she hath done to the King and to
his daughter. But of her I think not so much as of her children. For I
would save them, lest the kinsmen of the dead do them some harm, seeking
vengeance for the bloody deed of their mother."

Then the women answered, "O Jason, thou knowest not the truth, or thou
wouldst not speak such words."

"How so? Would she kill me also?"

"Thy children are dead, slain by the hand of their mother."

"Dead are they? When did she slay them?"

"If thou wilt open the gates thou wilt see the dead corpses of thy
children."

But when he battered at the gates, and cried out that they should open
to him, he heard a voice from above, and saw Medea borne in a chariot,
with winged dragons for horses, who cried to him, "Why seekest thou the
dead and me that slew them? Trouble not thyself. If thou wantest aught
of me, say on, but thou shalt never touch me with thy hand. For this
chariot, which my father the Sun hath given me, shalt deliver me out of
thy hands."

Then Jason cried, "Thou art an accursed woman, that hast slain thy own
children with the sword, and yet darest to look upon the earth and the
sun. What madness was it that I brought thee from thy own country to
this land of Greece, for thou didst betray thy father and slay thy
brother with the sword, and now thou hast killed thine own children, to
avenge what thou deemest thine own wrong. No woman art thou, but a
lioness or monster of the sea."

And to these things she answered, "Call me what thou wilt, lioness or
monster of the sea; but this I know, that I have pierced thy heart. And
as for thy children, thou shalt not touch them or see them any more; for
I will bear them to the grove of Here and bury them there, lest some
enemy should break up their tomb and do them some dishonour. And I
myself go to the land of Attica, where I shall dwell with King AEgeus,
the son of Pandion. And as for thee, thou shalt perish miserably, for a
beam from the ship Argo shall smite thee on the head. So shalt thou
die."

Thus was the vengeance of Medea accomplished.

THE STORY OF THE DEATH OF HERCULES.

Oeneus, who was king of the city of Pleuron in the land of AEtolia, had
a fair daughter, Deianeira by name. Now the maiden was sought in
marriage by the god of the river Acheloues; but she loved him not, for he
was strange and terrible to look at. Sometimes he had the shape of a
great dragon with scales, and sometimes he had the shape of a man, only