l stir. Orpheus
thrummed away briskly and the galley slid at once into the sea,
dipping her prow so deeply that the figurehead drank the wave with its
marvelous lips, and rising again as buoyant as a swan. The rowers
plied their fifty oars, the white foam boiled up before the prow, the
water gurgled and bubbled in their wake, while Orpheus continued to
play so lively a strain of music that the vessel seemed to dance over
the billows by way of keeping time to it. Thus triumphantly did the
Argo sail out of the harbor amid the huzzas and good wishes of
everybody except the wicked old Pelias, who stood on a promontory
scowling at her and wishing that he could blow out of his lungs the
tempest of wrath that was in his heart and so sink the galley with all
on board. When they had sailed above fifty miles over the sea Lynceus
happened to cast his sharp eyes behind, and said that there was this
bad-hearted king, still perched upon the promontory, and scowling so
gloomily that it looked like a black thunder-cloud in that quarter of
the horizon.

In order to make the time pass away more pleasantly during the voyage,
the heroes talked about the Golden Fleece. It originally belonged, it
appears, to a Boeotian ram, who had taken on his back two children,
when in danger of their lives, and fled with them over land and sea as
far as Colchis. One of the children, whose name was Helle, fell into
the sea and was drowned. But the other (a little boy named Phrixus)
was brought safe ashore by the faithful ram, who, however, was so
exhausted that he immediately lay down and died. In memory of this
good deed, and as a token of his true heart, the fleece of the poor
dead ram was miraculously changed to gold and became one of the most
beautiful objects ever seen on earth. It was hung upon a tree in a
sacred grove, where it had now been kept I know not how many years,
and was the envy of mighty kings who had nothing so magnificent in any
of their palaces.

If I were to tell you all the adventures of the Argonauts it would
take me till nightfall and perhaps a great deal longer. There was no
lack of wonderful events, as you may judge from what you have already
heard. At a certain island they were hospitably received by King
Cyzicus, its sovereign, who made a feast for them and treated them
like brothers. But the Argonauts saw that this good king looked
downcast and very much troubled, and they therefore inquired of him
what was the matter. King