Cyzicus hereupon informed them that he and
his subjects were greatly abused and incommoded by the inhabitants of
a neighboring mountain, who made war upon them and killed many people
and ravaged the country. And while they were talking about it Cyzicus
pointed to the mountain and asked Jason and his companions what they
saw there.

"I see some very tall objects," answered Jason, "but they are at such
a distance that I cannot distinctly make out what they are. To tell
your majesty the truth, they look so very strangely that I am inclined
to think them clouds which have chanced to take something like human
shapes."

"I see them very plainly," remarked Lynceus, whose eyes, you know,
were as far-sighted as a telescope. "They are a band of enormous
giants, all of whom have six arms apiece, and a club, a sword or some
other weapon in each of their hands."

"You have excellent eyes," said King Cyzicus. "Yes, they are six-armed
giants, as you say, and these are the enemies whom I and my subjects
have to contend with."

The next day, when the Argonauts were about setting sail, down came
these terrible giants, stepping a hundred yards at a stride,
brandishing their six arms apiece and looking very formidable so far
aloft in the air. Each of these monsters was able to carry on a whole
war by himself, for with one of his arms he could fling immense stones
and wield a club with another and a sword with a third, while a fourth
was poking a long spear at the enemy and the fifth and sixth were
shooting him with a bow and arrow. But luckily, though the giants were
so huge and had so many arms, they had each but one heart and that no
bigger nor braver than the heart of an ordinary man. Besides, if they
had been like the hundred-armed Briareus, the brave Argonauts would
have given them their hands full of fight. Jason and his friends went
boldly to meet them, slew a great many and made the rest take to their
heels--so that if the giants had had six legs apiece instead of six
arms, it would have served them better to run away with.

Another strange adventure happened when the voyagers came to Thrace,
where they found a poor blind king named Phineus, deserted by his
subjects and living in a very sorrowful way all by himself. On Jason's
inquiring whether they could do him any service, the king answered
that he was terribly tormented by three great winged creatures called
Harpies, which had the faces of women and the wings, bodies and