Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, PYTHIAN ODES: 4. THE QUEST OF THE GOLDEN FLEECE, by PINDAR


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

PYTHIAN ODES: 4. THE QUEST OF THE GOLDEN FLEECE, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: How first began their voyage? What sore strait
Last Line: They wrestled for the robe, their need of fame.
Subject(s): Golden Fleece (mythology)


HOW first began their voyage? What sore strait
Held them constrained by adamantine bands?
Of Pelias once an oracle had said
That AEolus' proud sons by their own hands
Or through resistless craft should lay him dead.
And fearful words of fate
Rose from the green Earth-Mother's central stone,
Bidding him guard against a man who trod
The hill-steads' pathway with one sandal shod
Down to the valley where Iolchos shone,

Stranger or friend. And so at last he came,
Wielding two spears, a man of aspect dread,
Twofold in garb, his shapely limbs revealed
In their close country dress, while o'er it spread
A leopard's skin, from shivering rains to shield,
And like a wave of flame
His unshorn hair behind him floated bright.
Swift to Iolchos' market-place he strode,
And there to test his bold young heart he stood
Amidst the surging crowd in all men's sight.

They knew him not and marvelled to behold;
And one would say: 'This stranger from afar
Is not Apollo surely, nor the mate
Of Aphrodite with his bronzen car.
Iphimedeia's sons have found their fate,
Both Ephialtes bold
And Otus, slain on shining Naxos' beach,
And Tityus truly Artemis laid low
With shafts of her unconquerable bow,
Lest men's desires should soar above their reach.'

Thus they together talked. But Pelias came
Driving the mules in his bright car anon
With headstrong haste, and shuddered when he spied
One sandal on the man's right foot alone,
A signal plain, yet hid his fear and cried:
'What country dost thou claim
To be thy fatherland, thou man unknown?
What rustic wife hath dropt thee on the earth
With senile pangs? Now tell me of thy birth,
Nor shame it worse by falsehoods of thy own.'

Then soft but bold the other's voice was heard:
'My speech shall show what Chiron taught me well,
For from his cave am I, where Philyra,
Chariclo, and his virgin daughters dwell,
My nurses, whom I lived with till this day,
And ne'er by act or word
In twenty years have shamed. I come to claim
My father's ancient realm, which others hold
Unjustly, since to AEolus of old
Zeus gave in fee a reigning sovereign's name.

For lawless Pelias in his scorn of right,
Thus was it told me, from my parents stole
Their immemorial kingdom, and in dread
Of that proud chieftain's overweening soul
They made a sound of mourning for the dead,
When first I saw the light,
In shuttered rooms where women rent the air,
While swathed in purple, with the night alone
Around me, I was hurried forth unknown,
And left in godlike Chiron's fostering care.

Most of this tale ye know. Now, burghers brave,
Show me the palace of my sires who rode
Their proud white steeds, for AEson's son I am,
Born in this place, and 'tis no strange abode
Methinks I come to. Jason is my name
Which the good Centaur gave.'
So said, he entered; and his father's eyes
Knew him, and tears from their old lids down rolled,
And all his heart grew happy to behold
His son, of all men fairest and most wise.

Then both his uncles, when they heard the tale,
Came hither, Pheres from the neighbouring spring,
And Amythaon from Messene's bay.
And quickly too Melampus and the king
Admetus to Iolchos made their way,
To bid their cousin hail:
And Jason, when the common board was spread,
Spake courtly words, and let the feast's delights
Unstinted flow through five full days and nights,
Plucking life's bloom of joyance ere it fled.

But grave of speech when the sixth morning shone
From first to last he showed his kinsmen all.
Then leaping from their tents with him they strode
In full assent to Pelias' lofty hall,
And entered in, and in the palace stood:
And fair-haired Tyro's son,
Pelias himself, on hearing them, drew near,
And Jason gently thus began to build
The words of wisdom through soft lips distilled:
'Son of Poseidon, the Rock-Cleaver, hear!

Too prone are men to choose ill gains in lieu
Of righteousness, though sharp the awakening is;
But thou and I must rule our hearts with care,
To weave for future years our crown of bliss.
No news I tell. The dam that Cretheus bare
Bare rash Salmoneus too,
And we, their grandsons, from one lineage came
Who look this day upon the golden sun.
If men fall out whom Nature joined in one,
The Fates shrink back, and hide their heads in shame.

Seemless it were for us with sword and spear
To rend our sires' great heritage in twain.
The flocks and fields and droves of russet kine
Reft from our parents to increase thy gain,
All these I leave thee, and no grudge is mine
At thy abundant cheer.
But yield to me the sceptre and the throne
On which the royal son of Cretheus sat,
Dealing just laws to his wild horse-proud state,
Lest some new ill should rise from thence anon.'

Thus Jason spake, and Pelias answered meek:
'Such as thou wouldest I will be, but lo!
To me already fall life's twilight hours,
While thy bright youth is in its opening blow,
And thou canst lull the wrath of ghostly powers;
For Phrixus bids us seek
Aetes' house, and bring away the fleece
Of that great ram which erstwhile from the waves
Saved him and from his stepdame's wicked glaives,
So shall his spirit rest at last in peace.

Strange visions taught me thus: then I appealed
To pure Castalia's oracle, to test
If aught were toward, and the god bade speed
To fit a ship for sailing on that quest.
If thou wilt undertake the perilous deed
To thee I then will yield
The crown and sovereignty. By mighty Zeus,
Forefather of us twain, this oath I swear.'
They then between them made agreement there,
And parted thence. And Jason spread the news

Of his own sailing over all the land;
And quickly came three warriors to his side,
Unwearied sons of Zeus, whom Leda bore
And dancing-eyed Alcmene, and in pride
Of conscious might, high-plumed, from Pylus' shore
And far Taenarian strand
Euphemus came and Periclymenus,
Poseidon's sons, who won unfading fame;
And from Apollo's side a minstrel came,
Great Orpheus, parent of the lyric muse.

And Hermes of the golden wand had sent
To that hard task his sons in manhood's bloom,
Echion brave and Eurytus, who made
Beneath Pangaius' brow their distant home.
And Boreas, monarch of the winds, arrayed,
With heart of glad content,
Zetes and Calais, his children leal,
Whose flame-hued wings from either shoulder fell.
On those half-gods Queen Hera cast a spell
Of dear desire for Argo's plunging keel,

That none should linger by his mother's side
Through days undangered, but to death's last hour
With others strive to grasp the skirts of fame.
Then Jason cheerly marshalled all that flower
Of seafarers that to Iolchos came;
And Mopsus prophesied
From lots and omens, and with gladsome heart
Bade them God-speed to sea. And when at last
The anchors o'er the vessel's bows were cast
Their leader stood upon the stern apart,

And lifted up a golden cup and cried
To Zeus, the Sire of Heaven, the lightning's lord,
To waves and winds and sea-ways of the night,
Fair days and sweet returning to afford.
Then pealing thunder from the clouded height
With favouring voice replied,
And bright the flashes of the lightning shone.
Those Heavenly signs the faithful heroes heard,
And took fresh courage as the prophet's word
Cheered them with hope and bade them hasten on,

Plying with rapid hands the unsated oar.
Thus wafted by the blowing South they came
Beside the mouth of the Unfriendly Sea,
And there a hallowed precinct did they frame
For sea Poseidon's hoar divinity,
Where on the desolate shore
A tawny herd of Thracian bulls they spied,
And the stone hollow on a new-built shrine,
But ere they cleft the deadly perilous brine
On him that guards the mariner they cried

To save them from the Clashing Rocks, those twain
Fierce living creatures that together drew
Swifter than sallies of the roaring East.
But soon they perished when that godlike crew
Came sailing there. And, from that bale released,
Aetes' own domain,
Phasis, they came to, and in battle mixed
With dusky Colchians. Then the Cyprian first
From high Olympus brought the bird accurst,
On four-spoked wheel immovably transfixed,

The speckled wryneck, to bewitch men's hearts.
'Twas she taught Jason with what magic charm
To draw Medea from her filial ways,
That she, sore stricken by Persuasion's arm,
Might yearn for Hellas in her passion's blaze.
And soon with subtle arts
Medea showed him how to do aright
Her father's tasks, and gave him balm and oil
To salve himself against his aching toil,
And with sweet vows their spousal troth was plight.

Then in their midst Aetes set a plough
Of adamant with oxen breathing fire
From tawny nostrils, who at each step drove
Their brazen hoofs deep in the earth and mire.
Himself he yoked and led them forth and clove
Furrows in even row,
And fathom-deep each loamy ridge uprolled.
'Now let your king,' quoth he, 'your captain brave,
Perform this task for me, and he shall have
My glittering fleece of ever-during gold.'

He said; and Jason, trusting God, down cast
His saffron mantle, and the work essayed.
Nor flinched he at the fire who well had conned
The magic precepts of the stranger maid,
But seized the plough, and with resistless bond
The bullocks' necks held fast,
Thrust in their brawny flanks the tireless goad,
And all his task fulfilled. And at the close
A wordless outcry from the king arose,
For wonder at that strength a mortal showed.

Then all his comrades stretched their hands in glee
With wreaths of grass the strong man's brows to bind,
And hailed him with soft plaudits. But straightway
The Sun's great offspring told him where to find
The shining fleece which Phrixus' knife did flay.
'For verily,' thought he,
'This task at least will baffle all his zeal.'
For in thick woods it lay, within the grip
Of a fierce dragon larger than a ship
Of fifty oars long hammered by the steel.

'Twere long to keep the road, as time goes by;
But I a briefer byeway can pursue,
Whose art to many is as a beacon's ray.
Know then, Arcesilas, that Jason slew
The glaring speckled snake, and stole away
Medea, his ally
And Pelias' death. To Ocean streams they came,
The Sea of Red, and where each Lemnian wife
Her husband slew; and there in sportive strife
They wrestled for the robe, their need of fame.





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