t in abundance; and pebbles like skin in colour are strewn
on the beach[2]; and there are their quoits and their wondrous armour;
and there is the Argoan harbour called after them.

[Footnote 1: Apollonius seems to have thought that the Po, the Rhone,
and the Rhine are all connected together.]

[Footnote 2: i.e. like the scrapings from skin, [Greek: apostlengismata];
see Strabo p. 224 for this adventure.]

And quickly from there they passed through the sea, beholding the
Tyrrhenian shores of Ausonia; and they came to the famous harbour of
Aeaea, and from the ship they cast hawsers to the shore near at hand.
And here they found Circe bathing her head in the salt sea-spray, for
sorely had she been scared by visions of the night. With blood her
chambers and all the walls of her palace seemed to be running, and flame
was devouring all the magic herbs with which she used to bewitch
strangers whoever came; and she herself with murderous blood quenched
the glowing flame, drawing it up in her hands; and she ceased from
deadly fear. Wherefore when morning came she rose, and with sea-spray
was bathing her hair and her garments. And beasts, not resembling the
beasts of the wild, nor yet like men in body, but with a medley of
limbs, went in a throng, as sheep from the fold in multitudes follow the
shepherd. Such creatures, compacted of various limbs, did earth herself
produce from the primeval slime when she had not yet grown solid beneath
a rainless sky nor yet had received a drop of moisture from the rays of
the scorching sun; but time combined these forms and marshalled them in
their ranks; in such wise these monsters shapeless of form followed her.
And exceeding wonder seized the heroes, and at once, as each gazed on
the form and face of Circe, they readily guessed that she was the sister
of Aeetes.

Now when she had dismissed the fears of her nightly visions, straightway
she fared backwards, and in her subtlety she bade the heroes follow,
charming them on with her hand. Thereupon the host remained stedfast at
the bidding of Aeson's son, but Jason drew with him the Colchian maid.
And both followed the selfsame path till they reached the hall of Circe,
and she in amaze at their coming bade them sit on brightly burnished
seats. And they, quiet and silent, sped to the hearth and sat there, as
is the wont of wretched suppliants. Medea hid her face in both her
hands, but Jason fixed in the ground the mighty hilted sword with whic