The Argonautica

to carry Medea away to the beautiful temple of Hecate.

So the handmaids began making ready and harnessing the wagon;

meanwhile, Medea drew the drug from the deep casket,

which mortals say bears the name Promethean charm.

If someone won her favor by offering sacrifice at night--

the Maiden, the Only-born--and anointed his body with this drug,

no bronze blow then could break his flesh or wound his body,

nor would he yield to blazing fire, but stand firm in courage;

throughout that day, superior alike in strength and might.

This plant first sprang when the savage, flesh-devouring eagle

on Caucasus' mountain slopes let blood-red droplets fall earthward,

divine ichor from Prometheus, worn down by suffering.

Its blossom then appeared a full cubit high from the ground,

and shone with a saffron-bright hue, like the Corycian crocus,

held high and wavering there upon two separate stalks; in the earth

the root was the likeness of flesh that was newly cut open.

The dark sap of this plant, like the moisture of mountain oak,

Medea gathered in a Caspian shell, to prepare as a drug,

after bathing herself seven times in ever-flowing water,

and seven times calling Brimo, the nurse of young children,

Brimo who walks by night, earth-dwelling queen of the dead,

in gloomy night, her body wrapped in sable garments.

The dark earth underneath gave a roar and shook at the cutting

of the Titanian root; and Prometheus himself began groaning,