message. They said indeed that they were
heroines, Libya's warders land daughters; and all the toils that we
endured aforetime by land and sea, all these they declared that they
knew full well. Then I saw them no more in their place, but a mist or
cloud came between and hid them from my sight."

Thus he spake, and all marvelled as they heard. Then was wrought for the
Minyae the strangest of portents. From the sea to the land leapt forth a
monstrous horse, of vast size, with golden mane tossing round his neck;
and quickly from his limbs he shook off abundant spray and started on
his course, with feet like the wind. And at once Peleus rejoiced and
spake among the throng of his comrades:

"I deem that Poseidon's car has even now been loosed by the hands of his
dear wife, and I divine that our mother is none else than our ship
herself; for surely she bare us in her womb and groans unceasingly with
grievous travailing. But with unshaken strength and untiring shoulders
will we lift her up and bear her within this country of sandy wastes,
where yon swift-footed steed has sped before. For he will not plunge
beneath the earth; and his hoof-prints, I ween, will point us to some
bay above the sea."

Thus he spake, and the fit counsel pleased all. This is the tale the
Muses told; and I sing obedient to the Pierides, and this report have I
heard most truly; that ye, O mightiest far of the sons of kings, by your
might and your valour over the desert sands of Libya raised high aloft
on your shoulders the ship and all that ye brought therein, and bare her
twelve days and nights alike. Yet who could tell the pain and grief
which they endured in that toil? Surely they were of the blood of the
immortals, such a task did they take on them, constrained by necessity.
How forward and how far they bore her gladly to the waters of the
Tritonian lake! How they strode in and set her down from their stalwart
shoulders!

Then, like raging hounds, they rushed to search for a spring; for
besides their suffering and anguish, a parching thirst lay upon them,
and not in vain did they wander; but they came to the sacred plain where
Ladon, the serpent of the land, till yesterday kept watch over the
golden apples in the garden of Atlas; and all around the nymphs, the
Hesperides, were busied, chanting their lovely song. But at that time,
stricken by Heracles, he lay fallen by the trunk of the apple-tree; only
the tip of his tail was still writhing; but