ship, and Medea to the palace. But in the morning
Jason anointed himself and his armour with the drug, and all the heroes
struck at him with spears and swords, but the swords would not bite on
him nor on his armour. He felt so strong and light that he leaped in the
air with joy, and the sun shone on his glittering shield. Now they all
went up together to the field where the bulls were breathing flame.
There already was Aetes, with Medea, and all the Colchians had come to
see Jason die. A plough had been brought to which he was to harness the
bulls. Then he walked up to them, and they blew fire at him that flamed
all round him, but the magic drug protected him. He took a horn of one
bull in his right hand, and a horn of the other in his left, and dashed
their heads together so mightily that they fell.

When they rose, all trembling, he yoked them to the plough, and drove
them with his spear, till all the field was ploughed in straight ridges
and furrows. Then he dipped his helmet in the river, and drank water,
for he was weary; and next he sowed the dragon's teeth on the right and
left. Then you might see spear points, and sword points, and crests of
helmets break up from the soil like shoots of corn, and presently the
earth was shaken like sea waves, as armed men leaped out of the furrows,
all furious for battle, and all rushed to slay Jason. But he, as Medea
had told him to do, caught up a great rock, and threw it among them, and
he who was struck by the rock said to his neighbour, 'You struck me;
take that!' and ran his spear through that man's breast, but before he
could draw it out another man had cleft his helmet with a stroke, and so
it went: an hour of striking and shouting, while the sparks of fire
sprang up from helmet and breastplate and shield. The furrows ran red
with blood, and wounded men crawled on hands and knees to strike or stab
those that were yet standing and fighting. So axes and sword and spear
flashed and fell, till now all the men were down but one, taller and
stronger than the rest. Round him he looked, and saw only Jason standing
there, and he staggered toward him, bleeding, and lifting his great axe
above his head. But Jason only stepped aside from the blow which would
have cloven him to the waist, the last blow of the Men of the Dragon's
Teeth, for he who struck fell, and there he lay and died.

Then Jason went to the king, where he sat looking darkly on, and said,
'O King, the field is ploug