Orpheus took up his lyre as the Sirens began to sing. He sang to the
heroes of their own toils. He sang of them, how, gaunt and weary as
they were, they were yet men, men who were the strength of Greece, men
who had been fostered by the love and hope of their country. They were
the winners of the Golden Fleece and their story would be told forever.
And for the fame that they had won men would forego all rest and all
delight. Why should they not toil, they who were born for great labors
and to face dangers that other men might not face? Soon hands would be
stretched out to them--the welcoming hands of the men and women of
their own land.
So Orpheus sang, and his voice and the music of his lyre prevailed
above the Sirens' voices. Men dropped their oars, but other men
remained at their benches, and pulled steadily, if wearily, on. Only
one of the Argonauts, Butes, a youth of Iolcus, threw himself into the
water and swam toward the rocks from which the Sirens sang.
But an anguish that nearly parted their spirits from their bodies was
upon them as they went wearily on. Toward the end of the day they
beheld another island--an island that seemed very fair; they longed to
land and rest themselves there and eat the fruits of the island. But
Orpheus would not have them land. The island, he said, was Thrinacia.
Upon that island the Cattle of the Sun pastured, and if one of the
cattle perished through them their return home might not be won. They
heard the lowing of the cattle through the mist, and a deep longing for
the sight of their own fields, with a white house near, and flocks and
herds at pasture, came over the heroes. They came near the Island of
Thrinacia, and they saw the Cattle of the Sun feeding by the meadow
streams; not one of them was black; all were white as milk, and the
horns upon their heads were golden. They saw the two nymphs who herded
the kine--Phaethusa and Lampetia, one with a staff of silver and the
other with a staff of gold.
Driven by the breeze that came over the Thrinacian Sea the Argonauts
came to the land of the Phaeacians. It was a good land as they saw when
they drew near; a land of orchards and fresh pastures, with a white and
sun-lit city upon the height. Their spirits came back to them as they
drew into the harbor; they made fast the hawsers, and they went upon
the ways of the city.
And then they saw everywhere around them the dark faces of Colchian
soldiers. These were the men of King Æetes, and they had come overland
to the Phaeacian city, hoping to cut off the Argonauts. Jason, when he
saw the soldiers, shouted to those who had been left on the Argo, and
they drew out of the harbor, fearful lest the Colchians should grapple
with the ship and wrest from them the Fleece of Gold. Then Jason made
an encampment upon the shore, and the captain of the Colchians went
here and there, gathering together his men.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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