Free Jason and the Argonauts by Apollonius of Rhodes

heave
    120 (95) haymakered him above the ear. The skull
    cracked, and Amycus crumpled to his knees
    in agony. The Minyan heroes cheered
    when life came spurting from the big man’s head.
    Far from abandoning their king, however,
    125 his loyal soldiers took up gnarled clubs
    and hunting spears and charged at Polydeuces
    in one mad rush. The heroes interlocked
    their shields before him and unsheathed their swords.
    Castor was first to strike. A man ran up,
    130 and Castor axed him in the head, the head
    split down the middle, and the halves flopped over
    onto his shoulders. Straight out of his triumph
    Polydeuces felled Itymoneus
    and Mimas: with a flying leap he struck
    135 (106) the one beneath the chest and knocked him flat;
    then, when the other made a rush, he struck
    his left eye with his right hand, tore away
    the eyelid, and the eyeball stood there naked.
    Amycus’ hotheaded squire Oreides
    140 wounded Talaus the son of Bias
    but missed the kill, because his brazen spear tip
    merely grazed the skin beneath the belt
    and wholly missed the vitals. Then Aretus
    leveled his weather-hardened club and thumped
    145 Iphitus, rugged scion of Eurytus.
    But Iphitus was not yet doomed to die,
    and soon enough Aretus was himself
    cut down by Clytius’ sword. Ancaeus,
    the dauntless son of King Lycurgus, took up
    150 (119) a massive ax and, with his left arm swinging
    a shield of black-bear hide before him, leapt
    fiercely into the fray. When Telamon
    and Peleus, offspring of Aeacus, rushed in
    behind him, warlike Jason joined their charge.
    155 Imagine how, upon a winter’s day,
    gray wolves will suddenly descend, unmarked
    by herdsmen and precision-sniffing hounds,
    to terrorize a flock of countless sheep—
    how, as the wolves glare back and forth deciding
    160 which one to pounce on first and carry off,
    the sheep stand clumped together, tripping over
    each other—that’s the way the heroes sent
    grim panic through the proud Bebrycians.
    And as when beekeepers or herdsmen smoke
    165 (131) a giant hive concealed in a rock,
    the bees at first are crowded and confused,
    abuzz with rage, and then the sooty coils
    of vapor suffocate them, and they all
    dart from the rock and scatter far and wide,
    170 so the Bebrycians did not hold firm
    for long, but fled in all directions, bearing
    news of Amycus’ demise. The fools
    had not yet realized another crushing
    disaster was at hand. That very day,
    175 now that their king was dead, the hostile spears
    of Lycus and his Mariandynians
    were pillaging their villages and vineyards
    (the two were rival peoples, always feuding
    over a territory rich in iron).
    180 (142) So the heroes raided all the stalls
    and rounded up vast flocks and, as they did it,
    this was how they were talking to each other:
    â€œJust think of how those cowards would have fallen
    if Zeus had somehow left us Heracles.
    185 I am quite sure that, had he been at hand,
    the boxing match would not have taken place.
    No, when Amycus swaggered up to us
    to bray his laws, a thumping would have made him
    forget his pride and all his proclamations.
    190 We did a thoughtless thing indeed by leaving
    that man behind and heading out to sea.
    Each one of us will come to know death ruin
    intimately, now that he is gone.”
    That’s how they talked, but Zeus, of course, had brought
    195 (154) the loss of Heracles to pass on purpose.
    The heroes spent the night there, bound the wounded,
    and, after making sacrifice, prepared
    a mighty banquet. After dinner, though,
    slumber was far from holding sway beside
    200 the wine bowl and the blazing sacrifices.
    Once they had crowned their golden hair with laurel
    that grew along the same shore where the cables
    were bound, the heroessang a victory ode
    in harmony with Orpheus’ lyre,
    205 and the unruffled shore enjoyed their singing,
    since they were celebrating Polydeuces,
    the boy whom Zeus had fathered in Therapna.
    But when the sun came over the