. And their comrades joyfully
questioned them, when they saw them close at hand; and to them spoke
Aeson's son grieved at heart:

"My friends, the heart of ruthless Aeetes is utterly filled with wrath
against us, for not at all can the goal be reached either by me or by
you who question me. He said that two bulls with feet of bronze pasture
on the plain of Ares, breathing forth flame from their jaws. And with
these he bade me plough the field, four plough-gates; and said that he
would give me from a serpent's jaws seed which will raise up earthborn
men in armour of bronze; and on the same day I must slay them. This
task--for there was nothing better to devise--I took on myself
outright."

Thus he spake; and to all the contest seemed one that none could
accomplish, and long, quiet and silent, they looked at one another,
bowed down with the calamity and their despair; but at last Peleus spake
with courageous words among all the chiefs: "It is time to be
counselling what we shall do. Yet there is not so much profit, I trow,
in counsel as in the might of our hands. If thou then, hero son of
Aeson, art minded to yoke Aeetes' oxen, and art eager for the toil,
surely thou wilt keep thy promise and make thyself ready. But if thy
soul trusts not her prowess utterly, then neither bestir thyself nor sit
still and look round for some one else of these men. For it is not I who
will flinch, since the bitterest pain will be but death."

So spake the son of Aeacus; and Telamon's soul was stirred, and quickly
he started up in eagerness; and Idas rose up the third in his pride; and
the twin sons of Tyndareus; and with them Oeneus' son who was numbered
among strong men, though even the soft down on his cheek showed not yet;
with such courage was his soul uplifted. But the others gave way to
these in silence. And straightway Argus spake these words to those that
longed for the contest:

"My friends, this indeed is left us at the last. But I deem that there
will come to you some timely aid from my mother. Wherefore, eager though
ye be, refrain and abide in your ship a little longer as before, for it
is better to forbear than recklessly to choose an evil fate. There is a
maiden, nurtured in the halls of Aeetes, whom the goddess Hecate taught
to handle magic herbs with exceeding skill--all that the land and
flowing waters produce. With them is quenched the blast of unwearied
flame, and at once she stays the course of rivers as they rush r