ebius only he bade remain there with the chiefs; and straightway he
sent him and bade him bring back the choicest of his sheep. And when he
had left the hall Phineus spake gently amid the throng of oarsmen:

"O my friends, not all men are arrogant, it seems, nor unmindful of
benefits. Even as this man, loyal as he is, came hither to learn his
fate. For when he laboured the most and toiled the most, then the needs
of life, ever growing more and more, would waste him, and day after day
ever dawned more wretched, nor was there any respite to his toil. But he
was paying the sad penalty of his father's sin. For he when alone on the
mountains, felling trees, once slighted the prayers of a Hamadryad, who
wept and sought to soften him with plaintive words, not to cut down the
stump of an oak tree coeval with herself, wherein for a long time she
had lived continually; but he in the arrogance of youth recklessly cut
it down. So to him the nymph thereafter made her death a curse, to him
and to his children. I indeed knew of the sin when he came; and I bid
him build an altar to the Thynian nymph, and offer on it an atoning
sacrifice, with prayer to escape his father's fate. Here, ever since he
escaped the god-sent doom, never has he forgotten or neglected me; but
sorely and against his will do I send him from my doors, so eager is he
to remain with me in my affliction."

Thus spake Agenor's son; and his friend straightway came near leading
two sheep from the flock. And up rose Jason and up rose the sons of
Boreas at the bidding of the aged sire. And quickly they called upon
Apollo, lord of prophecy, and offered sacrifice upon the hearth as the
day was just sinking. And the younger comrades made ready a feast to
their hearts' desire. Thereupon having well feasted they turned
themselves to rest, some near the ship's hawsers, others in groups
throughout the mansion. And at dawn the Etesian winds blew strongly,
which by the command of Zeus blow over every land equally.

Cyrene, the tale goes, once tended sheep along the marsh-meadow of
Peneus among men of old time; for dear to her were maidenhood and a
couch unstained. But, as she guarded her flock by the river, Apollo
carried her off far from Haemonia and placed her among the nymphs of the
land, who dwelt in Libya near the Myrtosian height. And here to Phoebus
she bore Aristaeus whom the Haemonians, rich in corn-land, call "Hunter"
and "Shepherd." Her, of his love, the god made a nym