ft them when he departed, he set out to go with them, telling them
all the story, to the gathering of the heroes; and together they
approached the ship. And when they saw Jason they embraced him and
questioned him. And he told to all the counsels of the maiden and showed
the dread charm; but Idas alone of his comrades sat apart biting down
his wrath; and the rest joyous in heart, at the hour when the darkness
of night stayed them, peacefully took thought for themselves. But at
daybreak they sent two men to go to Aeetes and ask for the seed, first
Telamon himself, dear to Ares, and with him Aethalides, Hermes' famous
son. So they went and made no vain journey; but when they came, lordly
Aeetes gave them for the contest the fell teeth of the Aonian dragon
which Cadmus found in Ogygian Thebes when he came seeking for Europa and
there slew--the warder of the spring of Ares. There he settled by the
guidance of the heifer whom Apollo by his prophetic word granted him to
lead him on his way. But the teeth the Tritonian goddess tore away from
the dragon's jaws and bestowed as a gift upon Aeetes and the slayer. And
Agenor's son, Cadmus, sowed them on the Aonian plains and founded an
earthborn people of all who were left from the spear when Ares did the
reaping; and the teeth Aeetes then readily gave to be borne to the ship,
for he deemed not that Jason would bring the contest to an end, even
though he should cast the yoke upon the oxen.

Far away in the west the sun was sailing beneath the dark earth, beyond
the furthest hills of the Aethiopians; and Night was laying the yoke
upon her steeds; and the heroes were preparing their beds by the
hawsers. But Jason, as soon as the stars of Helice, the bright-gleaming
bear, had set, and the air had all grown still under heaven, went to a
desert spot, like some stealthy thief, with all that was needful; for
beforehand in the daytime had he taken thought for everything; and Argus
came bringing a ewe and milk from the flock; and them he took from the
ship. But when the hero saw a place which was far away from the tread of
men, in a clear meadow beneath the open sky, there first of all he
bathed his tender body reverently in the sacred river; and round him he
placed a dark robe, which Hypsipyle of Lemnos had given him aforetime, a
memorial of many a loving embrace. Then he dug a pit in the ground of a
cubit's depth and heaped up billets of wood, and over it he cut the
throat of the sheep, an