go near it. And
Phrixus married the king's daughter, and lived long, till he died also,
and a king called Aetes, the brother of the enchantress, Circe, ruled
that country. Of all the things he had, the rarest was the Golden
Fleece, and it became a proverb that nobody could take that Fleece away,
nor deceive the Dragon who guarded it.

II

THE SEARCH FOR THE FLEECE

Some years after the Golden Ram died in Colchis, far across the sea, a
certain king reigned in Iolcos in Greece, and his name was Pelias. He
was not the rightful king, for he had turned his stepbrother, King Aeson,
from the throne, and taken it for himself. Now, Aeson had a son, a boy
called Jason, and he sent him far away from Pelias, up into the
mountains. In these hills there was a great cave, and in that cave lived
Chiron the Wise, who, the story says, was half a horse. He had the head
and breast of a man, but a horse's body and legs. He was famed for
knowing more about everything than anyone else in all Greece. He knew
about the stars, and the plants of earth, which were good for medicine
and which were poisonous. He was the best archer with the bow, and the
best player of the harp; he could sing songs and tell stories of old
times, for he was the last of a people, half horse and half man, who had
dwelt in ancient days on the hills. Therefore the kings in Greece sent
their sons to him to be taught shooting, singing, and telling the truth,
and that was all the teaching they had then, except that they learned to
hunt, fish, and fight, and throw spears, and toss the hammer and the
stone. There Jason lived with Chiron and the boys in the cave, and many
of the boys became famous.

There was Orpheus who played the harp so sweetly that wild beasts
followed his minstrelsy, and even the trees danced after him, and
settled where he stopped playing. There was Mopsus who could understand
what the birds say to each other; and there was Butes, the handsomest of
men; and Tiphys, the best steersman of a ship; and Castor, with his
brother Polydeuces, the boxer. Heracles, too, the strongest man in the
whole world, was there; and Lynceus, whom they called Keen-eye, because
he could see so far, and could see even the dead men in their graves
under the earth. There was Ephemus, so swift and light-footed that he
could run upon the gray sea and never wet his feet; and there were
Calais and Zetes, the two sons of the North Wind, with golden wings upon
their feet. T