nterprise. Among these adventurers were Hercules, Theseus, Castor,
Pollux, and many others of the heroes of legend. The way to Colchis lay
over the sea, and a ship was built for the adventurers named the Argo,
in whose prow was inserted a piece of timber cut from the celebrated
speaking oak of Dodona.

The voyage of the Argo was as full of strange incidents as those which
Ulysses encountered in his journey home from Troy. Land was first
reached on the island of Lemnos. Here no men were found. It was an
island of women only. All the men had been put to death by the women in
revenge for ill-treatment, and they held the island as their own. But
these warlike matrons, who had perhaps grown tired of seeing only each
other's faces, received the Argonauts with much friendship, and made
their stay so agreeable that they remained there for several months.

Leaving Lemnos, they sailed along the coast of Thrace, and up the
Hellespont (a strait which had received its name from Helle, who, while
riding on the golden ram in the air above it, had fallen and been
drowned in its waters). Thence they sailed along the Propontis and the
coast of Mysia, not, as we may be sure, without adventures. In the
country of the Bebrycians the giant king Amycus challenged any of them
to box with him. Pollux accepted the challenge, and killed the giant
with a blow. Next they reached Bithynia, where dwelt the blind prophet
Phineus, to whom their coming proved a blessing.

Phineus had been blinded by Neptune, as a punishment for having shown
Phryxus the way to Colchis. He was also tormented by the harpies,
frightful winged monsters, who flew down from the clouds whenever he
attempted to eat, snatched the food from his lips, and left on it such a
vile odor that no man could come near it. He, being a prophet, knew that
the Argonauts would free him from this curse. There were with them Zetes
and Calias, winged sons of Boreas, the god of the north winds; and when
the harpies descended again to spoil the prophet's meal, these winged
warriors not only drove them away, but pursued them through the air.
They could not overtake them, but the harpies were forbidden by Jupiter
to molest Phineus any longer.

The blind prophet, grateful for this deliverance, told the voyagers how
they might escape a dreadful danger which lay in their onward way. This
came from the Symplegades, two rocks between which their ships must
pass, and which continually opened and closed,