as beyond the city.

All this was before the famous walls of Troy were built; before King
Priam had come to the throne of his father and while he was still
known, not as Priam, but as Podarces. And the beginning of all these
happenings was in Iolcus, a city in Thessaly.

Cretheus founded the city and had ruled over it in days before King
Priam was born. He left two sons, AEson and Pelias. AEson succeeded his
father. And because he was a mild and gentle man, the men of war did
not love AEson; they wanted a hard king who would lead them to conquests.

Pelias, the brother of AEson, was ever with the men of war; he knew what
mind they had toward AEson and he plotted with them to overthrow his
brother. This they did, and they brought Pelias to reign as king in
Iolcus.

The people loved AEson; and they feared Pelias. And because the people
loved him and would be maddened by his slaying, Pelias and the men of
war left him living. With his wife, Alcimide, and his infant son, AEson
went from the city, and in a village that was at a distance from Iolcus
he found a hidden house and went to dwell in it.

AEson would have lived content there were it not that he was fearful for
Jason, his infant son. Jason, he knew, would grow into a strong and a
bold youth, and Pelias, the king, would be made uneasy on his account.
Pelias would slay the son, and perhaps would slay the father for the
son's sake when his memory would come to be less loved by the people.
AEson thought of such things in his hidden house, and he pondered on
ways to have his son reared away from Iolcus and the dread and the
power of King Pelias.

He had for a friend one who was the wisest of all creatures Chiron the
centaur; Chiron who was half man and half horse; Chiron who had lived
and was yet to live measureless years. Chiron had fostered Heracles,
and it might be that he would not refuse to foster Jason, AEson's child.

Away in the fastnesses of Mount Pelion Chiron dwelt; once AEson had been
with him and had seen the centaur hunt with his great bow and his great
spears. And AEson knew a way that one might come to him; Chiron himself
had told him of the way.

Now there was a slave in his house who had been a huntsman and who knew
all the ways of the Mountain Pelion. AEson talked with this slave one
day, and after he had talked with him he sat for a long time over the
cradle of his sleeping infant. And then he spoke to Alcimide, his wife,
telling her of a part