Jason and the Argonauts by Apollonius Of Rhodes
Author:Apollonius Of Rhodes [Rhodes, Apollonius Of]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Tags: Mythology, Poetry, Fantasy, Ancient Greece, Adventure, Classics
ISBN: 9781101616802
Publisher: Penguin
Published: 2014-01-01T00:00:00+00:00
BOOK 4
Now Zeusâ daughter, deathless Muse, describe
for me the Colchian maidenâs wiles and worries.
The mind within me spins in speechlessness,
wondering whether I should call the impulse
5that drove her to forsake the Colchian people
a wild obsessionâs lovesick injury
or headlong panic running from disgrace.
Up in the palace all night long Aeëtes
worked with his council on a foolproof plan
10to catch the heroes. He was vengeance-hearted,
wildly incensed about the painful contest,
but never for a moment thought his daughters
had worked to bring about the strangerâs triumph.
Hera, meanwhile, had pierced Medeaâs heart
15 (12)with poignant dread. The girl was shaking like
a nimble fawn that baying hounds have trapped,
trembling, in a densely wooded thicket.
All in a flash she sensed the aid she gave
the foreigners had not escaped her father;
20her cup of woe would soon be overflowing;
surely her handmaids would divulge the crime.
Her eyes were full of fire, her ears abuzz
with trepidation. Time and time again
she gripped her throat, time and again pulled out
25her hair, and moaned in sorry misery.
She would have drained a vial of poison, died
right then and there before her proper time,
and ruined all of Heraâs plans, had not
the goddess driven her to run away,
30 (22)in utter terror, with the sons of Phrixus.
Once her fluttering heart had calmed, she poured
the potions from her lap into the casket.
She kissed her bed good-bye and kissed the frame
around the double doors and stroked the walls.
35She clipped a lock and left it for her mother
as a memento of her maidenhood,
then, sobbing, brought out heartfelt lamentation:
âIâm going, Mother, but have left this tress
to take my place when I am goneâfarewell.
40Farewell, Chalciope. Farewell, old home.
Stranger, I wish the sea had torn you up
before you ever reached the land of Colchis.â
So she spoke, and from her eyelids tears
came pouring down. Picture a girl that fate
45 (35)has torn out of a wealthy home and homeland,
how, since she is unused to heavy labor
and ignorant of what slaves do and suffer,
she goes abroad to serve a mistressâ
relentless whims in terrorâthatâs the way
50lovely Medea crept out of the palace.
The latches on the doors undid themselves
all on their own before her muttered spells.
Barefoot, she scampered down the narrow alleys,
her left hand pressed against her brow and draping
55a veil that cloaked her eyes and radiant cheeks,
her right hand holding up her dressâs hem.
So, frantic and in fear, she made her way
by covert routes outside the battlements
of broadly paved Aea. No watchmen
60 (49)observed her, no, she hastened past unseen.
Safely outside, she contemplated deep
within herself how best to reach the temple.
She was quite familiar with the roads
since she had traveled on them many times
65in search of corpses and the earthâs worst herbs,
the kinds that witches use. Convulsive terror
fluttered her spirit.
The Titanian Moon
had just then risen over the horizon.
She saw the maiden straying far from home
70in misery and cackled to herself:
âWell, well, Iâm not the only one, it seems,
to slip away into a Latmian grotto,
no, not the only one to burn with love
for an adorable Endymion.
75 (59)You bitch! How often you have woven magic
to drive me from the sky in search of love
so that, in total darkness, you could work
your sorcery at ease, your precious spells.
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