the waters of the river Halys pour forth with a terrible roar;
and after it his flowing near, but smaller in stream, rolls into the sea
with white eddies. Onward from thence the bend of a huge and towering
cape reaches out from the land, next Thermodon at its mouth flows into a
quiet bay at the Themiscyreian headland, after wandering through a broad
continent. And here is the plain of Doeas, and near are the three cities
of the Amazons, and after them the Chalybes, most wretched of men,
possess a soil rugged and unyielding sons of toil, they busy themselves
with working iron. And near them dwell the Tibareni, rich in sheep,
beyond the Genetaean headland of Zeus, lord of hospitality. And
bordering on it the Mossynoeci next in order inhabit the well-wooded
mainland and the parts beneath the mountains, who have built in towers
made from trees their wooden homes and well-fitted chambers, which they
call Mossynes, and the people themselves take their name from them.
After passing them ye must beach your ship upon a smooth island, when ye
have driven away with all manner of skill the ravening birds, which
in countless numbers haunt the desert island. In it the Queens of the
Amazons, Otrere and Antiope, built a stone temple of Ares what time they
went forth to war. Now here an unspeakable help will come to you from
the bitter sea; wherefore with kindly intent I bid you stay. But what
need is there that I should sin yet again declaring everything to the
end by my prophetic art? And beyond the island and opposite mainland
dwell the Philyres: and above the Philyres are the Macrones, and after
them the vast tribes of the Becheiri. And next in order to them dwell
the Sapeires, and the Byzeres have the lands adjoining to them, and
beyond them at last live the warlike Colchians themselves. But speed on
in your ship, till ye touch the inmost bourne of the sea. And here at
the Cytaean mainland and from the Amarantine mountains far away and the
Circaean plain, eddying Phasis rolls his broad stream to the sea. Guide
your ship to the mouth of that river and ye shall behold the towers of
Cytaean Aeetes and the shady grove of Ares, where a dragon, a monster
terrible to behold, ever glares around, keeping watch over the fleece
that is spread upon the top of an oak; neither by day nor by night does
sweet sleep subdue his restless eyes."

(ll. 408-410) Thus he spake, and straightway fear seized them as they
heard. And for a long while they were