Various - Myths That Every Child Should Know

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But Alcinous frowned, and stood deep in thought; and at last he spoke:

"Had not the deed been done, which is done, I should have said this day
to myself, 'It is an honour to Alcinous, and to his children after him,
that the far-famed Argonauts are his guests.' But these Colchi are my
guests, as you are; and for this month they have waited here with all
their fleet; for they have hunted all the seas of Hellas, and could not
find you, and dared neither go further, nor go home."

"Let them choose out their champions, and we will fight them, man for
man."

"No guest of ours shall fight upon our island; and if you go outside,
they will outnumber you. I will do justice between you; for I know and
do what is right."

Then he turned to his kings, and said: "This may stand over till
to-morrow. To-night we will feast our guests, and hear the story of all
their wanderings, and how they came hither out of the ocean."

So Alcinous bade the servants take the heroes in, and bathe them, and
give them clothes. And they were glad when they saw the warm water, for
it was long since they had bathed. And they washed off the sea salt from
their limbs, and anointed themselves from head to foot with oil, and
combed out their golden hair. Then they came back again into the hall,
while the merchant kings rose up to do them honour. And each man said to
his neighbour: "No wonder that these men won fame. How they stand now
like Giants, or Titans, or Immortals come down from Olympus, though many
a winter has worn them, and many a fearful storm. What must they have
been when they sailed from Iolcos, in the bloom of their youth, long
ago?"

Then they went out to the garden; and the merchant princes said:
"Heroes, run races with us. Let us see whose feet are nimblest."

"We cannot race against you, for our limbs are stiff from sea; and we
have lost our two swift comrades, the sons of the north wind. But do not
think us cowards; if you wish to try our strength, we will shoot and
box, and wrestle, against any men on earth."

And Alcinous smiled, and answered: "I believe you, gallant guests; with
your long limbs and broad shoulders, we could never match you here. For
we care nothing here for boxing, or for shooting with the bow; but for
feasts, and songs, and harping, and dancing, and running races, to
stretch our limbs on shore."

So they danced there and ran races, the jolly merchant kings, till the
night fell, and all went in.

And then they ate and drank, and comforted their weary souls, till
Alcinous called a herald, and bade him go and fetch the harper.

The herald went out, and fetched the harper, and led him in by the hand;
and Alcinous cut him a piece of meat from the fattest of the haunch, and
sent it to him, and said: "Sing to us, noble harper, and rejoice the
heroes' hearts."

So the harper played and sang, while the dancers danced strange figures;
and after that the tumblers showed their tricks, till the heroes laughed
again.

Then, "Tell me, heroes," asked Alcinous, "you who have sailed the ocean
round, and seen the manners of all nations, have you seen such dancers
as ours here? or heard such music and such singing? We hold ours to be
the best on earth."

"Such dancing we have never seen," said Orpheus; "and your singer is a
happy man; for Phoebus himself must have taught him, or else he is the
son of a Muse; as I am also, and have sung once or twice, though not so
well as he."

"Sing to us, then, noble stranger," said Alcinous; "and we will give you
precious gifts."

So Orpheus took his magic harp, and sang to them a stirring song of
their voyage from Iolcos, and their dangers, and how they won the
golden fleece; and of Medeia's love, and how she helped them, and went
with them over land and sea; and of all their fearful dangers, from
monsters, and rocks, and storms, till the heart of Arete was softened,
and all the women wept. And the merchant kings rose up, each man from
off his golden throne, and clasped their hands, and shouted: "Hail to
the noble Argonauts, who sailed the unknown seal"

Then he went on, and told their journey over the sluggish northern main,
and through the shoreless outer ocean, to the fairy island of the West;
and of the Sirens, and Scylla, and Charybdis, and all the wonders they
had seen, till midnight passed, and the day dawned; but the kings never
thought of sleep. Each man sat still and listened, with his chin upon
his hand.

And at last when Orpheus had ended, they all went thoughtful out, and
the heroes lay down to sleep, beneath the sounding porch outside, where
Arete had strewn them rugs and carpets, in the sweet still summer night.

But Arete pleaded hard with her husband for Medeia, for her heart was
softened. And she said: "The Gods will punish her, not we. After all,
she is our guest and my suppliant, and prayers are the daughters of
Zeus. And who, too, dare part man and wife, after all they have endured
together?"

And Alcinous smiled. "The minstrel's song has charmed you; but I must
remember what is right; for songs cannot alter justice; and I must be
faithful to my name. Alcinous I am called, the man of sturdy sense, and
Alcinous I will be." But for all that, Arete besought him, until she won
him round.

So next morning he sent a herald, and called the kings into the square,
and said: "This is a puzzling matter; remember but one thing. These
Minuai live close by us, and we may meet them often on the seas; but
Aietes lives afar off, and we have only heard his name. Which, then, of
the two is it safer to offend, the men near us, or the men far off?"

The princes laughed, and praised his wisdom; and Alcinous called the
heroes to the square, and the Colchi also; and they came and stood
opposite each other; but Medeia stayed in the palace. Then Alcinous
spoke: "Heroes of the Colchi, what is your errand about this lady?"

"To carry her home with us, that she may die a shameful death; but if we
return without her, we must die the death she should have died."

"What say you to this, Jason the AEolid?" said Alcinous, turning to the
Minuai.

"I say," said the cunning Jason, "that they are come here on a bootless
errand. Do you think that you can make her follow you, heroes of the
Colchi? her, who knows all spells and charms? She will cast away your
ships on quicksands, or call down on you Brimo the wild huntress; or the
chains will fall from off her wrists, and she will escape in her dragon
car; or if not thus, some other way; for she has a thousand plans and
wiles. And why return home at all, brave heroes, and face the long seas
again, and the Bosphorus, and the stormy Euxine, and double all your
toil? There is many a fair land round these coasts, which waits for
gallant men like you. Better to settle there, and build a city, and let
Aietes and Colchis help themselves."

Then a murmur rose among the Colchi, and some cried, "He has spoken
well"; and some, "We have had enough of roving, we will sail the seas
no more!" And the chief said at last, "Be it so, then; a plague she has
been to us, and a plague to the house of her father, and a plague she
will be to you. Take her, since you are no wiser; and we will sail away
toward the north."

Then Alcinous gave them food, and water, and garments, and rich presents
of all sorts; and he gave the same to the Minuai, and sent them all away
in peace.

So Jason kept the dark witch maiden to breed him woe and shame; and the
Colchi went northward into the Adriatic, and settled, and built towns
along the shore.

Then the heroes rowed away to the eastward, to reach Hellas their
beloved land; but a storm came down upon them, and swept them far away
toward the south. And they rowed till they were spent with struggling,
through the darkness and the blinding rain, but where they were they
could not tell, and they gave up all hope of life. And at last they
touched the ground, and when daylight came they waded to the shore; and
saw nothing round but sand, and desolate salt pools; for they had come
to the quicksands of the Syrtis, and the dreary treeless flats, which
lie between Numidia and Cyrene, on the burning shore of Africa. And
there they wandered starving for many a weary day, ere they could launch
their ship again, and gain the open sea. And there Canthus was killed
while he was trying to drive off sheep, by a stone which a herdsman
threw.

And there, too, Mopsus died, the seer who knew the voices of all birds;
but he could not foretell his own end, for he was bitten in the foot by
a snake, one of those which sprang from the Gorgon's head when Perseus
carried it across the sands.

At last they rowed away toward the northward, for many a weary day,
till their water was spent, and their food eaten; and they were worn out
with hunger and thirst. But at last they saw a long steep island, and a
blue peak high among the clouds; and they knew it for the peak of Ida,
and the famous land of Crete. And they said, "We will land in Crete, and
see Minos the just king, and all his glory and his wealth; at least he
will treat us hospitably, and let us fill our water casks upon the
shore."

But when they came nearer to the island they saw a wondrous sight upon
the cliffs. For on a cape to the westward stood a giant, taller than any
mountain pine; who glittered aloft against the sky like a tower of
burnished brass. He turned and looked on all sides round him, till he
saw the Argo and her crew; and when he saw them he came toward them,
more swiftly than the swiftest horse, leaping across the glens at a
bound, and striding at one step from down to down. And when he came
abreast of them he brandished his arms up and down, as a ship hoists and
lowers her yards, and shouted with his brazen throat like a trumpet from
off the hills: "You are pirates, you are robbers! If you dare land here,
you die."

Then the heroes cried: "We are no pirates. We are all good men and true;
and all we ask is food and water"; but the giant cried the more--

"You are robbers, you are pirates all; I know you; and if you land, you
shall die the death."

Then he waved his arms again as a signal, and they saw the people flying
inland, driving their flocks before them, while a great flame arose
among the hills. Then the giant ran up a valley and vanished; and the
heroes lay on their oars in fear.

But Medeia stood watching all, from under her steep black brows, with a
cunning smile upon her lips, and a cunning plot within her heart. At
last she spoke; "I know this giant. I heard of him in the East.
Hephaistos the Fire King made him, in his forge in AEtna beneath the
earth, and called him Talus, and gave him to Minos for a servant, to
guard the coast of Crete. Thrice a day he walks round the island, and
never stops to sleep; and if strangers land he leaps into his furnace,
which flames there among the hills; and when he is red hot he rushes on
them, and burns them in his brazen hands."

Then all the heroes cried, "What shall we do, wise Medeia? We must have
water, or we die of thirst. Flesh and blood we can face fairly; but who
can face this red-hot brass?"

"I can face red-hot brass, if the tale I hear be true. For they say
that he has but one vein in all his body, filled with liquid fire; and
that this vein is closed with a nail; but I know not where that nail is
placed. But if I can get it once into these hands, you shall water your
ship here in peace."

Then she bade them put her on shore, and row off again, and wait what
would befall.

And the heroes obeyed her unwillingly; for they were ashamed to leave
her so alone; but Jason said, "She is dearer to me than to any of you,
yet I will trust her freely on shore; she has more plots than we can
dream of, in the windings of that fair and cunning head."

So they left the witch maiden on the shore; and she stood there in her
beauty all alone, till the giant strode back red hot from head to heel,
while the grass hissed and smoked beneath his tread.

And when he saw the maiden alone, he stopped; and she looked boldly up
into his face without moving, and began her magic song:

"Life is short, though life is sweet; and even men of brass and fire
must die. The brass must rust, the fire must cool, for time gnaws all
things in their turn. Life is short, though life is sweet; but sweeter
to live forever; sweeter to live ever youthful like the Gods, who have
ichor in their veins; ichor which gives life, and youth, and joy, and a
bounding heart."

Then Talus said, "Who are you, strange maiden; and where is this ichor
of youth?"

Then Medeia held up a flask of crystal, and said, "Here is the ichor of
youth. I am Medeia the enchantress; my sister Circe gave me this, and
said, 'Go and reward Talus the faithful servant, for his fame is gone
out into all lands.' So come, and I will pour this into your veins, that
you may live forever young."

And he listened to her false words, that simple Talus, and came near;
and Medeia said, "Dip yourself in the sea first, and cool yourself, lest
you burn my tender hands, then show me where the nail in your vein is,
that I may pour the ichor in."

Then that simple Talus dipped himself in the sea, till it hissed, and
roared, and smoked; and came and knelt before Medeia, and showed her the
secret nail.

And she drew the nail out gently; but she poured no ichor in; and
instead the liquid fire spouted forth, like a stream of red-hot iron.
And Talus tried to leap up, crying, "You have betrayed me, false witch
maiden!" But she lifted up her hands before him, and sang, till he sank
beneath her spell. And as he sank, his brazen limbs clanked heavily, and
the earth groaned beneath his weight; and the liquid fire ran from his
heel, like a stream of lava to the sea; and Medeia laughed, and called
to the heroes, "Come ashore, and water your ship in peace."

So they came, and found the giant lying dead; and they fell down, and
kissed Medeia's feet; and watered their ship, and took sheep and oxen,
and so left that inhospitable shore.

At last, after many more adventures, they came to the Cape of Malea, at
the southwest point of the Peloponnese. And there they offered
sacrifices, and Orpheus purged them from their guilt. Then they rowed
away again to the northward, past the Laconian shore, and came all worn
and tired by Sunium, and up the long Euboean Strait, until they saw
once more Pelion, and Aphetai, and Iolcos by the sea.

And they ran the ship ashore; but they had no strength left to haul her
up the beach; and they crawled out on the pebbles, and sat down, and
wept till they could weep no more. For the houses and the trees were all
altered; and all the faces which they saw were strange; and their joy
was swallowed up in sorrow, while they thought of their youth, and all
their labour, and the gallant comrades they had lost.

And the people crowded round, and asked them, "Who are you, that you sit
weeping here?"

"We are the sons of your princes, who sailed out many a year ago. We
went to fetch the golden fleece; and we have brought it, and grief
therewith. Give us news of our fathers and our mothers, if any of them
be left alive on earth."

Then there was shouting and laughing, and weeping; and all the kings
came to the shore, and they led away the heroes to their homes, and
bewailed the valiant dead.

Then Jason went up with Medeia to the palace of his uncle Pelias. And
when he came in, Pelias sat by the hearth, crippled and blind with age;
while opposite him sat AEson, Jason's father, crippled and blind
likewise; and the two old men's heads shook together, as they tried to
warm themselves before the fire.

And Jason fell down at his father's knees, and wept, and called him by
his name. And the old man stretched his hands out, and felt him, and
said: "Do not mock me, young hero. My son Jason is dead long ago at
sea."

"I am your own son Jason, whom you trusted to the Centaur upon Pelion;
and I have brought home the golden fleece, and a princess of the Sun's
race for my bride. So now give me up the kingdom, Pelias my uncle, and
fulfil your promise as I have fulfilled mine."

Then his father clung to him like a child, and wept, and would not let
him go; and cried, "Now I shall not go down lonely to my grave. Promise
me never to leave me till I die."

PART VI

_What Was the End of the Heroes_

And now I wish that I could end my story pleasantly; but it is no fault
of mine that I cannot. The old songs end it sadly, and I believe that
they are right and wise; for though the heroes were purified at Malea,
yet sacrifices cannot make bad hearts good, and Jason had taken a wicked
wife, and he had to bear his burden to the last.

And first she laid a cunning plot, to punish that poor old Pelias,
instead of letting him die in peace.

For she told his daughters: "I can make old things young again; I will
show you how easy it is to do." So she took an old ram and killed him,
and put him in a cauldron with magic herbs; and whispered her spells
over him, and he leapt out again a young lamb. So that "Medeia's
cauldron" is a proverb still, by which we mean times of war and change,
when the world has become old and feeble, and grows young again through
bitter pains.

Then she said to Pelias's daughters: "Do to your father as I did to this
ram, and he will grow young and strong again." But she only told them
half the spell; so they failed, while Medeia mocked them; and poor old
Pelias died, and his daughters came to misery. But the songs say she
cured AEson, Jason's father, and he became young and strong again.

But Jason could not love her, after all her cruel deeds. So he was
ungrateful to her, and wronged her: and she revenged herself on him. And
a terrible revenge she took--too terrible to speak of here. But you will
hear of it yourselves when you grow up, for it has been sung in noble
poetry and music; and whether it be true or not, it stands forever as a
warning to us, not to seek for help from evil persons, or to gain good
ends by evil means. For if we use an adder even against our enemies, it
will turn again and sting us.

But of all the other heroes there is many a brave tale left, which I
have no space to tell you, so you must read them for yourselves--of the
hunting of the boar in Calydon, which Meleager killed; and of Heracles's
twelve famous labours; and of the seven who fought at Thebes; and of
the noble love of Castor and Polydeuces, the twin Dioscouroi; how when
one died, the other would not live without him, so they shared their
immortality between them; and Zeus changed them into the two twin stars,
which never rise both at once.

And what became of Cheiron, the good immortal beast? That, too, is a sad
story; for the heroes never saw him more. He was wounded by a poisoned
arrow, at Pholoc among the hills, when Heracles opened the fatal wine
jar, which Cheiron had warned him not to touch. And the Centaurs smelt
the wine, and flocked to it, and fought for it with Heracles; but he
killed them all with his poisoned arrows, and Cheiron was left alone.
Then Cheiron took up one of the arrows, and dropped it by chance upon
his foot; and the poison ran like fire along his veins, and he lay down,
and longed to die; and cried: "Through wine I perish, the bane of all my
race. Why should I live forever in this agony? Who will take my
immortality that I may die?"

Then Prometheus answered, the good Titan, whom Heracles had set free
from Caucasus: "I will take your immortality and live forever, that I
may help poor mortal men." So Cheiron gave him his immortality, and
died, and had rest from pain. And Heracles and Prometheus wept over him,
and went to bury him on Pelion; but Zeus took him up among the stars, to
live forever, grand and mild, low down in the far southern sky.

And in time the heroes died, all but Nestor the silver-tongued old man;
and left behind them valiant sons, but not so great as they had been.
Yet their fame, too, lives till this day; for they fought at the ten
years' siege of Troy; and their story is in the book which we call
Homer, in two of the noblest songs on earth; the Iliad, which tells us
of the siege of Troy, and Achilles's quarrel with the kings; and the
Odyssey, which tells the wanderings of Odysseus, through many lands for
many years; and how Alcinous sent him home at last, safe to Ithaca his
beloved island, and to Penelope his faithful wife, and Telemachus his
son, and Euphorbus the noble swineherd, and the old dog who licked his
hand and died.

CHAPTER XI

THE GIANT BUILDER

Ages and ages ago, when the world was first made, the gods decided to
build a beautiful city high above the heavens, the most glorious and
wonderful city that ever was known. Asgard was to be its name, and it
was to stand on Ida Plain under the shade of Yggdrasil, the great tree
whose roots were underneath the earth.

First of all they built a house with a silver roof, where there were
seats for all the twelve chiefs. In the midst, and high above the rest,
was the wonder throne of Odin the All-Father, whence he could see
everything that happened in the sky or on the earth or in the sea. Next
they made a fair house for Queen Frigg and her lovely daughters. Then
they built a smithy, with its great hammers, tongs, anvils, and bellows,
where the gods could work at their favourite trade, the making of
beautiful things out of gold; which they did so well that folk name that
time the Golden Age. Afterward, as they had more leisure, they built
separate houses for all the AEsir, each more beautiful than the
preceding, for of course they were continually growing more skilful.
They saved Father Odin's palace until the last, for they meant this to
be the largest and the most splendid of all.

Gladsheim, the home of joy, was the name of Odin's house, and it was
built all of gold, set in the midst of a wood whereof the trees had
leaves of ruddy gold--like an autumn-gilded forest. For the safety of
All-Father it was surrounded by a roaring river and by a high picket
fence; and there was a great courtyard within.

The glory of Gladsheim was its wondrous hall, radiant with gold, the
most lovely room that time has ever seen. Valhalla, the Hall of Heroes,
was the name of it, and it was roofed with the mighty shields of
warriors. The ceiling was made of interlacing spears, and there was a
portal at the west end before which hung a great gray wolf, while over
him a fierce eagle hovered. The hall was so huge that it had 540 gates,
through each of which 800 men could march abreast. Indeed, there needed
to be room, for this was the hall where every morning Odin received all
the brave warriors who had died in battle on the earth below; and there
were many heroes in those days.

This was the reward which the gods gave to courage. When a hero had
gloriously lost his life, the Valkyries, the nine warrior daughters of
Odin, brought his body up to Valhalla on their white horses that gallop
the clouds. There they lived forever after in happiness, enjoying the
things that they had most loved upon earth. Every morning they armed
themselves and went out to fight with one another in the great
courtyard. It was a wondrous game, wondrously played. No matter how
often a hero was killed, he became alive again in time to return
perfectly well to Valhalla, where he ate a delicious breakfast with the
Jisir; while the beautiful Valkyries who had first brought him thither
waited at table and poured the blessed mead, which only the immortal
taste. A happy life it was for the heroes, and a happy life for all who
dwelt in Asgard; for this was before trouble had come among the gods,
following the mischief of Loki.

This is how the trouble began. From the beginning of time, the giants
had been unfriendly to the AEsir, because the giants were older and huger
and more wicked; besides, they were jealous because the good AEsir were
fast gaining more wisdom and power than the giants had ever known. It
was the AEsir who set the fair brother and sister, Sun and Moon, in the
sky to give light to men; and it was they also who made the jewelled
stars out of sparks from the place of fire. The giants hated the AEsir,
and tried all in their power to injure them and the men of the earth
below, whom the AEsir loved and cared for. The gods had already built a
wall around Midgard, the world of men, to keep the giants out; built it
of the bushy eyebrows of Ymir, the oldest and hugest of giants. Between
Asgard and the giants flowed Ifing, the great river on which ice never
formed, and which the gods crossed on the rainbow bridge. But this was
not protection enough. Their beautiful new city needed a fortress.

So the word went forth in Asgard: "We must build us a fortress against
the giants; the hugest, strongest, finest fortress that ever was built."

Now one day, soon after they had announced this decision, there came a
mighty man stalking up the rainbow bridge that led to Asgard city.

"Who goes there!" cried Heimdal the watchman, whose eyes were so keen
that he could see for a hundred miles around, and whose ears were so
sharp that he could hear the grass growing in the meadow and the wool on
the backs of the sheep. "Who goes there! No one can enter Asgard if I
say no."

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