tiate and invoke the
Death-spirits, devourers of life, the swift hounds of Hades, who,
hovering through all the air, swoop down on the living. Kneeling in
supplication, thrice she called on them with songs, and thrice with
prayers; and, shaping her soul to mischief, with her hostile glance she
bewitched the eyes of Talos, the man of bronze; and her teeth gnashed
bitter wrath against him, and she sent forth baneful phantoms in the
frenzy of her rage.

Father Zeus, surely great wonder rises in my mind, seeing that dire
destruction meets us not from disease and wounds alone, but lo! even
from afar, may be, it tortures us! So Talos, for all his frame of
bronze, yielded the victory to the might of Medea the sorceress. And as
he was heaving massy rocks to stay them from reaching the haven, he
grazed his ankle on a pointed crag; and the ichor gushed forth like
melted lead; and not long thereafter did he stand towering on the
jutting cliff. But even as some huge pine, high up on the mountains,
which woodmen have left half hewn through by their sharp axes when they
returned from the forest--at first it shivers in the wind by night, then
at last snaps at the stump and crashes down; so Talos for a while stood
on his tireless feet, swaying to and fro, then at last, all
strengthless, fell with a mighty thud. For that night there in Crete the
heroes lay; then, just as dawn was growing bright, they built a shrine
to Minoan Athena, and drew water and went aboard, so that first of all
they might by rowing pass beyond Salmone's height.

But straightway as they sped over the wide Cretan sea night scared them,
that night which they name the Pall of Darkness; the stars pierced not
that fatal night nor the beams of the moon, but black chaos descended
from heaven, or haply some other darkness came, rising from the
nethermost depths. And the heroes, whether they drifted in Hades or on
the waters, knew not one whit; but they committed their return to the
sea in helpless doubt whither it was bearing them. But Jason raised his
hands and cried to Phoebus with mighty voice, calling on him to save
them; and the tears ran down in his distress; and often did he promise
to bring countless offerings to Pytho, to Amyclae, and to Ortygia. And
quickly, O son of Leto, swift to hear, didst thou come down from heaven
to the Melantian rocks, which lie there in the sea. Then darting upon
one of the twin peaks, thou raisedst aloft in thy right hand thy golden