Argonauts (Greek mythology); Jason -- (Mythological character); Medea, consort of Aegeus, King of Athens (Mythological character)
Thus spake Agenor's son; and his friend straightway came near leading
two sheep from the flock. And up rose Jason and up rose the sons of
Boreas at the bidding of the aged sire. And quickly they called upon
Apollo, lord of prophecy, and offered sacrifice upon the hearth as the
day was just sinking. And the younger comrades made ready a feast to
their hearts' desire. Thereupon having well feasted they turned
themselves to rest, some near the ship's hawsers, others in groups
throughout the mansion. And at dawn the Etesian winds blew strongly,
which by the command of Zeus blow over every land equally.
Cyrene, the tale goes, once tended sheep along the marsh-meadow of
Peneus among men of old time; for dear to her were maidenhood and a
couch unstained. But, as she guarded her flock by the river, Apollo
carried her off far from Haemonia and placed her among the nymphs of the
land, who dwelt in Libya near the Myrtosian height. And here to Phoebus
she bore Aristaeus whom the Haemonians, rich in corn-land, call "Hunter"
and "Shepherd." Her, of his love, the god made a nymph there, of long
life and a huntress, and his son he brought while still an infant to be
nurtured in the cave of Cheiron. And to him when he grew to manhood the
Muses gave a bride, and taught him the arts of healing and of prophecy;
and they made him the keeper of their sheep, of all that grazed on the
Athamantian plain of Phthia and round steep Othrys and the sacred stream
of the river Apidanus. But when from heaven Sirius scorched the Minoan
Isles, and for long there was no respite for the inhabitants, then by
the injunction of the Far-Darter they summoned Aristaeus to ward off the
pestilence. And by his father's command he left Phthia and made his home
in Ceos, and gathered together the Parrhasian people who are of the
lineage of Lycaon, and he built a great altar to Zeus Icmaeus, and duly
offered sacrifices upon the mountains to that star Sirius, and to Zeus
son of Cronos himself. And on this account it is that Etesian winds from
Zeus cool the land for forty days, and in Ceos even now the priests
offer sacrifices before the rising of the Dog-star.
So the tale is told, but the chieftains stayed there by constraint, and
every day the Thynians, doing pleasure to Phineus, sent them gifts
beyond measure. And afterwards they raised an altar to the blessed
twelve on the sea-beach opposite and laid offerings thereon and then
entered their swift ship to row, nor did they forget to bear with them a
trembling dove; but Euphemus seized her and brought her all quivering
with fear, and they loosed the twin hawsers from the land.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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