After skirting the island of Thrinacia, which held the cattle of the Sun, they came to the island of the Phaeacians,* Corcyra, which was ruled by Alcinoos. Now the Colchians had been unable to find the ship, and some of them went to settle in the Ceraunian mountains, while others travelled to Illyria and colonized the Apsyrtides islands. But some of them came to Phaeacia, and finding the Argothere, they asked Alcinoos to surrender Medea to them. He replied that if she had already slept with Jason, he would leave her with him, but if she were still a virgin, he would send her back to her father. But Arete, the wife of Alcinoos, took the initiative by marrying Medea to Jason; so the Colchians settled amongst the Phaeacians, and the Argonauts set out to sea with Medea.
Anaphe; Talos in Crete
26As they were sailing along by night, they met with a violent storm;* but Apollo, taking position on the summit of the Melantian Rocks, shot an arrow into the sea, causing a flash of lightning. They then beheld an island close at hand, where they cast anchor, naming it Anaphe*because it had appearedto them against all expectation. They raised an altar there to Radiant Apollo, and when they had sacrificed, they settled down to feast. Now Medea had received as a gift from Arete twelve servant girls, who aimed playful jokes at the heroes; and that is why it is the custom even to this day for the women to make jokes* at the sacrifice.
After setting sail from Anaphe, they were prevented from coming ashore at Crete by Talos. It is said by some that he belonged to the race of bronze, while according to others, he had been given to Minos by Hephaistos; he was a man of bronze,* or, according to some accounts, a bull.* He had a single vein* which ran from his neck to his ankles, with a bronze nail driven into its end. Talos kept watch by running round the island three times a day, and so on this occasion too, when he saw the Argoapproaching, he pelted it with stones. But Medea tricked him and caused his death. According to some, she drove him mad with her drugs, while according to others, she promised to make him immortal and pulled out the nail, causing him to die when all the ichor flowed away.* And there are some who say that Poias killed him, by shooting an arrow into his ankle.
The return to Iolcos and murder of Pelias
After remaining in Crete for a single night, they made Aegina their next port of call, to replenish their water; and a competition developed* between them as they fetched the water. From there they sailed between Euboea and Locris to arrive at Iolcos, completing the entire voyage in four months.
27Pelias had abandoned any expectation of the Argonauts’ return and wanted to put Aison to death.* Aison asked, however, that he should be allowed to take his own life, and while he was offering a sacrifice, he drank the bull’s blood* without fear, and died. Jason’s mother cursed Pelias and hanged herself, leaving an infant son, Promachos; but Pelias killed even the son whom she had left behind. When Jason arrived back, he delivered the fleece, and desiring vengeance for the wrongs that he had suffered, he waited for a suitable occasion. For the present, he sailed to the Isthmus with the other heroes and dedicated the ship to Poseidon; but afterwards, he urged Medea to find a way to punish Pelias. So she went to the palace of Pelias and persuaded his daughters to chop their father into small pieces and boil him, promising to restore his youth with her drugs; and to gain their confidence, she cut up a ram and changed it into a lamb by boiling it. After that, they believed her, and chopped their father to pieces and boiled him.* Acastos buried his father with the help of the inhabitants of Iolcos, and banished Jason and Medea from the country.
The later history of Medea
28They went to Corinth, where they lived happily for ten years, until Creon,* the king of Corinth, offered his daughter, Glauce, to Jason, who then put Medea aside and married her. So Medea, calling as her witnesses the gods whom Jason had sworn by, and after many a reproach to Jason for his ingratitude, sent his bride a robe steeped in poison. When Glauce put it on she was consumed by a raging fire,* as was her father when he tried to save her. And then, after killing Mermeros and Pheres, her children by Jason, Medea received from the Sun a chariot* drawn by winged dragons, and fled on it to Athens. According to another account, when Medea was fleeing, she abandoned her children, who were still very young, by seating them as suppliants on the altar of Hera Acraia; but the Corinthians forced them away* from the altar and inflicted fatal injuries on them.
So Medea went to Athens, where she married Aigeus,* and bore him a son, Medos.* Afterwards, however, when she tried to plot against Theseus, she was driven from Athens and went into exile with her son. Medos conquered many of the barbarians, and gave the name Media to the whole territory under his control. He died during an expedition against the Indians. Medea returned to Colchis without being recognized, and finding that Aietes had been deprived of his kingdom by his brother Perses, she killed Perses* and restored the throne to her father.
BOOK II
4. Early Argive mythology (the Inachids, Belid line)
The early descendants of Inachos
1Now that we have given a full account of the family of Deucalion, let us proceed to that of Inachos.
Oceanos and Tethys had a son, Inachos,* after whom the River Inachos in Argos is named. To Inachos and Melia, daughter of Oceanos, two sons were born, Phoroneus and Aigialeus.* Aigialeus died without offspring, and the whole country was called Aigialeia; and Phoroneus, who reigned over the whole of what would later be called the Peloponnese, fathered Apis and Niobe by a nymph, Teledice.
Apis turned his power into a tyranny; a brutal tyrant, he named the Peloponnese Apia after himself, and died childless as the result of a plot by Thelxion and Telchis. He was reckoned to be a god and was called Sarapis.* Niobe, for her part, had a son, Argos, by Zeus (she was the first mortal woman with whom he had intercourse), and according to Acousilaos, she had another son, Pelasgos,* and the inhabitants of the Peloponnese were called the Pelasgians* after him. According to Hesiod, however, Pelasgos was born from the earth; 2but we will return to him later. Argos took over the kingdom, calling the Peloponnese Argos* after himself; and marrying Evadne, daughter of Strymon and Neaira, he had four sons, Ecbasos, Peiras, Epidauros, and Criasos, who succeeded to the kingdom in his turn.
Ecbasos had a son, Agenor, and Agenor had a son, Argos, the one who is known as Panoptes [or the All-Seeing]. He had eyes all over his body,* and being endowed with exceptional strength, he killed the bull that was bringing ruin to Arcadia and clothed himself in its hide; and when a Satyr ill-treated the Arcadians and robbed them of their cattle, he confronted him and put him to death. And they say of Echidna* too, the daughter of Tartaros and Ge who used to snatch away passers-by, that Argos watched out until she was asleep and then killed her. He also avenged the death of Apis by killing those who were responsible.
The wanderings of Io, and division of the Inachid line
3Argos and Ismene, daughter of Asopos, had a son, Iasos, who is said to have been the father of Io. But Castor, the author of the Chronicles, and many of the tragic poets claim that Io was a daughter of Inachos; while Hesiod and Acousilaos say that she was a daughter of Peiren.* Zeus seduced Io* while she held the priesthood of Hera, but when Hera found him out, he transformed the girl with a touch into a white cow and swore that he had never made love with her; and for that reason, according to Hesiod, oaths made for love attract no anger from the gods. But Hera asked Zeus for the cow, and placed it under the guard of Argos the All-Seeing. (Pherecydes says that this Argos was a son of Arestor, Asclepiades that he was a son of Inachos, and Cercops that he was a son of Argos and Ismene, daughter of Asopos, while according to Acousilaos, he was born from the earth.) Hera tethered the cow to the olive tree which lay in the sacred grove of the Mycenaeans. Zeus ordered Hermes to steal the cow, but the plan was betrayed by Hierax,* and since Hermes was now unable to steal the cow without being seen, he killed Argosby throwing a stone at him; and that is how he came to be called Argeiphontes*Hera sent a gadfly after the cow; the animal went first to the IonianGulf,* which bears that name because of her, and then, after travelling through Illyria and over Mount Haimos, she crossed what was then called the Thracian Sound but is now called the Bosporos*because of her. From there she went to Scythia and the land of the Cimmerians, wandering a great distance overland and swimming a great distance through the sea, in Europe and Asia alike, until she finally arrived in Egypt, where she recovered her original form, and gave birth to a son, Epaphos, by the banks of the River Nile. Hera asked the Curetes to steal the child away, and they did so. When Zeus learned of it, he killed the Curetes, and Io, for her part, went in search of her child. She wandered through the whole of Syria (for it had been revealed to her that the wife of the king of Byblos was nursing her son there), and when she had discovered Epaphos,* she returned to Egypt and married Telegonos, who was king of the Egyptians at the time. She erected a statue of Demeter, whom the Egyptians called Isis; and they gave this name, Isis, to Io likewise.