xt after them they came to
Corcyra, where Poseidon settled the daughter of Asopus, fair-haired
Corcyra, far from the land of Phlius, whence he had carried her off
through love; and sailors beholding it from the sea, all black with its
sombre woods, call it Corcyra the Black. And next they passed Melite,
rejoicing in the soft-blowing breeze, and steep Cerossus, and Nymphaea
at a distance, where lady Calypso, daughter of Atlas, dwelt; and they
deemed they saw the misty mountains of Thunder. And then Hera bethought
her of the counsels and wrath of Zeus concerning them. And she devised
an ending of their voyage and stirred up storm-winds before them, by
which they were caught and borne back to the rocky isle of Electra. And
straightway on a sudden there called to them in the midst of their
course, speaking with a human voice, the beam of the hollow ship, which
Athena had set in the centre of the stem, made of Dodonian oak. And
deadly fear seized them as they heard the voice that told of the
grievous wrath of Zeus. For it proclaimed that they should not escape
the paths of an endless sea nor grievous tempests, unless Circe should
purge away the guilt of the ruthless murder of Apsyrtus; and it bade
Polydeuces and Castor pray to the immortal gods first to grant a path
through the Ausonian sea where they should find Circe, daughter of Perse
and Helios.

Thus Argo cried through the darkness; and the sons of Tyndareus uprose,
and lifted their hands to the immortals praying for each boon: but
dejection held the rest of the Minyan heroes. And far on sped Argo under
sail, and entered deep into the stream of Eridanus; where once, smitten
on the breast by the blazing bolt, Phaethon half-consumed fell from the
chariot of Helios into the opening of that deep lake; and even now it
belcheth up heavy steam clouds from the smouldering wound. And no bird
spreading its light wings can cross that water; but in mid-course it
plunges into the flame, fluttering. And all around the maidens, the
daughters of Helios, enclosed in tall poplars, wretchedly wail a piteous
plaint; and from their eyes they shed on the ground bright drops of
amber. These are dried by the sun upon the sand; but whenever the waters
of the dark lake flow over the strand before the blast of the wailing
wind, then they roll on in a mass into Eridanus with swelling tide. But
the Celts have attached this story to them, that these are the tears of
Leto's son, Apollo, that are born