And Jason? For long he stayed in Corinth, a famous man indeed, but one
sorrowful and alone. But again there grew in him the desire to rule and
to have possessions. He called around him again the men whose home was
in Iolcus--those who had followed him as bright-eyed youths when he
first proclaimed his purpose of winning the Fleece of Gold. He called
them around him, and he led them on board the Argo. Once more they
lifted sails, and once more they took the Argo into the open sea.
Toward Iolcus they sailed; their passage was fortunate, and in a short
time they brought the Argo safely into the harbor of Pagasae. Oh, happy
were the crowds that came thronging to see the ship that had the famous
Fleece of Gold upon her masthead, and green and sweet smelling were the
garlands that the people brought to wreathe the heads of Jason and his
companions! Jason looked upon the throngs, and he thought that much had
gone from him, but he thought that whatever else had gone something
remained to him--to be a king and a great ruler over a people.
And so Jason came back to Iolcus. The Argo he made a blazing pile of in
sacrifice to Poseidon, the god of the sea. The Golden Fleece he hung in
the temple of the gods. Then he took up the rule of the kingdom that
Cretheus had founded, and he became the greatest of the kings of Greece.
And to Iolcus there came, year after year, young men who would look
upon the gleaming thing that was hung there in the temple of the gods.
And as they looked upon it, young man after young man, the thought
would come to each that he would make himself strong enough and heroic
enough to win for his country something as precious as Jason's GOLDEN
FLEECE. And for all their lives they kept in mind the words that Jason
had inscribed upon a pillar that was placed beside the Fleece of
Gold--the words that Triton spoke to the Argonauts when they were fain
to win their way out of the inland sea:--
THAT IS THE OUTLET TO THE SEA, WHERE THE DEEP WATER LIES UNMOVED AND
DARK; ON EACH SIDE ROLL WHITE BREAKERS WITH SHINING CRESTS; AND THE WAY
BETWEEN FOR YOUR PASSAGE OUT IS NARROW. BUT GO IN JOY, AND AS FOR LABOR
LET THERE BE NO GRIEVING THAT LIMBS IN YOUTHFUL VIGOR SHOULD STILL TOIL.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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