y all
round through the whole of Europe and Asia, trusting in the might and
strength and courage of his people; and countless cities did he found
wherever he came, whereof some are still inhabited and some not; many
an age hath passed since then. But Aea abides unshaken even now and the
sons of those men whom that king settled to dwell in Aea. They preserve
the writings of their fathers, graven on pillars, whereon are marked
all the ways and the limits of sea and land as ye journey on all
sides round. There is a river, the uttermost horn of Ocean, broad and
exceeding deep, that a merchant ship may traverse; they call it Ister
and have marked it far off; and for a while it cleaves the boundless
tilth alone in one stream; for beyond the blasts of the north wind, far
off in the Rhipaean mountains, its springs burst forth with a roar.
But when it enters the boundaries of the Thracians and Scythians, here,
dividing its stream into two, it sends its waters partly into the Ionian
sea, [1402] and partly to the south into a deep gulf that bends upwards
from the Trinaerian sea, that sea which lies along your land, if indeed
Achelous flows forth from your land."

(ll. 204-302) Thus he spake, and to them the goddess granted a happy
portent, and all at the sight shouted approval, that this was their
appointed path. For before them appeared a trail of heavenly light, a
sign where they might pass. And gladly they left behind there the son of
Lyeus and with canvas outspread sailed over the sea, with their eyes
on the Paphlagonian mountains. But they did not round Carambis, for
the winds and the gleam of the heavenly fire stayed with them till they
reached Ister's mighty stream.

(ll. 303-337) Now some of the Colchians, in a vain search, passed out
from Pontus through the Cyanean rocks; but the rest went to the river,
and them Apsyrtus led, and, turning aside, he entered the mouth called
Fair. Wherefore he outstripped the heroes by crossing a neck of land
into the furthest gulf of the Ionian sea. For a certain island is
enclosed by Ister, by name Peuee, three-cornered, its base stretching
along the coast, and with a sharp angle towards the river; and round it
the outfall is cleft in two. One mouth they call the mouth of Narex, and
the other, at the lower end, the Fair mouth. And through this Apsyrtus
and his Colchians rushed with all speed; but the heroes went upwards
far away towards the highest part of the island. And in the meadows