ankle there was a vein that
ran up to his neck and that was covered by a thin skin. If that vein
were broken Talos would perish.

Medea did not know about this vein when she stood forward upon the ship
to use her spells against him. Upon a cliff of Crete, all gleaming,
stood that huge man of bronze. Then, as she was ready to fling her
spells against him, Medea thought upon the words that Arete, the wise
queen, had given her that she was not to use spells and not to practice
against the life of any one.

But she knew that there was no impiety in using spells and practicing
against Talos, for Zeus had already doomed all his race. She stood upon
the ship, and with her Magic Song she enchanted him. He whirled round
and round. He struck his ankle against a jutting stone. The vein broke,
and that which was the blood of the bronze man flowed out of him like
molten lead. He stood towering upon the cliff. Like a pine upon a
mountaintop that the woodman had left half hewn through and that a
mighty wind pitches against, Talos stood upon his tireless feet,
swaying to and fro. Then, emptied of all his strength, Minos's man of
bronze fell into the Cretan Sea.

The heroes landed. That night they lay upon the land of Crete and
rested and refreshed themselves. When dawn came they drew water from a
spring, and once more they went on board the Argo.

A day came when the helmsman said, "To-morrow we shall see the shore of
Thessaly, and by sunset we shall be in the harbor of Pagasae. Soon, O
voyagers, we shall be back in the city from which we went to gain the
Golden Fleece."

Then Jason brought Medea to the front of the ship so that they might
watch together for Thessaly, the homeland. The Mountain Pelion came
into sight. Jason exulted as he looked upon that mountain; again he
told Medea about Chiron, the ancient centaur, and about the days of his
youth in the forests of Pelion.

The Argo went on; the sun sank, and darkness came on. Never was there
darkness such as there was on that night. They called that night
afterward the Pall of Darkness. To the heroes upon the Argo it seemed
as if black chaos had come over the world again; they knew not whether
they were adrift upon the sea or upon the River of Hades. No star
pierced the darkness nor no beam from the moon.

After a night that seemed many nights the dawn came. In the sunrise
they saw the land of Thessaly with its mountain, its forests, and its
fields. They hailed each other a