longings, too. He longed
to enter Iolcus and to show the people the Golden Fleece that he had
won; he longed to destroy Pelias, the murderer of his mother and
father; above all he longed to be a king, and to rule in the kingdom
that Cretheus had founded.

Once Jason spoke to Medea of his longing. "O Jason," Medea said, "I
have done many things for thee and this thing also I will do. I will go
into Iolcus, and by my enchantments I will make clear the way for the
return of the Argo and for thy return with thy comrades-yea, and for
thy coming to the kingship, O Jason."

He should have remembered then the words of Queen Arete to Medea, but
the longing that he had for his triumph and his revenge was in the way
of his remembering. He said, "O Medea, help me in this with all thine
enchantments and thou wilt be more dear to me than ever before thou
wert."

Medea then went forth from the palace of King Creon and she made more
terrible spells than ever she had made in Colchis. All night she stayed
in a tangled place weaving her spells. Dawn came, and she knew that the
spells she had woven had not been in vain, for beside her there stood a
car that was drawn by dragons.

Medea the Enchantress had never looked on these dragon shapes before.
When she looked upon them now she was fearful of them. But then she
said to herself, "I am Medea, and I would be a greater enchantress and
a more cunning woman than I have been, and what I have thought of, that
will I carry out." She mounted the car drawn by the dragons, and in the
first light of the day she went from Corinth.

To the places where grew the herbs of magic Medea journeyed in her
dragon-drawn car--to the Mountains Ossa, Pelion, Oethrys, Pindus, and
Olympus; then to the rivers Apidanus, Enipeus, and Peneus. She gathered
herbs on the mountains and grasses on the rivers' banks; some she
plucked up by the roots and some she cut with the curved blade of a
knife. When she had gathered these herbs and grasses she went back to
Corinth on her dragon-drawn car.

Then Jason saw her; pale and drawn was her face, and her eyes were
strange and gleaming. He saw her standing by the car drawn by the
dragons, and a terror of Medea came into his mind. He went toward her,
but in a harsh voice she bade him not come near to disturb the brewing
that she was going to begin. Jason turned away. As he went toward the
palace he saw Glauce, King Creon's daughter; the maiden was coming from
the well an