There was however a place called Apsarus, on the southern coast
of the Euxine, west of Trapezus, where the tomb of Apsyrtus was
shown, and where it was affirmed that he had been put to death.
He was the eponymus of the town, which was said to have been once
called Apsyrtus, and only corrupted by a barbarian pronunciation
(Arrian. Periplus, Euxin. p. 6; Geogr. Min. v. 1). Compare
Procop. Bell. Goth. iv. 2.
Strabo connects the death of Apsyrtus with the Apsyrtides,
islands off the coast of Illyria, in the Adriatic (vii p. 315).
[571] The original narrative was, that the Argô returned by
navigating the circumfluous ocean. This would be almost certain,
even without positive testimony, from the early ideas entertained
by the Greeks respecting geography; but we know further that
it was the representation of the Hesiodic poems, as well as of
Mimnermus, Hekatæus and Pindar, and even of Antimachus. Schol.
Parisina Ap. Rhod. iv. 254. Ἑκαταῖος δὲ ὁ Μιλήσιος διὰ τοῦ
Φάσιδος ἀνελθεῖν φησὶν αὐτοὺς εἰς τὸν Ὠκεανόν· διὰ δὲ τοῦ Ὠκεανοῦ
κατελθεῖν εἰς τὸν Νεῖλον· ἐκ δὲ τοῦ Νείλου εἰς τὴν καθ᾽ ἡμᾶς
θάλασσαν. Ἡσίοδος δὲ καὶ Πίνδαρος ἐν Πυθιονίκαις καὶ Ἀντίμαχος
ἐν Λυδῇ διὰ τοῦ Ὠκεανοῦ φασὶν ἐλθεῖν αὐτοὺς εἰς Λιβύην· εἶτα
βαστάσαντας τὴν Ἀργὼ εἰς τὸ ἡμέτερον ἀφικέσθαι πέλαγος. Compare
the Schol. Edit. ad iv. 259.
[572] See the fourth Pythian Ode of Pindar, and Apollôn. Rhod.
iv. 1551-1756.
The tripod of Jasôn was preserved by the Euesperitæ in Libya,
Diod. iv. 56: but the legend, connecting the Argonauts with
the lake Tritônis in Libya, is given with some considerable
differences in Herodotus, iv. 179.
Refreshed by the hospitality of Tritôn, the Argonauts found themselves
again on the waters of the Mediterranean in their way homeward. But
before they arrived at Iôlkos they visited Circê, at the island of Ææa,
where Mêdea was purified for the murder of Apsyrtus: they also stopped
at Korkyra, then called Drepanê, where Alkinous received and protected
them. The cave in that island where the marriage of Mêdea with Jasôn
was consummated, was still shown in the time of the historian Timæus,
as well as the altars to Apollo which she had erected, and the rites
and sacrifices which she had first instituted.[573] After leaving
Korkyra, the Argô was overtaken by a perilous storm near the island of
Thêra. The heroes were saved from imminent peril by the supernatural
aid of Apollo, who, shooting from his golden bow an arrow which pierced
the waves like a track of light, caused a new island suddenly to spring
up in their track and present to them a port of refuge. The island was
called Anaphê; and the grateful Argonauts established upon it an altar
and sacrifices in honor of Apollo Æglêtês, which were ever afterwards
continued, and traced back by the inhabitants to this originating
adventure.[574]
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