Chapter 14

Mothers of Thessaly, and aged sires For sons restor'd, glad offerings bring: bright flames The high-heap'd incense; votive victims deck'd With gilded horns are slain: but Æson, far The grateful crowd avoids, now near his fate, Bent by a weight of years. Hence Jason spoke;-- "O, spouse! to thee my life and safety ow'd; "To me, thou all hast given; the high swol'n sum "Of all thy favors might belief surpass: "This more attempt, if this thou can'st,--and what "Thy magic power defies? My years curtail, "And to my sire's existence add the term." Fast flow'd his tears while speaking;--while he spoke, His pious duty mov'd Medea; quick Her sire Æëta, so deserted, sprung To thought, and shew'd the two contrasting souls. But, veil'd her secret thoughts, she thus replies;-- "What impious accents hear I from thy tongue, "O, spouse religious? Can I then transfer "Of thy existence part? Not Hecat's power "Fateful, would sanction this; nor stands thy wish "In equity. Yet, Jason, will I try "More than thou seek'st to give. With all my skill "Thy sire's existence to prolong, thy years "Unshorten'd; should the tri-form'd goddess aid "Propitious my designs."--Three nights were now Deficient, ere the full-form'd horns could meet The lunar orb to fill. Complete her round; A solid sphere of light from earth beheld, Medea wanders forth; loose all her robes; Naked her feet; bare-headed; while her hair Wild o'er her shoulders floats; and thus array'd, Untended, while deep midnight silence reigns She bends her devious way. Men, beasts, and birds, In bonds of sleep were chain'd; the hedges still, No murmur breath'd; nor wav'd the silent trees; Hush'd was the humid sky; the stars alone Twinkled: to them her arms extending, thrice She turn'd around; thrice from the flowing stream Her tresses sprinkled; thrice with yelling noise The silence broke; then with her bended knee The hard earth pressing, cry'd;--"O, night! thou friend "Of secret deeds; ye glittering stars! whose rays "With Luna's, Sol's diurnal light succeed; "And thou, O, Hecat'! tripleform'd, who know'st "My undertaking, and approaching aid'st "With incantations, and with magic powers: "And thou, O, earth! whose bosom witching plants "Affords: ye winds; ye skies; ye mountains; lakes; "And flowing streams: O, all ye gods! who dwell "In shady woods; and all ye gods of night, "Hither approach! by whose high power, at will, "Rivers I cause between their wondering banks, "Back to their springs to flow; the stormy deep "Hush by my song, or lash it into rage; "Clouds form, or clouds dispel; raise furious blasts, "Or furious blasts allay; smite with my song "The dragon's furious jaws: the living rocks "I shake;--uproot the oak; the earth upturn; "Move forests; bid the trembling mountains leap; "Loud roar the ground; and from the tombs the ghosts "Affrighted walk. Thee, Luna, too I draw "From heaven, by all the threatening clash of brass "Deterr'd not: pale the brighter car becomes, "My spells once utterr'd: by my poisons charm'd, "Pallid Aurora seems. You, plants! for me, "Blunted the ardor of the flaming bulls; "Press'd with the yoke, their necks impatient bent, "And dragg'd the crooked plough. You bade the race "Snake-born, upon themselves their warring rage "To turn. In sleep the roaring dragon's eyes "You steep'd; the guard eluded, sent the prize "To glad the towns of Greece. Now have I need "Of renovating herbs, to make old age "Glow once again in all its youthful bloom. "This will you grant, for sure those stars in vain "Not sparkle; nor in vain the chariot comes "Drawn by the dragons wing'd." The chariot comes Swift sweeping through the air. Active she mounts, Strokes the rein'd dragons' manes, and shakes the thongs. On high they soar:--Thessalian Tempé far Beneath she views; then tow'rd the chalky land Her snakes directs. On Ossa's top explores For plants, and seeks what lofty Pelion bears; Othrys, and Pindus, and Olympus huge. What please her, part she with their root updrags; Part with her crooked brazen sickle mows; Apidanus; Amphrysos, on their banks Many afforded: nor Enipeus scap'd. Peneus, and Spercheus, and the rushy shores Of Bæbé some contributed. She pluck'd In Anthedon the living grass whose power, Then Glaucus' form unchang'd, was yet unknown.

Now had nine days, now had nine nights elaps'd, Borne on her dragon wings, and in her car Wandering the fields among, ere back she turn'd: Unfed her dragons, save by odorous smells; Yet had they shed their scales, with youth renew'd. Arriv'd, without the palace gate she stays, And there sole shelter'd by the sky, all touch Of man denying; altars two she rears Of turf; sacred to Hecate stood the right, To Youth the left: when these with vervain bound. And forest boughs, here sacrifice she makes. Hard by, two trenches scoops from out the ground; Smites with her weapon in the sable throat, A sheep presented; in the open ditch Empties the blood; then bowls of wine she pours, And bowls of smoking milk; with mystic words Invokes the powers terrestrial; begs the king Of shades, and begs his ravish'd spouse to aid, Nor of his soul the aged king defraud. These when with lengthen'd prayers, and murmurings long, Appeas'd; she bids them tow'rd the altars bring The feeble Æson; his exhausted limbs Bound in deep slumber, by her magic power, Corse-like, she lays extended on the grass. Then Jason bids, and his attendant crew, Far thence depart, nor with their view prophane Her acts mysterious. As she bids they go. Medea then the flaming altars round, In Bacchanalian guise her flowing locks, Circles; and in the ditch's blackening gore Her splinter'd torches dips; with blood imbu'd, Burns them upon her altars; thrice with fire, With sulphur thrice, and thrice with flowing streams, The sire she lustrates. Heated now in brass, Her powerful medicines bubble, high and white The swelling froth appears. There boils she all The roots in vales Æmonian dug; and seeds, And flowers, and juices dark: gems unto these, Sought in the distant East, she adds; and adds What on the sand the refluent ocean leaves: More still, the night-long moon collected dew She brings; the dismal screech-owl's flesh and wings; The entrails of the wolf ambiguous, wont His savage face in human guise to wear: Nor wanted there, the scaly skin which clothes Th' amphibious snake Cyniphian, long and small: The beak and head a crow nine ages bore, She adds. Now was the foreign dame prepar'd, By help of these, and nameless thousands more, The promis'd boon to give, the whole she stirs Deep from the bottom, with a bough long rent, From the mild olive. Lo! the wither'd branch, The boiling caldron stirring, sudden shoots In virid freshness! shortly leaves bud forth; And soon it bends beneath a load of fruit! Where'er the fire above the hollow brass, The bubbling foam high-rais'd, and boiling drops Sprinkled the ground,--the ground with verdure smil'd; Flowers and soft herbage sprung. Medea sees, And with her weapon ope's the senior's throat; His aged blood exhausted sees, and pours Her juices copious: part his mouth receives; And part the wound. When Æson these had drank, Their hoary whiteness lost, his beard and hair, An ebon tinge receiv'd; his leanness fled; His pallid ghastly face no more was seen; His hollow veins with added blood were fill'd; And all his limbs in lusty plumpness swell'd. The wondering Æson, such himself beheld, As the last forty years he ne'er had past.

Bacchus, from heaven survey'd the mighty change Wonderous, and hence that power was given he found; His nurses to restore to youthful years: The boon from Tethys asking, he obtain'd.

Nor cease the frauds yet of the Phasian dame: Fierce hatred 'gainst her by her spouse she feigns, And flies to Pelias' court; a suppliant there, His daughters hail her guest:--the sire bent down With age. The crafty Colchian these beguiles Soon, with her well-dissembled friendship's form. Amid her mighty benefits, she tells Æson's old age remov'd; relating all, On this she chiefly dwells. Hope sudden springs Within their virgin breasts: Pelias their sire, Such art they trust may yet revivify. That art they sue for,--highest claim'd reward To her they promise: mute at first she stands, And feigning doubt, in hesitation holds, And anxious poise their eager minds. At last, She says, when promising,--"That in the deed, "More faith ye may confide, a leading ram, "The oldest in your fleecy flocks, a lamb "My medicine shall transform!"--Instant was dragg'd The woolly beast, whose wreathing horns around His hollow temples curl'd; whose wither'd throat The steel Thessalian stabb'd; the scanty blood The steel scarce spotting: then th' enchantress steeps His mangled body in the caldron deep, With juices powerful: smaller grow his limbs; Shed are his horns; and vanish'd are his years; And from the caldron tender bleatings sound: Instant leaps forth to all the wondering crowd The bleating lamb, which, frisking, flies and seeks The swelling teats. With admiration struck, Now Pelias' daughters faith unshaken give; More urgent press their wish. Thrice had the sun, 'Merg'd in th' Iberian sea, unyok'd his steeds; And the fourth night the glittering stars had shone; When o'er the fire, pure water from the stream, And powerless plants, the false Medea plac'd.

Now all in sleep relax'd, a death-like sleep, The monarch's limbs were stretch'd; and with their king, His guards lay dormant; so her magic words, And magic tongue had doom'd. Medea leads Across the steps the daughters; bidd'n by her, His couch they compass.--"Why, O, feeble souls! "Thus hesitate?"--she said,--"your swords unsheathe! "Pour out his far-spent gore, that I may fill "With youthful, vigorous blood his empty'd veins. "Your father's life, and years, are in your hands: "If sways you piety; if empty hopes "Wavering deceive you not; then well deserve, "By duty to your sire: quickly expel "With weapons his old age: let issue forth "His now congealing blood with brandish'd steel." Exhorted thus, most pious she who feels, First impious acts;--a wicked deed performs, Lest wicked she were call'd: yet on the blow Not one would bend her sight; with eyes averse Their savage hands the unseen wounds inflict. Flowing with gore, he from the bed uprais'd His limbs; and from his posture strove half-torn To rise; and stretching forth his pallid arms 'Mid all their threatening swords;--"Daughters!"--he cries, "What do ye? Why against your parent's life "Thus arm ye?"--Sink their spirits! drop their hands! His throat Medea severing, stay'd the words He more had utter'd,--and the mangled corse, Deep in the boiling brazen caldron flung.

She now,--but through the air on dragon wings High borne,--their furious vengeance had not scap'd. O'er shady Pelion high she flew, and o'er The cave of Chiron; Othrys; and the spot For old Cerambus' strange adventure known: Upborne on wings by kindly-aiding nymphs, Here, when the solid earth th' incroaching main Wide delug'd, flying, safe Deucalion's flood He 'scap'd. Æölian Pitané to left She quits; and sees the dragon huge, to stone An image turn'd. And Ida's grove where chang'd By Bacchus' power, the steer a stag became, To screen the theft. And where beneath the sand, A little sand, Corythus' father lies; And fields which Mæra's new-heard howlings fill. Euripylus' fam'd town, where Coän dames, What time the troops of Hercules them left, With horns were crown'd: and Phoebus' favor'd Rhodes; Jalysian Telchines, whose hateful eyes All vitiating, Jove detesting 'whelm'd Beneath his brother's waves. She passes next Carthæïa' walls in ancient Cæä's isle, Where wondering saw Alcidamas the sire, A placid dove his daughter's body bear. And Hyrié's lake she sees, and Tempé's pool Cycneiän, which the swan so sudden form'd Frequented: Phyllius there, a willing slave, Birds and fierce beasts, to his capricious boy Oft brought--e'en lions tam'd; a furious bull He bade him bring, a furious bull he brought; But now in choler at his craving soul, The bull refus'd, though as the last gift claim'd: Indignant, cry'd he,--"soon you'll wish him given!"-- And from the high rock plung'd: all thought he fell: But form'd a swan, lightly he pois'd in air On snowy wings. Hyrié, her son thus sav'd, Knew not, by constant weeping soon dissolv'd; The lake becoming that still bears her name. Near this is Pleuron:--Ophian Combé, here Wafted on wings, her murderous sons escap'd. Thence she beholds Latona's favorite isle; Calaurea, where to birds the royal pair Were chang'd: Cyllené, on the right is plac'd Where like the savage herd, Menephron sought His mother's bed. Far hence she spies in tears Cephisus, for his nephew's fate who mourn'd, Chang'd by Apollo to a sea-calf huge; And saw Eumelus' dome, who wept his child, A bird become. At length on dragon wings, Pirenian Corinth she regain'd; where tell The ancient tales, in primal ages, men From shower-fed mushrooms sprung. Here first was flam'd In Colchian venoms fierce, the new-made bride; Then either sea in blazing spires beheld The royal dome; and with her children's gore Her impious sword was stain'd. Thus on herself Reveng'd; from royal Jason's wrath she fled.

Borne hence, her snakes Titanian reach the walls Of Pallas' city, where most just of men O, Phineus! thou, and Periphas the old, With Polyphemon's niece, as birds are seen, Soaring aloft in air on new-form'd wings. Here Ægeus' roof receiv'd her, for this deed Alone to blame: not satisfy'd as host, In marriage bonds he makes her more his own. Now Theseus comes, son to his sire unknown, Whose brave atchievements, all the two-sea'd land In peace had settled. For his death she mix'd The baneful aconite, long since from shores Of Scythia brought; which thus old tales relate, From Cerberus' venom'd jaws was first produc'd, Through a dark den, with gloomy opening, lies A path steep shelving, where Alcides dragg'd Fierce Cerberus to light, resisting strong, Glancing askaunce his eyes from day, whose rays Sparkled too bright, in adamantine chains. With rabid anger swol'n, a triple yell Fill'd all the air; he o'er the virid plain Sprinkled white foam; increasing fast this shoots; The fruitful soil fresh virulence imparts, And ranker grows its power: from hardest rocks It lively springs, and Aconite hence nam'd. This did old Ægeus, by his crafty spouse Deceiv'd, to Theseus, as a foe, present. Unwitting Theseus, in his hand receiv'd The cup presented; when the sire espy'd Upon his ivory-hilted sword a mark, Which prov'd his offspring; from his lips he dash'd The poison. Wrapp'd in clouds by magic rais'd, The sorceress from their furious vengeance fled.

The sire, though joy'd, his son in safety found, Trembles astonish'd at the narrow 'scape; And horrid crime premeditated: burns On every altar fires;--to every god Piles costly gifts: full on the brawny neck Of oxen falls, their horns with garlands bound, The sacrificing axe. Ne'er till that day Had Athens' town, such joyous feasting seen; Nobles and commons crowd around the board, And thus, by wine inspir'd, sublime they sing.

"Thee, mighty Theseus! Marathon admires, "Stain'd by the vanquish'd Cretan bull's black gore. "Thy aid the swains of Cromyon own; thou gav'st "That now secure they till their fields. The land "Of Epidaurus saw the club-arm'd son "Of Vulcan slain by thee. By thee, beheld "Cephisus' shores, the fierce Procrustes die, "Ceres' Eleusis hail'd Cercyon's fall. "Sinis thou slew'st, gifted with strength ill-us'd; "His strength high trees could bend, and oft he dragg'd "Close down to earth the loftiest tops of pines, "Thus rent the bodies of his victims wide. "Safe now extends the road to Lelex' walls, "Scyron low laid: earth to the robber's limbs, "Wide scatter'd, rest refuses; to his bones "Ocean a tomb denies; long widely tost, "Age hardens into rock his last remains; "His name the rock still bears. Should we thy age "And actions count, thy famous deeds by far "Thy years outnumber. O, most brave of men! "For thee the public vows ascend; to thee, "In Bacchus' bowl we drink. The royal hall "Resounds with all the grateful people's praise; "Nor through the city glooms one sorrowing spot."

And yet (so seldom pleasure comes unmix'd, But still some cares with joy will intervene) While Ægeus, gladden'd that his son secure Arriv'd; Minos, for furious war prepares. Strong though his troops, and though his navy strong His utmost strength was in paternal rage; And with just arms Androgeus' death t' avenge He wars: yet first auxiliar strength he gains; And powerful sweeps the seas with flying ships. First Anaphe joins him, and Astypalæa; urg'd By promise this, and that by threats constrain'd, Low Myconé; Cymolus' chalky fields; Bright Cythnos; Scyros; flat Seriphus' isle; The marble Paros; and the fort betray'd For gold, demanded by the impious nymph Sithonian: still for gold she anxious seeks Though chang'd a bird; on sable pinions borne, With sable feet, she flutters as a daw.

But Oliaros, and Didymæ, unite; And Gyaros, Andros, Tenos, all refuse, With Peparethos, in bright olives rich, To aid the Gnossian fleet. Thence to the left Steering, OEnopia's regions Minos sought; OEnopia call'd of old, Ægina now, By Æäcus, his mother's honor'd name. In crowds the people rush, and pant to view So highly fam'd a prince: to meet him go First Telamon, then Peleus next in age, And Phocas third and last, Ev'n Æäcus With years opprest, steps tardy forth, and asks The visit's cause. The hundred-city'd king Deep sighs, his grief paternal all renew'd, And thus replies;--"My arms, O, king! assist "Assum'd, just vengeance for a son to claim. "Partake this pious war. Peace to his manes "I seek."--But Asopiades replies;-- "In vain you ask;--my city cannot aid: "No lands by neighbouring scite more closely bound, "Than ours and Athens'; hence our league."--The king Angry departs, exclaiming.--"Much your league "May cost you!"--But to threaten war more safe He deems, than wage it there, and waste his force. Still from OEnopia's walls the fleet was seen, Not distant far; when sped by swelling sail, An Attic ship arriv'd; the friendly port Enter'd. On board was Cephalus who bore His country's message. Well the royal youths The hero knew, though long time past beheld; And gave the friendly hand, and welcome led To their paternal dome. The graceful chief Enters, retaining still evincing marks Of pristine beauty; in his hand he bears A branch of native olive: in the midst Senior he stands; and younger on each side, Clytus, and Butes, Pallas' sons. Complete Their friendly salutations; next the words Th' Athenians bade him, Cephalus reports: Their aid demands; their ancient league recounts; The oaths their fathers swore; and adds, all Greece Might perish in their ruin. When their cause With eloquence the messenger thus urg'd; On his bright sceptre as his left hand lean'd, "Take, O Athenians,"--Æäcus exclaim'd,-- "Not ask, our aid! Unhesitating draw "What force this isle possesses, and with yours "Employ it: with you shall my strongest power "March forth: strength want we not; our numerous troops "Abundant, for ourselves and friends suffice: "Prais'd be the gods! such is our happy state "Your wish defies evasion."--"Still may grow," Said Cephalus,--"your prosperous city's state, "And yours!--What transport seiz'd me as I walk'd, "To see each youth so fair, so equal ag'd, "Of all who met me. Yet in vain I look'd "For many features, known when last your walls "Receiv'd me."--Æäcus, with deep-drawn sighs, And sorrowing voice, thus answers.--"Better fate "Completed, what a mournful sight began. "Would I in full could all the facts relate! "Now unconnected must I speak, or tire "Your ear with words superfluous. Whom you seek, "Whom you remember, bones and ashes rest. "But small their numbers:--Heavens! how small to those, "My people, who have sunk in death beside.