er head,
divinely fair, she threw a veil gleaming like silver. And there,
moving to and fro in the palace, she trod the ground forgetful of the
heaven-sent woes thronging round her and of others that were destined
to follow. And she called to her maids. Twelve they were, who lay during
the night in the vestibule of her fragrant chamber, young as herself,
not yet sharing the bridal couch, and she bade them hastily yoke the
mules to the chariot to bear her to the beauteous shrine of Hecate.
Thereupon the handmaids were making ready the chariot; and Medea
meanwhile took from the hollow casket a charm which men say is called
the charm of Prometheus. If a man should anoint his body therewithal,
having first appeased the Maiden, the only-begotten, with sacrifice by
night, surely that man could not be wounded by the stroke of bronze
nor would he flinch from blazing fire; but for that day he would prove
superior both in prowess and in might. It shot up first-born when the
ravening eagle on the rugged flanks of Caucasus let drip to the earth
the blood-like ichor of tortured Prometheus. And its flower appeared a
cubit above ground in colour like the Corycian crocus, rising on twin
stalks; but in the earth the root was like newly-cut flesh. The dark
juice of it, like the sap of a mountain-oak, she had gathered in a
Caspian shell to make the charm withal, when she had first bathed in
seven ever-flowing streams, and had called seven times on Brimo, nurse
of youth, night-wandering Brimo, of the underworld, queen among the
dead,--in the gloom of night, clad in dusky garments. And beneath, the
dark earth shook and bellowed when the Titanian root was cut; and the
son of Iapetus himself groaned, his soul distraught with pain. And
she brought the charm forth and placed it in the fragrant band which
engirdled her, just beneath her bosom, divinely fair. And going forth
she mounted the swift chariot, and with her went two handmaidens on
each side. And she herself took the reins and in her right hand the
well-fashioned whip, and drove through the city; and the rest, the
handmaids, laid their hands on the chariot behind and ran along the
broad highway; and they kilted up their light robes above their white
knees. And even as by the mild waters of Parthenius, or after bathing
in the river Amnisus, Leto's daughter stands upon her golden chariot and
courses over the hills with her swift-footed roes, to greet from
afar some richly-steaming hecatomb