erbs with which she used to
bewitch strangers whoever came; and she herself with murderous blood
quenched the glowing flame, drawing it up in her hands; and she ceased
from deadly fear. Wherefore when morning came she rose, and with
sea-spray was bathing her hair and her garments. And beasts, not
resembling the beasts of the wild, nor yet like men in body, but with a
medley of limbs, went in a throng, as sheep from the fold in multitudes
follow the shepherd. Such creatures, compacted of various limbs, did
each herself produce from the primeval slime when she had not yet grown
solid beneath a rainless sky nor yet had received a drop of moisture
from the rays of the scorching sun; but time combined these forms and
marshalled them in their ranks; in such wise these monsters shapeless of
form followed her. And exceeding wonder seized the heroes, and at once,
as each gazed on the form and face of Circe, they readily guessed that
she was the sister of Aeetes.

(ll. 685-717) Now when she had dismissed the fears of her nightly
visions, straightway she fared backwards, and in her subtlety she bade
the heroes follow, charming them on with her hand. Thereupon the host
remained stedfast at the bidding of Aeson's son, but Jason drew with him
the Colchian maid. And both followed the selfsame path till they reached
the hall of Circe, and she in amaze at their coming bade them sit on
brightly burnished seats. And they, quiet and silent, sped to the hearth
and sat there, as is the wont of wretched suppliants. Medea hid her face
in both her hands, but Jason fixed in the ground the mighty hilted sword
with which he had slain Aeetes' son; nor did they raise their eyes
to meet her look. And straightway Circe became aware of the doom of
a suppliant and the guilt of murder. Wherefore in reverence for the
ordinance of Zeus, the god of suppliants, who is a god of wrath yet
mightily aids slayers of men, she began to offer the sacrifice with
which ruthless suppliants are cleansed from guilt when they approach the
altar. First, to atone for the murder still unexpiated, she held above
their heads the young of a sow whose dugs yet swelled from the fruit of
the womb, and, severing its neck, sprinkled their hands with the blood;
and again she made propitiation with other drink offerings, calling on
Zeus the Cleanser, the protector of murder-stained suppliants. And all
the defilements in a mass her attendants bore forth from the palace--the
Naiad nymph