The Argonautica

through echoing rocks; the heroes caught a fresh wind

again, sped onward, and passed swiftly beyond

the meadow of Thrinacia, nurse of the sacred cattle of the Sun.

There the Nereids plunged down into the depths like sea-mews,

because they had now fulfilled every command of Zeus's wife.

At once the bleating of sheep reached the heroes through the air,

and cattle's lowing struck the heroes' ears close by.

The sheep across dewy meadows were tended and pastured by

Phaethusa, the younger among all the daughters of the Sun,

who held out a silver shepherd's crook in the palm of her hand;

Lampetia followed near the cattle, brightly brandishing

a herding staff of shining orichalcum. The heroes themselves

saw the cattle grazing beside the streams of the river,

across the plain and marshy meadow; not one among them

was dark in its body, but all were in color resembling

milk, and each continually gloried in its golden horns.

The heroes passed those cattle all day; at nightfall,

they cleft the great gulf of the sea, rejoicing, until once again

Dawn the early-born cast light on the heroes as they journeyed.

There lies, in front of the strait of the Ionian waters,

a spacious and fertile island lying in the Ceraunian sea,

beneath which legend says that a sickle lies. Be gracious, Muses:

unwillingly I tell old lore: with that same sickle

Merciless Cronus severed his father's genitals; others