[Illustration] [Illustration] [Illustration] Jason and Medea [Illustration] The Golden Fleece and the Heroes Who Lived before Achilles By Padraig Colum Illustrations by Willy Pogany 1921 The Macmillan Company, New York to the children of Susan and Llewellyn Jones [Illustration] CONTENTS Part I. The Voyage to Colchis I. The Youth Jason II. King Pelias III. The Golden Fleece IV. The Assembling of the Heroes and the Building of the Ship V. The _Argo_ The Beginning of Things VI. Polydeuces’ Victory and Heracles’ Loss VII. King Phineus VIII. King Phineus’s Counsel; The Landing in Lemnos IX. The Lemnian Maidens Demeter and Persephone Atalanta’s Race X. The Departure from Lemnos The Golden Maid XI. The Passage of the Symplegades XII. The Mountain Caucasus Prometheus Part II. The Return to Greece I. King Æetes II. Medea the Sorceress III. The Winning of the Golden Fleece IV. The Slaying of Apsyrtus V. Medea Comes to Circe VI. In the Land of the Phæacians VII. They Come to the Desert Land VIII. The Carrying of the Argo The Story of Perseus IX. Near to Iolcus Again Part III. The Heroes of the Quest I. Atalanta the Huntress II. Peleus and His Bride from the Sea III. Theseus and the Minotaur IV. The Life and Labors of Heracles The Battle of the Frogs and Mice V. Admetus VI. How Orpheus the Minstrel Went Down to the World of the Dead VII. Jason and Medea [Illustration] ILLUSTRATIONS Jason and Medea the _Argo_ Hylas Persephone and Aidoneus Atalanta’s Last Race Prometheus The Field of the Dragon’s Teeth Perseus and Andromeda PART I. THE VOYAGE TO COLCHIS I. The Youth Jason [Decorative first letter] _A_ MAN in the garb of a slave went up the side of that mountain that is all covered with forest, the Mountain Pelion. He carried in his arms a little child. When it was full noon the slave came into a clearing of the forest so silent that it seemed empty of all life. He laid the child down on the soft moss, and then, trembling with the fear of what might come before him, he raised a horn to his lips and blew three blasts upon it. Then he waited. The blue sky was above him, the great trees stood away from him, and the little child lay at his feet. He waited, and then he heard the thud-thud of great hooves. And then from between the trees he saw coming toward him the strangest of all beings, one who was half man and half horse; this was Chiron the centaur.