Free Favorite Greek Myths (Yesterday's Classics) by Lilian Stoughton Hyde Page A

together, and went before the usurper, Pelias, and the people, to present his claim to the throne. Since he and Pelias were kinsmen, he did not think it right that there should be fighting and bloodshed between them. So he consented to give up to Pelias much of the land and many of the flocks and herds which were his by right, but said that he must have the throne and sceptre.
    Pelias showed no anger at this demand of Jason's, but he quickly devised a plan for sending the hero away again. He said that a few nights before Jason's arrival a very strange dream had come to him, in his sleep. In this dream a voice had commanded him to go to Colchis, and bring back the golden fleece of the ram which had carried Phrixus across the sea to Colchis.
    The story of Phrixus was well known to Jason and to all the people of Iolcus. Many years before this, two little children, of the race of Æolus, Phrixus and Helle, who were persecuted by their step-mother, fled away from Iolcus by the help of a ram with a golden fleece. The ram had taken the two children on its back, and had swum away across the sea to the kingdom of Colchis. On the way, at a place where the water was very rough, Helle had fallen off and been drowned; but Phrixus had clung tightly to the ram's fleece, and arrived safe at Colchis. There the ram was sacrificed to Jupiter. Phrixus gave its beautiful golden fleece to the king of Colchis, who nailed it on a great oak tree, in the Garden of Mars. All these things had happened so very, very long before this, that the people of Iolcus had now almost forgotten that any such children as Phrixus and Helle had ever lived; but they remembered what their fathers had told them about the wonderful golden fleece of the ram, and many of them thought that the fleece should be brought back to Iolcus.
    After telling his dream, King Pelias went on to say: "I should like nothing better than to obey the voice I heard in my dream; but I am getting to be an old man, far too old for such an enterprise. You, Jason, are young and strong. You had better go in my place. If you succeed in this, and thereby prove yourself able to rule over the people of Iolcus, you shall have your father's crown and throne."
    The chiefs who were in attendance on Pelias all thought this fair. They said that a young man's courage should be proved; that if Jason were really fit for the throne, he would bring back the fleece. Jason's uncles and cousins said that if he attempted this task, he should not go alone, for they knew of some of the dangers he would have to encounter.
    Then King Pelias gave orders to the heralds to go into the market-place with their trumpets and proclaim the expedition, and to call for volunteers who would accompany Jason in his quest of the Golden Fleece.
    The call was answered by the bravest young men from all parts of Greece. Some were already celebrated heroes, and more became celebrated in after years. Among them were Castor and Pollux, Hercules, Orpheus, the wonderful poet and musician, Meleager, two sons of Boreas, who had purple wings like their father, two sons of Mercury, King Admetus, some of Jason's cousins, and even the son of Pelias himself.
    The Greek chiefs ordered a ship for the heroes, larger than any ship that had ever been built before. It was to be a galley of sixty oars. As the trees that were to furnish the timber for this great ship were still standing in their mountain forests, there was ample time for the heroes to finish any piece of work that they might have in hand, and to bid good-by to their friends.

II
The Voyage of the Argonauts
    W HEN the Argo, as the new ship was called, was ready for the voyage, the heroes went on board, and took up the oars. Jason, standing in the stern, prayed to Jupiter, and when he had finished his prayer, threw mead into the sea from a golden goblet. Then Orpheus struck his lyre, and the heroes all began to row in time to his music. As the Argo passed slowly out of the harbor, a breeze from