ourers call for the sweet hour of unyoking to come to
them straightway, then the fallow was ploughed by the tireless
ploughman, four plough-gates though it was; and he loosed the plough
from the oxen. Them he scared in flight towards the plain; but he went
back again to the ship, while he still saw the furrows free of the
earthborn men. And all round his comrades heartened him with their
shouts. And in the helmet he drew from the river's stream and quenched
his thirst with the water. Then he bent his knees till they grew supple,
and filled his mighty heart with courage, raging like a boar, when it
sharpens its teeth against the hunters, while from its wrathful mouth
plenteous foam drips to the ground. By now the earthborn men were
springing up over all the field; and the plot of Ares, the death-dealer,
bristled with sturdy shields and double-pointed spears and shining
helmets; and the gleam reached Olympus from beneath, flashing through
the air. And as when abundant snow has fallen on the earth and the storm
blasts have dispersed the wintry clouds under the murky night, and all
the hosts of the stars appear shining through the gloom; so did those
warriors shine springing up above the earth. But Jason bethought him of
the counsels of Medea full of craft, and seized from the plain a huge
round boulder, a terrible quoit of Ares Enyalius; four stalwart youths
could not have raised it from the ground even a little. Taking it in his
hands he threw it with a rush far away into their midst; and himself
crouched unseen behind his shield, with full confidence. And the
Colchians gave a loud cry, like the roar of the sea when it beats upon
sharp crags; and speechless amazement seized Aeetes at the rush of the
sturdy quoit. And the Earthborn, like fleet-footed hounds, leaped upon
one another and slew with loud yells; and on earth their mother they
fell beneath their own spears, likes pines or oaks, which storms of wind
beat down. And even as a fiery star leaps from heaven, trailing a furrow
of light, a portent to men, whoever see it darting with a gleam through
the dusky sky; in such wise did Aeson's son rush upon the earthborn men,
and he drew from the sheath his bare sword, and smote here and there,
mowing them down, many on the belly and side, half risen to the air--and
some that had risen as far as the shoulders--and some just standing
upright, and others even now rushing to battle. And as when a fight is
stirred up concerning bou