the dragon which guarded the fleece,
and fled with her lover and his companions on board the Argo. The
adventurers returned to Iolchos in safety, after innumerable perils, and
by courses irreconcilable with all geographical truths. But Jason could
avenge himself on Pelias only through the stratagem of his wife, and by
her magical arts she induced the daughters of Pelias to cut up their
father, and to cast his limbs into a cauldron, believing that by this
method he would be restored to the vigor of youth, and Jason was thus
revenged, and obtained possession of the kingdom, which he surrendered to
a son of Pelias, and retired with his wife to Corinth. Here he lived ten
years in prosperity, but repudiated Medea in order to marry Glance, the
daughter of the king of Corinth; Medea avenged the insult by the poisoned
robe she sent to Glance as a marriage present, while Jason perished, while
asleep, from a fragment of his ship Argo, which fell upon him. Such is the
legend of the Argonauts, which is typical of the naval adventures of the
maritime Greeks, and their restless enterprises.

(M329) The legend of Sisyphus is connected with the early history of
Corinth. Sisyphus was the son of AEolus, and founded this wealthy city. He
was distinguished for cunning and deceit. He detected Antolycus, the son
of Hermes, by marking his sheep under the foot, so that the arch-thief was
obliged to acknowledge the superior craft of the AEolid, and restore the
plunder. He discovered the amour of Zeus with the nymph AEgina, and told
her mother where she was carried, which so incensed the "father of gods
and men," that he doomed Sisyphus, in Hades, to the perpetual punishment
of rolling up a hill a heavy stone, which, as soon as it reached the
summit, rolled back again in spite of all his efforts. This legend
illustrates the never ending toils and disappointments of men.

(M330) Sisyphus was the grandfather of Bellerophon, whose beauty made him
the object of a violent passion on the part of Antea, the wife of a king
of Argos. He rejected her advances, and became as violently hated. She
made false accusations, and persuaded her husband to kill him. Not wishing
to commit the murder directly, he sent him to his son-in-law, the king of
Sykia, in Asia Minor, with a folded tablet full of destructive symbols,
which required him to perform perilous undertakings, which he successfully
performed. He was then recognized as the son of a god, and married the