third time, a giant whose
body was of brass threatened them with a hideous death from which they
were saved only by the twins, Castor and Pollux. The homeward journey
of the _Argo_ was not less wild and difficult than her coming.

Yet, at the last, Jason brought back the Golden Fleece to Thessaly,
only to find that the false Pelias had slain Aeson and Jason's mother
and brother during the absence of the Argonauts. His crime was not
left unpunished. Medea persuaded the daughters of Pelias to cut their
father into small pieces and to boil the fragments in a pot with
certain witch-herbs that she gave them, falsely promising that by this
means the old king would regain his youth. Of the later life of Jason
and Medea, there is no need to speak. Misery was their lot, and their
deaths were not long delayed.

Thus, in fanciful guise, appears in the old Greek legend the record of
the European discovery of the alluvial gold deposits of Colchis, and
to the Argonauts was ascribed the honor of being the first to bring to
Greece the gold of Asia Minor. Even in those early days, the gift of
gold was regarded as the favor of the gods.

[Footnote 2: One book that should be in every boy's library is Charles
Kingsley's "The Heroes," in which the "Quest of the Golden Fleece" is
related with a beauty unequaled in the English language. The books of
A. J. Church, also, especially his "Stories from Homer," make the old
Greek demigods live once again.]

There is good reason to believe that the Siege of Troy--the subject of
Homer's Iliad--was not waged alone because of the beauty of Helen of
Troy, but also because the Greeks coveted Mycenaean gold. Excavations
made on the site of ancient Troy have revealed many thin plates of
beaten gold.

[Illustration: DIVINING-RODS.

A, Twig; B, Trench.

_From an Old Print._]

[Illustration: THE WORLD'S OLDEST PICTURE OF GOLD-SEEKERS.

The three ships of Queen Hatshepsut sent to the Land of Punt (possibly
Somaliland) in 1503-1481, B.C.

_From a wall-painting in the Temple of Deir-el-Bahri, near Thebes._]

Nor was the _Argo_ the only ship to set sail to unknown lands for
gold. As early as the fabled voyage of the Argonauts, or even earlier,
Queen Hatshepsut of Egypt--a mighty woman monarch of whom all too
little is known--sent an expedition to Punt (possibly Somaliland) for
incense and for gold. On the walls of the great temples built during
her reign are found paintings telling the story