the Tibareni, rich in sheep, beyond
the Genetaean headland of Zeus, lord of hospitality. And bordering on it
the Mossynoeci next in order inhabit the well-wooded mainland and the
parts beneath the mountains, who have built in towers made from trees
their wooden homes and well-fitted chambers, which they call Mossynes,
and the people themselves take their name from them. After passing them
ye must beach your ship upon a smooth island, when ye have driven away
with all manner of skill the ravening birds, which in countless numbers
haunt the desert island. In it the Queens of the Amazons, Otrere and
Antiope, built a stone temple of Ares what time they went forth to war.
Now here an unspeakable help will come to you from the bitter sea;
wherefore with kindly intent I bid you stay. But what need is there that
I should sin yet again declaring everything to the end by my prophetic
art? And beyond the island and opposite mainland dwell the Philyres: and
above the Philyres are the Macrones, and after them the vast tribes of
the Becheiri. And next in order to them dwell the Sapeires, and the
Byzeres have the lands adjoining to them, and beyond them at last live
the warlike Colchians themselves. But speed on in your ship, till ye
touch the inmost bourne of the sea. And here at the Cytaean mainland and
from the Amarantine mountains far away and the Circaean plain eddying
Phasis rolls his broad stream to the sea. Guide your ship to the mouth
of that river and ye shall behold the towers of Cytaean Aeetes and the
shady grove of Ares, where a dragon, a monster terrible to behold, ever
glares around, keeping watch over the fleece that is spread upon the top
of an oak; neither by day nor by night does sweet sleep subdue his
restless eyes."

Thus he spake, and straightway fear seized them as they heard. And for a
long while they were struck with silence; till at last the hero, son of
Aeson, spake, sore dismayed at their evil plight:

"O aged sire, now hast thou come to the end of the toils of our
sea-journeying and hast told us the token, trusting to which we shall
make our way to Pontus through the hateful rocks; but whether, when we
have escaped them, we shall have a return back again to Hellas, this too
would we gladly learn from thee. What shall I do, how shall I go over
again such a long path through the sea, unskilled as I am, with
unskilled comrades? And Colchian Aea lies at the edge of Pontus and of
the world."

Thus he spake,