The Jason Voyage by Tim Severin

Author:Tim Severin [Severin, Tim]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Publisher: Lume Books
Published: 2013-12-03T00:00:00+00:00

7. The Black Sea

'When you leave me,' said Phineas, the first thing you will see will be the two Cyanean Rocks, at the end of the straits. To the best of my knowledge, no one has ever made his way between them, for not being fixed to the bottom of the sea they frequently collide, flinging up the water in a seething mass which falls on the rocky flanks of the straits with a resounding roar. Now if, as I take it, you are god-fearing travellers and men of sense, you will be advised by me. You will not brashly throw away your lives or rush into danger with the recklessness of youth. Make an experiment first. Send out a dove from Argo to explore the way. If she succeeds in flying between the rocks and out across the sea, do not hesitate to follow in her path, but get a firm grip on your oars and cleave the water of the straits.

The stratagem with the dove worked beautifully. As Jason's crew rounded the last corner of the straits they saw the Cyanean or Clashing Rocks ahead of them. The rocks were two great moving masses of stone which floated about the mouth of the straits, colliding repeatedly with tremendous shocks. Whenever a ship tried to pass between them the rocks closed together like a giant trap, pulverizing the intruder. Even now, the Argonauts saw, the rocks had just snapped shut, and were beginning to move apart again. As Argo rowed up to the gap Euphemus, the runner, released the dove, which flew low and straight between the rocks.

Immediately they collided again, but too late. The Argonauts saw that the dove had dashed through the gap, and the rocks only succeeded in nipping off her tail feathers.

This was the signal for Jason and his men to forge ahead. As the rocks sprang apart, the rowers made a terrific spurt, and Argo sped into the gap. For a dreadful moment the boat hung there, caught in the swirling backwash and unable to move either forwards or back. It seemed certain that the rocks would crush her. At that moment, according to the Argonautica, the goddess Athena intervened to save them. With one hand she held back the rocks, and with the other she pushed Argo through the gap. It was in the nick of time. The Clashing Rocks banged shut, sheering off the galley's stern ornament. From that time forward, wrote Apollonius, 'the Rocks were now rooted for ever in one spot close to one another. It had been decided by the happy Gods that this should be their fate when a human being had seen them and sailed through.'

For hundreds of years attempt after attempt has been made to attribute the phenomenon of the Clashing Rocks to natural causes.

They have been explained as a shallow reef which, it is said, was sometimes exposed and sometimes covered by the tide on the Asian side, where many coast-hugging ships had come to grief.

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