The Argonautica

lest mother refuse to undertake this hard work on my behalf.

Still I shall go back again to her, face her and entreat her,

since common ruin hangs above, threatening all of us.

He spoke in friendship; Jason gave his prompt reply:

Dear friend, if this seems good to you, I have nothing against it.

Go then, and with prudent speech stir your mother to action,

pleading to rouse her; but wretched indeed is the hope that has risen,

now that we trust all our homecoming into the hands of women.

Jason spoke; they swiftly reached the marsh. Their comrades,

glad at their presence, began at once to question them closely.

Aeson's son, heavy-hearted, declared this news to his comrades:

My friends, pitiless Aeetes rages straight against us;

Each detail told would leave the tale without an ending,

for me or you, however long your questions lasted.

He says two bulls range all around on the Plain of Ares,

both bronze-footed, breathing a flame from the mouth as they pasture.

He bade me plough with those a field of four ploughlands;

and he will give me seed from a serpent's jaws, seed that raises

earthborn men in armor of bronze; on the selfsame day

I must slaughter them; no better plan could ever

be devised; I made my pledge outright to face the task.

He spoke, and every hero found the contest impossible,

long they were speechless and mute, looking into each other's faces,

bowed down by ruin and helplessness. At last, however, Peleus