hy thief, with all that
was needful; for beforehand in the daytime had he taken thought for
everything; and Argus came bringing a ewe and milk from the flock; and
them he took from the ship. But when the hero saw a place which was
far away from the tread of men, in a clear meadow beneath the open sky,
there first of all he bathed his tender body reverently in the sacred
river; and round him he placed a dark robe, which Hypsipyle of Lemnos
had given him aforetime, a memorial of many a loving embrace. Then he
dug a pit in the ground of a cubit's depth and heaped up billets of
wood, and over it he cut the throat of the sheep, and duly placed the
carcase above; and he kindled the logs placing fire beneath, and poured
over them mingled libations, calling on Hecate Brimo to aid him in the
contests. And when he had called on her he drew back; and she heard him,
the dread goddess, from the uttermost depths and came to the sacrifice
of Aeson's son; and round her horrible serpents twined themselves among
the oak boughs; and there was a gleam of countless torches; and sharply
howled around her the hounds of hell. All the meadows trembled at her
step; and the nymphs that haunt the marsh and the river shrieked, all
who dance round that mead of Amarantian Phasis. And fear seized Aeson's
son, but not even so did he turn round as his feet bore him forth, till
he came back to his comrades; and now early dawn arose and shed her
light above snowy Caucasus.

(ll. 1225-1245) Then Aeetes arrayed his breast in the stiff corslet
which Ares gave him when he had slain Phlegraean Mimas with his own
hands; and upon his head he placed a golden helmet with four plumes,
gleaming like the sun's round light when he first rises from Ocean.
And he wielded his shield of many hides, and his spear, terrible,
resistless; none of the heroes could have withstood its shock now that
they had left behind Heracles far away, who alone could have met it in
battle. For the king his well-fashioned chariot of swift steeds was held
near at hand by Phaethon, for him to mount; and he mounted, and held the
reins in his hands. Then from the city he drove along the broad highway,
that he might be present at the contest; and with him a countless
multitude rushed forth. And as Poseidon rides, mounted in his chariot,
to the Isthmian contest or to Taenarus, or to Lerna's water, or through
the grove of Hyantian Onchestus, and thereafter passes even to Calaureia
with his steeds, a