t she went near where Chalciope
was. Then shame that she should think so much about the stranger came
over her. She stood there without moving; she turned to go back to the
couch, and then trembled so much that she could not stir. As she stood
between her couch and her sister's chamber she heard the voice of
Chalciope calling to her.

She went into the chamber where her sister stood. Chalciope flung her
arms around her. "Swear," said she to Medea, "swear by Hecate, the
Moon, that you will never speak of something I am going to ask you."
Medea swore that she would never speak of it.

Chalciope spoke of the danger her sons were in. She asked Medea to
devise a way by which they could escape with the stranger from Aea. "In
Aea and in Colchis," she said, "there will be no safety for my sons
henceforth." And to save Phrontis and Melas, she said, Medea would have
to save the strangers also. Surely she knew of a charm that would save
the stranger from the brazen bulls in the contest on the morrow!

So Chalciope came to the very thing that was in Medea's mind. Her heart
bounded with joy and she embraced her. "Chalciope," she said, "I
declare that I am your sister, indeed--aye, and your daughter, too, for
did you not care for me when I was an infant? I will strive to save
your sons. I will strive to save the strangers who came with your sons.
Send one to the strangers--send him to the leader of the strangers, and
tell him that I would see him at daybreak in the temple of Hecate."

When Medea said this Chalciope embraced her again. She was amazed to
see how Medea's tears were flowing. "Chalciope," she said, "no one will
know the dangers that I shall go through to save them."

Swiftly then Chalciope went from the chamber. But Medea stayed there
with her head bowed and the blush of shame on her face. She thought
that already she had deceived her sister, making her think that it was
Phrontis and Melas and not Jason that was in her mind to save. And she
thought on how she would have to plot against her father and against
her own people, and all for the sake of a stranger who would sail away
without thought of her, without the image of her in his mind.

Jason, with Peleus and Telamon, went back to the Argo. His comrades
asked how he had fared, and when he spoke to them of the fire-breathing
bulls with feet of brass, of the dragon's teeth that had to be sown,
and of the Earth-born Men that had to be overcome, the Argonauts were
gr