man who had
striven to equal the gods in wisdom, and noted his blinded eyes and shrunken
face, he resolved never to harbor in his heart such presumption as Phineus had
harbored. When the
feast was finished the king spoke to Jason, telling him how the Argo might be
guided through the Symplegades, the dread passage into the Sea of Pontus. He
told them to bring their ship near to the Clashing Rocks. And one who had the
keenest sight amongst them was to stand at the prow of the ship holding a
pigeon in his hands. As the rocks came together he was to loose the pigeon. If
it found a space to fly through they would know that the Argo could make the
passage, and they were to steer straight toward where the pigeon had flown. But
if it fluttered down to the sea, or flew back to them, or became lost in the
clouds of spray, they were to know that the Argo might not make that passage.
Then the heroes would have to take their ship overland to where they might
reach the Sea of Pontus. That day
they bade farewell to Phineus, and with the treasures he had bestowed upon them
they went down to the Argo. To Heracles and Tiphys they gave the presents that
the king had sent them. In the morning they drew the Argo out of the harbor of
Salmydessus, and set sail again. But not
until long afterward did they come to the Symplegades, the passage that was to
be their great trial. For they landed first in a country that was full of
woods, where they were welcomed by a king who had heard of the voyagers and of
their quest. There they stayed and hunted for many days in the woods. And there
a great loss befell the Argonauts, for Tiphys, as he went through the woods,
was bitten by a snake and died. He who had braved so many seas and so many
storms lost his life away from the ship. The Argonauts made a tomb for him on
the shore of that land — a great pile of stones, in which they fixed upright
his steering oar. Then they set sail again, and Nauplius was made the steersman
of the ship. The course
was not so clear to Nauplius as it had been to Tiphys. The steersman did not
find his bearings, and for many days and nights the Argo was driven on a
backward course. They came to an island that they knew to be that Island of
Lemnos that they had passed on the first days of the voyage, and they resolved
to rest there for a while, and then to press on for the passage into the Sea of
Pontus. They
brought the Argo near the shore. They blew trumpets and set the loudest voiced
of the heroes to call out to those upon the island. But no answer came to them,
and all day the Argo lay close to the island. There were
hidden people watching them, people with bows in their hands and arrows laid
along the bowstrings. And the people who thus threatened the unknowing
Argonauts were women and young girls. There were
no men upon the Island of Lemnos. Years before a curse had fallen upon the
people of that island, putting strife between the men and the women. And the
women had mastered the men and had driven them away from Lemnos. Since then
some of the women had grown old, and the girls who were children when their
fathers and brothers had been banished were now of an age with Atalanta, the
maiden who went with the Argonauts. They
chased the wild beasts of the island, and they tilled the fields, and they kept
in good repair the houses that were built before the banishing of the men. The
older women served those who were younger, and they had a queen, a girl whose
name was Hypsipyle. The women
who watched with bows in their hands would have shot their arrows at the
Argonauts if Hypsipyle’s nurse, Polyxo, had not stayed them. She forbade them
to shoot at the strangers until she had brought to them the queen’s commands. She
hastened to the palace and she found the young queen weaving at a loom. She
told her about the ship and the strangers on board the ship, and she asked the
queen what word she should bring to the guardian maidens. “Before
you give a command, Hypsipyle,” said Polyxo, the nurse, “consider these words
of mine. We, the elder women, are becoming ancient now; in a few years we will
not be able to serve you, the younger women, and in a few years more we will
have gone into the grave and our places will know us no more. And you, the
younger women, will be becoming strengthless, and no more will be you able to
hunt in the woods nor to till the fields, and a hard old age will be before
you. “The ship
that is beside our shore may have come at a good time. Those on board are
goodly heroes. Let them land in Lemnos, and stay if they will. Let them wed
with the younger women so that there may be husbands and wives, helpers and
helpmeets. again in Lemnos.” Hypsipyle,
the queen, let the shuttle fall from her hands and stayed for a while looking
full into Polyxo’s face. Had her nurse heard her say something like this out of
her dreams, she wondered? She bade the nurse tell the guardian maidens to let
the heroes land in safety, and that she herself would put the crown of King
Thoas, her father, upon her head, and go down to the shore to welcome them. And now
the Argonauts saw people along the shore and they caught sight of women’s
dresses. The loudest voiced amongst them shouted again, and they heard an
answer given in a woman’s voice. They drew up the Argo upon the shore, and they
set foot upon the land of Lemnos. Jason
stepped forth at the head of his comrades, and he was met by Hypsipyle, her
father’s crown upon her head, at the head of her maidens. They greeted each
other, and Hypsipyle bade the heroes come with them to their town that was
called Myrine and to the palace that was there. Wonderingly
the Argonauts went, looking on women’s forms and faces and seeing no men. They
came to the palace and went within. Hypsipyle mounted the stone throne that was
King Thoas’s and the four maidens who were her guards stood each side of her.
She spoke to the heroes in greeting and bade them stay in peace for as long as
they would. She told them of the curse that had fallen upon the people of
Lemnos, and of how the menfolk had been banished. Jason, then, told the queen
what voyage he and his companions were upon and what quest they were making.
Then in friendship the Argonauts and the women of Lemnos stayed together — all
the Argonauts except Heracles, and he, grieving still for Hylas, stayed aboard
the Argo. |
HEY came
into King Phineus’s hall, their bright swords in their hands. The Argonauts
crowded around them and King Phineus raised his head and stretched out his thin
hands to them. And Zetes and Calais told their comrades and told the king how
they had driven the Harpies down to the Floating Island, and how Iris, the
messenger of Zeus, had sworn the great oath that was by the Water of Styx that
never again would the Snatchers show themselves in the palace. 
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