d up fields. The
ground, impregnated beforehand with a potent drug, softens the seed; and
the teeth that were sown grow up, and become new bodies. And as the
infant receives the human form in the womb of the mother, and is there
formed in all its parts, and comes not forth into the common air until
at maturity, so when the figure of man is ripened in the bowels of the
pregnant earth, it arises in the fruitful plain; and, what is still more
surprising, it brandishes arms produced at the same time. When the
Pelasgians saw them preparing to hurl their spears with sharp points at
the head of the Haemonian youth, they lowered their countenances and
their courage, {quailing} with fear. She, too, became alarmed, who had
rendered him secure; and when she saw the youth, being but one, attacked
by so many enemies, she turned pale, and suddenly chilled {with fear},
sat down without blood {in her cheeks}. And, lest the herbs that had
been given by her, should avail him but little, she repeats an auxiliary
charm, and summons {to her aid} her secret arts. He, hurling a heavy
stone into the midst of his enemies, turns the warfare, now averted from
himself, upon themselves. The Earth-born brothers perish by mutual
wounds, and fall in civil fight. The Greeks congratulate him, and caress
the conqueror, and cling to him in hearty embraces. And thou too,
barbarian maiden, wouldst fain have embraced him; 'twas modesty that
opposed the design; otherwise thou wouldst have embraced him; but regard
for thy reputation restrained thee from doing so. What thou mayst do,
{thou dost do}; thou rejoicest with a silent affection, and thou givest
thanks to thy charms, and to the Gods, the authors of them.

It {still} remains to lay asleep with herbs the watchful dragon, who,
distinguished by his crest and his three tongues, and terrible with his
hooked teeth, is the keeper of the Golden Fleece. After he has sprinkled
him with herbs of Lethaean juice,[18] and has thrice repeated words that
cause placid slumbers, which {would even calm} the boisterous ocean,
{and} which would stop the rapid rivers, sleep creeps upon the eyes that
were strangers to it, and the hero, the son of AEson, gains the gold; and
proud of the spoil and bearing with him the giver of the prize as a
second spoil, he arrives victorious, with his wife, at the port of
Iolcos.[19]

[Footnote 1: _The Minyae._--Ver. 1. The Argonauts. The Minyae were a
people of Thessaly, so called f