Thoughts on Truth - Philosophy

The Voyage of Argo

[King Pelias's solution to his fear of the prophecy. 1-10 pg. 35]

Idmon was the last to come, last because his own bird-lore had told him he would die. And yet he came: he was afraid for his own good name at home. 1-140

She loved them ... them back. pg. 39

Poor Alcimede, tasting calamity at last, so late in life, with no hope now of an unclouded end! And what an evil stroke for Aeson too! Better for him if he had long since been lying in the grave, wrapped in his shroud, in happy ignorance of this ill-starred expedition. 1-251

like a girl who in her loneliness falls into the arms of her old nurse, her one remaining friend, to ease her heart, fresh from the blows and insults of the stepmother who makes her life a misery. She weeps, and in such black despair that the sobs come welling up too fast for utterance. 1-268

How blind I was! Never once, not even in a dream, did I imagine that the flight of Phrixus could bring calamity to me! 1-288

I beg you not to dwell so bitterly on your distress. No tears of yours will save me from misfortune; you will only be piling trouble upon trouble. We mortals cannot see what blows the gods may have in store for us; and you, for all your heartache, must endure your share with fortitude. 1-292

She was left there by the roadside, as the old are left by the young. 1-312

We are all partners in this voyage to Cholcis; partners too in the return to Hellas that we hope for. So now it is for you to chose the best man here to be our leader. And chose him in no partial spirit. Everything will rest with him. When we meet foreigners, it will be he who must decide whether to deal with them as enemies or friends. 1-337

cast lots for your places on the rowing benches.

they began to tell each other stories; as young men often do at a banquet to amuse themselves, when all goes pleasantly and nobody is in a mood to pick an ugly quarrel. 1-456

Your words are deadly and you will be the first to suffer for them. You are a bold man; but it seems that this strong wine has made you overbold, blinding your judgment when it lead you to insult the gods. 1-476

He spoke in anger with the will to wound; and the quarrel would have still gone further, had not their comrades checked the contending pair with loud remonstrances. 1-491

The married men, seized with loathing for their lawful wives, had cast them off, conceiving an unruly passion for the captured girls they brought across the sea from raids in Thrace. The Lemnian wives had for long neglected the homage due to Aphrodite, and this was the angry Cyprian's punishment. Unhappy women! Their soul-destroying and insensate jealousy drove them to kill not only their husbands and the girls who had usurped their beds, but every male as well in order that they might not have to pay the price one day for this atrocious massacre. 1-610

nevertheless they lived in dire dread of the Thracians; and they cast many a glance across the intervening sea in case they might be coming. So when they saw Argo rowing up to the island, they at once equipped themselves for war and poured out in wild haste from the gates of Myrine, like ravening Thyiads, thinking that the Thracians had come. Hypsipyle joined them, dressed in her father Thaos's armor. It was a panic-stricken rabble, speechless and impotent with fear, that streamed down to the beach. 1-629

we must conciliate these people by our generosity. Let us supply them with food, good wine, and all that they may want to have with them on board, so as to make sure that they may want to have with them on board, so as to make sure that they shall never come inside our walls, or get to know us well, as they would do if they were driven by their needs to mingle with us freely. The evil news of what we did would travel everywhere. It was a great crime that we committed, and one by no means likely to endear us to these men, if they came to know it, or indeed to others. Well, you have heard what I propose. If any woman among you has a better plan, let her stand up. It was for that purpose that I brought you here. 1-657

We must accomodate these strangers: it is better to give than to be robbed. But that alone will not ensure your future happiness. What if the Thracians attack us, or some other enemy appears? Such things happen, and they happen unannounced - you saw how these men came. But even if heaven spares us that calamity, there are many troubles worse than war that you will have to meet as time goes on. 1-677

and her strong desire to join him in the quest. But he had dissuaded her, fearing the bitter quarrels that a lovely girl would cause. 1-771

Hypsipyle turned her eyes aside and blushed as maidens do. Yet for all her modesty, her speech was calculated to deceive. 1-792

They brought home plenty of booty, and they brought women too. But that malignant goddess Aphrodite had for some time had her eye on them. And now she struck, depriving them of all sense of right and wrong. As a result they conceived a loathing for their wedded wives; they turned them out of doors; and then the brutes indulged their passion by sleeping with the captives of their spears. For a long time we put up with this. We hoped their might be a change of heart before it was too late. But the evil grew. 1-800

Thus she glossed over the massacre and what had really happened to the men. 1-835

[Cypris] And they did not find it difficult to make the Argonauts come home with them for entertainment. Cypris, the goddess of desire, had done her sweet work in their hearts. 1-848

[Putting off the trip because of the partying with women of Lemnos] pg. 59

Fleeces do not come to people of their own accord. 1-871

[The Hellespont takes its name from Athama's daughter] pg. 61

[Mistaken identity] pg. 63

he had had his span of life, and more than that no mortal can command - we are like birds trapped in the wide net of destiny. And so this man was caught: he thought that he had escaped the worst that the Argonauts might do to him, but that very night he fought them and died. 1-1033

Her heart was flooded by desire; she had a struggle to regain her scattered wits. 1-1230

Tumult and fierce recrimination followed: they had sailed without the bravest Argonaut of all. But Jason, paralyzed by a sense of utter helplessness, added no word to either side in this dispute. He sat and ate his heart out, crushed by the calamity. Telamon was enraged. "You may well sit there at your ease," he cried,"since nothing suits you better than to abandon Heracles. You planned the whole affair yourself so that his fame in Hellas should not eclipse your own, if we have the good fortune to return. 1-1285

do not be angry with me if in a foolish moment I was blinded. An intolerable affront was forced from me in my distress. May the winds blow away the offence, and let us two, who always have been friends, be friends again." The son of Aeson answered him with wise forbearance. "My good sir," he said, "you did indeed insult me grievously when you accused me, before all these, of having wronged a loyal friend. I was cut to the quick, but I am not going to nurse a grudge. For you were not quarrelling with me about a flock of sheep or worldly goods, but about a man, a comrade of your own. And I like to think that if the occasion arose you would stand up for me against others as boldly as you did for him." This was enough. They both sat down united as they had been before. 1-1332

Otherwise you will find to your sorrow that if you defy my laws you will be brought by main force to obey them." His high-handed manner roused them to fury. 2-15

We will cast no lots for these, but to avoid recriminations later, I make you a present of whichever pair you fancy. 2-56

But there were weak points as well as strong in his opponent's savage style, and once he had taken his measure, he stood up to him and gave him punch for punch. 2-75

Yet bitter necessity that cannot be gainsaid, not only keeps me there, but forces me to pamper my accursed belly. 2-231

No one is ... his cause. pg. 80

he was as happy as a man in a delightful dream. 2-306

Now if, ... you best. pg. 82

His recital left the Argonauts dismayed. There was a long silence, which the lord Jason was the first to break. He was unmanned by his misgivings. 2-406

You see, my friends, that not everyone is graceless or forgetful of benefits received. I am thinking of Paraebius, who came here just now to have his fortune told. There was a time in that man's life when the more he toiled the harder he found it to keep body and soul together. He sank lower day by day, and there was no respite from his labors. 2-468

But in the headstrong arrogance of youth. 2-479

and never since that day has he forgotten or neglected me. Indeed, he is so determined to stand by me in my troubles that I find it very hard to make him leave the house. 2-485

There comes a moment to the patient traveller (and there are many such that wander far afield) when the road ahead of him is clear and the distance so foreshortened that he has a vision of his home, he sees his way to it over land and sea, and in his fancy travels there and back so quickly that it seems to stand before his eager eyes. 2-540

But Jason, for ... fear nothing. pg. 90

These were surely the slayers of Amycus - so much they had already heard. And it was quite enough; they made a league with them forthwith. As for Polydeuces, they flocked in from every side to welcome him as a god, bearing in mind their own long struggles with the insolent Bebryces. Then they all went up to the city like good friends and spent the day in feasting and agreeable talk in the palace of Lycus. 2-753

Their grief at this catastrophe was profound, and when they had buried him also, close to the other, they cast themselves down by the sea in despair and lay there wrapped up in figures cut in stone, without a word and with no thought of food or drink. There was no spirit left in them; all hope of finding their way back was gone, and they might have stayed there in their grief still longer had not the goddess Hera filled Ancaeus with the courage that that dares all. 2-858

why indulge in this unprofitable grief? When our two comrades died, that must have been their destiny. But we have other steersman with us, plenty of them. On, then, with our adventure; there is no excuse for loitering. Wake up, I say, and work, casting your sorrows to the winds." But Jason took him up, he could see no light ahead. "My lord Peleus," he said, "where are these pilots of yours? The seamen whom we used to count on are even more despondent and unmanned than I am. Indeed, I see nothing for us but a fate as sad as that of our lost friends. For it looks as though we should neither reach the terrible Aeetes' city nor find our way back to Hellas past the Clashing Rocks. No, we are doomed to grow old here, inglorious and obscure, with nothing done. 2-879

where Zeus himself had once given a home to Sinope, daughter of Asopus, granting her the boon of virginity. He was trapped by his own promise. In his passion for the girl he had solemnly sworn to fulfill her dearest wish, whatever that might be; and she very cleverly had said, "I wish to remain a virgin." 2-944

These people have their own ideas of what is right and proper. What we as a rule do openly in town or market-place they do at home; and what we do in the privacy of our houses they do out of doors in the open street, and nobody thinks the worse of them. Even the sexual act puts no one to the blush in this community. On the contrary, like swine on the fields, they lie down on the ground in promiscuous intercourse and are not at all disconcerted by the presence of others. Then again, their king sits in the loftiest hut of all to dispense justice to his numerous subjects. But if the poor man happens to make a mistake in his findings, they lock him up and give him nothing to eat for the rest of the day. 2-1017

What he did was to take his stand on a height and make a din by shaking a bronze rattle; and the astounded birds flew off into the distance screeching for fear. We must take our cue from him. I myself have had an idea which I should like to put to you. I suggest that you should all set your crested helmets on your heads and take it in turns, one half to row, the others to protect the ship with their polished spears and shields. Then the whole company must raise a terrific shout, so that the birds may be scared away by a noise that will be new to them, as well as by the nodding crests and above them your uplifted spears. When we reach the island, if we make it, you can raise a tremendous racket by banging on your shields. 2-1054

But the Argonauts sat there in comfort, like people in a town on which the Son of Cronos has discharged a hail storm from the clouds. They hear the hail stones rattle on their roofs, but they do not worry. The stormy season has not caught them unprepared: they have roofed their houses well. 2-1085

[Arcturus] pg. 103

We shall be glad," he said, "to provide at once for all your needs. But first be so good as to tell me where you come from and what business has brought you overseas. And let me know your noble names and pedigrees.' 2-1137

do not give way to such excessive fears. We are not after all so feeble as to be no match for Aeetes if it comes to a fight. He will be meeting men whom I believe to know as much of war as he does. 2-1219

It is time for us to consider whether to speak to Aeetes fair or to find some other way of getting what we want. 2-1277

How did Medea's ... delights. pg. 109

Will you think ... neglected. pg. 109

gave her visitors a smile, and spoke with mock humility: "Ladies, you honor me! What brings you here after so long? We have seen little of you in the past. To what then do I owe a visit from the greatest goddesses of all?" "This levity of yours," said Hera, "is ill timed. 3-50

I was disguised ... to honor him. pg. 110

Hera had finished ... by and by. pg. 111

you won the game unfairly by cheating a beginner. 3-130

but you must act at once, or I may not be so generous. 3-141

imploring her to let him have the ball at once. But she gently refused and drawing him towards her, held him close and kissed his cheecks. Then with a smile she said, "By your own dear head and mine, I swear I will not disappoint you. You shall have the gift when you have shot an arrow into Medea's heart." 3-145

I am going ... sacrifice him. pg. 114

But she had her moan to make. 3-293

Meanwhile Eros ... to rose. pg. 116

The King was filled with rage as he listened to Argus. And now, in a towering passion, he gave vent to his displeasure, the brunt of which fell on the sons of Chalciope, whom he held responsible for the presence of the rest [accusing them of being after his thrown] 3-367

Telamon's gorge rose at this outburst from the angry king, and he was on the point of flinging back defiance, to his own undoing, when he was checked by Jason, who forestalled him with a more politic reply. 3-382

Therefore I will take up your challenge, in spite of its preposterous terms, and though I may be courting death. Men serve no harsher mistress than Necessity, who drives me now and forced me to come here at another king's behest. 3-428

I will take the matter up myself in a manner calculated to make others shrink from coming here and pestering their betters. 3-435

As the party went out of the hall, Jason's comeliness and charm singled him out from all the rest; and Medea, plucking her bright veil aside, turned wondering eyes upon him. Her heart smouldered with pain and as he passed from sight her soul crept out of her, as in a dream, and fluttered in his steps. They left the palace with heavy hearts. Meanwhile Chalciope, to save herself from Aeetes's wrath, had hastily withdrawn to her own room together with her sons. Medea too retired, a prey to all the inquietude that love awakens. The whole scene was still before her eyes - how Jason looked, the clothes he wore, the things he said, the way he sat, and how he walked to the door. It seemed to her, as she reviewed these images, that there was nobody like Jason. His voice and the honey-sweet words that he had used still rang in her ears. But she feared for him. pg. 3-441

While Medea thus tormented herself, Jason was listening to some advice from Argus, who had waited to address him till the people and the town were left behind and the party were retracing their steps across the plain. 3-470

You will not like it; but in a crisis no expedient should be left untried. 3-474

But oh, how bleak the prospect is, with our one hope of seeing home again in women's hands!' 3-485

The task ... it to these. pg. 122

it is always better to think twice before one throws away one's life for nothing. 3-527

My mother, her own sister, might persuade her to be our ally in the hour of trial; and with your approval I am prepared to go back to Aeete's palace this very day and see what I can do. Who knows? Some friendly Power may come to my assistance. 3-535

For shame! Have we come here to trot along with women, calling on Aphrodite to support us, instead of the mighty god of battle? Do you look to doves and hawks to get you out of trouble? Well, please yourselves! Forget that you are fighters. Pay court to girls and turn their silly heads. 3-555

And we ourselves will now make fast with hawsers from the river to the shore, where anyone can see us. We certainly ought not to hide here any longer as though we were afraid of fighting. 3-568

burn the ship with every man on board, to cure them once for all of the intolerable airs they gave themselves, these enterprising buccaneers. It was true that he had welcomed Phrixus to his palace, but whatever the man's plight, he certainly would not have done so, though he had never known a foreigner so gentle and so well-conducted, if Zeus himself had not sent Hermes speeding down from Heaven to see that he met with a sympathetic host. Much less should pirates landing in his country be left unpunished, men whose sole concern it was to get their hands on other people's goods, to lie in ambush plotting a sudden stroke, to sally out, cry havoc, and raid farmer's yards. 3-580

ordering them, with many threats, to watch the ship and the men themselves so that no one should escape his doom. 3-607

she had hesitated. On the one hand, she was afraid of failure: Medea might be so appalled by thoughts of her father's wrath that all entreaties would fall upon deaf ears. On the other, she feared that if her sister yielded to her prayers the whole conspiracy would be laid bare. 3-612

Dreams assailed her, deceitful dreams, the nightmares of a soul in pain. 3-618

Away with modesty! I will stand aside no longer; I will go to my sister. She is anxious for her sons and well might ask me for my help in the ordeal. And so my heartache would be eased. 3-642

But once outside ... Medea wept. pg. 127

Medea blushed ... disclosure. pg. 127

[Medea happy about helping Jason but telling Chalciope she was doing it for her and her sons] pg. 129

But Medea, left alone, fell a prey once more to shame and horror at the way in which she planned to help a man in defiance of her father's wishes. 3-738

In her ... will go on. pg. 129

with Jason dead ... scheme. pg. 130

and in a moment ... ever been before. pg. 131

[Medea's lie] pg. 133

no offspring of the other gods, could have outshone him on that day, he was so good to look at, so delightful to talk to. Even his companions, as they glanced at him, were fascinated by his radiant charm. 3-921

You must go to her alone and attach her to yourself by your own persuasive eloquence. 3-946

Meanwhile Medea ... speak to him (pg. 134-136)

Nevertheless, do not at any moment flinch from the encounter. 3-1050

if I escape and live to reach Achaea; if Aeetes does not set us a still more formidable task; never by night or day shall I forget you. 3-1079

He had thought by talking in this gentle way, to soothe Medea. But she was now obsessed by the gloomiest forebodings; embittered too. And she answered him with passion: "No doubt in Hellas people think it right to honor their agreements. But Aeetes is not the kind of man that Minos was, if what you say of him is true; and as for Ariadne, I cannot claim to be a match for her. So do not talk of friendliness to strangers. 3-1104

Nothing shall part us in our love till Death at his appointed hour removes us from the light of day." As she heard these words of his, her heart melted within her. And yet she shuddered as she thought of the disasterous step she was about to take. Poor girl! She was not going to refuse for long this offer of a home in Hellas. 3-1126

But Medea had no thought of leaving yet; she was entranced both by his comeliness and his bewitching talk. At last, however, Jason, who had kept his wits about him, said, "Now we must part, or the sun will set before we know it. Besides, some passer-by might see us. But we will meet each other here again." By gentle steps they had advanced so far towards an understanding. 3-1141

But as they gathered round, she did not even notice them: her head was in the clouds. Without knowing what she did. 3-1150

Idas was the only memeber of the company who was not impressed. He sat aloof, nursing his resentment. 3-1167

During the day he had prepared himself, and so had everything he needed with him. 3-1197

[Not turning around to look] pg. 139 and 141

Then flexed his knees to keep them supple; and as fresh courage filled his heart, he lashed himself into a fury. 3-1349

So might some farmer threatened by a frontier war snatch up a newly sharpened sickle and, lest the enemy should reap his fields before him, hasten to cut down the unripe corn, not waiting for the season and the sun to ripen it. 3-1410

He was consumed with rage at the lamentable outcome of the test, and by no means satisfied that his daughters had not had a hand in the affair. Meanwhile, the goddess Hera filled Medea's heart with agonizing fears. She trembeled like a tender fawn caught in a woodland thicket and terrified by the baying of the hounds. She realized at once that her father could not fail to know what she had done for Jason, and that she would soon be called on to pay the price in full. She also feared the maids who had seen something of their secret meeting. Her eyes burnt and there was a fearful roaring in her ears. Often in her accute distress she groaned, she clutched her throat, she tore her hair. Indeed she would have taken poison then and there and died before her time, frustrating the designs of Hera, had not the goddess put it in her troubled mind that she might flee with Phrixus's sons. This thought stilled her fluttering heart and fortitude returned. 4-2

So I am not the only one to go astray for love, I that yearn for beautiful Endymion and seek him in the Latmian cave. 4-57

And now you are as lovesick as myself. The little god of mischief has given you Jason, and many a heartache with him. Well, go your way; but clever as you are, steel yourself now to face a life of sighs and misery. 4-62

It was then that Medea had a wild moment of regret. She started to go back, stretching her hands out to the shore. But Jason went to her with reassuring words and checked her desparate design. 4-106

But now and again he made a bundle of it in his arms. He was mortally afraid that some god or man might rob him on the way. 4-180

and once there ... host and guest exchange. (pg. 156-158)

Medea gave the heralds a message for Apsyrtus that would serve as bait. As soon as she had come to the temple of Artemis in accordance with the treaty, he was to meet her there under cover of night. She was planning to steal the golden fleece and return with him to the palace of Aeetes - they must confer. And as a pretext for her treachery she said that the sons of Phrixus had compelled her to go off with the Argonauts. Such was the lure. 4-435

Unconscionable Love, bane and tormentor of mankind, parent of strife, fountain of tears, source of a thousand ills, rise, mighty Power, and fall on the sons of our enemies with all the force you used upon Medea when you filled her with insensate fury. For Apsyrtus did obey her call and she destroyed him foully. 4-446

tempted by ... Artemis. pg. 159

They sat down to plot their future course. This needed careful thought, and they were still debating when Medea joined them. But Peleus was the first to come forward with a plan. "We must embark," he said, "while it is still dark and row through the passage opposite to that commanded by the enemy. At dawn they will discover what has happened, and I am convinced that after that no consideration will induce them to prolong the chase. They will have lost their prince; there will be bitter quarrels that will break them up; and when their forces are dispersed, it should be easy for us to return here and resume our present course. 4-492

Nondescript monsters such as these, fitted with miscellaneous limbs, were once produced spontaneously by Earth out of the primeval mud, when she had not yet solidified under a rainless sky and was deriving no moisture from the blazing sun. But Time, combining this with that, brought the animal creation into order. 4-677

the god of suppliants, who heartily abhors the killing of a man, and yet as heartily befriends the killer. She set about the rights by which a ruthless slayer is absolved when he seeks asylum at the hearth. First, to atone for the unexpiated murder, she took a suckling pig from a sow with dugs still swollen after littering. Holding it over them, she cut its throat and let the blood fall on their hands. Next she propitiated Zeus with other libations, calling on him as the Cleanser, who listens to a murderer's prayer with friendly ears. Then the attendent Naiads who did her housework carried all the refuse out of doors. But she herself stayed by the hearth, burning cakes and other wineless offerings with prayers to Zeus, in the hope that she might cause the loathsome Furies to relent, and that he himself might once more smile upon this pair, whether the hands they lifted up to him were stained with a kinsman's or a stranger's blood. 4-699

You too are a woman and must know how easily a venial misdeed can lead us on to ruin. Such was my case: my wits forsook me. 4-1016

In approaching ... hearten her. pg. 175-176

side with the Minyae and save this unhappy girl from the Cholchians. Argos is close to our island and the Haemonians are our neighbors, whereas Aeetes lives far away and we do not even know him, we only know his name. 4-1068

She was out of her mind when she gave that man the magic charm for the bulls. Then, as we sinners often do, she tried to cover one fault with another by running away from her domineering father and his wrath. 4-1080

let no decision of your own cause Aeson's sone to break his promise. 4-1086

Fathers are much too jealous where their daughters are concerned. 4-1088

Nor would it be wise to make little of Aeates. 4-1098

it is my duty to give a decision that the whole world will acknowledge as best. 4-1101

[Arete using what her husband told her for her ends] pg. 177

The Argonauts ... battle spears. pg. 178

It was Necessity that made them marry now. And since we men can never rest from care and tread securely in the path of happiness without some bitter thought for company, these two, though they loved and delighted in each other, were haunted by fear, fear that Alcinous's verdict might not be upheld. 4-1164

From the moment ... as friends. pg. 179

Many heads are wiser than one. 4-1335

Apollo, Lord of Light and protector of the Isle of Revelation. 4-1729