The Golden Fleece | Page 9

far, far up in the sky. Arcas
drew his bow, and with one arrow he brought the eagle down.
The other hunter was a girl, Atalanta. Tall and brighthaired was
Atalanta, swift and good with the bow. She had dedicated herself to
Artemis, the guardian of the wild things, and she had vowed that she

would remain unwedded. All the heroes welcomed Atalanta as a
comrade, and the maiden did all the things that the young men did.
There came a hero who was less youthful than Castor or Polydeuces; he
was a man good in council named Nestor. Afterward Nestor went to the
war against Troy, and then he was the oldest of the heroes in the camp
of Agamemnon.
Two brothers came who were to be special friends of Jason's-- Peleus
and Telamon. Both were still youthful and neither had yet achieved any
notable deed. Afterward they were to be famous, but their sons were to
be even more famous, for the son of Telamon was strong Aias, and the
son of Peleus was great Achilles.
Another who came was Admetus; afterward he became a famous king.
The God Apollo once made himself a shepherd and he kept the flocks
of King Admetus.
And there came two brothers, twins, who were a wonder to all who
beheld them. Zetes and Calais they were named; their mother was
Oreithyia, the daughter of Erechtheus, King of Athens, and their father
was Boreas, the North Wind. These two brothers had on their ankles
wings that gleamed with golden scales; their black hair was thick upon
their shoulders, and it was always being shaken by the wind.
With Zetes and Calais there came a youth armed with a great sword
whose name was Theseus. Theseus's father was an unknown king; he
had bidden the mother show their son where his sword was hidden.
Under a great stone the king had hidden it before Theseus was born.
Before he had grown out of his boyhood Theseus had been able to raise
the stone and draw forth his father's sword. As yet he had done no great
deed, but he was resolved to win fame and to find his unknown father.
On the day that the messengers had set out to bring through Greece the
word of Jason's going forth in quest of the Golden Fleece the
woodcutters made their way up into the forests of Mount Pelion; they
began to fell trees for the timbers of the ship that was to make the
voyage to far Colchis.

Great timbers were cut and brought down to Pagasae, the harbor of
Iolcus. On the night of the day he had helped to bring them down Jason
had a dream. He dreamt that she whom he had seen in the forest ways
and afterward by the River Anaurus appeared to him. And in his dream
the goddess bade him rise early in the morning and welcome a man
whom he would meet at the city's gate - a tall and gray-haired man who
would have on his shoulders tools for the building of a ship.
He went to the city's gate and he met such a man. Argus was his name.
He told Jason that a dream had sent him to the city of Iolcus. Jason
welcomed him and lodged him in the king's palace, and that day the
word went through the city that the building of the great ship would
soon be begun.
But not with the timbers brought from Mount Pelion did Argus begin.
Walking through the palace with Jason he noted a great beam in the
roof. That beam, he said, had been shown him in his dream; it was from
an oak tree in Dodona, the grove of Zeus. A sacred power was in the
beam, and from it the prow of the ship should be fashioned. Jason had
them take the beam from the roof of the palace; it was brought to where
the timbers were, and that day the building of the great ship was begun.
Then all along the waterside came the noise of hammering; in the street
where the metalworkers were came the noise of beating upon metals as
the smiths fashioned out of bronze armor for the heroes and swords and
spears. Every day, under the eyes of Argus the master, the ship that had
in it the beam from Zeus's grove was built higher and wider. And those
who were building the ship often felt going through it tremors as of a
living creature.
When the ship was built and made ready for the voyage a name was
given to it--the Argo it was called. And naming themselves from the
ship the heroes called themselves the Argonauts. All was ready for the
voyage, and now Jason went