eakers with shining crests; and the way between for your
passage out is narrow. And that sea stretches away in mist to the divine
land of Pelops beyond Crete; but hold to the right, when ye have entered
the swell of the sea from the lake, and steer your course hugging the
land, as long as it trends to the north; but when the coast bends,
falling away in the other direction, then your course is safely laid for
you if ye go straight forward from the projecting cape. But go in joy,
and as for labour let there be no grieving that limbs in youthful vigour
should still toil."

He spake with kindly counsel; and they at once went aboard, intent to
come forth from the lake by the use of oars. And eagerly they sped on;
meanwhile Triton took up the mighty tripod, and they saw him enter the
lake; but thereafter did no one mark how he vanished so near them along
with the tripod. But their hearts were cheered, for that one of the
blessed had met them in friendly guise. And they bade Aeson's son offer
to him the choicest of the sheep and when he had slain it chant the hymn
of praise. And straightway he chose in haste and raising the victim slew
it over the stern, and prayed with these words:

"Thou god, who hast manifested thyself on the borders of this land,
whether the daughters born of the sea call thee Triton, the great
sea-marvel, or Phorcys, or Nereus, be gracious, and grant the return
home dear to our hearts."

He spake, and cut the victim's throat over the water and cast it from
the stern. And the god rose up from the depths in form such as he really
was. And as when a man trains a swift steed for the broad race-course,
and runs along, grasping the bushy mane, while the steed follows obeying
his master, and rears his neck aloft in his pride, and the gleaming bit
rings loud as he champs it in his jaws from side to side; so the god,
seizing hollow Argo's keel, guided her onward to the sea. And his body,
from the crown of his head, round his back and waist as far as the
belly, was wondrously like that of the blessed ones in form; but below
his sides the tail of a sea monster lengthened far, forking to this side
and that; and he smote the surface of the waves with the spines, which
below parted into curving fins, like the horns of the new moon. And he
guided Argo on until he sped her into the sea on her course; and quickly
he plunged into the vast abyss; and the heroes shouted when they gazed
with their eyes on that dread porten