The Argonautica

Thus he sent his eager sons away to Achaea,

at their father's command, on the long road; nor did his daughters

cause the least fear by devising a hateful plot,

nor did his son Apsyrtus stir the least alarm;

but in Chalciope's offspring these sorrows already stood fulfilled.

So in his anger Aeetes disclosed his fell plans to the people,

and threatened the Colchians loudly: they must guard both the vessel

and all the men, so that none should escape from the midst of destruction.

Meanwhile Argus made his way to Aeetes' house

and urged his mother with every kind of persuasive speech,

to beg Medea to give them her aid; and Chalciope herself

had pondered the plan long before; but fear checked her spirit,

lest, ill-timed, her coaxing prove fruitless, empty of purpose,

while Medea shrank in dread from her father's deadly wrath;

or, should prayer win her, their acts stand revealed in the daylight.

Deep sleep gave the maiden relief from her sorrows and heartache

once she had leaned on the bed; but at once deceptive and deadly

dreams, bane of the grieving, rose to plague her spirit.

She dreamed that the stranger had shouldered the whole contest himself,

not because he was longing to carry away the Fleece of the ram,

nor for the Fleece had he come to the city and halls of Aeetes,

but so that he might bring Medea home as his own wedded wife;

and dreamed herself engaged in contest with both bulls,

laboring through the ordeal with utter, effortless ease.