to youth. She went forth by moonlight, gathered a number
of herbs, and then, putting them in a caldron, she cut old AEson into
pieces, threw them in, and boiled them all night. In the morning AEson
appeared as a lively black-haired young man, no older than his son.
Pelias' daughters came and begged her to teach them the same spell. She
feigned to do so, but she did not tell them the true herbs, and thus the
poor maidens only slew their father, and did not bring him to life again.
The son of Pelias drove the treacherous Medea and her husband from
Iolcus, and they went to Corinth, where they lived ten years, until Jason
grew weary of Medea, and put her away, in order to marry Creusa, the
king's daughter. In her rage, Medea sent the bride the fatal gift of a
poisoned robe, then she killed her own children, and flew away, in a
chariot drawn by winged serpents, to the east, where she became the
mother of a son named Medus, from whom the nation of Medes was descended.
As to Jason, he had fallen asleep at noon one hot day under the shade of
the Argo, where it was drawn up on the sand by Neptune's temple, when a
bit of wood broke off from the prow, fell on his head, and killed him.

[Picture: Corinth]

Of the other Argonauts, Orpheus went to Thessaly, and there taught and
softened the people much by his music. He married a fair maiden named
Eurydice, with whom he lived happily and peacefully, till she was bitten
by a venomous serpent and died. Orpheus was so wretched that he set
forth to try to bring her back from Tartarus. He went with nothing but
his lyre, and his music was so sweet that Cerberus stood listening, and
let him pass, and all the torments of the Danaids, Sisyphus and all the
rest, ceased while he was playing. His song even brought tears into
Pluto's eyes, and Proserpine, who guarded the female dead, gave him leave
to take back Eurydice to the light of day, provided he did not once look
back as he led her out of Tartarus.

Orpheus had to walk first, and, as he went up the long, dark cavern, with
Eurydice behind him, he carefully obeyed, till, just as he was reaching
the upper air, he unhappily forgot, and turned his head to see whether
she were following. He just saw her stretch out her hands to him, and
then she was drawn back, and vanished from his sight. The gates were
closed, and he had lost her again. After this he wandered sadly about,
all his songs turned to woe, unt