Read Online Jason and the Argonauts by Apollonius of Rhodes - Free Book Online

was
    galumphing through the twilight toward the ship.
    Breath laboring, heart pounding, Polyphemus
    divulged at once the dire calamity:
    1675 “Poor friend, I shall be the first to tell you
    news of a shocking loss. Though Hylas left
    to fetch some water, he has not come safely
    back to us. Bandits nabbed him and decamped
    or beasts have eaten him. I heard his cry.”
    1680 (1261) So he explained, and at his words abundant
    sweat tumbled down from Heracles’ temples,
    and bad blood boiled blackly in his guts.
    He hurled the fir tree to the ground in rage
    and set out running, and his feet impelled him
    at top speed down the path.
    1685 As when a bull
    that has beengoaded by a gadfly bolts
    out of the meadows and the fens and, heedless
    of herd and herdsmen, rushes here and there,
    and only stops to rear his thick dewlap
    1690 and roar in vain at the relentless stinging,
    so in his frenzy Heracles at one time
    worked his frantic knees incessantly
    and at another paused the search to heave
    a mighty bellow far into the distance.
    1695 (1273) Soon the morning star had risen over
    the highest summits, and a breeze got up,
    and Tiphys promptly roused the crew to clamber
    aboard and take advantage of the wind.
    Straightaway they embarked and with a will
    1700 pulled up the anchor stone and hauled the cables
    astern. The mainsail bellied with the gale,
    and they were happy to be far from shore
    coasting around the Posideian headland.
    Only after Bright-Eyed Dawn had risen
    1705 from the horizon to the middle sky,
    and all the seaways were distinct and vivid,
    and the dew-wet plains were spangling bright,
    did they discern that they had accidentally
    abandoned Heracles and Polyphemus.
    1710 (1284) Fierce was the quarrel that erupted then,
    an ignominious row, since they had left
    the bravest of the company behind.
    Jason was so dumbstruck and at a loss
    he uttered nothing one way or the other—
    1715 no, he just sat there gnawing at his heart,
    feeling the burden of catastrophe.
    Rage laid its hands on Telamon, who told him:
    â€œGo on, keep sitting there at ease like that
    because you are the one who benefits
    1720 from leaving Heracles behind. You hatched
    this little scheme so that his fame in Greece
    would not eclipse your own, that is, if ever
    the gods consent to grant us passage home.
    But what’s the use in words? No, I will go
    1725 (1294) and bring him back, even if I must do it
    without your claque of co-conspirators.”
    So he accused them all, then charged at Tiphys
    the son of Hagnias. His eyes were blazing
    like twists of flame inside a raging bonfire.
    1730 They would have all sailed back across the gulf
    and braved its constant gales and deep-sea swell
    to reach again the Mysian dominions,
    had not the sons of Thracian Boreas
    broken in and with harsh reproaches stopped
    1735 Telamon short—a ruinous decision!
    Terrible vengeance later came upon them
    at Heracles’ hands because they chose
    to halt the search for him: when they were heading
    home from the funeral games of Pelias,
    1740 (1305) he killed them on the isle of Tenos, heaped
    barrows above them, and erected two
    pillars on top (one of the pillars swivels
    in answer to the breath of Boreas—
    a clever thing, a wonder to behold).
    1745 Out of the salt sea’s depths appeared, just then,
    Glaucus, the eloquent interpreter
    for holy Neleus—a shaggy head
    emerged, and then a torso to the waist.
    His right hand resting on the
Argo
’s keel,
    1750 he bellowed at the agitated sailors:
    â€œWhy, in contempt of mighty Zeus’ will,
    have you resolved to drag bold Heracles
    the whole way to Aeëtes’ citadel?
    Heracles’ lot is bound to Argos: heavy
    1755 (1317) toil for presumptuous Eurystheus
    until he finishes the full twelve labors—
    and he will sit at the immortals’ banquet
    if only he completes a last few more.
    So let his loss occasion no regret.
    1760 Likewise with Polyphemus, who is