Jason and the Argonauts Read Online Free PDF

motionless with ecstasy.
    Such was the magic of the song he cast
    upon them. After they had mixed libations
    for Zeus, they rose and dutifully poured them
    over the victims’ simmering tongues, then turned
    their minds toward sleeping through the night.
    705 (519) As soon
    as radiant Dawn with her resplendent gaze
    looked on the steep cliff face of Pelion,
    and day broke fair, and breezes stirred the sea
    that dashed, in turn, upon the headlands, Tiphys
    710 awoke and roused the dozing crew and bade them
    hasten aboard and man the oars. The harbor
    of Pagasae called out, urging departure,
    and, yes, the ship itself, Pelian
Argo,
    called to them also, since its hull contained
    715 a talking plank. Athena had herself
    cut it from a Dodonan oak to serve
    beneath them as the keel. And so the heroes
    headed to the benches single file
    and duly took their seats beside their weapons
    720 (531) in just the places they had been assigned.
    Ancaeus and colossal Heracles
    were seated at the center bench. The latter
    set down his club beside him, and the keel
    sank deep beneath his feet. The mooring ropes
    725 were drawn in, and the heroes poured libations
    of wine into the bay, and Jason, weeping,
    turned his eyes from his ancestral home.
    When dancing for Apollo at Ortygia
    or Pytho or along the Ismenus,
    730 young men will sway around a shrine together
    heeding the lyre’s rhythm as their nimble
    feet beat time—in just that way the heroes
    slapped the choppy water with their oars,
    churning the sea as Orpheus’ harp
    735 (541) accompanied their strokes. The billows surged
    around the oar blades, and to port and starboard
    the dark brine boiled in foam, its spray excited,
    stirred up by the thrusts of mighty men.
    Their armor shone like fire in the sunlight,
    740 and
Argo
plunged onward, its long white wake
    most like a pathway through a grassy plain.
    And on that daythe gods looked down from heaven
    upon the ship and demigods within it—
    the finest heroes ever to have sailed.
    745 Nymphs of the mountains on the topmost peak
    of Pelion stood wonderstruck, admiring
    the craft work of Itonian Athena
    and all those heroes with their hands working
    the
Argo
’s oars. Cheiron, Phillyra’s son,
    750 (554) strode from a mountain summit to the sea
    and wet his fetlocks where the brackish surf
    churns on the shore. Waving a mighty hand,
    he wished them all a safe return. Beside him
    his wife was holding upinfant Achilles
    755 so that Peleus, the loving father,
    could see his son.
    Under the tutelage
    of prudent Tiphys, Hagnias’ son
    (the master hand who gripped the sanded tiller
    and kept the vessel steady on her course),
    760 the heroes left the curved shore of the bay
    behind them. When they reached the open sea
    they stepped the giant mast up in the mast bed
    and pulled the forestays taut on either side
    to hold it upright. Then they bent the sail on
    765 (566) and draped it from the masthead. When a shrill
    wind found and filled it, they were quick to fix
    the sheets to polished bollards on the deck.
    Finally idle and at ease, they skirted
    the long headland of Tisae.
    Orpheus meanwhile
    770 plucked his lyre and sang a lovely hymn
    to honor Artemis, the Sailors’ Savior,
    the Potent Father’s Daughter, since she guarded
    the cliffs beside them and the coast of Iolcus.
    Fish both big and small came leaping out of
    775 the sea to revel in the vessel’s wake.
    In just the way innumerable sheep,
    after a satisfying meal at pasture,
    tread the footsteps of their rustic guide
    back to the paddock, and he leads by playing
    780 (577) shepherd music on a bright-pitched pipe,
    the shoal of fish accompanied the ship.
    And still a stiff wind bore the heroes onward.
    Pelasgia and its abounding wheat fields
    vanished in mist and, as they coasted farther,
    785 they passed the rugged cliffs of Pelion,
    and soon the spit of Sepae sank from view.
    Sciathus rose out of the sea and then
    more distant Peiresiae and,