into {that of} a man. Nor is there
wanting there the thin scaly slough of the Cinyphian water-snake,[37]
and the liver of the long-lived stag;[38] to which, besides, she adds
the bill and head of a crow that had sustained {an existence of} nine
ages. When, with these and a thousand other things without a name, the
barbarian {princess} has completed the medicine prepared for the mortal
{body}, with a branch of the peaceful olive long since dried up, she
stirs them all up, and blends the lowest {ingredients} with the highest.
Behold! the old branch, turned about in the heated cauldron, at first
becomes green; and after no long time assumes foliage, and is suddenly
loaded with heavy olives. Besides, wherever the fire throws the froth
from out of the hollow cauldron, and the boiling drops fall upon the
earth, the ground becomes green, and flowers and soft grass spring up.

Soon as Medea sees this, she opens the throat[39] of the old man with a
drawn sword; and allowing the former blood to escape, replenishes {his
veins} with juices. Soon as AEson has drunk them in, either received in
his mouth or in his wound, his beard and his hair[40] laying aside their
hoariness, assume a black hue. His leanness flies, being expelled; his
paleness and squalor are gone. His hollow veins are supplied with
additional blood, and his limbs become instinct with vigor. AEson is
astonished, and calls to recollection that he was such four times ten
years before.

Liber had beheld from on high the miraculous operations of so great a
prodigy; and taught {thereby} that youthful years can be restored to his
nurses,[41] he requests this present from the daughter of AEetes.[42]

And that her arts[43] may not cease, the Phasian feigns a counterfeited
quarrel with her husband, and flies as a suppliant to the threshold of
Pelias[44] and (as he himself is oppressed with old age) his daughters
receive her; whom, after a short time, the crafty Colchian engages to
herself by the appearance of a pretended friendship. And while among the
greatest of her merits, she relates that the infirmities of AEson have
been removed, and is dwelling upon that part {of the story}, a hope is
suggested to the damsels, the daughters of Pelias, that by the like art
their parent may become young again; and this they request {of her}, and
repeatedly entreat her to name her own price. For a short time she is
silent, and appears to be hesitating, and keeps their mind in suspense,