uteous shrine of Hecate. Thereupon the handmaids were
making ready the chariot; and Medea meanwhile took from the hollow
casket a charm which men say is called the charm of Prometheus. If a man
should anoint his body therewithal, having first appeased the Maiden,
the only-begotten, with sacrifice by night, surely that man could not be
wounded by the stroke of bronze nor would he flinch from blazing fire;
but for that day he would prove superior both in prowess and in might.
It shot up first-born when the ravening eagle on the rugged flanks of
Caucasus let drip to the earth the blood-like ichor[1] of tortured
Prometheus. And its flower appeared a cubit above ground in colour like
the Corycian crocus, rising on twin stalks; but in the earth the root
was like newly-cut flesh. The dark juice of it, like the sap of a
mountain-oak, she had gathered in a Caspian shell to make the charm
withal, when she had first bathed in seven ever-flowing streams, and had
called seven times on Brimo, nurse of youth, night-wandering Brimo, of
the underworld, queen among the dead,--in the gloom of night, clad in
dusky garments. And beneath, the dark earth shook and bellowed when the
Titanian root was cut; and the son of Iapetus himself groaned, his soul
distraught with pain. And she brought the charm forth and placed it in
the fragrant band which engirdled her, just beneath her bosom, divinely
fair. And going forth she mounted the swift chariot, and with her went
two handmaidens on each side. And she herself took the reins and in her
right hand the well-fashioned whip, and drove through the city; and the
rest, the handmaids, laid their hands on the chariot behind and ran
along the broad highway; and they kilted up their light robes above
their white knees. And even as by the mild waters of Parthenius, or
after bathing in the river Amnisus, Leto's daughter stands upon her
golden chariot and courses over the hills with her swift-footed roes, to
greet from afar some richly-steaming hecatomb; and with her come the
nymphs in attendance, gathering, some at the spring of Amnisus itself,
others by the glens and many-fountained peaks; and round her whine and
fawn the beasts cowering as she moves along: thus they sped through the
city; and on both sides the people gave way shunning the eyes of the
royal maiden. But when she had left the city's well paved streets, and
was approaching the shrine as she drove over the plains, then she
alighted eagerly from t
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